Friday Five!

Agreed, im not really a Costa fan either.  The downside is it being a Costa, the upside is DRIVE-THRU!!!!!!!!!!!  And they have ICE!

Anything with a drive through automatically gets knocked up a few points LOL. I like Starbucks because I can order on my app and skip the queue (which is handy on my way OUT of the grocery store when I pass through the Starbucks and see a queue out the door. It's hilarious to see people giving you weird looks like you've just reached across the counter to grab somebody else's coffee as they hadn't seen you order lolol.

Noted.  Sounds perfect for our next date night!

There should be options as well for those with allergies because you can just get plain steaks with steamed veg with a sauce that you could have on the side if needed. They also will bend over backwards for their customers from all of our experiences so if you need things tweaked slightly and it's in their power to do it, they will The main waiter there is literally amazing haha he calls me Principessa every time and I've told Rik that this is now what he needs to refer to me as as this dude has just set the bar higher LOL

It was a consultant at Circle Reading who is both NHS and private, and the standard of care when NHS is apparently much lower. The people who recommended him saw him privately, the one who cautioned saw him on NHS, and now I know why. I'm going to cough up the £300 to see an EDS specialist and get their opinion on how to proceed, and hopefully have their recommendations shared with the surgeon.

Sucks that you have to fork out £300 to actually get a person you feel you can trust! But I guess in these situations, it's best to make absolutely sure you have somebody you feel comfortable with because this is something you need to have full confidence in your doctor for!

My old company would do early release in the summer - 4 9hr days and one 4 hour a week. It was wonderful cuz chances were good you'd be working that much anyways.

I worked at one company that did that in the summer,  1/2 days on Fridays.
I also worked at a company that did an extra hour everyday and you got every other Friday off (so you could alternate so folks were always in) in the summer.  A few of my friends work in a company that does that year round, which would be amazing. 

I worked at one company that did that in the summer,  1/2 days on Fridays.
I also worked at a company that did an extra hour everyday and you got every other Friday off (so you could alternate so folks were always in) in the summer.  A few of my friends work in a company that does that year round, which would be amazing. 

I had that at my first job out of university.  9/80 schedule.  Extra 45 minutes each day, every-other Friday off. 

This is why I do not think that the UK has more holiday time.  I had LOADS more in the USA.  4 weeks annual leave, holidays, plus the extra 26 days a year from off Fridays.  WHAT WAS I THINKING when I left?!?

FRIDAY! FRIDAY! FRIDAY!

1.  Husband's cousin's two kids are coming to stay with us for the weekend (16 and 23).  The 23 year old is the one who lives in Australia.  Should be lots of fun.  I've been struggling to plan gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian meals so that I only have to cook one dinner.  16 year old is veggie.

2.  Because of #1, for the first time EVER - we have family babysitting and don't have to pay a babysitter when we go to a wedding tomorrow evening!!!!!  Thankfully we are evening guests, as the ceremony is at 2pm... and the England game is at 3pm.  The groom is a football coach.  I suspect there will be a lot of distraction from the wedding tomorrow.  I feel very bad.  They've had this date for TWO YEARS.

3.  I've had a lot of difficulty this week knowing if I'm talking American or British.  It really has been a struggle!  Just now I asked someone if they call the start of a game a "kick off" and he looked at me like a moron and said, "Yeah."  Like, "What else would we call it?"  Oh dear!

4.  Took the 4 year old for her first settling in session at school yesterday.  I can't believe my little girl is going to SCHOOL in September.  She's so little.

5.  My username is FINALLY accurate once again.  I have accepted a Saturday morning teaching job and will be teaching ballet and tap.  Woo hoo!  I'll be training this summer and starting in September.  We are changing the kids swimming lessons from Sunday to Saturday and my husband will take the kids swimming while I teach.  It's all falling into place!  I'm well and truly kfDANCER once again.  Though the F was retired six years ago when I married. 

FRIDAY! FRIDAY! FRIDAY!

1.  Husband's cousin's two kids are coming to stay with us for the weekend (16 and 23).  The 23 year old is the one who lives in Australia.  Should be lots of fun.  I've been struggling to plan gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian meals so that I only have to cook one dinner.  16 year old is veggie.

2.  Because of #1, for the first time EVER - we have family babysitting and don't have to pay a babysitter when we go to a wedding tomorrow evening!!!!!  Thankfully we are evening guests, as the ceremony is at 2pm... and the England game is at 3pm.  The groom is a football coach.  I suspect there will be a lot of distraction from the wedding tomorrow.  I feel very bad.  They've had this date for TWO YEARS.

3.  I've had a lot of difficulty this week knowing if I'm talking American or British.  It really has been a struggle!  Just now I asked someone if they call the start of a game a "kick off" and he looked at me like a moron and said, "Yeah."  Like, "What else would we call it?"  Oh dear!

4.  Took the 4 year old for her first settling in session at school yesterday.  I can't believe my little girl is going to SCHOOL in September.  She's so little.

5.  My username is FINALLY accurate once again.  I have accepted a Saturday morning teaching job and will be teaching ballet and tap.  Woo hoo!  I'll be training this summer and starting in September.  We are changing the kids swimming lessons from Sunday to Saturday and my husband will take the kids swimming while I teach.  It's all falling into place!  I'm well and truly kfDANCER once again.  Though the F was retired six years ago when I married. 

Guarantee there will be a change of plans at the wedding and there will be a TV SOMEWHERE to watch after the ceremony! hahah

LOL I get stuck in the "I'm not sure what I'm speaking when" loop sometimes and I'm not even British! My what I will say is that while my parents were here, they kept saying soccer (usually publicly) and I just wanted to melt into my chair. I know it shouldn't have bothered me but I kept being like FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOOOTTTTTBBAAALLL!

That is awesome about teaching dance again! When you say you're training over the summer, is that somebody at the dance studio that will teach you full on routines and stuff to teach the students or is it more just refreshing your memories on what you'll teach?


My Friday 5:

1, Now that my parents have gone home, we're cracking down and starting to get the house sorted again. Went through a big clear out last night to see what could obviously be sold and what we weren't sure about or wanted to keep. Hoping to be looking at carpets soon enough Think my husband might be installing the radiator up there over this weekend (which sounds mental to say in this weather LOL)

2. The dogs are doing my nut in. 1 week down and 1 week to go. My dog just gets so much more vocal and more of a pain in the bum when the other dogs stay around for some reason and it's like they ALL need to get up at 6AM (if not earlier) and be pests until we go out for a walk (which we do around 7). Husband said the German Shep was ramming into the baby gate which stops them from coming upstairs at 4AM yesterday morning!

3.  Will be looking to get some paint samples this weekend for the bathroom as well so we can get that completely done and dusted as it's nearly there now! All it needs is the walls and ceiling painted and the radiator put back on the wall!  The house is slowly starting to come together.

4. Listening to my coworker right now talk about a holiday that was just booked is making me already want another holiday lol I know I have one coming up in August but a month seems like an eternity away now...

5. I *think* (fingers crossed / touch wood) I *might* be getting this job in my husband's team if they can definitely confirm that I'm not on a period of not being able to be hired because they merged with the company I used to work for and apparently you can't be re-hired for 1 year and that won't be until October. I'm a bit conflicted with whether or not if I was offered the job if I should accept or not...

Guarantee there will be a change of plans at the wedding and there will be a TV SOMEWHERE to watch after the ceremony! hahah

LOL I get stuck in the "I'm not sure what I'm speaking when" loop sometimes and I'm not even British! My what I will say is that while my parents were here, they kept saying soccer (usually publicly) and I just wanted to melt into my chair. I know it shouldn't have bothered me but I kept being like FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOOOTTTTTBBAAALLL!

That is awesome about teaching dance again! When you say you're training over the summer, is that somebody at the dance studio that will teach you full on routines and stuff to teach the students or is it more just refreshing your memories on what you'll teach?

The teaching will be along side the current teacher to help transition the kids so I'm not just a brand new face.

Nope, my friend is very insistent that the wedding will be about them and no football will be shown/mentioned/present.  Good luck with that!  I do feel bad.  It's definitely going to distracted 99.9% of the guests.  XoD being the 0.1% of people who don't care.  I mean, people who aren't even into football (me) are excited for this game.

My parents do that.  They have finally stopped saying WokingHAM.  But sometimes my mom pronounces the Wok part like a chinese wok.  And no matter how many lessons we have about the money, they still just put all their coins in their hands and have the person they are buying from just take the correct amount....  <sigh>

And no matter how many lessons we have about the money, they still just put all their coins in their hands and have the person they are buying from just take the correct amount....  <sigh>

LOL, mine do that!

Nope, my friend is very insistent that the wedding will be about them and no football will be shown/mentioned/present.  Good luck with that!  I do feel bad.  It's definitely going to distracted 99.9% of the guests.  XoD being the 0.1% of people who don't care.  I mean, people who aren't even into football (me) are excited for this game.

haha literally not going to happen! She's be better off allowing a TV because all that will happen is that they'll flock to phones etc. You'll have to report back how that goes haha   In fairness, I care in the social sense. Like if a game was on, regardless of team, I'd watch it and I'd be into it if I was watching it with a group of people who were into it at a pub or something....but my caring kind of stops at the social aspect. The only team I have an inclination to want to win is Brazil and that's because they are my only team still currently alive in the office Sweepstake hahaha Other than that I'm like "meh." My husband is the one who actively wants his own country to lose! haha I'm just very "couldn't care either way as I'm not watching!" We don't have live TV so I couldn't even watch it if I wanted (though I imagine somewhere will stream it online?)

My parents do that.  They have finally stopped saying WokingHAM.  But sometimes my mom pronounces the Wok part like a chinese wok.  And no matter how many lessons we have about the money, they still just put all their coins in their hands and have the person they are buying from just take the correct amount....  <sigh>

My parents pronounce it that way and it DRIVES ME UP THE WALL! My parents are constantly saying "I don't understand how this money works so just take whatever you need.." and give me their outstretched hand. I'm like........just take 2 minutes to LOOK at the coins! I don't even think it's that particularly difficult! When I go somewhere that needs Euros I don't struggle as much as my parents seem to!

Happy Friday!

1.) Going for a long bicycle ride this evening as hopefully it will be a bit cooler than tomorrow (18-19ºC instead of 22-23ºC) . I'm in training to do a 50 mile even for charity in early August.

2.) A cold beer should taste nice after a long ride tonight. I popped a few in the fridge this morning.

3.) Wanting to get a bit of trombone practise in this weekend.

4.) Need to get a refill on my soda stream C02 bottle, hopefully no shortage of these.

5.) Hoping to go and pop around a few castles with gardens down in central Scotland tomorrow. We're going for the gardens much more than the castles, because we're gardening geeks.

5.) Hoping to go and pop around a few castles with gardens down in central Scotland tomorrow. We're going for the gardens much more than the castles, because we're gardening geeks.

I love Branklyn Garden in Perth, 

https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/branklyn-garden

LOL I get stuck in the "I'm not sure what I'm speaking when" loop sometimes and I'm not even British! My what I will say is that while my parents were here, they kept saying soccer (usually publicly) and I just wanted to melt into my chair. I know it shouldn't have bothered me but I kept being like FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOOOTTTTTBBAAALLL!

Yesterday afternoon, I clicked on a PBS.com news segment (I follow PBS on Facebook, okay?  OKAY?!) about the World Cup.  It was all going fine until about a minute into the report, they said "soccer".  It was so harsh sounding in my ears after all this time...  I stopped watching.  Closed the tab.  I just couldn't.  Then my husband came home and I told him what happened.  He looked proud!   

Though the F was retired six years ago when I married. 

I don't know why I wasn't sure which one was the current one.  I think the eBay address was the source of my confusion.

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My five:

1.  Holy crap, you guys... four consecutive weeks of sunshine and nice weather?  And it's not all oppressive like Arkansas.  It's just nice.  I can't even tell you how generally happy I've been lately.

2.  Ultrafast is awesome.  We can stream 4k video while running speedtests on three different devices and stream spotify and download updates all at the same time.  It does take a bit of coordination, though, because it all goes so fast that you have to deliberately start things on a count of 3.    I uploaded a video to Facebook that I've been wanting to share for ages, but couldn't because my old upload speed was 0.6Mbps and it was a big file.  When I uploaded it, I thought the upload failed because it was done before I realized it even started.  Then Facebook said it was processing, and I was all, "Oh!  It's there already!  Wow!"  Yay us!

3.  I have had rather good results with my pizza dough making lately.  Now my husband and I both need to work on stretching it properly.  Pizza tomorrow, so we get to practice again.  Yay noms!

4.  We're paneling the upper half of the walls in the workshop (the lower half was already paneled because it was stables and the horses apparently needed something to kick), hopefully making it a bit more weather-tight.  Our aim is to keep it climate controlled in there so we can reduce the amount of damp/moisture affecting our timber supplies.  Meanwhile, we have swallows who nest in there, and I'm worried about blocking their access.  All last year, when we were making things, if the project went a bit wonky, I'd say, "The birds will like it.  They're very forgiving."  However, the birds will not like us closing up their access to their nest.  I'm concerned for them.  But it's our workshop, and we need security and weatherproofing... and the birds poop in a massive pile under their nests, and it's gross.  (No horses anymore, but we still have to muck the stables! *sigh*)

5.  I ordered a case of sriracha and it arrived on Wednesday.  No regrets!

Nope, my friend is very insistent that the wedding will be about them and no football will be shown/mentioned/present.  Good luck with that!  I do feel bad.  It's definitely going to distracted 99.9% of the guests.  XoD being the 0.1% of people who don't care.  I mean, people who aren't even into football (me) are excited for this game.

haha literally not going to happen! She's be better off allowing a TV because all that will happen is that they'll flock to phones etc.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44722812

Poor couple, especially given that he's connected to football. 

1.  Today's my last official day of holiday... back to work on Monday.  2 weeks of doing sweet FA has really suited me! 

2.  HAWAIIAN PUNCH has happened!!  Thanks, Amazon!

3.  Good luck to Belgium tonight (I drew them in the sweep at work)...although they are playing Brazil, so I think this is where the wheels come off...

4.  My 20-year old niece is working at a Christian summer camp in Croatia at the moment.  It's her first time outside the USA.  I talked to her on FB the other day and i'm so pleased she's experiencing Croatia's World Cup fever, and has learned to call it FOOTBALL!!!

5.  Got to pop up to Dumbarton in a bit...think I might treat myself to a KFC Double Down!
https://www.kfc.co.uk/our-food/for-one/burgers/double-down-bacon-and-cheese-meal

I had that at my first job out of university.  9/80 schedule.  Extra 45 minutes each day, every-other Friday off. 

This is why I do not think that the UK has more holiday time.  I had LOADS more in the USA.  4 weeks annual leave, holidays, plus the extra 26 days a year from off Fridays.  WHAT WAS I THINKING when I left?!?

The first major company I worked for in the USA gave us 3 days paid sick leave after we worked for them for a year. And accrued, after a year, one day off every two months towards our vacation time. Which could only be taken during times of the year when production wasn't ramped up. And I was paid 4 cents an hour over the then-minimumwage.

The last place I worked, at the very end, I got two days vacation accrued per month, a day of sick pay a month, and the major federal holidays. And I got paid a boatload more than minimum wage.

Unfortunately, there were several decades in between the two of those jobs. So, looking at the UK, on the average, I think they probably do have better "time off" policies, generally.