Friday Five!

oh gotya!
i actually googled it before i asked you, in case she was like a celebrity or something, but nothing really came up!

She had a fridge with ice in the door, a garbage disposal, island.  Very American.    They were on an expat assignment and had a really awesome package!

She had a fridge with ice in the door, a garbage disposal, island.  Very American.    They were on an expat assignment and had a really awesome package!

I've got a fridge with ice in the door for the first time ever in my life.....but it can't fit in the kitchen so it's useless for ice in the door! hahaha I'm a rubbish replacement for a party house

Happy Friday!!

1.) I've been travelling for work. France, Germany, and then Indiana. Currently sitting in JFK and wanting to get home to Scotland. 

2.) I keep biting my lip (catching it in my teeth) every time I eat and it's really annoying.

3.) I am looking forward to having 2.5 days off next week, then it's a 4 day week ,then it's my holiday time! Going to Vegas and meeting my parents there. We're also going to celebrate hubster's  40th birthday.    

4.) Haven't done any gardening at all. Really need to get cracking. 

5.) Been watching Brexit madness from afar. European news networks had it all on, but in the US, you wouldn't even know it was happening. I'm not surprised, and I do suppose it's a minor blip to the US, compared to Trump, but it's interesting when you're watching for news for things you're close to , but it's just not there.   

Happy Friday!!

1.) I'm off work today! Getting down the allotment shortly! 

2.) Off to Edinburgh tomorrow for the day. Should be fun. 

3.) Holy moly hayfever has kicked in. Achoooooooooooooooooooooo 

4.) The guinea pigs are being so cute this morning.  Begging me for lettuce and squeaking. I keep telling them I am not normally home right now, but they're not listening 

5.) I actually got flight compensation back for my cancelled ticket last week. Wow, that has never happened, usually they have some excuse or another.  Whee! 

PB - I'm so jealous! I wish I could just nip over to Edinburgh. It's one of my favourite places. Also jealous that you have the day off! Go enjoy yours!

My Friday 5 is:

1. We've got a second viewing of a house and a first viewing of two other houses tomorrow! We just need to think out whether or not we want to go with something a LOT cheaper (like £100k+) and whack a f-off sized extension on it or something more expensive and have less money to redo things (but we'd be getting a place with far less needing doing). Obviously we wanted to try to avoid more of a house project where we'd be working nights/weekends on the house vs. enjoying ourselves but if it's better value for money....We'll see....

2. Kitchen is very nearly done! Hit a snag though in that the hob isn't working. Think Rik might've wired it in wrong..he's going to give it another go this weekend. He painted last night as well so we can stick the radiator back up and we just need to build more cupboards, insert shelves, and add doors then put on upstands and we're there! Then it's a clean and tidy hah (my favourite part! ::sarcasm:

3. Might be having friends around tomorrow night to play some games and BBQ. We can break in the kitchen!

4.Need to get my citizenship application off so need to post my referee letter to one of my referees! Planning on doing that this weekend!

5. As usual.....pizza friday! wooo!

FRIDAY!  FRIDAY!  FRIDAY!

1.  My son has his private paediatric consultation with the respiratory specialist this afternoon.  Looking forward to hopefully getting some answers about him.  Fingers crossed!

2.  Busy weekend.  Went and saw Adam Kay last night (NHS doctor turned comedian).  Company do tonight (yes, my company does quarterly meetings on FRIDAY NIGHT.  Not amused.  Tomorrow I have a baby shower for a local-ish expat pal.  And Sunday we are having family over for my daughter's birthday.

3.  Tiny girl dancer is FIVE on Monday.  How did that happen?!??!?

4.  Going to Costco & Ikea by myself tomorrow on the way too and from the baby shower.  I loathe Ikea (I don't do crowds) but I'm pleased that I won't be dragging 3 miserable members of my family with me.

5.  Clocks change Sunday.  Looking forward to lighter evenings!  Sadly we lose an hour of weekend.  Boo.

PB, sounds like spring has sprung up your way!  Sorry about the hayfever, but yay for allotment time!

KoD, I am so envious of your progress!  Which hob did you end up with?

KF, enjoy your grown-up alone-time shopping!  Also, happy birthday to tiny girl Dancer! 

My Five:

1.  My husband has a cold.  He sounds miserable, and has a very chesty cough.  He's deathly afraid of giving it to me, because I lack lungs so can't do a "productive cough".  I am also afraid of catching his cold.  My husband has not seen me sick yet (in 7 years!), but it's ugly when it happens.  We have used so much antibacterial gel this week.  He won't let me touch anything that he's touched (and he's trying not to touch anything).  He's doing the best he can, but we live together... I feel like this could possibly be inevitable.  Hopefully, he'll weaken it before he shares it.

2.  Stupid week for us to be juggling plumbing issues.  I wish we could get all our fixtures ordered so we can do some meaningful work on our bathroom and get the plumbing sorted.  Turning the main water supply on and off all the time is really tedious.  I just wanna wash my hands, dammit!

3. It's 1:30pm and I haven't showered yet... I need to go grocery shopping sometime in the next four hours, and I just can not be bothered.  I hope I'm not getting sick.   

4.  I feel like we're in a food rut again.  I also feel completely uninspired to fix it.  We've had blackened chicken so many times this month...  I mean, don't get me wrong: it's good every time.  But, like... there's got to be more.  I think I miss barbecue/grilling/cooking outdoors.  We need to get a gas canister for the grill, or plan something for the Uuni.  Nom.

5.  I fully expect to win the lottery tonight.  I expect this every time I play, and then I'm genuinely surprised when I don't win.  I probably wouldn't be surprised if I ever did finally win.  I'll be all, "Well, of course... it was my turn."  Because this is a completely rational thought process. 

Do you need me to bring Lysol back from my trip JF? Don’t get sick. Don’t get sick.

KF, happy early birthday to little one. Hope the boy gets some answers.

KoD, pizza! I’m starving and that sounds delicious.

PB, take me with you! 

I have nothing positive this week so no 5 here.

I have nothing positive this week so no 5 here.

I know that feel

Hope things look up soon!

1) It's Friday. My feet no longer hurt but my old back problem is killing me. (Too much sitting in front of the computer.) I am running a bath and intend to lay in there until the water turns cold, then refill it and do that again. While listening to the radio. And then sit around for the rest of the evening in my fuzzy bath robe.
2) Went out  for tea, had a nice walk and a chat with the Daughter. The weather is nice here. Lots of flowers up in the Botanic Garden, but very few trees are leafing out. Which seems odd. It's like they're waiting.
3) Went to Ikea on Wednesday to buy an Ivar shelving unit for the kitchen, and it looks like they'll be 25% off starting Monday, so I'll either order online (if they'll give us the "Ikea Family" discount) or have to take the three buses to get back out there to order/pay/pay for delivery in person. My pantry defininitely needs more shelf space. The bus rides are free, but it's a royal pain in the tush and takes a couple of hours out of my day, easily. I like the stuff in Ikea. I hate going to Ikea. Their lunch counter isn't what it used to be, either. They've really cut down on what you can get, and their formerly good desserts now are heavily populated with cakes that look like they came out of a box of Betty Crocker, sadly.
4) Did a massive "transplant all the small plants to larger pots" and it went well yesterday and today. My new strawberry plants are flowering. Need to figure out how to divide a Peace Lilly. The lettuce is coming up. The microgreens are ready to harvest again.
5) Heard from the Irish govmt on the Daughter's application for naturalization. It's still processing. Which is better than "no."

So, life muddles on. Not a lot new, same old, same old. A quiet life. Which is just fine with me. Except for the bit about the back. 

PS Enjoy Edinburgh - it's a good place for a day out!

Good news, the private doc is taking these very seriously and running a wide variety of tests.  And he complete disagrees with the NHS approach of waiting for a third hospitalisation before exploring causes.

And on a bad note, my husband came home to a leak from the upstairs bath into the utility room.  Great!   

Sorry about the leak, but that is good news about the doctors!

Good news, the private doc is taking these very seriously and running a wide variety of tests.  And he complete disagrees with the NHS approach of waiting for a third hospitalisation before exploring causes.

And on a bad note, my husband came home to a leak from the upstairs bath into the utility room.  Great!   

Yikes...seems like the good news outweighs the bad news kind of! Glad to head the private doctor is taking things seriously!

Weird to be the first today...but somebody might beat me to hitting "post"...

1. Still waiting to hear back on our second counter offer on this house we're trying to by. I HATE playing games. It's annoying. Just tell me yes or no so I know if I should look at other houses or not!!

2. Had some phone interviews during the week. Fingers crossed I hear more about whether they want to follow up with interviews in the coming weeks....I am just so mentally checked out at work, it's not even funny.

3. Husband told me the lady that came to do the floor plan for our house sale has said she did the original one before we bought it and said it's been such a nice transformation! Even though we didn't finish everything off how we might've before getting the opportunity to sell, it's nice to hear that somebody thinks we have good taste and did things nicely.

4. It's nice to start having more time on weekends free. Selling our house has meant that my husband and I aren't so focused on getting everything perfect and looking right for a potential buyer. Hoping we can have the new kitchen done by the end of this weekend though so we at least get SOME time to enjoy it! hah

5. It's Pizza Friday! WOOO (obviously lol).

Congrats on being first, KoD!!  Pizza tonight to celebrate!    Or just pizza tonight because it's Friday and that's what you do.

Good luck with all the things!  You know my position on the counter-counter-offers, but if you get the house you want and you're happy, I'm happy!

My five:

1.  My husband has today off (!!), and we're about to have Potatoes, Eggs, and Toast, and coffee.  Because that's what we do when my husband is off work.  Yay!

2.  He is on the backside of his cold.  He still has that annoying tickle in his throat that makes him cough, but he's not all wet and phlegmy sounding, and his sinuses seem to have relented.  AND... I have not got sick (yet).  Either this has an unusually long incubation period, or I am in the clear.  We're amazing!

3.  I ordered from Tesco this week, and it wasn't a disaster.  The only thing I couldn't get was chicory, and I was a lot surprised they even let me put it in my virtual trolley.  Sadly, that means chick'n'fennel, instead, which isn't quite as good as chick'n'chicory, but at least I caught the lack of chicory before the order window closed so I could add the substitution.

4.  Husband was supposed to have Friday, Sunday, and Monday off, and only a half-day on Saturday.  I mean, that's what we have.   But now we have to spend Sunday going to Bristol to have dinner with the inlaws.  My husband's aunt is up from France and we haven't visited for a while, so that's our Sunday.  (Anybody moving to the UK to be near family, take note: I have fully integrated,  and THIS is how people feel about seeing family!  It's always pleasant once we get there... It's just that we don't want to mess with the ordeal and give up our long weekend.)

5.  We were watching a video last night of Chris Botti and Yo Yo Ma, and talking about American accents (after Botti's introduction), and I said that I never expected my ears to be so sensitive to American accents since I have one.  My husband said even when I first came over, I didn't have a strong American accent.  What do I sound like, then?

Bonus: my husband is de-scaling the espresso machine... coffee is delayed, but coming soon.  Wheeeee!