Word of the Week - Blues

After a colourful two weeks in Crete it was back to the UK and to a brown and dull countryside.

Crete itself was very brown with a very low rainfall, but perfect conditions for bouganvilliea to blossom in giving everywhere a pop of colour. I've tried and failed several times to grow it in the UK. 

You may be wondering what this has to do with 'Blues'. 

There are two parts to it, Blue as in feeling sad and Blues as in Birmingham City FC. 

My GAD and PTSD has been in overdrive the past few weeks, even a holiday hasn't helped. It's difficult to explain but it is possible to be happy and do nice things and even look and sound like everything is ok, whilst underneath your whole life is falling apart and you're catastrophising and the whole world is against you.

I used to think it was normal to say 'I imagine the worst, then anything else is a bonus' I realise now that this has been going on since my late teens and this approach is not normal. I of course know my life isn't unravelling and my world isn't falling apart and I'm not going to jail for not having paid my car tax back in May, but in the 4 weeks whilst I've been waiting for my £80 fine to reach me (it arrived on Saturday) I have indeed been thinking that Jail is the worst outcome, so a CCJ wouldn't be that bad, but why if they've taken our car and crushed it whilst we've been away, so I've been checking the camera on the front door almost hourly (yes whilst I've been by the pool and on a coach trip) and I've still got to pay the 2 months car tax I missed and I don't know how or to who and telling me not to worry because they'll contact me eventually isn't helpful and I'm just exhausted by it all. I contacted the DVLA on Monday and paid the £106 outstanding and they couldn't have been more helpful and understanding.

Back to the other Blues.

I went to Birmingham to watch the football on Saturday, the day after we got back. It was the first home game of the season and my first game in my new seat as a season ticket holder.

I've opted not to buy this years shirt as I just don't like it and decided to go in something colourful and summery to carry on the holiday feeling a little bit longer.

I need to do something about the colour of my hair, the blue has faded since the start of the holidays, just in time for back to school, but I'm not happy with this grey, there's no shine to it.

I've had to sell my Cup ticket back to the club for the match against Brentford on Tuesday due to family commitments.

It was nearly a blues day all round after going behind and a disallowed goal, but we managed to pull back an equaliser in the dying minutes.

As it was a lovely day I opted to walk back into town rather than catch the 1875 bus and I noticed just how colourful the area was.

I've carried on taking photos of colourful things this week for my One Daily Positive and Project 365.

The rest of the weekend and week has been spent with the grandchildren, rearranging appointments, booking hotels for my upcoming Ultra Marathon next month and the London Marathon In April 2027. Getting files up to date for going back to work next week. Football tickets have been bought to take our great nephew to watch Barry Town, letters have been written and birthday cards sent and 101 photos have been uploaded onto Vinted and all this productivity and family time has lifted the Blues and things are looking a lot brighter and more colourful.

Word of the week - Colourful in Crete

Crete in Colours

RED

PINK

ORANGE

YELLOW

GREEN

BLUE

WHITE

Getting ready for Christmas with All Colour Envelopes

Well that's Christmas sorted, presents bought and wrapped, cards written, addressed and stamped. I just need to wait till December 1st and hope my Mother remembers where she's kept everything for safe keeping and hands it out/posts it all on time.

Living in Dubai means I have to be very organised and plan well in advance. My next trip to the UK won't be until June 2016. I travel to the UK twice a year and tend to take birthday cards and presents with me for the next few months as posting is quite expensive, in-between our children come to visit and bring over gifts from family and friends and take stuff back for me for the next set of birthdays. Having lived in South Africa for 4 years prior to this move, 90% of all post went missing, especially anything that looked like it may contain a gift, including cards.

The lovely people at All Colour Envelopes sent a large box to my parents address for me to use for review purposes. Now when I think of envelopes, apart from the ones that come with birthday cards, I picture them to be white or brown and in a variety of sizes, sometimes padded and ones with a hard piece of card to send photos or documents in.

I didn't expect to see so many different sizes, colours and materials. I'd bought my dad an old Roy of the Rovers football annual from 1960. I put it in one of the padded envelopes, used a silver pen and wrote 'To Dad, Happy Birthday, Love Suzanne and Peter' I had no wrapping paper on me, the book was in a recycled plastic bag. I'd only been in the UK a couple of days touring around and hadn't had chance to buy paper to wrap it.

I used the padded envelopes for birthday, new birth, christmas and even an easter gift, which included clothing, jewellery, craft activities and toys. I was able to use a normal biro to write on all of the envelopes and for the darker ones I used a silver pen. For the envelopes that went through the postal system I used a plain sticky label to write the address on.

These envelope were fab to put cash in for 3 of our 5 children, I struggle with internet banking when my UK bank wants to confirm random payments while I'm in Dubai.

I write letters, every week to friends and family across the world. The gold envelope is on it's way to Canada to my friend Catherine who I spent 3 weeks with this summer after 3 years of being pen pals, having met on twitter.

I also wrote and addressed all the UK christmas cards, which I've left in the UK with my mum who will post them on for me in December. The envelopes were white and each one needed licking to seal. All Colour Envelopes were brightly coloured and fitted the selection of cards I had and have a peel off strip to ensure secure sealing of the envelope.

I've been making some scarfs and bags that I'm selling for the charity work I'm doing in South Africa and these small envelopes were great to put a business card in.

Week One - Project 365, FMSPHOTOADAY Snap Happy Britmums. One Daily Positive.

It's been a rough few weeks as we relocate from South Africa to Dubai, there have been more things going wrong than right. I started to blog about all the issues but it dragged me down too much.

My Facebook feed has been a mess, my whatsapp group are picking up the pieces and twitter has just really been pretty much left alone for a while.

I decided what I needed to do was to focus on the positives and look for the fun stuff in life.

I feel I've taken on way too much in regards to lining all these community groups and projects online, but it was what saved me when we moved to South Africa in 2011. Unfortunately I'm no longer contributing to these groups, it seems I moved on and there was no longer a place for me there.

This week started with me screaming at the builder at our new house and yelling at the landlady and sending endless emails to the HR department and Expat relocation firm firm hired to sort out our visas and the repairs and cleaning to the house.

I'm so tired, 2 weeks of being polite and civil got me absolutely nowhere. I felt better for yelling and then I stepped back and started to relax, enjoy Dubai and chill out a little, the work is now being done, but the timescale we were promised is out the window and instead of being in our new home with our furniture it will be another 2-3 weeks of living in a hotel.


I'm now looking forward to spending the day chilling out and relaxing, wandering around Dubai Mall, snapping at things with my new Nikon camera and this evening will select my favourite picture for #MySundayPhoto

My daily positives this week amongst all the hassles and the photo challenges were
Day 1

This is the view from my front doorstep, it is worth the effort with the landlady and builders to be able to see this every time I step out my front door. #sky #one Burg Khalifia

Day 2

After 4 years in South Africa, it is such a pleasure to be able to use public transport in Dubai, when we moved to South Africa I was housebound until we could sort out bank accounts and loans etc to be able to buy a car, so to be out and about at this stage of the relocation is wonderful #yellow #nature

Day 3

There is very little colour in Dubai, everything is beige, of course there are flowers and trees here, but they require a lot of effort and water to encourage them to flower. The positive today was to be able to take a walk from the hotel to the marina without fear. #metoday #colourful

Day 4

Ok so im cheating here, the themes were #IHear and #Metoday this was taken today outside our villa, the sound of the mosque is something beautiful to be heard even if it is a little flat and out of tune. My positive today is the shouting was worth it, the carpenter is there and the work is finally getting done