Thank the Gods it’s Friday. This week has just flown by and no sooner do I clear away one pile of paperwork off my desk, as if my magic, another pile appears. A bit like the sorcerer’s apprentice and unfortunately I don’t know the magic word to make it stop.

It’s the Belbroughton Scarecrow Weekend so I shall be off and about tomorrow with my camera, capturing the moment (people will then suffer). Actually I've still not got around to sorting out my holiday photos yet, most unlike me. Anyway, I digress, the whole village gets involved and it’s a good day out – all in aid of charity. They don’t advertise it like they used to, due to the village being over run with people; so it’s a case now of remembering roughly when it’s on and checking the village website.

Nothing much else planned for the weekend – just lately I’ve been in the mood to write again, so I’ll try and make a bit of ‘me’ time and carry on with Chapter 7. It’s not so difficult now I’ve got going again, I think I lost my confidence a bit and wasn’t happy for anyone to see what I’d written. It just wasn’t good enough for my liking. I forgot the fundamental rule: You should write for your own pleasure and enjoyment. Sharing it with others comes a lot further down the list.

Right, nose to the grindstone again…

Before I start rabbiting on this morning, I’d just like to say that reading over the new JJ story I spotted a few errors. I have to point out that Scally didn’t miss them – I fiddled yet again after she sent it me back.

It was really late last night by the time I’d finished updating – it didn’t help matters that I managed to delete all of the Alex & Connor stories off, not just my web page but also my computer. This of course was after Tripod asked if I wanted to delete them and then, was I sure that I wanted to delete them? I, of course, said yes on both occasions.

Good Job I keep backups and that I’ve also got most of them saved in my Yahoo Mailbox. Working closely with computers has taught me that it’s a good idea to have at least one off site backup to hand – Yahoo Mail is an ideal way of doing this and costs me nothing. But it’s still time consuming producing the webpage again, it must have been nearly 1am when I eventually got to bed last night.

Another thing that surprised me was the fact that within seconds of uploading the new story it was already being viewed. How the hell do you manage it? You must have been camped outside.

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I’m so pissed off - I’ve just received a phone call from my manager. Apparently the front door bell isn't working - why wasn't it sorted? Well, maybe because no one had told me it was broken? OK, granted I'm the Office Manager and as part of my job I’m expected to take responsibility for the smooth running of day to day things around here - be that running a claim, producing reports or just ordering sandwiches for a meeting - but for God’s sake, I'm not a bloody mind reader. Not even the kids have complained that it’s not working and they are usually the first to start moaning if they can’t get someone to answer the door in under 10 seconds.

And it is working, granted very quietly, but it does make a buzzing sound. Enough for the person stood on the other side of the door to register that maybe, just maybe, there was a small problem here and an alternatively way of making one's self heard would be a good idea.

There was a meeting last night and one of the directors was running late. I stayed here till turned quarter to six, then went to the meeting room and told them I was going home (I'm employed from 9 - 5) and that their colleague was still stuck in traffic. Fine they said, leave the meeting room door open and they'd listen out for him.

Director turns up and can’t get an answer, so leaves them a note saying he couldn't get them to hear him and pushes it under the door. What hasn’t been mention yet is the fact that two managers were in the car park talking at the time of his arrival, so why didn't he stick his head out of the door and asked them to let him in? Or bang loudly on the bloody door - they'd have heard that upstairs. No, he spent his time writing a note instead. I can’t understand why he didn't at least even try ringing someone’s mobile or the main phone and there is just no way he hasn't got one of the director’s mobile number. I'm convinced he just thought he'd get out of the meeting, not have to be here till 8pm – but on that score I can’t say I blame him.

And so I was told that I had to ring him up and apologise for the lack of doorbell that lead to his wasted journey, which has left me seething with the injustice of it all. I don’t have a problem apologising when I’m in the wrong; no matter how difficult it is, I’ll swallow my pride and put my hand up and say sorry – but it really sticks in my throat to have to take the blame for something like this.

He wasn’t there when I rang so I had to leave a message on his answer machine – probably safer than actually speaking to him in person, the way I’m feeling. I put the phone down to start with, gathered my thoughts and rang back to leave the message that would be expected of me and not the message I’d actually like to leave.

Busy again! It’s a bugger when you have to actually do some work.

Never mind, go read M & S – no, not Marks and Spencer – Montgomery & Sulya’s update instead. Three new stories, should keep you occupied for a while. You could then spend a bit more time telling them what you thought. See, who say’s I’ve not got a sense of humour? You lot do feedback? I’m splitting my sides laughing.

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If I can fight my way out of this ever growing pile of paperwork, the SO has told me that it’s ready and I should update the next chapter of James & Jay. Personally I’m not so sure; I’m not convinced that I’m geared up enough to let them go into the big wide world yet – even more fiddling could be needed (you honestly don’t want to know how many times I’ve re-written this chapter).

Even winning the Good Girl title off Pooks hasn’t filled me confidence (Oh, did I just mention that I’m officially the Good One around here now? Must have slipped out, how very remiss of me *smirk*). It’s been such a long time since I wrote about those characters and my views and ideas have changed and hopefully developed – well at least I now know how to get them to the point I was aiming for all those months ago; whether the outcome will be to everyone’s taste will remain to be seen.

We’ll see, maybe after a large glass of wine I’ll feel I can push them out of the door and start writing chapter 7 – then again I could just forget about them and concentrate on finishing off that bottle of wine instead ;-)

Oh, and walloping Dangerous Dave with a baseball bat is now 'boring' - we're flying 'copters instead: http://www.hurtwood.demon.co.uk/Fun/copter.swf

We had a really heavy rainstorm last night, I had to get up and pull the window to as the wind was blowing the rain inside. Let’s be honest, you don’t expect to wake up at three in the morning to find rain on your face when you’re asleep in bed. The wind was howling and it really brought home that summer is over and that autumn is making its presence felt.

I’d forgotten all about the washing I’d left on the line yesterday until I let the ducks out this morning – it had blown off the line and was littered around the garden. See, once again I’d lost my knickers. This is becoming a bit of a habit. I think I’ve collected everything up and that my neighbours aren’t going to get a shock when they wander down their garden path – well at least I hope so.

On the way to work this morning I stopped to post some letters, our post box is underneath a conker tree. The wind last night had ensured the ground was covered with dead leaves, empty shell cases and of course, conkers. I had a terrible urge to start collecting them even though my kids are now too old to play with them. There was a fair few really big ones too.

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I’ve had to laugh at the ducks this weekend - they’d formed a hunting party and were scouring the garden on the look out for daddy long legs. When they are chasing their ‘prey’ they do remind you of a T-rex in action, the movement is so similar.

And I witnessed something I’ve never seen a duck do before. I’d emptied the water out from their pond and was starting to refill it. The old water had pooled on the grass and Treacle was stood in the middle of it, stamping his feet. Now I think he was doing this to try to convince the worms that it was raining and that in it's self is very clever, but to watch him he looked just like a kid playing in a puddle – all he needed was a pair of wellie boots and he’d have been well away.

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Lastly we had a tournament at work on Friday – Gods we’re a competitive lot. Anyone walking past would have wondered what the hell was going on – all that could be heard was: yes...yes…Yes….YES! Go On. Oooh. Yeahhhhhhh!

We were playing http://www.tredz.co.uk/game/ by the way, not re-enacting when Harry met Sally.

To date no one has yet beaten my score of 1122.4m – but no doubt that before today’s out someone will.


**Update - Simon is now in the lead with 1131.6m

Woo Hoo!

Routing through the wardrobe this morning and I came across a pair of combat trousers that Tracy had brought me for my birthday – I’d not been able to get them on at the time. Well I could just about get them on but the button was under intense strain, and there was a part of me trying to escape over the waist band. That’s the trouble with shopping in England. You can buy a size 16 in M & S or Next and it will fit, nah problem. Then go into New Look and find that their size 16 you can’t even get a leg into. Very depressing at the time, cos no way was I changing them for the next size up. So the trousers had ended up in the wardrobe and to be honest, I forget about them.

But today, not only could I get them on there was room to spare. I’ve even had to put a belt on with them as I found as I was cleaning up this morning I was doing a rather good impression of ‘Builders Bum’. So…Woo Hooooo, I say.

Which means that I should probably get on the scales to see if I’ve actually lost any weight. When dieting I’ve found that it’s not good for me to keep weighing myself – if things aren’t quite to my liking with the figures, I get depressed and then start eating all the things I shouldn’t. Best to just look occasionally and last thing at night just before I get into bed – so I won’t be tempted with a Mars Bar. Although I’ll admit I have been know to have the odd midnight feast.

Which also means that I’ll be looking at giving certain people the odd nudge – like……Nicole! :-) Just a small, tiny reminder that she should be thinking about starting that story she mentioned *grin*. Nicole – you can run but you can’t hide, you’re a marked woman. Pooks paragraphs are a little on the none existent side too – but she’s been rather busy of late so I’ve not mentioned it to her. Well, only once. And again here obviously - but hardly uttered a word really.

I didn't blog yesterday, in a bit of a funny mood which carried on into the evening - this was after we'd been shopping in Tesco and I'd subjected two shoppers to 'death glares' after they bumped into me; one with a trolley and the other with a basket which she walloped my elbow with. Why do they call it the funny bone? I couldn't even raise a smile.

My mood didn't go down at all well with Himself, who got the brunt of me trying to pick a fight. Which by 9pm he'd had enough of, so he put a stop to. I then ignored him for the rest of the evening instead. Which, apparently he can live with - it's the right gobby bitch that get's his goat.

Not at all sure what is happening on job front with Youngest - he didn't ask if he was going to be offered a job. But he did say goodbye to his boss, who then said 'Have a good weekend, see you Monday'. So I'm taking it as a good sign if he wants him back again and told Child that he needed to ask out right on Monday if he was being taken on. Kids! Who'd have 'em.

Right, I’m off to reword a few things in JJ which I'm not happy with and then it's FINISHED – just have to get it past Scally (who's Birthday it is tomorrow) and her little pink boxes. Happy Birthday SO :-)

Toooooooo Busy!

Not enough hours in the day to get everything done and I'm falling into bad habits again. I know I am, and I keep trying to convince myself that it’s a one off. But as it’s Thursday now and I’ve started work an hour early and finished an hour later than I should since Monday, I may have a problem.

I blame youngest child for getting in to work early. He took his C.V. around to the landscape gardening companies in our area and managed to gain himself a week’s trial, with the chance of a job at the end of it if he can prove himself a good worker. Finger’s crossed - although the poor kid is shattered at the end of the day. Now he has to be in work for 8.00 a.m., so I’ve been getting up at the same time as him and hence I’m now getting into work for 8.00 a.m. too - or earlier.

And Himself can take the blame for me not finishing early. He’s doing an hour’s overtime and doesn’t get home until 6.15pm. So where as before he, how shall I put this? Discouraged me to work after 5.00pm and broke me of my bad habit of working sometimes nigh on twelve hour days, I now know that as long as I’m home for 6.00pm he’ll be none the wiser. And I can get so much done in those extra hours – no one else is in that early or that late for that matter and I don’t get disturbed. It's so quiet, peaceful even - I do miss having an office to myself. But we've grown so much that we've outgrown the property and are currently looking for new premises, everyone shares an office other than the CEO.

And lunch seems to be getting later and later – I’ve been in and out of meetings all day and I’ve only now sat down to eat my sandwich and find out what’s going on in the world.

Never mind I’m sure it will sort it’s self out in the end – and I’ve not fallen back into the habit of sorting out all of the problems around here – such as the light flickering in the ladies toilet. Passed that one on to accounts. Well, a purchase order number would be needed after all. And it’s Friday tomorrow, so it will soon be the weekend; I’ve not got to the point when I’m taking work home with me again or coming in on a Saturday – well, not yet at any rate :-)

Thank you for all the emails and comments welcoming me back as a writer – that’s me being sarcastic by the way, just in case you missed it. No, I’m not sulking and that wasn’t a door you heard slamming. It’s windy here today and the through draft must have closed it rather sharply.

I’m pissed off as it happens, but not with the lack of response; I’m used to that – feeling guilty yet? No? You want me to keep this up for days? I can you know. I can be amazingly stubborn at times. No, honestly I can - don't look so surprised.

So what has pissed me off, I hear you ask. I’ve been in work since 7.45am again and someone has nicked my butter. I went in to the kitchen to make myself a piece of toast and after it popped out of the toaster discovered my loss – I’m not keen on dry toast. Yes, I know, you probably think it’s not worth bothering about and I’m wrestling with my conscious over my feelings as it is. Bad thoughts and all that – makes me not a nice person.

But it’s not the fact that they’ve used the butter, I’d have willingly shared - it’s the fact they didn’t bother to ask. Good manners alone should have dictated that surely? And at least I’d have then known it had been all used up and replaced it. I hate the idea of plastering my name over everything I put in the fridge – it seems so mean, but at the same time I’m not keeping everyone in the company supplied with butter - no one else buys any after all, but a fair few seem to use it. Just who do they think supplies the stuff - the butter fairy?

And I’ve now got a member of staff AWL – no phone call to say they won’t be in or that they’ll ill. We’ve really tightened down on all of this of late, so if he doesn’t turn up or ring in in the next 5 minutes that well be another disciplinary hearing I’ll be doing. For goodness sake, what has happened to basic good manner around here?

Right I’m off to induct two new members of staff – something else Dilys used to do for me. I’m missing her sooooo much. I arranged for flowers, wine and chocolates to be sent to Spain this week, they should arrive today - I do so enjoy spending with the company credit card.

Right – I did it – where are all my emails of appreciation? What do you mean; you’ve not had time to read the story you’ve had to wash your socks? You wanted me to update, so I’ve updated. Look, just because you hung around for months and months and nothing happened is no excuse. And I’m an artist for heavens sake – I’m allowed to strop. Oh OK, I suppose I can wait until you’ve finished your third cup of coffee, but you’re not to eat any more of those biscuits – not unless you share them with all of us. Except Pooks that is, who’s religiously sticking to Oat Cakes at the moment.

And I’m afraid I’ve not anything to talk about today – I spent last night working out the finer details of the next chapter of JJ. I can't manage both, I've not enough time.

Work is way too busy at the moment, I'm here now and it's only 7.48 and I’m understaffed yet again, so I’ve no time to write the blog during the day either. Never mind you can have a few more pictures to keep you going instead.

The second Antoni Gaudi property we visited, but I can't remember what it was called. If you want to know you'll have to ask Scally.

And the La Sagrada Familia also by Antonio Gaudi

Firstly, for those that haven't joined their gang and received the email - Cobweb & Gnome have updated.


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The weekend has gone past way too quickly. I woke early Saturday morning and saw himself off to work, then decided that I was still tired so went back to bed again. Upon waking up the second time that morning, I stretched and then shot out of bed with excruciating cramp in my calf muscle. I was hopping around the bedroom like a one legged pogo sticker when my other foot got caught in the dressing gown I’d discarded on the floor. To stop myself from falling over I put my leg with cramp back on the floor – unfortunately the cramp wasn’t ready to give up without a fight and that leg gave way, throwing me head long into the wardrobe doors. I rebounded and ended up on the floor. One hand criping my calf, the other holding my head – and swearing for all I was worth. If I could have stood up again I’d have kicked the wardrobe doors into next week. I've had nothing but problems with those wardrobes.

We went out for a meal with Tracy and family on Saturday evening, which was very enjoyable. She’s working such long hours of late all we seem to manage is the odd text message and I’ve missed her. So we had a lot of catching up to do. In fact nearly everyone I know is working long hours of late, I've hardly spoken to Pooks since before my holiday.

I’ve still not found time to sort out all the photos I took in Spain so I reakon I'll just have to add a few each day, but I have spent Sunday working on the next Chapter of JJ. Which, thank God, I've nearly finished. One more chapter after this and I should be able to wave them goodbye for good ;-) My other story has been returned by Ms Wag with a few pink boxes - we'll forget how many pink boxes came back with its first draft, gloss over that bit, so I'll update when I can find a few minutes.





Casa Batllo by Antoni Gaudi - the first house that Scally took us to view. It really does look like a castle of bones.

Talking of Scally, I have to admit that we did get into a bit of a fight on holiday. Not my fault of course. It was all over who was paying for lunch and I have to tell you that she fights dirty. I was desperately trying to pay when she grab my arm and started to pull me away from the counter, whilst telling the girl in Spanish who was serving us not to accept my money. Unfair advantage that. A lot of pushing and shoving then went on. And her behaviour left a lot to be desired, I can tell you. We’re stood in the middle of a busy shop, at the front of a very long queue and she’s telling me to go away – not in a very lady like manner either! Terrible example to set, good job child wasn’t with us at the time. I lost btw, she's stronger than me.

Anyway, Dilys has now retired and I'm covering her work as well as my own so I'm a busy bee today, as the famous rabbit always says 'That's all folks'.

I don’t think I’ll be able to do Barcelona justice especially on one page. For a start between the pair of us, Scally and I took nearly 700 pictures of the city; both of old and new.





But firstly I have to report I’ve been threatened – yes, appalling isn’t it? I can tell you're all shocked.


I’m not allowed to tell anyone about The Great Spanish Spoon Theft or apparently it will go very hard on me. And as I’m the Good One around here I’ll obviously have to do as I’m told. I’m sorry if you’re disappointed.




This, by the way, is a picture of a jug of sangria that Scally & I enjoyed at a beach bar one lunch time. Nice spoon don’t you think? You know - and this will come as a surprise to everyone - Scally has a spoon that looks just like that one at home. Identical in fact, in every way. Small world, innit?

We went to Barcelona by train and I even found the train station impressive.


There was no way you could cover the city in a day, a bit like this blog, so Scally had picked out a few places to go and then basically walked our feet off. No wonder when I weighed myself on our return I found that instead of putting weight on I’d in fact lost a pound (still waiting for my paragraph from Ms Verde btw).

First stop: Cristoforo Columbo monument or Christopher Columbus as history renamed him. Typical that – can’t pronounce the name so we’ll change it to one that we like more.

You take a small lift that is situated inside the column to the top (60 metres in the air); hence the number of people up there at any given time is limited. Scally has a lot more photo’s of the view than me. As you know I’m not keen on heights and I’ll admit that I had my back to the wall and was holding on as if my life depended on it, whilst my stomach did flips and my legs started to shake while we were up there. I was fine to start with, then it move. It did, honestly it did. I felt it move. After that I just wanted to go down again. Of course the sympathy I received from both of them was overwhelming – not! Fancy laughing and taking the mickey, the swines.


We then wandered a bit further through the city towards the markets


The thing with Barcelona is that you don’t need to visit the famous places, nearly every building is a master piece in it’s own right. I think I spent a good part of the day saying 'Oh. Wow, look at that'.

I'm afraid that this is going to carry on into next week, I've not told you about the fight we had in the sandwich shop about who was paying for lunch yet.

Well I’m now down to deal with two disciplinary hearing and a member of staff has been to see me this morning about some time off as his marriage has broken down. The poor chap could hardly speak, he was so upset. Whatever made me think I’d enjoy HR?

Right I’ll carry on talking about last week, that at least will cheer me up.

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After we dropped the suitcase off, we got changed and walked up to Scally’s where Himself managed to con her into making him a cup of tea. Tea belly my husband and the Spanish are more into coffee, he'd perfected the 'poor me' I've not had a cup of tea in ages by the end of the week and she fell for it every time. It was then decided that we’d go to a Tapas bar for lunch and on to the beach for the remainder of the afternoon.

It was quite late and most places had stopped cooking, but the bar we went to had friendly staff and they agreed to serve us (someone else scared of Scally?) – there wasn’t any other customers there at any rate. So we sat down and relaxed, the lady brought us a jug of sangria and we just enjoyed the afternoon sunshine.

Everything was peaceful & serene – you know, it's about the time you start saying to each other ‘this is the life’ - when all hell broke loose and Scally jumped up shouting about potatoes (each to his/her own I suppose). She started taking to Child madly in Spanish and informed us she’d be back in a sec.

You’ve never seen anything like it – she was like a greyhound out of a trap – who’d have thought she could have moved that fast. Remember I mentioned that Scally had a bad memory? Well - this is pay back for all the mickey taking about me getting into the sea - she’d only put a saucepan of potatoes on to boil before we’d come out and then forgotten about it.

Apparently the acid burning smell was evident even as she climbed the stairs and that saucepan will never be the same again. The potatoes weren’t so much cooked as cremated.

And her poor child was quite distort, being abandoned by his mother like that – it took nearly half an hour of hiding behind cars and pretending to shoot each other as we walked back to the beach later on before he got over the shock. I’d like to say that me playing childish games was just a reaction to too much sun and sangria but I’ll be honest – Child and I played ‘guns’ several times during the holiday. Himself and Scally didn’t join in, no sense of fun either of them.

Mind you it was probably cruel of me to hide in the underpass the next day and jump out and shoot him just as he was running to catch up with us – but he told us he knew I was going to do that, so I’m not feeling that guilty about him jumping up in the air like he did.

The week passed really quickly and I can confirm that it’s now official that Scally is the loudest out of the pair of us. She told me that in real life she was more reserved and quieter than online. Bollocks! Utter rubbish. Her friend could make out our laughter even on a populated beach. Just because she’s Scottish doesn’t mean she was wrong in her assessment, no matter what Scally says.


One evening after dinner we had a wander around the hotel, there was lots of different types of tiles on the walls – which is very traditional in Spain.

Very Pretty.

Now look a bit closer – just what sort of hotel had Ms Wag booked us into? Yes, only she could manage to find a hotel with a spanking scene depicted on the walls.



Right that’s it for today, I think I’ve given you all a good impression of what Ms Wag is really like – draw your own conclusions :-)

Tomorrow - the great spoon theft and Barcelona.

Pooks is really busy at the moment and we only had snatches of conversation on Monday evening. She now has an office all of her own – gone up in the world she has – and is on the look out for funny posters and pictures to cover the walls and make it feel more like home.

I’ve been moaning at her lately about not looking after herself properly, she’s skipping lunch and working late into the evening then she’s too tired to eat anything much more than a bit of toast. So I’m naming and shaming her here, as she’s not listening to anything I tell her at the moment and is going to end up ill; arthritis has a nasty habit of knocking people off their feet when least expected, especially when you’re over tired and not looking after yourself. At least then I can say I told you this would happen and everyone here can agree with me – we can all ‘Look’ at her. So find a mirror and start practising.

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Back to last Monday and my arrival at the hotel – Ms Wag had very kindly put me a welcome pack together. Um…not saying all that was in it, but you know our genre so take a wild guess. What I will admit too is the Spanish fan with my name on it. The letters of which were glittery and kept dropping off everywhere – name dropping I was, glitter everywhere yet again.

She also extended my family…..

Say hello to the ducks. (Photo courtesy of Scally Wag. See it's not just me, she was just as bad and should take some of the blame for encouraging me).

In fairness to her I don’t think it crossed her mind that I’d actually take them places with us – at that point she was still on a sharp learning curve. She knows what I’m like on-line; I just don’t think it had crossed her mind that I was like that in real life as well. What can I say – some people just have to learn the hard way.

So the ducks enjoyed their holiday too and have now taken up residence in my bathroom with my other flock of plastic ducks.

The beach was an experience in itself.....

Very beautiful and we had sunshine for the whole week.

Scally, of course, totally misunderstood my entrance into the sea on the first day (yes, OK and a few times after that as well) – I didn’t fall over at all, I was just entertaining her child….and half of the other people on the beach. There was an enormous wave and it knocked me off my feet, so I slid gracefully into the water like the goddess I am. Yes I did.

Although I have to admit the getting out again left a lot to be desired but in my defence it was a sharp slope, the waves were strong and the bloody sand kept moving from under your feet. No one other than the Child managed it with style and he was obviously closer to the ground. That must have been the reason, after all the only way out was waiting for a big wave to give you a push and then get on your hands and knees and crawl. Both Scally and I have blackmail material of each other to ensure that no one else ever gets to see the pictures of either of us or in her case the video she took of me (although we have promised Pooks a veiwing as she needs a good laugh at the moment).

So after spending the rest of Monday on the beach Scally tried to contact Ryanair about the missing suitcase – thank God I sent her Birthday presents by post and the...er...presents that I brought with me were in the case that didn’t get lost. Having to give details of thoses missing items could have been a little embarrassing to say the least. But no one answered the phone at Ryanair so it was decided to leave it until the next day.

Next Morning Scally managed to get hold of someone – who wasn’t very helpful and didn’t want to speak to her, but she did get them to say that they would ring us on our mobiles (which of course they didn’t).

So she rang them back again when we were with her - I couldn't understand a word of what she was saying to the lady at Ryanair, but there was a hell of a lot of meaning behind it which I did comprehend. The lady (loose term) then decided that she would go and look for our case and ring us later. In the meantime we decided that we’d go back to the airport and report it in person – after that we’d forget all about it. It wasn’t going to spoil our holiday.

Scally rang that nice taxi driver again and off we set. Just before we got to the airport my mobile rang – guess what? Ryanair had found our suitcase – all we needed to do was bring our paperwork and pick it up. See, it’s not only Pooks that finds Scally scary. Ryanair have posted warning notices to all of their employees about her as well.

Anyway we got our suitcase back and headed back to the hotel, we then all walked back up to Scally’s but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to hear all out that.

I’m back! Well, someone tell me that they've missed me. It's like pulling teeth around here.

I'm suntanned and slightly burnt in places (my knees for a start) and relaxed to the point of being chilled. Well, it was very hot over there and England is cold in comparison.

Both Himself and I agreed it was one of the nicest holidays we’ve had, the week went past so quickly and it’s been ages since I’ve laughed that much. So what can I say about Scally? Oooh lots of things but you’ll have to wait as this holiday blog will take a couple of days…..

Oh, OK, she was wonderful. Just like she is on-line. It was so strange; it didn’t feel like it was our first meeting - more that we’d known each other for years. She went to a lot of trouble to make us feel comfortable and ensure we had a great time. And she’ll probably shout at me for writing this as she’s a very modest person, who doesn’t like a lot of fuss made of what she does to help others. Tough! I’m hundreds of miles away again so she can’t thump me now and her memory isn’t that good – no, honestly it isn’t - as you’ll find out later on, so if we do go back again she’ll have forgotten all I’ve said.

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We had a good flight over. The plane wasn’t full and no one sat by the side of us so we got an extra seat to ourselves, we just pushed the armrests up and it was like sitting on a sofa.

Our flight landed ten minutes ahead of schedule and we stood around the carousal waiting for the suitcases, the first of which came off early. So we just had to wait for the other one then. We waited and we waited …. more and more people collected their luggage and left until eventually just one bag was going around and around. It wasn’t ours of course. Then the carousal stopped. Yep, that’s right – one suitcase was missing.

Of course this was the first time we hadn’t got a rep to ask for help, so I wandered over to the security guard with the big gun and the mean look in the eye and asked what the procedure was for lost luggage. I had to report it to the Ryanair office just outside departures, she said.

Now this is me remember; you’ve read the blog it can’t come as that much of a surprise. Nothing I ever do is that straight forward, as Scally found out for herself last week, which will teach her to be nice to me. I found the Ryanair office no problem. It was easy to spot; what with the 400 odd irate customers forming queues in front of it I couldn’t miss it. They’d cancelled a flight at short notice and everyone had to be issued with new tickets – they weren’t happy campers.

So I sent Himself off to locate our taxi driver – Scally had arranged for him to pick us up and he’ll probably never forgive her for it. We got to know him quite well over the week. And I rang Scally to tell her what was happening. It was really funny to actually speak to her; she does have a slight accent. Of course I was stood in the middle of an airport – surrounded by irate people – and my accent was a bit more pronounced at the time too. She couldn’t understand a word I was saying.

Anyway I eventually managed to tell her what had happened, in between laughing that is, God help me if I ever lose my sense of humour. I think I was in shock because I shouldn’t have found it that funny. She told me to get a telephone number and she’d ring later that evening, just get in the taxi and not to worry. Well OK, I always do as I’m told.

Off we set - the taxi driver chatting to us and pointing out places, he really was very friendly. Pulled up outside our hotel and unloaded the cases carrying them up to the door. Right – time to ring Scally again. I’d looked around but couldn’t spot her, so where was she? Sat in front of the hotel she said, waiting for us.

No she wasn’t.

I must be around the side of the building she said, walk around and she’d look for us. After a few minutes of us both looking for each other it became obvious that we weren’t at the same hotel. So she rang that poor taxi driver again and he came back and picked us up – this time we went to the right hotel and actually got to meet her.

So we drank the welcome sangria that she’d brought and I checked out what we’d got in the cases. Well our clothes were in there, which was a plus. The other case contained the swimming costumes, all our shoes, toiletries, my Gameboy and games (shock), hairdryer and straighteners and all of our underwear. The only knickers we had were the ones we were wearing.

So we had to go shopping, at least most of the things in the case were easy to replace – poor Scally, nothing could have prepared her for having to spend a week with me. And you’ve got to admit that there are only certain friends that you can ask to help buy your knickers. Who’d have thought you could bond with someone over a pair of drawers?

And this is where I’m stopping for today, dinner time is over and I’ve come back to work to find I’ve got to sort out a disciplinary as a member of staff has been falsifying her timesheet and mileage. What a thing to come back to, that is one part of HR that I don’t enjoy.

Never mind more tomorrow.

Right, all packed and ready for when the taxi picks us up at 2.15am to take us to the airport. Busy day sorting out last minute things – mainly the animals. Billy is sulking – he knows we’re off somewhere even though I’ve not brought the suitcases downstairs yet.

Pooks is really busy with work at the moment so I doubt she’ll get time to blog, and if she does it will be quick. So failing that I’ll wish everyone a nice week and I’ll be back again next Monday.