It's 03:40am

...and I really should be in bed, not on here!

no, I'm not drunken posting, I've just finished my latest TMA (Tutor-Marked Assessment) on the last two case studies I've been reading - 'Alcohol and Human Health' (a really fascinating and scary read!!) and 'Screening for Breast Cancer' - topics very close to my heart as they affected my parents - mortally in the case of my biological father and almost likewise in the case of my mother.


I was meant to have the morning off tomorrow to complete my assignment as it doesn't need to be in til noon tomorrow but we've got a consultant in from our software provider and my systems colleague is off sick so I need to be around... hence why I'm still up at this ungodly hour, oh dear

Anyway, I didn't think I'd complete it in time but I have and I'm feeling rather glad, chuffed, relieved etc

hurrah! :-)

but quite tired too, so I think I'll go to bed now

just thought I'd pop on here though as I've got that out the way to say HELLO! and that I've not disappeared off the face of the planet, just the blogosphere it seems

so much has been going on lately I don't know where to start - will have to compose one of my mammoth reads for all of you with a spare half hour of your life to kill! I've got lots to write, lots of pictures to post, recipes, product reviews etc - I've just not had a moment to myself!

okay, quick brief update...

Although I expected that, when travelling along the road to happiness, the occasional speed bump was to be expected... what I didn't envisage was meeting one big huge bloody road block!!

Yes, dear reader, things have got wrong. We got the FULL building survey results back last Friday, read through them, were happy with no structural probs just lots of refurb work needing done... the next day Joe was out doing a long ride so unreachable and it was up to me to call the estate agent and say yes we're all good to go, let's move to exchange...!

then, I open the mail and there's a cheque from our solicitors - a refund of their fee!!

without telling anyone, estate agents included in this, the seller had pulled out as he figured he could probably get more if he spent a bit of money on it and did it up

SCREAM!!

cue the whole weekend (during which I was supposed to be completing my assignment) spent in emotional turmoil as we didn't realise the above until Monday as nobody could get hold of the bloody seller all weekend...

Monday I found out the news and had to go home, was devastated, we were all ready to move in.

Anyway, I'm trying to be positive and there's actually a chance that this might be salvageable... nothing's clear yet but if we can part with a bit more money and still end up with it that would be awesome as we simply can't afford anything that size in that area otherwise.

I have been looking at places further afield and am thinking it might be okay to sacrifice the super location and prestigious postcode for somewhere even bigger and a lot cheaper... We did go to see a place this evening which was fab, really huuuuuge with a monster garden (the place we were trying to get had a dinky postage-stamp sized one) but that needed a lot of work, but was on for a *hell* of a lot less than the houses in the area we were hoping to move to... food for thought anyway although we do have to think about transport links, me and Joe to get to work and my son to get to school as his is absolutely miles away!

Speaking of the boy, had to take him shopping the other day for school trousers as the ones we bought him a few months ago that reached the ground have no got clear air-space round his ankles... poor lad! So, he's now wearing age 15 trousers and he's not even 14 yet, it's scary the rate he's growing, he'll be towering over me in no time and I'm pretty tall for a girl! Oh, and his voice has broken, that's weird too, I'm not used to it, it's been quite sudden and now there's this deep-voiced tall and lanky emotional teenager in the place of my angelic-voiced golden haired little boy

argh!!

anyway, it's now 4am and I'm somewhat worried now as my eyes are now open properly again so hopefully I'll be able to sleep when I get up to bed, Joe will *not* be impressed at the time!!

will update you all soon about my life, injuries and physio treatment (yes, I finally hauled my arse back to Balance), training, aspirations etc... we've got friends round for dinner tomorrow so won't be til Saturday daytime (hopefully!)

hope you're all well and have a very happy Friday

TJx