Rocking Your World Friday weeks 37 to 40

I think I just have to admit to myself that regular blogging simply isn’t something I can stick to – I started this RYWF thing posting religiously every week, then it slipped to once a fortnight, then once every three weeks, and now I have a whole month to catch up!

I can hear Virginia tutting from here, and she is 200 miles away! :)

It hasn’t been a very busy month though, and the positives have been a little thinner on the ground than usual (I spent at least half of the month knocked for six by a very nasty toothache) so this shouldn’t take too long….

This month’s highlights:

• Met my friend Pam for lunch one day as she was temporarily working in the same town as my office, it was lovely to see her and we felt like proper “ladies who lunch” :)

• Enjoyed watching the Paralympics on TV, even more exciting than the main games!

• Did a fun Wherigo geocache (a special type of cache that is more like an interactive game, played outdoors – this one was all about Orpheus and Eurydice and their adventures in the Underworld) near Hungerford around a set of amazing but not very well publicised Roman ruins and a beautiful mosaic.  Geocaching is the best hobby for helping you to discover wonderful places in your neighbourhood that you might not have heard about otherwise….

• Went on a training course for work – not desperately exciting but it was lovely to have two days out of the office, plus the food was nice, and the training centre was literally next door to the Harry Potter studios tour so I went and had a nose around there during my break :)

• My eldest left home – not in itself a happy moment (I cried a lot!) but I am pleased for him that he is starting a new phase of his life with his lovely girlfriend in Cornwall, and at least he has left his cat behind to keep me company!

• A day spent re-purposing Ethan’s old room into a “tweens’ lounge” for Connor and Reece, so they have somewhere to watch TV and play x-box away from the grown-ups – I don’t have any before pictures (imagine lots of smell and mess!) but here’s how it looks now.  The boys are chuffed to bits with their new space.

• I painted a picture that I like enough to frame – for the first time ever!  See last post for details.  Plus I found a nice wooden frame that fitted it perfectly for only £5.99 at the Range, bargain!  She’s now on my bedroom wall.

• Finished watching Dollhouse, started watching Battlestar Galactica (my middle son has been mercilessly nagging me to watch BSG for years, I have been resisting hard as it all looked a bit too space opera for me …… but I’m now 1 and a bit seasons in and I have to admit he was right, it’s SO good!!)

• We had a positive company meeting at work, seems we are actually making some money this year – makes a nice change after two very difficult years with numerous redundancies – it’s nice to be reassured.  Plus we all got free pizza.

• I finally stopped being a wuss and went to the dentist and he sorted out my tooth pain with a course of anti-biotics and some nice strong painkillers - praise be to modern medicine!!

• The mystery swap over at Collabor-ART went down well, and I scored a double whammy by 1) receiving an awesome set of gifts myself and 2) making my swappee happy

You can see the details of what I was lucky enough to receive here

And here's what I made to send my recipient:

Plus I sent her various other goodies detailed here

• Download Festival announced their 2013 headliners, Rammstein, Iron Maiden and – wooohooooo – Slipknot!!! Yay!!!  I’m not yet sure whether we’ll go for the whole weekend next year, but we’ll be there on Slipknot day, no question :)

• I phoned up Virgin Media to cancel Sky Movies, as Ethan was the only person who watched the movies much, only to find out that I can get one of those fancy new Tivo boxes, triple my broadband speed, AND save £42 a month from my bill – win win!  They are coming later on today to fit the new kit :)

• My local ice hockey team won their first game of the season last weekend – just!  But it still counts :) Glad we have managed to get a win under our belt.  More please, boys!

• My annual Pearl Jam fan club magazine and free 7" single arrived in the post all the way from (probably not) sunny Seattle - always a nice surprise seeing as there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when it arrives

• My middle son turned 21 – and we went over to Bristol last Sunday to see him, take pressies, and help him celebrate.  We had a lovely Chinese meal and then went for a nice long graffiti-spotting walk around Stokes Croft to work off some of those calories.  The weather was good to us and it was a very enjoyable day all round.

he's looking more like Shaggy from Scooby Doo every time I see him :)

• Connor went on a residential activity holiday with his school – and despite me fretting like a crazy person and missing him like mad all week, he had a brilliant time :)  He wishes he had another week there.  I on the other hand am overjoyed he is home.

Here was his favourite bit, the treetop trail:

• Various amusing photo opportunities have put a smile on my face recently just when I've needed a boost:

Amusingly named sweeties brought back from France by my workmate - head cut off to protect the innocent :)

And the parking spot of the beast - ha ha :)  \m/

• and last, but not least, a gorgeous double rainbow spotted on my drive home yesterday, the photo really doesn't do it justice, it was lovely, the second rainbow was much clearer than it looks here, and the main one was SO bright and colourful:

That's all from me this time around, told you it would be a short one

I just need to go and link up at Virginia's blog, and then later, when the Virgin man has switched my internet back on, I'll do some blog hopping and see what everyone else has been up to....