This post is long over-due as ever since I arrived here last month I have been in stitches whenever I hang round with my wee cousin (‘once removed’ whatever the hell that means!) Findlay!   It helps that he’s honestly the cutest thing since things started being cute but some of the stuff that comes out of his wee mouth are just classic! Here’s a few examples…

1. Bamburgh Castle… Findlay gets a plastic sword at the gift shop that is damn near bigger than him and goes running down the path waving his sword yelling “Kill, Kill, Kill!!”. Coming from a wee fella it sounded hilarious plus the fact that his short wee legs can’t carry him that fast with the running hehe.

2. Bamburgh Castle – Homebound… Cousin Neil decides to make me almost wee my pants and ruin my mascara by getting Findlay to say “Truck me, Truck off and Truck you”… HILARIOUS when you realize that his TR’s come out as F’s hehehe. And the combination of his cute wee voice saying this with the look on his innocent face was ultimately something that had us giggling for ages!

3. His house... Grandma and I were babysitting all three of the younguns at their place one night and once we get inside from wherever the hell we had been he proudly announces he’s wee’d his pants… not unusual for a 2 year old I guess so Grandma pulls his pants down and sits him on her lap to put some new pants on – only to find he’s actually poo’d his pants and her jeans get covered! He thought it was hilarious! (Grandma did not…)

4. His house again… Grandma is getting the wee ratbag ready for bed so pulls his pants down to put his PJ’s on and he wastes no time in piddling on the floor! Then proudly announces “Look at me Grandma… I peeing!” hehehe. So Grandma rushes off to get a towel and he then decides to step in it! so I grab him up before he does but he’s given the puppy the idea and she tries to do the same thing! So Grandma comes back with the towel to find me standing there holding a wriggling Findlay and wriggling puppy!

5. Ellen’s dance show… Don’t ask me how but somehow Grandma, Auntie Lynn and Auntie Amanda get roped into taking the two boys, Matthew and Findlay, to their big sis’s afternoon dance show. All is going well in the packed theater until about half an hour before the end when Findlay waits for the quietest possible moment and announces “I WANT TO GO NOW” in his LOUDEST voice…. not once…. not twice…. but about 5 times! until Auntie Lynn tries to stop him by putting her hand over his mouth. Alas this does not stop the rant so Auntie Lynn and Amanda are forced to hoist the wee loudspeaker up and make haste out to the foyer before exploding into giggles. Findlay’s dead proud of course!

6. Nickname... Findlay affectionately refers to me as Poohead on most occasions – well actually it’s not just limited to me haha anybody can be called it!

Right so today I decided to head up to the Angel of the North here in Newcastle and so I hopped online last night and planned my way out there via the bus and train. 10am this morning I was off and promptly got on the wrong freaken bus didn’t I! Which was totally retarded considering there were only two to get from outside my Aunties house haha. But me being me I overcame this minor lack of smarts and altered my plan – getting into Haymarket bus station in town and getting #21 The Angel bus which specifically goes right past the Angel of the North.

Sweet! so I’m on my way – loving the fact that the bus is a double-decker so I can sit up top and take pics on the 30min journey to the Angel (although my photos would’ve been better if I hadn’t sat on the side that had a big white splatter on the window in front of me but ah well).  I turn to my left and see something that I just HAD to get a photo of so I did my best to work it so I got it but the window was super dirty… hehe look Mum it’s the One Pound Shop!!

So as soon as I saw the Angel I started to make my way down to the bottom for an easy getaway… BIG mistake! I’m at the top of the windy stairs down and I’m two steps down when the lovely driver slammed on his frickin brakes for no reason… THANK GOD I had my hand on the rail otherwise I would’ve seriously gone head first down the stairs which would’ve been a) embarrassing as hell and b) possible brain/spinal damage. As it was my legs almost flew out from under me as I held on for dear life onto the rail with one hand haha.

Anyways… I managed to get off the bus without hurting the moronic driver and started the 5min walk (across a 4 lane motorway) to the Angel where there were roadworks to make a car park which made it hard to take a good photo from a distance bugger it!  Now the Angel of the North is massive! and it’s quite a weird experience to be near it cos of the wingspan and all but I promptly sat down on the base (it’s feet) exactly where Billy Connolly sat when he was doing his tour of the country hehe. Lame I know but I just had to!

So yeah that was my Angel of the North morning out! I’ve put some more photos up on online so click here and have a wee look…

http://amandajaneross.smugmug.com/gallery/7521113_3dUh6#485720076_7DGHf

Laters! xxx

Ok it’s Wed 4th Mar now and the cutie BT technician just left and concluded that it was the SKY box that messed up the phone line and broadband so when the SKY technician comes to fix it tomorrow we just gotta tell him to replace the SKY box and NOT plug it all back in cos otherwise the broadband will go down again haha.

Tue 3^rd March 2009

Well the past couple days have sucked majorly cos the broadband has been down at my Auntie Marcias – I reckon it’s cos of a power surge Sunday night because the SKY went down at the exact same time! BT have taken yesterday and today to come to the conclusion that there’s a fault on the line…. Uh duh! I coulda told ya that numnuts haha. So they’re sending a technician out tomorrow…. tomorrow! to fix it so here’s hoping it gets sorted. I’ll be dog-sitting again tomorrow cos it’s Wednesday and Marcia’s out at meetings and rounding up the kids etc. On the plus side the broadband being down meant that ComputerForce had to come out and try to fix it which meant cute-IT-guy was at the house for an hour or so hahaha he had the nicest eyes and longest eyelashes I’d ever seen! My Auntie agreed, as after he left she said “That price wasn’t bad…” to which I replied “I wouldn’t kick him outta bed either!” hahaha.

Anyways…. what have I been up to over the last few days since I last updated? Ummmmm well as I’m writing this in Word as I can’t get online I can’t quite remember when I last updated but I think the last post was about London? Ah well I’ll run with that…

Right, so since getting back from London on the Tue my days have been filled as followed:….

Wed 25^th – Dog-sitting Jesse (10yrs), Nina (1yr) and Poppy (3mth) at Daisy Cottage (Aunties place) and I took the chance to get my work finished up for my Auntie by spending most of the day on the comp and chatting to Amelia / Sarah! Pretty much a lazy day after the hustle and bustle of London.

Thu 26^th – Ummmm during the day I went to the Jobcentre with Marcia to see if I could get some jobseeker support and to do the weekly grocery shop at Sainsburys. Turns out I could get some monetary support so I rang the number the guy told me to when I got back to the house and answered a heap of questions which ultimately resulted in me having a meeting at the Jobcentre next Tue. Then I went out to the movies with my cousin Lynn and 3 of her friends at night – ‘He’s just not that into you’ which was ok but I wouldn’t rave about it.

Fri 27^th – I had a day at home today finishing up the extra pile of invoicing that I hadn’t realised I had to do haha. Had to be done by today as the VAT done by paid by the 28^th. Then at 5.30pm I went to visit my Grandad George who has been a bit sick of late with suspected early dementia. I was quite nervous about it to be honest as I hadn’t seen him for 5 years and was worried he wouldn’t recognise me! It was really sad to see his memory was going tho and over the time I was there (2hrs) he struggled a few times with saying weird things and not making much sense.

Sat 28^th – Well today I went into Newcastle centre with Auntie Marcia and Cousin Lynn to indulge in some retail therapy! Not that I could afford much of course cos I’m still an unemployed bum haha but I did develop a new addiction…. The Radley brand of wallets and bags! OMG I’m in love! They have their brand based around the wee Westie haha so I got the cheapest thing on the menu – a wee coin purse to start me off and when I’m working I’ll get a wallet and eventually a bag! My auntie got a bag but it was too rich for my blood…. The coin purse was £17.50, wallet about £60 and a bag would set ya back around £150 plus!!!! Something to aim towards anyways haha. We looked in John Lewis – brilliant, Marks & Spencers – awesome plus we had lunch there including a huge glass of NZ wine! And Fenwick – grand but very expensive! After all that shopping I was looking forward to a nice quiet night at home and it was all going to plan with everyone being out and about except me…. But then Cousin Neil decided to keep me company with the 3 kiddys and 2 dogs haha. It turned out to be quite nice to spend some quality time with him and the kids stayed over as we planned to go to Bamburgh Castle the next day. Oh and I got a bottle of Jack Daniels and had a few that night too haha. It was lovvverrly!

Sun 1^st March – I woke up at my usual late time and went with Neil, Ellen, Findlay, Nina and Poppy to Whitley Bay for a brisk walk (and throw and fetch session for Nina) brrrr it was chilly so we warmed up with a hot choc at the tearoom and Findlay confused the heck outta me by yelling “Bour bon Bour bon” and I’m like WTF? And it turned out to be a biscuit called a Bourbon Crème! Random… Then we headed back (Findlay with his trooooosers soaked cos he went in the puddles + Nina stinking of wet dog cos she went in the puddles too haha) and had a delicious cooked full Sunday lunch with the whole family! yorkshire puddings yummmmmmy haha and then we headed off to Bamburgh Castle!!! Cousin Neil indulged my first castle experience and it was awesome! It took us about 45min to get there with the kids constantly asking “Are we there yet!?” haha and they loved it once they were there, as did I! Although I was a bit miffed at the sign that said no photographing inside but Neil just said to hide my camera and do it anyway… not that I needed to be told cos I’m dodgy like that anyways! Awesome scenery inside and out but the best moment was after 3yr old Findlay got his plastic sword (to fight the dragons of course!) and was running round the castle screaming “Kill Kill Kill” at the top of his lungs! Hahaha it was hilarious – Neil was like “People must be wondering what kind of a father I am” haha classic! I spent up large at the wee shop as well buying the following… Bamburgh Castle pen, Bamburgh Castle notepad, Bamburgh Castle patch, Bamburgh Castle postcards x 6, Bamburgh Castle pencil case (which I converted into a makeup bag), a celtic ring and a rune necklace with my birth symbol! Oh and some wee stone things for Ellen cos she wanted some.

Mon 2^nd – Ummmmm on this day I slept in a bit longer than usual cos I was feeling a bit crook and then just mooched round the house really! Marcia went to a Bunnings-type shop that I forget the name of and got some storage boxes to hide all the kids toys away and that was pretty much the only time I left the house all day Brilliant!