Last day of May today... where does the time go? I spent some time updating my site links and changing a few things around. Went to the gym - weight is definately coming off but not at any great speed. Or rather not at 10lb a week, which is what I would be happy with. I'm sorry. I'm incredibley boring. I'll try not to let it happen again. Umm, sorry.

*OMG* Blogger finally refreshed. I had problems reaching a fiend's site yesterday. Friend! I meant a friend's site. :o) She wanted to check that a link to her new pages was visable and I said I couldn't find it on her house site map. She came straight back at me to say the house wasn't even there anymore and it was a regular page! LoL. I cleared out all the junk files and then tried again and I found her revamped site and also that my Blogger comments do work after all. I'd felt sure I had the codes in the right places (evenutally anyway) and was so miffed when I couldn't get it to work. Now it just looks like my time has disappeared! LoL. Also, my internet card this time round is for a different ISP and they are sooo bad! It was the only card Stephen could find for me. I could hardly access anything. BTW, it was LuAnn's site I was trying to reach. :o) Also, I'd had a few mails telling me my links weren't working and sure enough, I'd not done them properly. Do you ever get days like that... when your concentration just seems to send you away with the faries? Hopefully everything is now fixed.
Well that's me off for the weekend. Doesn't promise to be a good one as Elissa is absolutely full of a cold. Up at 2.30 am with her, barking like a bloody seal she was, poor mite, eyes fit to bulge out and roll on the floor she was coughing so hard. She has a huge ulcer in her mouth too, right on the corner. I feel so sorry for her. I had one a couple of weeks ago and it's only just gone. Well I hope you didn't drop by for happy-clappy-sunshiney-Shell cos I ain't feeling like that today either. In fact, I think I'll change my imood... do you think they have 'shopping for a noose and blindfold'?

Oh I feel tired today. I think it's getting to be that wonderful PMT kicking in... it makes me so tired a few days beforehand. Nothing new nor exciting to report at all. Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored. Luke and I are getting on each others nerves now. I cannot believe this is it until September... or even further. Call me mean, but I don't want to shell out all that money on a uniform for a UK school if he's only going to be there a month before we move to Australia. I have having no control over things and the school's early closure has really annoyed me. I ate an ice-cream too - oh heaven forbid!!! Don't want to undo all my good work though so I've been rather hard on myself these past few weeks, which is probably why I lost the weight so well. We ate them whilst watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which had been lent to Luke. My mind was whizzing though and I had to go have a bath half way through just to be alone with my thoughts. It's a long film too - much longer than I remember and so Stephen stopped it midway and Luke went to bed. Elissa has a terrible cough and spent last night tossing and turning in our bed. Jeez - I bet that's why I feel shattered tonight! I didn't think about that until just then. OK having problems keeping peepers open and mind is not concentrating on this. Catch you round x x x

Still struggling with my Enetation comments. I tried HaloSan and Yaccs but they aren't taking new signings up and haven't done for a while. I hate it when I can't figure out the problem. It's only a couple of lines of script that I have to put in Blogger and as I said yesterday, it works when I paste this template into Front Page but not when I paste it up here. Also, I changed my font to regular Arial and it's not updated that either. I dunno. I give in!
Took Luke swimming this morning. Had to get him to rub suncream on my back but I didn't to the backs of the my arms at the top and so I'm all red and patchy and it looks just awful. I'd rather be pale and pasty than red and patchy. I can't go swimming at the moment after my visit to the 'crotch doc' as my friend put it. LoL. He had a right good old poke around and I had to have a little minor surgery and so until I heal and am free for catching any infections, I can't use the pool. I was as miserable as sin just sunbathing. Without being able to take a dip in the pool it's naff. I'm not a sunbathing kind of person.
Anyway, Luke's teacher called to say if I check out the school's website I should find some assignments that should help keep him occupied. I told her we wouldn't be returning to Year 2 in September and she said Luke was a very bright and pleasant boy and that he would have no problems settling in back in the UK or Australia. She admitted her surprise at how quickly he'd caught up after having been in the American system since early school days, which made me happier knowing he should now be able to tackle the schools at home and not be behind. Hugs x x x

I tried to add a comments box but I don't think I did well. Kinda like our Eurovision Entry... "United Kingdom - Nil Pwah" Mind you, they did have a point, like, cos our entry was absolutely abysmal. Right off to sort out this comments thingy-mi-bob. I'm using Enetation and I've put the codes in as it says to and I'm sure they're in the correct places. When I test it out with FrontPage before I upload it here, it works! If you can help, please mail me!

Phew! Survived 3 days with the children so far. Thankfully Yollie isn't closing Elissa's school and so she will start again tomorrow. The lovely Darylynn told me of some good home schooling links and I popped across to Gulla's site too.
When Stephen came home after work he asked had I been out at all today. I hadn't. He said not only do we have concrete bollards outside the compound entrance, which they put there a couple of days ago, but now there are two armed guards with machine guns and a van with some great big gun type thing on the top of it. Although, between you and I, I'm not sure that being protected by Saudi Armed Forces instills much confidence in me! LoL.
Anyway I'm off to watch the Eurovision Song Contest... or as much as I can before my eyes close. Wonder if we'll be Antoinette's team? See you tomorrow Tiddly-Peeps.xxx

Went roller blading this morning. Fell on my ar$e. Broke my bum. How do I know it's broke? Well it's got a crack in it for starters! LoL. Bloody hell it hurt. But I got up, didn't look round to see if any of the gardeners where out, or anyone else for that matter, and I carried on. Hard going though because it was hot and windy but as it's Friday morning, thankfully there were only one or two others out walking their dogs and I'm pretty sure no-one saw me make an ar$e of myself. *tut* That's the very first time I've fallen on them. Stupid, stupid bumpy road.
Can someone please dig out a *tuts-and-rolls-eyes" smiley because I seem to have a use for that particular one. Tonight I received a phone call that I sort of knew was coming but dreaded receiving all the same. The British School as decided to follow suit with the American schools throughout the Kingdom and have closed their doors until the Autumn term. It would appear that our children's safety cannot be guaranteed at this time on school premises. At the end of the day, terrorist don't give a flying f**k if it's adults or children they're targeting and the Embassy feels that having all the western children in one group would quite possibly be an ideal way of grabbing world attention yet again. I can't say I disagree with them. So I will be doing a bit of home schooling... much to Luke's disappointment.
But Michelle... why not head back home to the UK a month earlier? Surely you'll be safer there? UH-HUH. You see then, Elissa is too young to go to school and as the primary schools finish mid July, there is no-one for Luke to play with. Neither would we have any intention of putting him in a brand new school for the sake of a month, when he may not return in September if we manage to sell the house, as then we will be off to Australia. As soon as that house goes - then we're off! Also then we have to take into account the money that will be spent keeping one family in the UK and another in Saudi Arabia as Stephen obviously wouldn't come home with us. So home-schooling seemed the best option although I will definately be cutting down of computer time, but I'm sure you'll all agree. I still have to think about the mail generated by groups that I'm with and what to do about those. Ummmm.
Now I know that I have the knowledge to teach him stuff (heck he'll be writing in HTML before the end of July - LoL!) but teaching your own children is not quite the same is it? I get so frustrated when I know that we've done it a thousand times before and then all of a sudden, he'll get a mental block and it drives me MAAAAD. So that is why I am not a teacher. If any of you know any good sites suitable for a six year old give me a yell but can you note that as the USA is a year behind, it would have to be things suitable for 1st graders and not kindergarten. Now, I wonder what Gulla's got on her site?
The other 'biggie' is that today I went out and bought knickers for Elissa! My baby is just growing up so much now and this is another milestone on the road to going from toddler to little girl. Apparently as school, she insists on using the potty along with the others and so they suggested I start her. "But she's only just turned two!" I whined. Anyway, I suppose I'll give it a real shot now. Only I hope to hell she doesn't have any 'accidents' at school because she's only a wee (no pun intended) little thing and well... the leg holes won't contain much if she does 'go'! LoL. I think I'll have to go back and buy her a small pair - titch that she is. It's also our nephew's first birthday today and we phoned him to sing Happy Birthday but he'd just gone down to sleep (5pm - weird time?) but the rest of the family were there including Stephen's brother Matthew who's now returned from a round the world trip and his parents, who are over from France for Sennen's birthday and christening... something else we will miss out on as it's on the 1st June. *sigh* What an ar$e of day today has been.

Updated the Rave Faves link now so all my regular favourite reads have their names up in lights at long last. I am getting jawwed at by hubby because he is having to go to bed alone again, so that is as long as my blog entry gets today. *sigh* Nothing new to report anyway except now that the US, UK, AUS and NOR are all on a heightened state of terrorist alert, I don't feel so lonely anymore! LoL. Night night. xxx

Well Luke DID go to school today - at stupid o'clock in the morning - and he won't be going tomorrow! We just got a call from the school to say that there has been a threat of an immenent terrorist attack again, here in the Kingdom. They have put concrete bollards in front of the security gate now so that cars cannot just drive straight though. Well I guess they still can if they want but at least it does slow them down somewhat and thankfully I don't live too close to the gatehouse. Dunno what to blog about now. I doubt I had anything good to chat about anyhow. Erm... went out to buy loaf of bread, detergent (ROFL - found a washing powder called BARF) and then bought the children an ice-cream and came home. I didn't eat ice-cream; I was good. I troughed two packets of crisps and two Reeces Peanut Butter Cups. We don't have them in the UK and I love them. Had to stuff 'em down mi face before Luke came home cos he has a peanut allergy, bless him, and so I don't tend to have peanut products in the home anymore. See. Very uneventful. Very.

Hello? Hell-oooo?? Anybody out there? Sorry for not blogging. Bad blogger. Naughty blogger. BIG post today to make up for it and I also updated my 'hippy' and 'trippy' buttons too. Sorry for the fave reads, but I can't get the blinkies to blink so I've avoided putting more on until I sort it out.

Luke finally goes back to school tomorrow. YIPEE! There is now only one route into the school and the bus mum isn’t allowed to get off the bus at all, but to wait for a teacher to escort the kiddies to the bus. In the afternoon we are now to drive onto the school grounds and wait for the children to be delivered. I can cope with that… makes it easier for me. No fun wandering round the school classes with a 2 year old and trying to keep 10 youngsters altogether so you don’t lose one of them… which you inevitably do, just before you get on the bus, as they’ve gone to chat with the friend they’ve been sat next too for the past 8 bloody hours!!! The teacher also said they expect congestion on that road now and so it might be advisable to leaver earlier! *OMG* I don’t think I can do earlier than 7am! Will definitely need caffine!

Yesterday, I didn’t even have a cup of coffee. That’s right… not a single coffee all day! And I haven’t today either. I’m a water babe now. I make the effort to make ‘real’ coffee rather than the instant Nescafe stuff that I could drink about 8-10 cups of previously in a day but as I haven’t had to get up mega early to sort Luke out, I just haven’t felt the need for coffee. Losing weight is working and it’s coming off. You can read about it in the hippy section of my blog, should you feel the need.

You see the thing is I’m not really that big… well I am but I’m not, if you see what I mean. Although larger than I’d like, I’m not what you would class as obese (I don’t think!) and so the motivation to lose the weight isn’t always strong because I’m only a little larger than most people. I am a classic ‘pear’ shape with most of my weight being carried around my hip, bum and thighs. Hot weather doesn’t help when you have big thighs – oooh the friction! It’s a wonder I don’t spontaneously combust! LoL. I am now into a size 16 dress size (USA 12). My top half is a tight squeeze in a 14 so I guess I’m a size 14-16/10-12 which is pretty average in most of the western world. Another week or so of this diet and exercise lark and I’ll be a 14’s so that won’t be bad will it.

It was only when I went to buy clothes for the trip to Australia that I realised I’d gone up a dress size. They don’t have changing rooms here in Saudi Arabia so you have to take them home (or into the toilets in the mall) and try them on. I had to take everything back that I’d bought and exchange it for a larger size and that’s when I realised I was getting to be a real lardy arse. I’m aiming for a size 12 again. Be nice to be a 10 but that would be very hard work and constant exercise and even when I reach that goal, there wouldn’t be any easing off; I know I must exercise every other day. I don’t think there are many size 10’s left in the UK. As for size eights… well I don’t know cos they’re too skinny to be seen! LoL. And size 6 – WELL – that’s reserved for the likes of Kate Moss and Cameron Diaz and there can’t possibly be any room left for a personality so I don’t want to go that far! Oh the bitch in me is alive and kicking today. *grins* Chat tomorrow – huggles x x x.

Firstly, I’d like to thank those of you that emailed me to see if we are all OK after the bombing in Riyadh. Luke’s school closed (again) but will hopefully re-open after the weekend so roll on Saturday… I could use some time without the two ankle biters! LoL. Not fair really as Elissa’s school is here on the compound so she did go to school and Luke isn’t hard work at all. Just me moaning and droning.
The biggest surprise was the Al Hamra compound being bombed… that was our home when we lived in Riyadh. God it was such a lovely place! Click here to see what it did look like. It is weird to see a place in which you had your home just ripped apart. I have seen it also with my home city of Manchester after several bombs, the largest planted by the IRA in 1997, which tore the heart out of the city centre and only last year did they finally finish rebuilding it. I’ve heard the noise, I’ve felt my office shake with the force and now I see it all over again, here in the Kingdom.
Westerners are sitting ducks here in the Kingdom, ‘protected’ by our compounds. All grouped together. No, I don’t think that was the last time you will hear about terrorism here. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Khobar was targeted as it has been in the past. So why don’t I leave and go home then? Well because I still don’t feel threatened on a daily basis and my children have so much freedom to do what they do best at their age… running, jumping, playing outside, going to a friend’s house and simply knocking on the door without arranging play dates. I still feel very privileged to live here and growing up with terrorism is something that I have done… and it seems that my children will also.
I shall be of a lighter heart tomorrow. Promise. :-)

OK this is it!!! My New Groovy Blog. If you are viewing this at MichellesMusings.blogspot.com, please click here and update your bookmarks... if you come here often, that is! *grin*. Will add more later but please tag me and let me know you arrived safely!

Just to say I will be AWOL for a day or two as the laptop is having some more software fitted - so I can finally use the MP3 player - and Stephen will be taking it to work for the lads in the office to do for me.

Also I am working hard trying to do a new blog which will run through my site and so please excuse any mess you may find here. All will be well, you'll see.

Wishing all you international mum's out there a very HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY for Sunday and I will still be thinking of you, even though I won't be blogging. Catch you soon x x x

Had to change the times on here - they were all to pot due to BST or daylight savings - whatever you call it. Most uneventful day. Spent time working on new pages for my site and managed to do an iframe. Now I've done it, I don't know why I struggled so long with it! LoL. Guess I'm getting better. It's my weekend now so I won't be around all that much and especially not to chat much... yes, you gassin' coffee drinkers, filling up my mailbox like you do! I've had to buy more storage *grin*. Might head off down to the beach later to collect stuff for Luke who is making an all things natural collage at school next week. Tatty-byes for now x x x

Up at 5.45am. By the time it came to taking Elissa to school I was feeling wide awake, so put my roller blades on and cruised on over, ever so graceful and swanlike (?) , to her playschool. She loves it when I push her in the pram with the blades on because she gets to go fast. Well it’s one thing having the pram to steady you but after I dropped her off and had to go it alone – *OMG* ROFL!!! I looked like a dying swan! The arms where flapping, the head was jerking and the legs splayed in a most un-ladylike way a couple of times too… but I didn’t fall. Haven’t since I took up the hobby, thankfully. Ohhh I’ve come mighty close but no bumps nor bruises so far. After half hour I decided to take my sweaty bodd and beetroot red face off for a shower. It’s so weird when you finally take the roller blades off as your legs turn to jelly. I looked like I’d been on the *pop* along with Antoinette! LoL Still I know it burns up tons of cals. so I did my exercise in the sun for today. Twice actually.

Luke has been at a swim party this afternoon and Elissa slept for a while when she came home and so I got to play on the computer lots. So much for not spending much time on it – I’ve hardly taken a break from it today. I walked to the other compound to collect Luke and boy let me tell you, walking in this heat with the abaya over full-length clothes is not a pleasant experience. Y’know I think it’s getting really hot here yet yesterday I took the children for a swim in the avvie (afternoon) and although Luke was fine, Elissa wouldn’t do anything other than sit on the side and kick her legs: she said it was too cold and yes, it did feel chilly. I got in up to my waist but I couldn’t bring myself to take the plunge… coward that I am, yeah I know.

Stephen bought me an MP3 player whilst we were in Oz. It’s to help me work out because blading and the gym can be boring unless I have music. Besides which it tends to help me work out longer or harder when I can chose my own tracks to listen to. Anyhow, you may remember the auld fella crashed a few weeks ago and we have been working from the laptop since. It runs on Windows XP and of course, the MP3 player won’t work. I am so jacked off. It didn’t say anything about it not working on XP so now we are looking at getting rid of XP and downloading Windows 98 back onto it, or even Windows ME which we had on the old one. Also, Stephen’s office - ahem - *lost* a scanner/copier/printer when we moved from Yanbu to here and lo and behold that won’t work either! Well the printer and copier do but which bit do I want to put up some of my photos of Sydney? The scanner of course – the only thing we can’t get to work so all in all, we are not have very good techno days in our house.

My intention was to do a page on our site about our Aussie trip but I just don’t know when I will have the time to do it and so I shall tell you that Melbourne, where we’d originally planned to live, despite having never been to Australia before this visit, was OK. Definitely a most liveable city, very clean and tidy but they are very fond of their trams and so the overhead cables tended to make the place look untidy. The city itself is lovely but the suburbs were a bit of a surprise to me. The houses are right on top of each other – couldn’t slide a pube between most of them! LoL. As we thought we would be going back there we didn’t do many of the touristy things and the first week was a bit of a washout really as we all had a gastro bug one after the other. (It was great! I lost over 7lbs but sadly it soon went back on again L)

When we got to Sydney we fell in love with the place! OK so that was the better part of our holiday and it wasn’t spent in the suburbs but I just loved the city. The thing is though, that’s what we’re trying to escape for our children. For them to be able to grow up and run around in safety. I mean, Sydney is no where near as dangerous a city as London, or even Manchester, can be and Melbourne even less so. Wherever we choose in Australia, it will be still be a far, far safer place to be for us all. Stephen wants to move out towards the country more than in the city and I guess that would be best for us all. I just want my children to have the freedom to play out and about unsupervised and learning to find their own feet just as I did. Oh! And as for Dubai, that was much the same as Saudi Arabia but with a far more lenient dress code!

Heck I’m tired. I have begun to eat breakfast and a lunch and a decent dinner and I am now only drinking two cups of coffee a day with water the rest of the time. I don’t know if it’s the increased exercise or what but I don’t seem to be able to last past 9 o’clock some evenings. I’m getting old! LoL. Good night blogging buddies. Hugs to you all x

Will blog again when I have regained my energy. Gym obviously not suited to my current physique. GASP!

I just logged my weight into Weight Watchers - I joined a few months ago and all was going well then I moved here and I've never got back on track to be honest and so today - TODAY! - I begin again. It tells me I have gained 8lbs since my last visit and I now tip the scales at 170lbs EEK! Cannot believe that I just parted with that information with you guys! I am aiming to lose 40lbs and work my way from there. If I do have any more to lose it will only be 4 or 5lbs from then on but I'll settle for shifting the 40 that's currently hanging around. Sooo - y'know what I'm going to do now? My little man has just arrived to do my ironing and clean the bathroom for me - easy day today as I cannot bring myself the tidy the rest of the house - loads of crap still hovering from our holidays that hasn't been shunted back into its rightful place and I don't pay him for that. Actually he's not little at all. He is a very lovely 24 year old from Sri Lanka trying to "earn his fortune" here in the Kingdom like the rest of us. People think living here we must all be rich but to be honest - if you were rich, this is the last place you'd come, isn't it? LOL. Anyhow, I digress... I am now off to the gym and I am going to go post haste before I find something else to do on here! *grin*.
But OH! How could I forget??? The other day I received a wonderful adoption from my friend Antoinette and just wish I could put them on here for you to see but alas tis not to be - well, not just yet anyhow, but if you click the link on the right which says gifts, you can view gifts that have been given to me by my wonderful new net buddies. Thankyou so much Antoinette - you are one very interesting lady!

I GOT MAIL! And not of the brown envelope variety either, which means no bills to pay - whoo-hoo! It’s from a card exchange I just joined with FFAS, which is just sending cards via snail mail (remember that do you?) to others on the list. What with all the techno stuff going on today I’d almost forgotten what it was like to receive a card ‘just because’. Thankyou Anna for brightening my day. I needed it after last night’s dismal video experience.
I know just how Michele felt when she thought she’d got a bargain. For those that don’t visit her blog (and why not? Her link is Caffeine Dreams on the right there) she bought a book by one of her favourite authors in a cheapie store only to get part way through it and discover the pages had begun to repeat themselves from the beginning and so there would never be an end! Well I ROFLMAO when I read that post and now I got my just desserts.
Last night I snuggled up with Stephen to watch the final part of Fame Academy… we had recorded three shows in total and all was going well (you can guess what’s coming, can’t you?). We got down to the last three and poor Lamar was voted off – no worries there as he would be bound to get a recording contract with such a gorgeous, soulful voice – and it was head to head with David and Sinead. I love Sinead and have done from the start and rooted for her all along but both she and David were last minute contenders and not originally picked for the show, which made it all the more satisfying seeing them make it to the end… and then that’s exactly what happened to our video. T-H-E E-N-D. Well I could have cried =(
We had the two of them stood there yet to sing another song and to find out the winner and the tape stopped. Stephen, in his infinite wisdom, only set it for the regular 30 minute show whereas it was a full hour because of it being a final. I would just have let the tape run on for that last one but he didn’t. So I jumped up off the sofa to log on the net only to find with despair that David had won. 6.5 million votes cast and he won 3.5 of them, so I assume Sinead just missed out by a fraction! Unless those votes were the ones that had been cast earlier and so were also shared by Lamar – don’t bloody know cos didn’t bloody see it!!! Anyway, I still thought Sinead was a good ‘un but (grudgingly) wish David all the best. He sort of endeared me when he said for one shoot he’d been wearing a belt costing £90 and that never in a million years would he ever buy at belt at that price, cos you could get nice ones in Top Man for a tenner. God love him. Tell you what though, the more you earn, the more you spend and you wonder how you ever survived when you had nowt. Trust me – my world now is a thousand times richer than that of 7 or 8 years ago.
So you see why my card from Anna brought such welcome cheer. If you click on my Gifts link, you will find an adoption given to me, which came from her adoption shop. Please visit her – she has such lovely adoptions. Also I need to fix my scanner up to my laptop. It’s never been unpacked since we moved here back in February but my site, especially my Yahoo photos link, really could use some updating. And there was me saying I wouldn’t be spending much time on the computer! Wherever did I pick up that notion? Till tomorrow Tiddly-Peeps.

"I come from the land down under... where women smoke and men chunder" Whoa - talk about back down to earth with a bump! Spent the day up to my eyes in dirty clobber - aren't I the lucky one? Unpacking, washing, cleaning and the house is practically infested with all manner of bugs that have found a happy home here over the past few weeks. I kept Luke home from school today, thinking that he would be shattered after the early morning flight yesterday... 5.30am both he and Elissa woke! Now in my book, that time should only occur once in a day, know what I'm saying? Stupid o'clock. Elissa went to school but she doesn't start until 8.30. Even though they both woke early, I couldn't be arsed to drag mine (arse) out of bed in order to get Luke on the bus at 7 o'clock this morning. Figured one day won't hurt but now have a feeling that I have made a rod for my own back as he wants to stay home tomorrow too! Says school is boring but not the work stuff that he does with me, which of course is lovely for him to say but I am by no means a teacher; I do not have the patience. I forsee tears come the morn. Also, Elissa didn't want to wear the aqua gingham pj's to bed and so she cried and screamed so much that she actually made herself sick. Yes, she has just turned two, the little fashionata that she is! I don't know which is more worrying... the terrible two's, which of course I encountered with Luke, or the fact that she wants to choose her own clothes at such a young age. God boys are sooo much easier. Luke would wear a sack if that's what fell out the wardrobe of a morning! OK... I am off. Sorry I don't have much to report. Will inform you more of my holiday over the next few day. I am just so tired! Tonight I get to see the final part of the UK Fame Accademy series shown prior to Christmas in the UK but the final part was on out here whilst we were away so the video recorder actually got used for more than children's videos. Go Sinead! Whoo-hooo!!!

G'day Mate! Back safely but absolutely cream crackered! Looking forward to catching up with you all in the next few days but I do think I will be cutting down on my online/computer time and devoting a little more time to me, but more on that another day. The girl is back!