What a rotten day. Luke stayed over at my mum's last night as she is on holiday for two weeks. Factory Fortnight, it used to be called, when all the factory shuts for two weeks and you have to have your holidays then. They aren't going away and so we went visit them yesterday and Luke wanted to stay the night. He and Elissa are sleeping top-to-tail in the same bed and he said he kept waking up every time she moved, so I think he wanted to have a decent nights sleep! LoL.

Anyway, I'm glad he was there because my dad and Bea drove me into Manchester for my hire car... and when I got to the desk I realised I'd forgotten my driving licence. Like... how??? Wouldn't that be the first thing you'd think of taking with you when you went to hire a car? Had to get a taxi back home then back to the hire car firm at a cost of £40! Totally pissed off about that, let me tell you! By the time I got home after calling by the supermarket where Elissa relieved herself in her nappy, I did not want to go out again. I called Mum and spoke to Luke who said he'd be happy to spend another night there and as Mum and John were happy with that, it worked well. And to top it all off... I cannot find EastEnders. Instead, I have Tim Henman batting balls around a patch of grass at Wimblebum. Tut. This single mum lark is tiring me out!

I'm home safe in the U.K. (Contradiction in terms that can be!) The house is a mess; we have so much work to do here =( Esp. the garden at the front. Looks like a sqatters house! I'm too tired to chat and feel like Michael Flatley and the rest of his jigging and flinging crew have taken up residence in that big empty space that stops my ears meeting each other. Night night.

THIS IS IT! (pause for dramatic effect). My last day in Saudi Arabia ever, ever, EVER! Perhaps. Well you should never say never. Although actually, I didn't. I said ever. Same thing but a little bit different. Don't you think?

Anyway, I'm off to the shops to get various items for various tiddley peeps and chewy sweets to help ease the pain my ears will no doubt suffer upon landing. I have a rotten, stincking cold and feel terrible. No energy. The children can eat as many sweets as they want to so long as they shut up on the flight. Can't be doing when they're jawing away at me and my head feels like it's going to explode and cover people in lil bits o'grey matter. (Can I mention grey matter in blogger? Mmm I wonder? Sort of like the time I was reading Richard Branson's autobiography discussing Virgin Airlines whilst reclining - in that airline way of inching my seat back a fraction of an inch - on a British Airways flight. Figured they weren't going to throw me off at 33.000 feet. I reckon they were bloody awful to him anyway and I'm glad he won the fight with them.)

Today's airline of choice is the Dutch airline KLM. They are the only ones brave enough to fly from Dammam here on the east coast of Saudi. An otherwise 7 hour flight takes around 11 hours and two changes with the aforementioned B.A. since the war. I've managed to scrounge €15. What is that anyway? Pardon? Oooohhh. The equivalent of one US$ did someone say? Blimey! Won't be getting much change from a crap coffee and stale cheese sange will I? KEEP THE POUND!!! LoL. I suppose I'd better pack too. I haven't even started with the suitcases. I just make sure everything is clean and throw it in. There was a time when I meticulously ironed and pressed everything and packed according to one of the many travel articles in Woman's Own (or similar) but not any more. They are always creased no matter how you do it. Well I won't get anything done if I don't stop gassing to you lot will I? So that's it. I'm offski. MASALAAMA MY FRIENDS... MASALAAMA! (Gee up camel.)

Weigh day. Put a pound on. Groan! I feel terrible. I have a really sore throat so that's put paid to my exercise this week. However, I only have a few days left here and so I am prioritising. I can exercise and eat far more healthily at home - esp. with Stephen not being there - but I won't have sunshine and a pool and so that is what I will be doing from tomorrow onwards. I leave on Friday. Perhaps a few toning exercises in the front room (bedroom? LOL) might help? Oh, don't go there! ROFLMAO. Ahem - anyway, I have another luvverly card in my Gallery section - all these summer cards... I should try and find something from me but I don't do graphics. I'm useless, I know. Please take a look... she did the kitty cat by herself... her first attempt too! Well done you, Antoinette! Also, my Circle of Words is posted. Excellent questions this week too. OK, I must go sort out my coughing and spluttering son and make myself a cup of tea. That's how I know I'm (atchooo!) not well. Oh dear. Sniff. I drink tea when I don't feel great. Oh my bed, my bed... my kingdom for my bed!

Firstly, I'd like to say Happy Birthday to the wonderfully handsome Prince William who turned 21 today. God, I remember him running around in a pair of blue knickerbockers aged about 2 on some media film... I'm getting on a bit. LoL. It'll be a happy day for England when that fellow becomes King, let me tell you. I pity the young lady who becomes his wife though... can you imagine the interest there will be when that day dawns? They reckon there is no press anywhere like the paparazzi of Britain but as I enjoy seeing pictures of celebs looking grungy with no make-up first thing on a Sunday morning nursing a hangover whilst buying bananas and a bottle of voddie in their local Tesco Metro, can I really complain about them? Apparently he's having an African themed party at Windsor and yes, even the Queen will be donning a costume. Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall there? Hehehehe. I'm actually a Prince Philip fan. He makes me titter when he says what he feels. I like direct speaking - hell - I'm married to a Yorkshireman and they don't beat about the bush with anything. Happy Birthday William!

Thankyou to Jackie and Kimberley who have sent me lovely summer cards. They can be found in the Gallery section of my blog. I wanted to get them up before I take a short break. Yeah, I leave Saudi in a few days time back to sunny (not!) Manchester. I just don't have the time, nor the inclination if I'm really honest, to blog at the present time. I'm not gone for good, or even for the summer, but I need to take time out from it all for a week or two. I will still be bobbing by your sites though so keep up the witty banter for me and keep things interesting. Hell - I have no idea what I will do about my site or anything now because things won't be half as interesting for people now that I'm not in Saudi Arabia. OK, so there is a little matter of my family and I emmigrating to Australia with no home and no job lined up that might - might - keep people interested, but for now, all I have to say is MASALAAMA. x x x

Posted my Circle of Words. You can see my answers here.

Today I took Luke swimming whilst Elissa was in school. There was one other lady there, that's all. Luke amused himself quite happily in the pools as he can swim confidently and doesn't need continuous watching. I lay on a sunlounger, lounging under the frangipan and hybiscus trees, reading my latest book - an Irish saga by Patricia Scanlan, sure wouldn't you know - and over the tanoy they were playing all the old sounds such as, "Oh my love grows, where my Rosemary goes" and "Feelin' Groovy" and "The Happening" ... a song I love by the Supremes. I stopped short of donning a kaftan and beads whilst waving my arms around languidly. It was bliss, bliss, bliss, bliss, bliss. Be grateful for the things you have today. Huggles to all.

Today my daughter clambered onto my knee with her blanket, announcing she was tired. As her eyes began to close, I bent my head and kissed her cheek. Her little arm reached up around my neck and she uttered those magical words, "I love you", for the first time ever, ever, EVER! Sigh.

Father's Day is here again... didn't I just celebrate that not two days ago? :o) As it's a plain old ordinary day here, Stephen got up and plonked Elissa in bed with me before he headed out the door to work. He leaves at 5.40 am so it's not usual for us to actually see him in the mornings. Elissa was awake because she has the most terrible cough. She fell asleep at school yesterday but as soon as they tried to lay her down she woke up and wanted to play. I think it was the cough medicine that knocked her out so didn't bother with any today. Can't say that I see any difference when she does take it, in all honesty. Luke and I went to the pool where I chatted with a couple of friends. It's so quiet here now - if they didn't leave because of the war and the terrorism, then they've gone home for summer. There were four of us around the pool today. It's was lovely actually! LoL. Now I have to mail our fathers... mine in the UK and Stephen's in France. My what a jet set bunch we are. ROFLMAO. Goodnight campers.

As most of you know, we went to Australia back in April: a trip that costs a pretty penny I can tell you. We purchased the tickets in March and signed the credit card slip in Saudi Riyals. It has just appeared on our statement and in Aussie dollars with extra payments on there too. All in all, we are £450 out of pocket! We are livid. It looks like although we payed in riyals through the Quantas flights office, it’s gone onto to Australia where we have been charged for four adult flights instead of two adults and two children! Niether did they credit it at the time when the exchange rate was lower, but waited until a few days ago and then charged us the exchange rate to convert it from Riyals, to AU dollars and then to Sterling! Half the above amount has been lost in exchange rate charges alone!

Stormin’ Stephen went down to the office today and of course, the man he wanted to talk to wasn’t in, but his sidekick said it definitely looked wrong. We have had to write a letter to the Quantas head office in Dubai but I hate things like this. It’s taken 3 months for them to take the money from us for the flights, how long will it be before they give it back to us? Now we will have to pay interest on our credit card for their cock-up. I like to deal with people face to face. I don’t even like telephones and so having to just write a letter tells me nothing will get done quickly. We just wanted to settle our credit card and tidy up our loose ends when we went back to England and now it looks like this will be dragged out. Talk about jacked off.

Today one of the net groups I belong to, Friends For All Seasons, died a death. Again, a money issue but we won’t go into that. I had my doubts about it not long after joining and didn’t rally round with the other ladies as much as I perhaps should have done. Hopefully Marge and I can still carry on our net friendship for the month of June… she hasn’t given me any indication that she wants to call a halt to it and that makes me happy. It’s net friends time again with The Friendship Café too and I’m looking forward to getting to know Amy better. I always find them fun.

Well I slogged my guts out at the gym and forgot that we had nothing for dinner so we sent out for pizza. I tell you, I am going nowhere fast with this weeks diet. I will continue to work out though and then I’ll have another crack at cutting back tomorrow. Or maybe not as tomorrow is Father’s Day. I know it’s only one shitty week but I will get SO disheartened come Monday morning. Good job my bras are still a decent size… I need all the support I can get!

Firstly, I'd like to say thankyou to Sparky and Marge for sending me special gifts to celebrate my wedding anniversary yesterday. I have placed them in my Gallery section. We had a nice time without the children and conversation wasn't stunted at all, thankfully!

Today we celebrated Father's Day. We made a collage card of Stephen snorkelling (when I say 'we' it was more my bad handiwork than Luke's). As we only have two weeks left together we�fre making the most of it by lounging around the pool and sunbathing. Took some photos too so just visit my photos section to view them. (There's a button up there somewhere.) There is only one from today but the others were taken this month. Come take a nosey beaky at me.

Being Father's Day, Stephen wanted to eat out again - this time with the children - but I have put in so much hard work over the past few weeks losing weight (12.5lbs off !!!) that I'm starting to get worried about going out. Silly I know, especially when in two weeks time I will be able to eat the good, healthy stuff we have back in England. I usually lose the weight when I go home as I do eat well but here it's the lack of exercise that gets to me. Anyway, we ended up at Chillis where we shared a starter and went halves on the quesadilles (?). Things could've been worse. We had a nice day together though. I really miss the two day weekends he used to have back home and I suppose I shouldn't really be on here and so it's going to be short and sweet tonight ladies. I've just received an email from another group that I am with and it sounds interesting... very interesting so I think I'll call it a night after I've read that. Night-night x x x

Today is my Wedding Anniversary. Yep, married for four years – eldest child age six… you do the maths =) The four year gift is supposed to be linen but as I don’t relish being presented with a tablecloth and Stephen said napkins weren’t really his thing, Isaac is babysitting for us and we are going to the local Chinese restaurant instead, where we can view all the linen we want to our hearts content without having to iron any of it.
It’s not like the stuff we get in the UK or that they have in Australia. Chinese food that is. Not linen. A Canadian friend told me it’s typical American Chinese. I thought Chinese food was all the same but no, I have to say this place isn’t as good as home. The Asian food in Australia was wonderful but I will miss my curries so much when I leave England. I’m definitely more your Chicken Bhuna babe rather than your Sweet and Sour(puss).
Traa-la-laa-la-laa… Stephen will be home soon so I am going to surf around then make myself all pretty and nice, only to cover myself with the abaya. Mind you, stops the slops ruining my clobber. TTFN.

Previously on my blog there was a picture of a blinkie lizard, which I thought read No Not Lizards and as I hate geckos I thought it very apt. Upon closer inspection, Christina noticed it said No Lot Lizards and asked what one was (see her tag). I didn’t know… but I knew a bunch of girls that might and sure enough, back came the reply along with a big smiley face winking at me. A Lot Lizard, it would appear, is a prostitute who hangs out at truck stops to solicit Truckers. Why??? My ex. boyfriend drove a tanker for a waste disposal company, chemical waste that is. He always came home stinky and sweaty and I refused to go near him until he’d scrubbed himself clean. I only slept with him out of duty *snort*. In the end he went off with a woman who didn’t charge for it… maybe the chemicals affected her brain. Oh the bitch within me is alive and kickin’!
Well I’ve removed the lot lizard from my blog as it’s not funny anymore but I found a rather nice peace adoption and so that is there instead. I have also posted my COW for the week too. Click here to view. I need to do some blog hopping which I will try and do whilst Elissa sleeps this afternoon. It’s yoga tonight so that rules out the computer… which is no bad thing is it? Cheerio then petals. Cheerio.

I remember the days when I had shiny, sleek hair (silver streaks disguised every six weeks or so, mandatory), well groomed hands (OK so the nails were acrylic but always cleanly French polished) and monthly leg and bikini waxes, to match the eyebrows that had been plucked just right for whatever the fashion dictated at the time. I had my little car, my little home, my little job and a little time in the evenings to regularly exercise. Or regularly exercise my right to drink white wine and smoke Marlboro Lights whilst painting my toenails in the ad breaks of Ally McBeal.
Today I’ve wiped up pee – twice – from the sofa: potty training not going well to put it mildly. Washed our bed sheets and cooked dinner only to not eat any. I was making Spag. Bol. and poured in a jar of pasta sauce with dried parmesan in it. Bleugh! That stuff should have a government health warning slapped on it. So I cooked myself a piece of frozen fish, which was most determined to remain frozen even after baking for twice the allotted time in the oven. With carrots. Treated myself to two Rich Tea finger biscuits… I was feeling like some excitement was needed. It didn’t do the trick. I’m having a frumpy, dowdy mum day.
Oh I need a life.

OK I have to say that my internet connection has been dodgy, to say the least, these past couple of days so if you see no posts here or any on your blogs then it's because I can't get on. I received a great adoption from Michelle and it's placed in my Gallery section - thanks Oh Pierced One! =)) Also my FFAS Net Friend received her details late too but finally we have lift off. Thankyou for the adorable adoption, Marge! Our friendship is detailed on my groups page here. Ohhhhh - I have a million things I must do and so I had better get going. See you all after my weekend. Hugs x x x

I've updated my Hippy section with yesterday's 'results'. Pffftttt! That's all I've got to say on the matter. Still feeling miffed.

Tut! Weigh day. Stayed the same. Like... how??? I've had a couple of treats and I supposed I missed a gym session (or was it two?). Mind you, had the 'monthy' as well so perhaps that had something to do with it. God I hope so. It's coming off my thighs right, but my hips and my stomache are staying the same. It is so frustrating when you know you've eaten well, but heathily, and not lost. I just have to remember that it's an ongoing thing, a lifestyle change. Anyhow, I plonked Luke in front of the computer (it was an educational school programme - get off my back! lol) and I went to the gym and upped my exercise a bit more. I didn't like it as much today and for that reason, because I challenged myself and had to stick it out. Not much fun but that's how it will be from now on. Every other day will be the gym and on the other nights, Stephen can get on here for a change and I will do yoga. I have yoga and pilates tapes but it's so damned hard to do the movements correctly with your head turned to see the TV. I look like I'm failing badly in a game of 'Twister'! Oh well... might as well be hung for a lamb as a sheep. I've a Cadbuy Flake calling my name... y'hear that Brandy... Flake, Flake, Flake!

June, June welcome June!!! Summer's here... yeah, like it ever really goes away for me! LoL. Hubby handed in his notice to the Main Man this morning. He already knew! Stephen told his boss on site yesterday out of respect as he is his immediate boss, who had then told the next Cheddar who told the Big Cheese. He is being good by working 2 months notice, although this suits us fine also, but nothing along the lines of "You'll be missed" or "Sorry you've decided to go" was said so Stephen isn't happy. He's worked for them for over five years so it's time to move on anyway. I was beginning to think that I'd never get out of here! Also might have myself a little job too when we do go to Australia.
There is a website called Expatmum based in Dubai. I saw that they were hoping to start one in Australia and said I'd love to write for them and she said great. Early days yet and it isn't even set up yet, but it would great for me. Although based in Dubai, Expat.Mum does cover other countries and repatriating too. So that's something for me to look forward too anyway. In Yanbu, I used to be Editor in Chief of The Sandpaper. Umm... The Sandpaper was a two page - four if it was summer or Christimas - 'newsletter' that was sent to all the expat community. It was fun. It was nothing like a newspaper though... two sheets of A4 stapled together! LoL. I love writing. I worry that I'll get too waffly in my blog and my choice of language here isn't always how I'd like to express myself! ROFLMHO. Oh I'm sure you know what I mean.
Well I am off to send email to find out where my FFAS June Net Friends is. I haven't been told and I signed up for it ages ago and my friends who also belongs to this group, received her mail last week. Perhaps no-body wants me? Cheerio petals. x x x