Nearly Happy

Hello there, yes I am alive and I have not been abducted by aliens! It is well over a month since I last posted on a regular basis and this I am not happy about. Let me explain....

You all know that at the beginning of June I started my new job in a library. In short it is amazing, I thought maybe after a few weeks the novelty would wear off but I am still loving every minute.

I Love My Job
A 45 minute drive to work
I Love that I get to sing all the way
Story times and rhyme times too
I Love to see kids get involved
Crafty things to make and glitter everywhere
I Love that I get to act like a kid
The lovely people I have met and work with
I Love the warm welcome I have had
The understanding and encouraging boss
I Love that we are so similar
A 45 minute drive home
I Love the road that in places is cocooned by green trees
I Love my job!

Even during some recent flash floods, that made the drive home very interesting, the drive still doesn't bother me. Even when we have had unexpected staff shortages and the library has been so busy that the shelves looked to have been ransacked by ram raiders, I didn't get stressed we just dealt with things as they came along.

Today I was in charge of the summer reading challenge craft activities and got to help some lovely kids make masks in all shapes and sizes. It was like a glitter explosion, we had lions, dogs, butterflies, spiderman, batman and some amazing masquerade masks. Below is a picture of the mask a lovely little girl and her mum made for me after I had admired hers, with it's sparkly feathers and jewels it was a work of art. I love mine with pretty curled leaves and metallic markings (which don't show up well on the photo) it is very sophisticated and worthy of any masquerade ball, I just wish I had one to go to. I am tired now and still covered in glitter (it seriously gets every where doesn't it!) but I had an amazing afternoon.

Any way back to my explanation! My childhood had it's issues, my teenage years...yes well we all know those, my twenties passed by in a blur, it is only now in my thirties tat I finally feel in control of my life. My beautiful family, my amazing job, my wonderful boss, the fantastic friends I have now (not all of you I have even met in person) all add up to one nearly happy me. What is missing you ask? I know it looks like I have it all and really ought to be grateful, however in all this happiness I have let my writing and reading slip. I am annoyed with myself and I only have me to blame for this lack of motivation. I could reel off a raft of excuses like; 'it's been hard getting used to this new routine' 'my new job is physically and mentally tireing' blah blah blah! Tonight I made a promise to myself to finish catching up on the blogs I love to read and also to set myself a new writing schedule and stick to it! Maybe then I can just be happy, instead of nearly there...or will I?

Are humans destined to make sure that they are never totally happy? Does there have to always be a but?

How is everyone in our corner of the bloggy world? I have missed you all loads xxx

Weekend Wonders - Mud, Petrol Heads and Strawberries

So, given the title are you confused yet??

I have had such a lovely weekend that I thought I just had to share it with you, even though I am writing this on a Monday night and probably won't post it until early Tuesday morning so it is technically speaking not a 'weekend wonder' but what the hell I like breaking rules!

It started on Friday night drinking a bottle of wine and chatting to a friend (who is not my husband!) for five whole hours. I have no idea how we filled the time but I loved every minute of it and it was definitely worth the slightly fuzzy head the morning after!! There is something quite special about sharing a moan or a secret with a female friend that I have never really indulged in before, however I will definitely be doing so again!!

Then Saturday morning I got to shop, who doesn't love that!!! Now normally at this point I would consider my weekend complete and it could be in the running for a spot in my top ten weekends, yes I am very easily pleased, however it was no where near over. The girls had been packed off to Granny's for the weekend and we set off on our little adventure.

The British Grand Prix! Sorry I am getting my giddies now. There were a number of things that could go wrong; potential closure of the car parks (with not many alternative ways to get there), collection of tickets on the day at the event, the weather! Hence my usual giddiness didn't hit before the event. However we made it there, actually to the best parking space we have ever had at the event, the tickets were collected without a problem and the rain held off in the run up to the race. I even got to have starwberries and cream when I got into the track. The only downside...the tickets ended up being in a grandstand made out of glorified mechano, ok so that was a slight over exaggeration scaffolding but given my fear of heights (which is getting better) to sit up there was a little nerve wracking. Yet when the race was under way I forgot all about where I was and loved every minute! I thought I would share a few photos of the day:

This is how muddy some parts around the track were, and worse!

The Red Arrows show before the race.

The other half sporting opposing team colours, good job I love him!

Me getting into the spirit of things.

Picture of the McLaren garages thought the barriers on our post race walk down the pit straight.

Even some cute cars to look at whilst sat in the queue to get out of the car park!

In short a really great weekend was had, just back to reality now :-(

Random Thursday - Welcome Break

Life has been hectic of late, what with events to organise and staring a new job. We did however manage to squeeze in a quick break away to the south coast. The weather wasn't great, some sun, some rain and plenty of wind but we had a great time.

I don't know about anyone else but the travelling is as much a part of my holidays as the time away it's self. I breathe a sigh of relief as soon as the car hits the motorway to head south. Even the way home this time was a little slice of heaven:

'Today was a day when the mist appeared to swallow the sea, right when we were saying goodbye to it's majestic wonder. As we sped away from the calm of our ocean break away the rain began to ease and the sky started to show a hundred shades of blue through the slashes in the multi-grey of the cloudy canvass. I marvelled at the changing canvass as images began to appear; from the swan gracefully gliding across the sky to the etherial kiss I felt like I shouldn't be a witness to. The further north we travelled the clouds descended in the distance and almost looked to eat the hills in it's path. It made it impossible to see where land met sky on the horizon, they were so low it looked like you could reach them on a small set of step ladders. I wondered for a while, what would a cloud feel like if you could reach up to touch one? Yet to the other side of me the sun shone so brilliantly behind the multi-layered patchwork, trying desperately to assert it's strength over them, reminding me momentarily of Aesop's fable of The North Wind and the Sun. As the sun began it's final encore the splashes of pink across the remaining canvass of cloud were spectacular to see, eventually giving way to an almost luminous deep blue, inbetween the clouds and rain showers to greet us home'

View original here, not a perfect version of what I have tried to describe, but it would have been slightly dangerous to stop on the motoway to take a photo, much as I would have loved to capture each change as an image to re-visit time and time again!!

I hope all is well with you where ever you are and that you have avoided the fires and freak weather of the last few weeks. Stay safe!