Friday Round Up

road trip = unimpressed dog - sale bargains - new cupboards, ready for oiling

buffet for two - cheers! - hairdryer love

this works (and it really does!) - daddy-daughter bonding - cute christmas present from my stepmum

Is anyone else finding it near impossible to get back into the rhythm of everyday life after the mammoth food/film/snooze fest that was Christmas??

Every year I fall into the trap of going to bed in the early hours and sleeping in until late morning. I told myself that this year would be different but it wasn't. I'm obsessive about sleep and messing with my sleep cycle causes me serious problems including migraines, mardiness and total lack of concentration. I managed to stave off a few migraines over the holidays but failed yesterday and took to my bed at 3pm. If you are a sufferer you will know the misery (although I quite like the sleepy, drugged up feeling that a 'migraine hangover' brings!) and if you haven't tried them, I strongly recommend Syndol tablets. If I take these early enough I can avoid my prescription tablets, which knock me out for a good four hours or more!

That aside, I was seriously lacking in motivation this week, although I can feel myself creeping back to normal now. Matt and I had the laziest Christmas ever but we needed it, him especially, He's worked so hard all year on the house, his business etc and was just seriously tired. Having such a long break from the new house has sapped his motivation too, we went round there on Sunday and it all looked like a big mess again, like an insurmountable pile of work that has become a part of our everyday lives and will never be finished. We talked about boarding it up and just going back to it when we have the energy but that's no good - it will only drag on longer. We need to find our motivation and get stuck back into it. Easier said than done of course

Last weekend we took a road trip to visit Matt's mum in Oxfordshire and thank goodness, we had the lovely Freelander back! What a beautiful area. We took the dogs for a lovely long walk, had dinner at Marco Pierre White's restaurant and popped to the Aga Cookshop where I added to my collection of Aga cookware. Matt's lovely mum started this for me with a kettle and our Christmas presents included an Aga toaster and some lovely mugs which have become our new favourites. I got some oven gauntlets and tea towels in the sale with 40% off, which made my day!

In other sale shopping news, I finally caved and purchased the GHD Air hairdryer from John Lewis as they had £20 off. I've only used it once but I am absolutely stunned by the difference it made to my hair - who'd have thought a hairdryer could be so amazing? Full review coming your way next week. I also made good use of This Works' 25% off just before Christmas to buy their No Wrinkles Eye Cream, which I've had my eye on for ages (geddit??) 

New Year's Eve was a quiet affair for us because Jessie is terrified of fireworks so I don't like to leave her. Yes that's right, my gundog is frightened of fireworks. You can fire a 12 bore shotgun right next to her and she won't flinch but fireworks make her shake like a leaf. I don't mind, I'm not really one for going out and hate NYE because of the crowds and extortionate prices, so we had ourselves a little buffet for two, a glass of fizz (with a shot of home made sloe gin) and were in bed by 1am!

Earlier in the day I'd been driving into town to deliver a birthday card when I'd seen the three cars in front of me swerve and skid. It was raining heavily and visibility was poor but I thought I could see a dog in the road. As I got closer I could see there were actually two dogs - Rottweilers - wandering in and out of the road. I pulled over and they went on to the verge, sat down and waited expectantly. I jumped out of the car and manged to grab the collar of the larger one but the other was frightened and ran back into the road. I walked the larger dog away, chattering quietly to him until the smaller one came back to see what was going on. They were lovely dogs and unbelievably lucky that they hadn't been hit by a car - the speed limit on that road is 60mph. I crouched on the verge with my back to the driving rain, hanging on to their collars until my guardian angel (Best Friend Liz) came to the rescue with spare leads and her hatchback car (mine is a saloon and no good for dogs!) We loaded the dogs into her car and took them to the local vet to be scanned for microchips. We found out that they were from about four miles away and had escaped from home, apparently it's not the first time. The smaller one was a bitch in season and the larger one was an entire male so the owners may get a surprise shortly!

This weekend I'll be catching up with some blogging, I've got my Chester trip to tell you all about and some reviews to share, I'm looking forward to bringing you up to speed!

What will you all be up to this weekend?