On holiday?

Ohh what a lucky duck, I am currently 50% of the way through a free holiday in Madrid!

At least that is how Mr Midnite and my friends who don't work travel see it.  Travelling for work isn't as much fun as people seem to think.  I have been sent to Madrid for 2 weeks to do some pretty boring, fairly admin stuff that really a local temp could have done but it's really important so enter trusted employee!

I travelled on a Monday and arrived at half past midnight, couldn't sleep therefore setting the tone for the week to tired.  We are all working pretty long days 8 until 7.  The office and my hotel are outside Madrid, a good 40 minutes on the metro so after work I have been staying in the hotel, bit boring!

The hotel is what I had considered a "good" one.  I was wrong.  There is nothing really bad about it but nothing really good either.  For example the TV is old so doesn't convert US shows back to American language so I have 2 weeks of only Spanish TV, I don't speak Spanish!  And how much football does one country need, it is the only thing they show in the hotel bar.

Their high speed internet connection is about as good as the first dial-up connection I had, in case you are unsure I mean it's rubbish.  The connection is lost every few minutes and it's s--l--o--w.  The charges to get internet in your room are so unreasonable that I don't think I could justify billing them on expenses so I am sitting in the bar where it is free,  An excuse to make you buy more drinks!

If I could have got on to a reasonable internet connection I could have watched online TV, I have ways!  But no the connection isn't good enough to play videos.  I've clearly slipped back into the early 90s!

This work trip I have been lucky because I got a weekend in Madrid free.  Of course that meant a weekend by myself but I am OK on my own and did some tourist things, the city bus tours, a museam, some shopping (a new handbag of course) and went to the zoo (PANDAS).  Have to say it was very nice.  Madrid was sitting at a comfortable 17oC just right for exploring.  The UK I believe has been soaked in rain all weekend so I count myself lucky to have missed that.

Today it was back to work, now I just have 3 more full days followed by a half day and then 8 hours of travelling.  At the end of that there will be two very excited furry girls waiting for me.  Can't beat a doggie welcome home!

Hope everyone is having a nice day :)
Mrs M

Mousetrap

Tonight I am going to see Agatha Christie's Mousetrap.  I'm most excited.

See I must confess I'm a (not so) closet Christie fan.  I love Mrs Marple, Hercule, Harlequin and even Tommy and Tupence.  I am really looking forward to watcvhing the play.  Also I have no idea what it's about or who did it.  It's such a treat to see something that hasn't been ruined by a almost feature length trailer or overly detailed review.

More Tattoo Talk

I'm watching a show called My Tattoo addiction which reminded me of a previous post. 

http://midnitemutter.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/tattoo-trouble.html

For anyone wondering I still don't have a tattoo.  I have an idea of what I would get but still not sure where I'd get it.  Possibly foot, possibly!

For a long time I have seen evidence of tattoo addiction.  It seems no one gets one tattoo, they always go back for more and usually bigger tattoos.  I can't decide if tattoos just have an addiction more powerful than heroin or if it tends to be people with addiction issues that get them. 

Perhaps this is why I am resisting.  Or it could just be indecisiveness.  I do have an addictive type of personality.  I have had a gym addiction (I'd like that back please) and obviously the shoes and handbags.  I am careful with the classically addictive things like alcohol and gambling because it would be so easy to slide into something destructive.

My little brother (as in younger cos he grew and grew and grew so he ain't that little) started by getting his son's name and DOB on the top of his back.  Then he got a giant tribal design on his upper arm and shoulder.  I quite liked both of them.  After that he went a bit mental which was probably due to the circumstances.  A friend was killed in a crash so he got his nickname and RIP on the back of his calf.  I don't know if it ended up bigger than he expected but it was massive and pretty horrible.  Since then he has had a cross design put around / over the writing.  I don't know if this was meant as a cover up or an enhancement to the original, you decide:

Sorry not a great picture! 

Just watched a guy have his racist George cross and wasp tattoo covered by his tattoo artist daughter, he said he used to be a racist but mellowed when he realised what a prat he was being.  Just shows how much you can change.  Which explains the studios making a fortune covering up drunken mistakes and the names of exs!

So what tattoo have I decided on, well I'm thinking of having "Mr Midnite" tattooed around my neck like a necklace ................. not!

Actually trying to work out something that combines a Star and a Sash (Sasha) and possibly a Tiger Lily.  Can't imagine I'll ever go off the wee furry fiends!  And of course I'll probably never decide where to put it so might just get a design and stick it in a frame!

Any interesting tattoos out there?

Nite nite
Mrs Midnite!

Hate it when ............

 

people say I'm bored!

But tonight I'm bored.  I normally have plenty to do and if I don't then doing nothing is nice. 

The furry terrors are snoozing on the sofa, settled for the night after a riotous afternoon with children.  They were playing on some sort of game station thingy, like the Wii but not the Wii.  How cool am I knowing all the names of things!  This involved much running around, jumping about and for some reason screaming and shouting!

There are plenty of things I could be doing, like putting away the giant pile of washing, cleaning the bathroom, a bit of yoga perhaps, play on the Wii, find something worth watching on TV, file my nails or even clean the fish tank.

Although bored none of these things appeal.  How does that work, I'm bored but don't want to do anything?  Even writing this is an effort!

How odd!

Hope everyone else is having an exciting and interesting Saturday
MrsM!
 

New Car

Here is the new little car in my life:

It is a little Hyundai i10 city car and is very sweet. 

My dad has pointed out on a number of occasions that I am now the only person in the family ever to have owned a brand new car.  To try to put an end to this I have pointed out that the decision to buy a basic model city car means that the car is pretty cheap and in fact he could buy 3 of these for the price he paid for his current second hand motor.

One of the big selling factors of this car is the low road tax and another is the good miles to gallon thingy.  That last sentence was amazingly technical compared to how I normally discuss cars, a normal car statement would be cute and red!

I've had it three months now and I like it, not as much as I loved wee Corsa but I think we will get there.  I am still having major difficulties with windscreen wipers and lights as they are in different places but I'm getting used to it .................. very ................. slowly!

Anyway that is my new big purchase, thank you redundancy money!
Take Care
Mrs M and the girls :0)

Crunch - crash

It's a lovely sunny Saturday morning here in Scotch-Land.  Not a cloud in the bright blue sky, of course it's freezing but it's that nice fresh crunchy cold!

I'm about to get ready and head off to the gym, my first trip there in many months.  Not completely related to my natural inclination towards laziness on this occasion.  This has been enforced inactivity because back in February someone crashed into my wee car :0(

The damage wasn't really too bad just a bashed butt on wee corsa.  It was quite a shock though, I was driving home from work minding my own business when the car in front of me stopped suddenly.  I think someone pulled out in front of it.  I had to stamp on my brakes to stop but managed it with some road to spare.  Of course I then watched my mirror to see if the car behind was going to hit me but no she managed to stop too.

Then just as I was getting ready to start breathing again skreech, crash, bang, bang another car came speeding along and couldn't stop in time her car hit the one behind me and bounced it into my car.  Of course her insurance company accepted blame and all repairs etc were done.

But 6 days after the crunch I woke up in pain.  Not my neck but my shoulder, then a few days later my hip joined in and this was just the start of months of pain and physiotherapy.

I had obviously heard of whiplash but was surprised that such a small bump could cause so much trouble.  I was thrown forward during the crash and the seat belt locked leaving two points of pain exactly where the belt goes across my shoulder and hip. 

Finally after lots of physio I am practically pain free, just have to be careful with my hip on stairs and when exercising.  Today I am starting back to real exercise, meaning non physio prescribed movements in a class.  I'm a bit nervous about hurting my hip so I'm starting slow with a yoga / pilates type class.

Ohh and after the crash the furry girls and I decided that although we really, really loved wee Corsa it was time for a change.  This was a hard decision because the car was part of our family, it had taken us on lots of adventures and had always been a good little car.

Here is wee Corsa on it's last adventure with us, we went up north in Scotland and it even got to take the furry girls see the Polar Bears at the highland wildlife park:

Woosh ........ it's October

And I remembered I have a blog.

The last year has flown by, I have a new job.  Well not that new I've now been there 12 months.  It's exciting learning new things although it isn't going as fast as I would like.  Apparently I am ambitious, this isn't a word I would use but it seems to be a common description of me.

It's been a really busy year so far with ups and downs but overall me and the furry girls are doing well.  We have lots to say and have thought lots of interesting thoughts that maybe we could share with Blogger.

Last week we went on a new job social outing.  A well planned walk in Edinburgh's Pentland hills.  Of course Scotland lived up to it's reputation and there was two heavy rain showers while we walked so the new job people and assorted furry companions got wet. 

One of the guys is a bit of a photographer and took a lovely snap of Star and Sasha, he also digitally enhanced them so they looks fabulous:

Thats all we have for now, hope some of our Blogger pals are still out there in Blog land and that you are all well.
Love and waggy tails
Mrs M, Star and Sasha

The saga of the floor

Finally, finally, finally I should be getting my new wood floor fitted in the next two weeks.  I picked the floor 5 years ago.

The problem .... my brother used to fit floors so I'm not prepared to pay a stranger to fit it, I decided to wait until my brother could fit it.  Years after year I waited but as family I was always bottom of the list.

Flash forward to May 2011, the floor fitting was all arranged for the first week in July.  Woo hoo.  Ummm no.  That's when the company I used to work for announced my job was at risk.  So ever sensible (ha ha ha) I decided that spending money on the floor was silly if the mortgage payment might be at risk later in the year.

Now with new job and some redundancy money in the bank I went in the January sales and visited my floor.  It is massively reduced so to get the savings the family advise "buy now".  A January filled with paper scrapping, plastering, painting etc etc is now ongoing in preparation for the arrival of the floor.

Now the only risk is bad weather or plan changes from my brothers baby mama. Fingers crossed!

Here's Star and Sasha giving the old carpet some goodbye hugs :0)

Panda-monium

Edinburgh's giant residents:

Yang Guang

Tian Tian



Happy New Year

Yeah I know it's 12 January 2012 so I'm very late with the happies.

My New Year's resolution should be to blog more. Maybe thats a good plan.

Anyway hope everyone out in blogger land is happy, healthy and that good things come your way in 2012.

Lots of Love
Mrs Midnite :0)