Not long now

Confidence is building by the day that I might actually manage to pass this exam on the 24th. I've booked a hotel room for the night before to get a decent sleep.  I've got this weekend, and then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday off work to revise and the morning before the exam on Thursday for last minute prep.

It's all starting to come together and make sense at just the right time.

I'm knackered though. Can't wait for this one to be over.  A 4 year old and a 6 month old and work and a pretty hard exam are quite difficult to juggle.

Pink Party

Today was Chloé's party. A Pink Party. It includes having hair done, nails painted and face painting, along with a little disco and some food etc.

She absolutely loved it.  I was wondering what the three boys would make of it, but they got faces painted up like pirates so were really pleased with it all too.

Bumped into a few of the women who work at the nursery we used for Chloé and will use for Sophie next year. Nice to see they recognised her, and us, and took the time to say hello etc despite them just being out with their own kids for the day.

Got some family coming round to the house tomorrow to drag on the birthday celebrations for another day.  I think I might shun half of that to get more studying done. Time is running out really fast now.

Birthday girl

Happy Birthday Chloé

Chloé is 4 today. 

She was soooooo excited this morning opening all her presents, and i'm excited too, so I'm taking a half day today so i can pick her up from school, then we're all off to pizza hut :)

Liverpool

I've been working at our Liverpool plant for the last couple of days. I say working, its not really work. I got ropes into doing the stock check reconciliation, which is ridiculously easy... Just tell other people what's wrong and make them fix it.

There's a subway and a McD two minutes walk away. I've been to McD twice. Large big mac meal yesterday, large big tasty meal today. Both with chocolate milkshake. Today with onion rings and sweet chilli dip.  Serious calorie consumption!

I'm taking the extra travel time (an hour each way) back, as well as two hours overtime yesterday, tagging it onto a couple hours owed from budget work and having an extra study day for my exam, which is the week after next.

In other news, Chloé is 4 tomorrow!! Four years old. That's gone FAST, especially this last twelve months.

Where to start?

It's been nearly 5 months since my last update. God, where did that time go, eh?

Sophie, (that's what we called her) was born on May 27th at some silly hour like 5am, the exact time I can't remember as I sit here on the toilet in work.  She is a healthy, happy baby, and has been a fantastic addition to the family.

Chloé has been a perfect big sister... Taking to her noisy new friend with no problems at all.

I passed the exam. Yay! That completed the diploma, and I have an exam in a couple of weeks to finish off the advanced diploma before moving up to the really hard stuff next year.

That'll do for now. ttfn.

Due Day +4 (yes, this was 26th May)

Baby was due Sunday. It's now Thursday. Exam was this morning, anxious as hell throughout in case baby was coming.

Contractions have started around 4pm. Bit erratic. But about 20 over a couple of hours.  Looks good for tonight or tomorrow morning.

New Fridge Freezer

Yesterday our new fridge freezer arrived ... Which I'm reliably informed was delivered by two totally useless delivery man with a shabby van.

After tea I set about the task of switching it so the hinges were on the opposite side to better suit our kitchen layout.  One word. Hassle.

Firstly, the supplied instructions were nothing more than a few diagrams. No words. Secondly, I had to actually drill into the front to make new mounting holes for one of the hinges. Thirdly, all the screws were philips heads except for the bottom hinge which used torx.  And then finally, the trim at the bottom had no hole for the hinge on the left, so I had to cut it out.  Yet strangely they supplied a spare blanking plate to cover the old hole.  Not what i had expected from Hotpoint.

Anyway, that all sorted we cleaned it out with bicarbonate of soda and powered it up. But someone (Mel) didnt follow the instructions properly so it took ages for us to make it stop its repetitive beep beep beeping.  A full shut down, unplug and reboot according to instructions finally did it.  Hoorah!

So, plenty of room for mummy, daddy, Chloé and baby2 in the fridge now.  Would have struggle for space in the old one as it was nowhere near as tall.

Ok, so its now mid May

Study is finished and revision is in full swing. 2wk 3days to the exam. 1wk 6days until baby is due.

Study went well. I've passed both course exams... Better marks than some who started studying much sooner than I did too, which is nice.

The house is all prepared for the new arrival, Chloé is excited, Mel's a bit anxious and I'm super keen to get a couple of weeks off work for my paternity leave.

Mum and grandparents fly out to Spain again in the next 48 hours... That's sure to indicate the baby will be here sooner rather than later. Hopefully.

Diva

Nom nom nom

Here comes summer

I'm absolutely thrilled to bits that it'll be summer soon. Teaching chloe to ride a bike is just one awesome thing that can happen with good weather

hoorah

WELL... it's been quite a month!

I sat the exam, which was a mixed bag really, some questions i felt very confident about, and others i knew i would score relatively poorly on.  At the end I flicked through it and gave myself a rough idea of marks i thought i had gained on each.  I reckoned being generous i might score 54% ... maybe as low as 45% if I had stuffed up some of the points I thought i had made well.  I scored 52% ... PASS!!!  Over the moon about that.  This was an exam I suspected might take me a good three or four attempts to get through so to get it out of the way at the second attempt is a major boost... especially as i scored an additional 23 marks compared to the first attempt.

My decision to relax and wait for the arrival of the baby, taking my next exam in November has gone out of the window.  I'm now sitting my next one in May... four days after the baby is due.  I've entered the exam, signed up to the course and have completed 3/19 tutorial lectures online already ... will do the fourth later tonight.  I'm basically cramming like mad trying to get as much knowledge in as possible early just in case the baby shows up several weeks ahead of schedule.

Everything is looking good at the moment.  Hoorah!

10 days

Ten days to go until the exam resit ... still not ready for it.  But, i've realised today after this coming weekend I wont have to study another weekend for about six months.  Which is nice.  That'll be the longest break from studying that I've had since 2005 when i started studying accounts.  It can't come soon enough.  Some quality family time will be had this summer.  Finally.

Bargain

Only £899.99

Crisps

About eight years ago I was supposed to post a packet of crisps to my mate down south, i didn't, and he's been moaning about them every since. So, last Friday I told him I posted a pack to him. I didnt. I ordered a box of forty packs from the manufacturer. They arrived today... brilliant.

Week 7

How can we be into the seventh week of the year already? I'm pretty sure someone is stealing time from me. Whoever you are, you bastard, i want it back. Yesterday. Please.

Job seeking

I've been in this job nine months now. I promised myself a minimum of two years for this one... but i'm reaching the end of my tether with it already.

There's constant Bitching in the office, which causes a lot of tension. The boss gets stressed out and everyone else ends up stressed out, and that leads to more Bitching.

I just want a nice, quiet, local job where I'm appreciated. Is that too much to ask?

Meh.

Hunger

It's a glorious day today, when the sun is out. Nice and warm. It's the sort of weather that makes me hungry. I've come out of the office and sat in the car in full sun, with my ham sandwiches... only to find they've gone all too quickly and i'm left wanting more.

Luckily i've left my wallet at home today so I can't easily to and buy more food. I'll probably feel ok in half an hour when the sandwich is doing it's job.

I lost a couple of pounds last month and want to average age couple of pounds a month throughout the year... so scoffing extra food won't be helpful.

Happy Valentines Day

February the 14th. Florists everywhere rejoice.

Insomnia: I can't get no sleep

I'm not getting to sleep until well after midnight lately. Which isn't fun. I'm starting to look like a heroin addict, and mistakes have started creeping in at work.

Need to do something about it. And quickly. Alcohol, maybe, or warm milk... though that tastes terrible imho.

Pneumonics

Today I find myself wondering if anyone learns anything from pneumonics.  BPP are throwing them in left, right and centre in my study materials - surely too many of these things just causes confusion.

SMART - Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Timebound
PRIME - Planning Responsibilities Integration Motivation Evaluation

That's just two that happen to be on my current page.  It's all good and well as long as you can remember which pneumonics apply to which type of data.

Glorious Sunday lunchtime

Studying AGAIN

It's not the best way to spend a weekend, but I want to be in a position to actually pass this exam this time.

Hungry

Studying, again.

99 days

Baby 2 is due on 22nd May 2011... that's 99 days from now.  Just over three months.  14 weeks & 1 day. 

99 days isn't very long at all.  Somehow, I'm more anxious this time around than I was the first time.  Last time I knew that life would be turned upside down, and I knew that no matter how exhausting it was, I'd be thrilled to have my baby with us.

This time though, this time it's a bit different.  Chloe, the first, is going to be three and a half when the second one arrives.  Three and a half years of being the most important thing in our lives; how will she react to suddenly having HER life turned upside down by the arrival of some pink, wrinkly, screaming thing that doesnt do anything interesting but attracts so much attention from all her favorite people.

I'm sure it'll all be fine.  But that doesn't make the nightmares go away.  Not yet.

Picture test

Testing some words with a picture

Hello world!

The obligatory hello world blog out of the way. Here we go.... let the blogging commence.