And then there were 2!!!

We paid a visit to the Cats Protection League to find ourselves one little kitten but we fell in love with two! We collect them next saturday and so we now need to make our house cat proof! Picture below of little Akira who is a little boy kitten, we also have a little stripey girl kitten who will be called Talia.

Sad news!

I got some very sad news yesterday. The little kitten (Monkey) that we had reserved, passed away yesterday. He was very cute (see pictures below) and had one hell of a personality. We would have loved to have gotten to know him better.

RIP little buddy!

Meet Monkey!

Here are pictures of my new kitten. I shall be collecting him in August! I cant wait, he is just too cute! I now declare that he shall be called Monkey!

Birse Ball

What a fabulous weekend we have just had. It was our anniversary on Sunday and it fell on the annual dinner held by Birse. It's a black tie event with a 3 course meal, a free bar and a room in a four star hotel. If you scroll back a few pages you will see the photographs of last years ball. This year the theme was James Bond's Casino Royal. We were each given 10 chips to play with. The evening was really good, surrounded by friends and family, all at the expense of the company! It was so nice of them to hold this for our anniversary! (lol)



The above picture is the official photograph provided by the company. We are greeted with a champagne reception and then taken through to be photographed before being seated for the meal. Upon finishing our meal the photographs have all been developed and are laid out for collection.



After that the free bar is open and so everything gets a bit messy from then on but lots of fun was had with sticks of dynamite, hand guns and garters!!! We finally went to bed at around 3 leaving lots of people still partying hard.

We went out for lunch on Sunday with our friends, Aaron and Kisu. Kisu is from Finland and her and Aaron have just gotten engaged. The four of us are off to Ruka in March for a snowboarding holiday! Oh dear! At least there will be plenty of vodka and saunas!

My Bridge

Here it is. At last, the bridge that I designed from scratch. It was finaly built and erected on saturday night. What a proud day. They wouldn't let me paint it pink though, which was a shame, it had to be standard Network Rail holly green. There were no problems either, which is good (but also kinda scary). Trains were running over it this morning!

So, this is the first thing that I have designed and built that I can actually share photographs of. Most of my previous work has been on MoD sites and for obvious reasons no photographs were allowed. These photos are of the construction sequence, the whole bridge was constructed in a factory and then slid into place. Exciting stuff!

Life...

One of my favourite storys. And oh so true!



When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee...

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full.

They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.

The students responded with a unanimous "yes".

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things - your God, your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favourite passions - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else - the small stuff."

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal." Take care of the golf balls first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

Maroon 5

Well yesterday was my 2nd Birthday this year. My 1st Birthday was back in October, but my Gift from Ben was a meal out at Chicago Rock and then Tickets to see Maroon 5 at Nottingham Ice Arena on the opening night of the tour.

Well, Chicago Rock phoned Ben last week to say that they had ceased trading and so we booked a table at Santa Fe instead. It was delicious. I had sticky beef strips to start served on a potato rosti, yum yum. And then I went for the spice rubbed steak and fries. Of course there were a few cocktails in there too for good measure! Ben's mum and dad came and joined us for the meal too. It was a nice, relaxing meal with good conversation and lots of laughs.



Then me and Ben headed off to the concert and oh my! I am in love with Adam Levine. I mean I was in love with him before but now it is obsession type love. His voice was AMAZING. I can't explain how good it was. The songs on the album do not do his voice justice. every note was crystal clear and he was jumping all over the stage throughout. The band were fantastic too. What an unbelievable show. Even Ben was impressed and he only went along because I liked them! If you get a chance to go see them live, I would seriously recommend it!

I had an amazing night, and I just want to take this opportunity to say a great big thank you to Ben. I love you so much!
xxx

My Friend, Gym

Not got much to say but thought I would drop by. I'm just busy working away at my University work. It all has to be handed in on December 14th! I'm also planning an Anne Summers Party as I mentioned before. I'm really looking forward to it. Its been a long time since I've had some close 'girl' friends, never mind a girly night in with them all.

Oh, I joined a gym yesterday too, Fitness First. Its 5 minutes walk from where I work and it costs me absolutely nothing! Yes, thats right. My company have signed up for corporate membership so the only thing I pay for is the tax, and that will be no more than £3 a month! Woo hoo, free gym membership. I probably wont get round to going before christmas, what with all my university work and stuff, but when those new years resolutions kick in i will be ready to go. Plus I have a holiday booked and a wedding in the summer that it would be nice to shed a few pounds and tone up a bit for.

Ah well, back to work I suppose, speak to you soon!
xx

Catch up!

Gosh, I can't believe I haven't posted here in so long. I've been up to a lot I can tell you!

First of all doesn't time just fly. It's been over four months since I started my new job and its going along just fine. They are giving me lots of responsibility (project management, site organisation, etc) and they have sent me back to University to complete my Masters in Civil Engineering.

What else has happened? Oh yeah me and Ben moved house. Its gorgeous! its a brand new 3 bedroom town house in Burton upon Trent (a quaint little town that smells like Marmite!). That was 2 and a half months ago now. We are all settled in nicely, just busy getting on with our busy little lives.

As for my social life, well, I have never had it so busy. I've been to another Wedding, I have had nights out in Manchester, trips back up to Hartlepool, days out at Aston Martin Race days, I've done a night shift in a tunnel with a dead dog (don't ask) and lately we have been for a long weekend in Centre Parcs. And as for the lead up to Christmas.....well, what can i say! I'm not sure how i am going to fit it all in, along with completing all my university work! We have a premier to go to, 2 gigs in one week (Pendulum and Maroon 5), then I am hosting an Anne Summers Party!

Well there should be lots of photo opportunities over the next few months! I'll leave you with a pic of me and Ben at Hugh Battery in Hartlepool!

Nicky-Jo and Rich's Wedding

Well its been a busy couple of months. Starting with being made redundant, finding a new job in Derby and moving in with my gorgeous boyfriend Ben in Birmingham. It's all going great though. My new job is really good, it's work I am interested in, it's a challange and best of all, I got a big pay rise out of it. Well, you know what they say, every cloud has a silver lining!

Just thought I would share a few pictured of the wedding we went to at the weekend. It Was Nicky-Jo and Richards wedding (Ben's sister). And it was a really beautiful wedding, everyone was relaxed, the sun was shining and everything went according to plan.


This is the happy couple, and what a great couple they make. They are a joy to be around and we are certainly going to miss them. They are due to go to Canada on Sunday for a whole 10 months!!!


Here is a little picture of me and my man! We move house next weekend, to a brand new, 3 bedroomed house which is just gorgeous. We do feel it may be a little posh for us but we will have to start buying Pimms!

Scrapping wise I haven't been too active, what with the move and all but i did manage to get a few things done. This a box I made to be used at the wedding to store cards and things in. It actually has a few trays in it to be used as a jewellery box later on. I have used Blonde Moments paint and Basic Grey Scarlets Letter papers.