Bush Envy

en·vy   /ˈɛnvi/ Show Spelled [en-vee] noun,plural-vies, verb,-vied, -vy·ing.
–noun

1.a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc.
2.an object of envious feeling: "Her glorious privet bush hedge made her the envy of her neighbors".

Yes, my neighbor has the Bush Envy. It is actually quite hilarious. Pete has been clearing the pit of a front garden. He's moved my massive flowering shrub thing(yes, that is it's Latin name), planted some begonias and busylizzie's(can you tell I am not into flower gardening at all?), then I bought him some bare-root Privet bushes on Ebay and he set to putting them in. The next door neighbor has been watching him with a glint in his eye, making snide little comments like "That line isn't straight", and "They'll take ages to grow you know", or "They are too close together", amongst other things. Alas, our hedge does NOT yet look like the glorious specimen above. It looks like this;



Pete has just seen the neighbor carrying a bag of compost into the house, so the war has begun it seems.



I went to stay with some friends I'd met online, up in Sheffield. The journey was immense. I travelled to Richmond by tube and met another friend, who drove us both up there. I think it took me six hours in total. It was lovely to be child free for a day. A week would be nicer though. Coming home was even worse as I was hungover. Yuck.


We also travelled back into London to watch the London Marathon at the weekend, as our friend Brian was running in it to raise money for Arthritis Care. He did brilliantly, considering we'd all laughed when he told us last year that he was applying for a place. He did say that he was glad we did all scoff at the idea, as it egged him on to finish.

New Job

About a week ago, on an email at work, I saw an advert for a secondment opportunity for one year, doing my dream job. It's basically what I'm doing my degree for. It was for a Family Intervention Support Worker, working with disadvantaged families who have been in trouble for anti-social behaviour, influencing them to make positive changes to their lives to improve their and especially their children's life chances. Seriously, it was my dream job.

I only had about an hour to do the application and I really didn't do myself justice, so when they called me a week later to ask me to come to an interview I was shocked. Fast forward to today, my interview was at 9am and I was in there for 45 minutes then had a written test too, seemed like I was there forever. I was interviewed first, then as I was doing my test in the room next door they were interviewing someone else and I could hear every word! She stumbled a lot and asked them to repeat questions a few times so I felt a bit more confident after that.

Well, they called me at 5pm to offer me the job! I wanted this job sooooo much, can't bloody wait to start now but have to wait for the crb check to come back(even though I have a valid one already dated Nov 09 - it's madness that they have to re-apply). Here is a link to the FIP project description, which says it better than I ever could.

Just got to pass my bike test in a week or so and buy a moped now, and even worse, I have to tell my manager that I'm leaving for a year...I am TERRIFIED.

Half Term

Is it just me, are the children always off on some kind of holiday? Don't get me wrong, I prefer having them at home because I get a lie in and there is less washing and ironing to do, but it seems like we just get into a routine and it changes again.

We got up to the usual days out. We've been to the seaside for a wander, a bag of chips and a go in the arcades, and it just happened to be the day of the motorbike cruise on the seafront so Taylor and Kit were happy watching the bikes.



We went out for a pub dinner and got to sit out in the sunshine having a beer.



I met up with some online friends and their children for a picnic at the local nature reserve.



Annnnnnd, Kit decided he'd finally start walking unaided.

Happy Easter

Wow, it's been a while since I had time to update my blog. Naughty me. We are all just plodding along here quite merrily. I am loking forward to my friend Sam having her second baby any day now. We are on call to go and collect her 5 year old son for a sleepover here when she goes into labour. Can't wait to have a snuggle with a baby girl, it has been a while since I've held one. I'm kind of used to boys now! She's asked me to take some nice photos of Harvey and the baby, so I can't wait to do that.
We normally do our annual easter egg hunt in the woods, but due to Sam's rather large belly, and the rotten weather, we moved it indoors this year: