Not for the life of a star

Hello Little Blog. Long time no see.

I have one huge heap of christmas cards waiting here to be photographed but every time I remember it needs doing, the light has gone but I will get them recorded on them eventually.

So still no supply work, not since the start of September so I have trundled along and signed on the dole (sorry JSA) in order to get my NI stamp paid and a little bit of money coming in to keep us from spending all our savings to survive.

It has meant that I have got to spend nearly every day with Finley. He is 4 months now and is becoming very aware, can role from front to back (and nearly the other way) and chatters away, is as happy as a sandboy provided we feed him on time and is sooooo cute.

Thats not just my opinion, it is official as he has been accepted to several baby modelling agencies including the top dog Elizabeth Smith. Laura hasnt actually registered him with any thinking it might just be a bit of fun, but yesterday she got a call for Finley to go do a casting for a shoot for Johnson and Johnson's baby wipes, even though she hadnt stumped up the hundred and so registration fee (a freebie to see if he likes it said the lady).

Which is why today saw Laura Finley and I travelling all the way to Clapham to go find out all about it. Laura drove and a heck of a drive through London traffic it was. Finley was adorable and slept all the way. We parked in Clapham Sainsbury and walked (following Laura's GPS LOL) to the casting studio. There we had to strip Finn down to his nappy and then Laura had to cuddle him in and at the same time get him to face the camera for his photo's, then we were asked if he would go to sleep in a bit so they could get some sleeping photos. Well of course he had just slept all the way up in the car and was clearly not in the mood for more sleeping. neither would he eat with all that was going on around him.

We were there for about 20 mins, and in that time a steady stream of babies of ages from around 2 months to 6 months were coming in, undressing, having 3 or 4 quick photos taken and then leaving.

Laura and I didnt say anything to each other until we were back outside but both of us had come to the same conclusion. All we wanted to do was get out of there and go someplace nice to simply play with Finley. It was too much like a fodder farm, although the people were friendly it seemed no thought for the babies comfort was really going on and it was just for the parents. We didnt enjoy it one bit.

So Laura decided the high life of a model is not for little Finn, we packed him back in the car, and drove to Croyden to see Auntie Kelly and Uncle Olli instead.

Life's little trials

There seems to be zilch in the way of supply teaching and zilch in the way of jobs to apply for, so I have been attempting to run a 'save-on-the-spending campaign. Last month it seemed to work ok, but this week has been a bit of a 'mare as those little life's trails have come along to try us.

On Sunday Martin had tickets to watch Spurs play QPR, and drove up, as he has in the past, to park in his favourite secret parking spot near the ground. As he parked the car, he somehow managed to clip the tyre against the kerb. there was that horrid sound driver's know so well, of a tyre blowing out, and that was £55 down the drain for a new tyre.

Yesterday I did a small food shop (well not that small, it came to around £60 but I didnt seem to get many items) and as I unpacked the stuff and filled the freezer something clicked in my brain that all was not well. Things already in the freezer seemed a little soft. Had someone left the door open? I left it for a bit and waited to see if that was the case, but when I returned an hour later, things seemed to be even more drippy. The light was on in the fridge part so it wasnt the plug.

In a kind of stick your head in the sand moment, I decided it just hadnt had enough time to refreeze so I left it a bit longer .. and a bit longer... but at 9 o'clock, although the fan had consistantly been coming on and going off, it was obvious things were not going to improve. The food hadnt totally defrosted (aside from the icelollies which had dripped all down the drawers, but no ice was forming.

So I emptied what could be saved into bags and took it all down to put in my mum's chest freezer until Martin could sort it out. I came back with lots of freezer blocks from mum and put them round strategic items in the fridge, and went to bed. I had however left one small tomato on the shelf in the freezer and left the freezer on. This morning, strangely, that tommy is frozen solid.

I hope it had only put itself onto auto defrost as it is only about 15 months old and I really do not want the hassle.

On a less trying note, Mum is moving much better on her knee and seems to be improving, and Finley is still off all his meds, enjoying the bottle feeding (at regular 4 hour intervals) is smiling his way through life and even managed to sleep from 9 pm until 6 am for the first time last night.

More cards to share. All these are scraplifts of cards I have seen either on Thinking Inking (thankyou for sharing Debbie) or Jennie Maguire's blog.