Come on You Saints!!!!

My husband talked me into going along to a rugby match, it was my first time, he'd asked me so many times I thought "what the hell, why not"

So we trot off to The Saints Rugby ground in Northampton, the grounds is called Franklin Gardens because apparently originally it was a civic public gardens. You have to wonder whose brilliant idea it was to get rid of that (yes that is sarcasm).

I was shocked at just how many people attend a rugby match, it was just this sea of people heading towards the grounds. I was even more surprised by how many women and girls were there, all in their Saints shirts, I felt quite out of place in bright pink... I must have clashed terribly with the sea of green shirts.



I'm not entirely sure who these guys are supposed to be, but you have to admire their courage in being prepared to walk around dressed as complete numpties.






My husband had been telling me about this stand, Hog Roast, his dad had tried it at a previous match and pronounced it delicious, so we duly queued up with quite a lengthy crowd, the smell from the roast was tantalising and I could feel my tummy rumbling. It was like it was screaming, bring on the pig people and do it quick!!





We were presented with a soft roll just stuffed and brimming over with roast shredded pork onto the top of which was piled strips of crisp pork crackling and then was topped off with spoons of apple sauce...

Absolutely divine! Bliss in a Bun!

The rugby match itself was going to have to be good to top the food.

And it was... it was loud, 15,000 people in the stands all singing the Saints Anthem, When the Saints come marching in, which was really nice, harmonies and everything, but I did have to question which bright spark felt the need to add "oi oi" to the end. Why????

I loved the mascots though, they were so cute, they had a boy and a girl version of the mascot walking around and waving to the kids and posing for photographs. Bet the poor lad who got stuck with the girl costume was hoping his mates didn't see him dressed like that.

Unfortunately the Saints kind of gave it away in the end and failed to convert a try (so I am reliably informed) and we lost by 1 point. Gutting, specially as there was a very vocal opposition supporter right in front of us who felt the need to poke fun.

I took loads of photos of the event, well you have to when it's your first ever live rugby match!

Final Score - Northampton Saints 27 - Saracans 28

I can't say that I have been converted into a mad rugby fan, but I did enjoy the event and would definitely do it again.

But this has got to be my favourite moment of the day, look at that face, that is one happy man, he's having a great time... good food, sports and he got me to go to a rugby match. Good times!!!

What's That All About?

What is it about a skip? Obviously when you have work done at your home you generally have to have some way of disposing of all the accumulated crap that gets produced by the job.

When the skip showed up on the first day of the job I have to admit to being a bit surprised by the size of it, I thought to myself there will just not be that much rubbish coming out of this... but now I have worked it out it's quite possible that they don't order a big skip by accident, that maybe just maybe they know what will happen once it's outside your house... that the skip gremlins will sneak along in the dark of the night and chuck their crap into the skip you are paying for!

One night we went to bed and the skip was half empty when we got up in the morning it was full to the brim, we'd inherited someone's broken down washing machine or is it a dryer? Some empty boxes that weren't anything to do with us and assorted other junk dumped by people in the dead of the night.

Why do people do that? Would it kill them to knock on the door and ask? It's not like we bite... well actually I do but only when asked nicely! It just seems so sneaky to me to creep around at night just to dump stuff in someone else's skip, specially when the local dump is a 10 minute drive away.

I was glad when they came and took it away in the end, I would have been mightily pissed off if they had said "sorry we can't take this because it's been over filled."

Dream Office - Part Four

Finally my art room is finished, after several days hard graft painting the walls and the ceiling, it has to be said the ceiling was the worst bit, specially when my husband got a bit of an electric shock from the lights when he took them down to let the ceiling be painted... lesson learned... turn off the electricity even for the simplest of jobs, it's not worth the panic attack. Several days later his fingers were still slightly numb and covered in odd white spots!

I am loving the white walls, I was worried it would look really clinical but the addition of a cream roller blind and touches of colour, like the bright hanging pots on the wall, from Ikea stop the cold feeling and the brightness of the walls really does take advantage of the daylight available in the room, making it a pleasant working environment even late into the evening.

I'm trying to be careful and not rushing to bring every bit of craft stuff I own into the room, it's so tempting but if I do that I will just be surrounded by "stuff" and then it will be too difficult to sort it out. We've put in two white Billy bookcases from Ikea and a sofabed and I can see where I will be putting my filing cabinet, which will one day be modgepodged... it's on the list of "to do's".. once I finish the rest of the house that is!

And I think there is going to be one more bookcase in the room... trust me, every shelf will be filled, I have so many art and craft books it's untrue and I can't wait to unleash my creativity, however that is going to have to wait until the practical stuff gets done... oh the trials of the frustrated crafter!

Dream Office - Part Three

The builders have gone and the art room is done, I had the lino put down and the plaster is thoroughly dried out and waiting for painting, I am planning on bright white paint all over just so that the light bounces around the room. If you are going to be doing lots of work that involves close work light is the most valuable thing you can have.

I've chosen a really pale linoleum for the floor, I wanted something that had the look of wood but obviously laminate flooring and paint doesn't always go well together, specially oil paints, so after weighing up the options I thought linoleum would be the best bet, easily clean, not terribly expensive and easily replaced if it all goes horribly wrong and I drop a pot of paint that can't be wiped up.

On the whole theme of light I chose these eye shaped lights with four separate lights all of which are independantly positionable. All in all that gives eight spots that I can position in different corners of the room or directly onto the work table.

I couldn't believe how difficult it was to choose lights, I knew what I wanted when I went into B&Q but wow the light section was so confusing, every set of lights I liked was either horrendously and unnecessarily expensive or they didn't have them in stock... they had them on the display, twinkling down... but reach into the numbered spot where said lights were supposed to be resting and.... no not there, just an empty space. Very very frustrating.


But now the lights are up on the ceiling I am really pleased with the choice I made and because the room is so well insulated the heat rom the lights actually seems to warm up the room... bonus!