Thelma & Louise left the garage.....................

......................... and arrived home and parked in the driveway in one bit!!!!

Yes - Louise got the car on friday. It's even nicer than i remembered and i'm still proud of her!

We left home @ lunchtime and headed off to the station - we met Colleen, my cousin's daughter while waiting for the train. Or rather - she came down the ramp, jumped on me and scared the living daylights outta me!!!
These youngsters - think it's a hoot to scare us oldies half to wotsit!!!

We found she was heading the same direction as us and it was a very pleasant 20 minutes or so catching up on the goings on in our family and hearing how they're all doing!
This, you will understand is the part of the family i actually talk to!!

So off Colleen went with dire warnings to stay indoors lest we slither to a halt in front of her!!

When we got to the garage, we completed the paperwork, Louise's card went into meltdown as she paid the balance of the car and said car was brought round for us.

Gulp. Much as my daughter had put me on the insurance, i haven't driven for soooooo long, i was beginning to wonder how much use i would actually be. The words teapot and chocolate came swiftly to mind!!!
The guy went over the basics and said to phone if we had any problems.

We decided to go off to Costco and bought a few things and a wander round.
Got what we needed and headed back to the car.
This is where we both had a blonde/ditsy moment. I am under pain of a long and sore death if i ever tell what it was and we nearly did have to phone the garage to find out what to do. But luckily we found what we needed in the handbook - eventually!!!!

Headed home and Matthew gave me into trouble - cos i phoned him!! Technically i'm in charge of the car cos Louise had the L plates on and i shouldn't use the mobile while the car is moving. Bladdy blah - ok, i did wrong.

Got home and Louise drove into the driveway.

Mathew tried hard not to look overly impressed, but he was!
We then headead off to pick Paul up from band practice. We went to Asda so Louise could pick up some food for taking to work. We suspect we went the wrong way round the car park!! Our excuse is that it was dark and the car park was not well signed!!!!

Louise asked if she could drive the car to work the next day.
THis, in theory was fine. But it meant a lot of planning. Peter had his art class. I would have to take him home after and then head back out to ge Louise to do her return journey. If it had just been a drop off, i possibly would have driven home, but i dare not park in town on a busy saturday afternoon!!!

So off we went just after noon. Lou had got direction from google, we altered them slightly and we had a dose of back seat driver from Peter.
All went well till we crossed over the river and promptly missed a turning and got hopelessly LOST. There are tons of roadworks and streets closed off because part of a link motorway is being built.
So we managed to stop and ask directions.
We got part of the way and got lost  - again!!!

So we stopped and asked directions again!
To be fair, we weren't too far out - it was the unfamiliar roads. Ns the volume of traffic. What we didn't know was that there was a footie match at Hampden Park till we were over that way and saw the police loitering at various bits and the helicopter overhead!!!!

We did get Lou to work - eventually! THe mum was laughing when we told her, but she said she was proud of Louise driving.
THe story of getting Peter to his art class is also a saga, but not one to tell just now. We had planned to go to the Disney shop, but by the time i got Peter from the class, i decided we didn't have much time - i had to get him home, get him, Paul and paul's girlfriend fed and head back out to meet Louise.

The return journey was less traumatic!! (couldn't have been worse!!)
Actually - by this time, Lou was driving like an old pro!!!! We thought we were going to hit a street where only buses and taxis can go. Then Louise says "oh, CHris always goes along this street up here to park the car for work" and them whumph - a street appears that i had no idea existed and she turns into it!!!

That's my girl - full of surprises! and a much better more confident driver that i ever was!!!!!

The car was left at home today - she reckoned it wasn't fair asking me to take her to work today!!
But we're going to go out tomorrow, need to get petrol and surprise her dad at just how good she is!

We have promised Peter we'll pick him up from college one day and all thoughts are now being turned to where we can venture in said car.

Look out world - here we come!!!

What i get up to.................

........................ On a weekday evening!!
My Facebook friend Janice is getting married on Friday and is having a vitual hen party on FB just now!!
It's actually quite fun and interesting - we're now talking about where in the world this party may end up and i think it will be @ my friend Fraser's place in Singapore!!

HE just doesn't know that yet - i just hope his place is tidy, he has food in the fridge and he is ready to party!!!
Of course he will - he's a scot, he likes a party and a crowd of women!!!
He he he - the man will not quite know what has hit him!!!

I think i may havea sussed how to add photos in to my postings - there is only one problem!
My darling son has put most - well all exept one photo - on to the external hard drive!!! Oh well, if i must post it, i will.
But puleessee - don't laugh at me - i usually hate getting my photo taken.

Here goes!!

It's one of the official photos from Louise's graduation - i should get the one of her on her own and post it - that will be my next project!!

shopping................

.................... BIG time!!!

After much saving, Louise has bought her car!!!
It's a toyota yaris, silver 5 doors.
And it's HERS!! all hers.................... no finance, hand outs, pleading................. she saved the lot herself!!
And i'm so proud of her!!
SHe'll think i'm only saying this cos i want tpo drive it. Well - yes, but i'm still proud of her.

She was meant to be sitting her test last week, but unfortunatly, the weather saw paid to that - the fog was just too bad to let thew go out. But she was just so fed up of cruising the car websites, seeing similar to what she wanted come up @ a price she could afford and having top let it go cos of the test.
So after chatting with her instructor, she decided to go fo it - Arnold Clark had the car, the colour, the 5 doors and it had HER name on it!!!!

I'm on the insurance so she can go out and drive. She'd much rather hve me than her dad!!

So we pick it up friday afternoon - just need to get the insurance documents to the garage and get it taxed stick on the L plates and we're heading home!!!!
She has promised Paul that she'll pick him up on friday after band practice!!! But i'm NOT letting her drive along the creepy back roads from school in the dark!! Main roads or nothing!

foot in mouth

I looked on Jumble Mash's blog and she was telling us about hwer "foot in mouth experience". It made me laugh, since i've done that kind of thing before and it's happened to us as well - read my post about Paul at the school show a few years ago!!!

I once asked my GP if i could have a new body and a couple of nights with Tom Conti! She laughed and said "he's not that great, believe me!!"
So i asked how she knew - her reply was "he's married to my auntie!!!!"

A ground open and swallow me moment!!!

My Children's cousin laughs at me cos i swoon at Orlando Bloom!!! She says i've never seen him in the morning with a hangover an a big red zit on his nose!!
How does she know?? Well they were at University together!!!!

And don't even get us started on the 6 degrees of separation to Johnny Depp !!

A few random thiongs about me

I have hit serious boredom tonight!
It has been quiet. Paul had supported study after school and Peter has gone to an art class with his support worker. I've done a pile of ironing and watched my Torchwood DVDs.
I suppose i could go and do something productive like clean the kitchen floor, or clean the bathroom.
Nah - that's too sensible!!


Sooooooo........................
Some random things about me!!!

1. I'm 47 and i have the scars to prove it!

2. I have 3 beautiful, wonderful, crazy children.

3 i have a good hubbie who i've been married to for several centuries.

4 Don't deliberately lie to me - i WILL find out and i won't be happy.

5 I once, when i was about 5, asked my brother to open a can of beer for me - my thinking was if he did the deed, i couldn't get in to trouble!! I think my Dad's reaction was a stifled laugh at my logic - i didn't get a big major row!!

6 I will tolerate a lot of things as long as my family are happy and not in danger. Don't push your luck and shove me over the pissed off line. My reaction is not clean or pretty or nice and i've had at least one man chewing his fist because he'd pushed that bit too far.

7 My Hubbie, my kids, my friends, the anti depressants and the bottle of southern comfort are the glue that mostly keep my life together.

8 The above sounds worse than the reality!!!

9 On a good day i could out warrior all ancient queens, ghengis khan and attila the hun all rolled into one!

10 You don't want to know about a bad day - it's not nice.

11 Fortunatly for my sanity and that of the people around me the above 2 things don't happen often!

Meetings, meetings

...................and more meetings!!!!

Seems to be the way of my life at the moment!
Since we started applying and planning for Peter's self directed support we've had several of these meetings to do. I have mixed feelings about these kind of thiongs because usually a lot of the stuff at school was either not listened to or "Nice idea but no banana" or the meetings had people we would much rather not be there (like one of the social workers) or be in places we would rather not be (like said social worker's office building)

But more and more i am finding that we can dictate about where we want meetings to be and i'm finding it a lot better to say *come to our house".
It's ok with me and it means that people are seeing Peter in his own enviroment and if he gets fed up, he CAN go off and put a dvd on or whatever.
Heck on a couple of nice days we were even out in the garden last year - a lot of people liked that - they commented that usually they are stuck in an office and like being "out".

So last week we had the 1st review meeting for Peter's services. Most things had been going ok. I don't get pissed off easily, but if you do really muchly piss me off - you WILL find out.
Louise had phoned the team leader about s few things on the monday. Intially she had been more annoyed than me - i was letting things go a bit. But finding that for the 2nd time since college went back, Peter was being let down by the person meant to be taking him - and it was only the 2nd day back........ We were not amused!!!
Caroline was great - and mad at me for not telling_ but she did phone said team leader and made her thoughts known.
Funnily enough, he phoned ME!! Wanting to know what was going on. He denied that Carolin had phoned him, tried to evade the issues and even claimed it only took half an hour to get to college from our house.

Aye right - with a prevailing wind and no rain and hitting the bus change ok, you MIGHT just make it!!
But that wasn't the point one of his team were being paid an hour to get Peter to college. OUR money - well, Peter's money.
We were not happy!

Tuesday morning Caroline and Sam arrived and we got on to how things were going. Sam was a bit confused when Caroline and i were talking of some thngs, till we realised that she didn't quite know all we'd put in place!!
It was a good meeting, we're following thru with a few things - like the weekly planner for Peter, so that we all know what we're doing and we can keep track of things.
Fortunatly we seem to have hit it off with th workers - the 3 main ones, - they have all managed to turn up except for a few of the days it was really baad and we've managed to rearrange most of the hours.

The really interesting meeting was friday afternoon at college.
Oh man - am i SOOOOOO glad we'd locked ourselves in a soundproof room!!
More for the course leader's sake than mine. Tho i suspect one comment he WOULD say to the person we were talking bout face to face. (he prob has!!!)

Basically there were two issues i wanted to raise.
THe first was the attitude of the support assistant from the support for learnig unit at the college. She has moaned at the workers 3 times, phoned me to complain and has a really bad attitude. (wrong person, wrong job).
One of the workers DID explain why another had been late and all the woman did was complain that she didn't know anything about support workers for Peter.
But she didn't ask!!
And avoided asking till the poop hit the fan again over 2 weeks!!

THe 2nd thing that was worrying me was one of the lecturers - he is based in SFL and he'd been letting the class go off at 3.45 on a monday - and they're meant to be in till 4.15!!!
These are youngsters some of whom need support to travel to and from college. Peter's p[oor worker - she never was sure when he'd get out and took to getting to college early just so she knew she'd be there when he got out and didn't decide to go walkies.

So Dave - the course leader - caroline and i had a meeting. Dave was furious at what had been going on. He did explain that all the SFL souses had been handed over to the different departments to do. He did question this, but was told that he as a department head was to go ahead, recruit the students and deal with it.
He did tell them "his course, his rules" and no student would be on any of his courses if they weren't able or to keep them off the streets outta the rain!

And of course, this had come back to bite one or 2 people in the bahookie!!

THe woman - well, to be honest, she's just bottom of the dung heap. She gets told to chase up the SFL students to make sure they are getting to class. She doesn't get paid enough. But that - as caroline and i pointed out - is no reason for rudeness to other people or parents. Ok, she was left with Peter one afternoon, but her mistake was to grumble with Ryan's hearing when he got to the college - she was told that it wasn't Peter's mum's fault that hangs had gone wrong and that Ryan was late.
But she has now been warned that the attitude will not wash and maybe higher up the heap will realise that they need more staff.

What really woprried Dave was the other lecturer. Legally, he had been dicing with a lot of things letting the class away early. If a student is marked in as present, and he lets them away early and something happens - his head could be for the chop.
I will not use the exact words that Dave used, but a certain part of this other guys anatomy was going in a vice and Dave was going to squeeeezzzzeeee!!!

I almost took Peter out of college - i was a bit pissed at some of the attitudes. But he's made friends. The group work well together. And i do not want to deprive Peter of a valuable social and learning opportunity.
Dave took a big leap accepting Peter on the course. He's not quite as independent as he should be (they're meant to be able to go off and do work experience on their own). But because he knew Peter from the school link and knew the work he could do if pushed in the right direction, Dave was happy to have him on the course.

So the pigeons are flying scared of the cats. A note of the meeting we had is being sent to Vice Principles and will find it's way to the Principle's desk. I'm hoping that SFL will quit the ingrained attitude they have and work a bit more closely with the other college staff. After all, if something BAD had happened to one of the students, the college would have been in big trouble.

Actually, i felt a lot better after the meeting - at least now i feel that things will be a lot better. And maybe we have contributed in some way to a change.

Oh, this support malarky - i suppose it was never  meant to be easy!!!

And our meetings have not ended. We have another one on tuesday - about organising the respite we are doing. Luckily the girl doing that and the one who is doing Peter's need assesment are both coming out on the same day at the same time, so we can get that sorted.
And i have to sort out some dates and phone the activity place that the boys are going off to to book dates and get prices.

Did i tell you that i'm the only person who doesn't get paid in all this???

Nah - i do it all for the adrenilin rush of being pushed over that line once in a while!!!

To see ourselves....................

..................... as others see us!!

I was going to a meeting at college yesterday (but that's a whole other blog for another time!) and i'd plugged my MP3 in my ears. Quite often going somewhere on the bus or train is the only time i get to listen to my music in peace.

One of the tracks i have is Copacabana - it's the John Barroman version. It ook me back nearly 5 years to the St Ambrose School Show 2006.
They had decided to do Copacabana. Paul being a very enthusiastic 1st year decided to go for it and take part. Louise on the other hand was fed up with chorus line duty yet again and opted out of the show.
Paul knew a lot of the 5th and 6th years because Lou was 6th year that year.

So Paul went to rehersals, enjoyed it and really got on well with the rest of the cast.
One day after school, Paul, Nicky (a 6th year) and Lindsay (a 5th year) were chatting in the hall. Nicky turned the topic of conversation to girls. THe conversation went something along the lines of

Nicky "Hey Paul - that Louise Johnston in 6D - she's one hot babe!"
Paul  "do you think???"
N  "yeah - boy she is really fit!"
P  " well, whatever - can't account for taste!"

Meanwhile, Lindsay is laughing her head off and says "nicky - d'ya know who this is??" pointing to Paul.
N "yeah - it's Paul - he's in 1st year"
L "Yeah - but d'ya KNOW who he his???"
N - "IT'S PAUL!!"
L "Well - actually, he's Louise's little brother!!!"

N went red and kept on apologising to Paul, Lindsay said it was the best laugh she had in years. And when i found out, i didn't know if i should give Nicky a hug or clatter him round the lugg for saying things like that about MY daughter!!!

Now - the thing is this. Lou was never part of the "IN" crowd of plastics or the ones who thought they were the IT crowd or who tried to make out they had money. She wasn't a plastic, or tried to make out she was something she wasn't. In fact, most days she was just trying to get on @ school, trying to juggle school work with helping to look after Peter and sussing out the true friends from the ones who would chuch her as fast as they'd look when they found out she had a sibling who was a bit different.

Believe me - been there, done that and had the tears and it's not a nice place to be when you as a parent want to go and rip off some weans heid cos they are being so nasty. Or even rip the head off a parent for creating a brat like that!!

But it was nice that someone thought my girl was hot.
Just a pity he didn't think to tell LOUISE that and make her feel good !

As for me - i look like a demented duck - flapping about on the surface and feet paddling like mad underneath!!
Nothing pretty, nothing fancy - just a crazy mum really!!!

i got an award!!!

it really is.

I'd like to thank Lynne fpr sendiong it to me!
There are rules to this award.

1. First, thank and link back to the person that gave the award.(Check)

2. Answer the 10 survey questions

3. Pass the award along to other bloggers whom you think are fantastic.
4. Contact the bloggers you have chosen to let them know about the award

1.  If you blog anonymously, are you happy doing this?  If you aren't anonymous, do you wish you started out anonymously, so that you could be anonymous now?  Never thought to be anonymouse - not really my style!!!

2.  Describe an incident that shows your inner stubborn side. Well - the incicdewnt has lasted over 25 years!! that's how long i've been married!! And some said it would never last!!! They didn't know how stubborn i could be!!

3.  What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror?  Once i get over the fact i'm not small fat and ugly, i see a few grey hairs and a smile - mostly!!!

4 Favourite summer drink? Southern Comfort and lemonade

5.  When you take time for yourself, what do you do?  Read, blog, make cards and listen to my MP3

6.  Is there something that you still want to accomplish in your life? Can't think of anything yet - but never say never!!!

7.  When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever, the shy person, or always ditching?  I did like school - till my mum came to teach at the primary i went to. I hated that and felt that at times staff and pupils kind of resented it. SOme of the pupils even thought i got to choose who i wanted to be in my class!!

Didn't do as well as i should have, but you can't live on regrets - pick yourself up and get on with it!

8.  If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment in your life, what would you see?  It was a year after one of my friends died. She had gone to work in Kenya and had been killed in a car crash there. We'd known each other all our lives and i just couldn't get my head round the fact that i'd never see her again and she'd never see my children grow up.

We were sitting watching Steel Magnolias one evening. It was just after the funeral of the Julia Roberts character and the women are contempating why this young woman had to die. The Daryl Hannah character says " at times i try to make sense of this kind of thing. But i like to think that there is someone up there in heaven who's on MY side"

I stil tear up when i listen to that bit.

9.  Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog, or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people and events?  I try, but there are times when less is more and not all my dirty washing needs to be done á la jeremy kyle!!!

10.  If you had the choice to sit down and read a book or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?
WHy can't i do both????

Mmmm - look at the caller display and maybe let it go to the machine.

And read my book!!!

Now - i think i'll pass the award on the Linda's Life - written by my friend Linda and The first one, written by my son Paul - just because i can!!!

Get me the space police...............

...............The way my day is panning out, i need a break in a cell somewhere with Stitch to help make me laugh!!!

My tumble drier decided to die today.
Not just wimper and slug along to a quiet death.
No, it was a very loud clunk, clunk, clunk - honestly - i thought some footie team was doing target practice on the outside wall!!
And the stuff in the damn machine was still damp, so it is now strewn over radiators and a clothes horse. I hate that cos i can't get moving for wet clothes and the drier ALWAYS breaks down when it's mid winter and freezing outsode, or mid summer and it's raining.
Welcome to the country of 2 seasons.
Freezing and wet.
Or Wet and wet.

So a quick figure out of the finances and a hasty trip to the Argos website to see what we could get for our money.
Said old drier is not getting a decent burial - it's being sent to the dump cos io can't afford the bloody money to get it buried, cremeated or whatever you do to send a knackered drier on it's way to drier heavewn/hell/valhala.

So it should be delivered within a week. I'll be the one lost at the bottom of the wet washing pile!!!!

Then i decided to text the workers for tomorrow.
One texted back to say he wasn't meant to be working and wasn't sure when he'd be back on!! Duh - like why couldn't you have told me this on thursday evening when i texted to see if friday was ok??  He said then that he wasn't picking Peter up cos he was still on holiday!! (nice work if you can get it!!)
So i ended up taking Peter to college. Which was ok, cos i wanted to speak to the course leader to update him on a few things.

Ok, i  could have phoned the team leader and tried to sort something out, but i'm just pissed - it's not HER fault.
And anyway - i'm going to leave Louise to stew and then get her to phone Caroline in the morning.  He he he - Louise on a monday morning, on a rant - i'd rather go a few rounds with Attila the Hun, Gengis Kahn, Mike Tyson and Muhammed Ali!!
THe travel buddy thing was ok, but i honestly think that it's only really good as a short term thing - i don't think it's the right thing for Peter yet. Yes, he knows how to get top college on the bus, can tell you what number to get - but we can't account for others on the bus. Just his luck he'd end up with some wise guy who would take the mickey.
Or something would happen and the bus ends up going a different route cos of something. Or the bus driver takes a strop and decided he wants his break early and everybody has to get off.

My brain is fuddled, i need my bed and i need the space police to take me off somewhere nice and quiet where i can read all the books i bought from Waterstones and have a cup of tea in peace!!! 

Nae luck i suppose - those guys are never around when i need them.

So i'm going to pour myself a drink, down it in a couple of sups then head to bed to snuggle under the new duvet bought a couple of days ago.

What others do to me.....................

................ loads of things, but not many of them scare me almost shitless!!!
Two things have happened in the past 10 days or so. One did make me scared, the other should have, but i just found myself giggling!!!
Thew 1st incident was on our flight from London to Paris last monday. Cabin crew had just served up drinks and snacks and were finishing off at the back of the plane. All of a sudden this screaming and yelling came from a seat about 3 rows behind us. This guy was shouting what sounded like "farrah" over and over again in a VERY loud voice - not just for a second or 2, but a good few minutes. EVERYONE else in the plane turned round to look at him and i'm sure more than just me had the thought of "OMG - we have a nutter or the plane and a foreign one to boot"!!!
Not your typical Glasgow nutter - i can deal with them, but at 35,000 feet in  BA AIrbus, i don't really want to be near a nutter yelling the odds. I fleetingly thought some nut job terrorist had boarded the plane. Did he not realise that us folk from Glasgow just don't let these guys ruin our hols!!! COme on - they tried rubbish @ Glasgow airport and we denied them the pleasure!!

Cabin crew dealt with it well, no fuss or bother. Just a "please calm down sir - you are disturbing the other passengers"!!
Me - i'd have been marching him STRAIGHT to the loo and sticking his heid doon and flushing several times to calm the idiot down. Then asking cabin crew for a couple of vodkas to calm my nerves!!
Talking to another passenger when we got off, it turned out that the woman next to him had opened her carton of orange juice and spilled it over him. We're not sure if they were travelling together and her name was "farrah" or this is some kind of oath - but either way, a totally inapproriate reaction.

 But death by spilt orange juice is not one that i am willing to try again in a hasty rush!!!

The 2nd thing that should have scared me but just made me giggle happened today. Louise has been saying for ages she is going to go and give blood. She knows i can't now, since i had a transfusion about 16 years ago - both times prob helped save my Life. But it was when her friend had her baby a couple of months ago, she decided it was time to give back a little.

So she goes off to do it. I'm rather proud. But i started to get a bit worried when i hadn't heard from her. Ok - my middle name is worry wart and they know this, but as time went on, i thought of phoning her.
Next thing, the phone rings.
it's Lou - to tell me she went to give blood, went ok, had her juice and biccie and went off to Buchanan Galleries and had passed out and was now sitting on the floor with a securioty guy who used to be a nurse sitting beside her!!!

THe thought of my daughter doing this did make me laugh, cos i knew she's a bit like me - as fast as she falls down, she tries to get back up - you never know what sneeky person from school or neighbour is around to laugh @ you!!!!

I know - i'm a bad mum. But i just need to remind her of all the times i've slipped and fallen on ice while taking her to school and she obviously picked up the "getting up fast" gene from me!!!

THe securuty guard wanted her to phone home to let me know what had happened. She managed to get homew, feeling a tad sheepish - but heck - the blood will come in useful for some baby this week who may need it, or some mum.
I was nice - i let her have a pain au chocolat - just to help her get over it - well, something sweet is always good for shock.

Well - that and alchol!!!

She asked me if i'd posted anything on face book - no - way too good for that!! had to be the blog!!

Birthdays, Disney and Dreams

Here i am - 3 days after getting home from our Disney trip and the washing machine is still giving it welly!!!

We had a great time. One of the reasons for going to Disney was because it was Peter's 21st birthday when we were away. We decided to celebrate in a way we knew Peter would enjoy - and it just had to be Disney!!!

Everything was packed, taxi booked and i just prayed that the flights would be ok - i didn't relish the thought of not being able to get there and then trying to explain to Peter. But good fortune was on our side!! Flights on time.
Mind you - we'd got to the gate and Louise texted - if the ghd straightners were still on offer, could i please get her a set and she'd give the money to me when we got back. Called her to say she was outta luck @ Glasgow, but i'd try @ Heathrow.
Duty Free @ H had them, i bought and asked about collect on return, so the woman filled out the forms. Sounds easy, but by now, you should know us well enough that we never take the easy way, if there is a harder way to do it!!!

Got to the hotel, checked in and went to the room - unpacked and went to the park to sort out the special assistance pass. No problems there and the staff said to come in on Peter's birthday and they'd give him a birthday badge.
So we went off, did a few rides then went for dinner.
When we got back to the hotel, we found that the staff had left toys for the boys, a letter welcoming us to the hotel and some chocolate! It turned out we were classed as VIP guests because of Peter!!!

Tuesday morning, we went for breakfast - we didn't need to book a time - we just needed to show up! After, we got ready to go to the park. unfortunatly, the shuttle buses were off - it was too icy. So we had to walk, slipping and sliding.
For all the weather was pants, it was the busiest day we've ever experienced @ the park. Add in that due to the icy conditions, most of the characters didn't appear and a few rides were off, it just made it seem so much busier than usual. We did do a load of rides, but were disappointed not to meet anyone. But i had to remind myself that often the times we meet most of them is when we're not actually LOOKING for them!! And we still had 2 more days, so i didn't really need to panic too much!!

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to have hot chocolate in the Bar. At the Sequoia Lodge, there is a large open log fire. The couches at the fire are highly prized and often people don't move from there. But as Matthew and Paul went to the bar, a family moved and Peter and i struck!!!  No one else had a chance - we'd waited years to get a seat by the fire!!

I would have put a photo in at this point, but i can't seem to get to where it is! And i'm not too sure what i did with the above paragraph!!!

Wednesday morning we went to our character breakfast - we met Micky, goofy, pluto and pinochio!! And then we headed to the Studio Park. Matthew went on Tower of Terror, while the rest of us froze and tried to decide what we would go on next!!! The Tour Tram, but at the bit where we're meant to get flooded on biblical proportions after the fire - nae water - the pipes had frozen!!

Did we say it was a touch cold?!?!?!!?!

We went off to the new Toy Story rides - Matthew went on the RC Racer ride - we opted out using our previous excuse - we're wimps!!! So we went on slinky's roller coaster!! Nice gentle little ride!!!

We decided to so on a hunt for characters. No ice to keep them indoors!!! We met Daisy Duck - we've never met her before. Chip and Dale were there too. After that we decided it was time to go and see some shows - Cinamagique, Stitch Live and Anamagique back to back with some food thrown in along the way!!! The best was stitch - the space police were def after us!!! We also saw part of the parade and got some photos. 

Headed back to the hotel and the bar - again!!!
THis time they had a quiz on - you had to name the disney film that the music came from. We totally wiped the floor with the competition on this one - or rather - Peter did!!! Only 1 question out of 20 we didn't know. It really did get to space police time - the guy HAD tp go and ask other people for the answers out of fairness, but i suspect he had a soft spot for Peter!!! So Peter won and he was given a Mickey Mouse toy!! Sensory heaven or what!!
Paul went over to tell the guys it was Peter's birthday the next day, so they wished him Happy Birthday and produced a Donald Duck toy for him!!!!

Would life get better?!?!?!?

Thursday mporning, more rides!!! Matthew wanted to go on Indiana Jones, but it broke down while he was waiting. Didn't even bother going back cos we knew it would be busy.
So off we went to do more in Fantasyland .Everybody who saw Peter's badge wished him happy birthday!! We knew Belle was going to be out. I didn't hold out much for meeting cinders, most times she did the Princess Lunch and @ 60€ a pop for lunch - most of which Peter wouldn't eat, we gave that a miss. So while we were waiting to meet Belle, i asked the Cast member if Cinderella was out. She was - just along the path!!! WIth the mice!!!!!

So Peter's birthday wish was granted - Cinderella!!! I found myself having a chat with a mouse. What has my life come to??? Asking Suzy how Gus Gus was and agreeing that he is indeed a bit crazy!!!!!
I've been watching too many Disney DVDs!!!!
I'll be convincing myself i can fly next!!

It was a good day and because all the shows were on and characters were out, it didn't feel like 43,000 people were in the park.

We'd booked a table fro dinner along with birthday cake. Dinner was nice - loads of pizza and pasta for Peter to much on and the cake - which we shared with the family at the next table. The little boy was lovely and thought Paul a bit crazy!!! He liked our photos and was thrilled to have some cake!

I didn't really want to come home.
Again our flights were good and the crews were good at helping us board early.
Now, this is where the saga of the ghds rears it's head!!
We were in transit, so we didn't go thru arrivals in Terminal 5. I went to the duty free shop to check where i was to pick them up.
"oh" says the girl,"you're meant to go to arrivals to get them"
I told her that we were transferring to anothet flight and actually, the gate was about to open and we didn't reallyvhave much time.
The manager came over top see what was wrong, the girl explained and he told her since there was little time, just to take a set off the shelf and they would get the original set back. HUGE sigh of relief!! Aside from the cost, my life would not have been worth living if i'd arrived home without said ghd's!! The girl said she totally understood - she'd be lost without them either!!!

We got to the gate and i checked that the pre board was still on the system. The guy said - just come thru, so i rounded up the troops and they checked everything and we sat down. The guy phoned down to the plane to say he had some VIPS. I was looking round to see who was there. The guy killed himself laughing as said - it's you - you're the vips tonight!!!!
The Cabin crew were great again - the fussed over Peter when they found out it had been his 21st and we'd been to Disney. They came rpound with the bar - i decided to go for a vodka - i felt i needed it!!! AND - they slipped me another one for later!!!!!!!

There are times i wish Willie Walsh would travel with us on BA flights. The staff are always really good with us and go that extra step to make sure our flights go smoothly. We've done several flights over the past 9 years or so with different airlines and we ALWAYS go back top BA - the care they take is great. So if anyone reading this knows Mr Walsh, send him our direction!!

So more dreams filled, memories made and a good time was had!!