Category Archives: Personal

So, Which is Cheaper?

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There is often talk on Mumsnet about how incredibly expensive Tesco is compared to Sainsbury.

Now, Tesco is my supermarket by default. I can easily get, via one bus ride or walking, to a number of Tescos. They really, in many ways, own Belfast City Centre and South Belfast. My nearest Sainsbury’s is in West Belfast and would mean a bus to City Centre and then another bus to the Sainsbury’s. And I don’t know West Belfast at all. I have barely even been there. I’m very much a City Centre and South Belfast girl with the occasional foray into East Belfast.

Also, a lot of Mumsnetters recommend Aldi or ASDA as being even better than Tesco or Sainsbury’s. Well, there are no Aldi’s in Northern Ireland at all and my closest ASDA would require a car. ASDA do deliver to our address but I have heard very bad things about them. But I went ahead and included them in my comparison just to be fair and because if they were a lot cheaper? I’d give them a chance.

Using my last grocery order through Tesco I compared prices two ways; I put the same order as well as I could into both Sainsbury’s and ASDA’s websites directly and I used Mysupermarket.com, just to see if I got a different answer.

The result?

Tesco – 96.75

ASDA – 115.26

Sainsbury’s – 127.14

It should be noted, before people have a heart attack that I spend nearly a £100 pounds a week on groceries for a family of 3, that this week’s ordered included Tommee Tippee Nappy Wrapper Cassettes for Adam’s Nappy Wrapper. That was £20 of the Tesco order right there, even more the other two stores. This was also my stock up on meat week so both mince and chicken were bought in bulk.

Anyway, Tesco is not the most expensive supermarket in my town. Sainsbury’s is.

And now I have proof.

So Now We Have To Decide…

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Today we got the letter telling us that Adam has a place in the local playgroup. This is a fully funded place, 15 hours a week, 3 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Which is fantastic. Except they have no before or after care.

And because his daycare is still waffling about whether or not they will have funded places in the fall.

I’ve told them I need to know in 2 weeks, as that is the deadline for us letting the local playgroup know if we accept the offered place.

It would be good if he went to the playgroup as that gives me, more or less, unofficially, a guaranteed place in their primary school.

But then how do I work? How do I run my company in what would amount to about 2 hours a day, if you include commute time to get Adam to the playgroup?

His current daycare might do pick up from that playgroup. I don’t know yet.

If they don’t, we’ll have to move him somewhere closer for after school care.

It’s all very uncertain. And I hate uncertain.

But I’m also very excited that my son is starting his formal education process.

Even if I do have to put him in a uniform…

One Thing I Really Like About Our House

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is the fact that no one else’s window looks directly into any of ours.

On one side, the house next door is slightly angled so even though our kitchen windows are across from each other, you can’t really see in. They also have that wavy privacy glass, but even if they didn’t you would be able to see much.

On the other side, we have no windows!

In the back, the houses are too far back and also the street behind is slightly angled from ours.

And in the front, there’s the street!

It also means you can’t see into our garden. We aren’t ‘overlooked’ from anyone. There is fencing and wide gardens. Not sure I’d nude sunbathe, but at least no one is staring at Adam and I romping!

I also really like all the flowers that are currently blooming.

Maybe I’ll post some pictures of them soon!

Gorgeous day…Stuck inside

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Adam had a horrible nights sleep last night and was a less than pleasant boy yesterday so I was not surprised that he woke up with a cough. So Simon and I decided to keep him home today.

His cough has gotten progressively worse all day, so bad that he couldn’t nap, so I am thinking GP visit is in order tomorrow.

So we’ve spent the day on the sofa. Watching movies. The entire Toy Story trilogy and Monsters Inc.

The sun is beaming down. But he’s just feeling so punk he didn’t want to go outside at all, even when I offered.

So we stayed in.

And that’s okay.

Obesity Epidemic?

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Before I start this, let me just state; I am fat. I am, in fact, borderline obese. I have been for a good portion of my life, off and on. I am currently watching what I eat and trying to lose weight.

That being said…

As part of my bid to lose weight and get more exercise, I try to walk home from Adam’s nursery drop off at least twice a week. My walk takes me along the Malone Road and I often pass mobs of school aged children waiting for the bus to take them to their various institutions.

And I see maybe 1 or 2 obese children out of 10 or 20.

Adam’s nursery class is another place I don’t see it. I wouldn’t call a single child in his class fat, never mind obese. Chubby, sure, but they are at that age where they are still losing their baby fat.

Adam himself still has a bit of a belly and slightly chunky thighs, but no one would ever call my son obese. Or even fat, really. He’s wearing T-3 and T-4 not because of his waist or belly but because of the length of his arms and legs. All of his trousers, for example, are cinched in as tight as possible at the waist and on occasion they still slide down! But at least he isn’t wearing floods! 🙂

So where’s the epidemic?

Even as I walk around City Centre I can’t say I’m seeing millions and millions of obese people. Just a mix, as I always have, no matter where I’ve lived.

So, is it just me? Is it just Belfast?

Or is the obesity epidemic made up?

I Didn’t Take Pictures

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as I was too busy cooking, but Adam helped me cooked dinner tonight, which was Simon’s birthday dinner as today is, surprise, his birthday.

We were having the newly named Simon’s Casserole, (used to be Jeffrey’s Casserole, after my brother, but I’ve changed. I’ve done a family proclamation and everything. Don’t sweat it, Simon doesn’t understand either.) which is a sort of simple lasagne dish, and home made garlic bread using my pizza dough.

Adam helped first by rolling out the pizza dough. It should be noted that the one Adam rolled was perfectly round and mine was not.

Then he picked the skins off the garlic cloves and put them in the mini-chopper. Then he held down the mini-chopper button.

Next he helped peel onion and then held down the mini-chopper button again.

Then I told him the fun stuff was done and all that was left was simmering he got bored and went to watch Toy Story for the 1,000 time.

He wanted to use Mummy’s big knife but understood when I said he was too little.

Tomorrow I think I’ll have him make lunch. By himself.

🙂

Saturday is Simon’s Birthday

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I won’t tell you how old he will be, but he’s 5 years younger than me and, as you may recall, I just had the 22nd anniversary of my 21st birthday.

Today Adam and I were scheduled to bake some cakes for Daddy’s birthday. So we went into the kitchen to get started when I found a fatal flaw in my plan. I only had one egg. I needed three.

So instead of getting down to it, we put on our shoes and coats and headed over to our local Mace. There we acquired biscuits, yoghurt, Pringles and eggs. You thought I forgot the eggs, didn’t you?

Once we were home we got to work.

Adam Mixes.jpg

Adam mixes.

Adam was chief in charge of mixing eggs, which he did with panache. Then he got bored while Mummy was incorporating the flour, eggs, butter and sugar and went to watch Fireman Sam. So Mummy licked the bowl herself.

Just before Adam’s First Birthday, I purchased the dinosaur cake pan from Lakeland, which doesn’t seem to be on their site any more. It has been used a *lot* for a variety of birthdays!

Here it is full of finished cakes as of today:

Cakes

Simon's Cakes

Later today we’ll make chocolate buttercream icing and get them iced and covered with 100s and 1000s.

Of course, there probably won’t be any left by Saturday…

Finding My Writer Again

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If you had asked me when I was growing up what I wanted to be I would have told you, no hesitation, a writer.

Well, until I discovered the theatre. Then it would have been a scene designer.

I am a designer, not of the scene, but haven’t really written, except in this blog, in ages and ages. I can’t even seem to write in my journal any more, partly because my hands are so bad I have a hard time holding a pen for longer than a few lines.

But yesterday I started to write. (Yes, I tried NaNoWriMo last year and failed)

It’s fan fiction, and I won’t be linking to it because it’s adult fan fiction and my mother reads this blog. And I am not sure who else, but maybe my niece. It’s not work for either of them. 🙂

It’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan fiction. I think I was inspired by the fact that Buffy premièred 15 years ago this past week. Without that show my life would be very very different. I wouldn’t live in Belfast. I wouldn’t be married. I wouldn’t have Adam.

And so I started to write a story that’s been floating in my head for awhile. It’s a cross over with the show Supernatural. It’s slash with Xander and Dean. It is most definitely NC-17/FR21.

If that’s something that interests you, send me an email. I’d be happy to link you up to the site it’s on. tee @ leyser dot org. Usual formatting.

If it’s something that’s going to offend you, ignore this whole post. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Lost Another Week

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Spent Monday in bed, still worn out from all my productivity.

Tuesday Adam and I were both feeling off so we spent the day snuggling and such.

Yesterday woke up at 5am with a migraine. Tried to sleep it off for the next hour. Didn’t work. Had to get Adam up at 6, Simon did it instead while I took migraleave and tried to sleep some more.

Simon brought Adam back into our room at 7 so he could shower and Adam cuddled with me while I tried not to puke. Simon and Adam headed out the door.

I threw up, I think, 10 times between about 9am and 6pm. Nothing stayed down for ages. Not even the medicine that was suppose to stop the nausea. I spent the whole day with my eyes closed either sleeping or just laying there. I couldn’t even look at my phone (although I did occasionally as I was bored!) without needing to close my eyes every few seconds from the light. It was a horrendous day.

Simon and Adam got home just after 5 and ordered pizza for dinner. Simon got Adam into bed and I staggered down and managed some soup, some more medicine and some 7-Up. I went back to bed around 830 and actually slept through the night, which I usually don’t after such a day since I sleep so much during it.

This morning was better, although not perfect. I still had a slightly sore head and was exhausted. And had Adam all day.

We managed to go out to the shops and had a romp in the garden for awhile, as it was a beautiful day. As the day has worn on I’ve felt a bit better, if tired and not really hungry.

I’m off to bed soon and tomorrow will get back to my life.

But I wish these damn migraines would just go away!