unsubtle

The other day me and Evie were in town..

...we were walking past Thorntons and Evie told me that she wanted to look in there, so I said to her ok but we couldnt necessarily buy anything...

...she said "I know" so we went in there, Evie was pretending to have a look around the shop and then the lady server asked us if we wanted a chocolate smile and Evie said "yes please" no sooner had she got her chocolate she walked straight out of the shop, so I quickly took one too (as I was offered one as well) and said to the lady in there "I cant believer her deviousness" :).

Afterwards I asked her if she only wanted to go in there for a piece of chocolate and she said "yes" :)

I would never have been that cheeky :)

And I am super impressed at how clever she is, even if she has to work on being a bit more subtle about these things :)

unlucky 6 and house colour t-shirt

I finally got an e-mail about the interview I went to in May, I already knew after this time that I hadnt got the job, but it was still a bit of a bummer to see that I hadnt got it...

...oh well...

On Tuesday next week Evie has her very first sports day (James has booked the afternoon off too), I saw an e-mail (form one of the other Mums)saying that in previous years the kids have needed a t-shirt in their house colour...

...so I have the perfect excuse to go into town today to get Evie a green t-shirt :)

and an iced skinny latte :)

and perhaps a strawberry cream muffin (as I got an email about it) musnt musnt musnt

and I also have a free six inch sub (from Subway) they have given me 500 points on their app (Im giessing because I havent been in there for a few weeks and they are trying to lure me back) and I have until Friday to use it :)

coffee-view

So I had my interview yesterday...

I think it went well.

I was asked what I thought the barista job entailed and I told her all of the things that I see them doing everytime I go in...

...clearing tables, taking food to customers, replenishing sweeteners/napkins etc.

Hopefully I can be flexible enough on the shifts.

I will find out on Monday so fingers crossed :)

And I go a free skinny latte (in a take-out cup) out of it too :)

Super skinny latte

So first thing first Evie ended up eating her toast on our way to school.

When I woke her up.i told her it was school.amd she went to pull the duvet back over her head and I told her that she had to get up and she was lying there kicking her legs "tantrum" I should have known how the morning would go after that bad start :)

For topping up my Starbucks card I was entitled to a free drink, I also had another free drink as part a reward anyway.

The one for topping up expires on Sunday and the reward one expires next month.

So I went to get my free drink - first I was told that the free drink can now only be a medium one and then it used the reward that expires next month!

Not wishing to miss out on my other free drink I told the person who served me and I have been given a free drink voucher :)

As my jeans have been getting looser I though that it was time to get myself a belt.

So I went to primark and tried a medium size but it was way to small I couldn't see any extra large ones in the style that I liked so that's a shame.

I can only imagine that their belts are for super skinny people.

lucky lucky dip

On Thursday I got an e-mail from the national-lottery telling me that I had won a lucky dip as I had matched 2 numbers :)

I checked on my phone this morning and there was a message saying that there was news about my ticket and sure enough I matched 3 numbers on my lucky dip so had a proper win :)

yollie keyrings

For the past couple of months yollies have been offering a free talking keyring if you buy two packets of them ;o)

free offer

As Evie got back into yollies (just before Christmas) but has since turned her nose back up at them again, we bought enough for two keyrings.

Just after Christmas we entered our four codes and yesterday we got our two keyrings ;o)

our two keyrings

At first I wasnt allowed to open them...

...but eventually I was allowed to open the explorer one ;o)

suspicious readings

Yesterday I went for an eyetest, when I went last year they said that they wanted me to come back in 12 months (and because my eyetest was free I did).

So I booked my eyetest for when James could look after Evie, I was hoping that he would take her home but he decided to ride with her up and down the escalators in Primark ;o).

So I took the buggy into the opticians with me and had my eyetest parts done (there are 4 parts)

first was the puffer test (I prewarned the lady doing it was a pain I was last time), amazingly enough I wasnt as bad as last time ;o)

Then came the field of vision test (they did one eye and then the optician wanted to do the vision test so we stopped halfway through!

So I had the vision test and the lady handed the optician the puffer test results.

My eyes have got slightly worse and she said that getting stronger glasses would help (but for the price I paid last time Im not spending out again).

She then looked at the optical nerves in my eyes (Im sure that they didnt do that last time) nd the optician then told me that my puffer test results had suspicious readings and that they want to refer me to the glaucoma clinic!

But as my optical nerves look ok she could just be overreacting!

I think that she could tell that I was getting anxious about it because I was asking her what it would mean etc.

I then completed the field of vision test (by a different person) but this time they did it with the light on so I couldnt see as well (I kept on telling them it).

And then they tried to do a retina photo but I kept on blinking at one point the bloke had the cheek to ask me if I wanted to try and hold my eye open (I respectfully declined) ;o).

The appointment should be through in the next couple of months.

birthday cookie

I had decided to use the giant cookie that I had won to have as my birthday cookie ;o)

I let Evie chose the words and the colours ;o)

my birthday cookie

Evie loves watching Swashbuckle and is always telling me to "walk the plank" ;o)

I havent eaten any yet and will probably have some today ;o)

a good easter

I did a post Friday morning and it failed (from my not so smart smartphone!)  So I have uploaded it (again) this morning!

On Friday we ended up going to Lakeside Shopping Centre.

When we got there Evie had already decided that she wanted to have lunch at Wagamama ;o)

After we had a drink when we got there James took Evie for a walk about while I looked in the shops.

James then called me just before 12 to say that Evie wanted her lunch

eating some of Daddys noodles

.After lunch we decided to have a look in Hamleys as the store had recently opened there.

We were quite surprised that the prices were so expensive but I guess that they go with the Hamleys name!

We did see some lego ninja models ;o)

lego ninjas

And we bought Evie a drum kit playmat ;o)

We then headed home as Evie was getting really tired.

On Sunday (as nothing was open) we headed into town and had a drink and then had lunch in McDonalds - and in their Monopoly promotion we won a free sundae ;o)

free sundae

And yesterday we went to Southend ;o)

We played on the beach, and me & Evie shared a portion of chips ;o)

sharing some chips

gold card exclusive event

Last night I went to a gold card exclusive event at Starbucks ;o)

All three of us were going to go and then I decided that Evie would get bored (besides James feeling ill) and I went on my ownsome instead.

I knew that it was going to be a good evening as as soon as I walked in there I was given an espresso martini ;o)

I tried my art at latte art and managed (not sure how) to do something festive ;o)

a snowman in my latte

I got to try some different coffees (there three previous origin blends).

I also got to try the new orange, cranberry and chocolate cookie.

And I got a new re-useable cup (I got one for James too)

and we got a goodie bag each too ;o)

we got a goodie bag each

Evie has already said that she wants the chocolate coins ;o)

When James came to pick me up Evie kept on saying that she missed me, and it set me off feeling guilty about me leaving her at pre-school for a couple of mornings from next week :o(

plums

Yesterday afternoon James came home from work clutching a bag of plums.

So I asked him where did the plums come from and he said that a woman he works with has a plum tree and they would go to waste otherwise and she wondered if Evie would like them' ;o)

So last night after I had my dinner (Evie had already had hers) I got a bowl and cut in half six plums ;o)

bowl of plums

And here is Evie eating some plum

Evie eating some plum

I think that she just took a bite before not wanting anymore

But I ate them and they were really nice ;o)

do they come with free recipe cards?

Yesterday James & me went for our eye tests...

...it was done in three parts (with the other person looking after Evie)...

...part one was the puffer test James one was ok but I kept on jumping back and they couldnt get a reading , so they ended up doing it again (during part three of the test).

...part two was the eye chart and looking into the back of the eye, interestingly enough the optician had an eye phone (get it) and was able to bring up the eye chart with her phone ;o)  I wonder if its an app that has to be paid for?  I have just looked on google play (as I have an android phone) and have found this free one (I am going to install it ;o)

...part three was the field of vision test (and they redid the puffer test too) I told the person doing it that they should use a head restraint and that would stop me from moving ;o)

During part two (the actual eye test) I was told that the vision in one eye had improved and the vision in the other eye had got slightly worse...

...and wait for it!

I need to wear READING GLASSES!

The lady doing my eye test also mentioned the white patches under my eye which is a sign of high cholesterol - I had completely forgotten that I had the health check done two years ago, so will have a look online to see what foods are low in cholesterol and will try and talk James into getting some Benecol

hee hee I have just downloaded this app ;o)

the eye test app in my phone directory

the eye test app

Does needing reading glasses make me officially middle aged?  I certainly dont feel or act middle aged! which I suppose is the main thing ;o)

Thinking about it I have (even in the past few days) taken photos of things that I cant make out the writing on so that I can zoom in better!  I know its just a modern taker on a magnifying glass.

Now it was time to chose my glasses (as I need two pairs now) they did have vouchers for £90 off the second frame (so that was going to bring down the cost a bit).

I was told that because of my high prescription to stick to small frames...

I then found the Heston Blumenthal frames and even better they were 2 for 1 ;o)

So I have picked these for my main pair and these for my reading pair ;o)

I must practice saying "sorry, I havent got my reading glasses on" to stop the annoying market researchers and "Ive just got to put my reading glasses on" when looking at menus or the like.

Then I had to chose how much I wanted to spend on the lenses I had a choice of three...

...I could stick with the lens thickness that I have already which has come down slightly in price, or I could go for a thinner version for the price I had paid last time or go for the super duper extra thin lenses that the shop has never ordered before!

I decided to stick with the cheapest option as I was happy with the thickness of them ;o)

James never showed me the frames that he went for but I did see him trying on some Ali G type frames (I hope he was just trying them on just to show Evie ;o).

It then came to paying for the glasses and because my prescription has now gone past a certain level I got my eye test for free, and I also got £14.40 off of the price of my reading glasses ;o)

Our glasses should be ready in two weeks ;o)

reading on me kindle

Just after I had downloaded my kindle app, I remembered how I was moaning that my colleagues all had kindles and that I was feeling the odd one out ;o)

Yesterday while James was taking Evie out for a walk I sat in the coffee shop and had a read of my free book ;o).

Even though I was reading it on a small screen it was still just about the right size for reading which was good, and Im guessing that all that is built into the app (how clever is that ;o))

downloaded my first book

I managed to download the kindle app on my phone ;o)

So I just had a look on Amazon and looked under the humour and found this book of short stories ;o)

here is the first page

and it was free ;o)

Messrs Sainsbury & Tesco were listening

Just the other day (after I had finished my popping candy chocolate orange) I said to James that I hope that Mr Sainsbury will have an offer on the chocolate oranges ;o)

Last Friday James mentioned that the local foodbank was having another collection drive (and their last day of being there is today), as this is something I like to support, I popped into Tesco yesterday to pick up a few bits to drop off and saw there was a buy one get one free on chocolate oranges (so I got myself a couple) ;o).

After James got home from work we popped over to Sainsburys and I saw that they had a buy 2 from £3 offer so I bought another couple and then James decided to get one for his Dad (so I got another one as I wasnt going to sacrifice one of my chocolate oranges)

So I now have 5 of them to eat ;o)

spending points

On Friday I mentioned that I may be able to get a new music player.

James had decided to let his Mum try the shuffle player (he did manage to get it charging again) as she will be going into hospital soon for some surgery (she is expected to be staying in for a week).

I was talking to James about it and he said that I should treat myself (as I hardly ever treat myself), so as Evie was refusing to go to have her nap yesterday afternoon I decided to take Evie out in her buggy and walk down to Argos so that I could get my new player and I got a case for it too ;o).  And I managed to spend my Nectar points so didnt cost a penny ;o)

And I will call it my Christmas present ;o)

Evie eventually had her nap as we were looking around in Next I was very disappointed with their Christmas clothes as they were just jumpers and Evie makes a real fuss if I try to put a jumper on her! ;o)

I will give the player that I am using at the moment to Evie (as the buttons can be locked) once I have finished listening to the 95 Steve Wright podcasts ;o)

I am currently loading the new player with the unlistened to bits ;o)

free e-book

When we do our food shopping in Sainsburys we always get a load of vouchers (either points on our nectar card) or money off or adverts for Sainsburs products...

Last week we got one for a free e-book so I have just downloaded Trust Me Im a Vet.

None of the titles on offer looked that appealing so I went for that one.

being a proper mum

I was in Starbucks the other day and while I was waiting for our Venti Skinny Vanilla Spice Lattes I had a look at their pick of the week...

...and blow me down it was a Peppa Pig episode ;o)

So I picked up the card and have just downloaded it so Evie can watch it with me ;o)

While I was on there I also downloaded this Steps album ;o)

she cannot be a marmite hater

Ever since just after Christmas Evie has been sleeping under a cot duvet.

The cot duvet cannot be tumble dried so I decided to buy her a spare one for when the other one is in the wash.

So I went to Argos yesterday and the one that I wanted was out of stock (typically that one was on offer too) and I saw that this one was on offer and that if you buy the cot bumper you save £10.00 and as it only costs £9.99 you get it for free and save a massive one penny on the duvet in the bargain ;o).

Yesterday we decided to try Evie on Marmite spread thinly on a bread soldier - she kept on pulling the bits with marmite out of her mouth!

As no child of mine is going to be a *shudders* a marmite hater I am going to have to keep trying her on it until she blooming well likes it...

a local food bank

The other day James picked up a leaflet about a food bank opening in Chelmsford and that there is a donation point (for this week only) in town.

Anyway yesterday I made sure that I left early enough so that I could pop into Tesco to buy some food for the food bank.

There seems to be several different lists of what stuff they need and one of them mentioned nappies and baby formula - so I bought a packet of nappies (size 3 that Evie wears) and a freebie carton of formula (its a different make to what we normally use).

I think that these food banks are a great idea and I am sure that it is something that my Mum would  have needed to use (when me & my brother were kids) so I am more than happy to donate to them  and to help someone in need.