Bit of a catch up!

Hello! Remember me?! Yes, I know….I’ve been utterly rubbish recently re my ramblings. I had such a great run of things, then it all went pear shaped. I’ve always maintained that writing my posts isn’t that time consuming, and they really aren’t….but I genuinely haven’t had the time recently.  Work has been manic recently, a run of late nights and long weeks seem to be the norm at the moment. Few other bits going on too have meant my focus has been elsewhere recently, but we’re motoring on forward as is our norm! (how many 'recently's' in that paragraph??!!)

Little update for you from Sandra Land (Beware of low flying Sandras) since we last spoke on May 1^st.

Work…..work….oh and more work.

I enjoy my job, I genuinely do. And I much more enjoy being busy than quiet. But things have been an unprecedented level of busy recently, and not just for myself. It’s across the board, so at least I’m not on my own! I realise a few of you may have absolutely no idea what I do as a job and I’m not going to get into a lengthy explanation as you’ll be bored to tears. In a nutshell, I work in IT for a Life, Pensions and Investments company. I support Project Managers in their delivery and tracking of projects, so helping out with budgets, planning, governance and other such super sexy stuff. I also work closely with the Account Manager for our German Portfolio. The company made a big acquisition announcement in Feb of this year (read more here) which, as I’m sure you can understand, means that things are a bit mad work wise at the moment. For obvious reasons I can’t go into detail, but it’s a very busy time for us all for the foreseeable future.  It’s all good though, and just means I enjoy my ‘me’ time more than I would normally!

Exciting friend things

A very close friend of mine, L, is due her first baby very soon. Super excited about this, although I won’t get to see her and the little one until the beginning of August.  It’s worked out quite well really as I usually have a trip to see her and another very good friend, K, in the summer hols. L & I are both godmother to K’s son, whose birthday is August 7^th. It’s become tradition for us to all spend NY together over the last few years, although L was away last year so I haven’t seen her since last summer. I love our weekends together, fun and adventures with my godson, and fun and wine with the adults. The addition of the baby this year will be lovely, can’t wait to see everyone again and play Auntie Zsa Zsa (Godson couldn’t say Sandra when he was younger, it’s stuck!)

I’m off to Spain at the end of June with another very good friend, most excited about that! We’ve both had a lot going on recently so the chill out will be needed for us both. 10 days in the sun, but, we have a little road trip to Granada planned to stop us going stir crazy by the pool. Neither of us are able to do nothing for any length of time so we’re a good match for hols!

Nephews and niece galore.

I have 4 nephews and 1 niece. A good range of ages; Joe is 12, Josh is 8 (or will be in a week), Archie and Jess are 5 and Ed is 3. They’re all awesome, and crazy in their own little ways. I love spending time with them and because I live away, I tend to book weekends with my sisters so I have blocks of time with them. Last weekend was one such time. I went over to Tadcaster to spend 3 days with Sophie, Paul, Archie and Ed. Much fun was had, the boys are growing up so fast and make me laugh constantly.

On the Saturday we went to the Royal Armouries in Leeds. I’ve not been since I was 13, and when I went then I had absolutely zero interest in the place. It was different this time and I found it fascinating. I especially loved the War Elephant armour. It’s the most complete War Elephant armour of any collection in the world and is magnificent. 

The museum is free, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone.  The boys loved it too even though they’re both quite young. They both found things that piqued their interest, even if it was a VT of The Hobbit…..

On the way back to the car to head home Archie was tiring and lagging behind. Ed was on Paul’s shoulders, so I complained to Archie that my legs were tired and could I have a piggy back. He laughed and said “No!! You’re too big!”. So I said that didn’t matter, pretended to climb on his back, grabbed his shoulders and said “Giddy up horsey!”. He galloped off giggling like mad and I galloped behind him down the road. I looked like an absolute eejit, but I didn’t care. The game served its purpose, he cheered up and had a spring in his step for the final bit of the walk.  

On the way home in the car Sophie asked the boys if they’d enjoyed the museum. They both said yes, and upon being asked which bit they liked most, Ed said “the crisps”, referring to the crisps we’d had in the canteen half way round. Ah, the simplistic mind of a 3yr old!

It’s my eldest sister’s 40^th birthday in a few weeks and I’m looking after her 3 whilst she and her other half go to Spain for 4 days. I’m looking forward to it, no, genuinely I am! It’ll be hard work and I’ll be wrecked by the end of it but it’s for a bloody good cause, and at the end of it I get to see her on her actual birthday. Plus, Sophie is coming over for one of the days to help out, the 5 kids love it when they’re together so it’ll be good fun! Plus, I have a raft of stuff to keep them occupied so I’m confident they won’t be bored. And, I’ll reward myself with wine each evening. It has to be done.

Other random news:

I’m massively honoured to be asked to be Godmother to a close friends little one. I’m always incredibly touched to know that someone thinks I could be a good influence on their child.

Having a nightmare with a tooth at the minute, good job I don’t hate the dentist.

Paula & Ray’s wedding is in 10 days. Can. Not. Wait.

That’s all my news and up to date ramblings!

Until next time, much love!

Sandra

xx