…Breakin’ but I couldn’t get the pieces apart.

* Crishna is in America. So jealous. She’s in the same convention centre as Grace Park. Insanely jelaous! You can read about her comic-con adventures here… Good times.

* I got last weekend off, yay. Considering I’m meant to be working 1 in 3 weekends lately it’s been pretty much every weekend. Oh well. Guess it’s the curse of not having kids and/or being the big boss! In true me style I spent it down south and down there with the insanely cute Amelia and gorgeous Bex. Bex was working all weekend so I babysat Amelia both days for a few hours and it was insane amounts of fun. On the Saturday we went for a walk along the Thames, played on the park and ate a Subway. Pud loved watching the boats although was a bit irked when some random kid who was fishing decided to show her a full, live fish fairly close. Also some big tanker went by and blew it’s insanely loud horn which she loved and pretended to be a large ship’s horn for the next few hours. Which, thankfully, due to the park having a climbing frame shaped like a boat meant it didn’t look I was walking round with a psycho child. Well, not too much anyway On the Sunday we dropped Bex off at work and caught the train to Greenhithe (for Bluewater) and went to Whale of a Time which is basically an old warehouse turned into a massive kids play area. With massive tunnels, slides, bouncy castle and my personal favourite… a BALL POOL! The place is split into two sections a 1-3yr old and a 4-11yr old. Being responsible and knowing that Bex would kill me if I came back with a damaged child I thought I’d play it safe and plonk her in the 1-3yr old area (even though I’d been told she could go in the big bit.) After about half hour she was bored, having none of it and wandered into the 4-11yr old section… I looked up and saw a sign that said “Parents are allowed to enter – at their own risk!” Bonus! I spent the next two hours climbing up stairs that were way too small for me, going through tunnels, getting stuck and generally having an insanely awesome time. But BOY did it make me a sweaty pig. I spoke to the manager at the end of the day as I’d ran up a tab for my credit card for food and drinks and said that I didn’t mind if she charged me the £4 entry fee also as I’m sure I’d had just as much fun as Pud did! We then got into a really nice conversation about how it’s sad that some of the parents just sit there eating, drinking and talking and not getting involved with chasing the kids round and I have to say that apart from one woman who ran in to rescue her kid who was shit scared of a slide I was the only 11+ person in there. Obviously, that also meant I got my own little gang of kids who followed me around and thought I was insanely cool. Kids are great for boosting the self esteem! How the hell do these kids have this much energy, though?! I loved looking after her for the two days and didn’t damage her once! :p I also learnt how to do my first few nappy changes (!) and found out how difficult it is to walk around town with a buggy. I’ve also got a huge respect for the people, like Bex, who through no fault of her own have been left with a little toddler to deal with on her own. I mean, she’s had to do this for over 2 years and I can ONLY imagine how tiring it must be. Hopefully I can try and help on the days when I’m down, I mean really it’s the LEAST I can do. It’s a shame I can’t do more for her, because I know how much she appreciates the breaks. However, I’m still of the opinion that those that have a kid because it’ll get them the benefits and then sit everyday watching Jeremy Kyle whilst flat out not even bothering to get a job “because it’s easier to stay at home as I get benefits” should be forced to work. *rant* It was annoying that this weekend we didn’t get much alone time (me & Bex that is) but I knew when I’d booked the tickets that it was going to be a short, knackering visit as I would be getting the coach there after working an 8 hour shift, so woke up at 3am on Friday, worked 5-1, and got the coach to Bex’s arriving at 11pm. And then with Bex working on the Saturday and me walking about 600miles pushing the buggy I we both flaked out about 10pm. And then the 23.30 coach back to work and doing the 5.00-13.00 shift straight after jumping off the coach and boy did I look bad on return to work.

* Even though we didn’t get a lot of alone time we did get quite a lot of big and deep conversations in this weekend which (I think/hope) has let the both of us understand each other a lot more and try and work out what it is that we do that pisses each other off. I also found that Bex is struggling with the long distance thing big time, which is nice to know that I’m not on my own. But I think she’s got the shorter end of the stick as she’s never done it before whereas I have. And it’s weird (but very good!) that I’m in a relationship with someone who seems to be into me as much as I am into them and is not afraid to show it. This kinda freaked me at first but now I find it so comforting. It calms my paranoia and means that I don’t worry when she’s out, or the fact that I have a beautiful girl who lives that far away that I have no idea what is happening. With trust being the downfall of one of my previous relationships this is something that makes me feel incredibly happy and content. *ahem* Anyways, enough gush!

* On the Saturday night we went out with one of Bex’s friends and her boyfriend. We went to TGI Fridays which I haven’t been to in ages. The night was quite good, food was nice. The waiter was awesome and had a wicked afro! Unfortunately the company wasn’t brilliant. The boyfriend was great, pretty geeky like myself. The friend..? Well, really couldn’t get along with her. Very miserable and negative and I just can’t like anyone that can drink and drive, especially with a kid in the car. Yeh, she probably wasn’t over the limit.. but I think people should be strict tee-totallers when they drive. But that’s probably just me. Anyways, at least I got that over with and I did enjoy the dinner, although no dessert as all the others were full and Pud was getting a little tetchy as it was getting on for 10 o’clock.

* I’m finishing work on Thursday afternoon and am then off till a week on the following Monday. W00t! Can not wait. Will be spending some time down south for definite. Will hopefully visit Crishna at the beginning as had to cancel last time, see Bex & Pud after that and then on the Friday we’ll be driving up for my little sister’s wedding which I am insanely excited to be attending. She’s marrying Jamie who she has been with for quite a while and who are childhood sweethearts (Awww!) and also the parents of the insanely cute Lois It’s being held at a hotel in Hinckley which looks very nice and will start at 4pm which means at least I don’t need to get up *too* early to drive up! I think that Amelia is coming with us too, so it’ll be a chance for my family to meet Bex and Amelia which is both cool and scary. But hopefully everyone will be pleased all round and HOPEFULLY there wont be too many family fallings out. Although I’m sitting on a table with my Dad, step Mum, Chloe & Haydn and Syd. So basically the non-Colebourne side of the family :p Let’s hope it all goes well, anyway!

* Have just returned from Bingo with Chris & Em.. Really I played Bingo, I had to sign up and everything. It’s actually quite fun, but bloody expensive for what it is and smells of old people and there were people there that you could tell went in EVERY single day on their own and knew all the others that did the same and sat there with little portable laptops playing (bizarre!) Before that was a carvery and pudding which was so filling that we changed our original plan from Lazer Quest (which we are pretty awesomely crap at) as we wouldn’t have been able to run! It’s becoming quite a regular thing us going out though which is pretty awesome as they are both dudes

But anyways, I must sleep

in again at 5 tomorrow
B