CAT WITH NO NAME .

We saw someone offering a ginger tom kitten for sale on Preloved ,  so we said we was interested and drove over to Leeds ,The kitten/cat was suppose to be the same age as Alfie but he is at least three times what was his size and weight was .
We bought him a new bed and feeding bowl collar and litter tray , so far its the cat with no name , until we decide on one ,  i quite like Dawg or Horace , Helen likes George or Garfield , Dawg it is then .

ITS SNOWS CAUSE IT CAN

Phoned in work because of the snow  this morning i was able to walk down the road where i left the car and i managed to clear it of snow and move it to home .

I went shopping and bought milk , eggs  , sausages , bacon and potatoes waffles , mushrooms and baked beans and a loaf of white bread just in case things get worse . I also got Helen two  twenty packs of cigarettes and i also put the lottery on for Friday and Saturday night.

The snow is still coming down and it is now half past five in the evening the orange glow from the street lights shows the pure white snow flakes falling it is quite surreal.

it's just gone 15 minutes pass midnight and it is now snowing once again not looking good for me getting to work another day annual leave i guess .

FRIDAY
It is my son's birthday he is twenty two i hope he has a great day even if it is snowing , it has cleared enough for me to drive to work at least it saves a days holiday for later .

Listening to - Kodaline "In A Perfect World".

Reading - Chapter twenty five "Along Came A Spider" by James Patterson.

Eating - Cornish Pastie , chips and beans.

Watching - Addicted.

TV Series - Scorpion 

MORE WHITE

TUESDAY
Payday so i paid the council tax people £218 they are like Dracula always after the main artery ,  then i paid the tv licence good old BBC £28  which is a utter rip off DONT WATCH BBC ANYMORE  , then i paid my outstanding mobile phone bill of £98 , i put £35 of petrol in to the tank of the car  which always needs its thirst quenching and i spent another £45 on food shopping . BUT THAT'S NOT THE END as i have still  to fork out £425 for rent  , gas and electric is an other £87 ,  car tax £12 and car insurance £67 , finally water rates £28 along with broadband at £24 its never ending cycle of payments bills and expenditure to keep us and the cottage ticking over .

The lady selling the static home rang Helen today whilst i was at work telling us she had an offer from a couple that viewed the home she did not like them and told them it was sold to us so it looks like we will be the new owners of the house Helen is already making plans for the garden and interior.

I am looking forward to living near to Leeds and work should cut my travelling time by half along with the fuel consumption that i am using now.
We will only have ground rent to pay which is £67 pound a month which means a a saving on rent the money i save on fuel for the car should cover the cost of the ground rent.

WEDNESDAY
Went to work  but i left early due to a down fall of snow. It was gradually getting worse has i was getting nearer to home. Some drivers did not help they were driving way too slow and as a result i was stopping at every traffic light , which adds to the journey time .

As it was I had to park the car on the main road in and out of Holmfirth .I nearly didn't make it i was slipping backwards at one stage along a line of parked up cars i was fortunate not to hit one.
I walked the last few hundred yards to our cottage , i reckon if i did not leave work at the time i did getting home would have been worse.
Whether or weather i go to work tomorrow is very unlikely  .Even getting the car of the main road will be no mean feat.

A UP HILL SLOG

Well was up just after half past eight i had a shower ready for work i am ready but not wanting to go back bad i know . More snow is forecast for the coming days we  need four new tyres on our little black Swift .
I was having dreams that we was  moved in and living in the static home with our own things and the previous owners things amongst us. W e have eight weeks to wait before i can access the cash i have saved in a pension fund.
I hate work the thought of me going back today after ten days of is depressing the life out of me and i don't start till two.
It dragged from the minute I got there , the only saving grace was I did not have to leave to move the car .
On getting home I smelt cooked food Helen had done a home made stew and dumplings in the slow cooker , as well as doing two readings and her phone readings.
It's my daughters birthday tomorrow and my sons on Friday only two years separates them my daughter being the first born.
Hopefully I am meeting my son to on Sunday in York.

BACK TO WORK

SATURDAY
My son Guy came over to the cottage just after half past twelve he drove from Skirpenbeck near Stamford Bridge to our little cottage in Holmfirth and he arrived just after half past twelve.

Hopefully he will know if he has a new job to start on this coming Monday fingers crossed for him.

We walked Pip our Jack Russell and thence drove over to Strines Inn at Strines   about a thirty minute drive away for a drink .
He left just before two in the morning after we had watched  the latest offering from Keanu Reeves in John Wick.

Strines Inn a few days earlier we would most likely not made it as far the narrow winding roads both up and down hill would have made it a no go area .

The peacocks where prancing around in the snow they look more colourful on the white back ground .

SUNDAY
We went to view the static home we meet my sisters there the wanted to see it for themselves , they both seemed to see it through our eyes and realise why we want it for our home .
They agreed it was spacious and better than our current place with a  lot more potential to put our own mark on it , it was more or less agreed we have first refusal , and i genuinely believe the lady selling it Andrea wants us to have it too.
Come April we should be all packed up and moved in to begin a new chapter .

Back to work Monday after ten days off i knew this day was coming does not mean i have to be happy about it,

AT HOME

Had a call from Andrea who's selling her sister's static home  , we are going over on Sunday depending on the weather of course . Hopefully we can sort out some sort of deal so we can buy it as our next home .

I phoned in at work told them i wanted rest of week off as annual  leave i could have gone truth is i could not be arsed .I know Monday will come quickly and i won't want to go back at least i have another three days at home.

Went over to the Trafford shopping mall Manchester Helen bought a 2015 organiser and some address  , reminder and appointment inserts .

On the way home we went over the moors Dovestone reservoir looked picturesque it looks good any season but specially when it is whitened over , we stopped at Compo.s fish restaurant for tea it was just getting dusk.

Watching - "Hector And The Search For Happiness"

SNOW TIME

Whoa its back the white stuff and its laying its already after a few hours quite deep . I  have already phoned to let work know that i won't be turning in. I doubt very much i would get out of the street never mind anywhere even close to work.

I have already been out and took some photos with my iPhone even though it was snowing at the time   it is not that cold or that slippery underfoot , i reckon the snow will stay around for a few days yet.

I am downloading the tv series  "Murder In The First" , the pilot episode is being aired in the U.K in the next few days it looks good it stars Tom Felton who played Draco Malfoy the Harry Potter films , as it as been shown already in the U.S.A  so it is already online.

Helen is doing her phone readings from one till three than from six till ten least she can work when its snowed and not have to worry about travelling or getting back home in the snow.
Because of the snow we have had no post delivered and the bin wagon did not turn up to empty the bins , we are going to walk to the Post Office later to put the lottery on . More photos.

It is just ten minutes past two in the afternoon and it is still snowing at this rate i cant see me going to work for the rest of the week if i don't go tomorrow Thursday i certainly won't be going to work on the Friday.

BOOKS

Manage to borrow a pick and shovel i went around to the back of the cottage and dug a hole about two foot by two foot and around two foot deep .
I carried Alfie around and laid him to rest in his blanket i got rid of the bin bags as they didn't seem fitting , i placed a cross i had found in my drawer and tucked it in to his blanket we also placed a white artificial flower at the side of him , i found a piece of slate and placed it over him before filling the hole back in , i covered it back with the turf and hopefully in a few moths they be no trace of the ground being disturbed . R.I.P Alfie.

The pick and shovel i borrowed from a policeman who lives a few cottages down from us i reassured him if Helen ever disappeared , the police would not  have to look for a freshly dug grave burying her would be too much like hard work .Never mind actually loading the body in to the car .

Starting to read all of the Alex Cross detective novels by James Patterson . I have read the first eight or nine  years ago i use to read the paper backs whilst travelling home on the bus  , but i am know going to start to read them on my iPad beginning  at book one  which is "Alone Came A Spider" to final book so far titled  "Hope To Die "  which is a total of 22 books. I want to average one every  fortnight.

We invited our good friend and neighbour Charlie round  to the cottage for a late tea .We are having chicken parcels and a joint of gammon. in a honey glaze .Served with roast potatoes and roasted sweet potatoes parsnips and carrots along with Yorkshire pudding cabbage and sprouts . Chocolate gateau for desert should be a treat  cant beat a proper dinner.

Praying for snow i don't particular want to go back to work only good thing is it will be only for three days.
Its my daughters and my son's birthday  at the end of  January .

MISS YOU

Missing little Alfie am sad i know but was attached to the little fellow , i hope he has his wings and he's found peace and happiness.

It does  make me wonder whats it all about what are we all doing and how many are living life to the fullest potential , i know i am not i come nowhere near yet i continue to carry one as if i have all the time in the world which i know  that i don't have .
Maybe i will if eventually we buy the trailer home or static house what ever we wish to call it , i will start living like i mean it.
How to change your life and do more things or just to make life more interesting if we don't change anything than life stays the same ,but knowing how to change or making it happen is the hard bit .

Two more days and i am back at work that's if we don't get more snow  falling if we do than maybe i will be off all week , now that would make life a little bit more interesting .

I have to bury little Alfie we are going to lay him to rest behind the cottage the ground is too hard at the moment he his tightly wrapped in his blanket and then in  two bin bags before being placed in a box this is then in another bin bag , covered with snow outside our front window until i can borrow a shovel and bury him .
Hate to think i would have to get rid of a human body it is way too much hassle just trying to bury the cat they make it look so easy on  "The Walking Dead" reality is quite different.


Listening to Cast - Troubled times life tour .

Watching - "John Wick" full of action  and "Vice" staring Bruce Willis.

Wishing for - A House move .

Missing - Alfie

GOODNIGHT ALFIE

Helen did three readings in Leeds yesterday on the way over we bought a Gigaset tablet form Pcworld.
 It boosts  a quad core processor and you can upgrade the memory using a micro sd card u to 32gb all for £60 , and to be fair it is very good .Helen bought it for her mothers birthday all her mother has is a Kindle book reader and a not so brilliant pc .
I synced it with her Kindle books and also put her a load of photos of her grandson on to it and showed her how to use Spotify , its a great present for her .
It started to snow again least i got the car further home than before still cant get it on to our bit of drive that is opposite the cottage.

SUNDAY
Went out to Black Haller farm shop and bough some fresh veggies chicken pieces and a steak pie meatballs was still on offer so i got two trays , we also bought sausages and some pork pies .

Our  little ginger cat Alfie passed away this afternoon .He died beside the radiator on his blanket very peaceful.He has been battling  on for ages and after a great fight he gave in enough was enough he passed away .
I don't think Pip realises he has gone she is sat in front of the fire seemingly unaware that he his not here anymore.
We have wrapped him in his blanket and placed him in a box in a plastic bin liner  he is resting in the front garden covered in snow we will bury his little body once the ground thaws out , its way to hard to dig.
To think he lived a lot of his life on the radiator to think now he is in the snow and cold does not seem right.Goodnight Alfie .

MORE WHITE STUFF

Thursday
Very cold thinking more snow is on its way. Everywhere in s white blanket will suit me specially as i don't have to travel to work being at home for the next five days brilliant .

Ian Lawman came tonight he did five readings including one for Helen  he won't travel from his home for less than five and he charges £50 per reading guaranteeing him a minimum of £250 . saying this he is good value for money i meet him  when i got home just after eleven o clock when he had finished  all of the readings .He seemed very genuine he is also been ordained and he is a priest and carries out exorcism's for the church.
 He owns various houses and he is looking at buying a disused chapel and also his setting up his own phone lines offering people readings using various psychic readers at a cost of £700,000 to set it all up , big business .
But he works hard and is a true professional and a really likable person to boot .you can find out more about the man here at http://www.ian-lawman.com

Friday
It has been snowing but not really settling we went to Staples Helen bought a new appointment diary and post it notes .
why Helen cant use her iPhone and i pad and mac book to organise her life is beyond me but hey ho so much for the power of iso and spell checker,  what was that  Bruce Willis said in Die Hard about being an analogue watch in a digital world ,so very true.

Bought more chicken and wraps and some ciabatta bread and pate so well sorted.
Two people are coming for readings tonight and we are going over to Leeds tomorrow to do another two or three people depending on the weather of course .
At the time of posting this just after 21:00 there is a thin white blanket appearing with the road and grass still visible .

Need to buy  of eBay another 100 blank cd's  plastic wallets and some AAA batteries for Helen's readings .

Eating - chicken and chorizo.

Watching "Wild" and "Fury".

MORE LEAVE COMING

Booked Friday Monday and Tuesday of as annual leave meaning three days work five days no work I did not even get this amount of time at Christmas .
My daughter finishes work soon to go on maternity leave her baby is due in March which will fly by and officially I will be a grandfather amazing to say when I was I'm my teens and twenties I never wanted to get married or have children.I ended up doing both .

I am going to find out if I can cash in my works pension if I can it will go towards the purchase of the static home we are hoping to buy in April.Buying this would be a godsend it will give us more spending power and our favourite farm shop is a few miles away plus we are still in the heart of the countryside but only a few miles from the M1 motorway which terminates in Leeds City centre.
Meaning travel to work would more or less be halved.
One thing we would like for the living room is a wood burning stove the cost and the installation of it I am not sure .

It tried snowing again tonight but it did not lay which is good i want to be able to go to work i rather get snowed in after my five days off .

Need to buy some chicken and chorizo and some frozen chips and maybe some sour creme and chives. I also need some Mexican or chilli burgers and more wraps , i also need pear cider onions and peppers i might also get the ingredients to do a Spanish omelette .
We also need to go for or buy in the food to cook a Sunday lunch this weekend.
Drinking lager and lime cant drink lager straight any more .

RATHER

Getting sick of living in this little cottage . its way too dark and glum and if it gets any darker we will need a miners helmet or one of those head band torches. Another issue is its damp in winter with mould almost everywhere . Which is not good .I have seen bigger prison cells .Of course we did realise it was small when we moved.
Having no separate kitchen is not a great way to live we don't even have a dining table to eat meals off.Inviting someone round is also not a great idea we have a three seat settee and a chair

The lack of work space and no where to put a clothes dryer means we have to hang wet clothes on an airy to dry , it is like going back to the 1950s.

The kitchen on the back wall is not really adequate .There is not enough preparation space for cooking and preparing meals .Most of the kitchen cupboards are out of line and the doors don't fit right .

The open plan stair case  is also an issue as it lets a draught blow down from upstairs .Which makes it colder its like having air con.

We only have two doors the main door to the cottage and the one on the bathroom .

The dog sits in front of the fire and the cat perches on the radiator most of the day .We have two radiators they are both way too small and situated in the wrong positions.
Helen sits in her all in one and wraps a blanket around her shoulders to keep warm. There are draughts coming in where you shouldn't be getting draughts. Being dug in to an embankment i suppose does not help.

The ceramic tiles have recently seem to be coming away from the wall in the bath room .Which seems a colder place even than the fridge .We have just spent our last winter here . And in a few months hopefully we are gone .
Good points we have made some great friends and the location is great i would recommend to anyone to come and live here just not in the cottage we are in .Rather be somewhere else.

I slipped yesterday on the walk behind our cottage my leg just went from under me it was completely on my arse as a result i am in pain i can't go on sick i am being monitored i will have to book some holidays .
The weather is still grey and dull and wet .We have had no more snow i am thinking i would rather be snowed in than go to work .

HAIR CHOPPED

Yesterday i had my haircut in Leeds  by Louise whose wedding we attended in August , Helen had hers coloured we both look better then what we did.
on the way home we had chicken and chips from our little chicken shack Marsten's on Leeds road on the way home to Holmfirth as always it was good food.

My son found out on Friday that he will only have a week left in his job he is being laid off due to lack of work and  he is gutted and no doubt totally pissed of .
Young people need a trade but also  need to earn money he feels let down and of course  he is worried that it will take him ages to gain employment and he is also worried about the up keep of his car it's M.O.T is due in February and for him to be road legal needs to pass  ,it is not the start to 2015 that he was hoping for only two weeks in to the new year hopefully it can only get better for him , i do feel for him i wish more than anything he had secured employment fingers crossed a job will come .

The price on eBay for a new or even secondhand  ipod classic is astounding they are in some cases well over £1500 I am guessing the return on your initial investment is well over 700% better than investing in gold or silver just buy fruit mainly Apples.

Went back to Leeds Helen had two readings  i sat in a car park in a shopping centre a couple of miles away , i was able to access the cloud and did a bit of surfing 0n my iPad.
On the way home we did a bit of food shopping and bought a fish and two bread cakes  from a fish shop just a bit up the road from the chicken shack we ate at yesterday ,  we had them  in the car before setting of back home  watching Jason Statham  in "Killer Elite".

Watching  -  "American Sniper". 2014 film about Chris Kyle .

Reading  - " Baby Lets Play House " by Alanna Nash about Elvis and  the women who loved him .

Listening to - Alex Cornish "No Shore"

NEVER MIND

Got chicken in the oven and have got a busy weekend we are going to Leeds tomorrow Helen is getting her hair coloured at the hairdressers tomorrow , i will go to Pc world and have a browse see what offers they have on.
.
Sunday we are back in Leeds Helen as three readings to do in a ladies  house and i will be sitting in the car for at least three to four hours watching films on my iPad  and hopefully eating chocolate with a banana milkshake.

So it is quarter to one and we will have to be up at eight in the morning so  i guess i need to go to bed but not before i have a coffee .
Helen is watching  You tube channel about Figaro.s the little Japanese cars never mind

RETURN OF THE DEAD

New year same crap did a twelve hour shift yesterday I had to move the car every two hours which was a pain in the arse, or run the risk of getting a £80 parking penalty why you have to pay to park on a normal street is beyond me it's a license for the council to print money , and why you need a permit topper at work when you work there is ludicrous there is doctors saving peoples lives yet they have to pay to park their cars England is totally messed up.

12 people killed in France what is the world coming to i hope the people who did this are caught and guillotined which would be fitting seeing as Jihad John was doing the same to hostages over in Sierra an eye for an eye or a head for a head .

Started watching "The Walking Dead " season five have watched date first two episodes and i am hooked again got to say it has to be one of the best tv series i have seen for a long time i rate it better than "Breaking Bad" the fact that it will run longer helps.

Cant believe that Sony as a new mp3 player costing nearly 1k and they are suggest you buy a amp and head phones for another £1300 some out lay i cant see it being justified its not even got a 1tb storage allowance , you could by a Mac book pro iPad mini and a iPhone 6 for a similar price i know how i would spend the cash .

Helen had another reading tonight that is four in four days which is a good start to the new year she is also working on the phones which is a great help and brings in a steady income .

I should get a increment on my wage in March and the price of petrol as gone down in price again and is now £1.06 a litre for unleaded.

A FEW MONTHS AWAY

Well in a few months we will know if we can have the static home we viewed a few weeks ago we might be able to get a result sooner , as always its a waiting game but we are more in the positive segment than a negative segment so who knows fingers crossed .

If we do get it apart from wining the lottery we will most likely not be moving again and we will live here continuously so we can really put our stamp on it and have totally how we want to decorate and do the flooring and hang new curtains up at the windows which will make if homely .
It is bigger place with more rooms than we have now the kitchen and living room are larger than what we live in now .we will able to fit in a tumbler dryer and a dish washer if we wanted , with a spare room for Helen to set up and work from,

Latest buy of Ebay a wireless radio transmitter it works fine but it is not wireless as i have to use a 3mm aux lead to connect to my iPhone and the buttons to skip forward or back only work if you connect it via the usb lead when i tried to do this it still did not work i can't be arsed with it was only the price of a packet of twenty cigs . My son also bought one for his car  but he is using it on the iPod i gave him not a phone.

Went to the farm shop on Denby Dale Road which will be closer once we move and we bought another to oven bake steak pie and two trays of meatballs they were on offer some growlers (pork pies) sausage rolls and some potatoes.

Our cat Alfie seems to be getting worse its not looking good and he seems to be eating  less each day and as a result of his loss of appetite  he is become a bag of bones , it is not looking positive for the little fellow he tends to sleep on top of the radiator most of the time  , night and day .

Went to Ikea bought a shot glass and some dining room plates that was reduced we had Swedish meatballs and fries in the restaurant quite filling.

STAG

More snow is predicted for Saturday if it happens could easily get snowed in again so today I am going to go see my manager and see where I stand if I can't get to work . I think we are taking down the chri tree and decorations down tomorrow get the cottage back to normal.
Be Valentine's Day before we know it .then it's going to be Easter and we will be a quarter  of the way in to 2015.

Ian Lawman pictured below from "Living with the dead "  tv series is apparently coming to our little cottage to see what he can pick up in the next couple of weeks , I am not sure exactly why we are not exactly living on Elm Street .

Both my sisters came over we went to Dobcross garden centre aw we got on the top of the moors it became foggy and it started to snow . We  bought  a plywood cut out 3d stags head for the wall of the cottage , thats  until we can afford a proper cows head and horns or some antlers .

Watching - "The Station Agent ".

ONE IN 15

Got up at hal past eight and had a shower starting the new year squeaky clean .I went down stairs  and had a coffee whilst i washed the dishes and feed Alfie he's made it in to 2015.

I took Pip out as soon as the wind hit her she did a u-turn and went deaf as she was not on a lead and not stopping g in followed her back home .

Helen is already moaning about the state of her hair it needs conditioning and re colouring we tried to get some conditioner on the way home last night just after eleven it was not happening.

Wished everyone a happy new year via Facebook , msn tried to phone my son just after midnight think he was partying , not paid my phone bill waiting to see how long we get into the new year before they cut me off .

Helen went to her parents house yesterday and is going again today which means we be late home again as i finish work at ten then have to drive over to pick Helen and Pip up. , but at  least its Friday tomorrow and then first weekend of the new year .

I like the Apple "Start something" campaign and i downloaded the VSCO Cam app just to try out its free of charge to download and use .