Shopaholic? Me?

I need to get round to sorting out my son’s music lessons. He currently goes for piano lessons and he is on a waiting list to start violin lessons at school but ultimately he wants to learn to play the harp. You can imagine my pleasure that he would like to learn how to play the harp but you can imagine how scary the thought of purchasing a harp only to be abandoned a year down the line. On the otherhand if he took up guitar, I would struggle because a guitar often hurts my ears yet a bass despite its nice sound cannot really stand on its own. I suppose he could always consider a prs baritone which I believe is somewhere in between. But then again, I do like the harp and I do have another 2 kids… so who knows perhaps the harp will get some use if I bought one. And if not, I guess I could always resell it or donate it to my son’s school.

It would be great to have live music in our home.

It is that time of year again, and I think I need to come up with some resolutions. I think I need them to be simple just so that I can stick to them. I don’t have many but they won’t be easy.

1. Diet & Fitness – I must start a diet and lose at least 2 stones. I also need to improve my health and fitness. A good diet and joining a gym will all contribute to this.
2. Fiscal Independance – I need to start funding my own shopping. I need to start earning some cash and be able to afford my shopping. I would like to step up my shopping to include some more luxury items especially if I lose that weight! So I probably need to get myself to raleigh accountants and get my finances in order.
3. Quality Time – I spend lots of time with the kids but I think I need to spend more time playing rather than looking after the kids. Now if someone else did all the cleaning, chores etc would it not be that much easier?

3 Resolutions… can I last the week let alone the year? Fingers crossed.

I guess it is now time to write my letter to Santa or he might just miss me. Do you think I am asking for too much?

Dear Santa,

I hope you are all geared up for Christmas because I am certainly not. If you are just waiting for my letter, all I ask for are just 3 things.

• low cost energy
• a prepared perfect christmas without any effort on my part and
• a lie in

Thank you Santa

Love

Shopaholic.

(See things I want are things not easily bought! Think I asked for too much?)

We were setting up the Christmas tree and it brought back memories of last year. My hubby lost his wedding ring last year when he went to our shed to get our tree stand. For the whole period I went over lots of mens wedding ring s but none could replace it because none of them were sentimental. However Santa was looking out for us and we found it when we were getting out our turkey on the 23rd. I nearly died with excitement and was simply bursting till Christmas. I wrapped it in box within box within box within box. It was a great Christmas!

Have you seen the cost of education? Private education is steep. Mind you, I guess you get what you pay for. So now I either get a job at the school even if it is just one of the Janitor Jobs just to get a discount – rumour has it is as much as 40% discount. Or otherwise, I need to get a good paying job which fits into school hours and school holidays. Now where can I get a job like that?

As you may have realised we have been house hunting but it has been quite a ride. Bearing in mind the economic you would think that prices of houses would have dropped. Not so. Prices are higher than ever and people seem to be happier to leave the house on the market rather than drop the price. Some won’t even drop 1%. They think because a house has a clawfoot tub, magnolia decor and granite surfaces in the kitchen that they can ask for any price. We saw a house and they are asking for 580k in an area where the average price is 500k. Admittedly it is one of the larger houses but the rest are immaculate. This house has damp, rotting inbuilt fridges, missing cheap laminate etc.

I saw these carhartt pants and thought these would be great on my hubby and they even do his size. He falls into the Big & Tall category. They are not expensive and come in great choice of colours. The best bit is they even deliver internationally but this feels a tad expensive, but then again at least it means I can just go ahead and buy them.

Now which ones should I chose?

My son is into his sports and his activities and more so into his acchievements. There is nothing better than receiving certificates, sport trophies or recognition.

Today he was awarded a level 2 ASA qualification in swimming, but to actually get the certificate we have to pay £3.50. As you know I have no objection to buying nearly anything but seriously paying for a certificate? Admittedly there are costs involved paper, ink and administration but can’t they be inbuilt into the cost of the exam or lessons? Or is it just me?

Yesterday I was accused of being a geek. And I must admit that it is true. For example, I love my playbook tablet which I insisted we buy rather than my IT hubby. I use it for the kids to learn on, to keep them occupied, to play on, to watch films on, for cooking, as a book in bed, to go house hunting, as a diary, as a camera (though not often), checking my email, surfing the web and loads more. This is aside from the fact that my phone has all these capabilitie but has a small screen, my camera is a DSLR and I could not live without my laptop.

So yes, I am a official Geek!

My son has asked for violin or guitar lessons. Here comes the good part. He wants them because he thinks it will help him learn to play the Harp! So, not only are we funding his piano lessons and we are aware that he wants to learn how to play the Harp, so Harp lessons will have to follow… but guitar and / or violin too. I guess we have a musician in the making. Wonder what they earn? Otherwise how can he keep his future wife shopping?