Ouch

I've sprained my ankle and can't drive. Bit of a bugger when you live in the country with no real bus service to speak of.

I had a spectacular fall outside tesco superstore in Reading en route to visiting a friend. I was holding Alicia in my arms, walking towards the trolleys.

Thank god my mothering instincts kicked in and I somehow managed to keep Lissy in the same position in the air while I crumpled in a heap around her. It must have looked pretty amazing. I couldn't get up for ages, thankfully a nice elderly couple held Lissy for me while I recovered.

I had a weird blackout thing for a few seconds too, I'm not sure if it was before the fall ie the cause of it, or after the fall from the shock of nearly chucking my child onto the concrete!

My friend came to collect me and we spent a nice day at her house, me hobbling about rather pathetically when not elevating and icing my poor ankle. A mum from school picked Ella up for me and took her back to her house where she has stayed - electing to have a sleepover seeing as hubby couldn't collect her until much later and I can't drive her to school tomorrow morning anyway. What a star that mummy is.

Hubby came to get Lissy and me after work - his friend collected him from our house so J could fetch our car from Tesco carpark.

Dramarama.

Am now deep into doing my online tax return. Oh joy. Nearly finished it.

Looking forward to doing Notes' 'I Love Me' theme tomorrow. I could do with a good rant. I have one forming about boobs actually. Not mistakes. Bangers. Norks. Tits. Watch this space ;-)

I've got Christmas all tied up..

Photo: 3 presents waiting

I'm feeling very smug as I've had Christmas all wrapped up for days. An hour on the Internet and it was all done.

I even managed to buy my sister's birthday present (the poor thing has her birthday two days after Christmas) and a pressie for myself.

Buying myself a Christmas present is a tradition I started a while ago, it's a great insurance against the disappointment of not getting anything you really want. I highly recommend it.

I found some unusual gifts here and did the rest here - books, gadgets, smellies, clothes...it has the lot.

As soon as my postie had delivered the first package, I dashed to Waitrose for some wrapping paper. Big mistake.

WARNING: some of Waitrose's Christmas wrapping paper is actually see-through, although you can't tell until you're actually using it.

Fan-bloody-tastic.

I had to double- (and in some cases triple-)wrap the presents. Subsequently, I went to Tescos for cheaper and far superior wrapping paper.

The only other disappointment I have encountered in my amazingly hassle-free Christmas shopping experience is that things are not always as they seem in their photos. I can't go into that too deeply, as one of the intended recipients reads my blog.

The shoes  I bought for J (who doesn't read this blog), although lovely and almost exactly what he wants, are lace-ups instead of being 'slip on' as I had hoped. This may turn out to be a Big Deal. 

A a few months ago, I accompanied J on his hunt for some new casual shoes and we traipsed around no less than ten shoe shops. Why? Because any design he liked had lace-ups and "I just want something I can put on quickly. I don't want the hassle of laces."

Now, J is by no means a lazy man. In the summer, he put up a large garden shed single-handedly (I made the tea). I have never asked him why laces are a “hassle” and in exactly what situation he would need to save the five seconds required to lace two shoes. I suppose I shall find out on Christmas day…