There is something really annoying about the summer this year... I think its over before it even got started.  The weather has been utterly and totally crappiliscious this year and... although the start of my time off was bathed in sunshine it has steadily got cooler and cooler to the point of today... where I am sat with jeans and a sweatshirt on.  I'm not at all impressed. 

The past few days have been VERY relaxing... which I didn't realise was what I needed... but is exactly how it has turned out.  This past Sunday we went to the beach... (pick yourself up off the floor) yes... the beach.  Not an amazing beach... just Bovisand... but it was beautiful down there.  Barbie's m-i-l has a chalet (currently up for sale should anyone be looking for a holiday home in the South West) on the holiday park there and we spent the day relaxing first at the chalet... taking in the SPECTACULAR views of Plymouth Sound and then later down on the beach.  When the tide started to come in... and the sun started to get just too damn hot... we headed back to the chalet for showers... food and a snooze... in that order.  The whole time I was there I cursed that I hadn't lugged the Nikon along with me to take photographs.  Although I have lived in Plymouth since 1980 (crap that's 27 years and makes me feel VERY old) I've done very little travelling around the close area.  Bovisand... well hell I had no idea it had such amazing views of the sea...or Plymouth Sound.  For some crappy pictures taken with the old point and shoot click the pic.

The rest of the time off has been spent seriously relaxing... I sat in the garden all day on Tuesday and read a book... from start to finish.  OK... so it was only one of those "Little Black Dress" books and very light and fluffy... but its all I did... all day.  In the sunshine... in the garden.... with no HB (out living it up with her pals still celebrating her exam success) and no chores to do or anything else for that matter.  It was bliss.

Yesterday was pretty much the same... relaxing... reading... taking pictures.... not answering the door... (how unsociable of me).  With the dawning realisation that my plans to be debt free by the time HB leaves school (and her father stops paying maintenance) are rapidly going a bit squiffy I poured over figures and plans and policies and all kinds of other money bleugh to get my plan back on track.  Although I doubt I'm going to achieve it... it was rather satisfying cutting up the three credit cards I have.  Don't panic... I've kept one for emergencies.... and no... I am fully aware that holidays are NOT emergencies.  I figure that if I stop piling extra money into my mortgage every month and start piling the extra money into paying off some credit card debt... I might actually get somewhere.

Other than that... what other plans do I have for my time off?  Well apart from a girly lunch with an old friend today I'm actually going into work for a training session.  The LLF obviously runs a completely different system to the one we have so we are all  being trained in their system before we actually get there so that we aren't floundering around quite as much as we will no doubt be doing.   

Perhaps today I will find out if my request to join the admin/facilities team rather than stay on the legal side of things has got any further.  I certainly hope so.

Then I guess I will just spend the rest of my time catching up on other peoples blogs on HB's laptop (oh the joys of wifi and a sunny garden....) and if the weather turns nasty... dammit I guess I'll have to finish off the decorating I started months ago....