Last week I was back at Souter lighthouse in the keepers cottage for the week with mum in tow this time!
She enjoyed herself but there was a little two much road travelling for her...However the weather was glorious, and she enjoyed the lighthouse and some shopping we did, as well as a visit to Lindisfarne (Holy Island) almost on the boarders of Scotland! Its nice to write about the good bits, but there were some bad bits too...like thanks to the smoking ban I, as a law bidding citizen, have now been criminalised for smoking in a holiday cottage!!! Oh I dident get caught or anything, but I had too descretely smoke in my bedroom with the window wide open, and the help of a smokeless ashtray I got from ebay! Now in the entrance to the cottage there is a huge notice saying it is illeagal to smoke on these premises! Good grief!! It realy did make me feel like a criminal, and when a weird alarm sounded (Usually morning and evening) I was terrified that it was a smoke alarm!!! By the end of the week we had figured out it was actually the caretakers of the lighthouse coming and going, morning and evening, and setting and de-setting the alarm...I have to say it was rather alarming!...opps....sorry...*blushes* Anyway when it came to leaving I Fabreezed, and aired the whole bedroom and stirpped and fabreezed the bed just to make sure, but what a way to send a supposidly relaxing holiday!
Of all things (and like most women) my Mum loves shopping so I took her for a day out to the Metro centre near Newcastle!! Now for those of you who have never been here, its HUGE!!!! and you would need at least a week just to see it all. Fortunatly I know my Mums favorite shop is House of Fraiser so I took her there for a couple of hours, and she loved it! Oddly I love shopping too, and managed to scare the witts out of my credit card! The first thing I got was a *love at first sight* DKNY handbag for a bargin price of just £95!!! it just had to come home with me, its just beautiful with dkny embossed in fusica pink, with gold trim, and leather studded handle! and needless to say is my pride and joy! I also got a pair or Morgan black stilleto evening shoes, and a pair of Gladiator style sandals! I was in my element! Mum bought 3 pairs of shoes and a gorgeous coat, and between us we managed to spend a small fortune! My new handbag looks rather small but its like a Tardis inside and holds far more than my old leather bag (which is also small as I like small bags, and dont carry a huge ammount of trash with me) but it fits my bits perfectly...ciggies, purse, keys, compact, sniffer (Sinex, as I suffer from Sinustitus) and my mp3 player and a lip gloss! Ok I will stop waffling on about handbags now and return to the Holiday!! LOL!!!!
Souter lighhouse is supposidly haunted, and was even featured on the TV programm "Most Haunted" in its first season (I absolutly love that programme) and I told mum about the ghost and let her watch the dvd...two days later I found her in the morning in the kitchen scratching her head and looking confused...."My pee bottle has vanished!!" she told me all very bemused! (pee bottle is a hospital type bottle she had for night time emergencies of a personal nature)...anyway...she blamed the dissapearence on the ghost!!!!!!!! So the tales go, the ghost at Souter likes to take things and move them about, and things will re-appear in the most unusual places. So my mum was looking all over our cottage for this bottle! I must admit it was rather funny and I told her she would find it when she packed her thing...but it never did turn up! If it was the ghost at Souter, I will never know!
One of our nicest days out was the the Holy island of Lindisfarne!
We took the shuttle bus to the castle on a small penninsular, but becuase it was a steep climb, Mum just wanted to sit on a seat overlooking the bay, and so we did, and drank tea and admired the view...it realy is a magical place, but absolutly packed with tourists of every kind, but it did not spoil our day out! Several times a day the island gets cut off by the tide, and it is totally unaccesable by road, so you have to check and double check the times of the tide, and make your visit between these times! After our viewing of the bay we got the shuttle bus back into the delightful tiny village, and had lunch outside in the warm sun. It realy was glorious!!! that was untill my dog Sirius spotted a cat over the wall....................
CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sirius was off and took the table with him, smashing crockery and knocking over chairs in his ultra fast wake!!!! It was soooooooooo embarracing!! Sirius had previously been very quiet and supposidly asleep under our table, and I had attached his lead to the table leg beliving it would be safe enough...Obviously not!! I had forgot just how very strong my potty beardied collie is, and he just took off after the cat!!!! Everyone on the verrander was stairing, but I cleared up all the broken crockery, whent back inside the cafe and explained what had happen, and I offered to pay, but the kind lady would not except it, and she just said accidents will happen!! I was very greatfull to her! Oh and I scolded my dog, who just looked at me as if to say "well it was a cat!! what do you expect!!!"
All too soon it was time to leave and Mum remarked on how quick the week had gone, which I was plased about because it meant she had enjoyed herself and I think the sea air did us good too! Souter lighthouse cottage's realy are a beautiful place, and well worth staying for a *get away from it all* break (thats if you don't mind the ghost LOL) and you get a sea view every morning! You can find information about Souter cottages on the National Trust website! You pay for the cottage not per person so it makes sence if more of you go! it sleeps up to four, and has a huge kitchen and bathroom all none smoking ofcourse!!
BTW if you go and smell cigarette smoke in the master bedroom, its not me....its the Ghost!!!!!!! he smokes too!! ;-)

Following the recent 7.5 earthquake in South West China I felt my heart breaking!!
Admittedly I don't have very fond memories of China, but this area of south-west China is breathtakingly beautiful, the people are very friendly and welcoming, and the children treated me like a film star (teachers invited me to schools) and I would get happily mobbed in the playground by hundreds of happy, excited kids asking for my autograph!!! Ok this was ten years ago, and steadily China has opened her door very wide for the tourist $ and because of my 6 months traveling in south-west China, I have been able to send many tourists to this region myself, where they too have has the expierence of a lifetime!
What I saw on the news was horrific and devestating images from an area of the world I know so very well...the thing is, I know it so well I know that many of the more remote area's in the moutains may not be accesable to the rescue workers, and there may be people and children trapped...many area's are not acessable by road even!! (or wern't when I was there) my only hope is that the Chinese army gets to these regions quickley and save those who desperatly need help. China has a superb army, and so far 15,000 troops have been deployed to help with the rescue effort...I hope and pray for the vistims of this horrific earthquake!
China is many things I hate!!
Animal rights are a huge issue with me, and China has a terrible Animal rights record. Certain areas have a huge fur trade, which is grotesque, and so cruel its impossile for me to belive these people are capable of such crulety! Fur isen't sexy or trendy, and recently I saw a picture of Madonna dressed in a real fur coat that just made her look like an aged cave-woman!! I instantly lost all my respect for this singer for indorsing the fur trade! Also at the time I was in China certain authorities I encountered were so annoying!!!! Like the time I was unable to buy "People Class" train tickets at a train station simply because I was a white westen woman, I was told I had to travel first class, which is about as expensive as flying, and when your on a budget, not justifiable! So I had to hang around the station for nearly two days before I befriended a Police officer, by offering him one of my cigarettes (the best way to make friends in China) and he purchased me a People Class ticket for me! Now this IS what makes China such a special place! The friendlyness of the people! When your traveling in China its not uncommon to be invited to someone family home for a meal!! To me, China is definatly a land of extreams! and I learned to expect the unexpected, which seems to be the best rule...I was involved in a bus crash in a remote mountain area, where I (and my fellow passengers I am relived to say) were unhurt, and all got out with just cuts and bruses...was defriended by a student from Tibet called Xhau Tzong in the mountain village of Lijiang, when I had desentary, and she took me to see the Doctor and helped me get back on my feet again. When I had to leave both she and I were very upset, and we said a tearful goodbye at the bus station (photo below) OMG I hope she is safe!...Oh and the time after the bus crash, another bus driver picked me up for an overnight drive to the next town and dident chage me a penny!! (a Yuan) which was so generous of him! so I gave him a packet of cigarette's instead which he accepted very happily! My heart and thoughts are so with these lovely people at the moment....I swore I would never go back to China, but at the moment I wish I was there at the moment, to offer what little help I am capable of....
Below are some pix of me in South-West China where I spent 6 months traveling!



The maginificent Hauongoshuo waterfall!



Playing pool with the local kids just outside Cheungdu!



My back!!! me from the back out shopping!! Vicky the Westen Oddity!! LOL! I love the expression on the man's face sat to the right of me!

Watch this space..........................

Several things to report folks!! Firstly my weight loss on this magic patch! So far I have lost 11 pounds!! I was absolutly gobsmacked when I got on the scales on Saturday morning! Please dont worry, as I have a lot of exess weight to loose, as over the years it has crept on slowly, and is now at an unacceptable level...my target weight is the perfect weight for my height which is 8 stone 7lbs!! and belive me it will take a long time to get there!
Now in other news...I have developed this weird rash on the top of my thighs (wonders if its releated to my patch??) it seems to have come up after two sessions of sunbathing over the weekend. Now with all the traveling I have done, its given me huge respect for the suns power, and just what it can do to your skin!!! (I watched the skin on my arms actually boil while on a river trip in Costa Rica!) so needless to say I am a VERY carefull sunbather! In the tropics the sun just hits you with a sledge hammer and its best to cover yourself from head to toe in white cotton topped off with a wide brimmed sun hat...Now over the weekend I had just two half hour sessions in my garden, and yet this morning I woke to find this rash on my thighs, so I am staying out of the sun today!!
Doctor Who on saturday was a huge dissapointment for me (the Doctors Daughter) the story was just daft, I thought, and I had the impression the screen play had been written in ten minuits on the back of a match box!!! Not much of it made sense, and it was very rushed, but I did like the designe of the Hath creatures, so it wasn't all that bad. I am sure lots of fan's did enjoy it though. Doctor who desperatly needs the "Invasion of the Pylons" (Electricty Pylons come to life after a Meteorite crashes into a main substation in Birmingham, and the Pylons come to life dominated by an Alien force, and stride across the countryside rather like H.G Wells Fighting machines, killing everyone withe a deadly Electric ray....) Ok I will shut up!! LOL!!! I have lots of ideas for stories but putting them into a script format is very difficult for me as my schooling was crap so subsequently is my spelling and grammer (I would need a bloody good editor) Its been my lifes ambition to write Horror stories...real *keep you awake at night* stuff...but sadley my Grammer lets me down!...What I will do is put something together in Paintshop, to illustraite my idea with the Pylons, and post it here later!
Ok, I am going to hop off for now and get some stuff done, before I let my imagination run amok in Paintshop!

see you soon! X

He realy hates being brushed! *hides*
I have to bribe him with custard creams! Cojoule him, and tell him he is the most beautiful boy in the world (he is very proud) and tell him the girlies will love him (he has a thing for young girls) and its genrally a battle royal to give him a jolly good brushing! Sirius likes to be his cross breed, scruffy self...but because of his breed (beardied collie cross) he has long fur like an old English sheep dog, and if I dont brush him at least 3 times a week he ends up covered in horrid matts! I have no idea what he is crossed with (Godzilla my Mum says) but he has a heck of a lot of "Beardie" traits in his personality (he is bonkers) like, he likes to get messey in long grass and mud...he will rummage in the rubbish bin, when he has fresh food in his bowl....oh and he loves sheep!
When I first got him from the Dog Trust kennels (it was love at first sight!) one of the first things I did was to give him a good brush and a hot shower! His fur was in a pitiful state, full of matts from head to toe, and he smelt dreadfull...so I carted him off to a doggie salon to have a proper groom! It took nearly too hours (Sirius sulked for days!) but when he came out he looked gorgeous! Following this I did a lot of online research into grooming *beardies* and the proper way to do it, so I got a proper grooming kit from ebay and set to work....I start with his back legs and his bum and work my way up! Apparently Beardie fur should never be cut, but sometimes when he has a large matt I have to cut into it and gentley brush it through with the aid of some de-tangle spray...He absolutly hates having his front paws brushed, but he loves having his long floppy ears brushed and cleaned, oh and he is not too keen having his tail and bottom done, but half an hour and several custard creams later and he is back to his smart, fluffy self!

Sirius!!! King of his castle!!!
and I love him too bits!!!! x x

Is it actually summer?? I ask myself!!

I have just spent an hour in my garden, sunbathing and I am red!! Because of the awfull weather here last year (Noah re-built his ark here!!) it has actually been over a year since I sunbathed in my garden! It feel strange after such a long time! It was far too hot for Sirius as he wanted to curl up on my sunbed with me but soon scuttled off to find sanctury under the shade of a tree at the bottom of my garden! If the weather keeps up like this I will certainly be getting out my huge blow up paddling pool to lounge in!! (thank goodness my garden is very private! LOL!!) What a funny sight, a 40 year old woman lounging in a kiddies paddling pool!!
Oh folks before I forget, please remember to put water out for your garden birds!! They love a drink and a bath in weather like this! I love watching one of my male balck birds coming down several times a day and getting totally carried away flapping about in my birdbath! I have some piccies of him which I must post as he is absolutly gorgeous, and in the evening when he sings his tunefull suppertime tune, I lay in my bath with the window open so I can hear him! I am such a soppy mare when it comes to animals and birds!
My Pink Patchs still hasen't arrived!!
For those who dont know about the pink patch, its a appitite surpressor, and I want to shift a rather large ammount of middle age spead....you get a free trail for six days and then they auto ship your monthly 30 patches every month at a cost of £40...except they have not autosipped mine yet....I am not a happy bunny as I was hoping to loose a stone by the time I go on holiday soon! I have emailed them as its now been 18 days since I heard anything from them, but so far I have had no reply. I shall see how it goes and if I get anymore problams I am cancelling the auto-ship, and I will buy them off ebay, they are cheaper there too! and YES!! they realy do cut your appitite, and they worked wonders for me, thats why I am manic to get my hands on a months supply! Over the years my weight has been creeping on steadily from being a size 8 in my early 20's to being a size 14 now....I realise I will probabally never be a size 8 again as I am now 40, but I have had no children and would like to get back to a size 10, which suits me well, even a size 12 would be an improvment....opps Colin just called me! He hates hot weather and likes to sit in his friedge when it get too hot!
Below is a vary rare photo of Colin sunbathing, with a treasured Dr Who magazine!!

The weather here was glorious yesterday, and this inspired some summer thoughts for me!
Way back in 1981 when I was a little wee beastie, we had a "pop man" Alpine pops to be prescise! Once a week on a thursday their lorry appeared outside our house and Mum would get about 4 bottles, usually lemonade, cherryade, cream soda (my fav) and orangeade. Now it was 1981, and that was the Royal Wedding year of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, and to celebrate this event Alpine Pops created a special pop and it was Peach flavoured, and in all honesty it was the nicest thing I have ever tasted and will never forget it....This morning I came very close to recreating the taste of this gorgeous and very refreshing soft drink, by simply adding Robinsons Peach cordial to a large glass of plain soda water, and hey-Presto!!!!!!!!!!!!! it works!!!!
Now my point with this post is that these days there is a pitiful lack of inventive flavors of soft drink! Walk into any supermarket and all you get is coke and lemonade, with occasional own brand like Morrisons Apple which is way to tangy and tastes only, vaguley apple-ey. So without waffling and moaning on, I thought it would be a good idea to post about making my own refreshing soda pop for summer! Adding almost any fruit juice or cordial to soda will make a very interesting and refreshing flavor!! I have also tried Welches Grape juice in soda which was beautiful...Have a go lovely people! you might like it!
Now for the rest of my day...I am still waiting for my "Pink patch" in the post (its an appitite surpressor that helps you loose weight, and I have more middle age spread than I am happy with) I did a trail two weeks ago and lost 4 lbs, which I was happy with, now after the trail ends they are supposed to send you a months supply and this is what I am waiting for in the post...well I will give anything a try once!!!

Back soon x x

Found out this morning that you need to register to comment!!

I realy hope this doesn't put you lovely folks off!! Its juts for some reason this blogware thing doesnt allow anonymus commenting!

Choose a username and password (it can be anything you like) and enter your email...you will recieve an email confirmation, open it and click on the link...this will take you to a page that asks for all kinds of info! IGNORE IT!!! and just scroll to the bottom and click save!
I have tried this myself so you can see my TEST comments SO IT DOES WORK!

Really looking forward to reading your comments soon! x

A very good friend emailed me this morning and told me that there was a bug on the site when you go to leave a comment!
I was very worried indeed, so I have tried to leave a comment myself and got some kind of message about backtracks, so I just ingored that and clicked on "post comment" again, and it took me to a post comments page, so it appears to  be something and nothing realy, at least from this end. I thought it might be better if folks "join" with a username and password, but its up to you realy, you only have to give a name to post a comment! Anyway my blog is very new, and I am certainly not a computer genius so please bare with me as I try to get things sorted! But I would love to read your comments!!! *grinns*
Now ANTS!!!!!!!!!!!! yes, they are back with a vengence this morning, having an ant rave on my hearth tiles!!!!! Grrrrrr....At the garden centre yesterday I got some ant killer spray (and this one is pet friendly) and promptly drowned the little buggers in it!! Ants 0 - Vicky 1!!...Anyway, Today I am waiting for somthing exciting in the post, and I am also trying to sort out the huge ammount of clutter in my garage, because I am looking for a huge blow up swimming pool that I got for last summer, but never used because it pissed it down so much! Its a massive blow up, transaprent kiddies pool, big enough for me and Sirius to relax in when I have a quite moment and its realy hot (wishfull thinking LOL)...oh and before I go, TK Maxx are selling Dr Who plates for £7.99, and I got 4 of them last week...now I just need to find a space on the walls to hang them!!
See you soon! x

Well at least the weather is nice here at the moment so I might go out later!

Last night during a phone call with my Mum we ended up arguing about the best way to kill ants in the house! (I needed several huge glasses of Port to recover) I have lived here for 7 years now and there has always been a bit of an ant problam in the summer, but mine has begun early this year! Firstly in the kitchen I noticed the odd one scouting about, and then I found the hole at the bottom of the wall where they were coming through, so I covered it in ant powder, problam solved....or so I thought.....Last night just after a glorious hot bubble bath I noticed a veritble ant army on manouvers across my hearth rug!!!!! I grabbed my Dyson and began hoovering the little blighters and I hoovered up some ant powder as well so they were properly got rid of. When most were gone I checked the heathe of the fire and sure enough in the brickwork were several ant holes, which I hastily covered in powder, and then put up the fire guard so Sirius could not sniff it!
Now what is a self confessed animal lover doing waging was on ants, you may ask?
Well while on a back-packing trip to Thailand I was on the island KhoPangan (yes the one from the film the Beach) and I decided to do a bit of drunken trekking up a hill behind a ramshackle restraunt...I dident get far becuase I felt a very sharp prick on my left shin. I looked down and saw it was a huge red ant and it was biting me!!!! I tried swipping it away but I couldent! The horrid thing was stuck to my leg! Eventually I slapped my leg so hard I got rid of it, and ran back down the hill I fell over several times! Now that evening after copious amounts of Thai Rum, I noticed a huge white blister had appeared where I had been bitten, and in the middle of it there appeard to be a black *thing*...I tried picking at it with a needle but it would not budge so I decided to leave it alone and see how it went.  Within a week I had lost the use of my left leg (without excruciating pain) and had a very high fever so some travel friends carted me off to the Doctors in the town.  The Doctor examined the now huge pulsating mass on my shin and explained to me that I had suffered a bad reaction to a bite from a red "Soildier" ant, and that these ants bite in the same way that ticks so, in other words as I had swipped it away the head (mandibles) of the ant had become embedded in my skin, and thats what the black *thing* was!!!!!!!! Needless to say he gave me about 8 local injections aroung it and gouged the thing out with me screaming my head off!! The pain was so bad I thought I was going to pass out! When I came out of the surgery a girl about my age was waiting to go in to have her wounds cleaned after a bus crash she had been involed in.....
"After hearing your screams in there, I dont want to go in!!!!" she said. It was the first time I had laughed in a week and we arranged to meet up for a drink at a beach side bar in the afternoon! Her name was Rachel and she was from Canada, and we got totally plastered....we parted company and I got a motorcycle taxi to take me back to my hut on Tary Tong beach!...I slept very soundly that night!
So basically I hate ants!!! They are evil little beasties! and I am going back to the garden centre  today to stock up on some more ant powder!
And no, I dident win the argument with my Mum....I never do!

Well I thought it was about time as everyone else seems to have one!!
A wee bit of info about me just to get me started:
I'm totally loopy!!!
Ok thats sorted!
I'm officailly loopy too! *grins* but the nice people in white coats let me out!
Some facts about me!
I am 5 foot 3 inch at a push, adores animals (I have a dog called Sirius and a tank full of freshwater fish all named after characters from Harry Potter!) I love to travel and my favorite area's of the world are, India, Nepal, Veitnam, Bali, and Malaysia! For my job I am a travel agent (we are not all evil you know) Oh and I am totaly in love with Gary Oldman and have been since the late 80's! Sadley he is a hugely talented, very sexy international superstar...and I am just a boring little idiot with a huge liking for Port! He would never look my way!
Ok...on we go!
I love Dr Who and have done since I was 2 years old, but the latest series has put me off a bit, and I feel the stories of Mr Russle T Lady have realy let it down! Its not that I disike him as a writer (I loved his "Bob & Rose"  and "Queer as folk*) but he doesnt seem to have the "WHO" factor! Anyway this is just my opinion so please dont judge me too harsley on it!
Yes!!! I do know that my spelling and grammer is shit and I dont need to be told this in any comments that are made such negative comments will be removed!!!!!!!!!!  Not realy an excuse but I changed schools 4 times as a child and my high school was totally awfull, it was so bad it closed down just a few years after I left and is now offices!
Originaly born in Warrington, UK a very long time ago I spent the first 18 years of my life trying to figure things out and trying to hide my smoking habit from my parents and teachers! At 18  I foolishly married a total manslut who shall remain nameless, and needless to say I divorced the bastard 2 years later...nuff said....I went travelling at 25 and swore to myself I would just keep going but I came home eventually, and now enjoy camping trips closer to home with my dog! My best friend in the whole world is a wonderful chap called Colin who lives near London, sadly I dont see him as often as I like, but we stay in touch everyday!
Ok ...time to get lunch ready!