Its Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas……The house is a tip!

Who’s idea was it to put the Christmas tree up on December 1st? Mine apparently!  I am getting so over it.  My house is driving me insane, no matter how much I tidy and clean it there is still always bits of tinsel in the carpet, cards fall down, and these darn presents under the tree just get in my way!

Honestly, this year I thought I was a complete smart arse, I started buying the presents in September, finished shopping nearly 2wks ago and started wrapping as I went along.  I wrapped Santa’s presents for him last week (lazy so and so!) took me two hours and could have honestly cried at the big pile of presents for my son compared to the smaller pile for my daughter.  Even though the value is more or less the same, but we know our kids, they don’t care how much items are, it’s who has the biggest and most parcels!

Yesterday I ran out and got a few extra items for my daughter.  Its dawned on me that she is at this awkward age, 7, going on 18! She is apparently ‘to big for princesses’ She doesn’t like High School Musical anymore and I am of the mind that she is too young for makeup and quite frankly I could care less if her friends have rainbow coloured faces!

So the items I ran out and bought was an alarm clock! eyeshadow, lipglosses,  perfume and an electric toothbrush! WTF Yes I caved, why? Because I had no idea what else to get her and I am beyond stressing.

This week, I have been wandering around in a daze, I do have a vacant look about me, and the power of communication has left, replaced by occasional grunts and I don’t know the last time I have had a proper sleep.

Last night, however, I was sitting down, ‘chillaxing’ while the kids finally went to bed.  I looked over at my toppling tree with the wonky star, with utter joy that presents for all my family and friends were sitting, beautifully wrapped and ready to go, even if they are in my way.  It then dawned on me, that in the morning, my kids would be attending their last day of school.

Out of my mouth, the words ‘Shit, bugger, bollocks’ and worse, fell out.  I forgot to get the frigging teachers a present!

Surprisingly, with the excitement of Father Christmas attending the household sometime tomorrow night, the kids actually forgot that today was their last day of school.  I made them write cards to their teacher, received a telling of from my beautiful 7yr old daughter ‘How did you forget, have you no idea?!’ was the exact words she used.

‘I promise you, I will go and get Yankee Candles this morning, and when I meet you from school you can give it to your teachers then’

I dropped the kids round at school, and the usual mummy catch up at the school gates, left, arrived at the store at 9:12am….the store was shut!  Why are you shut, do you realise that its Christmas and I am in a crisis!!!

I remembered I had to pick up MY OWN present from my brother.  Every year he purchases tickets to the pantomime for us, he presents the envelope with the tickets after Christmas lunch.  This year however, he sent me a text, ‘your tickets are at the box office, enjoy’ and included the reference number!  I also had to pick up tickets for my parents who purchased tickets for the same night, same row of seats, who, had also purchased tickets for my brother…following?

Went down to the theatre to pick up tickets…..CLOSED.

I needed to get petrol for my car, so thought I would go to the station and fill up then go back and to my chores again.  Thankfully the petrol station was quiet, so got to the first pump.  Out the car I got, put the key into the tank, tried again, key would not go in, tank frozen! De-icer is not working.

I can’t take anymore…I need a coffee!  I have been out for one hour and nothing has been accomplished!

I get home and I am cursing, make a coffee, try to sort that frigging star on the tree, baubles fall off.

Using the warm water from the kettle, I defrost the petrol tank….genius idea, bomb off down to petrol station, it’s now packed with other customers requiring gas.  While sitting in the car waiting, I play angry birds (now completed all levels…yay, but now needing to get 3 stars on each level….booo!) Get petrol into the car, the idea of defrosting my car tank was brilliant, I roll my eyes and giggle at the person across from me struggling to open his tank

Get over to theatre to pick up tickets, seamless procedure, off to Yankee Candle store, opted for the Christmas Cookie candles for teachers, sale has started…Yay, buy me the Christmas Eve big one.

Get home wrap up presents for the teachers and I am now sitting here, back in my smugness.  Christmas is not Christmas unless you are stressed out, and it will be all worth it when I see the faces on my kids.

Just looking forward to sitting back tomorrow night, with a large glass of mint baileys watching my husband erect a 4ft Barbie house.

I wish everyone a very Happy Holiday season and many blessings for 2011

Kindle on the iPhone

I recently posted my experience on buying a 2nd kindle, which is a ‘surprise’ Christmas gift for my mum, you can read the post here.  I was disgruntled at the fact that Amazon don’t allow sharing or gifting books.  Well, apparently, they are going to change this at the end of the year.  Reading here Amazon maybe allowing book sharing for 14 days on a book, ONCE.  Maybe ok for some readers, but I have been reading my book since October!  You do the math.

Anyway, I am not here to be disgruntled.  I noticed a lot of hits on my post coming though varies searches, my favourite search being ‘Where to buy Amazon Kindle’ *herm* I think the clue is in the search

I know at this time of year, its possible that Kindles are becoming the in thing for book readers.  To purchase as a gift, unless you understand the buying and sharing of books for your recipient then I think it’s a fabulous thing.  I know my mum is going to love her Kindle when she opens up on Christmas day, dang she has been drooling over mine for months now! But I would have loved to put a book on it for her.  But alas, right now, it’s not really possible.

However, as a Kindle user, I LOVE IT I DO! It so so simple to use, the font is clear, and you can also change the size of the font if you so wish.  Flicking pages is smooth too.

I also love the dictionary feature, the book I am reading right now ‘Never Look Back – Lesley Pearse’ focuses around a London Lass in early 1800′s who emigrates to America with her employees.  A lot of the book, especially at the beginning uses a lot of old English slang, you’d think I’d get it huh? I mean, I am on the same continent.  But two things, I am Scottish, its hard enough getting my head around Scottish slang, and secondly, I was not actually around physically in the 1800′s.

So, where am I going with this???

Oh yes, the dictionary, yes, if I am struggling with the various unrecognisable words, then I highlight it, and voila,a meaning!

The only thing I dont use it the talking reader, I was expecting a gorgeous, sexy, sultery male voice, reading me off to sleep, but no, its one of those computer voices, real turn off, which I do turn off!

Amazon, are throwing the Kindle ads just now, you know, that thing, Christmas! Not only are the advertising the e-book reader, they have been advertising the apps for Iphone and Ipad.

For me, I never thought I would need the app, since I usually take my kindle with me.

But, reader, I am an app whore! simple as that.

I downloaded the app.  I just logged in with my Amazon details, and all my books were archived.  I just downloaded the book that I am reading right now.  And magically, it went straight to the page I bookmarked.  Clever!

So tonight, my hubby is on his Christmas works night out…..pfft

You know how it is, wives and mothers of the world, we are busy all year round, but this time of year, its manic! Santa has no freeking clue!!! Not only are we running the home, cleaning, grocery shopping, tending the young lawyers and doctors of tomorrow, we are now being left with stressing over what to buy for Christmas presents, who we are buying for and then finding time to wrap up the presents, oh, then make dinner.

I was close to exploding this evening, I am at the point where I am seriously considering ebaying off one used, now faulty husband, maybe someone can take him to bits and piece him up with other used faulty husbands. Then make a Stepford Husband.

I decided, that this evening I am not cooking.  I bundled the kids into the car and took them to a child friendly restaurant.

The kids were ecstatic! I was ecstatic, thanks to the crappy weather, every other decent family decided to stay put, we are on high weather alert….’only travel if necessary’ this was necessary, I would likely do a certain husband serious damage!  This was health and safety necessary.

But DANG! I forgot my Kindle, but hey, clever me downloaded Iphone app a few days ago, I hadn’t really used it, didn’t know how reliable it was (have read some pretty negative reviews).  So I opened it up.  If it wasn’t to par, I could always play Angry Birds

To my delight, the book was at my bookmark, and I enjoyed reading on my iPhone, the smaller screen size didn’t seem to bother me.  Because I was out of wi-fi networks, I couldn’t sync my kindle to my iPhone until I got home, ie, for bookmarking, after I had read nearly 2 chapters.

I synced at home and it took less than 30 secs.  I have to say, I am pretty impressed with the app and glad I downloaded it.

The app will never be a replacement for my Kindle, but it works for quick reading, I don’t think I will take my kindle back out, like I usually do, various appointments, kids swimming lessons etc, I can purely rely on my iPhone for that.  My kindle will be my bed time device (that sounds wrong!) and also my going away device .  But for little outings the iPhone really does what it needs to do.

Thumbs up for the Kindle iPhone app!

The trouble with a kindle…

Amazon Kindle

I want to say, I love my kindle, I can not compare it to any other book reader, but, I really wanted one when I first saw the advert on television back in August.

I read a lot of books, after I finish a book it just gets thrown in the corner of my bedroom, which in turn just becomes another useless ornament gathering dust.

The advert for the Amazon Kindle showed a woman lounging on a deck chair on an isolated beach, the sun beating down on her, but she managed to read her book comfortably with no glare on the screen.

This advert sold me, in a few months I was heading of for a week in Turkey and the last thing I needed was a couple of books taking up space in my luggage.  Also, there is nothing worse than getting sun cream squirted on a page, you try to rub it off but smear a couple of words which then becomes illegible.

I promptly logged onto Amazon, and ordered myself the 3G wireless version at £149.00 and waited patiently for the delivery guy to come with it, in the meantime filling up a ridiculous ‘wish list of books!’.  2 days later I had this genius bit of kit in my hands.  Very simple to work. I didn’t even have to register my kindle as the people of Amazon did it for me! I logged into Amazon and started going through my wish list.  I will just say, there are a huge array of books to choose from, but they are not cheap for a download version.

One of my favourite authors is Lesley Pearse I particularly love her period drama books, my Most favourite book is Remember Me a great book that had me in tears! So I thought I would download Never Look Back.  The price for paperback cost £5.49 the price for the kindle version, which is paperless, which will save the enviroment…..£6.49  yes, 1 whole pound more expensive! I don’t get the logic behind that, I have paid nearly £150 on an e-book reader, then I need to pay more than the paper back format to read a book!

The kindle is very easy to read, there is no backlight on it, so you need to purchase a little light, I bought the Mighty Light which clips onto my kindle, and there is no glare. Which  does have a downside, the other reason I bought the kindle was I read late at night, while my husband sleeps, he used to wake up when I turned pages, but with the kindle, of course, there is no physical page turning, just flick a button.  But yes, the mighty light kind of defeats the purpose of undisturbed sleep for the other half!

However, the kindle is my most used gadget, it slips into my handbag, I take it with me everywhere, when I go into Town, I might have a coffee so read my kindle.  When I take the car to pick up the kids from school, I will sit and read my kindle.  My son has eye appointments every 6wks, my kindle comes with me while we wait in the waiting room.  So yes I love my kindle.

My mum has been admiring my kindle too.

I purchased mum a kindle as her Christmas gift.  I got her the non wireless version, at £109, I wish I purchased the non wireless one myself!

She also likes Lesley Pearse, in fact she was the one that got me reading her books.  When the kindle arrived, I thought I would add ‘Never Look Back’ on the kindle for her.  I logged into Amazon, and, to my dismay, I discovered, it’s not possible to gift a book. I thought, maybe I could get a copy of the book of my kindle and put it onto hers.  I copied it from the relevant folder, saved it to my desktop.  Plugged in mum’s new kindle transferred the copy to hers, opened it up, and was presented with an error message ‘Registered to another user’

So I couldn’t do that, the other option was to register the kindle in my name for the time being, which I did, and all 10 of my books transferred over.  Mum doesn’t want to read all of my books, especially as I know she is not interested in the genre of some of them.

I tried going through the folders to remove the other 9 books, but it’s not possible on the 2nd kindle.

Lastly, I googled the problem.  It appears, Kindle will not allow sharing of books! I find this pointless, I share books between my mum and other book reader friends frequently, but Kindle will not allow it, Amazon just appears to want to make more money.  The only alternative is to give mum a gift card and demand her to purchase the book herself!

I really do love my kindle, but Amazon really do need to iron out these problem, mainly the price of e-books and allow sharing. Had I known this issue before I decided on a 2nd kindle purchase, I would not have bought it,  I would have saved myself some time and frustration had I just purchased the hard copy book from a book store.