Ros's Blog

Ros from Heart Breakfast has been allowed by the management to keep a blog of what she, and Kev have been up to over recent weeks... Read all the juicy gossip in blog entries below!...

Friday 7th January 2011

So Christmas is over and the New Year begins a New Year and New YOU!!Well that’s the intention isn’t it?

A new slim line waist, a new dedicated program at the gym and a new healthy lifestyle, well for the first week anyway.

Does anyone actually stick to their new year’s resolutions, because I’m jealous of those that do. I’ve tried to give up sweet things but the more I deprive myself the more I want them.  Even Kev has joined the gym and so far he seems to be going strong, I think he could have Chippendale potential given 6 months (well maybe). He’s brought all new gym kit and looks the proper newbie;

I’ve warned him that with new blinding white trainers, new shorts and t-shirt he’ll have the regular gym go-ers round him like flesh eating zombies, all putting bids on his kit for when the novelty wears off in 6 weeks time.

January has got to be the busiest time of the year for gyms, you see the new ones coming to look around all wide eyed with enthusiasm and hope that they too will look like Madonna in a couple of sessions.

But whilst I mock Kev for his new found love of the gym, I’m actually right behind him and want him to succeed in his goal to get fit and lose weight because I think it’s important to set yourself goals and aim high. A friend of mine once said, “Never give up on something you can’t go a day without thinking about” and I believe that, no matter how long it takes us, one day we’ll get there!!

Ros x x

Tuesday 9th November 2010

So the cold snap is back with a vengeance and Kev thinks it’s affecting my brain! He thinks I’m nuts for talking to my boiler, well its more opening the airing cupboard and telling the Powermax 500 ‘I love you’, but let me explain.

It was almost a year ago that funny banging noises started coming from the boiler cupboard, almost like someone was in there with a crowbar trying to get out, so of course knowing that it would only mean expense if we did anything about it, we chose to ignore it. Not only did the banging get worse but a high pitched whistling followed, so loud that the neighbours twitched curtains and came out their houses to check where the noise was coming from. Still, we did nothing.

The weather was starting to get worse and the heating was being cranked up to what I’d call 'Australia' setting. At the beginning of December the banging was so bad the floor was vibrating, so we called the Gas Man out who thought he could fix it with a part that needed to be ordered. The part arrived on the 23rd December, and after 7 hours of fitting the new part, we were told the boiler had died of a cracked tank and would never work again... so from Christmas Eve we were without hot water and heating. It was a miserable and cold Christmas to say the least, especially when the snow fell and temperatures dropped to minus10!!

I had blue fingers and lips and couldn’t feel my feet, the walls were so cold they felt damp and you could see your own breath. 27 days we lived like that. It was as cold inside as it was outside!!

Then the new boiler arrived and it has been on ever since. So it’s back to Australian temperatures, which is why every now and again I do open the airing cupboard door and whisper ‘I love you’. I might be nuts, but at least I’m warm and nuts!

Ros x

Friday 8th October 2010

This week on the show we’ve been talking about baby keep-sakes, things you’ve kept from your childhood. Be it a favourite toy, blanket or one eyed bear, most of us have something that has survived the journey with us, they’ve been thru various house moves, draws and cupboards, witnessed our ups, downs, highs, lows, break ups and break downs.

I have a rabbit that was brought for me as a baby, I don’t know why out of all the cuddly toys that I had some sort of connection with it, but I did. When I was little I used to carry it by the ears and swallowed most of its fur whilst holding it and sucking my thumb, I wouldn’t sleep without it and we certainly couldn’t go on holiday without it, the one time it was forgotten I was inconsolable to the point my parents nearly drove 300 miles home, they tried to buy a replacement rabbit but I was having none of it.

To be honest it’s not even really a nice rabbit, it has rabbit ears, but the rest of it looks like a duck, and it’s not soft and cuddly, infact its stuffed quite hard with cheap multi coloured stuffing – I know this because most of its now hanging out! But there’s no way id part with it, its old, probably smelly with thinning material and now has to live in a sock for protection,  but its valuable to me,  sometimes I pat its head knowingly, after all its seen many sights, secrets and boyfriends!! For some reason it’s more valuable now because it’s survived all these years and considering we’re the same age it actually looks in more need of a face lift than me.!!

My favourite text on this subject was from someone whose mum had kept a lock of their hair from their first hair cut, and it was now over 30 years old, Im not sure if thats weird or cute, but it did remind me of an old episode of the X Files where someone had kept in a jar their pickled twin.

I do miss the X Files!!

Ros x x

Wednesday 22nd September 2010

A recent study shows that women spend £250 on impulse purchases at certain times of the month, now i would question the amount but certainly not the principle.

I would call it window shopping but I’m very rarely the right side of the glass for it to be window shopping, and it seems to be when I’m not looking for anything and don’t need to buy anything that those must have items find me. I get very excited when I have more than the allowed garment allowance to take into the changing rooms, thereby upping my chances of something fitting. Funnily enough it’s the random items that I didn’t think I’d really like that I end up loving, and once I’ve found something I like, brought and bagged, I’m on a roll. It’s almost like gambling, you know after a naughty purchase you should quit whilst your ahead and go back to the car, but you just can’t stop.

I have self diagnosed myself with being CCH, credit card happy, and I can’t seem to get in another shop quick enough to buy something new but stupidly similar to something I already own, which makes it even worse, I can’t tell you how many black jumpers I own. I’m particularly pleased with myself if I have so many bags that they start digging into my fingers and I have to put them down and rest before getting to the car. Then I get home and have to sneak in the bags or run upstairs really quickly so the shopping police or husband doesn’t catch me, then lay out all the new items on the bed, its only then at that point it hits me that I’ve spent way toooo much money on things I don’t need and probably won’t even wear very often.

Most purchases don’t seem to look as good as they did in the changing rooms and that’s when they go back in the bag and sit by the front door only to be returned. But that’s what Sunday tradings for, I buy on the Saturday and return on the Sunday and cut up cards on the Monday.

Ros x

Wednesday 8th September 2010

Cats or dogs?? That’s an argument Kev and myself have on a regular basis, he has Duffy the Labrador dog and I have the J Twins, Jax & Josie, two tabby cats...

I used to be a dog person but I’ve since been converted to a cat lover, something I thought I would never say. I always thought you were either one or the other but never both. Growing up our family dog was a Boxer, Scooby, who was nuts, even the vet said he had behaviour problems, but he was ace, playful and full of naughtiness and that’s why I loved him. Plus the fact he would get into bed and sleep on me giving me a dead leg and very little room, but then he was over 5 stone.

He once grabbed the Sunday joint of meat and ran off with it, burning all his mouth and scoffing what he could before it was taken from him. He’d never come when he was called and if he found a hedgehog or something to play with you’d never get him back on the lead and when he was particularly excited he’d run round in a circle and wee!! And I never thought that cats could ever compare to that, I thought of them as aloof, running off before you could even stroke them, liking you only for food and swiping you with sharp claws just for the fun of it. But I was wrong, I’m smitten by the delicate nature of our cats and their shy and softer approach at gaining your love and affection, I love how they’ll curl up in my arms when watching TV or even reading a book in bed they’ll try and get under the covers where its warm and soft, and their fur really is second to none. The gentle head nudges and nose wipes are my favourite and the paw patting on my eyelids when they want me to wake up. They come when they are called and will even play fetch with sticks and balls although running after a laser light is by far their favourite.

They don’t drawl when you’re doing your dinner or ape for scraps, they’ve never chewed the strap of an expensive pair of shoes, they don’t want to share my chocolate and they’ve never jumped up a small child knocking them over or barked continuously at nothing annoying the neighbours;  they do however leave frogs in my slippers but then I figure you can’t have everything!

Ros x x

Thursday 2nd September 2010

So this week it’s all been about those three little words, BACK TO SCHOOL!!

My favourite 3 words at the moment, it means the cinema will be free again in the afternoon, the supermarket aisles will be free from screams and over excited trolley pushers and best of all it means the toilets at the gym will probably from now on will be flushed!! Why do kids go to the loo and then just walk off?!

Kev assures me that most of the kids are actually ready to go back to school, to run riot in the play ground and catch up with all their friends again, but are they ready to go back to school dinners? Whenever we talk about our school days for some reason the school dinners are etched in our memories and I’m not so sure it’s for the right reasons, maybe school dinners have improved since my day and since Jamie Oliver started his mission to change them. BUT if you were at school in the 80’s you too will probably remember the custard, it had its own skin, more like melted Clingfilm to be honest, you could actually drag it with your spoon and infact had to break into it to reach the luke warm runny custard beneath, and if you were really unlucky it was brown, pretending to taste of chocolate, ewwk. But let’s face it the custard had nothing on the tapioca, or semolina, surely kids of today don’t have to endure either of those do they?!

Tapioca makes me feel ill now just thinking of it, filled with wart like lumps in what looked like paper mache glue. And I’d been particularly put off by a boy at school, Marcus Knightly, who told me that tapioca was made from verrucas, what a random thing to say! But even knowing that it obviously wasn’t true it put me off eating it, shame he hadn’t said it about chocolate fudge cake, I could certainly do with eating a little less of that!!

Ros x

Tuesday 24th August 2010

So this week we’ve been reminiscing about our school days, maybe because GCSE results are out this week.

I remember it being a scary time and I remember when they came through the door and my mum standing over my shoulder to see how I’d done, I knew it wasn’t going to be good, so I ran upstairs, shut my bedroom door and opened it in private. I remember holding the thin green slip of paper and staring at it until my eyes welled up so much the grades blurred out of view. Not that it matters anymore as I’ve over written my actual disappointing grades with the ones I wished id received and so far not one employer has asked for proof so I seem to have got away with it, in fact I couldn’t honestly tell you what the original ones were, except F for French which for obvious ironic reasons is memorable.

I was more disappointed that the grades didn’t match my effort, as I actually liked school on the whole. I loved the whole going back to school thing, getting new pencil tins all shiny and new, ready to scratch some random boys initials in it with the compass. A new school bag, or even basket back in my day, a brightly coloured plastic basket was much in fashion when I was at school, almost similar to those dodgy jelly shoes we all used to wear. And most of all I’d love a new exercise book, all plump pages ready to write all neatly and carefully in, in fact if I messed up the first page, id rip it out and start again, as the first page had to be perfect. More often than not I’d also rip a load of pages out of the centre of the book so it was really thin and id need a new one super quick, but the teachers weren’t stupid and they soon caught on to what I was doing as you had to show the old one before they’d let you have a new one, and my maths book was questionably thin.

Then there's the uniform which seems allot cheaper now than it was in my day, our school required the girls to wear a certain maroon skirt that you could only buy from two shops and they were really expensive but now you can buy back to school gear at more affordable prices, in fact I was only walking through a shop the other day and saw a black cardigan for six quid, it was for a 14 year old and I think with a bit of pulling and stretching, I might be able to get into it, and for six quid I think it’s worth a go!!

Ros x x

Wednesday 11th August 2010

On the show this week we’ve been talking about how modern technology is overtaking our lives.

Ive started calling myself the iWife just to try and keep up, although as my husband points out, I cant provide cinema times, do maps or give you the temperature in Dubai at a moments notice, or show you the latest pop video or provide you with up-to-date and breaking news, infact as the iWife im pretty App-less!!

I'm starting to feel surplus to requirement, I cant even cook an evening meal without it being interrupted by a game of Modern Warfare where the other person playing is on a live link up somehow in Japan and him and my other half are doing action replays of their best shots. Then there's the ipod docking station in the bedroom that blares out some random playlist over my  ‘hows your day been’ conversations, and I’ve lost out to the TV and DVD player that constantly has a build up of ‘must watch’ films. 

The bedroom mood lighting now seems to be provided by the ipad and kindle light and I’ve lost count how many wires and chargers I’ve tripped over.  I am infact the only thing in our house without a plug on it. 

Its just a good job i make a mean moussaka – but no doubt there will be an app for that very soon!!

Ros x

Friday 30th July 2010

This week on the show we’ve been talking about holidays and ‘Holiday Tat’, the presents you bring back your nearest and dearest from holiday.

Who hasn’t had a t-towel with the map of Cyprus on it, or a wooden spoon from Italy with ‘Italians do it better’ written down the handle, a mini set of castanets or a straw donkey or my personal favourite the squeezy rubber monkey that upon pressing displays more than a lady would care to remember!!

Its tat but I love it, my Mum on the other hand, not so much, although the little silver bell with the emblem of Wales on it still has its place on the kitchen sideboard. It’s a reminder of the good old days, the cheap and cheerful last minute deals to Corfu amongst other places, where the pokey club house sported a pool table with only three good legs and barely any green cloth and what was left was covered in smudgy lipstick kiss marks, which girls like me back in the day thought was cool to leave everywhere. Not so hygienic when you think another drunken holiday maker had probably spent the night on it because they were just too drunk to make it back to their apartment. 

We used to toss a coin to see who would sleep nearest the open window, coz without air con it was a killer, but so were the mosquitoes that came in at night and would feast on you like a sleeping kebab. I’d be so bitten by the end of the holiday it would almost resemble the plague; luckily Id have such a mahogany tan from the human marinade we called carrot oil they cleared up pretty quickly. A tan was usually all we could afford on holiday, but that didn’t matter because no one cared about having a decent dinner before going out; these were the days when a Twix was classed as a two course meal and partying was way more important.  And who had a tape from the resort nightclub, like Banana Joes or something that would sell you a cheap cassette tape of all the summer classics so you could dance to Las Ketchup in your own time.

Oh those were the days, which I have to admit I’m now too old to experience again; a decent day by the sea with a hot donut does me just fine these days. (and a stick of rock with my name through it is always a bonus)

Ros x x