All gone to ruin?

Just wondering, without going into too much detail, is it pathetic to let some bad things ruin the better things?

Some people may say you can have things ruined if you let them, and therefore it's more an attitude to ignore the bad and concentrate on the good. Some find that getting the balance to fall in the better times' favour can be too delicate and thus easily tipped over into bad territory.

This weekend was big, and on approach I was filled with excitement as not only was it my birthday but also was my friends' wedding. However the other night I suddenly was struck with some sadness which had kind of came out of nowhere. My birthday has a bit of a turbulent history so around that time I'm reminded of some things, but they don't stop me enjoying myself or celebrating what it is. I think it's acceptable for a few hours of the year to remember times and get a bit upset about them, because then it's out of your system and you can carry on with things, and then also remember the better memories as the painful ones have almost been moved through and you're on the other side.

As it was, someone was a bit tactless to me about the whole thing, and I got much more upset and for longer than necessary, rather than just being allowed to have some 'sad time' (for want of a better definition) and then return to form when ready.

Anyway, back to the title point. I've obviously had a big and busy weekend; spending one day at my friends' wedding and the next with my family celebrating my birthday. It was a good time, but I'm wondering if a few things amongst it have tainted it in a more negative light than I would like. This has nothing to do with the sad memories of the past (life has very much moved on) but more making me frustrated with how things are going at the present. Am I just being overly sensitive and allowing negative things to bother me? And how can I turn that off? Do you tend to remember the bad things more clearly? Or am I almost justifiably annoyed about whatever has bothered me? Maybe a bit of both? Tough call.

It's late and this time of year beckons

Start with lizard news I guess. (I'm sure I used to have something more interesting in my life but that seems to have been replaced by reptiles!) Unfortunately our incubation of gecko eggs didn't go to well and they appeared to dry out so we gave up on them and got rid of them. Whenever Sonny lays her next batch (which she will soon) we'll get the lizard shopkeepers to collect them so there's less disruption and risk of destroying them again. Would be nice to see what little monsters have been created!

Tom had his birthday the other day. Sadly it seems as you get older birthdays become less of a big deal. As an adult it apparently you're not really meant to ask someone how old they now are...! But he got lots of cards from friends and family and lots of books as presents, so he'll at least be occupied for a while.

This weekend it's also my birthday, but I'm more excited because it's also my friends' wedding. Being rather young and having mainly friends around my own age means I've not been to many weddings yet, so I'm really excited to see them get hitched! It's well deserved for both of them and I am truly happy for their union. And I get a party on my birthday! So what if it's not my own?!

With the wedding weekend forecast to be sunny and hot I shall learn from my lesson a couple of weeks ago when on the bank holiday I wisely forgot to use any suncream and spent several hours outside in sun and then wind. My face was not only sunburned, but I had 'panda eyes' from wearing my sunglasses, AND my left side was worse than my right. Work was interesting the next day.

New things beginning

Tom and I did something different last night, we went on an Alpha course. A few years ago I wouldn't have thought it relevant to my life, purely as it's aimed for those who want an introduction to Christianity, and I wouldn't class myself in that area.

However in recent times it's become so apparent that I need more of God in my life than I have been getting, and was eager to join a new group and see if I could 'start afresh' and break in to a new group of people and become part of something bigger again. I also wanted Tom to come along and see my faith in action, as he's not been to a Christian meeting like that with me before, and for him to be able to ask more knowledgeable people questions as I cannot always answer them.

I had a brilliant evening! We were fed, made welcome, were given an informal talk, and had a chance to chat to everyone at the pub afterwards. Tom and I ended up talking to a lovely lady called Gabby who is training to be a vicar with the church, and she said how much she enjoyed talking to us as we both were partaking in a very energetic discussion! I hadn't seen Tom so animated in this kind of setting before.

I very much look forward to returning next week!

Another new thing recently discovered is that our bearded dragon seems to have changed his mind about water. He used to absolutely hate getting wet; bathing was a bit of a nightmare as he would have a small fit about it and that made things tricky. However he seems to be enjoying it more, and I braved putting him in the bathtub. Before we've used a sandwich box in the kitchen, but he's outgrown them! After a moment of sitting on his 'rock' (aquarium ornament) in the bath, he decided to have a splash about in the inch or so of water. Seeing as he didn't bother trying to get back out he obviously liked it! And he was cleaner afterwards.

Been a while

What a hectic month April turned out to be!

One of the reasons for not updating this soon was I inadvertently broke the power cable for the laptop and thus for a while we had no internet (nooo!) which was interesting... luckily that got fixed.

But April was a month of endurance for us. One of the problems that troubled us was our bearded dragon caught mites (a bit like fleas but for reptiles) and we were having to spend a lot of time and money that we didn't have on trying to sort him out as best as possible. In the end the best medicine seemed to be coating him in olive oil! I think he's nearly forgiven us...

Not before we'd finished with Rusty than during our trip home for Michelle's engagement party Tom had his own medical problem which lead to us being dropped off in Cheltenham A&E for about 9 hours. He had a problem with his chest which required many blood samples, X-rays, blood pressure readings and monitoring before they performed a small procedure on him and, thankfully, sent him home rather than keep him in overnight. We had a few days away from work together to keep an eye on each other and let him get his strength back up. He's been declared fit and healthy again now.

We also got a bit of a shock recently when we found out one of out geckos is actually a male! We had thought we had two girls, and unfortunately put them in the same tank assuming they would live a peaceful existence. Instead, some violent mating has occurred, and tonight we found the first batch of gecko eggs! We're currently trying to incubate them with a hope to hatch them and sell them to a reptile shop as we really can't keep any. Hopefully the couple will not produce too many more as we're more concerned with the possible health effects on the female laying them, but she managed the first two ok, and judging by the size of them we think it must have been a great relief!

Hopefully this next month will be a smoother transition into a more stable household routine where we can actually do the things we need (and want) and not be too hindered with the financial problems we've had over the past few months.

And I'm really getting into Bill Bryson books. I think I have more patience than when I was a teenager.