Wow, into a new month ! This week, the lurgy hit The Madhouse - well, it hit me anyway and totally flattened me for the start of the week. Luckily, I made it through and have come out of the other side, but I didn't achieve much this week.
1. Get Fit(bitting) !
Back to work so my steps were down on the last couple of weeks. I also had a horrible cold/fluey bug at the start of the week which started like a cold (constant runny nose and sneezing) then morphed into a horrible ache-all-over, no energy kind of thing. I slept it off when I could and was very pleased to see that by Thursday, it was on the way out - phew ! This meant that I only hit my 10k step target on two days this week - it really wasn't a priority though as just getting through the day was hard enough !
Back to work so I'd planned a week of family faves that didn't need recipes. I only made one bookmarked recipe - Cheese Crust Tomato Pie which was transformed into Cheesy Crumb Crust Leek & Bacon Pie, because I didn't fancy the filling made with grated cheese and mayonnaise !
3. Get geocaching !
In last week's round-up, I had placed eight geocaches. I went for a long walk on Saturday and placed my final caches in the series around town, taking my total of "caches placed" up to 13. I need to get back to hunting out some more to get my finds total up now ! You can find out more about my cache-placing adventure here.
4. Get comping !
Hmm my lucky streak seems to have run out. I haven't won anything at all since the first week of February. I'm still on track but I need a new win for March !
(January : 4 wins - £20 shopping voucher, Mr Lee's noodles, Ambrosia trifle glasses, set of 5 books; February : 1 win - prize for Galina )
(January : 4 wins - £20 shopping voucher, Mr Lee's noodles, Ambrosia trifle glasses, set of 5 books; February : 1 win - prize for Galina )
5. Get reading !
I finished reading Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran, which looks at the thorny issue of illegal immigrants having their children taken away when they are deported back to Mexico, along with a side helping of the woes of infertility. Click through to read my review. I also read The Song Of The Stork, but I can't post my review yet because I'm taking part in a blog tour. I've just started Dangerous To Know by Anne Buist, which is the sequel to Medea's Curse which I reviewed last year. (Click through for that review.)
6. Get FLYing !
Nope. Sorry Flylady. This is the one that always seems to get neglected !
8. Get bloggy housekeeping !
I think things are on an upward curve. I've had 1,000 unique visits most days for the past couple of days, which is what I used to get, but it had dropped to about half of that since last summer, presumably as a result of the google penalty (which has since been lifted). After my Klout score hitting an all-time low (53.37), it bounced back up to 54.14 last week and is now at 54.64. Still a fair way to get back to my 90 day high of 56.73, but fingers crossed, it's starting to get back into shape too.
9. Get French !
I knew it was too good to be true. Last week, I posted : "It's in the post ! All I can do now is sit back and wait !" Well, I didn't have long to wait. They sent it all back, asking for a load more documents that weren't on the original list to be added to it - the birth, marriage or death certificates for both parents, including details of their parents - plus, obviously, they need to be translated by an official translator again too (bam, another 2 x €38, plus more if I have to order the original certificates from the General Registry Office). They also want a photocopy of Madhouse Daddy's ID card, the last two years' tax returns and phone or utility bills in my name. All things that weren't on the list of required documents. Why they couldn't just keep the dossier and add the extra documents to it is anyone's guess. Maybe it's so that they can say "ahh sorry, some of the documents are more than three months old so they need to be redone". Let's cross that bridge when we come to it though. OK, time to lick my wounds, gather my next load of documents and start round two. *sigh*
What about you? Have you set yourself any targets, challenges or new year's resolutions this year?
What a pain with the French citizenship paperwork. Bureaucrats are nasty buggers everywhere, in all countries. Hope March will bring you prizes!
ReplyDeleteLOL You're probably right ... but they do seem to take particular relish in being awkward in France ! lol
DeleteSounds a lot more paper work. I do not have copies of my parents birth ( and now death) certificates. Do you have bills in your name are they all in MHD?
ReplyDeleteWell done for surviving the week.
I am away for a look at the geocaching post.
You can order birth, death and marriage certificates from the registry office but I've managed to get hold of the originals. Yes, I have bills and stuff, it's just a case of hunting out all the paperwork and photocopying it and/or paying for translations (which annoys me as I could do that myself !)
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