CharlieBeth's "My Life As Mumma Walker"

Got this email today from an MM customer: Last week I ordered an item from [mm web site] This week the site has disappeared. As far as I know there was no warning of impending maintenance. What is going on? What can I do about that???? My reply: Hello Unfortunately I am not able to help a great deal. Up until Feb 14th I was contracted to maintain the website, but on the 14th the managing director of [MM] instructed that our contract be terminated with immediate effect. I am not permitted to pass out former clients contact details, but I can suggest calling one of the directory enquiries companies for their number or contacting paypal directly if you are concerned about your order. Sorry I cannot be of more assistance Regards Charlie Oakes

Hee hee hee! What a DAY! Went to Leeds last night. The plan for today was to watch Dad takes his Glider flight that I had bought him for his 60th birthday and retirement, and then go to see the lady Fay had found in the hope of booking her to make my wedding dress. This morning the weather was terrible! And I mean, really really strange! There was sun, there was rain, there was hail, there was snow.... all in the space of about 2 hours! We thought they wouldn't let dad take his flight - wet weather affects how gliders fly and low cloud is not a good idea for a first time flyer. However, after a half hour wait it was desided that the weather was fit after all, and dad got ki tted out with his parachute, fitted into the glider and the basic explained to him. Once he was up in the air fir a while he would get to controle the glider!!! It was great to watch. He was taken up into the air and towed along for a while, dad sat in the front of the glider, and the official piolet / instuctor

Juvy, the lady in charge of the dress shop, is lovely! She made me feel right at home straight away, and even managed to butter me up by "assuming" I was a size 12! I showed her the dresses I had tried at prontuptia on Monday, and Fay had already shown her the photograph I had found on the internet. By coincidence the sketch she and her apprentice had come up with already combined the best parts of the three dresses! Even though she had not seen the pronuptia dresses until that point. I tried on about 4 dresses again, the fourth being one which Juvy had picked out for me, one I had already seen and dismissed because, beautiful though it was, it was very much like the one in pronuptia that didn't look right on. Grudginly I tried it, and lo! It looked AMAZING! I mean, I still want to loose this last bit of weight, and there are a couple of alterations I would want to make to the decoration, colourwise, and it would need to be a little shorter as I am only a short girl! I sh

Right, I don't want to make excuses, but I am skint! And that really does make a difference. Fatty foods are cheaper than healthy foods.... and I tried to avoid that whole situation by doing a months worth of healthy food shoping back when we had some money, and to some extent that worked because we had healthy, low fat meats and fish in the freezer, and just enough of the "orange" food to tide us over on days when I get Yorkie to cook (e.g. Avon book nights when I am too busy to cook). I also have a load of frozen veg too, but there's only so much food you can fit in a freezer, and 30 days worth is pushing the limit! It's the fresh stuffs that's the problem. You can't buy enough fresh fruit, veg, milk & bread to last a month in one day because it'll go off, right? I've been baking my own bread (but at 22 points per loaf I have to go easy on it) and apart from that I have very little in the way of breakfastable and lunchable food. It sucks! Th

All together now.... AAAAAAAWWWWW! Isn't he a stunner? I would have loved to get a closer shot of his face, but his eyes work so I don't want to blind the little sweetie. And he was so good all the time we were there too! Even if he did do a huge poo while I was holding him, lol! We called into the neo natal suit just after 12 today to visit Jill, Gary and Baby Morgan for the first time. He'll be a week old tomorrow. Poor Jill has been sent home for the first time last night and Morgan has to stay in the hospital for now as he is still quite light and has lost a little weight too, hence the tube up his little nose there. She is finding it understandably hard. I mean, ok i don't have kids, but I do understand that when you have a child you want to bring them home with you when you leave the hospital, not leave them behind! She's also finding the sleep deprevation hard too, as they come in every three hours through the night to feed him, and are there with him all day

What a lovely day I have had! There I was just sat at the laptop tapping away and getting some work done and the phone goes. I almost didn't answer it, expecting another "Can I speak to a mrs C. O-ak-ez?" to which I will always answer no. Any one who doesn't know that I am a miss, and that Oakes is pronounced "oa ks" isn't some one I want to speak to. infact, if i am not called, Chig, Charlie or Charlotte t hey can all feck off! As it happens, this voice said "Hi Chig!" and I knew it was Jacs. She and David had pulled a sickie fom work, and it's the school holidays and the kids were home, could they come over for the day and see me? HELL YES!!! They arrived around 1pm and offered to take me out for lunch so we all piled into their Punto and drove up to the Greaves where they have a play area for small people. Me and Jacs talked weddings and babies, poor Dave didn't want to get to involved (I think the conversation on which bras to we

Went to Burnley today to see mum and visit some wedding dress shops. We had a lovely time, althogth of the three shops we went to, only one was right. The first was more for hen nights, and the second was closed on Mondays, but Protupia was wonerful! I tried on a few dresses and now I have a good idea of he shape of dress I'll need to flatter my figure. For more on that see; www.nearly-mrs-walker.blogspot.com Seeing mum is always great though. I took some of my home made bread, and mum made some homemade soup and some bacon butties. We nattered and gossiped for HOURS before we actually got out to the shops. wetalked about poor Isabelle and Mannie, we talked about Dad, and we talked about my mum's parents. This is not something we do often. I never met my granddad, he died before I was born, and mum told me of the anger and resentment she felt towards my granmother at his funeral. She didn't want his ashes, she didn't want any memorial plack, or bench or anything. She

WOW! What a day! It was SOOOOOOOOOO nice! Drove over to Burnley this morning after taking Yorkie to work, had hours of gossip with mum, and tried to show her this blog so she could see the dress I want, but her very old, very knackered pc wouldn't let us onto the net so I couldn't show her. Still, she's coming over soon so I can show her then. We went into town about mid afternoon and started to tour the dress shops, that in it self was a laugh! There are three in Burnley that mum knows about. The first one was full of rubber willies and red devil horns so we scarpered sharpish out of there. Not the kind of place a mother and daughter should be! The second dress shop is closed on Mondays.... go figure, and finally there's Pronuptia. Ahhhh Pronuptia! SO very very nice! Once I had managed to explain exactly what it is I am looking for we were presented with a range of dresses. Suprisingly they didn't have much in the way of green. Just one all over sage number which w

It's been a few days since we've had an update, but we are all very worried about Mark, our best man. A few days ago while visitig friends in Nottingham, he suffered a huge asthma attack and heart attack and is in hospital down there. Coops, a friend of ours, has been down to see him, and took Marks mum too, but for now he is the only one able to get down to see him and we're waiting for an up-date from him. Fingers crossed that he will be ok! My best friend and maid of honour called me this evening. It's her wedding in October and she's off to a wedding fair tomorrow. Funds being what they are at the moment there is no way I can afford to go with her, but I'm sure she'll collect loads of stuff for us both to look at later. She's going to try to visit in a couple of weeks when we all have a bit more cash. She thinks she has found a maid-of-honour dress for me to wear at her wedding, apparently so perfect that she almost bought it there and then just hopi

I quite like these bridesmaids dresses.... I think I prefer the second photo actually, but that to one is green velvet. It's the kind of colour I'm hoping Yorkie will go for. In a suit though, not a dress! Lol!

Sad to say I have not lost any weight this week. But I can't say that I am suprised. Not had any proper food in coz we're broke! Have been living off home baked bread - too many carbs, not enough of anything else! Not been to the gym - or done my DVDs - or ANYTHING! So basically, I know that each day this week I have either not had enough points, or I have had too many, I haven't had a balanced diet by ANY strech of the imagination, and on top of that I have no exersize at all. If anything, I am shocked that I haven't gained any weight! On the up side though, I went out to collect my Avon books last night and I already have over 100 pounds of orders, with some people promising to send me an order within the week, AND I still have the second hlaf of the houses to send books to AND my online order to come. So hopefully the cash flow situation will improve soon. I am higly miffed that Hobby Games have not got back to about opening an account with them instead of pre-paying

Mark, my fellers best mate, our best-man-to-be, is sick in hospital in Nottingham! He has an asthma attack while he was over there, and then suffered another heart attack! We don't fully know what's happening. We only found out tonight when Coops called to let us know, he's taken Mark's mum down to see him. I'm sure he'll be fine. It's not the first heart attack Mark has had, but let's face it, any at all is very very bad, and to have more than one..... Please spare your thoughts for this top bloke!!

They are something special, arent they! I like these. had my step mum on the phone today. She's taken that dress design to the dress-maker, and she has suggested that Velvet would not be a workable material for it. Something about it being heavy and it not being able to fall correctly. Shame. Still, I suppose I can have a velvet jacket instead.

Found this bautiful dress while skimming the net. I can't afford this one, and there are one or two things I'd change, so I've emailed it to my step-mum so she can show her dress-making friend! I'm thinking, use the green velvet that Yorkie wants, and add some staps ( so my boobs don't come flying out when we dance) Here's the link: http://www.bridalonlinestnore.com/store/erin.asp

So I'm woken up this morning by my beloved wishing me a happy valentines and offering to bring me breakfast as today I have to go off to work, but he doesn't. Everything seemed well enough with the world. I got ready for work, and my breakfast and the delivery man arrived with my Avon order (which included my Valentines gift from Yorkie) and I was just about to set off for MM when my mobile rings. Yorkie's closest and grabs it for me. "It's Bossman" he tells me, and already know what he's going to say. "Good morning Charlie are you?" "Very well, thanks, you?" "I'm good. This is just a curtesy call really. Don't come in today...." "Ahh, you got me emails about the web site?" it expires on the 26th "Yes, I did." "And you don't want to carry on with it then?" "Not right now, no" "OK, well, I'll come in in a bit anyway and collect my things." "I wont be there&q

Hee hee hee..... What happenes when you get a bounch of good mates all together in a country pub for an afternoon, less than a week before the birthday-boy becomes a daddy for the first time? You get a lot of very very drunk men, and a lot of very very broody women! What a brilliant day though! We all meet up at the Stalk up Conder Green way between 1 and 1.30 this Sunday. It was Gary's birthday on wednesday, and on Friday his good lady wife Jill is going to hospital to have their first born child! It was a good crowd; Gary and Jill, Ray & Sarah, Tara and Colin, Simon (minus Fran who was feeling ill, after what she said last week i understand, poor love), Big Andy, Big Sarah (now to be called Tom as her last name in Thomas and that's better than being called "big" when infact she's just much taller than the other Sarah) and us. No Olly, no Oz, and no Mark & Gemma.... Olly I assume is working, Mark & Gemma are probably skint (or not invited / turned dow

I know it's been over a week since I last posted, but this is how busy I have been! I have been keeping a diary of my activites in word, and today is the first chance I have had to load them on, so here are some back dated posts. I am really gutted that for some reason word and blogger don't seem to agree on some punctuation.... every time I have typed a ' it's come up with some random crappy code which I think wrecks my posts! But they're there now and damed if I'm re-writting them, so sorry about that. I have been working away on my new PamperDayZ web site, and slaving away at building new pages for the MM web site, and between all that and sorting out my Avon stuff I have not had a moment to my self. I'm shattered! And on top of that my central heating is playing up and we're freezing to death at home! I've had to light the gas fire in thr front room and work down here - off line - all week. it's costing me a forune in Gas, but the cat's

Well, it’s been another MM day…. I took off about 1.30 this afternoon, it’s driving me mad being there! Not that there has been any unpleasantness or anything today because there hasn’t. There’s not even been any gossip worthy of passing on. It’s just not the job it used to be and there are 100 other places I would rather be than sat there! With D gone for good it was S who had opened up. So he’s not been fired yet. That’s something I guess. We don’t exactly have anything in common, but at lest he has no motive other than being friendly to have a conversation with me. Around 10ish Bossman and FB turned up. I’d taken my laptop, CDs and headphones to work today so I plugged into my music and ignored them unless they spoke directly to me. Apparently I missed an argument between them…. But never mind. FB told me about it later anyway. Bossman either ignored me or vanished down to the shop for most of the time I was there, and I was left with FB who was making more calls. Eventually she ask

Baby Shower! Never been to one before – it’s an American thing normally right? Well, what ever it is it, it was good fun! Jill is due in the next couple of weeks now and Fran, Sarah and Tara had planned a surprise Baby Shower round at Tara’s house. A very posh affair too! Tea, scones, clotted cream, strawberry jam, Victoria sponge cake, fairy cakes, finger sandwiches….. Oh so very British (about 50 years ago, lol) and very, very nice. We all chipped in and did our bit. It was Fran’s idea, Tara’s house for location, Sarah made the scones and decorations, and I did the sandwiches… Big Sarah was running late though. She’s been to the Tourism Awards the night before (Big Sarah works at Blackpool zoo) and had got rather drunk on free wine. She texted Tara to say she’s going to be late as she was “washing vomit out of her hair”…. Yuck! Gary brought Jill round under the pretence of a pub lunch with Tara and Sarah. Sarah suggested we all hid, and then jump out shouting “surprise” when Jill got

All of a sudden things have gone hecktic on me! Wednesday went great! I got to Kitten Fever with just enough time to spare to look keen, without being pushy. Esther is great! She's like an older version of Gemma! Short, plump, big hair, black mid length multi-layerd skirt, black top, and pink sequined mini-jacketty thing. And I tell you, it's a damn good job dad brought me that laptop because she didn't have a kettle, let alone a computer in the shop!!! I showed her the CD-ROM I had made, and showed her prices for the various types of web site I could do, and she told me what I expected her to, which was she was already tied into a web site contract. That's ok though, because what I am aiming for is to sell her stuff myself. I explained about the PamperDayZ web site I have planned to sell Ann Summers & Avon on, and showed her the template of what I have designed so far. She seemed keen so I plunged on. So far she has no other hosts selling her stuff, there's jus

It's 1 in the morning. I can't sleep. I've been in bed since just after 10 and I can't get my brain to shut down. It's been a busy few days. And it's not going to ease up for a while yet! On Monday the lady from Avon came round and we set up my becoming a seller again for the first time in about 6 years. It was only a short meeting, no more than about an hour, but I'm all set up for that now. As well as selling on line, it happens that my street and the three surrounding streets no longer have an "Avon Lady", and it would be downright foolish of me not to go round with the books and drum up some extra cash that way too. Especially as I am not in a position to set up a new web site right away. For one, it's no where like finished, and secondly, even if it was, I can't afford the hosting and domain just yet. While she was here my dad called. I told him I'd have to call him back and once the lady had left for her next apointment I called h