Sunday 24 June 2012

Before/after (phase 1)

Brown walls. Brown ceiling. Brown floor. This was the bathroom before we started:


A few weeks later and this is the bathroom now:

And these are the funky bathmats I managed to find:

The next phase will involve tiles but that will probably be later in the year. For now we're cracking on with the next room, before and after to follow but don't hold your breath, could be a few weeks yet.

Saturday 23 June 2012

All in the best possible taste

We're still not entirely sure how this happened but we have become members of a chocolate tasting club. Well I say we, it all arrives in Wavey's name so clearly he's just randomly agreed to this exclusive membership. I'd like to say it's awful but oh I can't. The chocolate tasting club is in association with Hotel Chocolat and they are some of the most divine and delicious chocolates I have ever eaten. 

It all started at Christmas when this massive box of chocolates arrived. Oooh yummy, they'll be really nice to open on Christmas day and enjoy with the parentals. Then another box arrived! When we phoned them to say this they told us to keep both boxes. Damn, hardship or what?! Another box arrived a few weeks ago and we pretended that we were going to get to the bottom of this, we wouldn't open it, we'd leave it in the cardboard postal box so that we can send them back...which would totally have been the plan except we opened them today. How did that happen? Who opened them? Oh we did...

We started at number 1. Drool. Then went to the final one in the box. Double drool. I think as part of the club we're supposed to mark them out of 10 but let's face it, they'd all get 10 in my book so we're not entirely objective. I don't know how many more of these yummy boxes of chocolates we'll get, or indeed if they are costing Wavey anything cos they surely can't give away such totally gorgeous tasting chocolates. Can they? Is this how it works? They tempt you in with all their gloriousness and then bam! You suddenly get an invoice for one year worth of chocolate all in one go? Eeep! Even if that does happen though, it will be totally worth it as they are the yummiest of all the yummies in the whole wide world. 

Friday 22 June 2012

The Knowledge

I've got it! I've finally figured out my destiny - clearly I am meant to be a taxi driver! Coming home from work tonight I got stuck in traffic queue after traffic queue. But not for very long for I know my town. And by knowing my town I mean that I know which roads I should take to take sneaky turns in order to avoid sitting in long queues at traffic lights, short cuts that will bring me that little bit closer to my chosen destination of home. It was brilliant! It might have been a long and convoluted way of getting home compared to my usual route but I was constantly on the move and not sat with all the other miserable people in the huge queue trying to join the A66 - wooooop! Where do I get me a taxi sign from...?

Wednesday 20 June 2012

Fork in the road

Kind Sirs and Ladies
 
Before I started writing this post I did a fair few internet searches looking in vain for some kind of inspiring quote that would help me sum up the stuff I'm trying to say. Confucious advised that we: "choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life". Pablo Picasso reckoned that: "it is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction". Or how about this one from Buddha: "Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it" All very inspiring stuff if you feel like you're in a job or career that you feel so passionate about. Me? Summing up how I feel at the moment would pretty much look something like this: blaaaahhhheurgggghhhh *sad face* 

It's not the first time I'm saying it and I know it definitely won't be the last but I'm just not feeling the libraryland love. I'm completely and utterly uninspired and rather out of sorts with the whole jolly thing. If it was easy I would walk away and get a job doing something else. Except that my region tonight was labelled the black spot of unemployment with the highest figures in the country - hardly a label to be proud of. The employment pages are empty. I don't want to move away so for now I'm stuck. Except I don't want to be stuck. I've been stuck for so long now it's a miracle they can prise me off my chair and out of the door when 5pm comes round; not just superglue stuck but Araldite glue stuck. I can take it no more. It is time for some serious action. 

This means thinking about what the hell it is I want to do for a job/career. Hence the internet searching for some inspiring career quotes. I'm kind of interested in this, would love to do that, have no idea what I might need qualifications-wise...it's all excuses. ACTION! Today I took action. I registered my interest on a course. Just a short course that lasts 4 weeks, a taster if you will of what that field might offer me. I'm not going to say what it is yet as it's bound to be like everything else and I'll start it, feel uninspired, and then I'm back to being stuck. 

Clearly I am in need of some help. But who do you ask? How do you start again at age 37? If I just keep asking questions will an answer eventually appear in front of me like some kind of magic trick? 

Yours faithfully
Desperate of blogland

Sunday 17 June 2012

The flaming torch

We were a small but select group but we weren't alone. All along the road, at the side of the roundabout, people sat in their gardens under gazebos, flags flying, banners blowing in the wind - who knew that old Billingham could be so festive? And so excited! The atmosphere was really something special. 

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting from the torch relay. I think maybe I thought it would just be a couple of guys running past, torch in hand, to a few wet cheers on the side of the road. I certainly didn't expect crowds of cheering people waving their flags. I didn't expect the youth theatre group over the road to have a band on the steps of their building. I didn't really think that I would get so excited I would clamber up onto a wall by the side of the road and whoop and cheer myself hoarse all the while dancing to the beat of the drums over the road. Even Wavey who had been a smidge sceptical about the whole thing and only really came along to keep me company got into the experience.

From my vantage point on the wall I watched as police cars with flashing lights closed the road in advance of the convoy that was to follow. Another car with flashing blue lights! A bus! Policemen on bikes high-fiving people by the side of the road and raising their hands in the air for three cheers. The spectacle was about to begin!

And begin it did. Buses full of people with Torch Relay 2012 flashing across their front. Sponsor buses and vans from Coca Cola, Lloyds Bank, another bus telling us the torch was due through in about 6 minutes. Then there it was! Ahead in the distance being carried by someone in a wheelchair...hope they're going to swap that over before attempting to run down Billy Bank...! And then it was there! Right in front of me! Snap snap, there he goes:
In total we were probably only there for about 40 minutes, but it was totally brilliant! I'm getting excited about the games themselves now...
 

Saturday 16 June 2012

The Olympic torch is coming to town!

It's very exciting, tomorrow is the big day. The torch is passing right by our theatre group doors and the privileged few have been invited to have a cuppa and watch it go by. There's banners and flags up all over the place, even the gardeners are getting in the spirit of it all:


 

Sunday 10 June 2012

A day in pictures

We went to a degree show on Thursday evening and saw lots of inspirational things. One of my favourite bits was the photography exhibition where there were so many different images and ideas being thrown out there. One person had done a whole month of photos with a different image for each day. I really liked that idea so went forth with it and on Saturday I took photos of places I went to, food I ate, things we did. Here's the results:


Is it a dog or is it a bear:
Mediterranean wrap:
Endless endless endless rain:
Herman the German friendship cake get shared out:
Man vs bear:
We ended the day watching Men in Black 3 at the cinema but I think if I'd have taken my phone out and started taking photos there I might have got chucked out for pirate-ing...
 

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Her Maj...Mummy

Wherever you're reading from you would have been hard pushed to not know that this was a very big weekend for Queenie Liz. I wasn't sure how much I would be involved with all the celebrations, we had no street party to attend, no-one was having a bbq, the best I did was probably drive my parentals to a Jubilee bbq - does that count? But I found myself drawn into all the live coverage on the tv and will admit, without any shame whatsoever, that I have totally loved it! 

There's been heaps of pomp and circumstance and flashy displays with horses and carriages and famous planes flying over balconies, cheesy concerts with some pretty rubbish performances (Paul McCartney, you might be a Sir but seriously you really cannot sing for s*%t), regal looking gowns and themed outfits and amazing hats to ooh and ahh over, shiny hair of every colour, handbags to admire, and general wonderment at how the blimmin' heck Princess Kate stays so damned poised the whole time - have you noticed? The woman never fidgets! That would take some serious time to learn on my behalf if I were to ever, you know, become a princess (with this hair?! Doubtful...) Whole oceans of union jack flags flying and being waved, beacons being lit...it's been pretty immense! Spending 60 years at one job is something to be admired these days, doesn't happen to many people. 

Watching people surging down The Mall towards the gates of Buckingham Palace, totally ordered, no-one was pushing and shoving, a few people ran ahead but nobody really minded that too much (or at least the BBC didn't show any fights that may have broken out...) was an amazing sight from the tv. It must have been totally overwhelming for the Royals to step out on the balcony and see the ocean of people and flags and cheering and chanting. 

Say what you like about it all, feel free to tell me what a total waste of money it all was, I don't care. I shall let all your comments sail straight over my head. I think it showed a lot of things, I don't subscribe to any of this nonsense about it making Great Britain great as that's just all a bit icky. But it did show that we know how to put on a bloody great party. 

And 4 day weekends rock. 
 

Saturday 2 June 2012

Six pennies

Not only does this shower gel smell absolutely amazing, it's the best value for money ever! I got my latest batch for Christmas and have only just finished using it today, which means it works out at about 6p per use! 6p! What a bargain to smell so gorgeous. How can you really resist?