dizznfizzntizz

Deadly sin

2012-02-13T18:18:00.001Z

Wikipedia tells me that greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs, especially with respect to material wealth.

Currently I am greedy.

Currently I have an inordinate desire to both acquire and possess an iPad 2, 16GB, with WiFi (no colour preference stated).

I don't need one. I don't have to have one. I just want one to expand my material wealth.

Sadly my material wealth doesn't cover the cost of one. To put it bluntly, tough shit, Dizz. You can't have one. Get thee back to lusting and stop price comparing them as if it might actually happen. Bad girl. Bad. Naughty.

Sunday

2012-02-12T17:13:00.001Z

Wavey had never heard of Pob!

Then we started remembering other childhood legends. Who could forget this one?

We danced like teenage loons to a song that Huey was playing on BBC6 music, but I don't know what that choon was...so here's a totally different song for you to enjoy. These guys are my number one playlist at the moment:

Haul!

2012-02-11T17:12:00.001Z

Presents are brilliant. Especially presents that are essentially money so that you can buy whatever you like whenever you like. A wide variety of gift cards came my way for both Christmas and birthday:

First up I hit the clothes shops where I came away with one basic black long sleeved tee, and one lush coral jumper that is shiny sparkley and is already my favourite even though I haven't worn it yet. Top that off with one pair of black opaque tights (cos a gal can never have too many pairs of tights) and it was back to the coral for some lovely suede pumps. Next shop to spend some birthday cash on some bright funky parrot ear-rings. The bookshop was after that where I bought the new Kate Morton and the Japanese equivalent of Stieg Larsson. From there to the beauty shop to buy some new mascara, a thick black eyeliner and a raspberry coloured plastic ring. Good haul!

I found myself with £10 left over. Hmmmm, well we need something for dinner and since Wavey has been away and we're totally spoiling ourselves with our chill out weekend, let's buy dinner instead!

I was left with £1.18. It cost me £1 for the carpark...just 18p left. Sadly you can't buy anything for 18p these days so that will hit the spare change jar.

Shopping. Isn't it brilliant?!

Cold cold COLD

2012-02-08T18:07:00.002Z

You might have guessed that it's cold. Actually it's not just cold, it's bitter cold. I know I shouldn't complain and compared to last year when it was minus 11 it's practically balmy, but I'm so fed up of being cold. It starts in the morning when I have to scrape the ice off the car (still loving the car, like totally), then I get to libraryland and it's a cold cold place if you reside on the ground floor like what I do, then it's more cold on the walk back to the car park, and the house is cold, and my bed is brrrrrrr cold as my radiator (also known as Wavey) is working away again. Tis chilly times indeedy.

Yesterday I wore 3 layers including one large chunky cardigan and was kinda warm, but not toasty, plus my hands remained like ice blocks.

Today I foolishly braved only 2 layers despite one of them being super chunky and the other is my long sleeved top that is tighty-tight around my wrists so no cold drafts could get up there. It was chuffing freezing and I've spent most of the day wearing my outside scarf whilst indoors.

Would 4 layers be too much for tomorrow?

Is it perhaps that I keep choosing to wear short skirts cos they look funkay with my grey biker boots?

You know what the worst thing of all is though? I'm in serious danger of turning into a hermit cos I just want to come home from work, light the fire, and not move from my sofa until I'm toasty roasty. So far this week I've turned down Zumba, and another free bingo sesh, although to be fair that is mainly because my Wavey time is presssssssshus at the moment and I'm greedy with choosing to spend my weekends with him whilst he's away so much.

I'm dreaming of sunshine. Lovely warm sunshine. When you only require one layer of clothing and it's more than sufficient. Is it very long to wait...?

Taken over by the fear

2012-02-05T14:55:00.000Z

This has been one hard week my blog friends. All seemed to be going okay until Wednesday when a meeting requested arrived in my workspace. Not just any meeting. A meeting with top HR bods, and top library bods, and all of our little team of four. Safe to say we were all absolutely terrified. The meeting request didn't come with any reassuring messages that all would be okay, it didn't come with any nice soft words to tell you not be scared about all those really important people coming to a meeting with you. Most of all, it didn't tell me not to be downright scared. And I was, hell we all were!

From then on I literally lived in fear every single chuffing day until Friday. And you have no idea how long the rest of Wednesday, all of Thursday, and until 11am on Friday felt. Talk about LONG ENDLESS days when all I could think was that by Friday lunchtime I might not have a job anymore. Of course that was what we all assumed, and who can blame us. These are uncertain times, the whole world has gone completely tits up, a few job losses in libraryland doesn't seem that unrealistic.

I felt sick. Every single day.

On Friday before I went to work I bought a lottery ticket. It cost me £2 but I reckoned on it being a good investment with possibly my last couple of pounds on the offchance that I might win and have some money to keep me going.

I'm pleased to report that we didn't lose our jobs, no-one did. There's some changes, but change is all fine. I can cope with change. Losing my job? I'm not so sure. I spend an unhealthy amount of time despising my job, its lack of prospects, and the daily frustration but this week has been a lesson in not taking it for granted anymore. And it's been a pretty humbling experience. I know that I will go back to the inevitable frustration, I'm only human after all and it's tough when you don't feel satisfied and challenged by your work, a place where you spend so much time. But the thought of losing that? Of not having it anymore? Genuine fear. I've never felt like that before, and I don't want to ever again.

Hear that roar...?

2012-01-30T17:48:00.000Z

Did you hear it? I'll bet it was audible all the way to the other side of the world. That would be my very HUNGRY stomach telling me that it wants yet more food. Today was first day back at work day after being off ill. First of all it was pretty yay as I had a desk full of cards and presents and totally delicious French macarons to enjoy from the very lovely and talented T. As the day wore on and I started to get tired and a wee bit flagging, I got more and more hungry. It's like there's some giant hungry monster resting inside my stomach that is shouting FEED ME! FEED ME NOW! *munches English buttered muffin rapidly*

I'm sat waiting for Wavey to return from work. In England! For one whole week! Shocker! Typically I suspect he is stuck in traffic. But I wish he'd hurry home so that we can have real food, not just quickie English muffin snacks, snarf!

Best thing about today? Totally being back with my girlies and making plans for yummy food treats (catching the theme here?) in the next couple of weeks. Worst thing about being back? Freezing! Totally. Bear in mind I've been a pampered pooch for the past week and have been snuggled under my duvet keeping warm and watching quality daytime TV. After just one week I'd had some kind of mental block and forgot how cold it gets in libraryland and was woefully under prepared in my thin shirt and vest top, but it matches my new shiny sparkles so what can I say? A gal has to suffer for her fashion.

English muffin now totally consumed and am still ravenous! Come on Wavey boy, this hungry gal needs her food!

Aliiiiiiiive!

2012-01-28T17:47:00.003Z

Finally starting to feel human again, despite prolific nose blowing and cough-cough-coughing (that goes for both of us as Wavey now has a cough too). To celebrate we went to the Thai shop to get us some yummy ingredients for making yummy thai, bit of lunch, Wavey went to the footy, I met my ma for a coffee with some charidee shopping on the way (2 shirts, bonus!) before coming back to some weekend kitchen antics.

As we are finally celebrating our birthdays tonight I'm making us up a birthday pudding of bannoffee pie, yummo! Then I made a fruit and nut bar - always on the hunt for alternatives to shop bought cereal bars. They're so expensive and usually not that tasty. Finally I did my usual of throwing some ingredients in a pan to make soup, today's offering is shallots, garlic, grated ginger, carrots, butternut squash, and I've just chucked in a bit of grated apple too. Not sure what the end result will taste like but it smells good!

It feels good to be feeling human again. This cold/virus thing was utterly pants. Being suck totally sucks. Boo to germs, BOO!

Borrrrrrrrrrrrred

2012-01-26T11:24:00.000Z

Excitement for today: who knew that there were two, yes two, different lorries for the recycling! Life just doesn't get better than that...

...OMG this virus is trying to kill me with boredom! Still snotty. Still achey. Still weird swollen glands. What is up with that?! Oh and I still look like death warmed up, oh happy joy.

I tried eating half a box of orange Matchmakers last night to send the virus away. It didn't really work, but I appreciated everyone suggesting that the orange would count as vitamin C :D Perhaps I should try the other half today just to double check.

I'm going to go out for a walk today (wrap up warm, warns my ma) to try to make myself look more alive. I need some more tissues and I need some fresh air and I need to get out of this house!! And I need to go to my old house this evening as I have another agent coming round for a valuation. A person! To speak to. Wow!

Begone evil virus begone. I cannot be doing with this stuck inside life.

(S)not a whole lot going on

2012-01-25T15:47:00.000Z

I have discovered two things:
1. London town is a big carrier of germs
2. 3 year olds and 4 month olds are also big carriers of germs

As a direct result of both 1 and 2 I have a killer cold. And it's rubbish. I'm all on my lonesome as Wavey is of course, travelling. And! It was my birthday yesterday so on the day I should have been celebrating and eating cake, I was curled up under a duvet sneezing, sniffling, taking drugs every 4 hours, and drinking as much fluid as my body can contain. Rock and chuffin' roll. Nice things did happen - my ma came round with chicken soup (good for the soul or so the book says) and red tulips and she cooked me birthday tea with apple crumble and custard for pud, not too shabby. My friend D turned up unexpectedly and we had a right old laugh and natter. And then Fizz came round with my lovely presents, can't wait to make some SUPERMASH! All in all the day could have been much worse. It could have so been much better too but I don't want to appear ungrateful.

Throughout my sofa and duvet time I've watched some serious amounts of tv, some good, some bad, some just nyeh. I gotta say that starting your day with a bit of Frasier is actually a kinda good way to start the day. As is watching some of The Food Hospital and feeling inspired to eat fruit and veg and colour colour colour and drink copious amounts of water. A bit of trash with Unforgettable, some baking tips from baldy Heston and the Fabulous Baker Brothers. New Girl for some kookie and hair admiration with Zooey Deschenal. Oh and throw in AdventureLand for some film joy too. I fear I may have square eyes...

To counteract that I did a bit of reading. Finished off Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, one of my most favourite authors and I'm just about to start in on the Tesco magazine for some food and lifestyle tips. My Gardeners World mag is tempting me for tips on what I should be doing in the garden right now, and I got 3 new books for my birthday (good haul!).

I'm hoping to go back to work tomorrow, as long as everyone can put up with my ACHOOs and general sniffling. Otherwise I fear not only square eyes but total insanity from being stuck to sofa. I'm so not a patient patient, which is pretty funny as in all other areas of life I'm totally chilled. Forced sofa time makes me grumpy! Humph to colds, humph humph humph!

A gal with a plan

2012-01-22T18:06:00.000Z

Cast your minds back long long ago to when I first moved in with Wavey, and how we were getting my house ready to be rented out and I was going to be a landlady. Well I did that. And I didn't really like it that much. Turns out that the agents I was with were, to put it politely, a bunch of robbing gits who tried to take me a for a total ride. I know all this as they've now been taken over by a much nicer bunch of folk who couldn't be more helpful, but all that's by the by as we have a new plan. And this plan is to put my house up for sale.

After the rental there was a little bit of work to do which we've started but not completed. If there were 48 hours in every day we would have a serious chance of accomplishing some of the things on our to-do lists, but there aren't and so things are not quite finished. But today I woke up with this determined head on me and thought why are we waiting? Half the trouble is that we watch all these house programmes and so we are pretty savvy at knowing what will sell and what won't and what the deal breakers might be to interested buyers. But at the moment the work we're doing is totally cosmetic and I reckon that people valuing the house can see past that to give me an idea of what it's worth.

The gal with the plan has sprung into action. I've emailed 2 estate agents, one of them has already got back to me at 6pm on a Sunday to tell me that one of his team will call me in the morning - now that's service! Get them round, see what they say. If I'm not satisfied I have one online option that I'm looking into and then make a decision from there. It feels so good to actually take some action. It's too easy to let stuff like this slide and then months later I'll find that I'm wasting most of my money on the upkeep of an empty house. In these times a gal has to be sensible. I am a gal with a plan - my pops will be so proud, he loves a good plan he does.

Number crunching

2012-01-21T15:39:00.001Z

2.5 days in London.
1 little train.
2 BIG trains.
5 buses.
12 tubes - BONKERS!

It can't really be true that this week I turn 37...

...but it can be true that this week, Wavey's pops turns 80!

Business trip

2012-01-19T17:23:00.004Z

At the end of last year Wavey took a brand new job, same company, same grade, but on a new project that would mean more challenges, more exciting times, and more travelling. Little did we realise that the travelling was going to be quite so extensive. It started with a 2 night trip to Paris...then it was 3 nights...then it's a whole week away in Paris, followed by a training course for a week in London, followed by yet another week in Paris, including being away for my birthday next week! All that is pretty sucky and we do not likey very much at all.

What we do likey on the other hand is me being able to find reasonably priced train tickets down to London town and coming to join him for a few days, yay! I arrived in London town on Tuesday evening and have been flitting here there and everywhere, visiting friends, going to interesting places I've never been before in London, but most importantly enjoying precious evening time with my special man.

We're staying in a swanky 4* hotel at Heathrow airport which is a pretty strange place to be. It's full of people dragging very large suitcases around and trekking from one place to the next looking thoroughly fed up. And who can blame them - London travel is, to be frank, bat shit crazy. Yesterday I went to Richmond for the day. On the map it's probably about 4 miles away. In reality that meant 4 changes and about 1.5 hours of travelling! Totally bonkers! Nowhere else in England would peeps consider it normal to travel somewhere for 1.5 hours, just to see a place or person for a few hours before getting back on board for another 1.5 hours. I feel like I've been in constant motion since I arrived on Tuesday. But it's been fabby to see my friends, hang out with the babies and the little folk, go to places I've never been and see areas of London I've never seen. There are photos a-plenty!

But this business trip malarkey - it's not for me. Staying in hotels is all very nice when you're on holiday or doing something special but sat in the dining room last night looking around at all the other business folk, they all looked thoroughly miserable, and a bit sick of eating so many business dinners; some of them even had their laptop at the dinner table for company. I know Wavey doesn't like it much at all so it's been brillo for him to have me here to keep him company.

Next week will be tough, it's a full week, it's my birthday, and it's not payday til Thursday. If I was a pouter now would be a full on sulk-fest. Lucky for all I'm not like that at all, but I know I'll be counting down the days until Friday when Wavey walks back through our front door- it won't be able to come round fast enough!

Hap-hap-hap-happy birthday!

2012-01-15T18:29:00.000Z

It's Wavey's birthday today but this month is totally bonkers as he's away practically every week travelling. I dropped him off earlier this evening as he's in London on a course all week. Disrupting birthday celebrations like that is just a wee bit pants so I thought I'd do a special blog post to wish him a hap-hap-hap-happy birthday!

So here it is.

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Waaaaaavey
Happy birthday to yooooooouuuuuuu!

See you Tuesday in London town - yippppeeee! XxX

Food food glorious food!

2012-01-14T17:21:00.000Z

I like to set little challenges for myself - keeps life interesting. This year I decided that every single weekend I was going to try something brand new to cook out of my many cook books. It started last weekend and I made this rice dish out of a veggie cookbook which was really nice, but I kind of ate it really quick as we were going out and didn't have time to digest, and by the time we go to Fizz's house I thought I was actually going to hurl every single grain of rice back up. Turns out I didn't which I was grateful for as I really hate hurling for one and secondly that would have been such a waste of good basmati.

And so tonight we have something totally new. Not out of a cookbook but from the far flung land of Scoooootland. Fizz brought us a Haggis back and so that's what we're having for tea tonight. Haggis, neeps and tatties. I have no idea what to expect from it at all. I've read the ingredients and there's some mention of offal...but also oatmeal (must be good for you then) and it's wrapped in some weird skin that is clipped at the sides. Never let it be said that we are unadventurous in our food.

Over the next year there could be all manner of foodie treats. You never know I may even post some photos and recipes on the blog to keep you all entertained, and general drooling over the yumness of food will surely happen. But for the moment I'm holding onto the drool (ugh gross) over the Haggis...stay posted for the verdict!

Bingo!

2012-01-12T17:47:00.000Z

One number! One lousy number away from a £500 full house. Epic fail:

Big shout out to the Pops in the room!

2012-01-10T18:18:00.003Z

My pops is totally ace! Not only did he do a really fantastic job of bringing me up, challenging me every step of the way, and encouraging discussion and open minded opinions. He also did the really important pops stuff like teaching me to ride a bike, read a map, and drive a car. Oh and speaking of cars, did you know that I've got my own now?

What's that? You didn't get the facebook message that went to the world of friends, or hear the giant WHOOOOOP that was yelled out loud when I got confirmation of the purchase, and you missed the dance of joy? Sheesh. Well yep, after being on this planet for 37 years this year (eep!) and driving for 20 of those years, I have finally got me my own car. He's red. And he's called Zippy, because he is, very zippy indeedy.

Unfortunately Zippy wasn't so Zippy yesterday. In fact, he was feeling a bit under the weather. I turned the key and this pathetic little uh-huh cough came out and that was it. Noooooooo! I knew it, pride always go-eth before a fall. I was so busy crowing and whooping it up how great it was to have a car and that I didn't have to get the stinky bus anymore then there I was, 8am on a Monday morning, back on the freakin' bus again. I almost cried I was so upset (note to self: wuss)

And so I rang my pops. Because not only is he my pops, he's also my personal mechanic and car purchaser chief dude. Many kind words later he told me that it was probably the battery and he'd do his best to get his hands on one and come round and fix it that very evening. "I'll have you mobile again by tomorrow, don't worry". You see those magic words? Don't worry. This is why pops are so bloomin' ace. Because I was totally worried. I was worried that I'd broken Zippy even though I'd only had him 5 minutes and I was worried my pops was going to shout at me for breaking him. But he didn't. Not one little bit.

Fast rewind to 7pm yesterday, it's pitch black outside and Zippy is parked on a very busy main road where we live. My pops pitches up his car in front, gets his torch out and starts changing the battery in the dark, cold night. About 30 minutes later it's all done and revving hell out of Zippy he sets off to give him a test drive. Returned and locked up safely I get the talk about seeing how the car is tomorrow and only drive it if it feels safe and if this light comes on and that light comes on...you know the drill, I'm pretty certain you've all been there.

Fast forward to this morning and Zippy starts up first time and gets me to work and back. In the warm and the dry. And free of skanky stinky people. And this my friends is why I'm doing a big shout out to pops, not just mine but to all who have fabby pops, cos they truly are the bestest ever!

Sherlock

2012-01-07T20:36:00.001Z

Sitting in the cinema waiting for Sherlock Holmes to start, so excited! Have been waiting ages to see it, turned up for the 7.45 showing and it was sold out, how rude! So after waiting weeks and weeks, I had to wait nearly a whole hour more. It's about to start...

Old school shopping

2012-01-07T14:14:00.001Z

Wavey and I went mattress shopping this morning. We hadn't realised quite how totally and utterly knackered our current one is until we went in a shop and started lying down on shiny new ones. No wonder we always roll into that hole in the middle of the bed when we get in!

Anyhoo, there we are wandering around this shop, looking at details like memory foam, open coil, pocket sprung, when this old guy in a red v-neck jumper arrives to help us. And right at that point it was like I didn't exist anymore. All comments were addressed to "Sir", all information about each mattress were made to Sir, and any question that I asked, the answer was directed to Sir. Erm hello Mr Shop Sir but do you not realise that this is the 21st Century?! Both parties can be addressed in the shopping!

What this guy clearly didn't realise was that the more he addressed Wavey and simpered Sir at him, the more put off I was by this shop. And even though there was one mattress in there that we're hoping to buy, there was no effing way it was going to happen in that shop. How can people like that still exist? A mattress is a big purchase, if someone is spending hundreds of pounds on something then make sure you talk to both parties. It's an equal world in our partnership!

I started to think then about other shopping experiences when we've bought big stuff and I think it's the other way round, the sales guy talks to the laydeez! To be honest we haven't really bought anything that huge in an actual shop as we are very 21st century and look around online to get the best deals, as we will be doing for the dream mattress.

Old school Saturday shopping. I wish that guy luck as I wonder quite how many laydeez take the same stance as me. Maybe not that many? Maybe I'm the weird one here? Maybe...but I doubt it somehow. I open it to the floor, comment freely.

Out of practice

2012-01-02T15:53:00.003Z

The holidays this year were 11.5 days long. 11.5 days of delicious sleeps in, lazing around, watching lots of rubbish tv, reading books and trashy magazines, eating too much, drinking too much, hell we even did smoking! It wasn't all lazing around as we did go on some lovely strolls through and around the village, and we started work in my old house, and we did bits and pieces here too, but let's face it, it was mainly lazing.

But now it's Monday. Which means tomorrow is back to work day. And I have to admit, I actually feel a bit sick at the thought of going back. I'm so out of practice, the alarm going off at 6.30 may actually kill me. And waiting in the cold and damp and wintery weather for grotty buses. Preparing lunches so that I don't have to pay the extortionate amounts just to eat and attempting to shake off some of this excess holiday baggage from too much food and drinkies. Thinking about being at my desk and having to structure thoughts and sentences and tasks and other such eek-ey stuff like that. Me no likey. Not at all.

Year round holidays sound great in principal, but in practice I think they would actually call that unemployment. And the job situation is sticky enough around this part of the world, I just hope every day that my job stays safe and sound. So I should probably quit whining, have a serious word with myself, and drag my excess holiday baggaged arse back to work! Whether this motivational talk will work at 6.30 when the beep-beep-beep-BEEEP wakes me out of my slumber will be a whole other story...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2012-01-01T17:08:00.002Z

We drank champers. We ate lobster. We got right giddy and generally acted like the total fools we are. Oh and we smoked cigars:

They were quite rank really. And they've left a big ole ash-y mess all over our cheap paper table cloth...sheesh!

Oh 2012, what will you bring? Hopefully lots more fun, happy, and healthy times.

And lots of cinema visits. This year we've decided we'll watch loads and loads of films, both at the cinema and at home on our giant telly that we heart so much. And if we're not watching films we'll be doing jobs around the house, cos we have got a whole heap of jobs that need doing. Gotta love the old houses.

Happy new year to everyone. I hope you celebrated in style!

The year that we did!

2011-12-31T12:39:00.003Z

It hardly seems like 5 minute ago since I was posting about how 2011 was going to be the year of the do. Now it's the last day of 2011 and I think it's safe to say that we definitely did!

We had holidays. Lots of them. In many beautiful and amazing places that I can bring back in the blink of an eye:

We had a glamourous Mad Men cocktail party where the gals wore frocks and the boys wore tuxedos and we drank drinks of every colour:

I hosted a Mad Hatter's afternoon tea party and raised over £100 for the Eve Appeal charity:

We got all dressed up and wore hats and went to the races to celebrate T's 30th birthday:

I acted like an eejit in a tent:

We attended a nostalgia weekend and saw some amazing cars:

We grew some mighty fine veg!

Built a raft!

Wavey had his first ever real Christmas tree:

But most of all, we did the best thing in the world. We laughed and loved with the peeps we love to love and love to laugh with:

Happy new year! Here's to 2012...

Down with the kids...

2011-12-29T19:35:00.001Z

...cos we're so reem apparently. Well it was one of the cases that I considered for my new souped up chop shop crackberry. The old one was apparently completely booogered and so they've sent me a replacement. Except the one I had was red, a wee little redberry, and they've sent me a black one. But I had to keep the back of my old one so I'm half black, half red, and still with one of the berries missing. Not that this bothers me one jot, I'm so not precious about what my things look like, erm hello I carried a purse held together with a scruffy old hair bobble for about 2 years and I spend most of my life in shoes that have holes in them, nyeh.

But as Wavey has a black blackberry too we need to make them look different hence the seeking out of new cases. I did consider the reem one mainly because I had no idea what it actually meant and figured something that said "keep calm and stay reem" is so what I need to carry around in my bag. Or not. So I went for the one with big goggly eyes on it, heee!

It's exciting times to be back in the 21st century. Except that I can't quite figure out how to get facebook back on it, but I do have all my free chat back up and running. Woo hoo! I have been proper outraged that I've had to pay to talk to people, pay! I mean, say what?! So last century!

Best of all is that the guy telling me to backup actually gave good advice as all my contacts were still inside the phone when I restored it. Big relief. Has been good to recognise who messages are from now rather than me asking, who are you and why are you texting me?

It's been a reet busy old day in Dizz and Wavey land. We've been back at my old house a-glossing up a storm ready for the new year project. Hope you've all had good days :D

Stepping out

2011-12-28T12:03:00.002Z

Wavey, ever the one who worries about jobs and tasks, decided that today was the day to mend the fence. We've had several storms of very high winds that have bashed our garden around good and proper. Of course today is another day of high winds so it's the perfect time to fix the fence. Most of my task was basically hanging onto it for dear life and keeping it straight (you ever tried that when the wind is buffeting you from all directions? Tricky I tells ya!) oh and realising that we needed some longer screws. Our village is very well equipped with a fab little hardware shop that has screws of every kind you can desire in little tubs for very cheap prices. So I trek off down there. In my paint splattered jeans, paint splattered hoodie and muddy wellies...only a few folk looked at me as if to say WTF is she wearing. What's the problem? Garden chic is the look I was totally going for...

Anyhoo the fence is now fixed and I've risked pegging out some washing with double the number of pegs in the hope that it dries in the blustery winds (understatement). I'm pretty sure that I'm going to have to keep an eye on the washing or our duvet cover and pillowcases will be flying through the air all the way to Oz.

Still got a few more days left of the holidays, but Wavey has big plans for starting on my old house (a whole other blog story). Yawn, I just wanna be lazy but he's such a task master! I've no doubt we will set about doing all these jobs cos we just can't help ourselves...over and out.

Ho ho grrrrr Merry Christmas!

2011-12-27T14:17:00.001Z

Santa came! He really did, we must have been good boys and girls as we got some really rather fine and dandy presents including a tripod for Wavey to play with his camera and a purple "ice" watch for me, yay!

But I think it's safe to say that Wavey's favourite present was these:

He's yet to take them off, he loves them so much.

And I got a chef's blowtorch! So basically I can't wait until I can get into the kitchen and start setting things on fire all in the name of gourmet food.

As we didn't deviate from Delia the day ran very smoothly indeedy. Nothing broke, the turkey was marvellous, the parsnips were a smidge caramelised but the rest of the dinner was really yummy, and Delia's mincemeat and apple crumble was a deeeeelicious alternative to Christmas pud. But there must be some kind of family curse cos my sister's boiler broke! But as she has kiddies they get priority service so it should be getting fixed in a couple of days, and it's actually kinda mild outside, we're not buried underneath snow our freezing our asses off in minus temperatures, so heating is not really needed that much.

Anyhoo, hope you all had festive and happy times. Merry Christmas 2011!

Old faithful

2011-12-23T11:25:00.003Z

The last 36 hours:
Early am - last minute shopping:
"In practice this means sallying forth for the freshest vegetables (sprouts, leeks, parsnips, onions, carrots, celery, swede, potatoes) and fruit...because they need to last over the whole holiday. Everyone else will be doing the same of course so do get out early..."

Bugger! Already failed :( this year I was promising to be faithful to Delia so that she wouldn't send her little elves to blow up the boiler/oven/insert electrical appliance choice here. So far I've had a lazy breakfast, had a shower, and decided on my outfit of the day to have lunch with the lovely Tizz and Fizz.

So, 11.22am (would Delia count this as early?) and I'm having a cuppa and considering making some pastry for mince pies. At least the turkey has arrived (timetabled for mid-morning) and I do intend to make the soup and prepare the veggies tomorrow which is actually a day behind schedule...how does this woman do it?! But at 3pm tomorrow I can spend some quality time baking and singing Christmas carols...no wait, we've just re-read it and if I do those things today I'm actually ahead of schedule! Wooooo! However, I'm thinking that crowing about it is not the best plan or the elves will blow something up for sure.

Please Delia, please be kind. My folks are coming for dinner and the last time they did the boiler broke and we had to huddle round the fire and wear vests for warmth...please let us have this one with no broken appliances!

Merry merry

2011-12-22T16:46:00.002Z

Santa's little elves spent 3 hours this morning experiencing a small lull in proceedings. Then they spent 1 hour rushing around like loons as everyone decided to panic that libraryland is going to be closed for the deeeeliciously long time of 11 and a half days. The extra half made all the difference as it meant that Santa's little elves could go to the pub, eat toasties with chips, and drink real ale amongst lovely friends.

Santa's little elf left the pub to head to nasty cheapo "Foneshop" (has to be spelled like that) in order to purchase a cheap and nasty "fone" thus allowing the world to be in contact once again, yay! (the broken Crackberry has finally gone off to be repaired but I can't see it being back in the elf mitts until at least the new year). For one week I was without phone and it was surprisingly okay, until the last couple of days when I really needed to make contact with peeps and had no way of doing it other than horrible nasty public phone boxes that are: a) very tricky to find these days, b) smell like wee, and c) cost 60p just to dial a frickin number - WTF?! After experiencing partial meltdown yesterday I decided it was time to say enough of this nonsense, hence the trip to the "foneshop" A gal's gotta have her peeps, that's all I'm saying.

Santa's little elf then went to the magic sausage shop to buy the very much required chippolata sausages that have to be wrapped in yummy bacon and charred til they are black, to go with the giant turkey that is now living in our fridge.

Finally Santa's little elf returned home to mucho jumping around for joy and full of merry merry festive spirit and anticipation of the next 11.5 days that don't involve work, alarms, public transport hell, battling with elbowing panic shoppers, and other general madness that is this time of year. Happy holidays y'all!

Howling wolf

2011-12-18T14:00:00.002Z

Next door had a really really big really really smelly dog that used to live outside all year round. Suddenly we don't see the really really big really really smelly dog, instead we see a little stone with his name on it in the garden. Oh oh and we are sad. Really really big really really smelly dog has been replaced by howling wolf. Oww oww owwwwwwwww on constant play. Either someone is playing a really sick joke and has this on a record or they have a new dog that how-how-howwwwwwwwwwls all the time. We reckon it might be a puppy who misses its owner how-how-howwwwwwwwwwww or it might be an older dog that we didn't know existed who misses the really really big really really smelly dog.

Either way, we wake up to the how-how-howwwwwwwww, it accompanies us through the day and takes us to bed how-how-howwwwwwwwwwww.

Maybe I'm noticing it more today because I'm feeling really really blah. We were supposed to be at a family pre-Christmas gathering, but instead we had to cry off for fear I would either hurl in the car on the way there, or hurl when we got there as some kind of sick welcome and merry merry to you *barf* Whatever, it ain't a good look to be taking to the family. Have got heaps planned for this week, many merry gatherings, I shall be totally and utterly gutted if all plans have to go the way of today. In fact, I'll join in with next door, all together now, how-how-howwwwwwwwwwww.

One week to go...

2011-12-17T17:49:00.002Z

...and the sparkley lights and tinsel are out. We LOVE the decorations we do!

And this little guy goes all the way back to when me and my sis were tiny tots with our eyes all aglow:

Merry Merry folks!

The Gaga on speed...?

2011-12-14T19:17:00.002Z

On hold Saturday

2011-12-10T15:08:00.001Z

It seems like I've spent most of today on hold on various telephones listening to many different varieties of awful muzak. Barf and double barf. And was I successful in my on hold ventures? Was I arse! I ended up giving up several times and even *hangs head in shame* had total petulant full on strop after waiting 15 minutes and getting nowhere, slammed the phone down once, which didn't feel satisfying enough so did it another 3 or 4 times all the while shouting and ranting and general ridiculousness like that. Totally proud of myself there...

I hasten to add that there wasn't anyone on the end of that line. Just a stupid automated voice that kept telling me my call really was important to them and if I just stayed on hold and spent several more pounds on their 0845 number...NO! Stop! Don't get started again. I don't want to throw anything else around.

The rest of the day has flown by in a whirr of activity. We were up and about bright and early. I went and had my eyebrows ripped off whilst Wavey went and secured our Christmas turkey and bought some yummy sausage rolls for mid-morning snack. Then we went round to my old house and picked up post and did a bit more checking out and making mental lists of jobs. Then we dropped off post for someone else, then we went and collected various parcels, came home and demolished yummy sausage roll with a cup of magic coffee, next up we went to the Funky Rug Shop (great name, even greater shop) and bought, well, a funky rug for the horrid purple room as was (will be posting some after shots once it's fully finished), Wavey's been and helped out taking old bits of carpet to the tip, I've been to the supermarket and braved the teeming crowds at the till points and now I'm blogging. Sheesh! It's not even 4pm and look how much we've achieved. Surely a pat on the back is well deserved!

Oh and guess what? It's Fizz's birthday and I know I'm not supposed to say anything but yada yada boo is what I say. And this is what else I say:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FIZZ, me old mucker.

May your day be merry and happy and cake filled. MWAH! XxX

Deck the halls with tack

2011-12-09T18:06:00.001Z

Today was officially put up the Christmas decorations day at work. And we have some truly awful decorations. I blogged about a couple of them last year but we seem to have excelled ourselves this year with the sad, old, very out of date tack. Here's a few photos for you to enjoy:

And just when you thought you were safe from the dead birds, the one I had on my desk last year has been joyously returned to me for safe keeping. It's not a great photo but you may be able to see that his evil beady eye is starting to peel away from the face giving it that extra eeek-factor...

Christmas tack - it truly makes being at work more bearable at this time of year.

A Thursday Christmas song

2011-12-08T21:22:00.001Z

On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a visit to the local toy emporium (also known as hell on earth):

Or more accurately, Wavey and I wandering down random isles calling out: puzzles? Moshi Monsters? Hex bugs? Me randomly pressing buttons on things that say push me, try me and trying to decide if £31 is only a tiny bit outrageous for a pogo stick that more resembles a trim ball (remember them anyone?!) with a stick attached to it.

We <3 the toys we do...

A London Christmas song

2011-12-07T17:44:00.001Z

On the first day of Christmas, London gave to me, a lovely walk upon a chilly canal:

On the second day of Christmas, London gave to me, 2000 Santas running:

On the third day of Christmas, London gave to me, a Christmas market on the Southbank:

On the fourth day of Christmas, London gave to me, a fabby weekend with the gorgeous Tizz:

That London - it rocks!

Stay tuned for more Christmas songs and photos...

Imelda got a WOOOOO!

2011-11-28T18:23:00.001Z

Wavey and I went to see Imelda May last night. It was, I have to say, one of the bestest gigs I have ever been too. She was AMAZING! She played for nearly 2 hours and she has this huge voice that is just awesome, the atmosphere was bouncing, all in all, just wow. Johnny got a Boom! Boom!

Home cinema

2011-11-27T15:50:00.001Z

Last night Wavey, Fizz and I went to the cinema. But when we got there the film hadn't turned up - eh?! The receptionist tried to sell us the alternative film that they had on offer but the words drinking himself into a stupour and killing his dog were enough to put us all off. Instead we came home and enjoyed a home cinema experience.

Even though I really love going to the actual cinema you just can't beat the home cinema experience, especially now we have our really big tv, yay! We settled back on our very lovely comfy sofa, feet on the beanbag, red wine in the glass, chocolate cheesecake on the plate, and a bag of Revels on the side for afters. We watched Cemetery Junction which was written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and was actually very very good. Funny, bit of drama, couple of pretty boys, a very pretty girl who had even prettier dresses - better than a drunk killing his dog!

Festive and merry

2011-11-24T17:34:00.001Z

I can't lie, I totally love Christmas! I love the sparkly lights, the gift giving, the gift receiving, the huge dinners, the brussel sprouts, and all that luscious time off work. Which is why I jumped at the chance to attend a Christmas Fayre at poshy posh hall with my ma. And what a lovely afternoon. Much of it was spent walking round poshy posh hall gawping at the amazing ceilings and the beautiful rooms, so nice!

There was a really good variety of stalls too with everything from jewellery to food and wine and cakes and children's toys and handmade bags that cost £195 (one day...) and bespoke furniture that cost £599, which they can do in any fabric for you madam except silk of course *posh chortle chortle laughter* That was one end of the spectrum, there were some very affordable stalls and I got some lovely presents that are unusual and handmade and that little bit special which is always one of my aims when gift giving.

There was one stall that had the most fabulous tights on it and I'm a total sucker for tights. I was so excited until I turned them over to find that they cost £33!! Yep £33!! I just laughed out loud, I wasn't sure what else to do. The stall owner immediately came to see if the mad woman laughing out loud needed any assistance near her tights that must surely be made with threads of gold for them to cost that much. Oh they're very good tights she assured me...maybe they are but I'm famous for destroying tights in one wear, imagine how utterly gutted you would be if you paid £33 for a pair of tights only for them to break after one wear. Methinks not.

After such a lovely afternoon listening to carols and wandering around all the lovely stalls I'm feeling very festive. I'm resisting putting the Christmas music on, but not for much longer. It's only a handful of days away now....merry merry yay!

Today's the day

2011-11-22T13:30:00.001Z

Today is Start Your Own Country Day. How cool! Mine will be called the Federal United Kingdom of Fizztopia.

Girlie girl

2011-11-19T18:28:00.001Z

I was happily working away at theatre this morning, doing a bit of painting, touching up a bit where we'd missed the other night when someone uttered the dread words "can you just hammer that in for me?" Nooooooo! I am so incredibly utterly pants when it comes to hammering stuff. I inevitably end up bashing my thumb more than the nail I'm trying to hit and am frankly just a total girl about it all. I succeeded at getting 2 nails in without bashing my thumb too much but by the 3rd it was total thumb bash time. The final straw was when the nail pinged out of the piece of hardboard, flew up, and bashed me on the forehead. Owwwwwww. I almost threw down the hammer in a total pouting hissy fit but managed to be grown up about it and placed it on the ground before stomping around declaring how useless I am at hammering!

Luckily the next option was a staple gun that you plug in. Awesome! It wasn't all plain sailing, took at least 5 staples before one got all mangled up inside and we had to take it apart. I only had to do that 3 more times before the job was done. Or so I thought. Oh just cut that gaffer tape in half....the stickiest tape ever! Thankfully a kind hearted soul came to my rescue and told me to stick the tape to the side of an aluminium ladder and slice it with a knife - genius! What with that, laying some lino, and the hanging of the door, I think I managed to re-gain some of my lost pride from the hammer incident.

The thing of it is, I'm such a girl when it comes to stuff like that. I can use the whizz whizz screwdrivers and can even drill a hole or two as long as it's not too complicated, but hammering, sawing, slicing, dicing, and all the other stuff we do, not a chance! I'm far too clumsy to be let loose with a saw of any kind. Some of the tools we have are downright scary and I always avoid. But I'm super good at holding bits of wood whilst people saw stuff. And I am a demon painter. But power tools and me? Nope. Total girl.

Thank &%£$ it's Friday!

2011-11-18T21:47:00.001Z

The official work week from hell finally came to a close at 5 in the PM this evening. Happy weekend!

First up Wavey and I headed to the toon for some even bigger bargains in the bargain spectacular. We shopped, we got a free cup of coffee, we ate a yummy mince pie, and we got heaps of bargains. Since then the evening has gone something like this:

Pizza
Chips
Beer
Cake
Biscuit
"Big Bang Theory"
Cup of tea
"The Hour"
Cocktails
"Made in Chelsea"
Cup of tea
"Pan Am"

Summing up, we've eaten like pigs, we've drunk until we're a smidge tipsy, and we've caught up on some quality telly. Weekends are definitely the BEST THING EVER!

You're terrible Muriel...

2011-11-17T18:48:00.001Z

A couple of months ago Wavey and I joined a gym. It's quite an expensive gym and it's really rather snazzy with its 3 different swimming pools, 3 studios, a running track round the outside, and hundreds of machines. Initially we were really good and were going for a swim and going to the gym and doing this and trying this class. You can already see where this is going can't you?

We have already started to lose interest. This is bad. Very bad. We promised ourselves we would use it as it does cost quite a bit, and that we'd be good and we'd only eat good food. Somehow it never takes very long for all good intentions to fall by the wayside. This is fundamentally because we are fat knackers by nature. We love food, all food, puddings are yummy, icecream pretty much is the cure for all of life's ills, chocolate helps with that too...and biscuits...and definitely cake. And because we eat all that food cos it's so yummy and we often need to cure rubbish days at work by eating yummy icecream, we really need to go to the gym.

Tonight's the night. We've even shaken hands and agreed that we're going to the gym later on. Even though I'm actually kinda tired and Wavey's been away for the last couple of days doing more jet setting and this is right up there as one of the worst work weeks of all time, it MUST BE DONE! Or else we are terrible people, just like Muriel.

Wisely we only signed up for the minimum time of 6 months because we know that we're terrible at staying motivated. I need me a motivator! Perhaps a picture of some yummy cake and a giant wobbly arse (it's the word of the week!) is the way forward? Get thee to the gym fat knackers! Get thee!

Evolving a system

2011-11-16T20:02:00.001Z

There are many reasons why I will never be a manager. The list is long but includes my inability to keep my mouth shut before engaging my brain, lack of any real ambition (particularly in current role), a tendency to wear unsuitably short skirts in my place of work, and lack of any experience that would actually help in such a role. But these are not the biggest reasons. No, the biggest reason is because I could never ever ever ever bring myself to use "management speak". And it seems (again I can only refer to my own place of work here) that as soon as one becomes a manager one must also throw around all these bat shit crazy words that mean absolutely nothing and make most of us cringe inside.

My response to these words? Arse. Total and utter arse.

To be fair, it's been an utterly rotten day and maybe by tomorrow I won't feel a need to use the word arse quite as much, but today it's been peppered all over my conversations. And with very good reason I might add. I shake my head at the bonkers-ness and wonder again and again how I managed to end up here, with no prospects, and very little hope of finding gainful employment elsewhere (2.62 million unemployed according to today's figures). Best not to dwell really. Ho hum and all that jazz.

So for tomorrow my main challenge will be how to "evolve a system". And to significantly reduce the number of times I say arse. Best get a few out of the way now then: arse arse arse arse ARSE.

Shop-tastic

2011-11-16T14:49:00.002Z

I love internet shopping!

I have a really bad memory, so I order something, a few days pass, I forget what I've ordered, then it arrives and I've no idea what's in the parcel. So I rip it open, excited as a 3-year-old, and am always delighted with what's inside. It's like Christmas over and over again. Even better actually, because it's always something I really wanted/needed.

I went a bit mad at the weekend and ordered loads of presents, so they've been arriving in dribs and drabs for the last 3 days. On Monday I had 2 parcels - a barrel of coffee and a ruler. Yesterday I had another two - a rotary cutter and an alarm clock that chirps like a robin. Today I've had 3 (so far) - a self-healing cutting mat, an eco-friendly wooden jigsaw puzzle and another thing I can't mention cos Dizz might guess it's for her. I know when I get my credit card bill I'll be singing a different tune, but right now it fabby-fabtastic fun!

Old...but much loved

2011-11-14T20:58:00.001Z

This my friends is the very definition of battered:

It may not be evident at first glance but it is actually a purse. My purse to be precise. A once red and shiny and lovely new purse that is now battered, falling to pieces, the cards no longer stay in the slots, the zip is starting to break, and the popper went so long ago it's been held together by an equally battered hair bobble for at least 2 years. For the longest time I've carried on using my purse, not at all ashamed by it being held together by a hair bobble but I always knew there would be a time to say goodbye and I think that time is now.

It's a good job it's near Christmas as I'm going to ask my sister to buy me a new one. I think I prefer to pass the job along as I'm so reluctant to say farewell to this one. It has truly served me well. I think it was a gift too so it will be nice to replace it with another gift.

I know of several people who will be utterly thrilled to see my battered old purse go. Not mentioning any names (Miss Cat) but there are some who actually shudder at the sight of my sad old purse. How can something so well loved cause such offense?

So there you have it. I like to take a picture of these things for the blog so that they continue to live on. Old...but much loved.

The horrid purple room

2011-11-12T17:37:00.001Z

Before I begin I'm going to do a quick apology in case anyone reading this has chosen the following colour in any room in their house. Colour is a very personal thing and I in no way mean any offense. I love purple. Just not in a teeny tiny bathroom.

Now I can begin. When I moved into Wavey's house almost every room was beige apart from this tiny little bathroom that's out the back of the kitchen which was purple. With green ivy stencilled in each corner. And green accessories. Even the ceiling was purple! And so it was dark and dingy and pretty nasty and it was basically used as a storage facility. Since the arrival of the Man Shed last year, a lot of the stuff has been moved and now lives in its rightful place outside and we've been meaning to tackle this little bathroom for ages, bought the paint months ago. I finally decided I was just going to get on and do it. There's really only room for one person in there anyway as it's teeny weeny so tackling it alone wasn't that big a deal.

When it's finished it's going to be fab. The ceiling will be white. The woodwork will be lovely gloss white and the walls are going to be Lemon Sorbet, a bright bright yellow. I have great faith that it will really open up the space, brighten it up and make it look absolutely fab. And because it's so close to the garden I have a lot of plans to make it a kind of indoor garden space. I know that sounds weird but trust me, it will look faberoony. But when I started this morning it didn't look fab. Grotty radiator, with bits of plasterwork underneath, the strange shade of lilac/purple on every single wall as the photos show below:

A good solid day of work put in later I've put two coats of white on the ceiling, glossed every surface that needed glossing, re-painted the radiator and started on the walls. There's still a lot left to do but already it's looking so much more brillo! I will post a pic when it's finally all done and dusted and you can either enjoy the brightness or scream at the awfulness, cos it really all depends how you feel about yellow. I won't take offense...

Besties!

2011-11-07T22:03:00.002Z

I had a really exciting phone conversation tonight! My bestie friend from university days was calling to tell me that she's moving. At the moment she lives down in London town which feels like the longest distance away, we only see each other every few months and because we lead such busy lives we're terrible at phoning each other regularly. We text and email and are lucky to be such great besties that even if we didn't speak for months, hell years even, we would just pick up exactly where we left off and start gossiping and basically not shut up for about, oooh 3 days. So there's the background, now to the news. They're moving up north! I think we both squealed with excitement!

She will be literally just down the road. Okay slight exaggeration as she's not moving next door (now that would be totally awesome!) but she's going to be so much closer. In the same town as my sister lives actually and we often go over there and come back in the same day. And we'll be able to meet halfway and do ladies days out in like Leeds or York. Basically she and her fabby little family will be so much more in our lives which is just the bestest news for besties ever! And we all get on so well. They've only met Wavey a couple of times when they've been up to stay, but like tonight, he answered the phone and they gossiped for about 10 minutes whilst I sat on the sofa waiting patiently...until I'd had enough of waiting and just went and stood by the phone demanding my turn my turn!

I'm so incredibly chuffed that I have this huge smile on my face that's been there since the phone call. Yay! Yippee! Woooo to besties making sound decisions like leaving that evil London town and moving back oop north where the great and good live :O)

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

A dashingly glorious romp in the autumnal Lakes...

2011-11-05T17:58:00.002Z

...otherwise known as yet another holiday in the Dizz and Wavey calendar. Yes that makes 5 this year. We're not counting but other people are, and we really don't care as we lurve holidays the mostest and the bestest. And here are just a few phone and actual photos to show you why:

The return to reality is hard. Very hard. Needless to say we're already thinking of the destination for the next one...

The one left behind

2011-10-25T18:37:00.001Z

Wavey is away this week for work in some far off shore. 4 whole days. It's not the first time we've been apart for 4 days, but it is the first time that he's the one doing the away and I'm the one left behind. And I have to say it's...odd. He often tells me when I'm away and I come back how quiet the house is and how dull it is when I'm not here to provide the entertainment *chuckle* And it makes me laugh in a lot of ways that I feel the way I do now, cos I lived on my own for 7 years. 7 years of going home to an empty house, cooking for one, spending evenings alone...but now, after 3 years of being with Wavey and nearly 2 living here with him, being alone is a very strange place to be.

He's right, the house is quiet. And definitely feels a bit like there's something important missing. For a guy who to the outside world is quiet and observant and sometimes a bit shy around new folk, trust me when I say the man can chit the chat. We spend a whole heap of time talking and gossiping and laughing and being daft and stupid and having lots and lots of fun. And this quiet house is most definitely not the way it usually is.

Today is day 2, so I know it's halfway through. By tomorrow it'll be even better cos then there'll only be one day. And I'm off out for my tea tomorrow with the lovely T and then I'm meeting Fizz at the cinema to see the new SJP film that I've read really awful reviews about but I can't help it, I heart SJP the mostest and just have to see it. Plus it has Christina Hendricks in it and I heart her too. Win win...or just plain awful, we'll see and report back if you're really lucky. Happy times with my buds.

But I tell you what, I can't wait til Thursday evening when Wavey walks back through the door...the smile on my face then will be fit to bursting!

Crafty

2011-10-24T20:33:00.001Z

Dizz came round to do some top-secret crafting. She made a ****** and I made a dragon fly.

For some reason Dizz laughed outrageously when I showed her the first stages. Can't imagine why.

A whole lotta nothing

2011-10-22T14:33:00.002Z

This, my friends, is an empty week. A whole lotta nothing. And it's been absolutely blooming wonderful! Don't get me wrong, I love our busy lives muchly but sometimes, a whole week stretching ahead with absolutely nothing in the diary is a delicious feeling. Turned out that we still did a whole heap of stuff, but it was all on the spur of the moment with no forward planning needed. Fancy going for a swim after tea? Then lets do it. Fancy popping to the Farmers Market in town? Then lets do that too! Shall we go to the cinema tonight? Let's see how we feel after we've eaten our wild boar, ginger and leek sausages with piles of mash and yummy veggies.

Next week we're back to the usual busy-ness, but for the rest of today and tomorrow? We'll just see what we feel like doing. Yippee-yay!

If one sentence summed up my average day at work...

2011-10-19T19:44:00.003Z

..."a mad expense of days unspooling in the dimness in Periodicals"

I like that, I do.

Thanks to Edmund de Waal in The Hare with Amber Eyes.

Not again!

2011-10-15T13:07:00.001Z

My hairdresser told me this morning that my current hair colour is in danger yet again of becoming so popular that every other person has it in the street. And apparently it's all because of this lady above. She's from The Only Way is Essex or TOWIE as it's commonly known, the latest reality tv that everyone is hooked on (doesn't even compare to my fave: Made in Chelsea). I literally wailed noooooooo.

Last time my hair colour became really popular, I knew it was time to change when a woman got on the bus in her pyjamas and slippers with the same hair colour....there's not really a lot else you can say to that is there?

So now what? What colour do I go now? This cannot be happening again. Why can't people be original? Bugger.

Fit for superheroes

2011-10-14T18:35:00.002Z

A while back I blogged about my latest shoe lust of a pair of red Nike hi-tops and how I was selling items in order to raise the funds to buy them...well after all that effort, turns out you can't get red ones anymore! And the only ones I've seen now are either black or grey (bor-ring), shiny (eep!), or like pimped up versions of them with all sorts of hideous neon colours. Ugh. So no shoes. Oh dear what is a girl to do...?

Well first of all she can use some of the £69 I raised to buy some fancy dancy face moisturiser that cost rather a lot of money but is oh so lucious and makes my skin feel all yummy scrummy and is full of natural and organic ingredients. And then she can decide that if she can't have shoes, she can instead have a fabby new coat. A coat that is in the shape of a cape. A coat fit for superheroes! After much-o looking around to find a rather nice one, I spotted a lovely black cape coat this very evening and have just put my order in for it super speedy. Am very excited!

I'm normally a get your hands on it straightaway type of gal but I've spent a while looking around for one of these coats cos I think the balance is tricky. Too much cape and you're in danger of looking like Batman or a fallback from the 70s and not in a good way. But this one I've picked is very laydee-like. I went for black, the safe option cos I wear a whole heap of bright colours everywhere else. It has a high collar and is double breasted and fastens with a belt. And is actually quite short, just falling nicely onto to the top of the hips (in the photos). Can't wait to get my hands on it now to model it and strut around in it to make sure it feels good, you know, that kind of thing.

As I know this is actually coming and it's not just an image I found on the interwebby and will turn out to be unobtainable, I promise I shall post a piccie of me in said cape coat, strutting my stuff for the camera. Yippee!

Happy weekend, lovelies!

Yuck barf eep and eek!

2011-10-13T18:14:00.001Z

It's not the first time I've blogged about my fascinating (read god-awful) bus journeys and I'm sure it won't be the last but this past week has been like some kind of uber-hell for shocking bus experiences. As I'm a very kind person I thought I'd share them with you.

First up, don't know what's going on or where all the people have come from, but what the eff? Over the summer the buses were blissfully empty, no rotten school kids, no uni students, no college peeps, hardly anyone in fact. But in the last 2 weeks it's like the people are just breeding and each bus journey the bus is more and more full. Of course the company never learns and considers putting on a double decker or better yet investing in those bendy buses that they have like everywhere else in the world. Oh no that would be too kind. Let's instead just CRAM the whole world of bus people into one teeny tiny tightly packed sardine tin. Oh happy days.

Then let's throw in some horrible smelly boys who think it's totally okay to fart at will. And frequently so that the whole of the bus is almost gasping for breath in the toxic swill.

Or let's cram so many people on so that the standing up peeps have nowhere to put their stuff so that Dizz gets rucksack in face all the way there...

...again the day after that one but this time a man's crotch in my face all the way there.

And speaking of the crotch area, it seems that some yack awful men seem to be confused and think that your hand holding on for dear life to the rail has been put there in life for them to blatantly rub themselves up against you as they go past *shudder shudder shudder*

And all this my friends was in just one week. I know of at least 2 other peeps I work with who have suffered similar fates and have had to email the bus company. This is seriously not on bus folk - what are you going to do about it?! I suggested at work that we all contribute some pennies and save up and buy our own bus. We can take it in turns to drive and pick everyone up on the way. It would be like every morning and every evening would be a work trip out. It'd be pretty awesome. If only *big sigh*

There's one day left of the week which means one more bus journey (only one thank goodness as Wavey kindly picks me up from work every Friday evening like the fab blokey that he is). I can only wonder with horrified wonderment what that bus journey will bring...

Observing the observed

2011-10-08T12:20:00.001Z

I'm reading a book at the moment called "Watching the English" by Kate Fox. I'm sure you can gather from the title that she is an anthropologist who spends her time going round the country into various places and watches us English folk. It's not the best book I've ever read along these lines, that would probably go to Bill Bryson's "Notes from a Small Island" which is laugh out loud funny, even on public transport laugh out loud funny. But it is a very interesting book and I've found myself doing a fair bit of watching myself as I've worked my way through it.

Last night was a classic occasion. We were at a gig in a very small intimate venue, I was there with Wavey and my folks and there were probably about another 70-80 people there so pretty small group, hard to hide any behaviour that might be considered against the norm. First up was probably other people watching me as I did a double take when I spotted one of the upstairs people from work, totally out of context and not at all where I would have imagined he would be on a Friday night. We both did that comedy thing where we were looking around, spotted each other, did the double take shocked look thing, and then broke out into a broad smile and waved. Once the first band had finished I went over and invited him to join us as he was all on his lonesome and it seemed a bit mean to just leave him there. He came over, many hands were shaken and introductions were made, then we went into classic Kate Fox observed behaviour - the boys headed to the bar, I stood behind chatting with my ma, they came back and started talking about sport and other "manly" rock bands that might have been seen in the past.

Next up, the second support act was a young girl with a gee-tar and she was having a LOT of trouble getting set up. Like embarrassingly awful as she stood on the stage and many gestures were made towards the sound booth and we people stood around, feeling awkward and shuffling our feet and trying to fill the terrible silence. We English, as Kate Fox has observed, really hate this kind of situation and so we fill it in an equally awkward way. I had to turn my back on her in the end which is unbelievable rude but I was mortified for her! About 20 agonising minutes later she finally got started, and we classically over compensated with very loud applause and woo-hoo-ing - don't get me wrong, she had a very pleasant sound but she really wasn't all that marvellous. But we definitely made her feel that she was to get over our embarrassment!

The headliner (Roddy Woomble, totally brilliant and well worth checking out if you ever get a chance to see him live) came on and we all settled in for the real music to start. About 3 songs in someone started talking really really loudly at the back. I'm ok with that kind of thing as am generally so focussed on watching and listening that I don't hear what's around me, but there was one woman in front doing the silent complaining that we're famous for. She was clearly very angry with the loud folk but she didn't get up, she didn't confront them, she didn't wag her finger or tell them to shut up...no she just kept turning round and staring at them as if she could stare them into shamed silence. Which of course didn't work as loud people like that couldn't care less or they wouldn't do it in the first place. But she kept on trying and probably totally spoiled her own enjoyment of the gig in the process.

Then we reached the end of the night, when people say their goodbyes. In our little group there were a few more awkward moments where people decided if they should shake hands and did that funny putting your hand out, not sure, taking it back, trying to pretend you were going to scratch your arm or whatever.

I'm pretty certain that if Kate Fox was there last night she'd have enjoyed observing us all. Maybe we'll appear in a chapter of her next book...

Floor dilemma

2011-10-06T18:59:00.003Z

Wavey and I have a cream carpet in our living room which is pretty much a really silly idea when you hear that we are both the clumsiest people in the world. It was only a matter of time before something awful happened. A few weeks ago due to an unfortunate cup placing incident a whole cup of coffee was knocked over and despite many many efforts with carpet cleaners and hoovers the stain is still there. We have no other option than to replace the carpet.

It was always kind of in the plan to do that anyway as you walk straight into the house and into the living room. And dirt from the streets get dragged in, when it snows the grit that gets stuck to our boots leaves horrendous stains, we have a coal fire, we work a lot in the garden and often have muddy feet that we don't realise we're dragging through, we have grotbag kids over and sometimes dogs too...all in all, a cream carpet was never the best option to go for. Hey ho, you live and learn.

But now we've got the dilemma. Taking all of the above into account, how do we choose the best type of flooring that will ensure we no longer have to worry about carpet stains and spend a fortune on carpet cleaning. I reckon it breaks down into a few choices:
*Replace this carpet with another carpet but a darker colour, with maybe a pattern and a different weave to allow for regular stains and not be so obvious
*Forget the idea of carpet altogether and consider some sort of wood flooring alternative, but then it leaves us with the decision of laminate over real wood, or engineered laminate or wood equivalent...
*Turn the floor into another garden but indoors, lay a bit of lawn - would deffo save on hoovering time and could certainly prove a talking point
*Go way out there and build a porch so we can wipe our feet before we come in!

And so I'm throwing it out there and pleading for help. What should we do folks? We've already moved the rug to cover the coffee stain but it has to be sorted out sooner rather than later. Any other suggestions that would save us some pennies? Go on, help a gal out...

The big warm yellow ball of joy

2011-09-29T19:12:00.001Z

After weeks and weeks of sun dancing and moaning about the rubbish rainy summer, the big HOT yellow ball of joy has come to our happy town:

Look how happy we are!

Every day I've been making the comment "sack the flexi the sun is shining" and have had 2, yes 2, pub lunches sat in the sunshine:

Tis truly marvellous and makes me so so happy! Tomorrow is going to be hot too. And Saturday as well. How lucky are we!! Join me in our happy smiley sun dance! Come one come all!

Fresh meat

2011-09-28T17:19:00.002Z

It's Freshers Week this week. All these little people have arrived who will have been born in ooh about 1993...yes folks you read that right, 1993. What were you doing in 1993? Me, I was about to head to art college to do my BTEC in Media Studies. Rock N roll :O)

As is always the case it's been a classic week for bad fashion. And bad hair. Anyone remember the year of the mullet? I think that has to to be my fave. All these awful dodgy mullets that were captured for posterity on a uni card for 3 whole years, HA HA HA nice haircut mate! But I have to say it's made me all nostalgic, remembering my own first few days and so I thought I'd do a bit of sharing, for a wordy post rather than a piccie one.

So it was 1995. My dad had packed up my whole life in the Renault 18 diesel, and off to London town we set. Arrival to this weird and wonderful place was definitely accompanied by total excitement and total fear. Would it all be ok? Would anyone talk to me? What if I hated it and wanted to come home? Safe to say that yes of course it was ok. And yes people talked to me. And I absolutely LOVED it and didn't really want to come home at all and it took me 9 weeks into the 12 week term before I decided that I could leave my new fabulous life for 2 days and grant my parents with an honorary visit. The first person I met has ended up being a friend for life (hopefully!) I was chief bridesmaid at her wedding and even though she still lives in London town and I live here and contact is erratic due to busy lives and children's bedtimes, I firmly believe we will be friends 4EVA or it will be a very tragic waste and something will be seriously up.

I can't really remember the order that I met everyone in and I'm pretty sure that most of the first few folks I spoke to were the ones I spent the rest of the year avoiding. I truly had the bestest of times and met some of my bestest buddies and had the most amazing times first of all in student halls then in various houses and flats and people along the way. London was an amazing place to be a student (though extremely expensive - next blog post will say more about this). The pubs, the clubs, you can see any band, any film, any thing/animal/person, just you know, everything! And when you can get in with student discount and you don't really think about how much money you're spending it's truly fabby!

The other night we watched a new comedy show called "Fresh Meat" hence the blog post title about 6 students moving into a house and starting university and it was so funny and so cringeworthy all at the same time...we totally loved it! I think anyone who has been through that experience, or even worked at a university will be able to see familiar stories threaded throughout it all.

Take today for example. One colleague had a fresher come up to her this morning and say, I feel really really really sick and I don't want to go to the town hall with everyone this morning what should I do...cue tumbleweed from my colleague! I reckon I would have told him to go home and sleep it off, then have a cuppa and then a bit of a calm. My boss told me that she saw a young guy sitting on a wall looking all forlorn and lost and she said she wanted to go over and give him a big hug...she didn't obviously but ah bless. And I had skateboard girl. Hugging her skateboard like some sort of comfy blankie she comes over to ask me a "technical question" - which notebook should I buy the blue one or the green one? Me: erm... Next question: have you seen The Matrix? Me: yep. Her: you know Neo? Me: erm... Her: well that's my tutor right but with longer hair...what's he called? Me: *considering how best to answer* erm...Sheesh! I think it's fab that they feel they can come and ask us such questions but I reckon they must think we know everything!! Don't get me wrong, we're pretty blimmin' brilliant, but wowsers!

Bless the fresh meat. They do keep us amused...and in a job...

E-N-F-P

2011-09-22T19:40:00.001Z

Today was a really interesting workday. These don't come along very often so when they do I always feel like I need to make some sort of record of them. It was a workshop essentially about change management and it was run by two external bods and it was totally fascinating! We did a very shortened version of the Myers-Briggs test when you pick where you lie on the chart and we had visuals to help us along the way, including one poor teddy bear who was tied up with all these other animals coming to get 'im...or had the teddy been a naughty teddy and that was why he was tied up...it truly was fascinating to hear people's perceptions of stuff. One of the most interesting things we had to do was sign our name with our familiar hand that we use all the time then switch to the unfamiliar to see what happened. This was mine:

I totally turned the J around! How weird is that? Thursday = good day. Let's see what Friday brings.

Onelongstreamofconscious

2011-09-20T14:52:00.002Z

I've just finished reading a book by Richard Milward called Ten Storey Love Songs. He is a local author whose books are so incredibly local that I find it hard to understand how anyone outside of Middlesbrough can read them or even understand them. The places, the voices, the behaviour...it's all so Boro! But I checked a couple of reviews and people were absolutely RAVING about it. One guy said he reads it constantly - he finishes it and then starts all over again. Wow! I've never ever done that with a book before and am impressed that anyone can. The best and most wonderful thing about the book was that it was just one massive stream of conscious. There were full stops and commas but no paragraphs and no chapters and I was intrigued about how easy that would actually be to do.

So here goes, from the inside of Dizz's head on Tuesday afternoon at 4pm, sitting on a library reception watching the world go by:

Desk quiet squeaky chair sounds of chitchat chitchat chitchat. Self service yeah really transportation hahahaha heeheehee. Door round and round and round and round whumph whumph whoosh whumph doors sliding sliding sliding ohhhhhhpen closed. Quiet day drags BUSY people people everywhere who where what why which first last next whose. Grey carpet doors stuck leaves blowing doors stuck suck. Suits pass my eyes right left. In out wrong door go back come in go out. Odd bod never talks shifty eyes in gate out gate footsteps foot...step step step. Odd bod always talks loooooooong draaaaaaaawn out words yaaaaaawn in my head. Sitting squeaking gossip gossip [abrupt cut off from stream due to finishing shift]

So there you go. Get me to Faber and Faber, I'm going to be a multi millionaire author, I'm almost certain of it...

Weekends are for...part 2

2011-09-18T16:58:00.001Z

...exploring new places

...not caring that it's lashing sideways with rain

...museums

...art

...pudding

...sharks

...Dizz <3 Wavey 4eva

Weekends are for...

2011-09-14T20:03:00.005Z

...raft building

...crazy golf

...feeling like a 13 year old on my bike again

...cheerleading

...tennis

...rollerblading

...family <3

Muuuuuuum I'm booooooooorrrrrred

2011-09-08T17:45:00.003Z

This is Kevin the Teenager. And this is his face when he's telling his mum he's borrrrrred. And this is how we feel at work every single day. We're going through one of our quiet phases at the moment whilst we wait for stuff to be sorted out and finalised. But it's so dull. I know I know, I should be grateful that I have a job, and I am, don't get me wrong. But I'd much prefer it if it was a job where I actually had jobs to do. Drudge drudge drudge. Boo hoo hoo.

Grim fascination (not so much) take 2

2011-09-04T14:11:00.002Z

Yesterday was the day of the races. Turns out all that wondering about fascinators versus hats etc - pointless waste of time. I absolutely loved my hired hat as is evidence by my smiley smiley face:

And I totally loved glamming it up for the day!

We all had a really fabulous time! Happy 30th T! X

Shocking again

2011-08-30T11:38:00.001Z

I cleaned it yesterday! It was sparkling when I left for work this morning, honest! And now it's almost as bad as before. How can 2 teeny dogs generate that much snot in one morning? I'll have to make little shammy-leather muzzles for them.

In-Out

2011-08-29T10:39:00.003Z

These are my current shoe lusting:

But they ain't cheap at £70 and so I've invented a new rule for myself. I can have them. As long as I can raise the money to buy them outright and not put them on my credit card which is the easy option. Sadly I don't think anyone would sponsor me in any way, shape or form to raise the money that way and so I'm selling stuff. So far I've raised £44 towards them which is over halfway (not too shabby with just 2 sales) and I'm putting a few more things up today. With a bit of luck I will soon have those lovelies on my feet, yay!

Just have to decide which colour now as I do like the red, but the green are kinda funky, and the purple are really special. Decisions decisions...

Shocking Windows

2011-08-29T10:10:00.001Z

This photo is evidence of the reason for my very grubby windows. That is one long band of doggie snot! I wouldn't mind but I just cleaned it last year ;-)

Crafty fun

2011-08-28T19:50:00.001Z

Just spent a lovely afternoon with JB playing with felting. We drank coffee, ate cake, talked non-stop, oh and we made these pretty beads.

Potter vs potter

2011-08-21T16:22:00.002Z

Finally starting to feel more human and more like Dizz once again, yippee! This means I can go back to work tomorrow...I want to yippee but I know within 5 minutes I'll be wishing I was back at home again.

Not only did I miss a leaving do for one of my favourite peeps at work, I also missed a camping trip with my one of my bestest friends ever and her little family. Gutted doesn't even cover it really, but no use crying over spilt milk. I couldn't help being poorly, bad timing. And there'll always be more visits from folks. Sadly there won't be any more leaving parties but I do have a wee giftie and will see the leaving presentation and get a chance to say my own goodbye to my work peep.

This weekend then was a kinda take it easy kind of weekend. A few jobs were done and a lot of resting and lying around was done. Wavey calls this kind of weekend a pottering weekend. It was also a Potter-ing weekend for me as I have now finished number 5 in my Harry Potter marathon as of this morning. I only have up to number 5 in my groaning bookshelves so had to text Fizz immediately to say that I needed number 6 and number 7 and could I come around and get them immediately. She was out buying grout (as you do) so I had to sit very patiently and wait for the text. As soon as said text came I was off round there like a shot to pick up my fix :O) I now have number 6 in my grubby paws and have just read the first few pages waiting for Lenny the laptop to load up. Oh! It's so great reading them all again! I've only read the last 3 once as number 5 was so beefy I couldn't bring myself to carry it round in my handbag, and as I don't own 6 and 7 and had to borrow them...suffice to say I am very happy in my HP marathon and will be very sad when it's over. Maybe I'll just have to start all over again! The end of 7 will mean viewing the film again, yay!

In other exciting news, our one grubby potato that we planted in a grow bag and ignored for 3 months has produced a whopping 17 yummy looking potatoes! And I spent a lot of time re-potting (there it is again!) in the greenhouse as all the chilli plants are now getting little flowers on them ready to burst out with cayenne peppers and "patio sizzlers" - yowser! Wavey and I are very happy with progress in year 2 of the growing our own. So far this year we've enjoyed carrots (still ongoing), onions (still in the veggie box being enjoyed), sugar snap peas (all gone now), strawberries (good supply but not as good as last year, probably drowned by all the rain), the potatoes from today, cucumbers, courgettes, tomatoes, hopefully some peppers, we have an aubergine plant too, and lots of chillis...not forgetting the turnips that are nestled in their earth ready to eat later on in the year, leeks, and a pumpkin that is looking promising. Each year we learn more and more. Next year we have plans for amending the patch to have 4 raised beds and more greenhouse activity...is so exciting!

Pottering of any variety - ace!

Grim fascination

2011-08-18T15:00:00.002Z

First up: I'm ill. Stuck at home with some crappy headachey virus that I've been trying to fight off for a week. Last night I felt even more crappy than usual and my ears were aching which was making me dizzy...time to give in and stay off work.

Second up: I'm bored stiff. It's been less than a day and I'm just soooo bored. Clearly, despite all protestations otherwise, Dizz is meant to be a worker bee.

And so I'm surfing. Looking for something that I fear I may never find. It's T's 30th birthday and for this fancy dancy occasion we're off to the Races. I've been to the races before and absolutely loved it! But this is Ladies Day at the races which means posh dresses and hats. I've found not one but two dresses (I'm inclined towards the purple as the choice for the day so far) and now I need me a hat. Or equivalent. If I go for the purple then I'm thinking red accessories as I like to both colour pop and clash with style, as you well know.

Hats and me? Not so sure. I can rock a trilby, and I can definitely rock an ear warmer thingie and various baker boy caps, but actual posh hats? I've never really tried and I've got me a whole lot of hair going on - often these things don't sit right. And so to the fascinators. Do they have to have dead birds on them? All that feather stuff scares the crap out of me. And all the other ones I like are really expensive, like more expensive than the 2 dresses put together! And so I'm flummoxed people. What do I do? Do I try a posh hat (cos I know a place where I can rent one) but risk feeling uncomfortable and a bit silly all day? Or do I get a bird and sit it on my head feeling even more weird and worrying that the plastic comb holding it all together will surely snap any moment in my, let's be honest here, natural birds nest hair? Tis a tricky one folks. Any thoughts? Words of comfort? Anything...?

Professor Wavey and the curious puzzles

2011-08-16T18:32:00.003Z

Wavey and I have been playing Professor Layton on my wee DS, it's a great little game it really is. Puzzles round every corner and hint coins coming out of barrels and things to collect and build, it's lots of fun. But I can't help but chuckle, Wavey's brain is a really logical and maths type brain and so each time we get a puzzle along those lines he goes off into these complicated formulas and equations that involve mucho multiplication and sometimes long division and turning the DS round to see what it looks like from a different angle...I told him yesterday as he started wondering about binary on one puzzle that the game was designed for like 7 year olds so it really can't be that complicated. His reply:

"...there's no way in a whole million years that this game is for 7 year olds"

Me: (in teasing manner) "A whole million years?"

Him: (looking wee bit embarrassed) "Well yeah"

Chuckle. It must be strange having a brain like that. My maths and logic bit of my brain is definitely the worst and so I often sit back in amazement as he launches into this complicated mental arithmetic that totally baffles me. Obviously (she says in totally slushy moment) we are just right for each other as we both have different sides of the brain that are stronger and between us both we have a MIGHTY brain that solves the 60 picarat puzzles first time. Yay! Go team! :D

A bit of a kitchen and garden do

2011-08-14T15:35:00.003Z

Busy busy day today. Pulled some baby corn:

Dug up some turnips:

Baked some cereal bar trying "island mix" for a change:

Tried out the new jelly mould with some strawberries out of the garden:

And made a big old mess in the kitchen making pear and ginger muffins:

Aren't Sundays brilliant!

Happenings, events, stuff like that...

2011-08-13T15:26:00.002Z

This week has been a pretty mixed bag really. August is notoriously hideous in our libraryland. I don't know if this is the same for librarylands all over the world but in our's, gawd we struggle. The insanely crappy weather isn't helping with this struggle either. As a result this week it's been very hard to get my ass motivated to get out of bed to get to work where everyone is gloomy and miserable and down in the mouth. What a shiny happy start to this blog post...

In other news this week though, Wavey has been to Paris, the lucky devil! He came back with tales of the offices there and man have they got it right, no wonder our morale is so low! They have 2 Playstation points in their foyer where they're having an office competition to see who can drive round the Nurburgring the fastest. And if they're not doing that they're sitting out in their pretty tree lined courtyard on official breaks sharing a coffee and a cigarette (well it is France) with their colleagues. This my friends is how offices should be. If we had all that going on in libraryland we might be more cheerier folk. I'm thinking of suggesting it to the big boss lady. Just wondering how best to word it to avoid her reply to me including the words "get your coat and pick up your P45 on the way out".

Whilst Wavey was away, Dizz went out to play. Well not really, I went up to see my folks for dinner. Where I had the most delicious dinner of sausages, bacon, beans and new potatoes, followed by my all time favourite, butterscotch flavour Angel Delight. Oh happy smiley day. T'was truly lush.

I also helped to paint a kitchen that wasn't mine.

And went out for several walks. We are so going to be the winning team in the walking challenge!

And enrolled on a Royal Horticultural Society course in yet more attempts to get myself the hell out of libraryland and into a job that actually fills me with joy, makes me smile, and lets me be creative, get my hands mucky and wear wellies everyday for work. It's a winner! I collected the stuff today and am a little scared now that it's actually here. I was really rubbish at science at school. Like really rubbish. What if it's too much for me? What if I turn back to being 15 and get that science blindness all over again? Eeep!

Supported my local village shops by buying not one but two dresses, plus a pair of khakis and a lovely teeshirt that looks like it's never been worn. Oh and I bought some bananaramas from my local greengrocer so all good with the keeping my carbon footprint low there. I now have to decide which of the two dresses I will wear for the races for T's 30th birthday soon. Decisions decisions...

Consumption wise we are super hooked on the US version of The Killing. It's set in Seattle and so far my opinion of Seattle (sorry LG) is that it rains. Like all the effing time! And it's really dark cos they seem to constantly drive around in rainy darky times. One of the characters wears her wellies all the time and I don't think it's a festival chic kind of fashion statement but more a way of avoiding trenchfoot from all the rain. Sheesh, I thought our rain was bad but it would seem we ain't got nothing on Seattle!

Last night we finally got round to watching Frost/Nixon and what an amazing film it was. Very very interesting. We was mighty impressed. And part of it was set in California where the sun was shining, which made a pleasant change from all the Seattle rain we'd been watching.

I'm on book 4 of my Harry Potter marathon before going back to watch the final film a second time. Love it! People keep staring at me on the bus. Either they're admiring my fabulous hair or they're curious why I'm reading HP - go figure.

Totally listening to the second Kitty, Daisy and Lewis cd for about the 4th time today. It's fabulous-oh. And I've requested a mouth organ from Wavey for Christmas. When I informed the Dizz dad of this he got very excited as he can play (and used to play it in the bath when we were growing up - better acoustics maybe?) and has decided that we'll have a band and go busking. A gal's gotta make a penny somehow...Am also listening to the Vintage Trouble cd but only once today and nowhere near with the same obsessiveness as KDL.

Found a giant mound of dog poo near my fledgling pumpkin today and got very cross with the beast next door who is clearly breaking into our garden to do his bizness! I am outraged by this. My poor garden! We have found where he's getting in and Wavey intends to thoroughly block it. He tried to come in when we were in the garden and I went and proper shouted at him to get back in his own garden. Gawd knows how long he's been coming in though, sheesh! Poo in your own garden matey! He knew he was wrong though, he almost looked shame faced as he skulked back (in other words smashed back) through the fence. He is truly huge, a Newfoundland I think! And he hums. Poo-ee!

So kind of a busy week then really. Hope you've all had good times folks.

Riot cleanup

2011-08-09T17:28:00.001Z

BBC News - England riots: Twitter and Facebook users plan clean-up

My hat goes off to the every-day heroes who want to reclaim their city.

70s-tastic

2011-08-06T18:24:00.003Z

I was going through some old photos and found this. Truly hideous. My mum tortured me for hours with red hot tongs to get my hair to go so un-Fizzy. And the blouse! How could she? Evil, pure evil.

My friend Leonard

2011-08-06T16:55:00.002Z

Leonard, this is...everyone.

Everyone...meet Leonard.

Introductions over, Wavey and I are happy to report that we now have a shiny new laptop. He's called Leonard. And he restored the itunes library, and he transferred all the internet favourites over. He's a very clever boy indeedy. And very speedy! Poor Larry (may he rest) he must have been soooooo tired and old and near to retirement, but he truly did me proud and will always be remembered fondly. But it's time for the newbie to take over.

First blog from Leonard. Looking good so far. So many firsts to experience now. Happy shiny Leonard, we already heart you muchly. Welcome to the family.

Festie weekend take 2!

2011-08-05T14:20:00.002Z

Except this time it's in our lovely fair town so there's no camping to be done, we can watch all the good bands and come home to our lovely cosy quiet beds, yippeee!

This weekend's extravaganza promises:
Seasick Steve!
Young Rebel Set!
Kitty, Daisy, and Lewis!
Maximo Park!

And all for the bargainous price of £25, woohoo! (I am so going over the top with the exclamation marks and I don't care!)

This weekend also promises a visit to where my dad works for some 1940s nostalgia in the shape of cars, fashion, airplanes and all sorts of other delights. I'd say look out for the photos but Larry is still poorly...

...but the great news is that he stayed alive long enough for me to rescue my itunes, yippeee *happiest jig of jiggiest joy*

Happy weekend one and all. May it be awesome :O)

19th nervous breakdown...

2011-08-03T20:20:00.002Z

...well actually more like a 21st century nervous breakdown! I came home from the festie (FAB and definitely more to come but you'll understand once you hear the sorry tale) to find Larry the Laptop is completely foo-barred. Like totes as they would say in Hoxton. He is working uber uber slow and had something called TSSKILLER on him, as well as 3 more Trojan Horses and a few other things that I don't even like to name. Safe to say he's a very poorly boy. This makes me beyond sad. He was my first proper grown up purchase, on a 3 year finance deal as I couldn't afford to pay outright, and it was one of my proudest moments to have fully paid it off and have true ownership. But now he's gone...but hopefully not until I get what I need from him. Just one last job Larry...

...itunes baby! Don't die please don't die until you've taken the 128 minutes (or 79 minutes, or 29 minutes or back up to 78 minutes) that you currently promise to transfer from the library to my external hard drive. It's taking that long as I have 7 days of music on it. Wavey seems to think this is excessive but I reckon it's probably kind of small compared to what some people have. I've always been limited by the size of my ipod and not having one of those hoy-uge 80 gig ones means I've kept my library small. But believe me when I say oh so precious! Presh-ussssssss!

And so I'm sitting waiting. With a fair bit of pacing thrown in. And some hand wringing. And a few tense words with myself, not to Wavey tchah! It has to work. This is fair to say folks, what could only be termed a 21st century technology breakdown. All I can say is thank god for smartphones or how could I tell the world about my current crisis?! What a world we live in. And I'm confident writing this that many of you readers will feel my pain as we're all so reliant on these machines that we lovingly cherish.

So please all join me in the laptop prayer. Come on Larry baby, I know you can do it...

Calling at Kendal fest!

2011-07-29T10:51:00.002Z

In about, oooh, one hour's time I will be getting picked up right at my very door, packing my very old, battered and filthy rucksack, plus one tent, one sleeping bag, one blow up mattress (must camp with style), and one very excited Dizz and D! Yep, it's festival time - yippeeeee! We are off to the sunny (hopefully!) Lake District for a weekend of music, merriment, and mud :D

A shout-out must go to the lovely Tizz as we are normally the festival buddies, but this year she was double booked and has had to go to deepest darkest Cornwall instead of a-festival-ing with lil ole me. I'm sure she is having a fabulous time and I'm sure I also will have a fabulous time but I'll miss you much, lovely x

This year's fest looks very exciting, haven't been to this one before so it's a whole new festival to experience. It's only a wee one and actually won best small festival last year. Blondie are closing the festival on Sunday night (OMG!) and there are many other cool bands that I can't wait to see. There's a library with a twist as it lets rock'n'roll bounce out of it all night, we have to dress up as beasts or monsters (face paints at the ready), and there's tonnes of other coolio stuff.

It's funny as when I was about 9 years old we went to the very same campsite where it was being held. My overwhelming memory from this was sleeping in a big blue and orange tent, on a blow up bed that kept on deflating...let's hope that doesn't happen this time as sleeping right on the ground at 36 ain't no fun!

Happy weekend to everyone! I will report back once we return to normal bed and non-camping shores. Keep your eyes peeled on the face-site as I'll probably be doing a few mobile uploads along the way. Bye-eeee!

Star Wars

2011-07-25T04:20:00.001Z

Whoever wrote this Alchemy game is definitely a Star Wars fan. Couldn't sleep and aimless combining made robot + hero = R2D2 then jedi + frog = Yoda. Made me smile.

Take-over

2011-07-24T18:52:00.000Z

Fizz has totally taken over the blog! Tis a most wondrous sight to behold. Time for me to kick my feet up, relax, and enjoy all the posts that come my way *blissful sigh*

2D v 3D

2011-07-22T23:01:00.001Z

The verdict according to Fizz: not much difference. The 3D-ish-ness was very subtle in most places. The only time I really noticed it was at the end when there's a lot of bits of ash floating about - those who've seen it will know the bit I mean, those who haven't won't find any spoilers here. Sweetie. Anyway, the bits of ash looked like they were really floating just a few rows in front of us. Very cool but not hugely in-your-face. Which is better really, there was always the danger that the 3D would be OTT and spoil the film. But no, it was still an ace film. And Neville still rocks!

Harry Potter glasses

2011-07-22T19:34:00.001Z

Here's PBfH with the 3D glasses. How cool?

POT-TER! POT-TER!

2011-07-22T14:05:00.001Z

Going to see HP 7.2 for the second time tonight, but this time in 3D. I'm not that bothered about the 3D to be honest but I'm looking forward to seeing it again. I think you get a lot more out of a film the second time round, you notice more of the little details. PBfH is coming with. I don't think I've introduced her to blog world, so here's a quick bio: her name is Phsycho B**** from Hell, which is meant completely ironically since she's the sweetest person imaginable. She's a mum of two and works in the same madhouse as I do.
So I'll blog my thoughts on 2D v 3D later...

More alchemy

2011-07-21T21:26:00.001Z

Today I created among other things Dr zoidberg, ghostbusters, Mario and a lightsaber! Geeky? Nyeh.

Alchemy

2011-07-20T09:40:00.001Z

I am clearly susceptible to addictions at the moment. Not only am going to see harry potter twice in a week but I'm also addicted to a game I found on Android market. It's called Alchemy and it's so cool! You start off with the 4 elements, earth, air, water and fire and combine them into increasingly complex things. Last night I created a vampire then I created a stake, then I did vampire + stake = corpse. That was cool but my next creation was even better: doctor + vicodin = House M.D. I CREATED DR. GREGORY HOUSE!

AWESOME!

2011-07-18T21:45:00.001Z

The dragon, the kiss, mcgonnagal and the statues, the hellfire - wow! And Neville! Neville! Who'da thunk? As Dizz said when the credits started to roll, can we watch it again?

We're here!

2011-07-18T18:31:00.001Z

It's Potter time! Dizz and I are waiting like, I don't know, kids at Christmas. So excited! I'm almost tempted to add more than one exclamation mark. POTTER! POTTER! POTTER! the music has just stopped and It's time for the ads. Will let u all know ...

Dizz23

2011-07-17T15:46:00.002Z

A fabulous friend called Jillybean has been doing this thing called CPD23. I don't really understand it all that much but it seems very worthy and professional so I thought I'd give it a go for the past week. My interpretation of it is that you talk about your achievements and your interactions and your presence on the web and in your professional circles. So here we go, Dizz achievements for the past week:

spent the week wearing the usual array of fabulous outfits
had huge hair one day, like properly huge. One of the upstairs peeps nearly did a double take as they approached the desk at the huge fluffball before them
managed not to break a pair of shoes (HUGE achievement - do I get extra points?)
gave excellent contributions in meetings (cheeky yet to the point comments - me be quiet for 16 weeks, you have got to be joking!)
volunteered my services within the team to assist with the giant amount of work they have going on
signed myself up for a Walking Challenge at work with 3 other buddies. Who can get the biggest number of minutes walking over a set period of time? I bet we can!
Booked a long weekend to Liverpool in order to see the Magritte exhibition at the Tate as well as all the other sights the city has to offer, and found a potential holiday cottage in the Lake District for a week in late October/early November
Wavey and I went up to Washington Arts Centre yesterday and were very busy learning circus skills such as plate spinning and juggling. Then I did stop-start animation and he did digital photography. We rounded off the morning enjoying a yummy lunch and a glass of real ale (beer - we heart you so)
Got ourselves a V+ box which means we can now pause live telly (awesome!), record shows onto the box (we'll never miss another episode again!), and now have access to HD stuff. Methinks we will never return to normal telly again
Dragged Wavey into the 21st century and he now has a smart phone, yay! We can Crackberry chat for free now and our calls will be free as via the same provider. Cool and economical, what more do you want!
Bought a pair of scales. Jumped on, eeeked, declared ourselves reet fat knackers, and are now on target: weight loss *sad face* My own personal target is 1 stone. 14 whole pounds. Supermodel-dom here I come once that's come off...
Dug up the BIGGEST root (more like a small tree!) from the front garden which means it's now completely clear and ready to start with whatever we're putting in there. Decision pending
Made cornbread for the very first time. Looks exactly like Levi Roots says it should. Also made up a yummy chili for tonight's tea and homemade cereal bar for the rest of the week. Yummo
Went to see Harry Potter 7.1...
...and booked tickets to see Harry Potter 7.2 for Monday night *squuuuueeeeeeaaaaal*
Booked tickets for Imelda May in November
Taken pee out of Fizz for geeky 3d glasses idea. Ask her. You too will be amused...
Advanced to almost 1000 picarats in Professor Layton on my DS
Resisted the urge to begin the French wine and finished off old stock first
And finally...can't think of a finally. Isn't 19 enough for you?!

I'm not sure how all of the above would rate on the CPD scale, but in terms of a crackin' fun week it's right up there!

Potter mania

2011-07-16T12:52:00.001Z

How cool are these?

Busy brillo weekend

2011-07-11T19:05:00.005Z

Eeeeh this weekend was fab! It started at 8.30 on Friday night when I went to pick up D and we headed to the Town Hall in our fair old town to see Morrissey! What a coup! I have no idea why he added Middlesbrough to his tour choice, but I say thank you very kindly sir as you were pretty awesome amazing. And he wore 3 different shirts! This photo shows him in his second shirt of the evening:

Saturday came around and I met up with my girlies for lunch/brunch thing in our local yummy deli that we've recently discovered. Fizz came along for the ride too which was just fabby, and we met Jillybean who was up for the weekend and T. We had a delicious first course and so of course we were obliged to get pudding too:

Coming back from our holiday and finding the garden the overgrown jungle that it has become made Wavey and I realise that 2 big gardens are just too much. So after much umm-ing and ahh-ing we've decided to pull all the plants up from the front garden and make a weeny rockery with alpine plants in one corner and who knows what in the rest of it. We've pulled up most of it already but this photo shows us in the beginning stages. Digging-tastic!

Also this appeared when were on holiday! All along I thought I was just growing a leafy green plant and then this amazing flower has appeared and it's just one of many. So pretty!

On Sunday whilst I went to see X-Men with Fizz (OH SO GOOD!) Wavey headed off to B&Q to buy man toys. First time he went he came back with some sort of power saw that looks to me like a giant carving knife. But when we both went the second time we came back with this wood shredder:

Oh it's ace! One of the big bushes we dug up from the front garden didn't even fill one big black bag with the chippings. This is possibly the best purchase we have ever made for a garden our size!

All in all a fabby weekend. Can't wait for the next one as this Saturday sees Wavey and I heading off to a circus skills training course...

Experience of working

2011-07-07T17:34:00.003Z

This week we've got a work experience girl with us. She's 15 years old and until today has been as quiet as a mouse. Today though she came to join our team. Of course we are the coolest team and therefore must be the ones who will make her feel most at home. From the time she joined us at 9am she literally hasn't stopped talking all day, this loooooong stream of 15 year old conscious. I had the pleasure of her company twice - first up we were doing journals and later this afty we were packing up books for our new campus.

I decided earlier in the week that the best way to approach it would be to actually let her do the work. I'm sure she's been talked at a lot over this past week and I know how much that puts me to sleep. And so we did the journals thing, we opened the post, we checked them in, she got to stamp the stamp on people's heads and put the security strips in; the excitement at being able to take the trolley up in the lift was just too much. Oh and then enjoying a bit of banter with one of the upstairs peeps, he flicked the v's at me as he was walking away in front of her!!! I went over and said you can't do that she's only 15!! Think he felt pretty bad - she loved it!

This afternoon, being much more at home with me, we talked about all sorts from which ipod was coolest to how brillo Blackberry chat is compared to texting (so last year). There was lots of fun stuff to play with as we RFID tagged the books, and ripped out old date labels and glued new ones in, spotted spine labels and did more stamping. As the time was drawing near, she actually did the barf face when I told her that it was time to go for her next appointment and she did the whiney "can I stay with you?" I managed to get her another 5 minutes so she could finish tagging the shelf but that was it. Onwards she had to go. She gave me some chocolate as we'd been talking about it and went her unhappy way. Later on the person responsible for the work experience peeps came over to me and told me that she had said how I'm "the best". It made me feel nice and I hope it helps her to get a positive image of work.

Of course all this being 15 and on work experience made me reminisce back to my own version. For some reason I believed that I wanted to be a nursery nurse and so I was dispatched to a local council run nursery school in a very bad part of town where I basically wiped up children's snot for a week. It worked really well in that it utterly convinced me that there was no way on earth I wanted to be a nursery nurse. I can't really remember whether any of the people were nice, I think they just seemed really old to me. They were probably the same sort of age as I am now!

I wonder if she'll decide that libraryland is where she wants to be as a working person? Or will it put her off the idea completely? Who can know. Maybe she'll talk about it tomorrow in another looooong stream of 15 year old conscious :D

Negative flexi and broken shoes

2011-07-04T18:51:00.003Z

Oh dear, there appears to be a very large 'ole in my shoe!

And I'm so sad as I love my dotty shoes *sad face*

Working in libraries is bad on shoes! My lovely dotty shoes were fine until I started doing my relegation project and crawling around all over the library and the grotty old store pulling books off, shelving books in, packing boxes to send to worthy charities...and now dead shoes, boo!

And despite being away for like 2 and a half weeks my negative flexi hasn't magically disappeared and I'm still minus 7 hours and 11 minutes. Ho hum.

"Negative flexi and broken shoes" it's either the name of my autobiography or the name of my first cd, depends on if I become a rock star before I become an author...

Urrrrrrrgggghhhhh oink oink!

2011-07-03T14:00:00.003Z

2 and a half weeks of eating 3 course meals, drinking copious amounts of wine and Alsace beer, the required icecream every day whilst on holiday rule, plus many many packets of crisps (cos they're easy when you're driving) means I feel a bit like this:

A big fat pig! Wavey and I have decided that it has to stop and we're determined now to be extra extra good and healthy. We've only been back a day but so far so good. It's been salad, cereal and fruit all the way. Yay! Plus we really really loved cycling when we were on holiday and I already have a bike. All we need is one for Wavey and then we can be off on little jaunts pedalling as fast as our little legs will take us.

But I tell you what. It was worth it! The food was lovely, the Lavender flavoured icecream was my favourite and the patisserie that the French make should really be called works of art cos they're so beautiful to look at and even more beautiful to eat, yum yum scrummy yum.

A quick pop

2011-07-02T19:38:00.002Z

It's not often that you get the opportunity to pop in for a cuppa when someone lives 275 miles away. But today, coming back under the sea to Grande Bretagne, we were able to do that and catch up with the ever delightful Tizz. 90 minutes of non-stop, not pausing for breath talking and we popped right back to the car to head north. Thanks for the first proper cup of British tea (oh how I missed it!) and fabulous to see you, as always x

It's only 8.40pm and we're utterly pooped! A whole day pretty much in the car will do that for you. We are weary travellers my lovelies, weary indeedy. I think not too much longer and we'll be heading to bed-bobs in our own lovely bed *big sigh*

Quick recalculation is needed now that we've unpacked the car. Turns out that Wavey has been very sneaky and all along telling me that we would only buy 20 bottles and we'd just get these extra 3 to take us up to 20. Guess what? We've got 23! Eeep! Our dining room table looks like we're about to open a new French wine bar, yay!

So this tired traveller will drag the suitcases up the stairs, look at the mounds of washing and ironing (boo) and say a sleepy nite-nite to all.

Aurevoir France!

2011-07-01T16:21:00.003Z

16 nights.

8 hotels.

1 beautiful twisty turny 14th century house.

2000+ miles.

19 bottles of wine (to take home)

1 bottle of cider (again to take home)

2 bicycles + 2 very red faces.

Hot hot hot hot! Sun sun sun sun!

Many many footsteps...

...1 very dead (and very smelly) pair of espadrilles.

Merci beaucoup France, you've done us proud!

Road trip!

2011-06-28T16:14:00.002Z

We came all the way north to Fontainebleau to see the King. But it's Tuesday. And he's not home. Oh well...

Bonne vacances!

2011-06-22T19:24:00.002Z

It truly is the 21st century my good friends when you find yourself on holiday with a laptop. In our defence we brought it for booking up hotels and checking routes etc, but I couldn't resist a sneaky peak onto the blog only to find that no-one has blogged *sad face* Bugger that thought I. I may be on my jolliest holidays but that doesn't mean I can't share this time with the world.

So we're in France, in a Provence village called Bonnieux. We're staying in a twisty huge old house that dates back to the 14th century. It's utterly amazing, and we have the most breathtaking view that photos do not even do justice. Seriously right now I'm watching the sunset over the Luberon valley and it is something very special indeed.

We're having an utterly fabulous time. We're so relaxed we're practically horizontal, we keep trotting out on adventures to all these really high up places that literally make you feel like you own the world:

Today we explored round an old quarry that was called Colorado Provencal, so amazing. Red, orange, yellow, white sand, green trees, beautiful. Then we went to a tiny village called Saignon and climbed up yet more steps (thighs of steel) and literally had a 360 degree view of all of this stunning part of France. Tomorrow we're hiring bikes and probably climbing more hills (buns of steel!) to see Lacoste and its famous castle.

A bonne vacances indeedy my friends. Salut!

Mr Blue Sky

2011-06-12T18:57:00.003Z

We woke up really early this morning but we didn't really mind because Mr Sun was out! Yep after days and days of rain and cold weather it was utterly glorious to step outside and feel heat in the sun. I couldn't resist taking some photos of the blue sky with all these amazing clouds, they were just so cool. Fast forward a few hours and it's raining again, and it hasn't stopped raining since about 2pm. Ho-hum.

Naked face!

2011-06-10T15:26:00.002Z

I blogged recently about my crush being crushed by the optician. Well today I returned again but this time to get contact lenses again. I wore contact from 16-26 and then decided to go to glasses after lots of problems and eye infections. Fast forward 10 years, changes in technology, an urge to add funky sunglasses to my many accessories, and here I am. Naked of face. It's very strange. After 10 years of glasses it's very odd not to have that protective barrier over my eyes. I came out of the opticians still wearing them and it started raining and a splash went right in my eye! I nearly leapt out of my skin, so not used to that! Anyhoo, here's a piccie of me with naked face (and very bad roots, cannot wait to go to hairdressers tomorrow):

And of course being the fashion-ista that I am I instantly went and picked some fabby sunglasses for my hols:

And so to be completely vain. From 16-26 the bags under my eyes were probably there but not as bad as now. Or is it just that I'm so used to my glasses covering that kind of thing that my whole bare naked face is just alarming! Avoid magnifying mirrors methinks. What do you reckon, do I need to invest in some Touche Eclat or can I carry on wearing the cheap 5 quid stuff that seemed to do the job when I was wearing glasses?

And poor Wavey! Not only did he have to adjust to me switching my glasses from red to black, now he has a bare naked face girlfriend! He's slow to adjust to change...but so far so good...

A view from Wednesday

2011-06-08T19:20:00.001Z

Libraryland:

Homeland: