Just Me

Surplus to requirements

2012-01-27T12:03:00.007Z

Redundant

- Adj

“Surplus to requirements, unnecessary or superfluous”

Well.

It’s hard not to take it personally, even though it’s affecting most people in the organisation. You want to stand on your desk and say “Well excuse me but I am totally necessary, thank you very much. I’ll have you know that I add quite the spark to a dinner party.”

At the moment everything is up in the air. They’re asking for voluntary redundancies and in a few weeks we’ll start to know more.

It’s a strange atmosphere. Everyone on edge. Everyone knows what’s going on but doesn’t really want to bring it up. It’s all head’s down, let’s get on with things, let’s not talk about it until we know more.

It’s hard not to feel paranoid that people are looking at you and wondering “Well what does she do – surely she’s not important, we could get rid of her and save us some money.” But come on, you know you’d do it too, I know I am. Going through a list of people and saying “Well we could get rid of them for a start.” It’s an unpleasant side to my character that has emerged but I guess it’s a fight or flight response. As happy and go-lucky as I am, if I’m in a situation where I have to prove my worth over someone-else’s the gloves will come off.

I can feel myself starting to mentally prepare some kind of statement to detail how awesome I am and what an asset I am to the organisation –the equivalent of practicing my song for the sing-off in X-Factor, hoping that Gary Barlow is going to tell me it was the performance of the night and put me through to the next round.

But when you’ve already been told you’re a luxury it’s hard to keep your self-esteem boosted and stay positive.

A luxury?

I feel like a Lush bath bomb sat next to some Asda Value bubble bath. I want to say “But just try me, I smell gorgeous and I’ll make your skin feel all soft and if you’re lucky I might just cover you in glitter.”

But when push comes to shove and you just want to have a tiny little treat, you’ll go for a bit of cheapo bubbly rather than the luxury item which is only going to coat the bottom of your bath and make you break your neck the next time you step into the tub.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and prepare my song. I’m going to go for Journey’s, “Don’t Stop Believin’” – bet I’ll knock Louis Walsh’s socks off.

The weekend I attempted the impossible

2012-01-25T16:38:00.003Z

After New Year I had an unexpected e-mail from The Person.

“When you come over next can we do things to make the flat homely?”

It was an e-mail which simultaneously surprised and didn’t surprise me. I remember when I moved into my new place and got myself all unpacked, he started round looking a bit confused before saying “But this room looks like you live here already, you’re all unpacked and everything and it looks like you. My flat looks like I’ve just moved in.”

What surprised me was that he wanted it in his place at all. I just assumed he was being blokey and liked things as they were. But the nesting bug must have caught hold of him somehow and the request was made.

At first I was in heaven. Getting to make a home for someone else is immensely fun. Mostly because it doesn’t involve you spending any money doing it. But I soon realised one huge stumbling block.

Homey things = girly things.

Trying to make a flat seem nice and homely whilst retaining a sense of masculinity about it was hard to imagine. Especially as I’m a girl. And whilst I don’t think I have excessively girly taste, I didn’t think The Person was going to get as excited about an ornamental birdcage as I would.

In the weeks leading up to me going to see him I started to have a little browse and pick up some things as presents to get him started. Some nice mugs which are colourful and can go on a mug tree in the kitchen but were without a hint of Liberace. Some decent tea towels to replace the dirty rags he currently owns. Some grey storage boxes – grey – how manly can you get?! And some little fake plants that require no care and won’t be producing any unexpected girly flowers on them.

But I knew there were going to be problems. I spotted this throw on Dotcomgiftshop (£49 reduced to £15? Yes please!) and suggested it because it was brown, thought that would be pretty manly. But it was rejected for being girly. Apparently if a sofa and a bed are already covered in fabric then why the need to cover them in more? It was a logic I found difficult to argue with.*

I went over prepared for a battle and, to be fair, I kind of had one, but by the end of the weekend things were starting to take shape. To really understand what I had going on here you have to imagine a student, who has just moved in to his first place. There was seriously nothing to work with. As in, he didn’t have a bin in the bathroom. Or a table to put a coffee cup on. Getting a picture? This wasn't really a case of getting amazing, expensive furniture that will last our whole lives, and more about just getting stuff, full stop.

So by the end of the weekend we had:

A nest of tables (one for each end of the sofa) A bin for the bathroom and a toilet brush
A toothbrush holder and soap dispenser
A bath mat (Hurray for 3 for 2 on Argos Colour Match stuff)
Some nice new colourful towels
Shelving unit (bargain from Morrisons for £9 – although I wouldn’t put much on it given that you didn’t actually need a screwdriver to put it together)
A bamboo plant
Coasters
2 table lamps (to take up residence on aforementioned nest of tables)
I also did a bit of re-jigging, moving the never-used small dining room table into a corner of the lounge and moving an uplighter to create a little dining area. I suggested getting something to sit in the middle of the table but couldn’t get agreement on anything, having a conversation that went a little like this:

Me: How about a bowl?
The Person: What would I put in it?
Me: Well nothing. You could just have a bowl. OR. You could put some sand/pebbles in it and a candle in it?
The Person: You know what would be good? A big giant rock.
Me: *silence*

I discovered that it’s actually difficult making somewhere homely when you’re not the person living in it – all I could really do is suggest things to The Person and see if he liked them. I tried again with the soft furnishings, I brandished a tartan throw from Primark in his direction and made him feel how soft it was and I thrust a cushion in his face in Debenhams exclaiming “Look! Pigeon cushion! How manly is that?!” But it was to no avail.**

I still haven’t won the battle over candles unfortunately. I think that’s a no- go. Although a utensil holder for the kitchen has been given the green light so it wasn't a complete fail.

All in all – not bad for a weekend’s work say I.

Next time.....bedroom!

*But I totally went and bought that throw for myself anyway and I love it. It’s so so so so soft I just want to smoosh up in it all day.

** Or was it? Later on he admitted that the throw and cushion might not have been such a bad idea. Aha! I just had to plant the seed!

Conversations with Peter Pan

2012-01-20T16:30:00.000Z

Having a chat with my housemate, Peter Pan, can be both hilarious and exasperating. Mainly due to the fact that it’s like talking to a 15 year old in a 31 year old’s body and mainly because he might just be one of the most shallow people I’ve ever come across.

For instance...

The other night he was talking about how he might have a “few” dates lined up this weekend. He was trying to remember their names and The Scot and I were asking him questions about each one.

Peter Pan: And then there’s Ellie...

The Scot: And what’s she like?

Peter Pan: Well she’s kind of small and petite...

The Scot: No but what’s her personality like?

Peter Pan: Well she has kind of rock chick look.

Cue hysterics from me.

Peter Pan: Why are you laughing?

Me: Well it’s just that The Scot just asked you what her personality is like and you just said she has a rock chick look!

Peter Pan: Well yeah, you know, like a rock chick!

Me: Right. You do know that’s not really describing a personality trait though?

Peter Pan: Erm...

Classic.

Closed for business

2012-01-19T16:30:00.000Z

I’m having particular problems with a new person in my life at the moment. She came pretty much out of the blue, into one of my sets of friends, and I am feeling particularly hostile towards her and that isn’t really like me. I would under any normal circumstances enjoy having a new person in the group, someone else to breathe a bit of fresh air into things and mix it up and change the order of things, but at the moment I’m just feeling incredibly invaded.

Before I go on, I fully accept that this is my problem. I am all too aware that these are my own issues that I need to deal with but I am blurting it out on here in the absence of having anyone else to talk to about it.

Everyone has different ways of approaching new people. I’m not emotionally slutty when it comes to making new friends and establishing new relationships. I will sit back, take things in, wait and see if I really like this new person. I try not to force myself on people, I take the attitude that if they will like me they will see something they like about me, I don’t need to force myself on them and prove that I’m a great person. If they want to like me, they will find it eventually. I basically don’t come on strong before committing to a relationship with them. Because for me I do see it as that, I take my friendships very seriously and I want to be good friend to people. I don’t see life (or Facebook) as a rush to gather as many “friends” as possible, I’d rather make sure I’m investing myself in worthwhile people.

I think because of this, I have a pretty adverse reaction to new people who try to force themselves on me in an attempt to establish a friendship. Writing all over my wall, commenting on my statuses, liking my pictures, texting me all the time, is not the way to win my friendship. In fact it immediately makes my barriers go up and actually prevents me from even wanting to establish any kind of friendship with you.

It would be easier if this was a romantical thing that was going on. You could say to the guy/girl, “Hey, you’re actually coming on a bit strong, could you back off a bit please and let’s just take things slowly?” But with someone who isn’t even your friend yet you couldn’t say the same thing without sounding as if you have severe mental problems.

It’s taken me a long time to figure out what is I don’t like about this person. I’ve been saying “There’s just something about her I don’t like” which I recognise makes me sound as if I’m convinced she’s going to whip out a gun and kill us all as we drink our tea and sip our mochas. But it finally hit home the other day what it is that’s turning me off her.

It’s not just this way too full on approach that she has (I literally feel like she is everywhere in my life at the moment, something that Facebook has to answer for because it all too literally shows at times how someone is involved in your life) but it’s that she seems a very needy person.

I’m not cold-hearted in the slightest. I know that we all have problems and we all need friends/people to help us through those problems. I think the trouble at the moment is that I have a lot of “real” friends who are going through emotional trauma.

These emotional traumas don’t necessarily affect me in the slightest, but like I said, I take friendship seriously, and if my friends are having problems then, even if I’m not literally doing something to help, I’m certainly thinking about it and worrying about them and wondering what I can do to help them. Unfortunately there seem to have been a spate of traumas in my friend’s and family’s lives in the past year or so – there’s been marriage breakdowns, troubles with babies, people suffering from depression, people’s parents breaking up, relationship woes, fights with families, people not talking anymore – the list feels heavy-going. And whilst my own life is (relatively) smooth at the moment I feel like a part of me is ever so slightly invested in these woes because I love my friends and I want them to be happy and I feel upset when they’re not.

I think that this is the underlying reason as to why I’m wanting to keep this new person at arm’s length. Coupled with the fact that she is coming on way too strong, I think that this is my brain’s way of saying “Closed for business.” I cannot take on another needy person at the moment, (especially one who I suspect is prone to the “next new thing” and that I’m not convinced will stick around) I need to conserve my energy to being a good friend to my real friends, not having someone in my life who is just a drain. If one of my friends have a problem I’ll be there in a flash, but I’m not spending time on someone who puts out statuses on Facebook purely to get people to comment about how wonderful they are – that is not a person who values friendships, but is somene who’s looking to get as many people worshipping them as possible and I’m afraid I’m not interested.

It makes me sad because it means that I have made the decision to hold off seeing this group of friends for a while. And I fully accept that that is my decision – this new person is, I’m sure, a perfectly nice person - but until I can find some way of dealing with her that doesn’t make me want to scream I’m going to have to absent myself and get a grip. Unfortunately that means that some of my real friendships may suffer (although there is an argument to be made that if they were real friends then they won't let our friendship be affected by the fact that I'm not seeing them on one allotted day of the week).

I don’t know if this is a form of the “January Blues” (or if they even exist) or just the culmination of feeling the stress of other people’s issues but I don’t want them exploding out of me in a direct hit on an unsuspecting person.

That’s what you guys are for...right?

Now go clean yourselves up and carry on with your day.

Things that have been happening around here.

2012-01-17T20:58:00.000Z

You know I love a good list post so I thought I’d fill youin quickly on a quick update of my life at the moment.

I totally made something new as per my Not ReallyResolutions. I made a vegetarian lasagne. Now I’m a girl who does like my meatbut very occasionally, the look of something veggie will catch my eye. I ropedin a couple of friends to be guinea pigs and we were all pretty impressed withit. It was very filling and I hand on heart didn’t really miss the absence ofmeat. I also found a recipe for a different veggie lasagne which sounded evennicer so that might be next on my list!

PS It’s really difficult to take appetising pictures ofroasted vegetables and crème fraiche and cheese.

I’m working on a new cross-stitch thing for my niece’sbedroom. Thinking about it, it will be the biggest cross-stitched piece I’llhave ever completed so that’s exciting. It’s a pattern from the Christmas 2011CrossStitcher magazine and there’s a tiny little part of me (the girly sideapparently) that would secretly like to keep it for myself.

I now live in a full house! A new housemate moved in whilstI was away at the wedding at the beginning of the year. She is Irish and I willchristen her as Newbie. She seems pretty nice actually, although I haven’t seenthat much of her because I feel like I’m out and about a lot of the time at themoment.

I've been trying to get back into running but it has beenfraught with masses of frustration. I can’t believe how much of my former fitnessI've lost and I get incredibly mad with myself. I used to be able to run 5kmwithout too much of a problem, now I'm lucky if I can get to 4km. I know itwill eventually come back and I know I have absolutely no-one else to blame butmyself, but I am finding it really difficult to remain positive. Especially asmy shin splints in my left leg have already re-appeared and I only ran 3.5kmone day and then 2km the next. Have been sat, icing my shin and feeling very very sorry for myself. My 10km goal is lookingimpossible at this point in time because of my incessant injuries. I’ve readeverything there is to read about shin splints I know everything there is knowabout what causes them and how I’m supposed to cure them but it’s just to noavail I’m afraid.

I saw a really pretty sunrise this morning.

That is all.

The Inner Brat

2012-01-15T10:30:00.000Z

There comes a point every Christmas when I get exceedingly bored of shopping for other people. My Inner Brat awakens from her tomb of selfishness and tries to put the halt on everything that’s not geared up towards feeding her ever hungry soul.

But this year I was firm with her. There comes a time in every brat’s life when she learns that she just can’t always get what she wants.

Only kidding. She’s almost 29 years old, there’s no way I can fix her behaviour now.

One thing that was different however was my resilience to getting out the plastic. If the Brat wanted things, she was going to have to pay for them herself. Mr Barclaycard was not going to be funding her excessive wants.

Luckily for the Brat I found some pennies. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before but in case you’re new around these here parts, I’ll fill you in on my excellent saving tip. At the end of the week, or every couple of days, or whenever I feel like it, I empty out everything that’s in my purse. I put the £2 and £1 coins back in it and everything else goes in a piggy bank. Occasionally, if I’m feeling particularly flush I’ll stick the £1 coins in there as well (that happened, like, once). It can take a while depending on how skint I am that month and how many times I raid it to get bus fare but sooner than you think you have a nice little money pot that you can do with as you wish. And because it’s silver it adds up to much more than you would think.

I noticed that piggy was getting kind of full. Normally I would wait until you can’t fit any more in but I decided it was close enough and it was Christmas after all so took it off to the bank to be deposited (there’s a branch of my bank that has a coin counting machine in it so you just dump it all in there and it deposits it straight into your account. MAGICAL.) and before I knew it, the Brat had some shiny pennies in her grubby little mitts.

Off Brat skipped to Manchester with The Person to spend money on herself. She was almost beside herself and upon entering River Island went into paroxysms of delight (RI is going through an awesome phase at the minute. But it seriously needs to stop putting so many cropped tops on its racks – we’re not all size 6 seventeen year olds thank you very much). She holed herself up in a changing room to try on all the clothes and declared that she wanted everything but I decided that she should probably be restricted to just this top, this skirt, and another pencil skirt which is green and awesome but is inexplicably not on RI’s website.

She also went to Waterstones and bought the last books until 2013 (every time I write/say that it makes me throw up a little you know) – she might be a Brat but she does at least like reading so I don’t like to discourage her too much. She tried to be good and choose between this book and this book but then she decided she’d just get both. Oh you funny little Brat you.

And so she was sorted. She had some new clothes to wear, she had some new books to read, she was quite the happy Inner Brat and, more importantly, she hadn’t broken the bank in her selfish ways.

Christmas and New Year passed and it was with some trepidation that I typed in my ID and password to have a look at the havoc that had been wreaked on my bank account, it’s always such a painful time of year and I braced myself and squinted at the screen in an attempt to minimise the shock. But actually, surprise of all surprises, it wasn’t that bad. In fact it was much better when I realised that some direct debits that I thought were still to come out, had already come out. Well done me. I think it’s still the shock of readjusting to having a fair bit of extra income each month now that my Career Development Loan has been paid back but it was looking pretty good.

It just so happens that at the same time I was having a little browse on the Schuh website when I chanced across some Irregular Choice shoes in the sale.

I groaned inwardly because I knew that if I’d seen it, then the Inner Brat had almost certainly seen it and she would start up her tattoo of “Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it.” inside my poor little brain. I managed to resist it for 3 whole days but Bratty just would not leave it alone and kept demanding that I return to the website because how often do you find Irregular Choice shoes in the sale that you like and are your size (if you happen to be a size 8)? Answer? Never. (Seriously. IC must make about 2 pairs of shoes that are a size 8, and man alive are they a small size 8 at that, it’s hard enough to get them at full price, never mind reduced.)

The Brat did make a compelling argument that went something along the lines of this:

a) They’re reduced so it would almost be a crime not to buy them

b) They have a low heel so you can wear them when you’re with The Person and not feel like a Gigantosaur

c) They’re awesome

d) I’m awesome and deserve it

It was inevitable really.

Brat is now officially silenced. Until next Christmas...

And yes. I was so excited to get them I took photos of them whilst I was at work. THAT is how much I loved them.

Kindle vs Real Life books

2012-01-13T16:00:00.000Z

To be honest I wasn’t really that desperate to own a Kindle. I saw them and held one and got what it was all about and totally understood the rationale behind them and thought it would be great for when you went on holiday but for someone with a bookcase groaning under the weight of many unread books who hasn’t been on holiday for years, it just didn’t really feel like a must-have item.

I could see the appeal though. I was getting tired of lugging a book around everywhere with me, getting frustrated because I’d left a book at work that I really wanted to read at home, or I’d be travelling with two books, just in case I finished one and would be unimaginably left with nothing to read.

Then I decided that I would not be buying any more books in 2012, which was freaking me out just a little, and not long after my Dad asked me how I felt about Kindles and would I like one for Christmas. I immediately,

a) saw a loophole in my resolution, and,

b) thought I should take the opportunity to get one as I’m unlikely to ever spend that kind of money myself on it.

So I gratefully accepted and went for the smaller Kindle. My Dad did point out that it wouldn’t hold as many books, but I said I reckoned that space for over 1,000 would probably do me for a while!

Its role has become my travelling book, so it’s in my bag at all times to be read at work on my lunch break and if I’m lazy and get the bus. Home will be my place for reading “real” books.

Using it is easy peasy lemon squeezy. It’s incredibly easy to handle and work out which buttons to press. The only hard part actually is refraining from touching it like I’m used to doing with my phone, I still find myself automatically doing that sometimes – oh how times have changed!

But I’m still struggling with the concept of it. It just does not feel the same as reading a book. I read Northanger Abbey and instead of that feeling of turning the last page, I just knew I’d reached 100% read. There was no reflective pause where I put the book down and then turn it over to look at its front cover one more time. No riffling the pages through my fingers, no shoving my nose into the middle of it to smell its bookness and no satisfying noise as I turn the page or slide my bookmark into place. To be honest I don’t feel like I’ve read a book at all which puts a bit of a dampener on things.

One of my favourite activities is the point where I’m about to choose a new book to read. I stand in front of my bookshelf and cast my eye over all the spines. I look at the different colours and fonts and see what jumps out at me. I look at the size of the book, am I in the mood to tackle something weighty or do I want something a little easier to get through? I admire the lovely alphabetical order and linger over particular authors that I enjoy – do I feel like reading another one of theirs or shall I go for something new? I love that process.

With my Kindlle I turn it on and look at my home page. So far I have three different sets, “Fiction”, “Non-fiction” and “Classics” (now this is something I need to do with my own bookshelves!) and within those are a couple of books. No colourfulness. No different fonts. Just listed titles. I have no idea how big the book is, I don’t know what I’m getting into. If I want to just read the “back” of the book and find out what it’s about I have to connect to the internet and that’s just not always possible. Which of those two experiences sound more pleasant?

And what about when it comes to buying books? I’m honestly not sure if I’ll be able to see my Not Really Resolution of not buying any physical books this year through. I like wandering into bookshops or even just wandering down the book aisle in Tesco and seeing what’s out there. I like it when there’s not a book I have in mind that I want, I just look at the covers and see what takes my fancy. I get the thrill of selecting my choice and taking it to the till and paying for it and carrying it home with me. Even when I order books over the internet you still receive something physical, there’s something to show for the money you’ve spent and you get that satisfaction.

With the Kindle there is none of that satisfaction, and it’s borderline dangerous. It’s linked to my Amazon account and my card details, so buying a new book is literally the click of a button. No taking you to a virtual checkout and filling in your details, just boom and there’s a message that says the book has been downloaded and there it is on your home screen. Instead of that warm “I’ve just bought a book” fuzzy feeling, you’re left feeling a little shallow inside.

I did wonder if some of my problem was that I just don’t have enough on my Kindle at the moment. There isn’t really a ‘library’ to browse and there are only so many Classics I can take. I have downloaded a couple which have cost me a few pounds but I’m still not feeling that buzz of electricity. Even visiting the “store” is soul-less and doesn’t compare to the hours I can spend wandering round a branch of Waterstones.

I know this sounds like I hate it and I really don’t. I think it’s the most amazing piece of gadgetry I own and I think that the more books I get on it and the more I use it, the more I will warm to it, and if I get to go on holiday this year I’m sure I will thank my lucky stars that I have it; but right now at this minute, it doesn’t compare to my real-life babies.

2 Classics down, 10 to go.

2012-01-11T17:00:00.000Z

Nothing like hitting these Not Really Resolutions running I think and somehow I’ve managed to get two under my belt before the second week of January is up.

Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey is also the first book I have ever read on my Kindle so well done to it. Round of applause please. The Magic Toyshop was one of the last books I bought in 2011 as a Christmas present to myself, having saved up some pennies. My copy is one of the Virago Modern Classics with the beautiful hardcovers.

I was actually looking for Mansfield Park on my Kindle but of course, my luck being what it is, this is one of the few Classics you actually had to pay for (not much, but I want to spend as little as possible at the moment). So I went for Northanger Abbey. I have to be honest, I’m pretty sure the only Jane Austen I’ve read is Pride and Prejudice, although I think I’ve picked others up from time to time.

Northanger Abbey felt completely different to Pride and Prejudice though – I mean not so much in terms of plot, but the style of writing was very different and it threw me a little bit, I’ve obviously underestimated Miss Austen.

Bizarrely enough, the Northanger Abbey of the title isn’t even mentioned until you’re half way through the book which was frustrating at times, I was reading it and questioning what the hell it was all about. And to be honest I didn’t really feel like it was that relevant to the story – although maybe that’s just because my over-analytical A-level English Literature skills have now officially deserted me.

The story follows Catherine Morland, a young 18 year old, who goes to Bath with some friends of the family. There she meets the odious Isabella Thorpe, who you want to give a good slap to, and her equally fatuous brother, John Thorpe. She also meets Mr Henry Tilney, who she falls in love with completely and his sister Miss Eleanor Tilney, a much nicer friend than Isabella.

Catherine is eventually invited to Northanger Abbey, the home of the Tilneys, and it’s then that things kind of go a bit haywire and Austen appears to be trying her hand at a bit of crime fiction with a frankly weird storyline that goes absolutely nowhere about a possible murder.

She is unceremoniously turned out of Northanger and sent home without reason given and she thinks she will never again see her Mr Tilney.

But does she?

I’ll leave you to find out.

I honestly don’t know what to make of this book, it’s certainly different, but it felt so odd and disjointed in places that I couldn’t say I absolutely definitively loved it.

The Magic Toyshop – Angela Carter

No book could be further from Northanger Abbey than this one. It’s part fairy story, part grim reality and you are helplessly swept along with the story.

Melanie and her two younger siblings are sent to live with relatives they have never met, following the death of their parents. They slip from a privileged life into one of dirt and grime with no money. Uncle Philip is the head of the household and only appears to care about his puppets, which he spends time in the basement crafting, to put on shows for the rest of the family. Aunt Margaret is mute and her two brothers, Francie and Finn, live with the couple, Finn helping out in the toyshop that earns Uncle Philip a living.

It is uncomfortable in places to read but is absorbing at the same time but I couldn’t help but feel a little let down by the ending which just felt rushed and a bit clumsy. I can’t explain more about the book without giving too much away but it was one of those books that felt both beautiful and awful in equal measure.

Definitely one to pick up.

The wedding season begins.

2012-01-10T19:00:00.000Z

Ooh I’ve been a busy little bee since the New Year started. I feel like I’ve been all over the place but I’ve checked my diary and I definitely haven’t been – there must have been some strange glitch in my brain that’s making 2012 difficult to cope with so far.

I managed a whole 3 days back at work before I head off on holiday again. I can’t recommend this enough as it’s made January almost bearable and I see that we’re already in the second week which can only mean that pay-day is coming soon which is always welcome – especially because we get paid a week earlier in December which seems like an excellent idea at the time but means you end up eating dust in the run-up to January’s pay-day.

Anyway. I digress.

The reason for my little jaunt away so soon in 2012 was that I was heading down to a wedding. I know. They’ve started early this year. It is a mildly terrifying thought but I think we’re ok because so far there’s only 2 weddings booked in this year which is a much less horrifying prospect than last year.

The Person’s cousin was getting married so this meant I was faced with the prospect of being faced with all his family in one go. I’ve met most of them before to be fair, but there’s something about the thought of all of them in one room that makes your heart beat that little bit faster.

Trips down South can only mean one thing to me – massive expense because of stupid train fares – and I nearly died when I realised that I was looking at £100 ticket from Hull to the Sussex but thanks to the Megabus, which could get me to London, and booking train tickets from London in October, I managed to bring the journey in under £40. Although you pay the price by travelling for much longer time period – it’s a bit of a toss up at times.

I arrived late afternoon in Bognor. The Person gets mad when I call it Bognor because it isn’t really Bognor but for argument’s sake, let’s just call it that and let him rage away to himself when he reads this on his computer screen.

I am beside myself with the fact that his Dad’s house is literally round the corner from the beach. It’s a thrill that I think only someone who’s never grown up on the coast can have. I get unreasonably excited about it and within minutes of arriving I’m begging The Person to take me to see it. I’m so jealous that people have the sea right on their doorstep, it’s so wonderful.

The wedding was a little further away, near Balcombe, at the rather marvellous Highley Manor. Probably the best location for a wedding. Ever. All dark wood and big roaring fireplaces and leather settees and wing-backed chairs. The whole venue is hired out, so the rooms are all taken up by wedding guests too, meaning that you have the whole place to yourself.

The Person and I have been to a few weddings now so we’re definitely getting a feel for what does and doesn’t work as a wedding guest. Something that does work? Booze. And lots of it. The bar prices were actually a little bit frightening (£10.50 for a pint of Guinness, a gin and tonic and an alcohol-free beer – my little Northern soul blanched a little bit, we don’t pay those kinds of prices up here!) but there was nothing to worry about because they had allocated a generous portion of the wedding budget to keeping us liquored up, meaning that that round was the only money I spent that night. Always good in my books. Lots of champagne, lots of wine at the tables, free bar for part of the day for those people who don’t like champagne or wine = very happy guests.

Wedding favours came in the form of Lotto tickets for that night’s draw (unfortunately neither of us were winners although I haven’t heard if anyone else was lucky) and the tables were all named after 80s tv shows (we were on Duck Tales). Photos of the bride and bridegroom were throughout the venue and there was a little sweet bar for people to fill up on throughout the day and night. They had a band to provide the entertainment which was an excellent move, they had us all whipped up into a frenzy and dancing our socks and shoes off – it’s the first time I’ve been to a wedding with a proper band (minus the jazz band debacle of the New Year’s Eve wedding of 2010) and it was definitely one of the things that have been squirreled away in the girly portion of my brain that occasionally surfaces and thinks about what my wedding might look like if I ever get married.

(By the way, that whole providing your guests with lots of booze thing? Not so good the morning after when you want to put a gun to your head just to stop the hammering in your brain and are faced with an absolutely mammoth journey back home thanks to your desire to save money.)

Not Really Resolutions 2012

2012-01-07T12:00:00.000Z

So here we go. Not Really Resolutions 2012. Eek.

I think last year went pretty well. 9 out of 10 is a success in my book anyway, certainly as close to perfection as I’ll ever get.

So what’s on the list for this year? And more importantly, why?

1. Complete France 2010 trip album. Ha. Well it has to be on here doesn’t it really, given that it’s the only thing I didn’t complete last year. Shame on me. But this way it will definitely get done so it’s time for me to get my head down!

2. Furniture make-over. I have 2 items of charity shop furniture that need a make-over. One is a drop-leaf table and the other is this scabby looking chest of drawers that I picked up for £5 a few days after Christmas. They are very good at their jobs, but they’re not exactly pretty. I even know what I want to do with them, after getting inspiration from Tete en l’air last year, so it’s just a case of getting on with it. Think it might have to wait for more clement weather though!

3. Run 10km. A tricky one to put on the list as I’m still not overly sure if I am able to run 10km without my shin imploding. But if I don’t put it on the list I won’t push myself to try and achieve it so it’s going on here. I need something to aim for because once I’d run the 5km last year I stopped having the impetus to go running and as a result I’ve become a reet lazy so and so and I’m piling on the pounds as a result.

But I’m not going to beat myself up if I don’t achieve this one because it’ll be because I physically can’t do it. Note that I’ve just said run 10km, not enter in a race, I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself because then I’ll end up in pain – if I manage to run 10km, whether that be on a treadmill or running up and down my street a million times, I’ll count it as a win.

4. No buying of physical books for one whole year. Yeah you read right. I’m going hardcore for 2012. There is good reason for this. Namely that I do not need any more books. There are currently 92 books waiting to be read on my bookshelves. I read about 45 books this year, and 44 the year before that. Do the maths. Also I just don’t have the space to be buying books.

Which brings me to why it says no physical book buying. I decided this would be my resolution a couple of months ago and was all settled until Christmas Day when I opened up my present from my Dad and discovered I am the proud owner of a Kindle. I’ve had mixed feelings about these for some time now but I was mostly pleased because I saw a loophole in my resolution. I can’t buy any physical books but I’m allowing myself to buy books for my Kindle. I mean otherwise it would just be a waste wouldn’t it?

This one is going to be a tough one because I have a bit of a compulsion with book buying, as evidenced by the problem in the first place.

5. Learn how to do French knots and use them in an embroidered piece. These guys are the bane of my life. I literally cannot do them. Many have tried to teach me and many have wanted to poke me in the eye with the needle due to my complete inability to do it. But this year I am determined. If anyone has any links to any tutorials or videos that are good please tell me about them! I think French knots are going to be to 2012 what learning to crochet a ripple blanket was to 2011.

6. Use my alpaca wool. American Girl went all the way to South America to get me this wool (there’s a chance she also went for a holiday but we all know it was about me) and all I’ve done with it is turn from skeins into very neat balls of wool. This is bad behaviour. The main reason I haven’t used it is because I’m a giant scaredy cat because it’s not Stylecraft DK so I don’t know what to do with it. It is thin thinny thin thin and it frightens me. Any suggestions for what I can do with it (keep it clean please) then let me know!

7. Sell something at a craft fair. This requires me to be organised and get a stockpile together. Of what I have no idea but I like the thought of making money. Remember the mobile that I made for my niece? Since that one I’ve made 4 more for friends and it’s earned me some lovely cash. Now obviously I can’t make those – not unless I develop psychic powers and learn the names of my potential shoppers beforehand – but I’ve been bitten by greed and want to make pocket money for myself. I can feel a Gantt chart coming on...

8. Read 12 Classics. I had such a good time last year that I definitely want to carry this on this year. Mostly because of the stockpile I have – remember those 92 books? Yeah well 17 of them are Classics that I bought on speculation. And I can download Classics for free on my Kindle so no excuses.

9. Cook/bake something new every 3 weeks. When I was doing Weightwatchers in 2010/2011 I really started to enjoy being in the kitchen much more as I was always making myself new things. Since reaching my goal weight in February 2010 I’ve been lazy and that, plus the lack of exercise (see Resolution 3) has meant that slowly but ever so surely the weight is creeping back on. It’s not a big deal, I’ve just fallen into some bad habits, but I know what I need to do to change them so there’s no stressing to be done. But I thought this might help give me a kick up the bum.

Why 3 weeks? Well I knew that if I said fortnightly I’d never keep it up and if I said monthly well that’s just a big fat cop out isn’t it really? So every 3 weeks it is. God knows how I’ll keep track of this one.

10. Keep a diary with photos for one whole year. I loved doing Project 365 last year because it allowed me to look back over a year in my life and remember all the little things that happened. However it was a little limiting because I try to be as private as possible on the blog and not have other people’s faces in my photos etc. So I have decided that I will keep an actual physical diary for a year that will include photos. I’m not pressuring myself to write something every single day or take a photo every single day but I do want to keep a record of the little things that happen day to day. I even bought myself a cool book from Paperchase to do it in. Anything to oblige my stationary addiction.

------------

So there we have it. I am locked in. Bring it on 2012.

It's actually kind of scary. I think I might start thinking of valid reasons why I haven't completed these now, just in case...

2011 - A Year in Crochet

2012-01-05T16:30:00.000Z

Let’s stop for a moment and reflect.

Yes I know everyone in the blogosphere has been reflecting their backsides off this past week and you’re bored of it but I haven’t even had my chance yet have I?!

I could have written a list of things I did for the first time in 2011. I still might, it might just sneak up on you unawares, but instead I thought I would do a crochet-specific 2011 round-up.

It’s been an exciting year crochet-wise. Just look at what I managed to fit in to one year!

1. Crocheted flower cards (courtesy of a pattern from Petit Filoux although I did change it a wee bit). These were good and went down a storm with those that received them. I think I need to take some time out this year to make up a batch more so I can have them in reserve for when I suddenly remember someone’s birthday at the last minute.

2. Crocheted cushion cover. This was so long ago I’d officially forgotten about it, even though I see it every day when I pummel it back into shape after I’ve been lounging on it on my bed. I did some good stash busting this year. In fact so good that I managed to kind of get rid of everything which left me feeling all empty inside. But I know have enough left-over from the Ripply Beast to keep me going for years.

3. Amigurumi. My first foray into the world of 3D crochet. I like it. But I still have no idea what to do with them so I haven’t made any more.

4. Yarn Fairy blanket. I have waxed lyrical about this far too often. So I will stop for at least 2 minutes. ButohmygoddidyouknowIlearnedhowtoripplethisyear?

5. Jungle Ripple blanket.

6. Ripply Beast. I can confirm that Ripply Beast is now in his new home and is very happy there. His new owners are undecided whether to take him to France or leave him here but they were apparently “in awe” of my talents. (But then he is my Dad so he kind of has to say that.)

7. Blankets for Preemies UK. This included my first ever fancy pants border and my first ever granny stripe blanket. And got rid of more of my yarn that was hanging around. I need to do more of these next year, especially when I’m feeling sorry for myself. Helping others always makes you feel a little bit less of a loser I think.

8. Bunting. I wasn’t going to put this in because it was just a test run really. But I did do it so I thought it should go in there. (Also I was one photo short of making a collage of 12.) I am definitely going to make me a little bit of crocheted bunting love this year. My mantelpiece is actually crying out for it. Seriously. Sometimes at night I can hear it sobbing.

9. Cowl scarf/snood. (Pattern from I Ripple, I Dance) I saw this and immediately felt the need for one in my life. I’d been planning it for a while and have bookmarked a load of instructions but this looked nice and simple so I thought I’d give it a go. I even had the perfect yarn, some gorgeous super soft Katia Pima Cotton that was a present for my birthday (I used shade number 11 and 13 – lilac and pale blue). But I realised that I would need loads and loads and loads of it to make a big enough scarf so I used some Stylecraft Life DK in white. Isn’t it all kinds of classy? Not like me at all. I ended up using kind of ridiculous amount of yarn and mine seems to be much bigger than the original one. Not sure what I did there. Although I did only use a 4mm hook so I don’t know if that made the difference. Anyway, I finally finished it just after Christmas and it’s barely been off my neck since. I loves it.

10. Kindle cover. The last official crochet project of the year and it was made in the evening of New Year’s Eve*, with me sewing in the ends at 11.45pm. Talk about cutting it fine. I used some yarn (Pink and Blue mix) that I’ve had since Christmas 2010 that I haven’t been able to find a project for. This was perfectamundo and took me no time at all. It’s a little big actually but I was so carried away it was like I couldn’t actually stop. It was knocked up on a 4mm hook and is half treble stitches – just because I felt like mixing it up a little. I’m mental like that you see. It’s nice yarn but it is very splitty – a little warning from me to you there.

So there you have it. 10 whole things that I'd never done before that I have now. I think we can call that a success.

Does this mean I have to up my game this year as well?

*I’m not a huge New Year’s Eve fan although this year was the first time I’ve actually spent it alone. Mum went to my sister’s so I was on Fred and Lily duty. I still managed to have fun though, drank some pink fizz and danced around the living room watching Jools’ Holland’s Hootenanny. The cats were bemused.

The Not Really Resolutions 2011 - The Conclusion!

2012-01-03T20:30:00.000Z

Well it’s been a whole year.

Last year I set myself some Not Really Resolutions. This is also known as the Wimp’s Guide to Resolutions. It means that they’re not really resolutions – because then if you didn’t achieve them you’d feel like a failure – but they’re more just things you’d quite like to achieve in a year. Much less pressure.

I’ve been providing you with scintillating updates throughout the year but now is time for the final round up and a little bit of my thoughts on each one.

1. ~~Run a 5km race~~ – Ran the Race for Life in July 2011. This one was a big deal because running was most certainly not my thing but through training for the race I discovered that I actually really love running.

What I do not love however is the injuries that I get from running. After the race I was in so much pain that I could barely walk and then once the goal had passed I found that the drive to go out and run was no longer there. This has meant that I’ve barely run since the race apart from some attempts here and there. I would really like to carry on running but I also really need to determine whether my injuries can either be avoided altogether, are the kind of injuries that can be managed successfully or are the kind of injuries which mean that running just isn’t for me.

2. ~~Crochet a Ripple Blanket~~ – Made a total of 3 Ripple blankets. Well and truly achieved. I put this on the list because when I come up against things I can’t master, I have a tendency to conveniently forget about them and give up trying. By having this on the list I knew that it would force me to crack on with it. It did take me a stupidly long time to get a hang of (and I’ve no idea why) but once I’d cracked it I was off and away with a blanket for myself made, a blanket for a friend's baby made and a blanket for my Dad and his wife made.

The Yarn Fairy blanket is my favourite. Mainly because it’s mine. But also because it was made with yarn that was given to me by super kind people. At the beginning of the year I was in pretty dire financial straits and without these people giving me these awesome birthday presents I didn’t think I’d be able to see this one through.

(Also my Dad and his wife did indeed love the Ripply Beast which was their Christmas present.)

3. ~~Back up all my photos on to CD~~ – I’m glad I had this on there because not long after I’d completed it, my laptop had a complete nervous breakdown and gave up on life for a while. Luckily everything was recovered but during my anxious wait I was very pleased, and only about 46% smug, that I had set up a little system to keep all my photos backed up. Yes an external hard drive would be easier but I’m not spending the money on one I’m afraid – far more exciting things to buy. I have a little system and once a month I make sure everything is backed up. I’d go into it but you would probably declare me the saddest of all human creatures so I will try and retain a little dignity.

4. ~~Paint my plastic toad~~ – Done. I know it seems like a stupid thing to put on a list but if you knew me you’d know that unless things get written down, they simply will not get done and I will sit and procrastinate and find other things to do and then bemoan the fact that I never got this one small thing done. I love froglet and he lives by my fireplace in my new room. Which reminds me, I should probably put on my list for 2012 that I need to dust him – he’s bloody filthy at the moment.

5. ~~Go to the cinema on my own~~ – Done. This was an odd one to put on there really. Mainly because I really don’t go to the cinema at all, never mind on my own. But it was more about an exercise in confidence and being comfortable and ok to do things like that on my own. Normally I think I’m a pretty independent person but I could do with a little kick up the bum sometimes and this provided me with it.

6. ~~Complete Project 365~~ – Done! Hurray. You can view the set of photos here. This was a really interesting not really resolution and I’m so pleased that I took the plunge and did it. It is most definitely harder than it looks. Although that depends on how much pressure you put on yourself and what kind of theme (if any) you want to go for. I would imagine if you take “serious” arty photos you would struggle early on but because I was simply documenting my life I was much easier on myself. Sometimes not a lot happens in your life and you need to take photos of the cats – that’s fine!

What has been so much fun for me though is looking back at it and seeing the little tiny insignificant things that happened in my life. Things that I would probably have forgotten about if I hadn’t taken a photo of that day and left a note to remind myself. I can see what I’ve done in a year, when I’ve gone to see The Person (not as much as I’d like. Sad face.) things that have happened along the way. I’m really really pleased I did it.

I’ve decided not to do it again this year, I kind of feel like I’ve done it now and don’t need to do it again (although I wouldn’t rule it out in the future). But it has inspired one of my new resolutions that I’ll be talking about later in the week.

7. Make an album/scrapbook of my 2010 trip to France. – As predicted I didn’t get this finished. Boo. I think I really should have started it much earlier than I did because it got abandoned amongst crafting for Christmas and was left by the wayside. But I did make a start on it and I’m pleased because, again, if it hadn’t have been on the list I can guarantee that I wouldn’t even have got that far. It’ll be finished by the end of 2011 no worries!

8. ~~Go over to Belfast to see my family~~ – Done. Again I’m pleased I had this one on there. I know it shouldn’t be a resolution to go and see your family but I’m ok with being honest and saying that we’re really not a close family so it did kind of need putting on there to make sure I made the effort. It did the job and I reconnected with my cousins which was lovely. Sometimes it’s easy to pass the buck and say “Well so and so hasn’t rung/text/visited” when you really have to ask yourself if you’ve done all you can. Now I know that I have.

9. ~~Read 12 Classics throughout the year~~ – Done. So so so pleased I put this on the list because it’s been really brilliant and I’ve read and learned more than I ever would have done normally. It’s taught me not to judge a book by its cover and that sometimes it’s ok to say “Actually that book is a load of codswallop” and feel good about the fact that you can say that because you’ve read it and are entitled to your opinion instead of those who just repeat what they’ve heard other people say.

10. ~~Cross stitch one Christmas card each month~~ – Done! I can’t remember how many I ended up with in the end - I think it was about 18 cards so it was well smashed. It meant that I was able to give all those people I felt deserved one a special card which was the point. It was good to spread it out over the year instead of having a mad panic right at the end of the year, which meant that I was freed up to crochet blankets, embroider bags and make Christmas wreaths for presents, instead of cross-stitching cards. It also meant that I could choose some designs that needed a little bit more effort, rather than picking those that would only take a day or so to get finished.

So there we have it. 9 out of 10 completed. I count that as a success. And I don’t have to feel bad that I didn’t do all 10 because they weren’t really resolutions were they?!

Tune in at some point in the future (I won’t say this week because I’m not certain that my blogging mojo has returned yet) for my Not Really Resolutions of 2012!

Christmas Bullet Points

2011-12-20T10:30:00.000Z

Yeah so I don't really know what happened. One minute it was the beginning of December and Christmas seemed like it was an age away and the next minute it's the 20th December and I haven't posted really all month and I'm starting to wonder if I've just lost my blogging mojo a little bit.

Anyway, I can't be thinking about that now. I have actually had loads of posts lined up about things this month but time has got away from me so I'm forced to condense it all in to one lovely bullet pointed Christmas list.

Christmas has come to my little house. The Scot and I really wanted a Christmas tree so took a trip to Asda and found this tiny little beauty for the princely sum of £15. It's weird though, it doesn't smell like a Christmas tree which has perturbed us a little.

I was left to my own devices to decorate it which excited me greatly. As it's only a small one there was only really room for all my Christmas ornaments, rather than normal baubles but I kind of liked that.

I wouldn't normally have tinsel on my tree but The Scot couldn't imagine one without it so we compromised. Actually I guess it doesn't look too bad.

I do have someone to look up to when it comes to Christmas decorating though. My Mum....

This is her tree and mantlepiece. I learned everything I know from her. Actually when I was little I wasn't really allowed to decorate the tree because it was in the front window and was very classy and beautiful and I didn't understand the ways of bauble placement, but I absorbed it all in and now I think I'm pretty good at it.

(Just in case you think my Mum is terrible she wouldn't really not let me decorate it, she would let me do it and then move whatever I'd put on the tree. And then I was allowed a tree in the back of the house that I was allowed to cover in tat however I so chose.)

I was lucky enough to win Hazel's giveaway and the most beautiful pair of earrings I've ever had the pleasure of sticking in my lobes. They are my official Christmas earrings and have already been on a couple of nights out where they have been complimented accordingly. I really wanted to do a whole post about these but time went away from me and I couldn't take pictures of my own ears so please go and see this post on Hazel's blog to see the earrings.
I held the Annual Stitchette Christmas Party at Mum's house. This consists of cheese based party food, Secret Santa presents and fun cupcakes.

Normally Secret Santa fills me with dread but these ladies have broken the bad run of Secret Santa experiences that I had and my presents each year are amazing. We also played the post-it note game, you know the one - you write a celebrity's name on a post-it and stick it to someone else's forehead and they have to guess who it is? It's not often that you attend a party with Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Pippa Middleton, Winnie the Pooh, Colonel Gadaffi, Pat Butcher, Matt Cardle and Prince Phillip.

My work's Christmas party was this Friday. This is a rather infamous affair because the drinks are available for £1. All drinks. All £1. Bottle of Bulmers? £1. Glass of wine? £1. It tends to be messy and hilarious in equal measure. Last year was rather horrific for me and I had a terrible time because I suffered a rather major black out which has actually changed the way in which I drink since then.

This year however was very different. People were asked to volunteer to work shifts behind the bar and I put my name down for the 7-8pm shift. It was actually really good fun. But then people unfortuantely took advantage of my good nature and I was roped in to working behind the bar 10-11.30pm. And then I was a complete mug and ended up going behind the bar about 9.30pm. I don't know. Some people are just selfish. But I have to say that given that I only had an hour and a half to enjoy myself I still had a pretty good time. But next year my good nature will not be making an appearance. Some other mug can do it thank you very much. (And if you wanted to read about what happened last time then please don't judge me.)

I have finally finished all my Christmas making and crafting. I was officially bored of doing it by the end and I don't think that I'll do as much next year to be honest because it was too stressful. Plus I think that the people who I know would really appreciate hand-made stuff I have now showered with gifts and they might be a little sick of it. But that's something to think about in 2012.

In the meantime I have begun making a little something for myself. I really wanted it to be finished by Christmas but isn't going to be. Booooooo. But it is nice to do a selfish make.

I'm leaving to go to Preston this afternoon to see The Person. We will be spending Wednesday and Thursday in Manchester for a little Christmas celebration of our own. Doing a bit of Christmas market shopping, mooching round the shops and being festive little creatures. I'm coming back in time for Friday and the last day of work. I was going to take that off as well but we usually get sent home at lunchtime so I decided I wasn't going to waste a day's holiday when I'll get most of it off for free!

So I think that's me done for now. I won't be blogging until the New Year because I'm going to be a busy little bee over the Christmas period.

Thanks for reading this year. I promise to be a better blogger next year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

New man

2011-12-08T16:30:00.000Z

Have I told you about the new man in my life?

His name is Max and he’s got blonde hair and is pretty burly and is ultimately loveable and soft in the head.

He is of course a dog. Aren’t I hilarious? Did you see what I did there? I pretended I was talking about a human when actually it’s a dog. I know, I know. I’m totally mad.

When Jess died it left a hole in my life, never mind my Dad and Step-Mum’s. She was about 14/15 years old so really she’d been around forever for my Step-Mum. Add to this the fact that she was recently retired and she was left feeling pretty lonely in the house all day with no doglet padding around after her.

Unfortunately the timing wasn’t right for them to get a new dog because they were going to stay at the house in France for a few months over Summer so they decided to wait until they were back and settled before beginning to have a look for a new canine friend.

They had decided they would want an older dog because they weren’t really up for training a puppy again, so they thought that they might get a dog from a rescue site or something. But not long after they were back, they were flicking through the local paper and happened upon an advert looking for a good home for a 6 year old Golden Retriever.

Max’s old family was a lady who lived not too far away from them and had recently been diagnosed with an illness meaning that she wasn’t really in a position to be looking after a somewhat boisterous dog anymore. She came with Max to visit my Dad and Step-Mum and to see the house and having decided that they were good people the deal was done.

SOLD.

He is obviously very different to Jess and that’s weird sometimes. I expect him to do things that Jess liked to do and then it feels weird but I just need more time with him to get to know him better and accept him for Max instead of thinking of him as a Jess-replacement.

One huge difference between Max and Jess is the barking. Oh the barking. Pre-Max I would go to the door, ring the doorbell, Jess would come padding through the hall and sit and wait for someone to open the door and then she’d stick her head forward for a pat. Post-Max I go to the door, ring the doorbell and see and hear Max come hurtling at the door barking his massively large head off, non-stop, until Dad comes and tells him to be quiet and sit down (which he does because he is a good boy) and opens the door. Max shows a little bit of interest in you but then runs into the kitchen ahead of you and by the time you get in there, he’s stood with a toy in his mouth wagging his tail at you.

One night a while ago I spent the night at Dad and Caroline’s. Dad had already left for work and when he goes, Max is allowed upstairs to go and sit in their bedroom until my Step-Mum gets up. I got myself ready for work and came out of my bedroom to see Max lying outside their bedroom door. He watched me walk all the way along the landing. Not making a sound. I put one toe on the stairs to go down them and he erupted into a barking frenzy. I stood there going “It’s me! It’s me you idiot! You’ve just watched me walk towards you you maniac!” But nothing shut him up until he inevitably woke my Step-Mum up and she told him to pipe down.

He is much bouncier in some ways than Jess which I guess is down to his age. And trust me you know about it when a Golden Retriever tries to launch themselves at you. You’ll be sat down, stroking him and decide to stop. WHAM a very large paw lands on your lap to “encourage” you to continue your duty.

The best thing about Max though is the way in which he lies. At first I was a little concerned that he was going to have some kind of hip dysplasia but they’ve had him checked out and all his joints are in working order, he just must be incredibly flexible. His favourite position is to lie with his back legs out behind him like so...

It looks so funny. We call him Spatchcock Dog when he does that.

I’m yet to take him out for a walk but I’ve seen my Step-Mum out with him and he appears impeccably behaved and doesn’t have to be on a lead. Although if he spies a squirrel in the park he’s off like a shot and has come pretty close a couple of times to catching one. And one of his dog friends in the park is actually his Mum. I’m pretty sure dogs don’t really care about stuff like that but I think it’s pretty cute.

So everyone Max, Max, this is everyone.

Meet the housemates

2011-12-07T12:30:00.000Z

I’ve just realised that I haven’t told you all about my housemates. And obviously you’ll be wanting to hear all about them.

So I live in a 4 bedroom house. (Actually it’s a 3 bedroom, but what would be the downstairs living room is a bedroom as landlords are wont to do to get more cashola in.) I live in what would be the Master bedroom and I’ve treated you to a little view in this post.

I currently live with 2 housemates. There were 3 but one moved out a few weeks after I moved in (totally a coincidence I would like to add) and the downstairs bedroom has had some building and redecorating work done on it since then so it’s just been the 3 of us for the past month or so.

It’s kind of cool actually because we’ve all moved in at pretty much the same time, meaning that we’ve been able to set up our own way of living and our own routines, rather than having to awkwardly fit in with someone else....like the poor 4th housemate is going to have to do when they move in mwhahahahaha.

So anyway I have 2 housemates. One boy and one girl.

The girl is Scottish so let’s be imaginative and call her The Scot. (I know. Don’t be jealous of my creativity people.) The Scot is actually kind of like me only about half my size and blonde. And Scottish. She is certainly the only person that I’ve met that gets as excited about cleaning products as I do and has an almost borderline obsession with Cillit Bang. This is good though because it means that there are at least two of us that are maniacally clean people.

The Scot is very straight-forward and has a pretty dry sense of humour so we get on very well. We’re still getting to know each other but I think we’ve had kind of similar upbringings and kind of similar views on life. She is single but does have a list of things she’s looking for in a man which is added to on an almost daily basis.

Then there is the male housemate. He is 31 and a trainee teacher but seems to be totally unprepared to actually grow up and face the harsh realities of life. We shall call him Peter Pan. I sometimes struggle to get my head around Peter Pan because I find it almost too difficult to comprehend how someone can actually revel in their immaturity as much as he does. He thinks it’s hilarious.

He’s terribly easy-going and although he’s not naturally clean and tidy he’s happy to do as he’s told and works well under direction. The Scot and I can set him the task of hoovering and he will quite happily do it but under no circumstances would he think to do it himself. But then I think that’s most men if you will allow me to generalise.

To be fair he doesn’t make that much mess. Particularly in the kitchen, although this is mainly because he doesn’t appear to eat. I’ve never known anyone go on a food jag quite like Peter Pan. Now I’m all for making a big massive pot of chilli in one go, it just makes sense, and then I will freeze portions and have a nice little stockpile in the freezer for days when I can’t be bothered to cook. Peter Pan will do the same but will then eat the same meal every. single. day. Not even I could do that.

Pizzas are his latest jag. He will make his own dough which is all very impressive and then will eat pizza every day for a week. Think I’m exaggerating? Last week Peter Pan had pizza on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, an omelette on Sunday and t hen pizza again on Monday and Tuesday. I kid you not.

I could write many a blog post about Peter Pan and I suspect he will feature on this blog pretty heavily because I will need to share more about him just so you can sit and stare at your screen in incredulity.

So there you have it. Those are The Housemates as they stand. I wonder who our next victim will be...

Christmas Wreaths

2011-12-05T16:30:00.000Z

So I mentioned a bit ago that I had made a couple of Christmas wreaths like the one I'd made last year and I thought that in the spirit of sharing I would show you guys how to go about it.

Please be aware that there is no way that I could come up with this idea on my own, I am in no way vaguely creative enough to have these kinds of ideas by myself. This is all the work of one of The Stitchettes, who showed us how to do this last year and sat with me, telling me what to do.

So first of all you need some wreaths like so;

This guy has a diameter of about 20cm/8ins. You can find them online at gardening websites and the like. They can sometimes be kind of pricey - the good thing about having fellow Stitchettes is that you can buy in bulk, which makes it cheaper, and then split the cost. Hurrah.

You also need fabric. Christmassy fabric, if that floats your boat. But any kind of fabric will do.

I've been getting mine from Doughty's which is a brilliant website. You can get fabric by the fat quarter, which is useful if you're trying to save pennies, and they are very quick at getting your fabric sent out to you and if there's something you've ordered that they don't have, they'll call you right away with other suggestions or refund you your money straight away.

You then need to cut your fabric into strips. The beauty about this is that you don't have to be super precise with your cutting, everything's cool, everything's all a bit rough and ready.

For a ring that size I used 4 fat quarters. Those of you who are maths whizzes will have astutely observed that that is 1m of fabric. These guys are approximately 3cm/1in by 15.5cm/6in.

(And speaking of Doughty's they sell Christmas themed fat quarter packs which include 8 fat quarters for £10.99)

And then you just start tying them to the wreath. Fold each strip lengthways in half and then knot it. Easy peasy right?

Now. Beware. When you start this endeavour, you will go through a period where you want to cry and you will sit there going "It looks rubbish! It's no good, it's not working!" Believe me I went through it and had to be cajoled and encouraged by my Stitchettes to stick with it and eventually it would reveal itself to be awesome.

And they're right, you have to keep going and most importantly, keep bunching your strips up together. Now you might think that everything is good and everything is placed nicely but trust me those strips are minxy. You will think that you've filled one section of your ring and then you squish them up and suddenly you realise that actually you've only filled half of one section of your ring.

So you keep going and you keep going and you keep squishing and you fluff and primp and preen it as you go along and you will end up with a fluffy side, with the other side of it much flatter and you will keep going and going and then suddenly, 2.5 hours later*, you will have one finished wreath. (And I actually had a few strips spare.)

Then you just need to get some ribbon to tie round it and you're done. (I still need to buy some ribbon so you'll just have to use your imagination.)

These are the easiest gifts ever to make and work out not too expensive as long as you get a good deal on your fabric and your wreaths. These wreaths work out at about £5/6 each. Obviously not taking your labour into account - because when do you ever when you make home-made gifts?

And what I love is that each wreath is different. No 2 will ever be the same and just a slight change in fabric will make the wreath look totally different. This guy is much lighter, thanks to the cream fabric, but the last wreath I made was much more traditional looking thanks to the golden tones in some of the fabrics which made the overall effect much darker.

So I guess you'd better get making. Go on. Less blog reading, more wreath making.

*I kind of timed it and this was how long it took to make from cutting up the fabric to finishing the fluffing and taking photos. Don't blame me if you're a slow coach.

Ripply Beast - Done and Done

2011-12-03T12:30:00.000Z

I. am. done.

And I don't really have the words to be honest. I'm just relieved that it's finished to be honest.

It was odd really because at the beginning it was so exciting seeing it grow and it seemed to come on leaps and bounds but once it got to a certain size it just felt like it really wasn't getting any bigger and it was as if no matter how many stripes I kept adding it wasn't getting any bigger, which meant I started to get sick of it.

I still don't know how I feel about it. I mentioned before that I had started to fall out of love with it and I'm still not sure. I mean I do like it myself and think it's awesome but I'm just not sure if my Dad and his wife will love it. I guess we will see, but it's an important lesson for me to learn - that I have to remember who is getting the blanket, rather than just pleasing myself. Or at least think a little more carefully about how the colours are going to go together.

But either way, hurrah, it is done. And in plenty of time for Christmas, so that's two names to knock off my Christmas list which always makes me happy.

He has now been folded up nicely and stored away for the day when I sit down and wrap all my presents (which is always an exciting day by the way) and now? Well now I could maybe, possibly, think about doing something for myself. Shocking idea I know.

Some stats for you? Oh go on then;

Yarn used: Mighty mighty Stylecraft Special DK

Amount of yarn used: Erm....I dunno. Each ball is 100g and I reckon I used about one and a quarter or one and a half balls of each. So I guess anywhere between 1375g - 1650g of yarn

Colours used:
Wisteria (1432)
Saffron (1081)
Claret (1123)
Bluebell (1082)
Magenta (1084)
Grey (1099)
Raspberry (1023)
Turquoise (1068)
Plum (1061)
Teal (1062)
Cream (1005)

Number of stripes: 66

Time taken: Started on 13th October - finished 2nd December = 51 days

Things that have been awesome today

2011-11-28T21:00:00.000Z

I spent three hours away from my desk on Fire Warden training. I have been snowed under lately but things have relented slightly and being away from my desk for a while was actually quite cool (although I do now have a slightly irrational fear that things are going to combust in front of me).

I discovered that I can do something cool with my phone - I can draw on it with my finger and then send the messages to people. People are now getting crudely drawn stick figures on a regular basis from me.

One of my housemates made the most amazing chocolate and orange cake and I'm totally having some as soon as I've finished this blog post.

I bought a massive load of veg from the fruit and veg co-op that my company runs on the local estate, it's run entirely by local volunteers. I get fresh veg that's cheaper than supermarkets plus I get to help out the local economy. Everyone's a winner.

I spent about 2 hours in the kitchen when I got home from work which seems like a lot but I've made 4 portions of chilli, 2 portions of chicken & chorizo jambalaya and 5 portions of vegetable tagine so the freezer is stocked up for a wee while now.

I got an amazeballs package in the post from Bella Bee and Me - lots of lovely cross stitch patterns for this Christmas and next.

Lots of people said they liked my hair today which was very nice because I have officially learned how to backcomb my hair to make myself a little beehive number. I do have a bump-it and I do use it but for ages I've wanted to be able to do it myself and thanks to the magical You Tube I totally can now. I can feel an obsession coming on, and I don't think my hair is going to thank me for it.

I bought two Christmas presents today meaning that's two more people I can cross off my Christmas list. And that's always a good feeling.

Sorry. Don't know where this blog post has come from. I must be in a good mood. Don't worry it won't last long.

Edited to add: Just after writing this post I threw one portion of vegetable tagine all over the kitchen. But we're good! I still have 4!

Edited again: Want to see a photo of the little beehive number? (Emphasis on the little - I have stupid layers which are too short which I'm trying to grow out) 'Tis on me Flickr photostream, have a little clickity click here. And if you comment on my grey hairs I'll come and sock you one on the nose.

Edited AGAIN: Another awesome thing happened! I totally won a prize in Alex's Amazeballs Giveaway (there's a small chance I made up that name myself.) I think I should just stay awake until midnight on the off-chance that more awesome things happen.

The Gantt Chart: Revisited

2011-11-25T15:00:00.000Z

Haha Gantt Chart. How hilarious you are.

I have already mentioned a couple of times I think that my Gantt Chart has gone down the swanney but please allow me to elaborate.

I made the classic mistake of totally underestimating how much time it was going to take me to do everything I wanted to do. I must have been taken over by some kind of haze which made me think that I am Superwoman.

“Christmas card every two weeks? BOOM! Easy.”

It just appeared to fall out of my mind the fact that I work for a living and that I’m just not that speedy a crafter; two small but oh so very significant details.

To be fair though, looking back over it there is still the chance that some of it might be rectified. The first 5 things on the chart were all completed within the time allocated to them, including:

- One mobile for a friend’s baby,

- One cross stitched a new home card for my brother and sister-in-law,

- One cross-stitched a birthday card for one of the Stitchettes, and,

- I got my soluble aida out and cross-stitched some designs on 3 tops for my niece’s first birthday (sorry didn’t get any pictures before I sent them off).

- One Christmas decoration (in the shape of a Christmas Wreath like the one I made last year) for my Mum’s friend’s birthday present.

And I don’t actually know if I would have got all of that done if it wasn’t for the Gantt Chart so for that I salute it. It kept me on track and gave me a kick up the bum when it was needed.

Actually when I look at it, not everything is necessarily lost. The main thing that’s not going to happen is the whole Christmas cards and gift tags thing because I just over-estimated my abilities there. But I am still trying to do what I can here and there, and I have got another 2 cards to add to the pile already.

However there is still time for me to make all the Christmas decorations, I just need to wrap my head around what materials I need and get a wriggle on. They’re just extra little presents that I’ll be giving to people probably.

But I haven’t been completely slacking of course. The Ripply Beast has taken up the most time and I had two additions to my Gantt Chart – I whipped up another mobile for a new baby and I’ve made another Christmas wreath which will become part of a friend’s Christmas present.

The mobile in pre-production. I really must remember to take photographs of things when I actually finish them.

Actually scrap this pity party, if you take out the Christmas cards and the gift tags then I am totally on track to see this Gantt Chart through to the end.

I feel enthused! I feel pumped up! It would appear that the Gantt Chart has infiltrated my brain without me realising it and I’m just getting on with things of my own accord.

YEAH! HIGH FIVE PEOPLE!

(This post has been most confusing. I apologise.)

Ripply Beast and I fall out

2011-11-23T21:30:00.000Z

Ripply Beast and I fell out the other day.

It was awful. There were tears and tantrums and we both blamed each other for the hurt that we were going through.

I think it all started when the Doubt and the Fear set in. I just looked at the Ripply Beast one day and said “I’m not sure if I really like you.” I know, it’s a terribly thing to even think, let alone speak out loud and I must have hurt its feelings dreadfully but I really am having doubts about him. He’s just so blinking colourful, I don’t understand how that happened. I’m pretty sure that I had a vague idea in my head that this blanket was going to be a little bit Classic and understated and somehow I’ve ended up with this riot of colour that isn’t cohesive in the slightest.

I don’t know how it happened. I guess I just got over-excited choosing the colours and I’m not 100% convinced that I really know how to choose colours. I should have realised this earlier, I mean I knew that I had 11 different colours going in to the blanket and I looked at them being all beautiful in my bag but for some reason I just didn’t connect the dots.

And as much as I think it’s cool to have loads of colour, I’m not sure how my Dad and his wife are going to react to it. I’ve been trying to keep my cool by reminding myself that they’re not really good at interiors themselves (harsh but oh so very true), but the Doubt and the Fear are starting to nest permanently in my head. I was planning on telling them that it was for their house in France anyway, I guess that way, if they do hate it it can just live in a different country and they won’t have to face it that often.

So the fact that I have the Doubt and the Fear nestling on my shoulder, meant that I wasn’t really feeling in the mood in the work on him and I think that’s when he really took the hump.

Ripply Beast - 23rd November 2011

When I finally did pull myself around and start back on him I realised I was at an interesting point in construction. I was facing the dilemma that all crocheters (and I’m assuming knitters) face - I was coming to the end of my first balls of yarn. I was there, trying to gauge things and decide if I could eek it out just a little bit further and decided that I could probably at least get one row of ripple out of what was left and then start the new ball for the second row of ripple. This would avoid me running out half way through and having to tie the end of the old ball to the new one in a way that isn’t coming to fall apart and isn’t going to result in an unsightly blemish in the middle of the blanket.

Scraps of wool that are going to look awesome in my glass jars

All was going well until I got all taffled up in a knot. Instead of calmly pulling it out I had a freak out and pulled as hard as I could, which rather inevitably resulted in me snapping the wool, meaning that I ended up having to tie some ends together and do exactly what I had tried so hard to avoid.

I tried not to be put off and moved on to the next row where I had some kind of total brain malfunction which caused me to go wrong twice meaning that a whole row had to be ripped out twice because I lost the inability to count properly.

At that point, Ripply Beast was abandoned for some time whilst we both tried to come to terms with this sudden decline in our relationship.

But I realised that it’s just too late to do anything about it now. I’m too far down the road to start again and I’m just going to have to forge ahead despite the Doubt and Fear jackhammering into my skull.

*sigh*

But even if I don’t like it, there are two people who love it...

Lily

Fred - who seriously did love it. As in loved it so much I couldn't leave it alone for 2 seconds before he climbed on it loved it. I'm still picking ginger and white fur off it.

Not Really Resolutions 2011 – Update 6

2011-11-22T11:00:00.000Z

Time for an update my pretties. I know the last update was in September, but I’ve managed to tick a couple off the list since then. Exciting times I know.

~~1. Run a 5km race~~ – All done, done and done. I would absolutely love to do more running and would love to add running a 10km race to this list but my continuing shin splint on my left leg seems determined to scupper my chances of running further than 5km. Ah well. I shall keep trying. Anyway, see this post to see all about how I ran a 5km race.

~~2. Crochet a ripple blanket~~ – Two blankets completed and ~~hopefully~~ by the end of the year I will have completed three of them. Ripple well and truly conquered. (Yarn Fairy Blanket, Jungle Ripple Blanket and Ripply Beast Blanket.)

~~3. Back up all my photos on to CD~~ – Done and done. It’s fun to be super-organised.

~~4. Paint my plastic frog~~ – Done and done

~~5. Go to the cinema on my own~~ – A new one crossed off the list! Hurray. Just when I thought it was never going to happen, I got let down by a friend and had to spend the day in London on my own. I feel proud because not only did I finally complete this resolution but I did it in el capital. I know how to do it in style baby. Read all about it here

6. Complete Project 365 – Woo we’re at 3?? photos –the end is in sight! Have I mentioned a gazillion times already how much I hate the fact that it’s dark and I can’t take any decent photos? Well it’s true. It sucks. I can’t tell you how much I’ve loved and hated doing this all at the same time, but I guess it’ll get its own post in 2012 when it’s all finished. Feel free to check out my Flickr photostream for the evidence.

7. Make an album/scrapbook of my 2010 trip to France – I get increasingly worried that this is going to be the Resolution That Got Away. I so badly want to get it done but unfortunately we’re now entering in to the peak of Christmas crafting and smoke is starting to come out of my ears and I just don’t think it’s going to happen. I will try my best to keep the faith though, I promise. But hey, at least I started it didn’t I?! (See this post for more details.)

~~8. Go over to Belfast to visit my family~~ – Woop! Another one bites the dust! Done, done and done at the end of October and you can read all about it here.

~~9. Read 12 classics throughout the year~~. – Oh. Yeah. Three resolutions crossed off in this update. Don’t feel bad to be around such brilliance. This has been one of my favourite resolutions, I’m so incredibly glad that I set myself this challenge because it has been so very interesting and eye-opening. You can expect to see this one again next year because there’s no shortage of Classics out there for me to read. You can read my thoughts on this particular resolution here, which contains links to the reviews for each Classic I read. Try to contain your excitement.

10. Cross stitch one Christmas card each month – Ack I could go for another one and have four whole resolutions crossed off in one update but I’m going to remain pedantic here. Far be it from me to be accused of cheating. Now I have now currently got 16 cross-stitched Christmas cards which means that I have surpassed my total of 12. But technically I’ve said in this resolution that I will make one cross-stitched card each month and as we’re still only in November I feel that it wouldn’t be fair to cross this one off the list yet. Read all about how it's gone here.

---------------------------------

What was that you say?

What? This face?

Oh yes. This is my smug face.

Only 3 things left to cross off my list. Hurray.

And the other face?

Yeah that’s the side of my face that I’ll be laughing out of when I don’t manage to make the stupid scrapbook/photo album of France by 31st December 2011.

Crazy Cat Lady Part 14: Fred and Lily Update

2011-11-18T16:00:00.000Z

Oh hey guess what? I haven’t talked about Fred and Lily for about a gazillion years have I?

Or since July. Whatever. That was like a whole season ago I’ll have you know. I remember it well, it was a time when there was sun and I my hands didn’t feel like they were about to break into a thousand pieces because of the cold. Oh and you could take photos...Anyway. I digress....
So yeah, Fred and Lily are doing pretty well, thanks for asking.

I had a week of looking after them a couple of weeks ago when I was on my blogging hiatus and we had lots of fun together. Actually scrap that, we didn’t. They are like moody teenagers who spend all their time asleep, only appearing when they want feeding. I started just not letting them upstairs after they’d had their tea and forcing them to sit in the lounge with me and be a family.

(Yeah I totally do talk to them when I’m looking after them. I won’t even pretend I don’t.)

Fred continues his obsession with getting in things. You leave anything on the floor for long enough and sooner or later, Fred will get in it. Sometimes I think he genuinely wants to get in things, sometimes I think he does it to annoy Lily, who has the idea first but lacks the motor skills to actually achieve her goal, at which point Fred slinks in past her.

I’ve never known a cat as clumsy as Lily. All those visions of felines gracefully leaping on to windowsills? You will forget those when you see Lily, who prefers to try and haul herself up things rather than jump on to them like a normal cat. This means you hear an awful lot of banging and clattering from upstairs, it’s not necessarily Lily falling off something, it’s just her jumping off the bed, but she seems to land with all the grace of a rhino.

Lily tried to get in the Tesco bag that you can see Fred in there. Except she decided she would try and crawl through the bag handle and inevitably ended up stuck, walking backwards, attached to the bag, freaking out whenever I tried to help her.

For some reason I find it almost impossible to take a good photograph of Lily. I don’t know how she manages to be so un-photogenic but I have a plethora of cute photos of Fred and then a shedload of Lily where she just manages to look slightly deranged.

For instance. I took some photos of Lily when she was sitting down nicely and not dashing all over the place and she looked terribly cute, she really did. And yet for some reason, I look at the camera and all I can see are her massive bat-like ears. Poor Lilster.

The other reason I can’t take photos of Lily is because she never stops bloody moving. Although my friend has pointed out that the sport setting on my camera should make that easier – I am yet to give it a go.

Fred on the other hand was born to have his photo taken and I think he quite relishes our little photoshoots that nearly always occur when I come and see them. I took some the other day and he looked so unbearably cute I made a very high pitched squeaking noise which scared him under the bed. My mistake.

Fred is also a bit of a cling-monster lately. When I was looking after them we had a routine, whereby he would disappear upstairs to sleep after eating his dinner, only to reappear at about 9pm to come for a sleep on my knee. It was almost a little too cute for words. Lily is incredibly friendly and will come and throw herself all over you, but she will rarely come and sit with you and go to sleep. Fred could not be more different.

I swear there is something about a cat sleeping that is the cosiest picture there can ever be. Those photos just radiate warmth and smooshiness. And Fred is a master of the smoosh.

Sometimes I feel sad that they’re growing up. They’re not as ‘togethery’ as they used to be – they no longer need each other to go to sleep and they are pretty independent of one another. But even though this is the case, they are most definitely a team. They’re a unit not to be messed with. For instance, see this photo that I took in September...

This is Lily’s standard “imaginary spider” pose. Basically Lily sees something incredibly minute and then becomes fixated on the point she last saw it, convinced that it’s going to reappear again. She might not have grace but my god does that girl have patience. This particular morning she sat like that for 20 minutes, at which point I got up and moved everything out of the way so that she could see that whatever it was she was looking for no longer existed. She remained vigilant, and then Fred appeared, who had absolutely no idea what she was looking at in the first place and hunkered down with her to keep guard also. The pair of them remained there for another 20 minutes. Weirdos.

Here ends the Fred and Lily update.

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Hey do you like cats as much as I do? (Not possible.) Go and have a look at this set on Flickr. It’s ALL cats!

PS. Sorry for spelling Stormont wrong in my last post. It's all changed now. Forgive me?

Belfast*

2011-11-17T14:30:00.001Z

Do you realise how far behind I am with my blogging?

About a bloody month.

Because it was almost a month ago that I went away to Belfast to stay with my cousin for the weekend.

I know. I apologise for being so tardy with my tales of adventure. But also don’t get too excited because there isn’t really an adventure to tell. Apologies.

So I put on my Not Really Resolutions of 2011 list that I wanted to go over to Belfast to see my family at some point this year. I guess this kind of needs some explanation...

My Mum is from Belfast and moved to Hull over 40 years ago when she married a Hull man and had babies. When she first came over to Hull she spent quite a bit of time going back home to see family etc. However by the time I came along this was kind of wavering. Mum and her brother are not particularly close and I don’t know if it’s a man thing generally or my Uncle’s thing in particular, but he’s not great at making the effort and reciprocating visits over the water. And so I didn’t go over to Ireland as much as my brother and sister would have when they were small.

I have done my fair share of visiting though, and in 2005, before I went back to uni to do my Masters degree, I lived with my Aunt and Uncle for the summer and worked in Belfast city centre for a few months.

I have 2 cousins from this side of the family, a girl and boy, about 9 and 7 years older than me respectively. This age gap meant that they had all kind of flown the nest and weren’t about that much when I was a whippersnapper so I don’t really “know” them. And of course now, the only time we see each other is for weddings and christenings and then you’re restricted to small-talk and don’t get the chance to properly get to know each other.

So I decided I would rectify this and go over to see them this year. I went to stay with Tory, but luckily Roger only lives around the corner so I would get to see plenty of them and there was a date booked in to see my Uncle and his wife and my littlest cousin (who is younger than 2 of my nephews, which confuses my head at times – aaah modern family life).

Shortly before I took off for the ridiculously short flight I had a slight wobble – what the hell would I do if it turns out I don’t really like my cousins? What if there’s a reason that we don’t really have a relationship? What if I get there and we literally have nothing to say to one another?

Oh the panic.

I flippin' love taking photos of clouds when I'm in a plane.

Obviously I’m a moron. Of course we got on and I’m yet to be in a situation where I can’t find anything to say to someone so we were sortedamundo.

There followed one of the loveliest weekends I’ve ever had. It coincided with some very stressful time at work which meant that I think I appreciated the break even more. It was chilled and relaxed with no pressure to do anything or go anywhere in particular. Just time to sit and talk and get to know these people that I’m related to.

Sightseeing isn’t really necessary for me because I’ve seen that much of Belfast but I’ve never been to Stormont before. I think that’s because when I was a wee thing and going over there, you couldn’t actually get up the Royal Mile because of the peskiness that was going on at the time. (Is it appropriate to call terrorism, peskiness? I’m going to say yes because I’m trying to keep it lighthearted here.)

So off to Stormont Roger and I went. We rejected walking up the Royal Mile because it was flippin’ freezing and there was a distinct threat of rain in the not too far distance. But we scampered about and I played around with all the different settings on my camera taking photos of the building.

Punk Stormont

Drawing Stormont

Pinhole Stormont

(See I haven’t even told you about my camera yet have I?!)

What I love so much about Belfast is, surprisingly for me, how small it is. It’s like the perfect combination of urban and countryside combined. It’s urban and paved enough that I’m not going to break out in to a cold sweat, and yet you can be wandering around town and suddenly catch a glimpse of greenery and hilliness and a sense of freedom not too far away.

We also went to The Grand Opera House (which has the most exquisite ceiling ever by the way) to see James Vincent McMorrow. Have you heard the Love Film adverts with a man singing “Higher Love”? That’s this guy. I guess you’d call him kind of folky? I don’t know I suck at music but I do know that it was hauntingly beautiful at times. Oh and a band called The Staves were supporting them and their singing was so mesmeric that I floated away on a little cloud of eurphoria and was only brought down to earth when someone needed me to move so they could go to the toilet. (Incidentally they were named The Guardian's Band of the Day on 8th November - look at me! I'm ahead of the times!) I’m now stalking both on Facebook although I’m guessing it’ll be a long time until Hull is on their list of places to travel to.

Sorry there isn’t more to tell you. Sorry there aren’t really any photos. It just wasn’t that kind of weekend but it was exactly what I hoped it would be and unfortunately there aint no camera that can capture that.

*Don't you love how imaginative this post title is? You can tell I'm not firing on all cylinders. I told you, at the moment I'm afraid it's below par blogging or no blogging at all.

Christmas Cards

2011-11-13T21:17:00.000Z

Christmas Christmas Christmas. I'm feeling it baby. Who knows what has brought it on, whether it was watching Love Actually with my Mum last night or seeing Christmas ads appearing on tv (although technically I haven't seen the Coke ad yet and everyone knows it's not Christmas until you've seen that) or whether it's that special little nip in the air - but I'm feeling it all the same.

I had a little sort out this afternoon and went through all my crafty drawers, making things neat which is basically my idea of porn.

Anyway I thought I'd have a little check and see how my Christmas cards are coming along. As you may remember, it was one of my Not Really Resolutions this year to cross-stitch one Christmas card each month so I had a small stash to send to some people. Ideally I would have cross-stitched a card for everyone on my list, but instead I'm going to have to choose an elite list of people to send them to.

I think I should tell people this and have them vie for a place on the list.

Anyway...

I totally have more than 12 cards! Woo hoo! Technically I feel like I can't cross this one off the list because technically the resolution was to stitch one a month, not stitch 12 overall, and I'm a stickler for the technicalities, but hurray I do at least have 12.

As you can see, there are 14 bad boys here. In fact there are 15, but I can't include a picture of one because that one's for The Person and he's a little creepy creeperson here on this blog and I can't have him spoiling his own surprise.

There's a wee mix. Some little ones and some larger ones and some that I've made up myself (if you couldn't guess, they're the ones that are mean - obviously my inner awful person comes out when I try to design my own cards) and a bonus picture of Fred thrown into the mix because I didn't have enough pictures of cross stitch.

November's card is currently on the aida - it's only a small one but hey I didn't say that they had to be masterpieces.

I did have grand plans on the Gantt Chart to make more than this. I think I planned to make one every other week, but obviously I have mental problems if I thought that was going to happen. Still, I guess it's good that I over-estimate myself....or is that bad? I'm not sure.

Either way I'm pretty much ready to tick another Not Really Resolution off my list and, thanks to buying some Christmas cards in Paperchase in the sale in January this year I'll be able to send out all my cards at little to no cost. Bonus.

Anyone got a favourite card in that mosaic above? (Please note you can pick Fred.)

All about how I read 12 Classics in 2011

2011-11-08T21:14:00.001Z

So I feel like I’m allowed to be a bit smug at the moment because I’ve totally managed to cross something off my Not Really Resolutions list. Namely that I would read 12 Classics this year.

The debate as to what constitutes a Classic continues to rage on, both in my head and with the people that I talk to about it but I have decided to take a stance that it’s not up to me to decide what makes a Classic, I’m leaving it firmly in the hands of the publishers and if they call it a Classic then far be it from me to argue with them.

So here they are in all their glory. Yes you are right there are only 11 in this pile but that’s because I read Treasure Island on my phone remember? (See yet another argument against eReaders – I wouldn’t have been able to take a cool picture like this one if I’d read them all in eBook form!)

The final twelve

- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

- Midnight's Children

- The Moonstone

- The Picture of Dorian Gray

- Wuthering Heights

- Tess of the d'Urbervilles

- Things Fall Apart

- Go Tell it on the Mountain

- Treasure Island

- The Great Gatsby

- Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

- The Dud Avocado

So I figured that really I should do a bit of reflecting on my list and see what I thought of them all.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a literary dunce, I do my fair share of reading and I try to read quality stuff, but I decided to undertake this because I didn’t feel like I was getting enough of the heavyweight stuff in my diet. Think of this as the literary version of getting more fibre in my system.

I feel the list is pretty representative of all that’s out there under the banner of Classic at the moment – there’s some old stuff, some more modern stuff, and a bit of obscure stuff thrown in for measure.

(I apologise for the overuse of the word “stuff” in this post but my brain is fried now and it’s either less eloquent blogging or no blogging at all at the moment.)

As a very wide and sweeping generalisation I would say that I think I’m a fan of the older Classics than the Modern Classics, the Classic Classics, or CCs, if you will. They seem to be much more character and plot driven than Modern Classics (MCs) which tend to be a little more abstract and thematic, requiring the reader to work much harder to discover what the bloody hell it is they’re banging on about it.

So yes, basically I like the CCs that are a little easier on the brain, hence negating the whole concept of this idea in the first place.

But that has in turn thrown up kind of an interesting observation. If someone said to me they were reading a CC I think I would probably be very impressed and nod my head sagely and think how terribly clever they are. Having now read a few of these CCs I think I would be slightly less impressed because really I know that you’re just reading an earlier version of Marian Keyes. The myth has been blown people.

And the people who say that they’re reading a MC – well I know that there’s more than the slight probability that they’re erring on the pretentious side. And if not, they’re simply too clever and intelligent to want to converse with me.

There have been a few surprises along the way – namely Wuthering Heights which I read, waiting to be bowled over by the tragic love story....I’m still waiting. I just cannot see what the fuss is about that book. And then I picked up Tess of the d’Urbervilles almost shaking in my boots such were the awful things that I’ve heard about Hardy and it actually turned out to be one of my favourites of the bunch, it almost broke my heart.

My Dad’s wife had snipped out a brief article from a Sunday paper a while ago that said that there is some ridiculous percentage of people who have books on the bookshelves purely for the reason that they look good to other people. Never fear, I have kept these books for the purposes of the photoshoot for this blogpost and some of them will not be staying with me, much as I would like to keep them to point at them and say “LOOK HOW CLEVER I AM EVERYONE.” However, I am ruthless with the books I read and anything that didn’t really really really get me will not be staying. What’s the point in me filling my shelves with books I’m never going to read again?

The article also said that people will lie about reading Classics. I can also confirm this is true. The reason why is totally beyond me. Because they’re jerks?

So.

The favourites?
The Moonstone – I really loved this and The Woman in White is on my Christmas list if anyone happens to be taking note.

Tess of the d’Urbervilles – I’m flexing my muscles and I reckon I’m ready to take on another Hardy. Yes he isn’t the cheeriest of chaps but he can’t half tell a story.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day – One word. Charming. But it’s fluff.

The not so much favourites?
Midnight’s Children – This still makes me shudder when I think about it. Begone with you confusing pretentious book.

Wuthering Heights – A victim of hype? Maybe I expected too much?

The Great Gatsby – Erm.....I don’t geddit. Sorry.

The surprises?
Treasure Island – How this was aimed at small children I don’t know. And it apparently was, it was originally serialised in a children’s magazine between 1881-82 (thank you Wikipedia) and hats off to those kiddlywinks because this was kind of boring at times. But then it would be oh my goodness so incredibly exciting that I almost couldn’t bear it. I still couldn’t really tell you if I liked it or not.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Proof that you don’t need to write a tome to write something that’s incredibly affecting.

-------------------------------
If you missed out on all the fun that has been the reviews of each of these Classics (and let me tell you, it was quite a treat, go and feast your eyes on the literally 1s of comments) then you can find them all by clicking on the Not Really Resolutions of 2011 page.

I am most definitely going to carry this on into 2012 because it’s been an interesting little treat for my brain. Also I’ve been going mad all year buying Classics so I now have a shelf full of them and need to get through them.

Now I really must go and rest my gigantanormous brain down somewhere.

The Ripply Beast grows...

2011-11-07T20:26:00.001Z

Hello

*waves madly*

It's me. Back. But who knows for how long, I'm now starting to learn that it''s not wise to make promises where blogging is concerned. Plus we have now officially entered the worst time for blogging ever which is also known as "It's too dark for me to ever take photos damnit."

There is much to tell you that I almost don't know where to begin.

So let's start with something easy that doesn't require too much brain power. (And also the photos have already been taken for it.)

The Ripply Beast.

When you last saw him 3 weeks ago he was a much smaller being. In fact he was just 4 rows long.

I did go through several mild panic attacks in the beginning stages of this blanket. Mainly because I decided to see what he looked like on a real life double bed and then freaked out when I saw how insignificant he looked. He just looked so tiny on that big, massive bed - he was not Beast-like at all (although he was particularly ripply).

The main stress was just how much yarn it was going to take up. I was going for the cheap option by using Stylecraft DK and I bought all the yarn a while ago but I was feeling a little worried that I was going to need all the skeins in the world. Turns out there was nothing to worry about because he now looks like this...

37 rows long baby. And I'm still on my first balls of yarn! Let me hear you say YEAH! (yeah!)

So as you can see, he's pretty much half of a double bed at the moment so by my calculations, which involve fingers and thumbs and a lot of screwing up of my forehead, before just deciding to make a wild guess, I should be finished any minute now. Or maybe not, but I definitely won't need to buy more yarn so that's rather marvellous. And given that this is how far I've come in 3 weeks I feel pretty good about getting him finished in plenty of time for Christmas, although I won't lie, I think the Gantt Chart has been shot to shit. (This is what I get for overestimating what I can make.)

Seeing as I can't take any decent pictures of him I have resorted to making a collage of his progress so far. This is the journey of the Ripply Beast from 13th October - 6th November.

As with all things crafty, photos can be found in my Flickr photostream and also in the Attic24 & Little Tin Bird Ripple-along group.

Disappearing Act

2011-10-28T13:47:00.001+01:00

You see I really should think things through better. That way, I would have arrived back in the blogosphere, posts spooling out all over your Google Reader/whatever else you use, dazzling you with the awesomeness which is my life.

Instead I did a really boring post about books and now I'm going to disappear for a week or so.

(Must get better at timing.)

For the next week I shall be undertaking essential Fred and Lily sitting duties and then I'll be off to see The Person so blogging will be non-existent until the 2nd week of November, but I promise I'll make up for it then yeah?

In the meantime let me leave you with this...

The girl I share an office with just said the word "spontinuity" instead of "spontaneity".

I thought I was going to give myself a hernia laughing.

Happy weekend.

Three Classics for the Price of One

2011-10-27T16:37:00.001+01:00

Hello. Have you missed me?

Apologies for the fact that I have been off radar. Almost 2 weeks since my last post? Bad Girl. I’ve been majorly snowed under at work recently and my crafty Gantt Chart, whilst good at keeping me organised has also meant that my nose has been to the grindstone and there’s been no time for anything else. Plus there was a wee jaunt to Belfast thrown in for good measure.

Anyway I’m coming back with possibly the worst post ever because it’s going to be about books and we all know that you hate the book reviews but it’s ok, this is going to be quick and snappy and bright and breezy because I have three Classics to review and rather than do them all in separate posts and lose the few readers I have left I thought I would squizz you through them nice and quickly.

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Oh how my hopes were high. I mean this guy is up there with all those books that you feel everyone has read but you. Well I’m here to tell you not to feel bad about not having read it.

I think it’s a case of hype. The Classics I’ve most enjoyed on this jaunt have been the ones I’ve known little about, the big guns have done very little for me and this was no exception. I’m inclined to blame myself and just say that I’m not smart enough, I’m not getting the big major themes out of it, I’m not attuned into the symbolism. Maybe it’s just that I’m not American and living in the 1920s so it doesn’t feel like a big deal? I don’t know but it didn’t do much for me.

That said, it’s not a bad book at all, I would say to read it but try and drive all expectations out of your head. This book was in my Penguin Banned Books Collection because it was apparently banned in the US for obscenity. I must have missed it....

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day – Winifred Watson

A while ago when I asked for you guys to recommend some Classics to me, a couple of people mentioned this book. When I went to Persephone Books on my recent trip to London I knew I had to pick up a copy.

This is immensely readable and lovable. All the characters are warm and everyone is wrapped up nicely with a bow at the end. It won’t change your life, it won’t tax your brain, but it will make you a slightly happier person by the end of it.

It is incredibly funny in some places and there is absolutely 100% no way you could not read this book and end up loving Miss Pettigrew by the end and cheering like a mad woman inside your head for everything to turn out ok for her.

And the best thing about this book? It’s set over one day so obviously isn’t going to take you much time to read at all. (Ooh just like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – although a little more lighthearted.)

The Dud Avocado – Elaine Dundy

I feel there should be some kind of English essay I should be writing where I compare and contrast the heroine of this book, Sally Jay, with Miss Pettigrew. But I’d never make my brain work that hard. I had picked up a copy of this book a while ago because it’s been released by Virago in their Modern Classics range with a spiffy little cover. I couldn’t afford it at the time so imagine how pleased I was when I discovered this copy being given away at work. Bonus.

Sally Jay is an American living in Paris in the 1950s, she’s been sent there for 2 years by her Uncle on the proviso that she go out and find herself. She is exasperatingly naive at times, flighty and actually quite difficult to like. But she’s impossible not to love and as you follow her life through Paris in an almost non-existent plot that chops and changes as she floats from adventure to (mis)adventure you are left simply shaking your head at her antics.

-----------------------

See? That didn’t hurt too much did it.

Guess what?

The Dud Avocado would be the 12^th Classic that I’ve read this year.

Oooh I can hear the tick of a pen against a list....

Ripply Beast

2011-10-16T22:40:00.002+01:00

Good lord. Six days since my last post. Apologies. I swear I have so much to tell you (my new camera, the latest Classic I read, the list is endless) but I just don't have the time. Stupid work. Stupid other things taking up my time.

Anyway. I wanted to say thank you so much to all of you who chipped in on the grand debate about what I should do about the blanket I'm making for my Dad and his wife this Christmas. The majority of you seemed to be in agreement that I should really follow what my heart wanted me to do and start again.

And at pretty much the same moment as I decided to start again Heather announced that she and Lucy were starting up a Ripple-along and encouraging everyone to get their ripple on together. Like some kind of dirty crochet orgy.

Hurray! What excellent timing.

And so I am throwing my hat in the ring. I need to get my ripple on anyway but this will give me an extra kick up the bum because I will no doubt feel like I'm lagging behind everyone else.

So here marks the beginning of my Ripple-along Blanket.

There is a drawback to rippling though. And that drawback looms ominously on the horizon like some horrible yarny cloud.

The beginning chain. Yes shudder in your boots people. God I hate that beginning chain. I hate that you have to sit very quietly on your own and count like a counting demon counting all his important demon things. And then once that ordeal is over then you are faced with the foundation chain which involves you sweating and swearing because even though you thought your tension was loose it wasn't really and oh my god this is the biggest pain in the backside ever.

But I took a deep breath and plunged in late one night. I have found that the best way for me to begin that first chain is to not get myself muddled up trying to multiply by 14 and then hope that I can get the right length in one go without losing count. It won't happen. My trick is to just do it in batches of 14 - so I put my head down, chain up to 14, stop, remind myself to breathe, and then it's head down and into the next 14.

This blanket is going to be a bit of beasty. I've made it so that it fits across my double bed. Yep it's a big Ripply Beast. I'm not even sure how big the beginning chain was because it was done in batches of 14 and there's really no way I'm going back and counting. Let's just settle for saying it's long.

What is great about rippling though is that once you've been through the horror of the beginning, the rippling is easy peasy lemon squeezy and is a dream to just sit calmly and go up and down and up and down like a ripply dream.

Which is why, just 4 days after making that first loop around the hook, my Ripply Beast now looks like this...

Hurray! Four whole rows of ripply goodness.

Actually. There's five rows of ripply goodness, I just haven't taken another photo since earlier this evening.

I would tell you what colours I was using, it's Stylecraft DK (obvs) but the piece of paper I have on which I have written all the colours down is on the other side of the room and I literally cannot be bothered to get up of my backside and pick it up. Sorry. It's the truth. I'm a lazy rippling crocheter. Don't judge me.

And look! There's a Flickr group so you can see everyone else's photos as they Ripple-along. Lovely jubbly.

How many days left til Christmas?...

The last thing my camera saw...

2011-10-10T19:49:00.002+01:00

It's that time of year again.

Time for Hull Fair.

I don't think there's a person alive (and certainly not an adult) who gets more excited about the fair than me. Unfortunately everyone else has grown up and isn't up for spending hours wandering around and getting chucked around like a ragdoll. Boo to them I say.

I've got 3 trips planned this year over the week or so the fair is on, because I am just that childish. One with the girls, one with an old friend from school and one with The Person who has never experienced the delights the fair has to offer.

This Saturday saw my first trip with the girls which unfortunately coincided with the heavens opening. I'm talking all kinds of rain pouring out of the sky.

To my immense disappointment only a couple of rides were endured before people called off feeling tired, bashed and thoroughly soaked through. I got to be whirled around a wee bit, but only enough to whet my appetite for my next trip tomorrow.

I'm not great at being just spun in round in circles. I can be flung about and go upside down and be thrown in the air without any problems whatsoever, but spinning round and round and round has an unfortunate effect on my brain and consequently stomach.

A couple of my friends however are little daredevils and went on the ultimate spinny roundy ride which is called the Superbowl. Think waltzers, on a platform, which tips in the air and you'll have the gist. My whole life I've wanted to go on it and my whole life I've never dared and this year was no exception.

Through the pouring rain I tried to snap some pictures, but,

Lots of rain + Flashing strobe lights + Spinny machines = crap photos

I did my best however and somewhere in this photo you can see my friends...

The next afternoon I decided I'd have a look at what photos I'd managed to get the night before. I turned my camera on......

....and nothing.

My camera is officially dead.

I'm not sure if it got completely soaked through, or if it got completely bashed about on the last ride we went on, which has left me with an incredibly bruised arm which I can't lift above my head.

Following the advice from some friends my camera has been taken apart and is enjoying a nice rice bath at the moment. Apparently the rice can soak up any excess moisture which might remain, but it's been in there for 24 hours and there's still no joy.

Luckily for me I took out insurance cover when I bought the camera and it's still covered. A quick hunt under my bed uncovered the policy and I'll be taking him in tomorrow to get him replaced.

There was more than a slight panic when I realised the effect this might have on my efforts to complete Project365, but my phone is going to have to substitute for now. I just have to figure out how to upload my photos straights to Flickr. Oh technology.

So the last thing my camera saw?

Aaaaaaah poor thing...

Bloggers to the rescue!

2011-10-06T18:49:00.000+01:00

So I decided a while ago that I wanted to make a blanket for my Dad and his wife for Christmas.

I duly ordered some Stylecraft from the internet and then gasped in horror as I realised that either I'm blind or the photos on the internet were not good because the bag of tricks I opened was not. good. Seriously. What must they have thought I was making as they packed the bag up? They should have had some system in place where they could ring me and say "Are you sure you want these colours lady?!"

Anyway. Cue trip to see Little Tin Bird where I could go and see some Stylecraft wool with my eyes and pick some colours (or actually get Heather to do it for me). At the time you all bemoaned that I didn't take any pictures of the wool so here you go.

Look at the prettiness!

So I had all my loveliness and I seriously couldn't wait to get cracking. And I didn't - I was crocheting at home and I was crocheting at my sister's and then I was crocheting in my sleep (ok, maybe the last bit isn't true).

And then I stalled.

Because I got the feeling that I didn't really like what I was doing. This bemused me because if I decided to do something how could I suddenly not like it?! Anyway there was definitely a feeling of not liking it and this manifested itself in me studiously ignoring the gorgeous bag of colourfulness hoping it would sort itself out.

Funnily enough it hasn't, and with Christmas approaching I know that I need to make a decision - do I carry on the route that I'm going down or do I start again?

You see I didn't want to do another granny square blanket. I can't even explain why, I'd just decided I wanted to do something different. So I looked through my Jan Eaton book and decided on a square that I'd done before, the Square Target...

I thought it might look cool all different colours. I wouldn't be able to do all the colours in one go, I thought I'd do squares in select colours and edge them in cream and then bring them all together in the end. I think this is where I'm struggling. I've done four squares so far and I'm just not feeling it, but I don't know if I'm not feeling it because these particular squares don't go together and if I keep going I'll feel better about it when I have more combinations or because it's a bad idea all round.

So this is where I need your help. Do I continue on the road I'm going down or scrap it all together and start a ripple (which I think is what my crochet soul is begging to do)?

Square Targets?

or

Ripple?

TELL ME

(Unless you're having issues with Blogger like I am at the moment. It's not letting me comment at all, or at least I don't think it is, I know I've e-mailed a couple of you my comments instead! Is it just me or can no-one else comment either?!)

September Flickr favourites

2011-10-04T20:00:00.000+01:00

Good lord what a busy month. So much has happened. In fact this month is exactly why I really like that I've been doing Project 365 because when I looked back at this month I found myself going "God was that really this month?! I thought it was bloody ages ago!"

This month has been very busy travel-wise - I've been to new places and old, I've travelled on trains and Megabuses, I've been away on my own and with The Person, I've met people (and animals) for the first time and in and amongst all of this I've been packing to move house.

Crazy.

3rd September - Today was the day I struck out on my own and boarded a train to visit a SBF - also known as a Special Blog Friend (said in the style of The Inbetweeners). I went to go and visit the Heather in her home town which was amazeballs because,

a) I got to meet someone new, and

b) I got to visit a new place

But anyway you can read all about it here.

12th September - Today was the day that I went to meet a new dog. My Dad and his wife have got a new goggie in the form of Max, a Golden Retriever and this was his first day in his new home, so obviously I was there, banging the door down to meet him immediately. He really deserves a blog post of his own so I won't talk about him too much.

22nd September - Well you all know what I did on this day - I went to London. All on my own. Like a right brave girl. This is quite literally the only photo I took that day, it wasn't really a photo taking kind of day. I took this after I'd been to the Museum of Childhood and the Gallery Cafe. Read all about my awesome bravery here.

25th September - I'm full on talking about Christmas now people. No holds barred, it's Christmas talk all the way. I'm afraid you're just going to have to deal with it. I've been on a Christmas tag kick lately because they are very quick to whip up meaning that you get pretty instant gratification. It would be easy for me to just keep making Christmas tags until the sun comes up and ignore the other projects I need to be getting on with. Thank goodness I have my Crafty Uber Geeky Gantt Chart to keep me on the straight and narrow.

28th September - Unless you've been living in a very deep and dark hole with the spiders for the past month you won't have missed the fact that I moved house. I picked up the keys on this day and got the second ever sight of my new space - the last time I'd seen it was when I viewed it before deciding to take it so there was actually a part of me that was a bit panicky that I was remembering it all wrong and it was half the size I thought it was. Thankfully it was as beautiful as I remembered.

30th September - Normally I'm pretty behind when it comes to anything related to pop culture. I don't know what's at Number 1 and I have no idea who the latest celebrity couple is. So when I saw these Screme Eggs in a newsagents in town I assumed it was yet something else that I was well behind the times on. However, having uploaded a photo to Facebook immediately, it turned out that I wasn't the only one who didn't know about these. They taste exactly the same as normal Creme Eggs but the centre is green instead of being yellow.

Not the best photo but the 30th September also happened to be ridiculously hot and it was melting in my hand!

I'm torn between being excited that I'll now be able to buy Creme Eggs virtually year round and being sad because I kind of looked forward to my first sighting of Creme Eggs each year.

---------------

One more month down. I officially have less than 100 photos left to take. Wahey!

Wait.

That must mean that Christmas is getting uncomfortably closer....damn.

My Space

2011-10-03T20:56:00.001+01:00

Oh hai.

Guess what I did this weekend?

I moved house.

It feels like it's been a long time in the offing but it hasn't really, just 5 weeks.

The Person very bravely offered to come over this weekend to help with the move. I did give him plenty of warning that I would be a big ball of stress and that he could come on the proviso that he not make any jokes because I would almost definitely lose my sense of humour somewhere in the move.

But actually as it turned out, everything went pretty smoothly. Thankfully my Dad has a Jeep, meaning that all it took was 3 trips and I was all moved. No I don't know how I have so much stuff, I didn't think I had that much but somehow what doesn't seem like much seems to fill boxes very very quickly.

Once I was all moved there was a slightly overwhelming sense of panic where I just kept looking at all the boxes and going "Okaaaaaaaay. Now. Where do I begin?"

And this lot was only the tip of the iceberg!

Luckily I am a machine so I just started and basically didn't really stop until I was finished. Of course I meant to take photos of my progress along the way but the robot in me didn't want to stop. I wanted to get as much done as possible. Mostly because I really hate untidiness and messiness and living amongst unsorted things would freak me right out, but also because I knew I was going out that night and would be hungover on Sunday and incapable of doing a lot of sorting.

I took today off work and I'm pleased to say that I'm pretty much sorted. There are little things to do here and there, but for the most part I am a settled little nested Girl.

One of the reasons I fell so head over heels in love with this room was because of the size of it. I have landed on my size 8 feet here and have managed to bag a flippin' well huge room. When I saw it I thought three things;

1. Oh my god it's massive

2. Oooh there are nice wooden floors, I can totally get a rug (the one in the picture came with the room, I will probably store it somewhere and get me a new one)

3. Wow a fireplace, I can totally crochet bunting and hang it from there (yes I really did think that).

So anyway, allow me to take you on a quick spin around my little space.

Let's start with the corner diagonally opposite the door. All pretty basic, wardrobe, laundry basket, chest of drawers with the TV in situ. I've tried to create little "areas" where possible so that the room kind of, sort of, makes sense. So if you take a little closer look at the windowsill you will see...

...My glass storage jars of wool. They don't look as pretty as they used to because I've used up all my scraps on my various projects, but they can look gorgeous with all the colours going on inside them. And beside the jars of wool are all my books relating to crafty stuff - cross stitch, crochet, embroidery and sewing - all in one handy little place.

Moving a little further round you can have a better view of that fireplace. No it's not for real life fires, but I need to find something to put in the space, big white altar candles or something. You can see Mr Toad taking up residence on the right hand side and on the left hand side are a load of things that will eventually need to go up on the walls. An important job but one that can wait for a little while longer.

What was that? What's that on the right hand side of the fire surround?

It's the books that I bought from Persephone Books on my recent trip to London. A few of you asked which ones I got - I did intend to tell you in the blog post originally but by the time I wrote it they had been all packed up and I honestly couldn't even remember what I'd bought! So there they are for you.

Moving round again we have the cupboard which has got hanging space and has also seen a lot of stuff shoved in it until a better home can be found for them - I'm operating on an "out of sight out of mind" policy at the moment. The grey drawers hold all my crafty stuff - from embroidery threads, to aida, to cards, to fabric to all random kinds of crap, it's all in one place for me to get my grubby little mitts on.

The bookcase next to it contains my permanent book collection (barring 4/5 boxes that live at my Dad's until I can find space for them one day). As you can see I am harsh - very few books that I read are kept. There are so many books in the world that I don't feel I can justify keeping ones that don't set my world on fire so off they go. There's probably a whole blog post in itself about that bookshelf.

We need to spare a quick moment to talk about the white cupboard under the sink. This was The Person's Ultimate Job on Saturday. I knew that he couldn't really help unpacking because only I would know where things needed to go, so he had the job of getting his flatpack hat on and constructing some under sink storage for me.

This is possibly the best invention ever. The wheel? Pah. Sliced bread? Whatevs. Under-sink storage is where it's at. This guy is from Argos and has been a saviour - there's one shelf inside it and all my little things - razors, cleansing wipes, deoderant, hairspray, you name it, sits inside here and is all nicely stored away without taking up any extra space. Magical. Round of applause for The Person please.

Behind the door was the perfect place for my other bookcase to go. It was meant to be for this fella. This bookcase contains all the books I haven't read yet. I know. I have problems.

And to complete the circle we have my bed. I have plans to get a second hand armchair from charity or something to maybe put in front of the fireplace because I don't really want to get into the habit of watching TV in bed. Plus my I am prone to getting bad backs, and using my bed as a sofa won't do it any favours. But until I buy one, I've set up my cushions at one end of the bed to create a seating area.

What was that? What's the cushion on the far right? Aaah allow me to tell you...

How cool is Mr Owl?! He has flown for freaking miles all the way from another country. I won him in a giveaway over at No knitted knickers. Haven't visited her? Well do so immediately.

Or at least wait until you've finished reading this ridiculously lengthy post. The end is nigh I promise.

You may have noticed at the end of the bed a little brown table. I'd said I wanted a table to do computer things and craft things on in an attempt to stop the bad back issues I've already mentioned. Mum had suggested a drop leaf table would be good because it could be easily stored away. I mentioned this to Dorothy and on Saturday she spotted this baby for £19 in a charity shop and by the end of the day he had taken up residence.

So when I want to do computer things he can come out and sit like this...

And if I need more space to spread out then he can be like this...

Ta-da!! He's pretty battered at the moment but you know what that means....Project Makeover!! It won't be soon but it will happen eventually. I'm excited for it.

Yeah. I reckon I've bored you enough now.

Can you tell I'm kind of excited?

Crafting Geekdom

2011-10-01T15:00:00.000+01:00

You may kick and scream and shout and grow very angry at the fact that I’m about to mention Christmas on this blog but I think we’re allowed now. We're getting towards the end of September and I’m sure anyone crafty knows that if you have a full time job, Christmas crafting really needs to have begun by now.

Well at least if you craft at my pace it does. (Plus you have to allow for lost time due to hangovers.)

I’ve had ideas swimming about in my head for some time about things I would like to make for people at Christmas but I realised a while ago that I needed to get these ideas down and on paper, otherwise I would find myself in the middle of December with absolutely zilch done.

Enter.....the Gantt Chart.

Ok. It’s not really a Gantt Chart. I just messed about on Excel to make something that vaguely looks like a Gantt Chart.

For those not in the know and who can’t be bothered to click on that nice little link I embedded for you, a Gantt Chart is the ultimate in organisational geekdom. It’s a bar chart that can track progress on a particular project or projects –the chart can show at which point you’d expect everything to be done by and how long each bit would take.

This is basically a visual tool which I can look at and go “OH MY GOD I SHOULD HAVE STARTED THAT BY NOW!” And stop me from faffing around doing something irrelevant and nonsensical. (Like reading. Seriously. Reading has taken a big hit now that I’m getting my creativity on.)

I know that some of you are shaking your heads in amusement at my ridiculous ways but I know that there will be a few like-minded freaks who are getting very excited right now.

This is like organisation on steroids.

And you might call me crazy and you might think I’m a little tapped in the head and you might say “What’s wrong with just having a list like a normal person?” and I would concede on all of those points but for me the visual works. Maybe instead of it meaning I’m super anal it means that I’m just ever so slightly retarded and need it all spelled out for me.

Either way. It’s working. The chart has meant that I am committed to getting things done in a certain time and actually the first three things on the list have been completed. And not just completed, but completed ahead of schedule. Now that's a good feeling.

It means I can get a grip on just how many Christmas cards I’m making. Obviously I made a resolution to make at least 1 a month but I feel that now I can step it up a notch, so I’m aiming for one every couple of weeks. I’ve added gift tags to the list as well, they only take an hour or so to make up, it’s easy peasy to squeeze one of those out per week and have a nice little stockpile to dive into when it comes to wrapping presents day.

It should also hopefully mean that I can plug away nicely at the blanket I’m planning to crochet for my Dad and his wife for Christmas. When the other little tasks are done I can crochet away on that until the point on my chart where the next project should be started. Or I can start a project earlier than I planned to and get it out of the way.

The possibilities are endless.

Except that they’re not really because December 25^th is definitely going to come in just over 3 month’s time and everything needs to be finished by then.

And see? Even the album that I’m supposed to be making for France, which I started with such gusto is still on there. It needs to be finished by the 31^st December if I’m to have not failed at my Not Really Resolutions this year. It will most likely be completed in the week between Christmas and New Year when all this silly Christmas crafting nonsense is completed.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and consult my Gantt Chart and find out what it is I'm supposed to be doing next...

Striking out alone

2011-09-30T16:30:00.000+01:00

I arrived in London, bright eyed and almost bushy tailed, just a little bit crumpled from my incredibly early start (5.30am anyone?) and 4.5 hour journey by bus and train down to London.

But I felt good. I had a plan. First stop? National Portrait Gallery.
Finally. Finally finally finally, an attraction in London that I love. Pictures! Photos! Paintings! Of actual people and not a blob on a canvas! I was really swept away.

I wandered amongst Kings and Queen, statesmen and scientists. I saw David Beckham sleeping and King Stephen looking a little bog-eyed. I saw the Olympic athletes of tomorrow and comedians from yesteryear.

Around every corner I spotted something that I have seen before on the tellybox or in a magazine. It’s easy to forget that those images that we see are real life portraits, living and breathing somewhere, begging to be looked at and admired. And so I did.

I saw pictures of a young Queen Victoria – I’m so used to seeing this jowelly old woman in black that I’d forgotten she was young once. I saw Marc Quinn’s self portrait, made out of his own blood. I saw paintings that I was convinced had to be photographs until I stood as close as possible and saw the individual brush strokes. And if I was ever going to feel homesick, this would have been quelled by the sight of a portrait of Amy Johnson.

I loved that place. Loved it so much that for the first time ever I actually willingly donated to a free attraction.

The great thing about being by myself was that I was free to wander as I pleased. If there were parts of the National Portrait Gallery I didn’t want to see I just breezed on through, and when I left and decided I was hungry I was free to go and get lunch wherever I pleased.

Normally I don’t go to chains when I go away because it’s a bit boring, you could go to them anywhere, but when you live in Hull, the prospect of eating at a chain is genuinely exciting because they are hardly ever in Hull. And so lunch came courtesy of Wagamamas –one of my very favourite places.

I quite happily sat and had lunch on my own – sending texts to people to let them know I was still alive, seeing what was next on my plans and generally noseying at the people sat around me.

Next was the Museum of Childhood, as recommended by The Curious Cat in Bethnal Green. Every toy you could ever imagine is enclosed in here, and I spent a happy hour or so wandering around looking at flicker books from the 1870s, playing with Zoetropes and Stereoscopes and generally pointing at the cases and saying in my head, “Oh my god I remember those!”

The gift shop in the Museum of Childhood is lovely, loads and loads and loads and loads of children’s books. Brilliant. I may, or may not, have bought one.

Around the corner from the Museum lies the Gallery Cafe, a vegan and vegetarian place that The Curious Cat had also told me about. It’s kind of a painfully cool place and I’m pretty sure that everyone in there knew I was a less cool northern imposter, even if I did try and look hip by sitting and scribbling in my notebook.

The menu looked delicious, but unfortunately I was so stuffed from Wagamamas that there was only room for a cup of tea and recharge – both of my batteries and my phone’s (seriously, Android phones? Batteries are rubbish, they need charging every night. Ridiculous.). The clientele was wide-ranging, from a Grandmother having a glass of wine and talking with her Grandchildren after they had finished school, to foreign students chatting, to people looking cool and hipstery on their Macs/netbooks taking advantage of the free wi-fi.

I was soon on my travels again and I made my merry way to Persephone Books which I had first heard about from Petit Filoux, many moons ago. I’ve been wanting to go ever since – I love the concept of a place that’s publishing women’s literature exclusively. And I had saved up enough pennies to splash out and buy three uber-stylishly bound books for £27.

When I was making my last minute plans for London, I’d looked up Persephone Books on Google Maps and, upon zooming in a bit further I discovered there was a cinema right round the corner. Perfectamundo or what? A quick look of the film showings and I had decided upon the 6pm showing of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and had even used Street View to work out how to walk from the shop to the cinema. I was very proud of myself.

It is beyond me why anyone in London goes to the cinema, given that it costs over £10 to do so. You peoples is crazy. But I was pleased with the cinema I picked. There are only 2 screens in this place and it is more of an arthouse kind of place. But the seats were gloriously comfortable and I settled myself down to watch what turned out to be an incredibly confusing film. I still don’t think I get what happened.

I think the whole reason that I had going to the cinema on my own down on my resolution list was to make myself be a little more independent. I am more than a little self sufficient but I sometimes really crave company and whilst some of that’s just my personality, I also think it can do you good sometimes to learn to be by yourself. To go places on your own and enjoy them on your own. To be in your own company.

Funnily enough I spent all this summer living alone so I was already pretty used to it and I think this trip as a whole served this purpose rather neatly – a couple of years ago I wouldn’t have come to London on my own at all. Silly as that might seem it would have been true. Not because I would have been scared of going to a big city, but I just wouldn’t have seen the point in not going and sharing it with someone.

Don’t get me wrong, it would have been nice to have had someone along with me at times – especially in the cinema – then I could have had someone to poke and go “What the hell is going on in this film?!” But overall, this was a good exercise for me in being a lonesome little bunny.
I ended up back at St Pancras, two hours before I was due to leave which was kind of a bum but my only other option would have been wandering the streets of London alone which I didn’t really fancy. But I sat in Costa and drank tea and had a nosey at people coming off the Eurostar.

The journey back was long. Very very very long. And although I’m good at falling asleep anywhere, any time there’s only so much sleeping on a coach you can do and by 2am, as we were leaving Scunthorpe I was begging and praying and itching for my very own bed.

But for £10.50 I’m not going to complain. I think I should make this a regular happening.

Hurray for me the brave little adventurer.

The best laid plans

2011-09-29T17:00:00.000+01:00

I was really looking forward to last Thursday. For well over a month I had had a trip to London arranged with a friend. We were going to do London in a day and it was going to be very exciting. I was going to catching the Megabus from Hull at 6.50am, getting into London at 11.20am, having the whole day and evening to see what there was to see and then clambering back on the train at 10.25pm, arriving back in Hull at 3am on the Friday morning.

I was really looking forward to it up until Wednesday afternoon when my friend decided to cancel on me.

I was left with a few options.

a) Cancel the trip altogether, the tickets had only cost me £10.50 so I wouldn’t be massively out of pocket, and cancel the two days I’d booked off work.

b) Cancel the trip but keep the two days off work.

c) Go to London.

I decided to be brave. I was geared up for a jolly holiday and damnit I was going to have one.

Going to London in itself didn’t bother me at all, it’s not like there’s nothing to do there after all, but my main worry was the evening/night portion of the day – I didn’t particularly want to be trekking round the streets in the dark until 10.25pm.

I know a few people in London but none who were good enough friends that I wanted to contact them and see if they wanted to meet up for the weekend – there was only one person that I did contact and she had selfishly gone to Bristol for a new job.

And then it hit me. What could I do in the evening in London that would not make me a target for tramps and thieves but would be interesting?

*Cue lightbulb above head moment*

I could go to the cinema.

Those of you who have been reading for a while will know where I’m going with this. Anyone who’s new to the show, let me enlighten you. I made a list of Not Really Resolutions at the beginning of this year, one of which was to go to the cinema on my own. In the last update I was despairing of getting this one completed, mainly because I couldn’t for the life of me work out why I’d put it on there. I don’t go to the cinema at all so the notion of going on my own was, quite frankly, bizarre.

And yet, here it was, like a shining little beacon – coming to save my day in London. This is how I would fill up my evening in London and cross off something on my list. Useful and efficient – that’s the kind of activity I like.

With my evening plan vaguely sorted there began the quickest planning of a day in London ever. I didn’t want to go without an idea of where I wanted to go because I did that on 1st January and it was bloody irritating and I ended up not seeing anything.

In a couple of hours, and thanks to the Curious Cat and Google Maps and Street View, I officially had an outline of my day in London and it was going to look a little something like this:

National Portrait Gallery (I have still never been here in all the times I’ve been to London)

Museum of Childhood

Gallery Cafe

Persephone Books

Renoir Cinema

Home

And I will tell you tomorrow if all went according to plan...

The Person

2011-09-28T16:30:00.000+01:00

Facebook has recently been full of status updates of people talking about it being 10 years since they went to uni. I wish I could remember the actual date but alas I wasn’t that organised (I know, unbelievable) so I just have to settle for knowing that about this time I was heading to Manchester to be a little student-head.

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a post filled with nonsense about my first days of uni – I didn’t have an experience that was really that different to anyone else’s I’m sure. But the timing fits nicely because it neatly goes with something that I’ve been wanting to post about for a while.

For not only has it been 10 years since I went to uni. It’s been 10 years since I met The Person.

I know that some have been curious about who this person is, and some have even been detective enough to work out who he is.

For anyone who was wondering, yes you have heard of him before.

Now. Before I go on I should clear something up before the comments start. I didn’t break up with my ex for The Person, I broke up with my ex because I wasn’t happy with him and hadn’t been for some time.

Ten years ago I came to uni a little bright eyed and bushy tailed 18 year old ready to make friends. I lived in a tower block which was separated into boy’s and girl’s floors. I met another girl equally keen to make friends, and a couple of days in, we visited every floor in that tower block, introducing ourselves and suggesting that we all meet on our floor, in our kitchen, before heading out to that ubiquitous Fresher’s event, the Foam Party.

Out of that whole tower block, 5 boys turned up and from that day forward there was a nice little set up going on.

The Person and I have been in and out of contact for these long 10 years. 2nd and 3rd year passed without us really talking that much, once we were loose on the world there was the occasional e-mail, then we got closer, then we started seeing each other when I went back to do my MSc, then we broke up, but we were still in contact, still would see each other and now here we are.

Back then he was The Person that I wanted to make laugh because I wanted him to think I was cool. 10 years later, I still want to make him laugh because I want him to think I’m cool.

He is The Person that lives in all those clichés you read about love.

He is The Person that I want to be with. All the time. (Which means that it sucks kind of a lot that we only get to see each other every 3/4 weeks.)

He is The Person that I want to call whenever anything happens, big or small. (Even though he hates talking on the phone and panics for some reason that we’re not going to have anything to say each other.)

In the last post I wrote about him I referred to him as The One. I will carry on calling him The Person because I like it better but it doesn’t change the fact that at this moment, and for the past year and a bit, my heart has been very smug indeed.

Here ends the mush.

Cross Stitch gone wild

2011-09-27T16:00:00.000+01:00

At last. I have been on my final hen do of the year. Some people have asked me why I haven’t been on a nice summer holiday this year. I wonder why and then start to add up all the money I’ve spent on hen dos and weddings this year and stop when my eyes start to water.

This hen do also involved fancy dress which whilst it initially made my blood run cold actually turned out ok. They chose a good theme, sailor girls, meaning your possibilities could be endless. For those who want to go kinky and go the SFD route there are plenty of options open to you. For those who are terrified of fancy dress, all you need is a stripy top and away you go.

I did some superb bargain shopping and managed to pick up a red and white stripy vest top for £3 in the Next sale and a navy blue pencil skirt for £7 from Primark. Both good because not only were they cheap, they were wearable again for work (although probably not together, unless we happen to have a sailor girl day at work, in which case...I’m set!).

But it didn’t feel like a special enough outfit.

Then, flicking through CrossStitcher magazine what should jump out at me but a pattern for an anchor. Perfect. Plus it would be doubly perfect to cross stitch this anchor seeing as it was a Stitchette's hen do. But how to get the anchor on to my skirt?

Soluble canvas.

Oh the wonders of modern technology.

I had heard talk of this magical stuff but had yet to experience it. A quick search online and I had some in my grubby little mitts.

Things to note about soluble canvas;

a) It is not cheap

b) You don’t get a lot of it

I worked out where I wanted my anchor to go, attached the canvas to the skirt with an embroidery hoop and just began stitching like it was normal aida. It is seriously that simple.

A word of advice though, don’t decide you’re going to stitch your design with a seam running through it because you’ll go through a phase of really hating your stitching because it’s hard to get the needle through the fabric. And it’s not really the piece of work’s fault that you’re a moron.

But all was well that ended well and I had a fancy little skirt that worked well with the hen do but I reckon I can also get away with wearing at work (as long as I lose a couple of ribs because that skirt was tight, meaning it was standing room only, sitting was an issue!).

Once you’re done stitching you just need to soak the fabric in a bowl of water for about 10 minutes or so, give it a little rub and voila you have officially cross stitched onto fabric. Boom.

I am now feeling an urge to cross stitch on to fabric so you might want to stay out of my way for a little while.

Please note that although it does look a little weird with the seam running through it, I promise that when it's on it doesn't look odd.

If you're interested, I used two different coloured reds, one for the outside and one for the inside and I did the rope using one strand each of two different tan/yellow colours, used together. I should really take note of what actual colours I used. Sorry.

Crazy Cat Lady Part 13 - Moonface McGraw

2011-09-26T11:00:00.000+01:00

Only a few days left until I move. Goodness me it’s come round quickly. I am at that stage now where I am officially bored of packing and just want to get all the boxes, bags, bin liners, various receptacles moved and into my new place. The nesting instinct is growing stronger. Nest nest nest.

However there is a little sad feeling niggling at the back of my head. I will officially be moving to a catless environment. Panic stations.

I had a taster of life sans felines when I was living at my Dad’s this summer and let me tell you I did not enjoy it. I spent far too much time crouched down in the back garden trying to make friends with Harry from next door and Monty, a tabby cat from the other side who rebuffed every single one of my advances.

How on earth am I going to cope without my the ebb and flow of random cats coming strolling in to the back garden or winding their way around your legs as you walk down my street?

How will I deal with the fact that I will no longer be living with someone else who will fully understand the joy of the phrase “I totally met a new cat today!!”?

And so, in mourning of this passing I present to you the latest random cat...Moonface McGraw.

Upon seeing Moonface there is only one sentence which can come out of people’s mouths.

“Holy crap have you seen the size of that cat’s head?!”

Moonface was first spotted sitting on top of a garage, gazing dolefully into the back garden. He appeared to know Maud and she sat daintily up there with him, looking even tinier and cuter than normal next to the brute that was Moonface.

Moonie became a bit of a regular for a while and began to take it upon himself to come into the house and steal food but at heart he’s a wanderer and recently he is seen only from a distance and totally pretends not to know me.

There is no way that this guy has a home because, quite frankly, he is disgusting. I love all cats, but I’ve had to dig deep with this guy, because the thought of touching him is actually kind of gross. His fur is beyond matted, the only thing that could be done with it would be to shave him completely and he’s flea ridden which has meant Maggie and Maud have had to be dosed up to the eyeballs with Frontline as a result of hanging about near him.

He has also not been neutered. A fact which will become immediately obvious as soon as he turns his back to you.

He’s like a character in a children’s book or a film. He’s the bad guy who you think is really mean, but it turns out he has a heart of gold (what was the name of the mean fish in the tank in Finding Nemo – I’m thinking of him right now). He’s certainly begging for some kind of makeover.

But until he meets his stylists, Moonface McGraw will continue to roam the streets of Hull. Remember to give him the tip of your cap. Just don’t get too close yeah?

Not Really Resolutions - Update 5

2011-09-20T17:30:00.000+01:00

So here we are in September and I thought it was about time to update and see how I’m progressing with my Not Really Resolutions 2011 since I last updated in July.

1. ~~Run a 5km race~~. – Done and done! Woo! Read all about it here.

2. ~~Crochet a ripple blanket~~. – Not only done but I’ve done TWO of the freaking things. Get me get me get me get me get me get me. The Yarn Fairy blanket and the Jungle Ripple blanket are now living in the real world instead of my head.

3. ~~Back up photos on to CD~~ – Done and done. And I’m being a good girl and continuing to keep my system up to date.

4. ~~Paint my frog~~ – Done and done.

5. Go to the cinema on my own. – Yeah why did I include this one? It’s not so much that I haven’t done it as that I haven’t been to the cinema at all this year. At least I don’t think I have. I’m not a cinema-goer at all, why did I include this?!

6. Project 365 – Continuing apace. Although it takes me ages to upload my photos because I don’t have internet access at the moment. I tend to save it all up and have a manic mammoth session in a local coffee shop, using their wireless internet. That way I can get everything done and only have to pay for one cup of tea. (If I take longer than an hour I feel like I need to get a 2^nd drink).

7. Make album/scrapbook of my France 2010 holiday – It has been started but that’s pretty much all I can say about it because it keeps getting moved to the bottom of the crafting pile. It’s now been included in my super geeky Gantt Chart so here’s hoping that motivates me to just get on with it. It wouldn’t take that long at all if I just got my head in gear.

8. Travel to Belfast to see my family. It’s booked! I’m going over towards the end of October for a long weekend. Hurray!

9. Read 12 classics. This is coming along nicely. I have read 9 by now so I’m on schedule. The trouble at the moment is that I’m finding it hard to find the time to read anything because I’m trying to make as much as possible for Christmas. But I’ll do it. Don’t you worry your pretty little heads.

10. Cross stitch one Christmas Card per month. I won’t lie. You can tell which cards were cross stitched at the beginning of the year. They’re the really nice ones that are all elaborate and beautiful. The closer it gets to Christmas the more simple and plain they are becoming until eventually they’re just basically back stitch...However this one will definitely be completed seeing as I’m determined to cross stitch one card each fortnight until we get to Christmas. I can’t guarantee that everyone will get a cross-stitched Christmas card but the people I really like will get one.

So in conclusion? We’re all good! It looks like I might just be successful on this one. If only I hadn’t put that stupid cinema thing in there....

The Fruit Factor

2011-09-19T16:30:00.000+01:00

A while ago I was chatting to a friend at work and the conversation turned (as it does when two people are united in a desire to do anything but the job they’re paid to do) to fruit. Specifically, the problems with eating certain fruits when you’re at work.

Some of them might be too fiddly or too juicy or take too long to eat. Some fruits you might feel more comfortable eating on your own than if you share an office (I’m looking at you bananas). There are many potential pitfalls so I decided that really what everyone needs is some sort of Fruit League Table – a document you can consult before choosing your fruit so you avoid any unnecessary mess/embarrassment.

Disclaimer: This is in no way meant to be an exhaustive list. I am well aware I will have missed some fruits out (for instance, I haven’t included pears because I think they are the most irrelevant fruit ever. Sorry pears. It’s not even that I don’t like the taste of you, you just bore with every inch of your pear being).

Apples

- Pretty standard fruit, some might see you as a boring person if they are given to judging a person’s character by the fruit they eat. Much akin to people judging you by the shoes you wear.

- The Noise Factor – crunchy they may be but if you’re sat opposite someone eating them you might want to punch them in the head by the time they’re finished.

- The Brown Factor – apples turn brown very quickly. What happens if you start to eat your apple and then have to make a call or are pulled away from your desk? You come back to a horrible brown apple. That’s just not convenient.

Oranges (and others in the same field – clementines, satsumas etc)

- The Ease of Access Factor . They can be fiddly to peel (although satsumas are easier to peel I will admit)

- The Pip Factor – there you are, happily eating your orange when suddenly you have a pip in your mouth! Bleurgh! Trying to find a discreet way to spit it out might be difficult if you’re sharing an office and everyone knows you can’t swallow them because then an orange tree will grow in your stomach.

- The Citrus Eye Factor. We’ve all been there, merrily peeling away until we’re temporarily blinded by a juice squirt. Unpleasant.

- Segments – positive – easy to eat in an office in environment. You can have a little segment, do something, have another segment. Lovely.

Bananas

- The Phallic Factor. You know what I mean. Although can be combated by breaking pieces of banana off rather than looking like you’re trying to audition for Deep Throat.

- Easy to peel.

- The Brown Factor – if you can get into work without having a perfectly good banana turn to mush by the time you get it out of your bag then you are some kind of magician. Or you have a banana guard.

Plums

- The Juice Factor. You could end up with juice all over the place and sticky hands and a keyboard that doesn’t quite work properly because you didn’t get enough toilet roll to try and catch dribbling. Not excellent if you’re sharing an office.

- Messy Stone Factor. Eurgh. Horrid stone in the middle, need to dispose of it. Bleurgh.

- String in Teeth Factor. You’ve eaten your plum. You’re happy. But you have to spend the rest of the day trying desperately to pick the strings of fruit out of your teeth that you know are there but seem incapable of grasping.

Peaches

- See Plums Points 1-3

- But. Doughnut peaches seem to eliminate the juice factor. They are equally as delicious but without leaving you with juice all over your chin. Bonus.

Kiwis

- Unwieldy.

- Need extra implements to eat it.

- The Juice Factor.

Grapefruits

- See Kiwis Points 1-3

- Also Grapefruit Face. That awful face that grapefruits sometimes make you pull. No-one sharing your office needs to see that.

Pineapple/Melon/Mango

- Good because they can be cut into chunks which can be enjoyed at your pleasure.

- But require extra preparation at home so lose points

Grapes/Cherry tomatoes/blueberries

- Pretty perfect because they are small and easy to pop in your mouth so you can eat and carry on working.

- But there is the possibility that you will be unable to exercise restraint and will eat a whole punnet in one go which may mean this is an expensive fruit option.

Strawberries

- See Grapes et al Point 1

- Lose points for the pain of hulling.

So you can see that as a result of my extensive research I feel I can include that the most office friendly fruit/s is/are grapes or cherry tomatoes or anything in that kind of group. Mostly because of the ease of eating them.

Other fruits can be office friendly but just may require more consideration – maybe eat your bananas and plums when no-one else is in the office.

As I said before, this list is not meant to be exhaustive, please add any amendments or suggestions in the comments below!

Pack up your troubles

2011-09-13T16:30:00.000+01:00

Those of you who are in the know (i.e. follow my Project365 photos on Flickr or are friends with me on Facebook) will know that I am going to be moving at the end of the month.

For those of you not in the know?

I’m moving at the end of the month.

I’m not going far, this is not some grand relocation, I am in fact moving approximately 0.5 miles away from where I currently live, so less than a 10 minute walk.

If I could afford it I’d be living on my own, but until my debts are paid off (which if they were would give me an extra £350 a month. I know. Ouchies.) I’m going to have to content myself with continuing to share a house.

I played it cool when I saw the room, I didn’t want to give away too much but my insides were doing backflips. “Hello massive room!” my insides were saying. “Hello awesome wooden floor. Hello cute little fireplace. Hello SPACE.” The space bit was very exciting for me. At the moment, unless I hang up my clothes as soon as I take them off, it’ll only take 2 days before I have no floor space left. If The Person comes to stay there has to be system in place for getting changed in the morning because there’s definitely not enough room for two people in there.

So it’s very exciting. I don’t know who the people are that I’m sharing with. Some might say that’s a gamble, but given that the landlady only takes on professionals and comes and checks the house once a month, I’m feeling pretty confident. And if not, hey it'll give me some fodder for the blog!

The grand move in date is 1st October which isn’t that close but appeared much closer when I realised that I don’t actually have any free weekends up until the day that I move. That’s not good. I’ve been lucky enough that I’ve got a ton of boxes to hand, thanks to the fact that there’s a community cafe at my work, so my belongings are currently being packed into boxes formerly containing bags of chips and cans of tuna.

My approach is simple. As soon as I come in from work I make a start and keep going until I get bored. This approach has actually meant that I’ve pretty much packed as much as I can already. It’s not too hard really, my main baggage consists of books and dvds. I’m going to have to spend quite a bit of money when I get to the new place accumulating stuff because when I moved out of the flat I shared with the Ex, I let him take pretty much everything, so I don’t own basic things like, you know, plates or cutlery.

But I have taken the packing as an opportunity to get rid of stuff. Add in the fact that Dorothy is also having a clear out of gargantuan proportions and the result is that the downstairs has enough stock in it to keep various charity shops in business for the next year or so.

I would love to make some money out of it all, Dorothy has plans for a car boot, but I just don’t have time to be faffing with it, literally don’t have the time given that my weekends are blocked up. Where I can I’ve tried to make a bit of money though. A loads of dvds that were destined for charity have been packed up and sent to MusicMagpie – you don’t get much for a dvd, probably around 30p, bit more for box sets, but I’ve managed to make £22 out of 27 dvds that I would have given away for free so it’s better than a kick in the teeth. An old mobile is going to Envirofone for £14 (check Mazuma and Envirofone before you sell, Mazuma were only offering me £12 for my old phone). So that’s £36 in the plates and cutlery fund already!

I’ve also been brutal with my books. I’m pretty brutal anyway, I read them and get rid. There are very very few that make it to the permanent shelf. And if you saw how many books are on the “to read” bookcase you’d realise that I really don’t need to keep the books I’ve already read. What are the chances of me reading them again? Slim to none. Out they go!

But then I thought maybe some of you guys would like them?

So here’s a select pile for you to have a look at

The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruis Zafon /
Wedlock. How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met His Match – Wendy Moore
The Sea – John Banville
People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks
The 19th Wife – David Ebershoff
Firmin – Sam Savage
The One From the Other – Philip Kerr
Fragrant Harbour – John Lanchester
(I have linked to each title so you can have a read of the synopsis and see if you fancy them.)

It’s simple. All you need to do is
- leave a comment,
- tell me which book you would like, and
- tell me anything hilarious that’s happened to you when you’ve moved/packed up to move

I’ll pick out THREE winners, let you know if you've been successful and send your books on out to you in the post. (I was going to give them all away, and then I realised that that would be my £36 that I’ve already made out the window and I’d be eating out of a shoe. You wouldn’t want that would you?)

You have until Friday 16th September to enter, whereupon I will close the contest, and pick winners out of the approximately 5 people who will enter.

GO GO GO!

---------------

Apologies for the crap blogging lately. Funnily enough I have freaking loads to tell you but have found myself a) without time and b) without decent internet access to upload photos and we all now that we like a good photo filled post.

Thank heavens for short names

2011-09-09T07:00:00.000+01:00

Ever since I made the mobile/wall hanging for my niece back in May I’ve been wanting to give them another go. Although they still seem to instil fear in me, seeing the finished result gives you one of those warm glowy feelings.

And as luck would have it, someone did want me to make a wall hanging for them. All I had to do was wait for the baby to be born.

While I was waiting, a couple of things were running through my head.

1) I hope this baby is a girl – I’m late to join the fabric stash bandwagon and I only have girly fabric at the moment.

2) I hope they give the baby a nice short name – What happens if they text and tell me they’ve named her Perspehone, I’ll never find a twig big enough.

So I was very pleased when the news came that not only was the baby a little girl (hurray!) but she was called Elsa (hurray! And also note to self to store name in list of potential baby names if I ever do pro-create).

What did throw me however was that the news came a little earlier than anticipated. As in 4 weeks earlier. Finally, someone who is more impatient in this world than me. 37 weeks, 37 schmeeks, I’m going to enter this world when I flipping well want to (And at a teeny tiny 4lb 9oz which is ridiculously small to someone like me who is used to mahoosive 10lb nephews.)

You know what I hate? Surprises. Or just anything that messes with my well run plans of life. In reality, this really wasn’t a big deal at all, in my head however it caused a complete mental block. I kept telling myself to just get started but the fear returned and I sat there going “No, no, no, no, no”. (And how the hell her parents felt is beyond me, she cut short the preparation time by one month!)

So what did I do about it? I forced myself into activity by posting about it on the blog. I swear if it wasn’t for this thing I don’t think I’d get anything done. After writing that post I did indeed get it sorted and strung together and all ready to present to Elsa’s parents.

But then fate intervened. Well not so much fate, as that Dorothy went away on holiday on 3 weeks meaning that I couldn’t get it to them.

But now it has been presented and it is at home with Elsa (who is doing absolutely fine by the way. You know what goes hand in hand with impatience? Stubborness. Really they’re cousins if you think about it.) so I can blog about it to my heart’s content.

The finished article, in retrospect the L might be a little large, I was so scared of it being mistaken for an i I might have gone overboard.

I’ve also been asked to make one for another friend’s baby. The recipient of the Jungle Ripple blanket. This baby turned out to be a boy so this has meant the acquisition of more fabric. And his name is a little longer this time. Oh dear. The fear is returning...

Amigurumi in the house

2011-09-08T08:30:00.000+01:00

So I said last year that I wanted to be a bit more adventurous with my crochet activities and I think that really I haven’t tried hard enough. I’m still Queen of the Blankets, although I think I should get points for learning how to ripple.

I’ve done my ripple and I did a little granny stripe for my blankets for PreemiesUK, and I tried out a new border on one of those blankets too.
And actually I tried out some bunting at the beginning of the month that I didn’t blog about because

a) life was mental, and

b) all the post would have said is “I tried out some crochet bunting” and that’s just boring.

I do plan on doing the whole crochet bunting thing but I will need more yarn to do it. Considering that I’ve pretty much spent the whole year working with my scraps and from yarn donated by the Yarn Fairy the thought of actually having to spend money on yarn makes me a little breathless. Anyway, crochet bunting might appear at some point. And it does represent a little branching out.

But I knew that I wasn’t really trying hard enough. How about an animal? It would be brilliant but what about the potential of making something only to have someone go “Oh wow. What is it?” Crushing I tell you, crushing.

But then I saw this book which is basically just crocheted aliens. Which means that you can deftly avoid the awkward “What is it?” question by saying “Ha it’s just a cute alien thing! It’s supposed to look weird.” Success.

As with all these things, they’re really not that difficult, they just require you to sit still and be quiet and focus for a few minutes, all things which do not come easily to me. But I bought a book and settled myself down to have a go.

And what do you know? They’re not that hard at all. I started late on Sunday evening and by late Monday morning I had a stuffed and sewn together 3 headed alien. Marvellous.

Ok so his colours aren’t great but seeing as he was just for practice I’m not going to feel too bad about it.

Another reason that I’m enjoying these guys is that you need some pretty tight tension so make sure the stuffing doesn’t come through and I naturally seem to have that so for once it’s working in my favour. Also, because they're just made up of random shapes you can quite easily swap and change body parts and make up your own monster if you feel like it.

But then a fever took hold and before Monday night was out I had a snakey caterpillar thing to add to the amigurumi mix. See even I was brave enough to change him, he comes with a little hat in the book but I decided to make him some horns, following the pattern from another alien.

I have so far held myself off making more but it’s inevitable that more are going to happen. Mostly because I went out to Hobbycraft on the Tuesday and bought EYES. Eyes for my aliens. The only thing holding me back is the stupid sensible side of my brain that is saying, “What on earth are you doing? Why are you making these? What are you going to do with them?”

And I really don’t know, I don’t know who I could make them for because they’re not suitable for little ones given the detachable nature of the eyes. I don’t know what Hull has in the way of craft markets and stuff. Meh.

Anyone want one?

Snakey caterpillar thing?

No?

The Land of the Little Tin Bird

2011-09-06T19:04:00.004+01:00

This weekend I went on an adventure. I went on an adventure to the land of the Little Tin Bird. I know I'm on a meeting bloggers in real life kick this year, first The Curious Cat and now Heather. Don't be jealous of my travelling ways people.

The reasons for this trip were many;

1. I should have seen her in Hull a while back but I couldn't get the time off work

2. I desperately needed a trip to a yarn shop that sells Stylecraft and I knew she had one

3. I just wanted to meet her didn't I?!

This trip was exciting because it involved me going into the dreaded country - you know me, city girl and all that, the country scares me and once I had changed trains at Leeds I noticed two things;

1. The average age of the people on the train had increased by 30 years

2. Lots of sheep in fields

However I needn't have been panicky because my trusty guide soon took me under wing, marching me directly to the yarn shop. Yarn me up people. My need was so desperate because I did something foolish some time ago - I tried to buy wool blind off the internet. I've decided to make a blanket for my Dad and his wife for Christmas and I sat down and looked at some colours of Stylecraft on the internet and duly picked ones that I felt went together. Then I got my order and nearly had a heart attack - the lovely burnt orange that I thought I'd picked is actually luminous orange (god knows what the people were thinking as they packed my order, they must have thought I was totally colour blind).

So I needed to get new colours, or colours that at least went with the colours I'd already got. Normally this makes me go a little crazy but I knew that with secret weapon Heather at my side I would be successful because this lady knows how to pick colours. I was right and whether she realised it or not, I rather cleverly got her to pick my colours for me. I'm a sly fox like that. (Sorry, I forgot to take pictures. Apologies.)

The land of the Little Tin Bird also brought me face to face with my other nemesis.

Hills.

One thing you need to know about Hull? No hills. Seriously. No. hills. We are flat flat flat. This is amazing in many ways but it means that as soon as I'm within a certain distance from the Humber and the land begins to slope, I become nearly totally incapable of walking.

The walk up to Heather's house in my opinion should only be undertaken with the use of an oxygen tank and crampons but she scampered up it like a little rabbit whilst I weezed away behind her. Seriously. It's virtually Snowdon.

I saw all the sights. All of them. There was the most amazing pizza for lunch. So amazing that I'm thinking of going back just to have some more of it.

I saw some rather famous hills from a distance.

I saw some of the Castle (you know I love a bit of castle action. Going in it is on my list of things to do next time I visit).

I saw some canal action. With some frantic duck action. Love a bit of duck action.

I saw a real life turning water mill. Amazing!

I saw a waterfall. Brilliant!

I went in the most gorgeous shop ever and bought a cat necklace. (And I forgot to take a picture of that as well. Sorry I'm not on form at the moment.)

And throughout all of this I kept having to remind myself that I don't actually know Heather. It's hard to explain, I don't mean that in the sense that I have made the mistake of reading someone's blog and believing that I know everything about them, but I actually had to keep reminding myself that I didn't know her. I had to keep reminding myself that this was a total stranger I was spending the day with - shouldn't it have felt a bit weirder than that?

Well whatever it was, the day passed far too quickly for my liking and before I knew it I was back on the train and heading for the Mothership. Much to the relief of my Mum who can't quite grasp the concept of meeting up with people you know from the internet and was pretty certain I was going to be coming back in a bodybag. (But whatever you do do not tell her that I actually went in Heather's house for a cup of tea because that was one thing she definitely told me not to do and I do try and do everything my Mum tells me.)

And do you know what? I might just have gotten over my fear of the countryside. Because the land of the Little Tin Bird might just have it all - lovely countryside and yet there was actually a Tesco in sight. Perfect.

(Also. I actually saw the real life Lucy and nearly had a laughing attack. But I played it cool don't worry. Although I did feel like I should curtsy.)

Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson

2011-09-05T07:00:00.000+01:00

I’m pretty sure you don’t get more Classic than Treasure Island, I’m guessing that if we played some kind of Family Fortunes game where you asked 100 people to name as many Classics as they could in 1 minute, Treasure Island would come pretty high up the list.

And what better way to read this Classic than to do it on piece of modern technology?

Culture Friend let me know that there was a free Kindle App that you could download on to your Android phone and it comes with some Classics free of charge, Pride & Prejudice, Treasure Island and Aesop’s Fables. Done and done I say.*

So for anyone who, like me, didn’t really know what Treasure Island was about, here’s a brief synopsis that doesn’t give away the ending...

The story is narrated by Jim Hawkins, whose family own the inn to which ex-pirate Billy Bones rocks up one day. Turns out he’s in hiding from a load of other pirates because he has a map which shows the location of the treasure of Captain Flint, who is now dead.

Bones eventually dies and Jim gets hold of the map, taking it to Dr Livesey and Squire Trelawny who decide to organise a mission to go and find the treasure.

A crew is gathered together and the Hispaniola sets sail from Bristol to the Carribbean. One of the crew members is the cook Long John Silver – Jim overhears him planning to organise a mutiny which is going to take place when they arrive on the island.

From there on in we have to-ing and fro-ing and intrigue and changing loyalties as everyone races to find the treasure. But I won’t spoil the ending and tell you who, or even if they do, find the treasure.

This was kind of a tough one to read. It seemed to go through periods of being really exciting and I would avidly read through the pages like a mad woman, but then it would go through serious lulls where it felt stodgy and confusing and I didn’t really know what the hell was happening. It’s beyond me how this is a children’s book you know.

The language obviously doesn’t help things and at times I was left scratching my head, thinking “What the hell is he on about?!” And there are also a couple of plot details which require you to suspend your belief. For example, Billy Bones has warned Jim about a pirate with a wooden leg – upon meeting Long John Silver you’d think he’d put two and two together, but when he does meet him, despite having misgivings he decides that it couldn’t possibly be the same pirate. Yes because there are bound to have been more than one pirate with a wooden leg knocking about you moron.

And the ending is kind of weak. There is a serious case of let’s-tie-it-all-up-with-a-nice-bow going on here. But I think we should let him off that. Not entirely sure why but I’m going to.

This is a proper boy’s book though – if you could write a story that was just like this but updated a little, it would encourage boys to read in droves, I believe the word swashbuckling may be of use here.

I’m guessing there are important themes I should be picking up on here. Long John Silver is a tricksy little character with more faces than a dice – is he trustworthy? Is he likeable? There’s a whole discussion to be had about morality I think but you know me, I don’t have the brain power to do that here.

It’s not my favourite of the Classics that I’ve read but I’m glad I’ve done so.

Welcome to the ranks Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver.

*Just in case you were wondering it actually wasn’t that bad reading on my phone although there’s a glare issue that you wouldn’t get with a real life Kindle. But you can change the size of text, change the font, and change the background colour to find something that suits you. You can bookmark pages so you don’t lose your place and there’s a handy little bar at the bottom which lets you know exactly how far you are through the book. In short – I like it! But I’m very unlikely to purchase actual real-life books for it, there are far too many real life ones to be read!

August Flickr favourites

2011-09-04T06:30:00.000+01:00

Woah wait we’re already in September. Let’s rewind people and take a look back at my favourite photos from my Project365 in August.

5th – I like trains you know. I know that they’re expensive and that they are subject to random delays and stuffed with frustration but those are the things I don’t like about trains. Let’s not think about that. Let’s instead think about the lovely opportunity trains afford you to legitimately do nothing. No concentrating on the road. No feeling sick like you do on coach. Just sitting and being. Loves it.

Also I like reading. Trains + reading = happy girl. And on this day I was even happier because I was going to see The Person for his birthday. Winner all round.

6th – I went to the races for the very first time. Yay me. And I won! Yay me.

9th – Sometimes photos just make you smile for no particular reason. Enter....Happy Tap. He lives in the bathroom at the building I was working in until earlier this month. I’ve been meaning to get a snap of him for ages but I kept forgetting and I also was wary of being caught taking my camera into the toilet.

13th – Sometimes photos just make you smile for no particular reason. Enter....cat in a bag. Fred’s a classic for doing this. See he did it on my birthday too. I guess he just loves a good bag. Lily does it too but I never manage to get a photo because she’s usually freaking out as she does it and I can’t get a good picture of her. Also she has a tendency to get in a bag and then get unceremoniously bullied out of it by Fred who doesn’t like her to have anything that he wants.

26th – Hi I went to Newcastle last weekend and I loved it, did you know? I like this photo of The Angel of the North because it shows off her sassy curves. We were debating whether she was a he or a she until we went round the back of her and decided that given the shapely bum she was most definitely a she.

29th – Look I’ve joined in the crochet amigurumi craze! I bought a book from the BALTIC gift shop when I was in Newcastle and the very next day that I came home I whizzed up this 3 headed monster. Ok, the colours are a little off but that’s because I was just practicing. I’m feeling an obsession coming on...will post later in the week about it.

Only 118 photos to go before the year is out. Eek!

Feel free to keep up with my Project365 photos by visiting my photostream here.

Newcastle in 24 hours

2011-09-02T07:00:00.000+01:00

Oh yeah, I was going to talk to you about Newcastle wasn’t I?

You know I’ve got to do this in a list don’t you? Otherwise there’s just going to be too much text and I know you’ll switch off. Don’t deny it!

The Angel of the North
This was the only thing I really wanted to see when we went up there, but we were faced with our usual problem of how to go and see things when you don’t have a car. Answer? You use public transport baby! There are 2 buses that you can catch from Eldon Square bus station in Newcastle, the 21 and 22, appropriately named Angel Buses.

There are two stops you can get off at but keep your wits about you because blink and they’re gone. There is also a slight problem in that the bus stops on the opposite side of the road to the Angel meaning that you basically have to run across a dual carriageway which isn’t the safest option I’ve ever come across.

(I should point out that at this point it was raining. It was all kinds of miserable. And I left my umbrella on the Angel Bus. And yet I'm still smiling, that's how much I was liking Newcastle.)

So we walked up to her and our first thoughts?

Erm....she’s kind of not as big as I thought she would be.

I mean she’s big and damn hard to get in a photograph, meaning that you have to resort to arty type shots of just bits of her but she wasn’t the totally massive structure I was expecting. Sorry Angel. We hung about with some Spanish tourists, but really once you’ve seen her there isn’t a lot else to do so we caught the bus back into town.

As You Like It
I found this place on the tourist info website which has a list of places to eat. I figured we deserved a little treat so looked for somewhere nice and discovered this place. A quick check to work out if we could get there with minimum fuss (you can, it’s just on the opposite side of the road to a Metro stop) and one phone call later and we were booked in for a fancy pants meal.

The food was gorgeous, the portions were massive and the service was incredible. Two thumbs up (or four thumbs up if you include The Person in all of this). After scoffing we retired downstairs to the bar area to drink cocktails. As The Person went to the bar to order some drinks I started having a look about at the clientele.

My eyes came to rest on a bloke in a grey jumper and white shirt. “How funny. That man totally looks like Alan Shearer.” I said to myself. Then....”Wait a minute. That IS Alan Shearer!” How hilarious, come to Newcastle and see Alan Shearer, you couldn’t get more clichéd (unless we’d seen Ant and Dec or Cheryl Cole I guess).

Quayside

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge doing its blinky thing

Saturday morning dawned and our hangovers were knocking at our temples. We decided to head to the Quayside in the hope that fresh air would cure us. It didn’t, but a cheapo Full English breakfast did a pretty good job. We looked at all the bridges and were there in time to see the Millennium Bridge do it’s blinky thing – for those not in the know about the blinky thing, they close it and the pathway rises up and then down. Exciting.

The view when standing on the Millennium Bridge - that big silver slug is The Sage

Once it was back down we hop skipped and jumped across it to....

The Baltic
Hello modern art! We are cultured let us come and look at you.

Things you should know about the BALTIC:

- There is an exhibition on there at the moment which is uber cool by a guy called Maurizio Anzeri – he’s taken old photographs and embroidered over them. There could not have been an exhibit which was more suited to me. It was very exciting.
- There’s a very “moderny” exhibition that’s on the 3rd and 4th floors. When I say “moderny” I mean “I don’t get it”. And there’s a film that was flickering so fast it made my eyes water and started to become convinced that I was being brainwashed.
- Don’t be a clever dick and take the stairs. Get the lift. I cannot stress this enough. The stairs are a killer.
- The Baltic has the best gift shop known to man. I mean like seriously. As in we possibly spent more time in there than looking at art. I know the shame. But I don’t care because I bought awesome things.

Castle Keep
We like castles. It’s a fact. What’s not to like, it’s all history and stuff innit? You can go in the Castle and basically get lost inside it wandering about and up and down stairs and round corners. It looks tiny on the inside but it’s like a maze inside. I have no idea how they used to find their way about in the times of yore. It’s a wonder they weren’t all lying about with broken necks given the long dresses they would have worn, the lack of lighting and the craziness of all the stairs.

The entrance to the Castle

It’s not jam packed with exhibits and yes, those that are there could do with an update but I kind of liked that it was left alone and you could do as you pleased about it. And when you get up to the top you get some cool views of Newcastle.

View from the top

And inside you can totally pretend to be a gargoyle. You can’t put a price on that kind of fun. (Actually you can, it’s £4, but that’s pretty cheap in my eyes.)

And we managed to do all this in 24 hours (arriving in Newcastle at 12pm on the Friday and being back in the hotel room to get ready for the wedding by 4pm on the Saturday). Pretty impressive. We didn’t even get to go to the beach and play Pirate-themed mini golf which was an option if the weather hadn’t been so crap.

So. When can I go back please?

A love letter

2011-09-01T12:30:00.004+01:00

Don’t tell Manchester but I totally cheated on her this weekend.

I didn’t mean to and I would have sworn blind that my heart belonged to her but this past Bank Holiday weekend The Person and I fell in love with a new city.

Newcastle.

Seriously don’t tell Manchester, she’ll be devastated. I really couldn’t say if this was just a fling or a full blown love affair and I would hate to call it all off because of two days of passion but I can’t lie. We had fun.

The reason for our little excursion was that of a wedding. Normally I wouldn’t travel all that way just for an evening do but The Person and I won’t get to do a holiday this year (or probably next year. Or the year after that) so we decided that Newcastle would be our holiday. I believe the cool kids are calling them city breaks.

The wedding do was on the Saturday and we had a good deal on a Premier Inn out near the airport so we decided to travel down on Friday morning, giving us a good couple of days to have an explore and a wander.

I didn’t really know that much about the city and was at a bit of a loss as to what to do and where to go. I’d been on the tourist info website (which is really good by the way) and knew that I wanted to go and pay a visit to the ol’ Angel of the North and I knew that The Person has an almost worrying enthusiasm for a bit of Castle action so we had a couple of things on the list but didn’t really know much else.

Enter....Lucy.

I remembered that she totally lives near there and might have some hints for me so I promptly e-mailed her. And then promptly remembered that she was on holiday. But as I was travelling up on the train I got probably the most comprehensive guided tour of Newcastle in e-mail form from a lady who had only just arrived back from her holiday.

Seriously. It was amazing. Anytime we weren’t sure of where we were going or what we wanted to do, out came my Smartphone and up came the e-mail and we would have an idea. The trip became littered with “Lucy says it’s this way.” “Lucy says we should try this place.” “Lucy says the bridge blinks at midday” etc etc. We would have been lost without her. In fact at some times quite literally lost, I don’t think either of us has the best sense of direction.

I was a little worried that we’d lose most of the day travelling back and forth from the hotel but we were saved thanks to the Metro system. Let’s hear it for the Metro! The Metro is like the Tube but friendlier and about 100 million times less scary. In fact I think that before anyone attempts the London Underground they should go on a recce to Newcastle to practice on the Metro – you can’t go wrong, there are only 2 platforms but it would get you used to the whole system.

However. Don’t bother buying a ticket. The Person and I spent a total of £11 each over 3 days on Metro tickets which were never ever ever checked. There are barriers. But they’re not in use. There were even men in jackets. But they just stood and watched you. On the last day on the way back to the station I declared that I was not going to buy a ticket because I was sick of it. But then I remembered that I’m totally incapable of breaking the rules so I went ahead and bought one and then stamped my feet when that wasn’t checked either.

Anyway, let’s not spoil our weekend with a lover’s tiff, we love you despite of your non-Metro-ticket-checking ways.

I was totally going to tell you about what we did there but I realise that this blog post is already too long and that really I should leave it as it is – a love letter to Newcastle. (And Lucy.)

Next time?

August Book Review

2011-08-31T12:12:00.000+01:00

I've had a good month. Mostly down to a couple of long train journeys, a couple of short books and one book in particular that I really, really, really struggled to put down.

Tiger's Wife - Tea Obreht
One of those books that appears to be everywhere at the moment, appearing on this list and the other. Think I got it half price with an offer in Grazia magazine.

Part fairy tale and part real life it actually made it hard to decide how I felt about this book. I think I would have liked it more had it been pure fantasy or completely real, being betwixt and between didn't really do it for me.

Nevertheless it has all the beautiful hallmarks of a fairy tale story and it's worth picking up.

Starter for Ten - David Nicholls
I'm sure you know by now how much I loved One Day when I read it a couple of years ago. If you don't - I did. (In fact I'm glad I did these reviews, this means I can prove I read it before everyone's jumped on the band wagon.)

Having seen a review on Nose in a Book I wanted to pick this up and when I found it on offer in WH Smiths I decided it was a sign I should buy it.

Oh how I laughed. I laughed in public and I laughed in private and I may even have snorted once or twice. I loved it. And luckily for me, the review I've just linked to is much better than anything I could have written so I'll send you over there.

I have to say though, I saw the book a week or so after I'd finished reading it and could not have been more disappointed if I tried. It was just so so not good, every bit of essence that made the book hilarious was missed out and it was just such a shame. It's impossible for me to say if I would have liked the film if I hadn't read the book, probably, who knows? I can say that it's made me pretty nervy about going to see One Day at the cinema.

Pavane - Keith Roberts
I picked this guy up at work because it had the most fabulously retro front cover ever. I seriously couldn't resist it. Sci-fi isn't normally my kind of thing to be honest but I decided to give this one a whirl. I have since done a bit of 'research' (i.e. looking on Wikpedia) and have discovered that this book is kind of a big deal in the sci-fi world. One might even call it a 'classic' - but don't worry I won't be counting it as one of mine (until I get to the end of the year and I'm not on track for completing my mission.)

Yeeeeeaaah. Can't say my stance on sci-fi has changed much. This book imagines what would have happened if Elizabeth I had died and Catholics ruled the world. If I was a Catholic I might be a little bit tetchy about this book - the result is basically that the Catholic church has prohibited invention of any kind, meaning that when we start the book in the 1960s England is a place of steam trains and semaphore.

The book consists of a few stand alone chapters which slightly interweave with each other but it feels disjointed and was just kinda boring to be honest.

Wilt on High - Tom Sharpe
I've read a Tom Sharpe before and this was exactly what how I remembered the first one. Fun.

Think Evelyn Waugh meets the Carry On films and you have Tom Sharpe. They're a little bit rude, little bit comedy of errors, little bit smutty and a lot funny. Just a good, easy, fun read, would definitely recommend for a little light relief.

This book is the third in a series featuring Wilt. I haven't read the other two but it didn't matter at all, there are a few references to previous goings on but all they've made me want to do is go out and find the other two books.

-----------------------

Book of the Month?

Starter for Ten without doubt

Hunger Beast

2011-08-23T16:03:00.000+01:00

Today I have a hunger beast that has taken over my whole body. He won't be satisfied no matter what I feed him.

It's only 4pm and already today I've eaten:

- Weetabix x2

- Punnet of cherry tomatoes x1

- Pack of Belvita biscuits x1*

- Chicken salad wrap x1

- Apple x1

- Plums x4

- Packet of Ryvita Minis (Sweet Chilli flavour) x1

- Weightwatchers Peach yoghurt x1

And still The Hunger Beast will not be satiated.

I'm trying not to be too hard on myself. Everything on that list is pretty good for me, it's not like I've eaten 12 Snickers (although that could just be because I don't have any of those to hand.) But still - quantity-wise it feels like a lot has gone in my body to try and calm that Beast.

But I have a sneaking suspicion that the Beast is tricking me.

You see I'm going to Pizza Express for dinner tonight with my cousin and I get the feeling that the Beast has somehow found this out and has decided that nothing is going to satisfy it unless it's covered in cheese and baked in an oven.

*Sigh*

*Belvita biscuits are advertised as a breakfast replacement. There's no way that would work for the Hunger Beast even on its very best day but I am in love with these biscuits in a possibly inappropriate way and they are my official mid-morning snack.

Crochet-tastic

2011-08-21T19:02:00.000+01:00

I am frazzled.

Work is piling on and I'm still running about like a headless chicken looking after houses and cats that aren't my own and my patience is running thin.

I keep trying to take time out for myself and when I do I've been crocheting to keep me calm. I am on a mega stash busting exercise. There are scraps all over the shop and whilst they are very pretty to look at I'm not a big fan of just having pretty things that aren't useful.

You may remember a while ago I mentioned that I was using up some of my scraps to make some squares for the Crochet a Rainbow project. Well I don't know what's going on with it but I haven't heard anything so I decided that I would put them towards another cause.

An old school friend heard that I crocheted and pointed me in the direction of a Facebook group called Preemies UK - a group of people that crochet and knit baby hats, cardigans and blankets that are sent to hospitals across the country for their neo-natal units.

Little tiny blankets for little tiny babies? Yes please!

I get to stash bust, whip up some blankets quickly and do something for a good cause. Tick tick and tick.

Looking at the donations that the group normally gets I noticed that they're a little on the traditional side shall we say. There's a lot of pale pastel going on. Trouble is if I'm going to be stash busting my offerings aren't going to be on the subtle side. Ah well, hopefully the recipients will be fans of having a little colour in their newborn's life.

I decided to do a few different patterns just to mix things up.

A granny stripe.

A bit of multi-coloured granny square action.

And one big granny square with a bit of fancy pants edging.

They only need blankets that are anything between 15" and 30" so it's quite easy to get these guys crocheted up double quick. It's been nice to feel like I've been getting something done during this slightly topsy turvy period.

Looking forward to getting these sent out.

My secret love

2011-08-15T16:30:00.001+01:00

After 28 years of being tall I’ve almost got used to it. I was looking through some baby photos the other day and came across one of me sat on my then 14 year old sister’s knee. But wait. I was sat on her lap, then my legs stretch halfway across the room and my head reached up to her shoulder. “My god” I commented, “I was a freakishly long child.”

“Yes” Mum replied “I was difficult really because people thought you were much older than you were so actually thought you were a bit retarded because here they thought they were looking at a 3 year old, when instead they were looking an 18 month old.” Thanks Mum.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not massive at all. I’m 5’9” (maybe a shade above but definitely not 5’10”) which actually only makes me a couple of inches taller than the average for women, and about the same height as an average man. Apparently.

For a long time I was convinced that Hull was full of ridiculously short men, but I had a revelation a while back on a night out after cockling over and hurting my ankle. They’re not ridiculously short, I just have a predilection for 4 inch heels – I’m ridiculously tall! It took me a night out in flats to realise that actually, there were a lot of ‘normal’ sized men out there.

Unfortunately I’ve hit a stumbling block in the shape of The Person, who reckons he is 6 foot. I say reckons because he is clearly wrong. If he was 6 foot then I could wear more than an inch high heel and not be taller than him and I can’t. I’ve tried reasoning with him but he’s insistent that he’s 6 foot. Incorrect.

I know it’s shallow and I know it’s silly but I just cannot face being taller than my boyfriend. I just can’t. And it’s not him telling me I can’t be taller than him, he thinks I’m as crazy as you all do right now, he doesn’t get what the big deal is. I put two thumbs up to Sophie Dahl and Jamie Cullum and all the other similar couples out there, but I cannot comprehend the thought of going out with my boyfriend and bending down to whisper in his ear. No. Sorry. No way.

With a shoe collection full of 3 inch heels and above I have slowly but surely begun to rectify matters, trying to re-programme my brain to not go for the 4 inch heel with 2 inch platform, but instead to go for the much more sensible 1.5 inch heel height. I am getting there, but the results are pretty grim.

Luckily for me there have been lots of cool sandals out there this summer, they can double as going out shoes at some point...can’t they? And I found a lovely little pair on sale in Dorothy Perkins the other day which hit the Holy Grail of being small enough that I’m not taller than The Person but also being appropriate for work. Tick!

I am trying to love them. I really am. But I know that my heart is reserved for pairs of shoes that send me up in to the stratosphere. They just look prettier. Plus we all know that the higher the heel, the better your leg looks – even more important when you have over-developed calf muscles like mine which could see me getting mistaken from the knees down for an England Scrum Half, out for the night in drag.

I will continue to try to expand my shoe collection full of pretty pumps and gorgeous flats, but I know, and you know, that nothing’s going to make my heart beat faster than shoes like these little guys. Or these guys or actually what about these guys...

*sigh*

L-R: Primark (£6 in sale), Dorothy Perkins (£15 in sale), Matalan (can't remember!)

Note to all: I am of course still in the market for big heels, there are plenty of times I’m out without The Person. However, with a limited budget, I need to try and find heels that I can get plenty of wear out of.

Extra note to all: Why yes, yes I do have freakishly long toes.

Groupon? Never again.

2011-08-12T16:30:00.001+01:00

Part of me feels bad writing this post and the other part of me thinks that actually I’d be doing you people a disservice by not telling you about my experience because I’ll feel bad if you have a similar experience to mine.

I know that people have had great experiences with Groupon – Hayley for one (her link will explain much more clearly exactly what Groupon is for those of you who don't know), but I will absolutely 100%, never use them again after my experiences with them. And believe me I’m not giving up on them easily – you know they say, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me?” Well what do you say when you’ve been fooled four times? Yes that’s right. I’m that much of a glutton for punishment.

Debacle Number 1.
Culture Friend and I book a deal a spa in Leeds, deciding to make a nice day of it. Get a massage and a facial, have a manicure and pedicure, be ladies who lunch. Lovely. Train tickets are booked. Appointment is cancelled at the last minute. Money on train tickets is lost. New train tickets are booked. We arrive at what is essentially a joke of a salon – run by 12 year olds who inform us that we won’t actually be getting what we paid for. We ended up refusing to have anything done.

Conclusion: We're not sure whether or not to blame this one on the salon although have to wonder about how much research Groupon does on the companies it does business with. Also Groupon have obviously failed to advertise the deal correctly.

Debacle Number 2.
Culture Friend and I (we really are morons) book another spa type deal with another salon in Leeds. Culture Friend drives this time. Despite the deal saying it was available 7 days a week, when we ring they inform us that they can't do Saturdays so we arrange to go on a Sunday instead.

People at the spa say that they have had a bit of a problem with the deal. Basically Groupon did not inform them that a limit could be set on the number of deals sold, meaning that basically too many deals were booked, meaning it was almost impossible to fit everybody in.

So not a huge debacle, but it set off warning sirens in our heads. The spa by the way was lovely and I would highly recommend it, wish it was closer to Hull.

Conclusion: Ok experience, great spa, but again, worries about Groupon on the way it does business. Also again it didn't advertise the deal properly.

Debacle Number 3
An offer appears for a restaurant in Hull, just down the road for me. It’s a 2 course meal for 2 and a glass of wine each for £15 or something like that. The restaurant is lovely and I think it’d be a nice thing to do when The Person next comes to Hull. I check the small print and it says that the offer is available 7 days a week. Good stuff.

I ring the restaurant to book a table to be told that they won’t accept that voucher on Fridays or Saturdays and that they had told Groupon that but they hadn’t put that on the website.

Then begins what can only be described as an ordeal to get my refund within the 7 days of purchase. E-mails go unanswered. At one point I was left on hold for 20 minutes trying to get through on the phone. When I eventually did get through to someone they were almost unbearably rude, before putting me on hold for a further 10 minutes before refunding my account.

Conclusion: Totally Groupon's fault. Didn't advertise the deal properly.

Debacle Number 4
I know. I can’t believe I got this far either.

There’s a voucher for a cut and colour at a salon down the road from me. My greys are taking over my head and I’ve a wedding coming up so I thought I’d book myself in before that. Deal is booked. Appointment is made. All is good. Until a friend on Facebook commented that the salon was now calling everyone to cancel the Groupon appointments.

I ring the salon and they confirm to say that they’re really sorry but they haven’t received payment from Groupon so can’t afford to honour the deals. Groupon apparently hadn’t told them they could put a limit on the number of deals sold (see Debacle Number 2).

My fury has now reached incredible proportions. I can’t get away from the fact that every single one of these is down to a huge failing on the part of Groupon either by not advertising the deal correctly or failing to communicate effectively with the businesses it is dealing with.

I have sent an e-mail requesting a refund on the latest deal and funnily enough, I’ve yet to hear anything.

I think 4 times is way way way more than enough times for me to say with all confidence that I shall not be using Groupon ever again. Even I’m not that stupid.

Obviously you are all big enough and clever enough to make up your own minds and I know that some of you will have had great experiences with Groupon, but for me personally, four debacles is four too many and I personally won't risk it again. If only to save my own pride. I just think that it's appropriate that everyone shares their experiences, rather than just the good.

Looks too good to be true?

It is.

The Gambler

2011-08-10T16:30:00.000+01:00

This weekend I went to see The Person. Have I ever told you how annoying long distance relationships are? No? Well they are. The last time I saw him was when I ran the Race for Life. 3 whole weeks ago. Rubbish.

It was The Person’s birthday last week so I was going down laden with presents. Wrapped in Lego wrapping paper. And I got him a Batman birthday card. Did I mention he was 29?

Saturday was going to see a first for me. We would be visiting Haydock Park racecourse. For what better way to celebrate being 29 than throwing all your money away? It was a first time for both of us although I think it’s safe to say our levels of excitement were fairly different on the way there.

You see, I’m just not a gambler. I’m too ~~boring~~ sensible. I cannot wrap my head around why you would throw your money away on a bet. It’s like standing on the street, feeding £10 notes into the grate and letting it flow down the sewer. I go to the casino and stand there wanting to weep as people lose hundreds of pounds – you don’t want that hundred pounds? That’s fine, but I beg of you, give it to me, don’t give it to the croupier! I went to Vegas and still couldn’t pluck up the courage to gamble. I was eventually persuaded to go on a slot machine and came out $1.50 up thank you very much. But proper gambling? Can’t get my head around it.

The Person was much more excited about it. Obviously, it was his idea. He’d bought his racing post. He’d watched videos about betting online. He was prepared.

I begrudgingly put £10 aside to have a gamble with. Once it was gone then I’d be done gambling for the day and I was ok with that.

The Fashion
We were in the Tattersalls Enclosure which is a pretty good place to be. Not the totally cheap end of the scale but not the super fancy enclosure either. This enclosure doesn’t have a dress code which meant there was a whole spectrum of outfits to gawp at from people dressed in their scruffs to people poured in to lycra bodycon.

And the shoes. Oh the shoes. Now you know me, I like a good heel but some of these women were walking around with elaborate pieces of scaffolding strapped to their ankles. I have no idea how they were doing it. And indeed, by the end of the day, they weren’t doing it, they were gingerly walking over the gravel of the car park, holding their shoes in their hands.

The Betting
Apparently we weren’t there to pass judgement on other women but to place money on horses. The Person had read his Racing Post, looked at the Racing Card and carefully selected his winner. I perused the list and went “Hahahahahahahaha. That horse is called Rent Free. I wish I lived Rent Free. I’m going to bet on that one.” Off I toddled to the tote and put my bet on.

(Aside. Why do they say that it’s a £2 minimum bet if you’re betting each way and then charge you £4? Surely that means the minimum bet is £4? Why do they make it so confusing?!)

The other reason Tattersalls Enclosure is good is that you’re pretty close to the finishing line. Excitement is abound as you watch the horses on the big screen, flicking your gaze between it and the little brown dots on the other side of the course. Then they get closer. And closer. And people start getting louder. And louder. And then BOOM they’ve gone past you and you’re so over-excited and they’re running so bloody fast and you don’t have your glasses on so you actually have no idea which horse came first.

So you can imagine the scream that came out of my ever so delicate gob when I realised that Rent Free won the race. Not 2nd, not 3rd. 1st. And the odds? 16-1. Off I skipped to the booth and came back with a very large grin on my face after the lady handed me £35 back. Hurrah.

The Person’s horse came in last.

This was good. I could now use my winnings to play and I wouldn’t be ‘wasting’ money as such. The next race featured a horse that had the same surname as my sister. Obviously I should bet on it. So I did and it came in 2nd. My head nearly fell off at that point although I was rather disappointed to discover that I only made 40p on that bet. Gutted.

The Person’s horse refused to enter its stall at the beginning of the race.

I quit while I was ahead at that point and my luck did actually run out – I placed a couple more bets but didn’t win anything but I still came out with £27 (and let’s not forget the 40p) which I was pleased with. And don't feel bad, The Person did eventually win in the end (but not as much as me. Just saying.).

The alcohol
Obviously I didn’t come out up overall because I drank copious amounts of alcohol throughout the day. Please note I was not drunk. I was not one of the people requiring medical attention by the end of the day. I did not get so drunk I took most of my clothes off. I did not get so drunk I fell over and cracked my head open. All of which were antics I saw. It's beyond me why you would pay £22 to get into the races and then get plastered on very expensive alcohol and finish your day in hospital – you can do that for much much less money in town!

The alcohol is expensive but if you’ve been to a gig, it won’t make you raise your eyebrows too much. It’s just one of those things you have to suck up and get on with.

The conclusion
- To conclude the races is actually a pretty good day out but not that much fun when you’re not betting and even less fun when you’re losing.
- But it might be worth the entrance fee alone just to see some of the sights.
- Have a walk around at the beginning to scope things out, that way you won’t realise right at the end of the day that you could have been in the paddock seeing the horses a little closer – damnit.
- The Racing Post is not that helpful, it had predicted the winners of 6 of the 8 races and didn’t get a single one right. Much better to follow my tip of picking ones with funny names.*

*I accept no responsibility for the loss of money if you follow this method of betting

Betwixt and between

2011-08-09T16:15:00.000+01:00

My blogging is likely to get sporadic over the next few weeks and for that I apologise.

You see at the moment I appear to be neither here nor there.

As you may remember, I’ve been house-sitting for my Dad since the beginning of May which has been awesome. Dad and his wife are due back towards the end of August and I have contemplated not giving them their house back but have decided, on reflection, that that’s probably unfair.

It’s going to hard giving up Sky Plus and super speedy dongle-less internet though...

Meanwhile, Dorothy has gone away on a little jolly, meaning that there are two furry people who need someone to look after them. (Not to mention another house.)

Luckily for me, both houses are only 10 minutes away from each other, otherwise things would be much more difficult

Obviously I don’t want to leave either house empty – especially home because it’s not fair on the Maggie and Maudster to be on their own. I know cats aren’t like dogs but they like company. If you don’t believe me, you should hear the racket from Maggie when I walk back in the house.

My ever so canny solution to this problem was to move half my wardrobe back from my Dad’s house to home, meaning that whenever I feel like it, I can spend a night at either house and not worry that I won’t have any clothes to put on in the morning.

I know. I’m clever. Don’t hate me for it.

I duly did this and set myself out a little timetable, a couple of nights in one house, a couple of nights in the other, making sure I see Maggie and Maud at least once a day.

However I forgot one fairly major fact. The fact that I cannot cope with being in between places. The last time I was in between places was when I first moved in with Dorothy and half my stuff (like a bed and wardrobe) were still the place I shared with the boyfriend. This caused my brain to go into near meltdown because I’m a little nester. I make a place my own within 2 minutes of being in it, hence why my whole wardrobe came over to my Dad’s in the first place – it’s just easier on my little head.

Just the thought of being between places and working out the schedule in my head has caused at least a Defcon 2 panic situation, meaning that this weekend I shall mostly be moving everything back to my house and then just taking an overnight bag with me on the occasions that I stay at my Dad’s.

Much better solution although it’s still making me wig out a little bit. When that happens I lose all ability to be able to think coherently which means that my blogging suffers somewhat (yes believe it or not, this is me thinking coherently). I need to know I have my own little space you see. So expect things to be a little quiet round here until the end of August/beginning of September when I finally find myself back in one place.

The Baby Shower

2011-08-02T22:01:00.000+01:00

Life feels a little strange at the moment. I feel like I'm betwixt and between - leaving a younger me behind and edging slowly towards a more 'adulthood'. This was demonstrated best by the past couple of weekends I've had. One saw me go out for a few drinks after work that resulted in me getting home at 4am and the next saw me organising and throwing a baby shower for my friend. See what I mean? It's all a bit confusing.

This friend has been pretty awesome throughout her pregnancy as I've told you before. She might actually be the nicest kindest person I know, I've never heard her say a bad word about anyone, she never complains, never moans and is just generally marvellous.

So a person like that obviously deserves a baby shower. Another friend and I decided it should be a surprise baby shower (because it's always fun to surprise heavily pregnant women I find) and enlisted the help of her Mum, who wanted to be part of the day.

We divided and conquered. My friend's Mum wanted to host and do all the food so that left me and the other friend to be in charge of decorations and party games and inviting other people. We only had a couple of weeks to get organised so we were quick and decisive and efficient, three of my very favourite things.

We met one night after work and got creative. We wanted to make bunting but quickly and on the cheap - enter lots of coloured paper and some string, scissors and sellotape. Very soon we had us some flipping marvellous looking bunting. Fabric would be awesome and everything, but I seriously think this stuff looks pretty good, don't you?

We also made other little bits to put up. Another banner to hang up which says "Squib" which is what the baby it being called in utero. More coloured paper, scissors and pritt stick with ribbon to thread through and extra embellishments came from a spare bit of border from when my friend decorated her baby's bedroom.

And finally a washing line made up of some baby clothes, which looked brilliant hung up beneath the table that held all the food and the nappy cake that my friend made - a 2 tier cake of nappies, bibs, baby lotion and other baby-related bits and bobs.

Decorations done we moved on to sorting out the games to be played. We had an initially excellent idea that we would play pin the nappy on the baby. It remained an excellent idea up until the point where we realised that neither of us could draw a baby. Or a nappy for that matter. So we came up with the next best thing...

Hell's yeah. I had a great time one afternoon and evening, drawing and cutting out lots of sperm and drawing happy faces on them. This was not to just be a fun game however, it was also going to be educational. You might be able to see in the picture above that sperm have Xs and Ys written on them.

Here comes the science bit for those of you who don't remember your GCSE biology. Those spermy boys are either made of X chromosomes or Y chromosomes. The egg is an X chromosome so the sex of your baby will depend on which spermy guy gets through - an X and you have a boy, a Y and you have a girl.

So we would be having fun but also potentially guessing the sex of the baby. Fun and educational? Sign me up!

We also asked everyone to bring in a baby photo of themselves so we could play a little guess who game. This became a completely random guessing game as it was virtually impossible to tell who was who from their baby photos. Apart from two exceptions - the older ladies at the shower whose baby photos were in black and white, and yours truly who really hasn't changed all that much in 27 years...

The final game you will be pleased I don't have photos of. This game was most certainly not my idea because I don't have the strongest of stomachs. There were 5 nappies prepared and in each of those nappies was a different melted chocolate bar....you see where I'm going with this one? Have you already pulled a face and gone "Eurgh!" You are more than forgiven because I felt the same.

But it was actually pretty good fun, although I sucked at it because chocolate bars are not my forte. Although the Malteser one was pretty easy to guess.

Games over and prizes given out to those who won it was time for presents. I was looking forward to this bit because this was the moment that I would proudly hand over the Jungle Ripple blanket to my friend. I wanted to push my present to the front but I held back and passed over some other presents. The first present my friend opened made my heart sink a little bit. It was the most beautiful knitted shawl, which had been made by an old family friend. I wish I'd taken a picture of it actually because it really was lovely, very traditional, in white, lovely stitches.

It made me want to cry a little bit.

They say that pride comes before a fall and here was my fall. I wanted to push the Jungle Ripple blanket under the table and not let her open it, next to this beautiful shawl it looks garish and amateurish and very inelegant. But before I could think of a way of disposing it, my friend was opening it.

She thought it was brilliant and came up to me later to say how much she loved it, because it was bright and colourful and that it would most definitely be used and that she really appreciated the effort I'd gone to. I still felt a little subdued and rightly so. Lesson learned. Don't be smug.

All in all it was a huge success. She was duly surprised and her waters didn't break which was a bonus. Now we just have to wait until around the 20th August when Squib is due to arrive...

July Flickr Favourites

2011-08-01T11:25:00.000+01:00

July has been a funny old month. On the one hand it seems to have lasted forever and ever and ever, but on the other hand I'm left feeling a little stunned and surprised that it's August already.

Before you know it, people are going to start mentioning that C-word - I'm just putting out a warning. If you craft, you have to start thinking of the C-word from about now. Well you do if you're painfully slow at stuff like me.

But enough of that, let's pretend that December is still ages away and look back at my favourites from July.

2nd July - See this is what I mean, did this really take place only a month ago? It feels like a gazillion years ago. This was such a lovely day, it's not often I get to the sea and not often enough that I get to spend time with my sister, brother-in-law and nephews so this was a great big day of awesomeness. Plus I just really love this photograph, the sandy shoes with the sea in the background, it just sums up the day nicely.

6th July - I haven't really been able to tell you about this because it's a work-related thing and I want to try and keep as much anonymity as possible, but I am part of a mentoring scheme that has seen me paired up with a child from a local primary school. The rationale is that we are there to support these kids as they transition from primary to secondary school, they're from fairly vulnerable backgrounds so we're there as an extra bit of support. On 6th July some of us mentors accompanied the class on a trip to London. I was there when they were told they were going to London and I got pretty choked up seeing their excitement, for most of them this was the first time they'd ever been to London and it was a really big deal for them. This day was knackering, we walked about 10 miles in all, but the kids coped with it really well and loved it. Amazing experience.

12th July - I love that I work in the centre of town. This week was Graduation week and all the graduates from the University of Hull gather right in the middle of town before and after their ceremony in the City Hall. I was on my lunch break and happened across these guys and these are the times that I am so pleased that I constantly carry my camera around with me. I snapped this photo and luckily managed to get them as they threw their hats up in the air, I just love this photo. Also I wish I was student again.

17th July - You all know about this, today was the day that I ran the Race for Life and was very proud of myself.

27th July - Ha and this month I made a whole blanket! Admittedly only for a small person, although it would have made a nice little lap blanket for a bigger person. I felt very pleased with myself, I wouldn't have thought a couple of years ago that I would have been able to do this so it felt like a pretty big achievement. See the post about the finished Jungle Ripple blanket here.

31st July - And this was the day that I got to give the Jungle Ripple blanket to its recipient at a baby shower we held for my friend yesterday, I promise I will tell you about this in a post later this week. It was lovely although it didn't half feel weird having a baby shower for one of my best friends, when did I start growing up?!

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As always you can keep up with my progress by checking out my Flickr photoset.

July Book Review

2011-07-31T15:51:00.001+01:00

Good lord. What have I been up to this month? Clearly not a lot because I’ve managed to read 5 books. Fear not, I’m not some voracious reading machine, these are all very easy reads. I’ve even managed to squeeze in 2 classics, but these weren’t great tomes either. Ahh shame, I was starting to feel good about myself for a moment then.

What was on the list this month?

In my Sister’s Shoes – Sinead Moriarty

Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe

Letters from Father Christmas – JRR Tolkein

Go Tell it on the Mountain – James Baldwin

The Importance of Being Seven (44 Scotland Street series) – Alexander McCall Smith

In my Sister’s Shoes – Sinead Moriarty.
Not the sort of book I’d pick up at all but Mum nearly begged me to read it saying that it was really funny. Poor Mum, she must be spending too much time on her own now that she’s retired, this really wasn’t that funny at all. I think I laughed out loud once and really I was being kind.

I can’t even be bothered to summarise what happens in it. Usual chick lit stuff. Poorly developed characters. Poorly developed plot. I don’t think Marian Keyes needs to be quaking in her boots.

Letters from Father Christmas – JRR Tolkein
Hands up if you love a bit of heartwarming reading. This is the guy for you. I picked him up for £2 in a clearance outlet and am so pleased I did. JRR Tolkein sent letters every year from Father Christmas to his children, telling them tales of the North Pole and the antics of his friend the North Polar Bear and the evil gnomes. The book contains photographed copies of the actual letters and the lovely drawings that he also used to send.

If you don’t feel a little tug on your heartstrings when you read the last letter sent to his daughter then you’re not human.

It’s one of those books that you don’t really need and indeed when I finished it I thought “Well what will I do with this now?” Answer. Keep it. You will read it again, you might even read it to your children.

By the way did anyone else get letters from Father Christmas? I have two in a box somewhere that I received, oh to be so young that you don’t recognise your own Dad’s handwriting.

The Importance of Being Seven – Alexander McCall SmithI know I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I love Alexander McCall Smith. Love him love him. Although oddly can’t love the No1 Ladies Detective Agency which is weird I know. But I especially love the 44 Scotland Street series and each time a new book comes out I do my very very utmost to be patient and wait for it to come out in paperback.

If you see any of these pick them up and read them, I know these characters so well it’s like putting on an old pair of slippers, and the fact that it’s serialised in a newspaper means that the chapters are so short they are easy to dip in and out of.

Love love and love a bit more.

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Book of the month?

The Importance of Being Seven. Mr McCall Smith I love you. And I see that the latest Courduroy Mansions book is out in paperback, excuse me while I make my way to the bookshop....

I really need to start reading something a little more highbrow. Finding the thinnest Classics I can and reading letters from Father Christmas isn’t really expanding my horizons.

Jungle Ripple blanket - All done!

2011-07-28T18:56:00.001+01:00

Hurray hurrah. For I am finished. The Jungle Ripple blanket is done.

It has been down to the wire but it's done in time for the baby shower which is taking place this Sunday. The baby isn't due until August 20th but there's a real chance I won't get time to see her before the bundle arrives (plus, let's face it I want everyone to be impressed with me at the shower).

In an ideal world I would have done a border around the blanket, and I even went so far as to consult my crochet guru, but in the end I ran out of time, and more importantly, I was running out of yarn. Much as I love my friend and wanted to make her a present rather than just buying her something, I did want to keep it as inexpensive as possible. The yarn cost around £8 and we all know by now that we don't count our labour properly in these kinds of things or else you would be handing over a gift and saying "Yeah I made this for you, that'll be £153 thank you."

However if I make a ripple in the future, I would like to give the border a try, just to see if I can do it.

I really hope this blanket actually gets used in some way. Whether it's out in the pram, or in the cot, or out in the garden, or just randomly thrown on the floor and played with. I want to know that I've made something useful, rather than something that just gathers dust in a nursery somewhere.

Hey my not really resolution was to make a ripple blanket this year - and I've totally gone and made two! Winner.

The "need to knows" for those of you who are interested:

Yarn used: Stylecraft Special DK
1116 - Green
1425 - Emperor
1246 - Lipstick (best name for a red ever)
1082 - Bluebell
1114 - Sunshine

Size: 31 x 41 inches.

Time to complete: 28 days

Crazy Cat Lady Part 12 - Fred and Lily Update

2011-07-27T11:43:00.000+01:00

It's been too long. I know you guys love a bit of Fred and Lily action (no, really you do, you just don't know it yet.) and it's been a while, so I thought I'd fill you in.

There have been some traumatic events in their lives lately.

Traumatic Event Number 1: A stay in the cattery when Mum and I were over in York babysitting for my brother.

Lily loves staying in the cattery. Her best friend is the lady who runs it and the feeling’s mutual. Whenever we go to pick them up she gushes about how funny Lily is and how affectionate Lily is and how generally awesome Lily is. Their first stay in the cattery was when they were 4 months old and they stayed there for Christmas. They had a habit at that point of climbing up your leg or on your back – it wasn’t too painful because of their itty bitty claws. However Lily still climbs on Cattery Lady, I think she gets away with it because Cattery Lady wears a very heavy fleece, either that or she enjoys her skin being flayed.

Fred does not love staying in the cattery. He takes the rejection very personally. When we come to pick him up he is always, always already sat in the cat carrier, ready to come home. I’m pretty sure that he actually never comes out of the carrier when we drop him off and just stays in there waiting patiently for someone to return.

When they’re brought back home Fred attaches himself to you like a limpet and doesn’t like you going out of his sight. Lily is like that generally so it’s hard to tell the difference. This time, not long after we’d brought them home, Mum and I were leaving the house again and we turned round to find two little forlorn faces looking at us from the kitchen. If these looks don’t say “Please don’t leave us again” then I don’t know what does.

Look at Lily, she's a right chubster compared to Fred.

Traumatic Event Number 2: Rowan comes to stay.

Remember Rowan? She is my sister’s dog and is a very lively, very bouncy and very big Irish Setter. She has a bit of a strange effect on the cats. Fred, who is normally the softest boy going, getting regularly beaten up by his sister, turns into some kind of macho cat and bullies Rowan relentlessly. He sits on counter tops and batters her when she walks by, runs up and hisses at her when she’s just sitting quite calmly. Rowan is the biggest cissy of them all and ends up trying to climb on the sofa to hide behind a human or sits on the floor and looks at the ceiling, taking huge care not to look directly at Fred in the hopes that he leaves her alone.

The Dog Bully in butter wouldn't melt guise.

Lily takes a much more passive approach to things and decided to just hang out on the top of the kitchen cupboards for the whole weekend. She likes it up there, she can see everything going on around her, is well away from the wagging tail, can see the birds out of the kitchen window, and, most importantly, we all tend to forget she’s up there meaning that she gets vital alone time with food that’s been left out.

Mum’s getting better about letting them outside although she still hates it and is on edge the whole time that they’re out in case they disappear. I think they look forward to when I’m looking after them because I’ll let them out a little more often (although I end up on edge because I’m aware of the trouble I’ll be in if one of them gets lost under my watch).

Fred is a bit of a wanderer although he tends to return quite often to go back into the kitchen and lie down on the cool floor and pant. Panting cats are hilarious.

Lily never really strays far though, and if you’re in the garden she definitely won’t leave, preferring to hang about and see what you’re doing. She gets very agitated when Fred disappears and doesn’t come back for a while, to be honest I think she’d be quite happy to just lie on the white rug in the living room all day, keeping an eye on you.

Munchkins.

A random, unprovoked attack on my Yarn Fairy Blanket.