thirteen: recently….

Reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes – I keep flicking between the two as The Happiness Project keeps giving me so much inspiration that I have struggle sleeping as I want to take on the world and do all sorts of things. I keep wanting to share my findings and putting those inspirations into practice so had to blog about it.

Watching right now it’s University Challenge but I’ve been watching lots of films and TV shows on Netflix – I’ve gone back to the beginning of Numbers to start over again. I blogged about it here.

Listening to lots of radio. With Les Misérables coming out here in the UK this weekend, BBC Radio 2 have been playing lots of the songs from the musical – sometimes the film versions and sometimes the musical version. On Friday morning Chris Evans played Alfie Boe’s version of Bring Him Home – thankfully he played it at about 8:50am which gave me just enough time to listen to it and then run into the office. Ken Bruce then played Empty Chairs At Empty Tables (not so well known but still good!), earlier in the week One Day More (It was the film version on the radio but I can’t find a video version) was played followed by I Dreamed a Dream by Susan Boyle. I still really like the Glee version though (Even though it’s tweaked slightly to fit the story).

I Liked Les Miserables before the movie

Thinking about life and doing what I can to make it good for Our Sidekick – some days it’s easier than others but I’ll get there in the end right.

Loving the whole Les Mis Soundtrack – I know I can’t help it! Given how much I love it I really hope that the film lives up to the hype – I’ll be seriously upset if it doesn’t live up to it.

Looking forward to seeing Chris’s Aunt and her housemate later today we haven’t seen them since Christmas 2011 given how busy it’s been both between work and The Fountain and how busy they’ve been.

Making me happy my family minus a little falling out Friday morning with Our Sidekick we seem to be doing really well at the moment which is good.

Inspiration from Freckled Italian and Sometimes Sweet

eleven: youth group

New Game :) What does a Scrabble game you played in tell about yourself?

I haven’t been to a youth group in a while unless it’s to collect Our Sidekick from church and even then I don’t really hang around for long (mainly so I’m not like an embarrassing parent lol).

A few weeks ago JD and I were discussing games to play at the youth group and that their youth group needed some more games to play, I ended up suggesting a bunch. A week or JD asked if I’d go and run some games at their youth group – well okay as long as Our Sidekick comes with as I am on Sidekick Duty that night.

Most of the games I remembered from teaching them in workshops and things like that but I also went to find them on the web. Figured the easier way to keep a record of them and know where to find them again if JD or her youth group wants the info is to blog about it.

Captain’s Coming, Zip Zap Boing and Splat! can all be found here. (One of the young people led Zip, Zap, Boing! but it had different rules depending on who is playing so it’s always handy to have a copy in case things get rowdy lol).

We also played “What Are You Doing?” It’s actually a drama exercise to introduce improvisation and things like that but it’s still good fun (and with a silly youth group you get awesome responses rather than boring every day things!)

Everyone stands in a circle. The first player takes their position in the centre of the circle and starts miming an activity. As soon as that activity is clear, player 2 steps into the circle and asks “What are you doing?”

The first player says an activity that has nothing to do with what they are actually doing for example if they are miming cutting the grass, when they are asked what they are doing he might say washing a car.

When the first player steps away player two starts mining the activity that player one told them. A third player comes up, asks the same question and so play continues. It’s a case of keep going until you’ve had enough – I’m sure if you can keep coming up with ideas you can keep going, you can add the idea if there is hesitation or the activity is repeated then you can exclude people until you have a winner.

At the end of the evening Our Sidekick and I got grilled in the HotSeat – it’s the youth groups initiation of sorts for visitors – it was good fun but there were really random questions like politics or existentialism?

—-

Image via GarlandCannon

ten: epic review

 

2012 - epic review

I’m sure this is the kind of post that you’d write at the end of the year but it’s taken me this long to get my head around blogging again given how unproductive December was!

Favourite Songs (in no particular order):
I Will Wait by Mumford and Sons
I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance by The Black Kids
We Are Young by Fun
Shake It Out by Glee Cast
That’s How You Know (from Disney’s Enchanted)
The Best of Both Worlds (from Hannah Montana)
Just The Way You Are by Glee
I Won’t Say (I’m In Love) (from Disney’s Hercules)
The Cave by Mumford and Sons
Twenty Seven Million by Matt Redman & LZ7
Escape by Chantilly
Roll Away Your Stone by Mumford and Sons
Theses Words by Natasha Bedingfield
Heaven by Emeli Sande
Set Fire to The Third Bar by Snow Patrol and Martha Wainwright

Favourite Concerts / Live Events:
Dave Gorman’s Powerpoint Presentation (Cambridge)
Hairy Bikers (Cambridge)
Phantom of The Opera (Milton Keynes Theatre)

Favourite Movies:
Skyfall
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Brave
Love, Wedding, Marriage
Crazy, Stupid, Love
Pitch Perfect

Favourite Books:
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
City of Bones (Mortal Instruments) by Cassandra Clare
You Had Me At Hello by Mhairi McFarlane
Labyrinth by kate Mosse
Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Mist by Kathryn James
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

This Year’s (Well LAST years) Highlights:

  1. 269: Romans 8:1
  2. 299: A Journey of Faith: Where?
  3. 276: Review – September
  4. 311: A Journey of Faith: Part Two
  5. 317: A Journey of Faith: Part Three
  6. 291: Wednesday Wonderings v.2
  7. 304: A Journey of Faith: Part One
  8. 277: Dear Monday/This Weekend I #TWI
  9. 318: Wednesday Wondering (on Sunday)
  10. 324: A Journey of Faith: Part Four
  11. 263: Guest Post: Desert Island Books
  12. 282: Dear Monday
  13. 262: To Step Out The Boat or Stay Put
  14. 297: Jelly and Bean
  15. 256: The Christmas Word

 

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Image Source

 

nine: the happiness project

Like last year I am attempting to read 30 books before 2013 finishes like I attempted in 2012. Last year I got as far as 27 books in comparison Claire at Pipe Dreams and Professions read over 200 (how she managed that I have no idea!)

I’m currently on Book Four – technically it’s kinda book two as two of the books were flash fiction so I finished them in one night. Anyway I’m currently reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. (You can read her website here)

http://yoginiannie.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/book-report-happiness-project.html

Click for source (Looks like a good blog too!)

Hence some of crazy posts I’ve been sending to Facebook and Twitter.

I think part of The Happiness Project is to write your own targets and do what suits your life style. Well I got started with some prompts from the book – I’ve been stepping around piles of clothes for weeks. When I was ill before Christmas they were stacked up to make sure that the exit of the bedroom was clear but then it all merged again.

I got drastic. I mean I got REALLY drastic.

After work, I popped to the supermarket to grab some bin bags (we didn’t have any at home – they must have been eaten or something lol), I also grabbed some resealable sandwich bags for job number 2.

When I got home it didn’t quite go to plan to start with but I got it sorted. Job Number One – Clear out my wardrobe.

I spent most of the evening sorting out the clothes that I haven’t worn in ages or that are too small.

I had some how ended up with six pairs of jeans, some aren’t wearable as they have worn out in places so I couldn’t put them in a charity bag but at the same time I didn’t want to throw them out as it would be a waste of the useable fabric. I posted on Facebook to see if anyone could suggest a use for them – most of the suggestions involved making the jeans into something else which I would normally do but I think three of the pairs of jeans have been in my cupboard for that purpose and I’ve never got round to doing anything with them. So rather than keep them I needed something else to do with them.

In my case, it turns out a friend of a friend makes amazing goodies from old pieces of fabric. Caroline is a friend of a friend and she creates goodies that she sells to raise money for schools in Utange which is near Mombasa in Kenya. You can find out further information here on Caroline’s Blog.

I'm reading the #happinessproject by @gretchenrubin. I came home from work sandwich bags in hand and started on the #mandrawer. #during
Job Number 2 was back down in the kitchen – technically I did it first before going upstairs and starting on the wardrobe but I was more excited about the wardrobe that I had to tell you. We have a drawer in our kitchen that we call “The Man Drawer” it’s where the odd birthday candles, the old electricity meter card and the allen key set are. But it all gets in a muddle so I used the resealable sandwich bags to group everything together – I imagine that the system will probably not work in the long run but it’s a way to start.

I'm reading the #happinessproject by @gretchenrubin. I came home from work sandwich bags in hand and started on the #mandrawer. #after

eight: onehundredwords #72

100 Words Challenge for Grown Ups

I haven’t taken part in 100 Words since about August (I had to look at my old posts to work it out!). I’ve decided that with 2013 – I’m going to try and join in some more.

You can get more information and join in here.

The prompt for this week is …you said you’d do WHAT?….

There goes my weekend. Maybe if I canceled my plans tonight I could still be free for the weekend.

I dialled Sophia’s number and waited for the call to connect, my stomach tied itself I’m a knot.

“Sophia it’s me” I started “The dragon has just handed me extra work. I think I can be free tomorrow if I work this evening”

“You said you’d do WHAT?” Sophia was upset and rightly so “It’s my birthday weekend. You knew we had plans, can’t you tell her to stick it?”

“And risk my job? Sophia I am so sorry. I’ll make it up to you tomorrow”

seven: podcasts

Two days last week I went for a walk in my lunch breaks, mainly to and from the supermarket but it kept me out of trouble and got me away from my computer for a little while. Also I walked from work to The Fountain rather than catching the bus (which would have shocked Chris a bit more if I hadn’t had to prompt him to check his phone when I got to The Fountain).

Anyway, that has very little too title. I was listening to music but then started to get bored with the small amount of music that I have space for on my phone (I keep trying to take pictures and it freaks out and tells me there isn’t enough space!). I decided to listen to podcasts instead. I’ve been listening to a couple of them anyway but decided to tell you all about them.
EpicFu
EPIC FU is up first – really this is a video podcast so I tend to watch it when I can sit still rather than when I’m walking around. This is all about geek culture and all the bits and pieces that come with that – the current post on their homepage is all about Top Travel Apps. EPIC FU started life as JETSET until it was renamed. It’s created by Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf. It’s won various awards including Webby Awards and Streamy Awards.

Being a geek is all about having a passion for something—films, bands, technology, video games, going green—and that passion makes you totally kick ass! EPIC FU is all about stoking the flames of geek passion, and therefore improves your kick to ass ratio with every viewing.

From the EPIC FU Website

* Blog * Twitter * iTunes * YouTube * Facebook *

Wez-Wanders-Banner-987 

Next up is Wez Wanders this is a reasonably new podcast from Nathan aka Wez who lives in Australia. In a six degrees of separation kind of way I got to know Wez via Ruby or maybe it was the other way round.

Anyway so Wez has a podcast, it’s all about travel and his adventures. I got to know Wez when he did a trip of about 8 countries in two months or something crazy like that. He started in Japan and worked round to England and then back round to Australia.

The Wez Wanders Travel Podcast is about well… travel. Wez talks about travel news, what’s been happening in travel, travel tips, as well as great destinations to visit. Do you have any questions about travel? Ask Wez and he will answer them on the podcast.

* Blog * Twitter * iTunes * YouTube * Facebook *

Jelly and Bean

Jelly and Bean is one of my favourite podcasts at the moment. All about tech, TV and movies amongst other things. I even got a mention after emailing Jelly following the first podcast back in November.

Jelly aka Daniel Farrelly and Bean aka Branden Maynes are also from Australia and are friends with Wez too! Branden is married to Ruby so as you can imagine it’s all a bit crazy and I got to know them all via Twitter, later by Facebook and then met Jelly and Mrs Jelly a few months back when they were in England for their honeymoon.

Do you like tech? Games? TV? Movies? Well DANG. We have so much in common already! Jelly and Bean are two super pals who like to talk about all of the aforementioned topics, resulting in a nice little peek into the world of geeks, all in the form of a delicious weekly podcast that can be played into your ears!

From Jelly

* Blog * Twitter * iTunes * Facebook *

six: sunday

I’m writing this while sat in the pub. We were invited for lunch with some friends but I’m not sure where they are. Oh well time for me to scribble down some ideas and create something worth reading.

So that was lunchtime. We’d had a discussion just before we left church about where we were going. Chris, Our Sidekick and I grabbed a drink and sat chatting. My phone started ringing. I answered it – it was our friend who had invited us to dinner. They were in a different pub – where were we?

Well there was confusion and we were in the wrong place. Eventually we were on the right place and all had lunch together.

Anyway that was earlier and now it’s 9:30pm. We’ve had time together today. I sat and watched Call The Midwife – Christmas Special and now I’m starting on Numb3rs Season One. It’s so long since I watched it that I thought I’d start over again.

Numb3rs Title Card

I also watched a film called My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend. It’s an okay film but kinda random seeing Christopher Gorham playing someone other than Auggie in Covert Affairs.

Onto Season 1 Episode 2 of Numb3rs and more crochet.

five: one whole year

Midori MD 2013 date bookClick for source

Each time I set a goal to do something everyday for a year I either forget or get distracted. Well this time I’m determined and I have Melly to check up on me (like I’m going to check up on her!). Each day for a year we’re going to blog. I kinda started this year on the 3rd as I was recovering from Christmas but the official “One Whole Year” posts are from the 4th January 2013 to the 4th January 2014.

Can we do it? Yes we can!

You can find Melly’s Blog here and her Twitter here.

four: christmas summary

In my brain world/consciousness there are certain events that have to happen for me to feel like Christmas really is round the corner. Growing up it used to be when Mum started playing a specific album (which I downloaded last year when I was editing the script for the church Christmas production). Now there are other things, there are two adverts (one and two) that me and my Mum both look out for, the last two years I’ve been to the Royal Albert Hall for the Messiah from Scratch concert which screams Christmas (albeit it tunefully while doing an impression of an opera singer!)

14th December

Christmas officially starts with the carol service at my parent’s church. The last few years I’ve sung as part of the band, this year a visiting choir came to sing at the service. It was good fun to be in the audience instead but I think I was bugging the boys by singing along.

16th December

Next up was the Christmas Production at church, I guess it’s a nativity but there’s extended bits so it’s more of a production that just a nativity. This year I was part of the writing team, I also got cast as Elizabeth in the lead up to the Nativity bit. I was a bit reluctant to have a speaking part as I always used to go blank when I got onto the stage, whereas I can remember song lyrics most of the time.

24th December

Work started to wind down and by Christmas Eve it was really quiet. I spend most of the morning answering the phones or filing and generally keeping busy. By about lunchtime I’d finished as much as the archiving as I could do as I had ran out of archive boxes.

Following work I headed down to The Fountain as me and Jollie Rog were singing Christmas Carols to entertain the customers – in the end of a lot of customers joined in. Straight after our carol singing, Brains arrived as we were going to have a catch up while she was back for Christmas – especially as she’s moving even further away in a few weeks to start her new job. Afterwards I headed home and my in-laws had arrived for a Christmas Meal. We watched a movie before dinner then played xBox and watched another film after dinner.

25th December

Christmas Day was at home – following church we made dinner and opened presents. I got two books and three DVDs. From Mum and Dad I got a kit to make macaroons (the pretty coloured ones that seem to appear everywhere but Bedford!) and a crochet kit. My brother got me the DVD of Season 5 of The Big Bang Theory so there’s about 20 episodes or something like that on there so that will keep me occupied for a little while! We went for a walk in the afternoon then headed to my parents for tea – we then played board games.

Finished project. #zpagetti #crochet #crocheting

#articulate time with family. #happychristmas

26th December

Boxing Day started with a really lazy day, the boys went out in the morning and I spent most of the morning watching TV (Chris had got me a two month pass for Netflix as my Christmas present – I watched a whole chunk of Warehouse 13!) In the afternoon we headed over to my Mum’s house, we hung out with my family and caught up. After tea we had fireworks that my brother had saved especially for Christmas. We then played board games in the evening.

three: review – december

Review 2012

Books
About Falling In Love by Yaritza Garcia
Bah, Humbug! A Romantic Comedy Novella by Heather Horrocks
The Girl in the Converse Shoes by Yaritza Garcia
City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments) by Cassandra Clare
You Had Me At Hello by Mhairi McFarlane

Films
The Hobbit
Pitch Perfect
Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part Two
Home Alone 2
Home Alone 3
Shrek Forever After
Santa Claus: The Movie
Priceless
Miracle on 34th Street
Pitch Perfect

TV
Warehouse 13 (Season 3 via Netflix)

The Month in Bullets

  • I finished my Christmas shopping – although I thought I finished it the things that I actually needed for across the Christmas period I finished on Christmas Eve – thankfully town wasn’t that busy when I needed to nip into one shop
  • I have watched far too many films and too much TV in December. Probably explains how I didn’t complete my Goodreads Reading Challenge.
  • Got to catch up with Brains before she disappears to her new job, thankfully via FB and Skype we can keep in touch when she moves.
  • Because everything was so busy we ended up putting up our tree really late. Chris and Our Sidekick ended up putting the tree up and saving me a bauble to put on when I got home. I think in the end I put my bauble on the tree on Christmas Eve or possibly Christmas Day!
  • Spent lots of time with family and had eight and a half straight days off work. Was good but then on the first day back I didn’t want to go back!!

366: Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year

Click image for source.

Hello one and all. So as I write this I’m sat in my friend’s dining room discussing the music choice with some other friends. Wishing you all a Happy New Year!! Have a great night whatever you are up to.

Hope 2013 brings you all the things you hope and wish for.

364: Resolutions and Goals

Each year people make resolutions. They decide to quit smoking, to stop biting their nails, to drink less alcohol (usually while under the influence of a NYE hangover) or they decide to loose those stubborn ten pounds that won’t go away.

But what about me? Well I don’t make resolutions. I hated that first post-Christmas English lesson when the teacher decides that it’s a great idea to get people to write resolutions, mainly because I broke them within the first week. Give up chocolate – well I think my upper school diet consisted of chocolate and cheese toastie pizza things from the canteen or the interesting attempt at a chicken burger. (Probably explains the start of my current waistline lol).

I imagine that if I had someone to physically drag me to the gym and refuse to let me out until I’d achieved that days goal then I’d be skinnier – no guarantee I’d be happier but we can put the idea out there – could I be skinnier and happier? Yes more than likely I could but id have to quit eating junk, chocolate and cake.

Last January I kind of gave in and set a goal rather than a resolution. I love reading but needed a goal or a deadline to achieve something other wise I end up with 20 books on the go and none completely read. I challenge myself to read a classic and get bored and go back to other “newer” writers.

Well it’s the 29th December. I’m on book 27 of 30 and I’m writing this blog post rather than getting on reading. I know I know. I won’t achieve a goal by procrastinating doing something else but I seem to have become the worst person at achieving goals and the best at procrastination. Why focus on a task 100% when I can multitask and have no focus.

Now Reading (Book 1 - 24ish to go!) #2012 #nowreading

So yeah I am kicking myself in the butt I scheduling this for a Saturday which is uncharacteristic of me in the hope that you my lovely reader will come out of the woodwork and tell me that I can do it. I just have to focus and maybe you can tell me about the goal that I can kick you in the butt about. We can be butt kicking buddies together. So lets do it. Bring on book 27 – it’s The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien by the way. Let me know if you’ve read it too.

363: Christmas 2012: The Sequel

Hand’s up who has been a rubbish blogger – yeah that would be me with her hand in the air. So where have I been and what have I been doing. Leading up to Christmas I was ill twice in two weeks which kind of threw everything up in the air and I attempted to catch what I could to keep up. Thankfully Christmas arrived and I’m better but feel like the things that dropped need to be deal with and organised. Hopefully 2013 will be a bit better when it comes to my organisational skills!

With this being our second Christmas with Our Sidekick it got nicknamed between Chris and I as Christmas 2012: The Sequel hence the title of this blog post.

.christmas tree
Click for Source

Christmas was always going to be tough with the arrangements for Our Sidekick – we wanted him to see his Mum because it’s Christmas and family is important but at the same time there were things going on with Social Services which meant that it wasn’t as simple as just organising extra contact.

Contact was organised and so Christmas and the festive season started back on the 16th with the church production/nativity. I’d originally been on the writing team but due to a change in plan I ended up playing the part of Elizabeth in the production. It was the nativity story but it started with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden then it jumps to Mary being visited by Gabriel and then going to stay with Elizabeth. It was kind of scary standing up the front of church and all eyes being on you. I was singing with one of the girls from the OM team who was Mary in the production.

Apparently it was really good and lots of people were moved by it which is good but I was so glad to get off the stage at the end of that bit and be able to breathe a big sign of relief! I’d only learn the song about two weeks before the performance and I was singing the first verse by myself. There were also interruptions that couldn’t really be changed and they threw me a bit.

On the following Sunday it was the Christingle service at church – following that we went to my Second Mum’s house and we all hung out and chatted for about 4 hours then we headed home to chill out.

Next Christmas event was on the 22nd, Contact between Our Sidekick and his Mum had been organised so Christmas for him started then as he got some of his presents then. We also had The Fountain Christmas party that evening, it was good fun especially when it was my turn on charades and I had Les Miserables – so how do you do that one? Carefully that’s for sure!

(Chris is watching The Hotel Inspector next to me – oh dear it’s a dodge one this week!)

Next up was just my adventure – on Christmas Eve following work (I had to work for the morning) I headed into town to The Fountain as me and my friend were singing Christmas Carols to the customers and people were joining in too. Following that I grabbed a coffee with Brains (she’s now a doctor it’s super exciting!) She’s about to move to New York for the next year or so to do a research post. If she’ll let me stay with her I might save up and visit her but I have to work on Chris that going to NY by myself won’t be that bad and I will survive and not get into trouble or something like that – I’m sure that Brains would take the time to come to La Guardia or JFK or wherever my flight gets into to collect me or she’d write me concise instructions of how to get from the airport to her apartment or to the sights if she couldn’t come with me during the day or something. Anyway thats wonderings for another day. We wandered to a book shop in town so that I could get the missing Christmas present, when that was sorted I dropped her home and headed home to my family.

My in-laws came for tea on Christmas Eve – normally the family visits happen between Christmas and New Year but due to the schedules around here we had to fit it in where possible. We all hung out and watched Home Alone 3 and then had dinner, following dinner we played Kinect Sports which was kind of funny especially when my Father In Law was getting more and more irritated with the camera because it wouldn’t pick up his movements properly. They headed home about 8/9ish and I had some time to catch up with Our Sidekick and Chris before Our Sidekick went to bed.

I had expected Christmas Day to start really but actually it didn’t. Chris and I got up about 9:30 and started on winding up Our Sidekick. He was already downstairs watching TV so we stood at the top of the stairs making comments about how he clearly didn’t want any presents and that he should have woken us up earlier. While this is happening Chris has got fully dressed and as soon as we hear Our Sidekick coming up the stairs we both jump back into bed and play that we’re asleep and that Our Sidekick must have imagined it. The craziness continued until we got to church – we were then kind of calm given that we were sat in the second row from the front but then the crazy kicked off again when we got home. Before doing presents we helped Chris clear up the kitchen from dinner the night before and getting bowls and pans ready to cook Christmas dinner. I don’t think Our Sidekick was too impressed by this but when given the choice that if he helped we’d be able to open presents sooner I think it all balanced out in the end.

Merry Christmas one and all. So many ideas and not enough time now rather than my time being taken up by illness!

347: Lately…..

Since Sunday evening, life didn’t exactly go to plan. My little diary is a bit fit to burst at the moment – and I’m questioning if I need a bigger diary (and I’m convinced that companies who design diaries don’t actually use paper diaries – there is never enough space and then a bigger diary is too heavy!), anyway, so there were bits and pieces scribbled in my diary, my colleague had the day booked off and I was going to go to the cinema with Libs.

But my insides decided that, I was allergic to fun or something like that because at 3am I was up like a shot. We’ll leave it there as to what was going on because I don’t want to gross you out but it wasn’t pretty and I was fed up by 6:30am.

I Feel So Ill

I spent most of Monday and Tuesday either asleep or watching Warehouse 13. My brother lent me Season 1 and 2 but I hadn’t really go further than about Episode 5 of Season 1. Well I’ve caught up, I’m resisting the urge to google and see if Myka comes back (please because I like her!), whether Todd reappears – or even if Fargo (From Town Called Eureka) reappears again because him and Claudia get on like a house on fire!

I had meant to read too but that didn’t happen either. I’ve been trying to read Wuthering Heights, Catherine gets on my nerves, I think she’s a spoilt brat and could do with a slap up the head. I wanted to read 30 books in 2012 (as part of the Goodreads Challenge) , but I’m up to 24, I don’t want to surrender but at the same time – it’s December 12th, that gives me like 18 days to read 6 books – I make that 3 days a book or something like that. Can I do it who knows?

I had a great evening this evening. The original plan had been for two friends to come to my house and I was going to teach them crochet – unfortunately Friend No 2 has a stinky  (or sticky as I just wrote by mistake!) cold and so wasn’t feeling up to coming out. Friend No 1’s car had broken down so coming out was going to be a challenge. Plan B became Plan A, following work I darted home, collected Our Sidekick and my bag of crocheting loveliness, we then dashed off to the rehearsal at church. Following the rehearsal we went to the supermarket for ice cream and muffins (instant dessert to share with you at some point!) then went to Friend No 1’s house for tea and a crochet lesson.

Do I crochet 10 more squares to make this a square the do the edging? Or do I do 5 and edge, or just edge. I don't know!! #crochet #crocheting

While Our Sidekick played Minecraft with Friend No 1’s hubby  (I think they’ve made friends for life there because I still don’t understand the purpose of Minecraft whereas Friend’s hubby and Our Sidekick knew exactly what was going on!). Well we got down to business and I taught her to crochet – well at least to crochet granny squares to get her started – we can go onto more complicated things later. I’m very excited and hope I taught my Padawan well. hehe.

So yeah that was today and the last few days, tomorrow is the Christmas dinner at work and hopefully I feel a little less stressed than I did today. But either way it’s time to sleep so I will catch you all at some point. TTFN.

Pictures – click for the source…….. 

341: A Journey of Faith: Part Five

Foorprints in The Sand

Catch the other parts here: Intro, Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four.

Like all students my age, August brought with it the results that would affect the next few years of my life, would I drag my A Level results out of the ground far enough to get into university. Well no at first they didn’t  I stood in my Mum’s dining room and called UCAS Clearing. They’d call the university and see what could be done. In the mean time I just had to wait while my Mum told people my results or responded to the requests for results.

I got a call a bit later that day and I was going to be accepted anyway (Praise the Lord!). In my brain this was good – once I got there I could work my backside off pass with at least a 2.2 and prove that A Levels aren’t the end of the world.

September rolled round and I went to university. On the first day of term, I met the class that I’d be with for the next three years (or two depending if you left after the two years like some did). Having only just stepped off the bus between campuses I met my first friend who would be my best friend, also called Hannah. In our class there were three Hannah’s. There was me, Hannah K and Hanna G. Everyone gained nicknames – hence why Hannah K is referred to as Kewey in most of my posts. I was so excited about going to university – I thought I’d finally feel like I fitted in somewhere and that the friends I would make would accept my quirky. Some did more than others but in the end I think they realised that my quirky was part of me and it wasn’t going anywhere!

Unlike a lot of the class I lived off campus at home with my parents as they were less than ten minutes from the local campus and it was a bus ride to the other campus. On the first day I didn’t know whether or not I could park my car at the campus and also why pay for a bus to town if the university bus would take me for free. I stood at the bus stop with my headphones in – I wanted to blend in at least for a little while and not really talk to anyone until I found my place. I was terrified that people wouldn’t like me for who I was and that I’d still not fit in. I got onto the bus and sat at the back where I thought I’d be out of the way.

A Physical Education (PE) student sat down and started talking to me. It would have been rude for me to ignore her so I took out my headphones and we chatted most of the way – actually looking back, I think she did the talking and I nodded, smiled and responded when required.

I think my butterflies were creeping up my throat and heading for my tongue! What if I said something dorky and that was it she stopped talking to me, the bus trip wasn’t that far but the tension would have been too great. Everybody on the bus were so excited that university was starting. I was scared and worried.

We talked about which courses we were in and where we were from. I remember very little about that conversation now, but that PE student started a massive chain of events. If I could do a Marty McFly and go back and tell her how much she’d change my life for the better, I don’t think she’d believe me.

We arrived at the bus stop and headed for the exit. I knew roughly where I was going, having studied the campus map sent in my new student pack. I heard my name being shouted so I turned round. There was the PE student again.

“Hey I think this girl is on your course,” she said, introducing me to a tall brunette girl who looked about as nervous as I felt. “Maybe you’re heading to the same place?”

“Erm, cool. Hi,” I spit out. We chatted as we headed towards the Dance Studio.

We didn’t hit it off straight away but I put that down to the nerves and generally not wanting to upset or annoy anyone to start with.  Now she’s one of my best friends. Clearly, we were meant to be friends. We’ve had our rough patches like some friends, too, but we’ve also been there for each other in the good and bad times. I am so excited that Kewey is still part of my life.

Work wise, I buckled down to get on with work and decided that if I got at least a 2.2 for my assessments then I was on a good path. I managed to score a first on one assignment but that was a multiple choice quiz about theatre law so I’m not entirely sure that it counts. In the end I left univeristy with a 2.2, I was kind of gutted as I was about 4 marks away from a 2.1 but I got a pass which was the main thing.

340: Wednesday Wonderings

YHA Nottingham
I got in from work yesterday and a wedding invite had come in the post. There’s recommended accommodation in the invite but I had a quick look to see how far the local Youth Hostel was from the reception. The question in my mind was, did we want to pay more and stay closer to the reception or have a slightly longer drive and pay less….

Telephone Box Pub
While watching Heston’s Fantastical Food this week, the pub in a telephone box came up in conversation. I ended up looking for a web link about it.

Sociopath/Psychopath
I missed out on how it came up in conversation but as we sat down for dinner yesterday, Our Sidekick asked me what a sociopath was. I thought I knew but couldn’t really explain so checked again. So what is the difference between a sociopath and a psychopath. A sociopath has a personality disorder marked with antisocial behaviour whereas a psychopath is a person with an antisocial personality disorder manifested in certain behaviours without empathy or remorse. Apparently there is a distinct difference but both sound the same.

VF Medical Abbreviation
I finished reading “You Had Me At Hello” by Mhairi McFarlane today (99p bargain from iBooks!) early this morning as I couldn’t sleep. At one point it mentions watching a medical drama and someone going into VF. Well I love my medical dramas and couldn’t remember what it meant. I went off and googled it. VF stands for Ventricular Fibrillation.

Royal Albert Hall
When we got to The Messiah from Scratch on Sunday we were telling two of the OM Team all about the hall. I learnt interesting things like the Royal Albert Hall is 73 metres tall, it opened in March 1871 and The Proms started in 1941.

339: Review – November

Review 2012

Books
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Films
Skyfall
Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part Two
Frequently Asked Questions about Time Travel
CatWoman
Seeking A Friend For The End of The World

TV
The Good Life (Season 1 – again!)
Warehouse 13 (Season 1 and 2 borrowed from Rich)

The Month in Bullets

  • I got an iPad Mini. I wasn’t sure about going for a full size one or a mini one but once I held it I knew a Mini would be better. It’s much lighter and makes it easier to just “throw” in my handbag and take it with me. I blogged in the pub while Mum was away from our table and I caught up with my word count for NaMoWriMo on the bus. I got a wifi only which caused a few issues while on my previous contract as the hotspot eats data but on my new tariff I’m on unlimited data plan (well fair use) so don’t have to worry about that.
  • Mum and I went to see The Phantom of The Opera. It was really good especially the chandelier bits. It would have been better if we had been a bit further forward but it was still seriously good.
  • I did a bunch of training at work which meant I had a 6 day week but on the other hand I gained time off in lieu which was good as it meant that me and Chris could go on holiday for a full week rather than 3 and a bit days as we originally thought.
  • Because of said training I got to meet another one of my US based colleagues which was seriously awesome. She brought with her some goodies that My US Work Sidekick organised for me and the office. My own present was a Whoopie Pie Tray aka Moon Pie Tray. Can’t wait to try it out!
  • We went to Scotland – posts to follow.
  • Kathy, Mum and Me went to see the Hairy Bikes live at Cambridge. It was awesome! By the interval I was glad for the break – my face and my ribs were hurting from laughing so heart!
  • Chris and I went for a holiday. We went up to Scotland for a week. I’m working on blog posts about what we did and the pictures from our trip.
  • If that wasn’t enough mum and I booked some other tickets this month which is super exciting especially as one is like next Spring!

338: Dear Monday / This Weekend I….

Dear Monday
Dear Monday, I hope you hold a quiet week, my colleague is off work for the rest of the week sort from one morning or afternoon. I could be crying by Friday lol.

Dear Chris, I’m not sure I really saw you this weekend. You were there and I was too but between sleep, work and church I’m not sure hat happened. We did have a supermarket trip so that was good.

Dear Our Sidekick, thank you thank you thank you for looking after me and cleaning the kitchen and loading the dishwasher on Friday. I was having a horrible day and you knew exactly what would help me stress less. Thank you.

Dear RAH, I swear every time I visit I still get gob smacked at the gods and how high it is. This time we were on the other side near the organ. Thankfully it wasn’t too loud.

Dear Chris, today we had a visitor thanks for working super hard while I was at work to get the house ready. I know it was hard as you’ve not being feeling 100%.

Joining with Sar from [Life of Love] and Syndal from Synfully Delicious.

This Weekend I… slept. Too much lol. I woke up about 9ish and then went to sleep again until 11.30. Oops!

This Weekend I… got myself kicked out if an Etsy group. Not from being mean, malicious or anything like that. Apparently from under use……I hadn’t joined in the community enough. Oh we’ll.

This Weekend I… watched lots of Les Mis videos on YouTube.

This Weekend I… went to the RAH to sin in a mass choir for The Messiah From Scratch. This year we were Altos.

This Weekend I… got some of the Christmas shopping sorted – hopefully it’ll all arrive in time as one item is quoted at 7 to 23 days! Making the last day of delivery Christmas Eve.

This Weekend I… started Christmas rehearsals for the church production. I read in as Elizabeth and ended up with the part. Eek!

335: Fill In The Blanks Friday

Fill In The Blanks - 30th November

Joining with Lauren from The Little Things We Do.

1.  “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is…”– singing Christmas songs at the top of my lungs in the car, wishing customers Happy Christmas – it kinda depends on if they are in a good mood or not as to whether it works or not!

2.  The holiday season is usually a bit crazy. Between Church events, concerts and then present buying I go a little made. It’s December 1st and NaNoWriMo is over now so I’m going to get my butt in gear and get my Christmas shopping sorted.

3.  When it comes to holiday decorating… it doesn’t happen until about the 15th, too early and it looks silly, too late and I run out of time. There’s two houses on my way to work and they already have their lights up. It’s making me feel more Christmassy, and also cheers me up on my way home when I’ve had enough.

4. The thing I look forward to most about the holidays is getting ready for catching up with family and things like that.

5. My favourite holiday tradition is decorating the tree as a family. Our first Christmas was interesting when Chris decorated the tree without me……..

6. This year my Christmas plans includehang with Chris and Our Sidekick, hang with Mum and Dad, catch up with my cousins, Aunt and Uncle.

7.  My favourite holiday food is  I think mince pies – I didn’t really like them when I was younger but they’ve grown on me as I’ve grown up.

331: Dear Monday/This Weekend I…

Dear Monday...
Dear Monday, so having been on holiday last week I go back to work today, hopefully it’s not too tough – think I could do with easing into it!

Dear  Chris, thank you for doing the driving this weekend so that I could write or crochet.

Dear Scotland and Lindisfarne, it was kind of funny that out of all the people we met or came across the loveliest were in Scotland followed by those on Lindisfarne – how did that happen??

Dear Chris (because you get two a la Today’s Letters), thank you for helping me get my new phone contract sorted.

Joining with Sar from [Life of Love] and Syndal from Synfully Delicious.

This Weekend I… travelled back from my holiday, we drove part of the way yesterday then drove the rest today. Chris did the driving which meant that I could work on NaNoWriMo and my crochet blanket that I’ve been working on while away (well that was until I sent the crochet hook flying against the driver’s seat, it then fell down under the centre console bit that houses the handbrake and the gear lever).

This Weekend I… read this article written by Vicky Beeching for the BBC. It also reminded me of this post I wrote last year.

This Weekend I… also read this article about Hashima. If you’ve been to see Skyfall them you’ll know the Island without knowing it, it’s used as Raoul Silva’s evil lair (played by Javier Bardem).

324: A Journey of Faith: Part Four

Foorprints in The Sand

You might want to start with the Intro, Part One, Part Two and Part Three first.

The bullying was always part of my life for most of upper school, either because of what had happened previously or because of me just being me. I wasn’t really one of the “cool kids” I was quite quirky and probably before quirky was properly cool like it seems to be now, being a “sheep” was probably cooler some now. I worked hard at school and did what I could to get the exam results I needed. I managed go to get the GCSE results that I needed to get into Sixth Form but without the careers guidance I really needed I ended up doing all Performing Arts based subjects. In Year 12, I did AS Italian, Drama and Theatre Studies and Music Technology. I was due to take History as well but I really didn’t like the teachers and walking out with an F at GCSE wasn’t going to help me. By the end of Year 12 I dropped Italian (I’d gone from a B at GCSE to an E at AS Level clearly it wasn’t for me!) and picked up Music AS while carrying on Music Technology and Drama and Theatre Studies.

I carried on with Sixth Form but it was by the skin of my teeth. On the first day of term all the Year 13 Drama and Theatre Studies groups sat in the drama hall and one by one we had to go up and discuss how we were doing with the teachers and would then find out whether we could stay on etc. well I’d already resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to stay. I’d got Es and Us and there was no chance I was going to be allowed to stay. Now before you’re like “you should have worked harder, you should have done extra” I was I spent multiple lunch breaks painting set and attending rehearsals and extra revision sessions when the time came.

Outside of school I moved church. I’d been going to Yoof at Woodside and decided that I’d “outgrown” my current church and it was time to move on. I started taking myself to church – I’d either get dropped off part way up Church Lane as Mum and Dad then went onto their church or I’d cycle or walk to church. I’d sit in what was the youth block and try to stay out of trouble (the number of times we got told off for making too much noise was quite funny!)

By the time I left Woodside in 2006, I’d been part of the worship team and two kids work team (one for Kids Work on a Sunday and one for the midweek team). I loved being part of the worship team but often felt like I wasn’t good enough. I found my place when the Kids work had an overhaul. I was invited to be part of what would be the Kids Worship band and I loved it. I was genuinely sad when I left the band to move church. I made good friends and had a good time.

Anyway so back to the point, accepting my quirky was something that I didn’t really get to doing until sixth form I think. By which point most of the bullies had either left or weren’t on my courses so I could avoid them.

323: Dear Monday/This Weekend I….

Hey there. Did you miss me? Having worked 6 days instead of 5 two weeks ago because we had extra training all the chores and jobs etc got queued up back into last week which meant that anything that was unnecessary got pushed to the bottom for the list. Unfortunately that meant that blogging was further down the list too.

IMGP5601
Joining with Megan from Happy Day.

Dear Monday… this week you bring 5 days off work. Yay! I need to get my brain in gear.

Dear Monday… someone commented on Children in Need that it was almost five weeks to Christmas. Normally I’m more organised. At current I have two presents sorted. I might have to sit with my iPad and order presents ready for delivery on our return.

Dear Chris… thank you for doing the first leg of the driving yesterday. I’m not sure where the headache came from and where it went but thankfully by 11:30ish it had gone.

Dear Little Sis… you had a rowing competition….sorry head yesterday. I’m not sure why it’s called a head especially as that’s a name for the toilet on a ship maybe you can explain it to me at some point.

Dear Chris…(because you get two letters à la Today’s Letters You also sorted out some mix CDs for the car. We listened to worship music first. There was a song about God using different situations to show his glory and make us stronger and better people. And to remember how blessed we are. Thank you for reminding me how amazing God is and how much he loves me and thinks I’m fab even when I don’t believe it myself. I love you.

Joining with Sar from [Life of Love] and Syndal from Synfully Delicious.

This Weekend I… had a really lazy Saturday. I woke up about 8am when Chris left for work. I couldn’t go back to sleep so I started watching the next episode of Hunted followed by Part One of Children in Need. At some point, Our Sidekick came in and told me that I should have a chilled day as I spend so much time doing chores etc. The thought was there and I did appreciate it but I still ended up doing like five hours of chores in the evening.

This Weekend I… well we took it in turns to drive to Scotland. More to follow when we find wifi or mobile signal as our campsite is in a hole. Then again it’s virtually on the beach!

318: Wednesday Wondering (on Sunday!)

CFS One of my friends has had a confirmed diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue so I was reading about it to see if there’s any non-medical things that can assist like eating different things or doing more exercise etc.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll Chris, Our Sidekick and I were discussing where we were going for our adventure. Our Sidekick and Chris were then discussing how to say “Edinburgh”. I made a comment about if you need a challenge try Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch well it launched into funny attempts. I know up to gyll (so Llanfairpwllgwyngyll) and the end from tysilio (so tysiliogogogoch) but I always get confused about the middle. At work I had a request for this village and it was Llanfair PG on the postal address. I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to place names and long words lol.

Warehouse 13 my Mum, Kathy and I were discussing TV shows on the way home from Hairy Bikers on Friday. My mum said she was really into this show and I should try it. I downloaded the pilot episode from iTunes and watched it almost in one go. Will have to borrow the box set from my brother now!

Hymn to the tune of Deustchland über Alles yeah I know really random. I was watching a documentary about WW2 and Germany and remembered this hymn we used to sing to the same tune. Now the tune was written by Haydn, the lyrics to the Germany anthem and the hymn were then added at a later date or something like that.

Old Mother Shipton’s Cave This one was actually Chris’s search but he did it for me because I was driving. On our way up the A1 we kept seeing different signs about places of interest. There was this one that sounded interesting. We also saw a sign for Lindisfarne Abbey which I knew about. There were also signs for Weatherby (which started a conversation about Heartbeat and Goathland) and Selby (which started a different one about trains!)

How to become a QI Elf well I want to be one. I think sticking my head in books and reading lots about random information would be seriously good fun. Yes I’m a nerd. This is the short version of why, the longer version is saved for a guest blog post I have lined up. Very excited about that one!

317: A Journey of Faith: Part Three

Foorprints in The Sand

You might want to start with the Intro, Part One and Part Two first.

On Part Two I realised that I had kind of jumped a section. Me becoming a Christian happened in 1995 but actually something else happened before then. In 1994, while I was still at Lower School this gorgeous baby arrived on the scene. It was my cousin V. Now why do I mention this birth and not D,M or K arriving, well I was definitely far too young to remember D being born as I was 4 days off being a month old when he arrived and when it comes to my other cousins, I don’t remember them any younger than about 6 or 7ish.

I remember going to visit V and my Auntie at the hospital. I remember holding V and knowing the even in my 9 year old self I had to protect her as much as I could at that age. Rich and I did things like teaching her to walk and talk. Now I think she knows more than me, she’s now 18 and has recently gone away to university – I feel really old!). She was home just for the weekend and she’s changed so much already but for the better. It’s kind of funny!

Anyway back to the normal thread, following the issues in Year Six, it was decided that at the end of the academic year, that as well as moving up to Year Seven, I would move class. I made friends quite easily once I was in my new class. My two closest friends were Cat and Amy. We didn’t always get on but I think most of the time it was okay. There was a horrible moment part way into Year Seven when rumours/truths of what happened got circulated. I was genuinely terrified that people wouldn’t want to be my friends any more. Thankfully most of them were grow up enough to give me the benefit of the doubt and ignore the rumours.

It was about this time that me and Brains started hanging out more. We’d known each other from lower school but had kind of grown apart during our first two years in middle school. But this was the year in a way, Brains had “rescued” me.

I’d been going to the same church for my whole life and the idea of moving church scared me to death lol. Somehow I ended up going to Powerhouse which was the youth group for my age group at Woodside Church. I then ended up staying at Woodside until about 2006.

It first started with me going to Powerhouse then towards the end of Year Eight at school Brains and I moved up to Yoof to get used to it before moving officially in September 1999 when both me, Brains and the rest of our year group moved up to Upper Schools, where some of the rumours/truths started again.

But first up there was something awesome that happened that summer. At the end of July 1999, my Dad, Rich and I got baptised, we were also joined by our family friend called Freda. We were the first four to get baptised at Little Staughton Baptist Church for the first time in fifty years or something like that. I went first and it was freezing even thought it was the middle of Summer! I remember inviting a bunch of my friends from school or church and none of them came it was all family instead but it was still cool. Brains was going to come but she was at Stoneleigh and it was the year that it was flooded out and an emergency evacuation of the site took place.

Back to school……….

Unfortunately my class were less accepting and it was just the start of the bullying that followed me through Upper School. Most of it was due to me being a bit of a teacher’s pet. I was of thinking that if I wanted to succeed then I needed to work hard. If that meant reading extra or going home and asking my Dad/my Mum/other relative or friend about what they knew on a particular subject then I would.

Specifically in ICT, by Year Nine most of the stuff I was being taught, I’d already covered at home with my Dad and his knowledge from Excel and Word as per what he uses at work himself. Some ICT lessons, I’d finish my work within the first fifteen minutes or so, and then help other people in the class with their work. Now I gave up ICT, at the end of Year Nine as it was taking up a vital slot in my timetable for other subjects – and I think it took up two slots rather than one if you did it at GCSE and for something that I pretty much already knew they would be wasted lessons. So now as a 26 year old, who regularly writes spreadsheets and creates presentations I wish I had an ICT qualification to show to employers what I can do rather than trying to show what I can do just from my CV.

So that’s part three done, part four to follow…….

316: This Weekend I…

Joining with Sar from [Life of Love] and Syndal from Synfully Delicious.

This Weekend I… had to work an extra day so it was a six day week. On the other hand I have the time off in lieu so it’s a bit like a disjointed weekend instead.

This Weekend I… went out for dinner with three of my colleagues. One from the US office we had a bunch of training too. Had a laugh and a good time which was cool even though it was super tiring. We went to the Beefeater Grill at Priory Marina which was outstanding service again. Our waitress was super lovely and helpful.

This Weekend I… went out for dinner with Our Sidekick and Chris. I could have really done with going home though. We went to Pizza Express which normally is really shocking for customer service but I think they’ve have a change round of staff (or just the Saturday team are more helpful). I ordered Meatball Bolognese which I had at MK with Mum a few months back. Well it then arrived and it was a pizza (I was expecting a pasta dish). Well the waiter was super helpful they looked on the menu for an alternative which was to do a double portion of a kids meal and throw in some meatballs for good luck. It was probably about 20 minutes total after Chris and Our Sidekick got their food but that wasn’t a problem. I had a chat with he manager because apparently I shouldn’t have been served it or something like that at Pizza Express (but it was on the menu. I’m so confused!). When it came to getting refills it took a little while to get served but I smiled and waved at the manager and he came over to help us. I asked for two glasses of water and he brought out a jug which was good. When I asked for the bill I was ready to pay but instead our waiter ran off (well I don’t mind not paying but you might!) he’d got as far as applying the club card vouchers but then vanished. I installed the Pizza Express app and paid the remainder via PayPal which meant we could go.

This Weekend I… caught up on TV as most of it took little concentration. Strictly, Covert Affairs and Ace of Cakes was Saturday evenings entertainment.

313: Fill in The Blanks Friday

Fill in The Blanks

1. I like pizza and pasta. Probably more than is healthy.

2. A life goal of mine is to travel more (mostly to get out of the UK – not in like a I want to leave because it sucks but I want to explore more!)

3. The last thing you would ever expect me to like (even though I secretly do) is rap. Okay so I’m not amazing and it’s not my first choice of music to listen to but some raps are catchy like Bonkers by Dizzee Rascal, the Fresh Prince theme by Will Smith and Men in Black. They are the ones I know off the top of my head. I used to know part of Stan by Eminem but that’s one is not so good to know.

4. Some wise words that I love are from the bible, “17 The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” Thank you Bible Gateway

5. Most mornings you will find me well if its a week day Themis be heading to work while trying to remember the fifty things I have to do when I get there and the five things I need to cram in to my lunch break. Well and whether I blogged or not.

6. Right now I am super into does sleep count? This week we had two days of training at work and tomorrow we have another day. I am going to be so shattered by tomorrow evening and I might have to drop out of NaNoWriMo. Unless Chris starts doing all the chores and I come home and write for Britain then I doubt it’s going to happen this year. I completed in 2010 some how, 2011 was hard with Our Sidekick having just moved in with us and this year is just crazy between work and The Fountain.

7. Right now I am super over work……..just need a holiday! Oh yeah 6 day week, 1 day weekend, 5 day week, 9 days off. Get in. Well eventually.

312: Wednesday Wondering v.5

We live in a world where we have a bunch of information at our fingertips – we unlock our phones and Google to our hearts content, but what about all those random questions, why was I looking and what did I find out.

—-

Oh Dear Silvia
It’s a new book by Dawn French. I heard Dawn interviewed on the radio the other day and her new book sounds really interesting. I read her last book (A Tiny Bit Marvellous) and really enjoyed it, I’ve added it to my Wish List ready for Christmas.

Hydrogen Cyanide
We went to see Skyfall on Sunday and part of the story involves Silva talking about taking hydrogen cyanide from a false tooth. I got thinking how much you’d need to ingest but not die. Yeah I know I’m weird but its the kind of random think that pops into my brain.

Romney’s Stance on Abortion
With all the news coverage going on I got interested with what side Obama and Romney came down on regarding different issues. This was as far as I got. I had also meant to have a look at things like foreign policy and other bits but I got far too excited about which States were voting and what way.

Highest note Christine Phantom of The Opera
On Monday Evening me and Mum went to see Phantom of The Opera at Milton Keynes Theatre. I love musicals especially ones especially ones I can sing along to. Then again that last note that Christine hits in the Main Theme is something else. I googled it while in the queue for the loo in the interval. Middle C is called C4, that note that a christine sings is E6. That’s two full octaves (12 semitones) and 5 semitones above middle C. The highest I can sing and strain is A5 maybe B5 when I manage to warm up. That’s still 5 semitones lower than Christine’s now. I tried to sing along to the CD and had to give up in about four not into the outro.

MK Theatre
While sat in the theatre, me and Mum talked about how much more it was to have box sears rather than seats in the Circle or Stalls. We didn’t get much further though the MK Theatre website is rubbish for mobiles.

The Host Movie
I finished reading the book and was looking for more information to see when the film is coming out. Anyone excited or will it be like Twilight?

311: A Journey of Faith: Part Two

Foorprints in The Sand

You might want to start with the Intro and Part One first.

Each May Bank Holiday we’d go to a bible camp called CCCF, I think this is the closest I got to anything like Spring Harvest or Greenbelt bunch but I loved it and it was good fun. Each year we’d learn new songs and at the end of the week you could buy a cassette with the songs on it. I think we got this nearly every year and it would get played over and over on the way home.

I can’t pinpoint the exact year but I remember one year when it was raining so heavily that we had to take the ground sheet up in the awning because a river of rainwater was running straight under the sheet and the caravan, another year we had to go and sit in Grandma’s caravan which was opposite ours because it was hailing. I’m not exactly sure why our caravan wasn’t good enough on that particular day but it was good fun trying to cram me, my parents, my brother, my grandparents and some others who had joined us in to my Grandma and Grandad’s caravan.

One thing I can pinpoint though is when I gave my life to Jesus…..

It was May 1995, I think it was the 25th but I always get a bit muddled with the date. I’d been at middle school for almost a year. We were at CCCF just as normal. I don’t think there was anything particularly special about the day just I had a feeling. That gut feeling when you just want something more or you know that you’ve got to do something or you just explode. I wanted to know that Jesus was my best friend and that he’s there for me through thick and thin.

Rich and I had gone to the kids work meeting as normal. At the end there was an “altar call” and I decided today was the day and I had to do something about this feeling. I went up the front and got prayed with. When I opened my eyes, my brother and two of our friends were stood across the front of the marquee all giving our lives there and then. I remember one of the friends was called Matthew but I can’t remember his brother’s name.

Following the meeting, Rich and I ran/walked as fast as we could back to the caravan to drop off our camping chairs and find Mum and Dad. We had to share what had just happened. They weren’t at the caravan so we ran to the campsite shop (My Parents and Grandparents volunteered most years with running the shop). We found them at the shop and while trying to catch our breathe we tried to spit out the story. I remember my parents and grandparents all being really excited. I don’t think it really clocked why they were so excited until my best friend became a Christian when we were about 14.

That was then. Between the camp that year and returning again the following year, I had a really bad time of it. I’d moved up to Year Six and fitting in was really really hard for me and along the line, I made some very bad choices. The punishments were mainly threats if I did something again which I didn’t and I think seeing my Mum cry (or at least walk through the foyer at school with a red face like she’d been crying) was enough for me to know that I was in serious trouble. Also the teachers were concerned that my actions were borne out of something like a educational need like Dyslexia or Dyspraxia (like my brother was later diagnosed with). I’m not really going into what happened any more as I don’t think it’s relevant any more but the thing I know is that we, as “older Christians” have to look after the newbies because I think the devil attacks in that period when you’re new in the kingdom and you’re not necessarily strong. (Does that make sense?)

So that’s part two, hope you come back for part three soon.

310: This Weekend I…

Joining with Sar from [Life of Love] and Syndal from Synfully Delicious.

This Weekend I….finally went to Bletchley Park and it was awesome!! Dad, Our Sidekick and Me set off for the train station at about 9am to catch the 9:33 train. Well that was the plan anyway. We got on the train and waited, and waited some more. Then after about ten minutes of sitting in the platform the announcer said to the effect that the train had broken down and we were all going to be kicked off. We ended up getting a replacement taxi service to Bletchley train station, which was fine. Until the driver decided to answer his phone while driving. Well done mr taxi driver.

This Weekend I…. overslept epically and missed church. Then again Chris did too. Clearly we needed it or something, Our Sidekick tapped on the door and tried to tell us off nut kept laughing instead.

This Weekend I…. got very excited about going to see Phantom of The Opera in MK with my mum.

This Weekend I…. on Friday I got an iPad mini. In fact I got the last one in Currys. They were down to the last black model in the 16GB size. Part of me wishes I’d waited for a wifi + Cellular model but actually once I change mobile network in December it should fix the issue as I’ll be on a better data plan for my mobile.

It’s a bit of a short post this week between going on an adventure with Mum and attempting to kick Nanowrimo in the butt.

307: Fill In The Blanks Friday

1. Something I swore I’d never do, but have ended up doing anyway is I genuinely have no idea, I’m sure Chris could probably list a bunch of things!

2. Something I’ve always wanted to do is seriously erm this list is far too long. I’m in the process of writing my bucket list. At present it involves things like going New York, Chicago, Boston, Quebec, Ontario, etc.

3. Something I have absolutely no desire to ever do is ride another rollercoaster. I’d consider parachute jumping, bungee jumping and swimming with sharks but I hate rollercoasters.

4. The best thing I ever did was erm there’s a few things, well I think anyway. Getting married was pretty cool and becoming a foster Mum to Our Sidekick has it’s stresses but I don’t think it would be the same without the stresses – would it?

5. When it comes to trying new things, I am rubbish! I am so paranoid about failing and not achieving what I mean to or achieving the goal but not to the best of my ability.

6. One thing I’ve never done is cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats. My husband has and I was his support vehicle from Land’s End to Birmingham. It was good fun but I could have done with proper sleep some nights. I think the best nights were when we were in the cottage for the first night and at Ian and SJ’s on my last night before heading home.

7. My favorite thing do do is watch movies, crochet and hang out with friends.

306: Review – October

Review 2012

Books
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (Been reading it virtually the whole month!)

Films
Sister Act
Stardust
The Bucket List
Turner and Hooch
Moulin Rouge
Your Highness (well the first half an hour ish then I switched off)
The Hole (Kid’s version but I still don’t know the end!)
The Perks of Being A Wallflower
Definitely, Maybe
John Tucker Must Die

The Month in Bullets

  • I haven’t done Park Run since September. October has been really crazy and I don’t think I’ve really stopped. There’s stuff going on at work so by the weekend I just want to curl up and sleep.
  • Been watching lots of cookery shows so have been cooking more as well, gingerbread shapes, fruit cake, chicken stir fry (with tweaks of my own), cinnamon swirls and banana pancakes. Some were more successful that others but it’s all good fun and practice!
  • I went to #CNMAC12 and met some awesome people including Laura from Lay Anglicana and actually met James in person. Got to catch up with Helen and Bryony as well which was awesome.
  • I went to my first Lock In at St Albans Cathedral this year. It was very exciting just like Chris said it would be but I was exhausted after. I found a corner to curl up in and tried to “rest my eyes” even if I didn’t get any sleep.
  • Incarnation number two took place this weekend, I didn’t end up going as I just felt so wound up and upset about all sorts going on around me
  • Jolly and Me finally managed to fit in a jam evening. We played lots of Snow Patrol and a bit of Mumford. Tried some Emeli Sande covers. Also tried singing a bit of Human League and Jackie Wilson. It was good fun

305: Wednesday Wonderings v.4

We live in a world where we have a bunch of information at our fingertips – we unlock our phones and Google to our hearts content, but what about all those random questions, why was I looking and what did I find out.

—-

Harry Potter Tube Station
I’m pretty sure that Our Sidekick watched Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince twice. Not twice in one week. Twice in one day almost back to back! I was trying to find our which station it is when Harry talks to the girl with the curly hair before Albus shows him the memory of meeting Tom Riddle for the first time.

Surbiton Station
(The image isn’t mine. The source for image is here with lots of other exciting movie locations.)
Angela Dworkin
When I studied Sociology, Andrea Dworkin‘s name always came up in reference to Radical Feminism. She was often quoted with regard to marriage and relationships. She also wrote a whole paper about pornography and its detrimental effects (or something like that. Didn’t spend too much time on Radical Feminism as it drove me a little up the wall lol). This came up after @ShanKilby posted a link and it was RT’d by someone I follow to this article on Twitter. (It’s called Letters from a War Zone)

Bletchley Park
All this week it’s been popping up on Twitter about Dr Sue Black‘s Unbound project to get a book about saving Bletchley Park commissioned. (Unbound is a bit like Kickstarter for specifically for books it seems!)

Anyway, I was googling for information like how much a ticket is for the park, when its open and where it is in relation to the train station.

Alzheimer’s
I was using Google as a spell checker this time. How many different spellings of Alzheimer’s can there be out there? (And why could my phone spell various other words but not Alzheimer’s?)

Girl Singing Heineken Advert
There’s a Heineken advert that is playing on the TV at the moment that is a twist on the usual ad and has Daniel Craig as James Bond making an appearance. (The one linked is a longer version that the UK version it seems!) At one point a girl with long blond hair is singing on camera. Somehow it came up in conversation to find out who she was. (Her name is Gin Wigmore and the song in the advert is called Man Like That).

Marley and Me
I like this film but its so sad. There’s one bit that makes me cry every time! Our Sidekick and I were watching it on Sunday or Monday and I googled it to check the rating and some other piece of information that he asked me about. How do I get him that interested in his school work?

Most people in a single pair of pants
Have you heard of Pants to Poverty? On Friday at the Lock In, me and Our Sidekick were part of a massive team aiming to get Pants to Poverty back into the record books for the most people in a single pair of pants. It was originally sent by Pants to Poverty with 57 people then the record was broken by Coca Cola. Well we had to beat it to get it back to a charity didn’t we? I think someone said we were on about 230 or something like that. Just waiting to hear from our friend at the St Albans Diocese Youth Service for an update as to whether we got an official record or not. So exciting.

304: A Journey of Faith: Part One

Foorprints in The Sand

Technically there is an introduction to this post and you can find it here.

I’m not entirely sure how many parts there will be to this – also maybe in a year or two I’ll add more parts as I continue my journey but let’s start with Part One.

April 1986

It’s getting towards the end of April and my Mum’s getting ready for her first baby to arrive on the scene. I’m not sure if Mum knew I was a girl before I arrived or whether I was a surprise – maybe I need to ask her that. So the 27th April arrives and as far as my Mum is aware I’m due in about three weeks time – around the 19th May. A chunk of the country are looking westwards to Russia to see if the cloud from Chernobyl is coming this way (which it did!)

Well clearly like a lot of things being late bugs me (I mean it really bugs me!) so contractions start and my Mum goes into labour. It’s get to mid afternoon and I arrive in the world but I’m 3 weeks premmie and so I’m parked in an incubator for a little while.

My cousin D arrives about 3 and a bit, almost four weeks after me so we had each other to get into trouble.

Around two years later, my brother arrives on the scene. I’m almost two and a half. In this picture clearly we’re a bit older than that. I think given the bits in the background we must have been camping which was a regular family thing to do. (The first time I went on a ferry I was probably about 13 or 14 and I didn’t go on a plane until I was 19 or 20).

Church was a major part of our lives from a young age and I think I was going to church pretty much every Sunday after I was born (okay I missed some through holiday and sickness but you catch my drift – it was always there).

Around the age of 4 or 5 I started going to Sunday School at Renhold Chapel. I remember being in my Grandma’s group for Sunday School and it being more fun when she taught rather than when Mr J taught. We’d meet in the “Sunday School Room” which was behind the pulpit in the chapel.

I remember loving Sunday School but questioning my sanity during some of the “grown-up” services. On the first Sunday of the month it would be family service so we might get some songs from Junior Praise, a game or a puzzle. If it was the “grown-up” services, we’d  either have songs from Mission Praise or have hymns from the Sankey Hymn book. If it was a Sankey Sunday and we got the choice, I’d always pick Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam if I got to pick one mainly because it was the only one I properly knew from the book. (Now I know a few more!)

About the same age I started at Hills Lower School, I started on half days in the EYU and then headed up through the school until Year 4. I loved gym and dance as well as playing the recorder, I think I can blame this for the future adventures.

I think I’ll leave it there for now, it was supposed to be bite size and WordPress is telling me I’m on 530ish words – oh dear!

303: This Weekend I…

Joining with Sar from [Life of Love] and Syndal from Synfully Delicious.

This Weekend I….went to St Albans, My Dad collected me from work on Friday and we grabbed some food. Our Sidekick and I went to Christ Church and caught a mini bus lift to St Albans Abbey for the Lock In. It was exhausting but so much fun. The evening kicked off with worship and Mike Pilavachi from Soul Survivor spoke.

This Weekend I….had a three hour nap, across four chairs in the team room at the Abbey. I must have needed it because I only meant to sleep for an hour maybe two but no three hours later I wake up – it’s 6:15am and everyone is getting ready for the last worship session and then to head home.

This Weekend I….Saturday morning we packed up. As I had had three hours more sleep than Chris who was on 0, I drove home. There was a lorry driver who tried to change lane right into me, so I slammed my hand into the horn to get his attention. I was clearly a bit tired because I really hurt my hand – I’m surprised that it’s not still hurting now. I then stayed along side him because I wasn’t going to go too fast to get home, I needed my wits about me and so I wasn’t going to mess about. The lorry driver swerved again so I hit the horn again. Then he slowed down to pull in behind me. Well he did that and then bumper hugged me so I slowed down (not loads but just a little bit) to make sure I had enough time to stop/get out of his way if any one in front of me should break. Don’t worry we made it home in one piece.

This Weekend I….had about three or four hours more sleep when I got home. I got into to bed at 8:45 and got up around 1pm – oops that was most of Saturday gone! Needed to do something productive so I cleaned the kitchen.

There was more to my weekend but I need to go to sleep now. So I’ll catch you all tomorrow for My Journey in Faith: Part One.

300: Fill In The Blanks Friday/Monday

Fill In The Blanks Friday

Joining with Lauren from The Little Things We Do.

1. My favorite feeling in all the world is hugs! My Dad gives these hugs that just make me feel like I can take on the world – or like yesterday when it reduced me to tears but that was more because I was holding on to the verge of tears tightly for about an hour and then the hug from my Dad pushed me over the verge.

2. My favorite smell is fresh baking, cake 0r bread it doesn’t matter as long as it smells good!

3. My favorite taste is sweet – it’s my weakness it’s not good.

4. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen was last year we went to the Lakes. My Grandma loved and my Aunt loves the Lakes and often talked about places to visit up there. It was my first time up there and we went to Wast Water – and let me just say the pictures do not do it justice at all! (Well especially when the only one I can find is an Instagram one!) We were the only car there and this was amazing silence that I’ve never come across before – okay there were sheep on the hill side and you could hear the water but there were no cars and no people. It was just gob smacking.

The picture doesn't do justice

5. The best sound ever is that sound of nothing. The silence I wrote about in number four.

6. A smell that reminds me of my childhood is coffee – Grandma S’s house used to always smell of coffee and Grandma B’s house would smell of baking – either is a good smell but the smell of coffee makes me sad some days (on Saturday I had a big cry about it, you would have thought that would be next Monday as it’s been 4 years).

7. My favorite of all the senses is sense of hearing – without it I’d miss out on music. There’s a game called “Would you rather…..?” that we play and actually I think I’d rather lose my hearing than my sight because even if I did lose my hearing I would still be able to feel the vibrations (Have you heard of Evelyn Glennie? I love her blog) but I think I’d also feel so incredibly lost.

299: A Journey of Faith: Where?

Foorprints in The Sand

At CNMAC12 I went to the final seminar of the day – it was a bit of a challenge to decide which seminar I wanted to go to but I ended up at James‘s “Participant Driven Session”, yep that was kind of vague but I was excited about it. I got there and I was the only one there, I think everyone else was trying to grab a quick coffee before the next session started.

I took up residence part way back and opened my MacBook to fill out some of the notes I’d been taking between tweets in other seminars, I’d also been working on other blog posts while I didn’t have Our Sidekick or Chris asking me to do other things. While I sat there another lady arrived. (The lady does have a name! She’s called Laura except at this point I don’t know that she’s called that!)

So we’re sat there, minding our own and Laura strikes up a conversation, we start talking about blogs, social media and all sorts of other bits and pieces from the day. I move to sit next to Laura and I show her my blog. Then she shows me hers. You can find hers here, it’s called Lay Anglicana.

The first post that comes up is titled “Journey of Faith” (Part One and Part Two are now available). I read Part One while we sat chatting and discussing blogs and also things that she mentions like the Bhagavad Gita. At some point in our conversation James arrives along with other people and we all start to get settled.

So what’s that introduction got to do with this post. Well I’m going to share my testimony/story with you lot. It’s not going to come all in one go because that would be long and boring. It’s going to be in bitesize chunks starting on Tuesday next week. Does this sound like a good plan?

To start with we could do with a picture, because after all a picture is worth a thousand words – so this is me, I think I’m about 2 or 3 (maybe a little older). Yup once I was that adorable and cute!

Me

 

298: #WednesdayWonderings v.3

We live in a world where we have a bunch of information at our fingertips – we unlock our phones and Google to our hearts content, but what about all those random questions, why was I looking and what did I find out.

—-

Partakers

A few weeks ago, Dave from Partakers was looking for a volunteer to record a talky bit for WOWChurch. On Saturday I had another message from Dave to ask if I could help again – well yes I can! So I was having a bit of a closer look at the Partakers website which can be found here.

Julia Child and Avis DeVoto

Following #CNMAC12 on Saturday, I ended up reading a blog post by Rev David Green. It was his reflections on the conference. I also ended up writing an epic comment, starting from this bit:

The first thing I want to say is that I had a blast. I hardly knew anyone. One other person in the conference was a friend from r/l (that’s real life to non-geeks) and I had conversed with a few more on Twitter or via this blog, but most were brand new to me.

The whole “in real life thing” bugs me and that’s where my comment started:

“IN REAL LIFE” – this term bugs me because it almost makes out that relationships and conversations on Twitter don’t take place in the real world. Some of the blogs I read often refer to “in real life” as “in person” or “face to face”. I have two friends who I met via twitter who’d I’d class as best friends. One of them I’ve only met once “in person” and the other I have never met “in person” but are those friendships any less than with someone I’ve known “in person” for the same amount of time. Then again 50 years ago, if we met once then became pen pals would that friendship be any less, take Julia Childs and Avis DeVoto for example they were pen pals for years and years before actually meeting and even then their friendship was born out of serendipity (more info here).

The link at the end is on a blog called The Friendship Blog. Julia and Avis’s friendship actually started with Julia writing a letter to Avis’s husband to talk about knives (specific ones I think!). Julia and Avis wrote 120 letters in total before they met in person. They’d gone from being strangers to being really good friends. In total they wrote something like 400 letters, they were all curated and edited into a book called As Always, Julia.

Stardust

On Sunday, I was all caught up with the TV that I’d recorded so was channel hopping looking for something that was Sidekick-Proof and came across Stardust. I haven’t seen the film in ages although I have it on DVD. I googled it quickly to find out what rating it is, I was pretty sure that it was Sidekick-proof but I’d forgotten about having the DVD and with it being almost 9pm I wanted to check that it wasn’t higher than a 15 – they almost need to show the rating at the beginning of the film like other channels do. (I remember there being a big 15 rating logo at the beginning of my copy of 10 Things I Hate About You. It had been recorded off of Sky Movies or something like that).

Bridges in London

On Saturday I went for lunch with Brains, her base for her course was King’s College so when I told here where I’d be and asked her if she was free for lunch she knew exactly where I’d be and plenty of suggestions for lunch. We ended up at Azzuro which is this lovely Italian restaurant – the service was amazing and so fast (We asked for the bill and the head waitress person we asked must have waved at another waiter over our heads and within seconds the bill was on the table!). Anyway so I searched for Bridges in London as the restaurant is actually within the arches of one of the bridges near Waterloo station. I’m not entirely sure which one it was but having now found the website I know here to find the restaurant if I end up there again. The food was really yummy, and the service was seriously good!

Bedford Licensing

On Sunday, it was mentioned in church that another club in town is trying to get a SEVs licence.(SEVs stands for Sexual Entertainment Venues) Firstly it was The Pad and now it’s Badlands (It’s actually the same company who own both bars). Either way it’s not good and I certainly don’t want it. I’m now foster mum to a 13 year old boy so it really concerns me that this is happening in the town where I live (then again it would bother me even if I wasn’t a foster Mum). When The Pad were attempting for their licence back in about May or June, a friend of mine was hosting a party/reunion for charity – had it been at a different venue I might have considered going but it was at The Pad and at that point I wasn’t willing to go.

Samantha Price was interviewed in the Beds on Sunday this weekend just gone about protesting and calling for a ban on SEVs across the borough (just like Wellingborough Borough Council have done in the last year). This is Samantha’s quote from the newspaper:

“This is a worse location than their previous application because it’s in the heart of the town centre. Bedford Borough Council wants to promote the town as a family- friendly place and this certainly won’t be doing that. It’s inappropriate and the main reason I’m against this is that such places objectify women and I won’t live in a town where my boys grow up to think that’s ok. We want a blanket ban on premises of this type in Bedford Borough. And my understanding is there will public consultation where the council can set the number of SEVs in the area to nil.”

You can find the whole newspaper article here. Bedford people we’ve got to stand up for our town!

 

297: #JellyandBean

In that serendipitous way that you can “meet” people on Twitter now, two of my friends (one I’ve met in person, one I haven’t) have ventured into the world of Podcasts. This is still something I’m yet to try but oh well I might get there in the end!

Anyway so on the 19th October the first episode of Jelly and Bean went live on the web. I found out about it via Facebook and then once Our Sidekick had headed up to bed and I could listen to it properly I sat down with my MacBook and got started. It hasn’t made it to the iTunes store officially but via the long way round I managed to get it onto my phone to listen to on the way to/from #CNMAC12.

Jelly and Bean

Episode One is titled “Microsoft’s Walking into a Crowded Bar”. It gives a bit of a hint to whats coming but there’s more than just that. There were various sections and even at about 20 minutes into a 66 minute podcast I’ve got lots of notes. Mainly because in a way I wanted to be part of the conversation as well! Lots of feedback and questions to ask about what they meant by some bits and other bits that I’m like “Huh? Are you sure that’s what you mean?“

Doctor Who
I love Doctor Who – I’m not quite like my brother who has been collecting The Classic Series (Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy and the others) but I have been watching The New Series (Eccleston, Tennant and Smith) and trying to convert Chris, Our Sidekick and pretty much anyone who will sit still long enough to watch an episode with me.

What do you think about Doctor Who? Are you like my Mum who watched The Classic Series from behind the sofa? Or are you like me who only gets freaked out by the Weeping Angels and the Waters of Mars? (Yes I got freaked out by water okay?! I was the only one in the house and then having watched the episode pretty much in the dark going to the loo and cleaning my teeth was completely out of the question for about an hour!)

Cardiff
When we went on holiday during the Summer, we briefly went to Cardiff – it was the same day as the Women’s Football kicked off as part of the Olympics so we didn’t want to get stuck in the traffic and we had to go meet Freya. The small bit of Cardiff that I did, I loved it a lot and can’t wait to go back again.

Microsoft and the iPad Mini
I’m not sure that these were actually supposed to be a joint subject but some how they fit together. So the last Windows based laptop I had was back in about 2008 – I had managed to write my university dissertation on it but it was gradually dying – at one point it over heated in the middle of writing and I was convinced it was dead – I think it was the beginning of March and my dissertation was due at the end of April so I was in full blown panic, what on earth was I going to do if my laptop was totally dead and my dissertation had gone. Thankfully somehow it wasn’t gone but I decided there and then to save up for my MacBook – well I’ve had my MacBook since – so it’s about 4.5 years old now. It’s not on it’s second battery and it’s still running. I was a little bit worried about six months ago that it was well and truly dead and wasn’t going to recover but somehow it did and it’s still going. I’ve taken to sticking stickers all over the front of it now. So far I have one for HUGStronger, a Hello Kitty sticker and another random one that I found.

The Microsoft Surface looks good but as Jelly and Branden discuss – it’s got hard competition to live up against. You compare it against the iPad and I think the iPad will wipe the floor with the Surface.

 

Be sure to check out the podcast because I’m sure I’ve missed bits. 

First Image of the Jelly and Bean logo belongs to Dan.

296: Dear Monday/This Weekend I…#TWI

Joining with Sar from [Life of Love] and Syndal from Synfully Delicious.

This Weekend I….went to London to go to CNMAC12. It was nice to catch up with everyone but staying at the pub a bit longer might have been a better choice as the tube was absolutely packed heading towards Leicester Square and then just as bad heading to St Pancras. It was that packed, at one station I grabbed the girl behind me to make sure her arm was clear of the door. Then about two stations later I had to do the same for a guy who decided that he’d stand right on the yellow line.

This Weekend I….travelled back on the train with sweary lads who were on a night out and some guys who had just been to the football. Thankfully I was getting off at Bedford so that was two stops from London.

This Weekend I….drew up a super plan – okay it has like 5 to do points (and a bunch of sub-points) at the moment but I am working my way to a “Master Plan” (think A Doctor Evil or Bond Baddie Master Plan lol)

This Weekend I….ate Italian food with Brains (Taglietelle Salmone for her, Spaghetti Bolognese for Me). I’m not sure pasta is usually the recommended post wisdom tooth extraction food but it was around 42 hours after the removal so figured as long as I clean my teeth properly and rinse a whole bunch of salty water when I got home I’d be okay.

This Weekend I….worked on ideas and tweaks for this blog – suggestions welcome on postcards.

IMGP5601
Joining with Megan from Happy Day.

Dear Monday, this week I am kind of dreading your arrival. Stuff went down last week that I’m not 100% sure about and so I need to be on my top game this week. I’m worried I won’t be on my top game. Prayers would be good – It says about not worrying for anything and God will provide but sometimes it’s easier to say it than do it.

Dear CJ, you taught my parents how to use other apps on their phones this weekend. I might be sticking with an iPhone just so that they don’t get confused why I disappear if/when I move to a Samsung S3 – decisions, decisions. Then again it was quite funny on Saturday when Vicky commented about iPhone over Android – was quite funny. Is it worth updating from an iPhone 4 to a 5.

Dear Brains, It was so good to see you! Can’t wait to see you at Christmas – then we need to swap Skype names or something to catch up when you move to the other side of the pond (because I know for sure that if NY is in God’s Plan for you then that visa will come with no problems!)

293: Bonus Post @ #CNMAC12

Word Cloud - #CNMAC12

During today’s conference, Dr Bex Lewis (from BigBible) and some other people were writing a talk as the day went on. As part of this there were various different Word Clouds and also a graph showing who sent the most tweets. In the past 1500 tweets I had sent 77 of them. Apparently that made me the Number 1 Tweeter at the conference in that last section of tweets.

So that was kind of exciting in an epic geeky way.

292: Fill In The Blanks Friday

Joining with Lauren from The Little Things We Do

1. One thing I plan on doing to relax this weekend is erm I have no idea! I’m in London tomorrow at CNMAC12, got lunch with a friend then a possible pub trip in the evening then catch the train home. On Sunday I’m on kid’s work, then there’s contact time, then hopefully some chill out time before coming back to work on Monday. Hopefully there’s some relaxing in there.

2. A big pet peeve of mine is bad spelling? Is that an okay one? I emailed a company yesterday and was like “btw good website but you’ve got a typo”. Wasn’t sure if they’d take it a good way but thankfully they did lol. On the other hand it didn’t work so well when I corrected a distributors spelling – if you want to return the product please spell your returns reason correctly or I will question what you mean.

3. I am really loving my woolie hat? I wore it yesterday pretty much from coming out of the dentist to going to bed. I think it was comforting while I was feeling sorry for myself post-wisdom tooth removal. Then again today my cheeks keep feeling really flushed especially my right cheek (tooth was upper right)

4. The rain is a bit of a downer, but kind of nice when you’re all wrapped up inside watching the rain fall outside the window.

5. My favourite girly indulgence is nail varnish – I don’t really do make up. I might put a little bit on if I’m going out somewhere but that’s about it.

6. A song I always get stuck in my head is at the moment it seems to be Kid’s Worship songs like God Can Do Anything or Gonna Jump Up and Down.

7. The best cure for stress is hugs. Lots of them. Especially unexpected ones – like Our Sidekick will come into the kitchen while I’m doing chores and be like “Can I have/give you a hug?” YES PLEASE! I love hugs!

291: #WednesdayWonderings v.2

We live in a world where we have a bunch of information at our fingertips – we unlock our phones and Google to our hearts content, but what about all those random questions, why was I looking and what did I find out.

—-

Back to The Future II – would you believe that although I know the basic idea of the Back To The Future films I’ve not see seen any of them all the way through. On Saturday Back to The Future II was on TV so I ended up googling it to see what rating it was and whether Our Sidekick could watch it or not.

How to crochet two pieces together – I’ve been crocheting lots recently but the biggest problem is that I don’t know how to crochet the bits together. I looked it up but I think I’m definitely going to need a needle to get it done.

Vietnam War – One of the films we watched on Saturday is set in the 1970s while America was at war with Vietnam (I guess around the same time as M*A*S*H* was set). I was looking for the finishing date of the war as the film was set to early to be the end of the war but I wasn’t 100%.

Soft Contact Lenses Invented – Same film as above. One of the characters decides to wear contacts instead of glasses but she was wearing soft lenses like I used to have and I thought they were a reasonably recent invention and so she wouldn’t have been wearing that style of lenses in the 1970s. Although she wouldn’t have necessarily had soft lenses like mine she might have had predecessor to them.

Turner and Hooch Our Sidekick and I were working our way through a pile of DVDs that we’ve been lent by my FIL. Turner and Hooch is one of these films – again knew the rough idea but hadn’t seen it. While watching the film it struck me how the vet looks a bit like a younger version of Captain Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager but alas it’s not her. Oh well. I really liked the film though. Probably not Tom Hanks at his best but it was still good and I enjoyed it.

Hexagon Crochet Meet me at Mikes It seems like a random combination of words but it works. I was looking for how to crochet a hexagon and found this pattern on a blog called “Meet Me At Mikes“. The pattern is really easy to understand and follow – and the pictures are really clear and make sense.

Morton Hunted UK Hunted is a TV show here that has replaced Spooks in a way. The area the house is in really looks like the Lakes so I was trying to google it and find out where it was – in the end it turns out it’s in Scotland but it still looks amazing.

TED Ruby Wax On the computer in the Living Room that records all our TV there is a clever app on there that has TED presentations on it. I’ve watched some amazing inspiring ones and some really random ones. Ruby Wax’s TED talk was so good! It was about Mental Health and did have a serious point to it but it was made the audience laugh. Watch it here. (I love the idea of speaking at TED – I wonder how I’d go about doing that!)

290: Today’s Adventures

I’ve been thinking again – I know dangerous. About stuff. Well bits and pieces. You could say the Life, the Universe and Everything. (H2G2 rocks) Then again if I could think about that much then my head would explode. I’m experimenting with short bitesize posts instead of my usual long streaming posts. Do you prefer short posts or long posts? Do you prefer ones with pictures or just text, text, text?

JD is coming for tea today, we normally go to the cinema but as I’m on Sidekick duty we’ve organised to have a bit of a movie night at home which is a bit rare. The Sidekick doesn’t know that she’s coming and so that will be a bit of a surprise for him, he thinks the world of her so I hope he likes the surprise lol.

I have tomorrow off work for our exciting Panel Meeting. The way I’m seeing it is like a job interview. Now normally you have that meeting/interview and then they decide if a child can be placed with you. But with Our Sidekick already living with us it’s like having a job interview a year into the job to tell you whether you can keep your job or not. The rest of the day will be a chores day I think – well in theory if I manage to be that motivated!

289: Dear Monday

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Joining with Megan from Happy Day.

Dear Monday, I am pretty sure that every week you somehow sneak in that bit faster than the weekend before.

Dear Kids Work, I think teaching Kids Work is a bit like riding a bike. I’ve helped with bits of Kids Work since moving to RP but this weekend was the first time I’ve properly planned and lead it. I worked with DS which was fun. We had two Kid’s Worship songs, one was from my iPod which not all the children knew but joined in at least a little bit. One of the other leaders then asked for a second song that the kids might know a bit better so I borrowed a guitar from the cupboard and played one of the songs we do in the worship band. It wasn’t actually as hard as I thought it would be although with my music being on the floor I had to keep looking down for the next chord!

Dear Little One, your grandma was explaining to you about communion and how we do it in our church and why we do it. You came out with something really cool. “I know that Jesus is in my heart and if I hurt my knee and I ask him to fix it then Jesus just runs down there and fixes it. If my head hurts then he runs up there and fixes it”. Well there you go. You’re awesome Little One. Us adults sometimes dress things up in big words and complicated ideas but you’d got it in a way that you knew. Thank you for sharing it with your Grandma who then shared it with me and some of the others at church.

Dear Bicycle, the reason why I’ve been using Our Sidekick’s bike and not you is that you’re too heavy – it takes me more effort to get you moving than to pedal anywhere. I’d like to replace you – I know the one I’d like I just need to save up the money and decide where I can get it from – also do I want a basket or paniers? In my dream world I’d like one like you see in Amsterdam but I think one of those would be too heavy but it’s somewhere to start anyway. I rode Our Sidekick’s bike to the shop and his pedal is having a moment – I’m going to have to take the spanner to it.

286: Fill In The Blanks Friday

 Fill In The Blanks Friday - 12th October

Joining with Lauren from The Little Things We Do

1.  My favourite flower is I don’t have one favourite I think it’s a close draw between Gerberas and Daisies – then again they are both so similar that it might not really make a difference.  

2.  You should never talk about at the moment seems to be about chores and being tired but that is just our house lol. I agree with Lauren that politics is something not to talk about. We have a coalition here in the UK as there wasn’t enough of a majority for one party to win on their own or something like that. All I can say is that our three main political parties (Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem) need their heads smacking together because all they do is whinge about what the others have done rather than telling me how they can make this country better for the “Average Joe” like me.

3.  My favourite discovery as of late is well it could be Chipotle – I went for dinner there on Monday and although it was a little bit on the spicy side it was really yummy so I’m sure I could manage it again.

4. This fall you will probably find me wearing  jeans, a jumper and layers. Today for example grey long sleeved top with a tartan/checked shirt over the top.

5. I wish I were  sleeping or with friends – I’m having one of those days where staying in bed or having a big hug from a friend might have fixed at least how I felt about the day. Then again tomorrow is Saturday – I’m trying to decide whether to have a peaceful protest and stay in bed for the whole day.

6. My favourite TV show currently is   well it was probably Hart of Dixie but Season 1 just finished here in the UK. I’ve been watching Who Do You Think You Are every week apart from last week when they did William Roache’s genealogy. It just didn’t really interest me, whereas they’ve had Celia Imrie, Alex Kingston and Gregg Wallace on this season amongst other people.

7.  This weekend I want to sleep, eat, be merry but the first and second might be the only ones that do actually happen so I’ll have to find some other way to be merry – maybe massive DVD night with Our Sidekick.

284: #WednesdayWonderings

We live in a world where we have a bunch of information at our fingertips – we unlock our phones and Google to our hearts content, but what about all those random questions, why was I looking and what did I find out.

—-

Fisheye app for iPhone – I post a lot of pictures to Instagram and wanted to play about with a fisheye lens but wondered if there was an app for that. The first app I tried was rubbish the second was £1.49 and decided that I wouldn’t buy it especially as I’d just cleared like 3 photography apps off my phone because I wasn’t using them.

Heathcliff musical – I’m currently reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and vaguely remembered my Dad buying a CD for my Mum after she’d been to see Cliff Richard in some performance. Well him with a friend or two wrote and starred in a musical called Heathcliff and it revolved around the character of Heathcliff and his life. It’s only while reading Wuthering Heights that I’ve realised how little we actually know about Heathcliff as the reader. Emily carefully gives us just enough information to create this rugged and rough character but doesn’t give us too much and lose the enigma that is Heathcliff.

Chapter 7 “my dinner goes up in smoke” – I posted a picture on Instagram and was looking at other pictures with similar tags and this appeared in a picture. I was looking to find out what book it was from. I think it comes from The Lightning Thief that then became Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Doctor Who 11th Hour – My friend Angelika is catching up on Doctor Who via Netflix at the moment, so while she was watching The Eleventh Hour episode (Rory and Amy’s first proper episode) she posted on my FB wall about how excited she was and how she liked the new doctor and wanted to know what his name was. Well I had a mental moment and couldn’t remember if it was Matt Smith or David Tennant. Okay before you demand my fan girl status back I was like 99% sure that it was Matt Smith but there was a tiny bit of doubt that I had to get rid of. Now I know and will remember.

Soap taste after temporary filling – A while back I had a hole in my tooth and got a filing – didn’t really think any more of it – sometimes my teeth are a bit sensitive but it usually combines with whatever I’m eating or how harshly I attempted to clean (or beat up) my teeth the night before! I went for my check up yesterday and told my dentist that I thought my tooth was decaying around my filing and could he take a look. So he had a look and a poke and said “Yes, your filing is loose – I’ll take it out and put in a temporary one” so he took it out with some tweezers (oh dear!) and then said “The hole in there is actually quite big, I suggest that we take out your tooth” Great okay last time I had an extraction I sat in the chair in tears and bit the dentist’s finger because I’d really had enough as I’m not 100% sure I was given enough anaesthetic (That was my old dentist – I am with my third dentist!). So back to the filing – I’m given a temporary filing to plug the hole and I have to book a date for an extraction. So that’s next week. I might cry. I might need the following day off work but that depends on how I feel. Anyway so following my dentist appointment all I could taste this soapy taste – it was really gross.

Losing my Boyfriend to World of Warcraft – Our Sidekick downloaded Minecraft at the weekend and this song kept coming into my head. It’s by All Caps

Piano in St. Pancras – I walked through St Pancras and could hear a piano being played and thought I was going a bit mad but there next to the lift is a graffitied piano and two lads were playing it. I wanted to sit down and play Für Elise but I had to catch the train. I found more information here.

St John’s ambulance history – we had a meeting on Tuesday and as we drove past the local St John’s Ambulance base we ended up having a whole conversation about how the St Johns Ambulance came about.

Chemicals in cigarettes – on Monday after getting back from London me, JD and Our Sidekick were sat at The Fountain and somehow what chemicals there were in cigarettes came up. There’s things like formaldehyde, benzene, ammonia and tar. They were just the ones I can remember off the top of my head.

12 Grimmauld Place actual location – having met Mel and Jelly at Platform 9 and 3/4s in Kings Cross Station on Monday I quickly googled to see if there was an actual address used for Grimmauld Place continuing the Harry Potter theme – according to my results there could be any number of addresses in London used as 12 Grimmauld Place. I found on Living The Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) that the address is New Square, Camden. Apparently chunks of Westminster Tube station are used as the Ministry of Magic but I didn’t know that until I started writing this post today.

Hummingbird Bakery – I was trying to think of all the tourist things to do in London to take Mel and Jelly to then I decided that if we were close we should go for an afternoon piece of cake however turns out we were kind of in the wrong area of London for Hummingbird Bakery we were in Covent Garden area and I think HB is closer to Kensington – oh well that’ll be a trip for next time.

 

Image from here. Text my own.

283: The Invasion of Nottinghamshire #TWI

It’s Sunday when I’m writing this. I’m on the bus heading back from my adventure. I could wait until I get home but I may as well use the time wisely right?

Joining with Sar from [Life of Love] and Syndal from Synfully Delicious

“That girl in the black jumper is me……”

So many films and TV shows start with something to this effect. I think the recent one I can think of from my seat on the X5 heading to Bedford is from Episode One of Hart of Dixie.

Rachel Bilson as Zoe Hart is sat on a bus heading towards the fictional town of Bluebell, Alabama. She’s been turned down for a Cardio-Thoraxic Residency at a hospital in NY and found out that she’s been given half a GP practice. And her adventure kicks off.

Well I’m not as glam as Rachel and I need to wash my hair. Wuthering Heights is open on my knee with my post it note bookmark stuck to the outside. I can hear people behind me speaking animatedly in Polish (or at least that’s what it sounds like). I have homemade chocolate cheesecake made by Miss S in a carrier bag next to me – I think it might be squished but its wrapped in tin foil so hopefully I can eat it with a spoon from the foil if needed.

My adventure started yesterday morning when I drove to The Fountain and then caught the X5 to Milton Keynes to meet Miss S for our adventure further north to Nottinghamshire to meet up with the uni girls.

I caught the 1015 out of Bedford, made a friend in the queue, paid for my “period return” which would mean I could get as far as town on Sunday and headed for MK.

I pottered round the shops and ran an errand for my brother (who had a really sore face after having a wisdom tooth removed on Friday!) and then headed for John Lewis end of the shopping centre to wait for Miss S.

We headed to the supermarket first for lunch, road trip supplies, my contribution to the meal and petrol. The supermarket was heaving as it was nearly lunchtime on a Saturday (this is why I go food shopping on a Monday or Tuesday). Miss S dropped me off at the store while she got petrol then came back for me rather than trying to find a parking space.

How's that for a Ferris wheel. #goosefair #nottsinvasion

We arrived in Nottinghamshire at Kewey and DanDan’s house, lots of hugs were passed around then we settled down to curl up on the sofa and catch up, a little while later LB and Andy arrived so there were more hugs and more catching up. DanDan and Andy ended up sat in one corner chatting away and about boy things and we were all on the other side chatting away. We exchanged birthday presents with Kewey and LB. LB gave Kewey a white canvas with musical notes and a giant treble clef on it – I stood on the sofa and hung it up and it looked amazing like it should always be there!

We’d had a discussion earlier in the week about going to the Goose Fair at Nottingham. It was probably not my cup of tea but we had so much fun from nearly falling over on the tram because we were too busy chatting and not busy enough hanging on, going on the ferris wheel and looking at the view, going on the chair swing and LB holding my hand when I got the collywobbles. (I’d have probably been fine on my own and without the flashing lights that were like right in my sight line but thankfully LB had been pre-warned and when she looked at me and saw that although I was smiling my eyes said I’m not okay she knew to grab my hand!)

I’m glad I charged my phone before leaving the house because I was snapping away. Some of the pictures didn’t come out that great but some where amazing. Others wouldn’t upload as O2 seems to have a crisis in Nottingham and some of the surrounding area. My phone keeps freaking out and losing all signal only to then reconnect seconds later. (And steering me more and more to a new network when my contract runs out in a few months time).

Fun times at the fair. #goosefair #nottsinvasion

We hadn’t had tea before leaving the house and decided that we were going to grab a burger or something like that. I ended up having a hot dog and a bit later in the evening I had a nutella crepe – which was easier to ask for than to actually eat. At one point Kewey wanted to take my picture because I had nutella all round my face like a small child – apparently it was quite funny but I got really self conscious about it lol.

After a while we headed back to the tram stop and then headed back to the house. On the way at one point Andy was stood behind LB, S and Kewey were chattering away and then the tram jolted – Andy some how reached round LB and grabbed them both by their sleeves and managed to stop them from falling over in the middle of the tram – it was really epic!

We spent about 3 or 4 hours chatting and then realised at 1:30am that it was really time to go to bed! Me and S were sharing the living room – I was on the fold out futon which wasn’t amazingly comfy but I got some sleep which was the main thing. At about 8am the light coming through the blinds was too bright so I curled up on the sofa and played the next MacHeist mission and carried on reading Wuthering Heights.

We had bacon sandwiches for breakfast once everyone was downstairs and ready. We then had the TV playing in the background and decided to pop into town for a little while as Kewey had an errand she needed to run. Me and Andy raced the lift down from the car park to the shops – we just arrived before the doors opened. We then did the same on the way back to the car with DanDan, DanDan shot off in front and was about 1 and a half flights in front of me, then about two flights of stairs from the top I couldn’t catch my breathe and had to slow down – Andy took over but he was only about 6 or 7 steps in front of me – it was pretty epic but did start jokes about the gym (which is kind of true but it’s a bit expensive!)

Feeling a bit out of place in #topshop. Oh well.

I snapped this picture while in TopShop. I have a think about TopShop because their choices of mannequins bug me, they are really skinny to the extent that I think they are size 6 or 8. I stood next to one that had not shape to “her” bottom and her legs were thinner than table legs I swear! Anyway so I was pottering around and updating Twitter and chatting to Chris by text message. (On the other hand I got home and watched Strictly from last night – oh my gosh can Lisa Riley dance! And that lift at the end – she just proved that girls don’t have to be skinny to be dancers! Get in Lisa!!)

After pottering round the shops we headed back to the cars and then back to the house. Kewey cooked us Spaghetti Bolognese with Quorn mince – it was really yummy but as I normally don’t eat breakfast and had on Sunday then lunch was like two hours later so that S could make it back to her house to get ready for her evening plans. While we were sat around the dinner table we discussed dates for meeting up for Christmas.

At 3pm it was time to head home, part of me wanted to get home to see the points but the other part of me wanted to stay and hang out with the girls more. I made it to MK in time for the next x5, I charged into the McDonald’s opposite the bus stop to go to the loo. I was going to buy a drink or a burger or something so I didn’t feel like I’d used the customer toilet without being a customer but I then saw the bus arrive outside. It was only when I joined the queue and the lady in front was told it was the Oxford bus and she’d need the other one for Bedford did I see the Bedford bound X5 pull in behind the Oxford bound X5 and changed queue. Chris had waited at The Fountain for me so I just had to walk from the Bus station round the corner to The Fountain and then we went home via Mum’s.

That was my weekend.

282: Dear Monday

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Joining with Megan from Happy Day.

Dear Kewey and DanDan, thank you for playing host to me, S, LB and Andy – I had a lovely time. The bacon sandwiches for breakfast were yummy, that spaghetti bolognese was awesome too – I just wish I’d had room to eat my portion of Spag Bol.

Dear S, thank you for being my taxi hehe. Without you I’d have probably had to get the train which would have been a bit crazy and probably a headache for me lol. The X5 to MK is dead simple lol.

Dear Chris and Our Sidekick, I genuinely really missed you. I loved calling on Saturday night to wish you both good night. I think you were having a lovely time too.

Dear Jelly and Mel, it was so lovely to meet you, I had a great time exploring London with you. I think Ruby would have liked to have been there too! You two are so adorable. There was one moment on the tube when I thought Jelly was going to fall over then again on the journey to Covent Garden Jelly almost caught me when I was wasn’t quite holding on tight enough! I snapped this picture while waiting for you guys. I realised when I got on the train after we’d left each other that I didn’t snap one of you two at 9 3/4s 🙁

I wonder what the weather is like at #hogwarts.

Dear East Midlands Trains, last time I went to London I could get to St Pancras International and a Zone 1 and 2 Rail card for £30ish with no restrictions. Today I had the choice of £26 but couldn’t travel back between 4:30 and 7pm or £44 for the freedom to travel within those times. Why the difference exactly?

Dear JD, it was great to meet you for an impromptu drink and then a road trip. I loved trying on crazy shoes with you and winding up Our Sidekick. You have to come and hangout for a DVD night and soon!

Dear Chipotle, I’d have probably avoided you normally. With Pizza Express next door that would have probably been my first choice but I jumped in and went for it. I had a chicken burrito with brown rice and the “not really spicy” sauce. I think the marinade on the chicken made my lips and throat sore from the spice but I drank my can and some water and was fine. I’m going to have to take Chris and Our Sidekick as they will love it! Either that or try and make a homemade version of Chipotle – there’s got to be a recipe out there somewhere!

My first #chipotle for lunch. We walked from King's Cross. I think it balances out. #london #adventures

279: Fill In The Blanks Friday

Joining with Lauren from The Little Things We Do

1.  The last thing I ate was my breakfast. I had a sausage sandwich – I know it’s not good for me but I only have it on a Friday and even then it’s not every Friday. I try and be good but sometimes I fail.

2.  The last time I went to the beach was in July when we went to the beach at Barri Island in Wales. It was too cold for a paddle – I had a quick paddle but it was making my feet hurt. I have a rule that I have to paddle in the sea at least once when we go to the seaside (apart from the time we went to Felixstowe in October it was far too cold to be on the seafront let alone near the sea lol).

3.  My last vacation was   this summer. We went to Bristol with Our Sidekick it was our first holiday as a family. It was good fun although there were a couple of rocky moments where I think we were just driving each other slightly mad as we were in each other’s personal space a lot of the time.

4. The last place I drove was    to The Fountain to meet Chris for lunch, haven’t really seen him this week and we need to chat over some stuff before a huge explosion takes out half of Bedford!

5. The last song I listened to was erm I don’t know! We have the radio on at work, I have the radio on in the car and there’s the stereo playing music in The Fountain so it could be any song. The two albums I’ve been playing lots are Babel by Mumford and Sons and Our Version of Events by Emeli Sande.

6. The last thing I watched on TV was it was either Sing While You Work – it’s the latest Gareth Malone choir adventure (when is he going to come to Bedford? Then again I think statistically we have a lot of choirs it’s just I can never go to them and some charge to join what’s with that!) or Grand Designs Australia – me and Chris regularly discus what our dream house would be like. I think when he decides that we are going to build the house I am going to go and emigrate somewhere and then come back when it’s done because we’d just annoy each other because I’d be there wanting to learn how to do things (I learnt to tile bathrooms and replace double glazing windows because of my Grandad, then again him and his builder friend taught my Mum how to lay bricks.

7.  The last time I said “I love you” was probably to Chris earlier this week which is really bad. I told Tori my cousin that I love her. She’s been at university almost a week and I think as exciting as it is she’s missing home a little bit. I might have to organise a petrol pot so that if it’s really bad I can pack up one Friday and drive after work to her university and see her then come back Sunday in time for work on Monday or in time for contact time if needed.

277: Dear Monday /This Weekend I…#TWI

Dear Monday/This Weekend I...

Dear Monday (except it’s Tuesday because I either can’t count or read a calendar it seems!)

Dear Monday, this week it was my fault – I got distracted by my book and couldn’t put it down – I read almost a whole book in one night. Erm about 3 hours but it did mean that I went to sleep at 1am. Probably explains why I feel so rubbish today.

Dear Tummy, what is with you?! You just kept playing up all day!

Dear Worship Song, I get it’s supposed to be serious but when the line “heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss” in is one of your verses I couldn’t help but laugh – even “he even gave the cat it’s furry bottom” in Lovely Jubbly is less laugh inducing (mainly because it’s a kid’s worship song not a serious worship song.

Dear October, you have arrived. I wore a woolly jumper yesterday which was fine until I went out at lunch and then I was too warm but the jumper worked as a bit of a comforter when I spend the whole morning feeling a bit death like.

 

Joining with Sar from [Life of Love] and Syndal from Synfully Delicious
I couldn’t decide whether to carry on with Dear Monday or join This Weekend I….so double whammy. In my mind the weekend starts at 5ish on a Friday right?

This Weekend I went to the cinema with Libs – we went for dinner first. I had Four Cheese Rigatoni with chicken and garlic bread. We went to see Untouchable at the cinema. It’s in French with English subtitles but the story is so good!

This Weekend I (well we) took Our Sidekick on a guided tour around Huntingdon and Godmanchester where Chris grew up and told him (OS) stories like how Chris cooked Spag Bol for me and two friends after we drover from Bedford to Godmanchester as a surprise crazy road trip.

This Weekend I (well we – again!) had dinner with my in-laws – originally we popped in for a cuppa as part of the magical mystery tour but ended up staying for tea (we went to Fayre and Square at Hartford Mill) and then went back to their house to watch Doctor Who. Our Sidekick helped Chris’s Dad (My FIL) get the guinea pigs in from the garden. My FIL and MIL have a small zoo in their garden lol. There’s two guinea pigs, at least two if not three rabbits, a dog, tank of fish. There were hamsters or rats at one point and some African Snails – not sure if they are still there.

This Weekend I played bass in the band for the last time. I have officially stepped down from the band now. Kinda sad but I’m still part of the team when it comes to kid’s worship songs and doing the actions so I’m not completely out just yet lol

This Weekend I spoke to B about Kid’s Work – I start in two weeks covering one of the others ladies. It’s the first time I’ll have done proper Sunday School kid’s work since 2006 ish (I’ve done odd Sundays but not proper being part of the rota)

This Weekend I bought some more wool and did some more crocheting – I’ve had to undo the bit I started on Saturday as it was all wrong and there were too many stitches in places, I do however have my original project home from work so I can carry on with that one instead.

276: Review – September

Review 2012>
 

Books

Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs (started in August finished in September)

Films

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Did You Hear About The Morgans?
Hope Springs
Untouchable
Hop

Albums

Babel by Mumford and Sons
Our Version of Events by Emeli Sande.

The Month in Bullets

Family

  • My brother and his best friend did a sponsored 24-hour gaming marathon in aid of The Fountain. I stayed up until 2 am with them then curled up to sleep on my mum’s sofa. I then got up again at 8 am and they were shattered. Apparently, once we left my brother crashed out to sleep. I think it was out most of the day. I came home and slept from 9:30ish to 1 pm. Clearly, I needed it whether I knew I did or not!
  • Our Sidekick started Upper School. We had a bit of trauma about the uniform as the company who the school tells everyone to buy their uniform from had trouble with one of their suppliers and so I spent time going between the supplier and the school to try and find out what we were supposed to do about Our Sidekick not having all his uniform. Clearly, it’s not our fault but at the same time you do feels it’s your fault a bit.
  • Thankfully it was partially solved so that Our Sidekick could start school at least. The school had had a bunch of other calls from parents in the same position as us. They decided that nothing could be done about it and so they’d circulate a list of names round the Head of Year and Form Tutors explaining why certain students weren’t in full school uniform (This formed most of the conversation on the way to school on the first day!)
  • Our Sidekick seemed to struggle to settle for the first couple of days and then after Day Two he came home and declared that he had to do his homework so that he could get good GCSEs. Indeed!
  • Chris and I have continued our journey to become approved carers for Our Sidekick. We how our “Friends and Family Training” about halfway through September. However, Panel was postponed to October as there weren’t enough slots this month
  • First Incarnation service at church – was good fun eventually – also got to hang out with the group from OM which was good fun, especially comparing differences between the UK, South Korea, America, and Switzerland. Also talking about how welcoming and lovely Mummy Steph is.

Household

  • Clearly, I needed the sleep as I managed to clean the living room and kitchen when I got up and managed to clear the stairs of most of my stuff and organise the boy’s stuff into their own steps. It looks a whole bunch better already. I made a trip to the charity clothes bin and to the dump all in one week.

Health

  • My first ParkRun of September (and third overall) was a disaster. I was there in time to stretch which I did but something I did or didn’t do made my shins really really hurt. I managed to do one lap of the park then decided to call it quits and head home.

Church/Community

  • The Word Bookshop here in Bedford celebrated their first birthday – why am I telling you this? Because it’s ran by a lovely lady from my church and everyone gets a lovely warm welcome when they walk through the door. (And I just noticed that a bunch of the photos on the website were ones that I took!)

Other

  • I “stepped out the boat”. It’s become a bit of a phrase that when you step out in faith, you’re stepping out the boat. It took Peter a whole bunch of faith to step out of the boat and walk to Jesus. Well back in the middle of September, I stepped out the boat. I asked someone if they’d like me to prayer for them. I just pray and hope that it makes some kind of difference.

272: Fill In The Blanks Friday

Joining with Lauren from The Little Things We Do

1.  My first memory is I remember being about three or four and climbing out of the dining room door (which used to lead directly into the garden. I tripped over my own feet or the door ledge and fell over and grazed up all my knee and I remember it bleeding quite a lot. I told Mum about this memory a few weeks back and she said that she didn’t remember it lol.  

2.  My first love was okay so I’m going to be awkward on this one. The first boyfriend that I had and told him I loved him was when I was about 15. So I guess my first love would be my Dad in a way. He’s amazing and so encouraging. He’d teach me about stuff in the garden and help me with my homework. A few weeks back we were at the Fountain talking about various bits and he turned round and said he was proud of me then gave me like a manly punch in the arm – which made me jump and I nearly fell off the chair I was sat on. I do know that my Parents are proud of me but sometimes it’s good to hear it right? I met Chris when I was 15 and although I fancied him and we did try the going out thing for a few months, it didn’t really work at first but he was my best friend for quite a few years and clearly it was meant to happen because look at us know! Married and Foster Parents to Our Sidekick (okay so we didn’t do parenting the “normal” way but he needed someone and we stepped up to the plate).

3.  My very first favourite colour was pink. Well I presume that given that my bedroom was pink until I was about 13 or 14 but then again I’m not sure lol.

4. The first time I really felt like a “grown-up” was when erm I’m not sure I guess when I became responsible for another human being on a full-time basis (October last year when Our Sidekick came to live with us). You’d think that graduating from university, getting married or having a mortgage would have me feel grown up but clearly not lol.

5. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is pretend it is not morning and that I can go back to sleep usually it’s not – today made me nearly cry – I thought it was Saturday and was happy about a lie in only to realise that if it was Saturday why didn’t I remember going to the cinema with Libs? Oh dear it’s not Saturday it’s Friday and something about that super depressed me.

6. The first CD (cassette tape, record, etc…) I ever bought was I’m not sure if I bought it or if I was bought it but the first album I had was the Spice Girls on cassette tape (unless you count over killing my days cassette tape of The Eagles – I loved Hotel California!), about the same time I was given a bunch of blank tapes and would record songs off the radio to make my own mix tapes lol.    

7.  My first car was a dark blue Ford Fiesta, it had belonged to a boy racer before me so the stereo had been rewired and various other bits. It was great, until it started burning oil and then when it was really dying, my dad and I drove in convoy to the scrapyard and left it there to go to the car garage in the sky. My Dad was all ready for me to be really upset about it as it was my first car and things like that but I wasn’t. I then got my Yellow Fiat which I loved even more than my Fiesta lol.

271: Recently….

Reading I finished Awaken by Nina Soden last night – well this morning at like 1am when I should have been asleep but I couldn’t wait to find our what happened to Alee and that was that I had to finish it. If you like Twilight, True Blood, Vampire Diaries etc etc it’ll be up your street – give it a try. Next up I am either going to carry on with From Blah to Awe by Jenna Lucado Bishop or Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy – then again Anna is hard work and I don’t think I’ve got the capacity to read it lol. Might just give up and see the film.

Watching Our Sidekick and I have started watching Man vs Food but Chris isn’t so chuffed with it so we watch it while he’s out and then tell Chris the shortened version about things like the Polish Boy from Cleveland and the Ghost Chilli Burger (I can’t remember where from though). A lot of the shows I watch are American so they’ve finished. 2 Broke Girls and New Girl finish this week I think, The Newsroom finished a week or so ago but I have only seen about half of the finale as it was deleted by mistake.

Listening to I’ve had a worship CD on in the car and then flick over to the radio on the school run and things like that. I am really liking I Will Wait by Mumford and Sons so I think I might download Babel at some point. I really loved Sigh No More.

Thinking about Life, the universe and everything else lol. There is so much going on at the moment, the drama last week is still kind of playing on my mind but doing my best to hand it over to God and tell him he’s got the reins not me, I’ve got an envelope at home with some information in that I need to sort out but part of me is bricking it because it’s kind of to do with the future.

Loving the fact that autumn is coming and I can wear my woolly hat. It’s not quite cold enough for a proper coat but it’s been really wet this week so I’m carrying my pac-a-mac with me as it can be folded up and clipped onto my bag. Also that my Mum knows me that well she texted me to see if I want to go and see Phantom of the Opera at MK Theatre in a few weeks (Erm yes, did you need to ask?!)

Looking forward to seeing my Mum’s pictures from London today, her and her best friend Kathy went to the London Eye today. One day I want to go on it. I’m looking forward to the Macmillan Big Coffee Morning tomorrow that my friend and her Mum are organising. Their coffee morning is at Ravensden Village Hall but you can find your local coffee mornings here. Macmillan Cancer Support were an amazing helping my friend’s Grandma and Grandad when her Grandad was diagnosed with cancer. I do Race for Life for Cancer Research UK as they research into treatments and things like that for people with cancer, then Macmillan look after the person, their families and their wellbeing. I read today that with £25 raised that pays for a Macmillan Nurse to spend an hour with a family. For £61 a Macmillan financial advisor can help with things like managing bills etc. while you’re sick and bits like that. £350ish means that a hall can be hired for a year for self-help and support groups to meet on a regular basis.

Making me happy crocheting, I stopped doing it a few months back as my hand kept cramping up – my little finger would get stiff and gradually my whole hand would go funny. I’m currently just working on a really big granny square! I had started a blanket with lots of squares – I think I am still going to use them but sew them together to create something individual. This big square might take the feature in the middle or I’ll change wool on the way round and it will look like a border to the original square.

Inspiration from Freckled Italian and Sometimes Sweet

269: Romans 8:1

Last week was bad, it started Monday with one message, then by Wednesday it was a splattering of text messages, by Friday I’d left it and was getting on with what I had to do, by Saturday morning I was almost crippled by what was sent to me in a FB message.

We don’t need details here. Just that things were said, my self-esteem crashed through the floor and virtually into the earth’s crust  and I didn’t want to get out of bed.

Don’t ask me what happened other than seeing a message pop up of FB that a friend was ill and so she couldn’t help at The Fountain and the same friend texted me to apologise that Chris would have to work all day now because she was ill. I said these things happen – it’s not like you choose to be ill (MMM! I think I’ll have a cold today!)

Anyhoo so a combination of things including Our Sidekick being far too excited about life for 9am on a Saturday morning got me out of bed. I ended up helping out at The Fountain and having a good time. I then walked back to the car with my Mum and we grabbed some dinner for her and Dad on the way. I went out with JD and her friend and had an awesome evening watching Belleville Rendez-Vous at the Cycling Outside Cinema which was EPIC!

Following the preach at church, I went to the front to get prayed for and pulled faces at the drummer – it shouldn’t have put him off but he got all distracted and missed a beat which made me laugh (it’s always good to have a laugh when you start taking things too seriously!). I got prayed for (mentioned in yesterday’s post) and cried lots but they were good tears.

And this verse at the top came up. I think I let those words have power over me. I’ve been questioning all week if I’m a good friend and if standing up for what I believe in is the right thing. If I should not stand up for what I believe in so that my friend is happy. But then again my friend would understand why I am standing up for my beliefs and how hard it is and it wasn’t taken lightly as a decision but I did it.

Anyway! This is a new week, let’s get on with it rather than rehash and replay the past. Hard I know but I have no condemnation because I am in Christ – it’s not the easy route but it’s leading somewhere amazing.

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268: Dear Monday

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Joining with Megan from Happy Day.

Dear Chores, having spent probably about 8 or more hours this weekend doing various forms of you I’d really like some time off to recover.

Dear Lemon Curd, for ages I didn’t think I’d be able to make you by myself and yet somehow with a tiny bit of text message coaching from my Mum I managed to do it. In fact we tried Orange Curd as well which is more like a citrus curd as you still put a lemon in it.

Homemade Lemon Curd

Dear Chris, the above adventure in Orange Curd wouldn’t have happened without you suggesting it. Also I’d have probably not made the lemon curd had you not decided that we needed fruit on the way home. So thank you 🙂

Dear JD, I don’t think I explained the whole story but the fact that I was allowed to invade your outing on Saturday made me feel super spesh. So much has been going on this last week that I’m so blessed that I have friends like you. Thank you again. Merci mon Amis 😀

Dear Mini Fairy, yesterday you celebrated your birthday – how is it that you’re another year older? It’s feels like last week when I came to your dedication and your Momma asked me to be your Fairy Godmother. Next you’ll be packing up for uni! (Haha! Just kidding!)

Dear Tubi, how exactly are you old enough to be going away to uni in the next week. Then again how are you even old enough to come to the pub tomorrow for a “see you soon” drink. I remember holding you as a baby, helping you learn to walk, practice random spellings on a Tuesday sat at Grandma’s kitchen table. Anyway! Have an amazing time at university. Two things, don’t get too drunk in freshers week and find yourself a church early on in term – chances are they are adopting students and you’ll get free lunches (oh and make good friends etc!)

Dear Mr W, MC, and SS, thank you for praying for me in church yesterday. I thought I’d get one of you and then all three of you gathered round me and prayed for me it was epic! Especially when I was all a bit tearful and couldn’t really spit out what I wanted to say but somehow you all still managed to decode it which was awesome, thank you.

Dear Mummy V, Yesterday when I was being prayed for I had my eyes closed and was “looking” at the floor. I had my hands out in front of me with tears streaming down my face, I felt this hand in mine accompanied by some tissues. I kinda didn’t know it was you as I hadn’t seen you but then knew it was you in a way, it sounds kind of silly but I almost felt it was you.

Dear CJ, (because he gets two letters a la Today’s Letters) I swear you do enough dreaming for the both of us sometimes. I think you start with an idea and then think “What can I add to this to make it more crazy?”. So yeah, what’s the next plan?

265: Fill in The Blanks Friday


(Joining with Lauren from the Little Things We Do)

1.  Something I am very proud of is my cousin, like a lot of young people her age she is heading off to university in the next few weeks to study Psychology – rock on! I was telling Connect Group on Wednesday that I remember holding her the day she was born (or it was the day after she was born – I just remember she was little even in my 9 year old arms lol).

2.  My favourite thing about myself is my organisational skills. Okay so if you saw this picture from my Instagram or how messy my room is at the moment you wouldn’t believe me but I can juggle three diaries and I’m pretty good at making sure we’re in the right place at the right time.

3.  My favourite colour for fall is clothes wise is probably purple. Then again I don’t really dress in set colours for set seasons – I just go with what I want to wear each day (is that really boring?).

4. Something I’ve been learning lately is remember to trust in God, don’t stress about the future because he’s got the plans!

5. A book I am reading now/have read recently is “From Blah to Awe” by Jenna Lucado Bishop. I think it’s technically for teenage girls but I’m a girl and I’m in my twenties – I can still be a teen right? (When I’m not being a 26 year old Foster Mum lol)

6. My favourite Pandora Station is well, I don’t use Pandora. If I’m in the car chances are I either have a CD on or BBC Radio 2. Occasionally I flick over to BBC Radio 1 but it tends to be for the chart on a Sunday afternoon if we’re still in the car. At home I have UCB on and at work we have had BBC Radio 2 on this week at Scott Mills has been on the Breakfast show – I’m not sure if we’re going back to it next week when Nick Grimshaw takes over the Breakfast Show from Chris Moyles.

7.  This weekend I will be having lunch with my friend from school who I haven’t seen properly in about a year – I’ve bumped into him in town or while he’s at work but that’s about it. I’m then helping with the Mother/Daughter event at The Fountain.

264: Be Happy!

So true right now.

So many thoughts running through my head and trying to remember to hand the stresses over to God and not worry about things.

He’s got it in hand and he’s got a plan, the new job with come when it’s supposed to, the stuff with Our Sidekick will settle and be sorted when it needs to be. He’s got a plan, not to hurt me or cause me pain but to give me a hope and a future (paraphrased Jeremiah 29:11).

It’ll happen in time, for now I’ll dance to worship songs and sing at the top of my lungs while driving to and from work.

Then when I’m focusing I listen to the music. I pray for those around me. I pray for my friends and for those I’m having a falling out with.

Standing up for what you believe in, isn’t always the easiest route, the people who think know you might turn against you because you’re standing up and saying “this is what I believe”.

263: Guest Post: Desert Island *Books*

Sometimes an idea starts one way and transforms into something else and this is that idea. I asked Sally-Jayne via Twitter “Which five books would you take with you to a desert island”, I don’t listen to BBC Radio 4 but there is a whole show based on the premise which records would you take with you to a desert island (Can I just take my iPod and a generator?) so I thought about books – I love reading, I know quite a lot of people who also like reading so let’s do this thing.

summer reading

Which five books would I take to a desert island?

Tough one! I’m not really one for reading books again – there are so many books in the world that I haven’t read yet, that I never want to waste time reading books for a second time. So….I’d need to take five books I’ve never read that I know I would read. With only five there is no room for anything that might turn out to be a bit of a turkey.

The first one I would take is Révélation, which is the 4th book in the Twilight series (in French). It took me a long way to plough my way through the first three because I kept putting them on one side to read something faster paced. If I took it to a desert island I would have no excuse not to get on with it!

I think my second book would be Stephen King’s 11.22.63. I’m a big fan of Stephen King, and although some of his books have turned out to be disappointing, he has written some great ones and I have been told that this is one of his best. It’s on my TBR pile and it looks quite a chunky one so it should last me a while.

I’m going to cheat with my 3rd one and claim all of The Vampire Diaries as one book. Well, my biggest fear is having nothing to read, and you don’t want me having a panic attack now do you? I have Las Crónicas Vampiricas (in Spanish) on my shelf and I’m guessing they will be as slow-paced as Twilight so I’d need to be away from other reading material to stop myself putting them off.

After that I’d need something fast-paced again, so I’d pick up a Harlan Coben maybe. I have Miracle Cure on my TBR pile so that would do just fine.

For my last book I’d want something I could be confident would last me until I got rescued, so I think I would have to go with the OED.

To see what else I like to read, and for recommendations for books for all the family why not pay a visit to my blog?

262: To Step Out The Boat or Stay Put

I’ve been thinking about jobs, careers and things like that a lot recently. I’ve been in my current job for about four years and although it’s okay, it’s not what I want to be doing forever and eternity. I’ve polished up my CV and sent it out for a few jobs but nothing’s really happened.

I got thinking about self-employment and whether I had what it takes to be self-employed. It kind of runs in my veins with both of my Grandfathers being self-employed and my Mum and Uncle are both self-employed but at the same time do I have the motivation, direction and determination to be my own boss.

Staying Organized Drawers

Click for Source

While I work in an office I have a level of accountability to get on with my work and not get distracted by other things. If I worked at home would I get distracted by the cleaning and things like that? Then again by being at home to work would I get more stuff done because the house would need to be tidy for me to work. Then we have the whole thing about space – do I work in the shed? It’s got electric so it would just need tidying up and during the winter I could have a fan heater on and thermal pants if required.

Then there’s things like what do I need to do to get started, do I take a week off on holiday from my day job to see if I can behave myself and do the self-employed thing, do I work and save up money to create an emergency fund of sorts to top up my earnings to cover bills if I don’t have enough (then again as sensible from an economic/business mind, does this mean I’m not trusting that God would provide for me – then that’s a whole other theological conversation to be having for another day I think!)

Then I think about technology – will my MacBook cope with being used 20+ hours a week and if I need to replace it do I go for a MacBook (with Office for Mac as that seems to be a bit of a need) or do I replace it with a Windows based laptop with Office (guess which is the preference!)

This evening after work I went to chat to my Mum and she gave me a list of things to do and ideas to come up with. Some including getting extra IT qualifications under my belt so I can show what level of skill I have when it comes to things like Excel and Word rather than just saying I’m an Advanced User. I’ve done two free courses online this evening (two x 40 minute assessments that I did in about 20 minutes total) I could apply for the certificates but it was like £15 for two hard copies – can’t they just send a PDF so I could print it myself? Oh well.

If you’re self-employed how did you end up doing that rather than working for “the man”? Would you go back to working for “the man” or would you do your best to stay self-employed?

261: Dear Monday

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Joining with Megan from Happy Day.

Dear Chris, we’ve had disagreements this weekend but Saturday night’s mammoth chat unwrinkled some of them and will hopefully sort out the rest in time which is good. Thank you.

Dear Our Sidekick, we’re off to the dentist this afternoon – have you been cleaning your teeth?

Dear Colleagues, thank you for making my morning. Had it been any of you lot I would have probably done exactly the same.

 

Dear Lady who reversed into my car, I’m still not 100% sure how you couldn’t see my car while reversing out of your driveway – it’s mean and green you can’t miss it. Well clearly you really can’t miss it.

Dear JD, you start your new job tomorrow and I am stupidly excited for you! It’s about time too! Stupid economy meaning getting new jobs is super hard grr!

257: Found Here and There

Arrow - Click for Source

Found Here and There

I find lots of links around the web and want to share them but don’t want to spam your RSS, Twitter or Facebook with the links – this is my way to share them with you.
Discovered lots of new blogs recently…..(Click each badge to go the site – all the little badges belong to their owners not me!)

Covered in Grace

Covered in Grace

(EDIT: For some reason these pictures aren’t playing ball – they are centred in the editor but when it goes live they go back to the left – so hopefully it still looks pretty and they work even if they are playing musical chairs!)

Some blogs don’t have buttons (or I couldn’t find them!) but are still special!

…Then in October
Evan’s Kitchen Ramblings
1000 Things About Japan

It’s funny how lyrics can inspire us. I remember when I was a teen I had these ones written across my homework diary.

#unwritten #natashabedingfield #versagram @natashabedingfield
More recently I’ve been inspired by Emile Sande’s song Next To Me and I Will Wait by Mumford and Sons. There are whole chunks from Next To Me, luckily from I Will Wait they are a few less!)

So I’ll be bold
As well as strong
And use my head alongside my heart
So take my flesh
And fix my eyes
That tethered mind free from the lies

But I’ll kneel down
Wait for now
I’ll kneel down
Know my ground

Raise my hands
Paint my spirit gold
And bow my head
Keep my heart slow

I love music – I think if I lost my hearing it would be losing music that I’d hate the most – then again I could learn to play percussion like Evelyn Glennie and then I wouldn’t miss it so much. Anyway these are some songs that I am currently loving including…….

Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield (Blast from The Past!)
Forget – Lianne La Havas
I Will Wait – Mumford and Sons (I love this post about Mumford by Oh, Sweet Joy)
Roll Away Your Stone/Little Lion Man – Mumford and Sons (They are awesome I can’t help it lol)
I Found Jesus – Delirious (I was given a CD as part of The Word’s First Birthday party on Saturday. This was on it!)

This entry was posted in Found.

256: The C(hristmas) Word

I know I know. The schools have only just gone back and therefore it’s too early to mention Christmas but I wanted to share what I’ve been upto. I picked these little kits up when I was at Hoobycraft with Mum and I’m working on them as part of Christmas presents.

Step One - put in temporary stitches

It's a reindeer - the bow is almost complete.

Completed Reindeer - One Down Two to Go

Number one completed!!

Number Two started - Gingerbread all the way

About a third through - kind of taking shape

255: September 11th

(This post is a bit rambly – if you don’t get what I mean to say please let me know rather than just walking away from the whole post).

On Thursday, I stood in the bathroom washing my hair and thinking over blog post ideas. I thought about writing about my attempt to lose some weight and that I’d post it today. Because Friday was Fill In The Blanks and Monday would be Dear Monday. So Tuesday was the next free day.

Then it dawned on me what the date was. It had been appearing on orders and documents at work and I kept realising how close it was to 11 years ago. On September 11th 2001 at 8.46am (EST) the first hijacked plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, plane two hit the South Tower at 9.03am. (that’s 1.46pm and 2.03pm BST)

Back in 2010, I recounted where I was and at what time – I don’t need to repost it you can click the link but I did quote this speech:

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion… love actually is all around.

Hugh Grant as The Prime Minister, Love Actually (2003)

It’s cheesy. It’s an opening speech to a chick flick but it’s true. I don’t think any of those calls coming out of the planes or the towers were messages of hate. I only have to hear them mention 9/11 on things like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and I turn into a weepy wreck. I watched an interview with a Paralympic athelete who lost her legs in the July 7th attacks and I nearly cried. Not tears of pity but tears of pride. She’d taken something that changed her life and made a positive out of it.

Also on Thursday our friend’s son came to hang out while she worked at The Fountain. Little One (LO) and Our Sidekick are like two peas in a pod. Our Sidekick looks out for him like a little brother. As Our Sidekick has put it in the past “He’s (LO) my brother from another mother”. And the way Our Sidekick looked after him made my heart swell, I looked out the kitchen window and LO was sat on the edge while Our Sidekick help him put on his shoes then lift him down.

Another thing on Thursday, Chris and Our Sidekick were having a disagreement and I’d had enough. We’d gone to Mums to use some sticky back plastic to cover Our Sidekick’s history book and they kicked off in the living room so I basically told them to get out – my parents were trying to work or do some bits before going away and they were disagreeing and causing stress. I shut the door behind them, knelt down on the dining room floor next to the chair my dad was sat in and just threw my arms round him and had a bit of a cry (like 5 tears and a big sniff lol). He joked about how I messed up his shirt and it was all wet (just one giant tear drop shape lol)

We hear about death and destruction on the news and we read about break downs of celebrity marriages in the magazines. Why is it so rare that we celebrate love and happiness?

So tell someone you love them today. Tell them why they make your life that bit better. Tell them why you’d miss them if they were gone from your life. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. We don’t know what next week will bring. So don’t put it off. Tell your husband, wife, brother, sister, mother, father, cousin, aunt, uncle and grandparents.

Hold the door open for someone and wish them a good day. Say hi to the cashier in the supermarket and wish them a good day. Let a car out in front of you rather than just driving past (obviously  if it’s safe to do so etc)

So who will I be telling today…..

My Dad give me these hugs. They are super hugs. They don’t fix the problem or make it go away but the hugs calm me and make me feel like I can take on the world and I can deal with it.

My Mum‘s hugs do the same and she helps me to formulate a plan. Boys – food = grumpy. Food + boys = chilled household. Easy equation right but sometimes I forget it.

(even my brothers hugs work but they are few and far between!)

JD, she reminds me that as quirky as I am she fits with me like a puzzle piece and we do quirky together!

Hazel Fairy, thank you for celebrating my crazy, talking in code and setting up our new girlie group (That kicked off last night!)

Sooz, Caz and Mrs W, thank you for being inspiring women of God.

 

Have a great day lovely people of the Internet. Be blessed in whatever you’re up to and make sure you hug at least one person. Do it for me please.

254: Dear Monday

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Joining with Megan from Happy Day.

Dear Legs, clearly I haven’t got the hang of this exercise thing. I spent most of Friday semi-crippled. I kept wandering around my legs were so sore.

Dear Zoza, thank you for the epic tea. You made Tagliatelle Carbornara for Lil Sis’s birthday meal. It was awesome. You, me, Lil Sis and GG ate in the garden enjoying what remained of the sunshine. We then watched Did You Hear About The Morgans? Part way through you made popcorn and hot chocolate – you were on a mission.

Dear Lil Sis, Happy Birthday gorgeous one! It was so lovely to have tea and a DVD night with you, Zoza and GG and then breakfast and a trip to The Word with you and Zoza on Saturday morning – it was awesome! Hope you had a good time with your friends in the evening.

Dear Last Night of The Proms, One year I’ll be there in person – I really want to be at the front waving a flag like a mad lady! I think if Our Sidekick is still with us I’ll have to take his Kenya flag with me and wave that with one hand and my England flag with the other hand! One day I’ll be there! One Day I will!!

Dear Girlies, I can’t wait to see you in about a months time – I’ve missed you soooo much!!

Dear Rickie and Tim, thank you for thinking of me on Saturday – First due to my knowledge of particular motorcycle riding TV cookery chefs and then for sending me an actual picture – I was geeking out at Lil Sis’s birthday breakfast/brunch thing and had to explain why I was getting so excited over a tweet!!

251: Fill In The Blanks Friday

1.  My favourite grade in school was  (in the UK it’s years rather than grades) I think my choice would be Year 11 – I’d be sitting my GCSEs but I’d be able to change my future and pick different A Levels. I was also helping with the youth group at church and although it crossed my mind about doing

2.  My favorite teacher was Miss Cafolla (Italian Teacher), Mr Broom and Mrs Brannen (Drama) or Miss Woodcock (Music) because I adored learning Italian until I got to Sixth Form and just couldn’t hack the pace – you were expected to go from a GCSE student who looked up most words in the dictionary to virtually fluent in the space of about 6 months and it didn’t happen for me – I would get muddled between the Italian I knew, the French that I’d been learning since Year 5 and the English I’d been talking my whole life. Miss Cafolla was an awesome teacher who always had time for my silly questions!

Mr Broom, Mrs Brannen and Miss Woodcock are in there because without them I’d have probably been kicked out of Sixth Form. I really messed up when it came to my Year 12 exams – I was great in the classes but put me in an exam and I lost the plot and I couldn’t articulate what I wanted to say. These three teachers let me stay, I had to understand that I’d probably not get higher grades than Ds at a push but they’d keep me, rather than me leave or start over. Two of the three teachers have either left teaching or moved on to different schools – I think number 3 is still at my Upper School.

3.  The highest level of education I have completed is a BA (Honours) Degree in Performing Arts and Professional Practice. I’d like to go back and do an MA in Media (Mass Communications) or try and get on an Anthropology course but they are just dreams.  

4. School lunches for me were usually cooked dinners from the canteen. When I was at Upper School I’d buy my sandwiches at break time so that I had time to eat them and get to whichever music practice was on (apart from Tuesday or Wednesday when it was trampolining and I’d eat lunch at break time!)

5. The amount of money you’d have to pay me to go back to high school would be cover my household bills etc and give me some pocket money so I can still look after the boys etc and then I’d really consider it – okay you were worrying about exams or which university you were going to go to but life in general was so much easier then!

6. A few things that will always remind me of going back to school are wearing new school shoes round the house to wear them in, trying on school uniform in the middle of August (my Mum was often on a mission!) and older kids getting exam results (that way I knew September was coming!)  

7.  The first day of school was always incredibly boring! You’d have to copy your timetable to your homework diary, when you got to Sixth Form you had to make sure there were no clashes due to your choices. I didn’t have this problem but my friend who was doing 5 A Levels (I was on 3 but the average was 4) always had clashes!

250: Found Here and There

I find lots of links around the web and want to share them but don’t want to spam your RSS, Twitter or Facebook with the links – this is my way to share them with you.

I love black forest gateau and these chocolate trees just add something else. Thank you to Jes at The Militant Baker. She’s also working her way through a list called “25 Things Fat People Shouldn’t Do” – I am feeling the urge to join in.

I’ve been inspired by Sarah’s “How to Make Your Blog More User Friendly” list and so I’m working on implementing some of them as and when I can.

Some of these look super creepy but it also looks kind of fun in a strange way (am I wierd? – please tell me I’m not) Originally seen on Sarah Rooftops who saw it Nile Guide. (Image from the Nile Guide post – originally from Flickr).

JD posted this on Facebook yesterday afternoon and I love the idea. The Bedford Open Air Cycle Powered Cinema – I love the idea of going but first I’d have to get my bike to town which could be a challenge in itself! I might have to borrow my brother’s bike as I know it’s working well and doesn’t weight as much as mine!

Going to have to also add this film to the list. Liberal Arts stars Josh Radnor (Ted from HIMYM) and Elizabeth Olsen (Mary-Kate and Ashley’s little sister – or so I’m told!).

This entry was posted in Found.

249: Wednesday aka First Day Back

This morning I woke up at something around 7:30. Completely unlike me but then I heard the computer downstairs boot up. Good Morning World!

73/365: Back to School

Then I remembered that it was the first day of school and got excited – well I was excited but Our Sidekick wasn’t. I pestered him about making sure that his hair was combed and that he had everything ready (like my parents did to me and my brother every year!)

I had time to wash my hair which is virutally unheard of in the mornings unless I have a bunch of time to waste lol. I brushed my hair and we got ready to set off – I wasn’t sure how busy it would be – the school is near my route to work but not quite on the route so I’ve never seen the traffic in full swing (and also it was only set year groups going back today the rest go back tomorrow).

Payard Croissants

Before we left the house I made a deal with Our Sidekick that if there was time we’d go via the supermarket and get croissants for breakfast but unfortunately there wasn’t time. Don’t worry he’d already had a bowl of cereal because my idea came after his breakfast slot lol. I told him that I’d get them so he could have it as a snack when he got in from school or have it for dessert (I know it’s not really a dessert but it’s pastry and somehow works right?).

We left about 8:20am to make sure that Our Sidekick was at school by 8:50am as requested by the school (Although registration doesn’t start until 9.05am). I dropped Our Sidekick off at school and drove the rest of the way to work – I didn’t have work but I wanted to make sure that it was possible for me to drop him off and still make it to work for 9am.

While we were in the car Our Sidekick asked me four times in the car he asked me “Do I really have to go today?”. Sorry lovely you do have to go to school until you’re sixteen and the government say that you can leave school!

I had this whole plan that I’d take the morning off so that if there were any issues then we had time to resolve them and I didn’t have to worry about being late for work. What’s funny is that I had dropped him off and everything waws resolved by 8:50ish. I popped to the supermarket to get the croissants and now I’m at The Fountain hanging out with Chris rather than going home to use our internet connection and my poorly MacBook. I got this error the other night.

 

247: Review – August

Review 2012

Books

We Can’t Go Home Again by Max Dubinsky
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (In Progress)
Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs

Films
Shipping News
Batman Forever
Ice Age 3: Dawn of The Dinosaurs
The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas (just the end as I hadn’t seen it before)
Raising Helen
Brave

Places
Milton Keynes

The Month in Bullets

  • Our Sidekick starts Upper School in September. I’ve been doing my best to get everything sorted. I am a bit concerned stuff won’t be ready but hopefully we’ll get there in the end.
  • At the beginning of August I helped Hels with her Baby Shower – I had meant to take pictures but I had issues with my phone that weekend (after I dropped it!). Baby is due at any moment which is super exciting!
  • It was a big Birthday for my Mum this year so we had a party – I had the day off work and spent like 14 hours at my Mum’s house either setting up for the party, being at the party or helping tidy up from the party. I had a lovely time apart from my headache. It was lovely to work on a project with my Mum, I think if we were to work together on a longer term basis we might get on each others nerves on our bad days but hopefully our good days would balance them out and it would be awesome.
  • We went to a picnic along the river to celebrate two of my friends birthdays. There were various jokes about how old people were getting. I still think that age is just a number after a certain point – when you look at mine and Chris’s friendship group the majority of our friends were in Middle/Secondary School by the time we were in nappies lol.
  • I had my Mid-Year Review at work – it wasn’t so good but I am determined to get it fixed!!
  • For August, My Mum had been super busy running her own business so I ended up helping her with bits and pieces – mainly answering the phone and data entry but hopefully it helped a bunch.
  • I went to Park Run twice. My average time is probably around the 53 minute mark with my personal best being 51 minutes. I think as it cools down a bit I might do better because the heat won’t be so unbearable also running with AndyL seems to make a difference because he bullies me into running – like a good bullying rather than a bad bullying. I think also my competitive streak comes out (if I have one!) and that helps me to want to keep going – especially when I see JenJen at the finish line and as I get closer I can hear her cheering me on. I think in comparison to the other runners there’s like a 20 minute gap but I want to make that smaller – whether that takes a few weeks or a few months I want to make it smaller. I will get there!
  • I “invested” in a Kinect Sensor for the XBox so that I can play the game that Chris bought me weeks ago. I’ve had a couple of goes and found that I’m quite good at Tai Chi – that’s good for days where I’m relaxing more than working out and then Cardio stuff when I want to push myself some more – I think it is making a difference but I guess only time will tell.
  • On Bank Holiday Monday, Our Sidekick and I went to see Brave. I made a little friend in the cinema – she was sat two seats away from us. Her Mum popped out to buy popcorn and my Little Friend got in a state and started to cry, I moved along a few seats and chatted to her to keep her occupied then we watched the trailers together while waiting for Our Sidekick and her Mum to reappear. Following that we grabbed some lunch and then went to Grafham Water for a walk. We started at 3:15 at Mander Park and finally got back at about 7:15pm although it did spit a bit the main rain held off until we got home and then the heavens opened.

245: #24hrGaming Marathon


(My brother and his best friend)

I don’t tend to blog on weekends normally as I use that time to get ready for the next week but this weekend is special. My brother and his best friend are doing a sponsored 24 hour gaming marathon to raise money for The Fountain. As I write this at my Mum’s PC (I needed to use her printer quickly!) they are chattering away about weapons and tactics for the game – I just have no idea what they are playing.

If you are able to sponsor them you can do so here. If you want more information about The Fountain go here or to send them encouragement you can tweet them at @kratos2466 and @azouk112 be sure to include the #tag #24hrgaming so we can keep track of them.

 

Thank you!!!

244: Fill in The Blanks Friday

Fill In The Blanks - 31st August

(Joining with Lauren from The Little Things We Do)

1.  Over this labor day weekend I will be well it’s a normal weekend here in the UK so I won’t have Monday off (although we had a bank holiday last weekend so this week was 4 days woot!). My brother Rich and his best friend Aaron are doing a 24 hour Gaming Marathon for The Fountain. It kicks off at 9am tomorrow and finishes at 9am Sunday. Also this weekend we say goodbye to a friend S as he moves on from working at The Fountain which is really sad but we’re having a party tomorrow. Erm what else am I doing – I think I’m helping out at The Fountain but I’m not 100% sure.

2.  With the political debates going on right now, my thoughts are again Americanism lol. Erm Obama vs Romney as far as I know right? The thing that bugs me about politics is too much off the time they just point the finger and tell us what the other party didn’t do rather than what they are going to do for me. I’ve read about the lengths that the Suffragettes went to, to get Women the vote so even if I don’t necessarily agree with all the politicians say I am going to use that vote to try and change my country for the better – however that comes.

3.  Today I am super excited that I get some time to myself this evening lol. I think I’m going to start with going to my Mum’s to watch another episode of Newsroom. Have you been watching it?.

4. The best thing I’ve cooked recently was gluten free pancakes. I’ve not really cooked that much – I’ve either not been home to eat, we’ve been lazy or Chris has cooked lol. Yesterday we had cooked chicken from the deli counter at the supermarket and oven chips yesterday. It was supposed to be like supermarket version of Our Sidekick’s takeaway favourite in the hope that it was a bit healthier lol.

5. The last thing I bought was chicken and chips yesterday. Then again shortly it’ll be my lunch.

6. The best movie I saw this summer was  I haven’t actually seen that many this summer – life kept misbehaving! We did however see Brave last weekend which I really liked. I started watching Precious earlier this week as it was on iPlayer but the Mum just kept bugging me – why do people think it’s okay to beat their kids? (Then again Gabourey Sidibe is an awesome inspiring actress)

7.  The best book I read this summer was erm I don’t know – I’ve been trying to cut down my “in progress” pile as somehow I managed to get to 12 in progress! I even dug out my copy of House and Philosophy in the hope that I’d finish reading it but I’ve not been in the frame of mind to get my head round philosophy. In the last few weeks I finished We Can’t Go Home Again by Max Dubinsky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky and now I’m reading Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs. I will cut down that list!

243: 100 Words: Week 56

100 Word Challenge
I haven’t taken part in 100 Words in ages but I decided I needed to get involved again. Starting this week! You can join in here

The prompt for this week is … being clear is essential to ….

“I’ve told you before” she repeated louder than before “Being clear is essential to good understanding” then she left the room.

Clearly she needed to be more understanding and clearer in her instructions. How was I supposed to make it all the way there and back with little more than a packed lunch, a flask of tea and a pair of roller skates. I’ve heard of mission impossible but never thought it would happen to me, especially in my first week Maybe it was some kind of initiation. You survive this and you get to stay, fail and you’re fired.

242: The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge

On Saturday I couldn’t go to Bedford Park Run as Chris had the car and I hadn’t woken up in time to walk there (or catch the bus via town). I caught up with blog reading and found this on Kellypuff’s blog. She posted this list (found here).

Reading at the bus stop

I didn’t discover The Gilmore Girls until recently when repeats of episodes appeared in the schedules on the TV Guide – so I’ve only seen a couple of episodes but really lilke it. Someone has compiled a list of all book/movie references Rory makes and issued a reading challenge.

So here we go – the bolded ones I’ve already read. Where applicable the ones in italic are in progress. (I got to the bottom of the list and was surprised at how few I’d actually read!)

1984 by George Orwell
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
The Art of Fiction by Henry James
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Babe by Dick King-Smith
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
The Bhagava Gita
The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
Candide by Voltaire
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
Christine by Stephen King
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père
Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Cujo by Stephen King
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Deenie by Judy Blume
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
The Divine Comedy by Dante
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Don Quijote by Cervantes
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
Eloise by Kay Thompson
Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
Emma by Jane Austen
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Ethics by Spinoza
Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Extravagance by Gary Krist
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury1984 by George Orwell
Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (TBR) – read
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
Fletch by Gregory McDonald
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy – started and not finished
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
The Graduate by Charles Webb
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (TBR)
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry (TBR)
Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
Henry V by William Shakespeare
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III (Lpr)
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
Howl by Allen Gingsburg
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
The Iliad by Homer
I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Love Story by Erich Segal
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Marathon Man by William Goldman
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Night by Elie Wiesel
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Old School by Tobias Wolff
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Othello by Shakespeare
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Property by Valerie Martin
Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Quattrocento by James Mckean
A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien
R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
Sexus by Henry Miller
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Shane by Jack Shaefer
The Shining by Stephen King
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
Songbook by Nick Hornby
The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
Stuart Little by E. B. White
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Time and Again by Jack Finney
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Unless by Carol Shields
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

241: Liebster Blogger Award

Liebster Blogger Award

The Liebster Blog Award is given to bloggers by bloggers. It is a way to acknowledge each other and say “you’re doing a great job”. It is for blogs with 200 or less followers, so it’s also a great way to spread the word about smaller blogs and get them more readers and followers! When you receive the award, you post 11 random facts about yourself and answer 11 questions from the person(s) who nominated you. You pass the Award onto 11 other blogs (make sure you tell them you nominated them!) and ask them 11 questions. You’re not allowed to nominate the blog(s) who nominated you! (To get the button, right click the picture on my page and save the picture to your computer. You can then upload to your blog.)

Thank you to Karen from Dinosaur Superhero Mummy for giving me this award. Thank you Karen for popping by and commenting on my blog posts!

Random facts about me:

  1. I have a younger brother but he’s taller than me.
  2. I am 26, married and Foster Mum to a 13 year old aka Our Sidekick.
  3. I play bass in the church worship band
  4. I’ve been going to church pretty much my whole life.
  5. I attend Russell Park Baptist Church in Bedford and love it!
  6. I love musical theatre. My favourite musical ever is We Will Rock You or Les Miserables.
  7. I love reading, I am a bookworm! (16 books this year so far, 12 in progress or something crazy like that!)
  8. I am a film geek too. I’d pick Episodes 4, 5, 6, over 1, 2, 3. I prefer Raiders of the Lost Ark or Temple of Doom over Crystal Skull. I’d pick TNG, DS9 or Voyager over TOS – don’t ask me why I just would.
  9. My current favourite shows are Ace of Cake reruns and Hart of Dixie. Also been enjoying the new series of Who Do You Think You Are and Hairy Dieters (basically the Hairy Bikers cook more yummy food but the emphasis this time is it still being yummy but being healthier for you)
  10. I am attempting to run a 5k without stopping. Currently I end up walking chunks but I figure that if I keep going and keep trying I’ll be fine. I read blogs like Miss Zoot’s blog and she’s training for an Ultra Marathon – if she can do the number of miles she does in a week then once I get my butt in gear and get on with it I will rock the place lol.
  11. I work in Customer Service. Hopefully one day I’ll work in Social Media or Children’s Ministry but they are all somewhere in the future maybe.

I am nominating these wonderful blogs for this award:

  1. Rachelle at Chellelandia (My Little Blogger!!)
  2. Kendra at Like A Bird Blog (My Little Blogger!!)
  3. Becca at Just Looking…
  4. Lydia at La Petite Lydia
  5. Lily at Thinking Out Loud
  6. Emily at Emily Jane
  7. Kim at Skates and Stitches
  8. Ruby at Sew, Cook, Create!
  9. Steph at Second Hand SuperHero
  10. Jake and Megan at The Nerd Nest
  11. Angela at Project Everest

Questions I Was Asked:

What would you do first if you won a million dollars pounds?
Give a fairly big donation to The Fountain, I’d like to see Chris’s face when he opened the envelope and saw the cheque – I think I’d need to make sure someone could catch him when he fainted from shock!

What is your favorite room in your home?
When it’s tidy I think it would be the kitchen, there’s lots of space to dance around while doing the washing up and plenty of space when there’s more than two or three people in there. I think I’d like to add a island sort of thing in the middle of the room but I think it would just acquire more junk lol.

What did you want to be when you were a little kid?
I could never make up my mind! I was so indecisive! Vet, Paramedic, Doctor, Lawyer, Storm Chaser, (In Upper School when the chose was getting closer) Forensic scientist/ME or Paramedic, writer. Then through university I wanted to do something Sociology based or be a forensic anthropologist by which point it was kind of too late to change my mind and start over.

What is your favorite book to read to your child(ren)?
Our Sidekick loves allsorts – he’s 13 now and I think he should be reading himself but I think he loves that, that slot of time is just him and me or Chris and it’s doing something that he likes and feels loved when it happens. We’re currently reading The Borrowers but it’s kind of stalled with the school holidays and not so regular bed times.

What is your favorite color?
Green I think – not a lime green probably a dark green/forest green.

Which kid’s show do you wish was cancelled?
My Phone Genie or something like that – it’s one that Our Sidekick likes – it would be okay but the two main characters are so annoying.

What is your favorite holiday?
I think Christmas because life stops completely and it gives us chance to catch up as a family. I get to see my cousins without having to charge onto the next thing.

What is the most expensive gift you have given someone?
I don’t actually know. I bought Our Sidekick a new phone about 5 or 6 months after he came to live with us so he had a bit more freedom but I don’t know other than that.

Are you a good dancer?
I’d like to think so but I don’t actually know. I managed to pass my dance modules at university so I figure I was at least a bit good even if I wasn’t the next Bausch lol.

How many kids did you think you would have as a child?
One girl and one boy, like my parents – they had me and my brother lol. So far I’m a Foster Mum to our Foster Son.

What do you look forward to most about fall?
Kicking my way through the dry leaves on the ground and jumping in puddles.

Questions for my Nominees:

  1. If you could go to the airport now and get on a plane to anywhere in the world where would it be?
  2. What is your favourite TV show?
  3. How many books do you read in a year?
  4. I love to read, what would you recommend me?
  5. What’s your favourite song at the moment?
  6. What’s your favourite song ever?
  7. Do you have a favourite film?
  8. When did you last go to the cinema to see a film?
  9. Do you like musicals? Do you have a favourite?
  10. Do you like receiving letters by snail mail?
  11. What’s your dream job?

240: Dear Monday

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Joining with Megan from Happy Day.

Dear Chris, Sometimes you make comments and then I know that you’re reading my blog other times I wonder if I post these encouragements and then they disappear into the ether – can you let me know? Semaphore or Morse is fine but just give me a heads up so I can load up Wikipedia to decode what you’re saying to me!

Dear Dad, You wrote me and email on Friday to pass on some information about running kit and some other bits. You signed off with “Keep it up v. proud Dad”. Six small words and I was almost a quivering heap in front of Chris’s iMac! Thank you for encouraging me even when I’m being a bit barmy and thank you for hugging me when live doesn’t go quite right. Thank you for giving me those hugs that make me feel like although the problem hasn’t gone away, I can take it on and you’ll be there to be a sounding board. Thank you Dad I love you.

Dear World, Do you have those days where something is said to you or something happens and you change the way you think or the way you do something? I’d like to hear about your stories – please let me know.

Dear Hels, I am so excited for you – Baby is due soon – I just want him to hurry up so that we can all meet him!!

Dear Mr J (because he gets two letters a la Today’s Letters), on Saturday you DJ’d at J’s wedding – you did awesome! I had a great time and I got to meet @Mellywho.

237: Fill In The Blanks Friday

 Fill In The Blanks - 24th August

(Joining with Lauren from The Little Things We Do)

  1. My favorite thing to do on Friday is when I finish work, collect JD from work or from her house and then head over to MK to go to the cinema – usually preceded by dinner.
  2. This Friday I am doing stuff! After work I went to the park and went for a run/walk. I managed to do 1.84km and it was probably about an equal split between walking and running which means I think I am getting better.  I came home and grabbed a shower – when I flooded the floor I remembered that I needed to replace the tube that runs from the shower head to the taps. I got dressed and mopped up the water (ended up with a really wet knee on my jeans lol). When Our Sidekick got home we headed to The Fountain to collect Chris from work. I then spent the evening writing blog posts, emails and generally not doing any chores lol.
  3. The best thing about a weekend is when you have Monday off as well because it’s a Bank Holiday! Woot!
  4. Now that summer is almost over, I’m feeling nervous and excited. With August coming to an end it means that Our Sidekick is starting Upper School and I’m a bit nervous if we’ve got everything sorted and things like that. I’m also excited because it’s a huge step for him and minus the bullying I enjoyed Upper School. (And now that term is almost started I don’t feel so silly about planning Christmas things now lol)
  5. The best thing I did this summer was going on holiday with Chris and Our Sidekick (You can read the posts here).
  6. The thing I’m looking forward to about fall is the temperature cooling down a bit now I’m getting into running – last week it was too hot and I thought I was going to die or something equally drastic lol. I had a lay down on the sofa after running and two hours later I realised I hadn’t really done anything other than 2 and a bit laps of the park and then crashed in a heap at home.
  7. If I had to be stuck in one season for the rest of my life, I would choose Spring or Fall – when it’s sunny but not too hot so you need a t-shirt or vest top on but also not so cold that you need a big wooly jumper on and you feel like the Michelin Man!   

236: Results Day….

10 years ago this week I got my GCSE results. I remember because I was on the way to Soul Survivor with the church youth group, I also remember because my Mum phoned me to tell me my results (The problem with being on a bus with about 50 young people is that you can’t hear yourself think let alone compute what you’re being told!).

Results Reader Board

(Our results came in a brown envelope with our names on it rather than on a board! Click for Source)

8 years ago last week I got my A Level results, Yeah that wasn’t so good. I got my results and I knew they wouldn’t be great so I left school pretty much straight after getting my results – I didn’t want to hang around while everyone was celebrating their As and Bs. I got home and stood in the dining room with my results on the sideboard in front of me. I can’t remember how it exactly went down but I think my Mum asked me was I okay and that was it – I was mess of tears and stress. I’d heard all morning on the TV and Radio about how many people were getting great grades and they were exactly what they wanted – but what about me, I’d got Es and Us. The chances of me getting into university were about a billion to one or something crazy.

I pulled myself together and called Clearing and somehow got a place on my first choice course – it was a Foundation Degree with the option to do a third year to make it a BA (Hons) I was doing what I wanted to – I was going to university and I was going to get a degree, it wouldn’t take any longer than normal just it would have a different title for a little while.
4 weeks ish later I started university and met Kewey, LB and S.

5 years ago, I handed in my dissertation, turned 21, got married, moved from my Parents into a house with Chris, graduated and then unemployed, pretty much in that order in fact.

I had a few temp jobs then….

4 years ago I got the job I’m currently still in.

10 months ago I became a mother of sorts. At first it was a temporary arrangement but now it’s heading towards being all official. I’m a Foster Mum to a 13 year old.

Did I ever expect that life would go this way? No not at all. If you’d asked my 15 year old self was I going to marry Chris, I’d have probably told you, you were a little crazy. He was my best friend – wouldn’t that be weird? (It was only when I was in my late teens that it finally occurred – your best friend can be your boyfriend/husband too!!! It does happen!!)

If you’d asked my 16 year old self when I got those GCSE results what I was doing next I didn’t really know. My school were a bit sucky when it came to guidance and in the end I pretty much went along the list of A Level choices and picked what I wanted to do.

When I was at university in my second year I also studied for an AS Level in Sociology. I’m not 100% sure what it was that interested me about Sociology but I wanted to learn more and I was hooked. I think if I had the choice to pick my A Levels and university course knowing what I know now (but still have the same experiences and still meet the uni girls!) I’d probably pick something Sociology or Anthropology based – I think it would have been harder work but I think I’d benefit more in the long run.

For now I focus on being a foster Mum and helping Chris be the best he can be when it comes to The Fountain. Who knows maybe one day I’ll be able to go back to University and retrain – for now I’m here and I’m going to enjoy it.

235: Fostering: School Supplies

"I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils..."

Earlier this week I ordered Our Sidekick’s school uniform – admittedly I probably should have started earlier but I wasn’t in the best of ways last week and I needed help to measure Our Sidekick as it was usually my Mum who measured me and my brother for uniform (and for my graduation gown!)

Something about that prompted one of the early scenes in You’ve Got Mail. Don’t ask me why it just pinged in there and lodged itself there – so I had to write about it!)

“Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms.”

Okay so I’ve never been to New York, hopefully it’ll happen but for now you just have to imagine okay?

I have a weakness for pens and cute notebooks I can’t help it. I am doing my best to ignore them and just get the school supplies that Our Sidekick needs for school (which seems easier said than done right now!). I’ve managed to order some of his uniform and as long as it arrives in time then we’re okay – I guess if it’s not that simple I might have to consider a road trip to the company who sell the uniform and see if I can collect it, if it looks like Our Sidekick isn’t going to get it before term starts – then again maybe I have to ask my manager for a favour and see if I can book a collection of the uniform on our next day courier account (He’s sympathetic to the new parent thing but I think I might be pushing it a bit lol).

There’s another time when I think of You’ve Got Mail, When Chris starts talking about coffee I always think of this quote – I can’t help it! Then again I feel like I should replace the brand name in the middle with The Fountain. Is it possible to commit treason by thought? Then again that brings in a whole reference about George Orwell and the Thought Police. See this is just how crazy it is in my brain sometimes – I don’t know how anyone puts up with me sometimes lol.

234: Bedford Park Run. Wk2

Running

Found here

On Saturday I did Park Run again. I say run but between the heat and my ankle just being funky I pretty much walked a bunch of it – I still came in under an hour and surprised both JenJen and AndyL when AndyL joked about sprinting and then I went for it. I have no idea where it came from but i charged like a mad lady for about 50-100m and then slowed down. They were both surprised given that I attempt to do the 5k and I’m dying before we’ve even reached the 2k marker and yet I managed to pull this sprint out of now here lol. AndyL said that he thought he’d just have to jog or run to my sprint but he was almost going full pelt as well (Okay maybe he was exaggerating but I know I’m going at my full pelt when my vision goes funky – like the floor is bouncing lol)

I got home and collapsed on the sofa – I was knakered again – I’m sure it gets better eventually but I think I am a person who wants results straight away so I want to step on the scales in the morning and see that something I did the day before did make a difference and I’m heading for my weight target. But then like yesterday it hadn’t moved and I got really down hearted (which probably in a round about way spurred me on to go on Saturday and do what I could to run like a mad woman to the finish line lol. We turn the final corner and I can see the finish line and I go for it. We’d lost AndyL by the time we were getting to the finish line but me and JenJen were around near the finish line together I think. Then again by the time I got to the finish line I thought my lung might explode (Ah the joys of asthma! Hopefully with the weight loss my Asthma might get better too).

233: Dear Monday

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Joining with Megan from Happy Day.

Dear CJ, thank you for getting me a glass of water during the worship time at church. It was so warm this weekend and I’m not entirely sure I’d been drinking enough. Normally leaning against the wall is enough to cool off but even that wasn’t helping yesterday.

Dear K, thank you for acting silly with me up the front of church when B asked for volunteers. I ended up playing Jesus in the sketch that we did about Jesus feeding the Five Thousand and thank you for rescuing my before I squished Little W. (Did you know it appears in all four gospels?)

Dear Big W, you rock my socks! You poked me in the back in church yesterday to tell me about your wobbly tooth – it’s your first one so you’re really excited – how did you get so grown up already?

Dear Zoza, you’re back in Bedford – I saw you arrive at church and I wanted to put down my guitar and hug you. Unfortunately we were having a run through and I couldn’t leave the stage but I came and grabbed you for a high speed hug just before I was called back to the stage again lol.

Dear Friends, I am so excited – my first post for HUGStronger goes live today – so stupidly excited (It goes live at 10am EDT – so that’s like 3pm BST). Be sure to read it here (Also read other posts by the team they are inspiring)

hugstronger

Dear CJ, (You get two letters a la Today’s Letters) I really hope you feel better soon, You’ve had to have gluten based foods this week before your blood test to prove whether or not you’re gluten intolerant. I need to read up more about it in case you are gluten intolerant or if you’re coeliac.

230: Fill In The Blanks…

Fill In The Blanks

(Joining with Lauren from The Little Things We Do)

1.  The best thing to do on a hot day is hang out in the shade in the garden or hang out in the living room with the patio doors open as wide as they go.
2.   The best place to be on a hot day is   okay well it kind of depends on how hot we’re talking because heatwave hot here in the UK you just sit still and do as little as possible lol. Then again I work in an air con-ned office so it’s nice and cold even when it’s roasting outside!
3.  The best thing to eat on a hot day is ice cream, ice pops or BBQ food – it somehow works – hot weather = BBQ Time.
  
4. Hot days make me tired and thirsty and sometimes grumpy because I get all of the above!     
5. My go to uniform on a warm summer day is  t-shirt and shorts. Today it’s a vest top with a blouse over the top so that I’ve got my shoulders covered (Something about working in a vest top is only when it’s really really hot and I have to be at work and even then I’d rather wear a T-shirt).
6. The scent that reminds me of summer is  strawberries, the salty smell that you get at the beach and the smell of a swimming pool.
7.  My favorite thing about summer is picnics in the park with friends, BBQs after work, hanging out chatting with friends and family in the garden while watching the evening come in. This year it was watching the London 2012 games. Roll on Paralympics.

229: Had a Bad Day…..

Ever had one of those days where the wind just gets knocked out of you and you just need time to recover. It’s not as simple as getting up and rejoining the race. That was Monday.

I felt like I’d been hit by a bus or something and had to get myself back out of the road while other vehicles blocked my way. I’ve spent the last few weeks feeling like I’m not really keeping up with life – I think this mainly started after coming home from holiday and being too shattered from driving to even think about putting things away and doing washing and things like that. The house looked like a bomb hit it until Sunday when I decided that the first two hours of family time would be us all pitching in and doing some chores – and minus a small argument that broke out about something kind of irrelevant to the chores – it worked and we got chores done – the living room was tidy, the kitchen surfaces were clean. The dishwasher was loaded. We got some tea and all collapsed in a heap on the sofa to watch the Closing Ceremony at the Olympics.

If only things were that easy. I went back to work on Monday having had a four day weekend and getting in the swing was kind of hard – then I had my Mid-Year Review and it just seemed to go down the toilet lol. Needless to say I felt rubbish after and I think this led to not wanting to write yesterday at all. I did what was needed after holiday club, ate some tea, washed my hair and got into bed. This could be how this week goes.

But now it’s Thursday and I’m getting there. Two holiday clubs to go and two days at work and a meeting and then it’s the weekend. I think I’m going to claim Saturday for myself. I’ll do chores etc but I think I’ll despatch Our Sidekick to the youth evening at The Fountain and go to the cinema or something and just escape for a bit.

226: Dear Monday

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Joining with Megan from Happy Day.

Dear Our Sidekick, we had a bit of a falling out yesterday and I really scared you once again I’m so sorry.

Dear London 2012 Olympics, Yesterday was the closing ceremony. Everyone kept pointing out how it was the end of the Olympics but in a way people kept ignoring the fact that the Paraolympics were to come – that kind of bugged me a bit.

Dear Closing Ceremony, if you’d started an hour earlier I wouldn’t feel as shattered as I do. Part of me had to stay and watch the rest but actually we still missed the end.

Dear On Your Marks Holiday Club, you start today – this week is going to be a bit crazy as I dash from work to Howard Memorial in Cardington – Holiday Club please don’t kick my butt.

Dear Feelings and Energy, I’m not sure what got me but at the end of last week I didn’t blog and I didn’t miss it – how strange is that. Then again I was a bit busy so maybe I didn’t think of it until it was finished. Thursday I helped set up for holiday club, watched three episodes of The Newsroom and went to the Doctors. You’d think I’d be productive around that but it didn’t really happen. Friday was Mum’s party and if I wasn’t at Mum’s setting up I was at home asleep (or crashed in a heap when my head was hurting from the heat) or in the supermarket getting last minute supplies.

Dear JD, Our Sidekick and Skinny Ry, I’m not quite sure what happened and why we started doing it but singing ABC while pretending to be able to dance while stood outside the back of The Fountain on Saturday was awesome!

Dear JD, Hels, and RaeRae, thank you for being on my team for the quiz! Can you believe we won?? That was too cool! Then again I guess it was kind of balanced in our favour when the other teams had one person or two people and we had four. Maybe we should have split into a fourth team or something so that it was balanced out. Oh well all done now!

Dear iPhone, now you are fixed I’ve got a new case for you. I’m also using this app to try and get my weight in hand. I’m fed up of not fitting in my clothes very well and feeling bleurgh because I eat bad. I’ve been watching Hairy Dieters and I think I need to get my butt in gear and cook more at home rather than settling for cheat options.

221: This Week

This week....This should be a good week. Okay so it didn’t start on a good note but I am determined that by the end of the week it will be a good week. It is positive thinking and all that.

So today is my last day of work for this week. Tomorrow I’m helping set up for holiday club and hopefully meeting my friend’s little boy for the first time – rather than by photos on FB. Then on Friday I’m going to be blowing up balloons and decorating the marquee ready for my Mum’s birthday party. It’s going to be awesome!

At some point during all that I should hopefully be getting my iPhone back. Hooray! (Have I told you the story of how it got shattered on Saturday and I nearly cried. I was having a bad morning and it went from bad to worse. Thankfully one of my Mum’s clients is an IT Technician person for his day job and apparently knows his way round an iPhone and can fix the screens, so that fixed the bad day at least a little bit).

I spent Monday night tidying Our Sidekick’s room, his house keys have been abducted by the key fairies again but this time they have gone completely. I have no idea where they are. As a sort of punishment he’s got to hang out with Chris all day at the Fountain rather than go and hang with his friends.

I then watched Hart of Dixie, I’m really loving it, Rachel Bilson is cool but Lemon (Jaime King) is kind of getting on my nerves. I love the whole Southern Belle thing but she’s a bit of a drama queen and is 98% of the time complaining about whatever is happening. Also I think we’re heading towards the end of Season One which means there will be some kind of break or hiatus heading our way. I guess it’s a good thing that Doctor Who is back on in a few weeks (have you seen the trailer? Me and my brother were having a whole discussion about Weeping Angels the other day)

Me and Our Sidekick then hung out and watched 17 Again while he combed his hair – the problem with an afro like his is that it needs combing everyday without fail other wise it bunches together and he begins to look like Marley’s grandkid or something like that. He likes the idea of braids but if he wants them he needs to speak to the social worker and his Mum which seems to be easier said than done.

220: Tuesday Tango

As you can see there is a lot happening in this post today. It’s called Tango Tuesday and I’m joining up with Ashley from After Nine to Five.

The Tuesday Tango is a multiple link-up post for everyone to meet new people and grow your audience. There will be eight link-ups that you can add your link to – Twitter, Facebook, Hello Cotton, Bloglovin, Instagram, Pinterest, Better Blogger Network, and RevolutionizeHer.

All you have to do is follow the host(s) for that week and then add whoever else you’d like to!

Permanent Hosts:

After Nine To Five | From City Corporate to Suburb Mama

This Week’s Rotating Hosts:

Boys Oh Boys | Hannah Says | Mom’s Test Kitchen

Directions:

Follow the host(s)

Add your links to any/all of the link-ups

Add at least 5 people from the link-ups

– – –

Want to host one of the weeks? Let us know!



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219: Dear Monday

Dear Monday

Dear Monday, you’re here again – at least it’s a short week – 1 day down 2 to go.

Dear Hels, you asked me to organise games for your Baby shower – I hope you enjoyed them. I had meant to take pictures of the baby grows but my phone was broken.

Dear Baby C, I met you for the first time on Saturday and the second time on Sunday, the crown of cutest baby has transferred to you but it might be passed onto Hel’s baby in a few weeks so enjoy it! (Kidding I’m sure you would both be stupidly cute and adorable for a whole bunch of time yet!). I got a proper hug from you on Sunday. I’m not sure you were that happy but when I passed you to O you snuggled up in his arms like you belonged there or something.

Dear Park Run, I think you kicked my butt but I came in just over 51 minutes so that made me like 134th overall although 6th in my age group sounds so much better (althought I was 6th out of 6!). I am still aching now and it’s two days later – then again it probably didn’t help trying to run the 100m yesterday as fast as I could.

Dear Our Sidekick, we ate our tea and watched the athletics on the big screen at the athletics stadium. I was all excited to try and race you on the track so I ran the 100m while you timed me then we swapped over. You were 11 seconds faster than me but you were kind of gutted that it was over 15 seconds. I was still impressed that you could run 100m in 17 seconds!

Dear Chris, it was your birthday yesterday – how does it feel to be 27 years and 1 day?

216: Happy Birthday! It’s Esther Day

Isn’t it funny how someone the other side of the world who you just know through the internet could have such an affect on you? Happy Birthday Esther.

I remember my 18th Birthday Party. I’d asked could I have a party and attempted to get the day off work so that I could set up the marquee that my parents had borrowed from a relative. I’d put in my holiday request and thought nothing more of it. It got to a few weeks before my birthday and my holiday was denied – I was a bit like “huh? What’s going on?” but then just put it down to that someone else must have already had the day off or they thought that weekend would be busy or something like that. I’d later find out that my Mum had been into the store that I worked in and chatted to my manager and asked him to deny my holiday. My parents spent most of the Saturday while I was at work setting up for the party.

I remember Chris coming in a bright Hawaiian shirt – my friends remembered him because of it. My cousin K had dyed her hair very blonde and my friend JP said that she looked like Kylie Minogue. We had my little CD player working it’s hardest to play some music loud enough to fill the marquee. My cousin J came – he was about 4 at the time, my Mum relit the candles on the birthday cake in the kitchen so that J could then blow out the candles. Along the hallway my Mum had put up my old school pictures and pictures of me when I was really little.

Today would be Esther Earl’s 18th Birthday if she was still here. I don’t know if you’ve heard of her. Maybe you’re a NerdFighter and you know exactly who she is. Maybe you don’t know. Maybe you’re Becca who I told this morning about Esther Earl while trying not to have a weepy moment. Maybe you’ve read The Fault in Our Stars and wonder who that dedication is written to.

So who is Esther, why am I blogging about her today and why is today Esther Day. The short version goes something like this. There’s a YouTube channel called VlogBrothers – two brothers called Hank and John Green from the USA vlog each day to each other. Around this channel, a whole “community” popped up like a fan club – like 30 Seconds to Mars has The Echelon and Justin has his Beliebers, the VlogBrother fans are called Nerdfighters. One of the members of that community is Esther Earl. It would be her birthday today except in 2006 she was diagnosed with cancer – the doctors did what they could but in the end the cancer was too bad and took her from her family on the 25th August 2010. Just over three weeks after her 16th Birthday.

Somewhere along the line John met Esther and they became friends along with a whole group of people. I heard about Esther via the channel which I guess is why I’m writing this.

On the 25th August when it was posted on the internet that Esther had passed away, I had a little cry – I might not have known her personally but I felt like I’d lost a friend all the same. I actually first heard about it while I was at work. I excused myself and sat in the loo for like 10 minutes. Cancer had stolen someone I knew and cared for.

Before she passed away, John and Esther had a conversation about celebrating birthdays. Yesterday on John’s blog he posted this:

When I told Esther we wanted to celebrate her birthday as long as there were vlogbrothers videos, and that videos on that day could be about whatever she wanted them to be about, she waited a couple weeks before getting back to me. She finally decided she wanted it to be a day that celebrated love in families and among friends. I think of Esther Day as a kind of Valentine’s Day for all the other kinds of love.

There is also an explanation here: (source)

 “Esther Day is the day where we think ‘who do i love who i have trouble saying I love you to’. Not some romantic interest, that’s just using Esther Day as an excuse to tell someone you love them, that you already want to tell them… no. I mean family, or platonic friends, which for me is even harder than family.” – John Green

So that’s what I’m doing. I messaged three of my friends from Uni on FB – I explained who Esther was and why I was doing it. I even started my email with something like “I understand this seems nuts but this is why I’m doing it…..”

Cancer sucks. It really really does. One of my friends from my old church (that I grew up in as a kid) lost his battle while cancer earlier this year. As I grow up and get older the number of people who have lost their battle that I know keeps growing but at the same time there are more and more kicking cancer in the butt and getting better. My Little Sister’s Mum had cancer, the first year that she had the all clear me and Mum did Race for Life as a celebration of that. Each year since we’ve taken part in Race for Life. This year we did it memory of our friend who lost his battle.

Life is so short and can be taken away so quickly. I mentioned both the shooting in Colorado and the shooting in Norway last year in my email to my friends, as soon as I heard the news about Norway I emailed my Mum and Dad. I had to tell them both how much I loved them and how grateful I was for all that they do for me, Chris and now for Our Sidekick.

Whether it’s a letter, text or phone call, don’t go to bed tonight without telling somehow you feel. Tell your friends how important they are to you and how much you need them in your life. Think of it as Valentine’s but for the love between friends.

There are a bunch of posts appearing all over the internet today to celebrate Esther Day. Please take a read at a few of them – first up is Miss Zoot and Yummy Sushi Pajamas. (I’ll be back with more as I find them!)

You can read about Esther Day here. You can read some more about Esther here. (You can support This Star Won’t Go Out, the organization founded in Esther’s memory that helps families of children with cancer, directly here or by buying a TSWGO wristband.) The photo of John and Esther is from here. The giraffe image is from here.

214: Films

If you hadn’t already guessed I’m a bit of a film nerd. I could quite happily park myself in front of the TV with crisps or popcorn and watch all the LOTR films or the Star Wars film (got to be Episode 4 to 6) in one go. Me and JD have a list on my phone (or it might be on hers too) and each time we go to the cinema and see a trailer we like the film goes on the list. We even add ones by text message when we’ve seen the trailer on the TV during New Girl or 2 Broke Girls (we both like these shows – I think JD could be Max to my Caroline – then again I don’t own any named brand clothes – well maybe a Bench jumper and Nike trainers but that’s about it!)

So we have this list, but now I’ve started writing the films in my diary – it tends to be that I write in the opening day and then if needed write it in a second time for example when I went to see the last Harry Potter film with my Mum.

I had a quick flick through and there are quite a few films between now and Christmas – that’s just what I have written in there at the moment – I’m sure there are going to be more to add to the list as the year goes on.

However there might be an issue, my local cinema is a bit rubbish when it comes to smaller films (for example like Seeking a Friend for The End of The World – it’s not on in Bedford I’ve got to go to MK or Cambridge if I want to see it) so something like Blinkbox comes in handy when the films get as far as rental or buy (and you don’t need a subscription like you do with other services!)

Seeking a Friend for The End of the World
This hasn’t been showing in Bedford which is really annoying, I might have to go to MK to see it – it’s just a matter of finding an evening that is free for the 1.5 hour round trip. JD and me saw the trailer and decided that we had to see it – that simple lol.

Anna Karenina
This has been on my To Be Read list for as long as I’ve had a list, somehow in my brain I decided that I should read Anna Karenina – I’d be super cultured and do it. Well it’s taken me about 8 years to get as far as reading Wuthering Heights and even longer than that to finally read Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.

Les Miserables
I am also a Musical Theatre Geek so when you mix movies with a musical you get a winning combination (well most of the time but that’s another argument lol), so me, my Mum and I think JD are all very excited about this adaptation. I’ve seen the stage show twice – once in London (7 rows from the front!) and a school adapted performance at my old Upper School. I imagine that I’ll be there singing along so don’t sit near me if you don’t want to be interrupted!

The Perks of Being A Wallflower
This is also on my TBR list – actually it’s made it as far as my Kindle and I keep trying to read it between the other books that I have on the go.

Frankenweenie
Tim Burton – He’s fab.

Brave

The Hobbit

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Skyfall
I loved James Bond films growing up – I mainly loved all the gadgets and the stunts. Then I hit my teens and got feminist about it and how it objectifies women and things like that. But I’ve grown out that and am back to gadgets and stunts.

213: Dear Monday (on a Tuesday!)

Dear Monday Joining with Megan from Happy Day.

Dear CJ, you are my superhero, you dealt with so much rubbish in the past 48-72 hours and I love you so much for it. I’d be curled up in the corner having a weep if it wasn’t for you (either that or I’d have skived work and took Our Sidekick for an adventure away from all the rubbish).

Dear Our Sidekick, I wanted to hug you so tightly when I finished work yesterday. I wanted to tell you that we’d get the creases ironed out and things would be okay in the end. I think you needed to know that it would be like that. I think you were unhappy with Chris and me for the choice that was made but I hope that you see the bigger picture in the days to come and realise we weren’t doing it to be mean or nasty.

Free Hugs

Dear Momma, I don’t think my words could express just how grateful I am for yesterday. Chris phoned me and I had a little freak out then he said this is the plan and this is what’s going to happen and you came to our rescue and helped us how when we needed you. Thank you thank you thank you.

supermum

Dear Rich, I think you do know that Our Sidekick played your xBox for most of yesterday – I’m hoping that you don’t mind (if you didn’t know!)

Dear Becca, you should have got mail yesterday. It would have a Bristol postmark on it which might have confused you but at the same time you’d have recognised the handwriting and it should have made you smile. I wrote to you while waiting for the Olympics Opening Ceremony to start.

Dear Chris (because you get two letters a la Today’s Letters), next time you give me a kiss goodbye could you poke me to see if I’m awake first? Yesterday morning I was asleep and you made me jump. It was a nice jump but for those first few seconds while my brain caught up were horrible. It hadn’t made the connection that waking up with your face about an inch for mine wasn’t menacing but a loving gesture.

212: Bristol 2012: Day Five, Six and Seven

Our first holiday with Our Sidekick

Five (Friday)
On Friday, we went to Wookey Hole. In all the time I’ve known Chris he’s said “One day we’ve got to go to Wookey Hole” – every time he’s drove past to Soul Survivor he’s repeated it. This time we finally went and we took Our Sidekick with us. I’m kind of excited about walking around caves and things like that but there is a moment where I get a little claustrophobic, but it’s such a tiny moment that I just tell myself off and then I’m fine again lol. I didn’t have my proper camera with me (and I wouldn’t have wanted to risk damaging it or dropping it lol) so I just had iPhone pictures. We did find out that some sections of Doctor Who have been filmed in the caves at Wookey Hole. There were a bunch of younger children who kept talking through the information bits which was a bit of a shame – I think if I was to go back I’d try and go back in term time. When we went to Honister in November there was literally 5 or 6 people in our group and the two boys were sensibly enough not to talk through the information bits.

Bristol 2012 - Wookey

Bristol 2012 - Wookey

Bristol 2012 - Wookey

Six (Saturday)
We decided that having explored lots during the week, Saturday would be a chilled day and we’d explore by foot around Bristol. Having wandered to St Nicholas’s Market we grabbed some lunch – me and Our Sidekick had a sausage baguette thing. Unfortunately the baguette was so crusty that it was too hard to chew although the sausages were freshly home made. Chris went off for a wander and found a gluten free, meat free, dairy free, cardboard free and monkey free (I’m kidding!) place so that he could have normal food given that his gluten free attempt continues. (He’s off to the Docs this week to see if he needs to continue or change his mind).

During our crazy wander we still ended up at Millennium Square which was pretty cool. We stayed and watched about ten minutes Boxing then headed back to the hotel. We got ourselves sorted out and headed for dinner at a local Carvery and then to Cineworld Bristol to see Dr Seuss’s The Lorax – it was really good. I don’t know whether it was just because of how much sport was on or because of the location of the cinema but there were 8 of us in the screen at the most! I’d expect it to be that empty on a Monday or Tuesday evening not a 7:30 showing on a Saturday in the school holidays.

I had something in my eye. @thecgbj (@cgbj) came to my rescue. Then a small water fight broke out between @thecgbj and #oursidekick.
On our way back to the hotel I got something in my eye and I tried to rinse it myself with a bottle of water. Chris had to help me in the end and my arm and shirt got soaked. Somehow a small water fight broke out between Chris and Our Sidekick which involved Our Sidekick getting rather wet and then trying to get Chris back and failing epically – but the pavement ended up very wet!

Seven (Sunday)
Sunday was about packing up and travelling home. I snapped this picture of our trolley while we were in the foyer of the hotel – how did we end up with so much stuff!

Time to check out and head home.

The weather had cooled off and was turning wet again so we were prepared for wet weather. Chris and I had already discussed about heading home via Stonehenge – I think Our Sidekick would have been more receptive to the idea had it not down poured in the middle of it and been packed to the rafters with tourists (Are there rafters on an open air heritage site?). It was nice to finally go but I think English Heritage are making a mint of it – when you can park illegally the other side of a 8 foot fence and still see it lol. It was still good and we still got to use the audio tour which meant I learnt lots about it that I didn’t know. It was interesting to learn about all the folklore etc behind how Stonehenge came to be where it is.

We then headed back through Avebury to come home. We listened to Elaine Paige on Sunday and Johnnie Walker’s Sounds of the Seventies (It was focused a bit around Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells – it’s an amazing piece of music!). I then switched the radio over to BBC Radio 1 so that Our Sidekick could listen to the Top 40 Countdown. Somewhere in the middle of that all we’d stopped at Devizes for lunch and even managed to find gluten free Cherry Bakewells for Chris.

We arrived home about 6ish and got stuff sorted out. We watched Rebecca Adlington win her Bronze Medal – me and Kewey discussed via text message about how we didn’t breathe for the whole race. I cheered and shouted at the TV. I think it annoyed Chris and Our Sidekick. We had an unexpected visitor which meant that I had to hi speed tidy the living room in the time between the visitor ringing the door bell and said person sitting down in our living room.

209: Bristol 2012 – Day Four

Our first holiday with Our Sidekick

Today’s activity was Our Sidekick’s choice and it had lots of photo opportunities so this might be a bit photo heavy. (Also I’m writing this on my iPhone so the format might be funky!)

Our Sidekick requested if we could go to the Zoo. Well we had a look and it was something that we could do. So we got everything sorted this morning and headed off to the Zoo.

Looking at lemurs

I think lemurs and penguins would have to be my favourites shortly followed by Meerkats (although the Insurance Meerkats bug me!!!). There were two male lemurs hanging round right near the entrance of the enclosure. We then walked in and under some ropes and three females walked across the rope and then down a ramp at the side. The first female lemur was carrying a baby lemur. It was clinging to her front while she “crawled” along on all fours.

Partying with penguins

The majority of the penguins were standing in the shade under a tree but there were a few who either just stood in the sunshine or were in the pool swimming around to stay cool. (I’d have been under the tree or in the water given the choice!)

Bristol 2012: The Zoo

This bit was where we were able to see the penguins swimming in the water I probably took a bunch more pictures that were either blurry or too late. At this point I could have done with my DSLR however for the rest of the week I haven’t really needed it so I’m glad that I didn’t drag it around with me.

Bristol 2012: The Zoo

Between these three parrots and the birds in the cage next to them I think they were all fighting to be the noisiest! These three seemed to be having an argument or something because one would start and before that one had even finished the next one would be tweeting away and then the third one would join in!

Messing about with the Meerkats. Apparently I can't take one home.

I could have probably spent hours just watching the Meerkats. This little one kept running around and then trying to crawl into the icing sugar box. I’m guessing the box was supposed to be there. Then again given how fascinated the meerkat was with the box it’s always possible that it wasn’t supposed to be there!

Bristol 2012: The Zoo - Am I on the menu?

We found these jaws from a Shark and Our Sidekick started it by lying across the teeth pretending that he was dinner, I then lay across it in an equally silly manner. Our Sidekick then swaps places with me and pretends to be dinner but instead this time he’s fighting back.

Bristol 2012: The Zoo - Just hanging around

This interesting looking creature is a Livingstone Fruit Bat. There were three or four of them either hanging from the rope like this one of from the netting that was supposed to stop them getting out of the enclosure!

Following the zoo we headed back to the hotel. On our way I found that Bristol has a Forbidden Planet – my brother keeps telling me that I have to visit the one in London. Unfortunately we couldn’t stop so I might have to create a “Next time we’re in Bristol” list… (especially given how much Our Sidekick loves Close Encounters in Bedford).

We went for a wander round the shop and Our Sidekick got some new chinos and some other bits. I bought two new t-shirts (why is it that often the guys t-shirts are a better fit/more comfortable than the girls shirts?)

Tea didn’t exactly go to plan and we ended up getting KFC and coming back to the room. The girl in KFC didn’t understand what Chris meant by gluten free. We watched Cool Runnings and the Great Britain vs Senegal Men’s Olympic Football match. Chris and I were cheering for Team GB and Our Sidekick kept cheering for Senegal. He said it was an African thing and we wouldn’t get it lol. It was a draw. Although it took Senegal like 75 minutes to actually score and that was mainly based on the fact that we should have had a penalty and it wasn’t awarded! So rude!

Tomorrow we’re heading for Wookey Hole (which I keep trying to spell as Wookie – I’m going to be really disappointed when I don’t see Chewbacca tomorrow!). For as long as I’ve been going to Soul Survivor with Chris, we’ve been saying that we need to go to Wookie Hole. It’s only taken us five years of marriage and like two years of going out and I think we’re finally there. Bring it on!

Tomorrow is also the Opening Ceremony and I’m pretty excited. I think I’m more excited now that it’s actually here. I wrote a pen pal letter to Sorcha in Australia and said that I was excited when the IOC announced the host cities back in 2005 but at the same time the events of the following day (7/7) made me question things like if the Olympics hadn’t been awarded to us, would we still have had the attacks?

208: Bristol 2012 – Day Three

Our first holiday with Our Sidekick Once we managed to all get ready (Our Sidekick had a 30 minute shower which threw everyone out of sync!) we headed for Cardiff. We had a rough plan of what we were going to do but once Chris realised that today was the kick off of the Olympics (because of the way the football is ran it needs to start before the Opening Ceremony and because of a IOC rule that event can’t be in the host city so England vs New Zealand women’s football kicked off in Cardiff at 4pm) We had a fairly brief visit to Cardiff in the end but it was lovely to be in the city on the day of the first Olympic event. We were going to park in a multi storey but realised that it was exactly right next to the Millennium Stadium and there was like zero chance of us being able to get a space or the fee would have been hiked up being that close. Bristol 2012 - Cardiff Stadium So as it was about to get super crowded in Cardiff we didn’t really want to be around longer than really was needed and the police and security was getting tighter ready for kick off. If the Kiwi was still living with us we would have been a house divided as to who would win! I texted my Dad the above picture of the Stadium to see if he could identify it. We saw a lot of TV crews on our way round, at one point we were walking past the gate for Cardiff Arms Park and I shouted at our Sidekick – I then looked up and there’s a guy doing a report or link to camera for the coverage of the event. I think he might have been from Sky Sports as I didn’t recognise him from the BBC Sports coverage but having seen a truck from ITV Wales and heard there was a crew from Japan he could have been from anywhere that would be presenting in English. We did a lap of the stadium – well it was kind of a lap, but in places had to be the next street over because of security and things like that. From the car we started to head towards Barry when my Dad texted me and asked if I’d been to see the Torchwood bits at Cardiff Bay. Chris read the message out to me and asked if I wanted to go there. Well I did but I wasn’t sure how far the Millennium Stadium was from Cardiff Bay. I briefly looked at the map, and to me, we seemed too far away to turn back to the bay. Chris decided otherwise and directed me back to the Bay (as I was driving). We went past the Millennium Centre, but didn’t really stop – thankfully there was a red light at a set of traffic lights and no traffic behind me, well long enough for me to stop and look across to the Centre. I don’t think Chris had realised there was more to see (and a whole walking tour) that could be done. We set back off again and headed for the main beach at Barry Island. When we got there, we tried to park in the car park, but it was absolutely heaving (and we didn’t have any change for the parking ticket), so we found some free on street parking and walked down to Jackson’s Bay. It was really busy, but we found a bit in the shade.

Bristol 2012 - Burying Out Sidekick on the beach at Barry

Our Sidekick started to bury his legs in the sand. I joined in at first, then Chris took over and our Sidekick ended up with his feet and his legs up to his knees buried in the sand. After recovering our Sidekick from the sand, we followed the walkway round to the main beach (which is called Whitmore Bay). On the way round there were some rocks that Our Sidekick had fun climbing along. At one point, Chris turned around and took my shoes from me and a bit later when Our Sidekick had finished climbing he took my bag from me. My boys are so lovely “sometimes”. We followed the path to the main waterfront, Chris parked me and Our Sidekick in the shade under the bandstand while he went to sort out some food. He managed to find a chip shop along the seafront however it was also really busy (lunchtime and glorious sunshine of course it would be busy!). The signal in the chip shop wasn’t very good so Chris was struggling to let us know that he was still waiting and each time I tried to call him the call wouldn’t connect. We sat at the bandstand and ate our chips. Chris had joked about getting cockles with his chips while we walked to Whitmore Bay but I told him if he did he’d be sleeping in the bath or on the floor lol. Following our chips Chris and Our Sidekick went to the ice cream stand we were sat near to get ice cream. Chris got me a bubblegum ice cream it was bright blue like paint and was melting far too quick so it went everywhere! I had it all down my right hand, dripped on my left ankle and the right leg of my shorts, I also got some on my nose and that wasn’t taking into consideration that my tongue was bright blue and the ice cream was all round my face! I felt like a three year old or something lol. Bristol 2012 - Bubblegum Ice Cream While I ate my ice cream Chris and Our Sidekick went to get the car. I though I could wait for Chris to get back but the ice cream was getting stickier on my hand and the ice cream was so messy that I really couldn’t eat any more. I binned what was left and went to buy a bottle of water to rinse off the worst of the ice cream. We headed to Bridgend next to meet Freya from Ella Riley’s Sweet Shop. Now I’ve known Freya via Twitter for over a year now. Back in April/May 2011, Freya sent me a package of lots of little bags of sweets. My family and I worked our way through a lot of them while watching the Royal Wedding. You can read the post here. I think back then we discussed about how if either of us was in the area we had to come say hi. Well I think I sorted that one first and we went to meet Freya at her shop in Bridgend. We walked into the shop and Freya welcomed me with a big hug like we’d been friends forever! (i love how Twitter seems to do that to people! What do you think?) We stayed for like 45 minutes to an hour and chatted about sweeties. We got to try some and me and Chris had sweetie milkshakes. I had Strawberry and Apple Bon Bon milkshake and Chris had Lemon and Blue Bon Bon milkshake. I expected mine to be a slightly crazy colour but it was kinda pale. We tried various different toffees including Scottish Tablet (which I think is my favourite) and butter toffee. There was also a special themed one in honour of the local Bridgend football and rugby teams. It had white chocolate on the outside but one side is coloured blue. There is vanilla toffee inside which looks almost like amber or crystallised sugar – its amazing! Bristol 2012 - Freya and I This is me and the lovely Freya. We snapped this picture and then had to leave to make sure we were back in time for Our Sidekick to speak to his Mum. I think if we’d though about it we’d have taken the phone with us so that we could have avoided rush hour traffic. We had tea at Frankie and Benny’s, I had my favourite which is New York Pasta without chilli. Chris had a battle again with the whole Gluten Free thingy. Does anyone know if there are gluten free only restaurants in Bristol that don’t break the bank? We’re off to the zoo for Our Sidekick’s choice. I’m rather excited but have the feeling it will be really busy.

207: Bristol 2012 – Day Two

Our first holiday with Our Sidekick

When I wrote a day by day breakdown of LE2JOG each post was rushed to fit in before bedtime and all sorts of things, this time I’m trying to post what we did today to go live the following morning. It’s a little less stressful hopefully and means that I can hang with the boys a bit more.

This morning was a bit of a slow start. My joints have been playing up for some unknown reason and I think it comes down to how crazy the last few days have been. Saturday and Sunday were super busy due to the River Festival and packing for holiday then I spent most of yesterday over concentrating on driving. I wanted it to be calmer today!

#goodmorning. I didn't sleep amazingly. Kept waking up in the night.This is what I looked like this morning – except I think it was worse in person lol. We all got dressed and had breakfast (Shreddies in camping bowls with spoons – I’m not entirely sure what the rate was but for 3 of us for 6 breakfasts it soon adds up to be really expensive!). Our Sidekick’s Afro hair has been getting more and more tangly so we had to stand in and put our foots down. I attempted to comb out what I could but I’d only done a tiny bit and I was heading toward about 20 minutes of combing. We decided to get some conditioner and hope that, that would help to get the tangles out.

We headed for the supermarket first to get the conditioner and some lunch the headed to the first port of call which was the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Bristol 2012 - Clifton Suspension Bridge
It was designed and built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. We drove from the Bristol to North Somerset side. We parked near the end of the bridge and walked back to the visitor centre – it’s a one room temporary building of sorts but it’s interesting all the same. I bought three postcards to send home and an information sheet to go in Our Sidekick’s journal. We walked across the bridge – which I didn’t mind at all but Our Sidekick was really not happy about it at all. I think this was mainly due to the distance from the bridge to the ground.

Bristol 2012 - Clifton Suspension BridgeAfter crossing the bridge we stopped for a picnic near the end of the Bristol side of the bridge. Cheese panini from the supermarket bakery with ham – yum! Our Sidekick was a bit happier once he’d had some food but discussing what we might to over the next few days seemed to really put him in a funny mood.

On the way back across the bridge it was tense again. Our Sidekick was in a bit of a state and Chris was trying got reason with him with facts and figures and stuff like that. In the end I took Our Sidekick by the hand, we walked behind Chris so that Our Sidekick just had to focus on Chris’s shoulders in front of him and he couldn’t see the view out of the corner of his eye because I was there. When we got to the other side I had words with Chris about it. I think there is a time and a place to be rational and for whatever reason in Our Sidekick’s mind his reasoning about a high bridge is rational but to me and Chris it’s irrational like his (OS) fear of spiders. Anyway, words were had and the situation calmed again. I praised Our Sidekick for being super brave and still going across the bridge as there would be people who would be having panic attacks and all sorts over it.

Chris then wanted to walk up to the Observatory which is on the hill next to the abutment of the bridge. It’s a fairly steep hill but thankfully it’s not as steep as the hill at Greenwich Observatory (to get to the date line) or at Montmatre to get to the Sacre Coeur in Paris. There was a rock face bit that Our Sidekick and Chris climbed while I attempted the more gradual hill pathway. I made it to the top relatively unscathed but needed a drink lol.

The camera obscura at the Observatory was really good – the lady who happened to be there at the time thought it was a recording which made me smile (thank goodness it was so dark!) and try not to laugh out loud. I’m not sure she actually knew what a Camera Obscura was and had been dragged there by her partner/husband.

We then went down to the Giant’s Cave which is under the Observatory but not quite as far down as the bridge level. It was really interesting but I was really struggling with the steel steps down and then steep steps back up again. Thankfully Chris knows I’m not secure with my footing some of the time so kept getting Our Sidekick to wait while I caught up. On the way back up again Our Sidekick was in the middle between me and Chris. Our Sidekick thought that he’d been placed there because we didn’t trust him, I think Chris wanted him to be more sensible on the climb back up but also he came out of his shell a bit. Each time I stopped for a breather he’d stop turn round ask if I was okay and then tell Chris to wait. When we got to the top he gave me a pat on the back and told me how great I was. (what a sweetie!)

We headed back to the car and then headed down to the docks to find a boat tour. There are like four or five different companies but we ended up with Bristol Packet Boat Tours who are based right near Aardman Animations (Yes I did squeal like a little girl and do a little dance!)

The boat tour was good and really informative about the bit that we did cover but I was beginning to feel the heat and could have done with a seat in the shade but I think everyone else was doing that as well.

Bristol 2012 - MShed
We did look at going to the SS Great Britain but it was £12 for an adult or something like that. We decided to walk along the bank instead to the M Shed which is a free museum about the history of Bristol. It was really interesting but to me the best bit was the whole section about Wallace and Gromit and the green double decker bus that is right in the middle of the museum. Also it was pretty cool finding I-spy books in the gift shop – do you remember them?

After the museum we headed back to the hotel to chill out before dinner. I started on updating Our Sidekick’s journal as it’d been collecting bits and pieces all day.

Following a chat with the lovely person at Giraffe’s Twitter account yesterday we decided that we’d go to dinner at Giraffe. They have “burger Tuesday” deal so there is a choice of 5 burgers for about £6 each (so including drinks we were on about £24 for dinner but lunch was like £4 for me and Our Sidekick plus £3 for Chris’s special jacket potato thing). Our original waiter wasn’t so helpful but when we paid the bill and fed back to our second waiter that we felt like we’d been a nuisance (and had a kinda rude waiter!) because of Chris’s dietary requirements he was lovely and understanding and said he’d go write it down on their shift feedback thing that they have out the back (I think it was some form of comments form). While at dinner I spotted this on the wall and snapped it – why do people not smile more?

#smile #love - Quote at Bristol GiraffeIt’s something about yummy looking drinks. I ordered a diet coke and Chris ordered a lemonade. My diet coke arrived in a glass bottle and then I poured it into a tumbler. Chris’s drink arrived in this awesome glass – I wanted to swap drinks just so I could drink from it!

I love these glasses. @thecgbj's drink at @giraffetweetsDuring dinner I made a ruling to ban phones, I confiscated Chris’s phone and then Our Sidekick’s – the idea being that we could eat a meal together without being distracted. Our Sidekick was not impressed but eventually came round to it when he realised it wasn’t a punishment just against him, we were all part of the same “punishment” of sorts and if it was really important then I would rule whether it was important enough to interrupt dinner.

206: Bristol 2012 – Day One

Our first holiday with Our Sidekick

Having pretty much counted the days down (for 4 weeks!) to our holiday – it finally arrived!!

We set off about 9am toward Milton Keynes. Chris has a particular route that he takes when driving to Soul Survivor goes via Milton Keynes and then onto Buckingham.

Let's get this show on the road!! (or toad as I typed by mistake!)
Before leaving Bedford me and Our Sidekick got lunch from The Fountain and three drinks for the journey (I think it also puts Chris’s mind at rest about leaving for a week).

So having got lunch and heading towards MK. We decide that we’ll stop at Asda to get some petrol (It’s one of those strange things. If it’s en route to wherever we’re going even with a detour towards Bletchley for Asda and Ikea it’s still cheaper for the fuel. So given the route we were taking from Bedford to Bristol it made sense to fill up at MK rather than fill up at our local supermarket in Bedford.) We also had to stop off to get some bits for Chris. He’s attempting a gluten free diet as he’s not been feeling 100% and having chatted to the GP it’s the first thing he’s going to try. I keep joking about how he’s going to explode if he eats gluten by mistake lol.

As we pulled into Asda car park, me and Chris somehow started talking about Ikea breakfasts and how a fry up would just properly kick off our holiday – did you use to stop at Little Chef when heading on holiday (or on the way home at the end of the holiday) or was that just my family that did that?

We stopped at Asda for fuel. @thecgbj decided breakfast was needed.
We decided to grab a breakfast if they were still serving (they literally turned off the hot lamps as we were being served!!) I had bacon, sausage, two hash browns, beans and omelette. I also had potato scone. Because of Chris’s diet and Our Sidekick’s preferences we swapped and changed so I ended up with an extra sausage.

We then headed back to the car via Asda, the problem with three people in a store that big is that you can lose each other really easily.

I got a pack of two glues sticks to carry on with Our Sidekick’s journal (in theory this was supposed to be started in October when he moved in with us on a longer basis to record all the good times and the adventures that we’ve had).

Following shopping we got on the road. I ended up doing most of the driving yesterday which was okay but I was exhausted by the time we got to Bristol and the boys all had way to much energy to throw around! We found our hotel, they have enough parking for a drop off slot of about half an hour you then have to move your car to the local multi storey which serves Cabot Circus which is a big shopping centre.

I didn't request this excursion. A male member of our party did and it wasn't @thecgbj

After dropping off our car we went for a wander round the shopping centre – this was at Our Sidekick’s special request when he realised how close we are to the shopping centre (you can see Next and Cafe Rouge from our bedroom window!)

Then again it was a pretty amazing view from the third floor when you get out the elevator.

How epic is that roofWe took it on turns to choose a store to look around. I chose Paperchase for my first store – it was a concession stand in one of the department stores rather than an actual store of its own but it was still good.

After wandering round the stores for a while we headed back to the room to chill out. I watched part of an episode of Rizzoli and Isles on my phone (and realised that the rest weren’t downloaded it was just the titles! But it’s okay I still have the rest of Midnight in Paris to watch and given the number of restaurants across the way I’m sure I can get on the Internet somewhere if needed).

Following a call from Our Sidekick’s Mum it was all a bit tense. Our Sidekick wasn’t in a good mood, I was tired and just needed some tea and Chris was frazzled from the heat all in all we were all a bit in a grump.

We ended up at GBK for dinner, mainly because we couldn’t decide what we wanted and a lot of the places were either expensive or their best deals were at lunchtime not tea time. They were lovely and accommodating when Chris grilled the waitress about gluten free meals etc. They were happy to serve the burger without a bun or sauce and with extra salad to balance it out and things like that. Our Sidekick wasn’t in the moods for food but was happy to adopt some of my fries when they were offered. Me and Chris both had a Strawberry and Elderflower drink – it was really yummy and summery.

Summery drink to go with the summery weather outside.

I think it was a little more when it came to initial cost over a glass of diet coke but I think you got more for your money and a refill was £1 rather than the £2.95 (or the same as the original cost) which meant that when Our Sidekick decided he really didn’t like his we swapped and I finished his and then got another Strawberry and Elderflower.

All in all a good first day it was a little tense but it was chilled and close to base so if needed we could chill out.

Onto Day Two…….

205: Life According to Instagram

Partially Inspired by Freckled Italian.

Left over white hot chocolate with normal hot chocolate. Yum. #typoinsta #hotchocolate #thefountain

I love this song!!! Aaaaahhh!!! And I was singing it to myself and got laughed at but it's all good lol.

FB has managed to pick up a picture that isn't my normal one. I'm not even sure it's mine lol.

This place was part of my childhood.

@thecgbj sent me a picture of my mail. I have a letter from Australia!! So exciting!! #typoinsta

Watching the #riverfestival fireworks - from the school gates!!

1. Me and Bex were at The Fountain for the work evening on Saturday and we made an accidental yummy creation. Bex had made a white hot chocolate and there was some left over so I had the rest. There was then some normal milk hot chocolate left over so Bex poured it in the top and we’d got like a marble hot chocolate – okay under the foam it had all mixed together but on top it looked really arty and funky. We tried to re-create it on Monday but it wasn’t as good but still yummy!

2. On Sunday I played Bass with The Stinx at The Salvation Army here in Bedford. We played “If I Were A Butterfly” which was one of my favourite children’s worship songs when I was at Sunday School (as well as “Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam”). It was a definite new experience for me – I’ve been to services at The Salvation Army before but they’ve always been special services with lots of other churches there rather than a Salvation Army service. There were two kids who were pledging/making a promise to become a Junior Soldier (or something like that). It was really interesting – I guess it’s similar to a testimony at a baptism in the sense that you stand up the front and make a public proclamation of your faith.

3. Also on Sunday for some crazy reason FB kept picking up the wrong picture to go with the names so this picture kept coming up next to my name – I’m sure it’s a fab picture but it’s just not mine lol.

It carried on for most of the day so looked really funny when a guy’s name would come up with a picture of a girl or the other way round.

4. Last week it was my Grandma’s birthday. I’d have probably gone to the supermarket normally and just gone with flowers and a card instead I worked out that it was just as quick and more locally responsible of me if I drove out to Pell’s which is on the Wilden Road between Renhold and Wilden.

When I was younger, my brother and I would go stay with Grandma and Grandad for 2.5 days. So one would get Monday to Wednesday lunchtime and then the other one would get Wednesday lunchtime to Friday Evening. If you got the start of the week then it was be green grocery day. So we’d go to Pell’s and get the fruit and eggs and things like that. It’s change loads since I last went but it was nice to be able to support them and then go and see Grandma to wish her Happy Birthday.

5. On Friday Chris texted me the picture (with out the speech bubble). I’d got exciting mail from Sorcha in Australia. Did a little dance and everything!! Got to reply while I’m off work this week.

6. This weekend was the River Festival. Having spend all charging from one thing to the next for us we decided that we’d take Ryan to see the fireworks. He’d asked about it and although me and Chris were both really shattered (and worn out from the heat – but at least it didn’t rain!!) we tried to find somewhere to park to watch the fireworks. We drove over the river and got a proper amazing view but couldn’t park up. We then pulled into the road that leads to our friends house but technically the bit she lives on is a private road. In the end we parked in the gateway of the Girls School – we figured access wouldn’t be needed but we were with the car so could move if needed. I managed to snap some pictures on my phone but spent more time dancing to the accompanying music that was being relayed by the local urban music station.

201: Me and my (Non)Exploding Head

Do you ever feel like if you held your breathe and closed your eyes your head would explode? I tend to say that my head will explode when I have too much going on. Usually because I feel like I have 10 things to think about and they all need to be thought about right this second.

Your head will now EXPLODE shirt

I think this is possibly where any OCD tendencies I have might come out – like I have to finish job 1 before I can even think about Job 2 and unfortunately my job doesn’t allow it really.

I work in Customer service and on the whole I like my job. I like being able to help people and hear the relief in their voice when we’ve managed to fix the issue. But then there are the rude customers, the ones that wanted their delivery last week before they’d even placed the order. Most of the time I can handle them but I’ve had ones in the past who have reduced me to tears.

Me and my colleague in the US regularly compare the differences. You know how the saying goes “the grass is always greener on the other side” I’d say out of 10 occurrence my colleague has it better but I think I’d pick the UK team any day lol.

But each day I go home from work mentally exhausted. Some days to the point of tears because I just can’t get my brain round what’s happening next. Chris has this way of arriving home from work and bombarding me with information and Our Sidekick sometimes does it too. So we have this rule of sorts in our house that when I arrive home from work, unless I approach one of them first I just have to be left for like 10 minutes to shake off my grumpy from work and then pick up my semi happy for at home.

There are some changes that might be coming about and some I’m excited about and others worry the pants off me. But rather than burying my head I’m trying to do something about it.

(Heads up bible bit coming!!)

So as part of The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about not worrying about tomorrow.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Part way through last week (And after reading this post from Ali at Ballpioint+Pen) I decided I needed to get my butt in gear – I always had time to watch a DVD or TV but never had time to read my bible. I was always too busy.

Bible Study 2

So I made a conscious decision to pull my finger out and read more. Rather than diving in head first and then pulling my hair out because I didn’t understand it I decided to start with something easy (ish!). I’m currently reading a chapter a day during the week and then a 4 Psalms across the weekend (Psalm 119 is going to be interesting I need to check the plan to find out what happens there!). So on Monday I was on Matthew 6 which includes the above verses, today is Matthew 9 – I haven’t read it yet but by bedtime I will have.

200: I Think We Were on Plan Z

Today didn’t exactly go to plan. It started with Our Sidekick coming in and saying that he still didn’t feel great could he go back to bed rather than going to school. Well I had to be a meany Foster Mum and do what my Mum did to be on several occasions.

“Go to school and give it a try. If you feel really bad then go to the office and we’ll sort out you getting home”

Well clearly this is one of those things we need to plan out a bit better because Our Sidekick has an 100% attendance this year so we haven’t had to think about “what to do when he’s off sick”. I had a call from Chris at about 9:45 and it snowballed from there. Because some of the parental responsibility bits aren’t 100% clear at the moment often you have to be over cautious. For example taking Our Sidekick to the doctors with cold symptoms to makes sure that is what it is and has medication prescribed officially so that it wasn’t just us “self-diagnosing”.

Thankfully we saw the prescribing nurse who I see for my Asthma Clinic appointments and things like that so she was lovely and understating saying that he’d had a call fro the school and Ryan was Well I managed to sort some bits to do when I got home that would feel some time. I then spoke via IM when I got home to my manager and we worked out that I’d work until lunchtime and then my afternoon would be off as holiday.

I was looking for a picture to show “feeling ill” – I then found a picture of blue pasta (Awesome idea! Has to be tried!) and then found this one of the Northern Lights taken earlier this week!

Northern Lights - 16-07-2012 #1
This is one of those bucket list moments – to see the Northern Lights. One day I hope to see them but I’m not sure if I will. I wouldn’t have expected to see them in the summer in Scotland though but apparently it happens (Especially with the crazy weather we’ve been having here in the UK recently!)

Following the doctors we headed home and Our Sidekick curled up in front of the TV wrapped up in the duvet. I sat at the other end of the sofa and got on with some work bits. I chatted to my Manager via IM and we came up with a plan. I texted JD to see if she could look after Our Sidekick while I went back to work but she was busy so I ended up having the rest of the day off (We worked out that with the stuff I’d brought home with me it would work out roughly as a morning of work so I’d take off the afternoon as holiday). At about 6pm having sat in front of the TV or computer pretty much all day I ended up curling up at the end of the sofa and having a ten minute nap – this was all it was my phone started ringing – I completely didn’t clock it at first and Our Sidekick said “Your phone is ringing answer it!”.

This evening we then had Connect Group at our house and we looked at the first three chapters of 1 Samuel.

199 – Guest Post Today

Today, I’m not here. I am guest posting over at Secondhand Superhero. The lovely Stephanie got married at the weekend and so while she’s on her honeymoon there are a couple of guest posts – I’m first – how exciting!!

Congratulations Mr and Mrs Steph!!!

(Btw their first dance was to the Star Wars theme – seriously too cool!!)

Also today is my Grandma’s birthday. Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

198: I’m Moving

snail

So you have to think a bit lateral and out of the box for the picture to make sense – get it?

My blog as been here at this URL for a few incarnations but when it was called Journal of a Rock Angel it made sense. But now it’s nothing to do with rocking out and it was about time for a change. From now on my blog will be over at Hannah Says. I’m working on tweaking the design and things but that’s going to take a little while (as I need Chris’s help and so my requests fit around the day jobs).

Also normal service regarding normal posts instead of 15 Day Challenge posts should resume shortly too.

EDIT: I realised that it might not that be clear if you read via an rss reader you will need to change the rss feed URL to http://www.hanplans.co.uk/feed/ that should move it over.

197: 15 Day Challenge – July 15th

15DayChallenge

Joining with Sarah from Life of Love for the 15 Day Challenge.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?

It’s not exactly a compliment more a reaction to something I did. I’m known for virtually living in trousers – occasionally I’ll wear a skirt and dress up but I’d say 98% of the times it’s jeans, smart trousers or shorts.

On the day of my wedding I wore a dress – of course I couldn’t get married in jeans and my DMs! I stood in my bedroom and was all sorted out, my best friend Kewey came in to take a look at me in my dress and she was gob smacked and just said how lovely I looked. Then my Dad came in. I’ve never seen him cry but he welled up.

When we got to the church we stood in the small hall at the back getting ready to walk down to the front to meet Chris. My Dad was on my left and my cousins and Chris’s sister were hovering around getting ready to walk down before me. I looked over to my cousins D and M and they were both scraping their chins off the floor. Apparently I looked good lol.

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