I forgot to do this yesterday so it’s Fill In The Blanks Saturday

1. My favourite quote is….

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. It’s from Jeremiah 29:11

Look, I guarantee there’ll be tough times. I guarantee that at some point, one or both of us is gonna want to get out of this thing. But I also guarantee that if I don’t ask you to be mine, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life, because I know, in my heart, you’re the only one for me. – Runaway Bride (1999)

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated” – Confucius

My next favourite quote is actually too long so you can find the video here. It’s at the end of The American President – for the whole film Andrew Shepherd (played by Michael Douglas) says that the White House will not comment on his and Sydney Ellen Wades relationship – it gets to the end and he decided enough is enough – he stands up and delivers this speech.

2. A bad habit I have is sticking my tongue out when I’m concentrating – my Dad says I get this from G-ma S – apparently she’d do it to. The other one is

3. The first time I felt like a “grown up” was

4. Weekends are

5. When I was a child I wished my name was

6. I wish

g. A secret I have is

By the time you read this post I’ll be sat in my seat in the theatre. I am so excited!

The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. {1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV)}

This evening me and Chris went out for pizza for tea. We headed to Pizza Express for tea as they do Orange Wednesdays as well. The pizza was nice but the service was so bad, normally it’s okay but it was just terrible.

We sat down and told the waitress that we had an Orange Wednesday voucher and she explained that it covers us for a starter each and a main course each. We order our food and drinks and chatting about anything and everything.

Our starter arrived and that was fine. I had the normal dough balls. Yum! Our main course arrived and I had Quattro Formaggi pizza – again one of my favourites but this time it had so much goats cheese on it, it was near enough a goats cheese pizza rather than Quattro Formaggi. We’d had a diet cola each and decided that we’d ask for a jug of water rather than pay for a second drink (Clever little thing about tap water being free with a meal). We’d asked one of the waiters as our waitress seemed to have done a runner.

We asked for a jug of water from one of the waiters but then we got to the end of the meal and it still hadn’t come.

We had our mains and no one came to check on how our meal was. When the waitress eventually came over we were finished. The waitress disappeared again and when she came back rather than just asking if we wanted dessert she shoved the dessert menus as us like we were wrong. We said no and asked for the bill, that caused another delay as she disappeared off, Chris was facing the right way that he could see if the waitress had gone to the till to get the bill, she looked over at our table a couple of times but didn’t actually bring us the bill. In the end when she did bring the bill – she hadn’t put through the Orange Wednesday voucher and when we tried to get her attention to come and amend it, she just kept ignoring us.

In the end we were needing to leave, so I got up and spoke to one of the managers and pointed out how awful the service had been, I understand that it was busy because lots of people were using the Orange Wednesday offer but that’s no excuse really. All in all the food was good as usual (Apart from the crazy amount of Goats Cheese) but the service really let it down.

On the way back to the car I started writing a comment on my phone to post of the Pizza Express Facebook page as they recently started taking feed back there. This would have come in handy except that my comment ended up being over 1000 characters long. So hence this post that way I can then go post a comment of their Facebook page along with the link rather than an over long comment.

So following the accidental break for Christmas we’re back on track with Blogger’s Wednesday. I was ill most of December (and again last week) and blogging had to take a back seat for a little while.

I’m not sure how I found it but I found Becky’s blog and have been reading since.

What’s your name?
Becky Haycox

Where do you live (country is fine)?
Southern California, United States of America

Where do you blog?
In bed, on my laptop.

What made you start blogging?
Initially to keep touch with my friends in San Francisco after I moved to Southern California (the first time). Then, in 2006, I wanted to chronicle my trip to the International Improv Fest in Seattle, and blogging became a habit after that. It was a lot easier to become a blogger when there were so many others out there.

How long have you been blogging? Has it always been in the same place?
I had a website when the internet was a baby — 1998. I sporadically posted things, but didn’t become a regular till ’06. Apart from a few months with Geocities at the beginning, I’ve had my own website since the beginning of 1999.

WordPress, Blogger or other?
Wordpress, installed on my own website. I like it! Yay, WordPress!

Do you have a day job or is blogging your main thing?
Writing is part of my job, but not blogging. I work as a multimedia producer and marketer for a nonprofit. I am all computers, all the time.

Do you have specific blogs that inspire you?
Evany‘s was one of the first blogs I started reading way back at the beginning of the century. She has a fantastic breezy, funny style that I’ve always admired. We’re real-life friends now, which is fab. Mimi Smartypants, another funny lady. Geek Crafts. Of course, there’s a huge roster of amazingly creative friends and associates who have blogs that I love. Not enough room to name them all!

If you could ask me one question (and I answer it) What would it be?
Hannah, what is your ultimate fantasy day? If money, logistics, reality and physics were no object, what would you do, eat, see? What would you wear, who would you be?

Piece of advice for bloggers out there?
Please don’t drop off the face of the (blogging) earth, especially without explanation. You owe it to your readers to warn them if you’re not going to post for a year. We’d much rather have you be realistic and post once a month (or less) regularly than to have you write lots, get us hooked, then disappear.
Also, try to stay away from fads. If everyone is posting pictures of precious little bird vignettes, or using the phrase “y’all” or getting all obsessed with zombies, how about being the original one in the pack and doing something different and unexpected?

So my answer to Becky’s Question is:

Hannah, what is your ultimate fantasy day? If money, logistics, reality and physics were no object, what would you do, eat, see? What would you wear, who would you be?

So physics is no option, therefore I can go anyway. I’d be in Australia at the beginning of March for Ruby and Branden’s wedding.

Then again ultimate fantasy day I would do so much lol. I’d probably like go to the US and do a road trip or something like that, Maybe start somewhere on the East Coast and head West. There are just so many places I want to visit that my day would be full before I’d even got out of New York or off the East Coast I think.

What would I wear – I think that would certainly depend on when I was travelling – I think I’d travel in Spring time that way it’s not too cold and not too hot so I can just drive in a t-shirt or stick a jumper on if it’s a bit chilly.

Who would I be? Well hopefully I would be myself lol.  If it’s meant to be who would I be with then I’d take Chris with me and maybe our housemate too if she wanted to come on the adventure lol. Does that answer the question?

God will never leave you empty. He will always replace whatever you’ve lost. If He asks you to put something down, it’s because He wants you to pick up something better.

Found here.

Image from Here. Idea from Rickie’s blog.

C is for….Catatonia

1. Muller and Scully

2. I Am The Mob

3. Londinium

4. Dead From The Waist Down

5. Road Rage

A band/musical artist whose music impacted your life.

I am one of those people that without music I think I’d go nuts or something. I wouldn’t say that one particular person has impacted my life because of their songs but I think there are quite a few odd songs that have impacted me some how along the way. A lot will probably be worship songs but here are some that mean alot to me.

The Stand – Hillsongs

I Can Only Imagine – MercyMe

How Great Thou Art – Traditional Hymn

And Can It Be – Traditional Hymn

Somewhere Over The Rainbow – Eva Cassidy

Songbird – Eva Cassidy

Just to let you know. Normal blogging will resume shortly but I’m full of cold and get writers block when I look at my MacBook.

Describe the town where you grew up. Do you still live there? Why or why not?

Apart from going on holiday and things like that I’ve lived in Bedford my whole life. Bedford is about sixty miles north of London – so it’s relatively easy to get there on the train. It’s probably about half way between Milton Keynes and Cambridge so you can be in either in about 45 minutes depending on the traffic and things like that.

There’s a cinema but the Bowling Alley got closed down a few years back and re-opened as a Bingo Hall which isn’t as nice lol.

So I’ve been there nearly 25 years and I’m still here lol. When I was about 17 and looking at university choices I did look at Universities away from Bedford like Wolverhampton University and Roehampton University as well as staying here. Chris sometimes tells me how moving away would have given me more experiences and I agree with him on that but by staying close to home meant that I met Kewey, LB and Serena who I would consider my closest friends and because I was involved with Kids Work, I was able to go to Turkey to do a Kids Club. So yes I didn’t gain experiences in the sense of being away from home and things like that but I did so much else that I wouldn’t have necessarily done if I had moved away.

I leave for work around 25 to 9 normally (sometimes it’s closer to 8:45 but please give me the benefit of the doubt lol.) Chris is away for a few days with the car so I’ve got to take public transport to get to and from work, and anywhere else I need to go to in the next few days.

I wouldn’t be too bothered but I wasn’t feeling great and being stuck on a stuffy crammed bus wasn’t my idea of fun. I walked from my house to the bus stop and one of the corners had this massive puddle so I was trying to walk round it and avoid the cars which were splashing through the puddle. A boy who was maybe 6 or 7 was behind me and he shouted excuse me but I didn’t hear him over the traffic. I then heard a bell and turned round to see what it was and then apologised. As his Mum (who was cycling on the pavement – which I am pretty sure is against the law but could be wrong – link) rode past me she got shirty and replied to my apology with “He DID say excuse me”. Fine okay I wasn’t going to get bothered about it – I was more worried about being late and getting the right ticket (Megarider that covers for 7 days rather than the normal Day Rider) so I crossed over to the bus stop and took up my place in the queue.

(Unfortunately I don’t get to take a Red London Bus to work but this is cooler than our buses lol.)

The first bus was pretty packed with people heading into town. The driver was really grumpy especially when I asked for my ticket rather than a normal day pass or one way ticket. I found a seat and sat down. I’d got my phone playing music so I was just that. We got towards town and the girl next to me started fidgeting so I took my headphone out and asked was it her stop. She said no, and then somehow we ended up having a conversation most of the way into town – she’d got a new phone so was talking about that also the fact that her jacket had a hole in the pocket so her phone kept falling through the hole and ending up at the bottom of the lining. As we headed into town the bus got stuck in traffic so I texted The Big Cheese to give him the heads up that I was going to be late and that I was very very sorry.

I got off the bus to change for the one going toward work and as I turned round realised that the one that I’d just got from my house to town was now covering the route from town to work. So I joined the back of the queue and got on the bus again. Because I was in the middle of the queue I ended up sitting near the back.
The lady sat next to me was getting off at the stop before so I followed her along the bus so that I was closer to the front by the time the bus got to my stop. I was at work by 7 minutes to 9 – into the office for 8:58 – get in! Unfortunately The Big Cheese wasn’t here to witness the craziness lol.

So grrr to the grumpy driver and grr to the grumpy lady but yay! Hi five to the girl on the first bus and yay hi five to being on time for work.

Something you hope to change about yourself and why.

My weight.

I was ill for most of December and because I’d lost my appetite I was eating minimal – two days in particular I had a cup-a-soup and a couple of slices of bread and that was it for the whole day. I was drinking buckets of water as well. I lost around 3-4kg. When it got to Christmas I didn’t eat very much – I had Christmas dinner but didn’t eat as much as I normally do.

I’m kinda back to normal now on the eating front but I am still feeling full after half a portion rather than a whole portion, so I’m kinda trying to use this lack of eating to my advantage by eating till I’m not hungry rather than eating till I’m stuffed. This seems to have worked so far as I’ve gone down two belt holes and my UK Size 16 jeans fall down with a belt somedays lol. (I weighted myself on Saturday and it was looking positive)

Now before you start panicking and worrying that I have an ED or that I’m starving myself, I’m don’t and I’m not. Chris can confirm this as he’s had three meals with me since Saturday and I did eat quite alot at each of them – Maybe I should do some exercise when I get home lol. Kidding!

Anyway so my weight is something I would change – just lose a bit and feel more comfy. That’s it – I won’t mention it again at least for the time being but I might update you when I hit my target 🙂

P.S. Bloggers Wednesday will be making a come back next week 🙂

Something about which people seem to compliment you.

My odd socks – then again maybe it’s not a compliment lol. I started wearing odd socks when I was at uni, I think it was because one day I couldn’t find a pair and then it got stuck. More and more people knew me for wearing odd socks and so now if I even dare go back to matching socks I think someone would think that I was ill.

I’ve even had my odd socks used as an example in a prophesy at church. We had a visiting speaker and I was sat in the front row as I normally do. I can’t remember why but I think my trouser legs were rolled up a bit and so my socks were on show. The speaker got up to give this prophesy and that was that – my socks were an example!

Image from Here. Idea from Rickie’s blog.

B is for….The Beatles

1. I Wanna Hold Your Hand

2. Hey Jude

3. Help!

4. Good Day Sunshine

5. Twist and Shout

Something at which you’ve been a champion or the best.

When I was at school I hated sports. I love trampolining and dance but hated Netball and Rounders and the other sports that we had to play through out the year. It was kinda cool when I got to upper school and did Rugby, except we only did it once – I think the PE staff decided that the girls couldn’t really do Rugby. I loved trampolining but for ages I couldn’t get past a front drop – it was just too scary bouncing with my face so close to the mat lol.

Anyway Music was kinda my thing. I played in the band, the orchestra, the choir and things like that and we took part in festivals and things like that but I was never the best. There were definitely other people in my group that were clearly better than me but I made up the numbers lol. A loved singing in the choir and in the smaller choir (it had a proper name but I can’t remember and FB friends aren’t coming to my rescue lol)

General knowledge was more my thing as well – when I was at university I tried out for the University Challenge team but I was trying to put my entries by email and my internet kept cutting out so I didn’t make it 🙁 So playing along with the TV is about how close I will get to being on University Challenge. Then again maybe I should try for Mastermind or Eggheads lol.

Prompts from Something For When You’re Bored.

My friend Ruby and her hubby to be had an e-session taken by Vibrant Photography.

When Branden and Ruby got half-engaged they were on the opposite side of the world from each other. During their shoot Branden re-proposed to Ruby so that they were officially proposed – how super sweet! I’ve been invited to the wedding and I’m kinda gutted that I can’t go – It’s all the way in Australia – I looked into it to see if I could go see Loz and Sheens and do the tourist thing but every time I thought about going to Australia on my own my stomach did a back flip. Going to MK is fine it’s 30 miles down the road, going to Scotland to see my cousin again isn’t that far away in comparison and I’d be with my cousin if there were any problems. But Australia and on my own – eep! So I won’t be there in person but I am sending them the biggest hugs and good wishes.

If you click on either of the pictures and that will take you to the Vibrant Photography website, where you can see to the other photos from the shoot – and you can see the photos that they have taken for other couples.

How do you stay entertained when you are snowed in?

In all honesty I don’t think I’ve ever been snowed in. I live in the southern half of the UK. So if we do get snow it’s got to be really cold – I mean like really cold lol.

However when we had that snow before Christmas I was at home and was kinda snowed in – it was too heavy to go out in, so I stayed in. I parked in front of the TV and watched random rubbish and spread my craft stuff across the floor so I could do some bits.

I think if I was snowed in for a couple of days I’d work my way through my TBR pile and spent time reading that lol. I think I have a fair few to be getting through at some point!

Prompt from The Daily Post at WordPress.

I’m not sure about doing Photo 365 but for now I’m doing a Photo-a-Day for January. Here they are photos 1 to 7.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

What Did You Do Today?

Today was the end of a crazy week. The office I work in was closed down from Christmas Eve lunchtime through to the morning of the 4th January. So as you can imagine that was a lot of orders for me to get through and catch up with.

I work 9 to 5:30 and most days I take an hour lunch break so when you work out that my lunch breaks this week consisted of me getting my sandwich from the canteen and then eating it at my desk while reading emails or checking over the next order, you can see that I had a lot to do (I even stayed til 6:15pm on Wednesday to try and catch up some more – I think I may raise this in my appraisal hehe).

So I did four days and an extra bit, there are a couple of outstanding orders but they are for big items so they go on a different service and they are in the pile to do first thing on Monday. Either way – I am getting there and hopefully we’ll be back on track by the beginning of next week.

Yesterday lunch time my manager had a phone call, her father had been admitted to hospital with suspected pneumonia. My heart leapt into my throat – he’s the same age roughly that my Great Grandma would be if she was still alive. I got an update from my manager this morning by text message – his doctors don’t think that he’ll make it through the weekend. I’ve lost a Grandma and a Great Grandma in the last two years ish and it hurts and I can’t even imagine losing my Dad – I don’t even want to think about it.

So yesterday and today it was just me and some assistance from my colleague. I was getting tied in a knot and really struggling at some points – I can deal with it normally but we were so behind I was stressed about that before I even dealt with everything else extra I had to do. Basically I was behind and I had to ask The Big Cheese for his help as I had about 10 minutes and needed to be in two places at once. I spent the rest of the afternoon working on catching up some more.

Around lunch time I chatted to JD via text about going to the cinema. In the end we had tea and went to the cinema. We had various choices that we wanted to see but in the end we saw this one. (Review to follow but I need to sleep now!)

Something that excites you and fills you with joy.

Almost four years ago I graduated university and after that I can count the number of times I’ve seen my friends on my fingers and toes. So something that excites me is seeing them for the first time in ages. My friends have moved on to do their own thing and although 3 of us are kinda in a triangle of about 30 miles so it’s kinda easy for us to see each other. But our group had a 4th friend and she now lives and studies about 200 miles away from us so as you can imagine we don’t get to see each other so often. I tried to work out when I last saw her and I think it was my birthday last year which is kinda sad that I’ve not seen her in about 8 months. I’m hoping to see them in a few weeks and once we’ve got a confirmed hang out day then I am going to be counting down each day because I am so desperate and excited to see them – I miss them bucketfuls.

Prompts from Something For When You’re Bored.

Something in life that gives you balance.

Friends and God then again maybe that should be God and Friends.

God – okay so I’m just going to burble about this for a sec and then move onto friends. So people question whether God is there all the time and I have to say that yes he is. I might have had answers to pray but it’s often only when I look back at them do I realise that they were there. If that makes sense.

Family – I am blessed with a loving caring family who really care for me. When I was at Middle School I had a really bad time of it. Mainly caused by myself but thats a whole other story. At that time my parents stood by me although it was tough to do. I remember my Uncle taking me for a milkshake and a chat to see if we could work out what was going on in my 10/11yo brain. I think my parents figured that if I spoke to someone in family but further away from me than my parents I might be able to open up and deal with what was going on. If I have problems now I go to my Mum and my Grandma because they are so fab. If it’s marriage stuff I go to Grandma – okay she doesn’t have all the answers but she’s been married nearly 50 years – that kinda gives her some experience right?!

Friends – Some days I just want to shut myself away and ignore the world but often thats when I get all bogged down and worry about stuff more so often after having a pray, going to see friends – or them coming to see me is what I need to get back on track and get stuff sorted.

I think these are the things that keep me balanced.

Prompts from Something For When You’re Bored.

Something that is part of your routine that you enjoy.

Am I allowed to say sleeping or is that really unoriginal? Next would be reading as I am a serious book worm, frankly there isn’t enough time in the day to read lots lol. Then again I spend most of the day reading emails and orders – does that count? Then again it’s not very exciting.

I like writing pen pals letters but that’s not really part of my routine in a way. I seem to go through stages where I write lots and then a few weeks where I don’t write very much at all.

Prompts from Something For When You’re Bored.

Image from Here. Idea from Rickie’s blog.

A is for….Alanis Morissette

1. Hands Clean

2. Thank you

3. You Learn

4. Crazy

5. Hand in My Pocket

Something with which you struggle.

This is a tough one – I’m sure if I was to ask Chris he’d come up with a list of things that I’m not so good at or that I struggle with but do you think I can think of any.

I guess being focused is something I struggle with. I either get obsessive and have to finish the thing I am doing, like finishing the chapter or the book (if I’m close enough to the end) or I get distracted and can’t focus on the task in hand.

Prompts from Something For When You’re Bored.

Something you regret not having done last year.

What do I regret not doing…..I’m not sure really. I guess I could have spent more time hanging out with my friends rather than becoming a bit of a recluse, but I’m not really sure if thats just something I feel or if it did genuinely happen – if that makes sense.

I would have liked to have spent more time with our housemate (The Kiwi) often we seem to pass like ships in the night and sometimes we don’t see each other for a couple of days because we’ve either gone to bed before the other is home and then one of us has gone to work before the other is up and about. (Yeah kinda happens like that some days lol)

Prompts from Something For When You’re Bored.

Something you’re looking forward to this year.

Well hopefully fingers crossed we are going to Italy later this year which is really exciting. I’ve wanted to go to Italy since I started learning Italian when I was at Upper School.

I’ve been to France and Turkey (and briefly through Germany) but there is something about Italy. I want to go to Verona and go to Casa di Guilietta, and go to Pisa and stand next to the Tower of Pisa. Yeah okay so I want to do the tourist thing but I want to talk Italian to Italians and eat Italian food. As you can tell I’m super excited and really really hope that it happens lol.

Prompts from Something For When You’re Bored

Been taking lots of photos with my phone over the last few weeks so here are some of them.

This is what the sofa looks like at the moment, I am in the process of tidying at the moment I promise!

On Tuesday we took our friend for a bit of a tour round London. First up we looked at the sculptures in St Pancras Station. This is me stood next to the statue of Betjeman. When Caz snapped this picture I was talking to Chris about who Betjeman was.

Later in the day we went to Piccadilly Circus and I snapped this picture on my phone – it came up really dark as the flash wasn’t working but something about it works anyway.

We were on a wander to find some lunch and found this telephone box. Now normal telephone boxes are red and in Hull you get cream ones (I think – this is because they are operated by Kingston Communications rather than BT)

The images are kinda coming out in a muddled up order but it’s all the same trip. This was taken from London Bridge looking towards Tower Bridge – in the background you could see Canary Wharf but it’s not very clear in the picture because of how foggy it was on Tuesday.

Looking up at Tower Bridge – this was the first time (or at least the time I remember) of crossing the bridge.

The Tower of London from the square outside the Tube Station. Both me and Bex were like huh? But it’s not like what we thought it looks like but having looked at the picture and read a little about it I’ve worked out why. In films and stuff like that when the monarch (Or ex-monarch) is sent to the Tower of London then it’s the correct building to when the film is set. So there in the middle of the image is the four towers of the White Tower which is correct for about Henry VIII’s time – yes we had a history lesson while we were there And it was fun!

From Chris I got a kit to make some more cards – I think it’s like a 12-card set or something like that but I can use the stamps and the pens and things like that after so i think it’s more than that!

From my parents, I got some DVDs (Bright Star, Dear John and The Blind Side), I also got House Season Six. (It’s become a bit of a trend for my Mum to get me the next Season for Christmas). They also got me Paper Towns by John Green and No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog by Margaret Mason.

From Chris’s auntie I was given this pin cushion for Christmas. It’s so cute! The mouse is made from pipe cleaners and there is some really intricate details on it. I love the shoe laces on the Mouse’s DM’s and the flowers on it’s apron lol.

Anyhoo off to write thank you letters and pen pal letters now. Have a great day.

To Everyone who reads (and to those who just lurk!)

I wish you a Very Happy Christmas
and hope you have an awesome 2011.

Stay safe and have a good time whatever you’re up to this holiday.

Han 🙂

The image is by Paparutzi

10 Christmas Songs I Love

1. O Come All Ye Faithful – Traditional
2. Mele Kalikimaka (Christmas in Hawaii) – KT Tunstall
3. Merry Christmas Everybody – Slade
4. Fairytale of New York – The Pogues Ft Kirsty MacColl
5. Little Drummer Boy – Bing Crosby and David Bowie
6. Baby It’s Cold Outside – Tom Jones Ft. Cerys Matthews (but the Glee version is pretty cool)
7. Happy Christmas (War is Over) By John Lennon and Yoko Ono
8. Oh Holy Night – There are lots of versions out there!
9. A King in A Manger
10. Joy To The World

10 Things to do before Christmas

1. Wrap presents
2. Finish Shopping
3. Deliver presents
4. Make home made presents
5. Buy a Poinsettia for Auntie K.
6. Get Mum’s Christmas tree present.
7. Get better!!!
8. Sing at the Pageant
9. Sing at the Carol Service (Renhold)
10. Redecorate the tree.

A friend of mine sent me links to the images in this post, I’m loving the angel on the right above. They are all painted by a girlie called Agustina.

Agustine was born in La Plata in Argentina in 1984 and when she was 21 she moved to Paris.

From an early age she devoted herself to the visual arts. Getting a vast academic background in her home town, she discovered her passion for classic styles, including Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque. Then she joined surrealism, pop art, American hyperrealism and finally contemporary art.

Agustina exhibited in galleries, public and private institutions and integrates local and international art groups, including the Colectivo Tango and Arte sin Fronteras. Her painting has an eclectic aesthetic, integrating expressionism and figuration.

All the images in this post are for sale. If you get in touch with @wise_marketing or email me and we can sort things from there.

Today was a disaster. Plain and simply. I heard my first alarm and went back to sleep. It would and should have been okay but there was a problem. It wasn’t the first alarm. It was what would have been the last had it been set properly.

I woke up at 9:40 not good. REALLY NOT GOOD. I text my manager and get dressed. Who cares that I’m in jeans and what should be my new pajama top I didn’t have time to be picky. I needed to be at work nearly an hour ago.

Chris rolls over makes a comment about me being late and asks am I catching the bus to work. Then he saw the time. He got dressed as fast as I did and took me to work. I walked into the office at 9:58. Later it would turn out that my manager was worried I’d been in an accident or something.

So I got to work and buckled down and did my thing – part way through the morning I took this snap and saved it on my phone. The bottle has water in it. The diet coke can has diet cola in it (funnily enough) and the mug has Cranberry and Sanguinello Orange. For some reason I had a mechanical pencil and a normal pen in use rather than a pen at this point!

So earlier I posted my list and here is the updated version with what I’ve achieved so far and have left to achieve between now and my birthday which is just over 18 weeks away. Here we go…

1. Buy and watch Gone with the Wind.
2. Watch a Ballet or Opera.
3. Watch It’s A Wonderful Life.
4. Volunteer at Children in Need.
5. Meet up with an old school friend.
6. Watch Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1.
7. Have a Father/Daughter Day.
8. Make 25% of my Christmas cards by hand.
9. Finish my NaNoWriMo story.
10. Buy The Nightmare Before Christmas on DVD.
11. Watch The Nightmare Before Christmas.
12. Go for cake and drink with Brains
13. Be included in the Christmas Performance at Church.
14. Meet @Beccaspeaks
15. Write part/whole play.
16. Complete 100 Films goal for 101 Things.
17. Complete Alphabet of Films goal for 101 Things.
18. Complete a photo a day for a month (31 photos) (Jan 2011)
19. Read His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
20. Create a list a week until my birthday (19 weeks = 19 lists)
21. Buy Miracle on 34th Street (remake) on DVD
22. Watch Miracle on 34th Street
23. Watch Superbowl 45 (February 2011)
24. Have friends round for dinner.

So the idea was that I would write this list and then get on with the goals but it seems to be that I’ve ended up writing it as I did it so I guess to a certain degree that defeated the point but here is the list anyway. Now to start on the 25 before 26 list. Inspiration was from Elsie at A Beautiful Mess (her goals are so much cooler than mine that’s for sure) and the lovely lady at Hula Seventy.

1. Buy and watch Gone with the Wind.
2. Watch a Ballet or Opera.
3. Watch It’s A Wonderful Life.
4. Volunteer at Children in Need.
5. Meet up with an old school friend.
6. Watch Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1.
7. Have a Father/Daughter Day.
8. Make 25% of my Christmas cards by hand.
9. Finish my NaNoWriMo story.
10. Buy The Nightmare Before Christmas on DVD.
11. Watch The Nightmare Before Christmas.
12. Go for cake and drink with Brains
13. Be included in the Christmas Performance at Church
14. Meet @Beccaspeaks
15. Write part/whole play.
16. Complete 100 Films goal for 101 Things.
17. Complete Alphabet of Films goal for 101 Things
18. Complete a photo a day for a month (31 photos) (Jan 2011)
19. Read His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
20. Create a list a week until my birthday (19 weeks = 19 lists)
21. Buy Miracle on 34th Street (remake) on DVD
22. Watch Miracle on 34th Street
23. Watch Superbowl 45 (February 2011)
24. Have friends round for dinner.

On Saturday we had our friends round for dinner, they are engaged and are getting married next year. It made me think about how our Christmas celebrations have changed over the last few years. Before I got married Christmas looked something like this:

Christmas Eve – hang out at home – maybe exchange presents with friends. In the evening we’d go to the Candlelight service at chapel. If this was at 6:30 then we’d go to the service then come home for tea and watch TV or just hang out as a family. If the service was at 11:30pm then we’d hang out then go to church. The 11:30pm version was timed so that we’d finish and it would be like 5 past midnight so we could wish everyone a happy Christmas before going home to bed. The church I used to attend didn’t have a Christmas Day service. Even when I moved church I would go back to my parent’s church for the Candlelight service and then miss the Christmas Day service at my new church.

Christmas Day – Start around 7 or 8 – me and my bro would try and creep past Mum and Dad’s room to see if the other one was awake – something about strength in numbers I think lol. We’d open our stocking presents and then hang out or pretend to go back to sleep if it was really too early lol.

About 9ish we’d get up and then as a family we’d open our presents. We would be allowed to go downstairs but we weren’t allowed to go into the living room to open presents until Dad had come downstairs and been in and switched the lights on and things like that. On several occasions he’d come back out of the living room with a deadly serious look on his face and tell us that there were no presents! I think this was as we got into our teens (Can you imagine telling a 5 yo that there are no presents!)

While I opened my presents my Mum would write a list of what I got and who I got it from so that it would be a little easier to write thank you cards. My Dad would do the same with my brother. When we’d done ours it would be Mum and Dads turn while we wrote the list. We’d then open family presents together (and someone would be nominated to write the list in between)

Following present opening we’d hang out whether it was playing computer games against each other or watching DVDs. After opening presents my Mum would have put the turkey in the oven and things like that so that by lunchtime we’d be sat round the table having lunch together.

When I was younger it was a family thing to watch the Queens Speech but as I’ve got older I think we stopped watching it or me and my brother would find something else to do while my Dad watched the speech.

When I got married it kinda changed, trying to fit in going to see additional family member is always a little crazy. I still go to the Carol Service at my parents church and this year and last year I’ve sung at the carol service. Then on the Sunday before Christmas we have the Children’s Nativity and the Christingle – this year is slightly different as all the young people (and some of the adults) are involved in one production this Sunday. It’s called Christmas in Context – so it’s not just the Christmas story.

Christmas Day is then spent at home just me and Chris. It was easier than upsetting one side of the family by going to see the other side on Christmas Day. One year we popped in for tea at our friends house. I think it was our first married Christmas and by that point we were driving each other a little crazy hehe.

Growing up we used to spend Boxing Day at my Grandparents house. Now I’m married it either goes that on Boxing Day we go to see Chris’s Auntie K or we go to my Grandparents and then go to see Auntie K on another day (or the other way round – yeah I know complicated hehe.)

How do you spend your Christmas?

Okay so I know the date as a title is really boring but I’m writing this from the train so its going to be a bits and pieces post.

I was due to be going to see the South Oxhey Community Choir in Westminster with my friend and her Mum but my friends daughter (my Goddaughter) is poorly and they had to cancel. So I’m going by myself. At present we’re sat in Luton Airport Parkway stationary and St Pancras is the next stop I think. Nice quick service. I’ve got my phone charging so I’m in communication with the world lol. Also meant that I didn’t have to carry a reading book which is very unlike me!!

The gent next to me has dozed off.  I’m thinking I should poke him when we get to St Pancras just in case he doesn’t notice (well its the end of the route so he should notice lol). If you live in London would you commute out of the city to go to work? I know people do it the other way round but I just wondered.

Anyhoo. I am going to go now and will be back with more later.

So I spent most of today in bed as I’ve caught a cold. Probably from one of the dinkies at church but it’s not their fault lol.

This evening our Connect Group was serving the Alpha Supper meal at church. I would ask you how it went but you are downstairs and I have the feeling you’ll make an appearance about 5 minutes before you go to sleep – hopefully tonight is a little less disruptive than last night. I think I woke up like 5 times and really struggled to get back to sleep.

I think you wanted a lie in but at about 9:30 I kicked you out of bed because I wanted to sleep and couldn’t because while you were sleeping you kept trying to push me out of bed lol.

At this moment in time I’m a little worried about the rest of this week especially as we’re going to London tomorrow to go see The Lion King and I’m going to London again on Friday to see the South Oxhey Community Choir in concert. I can’t really have Friday off as sick if I then go to the concert in the evening. But then also I can’t really go to work and breathe cold over everyone – talk about complicated.

There’s a trend in the blogosphere at the moment of writing your wish list. (I’ve seen a few including here, here and here.)Well here is mine but first a memory about Christmas….

When I was younger, me and my Brother would sit down towards the end of November or the beginning of December and write our letter to Father Christmas, asking what we’d like for Christmas. My list would be a few items long – maybe 10 at the most. My brothers would be an essay. (He would sit there with the catalogue and go through it listing anything and everything).

I think the biggest two presents I asked for was a new bike (I was about 12 and cycling to school, this was purple and second hand, I didn’t mind that it was second hand – I knew my parents couldn’t afford a brand new one because I’d been looking through the same catalogue that my brother loved) and my electric guitar (This was different I thought I would get a Yamaha or a starter set from the catalogue. I got a Fender Squire Strat. I was so grateful that year.

Growing up I would ask for books – I loved reading and it was my way of restocking my bookshelf. I would ask for CDs and things like that but books were my first love.

I’m not expecting any of this but this is a wish list. I think my Mum has already sorted my presents and Chris will be thinking out of the box when it comes to my present as he does. But are some bits that I like….

1. This fab tote bag from Sublime Stitching – this stitched version is one of a kind but you can get ones that are printed blue (and because of the fabric you can stitch it yourself!)

2. I love the slouchie beanies that Amyschmamey makes – they are sooo fab! What do you think? (You can read Amy’s blog here and her Etsy Store is here.)

3. So I would say I’m a Harry Potter fan. I’ve read the books and seen the movies. My old school tie was very similar colours to the Gryffindor tie (Yup I am that geeky!!)

Made by Mary Rebecca – her blog is here and her Etsy Store is here.

4. Yes I know another bag lol. This is a camera bag by Jo Totes. I saw one of the other designs on Elsie’s blog for a give-away and loved them. It’s really cool because there are dividers and bits so that you can use it as a camera bag but it’s also designed so that you can fit your other day to day bits and pieces in it.
(Click on the image and it’ll take you to Jo Totes site)

5. A proper nice leather bound journal would be fab. At the moment I have a ring bound notepad with stars on the front. I found this one on Etsy. It’s made by Daniel Heywood.

This evening my new phone arrived. I was going to go into town yesterday to get it but stuff including the weather was weighed against me. It wasn’t snowing but it was very icy and last time we had snow I ended up going to A&E (thankfully it was just bruising that time)

Anyway so here I am lying in bed with feet like blocks of ice while I write this post and attempt not to doze off (I think the cold weather makes me want to hibernate more that anything else.

The on screen keyboard takes a little getting used to. Because of that I’m using the Qwerty keyboard to write this post and so far it’s good.

The slide out keyboard is good but due the angle at which I’m writing this I’m a little worried about the screen and how flimsy it feels. Then again maybe its just new phone nerves lol. I’ll be fine in a few weeks once I’ve dropped it down the stairs and thrown it about in my bag lol.

I installed the WordPress for Android app which even in a younger incarnation is better and stabler than the iPhone equivalent. If I switch from the landscape view to the vertical (on screen view) and back again there are very few problems whereas before ny iPhone would have crashed and freaked out at me. This is either because of the app itself or the fact my phone was running iPhone 4.2 on a 3G handset.

All in all I’m pleased with the choice. A lot of my favourite apps are available on both platforms so there are no worries there. The camera is nice and clear, there are also “in house” filters you can use to create black and white or sepia images for example.

Anyway I love it, blogging during my lunch break and on the go should be a whole bunch easier now.

Okay so I’ve bored the pants of you all by whinging about how I’ve not blogged because I’ve been doing my story but look look look. Somehow at 22:37 this evening (literally five ish minutes ago) I uploaded my story to the NaNoWriMo site and then updated my Facebook status. I did it! Officially.

I’ve attempted the last four years having been unemployed for the first 9 and a bit days of the first one I did in 2007, the last two years I’ve not had a story I’ve liked enough to keep writing this time round I somehow pulled it out the bag and found my story. Well now I am going to finish Christmas cards and things like that.

Okay so this is a high speed post.

First of all go vote for my friend Paige – she is super cool and is trying to win a job as a Good Mood Blogger. It couldn’t be easier – click on this big button to go to the site and then click Vote – Simples! She’s about 1000 votes behind the next person closest to her so we need to get her up there and past that person.

Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

Secondly, the reason for the ridiculously short post is that I need to go write some more NaNoWriMo. I’m at that annoying stage where I am so close to finishing for once that I want to finish but I’m still too far away that it could be a huge fail and I might miss the deadline so here is this short post and I’m sorry for wasting space within your RSS reader but you see there is a real point to it I think. I found a new phone today and had an amazing time with my friend who I hadn’t seen in like years I want to tell you all about that but I feel that it might have to wait till tomorrow or Monday lol.

Rickie is one of the few bloggers who will appear as part of this series who I have actually met in person. When I was at university I worked for one of her companies when they were based here in Bedford. It didn’t quite work out but I’d now call her one of my friends. She’s one of my Popmaster buddies!

What’s your name?
Rickie

Where do you live (country is fine)?
Sunny Birmingham, the best city in the UK

Where do you blog?
http://rickiejosen.co.uk/
Also contribute to few others inc CharityZine Did start writing for Little Pink Book but didn’t enjoy it. I mainly write for Powder Room Graffiti but it’s not a blog as such, but an online magazine.

What made you start blogging?
Just a way of recording my words/journal and practicing writing skills but it has now become an archive.

How long have you been blogging? Has it always been in the same place?
Over 2 years, started writing July 4th 2008 originally on New York Shenanigans

WordPress, Blogger or other?
Wordpress all the way

Do you have a day job or is blogging your main thing?
I have lots of day jobs(!) but I write every day. Weekend mornings are usually reserved for book writing but I make sure 8-10 days a month are spent on the book (memoirs, not novel) Goal to have first draft by Christmas. 8K words to go – eek!

Do you have specific blogs that inspire you?
Nothing specific but love coming across new ones that give me ideas. There are 2 that I always read!!

If you could ask me one question (and I answer it) What would it be?
How would you ideally spend every day? Not a day off work or a special day, just what would you like every day to be like?

Piece of advice for bloggers out there?
Just do it! And be happy every single day (but then that’s my advice to everyone)

So in answer to Rickie’s question:

How would you ideally spend every day?
Not a day off work or a special day,
just what would you like every day to be like?

Toughie – then again it’s kinda easy it wouldn’t be at my current job – yeah okay I like it most of the time but some days I really want to be elsewhere.

Could I be a travel writer – that way I get to travel, get paid for doing it and get to write my socks off. The other job that always seemed really funny was a Hotel Reviewer – I guess this fits in with the Travel because I’d get to review the comfy-ness of the beds and how yummy the breakfast was.

Okay so seriously travel writer, photographer, professional blogger/tweeter and/or singer – okay so some aren’t realistic and some actually could be but for now they are dreams as I have to pay the bills lol. I guess if each day was fun (or at least had more happiness than sadness)then I think I could do it.

If you wonder where the cupcake fits in, Rickie and I often discuss the lack of proper cupcakes here in the UK and that nothing quite bits a proper American cupcake – well at least that’s what Rickie tells me seeing as I haven’t ever tried a proper American cupcake and just had the substandard UK version hehe.

Each day at work I write a to do list – the idea being then that I don’t miss bits or forget important bits. Well this has spilled over in to my personal life and my To Do list is getting longer.

I realised that a whole bunch of my to do’s were to go back and look at particular links or websites that I had found but didn’t have time to look at.

Well here are some to share with you….

Chronicle Books are having a massive giveaway called “Happy Haulidays” – now I have the feeling it’s only open to people in the US but I have seen quite a few others blogging about it. You can find the original post here, other bloggers who have written about it include Becca, Corrin and Koree.

(How cute does Becca and Caleb look in their Maternity pictures. Heather at Heather Cherie Photography did the shoot – my favourite is when Caleb is holding up the yellow sun dress to Becca’s bump – aka Selah.)

Next up, The Brick House – not sure how I found the link but this sail that they put up over their garden is awesome – I love it!

Destroyed Apple products – it would seem that they are shiny and pretty when in working order as well as being pretty spectacular when broken. Someone tweeted this link.

Another link that was tweeted was this one – it’s iconic images of celebrities done in graffiti or with tweaks to fit in with features of the buildings. For example the door frame used to create the image from The Shining.

As if it wasn’t crazy enough on Friday, I went to London again on Saturday this time with my Dad. He’d sent me an email about a Family Christmas Lecture that was going to be on in London. The lecture was presented by ITP (Institute of Telecommunication Professionals which is some organisation that my Dad belongs to because of his job). The guy leading the lecture was called Mark Lewney (yes it is pronounced Looney).

There were kids at the lecture who were like 7/8 maybe a little younger so I was in the middle of the range. Lewney uses various props including an air bazooka, bullwhip and his own very cool custom Ibanez guitar. (Various pictures on it including Einstein, Plank and the E=MC2 equation in full. (I always thought that E=MC2 was the full equation but apparently I’m wrong lol.)

We all took our seats and before the lecture started Lewney was having a jam, he asked for requested and no one said anything so I shouted “Stairway to Heaven” and people laughed at me. Well I was going to ask for The Who but wasn’t sure what was in his repertoire lol. Then again he did play The Twilight Zone and Hall of The Mountain King (Aka Alton Towers theme) during his talk. There was also Slayer in there which was interesting as we were in a church (maybe I should have requested Personal Jesus by Marilyn Manson!)

The talk was amazing – given the fact it was about string theory and the origins of the universe and stuff like that I thought I was going to be completely baffled all the way through but actually I was really interested. Apparently the guy has a degree or a doctorate in Guitar Acoustics which sounds like so much fun! Following the talk we went for a mammoth walk. We were heading along Regent Street but it was so busy we turned off and nipped round the back streets. We headed over to Carnaby Street to start with – it still kinda disappoints me lol. When I first went I thought it was going to be like trendy independent stores and things like that but when I got there were quite a few big brand stores. Following that we walked towards Leicester Square and then onto Trafalgar Square. From there we walked along Whitehall and stopped at the Cenotaph to discuss the different flags that were hanging on either side – there are 6 flags, two of them are the Union Flag (it’s only a Union Jack when it’s flying on a ship in certain circumstances according to my Dad – He also recounted the actual circumstance but now I can’t remember it! The other four flags are as follows: Red Ensign, Blue Ensign, White Ensign and the Royal Air Force Ensign. The Red and Blue Ensigns are the respective colour with the Union Flag in the canton (the canton is the top left hand corner)

From the Cenotaph we walked past 10 Downing Street and round to Horse Guards Parade. After that we walked into St James Park for some lunch at the cafe there. After that we walked up past Buckingham Palace on the way to Victoria to get the train home. Again I have lots of pictures but they are on my mum’s camera.

EDIT: Guess who wasn’t paying any attention while writing this blog post yesterday – the title should have been NaBloPoMo: Day 22 rather than NaNoWriMo (which I am seriously failing at!)

I’ve decided that NaNoWriMo is stealing my sanity!

[blackbirdpie id=”5421064469356544″]

So this is what my NaNoWriMo looks like at the moment – it’s about 61 pages in A4 but when I got bored the other day I switched it A5 and it goes to like 100 pages – I felt so chuffed like I’d wrote something awesome!

Its cheesy and would be a rom com if it was a film lol. It’s *that* bad.

I am writing this at 10 to 1, I need to go to bed so that I can function tomorrow but something in me wants to keep writing and it’s a pain so I want to tell that side of my brain to shut up! Yes I am tired and that eloquent.

I have two comments that I need to deal with but I think they are Spam. If you spam my dears you’ll go to the trash can and never be seen ever again and those IPs will be blacklisted or what ever it does because I don’t like spam.

Right night night one and all – sorry this isn’t in the normal vein of my posts.

Hey Everyone – It’s Thursday so it’s Love Bomb Day 🙂 Please take the time to comment on Elizabeth’s Blog – here’s the intro from Lauren 🙂

The woman we will be dropping a Love Bomb on today is in the final stages of a terminal illness.

She was suggested to us by one of our team members, Shelli. This is what Shelli had to say about Elizabeth:

“Elizabeth is a young woman with a terminal illness (end stage) who has chosen to spend her remaining days working on The Postcard Project.  This is where she designs and sends out caring, uplifting postcards to anyone who needs a little pick me up.  However, for as many postcards as she sends out, she receives very few replies.  It would be wonderful for her to get a Love Bomb, to let her know that people know and care about her.”

Guys, Elizabeth has sent out over FIVE THOUSAND postcards, to people all over the world who need encouragement and love. Five thousand. I have been challenged and moved to tears by this woman’s heart and dedication to making the most of what she has left.

Please, please join me in showering Elizabeth with your comfort, your love, your encouragement – and let her know how inspiring she is. What a woman.

You can comment on her blog, The Postcard Project, here: efmpostcardproject.blogspot.com

Time to drop two Love Bombs, team! Let’s give thanks where it is due.

Lauren

P.S. If you would like to send a postcard to Elizabeth, please shoot an email to dropalovebomb@gmail.com

If you want to post comments that Elizabeth will see you need to go to her blog! Not here – I love the comments but Elizabeth won’t necessarily see them

Lauren posted this tweet on Twitter earlier

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/laurenlankford/status/4928952053272576″]

and this was the picture……

This is so me at the moment – my To-Do list doesn’t seem to be shrinking!

This year the Samaritan’s Purse has been running Operation Christmas Child for 20 years.

In 2009 over 170,000 shoeboxes were distributed to children in Serbia. To Azerbaijan and Kenya there were 14,000 – those are just the smallest and the biggest distributions on the sheet.

Since 1990, 81 MILLION shoe boxes have been distributed across the world – how crazy is that!

So when you start to complain about that present you got that you don’t really like remember those who didn’t get anything. Who woke up to Christmas day and it was just like every other day. Then remember those kids, the ones who have been given a shoe box, and although it’s only got a few bits and pieces in it, it makes a difference.

I packed a box and there was a pair of gloves, a scarf and a woolie hat. A little dolly, some pencils and a little notepad. There was a small toy in there as well. That’s going to a little girl between 5 and 8 years old (I think!)

I have some pictures of my church organising their shoe boxes but I’m not sure which ones I can post at the moment so bare with.

If you have beady eyes you will have seen that I missed a NaBloPoMo post on Saturday. Well between my NaNoWriMo stint and seeing two friends on Saturday that I haven’t seen in ages I ran out of time. I got in to bed around 2am Sunday morning and realised that I hadn’t written it. I then couldn’t be bothered to get back out of bed and write something and postdate it to pre-midnight.

So what was I doing that meant that I didn’t write a post…

Friday – after work went to see my Mum for a bit. Well actually I was going to the post office next to her house but I popped in to see if she had any post to go to the post office but she needed to go anyway so we had a little stroll to and from the shop. I set up her printer so that she can print from her laptop downstairs or from the garden. I then headed off and went to the cinema – I wanted to see Burke and Hare (my Dad had been to see it and said it was good and seeing how he really dislikes the cinema then it had to be good!) but it had stopped being shown at Bedford so I saw You Again.

I got up about 10:30ish Saturday morning – I’ve become very lazy lol. At the moment I am trying to sleep enough to fight of the cold that is creeping up on me because if I’m not careful it’ll hit me Friday when I am trying to be fab at Radio 2 (Did I tell you about that? Maybe I should).

I was parked in front of my computer trying to work on NaNoWriMo (I’m currently like 2000 words behind so I wanted to catch up with that.) and my Grandma phoned to have a chat about Christmas which was cool. I then carried on writing.

At about 12:30ish my phone rang and it was JD wanting to see if I was free for lunch. Well going out for lunch turned into a whole afternoon – I got home from JD’s at about 4:30-5 ish – I’d gone to my Mum’s to drop off some shopping and decided just to hang out there till I went to the cinema with the Fairy. Except then Chris needed me to come to his rescue, so I had to do that.

I met the Fairy at 7:30 and we headed over to MK to go to the cinema, there were a few technical hitches but in the end we went to see Burke and Hare. The story line wouldn’t have been my first choice but the fact that it had Simon Pegg in kinda pointed out that it wouldn’t be serious acting lol.

I got home and crashed – I stayed up till 2am trying to catch up on my word count and I seemed to be doing okay but I’m probably going to fall behind again.

Sunday morning I got to church for just after 9:15 ready for band practice. It was Remembrance Sunday so In Flanders Field was read out and we had a two minute silence.

Following Church, Chris and me went to get some lunch so that I could be back at church to wrap boxes for Operation Christmas Child. We sent around 80 shoe boxes to the warehouse today which was good (although not as good as some years when we’ve hit 120 ish).

I was looking for the OCC website and found this video clip. I didn’t realise that 20th Century Fox and Walden Media who make The Narnia Chronicles movies had partnered with Samaritans Purse. The video is presented by Georgie Hanley who plays Lucy in the Narnia Films.

As the Narnia quote goes “It’s always winter but never Christmas” – if we wrapped 80ish boxes in one afternoon, that means we’ve made a different to 80ish children who wouldn’t have got Christmas presents – how awesome is that!

Rememberance Sunday

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

A fab girlie called Anna sent me a link to the trailer for Imogen Heap’s New DVD. It’s kinda cool actually (minus the swearing lol).

This is one of her older performances but I love it lots!

NaNoWriMo Words done: 18084
NaNoWriMo Words to go: 31916
Days to go: 18

Hey Everyone – It’s Thursday so it’s Love Bomb Day 🙂 Please take the time to comment on Cassie’s Blog – here’s the intro from Lauren 🙂 (It was Lauren’s birthday this week so if you have chance leave her a comment too or tweet her @laurenlankford.

Hey team!

Today we are dropping a Love Bomb on one of our own: Cassie!

Cassie was suggested to us by another team member, Catherine. This is what Catherine had to say:

“I’ve gone to school with Cassie since Kindergarten and she has always been shy. While we’ve gone to different colleges, we’ve tried to keep each other updated as much as possible through email and blogs. She’s the one who introduced me to the Love Bomb project. This afternoon she got a call that her grandmother passed away. Also, she just had a huge argument with a girl who has acted like her friend for the past year and just turned around and stabbed her in the back a week ago. Cassie is normally a very optimistic person but lately she’s been having trouble being positive in her life in general. Could you guys please help remind her that there are amazing people out there who might not know her but they care about her?”

Oh, my heart. In Cassie’s blog post she talks a little bit more about how quickly she gets taken back to her insecurities and hurts caused by friends in middle school. It can be so easy to see how painful things like cancer, losing someone, or physical injury are, yet we often forget to comfort one another in the internal pain we ourselves have all experienced from poor friends and our younger years.

This week must be so hard for Cassie, doubling up both types of pain.

Please join me in reminding Cassie that she is loved and valued, and that she’s not the only shy girl who has struggled with hurt, betrayal and feeling left out – and comforting her as her grandmother just passed away yesterday.

You can leave a comment on her blog post here: http://kick-it-swim-it-stroke-it-08.xanga.com/735296300/revist-and-cooping/

Time to drop a Love Bomb, team!

Lauren

I’ve decided that NaNoWriMo is actually taking over my life at least for now – I was talking to my friend yesterday at church about NaNoWriMo and where both our stories are going and things like that.

My friend’s story is action and reminded me of The Hunger Games in places. Mine is definitely in the rom-com camp. I had a message on Facebook from my friend wanting to know who got with who and that she needed to know what happens – I explained that I had to write that bit first.

Anyhoo things to write. ttfn

So I had this idea to interview other bloggers and see what they like, what inspires them and things like that. If I get my act together I might even have a funky badge for it. First up we have the super lovely

Ashley

Name
Ashley Cauthen

Where can I find your blog:
ashleycauthen.blogspot.com

Where do you live?
Nashville, Tennessee

Where do you blog?
I usually blog from my desk at home while listening to some sweet vinyl.

What made you start blogging?
Reading other blogs got me inspired to do my own.

How long have you been blogging? Has it always been in the same place?
I’ve been blogging since 2005. I started with xanga (ha!) and have worked my way up, but I’ve been working on Have Heart now for almost two years and plan to stick with it.

WordPress, Blogger or other?
Blogger

Do you have a day job or is blogging your main thing?
I attend a private Christian university in Nashville and am studying early childhood education. I want to be a first grade teacher when I grow up 🙂 I’m also a nanny for a precious 2 year-old girl.

Do you have specific blogs that inspire you?

http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/my_weblog/

http://taza-and-husband.blogspot.com/

http://pennyweightonline.blogspot.com/

http://ohmydeerhandmades.blogspot.com/

http://bleubirdvintage.typepad.com/

If you could ask me one question (and I answer it) What would it be?
What’s your most favorite memory?

Piece of advice for bloggers out there?
Just be yourself and always be on the lookout for inspiration.
Do the things that make you happy and always try to be uplifting.

In answer to Ashley’s question:

What’s your most favorite memory?

Favourite memories – wow I have so many lol. Friday was Bonfire night and on Saturday while we stood in the queue to buy some fireworks, I was telling Chris about what was like our family tradition earlier. The church I grew up in had a bonfire night each year in a field in the village. My Dad and my Grandad and some of the other gents would go up to the field in the morning and build the bonfire. When I was about 8/9 I started going up with my Dad to help out. It became a bit of a unofficial thing that I’d sit on the grass to check there no hedgehogs (as sometimes they would start building the fire the night before so thats why I had to check). My Grandma would serve hotdogs and burgers from her caravan and we’d have fireworks because were out in the village it would be really dark and there wouldn’t be so much light pollution so it would be AH-MAZ-ING!!!

Thank you Ashley for taking the time to answer my questions 🙂 Please visit her blog on the link above and if you have chance visit her inspirations – I also read A Beautiful Mess by Elsie so I can guarantee thats good 🙂

When We Dance by Sting (originally on the album Ten Summoners Tales, also on Symphonicities)

If I could break down these walls
And shout my name at heaven’s gate
I’d take these hands
And I’d destroy the dark machineries of fate,
The vehicles are broken
Heaven’s the one above
Hellfire’s a promise away
I’d still be saying
I’m still in love

I’d heard very few of Sting’s solo songs when I was played this song a few years ago. It’s one of those songs that if I’m having an off day can make me cry just like I did the first time I heard it – mainly due to the circumstances of how I came to have it played to me. If that makes sense.

So I know of a few couples who are getting married in the next few months and so I really could do with a proper nice dress to wear. Well I think I’ve found it – however given the neckline I might have a challenge if I wear it to a winter wedding – but anyhoo how awesome is this dress.

Image belongs to Vivien of Holloway 🙂

It’s made by a company called Vivien of Holloway. You can find their store here and their blog here. Also if you watch Strictly Come Dancing on Sunday during the results show there was a Rock n Roll Number. The dresses that the girl professionals were wearing were made by this company.

Day Eight in Becca’s 30 Day’s is actually supposed to be a photo that makes me angry or sad but actually I’ve got a different post to write after something we were discussing yesterday afternoon.

I had lent my copy of Julie and Julia to my friend and so for the first time in ages I watched it. Both Chris and The Kiwi asked “Did Julia Child really hate Julie Powell and why?”

My best answer was that Child was 90ish and probably didn’t get the point of a blog and what Powell was trying to achieve.

Having read two different articles Julie Powell’s original blog and the book (that the film was then based on). The film definately has an ideal version of both Powell and Child – to a certain degree Child is the version that Powell creates in her imagination.

The two articles I read were here at Beliefnet.com and FoodRenegade.com. The second one explains that Child had read (or had the blog read to her) and felt that Powell wasn’t taking it seriously (althought the film sgows that she is seriously especially during her crisis points – although the tantrum on the kitchen floor makes me laugh.

My friend Dawn, made the Boeuf Bourguignon to Julia Child’s receipe – it looks so yummy! I still keep meaning to cook it but I don’t have a casserole pot dish thingy. A Le Creuset one would be lovely but they are a lot of money.

I love reading other blogs and I came up with an idea to interview other bloggers and see what inspired them and got them blogging. I emailed a whole bunch and am waiting on the responses – however I have the first two so I’m going to get started. First up is Ashley from Have Heart and her interview will be posted on November 10.

If I didn’t email you but you’d like to take part – drop me at email.

Join in here.

1. My last haircut was in August I think. I had the ends trimmed and maybe about an inch off the bottom but I’m starting to grow it a bit longer.

2. My most daring hair moment was when I dyed the under layer pink with some help from my friend. I couldn’t find any pictures with my actual pink hair but you can see where it was all lighten for the pink dye.

3. A hairstyle I’d never be brave enough to try is a pixie or a bob cut – I just look silly lol. I have a purple bob wig for dress up and thats fine.

4. I’ve always dreamt of being a (blonde, brunette or red-head) I’m a natural brunette. I have red hair at the moment and I have the wrong skin tone to suit blonde hair lol. Thats a good start!

5. My go-to hair do is messy up to or ponytail. see below!

6. My biggest hair disaster was either the free cut I had in London – they put in lots of layers that I didn’t ask for and when I tried to make a complaint they said that I was a model and I had to go with what they did.

7. A hairstyle I am dying to try is lots of layers or feathered bits, think Rachel from Friends – I keep trying to grown my hair longer so that it works but then I get bored and have it chopped off again lol.

8. My best hair day was my wedding day hair was pretty cool. Apart from two hair cuts, I’ve always been to the same hairdressers. She did my hair for the wedding and it was so pretty but had so many grips in it lol. I took most of them out that night but I found more in my hair the following morning.

9. The worst hairstyle I ever had was when I had it cut too short. I thought it would be really cool to have a messy bob do thing and it was cool when it was first done and I had remembered to leave enough time to straighten it but it was too much effort and having long hair was easier.

10. My hair is kinda boring but I’m growing it so it doesn’t need to be super spesh lol.

Day 05 — Your favourite quote

Verses

1 Peter 5:7 – God cares for you, so turn all your worries over to him (Contemporary English Version)

Psalm 124:8 – Our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of Heaven and Earth (New International Version)

Jeremiah 28:11 – For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (New International Version)

Quotes

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. – Oscar Wilde

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope some day you’ll join us, and the world will live as one. – John Lennon

You can find Becca’s Original post here.

NaNoWriMo Words done: 5965
NaNoWriMo Words to go: 44035
Days to go: 25

(There’s a new little gadget on the NaNoWriMo site and you can work out when you would actually finish based on your average daily word count – mine says Dec 12!)

Day 04 – Your Favourite Book

Today is my favourite book, but to be honest I don’t have one. Well actually I guess the Bible is pretty high up there because it’s got all sorts of different stories and advice within it’s pages. So my favourite bible story is Joseph – the fact that even through all the rubbish that happens to him he’s still strong and follows God.

Second favourite or equal favourite is the story of Esther – she wasn’t anyone special in the sense that she wasn’t a princess or a high politician – not that you had lady politicians then but she did do something amazing.

Esther becomes Queen and must tell King Xerxes (or Ahaseurus depending on which version you’re reading) that his prime minister is plotting to kill the Jews (Boo!!! Hiss!!!). Esther to the rescue though, she stands up to the king and with some help from her ladies in waiting (of sorts) she with help from God gets it sorted. (Aah! One day I will explain about Purim! Maybe in February when it actually happens!)

There is a Veggie Tales version from what I’ve heard where rather than Haman (the Prime Minister) trying to kill the Jews he’s trying to banish them to the Island of Perpetual Tickling which I think is an awesome twist on the story.

You can find Becca’s Original post here.

NaNoWriMo Words done: 4326
NaNoWriMo Words to go: 45674 (ish)
Days to go: 26

When I was in my teens me and my Dad would discuss “If you won the lottery what would you do?”, my answer was buy a house and a car and then save the rest.

We had the same conversation a few weeks ago and I said that paying off the mortgage would be somewhere near the top – I guess I’m practical like that. We then had a discussion about how it made sense to save it and then live on the interest and all the ins and outs like that. It ended with me being baffled and My Dad thinking I understood lol.

Okay so it’s not quite as big amount as that but PayPal have got a competition to win a year’s salary of £40,000, now actually for me this is a lot of money  (it’s actually close to two years for me). So as you can imagine it would made a big difference to someone’s life.

So hypothetically, I’ve won the £40,000 prize. What would I do with it?

Well first up 10% would go to church. I know that there are some bills still to pay to do with the extension and I think that £4k would make a difference.

Clear Chris’s student debt. There is still a little bit floating about that needs to be dealt with so that would be up there near the top.

There is a youth work project that I know of in Bedford that is trying to get off the ground – I’d ask the people in charge about making some kind of donation or grant to them.

I’d put like £15k in the bank to save for a rainy day.

I’d use like £500 and go on a shopping spree – I know it’s like a tiny percentage of the whole money but I would rather help more people then spend it all on tech, gadgets and bits like that, that I don’t need. There’s a project in the town where I live that works with homeless people around the town. I’d give a donation to them – surely it’s better that they have a warm bed and nice food. Having said that I would replace my Macbook as the disc drive is poorly but that is a want rather than a need. I can still survive with my current and so that would be like the last thing on the list for replacing or repairing

I’d look into a holiday – I’d love to go to New Zealand and do a bit of a tour. I think if it was an option I would take my housemate with me and Chris so that she could see her family. She hasn’t seen her Mum and Dad since April-ish.

So there we go I think I’d start by trying to help other people followed by myself, I’m not trying to look “holier than thou” but possessions are just that, they can be replaced but people can’t, so if some money can help a charity that works with homeless people or a project that keeps young people out of trouble – surely that is better than me sitting on my nice comfy sofa in my nice warm house playing on my new computer.

So to enter the PayPal Draw all you need to do is to use PayPal to pay for your purchases over the internet. For example maybe a handmade Christmas present from Etsy, or that handbag you really like from eBay. You can also use in other places just look out for the PayPal logo. You can find out more by clicking the link.

This is a Sponsored Post. The opinions are my own 🙂

So last week I received an email from Kate and with her permission I posted this blog post. Well I decided that I needed to put the idea in to practice.

Ages ago I was taken ill outside work one morning and I was a little scared because I wasn’t really well enough to drive myself home so that got me in a bit of a twist. A lovely lady came to my rescue and gave me a lift home. Oh dear I just looked back through my posts. It was February!

Okay so that kinda explains her reaction lol. So back in February I was taken ill so on Thursday I left a card under the windscreen wiper with something along the lines of I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to say thank you but I am super grateful.

Well I bumped into her on Friday and she said thank you and that I didn’t have to but I’m kinda hoping it made her day.

So go try it, say thank you to the milkman, postman and whoever else lol. Thanks Kate 🙂

(via)

So this post started as a rant about the girl in the supermarket and size but then having read two other blog posts this morning its more of a question – why did I feel that way while stood in the supermarket on Thursday?

So the story to start with….

I was in the supermarket yesterday looking at winter jackets – I have my coat from last year but was looking for something lighter weight that I can just throw over a jumper (whereas my winter coat is too big and gets in the way when I’m driving).

Anyhoo so I’m stood there trying on a size bigger like my Mum always suggested so that I could wear it over jumpers. There’s a girl there trying to squeeze into a Size 10 over a chunky jumper. Her Mum suggests that she tries on a Size 12 and she goes into a teenage hissy fit. Oh my goodness – I would be chuffed if I could fit into a size 12 and if I could fit in a size 10 I might faint in the middle of the store lol. I’m a size 16 and yeah it bugs me some days that I have to go for a bigger size but at least I’m comfortable. Right?

Interestingly, this morning when I got up and started reading some blogs, Danielle had posted a link to Single Dad Laughing. Now I went off to read it and at first I thought it was a big strange what Dan was writing about but towards the middle and then to the end it became clearer and clearer.

The theme of Dan’s post is how often it’s Men in our lives that make us feel worthless, whether it’s drooling after some *hot* girl or getting distracted by the men’s magazines (on a separate note why are all the film magazines next to those in the store – it’s kinda embarassing?!?!) But Dan turns the opinion upside down and points out how he’s going to try and be a better guy. I posted it on Facebook so that my friends could have a read and one of my friends has already said thank you to me for posting the links so please take the time to go for a read.

Join in here.

1. My Halloween plans this year will include…. On Sunday our church is hosting an alternative Halloween party called Chill @ The Church. I’m going to be manning the karaoke, The Kiwi has been asked to help as well and she’s making cocktails and Chris is doing about hundred things but I think his favourite was creating the maze in the church garden. My bro is also helping with the games arcade area – Rock Band – bring it on!!!!

2. My most memorable Halloween costume was well actually I’ve never celebrated Halloween. The main reason is because I’m a Christian but also it was never really made a big deal about at home. My dad would stick a poster on the door about No Trick or Treats, we’d close up the front door and then ignore the doorbell – if family were coming round they had to phone first lol.

So why don’t I celebrate it well Halloween is actually All Hallows Eve – when supposedly the spirits of dead people came back to haunt the living – if they were given a treat and welcomed then it was all good but if they were rejected they would then trick those people. There is a whole bunch more about it – I found this on CARM (Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry) website about Halloween and Can Christian’s Celebrate it – here.

3. For Halloween this year I’m going to be nothing specific but on Sunday I’m wearing a funky coloured wig to the party – I tried it on yesterday and it looks better without my glasses but without them I can’t see very far lol. So maybe I have to take them off for pictures lol.

4. I’ve always wanted to dress up as erm don’t know – see above lol. When I was at upper school there was a joke about me going as the Good Fairy rather than a witch or anything like that lol.

5. Halloween free association! Craziness, eggs, pumpkins, pumpkin pie, ghosts and ghoulies.

6. The worst thing about Halloween is erm the fact its celebrating death and destruction lol. Does that work?

7. The best thing about Halloween is that we have an alternative party and lots of young people come rather than making a nuisance of themselves, also it means that the Christian kids don’t feel left out of the craziness in a way.

Howdy

So after my little crisis on Saturday (Thanks Fancybiscuit to coming to my rescue!) yesterday was very good.

After church we headed over to Cambridge to meet everyone at LB’s House. We headed into the centre of Cambridge to grab some lunch to celebrate LB’s 25th Birthday. We went to the Leisure Park – which is the same bit as the Junction so having never been before I went twice in one week to the same area!

We went to Chiquito’s for lunch, I’d never been before and would have probably preferred Bella Italia or Nandos but it’s LB’s birthday so she gets the choice. We arrived at 2:06pm and was seated at about quarter past – no problem, but then we spent 40 minutes waiting to have our order taken (it had taken between 20 and 30 to actually be handed menus). The restaurant was practically empty so I’m not sure what took so long. When our drink order had been taken the girl who was serving us disappeared behind the bar (which we could see from our table) then a group of her friends arrived and she stopped sorting our drinks to have a chat, we’d already been there nearly an hour so something had to be said.

We ate dinner which I think everyone enjoyed – I ordered a Chiquitos Classico Burger, the burger was fab but I only seemed to get half a portion of chips and seeing at it was past 3pm I was famished by this point!

We decided to have pudding but really wished we hadn’t made the effort now. Me and LB both had a Belgian waffle thing which was fine (£4.49 well worth the money we paid for it), but everyone else round the table were not happy – they’d ordered a sundae which cost more than our waffles but was really not worth the money.

This is what the menu describes the Sundae as:

This is what Chris received (excuse the fact that the whipped cream on top has half disappeared Chris was already tucking into it before I took a picture lol). Kewey and Serena asked for theirs without whipped cream on top so it was even more disappointing for them.

When the bill arrived we’d worked out that it was about £20 a head but that wasn’t worth it given that 5 of the 7 of us hadn’t really got a proper pudding. So I was nominated (I think it came down to that I work in Customer Service therefore I know my way round the conversation lol) to go and speak to the waitress.

So I explain to her that it took ages to be served, took nearly an hour to get a drink and place our order for mains and that the puddings were pretty much two scoops of ice cream and that was expensive for £5. She says “It’s company policy and nothing can be done about it”. Well when you say it’s a sundae and you’ve served us two scoops of ice cream with some sprinkles then that’s probably breaking trading standard laws. As you can see the menus doesn’t specify the number of scoops of ice cream. I’m doing my polite-est nice-est irritated person impression and ask to speak to the manager – she points out that she’s the manager (by this point I am still being polite but she’s getting ruder and ruder as the conversation goes on.)

There is 7 of us and at £20 a head you do the maths – it’s not a cheap meal that’s for sure. So I explain that we’re not happy to pay for all the puddings because there wasn’t £5 worth of ice cream there, she gives us a £10 refund against our meal which was a bit better, she then brings over our change (£7) and has rounded it up to £10 as an additional refund but doesn’t bring us a receipt. We break down the difference between us and as we’re about to leave I ask her for a copy of the receipt. This takes around 10 minutes to organise. The £13 refund was better than nothing but when we were spending nearly £140 on a meal surely all 5 puddings should have been refunded (that would have been £25 in total)

All in all this was a huge fail as the customer service was rubbish. In all honesty it kinda wrecked LB’s birthday – the manager was rude, the food was below par for the price and all in all this was a bad experience and if I’m in the area again I’ll go to one of the other restaurants in that stretch. There’s Bella Italia, Nandos, Subway and Frankie and Benny’s all in a row – I know I’ll be going elsewhere.

I even tweeted during the meal that the customer service was bad – so far I’ve not heard anything back having tweeted them once during the meal and again today while at work to get an email address to send a complaint. At present I am going to write to the head office and to the branch.

Kaelah at Little Chief Honeybee
is hosting an awesome giveaway.

There are allsorts of goodies up for grabs but this Polaroid and the funky How Does Your Garden Grow necklace (See blow) are two of my favourites.

To Enter:

To enter, all you need to do is follow Kaelah’s Blog (you can use blogger, twitter, aim, or yahoo!) and leave a comment on her blog telling her about your FAVORITE AUTUMN TRADITION! (You can share it in my comments if you like)

You can also qualify for EXTRA entries (just be sure to leave a separate comment for each!) by:

• Blogging about this giveaway on your blog and include the button from Kaelah’s blog.
• Tweet about the giveaway by using: “Huge Handmade + Vintage Giveway @kaelahbee’s blog. Tons of prizes, 1 winner! http://tinyurl.com/2vmm6jj“
• Follow Kaelah’s blog on BlogLovin’ by CLICKING HERE
• Click “Like” on the Facebook widget on the sidebar (or CLICK HERE)

All Images are Kaelah’s and are here as publicity for her giveaway.

Fill in the blank Friday brought to you by Lauren from thelittlethingswedo!

1. I am a wife, a daughter, a granddaughter, a great granddaughter, a sister and a friend.

2. I wish there were three days to the weekend – not because I dislike work just because I seem to loose so much time lol.

3. I like chocolate lol. However I go through stages where I really don’t like it lol.

4. I can play flute, acoustic guitar, bass guitar and piano amongst other others to some level.

5. I hope to be a good mother when that time comes 🙂

6. I think carefully – some days it hurts lol.

7. I was a performing arts student until I graduated 🙂