So growing up my Dad used to tell me about Bletchley Park and that there was the Enigma Machine. To be honest at the time it was boring – it was something from the war that my Dad thought was cool. Anyhoo all has changed now – I’m older and somehow at least a little wiser lol.

I made a new friend via Twitter this afternoon called @JasonGorman, I offered to repost his blog post in an aim that we can spread the word. So this is a guest post of sorts I guess!

UPDATE: The brilliant and very probably gorgeous Nigel Metheringham has started a pledge on Pledge Bank, which I have signed, and I urge all friends of Bletchley Park to sign, too. I can’t promise anything, but I will try my darned upmost to swing a special honour/treat for the first 20 who pledge.

Hello again.

Today saw a big announcement from those lovely but horrifically overworked folk at the Bletchley Park Trust. It’s all very hush-hush until they hold the press conference, of course. Watch this space. Actually, watch that space.

On the subject of Bletchley Park (so glad you brought it up), while good news comes in now and then, they still have a steep road to climb. The National Lottery people, in their infinite wisdom, have offered another £1.5 million in badly-needed funding. But only if the Bletchley Park Trust can match it. They still have about £1 million extra to raise in the next year and a bit.

This money will ensure that not only will much-needed repairs get done in time to stop irreversible damage to some of the most important historical sites in the history of computing, but they will be able to begin putting into action their plans to transform the park into the world-leading attraction it deserves to be.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t done at all badly out of the whole “computing” thing, and I know I owe a great debt to the likes of Alan Turing, Tommy Flowers, and the thousands of others who went above and beyond the call of duty at Bletchley Park.

It saddens me no end to see such wonderful people doing such important work – both then and now with the tireless work of the Bletchley Park Trust – but not getting the A++, 5-star, kick-ass heritage site they really deserve.

So, one day later this year, I’m going to donate my coaching or training fee for that day to the Bletchley Park Trust. That’s about 0.03% of the money I’ve earned doing a job that I love, and for which I am eternally grateful. Hopefully some of my friends will join me on this special Working For Bletchley day and we might raise a few thousand pounds.

If you love working in computing, feel you haven’t done too badly out of it, and, like me, feel you owe a small debt to the men and women of Bletchley Park, perhaps you’d like to join us.

Literally all it involves is donating your earnings for one day – Thursday September 16th – directly to the Bletchley Park Trust. Simple as that.

To make it a bit more fun than just handing over your credit card details, we could, y’know, make a day of it. Organise drinks, dinners, fun stuff involving booze. That sort of thing. And maybe we’ll get some t-shirts, badges and hats printed. That way, Bletchley Park will know who their friends are in a crowd.

Of course, there might be a tad more to it than that (if folk want it to be tax-deductible, etc). And I’d like to capture pledges (in such a way that we don’t find out how much you earn, of course!) So I’ll be setting up a web site with info, FAQs, regular updates and very probably some kind of social networking element for the hipsters among us.

In the meantime, you can Tweet your intention to participate by using the hashtag #work4bletchley

Fingers crossed, it won’t just be me on the day!

So apparently (because I wasn’t awake or something like that), yesterday was Ada Lovelace Day. I saw it mentioned on Twitter this morning and so I went and phoned tweeted a friend this morning and asked her what it was about. The friend I tweeted is Dr Sue Black who is someone I’ve met IRL via the #140Conference in London (we discussed IT Curriculum), she’s the head of something technology related at the save Bletchley Park.

I guess I can be excused a little as Ada Lovelace Day has only been going for the last two years. The point of yesterday is to celebrate women in Science and Technology.

Ada herself was interested Mathematics when she young, which was interesting because at the time women were considered “too frail” to understand. She worked with Charles Babbage while he was considering the idea of the Analytical Machine (which is considered an early computer.) Ada wrote a program for this machine and had it ever actually been built her program would have been able to calculate various different sequeneces. Thus Ada is attributed as being the first Computer Programmer.

Hence Ada Lovelace Day.

There have been lots of blog posts being posted on Finding Ada.

Here are some that I liked or found interesting:

Marielle (there is a little bit of strong language with regards to the FaceBook bit later on in the post.)

Anu

Wendy from the USA wrote about Amelia Earhart – who I think is cool 🙂 (I think I blogged about Amelia Earhart once – I’ll see if I can find it lol)

 Thomas – Yes even guys can blog about Ladies in Tech! (He writes about Sue – my friend from earlier!)

So I may have mentioned it before and then never got any further but last night I finished my 101 in 1001 days list. As of the 29th March I am doing it! No messing about this time I am doing it and I am going to finish it. Me and my sidekick (who blogs here – I’m not sure if she wants to be named so for now she is My Sidekick) have teamed up to keep each other on track and hopefully at Christmas 2012 we will both be celebrating the fact that we will have both completed 101 things in 1001 days.

My list can be found on the link on the side bar but if you are too lazy to go find it you can click here and that will take you there. You can also look at the Day Zero site here – they have lots of information about how the idea started and things like that. I hope to be blogging once a week about what I’ve achieved etc – there will also be specfic posts relating to each task 🙂 (These posts will be tagged with “101 in 1001 days” and also when they contain information about completed posts they will be tagged “Completed Tasks”. Well and truly organised lol.

I made a new friend on Friday called Louise. Well at least I tweeted her and waiteThere is a company called Rabbit who launched a very cool project today called No Tech Day for their charity client Practical Action.

Practical Action are a charity who “use technology to fight poverty”, rather than just giving someone the food for today they helped that person to grow food for their families and the people in their community. They have a very cool water pump that is powered by the kids playing on the merry go round/turntable. You can see here for more details.

So until this morning I hadn’t heard of NoTechDay. On Friday Louise @ Rabbit was looking for some assistance and I tried to answer the call, unfortunately she was busy organising the team and stuff like that so I didn’t hear back from her till today.

So anyway, I think I hear you saying but whats this all got to do with you?

Well….

it got me thinking – how many times a day do I check my email, my facebook or my Twitter accounts, I come home and watch TV or write a blog post, how much electricity or battery power am I using with these activities. So Saturday 27th March I am giving up technology for the day.

So I am giving up the following:

This means that for about 24 hours (I say about because I’m at Mrs C’s on Friday and possibly over night so from the time that I get up on Saturday to the same time Sunday morning. I’m not allowed to use technology of the above descriptions.)

This means I am giving up the following:

My Raspberry

My iPod

My MacBook

My Car stereo – yes if I go out in the car I’ll be music-less

Our Nintendo Wii + DS

TV/DVD

If you want more information you can find the NoTechDay website here. You can also tweet them @NoTechDay.

However I just realised that I have to get up before 10am on Saturday otherwise I’m going to have to stand in church with my eyes closed or something as the projector shows the words rather than having hymn books in church lol.

So originally my weekend post started with Friday  – then I realised quite how much I had written for Friday and that I may need to start a whole new post for Saturday and Sunday.

I got up Friday and felt awful. I got up at about 8ish absolutely baking there was no way I would be able to go to sleep unless my temperature knocked me out instead. I went downstairs and curled up on the sofa – at least it was colder down here and with a jumper over my head I might be able to sleep some more. Well unfortunately I didn’t sleep any more. I hung out and played DS for about four hours! My head had begun to hurt and so on and off I’d attempted to sleep but it wasn’t working.

When CJ went to work at 12pm I decided I’d give sleeping in bed a shot – maybe my brain would realised that I was in bed and that meant that I could sleep. Well it did the trick – I woke up about 2ish and The Kiwi was home from work and offering me a bacon sandwich (I swear  she is my super hero/mind reader some days!). I decided that I’d get dressed and come downstairs again – I didn’t want to be in bed all weekend and somehow curled up on the sofa was a little more dignified lol.

So armed with my bacon sandwich, a box of tissues, and various other items I curled up on the sofa and played more DS – yes I think I am actually addicted to the game! I played for about 2 or 3 hours and then The Stig and The Kiwi came downstairs to watch Evolution. I think there was a war started at this point – I have a photo of my brother with The Kiwi in a headlock and he’s sat on her or on the floor next to her head – I would post it but my brother looks positively evil lol.

Although I was ill and felt pants I had a seriously good time – watching my brother and The Kiwi try to beat each other up was quite funny especially when The Stig tried to give The Kiwi a “wet willy” (Don’t panic nothing rude! Urban Dictionary says “A wet willy is to lick/spit on your finger creep up to an unsuspecting person and put your finger in their ear while turning it around”) Okay so The Kiwi wasn’t unsuspecting and I’m sure she was aware that it was probably going to happen as my brother knows that it gets the best reaction (something verging on a squeal!!) I was then told off for not sticking up for either party – I was encouraging from my seat across the room!

At some point in the proceedings CJ arrives home from work and he’s a man on a mission, he brings me  some cold relief and then disappears into the kitchen – he cooks up the loveliest Spag Bol I’ve had in ages along with Garlic bread – there was alot and I think I must have ate a stick on my own (think maybe 9 slices at about an inch thick – yes people I am a small elephant really!)

I’ve had a little mind blank at this point and can’t remember what I did for the rest of the evening – I know that there was a lot of Super Mario being played both by me and CJ but I can’t really have played like 4 hours of it – could I?

Sunday

Although I missed band practice on Thursday, the worship leader wanted me to play anyway – I knew the songs the only one that was a little challenging was To God Be The Glory – which fortunately I knew anyway. I made sure I took some cold relief with me and at one point was sat in the middle of the stage with my mug trying to down a rather warm drink without stopping so that we could get on with the rehearsal lol. Church was okay but I left pretty quickly after as CJ hadn’t been very well this morning.

This afternoon I watched the whole of Julie and Julia again – I loved it just as much as the first time – however I didn’t have the urge to cook this time hehe.

If you’re like me and you are running of to google Julie Powell – her original blog is here and her new post-Julie/Julia project blog is here (And she was on Rachael Ray’s show!).

I keep wondering about whether I could do a project like that but then again I don’t have the patience to cook all those recipes – come to think of it I don’t have the Julia Childs book – however I do have The Joy of Cooking (thats a whole different story to how I ended up with an American cookbook and why I think it’s better than my english ones lol)

So towards the end of last week I was beginning to feel it – I needed my bed and some cold relief desperately!

I finished work on Friday and ideally should have come home to die (Yes fellow blog readers I was sick AGAIN!!!). I was due to be stewarding at an event called A Passion For Life: Real Lives. I decided that I’d go to my Mum’s as planned, dose up on Paracetamol and fight my way through after all it was the last night and it was due to be a good one. On my way to Mum’s I nipped into the supermarket to look at the DS games (I was given a DS for my birthday I think two years ago and since about 3 months after my birthday my Mum and Brother have adopted it – I decided if I got a good game for it then I could adopt it back – just in time for my 24th in a few weeks).

I decided to buy Mario and Sonic at The Winter Olympics and then turned round to see that Julie and Julia is now out on DVD – I loved this film when it came out and wrote a whole post about it and my cooking adventures.

So I get to Mum’s and we tuck into Lasagne for tea – yummy! (Yes I need to learn how to cook Lasagne too hehe) It turns out that CJ was let down my his camera team for the evening and he needed some assistants – so I ended up doing that rather than stewarding – which was kinda good because to a certain degree I wanted to curl up in a corner lol.

The evening all in all was good but I struggled with the camera work because it takes so much concentration and it wasn’t like it was scripted or anything like that.

Richard Coekin was host and he interviewed Jo Gambi, Diane-Louise Jordan and John Mosey.

Jo Gambi

Jo and her husband Rob completed the Seven Summits and have done expeditions to the North and South Poles. The Seven Summits are the highest peak on each continent. Thats Mt McKinley (North America), Aconcagua (South America), Kilimanjaro (Africa), Vinson (Antartica), Kosciuszko (Australia), Everest (Asia) and Elbrus (Europe).

Not just that her husband Rob has fought his way through two bouts of Cancer. (The adventures took place after the second bout)

Diane-Louise Jordan

I grew up on Blue Peter (when Diane left Blue Peter in 1996 I was 9 years old so it was a staple of my TV viewing lol).

Diane was the fourth longest-serving female presenter of Blue Peter and she was presenting around the same time as John Leslie and Anthea Turner. She now is one of the regular presenters on Songs of Praise. I got to meet her and chat to her after the show and she’s so lovely and friendly – there was a girl in front of me in the queue and Diane listened intently to her and chatted to this girl who was maybe about 10 or 11.

John Mosey

This gentleman was so lovely, Zoza, Switch, Me and their friend chatted to John after the show – he was really friendly and chatted to us about what we did (those three are students – that made me feel old hehe). He was interviewed by Richard about his daughter and about his faith. His daughter was on the Pan Am 103 flight (You might not know it by the flight number but it is also referred to as the Lockerbie Bombing). Richard asked him about whether his faith was affected by the fact he lost his daughter in such away. It was really sad in a way listening to him about the trauma he went through, he was interviewed by news crews and things like that in the days following the bombing in 1988 (I was 2 years old so I have no memory of it myself but I have read about it over the years).

Having dosed up on Paracetamol and generally was feeling rough as, I am glad that I still went (and if you are my friend on FB you’ll see that I’ve posted a picture of me and Diane – as taken by her husband on my husbands phone hehe).

I also made a new friend who I am about to email to say hi. Hopefully it won’t be too weird lol.

I think now is the time for spring cleaning! I tidied out my wardrobe at the weekend and bagged all my bits up to go to the charity store.

My lovely friend Kaelah is having a clear out of her wardrobe before she goes to NYC over the summer.

This funky badge takes you to Kaelah’s Photobucket page where you find lots of different albums 🙂 then drop her an email. For more information (as the badge says!) go to Kaelahbee.com.

On Etsy I found this fab necklace. It’s from the shop of VisionQuest – there is a sale on at the momnet in her shop so take a look here.

I’m not very good when it comes to speaking french, I can ask where the toilet is and things like that but you want me to hold a proper conversation and I go to pot.

I was on my own in Customer Service today at lunchtime and the phone rang. It was the normal helpdesk line so I picked the phone up without it even crossing my mind at how stupid I was about to look.

The customer said hello in French and then started off on one. Our first amount of conversation was trying to decide what language we would speak seeing as he didn’t speak English or Italian and I don’t speak French or Portugese.

Good start! I figure that as long as he speaks slowly I can guess the words and try and form a conversation via Google Translate. I kept asking him to speak slower but that didn’t work so then I tried to explain that my colleague was at lunch – again Key Stage 3 French doesn’t prepare you for this lol.

So somehow in my rubbish franglais we work out that the customer needs to call back in an hour when my one of my french speaking colleagues should be back in the room adn able to take the call. Well I hope he does call back and that my rubbish attempt has no way put a blemish on our team. Somehow it could have been better thats for sure! I think French Customer Service lessons is the way forward! Then we’ll think about German too.

Around five weeks ago I wrote a post about Ade and his company Masquerade.

2010 is the year that Masquerade is celebrating 20 years in the business.

Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the premiere of Masquerade Reloaded but I was still able blog about it.

I was supposed to be back with Part Two but in that way that life does sometimes, it caught up with me. Ade emailed me this morning asking where his blog post is.

Ade here it is…..

So to recap a little.

Masquerade is an events company from London.

Adrian “Ade/Dr M” Silas is the Founder, Creative Director and the Man with the Plan(s). Ade loves his crazy characters to go with each theme including Vlad (He’s  KGB agent so think James Bond baddies), Don Vlad (New York Gangster – so think Godfather?), Ronnie Capri (Reformed Essex Playboy) and last but not least theres Dr M (this started as a character but is now one of Ade’s nicknames! I think I knew him as Dr M before I knew his name was Ade/Adrian!) . There’s even an idea on the drawing board for Ade to host an Alice in Wonderland themed party with Ade as the Mad Hatter!!!

Anyway thats not why I am here. I’m here to write about the highlights and clips that are currently on Masquerade UK’s Website.

So following the short clips of interviews, we go to a behind the scenes look at the Premiere – starting with the guest of honour as DR M’s Mum arrives (Mum is one of the VIPs, isn’t she?)

Ade starts by talking about how Masquerade got started, originally it started just by organising Weddings.

The Camera man then pops round and talks to various people who help Ade.

(This is Colin with the girlies who were helping host the evening)

Janet the lovely Make Up lady also talks about the crazy make up that Ade has asked her to work on including painting some people purple (or is it orange?!) to be Oompa Loompas for a Charlie and The Chocolate Themed party.

The Venetians were on hand to welcome the guests outside

At some point a giant penguin appears – Ade will have to tell me about where the penguin fits in because I don’t know.

From the behind the scenes clips and information that Ade has sent me I can imagine that it was good fun and that lots of people were there enjoying themselves.

So that’s the first 20 years of Masquerade but Ade isn’t stopping there he’s got plans for a Club Masquerade night, he’s working with Richard Vobes (of Vobes.com) to create his own podcasts and to top that off he’s hosting a Twevent (aka in some circles as a Tweet up) with a Bat-Theme. Unfortunately if I’m invited to this one I’ll have to decline again (I’ll be at the Gadget Show Live in Birmingham that day!!)

(Then again having watched the behind the scenes video of all these beautiful people I would have been a right scruff bag!!!)

If you are interested in contacting Ade:

Email: ade at Masquerade dot Com

Twitter: @drmasquerade

He’s also started a blog which you can find here. (The header is a bit bright but scroll down it’ll be okay!

He even has his own cartoon character!

Wikio is a news portal with a search engine that looks at blogs and other media sites. You can use it to search through news and blog feeds, you can use it to search videos and now you can also use it as a price comparison site. 

Earlier I had emailed my brother about what games he was looking for at the moment for his XBox 360. He gave me the titles of two games that he was looking for. I decided I would use these for this test.

I was tagged by @brookebejeweled and I didn’t come back and post my answers like I said I would – so now I’m doing it!

RULES:1. Put your ipod or media player etc.on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Tag 6 friends.
5. Everyone tagged has to do the same thing.
6. Have Fun!

1. If someone asks “Are you okay?”, you say?
One Day Like This – The Big Ghana Band

2. How would you describe yourself?
10/10 – Paolo Nutini

3. What do you like in a guy/girl?
I Promise – Stacie Orrico

4. How do you feel today?
Cream With Your Strawberries – Becky Higg

5. What is your life’s purpose?
History Maker – Delirious?

6. What is your motto?
Faster – Plain White T’s

7. What do your friends think of you?
Over The Rainbow – Eva Cassidy (I don’t listen to this any more since it was played at my G-ma’s Funeral)

8. What do you think about very often?
Busted – Matchbox 20

9. What is your dream?
Encore/Numb – Jay Z Ft Linkin Park

10. What do you think of your best friend?
James Bond – Scouting For Girls

11. What is your life story?
Fearless – Taylor Swift

12. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Extravagant Worship – Vicky Beeching

13. What do you think when you see the person you like?
Gonna Make You A Star – David Essex

14. What will you dance to at your wedding?
Lean On Me – ACM Gospel Choir (Actually our first dance was to Finally Found by The Honeyz)

15. What is your hobby/interest?
Shout – 10 Things Version

16. Whats your biggest fear?
Shine – Take That

17. What do you want right now?
Bring Me To Life – Evanescence

18. What do you think of your (boy/girl)friend?
Times Like These – Foo Fighters

19. What is your favorite song?
When I Was Lost – Kate Simmonds (It is actually one of my favourites!)

I tag erm @justmargaret, @danni_v_, @FutureMrsGerardWayand anyone else who fancies it

7/24/06 Mail Packages
Originally uploaded by bettybl

I love reading.
I love reading books – I’ve tried using an e-reader on my phone and things like that which is good if I’ve forgotten to take a book with me somewhere but there is something about reading a paper book – turning the pages and seeing how far you are through it and things like that.

So the picture above isn’t my mail but I found it on Flickr and decided to use it. I also love mail, like proper through your front door or in your mail box letters. Okay so most of the time they are junk or bills but I love proper letters. To me I think it’s something to do with that an email can be written in seconds and sent off whereas a proper letter has time taken over it.

(Am I making sense?!)

So I tend to sit at the bottom of our staircase and read the letters there or lean up against the work top in the kitchen. I have been known to park in the hallway directly behind the door (not good in most houses that have inward opening front doors).

I can Crochet!
Originally uploaded by hannypants

For ages I’ve wanted to be able to do it but I’ve always been rubbish and it’s usually fallen to bits.

Anyway so me and Mum grabbed the wool and a crochet needle at the craft store while we were there today. This evening when we got home after the Street Angels Celebration, Mum taught me how to do the basic stitch and off I went. I had a few issues and kept doing 6 stitches instead of 3 stitches in some places. Can’t wait to do more!

I also filled some more pages in my BB journal today.

A while back a friend sent me this. I then found it posted online here: http://melindataub.com/god-twitters-creation/#more-253

God: Gosh its dark in here.
7 days ago

God: There thats better.
7 days ago

God: Hey guys im finally on twitter! Whats up?
7 days ago

God: guys?
7 days ago

God: oh right. i’m the only thing in existence, haha.
7 days ago

God: shut up i wasnt talking 2 you RT @Satan I TOO EXIST
7 days ago

God: BOOORREEDD with endless void gonna make some stuff
7 days ago

God: Hey look what I did today! Separated the darkness from the light. Universe looks like a black and white cookie.
7 days ago

God: I shall call the light day and the darkness Eileen.
7 days ago

God: Darkness doesnt look like an Eileen. Lets go with night
7 days ago

God: Also i created heaven & earth.
7 days ago

God: also i created apostrophes but im not gonna use them
7 days ago

God: thats enough creating for now. Catch ya tomorrow
7 days ago

God: RT @Satan: WHAT IS “TOMORROW”
7 days ago

God: oh i forgot 2 mention i created time too. Busy day.
7 days ago

God: kind of lame creating 2day. Created a firmament. Not sure what that is
6 days ago

God: OMme so much 2 do 2day you guys! Got to bring 4th land from the waters AND create plants and trees. What should i do first?!
5 days ago

God: should have done land first. plants sank
5 days ago

God: fixed! Trees now ON TOP of land.
5 days ago

God: sorry no tweets yesterday guys. Made the sun moon & stars. turned out 2 be more work than i expected. Theyre bigger than they look
3 days ago

God: another busy day. Made @beastsofthesea, @birdsoftheair, and best of all: @penguins. Those turned out so well.
3 days ago

God: made some more kinds of penguins.
3 days ago

God: Poll: What else should i make? a. beasts of the land b. creatures in my own image c. more penguins
2 days ago

God: Answer my poll!
2 days ago

God: maybe it was a mistake to create the internet b4 invention of computers
2 days ago

God: all right penguins it is. Yay!
2 days ago

God: oops. Penguins don’t like the desert.
2 days ago

God: or Indiana.
2 days ago

God: or the sky.
2 days ago

God: ill try the rainforest. Everything thrives in the rainforest.
2 days ago

God: Not penguins.
2 days ago

God: screw it. Made a bunch of other beasts of the land. Not as awesome as penguins but much less picky.
2 days ago

God: also created fake fossils and planted them in the ground 2 make the earth appear much older than it is. Just a little practical joke.
2 days ago

God: i need more followers.
2 days ago

God: #FollowFriday @adam @eve
2 days ago

God: @adam @eve I am the LORD your God who separated the light from the darkness. You shall have no other God before me for I am the LORD your Go
2 days ago

God: &#$%ing character limits. Point is, yay! I made you! Hi! Do what i say.
2 days ago

God: @adam: such as #noteatingapples.
2 days ago

God: @adam what do u mean why? Because im ur god and i said so.
2 days ago

God: @adam why r u bugging me about this? u can have all the mangoes u want and theyre way better.
2 days ago

God: @adam well youre just going to have to take my word for it.
2 days ago

God: @adam WHAT is ur DAMAGE with this apple thing? Eves not tweeting about apples. Shes just off – um –
2 days ago

God: @eve Hey!
2 days ago

God: @adam @eve: EPIC FAIL at #noteatingapples. Both of u r BANNED
2 days ago

God: so yesterday was really stressful. Im taking a break today. No more tweets til tomorrow.
1 day ago

God: Check it out, baby panda sneezing! http://tr.im/DsZ5 (took a break from my break to create YouTube.)
1 day ago

I was looking for pictures of Paracetamol or painkillers and I found all sorts of “exploded” bag shots. If I get my brain in gear tomorrow I’ll try and sort my own picture. Tomorrow I am finalising my presentation that I’m presenting on Wednesday. I’ve also got girlies group so need to read the chapter as well.

(This might be a little picture heavy)

What’s in my bag?
Originally uploaded by Hippy of Doom

bagstuff
Originally uploaded by Meg Pickard

WIMB Saturday 22 Dec
Originally uploaded by ElbtheProf

Pocket Contents – London Edition
Originally uploaded by Jeremy Tanner

2242 140
Originally uploaded by tea cakes

So Saturday involved bouncing from one thing to the next, I got up and got stuff sorted – my room still looks like a bomb hit it – thank goodness for major sort out day on the 13th! I was about to walk to Mum’s when The Kiwi asked for a hand with the vacuum cleaner – the container thingy needed emptying and she didn’t know how to open it (I didn’t really know either but I made it look like I did hehe)

We got the vacuum sorted and I started to head off, The Kiwi shouted at me did I want a lift rather than walking. I accepted (and luckily about 20 minutes after I arrived at Mum’s in the car it started raining – I would have got drenched!!!)

Me and Mum sat painting our fabric ready for Kathy’s bead making workshop next week at Tudor Rose (I am so excited!). We were a little worried that we did it wrong so hopefully it works lol. While we had the paints out I also painted some pages in my journal from the British Birds Round Robin Swap that finished last week on Swap-Bot.

After that we sorted some lunch and watched The Mentalist while tucking into our sausage sandwiches. (When are Van Pelt and Rigsby going to get it together!!!! ISSUES!!)

About half way through, The Kiwi and her cousin arrived to collect me from Mum’s we then collected JenJen and Bex, while The Kiwi nipped into her other cousin’s house (who lives like next door to Bex we were all plotting about the rest of the afternoon and what was going to happen)

We got to MK and struggled to find a space – it’s a Saturday and although Bex has a Disabled Badge she’ll only park in the Disabled bat if she really needs to – most of the time she can use a normal space.

We found a space in the end and headed for the stores. I needed to get two birthday cards and a birthday present as this was the weekend of like 3 birthdays!

I got Becca a cookery book called 500 Cakes. I already had a present for Mrs Mow Mow as I bought it when me and CJ went shopping at Ikea a few weeks ago – we spotted a mug/cup with a saucer that made us think immediately of Caroline.

I bought a new handbag in TKMaxx (I’ll take a photo and post it tomorrow or Wednesday). We headed up to ShakeAway as Bex wanted one. I was in Waterstones while she got it so I didn’t know what flavour she got – I just said that she couldn’t have chocolate in it and she said that I was sharing it because then it wouldn’t kill her diet/health kick too much. (It would just be bruised a little hehe).

From there me, The Kiwi and Kiwi’s Cousin headed back to the car and then moved the car round the corner to the theatre district so that we would be prepared for Surprise One and Two.

So here came Surprise One.

So with Bex’s cool skills we’d managed to get The Kiwi to TGI Fridays for tea. The Kiwi and her cousin nipped in to the bar to grab a drink as we nipped round the corner to grab Mum Dad and the rest of the gang that were appearing for Part One. We headed into the bar and surprised The Kiwi! She had no idea that anything was happening till then.

Eventually we got seated and ordered our food – we couldn’t make too much of a deal about the time delay because The Kiwi would have questioned what was going on.

So here came Surprise Two.

After dinner we headed outside. Bex mentioned about walking the long way round back to the car because we’d all eaten too much. As we walked towards the theatre we bumped into group no 2 who were coming to the Theatre with us. At this point Bex announces about going to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Kiwi is floored about things like how we’d managed to keep it a secret and how we’d all ended up there in the same place lol.

Explore #481….A Gem of a Beach….Nice in Large!
Originally uploaded by MarsW

Do you have those dreams that are so real you have to convince yourself that they were just dreams when you come to?

When CJ did a climb at the Outdoor Centre I had a horrible dream, I was convinced that he’d really injured himself in this particular climb. It was made worse when I woke up and he’d already left for work, I was bricking it – genuinely convinced that my dream had actually happened. I woke up and texted him to check – I figured if I didn’t get a reply then my dream did happen.

Anyway I had one of those moments this morning – I had to lie in bed for like 10 minutes and convince myself that no I wasn’t on holiday and also had to convince myself of some other random bits in my dream.

The strangest part of my dream was that I felt genuinely happy like every part of me was smiling. I guess that didn’t help with getting my brain in gear for a Monday morning but it did mean that I was upright and ended up being at work at 10 to 9 (I grabbed breakfast at the canteen before going into work…I think my appetite is back. Saturday dinner was a stress because I wasn’t hungry when we finally sat down to eat but more of that to come in another post!)

264/365: glee
Originally uploaded by moiht

Yes I am officially kind of hooked on Glee.

Yesterday I used an image taken by Open-Socket. They mentioned about their KidRobot bag – so I used google and went off on a search and found the London store and it’s website.

I also found these that I think are super cool and I’d really like one (or a few maybe!)

Unfortunately a bag is going to set me back around £60 – thats a lot of money for one hand bag – I think I might have to stick with collecting Mini Munnys.

Originally uploaded by BoatingBelle

A friend of mine called Margot – she goes by BoatingBelle on Swap-Bot created this amazing quilt – I love it!!!

I think it annoys CJ that I love quilts like this so much. My Mum made me and CJ a white, beige and cream coloured quilt so that while we were renting houses/flats it would go with anything.

Mum used to try and teach me to quilt but I am nowhere near this good lol. If you can leave a comment on Margot’s Flickr Page or here and I’ll pass them on.

Originally uploaded by peppopeppo.

So originally this post was going to be about my day and how busy and rushed it was (hence me being laid out on the sofa with my journal on one side of me and my mobile on the other rather than being at house group or band practice like I was supposed to be). Then it was going to be about getting my journal from Pootle – which it might still be or I might dedicate a whole new post to it. It was then going to be a public apology to David after I upset him at the weekend but I apologised via email and Twitter and I think that’s okay for now we’ll see what happens.

Originally uploaded by Polish Sausage Queen

Anyhoo I love these composition images of the random stuff people have in their bags – Okay so this one has cigerettes in it but thats what someone has in their bag so that counts anyway.

Originally uploaded by Open-Socket

I got up this morning and was feeling queasy and really hot. I pointed this out to Chris and he thought it might just be that because we had the gas supply changed yesterday it might be working efficiently. (To me this made sense this morning lol) I thought it was just because I went to bed with back ache following trampolining, so just decided to get on with the day and I’d see how it went.

Well it didn’t. I got to work at 10 to 9 and sat in the car for a few minutes to try and pull myself together and mentally get it together to go into work. I got out the car and walked round the other side to get my bag and lock the car (long story to why I can’t lock it from the drivers side – although CJ can lol)

It got worse and I knew I was going to be ill. It was too late – I had no time to run for the nearest bush (there are like no bins in our car park!) I threw up there and then in the car park.

I managed to pull myself together and was about to phone work when I threw again :(.

(Yup oh dear!) So I am just deciding what I want to do and how i’m going to get home if I do leave.

A lady pulls past me in her car and I think nothing of it – it’s 9am in our car park there are lots of cars all around. She parks up and comes and stands next to me. She asks me “Are you okay?” She then realises what a silly question she just asked and rephrases her question.

We have a little chat and I decide that I need to go home I’m in too much of a state to go into work.

I think over whether I can drive home and to be honest I was peaky and thought I may keel over! The lady then offers me a lift home and somehow it doesn’t cross my mind that this lady is a complete stranger and I have no idea who she is.

I phoned Ali and told her that I had been ill and that I was going home. Also that I would email The Big Cheese and my boss to let them know what had happened.

I accept her lift home and on the way we chat about where we work and things like that. I apologise to her and say that I’m sorry if she’s going to get in trouble for being lovely. She then says that she stayed extra late the night before so she has an excuse to be a little late.

I got home and the first thing I did was to email The Big Cheese and my boss. I then slept on and off for most of the day. A few times in my woken up state I replied to emails that my colleagues had sent me asking me about stuff that I was in the middle of. Unfortunately I couldn’t describe where one of the orders were so I’m glad that when I checked my emails later they had found the order and were able to process it.

So now it’s 8:44 and I’m watching the BAFTA‘s on iPlayer while avoiding doing my appraisal document!!

Anyhoo I can’t avoid it any more ttfn….

I often wonder what an outsider would think of mine and JD’s friendship. We were in the Supermarket at lunch time and she was talking about rude and mean she sometimes is but somehow gets away with it. I said something along the lines of “I’m surprised you’re still my friend after you called my Mum a Triffid”

(So this reference sounds mean but it was meant as a joke. I was telling JD about the remake of The Day of The Triffids, and then I had to try and explain what a Triffid was. Then in the vein of Yo Mamma jokes, she called my Mum a Triffid)

Anyhoo just as I was saying about how JD called my Mum a Triffid, my manager (The Big Cheese) walked past – oh dear lol. It was kinda funny in a cringe worthy way. JD and Me have the tendency to be a little loud and giggly – especially at lunchtime lol. I think it’s because we spend so much time at our respective jobs in our own little bubbles not talking to anyone that come lunchtime we have to chat as fast and as loud as possible lol. It hasn’t been mentioned so I don’t think he heard me lol.

It then got a little more surreal as me and JD queued at the till I changed till because there was no queue and it turned out that I was served just as The Big Cheese had left that till and then when I waited at the end of JD’s till two of my colleagues from my old job had queued behind JD to be served.

On the way back to work we discussed about how we can be one person/version of ourselves at work and then another version outside of work. We were talking about that at Girlies Group the other day. If you are being one version at work and another version of yourself outside of work are you hiding behind a mask?

So yesterday, well this is before and excluding the falling down the stairs issues. After work I went to the supermarket for some food. I spotted the Rock Angel top that @minxymoggy found the other day for me (and tweeted about it too!) This is what it looks like.

Me and my friend David were discussing about whether I should get it and the conclusion we came to was yes and because then it could come out of my Marketing budget. Erm well ok so I don’t have a marketing budget for my blog and anything resembling marketing is at my own expense but I figured it was a good idea anyway. What do you think?

I then went to another local store to get a zip for Ali, she’d been into town at lunch and the one store she thought she might be able to get a zip from and the girl serving her wasn’t very helpful at all. So I popped into the store round the corner from the supermarket and was able to get one in the right colour for Ali.

I headed home and put away the shopping and grabbed some tea before parking in front of the television for a DVD fest. I watched the end of My Sister’s Keeper (I’d started it Monday evening), Imagine That and The History Boys. Somewhere in the middle I also watched The Brit awards albeit at high speed in places. (Me and Rickie discussed writing posts about The Brits so I might watch it again on high speed while scribbling bits to turn into a blog post. You can read Rickie’s blog post here.)

So I have three film reviews and a blog post about the Brits to write so I think I’ll catch you all later.

I slipped down the stairs about 20 minutes ago.

I cried because I hurt myself. I mainly caught my hip and my bottom. I also got carpet burn on my palms and have noticed that I caught the knuckle on my little finger (it’s a little puffy so i’ve also taken my rings off just in case. It’s not properly hurting thats how I’m managing to write this.)

Once I worked out that everything hurt I made sure I could move my arms – just in case I needed to drag myself into the living room and find my phone and call someone. I guess I’d have decided that when I got to the phone or something.

Anyway I picked myself up off the floor and parked myself on the floor in the living room and decided to tweet about it (I also texted CJ but I think he’s asleep at his new friends house in London)

My first response came in from @CiarOD in New York. Yup the first worried person was across the Atlantic, followed by @SuchAGoodGirl about a minute later who is a UK lady too – I think that points out the power of Twitter at least a little bit. It would have been more interesting if I’d tweeted that I’d broken my leg or something and then through the links that are formed over Twitter an ambulance shows up on my doorstep. Now that would be crazy but I don’t plan to try it any time soon!

So Valentines Weekend was a weekend of ups and downs.

I’m going to miss out the downs because that would be pointing out various bits that I think should be kept ssh! now.

So good points:

My Dad bought my Mum a bunch of roses without being prompted (He made something up about how he needed to go to the supermarket to get his paper rather than the corner shop and when he came back he had a bunch of a dozen roses for my Mum :D)

Saturday evening was my best friends birthday outing, and minus the point where Dan the Man and LB’s hubby made me cry I had the best time (Long story but it’s forgiven and in the past now). The Five of us (Kewey, Dan The Man, LB and LB’s Hubby) had tea together in the hotel they were all staying in. It was lovely and nice to have a proper catch up before going out for a night on the tiles lol.

I think it’s me but Twitter continues to amaze me lol. On Saturday I posted from Foursquare about how we were in Las Iguanas at The Hub in MK. About an hour or so later I got a reply on Twitter from the Las Iguanas Tweeter wishing Serena a happy birthday. I showed her and she was really chuffed!

I left the outing at midnight. I had tried to park as close as I physically/legally could but I guess everyone else had had the same idea. The world and his wife was out because it was the Saturday before Valentines. As we walked from Lloyds to Oceana I said goodbye to everyone and asked Dan the Man and LB’s Hubby if one of them could walk me back to the car. I think one of my friends was concerned for me and so both Dan and LB’s Dan the Man and

Don’t worry it’s not a reference to The Birds (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock) or For The Birds (Short film by Pixar).

When I lived at home with my Mum and Dad, over the winter me and Dad would go out to the shed and refill the bird feeders. I kinda got that it was important but never got that bit lol. I’d see the birds fly in and out of the garden and got especially excited when we had a bird lay it’s eggs and care for it’s young in the bird box that me and Dad had put up.

The bird box is still there and although my Dad now does the bird feeders on his own at his house. He taught me well lol. When we moved to our new rental property in June my Dad bought me two bird feeders and seeds and nuts to go in the relevant ones.

I brought them with me to the new house and set them up. Unfortunately with the bad weather (Snow etc before Christmas) and how cold it had been the seeds in one of the feeders had frozen and the defrosted and had gone mouldy – we worked this out by the fact that the birds had gone.

I went out and cleared it out a few weeks ago and refilled it – CJ came running upstairs a little while ago to tell me how many birds were actually outside eating from the feeder.

My Dad says that Wiggly Wigglers is a good place for all things bird food and feeder related. They also sell these worms called Meal Worms and they arrive and they are live. Yep I am serious – live worms sent in the mail. Apparently they are safe to feed to birds and the mini ones are good for feeding to fledglings.

When my Dad gets some he winds my Mum up by chasing her round the house with the worms because they creep her out! (You know on Croc Diaries when Steve Irwin would pick up the snakes and things like that – my Mum would be squirming in her chair!)

So I’ve been a bit of a rubbish blogger recently but I do have updates to share with you all and they are exciting!!!

So I’ve added the links on the right hand side and rearranged stuff so it looks fabulous!

I have links to some blogs:

I’m also working on Twitter, Facebook and RSS buttons so that forming links with me or with other readers is easier. If you have a button like these and think that I should have yours on my side bar – send it to me and explain why hehe.

Little Chief Honeybee IRL goes by the name Kaelah (which I love it’s such a cool spelling! And it’s Hebrew like Hannah is!). She has amazing tattoos – if you wanna watch her explain about her tattoos you can see her video here. I don’t think I’d ever go this crazy. (Okay don’t freak I’m not going to have a tattoo) If I did it would be something simple like this and even then I’d have to careful about when I got it done as I wouldn’t be able to give blood for like 6 months (And if they get round to it I won’t be able to give a bone marrow donation for it’s either 6 months or a year)

Next up is Katie. She’s is a fab designer that I think I found through her Etsy page or I found her blog then found her Etsy page. Anyhoo she is fab! I bought a bag from her last summer and bought the Shopaholic’s Christmas present from her. (HINT: when it comes to my birthday you can’t go wrong with a Katie creation! hehe)

The Dainty Squid is also called Kaylah. I found her blog through Kaelah’s blog (yup just to confuse you lol). I love the funky pictures that she posts and the lessons she gives about dying hair – in one picture she has pink hair and in another she has like tangerine orange hair and it’s A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! If I worked on my own and set my own rules etc I’d so do something crazy like the pink hair but I work in an office and the CEO’s brother or someone like that is here in two weeks so if I do dye my hair any time soon it’s gotta be a semi natural colour lol. I’m thinking of going red again rather than black but I’m not sure. Again she is a crafting lady, she also has a shop on Etsy

As I sit here Chris is lying in the middle of the living room floor making some crazy circle patterns for my new design – I’m so excited!

Last February, my friend David managed to prove how useful and powerful Social Networking can be. He’d made contact through Facebook with Noel Richards.

David went on to invite him to come and play at our church. He did and brought along his friend Wayne Drain.

The evening was really good (I wrote about it in this post). This was such a good evening that Noel has been invited back and is bringing his sidekicks Wayne and Brian Houston, they make up a band called The Hudson Taylors (I take it that it’s named after the Evangelist Hudson Taylor.)

Like David, I had never heard of them but apparently they have been together for 10 years.

So on Sunday 14th March at 7pm, The Hudson Taylors will be hosting an evening of worship at Russell Park Baptist Church (on the corner of Rosamund Road and Denmark Street, in Bedford, the postcode is MK40 3TJ if you want to look us up on your Sat Nav.)

There are links below to the posters and handouts. If you’re on Facebook and planning to go you can register yourself on the event page for the evening which can be found here.

If you are likely to bring a group if you drop me or David at email (my addy is hannah at rockangel dot co dot uk and David can be reached on admin at russellpark dot org).

So spread the word 😀 and see you there!

Click here to download the A6-Card-Invite

Click here to download the A4-Poster

You can read David’s Original Post here.

So sometime before Christmas – maybe even earlier than that I saw a trailer for “I Hate Valentines Day“. It’s directed by Nia Vardalos (who also directed My Big Fat Greek Wedding (MBFGW for short lol) and she stars along side John Corbett (who was also in MBFGW).

Its been on my list of films to watch since I saw the trailer last year. I’m not sure if it made it to our local cinema but then again it might have made it to Milton Keynes (we have 6 screens rather than the 15 or more that they have at MK).

Anyway so I bought the DVD and on Wednesday after work I parked myself in front of the TV and while I tucked into my tea I watched the DVD.

The film starts before Valentines Day and then runs to the following Valentines Day. Nia Vardalos plays Genevieve Gernier who works in a florist. She believes that the best way to achieve romantic fulfillment is to never go on more than five dates with the same man. However after meeting Greg Galin (played by John Corbett) she is forced to reassess her philosophy.

I loved this film, rather than just seeing her get stuff sorted and going out with Greg, we actually saw her confront the fact that it was the relationship with her Dad that caused her to run away from relationships and giving into being loved.

My favourite moment in the film is quite near the end and I think if I tell it then it will give away the film. Here is the trailer if you haven’t seen it:

You can find Nia on Twitter here

iPhone Versus Blackberry (or Blueberry as I refered to it earlier)

So I’ve been both an iPhone and a Blackberry user. I had a 1st Gen iPhone from March 2007 till the summer last year when my contract was up. I then had to decide whether to just renew my contract, upgrade to a iPhone 3G (or wait for the 3GS like CJ) or go for something different. Well I chose the third option and although the Palm Pre looked fabulous it hadn’t come out in the UK yet so I looked at getting a Blackberry, the spec in comparison did look a bit better and there was the whole price tag to contend with. However about six months into the new handset (Blackberry Bold) the novelty is wearing off and admittedly I am thinking why I gave up on the iPhone.

At the time my iPhone didn’t send MMS and although it looked like it was on the horizon I wasn’t sure about it (I’m not exactly sure why now lol). I went to my Blueberry and look the MMS doesn’t work and each time I phone O2 I’m fobbed off with one excuse or the other (the latest one is about turning it on and off and re-downloading the service books – I’ve already done this multiple times myself and it’s not working!)

Whereas my brother and CJ who both have iPhones send MMS backwards and forwards like the phone always had that function. My Blueberry crashes and I don’t mean like the iPhone where is freezes and then closes the app – my Blueberry crashes and the only way I’ve found to sort it out is to take the battery out – it’s probably not the best option but it’s the only thing that words – when it’s crashing it won’t even switch off using the power button. On the other hand the Blueberry did have a proper keyboard and that’s what I was struggling with on the iPhone. So….

Dear RIM,

We’ve been good friends for six months ish now but when my contract is up in 12ish months I am going back to Apple or finding another phone that does what it needs to when I need to do it. I’m sorry Rim, it’s been a beautiful friendship but it’s just not working.

Han

Images from:
Vincent J. Brown and Qiao-Da-Ye賽門譙大爺

When I was growing up and even now the church I used to attend supports MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship). Yesterday evening I was sat in the worship annex at my current church I was reading my book while having a drink and I looked up at one of the information racks. There was an email from Max, he is one of the members of MAF team that were already out in Haiti.

MAF have three aircraft and a hangar based in Port-Au-Prince, they’ve been able to use this to fly in aid. From the email I read on the first day they flew back to Florida volunteers and team members who were not needed with the relieve effort – for example volunteers with family and children out there in Haiti with them. They then used the return trips to bring in aid where possible. A fourth aircraft is set to join the fleet.

Apparently the quake was the strongest to hit Haiti in 200 years.

Because they have these little planes they can get aid round the country where roads are blocked and things like that. They can then return with international workers who are evacuating the country. (This sounds like a harsh thing to do but if for one or another reason they can leave would it be better that they are heading home rather than using aid resources and things like that.)

The MAF website can be found here and the specify site about the relief effort in Haiti can be found here. If it is of interest I also found this on the MAF site explaning about how they have been working out there before the earthquake.

MAF has been based in Haiti since 1986. This disaster follows the widespread devastation caused by a series of hurricanes in Autumn 2008. With roads cut off and damaged, MAF’s Cessna aircraft flew essential emergency relief supplies to cut-off communities across the country.
John Woodberry asserts, ‘The MAF programme was here before the earthquake and in a strategic place to serve and help those in great need in Jesus’ name.’

If you would like to donate to MAF there is a link on their homepage (see the first link above).

Donations are still being taken through the DEC, Tearfund and Christian Aid amongst others. Donations of time by praying are so incredibly useful as well:

• Pray for the people of Haiti as they deal with the aftermath of the earthquake, ask the Lord to comfort those who are injured and mourning.
• Pray for rescue efforts to find survivors trapped in destroyed buildings and for communication links and power supplies to be restored quickly.
• Pray for a swift and generous response from the international community to help this disaster-prone poor country.
• Pray for the safety and protection of Tearfund staff and partners based in Haiti and that they will be able to respond as effectively as possible.

(Prayer points come from the Tearfund website)

Originally uploaded by B r e a t h e | F o r | L o v e

Well to be honest I don’t know I’ve not written for nearly 10 days and as much as I want to write a post to fill in the gaps etc. I don’t want to just write rubbish and fill up your RSS by mistake lol.

So last week was tough, having some issues that I’m trying to work through. It’s hard work but I’m glad I have friends to help me through. I need to go now but hopefully I won’t be gone for too long.

I have a fab friend. Her name is Katie. She, like me, has a blog. Also like me she loves reading and films. I may never meet her in real life – she lives in the USA and I live here but thats not the point. She’s also like me because as she writes at the beginning of this post, she’s a cryer – and so am I. I watched something yesterday and nearly burst into tears. I watch the films The Notebook, My Girl or Steel Magnolias and realise that my eyes are leaking again. Somedays it takes nothing and those tears are there again.

(As Katie put it) I don’t know Brandy. I’m not subscribed to her blog, to be honest I only found it this afternoon through Katie’s post. But I wanted to post this because it’s so sweet and sad all at the same time. I truly believe that enough people pray (Even if you don’t prayer hold them in your thoughts) and healing comes.

My name is brandy. And I have a blog.

And a plea.

I use my blog to showcase the crazy I meet everyday, share the stories of the kids I teach and document my love for tequila, dairy products and the abdominal muscles of Ryan Reynolds. Rarely do I talk about personal issues on my blog- as personal as the dude that I adore (who I actually met through my blog- single ladies, let that be a very good reason to blog, the possibility of meeting someone as wonderful as my man), but I need your help. And it involves my dude.

He’s a guy who made math comics for my class, so they would love learning about addition. He’s the kinda guy who sends my friends gift cards when they are having hard times, who remembers every story I ever told him, who was the first person I celebrated with when I got a teaching job. He’s the guy who sent flowers to me at school- dozens of my favourite pink roses just because he loves me. He’s a guy who has spent a year patiently explaining (and re-explaining) everything there is to know about football during the important games when silence is preferred. He’s made me word puzzles and comics and stayed up late playing Scrabble with me (even though I beat him almost every time). He’s listened to me cry about school and family and jobs. He is everything I never knew I needed and everything I always knew I wanted.

The holidays have hit us hard. He’s recently been told he may have something called multiple myeloma- an incurable cancer, that gives a person an average of five years of continued life. Though this news has came as a shock, he continues to be exactly who has always been- spending his time worrying about me, rather than worrying about himself. He’s the most selfless individual I know- (he stayed late on Christmas Eve to work, so his co-workers could leave early) and a post like this would never be something that he would promote or encourage but when I’m overwhelmed and feeling helpless, the blogging community has always given me tremendous support and comfort, two things I desperately need at this time.

As I write this, the future is uncertain and we aren’t sure what’s happening. He’ll need to see an oncologist soon, to verify what’s going on in his body. My hope is that everyone who reads this think positive thoughts and if you are a person who prays, could you add him to your list? (You can refer to him as ‘brandy’s hot awesome dude’). If you don’t pray, please keep him in your heart.This cancer is only a possibility and I believe that the prayers and positive thoughts of people can make sure it never becomes a reality.

I want to give a big thank you to the blog owner who scraped their original blog plans and graciously put this up. My goal is to get as many people as possible to see and read this post. If you are reading this and want to help, copy and paste my plea into your blog or send a link through twitter, so more people can keep him in their thoughts. I would be so very grateful (even more grateful than I am to my friend who first showed me the picture of Ryan Reynolds on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. If you haven’t seen it, google it. You. Are. Welcome).

I realize this all sounds dramatic, a Lifetime movie in the making- but this is life. Right now. And I’m throwing away any hint of ego and am humbly asking for you to pray or think kind thoughts. If you are able to pass this on, thank you and if you know anything regarding MM- please email me (my email is on my blog). This isn’t a call for sympathy or a plea for pity. It’s just one girl hoping you can think positive thoughts for the person she adores. If my current heartache provides you with anything, let it be with the reminder that life is short, love is unbending and no one knows what could happen next. Maybe it is silly, but I really do believe that positive thoughts can make a huge difference. Thank you for reading this and if you haven’t already? Please tell someone you love them today.

I did.

The image is from Flickr you can find it here, the username is Sweet Candy

The end of 2009 is a few days away now (my brain has actually lost track of the days really seeing as I’ve been ill lol)

Anyhoo my lovely friend Elle posted her list on her blog. I started my list as a comment and soon realised it was going to be longer than a comment should be lol. So here is my decade in review

• 10 GCSEs
• 1 A Level (I got U’s in the others lol)
• 1 AS Level (again see above)
• 1 BA Honours Degree (2.2 wahoo!)
• 4 Weddings (at least): My own, LB (my best friend), My Aunt, Another girl from uni
• 3 Deaths: Great G-ma B (2000 or 2001), G-ma S (2008), Great Grandma P (2009)
• 7ish jobs (I was 16 in 2002 so I’ve got every job since then in this one decade!)
• (Sacked from) 2 jobs (technically I didn’t really have one of them as I was on my first shift when I was sacked)
• 5 Places of residence (One was for 70% of the decade – could make a pretty graph!)
• 2 cars (My Ford Fiesta, My Fiat Seicento)
• 4 planes – I’ve only been to and from Izmir, Turkey but we can to change planes once there and once coming back.
• 1 stamp in my passport – this was when we went to Turkey
• 6 significant trips abroad – I think there were more than this but I don’t remember

I think I will surrender there for now lol.

I want to go and see the film and had I not been ill, me and My Mum would probably already have a date in the diary to go and see it.

A friend of mine called Rickie has seen it and she wrote this blog post about it. (Open it in another tab/window so that when you finish my post you go read hers!)

Anyhoo she asks the question

The only let down for me is that the line, ‘elementary, dear Watson’ is missing. Did he ever say it?

So the geek in me had to go find out – did he say it or what is something that appeared in popular culture.

Well I found this link. According to this the line doesn’t appear in the books by Arthur Conan Doyle, it was a bit of artistic license on the part of the writer or director of the Sherlock Holmes films. (There are a few but the main one I end up seeing is The Hound of the Baskervilles
and The Adventure of the Speckled Band)

Apparently in the books, Holmes does refer to Watson as My dear Watson but he doesn’t use the “Elementary My Dear Watson” phrase.

I had a plan about how organised I was going to be over Christmas and that I had some blog posts coming and I was really excited about them well now it’s the 28th December and I’m failing lol. Well I didn’t expect to be sick over Christmas and spend stupid amounts of time in bed lol.

So I’m sat here watching Chicken Run thanks to the lovely people at BBC iPlayer – I’ve seen it like a gazillion times but there is something about it that doesn’t grow old – or at least doesn’t grow old for me lol. Also I have to watch it on my own because I quote it now lol.

This morning I’ve been chatting to people via Twitter (and just got a text from The Giant) me and DaddyP were having a game of I Spy in French but it didn’t really work. “I Spy quelque chose avec mon petit oeil commençant par A” I obviously could see stuff that he couldn’t and the other way round but I did pick something pretty obvious (I picked Wardrobe – or armoire in French).

Anyway so watching Chicken Run and starting this post of ramblings. Now going to restart with a proper post now that I have ejected the ramblings lol.

So I’ve taken up residence in my bed lol. I’m not one for surrendering in bed and giving in to illness but this time it’s had to be done.

I’ve been on the phone to NHS Direct and they said about taking some Paracetamol and see if it’ll break my temperature. (Just looked it up of Wikipedia for the technical term – what a geek!) So Paracetamol is an antipyretic which means it’ll reduce the temperature and an analgesic so it’ll reduce pain.

CJ grabbed me the bottle of paracetamol and some Vitamin C tablet thingies and left me to it lol. He offered me sandwiches for lunch but I really wasn’t fancying sandwiches lol. But then when The Kiwi came and offered me noodles, that sounded lush – I really fancied noodles lol. (They are easier to swallow I think that interested me lol). I was taking the NHS Direct ladies advice and was trying to take paracetamol. I tried to open the paracetamol and it was irritating me – I couldn’t do it. I was about to either give up or go downstairs and get the other packet. The Kiwi came upstairs to see if I wanted a cup of tea or some bread with my noodles, while she was there I asked her to open the paracetamol so I could take some (Yup I can’t believe that I couldn’t open the bottle!!

The Kiwi then nipped back downstairs and finished cooking the noodles, then she came back. She is the Queen of Kindness today! I texted her earlier to grab me some more tissues on her way home and she said she would! Fab girlie!!

I can’t believe I am ill on Christmas AGAIN.

Some years I can be really ill like the year I had flu – I think I had had a cold leading up to Christmas and managed to fight it off or keep it at bay but then on Christmas Day that particular year I got Flu like symptoms and slept through most of Christmas Day. This action of sleeping lots obviously made the difference because although I feel groggy I was fine on Boxing Day

So here we are in 2009. I went to bed Christmas Eve and was losing my voice – at one point it had completely gone. About 7-8pm while we were playing Star Wars Clone Wars Monopoly at my Parents House, my nose decided it was going to run and join the party that was going on in my head!

Anyway so this morning I got up and now I feel like poop. I had a shower to see if that made me feel more human but the hot water just made me cough and splutter some more. Hopefully going to go to the supermarket and get some cold relief and some tissues before heading off to CJ’s Auntie’s house.

So three weeks ago I got very excited.

I had finished reading Making History and wrote this post. I sent the link to Stephen Fry and then left it – after all he’s super busy what chance would there be that he’d take the time to read my blog but little did I know look……

Yes lovely blog people….Stephen Fry took the time out of HIS day to read my blog! Thats completely surreal! Ok maybe thats me having a semi Fan-Girl moment which I’m sure can’t be that good, But my friend Robert is correct –

“It’s no fun having a great contact and not being able to tell the world. If the famous person thinks you’re so terrible,… well, who would want the know them anyway. I say do it and then don’t worry about it. Life is too short for NOT DOING STUFF!”

So after the excitement last week of my present arriving with Le’nise (her post about the Secret Santa can be found here) it was my turn. Yesterday when I got home from work there was a “Sorry You were Out” Card from the post man.
 
I tried to get to the Sorting Office yesterday but the queue was stupidly long – I was mega excited and stuff but then really irritated about waiting in the queue (Yup I think I am unBritish!). I had to turn round and get out of the queue because I needed to get into town and then get to JD’s before 5pm – it went horribly wrong and I didn’t make it properly and stuff like that. I was already irritated because I’d been home to wash my hair and found that we’d run out of gas again on our meter so we had no hot water – Yup we really do need to pay more attention to how much is left etc. (I went to three shops on my way home at 11pm and none of them did gas or were helpful enough to answer my question)

Anyway so back to the story. So yesterday and today my Manager and my Colleague are both out on holiday for different reasons etc. So I was running Customer Services pretty much on my own. So I asked The Big Cheese if I could take a lunch break – he was totally understanding and said yes that I could have a proper break (rather than 10 minutes to stand in the canteen queue to get a sandwich).

I went to the Sorting Office – I still don’t understand why they don’t have more than two normal spaces and one disabled bay when there is always more than 3 people in the reception. Anyway so a girl came to park after me and got annoyed at me for being in the way – it wasn’t my fault that I was waiting for a space and she felt like she needed the whole area to turn round in.

I eventually got in and handed my card over (was very excited as I realised what it was) and opened it on the way back to the car. I was floored by the gift – I guess that Amazon had an offer on or something because normally it wouldn’t have fitted in the price bracket for the Secret Santa.

I was so chuffed! I can’t believe it!

I have a little puzzle to work out what my Secret Santa’s Blog Address is but hopefully they will read this and make themselves known hehe.

Thank you Secret Santa – my present makes an appearance in this video…

Okay so I keep meaning to play with it but keep forgetting lol.

Katie at Whims and Inconsistencies posted a fabulous picture of her Wordle and lovely Amy at Ha ha, Wait. What? inspired Katie having posted her Wordle – so here is mine 😀

Yesterday my manager made a comment and it made me think. She was chatting to one of the girls who used to work here, who is now a languages teacher. They were discussing about teaching languages and about how there is a need for teachers and stuff like that.

When I was at middle school, French was compulsory, it was a school decided idea that we should be taught French in Year 5. (Recently the curriculum was changed so that languages would be taught from Year 3 – the beginning of Key Stage 2)

I loved learning French until Year 9 when I started Upper School – my teacher went on maternity leave and our cover teacher couldn’t control the class – me and some of the my class went to the head of department. What waas the point in going to the lessons if the teacher spent most of the time trying to get the class to settle rather than teaching the class (or at least those who wanted to learn)

So at the end of Year 9 I decided that I would give up French and select Italian as my GCSE Language choice. I managed to stick it out till the end of Year 12. My main reason for giving that up was that I loved speaking it but you had to learn it for the exam rather than just for learning it. I didn’t understand my written paper and really struggled. I breezed through my speaking exam – I knew the answers about my family, where I lived and hobbies like that – I even regurgitated my presentation about Leonardo Da Vinci without hesitation but do you think I could do the written paper.

So I gave it up. I did miss it because I loved it but these things had to be done.

So when I looked at teaching after my degree I was offered the opportunity to do a PGCE in Primary Education with Italian at the Uni of Bedfordshire. At this point I hadn’t spoken Italian in about 4 years so you can imagine that teaching Italian wasn’t top of my list.

But now I work in a job where speaking French or German would be advantageous – Italian is handy but not really used in the company I work for. Occasionally I translate emails and try to speak to our Italian distributor in Italian but it’s a bit restricted and English tends to take over. I tend to reach for Google Translator most of the time when needed – I managed to organise an order for a Polish customer this way!!

Anyway so yay to languages! But no to teaching to exam standards etc – can’t you learn a language because you want to?!

I am so chuffed to see this blog post.

Yep the lovely Lenise was my Secret Santa person – actually then again I was her Secret Santa through the swap organised by Melinda @ missgeeky.com.

I am waiting for my present but I am sure it’s probably on it’s way. Melinda was fab to organise it and I am so chuffed that Lenise loved her present >_< There's at least two book reviews to follow in the next few days along with the reveal of my secret reader lol.

I sometimes think alot about me and how I react to certain things.

On Saturday we had our house warming which meant that the house was full of people and it was amazing and so much fun – especially the 7m long drinking straw. My In-Laws had brought some comically big drinking straws – they were like 70cm long each – we managed to get about 10 or 11 joined together and still managed to drink our concoction that me and Kewey had made in a jug. The Shopaholic was our team mate too – she made sure that the straw didn’t come out of the jug while we were sticking straws together and trying to get to the living room.  

But this evening we’re due to be going out for dinner with a group of people from church and in all honesty I don’t particularly want to go. Watching a DVD and eating KFC with my brother and my housemate sounds like more fun. This evening is a meal for the people who work in the church office. Mrs Mow Mow was due to be there but now she can’t make it so I have the feeling that I could end up parked up one end on my own while CJ talks shop – I could sit there and play on Twitter but then it would look like I’m being unsocial. Then again could text JD as she’s babysitting this evening lol.

Argh I don’t know! Why do I like being in a crowd some days but then hate it others? How does that work?

I checked earlier and the present that I send for the Bloggers Secret Santa Swap as organised by MissGeeky had arrived at it’s destination. I’m really excited and am just waiting for it to be blogged about, but I am also a little nervous about it all at the same time lol. I am such a freak somedays!

I must be actually crazy! I talk to my friends about how I might be able to survive without the internet and I really can’t. Lol.

When I was younger I would write a paper list to Santa (then it was to my Mum). Now I email her a link to my Amazon Wishlist as inspiration. I also sent it to my best friends this year. We did another Secret Santa between us and from my Secret Santa I got two of the Louise Rennison books from the Georgia Nicholson series – I love them! I discovered them when I was at upper school and although I think I am technically miles out of the target age range I still love the books all the same!

Stop in The Name of Pants was the first one of these. This is the penultimate book in the series. I would write more about it but I’m about half way through. Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me? is the second one (well my second present – it’s technically last in the series) – yes they do all have slightly random titles which I’m sure aren’t really repeatable in public if you actually know what they mean.

Louise Rennison is a very cool author – I’d be interested to read anything else that she has had published (even if I am technically to old!). I was trying to see if she had a website of her own but by the looks of it she doesn’t. I did however find the Georgia Nicolson website.

I’ve started on my “To Be Read” list for 2010. So far I’m at Number 4 and am just working along the ones that I remember off the top of my head.

I’m not really one for planning when it comes to blog posts. A lot of the time I park in front of the computer and type what pings into my brain. But between now and Christmas I have a plan or at least something I am trying to aim for.

I’m going to be writing what I can ready to schedule for busy days and things like that.
There’s going to be my Top Christmas Films and my top Christmas Songs (both inspired by conversations that I’ve had with RickieWrites over the last few days – have a visit – there is a cool post about Twitter).

There’s going to be a post about my mysterious reader at some point. This secrecy has its fun but I want to talk about it and how this person read my blog (of all things lol).

There will be a couple of book reviews and film reviews too, probably more as we get towards Christmas as there seems to be bucketloads on over Christmas – if we have internet by then I’ll be queuing the programs up on the computer to record. Somewhere over Christmas me and JD are going to see Orson Welles and me (Well if it’s still open because apparently it came out at the beginning of December).

Anyway it looks like excitement all the way!

Sherlock Holmes

Originally uploaded by Rodrigo Ono

At the moment I am hanging out with my brother – he’s playing a Sherlock Holmes game – I’m not really sure I get it though lol. He’s in the process of trying to catch Jack The Ripper (which is clever because I’m sure historically JTR was never actually identified).

I’m really excited as the Sherlock Holmes film comes out at the end of December and hopefully I’ll get to go see it with Mum.

Yesterday while I was waiting for my blood test I was reading “Making History” by Stephen Fry. I’ve been reading the book for about three weeks now (I was definitely reading it in London on the way to #140conf). I had read the whole book and was down to the last two chapters. It’s ultimately a fiction story but huge chunks of it are set in historic fact – there is a sort of epilogue at the end that just sets it straight. It’s definitely better than sticking at the beginning like you get in *certain* books. I think if it had been at the beginning I would have spent the whole time reading it questioning what was happening. Alot of the story revolves around Hitler, the concentration camps and the history and the future around that. People sometimes question if Hitler hadn’t have been born would the world be different and somehow this kinda shows one of the perspectives that could have happened.

When I finished work at 5:30 I tried to read it as I crossed the car park but unfortunately the lights on the pathway weren’t bright enough for me to be able to carry on reading. So I had to surrender and put my book back into my bag. JD needed to nip to a friends house on the way home so I waited out in the car and carried on reading – I was so engrossed in the book that when JD got back into the car I jumped a mile! I was there in the action listening to the conversation and being a fly on the wall.

I got home and did a few bits and pieces like put my iPod on charge and chat to CJ about some bits but then curled up on the sofa and tried to finish the book. Why is it when I am so close to the end CJ wants to talk and start a conversation, but as soon as I’m finished and can join in the conversation he has nothing to say?!

It has taken me a little while to get through this book because of the amount of words that I had to label or look up because I didn’t understand them or because I had to go back and read the same page a second time because I didn’t quite keep up.

Thanks to the wonders of Twitter I was able to ask Stephen a question when I was half way through the book – I was in two minds whether to send him a message and also in two minds whether I would receive a reply – but I did so that was interesting to see why his character said something in particular. The character is mid-rant and quotes Cabaret – amongst other songs and films. The quote in the book is

“Life is a cabaret, old friend”

Now having done Cabaret (the song) in singing lessons and in my AS exam I know that it’s

“Life is a Cabaret, old chum”

 but then I thought it could have been a bit of artistic license so I dropped the message and waited for a response – well I kinda didn’t wait because I knew he’s a busy chap so probably wouldn’t have time to respond but then there was a response:

“Gosh. I shall have to check. Probably. I like things to be human in their fuzziness as a rule!”.

Okay so I think this means that it was on purpose so that while the character is ranting he’s not thinking straight so might get it in a muddle – I know I get my words in a muddle when I’m ranting.

Anyhoo there was a cliff hanger at the end and I was sure that it was going to finish there and it wouldn’t be resolved – but how wrong I was! There was a happy ending but I had to read the last chapter twice because I got a bit confused on the way through. I can’t tell you what happened – you’ll just have to go read it yourself!

The main thing that struck me about was the topic. Often in History at school and stuff like that we discussed the topic of what could have happened if the Allies hadn’t won World War 2 but it never crossed my mind to thing about what could have happened had Hitler not been around – okay there was a plan in there somewhere along the line and there were people standing in the gap and stuff like that.

I’ve just started reading The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom – I’m like 4 pages into it and don’t want to put it down. My Grandma and My Mum told me about her when I was younger but I never read the book. Corrie Ten Boom was an amazing lady. Someone told me a story about her recently, when her and her sister arrived in the concentration camp, they were lying in bed one night and were praying, they were being thankful for the different things around them and they thanked God for the fleas in their hut, it sounds so random but because of the fleas, the soldiers wouldn’t go into the hut and it meant that Corrie and her sister Betsie could hold Bible studies and things in their hut and they could pray without being bothered. (I have the feeling that I’m going to have lot to say when I finish the book lol).

Today after work me and JD hung out – she ended up staying till 2 am while we watched Children in Need on the BBC (if you missed it you can get it on BBC iPlayer.

We went to my house after work, I wanted to take some photos for the Iffyton Air Guitar competition – I was all prepared to take them myself but then as JD was coming for tea I asked her nicely to help me out – I’m glad she did because I’d have chopped my head off or pointed in the opposite direction or something like that. JD stayed for tea – JD was awesome and she made cheese on toast for me in exchange for me having her round for tea. We parked ourselves in front of the TV and started watching Children in Need.

We had so much fun especially when they played the new Peter Kay Video – it’s so cool – I love it! My Mum agreed – she said it was good because it was aimed at so many different people.

Like a child counts down to Christmas I’ve been counting down to #140conf – I’m not sure why I am stupidly excited – I think it’s also because I am going to go see Brains for the first time in like 6 months or more (I think it could have been Christmas 2008 which means it’s been nearly a year!!)

I am super grateful to her to – tonight is technically a work night for her and she has to get up earlier than you might to so that she can get across London on the tube and stuff like that. I am trying to be as little inconvenience as possible because I know how much energy entertaining a visitor takes – I’m sure we’ll be able to put the world to rights about nearly everything except from global warming and the credit crunch and even then I’ll probably remember tomorrow something that I meant to tell her. She’s going to meet me at Kings X/St Pancras which makes it a little easier – I’m not quite trying to find her house in the dark and stuff like that – so I guess that’s a little easier – I can window shop in the train station if I’m early lol.

I keep glancing over Twitter and looking at what people are discussing with regards to #140conf. I’m beginning to think that I should have gone down this morning and joined in the Tweet ups and stuff like that then met Brains at the train station or something.

I am a little worried about travelling in London on my own, last time I did it was when I went to meet CJ when he was doing the Tube Challenge – that was a little worrying for me because I wasn’t sure I had the right ticket because I got it from an automated machine thing (I didn’t have the right ticket – I needed a 1-6 zone card and had a different one or something like that)

I am probably going to blog lots on the train and tweet away to my hearts content – but first things first I’m going to have tea with CJ because this week is a little crazy – I’m away tonight and tomorrow and then CJ is away from Thursday through to Sunday.

Over and Out!

So Mr Stephen Fry joined the ranks of the Twitter Millionaires – I know that Ashton Kutcher (@APlusK) was already there and there are a few others dotted around but somehow I was more excited about this one. I also think a Twillionth became a very cool word to know lol. (Haven’t had chance to watch this video yet!!!)

Congratulations!

Apparently Stephen (yeah okay first name terms! haha!) is talking at the #140conf this week which should be awesome – JD is proper jealous that I’m could be in the same room as him – she’s funny! She keeps calling me a geek because I’m going to a “twitter conference” however she will be excited that she got another mention so I think that balances out at least a little bit lol.

P.s. New Doctor Who and Top Gear tonight! Unfortunately I won’t get to see either of them until sometime in the week 🙁

So technically I’m writing this on the 10th November due to all the excitement of moving house and not having any internet I’ve fallen behind both on NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo. I’m not calling them failures yet – I can go made and do an all nighter on the novel and post date my blogs lol. I WILL CATCH UP!

This morning me and CJ were going to go and get some bits from the Supermarket and from the local DIY store but he was being mean and stuff so I ended up going out on my own. On the Plan A list we were going to go to the store where Q works and ask for silly things like “A tin of elbow grease” and a “Long Stand” and see if he would take the bait. Unfortunately we didn’t get that far.

I went to hang out at my Mum’s after going and running some errands. I went to the supermarket on the way home and found that Slumdog Millionaire was on special offer so I bought it for CJ as he keeps going on about how he wants to see it. CJ kept getting all excited to see India again – okay so it was Mumbai and he went to Bangalore but he was still super excited. I think it proves how desperate he wants to go back – but what about me?!? I don’t handle the heat well and India is going to be HOT! There’s a bit where Jamal jumps into the toilet pit – I actually thought CJ was going to throw up! He was pulling such a funny face – it was kinda gross but I’d already seen it twice so knew what was coming.

This evening was another Swishing Party. (I also found this where you can do Swishing online.) When we moved house on the 5th, Me and The Kiwi both sorted out some clothes that we didn’t really want any more – so I sorted the bag and took some of the items to the Swishing Party. Me and Mum had a great time – I got two tops (photos to follow!). Mum also got a nice blouse from the party. I was looking to see if anyone had put in a winter coat – there was a coat but it was like a 10 or something so it really wouldn’t fit me.