Friday 31 December 2010

Kerrrrrr-CHING!

Can you hear that noise? Listen really carefully...there...did you hear that very faint noise getting louder and louder as the ring of cash tills dings all over the land. Yep, it would seem that old Blighty has gone completely bonkers and peeps are rushing, yes rushing, out to make expensive purchases before the VAT rises up to 20% on 4th January. And we are one of them.

The oven was an obvious purchase. No-one can really live without an oven, unless they want to blitz everything to death in a microwave. Clearly we are not those people. The oven that we bought is truly beautiful, if such words can be used to describe a necessary appliance. It's energy A which is something I always aspire to. And it has all these jazzy things on it which means you can cook things like pizza and cake and bread without having to preheat the oven, very environmentally conscious. It breaks down into two ovens as well and according to the diagram, in this snazzy double oven you can be cooking a turkey in the bottom and muffins in the top. Erm, is there anyone who would actually do that?! Surely right there are two things that shouldn't go in an oven together, but maybe they now can. The future is apparently here, raw meat and cake rejoice in your same space!

And so to our next purchase. I did blog about how we got distracted when shopping for ovens by looking at the biiiiig televisions. And how we drooled. Well, we quit drooling and went and bought one!!!! And OMG it is gorgeous. It's 40 inches which just seems ma-hoooosive compared to what we had before. And it's so shiny and so flat and so god-damned clever that Wavey and I are a wee bit stumped how to make it work. Like right now for instance, he's just put his USB in the back of it with our holiday photos and now they're right up there on our 40 inch screen in glorious colour. A-mazing! How does this shit work? Anyone? Not that I really want an answer you understand, basically I'm just in love with it. New technology is truly fabulous and I embrace it fully and wholly and bugger it I'm just going to say it, lustfully!

It's nearly 2011. Hard to believe that a whole year has flown by. A whole year since I've lived and loved in this very house with Wavey. A truly fabulous year! And a whole year that we've contributed to the economy very much as we seem to break appliances at an astonishing rate. In this year we've had to replace:

  • Washing machine
  • Oven
  • Kettle
  • Hoover

We didn't have to replace the television but we did anyway. And I think we're going to get biiiiig enjoyment from our biiiiiig shiny new television!

Happy New Year one and all and I'll see ya in 2011 x

Monday 27 December 2010

It's Chreeeeeeeestmas!

Christmas means so many different things to different people. These are just a few photos to demonstrate what Christmas means to me.

First up, it's seeing bestest friends who live far away and get to come up for Christmas holiday fun. It's inviting them round to your house and drinking wine and getting them to join in with decorating the Christmas cake so that a joint effort from Tizz, Wavey and myself ends up looking like our fabulous Christmas cake igloo:



It's laughing hysterically at a pair of welly boots sticking out of the side of a cake and placing penguins on top of bricks:



It's getting the best Christmas presents ever that other people think are completely insane but are given with love and true knowledge of what will make that person so happy:



It's shiny lights in a snowy landscape that make you feel all slushy and sloppy on an evening walk:



And it's popping out somewhere for a "quick" drink only to return hours later, merry as merry and thinking that this will make a truly great photo...



I hope you all had the merriest of times too - Happy Christmas!

Thursday 23 December 2010

11 days

11 days!

11 days!

11 days!

This is how many days I have off work. Woooooo-bloomin-hoooooooo!

Oh and I completely forgot in all the oven drama to tell everyone that I have another interview! This time for a Cyberlibrarian - now that's a title I wouldn't mind having. Interview is on 6th January. And I don't have to do a presentation *huge sigh of relief* And it's not in my current work location. Will 2011 be the year that I get a new job...? Exciting!

Wednesday 22 December 2010

What was that noise...?

You remember last year when I first moved in with Wavey and we'd planned this fabby Christmas? My folks were coming and it was going to be this and going to be that...and then the boiler broke and we had no heating? Well it seems that some sort of curse has befallen us, as tonight our oven exploded.

We were both upstairs; I was trying to make the internet work (another tale altogether) and Wavey was changing a lightbulb in the bathroom when we heard this noise. Not sure what it was, we both just carried on with our tasks at hand and thought about it no more. Shortly afterwards I trotted downstairs to sort out the dinner and stepped in something that cracked underneath my feet. Weird, thinks I, we've only brought in snow with us and not crackly ice. I looked under my feet and noticed small shards of glass. Then it was like something in slow motion as I moved my glance up and noticed that the inside of the oven seemed to have exploded all over our potato wedges. Hmmmm - WAVEY!

And so we find ourselves 3 days before Christmas without an oven. We've been out tonight in the falling snow and tried to get one, but no-one has one that you can just walk away with. It's a time to sell docking stations and ipods and digital radios, who would want to buy an oven 3 days before Christmas. Erm *puts hands up* that would be us please sir. Luckily all the plans we had did not involve roasting a turkey for several hours, nor are we cooking for like 10 people. It's the two of us here. And really, to tell you the truth, even if all we had was beans on toast with some melted cheese on the top it wouldn't spoil Christmas!

But what an end to a seriously crappy week. There's been some horrible shit gone down this week that has completely and utterly left me raw. Today we got a phone call from a work colleague telling us that her dad had died. It's just awful. I don't understand why all this crappy stuff has to happen to really nice people. Put all this with the fact that I have this god-awful cold that came out of nowhere and will not go away, my nose is red raw and it's freezing so it feels like my face might fall off everytime I go outside, I had to cancel my hair appointment on Saturday as I felt so rubbish so my fringe is falling in my eyes and my roots are showing through...merry chuffin Christmas eh?

I phoned my ma tonight to tell her the woes of the oven and we ended up laughing. They'd had this awful family visit involving a man holding an entire conversation with my dad whilst sat in his grubby vest, and we'd been all round Evil Park with no success at buying an oven. But plenty of drooling over huge flat screen televisions, and funky mixers, and docking stations to drool over! As she ever so sweetly pointed out, we (as in Wavey and I) have each other and all these things that come our way to test us just prove how strong our relationship is. I don't know about you, but I can think of nothing better to have for Christmas.

Friday 17 December 2010

Downstairs I shall stay

Found out today that I didn't get the job. It didn't really come as too much of a surprise to me. Upon completing my very first ever presentation, that I managed to make last more than 8 minutes, all I really wanted to do was slump down in the seat and have a cup of tea. I certainly wasn't equipped to deal with 3 very tough strategic questions. So began the waffling. I think I pulled it back by the end but it wasn't enough this time round. But you know what? It's okay, really it is. One of my very good buds got the job and I couldn't be happier as she truly harbours the dream of Librarian. I on the other hand, am thinking yet again that this is not the future profession for me.

It's not the first time I've had these doubts. For years now I've been wondering on an almost daily basis what it is that I actually want to do with my life. I'm hoping to know soon but hey, no hurry eh :)

Even though the news was disappointing it was actually an okay kind of day. The big boss lady asked for 5 minutes of my time where she informed me that my presentation was excellent and she asked me if I would consider showing it to all staff...wowsers! I would never have guessed in a million years that she would say that, ever. And it made me feel pretty good. The presentation was a hurdle that I needed to overcome. I did it, and I must have done pretty okay - and I feel proud of myself for that achievement. I had a bit of banter with one of my favourite subject librarians and lots of chit chat with my lovely colleagues. It's done, the decision was made and there's no point pouting about it. It wasn't going to spoil my day; the never ending stats that I'm working on will do that all by themselves, no point adding something else to the mix.

To be honest, I feel kind of relieved. I blogged a couple of weeks ago about not being entirely sure if it was what I wanted, and the idea of going "upstairs" is still something I say in hushed tones. The relief that I feel is obviously a mixture of all sorts, that this week is finally over, that I survived the presentation and interview, that I've made a start on Christmas...it is definitely all those things. But it's also a quiet phew about being able to stay exactly where I am with all my lovely warm peeps that make me happy. Is that really so bad...?

A few weeks ago I made a tentative step towards getting some experience in a whole new field by volunteering in the fund-raising team of a local hospice. The two referees must have returned glowing references as I've had an email asking for a meeting after Christmas. I don't know what it will bring, or even if it's something that I will enjoy but I believe it's a step in the right direction. A small step to move away from continuously moaning about how awful work is by finding out what else might be out there for me. 2011 might just be the year that shows me a new path to follow.

This has been rather a serious post for wee Dizz, not the kind of tone I normally follow. So just to reassure you all that normal service has resumed, I shall make my final point: clearly the cool factor will remain downstairs where it belongs and not *whispers* "upstairs" in that alternative strange land. Stay cool forever...

Thursday 16 December 2010

The drawl of y'all

I'm going to begin this post by saying that if you're a fan of Beverley Barton you should stop reading now. Seriously, cease and desist immediately as I'm about to be very insulting. Fair warning.

Okay, for those of you still with me, I've just finished reading Cold Hearted by said Ms Barton. It promises to be terrifying and gripping. It was neither. In fact it really wasn't very good at all. I thought at first that it was just going to be trash but I think even that's being generous. It was, as I'm fond of saying, utter shite. And whoever read it and thought it was "terrifying" has clearly not read some of the crime fiction that I have, cos some of that stuff really is keep you awake at night creepy and scary. You, Ms Barton, are just silly.

I've not been to Georgia so perhaps I'm being a tad unfair here, but seriously, do "y'all" go round saying y'all every other word, cos that's what she did. And if she wasn't y'all-ing all over the place, she was honey-ing. It was barmy and rather boring for someone who has never and will never utter the phrase y'all, except when taking the piss out of such strange phrases. I'm well aware that all places have their own peculiar way of speaking, the Teesside way is hardly the best trust me, but it's just so...strange? odd? hence the drawl of y'all. Cos when I do try to speak it, it sounds all wrong coming out of my north east England accented voice. I'm pretty sure you have to be all about the drawl in order to say y'all correctly. And it's hard to type too! I am baffled by the use of such a word or is it a phrase? If Fizz is reading this she'll know, being the grammar queen that she is.

In conclusion, I really would find it very hard to recommend Beverley Barton for anything, other than the pile of books to return to the charity shop. I'll make a mental note never to pick one up again and am hoping that my next choice will satisfy me much more. Stay tuned for the next book review!


Wednesday 15 December 2010

Walking the plank

Things what have happened this week:

1. Learned how to do the plank in pilates. It hurts. A lot. And yet I love pilates so.

2. Had my interview. Where I survived my first ever presentation, and it lasted over 8 minutes. I'm still waiting to hear about the job but to be honest I'm not holding my breath. I was so relieved that I had finished the presentation I just wanted to slump in my seat and breathe for a while, but instead I had to answer questions about "upstairs" stuff of which I know very little about. Cue waffling. I think I pulled it round by the end but who can know. Either way - I'm very proud of myself for doing that presentation. I was crapping myself and I did it, yay me!

3. I won an award, as voted by my colleagues, for being the most cheerful, most sunny and most huggable person - I am officially a sunbeam. And I have a sparkly green medal and a certificate to prove it.

4. My brand new sparkly shiny ipod is synching as I type. Over 2000 songs should be enough for my average bus journey...

5. I definitely had the best interview outfit on. I was truly rocking it. No black suit for me, no sir-eee Bob.

6. My laptop is starting to do strange things. CRUCIAL BATTERY is the new watchword, it used to just be low battery. Me no likey. I heart my laptop so.

7. I've got a cold :( boo to germs, boo I tells ya!

8. I made mars bar cake, which was utterly yummy and went down a treat last night at theatre...

9. ...where we played the most hilarious game of football I have ever played. A sight never to be forgotten when Stormin' took a dive from the seats and landed on his knees in a heap and still managed to miss the ball. One of our members nearly wet herself laughing, literally, and the rest of us were bent over double in pain, we laughed so much. Happy times.

10. Christmas has crept ever closer. Eeeeek! Must get organised. I truly must!

Sunday 12 December 2010

SQUEEEEEEEEAAAAALLLLLLL!!

OMG! OMG! Wavey is the bestest boyfriend ever! The postman arrived today (still getting used to Sunday deliveries) with a box from Amazon. Wavey gets this look of glee on his face and then runs into the kitchen telling me "stay in there stay in there". Minutes later he emerges with said Amazon box all wrapped up and presents it to me! Inside is a teeny tiny parcel. At this point he got down on bended knee...and then quickly got back up again because of course he was joking, as if! Inside was one extremely fabulous present...

...inside was one shiny new ipod Nano, the most brandest new of them all that clips on and has a touch screen! In shiny green! And it's 16GB which means I'll never run out of music space ever again! OH MY GOD! Bestest present ever! And it's not even Christmas yet!! Wooooooop!

What a lucky girl I am!

Saturday 11 December 2010

Merry Friday

Friday was official put up the Christmas decorations at work day. I love this day each year as our team has the most awful, the most tacky, the most gaudy, and the most colourful decorations of all the teams. It generally looks like someone has barfed tinsel all over every available desk and shelf space. It's just fabulous! One of our most favourite things are the awful "dead birds" as we've aptly named them. I have no idea where they came from, who might have considered them in good taste in the first place in order to donate them, but each year they come out and scare the wits out of us! Last year I had a robin that took a nosedive onto my keyboard and attacked me with its pointy plastic beak, so this year I've switched to a slightly more tasteful (!) one, just look at those beautiful curly feathers and EVIL BEADY EYES:



Wavey and I went to see Fizz on the evening. Not at all because it was any kind of celebration that required cards and presents, no, simply because it was Friday. And in order to celebrate this we were going to make whooppee...no wait a minute, we were going to eat whoopies!



Which when we actually opened the box, we discovered that they were actually chocolate sandwiches. Which were sooooo sweet that they nearly made me barf. Wavey finished the other half of mine, simply because he has the sweetest tooth of anyone I've ever known. The whoopies even defeated Fizz and she doesn't defeat easily!



We decided to make the non-celebration a games night as haven't had one of those for ages. We started off with Scrabble, which when we play you score extra points if you can put in a rude word, see mine below:



If only Fizz had put her W in a different place, Wavey would have won out with his 3 available letters: A N K...

And so a happy Friday was had by all. The weekend is finally here after a very long and arduous week, which I was definitely glad to see the back of. Basically I'm now counting down till approximately half 12 on Tuesday when my interview will be over and normal life can resume once more. Amen to that!

Thursday 9 December 2010

Everyday minus 2

I was doing so well and then I missed a day, and another day. Arse. To make up for it I thought I'd show you a piece of artwork that I stumbled across whilst waiting for the bus:



I think it's very profound and I can totally see that the artist was trying to make a statement about it being a glass half full/empty time of year and the twig is making you think of backbone...or maybe it is simply what it is, sheer coincidence that some litter bug dropped his bottle right next to a twig on the snow. But that's the beautiful thing with art, it can be whatever you want it to be.

I promise to try harder and get back to my daily blogging. Probably with lots of images as I love the idea of Tizz enjoying the advent calendar blog. If only there was a way that a small door could be opened into the internet and you could extract your daily chocolate too...

Monday 6 December 2010

It's behind you...oh no it's not...

Yep you guessed it, panto week begins tonight. Please enter my version of hell. Millions of grotbag kids high on either performing if they're part of the panto, or from the fizzy sweets that their parents feed them while they watch. People dancing across stage, usually tap dancing, I'm still in recovery from last year's performance where there were literally tits and sequins flying around all over the place *shudder* Stroppy directors, stressed house managers, everyone freezing their asses off cos the theatre is like an icebox and outside is sub zero temperatures...can you feel my joy? Thank god it only lasts for one week (plus matinee!) each year and then it's over and we can return to normal service of depressing plays that our punters seem to love so much.

Oh did I mention that the panto is called Santa in Space? And there's a magic wardrobe that turns into a rocket ship that a small child pops out of and it spins round...I foresee a big pile of vomit inside as said child gets a wee bit overexcited, or the stage manager spins it too fast. It's. just. awful! Hideous! Save me!

Had to work a full day today, sheesh! I'm used to part time hours now, these full time days will be very tough.

I passed at the dentist, shiny teeth are me. When I told him about the magic mouthwash he didn't quite believe it was magic. Sheesh again! It's two colours that merge together to form this magic purple pink shade and you see the bits you've missed when you spit it out...too much? Oh well :))

Snow boots are super. But rubbed my heel and gave me a blister, boo! Having said that, the streets are now like an ice rink so perhaps some ice skates and a sparkley sequinned leotard with American Tan tights might be the way to go outfit wise...for some reason the notion of a furry muff (fnar fnar) just popped into my head there for completing the outfit...

Anyhoo time for dins now. I hope you're impressed with my daily blogging, I'm trying my bestest!

One more time for the cheap seats in the back - it's behind you...all together now: OH NO IT ISN'T...

Sunday 5 December 2010

Used to be a duck pond..



...now it's an ice cube. It's beginning to feel like the snow might never go away...

Saturday 4 December 2010

Snappy Saturday

Been a busy old day, starting off at theatre and ending up in a jolly good trip to town including sweeties, research and giant crackers! Sadly the trip to theatre was the final journey for my battered old painting jeans. The knees have been missing for quite some time but last week saw the first rip of the inner thigh and today it ripped practically all the way across. So farewell beloved jeans, you've seen a lot of projects and been well loved but you must now be relegated in favour of some new ones. But here's a couple of photos so you will be eternally immortalised on the blog:





My trip to town was great. I went in with the intention of buying the sweeties for the goodie drawer at work which opens on Monday, and to hit the public library as they have the largest selection of newspapers which I needed for one of my presentation slides. Both successfully achieved I also mooched around a Christmas craft market which really wasn't that great. But ended up in Boyes, that shop is just the best! Where else could you buy a giant Christmas cracker?! Doesn't the town look so festive:



Finally Wavey and I are enjoying our advent calendar. Not only is there a yummy cheap chocolate heart everyday but there's also a little excerpt on each day:



We're going to end the day with some takeaway, cos it's Saturday and it's allowed. And we're going to watch Jumper, which may be good may be crap, don't really mind either way!

Friday 3 December 2010

That Friday feeling

Despite all the public transport challenges, this week has been utterly ace! Truly I could get used to a life where you start work at 10am and leave at 2.30pm. Not only do you get a lazy start to the morning, you also get to wander round town when it's not the weekend. Take this morning for instance, instead of being a dutiful housewife (heehee) I sacked the washing up in favour of meeting G for a coffee before we started work at 10. A delicious cup of chai latte (have you ever tried that? So festive!) and a good old chin wag later we headed into work where we put in a couple of hours before it was lunchtime. Met up again for another chinwag over lunch, then back to it for 45 minutes before we headed homeward bound.

Weirdly though, I am clearly more dedicated to work than I thought possible as I experienced slight frustration today that we had to finish so early as my desk is pretty full. I guess if you actually do work part time then you must be given part time tasks otherwise how would you ever catch up with yourself? You'd be constantly chasing your tail round in a bid to complete one task before moving onto the other. It's even harder when you have full time work tasks to complete in reduced hours!

I did what I've done everyday this week which was head into town afterwards. It's actually been rather fortuitous that this snow week has happened in the run up to Christmas as I've been able to get a lot of my pressies without having to battle with the weekend crowds which is a huge relief. Those weekend crowds can be mean with their jostling elbows and giant toy carrier bags.

I got really excited as I finally found a party dress that I loved. And it was extremely bargainous considering how beautiful it was. I tried on the size 14 but it was a teeny bit too snug - no room for food=bad. So picked up the 16 without trying it on, came home and tried it on to show Wavey and it's too big! Booooo! Not just a little bit either but like so big that Wavey could practically get his arm down the back of it. That would be a little bit too much food methinks...tis a sad state of affairs but I think the search for the party dress is going to have to go the same way as the hunt for the boots; in other words accept that it just ain't gonna happen this year *sticks out pet lip in rather forlorn manner*

We've just had to do comedy washing. The outside pipes have frozen so if we didn't supervise the wash the utility room would get totally flooded. It couldn't be put off any longer though, two bin bags full of laundry and a potential pants emergency is never good! Wavey, ever resourceful, found a large tub for the water to drain into and has been doing the equivalent of watching paint dry by supervising the washing machine. Still there is always a silver lining - cooking away is a homemade broccoli quiche which we shall be enjoying with yummy winter herb potato wedges and sunflower seed bread, YUM!

Oh, did I mention that it was minus 11 today...there's no other way to say this: it was fucking freezing!

And finally, as I always like to sign off with a little bit of entertainment, this morning's spotted from the bus station was one girl teetering along in stilettos and a black dress with no coat...had to be the walk of shame...chuckle. Happy weekend lovelies!

Thursday 2 December 2010

Upstairs downstairs

I have a job interview on 14th December. For one of the proper jobs at work, an actual professional librarian post. As well as enduring the hell that is an interview, I also have to do a 10 minute presentation. To a panel of people. Yikey crikey crapola and a bit of EEEEK for good measure. I've never done a presentation. Actually that's not strictly true, I had to write one for my library school course but as I did it via distance learning I never actually had to stand up and do the talking thing. It's fair to say, that if I think about it for any longer than ooh about 10 seconds, I begin to completely and utterly crap myself!

I'm pretty pleased as I've actually made a start on it, prepared slides and everything. And I kind of know what I'm going to talk about but I need to get it finished and up and running so that I can stand in front of all my nearest and dearest and practice and practice until it becomes like some kind of second skin; this way when I'm in the interview I figure it'll all be plain sailing....HA! I actually kidded myself for a nanosecond there that would be true. I will be soooo nervous, truly madly deeply nervous. Just typing it there makes me get butterflies in my tummy, YIKES! CRIPES! *runs away to hide in the corner and rock back and forth like loony person*

And I have to do interview preparation as well, this is the big time! There's a really big part of me that is very excited at the thought of it. I'm thoroughly bored in my current role and would love the challenge and exciting new times. But there's also a teeny part of me that doesn't really want it. Cos it's like an actual proper job. Not just playing at being a librarian, but an actual real librarian, who would have to stand up in front of groups of people and deliver sessions on information skills and answer real research questions. Again with the cripes, yikes etc.

But that's not the only reason for the uncertainty. I'm a downstairs bod. And without being too braggy, frankly all the cool people live downstairs. This job would mean moving to be upstairs with the "upstairs" people, who have offices and don't freeze their asses off all winter like what we do. And I maybe shouldn't say this but they're not really cool...of course it's safe to say that if I did get this job they would deffo have one cool person in their team!

I'm not entirely sure what sort of chance I stand. I know I stand as good a chance as anybody, and I have got a lot of experience but often nerves can get the better of you in such situations. But you know what, I'm looking on the positive side, if I don't get it at least I can stay downstairs with my coolio peeps! Gotta find the sunny side, every time.

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Funky of foot (and head)

Not in a kind of funky foisty way but in an ooooh look at my new wellies kind of way:


I'm not normally a gal for pink, however desperate times call for desperate measures. I resorted to the outdoor shop in town (note to self, just go straight there next time) and they had a jumble of wellies in the corner. I grabbed my size, checked for fitting and ran to the counter to buy them before I could get knocked down by some other size 7 laydee who was in the same predicament as moi. Thus new wellies. Pink and brown stripes, Peter Storm no less, fancy schmancy. However, I have discovered that no matter how new your wellies are or how brilliant your walking boots are, slush is going to get through anything! I'm thinking snow boots may be in order...

So it's still snowing. Jeez! I don't mind, in fact, have just had a jolly good tramp round the garden with a look of glee on my face at the total fun-ness of it all. But it just ain't fun when you rely on public transport to get you places. And the great British spirit that they talk about so much is not really around when you spend ages waiting for a bus, then 3 come at once, and they're all full so you usually have to stand, and all you can hear all around you is people chuntering. Some old bid had the right idea today, sack waiting in the queue, I've got me a shopping trolley and I'm going to use it to barge through all these patient people as I have to get on this bus and back to my bovril, or whatever it is that old people do.

We've had three early closures from work too. Which is actually rather nice. I'm beginning to think that I could quite happily work part time hours, if only the pay were full time...starting late, finishing early, it's simply grand! Returning to the chuntering however, there were 2 boys being rather critical about the library closing down early, it's only cos they want to get home...erm yes you would be correct. As we do also have lives that we enjoy living. In my defence however, we really have no say so in when we go home, the big bosses decide and we go, oh okay then. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. More snow no doubt!

As a final point however, I would like to say, that it doesn't matter how much it snows, or how much the winds want to howl like they're from Siberia, nothing will stop me being my usual stylish self, as this photo of me sporting my new ear band thingie clearly demonstrates:


Monday 29 November 2010

Wet of foot

Shoe issues are nothing new to me. In fact, this past year I've chucked out so many pairs of shoes I've lost count. And what's been worse is that I haven't found any to replace them so my number has diminished considerably. This was all perfectly okay until the snow decided to fall in such a BIG way. The beloved purple suede boots are completely shot and really shouldn't be worn at all, much less in snow. The Oliver Twist style ones started leaking last year. My black bikers had to be re-soled and my cobbler man really wasn't confident that they'd be a success...my walking boots are fine when the snow is a certain height but today it would have been falling into them. Which left my wellies. Perfect thought I...until I came home today and there was leakage. Major leakage. Soggy of foot I trudged round town looking for a new pair. Except the shops have all sold out as it's snowed so hard. Bloomin' 'eck! What am I to do? Am I really reduced to having to put bin liners in boots like I had to at the festival last year? Noooooo!

Trust me I've looked for boots. I've looked for boots everywhere. And none that I like are to be found. I am in serious shoe crisis here people!! I've just checked the window and the sky has suddenly got very dark again. Methinks another snow blizzard is on its way. Which means even deeper snow tomorrow. Yikes! I shall simply have to brave my walking boots and let the snow fall down my socks.

On the plus side however, they closed us down at 1pm today so we got to come home early, yay! It was great, I decided that the bus station would be full of people trying to escape so I did a bit more Christmas shopping in the town first, picked up yet another funky pair of tights and one of those ear band things that I'm loving right now. Saw the most wicked hat for my niece that is bright pink and full of sequins, she's gonna love it! Couldn't not buy anything for her bruv so bought him a rather funky peaked stripy affair that he will rock too. All in all, not too bad a shopping trip. And I've just done a bit more online shopping so that my presents shall be both interesting and lovingly handmade by peeps who put their heart and soul into such things. Yet more yay!

Best go and stock up on some binliners too I suppose as I'm sure to need them in my footwear if this snow keeps up...oh goddess of footwear, please let me find some new boots and quick sharpish!


Sunday 28 November 2010

Snow the Teesside way



Says it all really...

Saturday 27 November 2010

Let it snow snow snow

We went to see Harry Potter this afternoon (oh! so! good!) and yes there was snow on the ground already. And as we headed in the snow was coming down fast. Skip forward two and a half hours later and this is what we came out to:





This is the view from our living room. The bushes look like ice buns - quality!


Had a tonne of lovely plans for tomorrow, we were heading to a craft market that was going to be full of lovely stuff. And then J and T and I were having a Darlo reunion on the afty and I was going to pop in to see Cat as well...but the snow has scuppered all the plans! That's what happens when peeps live far and wide. Boo! But to be honest, I don't really mind the snow at all. In fact Wavey and I have decided a lovely stroll in the snow, armed with cameras tomorrow will be just what we need, yay!

Wednesday 24 November 2010

Hair 'mare

What a surprise, I've decided to grow my hair back. I just can't do it, I can't have short hair. I can't do the waking up with it sticking up all over the place, the constant need for styling products, the washing every other day nonsense - seriously what's that all about!

It's not the first time I've been here. I'm forever growing my hair long long long, then I get bored and chop it off off off. But the growing back part always kills me. I have really thick hair that grows upwards and outwards before it starts to grow long. At the moment I'm really trying to get through it by being creative with kirby grips and making a real effort on every other day hair wash day. This is how it turned out today:



But sadly, most of the time, it actually looks like this:



Hair. Mare. Roll on this time next year when it will be back to a decent length!

Monday 22 November 2010

Catch me if you can

Wheeeee where is the time going? Flying by. I can't believe it's only a matter of weeks til Christmas. Especially as I've got so much to do and I haven't even started the majority of it...you know what? This is serious deja vu time. I'm sure I've blogged this very same paragraph every year at this time since back in the days of the Mocha Choca blog. You would think that would tell me something. Along the lines of Dizz, get thee more organized and start doing all this stuff in October instead of leaving it til December!

Anyways, catch up time. Wavey and I have been off from work since Friday last week and it's been utterly brilliant. We were Project Decorate Bedroom, but as we were total smarty pants and finished it yesterday we had all of today to enjoy free time. So the bedroom. It's been nearly a year since I've lived here now. And the plan has always been to decorate the bedroom. The before was green. All of it. Right up to the ceiling. With incredibly dark green heavy velvet curtains. And a crappy paper light that was ripped. Now it's still green. Well kind of. Overtly Olive if we're going to be precise. One wall is anyway. The others are Soft Almond (please paint people stop making up such poncy names for your paint!) and to go with that a rather lovely new paper lampshade that is circular just like the ceiling rose it hangs underneath. And lovely curtains. And sumptuous bedding. The whole things looks dead ace! We kept running up last night to have a look at it cos it's so blummin grown up! It felt a bit like sleeping in someone else's room last night but I think one night was all we needed to adjust. Yay! Next up is the kitchen, and then the study. But obviously these will be things that will wait until after Christmas now as we will be busy decorating the house in the tinsel-tat we love so much.

Today was fabby. We had all these plans, maybe we'd go to the cinema, maybe we'd go the aquarium that we've been planning to visit forever...or maybe we'll look outside at the NEVER ENDING FECKING RAIN and decide that staying in and dossing about is far better. So that's just what we did. We watched the end of season 2 of Mad Men and are now waiting with great anticipation for series 3. As long as we are good boys and girls as we asked Santa for this, pleeeeease Santa bring us it, we neeeeeeed it!

I never realised before how much tv programmes can really influence me. I should have known really as I was utterly addicted to Sex and the City. But since the marathon watching of seasons 1 and 2 of Mad Men I've found myself wearing much more girlie clothes to go to work in, and it's not just about looking girlie but I want to look sassy and voluptuous just like Joan. Not that I ever will look like that as she is way more curvy than me, but she is rather fabulous. But it's not just me. Wavey is totally into it too. So much so that we now have a cocktail hour. And if we smoked we'd be doing that constantly too. Cocktail hour is very fine indeed though. It all started with Singapore Slings. Of which we had two of. And turned completely demented. We decided that instead of sleeping in the spare room whilst the gloss dried it would be far better to camp out in the living room. Many hilarious moments later of two rather tipsy fools dragging the mattress around the curve of the staircase, we managed to straighten up enough to breathe again...calmly...until something else set us off. Perhaps red cocktails are dangerous...

The next one to try was the Gimlet. Very tasty. Very classy. Gin, lime, sugar, plenty of ice, deeeeelicous! Tonight we've gone all out and it's the turn of the Cosmopolitan. I don't know how long cocktail hour will go on for but we'll make sure we keep it alive until you come home for Christmas, Tizz. You too need the madness of the red cocktails! But in 3-5 days time we'll have an actual cocktail shaker. Which is a bit of a shame really as the sight of Wavey trying to cover the spout of a jug with his finger and it spurting up in his face is almost as funny as when he opened the soda water and it literally exploded all over him...

I'm sure there's loads more to tell you but my brain won't think beyond waiting for the yummy veggie lasagne that is cooking up in the oven right now. And that first sip of the Cosmo...the men may be mad but the cocktails sure ain't!

Sunday 14 November 2010

A list to Santa

It gets harder when people ask what you want for Christmas as you get older, cos I tend to pretty much buy what I want when I want it. My mam has been asking me for ages and in the end I just blurted out that I would like some Soap and Glory goodies as they are my most favourite and they smell really lovely and really, anything that makes you smell like a blueberry muffin is never a bad thing...then we added something else to the list last week, Mad Men series 3. We've only just started watching it but we're already completely and utterly hooked. It's just so damn glamorous! But often we do sharp intake of breaths at the 1960s attitudes, woman get in the kitchen and make my tea - harsh! I also think that Joan must be wearing some kind of major Spanx type knickers, cos who looks like that?!

Anyhoo, when it came to making the Santa list to Wavey, there is only one thing that I am absolutely certain that I want: a red wheelbarrow. I can already see me trundling up and down the garden with my shiny red wheelbarrow, heaps of muck and gravel and other garden type things that you use a wheelbarrow for. Of course, the first thing I will want to use it for is to sit in it whilst Wavey pushes me around the garden.

Wavey has asked me for a greenhouse heater. Even drew a diagram of the kind that he wants. Internally eeek-ing and thinking sheeeit where am I going to get that from, I am now after a little internetty search, confident that such a thing is possible. Yay! But sssshh don't tell him :)

And we think that we might buy a coffee machine together, for each other. So on Christmas Day, if we've been really good boys and girls, and Santa has seen this in his good girl/boy snow globe, what will be occurring in our house is 2 people high from too much caffeine shrieking up and down the garden in a wheelbarrow, and enjoying our Christmas lunch from inside the greenhouse cos it will be cosy and toasty warm...

Saturday 6 November 2010

Room with a view

It is truly fabulous to wake up on a weekend knowing you've got absolutely nothing to do. Especially when you open the curtains and see a gorgeous blue sky and the gorgeous Autumn colours of the trees:



Last night I was laid out on the floor in the living room chilling out (we've had a pretty crappy week) and I happened to look up and see this view:



To me it looks exactly like the kind of house I would draw as a kid. An upside down house obviously. So I took a photo to show you guys cos that's just the kind of thing I like to do.

Thursday 28 October 2010

Just your average walk to work...

Yesterday I was on a training course in London town, so my work very kindly put me up in an amazing hotel within walking distance from the course venue. I didn't realise that my walk to the course was going to be quite so pretty...

First up is leaving the hotel:



Next up was a sight very familiar to those of us who have BBC news, I almost squealed out loud when I saw this, just like the tv!



The steps leading to the park:



And the gorgeous colours of Autumn in St. James's Park:






Across Horse Guards Parade:



And The London Eye sneaking a peek:


More Autumn brights:


And finally my destination, The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining:


The course was inside a haunted library and the big oak door kept creaking open, definitely added to the atmosphere!

Two other things definitely worth a mention: thanks heaps to Tizz who came all the way into town to meet me for what turned out to be a 35 minute cup of coffee before I had to grab my train back. Love you loads Tizz and can't wait to see you in a couple of weeks!

Secondly, all the lovely photos above were actually taken on my shiny new Redberry as I left my camera at home. And I have to say that I am very impressed with the quality. This could well be the season of the visual posts...

Sunday 24 October 2010

Do we dare monkey with tradition?

Found out a couple of weeks ago that Wavey and I are going to be on our own for Christmas as my parentals are off to do their grandparent-ly duties and going to stay with my sis, husband, and grotbag nephew and niece. So we started thinking. Hmmmm, shall we think about some kind of alternative Christmas other than the traditional route?

I would certainly welcome the challenge, I do love to try out new foods and I heart to cook muchly. But! Last year we dared to break slightly away from tradition and the Delia-gods looked down on us and broke our boiler. What will happen if we move totally away from a Delia Christmas - I hardly dare contemplate it! Will we be cast out into some alternative non-Delia land where you're only ever allowed to cook non-traditional foods and your boiler will not only break but remain broken forever and we may just freeze to our sad hungry deaths...

But say we were to be brave. What could we do? At first we were thinking of Thai and Moroccan, which delicious in their own rights might not cut the mustard. Today we thought, hmmm how about Italian? I'll bet they have a LOT of courses! Wavey has often had to go to work in Italy and he was once taken out for a meal where they had 7 courses and each course had a different wine. I think I'd have trouble standing after that! But it's definitely a possibility. Being the librarian-y bod that I am I'm going to see if I can find a book, or at least some suggestions of what an Italian Christmas might involve. But if any of you readers have any other suggestions, or could help out with the Italian idea please shout up. I'm open to ideas.

But remember, don't tell Delia. Or we will surely be doomed...

Saturday 23 October 2010

Times is 'ard


Cat informed me yesterday that as a result of the spending cuts we are now living in austere times. Translated: you get a ladder in your tights, find a way to rock it cos we can't afford new ones...

Monday 18 October 2010

The gourmet (stuffing) thief

Last night we had a most yummy roast chicken dinner, all crispy skin sprinkled with herbs, mmmm-mmmm. We had quite a lot left over, enough to make me and Wavey butties for today. We even had 3 stuffing sausages left over, not just any stuffing but gourmet stuffing of roasted veg and apple and cider, sounds a bit weird but trust me it was mighty fine! I shredded the chicken and mushed up the stuffing and made the most deeeeelishus sandwich to have for lunch today.

As is the usual practice, I got to work, switched on my PC and emptied my lunch bag of my buttie and yoghurt and headed to the fridge in the staffroom, popped it on the top shelf and went about my day as usual. Just before lunch someone asked me what I had to eat today and I described in great detail exactly how tasty my sandwich was going to be...

...or would have been if some thieving scumbag hadn't stolen it! Yes you read that right. Some effer stole my frickin' sandwich!! I was utterly outraged and couldn't stop going round shouting that someone had stolen my sandwich. When I think about it now I must have seemed like a total loon but I was so angry that someone would do that! It's not like it was some pre-packaged bread thing that could have been bought by anyone, it was very obviously handmade and wrapped inside its clingfilm jacket...see even now I feel my blood boil at the very thought that someone had the bare faced cheek to go into the staffroom, have a root around in the fridge and decide that it was perfectly okay for them to eat someone else's food!!! RAH!

Everybody kept telling me I was having a Ross moment and I'd forgotten how funny that was until I just YouTube-d it a minute ago. And how apt that he should lose his Thanksgiving sandwich and I lost my roast dinner sandwich, almost identical!

There's a big part of me that cannot believe it actually happened. I had about 5 people check the entire contents of the fridge with me, plus the other fridge just to make sure I wasn't going completely bonkers. Turns out that someone else had their sandwich stolen a couple of weeks ago too. And despite being able to see the humour, I am pretty disturbed that I work with someone who clearly has some kind of issue over what is right and wrong...but that's a whole other blog.

For now, just enjoy the vision of me standing in the staffroom with my hands in the air yelling SOMEONE ATE MY SANDWICH!!!!! Then stomping off to my locker to get my purse to go and buy some cruddy sandwich instead of my much drooled over one. And then stomping through the entire staff area of the library shouting off my mouth about my stolen sandwich...this small event is now so infamous it has been assigned a name by my colleagues: SandwichGate - will the mystery ever be solved? Watch this space...

Sunday 17 October 2010

Pick'n'mix

Bit of a dip in and dip out kind of day yesterday. We started off in the garden doing something that I wasn't entirely happy about - lopping branches off trees. I love the trees. And I have issues about bits of them being chopped away, but I know it's for a good cause - the greenhouse placement! Plus, it's not like we're just chucking away what we chop off, we're going to use the leaves in the compost heap and the big branches are being chopped up for the fire and the slightly smaller branches will be chopped up for kindling, and the teeny tiny branches will be put through one of those whizzy chopper upper things and then sent for recycling at the tip. Good practical useage all round then!



Next up we decided to head to lovely Richmond town. We have a mission involving doors. Our house needs a new front door. We've currently got one of the UPVC jobbies that come with the double glazing, but we decided that it would be really cool to actually source a door that's right for the age of the house. It's an old cottage and it should have a big lovely wooden door that we reckon we'll be able to find in a salvage yard. This was the first of our trips and it was a bit of a fib really, cos it wasn't what I would call a salvage yard, it was more like a big shop. And it was billed as antiques and it was more a mixture of new crafty stuff with some old stuff thrown in for good measure. Bad advertising people! But it was certainly fun mooching around and I was this close *indicate tiny space between thumb and forefinger* to buying a gorgeous enamel pan that was absolutely immaculate inside, but was just too small for what I have in mind. Next time though as we have about 4 other places to try. I can't wait to see the lovely old wooden door that I can see in my imagination, just hope we find what we're looking for.

While we were there we went for some food in a brand new bistro that had just opened. It was a lovely little teeny place that was all warm and comfy seats and fancy plates and cups, but the food was yummy. I had the carrot and coriander soup that came with warm crusty bread and half a portion of twice cooked fries. That actually turned out to be big fat chips, and they really only tasted like they'd been cooked once, but they were yum so whose complaining. Wavey had some club sandwich that was 3 layers high and had bacon and chicken and egg and mustard, that was tasty too!

After there we had a little walk round the market square but when you've seen one market square in a North Yorkshire town you've seen 'em all. So we headed back to our homeland. And thought, ah sack it might as well go for coffee and cake on the way home. So we had one huge piece of coffee and walnut cake and one huge slice of chocolate caramel pie which is frankly some of the scrummiest pudding I've ever had then pretty much rolled home after such excessive food consumption.

Next up we decided we'd go to our local big DIY chain and pick up some paving slabs for the greenhouse. Conversation along the way of buff versus pink and pretty yellow...turned out buff was the all round winner as it was like half the price of pink and who really needs pink paving slabs anyway, not us!

Then we headed home once again and before we knew where time had gone it was 9pm and we were hungry again. A late supper of veggie sausage sandwiches with fried onion and mushrooms and waaaay too much ketchup due to spurty ketchup syndrome and some catch-up tv rounded off the day perfectly.

I heart weekends so. Too bad I had to ruin it today by volunteering to do some overtime at work. Work on Sunday? Not all it's cracked up to be...

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Hands that do dishes...

On a recent girlie shopping trip to Leeds with T, I found myself in a rather lovely shop who actually called themselves an apothecary - how olde fashioned is that! Inside said apothecary were many many lovely girlie things that were pretty and very pleasing to my girlie eye. A purchase of some kind was inevitable. Little did I know that said purchase would prove to be truly magic!

A little background is required now. I've found that since I began working in libraryland many moons ago I have terrible trouble with my hands. All those books and journals get dusty. And the building is generally either overheated or underheated with never a happy medium in between. Couple that with lots of manual work at theatre and the garden and cooking and my poor hands often start to shed skin. But not just in little ladylike bits. Oh no, entire clumps fall off and I look like some freakish snake, it's not nice. And sometimes it can hurt as the skin underneath is raw and if it gets cold...ouch. And it's usually along the edges of my fingers that do the most work. Are you feeling sorry for me yet?

As you can imagine I have tried many handcreams, some cheap, some relatively expensive. Turns out, my hands? Total snobs. They like expensive stuff! My purchase of the teeny tiny sample handcream has transformed me! At the time of purchase I was in big skin-shed mode (sorry if too much info!) and with the magic yet expensive handcream my hands are restored. In fact, they're really rather lovely. Cue a very happy Dizz. Horrible hands are not good for feeling like a laydee.

But oh no, the teeny tiny tube has been squeezed to within an inch of its life. Gone! Never fear, I shall buy some online thinks I. Except that every search is fruitless. The site exists. But they only ship within USA. I'll try another. Oh they only ship within the USA too. BOO! I don't live there! Help me help me super librarian skills. Hell I even considered asking some USA person to get it and ship it to me that way. But ah-ha! I wasn't let down. I finally found a UK stockists site and my order for my (eek!) expensive handcream is now on its way to me.

So I might be 30 squids down (again with the eek!) but I shall enjoy my lovely soft and smooth hands. And say a gracious thank you kindly to Lollia as I truly do heart you so.

Sunday 10 October 2010

10:10:10

Waste not Want not is definitely my philosophy on life. A happy day in the kitchen yesterday, leftover apples became spiced apple and walnut muffins:



Tomatoes that had seen better days roasted in the oven with olive oil dribbled over them, lashings of black pepper, garlic, rosemary and thyme, squish 'em all up and enjoy yummy roasted tomato sauce:



Which went really well with my crispy chicken and roasted veg, for a couscous and pitta bread supper:



Happy 10:10 day!

Saturday 9 October 2010

Date night rules

1. Decide the day before to have a date night, thus eliminating too much planning and organising.

2. Pick on the day the restaurant and movie you will be attending.

3. Select a very tasty restaurant indeedy called Starters where they basically serve, erm well starters. Enjoy super spicy food and ice cold beer. Oh and feel extremely adventurous for trying olives and actually enjoying them, yay!

4. The movie must be action, none of this romantic comedy nonsense. Shooting, car chases, bombs, po-lice, now you're talking. In this instance we went to see The Town, directed by and starring Ben Affleck. And very fine it was too. I'd highly recommend it.

5. Finally, perhaps this should be the most important rule of all. Ensure that you've checked what each is wearing before you meet up for the evening or you might find yourself looking like this:





Howard and Hilda eat your heart out, here comes Wavey and Dizz in identical striped shirts! Priceless!

Tuesday 5 October 2010

Entirely inappropriate

I got stuck in one of those moments today when you know that your mouth should stop opening and closing and forming words but you just can't stop yourself. Let me paint the picture for you.

I'm sat at my desk copying and pasting like my life depended on it when our big team boss comes out of her office shivering. To indicate how not cold it was I was sat, as usual, in a teeshirt. She comes over to me and starts chatting, oh how can you sit there like this, I'm so cold I've got three layers on and I'm utterly freezing. I politely shrugged my shoulders and said I'm just fine, warm enough thanks. But it couldn't just stop there. And to be fair, she at this point was entirely to blame. But (and she leans in a bit closer here) I've even got my thermal vest on...no she's not...please no...yes she is. She's actually pulling up her tops to show me her brown thermal vest! Yikes and cripes do not even begin to cover how I was feeling. Again it didn't stop, she started saying how awful it was because it was brown.

Which is when I step in and take over. Well, maybe you should get some black ones cos like black is a bit more foxy...oh dear. Yep, Dizz, you really did just begin a conversation about foxy under-attire to your big boss. Sheee-it. But don't stop there, might as well continue digging yourself into this totally inappropriate conversation pit:
Her: I think I must have thin blood
Me: Go on, you can tell me the truth, you're really a vampire aren't you...

I thanked the powers that be that she actually a) has a very good sense of humour, and b) knows that I am the cheeky one as she actually laughed and chuckled and agreed that possibly she was a vampire yes. But maybe a cup of coffee would do well to warm her up.

At which point we both nodded in a kind of sage manner as if we'd been having an entirely normal chat. Oh dear god Dizz! Stop your mouth girl!

Thus endeth the tale of the thermal vest/vampire saga of today. What will tomorrow bring?

Sunday 3 October 2010

New season. New do


Well I'd already chopped some of it off, might as well go the whole hog while you're at it! You like it? I am very happy with it. It's funky, it's cheeky and yet it's kind of chic as well. I was totally inspired by Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun picking an outfit out to live up to it. But it will be pretty in any other kind of colour but pink, cos I don't really do pink.

Autumn has well and truly taken off today. It's raining cats and dogs as we'd say round these parts. And it doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon. Might as well embrace it then. Had an utterly lazy day, got out of bed around 1pm, made delicious coffee and watched the rain fall, baked an Autumn Apple sponge cake which looks...okay I think. Baking isn't really my strong suit, I'm more of a main meal kind of person these days. Heading to my ma and pa any minute now to welcome them back from their hols, then back home in team for sausages beans and mash for tea, a quality choice!

Happy Sunday to you all x

Sunday 26 September 2010

The Autumn Project

Never a one to shy away from a tough task, Wavey decided that the greenhouse in the big big garden needed to be moved from where it currently lives (under a giant tree and not getting any light) to a new very sunny location. This way we can actually use it rather than say, hmmm, we have a greenhouse. But it's battered and therefore useless. As per usual we've been super busy but we decided that it would be our Autumn Project. Actually we have several projects planned for Autumn and they're either outdoor (said greenhouse) or indoor (painting our bedroom and the kitchen, and possibly building some shelves in the study for our growing library). Today was the start. Below you'll see a pic of said battered greenhouse.



Our only plan for today was to remove all the glazing and pile it up into: keep, discard, and keep for roof. I hadn't realised that Wavey had thought this task was going to be, in his words, a total bugger. Me, I was all excited as I can't wait to be able to grow from seed and get some really yummy veg for next year. We set to and within no time at all we were down to the bare frame:

Success!

I have no idea how long it will take us to actually complete, but it's always good to have a challenge.

I hope you all had a lovely summer. Our's seemed to utterly fly by and it really wasn't all that. Work is rubbish for both of us and it's just beyond dreary reading about other people's work woes. And we had Wavey's sis stay with us for 6 weeks (6!) which was often trying times. But as we approach the new season and head into brrrr shivery Winter I'm hoping for better times for all. And a promise to try and blog more!

See you soon!



Tuesday 7 September 2010

Outdoor pursuits

Last week it was T's birthday and she decided that what she really really wanted to do was to go to the outdoor activity centre where her hubby works, invite all of us and let us 'play' around on all the stuff. I don't know what's wrong with a nice meal and a few drinks, but hey, when it's someone's birthday they get to decide. Them's the rules and they must be obeyed.

The very idea of this whole thing filled me with absolute horror. The centre where G (the hubby) works was one where all children who grew up round where I did had to go when they were 9 and 10. Some of those kids absolutely loved it. But not me. I had the worst time ever. I was one of those kids who never went anywhere without my teddy so he came to camp with me. And someone thought it would be really funny to steal him away from me. I was utterly traumatised. I remember lots of tears and even more lots of wishing desperately that I could just go home to my mam and dad. By breakfast the next day I'd just got over one trauma and I had to endure another. We were heading out on this big walk so we had to eat all our breakfast and weren't allowed to leave the table until we had. Including sloppy slurpy grilled tomato which nearly made me sick. So grand experience for me there then...

Driving there on Sunday all was well until we reached the drive. As we headed down there I started feeling sick and my legs were shaking with fear. I kid you not. I was utterly crapping myself at the whole thing. I was so far out of my comfort zone that I needed a whole new zone. Standing at the bottom of the climbing wall watching everyone else just buzz up there, seemingly without fear...I was nearly crying with terror. I felt like such an idiot. But a determined one. Cos no matter how scared I was, I was bloody determined that I was going up that wall, even if I did fall off and make myself look like a total eejit. Luckily I have very understanding peeps, so when I begged that they all go away so that there was only me, and T&G, they were brilliant and left us to it.

And so it was. I was harnessed and roped. And facing the wall like it was a death squad wall! Deep breath, big gulp, approach wall. One foot off the ground. Two feet off the ground. Arms moving up. Feet moving up. I was there! I was on the wall! And I wasn't falling. I wasn't crying. I was actually...could it be...was this really enjoyment? Legs quaking like jelly, I proceeded my way up, with very supportive shouts and placement hints all my way up two thirds of the wall. I didn't quite get to the top like I'd wanted to. But I did it. And I was so proud of myself! Big beaming smile of pride. Here's a pic of me in action:




As I was brought down by G and touched ground I whooped with joy! T rushed over to give me a big hug and my pride literally (this sounds so cheesy) but it surged out of me in total joy! I never thought I'd do it, I couldn't believe I had done it. I was shaking like a leaf and my heart was pounding, but by golly she did it chaps!

From that point on there was no stopping me. Abseiling was next. LOVED it! Had to go twice in fact cos I liked it so much and actually stopped halfway down and asked how to bounce. Another action shot below:



There's another shot of me below doing archery too:



All in all it was a really great day. I texted T&G when I got home to thank them so much. Especially as they were so very kind to me, knowing how scared I was, they were really brilliant and helped me overcome all that fear. It's been a couple of days now and I know you shouldn't indulge too much, but I'm still so proud of myself. I'd packed into my bag, my book and a picnic blanket and secretly thought that all I'd be doing was watching from the ground whilst everyone got on with the fun stuff. It's good to surprise yourself sometimes...