Monday 30 May 2011

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

It's another bank holiday bonanza, yeh-eh-ehhhhhh! And how have we celebrated this extra day off? Well by mostly sleeping. In the 3 days that we've been off we've slept nearly 12 hours every night which means a grand total of 36 hours sleeping over 72 hours, eeep! You reckon we have sleeping sickness? Nah I just think it's a combination of all of the events from last week, listed in no particular order:
  • attending a child's birthday party (admittedly only for 1 hour and a few extra minutes) which involved meeting a whole new side of the family and only a little eeep-y for l'il ole me...
  • not one but two parties (one of which I organised) to say farewell to my boss who has cracked up a stonking 29 years in libraryland, wowsers!
  • entertaining in-laws (do they count as in-laws if not married? That's surely a question for another post) and making them dinner after also playing all day entertaining at above parties
  • working til 1 in the am, yep you read that right, 1 in the AM. Not me of course, sheesh nothing in libraryland is that much of an emergency. But Wavey had some kind of car emergency situation and had to work til that time to try to fix Russia or something, and when it still wasn't fixed he had to get up at like half 5 to get to work for just after 6 to mend it. That my friends was a night of not much sleep for us both :( could explain the 12 hour sleeps since though...
  • experiencing Tesco on a Sunday - family BARGE!
  • experiencing B&Q on the same Sunday - couples BARGE!
  • taking giant curtains back to Dunelm - curtains BARGE!
  • Getting yet another pair of new glasses that are still taking time to adjust to. The Dizz ma reckons that I've had rubbish pair for years and am obviously just getting used to seeing SO FAR!
  • Mucho stress at work for us both (Russia broken - eeeep!) and managers leaving and having lots of work to pass down even though I'm like 4 grades lower...all in all, nuff said really: bonkers week!
But I think 36 hours of sleep shall stand us in good stead to face this week all belts and braces and happy joyous smiles as well, we go in holiday in 2 weeks time - WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!

Sunday 22 May 2011

21st October 2011

I've just found out this is Judgement Day, the world is going to end in 5 months. Shit man, if this is the case I fully intend to live the next 5 months in a state of drunken debauchery and sinful happenings...why didn't anyone tell me before now?!

In all seriousness though, the website that I looked at advised that we start to stock up on canned goods and bottled water, so best book a trip to Tesco before that day. Should we start building a shelter too do you think? Might be able to fit one under the stairs if we move the books. Then again we might need books too. However as Wavey has just pointed out, if the world is going to end why do we need water? And canned goods? Will they be for the "other side"...

Good job we're fitting in a holiday before the end of the world too, I'd hate to think I'd missed out on my jollies. Maybe I should squeeze in another one before then too. There is one positive thing out of all this, I knew that pension idea was a load of bollocks, no point saving for the next 5 months only for it all to go poof in a big ball of smoke, or whatever is going to happen. Shopping spree!

If anyone wants to join us in our shelter be sure to bring your own canned goods. I'm like Joey, Dizz doesn't share food!

Friday 20 May 2011

Crushed by my crush

When I was 16 I had to start wearing glasses full time. Like any other 16 year old this was a baaaaaad idea and so it was decided by my parentals that I was allowed to wear contact lenses and off to the opticians I went. To the lovely optician. Who to my 16 year old eyes was the most lovely thing ever. I would sit in the big old black chair and he'd say right I'm just going to check your eyes with this little light thing and you have to get kinda close to do that and every time I would get a fluttery stomach. It was lovely, a proper innocent 16 year old girlie crush.

Fast forward several years and due to a saga involving my most recent glasses purchase (trust me, so incredibly boring that I would never even begin to write about it on the blog) I headed back to the old opticians. With the 16 year old girlie crush ever present in my mind I stepped through the door and into...oh my goodness can it really be...where's all his hair gone...and what's with those watery eyes...eeep! eeep! eeep! My girlie crush was no longer crush-able. He had in fact aged muchly, which of course I expected, but (and I realise this is slightly bitchy) he has not aged very well at all. Oh deary me. Tis a sad, sorry tale. This is why going back is often not a good idea. In this case however, it actually was as they were so incredibly lovely to me and have given me masses of confidence that they will sort out my glasses problem. And I've made an appointment to go back and find out about contact lenses again! Well and truly stepping back in time. It's been a looooong time since I've had bare eyes out in public!

So there you go. Through the eyes of my 16 year old self optician man was cute and made my tummy flutter. Through the eyes of my 36 year old self this was so clearly not the case. Age is a beautiful thing...

Sunday 15 May 2011

Made in hoo-rah Henry land

Hooked!

But is it real?

Can it be possible that such people exist?



"Made in Chelsea" it's like nothing else on earth - AWESOME!

Thursday 12 May 2011

Just a few piccies from the week

There's been a lot of things this week that have made me think, ooh where's my camera. So instead of just thinking about it, I took some photos on my phone and am going to share with all of you. First up are my pretty flowers that I bought at the weekend:



Next up seems to me to sum up every lovely Spring day that we've been enjoying of late. I'm particularly impressed with the standard of the phone camera as this was taken from a moving train:



And last but not least, falling into the "and anything funky that we see as we walk around" category whilst in Ikea, we bought this little funky guy for the garden:



Happy Thursday, if you stand on your tippie toes you can just about see the weekend, yippee!

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Fa-il!

It's 12.34pm on a Wednesday afternoon, I'm not on holiday but I'm not at work. It's a free day off! There's been a huge power failure at work that initially affected the whole campus, they managed to get most of the buildings back up and running but the library is going to be down for most of the day probably. What to do with all the staff? Well first we had to go to a different building and we all sat around gossiping and laughing and drinking coffee which was a nice start to the day. Then the powers that be came over to tell us that basically we had to go home. I put my hand up and say though that I did volunteer to cover the front door to inform students, but I said I could do the first slot only otherwise I'd have to hang around in town all day. That slot had already gone...shame. So here I am. Sat at home. Blogging. It's awesome! There's nothing like a free day off.

But I've not been idle. I got a lift home which was rather ace and G collected some plants, taking her pick of sweetcorns, along with a Russian Giant sunflower, and some African Crackerjack marigolds. Then I washed up (oh proper shame, someone in the house and we hadn't washed up from the night before and we had smelly tuna so the whole house probably stinks of fish, groooooaaaannn *hangs head* my mother would be appalled) I've emptied some seriously full rubbish bins and put out the recycling, I've put some washing on, I plan on changing the bedding, and I might even consider ironing if I've got time, as I do have to head off to meet Wavey at Sunderland station for a trip to Ikea due to a serious shortage of wine glasses, and that my friends is a very serious business indeedy.

I could get into this. I wonder what it's like to work a 4 day week, like really, not just because of bank holidays and free days off. I can see it would deffo have its upside in that you could do all the jobs that you normally do on a weekend and then you'd have the whole weekend for fun stuff and playtime. But I wonder if they'd still make you do 5 days worth of work in the 4 days? I don't know how that kind of funny hours thing works, being a full time bod and pretty much always have been since I graduated first time round. See how my mind wanders?

Anyhoo, with that busy agenda I best step away from the blog and up to the bedroom to change the bedding. I fully intend to take full advantage of this free day (thank you power failure) so that we can play play play at the weekend, yippeee!

Thanks for stopping by folks :O)

Monday 2 May 2011

Absorbing like a sponge

This weekend in the bank holiday bonanza we've been absorbing things like a very absorbent sponge:

Books:

I finished the 5th in the Skulduggery Pleasant series, Derek Landy - genius! Oh so good books, cannot recommend enough if you've never come across them. Wavey started on one of my all time favourites by Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy. And I'm back for my second reading of the first of the Millennium series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I knew going in that I'd need to give myself a time when I could just read and read and read as this series is highly addictive. I'm about halfway through already, though haven't quite gone to the lengths Wavey did when he re-read them and have actually spoken to those around me...

The big screen in the corner:
  • We finished "Life" OMG total genius. Thanks so much to T&G for the recommendation and happy to pass on my own: funny, smart, sassy, highly likeable characters, sunny LA, heaps of fruit, what's not to love?!
  • We already knew that as soon as "Life" was done we'd be straight on to "Mad Men" series 4, have had it lined up for ages. 3 episodes in and we're right back there in cocktail hour, amazed yet again by how much they drink and smoke and readjusting to the oh so cringeworthy 1960s attitudes
  • Some mighty fine BBC drama in the shape of "Exile". From the cast I knew this was going to be very promising and it didn't fail. Jim Broadbent is always brilliant, John Simm - well he's been the Master in Dr Who, he is an extremely fine actor and I read somewhere the other day that all the other actors who are the same age as him are basically gutted as he gets all the parts they want. Nuff said really
  • Oh and speaking of the Doctor, how good was the 2nd ep of this series! I was mighty impressed by River Song spinning round and round and round and shooting up all them aliens, she's ace she is. But not as ace as the Pond of course
  • Hooked on the news, from crazy to bigger crazy. Friday was of course the wedding wedding wedding and today Bin Laden is dead, cuts to interviews from all the powers that be, do the usual noisy spit (phooo) at the sight of Cameron, shake head at Miliband's naive comment that this could be the end and sit back utterly flabberghasted at the sights of so many people chanting "USA USA.." outside the White House. Erm...

Vitamin D:

Well the sun has been shining all weekend and I checked Google and it says that's what we absorb from sunlight. I'm covered in freckles, Wavey still has a red nose, and my hair that was only coloured on Friday is actually starting to look blonde in places!

Music:
  • As I mentioned yesterday, bit of the Tel Wogan on Radio 2
  • Sara Cox on Radio 1
  • 6 Music as always, with everyone ranging from Jarvis Cocker to Lauren Laverne. Oh 6 Music you have a very special place in my heart
Paint fumes:

In anticipation of the next painting project I've painted 2 coats of Lemon Sorbet in the teeny downstairs bog to cover up the hideous stencilled ivy. Seriously? Stencilling? No no no no. I also went back to my upcycling and painted the rest of the laundry basket white. Just got to wait for it to dry and then I'll be ready to transform it for the next phase of its life (and we can finally stop using black bin liners for dirty clothes!)

Reckon that's about it really. It's been another super fine bank holiday bonanza and I'm rather upset that I have to go back to work tomorrow :( Still only another 3 weeks to go before it's the next bank holiday...

Sunday 1 May 2011

Pimp my plants/green of thumb

Safe to say the greenhouse has been a resounding success! Everything that I've put in there has gone completely bonkers and is now huge. The whole thing is just full of green sprouting things! And speaking of which, it's not a plant but here is my latest purchase - a wind up/solar powered radio. It's awesome! I started off listening to a bit of Terry Wogan but wasn't sure if the plants would like the easy listening smoooooooth that he was playing, so I switched to Sara Cox for some funkay choons. What with that and my deckchair I'm all ready to move in there.



Radish!



Russian Giant sunflowers. Just a small selection of the 7 that have taken...



And the sweetcorn farm. Perhaps planting all 50 of the seeds wasn't such a great idea...


And still the sun shines down on us. Yipppeee-dooo-dah!