Thursday 31 March 2011

Poorly sick apple

My laptop has to go away to magic laptop fixing land again. This time my itunes has gone completely weird, first of all it disappeared. It would certainly be fair to say that there was a meltdown at that point, I'd like to say it was minor but actually it was full on major, pouting and sulking and almost in tears properly upset as someone has STOLEN MY ITUNES! Then through some clever little librarian type research I found a possible fix which I attempted, and it kind of worked but then I tried to go to the store to spend my birthday voucher and the whole thing just closed down. Literally. It pretty much felt like the itunes store had just given me the two finger salute and said eff you at the same time. There were no tears, no pouting, no tantrum, just a big resigned sigh. I left it for a couple of days in case it was like its time of the month or something, but I've just tried it again tonight and it's done exactly the same thing. Right-o then, fine, I get the message, you want to go back to T&G's house.

And so that's where my laptop is going. For the whole weekend! Eeep! I won't be able to blog, unless Wavey kindly lets me borrow his brand new shiny work laptop with its big handbag carry thing, but to be honest as I've written the words Wavey and handbag together in the same sentence he probably won't let me borrow anything ever again, even if I ask really really nicely...

I am hoping that it will come back all magically fixed like it did last time. I'm very confident that G will be able to fix it all up as he is clearly brilliant. I'd go on about it more but I've already secured the fixing so I don't have to do any more butt kissing :O)

In other news, our greenhouse is poorly sick too. Galeforce winds of 77mph blew an entire blimmin' pane right out the back! A-fearing for my fledgling seedlings I insisted that we bring each and every seed tray inside and they're now all cosy in the utility room. There's 24 baby sweetcorn plants popping up that may well feed us and an army of 5000 this summer, they cannot be put at risk at this early stage!

There is good news on the horizon though. My most lovely Tizz is returning to the homeland next week and I absolutely can't wait to see her, I already feel the squealy hugs that we'll exchange at first sight of each other, yipppeeeee *jig of happiest joy*

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Window on the world (from the corner)

It's funny how habits can change. If you'd have told me a couple of years ago that watching real people live their lives on the television would be my favourite form of programme I would have laughed in your face. But over the past few months it's the way our viewing habits have gone. I think it all started with the gypsies and their crazy weddings. I mean, how can you not gape in complete and utter awe at someone describing their 14 stone wedding dress that lights up and actually requires its own fire extinguisher?! Or the little 8 year old enjoying her Holy Communion in a dress that had previously been worn by an animated princess, oh and you can actually hardly walk in it. It was absolutely unmissable! And if you did miss it, woe betide you or you'd never be able to have office corner gossip sessions ever again.

The past few weeks we've been watching The Model Agency. This is basically what it says on the tin, it's all about Premier model agency, and the crazy woman who runs it and all her bookers and the tears and tantrums. OMG it's awesome! Each week it comes round and we glue our asses to the sofa to see who will walk out this week, and who will shout and scream, and which model will be all grumpy and which one will be appearing in just their pants...there's only a couple of episodes left and I'm going to be pretty gutted when it's gone because what can possibly replace it?

We've also been watching Lily Allen go from Riches to Rags and following her and her sister through the trials and tribulations of, well, life in general really, but mainly their project to open a store where people can both buy and rent vintage clothes, a big mix of high end and low end, and have their hair done and probably drink some champers. It was the final one today and we've been rooting so much for Lily, cos she's just so fabby! I've always loved her music, and I especially admire her attitude and political comments regarding a certain party that may be blue (without naming names, Tory pigs, oh there you go, I named you anyway) and I really felt for them both. The sister relationship can be tricky at the best of times, I know I would be in utter despair trying to work with mine so mucho respect to them for trying and seeing it through. And it was so very sad when Lily lost her baby despite carrying him for six months and afterwards, the way she was so frank to the cameras, it was very moving...

And so there you have it. A little window into our world. Eeep imagine actually doing that...OMG people would never believe it was real!

Monday 28 March 2011

Bite you on the ass

It usually follows that a really really good day will then meet a bad day. Today was that day. Well no, not bad exactly, more frustrating, exceedingly so. As I mentioned yesterday I had a holiday day today and I had so many plans. First up I was going to really tackle the ironing pile. Three fill ups of water later and the bloody thing started leaking out of the switches and onto the electric flex. Hmmm thinks I, probably time to buy a new iron then.

I had plans to head into town for various reasons. First up was to check out what seemed like a really good deal in an opticians. I desperately need new glasses as my current pair are scratched beyond belief and the slightest smudge means instant can't see annoyance. I entered the shop only to find that no-one was really serving and also, sniff sniff, the place smelled kinda like poo. Hmmm thinks I, buying glasses from inside a sewer ain't such a good idea.

Next up was to the bank to see the mortgage peeps. I was sure that my current deal ended in April of this year so it was time to shop around for a new one. Was met by this lovely smiling woman who reassured me I'd come to exactly the right person...until she basically gave me a flat out N-O as I would be requiring a buy to let mortgage and they are only available for our premier customers. Which obviously I'm not or so she'd decided right on the spot. I could have been a premier customer! Wonder what gave me away...anyhoo feeling incredibly rejected like I'd committed some heinous crime as I had actually dared to rent out my house to someone and not be a premier customer, I left the bank hanging my head in shame.

I should have known at that point that it really wasn't the right time to go and look for jeans. Is there anyone out there who can go into a shop, pick up a pair of jeans and they be the exact right length/fit/shape? Seriously I need to know! Anyone? Hmmm thought not. It's awful buying jeans! I have me a rather sizeable arse and because of this I need a bigger size but the waist hangs off me. Well it would if anyone made jeans that fit the waist anymore. Don't get me wrong I'm all for the hipsters, but if your arse crack is on display in the changing room what hope does it have when you're crawling around on the floor checking out the bottom shelf in the library?! None at all peeps. Again, with the rejection. By this time I'm feeling thoroughly fed up.

And what better place to head to when you're fed up than Argos for a bit of quality iron shopping and a look at the ooh pretty shiny jewels. 5 minutes later I emerged with a quality iron and a ten tonne Spring/Summer catalogue. Everything fits right in Argos.

Back to the village and I posted the census from yesterday (nothing like a good making history moment) then went to the local charidees to check out the books. And actually came home empty handed! This has to be a first. Truly. But there just wasn't anything catching my eye. Rubbish!

The final part of my rejection day was when I headed down to the doctors to make an appointment only to meet the BIGGEST queue I have ever seen. No effin way was I waiting in that. Stupid doctors. Their appointment system sucks big style, but that's like a whole other moaning post so I'll leave that for another day.

Now I'm back at home. I've spoken to the mortgage people I currently um mortgage with and my current deal doesn't run out until October, doh! And they're more than happy to continue to grant me permission to let and I just need to call them 3 months before to discuss new rates etc. I've baked up some more yummy homemade cereal bar and I'm about to make some italian meatballs for dinner, followed by a rhubarb and blackberry crumble, yum! Just trying to turn my luck around...

Sunday 27 March 2011

A really rather busy day of doing

Good evening all. My calendar tells me that today is officially the day that British Summertime begins and in celebration of this Wavey is outside doing the man thing with fire, also known as the very first BBQ of the season, yay! In honour of this I've created some yummy burgers with onions, mushrooms, chili, mince, thrown in some soy sauce, some worcester sauce, some sweet chili sauce, and a drop of wholegrain mustard for good measure. With them and the cumberland sausage, plus the mini baked potatoes and salad we're in for a first day of summertime feast!

And it's been such a beautiful day. I've spent most of it outside in the garden in a vest top and have actual freckles on my shoulders to show for it. How can it be this warm in March? Are we to be punished later on in the year when it should be that warm? Nature is a funny old lady.

The day started with a dread feeling of really needing to go to the supermarket. But on a Sunday this is pretty much the equivalent of hell. It's full of families, seemingly with every single member which has to include the screaming baby and having a fit toddler - usually one to be avoided but needs must. Somehow I must have timed it to perfection as there was no waiting in a queue to get in the car park (yes this really does happen), there was hardly anyone in there, I didn't have to stand behind 3 people to get served, and I didn't go off list at all thus bringing in my weekly shop on target, yippee!

And so to the garden. I started off in the greenhouse that was absolutely deliciously hot! Like 27 degree hot. I think I'm going to get some deckchairs and pop them in there as it's kind of a poor man's conservatory. A gardener's paradise in my book though. It's so exciting to see that radishes are already popping their head up, and just from today two of the baby sweetcorn are showing growth! I spent a very pleasant half hour in there, hands deep in soil, sowing three different kinds of sunflowers and marigolds, and some cucumbers. From there I laid yet more pebbles in the secret garden and weeded it all too, fecking nettles and brambles are the bane of my life!! And they sting like buggery if I miss the rubbish bag, owwwwww. And finally I dug my veg patch ready for this season's plot. It looks super fabulous and the soil is just so blooming fabulous - I feel like I'm turning into Percy Thrower! I never thought I would wax lyrical about soil, but there you go, I just did.

Fizz popped round for an evening bench cuppa with the two doggies who are now bald. Well not entirely but they've been clipped into their summer coats and they look like little boys going back to school after a short back and sides cut. Funny. Plus it was pretty much comedy central watching Baz disappear down the decking every few seconds, he's so dopey.

Of course much of my day has also included refreshments on the bench, and I sat out there for a good half hour reading my book whilst Wavey was watching the first race of the Formula 1 season. All in all it's been a really lovely day. I'm feeling kinda tired now though and my body is already starting to protest at the big digging - a hot bath will solve that nicely. But you know what's the best of all? I've got one more day of the weekend as I'm off work tomorrow. I'm hoping for another gloriously sunny day - could we be that lucky...?

Friday 25 March 2011

Drool on shoes

Had the most fabulous day today on a girlie shopping trip with my mam and my big sis. It's probably the first time we've all been out together in what I thought was about 9 years but my mam says probably 10! This is not because we're incredibly bad at organising things, it's just that my sis lives in Preston and she has two young children who have very busy social lives, and then I have my life, my mam has her's...it's hard work all being available together! But as I said, today it happened. And it was so very lovely. My mam especially was very happy and spent much of the day with a big smile on her face, which pretty much deserves a great big awwwwwww from me!

We met up in Leeds which worked out about halfway for all of us. Leeds is great for many things, but the opening of the Liz Earle shop was reason enough for me. That and the chance to go back to Rose & Co. where I got my most favouritest hair flower. And there's a Harvey Nichols. Wowsers! As soon as we walked through the door I was like, oh Toto we're not in Kansas anymore...you can smell the wealth as you walk through the door, and that's just the people spritzing everyone with stinky perfume. The leather on the handbags that cost like 1000 pounds, yep 1000 pounds! Seriously, I wouldn't even dare leave the house with a bag that cost that much. But I bet there'd be plenty of room inside for my battered red purse that's held together with a hair bobble...

As we headed up to the food hall there were clothes on the rails that I've only ever read about in magazines: Dolce and Gabana, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen...it was awesome! And the shoes, OMG can that really be...yep that actually does say Jimmy Choo! An actual in the flesh, real live pair of Choo! I get a weekly email from Jimmy, he's kind like that :O) showing me all the latest styles and which heel height matches this season but I've never seen a real life pair. I touched them! I did, I went over and picked it up and gaped at the heel height and felt a wee bit disappointed that they weren't somehow padded on the inner sole cos how the heck do you walk in 6 inch heels like that and not feel pain? You think that all those starlets who wear them are actually in total agony? And SJP runs in her's, RUNS! Knowing my record for shoes, I'd walk out of the front step and the heel would snap off. What with that and the Louboutins and the Dolce Dolce Dolce, I was drooling. I immediately texted Wavey to tell him I'd touched some Choo! He laughingly told his colleague who told him to tell me to buy them...at which point Wavey nearly laughingly fell off his chair in amusement. Me in 300 quid shoes? Not likely matey!

On the same kind of shoe note but definitely nowhere near the same league, Urban Outfitters took my new world record, broken in 45 minute shoes back with great ease. Turns out that they'd be doing some kind of product recall on them as they're a load of rubbish and the heel falls of them all. Yay! I felt so relieved, I haven't turned into a shoe monster with an incredibly heavy footfall after all.

The day ended with a lovely lunch in a very posh restaurant where we sat surrounded by expensive looking people with the 1000 pound handbags and ate our sandwich that cost more than most pairs of shoes I buy with happy smiles on our faces. Fabby day, innit.

Monday 21 March 2011

First Day of Spring

The calendar in my kitchen tells me that Saturday was the first day of spring. It certainly felt like it - it was glorious! For the first time ever I was able to use my porch as I'd imagined. Beautiful morning, sun streaming in, me sitting on the bench in my wonderfully warm porch having a cuppa and reading my book. Bliss!

Then I took the dogs to the beach and they had a brilliant romp - in and out of the sea all the time, chasing seagulls, making new doggy friends and barking madly at three horses who had the cheek to encroach on their beach.

Yay to spring! Unlike Dizz and Wavey I don't have any spring flowers in my garden yet but I'm eagerly anticipating the bluebells in the planters by my front door and more warm sunny mornings in my lovely porch.

Sunday 20 March 2011

Silly nights and sunny days

Readers! Welcome, I hope you've all had grand weekends. Speaking personally I can say mine has been absolutely super! Well except for one blip with the volunteer thing but I don't want to dwell on that. Suffice to say that after a rotten afternoon I've decided that it's not the best way for me to build my CV and will be taking that time back and using it in different productive ways. Moving swiftly onwards.

Friday night saw me heading over to see D. What with me working full time, and D working full time it's hard to make time to meet up. But we persisted and finally found a date that was good for us both. We enjoyed yummy homemade carrot and coriander soup and then we switched on the X-box Kinect. And for the next few hours we basically laughed our asses off. If we weren't dancing to the Gaga (freestyle!) we were belting our lungs out with cheesy 80s power ballads (perfect pitch!) or ducking and diving our way down water rapids from side to side and fixing leaks with our hands and feet. As I posted recently I've only just discovered the joy of computer games but it's just so much fun! And so amazing - it truly is like magic! When the guy shouts freestyle and you hit the dancefloor wiggling your booty (me) or flashing your bra to the living room (D!) and then it plays it back to you...everytime, bending over double laughing was the only response. It was such a brilliant night. And it's hard to beat laughing and giggling like schoolgirls and having a brilliant night with your oldest friend.

Saturday was a gloriously sunny day. I went and had my hair done in the morning and my hairdresser put an all over dye on it this time too and it truly looks fabulous. It's so bright and gorgeous. I'd post a pic but I don't have one, how extremely remiss of me! Then I had the rotten afternoon which made me feel really rubbish. But luckily Wavey and I had made fun plans for the evening so the day wasn't a total loss.

Saturday night was date night! And we decided to go bowling. Bowling with booze is always best, somehow I bowl better with a pint of lager than I do if I just drink lemonade, hmmmmm. Wavey beat me both times of course but it's not all about the winning, it's about the hilarity that bowling always brings no matter who you're with, cos let's face it, most people are utterly rubbish at it, or is that just me...anyhoo after the bowling we hit the arcade games and we played basketball, some other ball game where we broke sweetie jars and whacked some funny looking creatures that basically looked like beavers (but as I was typing I thought that to say whacking beavers sounded kinda rude...then I went ahead and did it anyway), played a couple of rounds of pool and then Wavey played Time Crisis for the first time ever and enjoyed shooting at things with machine guns. A top night was had by all!

And hello Sunday. Somehow we ended up in effin B&Q again! What with that and my trip to the tip where we sat in a stupidly long queue watching people seriously fail at trailer parking, I think I've earned many brownie points as my dad would say. We've had an excellent day in the garden tidying up, raking more gravel, sowing all the seeds ready for the summer vegetables - this year we've gone for: radishes and coriander (which we can sow every 4-6 weeks, bonus), sweet peppers, demon red chili, sugar snap peas and baby courgettes. I've also got seeds for purple (!) carrots, pumpkin, and courgette and we're considering cucumber. There'll be tomatoes and strawberries and I want to give raspberries a go too, and definitely salad leaves, potatoes, onions, leeks...it's brilliant growing your own veg!

Now I'm just waiting for the roasted pheasant to finish cooking. I've never cooked this before, nor have I have eaten it before so it's a bit of trial thing here, but we came by these via Wavey's dad and we've got 2 more in the freezer - waste not want not is the motto so the first one is roasting up right now. It looks good. And it smells good. What it will taste like - well I'll let you know tomorrow, eh.

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Just your average Wednesday...

Today has been a very interesting day in the land of Dizz. I began my work day with a two and a half hour training course on Islamic Awareness. In this session I learned all about what makes a good Muslim, I ate some extremely delicious bhaji and pakora, I did a quiz to ensure I had been paying attention to the first half of the training session, some people tried on the hajib, and then we dispelled a few myths about Muslim Women. I had hoped there would be seconds of the yummy treats but sadly the lids had gone back on them as it was time to go. I did however get a goodie bag containing my very own copy of the Qu'ran...

The middle part of the day was your usual dull work work work stuff...

And then this evening I went to a kickboxing class. I've always wanted to try kickboxing but never been able to find a beginners class, until very recently. I was a bit worried when I first got there as it was basically a testosterone overload and I was feeling very out of place, but gradually more people showed up and some of them were laydeez like myself, phew. So for the next 50 minutes I stretched, jogged round the gym one way then changed direction, did press ups, crunches, kicks, punches, sparring, more kicking, more punching, put my hands inside extremely smelly boxing gloves and hand guards, and basically had a rather brilliant time! I absolutely loved it. Particularly when we were punching, I had a very specific face in mind, I'm sure some of you can imagine who (and no, it wasn't Wavey, never!). Summing up, it was totally knackerising but incredibly enjoyable! I definitely want to go back again, the only downside is that I can pay as I go for 3 sessions and then I have to join the club and it's rather expensive. Tomorrow I intend to find out if there's somewhere else I can do it as I definitely want to keep going, if nothing else all the stretching, press ups etc is a really good work out.

And now I'm laid out on the sofa wondering if I will actually be able to move tomorrow. I'm sure I've used every single muscle in my body. So should you see me tomorrow hobbling around looking pained, remind me how much I said I loved it!

Friday 11 March 2011

Junkies

Wavey and I have given up cake, biscuits, and chocolate for Lent because we are good boy and girl. It seemed like such a good plan, 6 weeks isn't really that long...is it? And it's timely as we are due to go on our next holiday in 14 weeks (SQUEAL!) in hot places where we'll be wearing shorts and stuff like that, so losing a bit of the chunk won't be such a bad thing.

However, it's only 3 days in and we're actually feeling kinda crappy. We're both incredibly tired and a bit headachey and one of us (not me) is really rather grumpy. It suddenly dawned on us today that we're junkies! We're cake and biscuit and chocolate junkies and now we've gone cold turkey, and as any true junkie knows (I've read a lot about this kind of thing...) it's pants! And also, oh my god, cos how much chocolate and cake and biscuit type treat did we actually eat?!

How long will it take before it's all gone out of our system? And once we've gone past the 6 weeks will we ever want to eat treats again? Erm, YES! But will we be able to? Nooooo, what if we permanently ruin ourselves of all yummy tasty delicious chocolatey goodness treats? Eeeeep!

So here we are. It's Friday night. It's 8.10 in the pm and we're both nearly asleep. Our loss of sugar is hitting us hard! Our rock'n'roll and debauched lifestyle is leaving us as I type. This giving up shit is hard.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Sunny Days

Dizz and Wavey are off in bonny Scotland, so I thought I might write a wee post while they're awa' haen a braw time o'd in Auld Reekie.

It's been a looooooong while since I posted. Things have not been so sunny in Fizz-land (Fizz-pa died after a nasty illness that lasted almost a year), but now the clouds are breaking up and there are bright spells and I feel the impulse to share.

Part of the reason for the better weather on planet Fizz is that I have a new job. Actually it's more like I've gone back to my old job, back to my roots. I am now a computer programmer again, after more than 10 years doing other things including teaching English, software training, authoring technical documents and even answering phones in a call centre. But programming is my comfort zone and I'm happy to be back.

Another reason for the sunny spells is Prozac. Yep, I'm not ashamed of it, sometimes you need a little help.

But the main reason I'm on the road to becoming my normal bubbly, Fizzy self is the determination on the part of my friends - you know who you are - to be there for me no matter how 'dark' I get. Thank you, thank you, thank you. *Virtual Hug*

That's enough of the soppy stuff. No you don't get an actual hug. I'm off to walk the dogs and get some fresh air.

Thursday 3 March 2011

Good and kind folk

This week saw the beginning of Fairtrade Fortnight and the beginning of The Big Brew. We started off small. I put the teabags, the coffee, the sugar, and the cookies out along with the collection box and just left peeps to be as generous (or not) as they chose. Then we brought in the big guns and I gave the honey to Baker T from which she made flapjacks and a honey Devonshire cake. By about 11am most of the flapjack had gone and there was about a third of the cake left over. We'd suggested 30p a slice as a donation. At the end of each day I lock the little collection box away in my drawer, and as it was feeling kinda heavy I tipped it out and added it all up. And in 2 days we had a whopping 22.00 in there! (my keyboard is set to US and the pound sign becomes something entirely different, don't ask)

I was actually quite overwhelmed. When I first mentioned it to people I did get some really nice emails but I also got quite a lot of silence and I was so touched that people obviously do care and that they were willing to make donations with each brew of the day. I know the cake had a lot to do with it, but who cares how or why the money ends up in the little collection box, as long as it does. I'm really excited to find out how much we raise by the end of it. Baker T will be making some more cakes next week so I'm hoping for another big chunk of change. I'm so pleased it's going well!

I also finally got around to contacting the hospice again regarding my volunteering. After an email from them I will now be helping out in their Charity Chic Boutique on a weekend! I'm so excited about this! For a start I buy loads of my clothes from charidees so what better place to find myself in. Plus, it's not just your average charidee, it's a "chic" shop that specialises in labels and so they can charge that little bit more. It's going to feel so good to be helping out like this. And who knows, hopefully it will lead to other opportunities.

Anyhoo, on a totally more shallow note, my dinner has FINALLY arrived in the shape of Wavey who comes bearing chips - oh happy days!