Thursday 31 May 2012

How does it work?

How come when I'm off work on a weekend I find it really hard to get motivated to do anything, yet when I'm off through the week on a day I'm supposed to be at work it's like I've had 3 shots of coffee and am buzzing around all over the place? How does that work? 

It's boiler-Thursday. At least we sincerely hope it is as we're now in day I've lost count of cold showers and having to scrounge baths from people where it all just feels a bit weird having a bath there even though I had countless baths there growing up. I REALLY need Boilerman to come today, and bring good tidings that yes he can fix it for me to have hot running water - oh the bliss. The appointment kindly states anytime between 8am and 4pm. Can you be more specific we ask nicely? Yes between 8am and 4pm. So I'm waiting. But I'm not sitting. No sir-ee. It's not even 10.30 yet and I've washed up by boiling the kettle twice for hot water, I've hoovered the downstairs of the house, I've had 2 rounds of breakfast (hungry!) and I'm about to start the ironing. Oh and I've done some tidying so the house looks immaculate - a rare sight! Busy bee is me. 

If I was at work, by this time of the morning, I'd be on my third cup of tea, I'd have read my emails and I'd be making a start on the daily tasks. It doesn't seem to feel quite as productive. So my question is, how does it work? I'm motivated at work, truly I am. I get jobs done. But they just don't seem to have the same satisfaction as rushing around the house tidying. Odd my friends, most odd. The good news is that all this tidying means we will have 4 whole days of Bank Holiday deeeee-lish-is-ness (why thank you Queenie ma'am, you truly rock) to kick back and enjoy our time off. I'd like to say that we'll be out in the garden but as it's pouring rain and has been since we got up garden time looks like it might not happen. Bummer. 

The weekend is upon us, friends. Rejoice, rejoice! 

Saturday 26 May 2012

How old, take 2

In complete contradiction to the previous post today has been all about acting like a big kid. I woke up totally starving and demanded breakfast. The sun, oh the sun, is finally here and it's been hot hot hot! From getting up this morning until we came in for tea tonight I have been outside all day long and really had to be dragged in the house to make some tea. I've got very mucky feet as have been walking around barefoot for most of the day. Finally we decided to paint another coat on the bathroom but it's absolutely boiling up there so I did the decorating in my vest and knickers, just like when you forgot your PE kit at school *chuckles*

And you know what's best of all? Like all true kids I don't have to whine and whinge about having a bath to get clean as our boiler is broken yet again and we have no hot water - result! I'm pretending I'm at a festival except that I don't have to sleep in a tent and can go to sleep in my bed. With my mucky feet. Champion. 

Saturday 19 May 2012

Definitely too old

I'm sat waiting for a text message to tell me where peeps are so that I can hit the town and go out for some drinkies to celebrate some forthcoming nuptials. It's 9.20pm. I did eventually get dressed, but I've still got my slippers on. There's quite a big part of me that is thinking sack this for a game of soldiers, put my feet up, and curl up on the sofa and refuse to go out. But I can't cos I said I would. It's been such a long time since I've been out in the town, mainly because no-one else I know goes out anymore. It's so expensive, it's often not exciting, in fact the last few times I have been out have been pretty pants. Can you sense that my expectations are not high? I feel old. When did getting glammed up and hitting the town become such a chore? With a feeling of dread I admit that maybe I've got past all that and moved on to the next phase. 

But what is the next phase? Is it dinner parties? God I hope not, I hate dinner parties. But where does that leave you? Visits to the cinema although out are hardly what I would call sociable as you don't really talk to the person you're out with except for the brief car journey there and back. I like a visit to a pub with some quality pub grub but those kind of good pubs are few and far between in towns, and trips out into the country mean someone has to drive. Sheesh. No-one ever said that hitting your 30s would make you question what a good night out means anymore! 

Is it official? Am I now old? 

Friday 18 May 2012

2 piece nightmare

After several weeks of procrastinating, walking past the rolled up old linoleum on the landing floor, and closing our eyes each time we went into the bathroom, we've finally made a start and have put the first few strokes of paint on the walls, ceiling, skirting boards. Is very exciting! Begone awful dark beige bathroom (including ceiling!) and begone rubbish patchy floor. Instead you will be replaced with lovely blue walls, white ceiling, and shiny gloss on all the woodwork. Oh and some very nice flooring too, once we make the full decision on which one we want. Phase 1 will be complete. Phase 2 involves tiles but that will come when we've saved up for them. 

To complete the fabulous looking bathroom also means searching for equally fabulous accessories. All I wanted was some nice bath mats to put next to the shower and the bath so that we don't splodge slippery wet foot prints all over the place. You'd think this would be an easy thing. Oh ho no fools, believe me it's not. Actually that's not strictly true, it probably is really easy if you like the whole 2 piece thing that means a bathmat and something to put round the base of your toilet. Quite why one needs something round the base of the toilet is completely beyond me and conjures up images of old lady bathrooms decorated in a tasteful peach with frilled curtains at the window and a frill or two on the shower curtain - barf! Safe to say that in this household, we don't want no 2 piece nonsense. We are not frilly folk. Yuck. Yack. Barf. And a bleurgh thrown in for good measure. 

It took about an hour. And searching on many different websites but I finally found something that we like, think are funky, of course will be put in the incorrect location despite what it may say, matchy-matching we also are not. There will be 2. But definitely not something that will go around the base of the toilet. I cannot say that enough times. Oh and whilst we're on the subject, charging £41 for something that gets wet splodgy feet all over it is fecking outrageous - robbing bar-stewards. 

Just the towels to look for now then....another nightmare cos they normally come in 4 or 5 pieces and include a teeny tiny towel for your Barbie cos there's no way that the flannel thingie will be in our bathroom. That and the mat round the toilet thingie are officially consigned to my room 101. Begone! 

Thursday 17 May 2012

Blackpool rock(s)

We went, we saw, we conquered! It really only took a day. Advice to anyone thinking of going: just take a day, and try and make it a sunny day or you truly will be out of your mind with the what the hell is this place type situation.

In the one day that we did Blackpool, we...

Started the day with a tram ride to take us to the Tower, which wasn't really that impressive and cost £10 to get in!
We went to the Winter Gardens cos it was free, and shelter away from the WINDY day:
We went to Madame Tussauds and ooh-ed and ahh-ed over how real everyone looked!

We ate icecream, played mini golf, and won some tat:


We went for yucky fish and chips in Harry Ramsdens. Seriously, never go there, barf. Very expensive and utter rubbish. 


I put my foot to the test and walked from the Tower to the casino which was well over a mile. It was worth the walk as we won £40! We cashed out when the going was good and have brought it home to put in our holiday cookie jar for our big holiday in September. 


Most of all though we embraced the cheese, cringed at the sights (and I don't mean the Tower, the Winter Gardens etc), and had a mighty fine time! Blackpool, it ain't all that bad...
...well, bad-ish!

Monday 14 May 2012

It's only bloomin' holiday time!

So we're on holiday but not in the traditional sense of being away somewhere. We're off for a week but we're not away for the full week. We are away from tomorrow for a few days, cos we never can resist going somewhere new, but not the full week. Summing up: holiday time, woooooo! 

1st official day today because everyone else is at work (evil laugh) and we're not. Here's just a bit of what we got up to:

Some quality bench time is always my priority. The sun shone in the sun trap of our garden and I enjoyed the pretty flowers:


It was so warm I got to expose my very white fractured footsie to the (garden) world:
Whilst Wavey was busy doing this:
I was busy doing a lot of this:
 And enjoying bluebell-ville:
We ended the day's activities by finding our most favourite jeans shop hadn't closed all its stores and celebrated by buying 2 pairs of jeans each and a new pair of shoe-sies for my footsies:
We love holidays the bestest, we do! 

Sunday 13 May 2012

Quittersville

I never considered myself someone who quits something, stops it because it's too hard, too complicated, too this, too that. I'm normally the total opposite and will keep at it even if it's not working and I'm not enjoying it simply so that I didn't appear to be someone who quits. But today I'm a quitter. And I know I've made the right decision. It's a worthy quit, if there is such a thing. 

The thing I'm quitting is my gardening course. When I took it on board I was really excited by it, I was going to learn so much and be able to put it into practice. I was harbouring dreams of what I might do instead of working in a libraryland that no longer inspires or challenges me and this course was going to help me. Turns out it didn't do much for me at all and therein lies the trouble. 

I'm 9 months into it and so far I've (very reluctantly) completed one booklet. Not even a whole module-worth. Just one measly question and answer booklet. I'm so uninspired to start the next module that is about soil. I'm not sure what I was expecting from the course. I did the research, I read what it was all about, and it really did sound like something I wanted to do. But when it arrived it's so...stiff. And old-fashioned with the paper booklets that just drone on and on in this oh so dull manner that is about as inspiring as watching paint dry. It's somehow not enough for me. It's not exciting to read, it's not inspiring to think how I can use this in my garden, it's just like me sitting down and seeing the words blah blah blah in front of my eyes, repeatedly, with a few teeny tiny photographs as a sidebar. Wow that sounds harsh. Am I so 21st century that I can't go back to the old ways of learning via pen and paper? Maybe so, my friends, maybe so. 

The lesson I've learned from this is that just because you love an activity doesn't mean you need to learn about the background to it or the reason why. Maybe it's okay to just love an activity, be good at it, hell be almost natural at it, and that's all it needs to be. Simples, as the meerkats would say. I love the garden, I love to plant things and watch them grow, and I love to enjoy the crops from our food growing. 

For me, turns out that's enough. Try explaining the science behind it and my eyes close, my brain shuts down, and it simply doesn't want to know. So yep I'm a quitter. But I'm admitting my mistake and feel big enough to say that it just wasn't for me. I'm going to struggle to write that letter but I think once I do, it will feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I won't come up to the study and feel guilty about the folder staring me in the face. There's something else out there for me that will make me want to stay - I just have to find it.    

Thursday 10 May 2012

Coffee for one

One of my favourite episodes of Sex and the City was when Carrie decided that she would be brave and go to a cafe, not take a book, not take a newspaper, not have the usual protection of dining alone, and just sit. Sit and watch the world go by. I think it was supposed to be a statement about how doing stuff that you would normally do in groups or with your partner was also okay to do alone. I used this mantra a lot when I was a singleton and was often found at the cinema on my own, reading a book in a coffee shop alone, even being really brave and eating lunch alone. This element of singleton life has quite comfortably transferred to couple-ton life and I still go to the cinema alone sometimes, still eat lunch alone, and definitely am often to be found in a coffee shop on my own. 

Just like this evening in fact. Due to the incident we shall call "fracture" I've been relying on other peeps to get me to and from work. My lovely pop has been driving me to work and Wavey has been picking me up from work. I get there really early as my dad picks me up early (how come I can't do this when I take myself? Good question) and I get picked up later as Wavey has to come from his work first. For all of the week I've been staying behind 5pm when everyone normally leaves, carrying on with my work and adding it all to my flexi sheet. But it's made me feel a wee bit grumpy. I am so an out of the door at 5pm leaving the work behind kinda gal. All this staying behind malarkey is very out of character for me. 

Today at lunchtime (alone in the staffroom) I was struck by an idea! Why not finish work early, take my very good book and myself to a coffee shop and while away the hour until Wavey came to pick me up. Genius! Why hadn't this occurred to me earlier in the week? Dur! And you know what? It was heaven. The place was totally deserted, I had the squidgy sofa all to myself, my latte was just on the right side of strong, and my book as previously mentioned is rather bloody good and has me hooked to get to the end. 

Maybe it sounds a bit twee but I think this kind of alone time is a precious thing to be enjoyed whenever you need it. I really needed to not be stuck in the office til way after 5, saying goodbye to everyone and feeling downcast that I was still there. No tv to be distracted by, the music was playing quietly in the background. It truly was the perfect atmosphere to curl up, elevate one's foot, and enjoy the quiet solitude that a good book and a great cup of coffee can bring.  

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Are you ever too old to be told off?

My pop is driving me to work this week (Wavey is the pick up boy) as I'm still hobbling henrietta due to the hairline fracture incident. The conversation went as such:

Pop: morning
Me: morning
Pop: have you at least got a pair of sensible shoes on?
Me: I don't own a sensible pair of shoes! 
Pop: ...and maybe that's why you broke your foot...

Feel that folks. That was my pop telling me off. Sheesh. 

Monday 7 May 2012

Notes on how not to be a tv presenter...

...as clearly I am so well qualified and an expert in this area. I kind of am though if you think about it. How much tv over the years have we all watched? Throughout all that tv watching we've seen good, we've seen brilliant, we've seen so-so, and we've seen hideously awful. And so I'm concluding that this makes me a good enough judge to make the following list:

1. Never pucker up your face and squeak "ohsocute" in a teeny tiny baby voice cos it's off-putting and kinda cringey for the viewer
2. Why all the drama? Did you originally go to acting school but didn't quite have the thing that you need to be a good actor and instead fell into presenting? If that is the case don't bring the drama to the programme, we just want the facts, not your dramatic take on it
3. When you're presenting programmes about wild animals in the wild the programme really isn't about you and your personality. Trust me when I say that people are tuning in for the really cool animals and not a presenter doing either number 1 or number 2 as above
4. Don't ham it up just cos your name is Hammond - nothing further to add
5. Don't tell us how to feel by putting your sad face and sad sack voice on. I'm not cold hearted, it is sad that the fox cubs died but I'll make that decision for myself thanks very much
6. Who carries an ipad round the streets of Manchester? Are you looking to get mugged?!
7. Foxes should never be called "sweetheart"
8. A bright orange jumper is maybe not the best thing to wear when trying to blend into the woods of Minnesota - the bears will be asking for sunglasses soon
9. Was the giant rucksack really necessary? The guy who is at one with the bears had nothing with him. Come on you can tell us, was it a teddy bear's picnic...?
10. I don't have a 10 but it seemed wrong to end on number 9...

For all of the above reasons my viewing of Planet Earth Live and Foxes in the City has been ruined. But I will persist viewing, mainly because I absolutely love love love elephants and will squeal ohsocute at the top of my voice in my own house forever and ever. Because I can and have no viewers to judge me. Ner ner ner.   

Thursday 3 May 2012

Fractured!

It's official, I'm not just a limpy gimpy, I have a gen-you-wine problem with my foot. After what was probably only about 5 minutes but felt like 5 years of thoroughly prodding, pressing, twisting, flexing, and more pressing does this hurt OH MY GOD *covers mouth with hand to avoid squealing out loud* examination, my doc has declared I have a hairline fracture of my metatarsal (not sure which one). 

Oucheroony. 

Prescription: rest, elevation, icepack, ibuprofen, boyfriend waiting on me hand and foot (it's what he said!) 

So here I am. Off work but not sick. But can't be at work as can hardly walk and definitely can't drive. Tis a weird one for sure. I am following prescription but am also pottering. Have done the washing up. And put two loads of washing on. Had lunch with my mam, drank many cups of tea, watched some tv, done some reading, checked my emails. Tis a hard life to be sure. 

Today, tomorrow, long holiday weekend ahead. I'm hoping that's all it takes to sort it out. Better than 6 weeks in plaster. 6 weeks! I can't stay out of the world loop for 6 weeks! What would I do?! Totally unthinkable. Plus I'm not sure I have any shoes that would go with plaster cast...