Saturday, November 27, 2004

Today Has Been a Successful Day!

  • I have a hairdresser appointment
  • I proved there are no yellow starburst any more
  • I finished both my dresses for the Xmas parties
  • A man changed the electric meter
  • I am still in a good mood!

PTH and stuff since my last post

Since my last post (Memories) I have done a whole bunch of stuff, mostly involving getting drunk in a variety of places and then wishing I didn't at work the next day.
There has also been an announcement about our team, at last. To summarise: not much is changing. The only notable development is that I will be reporting via an extra person to my current "boss" who isn't really that much in charge of anything. I'm not hugely impressed with the time this took as I managed to create the same structure in about 5 minutes on Thursday, so two weeks above the first deadline is pretty pants.

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Memories

Today would have been my Nanna's birthday, if she were still with us. It has been just over 5 years since she died. I realised this fact yesterday, which seems so odd. It's not like it's been that long, I still vividly remember seeing her, the last time we did. I remember the fun things more though, because she was very sick when I last saw her.
She was an excellent Nanna. She used to be very good fun. I regret not talking to her more, even though she lived with us. I would have liked to know so much more that I didn't ask. I also regret never telling her I loved her. I know that she must have known, but it wasn't something that was done in our house then. I think we've all learned from that because we do tend to be a lot more open with one another.
You wouldn't think that five years on I would miss her so much.
I used to come home from school and make a cup of tea for us both, then go and sit with her and chat for a while, tell her about my day. We'd usually watch some rubbish telly before dinner...
Well anyway, I just wanted everyone to know how fantastic she was, and that I miss her. I'm sure she's watching over me somehow and that she knows these things too.
Nanna and Iky

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Judgement day comes... and goes

So, judgement was not passed. No information has been gleaned. We know nothing. It's pants really - we have no idea what we'll be doing in the next three months - heck, I don't think we know what we'll be doing in the next three weeks! I feel very much kept in the dark, although that does seem to be the way this team is managed. I am amazed that the whole rest of the business seems to have sorted out whom is what; but somehow our team has been left out of the process. Maybe they've decided to outsource the whole team to Sri-Lanka and they just haven't finalised who will be going over there to show them what we know? Maybe they're just putting off the inevitable that way. Who knows? I suppose that we can say we have jobs for now, but it could be as early as tomorrow when they come to us and say actually..
Anyway, I suppose I have to just keep my fingers crossed, and try to make myself feel better knowing that there is some vague hope of promotion somewhere in the mess that is the organisation (or not) of this team.

I did 25 continuous minutes of DDR last night; No breaks. On Saturday when I did it I had to have a break after every song. I do enjoy DDR (That's Dance-Dance-Revolution, now called Dancing Stage Party Mix and other variations). I particularly like the track called "End of the Century" which has 4 feet on level one. It also has some Kylie and Cardigans, among other things. It's pretty cool. You can put a calorie counter on it, which you set with your age and weight and stuff, although I don't remember when I last updated mine! Anyway, I burned 180kcal it claimed.

I'm not getting very far with my current book; The Mill on the Floss. There are claims that the Floss is based on the Trent, and that one of the towns in the book is based on my hometown of Gainsborough. I will continue to try to read it!

Friday, November 12, 2004

Dressmaking Frenzy!

So, I've bought the material for my dress for the "Xmas Dinner 1" at the racecourse. I'm making a full length dress in a gold colour. It's going to have a cowl neck and slits up the sides of the legs. Hopefully it will look good. I'm also making a shorter dress for the Department's Christmas party. I'm going to make it out of red velour (stretchy velvet) and I also have created my own design for that (inspired by a Nicole Kidman Oscars dress) I also have other things to organise for both of these events. I have false nails to get done. In the past I have had these done professionally or used "stick ons". I have also used a home-gel kit from Rio, which was quite good but not as hard-wearing as I need. I'm generally clumsy and my nails are always breaking. So I've bought an acrylic kit instead. It's only a basic one, it doesn't have perfect French nails or anything. However it's hopefully going to make nice (shortish) nails for me for these parties. I'm going to paint my nails either coffee or gold coloured, depending on which goes better with the dress. For the Department do I'll probably do them red (which I'll have to buy) and then get Dom to paint something simple on them in black or silver - or both! Or maybe buy some of the little nail art things you can get that you stick on.
Well, I'm sure you're all bored to death of my uninteresting blather here, so I'll stop.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Armistice Day

Today was Armistice Day. NOT Poppy Day, thank you dumbass breakfast presenter.
So, today at 11am I sat and thought about all the brave men and women who have fought for this country (and others) for freedom, or peace, or for what they believe in.
My main thought was that perhaps if more people sat and thought about this and less people were fighting then we wouldn't be in such a position. I dislike war. People shouldn't have to die to make something change.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Lack of excercise

Oh dear, this week has been a dead loss as far as excercising goes. It all began last Wednesday. Jimbobjo and I turned up at the badminton court, but alas there were none free. Once Dom arrived we decided to comiserate by going to the pub. Then, Tuesday I usually go for a swim. This was also thwarted by the pool being shut. They had a failiure in their emergency backup lights, or something. So no swimming there, although an hours worth of walking which has to count for something. Then last night we went again for badminton and again were thwarted. The courts were again busy. It looks like I may have to go on Monday next week with all the scary-people-I-don't-know-who-are-actuaries-and-are-competitive-about-badminton. Still, at least I'll get some excercise that way. I will have to put on a brave face while these people laugh at my flabby legs and useless technique.

Cyclists are the bane of my life

Okay, so that's probably a bit extreme, but they do annoy me rather a lot. Here in York it is quite cycle-friendly, there are lots of cycle paths and the like. I like this - I commend the people who are paid to do this for having done an okay job. However...
I walk home by the river - it's a nice walk, if it wasn't for the cyclists. They tear down the path (usually on their side, but not always) at a ridiculous speed, sometimes spraying mud in their wake, often without announcing their presence. Some of them have bells fitted on their bike. This is good, but ringing the bell will not always make pedestrains move, especially if the cyclist is on the FOOTpath.
GRR.
Then some of the cyclists are just ignorant. They don't seem to understand that if I am standing on the footpath (waiting for Dom) then I don't actually have to move if they want to go around me. But in order to cut off the corner, many cyclists seem to think that they have the right to go through me. Ra!
I had to move switftly out of the way of two cyclists last night who seemed determined to knock me over or at least run over my feet. If they were going at a sensible speed they wouldn't have to take such a wide line. Then there are the cyclists who blatantly don't understand the barriers by the bridge. The barriers don't actually overlap like they're supposed to, but they are nonetheless dismount barriers, designed to make cyclists dismount. This is so that they don't run people coming off the footbridge over. I didn't see any cyclists dismount there, even those going onto the bridge whizzed through!
It's dangerous.
Then, Dom and I walked to the swiming baths over the Stray. This is a big field out the back of my estate. There are anti-cyclist (and anti-cattle) gates on the Stray. However, as we stepped onto the slightly muddy grass we found that there was just a quagmire of cycle-tracks. How annoying! We came back a different way. Which also meant not treading in the vastly spread cow-pats which the cyclists cycle through!
Ra!
And then, after all that the Swimming baths were shut due to a fault in their emergency lighting!
Knightmare!
So we walked all that way, and I got cross, for nothing.
At least we didn't see any cows.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Blog blog blog blog

I tried posting a political blog a couple of days ago and it wouldn't go. I've taken this to mean that my bizarre political views, which often tend to the extreme, should not be posted on my blog - not at the moment anyway.
So, onto something more entertaining: What's coming up section of my blog! As you can see to the right of the screen there is now a "coming soon" section on my blog. If anyone can tell me how to implement and update this without having to change my template every time I'd appreciate it. Thank you!

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Britney!

Woo hoo! Britney's greatest hits. PLEEEEEASE someone buy me it for Xmas/birthday (hint hint)

Buffy Hallowe'en Photo

As I only had one photo left on my camera, I only got this one picture. Please can anyone else who took photos either mail me a CD with them on, give me a CD with them on, or lend me the photos to scan? Thanks.

The above is me as Evil Vampire Willow and Dom as Spike - in case you couldn't tell!

Saturday, November 06, 2004

A week

This week has certainly been one.
So, how's stuff with me? Well, aside of being dissapointed (but not surprised) byt the election over the pond...
My back/coccyx is much improved - I can sleep the whole night now, and sit on most surfaces (although wooden benches still a no-no)
I'm feeling very poor too, cash wise. But then, that's about normal for me. I've started doing a jigsaw puzzle, which is quite fun, although it's probably the most complicated puzzle in the world! It has 5 dalmation puppies with a background of flowers and grass. There are basically 4 pieces! Well, no, there are 500 pieces, but they all look the same. Still, I've completed it before and this time when it's done I'm going to frame it. That'll be good. And it's a really nice picture, and means I'll be able to move one of the buffy ones back upstairs hopefully. Not that I didlike Buffy and Willow - quite the contrary, but I do feel much fatter when they're hanging on the wall for Dom to drool over. I'm quite sure that he doesn't mean for me to feel bad when he likes these celebrities (in fact he's convinced I look like Alyson Hannigan anyway - see below) but I feel distinctly inadequate sometimes. Ok - so I like some celeb men too - But mostly he's better looking than they are anyway. I guess it probably works both ways because I think that he might feel like he should be more like Colin Firth (or whoever is current flavour) but...
So here's a nice pic of me, and one of Alyson Hannigan - what do you think?

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Bush/Kerry/Bush/Kerry/Bush/Kerry

who knows?It all looks reminiscent of 2000, with one obvious difference: Kerry and Edwardshaven't given upyet. And good on them too. I'm not convinced our system in the UK is any better,but at least hereall votes are counted! It's an interesting system, the seats thing. I think thata similar thinghappens in the UK, but different. We devide our voters into equal numbers, ish.I dunno! At leastone thing is clear, the Washington Redskins are not a good way of predictingpresidential elections- or are they? We may have to wait for 10 days to find out!
And then we don't because Kerry can do maths. Oh well - could be worse I'm sure (!?)
Congratulations to a nation who obviously don't care how they're viewed by the rest of the world, well done on re-electing a man intent on turning the whole world into a slave of America. Now I just have to hope that England won't be so stupid as to re-elect the man who so blindly follows...