Selling Out

I’ve been watching Extras. I'm not a big fan of Ricky Gervais, but I have quite enjoyed almost all of the bits that he’s not in.
This morning, however, I have realised something quite sad. Like Andy in Extras, I’ve sold out. I don’t believe in the integrity of the code I’m writing any more – in fact I know that most of it is nasty hacky code. I used to really enjoy making my code as efficient as possible. We’d compete to see who could make their program work and be legible in the shortest amount of lines (often with a lot of comments!)
It’s a sad thought that the efficiency of the code is almost never thought of. Everything is slapped in as a nasty hack. In a way it makes me glad that I am slowly moving towards management – at least that way someone else has the soul destroying task of putting nasty hacks into the code, I never need to know.

To Upgrade or not To Upgrade

I am faced with the chance to upgrade to Blogger Beta. There are probably some good things about this, and almost certainly some bad. I don’t know. One of the things which is an interesting side-effect of the new Blogger is that I will have to have a Google account. This would not be that bad – though I would still have to keep checking my Hotmail account as I have lots of important email that goes there and I bet it would take ages to fix that. So I might get no benefit to having my own Google account.
Of course, there is also the point that any of you non-beta users can no longer comment – though I don’t get many comments anyway, so that’s probably no issue.

I am also harbouring a desire to upgrade my PC to one which works. Leon is quite keen to have an Apple of some sort – especially as work have cut a deal to get us money off at Apple. I’m not sure – I’d quite like to get a nice shiny laptop and go wireless with our broadband. In an ideal world I would buy us each a laptop and then I wouldn’t get Leon’s email on my google homepage. Ho hum. This said, we’ll probably wait until after the Xmas madness and get our laptop/pc/Apple(s) at much reduced expense. Maybe. It also depends on how the savings go (which reminds me…)

Woo Hoo!

Yes indeed, yesterday we had cause for celebration! Leon has passed his driving test! He was very very happy about it and even picked me up from work last night. We promptly had problems with the one-way system, but he’s driving with even more confidence now that they’ve told him that he officially can! I’m really proud of him, especially that he didn’t give up (as I did). He still hasn’t stopped smiling, and has taken a big heap of cakes in to work as a celebration.

Anyway, this is my WELL DONE post for Leon.

School's Out

Last Thursday was the School Disco in aid of the Romanian House Building Project. I dressed myself up in my school uniform(1) and took Leon with me for a bit of a boogie. The band on was the Cosmic Spiders who were pretty good, although they played Robbie Williams songs, which I wasn't so sure about. When they started playing Love Shack we had to leave - I can't stand that song!
Anyway, it was a good laugh and was for a good cause. And that's a terrible picture!! So, that was good fun. The band did play some classics, including a bit of T-Rex. I was hoping for some Suzi Quattro too, but no.

(1)Okay, not my actual school uniform, there's no way I'd fit into that these days, and also I threw it away. I did wear my school tie, a white shirt and a short denim skirt...

Politics

Tony is going! Okay, not yet, but he is going. I wish I had the foggiest idea whether this is good or not, all I have is probably a media-fuelled view that he’s only out for his own glory. It brings me back to the question I had to ask myself only 18 months ago – what exactly are my political views? I know where I stand on most things, but despite being one of the few people (40%) in this country who bothers to go and vote (use it or lose it – women died to give me the right to vote…) I still don’t actually know which of the parties I am closest to. I have always had fairly strong views, though I never understood the whole right/left wing thing. So, today, I looked it up online. Sadly, all I could find on the three main parties’ homepages were ‘funny’ pictures of the current leader, and of the leader of the opposition. Lots of “they’re worse than us” type things but no real help for me. After much searching, however, I managed to find the election manifesto for the conservatives from 2005. I couldn’t open it to have a look at it though – could be the PCs at work don’t have the right stuff. Then I found Who Should You Vote For? so I went there. I think it’s a bit out of date there too, as all of the parties have changed or added to their policies, and also two have new leaders (and the other is to have a new leader soon) so… Still I did the quiz.

Who should I vote for? v2

Your expected outcome:

Unknown

Your actual outcome:

	Labour 1
Conservative -2
	Liberal Democrat 35
	UKIP 14
	Green 60

You should vote: Green

The Green Party, which is of course strong on environmental issues, takes a strong position on welfare issues, but was firmly against the war in Iraq. Other key concerns are cannabis, where the party takes a liberal line, and foxhunting, which unsurprisingly the Greens are firmly against. The Greens are also anti-Europe. So, there you go – I'm Green, apparently. The trouble is, the two parties I seem to share the most views with are not likely to get power. What I would prefer would be a way of saying "okay, I think that old people deserve free buses, but that's not the most important policy to me, I'm much more interested in the tax and employment policies and the parties' stances on unmarried couples." And then do the quiz. I suspect that my result would be different…

Please Note

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that my sister does not have debts from gambling or from illegal persuits, she bought a car which she has to have for her job.
Also, for those who visit my MySpace, she is not an alcoholic.
Just thought I'd make that clear.

Debt Free Wannabe

I thought I was debt free, I really did. I was, briefly. But then we bought a car. It all went a bit pear shaped! So, I'm getting myself a bit of a plan together to get back to being debt free. I spend too much, so I just need to cut back. I guess I'll have to try not to go out much over the next couple of months, while I try to save up some money for Christmas. Isn't that always a pull? I will invariably spend more than I can afford at Christmas, I usually do. I also have my sister's and mother's birthdays coming up over the next few months.
On the other hand, there are a lot of people in a lot more debt than me (my sister for example)
If only I had thought about being a bit more money savvy while I was at university. It shocked me that some banks are now offering over £3000 to new students – that's hardly a good idea! I know that the loan is a pittance, but it covers your accommodation and food, and if you need anything more then you can work, at least during your first and second years. (Even I did) They still will spend up until the max, and then some.


Are you a debt free wannabe? – try Money Saving Expert for forums, tips, advice and general money savings that you wouldn’t have thought possible.

If I had a hammer…

No, I don't need a hammer, Leon has at least three. But that's not the point I'm trying to make. Why spend life wishing you had a hammer? If you want a hammer then go get one! If you can't afford a hammer then you should save up for one. If having a hammer is a state of mind then you should find other people who also want a hammer. If having a hammer is so that you can be better at your job (eg if you’re a builder) then get the training you need to get a hammer!
Okay, this analogy is way out of hand.

You can be whatever you want to be. My parents told me this all the time. Though I do know that it may not be entirely true, that helped me to have faith in myself and to feel that I am worth it (a la L'Oreal) and so I want to pass on that message, because you’re worth it too. Never let yourself be told that you’re not worth it.

Here's a tale to help with my moral:
There were two girls who went to school together, but they were not friends. Lets call them Annie and Clarabelle (I loved Thomas the Tank Engine). One day, Annie came in to school, and she was not having a good day. Her mother had given her egg sandwiches, her good socks were in the wash so she was wearing nasty socks and she’d just failed her biology test. Clarabelle, on the other hand, always looked perfect. Her hair was always beautiful, her mother gave her fancy lunches and she wore tights, but she too had failed biology. As Annie sat in the cloakroom, wishing that her lunch didn't smell so badly she saw Clarabelle crying. Swallowing her envy, Annie sat beside Clarabelle. She asked her what was wrong. Clarabelle looked at Annie and sobbed some more. After a moment she wiped her eyes. "you're so lucky!" Clarabelle exclaimed. Annie was taken aback. Clarabelle continued, "You don't have to wear makeup to look pretty. You don't have to take your mum's tights because she won't buy you socks. You get real home made lunches." Annie was shocked. "but Clarabelle," she explained, "I have always wanted to be more like you, with your perfect hair and fancy lunch!" and Clarabelle giggled. Because Clarabelle’s fancy lunch was leftovers from dinner parties. She had always wished that her mother had spent the time making smelly egg sandwiches.
So, the moral here is that you may wish you were more like someone else, but the chances are that they are no happier than you. They may even look at you and wish they were more like you.

What is happiness?

Happiness is the feeling you get when you make someone else smile.

Remember When...

I've been on MySpace a bit recently.

My cousins are also on myspace, as are some of their friends. It's pretty cool to be able to catch up on what's happening in their lives.

The oldest of my cousins is the same age as my sister (21) and the rest are younger.

What is amazing is remembering the time in my life when the most important thing wasn't whether we could afford the mortgage or decorating the bathroom. The most important thing was so-and-so fancying such-and-such and thingy has fallen out with whosit because they both fancy doodah.

How important those things seemed then. I tend not to think back to when I was sixteen much. That's me on the right there at sixteen. I was pretty goofy at 16, all told. I only wore a little makeup, I had bad hair. I wore fairly trendy clothes, but because I was slim and the trend was towards baggy, I look - well like that ->

It's Funny, really. I remember spending some of my summer at Becca's house writing stories about these amazing girls (we reversed our initials to get the initials of the heroines!) who always pulled the boys they wanted and did other cool stuff. Sleepover talk was invariably about who fancied who and how far they'd been. Not that there was ever much to say there! Some of the girls who were my "friends" then were much cooler than me. I'm not sure what it was about me that made me not cool.
Probably that I worked a little bit but was also reasonably bright. Or maybe that I wasn't worried that I didn't have a pair of adidas trousers, trainers, coat... Maybe it was because I didn't know why I wasn't cool.
In part I believe that it was because I wasn't well off, and it was a pretty posh school.
Anyway, remembering how important all that stuff felt then has helped me to realise that in another eight years things which seem important now may not seem so. It's also made me remember that the way things feel is not always as they are - some of my peers thought I was really popular, when I thought that hardly anyone liked me.

I still have only the vaguest grip on what's actually important, silly little things often seem more important than they are. I often read too much into what people say. I still overreact - I bet I still will in 8 years.

I hope that I haven't become to jaded though. I learnt some things the hard way, things like some people are only out for what they can get or don't get drunk the night before an exam. I hope I don't expect the worst too often though.

Please

If you have a moment, please go to Cancer 2020 and add your name to the petition.

The IPod has landed...

It's pink It's shiny It's here It's updating It's charging It's MINE!

So it begins...

Yes, Leon left this morning and I will not see him again until Monday...
Okay, four days is not long, but I'm used to having him here.
On the other hand, he doesn't get to see his friends often, and there are those among their number that I don't get on with. I'm glad he'll get to see them. And, of course, the main reason he's down there is to see his parents and help them to settle in to their new house.

I have things to keep me busy this weekend too. I have to sort out my geneaology stuff which is in a big mess. I have to sand down one last bit of plaster in the bathroom, clean the windowsil and the floor of plaster dust, paint the windowsil, let that dry and then begin wallpapering. I have all of the equipment I need, including some degree of enthusiasm for doing it. I also have some good music to put on my CD Player. My only worry is that my IPod may arrive before I finish the bathroom (It was shipped yesterday) and in that case I am likely to spend too much time playing with my IPod and not enough time doing things in the bathroom.
As it is, I'm blogging over breakfast to try to ensure that I get something done today!

Whoops

So, I've corrected my faulty MySpace link, which should now actually point to my MySpace.

Thanks for spotting this - you know who you are, but your sig. other doesn't know your screen name! lol

Waiting Over

At last! My ‘promotion’ has been officially announced! So I am allowed to mention it elsewhere too! I’m happy with the situation at present, I have the additional responsibilities that I was looking for as well as the recognition of the work I have been doing. It will probably be extra work – in fact it will certainly be extra work from now on. However, I will have more opportunities in the future. I’m very excited about it anyway.

Pink!

As most people know, I love the colour pink. I like other colours too, my next favourite probably being red. Now, I have recently been investigating the possibility of buying an IPod Mini™. As they are no longer on general sale (Apple have stopped making them) I would have to buy either a refurbished or second hand one. There are two reasons that I have been after the mini rather than the nano:

1. The mini is just that, a mini version of the original. It looks good.
2. I would be worried about sitting on the nano and breaking it

So, you may ask, what has changed? Well, I’ll tell you; Apple have just recently launched a new IPod range. These are IPod Nano™ but they are in c o l o u r . Wow. The pink one (seen here as taken from the Apple page, all rights for the pic are theirs) looks fabulous, and none of the namby pamby baby pink, oh no, this is hot pink. Wicked! I am very tempted to buy one. So much so that I may consider forgoing my haircut (which is well overdue) to be able to afford one! Perhaps not the best plan. We’ll see.

How Cool

I recently read This Article on Computing website about the student bar at my old University. Sadly it's not the Undercroft at Harrow campus (the Computer Science campus!) but the Marylebone campus. Still, it's a cool system, which will no doubt result in my buying many more drinks when it gets rolled out nation wide!
That said, it might not be that easy if you need a special card to buy the drink with.

Hold me, hurt me, say you love me...

Sorry, Listening to Girls Aloud...
I have had a pretty good (if expensive) weekend.
We're back running again, though it didn't go well today. We've bought Leon some new trainers at great expense, but at least he's not going to be damaging his legs any more.

And I'm boogying to Girls Aloud and other random pop while also playing on myspace, doing some family tree stuff and generally messing about online.

Quizzical

I've set up a quiz all about me...

Have a go Here

Bathrooms and Boardrooms

So, we're continuing with the bathroom today. I put on some suitably hideous clothes for painting the skirting. Leon's taken over and he won't let me use another brush. Poo. So, again, I am relegated to not doing DIY. I make the tea. At least I'll get to do something as I have some time off later in the week to do some wallpaper hanging. Lovely.

Also, word has finally come through about the promotion I went for. It's not quite what I was after, but it is good enough for now. As it's not officially announced yet, I'll post more when it is.

Work Me Harder – Please!

We’re coming up to an important period at work, and as such we have a lot of critical code fixes. We’re being pressured from left and right to get more work done in one month than we ever have before. On top of this, a project that we’re doing some work for doesn’t seem to know when it’s delivering half of the stuff it should be delivering. Fortunately we have good people on the team, and though we will all have to work very hard over the next three weeks, we might have a chance of getting some, or even all, of the work in place on time. That said, as I have some holiday booked, I have approximately 10 working days (if I’m lucky; 7 if not) to change 10 programs, run them all twice (different time periods) and check that the changes have done what they should have. Some of the programs take 8 hours to run, one of them takes 24 hours to run. I’m not sure that this is possible.
I guess I’d better have a word with my manager and see what we can do.
Though I still find time to blog...

Who Do You Think You Are

There’s a new series of Who Do You Think You Are starting tonight on telly. I’m looking forward to watching it. Although I only managed to catch a couple of episodes from the earlier series, now that I am tracing my own family tree they seem a little more interesting. Of course, it will almost certainly mean that the record office is flooded with certificate requests and so I must remember to get the ones I want off tonight before the show!

I’ve been enjoying tracing my family tree, finding out what my ancestors did for a living, how and where they lived. Although my background hasn’t turned up any rich land owners, or even any middle class gentlemen, it’s great to see the lengths some of them went to for work, or that they lived next door to their siblings or parents! Can you imagine that?

I have also, I hope, helped out some other people online who have been looking for general information about Gainsborough. I have even managed to find a couple of distant cousins. There’s mystery and intrigue on one of the branches, and there are some enormous families – sometimes ten or more children! I’m looking forward to getting to the archives in Lincoln and seeing all of the information there too, in the actual script of the day.

It has also made me think about the things I am leaving for future generations of genealogists in my family. I wonder how they will put together the information on me. I’m registered born in a different year to my birth (for an obvious reason: the register office would be closed on December 31st) and I was born in a different town to where my first census appearance would be (Gainsborough) then, for the 2001 census I’m away at university. That will make some sense, when the searcher finds me. They will probably be entertained by my religion (Jedi) and they may even be able to visit the university halls I lived in (if they’re still there in 96 years’ time) perhaps they will be able to view the alumni lists for the university and deduce that I met Leon there. Who knows.

If I could travel back in time and talk to one of my ancestors, I think I would go back and see my great grandma (my mum’s dad’s mum) Isabella. I’d like to find out why she was in York for the birth, and why she lived in a caravan in Hull! I’d like to know who the father was, and why she gave up the baby only a month after he was born. Perhaps while I was there I could meet the people that adopted him.

Double Sarcasm

Would you call this double sarcasm:


"I love it when these packs are easy to open"


Actually, they aren't easy to open, so I don't love it.
Would you count this as double sarcasm, or just standard sarcasm?

Liverpool

The weekend at my sister's was good. We over-ate (as usual) and drank wine, watched telly and went shopping. Fantastic!
Highlight of the Ikea experience: I bought a garlic crusher
Pants part of the Ikea experience: they had run out of breakfasts, and hot chocolate.

We also went shopping in Liverpool which was exciting. We got chatted to by some drunks on the train, one of whom was from Knowlesley (near Liverpool) and had a hilarious Scouse accent. In fact, I spent most of the day trying not to laugh at people talking Scouse. Don't get me wrong, I love the accent, it's just funny too. The best bit was getting my sister to say "dirty Maccam" in a Scouse accent! Brilliant! I love accents of all shapes and sizes. Perhaps that's because I don't have a lot of an accent (except when I’m drunk) and Leon has a middle-England accent (BBC Newsreader style)
I've had much chance to hear both Geordie and Scouse (almost) through watching the Girls Aloud documentary which is being repeated on one of the "4" channels. Brilliant! It's really cool because they’re not quite as odd as some celebs – in fact they worry about their flab (!) and their outfits and hair just as much as anyone else (well...) which is nice.

I've also joined the My Space community. I'm to be found under the not-very pseudonym of hayzee_c. I've already discovered a random American band whom I might want to go see at Fibbers when they come. How cool is that!?! I did also get asked to be friends with an R&B/Soul/Rock group (I don't know how that works) but I didn't enjoy any of the four songs they had, and all of their single covers featured semi-naked ladies rather than the band. Not for me.
It's a cool idea though, although I haven’t really played with it much, so my site is pretty pants – for now.

Genetically speaking…

I’ve been doing some more of my family research recently. I’ve been chasing down some of the more elusive of my ancestors. I won’t go into detail about the issues I have encountered! I am a little irked, however. I have not yet found an ancestor from outside of the area I grew up in. Some of them come from the next town, which happens to be in the next county…
You see, Gainsborough is on the border of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. It’s also only a small distance away from South Yorkshire. That means that even though my findings seem to span three counties, I'm still pretty much 100% from the same place. I got quite excited when one of the family was born in Wales, only to find out that his family had moved there (from Retford, which is near to Gainsborough) for work, and then moved back to Gainsborough. Darn.
So, I have lots of generations back to the 1700s, but still not really straying from the general area. Still, I have some small problems in that I have bits of the tree which are difficult to trace, like the adoptions and illegitimate births.
I do enjoy getting the certificates in the post though, I ordered my Granny’s birth certificate and my great great grandfather’s marriage certificate to see which of the two girls called Fanny he married. Some of the things that you find out on the marriage certificate are amazing! I am preparing to order another one soon. This one will hopefully provide the break I need to track down my rather elusive great grandfather’s side of the family.
In between doing the bathroom, looking after our hamsters and visiting people!

On a lighter note (?) I’m off to Manchester tomorrow to see my friend Gemma who’s off to Oz soon. Then I’m spending the weekend with my sister in her new flat in Warrington. So we’ll not get much of the bathroom done!
Don’t worry though, we have planned for this with the hamsters! We’re cleaning them out tonight and we’ll top up their food and water before we go. We’re leaving them two water bottles and an extra bowl, though they’ll just hoard all of their food anyway! they should be fine then.

DIY Weekend

Now I feel like a proper grown-up! We've spent this weekend (and will spend several more) doing the bathroom. This is mainly because of the not-very-nice state the bathroom was in. The main issue was that the toilet was wonky and so had to be moved. It also turned out that the outside pipes were also on a kilter. Dad, Leon and some of the time Paul had a go at sorting out these problems. We also had to replace the flooring in the bathroom as the lino was cut around the toilet. I am not sure that I have helped all that much… Mum, Gayle and I went shopping while the boys did some of the DIY. We went into New Look, Little Betty’s and Lakeland. And we’ve spent a small fortune.

Air Water Fire

Last weekend Leon and I went to Elvington Air Show, sort of.
Because we’re stingy, and because one of Leon’s work colleagues lives near to the airbase (ish) we decided to go sit in a field and watch from there.
What we saw of the show was brilliant. Loud planes etc. I have no idea what all the planes were called. There was a big one with four engines, a smaller jet-like thing and some bi-planes among others. We had a little radio to listen in to air traffic control, which was excellent. We also had a kind of picnic, which was good too. Thermos of tea was an excellent choice!
My first complaint about the day was the cycle ride to Leon’s colleague’s house. We had to go down a busy road, which I didn’t like.
My second complaint was that the field we were in had cows in it. I don’t like cows. They followed us and stood near me.
Then it rained on us. The first time was okay, but the second time it was really heavy and was lightening and we were standing in a field with umbrellas. And my bike seat was then wet.
So we cycled back to Leon’s colleague’s to have a barbeque (!) and to dry off before cycling home.
I haven’t cycled much in the last 8-10 years – the last time I did any notable cycling was when I used to cycle to school during my GCSEs back in 1996-1998. I ached in places I didn’t know I had places.
That all said, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and would do it again, in slightly better weather if I have the choice!

Interview with a...

So, I had my interview for the job I sort of want.
You see, I find my current job not very challenging. I do way more than the minimum. However, though I want to do more and I want more responsibility and bigger challenges, I don’t want these things at the expense of my non-work-life. I don’t want to have so much on that I can’t do the things I like to outside of work. That said, I would like to be paid enough to do the things I want to do outside of work.
Anyway, there will probably be a post regarding my getting or not getting the job.

blurb

I want gadgets. I’m tired of not being able to afford stuff. I know that I don’t need the stuff that I want, which is why I haven’t bought it. Why did apple have to stop making the only nice Ipod? It’s really not on. I don’t like ebay. I wish I had the determination to continue running with no aim. I need to buy wallpaper or plaster for the bathroom. Leon still hasn’t taken the radiator off for me to get rid of that paper. I can’t walk around naked tonight as we have a guest for dinner. We got wine delieverd, and I signed for it in my dressing gown and pink fluffy slippers – the man commented on my nice slippers. I need a hug. I am wearing sexy boots. I have a job interview, but we’ll see how that goes. I like muffins but not when they’re dry. I have got used to tea without sugar. Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve this, sometimes I wonder what I did right. I’m roasting a pork joint, probably with honey mustard coating of some sort. Yum. Can I be bothered to work out tonight before I prepare dinner? Or should I do it in between? Do I have time to bathe? I have the most gorgeous shoes.

Been a While

Yes, I've not posted for a while.
This is mainly because I have been on holiday from work and so I have been busy doing other things.
I have mostly been stripping...

...the wallpaper from the bathroom walls.
It's actually been quite fun, although I ache a bit in places like my shoulders. We also got to use my parents' steam making gadget to remove the wallpaper, which was fun!
We've also been taming the hamsters, Aston has almost learnt to come out when I call his name. It helps if you have a "fruity bite" for him though! He also likes sunflower seeds, but he's not keen on the chocolate drops. He chews on my nails when I have used my almond nail oil, so I might buy some almonds...
We've also done some shopping. We've bought some bits for the car for when Leon passes his test. We've also bought a travel case for the hamsters (which has been useful for when cleaning them out when there's only one of us in).
The plan with the bathroom is as follows:

1. remove all wallpaper (almost done)
2. remove toilet
3. remove lino
4. move toilet pipes an inch towards the bath
5. fill in the big hole
6. paper the back wall
7. replace toilet
8. paper the remaining bare walls
9. (possibly) paint the paper
10. put up curtain rail, loo roll holder etc

It's going to take a while!

IF

If all the world were an apple pie
And all the seas were ink
And all the trees were bread and cheese
What would we do for drink?
(Author unknown)

Such a deep question for nursery rhymes!

You could probably read a great degree of questioning into this:

If all the world were an apple pie
(If America ruled the world)
And all the seas were ink
(The pollution we’re dumping into the oceans)
And all the trees were bread and cheese
(this is tougher – we’ve ruined our natural resources)
What would we do for drink?
(we’re killing ourselves!)

Ok, maybe not.

General Grump

As you may have gathered, I’m feeling less good about myself recently. It’s entirely my own fault; I should not have stopped running. I didn’t really enjoy it, and now that we have no aim, it seems we’re just not going. The thing is, I REALLY don’t like running, I feel silly, I know I look silly, it jars my bad knee (my only proper excuse) and it makes me hot and sweaty in a bad way. At least on the treadmill I’m looking silly in the privacy of my own home. Do other people not feel like this? Am I the only person in the world who thinks “I look like a right pillock” when running?
Perhaps it’s because of the way I think of sport in general. It always seems like a waste of effort. And I’ve always been like this. When I was about 5 I was put in the 50m race. I stood well back from the start with my arms folded and refused to run. They asked me why I wouldn’t run, and I said “I’m not going to win, so what’s the point?” and my relationship with sport has never improved. There is only one sport I have ever been able to do for fun and that is swimming. This is because I am pretty good over long distances, and also it’s a very soothing and calming activity.
It’s not like I haven’t done loads of different kinds of sport, but if I’m not at least reasonably competent at the sport, it seems pointless. Hockey I never liked, too much standing around in the cold, and I broke fingers doing that. Netball was also a bit of a nightmare, I broke fingers doing that too. Basketball was also the same story. I hated volleyball, I don’t do anything which involves throwing yourself on the floor. I was terrible at judo! Always getting knocked out or squashed. I have always had trouble with racquet sports because I can’t judge distances and can’t see without my specs. Tennis was at least fun! But you need someone of about the same level to play against when you play tennis, so that’s out. Cricket was okay, until I got my scar from being hit with a cricket bat (there’s an almost hilarious story) I didn’t like football because the other girls were no fun, and it made me really angry when other people got the ball. I probably would have liked it better if we’d been taught ball skills. I was never into running. I dropped a discus on my ankle and had lots of problems with shot put. Javelin was a nightmare, though we did nearly spear one of the PE staff! Long/high/triple jump might as well have been spectator sports. I regularly only got to do one because I sprained something.
So, my long and unhealthy relationship with sport goes on. I tried badminton and joining a gym up here. Neither have stuck – the badminton was so frustrating! I wouldn’t mind joining a gym again, provided I can get up the motivation to go – which may mean not stopping. What I mean by that is this:
If I go home, change into running kit and then go running I am much more motivated than if I go home and sit around and have a cup of tea. Knowing this, I will have to bother Leon about it. you see, he works later than I do and so I always have to wait for him if we are exercising together. We may be driving to a gym in the near future, in which case I will have to wait for him to get home. This will mean I have to remain motivated until he gets home. Or I have to stay at work longer, which given how apathetic I feel at present, probably will not happen.

Very much looking forward to our week off work! Even if we do end up trekking up and down the country!

A New Aim (or two)

Leon and I have an “important documents” folder where we keep all of our bank statements, wage slips, insurance documents and similar. This is excellent because we need to have this information. We get much less paper because we get our bank statements online only now, but we still seem to have reams of the stuff! So, I have added a new aim to my list: sort out our filing system so that it isn’t in one overfull folder.
I don’t know how I am going to do this yet. Leon and I are not really very tidy people. I get post from various places and it all gets dumped on the table until we have a massive clear out, then the cycle begins again. Then, when the folder is full we get rid of the bits from last year, and begin again, again.
I think that a system similar to the one my mum uses might work. She has a min filing cabinet, in which there is a drawer for “house” (ie mortgage and insurance) “car” (tax, insurance, mot, paper licences) “Children” (my and my sister’s student loan docs etc, til she passes them on to us) “bank” and “other”. The system works well for mum because she is good at that sort of thing, and is also quite tidy. I think that we need somewhere to keep the more permanent things (like paper driving licences, mortgage documents etc) and somewhere else for things like bills. A proper folio with dividers and he like would be useful there, but I don’t know how well that would work either! We already have a “house” file, which is an A4 file cram packed with house related stuff, copies of the contracts etc. I know we will not dare to get rid of any of that, so we’d better find a proper home for it all!

Oh, before I forget – I’m also trying to be nicer to everyone at work because some people seem to be scared of me. It seems to stem mostly from people not being able to tell when I am joking or being sarcastic. Also it seems I can seem quite angry some of the time. So I’ve been trying to be nicer. This endeavour includes: saying “hello” in a cheerful voice, regardless of how irritated I am with the world, smiling more, keeping an eye on people’s reactions and if they seem worried, smiling and letting them know that I’m joking or teasing or whatever.

Not feeling fit

I have to confess, I have only been running once since the race for life. This is mostly because of a variety of ailments on both my and Leon’s part – but my foot seems to be better now. I have, however, returned to my treadmill. As I am only about 12lb from my “goal weight” now, I should be doing toning as well as weight loss workouts. So, I have done two sessions where I have run on the treadmill on an elevation for 10mins and then gone on to do crunches/squats and other weight bearing exercises. Although 10 minutes doesn’t sound like long, I have been endeavouring to go faster on the treadmill than I do on the pavement. That said, it’s feeling like a bit of a cop-out. So, I find myself left with some choices to make. Either I join a gym again (where they can tell me what to do) or I start back up running again (so I at least feel better) or I up my regime myself (good for me!) or I do none of these and feel dissatisfied with myself. I wish we were nearer to a pool. I’m looking forward to when Leon can drive as then we can drive to a pool. It will not be any less grimy when we’re there, but we can at least go somewhere. Or I suppose we could go to a gym-based pool (less grimy). I feel we should support the local community pools and all, but I am a bit funny about swimming pools. (As well as other people’s plates, other people’s baths and similar) Anyway, this leaves me in the situation where I have to make the best of what I have for now, while I mull over whether I can afford a gym membership (which will have to include a gym membership for Leon too) and also whether I will go. It will probably be that I’ll have to make Leon drive to a gym once he can drive (they’re all a fair way away, except for the one at not-the-moat-house) I guess the point is that I need to be doing some exercise so I don’t get fatter instead of thinner. All I want is to be able to wear trendy shorts without looking like a horror. I don’t want to look like Victoria Beckham – too thin! However, I wouldn’t mind having legs that look good in a mini skirt. I’d like to be able to wear cropped t-shirts (and a bikini!) for my holiday in Florida next summer. In fact, I think that’s the problem I’m having. Last time I went to Florida was quite some time ago – I was 17 (I think) and had fabulous legs (if I do say so myself) and was a small size 10. I realise that I am not going to get back to that without becoming very ill. However, I’d like to be a more womanly version of that – surely that’s not too much to ask?

Hot bothered drunk

That was me on Friday night. Shocking, I know.
I know that we went to Varsity, which was busy. I tried to convince more people from our department to come to O'Neills, but that wasn’t entirely successful. After some time in O'Neills people left and the remaining people went to Orgasmic in search of the department. We didn’t find them, though we did find Nicola and Drew. Then we left (I may or may not had more to drink). 'The Black' kindly gave me a cup of tea to sober me up. He didn’t have milk so I had sugar instead. Then I left to go home. Then I bought chicken and chips. Yum. Although apparently I fed most of that to Leon coz I fell asleep on the sofa. Then Leon made me get back up and go to bed.

Heavy (the Answer)

There is still that word; "heavy". Why they are the heavy things therefore in happening? Are we a problem with the gravitational attraction of the earth?

is the translation from the Italian:
Ci è ancora quella parola; "pesante". Perchè sono le cose così pesanti in avvenire? È ci un problema con la attrazione gravitazionale della terra?

Which was translated from the following:
There's that word again; "heavy". Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull?

As said by Doc Brown in Back to the Future.

Post for people not interested in the Hamsters

The weather is really hot at the moment, so lots of people are wearing less clothes. This is sensible as it keeps one cool, however, for some reason people in England lose their sense of style and fashion when the sun comes out. Leggings and a tight vest are never acceptable, no matter what you think you look like! Really short shorts on boys – nope, it’s scary. Semi-naked fat men, your beer belly is not an asset! If you must wear socks and sandals, do it in a stylish way – statement socks, not the ones you wear to work normally that look like golfing socks. Football shorts – on boys perhaps, but girls, they do make your ar$e look huge.

Our Boys (again)

We have now begun the slow process of taming our boys. This involved spending quite a long time with one hand in their cage, waiting for them to come and investigate.
They did not seem to be at all traumatised by this, and pretty much ignored us. My guess is that the treats aren’t that great. Anyway, they didn’t seem too worried when we stroked them either. They are very fast though, so we’re going to have to be careful when we do start handling them!
I am slightly concerned that they don’t seem to have eaten (or indeed hoarded) much of their food. Though they are still quite tiny and so probably eat very little. I am also not sure whether or not they are drinking at all. Either way, we’ll be changing the water and food tonight. I aim to change the water every day, and to wash the food bowl quite regularly (depending on how much mess they make!
We’ve also ordered a new wheel for them. It’s a “silent” wheel, apparently. Who knows whether that’s true, but it is designed for Dwarf Hamsters and Mice.
I love all the little toys and things that you can get for hamsters! There are see-saws and swings, sleeping bags and camping sets (I kid not) as well as a variety of chewy things for them to gnaw on and useful things like houses to sleep in and bags of multi-coloured bedding. I don’t know whether hamsters can see colours or not, but I hope to keep the cage matching with its equipment!
I’m sure I will eventually shut up about our new boys, but probably not for a while.

Our New Babies

As promised, more about our new babies – a pair of male Dwarf Russian Hamsters.
They are so sweet! I could watch them for hours! So, we got them home and let them out of their little transit-box. They emerged together at first, but the water-bottle-clip was too loose and the white one got scared and hid in the box! The little black one scampered around the cage though, and it was decided that we would call him Aston, and that his brother would be called Martin. They seem to be too little for the wheel in their cage, so we took it out (they were getting quite cross, we thought) and instead put a little plastic house in there, a wooden strawberry and a kitchen-roll tube.
Martin has started to come out of his shell a little bit, and was being inquisitive about the tube when I went to bed. Aston is a bit of a climber, and had been climbing on and over all sorts of things in the cage! This, however, led to a bit of a mishap! When I came downstairs this morning I noticed that the water bottle was out of place – it would seem that Aston had climbed up on to the water bottle and it had fallen down into the cage. Lots of the cage litter was very damp, poor boys. So, I sneaked the top of the cage off and cleared out the wettest bits while trying not to disturb the poor lads. No doubt that some of it was still a little damp, but I think I got the worst of it. As it isn’t recommended that you disturb them too much in the first 48 hours, we were not going to clean them out this soon, but with the water-bottle issue we may have to! Bless. They have done various bits of burrowing, digging, hoarding and even a little bit of nesting in their new house. Hopefully they will tame easily and we’ll be able to clean them out often enough to make sure that they don't smell.
I'm very happy with our boys, they are so cute! Hopefully they will be the happiest pair of dwarf Russian Hamsters in the whole world!
Anyway, Leon and I are working on getting some photos of the baby boys as soon as they’re a little more tame (don’t want to scare them) so pictures to come!

Very Successful Weekend

The weekend was very successful!
On Friday night we went out for some drinks and Chinese to celebrate Helen getting older. That was an excellent laugh, and also excellent food.
On Saturday morning Gemma came over from Manchester. She has a new job in Sheffield, which is exciting! We had an entertaining lunch at Brigantes (which was surprisingly quiet despite the races). Then Gemma was kind enough to be the designated full-licence-holder for Leon. We drove our 'new' car to a nearby Tesco and put £20 of petrol in. While there we also bought a fantastic hamster cage (from Pets at Home) and some DIY Takeaway (from Tesco's Deli)
The driving was very successful – despite not being used to the new car Leon did very well, and was excellent on the roundabouts. (I hate roundabouts for my own reasons...). Leon spent the rest of the evening plying Gemma and myself with a little too much wine, but apparently we didn’t get as giggly as normal!
Gemma had to head off fairly early on Sunday morning to go meet her parents and buy a new car. So we walked up to the station with her and saw her off. Then Leon gave Tom-and-Helen a call to see if they fancied soming to buy some hamsters with us. So, with Helen as designated full-licence-holder we set off to Wyvale Garden Centre. What a fabulous place that is! I could have spent hours there, but we were there to select our new hamsters.
There were three little baby boy Russian dwarf hamsters, one was white with a grey stripe down his back, one was black and brown and one was ginger and white. I immediately wanted the black and brown one, as he was so cute! Leon liked the white one, so the poor ginger one got left in the shop. (If we’d have had space for three, I’d have taken them all!)
So, the lady boxed them up and we also selected a groovy little house and a new feeding bowl for the boys. More about them later.
So we drove home and sorted out he hamsters, then went on to cook one of the nicest joints of meat: a pork crackling joint. Yum! I have pork sandwiches for lunch today too.

Heavy

I tried putting a quote I enjoyed from a film I watched recently through the translation engine at Dictionary.com and then bringing it back to English. I chose Italian...
Can you guess the real quote and the film?

"There is still that word; "heavy". Why they are the heavy things therefore in happening? Are we a problem with the gravitational attraction of the earth?"

I might post the real quote and translation later...

To Be or Not To Be...

...is actually not the question. The question is:
Why do I complain about my job and then not apply for new ones?
The answer, I think, is rather multifaceted.

1. I am good at what I do (no matter what some people might imply) and I enjoy large parts of my work.
2. I doubt that things are better elsewhere
3. I'd have to meet a whole new bunch of people
   • They might not like me
   • I might not like them
4. The new office might have cubicles (this might be better…)
5. It might take more than 15 minutes to get to work in the morning

Okay, so a lot of those are rubbish reasons not to go and get myself a better paying, more enjoyable job. However, another constraint is that I would really rather like to stay in York. If I can not stay in York, there are a limited number of other cities I would be happy to inhabit. One of these is Cambridge. The obvious drawback of Cambridge (aside from the students, and frankly at least these are intelligent students) is that it is a bit close to Leon's parents. Now don't get me wrong – I like Leon's family. My Mum would be upset though. My sister lives much closer to her boyfriend's parents too. Ah, I know I must not let that stop me…
There's also the fact that Leon already has friends down there. I do not. At least coming to York we had the same disadvantage of not knowing anyone. This said, it seems I am okay at meeting new people, but Leon is shy.
Umm – Ah – Umm.
(That was me, umming and ahing.)
Well, so now that I have surmised that there is no real reason for me not to go for another job, we’re back to the original question.
Not wanting to leave York could be quite a hurdle though. We will have to see.

Running Feet

I haven’t been for a run since the Race For Life. That week was quite busy, and then Leon’s friends were here, then we were busy again, then we were in Gainsborough and now I have hurt my foot.
I don’t know what I have done to my foot, but I am considering the possibility that it is sore because I have not been running.
It feels a bit better today, so I guess I’ll try to go running tonight, if Leon feels up to it, at least.

Slug Update (2)

We’ve put down some slug pellets. Leon has found two dead slugs so far. Although this is not the most humane way of dealing with the slugs, it seems to be working as we have found no further slugs.
My Dad reckons that it’s something to do with the potatoes – I’ll let you know if we find slugs in the new home of the potatoes…

Good Luck Gayle

Gayle has started her first job today. I don’t think that she reads my blog, but

GOOD LUCK!

anyway.

Exciting Weekend!

Yes, this weekend has been action-packed and fun-filled! Well…
So, Friday night Bertie was about, so we went out for food and drinks and general merriment. Vastly entertaining. The restaurant we thought that Lint had booked were a bit confused and had gotten our party of eight mixed up with another party of ten! However, they moved a few people around (and one couple left without having desert!) to squeeze us in. it was all good.
Saturday morning, Leon and I got ourselves up, packed our stuff for a brief trip to Gainsborough and then headed off for the train.
Gainsborough now has a Subway Sandwiches, so we ate there (if you knew Gainsborough well, you’d forgive this sin!) and then headed off to explore the plethora of new shops now available. I bought four new tops for work (I’m wearing one now) and Leon bought some drill bits.
That evening Leon, my parents and I went to the evening part of a family wedding (Mum and Dad had already been to the day do) and had lots of drinks, a little bit of the buffet and a boogie.
Sunday, we had a nice cooked breakfast and then headed off back home. When we got home Leon called up about a few cars on the internet but we didn’t think we were going to have any joy. However, Mum and Dad had just left when a man called us back about an Escort. So, I got my parents to come back (requiring the expertise of my father) and we had a look at the car. They all had a drive around in it (they all being Dad and Leon) and then we decided to buy it! Woo! So we now own a car! Its MOT lasts until July next year and it had a couple of months worth of tax on it too. Leon’s going to insure it tonight! Of course he’s not officially allowed to drive it anywhere without "L" plates and a 3-year-qualified driver, so he may not get to drive it about much before his next driving test. This said, Gemma is due here this weekend and she’s been driving since she was 17. Also, we will probably need to go to Tesco (though we might not) so I might be able to convince her to be Leon’s chaperone to the petrol station there! Woo hoo!

Dressmaking Makes Me Happy

The first time I ever touched a sewing machine was when I was about 11. At my secondary school there was a rotation of four subjects: Cooking, Sewing, Woodwork and Computers (later to be called Home Economics, Textile Science, Craft Design Technology and Information Technology). We did roughly one term of each of these.
First up for 7R (my form, year 7, Raleigh house) was Woodwork. I really enjoyed that. I made a little car (okay, everyone made a little car…) and it had wheels everything. Great fun!
IT was next, given that I went on to do a degree in Artificial Intelligence (that’s programming, not robotics) then you’ll guess I liked IT.
Next term we did cooking. I didn’t enjoy cooking. I was rubbish at it too. My jam didn’t set, my pies were like rocks. Although my chocolate log was a success and the rum-truffles went down very well (real rum!) I barely scraped a C!
Finally we did Textiles. We had one of the scariest teachers in the world! (She did turn out to be quite nice when I hadn’t done some homework because my sister had been run over…) over three years of textiles classes, I made a wallet (which was a bit rubbish) a handbag (ditto) and a cushion. The cushion was pretty good; I only got rid of it recently!
After that, I pretty much didn’t bother with the whole sewing machine stuff. After university (about 9 years later) I hand-sewed a costume for Leon and myself for the Pub Treasure Hunt. Then, for my birthday that year, Leon’s parents bought me perhaps the most surprising gift I have ever received: a sewing machine. It’s been in its box quite a bit…
Still, since the arrival of the sewing machine, I have made three successful ball dresses, five captain scarlet costumes, and evil-vampire-willow corset, Moulin rouge outfit (and Flic/Jaq also used it) and six cushions. If we ever get a scanner, you'll be able to see these on my Flikr page. I’m thinking about setting up a page to showcase my designs on (since I don’t use patterns, I make my own) but that will probably have to wait until I have a digital camera.

Why am I the only one running?

Why am I the only one running?
Originally uploaded by Hayzee C.

As promised, here's a picture of me running in the race for life. Okay, I'm not going that fast, but at least I'm not walking like the two MUCH YOUNGER ladies also in the picture!
I'm actually complaining at the lack of cheering from Tom, Leon and my sister.
Every time I look at the pictures I am stunned how not dead I look.

Digital?

We got a digital decoder with hard drive for recording. The one we had yesterday did not work. It froze up and was not very useful at all. So we took it back.
In addition to this, although it seems that our aerial is capable of receiving the digital signal, it's flakey on some channels. So Leon insisted on getting a new aerial that could go in the loft.
He also has borrowed some steps to get to the loft with. (how worried am I now?)
His mates are still here (their steps) and are watching one of my DVDs. One I haven't watched yet, but I didn't want to join them because they were already two episodes into the series. I'm sure I'll get round to watching it some time.
I have had some interesting ideas about some clothes I might make. Leon's found a fabric supplier who might be useful.

Cupboard Update

I dragged all the stuff out of the cupboard the other night. I didn’t find any slugs or spiders. I did find a hole in the floor, for the electrics. No obvious cellar either. Everything is now back in the cupboard (mostly) and we’re going to buy some slug pellets to get rid of the slugs as we can’t find them. We have also discovered that we need something to put the potatoes and onions on. We keep them in the cupboard coz it’s dark, but it seems to be having an adverse effect on the floor in there.

Race For Life

I completed the Race for Life. Thank you to everyone who has sponsored me!

I managed to finish in about 40 mins. Lots of the people who got themselves into the “runners” group didn’t run very far before they stopped running and started walking. Some of the runners, though, ran round very quickly! I was somewhere in-between. I ran for the whole thing, which included running around people. It was quite satisfying to finish knowing that I ran all the way around and that I have raised a big wadge of cash for Cancer Research UK.

My sister came up to support me (Mum and Dad would have, but they had work commitments) and to laugh at me too. It has been very nice to see her again. She also drove me to the racecourse, which was fab!

Afterwards we all went for a celebratory curry. Excellent.

I think that I will continue running because it’s a way of keeping fit (it would be awful to go back to the slob state I was in before we started training when I couldn’t even run for a bus!) although I don’t expect that we will run quite as often! I’d like to keep doing the three miles, and I guess it will get easier if we keep doing it! it is only just over half-an-hour when running on the road and when not running with 5000 other women!

My last (and most important) thank you of the post has to go to Leon for his support over the past few months training for the race, and for his continued support in carrying on running and staying fit!

Oh - photos of me on the day to come once we've uploaded them.

Slug

We have a minor slug problem. This has been indicated in the following ways:

• the finding of slugs at various times, including the one Lint almost stood on 6 months ago, and the one I threw in the bin (that didn’t work)
• slug trails on Leon’s slippers
• Slug trails on my new cushions

As you can probably tell, the final point is "the straw that broke the camel’s back"
Now, because of the locations in which slugs have been found and the places trails have been seen, I think that the slugs are coming from our under-stairs cupboard. This is a mangy cupboard which we have piled full of crap.
So, we’re going to:

1. take all of the crap out of the cupboard
2. throw away some of the not-useful crap
3. find more sensible ways of storing the remaining crap than just piling it all in there
4. investigate the cupboard
   • For slugs
   • for a cellar (1)
   • for other nasties like spiders. (2)

If there’s a cellar Leon will probably want to investigate. I will probably not. If there is not a cellar then we will give the cupboard a clean and then put the crap back in, neatly in some kind of storage solution=ness. Fantastic.
As Leon’s playing badminton this evening, I may make a start on clearing the crap out of the cupboard. I do have some disposable not-latex plastic gloves suitable for "light cleaning". I normally use them for applying fake tan or for cleaning in the bathroom. (I don’t just use gloves; I also use cloths, cleaning products and water when cleaning the bathroom,)

(1) A neighbour of ours claimed that some houses on our street have cellars. We may just be being gullible, or if not, there may be a chance of a cellar, which would be exciting if not that practical. Apparently they’re only about 5ft ceilings.
(2) Might as well get rid while we can

More Race For Life Stuff

If you have been holding back on sponsoring me (!) because you don't want to choose between myself and other people you know, then no fear! The "team" I'm running with also have a donations page so click on in there and sponsor the team instead!

Those of you just not sponsoring me - sort it out!

Surprise!

So, this weekend we have been in Edinburgh for Jackie’s birthday celebrations. She didn’t know about it until she walked into her house to find us all there waiting for her! JB, her boyf, did an excellent job of keeping it secret and she really had no idea! It was a great night too, although we stayed up too late and drank too much.
We don’t make it up there often enough though. We should work on that.

Other notable news, the parents may be coming up to see me in the Race For Life, as is my sister. I don’t know whether they will stay long after, I’m going to see if Gayle wants to stick around, but I know Dad has to be back at work that evening. Some of the runners are planning to head on to have a curry afterwards to celebrate. Yey! I like curry. And I like celebrating.

Also, what sucks about the weekend just gone is how much weight I put back on! What a nightmare! I’ve been so good and lost so much. I’ve gone back up by three pounds! Hopefully when I am back on the porridge this will be rectified. (porridge is wonder food!) and also I will be drinking nothing this week until after the race. I think that most of the weekend’s gain is due to margaritas. I didn’t even have a single crisp (go me!) though I did eat three burgers. And three chicken strippers and two bits of pizza. (not all together, this is over the period from 6pm Saturday to 6pm Sunday) oh well. I also drank over a litre of margarita, one cup of tea, one and a half cans of diet coke and a bottle of water.
No wonder I’m really hungry right now!

This IS a Sofa

New sofa 1
Originally uploaded by leondumont.

The sofas did come...
Fantastic aren't they?
I made the cushions...

Weeks go by...

I have had a very nice two weeks. I had a week off work and then this week my boss has had a week off work. Things are a little more relaxed when he’s not around. I have worked really hard though, had lots on. The random project person I have been working with is very cheerful and positive. I have lots of cool stuff I could possibly be doing in the future; although I have no doubt that it will all be shot down as soon as my boss gets back!

We went to see Dylan Moran last night, which was pretty good. Leon and I remembered to turn up - always a bonus. We went to Fiesta Mexicana first, which was nice. I probably ate more than I should have. Then on to the theatre to see DM. he was funny, mostly. The general consensus seemed to be that he could have been funnier. We all liked the “What? Yes.” Joke. I liked the bit about cows too. He seems a little obsessed with cake and cages, and he definitely smokes too much. It was the fourth live comedian I’ve been to see (officially, unofficially I’ve seen 5) and he was better than the other three (the fourth was Matt Lucas who gate crashed the show with the other three in and outclassed them all.)

Race For Life is only 5 days away now. Tonight Leon and I are meant to be running our full 3 miles in one go. We almost did it on Wednesday, but I sort of lost my momentum when we had to walk down the steps. Then we will be going out again, including celebrating Iasonas newly found Actuarydom and eating some Thai food.

Tidy Up

I've been on a mini spring clean. If anyone can tell me how to make my archive list (on the left there) shorter, I'd like that. Anyway, I've removed the following from the "To Do" list because they've been done.

• make/buy cushions (carried over from 2005) [6/4]
• complete arty picture for Leon's brithday [1/1]
• buy some new slippers [1 pair/1 pair]
• pay off my overdraft [100% complete]
• read some new books [11+ read]
• get Leon to put up some picture hooks [9/many]

Not a sofa

Not a sofa
Originally uploaded by Hayzee C.

This, as you can see, is not a sofa.

Sadly it will not be a sofa until Tuesday.

On Tuesday it will be magically transformed into a sofa (or at least some people will bring some sofas and we can put away the camping chairs)

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Chocolate Fudge Brownies Originally uploaded by Hayzee C.

I made chocolate fudge brownies today. Yummy. I also made fudge yesterday. Check out the recipe page if you fancy having a go at these!

BBQ

We had a barbeque yesterday. Arguably it was the worst day of the week for it, as we had better weather on Monday, Tuesday and today... Oh well. We enjoyed it, although we didn't eat it all. I made salsa (see the recipe page) and potato salad (not on the recipe page) and buttered some bread. Leon did the manly MAN + FIRE + MEAT = FOOD bit of the event. He also drank beer, while I finished off a bottle of Pinot Grigio. (It was already half drunk from the picnic...) Yes - we also had a picnic. Didn't I mention it? Oh. Well, on Sunday in the nice weather we threw together some sandwiches and trekked about twenty minutes down the river to a meadow with horses in. Nice. We ate, drank wine and watched birds. Then we left. Leon's shoe rubbed his foot quite badly, so we did some barefoot walking, which was amazingly pleasant!

Legs Bums and Tums

Ok, this post should probably reside on my "diet" blog, but since that's not really up to date these days, it's going to be here.

I've had a go at my LBT DVD with Micah again today for the first time since we moved house! Anyway, I expected to be really knackered, but to my amazement I made it all the way through with only one outburst aimed at the TV! Brilliant!

So, I guess the running is helping in more ways than one. :)

Holiday Activities!

So, the man came and took away our sofa, and now we have to sit on the floor. Alternatively, we can sit in these stylish camping chairs.

We have also moved the bookshelf - as you can see. This is in preparation for the entire move around that we will complete before the sofas arrive. We're getting a bit worried now that we may be sofa-less for some time. :(

The movement of the bookshelf has left us with a prime place to put the dresser, but before we move that we have placed our degree certificates on the wall. I say "we" but Leon has done the whole hook-fixing stuff, I just managed the placing of the certificates. I did get the "thrips" out of Leon's frame. For non-Cambridgites, thrips are thunderflies.

We have also made our house safer... Leon has fitted the smoke alarm. So if we set the place alight, it will make a VERY loud noise. It will probably also do this whenever we cook until we get the new sofas as we have had to remove the kitchen door to get the old sofa out. I figured that it was probably as sensible to leave it off until after the new sofas arrive as they're probably not going to fit in through the front. I am not allowing the delivery men (or women) to be as brutal with my new sofas as the two guys were with the old sofa and chairs. They were cool guys. One was a fairly standard looking removal-man-with-beer-belly and his compatriot was a standard skinny-removal-man-with-hairy-chest. Fab.

Learnt something...

Today Leon asked me: "Does 'hers' have an apostrophe when something belongs to her?". I did not know. I asked the other members of my team. Opinion was divided. Leon looked up the "Apostrophe Protection Society" and discovered that, no, hers does not need an apostrophe (like ours or yours)

Run

Leon and I did our second full three miles yesterday. After the fly incident I was not confident, but we set off at a good pace. We whiled away the first set of five minutes by ranting about work. This is helpful to me because I get to rant, but also I get it out of my system and then have a pleasant evening. I spent much of the fourth 5 minute stint complaining, especially about how taking water with us results in sloshing noises which make me need the loo. During our fifth stint we were told by a local yob (he was sitting in a tree) “Nice A**” – though I don’t know if he was talking about Leon or me. In total we took 34 minutes to run the three miles. I think that’s faster than 5 miles an hour. However, we are walking for some of the time, and it is harder to run all the way around. Oh well, I have exactly 3 weeks to be able to run the whole way.

Things I’m looking forward to doing during my week off

Sleeping in I will not have to drag myself out of bed in time for work; I will be able to get up late. If the weather is nice, I’ll probably be getting up reasonably early to make the most of it though. Lazing around the house in my nightie I will not have to get dressed! It’s much more acceptable to be wearing a nightie in your own home than it would be to wear one to work. That said, I’ll have to get dressed on the day that Oxfam come to take away our old sofa. I’ll probably also have to get dressed on other days too, especially if I intend to do anything outside of my house. Making Fudge (and other food stuff) I intend to spend some of the time I have during my week off making fudge. I have a recipe I found online. If it is any good, I’ll post it on the recipe page. I might even add a picture. I will invariably also cook a complicated meal too. Shopping! Yes, I may not have much money for shopping, but I will still venture in to town and do some! I still have to get my nightie/pyjamas and dressing gown combo. I may also buy random toiletries and such. We still need frames for two of the artworks from Leon’s A-Level too (which are very good) Put up pictures I’ve convinced Leon to put up some picture hooks. Okay, so he hasn’t yet, but we are deciding where to put our pictures. Leon wants to put all of them in the second bedroom. We’ll see. Most of all, I think I will enjoy not sitting in a cold office in front of a computer wishing that I was sitting outside in the sun.

Flies are Evil

Insects are everywhere, which is bad enough. However, yesterday one of them had the audacity to fly into my eye. This was not only painful but also very irritating; as it completely threw me off pace in my jogging. Leon managed to retrieve the horrible little blighter (I hope it is dead) and we continued on briefly. However, my eye was very sore and runny by this point and I was cross (to say the least). My anger mounted when another (possibly related) fly flew into my other eye. I managed to fish this one out before it began to sting too much, but the damage was now done. I could not see properly and was incredibly annoyed with the insect population. We walked home and I rinsed my eyes with cold water (which also stung, but made me feel better, knowing I no longer had fly-based-dirt in my eyes)

New Page!

I’ve added another blog to my collection of blogs. This one is a recipe blog.
So far there is only one recipe – with a picture though! I hope that I will be able to add more exciting recipes as time goes on. I will put my recipe for teacakes on here too, when I finally learn it.

Calming Influence

As I have mentioned more than once, I have been going jogging quite regularly. This is an excellent cardiovascular exercise, although it is a little hard on the joints! I have been trying to do some strength training as well as the jogging, but I have been finding it difficult, especially to do on the same day as a run.
As you know, last weekend we tidied the lounge. There is floor space. There is, in fact, enough floor space for one of our camping roll-mats. Another use for such a mat is to do yoga. So, I dug out my yoga DVD while Leon was out driving on Monday night. It takes about an hour, including the warm-up and warm-down. It was quite pleasant, and more challenging than I expected, but not so challenging that I couldn’t finish it.
Last night Leon wanted to do weights and I didn’t fancy going out in the cold and windy nastiness that was the weather (okay, it could have been worse…) so I decided to do another hour of yoga instead. This was an excellent plan, with only one minor flaw. The minor flaw was that during the “relaxation and cool down” where you should be almost meditating, Leon had finished his weights and came downstairs and proceeded to make more noise than your average brass band, in the kitchen. Very distracting. Otherwise, it was a very pleasant, but again taxing, hour. I ache slightly in some of the muscles that are used during yoga, but that can only be a good thing as it shows that I am working those muscles. I may try to do yoga on the days I am not running. This should mean that I improve my core strength, balance and posture (and maybe even my state of mind!)

Successful Bank Holiday

Yes, the long weekend has been a success! Hooray! We did extend our weekend by taking the Friday off as a holiday too. Friday I got my haircut, bought some jeans which did not drag on the floor and that top I’ve been lusting over in H&M. I also tried on a dress in there, but it looked silly. I bought some sunglasses and treated Leon to two new tops. Did a two-mile jog, of which all but 2 mins was actual running! We went out for drinks and a Chinese. Very pleasant. Saturday Got up at a sensible hour! We tidied the entire lounge, including all paperwork and other silly mess. Sunday I “helped” Leon finish the sweeping of the lounge. Leon evicted several spiders from behind the chair. Cleaned chairs, and Leon vacuumed them too. I completed Eeyore on my cross stitch kit. Leon cooked a fab leg of lamb with some funky coating (which is still making the fridge smell – but in a nice way). We went out for drinks at Brigantes. Mostly amusing, but I may have been a little harsh on Rich. (sorry) Paid up my entry fee for the Race For Life. Monday I had a lie-in, and then got up and we went to Clifton Moor. Bought Leon some underwear and I also bought a new night dress for myself. (No new dressing gown yet…). We also picked up some new bake ware. Had a slightly disappointing lunch in the “Flying Lettuce”(1). Baked a Victoria sponge and a dozen fairy cakes, and then frosted them all. I did a full hour session of Yoga (on a DVD) without getting bored, while Leon was on his driving lesson. Went to “Big Ian’s Ludicrous Pub Quiz” and came second. So now we have four more cans of rubbish beer. 1. The Flying Lettuce pub is actually called the Flying Legends, but as always, I couldn’t read it very well without my specs…

Magic

I have cut off my hair. Well, no - I paid someone else to do it.

And I have discovered something - my hair was heavy! So, I lost a whole pound in weight just by cutting off my hair. Brilliant!
No, I don't want to lose a further 10lb by cutting off my head, thank you.

Rubbishness leads to Change

My website doesn't like me looking at it - I exceed the download limit (!)
So I've gotten myself a flikr thingy. Woo.

Random

So, last night I planned to go to the quiz… it didn’t happen. I got wet on the way home due to rain, and couldn’t use my brolly because the wind was stronger than me. So, I changed into my long jogging bottoms, rather than my new cropped ones, and waited for Leon. We went out jogging. We did most of the usual route, but not all of it because my foot was still not being totally normal and I didn’t want to cripple myself for a long time. Then Leon showered and went for his driving lesson. I showered and settled down to watch some rubbish TV. Then Gemma called – she’s one of my friends from before I went to uni. So I spent a while chatting to her about the youth of today and the drawbacks of jogging. Then I cooked some fish for dinner.
Today I learnt: if you put oil on fish skin it spits, and this causes smoke if the oil lands on the filament of the grill.
So, then we settled down to eat the fish. By this time it was almost 9 o’clock and I was still in my dressing gown from having showered. i crossed the room in said dressing gown and L was overcome by laughter (well…) as I had managed to rip my dressing gown. Now there is a big tear on it all down the left-buttock covering bit. Bother. I do have another much nicer dressing gown, which is zebra print. It’s full length too, but not designed for people as fat as the blue one I ripped. The benefit of getting a dressing gown that’s too big is that it wraps around you further. Which I like; it makes it cosy and warm. Perhaps I’ll buy a new dressing gown. I should add it to my list of things I should do this year. The trouble is that dressing gowns aren’t the most exciting thing to buy. I could do with some new pyjamas too, but not the little vest-and-pants variety, which are nice but not warm, but the big t-shirt or shirt and trousers variety. I could, therefore, go all-out and buy matching dressing gown, pyjamas and slippers (can never have too many pairs of slippers, and I do need a pair to wear while I wash my current ones)
Of course, if I do buy new pyjamas etc I must throw away the old ones – I'm terrible for not doing that. I buy something to replace something I have and then I don’t get rid of the thing. I’ve stopped trying that with shoes anyway, but I do try not to have too many similar pairs… try is the operative word though!

Simple things…

I have recently purchased a cross-stitch kit. It’s nice to have something a little creative to do while I’m watching telly, which isn’t really productive at all. Anyway, the cross-stitch is a Winnie-the-Pooh limited edition one, which came with over thirty colours of thread. So far I have sewed Eeyore’s hind legs and part of his ear. I’ll be going on to sew the rest of his body and then his tail with the pretty bow on it. it takes much more time than I thought it would! It’s quite soothing, which anyone who’s met me knows is a good thing! I must try to remember to wear my specs though, as I’m giving myself eye strain! Tut.
I was planning on going out to get an embroidery hoop today, but the weather is all horrible. So I didn’t. it’s not too hard to do without, but the tension isn’t so good when you’re not using a hoop.
I’m hoping that once I’ve done this one, I might be able to make up some of my own patterns. That would be wicked!

And so, despite the rain I’ll be running tonight, for the first time since I hurt my foot…

Item: Make/Buy Cushions – Complete!

Yes, I have made six cushions in varying designs. Now all we need is the matching sofa...

PTH 12?

So, Bad Data came a measly 17th in the PTH (That’s Pub Treasure Hunt) – though our friend Lint’s team won. Well done them.
Bad Data were "the Dukes of Hazzard"

(I’ve cropped the picture so that you can’t see my thighs! Ick!)

We spent the evening of the 11th May wandering around York dressed like this, answering a range of questions (incorrectly, it seems) and not drinking any of the special drinks. L and The Black got called Gay Cowboys rather a lot, which sucked.
I did quite like some of the other costumes, so I don’t mind not being the best at that. We did get the most points for origami, with L’s amazing Paper-General-Lee.
It was rather a shame that the routes didn’t overlap slightly more, we only saw one other team of people we knew while trekking round. It also sucked that only the special drinks counted. Still, we could have cheated and lied about our drinking like Chip’s BBBs.
I may try to get the ear of the new organisers and see if I can convince them that using a letter as the theme would be good. That said, the last one that Lint organised was great (Theme was Cartoons and we were the Wacky Races – I will eventually put a picture of that up!)

Nuke 'Em?

Yeah, normally I just write mundane posts about nonsense, but I fear that over the coming weeks this blog may become a little bit political!
So, in the news recently they’ve been talking about the prospect of renewing our aging nuclear power plants. Yes, they are still working at present. However, we need to begin at least getting organised to build new ones now, if that’s what we are going to do.
Well, this has all come about due to posturing on the part of Mr Blair. Despite having commissioned a report into what the future holds for UK power, and what the options are, he then gazumps the report and decides that the future is radioactive. Okay, maybe that’s a little extreme, but he has jumped the gun. Speculation has it that he is doing this because he’s tired of the rest of his party being in the news more than he is.
But, back to the actual issue: should we be building more nuclear power stations, or should we be finding the alternatives. Believe me there are a lot of alternatives! I can see that nuclear power has its advantages, lower carbon emissions I think is one of them. It does also have the disadvantage of producing great piles of waste which are radioactive for a very long time and have to be buried. Coal seems to have been largely discounted from the equation these days as it has high carbon emissions, and also emits other gases, depending on where the coal is from. Coal is also quite expensive to produce. I saw a TV show a while ago about a coal-fired power station which captured the carbon it released and then used that to provide some more power somehow (I’m not clear on the detail) which seems quite good. That way you’re getting extra power from what is effectively a waste product. There are other options than just coal, gas and nuclear power though; there is the much under-utilised wind power. It is windy quite often in this country, and we could harness this much better. Of course then some argue that the turbines are an eyesore, and that they are destroying the countryside. Perhaps they would be more suitable on a smaller scale… Then there’s solar power, which I have to admit may be pushing it a bit in Aberdeen, but in the southern counties where sunshine is a bit more common, we could easily have solar powered things. Water power could be used on almost all of the country’s rivers (though possibly not the Trent and the Severn…)
Is it possible to get all of our power from renewable/green sources? Not at present. Should that stop us from trying? No.
It’s not just up to the politicians though, it’s up to all of us too. We have energy saving bulbs throughout our house, the dishwasher is rating B and the washing machine is rating A (the dryer is D, but we only use that rarely) I have to admit to being a fan of having a bath, which does use more water than a shower. I turn off the tap while I'm cleaning my teeth. I walk almost everywhere (though I don’t drive…) we have a compost bin in the garden to reduce the amount of rubbish we send to the tip, and we also recycle paper. Bottles go to the bottle bank whenever someone with a car visits us, and we give our carrier bags back to the delivery man. We prefer to get loose vegetables (using less packaging) and re-use jars. We still have more to do, but every little thing helps.
Did You Know…?
A dishwasher uses less water to wash the pots than washing them in the sink does, provided that the dishwasher is full.

Things to Buy

Since both L and I are out of our overdrafts, we’ve decided to save up for the things we want rather than buying them and then paying for them after. So, we’re saving up to buy:

• Two new sofas, brown, leather, two-seater.
• Telephone, cordless. Preferably two handsets.

Ok, the list isn’t very long yet. It will grow.

Civ 4

Since we joined Screen Select which is a postal DVD rental company, I got a free voucher for DVD.co.uk so I surfed on in and had a look at their offerings. I bought the missing book from my Patricia Cornwell collection, and also Civ 4.
I’m quite impressed with the game. It’s a little slow, but I think that is most likely because my PC is on the cusp of the minimum requirements. In fact, every time I load the game, it reminds me that my graphics card does not meet its minimum specifications! Poo. I have had a crash incident, though I’m not sure whether I, the game, the anti-virus or Windows is to blame. As the game was trying to play the Stonehenge movie at the time, I’m inclined to think that it was the game, however, my anti-virus was also being rude about my having switched it off. Hmm. Well, I’ll keep trying, but it does look like a new PC is on the “Things I want to buy soon” list. I’m considering getting a laptop rather than a desktop, though you tend to get more for your money with a desktop. I would probably sit in silly places with a laptop too…
Anyway, the game looks cool nonetheless.

War of the Worlds

So, on Sunday we went to see War of the Worlds, the Musical, Live.
It was absolutely fantastic from beginning to end! Justin Hayward still has a fantastic voice, and he didn’t do anything crazy to any of the songs. Russell Watson beat my expectations, and made the part of Nathaniel his own. I would gladly have a new version of the album with him on. (I always forget the name of the other guy anyway). The fellow who was the Artilleryman (Alexis James, so the website tells me) was so enthusiastic and really gave the part lots of energy! I liked that very much too. The graphics on screen were excellent too! Lots of combinations of stills, drawings, actors and real Victorian footage. The “Richard Burton in sound and vision” was, frankly, scary! A giant head! I guess it must have looked pretty cool from the back though. There were some great performances from the guitarists (there were four players, but more guitars) and I counted at least 33 violin and violas! Plus eight cellos and a harp! Brilliant. Geoff Wayne looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself. We were lucky, too, because Russell Watson had dropped out of the Birmingham show with a knee injury.
I also took my first ever trip on a tram in Manchester (or anywhere for that matter!) which was fun. And on the way back we took the tram all the way to the station, which saved walking through Manchester in the middle of the night!
Overall, excellent!

Wedding

Yesterday was Tom's wedding. It was very nice. The ceremony was tasteful and sweet, and it's always nice when the participants actually believe in what they are doing. Gem looked gorgeous and I'll put some pics on when I get some sorted.
The lunch bit was excellent, and we met some nice new people.
The evening do was brill too, there was a band, food, dancing (for me at least) and general merriment.
Had to spend some time avoiding the "baby corner" where there was one actual baby and at least two soon-to-be babies.

Music

As I have made more than one post in one day, I’ve decided to give them “themed” titles. How exciting. These are all named after songs (even this one!)

One Step Beyond

Life seems quite hectic suddenly! I have lots of exciting things to do this weekend. First, we’re going out on Friday night to meet James’s new squeeze, and to have a meal. (I know I’ve been whinging about money, but it will just have to be fine.) Second we’re running on Saturday morning in training. Third, it’s the day-do for Tom’s wedding just after noon. Then at about 3pm we’re in Fulford to have the meal. Once that’s done we’re heading back to our house to collect Leon’s parents and let them in to our house. Then I’m getting changed into a nice frock and we’re off to the evening-do at 7:30. I dread to think what time we’ll get back from that. Sunday we’re heading off to the War of the Worlds concert in Manchester, including eating out somewhere. I’ve left that to Leon to plan. Thank goodness I’ve booked the Monday off work! I do enjoy having things to do though, so woo!

Material Girl

I have to admit it, I like nice things. I know that you all must have worked that out anyway. There are sooooo many things I want to buy right now though. Around this time of year I am always itching to spend my bonus, but unfortunately it went on clearing my overdraft. We do intend to get ourselves a car once Leon has passed his test. We’re also after some new sofas which we’ve seen. Then there’s the bathroom, which we want to re-paper. (I’d love to rip it all out and begin again, but that’s way out of budget!)
Then there are always clothes and shoes I want. Especially since I’m having to re-wear a dress I already wore for the evening-do. And I would like to get the groovy guitar game that Lint introduced us to the other night; that was wicked. And there’s a bunch of DVDs I’d like, and CDs, and books. I’d like to get Civ4 too, as Iasonas speaks highly of it, and I do quite enjoy taking over the world! Though it sounds like it’s not as easy to conquer the World in Civ4 as it is in Civ2. I wouldn’t mind getting Singstar Rocks too. It is also a sad fact that we have a very old and pants analogue cordless phone, which is badly in need of being thrown in the bin and replaced with a nice shiny new model.
So this is quite a big wish-list for someone with no money.

Nine to Five

I seem to have become Little Miss Paperwork now. Little Miss Programmer has not been needed for some time. It’s annoying, my boss insists that I assign a titchy change to the person who wrote a program, yet also tells me that I should not be the only person who knows about the Automation I have been creating. Raa! It’s really frustrating. Of course, there’s always the option to look for other jobs elsewhere, but I’m afraid I’m all talk at the moment. And then, to make it even better he decides that actually he’ll do all the coding, and I can do the chuffing paperwork for it.
As if it isn’t bad enough that my pay rise was pathetic; they go on and try to push me a whole bunch more really uninteresting and monotonous jobs. (Monotonous is a monotonous word to type too…) I guess I shouldn’t complain too much, I don’t work many hours or that hard (mostly for the reasons stated above) so it’s not that bad. I’d still like to do something about this lot.
The amusement for me at the moment is that it looks like we’re going to be severely understaffed for a fortnight in May. Yey. And that can only be blamed on the person giving all of the leave, which is not me. Muhahaha. The down side to this is that it can only be moments before they ask me to cover the missing person(s) because that seems to be the way it is at present. Either that or they’ll have to refuse a holiday request, which might be a little harsh.
Maybe now wouldn’t be the best time to put in a request for some holiday time?.

Happy Easter

So, it's Easter weekend, sort-of starting now!
Yey! Four whole days of not being in work which also gives me the chance to do some more running and perhaps some shopping and maybe make some fudge! Woo!
My sister visited this week, to use my broadband mainly!
I'm finding, though, that I'm not quite as cheery as I aught to be. I think that something is bothering me. I just don't know what...
Oh well!

Item: Get Out Of Overdraft

This is done, now I just have to stay out of my overdraft!

Road-runner

Yes! Today was my first attempt at running outside
Ok, not the first attempt ever - I'm not six.
As a result of being entered in the Race For Life, I've had to think about training. Yesterday Leon and I went to Up and Running which is a shop that sells running gear. I tried on what seemed like hundreds of pairs of trainers. Dissapointingly, the pink ones were not the best fit for me. I now have some shiny new white-and-lime trainers. I will run because I paid a lot for these trainers.
I also bought a "sport jock" sports bra, which did what it claimed it would, so yey. No "jogger's nipple" for me!
My final purchase of the day was a set of three pairs of sports socks. They are in three colours (white, purple, pink) and in size 5.5-8 (I'm a 7.5 in trainers apparantly! - odd, as I'm a 6 normally!)
So, then it rained on us, and I didn't go out running.
This morning it wasn't raining - in fact it was quite sunny. So, Leon dragged me out of bed and we went for a run. I had a mile-long route pre-planned. We ran from my house to the second juntion into Lint and Mr.Black's estate, back onto my estate and then round the one way system home. approximately 1 mile according to my software. Took 12 minutes, of which about 2.5 mins were walking. I was quite pleased that I made it all the way round and didn't die or anything. I was pretty knackered when I got in though. Despite which I still went upstairs to our "gym" (second bedroom) and did my usual array of crunches, squats and curls. I will probably regret it tomorrow.