Sniff, sniff Christmas...

Well, Christmas came and Christmas went... and I had the most awful cold that snuck up on me like a bat out of hell. All I can really say about this was that right up to Xmas eve I felt fine, then I had this wee bit of a sore throat, and then I woke up on Christmas morning to find that I was streaming. And it's not gone yet, well and truly Xmas past.



But.. colds be damned, there was cooking to do. Needless to say, I'd left all of my planning and timetables for cooking back home, so it was out of the window with that, and get on with the practicalities. After all, if you've cooked large family meals and many other Christmas dinners, there's not a lot really that you don't already know about putting another one together. Turkey goes in the oven, vegetables get cooked - but the real planning part of it, i.e., when to put the pudding on to cook so it's ready for the time when you've eaten your first course, isn't so important these days, when puddings cook perfectly well in the microwave. Long gone are the days of the two hour boil. This was only a meal for four people - Mum, Martin, Nick and me, so it was perfectly within the realms of an off the cuff meal production. People make a big deal over xmas lunches, but to be honest, ask yourself - what's so different about this that any other Sunday lunch doesn't throw up? It's a doddle. A walk in the park. I par boiled the turkey - a crown, not the full fledged bird. Not for four people, frankly that's just too much turkey. Boiled it for 45 minutes, then roasted it with a maple syrup and butter baste. The idea behind this is to keep the meat moist, but I can't say I noticed much difference between this method and any other.

So we also had the de riguer glass of bubbly, and opened the presents - these seemed to go down well. And I got what I'd asked for, which is also nice. The dogs did too - this is their Christmas dinner!

Sweet huh? They do like their Xmas turky, veg and gravy! The cats had some too. We have a pack of animals over at my mother's home, these are my sister's dogs, Tilly and Doris. The cats were originally hers too, but chose to remain with Mother rather than move next door when my sister moved! So Jacob and Pogle live with her.


This is Pogle looking most demonic with the flash not quite obliterating his eyes, but almost! This is a cat who brings in poor little killed birdies, and as a consequence has to wear two bells on his collar to try and prevent this, and give the poor little birdies a fighting chance of escaping. He also, most extraordinarily, brings in grasses and so on to decorate the corpses with. We think he's making his contribution to the family larder, and honoring the leaders of his pack, (pack? Cats? Whatever.), but nevertheless, he likes to arrange the bodies in a decorative fashion. Like most of the family, he clearly has some sort of artistic sense. He's also capable of being a dumb cat, who gets under your feet and won't keep out of the way, leading to all sorts of accidents, like I trod on his tail last week, and he yells, I jump in all directions to try and avoid him, but does he move? No chance. He expects you to dance the polka to avoid him.

So that was Xmas. I'm working new year, so I don't expect I'll blog again until 2007. Wow. Another year. I wonder what this one will bring...

Catch up!!!!

Wow, been so busy that haven't had time to get on here and blog! Even today - slept off a night shift and then it's straight in to Sainsburies, where another bout of Xmas shopping awaits. It hasn't been so much the shopping that's kept me busy as for a combination of stuck waiting for the gas board - which is an entire blog all by itself, and packing stuff up and posting it off to people who've bought it on Ebay.
So - frankly it's too late at night to go into all this. Ness if you pick this up, the baby walker goes in the post tomorrow!!
And yipee! All my auctions are ended, and after tomorrow morning I go nowhere near the post office until the new year!!!
Alas, I shall be way too busy standing in queues in supermarkets....

Vile Vile Virus

Yep been a victim of the vile vile virus. Felt rotten last Friday week, coming home from work, but since I was sleeping off a night shift, I can't say I noticed it that much until the Sunday, when I felt very peaky. Woke up on Monday morning and essentially I spent the rest of the day asleep & feeling as if the end of the world had arrived and I couldn't be bothered to deal with it - Tuesday morning saw me at the doctors. Trying to deal with a new machine they have to sign you in for your appointment - why would they do this to sick people? Instead of rolling over to the desk and blearing at the receptionist, they have you trying to punch out a touch tone screen as if you were totting up the groceries at Tesco!
Then I had to try and deal with a locum doctor who decided yes, this was the ideal moment to deliver a lecture on smoking. Dealt with that. Stumbled off home and more time back in bed. By Thursday-ish I was feeling slightly more human, but not enough to actually feel hungry. Yet clearly I was on the road to recovery, 'cos by that point I was thinking not eating anything's not a wildly good idea here. So dashed off to Sainsbury's and came back with a cook in the oven curry, and boy it was very good - I'm a big believer in when you're ill, eat hot curried type foods. Well if you're going to eat anything, a curry's as good as anything else.
Anyway I'm fine now. Fighting fit and back to work tomorrow.. and actually yes, looking forward to life getting back to normal!

Alas, a bereavement...

Quietly at home... I want to announce the apple has bitten the dust. Actually it bit, almost literally, into the side of the breadboard. I'd photographed it earlier this morning, and found that it was leaking some kind of rather nasty sticky liquid, and was more or less mush underneath the skin. It was clearly on it's last legs (ok, maybe that's not necessarily an appropriate description!) and as such I posted it onto Flickr, saying such. Then later this afternoon, I came to make some tea, and went to move it, and it just went flying off the plate splat! onto the side of the breadboard.

As you can see. So I rushed and got the camera, took it's last photo's - and chucked it into the bin.

And here it is, nestling away in the corner. Bin men come tomorrow,
so I expect it's going to be a short interment. I shall really miss this,
taking it's photo, watching it change. It's been an experience, that's for sure. What next I wonder? A plum? I was thinking maybe grapes...

A really great weekend!!!

I've had a really good weekend this week. Met up with Abs for coffee and a natter on Saturday - that was brill, popped to do a bit of food shopping afterwards, and spend a fair bit of the evening uploading more stuff on to Ebay. I live in hope that some of it will sell!!
Then Sunday I met up with old friends that I was at university at, we went to the Primrose Cafe in Clifton. They do stunning breakfasts there, and we had a really good meal, followed by a wander that ended up in the Oxfam second hand bookstore - what more could you ask for?!
I'm sure to a casual reader this probably sounds dead boring - but it was just so nice to see old friends, keep in touch. Made a few sales on Sunday evening - always a good thing! More than that, I even bought a few things for Xmas, so you could say I'm started at least. When you think of the amounts that have to be bought, it leaves you - well, feeling slightly stunned to say the least. I caught myself thinking well if I buy crackers this week, I'm that much ahead of the game. Presents & table wear this month, food next. It's a wonder the women of Britain don't collapse en masse under the strain of it all!!!

Food...!!!!! Again!!!

I seem to be doing a lot of blogging this week - I'm clearly filled with the urge to blog. I wanted to add something to my thoughts on food.

Christmas is coming. You can tell this because not just the goose is getting fat, so are the magazine shelves, bulging with what can only be described as near pornographic food magazines. I was in ye old Sadsbury's yesterday, and they bulged with a near conscious desire to leap from their shelves and into my trolley. I was resisting. And I actually managed to get out of there without buying a single one, although I will probably pay for this later in the week by buying three. However I noticed one or two things.
Firstly they are all coming with attached recipe calendar for the new year. Ha Ha! I've already bought mine, and food is the last thing on it's pages.
Secondly, I've got a family to cook for this Xmas. And I am planning already. We'll be a bit smaller this year than on others - Jo and her husband are planning on being away, so there will just be mother, the brothers and myself, which makes a bit of a change. Being fewer, we will need less, which means I can spend a bit more time and effort on what I actually do - fun eh? I expect this will be a running theme over the next few months - what, when how etc. Just to say now, for all the complaining that I expect I will be doing, because I do the same year in year out, I do love it. I love the planning, the cooking etc - just not quite so keen on the actual buying. Shops are hell at this time of year. Absolute hell.

A for....

Oh I've had a bit of fun tonight. No, not what you think, I've been watching these silly programmes on BBC Four, some sort of series on British Science Fiction. There was a trailer for the website, so when I was next at the computer I checked it out, and they've got this thing called a Timeline. It's got a load of names and stuff set up on a sort of date index, all names of science fiction books, tv series, all that kind of thing. So before I knew where I was I was filling stuff out, and commenting on these things - I will admit to being a sci fi freak these days. Twenty years ago, I wouldn't have been so forthcoming.

But exactly why was that? Well back in the sixties, girls didn't read sci fi. At the most they might have watched Thunderbirds, which had it's girls character - Lady Penelope, pretty much specifically put there for the girls. I enjoyed Thunderbirds, but I preferred Captain Scarlet. But having got in to this stuff, and we were a family that watched Dr Who, (oh yes, behind the sofa and all that, boring..) I liked sci fi. And when I found a book with a spacecraft on the cover in my brother's bookshelf, I 'borrowed' it. I still have it. Oh yes. It was an Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Empire, I think, and I devoured it. Moved on to Second Foundation, - he didn't seem to have a copy of Foundation, it was a good ten years after this that I found a copy of Foundation, and got to read it. But from the Foundation books, I think I went to the Stars Like Dust. Now I have my own personal theory that the Stars Like Dust is Star Wars with a few added extras. But that's an argument for another day. I really enjoyed the short stories - and then one day I found a science fiction section in our local WHSmiths - it was so so tiny. Perhaps half a dozen books crammed in next to the Religious and Poetry sections. But I bought A E Van Vogts' War Against the Rull. I can remember ever so clearly my sense of shock that I could actually go out and buy these books. It was kind of maybe the first adult purchase I'd ever made, perhaps even before I'd bought my first single. And actually thinking about it, the first single I ever bought was Sugar Sugar by the Archies, so we're talking what, 68, 69? I would have been 9, 10 years old. I'm not exactly sure where the War Against the Rull is right now, or I'd dig it out and see how much it cost, but I'm prepared to bet it was about 25p. It's never been my favourite sci fi, but I must have enjoyed it enough to go and buy the next - Open Planet by James White, I think his name was. I did enjoy that. Then I found more Asimovs, more Arthur C Clarke, more Van Vogt. I think the Worlds of Null A came pretty quickly, and I liked that because I liked the Aristotelian twist to it. I knew nothing about Aristotelianism at the time, but I seemed to pick up enough of it to make a bit more sense of Aristotle when the time came to learn that titch of philosophy you need to learn to make sense of history.

Asimov's three laws of robotics made sense to me. Clarke's pathos inside things like Childhood's End. I'm not entirely sure if Clarke intended it to be there, but it hit the same nerve that the Borrower's had when I was a kid - I used to worry about what would happen to Arrietty when Pod and Homily died. Who would she be with? How could one be alone in life? Ok so this may sound a bit advanced for a five year old or so, but we didn't get the books where she met Spiller till I can't remember when, so for me Arrietty was alone, for ever and ever. I can even remember having nightmares about it. Arthur C Clarke's aging humanity, abandoned by their children, with no future ahead of them had the same sting in the tail (should that be tale?)

Andromeda was listed on this site, which was interesting, 'cos my first experience of Andromeda was through the book. It was one of my favourites, and the follow up, Andromeda Breakthrough. The books are way better than the tv series. I can't tell you how much better - somehow A for Andromeda should never be in colour, it should be filmed in grainy black and white, on a moor somewhere, in barracks. I dug out my copy to find the date of it, 1975 can you believe it.

I was late to fantasy. I had this idea that the only type of SF that I'd like was golden age pulp, the sort of stories that had been in Amazing Stories. The type that show up in the afternoons on Channel 4 occasionally, or if you're lucky a late night showing on an unsuitable day of the week. Then somehow I ended up reading an Anne McCaffrey. Dragons. But at least not girly dragons, and somehow setting it on another planet made it somehow acceptable. So I read Anne McCaffrey's, all of them for quite a long while. If I find an author I like, then I read everything by that author that I can get my hands on, and move on from there. And at some point I got my hands on Dune. Oh god it was like falling in love. Those long long books, the first time of reading - the demanding adab of the story!!! I've even read Brian Herberts follow ups. I wouldn't say they reach say the first rung of Dad's calibre of story writing, but it's Dune so what can you do? There's no more real Dune, ever, sniff sniff, so I'll make do with what I can get. Like most other Dune addicts I guess.

At the moment, I'm hunting out the Darkover books. There's always another writer to discover, and a back catalogue to read through. Can't say I'm reading much new SF though. Alas I find very few new authors that grip. I do keep trying, and who knows, in ten years I might be working my way through Pratchet. I have to say I think that's unlikely. I read way more than SF, both fiction and non-fiction, so I'll never be short of something to read. Right now I'm re-reading Juliet Barker's biography of the Brontes, which is a great read. I was looking for my copy of Wuthering Heights which has unaccountably gone missing - I loose and find books all the time. Don't we all?

Food II !

Well, following that last bit, I really felt quite down. This weekend has improved things though, been really most pleasant. Jo and I did a craft fair on Sunday, and not only did I get some very nice comments on the Keycharms etc, I sold quite a few, which is really firm evidence people like them! And what's more, had a good end day on Ebay, firmer evidence indeed! It's quite thrilling when people buy something you've made, a real affirmation that you have - I don't know what to call it, I don't want to label it somehow. I find it hard to explain.

So, given that I've called this food 2, why am I going on about selling stuff? Maybe because I don't want to talk about food, and that in and of itself is interesting. I mean add that into what I put on my profile - do I avoid thinking/considering food because it's too hard/painful? And at my age, could how I look be really that important? Is there any point in life when how one looks ceases to be of importance? My mother, even my mother, frets about her hair before she goes out. She seems to have ceased worrying about her lipstick, which in a sense is alarming, because as a younger more vigorous woman she wouldn't have been caught dead without her lipstick on. But she wants to know her hair is alright. Perhaps 'vanity' (for lack of a more accurate word) is two-fold, there's a vanity that covers attractiveness, and a sense of image that pertains to presentability. That seems to make a lot of sense to me. I have a healthy sense of this - I want to know I haven't got egg on my face, that I'm not leaving the house with odd socks on, or a stain on my clothes. But I have no sense of self image in the sense that I know I'm a middle aged woman, I'm not looking for a partner, and I want to go about my business with little or no interference. I don't need lipstick and curled eyelashes for this. However, I'm shortly going on a night out, to meet up with old friends for a meal. And for this, I'm already thinking now what am I going to wear? How am I going to do my hair?
Hair is one of my bigger bugbears - I recently read a most sensible passage in a book, where the narrator said she kept her hair long because she didn't have to fuss with it. Short hair actually does require more looking after, more primping etc. My hair is really quite long now, and I can put it up with a few easy strokes of a brush and a few clips. It's fuss free.
But on a night out, you don't need fuss free hair, you need something that looks good. And given that I have this plethora of the stuff, it sort of expands the range of things that I can do with it - up or down?! Backcombed or sleek? Do I have enough hair spray to cope??? And dear God, do I have a skirt that I'm going to feel comfortable in? I have this great new top I bought a while back, and I reckon I'll wear that, but skirt, or jeans?
It's all decisions in the end. I'll let you know...!!!!

Food..

Today I wanted to write about food. Not for any particular reason - well that's not quite true. I was getting out of a car the other day, one of those big 4x4 type things, which people buy and think are convenient for moving people and things about town, but totally forget that what they're doing is getting a vehicle that's a good further 6 inches higher than an ordinary car, and that if you have legs that are a bit shorter than the average, involve a leap into the dark when you get out of them. Actually getting in to them is difficult enough. But that's neither here nor there.

Anyhow getting out of this thing I twisted my knee, and it's been so painful over the past few days in particular. Clearly I've twisted the tendon or something. I thought - and loads of people said - go and see the doctor, but what could a doctor actually do? It's not like I need painkillers, I have my regular prescription in case my back goes (now that's a really long story!) so if it gets really bad I take one of those. It's just that I know if I go and see the doc, well the likelihood is I'd end up with a long wait to get an x-ray which would show nothing as x-rays don't show muscular damage, and an appointment for a bit of physio. My surgery is lucky enough to have it's own physiotherapist, so that wouldn't be too long a wait. And if it keeps on going, I've not doubt that that's exactly what I will do, go to see the doctor.

But the reality is I know the reaction I'll get. Anyone in their right mind would say the same thing, which of course everyone I know is too polite to actually say, well, if you weigh as much as you do, you must expect to get problems with your joints! And I want to say this, they would be absolutely right to say this. So here I am, back at the old conundrum. The old bugbear in my life - food, weight, size.. etc.

The first time I really became aware of bodysize was when I was quite a small girl - there was an incident at some kind of Christmas party my parents had, when this woman - I do know who she was, but she's dead now, and I wouldn't want to upset her family, (not that they're likely to read this) so I'm not going to name her. She was a tall thin woman, with one of those extraordinary bone structures. And I have a memory of her wearing a suede suit that my mother envied deeply, but I doubt that she was wearing this on this particular occasion. She was talking to my mother, and my sister was within hearing - I can't remember if I was or not, but I know that Jo was incredibly upset by it. She said to my mother "Honestly Joyce, isn't there anything you can do about those two?"
Of course what she meant was we were fat little tunks. I would have been perhaps 8 or 9, and Jo a couple of years younger. I think that was perhaps the first thing that hit me, body wise. Then there was a dreadful, personal incident that happened at my ballet class, when we were all in the locker room changing to go in, and I overheard one mother say to another mother "Who is that little elephant in the pink tights?"

Well it's easy enough to laugh about these things now, but they set in tow a whole range of feelings and behaviours that I'm still battling with now. I can remember a very distinct feeling of isolation, of arming myself against this sort of comment. I don't think I was too successful! But what it did kick off, of course, was years and years of yo-yo dieting. I go through long periods of What-the-hell-ness, it's my affair what I weigh and that's that, then 6 months of bizarre eating. Yeah I've done the cabbage diet - gross. Absolutely gross. I've joined clubs. Which is a real ordeal for me, as on a psychological level, I think being weighed in public is a form of torture. Of strange women, screeching "Oh well done, you've lost a quarter of an ounce!" Some return on seven days of starvation that is. The fact the room is packed with total strangers when they do this. Ghastly.

I've even been successful at times. I lost huge amounts of weight when I lived in Brum as a teenager, desperate to get in to a pair of black cords. I made it, wore them perhaps three or four times before some kind of disaster came along and I started to eat again.

So at the end of all this, I have to start to loose weight again. And I am doing, I know, I've been cutting down on the fats and sugars, increasing the fibre - nothing dramatic, just slow and steady. No groups, no strangers. Lord it's a pain. But I'm thinking my knees will thank me in a few months!

Behold the gas man cometh....

Yeah well, I spoke to Lisa from work this morning when I was waiting for the first gas man, and when she phoned back at some point this afternoon to say that tomorrows training wasn't happening and I was still waiting for gas man number 2 she said you should blog this, and frankly after what I've been through today, yeah, someone deserves a really good blogging.

Ok, so where to start with this - the saga of the gas main. Actually, in its entirety it's really the council's fault, 'cos they've started with this mass fly breeding programme - yes, otherwise known as recycling, but frankly if you ask me, it is one of the biggest mass fly breeding programmes known to man. So, in order to comply with this, we needed space to store the various numbers of bins, boxes and what have yous that the refuse recycling needs. So our landlord volunteered to build us a bin cubby, which - well, I was thrilled. Seriously. I was really thrilled. Particularly as the house down the road, which is being converted to flats, had just had this really flash bin cubby built - and ours frankly is a hot second. Imagine my delight as it took shape - it's no mean task excavating part of the front garden. We're on a mini hill you see, and there's an awful lot of muck and stuff to shift - and yes, there was.. duh duh duhhhh.. ( I feel I need either the Philharmonic or at the least a crazed organist to accompany this) the Cable cable, the Electric Cable and... more of the duh duh duhhh maestro please, the Gas main. And whilst the cables could be moved, the gas main couldn't, and as a consequence was left in solitary yellow majesty stretched across the lonesome might of Stalag Bin Cubby. (I'm telling you, not a tin could get out of there alive.)

Frankly, to start with all was well. Yes it was a gas main, but I knew it was in hand, I knew the gas board would arrive to shift it soon. A man had told me. A man in a suit, with a clipboard. I knew because I'd been there on that bright sunny day, full of optimism and 80 degrees in the shade, looking at it straight in the bright yellow poly propa whatever it is, a long yellow tube gleaming in the sunshine, uncovered in all it's majesty. Oh yes, he said, reasonably straight forward, he said, we'll be here soon, he said. Soon as the landlord OK's it, we'll be there, we'll take it from down there, dig a trench diagonally across the garden, connect it up to the street main, and it'll take a day or so but we'll get it done in no time. (Now's the time to start humming that wonderful tune they used to play at Russian Politburo funerals - you know the one, dumm dumm da dumm, dumm da dumm dumm dah da..)
Cut to September, nope, November - we're what, two and a half months later? In the interim, we've had new tenants move in, and they've spotted the gap in the fence. Oh yes. Our lovely new little bin cubby, it's been filled with rubbish - it looks frankly as if a group of travellers have moved in. There's even a toaster with it's cord wrapped lovingly around the neck of the gas mains rather alarming bulge - no earth to support it you see, it needs a toaster to lean on. Consultations abound, landlord arranges for van, van won't arrive to weekend, can you get them to move the stuff - I ask, but frankly the new tenants are Portuguese, and my Spanish is weak at the best. Weak my foot, it's non-existent. Time goes by..
Landlords gas and safety check, happens every year, I follow him round as he checks everything in the place. Nice little man turns up, for some reason doesn't seem to be much interested in the appliances, which was odd, even at the time. I asked, he said no that doesn't need to be done. Incidentally, I'd already waiting in for him all afternoon - I book these things weeks in advance, I say yeah, 12 to 4, that'll be fine and everytime I live in hope the bell will ring at 12, or 1, or even 2. No this one lives around the corner, and he comes just before he signs off for the afternoon. You just know he arranges it that way. You can't quite look him in the eye and accuse him of lying when you say how fed up of it constantly being so late in the day, but you know that the truth lies beneath that innocent gaze.

So to get back on track here, he arrives and starts checking stuff out. He's switched the gas off, and he's poking this, turning off that boiler, and at some point, he says, you know I can't quite pin it down, but I think there's a leak. Oh yeah I say, well have you checked out that thing in the garden. Oh what thing he asks, innocence personified - well ok, maybe he didn't glance to the left into Colditz's bin store as he raced up the steps, brightly imagining I'm going to just check these things out and I'll be home, in time to watch.. well, whatever this guy watches when he gets home of an evening. Well after he's tested everything, I persuade him to take a look outside. OH he says. Hmm he says. I'll never know how we managed to get away with not having it cut off then and there. Pipes like that, he says, aren't meant to be uncovered, he says, not meant to be exposed to sunlight he says. Right I say. When can you people come and fix it? I should mention by this time I've had several rather frantic chats on the phone with the landlord, who's told me the job was paid for ages ago and he has no idea why they haven't come to do it. Well says the little gas man, I wouldn't know. I'm only doing landlord check's you see. He's writing stuff on forms, and then he's on the phone to someone else, and before I know where I am he's telling me he's certified it - Certified it! Well I guess someone with a nice little set of white jackets to wrap around it and tie it up might help at this point, but having told us we have to watch it like hawks - after all, we're approaching Guy Fawkes.. he doesn't have to say anymore. I have visions of a mere sparkler landing in there - we'd be a large hole in the ground with unpleasant red stains. And an awful lot of rubble.
So.. well he didn't cut us off. I did my best to explain to Valeri downstairs (Estonian, I think, and no I don't speak the language, but thank God, he's picked up English amazingly well.)

So where was I? Yes, we waited. No emergency over the weekend, even thought the local pests set fire to the kids playground (check it out below.) Phonecall on Friday, they'll be here 8 am, Monday. 8 am arrives, and I'm up bright and early, and yes, man arrives at 8.30. They enter the house to cut the gas off at the meter. (That bit's important for later) (and why is this turning in to War and Peace?) They dig. They erect traffic guidance fencing. It's happening, old yella is disappearing, it's like dawn of the zombie dead down there, there's pipe everywhere. Actually, I have to say they did a remarkably tidy bit of work.

But. And this is where this moves from the casual observance into the realm of the farcical - he cannot re-enter the house to light the pilot lights on the boilers and re connect the gas. I have to wait for a chap to turn up to do that, he's booked him, he'll be there lunchtime.
Lunchtime! I spit on lunchtime, I kick dust on lunchtime! I spit on Murder She Wrote, I kick dust on Star Trek Voyager! Well what else are you to watch whilst you wait for the gas man. If the Iceman had been on the box I would have watched it. I could have watched Hamlet whilst I waited for the gas man, I could have watched what the hell is that thing, The Longest Day.

I phoned at 2. No not them, they'd never heard of me. (Had the gasman of the morning left me a contact number to call if there were any problems? No he had not. To be fair, he probably expected no problems.) I called the gas leak people. Ah you want.. rattle off a sequence of numbers. Ring them. Strangely absent woman answers phone, oh yes, she says, then sniffs. We have you down for a call before 4.30, sniff. It's only 20 past 2. Sniff.
Ok I say, and settle in for whatever Jessica Fletcher was competently sorting out - ha! competent! - well whatever it was. By the time Tuvok is writhing on the floor, I'm glancing at the clock and thinking, well, I won't repeat what I thought. Called them back. Hung on forever. At least five whole minutes. Finally phone clicks and I anticipate a real person on the line.. brr it goes, the other party has disconnected goes the machine. At that point I'm looking for the button of death that will reduce the other party to a charred cinder on the floor. I re-dial. I wait a further five to seven minutes whilst they play Vivaldi at me, by the time I'm finished I could bloody play Vivaldi.
The call is answered by a man I can only assume is a very sick Scots Liverpudlian. Very sick. Very very sick because I can barely understand a word he is saying, and he's calling me Love, for which he'd better be glad I don't have a button of death. Frankly, I could have flailed him alive from my living room, by mere sweep of my eyes. Sulu has been promoted and appears to be dying in front of my eyes, by some kind of virus that appears to invent memories in the brains it infects. At least I think that was what was going on. And I'm going to throttle whoever invented those Zargon adverts.

Deeply sick Liverpudlian man returns from where he has placed me on hold, and is deeply sympathetic. What is it about the sick that makes them that bit more understanding? He drip feeds me the dispatch office telephone number, empathy and apologies. It's just what I need. I give them the 45 minutes I promised and phoned again, ah another sympathetic man, full of apologies, oh but there have been so many emergencies today he explains. Bristol has so clearly been full of exploding gas cylinders, and leaking this that and the other - and I understand, I'm nice, I'm sweet, I'm lying through my teeth, but I want these people here, now, and the only way to achieve that is to fake understanding and tolerance for their position - in the hope that they will fakely understand and tolerate mine, and we might actually achieve something.

Gas man does arrive, at some point near to sixish I think. He's not come to turn things on, he's come to change the Governor! Then he will switch things on. Fine I say, there it is, get on with it and I'm upstairs if you need me. He does. I hear him flailing around in the loft twenty minutes later and go to see what's happening. Well, he says, I think you've got a gas leak.

He's got a box with a long bendy tube on it. He's poking it near anything that might remotely be a gas powered appliance. At some point (having excavated my tin and flour cupboard) he's looking at me seriously and saying I'll just check this and then I'll need to speak to the Landlord, and I'm phoning Phil to say there's a mad gas man here.. I tell him the story of the day. We agree I'll call him back if the worst comes to the worst. I'm wondering exactly what that implies.

Then the gas man comes back. Oh it's alright, he says. I pressed a button on the boiler, and it must have got stuck. I'm standing there in my kitchen thinking he's pressed a button? Is this right, he was marching around threatening the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and now he's telling me he pressed a button that got stuck and it's ok?? Well he is saying we need to get the boiler serviced, and I'm thinking to myself, exactly was nice little gas man doing last week that this is happening now?
Second gas man beats a swiftish retreat. I'm preparing to phone Phil and tell him what's gone down, part two. At least I did get to phone the council and order the new wheeliebins. Stalag Bin Cubby will get it's new occupants in approx two to three weeks - and I'll be there to paint their i.d.'s on with my pot of green paint. I've had my instructions from the Refuse Department. All the fault of the Council you see...

Sunday

Don't know if I shouldn't be calling this Guy Fawkes night. As I type this, there are bangs and whizzes going off all over the place, and the kid's playground in the park over the road has been set on fire once already. There was a fire engine come along to put it out, but the only thing that you can say about it is whoever did it should be ashamed of themselves. On a night like tonight, God knows they're going to be busy enough without having to come along and put out a kids slide.

Well today I've been sleeping late, then got up about midday. I've spent most of the afternoon loading stuff onto Ebay - xmas shopping seems to have started, and I want to get my stuff out there. I also put my First Edition on there - I've had it for a good couple of years, and frankly, I bought it thinking I'd stick it on Ebay and see what happened with it. But what with one thing and another I haven't put it on, so did a bit of research and took a few photo's and bang it's on. Thing is, it's got a dust jacket. It's a bit battered - you'd expect that after, well it's 52 years old. But given that it is that, frankly, it's in bloody good condition. It's sitting here in front of me now. And the book itself is in really good condition, not a pencil mark to be seen. So fingers crossed - it'd make a collector a very nice Xmas present.

So what else have I put on there? Mobile Charms, Key Charms, a necklace and a few bracelets.. the end result of a lot of hard work. Let's hope it makes me some money, cos I have to say I put a lot of these things on there, and don't seem to see any profit for it! I keep saying the thing to get into of course is beads themselves - and come the new year, I really must start doing that!

Wednesday 1st November!

Day off today! And I had made my mind up to go do something nice, something just soul-pleasing. So I went for a walk to the Arno's Vale Cemetary - it normally doesn't have an apostrophe, but since historically speaking it was a vale that belonged to a Norman called Arnaud (or at least so I suppose, can't say I've actually done any research on it.)

This old place was on the Beeb's Restoration programme, but it didn't win. Still they got some money from somewhere 'cos they've been doing a fair bit of work over the past couple of years. Mind you they have to 'cos otherwise people would a) have been falling into people's graves, and b) odds are, the wall would have come down and the Bath Road would have been blocked. Still, so far they've managed to preserve a wee bit of the deserted graveyard bit, which frankly is so extreme that I got spooked when I wandered off the main drag, and along one of the paths. Check this out!

I took this just after I got spooked - and it is meant to be in black and white. It was a lovely clear day, but nevertheless it is a bit on the dark side. Have a look at these.

This one is a bit clearer. And this is right along the path I got spooked on - in the middle of the afternoon! Still it's the time of year for it I guess.. actually town seemed to be reasonably quiet when I was coming home last night.

Still for all this talk of getting spooked, it is a lovely place to go for a walk -

full of beautiful trees and leaves to crunch underfoot. And the air is amazingly clear for a place in the middle of a city, and bang smack next to a busy road.

And as well as this I've made two keycharms. So I'm feeling quite chuffed - all this and home made chicken soup as well! It's been a nice day, I feel as if I've had quite a special day!

Monday...

Well here is and there goes Monday. Been a funny sort of weekend, working, but short shifts, so plenty of free time. And what have I done with it? Cleaned, washed things, made bits and pieces for xmas. Had a lot of stuff end on Ebay Sunday, so had to babysit them as they crossed the finishing line - can't say I sold overmuch, but I'm ever hopeful that sooner or later, Xmas shopping will start and loads of stuff will be zipping out of the door. What did sell, sold reasonably well, and wonderful news on those things that are on sale right now, they have early bids!
Been doing some thinking about photography recently. I really enjoy taking photo's but I don't take anywhere near enough of them. I'd like to start snapping stuff around town a lot more, but I'm kind of nervous about taking the camera out and about. I keep meaning to get a camera phone, which is so much more snapable, if you know what I mean. The other thing is it would be quite nice to take some photos and frame them up - get them on the old Ebay. Can't hurt, and who knows? Maybe I'll make it my new year project.
I had something on my mind then that I was going to write about, and I got sidetracked by Ripley going in to the bit on the spaceship where she finds all the other 'mixed clones'. Yep, I'm sort of half watching Alien Resurrection. Always liked the Alien films, got to respect a film where a character - hell, any character, let alone a woman, is allowed to grow and develop. You get a real sense of story, you know? Especially when so much of what we watch is such trash. I was reading something the other day - nope can't remember what, and it was something about today's "celebrity culture." Personally I don't think it has anything to do with celebrities, it's about the known. It's all about presenting yourself with recognisable personality traits that people absorb into their own personal sense of what's acceptable inside the house. They don't even have to be likeable traits, everyone loves a good villain. They simply have to be the known. Or maybe even not necessarily known, simply not alien/outsider/not known. People have or appear to have difficulty in tolerating the unknown these days. I'm not even sure that this was a result of 9/11, I think it may have been inherent to us, to our culture, as a reaction to the 60s. I don't know, I can't really get my head around what I do mean at the moment, I'll have to cogitate on it for a bit longer and spew up my thoughts in due course!!!

Cool Day!

Had a really cool day yesterday, even if it was tiring! Went over to have lunch with the family - my eldest brother is visiting from France, so it was great to see him. Figured I'd show you what these people look like!

And here they are - Mum, and my brothers. We took her to the local pub for lunch which she enjoyed - then had to come flying back to home so that I could zip in to work to do a night shift. And I was just so tired when I got home.

On top of all this, I have been making some chain and bead bracelets to put on Ebay to see how they sell. They are very pretty - so far I've put on these two:

This one's a bronze tone bracelet, with gold lined Indian glass beads and amber Czech glass faceted beads - and a gold tone snowflake charm on the extender chain - it's 8 inches long.

And this one is really so pretty - silvery blue glass beads, with a silver plate chain linking them - again an extender chain with a Bohemian glass crystal on it to catch the light!

And it's also 8" long.

You can find both of these on Ebay from tomorrow evening, just search on seller Sunspark 58. Both of them are on a low start auction - wouldn't they make someone happy for Christmas? Especially if that person is you!

Today

Yet another day passes. So what did I do today? It suddenly struck me that this tag line across the top of my blog sort of says it's supposed to about this person, me, and my ordinary life - and when do I ever talk about my ordinary life?

Ok, so today was a work day, and more than that, a day shift. So that means the alarm goes off at six, which is like hell on earth. Acclimatisation shock to being awake. Then I drag myself out of bed - maybe 15 minutes after the things gone off, into the shower, make the coffee, my stomach's upset because I wasn't too well yesterday and I've still got gassy remnant of food poisoning. (oh it was totallly my fault!) So then having checked my bag - essentials like mobile, purse, bus fare etc, and having checked my bank balance - I go to catch the bus. I have this thing of trying not to miss it, so I have to leave the flat like ten minutes before it could possibly be due - which could be anything between on the hour or ten minutes after it depending on the traffic - and the bus stops deserted which means the bus before more or less just went. All these fine judgements going on you know? So the bus comes along - together with a lot more people - and we thread our way on to it, through the people getting off - and chug along into town. Journey of about fifteen minutes. Traffic went quite well this morning. I keep, and have all day, been thinking it's Friday, which is unsettling in a Tuesday!
Anyhow we arrive in town and I head on down to Tesco. I needed some fags, and juice and stuff - and it opens at about 7, so by the time I get to town - about quarter past, it's been open a while.
Clearly today was a very very bad day to choose to go to Tesco. I got my stuff, in the basket, and I go to the fag counter, and I'm getting my stuff out, and this woman behind the counter is pointing at a new sign saying they don't take groceries anymore. And I said, and I swear this was conversationally, that's a pain, it's going to slow up getting through here, and she's going I know but there's nothing I can do - and this other woman, who was way away stacking fag packets onto the shelves, butts in, incredibly angrily, saying "It's nothing to do with us, we're not responsible" as if I had accused her or something. And it doesn't matter what I say or do, she is absolutely not going to be appeased, and by this point I'm getting actively angry. I don't go to Tesco to be insulted by the woman who works on the fag counter, who wasn't serving me, who wasn't involved at all until she decided to butt in. Frankly anyone else would have described her as fag ending on someone else's conversation, but I couldn't bring myself to reach for that bad a pun.
So I give the other woman my bank card (bear in mind I've checked the balance) and she puts it into her machine, and blow me down, the wretched thing goes blank and she's standing there helplessly and the other woman, the rude one, gets herself involved. And she's like, 'that card is blank' as if there's a) something wrong with it, b) it's my fault. I persuade them to put it in the other machine - jaw drop here - blank screen.
So at this point I loose it. Not, like loose it, shout my head off, or anything like that, just like loose my patience with this wretched woman. I put my basket of shopping down on the side and walk out of the store. I go to the nearby bank machine and lo and behold there is nothing wrong with my card at all. I get cash out of the machine. I go back to the store where there is now a short queue of people complaining bitterly to wreched woman that there's nothing wrong with their cards. And of course she then presses the right button, or puts in the right code and everything starts working again. Did I get an apology out of her? Did I hell. I think she was trying to be masterful or something, or 'above' the vagaries of her customers, or some damn such thing, I wouldn't mind but this is a shop I go to regularly, and this wretched woman was so, so RUDE. All I can say is she was so lucky it wasn't later in the day when I was more awake, because dear God, she wouldn't have known what had hit her. I am reasonably confident that there are few people in this world who could actually out-rude me in a fair fight, and my God she would have known she'd been in a dispute.
Having read through all of this, it occurs to me that I should state that a) the original woman who was serving me was great. I thought we were getting along fine until bossy boots butts in. b) I would never 'fight' fight with anyone. c) I reserve my right to uphold my end of the story in a fair argument! d) what is it about supermarket staff that they can be so bad tempered at the very start of the day? God knows it's an awful job, but if you hate it That Much, time to look for a new one!
So then I went to work. And I came home, and I ate dinner and I watched the box. This blog is getting way way too long to go into the details!!!

Thinking

Been a very odd sort of day - a bit different from the norm, and I've been doing a bit of thinking. Nothing too profound - God forbid. Watched this thing on the box about Fanny Craddock. The last bit of it was set in this OAP home - the set was very apt. Maybe 'cos I remember going round so many of them in the month or so before Dad died, with Mum & Jo, the room where she was eating her supper was very true to life. The strangely Ikea'ish furniture, the picture rail at waist height and the apallingly bland artwork on the walls. Nothing at all that an old person would choose to live with, but brightly apealing to the relatives. And all wipe down clean of course. The staff put her supper in front of her - fishfingers I think and mashed potato, and I thought dear God. It wasn't that I ever liked Fanny Craddock - she was a strangely caricaturish figure even back in the 60's, but imagine you've spend your whole life cooking - and yeah, I'll get on to the cooking in a bit - and someone slaps down a plate of fishfingers and mashed potato in front of you. Me, I can't stand mashed potato. Any other variety of the stuff and I don't mind, but mashed? The very sensation of it in my mouth makes me feel ill. So there I am, thirty, forty years time, is someone going to be trying to make me eat mashed potato? People talk about the elderly reverting to a form of second childhood, but is that because we're forcing that childhood onto them? Eat it up dear! I can hear the very voice of a brisk careworker in my ears and dear God it's an apalling thing.
Anyhow the food.
I spend a fair bit of time looking through cookery books. I have a fair few of my own, and my mum had a comprehensive collection. I even seem to remember a Bon Viveur one, a spiral bound paperback with strange black graphics on the front that was very redolent of the 50's. Most of my mum's though were Margeuritte Patten's, big hardbound books, and lots of big paperbacks. Colour photo's in batches strategically placed. My God the food of the 50's was something else. To judge it by my memories of those books, that which was not smothered in piped mayonaise, was drenched in aspic, and I'll bet there was aspic underneath a lot of that mayonaise. The best of the Margeuritte books was a jam and pickles book that I freely admit I still use today. Not that I do a lot of jamming or pickling, but I have the thing, and if I had a family, I'd be using it all the time. There are some particularly good pickle recipes in, that I remember clearly. My mother pickled and potted all the time. She was never a particularly hot jam maker, but there were always tons of bottles of pickles and stuff - she bottled fruit as if another war was coming, because we had a big garden and often had gluts. Whenever a pudding was needed, she'd open a bottle of damsons, or plums, and I seem to remember greengages. These are fruits you hardly see in the shops these days - ok, well plums are hardly a rarity, but when was the last time you saw a damson in Tesco's? I do occasionally see greengages, particularly in the station fruit and veg shop, but they (the shop) are exceptional.
Tons and tons of tomato's made it into bottles. Kilner jars, washed, sterilised in the oven, topped up to the lip with tomato's and then topped up with boiling water from the kettle. Then I seem to remember them going in to the oven, the kilner lids being put on and back in to the oven, the seal being made - then out and tightened. Then they'd be left to cool (I think) and the seal tested. Then they'd be piled into the pantry for storage. And I think if it was a particularly good year, some would go into the celler. Now I have a kilner jar, and I often think I'd love to put up a bottle of soft fruit for Christmas - but can I get a lid for it? Not a chance.

A Quiet Week

Yes it's been a quiet week. Mostly because I've been doing night shifts, and sleeping during the day - when I'm not being woken by new tenants. New people moving in upstairs, and managed to set off the fire alarm at 11 am - well, that's not so bad but when you've just got to sleep after a night shift, it's pretty much the living end. Anyhow they're new, so you can't exactly blow your stack at them can you?

The apple's coming on well - check this out !

Yeah a great big dirty brown spot on the perfection of the apple! The inevitableness of decay surrounds us in our everyday lives...


Apart from this I've been spending a good bit of time uploading stuff on to Ebay. Check it out - Sunspark 58, tons of stuff. All ready for Xmas. I wouldn't say I've been selling much, cos xmas hasn't really leapt out of the stable door as yet, but you can sense those eager buyers frothing around the stable steps so to speak. Check out some of these goodies...






Rather lovely aren't they? Well I thinks so.









Both available on Ebay!!! (Well at the time of posting anyhow!)


So what else is new? My eldest brother is over visiting! Shan't see him til next week, frankly we both seem to be so busy it's hard to fit myself in to his schedule! Still maybe I'll get a photo or two and post them - yes, I know it'll make a change from the rotten apple...

A very lazy Saturday....

Yes, I've had a very lazy Saturday. I woke up late, got up late - ok, I've done a bit of washing, but that's about it. Made a new keychain. I was supposed to be working today, but had a late shift swap so I had nothing planned - it's been cool. To do nothing except the stuff you have to do - I haven't even cooked really, there was left over pasta salad for lunch, and supper was a baked potato. Mind you I'll have to pop to the supermarket tomorrow, this rather unexpected night shift requires sustanance to go with it. You can't go to work thinking oh I'll pick something up for lunch. No way. Night shifts require nibbles. I have plums at home which will be nice, especially as they're just ripening, and I have a bag of walnuts, but to be honest, walnuts are a cooking nut rather than an eating nut. They have that thing that dries out the mouth. Eating nuts to me are peanuts, cashews, hazelnuts - and seeds like pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, that sort of thing. And I do like to have a bit of chocolate for a nightshift.


The apple's coming along. Let me post one of todays pics:

As you can see, today's apple is rather a dull thing, and it's a hell of a lot more yellow than it was. It's going to be interesting to see how it ends up!

The apple and other stuff!!!

Wow! I'm dead chuffed! I installed one of those visitor counting thingies - yeah ok, a site monitor, and yes people are visiting my site! It's so - I dunno, cos it's clear these people have wandered on here via the navbar, but some of them have stayed and read, and that's so sweet of them! One from America, and a person from Israel - whoever you are, thanks! I feel somehow oddly vindicated! And yeah, to my old faithfuls, who are presumably my friends and colleagues, much appreciated!

So. The Apple. I'm doing a sort of photo project for Flikr. Having got my access sorted out, and having uploaded some photos - and I don't know what system they use, but my, my tatty photos don't half look good on there, I want to do more to put on there. And I have this apple. It's a beautiful apple, right now. I've been photographing it for three days so far, it's sitting on a plate in my kitchen. I'm going to photograph it as it decays - well, goes past its best. I don't think I'm going to put up with a rotten apple in my kitchen for very long. And, yes, I hear you all saying why exactly? Go have a look at Flikr, and you'll see tons of photo's of very fabulous food. I have to say there are cakes on there to die for. I mean drool at the mouth stuff. And I kind of got to thinking of the other stuff, the downside of food and all that. The all flesh is grass side of it. I dare say what I'm doing is very far away from original - to be honest I haven't checked. It's a bit more to do with me, and what kind of photo's I can produce. Not that I have very much to do with it, it's all point and click, but I'm quite interested to see the descent from edibility to oh god why is that still here-ness. So in the interests of what I'm up to, here's a picture of the apple!

Yay!!!

At long last, got my Flikr account going!!! Ok so this may not seem like the greatest thing in the world but see the blog entry below for just how much trouble this has caused me.
So check it out
http://www.flikr.com/photos/sunspark58

I mean there are so many fabulous photos on there, you don't have to spend time staring at mine. Just go check out Freddie the fox.. just too gorgous for words.

Electronic Hell....

These last, well pretty much 15 or so hours, I have been nothing but frustrated with this damn computer. Last night I started fiddling around with the blog - as you can see it's now this rather nice crimson instead of plain black - and it took me forever to get it to the point where it was viewable. I couldn't get the little spanner and screwdriver icons to disappear! Yet, thank God, they've gone this morning.
And then I put myself, quite deliberately, into Flikr hell. I opened a flikr account months back, but I keep forgetting the password. So I try to open a new account, and every time I try to log in, or create a new account, it recognises my email address, and only ever gives me a choice of tying them together or browsing without signing in. I always fancied uploading a few photo's, so I want to log in and start doing that. But when I try the option of tying them together, it keeps asking me for the password that I forgot, like, months ago! I sent them an email about this months back and their helpful suggestion was to create a new account - but the bloody thing won't let me!!! Talk about how to drive people up the wall! Flikr's a great idea, but they should fix the bloody system so it's easy to use!
But really at the end of the day what can you do? Let the stress of all this get to you, or just relax. It will sought itself out sooner or later. And I made a cool lunch - avocado, peppers, spring onion, cherry tomato's, pasta spirals, lemon dressing - very nice. And when I logged on to the blog, it seems up and running without any problems. Even my newly installed counter appears to be working. I put it on 'cos I want to know if anyone's looking at this thing. Or if I'm talking myself stupid to cyber space. Not that I mind that particularly, and I know that my friends look at this thing 'cos occasionally they tell me about it! But.. well you know how it is. I just want to know how many people accidentally fall on to this thing!!

Change!

Yup those of you who are regular visitors can see some changes! Thought I'd brighten things up a bit - ok, so I like colour. But doesn't it make you feel warm? Or is it giving you a headache? Do tell me then, and I'll change it!

Friday..

End of the working week.. just to think what I was doing this time last week. Just arrived in the Lake District.. ah, never mind.
So what have I been up to since I got back - mostly working actually, doing 8 to 4 shifts. These aren't so bad since you get home to be able to rest and eat at a normal time etc, but frankly I can't say that I've actually been doing this. And I can't honestly put my fingers on the reason why - body clock is back to functioning normally, I feel quite up and refreshed from my break. But I must say I have got this sort of buzz inside me that's saying last chance to build up a stock for Xmas. And I have been putting together an awful lot of bookmarks and mobile charms over the past week. We're on weekend off this weekend - that means we all get the weekend off - and my plans basically fall into the category of get making those keycharms!
It's my Lake District pal's birthday this week as well, so I went to the Post Office to send her present, and I was very bugged that the guy in the queue behind me was reaking of alcohol. Which kind of got me thinking about the bus stop this morning, cos two people were there when I arrived, and another two people walking ahead of me to reach it. What bugged me about that was that these two people chose to stand on the opposite side of the queue to the people standing one behind another. When I arrived I went to stand behind them, and frankly when the bus arrived, the queue was literally all over the place. It's not exactly anyone's fault, it's the way the bus stop is built. The shelter is miles away from the newly raised step, which is where the buses actually stop. So no one really knows where to stand when they arrive there, and on top of this, the road has loads of B&B's in it, so there are more often strangers there rather than regulars. Lots of builders seem to stay here for some reason, and catch the buses in to town. There's also a new high Eastern European population, who I have to say, I'm not sure they even recognise there's a queue forming..!
But I have to say as a regular bus user, people who queue jump drive me up the pole. And no, that wasn't meant to be a pun! And I wonder exactly what pole it is I'm being driven up? Answers on a postcard please...
Ah well. I'm for bed, and the Darkover novel I'm reading. I've been buying up second hand copies of the original novels, which are frankly, patchy. But they lay out the background.. god bless Amazon and Bookbarn. What would I do without them?

Back Home 2!!

Well great as it was, I'm back home. Got some new stuff on Ebay that you might like to see - and it's the start of the wind up towards Xmas people, get out there and buy my stuff!!!!

This is a really pretty fab keychain - a bit of a vine with fruit deal here I feel. Just scoot on over to Ebay and you can find this under seller Sunspark 58.

And this is a green keychain - all very green - with a large lump of green agate on the bottom! Find it at the same place!

Back Home!!!

Well I'm back from a fabulous weekend in the Lake District. Really lovely time, and a salutory lesson to me in how much I needed a break! It was great to have long natters with friends, and to meet the baby - oh she's very gorgeous!

So these are some photo's that I took, that are sort of left overs - photo's that I've got more than one copy of, or photo's that I love, or photo's that aren't state of the art!!!!

This is the Arts and Crafts House, that's just been restored. It's really well worth a visit, and don't forget to check out the rather fabulous little restaurant that's attached. I had the Prawn and Avocado sandwich, which was substantial and tasty. (ok that's enough restaurant reviews!)

But the house was fabulous - and one of the guides played the piano, which was like being taken back in time. We were upstairs at the time, and it sounded like one of the family had come home - just as it must have been back in the day.

On Sunday afternoon, we took the baby to feed the ducks on the lake (Windemere!) This is the evening cruise boat - we went on it the last time I visited. It's pretty great to get a glass of wine and float out over the lake in the evening - I think this one is on it's way out.

And here is a parent swan with it's cygnet, first in line for our breadcrumbs!!!

And this was the view when we glanced up. Ok, now I've chopped a bit off the bottom of this photo, but can you honestly say that you've seen anything as beautiful? Imagine living with this. Oh well I can dream!!!!

Just a little update....

Just thought I'd do a quick post before I go away - something horrid happened tonight as well. I was sitting at the computer doing some loading of stuff for sale on Ebay, and there was this bang outside. At first I didn't pay that much attention, then I glanced out of the window, and the cars were stopped, and this woman was running down the road. So I looked properly, and it seems a car had hit a motorbike, and the poor bloke was lying in the road, all tangled up with his machine.
People were out there helping, so I did what I thought was the best, and called the ambulance - loads of people were on their mobiles, so I guess they were doing exactly the same.
The good news is that the victim eventually sat up, and the police/ambulance turned up very quickly considering - he was taken off in the ambulance, but he was walking wounded, so I think he's had a pretty lucky escape. I didn't see what actually happened, so I couldn't tell whose fault it was, but the car involved was going in the opposite direction. People do drive like maniacs on this road from time to time. I was at the pedestrian crossing a month or so back, with another girl, and had pressed the button - we were both of us standing politely waiting for it to change. Very little traffic around, and that may have been the cause, 'cos the light changed, and I happened to glance to the left before I set off. The car immediately approaching the crossing had stopped, but there was a huge lorry behind it, clearly going way too fast, cos instead of stopping, he swerved around the car that had stopped, into the oncoming traffic lane, overtook and carried on! Both myself and the other girl were absolutly - well wouldn't you be pretty shocked if a ten ton lorry doesn't stop, but zooms straight at you? If we'd taken a step into the road, we'd have been killed, and since the light had been long green, we would have been entitled to have stepped out. But cos I guess we're, well I guess, used to this bloody road, you don't step out, you have a bloody good look. Because some of the drivers out there are maniacs, and seem to think they're filming the re-make of what was it, road race 2000? The one with David Carradine where they mowed down people left right and centre. Lunacy.

The ZOO!

Yes, oh yes I have a weekend off!!! Since it's been like about two weeks since I've done anything but work night shifts, the idea that yes, time is coming when I can get myself together, go out.. be with people... woo hoo!!!!
So what have I done with myself? Well two large packages of new beads arrived today - very nice too. More to come which is even nicer..!
I went out because I had things I needed to buy - and more than just food and beads! Got myself some lovely Anya potatoes at ye old Sadbury's, dear God am I really posting about my food shopping list - well the potatoes were nice, and the spinach and rocket I got to go with it were equally delicous. But enough of all that, I went down to our local shopping centre. I spent way too much money - but this is not a total disaster, as I have been working hard to get a bit extra together for exactly this reason. Soon I am off to the Lake District, for a long weekend with friends - so presents were needed. And more than just presents, new clothes! yes, got mayself new shoes, very nice little suede boots, two new plain black v neck sweaters - I go through plain little black tops like others go through whatever it is they go through! - and a very nice, rather dressy little black top - very flash this, for nights out. Don't do many of them, but quite enjoy the odd opportunity to dress up. Got more tissue paper and chain for the keychains. And then I started the fun bit, presents.
My friends have a daughter of approaching six months by now I should think. Just the darlingest little girl, and an unparalelled opportunity for a single childless woman like myself to get loose in a toy shop. As it turned out, there was absolutely nothing that floated my boat. Not a multicoloured catapillar, or fluffy lamb that reached out and said hey there loose cashcard, buy me, me, me! But, at ye old Sadbury's, I wander into the kids section, and joy oh joy their having a sale on the stuffed animal section. So I have bought this little girl a zoo. I swear, she now or soon will, have an entire zoo.
I bought -
A rhino.
A zebra.
A giraffe.
A lion.
A tiger.
An elephant.
And a monkey.
All exactly the right size for a six month or so old hand to be able to get hold of, and I would think start to wave around pretty soon. Just gorgeous. I can't wait to see her face, as animal after animal comes out of my bag. It's an entire, wonderful, zoo.

Stuff!

Feeling much more lively. Dunno what it was, but feeling much more lively. So I've been making some new stuff & putting it on my various sites - got this new keychain on Etsy, check it out...

Big or what? It is actually, it's 8 inches long and it jangles as you move - full of vintage beads, but it's unique. And there's lots of people out there who want something uniqe.

Check it out - Sunspark58.etsy.com

slightly less boring everyday life!!!!

Well I do feel a damn sight less lethargic, that's for sure. Not that I could put my finger on anything that's changed - but wierdly, Lisa at work said she felt very similar (it seemed to me) today. So maybe there's some wierd sub-virus going round. I mean dullness can hardly be contagious can it - or can it... (dee-dee dee-dee... ) yeah very twilight zone!
Yep I can see it now. A dull little corner of Bristol is detatched from the mainstream universe, and tucked into an alternate.. and the bus comes and goes without a blink and we move from one to the other without realising. I dare say there's a quantum physisist out there nodding to him/herself and saying it happens all the time - just the native inhabitants don't turn up with Spocks to-die-for goatee, and those dinkly little knives tucked into the top of Uhuru's boots. Which given our neck of the woods, frankly is a good thing.
Actually I think about alternate universes, and so forth quite a bit. I remember being knocked sideways by Descarte's wax analogy as a kid (no go read it for yourselves, it'll blow your mind especially when you think about how old it is) and the old apple bit, ie is our universe is a particle of dust sitting on top of an apple that's about to be popped inside someone else's mouth on another world which in all probability is a particle of dust floating about inside someone elses' universe.
Probability is wierd isn't it? I have a good story about this. Years ago, I used to work for the Birmingham Rep Theatre in yeah, you guessed it, Birmingham. I went to see the first night of a production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and frankly I can remember being pretty blown away by the set (they'd turned the old Hamlet set around and used the back of it, which is pretty neat), and I'm fairly sure Daniel Gerrol was in it, but I can't remember much else about the actuality of it. But the opening scene when they're sitting there tossing the coin and arguing about whether it comes down heads or tails.. that I remember very clearly. Because as they said the lines about it had to come down one of the other, and tossed the 'coin', up it went, down it came, and promptly got stuck in a stage floorboard. You couldn't have put money on that. That's probability for you. So what were the odds on Lisa feeling as dull and lethargic at work today as I felt yesterday, and maybe who knows, who will feel tomorrow? Maybe it really is contagious. Maybe we hand it on from one to the other on a daily basis. On the other hand, maybe it's the luck of the draw and sheer coincidence. Who, indeed, knows?

Boring Everyday Life.....

Oh I feel very dull today. Maybe it's the excess of work I've been doing lately. I've been getting home and doing nothing, no new keychains, bookmarks.. whatever. Just very dull as if I'm wrapped up in cotton wool or something. Like I'm not part of the world but sort of floating around it. It's probably being tired from the night shifts last week or something.
Still, one presses on. I cooked the other night, so there was cassarole to re-heat for dinner - and thank God for that too, 'cos we had a training session at the end of work and I was later back than normal. I had it with rice & cooked a little extra, so there was rice to make salad from for tomorrow's lunch. God how we have to think of these things - what can I cook tonight that I can make dinner out of for tomorrow. Still on the plus side, I don't often do rice salad, and it'll make a nice change - tuna, peppers, olives, a few chopped up radish. I meant to fling onion in there too, but I've just realised I forgot it. Maybe I'll chop half an onion before I go to bed.
Maybe it was the training but when I got home I made a cup of tea and sat down to watch the news - and fell asleep! I hate doing that when I'm working day shifts, 'cos you don't go to sleep properly at bedtime, and then you wake up the next day feeling dull too. Talk about a vicious circle.
Still work in itself was a pleasure - I work with a very good bunch, and there's always something to have a laugh about. Even if it's a casual Oh my lord type laugh, look at what I've just done. I must admit I've spent a fair while trying to fill out an appraisal form - it's coming up, and I don't know. I'm not the 'what have I done best recently' type. I could pick holes in myself as an Olympic sport I think. Actually that's not strictly true, it's just that the things I've done best recently don't actually relate to work work. No that's not quite true. I've done one or two things recently that I am quite happy with, that I think went moderately well..
I've had enough for tonight, I'm going round in circles!

Posting the post below!

Boy I dunno if anyone else has been having this trouble getting photo's on here. I've been trying to post this lot below for a while now - still they look good so no probs.
I'm pretty shattered from working loads of night shifts recently - trying to put together some extra money. My body clock's turned completely - I was up and wandering around at three a.m. last night, and slept in til midday. This is no good at all.
Particularly since I'm supposed to be at work for 8 a.m. on Monday! Still I daresay I'll cope somehow.
Been hard at work putting together stuff - thread bead onto headpin, cut to size, make ring.. I'm dead chuffed with the results though. And I'll be making more of these keyring bracelets. I work with a team of women of all different ages, and loads of them go out clubbing - and yes even I remember from way back when. Who wants to carry a whole keyring with you? No what you need is one of my nice new bracelet keyrings!
Just think of your sisters, daughter's, friends out there who need one of these! Now take a look at the photo and go visit my etsy shop!!!

What I've got for sale in my Etsy Shop!

This is my new idea - it's a bracelet with an integral keyring for keeping your doorkey on for a night out. Check out Sunspark58.etsy.com for all the details!

On the right is a keyring charm - Blue Heaven. Cobalt blue beads, with star charms and silvertone metal beads. Nice and big so you don't loose your keys!

This is pretty fab crimson keychain on bronze. Loads of heart shaped beads, amethyst and ruby beads... nice warm colours for autumn!

And this is the final item, beautiful blue keychain/bagcharm with some gorgeous blue beads - some have a touch of gold foil. Check out the enamelled dragonfly charm at the base!

Got this fabulous new outlet to sell my stuff on - Sunspark58.etsy.com - wandered on to this site a few days ago, and Wow!!! It's specifically set up for handmade stuff, and I can see I'm going to be spending my Christmas pennies there. But apart from all this, I set up a shop, so if you like the stuff you're seeing on this blog, then wander over there and have a look.

And this is the photo of the mobile charms & Shepherd's Crook bookmarks. These are amazingly good bookmarks - they hook over the back of the spine of the book, and hold in place very firmly. And the other brilliant thing is because they're all unique, if you give them to your family at Christmas, you'll know who's reading what book. Coming from a family who argue about who's going to read what first, this is quite an advantage!

Talking of reading, I currently have three books on the go. A biography of Mrs Beeton, that I have to admit is a lot duller than I expected it to be, a thing called 'The Historian', which apparently is about Dracula being a librarian - to be fair to this, I did try to start it Friday at about three a.m. when it was quiet, and frankly I don't think I got any further than about two or three pages into it, as my eyes just went boggly and I couldn't carry on reading. But what I'm really reading, frankly, are Watergate books. I'm a big Watergate freak, and I saw All the Presidents Men on the box the other day (for about the nth time) so I ended up re-reading the book (again for about the nth time) so having piqued my interest, I went looking for what's new in the field since Mark Felt was revealed to be deep throat. Now I'll admit my local Waterstones is pretty much king of the mundane, run of the mill and bog standard book shop. It's bang smack in the middle of Bristol, and ok, there's not a lot of room there. Hint to the ruling cadre at Waterstones - when they finish rebuilding Broadmead, get in there, and get a bigger shop! But I have to say you go in there looking for books on pretty much anything beyond say romcom, pretty pretty redecorating, a crime book or whatever - if you want something a bit more than mundane, run of the mill or bog standard, then go elsewhere. You won't find it at Waterstones. But I was pushed for time, so went in looking & could only find Bob Woodward's book. He appears to admit that he left it to late to go pushing as to exactly what it was that made Felt feel he had to do it - to be the source in the garage, backing up what Woodward & Bernstein turned up. I have to say that's such a tragedy. To have lost the first hand account of the motivations of this man is an almighty loss to history, although I guess it's always possible that Felt could have left something somewhere that might turn up.

I always think it's so odd as well, the attitude that my parents had to John Dean. I mean, we are English here, and had only the most distant, mouths agog type of attitude to it at the time - I mean it was flabbergasting that a real live President could have been such a crook, but I can remember Mum & Dad talking about Dean in terms of being a traitor. They didn't seem to see anything at all admirable about the fact that he actually told the truth. So bizarre that. There they are, this stolidly middle class couple, apalled at what's been going on, the daily revelations in the paper etc, yet instead of applauding Dean's ability to admit what had been going on, to come clean and tell the truth, he was always referred to as a 'traitor.' I think it's a sort of attitude that is parallel to the horror that Philby caused at being a real traitor. Now don't get out of hand here, I'm talking about attitudes to, not the reality of traitorhood. What Philby did was totally unforgivable because there's no doubt people died because of his actions, to the best of my knowledge, Dean didn't kill anyone! But it's the whole male gang type thing, the loyalty bond. Philby was part of the 50s white male establishment in Britain, end of empire, supposed to be England my England to the moment he takes the bullet to the heart. Yet to the Cambridge spies, conscience ruled above loyalty to the country. This is of course, based entirely on what they said, and has not one whit of bearing on what they actually felt/thought/believed internally. Dean was presumably a man of some similar degree of conscience, overbourne in his actions at the moment when the people around him where behaving in what was an extraordinary manner. When it all fell apart - now that's the question. Was he a rat looking for an escape craft and going 'me first, me first!' or was he genuinely saying I can't live with this anymore, someone has to tell the truth?

I don't know, and frankly I'm never likely to. I can't see myself ever likely to be in a position to ask him! But I would have loved to be able to sit down and ask Mark Felt why. And I can't help that it's a total dereliction of his duty to history that Bob Woodward didn't start think about this earlier - although to be fair, he gives a pretty good account of why he felt he wasn't able to. If you feel someone's bugged at you, you're not inclined to go busting in there, and demanding they explain themselves. But under the circumstances, my God, what a loss.