sunday 5th March

Well, March already folks. It seems that it was only Christmas a couple of days ago, and here we are, a quarter of the way through the new year.
It's been an incredibly busy week. I've been making cakes and stuff to take to the work party we had for a colleague who's - well, now left, sad to say. Like an idiot, I was making sugar syrup and forgot the pan was on the stove, and the next thing I know, the whole flat was full of smoke and fire alarms were going off - hell, quite literally, on earth.
Luckily, however, there were no flames, and a few hours worth of fan smoke clearing, and a damn good clean the next day and all was well again. But it was dramatic to say the least!
The new shop on Ebay is doing incredibly well. Well, it's doing well for me, let's say that, I'm sure that there are a million or more other people who'd do better - who are doing better, but when you consider that I make a few bits and pieces of handmade jewellery and bits and bobs, frankly, it's incredibly flattering to sell anything at all. And I'm not just selling the odd piece either, I'm making sales on a pretty regular basis, which is just so.. I can't really put the way it makes me feel into words! The very idea that people out there like what I make enough to actually spend hard cash on it, it's incredibly flattering.
I've been doing a bit of experimenting recently as well. I'm making more necklaces, and I'm just starting to get into the idea of bead weaving - stringing a main bead, and then weaving strings of other beads around it and so forth. I'm also looking in to making clay beads. In this country (the UK) you can get really beautiful polymer clays - Fimo, and the like, and then there are lots of classes and tutorials on the web to show you how to make various beads. I'm definitely going to get more into the idea of making new beads.
What else is new? My back is slowly getting better and I've been able to do a bit more work on a regular basis, without too much ill effect. Still taking the painkillers though, and still very twinge-y when I go and do something stupid, like bending without taking it slowly, or (God forbid) having to rush! This makes getting across roads a wee bit trepidatious at the mo!
I've just finished "The Interpretation of Murder"! This is the book that I wrote about last time, where Sigmund Freud is involved in a murder investigation in the states, in about 1909. It's interesting but I wouldn't say it was earth-shaking. Nowhere near as much of a good read as I thought it was going to be - somehow the characters don't really grip, and there's no real intellectual challenge.
I'm definitely in the mood for something historical next, but haven't made up my mind what, so more on that anon!
Of course, the other thing this week is the disappearance of Sky One from my cable box. I'm a telewest subscriber and frankly, I'm pretty pissed off about this. (So what else is new, half the country seems to be pretty peeved about it!) It's not so much that I'm enamoured of Sky One, I mean well over 3/4 of what's on it is drivel, but I do like Lost. I'm frankly furious that it a) disappeared off Channel 4, and now, thanks to what seems to be a (duck here if you don't care for this) pissing contest between two billionaires. I have to say that I'm strongly of the opinion that whatever Mr Branson says about wanting to give people choice etc, that he's doing his damnedest to work his way into Mr Murdoch's position. I'm sure he would love to have the degree of control over the media that Murdoch does. I don't think anyone should be taken in by his high flown stated ambitions of more choice or any of that claptrap, he's just bought up two cable tv companies. Not one, in the interests of providing a market with competition, but two. As far as I'm aware, and I'm no expert, I think there are only three in the country. And oh my God, you have to feel sorry for the people on the end of these customer service phones. They must be having to take so much stick right now. Frankly, I think that the management should spend at least a minimum of an hour a day actually answering those phones, not stuck behind nice posh desks, in fancy offices, with enormous salaries, making our, the public, their customers lives, more bloody irritated than they have to be, and that goes for both Virgin and Murdoch. In fact, frankly, Blair should pass it as a law that anyone in a management position has to spend a minimum of one hour a day actually talking to their customers and clients. If I ever run a company (which frankly is highly unlikely!) it's going to be top of my list of work procedures.
And that's my moan of the week!!!!