Thursday 22 January 2009

Tuesday 20 January 2009

Yesterday was supposed to be...

...Blue Monday.

(At least it was according to some strange formula which made the news full of it)

The most depressing day of the year.

It could very easily have been.

It was the day before my payday - which used to mean 19p toast for lunch (except that the Tesco Value sliced loaf has rocketed up to 40p since I last bought it) - but as we had thought ahead I had lovely galettes filled with cheese and ham instead.

The shop was very very quiet - which could have meant us all worrying about our jobs - but instead we wrote reviews, pulled returns and made suggestions for Richie Fingers' display of adult picture books (sick puppies, this kind of book, not that kind of book).

I got incredibly broody over an adorable little girl - which could have ruined my whole afternoon - but instead I thought that although I don't have that right now, I will in the future and so it's something to look forward to, like a holiday is.

Oh yeah, did I mention? I'M GOING TO MONZA!!!!!

*ahem*

Today is also going to be a very good day.

I have just slathered Marilyn all over my hair so that it currently smells gorgeous, and in 5 minutes it will look gorgeous too (once dried anyway).

I have two houses to go and view just up the road. I still want to move and even if they're no good I like looking at houses.

I plan to do some nesting things and some bookish things and with any luck Keris might have Joe while I'm at home to read the updates! (although not looking promising so far)

I've gone online to do all my banking and remembered that I don't have to pay any Council Tax this month! That makes me £71 richer than I thought I was. I'm going to be good too and not just go straight to Etsy with it...I shall pay off my book club instead.

And Nie is posting again.

Life is good.

Sunday 18 January 2009

It's been...

...a very nice weekend.

Yesterday we did a bit of reorganising, had a visit from Alf (and his mum) and then I fell asleep on the sofa after Leyton Orient lost again.

Today we went on our annual trip to Merry Hell as I needed some more shampoo from Lush (got some I Love Juicy and some Daddy-O this time).

Of course we couldn't go to Merry Hell without stopping at Hotel Chocolat too...

I am now rubbing my hands in glee over as I have yummy Creamed Caramel Chocolate Drops and also some very exotic (and not on the website) peach, lemon and blueberry truffles (6 of each flavour).

Nom, nom, nom.

*smile*

Thursday 15 January 2009

Blue, blue...

...blue.

January has me in its miserable grip.

Every single customer at work is rude and or abusive - the winner being the woman who called me a f**king cow when I asked her to put in her pin number while she was on the phone to a friend.

The blog I go to for happy thoughts and positive thinking, cjane, has had no end of crap being talked about it in various places due to her success (subject to confirmation) in the 2008 Weblog Awards.
This includes criticism of the fact that she has been fundraising for her sister, the fact she has been raising her sister's kids, the picture of herself as an angel in her blog header, and the fact that she has been moderating her comments over the last six months in an attempt to keep things positive and upbeat. Good grief. I worry about the world when people stop understanding jokes and sarcasm and decide that she's an evil person who only gave her nephew gum for his birthday.

Plus I'm feeling broody/empty, a currently unsolvable problem.

So tonight I have come home and dug out a song guaranteed to make me cry my eyes out.



Then I put on the song with the longest intro in the world (lyrics start at 3:24)



Then Anthony walked in the front door, I put on a song from my 150for30 play list and the world got brighter.



(Forgot today was Thursday, that goes a long way towards explaining me ranting!)

Wednesday 7 January 2009

I'm a little bit...

...fed up with the fact I've caught the flurgy twice in the last four weeks.

Partly cos it nearly killed me yesterday morning.

I was nicely asleep and having a surreal dream about Grandma Mazur (reading too much Stephanie Plum methinks) when I was woken up by a sneeze.
I reached down to the box of tissues...empty.
I woke up Anthony to check his side for tissues...nada.
So I hauled myself out of bed to go downstairs to the bathroom and grab some toilet roll.

Except the fact I was still rather sleepy meant that I didn't put my left foot where I should have done at the top of the stairs.

This resulted in me sliding down the stairs on my right side and landing in a heap at the bottom. (Anthony was out of bed and nearly at the top of the stairs before I hit the bottom).

Ow.

Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW!

These are the stairs that I went sliding down (note the white marks on the edges of the bottom seven stairs).

Below you can see what my right calf and right thigh looked like just afterwards (those white marks on the stairs...the skin from my calf). The swelling on my thigh just kept growing, it was a B cup size before any bruising started to come though.





I trotted off to the doctor (ie Anthony gave me a lift there and then I took 20 mins to do the 5 min walk home) since I'd also banged my head (no bruising there, sorry) and he was quite amazed that I hadn't broken anything (as was I). I just had to wait for the swelling to subside before I tried to spend a large amount of time on my feet. He also said "You'll probably have a little bit of colour change around that swelling in the next few days".

He wasn't wrong.

So for your viewing hilarity I present to you.

Kate's Rainbow Leg (over the course of yesterday afternoon)




The bit above the crescent shape is where it is still swollen (although probably only an A cup now) from a haematoma that is "probably going to take a few weeks to come out properly" - as in the swelling to go and that bit of bruise to come out. Since this is me...the folks in the Center Parcs Spa will probably be wondering how I got that bruise when I go there in March!

Friday 2 January 2009

My dragon...

...is on the TV.

When we went wandering about London in September to take pictures of the statues from Stoneheart/Ironhand/Silvertongue, one of the statues I needed to find was the Temple Bar City Dragon.

Here it is as photographed by me.



Here it is in the rather fabulous BBC trailer for... City Season. (Pause it right at the beginning to see the same shot)



Too much to hope that some sensible person had chosen to televise Stoneheart. One day maybe...

Thursday 1 January 2009

Hang on a minute...

...where did 2008 go in such a hurry?

Last year went by in the blink of an eye. Admittedly the kind of blink where you are starting to doze off and then have a horrible thought/dream and come awake with a jolt and a shudder - but a blink nonetheless.

So what exactly did I DO last year?

January - I ate Creme Eggs, and then tried to diet (fail). Went to see Orient lose at Forest (which won't happen again this year as Forest got promoted). I posted pictures of unfinished cross-stitch projects (mostly still unfinished) and wanted not to be drinking on my birthday (fail again, but nearly made it...next time...)

February - I was flaky and stressed. Anthony surprised me on Valentine's Day. Rich D called Gavin a butt plug.

March - I posted 18 things that I had done in the 18 day gap between posts, first six, then twelve. I rocketed my blog posts total by getting up at silly o'clock to watch the rather destructive Australian Grand Prix. I spent a nice week at Center Parcs with my family and came home to Michelle's fabulous news.

April - I actually went out drinking twice! (and Jo, who's leaving do it was, came back to work for us about a month later too. It's her 30th birthday today in fact - HAPPY BIRTHDAY JO!). I was feeling very kick-ass at one point, (as happens at some point every year in fact, I'm reading Four to Score at the moment). I also watched all the LOTR films again. (Anthony turned 34 as well that month, but didn't get blogged about. Poor darling).

May - I got a stupid eye infection, I felt bookish and I tried to work out my own personal decorating style. I also felt crafty and very slightly girly.

June - I showed off my new shoes, and drooled over the new Diana Wynne Jones book. I discovered Charlie Fletcher and came up with my London trip plan.

July - I showed off my girly side in my posh frock, ranted about the Hamiltwunt and relocated to here. Then I ranted about the hideous travesty that is The Dark Is Rising film, got badly sunburnt legs at the BTCC race at Oulton Park and confused myself completely with my gas and electric meters.

August - I had a week off and did quite a bit cross-stitch, some of it on a rainy Saturday. I stayed up late/early to watch the Olympic Cross Country, and then listened to some good music on my first day back to work. My London plans got an extra boost with the publication of Silvertongue, and once again my gas and electric meters were mean to me.

September - I came back from my lovely London trip (which never actually got blogged about) and was sucked into the world of the widget. This meant that comments on my posts rocketed, so I promptly caught the evil lurgy and was unable to post about anything other than being sick on the Hamiltwunt/cheering at Vettel and soup. I had a better day than I expected, and Anthony proved yet again that he is actually The Stig.

October - I did some relaxing, some snuggling, and had a good week. I boosted my post count again by getting up for the Japanese GP, was geeky over the new WoW patch and couldn't believe I'd been with Anthony for two and a half years. After this my blogging got sketchy due to not being able to blog about the biggest thing in my life, but I did manage to do this meme from Michelle.

November - For most of this month I was failing to bleed or I had (what I told you guys was) the lurgy (but was really morning sickness). Richie Fingers made me sing, and the Hamiltwunt made me laugh (and we still have about 80 copies left).

December - I shared my bad news, and tried very hard to think of good things. I lost my hair, had a good Christmas and scared all my readers away by sharing a very long list of songs!

Looking at this list I see I did actually do quite a lot in that very fast year. I know I learnt a lot about myself, and made some lovely new blogging friends.

Most folks I know had extremely mixed fortunes in 2008 so I hope that all of us have a much, much better 2009. I also hope I don't get too sunburnt at Monza (although judging by last years race I'll get waterlogged instead).

Happy New Year Folks. May it be bright and shiny and full of lovely lovely stuff like published books (for you and you and you too!), and new babies, and fresh starts and new studies!

And all sorts of other lovely things that you want and I don't know about/have forgotten about.