Nico and Michael...

...and a little healthy competition.



Reminded me of this one, only ever seen on tv once after a little incident at Spa 2007.

PAD Week 8...

...20/02/11 to 26/02/11.

PAD Week 7...

...13/02/11 to 19/02/11.

Well, I'm back...

...from Milan, but only for about 10 minutes.

As much as I want to write a fabulous series of posts about the great time we had in Milan and at Monza, about the lovely tweeple that we met there (twice, once planned, once unplanned) and about the crazy man who thought I was Finnish...

These gems will all have to wait until Saturday, since today I am jumping on a train and heading off Darn Saff to visit my (recovering from an operation) mother (she's alright, just can't move her arm much) for a few days.

So you'll have to wait until Saturday (afternoon as my train home gets in at 23.57 on Friday) to hear about it.

Unless you follow me on Twitter in which case you've got some idea.

Ciao!

As you all know...

...I'm a big fan of Twitter. (When used responsibly that is, anyone who just tweets rubbish at me will be blocked, k thanx bai).

Recently, as well as the collection of FakeF1 Drivers a few real ones have joined in the fun.

Nelson Piquet Jr joined back on the 5th of June and started quite a few people learning Portuguese (although he dual tweets in English too) and made a lot of people smile with his photographs.

Then Rubens Barrichello turned up on the 23rd of June (possibly converted by Nelson?) and also posted amusing photographs (especially this one).

Recently Nelson decided to give away a signed visor to one of his followers if he reached 20,000 followers before the German GP.

On Friday he hit that target and asked people to tweet him what they would do with the visor if they won it.

So I sent him a message that said:

@NelsonPiquet I'll give the visor to my fiance, in exchange for the engagement ring he's been promising me for the last 6 months. 6:46 PM Jul 3rd from TweetDeck

(Quite a few of my Twitter buddies loved it, but I didn't mention it to Anthony...)

The competition closed tonight, and then I got this tweet...

@Petronella won the visor! @pedrorq and @D_Broka, the other 2 prizes! about 2 hours ago from web

OH. MY. GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*ahem*

So I'm shaking like crazy and then Anthony wanders in.

Me "So guess what, I won @NelsonPiquet's visor!" Him "Brilliant!" Me "But you should see what won it for me" Him *reads screen* silence...! about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

(He still hasn't said anything, he's gone out for a smoke...) about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

He's come back in... about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Him: "Well then. I guess we're going to the Jewellery Quarter tomorrow then?" Me: "If that's ok?" Him: "Silly girl, I love you!" about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

************************************

He's a happy bunny, I'm a happy bunny.

Life is good and Twitter rocks!

I have been utterly...

...neglectful in not blogging about the Chinese Grand Prix sooner. This is partly due to the fact that Anthony has been here every evening (and distracting me) and partly due to the fact that I'm having a bitch of a time at work at the moment (and unable to vent/blog about why).

Anyhoo.

So on Saturday morning I got to watch Sebastian Vettel sticking his Red Bull on pole and being rather happy about it. Then I went to work and had a rather better day than usual due to the God that is RichieFingers and the comic talents of Donal, our resident Irishman.

Sunday morning I got myself up to watch all the pre-race chatter and saw something come up on the screen that I wasn't sure if I'd seen correctly. Nothing about it popped up on Twitter, and although Martin Brundle mentioned it in his grid interview of Vettel, Sebastian didn't expand that much on it and they didn't repeat the shot.

Then after the race I found this on the red bullog.



I did see it. I wasn't imagining it.

Sebastian Vettel has a sticker reading "Kate's Dirty Sister" stuck inside his cockpit, just above the steering wheel.

But who, or what, was Kate? And why exactly was his car named after her sister? Her dirty sister...

The man himself explained later:

"Like a ship, a car should be named after a girl as it’s sexy.

My original car was called Kate. But then it got smashed at the opening race in Australia. So we called this one Kate’s Dirty Sister because it is more aggressive and faster"

So there we have it. I got smashed in Australia...and Emily has won a Grand Prix. I'm so proud of her.

Kate's Dirty Sister Google Search.

Twitter is suddenly...

...the in thing, which is a little bit scary for me since I first signed up to it back in March 2007. I never usually discover the cool things early on, I'm always late to the party.

I started tweeting again back in December when I was after a new thing to take my mind off other things. It certainly helped...

Tweetdeck is my interface of choice, if I ever get a phone I can tweet from then that might change but at the moment it works perfectly for me.

I have all sorts of people filtered off into groups...

There is the Perfect group, consisting of lovely lovely people like Caroline_S, Keris, emmaj1983, threeleggedcat, antoniajane and of course Miss EmLah.

There is my Groupie group which features stephenfry, neilhimself, bobbyllew and alandavies1 (he's a secret Leyton Orient supporter y'know), among others.

Other contacts are split into book/blog/F1/randomly interesting related groups.

Then I have a new group that I added just today.

This one makes me giggle.

******************

Please put your hands together for the Fake F1 Drivers!!!

* fakejenson * FakeAlonso * fakefelipemassa * FakeKazNakajima * fakemarkwebber * FakeSebVettel * fakehamilton *

All bossed about by fakemaxmosley and all bitched about by fakejuanmontoya.

Now we just need a FakeKimi to turn up and it'll all be good. (Not that I expect a FakeKimi to turn up, we all know he's too busy drinking/sleeping/eating icecreams to Tweet).

Basically...Twitter rocks.

I completely intended...

...to blog yesterday, and then suddenly it was bedtime and I realised I hadn't. Bad me.

Right then.

On Sunday (after the Grand Prix) I cooked Chicken in Garlic Sauce, which was flipping gorgeous!

It looked like this:


The recipe suggests serving it with boiled new potatoes and green beans, but since I did my usual thing of forgetting to do anything to go with it until five minutes before it was ready to serve, so we had lots of peas and sweetcorn instead.

Apart from the fact there seemed to be gallons of sauce left (the recipe is for 4 and I didn't cut any quantities down) it was absolutely perfect. It's definitely going to be made again, although next time I think I shall try reducing the sauce a lot more!

Lovely Twitter is not only keeping me informed about all the latest F1 shenanigans (Lewis, Lewis, Lewis...cheats never prosper!) but it also won me a prize!
The folks at the Naxos Music Library had run a Twitter competition to win a free months subscription as part of their 30th birthday celebrations. All you had had to do was DM @naxosrecords for a chance to win.

They contacted me on Wednesday to say I'd won it but then Anthony promptly brought me back down to earth by asking me if I'd noticed the date...
Luckily he was very wrong and so I now have a whole month of picking myself some music to listen to. I don't know much about classical music so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

*Anthony has just phoned me so I have completely lost my train of thought*

Um.

Erm.

Here, have a cat picture.



In fact, have two.


(I love the fact Foley seems to have too many legs in this one)

I got up at...

...4.45am this morning.

Ok, so the qualifying didn't actually start until 6am, but the first showing of the new titles was at 5am and I couldn't miss them.

I am very, very glad that ITV aren't doing the coverage this season.

Partly because this mornings results would have completely stumped James Allen.

Yes, there is a British driver on pole.














But it's not the Hamiltwunt...he's 15th on the grid after a terrible Q1 and then his gearbox giving out.













Thank you Jenson.

You've had so much crap over the last two years with people saying you were a has-been. Even real F1 fans were starting to worry.

Now just get rid of that manky beard!

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.

This time of year...

...there are lots of biographies about with incredibly cheesy covers.

Yesterday I saw the worst one ever. It made me laugh so hard I almost wet myself.

So for your amusement I present to you, the current F1 World Champion (you know, the one who can't tell the difference between a green light and a red one)...

Mr Lewis Hamilton


*rolls on floor in fits of laughter all over again*

Although I have to admit that the picture on the inside front cover is worse. In that one he's taken the racing suit off and is standing there in a shiny suit, adjusting his tie with the hand wearing a big blingy ring and looking like a pimp.

A cheap pimp.

On this occasion however, I hope that this does sell. Mainly because if it doesn't (and we haven't sold a single book about Spewis since he won his Championship) then I will be spending the next 4 weeks shifting 96 copies of it to various places around the shop.

Urgh...

...there must be something wonky in my brain to get me up this early.

Anthony has stayed in bed again but since I know that if I attempt to watch this in bed I would fall asleep at a crucial moment.

So I am awake and rather chilly.

Kate + sofa + blanket + cats + cross-stitch + Grand Prix = not asleep + cosy.

My week...

...was pretty good really.

Yes, the event was hellish in parts (I forget how rude teachers and librarians can be), the changeover was complicated by the staff shortages and the fact that half of my colleagues have a really nasty cold meant that we've all been flagging a bit.

But I have been extra kind to myself in the evenings, doing daring things like leaving the electric blanket on low all night (so that I don't wake up freezing cold) and not doing any washing-up again (which sounds terrible unless you realise that this means dirty plates/forks/knives/glasses x 4, and that's it).

Today I also finally got the affidavit for my divorce signed! I've been ringing the solicitors across the street ever day for the last few weeks and there's never been a solicitor in. (Always in court, says a lot about Wolverhampton). Today the receptionist went "Hi, there's someone here today! Will you be straight over?" (we've become quite chatty). So that is done and now just needs to be sent back to the courts and in 4/6 weeks I should get my decree nisi! The reason it's all taken so flipping long is that the Yeti took months to reply to it, I suspect his mother took her own sweet time about forwarding his mail.
Anyway, step 4 is now completed, not too much further to go!

I'm looking forward to this weekend. Anthony's car is still playing silly buggers, but he's being dropped off here later after work. Tomorrow we have plans for a lovely lie-in and then a day of doing who-knows-what. I have to get to bed early though, it's the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday - race start time, 13.30 local time, 05.30 BST.

Now I do actually quite enjoy the early morning races, once I manage to haul myself out of bed. The one thing that always throws me is when I decide I want a beer about mid-way through the race. I walk though to the kitchen, get a bottle from the fridge, open it, turn to walk back through the dining room and spot the time on the clock on the bookshelf - 6am. Yeah...
Never gonna be as bad as when I was tipsy by 8am after watching one of England's World Cup games back in 2002. That was the day I got together with the Yeti, think the match drinking might have been a factor?

The company...

...that Anthony works for do an event each year for their top drivers. People at each depot put themselves forward for it and the winner at each gets some Supercheques (that you can exchange for vouchers for most high street shops) and also gets to go on a jolly.

They all go up to ProDrive and speed around in fast cars, play golf, or demonstrate how well they can reverse park an HGV (eep), for doing all these better than anyone else they can win prizes too, but bascially they have a very nice time. At the end of the thing the company announce an HGV winner, a van driver winner and second and third place winners (either vehicle).

Two years ago Anthony won himself an iPod (my iPod...) and last year he won a video camera. Last year he also won the second prize, which was a weekend away in the UK - which we still haven't taken yet. That was a great win as he hadn't been going to go as it was the weekend after Dad died, but my mother insisted and then he won that!

Last night I'd gone to the pub with Angie (my ex-next-door-neighbour) while he was out on his jolly. About 11pm my phone rang.

Partly it was so he could tell me that Tim Harvey had driven him round the track in an Aston Martin DB9 (jealous drool), but it was also to tell me that he'd won another prize.

This time he won the big one.

H.G.V. Driver of the Year

I'm so immensely proud of him that I could burst! But I'm not going to. Otherwise I would miss out on my weekend away in Europe...

Monza in September 2009 has been suggested...

This day...

...last year was more than a little bit pants.
So when I woke up this morning I had no great expectations, I just wanted to get through the day without falling apart.

In the end it's been a pretty brilliant day.

• I've had paperwork from the divorce people at last. I just have to get an affidavit signed and then that's one step closer to my divorce coming through.

• Lovely Caroline's book arrived at work. I sent her pictures, and she has blogged them. (Yes I am pink, three flights of stairs I ran down to open the box they were in). I am up to page 275 and loving every second of it. Loving is a strange word to use about this book, but it works.

• My iPod has been spooky and played just the right songs at just the right moments.

• It rained a bit today, but whenever I've been outside it has been glorious sunshine.

• Lewis Hamiltwunt lost his appeal against his illegal overtake in Belgium.
  

Basically, life is good.

I am aware that it may all go a little pear-shaped later on in the evening, and it certainly will in the wee small hours when my usual night-time routine kicks in (sleep for two hours, wake up after a nightmare, cry for a bit, fail to sleep until about 5am then get two more hours of sleep).

But at this time, and in this place, life is good.

Sorry...

...that I didn't post about soup the other night, I didn't get out of the bath til about 10pm (mmmmmm, lovely three hour bath) and then I got distracted by the widget again.

There will be a soup post at some point.

In the meantime I would like to say HELLO! to all the lovely people who have been here via the widget and hoped that I get better soon.

So hello and thank you to:

Trousers, nmj, spacedlaw, ken, Susan, Lady in red, Country Girl, Ashley Ladd, Kathryn, Papercuts, Brom, hullabrouhaha, liz fenwick, Nik's Blog, DK Green, Twinville, Pamela Terry and Edward, Crystal Jigsaw and Leigh. (I now have 35 new blogs in the Widgetness folder on Google Reader - wah hoo!)

Also big hugs to Michelle who has also had the lurgy (as have her two adorable boys), and of course the fabulous Caroline who wrote the book that needed the widget (as built by Stray) in the first place!

I am feeling much better today after an unfortunate incident yesterday when I laughed so hard at Lewis Hamiltwunt qualifying in 15th that I actually made myself sick.
Nice...
Luckily the afternoon/evening spent flopped on the sofa, flicking through cross-stitch magazines to find my next project (this one at last) while watching Season Three of Buffy has restored me to nearly normal again.

As I am feeling better I have been very grown-up and written myself a To-Do List.

1. Do washing-up.
2. Watch Italian GP, hopefully laughing at Lewis throughout.
3. Do some work on either my mothers present, or this cross-stitch (that I found in a drawer, half-finished and neglected since 2003).

I hope that you all have a very nice Sunday and I will leave you with Sebastian Vettel's reaction to getting pole position in qualifying yesterday (and becoming the youngest driver ever to do so)


(I just want to give him a hug!)

Edited to add: Hooray!!! Vettel just won his first Grand Prix. Youngest driver to do so and an absolute sweetie to boot!