I finished...

...my current cross-stitch last night. I really couldn't remember how long I'd been working on it, and I couldn't seem to find any pictures of it in progress. After a little digging about in the depths of my computer I found some work-in-progress photos too (and Flickr has helpfully dated them for me).







These were taken on the 11th of October, the 22nd of December and last night respectively.

It's really not that big a design and shouldn't have taken so long but with Anthony working nights I've been on the computer rather than stitching.

Now I just have to choose what I want to stitch next. It's either going to be the Moonlight Cats or the Morning Rooster.




I've got all the threads for the rooster and I'm fairly sure I've got all the ones for the cats, but I'm lacking fabric for both. I shall probably buy the fabric and then decide.

Alton Towers...

...(where I went on Wednesday) was rather good fun.

For your viewing pleasure, here is my fabulous sister and her equally fabulous boyfriend Brychan getting on down to the Austin Powers theme tune.

You won't be able to hear the music, because my camera is stupid and cannot record sound.

But it's pretty damn funny soundless nonetheless.

Those rotas...

...aren't really THAT bad.

They could be THIS bad...

Secrets of the fixture computer

I have always loved...

...mucking about with spreadsheets. That is until recently.

The changes at work resulted in two redundancies, we lost a full-time position and a part-time one. Another colleague had her hours reduced. She opted to leave and so Don has stayed, although he now only does 16 hours a week rather than full time. The three part timers that we used to have were all working overtime to do full time hours anyway since we are a full time member of management short. These changes mean that we have gone from having 4 full timers to 2 part timers and since we still have that vacancy...it's all a bit of a nightmare.

In order to free up some of Richie's valuable time I volunteered to take over doing the rotas.

I now loathe spreadsheets!

Here are some lovely photographs of what I have gotten myself into.




(sorry about the quality, had to use my phone camera - and they're not worth looking at in detail anyway as THEY MAKE NO SENSE!)

Once we have filled that vacancy the rotas will work well, in fact I have already worked out the base daily rotas. The problem at the moment is that because of the vacancy we can't use the base rotas as it would result in there being nobody there to open the shop...hence all the crossings-out and bizarre extra shifts.

Apart from me now being not so keen on spreadsheets it is also making me want to stay as far away from any type of typing as possible (and putting me behind with my OU work, but that's another (eventual) post).

So many apologies (yet again) for being a crap CRAP blogger.

I will be back with you at some point, probably once I have started sleeping properly rather than lying awake worrying about only having 4 staff on a Saturday.

(and I also spent most of this afternoon being convinced it was Wednesday...)

As a citizen...

...of the United Kingdom (being over 18, not a member of the House of Lords, not in prison, and not an idiot) I went and voted today. In fact I went and voted about 10 minutes ago.

And I was amazed.

I handed my small white polling card to the man at the desk and he ticked my name off a list and then handed me a folded yellow piece of paper.

I walked to the little wooden booth and unfolded the paper. And unfolded it again. And again. And again.

There were twelve parties listed on my yellow piece of wallpaper roll. I considered each one carefully.

1) The British National Party - not a hope in hell of getting my vote, racist hate-mongering bastards.

2) The Conservative Party - hmmmm, that Dave is rather convincing but I still don't think a lot of them.

3) Christian Party-Christian Peoples Alliance - see party no.1.

4) English Democrat - Never heard of them, never even sent me a leaflet.

5) Green Party - Ahhh, heard of them, they like hugging trees and saving whales. According to the note on the paper they are "A Vote Against Racism".

6) Jury Team - People who were once on a jury? (see no.4)

7) The Labour Party - Don't even go there, and especially don't take your travel expenses out of my taxes.

8) Liberal Democrats - Well...Vince Cable's book is selling quite well.

9) Libertas - Aren't they something to do with that awful orange Kilroy-Silk man? (Nope, having checked, he set up Veritas)

10) No2EU - well yes, but do you stand for anything else? And can you spk prpr engsh?

11) Socialist Labour Party - underneath this it said "Leader - Arthur Scargill". *silence*

12) UK Independence Party - Ah yes, the OTHER party associated with the orange racist.

------------------------

So, 12 parties...who could I possibly choose?

In the end I decided to vote for Mrs Swinburne because, "We are on the brink of a new era, if only..."

and if you know what that means, not only do you know who I voted for, but you have very good taste in television comedy.

In honour of the fact...

...that when I just came on my blog the statcounter read 888, here is an 8 related meme that I aquired from Keris

Eight Things I Like:

1. Sunshine, even when I'm stuck at work, but especially when I am sitting in it.
2. Chocolate.
3. Anthony (should I have put him at No.1?)
4. Formula One.
5. Poking holes in the foil on the top of new jars of hot chocolate.
6. Kettle Chips.
7. Reading a new book in the bath.
8. Getting tweets from lovely people.

Eight things I did yesterday:

1. Played World of Warcraft.
2. OU study - wrote notes on various things including relative age/absolute age and geological time.
3. Twittered, lots.
4. Ate pate on bagels.
5. Listened to Anthony swearing at the football.
6. Watched a couple of episodes of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency (which I've had saved on the V+ box for months now).
7. Painted my toenails pink.
8. Obsessively looked up the weather forecast for Oulton Park on Sunday.

Eight things I wish I could do:

1. Carry a pregnancy to term. (see No.1 two sections down)
2. Stop being an emotional eater.
3. Save money for longer than a couple of months.
4. Turn a cartwheel.
5. Own a horse.
6. Be debt free.
7. Drive a Bugatti Veyron.
8. Declutter.

Eight things I don't like:

1. Washing up.
2. People who think they have every right to be rude to me because I work in a shop and they work in an office.
3. Coffee.
4. Turkish Delight.
5. BNP leaflets - I've had one through the door every day for the last two weeks.
6. The week before payday.
7. People who tell me ridiculously stupid things and then say "Well it was in the Daily Mail..."
8. Lewis Hamiltwunt.

Eight things I look forward to:

1. Carrying a pregnancy to term.
2. I'M GOING TO MONZA BABY!!! *ahem*
3. Going to Milan in September (what do you mean that's the same as No.2...)
4. Spending a few days in Essex in June.
5. Weekends off. (in general)
6. Leyton Orient winning League One next season.
7. Going to Oulton Park for the BTCC this Sunday.
8. Buying a house with Anthony.

Eight TV shows I watch:

1. Ashes to Ashes.
2. Numb3rs.
3. CSI:NY
4. Charlie and Lola (I love Lola).
5. Eleventh Hour - Rufus Sewell mmmm...
6. BBC Formula One coverage - soooooooooooooooooooooooo much better than ITV.
7. Dollhouse - giving it a go anyways.
8. Buffy - yup, still.

Five months ago...

...it was my birthday (and I became old).

At the time I posted about my plans to put together a playlist of 150 songs for my 30th birthday, the 150for30.

It's still a work in progress.

I'm 37 songs short of the full 150. I've got 34 songs that I need to download (I'm doing 10 a month on payday) and I'm still missing 3 songs for the 0-10 section.

Below is the list of the 37 songs I've found for that time, can anyone help me think of three more?

I'm after the big songs from between 1978 and 1988, I'm sure there must be a few more key songs from that time that I just haven't thought of. Songs that were played everywhere and that have just slipped my mind.

So here's the list, any more ideas? (Keris...I'm looking at you here...)

All Around My Hat - Steeleye Span
American Pie - Don McLean
Babooshka - Kate Bush (TDL)
Bicycle Race - Queen
Blinded By The Light - Manfred Mann
Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell
Buffalo Stance - Neneh Cherry
Cathedral - CSNY
Christmas Must Be Tonight - The Band
Dancing in the City - Marshall Hain (TDL)
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
Gaudete - Steeleye Span
Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City - Harry Nilsson
Guitar Man - Bread
Hotel California - Eagles
House At Pooh Corner - Livingstone Taylor
In The Summertime - Mungo Jerry
Karma Chameleon - Culture Club (TDL)
Layla - Derek and the Dominoes
Love The One You're With - Stephen Stills
Making Your Mind Up - Bucks Fizz (TDL)
Only The Good Die Young - Billy Joel
Orinoco Flow - Enya (TDL)
Our House - CSNY
Photographs and Memories - Jim Crace (TDL)
Shaddap You Face - Joe Dolce (TDL)
Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel
Spirit in the Sky - Doctor and the Medics (TDL)
Stand and Deliver - Adam Ant (TDL)
Stuck In The Middle With You - Steeler's Wheel
Sunshine On My Shoulders - John Denver
Take On Me - A-Ha
Teach Your Children - CSN
The Chain - Fleetwood Mac
The Weight - The Band
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham
We Will Rock You - Queen

(TDL)= To DownLoad.

For bonus points, can you guess any of the 14 songs from that list that have made it onto my work playlist...