Thursday, April 24, 2008

Productive and relaxing, in turns.

I'm having a lovely holiday week so far. Apart from the fact that it seems to be going by much too fast (helped by the fact I was at work on Sat/Sun and that Anthony was here on Monday) it's been going well.

I've got 13 ticks against my 20 item to-do list, although I still have to tackle the boxes upstairs that need both sorting out and then breaking up for recycling.

Today however has been less productive. I woke up feeling miserable (partly due to scary dreams about dentists) and opened the curtains to a dark sky that promptly opened up and rained so hard that it freaked the cats out. I overdid it on the pc yesterday (as well as earning 7 ticks) so couldn't even get excited about playing some WoW.

What's a girl to do?

Well in this case she gets lots of cushions on the sofa, organises herself a nice drink (of Whittard's Blackcurrant and Elderflower Tea) and gets her sewing out. Then she puts on a film...

When I say a film, I mean a few films, in fact I mean the extended editions of LOTR. I've seen the first two and have Return of the King to watch tomorrow (as I think 8 hours of film is enough for today).

I adore the book, and I love the films almost as much. I hate the bits they cut from the story, the same bits they always cut - Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Wights, and I'm still bugged by them pretending to kill Aragorn off in that whole Warg battle scene.

But I do love the bit when Aragorn tells Eowyn that he's 87...looks damn good for his age that man. Wonder if he'd have looked as good at 6500 as Elrond does though.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

I love my sister

She's just phoned me to apologise.

"I'm really sorry Kate."

"What?"

"I've just gone into Waterstone's and they didn't have the other book that I wanted, so I left the Marian Keyes book that I was holding in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy section and now I've gone into Borders."

"Oh Emily. You don't need to apologise for going into Borders. Leaving a Marian Keyes book in Sci-Fi though..."

"I know, I know."

"Hang on a sec, where are you phoning from?"

"Erm...Borders."

"So you're apologising for leaving a book in the wrong place by phoning me from inside a bookshop?"

"Erm...sorry."

Borders didn't have what she was after either so she's gone to Forbidden Planet just in case, and then her last resort will be WH Smiths.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Friday Night


Friday Night
Originally uploaded by Petronella Rose.

In my posh dress, as taken by Miss Katie of W on her phone (which is why it's blurry, but I like that!)

Sunday, April 13, 2008

How old am I supposed to feel anyway?

I went out with Miss Katie of W on Friday night (Campbelli was going to come too but then had to work the late shift *sob* *sniff*). I'd told her about my dressed-up evening last week so she decided I had to get dressed up in it again and then we'd go out and paint the town red.

At least that was the plan.

In reality when she arrived at my house she zipped through my wardrobe (and the piles on the floor...) and decided that I should wear the sexiest dress in the world instead. I protested in vain. It's a summer dress I said. I'll look like an idiot wearing that in the pub I said. Nope, no weakening from her so I put it on (with my red shoes) and off we went.

The Royal wasn't too bad, felt pretty good in there. The Hogshead was a bit strange though as it's a very chavvy pub. But the strangest place was where we ended up.

Now when I go out dancing I want dancy music. Now that doesn't mean dance music, it means things like *whispers* (Abba). Instead Jess took us off to the Light Bar...where they play what I would call indie music. Nice to listen to, difficult to dance to when I'm not completely pissed.

Now don't get me wrong, it was a nice place and I had a good time, I just felt old. Not because I felt I stuck out in the dress, but because the only songs that I knew well enough were either classics - My Generation - or were things that came out the first time round - like Blur and Pulp.

Pulp was the killer one though. I was singing along to Disco 2000 and remembering Stimpy inventing some crazy dance to it back in 6th form...and then I realised that pretty much everyone else in the room would have been in primary school when that came out. Ow.

Yeah, so I'm old. But I very rarely feel like I'm gonna be 30 this year, which is a good thing. (and Katie's friend Jo refused to believe I was older than 26 which helps). But at the same time I feel like I should feel older, like I should be more sensible and responsible by now...

Hmmm.

You'd think that I should do by now. I'm gonna go and fill in some of my divorce paperwork (whoooooooooooooo) and hope that helps.

(Katie has tagged some pics of me on FaceBook and I couldn't remember when they were taken, until I went back to that red shoes post and realised it must have been that night!)

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Random Dad Fact #4

Many many years ago (ok, 1992) Dad wandered into my bedroom one evening and re tuned my radio from Radio One to...well, to birdsong!

He'd heard that they were testing the frequency that Classic FM was going to be broadcast on by playing (among other things) a recording of birdsong from someones countryside garden. I used to listen to it when I could, taping it when possible and then playing the tape at night as I went to sleep. I even had a kind of meditation that went with it (not that I thought of it as a meditation, it was just me daydreaming).

Then today I was watching Breakfast on BBC1 and they started playing the birdsong again.

The story about it is here.

I shall be listening as much as possible, just wish I had a way of taping it again.

Friday, April 04, 2008

All dressed up and no place to go...

Anthony is on nights at the moment.

I hate it when he works nights.

Ok, so it's better than the 5-1 shift cos I can at least talk to him in the evenings and we can play WoW together.

But I still hate it.

I miss him too much.

Silly Kate.

So I am cheering myself up by reading ALL of the Stephanie Plum books. I am up to book 10 which means I have 3 more to go and then a gap as book 14 is not published until June. Have no fear, I have lined up all the Rachel Morgan books (by Kim Harrison) and all of Kelley Armstrong's books to follow on with.

But at the moment I want to be a bounty hunter and hang out with Lula and flirt with Morelli and daydream (and get nervous about) Ranger.

The books have definitely made me feel more kick-ass and chirpy though. So chirpy in fact that on Wednesday when I had overslept and felt a bit pants and so had cherry coke and M&M's for lunch - a customer gave me his mobile number.

Another side effect is that I want to dress up a bit. So I am sitting here in my nice black kitten heels and a sexy black frock. Unfortunately I have no Bucks Fizz (to drink from a pink champagne glass) so I am making do with a litre bottle of Stella instead.

This explains why my typing is like this...and also why I think I just scared the milkman when I opened the door holding my drink, oops!

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Drinking and Random Dad Fact #3

It was Jo's leaving do on Saturday night, and after a quick stop in The Litten Tree (packed full of Wolves fans watching their team get thrashed, Man U fans watching their team win and various chavs) we dashed through the rain to The Combermere Arms.
Matt had randomly appeared at work during the day (the new Lee Child book is out) and so he was there too.
Poor Matt felt a little young for once I think (makes a change from me feeling old) since the next youngest person was Jo, and she's only five days younger than me.
But we chatted and gossiped and nattered and talked about porn so it was really the same old kind of work do, rude and fun.

We were in the front room with the jukebox and quiz machine (on the right as you go in, bear in mind this pub was a house and is weeny small indoors) so of course I had to put music on, and Liz very kindly covered for my evil cunning plan by asking to hear the David Hasselhoff song that was on there!

A very good night was had by all really, and I'm glad that although Jo has finished working with us (*sob*) she hasn't actually taken off for the other side of the world yet and so we can go to the pub with her again!

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

Random Dad Fact #3

While I was putting bad music on the jukebox, Anthony had a go on the quiz machine. Now he's rather good at these things and only occasionally asks me for an answer.

This time it was a good one.

Anthony - Ohhhh...do you know this one babe?

I look at the machine...

Q: Which instrument was Bix Beiderbecke famous for playing?

1. Trumpet.
2. Saxophone.
3. Double Bass.


In the interests of being a pedantic bitch I would like to point out that none of these is right, he actually played the cornet, but for the purposes of the machine trumpet was the correct answer.

I know this because of watching The Beiderbecke Affair and its sequels far too many times after being introduced to them by Dad.

It's not the only "Jazz Fact" that I know, but it comes close...