tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62654232024-03-08T03:05:05.504+00:00Random Stuff and Ramblings"I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see." - John BurroughsKatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.comBlogger632125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-60008656541266059862008-07-20T22:45:00.001+01:002008-07-20T22:46:42.657+01:00Come on Over<br><br /><br /><a href="http://world-of-kate.blogspot.com/">A World Full of Kate</a><br /><br>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-15272656068607088552008-07-20T12:19:00.002+01:002008-07-20T13:02:52.265+01:00Three Things<br><br />Hello.<br /><br />Changes are afoot, and you will find out more later.<br /><br />For now:<br /><br />1) I had a lovely time in Cardiff watching my sister graduate.<br />2) Some silly bint did a Hamilton on us yesterday (ran into the back of us at a red light) and now my neck feels funny.<br />3) We have won £10 in each of the last three lottery draws - all with my line of numbers.<br /><br>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-68038054591845931712008-07-11T08:22:00.007+01:002008-07-11T11:15:13.553+01:00F1 in my head<br><br />I was going to have a lie-in this morning...unfortunately I had a nightmare and so I'm up early.<br /><br />The nightmare was a strange one...I was at work, at Christmas, and attempting to merchandise the charts - with ten Lewis Hamilton hardbacks and twenty Lewis Hamilton paperbacks...<br /><br />The thing is, last Christmas there were 7 biographies of him, plus his official autobiography. But if he actually <b>wins</b> the championship this year then my nightmare might become real!<br /><br />I think this dream was a delayed reaction to the broadcasting bias of the British Grand Prix last Sunday.<br /><br />Don't get me wrong, I loved watching it. It was the first race this year that I've watched with Emily and Brychan (which always makes it better), plus the fact it was a wet race meant that lots of people spun off in humorous ways (most of them near to Sebastian Bourdais - I think he has his own gravitational field that was throwing people off).<br /><br />The problem with it was actually the same problem that has plagued all the races this year - ITV and James Allen having multiple orgasms over Lewis' ability to "race".<br /><br />James decided to compare Lewis' race to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayrton_Senna#Wet_weather_driving">Senna's race at Donington</a>, which made Anthony hit the roof.<br />Let's just go into that shall we... Lewis was second on the first corner, and took five laps to pass his team mate (who rather obviously moved off the racing line) - Senna was fifth on the first corner, and first by the end of the first lap having passed Schumacher, Wendlinger, Hill and Prost (that will be passing his three championship rivals and another driver for good measure).<br /><br />I think that if James Allen compares Lewis to Ayrton one more time, Anthony will track him down and <a href="http://aoifephoenix.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20language">follow Coulthard's lead</a>.<br /><br />Now, don't get me wrong, when Lewis started racing last year I was looking forward to seeing a British driver racing for the championship. But after ITV have declared him the "People's Champion", decided that every single track guide lap should be one of Lewis', interviewed his dad rather than show an interview with the race winner (on the numerous occasions the winner has not been Lewis)...<br /><br />Plus Lewis himself has changed from a guy who was very eager to push himself as a normal home-loving guy, British first, black second; into a guy who has *moved* to Switzerland "to avoid the media scrum", who has a celebrity girlfriend and lots of new celebrity friends (like P Diddy, who did a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute">Black Power salute</a> when Lewis won at Monaco), who cites Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King as his two biggest heroes (but then muddled up a MLK quote in his press conference).<br /><br />*breathe*<br /><br />I shall stop ranting now, but this fabulous cartoon sums up the Hamilton hype quite nicely.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLh-RaGUzOLG2-YU5d_vAyFcSr4DdEj6Nwl80_wJRHjSCIaWAPSfHkiJKz5lqSFrF0uf9TCs5ZtWrlX3Xiv42rfmwnWpQTwq4OEAvqS8LwZik0EkZ87669DfrsF01xKLrym-ST/s1600-h/n1624890020_19024_324.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221661460431654994" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLh-RaGUzOLG2-YU5d_vAyFcSr4DdEj6Nwl80_wJRHjSCIaWAPSfHkiJKz5lqSFrF0uf9TCs5ZtWrlX3Xiv42rfmwnWpQTwq4OEAvqS8LwZik0EkZ87669DfrsF01xKLrym-ST/s320/n1624890020_19024_324.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-11071077315673655012008-07-07T20:06:00.002+01:002008-07-11T10:53:50.011+01:00Frock<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petronellarose/2646378621/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3183/2646378621_13c25c7be9_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petronellarose/2646378621/">Frock2</a> <br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/petronellarose/">Petronella Rose</a>.</span><br clear="all" /><p></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-15355102118441505732008-06-26T12:52:00.003+01:002008-06-26T13:08:13.718+01:00Pictures<br><br />Michelle has just done a <a href="http://michelle-says.blogspot.com/2008/06/pretty-pictures.html">lovely picture meme</a> and so here is mine.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaybBfBA_Phpbyis0jVkERPEZ-Mw7-VS7gKWJmyVPhHkQWAcDeWSdFSfaYnyz5l441rHEnfNjbb_VY0kkjjogfVB9K1JOpbuQszg1J4uA_lcOOOHeLmvulgJ9lY_qZkG4OT41E/s1600-h/mosaic2482488.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaybBfBA_Phpbyis0jVkERPEZ-Mw7-VS7gKWJmyVPhHkQWAcDeWSdFSfaYnyz5l441rHEnfNjbb_VY0kkjjogfVB9K1JOpbuQszg1J4uA_lcOOOHeLmvulgJ9lY_qZkG4OT41E/s320/mosaic2482488.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216160769428079890" /></a><br /><br />1. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/expeditions/490273718/">a lovely evening cruise</a>, 2. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petervanallen/411373709/">eye candy!</a>, 3. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/photo_synthesis/2317439823/">wyrdwoods_MC_03</a>, 4. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/g33k-fu/109512856/">Mom's dried roses</a>, 5. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dreadfuldan/477173067/">Jared Leto</a>, 6. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixie_bebe/118625400/">Cactus Club Cafe bellini</a>, 7. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/neloqua/251133988/">I want to be where the Sun warms the sky</a>, 8. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pianoman75/388481799/">Yes....oh....YESS</a>, 9. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/slack12/314853262/">Best little book store in the world</a>, 10. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/santos/1704875109/">bookshelf spectrum, revisited</a>, 11. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobilina/2193349904/">Bookish creature</a>, 12. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/monicamo/2244302846/">Petronella de la Court’s Dutch Cabinet</a><br /><br />Here’s how you play:<br />type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search.<br />using only the first page, choose an image.<br />copy and paste each of the URL’s into the mosaic maker over at <a href="http://bighugelabs.com/">FD’s image maker</a>.<br /><br />The questions:<br /><br />1. What is your first name?<br /><br />2. What is your favourite food?<br /><br />3. What high school did you attend?<br /><br />4. What is your favourite colour?<br /><br />5. Who is your celebrity crush?<br /><br />6. Favourite drink?<br /><br />7. Dream vacation?<br /><br />8. Favourite dessert?<br /><br />9. What do you want to be when you grow up?<br /><br />10. What do you love most in life?<br /><br />11. One word to describe you.<br /><br />12. Your flickr name.<br /><br>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-7213710048615053802008-06-26T12:04:00.003+01:002008-06-26T12:14:46.672+01:00Cattitude Problem<br><br />Esme doesn't like it when I clean or tidy. She'll sit there and watch me and then wander off and express her displeasure.<br /><br />Sometimes this is by waiting until I have a full black bag and then chewing a hole in the bottom of it. Sometimes she will knock over the big pile of books that I have just collected from all over the house (a very common occurrence).<br /><br />Usually she just goes and wees in the bath.<br /><br />Today however she found a new way of expressing herself.<br /><br />Because I was cleaning the bathroom the bath was full of bleach so she decided to wee somewhere else.<br /><br />She chose the washing basket.<br /><br />When I'm doing a load of washing I leave the basket on the floor in front of the machine so that I can just pull it out straight into it, luckily I was using the white basket so I noticed the next time I went into the kitchen. (I'm oh so very glad it wasn't the red one...)<br /><br />Esme is now sulking in the armchair, the washing has been hung out (after being put in the red basket) and the white basket is full of hot water and bleach and sitting in my nice clean bath.<br /><br />I must also confess that while my first reaction was <i>Bloody cat!</i>, my second reaction was that of a small child... <i>Look at all that wee! *giggle*</i>.<br /><br>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-81373758358578638402008-06-24T18:22:00.005+01:002008-06-24T18:43:48.493+01:00House of Many Ways - Nom Nom Nom Nom<br><br />After reading <a href="http://insearchofadam.blogspot.com/2008/06/sunday-reading-shopping-for-books.html">Caroline's post about shopping for books</a> and seeing her mention <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garden-Spells-Sarah-Addison-Allen/dp/034093574X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214329378&sr=1-1">Garden Spells</a> at the end, I decided to read it again.<br /><br />So I took it to work with me this morning, and read the first chapter or so while waiting for our morning meeting to start (and then delayed the meeting slightly by raving about it when Bod asked me if it was any good (having sold one to Jo after I'd recommended it to her))... anyways, so I planned to read it again today.<br /><br />Then all my plans went out the window when Donal phoned up from Goods In to tell me that <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/House-Many-Diana-Wynne-Jones/dp/0007275668/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214328056&sr=8-2">House of Many Ways</a> had just arrived. So naturally I read that instead.<br /><br />Once again, Diana Wynne Jones has written a brilliant book. Now it's "A chaotically magical sequel to <i>Howl's Moving Castle</i>" so I was very much looking forward to reading a little more about Sophie and Howl (and Calcifer) - and I wasn't disappointed. One of the things I loved was the dog called Waif. Now in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl%27s_Moving_Castle_%28film%29">film</a> (that <a href="http://meandmybigmouth.typepad.com/scottpack/2008/05/a-howler.html">Scott Pack prefers</a>) there is a dog called Heen that is small, scruffy and very wheezy. Heen doesn't appear in the book, the dog in the book is the combination of Wizard Suliman and Prince Justin that the Witch creates (another bit dropped/mixed up from the film, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howls_moving_castle#Other_characters">read about him here</a> and discover the whole point of the scarecrow turning into Prince Justin (something Richie Fingers asked me about)).<br /><br />Ahem.<br /><br />Anyways, Waif is basically Heen, but with a new name and new purpose. I love the fact that she's taken this film character and transplanted it into a new book!<br /><br />Now if none of that makes any sense, I do apologise - basically I recommend it!<br />(and I've now seen the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/House-Many-Diana-Wynne-Jones/dp/0061477966/ref=pd_sbs_b?ie=UTF8&qid=1214328056&sr=8-2">American cover</a> and may just have to buy that edition too...)<br /><br>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-51827021638974685792008-06-22T11:38:00.005+01:002008-06-23T07:59:39.599+01:00Sunday Reading<br><br />A few weeks ago I was tidying the kids table at work and picked up a book called <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stoneheart-Charlie-Fletcher/dp/0340911638/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214132036&sr=8-2">Stoneheart</a>. Now I'd been picking this up and looking at it for a while. I liked the cover and loved the first part of the back cover blurb...<br /><blockquote>Deep in the City something had been woken, something so old and so ordinary that people had been walking past it for centuries without giving it a second look...</blockquote>So I opened it up and read the first couple of pages. Then I walked over to the shelf and picked up the second book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Iron-Hand-Stoneheart-Charlie-Fletcher/dp/0340911654/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214132066&sr=1-1">Iron Hand</a>. Then I put them on our reservations shelf until lunchtime when I bought them both (as well as the new <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Dessen">Sarah Dessen</a> book, Lock and Key).<br />I read all of Stoneheart in my lunch break then I polished off Iron Hand at home that evening. Then I read them both again a week later.<br /><br />Now I read a lot of kids books, I read a lot of books full-stop, but these... It was like the first time I read The Hobbit/Howl's Moving Castle/Saffy's Angel/I Capture The Castle. Just <b>oh-my-god-that's-so-good!</b><br /><br />Someone else <a href+"http://scholar-blog.blogspot.com/2007/01/stoneheart-charlie-fletcher.html">loves them</a> too.<br /><br />I now have to wait until September for the third book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silvertongue-No-Stoneheart-Charlie-Fletcher/dp/0340911662/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214132107&sr=1-3">Silvertongue</a> - I may just explode with impatience before then.<br /><br />One of the reasons I found these books so amazing was the way that while I was reading I was in London. There is a wonderful passage where the Raven has been sent to fetch the Minotaur...<blockquote>In a direct line between him and the gherkin, about half a mile in front of it, was the eastern edge of a massive complex of concrete and glass, like a fortress assembled from ziggurats and thin spiky towers. Inside the boundaries of this futuristic urban citadel there were fountains and walkways on different levels, and there was more concrete. The Raven knew that below the surface of the southern end of this sprawl had once run the ancient city wall. And he could remember when the dwarfed white church marooned in a startling patch of green within the cement bastion had been the tallest building in the area.</blockquote> Now as soon as I read that, I knew it was the Barbican. I've been there enough times to know it, I'd just not necessarily have described it like that, but it's a perfect description.<br /><br />These books have meant that my much wanted trip to London will now be featuring a tour of the statues mentioned in the books. I've managed to find some photos of a couple of them, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cleopatra.needle.sphynx.arp.750pix.jpg">The Sphinx</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Artillery_Memorial">The Royal Artillery Memorial</a>, but I want to see all of them. I want to see the Grid Man, the clock where they hide, the statue of Icarus and the lair of the Minotaur.<br /><br />If these books had been published twenty years ago, I would have been taking that tour with my dad as he'd have loved these books. Instead I shall take my camera and Anthony (bribed with a visit to the F1 shop and the Imperial War Museum) and make it my third reason for my trip to London.<br /><br>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-87702796483247104602008-06-17T18:28:00.007+01:002008-06-17T21:42:10.637+01:00Bad Girl<br><br />I know I'm a crap blogger at the moment, I just can't seem to get anything to stick together enough to write it down.<br /><br />But I did photograph my new shoes for you, even if I have not written about looking for them and asking the salesgirl for "impossible shoes really. Cream sandals, must have an ankle strap, preferably a kitten heel that's no more than an inch" - "Yup, they're impossible shoes" she said, and sold me those instead. Well I say sold me, sold Anthony actually. But he picked them out and I'm going to wear them at two separate parties in the next month so that justifies the price (which Emily would say is not a lot for shoes but I think they were expensive). (Oh, I wrote about it...w00t!)<br /><br />Go and play the <a href="http://michelle-says.blogspot.com/2008/06/last-night-i-dreamt-i-went-to-manderley.html">first line guessing game on Michelle's blog</a> instead and I shall go and play some more WoW and make notes whenever I think of something I could possibly blog about.<br /><br>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-533913777717104292008-06-13T17:20:00.002+01:002008-07-11T10:54:12.143+01:00New Cream Shoes<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petronellarose/2575079005/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3143/2575079005_bb8715bb96_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petronellarose/2575079005/">CreamShoes2</a> <br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/petronellarose/">Petronella Rose</a>.</span><br clear="all" /><p></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-88358888261499362152008-06-13T17:19:00.002+01:002008-07-11T10:54:28.894+01:00New Cream Shoes<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petronellarose/2575078505/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3118/2575078505_d11545854d_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petronellarose/2575078505/">CreamShoes1</a> <br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/petronellarose/">Petronella Rose</a>.</span><br clear="all" /><p></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-22944638235160160702008-05-29T20:37:00.004+01:002008-06-17T18:48:19.205+01:00My own Moving Castle.<br><br />After my discovery of a cardboard Moving Castle earlier (now sadly unavailable unless it appears on eBay) I have got the book to read in bed tonight and put the film on to watch while I eat/play WoW.<br /><br />Watching the film does make me go "Nooooo, that's so not right!" every five minutes or so although I do like the way old/young Sophie blend every now and again), a bit like LOTR really. But I do like Billy Crystal as Calcifer's voice. To honour the film I have been playing one of my alternate characters on WoW - my Blood Elf hunter Sophee and her pet lynx Calcifer.<br /><br />I have also managed to find <a href="http://heywink.com/wordpress/?p=38">this</a> lovely link to a downloadable model of the Moving Castle.<br /><br />Now all I need is a printer...<br /><br>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-49227393917913179582008-05-29T17:44:00.005+01:002008-06-17T18:48:42.182+01:00Itchy Fingers<br><br />When I was at home over the weekend I was looking through a few of the photo albums and in one of the Christmas pictures I spotted a craft book that I remembered very well.<br /><br />It was one for making gift boxes, and the book had in it all these cut-out shapes that you used to make the boxes. I can remember spending hours making those things, I loved doing it. Another year I had a dragon book and made 9-10 different dragon mobiles, and another time I had an Escher book where you could make these shapes that rotated to show off the tessalating designs.<br /><br />I bought my two copies of the <a href="http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/displayProductDetails.do?sku=5264789">Unseen University Cut Out Book</a> but I'm nervous about starting the thing when I haven't made anything for such a long while. (The Escher things are the last I can remember making and that was in early 1995).<br /><br />So I thought I'd have a pootle about on t'interweb but while I've found lots of printable templates for things that I don't really like the look of anyway, I've found next to no books (barring all the Usborne ones).<br /><br />But I did just find <a href="http://verycoolthings.com/vct/Neo_getpage.cgi?page=itemtoy.html&itemID=13687">this</a> and I'm now deeply in love with it. Despite the fact it's not the proper castle (the one from the book), I still like the film and would still like to make the thing.<br />(Scott Pack has just finished reading the book and is being told just how wrong <a href="http://meandmybigmouth.typepad.com/scottpack/2008/05/a-howler.html">his opinion</a> of it is.)<br /><br />Prepare yourself for the possibility of more paper model related posts, and if I manage to track down anything I want (and can afford) then there might have to be pictures of work in progress.<br /><br>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-28803898221182354602008-05-28T18:10:00.005+01:002008-06-17T18:49:07.613+01:00Gah.<br><br />I am wet. Some twat of a boy racer decided that it would be funny to slow down as though he was going to let me cross the road, and then to zoom past through a huge puddle as I stepped off the kerb. But I was a very good girl and didn't make an obscene gesture at him (mainly cos this is Wolverhampton and he'd probably have shot me).<br /><br />So being very soggy I have broken my new habit of not sitting down at the computer until 7pm. This was a very new habit as I only started it yesterday, but in that computer-less hour yesterday I managed to make my dining room look like a dining room - you can see the table top! If I can keep the habit up (I do have tomorrow off so I'll do an extra hour then) I should have a tidy(ish) house in no time.<br /><br />Since my dress post - and thank you for all the lovely comments and hello to the new people - I have been back to Essex for the weekend and I took it with me. I didn't wear it, but my mother likes it and suggested I wear it to my old friend Jodie's 30th birthday party in July. Depending on the weather... I might. I still have not found any shoes to go with it, although I haven't really looked too hard. I shall have to prod my shoe guru and see what she can find me. I'm thinking cream, open-toe, low kitten heel.<br /><br />In other shoe related news, I have ordered <a href="http://www.additionsdirect.co.uk/rf/add/navigation/product.do?categoryId=7204195&spreadId=7116603&linkId=7163963">these</a> lovely things to wear to work instead of my CAT boots. I ordered them in an 8 which were too small so I'm just waiting for a pair of 9's to arrive. But today I realised that Jo (who is back working for us again) was wearing a pair of the things too! She agrees that they are very comfortable but that the silly rubberband-round-button fastening is not the best.<br /><br /><i>Edit: My Shoe Guru is my sister Emily, who just commented to me (on the phone) that she wasn't sure if I meant her or "some weird bit of your brain". It's now going to be one of her summer projects, although since I need them by the 4th of July it had better not take her all summer.</i><br /><br>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-53719439190205499692008-05-16T13:57:00.004+01:002008-05-16T14:49:39.079+01:00Girlishness - I don't really have it.My gene for face masks, shoes, earrings, gossip magazines and dresses seems to have been mostly taken over by the one for Warcraft, football, motor racing and CAT boots.<br /><br />However, I think it's planning a comeback.<br /><br />As well as that footstool I just mentioned, I also ordered a dress from Additions.<br /><br />It's from the Trinny & Susannah collection which very much put me off at first as I really quite dislike that pair. They're just a bit too mean for me and I'll stick with the lovely Gok.<br />But this here dress has changed my mind a little.<br /><br />I liked it on the page, so I thought I'd order it and if it's crap I can just send it back.<br /><br />Oh. My. God.<br /><br />It's beautiful. Not quite as nice as <a href="http://aoifephoenix.blogspot.com/search/label/sexiest%20dress%20in%20the%20world">the sexiest-dress-in-the-world</a> but it comes very close. It's not as dressy as that dress which is the main reason (men everywhere will be puzzled by that sentence).<br /><br />This dress is lighter and floatier, and also much more forgiving.<br /><br />But the real reason I think it awoke my girly gene...I tried it on and thought:<br /><br />"I'm gonna need some new shoes to go with this."<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(What's that? You want to SEE the dress... sorry. <a href="http://www.additionsdirect.co.uk/rf/add/navigation/product.do?categoryId=7203964&spreadId=7333018&linkId=7333021">Here it is</a>)Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-4624658580170683022008-05-16T13:35:00.002+01:002008-05-16T13:57:08.319+01:00This week I has been mostly......squeezing gunk into my eye.<br /><br />My eye flared up again on Tuesday and off I trotted to the eye infirmary to get them to sort it out. Verdict - <i>possibly</i> an allergic reaction, <i>possibly</i> due to pollen. POSSIBLY bloody nothing, if you don't know what the fuck it is then say so!<br /><br />Ahem.<br /><br />Anyways, more gunk for another week and more only being able to see out of my left eye, so yet more pirate jokes from Anthony and more pokes in the ribs from Rich D.<br /><br />Meh.<br /><br />------------------<br /><br />Today however I have been attempting to do some housework. (I hate that word). Washing up and laundry, yawn. But I am also a happy bunny. The other day I ordered a lovely <a href="http://www.additionsdirect.co.uk/rf/add/navigation/product.do?categoryId=7228694&productPos=0&catno=RP13517&groupId=478989712">Moroccan Footstool</a> from Additions. I love the look of the things but have never had the cash. Now I have one and it was pretty damn cheap. Ok, so it's not truly perfect, and it doesn't smell of leather (mmmm) but hey, it does the job I need it too and fits with my style.<br /><br />I was also thinking about my "style" the other day. When we were round at Angie's (my ex-next-door-neighbour) her other half Paul (who'd just driven me and A to and from the eye infirmary) described my style as Swedish something-or-other (I will find out exactly what he called it and put it here). It's what he also described Angie's taste as. He was saying that the number of times he's seen something and thought she'd like it, and then she's seen it and said how much I'd like it is just ridiculous.<br /><br />Eclectic is how I tend to think of it I guess. I like shabby chic - but not all the floral. I like the New England type of style, lots of white and blue. But at the same time I love the dark wood of my dining table, and long to upgrade my bookcases to the <a href"http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00115181">Leksvik</a> ones (which Angie just happens to have too). So my footstool doesn't really fit with the shabby chic/New England bit of my style, it goes in with the jewelled cushions and exotic side.<br /><br />I think partly my dislike for florals is cos I'm just not that girly (as discussed before). But I do like some florals, in fact I adore my Cath Kidston writing paper - I just don't really want my sofas covered in it. I think it's a case of less is more, I might have some of her napkins but only with a plain white tablecloth (which would be very impractical in this house).<br /><br />I am rambling now and losing my thread.Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-17938867401227513382008-05-08T18:31:00.004+01:002008-05-08T19:17:20.234+01:00Still feeling pants, so here's some more booksMy eye is getting better, but is pissing me off. I'm not good at waiting for things, and also not good at squeezing goop into my eye. So having to apply goop four times a day is very annoying and it feels like I've been doing it forever rather than just since Monday. I'm getting used to only being able to really see out of one eye though (due to the wearing of only one lens). Unfortunately my partial blindness means that Rich D can sneak up on me (from the right) and jab me in the ribs...<br /><br />Bookwise I actually went to the library today, it's been ages since I went (according to my library 'tag' it was Oct) although I have been dutifully renewing my books.<br /><br />This time I went with a little bit of a list made up by browsing the tables at work for things that I quite want to read but that are very low down on my buying list.<br />So I have...<br /><br />Wicked, Gregory Maguire - because Emily will be shocked that I haven't read it yet.<br />The House of Lost Souls, F.G. Cottam - spotted at work.<br />French Women for all Seasons, Mireille Guiliano - I have (and like) the first book and spotted this on my way to the desk so though it was worth grabbing.<br />A Tangled Summer, Caroline Kington - spotted while looking for something else and I liked the cover.<br />The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon - I loved Kavalier & Clay and have been resisting this at work with difficulty.<br /><br />A book I would like to whole-heartedly recommend is <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garden-Spells-Sarah-Addison-Allen/dp/0340935723/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210268503&sr=8-1">Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen</a>. I got my hands on a copy of this yesterday and read it all in a gulp. Very very much like Alice Hoffman I think, certainly the setting of the story if not so much of the descriptiveness (is that actually a word?) Anyway, it's fab. Go and grab a copy and read it sitting in a sunny spot.<br />I didn't get to read it in a sunny spot as I only get to see the sun on my trudge home. I have the weekend off, just as the weather is supposed to turn...meh.Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-40420840464586925042008-05-04T17:16:00.003+01:002008-05-04T17:38:52.457+01:00Feeling pants, so here's some books.I've just spent two hours standing in the waiting room of our local emergency doctors.<br />My right eye has been sore for a week and last night it started in with shooting pains whenever I looked at light. So this morning we phoned NHS Direct, then went to the centre, then went to the eye infirmary. I haven't got any scratches or anything but it might be an infection...so I have to go back tomorrow for a swab. Since I'm working tomorrow I have to be there at 9 or they can't see me. This Bank Holiday is being a bit crap.<br /><br />It was also a life changing day. It's the first time I've worn my glasses out of the house since 1997. Seriously. The only reason I did back then was cos I'd lost a lens and had a driving lesson. Even when we went to Spain I put my lenses in to go from the room to the pool, and walked round the water park half-blind.<br /><br />Before I get evicted to the sofa (where I can't read or sew according to Anthony) here is something I stole from <a href="http://michelle-says.blogspot.com/">Michelle</a>.<br /><br />The Top 106 Books Most Often Marked As “Unread” By LibraryThing’s Users.<br /><br />Strike-through books you’ve read before.<br />Italicize books you’ve read before but haven’t finished.<br />Copy and paste on your blog to see how “pretentious” you are.<br /><br /><br /><I>Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell</I><br />Anna Karenina<br />Crime and Punishment<br />Catch-22<br /><i>One Hundred Years of Solitude</i><br /><S>Wuthering Heights</s><br /><s>The Silmarillion</s><br />Life of Pi : a novel<br />The Aeneid<br /><i>The Name of the Rose</i><br />Don Quixote<br /><s>Moby Dick</s><br />Ulysses<br />Madame Bovary<br />The Odyssey<br /><s>Pride and Prejudice</s><br /><s>Jane Eyre</s><br />The Tale of Two Cities<br />The Brothers Karamazov<br />Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies<br />War and Peace<br />Vanity Fair<br /><i>The Time Traveler’s Wife</i><br />The Iliad<br /><s>Emma</s><br />The Blind Assassin<br />The Kite Runner<br />Mrs. Dalloway<br /><i>Great Expectations</i><br /><s>American Gods</s><br /><i>A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius</i><br />Atlas Shrugged<br />Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books<br />Memoirs of a Geisha<br />Middlesex<br />Quicksilver<br />Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West<br />The Canterbury Tales<br /><s>The Historian : a novel</s><br />A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man<br />Love in the Time of Cholera<br />Brave New World<br />The Fountainhead<br />Foucault’s Pendulum<br />Middlemarch<br /><s>Frankenstein</s><br />The Count of Monte Cristo<br /><s>Dracula</s><br />A Clockwork Orange<br /><s>Anansi Boys</s><br /><s>The Once and Future King</s><br /><s>The Grapes of Wrath</s><br />The Poisonwood Bible : a novel<br /><s>1984</s><br /><s>Angels & Demons</s><br />The Inferno<br />The Satanic Verses<br /><s>Sense and Sensibility</s><br /><s>The Picture of Dorian Gray</s><br /><s>Mansfield Park</s><br />One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest<br />To the Lighthouse<br /><s>Tess of the D’Urbervilles</s><br /><s>Oliver Twist</s><br />Gulliver’s Travels<br />Les Misérables<br />The Corrections<br /><s>The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay</s><br /><s>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time</s><br />Dune<br />The Prince<br />The Sound and the Fury<br />Angela’s Ashes : a memoir<br />The God of Small Things<br />A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present<br />Cryptonomicon<br />Neverwhere<br />A Confederacy of Dunces<br /><s>A Short History of Nearly Everything</s><br />Dubliners<br />The Unbearable Lightness of Being<br />Beloved<br />Slaughterhouse-five<br />The Scarlet Letter<br /><s>Eats, Shoots & Leaves</s><br />The Mists of Avalon<br />Oryx and Crake : a novel<br />Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed<br />Cloud Atlas<br />The Confusion<br />Lolita<br /><s>Persuasion</s><br />Northanger Abbey<br />The Catcher in the Rye<br /><i>On the Road</i><br />The Hunchback of Notre Dame<br />Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything<br />Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values<br /><s>Watership Down</s><br />Gravity’s Rainbow<br /><s>The Hobbit</s><br />In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences<br />White Teeth<br /><s>Treasure Island</s><br />David Copperfield<br />The Three Musketeers<br /><br />Total: read 28, unfinished 7. Michelle got a percentage but I can't be bothered trying to sort it out. Basically this list tells me that I try to finish books and that I don't read things "just because I should" - I don't even own things because I should!Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-65279181767745264712008-05-02T21:29:00.004+01:002008-05-02T21:36:11.598+01:00Healed......by Phish Food.<br /><br />Ahem.<br /><br />I followed the lead of wonderful <a href="http://insearchofadam.blogspot.com/2008/04/i-heart-google-reader.html">Caroline</a> when on my day off yesterday by adding Google Reader. I spent a happy half hour or so adding blogs to it and then getting it set up to my satisfaction. The only problem with the bloody thing is that when I'm trying to fill in time by reading blogs...it cuts this time right down.<br /><br />Luckily <a href="http://michelle-says.blogspot.com/2008/05/im-such-weekly-geek.html">Michelle</a> is discovering some new ones for me!<br /><br />Hopefully once my sister gets into RADA (not trying to jinx you, doing the positive thinking thing) then she will blog more (even if it will all be about technical lighting stuff etc).<br /><br />Now I'm back off to Outland and then early to bed.Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-7988485359576515522008-05-02T19:17:00.002+01:002008-05-02T19:22:59.546+01:00Happy happy, joy joy.So you've had a bit of a pants day but you're being good and not just eating crap when you get in.<br /><br />Then your mother phones, she asks how you are, you tell her, she tells you not to moan to her...and then moans to you.<br /><br />Pizza and beer for tea then.<br /><br />Meh.<br /><br />(I love my mother really, I really do. But sometimes, just no.)Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-29627859670361980282008-04-24T18:13:00.003+01:002008-04-24T18:38:06.528+01:00Productive 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />What's a girl to do?<br /><br />Well in this case she gets lots of cushions on the sofa, organises herself a nice drink (of Whittard's <a href="http://www.whittard.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=110353&cid=it2010&language=en-GB">Blackcurrant and Elderflower Tea</a>) and gets her sewing out. Then she puts on a film...<br /><br />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).<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-21611414083354222012008-04-23T16:51:00.003+01:002008-04-23T16:59:54.187+01:00I love my sisterShe's just phoned me to apologise.<br /><br /><i>"I'm really sorry Kate."</i><br /><br />"What?"<br /><br /><i>"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."</i><br /><br />"Oh Emily. You don't need to apologise for going into Borders. Leaving a Marian Keyes book in Sci-Fi though..."<br /><br /><i>"I know, I know."</i><br /><br />"Hang on a sec, where are you phoning from?"<br /><br /><i>"Erm...Borders."</i><br /><br />"So you're apologising for leaving a book in the wrong place by phoning me from inside a bookshop?"<br /><br /><i>"Erm...sorry."</i><br /><br />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.Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-14502923924186810682008-04-14T18:55:00.002+01:002008-04-14T18:56:21.203+01:00Friday Night<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petronellarose/2413401961/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2218/2413401961_aaf1c5f4ff_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petronellarose/2413401961/">Friday Night</a> <br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/petronellarose/">Petronella Rose</a>.</span><br clear="all" /><p>In my posh dress, as taken by Miss Katie of W on her phone (which is why it's blurry, but I like that!)</p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-75357829028777740212008-04-13T10:01:00.004+01:002008-04-13T10:24:35.769+01:00How 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.<br /><br />At least that was the plan.<br /><br />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 <a href="http://aoifephoenix.blogspot.com/search/label/sexiest%20dress%20in%20the%20world">the sexiest dress in the world</a> 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 <a href="http://aoifephoenix.blogspot.com/search/label/shoes">red shoes</a>) and off we went.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Now when I go out dancing I want dancy music. Now that doesn't mean <i>dance</i> music, it means things like *whispers* (Abba). Instead Jess took us off to the Light Bar...where they play what <b>I</b> would call indie music. Nice to listen to, difficult to dance to when I'm not completely pissed.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <b>Ow.</b><br /><br />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...<br /><br />Hmmm.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />(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!)Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265423.post-69905514654339355832008-04-08T18:27:00.003+01:002008-04-08T18:34:52.627+01:00Random Dad Fact #4Many many years ago (ok, 1992) Dad wandered into my bedroom one evening and re tuned my radio from Radio One to...well, to birdsong!<br /><br />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).<br /><br />Then today I was watching Breakfast on BBC1 and they started playing the birdsong again.<br /><br />The story about it is <a href="http://www.ukdigitalradio.com/news/display.asp?id=290">here</a>.<br /><br />I shall be listening as much as possible, just wish I had a way of taping it again.Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06951776809095097754noreply@blogger.com2