Aches and pains October 30, 2008

Sunday was a well ‘ard game against Lakenham Hewitt ladies.  Due to injuries we ended up playing with only 13 girls but somehow only lost by 2 points.  It was an immense game and I really believe we should have won. We were tackling like demons towards the end and were unlucky not to get another try to win it.  The ref was possibly the worst referee I’ve come across in 12 years of playing, but that’s another story.

Besides the loss, the other outcome of Sunday was a particularly nasty bruise on my (good) knee.  See below:

Mmmm. Nice knee

My mate Robyn says it looks like her 80-year-old Nan’s knee, but I’m not sure it’s even that good.  The purple-ness is particularly luscious and I discovered last night that it extends below the knee into my calf too. Nice!  I can’t remember how I injured it (always the way) but it must have been a heck of a bundle.

Moving on to the lunchtime activities at work, which I’m getting into, on Wednesday I attended my belly-dancing class.  This is an excellent blend of hilarity, core muscle work-out and learning how to shake it.  Really shake it.  My stomach muscles were working hard with the hip rolls I was trying to perfect (unfortunately I tend to gurn or bite my lip whilst concentrating on these moves, rather than smiling beguilingly as one should) and anyhoo, later that evening my belly was sore sore sore!!

Today brought another lunchtime activity, of volleyball with my mate Robyn.  I’d not tried this before and I do like to be good at sport so I found it frustrating at times that I wasn’t immediately excellent.  However, it was ace of base fun and I got into it, but found that ‘digging’ the ball up using your fore-arms is not a nice sensation.  My arms are still smarting now!

So with a purple knee, aching stomach and smarting fore-arms I’m not doing so well this week.  But I have had fun getting into this state!

skinto binto October 22, 2008

Gah! It’s a couple of days before pay day and me and The Boy do not have a healthy looking bank balance. I’m not sure why this month has been particularly expensive – we’ve had 2 weddings to go to and had to shell out for new smoke alarms for our rental property (not just your tesco value ones, we’ve had to get mains wired fancy ones to be compliant which were not much short of a grand) – it seems the cash has been trickling away.

Anyhoo, I have a day off on Friday and a fairly free day on Saturday so I’m thinking about what we can do to raise some wonga, and save some beer tokens. Here’s my thoughts so far:

1. Eat from the freezer – we bought half a lamb last month which is in the garage freezer, and I have frozen all of our veg patch glut of goodies, so instead of heading to the supermarche, I’m going to dig into the drawers for delightful dinners (check OUT my alliteration!!)

2. Have a scout through stuff we don’t use and decide whether I can put some on eBay. I actually have lots of good nice books to get rid of, so I might investigate Amazon’s second hand bit as well.

3. Talk to mother about car booty – Mother is a prolific hoarder of crap and will have box loads of stuff to sell. Again, as point 2, see if I can sell some for her and pocket some of the cash.

4. Games nights instead of pub nights – this trend has already started with our gang; instead of heading to the Welly Road in Northampton, we are having nights in round people’s houses with old fashioned games. Good times.

5. Check out whether we can reclaim bank charges – need to get round to using MoneySavingExpert man’s guide to doing this.

6. Mobile phone cashback – I’ve just sent off my latest claim so hoping this will come in soon as well.

Frugality here I come!

A smashing piano party! October 21, 2008

Plans are underway for a bonfire party at my pad – combined with the extravaganza of a piano smashing competition! I recently got a new piano and the old one was completely duff, so I suggested we took it to the tip or put it on freecycle – but The Boy had better ideas, recalling random local fetes where men smashed up pianos with sledgehammers in a timed competition. The idea is to get the whole piano through a small letter box sized hole – and to do it in the fastest time. Here’s how it might look (2mins in to this video):

A mate of ours has sourced another piano so when I’m washing up, I’m now gazing out at my garden which randomly has two upright pianos sat in it! With my Health and Safety thinking in place, I’m planning on lighting the garden really well, putting down a tarpaulin and ensuring the bonfire’s a safe distance away, so no-one comes to harm. I can’t prevent thumb-under-sledgehammer injuries though!

A very wedding week October 17, 2008

The past week has been very good in wedding terms.

Thursday last week I got a message on my mobile phone from the Bridal shop where my wedding dress is coming from.  Here’s how it went: “Hi there, it’s Shop for Brides. Just calling about your wedding dress. Can you call us back? Alright Darling? Ok, thanks.”

Seemingly ok, non? NON! The “Alright Darling” section was said in a kindly tone, the sort your Mum might use when telling you your cat has died (or something equally bad).  This instigated immediate paranoia on my part, to the extent that I took 2 deep breaths and left the office to call back, just in case I had to cry cos my dress was no longer available or summat.

In reality, it was good news – my dress was in! Yay! On arriving at the shop on Saturday I mentioned to the lady that I was nervous at her voice mail and fearing the worst…she admitted she never says “Your dress is in” on voice mail as she likes to tell people in person as it were.  Phewzers.  But surely, a lot less stress all round for B2Bs if she just told us on the voice mail that our dress was in.

Anyway! I digress! So, wedding dress, all lush and lovely.  Tried on with my BIG platform wedges that I’m wearing (in an attempt to not look like a stunted pixie next to The Boy in photos).  Earlier that Saturday I also took the Boy to Millers Tailors in Northampton for a suit reccy.  The old boys running the shop were ace (even had tape measures round their neck and knew his size without asking).  Importantly they also realised I was in charge, saying “Now Madam, what do you think, because you’re the important one here”. Sold!! Loved ‘em, loved the suits, got it sorted and booked.

Another job for Saturday was a hair cut at my Mum’s Cousin’s salon in Heart of the Shires shopping place, The Glass Slipper. I *love* going here, not only cos I get to see a fave relly, and get my hair cut at a good rate, but also they have started doing bespoke tiaras and fascinators.  Saturday’s visit was very exciting as I tried on a completely gorgeous tiara which I think is the one I will go for. *LOVED* it lorra lorra.  Can’t wait to go back and try again with a hair-do as well to see how it might look.

With those jobs done on Saturday, I was feeling ultra productive and sorted, so Ma and me treated ourselves to a lovely lunch at new Daventry deli, Saddlers.  I highly recommend it; we had a really nice lunch, plus some cakes (cupcake is tres bon) – the only downside was they’d run out of Prosecco (I was after some bubbly after such a good morning).  I’m thinking though that many of my bridal related activities seem to end with cake, a habit I need to stop if I am going to be looking tippety top for The Big Day.

The week days have been no less productive either. Earlier in the week I popped to IKEA and decided there and then against shelling out for tea light holders for these reasons; 1. they cost money. 2. We don’t need 300 tea light holders in our future life together.  So I had a flash of genius (Mother may disagree) and have asked our mates to collect up their empty jam jars and get them to me.  Anyone supplying 15 or more gets a jar of my home-made chutney to enjoy.  The plan is to put some nice ribbon round the top, put a candle in and hey-presto – a FREE tea light holder, and more money for wine, huzzah!!

Finally last night I met with my buddy who also does floristry to talk flowers. She had pics of other stuff she’s done and it all looked really lovely.  We had a good talk about what I liked and didn’t like and she had the great idea of using ranunculous in the button holes.  This was very exciting, believe me!!!  Unfortunately I hadn’t prepped quite enough as I don’t really have a firm budget idea for flowers. I’m thinking 600? Is that fair? Anyhoo, let’s see what she comes back with…

Blogging as therapy? October 7, 2008

Blog therapy?

Yesterday I drafted a vitriolic blog about a rugby game I’d played at the weekend, spilling out my anger and frustration which had carried over from the match.

I’d saved it, fully intending to add more bile and then post it today.  But today, I’m feeling calmer.  I’m thinking, what’s the point of posting it now? I don’t feel that way so much any more.  I’m not so angry or venomous.  I don’t know why, but it has subsided.

So is it a wasted post?  Should I have pressed publish straight away?  Or, has the act of blogging in draft form provided a therapeutic remedy to my gripe?  Would it have been a case of ‘blog in haste, repent at leisure’?

John Hegley: A Review October 6, 2008

Friday night, The Boy and I attempted a cultural evening with a trip to The Castle theatre to see John Hegley on his ‘Beyond the Kennel’ tour. We are fans of the poet – my friend bought me one of his books years ago and I discovered the witty delights of poems such as “Luton” (I remember Luton, as I swallowed my crouton). The Boy has had a tape of John Hegley for a while so “Eddie Don’t Like Furniture” has become one of my faves, too.

The evening started well with John running through the A-Z of animals in the first half. My favourite was the imaginary pocket hamster and the ‘YouCan’ animal, which has a chant of “doitdoitdoit”. At the interval John happily sat and chatted to us all which was dead good – it was a small audience so I think most people got to have a natter.

The second half was much more comedy value, as John just took questions from the audience (many inquiring about his shirt) – The Boy put in a request for the briefcase poem which John recited brilliantly. Then, it was mandolin time, and “Eddie” was performed albeit rather more somberly than I would have liked. It sounded quite sad! The spectacle salute was performed and John finished with a poem from his new book, about his Dad, which was really touching.
What I really liked throughout was that John seemed to drift into a daydream when on stage, particularly with his mandolin in hand – and he just followed his stream of consciousness, often repeating words that just took his fancy, for no other reason than they sounded nice. I like his randomness.

All in all, a great night out and good to do something different. It was also great to see John Hegley in the flesh at last. I am deffo going to put in an order for his new book…

Sis making a splash in wine world October 3, 2008

Great to see my sis and her bloke featured in the Cumberland News this week. I keep getting texts from her saying that she’s off to taste wine, or port, or champagne. Hard life, eh!?

Suicide and Smelliness: two acts of selfishness in one day October 2, 2008

Today I was down in London again for a meeting with the BBC, but contrary to last time I was there when I had a moment of hilarity hearing “Heaven is a Place on Earth” blaring from a pensioner’s mobile phone, this afternoon was a nightmare trip back to MK.

Arriving at Euston at 1230, the concourse was extraordinarily busy so I grabbed an M&S sarnie and tried to work out what was going on. Turned out, someone had chosen to chuck themselves under a train earlier that day so the network was in meltdown. There were no trains going out of Euston whatsoever.

Now I think I am generally a tolerant person who can empathise, and I’m sure this person who committed suicide was in the depths of despair and perhaps not thinking straight. But for blinking heck’s sake, why not just have a thought for others as you approach death? The hundreds and hundreds of people who had their journeys wrecked were not thinking happy thoughts but rather pouring hatred on the selfish person who had killed themselves. Hardly the vibes to enter the afterlife with, are they?

Having read Anna Karenina, I wondered if jumping under a train seemed to some people to be a more dramatic, poetic way to end their lives, rather than just taking a potent drug cocktail or hanging themselves.

Anyhoo, as a consequence, I has to traipse off to St Pancras to get a train to Bedford, assured there would be a bus at the other end to take me on to MK (St Pancras is completely ace, by the way). The train to Bedford bit worked, but on arrival in true “Computer says no” fashion, I was answered with “Dunno anyfink about a bus” when inquiring about my onward travel. A helpful passenger pointed me in the right direction so I walked into Bedford town centre (as dire as I remember from last time I was there) and caught the bus to MK from there.

Sigh of relief when on the bus was quickly replaced by a sharp intake of breath as a man going for the smelliest pits in the world award chose to sit near me. Then he moved to sit right behind me. Have you ever sat near someone with proper, disgusting, BO? Real BO that clings in your throat? It was rank. I couldn’t move as the bus was off and there weren’t any empty seats nearby I could sneak into. To top it all, we then ran into traffic and despite holding my breath as much as possible and turning the air con on full whack, there was no shifting the stench. What’s wrong with a wash now and then? Surely someone can tell when they REEK? Another act of selfishness for the day (and I could visualise myself appearing on Grumpy Old Women with all this anger…).

Arrival at MK was like returning to paradise after visiting hell – I was so relieved to get off that bus and back to normality at the clean, hygenic office. Yes – I was very pleased to get back into work.