You snooze, you lose? December 11, 2009

Discussing the ’snooze’ button with friends at a curry night recently, I was surprised and delighted to find that I’m not the only serial snoozer around.

Whereas The Boy bounces out of bed like Tigger on  a sprung coil, my preferred wake-up is altogether slower and reluctant.  At 0615, Sarah Kennedy streams through our radio and within minutes, the shower is on and The Boy is on his way.  Me?  I hit snooze of course.

Five minutes later, I hit snooze again convincing myself that I’m allowed this bit of extra time in bed, because I stay up later and anyway, I start work later than him.  Next, The Boy is back in the room and within minutes dressed and downstairs.  Me? Yes, another snooze is hit and I delight in snuggling down amongst the very lush duvet (wedding pressie!) for another few winks.

5 minutes on. Surely it’s time to face facts and drag my sorry self up and out? No. Another snooze moment from me as my sleep-bound slopping arm whacks the alarm clock and once again I turn over.

This pattern continues, depending on my sleepiness, sometimes well into half an hour. That’s 30mins full of 5 minute intervals of interruption.  Sarah Kennedy snippets, and random quips for a few seconds, for 30minutes.   Surely it’s enough to drive anyone out of bed sharpish? Not I.

At the curry the other night, it emerged that the two people next to me also ended up snoozing for not far off half an hour as well. I felt legitimate; the Boy was horrified.  The Boy says I should just set my alarm later but the fact is, there may come a day when I do get up first time, so for now, I’m going to continue as I am – a serial snoozer.

Twitter stole my blogging mojo November 16, 2009

Don’t know if any other Twitter users who blog are finding this as well, but ever since Twitter seeped into every corner of my life, my blogging activity has deteriorated massively.

 

I’m on Twitter most of the day, mainly for work as I follow relevant contacts and peers – I love the way you hear news first on Twitter, and can gage the mood (the BNP Question Time appearance was brilliant)…but it is very addictive!  It’s open all day on my desktop, I panic when I see the fail whale, and I’m now finding that providing many little 140 character updates throughout my day is taking my thoughts away from the more serious nature of blogging.  I’m feeling like my musings are diluted all of a sudden, which I don’t think makes for a good blog – so I kinda haven’t bothered.

 

Anyone else found this, or am I just being lazy I wonder!!?

out with the old and in with the new November 2, 2009

Doing a life laundry at Ma’s house the other week, which involved a 9-5 day of convincing Mother that she no longer needed the broken shelving in the garage, or the natty 80’s woolly jumper or indeed the very tatty ‘churches in bedfordshire’ book,  inspired me to do some of the same.  So yesterday whilst it was blowy and ‘orrid outside, I sat down with a box of folders from my university days at Warwickana.

 

It was quite indulgent going through these files of seminar notes, lecture doodles and essays (one tutor consistently gave me 63 for everything I ever produced in her module..grrr). I was actually quite neat and methodical, looking back, and very good at drawing tiny weeny stars over all my notes in duller seminars by the looks of it.  The old names of Dr Whitehead, Grainne Walshe and Paulina Palmer also brought back some lovely memories of intense literary discussions and I remembered that I actually used to use my brain….lots!

 

My notes on the Epic module and Mediaeval literature conveyed that this wasn’t my fave subject at all (Mediaeval to be fair was on a Thursday morning at 9am – after the Wednesday night of sports socials…you can imagine), and I clearly put more effort into furiously writing about modern women’s literature and American poetry.  Idle daydreaming over, anyways, I chucked most of my stuff, keeping just essays (I put lots into them, they are worth saving aren’t they) and my poetry module notes. Poetry specifically is being kept as I’ve just started a writing poetry course with the OU, and you never know, my dusty 10 year old notes might just help…

 

My week in an online media wilderness October 20, 2009

oof! I can’t believe it’s a month since I last posted here!

I had a week of enforced IT-slacking last week as we travelled up to Scotland in Trevor the camper – no Twitter, no FB, no email…what’s a gal to do?

Reading

In a way it’s good to go cold turkey from the online news sources I love, (usually I’m logged into The Guardian, BBC, Times, Twitter  and Google reader right through thru the day) but I still needed my news fix so The Times was purchased each day and for once, I had time to forage through the whole paper, including reading features from start to end, doing the crossie (with help from The Hub) and even reading sports articles on cricket. What a total treat!!

Fiction wise I got through The Reader - not seen the film but the book was really compelling. Meanwhile the Hub tucked into two Famous Five stories (having rediscovering these on honeymoon) and we discovered that actually the famous five mostly spend their time eating and drinking ginger beer.  In years to come, I reckon Julian and Ann will grow into the obese, slightly sweaty and red-wine drinking detectives that we’re all so much more used to.

I also got a copy of Easy Living for some light amusement but did no more than flick through it as we were chatting away to mates we stayed with over the week rather than getting stuck into reading.

Watching

From Scotland we made it to Carlisle where my sis has the very ace wine store Corkscrew Wines.  Apart from some indulging in some Sky Plus viewing the highlight of which was Takeshi’s Castle – Sis and her Boy had NEVER SEEN this TV wonder – that was pretty much it for TV viewing for the week.   Actually I also recall we watched the unbelievably good Leicester v Osprey’s Heineken Cup game which our lovely Scottish hosts had recorded for us – absolutely brilliant, and I’m not even a Leicester fan.

Listening

With all that time in the van (seriously, it takes a loooong time to get to Scotland in Trevor), we took in a lot of Radio Two and disappointingly it was Mayo filling in for Chris Evans, so drivetime was lacklustre for me.  Aside from the rad, we also got through the Noisette’s album, the Phar Cyde cd belonging to the Hub and some Led Zepplin just to balance it all out.

Our final destination in the van was to friends in Birmingham and we had some ace retro music going on (ok, not that retro) – Inspiral Carpets, The Cardigans and other random brit pop stuff. Brill accompaniment to our hosts’ baking efforts in cookies…cakes..breads…mmmm.  This week I’m aiming to get the MP3 on with some serious work-out podcasts from Dr Bob!!

And online?

Chas Minus Dave – it still adds up September 28, 2009

What random fans Chas and His Band have!  We went to the Chicken Shed theatre on Saturday to watch Chas in concert, the first one since Dave announced he was calling time on touring.  Despite Dave’s absence we still had high hopes and they were borne out –   It was ACE!

In the first half Chas paid tribute to his early piano mentor Jerry Lee Lewis who he toured with in the 60s. There were some great anecdotes and top quality rock n roll type music.  It was mesmerising to watch Chas playing piano – as a classically trained pianist, his technique was bizarre at best! But, it did the job and in the second half it was all the old faves – London Girls, Gertcha, Snooker Loopy, Rabbit.  The fans were the best bit – a real mix from 70 year olds to people in their 30s shouting “Oi” at every opportunity.

By the end of the gig everyone was on their feet clapping along and singing at the top of their voices.  Chas was brilliant, so lovely and personable – brilliant.  A top top top night out well done Chas!!

Chas N Dave split – but the gig goes on September 22, 2009

Being organised for Husband’s birthday this year, I knew for a while what to get him.

Although I play classical piano to a relatively high standard, he’d still rather I played Chas N Dave – so I booked him tickets for a gig this coming Saturday in London.

Yet what do I find today? Chas N Dave are calling it quits after Dave’s wife very sadly passed away.  It’s a great shame,

but I’m hoping Chas will still do the biz on Saturday and make it a good birthday gig for The Boy.  It’s got to be better than my Debussy and Albeniz anyway!!

Worst week of the week award? September 18, 2009

Anyone remember the Worst Week of the Week award, awarded weekly, on a week by week basis? It was part of an ace Radio Two comedy prog. Well, I reckon this week I am a contender.

It all started Sunday, with a hangover…

Strike One.

A quarter of the way into a rugby game on Sunday, I got an almighty blow to the head and immediately hit the floor, with an egg sized lump rapidly growing on my bonce. Whoever hit me, did it pretty hard but I have a concrete skull so after 10mins of ice packing, I felt bullish and fine, so went back on to play. I later realised I had concussion when I got nausea and pins and needles in my face whilst at work the next day!

Strike Two.

When I went back on the pitch on Sunday, no sooner had I got the ball than I went on a little dash on the attack. It was going well, I’d beaten one defender and just had the full back to get round. My sidestep was planned but on execution – crunch! The old familiar battered knee re-emerged. Two years on from my grade 2 ACL tear, I am still getting gip. It was sore beyond belief and I had to hobble off, whilst cursing quite loudly in anger. That was the end of that game, and my knee’s not a great deal improved five days on, worst luck.

Strike Three.

Yesterday lunchtime whilst driving back to work, I had the misfortune of meeting Neanderthal man. Whilst going along a dual carriageway, a white van driver decided to cross the road over to an opposite slip road, and basically chuntered straight into my lane. I somehow managed to swerve round him but the back end of the car got scuffed. On exiting my car, in order to exchange details, the driver emerged as an angry Scotsman, fervently gesturing and shouting obscenities. I didn’t understand the offensive language until I’d asked him to repeat it, as he really had a broad accent.

Anyhoo, after trying to blame me, Neanderthal man got back in his van and drove off without giving me his details. I managed to get the license plate and when he parked up just a bit away from me I drove up again, stayed in my car (wasn’t sure if he’d get physically aggressive – yikes) and asked him again for his contact details. He begrudgingly gave me a name and business, but claimed he didn’t have a phone. So now we’re going through police, insurance and all sorts to try and get it sorted.

On the upside, I’ve had my three bad things happen now so surely my luck must be turning. But in the meantime, can anyone beat this for a rubbish week?

Good news now that I’m off Bootcamp! September 4, 2009

Now that Bridal Bootcamp is over, this is excellent news:

Forget aspirin – big thighs could be key to beating heart disease

Study shows those with thinner legs are more likely to suffer cardiac problems

Big thighs might confer a health benefit according to a study showing that people with small thighs run a higher-than-average risk of developing heart disease and an early demise.

Scientists have found that men and women whose thighs are less than 60cm (23.6ins) in circumference are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease, and die prematurely, compared to people with thicker thighs.

Severe lack of kerb appeal June 1, 2009

The wedding is fast approaching – it’s less than 8 weeks away now and yesterday on return from a mate’s hen do, I was perturbed by our front garden.  I realised that on The Big Day I actually will want some pics of me leaving home as a singleton, hence images of the front garden and front door are required. Let me tell you why this is bad news.

Our front garden, although low maintenance, currently looks like Steptoe’s yard with bits of car and van strewn around, some scrap metal for welding, a trailer and a wheelie bin parked up outside the bay window.

The front door is a peeling mess of once-vivid blue paint.  It’s been sticking for ages so we’ve been using the back door and I only really noticed how tired it’s looking yesterday avo. The porch paint is pretty grubby too. It’s not got the kerb appeal that Kirsty and Phil would be looking for!

So what does our yard say about us?

- The Boy is a DIY-er who hoardes potentially useful stuff from the scrapyard, in the hope that one day, it will be useful

- We neglect what we think are small things (painting front door) with the aim of completing big things (getting van working)

- We aren’t front door people. Back door people are less formal and less tidy aren’t they?  It means when mates visit they wave to us through the kitchen window before letting themselves in.

- The Boy is not a methodical worker, but a ‘get stuck in’ type who strews stuff around him in the urgency of getting things done.

However, there’s another side to this and that is that actually although we neglect our frontage a bit, no-one really knows what’s behind our peely front door and scrapyard-esque yard.  Far from being neglected, I think we have a very happy home and although bits of it are sometimes ramshackle (just as we are from time to time), we still love it.

Having said that and romanticising it,  it still looks pants so am still adding tidy front garden and paint front door to the ‘wedding must do’ critical path list.

Whassssssup? May 19, 2009

S’been ages since I last blogged. Seriously, ages.  Sometimes I go on holiday and I’m already thinking about posts I want to write whilst I’m mid campsite.  But recently, I’ve had a mini drought of some kind. It’s been almost a month!

Missed me? 

Hmm, possibly not…but in any case, here’s a quick run down of whasss been going on!

 - Cooked Father John thai chicken kebabs and rice, and showed him our veg patch. He was impressed.  Am sure this has convinced him that as our onions are in straight lines, we have a good marriage ahead of us.

 - The Boy survived his stag do, and came back with hair intact.  Involved Amsterdam, Skis, boiler suits and oysters.

 - Went to first wedding of the season and could tell I was B2B as nearly blubbed at arrival of le bride. Tres bon do involving pianist who played Spandau Ballet!

 - Have tweaked a tendon in my foot. This is not good news for Bridal Bootcamp regime and have tried to compensate for lack of running with swimming and cycling.

 - Work has gone crazy mental, am v glad we have a good gang of mateys in the office to keep sane with! Am looking forward to cocktail-hen-do type evening with les ladies on Friday, bring on wine time!

 - Invites have gone out for wedding and replies are trickling back. It’s quite frustrating waiting for people to reply. I would like to know in an instant whether it’s yay or nay, am v impatient!

 - Tried to inspire The Boy on the John Lewis gift list front with a very mild introductory visit, after work, for one hour. Including food.  He was quite good and managed to not break glasses, walk calmly through the towel section and even find an opinion on placemats. Good effort! Lack of opinion/caring means that Gift List is now in my lap. Woah yeah!! Bring on the soft furnishings!!

 

O my god. I realise I’ve written the list above and ALL of it relates to wedding! I’m not obsessed, seriously I don’t think I am but that makes me look obsessed and freaky bridezilla-y! Must try harder next time.

Anyhoo, that’s all for now, me is tired. Off to Bedfordshire.