Don't you love a list?

So, I'm all packed then, in spite of the mother of all headaches for the last 2 days – serious interrupted vision in the left eye, accompanied by numbness on the same side of the face and a serious case of slurring of the words.  You could tell it was bad because I haven’t had a drink in days and I didn’t even manage to get excited about my new work phone – a new toy to play with for goodness sake!  Anyway, here comes the list:

• A bag of boots, well the ones I wear regularly anyway, actually that's pretty much all of them if I think about it (!);


• a case of clothes;


• a case of stuff like towels, bath mats etc;


• a box of items for the kitchen - I do love to cook, so it would be disastrous if I didn't have my favourite knife or vegetable peeler with me for example;


• a Jools start-up general cleaning bag;


• bag of toiletries and make-up bits;


• my laptop - be warned, I have no broadband connection, so any AIM will be via dial-up I'm afraid (How will I cope? Does is work on dial-up?).  Whatever I guess, it’s there for watching DVDs or indeed just noodling on the computer;


• a big bag of books :)


• and some ornamental bits from a creating a comfort zone perspective.

Oh, and did I mention my new DAB radio?  I'm very happy about this. There is no TV in my temporary flat, but I'm not that fussed really. OK I'm going to need GM to record Strictly Come Dancing and Lost for me, but to be honest I've not watched much TV in such a long time that I've kind of lost track of what's on at the moment. Chances are I'm missing a great BBC drama or something, but then I've been missing some great live theatre over the years and have definitely missed some good stuff on the radio, so I'm going to make up for it now!  I fired it up last night and have already pre-programmed some channels – I shared the inaugural listening moment with DAB aficionado BBW and I’m now raring to go.

I’m also up and running on Skype now – I’ve had it for ages but didn’t know anyone else who was on it so haven’t ever used it …  I’ve got 3 contacts now, but as I mentioned above, no broadband anymore!  Damn.  I’ll be able to talk before 0900 and after 1730 UK time, so I’ll keep an eye out for my contacts and if you keep an eye out for me, we might be able to squeeze in a natter before I start work or before I wend my way home.  

Any road up, tomorrow is a new day and a big big change.  Watch this space and keep in touch.

Small pleasures …

I’ve just sewn 2 buttons back onto my “Trinity” coat.  One dropped off last week so was easy to find – I had carefully stowed it in my pocket – but the other one dropped off way back last winter … When I considered the job yesterday I was a bit glum about it because I knew I wouldn’t be doing a full job – 2 missing buttons and I was only going to be sewing on 1.  However, to be fair I was fairly glum all day yesterday!  

It’s been an emotional and tiring few weeks through which I’ve helped by the kindness of friends – curries, drinks, phone calls, emails, AIM, hugs, texts, overnight hospitality, use of washing machines, lovely day at Kew Gardens taking in the Gardens of Glass etc etc. I’ve been very lucky.  So thank you all – you know who you are.

Anyway, much was resolved on Friday night and even though I felt that I shouldn’t really be ‘going out’ I decided to go and see Kurt Elling at the QEH.  Jazzshark had said that it would be a good thing to do, so I followed her advice and she was so right.  I met up with Catster and the Pringles and thoroughly enjoyed the show.  I love his voice anyway but it was great to hear it live; smooth, lyrical and all delivered with an air of effortlessness.  It was a perfect end to a less than perfect day.

Saturday dawned with an overwhelming numbness which was replaced by a definite attack of the glums. Strictly Come Dancing lifted me for an hour but numbness returned fairly quickly afterwards.

Today, however, dawned more promisingly. I’ve had a thoroughly productive day and am happily back to “list writing Jools” – it’s always a bad sign when I can’t even raise myself to write a list!  So, the list was collated thus:

• brunch with the Hausfrau and Catster


• a good old sort through my tax returns and papers delivered to the accountant for cross checking


• shopping


• washing


• ironing


• re-jig of my mobile calling plan (scary last bill at last got me to re-assess my the plan I was on)


• the beginnings of a list of things I need to pack to move into my sister’s flat next Saturday (I love it when the need to write another list appears on a list); and finally


• that job of sewing that single button back onto my coat …

As I say, I wasn’t feeling good about the final item on the list owing to the fact that it wasn’t going to be complete job.  However, just as I was getting my sewing box out of the cupboard I had a strange flash of inspiration and for some reason walked to the shoe cabinet in the hallway and lifted up the magazine rack that sits on the top.  There was the other button.  I have no idea why it came to me that that was where it was, but there it was.  So, the job could be done properly and I now have a coat with all its buttons again.  

As I say, small pleasures …

And then there were three

So first it was the washer.
Then it was the toaster.
And now the iron.

3 broken bits of domestic equipment.  Is it a sign of something do you think?

I'm so easily side tracked ...

So, by way of assisting the shark with a case of a vanishing links panel (fellow blogspotters just need to make the image smaller and everything slots back into place!), I ended up doing this rather cool map of the countries I've visited in my life (didn't bother with the US states breakdown as I've only been to New York and Florida ...) Either way, blimey 17 countries - 7% apparently. Feels exceptionally untravelled of me ...

Right, guess I ought to get back to the jobs I had lined up for this evening before I got side tracked!

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Found fab new wheat free naan bread which I'm enjoying with throroughly healthy spicy vegetables.

Possible Mission?

I was sat on the train last night, enjoying the luxury of half an hour immersed in a book when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. To begin with it was just a movement, but as I focused in on the area that had moved, I realised it was a spider, just dangling in mid air. It hung there for a moment, gently swinging with the rocking of the train. Then, almost like it realised it had been spotted it started shimmying back up its thread - a la Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible - until it was back inside and access grid in the ceiling of the carriage.  I wondered what his mission might have been? (You notice that I decided that it was a he but I base that on no knowledge of how you identify the sex of arachnids ...) I wondered if he was just the advance reconnaissance agent, and that there was in fact a team of spiders up in the access hatch with him plotting their next mission down into the carriage? Were they perhaps all going to come tumbling out of the multifarious holes in the panel going 'hut hut hut', US Marines stylie, surround me and wrap me up in web like Shelob does to Frodo?

That would be really scary and would actually fit in with a recurring dream I've had since childhood.  I'm chased by a giant spider that wraps my head in web which then starts to melt me ... (oversharing? maybe ...) Either way, the reason I manage not to let this dream bother me in adulthood is that there are of course no giant spiders.  However, it then started occurring to me that maybe the giant 'dream' spider is just a metaphor for a swot team of real sized spiders who could potentially work together to achieve the same result? Hmmmmmm.

Suffice it to say, I got a grip on that notion and you'll be pleased to hear that I made it off the train in one piece and headed for a calming glass of chenin blanc.