Bloominjools Thoughts

What's that noise?

2007-12-13T09:48:00.000Z

There's an unidentified application on my laptop which keeps making a weird noise and its driving me batty.

I have 3 applications open: IE7, Windows Live Messenger and Skype. I know the noises that MLM and Skype make and it isn't any of those and I wasn't aware that IE7 made any noisesbut maybe I'm wrong. I've got antivirus and firewall stuff running, but I wasn't aware they made a noise either.

I would record the sound for you to hear, but as I don't know what action prompts the weird noise I can't because I don't know when it is going to happen. I've done a SpyBot and Ad-aware just in case the weird noise is linked to some background nasty that I've missed; I've checked the firewall to see if anyone is "poking me" and have done a virus scan to be on the safe side.

I still can't work it out, so I'm turning the sound off before I lose my marbles completely.

Right back to the packing ...

What are the chances of that?

2007-12-13T09:22:00.000Z

Three weeks ago, before I was unemployed(!), I went to Yeoville for a meeting. It was an "eventful" day, and the icing on the cake was standing at Yeoville Junction station in the pouring rain waiting for a taxi and realising that a) I'd left my best scarf on the train (Christmas present from my ex) and that b) I had lost one of my ear rings. Now, if you have read my blog previously, you will be aware that I own quite a lot of single ear rings and in the main, that's fine because I buy cheap tat! However, these were posh earrings and were my 40th Birthday present from Mum and Dad.

Suffice it to say I was a quite fed up about this. I made enquiries of the train company and the "end of the line" station, but no, they had no scarf or lonely ear ring (which I had assumed had attached itself to my scarf and therefore they would both be together). They did however have a pink umbrella ...?

Yesterday, I was walking back from Staples with some more packing boxes. It was bloomin' cold, the sun was bright and low, and everything was sparkling with frost. It was lovely. What was even more lovely was that I just happened to glance down at the pavement and spotted something that looked familiar. My lost ear ring! Its all a bit squashed but essentially not in too bad shape! What are the chances of that?

Wonder if my scarf has been handed in??

Sigh

2007-12-11T18:20:00.000Z

Look at my horoscope for today ...

"In your profession, you'll be able to neutralize the difficulties and obstacles that have obstructed you until now. If you ask for a pay raise, it will be granted to you."

Now that's what I call timing, bearing in mind that I'm no longer employed.

Good job I don't believe in any of this stuff!

:)

Good Morning ...

2007-12-10T09:38:00.000Z

I finished work last Friday - yippee! I didn’t get everything done that I wanted to, but I did my best. I had a splendid “do” that evening, and then spent most of the weekend simply vegetating (and getting my home laptop back up and running after the dead hard drive incident), I wasn’t capable of much else to be honest I’m absolutely shattered for some reason. Anyway, I’m looking forward to emptying my head of work and filling it with packing and travel plans etc.

So Monday morning dawns and here I lie, looking forward to luxuriating in a much longed-for extended Monday morning snooze. Enter the “Law of Sod” in the form of a persistent banging (of the DIY kind!) emanating from next door. Oh well, guess I may as well get up and do something useful then …

Size matters

2007-11-24T09:23:00.000Z

Surely it is not beyond the wit of man for clothing manufacturers to define what measurements should be applied to a garment in order for it to be called a particular size and then make the clothes to those measurements. However, it seems that it is.

As I have alluded to in previous posts, I have put on weight of late. I’m happy about this, as I’m aware that I have probably been underweight for the majority of my adult life. However, no matter how much I tried I couldn’t do anything about it, I was just naturally slim. For whatever reason (hitting 40 / getting through a stressful period in my life and finally starting to feel content?), not sure which really, I am now heavier than I’ve ever been. Having accepted that I’m not likely to lose it again I have set about the task of buying new clothes that fit.

How difficult can that be? I mean you go to the shops, pick up a selection of clothes in your size that you like the look of and try them on don’t you? Well I’ve obviously missed something somewhere because in spite of picking up three pairs of jeans, in the same shop, all labelled as the same cut (boot cut in this case), all the same size but just different colours, and different pocket arrangements, the difference between each pair was enormous.

The first pair fitted (apart from gaping at the back, but hey, I’ll just have to wear a top long enough to cover it). The second pair however, just couldn’t be enticed over my hips let alone getting as far as doing up the zip and the button … And the third pair were roomy enough for me to invite a friend to join me in there! I double checked the sizes inside the 2 ill-fitting pairs, just in case they’d been put on the wrong hangers, but no, they both purported to be size 8 regular.

Obviously, I bought the pair that fitted. However, when I got them home and took the labels off I noticed that in spite of them being on a size 8 hanger, the label on the inside said that they were a size 6. What nonsense!

I don’t actually care what size I am, they can label them banana size, orange size, apple size for all I care. I just want to know what the size is and to be able to buy clothes in that size and allowing for differences in style and cut, know that they will fit in an approximate way. Is that too much to ask?

Incidentally, (ever the clothing hoarder), my “going away" suit which I still have and which I bought from the same shop that I just bought my new jeans from 13 years ago when I was nearly 2 stone lighter than I am now, also claim to be size 8.

What’s all that about eh?

Let the training begin ...

2007-10-24T15:15:00.000+01:00

As you may have noticed, I've a got a few things planned for New Zealand next year; not least a 10 day trek down the west coast of New Zealand's south island. I found it on the RealGap website, but then realised that I'm too old ... My Thailand trip is booked via Gap Year for Grownups so I looked for a similar trip there - only for old people like myself ... But no. The grownup version looks great, but it looks a bit too "molly coddled" for my taste, is also twice as expensive as the young person version and the dates don't work.

So I did a bit more research and found the exact same trek (young person's version) being offered by a NZ company who didn't have an age limit. Hurray - maybe I could do it after all!? Before I made my booking I spotted the "health and fitness" link on their website...

What makes the trip great is that it will be proper camping, away from middle aged Japanese tourists, fantastic hiking, fantastic off the main track surroundings etc. However, what has made me reconsider a moment is that fact that the trip involves 3 multi-day hikes which means we'll be carrying everything - tents, food and our own gear. The estimate is a pack weight of 12kg and the longest hiking is 7 hours ... Hmmmmmmm Am I fit enough?

So, I've filled my rucksack with towels and pillows wrapped around my dumbells and I've embarked upon a wee training regime. 3.5km this morning, the rucksack was 14 kg and it took me c. 45mins. Not great, but for a weedy bird I didn't think it was too bad - room to improve but not disastrous! Incidentally, I know how heavy the rucksack is because I bought some weighing scales yesterday for the purpose of checking the pack weight. However, one unpleasant side effect of purchasing scales was seeing my own weight! Oh dear ... Of course, having to buy bigger clothes should have been a bit of a give away, but seeing the reality of it, glowing in all its hideous LCD glory was a bit depressing.

Using the old "calories in, calories out" calculation: I haven't started eating or drinking any more than I used to, and I can't stop taking some medication I'm on (which I think may be contributing somewhat), therefore the only side of the equation that I can do something about is the calories out bit. Fingers crossed it'll work ... I really don't like the insides of my thighs rubbing together and the emergency walking lunges didn't really have much of an effect, so I reckon I'm going to have to be focussed and hopefully reap the benefits all round and am going to give it a couple of weeks before I decide to book the walk or not ...

New Zealand Ideas

2007-10-21T14:36:00.000+01:00

14 days exploring North Island.

To include:

Auckland

Caves and glow worms

Gloopy mud stuff & hot springs

Tandem sky dive over Lake Taupo

New Zealand Festival in Wellington

Wine tasting in Hawkes Bay

Couple of days hiking

Chilling on a beach

10 days treking down the West Coast of South Island

Day 1 Nelson / Flora Saddle /Kahurangi National Park – 11km/4 hours hiking Overnighting in an old goldminers’ rock shelter.
Day 2 Wednesday sinkholes and caves /Gordon’s Pyramid / Mount Arthur Buller Gorge – 15km/7 hours hiking
Day 3 Cape Foulwind / New Zealand fur seals / Charleston / hike up a limestone river canyon in Paparoa National Park. During our hike we learn river-crossing techniques, collect firewood along the way and set up camp under the massive Ballroom Overhang. – 12km/6 hours hiking
Day 4 Limestone canyon and caves / Punakaiki (Pancake Rocks)/ Hokitika Ross – 8km/5 hours hiking
Day 5 Franz Josef Glacier /Okarito – 10km/4 hours hiking
Day 6 Okarito – 10km/4 hours kayaking, evening meal cooked in a hangi, an underground Maori earth oven.
Day 7 Copland Valley - Welcome Flat – 18km/7 hours hiking across swing-bridges and mountain streams ending up with a soak in the natural hot pools with vies of 3000m peaks.
Day 8 Welcome Flat – either 8km/4 hours hiking or REST
Day 9 Moeraki – 18km/6 hours hiking
Day 10 Ship Creek / Lake Hawea / ending in Queenstown – 3km/2 hours hiking

Is this the right Daemon for me?

2007-10-19T10:47:00.000+01:00

Very brief update

2007-10-15T20:46:00.000+01:00

You know, sometimes there's so much going on, there's too much to tell. So here's a list of the past and the future:

The house is sold
I've handed in my notice at work
I finish work on 7th December - have a good leaving do in the planning
I then pack, put things into storage and terminate the tenancy on the house
17th January: fly to Thailand
16th February: fly to New Zealand
blah March: fly to Australia
blah April: fly back to UK

More details to follow when I've worked them out - which I'm really looking forward to. For those who know me, the "planning" is almost as exciting as the "doing"! However, I think this one is going to far outshine anything I've ever done before.

Sigh ....

2007-08-25T18:59:00.000+01:00

It appears that for the first time in 40 years, the insides of my thighs rub together and I can't say that I enjoy the sensation ...

Emergency walking lunges have been deployed and I'm considering lowering my alcohol in-take.

con·sid·er

1. To think carefully about.
2. To think or deem to be; regard as.
3. To form an opinion about; judge: considers waste to be criminal.
4. To take into account; bear in mind.
5. To show consideration for.
6. To esteem; regard.
7. To look at thoughtfully.

That doesn't mean I actually will ... Just means I'll consider it!

He's gone ...

2006-10-08T17:25:00.000+01:00

... and I nearly didn't get a chance to say goodbye. I have to say that I've been spending much of my time unimpressed with the organisations who I've had to deal with over the Wedgie affair.

Insurance company: a serial non communication led to me finding out by accident - purely because I took it upon myself to call the garage he'd been taken to to be assessed - that he'd been declared a total loss and would be taken for salvage the next morning. I belted over to the garage to say my goodbyes (atmospherically in the pouring rain …) plus retrieve my tax disc, parking permit, map, stereo walkman and speakers - the latter 2 items I discovered to have been nicked ... Hey, it was cutting it fine and I was exceptionally cross with Direct Line for not keeping me up-to-date, but at least I did get to say goodbye.

The police: I still hadn't heard from anyone to tell me what had actually happened. Right at the beginning they’d said there had been a crash. OK - but I had questions: had there been another car involved, did anyone get hurt? I rang the number I had been given right at the beginning and asked to speak to my case officer. “Oh, looks like he's passed it to someone else in Croydon, I'll put you through”. 20 minutes on hold.

I finally managed to attract the attention of the operator who kept saying "sorry to keep you" approximately every 2 minutes and asked for the number that I was being put through to so I could try myself later. I tried on and off consistently from 0850 to 1530. I tried other Croydon station numbers who all pointed me back to that same number and said they were unable to give me any other method of contacting the officer working on my case. In the end I called the number I had rung first thing in the morning in the hope that they might be able to help. I was advised by an embarrssed sounding young officer that I had been given the wrong number (by 3 different people would you believe ...) by way of apology he offered to read me the report and promised to get my new case officer to ring with a full update.

The gist of it is: 3 men stole my car and were chased by a police vehicle. They tried to ram said police car and then ended up ploughing into a grassy bank. They then legged it and were chased on foot. 1 got away and 2 were caught; 1 of these was released with no charge and the other has been bailed to return on 3rd November. Apparently this was to allow time for more investigation and forensics work ... They'll have a job bearing in mind its already been taken for salvage! I pointed this out, at which point the officer said, well if he can’t keep track of his evidence then he’s going to lose his case isn’t he? My case I think you’ll find. As I say – I’m not impressed.

So, I await official settlement, grapple with the forms and leave you with a picture of Wedgie from the side where you'd almost think there was nothing wrong with him ...

The other side's not so good though and I can't bear to show you rest ...

Back on the trail

2006-10-01T10:43:00.000+01:00

Nope, not the Inca Trail for which sadly training has been a bit haphazard of late - the falling over illness (which I'm still not quite over I don't think), not having a car to get out and do a proper walk etc; no, rather the trail for somewhere else to live.

As the house is still not sold, I needed to extend the tenancy on the flat. However, I don't want to live here anymore - I don't feel safe on my own, there's something dodgy going on at the pub across the street, someone was knifed in a gang related incident just opposite the gate to my flat and then there's the whole Wedgie thing ... My tenancy was set to run out at the end of October, so I figured that as I'm not here at the end of November and therefore won't be here to move out, I would just steel myself and extend to the end of December .

Well I found out last weekend (just before I got the letter telling me I had to pay to release my stolen car from police custody) that I can either extend to the end of November (which is no use to me) or next March ... I really don't want to still be here next March.

So I'm back on the flat trail. I've spent a couple of nights this week on viewings and spent most of yesterday doing the same thing. At least I'm getting a lot of walking in!

I've decided to look at various areas of Surrey. Not because I work in Epsom (heaven forbid!), but because I have some friends in that area, its easier to get to visit my sister, its closer to my mate in Windsor and I can quickly get to country side. I particularly like Kingston - close to Richmond Park, Kew Gardens, Hampton Court Palace, good shopping and only 30 mins into Waterloo for the City stuff. Not sure I can afford it though!

I had 1 complete wasted journey (Wednesday night) where I scrambled out of work to get to Norbiton for an appointment at 6.30, only to get a call at 6.25 to say that the flat had been let. Sigh. So I hung around on the streets to see the second flat at 7pm. General feel of this particular area wasn't good - I didn't really feel comfortable, the flat had no parking and was right on a bus stop. When I finally got to see the flat I was frankly shocked. It had been described as a large one bed flat. Curious use of the term large ... You could have fit the whole flat into the living room of my house and they wanted £750 pcm. Suffice it to say I didn't take it!

Saturday was a better day - looking in Kingston again. The first flat I saw was beautiful - immaculate, lovely kitchen, somewhere to park a car, quiet street and 15 mins walk to the station. However, whilst it was a large 1 bed conversion, because of the configuration of built in cupboards, chimney brests and radiators, I couldn't work out how I was going to fit my furniture in ... Plus it seemed to be a lot of money for just one bedroom.

The second flat unfortunately had been let which left me with 90mins to kill while waiting for my next appointment. So I used it as an opportunity to check out the shops! Of course I didn't spend anything, but I had a good old mooch and a bag of chips (what a treat).

I walked to the next appointment which turned into a comedy 60 mins. I met a completely nuts agent called Shelly who called me dahhling and lovey at every turn and couldn't manage to get the flat open that I was going to view. She pushed and shoved the key, but to no avail. I offered to have a look and once in front of the lock could see that there was something stuck in it so the key was never going to go in. There was however another flat in the same block, which whilst not as nice as the one I was supposed to be seeing would give me an idea of the layout and the size etc. So we viewed that flat and it was huge. Two big bedrooms, large living room and kitchen and only £15 pcm more than the one bed I'd seen earlier in the day.

Anyway, we agreed that I would go back on Monday night to see the correct flat once she'd sorted out the lock and by way of apology she offered to give me a lift back to the station. She regaled me with tales of walking in on copulating couples, people who said they wouldn't be in but were snoring under the duvet during the viewing and the time she chased after a prospective tenant in her car who was supposed to be following her to a viewing on his bike but they had got separated. When she finally flagged him down she realised she had been following the wrong cyclist who accused her of stalking him - "Well they all look the same in those hats dahling ..."

We were just coming the end of a road where a friend of mine lives when she lurched to a halt and said - "I've just remembered I've got a 2 bed in that road there - would you like to see it? It would be a shame for you to have come all this way and not see anything ..."

So we raced off to the office (literally - 50 year old woman racer ...) and she picked up the keys and we viewed the flat. Its lovely, but I really don't know if I can afford it. There is a garage for a car, the kitchen is great, there's plenty of room for all my furniture, its in a nice quite road which is 10 minutes walk to Kingston Gate of Richmond Park one way, Kingston Station and the cinema in another and the river in another.

The agent thinks that the landlord might take an offer as "he's very fussy" and "he'd rather do an offer for the right tenant", apparently he thinks anyone that works in IT is great, so I've got brownie points there - I'm also a woman, so I'll be tidy ... Anyway, I've made an offer which is less than he was asking including the garage (which he wanted more for ...). I have no idea if he'll take it, but I'd love to live there. We'll see ...

Wedgie ...

2006-09-29T21:47:00.000+01:00

I still don't know the details but I was told by my case officer that Wedgie was taken by 3 youths who were known car theives. He was currently with forensics and I should have him back very soon. However, he had no detail on whether he was a wreck, although he could tell me that he had been in a police chase which resulted in a crash, so not very hopeful; however, someone would let me know soon when he would be released. The next morning I received a letter to say that the forensics had finished with it and that it was at Charlton Pound awaiting collection. The charge to have my car released was to be £105 and if I didn't collect it by midday 2 days following the date of the letter (Sunday), the cost of storage that I would incur would be £12 per day ... It was all a bit stark, unfeeling and upsetting - like it was my own fault that he'd been stolen ...

The insurance company undertook to arrange collection of the car - "is it driveable?" they asked. "I don't know - I keep asking and no-one can tell me". "Well that particular Pound don't take burnt out cars, so at least you know that much ..."

A week later, I finally got details of the garage who have the car and managed to speak to someone who had seen him. I still haven't had an official insurance engineer's assessment, but the lady I spoke to could tell me that he had been towed in and was therefore undrivable and that there was lots of damage to the front and the side plus they'd drilled bits out to get in and get it started. So, taking into account the age of the vehicle it was likley that the insurers would decide that it wasn't worth spending the money to put it right.

Whilst I was expecting this, I was really very sad. I've had Wedgie since 1993 (Wedgie because he's wedgewood blue), I've taxed, insured, serviced him and loved him. We've done lots of miles together (94,000 ...) and have been to lovely places - Jersey, France, Scotland, Durham, the Lake District (where he accomplished the Hard Knot pass with aplomb), Land's End, Lincolnshire, the Peaks - I could go on ... We hadn't been to Wales though - that was my next plan.

He is 17 years old and I was just planning on keeping him until he died a natural death, it seems terrible that his end should be being written off because he's too old to be worth investing the money in to put right. All because 3 lads wanted a bit of fun at mine and Wedgie's expense ...

So, now to work out what to do about another car ...

A list ...

2006-09-21T09:30:00.000+01:00

I'm paying a mortgage and rent on a flat. However I'm resourceful, I don't go anywhere unless its free (which unfortunately means I'm a bit of a hermit at the moment), I drive to work which is vastly cheaper than the train, I drive out to nice country spots and walk for my entertainment, I live frugally, I can ride it out until the house is sold ...
The house has been on the market for 4 months and we've had only one viewing. Hmmmm. I've gotta keep pushing the agents and get some ideas myself of how to sell it - reduce the price get some plans drawn up to demonstrate the 2 bedrooms and a bathroom which could be developed in the loft. I'm still being positive and active.
I'm going to Peru at the end of November and the money to pay for it is wrapped up in the deposit on the leaky, creaky flat I'm renting while the house is being sold. What the hell, I've broken my credit card rule and I'll do a credit card transfer thing to tide me over until the house is sold and I have some money.
Its gone into meltdown at work and I'm being asked to "go the extra mile" for the sake of the company in the present difficult climate - I think you'll find that I already do was my response ... I guess I'll just cram trying to find a job into the schedule once I've had 5 minutes to consider my CV. What the hell, I can go back to IT helpdesk or do some typing or be runner on someone's event (if I can find anyone willing to take me on of course) - I'm not proud. It just has to be enough o pay a mortgage and rent on a flat and keep me in the manner to which I am accustomed ...
I'm still trying to get over this flippin' vertigo thing. Whilst I'm still shattered at least I don't fall over anymore.

That should be it of stuff to cope with for the time being.

Oh no, sorry I forgot to mention that my car was stolen yesterday, used in a crime, involved in an accident and impounded.

Now I'm starting to lose the will ...

Blast from the past - no really!

2006-09-12T16:51:00.000+01:00

I was 'strolling' along the aisles of Tesco a couple of weeks ago (well as much as you can in a hideously busy supermarket on a Saturday morning) when I came across an "offer" at the end of an row. There was a display with 2 shelves with something called Golden Weetabix on it and at the bottom a single shelf of some stuff called Oatibix.

I looked at the picture and yes, they looked like Weetabix, I checked the ingredients and yes, they were devoid of wheat ... Could it really be possible that after all these years I could re-create my previous addictive breakfast of weetabix, smidge of muscavado sugar and ice cold milk? (NB. I use a my special creamy mix rather than milk with starch foods - don't ask ...) I've dreamed of having something similar over the years, but consoled myself with the fact that while it would never happen and just think how well I feel now I don't eat wheat. (Well apart from the odd touch of vertigo and which certainly isn't a side effect of eating wheat!)

I really didn't think it could be possible, but what the hell, I gave them a go.

Heaven ...

Now I know its been ages since I had real Weetabix so I couldn't say that they're just the same, but I don't care! They're actually just the job and 2 weeks later (24 biscuits later to be precise) I can't wait to buy another box. They're crispy, tasty, quick (which is a rare occurence with the way I eat nowadays, having to make pretty much everything from scratch) and what' more I feel full afterwards.

Breakfast heaven re-created indeed. Just have to hope I can find them on the shelves in Tesco again! :)

New toys normally raise a smile ...

2006-09-09T20:45:00.000+01:00

But nope ... I'm really rubbish at being ill. I've lost pretty much a whole week with this labyrinthine thing - now happily shortened to 'vertigo' by a different doctor who sent me home with a flea in my ear for having tried to work from my bed rather than simply taking it easy as I was told to in the first place ... Thoroughly chastised I finally turned off the laptop on Thursday!

I'm feeling much better now, but boy have I been fed up. I haven't even been up to enjoying new toys - until today that is! I got 2 new toys this week (phone and camera) and am only just getting stuck into the first one now.

My new phone is lovely, and I'm typing this post on it using its lovely qwerty keyboard whilst sitting in a pub, sipping a rather nice NZ sauvignon blanc, waiting for my date. Its lovely - the phone I mean (pub's ok too). I'm all synced up on both the home laptop and the work one, I've got Magical Trevor installed as my ring tone and I'm about to install the lovely Pocket Breeze for WM5. Hopefully my mini SD card will arrive on Monday; 1 gig, complete with usb card reader for #30 - can you believe that price? Memory has really come down since I last bought normal SD storage! Anyway, once I get that I can get my MP3s on it and I'll be ready to rumble!

BTW, I think I'm sat in people's usual seats ... Getting daggers looks at the moment. Tough, I was here first and I'm entitled to space as much as the next person - just because I'm on my own just at the moment.

Anyway, I digress ... The phone is lovely, and I'm sure the camera will be too. I have no idea what I'm talking about with cameras, but I hope I've got a reasonable buy... It’s a 6MP camera with zoom of some description - 3 x optical and 2 x digital though at the moment I'm not entirely sure what that means... I got is because it promised to be a good "point and shoot" option, but there still seem to be a lot of settings to work through and understand even for someone supposedly non-technophobe like me.

Ah well, once I've set up the phone exactly the way I want it I'll turn my attention to the camera beyond setting the clock which I did manage to achieve fairly simply! Stuff like flash levels, saturation, contrast, focussing, exposure etc will have to wait until they have my full attention ... Took a couple of pictures of my feet whilst lying in bed (been in bed all week and its sooooo boring ...) which looked sharp, colourful and generally OK without doing anything complicated, so hopefully it won't be too difficult to pick up and it will really be my Peru point and shoot!

Ugh ...

2006-09-04T22:40:00.000+01:00

I’m really not very good at being ill … But ill I am … But, that’s the thing, I don’t feel ill. As long as I stay lying down. I feel great (if not VERY tired) lying down, it’s the sitting up, moving around thing that makes me not well. It started on Sunday morning and the most irritating thing is that I didn’t get to go walking, I had great plans this weekend – lets hope I’m back on form next weekend instead … I woke up with a headache (which had been there the day before too), so made to get up and grab some painkillers again (all I had was some Feminax but in spite of their ineffectiveness I still figured I’d give them a go). Well, I sat up and everything went “whoosh”. So I lay down again. Much better down there … I kept trying, but nope – “whoosh” and falling over was the result everytime. BBW brought me loads of food and water, helped me shuffle to the loo and set up the TV in my bedroom so I didn’t have to move anywhere. I watched so much rubbish on the TV its unreal – I was almost enjoying it by the end of the day which was when I knew I had to turn it off …

Today was a bit better, I’ve shuffled about pathetically and worked from home lying on the bed with the laptop propped up on my tummy and knees. I finally had a visit from a Doctor (the surgery had suggested I walk to an appointment, but I explained that it was all I could manage to make it to the flippin’ loo), he confirmed my self diagnosis of a Labyrintine Viral infection which explained my desperate tiredness and the falling over thing.

The prescription was Stemetil which, having looked it up,blocks a variety of receptors in the brain, particularly dopamine receptors to stop them becoming over-stimulated, thereby helping to control psychotic illness. (!!!) They are also used to control symptoms such as nausea and dizziness which are caused by inner ear disorders. (Phew!)

So, I’m going to take it easy (in between doing some work from bed – I’m too damn busy to be ill!), drink lots of fluids and wait it out. Apparently it could be gone tomorrow, or it may still be here in a week or two weeks … If its still here in a week, I have to get the doctor back. Fingers crossed not eh …?

Bite the bullet

2006-09-04T21:11:00.000+01:00

OK, so I said I wasn't intimidated by the Prince 2 mob, and I'm not; but I've realised that its time I at least studied the methodology so a) I can really recognise a client that is using it, and in some instances I suspect simply implementing it badly; b) maybe I can use some elements of it by way kicking arse at work - I know what the problems are in my parlance, but maybe if I use a few bits of Prince 2 terminology on them they might actually sit up and listen and c) it'll stand me in better stead to get another bloomin' job ...

So, I've been doing a bit of research on line and have found some free stuff I can use and some books which I'm hoping to pursuade work to buy - whilst they are "investors in people", I know it doesn't stretch to letting me do a course and get the qualification ... I guess the book will have to do for the time being.

I did it in time, I just never posted it!

2006-09-04T20:38:00.000+01:00

I have been blogging the past few weeks, but just didn’t get round to posting them ... A bit like the birthday cards I always remember to buy, write, address and stamp and then carry around in my handbag for weeks after they should have been posted. I apologise now to all of you who have, over the years, received dogeared looking birthday cards several days after the event … Anyway, the posts below are decidely un-dogeared, but carried around in my handbag for too long nonetheless!

Spend, spend, spend …

2006-09-02T22:36:00.000+01:00

I’ve now got most of my walking clothes. I've got 1 final pair of trousers on order (there was only one pair of extra small trousers in the shop, and whilst I’m doing very well at planning my “packing light” I really can’t go away with only one pair of trousers! I’ve also got my “base layer” on order – again, they needed to order in some small ones.

It’s all lovely feeling stuff – a far cry from the tweed plus fours my Mum made me for my Duke of Edinburgh’s award 25 years ago and a long way from my old Damart thermals …

But, thank goodness for The North Face sale! Its an expensive old business and I haven’t bought any new shoes this summer, so I’m tring to get my kick from the trekking stuff! Vapour wick, UPV 40 protection, quick drying etc. Its all so much more exciting than 3 ½ “ heeled black supple leather ankle boots … If I keep saying it, it’ll be true!

First the boots, then the bags …

2006-08-31T22:33:00.000+01:00

Well, I’ve bought my rucksacks. I’m very pleased, though it was a tough old decision which required external input – the casting vote delivered by my Mum. After all as Dad said when I phoned and said I didn’t mind who I spoke to (he always assumes I’ve rung to speak to Mum ... well – best speak to Mum, she’s good at making people’s minds up for them.

What to do? I wanted 2 bags. One was my “day sack”, this is the one I’ll be carrying myself on the trip so I want something comfy, hardwearing, unobtrusive, with an integrated rain cover and preferably something that wasn’t going to make my back saturated in the way that my £10 from Halford’s effort has been doing all summer …

The other one is the big rucksack which needs to have all my gear in that I need for the trail. This one I won’t be carrying in Peru, but will be carried by the Porters (I hadn’t realised this to begin with and have been busy doing stuff at the gym to try and make myself better equipped to carry a big rucksack. Doh!) This also needed to be comfy, unobtrusive, have a rain cover and be none sweat inducing in the back department!

So, I had an interesting session in a hiking shop where I tried on lots of rucksacks – had a wee lesson in how to get it on and off without falling over etc and ended up trying to decide whether to go for the “girlie option” or the “real hiker” option. This was according to the very helpful man in the shop … Girlie option = good bag, very comfortable now, but won’t last well. Real Hiker option = good bag, comfortable now but will get more comfortable with more wearing and very very durable …

Obviously there’s a cost implication, so Mum being the final arbiter advised to just spend the flippin’ money on the good quality durable option and just to make sure I get out there travelling! So, that’s what I did.

5 days

2006-08-29T21:56:00.000+01:00

I just had 5 consecutive days off work. Trouble is, it took me so long to wind down, that by the time I had it was a real struggle to wind myself back up … Note to self – 7 days would have been better!

What better way to wind down that go and be looked after by Mum – only I’m not very good at being looked after! We had a nice time looking after each other though.

Mum and I went out of a scoping mission to Millets to look at rucksacks – shopping with Mum is shopping with Mum! We also stopped off at the new “gallery” in Mum and Dad’s town. It was quite good actually. Nice little “Designs for life” exhibition downstairs, showcasing local furniture designers and a Photographic exhibition upstairs with a great picture which was curious to begin with and which I loved once I read the title – "Dave, Party, Lincolnshire". We laughed! Mum ended up joining the mailing list and has resolved to go back – even dragging Dad in if possible, but knowing that its fine for her to go in on her own.

I cooked on Saturday night – lots of food, lots of wine …

Sunday we headed out for another walk. A lovely walk along the Norfolk coast with a picnic on the beach with just a hint of the sea miles away! BBW will get to walk next to the sea yet …

I also ordered my new phone … I was actually going to terminate my contract, having discovered that I could get a better deal elsewhere, plus get my new phone for only £49.99. Now I didn’t really have £49.99 but my current phone is really starting to sag – it goes slow at the drop of a hat, has been dropped and scratched etc and I figured that even though I couldn’t really afford £50 at the moment, better to get it now at that price than miss it and then not be able to get something I wanted when my current phone went belly up. Well, having explained why I wanted to terminate I managed to change my tarrif so that I get 220 minutes and 200 text per month more that I do currently for £10 less, PLUS, PLUS!!! MY NEW PHONE as a free upgrade. Was I excited or what? Still haven’t received it yet. Its on back order. But it’ll be great when it gets here! New toy – hurray!!

Its all a matter of stile ...

2006-08-22T13:54:00.000+01:00

Why are all stiles not the same? Why are some perfect (in my humble opinion!) Example A below:

And some chunky and sturdy looking but frankly ill designed. Example B below:

Now if it comes to it I'm happy to scramble over a fence or a gate; though the absence of a stile or kissing gate (isn't kissing gate a lovely description?) would indicate that I wasn't necessarily walking a public footpath and was possibly temporarily in the wrong place (lost) and probably trespassing ... However, I think if you're going to provide a stile, then at least provide one that works logically. ie. you get over it using one foot after another - like walking in fact! Example A allows you to do just that, whereas example B makes you either change feet half way over, or do a one footed turn (complete with potentially heavy rucksack) at the top and then come down backwards.

Hey ho, no pleasing some people is there?

PS - this is my favourite stile ...

I don't want to be 'the slowest person" ...

2006-08-22T13:35:00.000+01:00

Whilst I'm doing quite a bit of walking in preparation for this trip (13 miles this weekend - 5 miles Saturday & 8 miles Sunday), I'm still really scared that I'm going to holding people back. I know that the group can only go as fast as the slowest person, but I would be mortified if that person was me ...

There are no easily accessible proper hills near me - well there's Box Hill but that's only 172 m above sea level and I'm going to be going up to 4,200 m (1,400m in one day in fact …) So I'm just hoping that my gym work will mean that I'm not the weezy runt who struggles with the climbing ...

In the mean time to at least get the mileage up and get me walking on lots of days my training is now up to walking both Saturday and Sunday, plus walking a couple of times during the week too.

The only way I've managed to schedule the mid week walking in without either setting out to walk after work (the time at which I'm more in mind of a glass of wine, food and doing home type chores) or getting up at 5.30 and walking before I leave for work, is actually to simply walk to work. Well, not the whole 12 miles, but 3.7 of them.

I did it for the first time today and it worked quite well. Up at 6.30, train to Cheam at 0710. Arrive Cheam 0730 and set off to walk to Epsom. The first person I bumped into was JC, someone I used to work with in a previous life (seems a lifetime ago now) – what are the chances of that happening? It was certainly weird to see someone in a completely unexpected place and chances are we’ll bump into each other again bearing in mind I’m going to be doing this twice a week. Anyway, 60 minutes later I arrived in Epsom, had a shower at the gym and was at my desk by 0900. Not a bad morning all told!

Lessons Learned #2

2006-08-16T08:46:00.000+01:00

Waterproof leggings protect you from the external elements; they do, however simply make you wet from the inside out ...
Map and compass walking is good and Sunday was the first proper go at it. I re-walked a previous route but only using the written instructions as back up for map reading cockups! I had my home made waterproof map holder (a bit 'Blue Peter', but did the job!), my new bargain of a Berghaus waterproof courtesy of my credit card … and my waterproof leggins …. I'm not saying I knew precisely where I was all the time (I need to do more practice on the compass reading stuff to be able to do it exactly), but I always knew which direction I was heading in and approximately where on the map I was ...

Lessons Learned #1

2006-08-08T08:24:00.000+01:00

Sitting around in the sun all day (Fruitstock 2006) is exceptionally tiring ... Why is that?
I really should try & find myself a job where the Jimmy Choo people phone me up and ask for my shoe and dress size .... Just check out the "Classic Boots" and "Classic Shoes pages ... Sigh. (Note to Catster here) The best I manage is a free bottle of ropey red wine when I do the work Friday lunch order at the local Indian restaurant...
I'm never going out walking without a proper map and my compass again. The internet is great, but you can't trust the walk instructions some people post on some sites. For example

"At the path junction go straight ahead and then take the left fork through a gate and along a wooded path"
This should really have read

"at the junction between the National trust Trail and the Greensand Way, take the National Trust path going right and then immediately left downhill along the sandy path of the Greensand Way. Keep heading straight ahead (first going downhill and then up and back down again) over four more path junctions until (after approx 1.5km) you come to a fork in the path. Take the left fork through a large gate and continue uphill along a wooded path ..."
Little hints like "uphill" "downhill", "left" & "right" (left and right are no good of course if people don’t know which is which…) seem alien to some walk contributors ... Some seem more intent on describing a configuration of trees, plants/public signage as landmarks, whose noted configuration could quite possibly change, in the way that a slope upwards, or whole forest off to the right is unlikely to ... Why can’t they keep it simple rather than doing instructions that sound like they have more place in a dungeons and dragons game?

Suffice it to say that that walk was not the most successful because I realised too late that it fell off the edge of my OS map ... Never go out without a map and compass! Consequently getting frustrated with bad instructions and having to keep retracing steps was my own fault for not having had the relevant map to refer to...

As I say, lessons learned...

Without Prejudice ...

2006-08-05T10:58:00.000+01:00

Dear Bloominjools

Without Prejudice

Feminax

Thank you for your enquiry regarding the above. I am sorry to hear about your disappointment with your purchase of our new Feminax Period Pain Capsules.

At the direction of the UK medicines licence authority (the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)), the active ingredient, Hyoscine Hydrobromide has been removed from Feminax.

The MHRA reviewed all Hyoscine Hydrobromide-containing products and decided that it was unclear whether the quantity present in Feminax performed a relevant function. [well they should have asked me – I could have told them!] Bayer therefore took this opportunity to review the current formulation and decided that an optimal formulation was 500mg Paracetamol and 8mg Codeine Phosphate. [Pah!] Bayer also took this opportunity to change the pharmaceutical form from hard tablets to a more favourable soft capsule.

I hope this information is helpful to you and apologise for any inconvenience you have been caused.

Yours sincerely

Feminax Lady
Medical Affairs Administrator

Grumpy old woman

2006-08-03T07:14:00.000+01:00

Straight down the middle
Why is it that people feel it necessary to drive down the middle lane of a 3 lane motorway regardless of the fact that the inside lane is free? It really pisses me off. There I am in the inside lane – doing the limit. There is Mr(s) limpet, clinging tenaciously to the middle lane and I’m catching them up on the inside. Therefore, in order to avoid overtaking on the inside I have to cross right over the motorway in order to get past. If less people drove down the middle unnecessarily, ie. not for the purposes of overtaking, then there would be less people trying to insert themselves in the outside lane, ie. putting themselves in the way of people tanking it. Surely that would be safer all round?

Only a fool …
... breaks the 2 second rule. Well there are lots of them about. Why do people (a female Honda driver for the sake of argument) feel it is acceptable to tailgate me – I’m doing the limit in the outside lane of a 2 lane carriage way so I can get past a queue of lorries doing 55mph and I also have a queue of traffic in front of me meaning that even if I did want to go over 70, I can’t. Add into the mix a sudden gap on the inside lane and said Honda driver continues her mobile phone conversation, interspersed with shouting and gesticulating at me (she was obviously an octopus, as I reckon that waving hands, holding a phone and holding on to the steering wheel surely lead to a hand over allocation), overtakes on the inside, still shouting and gesticulating, and plonks herself into the safe distance previously left between me and the car in front. But hey, she managed to get a good 400 feet further down the road – made all the difference I’m sure …

When I’m awake …
I wish I could do it, but I can’t. Once I’m awake, I’m awake and my body doesn’t give a monkeys whether its 5am or not. I’ve tried (for years) to be the sort of person who can luxuriate in lying in bed, drifting in and out of sleep and generally chilling. But I can’t do it. I tried again this morning. I woke at 4.50am and lay in bed for an hour before I finally got up, but it wasn’t enjoyable. The longer I lay there the more my back started to ache and I knew that if I stayed there much longer I would get a headache – and I can’t be doing with that. So, I’ve done some well needed house keeping on the old laptop, a bit of filing and a bit of a blog. No backache or headache forthcoming, so I think it was a good move.

There’s something missing …

2006-07-20T10:13:00.000+01:00

Feminax Capsules …

They used to work like a dream but they don’t anymore!

That was weird ... (revised)

2006-07-09T06:00:00.000+01:00

Well the first viewing has happened - they didn't want it, too small upstairs apparently ... But hey, its feedback. It was however a really weird and upsetting experience; for TEH too I think. Sitting waiting to show a bunch of strangers around your home is weird enough, but once they'd been and gone it really brought home the fact that everything has changed and is soon to change even more. That's not to say that the change isn't going to be good and isn't right, its what I crave after all, but Saturday's experience just reasserted the fact to us both together at the same time in the same room, and that was weird. Suffice it to say that about 6 months worth of bottled up tears (I'm good at bottling up!) were shed that evening to the accompaniment of gin and tonic … [NB This is where the revised version ends - there was an original which was withrawn owing to oversharing and inappropriate material for posting here - it was however extremely cathartic to compose].

Anyway, the next day dawned somewhat gloomily, though it was a blessed relief to the stifling temperatures and humidity we've had of late. I ignored the forecast of morning rain and focused on the clear skies that were promised later. So Iheaded off with rucksack and waterproofs to Eynsford for what proved to be a lovely walk through corn fields (complete with my favourite poppies and cornflowers), a magnificent Victorian viaduct, pleasantly cool woods and pretty sections of river. It was wet to begin with, but still warm and there was loads of wildlife in evidence (the absence of lots of other noisy walkers because of the Wimbledon tennis final and the world cup final probably had something to do with that!) plus 2 enormous and surprising fields of lavender, not really the colour I was expecting in the Kent countryside.

I did my 8 miles and there were plenty of inclines to keep us on our toes along with herd of cows right between where we were and where we needed to be. Cows, calves and a bull to be precise, a potentially unpredictable combination. They kept a beedy eye on the calves, but all passed without the need to pick up pace and vault the stile (or indeed demolish and rebuild a drysone wall which is another story, dating back to my D of E in the Peak district many moons ago).

So all in all a mixed weekend really which definitely ended better that it began.

Is there anybody there?

2006-07-06T15:28:00.000+01:00

I know – it’s been such a long time … there’s probably no-one out there reading this any more! It’s been a funny old month. I’ve been kind of busy

Complaining to the council about their non-refuse-collection service. Oh yes, it has gone on and on … I’ve now got a lovely glossy complaints pack to fill in when I’ve got a spare moment.

Arguing a parking fine – sigh. This was as a result of parking too close to a line in a bay which I pay an annual fee to park in on the Saturday of the first England game in the world cup. There were only 3 cars parked in the street and there are quotas to be met … I’m awaiting photographic evidence, though research has shown that the PCN isn’t legal anyway – there are supposed to be 2 reference numbers on them and there is only one, so we’ll see what happens.

Working and

Walking.

In the absence of funds and in the face of many bills everything has had to be cheap so gigs, pubs and cinema have been out …

I’ve been on lots more walks - I enjoyed the last one in particular, lots of scrambling up and down in a wood (which was the perfect place to be when out in the open it was 32 degrees!) and what is more I now have my boots! Sadara take note, I’ve been wearing them in around the flat and last Sunday was the first day I got them dirty! They were pretty comfortable, didn’t rub much, but I still have a bit of adjustment to play with in terms of adding another insole and doing creative lacing – I had a little lesson in tying my laces in the shop when I was buying them would you believe. But anyway, I’m very pleased with them so far.

I'm finding some excellent walking partners and so hopefully I’ll have enough who are up for 10 mile hikes every weekend to see me through.

But the rest of the time I’ve kind of been feeling strangely static. I think it’s all to do with not having managed to get any interest in the house; and until the house is sold, or at least shows signs of being sold, I’m not really able to make any plans, so I kind of feel as I said ‘static’, even trapped?

I’ve been working away as ever (I just had my 1 year anniversary) and, dare I say it, have been feeling somewhat positive about the job in recent weeks. I now know what works and I’m really pleased with that. I’m at last feeling that actually I’m good at what I do. There I said it … It doesn’t come naturally to me! I know how it needs to be done, I’ve got processes in place and I’m confident about dealing with customers because of that; no more feeling around trying to work out the best way of implementing stuff while trying to mop up previous failed implementations at the same time (i.e. ones that were a mess when I arrived in the job!). I know what works and its worked several times now which is gratifying. I’ve also stopped being intimidated by the Prince2 local government / enterprise customer ‘project managers’.

I think I’m a decent project manager, which as far as I’m concerned involves simply being organised, having good communication skills and being able to break stuff down i.e. seeing where to start, what will consitute the end and what stages are required to get there. I like to call it the common sense approach and it seems terribly logical to me. Lets face it I have a work breakdown structure in place for getting up and going to work in the morning: risks identified, critical path analysed and everything – no point eating my breakfast or putting my lippy on before I’ve brushed my teeth example – there is an order to everything. I’ve never done any formal training, and I’m certainly not Prince2 certified (certifiable maybe …) but that doesn’t bother me any more really. I know I can’t ‘talk the talk’, but I know I can ‘walk the walk’ and that is what gets things done at the end of the day.

So I’m getting lots done, but I still feel like I’m not moving forward. Because of the house ...

I’ve been thinking about my Peru trip and all the plans I had / have for after that, but without the sale of the house I can’t afford to do any of the post Peru stuff and won’t be able to do it because I’ll still be here in a job which doesn’t allow me to have a mid life crisis sabbatical for 3 months! Also, what is additionally irritating is that I’ve got precious little annual leave in this job (how I miss the annual leave at the RFH – for goodness sake, I had so much there I never managed to take it all!), and I’ve been trying to work out how much I’ve got so I can take some holiday this summer – I haven’t had a break since Easter and that was only 4 days out of the office (ie. including the bank holiday weekend!). I’d just like to get out of London for a bit, do some proper walking and camping maybe. If I’m going to jack it all and in head off on travels after Peru, then I won’t need to take the 12 days leave for Peru out of my annual leave allocation which means I’ve got 13 days to play with between now and the end of November. However, if I’m not jacking it all in (which I can’t unless I sell the house) then that only leaves me 8 days leave up until April next year – not much to play with at all really …

The other thing is that if I don’t sell the house, it means I need to stay living where I am, which in turn means I’m going to have to get a flippin’ loan out to pay for the Peru trip. That was going to be funded by the money that my gran left me when she died last year, however, that had to be pressed into temporary service as the deposit on the flat I’m living in … If I’m still in the flat that means no deposit coming my way!

Result. I’m stuck, stationary, static … As you know, I like to be organised and I feel like I should be (want to be) doing a lot of research, making plans, working out costs, checking in with people I would like to be visiting etc now in order to be prepared to head off in December. But I’ve decided that I shouldn’t let myself even look at what I could do post Peru because I don’t want to be disappointed. And I hate it; that feeling that I’m not moving forward.

Well, maybe things are looking up. TEH and I have ditched the previous rubbish estate agent, who managed not to bring a single person through the door (no-one to see my CNL style re-representation of the back bedroom) and who when we asked why that might be, i.e. what was putting people off, look of the place, the area, the price etc etc said that he would do a ‘bit of research into how much similar properties were going for in the area’ … I ask you! You can imagine my response to that. Anyway, more research was done further valuations sought etc, and we now have a new agent who immediately seemed to have a handle on what sort of buyer he would be targeting and having signed off the description and done the proof of ID thing on Tuesday evening, the house went onto the website on Wednesday morning and we have one viewing tonight and another on Saturday.

Now, don’t worry, I’m not getting my hopes up, but I am very happy that we’re getting someone through the door who can give us some feedback at last! And who knows, they might end up being as smitten with my view as I am … Fingers crossed that I’m moving forward again.

It's a bit like making pancakes ...

2006-06-06T15:15:00.000+01:00

Maybe because it was my first fake tan of the summer and I haven't quite rediscovered the application technique - a bit like the first pancake you make is always a bit dodgy until you get the combination of oil, heat and the swirl of the pan as you add the pancake mix sussed - either way, it seems to have gone a bit blotchy on my lower legs. Not quite sure what I did wrong. It looked OK on Sunday, but now seems to have gone a bit patchy.

Hey ho, I've got all summer to remaster the tecnique and I was feeling decidedly chilly this morning anyway so I've resorted to jeans (and pink suede boots) so no-one can see the blotching. Happily my tummy is un-blotchy, but unhappily I'm into the 7 day 'circle' countdown, so the little bloater is being sucked and in decorously hidden under a long T shirt ...

It's good to be back ...

2006-06-04T15:01:00.000+01:00

I really wish I'd carried on walking after I left home. You can't beat a good old yomp through fields and over stiles and now I'm doing it again I realise how much I've missed it. I've not managed anything serious yet of course, just a couple of rambles really.

The first was the Mole Gap Trail 6 / 7 miles with only slight undulation and the second was the Norbury Park Circular Walk 5 miles with a couple of short steepish sections. The weather was perfect on both occasions, dry and sunny (though lots of clarts underfoot in places on the first one) but not too hot. Lots of dragon flies, butterflies, fish, ancient looking trees and lovely views to be enjoyed while eating a picnic.

I really must get a proper digital camera (definitely before I go to Peru etc, but ideally before then so I can practice - I'm not a natural photographer or photographic subject for that matter!) However easy as the walks might have been, they've been a good foray back into walking through fields of cows, stepping in clarts and the inevitable peeing in the woods ...

However, before I can 'step up' the difficulty of the walks I've got to get some proper boots - trouble is I'm even more strapped for cash this month than normal - why do bills car tax, insurance and phone bills always end up coming at the same time?, so that’ll have to wait until next month; but, as important, I need to find a walking group, or at least a couple of other people who'd like to get out and walk at the weekend.

I've been looking on the ramblers website and am aiming to go along on a couple of their 'group walks' to see what they're like. I was going to for try the 20 - 40 group which I felt sure they would have, but it’s a 20 – 30 group … How to make you feel old in one deft movement eh … Anyway, I’ll just join a local group for a couple of walks and if they seem like they're going to be the sort of walks I want to do, then I guess I'll join up. I also need to remind Mr West that we were going to embark on an expedition of some sort over the summer. Admittedly we did have the conversation on the long coach journey to and from Birmingham way back in January so he may well have forgotten, but once I've got a more walking fit, carrying kit fit and my boots worn in I will be definitely be up for it!

It was all going to be so 'romantic' …

2006-06-02T09:22:00.000+01:00

I was going to turn 'a big birthday' on the 11th October, have a bit of a 'do' and then head off on my travels on the 14th.

Unfortunately the company I'm doing my Inca Trail trip with have had a 'bit of bother' with flights and have moved the trip dates to November, which means the romance of turning 'a big birthday' (who am I kidding, you know how old I am!) and buggering off for a couple of months has kind of been changed.  I suppose it doesn't really matter, but it does mean that I'm now going to be in Oz and NZ in December rather than November which isn't ideal.

Good news: I've discovered that Cragghoppers make ladies travelling clothing in size 8s. They also make stuff in short lengths (for short arses like me).

Bad news: they don't make short length clothing in size 8 ... Seems a bit daft to me as it would seem reasonable that you would have a fair number of the population who are just 'petite' - ie short and size 8(ish) ....

Good news: I have a contingency plan - buy the grown up length convertible trousers in size 8, but always wear them in the converted to 'Capri length', mode - which is about full length on me!

Bad news - they're out of stock in all the colours I like...

Ah well I've got a few months left to get kitted out! Though the sooner I get my boots the better ...

Is it strange that I'm getting quite misty eyed about finding my perfect pair of boots? Back in my hiking days - yes I have done it before! However, somehow marriage, work and a different set of personal priorities meant that I didn't pursue something that I now recognise to be something that I wish I hadn't sidelined ... You live and learn!  Well … back in my hiking days, I had a lovely pair of boots which I had walked extensively in, which had a bit cut out to cater for my peculiarly connected Achilles tendon, and which NEVER gave me blisters.

They wore out, in spite of the Bloominjools attentive dubbins'ing ... However, I'm hoping that 20 years on (my God, did I say 20 years??) that technology has moved on and that I will find enlightenment with a new pair of boots. What's the betting they're hideously expensive....? Much more expensive than my usual style of boot I would guess.

I will let you know!

Its just not me. Is it?

2006-05-24T09:55:00.000+01:00

So, you know I'm doing this Inca Trail thing? Why is it I'm more worried about what to wear than anything else?

So far all the horror stories about altitude sickness haven't really bothered me - I'll follow all the acclimatisation guidelines, make sure I've trained properly and if it happens it happens.

I'm not worried about blisters - I'll make sure I really walk my boots in and have proper socks and all that.

I'm not worried about not being fit enough - I have a good diet and a PPT. I've already programmed my walking schedule into the diary and am really looking forward to all the lovely walking I'm going to be doing over the next 4 months.

I'm not really worried about the eating situation - I'll manage one way or another.

I'm slightly concerned about the circle with no end, as I'm not sure at which point in the circle the trips kicks off ... But hey, there's nowt I can do about that, I'll just have to hope my new regime of Soya isoflavones are helping by then ...

No, what I'm worrying about is the clothes. I'm looking on websites for trekking kit and I can't find any decent trouser type bits (ie. that are quick drying, breathable, repel bugs and all that malarkey) that are under a size 10! Maybe I haven't looked hard enough ... The last thing I need to be worrying about is whether my trousers are going to fall down half way along the Warmiwanusca Pass or that they are so voluminous that they act as some kind of sail mechanism and I get blown off the ridge at Phuyupatamarca.

Warmiwanusca Pass and Phuyupatamarca

Also, I just don't look like a trekker. I don't have ruddy healthy cheeks, I don't have a sturdy looking frame (though I'm stronger than I look!) and I realise today that I don't have trekking type jewellery which seems to be required. I was admiring a girl's rucksack on the train earlier on and realised as I noted her ethnic bracelets that I've just never had that travelling look. I'm the girl in boot cut pink cords, high heeled boots and a full length leather (Trinity) coat. Am I just going to look really stupid on this trip? Probably ... And especially likely if my trousers fall down.

Styling help has never been needed as much as it is now, and if at the very least someone could point me in the direction of some decent walking trousers in a size 6/8 then that would be a start!

The circle without an end

2006-05-20T10:56:00.000+01:00

You'd think I'd have cottoned on by now ...

Yes, I did drink too much before eating, but it was actually my Thursday headache, masquerading as a hangover headache. I didn't spot it because it started on a Wednesday - doh! Anyway, two happy days later it was all gone - slurring of words, blurry vision and general screaming head banished until next month. Phew!

Now I just have to look forward to the next round; 7 days of excessive irritability mixed with tears and basic lack of brain function, followed by 2 days looking like a question mark (?), 2 days just feeling wiped out, followed by the 2 day Thursday headache ...

Hey ho, 14 days of 'freedom' left ...

I just can't hack it any more ...

2006-05-17T09:16:00.000+01:00

I really must remember that when I'm going out on a school night I should introduce food into the proceedings much sooner than happened last night. To be fair, the lovely Jane and I did actually manage to eat this time - in a restaurant chosen by virtue of it having two items on the menu that I could eat and that we were both busting for a pee so needed to get in somewhere and use the facilities! The last time we met for food we never actually made it out of the pub...

However, for me, in my aging state, (Catster's worries about finding a single grey hair are nothing compared to the plethora of pesky white crinkly buggers I find on a daily basis indeed I fear that a Mallen streak is not far off), the food came in round about 2 glasses too late! Consequence of that is that in spite of drinking what is with food normally a perfectly acceptable quantity for me, I felt pretty damn hammered and am a wee bit fragile this morning. Not good on a work day…

So next time, I either have to insist that we meet at the restaurant, or make sure I drink mainly soft drinks until such time as we get there. Yeah right...

Hmmmmm update …

2006-05-11T16:41:00.000+01:00

So, I’ve had confirmation from a chap at the company who are contracted by the Council to do the recycling collection; and I am definitely not entitled to a recycling collection. This is because (me living in a flat and all) it involves leaving a box on the street, and someone might fall over it. If I were to leave the box in the street and someone fell over it, apparently I would be responsible for any damages claimed by anyone that might be injured. I am however required (for the time being) to put my bin out in the street.

BloominJools: “Is that because it is big enough for someone to see and wouldn’t be considered by the council to be a trip hazard?”
Council contractor: “I guess so.”
BloominJools: “Would I however be responsible for someone being mown down by a passing motorist because a person with a double buggy has had to go onto the road to get past the bin?”
Council contractor: “………” he didn’t know the answer to that.

Council Contractor: “However, they’re going to be changing things so that you don’t have to put your bin on the street, because not all flats have a bin. They‘re going to have bag collections instead.”
BloominJools: “Hmmm … but wouldn’t a pile of rubbish bags on the street be a trip hazard?
Council contractor: “I don’t’ think so”
BloominJools: “Well then why is a green box a trip hazard and a bag of rubbish not?”
Council contractor: “…………” he didn’t know the answer to that.

I haven’t done my letter yet, but it will be done.

Hmmmmmmm

2006-05-10T23:50:00.000+01:00

Because I live in a flat in my particular road it appears that I am not 'entitled' to a recycling collection. I'm also not entitled to a council bin. In fact if it wasn't for the fact that I already have one, I would now have to go out and source my own.

It has also taken me three different phone conversations over the last month with my local council to finally establish what day my ordinary refuse collection is. In fact at one point I thought they were going to say that I wasn't even entitled to one of those.

I have now established after said phone conversations (no point looking at the comprehensive and informative website because that is correct for everyone in the Borough except people who live in flats in my road ...) that my collection is on a Monday and furthermore, the reason that I haven't had a collection since 10th April is because I'm now required to put my privately sourced bin out on the main street.

Let’s hope no-one steals said bin and

It would have been nice to have told that that was what I was supposed to do, and

I pity the next person who tries to negotiate that part of the pavement in a large wheelchair or with a double buggy ...

This is all in spite of the fact that I'm paying the same council tax as everyone else in my council tax band and, you'll be as pleased as me to hear, that the main reason for the increase this year was in order to fund the new recycling collection initiative - to which I am not entitled …

I can feel a strongly worded letter coming on.

A Synopsis

2006-05-10T13:41:00.000+01:00

Because a full update would be tedious in the extreme ...

Work has really taken over since I moved into my new place and unfortunately just at the same time that we needed to get those big decorating jobs done on the house so we could get it on the market. Add to that my need to feather my new nest and to do nice stuff for me, its all been a bit manic really.

The "stuff I'd rather not have been doing" side of the coin saw me working long hours - well not as long as in a previous event managing life but still more than I should be. Its the age old thing of too much work and not enough people to do it plus my fundamental inability to let things slip ... I always end up with a really irritating sense of commitment / loyalty to my work colleagues and the people to whom we are providing the service. I would say that I wished I wasn't like it, but I don't, it’s what makes me, me. What I should be better at doing is not allowing myself to be used in this way time and time again.
Add to this the situation that when I wasn't working late I was up at the house in the evening (and Saturdays) scraping ceilings, rubbing down walls, painting, tidying garden etc. It didn't really leave much time for doing chores, nest feathering, doing nice stuff, sleeping or blogging.

Those who know me will know that I'm incapable of ignoring chores and with so many visits to the old house (nest), the need to feather my new flat (nest) (not to mention unpack!) was very strong. Basically that left me to choose between doing nice stuff, sleeping and blogging - I'm afraid doing nice stuff and sleep won in the end!

The "things I wanted to do" side of the coin lead to going to see Sinatra and then Salsa Celtica (both very spur of the moment and both very enjoyable); having lovely walks ; having various house guests - I love having people over and am currently busy considering flat warming options ... I also enjoyed a couple screenings of favourite Hollywood musicals at a work mate’s place who has a fantastic home cinema and the joy of seeing Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in cinemascope on a big screen was something else! An almost life-size Howard Keel in the room! Lovely.

I also indulged in a lot of nest feathering and I know this is potentially boring, but there are some pics on the way …

I finally got a break for Easter and went to stay with the parentals and did absolutely nothing for 3 days. It was quite easily done actually, not like the normal me at all (there are those that reckon there should be a verb 'to Jools’ pretty much along the lines of the traditional verb 'to do') but I was shattered, so didn't Jools anything at all.

I then blew all that rest on a trip ‘Up North’ to revisit a few places from our youth. I had a lovely coastal walk from Cullercoats (lovely) to Whitley Bay (hideous! - especially on Easter Monday when it was rammed with scantily clad teens/early 20s girls and lads getting rapidly & loudly hammered). Ialso went to Beamish a fantastic museum which I haven't been to since it was very new in the 70's and which I've been meaning to re-visit for years. Thoroughly relaxing stuff.

And then back to work … Good news is that the house is on the market (still no buyer, but there’s no more work to be done on it for the time being) and now I’m fully feathered on the flat front I’m feeling decidedly less hectic; so hey, maybe I’ll manage to promote the blog back up the list!

I haven’t got an idea in my head for a story

2006-04-07T22:31:00.000+01:00

I admit it’s been ages since I blogged – 4 weeks in fact and I will let you know what I’ve been up to in instalments otherwise its going to be a bloomin’ long blog! However, headline information is that I’ve been ‘doing’ lots. Some stuff I’ve wanted to do and some of it I didn’t and I’ve just not been able to get my head into a position where things started forming words that I could put down on paper / blog space.

In fact, in spite of several comments over the weeks about my lack of blogging it wasn’t until I was driving home from work tonight that I started feeling like things were slotting into place and that I might stand a chance of writing it down.  This was mainly because I was thinking of the Shark’s comment yesterday on my last post and all of a sudden I heard Dinah Sheridan in my head saying “I haven’t got an idea in my head for a story, so I’m afraid there won’t be buns for tea for quite sometime.”

This is a quote from the Lionel Jeffries 1970 film adaptation of E. Nesbit’s The Railway Children which I love, and from which I have the terrible habit of being able to find a quote for most situations ... Mum and I saw the film loads of time at the cinema because when it first came out we were moving around a lot – Dad in the forces etc – and every time we got to a new camp that was the film on in the camp cinema, we seemed to follow it around!  Curious that I’ve never got myself the video or DVD – note to self to add it to my amazon wish list!

Anyway, as soon as I heard Dinah, I suddenly seemed to be able to break the last 4 weeks down and by the time I had arrived home I had sketched out several blog instalments in my head which I will post over the next few days and hope don’t bore you all to death!

In the meantime, some of the Railway Children lines which seem to find their way into my head fairly regularly for some bizarre reason …

Perks: “I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as a buttercup without it were a buttercup”

Perks:  “Perks must be about it”

Peter:  “Why’s it going so slow Mr Perks?”  (About a train coming through Oakworth Station)
Perks: “Well … its all up hill to Scotland int it”

Perks:  “Never mind the rain ladies, it’s only a shower” (it p**** is down …)

Phyllis:  “Is that blood, is that red blood, is he all killed?”

Cart Man:  “I dare say …”

Bobbie:  “It's Perks' birthday, he's 42, he says he got other things to keep than his birthday, not rabbits and secrets but the kids and the bloomin' missus.”
Mother:  “Wife and children Bobbie.”
Bobbie:  “Same thing isn't it?”
Phyllis:  “Bloomin' missus is a sort of a germ of endearment isn't it?”

Bobbie: There's going to be a paperchase tomorrow. Phyllis:  Whippee! Bobbie:  The boys from the grammar school are doing it. Phyllis:  Zippee! Bobbie:  Perks says we can go by the ramp. Phyllis:  What's a paperchase?

And finally …

Bobbie:  “Daddy, my Daddy”  (cue lump in throat and general bubbling)

A new view

2006-03-05T11:04:00.000Z

I'm still in boxes and what's not in boxes has been put away in no particular order there's also a suitcase somewhere with sheets and towels in, but goodness knows where. However, I'm getting there and enjoying getting everything the way I like it and am particularly looking forward to alphabeticising my cds and books – no surprises there I’m sure!

After a week of head scratching and chilly mornings I've now fathomed out the timer for the central heating; its not terrible sophisticated, on or off basically, but at least I know how it doesn't work now I've found the flippin' instruction book.

I know I should prioritise getting stuff done in doors - its bloomin' cold out at the moment after all - and I've really got to stop 'treating myself'; but as I sit here in my favourite chair (yes I got to bring it with me) looking at my new double aspect view - a lovely skylight from which I can see the clouds scudding hectically across the sky and my back garden (well back yard really!) which has a pile of empty pots in it left by the previous tenant - I'm really fancying planting a load of them up so I've got a progression of colours, scents and textures to look forward to over the next months. I'll hopefully be taking delivery of my pots from home sometime this week, so at least I'll have my summer stuff to look forward to, but I'm really going to have to resist the temptation to nip into the garden centre and buy a pre-planted pot of bulbs or two! I've treated myself enough already this month and it has to stop!

I got my desk from the house yesterday which I managed to dismantle, transport to the flat and then rebuild all by myself! I’m very chuffed about that because it’s a big old brute – the PPT would have been proud! So the plan for today (post blog) is to carry on emptying bags and boxes, have a spot of lunch, a soak in the bath and wash my hair - which can be straightened for the first time in weeks now that I’ve located the straightening irons(!) – and then head off for drinks, dinner and an old Deanna Durbin movie with a friend from work. What a lovely Sunday.

Motion away or motion towards?

2006-03-01T20:37:00.000Z

I don't usually run away from things - well I don't think I do anyway. I kind of swing between a tendancy to stick with and battle with stuff longer than I should (my 14 years with the same employer would be a good example of that) or make myself tackle difficult stuff head on (my decision to take a job in a box office in my early 20s when I had a telephone phobia would be a good example of that). However, in retrospect I was beginning to wonder whether "run away" was what I did last weekend.

The ever pressing issue of TEH's living arrangements (or rather lack of them) hastened the need for me to find my own place and so, in a needs must kind of fashion, I decided to take a flat which is bigger than I was planning, but in all other areas fits my list of requirements splendidly. Not that I mind the extra space you understand, but lets just say that my 4 monthly haircut may need to stretch to 5 / 6 and hermit status may be finally be achieved just at the point when I want to be out and about ... Sigh.

While I say that this decision was hastened, it was actually very timely. I already knew that I had to get out of the house, that was clear, but from where I'm sitting now I can see how stretched thin and wound up I had become, which meant that when the day came to move it was almost like I ran away from my lovely home.

I was determined to get as much of my stuff out as possible all in the one weekend so I didn't have to keep going back, that just felt like it would be too painful, so this meant a manic 3 trips in the TEH's van and 4 trips in my car. The last car trip was the one with my clothes in it, all just taken from the rails on their hangers so they could be put straight on hanging rails at the other end thus removing the need to fold and pack, good plan huh? However, when feeling more like me, I would have done the job much more carefully, grouping stuff and clipping the hanger hooks together, covering with bin liners etc, however it was all just thrown in the back of the car - randomly ... I don't normally do random! It's not me at all.

The rest of the weekend was spent with the help of the parentals who arrived in the evening with some furniture, an amp and speakers and food - I hadn't had any all day so this was particularly welcome at this stage of the proceedings. They stayed with me all weekend and did general Mum and Dad stuff. Mum cleaned the kitchen and put my stuff away, and Dad put together flat packed furniture and hung curtains. They also supportively wandered round Ikea with me and witnessed my scary bill at the other end - remarkable how buying basics at a fiver each mounts up unexpectedly ... Anyway, I wouldn't have managed without them and I feel bad that at a time when I guess they could have expected their older daughter to be settled and that they'd be grandparents maybe (they'd be good at that), they're suddenly back to standing as guarantor on my flat, lending me furniture and helping me move etc.

So anyway, with a lot of help I'm in the new place, feeling calm and contented in a way I haven't for a VERY long time and looking back at the weekend I now think that it wasn't 'motion away', but more like 'motion towards' (nod to Eddie Izzard there). 'Motion towards' my new life - which has got to be a positive thing, whatever it holds.

What are you supposed to do with the photographs?

2006-02-19T09:55:00.000Z

Being back in the house is a double edged sword really.  I love my home, but that’s exactly what makes it so painful.  The aim is to get it on the market by the end of the month, and in order to do that there is a certain amount of work that needs to be done – cracks to be filled, architrave to put up, walls to be painted, garden to be tidied up after the winter period and made to look appealing and presentable.  And that’s just it; I’m spending time in my home preparing it for someone else.

I cut back my hydrangea the other week and generally pruned and weeded and as usual found it immensely satisfying and rewarding, right up until the point where I realised that I wouldn’t actually be there to see my garden come into flower, I wouldn’t be there to sit and take in the smells and look at my view from the comfort of a squishy lounger and a glass of Pinot.  That was when I realised that I had to get out as soon as I can.  Then to add even more urgency to this decision TEH’s living arrangements came to an abrupt end and consequently has been living out of a suitcase with various friends, who may cease to be friends if this goes on much longer …

I’ve been looking at flats, but it needs to be something I can be comfortable in for a good 8 months ie. up until the Inca Trail and whatever lies beyond; there’s no way of knowing how long it’s going to take to sell the house after all. It also needs to be something that TEH and I can afford between us, on top of what we already pay on the mortgage etc and without both of us turning into hermits …  Not an easy task as I discovered.  There really are some grim places out there.  My pre-requisites are proving somewhat elusive:

Ground floor or maximum 1st floor (Unpacking shopping …)

Studio or 1 bed (if a studio I want one big enough to have a separate bed rather than a sofa bed)

Gas Central heating (heating!!!)

Washer, fridge, freezer, oven & hob

Somewhere to park the bloomin’ car

But which ever way I look at it, the process of moving out (properly this time) whether it be in 2 weeks or 2 months, is going to be a painful one. I’ve made a start on packing up my stuff, but of course, in order to identify my stuff it means sorting through our stuff and I keep coming across memories all wrapped up in inanimate objects. For example I have just packed up a box of children’s books. The emotions packed away in that box are just phenomenal and an experience I don’t want to revisit for a wee while.

Strangely CD’s have been the easiest job – not sure why that is. Maybe because modern technology has taken the angst out of decisions about whose is whose etc – just copy the damn things. There are 5 piles:

Mine

TEH’s

Mine that I think TEH would like a copy of

TEH’s that I would like a copy of

Pile that we can’t remember who’s they are – they were just ours. Solution for this one – copy them all and then have a lucky dip for originals.

But I think the worst job, and the one which I keep skirting round, is what are you supposed to do with the photographs? I think I’ll leave it there …

Well that’s the last of the Christmas cake then …

2006-02-04T22:01:00.000Z

It’s amazing how long it lasted really – probably because I was away in Germany for a couple of weeks and forgot to take some with me – but either way I’ll miss my slice of cake for elevenses!

That was the week and a half that was.

2006-02-04T17:00:00.000Z

Well, I’ve pretty much settled back into life in the house – I’ve really missed it and I hadn’t really admitted to myself how much, so I’m going to try and enjoy it while it lasts. Mind you, bearing in mind that the plan is to get the place on the market by the end of February that might not be as long as I would like.

The last Requiem was another good one – I’m sorry it must be boring me saying that every time! Sadly Elizabeth Jansson, the Alto soloist who toured with us couldn’t do the concert because she was ill (tour cold got everywhere it would seem), so Catherine Wynn-Rogers stepped in. She was really good, but it was really disappointing that Elizabeth couldn’t be there with the rest of the soloists that we’d toured with.

It was a long old day – up to Birmingham on the coach and then back to London after the concert – but it was good to get together with everyone again and make commitments to meet up for photo swapping, trekking (practice runs for my Peru trip) and general social stuff. Keeping it real, our time keeping challenged members came up trumps with an unscheduled loo stop on the way up the motorway; well, we had planned to stop to pick someone up from a service area, but we hadn’t planned on peanut bladdered members nipping off for a pee; it didn’t make us late or anything, but I guess it gave certain of us the opportunity to “exchange glances” etc in remembrance of the tour. (God I’m a grumpy bird sometimes!) The bus ride home was very quiet and all journey I was feeling sad about the fact that I’ll not be singing with the guys and won’t be seeing Craig and Jenny, all of whom felt like part of my family by the time I got back from Germany, for quite some time to come.

The rest of the week was pretty much as usual, too much to do etc. I feel like I’ve had a really productive week, but when I actually look at what I’ve done against what there is to do, I’m really only just scratching the surface … Ah well, I managed to get my registration form filled in and sent off for the Inca Trail nonetheless. Hurrah! Provisional dates are 14th to 23rd October. Now I just need to keep cracking with the fitness regime with the PPT, get the house sold and work out what else I want to do with the rest of my life. Easy …

Well the first step is to get the house sold, so after doing my washing, shopping and general weekend sorting out (I woke up at 6.30 am in spite of the fact that I could have had a flippin’ lie in …) I managed to sand, clean and paint the bathroom, scrub the bathroom window and blind – looks much brighter now. Tomorrow – as long as it’s not too cold – is earmarked for tidying the garden and maybe a bit of noodling on the old piano. What am I going to do with that???

A few hellos now I’m back …

2006-01-22T17:41:00.000Z

Hello oven
Hello hob
Hello shower
Hello comfy bed
Hello piano
Hello speakers
Hello comfy sofa (tho’ I was quite attached to my pink chair in the flat!)
Hello tumble drier (tho’ it has already had one name-check)

And finally …

Hello wireless network and 2Mb internet connection. Heaven!

There’s no place like home

2006-01-22T14:57:00.000Z

Well what a day yesterday was.  I feel like I spent the whole day flippin’ cleaning.  Whilst it wasn’t the whole day it was certainly the lion’s share of it!  I was up at 7am to do a few last bits of packing and then spent the rest of the time, until TH turned up at 10am, cleaning the flat.  You don’t grow up as a child in the forces without having the “moving out of married quarters inspection clean” instilled in you as a serious piece of work.  Now I knew that some officer clad in white gloves wasn’t going to come and undertake a full inspection which would include stroking said white gloves over every available surface, but I’m afraid the clean I did would have come up trumps even if they had!

TH’s van was packed up very quickly, so as we were running ahead of the pre-arranged key handover time he set off as an advance party.  I carried on cleaning fitfully (not much else to do really) until Lou arrived and then set off back to South East London.  TH had phoned to say that the route he had taken over Battersea Bridge had been really quick – he was back in 50 minutes, so I decided to follow suit.  Its all in the timing … By the time I was heading back – just over an hour later – whale fever had completely overtaken the Battersea Bridge area.  As soon as I hit the plethora of TV OB vans and heard the helicopters circling above I knew that I was in for a long wait.  Ah well … 2 hours later there I was back in my house, surveying the pile of unpacking that awaited and taking in, with a sinking feeling, the amount of cleaning I was going to have to do …  I shouldn’t have expected anything else really.

So, I did 4 loads of washing (oh joy unbound to be reunited with a tumble drier – what a little miracle to be able to wash dry and put stuff away all in one go – no damp washing hanging around the flat, hurrah!); unpacked all my possessions and put them away; dusted and disinfected all surfaces (no more rolling dust on the piano keys and the white sink is now white again rather than a dirty beige); hoovered all the floors; made the bed; cleaned the bathroom (a necessity if I was going to have a bath!)

I had just about flaked out when  I received a call from BBW to see how I was doing and who, knowing my love of lists, provided me with one.

1.  Pour a large glass of wine
2.  Run a bath
3.  Pour another glass of wine to drink in the bath
4.  Have a bath
5.  Maybe have another glass of wine – this item was optional …

Unfortunately having crossed item 1 off the list the rest of list went a bit haywire owing to a random nosebleed.  For goodness sake, I haven’t had one of those since I was in school!  Irritating as nosebleeds are in general, it would have been OK if it hadn’t lasted 45 minutes … That’s quite a long time and I was beginning to get a bit worried.  I had a call from George after 15 minutes of pinching the soft part of my nose, and who left me to it sounding a bit worried and with a request to text her when it was over.  I had a call from Lou after 20 minutes, who left me to it sounding a bit worried but then texted me the number for NHS Direct and asked me to let her know when I was over.  I had a call from BBW who didn’t sound worried at all  but who then proceeded to call me every 5 minutes to see how I was doing, to check that my brain hadn’t come out of my nose and to suggest stuffing Kleenex up my nostril.  Every bone in my body said that was a bad idea, but after 35 minutes I was ready to try anything (except having to get a cab to A&E and sit in chairs for several hours before they stuffed a tampon up my nose …), so after 10 minutes of Kleenex, the final BBW call was met with the reassuring news that it had stopped – phew …

So points 2 to 5 on the list were revised to:

2.  Drink lots of water
3.  Have a shower – felt a bit safer that having a bath …
4.  Go to bed
5.  Item 5 was always optional but was abandoned in favour of sleep

Either way, now I’m back I’ve realised that there’s no place like home (I own a pair of red shoes so feel entitled to use that expression), and whilst I feel really weird (I really can’t quantify how I feel, but its really weird), I expect I’ll get used to it – probably just in time for us to sell the house and to have to move again...!

What time's the coach?

2006-01-20T15:19:00.000Z

Well, I’m back then … Back to real life with a resounding bump! (

The last concert in Stuttgart was another good one – just as well really to round off the tour!  It was followed by a wee party thrown by Neville which was a great chance to really get round and natter with lots of people, have a drink, take photos, have a drink etc etc.  I suddenly realised that this was probably the last time I would be singing Mozart Requiem with Neville (apart from the Birmingham concert) so decided to ask him to sign my score, which he did (thank you very much).  All I can say is at least I got him to sign a score which belongs to me, and not one which actually belongs to the Academy and that I believe I conducted myself with decorum and didn’t say anything daft to someone “so famous …” Those who were present will understand these veiled comments, but I won’t be any more specific here!

The wee party decamped to the hotel bar (surprise, surprise) and definitely included some dancing and another late night – but then what the hell – the coach wasn’t due to take us to the airport until 1500 so there would be a chance for a lie in.  Or maybe not … Who’s idea was it to get up early to say goodbye to the Belgian members of the chorus who had taxis booked for 0915?  We waved them off and thought about going back to bed, but the lure of breakfast was too much, so spent a good couple of hours stoking up for the day (just as well we did as we didn’t get anything apart from a paltry bag of crisps on the plane …).  The day passed quickly and before we knew it we were off to the airport; the mood incredibly subdued, as it always is when a tour comes to an end.

I got back to the flat opened my suitcase, closed my suitcase – I just didn’t have the strength to consider the implications of unpacking / re-packing to move back into my house this weekend and after defrosting a Bolognese from the freezer went to bed!

So, back to life means a return to the old melancholy it would seem: being back at work is much as I expected, but I really must stick to my resolution that I work my hours (how many years have I been saying that in different jobs); I’ve come down with the “Tour cold”, which I hope will have gone by the 28th …; and I’ve still got flippin’ swollen ankles!  Ah well, maybe once I’m back in the house and unpacked and have caught up on sleep I’ll start feeling better – either way the biggest smile I’ve had since I came back was when I got a text from Ali saying “What time’s the coach?”

Freiburg to Stuttgart

2006-01-16T12:07:00.000Z

Well I've added another place to my list of places to come back to. Freiburg is beautiful, but we had so little time here, plus it was a Sunday so there was not much open. We went for a walk in the old town and managed to take in some lovely buildings, but it was desperately cold, so we didn't manage to last long and after about an hour headed back (via a cone of chips and mayo!) to the hotel to warm up before the rehearsal.

I enjoyed a luxurious soak in the bath with my book, and realised that it was my first bath since leaving London. Before you go 'oooooer, bit wiffy Jools', I've been having showers instead which has been great, as I've missed having a shower the last few months, Lou's flat only having the disturbingly pink bath etc. I have always viewed baths as something of an indulgence and find it very difficult to have a quick functional bath in the way you can have a quick functional shower in the morning before work. The temptation to wallow is tremendous, and I've been finding the whole 'body wash before work’ thing a bit stressful, so it’s been great to have some good old vigorous German showers before a concert - just the thing to pep me up. Today however, because I’d ended up with more time to play with, I decided on a spot of indulgence and hoped having a bath wouldn't make me feel too much like just going to bed after!

The concert hall was attached to the hotel we were staying in, so it meant we could get ready in our rooms again (very civilized!) and then fling on a coat and wizz round the corner to the artists entrance ready for our bit in the second half of the concert. I hate to say this again, but it was another really good concert, we just seem to keep getting better, which is saying something as it was pretty damn good when we started in Hannover. I really enjoyed the acoustic - I don't know what it sounded like out front, but it felt so easy to sing there, the notes and runs were pinging out remarkably well and it was a really enjoyable experience.

The concert was followed by an 'official' photo of the choir - a couple with Neville before he was whisked off for dinner somewhere - and the rest with Johan, and then another night cap in the bar - I have a feeling there was some dancing at one point ... Oh dear! Bed was a late one but happily we didn't have to be on the coach to our final port of call, and our final concert :-( until 1100 this morning (luxury!), so I still managed a reasonable amount of sleep which is just as well, as the route we're taking to Stuttgart is through the mountains, and is far to pretty to try and sleep through.

Munich to Freiburg

2006-01-15T11:59:00.000Z

Well breakfast was a bit of a disappointment this morning ... Funny how quickly I get used to a breakfast that's nothing like my 'real life' one (toast and honey, banana and a pint of water). I was expecting the usual Maritim experience - fresh fruit and a dollop of Quark, egg and bacon, Greek yogurt with honey and a plate of cheese ham and grapes which gets transferred to my Tupperware and serves as lunch on the bus / train (I know that sounds like a terribly rude thing to do, but my excuse is there is never anything I can eat in the buffet car or service station). However, this morning, in spite of it being another Maritim, all I managed to find was 2 halves of tinned peaches, bacon and rubbery scramble and a very grainy looking yogurt (I gave that a miss actually). I did manage to get a picnic, but there were no grapes, so cherry toms and apple it had to be. Either way, it'll go down nicely with the Sekt we managed to procure for later ...

I've been to Munich before and really loved it, but unfortunately we didn't get much time there this time. It was a case of dashing in, hanging the frock up, putting on my sexy thermal vest (Munich was having a relative heat wave at -5 degrees, so I was glad of an extra layer!) and heading straight back out to have a meander down to St Michael's church and the Neue Rathaus. Unfortunately the clock only works at 1100 and 1700, and as we had to be on the coach then to go rehearsal, we didn't get to see it in action. Consequently Munich has been added to the list (blimey, it’s been a while since I wrote one of those) of places I want to come back to when I've got some leave and some money!

The concert was another cracker - the orchestra reckoned it was the best so far and along with the audience were very generous with their applause which was nice of them. We're singing really well actually, working with Johan has meant that we have rediscovered our sound; an orchestra member said it was back to the sound that it had back when it recorded the soundtrack for Amadeus, which is great. We're pretty damn tight now (always room for improvement there though), have pretty damn impressive fortes and, even more gratifyingly, increasingly controlled and soft pianissimos. Its like each section is singing as one voice, the mixture of different voices is really blending with no voices dominating the texture, which is exactly how it should be. The real shame is that we have no idea when we're going to be singing together again (apart from the final concert in this tour which happens to be in Birmingham Symphony Hall on the 28th). It would be great to get back to London and go straight into working on some challenging acapella repertoire with Johan, but that's not to be, so I'd better enjoy this while it lasts! :-(

Once back at the hotel it was luggage down to the bus again for overnight transport to Freiburg and a freezing cold stomp out to a beer Keller where Weiss beer is brewed on the premises. We resembled snowmen by the time we arrived - shoot the person who said it was 10 minute walk - it was seriously cosy in there and after my first half pint mug of Cabernet Sauvignon (I was a bit disappointed not to be able to join the others in their litre stein's of beer) I had regained the feeling in my fingers and was enjoying some silly banter ("When I'm calling you" Ali & Shaz) and serious conversation with our lovely waiter Matthias about the construction of his lederhosen ...

We were kicked out at closing time and the lovely Stephen treated us to a cab back to hotel which meant that we made it into bed with enough time to manage a luxurious 5 hours sleep and if I'm lucky I might manage to snatch another hour or so on the train. Funny how this touring lark is just a continuous cycle of eating, drinking, singing and sleeping ...

Mannheim to Munich

2006-01-14T01:35:00.000Z

Oooh, I do feel better to have got that last rant off my chest! We're now 4 hours into the journey and have just had our comfort stop; my revolving, auto flush loo was somewhat arthritic in that it revolved the seat with a creaking noise and forgot to flush! I had to do that bit myself and found that I was a bit affronted that I'd had to do it - having got used to everything being so automated over here! It's going to take me ages to get used to turning a tap on to wash my hands, rather than waving them under the outlet ...

We've definitely made into Bavaria - we kind of touched the top edge of it on Wednesday on the train from Berlin to Mannheim, but this is definitely Chitty Chitty Bang Bang territory and to make it even prettier it is coated with a couple of feet of snow. It's not snowing at the moment, but the trees are covered in frost and look like swathes of brilliant white coral along the sides of the road. We've been told its - 10 degrees in Munich, so it looks like I might get the chance to wear another one of the 7 vests I brought with me ...!

The concert last night was an absolute belter (BJ nod to GVS there). The hotel was opposite the concert hall so we were able to go back to the hotel after the rehearsal and do dresses and faces in the comfort of our own rooms. Much more civilized than having to hang around at the hall and then try and get a face on along with 10 other people crowded round 1 badly lit mirror; you'd assume when designing backstage concert facilities that someone would twig that adequately lit mirrors were a pre-requisite wouldn't you ???

We then walked to the hall ready dressed and had a sneaky glass of fizz before the audience turned out for the interval. A lovely relaxed way to prepare for a show I feel. The hall is a tricky acoustic to work with - it's quite difficult to hear everything - the rest of my section in fact! It felt like I was singing solo at some points! However, it went very well and personally speaking it felt like one of my best voice nights so far. The response from the audience was great and when the lovely Johan (chorus master extraordinaire) brought the choir to its feet, we were treated to a Mannheim Stamp, which was really kind and very loud!

We were all on a bit of a high after this and because we were so close to the hotel, we made it back the bar by 2215, so there was plenty of time for several G & T's, chips and mayo (I do miss chunky HITW chips BBW) and a sing along with Ivan and Babushka the in-house "entertainment" - Volare and Rockin' all over the world (complete with air guitar) were particular favourites(!), before an "early" night - well its all relative!

Time keeping ...

2006-01-14T01:13:00.000Z

5 hours on a coach - harrumph; I can think of better ways to spend 5 hours, but we've already been on the road for an hour and that seems to have gone quite quickly, so maybe the next 4 won't be too bad. We should actually have been 20 minutes further down the road by now by rights, but we left lat AGAIN because we were waiting for the same people (who have been persistently late on this trip. I'm being fairly chilled about it so far (ie. grumbling has been in my "inside voice" or at least with a select group of people), but it's really starting to p**** me off now.

I can't abide people who are persistently late, it shows lack of respect to everyone else that made it on time and frankly in this case I believe it is nothing more than attention seeking. Everyone has been provided with the same schedule and there is even a notice board in the foyer of each hotel which clearly says when the coach is leaving, but it seems that the announced bus departure time is being treated like some sort of dinner invitation - "0800 for 0830" ...

So, every bloody time, the rest of us organise ourselves so that we're on the coach BEFORE the announce departure time and then sit an wait while a couple of people put on a tedious performance of being ditzy and giggly and turning up repeatedly a minimum of 5 / 10 minutes late. I have no idea why an intelligent adult would want to appear stupid, but that is the act that gets played out each time to an increasingly hostile audience. I'm afraid I think they should be left behind - we'd soon see how organised they could be once they have to get to the next hotel under their own steam and out of their own pocket. And I'm afraid that excuses that they were up late and are tired (giggle, giggle) just don't wash. If you can't handle drinking 'til 3am in the morning and still be on time for the bus, DON'T DO IT!

I mean, for goodness sake, we have to think about precious little on these highly organised trips, so surely doing colleagues and the concert management, who are working hard to get us where we need to be etc, the courtesy of being on time isn't too much to ask ....

A day off!

2006-01-13T13:23:00.000Z

So, you get a day off and what do you do? Well, being the sort of person who feels guilty if she’s not ‘doing’ something, I’d planned to head of somewhere like Heidelberg for the day. Whilst I’ve been there many times before, it is lovely and a good old stomp up to the Schloss is always good for blowing out the cobwebs and a welcome antidote to being cramped up on trains and coaches for hours on end.

However, they do say (well Eddie Izzard does anyway - Definite Article tour?) “the plans of mice and men oft gan agley” (no idea how to spell that!) and my ‘gannin’ agley’ was as a result of the fact that I was suffering from a severe case of swollen Jools. I have traced it back to the fact that I stupidly, yet unwittingly managed to eat some sage and onion stuffing on the plane on the way over, and the swelling has gradually been getting work during the past 5 days.

Initially, I put the puffiness down to the flight (I always puff up a bit, but it only lasts a day), and a fundamental lack of water - its been the devil’s own job getting hold of water on this trip for some reason; and I put the feeling of general lethargy down to the mad working hours catching up with me now I’ve given myself the chance to unwind and a couple of late nights (by the way, while the nights have been late my alcohol consumption has been very light - trying to be sensible in my advancing years!) However, I abandoned these assessments when really bad swelling kicked-in in Köln, and when on the morning following 10 hours sleep I recognised that old feeling (ie. the one I always used to have before I cut out wheat) of just wanting to curl up in a corner and sleep, sleep, sleep ...

It all came to a climax when we arrived in Mannheim. We walked to the hotel from the station and each step was more painful than the last. When we eventually reached our attic room I took my boots off and was shocked to be unable to see my ankle bones. There wasn’t much time before we had to get on a coach to Frankfurt (a further 90 minutes travel) so I spent it sourcing a picnic and lots of water in an attempt to re-hydrate and maybe make my legs less painful. After the concert (number 5 - not one of the best, but well received), my legs had swelled up so much that I could only get the zip up halfway ...

So my day off was spent having an uncomfortable yet effective lymphatic drainage massage, after which I lay on my bed with my feet up on some pillows watching a pay for view film. By the end of the film, while I was still puffy, the Yorkshire pudding ankles had subsided slightly and I was at least reacquainted with my ankle bones! All this inaction kind of went against the grain to be honest, but was actually the best thing to have done and meant that I was nicely rested and raring to go to round the day off by doing my hair (straight Jools went bouncy), getting dressed up and going out for a lovely meal - first proper meal in days - followed by a good old natter in the bar until the wee small hours ...

Berlin to Mannheim

2006-01-12T13:21:00.000Z

Another day, another ICE; 5 hours traveling this time, passing through some pretty bits of snow clad Bavaria and ending up a grey old Mannheim where the luxury of having 3 nights in one hotel was slightly tempered by a tiny room up in the attic and to which the lift doesn’t go! It goes as far a level 5 and we’re on level 6 ...

Fortunately this train was much more comfortable than the last one, and the addition of managing to grab a private compartment with some like minded fellow chorus members meant, unusually for me, that I managed to get an hour or two of sleep on public transport to compensate for the paltry 3 hours I’d had following concert 4 in the Berlin Konzerthaus. I really must make sure that the time I go to be tonight has a 1 in it ...

We arrived in Berlin round about 1400 and had just 2 hours free before we had to head out again for the rehearsal. The Spartan / hospital like hotel was abandoned in favour of a stomp over to the Brandenburg Gate. It was a careful stomp however, as the pavements were caked in icy compacted snow. Its a great kind of cold though - crisp and dry - and as I watched my breath curling before me, took in the frozen river and spotted the sign which announced a temperature of -4 degrees, I was very glad of my thermal vest, jumper, fleece and cosy coat with furry hood which I had up over my new chocolate brown corduroy cap!

The concert was another good on, in spite of coming after a long and tiring day of traveling. In particular, the audience was really lovely and gave us our best reception yet. We came off stage and had to head immediately back to the coaches to be transported to the British Embassy for a reception. Getting into the Embassy was all a bit shambolic really; it is all far too boring to relate, but was faff nonetheless! Hey ho, once we got into the reception it was very pleasant; everyone was very friendly; champagne, wine and beer was flowing amply and the floating nibbles went down a treat with the ravenous musos and chorus. Coaches arrived an hour later to take us back to the hotel so we could re-pack our cases and load them onto the bus again for overnight transport to Mannheim. As you might expect, the route to and from the coach took us right past the hotel bar ... Well it would have been rude not to have had a quick nightcap with the orchestra before bed. I think I may need to work on my definition of ‘a quick nightcap’ because before I knew it, it was 0345! Ah well, we get a day off soon ...

The 0645 conversation ...

2006-01-11T13:20:00.000Z

Bloominjools: “What time did we get to bed?”

Shaz: I haven’t a flippin’ clue ...

Bloominjools: I know it had a 3 in it ...

Köln to Berlin

2006-01-10T13:18:00.000Z

I’m on the ICE 555 to Berlin. It’s a long old haul and involved an 0800 hotel departure. this was quite a feat bearing in mind that even though I made a huge effort to have an early night it was still 0200 before I put the light out, and being of the opinion that breakfast at the Crowne Plaza was a particularly good time investment, the alarm went off a 0645 in order to make breakfast at 0700 - can’t keep the egg chef waiting! Before you say anything, 0200 was early!

The promoter of concert 3 (another good one, but with no dramas this time) threw a party for us afterwards which meant that by the time we’d got back to Köln on the bus, packed our cases and taken them out to the bust for overnight transport to Berlin, it was already 0100, and tired as I was its always necessary to wind down in the hotel bar before going to bed, so 0200 it was!

I’ve got my picnic - found a lovely deli / sarni place in Köln yesterday - and am looking forward to having my marinated artichoke hearts, aubergine stuffed with basil and feta, red peppers stuffed with cream cheese and mozzarella rolled round Parma ham and pesto - yum! I forgot to buy a bottle of wine to have with it, but we’ve got an embassy do tonight’s, so I expect wine might figure in the proceedings at some point! Shame the seats are really uncomfortable again, but it gives me an excuse to get up and nosey to see what everyone else is up to. Sleep doesn’t look like its going to be an option, thought I could really do with a long nap - but maybe I can muscle in on a game of Pass the Pig or Scrabble somewhere further down the carriage ...

Köln to Dusseldorf

2006-01-09T13:15:00.000Z

So, I’m on the bus again; this time heading off to Düsseldorf from the fantastic hotel in Köln for concert number 3. Concert 2 was a cracker, and the reception we got from the 3,000 strong audience in the Kölner Philharmonie was very pleasing; its always nice when an audience bothers to stand and clap louder when the choir are brought to their feet for their applause :)

It was also fairly eventful as performances of requiems go in that a lady had a heart attack in the middle of the piece - unfortunately right in my eye line. Being the good girl that I am, I always have Neville firmly locked in my sight, trouble was that in the same field of view I could see the poor old woman being manhandled (dragged, dropped, dragged) into the aisle and then up the stairs and out of the auditorium, all while I was trying to concentrate on the Lachrymosa. Five minutes later she was wheeled back through the auditorium on a trolley ... I was sure she must have passed away, but happily we learned following the concert that she was in hospital, but doing well. It was all a bit distracting really, but I guess if she hadn’t have pulled through, ‘going’ during the Mozart Requiem would have been as good a way to go as any ...

Today was spent in a leisurely walk in the direction of the Cathedral. Well, that was where we were heading, but the fact that we had all ‘done’ the cathedral twice before on previous trips, combined with the ‘minefield’ of designer boutiques we had to walk through in order to get there conspired to mean that we never made it and came back to the hotel considerably more financially challenged than we had been 3 hours before. Sigh ... Justifications for the Issey Miyake skirt as follows: 1. cheaper than home because of the Euro exchange rate; 2. I’m not in London therefore I’m not spending money living; and 3. I’m getting money to be here which more than amply covers the cost of my food and a few sherries of an evening ...

Whatever ... Its gorgeous!

Hannover to Köln

2006-01-08T13:12:00.000Z

I’m writing this while sitting on a coach traveling from Hannover to Köln. We’ve been on the road for about 1.5 hours - only another 3 to go ... It’s pretty damn uncomfortable as it goes, but I did at least manage a wee bit of a snooze before I realised subconsciously that I couldn’t feel my left leg!

I’m now plugged into my MP3 player and am feeling quite contented, enjoying my own company for a while. I’m feeling strangely disengaged, but then I guess that’s what being on tour is like - totally disengaged from real life. I have a schedule which means I don’t have to think about anything. It tells me where to go and when I need to be there; the only decisions to make are what to eat and what to wear, and with my suitcase already being in the state that it is, the latter decision amounts to simply wearing whatever is on the top and hoping that the colours don’t clash! Not that you’d be able to tell by looking at yourself in the mirror in the hotel room mind you; it’s too dark to see! What is it with these people that design these rooms? They’re all the same: light in the hallway, lamp by the bed and a lamp on the dressing table and none of them can be more than 10 Watts. Why do they not want their guests to be able to see themselves, or indeed the contents of their cases? Very odd.

I’m hoping to get more of a nap on the bus later as I only managed to get 5 hours sleep last night. They actually threw us out of the bar, muttering something about wanting to go home ... but there’s not going to be enough time when we get to Köln as it’ll be mad dash to get frocks hung up, feather pillows swapped for synthetic (vital unless I want to join the bass section!) and find something to eat before getting back on the bus to the concert hall for rehearsal and concert number 2.

Concert number 1 went well. Full house, and apart from a couple of dodgy moments, pretty good. I was in quite good voice personally, courtesy of 9.5 hours sleep the night before! Amazing how much better the instrument works when it’s relaxed and rested ... Ah well, the coach is just pulling into one of those very precise looking German service stations. Time for a loo break and with any luck it’ll be one of those that flushes automatically when you stand up and then revolves the seat to clean it. It’s always entertaining to listen to people in adjoining cubicles experiencing them for the first time!

London to Hannover

2006-01-07T13:05:00.000Z

It doesn’t matter how much I try, I always lose my nerve and over pack when I go on tour. The forecast is for very cold weather in Germany, yet I know from previous trips that shops, hotels, coaches, trains and concert halls are always heated to a ridiculous temperature so in spite of packing vests, T-shirts, jumpers and fleeces I usually end up wearing T shirts alone and carting a load of stuff around Germany that I don’t actually end up wearing. So, what did I do? I listened to people saying “Oh no, you should take jumpers and thermals, its REALLY cold and you know how you hate to be cold ...”

So, the suitcase was dutifully slid down several flights of stairs and heaved into the back of the car; its almost too heavy to lift, what with all those flippin’ jumpers and vests in it; though the 3 concert dresses (new JC included), 2 pairs of concert shoes, 3 pairs of boots and hairdryer probably contributed ...; flat keys were dropped off with Lou, the car was driven to home for safe keeping, and I set off for the airport with the help of a lift to East Croydon station courtesy of TH who also helped me get my case onto the train and then waved me off; all of which combined to make me feel curiously melancholy ...

I arrived in plenty of time to get checked in (my case may have been the largest, but at least it wasn’t the heaviest!) and had a lovely glass of fizz with the gang to celebrate the kick off of the tour - 2 weeks of glorious Mozart, good mates, late nights, early starts, 1,000s of miles (no idea how many, but its lots!) on planes, coaches and trains, and most importantly the first opportunity in a good 6 months to truly empty my head and be me. Boy, am I looking forward to it!

The rest of the journey was pretty pleasant. Well, as pleasant as traveling can be bearing in mind that it always feels to me like one long queue! Well, the queues are now over and we’ve arrived, so I’m off for dinner, a few sherries, dancing in the hotel bar (depending on how I’m feeling) and then bed - all ready for a spot of shopping, rehearsals and concert number 1 tomorrow.

Four Things

2006-01-02T12:07:00.000Z

A. Four jobs you’ve had in your life
1. Sales assistant in shoe shop (dream job!)
2. Screen printer in a traditional wooden toy factory
3. Events manager (guess that’s what you’d call it)
4. IT support (the most frequent cause of IT problems is the UTS error …)

B. Four movies you could watch over and over
1. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
2. The Railway Children
3. Amelie
4. Some Like it Hot

C. Four cities you’ve lived in
1. London
2. London
3. London
4. London ….

D. Four TV & Radio shows you love to watch (don’t watch much TV …)
1. Strictly Come Dancing
2. Lost
3. I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue
4. Terry Wogan – I’m a Tog for the duration of my drive to work …

E. Four favourite places you’ve been on holiday
1. Blue Mountains, Australia
2. Big Pine Key
3. Orlando (specifically the 3 days of mad roller coasters)
4. Lake District

F. Four websites you visit daily
1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/
2. http://www.googlemaps.co.uk/
3. http://www.dictionary.com/
4. http://www.tfl.gov.uk

G. Four of your all-time favourite restaurants
1. Lorenzos, Crystal Palace
2. Volcano, Melborne (think that’s what it was called)
3. HITW (Chips and mayo)
4. Chez Jools …

H. Four of your favourite foods
1. Tomato, mozarella and basil salad
2. Smoked salmon and cream cheese
3. Home made wheat-free tiramisu
4. Roasted meditteranean vegetables and parmesan shavings

I. Four places you’d rather be right now
1. Happy
2. Where
3. I
4. Am

J. Four things you find yourself saying
1. hmmm, interesting …
2. Outside voice: “Another sale – that’s really good news”. Inside voice: “Aaarghhh”.
3. Large glass of Pinot Grigio please
4. What do you mean I’ve got enough boots?

K. Four favourite items of footware
1. My pink suede boots
2. My long black boots
3. My bedsocks
4. My red patent leather court shoes

Yes, I'm alive ...

2005-12-31T15:42:00.000Z

I’ve just been working, Christmasing, working, writing lists, working, actioning lists, working, writing more lists … I had an email at work from the shark who suggested the following list:

jools to do list.

go home
blog
make a list
go to bed

This is what I actually did:

Finished up the project plan I was working on
I’m hoping that at some point I’m going to start liking my job … I hope the reason that I don’t is just because it doesn’t take care of itself yet in the way that my previous jobs did. If I concentrate hard on being fair to myself I guess I’ve only been doing it 6 months and I did join a company which is in the middle of changing direction so trying to establish any kind of order is a bit like building on quicksand. However, added to that, there has unfortunately been a whole hell of a lot else going on in my life which has meant that, unusually for me, I’ve not had my eye full on the work ball. There’s still no let up in my “life” so I guess liking the job may have to follow on at some point. In the meantime, I have to admit that I’m just “not bothered”, so staying late to catch up is something I have to do but it’s a real chore.

Wrote a shopping list
Always a tedious yet strangely satisfying job.

Did shopping on the way home
Honestly, you’d think that the shops were never going to open again … I got the last bag of carrots. They were organic – I tend to buy organic as much as I can anyway, but I knew that there were no ordinary carrots because when I was walking past where they should have been I heard a bloke inform his wife bleakly that there were no carrots left. I nonchalantly sauntered to the end of the aisle and then picked up my pace in the direction of the organic section. I could hear quickening steps behind me, so speeded up myself; the footsteps also quickened. I didn’t quite break into a run (standards!), but fortunately managed to keep ahead of the “wife” and calmly grabbed the last bag of organic carrots from the shelf – phew! At least I know that I’m now assured of good eye sight in the New Year …

Drove ‘home’
The drive was fine, it was the arriving ‘home’ and getting the shopping, work laptop, bag of tupperware (which had accumulated at work - including the pot that I took the Vodka Tomatoes in – gotta get the new company addicted to the idea of Vodka Tomatoes!) up into the flat. Note to self: when I get my next place it must either be at ground level or at the very highest 1st floor. Life is too short for doing multiple trips up the stairs with shopping (and I’m fit for goodness sake) and I just don’t have time in my life to do multiple shops during the week – it costs more (I always spot something not on my list and buy it, so if the shop only happens once a week then its less costly) and is such a waste of time …

Poured myself a glass of wine, put the radio on, and unpacked the shopping

Looked at the state of the flat and tidied it!

Poured myself another glass of wine

Wrote a list of stuff that I need to do before bed:
Sort out jewellery
For some reason it was all over the place and jumbled. (I’ve still got that single earring … Either someone hasn’t done a tidy up, or it really is lost. I’m going to hang onto it still though.
DONE THIS MORNING
Sort out make up
Because I’ve been visiting recently and this was scattered between several different overnight bags.
DONE LAST NIGHT BEFORE BED
Sort out paperwork
I’ve been meaning to do this for months.
DONE THIS MORNING. I now have a big bag of recycling.
What is all that stuff in my handbag?
DONE THIS MORNING
Washing
DONE LAST NIGHT and is now all dry and put away.
Make lunches for next week
I know this sounds a bit anal, but I’ve got rehearsals every night next week (in preparation for our German tour) and if I don’t plan ahead and have food in the freezer that I can defrost and take with me to eat I just don’t eat … And I am acutely aware that despite my protestations to the contrary (I am a contrary bird sometimes) I have lost weight over the last 3 or 4 months.
DONE THIS MORNING
Dust and hoover flat

DONE THIS MORNING
Clean bathroom and kitchen
Have I mentioned my disturbingly pink bathroom?

Well – its now very clean as well as being very pink …
DONE THIS MORNING
Blog!
As you can see, I have done this. All from the comfort of my pink recliner …

Have a good old soak in the bath
I’m just off to do that now but have many thoughts to get into order on the whole subject of baths (pink or otherwise)!

Well, I guess that’s all for now, off for a soak with Mr Frog – it’s always good to bathe with a friend!

HAPPY NEW YEAR BLOGGERS!!

2005-12-28T09:08:00.000Z

My Elf Name Is...

Freckles Fruit Cake

What's" Your Elf Name?

2005-12-13T10:28:00.000Z

Not quite on the jazzshark scale ...

Happy Sunday

2005-12-12T14:28:00.000Z

I went to Kew again yesterday afternoon. I enjoyed it as much as the first time but the main difference for me was that now I have my new toy (my new work phone), I have an almost reasonable camera with which to try and capture my favourite bits. There are a few of them below, but I will pre-excuse them by saying that a) the camera is still not that great and b) I’m really rubbish at taking pictures!

The other part of the plan was to try out the ice rink, but it was really crowded and we decided that the pair of us flailing around like windmills in such close proximity to other people was maybe not such a good idea so we chickened out and enjoyed a picnic instead. By then time we’d had our picnic we were frozen to the core, so we retired to a genteel public house for several glasses of Baileys before heading back to the relative normality of Chiswick.

2005-12-12T14:17:00.000Z

Gardens of Glass
Chihuly at Kew

Exploring pastures new

2005-12-10T18:22:00.000Z

So, I’ve found my local – The Raven. Not a bad wee pub as it goes. Very nice wine list and interesting menu (partook of wine but not of food on this occasion). It has an eclectic mix of furniture which includes a nice leather sofa over by the open fire which is perfect for sitting and reading the paper to the background sounds of James Brown before heading off into Chiswick High Road to check out the fab butcher and plentiful green grocer stalls.

Oh, and did I mention the “Nearly New” shop? I am now the proud owner of a Jasper Conran black velvet dress which fits like it was made to measure; it’s an absolute classic style, and is “just what I need” to take on tour to Germany next month. The best bit is that it only set me back £69!! However, try as I might I can’t shoe horn the lime green Vivien Westwood evening dress into the “just what I need” category, though it too fits like a glove and is only £79 … I think I’m going to like Chiswick – shame I can’t afford to stay here! Goodness knows how anyone affords to stay here to be honest, but it’s nice while it’s lasting.

In memoriam Violet Bruce (29.2.1920 - 26.11.2005)

2005-12-08T15:04:00.000Z

Her infectiously, wicked cackle of a laugh

A cracking meat pie and pease pudding

Fantastic baking

A voracious and skilled knitter

Sequence dancing with grandad down at The Comrades – they did an amazing quickstep.

The image of her falling through a deckchair in our back garden in the late 70s! We shouldn’t have laughed but it was very funny – she was stuck for some time …

Getting worryingly over excited at the wrestling on a Saturday afternoon TV!

Lots of singing together – daft songs, proper songs and Cushie Butterfield on a regular basis.

The time she reprimanded my mum for letting me watch "Wuthering Heights" because it had upset me so much I cried. Bear in mind that I used to cry every week at Little House on the Prairie!

Knowing that I was & always would be her bonny lass.

My Gran. Forever alive in my memories.

Cushie Butterfield ...

I'm a broken hearted keelman, an' I'm o'er head in love,
With a young lass from Gateshead, an' I caal her me dove.
Her name is Cushie Butterfield, an' she sells yella clay,
An' her cousin is a muckman, an' they caal him Tom Gray.

CHORUS:-
She's a big lass, she's a bonny lass, an' she likes hor beer,
An' they caal her Cushie Butterfield, an' I wish she was here.

Her eyes are like two holes in a blanket pulled through,
An' her breath in the mornin' would scare a young coo.
An' when a hear 'er shoutin' - willya buy any clay?
Like a candyman's trumpet - steals me young heart away.

CHORUS

Ye'll see her doon Sandgate when the fresh herring comes in,
She's like a bag full o' sawdust tied roond with a string.
She wears big galoshes, and 'er stockings was once white,
An' her bedgoon it's lilac, an' her hat's nivvor strite.

CHORUS

When I asked her to marry uz, she started to laugh,
"Noo, nyen o' yer monkey tricks, for ah like nee sic chaff".
Then she started a bubblin an' roared like a bull,
An' the chaps on the keel sez aa'm nowt but a fyeul.

CHORUS

She said "the chap that gets uz will have te work ivvery day,
An' when he comes hyem at neet, he'll have te gan an' seek clay.
An' when he's away seekin it, aall myek baalls an' sing,
O weel make the keel row that my laddie's in".

CHORUS

So, I'm in then ...

2005-12-07T14:25:00.000Z

I didn't get much sleep the night before I moved, those last bits of packing were quite emotional really. As I was looking for “nick nacks” to take to personalise my temporary flat I came across photos and stuff and the inevitable thoughts of "where did it all go wrong?" were upon me. Regardless of whether what is happening is the best thing or not, I couldn't help the wave of sadness that came over me and stayed with me pretty much until Sunday lunchtime.

The car was packed to the gills - the duvet and pillows that I'd carefully packed into one of those vacuum bags - you know the ones you fill with squishy, yet bulky stuff and the attach the hoover to it and suck the air out so said bulky item miraculously halves in size - dutifully broke its seal and doubled in size again during the course of the journey rendering any vision via the rear view mirror impossible!

I got to Chiswick just in time to catch my window of opportunity to exchange keys with Lou. (I allowed 2 hrs to travel ? miles and it took 2 ½ - the delightful A205 on a Saturday ...) Fortunately that window of opportunity extended to Rupert being a gentleman and helping me carry all my stuff up to the attic flat! Thank goodness he was there to carry my big case - I could manage everything else (PPT would have been proud of me!) but if Ru hadn't have been there I reckon I would have had to unpack that particular case on the street and carry the contents up separately ... Its amazing how heavy, bedding and towels are - don't suppose the 5 books I stuck in there before I closed it helped though!

Anyway, there was in depth familiarisation session with Lou on which key to use in which door (!), a quick trip to Acton to see where I might be able to stash my car when I can’t park outside the flat (the joys of residents parking permits), and then there I was unpacking my stuff into this little cosy haven of mine.

Sunday dawned to the news from my mum that my gran had died the previous night. How weird is that? She’d not been well for a long time, and I guess it was only a matter of time, but the fact that all the “stuff” going on in my life meant I hadn’t been able to get up and visit her mid November as I had planned, made me selfishly sad that I had not managed to see her one more time before she went.

With that news taken on board, I must confess to having had a lovely day to myself. I did my food shopping, completed my unpacking made myself food and had a soak in my ridiculously pink bath with many candles. Content is the word I would use. I swing between that and terribly sad, but I guess it’ll get easier as time goes on.

Don't you love a list?

2005-11-25T17:14:00.000Z

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 …

2005-11-20T22:35:00.000Z

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

2005-11-08T21:48:00.000Z

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 ...

2005-11-08T20:40:00.000Z

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!

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

Possible Mission?

2005-11-03T13:23:00.000Z

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.

So, what can I tell you?

2005-10-30T21:14:00.000Z

Ever had a head so full of stuff that you can’t get any of it out?  That’s where I am at the moment.  If I ever do get to the point that I can blog it however, it will be entirely inappropriate for such a forum; so, I guess the only thing I can tell you is that I’ve had my hair cut...

I do love having my hair cut – me and Andrew have a lovely natter about life, love and everything really and he does a stonkingly good cut and blow dry to boot.  I’ve got a bouncy, curly thing going on at the moment which feels fab – my hair bounces as I walk!  It’s a bit like that girly thing of swirling around in a long skirt – a very feminine, yummy feeling. He’s really good.  I can’t do this style myself, but then I guess (apart from the good cutting technique) that’s what I pay him for!  That, and the fact that he knows I’m a tight bird and that he needs to cut it in a way which means I only have to get it cut once every four months!

The haircut was followed by the dangerous walk back to the tube past 3 shoe shops. Unfortunately I’m in love again.  Dark red suede, ¾ length, black 3” heel.  £175.  The worst thing is that the one on display was a size 4 – it would have been rude not to try it on!  So I tried it on, I took it off; I stroked it so that the nap was lying all in the right direction, placed it back on the shelf and stepped away.  Sigh …

What a lazy day.

2005-10-22T23:47:00.000+01:00

The shopping is done, 3 loads of washing are done – although half of that had to be done at the launderette as the washer (which we only seem to have had for 5 minutes) started emptying water all over the floor during the washing cycle. Lunch was made and I even got as far as considering my next move on the Pension front - I haven’t actually signed any paperwork yet but at least I’ve read it …

Then round about 5pm I kind of ran out of steam and I’m afraid I abandoned thoughts of wading my way through the ironing and decided to treat myself to a luxurious soak in the bath with my favourite Fenjal bath stuff, candles, a spot of music and a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a thoroughly decadent half hour and happily managed without reaching the pruney stage. The trouble with a soak in the bath however, is that I never manage to get going again. Consequently I’ve spent the evening curled up in my jim jams watching Strictly Come Dancing and thinking that if Jim’ll Fix It was still on, I’d write in and ask to be able to partner Anton Du Beke – but then I never got to get dressed up and sit in one of the boxes on The Good Old Days which is what I wrote and asked to do last time (I was young!!), so chances are I wouldn’t get to get dressed up and dance with Anton either …

Any road up, the pile of shirts that’s still there waiting to be ironed is just going to have to wait until tomorrow morning …

Night, night.

There's nothing for it ...

2005-10-22T07:52:00.000+01:00

I left my comb at home yesterday by accident, so at lunchtime embarked on a quest to buy another one in order to reign in my increasingly wild mop of hair.  My mobile rang:

Caller:  What are you up to?
Me:  I’m in Boots
Caller:  What colour?

Am I known for having a lot of boots or something????  I think I may need to buy more shoes to redress the balance …  I like this idea!

Works of fiction

2005-10-21T09:49:00.000+01:00

Since I started my new job I've been mainly travelling by car. This is great from the perspective of not being reliant on public transport, which is a pain in South London at best of times, but it also means I both get to listen to music in the car & hear the news. Previously I left the house without having heard any news, I would then work all day - never having time to dip into www.bbc.co.uk like many colleagues I've had seemed to find time for - and by the time I got home I'd have missed the early evening news and had fallen asleep by the time the 10pm news came on (why did they have to change it from 9pm?). I guess you could argue that I could listen to the radio while getting ready for work, but I've just never been able to get ready & listen to radio simultaneously. There's always so much to do: shower, breakfast, make packed lunch, decide what to wear, tame the hair (losing battle at the moment!), put my face on etc, etc.  If I had the news on as well I know I would get distracted and never make the deadline.  So anyway, the upshot is that travelling in the car means that I now have a vague notion of what is going on in the world, and that I get to listen to music.  Marvellous stuff.  So what's the downside?

I never get to read anymore and I really miss it!  In the 5 day gap I had between finishing my old job and starting the new I enjoyed a day to myself going down the Thames to Greenwich. It was a lovely day, I saw the sights, I talked to random tourists, got a wee picnic from M&S, found one of those bookstores which are always closing down and bought a very mixed bag of books for 50p each. That was 3.5 months ago and I haven't finished a single one of them. If  I'd still been going to work on the bus I would have bought another 2 bags by now.

In fact the only work of fiction I've read recently is the timetable for the 196 at my bus stop.  This is demonstrated by the fact that I decided against the car this morning, to enable me a trip to the HITW after work, and missed my train in spite of allowing 25 minutes to wait for bus which is purported to come every 10 -12 minutes ... I'm now going to be 30 minutes late for work (no lunch break for me ...) and the worst part about it is that I forgot the damn book I laid out to enjoy on the journey.

Ugh ...

2005-10-15T07:07:00.000+01:00

Sadly the lurgy has well and truly taken hold. I’ve been up since 3am with a cracking headache, sore throat and the beginnings of a chesty cough. The tissues haven’t been pressed into action yet, but I fear that it is only a matter of time … I think now is a good time for me to re-record my outgoing voicemail message as my voice has now dropped a couple of octaves and sounds a bit Rula Lenska! Hey, I don’t sound sexy very often, so I reckon I should grab the opportunity while I can!

... and the birthday goes on!

2005-10-15T06:30:00.000+01:00

Well the week started with a trip to the seaside with Pepps to have an implementation meeting with a client. Actually managing to get on the train to Poole felt like a day’s work in itself. I was up on time but left the house late so I decided to be clever and drive part way as I had missed the bus that would get me to Waterloo by 0830. I then got stuck in hideous traffic so decided to drive back and get the next bus. I missed the bus. I drove further down the route but ended up abandoning the car and catching whichever random bus I could that was heading in the right direction. Once on the bus I rang Pepps to say that there was no way I was going to be at Waterloo by 0830 (it was 0800 by now and I was less than a mile from home having been traveling for 45 minutes). Pepps says “Neither am I darling. I’ve been traveling for an hour and I’m still in bloody Clapham!” I immediately felt much less stressed! Anyway, to cut a terribly boring story short we rendezvous’d on Platform 9 at Clapham Junction, caught the first train heading in the right direction and miraculously got to the meeting bang on time.

The meeting was a good one. We got taken to lunch, which included enough “curly fries” to feed a small army. I declined to eat them as my instinct was that anything unnatural as a curly fry has got to be covered in crap of some sort of another (see page 6 of this link). We caught a glimpse of the sea, had a wicked hot chocolate in a very seedy teashop, nearly missed our train back to Clapham, treated ourselves to a warm G&T (no ice …), had a fascinating chat about shoes, wet wipes, tupperware and a shared love of Lakeland Plastics catalogues (said conversation was punctuated by strange random sounds from the woman across the aisle who we think was talking in Russian under her breath …), sighed in resigned acceptance as the train sailed through Clapham Junction and eventually wended our way home from Waterloo!

Tuesday started early with lovely presents and cards and moved on to hours staring at project plans and specifications; it’s a shame us grown ups with no annual leave left have to work on our birthdays ... However, the day took a turn for the better when at 4pm there were more cards, presents and special wheat free cake courtesy of the office, plus a glass of fizz courtesy of me! I wasn’t sure how the ‘alcohol in the office’ thing would go down but as it happens it was a resounding success and I think a new tradition has been started. Now all I need to do is persuade the company to foot the bill and gently introduce the notion of vodka tomatoes on special occasions and mulled wine before Christmas lunch and I’ll know I’ve really made my mark! The evening was spent at home with a lovely Bolognese and ice cream courtesy of TH and 2 episodes of “Waking the Dead” on video.

Wednesday saw dinner with Lou in Clapham plus another card and a present – a beautiful sparkly and girlie handbag.

I have no idea when I might be able to use it – come on, someone invite me to a ‘do’ which requires wearing my favourite slinky black dress and my new gorgeous handbag! We had no idea where we were going to eat, so walked up and down Northcote Road checking out all the restaurants and bars. We discarded places like the Slug and Lettuce and All Bar One which were rammed and noisy and just as we were heading back for an expensive Argentinean steak restaurant we spotted what looked at first glance like a wine bar. Closer inspection revealed it to be an Italian restaurant and remarkably seemed to have stuff on the menu which catered for siblings with different restrictive diets. It was also being frequented by more ‘mature’ customers who looked like they were out for the purposes of eating good food rather than just ‘out’, if you see what I mean. Well, we weren’t disappointed. I’m quite difficult to please on the eating out front but this really was a case of yum yum.

Thursday saw my 3 month review in my new job and happily my probationary period has officially been signed off and I received lovely feedback from my boss about my achievements so far. Actually I’ve been feeling good about the job over the last few weeks – I finally feel in control and that I’m winding up to being able to operate at the pace I’m used to, which is important to me, and it was good to have outside validation of my feelings by my boss saying good things about me too. The evening was spent at Darbucka with TH and Catster at Steve’s Peel Day gig. I’ve never been to Darbucka before and I love it! What a lovely venue. The gig was really good too; I’ve not heard Calamateur before and really enjoyed him, Steve was on good form – I really must buy one of his CDs - and what we saw of Rise was also really cool. Fortunately the darkness disguised the fact that I nodded off at one point … What can I say? Steve’s music is just so soothing and relaxing, and that combined with the fact that I’ve been out pretty much every night for a week and am, frankly, getting too old for that, meant that at one point I was gradually sliding off my cushion and disappearing under the table! Unfortunately, we didn’t get to hear all of Rise because being old and sensible meant that we ran to get the last train back to where the car was parked at the shark pad (well I guess its Catster’s pad now really …)

Friday dawned with the unhappy realisation that I’m coming down with some ‘orrible lurgy (hardly surprising as everyone seems to have it at the moment) so I’m now stocked up with Echinacea, vitamin C and zinc, Night Nurse and a good supply of non-scratchy tissues, which will hopefully see me through a weekend visit from the parentals and back into another week at work.

The Menu
Garlic olives to die for; a shared plate of melt in the mouth parma ham, roast artichoke and truffle oil; chicken stuffed with mushrooms, in mascarpone cheese & peppercorn sauce and broccoli; all accompanied by a wonderfully smooth in the mouth montepulciano.

A "no time to blog" digest

2005-10-09T21:23:00.000+01:00

Friday:  an evening of tables reserved for the occasion, chips, Pino Grigio from my new mug which is now being kept behind the bar for me whenever I go in- such a classy bird!, chips, good company, chips, lip gloss comparisons (George’s is not as chocolatey as mine apparently, though the debate was quite split on that), chips, discussions on the Vorderman scale (don’t ask …) and a late journey home.

Saturday: an early start (well of course, it’s Saturday!), the weekend’s chores packed into a manic 5 hours, before heading off to Brighton to see Bill Bailey at the Dome.  Very, very funny night and a good choice of birthday treat for myself!

Sunday: a lie in – marvellous stuff!  I slept all the way until 8am, can’t remember the last time I did that.  A day spent with TH’s family, a visit to friends and their new baby followed by cheese and wine on returning home.

Phew!  Back to work in the morning …

Hold up!

2005-10-06T08:58:00.000+01:00

They really do! The last time I encountered hold ups they really were a case of fall downs ... However, two things appear to have happened since my last experience

My legs must have got fatter (for those who know me, yes honestly!) and

They use a much better rubbery stuff at the top which clings to the skin. I'm sure that previously it wasn't as clingy, because last time I tried them my usual immaculate presentation (I wish) was marred by my Nora Batty ankles!

I have an unfortunate history of falling down underwear as it happens. The "fall downs" as mentioned; the garter I wore the day I got married. I could feel it slipping as my Dad walked me down the aisle and by the time I got to the "almost" TH it was in fact round my ankle; and the embarrassing episode of the “bra-less strap” I wore to an 18th birthday party many moons ago. Suffice it to say, I was wearing a loose cropped top and was partaking in a fairly vigorous demonstration of the twist. Next thing I know, I've got an interesting new belt. Everyone saw, so there was nothing to do but unhook it and chuck it in with a pile of handbags. It’s not like I had anything that needed holding up anyway!

Either way, my record on the falling down undies front has been much better of late and I'm pleased to say that there is no sign of falling down today. In fact they're holding up magnificently under the pressure of charging around to get to the station for the 7.39 and the subsequent stamping of feet when I arrived with 2 minutes to spare only to hear an announcement that it had been cancelled ... Aaarrgghhh!

A week of firsts

2005-10-02T10:10:00.000+01:00

It’s been a busy old week.  I’ve had a big implementation this week; well it was supposed to Go Live last week, but what with wasting 3 weeks trying to working out what I was supposed to be delivering, having a key member of staff (essentially the only resource I had) announce they were leaving the company just as the project came on line, having to do meetings and specs that I shouldn’t have been doing etc, the week’s contingency I had built in to the already impossibly tight but non-negotiable timeline kind of evaporated …  Anyway, Go Live happened 3 days late but was very enjoyable in a twisted way!  It was almost like running an event again – me in the middle being mission control with a group of people who very quickly metamorphosed into a real team in a way that I’m not sure has happened before.  (Maybe that’s just me being big headed!)  We’re going to need a serious de-brief on the project – lots of lessons to be learned and all that, but I feel that we’ve got a good team and we’re in a good position to build on it for the next disastrous project already on the horizon.  One more difficult and haphazard project to go and then after that all the projects will have been mine from the start so there are lots of new procedures and working practices to put in place and existing processes to get used etc.

This week also saw my first Salsa class.  I’ve been banging on about this for months and I finally got round to it this week.  It was quite funny really.  I was immediately transported back to school when in the 6th form we were forced to have ballroom dancing lessons with the boys from the grammar school.  The girls would line up along one side of the school hall, boys down the other and Mrs Isaac and Mr Blah (can’t remember his name – he was very light on his feet but had terrible bad breath!) would demonstrate the waltz, foxtrot, cha cha, polka or whatever and then we’d have to have a go.  It all felt fairly disastrous at the time – thoroughly embarrassing and all that – but if it came to it I could probably still manage to fluff my way through a waltz or a foxtrot with a guy that knew what he was doing.

OK, so the Salsa class was full of adults and not spotty teenagers and everyone was there by choice but there were still many sweaty palms and a bunch of beginners desperately staring at their feet like they would up and run off if they weren’t kept in sight at all times, and heaven forbid that you should make eye contact with your partner!

The teacher of the beginners’ group was a nice enough woman, very encouraging and all that but she began by counting 123567123567 right from the beginning with no explanation of why. What happened to 4 and 8?  Well I know what happened to them – being a musician obviously helps – but for me the whole 123..567.. thing isn’t really something I think about; if you’re musical and feel the beat, you know which beat you’re on without counting.  However I’m  not sure everyone else in the beginners class realised where 4 and 8 were … It was about 25 minutes in before the teacher explained that you rest on 4 and 8, so it wasn’t until after then that a couple of the blokes who were having trouble with the concept that the “next foot” you use has to be the one that you’re not currently standing on otherwise you fall over, cottoned on that they didn’t just go from 3 to 5 and 7 back to 1.  Happily after this realisation there was much less treading on toes!

I guess the problem is that I’m not quite a beginner, but I’m also not good enough to be in with the intermediates.  However, I know that I must do my scales and arpeggios in order to be able to play the cool stuff I want to …  Sorry, I mean I must practice my mambo, rumba, turn, open out and crossover steps before I can do the fun looking stuff.  I also must remember that I must not lead … ;-)

I’ll go back I reckon, but it would be nice to have someone to go with as everyone else there was with someone they knew.  However, TH categorically doesn’t do dancing, so if I want to do it, it’ll have to be on my own.  I’ve started so I’ll finish!

Friday saw Kenny Young and the Eggplants via a swift one in the HITW.  I’ve been trying to get to see them for years and this was the first year I managed not to be working, hurrah!  TH came too and it was great fun (apart from a really ropey white wine and soda, apparently BB asked for a single malt and was given a Bells!)  They did all my favourites, Eddie’s Apartment, Rambo goes Shopping and Earl the Squirrel and I got a lovely complimentary eggplant badger (sorry badge!) and an eggplant T shirt into the bargain.  A girl can never have too many band t shirts to wear as nighties!

The menu
Dinner (Sat): Organic chicken breast in a mushroom and stilton cream sauce with steamed organic carrots, broccoli and peas; followed by Belgian Chocolate ice cream laced with a wee bit of Muscat …

What a way to start the day

2005-09-30T10:22:00.000+01:00

I’ve had three good starts to the morning this week.  Two were because I got up at the dawn of crack and went to the gym before work; after 60 minutes of good physical exercise and an invigorating shower I seem to feel ready for anything!  Then this morning I came to work on the train (Eggplants at the Water Rats tonight via ANOTHER leaving do, therefore no car required), so used the opportunity to sort out my handbag (what exactly is all that stuff in there?) and indulge in the luxury of listening to music.  The bag was sorted pretty quickly (Oh, that’s what it all is!) which meant I had a good 25 minutes to lose myself in some Pat Metheny.

What is it about music? Why do some musical progressions just do something to us? When you don't know a piece or track there’s that fantastic one time thing of experiencing a lovely moment of surprise when the direction changes either tonally or rhythmically.  Then when you do know a piece there’s the equally fab feeling when you know that a particularly good modulation / musical change is coming up – you prepare for it - and wait  - and when it happens the joy, tension, wretchedness, whatever it does to you is just so thoroughly satisfying.

When I’m listening on my lovely PocketPC (NB. new version out soon – check this out – its just too sexy for words …) I find myself smiling to myself sometimes in public places; I almost want to grab people and share it with them - of course they would think I was bonkers. (But Jools, you are bonkers), the reader cries …  When I’m performing its even better, because I’m actively involved in creating the perfect environment for the change to happen; so that the change is prepared for - so that when it happens the surprise or the expectancy is delivered to perfection.  I get to experience it as the provider and the receiver – do you see what I mean?  Possibly not ...

Sometimes wish I was good at musical analysis so I could articulate what I mean in musical terms better.  Obviously I can to certain extent - years spent training as musician etc; but I can't really hold my own with the big boys.  And anyway part of me wants to leave it mysterious, just savour the emotional effect it has on me and just lose myself in the music.

Whatever, it’s a damn fine way to start the day.

Yum yum!

2005-09-25T20:00:00.000+01:00

So, the pile of CDs has diminished, the ironing has been obliterated, shopping completed, blah, blah, blah so there’s not much to say! Actually, I just wanted to post something so I could tell you about my yummy dinner!

The menu
Dinner: roast duck breast (nice and pink in the middle) with a tangy port and orange sauce (made with a stonkingly good homemade chicken stock), parmesan roasted parsnips, organic carrots and steamed brocolli. Soon to be followed by Jools’ famous Strawberries (with a dash of Cointreau) and mascarpone cream.

GEYFH!

2005-09-25T11:13:00.000+01:00

My Thursday “headache” had started on Wednesday, and in spite of having not much to show for it, it was still with me yesterday and a small mountain of feminax had been consumed. This is all really annoying because I went through a phase when it wasn’t too bad, but over recent months its all been escalating again. It can only think that it is indeed a case that my level of stress dictates how bad I feel in that respect – I have been trying to convince myself over the years that that wasn’t the case – bugger, it’s my own fault...

Anyway, after work on Friday I followed GVS’s advice to “GEYFH”; apropos of nothing ICQ at work is a great thing – its great for the odd bit of letting off steam, random poetry conversations, footwear discussions and in spite of what you might think actually contributes to productivity! So I did exactly as instructed in the HITW with my old work team who it was lovely to see again. Much Pinot Grigio, chips, gossip and fun later I crawled into bed in the early hours, content in the knowledge that I appeared to have banished the “headache”. Unfortunately it was just in hiding (giving me a few hours off – bless!) so having been woken up at 0530 by its insistent return plus a head packed full of stuff again (GEYFH only works for a while it seems!), I heated my lavender heat pack thing, curled up with a cup of camomile tea and went on line.

Happily the shark and my time zones coincided for c. 10 mins so we had a bit of a natter (therapy session …) before she went to bed and I then spent a good 3 hours just surfing. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular just checking out what my friends are listening to and blogging about at the moment. I also downloaded a trial voice dialling program for my beautiful PocketPC so I can get my “7 of 9” style Bluetooth headset up and functioning in a totally hands free way. Currently I can only use it to take incoming calls when I’m driving and still have to make outgoing calls by pushing buttons on the handset - which is not of course legal ... I then realised that the day had pretty much kicked in and considered the things I needed to do that day.

Well, the brain presented me with the list but my body was unable to comply so I took some more Feminax and spent yesterday pretty much as vegetable, curled up with my lavender pack. I did manage to rustle up some lunch, which was followed by Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on DVD; I actually nodded off at one point during this, though I don’t think I really missed anything as it was all a bit disappointing to be honest. That was followed by Ant and Dec (I do love them dearly the lovely little boys, but you can tell that I must have been feeling really bad to be watching Saturday night TV!). I then had a spot of dinner and watched another DVD – Robots; this one I really enjoyed and didn’t fall asleep, though TH did. Wonder when our time zones are going to coincide …? Anyway, an early night followed and an early morning dawned with the “headache” gone. I feel like BloominJools again. Thank the Lord for that!,

However, the upshot of a damn lazy day is that the weekend’s chores now all need to be crammed into one day. Argh! So, I breakfasted while sorting through what looked like a decade’s worth of unopened post and created a huge bag of stuff to take to the recycling centre, I had a happy 10 minutes leafing through the latest Lakeland Plastics catalogue and sorted through the mountain of telephone directories that seem to have accumulated somehow. It was in the process of doing that that I found a CD that I’d been looking for (Rustavi) and I’ve now stalled on the jobs that need to be done because I decided that as I’d found it, I should rip it into iTunes before I mislaid it again. I did that, and listened to the whole CD while I was at it, but then got side tracked ripping some other CDs I hadn’t got round to doing. So ever the "time and motion queen" I thought I could do my blog while all that was going on – that’s a good use of the time isn't it?

So, happily through blog and music listening, GEYFH status has been achieved once more which means that the shopping list, shopping, ironing, sorting out my company pension situation and union membership lapse (I was sure I’d sorted that out, but apparently not …) will have to wait until the pile of CDs has gone down ...

The menu (new feature – I’ll only mention it if it was particularly yummy!):
Lunch: feta, tomato, olive & basil salad made with deliciously “tomatoey tasting” home grown tomatoes
Dinner: spicy vegetable fajitas (the tortillas were proper corn ones – hurrah a naturally wheat free meal!)

To post or not to post?

2005-09-22T04:50:00.000+01:00

After great deliberation and many long and boring drafts here it is.  There is no satisfying conclusion on this one…

I'm not doing very well at pacing myself at the moment. You'd think that being a Project Manager I'd be able to prioritise and manage my time effectively, and in a work sense – no problem; in a personal sense however...

Over the last few years I have, in fits and starts, been creeping up my own list of priorities, having always placed myself fairly far down it in the past.  Previously my position has always come after: doing the sensible thing, not upsetting the apple cart and keeping everyone happy, in the misguided belief that the side effect would be that I might also be happy. Potty logic I know … Anyway, to cut a very long and boring story short, I now find myself in a position right at the top of my agenda with the new resolve not to squander any more time and to do my utmost not to keep putting off happiness.

Trouble is that I now have lots of things I want to do and because I’ve wasted so much time in the past I’m doing the daft thing of trying to cram it all in at once: new job / challenge (this is proving to be a steep yet strangely pleasurable learning curve), meeting new people, properly keeping in touch with people I already know, going to the gym, finally getting round to learning to Salsa, doing more singing, enjoying the benefits of living in London, ie. going to events etc (which I’ve not done enough of so far and which I am aware is a crime after living here for 14 years), volunteering for Crisis this Christmas, preparing for the Inca Trail next year, allowing myself the luxury of time alone and most importantly nurturing and preserving my important relationship.

Now, all of this involves hard work, late nights, and a serious investment of emotional effort and essentially because I’m trying to do it all at once I’m exhausted - trouble is I don’t want to leave any of it out …

To blog, or not to blog?

2005-09-21T09:42:00.000+01:00

For those who worry that because I haven’t posted anything for a couple of days that I’m giving up blogging – I’m not! I am writing a blog, but I’m not sure if I should post it. I’ll continue to write it and make up my mind when I’m finished … It may be just one of those things that needs to be emptied from my head but not actually posted!

Of course this wouldn’t have been a problem back in the early days when no-one was reading this would it?

On a very happy note – I’ve just booked tickets to see Bill Bailey at the Dome in Brighton as an early birthday treat to myself. Now all that needs to happen is that TH doesn’t get a job that night …

Mission Accomplished!

2005-09-19T01:03:00.001+01:00

I woke up thinking of the moon again this morning. It had really lifted my spirits the night before, yet an emotionally draining morning yesterday, followed by a PPT session, topped off with a late night at the Thames Festival were conspiring against me in my quest to get ready for a hardcore shopping mission with Lou. I was almost on the point of calling the day off (rare for me as I hate messing people about) when happily a spirit lift happened upon me again in the form of the accidental 'running on' of iTunes into "And he shall purify" from Handel's Messiah. I've not listened to it for wee while now and had forgotten how fantastic it is, especially when you're actually performing it; but listening or performing it really does make the heart soar. So about 40 bars into the it, the quest was back on and I was up and raring to go. Great stuff!

A serious day's shopping followed with Lou. She turned up looking like she was going on an expedition! Now I had a rucksack with me, but apart from a book and my corkscrew (never leave home without one …) it was empty, the point being that the day’s purchases could be packed in there. Lou’s rucksack however was full of thermals, scarves, woolly hats, emergency provisions and a particularly beautiful new umbrella which now apparently creates a requirement for a new pair of pink leather gloves; that’s her excuse and she’s sticking to it!

Unusually for an Oxford Street trip my mission’s objectives were fully accomplished and with only one moment of shop rage; why do some of these shops have to play the damn music SO LOUD?? Making a decision through high volume R&B is impossible for me. Anyway, the Jane Norman changing room escape aside I actually managed to get everything I went out for. Result!

As usual I ended up with a few non essential items chucked in for good measure, plus had a cheeky flirtation with a pair of sophisticated Roland Cartier boots which were sadly well out of my league. So far out that I didn’t even try them on; I just stroked them and drank in their gorgeousness. Trying boots on that I can’t afford and don’t need is actually just the slippery slope to buying them, especially in light of my “footwear problem”.

I blame my Saturday job. I used to work in a shoe shop and even though I only worked one day per week the company remarkably awarded me the same discount deal as full time employees – 20% off all footwear and 50% of any shoes that were black or grey, as they were classed as “uniform”. You can imagine the temptation … My Dad became increasingly cross with the volume of shoes and boots which I brought home. One day in a fit of frustration he flung open my wardrobe doors and counted the shoe boxes – summary being “15! No-one needs 15 pairs of shoes! It must stop.”

Thoroughly chastised I consoled myself with the fact that while the telling off had been quite bad, imagine what it would have been like if he had realised that there were two pairs of shoes in each box …

The moon and I

2005-09-18T09:04:00.000+01:00

The moon and I had a bit of a moment last night. I turned into concert hall approach on my way to Waterloo after I’d finished at the Thames Festival and was struck by the beautiful sight of a huge, almost full, clear faced golden moon, framed by high buildings and laced with whisps of cloud. I actually stopped in the street to take it in and instinctively looked round for someone to share it with. While the street was bustling with people enjoying the Thames Festival, I realised I was to all intents and purposes on my own, so turned back to enjoy the moment, just me & the moon, alone. I’ve really got to get a digital camera …

The wonderful web of thoughts

2005-09-15T17:34:00.000+01:00

I woke up this morning feeling a wee bit melancholy. I’ve not been sleeping well, had the prospect of today being a long day out of the office at a time when I’m far too busy to be out of the office, and opening the curtains revealed a damp and dismal day. So, I was coming out of the house bracing myself for the joys of public transport from South London to Paddington and was trying to find something good to think about the day. And there it was, an enormous spider’s web on a hydrangea positively glistening with plumptuous raindrops. I immediately wanted to take a picture of it, but then immediately remembered how rubbish the camera is on the otherwise fabulous Pocket PC. “I should really have proper digital camera to capture stuff like that” I thought, “If I got a dinky one I could carry it around with me for moments such as this”. However, as I clipped my keys to the inside of my handbag I realised that even if I could afford to treat myself (which I can’t!) I would probably lose it anyway; the fact that I haven’t lost my Pocket PC to date is pretty miraculous. Indeed the only reason I’m not constantly searching for my keys is because of the clever clip which I transfer to which ever handbag I’m using!

This then reminded me of other things I always lose: hankies (I never lose tissues strangely, just hankies), earrings and gloves – about two of those a year. My Mum used to guard against my serial mitten loss via the “mittens on elastic threaded through the sleeves of the coat” technique. Other kids’ mothers had a similar approach at the schools I went to, but they had string rather than elastic. As you can imagine the whole elastic thing opened up new possibilities and before long, at which ever new school I went to, the new kid who didn't speak like everyone else became a spinning top. Two local children would be running round me hanging onto a glove each seeing how fast I could spin and how far the elastic would stretch; then the spinning would be stopped and the gloves released, the inherent property of elastic ensuring their rapid snap back at my wrists … Lets just say that you soon learn to speak in the local accent and even if you never really fit in, the spinning gradually stops.

This whole bunch of thoughts took only moments which is amazing in itself; however, it’s not just the rapidity of thought that is amazing, but the whizzing through of the emotions that are all wrapped up with them.

Joy: the beauty of the spider’s web

Smugness: I cleverly have a small clip to prevent constant searching for keys

Love: Mum

Anger: cruelty of kids

Sadness: spending much of life not fitting in

Smiley: the comical image of me as bizarre spinning top.

Phew! All a bit much for the early morning really.

Then almost as quickly I started to feel the flippin' melancholy creeping up on me again – damn it. So I decided to push everything down except for the joy that there are beautiful things like spider webs in the world. (And that's in spite of my feelings about spiders under the bed!)

Phew!

2005-09-11T01:33:00.000+01:00

Spider dealt with!

Of course there is no way of knowing for certain that there weren’t 2 enormous spiders …

********!?

2005-09-11T00:35:00.000+01:00

Be very still! There is an enormous spider in my bedroom!

I am sat on the bed typing this and keeping a beady eye on it to check where it moves to. Bugger – it just moved! Why do they have to scuttle?? I have drained my glass of water in readiness to do the brave thing and put a glass over it and put it outside like TH does, but I can’t actually bring myself to put my feet on the floor let alone get anywhere near it. Bugger it just moved again, only now I can’t see where it went. Jeez it shifts fast. I think it’s underneath the boots which I haven’t got round to putting back in the cupboard … (note to self – must be tidier). No! Bugger, bugger, bugger, it’s just shot under the bed. There is absolutely no way I’m going to get any sleep now. “Out of sight, out of mind” doesn’t work for spiders under the bed. If it’s UNDER the bed, it could easily end up ON the bed, and if it’s ON the bed it could end up on ME. I know this is completely irrational of me, it’s probably more scared of me than I am of it blah, blah, blah … but its going to have to go some to be more scared than me at the moment.

I’m just going to have to wait here, in the middle of the bed, until TH gets back from his gig and hope that he has a rational suggestion. I expect he’ll just be really cross with me (I don’t blame him!) but I’m really not moving anywhere until I’ve seen it again, preferably underneath a glass being put out in the garden. I could be here for some time …

There's a hole ...

2005-09-10T23:00:00.000+01:00

So after what felt like 10 leaving do’s jazzshark has gone …  Actually I think it was only 5 (only!) and I was at 4 of them!  It was a bit of a joke at the end – “do you think you might actually go somewhere after one of these do’s or what?”

But it’s happened now – I look forward to reading all about it on the Jazzsharking blog – and I must admit to feeling more than a little bereft.

I had great hopes of doing a farewell verse as Goose Vertica Space has impressed me of late and I felt insanely inspired to do my own sharking tribute.  Thank goodness I didn’t commit the intention to blog, because that would have meant that I really had to do it; if I say I’m going to do it in the blog then I have to do it (that’s my rule).  But I can’t!  I was always rubbish at poetry at school and in spite of chewing several virtual pencils through (of course I didn’t actually try and do it with pen and paper – that’s what a laptop is for!) I only managed an embarrassing variation on “one, two, buckle my shoe”!

The upshot is that I’ve lost the shark to new and exciting waters.  She’s made me laugh on countless occasions, she’s been a shoulder to cry on, she let me sleep in the same house as her while wearing pink lace knickers, she’s educated me in matters jazz (can I imagine my life without Pat Metheny? No!), she’s always encouraging me to sing more (I will – I promise!), she even managed to swing me a job once, she’s made me more addicted to my computer than I already was damn her! And ultimately I think she knows me better than anyone.

I miss you terribly already shark, but with any luck we’ll be back on the IM before we know it and I can just pretend you’re round the corner!

Lots of love

Bloomin

Thank the Lord for M & S!

2005-09-08T09:46:00.000+01:00

Cracking gym session.

Relaxing shower.

Open bag containing clothes for work.

That’s all I’m saying.

Time, ticking away ...

2005-09-06T18:15:00.000+01:00

There are just never enough hours in the day are there? There are so many things I HAVE to do, which I just have real trouble stacking up against the things I WANT to do. I’m much better than I used to be about making time for me and not being “all consumed” with work and domestic chores, but no matter how much I let things go, that in the past I wouldn’t have – ie. the state of the house, garden and disorganised earrings; I still have great difficulty fitting it all in.

Why is it that this work / life balance is so hard to achieve for me? I think that is something for me to ponder and explore at a deeper level … Either way its just as well that I’m an organised bird, because if I didn’t have:

lists of stuff to do at work,

lists of stuff to do at home,

lists of stuff to do for me

AND the assistance of my marvellous Pocket PC,

I don’t know how I’d manage anything except getting up, going to work and coming home again!

As it is I’m in the process of drawing up a timetable for Salsa Classes (just got leafleted the other day which was perfect timing!), the gym – gotta keep PPT happy (!), practicing my singing, going to gigs, keeping in touch with friends, applying fake tan, dying my eyelashes (still haven’t managed to do that!), spending time with TH and of course blogging! All this and I haven’t even started looking at the details I’ve had through about my intended Inca Trail Trek next year. Once I start on that it’s going to mean big time fundraising and big time training … Need a bigger Pocket PC!!!

The evil PPT

2005-09-04T11:20:00.000+01:00

I don’t wish to be overdramatic but I can’t move my upper body this morning – my hands are fine for typing – phew! but my arms, shoulders and back have pretty much seized up.  This is all on account of my evil Pocket-sized Personal Trainer.  Pocket-sized because whilst within his own proportions he is a big strong lad, he is nevertheless diddy ie. not very tall, I mentioned this once and he wasn’t impressed!  but then I’m not very tall either so I reckon it works fine …    The upshot is that he is “small but perfectly formed.”  That’s OK to say isn’t it?

Anyway, said PPT gave me the hardest session I’ve had so far on Friday afternoon.  Or maybe I was just being a whimp? Apparently I’d used up all my rests in previous sessions (I do have a tendency to talk a bit …) so I had NO RESTS.  Supersets all over the shop and the pause between the supersets were only as long as it took for the next exercise to be explained.  I’d pushed myself so hard I had sweat dripping off the end of my nose (attractive eh!) and I also had to lie down for 10 minutes before I could even manage to have a shower! Honestly, I can’t quite believe that I pay for such abuse!

OK, so dramatics over – I do know why I pay for it, its because I enjoy being pushed and a good old natter when he’s not being mean!  I push myself quite hard already, but sometimes when I’m workingout alone I get to 16 reps out of 20 or whatever, catch sight of myself in the flippin’ mirrors they insist on having in these gyms, realise I’m tomato red, grunting and sweating profusely, have an attack of vanity and give up!  No chance of that with the PPT, if I give him a “please let me stop” look, which he interprets as a dirty look, that’s when I hear – “… and another 10”.  I love it!

You have no idea ...

2005-09-04T00:46:00.000+01:00

… what went into getting the last blog published. Those of you paying attention will already have noticed that it was posted a day later than written – and why was that? I can’t quite believe it myself, but Jools – “the safest browser in the west” got a computer nasty – some pesky spy ware! It didn’t lock down my laptop or damage any system files, it just wouldn’t let me get on to the internet, IM or send and receive emails. As you can imagine I was lost! Not only that, it wouldn’t let any of the other computers on the network do any of that either!

My router very politely suggested I ran a virus scan – hadn’t done one for a wee while so I ran a Norton full system scan and it found 7 nasties lurking – identified as adware and with a theoretical promise the problem was fixable. I proceeded with the delete and repair procedure only to be told that 6 of the files couldn’t be deleted and that I should click on the link to find out how to manually delete them. So, I clicked on the link knowing full well that it was going to try and take me to some webpage somewhere for my instructions. “But the point is …” I’m crying at the computer screen “… I can’t get onto the internet!!!!” So I ran Ad-Aware instead which found 26 nasties – I actually run this once every couple of weeks anyway because it doesn’t matter how careful you are, you still end up with Cookie Tracking rubbish on your machine. I followed the Ad-Aware quarantine and delete procedure and Hey Presto! problem solved. Blog posted! Hurray for a lovely bit of “freeware” which did a better bloomin’ job than Norton for which I pay subscription – not that I really expected it to pick up spy ware in the first place, but its just once it had identified it, it would have been nice if it could something with it! So I just wanted everyone to know what a cracking job Ad-Aware does and that you should all head out to the Lavasoft site and get yourself a copy. Run it regularly, keep it up-to-date and to continue practising safe browsing.

Busy, busy, busy ...

2005-09-03T23:47:00.000+01:00

Blimey – no time to blog lately – what’s going on in my world that made that happen all of a sudden? No time to blog lately roughly translates as “No time to myself lately …” or at least no time to myself which didn’t involve doing chores. I must admit that I did only plan on spending an hour working in the garden the other day, but the problem is you make a neat bit and then the bit next to it looks a real mess, so you have to do that bit as well. Before I knew it I’d spent a mammoth 4 hours out there, was sunburned, had a stinking headache and hadn’t showered or packed in readiness for a couple of days away with TH - oops. Either way the time I had earmarked for blogging last weekend was shot – but the garden looks great!

Since my last post then …

I finished work for a week’s annual leave. Hurray! I had a seriously bad week that week. Maybe it’s because I’ve only been there 2 months and the novelty of the new job has worn off, but I don’t feel comfortable enough in my position to be able to bite back at some of the stupid things that go on. Happily on my last day I had lunch (lunch?? How outrageous! the office cries …) with another member of staff who started on the same day as me and we had a couple of glasses of wine (drinking at lunchtime? How outrageous! the office cries …) and a seriously good bitch! It was just the tonic both of us needed I think and we have made a pact to get out and have lunch at least once a fortnight – steady on – we’re going to get seriously frowned upon here!

I had a very sedate Saturday night out with Georgina Mary – we had planned debauched eating, drinking and dancing but ended up drinking, drinking, eating and then me falling asleep in front of Finding Nemo … How embarrassing. Good news is, after a little IM master class, she is now making tentative steps into the world of IM – don’t think she was quite taken with scrobbling, but once her typing is up to speed and we can have a decent conversation, I’ll work on her!

Sunday was spent on the mammoth gardening session and was followed by drinking far too much with friends in their new house (I always end up doing that with them – the evening generally deteriorates into a bottle of Port, especially if I don’t need to drive after …) They’re doing up an old school house (in the country – complete with country smells!) which is great, apart from the “North face of the Eiger” staircase you have to negotiate every time you need a pee … Fine in the normal scheme of things (well, no actually its not really fine – its really scary) but an utter nightmare in the early hangover hours of the day! Thank goodness no-one saw me climbing it on my hands and knees …

After that, TH and I hit the south coast and spent a couple of days in said friends’ cottage. Really lovely little place – with another seriously scary staircase – what is it with these people? However there is no TV – TH was going stir crazy, and no access to the internet – Bloominjools was going stir crazy! I really didn’t think I was addicted to my laptop, but it turns out I am. I couldn’t get online but I still sat with my laptop on my knees like some sort of security blanket. I played a bit of music which TH endured but I don’t think liked (Avishai Cohen) and made some additions to my “farewell Jazzshark” recipe book. I have just finished the book this morning actually and am making arrangements to get it printed out this afternoon – after a session with my Pocket Personal Trainer and before yet another leaving do. So if you’re reading this Ms Shark, it’s on its way!

We had a happy little day trip to France where my lovely summer heat rash attractively bubbled into action … Sun, heat and me don’t mix – I go red and blotchy and very, VERY, ITCHY and remain that way for a couple of days. At this point English summer normally gives in and returns to its usual damp and dismal August state and I then go back to being white again. Hence the fake tan obsession. It’s really embarrassing realising that people aren’t dazzled by your beauty or personality, just the unfeasible whiteness of Bloominjools in a sun top …

Anyway, pleasant lunch in Boulogne was followed by a leisurely stocking up on wine in Calais. Well, it was leisurely right up until the point that I overheard the woman behind me in the queue mention the time … Who had completely forgotten to change her watch on the crossing over in the morning …? Its amazing how the threat of missing the last Seacat back to Dover can focus your mind into making very quick decisions on how many cases of what to buy in the next supermarket on the list! We got to the Seacat just in time to check in thanks to some nifty wrong side of the road driving from TH – phew!

Once back in London, the holiday continued with Philadelphia Story at the Old Vic, which I thoroughly enjoyed – apart from the embarrassingly audible gasp when Mr Spacey made his first entrance. Honestly – it was just silly. I thought the American woman behind me was going to wet herself! Yesterday was spent having a picnic and mooching around Camden Lock (I bought several second hand books and a silly skirt I don’t need!) and then took the River Bus down to Little Venice. A lovely relaxing day.

And now it’s Friday again! And as you can see TH is off with his little white balls and I have had time to do a mammoth blog! I had meant to do the ironing and dye my eyelashes but hey, this has been more fun – for me anyway!

Don't Feminax and drive ...

2005-08-26T06:10:00.000+01:00

I wonder what it is about that heady combination of 500mg Paracetamol, 8mg Codeine Phosphate, a quantity of Caffeine Monohydrate equivalent to 50mg anhydrous caffeine and 100mg Hyoscine Hydrobromide which makes it the only non prescription pain killer that hits the spot for me?  I don’t need to kill pain very often, thanks to my usually nutrient rich diet (you can almost see me shining my halo!), but when I get what I call my “Thursday headache” there’s nothing else that works.  Paracetamol on its own doesn’t even get close; Codeine on its own makes me queasy and Ibuprofen only works if it is truly a muscular thing.

Anyway, whatever it is, it kills the pain; trouble is it kills pretty much everything at the same time rendering a girl pretty much useless!  Apart from the fact that the caffeine gives me the shakes and stops me from getting back to sleep if the Thursday headache manifests itself during the night (as happened this morning, hence the early morning blog post), I get this curious feeling that I’m on a skateboard and someone has just pushed me down a long fuzzily lit tunnel.  It’s kind of nice – as long as I don’t try and get off the skateboard ride and have to “do” anything! However, as you can imagine it’s a bit dodgy if you’re going to operate machinery – driving a car is a bit like being on the dodgems, or if you simply have to get some work done.  In my old job the Scotsman always used to know when I’d taken some.  I guess it was the change from grumpy Bloominjools to an “away with the fairies” Bloominjools that gave it away, but he was pretty adept at spotting it and commenting “watch out – she’s on the Feminax again!”

It seems to be a painkiller that lots of people I know are particularly partial to, and I’m not sure its necessarily to do with the painkilling part …  The only downside for Jazzshark in her impending move to NY is that she’s not going to be able to get it in the States, what with Codeine being banned and all that …  The fans of Feminax aren’t just limited to girls either; indeed the Scotsman often refers “fondly” to a period of his life he spent sitting in his pants and living off Feminax and Cider.  I can’t function properly on Feminax on its own, so can’t begin to imagine what it would be like with Alcohol – I’m such a light weight!

Any road up, at least being awake (and headache free) at the dawn of crack again has meant I’m seeing a beautiful sun rise and I’m getting the opportunity to listen to some music – last track played can be found on my audioscrobbler page.

Bloominjools Thoughts

What's that noise?

What are the chances of that?

*Sigh*

Good Morning ...

Size matters

Let the training begin ...

New Zealand Ideas

Is this the right Daemon for me?

Very brief update

Sigh ....

He's gone ...

Back on the trail

Wedgie ...

A list ...

Blast from the past - no really!

New toys normally raise a smile ...

Ugh ...

Bite the bullet

I did it in time, I just never posted it!

Spend, spend, spend …

First the boots, then the bags …

5 days

Its all a matter of stile ...

I don't want to be 'the slowest person" ...

Lessons Learned #2

Lessons Learned #1

Without Prejudice ...

Grumpy old woman

There’s something missing …

That was weird ... (revised)

Is there anybody there?

It's a bit like making pancakes ...

It's good to be back ...

It was all going to be so 'romantic' …

Its just not me. Is it?

The circle without an end

I just can't hack it any more ...

Hmmmmm update …

Hmmmmmmm

A Synopsis

I haven’t got an idea in my head for a story

A new view

Motion away or motion towards?

What are you supposed to do with the photographs?

Well that’s the last of the Christmas cake then …

That was the week and a half that was.

A few hellos now I’m back …

There’s no place like home

What time's the coach?

Freiburg to Stuttgart

Munich to Freiburg

Mannheim to Munich

Time keeping ...

A day off!

Berlin to Mannheim

The 0645 conversation ...

Köln to Berlin

Köln to Dusseldorf

Hannover to Köln

London to Hannover

Four Things

Yes, I'm alive ...

Happy Sunday

Exploring pastures new

In memoriam Violet Bruce (29.2.1920 - 26.11.2005)

So, I'm in then ...

Don't you love a list?

Small pleasures …

And then there were three

I'm so easily side tracked ...

Possible Mission?

So, what can I tell you?

What a lazy day.

There's nothing for it ...

Works of fiction

Ugh ...

... and the birthday goes on!

A "no time to blog" digest

Hold up!

Sigh