Friday, July 15, 2011

laughter is the best medicine... maybe

I had a truly terrible day yesterday. I woke up feeling awful. The headache I'd had since the evening before had not eased off at all overnight and it was making me really miserable. I spent the morning moping about and rubbing my head a lot. In the afternoon I set off for work (probably not the best idea) and fell up the stairs while exiting the underground. Now, as well as a sore head, I had excruciatingly painful shins. I arrived at work and cried in the toilets for ten minutes before pulling myself together enough to enter the office. One hour later, my shins were more painful than ever. I went to the toilet to investigate my bruises and found that my leggings were stuck to a 20cm-long gash of raw flesh. I literally had no shin skin left and now have scars that would have put even my five-year-old self's legs to shame. I then spent over 90 minutes in a stuffy meeting about software that means nothing to me before being sent home early from work with a full-blown migraine :( I haven't had a migraine for almost eight years and had really hoped they were a thing of the past. Sadly not. Perhaps the brewing of this migraine explains the low spirits and extreme lazing of Tuesday though. Vindicated!

Anyway, with psychically good timing, my sister sent me the above picture last night and it really made me laugh. That'll show those pesky boys! Laughing did make my head hurt a bit more, but it was worth it to lift my spirits - much needed.

Today I am well slept, my headache has subsided to a dull throb and I'm feeling rather proud of my skint shins. I'm not sure whether returning to work today for a late shift from hell is the best decision, but I'm going to give it a go and just keep reminding myself that I am off all weekend and can continue my recovery then. Gah, I had forgotten how much migraines suck...

Thursday, July 14, 2011

day in the life a.k.a. apparently I am a serial toast eater

Tanning is Toast by govango_crafts
Tanning is Toast, a photo by govango_crafts on Flickr.

I forgot to make any notes for Day In The Life (see Claire's blog here for details) so this is unreliably done by memory, doubly difficult when it was such an uneventful day.

7.45am - Wake up feeling a bit confused about whether or not Graham has got up for work or will have already left. I find him in the kitchen eating his breakfast. He mistakenly thinks I am getting up for the day and talks me into quizzing him on the billion and one product codes he is trying to learn for work. Once I have done that I go to the toilet and go back to bed, hoping for more sleep and fearing I might get called in to work until midnight and not be able to stay awake. I am not very good at late shifts at the moment and am still recovering from working late all weekend.

9.00 am - Realise I won't be getting back to sleep, so I wriggle out from under the two cats who are lying on my belly purring and cleaning each other's ears to make two slices of toast with raspberry jam. A few days ago when I made toast, the toaster caught fire and I've been too scared to use it since. Today I investigate more closely and realise Graham must have cleaned and fixed it, so I can go back to making toast the lazy way instead of under the grill. I eat my toast in front of the telly in my dressing gown. I think I watched Friends or something. I don't usually like it, but am really enjoying it for some reason.

10am ish - I decide to finish crocheting my granny square blanket. The cats cotton on to the crochet coming out, so I have to crochet at strange angles as they try to sit on the nearly finished blanket. This is annoying, but reassures me that the blanket must be really cosy :) I spend five minutes admiring the finished blanket (I like it!) before going to get washed and dressed. I don't have the energy to wash my hair, but doubt I'll be seeing anyone today anyway.

11 am ish - I am back on the sofa watching more telly (Country House Rescue or something?) and fancying going back to bed. I am very tired.

11.30 am - Double-check my phone to make sure work haven't tried to call me in. Allow myself to start thinking I am probably safe and will have the day off. I also start thinking that if I do have the day off, it is not too late to try and be productive. I consider doing what I had claimed I was going to do - tidying up the craft room, doing a stock take and having a rethink about how to sell off lots of stuff quick stylee. This seems like a dauntingly large job, so I decide to start a knitting project instead. I feel very excited about this, but at no point in the day do I summon the energy to look out the knitting pattern and my circular needles :(

Edit: Something I forgot... Somewhere between these two times the postman arrived with a DVD from lovefilm and a picture from my niece, Kim. It was a picture of a curly-haired girl standing outside an amazing house with lots of flowers and it was very bright. Looks like someone has discovered highlighters... This perked me up a bit :)

12ish - I make two more slices of toast, this time with garlic and herb Philadelphia. This makes me feel a bit better. I switch off the telly and sit down to write a long-overdue and oft-promised letter to Rachel, my penfriend of about 17 years. Over the last couple of years she has had nothing but Christmas and birthday cards with a quick hello inside, so it feels good to write a proper letter, plus I have fun news to share for once.

1.15pm - I make two more slices of toast and this time I put my special savoury concoction on them. I have been visiting nostalgic food of my past lately and, not having eaten this concoction for years, am now having it on an almost daily basis. I grate some cheddar cheese into a bowl and mix it up with tinned sweetcorn, tomato ketchup and a spoonful of mayonnaise. I am aware this sounds really disgusting, but I love it. I eat this concoction (along with some fruit for its health benefits) and indulge myself by watching both Home And Away and Neighbours. I know, I know... The only time I have left the sofa today is to make toast.

For the rest of the afternoon, I send a few emails and blog about the music of car journeys in the '80s and generally spend more time lounging on the sofa. I switch to Challenge (another guilty pleasure!) and watch some Blockbusters. The hairstyles are really hilarious. I feel ropey and have a fruit Pastille ice lolly because these are like medicine to me and make me feel much better. I give in to the urge I've had all day and have a good long nap on the sofa. I wake up covered in cats and creases.

5.30pm - I tear myself away from the sofa and Gladiators to test out the Dyson, which I got fixed at the Dyson doctor the day before. I had to wait for the washed filter to dry out before I could test drive it. Graham comes home just as I start hoovering, which makes me look like I have been very productive all day. Hmmm. To my delight, the Dyson is back to the standard of its glory days and picks up more dirt in the hall alone than you would expect to have in your whole house. I put the pasta bakes (with added broccoli) I prepared yesterday into the oven and continue hoovering the rest of the flat.

6.00pm - Graham and I eat pasta bake with garlic bread (hmm, that's a bit like toast with garlic, really, isn't it?) while listening to Get It On on Radio Scotland. The theme is songs that transport you back to a specific place. I say I can't think of any. Later on Graham reads my blog and points out I had blogged about songs that transported me back to a certain place before I even knew that was the theme. Still, I'm not sure I would have liked to have had my name read out with a request for Barbara Dixon or Cliff Richard! After dinner I phone my mum and hear all the latest news about my dad and the cat. The cat is still being bullied by a seagull and my dad is claiming the cat tried to seduce him when they were home alone one afternoon.

7.00pm - Graham and I watch the Tour De France. I have a microwaveable sticky toffee pudding while I do. Graham claims he is too full for his, but then sniffs mine until I cave in and give him some.

8.00 - 10.00pm - Graham and I catch up on our days. You can imagine he was in for a great treat hearing about my bum on the sofa in a variety of positions! We were planning to watch a film, but are both too sleepy so we watch another episode of BBC 4's series on perfume (a surprisingly interesting series) and then go to bed, read a few pages, cuddle up and go to sleep. Zzzzz!

So that is my Day In The Life for July 12th 2011. Please don't judge me - this level of toast consumption, sofa lounging and telly watching is not typical behaviour, I promise! You can find out who else has taken part in Day In The Life here. I think I can safely guarantee they will all have had more interesting days than me!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

car journeys in the eighties



A while back my sister sent me a link to this song and I was instantly transported back to being in the car with our parents in the eighties. January February was on some sort of compilation tape (the only tape in the car from what I can remember!) along with this song by Cliff Richard.



Classy...

We used to get so excited about going away in the car in the summer holidays. The only holidays we ever went on really were to stay with our grandparents in Islay, which involved about eight hours in the car before we even got to the ferry. Once our mum had worn out the Cliff and Barbara tape, my sister and I would sing all the way. For weeks before we set off Kerry and I would plan the journey meticulously. A big part of this was writing a numbered list of all the hundreds of songs we knew and stapling it together into a booklet, complete with illustrated cover. We'd get our mum and dad to pick a number and then sing the corresponding song. Particular favourites included Ging Gang Gooly (with our self-choreographed hand dance, which I can still remember), An Austrian Went Yodling, I Love To Go A-Wandering and the song from the Skol advert. The lyrics for this were, "Skol, Skol, Skol, Skol. Skol, Skol, Skol, Skol. Why aren't you singing? Because I've forgotten the words." Our poor parents... Then again, they did make us listen to Cliff and Barbara!

Monday, July 11, 2011

for mash get smash

for mash get smash by dropstitch
for mash get smash, a photo by dropstitch on Flickr.

Actually, if you're craving embroidered potatoes for dinner, I'm afraid you're too late to get one of my Smash embroideries as I sold the last one this week. I'm tempted to make another, but don't think I will. I have so much stuff that I've made taking up space in my house and brain and I'm loathe to make more stuff that I will have to look after for months/years before someone decides they want to give it a new home. Hmm, it's tricky. I haven't done a market in ages, so it would probably be good to do one of those and sell plenty of stuff in a lump sum. Of course, I know I'd end up panicking and making a million new things before the market so would end up with more stock at the end of the day! At the moment I could definitely and essentially do with more money and less clutter, so I suppose a super-duper sale in my etsy shop could be the way to go... But I don't really think a super-duper sale would lead to super-duper sales, if you see what I mean. I'd probably sell at the same slow rate and just make even less money for it. Hmmm. If I don't get called in to work tomorrow (please, please, please let me not get called in!) then perhaps I should have a bit of a tidy-up/stock-take and work out the lay of the land then. Crafting can be such a complicated hobby! Does anyone else have this problem, or does it only apply to a jack of all crafts like myself?

p.s. I do still have a Test Card Girl embroidery and a Thames TV embroidery in my shop if anyone wants to help me clear out and indulge their telly nostalgia at the same time ;)

Sunday, July 10, 2011

three reasons to like my job

Reason number one. Recently one of my colleagues, Helen, made this amazing tennis-ball cake to celebrate the Wimbledon final. How great is that?!
It tasted just as good on the inside as it looked on the outside - chocolatey deliciousness!
Reason number two. I have had rather a lot of DVD subtitling shifts lately (as opposed to TV subtitling shifts) and this is not generally a good thing, but I spent most of last week subtitling Lost Land Of The Tiger/Jaguar/Volcano, which were all really interesting. They found loads of amazing animals and new species, but the best thing of all about these programmes was Dr George McGavin the insect expert, pictured above in his element with a large moth on his face. I am seriously smitten with him and his accent and his enthusiasm for insects and life in general. Dear BBC, please make more programmes featuring George!

Reason number three. When I arrived at work last night, another colleague, Emma, told me she had had a dream about me and that it was probably the nicest dream she had ever had. She was at some sort of event with lots of stuff happening and part of that was a craft fair. Instead of stationary stalls, all the makers brought their own little wagon full of goodies. I was there and my wagon was pulled by a real live donkey covered in wrapping paper. My speciality was for making animals pretending to be other animals and Emma especially liked my dog pretending to be a monkey. Then her sister came in and said there was a room full of ballerinas who wouldn't start dancing until Emma went to watch them. When she went into the ballerina room, they were all holding plates and plates full of cakes. Her sister said, "The ballerinas won't eat any cakes, so we'll have to eat them all." Then Emma woke up feeling really happy. That does sound like a very nice dream, if you ask me, and I was delighted to be in it :)

I could probably give you more than three reasons not to like my job at the moment (the main ones being that it is SO HOT IN THERE and I keep having to do late shifts and just seem unable to sleep after them at the moment) but I will try to focus on the positives since I have to go in there for 10 long hours this afternoon/evening and don't want to cry at the thought. Cakes, nice people and Dr George McGavin. I repeat, cakes, nice people and Dr George McGavin. Cakes, nice people and Dr George McGavin. And enough money in my bank account to be able to feed myself.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

don't say I'm not good to you!

My sister now has eleven cats in her house - two mums and nine (yes, nine!) kittens. This means she had to buy eleven doses of worming tablets this week, but on the upside it means that I get emailed the cutest kitten pictures ever and can share them with you.
This wee black and white one is the runt of the first litter and really reminds me of Poppy, who was also a black and white runt (and kind of still is). Apparently this little kitten is working really hard to be loved and a campaign is being plotted by my sister and the children to keep this one, even though the official family line is that all kittens must be rehomed.
I think there are a few grey cats in the first litter, all boys if I remember rightly. I think this one looks like a boy anyway!
This one certainly knows how to strike a pose that highlights its teeny-tiny vulnerability. Aw!
Eep! This one is definitely my favourite. I wish you could send kittens by post. I'd take this one for sure if you could.
All three children are really loving the kittens now that the first litter are old enough to want to play, but apparently Ruth (my youngest niece) is loving them most of all.
I know how she feels - I kind of want to eat them too!

I am back in one of those stages where I have a long list of things I've been meaning to blog about and I'm sure some of them will have to slip by the wayside, but I will try to return soon to share the finished granny square blanket (just got a wee border to crochet) and an amazing cake made by a colleague. In the meantime, feel free to look at the kittens on at least a thrice-daily basis :)

Sunday, July 3, 2011

ooh la la, les velos!

We are so excited about the start of the Tour de France in our house that I made a little bike-inspired treasury on etsy to celebrate. This was a very easy treasury to put together as the majority of bike-related items had a cheery greatness about them, so I had plenty to choose from after one quick search. Looks like I'm attracted to yellow at the minute too!

Graham (and his friends) have loved the Tour de France for ever. I always hated it when I was growing up and it was shown on Channel 4, partly because it seemed unbelievably dull and partly because it meant all the good shows like The Wonder Years weren't on for weeks on end. Since knowing Graham, I've gradually come to understand the attraction a bit more and have really enjoyed it over the last few years. The tactics and soap operas are great (it helps having an expert on hand to explain - I still had a lot of questions even last night) and I love watching mountain stages and sprint finishes. Plus the spectators and graffiti are really entertaining. There are lots of great old-school elements too, for example the way the cyclists grab newspapers from the spectators and shove them up their tops before starting a scary descent after a long climb. What other sport has world-class athletes using something as everyday as a newspaper as part of their equipment?

This year I think I will be supporting Andy Schleck. I was rooting for him last year and after the shocking chain incident of 2010 I think he deserves the win this time around. Oh, how I laughed at Contador's misfortune yesterday! Serves you right, Alberto! Given that Alberto Contador was my favourite a few years back, though, I wouldn't be surprised if my allegiances change halfway through the course. I still don't really know what's going on half the time, so reserve the right to be fickle!

Anyway, go and have a look at my lovely bike treasury :)

I'll be back later with news of a day's charity shopping yesterday.