Suddenly it all became clear....

....and life has new meaning!

D: "Where is everybody, Hol?"
H: "They're dead, Dave."
D: "Who is?"
H: "Everybody, Dave."
D: "What, Captain Hollister?"
H: "Everybody's dead, Dave."
D: "What, Todhunter?"
H: "Everybody's dead, Dave."
D: "What, Selby?"
H: "They're all dead. Everybody's dead, Dave."
D: "Petersen isn't, is he?"
H: "Everybody is dead, Dave."
D: "Not Chen?"
H: "Gordon Bennett! Yes! Chen, everybody. Everybody's dead, Dave"
D: "Rimmer?"
H: "He's dead, Dave. Everybody's dead. Everybody is dead, Dave!"
D: "Wait. Are you trying to tell me everybody's dead?"
H: "I wish I'd never let him out in the first place."

Ok, ok so I'm about 20 years late but better late than never!

Talking of Tilly...

.....well ok I wasn't but I had been a few days back, I came accross this picture today and it just has to be one of my favourites of her 'kittenhood', so for Karen who misses seeing Tilly pictures here she is, aged about 10 weeks and getting to grips with domesticity! :o)

End of a small era

Well not really, that's kind of overplaying my hand but I made a decision yesterday that I have been toying with for a while.....I killed off 'gemmak designs'. It is not longer, it is defunct, it has gone to the big blog landfill in the ether somewhere.

It was quite an important part of my life for a time, I really enjoyed doing it and the income didn't go amiss but I haven't used it since I closed it 18 months ago and I don't see a possibility for my getting back to it anytime soon, so it seemed like time to stop the sentimentality and hit 'delete'.

....and that's what I did.

Gone, the end.

Double take

Friday evening on my usual mind numbing sit in the parking lane journey via the M25 to Cambridge I stopped, as ever I do, to relieve the boredom and acquire a coffee at a the usual faceless service station. Twice a week I stop there, nothing ever changes, I could find my way to the coffee machine and the bathroom blindfold and Friday held no promise of anything different.

So I headed to the 'ladies', usual comatose state of mind prevalent and on walking out, taking a quick glance in the mirror instead of looking where I was going, I walked smack bang into someone. I hastily apologised for my clumsiness and walked away but as I did so I realised I had seen that face before. I turned round to look again at the victim of my clumsiness, to see her looking back at me...it was one of those moments when one does a double take.....we both realised at the same moment that we knew the other and fell immediately into animated conversation.

The woman in question had been a teenager the last time I saw her, about a 1000 years ago, ok maybe closer to ten but it seemed forever! She had been at university at the time and we worked together when she was on holidays, we had been quite good buddies but when she left and I moved to Scotland we lost touch completely.

So, we stood for maybe an hour catching up to the sound of hand dryers and flushing toilets, too riveted in our gossiping to think of moving elsewhere and eventually parted with an exchange of email addresses and a promise to meet up again soon.

I love it when that kinda stuff happens! :o)

Sometimes I'm confounded....

......by our laws!

As ever it seems money is the great God and it's not the first time that jail sentences have been handed down that prove to me British justice still has a nasty habit of considering money above life and common decency.

I know there are many aspects to any case, nothing is straightforward and the actual charges bought and the limits of sentencing available to a judge must dictate to a degree the outcome of a case, but it never ceases to offend me on a knee jerk level when on the same day one case, that of an executive stealing company monies has a five year sentence handed down but a thug, who urinated on a dying disabled woman and filmed it on a mobile phone with the intention of uploading it to You Tube, gets only three years incarceration!!!

Tilly is two!

Today is Tilly's second birthday.

I never imagined two years ago that I would have to part with her, I still miss her and still think of her every day and I still feel kinda guilty that somehow I let her down...... but for today I'm going to try and concentrate on knowing she is happy and very well cared for in her new home and remebering all her stupidities and funny little cat-ways that gave me such pleasure for the time she and I were a gang of two.


"Happy birthday little Tilly puss".

Anger management

Sometimes when you are angry with someone, it helps to sit down and think about the problem!


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(Ok, ok, I know I'm being a particularly bad blogger this week but I just seem to be having one of those muddle-headed spells where anything I want to say kinda gets stuck and I can't get it into words.....and the fact that blogger stole yesterday's post wasn't helpful!)

Bloody hell fire....

......I just spent an hour typing a post and blogger stole it!

I haven't had that happen for years and I'm somewhat less than chuffed....though maybe it was a blessing in disguise for you guys, I've written more upbeat posts in my time so by the Blogger Gods you have been spared!

I would never....

.....have thought that the day would come when I would feel so disappointed at the result of a rugby match....and nor would I have anticipated that having turned off the T.V. at the final score to avoid the inevitable dissection, I would become embroiled in an hour long discussion on just the same dissection with he who understands the finer details of such things!

I'm not qualified to make a judgement but it seemed to me a pretty good effort by the guys in the red and white and common consensus appears to be that they can be proud of themselves despite the final outcome.

The B.B.C. World Cup blog says it way better than I can.

Hey...maybe Lewis Hamilton can lift our spirits this afternoon.

Shallow? Who me?

For the first time in my life I will be glued, probably along with a whole country of sudden rugby fans, to the match tonight.

I don't 'do' sport but I too have become a victim of the sudden patriotic interest in the World Cup final, in fact, since the semi last weekend I have hardly been able to contain myself waiting for tonight....and let's face it, trys, conversions and all the other technical stuff (that I am attempting to learn almost overnight) aside, if the match begins to wane in interest for we girls there is always the physiological 'aspect' to keep us entertained! ;o)

The easy option!!

My mother, whilst at some routine appointment today picked up a glossy mag in the waiting room as one does to pass the time and it very pertinently fell open at an article about bankruptcy. This of course interested her, yours truly being an only recently discharged bankrupt herself.

The article was a dairy of a woman's descent into the 'delights' of the state of bankruptcy......I read avidly the tale of woe written obviously by a woman who feels much about the state itself and the process of attaining that state as I did/do. The article included her website address, Ladies in the red which includes a blog, and of course I had booted up my lappy and was there in a flash!

The site is excellent, the girl has a sense of humour (you need it believe me) and I'm sure there will be much more to interest me over time but what really struck a chord with me was one line at the end of a post, a reference to those who tell we bankrupts that it is the 'easy way out'. Oh how right she was in saying it most certainly is not!! I have been told that very same thing by various sanctimonious individuals over the last year and have had more than one conversation with people who consider it to be an easy way out for themselves!

Believe me, if there is anyone out there in any doubt whatsoever bankruptcy is not the answer to your debt prayers, it is not easy and it is not fun and it is not clever!

I promise you it is not, it is not easy filling out the reams of forms one needs to submit to apply, it is not easy when penniless to find the £475 needed for the application, it is not easy to sit in front of a judge, alone in a big courtroom and be questioned and judged, when all you want to do is hide in a corner and cry, it is not easy to have no credit cards for six years, no cheque book or ATM card for six years, to not be able to buy a home for six years, to deal with the stigma (and yes it still exists), to not be able to replace ones car despite it costing more to keep on the road in it's dotage than the purchase of a new one, to have to carry cash (if one has it) for emergencies,(try staying in a hotel overnight if you break down in the middle of nowhere when you have no plastic), it is not fun being unable to buy anything online, even insurances, car tax etc etc. It is not easy having a charge made against your salary, it is not easy losing your assets, fending off often rude and intimidating creditors phone calls up to perhaps ten times daily for months and months on end (even once they are aware they are committing an offence by pestering you) and it sure as hell ain't fun wondering each time you open the door if it's bailiff's.

No sir, it is not easy and it is not the easy way out. It is frustrating, difficult and soul and self esteem destroying......if you are ever tempted to go that route please, if you have any other feasible option, take it!

....and for those that might be tempted to judge, yes I made mistakes, yes I made some poor decisions and yes I had a bit of bad luck but don't tell me I took the easy way out!

Wake up!

All I seem to be doing here recently is linking to things but it is only coincidental that I keep being sent things I can't resist sharing. Really it isn't laziness! ;o)

So, for those who truly understand cats THIS is one of the best! (Sound on)

*Thanks to 'J'

La résistance....is futile!

© BBC

Ultimate madness?

Ok....so I was almost as interested in the location having recently ridden these roads on the Europe trip and that part being one of my most favourite, but all of that aside THIS is completely amazing!

Can I have a turn now please?

Worth a thousand words!

Just watch the guy on the left! ;o)



*Thanks to Retroguy.

Whaaaat????

This has to be one of the most ridiculous and unbelievable things I've heard in a long time:

My boss, lets call him 'Mr Financially Retentive' has surpassed himself in the stupidity stakes today. His business, the very same I drive the white van from hell for, is a sandwich delivery business and by definition that means we need sandwiches. These are not sourced from outside, we make them, all shapes and sizes from 6am for two hours, four of us, every day, prior to hitting the road. We use electric knives, cheap ones, Mr F.R. wouldn't dream of paying for the 'commercial use' version!

So we battle on with low power knives, designed only for domestic use.....and they break, with regular monotony. What does he expect?

This morning, in the space of half an hour two of the four died a sudden death, one of them was mine. I approached Mr F.R. wielding said dead knife (please, don't tempt me) and informed him of my plight, to which he rather confusingly replied (and I kid you not)........

......."it's your own bloody fault, you girls all use them for making sandwiches"!!!!!!

Uh, run that by me again????

I'm still speechless!

....and knife-less.

I know it's a sin to covet!

Isn't it odd how a bad day can turn unexpectedly into a good one!

My day didn't start too well, I was tired, it was a dull morning and the rain was falling in stair rods from the word go. By mid morning on my sandwich run I was wet through to the skin, cold and fed up, my mind was full of one worry and another that I couldn't shift and I was thoroughly disgruntled.

And then two things happened out of the blue. Firstly someone bought me a present, a Jasper Conran handbag

I have long coveted,(yes I know it's a sin to covet but what the hell) I 'do' handbags, well with size 2-3 feet I can hardly do the standard shoe thing can I, children's shoes don't too often have the glamorous touch!

Secondly, on returning from the shops with my much prized gift clutched in hand I bumped into an old friend whom I haven't seen for over a year, and then only briefly. We managed a few minutes gossip before the risk of overstaying our parking tickets forced us to leave but it was good to see her again and we parted with a promise to make a date to catch up properly.

So....my soggy, miserable day was unexpectedly transformed and this evening my frowny face has turned to a smiley face.

Thank you guys, you know who you are :o)

Unbelievable!

Do you ever get that odd feeling, the one that no matter how hard you try to imagine otherwise, something persists in feeling unbelievable, despite your knowing it happened?!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a teenager I long harboured dreams of one day just packing a rucksack, taking myself off to Heathrow, buying the first ticket I could and heading off into the big wide world indefinitely. I never did of course, the closest I ever got was

dropping someone off for a flight or picking them up on their return but even that filled me with dreams and excitement and I would stand by the gate imagining what it must be like to actually go somewhere. I would look at those returning from far flung destinations and try to conjure up images of where they had been,it didn't really matter to me whether it was Ibiza or China or anywhere in between, just the mere fact that it was a possibility filled me with wonder.

But in over forty years I never went anywhere outside of England, save for one trip to France aged five. I'm not sure why really, a combination of factors I suppose, other priorities, lack of funds, lack of anyone to go with etc. etc. etc.

I had never even flown!

And then it all changed and in a little over a year not only have I have flown, I have sailed and I have visited ten countries....and still at times it remains completely unbelievable to me! Often I sit here with my laptop in front of me and just gaze in open mouthed amazement at photographs of the places I have visited and in an instant I am almost back among those sights, those people, those experiences, lost in the wonder of it all, the diversity of the geography, the geology, the climates the cultures, the sounds and the smells, it is everything I ever imagined , even standing in a queue at an airport still holds excitement for me!

I couldn't choose a favourite place, be it riding accross the Alps seeing real glaciers, eating pizza in Tuscany, standing on the Ponte Vecchio, walking through the beautiful city streets of Prague at night or lying in the Andalucian sun every moment was wonderful and no matter how hard I look at the pictures or how hard I try to imagine I still find it completely unbelievable that it was actually me that went to those places, that I was lucky enough, not only to visit one country but ten....sometimes it just seems all too amazing to be true! :o))

Shoplifting seagull!

This came to me in three emails yesterday from different corners of the world....I have no idea how true it is but the 'lottery' sign is definitely a UK thing and it's very funny! :o)


"A seagull in Scotland has developed the habit of stealing chips from a neighbourhood shop. The seagull waits until the shopkeeper isn't looking and then walks into the store and grabs a snack-size bag of cheese Doritos Once outside, the bag gets ripped open and shared by other birds!

The seagulls shoplifting started early this month when he first swooped into the store in Aberdeen, Scotland and helped himself to a bag of chips..Since then, he's become a regular. He always takes the same type of chips and customers have begun paying for the stolen bags because they think it's so funny".

Autumn evening

(Clickable)

No explaination needed!

The best bike ad. ever! ;o)

Untitled

Long awaited, sun-rays spill from darkened sky,
golden, fragile, the burnished hues of happiness,
reflecting, dancing, light of heart of hope.

Deafening, deadening cacophony, unheard,
transformed to gentle salving lullaby,
Tar black, blood red, a steely fluid rainbow,
Unleashed colours, bright and shadow free.

Raindrops tracking, diamond glistening trails,
A thousand faces, unseen, unseeing, unknown,
Of dreams of daydreams, of silent glowing,
A single song, a single soul, a single goal.

One world, renewed in faith, in life,
darkness drifting, lifting, light of mind,
A moment, a day, downy soft and silken touch,
White light, white noise, white mind.

Nice legs leg?

So, whilst Britney Spears has lost her custody battle for her children another more obscure custody battle has been raging elsewhere.....that of an amputated leg!

I kid you not!....read more here.