Busy is good!

Well, whilst the level of work gemmak designs has bought thus far to my door might not be likely to keep me in diamonds anytime soon, it is keeping me busy, very busy...and that's a good thing! Yes, I mean it.

I might have a stiff neck and shoulders from sitting hunched over my laptop for much more time than even my normal excesses, I might not have the ironing pile under the same degree of control as is the norm and I might not be 'twittering' at my normal level but I like it, it's kinda nice!

I am too busy to worry about the usual 'worry stuff' that too often hovers about in my head, I feel like I have some small degree of purpose, instead of drifting around aimlessly day in and day out, I am doing stuff that mostly that I enjoy and best of all, a very rare occurrence in gemmak's-ville..... I have slept right through the last two nights!!!! Yipeeee.

Busy is good! All I have to do now is maintain it somehow....oh, and try to catch up with my ever growing email mountain!

OCD for cats!

Busy, busy, busy....no time for a real post right now so just a 'cheaty' post today!

Gotta love it tho....

Brand and Ross - Some perspective please?

What's with all this ridiculous hoo ha over Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand then?

The media are obviously suffering a slow news week to be making so much of this story and the 10000 of the good and the righteous, who apparently contacted the 'powers that be' to complain about the incident, must have little of importance in their lives if they can get so hot under the collar over what is in reality little more than a prank that overstepped the mark.....albeit arguably not in a very kind way.

I'm not a fan of Brand, though I will admit to being rather amused by Ross and I can perhaps understand why Andrew Sachs and his granddaughter might feel slightly affronted but hell fire, have people lost all sense of humour and perspective? The stunt might have been a little over zealous and somewhat ill considered but it was hardly a hanging offence now was it?!

These guys, like them or not, are at the top of their game, they are in a branch of the industry that has always pushed the boundaries and always will, it's how the 'art', for want of a better word, evolves and it's not too many years since the pious and petty were creating a similar commotion about Monty Python and like (the link is not lost on me, Python, Cleese, Sachs, see where I'm at here?!!!) and look what happened there!

Ok, if it is felt appropriate then an apology might be in order but to sack the pair of them would be utter codswallop!! Hammers and nuts come to mind.....and even more so given that the whole issue lost any credibility when this morning it would appear Sachs granddaughter has seen fit to talk to The Sun!

She must be feeling "totally and utterly exposed and betrayed" then!

I rest my case.

One thing is for sure...most of us had never heard of Georgina Baillie (that's the granddaughter if you were still in any doubt) before all this, but we certainly have now...funny that isn't it? What is it they say about any publicity being better than no publicity?

If the BBC, long time British establishement benchmark of common sense, reason and forward thinking, capitulate in the face of pressure to sack these guys they will go way down in my estimation. An apology? yes, a severe reprimand? maybe but sacking?..... let's get just a little perspective here shall we chaps!!

Don't say 'old'!

Please allow me a moment of self-indulgent, mild annoyance! I am feeling somewhat miffed this morning and what's more my miff'ed-ness is caused by something I can do absolutely nothing about....and that in itself miffs me even more! Miffed, miffed, miffed!

So what is it that's 'got my goat', me is what, more specifically the general collapse of me, the decline of all things physical that are me, or were me once upon a time!

I really never imagined I would dislike getting older, there are in theory at least, supposed to be benefits to the ageing process, we are supposed to feel more 'sorted', more at ease with ourselves, have attained a greater degree of comfort in our own skin, be less concerned of what others think, feel confident in who we are and have the best sex of our lives as a result of all this confidence and comfort. We are supposed be financially secure, at the peak of our career and looking forward to a gradual lessening of life's pressures.

Yeah right!

Whilst I won't take issue with the confidence aspects what everyone fails to warn you about, or you choose conveniently to ignore, is the fact that all these things might be fab.... if only your physical self could keep up the bloody pace!

What's with all this disintegration? I have too many bits already that groan badly in the cold weather, my vision seems to be almost daily getting further from the 20/20 it once was, I have hormones that really are moaning, hell, adolescence was a walk in the park by comparison, I am 'blessed' with some ailment that means my hardly filled teeth, are literally falling out of my head and now if I fall asleep on my tummy (which is the only way I can fall asleep these days) something very peculiar happens to my back and I can't maneuver myself into an upright position without himself rolling me very carefully and gingerly off the edge! How elegant.

Worse still and to add insult to injury I now find a 'dimple' (I can't bring myself to say the 'C word', the ladies among you will understand) on my thigh, I 'lost' my car in Tesco's car park for fifteen whole minutes last week and I find I can't remember a file path long enough to actually get to it, or a piece of code long enough to type the whole damn thing in one hit!

So where did it all go so horribly, hatefully wrong I wonder? When did all this disintegration sneak up on me without my noticing it's gradual advance?

I can see very little to recommend this getting older malarkey save for two things, knowing that if I don't get what I want for Christmas then no matter, the next one will be along any day now and having the ability to find it amusing, when a body part I didn't previously know existed gives way spectacularly, during what is supposed to be some of the best 'carnal activity' of my life!

Yum yum!

Something a little more lighthearted today! Needs sound.

Weird or what!!!

The weirdest, spookiest thing happend to me first thing this morning and I might add it was something I could probably have managed my Sunday morning without !

Those of you who are of a delicate nature might like to close this page now, this is weird and it's not a pleasant subject matter to say the very least.

Ok, we all know how odd dreams can be now and then, the weird and sometimes not so wonderful that our sleeping minds manage to drag up occasionally and mine is up there with the best of them but the one thing I never do is have what might be called traditional nightmares. By that I mean nightmares of the 'horror movie genre'... but last night I did. I had a truly horrible nightmare revolving around the severing of someones head (big ugh) and the subsequent 'transportation' of said severed body part around the streets of some nameless town! Don't ask me any other details, I don't recall any more than that thankfully but it was one of those disturbing vivid nightmares that was still with me, bothering me, when I got up.

The fact that I had this nightmare is probably not very strange or spooky given that last night Fletch and I watched a TV show about horror movies just before we went to bed, but bear with me here, things were about to get very much more weird!!

Having having woken up a little and having just kindly regaled Fletch with the tale of my nightmare (I'm too kind) I settled in front of my lappy with my first cup of coffee of the day and got about the business of checking my mail. At the top of the page was an item of spam that had snuck it's way through to my inbox. I use a preview pane so there was no avoiding the offending mails contents....which was just one line, no link, no nothing, just one, short, line of text as follows;

"Man Parades Streets With Severed Head"

WTF!!??

I have to admit to being er, ever so slightly fazed for a moment or two despite the fact I am not superstitious and believe in almost nothing.... but hey, it was early, I hadn't woken up properly!

Further investigation revealed that there was a news item a few days ago regarding a guy in Bangladesh who paraded the streets with a severed head, so no doubt that was somehow the prompt for the spam but it still seemed pretty weird that I should first have the nightmare at all and then the first thing I see on my computer is that very un-delightful little missive!

A hamster in the hand ....

...is worth two in the cage!

Yesterday, after all these months, I finally got to hold Hammy without suffering a mortal wound and believe me, she is more than capable of delivering a rapid response, disabling offensive that the SAS would be proud of when it suits her...just ask Lisa!

By chance yesterday I was chatting to someone (Thank you LD) much experience in all things hamster, who promised me if I followed her rules I would get this stubborn little creature 'eating out of my hand'.

Before I began I had to furnish myself, as a very necessary precaution, with 'hamster gloves'. These are not purpose designed of course, just nice soft fleecy gloves which I had sourced earlier in the day at Tesco for the princely sum of a pound. It was thus that in the early evening me and Hammy set about coming to some mutual 'understanding' where this biting malarkey is concerned!

And it worked, I did exactly as I had been instructed and within a half hour madam was sitting on my hand, yayyyyy...not for very long I grant you but we managed two repeat performances and I was even able to cup her in both hands and stroke her at one (short) point!

There is of course no pictorial evidence of this momentous moment... Hey, I had my hands full, but it is progress indeed and as a reward she was allowed free rein in her favourite game..... breaking into the treats bag, a game which I might add she completed in record time, pegs? pah...no problem!

Round two tonight. Me and this hamster are going to do this thing!

It's a funny old (virtual) world!

The interweb has long been derided for it's dangers, the risks to children, the odd bods that acquire fixations, spammers, phishers, stalkers and all the other sundry negative issues surrounding it.

We hear endless stories of children sitting for hours in front of a screen instead of 'playing out' and getting much needed exercise, relationship breakdowns, the porn issues of course never go away yada, yada, yada, and whilst all of these issues have importance and in some instances very severe repercussions that require firmly addressing, it's not all bad, in fact most of it is good, it's just that as ever is the case, good news is not news!

I *cough* probably don't need to spell out for you that I love ( I know that's probably an inappropriate use of the word but you know what I mean) the interweb, it's impact on my life has been very significant and for anyone who questions that very fact, yes, it's a good thing! I won't bore you with all the old psychology regarding 'real' life versus 'virtual' life and I'm not going to even attempt to sway the sceptics but again this morning the web bought the two together for me in a very positive way.

Someone I long ago lost contact with for various reasons suddenly popped up on my screen, someone who was quite an important part of my life but who perhaps out of necessity at the time became estranged. Without this thing we call the internet there would have been no way on earth we could have resumed any kind of contact, it just wouldn't have happened, but instead now we have the opportunity to at least pass the time of day, catch up a little and hopefully let any bygones be bygones....that can't be a bad thing in my book internet!

I'm not proud!

So....the relaunched gemmak designs has it's first two customers completed and up and running, here and here. Two in the first few days isn't bad but I want more, I'm twiddling my thumbs and I need something to twiddle them around so to that end I'm extending the '£10* off' offer for a further week.

That means you can have a complete makeover from as little as ($34) £20!!! What more could you want? Don't answer that!

See, like the title says, I'm not proud, I can beg! ;o)

*applies to full redesigns.

The perfect home!

Forget ocean views, spa rooms, swimming pools and bijou loft conversions this is the perfect home! It's in Japan, it's beautiful, it's completely feline friendly and I want it!

I would of course need a cat or three to put in it......

More HERE.

I've been tagged...

...by The Pink Jellybaby

Here are the Rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up

Ok...here we go, my six bits of info you just can't live without knowing! ;o)

1. I am obsessed with handbags.

2. I don't much like wearing clothes.....if God (ok, so I'm atheist but you know where I'm coming from on this) had intended us to wear clothes he would have made them fit!

3. I love any medical TV programme, the more detailed the better, strange considering I hate the sight of blood in real life.

4. I have to use a 10x magnification mirror to pluck my eyebrows these days! :o/

5. I have one big secret! Nope, I'm not gonna tell you.

6. I'm short enough that I can lay completely flat in the bath....and float!

And the six um, lucky people I am going to tag are:

Lisa
Daffy
Trac
Mr Nighttime
Daisy the curly cat
Tash

Joe Plumber and Jane Doe

I will confess before I even begin this post that I know almost nothing about American politics, or at least I know little enough that I couldn't begin to defend what I am about to say with any degree of real knowledge, hell I struggle with the minutiae of my own countries governmental carrying's-on let alone that of another but, as I haven't been able to turn on the news or open a paper without coming face to face with Obama or McCain for months, I feel I have some small entitlement to have an opinion, albeit poorly formed in the eyes of anyone politically savvy.

So, feel free to shoot me down in flames but know that I can't argue back with any alacrity, I am not 'Joe Plumber' (incidentally check out this amusing little faux pas) but I am Jane Doe and as such my limited knowledge is probably not unusual, there are alot of Jane Does out there, most of them have a vote (you might argue they shouldn't but they do) and as a consequence they will vote on issues probably not up there at the top of the political pundits' lists.

My vote if I had one, Obama, no contest! My reasons? The man is charismatic, bright and extremely clever, he is forward thinking, appears to live on the same planet as the rest of us, he is on the opposite side to the current administration, which for me can only to be a good thing, if for no other reason than the Iraq debacle, he hasn't bought in an Alaskan bimbo with a twitch in her at eye to try and inject some interest into his campaign at the last moment and he is black.....and it is long overdue that a western power had a black president!

So...my opinion, as is evident, might not be based in heavy duty politics but it is an opinion and probably many with a vote know little more than I do and will place their cross on the basis of a only few, perhaps emotionally motivated points.

If in November Barack Obama becomes the first black president of the United States I for one will be cheering loudly at the outcome of the first American presidential race that has held any interest for me whatsoever and I will be hoping that just maybe, whilst it doesn't go the whole way, it is a step in the right direction and that even Dr Martin Luther King might just be raising a small smile!

I can haz pissed off?

Cats and swimming....hmmmm!

Some Friday fun

Firstly...

The Mandelboat virus from BOFH at The Reg. :o)

and secondly....


An ISP that doesn’t require Internet access? Ummm.... :o)

In memory of Adrian

Today at two o'clock Adrian Sudbury's memorial service will take place in Sheffield Cathedral.

Adrian, a journalist with the Huddersfield Examiner, died in August aged only twenty seven, having fought a long battle with not one, but two types of leukemia. It was a battle that it appeared he was winning, but sadly, ultimately it was not to be and he spent his last three months not only coping with his illness but also working tirelessly to promote a better understanding of bone marrow donation, a campaign that ultimately saw him rubbing shoulders with the Prime Minister and succeeding in inflating the numbers of registered bone marrow donors very significantly.

This was a man who made a real difference, who's courage and fortitude in the face of such personal adversity inspired people around the world and a man who leaves behind him a legacy that whilst he knew his own couldn't be saved, will ultimately save the lives of many others.

My thoughts are with his parents Kay and Keith, his sister Carrie, his family and friends and all those who loved him and will be in Sheffield today to celebrate the life of this very special man. It had been my intention to be there with them but unfortunately it was not to be, though I will be very much there in spirit, I will be represented in a small way and I will be watching the service online, which the BBC is to broadcast live.

Adrian Sudbury; a true modern day hero. May he rest in peace and eat Haribos forever.......

Bugs and begging

I'm having one of those days and it's hardly begun! Winter it seems is on it's way, it's dismal and damp and the weather forecast shows 'promise' of temperatures plummeting somewhere way tooooo close to zero as the weekend approaches.

I just don't seem to be able to get my head together today, I'm drifting around like a lost soul, gazing into nowhere and harbouring the beginnings of the autumn lurgy. This little 'bug with boots on' is courtesy of himself, who has deemed it necessary to share his man flu with me, thankyouverymuch! I don't even have the prospect of being able to whinge about it, for he, in a most unlike 'man with man flu way', has been the personification of stoicism and barely murmured a word of complaint among his coughing and spluttering! Are you impressed? ;o)

Ah, but there is always an up side and my upside this gloomy morning is that 'gemmak designs' has it's first two customers already!! Ok....two hundred would be nice but two and a few enquiries isn't a bad start for day one.

Which brings me to a small bit of begging request....if any of you out there feel kind enough to carry my ever-so discreet and neat little advertising button in your sidebar somewhere I would be most appreciative and love you forever!

I even made it easy for you, all you need to do is copy and paste the code below wherever you want it, I'll even do it for you should you wish me too..... and if you put it in this week and let me know, I'll give you 10% off should you become a customer anytime in the next three months.

It's just over there -------> near the top of my sidebar (minus the scrolling bit) if you want to know what it will look like.....and I thank you in anticipation.

<center><a href="http://gemmakdesigns.blogspot.com"><img src="http://www.gemmak.co.uk/gemmakdesign/stealbutton.jpg" /></a><br /><b style="color:black;background-color:#a0ffff"><p>Steal this button <a href="http://gemmakdesigns.blogspot.com/2008/10/steal-my-button.html">HERE!</b></a></center>

Quote of the day

Quote of the day (from a City Trader):

"This is worse than a divorce. I've lost half my net worth and I still have a wife."

From the BBC site.

gemmak designs is back!

'gemmak designs' is back in business!

After a period of closure due to unforseen circumstances gemmak designs is today re-opening it's virtual doors for business.

The principle is simple, if you fancy a blog makeover all of your own, without any of the hassle and hair tearing, I'll do it for you....for a small fee of course! I will plan and build a personalised design specifically for you, that I guarantee not to repeat, so you can have your very own blog identity!

You can have as little or as much input along the way as you would like, be it wild and wacky, elegant and understated or whatever you feel reflects you, colours, layout, images or text are all variable and I will do all the fiddly bits and installation required to get it up and running for you in double quick time.

Prices start at an introductory offer of just £30 and the first two requests for a full redesign will get an extra £10 reduction.

For full pricing details and the few rules I have to adhere to so I can maintain my low prices please click HERE.

The sidebar details how the service works but if you have any questions I haven't covered please feel free to ask me by clicking HERE or on the link in the sidebar.

I look forward to making your blog dreams come true!

Summers end

The view....

...from the other side of the pond and just down the road!

Here and here and here.....and more to come :o)

Carrots and sticks and stuff

Today feels kind of weird, I feel slightly lost in an odd way. I'll try to explain.

I have been very lucky the last few months, among the usual day to day crap, life has been pretty good and since the early part of the summer I have had much to look forward to, firstly there was the holiday and the wedding and then the highlight of Lisa's visit to the UK.

And all those things were fantastic and everything I had hoped for and looked forward too but now they are over...and thereby hangs the wierd-ness.

'He who thinks he knows everything' has a philosophy that we live life by the 'carrot principle'...that is, we deal with the day to day mundaneties by having things to look forward to, it's the carrots on sticks just up ahead of us that help keep us focused and positive in the duller moments....the trouble is I have eaten all my bloody carrots, scoffed them down with fervor and enjoyed every last bite but I am consequently now very carrot-less and after such a good few months I feel a little lost and with nothing to focus on.

I don't mean to sound spoilt or ungrateful, I am not, I am very grateful and thankful for the times I have enjoyed over the summer, they have been some of the absolute best but contrarily, because these particular carrots were such big ones, the sudden realisation that they are gone is unsettling and I find my mind scratching around trying to look for something new to look forward too, just one of those small pre-packed carrot 'baton' things would suffice for now, I don't need the big ones, little ones are just fine... but there seems to be a distinct shortage!

I'm sure in a day or two I will re-adjust my expectations somewhat and cheer up, life can't all be about the amazing stuff I know, but I have some pretty tough realities to address over the next few months and I do need a new carrot dangling tantalisingly on a stick somewhere ahead of me....best I set about looking harder I think! :o)

"Don't mention the 'F' Word"

Lisa, Ian and I managed to meet up again yesterday for an afternoon of chattering, laughter and a quick trip to the local Costa to indulge in various delights. Unfortunately Fletch had to be at work, though he did manage to escape the clutches of the office a little earlier than usual and make it home for a short while before they had to leave.

"Don't mention the 'F' word" became the phrase of the day among the hilarity and gossiping, not for any sudden (and ok, unlikely) wish to adhere to the obscenity laws but because the day was tinged with a sadness we were trying to ignore, that it was Lisa's last in the UK and we were doing our very best to make the most of it and not mention her fl***t home today....see, not the 'F' word you were expecting was it, you have such a low opinion of me! ;o)

We had a lovely afternoon together but the time just whizzed by and all too soon it was time for them to leave..... and I will admit, that among all the hugs and promises of finding a way to get together again as soon as possible, my previously strong resolve not to shed a tear, deserted me completely. Ack!

So, the week we had all looked forward to so much and for so long is over and it passed by in an absolute flash, I can hardly believe that this time last week I was sitting tracking her inbound fl***t, it seems like only hours ago but it was one of the very best and special times and full of very special memories....those are the things we are going to try to concentrate on today (aren't we Lisa?!) instead of feeling sad..... and the plotting and planning to get her back again soon has already begun!

Don't anyone mention the 'F' word!

*Sniffle*

Hellish hamsters!

Since the advent of Hammy in my life one thing has become very apparent, contrary to popular belief these little creatures are not always easy, cute and fluffy they might be but cuddly they are not, or at least in some cases.

Any information will tell you they aren't always easy to handle, they have a penchant for grumpy-ness, are very fast, adept at making good their escape and maintaining their liberty and most significantly of all have a set of teeth from hell....which they are way too fond of utilising!

I had never had a hamster before, as a child I had guinea pigs and mice, both of which by comparison are a push over. When I was told that hamsters should be chosen with a view to being treated as fish i.e. for looking at not cuddling, I was sceptical....how can something so small be so difficult? The answer is simple, they are fast, very squirmy and bite like the devil when they chose too, as Lisa will testify having spent a half hour stopping the copiously bleeding when Hammy decided to greet her with teeth!

They are in many cases pretty hard to tame, despite months of doing all the stuff recommended and with a degree of patience that is unusual for me, Hammy still will not tolerate being picked up, though we have progressed to being allowed a small stroke once in a while!

It wasn't long into my hamster 'parenting' experience that I began to say that I found it strange that these little animals are so often owned by small children, their behaviour just doesn't seem to be conducive, even as an adult I am far more wary of the lightening speed of the biting end than I am of any cat or dog!.....and now my thoughts seem to be echoed in this article in the Guardian, not only do they have the teeth from hell but they are also considered unsuitable for children from a health point of view!

Ok, so like many of these articles it is probably a little OTT, let's face it, if we listened to all the health advice that is bandied around in the press we would do nothing but it is interesting to me to read that the apparently cute little hamster is 'officially' not quite as cute as it would have us believe.

All that said, Hammy is lovely if treated with a reasonably high degree of respect, she follows me around the flat, she is very amusing, she will always come to greet me and she does look very cute....she is however never, I suspect, ever going to be a cuddly creature.

Nokia nightmare!

If I learn nothing else in life I should learn to adhere to the principle of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'....specifically where Nokia is concerned!

I have been here countless times before but I never learn that when Nokia persistently harass me to update my phone's firmware.... it's just not going to be a good idea. I know it's not going to be a good idea, I have proven it to myself more times than I care to remember but the promise of the however unlikely possibility that a new firmware version might just include a new feature I can't possibly live without, is just too much to resist! This time I didn't even have any negative 'issues' with the version already running but even that couldn't dissuade me from falling into the Nokia trap!

One would like to think that a company with the size and market presence of Nokia would employ developers that could develop? I know I am being grossly naive in this preconception but I am ever stupid hopeful that just once a firmware version will actually manage to flash it's way happily and efficiently onto my phone and work!

Of course not, my naivety knows no bounds and so again this morning I have spent two hours, and I hasten to add after following Nokia's own instructions to the letter, not only trying to recover my phone back to it's original state after Nokia utterly annihilated it but this time also having to recover my laptop back to some semblance of it's former self!!!

I suppose I should really consider myself lucky, at least I did eventually manage to persuade it into recovery after umpteen attempts and some serious frustration. Yes, this is a good and lucky thing I promise you...... some previous efforts at this malarkey over the years have been known to render the receiving handset completely useless and fit only for a landfill site somewhere!


*On a more positive and completely unrelated note....I get to hook up with Lisa and Ian again tomorrow :o))

Best weekends and best friends!

What can I say? Amazing might begin cover it! I don't really have the words for just how it felt to finally get to meet Lisa after so many years of solely electronic communication but to those who suggest you can't actually know someone via the internet etc. one word comes to mind...codswallop! Lisa is Lisa, just like I knew she would be. :o)

The weekend was fabulous, it began with a manically excited woman (er...that would be myself), who having caught sight of Lisa and Ian pulling into the car park three floors below, shot out of the door, took the six flights of stairs four at a time and raced across said car park 'whooping' loudly to greet them! Hey, I waited over four years for this moment, there was absolutely no chance of me waiting any longer! :o)

After lots of hugs all round and some effort on my part not to dissolve into tears we made our way (only slightly more sedately) indoors....where almost immediately Hammy disgraced herself by greeting Lisa's finger with a bite sufficient to require a ten minute effort at stopping the copious bleeding! Me and this hamster are going to have a little talk on the issue of 'appropriate greetings' later!

First aid and band-aid having been administered the weekend progressed in a blur of chattering, laughing, eating and drinking....believe me Lisa and Leffe make a very amusing combination, I don't think I have laughed so much in my life as we tried to prop one another up in our efforts get to the bathroom in various establishments.....and really, you just don't know how difficult it can be to work out how the hand dryer operates!

Now Lisa will tell you it was she that was a little worse for wear....but it was me who spent five whole minutes trying to get into the wrong flat when we eventually returned home and I was only persuaded it was actually the wrong one when the resident on the other side of the door became concerned and I actually looked at the door number!! Ok, ok, I got out of the lift one floor early!

We talked and laughed late into the night, it felt like we had always been together in 'real life' but I couldn't help but keep wanting to pinch myself to believe it was actually happening!

On Sunday morning Lisa made us all the long promised breakfast of American pancakes... which were to die for. I don't do breakfast but I could change the habit of a lifetime for those. If anyone ever tells you pancakes, bacon and maple syrup aren't a good combination they are very wrong!....and yes, 40 years of vegetarianism has begun to slip a little I will admit. I blame Fletch...I was tee total too until I met him, the man has a corrupting influence! ;o)

We spent the afternoon wandering around Cambridge city center in true British fashion in the pouring rain and then all too soon it was time for them to leave. Where did the weekend go....surely that wasn't two days?? It couldn't possibly have been!

For logistical reasons we accompanied them to their next 'port of call' and then it was time to say goodbye :o( ....but not for long, we get to hook up again later in the week sometime :o)

Like I said at the start of this post...what can I say? Lisa is Lisa, my best friend, my 'sister', my confidante, the same person I have known for almost five years online...only better and it was just so special and so much fun to spend some time together and to meet Ian at last.

How do you say 'America is much too far away'?

We have to hatch a cunning plan.....

Should I stay or should I go?

My good friend JW posted this on his blog recently and I just had to repeat it here.

Both excellent and horrifying at the same time it says much about human nature that isn't good. I assume from the audience reaction it is supposed to be funny but it didn't leave me laughing. I can't say it surprises me sadly but it does bring home just how much ignorance, unkindness and prejudice there still is out there.

Very worth a watch....stick with it to the end.

The final approach!!

It's 5.30 in the morning, I have strong coffee, a cigarette, the Heathrow arrivals board online in front of me and he who is collecting Lisa at the gate is hopefully waiting there by now, having left to hit the motorway sometime in the wee small hours!

The flight is listed as only five minutes behind schedule so far and with any luck it will be just about to join the inevitable stack over London, if I were at my parents I would be able to see the aircraft about now!

Even at this hour I can hardly contain my excitement, more soon......


*UPDATE: 06.00: Flight listed at 06.15 and he who is there to meet her is at the gate! :o))


*06.13: Expected 06.17.


*06.14: LISA IS IN THE UK!!!....after all these years she is only 80 miles away, in the same country, yayyyyy!!! Yipeee!!! Woot!!!


**WELCOME TO ENGLAND LISA**


Can someone peel me off the ceiling now please?!!!!

Almost here!!

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EXCITED!!!

At 16.00hrs BST today Lisa begins her flight to the UK , she'll land at LHR in the small hours of tomorrow morning and will get here on Saturday!!!

I'll be tracking every mile of her journey on t'internet and be up at 4 tomorrow morning to 'watch' her plane land virtually! :o)

I can't believe it, the day is almost here at last! Yayyyyyyy :o)

Political correctness gone 'demented'!

It seems there is a bit of a hoo ha brewing at the University of Manchester, regarding the 'de-gendering' of the students union toilets.

If you haven't come across this little gem of a story before what it means in English is that the toilets are no longer marked as for men or women specifically, instead they are designated as 'toilets' or 'toilets with urinals'. The reason? There have been an unspecified number of complaints from trans-gender students that they have an issue as to which toilet they should use, or feel comfortable using.

I have no problem with that whatsoever, from a personal point of view I don't care whether men or women or women that live as men, or men that live as women, use the conveniences I use, in fact I think in many ways it would be more practical just to do as many other countries do and have 'unisex' toilets (have you see the queues in ladies toilets??) but I do understand why some individuals might find unisex toilets an uncomfortable concept and there is of course the 'has political correctness gone mad' phrase resounding around the whole issue.

And this is where the whole thing has aggravated me!

Check out the green haired, oh-so-idealist, students union rep in the linked video! Get a life girl. She, in typical over zealous, 'head in her rear end', extreme politically correct fashion, picks the reporter up on the use of the phrase' political correctness gone mad'! Her reasoning seems to be that to equate political correctness with madness is in itself not politically correct because the term 'mad' is a disable-ist (did she just invent that word?) term in itself!

That really is political correctness gone mad in my opinion, is the word 'mad' not just a general term for any extreme and/or unusual behaviour and often times applied to incidents of a fun or amusing nature, as opposed to a negative which appears to be her presumption? Perhaps she would prefer we used one of the many definitions of the word 'mad' (insert your choice of non disable-ist term - mentally disturbed; deranged; insane; demented) as supplied by the Oxford dictionary?

Sorry, but if she is being so bloody righteous is her association with madness and the those with a disability not a politically incorrect attitude in itself....and should she not be looking closer to home? You will notice if you listen carefully that one of the students states she "wouldn't like to share a toilet with a proper man"!!!! Does that suggest then that even some of those on her own campus are presenting a politically incorrect attitude towards trans-gender students?!

Give me strength, all she seems to have achieved is to take the spotlight off the original issue, which may or may not have validity but has been lost among the immature stupidity of someone who should know better by her own standards!!

I would suggest she should perhaps concentrate on educating those around her on the trans-gender issue rather than getting her five minutes of fame in front of a television camera!