Lisa is in London!

Yayyyyyy....as I type, bleary eyed and with my first hefty caffeine shot of the day firmly by my side, Lisa's flight is stacking over Heathrow waiting to land, Punctuation is winding his way through the melee which is arrivals to the gate to meet her, and from here on in this next week is gonna be a good one!

It's six months since her last visit to the UK, and since the first time, after years of countless daily emails, that we finally met for real. I kind of got used to having my best friend, she with whom I share everything, 4000 miles away but it's way better to have her here for real and I really didn't think we would get the chance again quite so soon...but we have and I can't wait! Excited? Who me?

Today is jet lag recovery day and then tomorrow both she and Punctuation come here for what will doubtless turn into a manic weekend of catching up, eating, drinking and making of much merry.....

Leave the Leffe alone Lisa! ;o)

Did I mention I can't wait?

Updates here and probably almost obsessively on Twitter, throughout! ;o)

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?!!!!

The secret....

.....is not a secret anymore! I can tell you now what it was that I was blethering on about the day before yesterday. I am sooo excited!


We all have, if we are very lucky, a friend or two in our lives who we can really really count on and I have been very lucky
to have always had good friends who have stood by me despite my not always being the er... the 'easiest' of people to deal with along the way sometimes, but I have one friend who probably knows me better than almost anyone else on this planet.

For almost five years now we have shared just about every aspect of our lives on a daily basis, the ups and downs of what have for both of us been a pretty turbulent period in our lives one way and another, I doubt we have any secrets from one another and no matter if it's 3 in the morning or a more civil hour, if I need her or just want to share something with her she is there!

We met via blogging, a chance in a million (or however many blogs there is out there in the blogosphere these days) when she posted something about a cat and I mailed her a response instead of commenting...and that was that, we became friends. I wouldn't like to hazard a guess at how many emails we have sent between us, on an average day it can run into tens, it has been literally a five year ongoing conversation, almost everyday about everything, no matter where we are one way or another the wonders of technology keep the 'conversation' up and running!

Anyone who knows me well knows who I am talking about, even the few individuals I know who can be pretty skeptical about the 'validity' of internet friendships, refer to her and enquire after her, as though she lived just down the street but she doesn't, she lives in Nebraska in the U.S and for those of you who don't know who I am talking about it is LISA, she of Lisa's Place....and what's all the excitement and secrecy about?

Well, circumstances and luck have conspired and worked in our favour...... and one very early morning at the beginning of October she will land on a flight from the U.S. at London Heathrow and finally we will meet!!!!

I am just sooooo excited! Ever since it began to look like it might actually happen I have been bouncing up and down like a small over-excited child, I can't believe it! We always planned to meet up but life being how it is we never imagined that it would happen anytime soon but it has, and much plotting and planning later it looks like we can finally have a conversation over a beer instead of over the internet and real American pancakes for breakfast!!!!

I suspect...

....that Mr Brown is laughing on the other side of his face this morning!


Let's face it, the last two days have not been the finest in his career but then by now he should be getting used to it having managed quite spectacularly to end any career he might have had within weeks (was it even that long?) of his moving into number 10!

Surely not even copious amounts of spin and rhetoric can't save him from the dogs now.

Even Boris the buffoon has made his way the top spot in London, if I were Gordy I think I would be house hunting this morning...assuming of course his bank will give him a mortgage! ;o)

Excuse my sniggering.

Sun, cereveza and Starbucks!

So what can I say about Seville....it's a beautiful city, with stunning architecture and a thoroughly relaxed atmosphere, don't take too seriously the guide books when they tell you crime is rife!


Yes, there is one area you would prefer not to visit about three miles outside of town but aside from that there was no evidence whatsoever of anything untoward. It's a city, they all have their bad patches but Seville seemed a whole lot less threatening than many....in fact it was completely un-threatening.

The trip got off to a slightly 'iffy' start, before we even made it to Gatwick I had a quite badly cut little toe, Fletch's glasses had disintegrated (no spares) and at passport control the 'powers that be' confiscated and destroyed a lighter I had bought him for Christmas, apparently gas lighters by the thousand are fine and dandy but a Zippo is not!


Consequently two slightly disgruntled travellers boarded the flight but the hassles were soon forgotten as holiday mode took over. We arrived in the mid evening (that's a whole five and a half hours without a smoke...be impressed!) and having found our hotel (ok, the cab driver found it) we set about finding some tapas and exploring the beautifully Christmas lit city....then fell into bed.

The following three days continued in the same vein, we walked for miles around the most wonderful Moorish architecture, among the brightest bouganvillia and trees
laden with ripe oranges, we visited the cathedral, the biggest in the world, we climbed it's bell tower to the most spectacular panoramic views, we spent a day in the


Real Alcazar, the royal palace, in part still used, marvelling again at the mixture of styles from Moorish to Baroc and enjoyed the warmth of the afternoon sun. We visited a bull ring, for me there was a large degree of reticence but on the understanding that there is no fighting at this time of year I took a look....and left feeling sad and with my 'anti' opinion only strengthened!


Seville in winter is not a place for sunbathing, the mornings and nights were pretty cold but by afternoon the seemingly permanently shining sun had warmed the air to the perfect temperature for relaxed wandering.....and partaking in the Spanish tradition of siesta!

The evenings centered around food and beer! I have to admit that tapas in probably not my favourite of delicacies but the constantly moving from one little bar to


another 'feeding' and drinking certainly had it's attractions and though our Spanish is seriously lacking we soon learned how to ask for a beer or coffee with some degree of ease. The discovery of a small bar with a very friendly 'mine host', who had spent six years in London and could do an excellent take off of the North London accent also helped somewhat! ;o)

And then it was home time again, another five cigarette-less hours to withstand but with a head full of happy memories as we took off, bound again for gatwick and the rain!


My greatest memories? Sunshine, cereveza (I, the woman who was tee-total for over twenty years managed to 'over-do' it on one occasion, Spanish bars seem not to issue forth alcohol in legal measures, preferring to just pour unendingly from the bottle,
and cause Fletch to have to undertake a degree of 'looking after' duties), the architecture of course and Starbucks.....for Starbucks seemed to have taken over just about every vacant unit in the city!

Can I go back now please?


(Images clickable, more soon)

One word meme

I haven't done one of these for so long.... so when I found this on Lisa's blog I just had to 'borrow' it!

No 'nominations, if you want to join in just got for it but let me know so I can go read.

1. Where is your mobile phone? Pocket.
2. Relationship? Special.
3. Your hair? Short.
4. Work? Yes.
5. Your sister(s)? Lovely.
6. Your favourite thing? Laptop.
7. Your dream last night? Scary.
8. Your favourite drink? Coffee.
9. Your dream car? Bike??.
10. The room you're in? Dining room.
11. Your shoes? Timberland.
12. Your fears? Spiders.
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? Content.
14. Who did you hang out with this weekend? Family.
15. What are you not good at? Lots.
16. Muffin? Please!
17. Wish list item? Phone.
18. Where you grew up? London-ish.
19. The last thing you did? Shower.
20. What are you wearing? Fleece.
21. What are you not wearing? Gloves!.
22. Your pet? :o(
23. Your computer? Toshiba.
24. Your life? Turbulent.
25. Your mood? Quiet.
26. Missing? Someone.
27. What are you thinking about? Life.
28. Your car? Saxo.
29. Your kitchen? Blue.
30. Your summer? Wet.
31. Your favourite colour? Pink.
32. Last time you laughed? Yesterday.
33. Last time you cried? Today.
34. School? Done.
35. Love? Precious.

Doing the rounds.....

'Borrowed' from Justitia....I won't tag anyone, just steal it if you wanna.

ARE YOU:
1. A Cuddler? Yes
2. A morning person? NO!
3. Are you a perfectionist? YES :(
4. An only child? No, I have two younger siblings.
5. Catholic: No
6. In your pajamas? I don't own any pyjamas.
7. Currently suffering from a broken heart? Nope.
8. Okay styling other people's hair? Not something I indulge in often enough to know.
9. Left handed? Yes.
10. Addicted to MySpace? WTF is Myspace?
11. Shy around the opposite gender? No.
12. Loud? Yes.

DO YOU:
12. Bite your nails? Nooooo!
13. Get paranoid at times? Ummm I wouldn't call it paranoid, more insecure!
14. Currently regret something that you have said/done? No regrets.
15. Curse frequently when you get mad? Yes, a bad habit.
16. Enjoy country music? Nooooo.
17. Enjoy jazz music? Kinda, wouldn't be my first choice though.
18. Enjoy smoothies? No...don't they involve fruit or some other healthy ingredient?? :o/
19. Enjoy talking on the phone? Yes :o)
20. Have a lot to learn? An enormous amount.
21. Have a pet? Don't go there :o(
22. Have a tendency to fall for the "wrong" person? No comment!
23. Have all your grandparents died? Yes.
24. Have at least one sibling? Yes.
25. Have been told that you are smart? Yes. I think they were clinically delusional though.
26. Have had a broken bone? No....famous last words!
27. Have Caller I.D. on your phone? Yes.

HAVE YOU:
28. Changed a diaper? Um....once or twice.
29. Changed a lot over the past year? Yup!
30. Had friends who have never seen your natural hair color? Yes...but my hair is it's natural colour...it just has the grey bits covered up! ;o)
31. Had surgery? Yes.
32. Killed anyone? No.
33. Had your haircut within the last week? Yes.

LAST PERSON WHO:
1. Slept in the bed beside you? My pussy :o)
2. Saw you cry? Ummmm.....
3. Went to the movies with you? My mum.
4. You went to the mall with? I go on my own.
5. You went to dinner with? Ummmm.....
6. You talked to on the phone? My ex-bank!
7. Said 'I love you' to you and meant it? I only say it when I mean it.
8. Broke your heart? Ok....best I don't answer this one.
9. Made you laugh? Tilly

WOULD YOU RATHER?
1. Pierce your nose or tongue? Neither but if I had too then my nose....like I'de have to!?
2. Be serious or be funny? Funny.
3. Drink whole or skim milk? Skim.
4. Die in a fire or drown? FFS...nice question (not)....Fire I suppose though un-surprisingly neither would be my preference!!!
5. Spend time with your parents or enemies? Parents.

ABOUT YOU!
1. What time is it? 23.46
2 Name? Lol...'gemmak'
3. Nickname(s)? Don't have any.
4. Where were you born? Near London.
5. What is your birthdate? April 61 (shurrup Fletch) ;o)
6 What do you want? Love, contentment and chocolate.
7. Where do you want to live? Anywhere..... with the right person.
8. How many kids do you want? Pass...bit late for all that malarky now!

The hardest decision

I have made reference on one or two occasions recently that I have been trying to deal with a particularly difficult situation, until now I haven't felt able to blog it, even now I'm not sure if I can but here goes, I'll try, though you might have to forgive me for what perhaps seems a slightly hard attitude, right now it's the only way I can handle the situation at all.

The situation is this:

I have to give Tilly away to a new home. :o(((

The reasons are many and various and to be fair to others involved it's not appropriate that I regale you with all the finite detail, suffice to say she can't stay here long term with me and as I have no money, and no prospect of an income on which I could afford a suitable home for Tilly and myself here near to London, where it is particularly expensive, I have had to finally consider the unthinkable.

By coincidence someone offered Tilly a home a few weeks ago and belive me it will be a perfect home for her, I have absolutley no qualms about the lady who will likely become her 'step mother' or the life she can offer her...I just wish more than almost anything I have ever wished that I didn't have to be considering this at all.

In reality though I do. I'm not in a position to offer her a suitable home and it's likely I won't be for maybe as long as a year or two so I have no choice. I have thought and thought about it until I've driven myself almost demented, I have hoped and prayed that I would find an answer, a way for her to stay with me, I have investigated every option I can dream up but in the end I think I have lost the fight..... and too keep her now would be more about me and how I'll miss her, than about what will make Tilly happy and give her a stable and happy life.

So, through the tears, the doubts, the fighting and the trying now to find a way to come to terms with losing her I have to keep telling myself that if I really love her as I say I do, then I will do what's best for her, not me.

I probably have her for about another two to three weeks before she goes to her new home, her 'step mum' is a lovely lady, a true cat lover who has already fallen in love with her. She has a lovely garden, won't ever subject her to a cattery, preferring instead not to take holidays longer than a few days and already has one other cat, who once they are accustomed to one another will hopefully become company for them both. If I have to do this now is the time while Tilly is still so young, while she is still adaptable. My biggest concern is that she is very much a one person cat and right now I am that person but I hope that given a little time she can become as attached to 'A' as she is currently to me.

There will still be some Tilly stories and pictures once she has settled down and once I can face seeing her and keep leaving her behind because I will retain lifelong'visiting rights' and she will only be half an hours drive away, but for now it seems scant compensation for not having her with me all the time and there has been little in my life before that has made me so sad.

In the back of my mind there is still a tiny glimmer of hope that somehow I will be able to keep her but it's fading fast, my deadline for a decision is Thursday and I've about run out of options and ideas that don't involve shuffling her from one place to another (which isn't in her best interests) just so that I can have her back once I'm in a position to, whenever that might be.......

:o((

Reflection of life in the UK ?

I'm not usually given to 'Britain bashing' but this little gem landed in my inbox recently and has an uncanny feel of reality about it!

REST OF THE WORLD VERSION:

The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building and improving his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

THE END

THE BRITISH VERSION:

The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed.

A social worker finds the shivering grasshopper, calls a press conference and demands to know why the squirrel should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate, like the grasshopper, are cold and starving. The BBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper; with cuts to a video of the squirrel in his comfortable warm home with a table laden with food.

The British press inform people that they should be ashamed that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty. The Labour Party, Greenpeace, Animal Rights and The Grasshopper Council of GB demonstrate in front of the squirrel's house.

The BBC, interrupting a cultural festival special from Notting Hill with breaking news, broadcasts a multi cultural choir singing "We Shall Overcome". Ken Livingstone rants in an interview with Trevor McDonald that the squirrel has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the squirrel to make him pay his "fair share" and increases the charge for squirrels to enter inner London.

In response to pressure from the media, the Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The squirrels's taxes are reassessed. He is taken to court and fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as builders for the work he was doing on his home and an additional fine for contempt when he told the court the grasshopper did not want to work.

The grasshopper is provided with a council house, financial aid to furnish it and an account with a local taxi firm to ensure he can be socially mobile. The squirrels food is seized and re distributed to the more needy members of society, in this case the grasshopper.

Without enough money to buy more food, to pay the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, the squirrel has to downsize and start building a new home. The local authority takes over his old home and utilises it as a temporary home for asylum seeking cats who had hijacked a plane to get to Britain as they had to share their country of origin with mice. On arrival they tried to blow up the airport because of Britains apparent love of dogs.

The cats had been arrested for the international offence of hijacking and attempt bombing but were immediately released because the police fed them pilchards instead of salmon whilst in custody. Initial moves to then return them to their own country were abandoned because it was feared they would face death by the mice. The cats devise and start a scam to obtain money from peoples credit cards.

A Panorama special shows the grasshopper finishing up the last of the squirrels's food, though Spring is still months away, while the council house he is in, crumbles around him because he hasn't bothered to maintain the house. He is shown to be taking drugs. Inadequate government funding is blamed for the grasshoppers drug 'illness'.

The cats seek recompense in the British courts for their treatment since arrival in UK.

The grasshopper gets arrested for stabbing an old dog during a burglary to get money for his drugs habit. He is imprisoned but released immediately because he has been in custody for a few weeks. He is placed in the care of the probation service to monitor and supervise him. Within a few weeks he has killed a guinea pig in a botched robbery.

A commission of enquiry, that will eventually cost £10,000,000 and state the obvious, is set up.

Additional money is put into funding a drug rehabilitation scheme for grasshoppers and legal aid for lawyers representing asylum seekers is increased. The asylum seeking cats are praised by the government for enriching Britain's multicultural diversity and dogs are criticised by the government for failing to befriend the cats.

The grasshopper dies of a drug overdose. The usual sections of the press blame it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity and his traumatic experience of prison.

They call for the resignation of a minister.

The cats are paid a million pounds each because their rights were infringed when the government failed to inform them there were mice in the United Kingdom.

The squirrel, the dogs and the victims of the hijacking, the bombing, the burglaries and robberies have to pay an additional percentage on their credit cards to cover losses, their taxes are increased to pay for law and order and they are told that they will have to work beyond 65 because of a shortfall in government funds.

THE END

I'm easy amused!

Ain't technology wonderful!

Here I am on my way to visit a friend for the weekend, sitting merrily in a service station when what do I spy...an advertisemnet for Wi-fi access. So, me being me there was nothing else to do, I mean, I just had to give it a try. I know it works elsewher, I use it at my brothers regularly, but the possiblilty of connecting to the 'God' that is the internet in any old odd place was too much to resist and consequently, out to my car I went to fetch my now glued almost constantly to my side, laptop.

And that was it, a few quid later and about 30 seconds fiddling and I'm sat here blogging like a fool from a cafe somewhere south of London!

It's the small things in a geeks life that make it worth living! ;o)

Warm and wet!

Saturday, it was decided a day out in London was the order of the day. There were plans to see a Miro exhibition at the Hayward gallery but for various reasons it was decided against in favour of a walk along the South Bank and up on toward Leicester square, China town and Soho. The sun was shining there was a light breeze and all seemed well with the world, that was until yours truly decided upon a course of action, without first engaging even a modicum of common sense, and things went a little pear shaped.

The South Bank is currently home to a piece of art, a water installation the name and artist of which escapes me, the reasons for my lack of information here will become apparent, as the ensuing moments became somehwat distracted and information gathering became something not in the fore-front of my mind!

Said 'water art' comprises of a large number of narrow fountains arranged in a square and with a further four 'walls' inside of those. The idea is that randomly parts of the fountain stop and start, creating different rooms within and with some having a temporarily missing wall, intermittently enabling those stupid enough venture into this artwork to move about inside. The theory at least seemed simple, there was no shortage of people 'playing' inside these rooms and so without thought or much ado I decided, as soon as a wall came down to join them.

Big mistake!

What I had not envisaged was that barely had I got myself inside of this confounded thing than a strong wind blew up along the Thames resulting in the wall to the back of me blowing inwards and soaking my back half with freezing cold water! My attempts at escape were thwarted when trying to escape I walked through a new 'wall of water'infront of me into the next 'room'. These walls were made up of reasonably vast quantities of the wet stuff and instantly I was saturated to the skin. Add to that the shock on a sun warmed body of icy cold water and my gut reaction was to run out of the damn thing.......straight through another wall of water.

Idiot woman! I may as well have gone fully clothed into the Thames for a swim, ok, so the water was cleaner but I would have been no less wet had I done so!


Needless to say the amusement value of this debacle was not lost on the various tourists and onlookers and a friend 'kindly' saw fit to capture the moment in pixels for posterity!

So, there I was stood on the embankment, small rivers running off most parts of me, squelching shoes and soaked through to the skin. Various options were considered as to our next move but there were no real options other than to 'wring out' what I could on my body and wait to drip dry! Beach huts are not an option on the South bank!

This was not my most comfortable experience, my clothes were stuck fast to me, mostly they had become transparent in varying degrees and you wouldn't belive how cold even a hot summers day suddenly becomes when everything is soaked through and there is a significant breeze!

Suffice to say it had to be tolerated, along with a few strange and mystified looks from passers by. At the point of impact it was obvious what had happened....but a mile away no one had any idea why this half wit woman was walking through town soaking wet. Eventually I dried out, three hours of strong sun and breeze finally returned me to some semblance of normality but in the interim I looked and felt pretty stupid!

Ok....next time maybe I'll resist the temptation to play in water with kids!

Tilly in town!

So, I thought this morning, as Tilly performed her usual 5am alarm function (and I swore quietly to myself, ok maybe not so quietly) that it is about time I updated you on her progress, for all this upheaval has also affected her.

In the first instance she deserves a small medal for her new found ability to travel! Never having been in a car for longer than ten minutes previously, she behaved marvelously on the ten hour drive to London the day I departed. She cried for perhaps the first few minutes and then not a sound did she utter, other than to purr when we stopped and she was released from her carrier to stretch her little legs and have a cuddle.

Fly hunting
Once arrived at my parents (at something well past midnight) she was a little confused, new people, new place and no Ditto to torment. It took her maybe a week to really begin to find her suburban feet, a week of crying every time I left the room and a week of looking slightly lost and confused at times but she's now beginning to really settle in. She has her new routines in place, she has discovered that my mother is easy to manipulate with a 'certain look', she has an old child's high chair positioned by the window (there are no sills) so she can watch the birds to her hearts content, she has already procured her own little places in the sun and on the sofa and I, having decided it was time she learnt to go out and play and having completed two weeks of 'familiarization' on a harness, yesterday, took the bull by the horns and let her 'out to play' alone, albeit with my heart in my mouth.

But, as someone promised me she would, ok I knew that but hey I'm her mum I worry, she came home all by herself! Success! She had a ball, it seems that her hunting skills have yet to progress further than small insects but small insects can be immense fun for a small cat!

Famous last words I know, I'm not tempting fate but it's looking good. It seems Tilly's naturalisation is almost complete and whilst I'm sure her new home all still seems a little odd to her now and again, she is well on the way to learning to be a town cat.

gemmak is back

After a week of silence on the blog that promised you a post everyday for a second year I felt it was about time I showed my virtual face, at least by way of some small explanation.

Sadly last week PG and myself went our separate ways, he remains in Scotland whilst I have moved to my parents for the time being, near to London.

It is not appropriate or fair that I regale you with the details, suffice to say it has been a very difficult week for all concerned and I can only imagine it will remain so for a some time yet, but as a good friend once said to me, 'shit happens' and with a positive attitude I'm sure things will eventually sort themselves out for both of us.

That said, I currently have no job, no money and no home to call my own, but I do have the support of my family, a few very good friends (thank you, you know who you are) and Tilly.....PG has Ditto.

Now it's time to regroup and start over, I don't know where life will take me from here and I can't promise a post every day for the time being..... but I'll do my best to get something here when I can and gradually I hope this little patch in the blogosphere will get back to some semblance of normality.

So that's it, a very sad and difficult week but life goes on.

Thank you to all of you who left comments (temporarily removed) and mailed me with your words of support and thank you for loyally keep checking back here in my absence.

Laters.....

A camellia and a pick up truck!

Some years ago, maybe seven or eight, whilst I made my way across a Sainsbury's car park on my daily foray from work to find myself some lunch, I looked on in some degree of miff-ment as a woman driving a very large American pick up truck, merrily reversed into another vehicle.

Not satisfied with merely hitting this parked and brand new car she proceeded to drag her very hefty bumper the full length of it....and then move forward and drive off. She knew without doubt I had watched her antics but off she drove anyways.

Incensed I hastily took her index number and left a note on the windscreen of the now badly damaged victim vehicle giving details of where I could be contacted.

Two days later a woman I didn't recognise approached me as I went about my business in the store I worked in at the time and introduced herself as the owner of the damaged car. I gave her further details, she thanked me and left....returning later that day bearing a small thank you gift for me.

The gift in question was a small Camellia, no taller than maybe a foot, a twig really but I 'do' plants, my dream job would be to be a botanist or horticulturalist at Kew gardens (ok I'm twenty years too old and short of a first class degree but that aside) and so I took it home touched that this stranger had been kind enough to offer me a gift at all and planted said twig to begin its new life with me.

And it grew and it grew but when I left London for Scotland I decided it would unlikely enjoy such bitter howling winds and so transplanted it into a pot for re-homing at my parents.

Every year now my father regales me with progress reports and photographs and my once little tiny twig, has in it's seven or eight years now transformed itself under the close supervision and tutelage of my mothers green fingers into this:



It's now bigger than me (yes I know most things are) and happily produces it's stunning blooms year after year...much the same as the insurance companies involved in the original accident claim who harassed me year after year for five years for one statement after another.....but each spring it is worth it. :o)

(Images clickable)

ABC meme

I can't rememeber where I found this but it suffices for a day when my brain in fried!....oh and this time I feel mean, go to the bottom for those I have tagged! Heh.


Accent – Lord knows....South Eastern England, with a little mancunian somwhere in there.

Booze of choice – None, tee total...yes, really!

Chore I hate – Cooking.

Dog or Cat – You need to ask?

Essential electronics – Hey...... ok, computer, camera, phone, memory stick, is it possible to live without those?

Favorite perfume - Thierry Mugler, 'Angel'

Gold or Silver? Gold.

Hometown – Near London is as close as you get.

Insomnia? – Not usually.

Job Title – Customer Service supervisor.

Kids? – Nope.

Living Arrangement – Co-habit.

Most-admired trait – Mine? heaven knows, you're asking the wrong person there!

Overnight Hospital Stays – Yes, peritonitis age 12.

Phobia – SPIDERS!!!!

Quote – "The pursuit of happiness is the greatest cause of unhappiness" Anon.

Religion – None.

Siblings – One of of each...both younger.

Time I wake up – 6 ish....unless Tilly decides otherwise.

Unusual talent/skill – Um..... does still being able to do the splits (I think)count? If it doesn't I don't have one!

Vegetable I refuse to eat – brussels sprouts. Ick.

Worst habit – Smoking.

X-rays – Yes, quite a few but I don't recall what they were all for.

Yummy foods I make – Told you before I don't do cooking! ;o)

Zodiac sign – Aries but it's all hogwash to me.


...and those required to please join in are:

Natty, Paddy, Fletch, and Wallo

Go guys.......and don't say I never give you anything!

Saturday silliness

So, you travel all the way from Scotland to London, you take a walk along the South Bank to take in the sights, sounds and smells of the city and what do you hear??? From every point, above the day to day melee of voices and traffic could only be heard one thing.......

Turn up the sound.....and if for some reason you can't, scroll down to the bottom!

South Bank
Video sent by gemmak

Bagpipes! Bloody Scottish bagpipes is what you hear! :o)

London...at last!

Finally, having sorted out my delightful hackers as far as I can and completed the weekend at the day job I have a few moments to recount a few details of our recent trip to my parents. For those of you (Dale), wanting photographs my apologies, I didn't take many, the weather was for the main part dull and dismal and bitterly cold so I spent more time scuttling from one warm place to another than I did bothering to stand in the wind with my camera plastered to my eye!

So, the journey south was shall we say 'interesting', we woke as you already know to my much wished for snow, on the only day of the year we didn't actually want it! The first part of the drive was a little 'hairy', in places the effect of the falling snow and that which was drifting off the fields and hills in the wind was of whiteout, one moment we were driving in reasonable visibility and the next it was impossible to see anything at all.....but it was beautiful, the drifts has formed themselves in the wind into wonderful eight foot high, round white sculptures, with clouds of ethereal white snow dust swirling all around them. Now that was something I would have loved to photograph but stopping on the side of the road in such conditions is not advisable!

As we progressed further south the lying snow became less but the falling snow still hampered visibility and so the going was slow, peculiarly just as the forecasters had predicted as we hit the midlands the snow completely disappeared, the sun filtered through the clouds and the road was dry...almost as if one had drawn a line under Birmingham!

And so...eventually, eight hours later we arrived to much celebration and chatter. Not only had we not managed to visit since the summer but also it had been my fathers birthday the previous day so the 'party-ing' had been held over for a day. Only a small celebration, we are not into big events but it was fab and it meant that for the first time in over two years I got to see my brother and his wife and spend an evening catching up with them.


London Eye.
Monday we ventured onto the underground, 'post rush hour' I might add, and headed for the South Bank and the Hayward Gallery to see the Dan Flavin exhibition Now art might be one of my 'obsessions' but I don't profess to understand most of what I see and that is probably the best description of how I felt about this particular set of offerings, I just didn't understand it as it was intended. Another of my little passions is lighting, something I must have inherited I think from my TV lighting employed father and whilst large numbers of multi coloured fluorescent tubes gave off a kind of aesthetically pleasing light I think I was missing something somewhere from what Mr Flavin was trying to say! Hey, but the building is fab!


From the South bank.


Over the river
Onward from fluorescent art via a walk along the South bank in the wind and much coffee, we decided next to visit the London Imax cinema for an African Safari....wow, I have to say this genre of cinematic technology had never really appealed to me but it was really something else. If you have ever viewed a 3D imax production you will know exactly what I mean and if you haven't you really ought too, just once. It is phenomenal and so realistic that if one snuck a look at one's fellow cinema goers it was apparent that it had the same effect on everyone....all around kept 'poking' a finger into mid air...because it really appeared that what we were looking at was literally just a few inches from our faces and not yards away on a screen. To begin with it was actually a little disconcerting but it quickly became just completely absorbing. Really worth a visit if you have never been to one before....oh and of course there is popcorn!


London Imax.
The remainder of our two days were in the main taken up with optimizing the opportunity for retail therapy, something not easily available at home, and the evenings were spent happily eating and drinking copious amounts of good food and wine (my self excluded of course from the wine, yes, really I'm tee total) and catching up with six months chatter and gossip!

The day we returned back to Scotland...it snowed again, how typical...but thank fully nothing significant, we stopped off at my sisters in the Midlands en-route and spent a few hours of fun with her and my nieces, and then it was onward in the wee small hours back to Scotland and two very boisterous, waiting cats!

Only four days I know but a lovely fours days spent with my parents, in the bosom of my family, chilled out....hell, it seemed like only a few hours by the time we got back!

Going south

I will eventually get to post a little at least, about our short holiday in London, but for now, as I rush off for my first day back at work, these pictures might give you an indication of what the journey headed south was like!

I'm back......and hijacked!

...and with a massive thank you to Fletch for his stoic efforts in keeping gemmak's-ville up and running and getting a post here every day in my absence! I had intended to try and filter in the odd effort of my own from London but each time I popped in you all were having such a good time I made the most of the break and decided not to interrupt!

The holiday was fab but more on that later, for it seems I have arrived home to to a new problem on the blog front. As if Gemmak Designs and it's predecessor had not been problematic enough of late now I discover that both the old URL for DAB and my new one have been 'hijacked' by some smart ass bastard who has placed a redirect on the URL's to a porn site! GAH!!!

I have absolutely no idea how to resolve this at the moment, I have contacted blogger but thus far have had no response so all I can do for now is wait and see and apologise profusely for the fact that if you carry one of my buttons it will most definitely not take you to me! Please, feel free to remove it from your site completely if you wish, or to contact me to do it for you if you need help.

At the moment I can't post on Gemmak Designs, it just won't let me so if any of you out there know anyone with the button I would appreciate it if you would alert them.

Oh happy days, seems like my last days holiday is going to be taken up with trying to sort this debacle out! Grrrrrr.

Meet your host for the week

Even while I am away on holiday you don't get to escape this little patch of the blogosphere, after all, it was some of your number that challenged me again to complete another year without missing a single days posting!

To that end, and the rules dictating that it doesn't matter how I get a post here, just that I do, I would like you to give a big hand and a very warm welcome to my guest blogger for the week. Yes, be assured there has been no expense spared in my search for a replacement, I bring you the one and only, the famous (or should that be infamous), the utterly entertaining, the inimitable *insert drum roll*........... Fletch, he of 'Answers aren't at the back' fame.

Yes, for the duration of my holiday your host at gemmak'-s-ville will be my good friend and buddy Fletch. Ok, so maybe I have taken my blog's life in my hands in this decision, anything could happen and probably will, but hey life's a risk!

So that's me out of here for a few days, if I can I'll try and interject occasionally from London but until then I leave you in the very dangerous capable hands of my blog-sitter.

Please be gentle with him....at least until he settles in!


Cheers Fletch, you're a star ;o)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The promised snow has arrived, a little later than originally forecast and thus only a dusting so far though it's beginning to look like it has the possibility of becoming pretty grim out there. Were gonna hit the road earlier than we had planned in the hope that we can out run it south, fingers crossed we don't get stuck at about Newcastle!

I'm gone.......have a good week guys and I'll look in when I can. :o)