No caption required!
Wednesday, 15 December 2004
What kind of soul are you?
|
You Are a Newborn Soul |
You are tolerant, accepting, and willing to give anyone a chance. On the flip side, you're easy to read and easily influenced by others. You have a fresh perspective on life, and you can be very creative. Noconformist and nontraditional, you've never met anyone who's like you. Inventive and artistic, you like to be a trendsetter. You have an upbeat spirit and you like almost everything. You make friends easily and often have long standing friendships. Implusive and trusting, you fall in love a little too easily. Souls you are most compatible with: Bright Star Soul and Dreaming Soul |
Tuesday, 14 December 2004
Organised?.... As if.
In years gone by I would frequently have been ready for Christmas by mid November or thereabouts, if not earlier. Organisation , or perhaps 'bossiness' as PG would tell you is, one of my aggravating 'gifts'....well this year has been very different!
I have at last waded my way through the card writing process, I have bought an appropriate number of stamps, stuck them on and all that remains is to see if I can manage to get them into the letter box in time to meet the post office deadlines for last 'posting dates'. This shouldn't be a problem, there is a letter box not two minutes walk from home but I always manage to forget letters I need to post. Daily I pass the box and daily I think 'damn,'i'll post them tomorrow....and then I don't!
The post office incidentally is on my current list of 'companies displaying utter ineptitude', having returned to sender a package this week, that they should have re-delivered. In fact they kindly pushed a card through the door telling me they would make another attempt.....and then sent the sodding thing back anyway! Probably never to be seen again.
But I digress. As I was saying, I am finally getting organised. Yesterday we made a second trip to Edinburgh and purchased the last of the gifts we needed, we promised ourselves we would 'hit the whole thing on the head' last week, but as ever is the case it was not to be and trip number two was required. The freezer and cupboards are beginning to look nicely stuffed with all things fattening and yummy and I have given in and made a Christmas dinner decision and purchased an all in one, one person, Marks and Spencer ready 'Christmas meal'.....Lord knows what it will be like, it certainly won't be 'mothers cooking' but I'll be damned, if as a confirmed hater of cooking, and having to spend Christmas day alone, if I am going to spend it cooking real food for just me! At least being M&S it stands an outside chance of being edible!
So all that remains now is to fight Ditto for the privilege of wrapping up the gifts, she adores to 'help', I adore her not to and then make the 600 mile trip to my sisters to 'play Santa' and get them delivered next Thursday.
On the subject of Ditto and Christmas, I was forced from my slumber on four occasions last night to rescue the tree from her clutches....only to wake this morning to find pine needles, tinsel and two smashed baubles on the floor! Heh.
I have at last waded my way through the card writing process, I have bought an appropriate number of stamps, stuck them on and all that remains is to see if I can manage to get them into the letter box in time to meet the post office deadlines for last 'posting dates'. This shouldn't be a problem, there is a letter box not two minutes walk from home but I always manage to forget letters I need to post. Daily I pass the box and daily I think 'damn,'i'll post them tomorrow....and then I don't!
The post office incidentally is on my current list of 'companies displaying utter ineptitude', having returned to sender a package this week, that they should have re-delivered. In fact they kindly pushed a card through the door telling me they would make another attempt.....and then sent the sodding thing back anyway! Probably never to be seen again.
But I digress. As I was saying, I am finally getting organised. Yesterday we made a second trip to Edinburgh and purchased the last of the gifts we needed, we promised ourselves we would 'hit the whole thing on the head' last week, but as ever is the case it was not to be and trip number two was required. The freezer and cupboards are beginning to look nicely stuffed with all things fattening and yummy and I have given in and made a Christmas dinner decision and purchased an all in one, one person, Marks and Spencer ready 'Christmas meal'.....Lord knows what it will be like, it certainly won't be 'mothers cooking' but I'll be damned, if as a confirmed hater of cooking, and having to spend Christmas day alone, if I am going to spend it cooking real food for just me! At least being M&S it stands an outside chance of being edible!
So all that remains now is to fight Ditto for the privilege of wrapping up the gifts, she adores to 'help', I adore her not to and then make the 600 mile trip to my sisters to 'play Santa' and get them delivered next Thursday.
On the subject of Ditto and Christmas, I was forced from my slumber on four occasions last night to rescue the tree from her clutches....only to wake this morning to find pine needles, tinsel and two smashed baubles on the floor! Heh.
Dreaming of a white Christmas?
Snow-meter!
If, like me, you would like nothing better than to see a blanket of the beautiful white stuff when you wake on Christmas morning, Metcheck, my favorite weather website, has an amusing little gadget to predict the likelihood where you live (sorry, UK only).
Even if you really only want to check that you won't get snow it's still fun and it's not a gimmick organisation, it's a serious meteorological site and about as accurate as any forecast is going to be at two weeks hence.
Yay.....I have an 80% chance!
Monday, 13 December 2004
Scotland.....
...is not always beautiful, this is the same view, that for those who are familiar with this blog, normally includes horses, trees, wonderful skies and swathes of green..... Not so this morning!
Fog!
Fog!
Sunday, 12 December 2004
On this day.
Reminiscing is a sign of age right? ....so I'm getting long in the tooth..... a day ill, off work and with nothing to do found me lost, reminiscing about years past, normally long forgotten but today sharp in my mind, sights and sounds, thoughts and feelings all remembered with unusual clarity......it must be the meds!
Twenty seven years ago today I began what was to be the job I stuck with longest thus far in my life, it was a 'sensible' but very mind numbing job in a government department. I had, since leaving school, been working in the West End of London in retail but the small fact that my underground fare into town, outstripped my meagre wage by approx 20% meant that inevitably I had to leave. My father had continued supporting me, preferring that I worked at something than did nothing but it was not a situation that could continue forever. I was in many ways sad to leave, I had seen something of a different life, not all of it good but all of it an experience. For me London rocks, it does now and it did then. Yes, I had one or two 'run in's' with wierdo's and unsavoury characters, I got knocked down an escalator on the underground by a delightful individual, armed and fleeing the cops having just held up a famous jewellers and I was caught up in an IRA bombing but mostly I met wonderful, cosmopolitan individuals and savored every moment of my time there.
And thus it was that I attended, all 16 or so years of me, for interview 'somewhere in the city' and sat terrified in a large oak panelled office, being grilled by three late middle aged men in dark, pin striped suits. These guys could have been straight out of a 40's movie, they where only missing bowler hats and no doubt, upon stepping outside into the street all donned such an item religiously.
Suffice to say, I got the job. Myself and my family had been duly 'checked out' for unacceptable history or political affiliations, I signed the Official Secrets Act and this day in 1977, nervous as a kitten, I reported to my new boss.
Day one was a hoot, civil servants where not at all what I expected, it was Christmas time and surprisingly they knew how to party! By lunch time we were ensconced in the local pub where another surprise met me. This establishment was by coincidence the local watering hole for one 'Reg Dwight', I tried not to stare or to be starstruck, my new colleagues where all used to this company but I was not and it only added to my feeling of 'newness'. We remained in the pub for most of the afternoon and staggered back to work at some time nearing the end of the working day! Things seemed to carry on in that vein right up until Christmas with parties, lunch in the pub and most amazingly to me, who had only experienced retail previously, a whole two weeks paid holiday over the festive season. This was not an option, it was obligatory.........I decided I had been landed somewhere close to heaven!
Of course things where to change, I soon discovered that my position as almost lowest of the low, was not what one might call 'intellectually challenging' and the civil service as a whole had a tendency to be pedantic and to operate, even in the 70's, like a dinosaur. Unbelievable routines still existed with the female staff making tea and coffee for the male staff at break times and those in positions of authority being treated like demi-gods. Despite all that I made many good and long standing friends and Christmas time always remained wild, somehow all the usual stuffiness of the place disintegrated under the weight of tinsel and alcohol!
That job and those in it saw me through my late adolescence, teenage up's and down's and a considerable amount of fun, stuff that by the standards of current teenage shenanigans seems very un-sophisticated but at the time of course we thought differently....... Oh the naivete of youth!
One such teenage Christmas, a year or two later still stands out, it saw me newley liberated from an 'ill advised' and long standing union with a guy who was not my best choice and one that had given my parents nightmares for a year or three. I had a new man in my life, I will call him 'Simon' here, one that was not controlling and destructive but was open, educated and fun, he was perhaps still a little too 'lively' for my parents liking but that of course only made him all the more attractive to me....... we had an absolute ball! In the funny way that teenagers have a 'hierachy', he was a 'face', he knew exciting people, his family did exciting things, his father was 'one of the lads', we partied unendingly, we spent money like water, we dressed the part or at least we thought we did, we were loud and probably too brash, we did absolutely mad things, we went on a wholly unorganised holiday that would have been a disaster had it not been so funny, he forgave me an incident that taught me an important lesson for the rest of my life...... and he was romantic. Something that had been lacking in the tough guy demeanor (the less said a bout that the better) of my previous 'beau'.
Strangely, of all the things we did together one tiny incident on Christmas Eve of that year stands out in my memory, probably because in retrospect it was so embarrassing..... a teenage silliness that had I more sense I would probably not recount here for I am unlikely to live it down!
Lunch time, Christmas eve, it was freezing cold, I was inappropriately clad for the conditions, as ever female teenage fashion seems to dictate, and myself and 'Simon' had been in a pub with friends, enjoying the spirit of Christmas for way too long. I have no idea why, other than to escape the cold but as we wove and unsteady path through the town centre headed for home we took temporary refuge in an electrical store. It was at this point my young inebriated mind made a very odd decision, one that at the time I assume it felt was amusing. I am small I accept and having been a gymnast for years I was bendy but come on....... I was never going to fit inside a washing machine successfully. None the less, common sense having run off in the opposite direction, I climbed in and promptly got stuck! It was not a disaster, it could have been worse. The obvious chagrin of the staff only heightened my amusement at my situation and thankfully said boyfriend and another of our party extricated me without too much ado!
Christmas that year carried on in much the same way, stupidity and teenage fun for days on end, the uninhibited madness of youth given it's all.......oh to be 19 again just for a day! :o)
I will of course not identify the guy in question, we parted company perhaps a year later, the result of some misunderstanding. He went on to be a highly respected and successful business man and managing director, though he still retains some of his 'unorthodox' slant on life. We are still in occasional contact....... if you read this 'Simon' you know who you are, I wonder if you remember that Christmas?
Twenty seven years ago today I began what was to be the job I stuck with longest thus far in my life, it was a 'sensible' but very mind numbing job in a government department. I had, since leaving school, been working in the West End of London in retail but the small fact that my underground fare into town, outstripped my meagre wage by approx 20% meant that inevitably I had to leave. My father had continued supporting me, preferring that I worked at something than did nothing but it was not a situation that could continue forever. I was in many ways sad to leave, I had seen something of a different life, not all of it good but all of it an experience. For me London rocks, it does now and it did then. Yes, I had one or two 'run in's' with wierdo's and unsavoury characters, I got knocked down an escalator on the underground by a delightful individual, armed and fleeing the cops having just held up a famous jewellers and I was caught up in an IRA bombing but mostly I met wonderful, cosmopolitan individuals and savored every moment of my time there.
And thus it was that I attended, all 16 or so years of me, for interview 'somewhere in the city' and sat terrified in a large oak panelled office, being grilled by three late middle aged men in dark, pin striped suits. These guys could have been straight out of a 40's movie, they where only missing bowler hats and no doubt, upon stepping outside into the street all donned such an item religiously.
Suffice to say, I got the job. Myself and my family had been duly 'checked out' for unacceptable history or political affiliations, I signed the Official Secrets Act and this day in 1977, nervous as a kitten, I reported to my new boss.
Day one was a hoot, civil servants where not at all what I expected, it was Christmas time and surprisingly they knew how to party! By lunch time we were ensconced in the local pub where another surprise met me. This establishment was by coincidence the local watering hole for one 'Reg Dwight', I tried not to stare or to be starstruck, my new colleagues where all used to this company but I was not and it only added to my feeling of 'newness'. We remained in the pub for most of the afternoon and staggered back to work at some time nearing the end of the working day! Things seemed to carry on in that vein right up until Christmas with parties, lunch in the pub and most amazingly to me, who had only experienced retail previously, a whole two weeks paid holiday over the festive season. This was not an option, it was obligatory.........I decided I had been landed somewhere close to heaven!
Of course things where to change, I soon discovered that my position as almost lowest of the low, was not what one might call 'intellectually challenging' and the civil service as a whole had a tendency to be pedantic and to operate, even in the 70's, like a dinosaur. Unbelievable routines still existed with the female staff making tea and coffee for the male staff at break times and those in positions of authority being treated like demi-gods. Despite all that I made many good and long standing friends and Christmas time always remained wild, somehow all the usual stuffiness of the place disintegrated under the weight of tinsel and alcohol!
That job and those in it saw me through my late adolescence, teenage up's and down's and a considerable amount of fun, stuff that by the standards of current teenage shenanigans seems very un-sophisticated but at the time of course we thought differently....... Oh the naivete of youth!
One such teenage Christmas, a year or two later still stands out, it saw me newley liberated from an 'ill advised' and long standing union with a guy who was not my best choice and one that had given my parents nightmares for a year or three. I had a new man in my life, I will call him 'Simon' here, one that was not controlling and destructive but was open, educated and fun, he was perhaps still a little too 'lively' for my parents liking but that of course only made him all the more attractive to me....... we had an absolute ball! In the funny way that teenagers have a 'hierachy', he was a 'face', he knew exciting people, his family did exciting things, his father was 'one of the lads', we partied unendingly, we spent money like water, we dressed the part or at least we thought we did, we were loud and probably too brash, we did absolutely mad things, we went on a wholly unorganised holiday that would have been a disaster had it not been so funny, he forgave me an incident that taught me an important lesson for the rest of my life...... and he was romantic. Something that had been lacking in the tough guy demeanor (the less said a bout that the better) of my previous 'beau'.
Strangely, of all the things we did together one tiny incident on Christmas Eve of that year stands out in my memory, probably because in retrospect it was so embarrassing..... a teenage silliness that had I more sense I would probably not recount here for I am unlikely to live it down!
Lunch time, Christmas eve, it was freezing cold, I was inappropriately clad for the conditions, as ever female teenage fashion seems to dictate, and myself and 'Simon' had been in a pub with friends, enjoying the spirit of Christmas for way too long. I have no idea why, other than to escape the cold but as we wove and unsteady path through the town centre headed for home we took temporary refuge in an electrical store. It was at this point my young inebriated mind made a very odd decision, one that at the time I assume it felt was amusing. I am small I accept and having been a gymnast for years I was bendy but come on....... I was never going to fit inside a washing machine successfully. None the less, common sense having run off in the opposite direction, I climbed in and promptly got stuck! It was not a disaster, it could have been worse. The obvious chagrin of the staff only heightened my amusement at my situation and thankfully said boyfriend and another of our party extricated me without too much ado!
Christmas that year carried on in much the same way, stupidity and teenage fun for days on end, the uninhibited madness of youth given it's all.......oh to be 19 again just for a day! :o)
I will of course not identify the guy in question, we parted company perhaps a year later, the result of some misunderstanding. He went on to be a highly respected and successful business man and managing director, though he still retains some of his 'unorthodox' slant on life. We are still in occasional contact....... if you read this 'Simon' you know who you are, I wonder if you remember that Christmas?
Today....
....I should be in work, I'm not, I'm ill...ugh! I had to call in sick, I hate doing that, I feel guilty. On one hand as an employee one feels mostly wholly dispensable, at times like this, why then is one made to feel completely indispensable?!
I once overheard a colleague threaten to leave, she was told by a member of management that anyone of us would be missed for about 5 minutes, none of us are indispensable.........it doesn't stop me feeling guilty now!
Calling in sick has to be one of life's most unpleasant and scary experiences, today was no different. We have to speak to a manager not a 'minion'. The manager I got when I made the dreaded call today was someone who I hoped would at least have little understanding, no chance, apparently unsympathetic, short with me and disinterested in anything other than the fact that the store will be 'one down' today. I know that! Bloody hell, that's why I feel guilty in the first place, it's going to be a busy day for them, I should be there but I don't choose when to feel like crap.
I don't know if I'm more angry at being made to feel like a naughty child or upset that, despite talking the talk, even those one believes genuinely care about their staff patently don't appear too when push comes to shove.
Call me naive....... as a company we have undergone massive changes of late, we have been told time and time again we are a 'family', we care for one another and support one another. I do my share of hard work when others are ill. Silly me..... I almost believed they actually cared a little.
Something uttered along the lines of 'I hope you feel better soon' would have gone a long way. :o(
I'm going back to bed!
I once overheard a colleague threaten to leave, she was told by a member of management that anyone of us would be missed for about 5 minutes, none of us are indispensable.........it doesn't stop me feeling guilty now!
Calling in sick has to be one of life's most unpleasant and scary experiences, today was no different. We have to speak to a manager not a 'minion'. The manager I got when I made the dreaded call today was someone who I hoped would at least have little understanding, no chance, apparently unsympathetic, short with me and disinterested in anything other than the fact that the store will be 'one down' today. I know that! Bloody hell, that's why I feel guilty in the first place, it's going to be a busy day for them, I should be there but I don't choose when to feel like crap.
I don't know if I'm more angry at being made to feel like a naughty child or upset that, despite talking the talk, even those one believes genuinely care about their staff patently don't appear too when push comes to shove.
Call me naive....... as a company we have undergone massive changes of late, we have been told time and time again we are a 'family', we care for one another and support one another. I do my share of hard work when others are ill. Silly me..... I almost believed they actually cared a little.
Something uttered along the lines of 'I hope you feel better soon' would have gone a long way. :o(
I'm going back to bed!
Friday, 10 December 2004
Friday's feast (27)
Appetizer
Make up a word and give us its definition.
"Bloggered"......the result, when one places a minute piece of HTML incorrectly and causes the entire page to collapse beyond recognition!
Soup
What is currently your favorite song?
'The closest thing to crazy' by Katie Melua.
Salad
What's at the top of your Christmas wish list this year?
For PG to magically get Christmas day off work.
Main Course
Name a scent that reminds you of someone special in your life.
'Joop', it reminds me of PG
Dessert
Who is someone on television that you feel probably shouldn't be, and why?
Rebecca Loos....because claiming to shag a football star does not qualify one as a television presenter!
Make up a word and give us its definition.
"Bloggered"......the result, when one places a minute piece of HTML incorrectly and causes the entire page to collapse beyond recognition!
Soup
What is currently your favorite song?
'The closest thing to crazy' by Katie Melua.
Salad
What's at the top of your Christmas wish list this year?
For PG to magically get Christmas day off work.
Main Course
Name a scent that reminds you of someone special in your life.
'Joop', it reminds me of PG
Dessert
Who is someone on television that you feel probably shouldn't be, and why?
Rebecca Loos....because claiming to shag a football star does not qualify one as a television presenter!
Thursday, 9 December 2004
I couldn't work it out.
Home at last, another long day at work but I have tomorrow off. Today is one of those 'blogless' days where my mind is a blank so this will be short!
For those of you who I sent the 'Freaky site' email to and who haven't worked it out, here is the answer:
And yes, you are right, I couldn't work it out either but it appears I have a smart ass friend who came back at me with this explanation almost immediately! Cheers PAN, I'm impressed.
Thanks to Justitia for the original mail.
If I didn't send you the mail and you want to see what I'm talking about drop me a mail or leave me a comment and I will oblige.
That's all for now.......I have a blog to go make Christmassy :o)
For those of you who I sent the 'Freaky site' email to and who haven't worked it out, here is the answer:
Any two digit number added up and subtracted the total from the original
will result in a multiple of 9 ie 9 18 27 36 etc etc
Every time you have a go on the 'mind reading crystal ball' the symbols
change for the multiples of 9 so it will be correct every time.
And yes, you are right, I couldn't work it out either but it appears I have a smart ass friend who came back at me with this explanation almost immediately! Cheers PAN, I'm impressed.
Thanks to Justitia for the original mail.
If I didn't send you the mail and you want to see what I'm talking about drop me a mail or leave me a comment and I will oblige.
That's all for now.......I have a blog to go make Christmassy :o)
Wednesday, 8 December 2004
Festive feline fiddling
At last, yesterday afternoon the Christmas tree was dry and I merrily lugged it indoors. I say lugged for this may only be a tree of tiny proportions but it is a growing, live tree and whatever its little roots are happily living in felt like lead!
I duly man-handled it onto the table that is to be it's home for the duration, scratching it in the process, oopsss, and set about the fun business of decorating it.
My first task was to deck it with lights, I had treated us to a new set this year, I spent an interminable length of time unraveling the wire, and placing them in just the right spot on the tree only to turn them on and discover half would not light. Ok, no big deal, I test the bulbs, I fiddle, I faddle and eventually discover two of the 3 wires in the line are cut! Good quality control you guys in the manufacturing process.......I suppose I should be thankful they where low voltage!
So out come last years lights, still in working order and the decorating procedure begins once again. I was of course duly 'assisted' by one small cat who has a particular fondness for all things in the Christmas decoration line! More time was spent picking up baubles from around the premises and disentangling small paws from tinsel, than was spent on getting the stuff on the tree!
I of course forget each year how 'helpful' Ditto can be. She is provided annually with her own supply of plastic baubles, in a vain attempt to distract her from interest in and demolition of the tree....... but somehow they are just never as attractive to her as the 'real thing'.
And so the battle has begun, this morning we awoke to find a mere 7 bits and pieces on the floor accompanied by a paw-full of mud, carefully extracted from the pot along with some pine needles and scattered about with gleeful abandon........this is only the beginning!
Within the hour!
I duly man-handled it onto the table that is to be it's home for the duration, scratching it in the process, oopsss, and set about the fun business of decorating it.
My first task was to deck it with lights, I had treated us to a new set this year, I spent an interminable length of time unraveling the wire, and placing them in just the right spot on the tree only to turn them on and discover half would not light. Ok, no big deal, I test the bulbs, I fiddle, I faddle and eventually discover two of the 3 wires in the line are cut! Good quality control you guys in the manufacturing process.......I suppose I should be thankful they where low voltage!
So out come last years lights, still in working order and the decorating procedure begins once again. I was of course duly 'assisted' by one small cat who has a particular fondness for all things in the Christmas decoration line! More time was spent picking up baubles from around the premises and disentangling small paws from tinsel, than was spent on getting the stuff on the tree!
I of course forget each year how 'helpful' Ditto can be. She is provided annually with her own supply of plastic baubles, in a vain attempt to distract her from interest in and demolition of the tree....... but somehow they are just never as attractive to her as the 'real thing'.
And so the battle has begun, this morning we awoke to find a mere 7 bits and pieces on the floor accompanied by a paw-full of mud, carefully extracted from the pot along with some pine needles and scattered about with gleeful abandon........this is only the beginning!
Within the hour!
Tuesday, 7 December 2004
My gift to you
This post also appears on Lisa's blog.
Lisa and I were chatting this morning and that chat sparked an idea.
Do some of you want Christmas themes or winter themes on your blog, but you don't have the time or the inclination to do it yourself? Knowing full-well that I would make a complete backup before dorking with your site, if you would like me to install a Christmas theme on your site, email me, and we'll talk. You'll have to trust me for a few hours with your password, but you're welcome to change it after I'm done.
Any requests can go to say-it@gemmak.co.uk or lisa721@gmail.com
(Click on a link to mail)
My only stipulations is that your blog must be on a site where I have some familiarity with the coding, like Blogger or Blogdrive.
Lisa and I were chatting this morning and that chat sparked an idea.
Do some of you want Christmas themes or winter themes on your blog, but you don't have the time or the inclination to do it yourself? Knowing full-well that I would make a complete backup before dorking with your site, if you would like me to install a Christmas theme on your site, email me, and we'll talk. You'll have to trust me for a few hours with your password, but you're welcome to change it after I'm done.
Any requests can go to say-it@gemmak.co.uk or lisa721@gmail.com
(Click on a link to mail)
My only stipulations is that your blog must be on a site where I have some familiarity with the coding, like Blogger or Blogdrive.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
