This is becoming a habit!

Ok...... this is becoming a bit of a badhabit.

Here I am, yet another 'saturday morning at not long past 5am' and getting ready to head off for work. I can't possibly post anything coherrent at this time of day (like I ever can!) so here ya go, another Saturday morning silly cat picture....told you this was becoming a bit of a habit!

I might even come up with a name for this early Saturday picture posting malarky and make like it was an idea I intended!



Hell, no one reads it on a Saturday anyways! heh.

Christmas chaos....again

Oh joy, yet again I find myself caught up in the chaos that is 'Christmas in retail'.

Every year the same thing happens and every year it winds me up, despite my promising myself that the next time I will not allow myself to be riled.

I used to adore Christmas, it was my utterly favourite time of year....and then I went into retail and the unending sixteen or so week run up, added pressure and grumpier customers, soon saw to it that it fast became something less than my favourite time.

None of that though is what aggravates me the most. What really 'gets my goat' is the dis-organisation and lack of consideration that means that my employer can never seem to tell us if we are to have Christmas off or not, until at best mid November! That might be all very well for those who's family are near at hand but for the likes of us who have to try and make travel arrangements, cattery reservations and fit in with other family members scattered around the country, it is an annual bloody nightmare.

If I have to work over the festive season then so be it, not good but a fact of life but why in God's name can't anyone ever seem to get a grip of this a little earlier in the calendar? Let's face it, it's not rocket science is it? Christmas is the same day every year, we kinda know it's coming don't we and making up a few staffing rota's is hardly the stuff of military maneuvers!

Don't tell me it's difficult, I've done it, it's hassle but it's perfectly do-able. Hell, they know their staff, they know their shifts and they know their trading hours, but no, not once has it ever been sorted in time for us to book flights at a reasonable cost, every year we have had to pay for a cattery place regardless of whether I needed it, just to reserve it in case we do and never have we been able to simply let my family make arrangements without having to hang on until the last moment waiting to discover if we will make it!

This year PG, for the first time in ten years has four days off so at least I won't be sat here on my own like last year but worst case scenario is that I get only Christmas day itself off. If I get more we need to book flights but can we? Can we hell! I just know that yet again it will be the long drive on Christmas eve scenario because I can't get bloody confirmation one way or another in time to buy flights.

Fer pity's sake, all this hassle for a three day a week job and mark my words, when I do discover my fate we'll likely have to trail back the hundreds of miles early just so I can cover a four hour shift in the middle of the week off! Arghhhhh.

Bah humbug!

Rant over! :o)

You have to see this.....

....unless of course you have already seen it on Lisa's blog, from where I thieved it! Thanks Lisa, I just had to have this!

So, for your amusement just click and enjoy!

Ray of light

Sunset: 20.10.05



(clickable)

Oh the utter frustration!

We girls have all been there, we have all had our pride suffer and felt the utter frustration as we stand helpless and spitting mad in the face of our feminine 'inadequacies'.

Technologically savvy we might be, scared of nothing with a processor, happy in our geekery and only too pleased to be submerged in a world of gadgetry but still, every now and again life throws us a curved ball in it's attempt to put us firmly back in our feminine place and give you guys a moment of amusement!

So what has prompted this incident of spitting mad frustration?

Yesterday was an annual 'new gadget' day, they are by definition some of the best days, a new toy to be tampered and fiddled with, gadget freak heaven.....the once a year treat of the 'free' cell phone upgrade. Very unusually the carriers actually achieved the goal set them and delivered said new toy on the correct day and without incident, credit where credit is due, despite previous delivery disasters from this company to gemmak's-ville, this time and without even a complete address my shiny new phone landed on the doorstep at the appointed hour and with a smile! That was a good a start as any, things were looking hopeful.

I had already had PG offer as he left for work to 'set it up' for me on his return , in that condescending 'macho' fashion we are all used to that suggests activating GPRS and configuring an email client might just be a little too complicated for us! Pffttt, no chance, I'll do it thankyouverymuch, I am quite capable and even if I weren't I wouldn't admit it.

So the phone arrives, I excitedly unpack it and investigate and for once, rather than run what little power it has already, to nothing, I set it to charge for a few hours with more patience than is the norm and set about my afternoon.

With charging time finally complete and my new found state of patience wearing thin I gather batteries, memory cards and sim card, I make sure all the information on the old phone is where it ought to be and settle down to the favourite pastime of playing with a new gadget.

Well that was the theory, for it was at this point it all went horribly and humiliatingly wrong. We have all stood at the side of the road with a flat tyre, wheel brace in hand looking pathetically at the wheel and despite knowing what to do unable to actually muster enough brute force to undo the wheel nuts, there is some excuse for that, men tighten them too hard, but there is little excuse for the embarrassing incident I was about to suffer......yup, you guessed it, I was completely unable to get the back cover off the bloody phone!! Arghhhh.

This is not rocket science, all Nokia phones are similar, this is just a 'push and slid' action, well I pushed and I slid and I shoved and I swore and no amount of perseverance would shift it. I was forced even to check the instructions ( I don't 'do' instructions as a rule) for this menial action and yes, my action was the correct one but another half hour of pushing and sliding and huffing and puffing and still I remained thwarted!

I left it a while, tried to compose myself from my state of annoyance and then tried again...nope, the damn thing just would not shift and I just knew without doubt at this point I was headed for the utter humiliation of having to ask PG when he returned home for help. Bad enough when it's a wheel nut, a 50kg load one can hardly shift despite heaving one's whole body weight behind it but removing a phone cover?? the anticipation of the hilarity and male gloating with which that one was going to be met was almost unbearable!

He finally arrived home somewhere past 11pm with a knowing smile on his face and a few choice phrases of amusement, picked the phone up......and popped the cover off at the first attempt!!!!! Bugger!!!!

If there was any justice in the world he might at least have been presented with a tiny moments difficulty......I will likely now have to face the further frustration and humiliation of having this little tale recounted to all and sundry for years to come.

It's gonna take a long time to live this one down!

Birthday

Today would have been the 'Poppy cat's' seventeenth birthday.

(Image clickable)

'Happy birthday old puss'.

Driving you nuts??

Anyone who uses their pc with the speakers 'on' can't have failed to notice that James Blunt (for now) is 'doing his thing' somewhere in the background of gemmak's-ville.

I am no doubt committing untold numbers of copyright law infringements by this, or any similar, inclusion but I'm not a lawyer and thus far I can't discover exactly how the law applies to this use. Legalities however are not the reason for this post, unless of course you happen to have to hand that knowledge, what I really want to know is does the background 'din' drive you nuts? Ok, so you might hate my taste in music or you might love it, but is the intrusion into your quietness an aggravation in itself?

You can of course turn it off from the control on the sidebar but maybe that is merely another annoyance?

Free speech is supported here :o)

Don't you just hate it when.....

....with absolutely no intention and having made your best effort not too, you find you have upset or offended someone and no amount of regret or apology will put it right.

I met someone recently, out of the blue and we just seemed to 'click' in that rare, 'I think you and me could really be friends' kind of way, that doesn't happen very often. We chattered for hours, we had much in common and we seemed to be set for a friendship that might endure longer than a few days.

And then something happened that I think must have cause more upset and/or offence than I could have anticipated, my actions and words were not malicious, quite the reverse, they were considered and I thought carefully handled, but it seems I was wrong.

Apologies and 'peace offerings' seem to have had no effect, my emails no longer get replies and I can't see anything else I can do to put right the wrong. Half of me is saddened the other half is wondering if I was just mistaken in the first place and misread what I thought was friendship.

Whatever, don't you just hate it when you upset someone and then can't seem to make it right no matter what?

Fat cat!

I was always given to understand, and experience taught me, that cats, unlike dogs do not over eat, they eat what they need and no more, left to their own devices and with a constant supply of food they will control their own intake. Certainly in the cases of Poppy and gemmak, no matter how much in the way of high class 'cat fare' was on offer, once they had eaten enough the remainder would be abandoned to a later time.


Ditto it seems is the exception to the rule of late and appears, since her trauma of last week, to be flying in the face of that long held understanding. I know, as winter approaches cats eat more, in the past I could almost tell when the temperature was about to drop significantly by a sudden upturn in Poppy's appetite but Ditto has begun to eat in earnest and as yet no dramatic drop of the mercury has been detected!

Her summer days of padding around her territory indulging in her usual antics have been hampered by rain and she has taken to lounging more often indoors, pursuing activities of a much more laid back nature, all of which would suggest she needed a lower intake of her favourite menu's but no, she is eating like there is no tomorrow and is rapidly turning from 'small cat' to 'fat cat'!


I'm not sure yet if this is a case of comfort eating, boredom, though she has plenty to entertain her, or just a more relaxed cattitude but whatever it is, if she doesn't get a grip of the situation herself soon, a much closer system of dietary monitoring will have to be put in place and adhered to!

There's nothing like a bit of panic

The apparently inevitable pandemic heading this way is not something I'm sure I want to know about in such detail!

Historically there have always been pandemics of one disease or another and always they carry with them horrendous death tolls but until recently the population were in what was maybe a fortunate position of not having to be assailed by a news hungry media with a penchant for creating as near panic among it's audience as is humanly possible.

Bad news sells, the good doesn't and there is nothing like a bit of panic to widen your target audience! Tell a population who are used to having a large degree of control over their lives, that somewhere between 50,000 to 175.000 of them are going to meet a premature end, courtesy of the latest strain of 'Avian flu' and I imagine viewing/reading/listening figures are guaranteed to hit a high!

Sure, we need to be informed, we need to take reasonable steps to protect ourselves but do we really need to be scared half way to death before we even come down with the virus, by news reports purposely utilising evocative and carefully chosen extreme wording?

A fool I may be but ignorance may just be bliss in some instances!

The walk is walked

It's done and here is the proof! We made the 8km in well under two hours. I'm not sure how long I expected it to take but somehow I didn't ever really think of that aspect and assumed it would take longer.

(Images clickable)

We all met at the designated spot, did the signing in stuff, listened to the words of an oncologist speaker and then off we set. The day was damp and overcast, a little

misty but then we were right next to the sea though it didn't rain and the temperature was about perfect for walking.

I'm not good at estimating numbers but maybe 150-200 people took part in this 'Stride for life' and everyone seemed to enjoy it. There were certainly moments of sadness or joy for some, depending on one's individual reasons for making the walk but a feeling of camaraderie and of a shared purpose prevailed.



The five of us who has organised to walk together soon became split up into two small groups, those with long legs who could walk fast and 'E' (a colleague of mine) and I who had shorter legs, in my case very short, who after a little while decided to walk at our own pace.....a 'pottering and chattering' pace!

We are lucky to live where we do, our route took us along Berwick town walls next to the harbour and sea and then along inland


a little following the course of the Tweed estuary and under the three famous bridges. It's odd how when one lives in such a beautiful place somehow the effort is never made to explore properly until a reason presents itself. There were so many beautiful things to see, everything from the ocean vista and beautiful historic buildings to the famous Mute Swan colony that has it's home on the estuary. I kinda made a pact with myself along the way that I must make more effort in future to go out there again when I have more time to 'investigate' and look around me better.

So that was it, we did it, 8km was not massively challenging, 'E' and I almost wished it had been a longer route. We were so enjoying ourselves we would happily have carried on but as it was we arrived back unscathed and

without so much as a sore foot between us, probably less likely had we had our way and been able to continue!

All that remains now is to collect the sponsorship money people have kindly pledged and the job is done. My contribution will be a mere drop in the ocean compared to the funds needed to beat breast cancer for good but hopefully it will help a little.



And for my friends 'M' and 'P'....... today was for you, go girls!

Get walking

Today is 'Stride for life' day, the day myself and hopefully many others muster our walking feet and take part in an 8km sponsored walk to raise money for breast cancer research. A Sunday off work is a treat at anytime for me but this one has special significance.

We all know someone who has faced the trauma of breast cancer, it would be hard not too considering one in twelve of we women will be diagnosed with the disease at some point in our life and for many of us that figure is even higher. For myself the significance is heightened by my currently having two friends dealing with having been diagnosed with breast cancer, both of whom have astounded me by their positivity and courage. 'M' my colleague who still to date, despite her chemotherapy having kicked in big time now, has only missed two days of work and 'P' a friend of many years, who has more recently been diagnosed and has just undergone the surgery stage of the process, again with an astounding attitude that is humbling and impressive in the extreme. Both these friends have faced their illness in a manner and with such courage that at times makes it hard to believe they are ill at all.

Taking part in today's sponsored event is not much but it is something and hopefully I will raise a few hundred pounds and do my little bit to support a charity that without funds for research could not have helped make breast cancer as treatable as it is today and cannot continue to carry out it's work to one day find a cure and lessen the trauma of the treatments.

So 'M' and 'P' and of course my mother, who beat this horrible disease almost 18 years ago, with the same bravery and with little more fuss than if she has been told she was suffering a head cold, today is for you, my 8km hobble is with the three of you very much in mind, you are all an inspiration.

Sneaky Saturday

Sneaky because it barely qualifies as a post but hey, its not long past 5am and it's the best I can do before I rush off to work!

Courtesy of a friends email, go here for an amusing open letter!

Friday's feast (66)

Appetizer
Who is someone you would consider to be a calm person?
My mother

Soup
What was your last "gut feeling" about? Were you right?
Last gut feeling? That the kitten we bought home earlier this week wasn't going to work out....and yes, I think I was right though I won't ever know for certain :o(

Salad
List 3 words that you really don't like how they sound.
'Bog' and the 'c' word......and 'Microsoft' :o)

Main Course
What kind of shampoo and conditioner do you use?
Pantene

Dessert
If you found out that you definitely do have a guardian angel, what would you name it?
Ask me another, I haven't the vaguest idea!