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!!

I
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AM
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SOOOOO
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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!