An un- perfect end to an un- perfect week!

So, when you have had a tough week in the board room working all the hours God sends with incompetent project managers excelling in their display of incompetence, when your dev. guys lose sight of the phrase 'keep it simple stupid' and when all you really want to do is get home on a Friday night, what is the very best thing that can happen next?

Well the one thing it's not is to have some dozy fool t-bone your car at speed on the dark, wet journey to home to weekend escape!

Welcome to Fletch's world this last week!

Thankfully it was only vehicles that suffered damage, no bones broken or any of that, in part I suspect because himself managed, in the momentary window of opportunity, presented, to still have enough wit after his long week to react quickly and take some evasive action, thereby warding off a much more serious level of impact.

No harm done, save for a the other driver being very shaken and requiring some considerable 'calming talk' and cigarettes, all supplied in the rain and dark on the side of the road by Fletch who didn't have the heart to be angry with him given his obvious state of distress.

There will of course be some pretty hefty repair bills but it could be worse, it's a company car so we don't have to take care of that, it's just aggravation we could do without but that's life and what matters is no one was injured.

....and when he finally arrived home looking a bit dishevelled and the worse for wear, he was carrying not one but five glorious stems of orchids which are now doing their beautiful thing in a vase, having also survived the impact! :o)

1/10 for observation!

With age seems to come a certain degree of stupidity where my ability to concentrate and pay attention to detail is concerned!

I have long since accepted my forte for throwing scissors or cutlery in the bin when in fact of course, it's the rubbish in the other hand that should have been destined for the landfill, I am used to my ability to walk the few meters to another room and then stand there like a lemon trying to remember what exactly it was I went there for in the first place and I have learned to tolerate my penchant for insisting I don't need a list for just four items when out shopping.....and coming back with only two of them because of course I forgot what the other two were!

Now I have excelled myself in the stupidity stakes!

Late last night, or to be more specific early this morning, whilst going through the usual insomnia routine I decided to make my self a cup of cocoa. This is not unusual and in my defence attempt at a lame excuse it was 2.30 am and I was beginning to feel slightly dosey. So I made the aforementioned milky drink and settled back in front of my computer absentmindedly surfing and sipping.

Along the way I had a vague notion that something wasn't quite right with my drink but I took no notice, I carried on, sip, surf, sip, surf, sip, surf...all the time almost registering somewhere in the depths of my mind that something was not right but somehow unable to actually formulate a whole conscious thought on the matter.

Almost at the end of the cup my mind finally realised something really wasn't right and investigated the dregs remaining....to find the milk was well and truly off and what I was drinking had much more in common with yogurt or junket than cocoa! Yuk, nasty.

Hey...I am the woman that managed a year ago, to drink a cup of coffee made with water containing a high proportion of descaler and still only slightly register any oddity, so I suppose last nights 'observation failure' should really not come as any great surprise to me!

Lifegem - Diamonds are a girl's best friend!

Are you struggling for that special gift idea for a loved one this Christmas or perhaps trying to think of that oh so meaningful gift your uninspired significant other isn't going to come up with, and for which you need to begin dropping some subtle hints?

Well they say don't they, that diamonds are a girls best friend, so how about a diamond, but not just any old diamond, forget clarity colour and carats, forget Tiffany & Co. or Garrard instead there is a new diamond available and a coloured one at that. Fancy coloured diamonds have long been more valuable than the run of the mill offerings and now there is a very special one available should you have thousands of dollars at your disposal!

It's called 'Lifegem' and it has all the same characteristics both in appearance and carbon tech.spec. as the more traditional version, the only difference?....it's made from carbon extracted from the cremated remains of your loved one!!

How lovely! Not! Who the hell thought up that delightful little, er sorry gem, of a money making idea?

What? You mean it's not at the top of your Christmas wish list? I am astounded! I can't imagine why!

As it happens I still have Poppy tucked away in her little box after all these years, this wasn't by design, it was more that in all the upheaval of my life around the time of her departure I never quite got to deciding what I would do with her ashes, I packed her when I left Scotland, bought her with me and somehow never got to a final decision and she is still packed away in her little box....maybe I have the answer as to what to finally do with her now?

.....or maybe NOT! Whatever next!

There is however this more traditional option you could perhaps make suggestions of to your significant other, should you strangely not fancy the Lifegem for your Christmas treat. I don't think 34k is too much to ask for something so stunningly, perfectly, amazingly beautiful do you?

Tiffany daaahling, is there anywhere else?

Hair happiness!

My utter dislike of the necessary and regular trips to a hairdresser has been well documented here, including on this, this and this occasion, I just don't like it!

I don't of course have a problem with having a tidy barnet, hey, I'm a woman but I just can't be doing with all the inane chat and faffing, I want my hair cut, nothing less and certainly nothing more, if I wanted any other service I would ask for it, I don't need to be asked repeatedly if I want a colour/highlights/lowlights/treatments/manicure/pedicure/wax or any other of the myriad procedures on offer, I just want my bloody hair cut! I don't want pampering, I don't want treating like a faux princess and I don't want to waste any more time in there than is absolutely necessary! Please, in peace and quiet and without the unending, brain numbing blether regarding the booking status of my next summer holiday!

Hell, I have made a polite effort, I have even tried answering that one from time to time but the dumb blond wielding the scissors (ok, before someone takes me to the politically correct hair stylist police I know not all hairdressers fit the stereotype, just most that I have the misfortune to be tortured by) has on more than one occasion drifted off into a confused state when I tried to explain the joys of motorcycle touring as opposed to two weeks in Benidorm trying to contract a significant melanoma!

But, things have changed, success at last! I had a plan and a bit of luck and things on the salon visiting front are looking much improved....even to a point that I actually enjoyed yesterday's visit.

The plan; to grow my hair, thus necessitating a few less salon visits per annum.

The luck; The discovery of a hairdresser called 'Sammy'.....a stunning looking twenty something with a brain and a sense of humour, who talks about motorbikes, computers and travelling, who has a sense of reality about her profession, doesn't attempt to sell me 'product', has hamsters and kittens and makes a half decent, gratis, cup of coffee!

This girl is a star, we were reduced to something akin to raucous schoolgirls laughing and giggling for an hour and to add to my delight, as the result of a booking mix up I won't bore you with the details of, she gave me the full works, including the only 'add-on' I enjoy, an Indian (I don't know what defines it as 'Indian' but I don't care, it's good) head massage, for the price of just a cut!

I am impressed, very impressed, my first enjoyable 'hair salon event' has happened with none of the incumbent inanity, none of the usual disasters I seem to have encountered in these establishments over the years and not a single mention of the Benidorm word!

'Ready to wear' @ gemmak designs

gemmak designs is now offering a new service...
complete 'ready to wear' designs starting at only £12!

The new 'ready to wear' collection of blog designs is just that, ready made complete blog designs that are sold as seen and 'ready to wear' immediately, allowing them to be half the price of those made to specific order. They are however still 'one offs' and once one has been sold it will not be repeated, guaranteeing your blog a personal look.

The design of your choice will be customised with you blog title on order and where space allows, a line of text can also be placed in the header.

There are currently five regular designs to choose from and four Christmas/seasonal designs and I will be adding more shortly.

The low price includes installation to your blog and where the design is a Christmas one it also includes hosting of the images and re-installation of your usual design once the festive season is over.

The cost for the seasonal designs is only £12 and for the regular designs just £15 .....and if you would like to purchase one as a gift for someone I can send you or your friend a gift certificate.

All you have to do is choose the one you want and mail me to let me know, it couldn't be easier!

You can of course still order a design specifically tailor made for you, at the normal starting price of £30 (see terms and conditions for pricing details) or a tailor made Christmas look starting at just £25.

Click the images for a larger size preview and if you wish to see a design 'working' please email me and I will give you a link to view.

Please feel free to email me any questions.

*N.B. Payment can be made in GBP or USD at current rates


CHRISTMAS DESIGNS

Christmas stars
(Available with or without coloured sidebar and any colour background)


All Wrapped Up
(available with or without stars and any colour background)


Christmas Kitty
(Available with or without coloured sidebar and any colour background)



Contemporary Tree




REGULAR DESIGNS

Computer Girl
(Available with any colour background)


Relax


Notepad
(Available with or without pencil graphic)


Ladybug
(Available with any colour background)


Black Heart

The sum total...

...of the snow I saw was this meagre offering (sorry, appalling photo taken on my phone through the van's window) and to make matters worse, having lain awake from midnight until 4am barely daring to move for fear of waking the other camper inhabitants with my loudly 'rustling' rip stop sleeping bag, I fell asleep for two hours between 5 and 7 and missed a more significant fall which had melted by the time I woke up! No-one woke me! Can you believe it??!!

Ok, so this camper van malarkey, what can I say save for 'give me back my tent please'. All of the inconvenience of camping with none of the fun or the feeling of communing with nature, too hot, too stuffy and it felt like being in a car park...though I accept there are much nicer sites and this one was chosen for it's convenience alone on this occasion.

All that said, we had a lovely evening with the outlaws, all the usual eating, drinking and hilarity and the company of a noisy owl and I think the entire countries population of Moorhens....but really, it's just not camping!

Posh camping!

Contrary to our usual camping carrying-ons which involves a four seasons tent that restricts even sitting up, cooking on one burner and nil sanitary provision, this weekend we are off to do a little camping the posh way!

Fletch's parents own a camper van, well it seems a little inappropriate to call it just that, this monster vehicle is all shiny, almost new and boasts just about every domestic necessity and luxury known to mankind...it is also barely smaller than our flat!

So, we are off to a place called Grafham Water to spend the weekend with the outlaws in this mobile palace and whilst it's not really our style of camping, I'm not even sure it qualifies as 'camping', it should be fun and it does have it's benefits on a night when the temperatures are set to go well below zero and snow is forecast....heating and apparently efficient heating to boot are of course part of this home from home-mobile. No need for our minus 20 sleeping bags there then!

We have even been promised the sleeping quarters with the skylight so that if the miracle occurs and the snow falls overnight I can lay there and watch it....assuming of course that as is my norm, I don't sleep.

So that's our weekend, two days of camping the posh way, I'll be taking my camera in case of magnificent snowfall but don't expect me to be taking part in any of the water sporting activities on offer, I have my book, t'internet via my phone and good company, I intend to stay huddled inside making the most of the luxury, unless of course a foot of snow materialises, in which case I might just be prised outside to make the very most of it!

Meow!

Sorry...I just couldn't resist!!

Turn your sound on and move your cursor over him, around him, beside him, above, below...you get the picture! If he's a little quiet you might need to click on his tummy or his head! :o)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

My annual snow watching activities have begun again in earnest, last months unusually early snowfall managed to skirt around the edge of gemmak's-ville and miss us completely.... and last year the single day of snow we did have, I managed to be away elsewhere for and there was not a sign of it left when we returned back home!

My obsession with love of the white stuff is well documented here over the years though what usually happens as the norm is that I watch all the weather models avidly, get thoroughly excited and then it doesn't....snow that is. Just one year surely we must have some proper, decent, impressive snowfall, I can't remember the last time I saw more than a dusting....well actually I can, it was thirteen years ago. Too long, too long!

So, this weekend the models and charts are looking good, a 40-60% likelihood of snowfall is forecast here and some right into next week, the temperature and pressure trends are all doing the right thing (ok, yes, I am a weather anorak) and it's looking like snow is a real possibility .... and guess what, we are going away again!

If it happens and I miss it I won't be a happy blogger...that's much worse than it not happening at all...that said we aren't going far so fingers and toes remain firmly crossed.

Please let it snow! :o)

Depressed economy!

You know, I am heartily sick of hearing about money at the moment!

It's not so much that I don't have any, though a little more would be kinda nice, it's that somehow it feels like absolutely everything in this world depends on it right now! The reality is, to the economists among you out there, that it does, it's a fact I know, that the harsh reality is that money makes the world go around but we seem to be completely obsessed with it of late....there is nothing but financial doom and gloom in the media, everyone is in some degree of panic over interest rates, debt, rising prices or any other number of understandably worrying financial considerations. The government that tells us we are in this situation because of debt wants now to get into more debt itself, the jobless figures are rising daily, the politicians are still more interested in in-fighting than actually getting to grips with the real issues and we at the sharp end just keep on adjusting our lifestyles to accommodate!

But there are other things in life and just maybe it would be nice if occasionally we focused on those, a little time spent concentrating on what we do have rather than what we don't have might just be a nice idea and help give us the positive attitude and uplift needed to sustain ourselves through all the doom and gloom!

P.S. I love you

Fletch arrive home from work yesterday evening weighed down with bags, this is most unusual, shopping during lunch is unsurprisingly not his preference, he has 'Ms Stayathome' here for all that routine domestic malarkey stuff and so I was much intrigued.

As he walked through the door I was instructed not to go into the kitchen and to turn off my computer, the evening was to be a special one for me, I was to relax and do nothing, not so much as make a cup of coffee. This was not an instruction I found hard to comply with! Recently I have been feeling a bit less than chipper, a bit down in the mouth and miserable so himself, love him had planned a special evening in for me!

The bags contained a plethora of all my favourite foods for an indoor picnic, I love indoor picnics, including the most excellent chunk of Roquefort, which was to die for, a heap of other cheeses (you will guess I have a passion for cheeses) olives, pastrami, salami, a bottle of good wine and a big fat squishy chocolate cake!

We stuffed the picnic happily, Fletch tidied up, made coffee etc. and then pulled out of his bag of tricks a DVD, 'P.S. I love you', a film I have long wanted to see but is usually off the 'joint film watching menu'....chick flicks are for chicks he reasons! ;o) So, not only had he actually purchased a chick flick for me, he then, beyond the call of any man's duty sat and watched the whole thing, without humorous interjection, cuddled up on the sofa!

More wine was consumed, chocolate cake with the thickest cream was devoured and when the film, which I loved and cried through most of, was over we listened to music and chatted and giggled the rest of the evening away until late into the evening.

A lovely, lovely evening, I didn't lift a finger! I was stuffed full of my favourite foods, lightheaded from the wine and thoroughly cheerful.... at this point I think, if this were a 40's discreet, black and white movie the lights would go down and the credits would roll! ;o)


*P.S. I love you.

Fat face!

Sunday afternoon we took a quick trip to the Hamster treat store....somehow we managed to exit fifteen minutes later and almost £20 lighter, yes, £20 just on hamster necessities and the odd little nutritious snack!!

I am convinced that, like 'catnip' there must also be 'Hamster nip' out there, the manufacturers just don't tell us but the strangely most expensive of the fare, a wooden roll stuffed to the gunnels with a honey and carrot concoction, caused three hours of mayhem. She just would not leave it alone and instead, despite it being official hamster nighttime and the item being twice her size, she lugged it backwards and forwards, dragged it up and down, turned it over and back again and clawed, scratched and chewed at it manically until every last morsel was safely 'pouched' and removed to a safe food hiding place...all with a daft,dazed look on her fat face!

Three hours! Non stop! Pouch after pouch load...and what pouches, she looked at some stages completely and utterly deformed! Surely carrot and honey alone can't illicit such behaviour! I'm sure they must sneak into these things some highly addictive, cat-nip-like substance! ;o)

Out of the mouths of babes

Yesterday evening we and a few friends were invited for dinner at the home of another of our little 'evenings out drinking way too much gang'. This promised to be an interesting culinary experience, 'M' is originally from Dominica and had promised us all authentic Caribbean fare.

Mindful though that his own skills in the kitchen are er, 'infamous' he had charged two of his sisters with journeying up from their homes in central London to chef for the evening!....and what a grand job they did! The food was absolutely fabulous though for yours truly, a very slowly recovering, lifetime veggie, a dish of goat was just one step too far and an 'opportunity' to try something new that I bottled without hesitation!

The evening was a lovely one, much eating, drinking, laughter and stupidity though with an early moment that one just couldn't help being amused at (see, there's my sick sense of humour raising it's head again!) after the event.

One of the guests had with her her eight year old daughter, one of the most delightful children I think I have ever met. Polite, chatty, articulate and well behaved, this kid went to bed at 9 without so much as hint of nonsense, I was impressed! She had been allowed in return for her promised good behaviour to watch The X Factor. This was a 'treat' that was completely lost on me and never having seen it I asked what it was all about.

Her mother gave me a brief explanation of what it is to be an X Factor contestant, adding at the end amusingly that it seems all contestants have to, besides having some 'talent', also have a tragic life story to go with it, hopefully one assumed to illicit the sympathy vote if the talent aspect fails them!

At this point delightful small child piped in, full of jollity and in that 8 year old matter of fact way that they have, "I could be on the X Factor then, I have a tragic life story, my dad died when I was one and a half years old"!!!

*Insert moment of stunned, embarrassed silence*

Now I already knew this, but the other guests didn't, hence I managed to recover my thoughts and control my amusement at her so innocently dropping this bombshell into the middle of the previously light hearted conversation quicker than the others and hit back in that stunned moment of silence with, "ah yes, but can you sing?!"

Moment over, conversation resumed, inaudible sigh of relief around the room.

Out of the mouths of babes and all that...can't help but love it!

I can haz flowerz!