Hell on Wheels…

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Have you ever been to the supermarket an hour before it closes on a Sunday? 

You know prior to the 15 hour closure (my local Sainsbury’s anyway) before it opens again on Monday…a break apparently lengthy enough to induce bulk buying, long queues and some creative car parking behaviour.

Well I was just there, the timing unplanned.  I meant to go much earlier but time got away from me and I had things to buy which (hopefully) will stop me from eating some meals this week completely devoid of any nutritional benefit…anyway I digress…

Wow! it’s a battlefield out there.  Cars, trolleys, prams, bikes, baskets, elbows…I am sure that the TV Show Gladiators was modelled on this.  I was glad to get home to my little flat…all cosy and snug, and safe from those wet, nasty elements in the aisles of the Sainsbury’s Sury Basin store and car park!

At least my fridge had finished defrosting by the time I got home and I could fit things into the roughly-two-brick-sized freezer again…

Small blessings…

Love is…

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So here it is…Valentine’s Day 2010…with all its societal hopefulness and commercial pressure (or should that be societal pressure and commercial hopefulness?)  And I must say that it has been one of the nicest Valentine’s Days I’ve ever had.  And guess what we did…

I washed the kitchen floor, did a load of washing, washed the breakfast dishes (hmmm reading this there is a definite ‘washing’ theme)…I have also eaten the entire Milky Bar-flavoured chocolate cow J gave me this morning – and have a mild sugar headache to show for it – and am planning to cook a mean spaghetti bolognese for us tonight.

J on the other hand, got into my drawers…

Noooo…tut tut….naughty naughty….I was referring to my chest of drawers!

These were an IKEA purchase from 5 years ago that I built all by myself when I first moved here by following the riddle we all know and love as ‘flatpack instructions’.  I have also progressively filled each drawer to the brim and reglued the bottom of each as they succumbed under the weight of my chattels.  But recently the drawers became ‘unfixed’ so badly that I have been living for the past few weeks with the top one sitting on the floor by itself and the bottom drawer’s contents completely inaccessible because the middle drawer has been semi-collapsed on top of it.

So J basically rebuilt this for me…the result is awesome and verging on indestructible (he does a proper DIY job my man does!) and apart from being able to reclaim the small piece of floor next to my bed, I am chuffed at getting even more value out of this IKEA purchase by spending merely another tenner.

He must love me a lot!

Hope you found a little love to get you through this Valentine’s Day…xx  

The Centenary Blog…

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So peeps, it’s a special day today and I have to let you in on some exciting news.

THIS IS MY 100th BLOG POST

That’s 100 giddayfromtheuk rants, outpourings and reflections on life…

There have been some ongoing themes and some stand-alone anecdotes, many irreverent witterings and an abundance of passionate opinions…

I’ve shared successes – Definitely Not Leaving, Fotografia Extraordinaria, The Incident Of The Kite In The Tree, All Hail Valley Girl to name a few – and failures (alas the veggie garden is no more)…

There’s even been some getting in touch with ‘the child within’ (Under The Weather, The Happiest Friends On Earth)…

There have moments of humility and gratitude, joy and sorrow as I found new friends and lost others, explored new ideas and questioned my beliefs about love, life and technology…

Who knew there would be so much to say?

So thanks for letting me ‘bend your ear’ for the first 100 and I’m hoping you’ll stay with me for the next 100…

Google Ad(Non)Sense…

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I am perturbed.

A little while ago I decided to give Google Adsense a try and dutifully loaded that little box of Google mystery onto my blog page.

As I added new blog posts, I started to notice that the ads changed depending on what I blogged about (particularly in relation to my tags).  ‘This is quite exciting’, I thought to myself. ‘I am obviously getting the hang of this!’

But recently I have noticed that there seems to be a theme that I don’t understand.  Something that I don’t think I have actually blogged about.  And I am a bit reticent to mention the word in case it gets stuck in my little Google box forever…but here goes….

Dogs.

Yes dogs…or more specifically products for dogs – dog biscuits, dog leads, dog walking even dog vitamins…

I’m confused…

There has also been little progress on my attempts at bus-blogging (see my last post by clicking here)…my mobile email seems to have developed an intermittent allergy to various parts of the journey home…maybe it’s confused too…

Technology…sigh!

A Leap Of Technological Faith…

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My blogger account tells me that I can update my blog posts by email.
I am wondering whether I can really do this because if I could, I could post more often like say on the bus/train to and from work…
…which is quite ironic given my last post (I Am Blogger…Hear Me Now??)
Anyway, I am giving this a try so if things look a little awry of the next few posts (and those of you who get auto-emails of my blog get three versions of the same one), that’ll be why…
The technological relationship between me and my phone usually requires a bit of a leap of faith for me to try stuff…so your support and patience over this difficult time will be appreciated.
Pressing SEND now….

I Am Blogger…Hear Me Now???

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In this brave new world of blogging I find myself in, reading the mental meanderings of those I’ve never actually met (and some that I have!!) passes many an idle hour on the commute to and from work.  One of my faves is ad broad, an ‘age-less’, ad-industry female who claims to be the oldest working writer in advertising – her pithy comments and pointed rantings make me smile…and question…and wonder…and smile again…

Anyhow, I read one of her posts recently – no status update = new status symbol – and it did make me wonder about this societal addiction that has emerged.  Letting everyone know what you are doing at random moments on every available medium and presuming that the ‘world out there’ will be fascinated by this.  

Isn’t this just the ultimate in attention-seeking, diva behaviour? 

There has been this absolute transformation from the parental edict ‘seen and not heard’ that I remember to this kind of cyber-showing off – this urge to have something to say, and be heard, all of the time. 

I wonder about the backlash against this that she blogs about.  Some of my friends have emailed me saying they have closed their Facebook accounts and I’m still wondering about the whole Twitter thing myself (I have a twitter-toe dipped in the water though – you can find me – sporadically – under giddayfromtheuk) but I don’t see this surge to social media and the more, quicker, better race for status-updating technologies that surrounds it abating anytime soon.

I’m not sure where my feelings really lie.  I like Facebook and love blogging and if there are no comments in response to my updates and posts for a period of time, I feel slightly bereft.  And some of my fellow bloggers are thought-provoking, funny, irreverent, inspiring and completely generous in allowing me to peek into their worlds. But I worry a bit about the ‘behaviour’ social media seems to generate – the constant ‘I have something to say/Hear me now!’. 

After all, it’s a big world out there – and who REALLY cares? 

The Adventures of an Emergency Handbag

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This weekend I had two days of idle bliss planned – nowhere I had to go or be in particular and a whole lot of rather indulgent reading on the agenda! 
But at 1.30 on Saturday afternoon I got a call, an emergency handbag call requesting my presence that evening as a ‘work-do-date’. And far be it from me to disappoint a friend in need: so 2 hours later I found myself driving with my friend A into the wilds (maybe not so wild) of Hampshire to stately home,Tylney Hall.
Gorgeously frosty surrounds made this morning’s post-brekky stroll around the grounds (you know, the stroll you need to put a spring in your step after the ‘night before’) absolutely delightful…beautiful clear skies and a slight mist made it all look a bit ethereal…and we were also fascinated by a few of the more frozen aspects of our little meander!
How’s that frozen fountain?  And the frozen puddles? Pretty cool eh?
So despite the short notice and ensuing lack of sleep that followed, it was another fab adventure for this last minute ‘date’…you might want to stay tuned for another Emergency Handbag Adventure coming to this blog sometime soon…ish!

Email Giggles: the Purina Diet…

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I was going through my emails last night, deleting all the dross and things I haven’t gotten round to following up on (or even reading in the first place) so that I can have a clean email box start to the week, when I came across this ‘story’ forwarded by one of my friends. It made me laugh out loud so I thought I’d share it with you all to get your week off to a good hearty start….

Yesterday I was at my local CO-OP buying a large bag of Purina dog food for my loyal pet and was in the checkout queue when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog. What did she think I had, an elephant? So, since I’m retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn’t have a dog, I was starting the Purina Diet again. I added that I probably shouldn’t, because I ended up in hospital last time, but that I’d lost 2 stones before I woke up in intensive care with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms. I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete so it works well and I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in queue was now enthralled with my story.) Horrified, she asked me if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me. I told her no, I stepped off a curb to sniff an Irish Setter’s a**e and a car hit us both.
I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard.
I’m now banned from the Co-op. Better watch what you ask retired people. They have all the time in the world to think of daft things to say.

Hope this gave you a laugh for the day….personally I can’t wait to ‘retire’ and embark on this kind of irreverent behaviour…maybe I could squeeze in some practice in the meantime!?

Tee hee….

Five Greatest Warriors…It’s Finally Arrived!

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Quite some time ago now, I told you about this amazing Australian author, Matthew Reilly, and what cracking good reads his books are, so much so that when I heard his next book in the Jack West series was coming out, I was inspired to read the first two, Seven Ancient Wonders and Six Sacred Stones, again.

The day has finally come…the day I have been waiting all those long months for…

My ‘Five Greatest Warriors’ has arrived!

(Actually twice but that’s a long story for another blog…)

So bye for now…will check back in when the last noble deed is done and the world is safe from Armageddon…