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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Cazzle's Blurty:
| Monday, November 16th, 2009 | |
| 11:03 am | I could blog about important stuff. I mean, a lot has happened since I last had a proper update. I went to London and saw WDers and got John Barrowman's autograph via Christine, and then a load of good stuff happened at work, and I could even talk about this house-hunting malarkey. BUT INSTEAD I AM GOING TO TALK ABOUT PONIES. You see, Hasbroken (as they are maturely referred to on The Pony Boards) have decided to set up their own TV channel to brainwash kids with. And one of their Maybe Certainly Most Definite brands to get its own show? OMG PONIES!!1! You'd think that I'd be punching the air about this, except... well, the ponies have changed In the 80s, the ponies on TV looked like this, this and this. Then in the 90s came My Little Pony Tales, which we don't talkabout. Then, when the Pony line was relaunched, we got a pretty middle-of-the-road cartoon with inoffensive design, such as this (y hallo thar, Pinkie Pie.) Then. Hasbro rejigged the line, trying to make it cooler for older little girls. The result is a style which has RUN AWAAAAAY. Seriously, What is wrong with their heads?! And why are their hooves so freakishly huge?! Kiss mine, Hasbro. TL:DR version: They Changed Ponies And Now They REALLY Suck. Current Mood:  annoyed |
| Sunday, November 15th, 2009 | |
| 9:59 am | Bring it, essay. I've got about 1000 words left to produce on this wretched essay, then go through and standardise/check all my footnotes, work out some kind of bibliography and attach appendices. Then I have to print the bastard, post 2 copies to uni, and send it electronically for marking. (Obviously I can't do any of the posting until tomorrow.) DOCTOR WHO IS TONIGHT. :-D |
| Friday, November 13th, 2009 | |
| 3:12 pm | Blaaargh Today I came up with 600 (fully footnoted) words. SIGH. 2 days left for this essay. Of course, instead of contonuing to write, I am now drinking wine and watching the Doctor Who Greatest Moments (Martha). Oh, Martha, you were pretty awesome. And Ten was kind of a douche to you. NEW WHO ON SUNDAY, YOU GUYS. :-D |
| Thursday, October 29th, 2009 | |
| 7:12 pm | Argh! I'm so behind! I've got loads still to do before we leave in the morning. An early morning is in store, because of a few factors, so I am now off to bed. See (some of!) you tomorrow. TOMORROW!!!! Current Mood:  ecstatic |
| Monday, October 26th, 2009 | |
| 6:53 pm | Holy crap. You guys, tomorrow morning we're going to see a mortgage adviser. How am I even old enough for this? (BTW: I will be 25 in a week. ONE WEEK!) Current Mood:  anxious |
| Saturday, October 24th, 2009 | |
| 4:54 pm | All my own fault. Sigh. Since I was too lazy to clean the box grater, I tried to grate an orange on the paddle-style grater instead. Of course, my hand slipped and I grated PART OF MY GODDAMN THUMB. I am shouting because have you ever greated your thumb on an implement covered in orange juice? If you are wondering why I am baking at 10pm on a Saturday, it's because I am going to a Halloween party tomorrow. Also, because of daylight savings TONIGHT, it's totally only 9pm. SO THERE. I wanted to post properly about work this week but I'm so worn out I can't honestly manage it right now. Highlights have been being stalked by my Chatterbooks (4 of them have come in to the library over the past 2 days, which has been great) and my Very Favourite Customer teasing me for being a martyr about my ankle this morning. Lowlights were being told we can't have a bunsale for Children in Need (for fuck's sake!) and The Rest Of Today, particularly my supposed storytelling session for this year's Book Festival, which meant I had to carry a load of stuff across town on my own - I looked like a ruddy packhorse - to which only 2 children showed up. I blame the weather. Barley says WHERE ARE MY NOMS, HOOMIN? IT IS TEN PEE EM SO YOU MUST GIVE ME MY SUPPER. Current Mood:  tired |
| Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 | |
| 10:50 am | Holy crap, you guys- I just realised that in less than two weeks it's my birthday. Where the hell did 2009 go?! And more importantly, should I arrange a party? Current Mood:  chipper |
| Sunday, October 18th, 2009 | |
| 8:35 am | Random bits, really. So far, I haven't been hugely affected by the death of Stephen Gately, beyond thinking how sad it all is - which surprised me a bit, considering how Boyzone obsessed I was in my youth. Then, my radio show this afternoon played Shooting Star (from the Hercules soundtrack) and it made me rather nostalgic and more than a little sniffly. Poor bloke, he really was too young. I've also been trying (and failing) to write a coherent blog entry all day. My mind is just all over the place right now. And so, a list: -Last night Matt had an awards evening at the rowing club, to which I went along. His team - the men's senior 8 - won a joint award, which was presented to their coach. I think he was quite pleased. Then the chairman made a speech thanking all the girlfriends/wives and boyfriends/husbands for allowing their partners to bugger off rowing all the time, and the rowers applauded us all. I felt terribly vindicated for any whinging. ;) - Today, I have finished knitting my green hat! Just have to knit the cord for the middle. Pictures may be forthcoming tomorrow, we'll see. - I am starting to think semi-seriously about Christmas, which is ridiculous, considering I've not even had my birthday yet. What nonsense. - We're going to see La Cage Aux Folles and have a super-awesome WD party in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS. I am ridiculously excited. - Decided that we need to do something at work for Children in Need this year. There's a chain of shops selling special Pudsey stuff like cookie cutters and bun cases, which I will probably buy some of tomorrow. - Spent most of today watching various Youtube videos of Susan Egan singing, Alan Menken playing piano, and various old Beautiful South videos. Consequently feeling melancholic and introspective, but not necessarily in a bad way. Er, if that makes sense. - About to do my ankle exercises. My ankle is SORELY and I don't want to, but it's the only way to stop it being so. Finally, I am feeling MUCH better today and will stop complaining about being poorly all over Facebook. The highlight of my weekend was when I sneezed so hard yesterday that I gave myself a nosebleed. Whoo! I hope I don't get sick again this winter, and I'm looking forward to shedding this ridiculous cough. I sound like I have consumption. Current Mood:  nostalgic |
| Monday, October 12th, 2009 | |
| 4:33 pm | I'm sick! I feel worse than yesterday and I'm shivery and hot. Hurrah! I've just made a Lemsip with five-fruit cordial added, because I hate the lemon ones. It's a) very hot and b) very soothing to my throat. Starting to wonder whether I will be at work on Wednesday or not. We'll see how tomorrow's physio and meeting go. Also, it may be time to purchase a thermometer.... SWINE FLU MONKEY AIDS! (That is Matthew's pet name for his illness. I don't think he actually has swine flu, but there we are.) Current Mood:  sick |
| Sunday, October 11th, 2009 | |
| 9:37 am | Blaaargh. I feel like crap today, and it's not even from the alcohol. Matt was really ill yesterday- he was running a fever and couldn't decide whether he was hot or cold. He kept waking up every hour, more or less, and spent most of the night tossing and turning. I got up to make him a hot water bottle twice, and brought him more water. Then he wanted me to open the window, so I did. He kept waking me up to ask me to move over, though I couldn't. He was really burning up and possibly semi-delirious at one point. Eventually, around 4am, I managed to get a solid few hours' sleep, because (I later learned) he'd taken himself down the sofa. Then at 8:20 he woke me up asking where the garage key was. (He'd promised to lend his bike to a mate. 8:20! On a bleedin' Sunday!) I tried to get back to sleep but couldn't, so I got up. I feel kinda drained and cranky and, most worryingly, I've started with the sore throat and the cough. If he's made me ill, and I miss work this week, he's sleeping in the garden. Current Mood:  sleepy |
| Saturday, October 10th, 2009 | |
| 4:39 pm | oh dear I'm afraid that i'm a bit drunk. Matt is very poorly. We went on to the Indian without him, and he stayed in bed and hacked and coughed, poor lamb. My mum and her new fella seem very happy. I am plreased by tgus,. THIS. Oh gos, I'd stopping now because I need to go to sleep. Current Mood:  drunk |
| Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 | |
| 4:47 pm | Knitting and future-shopping and TV. The knitting is somewhat back on track. If it is still too big I am past caring. I've knitted all of the wool I pulled back yesterday, thank crap, but am finding that it is difficult to measure (stocking stitch!) On the plus side, it's going to be a Very Warm Hat. Mmmm, merino, how I love thee. As for the future shopping, even though I don't leave for about 6 months, I'm planning my shopping list for NY. It's mostly DVDs that I can't easily obtain and that PHENOMENAL moisturising handwash that Bath & Body works do, which I've been utterly addicted to for years. (Warm Vanialla Sugar.) I appreciate it isn't cheap, but it's sooooooo good. Thankfully I had the foresight to buy two last time we saw Cassy (Hi Cassy!) but I am onto the second bottle now. Will it last until April?! (At the rate I use it, Probably!) I'm also after various sweeties and *cough*Neopets*cough* stuff from Target. We finally watched the last Dollhouse, which was kinda meh and I didn't appreciate the horror-movie stuff at all. We also saw House which was Much Better. Plus, shirtless!Chase, so thumbs up from me. (Also maudlin and depressing things, but shhh.) Finally, I'm going to catch True Blood. Laters! |
| Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 | |
| 3:45 pm | Bits and bobs 1) My knitting is pissing me off. I've very carefully knitted 2 guage swatches for the hat I'm making, and pulled them back. I was a few cm into the hat when I realised I was using the wrong size of needle (the pattern calls for you to change needle size after the first 2 rows.) I then realised I'd estimated wrong, and cast on too many extra stitches. It would have been huge. So I pulled the entire thing back, and even though I've spent the best part of the day on this, I've got one cast-on stitch. SOB. 2) Visit to Bowes museum today was just great, got to talk to the US team a lot more, as I'd hoped. The lass who'd been poorly was totally recovered and just fine. It was just two of us today, Tom and me. Their team leader asked the 2 of us what we're hoping to do when we're in NY for our vocational days, and about our jobs - I stressed that I want to do anything with kids + literacy, it doesn't just have to be libraries (but that I'll be perfectly happy even if it is!) I did get to talk to the team member I wanted to, and discovered that there is no Cheesecake Factory in the place we'll be visiting, but there is definitely an IHOP. :) 3)~SPOILERS YOU GUYS~ Although I'm going to go as Amy Pond for Halloween this year, it will NOT BE IN THIS, THANKYOUVERYMUCH. Also, the lower pictures confirm to me that nobody (even when they're Karen Gillan) can look elegant while running. 4) I am very much looking forward to the latest episode of House. A bit less so for Dollhouse, but I'm still watching. 5) It's LESS THAN A MONTH till my birthday! I'm going to be 25 and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. Current Mood:  amused |
| Sunday, October 4th, 2009 | |
| 10:24 am | Interesting stuff So, as you already know, I'm on the team going to America next year. As you may not have known, the district we will be visiting have sent their team over, and they're about halfway through their trip. All 4 of us and our team leader, Barbara, went to the District Conference yesterday, where we met the US team. They seem like a very pleasant lot. We watched them do their presentation and we also go introduced to the rest of the delegates, i.e. the people who make up the clubs which are sponsoring us to visit NY. Thankfully we didn't have to say anything, just stand up and wave! One of the American team was really poorly, I think something she ate the night before had upset her tummy, but she came down and did the presentation anyway. I was very impressed, because I don't know if I could have managed the same if it had been me! Obviously she went straight back to her room after, so we didn't get to chat to her, but we'll be seeing the team again on Tuesday. The team are all about our age, mid-20s, and seemed cool. There were 2 guys, Tim and Jeremy - I think Jeremy is probably closest to my age i.e. youngest in the group. He was rather bouncy and excited by everything, very confident. The other guy, Tim, was more quiet and calm. He's the group's unoffical photographer, I gather, with a Very Serious camera. He has 2 kids, who we saw a photo of during the presentation, two little girls. Very sweet. The other member of the team was a lass called Vickey, who's a full-time writer and specialises in RPGs. I wasn't sure whether she writes for computer games or for the more LARP-style kind of thing, or board games, but for some reason I was feeling really shy and I didn't ask her about it. I'm hoping to chat to her a bit more on Tuesday. Vickey had also made cute little buddies for everyone, those little pom-pom critters with googly eyes, that she'd stuck onto ribbon wit GSE 'O9 written on, and a little strip of ribbon in red, white and blue. Oh and little smiley face badges too! I think we would get on quite well if I can manage to actually talk to her a bit more. As for our team, I got a lift down to the conference and back with James. He's a little bit older than me, 26, and seems a really genuinely nice bloke. The other guy in our team is Tom, who's the oldest at 31. He seems quite quiet so far but I think he'll open up a bit more as we all get to know each other. Rounding out the team, there's Helen, who's almost exactly a year older than me (her birthday's three days after mine!) From first impressions, I really really like Helen, she's dead sound. She also did English Language and Lit at uni, and is very warm and friendly. (She also had very nice shoes on yesterday.) Finally, our leader, Barbara, is very no-nonsense. She's very funny and says what she's thinking. I really think she'll take great care of us abroad, and she won't be afraid to tell people if we need a rest or whatever. After the presentations and stuff, we had lunch together, both teams and leaders. It was nice to be able to talk a bit to the other team without them being dragged off a lot. Then after lunch, we went outside and had a few photos taken with each other. It was really quite nice! We chatted briefly and then the US team went back to get changed and stuff, and we had a brief team meeting on our own, talking about uniforms and stuff. We also talked vaguely about our own presentation, and Barbara divided us up into covering different areas of the region. It'll be an education for me, to be honest, because even though I've lived here for almost 6 years, I still haven't seen that much of the North East. (Mostly just Durham and bits of Newcastle, though I have walked a little bit of Hadrian's Wall, obviously.) I'm starting to get really excited about this trip! So, next. I'm going along on Tuesday with the US team, out to Barnard Castle, and we'll go and visit the Bowes museum while we're there. I've been before, but since this is one of the few trips the team are on that I'll be able to attend, I'm going again. I'm hoping my ankle doesn't give me too much gyp - I've got a support bandage on it which is fab so far, but there are wheelchairs I can borrow if needs be! Current Mood:  bouncy |
| Saturday, September 26th, 2009 | |
| 9:57 am | Houses, oh my god. So! Our rental contract expires at this house in the middle of January. As we have lost a housemate, it has become Very Expensive just to live here, even before bills and food and such. We've been talking about buying a house for a couple of months now, more seriously since we renewed the contract for (what we hope will be) the last time, and thanks to Matt's family, we have got a (loan of a) decent deposit. So, today, we have been looking at houses. We would ideally like to live as close to town as we do now, i.e. about 10 minutes' walk to the centre, but we need a decent-sized garden for the bunnies, and possibly enough room to keep hens as well, so we're looking a couple of miles out of town. Our budget means we can afford a pretty reasonable abode, and we have so far seen two VERY NICE houses, two okay houses, and one poky little hobbit house with a yard, not a garden. (Though it was very modern and the kitchen was superb.) We're having a quick break before we go to see another two. Out of the two we really liked, one was a bit further out than we wanted, and the other required a lot of work to make the garden bunny-proof. Interestingly, both of the houses that we loved were houses with kids. Please god no, not yet. I'm stopping now, because I just had to delete a paragraph about laminate floors. Fuck me, I'm middle-aged already. In other news, I am offically enrolled as a student and I have begun to *gasp* study! Barley disapproves of posts that are not directly about her. Update: We saw the last two. The first one was UTTERLY GORGEOUS, the ideal location (15 minutes to work for me, 10 minutes to the train station for Matt), had been sumptuously decorated, made great use of all available space, had an enormously-sized garden that was well fenced already, plus a garage - but it's more than we can afford. :( We'd need a much higher deposit, which we can't manage, sadly. We went to the final house of the day, which was in a nice, quiet road with a lovely open view across the fields (we could just about see the house where we're currently living!) The house was spacious and had been recently decorated, modern but plain (inoffensive) and easy to do stuff with. The garden was a great size and fenced off, and was on different levels, with steps up to the top, which the buns could learn to handle. Unfortunately, the train line runs directly opposite the house, about 50 yards from the front door. Because Durham is along the main East Coast line, it's also used by freight trains which run overnight, every hour, on the hour. It's a major drawback. Less of a problem is the house behind - they've built some kind of decking arrangement, (without planning permission) and because of the height difference in the houses, if there's anybody on it, they can see right into your house and garden. Which would be offputting. I suppose you could plant big trees/sunflowers to mask it a bit, or put ivy along a trellis or something, but it makes the back garden feel kind of exposed. All in all, we're not sure. I am having to resign myself to the fact that I am not going to live within reasonable walking distance of work. I don't want to cycle in during the cold, wet, dark winter months, but I don't like relying on public transport. Hmmmmmm. (And I can't drive in to work because the parking in the city centre is atrocious and very costly.) Food for thought! |
| Sunday, September 20th, 2009 | |
| 11:55 am | Rabbits and stuff. So I was just googling to find the new Emily Gravett book when I discovered that the Rabbit Problem is an Actual Mathematical Thing. It's something to do with the Fibbonacci series, apparently. We have blackberry bushes at the back of the garden, which was one of the reasons I wanted to live here. I picked a big tub full of them today, and I'm debating whether to make pie (URGH TOO LAZY TO MAKE PASTRY) or crumble (BUT PIE IS SO MUCH TASTIER). Flora and Barley helped me by snuffling around my feet for ones that I dropped. Thanks, girls. Finally, I ventured to the supermarket with Matt today. I managed to drive there, which is a massive improvement, although my ankle was twinging by the time we got there. (It's only about a 10 minute drive, tops.) As we were leaving, I saw a (regular) borrower, who was most concerned by my crutches. It's always a bit odd seeing borrowers when you're not at work, but she's one of the really nice ones, so it was ok. |
| Saturday, September 19th, 2009 | |
| 2:50 pm | I went to work today! I really did! For an hour! It was the Questseekers party this afternoon, so I went along to watch the fun. I made cupcakes this morning, so I took them along, and they went down extremely well. I mostly sat in a chair and poured juice for the kids and handed out food, and it was very nice to be a) out of the house and b) back at work. Even though I wasn't, officially. Then I went down to the workroom and cried at the pile in my tray. It had actually fallen off and into my colleague's tray, sigh. I rejigged it a bit but left it for when I'm actually back. Then I poked about with the new junior stock and skimmed some of it, taking a nice selection for my next reading group. :) I also went into my emails, deleting spam and duplicates. In a way I'm dreading going back, because it is going to take me at least a solid hour to go through and read/file/reply it all. And probably another hour or two for my poor in-tray. Still, it was VERY nice to be at workfor an hour or two, and I got to chat to loads of people, and show off my club foot. Sigh. Bring on October! Current Mood: bored |
| Thursday, September 17th, 2009 | |
| 8:31 pm | Today. Today I: - Made myself get out of bed before lunchtime (it was 10:30) - Did some ironing and put it away in the wardrobe - Cleaned out the bunnies' cage - Washed up a bit - LEFT THE HOUSE No, really. I walked the whole, ooh, half a mile to the shop all on my own. And all the way back! (Obviously I took the crutches. I'm not a complete moron.) I did use the crutches more on the way home, and I was very glad to have them. Overall I think it took me about 45 minutes(!!!) to get there, buy my bread and chocolate bar, and walk back. Sigh. One more week off work and then I'm back into it. :-/ I suspect I may end up being referred for physiotherapy on this stupid ankle, as it is still very stiff and swollen. I mean, I can get my sandal on properly now, and I can fasten it on the loosest buckle-hole, but it still isn't normal ankle-sized. WHINE WHINE CHEESE AND WHINE. Etc. Current Mood: sleepy |
| Monday, September 14th, 2009 | |
| 2:13 pm | What the hell, brain? So last night I dreamt that I was at a sort of adventure farm - a farm re-imagined as a theme park, almost. In my dream, I found the horse section, which was a massive barn/stable full of long rows of stalls, end to end, instead of the more usual side-by-side arrangement. The horses were all left tacked up, and were being taken out, ridden in a very boring circle, and then put back, mostly by unsupervised kids. There were little brats running up and down the aisles screaming and the horses all looked seriously depressed. I opened the nearest door to my right and went in, where there was a chestnut or bay horse who looked really miserable. It was horribly ewe-necked and pretty pissed-off looking. I think I tried to take off its saddle and while I was doing something by its side, it leaned around and bit me right on the bum, hard, and took a mouthful of my jacket too. Am I a) actually insane or b) simply getting there slowly? I think it may be a combination of that episode of Dollhouse with the lady on the horse (because it looked a little ewe-necked) and a couple of near misses I've had in the past - one horse deliberately stepped on my foot, the sod, while the other sank his teeth into my poor boob. But seriously... I think I need more sleep. Or something. In other news, I've got another 2 weeks off work. WHY IS MY FOOT STILL NOT BETTER YET? Current Mood:  crazy |
| Sunday, September 13th, 2009 | |
| 10:10 am | I am a good granddaughter. I just called my grandma for the first time in ages, because she sent me a get well card this week. We had a nice long chat, and she sounded quite pleased. She had a (few) moan(s), of course, but she sounded happy all the same. My Grandad's had a hearing aid put in - which I knew - but he also has tinnitus, which I did not know. He sold his car because the tinnitus is so bad he gets dizzy. Which is quite worrying. We also compared walking-with-sticks woes. Cripples R Us, honestly. It's at times like this I feel that I should live nearer to home, so I could take them shopping. On the other hand, they do have three grown-up children in the area (or they will when my mum gets back from France). Also, I discovered that my female cousin is apparently in Southampton doing a PGCE, which I had no idea about. I walked (sans crutches) to Little Sainsbury's yesterday, which is about half a mile and normaly a 7-minute walk. It took me 15-20. And I wasn't walking so much as limping/shuffling, but I did it! I treated myself to a Wispa Gold, mostly for the nostalgia. And then I called Matt so he would pick me up and drive me back to the house. I was ok, but this morning my leg was extremely stiff and the foot rather painful. I really don't think I'll be back at work on Wednesday. This means I really need to get a GP appointment tomorrow. I don't think I've seen the doctor so much in my life as I have in the last month! Sorry, NHS. Finally, in wedding news, we went to a wedding fair thing and were aghast at the things they will try to charge you for at certain venues. Tealights on the tables? That'll be £1 each. Knife to cut your cake? That'll be £25. You want to breathe our oxygen? That'll be your right arm, please. On the other hand, there was a marquee and we're pretty sure that's what we want. It was beautiful, the atmosphere was perfect, and the way the light filters through the material makes it so lovely and airy and gorgeous. We might get married by 2015, at this rate, if we're lucky! ;) Current Mood: amused |
