myrtlebaggins

I had no idea other people had this dream too!  For me it is nearly always my French class at uni.



from xkcd.com

I did not make this but I think it's rather splendid.

1) It is cake
2) it is cookie
3) it is Blue Food
4) IT'S A MUPPET



stolen from taperoo2k 

Gosh look at that, I didn't post for all of Feb.

Anyway,   I can't get onto the Bunker tonight and according to Teh Milkster it looks like it has been off a few days.  I have been informed that this is the problem:

The data center that host the server have power issue.

http://www.carostatus.com/2009/03/06/friday-march-6-220pm/

site will be online, once the they fix the problem.

So there we have it.  We are without our tin mugs and TVCs until power returns to wherever that place with all the acronyms are.  It's a shame I don't have any way to inform Boreas apart from snail mail.

I haven't done one of these for ages.  Stolen from most of you actually.


People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blog and replace any question that they dislike with a new, original question.

Tag eight people. Don't refuse to do that. Don't tag who tagged you.. Yoink and complete yourself as you wish. :)

( ...click for a load of bumph... )

I'm amazed at how little I'm using the computer since I left my old job.  Oddments of stuff:

• I have a new job, hurrah!  It's admin type stuff at a charity and so far it's been really interesting.  Well the admin stuff is admin stuff, but the environment is very interesting.  Unfortunately at the moment it's only 2 days a week but I'm hoping it might increase in the future because I heard my boss has already said to someone else that I'm *a gem* and that she'd have me full time if they had the funding.  On the plus side it means I can keep going to Gibside for the moment, so that's ok.  I may end up with half a day at a different charity to sort out their website as someone mentioned something about that this week, but I think they have to run it past the Management Committee first.  I'd like to say more about the interesting bit of what I do, but it feels too identifying or confidential or something so I won't.  My colleagues have been made of lovely so far.  In fact everyone in the building seems to be the happiest person I've ever met.  I worry that I may be giggling too much with my new colleague.  Am Serious Lady Of Business now. Must reign in the daft.
• I have a plan for my vegetable garden.  It has been re-drawn many times and called off, and called back on and called off again but last night I bought the wood and tonight JB came over with his fancy pants compound mitre saw wiv a laser onnit tonight and we cut it into 58 boards ready to knock them into beds tomorrow.  WOO!  Although sometime between now and then I have to find some soil to fill in the hole that the chickens dug under the run over 3 years.  It looks like a grave.
• I have been making some very nice ice cream lately. 
• Most of the people I know seem to be having a really crappy time so far this year.
• Due to new job being Out In The World, I've had to rush out and buy some office wear.  I haven't worn office wear since 1996 -I feel like someone else.
• I've just started playing the Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party that I got for Christmas.  I LOVE THE DANCING BIT.  
• I should never switch the shopping channel on late at night.  Last week found me phoning Ideal World (not even QVC mind you, Ideal flamin World!) at 1am to order a bonkers exercise machine type thing.  It hasn't arrived yet, but I'm already wondering if it really is going to magically reduce my unwanted wobbly bits.
• I went to see Khalyn and Oddbodd's panto last week.  It was teh lols :D 
• Which reminds me, In the office next door to me works SOMEONE FROM THE INTERNET FORUM I POST ON.  It's a little bit weird but I'm getting used to it.  I bump into him at the photocopier sometimes and I met him and his girlfriend (who also posts on the forum as it's where they met) in the cafe the other day so we had a natter.  Small world.  (Black Winged Angel and funbunny, for those who know them)
• I had a lovely meal at the Ravensworth Arms the other night with my family.   We very rarely go out for a meal together and we should totally do it more often, it was great.  A whole lot of lolling was had.
• The eglu lady and her boyfriend came up a couple of weekends ago and it turned out they were really lovely ackshully.  They were pleased with the eglu and we waved it off.  It's mad that it's living down in Oxford somewhere now.

I'm so sorry my update is so flamin' dull, but I can smell the chicken casserole that is nearly ready and it's all I can think about tbh.

It's unlikely I'll start and finish another book before tonight so here is the list of books I've read this year.  My aim at the start of the year was to read more in general and read more classic books that everyone is supposed to have read.  I started well but lost it a little bit in the middle.  Overall I'm still quite happy, although there are a few children's books in there.

I started off writing mini reviews of them after I'd read them, but I only got as far as June before giving up on that. 

January
The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
A Walk In The Woods - Bill Bryson
** Nicobobinus - Terry Jones

February
Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
Jingo - Terry Pratchett
** The Carpet People - Terry Pratchett
** Stig of the Dump - Clive King
Alice in Sunderland - Bryan Talbot
Cranford / The Cage At Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell

March
Mr Harrison's Confessions - Elizabeth Gaskell
An Utterly Impartial History Of Great Britain - John O'Farrell
My Lady Ludlow - Elizabeth Gaskell
The Blue Hen - Des Dillon (omg I hated this book.  Luckily it was more of a short story)
** Archie's War - Marcia Williams
** Introduction to the First World War - Ruth Brocklehurst and Henry Brook
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams

April
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
** The Worst Witch Strikes Again - Jill Murphy (I bought a box set of these thinking it was one I'd read in my youth, but it wasn't)
** The Worst Witch All At Sea - Jill Murphy
** Moonfleet - J. Meade Falkner
** The Worst Witch Saves The Day - Jill Murphy
Touching The Void - Joe Simpson
Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
** The Voyage of QV66 - Penelope Lively
Animal Farm - George Orwell

May
** Winnie The Pooh - A. A. Milne
** The House At Pooh Corner - A. A. Milne
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul - Douglas Adams
** The Little Vampire - Angela Sommer-Bodenburg
Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason - Helen Fielding
** The Wizard Of Oz - L. Frank Baum
A Midsummer Night's Dream - Manga Shakespeare (lol)
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Hamlet - Manga Shakepseare
Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare (yeah I'm counting plays as books)
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

June
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson
** Prince Caspian - C. S. Lewis

July
Howard's End - E. M. Forster
** The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C. S. Lewis
** Beyond The Midnight Mountains - Frank Charles
Down Under - Bill Bryson

August
Carpe Jugulum - Terry Pratchett
Making Money - Terry Pratchett

September
** The Tree That Sat Down - Beverley Nichols

October
The Last Continent - Terry Pratchett
The Truth - Terry Pratchett
**The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett

November
** Well Met By Witchlight - Nina Beachcroft
An Inspector Calls - J.B. Priestly
Man Bites Dog - Adam Ford

December
** Anne of Green Gables- L. M. Montgomery
** Inkheart - Cornelia Funke
Cafe Scheherazade - Arnold Zable
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
We Bought A Zoo - Benjamin Mee

SO, we have 57 in total, 22 of them children' books (**), 8 of them books I've read before and 8 of them Pratchetts (my comfort books).

Betty's been poorly on and off for quite some months (as documented a little bit here).  I think it was something to do with her rather complicated egg laying mechanism getting old and the vets couldn't work out what exactly it was or how to fix it and Betty kept fixing it herself after a few weeks and being fine.

She's been looking very elderly for the last few weeks and spending a lot of time during the day sleeping in her poorly box in the conservatory and then her eating of her food slowed down and stopped again, so I knew when I left for London for Christmas she wasn't terribly healthy but I suppose I assumed she'd pull herself round again and be ok.  I did have a word with her before I left to say I was only going to be away for a few days and she'd better be there when I got back!

On Boxing Day I was on my way to visit my sister's boyfriend's family when I got a text from my aunt that just said something like 'How did mucking out the horses go then?  When are you back, I'm all mixed up with the days!' and I don't know why but I was all *Oh no, do you think something happened to Betty?*.  Mum said I was probably being paranoid and I should phone if I was that worried but I thought better to leave it until AFTER the visit because I think there's probably some social rule about turning up at a stranger's house in pieces, so I just texted back to say we were coming home Saturday and was everything ok,  then put my phone on silent.

When we got home there'd been no reply so I rang her and she was very cheery and we chatted for a bit about Christmas and she said she'd just seen my message so I was all *OH!  I thought something must have happened!* and then I asked if Betty was ok and there was a pause then she said 'Well no, actually.  I'm afraid she died' and I lost the ability to speak for a bit so Mum took the phone off me.

She was fine on Christmas Day, Mr. Next-Doors let her out on the morning and tucked her in at night and had a few words with her, but when he went to get her up on Boxing Day she didn't come out so he opened the eggport door and found her in the nesting box.  He did know she'd been poorly and I'd left my number and instructions on what to do if the worst happened.  He lifted her out and put her in the carry box I'd left in the conservatory and then he rang my aunt rather than me to ask what to do.  My aunt didn't want to tell me but I asked a direct question so she didn't want to lie.  I'm glad I knew though because I would have felt terribly guilty if I'd been having fun and being jolly when Betty had died.

Because of the timing of it and things I asked (well Mum asked because I still couldn't speak very clearly) if my aunt could ring the vets and see if they could take her in like they did with Elsie on Saturday morning because otherwise we'd have to keep walking past her in her box in the conservatory and that would have been dreadful and luckily my aunt is fab and was happy to do that, and the vets were open and able to take her in.

Coming home was a bit sombre and seeing the 'Happy Holidays' sign outside the eglu was REALLY hard.  I hadn't realised how often I thought about them through the day - everytime I look out of the back window I'm looking for her, or when I'm near the back door I keep thinking I'll pop out and have a chat, or when it gets dark I think I'll have to go and tuck her in etc.

So that's the end of me being a chicken owner.  For now anyway.  I definitely want to have them again at some point because they are so funny and lovely and full of personality and not at all what I thought chickens were before I had them.  For now though I'm going to sell the eglu and convert their run into a vegetable patch.  If I can get a couple of little quirky chicken ornaments to go in there, or a silly hen topiary I might do that.  It'll have to be something daft though.

I'm not going on holiday again.  First time I lose my job, next time I lose Betty.  Holidays are VASTLY OVERRATED tbh. 

D'you know I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed this series of Celebrity Scissorhands - more than I've enjoyed a reality show for a long time. Definitely more than Strictly this year (*le gasp*) IT WAS ACES. Even though I appear to be the only person in the land that watched it. I'm actually gutted it's over. LOVED Lucinda-from-the-Apprentice and Zammo-from-Grange-Hill.



I went to a psychic evening last night (against my will) and I was told that they don't pick anyone from the audience so you can just sit and say nothing, 'cept when we got there she was all *picking people from the audience* :| The first person she picked was my friend sat right beind me, then she picked someone on our row two seats away, and then the two people in front. I felt like I was dodging bullets all night. And THEN in the second half the two people in front didn't come back so I was all *exposed*. However I was in with the 2 back naughty rows who were giggling the whole time so I think she avoided us after that. Halfway through the second half my aunt whispered something to my mother who then had an attack of the uncontrollable giggles which then spread along the row until we couldn't look at each other, which for me was the most enjoyable part of the evening tbh. Interesting though in a sort of working out what she was doing kind of way. She did do one odd thing, which was to pick someone out of the audience and get them to try and do a psychic bit for another member of the audience, which to me is a bit like saying 'look, anyone can do it! It's all made up!' - birrof an odd choice of method.

Any road up.

Majorly behind with LJ F-list reading! Will sort it out eventually! :D

I've been listening to Christmas music for 4 hours.   (Had to, was making Christmas cards.  Get me, not making them on the 15th December!)

iTunes informs me I have enough Christmas music to last for 17.7 hours.  Haha!

After kicking back hard against iTunes for so long I'm finding I really really like it.  Finding music is SO EASY (if tagged correctly), and Genius is cool too.

Here is this year's pumpkin. I left it a bit late and had to do it in a hurry on Hallo-actual-ween before going out so I didn't have time to make one up meself and just used one I found online. It's a witchy-woo.



Miss gingerelanor brought me back some excellent baking goodies from hols, two of which were cookie cutters in the shape of a dress and a duck and I'd been itching to try them out so I made biscuits, along with some Halloween shapes and discovered that I suck the most at biscuit icing. (I think my fave is the pumpkin top left. Lol?) Still they tasted very nice and THAT'S THE MAIN THING!!




Also in my parcel of American Goodies was an iron-on sparkly cup cake thing and I decided I'd make myself one of those re-useable folding plastic-bags-are-bad shopping bag type things with it. I've never made a bag before so I did a prototype with some stuff left over from my loud flowery skirt. It is reversible, if I'm feeling a bit extrovert.




Then after some minor adjustments I made my cupcake bag which I like very much actually. I might have to take it out this afternoon and buy stuff to put in it.



At some point I may get around to posting the photos from Thorp Perrow the other week and boomerang exploits with Khalyn from a few weeks ago.

I've finally finished typing up my Oz diary.  As I said before it will mean nothing to anyone else and it's fairly lengthy and pic spammy, but it's all backdated so hopefully enough time has passed that it won't mess up anyone's friends list. (I haven't hidden any of it behind lj cuts because...well because I didn't want to really.)  If it does cause you problems then delete me or ask me to change it or something.

So yeah, the text will be boring but for those people that wanted to see photos, there are lots of them in there.
It starts at the bottom of here.

I'm back!  I had the best time EVAH!  (Apart from when I read an email on the day we left to come back that said the company I work for is closing down and we've all been made redundant) But even so, it was Teh Fab.

I kept a paper journal while I was there that I'm going to type up and backdate and stuff, but I should imagine it will be excruciatingly boring for anyone who is not me to read because it's pretty much a list of things I did so I don't forget them.  But I'll do that later, when I'm a bit more sorted out.

EEH.  I've been to actual AUSTRALIA. And I didn't freak out apart from a tiny bit one night but I think that was because I'd overdosed on chocolate.

EEH.

Etc.

I now have 4 possible dresses for the wedding.  And a top/skirt/cardi combo. Lol?

I've been doing all sorts lately and writing LJ posts in my head that I never get to actually put on my LJ because, in the words of Jack Bauer, THERE'S NO TIME.

I finally put my sepia video of Betty and Elsie on YouTube. (Lovely Elsie. We miss her terribly)



And another one I did of Betty and Hannah this week:

I've been a bit busy.  I haven't even gotten around to doing my birthday post yet and that was over a week ago! I'm also really behind with reading everyone else's journal, so sorry for that.  I'll be back when stuff calms down a bit :)  (by which point I won't be able to remember anything!)

*edit* Gotten isn't actually a word is it?  It looks all *wrong*

Was AMAZING. I wondered if it would be as good as the last time, or if I'd remembered it as better than it was, but he is most definitely the best person I've seen in concert ever. His shows have a great vibe about them - more like a party atmosphere or something, and he is really comfortable with the talky bits in between songs which helps.

Last time his support act was a comedian, which was fairly random, but this time it was a group called Naturally 7. There was a voiceover along the lines of 'what you are about to hear is solely using the human voice' and 7 chaps in baseball caps came out doing a beatboxy rap style thing and I was all. Oh. Srsly? Rap? At a Swing concert? :( But they turned out to actually be really good (and not rap). JB was all *yeah but the beat isn't a human voice* and I was all *yeah that's a backing track* and *wondering why they'd claimed it was all vocal* but after a couple of songs they did a demonstration and it actually was all them and no instruments at all. They got a bit of a standing ovation at the end, which isn't something I've seen for a support act before. (Mind you they murdered Amazing Grace. They were all riffing all over the place and they're clever and very talented and stuff, but dude. That's just noise.) I found this on You Tube today and this is one of the ones they did last night, but with some extra bits.



In the break after the Naturally 7, some people came past us to sit on our row with fancy looking drinks and next thing I know, Mum is giggling away and getting along like a house on fire with the woman from the group who then gave her a fancy drink (it turned out to be a Pimms thing with mint and cucumber and things in it that they'd been given free at the bar for some corporate thingy), which Mum proceeded to get squiffy on and had to surrender the car keys to JB to drive us home at the end.

When Teh Bublé came on stage I thought he looked dreadful tbh and I didn't think he'd make it through the first song. He looked proper ill, but after he'd got through the first one he perked up quite a lot and got into it. I noticed when he sang 'You Were Always On My Mind' they switched the screens off so there were no close ups and he seemed quite emotional during it and when the screens came back on he looked as if he'd been crying, or on the verge of. It's the first show he's done since he and his girlfriend split up after allegedly being a Very Silly Boy (see story here) and I wondered if the lyrics were a little near the knuckle or something.

OH and when JB and I had been hanging around looking at the Stuff To Buy, two chaps wearing security tags walked past us to the bar. One was v. tall and the other was quite...big...and I was all *ooh do you think they are security for the band?*. When the curtain went up they were totally sitting at the back playing trumpets. One of them was Justin Raaaaaaaaaaaaay baby. I can't BELIEVE I didn't recognise him.

I thought Naturally 7 would be perfect to replace the bits on 'Comin' Home Baby' that Boys II Men sang, so when at the end he said he was bringing them back on to sing with them I was all *YAYAYAYAYAY* but then it was 'That's Life', which is cool an stuff, but it's not 'Comin Home Baby' :(

I have photos:




And some video. The clips are really short because I didn't know how much of my memory card they were taking up so I didn't take much. I'm glad I got the bit at the end where he sings without a mic.



All in all, the best night I've had for a long long time, and only the second time I've been to see something where I didn't want it to end. (The previous one also being Michael Bublé) I never hang around to get autographs etc at these things anyway, but as we were walking past the back of the arena a big black car with tinted windows came out and past us so I'm guessing he didn't hang around last night anyway.

JB really enjoyed it so I'm pleased and he said thanks for introducing him to Bubbly so YAY. (I swear he's a bigger fan than me, and I heard him singing along most of the way through it :) )

I'm full of YAY today.

Hey Draggy you can't MOVE for trebuchets in the shops at the moment.  I saw the Trebuchet of Wrong in Tesco on Wednesday.



I suggest you get both this and the Past Times one, pit them against each other and see just which one is, in fact, FTW.

I have been Defeated by the Dress.

Vogue Easy Options my left pinkie toe. It is probably easy if you are the pattern size to start off with but if you have to make any alterations to the bodice, easy would not be my word of choice. I think the problem is that there are so many parts to the top of it so if you're altering it, it's all *complicated* and I have no patience with alterations anyway.

So, I bought two dresses (which need altering, naturally.) Here they are being modelled by Maud as there is no point in me modelling them until the straps are shortened, whereas I can stick pins in Maud and she doesn't mind.




The dark one is a silk/linen blend according to the label, so slightly shiny with embroidery on it. It would need livening up with some sort of jolly shrug and/ or jacket thing.  It seems to go well with my new Shoes of Pain.  The other one is linen so will crease like a demon, but it's also embroidered so might not look toooo much like a dishcloth.  It will also need some sort of shrug/jacket combo cos it's going to be the equivalent of March and I'll be frozen.

Sewing Aunt has come to the rescue on the altering the straps front and - bless her actual heart  - has offered to whip up my mountain of sad and forlorn fabric into something resembling a Vogue dress.  HURRAH.

In other news, I'm off to see my favourite Canadian warbler tonight (who is NOT Cliff Richard's secret love-child the_milkster, so shush.)  I do hope he does 'Comin' Home Baby'.  I'm all *taking my camera*

I meant to post this a little while ago for dragonnade    . Saw this in Past Times and thought of you:




And gingerelanor     or the_milkster     - have either of you been in the changing rooms at the M&S outlet store in North Shields lately..?




Click images for near-magical enlargement to occur.