Things I like that begin with...

I like a lot of things that begin with M, for example:

1. The wonderful M (who is also magnificent, great, and all other marvellous adjectives).
2. Martinis
3. My new mac
4. The word mollycoddle
5. Mince pies
6. Me (officially that probably begins with R but never mind).
7. Mint - the plant and the general flavour
8. Money (sort of essential really, I don’t have a lot so I value what I do have)

I...

like martinis.

Put 'em up

Well it is a bit late to talk about Boxing day but I said I would. Did some research to confirm the story I had always thought was behind its origins and although I found some support for that I also found about ten other theories. It appears the correct one is in dispute. I refer you to the Wikipedia entry on Boxing Day if anyone wants to read all the different options.

What to say

Well Christmas day has come and gone and it was a lovely day. I toodled over to where my parents are staying and spent the day there. The big surprise for me was that my parents bought me a new laptop. Had no idea whatsoever - so grateful as the other one is old and decrepid, I love it nonetheless but was increasingly nervous it would crash on me at anytime. Love my new toy, if I did not already have a wonderful M then my new mac would become it, alas as much as I love my new purchase it cannot replace the original wonderful M (and of course nothing can).

Boxing day came and went (I will do a nice blog on that perhaps tomorrow for my American friends). We all went to see the Knoxville Ice Bears play. I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to ice hockey but I enjoyed it. They won, which always helps.

Today we went to the zoo - expect pictures later as the gorillas were most obliging. Also saw the History Boys - I really enjoyed it. Hurrah for the cinema. Now I am going to bed… well in a bit. Fancy a cuppa first.

Polly want a cracker

The comment from J has inspired me to educate my American friends as to some British Christmas necessities, starting with the cracker.

Crackers were invented by Tom Smith, in 1847 (old huh?), he made sweeties (candy for you Americans) wrapped in a twist of paper. But apparently the confectionary business was not all it could be and he was trying to think of gimmicks to market them. He heard a log crack on the fire and BINGO he decided to add the cracking stick (for want of something better to call it). To accommodate it the wrapping got bigger and eventually the sweet was replaced with a gift… and of course the paper hat that is too big for everyone’s head and the joke…. and the awful joke. Honestly I have never heard a good joke from a cracker, but it is half their charm.

For those deprived individuals that have never seen a cracker - here is a handy link for you.

I'm crackers!

Christmas eve - well I hope no creatures are stirring in my flat, especially any mice! The days have gone by so quickly this week, I have meant to blog several times but never actually got around to it, so here goes.

You will be relieved to know that my parents bought me a new vacuum cleaner and that the one that had recently been reborn as a smoke machine has been released from service (and I believe from this life as well). My new one is a rather obnoxious blue colour but it works without any extra effects. We also bought some decorations to bring Christmas to my flat so it looks all garish and Christmassy now, which is fabulouso. Alas I do not know what Americans put on the top of their tree but it is not an angel or a fairy because we cannot find one anywhere. We have sort of stuck a santa there but he looks rather uncomfortable, sort of like we are crucifing him really - but in times of crisis (no-angels) one must do the best one can. I did manage to drive to the other side of town (which in Knoxville is a ways away) to a shop I was convinced would sell crackers, another item lacking in an american Christmas, and there I was triumphant. Hurrah!

We toodled down to North Carolina Wednsday with the idea of getting up early Thursday and snowboarding (as a family awwwww). Alas the rain predicted was rain and then some, the whole area was under a flood warning and so no snow was seen as it would have been rather miserable. Mother Nature and I are not good friends anymore. We drove to Cherokee instead and went to the Museum of the Cherokee Indians, it was very interesting. The people I saw dancing a few months back are from there but alas there were no demonstrations.

Last night K came into town (she left Uni last year to go be with the magnificent B) and we discussed everything - including wedding plans. I am sure it will be wonderful. Got to get my bridesmaids dress in though, measured myself for it and was horrified (but I’ll get over it by means of necessity).

Phew well I think that is all I wanted to say. Happy Christmas everyone in case I do not post tomorrow.

Holy smokes!

So I decided to vacuum today… finally. I may not vacuum as much as I should but even I know that smoke coming out of the vacuum is not a good sign. Well it is good in one way - I was able to discontinue the chore guilt free.

Dreamland

Managing to do my snowboarding workouts, well the weight bit and the stretching which is all the book mentions, I should get some cardio in but that is hard to do without going to the gym and well I am not so good at that. Arms and legs tired… well I am tired. Even dreamt about snowboarding last night but they were not good dreams and involved cliffs and bizarrely I was wearing orange flip-flops, an orange t-shirt, and a mini-skirt. Was not cold though. I am a hardy lass in my dreams.

Volunteered at a school today - taught geology to 12-13 year olds. Scary stuff, maybe I will write about it tomorrow, but made me thankful for the opportunities I have been given.

What a to do

I had a big to-do list this weekend, with many work and no-work related items. Pleased to report that excellent progress has been made. Only a few items left and I have to say that if I don’t get the vacuuming done I won’t shed any tears. My car is now all clean both inside and out. I am sure it was a little sick of the pizza box that has been in it for over two weeks - I was getting hungry every time I got in my car, although the smell was getting slightly stale. I put my ipod to good use during the big clean and was at one point singing out loud - I was at a public car place but no one was looking funny at me (at least directly, I am sure the guy in the next wash area was most amused but I could not see him and so I am humouring myself by saying ‘maybe he could not hear me over the water hose’).

My parents get into town tonight - at what time depends on how fast they can get through Cincinnati security as their connection was a little tight. That will be fun - hoping to drag them to Cataloochee next week to work on my snowboarding skills (well to work on developing some skills as right now I am skill-less in that area). Think they will ski though.

Right well I had better toodle off and try to get one more job done before I have to go to the airport. Not sure where my weekend went, or my week for that matter!

Countdown

Three weeks till I leave for Canada, which means I have three weeks to get a little bit more into shape. My physio is helping me out and I bought a little book which has exercises specifically for skiers and snowboarders. 21 days is not long but if my legs can progress from jelly to perhaps rubber (struggled to think of something firmer than jelly but not all that firm) then at least I have made a little headway. Shame I did not think to do this earlier - time has been playing tricks on me and gone by rather quickly. Bad time BAD!!

Now all I need is some discipline - I am short on it and alas it is one thing that Walmart just does not sell. It should.

I am in a rather bah humbug kind of mood this evening. Balderdash and other satisfying b words (bother is the only other decent one I can come up with… well apart from bulldozer but I am not sure what relevance that has, although my brain keeps bringing it up).

Phew

I am tired. My brain has done entirely too much thinking these last three days. Bed is looking good this evening - but then so was a cup of tea, and as fortune has it I can do both (although the tea has to come before bed really as after would just be nonsensical).

My sea monkeys survived another three days of neglect for the second week in a row, which is good since they are only about three weeks old. Not sure I blogged about them. Am very excited. They live in a highly unrealistic martian-scape aquarium (well aquarium is an insult to aquariums, it is more like a jam jar, with decorations in it… and not even a big jam jar but they are small little things). I wanted a pet so bad that shrimp seemed like a good idea - with my travel schedule I need something forgiving. Anyone want to look after my sea monkeys when I go to Whistler?

Smells like..

There are a couple of phrases that came to mind tonight as I was showering:

‘there are more ways to kill a pig than to smother it in butter’

‘there is more than one way to skin a cat’ etc…

What, you may ask, has me pondering such things? Well the whole airline travel thing is still a tad complicated and you can only take silly small containers on the plane in carry on. I did not want to check a bag for DC and had these samples I was given by some medical people trying to get me to persuade my Dr to prescribe me their brand spanking new asthma meds (which is a whole other story). They say they are fragrance free. This can be read two ways. The correct way is that they have added no fragrances to them because trust me they smell…. sort of like wet dog. Unpleasant. Thankfully the people I am staying with have other stuff (their kids’ stuff) so I am a johnson’s baby to hide the wet dog aroma.

Poo

Going going gone...

So the wonderful M is flying home as I type. Luckily it is under a month until I see him again so I am feeling better than I could be. Plus Rome knew I needed cheering up so my board bag arrived today. Had much fun this afternoon finding all the pockets and realising that I can actually get in it - although I would need another person to zip it up and provide me with an oxygen supply. I like it though.

So what I have I been up to the last week or so, besides the snow trip (where we got REAL snow)? We went to the zoo, most things were hiding indoors because it was cold. The chimps put on a show for us but I think there was a lady chimp they were trying to impress and that we were watching what was intended to be a private show. The last few days we have spent the evenings watching films - we picked some real good ‘uns. I would recommend Analyse This. We have done (well M has done it mostly) some serious shopping. I did the work I wanted to get done too. Back to the humdrum now I guess.

Tomorrow I leave early for a three day research trip to Washington DC. Going to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum - it is always hard work but I have a good time. Now I need to go pack.

Snowboard listage

Things I learnt whilst snowboarding the last few days:

1. I need to buy some knee-pads. Paddage = good.
2. I need to get my lazy self to the gym to work on my legs as they are as weak as a big weak thing living on weak street drinking weak juice.
3. I love my physio

Went to physio this morning to get a little movement back. Have a bit of a hip strain and taped knees but nothing a few days won’t deal with. The wonderful M asked for a normal girlfriend though. What’s normal?

My apartment is a pig sty - the wonderful M has made a not so wonderful mess everywhere by leaving stuff on any once clear area. Does not help that between me, him and Beetle’s GG we have ordered enough stuff to fill up my place with boxes. So if anyone is moving soon I may be able to help - although I think that we shall be making a trip to the rubbish bin later.

I’m back in one piece

Yes believe it or not I am still whole, not broken, with all body parts functioning. The last bit is a little untrue as I am very stiff. My body is not used to such activity and that expression ‘using muscles I never knew I had’ is true for me, also have some nice purple bruises but they look way worse than they feel. I had a lot of fun though. Am I a natural at snowboarding? NO - but that is no surprise, but after three half days out there I do think that at some point I might be able to get by at it. My snowboard is fabulous, so major props go to the wonderful M for that. Another cheer for the man as he really helped me with the whole boarding malarky. I took a few lessons but then he helped me work on everything and was very patient etc… I am all excited for my holiday now.

Anyway must book more lessons for Whistler.

Wish me luck

Today the wonderful M and I are off to a local ski resort. Fake snow but snow nonetheless. I am excited about starting to learn to snowboard but a little nervous too as I think it is not something I will excel at. My board looks very pretty though. Perhaps the butterflies in my stomach will lift me above the snow and stop me from falling lots.

Back on Thursday.

Lost for what to do

So this blog will officially take me forever to type as I have been banned from using my right hand to type today (and a few days after if possible), and what is almost worse I am banned from knitting too! Managed to make my ulnar nerve more unhappy than it was before, personally I think it just has issues, it cannot deal with stress well and does not see its purpose in life - it thinks being an elbow is not significant. Let me tell you I would hate to only have one elbow! Maybe it needs medicating. Here is my problem: all I do at the moment is write my dissertation or knit. What do I do now?

On the upside I went to a Christmas parade tonight - lots of floats and just made me feel all December-y.

I confess that trying to hold shift down and type with my left hand got too irritating, I used my right. I should be chastised. I shall stop now to placate the ulnar nerve.

DIY because no one else will

Yesterday I continued the revamp of the interior of my flat but don’t get any ideas of granduer, it’s not posh at all. I decided that the excuses regarding my writing situation had to stop. I have been fussing (mostly to myself) that:

* Working on the dining room table is frustrating as everything has to be packed away to eat on it
* When I have written a section that then needs editing I have no printer at home and I just find it hard to edit on screen
* Everything around me is in such disarray it is distracting

So all of these are easily solved by buying stuff. So yesterday I went out and bought a printer, a desk, and a new filing cabinet. I then spent a few hours assembling the latter two items. Voila - a nice work area. I do need a good work chair with next month’s pay before I throw my back out (more) but I am satisfied with the current situation. Managed to do quite a bit today too. HURRAH!

One issue - the new printer appears to have a pdf phobia and I am not sure how to cure it. It likes everything else but appears to deny the existence of any pdf I throw its way. Odd.

Michael arrives in three days - so many reasons to be in a good mood.

Tea-ing off

My tea arrived today, and my blackcurrant jaffa cakes. Had the dilema of trying to decide which of the new teas to try first, wanted a cup of each but that would have been excessive, not to mention necessitated more mugs than I have in my office. As of right now I can tell you the black tea with vanilla and coconut is divine. The other boxes smell good but will have to wait, yes ladies and gentlemen I have been sniffing tea boxes. My officemates think it is funny to be this excited by tea.

The jaffa cakes are not bad, I do think orange is better but blackcurrant is not bad. They should be called currant cakes or something though as the jaffa does not hold true.

All change

In acknowledgement of the fact that I am turning to knitting as my retreat from dissertation writing (and frequently instead of dissertation writing), I decided to do something else in the hour break I gave myself just now. I rearranged the furniture in my living room. Those of you who have visited will appreciate how difficult that is, there is not a whole lot of scope for different furniture arrangements in my small living room. I like it - it’s cosier. Plus it was exercise moving stuff around and now I feel invigorated. Fun! A change is as good as a break!

Thumbs up!

Today I have entered a new world - the world of MITTENS! Turns out that opposable thumbs make life more difficult in some situations - despite being helpful in so many others. However, I have triumphed over all my troubles and here are my new babies:



The funky pink stripe matches the hat I made for myself a while back. I can be all matchy-matchy. Ooh the excitement. I like mittens.

Breeding program

Unbeknownst (that’s a great word) to me - all my stuff has been breeding behind my back. Surely I cannot be responsible for bringing all of these things into my flat? It is quite clearly impossible. There must be a conspiracy going on. I don’t know how stuff multiplies, but it does appear there is a correlation between how useless it is and how much room it takes up - the less I need it, the more of it there is. Weird.

I am trying to counteract the crazy goings on with many rubbish bags and a vigilant attitude. I shall win this war, though the fight may continue for many years to come. I will stay strong.

I do confess that the extra wool products that entered the flat yesterday are entirely my doing, although they were donated by the nice people I celebrated Thanksgiving with. It appears they have a wool problem too and what better way to solve it than by passing it on to someone else. I may be making the biggest blanket ever at this rate. I like squares though. If anyone wants any squares knitted I am the girl for the job. I also do a nice sideline in hats.

I think I have had too much for the day and should retire to bed. Feeling rather alert though - maybe some sudoku will send me on my way to bedfordshire. Those sudoku books are quite adept at survival - they saw they were threatened earlier by the rubbish bag of death and now they are beckoning me back under their spell.

Writing my dissertation is quite clearly driving me mad.

wHAT the heck?

Well the shoulder situation has impeded my knitting the last few days but I have finally finished hat number… five actually. Two have been gifted to others before making it into blogdom. I should rename my blog something clever to do with hats, I am relatively low in such inspiration though - as the title of today’s blog testaments! Well Beetle, this hat is for you, I hope the red is about the right colour.



And now it is time for bed. Tomorrow is thanksgiving, not a holiday I grew up celebrating but any day off work is as good as any other to me (and any day with roast turkey and the yummy stuff that comes with it is fine by me). So Happy Thanksgiving to all who read this, I give thanks for all of your friendships a lot (corny but true).

The cold shoulder

Went to see the shoulder specialist today - a whopping 6 weeks since I had the MRI, but we had conflicting schedules and I got the flu during my last appointment (well not during the appointment but it prevented me from going if you see what I mean). Well the rotator cuff is fine so the pain in the shoulder remains a mystery. I got a cortisone shot with some anaesthetic in it, the whole process involved a rather large needle. However, luckily the needle pain relationship is not a proportional one and it was surprisingly OK. The shoulder hurts more now but I think it is just looking for sympathy and it will be fine when it realises it has high hopes that are unattainable - either that or it heard the Dr say ‘endoscope’ and is rather nervous it may have to go through that.

On a side note - I rather like the word endoscope, it had a certain ring to it. Endoscope, endoscope, end-o-scope, end….o….scope. Ahhhhhhh.

Shopping is bad for your health

So yesterday I had one of my most eventful shopping trips ever. I was just getting a few groceries, and a ball of wool (it’s an addiction, I cannot help myself) and when I had scanned all my items in the aisle where you check yourself out I realised that I had left my handbag in the car. Thankfully the nice lady at the counter was able to take all my items and let me pay here once I returned. I did have a brief panic that perhaps my bag had been in the shopping trolley and been taken but I felt the me forgetting it option was more likely - and I was right.

I then left the store and it has a little area out front where cars are supposed to yield for people crossing with shopping trolleys (trollies looks wrong somehow) etc.. I looked both ways and there were no cars that close, so they could all stop if needed for me. I was about halfway across when I realised that the closest car was going to hit me if I did not take evasive maneuvers. The lady was too busy looking for a close parking spot and not at all busy looking where she was going. She was speeding up and heading straight at me. I abandoned my shopping, although it was a close call I did nearly try and take the trolley with me . Sure enough as I ran away she hit my poor shopping and the trolley fell over. Luckily it is hard to break wool, whereas I am much easier to break so I made a good call. Lady proceeded to get a little hysterical and apologise. Honestly, why do people here spend 10 minutes looking for a close parking spot when they are capable of walking and none of the spaces are more than a minute away from the store?

It’s the trolley I feel sorry for, she may have ended its shopping days forever and they don’t have retirement homes for shopping trolleys.. oh no their fate is far worse.

More mad hattery

I think I am all hatted up now for my trip to Whistler in a few months (less than two actually Woo Hoo). Here is my latest creation:



More simple beanie for the days I don’t feel like being be-tassled. Been making hats for other people too. They are almost as instant gratification as knitting gets, as they don’t take too long to make. Now I have some of the yarn used for the beanie left…. what to do, what to do….

Hyper organised

So this evening I have made, signed, and addressed all my Christmas cards - to be fair they are not all hand made (but over half are). I do need to include letters in many of them and I wish I had it in me to do a bulk letter to all the extended family - alas those of you who know me will understand that I just cannot do that. I value the paper and pen far too much. That’ll be the next job on my list - oooh I don’t have a list yet so I get the pleasure of writing one and that will be on it and I will dutifully cross it off. Hurrah!

I have spare ribbon and various other craft items if anyone else is in need of Christmassy crafts. Otherwise I can be found knitting - the squares for my blanket are going well and a few friends have new hats too, but no one wanted one quite as funky as mine. Some people have no taste.

Stay on the topic

The wonderful M is having trouble staying on topic as we talk. Poo head.

Tea time

I like tea. Today I was shopping online for tea, there are varieties I miss living here and I figured that was silly as with the wonders of the internet I don’t have to miss anything. Ahh the wonders of my two favourite cards - my wireless and credit - together they bring me the wonders that this planet has to offer. All the looking at tea made me want tea and I had a very satisfying cup. MMMmmmm memories. I found what I was looking for, and some more varieties I did not know I wanted until I saw them. Tea in the post - how lovely. Oh and for the Brits among the readership I added some jaffa cakes to my order - BLACKCURRANT jaffa cakes! I was shocked. How much has changed since I left. I await them with baited breath and hope they do not disappoint me, not that a jaffa cake would be aware if it disappointed me. I could never eat an aware jaffa cake, it just wouldn’t be right.

Today is....

… National Sing in your Car Day. I have already fulfilled my obligation but for those of you who haven’t - once you are done reading this blog go out to your car, sit in it and blast out a few notes. It can be YMCA if you desire, no one has to know.

As requested - the hat!

Uninspired for blog titles today

It is a rather cold and wet day today, the sort of day when I can only get out of bed begrudgingly and crave hot beverages and warm blankets. I was a good girl and went into my office to back up my data - well actually it was to back up my external hard drive to another external hard drive. I believe in backing up my back up. I could not face losing any data right now, I would have a break down. I am currently experiencing a love-hate relationship with my data, due in large part to my dislike of excel and its inability to keep itself from crashing on my poor old decrepid computer. It is a trial I must bear. I decamped to a coffee shop (where I can still be found) to improve the working environment a little, but a personal data slave would still come in handy. Any takers?

My advisor goes away on conference trips etc.. for the next few weeks and I really want to put my nose to the grindstone and get some of my dissertation written for him to read and pass judgement upon when he returns. Such goals require sacrifice - mine is that even my small social life must be forgotten. Luckily it is easy to lose things that are small and perhaps I will not notice the loss.

New additions

I added a tassle to my hat. It is the icing on a very fluffy, and not at all edible, cake. Fabulous.

It's been awhile

I keep meaning to blog but time passes and I don’t - sorry for those who have been checking, I honestly do not mean to disappoint. I am settled for the evening with a nice cuppa and thought now was as good a time as any - although OK a few days ago may have been better. I had this whole blog planned on Sunday (when my internet would not work) and now POOF it has gone and I am sans any ideas.

*Pause for me to ponder*

I was a knitting QUEEN this weekend. I decided to give myself the extra few days for recuperation (I did some serious sleeping too) and for some reason was drawn to being creative. I now am the proud owner of a fluffy ski hat complete with ear flaps. It is quite fabulous. I discovered that I have been hoarding wool somewhat (well I call it wool, it is some wool type thing in balls that is not actually wool as it makes me itch) and goodness knows what I could actually do with all this random stuff I have - so I took the decision to start knitting squares to make a blanket. Slightly longer term than a weekend (I got like 3 done over the two days along with two hats!) but my Grandma taught me to knit by doing squares and it has just had me thinking fondly of her a lot. There are few people I miss as much as my Grandparents.

New loves and recovery

So after a week of not doing much outside of lying on my bed/sofa/sofabed whilst feeling sorry for myself (the ultimate multitasking), I finally feel just about ready to rejoin civilisation. I am currently managing half days before I need to return to the whole lying-sorry feeling stuff. Kudos to the Doctor and the massive amount of antibiotics I am taking to combat the post-flu gunk.

Anyway lets move on… I have a new ipod shuffle. It is my current love. I am in the first few days of ownership so it has that whole new glow thing going for it still. It is TINY, so tiny and I am currently enjoying making playlists for the little thing. I hope my big ipod doesn’t get a complex.

The wonderful M has booked his flights to come see me - this is very exciting. I love visitors, especially visitors I love. Hurrah!

Choo choo

George chastised me for not including the picture of him waiting for the train in Philly. Because I am weak willed, and must obey my inner rabbit, here it is:

Philly recap

I thought I should write a little expose on my trip to Philadelphia (which I have the hardest time typing correctly even though I know how it is spelt). It was a work trip, and I really did work very hard, so not much sightseeing was done. I managed to take an afternoon to go see the Liberty Bell. For the Brits among the readership there is this story that this bell rang out from the tower of Independence Hall, summoning the people to hear the Declaration of Independence read for the first time.

So what did I learn? One: this symbol of the freedom of the american people was actually made in the UK. Two: their liberty is a whole lot smaller than I thought - the bell is no where near as big as I thought it was. George posed for a photograph so I can share my experience with you all. He is so photogenic.

Bored

Staying in bed for days upon end gets rather dull, I have not seen a person since Thursday when I went on a brief foray to get fluids. I have slept enough for several people though, it’s been something to do. I am missing the department’s Halloween party tonight, this saddens me. I did not have a costume though and it was kind of compulsory so I guess it saved me from putting together something really lame at the last minute. Now if you’ll excuse me I have an appointment with some Nyquil (Night Nurse for the Brits among us).

Bah Humbug

I hate the flu, I dislike having a fever and I am not fond of having no food in the house when the two coincide.

I am, however, back at home so at least I have my own bed to feel rotten in.

Thankfully flu is transient so I shall be back to form soon.

Automation gone mad

So I should first confess I have had a couple of beers, and the first few were on an empty stomach, so my typo rate may increase in direct correlation with this. Those of you that know me well will know this is a rare occurence nowadays and will not judge me for it. My talk was today, enough said.

So I have decided to blog about toilet related topics again, I worry people will believe it is a regular theme, when in fact I am relatively shy about such matters. Besides today’s tale does not really involve me so much. Anyhow…. the toilets at out conference centre are the wonderful american model of automation to the nth degree. I hate automatic flushes to start as they are never a good guide of when you are done, either catching you unawares literally with your pants down, or not realising you stood up and left about an hour previously. Here you never have to touch anything. The soap is in dispensers with sensors, they actually appear to activate when you move your hand away, causing a swift movement back, which inevitably misses the soap leaving no soap on your hands and a ton in the bowl - this is then repeated till you perfect your backswing! The towel dispensers appear very sensitive and just keep ejecting the paper towels when any movement occurs in their general vicinity. I am sensing a flaw in the whole system and rejoice when I actually have to do something for myself as it tends to be far more efficient.

Zoooooooooomnmmmm

I thought I should try and get at least one post done while in Philly and I actually have 5 minutes so here goes. I have been non-stop busy since we arrived on Thursday, the ‘running around like a blue-arsed fly’ expression does not even begin to cover it - in fact from now on blue arsed flies will probably say ‘I have been busier than George’s friend in Philly’, I’ll admit that it does not roll off the tongue quite as easily, but then do blue-arsed flies have tongues?

My feet hurt from standing on them and using them to walk all around. Do they not know that it is for that express purpose that they are designed? Perhaps it was not made clear in the job description and some renegotiation of terms of employment are required. I think they have become complacent as they don’t feel threatened with redundancy as, quite frankly, they would be quite a hassle to replace. If I was going to trade them in I think I might just replace the whole lot and get a new body that comes with some sort of warranty. For now I shall just put up with it as I am having a lot of fun wearing the poor things out.

I hope this satisfies my loyal readers for the moment. I have stories to tell but I also have beauty sleep to catch (and I am waaaaaay behind at the moment).

In need of technology

So last night I managed to get to bed early with my book and a nice mug of hot chocolate. Sweet! I love being able to do that sometimes, seems like a real treat. Will admit that it was partly influenced by the fact that I want to finish this book I am reading - it is a detective one and I want to know whodunnit. However, it is a mammoth literary effort and will require several early nights to complete it.

Realised this morning I was down to my last clean pair of pants (the english kind) and well I leave for a week tomorrow. Last minute laundry anyone? I so nearly went out and just bought new clean underwear as most of my conference wear is actually clean. I don’t feel ready to go away tomorrow. Time is just zooming by at the moment and I would like to be able to slow it down a little. So if someone could get on with that time machine I would really appreciate it - oh and how is that teleporter coming along?

Guess I might not be blogging for the next week - hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Toodles.

Recovery

My face appears intact - no ill effects so far, so I guess the little mix up could have been much worse. The two offending liquids are now in separate cupboards and feel confident that the mistake will not occur again. Right onto the next topic…..

What is the next topic? I am not really sure. I have not really done a whole lot to blog about. Unless you want the ins and outs of the mundane tasks I do - like shampooing my hair in the shower, but no matter how hard I try I don’t think I can make that interesting I am afraid.

Perhaps I should leave you all to your own little adventures. Enjoy! Oh and make sure to tell me if anything interesting happens!

Uh Oh!

In case anyone wondered, buying nail varnish remover and toner that are the same colour is a BAD idea. Alas my mistake did not involve trying to remove nail varnish with toner. I only hope my face will cease the stinging eventually.

Grump

I am in a grump today - I don’t want to do any work but I really have to. I am not at my most productive when grumpy, which means stuff does not get done in a timely manner, which makes me grumpy….. vicious circle I tell you (I am sure that is how you spell vicious but it looks oh so wrong).

I am off to Philadephia on Thursday and really need to get my talk done for the conference. It is not flowing though and I like to talk so that is unusual. Not so keen on talking in public but when practising it I don’t have to be in public, I can talk to myself. My shampoo bottle tells me that the person everyone talks to the most is themselves (which again looks wrong but I am sure that themself is not good english even if it seems to sound better). Goodness knows why my shampoo feels like this is something I needed to know - have been rather aware how true it is though since reading it. I do blather on to no one in particular quite a lot, especially in my car. You’d never guess now would you?

What day is it?

I am rather confused as to the day today - I think yesterday being unusual since I didn’t work (although what I did seemed more stressful than work) has left me feeling prematurely like it’s the weekend. So today has felt rather like a Sunday, without any of the other Sunday stuff (well I did have a lie-in I guess). I need to work tomorrow to make up for my early sabbath now.

I did take a lady from the church I used to go to here to her Dr appointment today, so feel like I achieved something. She can’t drive and nearly had to cancel as no-one seemed to want to volunteer their time to take her. Muggins here could not really persuade herself that she was justified in ignoring the third email pleading for help so I took her. It was fun - I got to read for fun while waiting for her. I like books. Yea for books!!!!

Now it’s time for some reading before bed.

Kid overload

So at 6am this morning I was buying dinosaurs, plastic ones you understand. Quite clearly people don’t normally buy such things at such early hours as the cashier appeared most amused at my puchase selection. It was a cool set though - came complete with plastic trees, bushes, rocks, and this fabulous background to pin up behind them (that was so far from realistic it was even better than you could imagine).

It was Earth Science Day on campus today where the local schools come and do all sorts of activities. I run the IMPACT CRATERS activity with a fellow graduate student. We reinact the K-T boundary with some flour, a kitty litter tray, a paintball gun, and of course the plastic dinosaurs (they add a certain finesse). Because we tend to project flour everywhere we are an outdoor activity and it was somewhat colder than most of us expected (I am currently enjoying a hot chocolate to warm up), so we had some grumpy kids but most bore it well.

I might go buy some dinosaurs now actually - a chicken (the living relations of dinosaurs, those people who say they went completely extinct are liars).

Jobs

So I sent out my first job application today, well it was more of a grant proposal thing really but that made it more scary if anything. Fully expect to get rebuffed at the first stage as it is for a very competitive post/funding agency thing, but as everyone keeps telling me ‘it is good experience’. It would let me go back to the UK though, oh to be home again. London - not ideal but feasible and better than an ocean away from my nearest and dearest. It was all rather stressful with last minute panics and I had a nice little stress headache going at 8am this morning. One of the lovely ladies in the office told me it was too early for a stress headache, and I had to assure her there was no time limits on stress headaches, they ignore the 4th dimension no matter how inconvenient. But now all is submitted so no point worrying about it.

Everyone cross their fingers please….. well when it’s convenient anyway, don’t be crossing them at times it may not be wise to do so. Plus I need the prayers etc.. for the next few weeks and if you kept them crossed that long we may have some numbness and injury occurring and I really don’t want that. Thanks.

Battered and bruised

The gym has thoroughly beaten me today. I hurt. A lot. A whole lot. The conclusion must surely be that I am so far out of shape that I am not even a shape at all - at least not a regular shape as being shapeless altogether is rather difficult. If I were a shape I would like to be an isosceles triangle, an aside I know but I like the word isosceles, and triangle. They are two words best said slowly with annunciation. I-sos-celes Tri-ang-le. You should end with a bit of a flourish. I like a bit of a flourish every now and then.

What noise does a bear make?

So after teaching kids - who alas were older than normal (as in than the normal age range I teach, they weren’t abnormally aged childern or anything) and therefore not as responsive.. wait I totally lost track of where this sentence was going. I will try again. I went to see the Warriors of AniKituwha who do some of the traditional dances of the Cherokee. It was so much fun - my favourite being the bear dance (which is a mating ritual) where you get to growl at your prospective partner a lot. Anyway felt I would share that with you all.

Grrrrrrrrrr

Museum Musings

I got up early this morning, as has been my habit of late, and am happy as I have just made a rather tasty cup of coffee to help me stay awake till my brain decides to wake up and join my body (the whole brain-body discord thing continues, they are currently living in different time zones but managing well and gaining some independence). Today I will achieve nothing, and I am OK with that. It is just one of those days where I have so many appointments and commitments that no work will be done and, more disappointingly, I won’t be able to get to the gym (started back this week after roping a new person in as gym buddy).

I am volunteering at the museum on campus again (did not mention it last time but I do this occasionally). Get to speak to kids about geology and how exciting is is. Woo Hoo! Kids are great because some of them can actually muster up a bit of enthusiasm and when you ask a question they all bloomin’ well put their hands up, even if they don’t really know the answer. Fast forward to the University classes I teach where a lot of the time all of the students pretend they are incapable of speech and don’t know their arse from their elbow, let alone the rocks we looked at the week before. Sigh.

Anyway I am going to spend some quality time with my coffee before doing work in the one continuous hour I have available between now and 6pm.

Fat fat fatty

Note to self: american recipe claims 4 servings, will feed me 8 times.

Lump of butter

Today I went to a Dr, well actually he was probably a Mr (the whole reverse snobbery thing), about my pathetic excuse for a shoulder. It actually impinged on my baking this weekend as it was incapable of stirring my muffin batter. I had to use my left arm, which is really not quite coordinated enough for the job. I was rather concerned that one of my muffins may end up consisting of the all the butter the recipe required, with the rest not tasting of much at all (but they would have been really low in fat). My physio kept telling me how handsome the specialist was (and yes she even said this in front of the wonderful M when he visited so no revelations there), but he also turned out to be a very qualified man, with good ‘bedside manner’ (although there were no beds involved - what do you call it when there are no beds involved? Chair-side manner?). Have to go be MRI-ed… again. Nothing like lying in a small space not being able to move while there are REALLY LOUD noises going on around you. Happy happy joy joy.

I am now making jambalaya - never made it before so we will see how that goes. Felt inspired. It smells good. Makes enough for four and I am only one - anyone care for some dinner?

Today...

I have nothing to say… I really don’t. I got up, went to physio, went to work, came home, and now here I am trying to think of something to blog about. A blog gives one the feeling you should have more of a life. Tomorrow I get to do laundry - man the excitement is building!

The problem with work

I have been working quite hard recently and you know what the problem with 13 hour days are? Once you add another 8 for sleep and a few to shower and generally relax there is NO TIME LEFT. No time for things like cooking, cleaning, and the laundry. I actually left work at 5pm today (yes on a Sunday) just so I could do stuff. I finally managed to buy some food as being faced with dry museli for the third day in a row was getting a little much and then had a baking frenzy. Waaaaahhhhhh! Yes a frenzy. My freezer and fridge are now oh so full with goodies so if all else fails and I cannot make a meal I have about 5 different snack options. Even managed to resist trying everything I made (although goodness knows why as my diet is hardly going well right now - the ‘no food in the house’ problem tends to lead to the ‘let’s eat out’ one).

However, it is not all good as I managed to pick up wax paper out of the cupboard instead of my parchment paper and… well… wax paper tends to smoke in the oven. Was more than a little concerned that I would set off my fire alarm and that it may then, in turn, set off the alarms in general for the apartment complex. I was very busy opening the door, windows, and frantically wafting a tea-towel under the alarm - while checking on the offending items cooking in the oven. Stressful but the biscuits (cookies) came out really well and no sirens were to be heard anywhere.

Now for the whole showering thing so people can actually approach me tomorrow without wishing they were downwind.

Culture 'combine-ation'

So it appears the Wurzels and their classic "I’ve got a brand new combine harvester" never made it over the pond. Tragic. I am doing my best to share the joy. Sing it with me now….

Work avoidance? Never!

For anyone who is interested here are all the lyrics to ‘I’ve got a brand new combine harvester’. Looked them up, partly as my work is dull and partly because having just the one or two lines I know going round in my head on a rather regular basis has been driving me potty.

I drove my tractor through your haystack last night
(ooh aah ooh aah)
I threw me pitchfork at your dog to keep quiet
(ooh aah ooh aah)
Now something’s telling me
That you’m avoiding me
Come on now darling you’ve got something I need

Cuz I got a brand new combine harvester
An’ I’ll give you the key
Come on now let’s get together
In perfect harmony
I got twenty acres
An’ you got forty-three
Now I got a brand new combine harvester
An’ I’ll give you the key

She made I laugh ha ha

I’ll stick by you, I’ll give you all that you need
We’ll ‘ave twins and triplets
I’m a man built for speed
And you know I’ll love you darlin’
So give me your hand
But what I want the most
Is all they acres of land

Cuz I got a brand new combine harvester
An’ I’ll give you the key
Come on now let’s get together
In perfect harmony
I got twenty acres
An’ you got forty-three
Now I got a brand new combine harvester
An’ I’ll give you the key

Ooaah she’s a lovely bit of stuff an’ all

For seven long years I’ve been alone in this place
Eat, sleep, in the kitchen, it’s a proper disgrace
Now if I cleaned it up would you change your mind
I’ll give up drinking scrumpy and that lager and lime

Cuz I got a brand new combine harvester
An’ I’ll give you the key
Come on now let’s get together
In perfect harmony
I got twenty acres
An’ you got forty-three
Now I got a brand new combine harvester
An’ I’ll give you the key

Who loves ya baby ha

Weren’t we a grand couple at that last wurzel dance
I wore brand new gaters and me cordouroy pants
In your new Sunday dress with your perfume smelling grand
We had our photos took and us holding hands

Now I got a brand new combine harvester
An’ I’ll give you the key
Now that we’me both past our fifties I think that you and me
Should stop this galavanting and will you marry me
Coz I got a brand new combine harvester
An’ I’ll give you the key

Aahh yu’re a fine looking woman and I can’t wait to get me ‘ands on your land

Am I not quirky enough for science?

An odd question you may think - perhaps you find me quite quirky enough. Well today I realised that when it comes to being an expert in something, if you are really dedicated, you develop some rather odd habits to go hand in hand with it. I have yet to establish that. A group of us went out to lunch with a palaeontologist today (or a paleontologist if you are an american against the extra a’s). This particular person studies vertebrates and also will only eat meats that come from a vertebrate - but they will only indulge in one vertebrate at a time. Heaven forbid a vertebrate mix should occur! It is hard not to conclude that it is their study of vertebrates that has led to this quirk, although I have no direct evidence to support this. But I am left with the urge to develop a planetary related oddity.

Oh I should say I enjoyed lunch and the talk the said scientist gave afterwards. I like palaeontology.

Here comes the bride

I have been asked to be a bridesmaid today, HURRAH! This will make it my third time down the aisle not wearing white (or all those other things the bride gets to do) so let’s hope the old adage of ‘three times a bridesmaid never a bride’ is just that - an adage and not the truth. I am really excited for K though, plus she has good taste so I do not anticipate having to wear some ghastly pink poofy dress. All the other bridesmaids are also.. how shall I say… similarly proportioned to me too so I don’t have to worry about squeezing myself into some strapless dress with no space for various bits of me, with the result that they pop out half way through the ceremony. Phew! Was that TMI, does it need a rating to warn children away? I hope not.

I have been working rather hard of late and don’t really have a whole lot to say about my life other than I love coffee and am going through a bad patch in my relationship with my bed. We both believe I should be spending more time in it and less at work but sometimes these things just aren’t possible. We may have to go to couple’s therapy to resolve the issue as I do worry it feels lonely at home with only the odd cuddly toy to keep it company in the morning hours when I used to be there. Poor thing.

Ink Blot Tests

I seem to be spending a lot of time in front of the computer going cross-eyed of late, which is impressive as I actually cannot go cross-eyed (no really I can’t it is an impossibility).

New places

This weekend I visited two new states (well new to me they aren’t new in general), namely Ohio and Indiana. I went on a Geology field trip with 8 other miscreants, one of them being the palaeontology guy in our department - so unsurprisingly we we looking for fossils.

It was a lot of fun, although on Saturday it rained, and I mean poured. Naturally, at this time we were on the top of a outcrop with no fast way back to the van and so we got drenched. Luckily none of us girls were wearing white T-shirts as that would have been a nice little sideshow otherwise. The guys, of course, were able to take their shirts off and wring them out whereas we sat in out sopping clothes. Although I must be honest and say I had a waterproof jacket on and so my top half was dry, my jeans, however, were not and weighed about 10 times more than when I had put them on that morning. Plus they are a little big and with the extra weight keeping them up was no mean feat.

We camped Saturday night and then on Sunday went to find more fossils, in the sun (HURRAH) and made a trip to the Cincinnati Natural History Museum, which was wonderful. I literally fell into bed last night as I was all tuckered out - but not before hanging bits of my tent off every door in my apartment, it needed to dry out. I walked into one forgetfully this morning and got a face full of damp, slightly smelly, muddy tent. Nice!

My baby...

I just got a new external hard drive, and it looks like a piece of lego and is fire-engine red. It is wonderful and I love it. Apparently I have over 55,000 files to back-up…. does that not deserve a PhD in itself?

Pulling out my hair

Today I have been mostly stressing…

I think a combination of jet-lag, too much caffeine, a lot of work, and too little sleep have all come together to produce a rather strung-out me. I am sort of sitting on the edge, a precipice if you will, looking down at the huge cliff face I am about to fall down. I know I am being irrational so no one get all hyper concerned about me. I have a nice weekend planned so all this work will be well rewarded. Just no one mess with me in the meantime. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Anyway on a lighter note I said I might show some pictures of my camping trip, if only to prove to some unbelievers that Scotland can be beautiful and sunny. It does relax me some to think about how lovely it was to be there, cannot believe that was under a week ago.



Ahhh brilliant. The next one you all have to wonder at as S risked her life getting this close to the bull. He even threatened to charge her at one point, I was most concerned.



And last but not least a picture of The Lochan. This was shown on the front of our ordnance survey map and we wondered at its beauty (we oooooed and ahhhhhed). So we went off in search of the area shown in the aforementioned picture. This is my version. Still bloomin’ beautiful though I hope you’ll agree.

Catch-up

Thought I would take a nice welcome break from work (at 5.30pm, when I was here before 7am!) to blog, because I quite like the whole blogging process. Anyway thought perhaps a quick description of what I was doing while I was away last was in order (just in case anyone was dying to know, I don’t want blood on my hands you see).

Well I flew on the 7th, so morning of the 8th I arrived back in the UK, feeling somewhat rough. The man next to me on the plane this time was more normal. He worked for a rock music recording company or something, but then he was flying economy so maybe he was just taking the opportunity to pretend he had his dream job, when actually he was a cleaner or something. The wonderful M drove down that evening just in time to go to the pub (clever lad) and then I fell into bed and was only woken when breakfast was brought to me (see he is wonderful!). We went to a village fete, which even by village fete standards was a bit dull and so abandoned it for a walk (the one with the abundance of daddy long legs). We got stared at by sheep a lot, I guess they normally only get grass and stuff to look at so by golly we were interesting! That evening had a big meal out with some of my friends and stayed over (allowing alcohol to be consumed by those who normally drive - i.e. not me).

Then it was to Bristol for my conference, I had a wonderful chaffeur over there (whose identity is given away by the adjective used to describe him). However, my company left and I had to fend for myself in University housing for a few days. Was rather nice to be back in a city where I could walk around - I do miss that over here. I won’t talk about the conference or you will all get bored, it happened and that’s all you need to know. Got the train back home and got ready to fly to Glasgow next day where S and I were going camping in the scottish highlands. One night in a bed and then two in a tent, fabulous. Had a ball - may expand on it later with pictures. Then I flew back down south with just enough time to pack and go to the pub before leaving next morning for the USA.

Phew…. I’m tired.

All bugs are bad

Ok so I know all bugs aren’t bad - most of them serve a purpose, although if I remember my pointless general knowledge wasps are one of the few things that appear to have no purpose. But then define purpose… actually I am way too tired to argue philosophical points - having said that philosophical conversations are often best in the small hours but there is just me here and a lot of men in pinstripes and I think I am best keeping quiet.

Why the attack on bugs anyway you may ask? If you didn’t ask it then well fine, read my blog and don’t play along! Well it all started at the weekend where the Scottish midges and mosquitoes found me and S rather attractive - turns out there is no such thing as a free campsite, you pay in blood! I am left rather itchy and looking somewhat like I have the measles (no seriously it is not a good look). I probably could have forgiven the bug world if that is where it ended but that is where it just began….

So in my home village we are currently under seige by crane flies (daddy long legs to the Brits who read this but bizarrely the Americans seem to call a different thing daddy long legs so I get most confused). M and I experienced this my first weekend home on a walk through the fields, where every footstep sent up clouds of the little buggers. They like the light, as many annoying many legged, flying things are want to do and this means they want in your house. You cannot keep them out and last night a flock of them flew in when I brough the laundry in. Not so bad you would say, annoying but not worthy of a blog mention - well listen to what happened next.

I was relieving myself (having a wee - TMI I am sure but the story cannot go on without me sharing this gory information) and there was movement beneath me. Not in a position to jump up, I was nevertheless VERY alarmed and all of a sudden a daddy long legs flew out from between my legs from their inner bowl hiding place. Now I am sure he or she may have been more scarred by the whole thing more than me but I am sorry I will now always wonder what will emerge from the bowl when nature calls.

First class treatment

I am currently esconsced in the posh first class lounge at Newark airport, a seven hour layover sort of neccesitated some comfort so I splashed out. Thought I might take this opportunity to update my much neglected blog. There was a severe lack of internet the last 10 days - now up in the Highlands in a tent that was to be expected but I feel a conference with no organised internet is a poor one, but I don’t wish to rant about that. I thought I would talk about the people I have met on my travels - well the planes anyway.

On my last jaunt back this way I sat next to a most odd man, the sort you see on telly who have been bad men and whose neighbours always say ‘he kept to himself’. I am sure he was perfectly nice but that does not a good story make. He sort of smelt funny and it was only when the food was brought I realised the smell had not been coming from him, but the pocket in front of him. He had brought cheese with him… lots of cheese. I am talking parmesan, brie, and cheddar here. Now I find that when it comes to aeroplane food they are always rather heavy on the cheese (so I order a special meal as cheese and me have a love-hate relationship). This man clearly disagreed as he whipped out his bag o’ cheese and added some to the main meal. Fair enough, but then our snack (well his snack) was a four-cheese pizza and out comes the cheese again, huge chunks making it less a pizza and more a tower of cheese with a bread foundation.

Anyway the whole time this is going on all I can think of is that Monty Python skit where John Cleese is being interviewed as one of the ‘mice men’:

"Well… I was about seventeen and some mates and me went to a party, and, er… we had quite a lot to drink… and then some of the fellows there … started handing … cheese around … and well just out of curiosity I tried a bit … and well that was that."

Tee Heee I love Monty Python.

Time zones mean nothing to me

So I am on yet another plane tomorrow heading back the way I only just came, and moving forward 5 hours that I just went back. It is all a bit confusing. My brain went a bit mental last night and kept me up till 3.30am - and I know it had to be the brain because trust me the body was more than happy in bed, shame I just can’t put the former in a jar so I can get a good night’s sleep and put it back in again in the morning. But knowing me I would knock over the jar and then my chances of graduating would just be a mess all over the carpet - then I would have to vacuum and I really HATE to vacuum (I still do it before you all accuse me of being gross).

I think I am pretty much packed, although no doubt I will arrive at home and realise I have forgotten something really important - like trousers, or all my bras. At least if the latter happens I can just pretend I am all about the women’s movement and freedom from bras (personally though I rather like bras, they are a woman’s defense against the inevitable effects of gravity). I probably shouldn’t talk about bras on my blog.

The next two weeks I will probably blog relatively erratically as I do not know what sort of internet access I will have most of the time - but rest assured I will keep everyone updated on my travels. Oh and in case anyone is worried I have packed bras - and trousers too so all is well.

The power of suggestion

It has been one of those days where lots of people told me I look tired, and eventually the power of suggestion overcomes me and I start to feel tired. Think it is because I have been staring at a computer screen all day, clicking the mouse when necessary and letting my brain have a rest. Don’t get me wrong, I quite like mind-numbing tasks that require little of my neurons - I find collating and photocopying quite soothing in their own way (I think I would have made a good entry-level secretary). Once the eyes start to glaze over the rest of the day is lost though, I feel slightly disconnected (although in a different way from yesterday when I accidentally inhaled too much nail varnish, that was a lesson learnt and not to be repeated).

On the very upside I leave for the UK in under two days - a trip for which I am totally unprepared. This travelling the pond thing is great, but not twice in a month. Now if you will excuse me I have to go stare at a screen for a few more hours until the time comes when I can shut my eyes and see it in my sleep instead.

I didn't inhale.....

Been painting my nails (progressed to looking like a small child did them, as opposed to a monkey) and wooooo I am light headed - that nail varnish is crazy stuff.

Lists

Things I love, a non-inclusive list:

(Which by the way will probably grow throughout the day as I think of more stuff)

1. The obvious friends and family stuff - and the wonderful M
2. Lists - oh yes we like lists, making them, crossing stuff off, they are grrrreat (to take Tony the tiger’s saying)
3. Words with double letters in them, like woggle, wiggle, lolliopop, google, gaggle, wibble, jiggle, loony, lollygagger.. ooh I could go on for ages on this one.
4. White seedless grapes
5. Laughing
6. Crosswords, sudoku and other puzzles
7. Reading
8. Singing along to the radio in my car
9. Travel
10. Sleeping
11. Hugs
12. Writing letters
13. Coffee
14. Tea

Bleurgh!

Today I am unwell and do not wish to blog the unpleasant details. So everyone take a day off and I’ll be back tomorrow.

Weird people

So today’s blog is about etiquette. When listening in to other people’s conversations (we all do it people let’s get honest here) it should not be obvious to said people that you are eavesdropping. If they are it will only bring an abrupt end to the chatter you are so rudely, but intently, listening to anyway.

This week at Starbucks I was having a little chat to J (sounds like a men in black character) and the girl next to me was just staring at us, quite clearly very interested in what we were discussing (which is odd in itself as we were talking about departmental politic stuff really). She was really rather creepy, she did not even take a break in the stare down to sip her coffee, but she had the coffee to mouth delivery system down pretty well - I don’t, if I did not look I would pour the coffee down my front, but enough of my inadequacies. It was creepy. We ended up sort of turning our chairs and not breaking eye contact as she sort of looked like she would randomly join our conversation at any point.

Now the moral of this story boys and girls is if you are going to be rude and listen in to a converstion - be rude subtely and without any staring.

A real nail biter

So I spent yesterday evening being all girly and doing my nails. As some of you may know I have a very bad habit of biting my nails, never down to a disgusting level, but still it is a nasty thing to do. I am currently in the process of trying to quit, which is quite difficult because it is something I do subconsciously, especially when working. My worst situation is at the cinema, at the end of the movie I look down and my nails have gone and I have no recollection of chewing them - but I am not aware of any nail stealing fairies that inhabit cinemas so I figure it has to be me. However, if anyone does know of such fairies please get in touch, because I need to have words with them.

Anyways… it is going quite well so I attempted to paint and pamper them last night, I say attempt as it is something that practice makes perfect… so I am far from perfect. It looks like a monkey got loose with some nail varnish (although none got consumed and I bet a monkey would eat some), so I consider myself lucky to have chosen a relatively subtle colour. I would appreciate all sending me happy ‘don’t-bite-your-nail’ vibes for the near future, and perhaps I can achieve my goal. I do not plan to watch any films in the near future, that would be tempting fate.

Naked?

My shorts are out of stock - there are not even any in Italy apparently. Anyone have any bubblewrap going spare?

Money Money Money

I think the jetlag is finally settling, although I did appreciate another marathon night’s sleep last night. I am reminded how much I like sleep, and how little I like excel (the latter is where most of my work lies at present).

So what have I been up to other than taking some z’s (to apostrophe or not? I fear not but it looks silly without one)? I did some online shopping for my upcoming (under 130 days) snowboarding adventure last night. Now I know my dad may believe that snowboarding is synonymous with suicide for me, but I am rather excited. I bought some rather sexy protective gear from dainese, hardly high fashion but I am sure my bum will be grateful when I hit the floor for the 300th time. Thermals were also purchased so aforementioned rear is also warm when it makes contact with snow. Ooh and gloves and wrist guards - hey big spender, spend a little time with me!

4th Dimension

I feel I should start by saying ‘It’s nice to be back’ but I would be lying, I would much rather still be in England not worrying about the sheer volume of work I need to do. I am glad to be blogging again though, thanks to George for covering for me in my absence. He did a stand up job I think (cue applause) and I am sure we have not seen the last of him.

So I found myself in a tear in the space-time continuum coming back from Blighty. Atlanta airport does not follow the rules that the rest of the world appears to function fairly well by. At 5pm we were informed our plane had landed, and a 5.34pm takeoff did not seem too unreasonable. At 6pm we were then told our plane was in the air and had yet to approach Atlanta, so it was clearly travelling backwards and would rearrive at its departure point before its arrival. Most perplexing. Turned out the original message was true and our poor plane sat on the tarmac waiting for a gate for an hour. I did debate staying in Atlanta for a year or so to write my dissertation and perhaps finish earlier than I had started it but decided the comfort of home was calling.

We ended up being 5 hours late because the toilet, yes the toilet, delayed us. They managed to overflow it (it was full, needed emptying and in their wisdom in the emptying process they added MORE fluid! Do I not know what empty means? More fluid seems the opposite!). As this fluid is corrosive (and smelly, really smelly - bear in mind we had already boarded at this point and were on the plane when it happened) to the plane we had to deplane and wait for ages while they cleaned it up and checked the aircraft was OK. When we did get back on the toilet was still not working (only 30 minute flight so we were OK) and the aroma of the plane was somewhat more interesting than it had been initially.

Mmmmmmm

Final words

I think this will be my last post for a while - madam is chomping at the bit to get back into the whole blogging thing. Rather annoyed as I have written more blogs and they all posted as blank - who stole my blogs you (insert b word here)….? Honestly for a rabbit to go to all that trouble and get no satisfaction at the end of it was quite disheartening. But I will get over it, eventually.

So what have we been up to? Last week saw me and madam frolicking in the city of London. She was working in the Natural History Museum, knee deep in space rocks and, therefore, in her element. We did get a chance to see some of the museum itself - which brought on a little period of reminiscing as it had been a good decade and a half since we last went with school (I have been with her since birth you see, I was but a young kitten back then - on a side note, why are baby bunnies kittens, or kits for short? Do we not deserve our own baby name?).

The bird hall was something that had stuck in both our memories.

It was full of stuffed birds, birds that watched you with beady eyes, birds that glared at you through glass cases. The hall went on forever, the birds surrounded you, aaagggghhhh the birds!!! Turns out it is not so scary now, not that either of us have developed a penchant for stuffed birds. Give me a dead dinosaur any day - they had animatronic ones too which were pretty darn cool, not animatronic dead ones though as that would render the animatronic point rather mute.

Taxidermy is rather funny really. I mean what kid wants to grow up to stuff dead animals, or even what adult (in their right mind anyway)? I mean thank goodness for them - how would we creep out an enitre class of children without them?

I am sure that some smart alec amongst you is now going to point out that I am in fact stuffed. I would like to tell you that stuffism is a horrible prejudice. Just because I have pillow filling where you have your cold, cold heart and cannot maintain a circulatory system does not make me less of a bunny. I think I shall go cry in a corner.

This week

So this week has been one of weddings (well one wedding) and seeing old friends and new places for madam. Very relaxing, and a return to work in just over a week is looming over the horizon and is not a welcome event. I am afraid I can only give you the highlights as I am kept most of the time in an enclosed space (it is quite plainly animal cruelty but I have made it my home best I can). The wonderful M and madam went to the beach to view the North Sea and for a quick paddle. I did not partake in the paddling activities on account of not being insane and staying clear of freezing water. Their claims that it was not too cold did not fool me - oh no! I preferred to take in the sights from more civilised places, like the dunes…



or a tree…



Ice creams were bought (and not shared with me might I add) and much fun was had. Even went to a place called Seal Sands and initially I was very suspicious of false advertising as there were no seals to be found. We did all then see some objects in the distance that were either seals or logs and one of them moved so we are plumping for the former. I like seals.

As promised

Sorry chaps I have been kept busy of late and, while I have been thinking of you all often and how I should blog, the days have kind of got away with themselves. Seven of them I believe, seven days that pretty much made free with themselves thinking that their events would go unreported, how wrong they were. The temptation is to write one massive post but I think I shall break it up a little or no one will read it the whole way through, plus this way you can skip the boring ones easier.

So last Thursday madam gave her talk in Zurich (I am sans umlaut today as I am on a PC) and I believe all went well, but how is one to tell these things? A simple rabbit such as myself cannot understand such science, and I have no urge to either. The evening was entirely more stressful thanks to the problems at Heathrow and her recent travel plans. I have a lot of empathy for others so I turned to the wine to help me cope with the stress of the overall situation.

No bloggage

Give me time o’ loyal readers I shall blog about much on Friday.

The hat...

Now it seems many are anxious to see the wedding hat, the requests have been bustling in to madam, but she has been more than reluctant. Well I am sure you will have all noticed that I am one hell of a photographic bunny and because of that I managed to get a picture with the aforementioned hattage. I am posting it with the vain hope she will not withdraw it when she takes back blogging duites. Enjoy it while you can!



Of course the whole outfit is really needed to appreciate it but I am a male bunny and the skirt just would not have suited me. Any requests for those pictures should be made in person to the boss lady.

Out and About

Well here I am again - hope you appreciate how hard it is to type with such small rabbit paws as I have. I sometimes use my feet too, it is reminiscent of that scene in ‘Big’ where they play that piano on the floor by jumping around. Not sure it does the laptop any good as I have been consuming my fair share of wurst while here in Switzerland. I am becoming a little more of a rabbit than I used to be!

Yesterday they actually gave the nerds a break from their conference, not that they know how to appreciate it. We all went en-masse on a nice boat ride from Zürich (I found out how to do the fancy umlaut thing) to a historic town called Rappersvil. Here is me enjoying the boat ride.


Was beautiful weather and madam got burnt and aquired a few new freckles. I named them Anastasia and Pickles, but apparently the others don’t have names (it is a sheer volume issue I believe, she’s not frecklist) so I am not allowed to use them. If I ever have baby bunnies I think Pickles will be recycled there. I got quite tired hopping around the monastery and castle so we did stop briefly for drinks and ice creams. The bees were most loving - but madam is beeist (quite frankly they scare her but you did not hear it from me) so it was unappreciated. We then took a bus back to our conference centre. Please observe the crazy seat colours - enough to give one a bunny headache, if I did not already have one from the keychain embedded in mine (piercing gone wrong - I don’t wish to discuss it).

Mini-bar hopping

Can anyone tell me what happened last night? Thanks to the beer bunny fairies for bringing me home. I overdid it. Madam was far more restrained… and sober…. and boring (but that pretty much follows the first two).

George to the rescue

So as The usual blog writer is working hard in Zurich, I thought I would commander the blog, which considering if you look at the website is my blog anyway. Can I commander something that is already mine - perhaps I have to recommander, anyway what is some incorrect grammar between friends. Oh in case you did not guess this is George.

Thought I would start by sharing some of pictures of the trip so far. We left Saturday afternoon, with a stupid amount of luggage, and a lot of not very nice words used to describe a hat. Not quite sure what she has against the aforementioned item but I would not take its place that’s for sure (partly as I think it must be rather dull sitting on someone’s head all the time). Anyway here is a picture of me enjoying a cold one at the airport:


Our journey was fairly uneventful really. Don’t think missy got any sleep though - she seemed to be making up a lot of to do lists in her head, none of which she can remember now, but time passed. The hotel room is small to say the least - has two beds but with no space between them so everyone can get all snug together, whether that was their plan or not. I was rather jetlagged upon our arrival and while they all went off to round up some food I napped:


Well that is all for today - time is money and all that. I’ll be back when I can steal madam’s mac away from her next. I wish you all a goodnight - is it night? My body clock is still most unsure.

Travels

I am off to Zurich tomorrow - hence my earlier packing issues, which were solved with a nice big cup of coffee and a long period of time knee-deep in clothes. Really regretting the decision to not send the hat on ahead but take it as an extra piece of luggage. In fact I am now anti-hat, if it wasn’t for the fact that I feel obliged to wear it now, I might perform some ritual sacrificial ceremony involving the millinery object. I guess there is always after the wedding… that gives me over a week to plot its demise, always something to look forward to. Mwuu-ha-ha!

Not sure how much I will be able to blog while I am away, so please excuse any erratic behaviour over the next three weeks (I am afraid I have no excuse for any over the last 26 years). I will endeavour to keep all and sundry updated with my latest adventures.

To do list

I need to pack - can someone do this for me as I really need a nap right now? I’ll make you dinner or something as a thank you - oh but make sure to pack me enough underwear, and I am a girl so put in lots of shoes (pairs preferably as odd shoes are pretty pointless) thanks again!

My morning

So I got up, entirely unwillingly but under necessity. I promptly dropped my deodorant in the toilet, after wiping it off and washing hands etc… I opened it and the insides flew out and…. yes landed in the toilet. Not an auspicious start to my Thursday - I did have a spare deodorant for those of you that are worrying about my current aroma. I then walked out of the house, drove to University and while walking to my office realised that not only was my t-shirt on backwards it was also inside-out.

And so it begins….

My name is not George…

and I have a drinking problem. It’s not alcohol related, although some of my nearest and dearest would day I do have an alcohol problem - I don’t drink enough! Mine is entirely caffeine related. I went a little crazy today and had it in almost every drinkable form - hot in coffee and tea, cold with bubbles several times, cold without bubbles - no hot with bubbles but one has to draw the line somewhere. I wouldn’t say I was tired today.. well certainly not after the drinks, but I mean before them. Fact is I like it, I like it a lot. Coffee cheers me up of a morning.

Hurrah for coffee!!!!!

As for my penchant for bubbly beverages, I just cannot help myself. Nothing like something you are not supposed to have to get a craving going. Anyway not sure why I am telling you this, it is not a big newsflash, but hey if you want excitement - look to your own lives and if you cannot find it there, well then don’t bitch at me about mine!

Probing issues

The probe is not communicating again. I think perhaps it needs to see a therapist about this recurring issue, as it is effecting other people’s daily lives as well as its own. Maybe it feels it has no purpose to life - although I would think that analysing mineral chemistries (amongst other things) was pretty specific, but then perhaps when it was little it wanted to be an opera singer and now feels unfulfilled. It is hard to know. I just wish it would cooperate with me, I talk nicely too it, give it the odd encouraging word now and then, the occasional pat. I appreciate it. Group hug!

Bubbles….. My bubbles

I forgot bubble baths - I really like those. I also like blowing bubbles, it cheers one up so.

Factoids

I like bacon sandwiches, drinks with bubbles (even though they are bad for me), boys, bad movies, and the colour blue. Not an exhaustive list but I have work to crack on with.

Today’s blog has been brought to you by the letter b.

All dressed up and.. well yes I have somewhere to go.

So it was much to my chagrin that I learned that makeup goes off. Now I have known this for some time but this wedding I am going to soon (where I will wear makeup, a skirt AND heels - an almost never seen occurence, it may make the tabloids, but no one will believe it) made me assess my own collection. Those that know me will realise I don’t wear makeup on a very regular basis. I would say never but that would be a lie - I may have worn some last Christmas, but I could not swear it. Anyway I realised that quite a few of the items lurking in my makeup bag were 8, yes read it and weep ladies, EIGHT years old. I was alarmed, more at the fact it was 8 years since I was in high school as opposed to that some of my makeup was that old. I was very good and threw it all away - I would like to claim sentimental attachment to some items, 8 years is a big chunk of my life to share with anything (even stuff I never use).

Buying new makeup was stressful - too much choice, and decisions just are not my thing. The nice over-perfumed lady at the counter thought I was quite potty. She seemed to be bosom buddies with Revlon, Maybelline and Almay though - and they were quite some bosoms so I bet they were quite some buddies. She gave me lots of advice and I would have needed a private jet to fly my supplies to England had I bought everything she suggested. Minimalist was not her thing. But I bought a few items, now on to the next challenge - how do I wear this stuff without it looking like I let a small child armed with crayons loose on my face?

Drowning in data

I am most upset - it is not my social conscience talking today (I think I appeased it yesterday) but my general self. I have to work this weekend, and I am talking full 8 hour days both Saturday and Sunday and ‘I object!’. Alas this is what comes of a week of procrastinating so I brought it all on myself. I am currently surrounded by towers of data CDs and DVDs which all need to go on an external hard drive, and I have my suspicions that the hard drive may not be quite big enough. Quite frankly I have data oozing from every orifice - there is just no way to handle it. I am not a good enough disciplinarian - my data appears to do what it wants and I feel powerless to stop it. I swear it is climbing out of the window at night and making free with other data, producing little datalets, which are only adding to the confusion.

As a result of my data issues my to do list is slightly out of control. Now I love lists.

But yesterday as I was probing I decided to compile one for my weekend - just so I could have the joy of crossing tasks off as they were completed… ahh I love that feeling. Anyway I soon realised that this was no ordinary list - it needed subcategories. I ended up with two lists - one for work and one for non-work related stuff and then these were divided into daily tasks (using lots of funky pen colours of course). Despite the joy I gleaned from the creation of these masterpieces I am not entirely thankful for their existence today - I shall be here sometime trying to finish all the tasks they contain.

I feel my posting is somewhat muddled today, my brain is a little scattered - it exploded over all the data and I have yet to reassemble it back together. Perhaps I shall have better luck tomorrow. It was nice knowing you all.

Catching me unawares

So this morning I confess to feeling uninspired. I was really hoping it would be one of those awareness days today - so I could rattle on about how we are supposed to be thinking about how important some random type of … let’s say tree… is to our civilisation, and not to mention how thoroughly crap we all are as a race for endangering it. Alas in my search it appears that today we do not have to be aware of anything. This got me thinking of how, quite selfishly, there is a lot going on in today’s world that perhaps I would rather be unaware of. I would rather be unaware of the crisis in the Middle East, that people seem more prepared to use God as an excuse for war instead of peace, that in Niger famine is rearing its ugly head again, and that in some places in the world women are killed by their families for loving the wrong person. The fact is though that we get nowhere by being unaware, no progress is ever made. So somehow what was going to be a post making light hearted fun at some silly day sort of came out the other way. Let’s save that tree chaps, because then when all is said and done we can say we actually did something.

Something for the weekend madam?

I am on the probe today (and tomorrow). It is a good survivial training tool - you have to remember plenty of caffeinated drinks to keep your mind alert despite the sensory deprivation and boredom, and warm clothes because it may be sweaty outside but it is arctic in the lab. I am thankful that my foot is regaining its more normal shape because it meant I could wear shoes today - last time I attempted sandals in here toes were nearly lost on account of the frost bite.

This week has been one of those where I have managed to achieve nothing. I have been at work for 8 hours a day yet my to do list mocks me at the end of each of them. This sadly means that I will have to spend some quality time with my data over the weekend. I have just over a week till I leave for Zurich, at which point I should have a nice presentation ready to go - I think I have so far managed to save a blank powerpoint file. That is not a good thing. PAH!!! On the plus side I will be in Zurich in just over a week and then back in Blighty so things are most definitely looking up.

Now for something completely different… went out last night and since the antibiotics kept me away from the alcohol I decided to go for a decadent dessert instead. Anyway I was reminded how much I LOVE cheesecake… and now this morning I am reminded how much it does not like me.

The things I do

SHOCK HORROR I thought today I would write a blog about what I have been up to and just give some general information out to the general populus about me. Not that I don’t have random things I wish to discuss with myself (and whoever will listen) but there are so many days for that… oh the days.

1. I bought a new digital camera this week. I am very excited. I should explain that the last one died a death at my expense. It was eating batteries like a big battery eating thing (we are talking one or two pictures for FOUR AA’s here) and it was an old thing and I got a tad frustrated at it. Well we won’t go into the gory details in case young people are present, but needless to say it ended up in several pieces that will never again be one. It was quite theraputic, I have never purposely destroyed anything like that before. Just feel I should write here that I have been saving for the new camera so I did wait for the young to replace the old here. Oh and of course I must not forget to thank my fantastic parents for helping me with my new purchase. I have an appointment with the instruction manual (not being a boy I plan to actually read some of it)
2. Booked a holiday - going to Whistler snowboarding in January. Should say that the wonderful M actually booked it (does this make him more wonderful?). My dad claims taking me snowboarding is ‘like giving a loaded gun to a manic depressive’. Not very politically correct of him but I do have a history of accidents. However, I tend to prefer more unusual injuries, such as ant allergies, so the consensus is I am more likely to scald myself with hot chocolate at the hotel than break a leg snowboarding (everyone knock on wood NOW). I am very excited. Even got a snowboard from a mystery source (well I know who it was - big clue for you - he’s wonderful, but I won’t mention that again - today anyway).
3. I am actually missing the gym at the moment. Had finally got into an almost daily routine and the foot comes from nowhere! Well to be fair the foot has been there as long as me - the swelling is the recent thing. I was coming close to actually enjoying the gym, although not the stationary bike - I may use it but it is the height of all things dull. Oh well I am allowed to use the aforementioned bike for a bit even with the foot so maybe tomorrow I shall venture to the sweat pit anyway. Feel a bit daft walking into the gym on crutches, well OK hobbling. Need to take advantage of the time I have left before I go on my travels for a bit.
4. My foot itches
5. Ooh I need advice - how does one send a hat across the pond? I seem to require an unreasonably large box and feel there should be a better solution. Can one buy a hat box from the USPS? The best way would be for the wedding, to which I am wearing the hat, to be on the same continent. Alas it is not.

Well I feel that is plenty for today. Got the writing bug now… maybe I will go write some snail mail.