Sunday 31 August 2008

Where did they go?

If you are a regular reader of this load of drivel, you will know that I work in a school.
We are back on Tuesday for the new school year, although my youngest isn't back until Wednesday.
What I want to know is, Where does the time go?" It doesn't seem that long since it was end of term. More to the point, have I done what I hoped to do during the break? The answer to that one is simple, NO!
The medication I got from the doctor knocked me sideways for a while.
I have managed to keep up with my swimming, and managed to walk the dog most days, so am happy about that.
I have also read quite a lot of books, and started a patchwork quilt for my own bed.
And painted about a 1/3 of the walls and ceiling in the back bedroom. I hope to paint more tomorrow.
But!!!! my ankle has been aching quite a bit the last two or three days, so I think at some point I may have over done things. Probably on Friday, when I got up early, then was busy until around 4-4.30 in the afternoon.
Old Bean is now safely out of the path of Hurricane Gustav. Just typical ain't it, the hurricane decides to arrive on a USA holiday weekend! I know it's serious, and my thoughts are with them.

Saturday 30 August 2008

Saturday night again

I know I haven't posted for nearly a week. For a Saturday it is very quiet here. No Eastern Europeans wall walking, no TWOCers, no one dumping cars in the street and running off.
Not much happening at all.
There's no-one really online who I talk to either. Mind you, Old Bean is busy getting stuff packed in case Gustav hits. They are going to a relative's house out of the path of Gustav. When the last biggy hit that area I didn't know anyone there, and it was just stuff on a map. I was disgusted then how slowly the USA central government reacted to the crisis. They send aid swifter to places not in their country, perhaps the illustrious leader was trying to find New Orleans on a world map, little knowing it was in his own country.
Have had a busy week, but not really done anything note worthy. Have been doing some work on the back bedroom for Edwin, but not as much as I'd like, due to adjusting to the tablets the doc has given me. I should be able to get stuck into things soon, or rather work my way through thins slowly but surely.
It's back to work on Tuesday for me. Everything should be quite organised, as I think I got most of the resources ready for DT before the summer. We have a new DT teacher starting, can't remember his surname, but his first name is Ben, tall bloke, not that old.

Friday 22 August 2008

Muuuuuuum!

My youngest came into the living room while I was watching TV , having my random thoughts of the earlier post. He announced, "I've made a bit more room in the glasses cupboard, Mum. Things will fit in a little easier now."
cheeky monkey! He'd broken a glass.
Mind you, he's right, things will fit in better now.
I wasn't cross, but who could be when he cleaned all the mess up himself, well he is 15, and put it so uniquely?
It happens in spates here, glasses and crockery getting broken. There's plenty more glasses, except they are either pint ones or smallish tumblers now, no half pint ones left. What's the posh name for them, Hi-ball glasses?
Should I make my son and his gf eat at Maccy Ds to collect some their promotional glasses? Or just offer visitors teeny tiny drinks, or huge ones. (I do have other glasses, but they are no better as they are champagne flutes ...from waaaaaaaaaaay back, when they used to give glasses away with fuel at garages.)
Nooooooooooo, don't want to be accused of cruelty.

And before I go, the weekend started in true style.
Earlier on there were 2 police vehicles outside, a tow truck thing, and what I can only guess was a stolen Corsa. The Police loaded the Corsa onto the tow truck doodah, and it was taken away, and I heard through the open window something about, driving without a license and insurance. Guess the scruffy looking individual was a TWOCer. And it's only Friday evening!

Random thoughts

Do random thoughts come into other people's heads unbidden? I don't think I'm the only one this happens to.
After eating tonight was watching something on the TV, and for some reason this question popped into my head.
"How do you find out you can sword swallow?"
What sort of thing is the person doing when they find out that they can sword swallow? Trying to commit suicide in a unique way?
Trying to dislodge a stuck piece of food?
Staving off a murderous attack in the only way possible?
What sort of sane person picks up a sword and sticks it down their outstretched throat, after all, if you've done even the most basic biology you would know that around 6 inches down it starts to get twisty.
One on from this is fire eating, or is it? Perhaps I should have asked my friend who fire-eats, what made her decide to give it a try? Mind you, on reflection, fire-eating isn't as bizarre as sword swallowing. And lying on a bed of nails, well so long as you don't bounce up and down I can see that working as your weight is spread over the area, and the nails are fairly close together, aren't they?
Fire-walking is another one that puzzles me, why not just go around?
Perhaps some kind soul will read this, and have the answers, then again, maybe not! More likely to just get even more imponderable questions posed.

Is it just me?

Is it just me, or does this happen to other people?
Sometimes I will be reading a book, and the next book I pick up also mentions a minor incident.
For instance, the current book I am reading, and the two previous have all had the narrator commenting on the behaviour of flies. I know, it's odd. But I have found this before, obviously not about flies in the past, but a minor incident recurring in successive books by different authors.

Thursday 21 August 2008

Tatling Shadow, again!

Today is Spark's 7th birthday.
Last night, Shadow was in the yard, whining and crying, and she came to me, whined and cried.
I called Spark ,but no answer. Shadow went into the yard and cried more.
I called Spark again, and he eventually appeared, covered in erm...I don't know, but he stank and was more brown than white.
Straight in the bath for him. That was what was wrong with Shadow, she couldn't follow Spark and knew he shouldn't be out alone.

Am still here

I'm really sorry that I haven't posted any of my daft guff for a while.
I've been distracted.

Anyway, I thought here might be a fun place to share one of my daft, "off at a tangent moments".
I was talking to a friend about a local takeaway place, and commented that they use "ham substitute" instead of real ham, then I realised that as the place also provided curry they may be Muslim.
My brain went totally off at a tangent then about the "ham substitute"
I had this mental image of little bits of "ham substitute" running around the perimeter of the pizza as the delivery person drove to the delivery, and it leaping into place onto the pizza as the doorbell is rung.
OK!
Yes, I agree with you, a very nutty mental image, but that is what sports subs do...warm up before joining in.

Wednesday 6 August 2008

Well Read, or just short of something to do?

I saw a list of top 100 books on another blog. I thought it was the BBC Big Read list, but not. Never mind, the one below is.
The list was compiled by the British public voting for their favourite book, then books were eliminated. There is a list of 200, but that is far too long for here.
You can find it http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/
It is reference only now though.

I have coloured the books I have read in red, and the one's I have but not read as yet in green, the one's I haven't read are black.


1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

I did colour one red and green..I just couldn't finish Middlemarch. The vote was open to all ages. There is one thing that annoyed me. All Douglas Adams books were lumped together, as were His Dark Materials, whilst the Harry Potter books were all listed separately. (I do have all those, but have only read the first one.)

My List

Al right then! I swiped this from Complex Femme's blog, who in turn had lifted it from elsewhere and I'm going to see if I can manage the whole thing...

Here goes ...
The challenge is to make a list of my favorites. There can be only ONE answer to each question.
So here's my list of favorite things .... But as this was originally an American list, and I'm from the UK, I'll give UK answers.

1. Sport: show jumping/gymkhana (to watch)
2. Game: Othello
3. Color: purple
4. Movie:Sleeping with the Enemy
5. Broadway play: None seen (Can't remember the name of the Stephen Berkov play I saw back in 1987, but that is the the equivalent, and only one I've seen)
6. Broadway Musical: (None seen in London.)
7. Song: Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday
8.UK city I have visited: I live near Lancaster, but other than that Manchester. :D
9. Foreign city I have visited: Not a city, but Lorient in southern Brittany, France
10. Book: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
11. Classic television show: Poldark
12. Recent television show: Doc Martin
13. Actor: Nigel Havers
14. Actress: Julia Roberts
15. Perfume: Oceanus by Body Shop
16. Food: curry, the hotter the better :D
17. Dessert: Cheesecake
18. Chain Restaurant: Don't have them much in UK
19. Local Restaurant: Saffron
20. Car: MGZR :D
21. Condiment: Vinegar
22. Kitchen Appliance: Braun hand blender
23. Home Appliance: toaster
24. Beauty Product: shampoo
25. Piece of clothing: purple and black goth dress
26. HGTV Show: what is this? guessing something like our freeview, so Top Gear on Dave
27. Food Network show: don't have one, but Gordon Ramsey
28. Male Songwriter: The Bees...they are all male
29. Female Songwriter:Shania Twain
30. Holiday: Midsummer
31. Ballet I have seen: Swan Lake
32. Disney character: "Mickey Mouse as Sorcerer's Apprentice"
33. Flower: Iris
34. Alcoholic drink: Soave
35. Non-Alcoholic drink: Water, plain ordinary tap water.
36. Magazine: Cross Stitcher
37. Animated movie: Fantasia
38. Television network miniseries: Don't have any in UK really
39. Season: All 4
40. Male vocalist:Robert Palmer
41. Female vocalist: Pink
42. Day of the week: all
43. Household Chore:Cooking
44. Ice Cream: Vanilla
45. Candy: Liquorice
46. Artist:Renoir and Modern..my friend Piers Bishop
47. Quotation: "Don't Panic" H2G2

I tried this.

As I clicked on the home page of my browser, this story came up
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/20080806/tuk-yawning-dogs-are-copy-cats-dba1618.html
I wasn't sure about this story. So, like an idiot, I sat here yawning at my Westie. He looked at me as if to say..."go away, mad woman" then turned his back on me. I have also seen my friend yawn in front of their collie, and he does yawn.
What the article hasn't considered is the "intelligence" of the dogs concerned. The smarter dogs aren't fooled as easily. After all, you can sit there, looking at another person, and keep yawning, and before long they start to yawn back. (I have tried this as well, and the degree of alertness seems to be a factor.)

Smoking problem?

Just over a year ago in the UK there was a law passed against smoking in public places.
It didn't cover outdoor venues though, but the place in the article below will have areas where smoking will be banned.
For example, if an "building/shelter" has a roof, if it is more than 50% enclosed it becomes illegal to smoke in it. So most bus shelters are non-smoking.
Anyway, I think the smokers in the story below acted to the extreme.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080806/tuk-commuter-thrown-on-to-live-rails-45dbed5.html

Monday 4 August 2008

busy again

Well, on the surface of things, I have done very little all day, bu no-one counts shopping, tidying and washing as work, do they?
Apart from that, have moved a bookcase, and will later fill it with books, and also put up my spice rack in the cupboard.
Sam is on her way back from The Big Chill. She broke her key in her car door, so that cost her £120, perhaps she'll be more careful from now on, although I doubt it very much, as this is the second car key she broke in one of the locks.
She doesn't want a bath, or food, she is just going straight to bed. Probably won't see her until tomorrow afternoon.

Sunday 3 August 2008

Where is time going?

In the past week I have been busy doing lots of little things that needed doing, but no one notices they have been done.
I had a lovely weekend.
Then during the week, did several fiddly jobs, such as putting the toothbrush holder back up in the bathroom, fastening the end panel on the bath, knowing no-one would notice.
Have also read three books, (see Book Addicts Anonymous,) made a lap quilt, and put a zip in a jacket, as well as many other normal household chore type things.