blink_lu's blog

Easter Weekend

I really want to do a proper detailed update, but I also don't want to forget what I've actually done this weekend so...it's another list-tastic post I'm afraid...

Friday

• Did mad tidying all morning with knowing that the parents of the doctor were coming to stay over the weekend, the house looks much bigger now.
• Parents in law arrived, settled in and then we took them for a walk down by the canal which they seemed to really enjoy.
• We discovered the battery on my car had run flat, so had to go to Little Tokyo for dinner in their car - the doctor's Dad isn't keen on city driving so this was a big achievement.

Saturday

• Called out Greenflag to sort out my battery, they arrived within about 15 mins (some good to living in the postcode next to their head office I guess!), fixed my car, but pointed out that it would likely go again, so bought a new battery for £53.99.  Most amusing thing was seeing Stipey with his paws up on the bonnet checking out what the guy was doing!
• We drove over to York, had lunch at a Greek restaurant - yummy, walked around the Minster, sat in the gardens and then went in the cat and teddy shops.  I want one of the teddies that smells of chocolate!
• Had fish and chips for dinner after we'd driven back home.
• The weather was beautiful all day - strange that, you'd never have predicted that to happen on the day that we were supposed to get married.

Sunday

• Introduced the parents in law to Buzz on the PS2 which MIL loved to bits!
• Went to Meanwood Valley Urban Farm and met up with my cousin who is due to give birth on Thursday, her partner and her adorable little girl.
• We had a slap up breakfast with organic eggs from the farm and also managed to feed sheep and goats that absolutely terrified the little one.
• We came back home and all had a lovely nap.
• For dinner I made chickpea nuggets and brown rice salad and then watched the rest of...
  

  Gosford Park [2002]

I enjoyed Gosford Park lots of good actors and actresses and the setting was interesting, although at the end I was slightly confused by the outcome, but I think that was more to do with the fact I'd been making beaded hair slides at the same time as watching the film, and they do tend to take an element of concentration.  I made a dragonfly one for MIL and a grape one for me.  It was also strange to see Diane from Trainspotting playing a very different role, and I didn't realise that it was made in 2001, I thought it was much more recent than that.

 

Monday (Today!)

• Got the Abel & Cole delivery, impressive that the only thing they didn't have was bread as their bakers are on holiday and they'd warned me in advance.  If anyone wants to give them a go, if you place an order and tell them I recommended you I get a bottle of olive oil or something like that - I'll split it with you - go on you know you want to!
• Went for a top up shop to Morrisons and then to "The Living World" to buy a pump for our pond which the neighbours had been concerned about stagnating and so had turned on our hose into it.
• Drove out to Haworth (Bronte country) for a visit.  It's a lovely quaint and pretty village, but is so ridiculously busy all the time.  Still we did get to go in the Apothecary and see Morris Men and Ladies dancing.
• Also we saw the art by a chap called Matt Lamb who is quite interesting, he produces up to 30 paintings a day and is involved in a great charitable project - Umbrellas for Peace.  I was more struck by a chap who was exhibiting on a smaller scale with him - Chris MaCarthy who encouraged you to touch his highly textured paintings.
• We drove home, and the FIL and the doctor managed to get the pump working in the pond after much effort.
• I then made a yummy peanut sauce - recipe came from Abel & Cole and played more Buzz on the PS2

Now I should be going to bed...we shall see...

Why do I only update at the weekend???

Our lovely new sofa from Muji was finally delivered on Friday evening - supposed to be in the morning, but they forgot and then the van broke down, but it is here and it's like having a bed in the lounge - it is heaven! 

Yesterday I spent a lot of time trying out the new sofa by sleeping on it all day near enough. We then watched

 

Walk the Line [2005]

 

I enjoyed it, I don't know all that much about Johnny Cash, but the Doctor likes him a lot and plays me a lot of his music.  Joaquin Phoenix did a very good voice impression of him which was pretty impressive.  It was a bit strange how they focused so much on such a small part of his career though and then glossed over the further 35 years with a few text shots at the end.

I also finished my 4th book of this year which was only 120 pages long, but took a very very long time to read comparatively, mostly because it wasn't really written in very straightforward English.  There was also a character in it that didn't speak in syntactically correct sentences and there wasn't a clearly defined plot, it was more of a thematic exploration, it reminded me a little of the style of American Psycho in that in essence you could miss parts of the story out and still not miss out on the plot to a certain extent.

 

The Body Artist

Don DeLillo

I read White Noise by Delilllo as part of my English degree and really enjoyed it, I can't enthuse on quite the same level for The Body Artist, but I do feel that it is probably one of those books that if you read again, it might reveal additional things that you hadn't thought of initially.

Stipey the naughty pussy cat managed to lose his collar this morning, so he currently looks naked and little.  I've ordered him another from ebay and more tags - very annoying as they cost about £4 for an engraved one.

We went to the gym today, forgot about the clocks going forward and ended up having a very late lunch at TGI Fridays - the Doctor had Fajitas and I had a New York Strip Steak (blue) with fries and veg, we shared mozzarella dippers and I had a naughty brownie and popcorn desert which was far bigger than I was expecting!  We were then a bit upset by the lack of honesty some people show, our bill arrived and was £50 so I questioned the waitress as it obviously wasn't ours (It was for 4 drinks and 4 x a £9.99 special offer they had on) and basically what transpired is that the people next to us had paid our bill which was £15 cheaper and left.  I can't believe that they didn't even query it, it was as if they walked out without paying.  Anyway, I felt bad for the waitress.

Now I just need to iron and get ready for work tomorrow - yawn... 

Weekendy Stuff...

So I've spent far too much time this weekend playing The Sims, but have done some useful bits and pieces as follows (I just like lists toooo much!)

• Re-introduced the doctor to the Gym - we went yesterday, I had hoped we could get a free guest pass, but it turns out it costs £10, so we re-started his membership and spent 2 hours in the gym on the weights machines, cardio and then in the spa having a relax.  I think that it will be good for him.
• Shaved the doctor's hair, I was just going to shave the back and cut the rest, but the black/blonde contrast meant that I needed to be neater than I managed to be, so we had to shave it at grade 4 all over.  My raven haired emo child has gone!
• We cleared out the entire of the "sun room" ready for our new sofa's arrival which will go in the lounge and our orange ikea sofa will then go in the sun room, it seems much bigger in the sunroom now.  The only problem is that the boxes of crap that we have successfully ignored for about 5 months, really do need sorting out properly which will take a whole lot of time.
• The toads in the pond have laid loads of spawn, we hope that their toad babies are ok as the strong winds not only blew over the gazebo again, but also blew the recyling bin into the pond!
• We shopped in Morrisons.

That doesn't sound like a lot, but it was a lot of effort to get it all done! Now I need to iron and make some dinner for the week - a mousake type pie methinks!

Just wanted to share...

http://www.ifilm.com/video/2822657

Vox Hunt: This Gets Me Cooking

Book: Show us one of your favorite cookbooks.

Happy Days with the Naked Chef

Jamie Oliver

I haven't cooked loads of things from this book, but I really like Jamie and his approach to food.  I really like the recipe for pineapple with mint sugar and stuffed squash receipe as well.

I didn't cry at work today which was a plus although I found out that half of my temps that I have out will be finishing very soon so I am shafted really and I had to give away a placement as my boss thinks it would be fairer.  Soon it will become very tempting to leave as I won't be making any commission at all! 

Regardless of all this, I ended up impulse buying a sofa today.  When Rach was up, we went into Muji and they had an ex-disply grey microfibre sofabed reduced from £475 or £595 or something like that to £313, Rach said that if she lived nearer she would buy it, anyway, the Doctor came into town after a failed attempt at getting his knee seen to, so we went for a wander together at lunch and went into Muji.  The sofa was still there, I sat on it and they told me that it was knocked down to £250 and would cost £25 for delivery.  I couldn't say no, so now we own a lovely new sofa, that looks a bit like this...

 

SOFA

The visit to my other doctor this morning was a bit depressing, they can't give me any more of my current AD, they can switch me, but at least this AD doesn't give me major side effects, so I'm probably going to stay with it.  He's going to try and refer me for some "talking therapy" which worked for my OCD so maybe something can be done for me now.  God knows how long the waiting list will be though.

Stuff...

I really have far too much to update on to be doing it at this time...So I'll do it sort of in bullet point format.

• I'm worried about Stipey his good eye is really weepy
• This weekend was really nice and was spent with Rachel
• Some of the men on LJ are making me angry...one in particularly who probably doesn't even know why.
• Rachel, Coddy and I went to the pub on Friday and I drank red wine (alcohol!) for the first time in 2 months, it wasn't quite as exciting as I would have expected, but I had a nice evening and they played Agadu on the Jukebox...
• Rachel and I went shopping, I bought a nice top for Coddy which caused us to argue today and also got him some piratey plasters.  I bought a sixties flowery top and a sixties/seventies patterned top from Joy.  Rachel raided Muji's cookwear department and bought a cute t-shirt from topshop.
• I took the gross old wall lights to Poverty aid to live with all the other beautiful chintz
• Rachel and me went to Little Tokyo twice on Saturday - it was fab!  I had fishball ramen and a side salad for lunch and yummy sashimi bento box for dinner, we got to go downstairs twice which is a lovely setting.
• I was enraged today as I was due to meet a client at 11am in Harrogate with a guy from work who not only made us leave late, but was too busy talking on the phone to his friend to read me proper directions, we got lost and were 20 mins late, so were told to go away by the client.
• I went out for work drinks on Tuesday night, I didn't drink, it made me sad and uncomfortable, but probably less so than if I had have drunk, I went home at about 11pm - the others were out until about 4am and I presume were snorting class As - can I continue to work in this environment?
• I went to the gym 6 times last week, including doing a yoga class on Thursday which was fab!
• I finished reading book 3 of the year (I am behind and cheating by reading a short book now) it was this that I finished and I liked it quite a lot, although it did make me feel particularly lonely and worriful for the future.
  

  Shampoo Planet

  Douglas Coupland
   I'm really looking forward to reading Jpod even if it's not as good as Microserfs and Rach has made me want to read the Google book as well.  Douglas Coupland seems much younger in this book in his style of writing and it reminded me a lot of how he writes in Life After God which I adored even though it is such a sad and melancholic read.  I want to live in a "Modernariam" and drive a "Comfortmobile" now.
• And finally whilst druink (which is when I make all my best plans) Rachel and I decided we should visit Cuba in November this year, we have even found holidays that can be booked for £399 per person - we are going to bring Coddy with us as he really wants to go too - hooray! 
• I think that I should now definitely go to bed after I have done my weightwatchers calorie counting.
• Also Rachel and me watched
  

  Saw 2 [2005]
  which wasn't as scary as I would have thought that it would be.  I think that I am a bit too immune from gory special effects.  The plot was more interesting than the first Saw thought I think.

QotD: First Celebrity Crush

Who was your first celebrity crush?
Submitted by Glory.

Shakin' Stevens - The Collection

I even had a t-shirt made with him on - weird huh?

Today wasn't massively stressful and I managed to get loads more done at work compared to usual, I think that this is mostly due to the fact that I got to the gym and didn't just eat rubbish all day.

It's going to be a long one...

Gosh, it's only been about a week since I posted, but there's just been so much that I've had running around my head that I really really need to get it all out.

First of all, I've been really sad to hear that one of my good friends has just split up with her husband.  I don't feel it's fair to give any further details as it's a private matter, but needless to say it's really struck me and I want to be as supportive as possible as I can't imagine what I would be like if things were to go wrong with Coddy, no matter what doubts may flash into my head from time to time.  She is a beautiful person who deserves love and support and I hope that she gets it when and where she needs it.

Also, I'm sad for Coddy, when we postponed our wedding his parents were going to come and visit instead as they'd already booked time off.  They've decided that they need to shorten their visit, which is really harsh as they've only been up to Leeds once in the nearly 7 years he's been here.  I feel torn, should I email his Mum and ask her to see if they can rearrange their plans as I really think it would be nice for them to see where we live and spend some time with Coddy.

My voice only came back on Wednesday, so work was very hard.  The new girl who has started is settling in well and hopefully things will move forward as the one person who was stirring office politics is leaving soon.  I know it won't be as straightforward as that, but I'm hoping somehow it will be.

Stipey, poor boy, had to go to the vets and have another 6 teeth removed - he had an operation the same in 2003 where they took out 9 teeth, poor thing has hardly any left, he's got to stay in and also can't have wet food - he hates me at the moment!

On Tuesday my parents came up to celebrate my Mum's birthday (which was on Monday) and to go to see Fairport Convention at Leeds City Varieties on Wednesday which is a great venue by the way (guy in the band described it as a Little chocolate box of a venue) The gig was really good, the supporting band I thought were stunning, they were Tiny Tin Lady and comprised of 4 girls aged between 15 and 21 who played guitar, bass and violin (or fiddle as they say in folk circles!) and had fantastically rich voices and great melodies and were very good at the instruments that they were playing.  Definitely worth checking out!  Fairport were as good as I remember, and again I loved the fact that they all play so many instruments and with such talent.  I was only about 9 when my parents first took me to their annual reunion in Cropredy and we went for about 5 years in a row and it reminded me of being a somewhat naive and innocent teenager seeing them again - a nice thing to be reminded off as I often feel corrupt these days, as if I am some kind of dodgy soap opera cliche.

On Thursday I took my parents out to lunch at Yo Sushi at Harvey Nichols and it was good fun, I had to get my Dad the easy chop sticks!

This morning we had to be up early as Morgan and his Dad came to plaster the office where the bay window tiling on the outside had knocked off all the plaster on the inside.  It didn't take them too long, but it made a lot of mess!  Coddy and Morgan managed to find out that we have toads living in our pond, mating toads no less!  They also took out the old water and heating tanks so we can make the loft into some sort of massive room - what we use it for is another question!

 

 

I've had a nice afternoon by myself - Coddy has been watching the rugby with his friends!  It didn't end up being all that relaxing though, I did the shopping at Morrisons by myself, unpacked here, put some mouldy veg in the compost heap and then vegged out and watched Relocation, Relocation, Skins and 

Saw [2004]

 Which wasn't as gory as I was expecting, I'm told that Saw 2 is supposed to be worse, so I'll have to watch that at some point too as it's on the Sky+ box as well.

I also decided to pick up the messages from the BT phone to find 2 from a woman demanding payment of invoices for her husband who does gardening for the people who used to live here, but at another address.  It's a bit weird and I'm going to have to ring the woman tomorrow and say that they moved out long before we moved in in November, it all sounds a bit dodgy to me!

I'm looking forward to next weekend loads now as well, Rach is coming to visit and also I might get to meet up with Joe who I lived with back in 2001 - 2002 as apparently he's going to be up for the weekend too.

Oh and to celebrate gaining weight and going back over 12 stone by not going to the gym due to illness and eating rubbish, also in some part due to illness, I bought 2 pizzas, tear and share garlic bread, cream cakes and olives and have stuffed myself with most of it (only had equivalent of 1 pizza though)  I am going to feel rubbish about this tomorrow, I already feel rubbish now! 

No voice at all...

Well last week was a bit like hard work...  I woke up on Monday morning with a sore throat, but decided to force myself to swim as often my stubbornness will ward off any sore throat/cold/flu, but sadly I only managed to keep it at bay for two days (managed to swim on both of them) before the cold kicked in and on Friday it really hit home full blown and I managed to lose my voice before the end of the day - not good in my job which is mostly phone and face to face talking.  Annoyingly enough I knew that I couldn't really take time off as the pathetic excuse for the guy that works at the same level as me had it too and only showed up for 2 hours the whole week - not great when one of his team had handed in her notice so he really should have been there to manage the process.  Anyway, I felt vindicated by making £2500 on Friday and £4K for July as well as my standard temp revenue - hope my boss appreciates me negotiating fees in the croakiest of voices possible. 

On Tuesday my doctor diagnosed the pain in my hip as being a Trochanteric Bursitis although my Osteopath disagrees and thinks it is something to do with how apparently one of my legs is a few mm shorter than the other, eitherway I'm on anti-inflammatories and if I want I can have a steroid injection in my hip to sort it out, but I'm not really sure.

Friday night I vegged out in front of the TV and yesterday followed a similar pattern.  I am getting very bored of not being able to speak other than whisper, it's really annoying trying to call Coddy from the other side of the house with only a whisper.

Today I've done a bit of washing and tidying up, and was very excited to see one of these in the garden...

Goldfinch

They were one of my favourite birds when I was little, I used to always try and see one - I was a bit of a bird geek as a kid and I was even in the YOC (Young Ornithologists Club).

Anyway, I suspect that the rest of my desperately exciting weekend will be spent watching TV, trying to feel better and probably doing some ironing.

QotD: The Best Brew

What method do you use to prepare your coffee or tea? 
Submitted by AgentBouche.

I'm very easy to please - coffee (preferably this sort, though it has to be said that I've not tried it as ground before)

112193

 

Then all you do is put a spoon in a mug and put some hot water in it, I have coffee always black unless I'm at a coffee shop and treat myself to a cappucino.  Occasionally I'll have tea, but that's just a teabag and milk.  I don't ever have sugar and the only thing I occasionally add is a little bit of cold water as I like my hot drinks to be luke warm before I drink them!!!

 

Incidentally my ears are *still* ringing, good thing I'm going to the docs tomorrow - though that's more to do with my hip killing me...