Plasters! Stat!

I went on a training course today to renew my first aid qualification. It was quite fun actually. A lot of practical, hands-on stuff, like putting people in the recovery position and bandaging them up! My favourite, though, is practising CPR. You practise the rescue breaths and chest compressions on a dummy (called Annie), because it's probably a bit awkward to practise on your fellow classmates. But fun! If I ever have to do it in real life, I hope I remember what I'm doing, but I seemed to be quite good at it in a controlled environment at least.

I'm going to see Avenue Q on Monday! I've been going on about this show for over a year, but I completely forgot about it. I knew I was going, but it always seemed like forever away and it just kind of sneaked up on me. I was going to post my friend a soundtrack I copied for her because I thought I wasn't going to see her for weeks, then she pointed out to me that I'm seeing her on Monday. I don't know where my head is lately. But, for now, I can't wait for Monday! Eeee!

Fortunate Fool?

I have either just been a good samaritan or been taken for a fool. It would depend who you're talking to. My mum, for instance, would say I was being kind, but my dad would get exasperated with me for being so gullible.

I was walking home from the tube station tonight when I came up on this young guy, maybe late teens, talking to a couple in the street. I was listening to my iPod so couldn't hear what was being said, but it was clear the boy was upset. The couple turned to walk away, and as I got closer, the boy motioned for my attention. He asked me if I knew where the nearest Salvation Army was and I replied I didn't. It was now that I noticed he was crying. He turned to walk away, but I asked him what was wrong. He had quite a thick accent, so I couldn't make out everything he said, but the gist was that he'd lost his wallet and the police said there was nothing they could do. I said I was really sorry and he walked away.

That would probably have been the end of it, but he was walking in my direction. As I kept my distance from him walking in front, I saw him stop a couple more people to ask for the Sally Ann and get more and more agitated. As I caught up with him, I couldn't take it anymore. I offered him £5 to get a train or bus or whatever he needed to get home. He wasn't going to take it, but I insisted. He wanted to send it back to me, so I was going to give him a business card (I may be a fool, but I'm not about to give a stranger my home address!). Unfortunately, I didn't have any of my own handy and only had a colleague's, so I scribbled out his details (name, phone number, email, etc) so that it only had the address left and gave it to him.

Now I know he could very well have been a con artist, but you know what? I don't care! If it was the real deal, hopefully he'll get home without too much bother and I feel good for having helped someone out. If it was a con, I'm out £5. It's not exactly going to bankrupt me. I feel bad about giving out a colleague's business card to a stranger (I hope I managed to scribble out his details ok), but that's about it.

Happy Father's Day

A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again.
~Enid Bagnold

Old as she was, she still missed her daddy sometimes.
~Gloria Naylor

Any man can be a father but it takes someone special to be a dad.
~ Anne Geddes

The father of a daughter is nothing but a high-class hostage. A father turns a stony face to his sons, berates them, shakes his antlers, paws the ground, snorts, runs them off into the underbrush, but when his daughter puts her arm over his shoulder and says, 'Daddy, I need to ask you something,' he is a pat of butter in a hot frying pan.
~ Garrison Keillor

My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
~ Clarence Budington Kelland

Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.
~ Ruth E. Renkel

To her the name of father was another name for love
~ Fanny Fern


We may not shower him with praise
Nor mention his name in song,
And sometimes it seems that we forget
The joy he spreads as he goes along,
But it doesn’t mean that we don’t know
The wonderful role that he has had.
And away down deep in every heart
There’s a place that is just for Dad

~ Author Unknown



Happy Father's Day, Dad. I love you too!

From London to Berlin

I am such a typical Scot. Temperatures in London hit 32°C (90°F) yesterday. Waaaaayyyy too hot for little old me. To be fair, as soon as the temperatures start climbing to the early to mid-20s, I'm searching for a shady corner to curl up in with a fan. I'm not cut out for heat. I like bad weather. I like rain and wind and snow and cold. You do get summer weather in Scotland, but it only lasts for about a week.

I watched the first episode of Big Love on channel 5 last night. I was intrigued when Min was talking about it in her Blurty, and then noticed that it was starting over here, so thought I'd give it a go. It's....interesting. I'm not entirely sure what I think about it, but it caught my attention enough to make me want to watch next week, which I guess is the ultimate goal. But Beaver! I miss Beaver!

I've got World Cup fever, as does everyone else in this city. It's pretty good being in London for stuff like this when England do well, even though I'm not English. So far, I've done the Rugby World Cup 2003 and Euro 2004, and the atmosphere is electric. There's also been the cricket, but while the guys in my office get obsessed with it, I can't bring myself to care.

I was in a pub on Saturday watching the England game (supporting England I might add) and it was disappointing for a number of reasons, the main one being the discomfort I felt at being surrounded by drunk England fans. This particular crowd seemed a bit yobbish. I overheard several racist comments about a bunch of Middle Eastern guys standing at the back because they weren't singing along with the songs, despite the fact they were wearing England strips and obviously supporting them. Then the anti-German and Scottish comments and songs started and my discomfort quadrupled. I really couldn't get out of there quick enough. Now, before anyone starts, I know that this happens in Scotland as well. I've been at plenty of Scottish sporting events when anti-English songs have been sung and that's wrong too. But I've heard people say that it's just Scottish fans that are anti-English and it's not the other way round, but that's wrong. It's not all English fans, just like it's not all Scottish fans, but it does happen. And when you're a Scot living in London at a time like this, it can be really exciting, but also a bit disconcerting,

What else? I'm going to see Avenue Q in a couple of weeks! Yay! And then I'm going to see The Rocky Horror Show a couple of weeks after that! Double yay! And I'll throw in a visit home, in between them, for my dad's birthday for good measure. Triple yay!

Exam Results

I passed one and failed one. I'm trying to see the positive side of this and ignore the negative (although it is the third fucking time this particular negative has happened!).

But a pass. Yay!

Sort of.

Clearly ths whole positivity thing needs a bit of work.


EDIT - I just found out that I failed by, at most, five marks! Five goddamn marks!

Rule of Thumb

It's strange how you take not being in pain for granted. For example, if you get a mouth ulcer which stings whenever you drink or eat or talk or whatever, you constantly think "I wish I didn't have this ulcer". But when you don't have an ulcer, you don't go around thinking "I'm so glad I don't have an ulcer". Or at least, you might, but it's not a constant thought. You just take it for granted that your mouth isn't in pain. Well, I do anyway.

The latest example of this is my thumb. I staved it at the weekend and it now hurts. I was sitting on the floor and, in my excitement to see Andy with his shirt off (photos forthcoming!), I managed to bend my thumb backwards while trying to stand up. It was sore at the time, but the pain went away that night, so I thought it was ok. But when I woke up the next morning, it was throbbing. The throbbing has gone away, but it aches when I try to move it which, considering it's my thumb, is all the time! It hurts to grip anything and it's surprising how often you have to bend your thumb into funny positions to do stuff. Goddamn opposability!

Happy Birthday Kieran!

Today is my beautiful nephew's birthday. He is three years old today. Three?! How did that happen? I still remember the day my sister was in labour, when I called my mum every hour for news. How can he be three already?

I posted up his birthday presents on Tuesday and they arrived on Wednesday morning. After they took the brown parcel paper off and Kieran saw the Bob the Builder wrapping paper, he got all excited. He asked if he could open them now, but my sister told them that he'd be able to open them after two sleeps. "Okay", said Kieran, "I'm going to bed". So cute!

I know I post a lot about Kieran and Lewis, which may be a bit strange since they're not actually my children, but it's because they really are a big part of my life. My family has always been very close, so it stands to reason that I adore my nephews. Whenever I think about them, I smile. Anything that does that to you should be celebrated.

Some Fantastic!

From www.bnlmusic.com:

Release dates for the upcoming album will be:
Sept-08-2006 (Fri) in Switzerland, Germany and Austria
Sept-11-2006 (Mon) in the UK
Sept-12-2006 (Tue) in USA and Canada

Woo hoo!

Whoops!

I just set the smoke alarm off by leaving a pork chop under the grill for too long. Crispy!

Although, in my defence, it's the first time that's happened in the eight years I've lived away from home and been cooking for myself.

Never Forget

The concert was AMAZING! They have not lost their touch. In fact, I think this was the best of the four concerts I've been too. Absolutely spectacular.

I feel like I'm 15 again! Every time I think about it, I give a little squeal! I can't believe I saw them again! Squeee!!

EDIT - let's see if I can try to formulate something a bit more substantial than "Squee"!

Last night was excellent, but I'm left feeling very strange. It's hard to put into words how I feel though. Nostalgia? Giddyness? Sadness? Part of me is still walking on clouds, like I'm back to being a teenager again, part of me is feeling down that the experience is over and longing for it carry on and part of me is sad that that part of my life is finished.

I think I've covered the giddyness part pretty well! I really didn't expect last night to affect me so much, but I actually had tears in my eyes at one point. It's pathetic, but TT were such a huge part of my life at one point and seeing them live again was just so overwhelming. And following on from that, I wanted it to last longer. I remember feeling the same way after my first Barenaked Ladies concert, trying to buy tickets for the following night because I'd had such a good time. I think I'm coming out of it a bit now, but I'm definitely in the midst of post-concert blues.

But there's a feeling of sadness that it's all over. They've made a comeback and they're releasing a new album (which I'll probably buy because the songs I heard last night were good), but it's not the same. We've all grown up and I can't get that time back. This is obviously about more than Take That, it's about that whole time in my life. I never thought I'd feel nostalgic for it though. I guess it's those rose-tinted specs coming out, trying to trick me into thinking that I loved my teenage years, but they lie! I know they lie. Logically, I know that I never want to feel again the way I did when I was 12-16 years old. Yet, I can't shift this feeling of sadness that I'm not at that point in my life anymore. It's crazyness. It's probably exacerbated by my dissatisfaction with my life right now, but hopefully that'll go away in time, with some effort and work.

Wow, this turned into quite a depressing entry, after the opening. I need to remedy that.

Highlights of the night:

• The Beatles Medley that they performed at the Brits;
  
• Their pisstake of "How To Make a Boy Band", including a personal dig at themselves about not becoming friends with each other because if one of the members starts to lose it, you might have to kick them out;
  
• Robbie making a minor appearance, having recorded a video piece of the beginning of Could it Be Magic for them;
  
• A sexy, tango version of It Only Takes a Minute;
  
• The encore of Never Forget.

Take That Rule!

Every Time!

It was someone's leaving drinks at work last night (again!) but I was really, really tired so had only been planning to go out for one or two drinks. Yeah right. I got home just after midnight! Every time. When I go out expecting to have a really good time, I end up not enjoying myself and leaving early, but if I'm not in the mood, I have a brilliant time.

We spent a few hours at All Bar One, which isn't normally one of my favourite places. They normally cram large parties into a really tiny area and the waiters are pretty rude. But we managed to snag a good sized area last night and I didn't have to deal with the waiters at all, so that was good. I should have known what kind of night it would turn into because the innuendo and teasing started pretty much immediately! I demonstrated my innocence as the baby of the company by demanding explanations to some of the stuff I've heard mentioned in the office as jokes, including dogging! It's been mentioned in jokes at work for months, and they refused to explain to me what it meant (because of my delicate innocence?! I don't know!) and I've been too scared to google it because you never know what you could get! But I finally got it out of them last night. I must admit that after all the build up, I was expecting something much worse!

Anyway, after a few hours we decided we needed some food to soak up the alcohol, so we headed for Haz, a turkish restaurant round the corner. This place has the best smell in the whole City of London. You walk past it and drool! And I'm pleased to report that the food tastes every bit as good as it smells!

My Love Affair With Take That

It all started in the late Spring/early Summer of 1992. I was 11 years old, coming to the end of primary school and preparing myself for the big bad world of high school. On the Sunday in question, I was going about my business as normal, little suspecting that my life was about to be changed forever.

As I did every Sunday, I set the video recorder to tape The Disney Club while I went to church with my family. As I remember it, I wasn't even that big a fan of the show, but I utterly adored The Gummi Bears (still do!) and didn't want to miss it. This particular episode though had a guest band that I'd never heard of. This wasn't unusual however, because up until this point, I didn't really have an interest in music. But that was all about to change! The video for the song the band was promoting came onscreen. A boxing ring, sepia colouring, and then.....the boys! From that moment on, I was completely lost to them. I remember rewatching the video for It Only Takes a Minute about 10 times because I loved it so much. It's funny how that is now one of my least favourite Take That songs.

Anyway, that was the start of it. My obsession grew from there. I bought loads of TT merchandise: watches, videos, posters, magazines with interviews of them, etc. Stupidly, the one thing I never bought was an album! My friend gave me copies of all of their stuff. So as much as I loved them, I actually never once helped them in the charts.

Fast forward to the start 1993, and we were organising my sisters wedding which was in August. I was one of her bridesmaids and she offered to buy me a ticket to the TT tour that was coming up in the summer as my gift and I readily agreed! Even though I would only be 12 at the time, my mum let me go to the concert with a friend who was a couple of years older than me, as long as we were dropped off and picked up and didn't do anything stupid (my mum had a lot of trust in me, which actually turned out to be justified because I was a goody two shoes!). My friends at school were all incredibly jealous of me because they hadn't managed to get tickets. In fact, my friend and I had bought the last two tickets from the local music shop (I was 12! I'd never heard of a telephone box office!). The day before the concert, my friends helped me make a poster to hold up at the concert: WE LOVE YOU MARK! No, really.

I won't go into detail about the concert except to say that it was amazing! We were ten rows from the front, and I swear Mark looked right at me! He obviously saw my poster. :P The whole experience just solidified my belief that TT were the best band in the world and I would love them forever.

The band announced the Everything Changes tour for December 1993. I was desperate to go, but couldn't find anyone to go with. My sister realised how badly I wanted to see them again and agreed to take me. Only after some substantial moaning, mind you. After all, she was a 19 year old married woman, being dragged to see a boy band by her 12 year old little sister. Obviously, she fell in love with them after the concert. So much so, that when they announced their 1994 summer tour (bloody hell, they toured a lot in a short period of time!), it was more a case of her dragging me. Not that I was reluctant to go of course, but she put all the wheels in motion for it.

When it was announced that Robbie was leaving the band in 1995, I was pretty gutted. Next to Mark, Robbie was my favourite member of the band and I was really going to miss him. He brought a fun and energy to the band that I thought would be lacking when he left. And I was right. Take That were never quite right after that. When they finally announced their split in 1996, I wasn't as upset as you might think. I'd seen it coming for a while and was actually a little disappointed that they hadn't called it a day when Robbie left. At least then, they'd have been finishing on a high. My sister, on the other hand, the 22 year old married woman, was devastated! :P

Fast forward 10 years to the TV documentary on Take That, chronicling where they are now and what went wrong. Rumours cirulated afterwards that they might try to make a comeback and I pooh-poohed the idea, saying that it reeked of desperation. Of course, when they announced the tour, I was first in line to buy tickets. I know it makes me a hypocrite, but I'd never have forgiven myself if I hadn't at least tried to see them one more time. It does reek of desperation, but I can't help it. I love them. Even 10 years later, I still adore their songs. I can honestly say that I've only ever fallen under the boy band spell once. Unfortunately, I never quite recovered.

I'm going to see Take That tomorrow!

~ Mark is still so damn cute! ~

Eurovision

~ The Terry Shrine ~

I think the shrine says it all, really.

Rules for Life

I received this forward this morning, purportedly to be a speech Bill Gates gave to some high school kids. I don't know if that's true or not, but I thought I'd share anyway because I liked it.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

You Call That Customer Service?

*Warning - Customer Service Rant*

I'm just off a half hour call to Apple's customer service people in which I ripped the guy a new one.

I sent my iPod in for a service a couple of weeks ago because the battery has been cutting out on a regular basis, even though it says that it has up to a full bar left. I was confident that the problem would either be fixed or replaced because their technical support has been excellent in the past.

But no! They sent back the original iPod, saying that there was nothing wrong with it! WTF?!

I decided to give it a while and see how it worked out. Maybe they'd done some stuff to it that would make the battery last longer, we'd see. It soon became apparent that they really hadn't done anything to it and, in fact, the problem was more severe than before I sent it off.

So I called their customer services at lunchtime. I was ready to just explain the problem and insist, politely but forcefully, that they fix it right away because my warranty is up in just over a week and I refuse to pay for a problem that should have been fixed by them weeks ago. Unfortunately I got a complete idiot who couldn't undestand a word I was saying and kept talking over me! And he kept calling me Mrs Eileen, even though he knew it was my first name! So I ended up getting really riled up. But they are coming to collect my iPod again. I swear if they don't fix it properly this time, I'll explode!

I don't like it when people call up customer services to make a complaint and lay into the representative for no reason, other than they're angry about the complaint. The representative is only the middle man who has no control over your problem, other than to pass on your message to the appropriate people who can fix it. But why do companies insist on hiring complete idiots within their customer service departments who have zero people skills? I get mad at them because of the way they are acting! Nothing to do with the original purpose of the call! It's all them!

Man, I have the worst luck with customer service!

Study Day

I've had a really productive study day. Really.

• I got my hair cut;
  
• I did some grocery shopping;
  
• I spoke to a man about a dog;
  
• I went for a run;
  
• I did two loads of washing.
  

Really productive study day!

Am I a Total Geek?

Before you rush to answer this generally, I'm talking about a specific example!

So, you may or may not know that I've started taking driving lessons. I've only had two so far, and I think they're going ok. I definitely felt a lot more relaxed during the second one, but I made quite a lot of mistakes. It's hard to know if I'm making the normal amount of mistakes for someone at my level or if I'm just absolutely terrible at driving! And I can't get the measure of my instructor at all, so his reactions are no help.

So anyway, in order to help me, I'm making up a driving cheatsheet, with really basic instructions, in the hope that it'll help me learn quicker. So far, I have:


Getting In Car

• seat – steering – seatbelt
• mirrors

Prepare

• clutch – 1st gear
• move hand to handbrake
• find the bite
• pump the gas
• check road

Starting

• release handbrake – pull clutch up slowly – press gas

Stopping

• press brake
• press clutch fully down
• change to 1st gear
• handbrake on

Once Parked

• handbrake on
• gear into neutral
• indicator off
• feet off pedals


So am I just the biggest geek and/or dunce in the world, or is this not an entirely crazy method of learning? :P

Slippery Slope

I've just won my very first Ebay auction! Oh dear. It's all downhill from here.

It was for the classic Super Nintendo video game Super Mario World. The SNES is the most up to date console I know and own! I love it, but can't find any games for it anywhere. Then I remembered Ebay!

Rocking it, old skool! Oh yeah!

Lost, Season 2

Best opening episode of a season, ever!

The second episode was a big pile of pooh, but we'll just ignore that.

Easter Break Photos

Pictures of my "wild day out" in Glasgow with my sisters. When I say wild, I mean drunken, but we were sober at the time of these photos. They were at the beginning of the afternoon. Unfortunately, by the time I got around to attempting a photo with all three of us, my batteries had died.


~ Maggie & Katie ~


~ Katie & I ~


~ Me & Maggie ~


And now for the gratuitous nephew piccies! You knew they were coming!


~ Blondie Bear ~


~ King of the Castle ~


~ This kid knows how to accessorise! ~


~ Big Cow Eyes ~