Monday 9 August 2010

Long time no see! Again...

I fail at blogging, this I can accept, and guess what? I'm over it. The last two months have been horrendous, between doing a shitload of extra hours at work to make up for the staff turnover and to supplement my wages, the previously mentioned idiotic friends causing trouble and various other things I've been spending my time sleeping, eating, drinking, working and sleeping again.

So, a super quick rundown:

We took a week to go down to Glouscestershire to see my friend Peta and her new boyfriend, and the good news is that Peta finally has someone to spoil her! He's absolutely fantastic and I'm very happy to class him as a friend.

While we were away one of my best friends called me to say that she'd been proposed to. She accepted and her happy fiance are basking in that newly engaged glow (and the ring is gorgeous!)

We took a trip to Alton Towers as well, and got to ride their new ride, well worth it, though I wouldn't queue for an hour for it again...

There has been another death, my friend's granny, which is sort of a blessing as she'd been ill for so long, but always upsetting. Last night we had a brief discussion about some of the Norse Goddesses of family and death, before she deicded that her granny was probably drinking G&T with her granddad and planning a round of golf.

The friend who was ignoring me and my husband decided to come out with a whole bunch of reasons why he wasn't talking to us and now seems to be talking again. It remains to be seen if he'll turn up to the BBQ on Sat. In the meantime he's split up with a girl none of us realised he was seeing, despie this he felt the need to text us all at 2am to tell us of the split *rolls eyes* As I said at one point, prissy drama queen bullshit!

My husband has had a very good summer, between scout camps, training courses and getting praised and recommended for climbing qualifications he's a very happy little bunny. He's back to school on Monday, real life will recommence!

We are now, officially, trying to get pregnant :) We had a few chats about it, and had pretty much decided to start trying at the end of the year, but things change, and we decided not to bother waiting, nothing is going to change between now and then, our credit cards are clear, the house is finished (a post all of it's own!) and that's that :) I am sure that many updates on this will follow :)

The house is finished! The kitchen is sorted, the garden is done all except for the turf, the bedrooms are finished and we can finally chillax! (Chillax is making a comeback btw) There are a few bits we want to do, but none of them are important or causing us problems sleeping hehehe...

I am knitting up a storm, I have finally finished the space invader pillow and am working on a big loose weave shawl atm in wool that came from my aunty's house when they emptied it. Worried I'm going to go blind though from staring at the stitches for so long!

The manager is gone, the under manager and the senior sales took over the role, and we hired another minion, who is leaving us after three weeks! Next new person starts next week... Meanwhile, I will be doing full time hours for the forseeable, good for the bank balance, not so good for the sanity..

Right, I now need to get off and turn on some lights and eat some cake. Until next time, inspired by The Wedding Singer which I may be watching. Again. I heard you on the wireless back in 52...

Thursday 24 June 2010

A quick catch up then.

Well, we had to go to another funeral. Our scout master died from terminal lung cancer. He was in his fifties and leaves behind a 16 year old son and loving wife. i managed to get the time off for the funeral despite having met the man once and was welcomed so entirely into the group that I spent more time than necessary in tears. They played Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life which brought some smiles, and one of the hymns we had for my aunt which brought some tears, and the wake was really good. We all chatted and connected and James, the son, who did beautifully came over and gave me a massive hug and thanked me for coming. As such, I'm going to be a leader as of August :) Even after his death he's still roping people into the job!

The manageress is leaving. She made a few more particularly horrific comments (when I commented that it was hot in the crematorium she told me I should have asked them to turn the fire down). She will finish up a week tomorrow. Fan-fucking-tastic. I cannot wait.

Some of my friends are in trouble. With me. The friend I fell out with a few months ago has really been making the effort, and I appreciate it, I really do. I've been making the effort back. But we're having a BBQ in August, as we always do, round about our wedding anniversary. And I told everyone we were doing it. Then I sent out invites on bookface. It's the only weekend all summer that we're both free and I requested time off for it. So far two friends have said they're coming, one friend who doesn't do bookface has said she's coming, two friends who are teachers have said they might come (this is acceptable as they're starting term on the Monday), one friend who has family stuff going on has said she might come and everyone else has not responded. Well whoop-di-fucking-do. All this I could live with if it were a one off incident, but it's not. One friend in particular, who has been very close for a number of years, with my husband and I (except for when a girl came between us but we all bursh over that and we leave him to it) has started ignoring us. Not just gettting lazy with responding, outright ignoring us. And one of my best friends and her partner who are part of the same group. But not other people from the group. In fact on bookface I can witness entire conversations between him and other people while he ignores me. Epic.

But that's just miserable and boring. For now I shall leave you with the song that Matthew Morrison and Alan Carr sang tonight. I've been waiting for so long, so someone to come along...

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Home again.

My mum and step-dad drove me back up the road on the Saturday, seven hours in the car with my step-dad is plenty to make me deserve the drink I poured when we walked in the door... We ordered in Chinese food and watched the Eurovision Song Contest. Oh yes. Eurovision. It's become something of a tradition now, despite the fact I'd rather remove my eyes with cocktail sticks... On my 20th birthday he spent the night downstairs with my ex flatmates while we had a BBQ on the roof.

Work has since passed in a blur of people being nice to me, my manageress swinging between fun loving and chilled to being a complete nightmare (apparently I caused something of a stir by telling them I wouldn't be at work, employees only get one day off for funerals and I dared to take three, and I didn't ask nicely, I announced) whatever, the worst they can do is not pay me for a week.

We had a flying visit from the Princess and her delightful offspring. And I tried. I really tried. But the constant comments about money, my drinking, money, her child, money, my life, money, her house, money, pink and lilac decor, money, her ungratefulness, painkillers, money, how much her husband doesn't help her and money I nearly killed her. She started a stand up argument over the dinner table over Rock Paper Scissors. Fun times. She also announced that she didn't get a real engagement ring (by real she means a traditional solitaire), but she loves her engagement ring Honest. I still have a headache.

My manageress has not yet left as our MD is a complete numbnuts and hasn't chosen a replacement and her new job has not started yet so he's just letting her hang about totally screwing the rest of us up! As such she's in a most bizarre mood, reducing me to tears the first time she saw me in a month before going completely mental and hyperactive with the workmate who thinks it's acceptable to shout and laugh hysterically over farting on the shop floor. Who previously the manageress would have told to stop and be quiet. Epic.

Today my Hot Diamonds arrived :) At work we get money back from some companies sometimes depending on what we've sold, Hot Diamonds this time around so now I have some shiny new bracelet charms :)

For now I think that's it, normal service will resume soon, once my brain makes more sense. There are a few people in my life currently making me want to set fire to their hair, but my friend K is coming to stay this weekend so we're gonna try to set the world to rights over tea and cakes. Until next time, the lives I weave are oh so intricate, oh so intricate...

Monday 14 June 2010

A week in Yorkshire.

So Monday morning Ju offered me a lift down the road, she was heading down most of the way anyway. We spent the day in the car and just as we got out to call my mum I dropped my mobile and broke the screen. Fabulous.

I borrowed mum's handset for a few days an to be honest, most of the next week passed in a blur, we drank wine, we watched bad films, we ate food as a family and we designed the orders of service and viking boat burial cards for the funeral. My aunt often said she wanted a boat burial, but that's not really possible in Yorkshire, so instead we wrote cards with messages for her and sent them to the creamtorium with her.

My older cousin, her daughter, was perfectly well behaved, despite her behaviour before Christmas. she read a poem at the funeral and even seems to have buried the hatchet with my mum, though some interesting revelations came out about her previous behaviour...

Another of my cousins had her birthday the night before, so I went out to stay with her, drink wine and watch silly movies. Her cat kept us both company and it was great to have a bit of normality.

We tried our best to stay positive, and none of us were allowed to wear black, so I wore my dress from my birthday pary and a bright pink cardi, along with some flowers in my hair. The service was wonderful. It was poignant, funny and true to her and I held it together right up until the closing music (which unfortunately they played on tonight's Glee leaving me a snotty mess after some more bad news, but that's for anotehr time)

We did consider playing Ding Dong The Witch's Dead but we were overruled...

So that was my week in Yorkshire. Until next time I see trees of green, and red roses too...

Wednesday 2 June 2010

Thursday - Sunday

Well, Thursday rolled around and I went for lunch with one of my best friends to celebrate our birthdays. We had desert to die for, and plenty of wine, and sat in the sunshine just talking for hours about nothing in particular. We then went back to Ju's place to die each others' hair, drink more wine, eat cake and chill. Andy made us a cracking curry and we watched rubbish movies. Apparently we also sounded like Macbeth's witches into the early hours :)

Friday Ju and I had a carpet picnic and another friend came round for a while, we chatted and did NOTHING all day and it was amazing, I'd forgotten what seeing normal people was like :) That night my husband arrived and the two of us and Andy went out for a few drinks with some other mutual friends. At this point my husband told me he wouldn't be coming to the funeral which went down like a lead balloon but such is life.

Saturday was the day of the big party. There was some bad feeling when someone I went to high school with reared her ugly head, she shall henceforth be known as bitchface and that's all I have to say on the matter. I refuse to get drawn into her bullshit and my friends and I have agreed on an honesty policy when it comes to her.

The party was a roaring success. We spent the afternoon out in the sunshine in the park having a few drinks, then all went home to change, then we headed out to the joint birthday bash. Ju, Andy my husband and I blew up 100 balloons and had some dinner then we waited, and slowly, our friends began to trickle in. The bunny had done the music so we had a good playlist, and as people turned up the singing, dancing, drinking and fun began. We even got to throw a few people out as we'd booked an area!

I caught up with a load of people, and despite Gemma (the bride from a few weeks back) getting the sunshine/tobacco/food/wine ratio wrong and having to be taken home a fabulous night was had by all. There were no screaming arguments, no one was pushed down the stairs (though it came close a few times) no one was obscenely drunk and it was a genuinely good night. Of course there were a few people missing, my mum, aunt and cousin were meant to be there but obviously couldn't be, but we toasted their absence.

We ended the night in the new favourite club, where I switched to soft drinks and we listened to the kareoke and fnished the night in good spirits.

The next day we took a trip out to the beach and caught the last of the sun before a massive thunder storm came in up the river. Gemma turned up, looking very sheepish but we ingratiated her into the fold, we now have a club, the HW WAGS, named as we;re the wives and girlfriends of the group of lads that went to uni together, as only two of us are married we get higher status, but there are a few others who are hanging in there ;)

I think that's it, tune in next time for the Yorkshire chapter. Until next time, this could be the very minute I know that I'm alive, with a name I've never chosen, I'll take my first steps, as a child of twenty five...

Next!

So, next on my incredible journey was a stop off with friends Andy and Ju who I was to stay with for a few days. I arrived there tired and hot and sweaty and jumped straight in their shower. While dinner was being made I did my makeup and got changed and while Andy was off helping a damsel in distress (a friend of ours had blown a tire on the motorway) Ju and I chatted and relaxed. When she went to get me a drink my phone rang, it was my mother calling me from her mobile, so I took the call in Ju's room.

She was calling to tell me that her older sister, my aunt, had died. She woke up in the night, fell down a step, panicked and an undiagnosed heart condition caused her to have a heart attack. She was with her (grown up) daughter at the time who called the paramedics and held her hand, but there was nothing they could do.

Ju comforted me, and got me tissues, and even waited for me to fix my face before we were due to go out. I was told we didn't need to go out, but I wanted to be around people who loved me and I desperately wanted a drink. My friends were all very understanding, and we even won the quiz! Cue lots of free sweeties for us :)

The rest of the week wasn't tainted by my news, so further, happy posts will follow. But for now, raise a glass to Susan Mary, who would do anything for anybosy, enjoyed life, was always tied up with Kevin Costner and who wanted a Viking Boat Burial. As this is not possible in North Yorkshirre, she didn't get one, but the thought was there. Again, I'll post about that later.

Until next time, where troubles melt like lemon drops, high above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me...

London baby!

There will need to be a few posts to span my absence. This is the first.

London was truly epic. I shall do a diary stylee entry.

London. Monday 17th May 2010. Weather? Hot enough to boil a lobster. Company? The bunny. Plans? WICKED!

We spent some hours on a train, then trekked it up to the hotel where the staff were very polite, which surprised me somewhat as I seem to have terrible luck with hotel staff. We cooled off for a bit, then went out to the shops so I could get something to wear to the theatre (trust me to not bring anything) we found a shopping centre not far away and I came away with a top and a dress for the upcoming birthday party the following weekend.

We grabbed some dinner and cheap cocktails in a local eaterie (Giraffe, I recommend it if you ever find yourself at a loose end in Victoria, it's on the same st as the Apollo Victoria theatre and the staff, atmosphere and food are all excellent). When dinner was done with we took ourselves off to the theatre, browsed the merch stall (The Oz-Dust Ballroom) and bought bracelet charms, programs, lapel pins and a flying monkey (not a real one, but how cool would THAT have been?!) then, to the show.

I can honestly say that other than AC/DC I have never seen anything that spectacular. The costumes were incredible, the dialogue wonderful, the story well-adapted from Gregory Maguire's book and the cast were absolutely amazing. I wont say too much as there are a few surprises along the way, but I will say this. GO SEE IT!

We then headed to a local spoons for a drink and the girl that plays Nessarose came in to meet a friend/boyfriend :) We think it was her, so I'm going to tell myself it was :D

the walk home took us past a little late night shop with a Turkish owner who loved that we were Scottish and talked to us for a while, he was delightful :D

Tuesday 18th May 2010. Weather? Even hotter than yesterday. Plans? Shop til we drop.

And shop we did (and drop at one point). First port of call was Buckingham Palace however, and they put on a parade just for us! :D We got sick of the tourists though and took off for lunch in a greasy spoon. Then we trekked down to..... HARRODS!

Oh yes, and they even let us in. We spent a little while wandering around the makeup counters and both spent exorbitant amounts on things we *need* before heading through to the tack-tastic gift shop for a shopping ba for Bunny's mum. Ironically, bucking the trend, they gave her a carrier ba for her makeup, then another one to put her shopping bag in. The mind boggles... From there we went for coffee and a chillax before attempting to find the Hummingbird Bakery. Cue a few texts to a friend of ours at work who text back "Which one? There are several?" There are two! Don't get your knickers in a twist!

Eventually we found the famous Hummingbird (and an RBS where I could pay in some much needed cheques) only to find that the Hummingbird is closed for refit! There is another but we were dead on our feet so went for more coffee and decided to head up to Selfridges for one more trawl of the beauty counters. There I found my much desired Ophelia lip gloss from Nars and also succumbed to an eye makeup base and eyeshadow duo while Bunny plumped for some MAC :) we then checked out the jewellery hall (including a Tiffany's!) and went for one more coffee before checking out a local scarf/hat vendor (for pashminas, not actual scarves, we were melting at this point) before heading back to the hotel where we discovered....

AIR CONDITIONING! The fact we didn't notice it the night before when we were dying from the heat shows how excited we were about Wicked. A round of cold showers later and ew were once again ready to hit the town. However, instead of that, as we are both creatures of habit, we went back to Giraffe where the staff were still fab, the food stiull excellent and the drinks still cold.

We headed back, once again via the Turkish shopkeeper and then settled in for a chat and to watch naff TV before bed.

The next morning we were up bright and early to travel back to the big smoke, and a few hours into the train ride I had a wee drink while the bunny tried to get some sleep. We got back to the city about tea time, high as kites and happy as drunken monkeys :)

Until next time, something has changed within me, something is not the same, I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game...