Thursday 30 June 2011

Punch the Air!

Must be careful not to get confused with this one - it'd be the perfect excuse ;-)

I'm sure this was supposed to be a punch the air in some sort of enthusiastic 'YES' kind of way - it was agreed (between Boss and I) that given how the day was shaping up it was possibly a good idea to avoid any sort of movement that would involve my fist travelling past my face at any kind of speed!

It's been a good day though - in the way that it's been very much a Mr Bean day which has provided me with no end of amusement to the the point where I was getting a little giddy at one point!

It started with me having to call work and ask someone to check my office for my handsfree set for my phone, this was after searching all over the flat for it - no sign of it in the office so I was left with no choice but to drag the rubbish bags I'd put out last night back in the house to go through them looking for my handsfree.  Still no sign of it so I put the rubbish back out (thank god the collection isn't early!) and went back inside - and there was my handsfree, in full view!  Time for that eye test methinks!

Then I tootled over to the hospital for physio but I've got so used to going to spinal rehab at 11am that I'd turned up to my 10am physio appointment an hour late!  Luckily they can fit me in again tomorrow but that's not exactly how I was planning on spending my privilage day off work!!

Anyway, the rest of the day continued in a similar vein, I'm not sure whether to punch the air in celebration that it's almost over or for having had the most bizarre, backwards day!

.

Wednesday 29 June 2011

Enthusiasm Day!

It was difficult to muster any enthusiasm for anything today - it's been soooo hot!  The first thing I did when I got up was drag out the big fan to put at the bottom of the bed in the hope of having a cooler night tonight, I think even the cats might overcome their natural terror of the fan judging by the amount of aimless collapsing that's been going on throughout the day!

I did drum up some enthusiasm to get myself outside at lunchtime today to top up the tan I started yesterday and then started to feel a bit more enthusiasm as it got closer to Kevin and Ray arriving for another evening of putting the world to rights!

And I'm sure if Boss had been at work today I'd have been made to shout YAY down the phone until one of us at least felt reasonably enthused!

Hahahaha - I really was getting entusiastic, thanks to Boss for pointing it out................I was a day early, it was supposed to be on Tuesday!

.

Tuesday 28 June 2011

Break Out the Shades!

How fortunate that the day I picked to 'Break Out the Shades' was the same day that the sun chose to come out in full force!

Thanks to Nadine earning 2 free Sunday lunches at The Royal Oak at Staveley I was able to sit outside in the sun, with my shades on, enjoying Southern Comfort and lemonades and eating a fabulous meal.  It was really good to see Nadine and actually feel as though we were spending time together instead of the usual nipping in to drop off/pick up washing with a quick catch up - in fact, it was that good that we decided to drive back to Harrogate, ditch the car and head off into town for a few more drinks in the sunshine!



.

Monday 27 June 2011

Sensational Saturday!

On Saturday, courtesy of Mr Gordon Ramsey, we enjoyed a 'Sensational' southeast asian feast! 

To start, bon viveur Mrs Slimmon (aka Helen, aka Broadie) presented a pre-dinner drink of her own invention christened The Cambodian Cooler (lime, pineapple, soda water and gin - if you're going to give it a try.................royalties can be paid directly to Mrs Slimmon) accompanied with spiced cashew nuts.

As ever, Mrs Slimmon had dressed the table beautifully and I just had to get a picture of these fabulous chopstick holders and also the amazing panda picture which unfortunately is far too big to try and sneak into my handbag (ok, they're not great pictures)!




For the main we moved on to a delicious Khmer chicken, coconut, aubergine and pumpkin curry, this was followed by a dessert of refreshing lime posset with raspberries.  I know it's impossible to believe with a mouth this big, but once you factor in my natural clumsiness it's not actually that surprising that I managed to drop some of this down my front, this pronmted Mr Slimmon to comment that certain people would pay money to see that kind of thing - to which Mrs Slimmon responded that I was a dinner guest and not for sploshing entertainment!




Dinner was rounded off with fresh coffee and Harrogate brewed Sambucos - a sensational evening had by all!!


.

Saturday 25 June 2011

Smile at a Random Person Day!

I made it my mission to smile at every single person I happened upon today!

The response was mixed, from those who didn't respond at all, those who gave me a puzzled, wary look and a half smile and those who full on beamed back at me (these were generally the ones with whom I also shared a 'good morning').

It's often easy to forget how good it can make you feel when you're responsible for making a total stranger smile - and you never know the impact that it might have on the rest of their day, or yours for that matter.

When people talk about doing a good deed for the day what usually comes to mind is holding the door open for someone, giving up your seat on the bus, putting your change in the charity box at the shops etc. but it really can be something as simple as just a smile.  It's the easiest thing to give and I gaurantee that it'll make you feel good when you get someone to smile back  (although initially it's possible (likely even) that you'll feel like a total window licker) - go on, try it, I dare you!!

And, speaking from experience, the big beautiful smile of a certain person can always make my day!

From the many smiling songs here's one of my favourites :-)



.

Friday 24 June 2011

Eye Candy Spotting Day!

Oh. dear.

Well, it was tough enough last year but of the 9 'willing' volunteers (including Santa) who allowed themselves to be photographed Dennis, Paul, Myles and Charles have all left for pastures new and Boss wasn't on site today!

Ray, Andy and Santa (and his family) are still around though so there'll an ocular treat for you all once I've sorted my camera software out - plus Brian let me take his photo this year too!

And here's the treat ;-)







I did schedule things so that Keith and I did one of our lunches (at least if I actually leave site there's a chance of spotting some eye candy!) but we had to reschedule so no joy there I'm afraid! 

I also hoped that meeting with Webby for a couple of beers after work might provide opportunity but it seems Harrogate seems to be curiously lacking in eye candy today!

But thanks to the return of my repaired laptop I was finally able to do some eye candy spotting later when I spoke to Dylan ;-)

.

Thursday 23 June 2011

Eating Strange Food Day!

This one's an extra, suggested by Neil in the office - mainly because he has the most random sandwiches most of us have ever heard of and few of us would consider trying!

Neil's sandwich today was actually pretty innocuous - ham, cheese, tomato, mild chilli relish and garam masala.  Previous sandwiches have included cinammon, apple, chilli flakes (or fresh chilli), jam, honey(cheese or ham are usually used as a base for all of these). 


I have to admit that I was very proud of my own 'ultimate' sandwich the other week (I should have taken a photo - I will next time!)..............

slice of bread
marmite
ham
beetroot
piccalilli
slice of bread
peanut butter
cheese
lettuce (grown by my own fair hand)
mayo
slice of bread

Believe it or not it actually worked!  In fact, it was delicious and I could quite happily eat another one right now!

Even more impressive was Fiona's confession that she's been eating rather a lot of chalk (and it has to be white chalk) lately, but then again she is pregnant with twins so I guess she's got an excuse (I can't get past the weird feeling in my teeth whenever I even think of eating chalk - not that this is something that regularly crosses my mind!).

.

Wednesday 22 June 2011

Cup of Tea Tuesday!

Ok, I kind of feel obliged to expand on the efforts of last year - but I'm not sure how!

Well, I suppose I could tell you everything you could possibly want to know about tea, or you could just look here.

I could tell you how wonderful Bean and Bud is, but I think you really need to go and experience the flowering tea (yes, flowering) for yourself (and the amazing cakes, don't forget the cakes!)!

I would have offered to buy Boss a cup of tea since he was visiting today but he doesn't drink it!

I've recently found myself making and drinking more tea due to the influence of Mr (shall I make us a nice cup of tea) Browne but I have to admit that it's never tasted as good as it used to taste when my dad used to make it for me in my red melamine (according to Bernie all my crockery etc should be made of melamine) cup from playschool (with my name written on it in my mums nail varnish). 

Whatever happened to that cup? I know I still had it when I was married - did it become one of those random things that just disappear when you move house, like my cake tins/David Eddings books/the wing nuts for attaching the legs to the dining table?

Still, at least I'm no longer throwing as much milk out at the end of the week (and why, in my mind, did that seem better financially - it's costing me more in blummin tea bags!)!

.

Tuesday 21 June 2011

Switch Off the TV Day!

This one was pretty easy for me, I rarely watch the telly anyway - although recently I have to admit that I have been watching more than usual!

The fact that my TV's throwing a wobbly at present has meant that I'm starting to revert back to my previous state of having no idea what anyone's talking about in the office (and I spent so much time catching up on things like Glee and BGT).

Ah well, it'll give me something to sort out once my laptop crisis is resolved - by which point no doubt I'll have somehow unwittingly destroyed something else!
.

Monday 20 June 2011

Tell Your Dad How Brilliant He Is!

It's Father's Day!

I hope my dad knows that I think he's brilliant every day, not just today - I love my Daddy!

Thinking about it though, when I spoke to him earlier today I didn't actually tell him that I think he's brilliant (and so much more), I wished him a Happy Father's Day, commiserated that he's having to work today and sent him a card which proclaimed him 'Daddy of Daddies', so................

POPS, YOU'RE VERY BRILLIANT!!

.

Saturday 18 June 2011

Whoopee it's Friday!

What happened to the week, how can it be Friday again??

I suppose that spending the majority of it under a duvet on the sofa probably explains why it seems like I've missed a few days somewhere - not that it hasn't been an eventful week, my TV broke, my laptop broke, I was feeling pretty broken and I broke Bernie (she caught my cold).

Pretty impressive really when you think about it - all this destruction and I didn't have to lift a finger ;-)

But........WHOOPEE......it's Friday, I'm feeling better and can start all over again next week!

.

Friday 17 June 2011

Lollipop Day!

I have loads and loads of lollipops on, in and around my desk at work!  This all started when I was stopping smoking and found that lollipops kind of helped, I've got sweet lollipops, sour lollipops, stripey lollipops and special lollipops with chewy centres :-)

This also seems like a good opportunity to introduce you to the lollipop song that my mum used to sing to us when Bernie and I were little - I'll introduce you to the one about paternal suicide (don't jump off the roof Dad) at a later date!

So, here it is.....................

When you come to the end of a lollipop
To the end, to the end of a lollipop
When you come to the end of a lollipop
Plop goes your heart

Oh gilly, oh golly
How I love my lolly
Right down to the very last lick
But when you are through with it
What can you do with it
All you have left is the stick!

When you come to the end of a lollipop
To the end, to the end of a lollipop
When you come to the end of a lollipop
Plop goes your heart

For the first time ever I actually googled this and discovered that it wasn't some random song that my mum made up!  It was actually a song by Max Bygraves a long time ago (and I didn't know about the second verse!).....................enjoy!




And of course once I'd googled one I had to google the other!  Turns out 'Don't Jump Off The Roof Dad' was actually from the great Tommy Cooper!



Well, that turned out to be quite a nostalgic posting!

.

Thursday 16 June 2011

Know that Procrastination is OK (and Wear White)

One has nothing to do with the other!

I didn't wear white - I woke up full of cold and feeliung pretty pants!

The plan for today (Sunday) was to finally (after months and months of procrastination) get off my backside and put some stuff on ebay!!  However, even if I hadn't been feeling like death warmed up I'd have struggled to get anything done as this was the day that my laptop totally gave up on me :-(

So as it turns out procrastination is not only ok but is also unavoidable today (unfortunately I need the income from ebay to pay for the laptop to be repaired - which just goes to show that actually you need to be very careful with procrastination!)

.

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Wear a Dress Day (boys optional)

I'm guessing that boys wearing dresses is optional....... rather than the wearing of boys (in addition to a dress)!

As it was the farewell meal at the Phoenix tonight (Saturday) I decided to make an effort and wear a dress (I do like this dress - a large part of liking this dress (apart from it being all sparkly!) is that it's the perfect opportunity to wear my boots too!). 

There will be a photo in due course but due to my laptop totally breaking down (am having to beg, steal and borrow the use of others just to post on here!) I can't load any photos. Hopefully will be resolved once I can find someone to fix it without it costing a disproportionate amount to the value of the laptop!

It was a good (although sad) night and I ended up coming home with a fancy hanging dragon (from the ceiling), a funky pair of red sunglasses (from lost property), a soy sauce pourer (for Kevin), a Mr Men candle (don't ask), 2 Crazy Zoo toys (one free), a portion of noodles and prawns and a black bin bag FULL of prawn crackers!

Here's a photo of the dragon being removed from the restaurant and also of the new home in my front room :-)





.

Tuesday 14 June 2011

Phenomenal Friday!

Today was a good day - despite waking up with a sore head (it's that Mr Matthews again, he's a bad influence ;-)

The 45 minute walk to the hospital in the sunshine soon sorted my head out though and then there was the Neil Simone exhibition preview evening to look forward to at the Sucliffe Galleries (with champers!) in the evening, I do find some of his paintings phenomenal so it fits the bill perfectly today!

.

Monday 13 June 2011

Eating Biscuits Day!

Ok, it was never going to live up to the success of Eating Biscuits Day last year, largely because it escaped my notice that it had rolled around again until it was too late to do anything about it!

Luckily I keep a stash of Auntie Betty's ginger biscuits and marshmallow teacakes (is this a biscuit or a cake?) in the office so it wasn't a total washout!



I contemplated raiding the Jaffa Cakes in the kitchen cupboard at home but I I'd hate to see a grown man cry next time he visited and found the cupboard bare ;-) 

 Dylan performing the amazng jaffa cake trick.............

Kevin and Ray came over for tea and I was a little tempted to make one of my favourite desserts as a kid (actually, as I'm not really a sweet/dessert person it's possible this was the only dessert I liked - although my dad did (and does still) make a fabulous Pavlova and also an amazing Raspberry Charlotte Russe!) - digestive biscuits (and there's the link!) with a pineapple ring on top and finished off with squirty cream, I wasn't sure how this would go down in civillised company though so I refrained myself!

.

Saturday 11 June 2011

Wild Abandon Day!

Woo Hoo!!

Guess where I ended up today?

Courtesy of Sophie (big, big thanks to Sophie) I went to Manchester to see Journey, Foreigner and Styx (that's another t-shirt for the office wall then - to go with the Michael Bolton one)!




There was a kind of wild abandon going on as some of the audience sang/shouted their way through the classics and Sophie did suggest that she could abandon me in Manchester which would no doubt be wild!

.

Friday 10 June 2011

Breathtaking Tuesday!

(Yep, we're still playing catch up with days!)

Turns out I'm more Soprano than Alto (personally I don't think I fit in either really, I'm akwardly inbetween!), trying to hit some of the higher notes at singing tonight was certainly breathtaking!

.

Thursday 9 June 2011

Push the Boat Out Day (and also Roll Down a Hill Day!)

I literally pushed the boat out! 

We made paper boats and set them afloat in the boating pond at the Valley Gardens - perfect opportunity to also achieve rolling down a hill (preferably nowhere near the pond!).

I was quite impressed with my boat effort


but Dylan felt we needed a bigger boat so stuck two pieces of paper together and made one! 



Anyway, we got to the boating pond and failed miserably at being inconspicuous with our paper boats amongst the serious model boat enthusiasts.



They did float though, if only for a while, before we had to fish them out due to water damage!




.

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Sensational Saturday!

It was indeed!

It was Sensational to have Dylan here for the weekend to look after me whilst I recovered from the effects of a quite nasty migraine.

We even managed a trip to the cinema to see the latest X-men installment although we were both a little disappointed when we hung around to the end of all the credits (along with a handful of other die hard superhero geeks) in the hope of a teaser for future movies and got nothing!  Thouroughly enjoyed the movie though, Wolverine's cameo was one of the best I've seen!

.

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Ooooops!

I've missed a few days I'm afraid!

Well, I've done some of them - I just haven't written about/posted about them yet, the wheels have slightly fallen off but with a bit of prolific posting I reckon I can get back on track :-)

So, be warned.......................on Tuesday I'll be posting about Saturday, Wednesday will be about Sunday and so on and so forth! 

Confused? 

Welcome to my world!

.

Thursday 2 June 2011

Tune in To the Buzz of the Bees

I haven't seen or heard any bees which makes this task a tad difficult!

I did get this picture of a bee while I was at Pops and Olive's at the weekend though so I'm including it here (along with a few other snapshots!).

















































And talking of bees...............................I remember being impressed by this performance a few years ago (yes, partly because he's beautiful!)!




.