Sunday 31 July 2011

Free Hugs Day!

Bernie and I were appearing 'live at Argos' for a couple of hours on Saturday morning collecting money for the Teenage Cancer Trust so I thought it'd be an ideal opportunity to try a little 'Free Hugs'!

Ok, so what I originally had in mind was something along the lines of this..............



However, this isn't Italy, we're nowhere near as unreserved in the depths of Harrogate and I'm not a glamourous Italian!

We did have a great time though - I ended up handing out balloons to kids (and playing with them) and at one point had several on sticks in all my pockets, I was pretty close to looking like I was wearing an outfit made of balloons!  It was slighly disturbing when one child got upset - turns out she's scared of balloons so I was her worst nightmare!

Still, having persuaded as many people that I knew as possible to pop in for a hug this seemed to encourage others and, as free hugs go, it was a pretty respectable attempt :-)

And, let's face it, you just can't beat a good hug!

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Friday 29 July 2011

Get on TV Day!

FAIL - But not for want of trying!

See, I promised you earlier this year, when I had to reschedule this, that it was because I had a plan!

So, I toddled off with Bernie and a box full of stuff to the Antiques Roadshow at the York Museum and Gardens :-)

I spent the the night before convinced that if I did end up on telly I'd end up tripping over my own feet, saying something utterly ridiculous, looking very disappointed when I find out that my crap is worth nothing, or saying something I might regret about Auntie Betty!

So, after queing for an incredibly long time (this was the queue to tell you which further queue you had to join depending on what you'd brought!) we ended up at the Collectibles table.  Each table had 2 experts and Bernie and I had already noticed that one of the experts was really paying attention to everything put in front of him and engaging fully with the public, the other one just seemed to be an arrogant tool (for want of a better word!) - guess which one we ended up with!







The first thing he picked up was my little wooden bear...................

"It's a bear, what more do you want to know?" was all he said before putting it to one side and dismissing it  - which turned out to be pretty much how he dealt with everything I'd taken with me!


Having already done a bit of research about my little bear I made a point of very obviously looking at its engraved foot as I picked it up to pack it back away - this caught the attention of our 'expert' at which point he took it back of me and gave it a little more attention.  This caught the eye of the other expert (who we'll refer to as Bloke who actually knew what he was talking about)...........

Bloke who actually knew what he was talking about - "Is that a Bojensen bear?!"
Our 'expert' - "Um, yes, I think that's what it says on its foot"
(More conversation from Bloke who actually knew what he was talking about re Bojensen wooden toys etc)
Our 'expert' - "But it's not worth anything is it?"
Bloke who actually knew what he was talking about - "Oh yeah, a dealer would pay £30 - £40 pounds for it and sell for it on for £80 - £100!"
Me (to Bloke who actually knew what he was talking about) - "I don't suppose you want to look at the rest of my stuff do you?!"

This didn't really go down well with our 'expert' (ooops!) who advised me that it doesn't work like that!

Anyway, we didn't have anything interesting or valuable enough (or so we were told by our 'expert') to warrant an appearance on TV (sorry Boss, no autograph from Fiona!) and we spent so long in queues that there was no time to wander round and try to get in an audience shot!

Will need to give this one some serious thought next year!

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Thursday 28 July 2011

Odd Shoes Day!

Someone in the office suggested this one so I thought why not?! 

I also thought I'd add odd socks into the mix!



This went down very well, everyone loved the combination - I'm afraid to say though that there have been suggestions made that I didn't quite fulfil this one to its potential!

A welly and a flip flop have been suggested but as I don't own either that's going to be a tad difficult - look out for Odd Socks Day II though when I'll definitely attempt a more obvious oddness (which I'm sure won't be an issue for me at all!) - I need to account for the whole health and safety issue though if I consider one heel and one flat!

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Wednesday 27 July 2011

Drink Champagne Just Because Day!

Firstly I have to apologise to everyone in the office - last year you all got chocolates (and I drank my chanmpagne before I was supposed to!).  This year you didn't get anything but at least I drank my champagne when I was supposed to (and this time I didn't mix it in a glass with half a bottle of bud and a good slug of wine)!

I bought a mini bottle and drank it in the bath with lots of candles and a good book (no, I didn't drink the candles or the book).

Just because.........................I'm worth it ;-)

Also because I came out of the co-op tonight and walked right into the middle of an accident, a car backed out of a drive and totally wiped out a moped thingy - not good.

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Monday 25 July 2011

Cut the crusts off your sandwiches and have extra cream on your strawberries!

Bugger it!

These were a couple of this months extras that I'd planned to do today but other things intervened and I was nowhere near sandwiches or strawberries  (I seem to be spending more and more time telling you about the days I haven't done - must try harder!)!

I did, however, cut the.................nope, I can't do it, there's no way I can make this fit with the chinese we had for tea............and I had extra wine with my, um, wine :-)

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Sunday 24 July 2011

PARTY!

This was supposed to be an extra for this month but I've realised that it ain't gonna happen this month - no way, no how!

I've run out of time, next week's all booked up and I've been rather busy having my own little pity party for one - which I hope I'm done with now, no matter how you're feeling..................Get Up, Dress Up and Show Up!

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Friday 22 July 2011

Most Awesome Wednesday!

Well there's absolutely no doubt whatsoever that in some ways it's more awesome than last Wednesday - which is a start - and in others it's even less so.

Between the 'diet coke break' moments in the office and the 'me almost breaking my neck leaving the office' moments it's actually been quite entertaining!

Seriously people, when I say that you should never put wheels under me because I struggle enough with the concept of shoes - I'm not joking!  I thought I might have got away with it as the door was just closing behind me when I took a swan dive to the floor and I had those few seconds of relief that no one was around to see it.......................until the door opened and 4 concerned faces peered down at me!

Awesome!

(and I've just realised yesterday was Thursday not Wednesday - oooops!)

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Thursday 21 July 2011

Be At One Day!

I'd like to think this means 'Be at One' as in the London cocktail bars?

I suspect though that it's more likely to be 'at one with the universe' or maybe ' at one with nature' or some such thing!

I decided though that I'd be at one place at one time doing one thing - simple, now if only my tiny mind would play along ;-)

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Wednesday 20 July 2011

Captain's Log Supplemental!

It's been a while since I did one of these but I felt the need so here it is!

I'm going to talk mumbo-jumbo-clap-trap at you for a while.

I mentioned in a previous post about the whole white feathers theory, it's supposed to be a sign of angels/lost loved ones, good things, happiness, blah, blah, blah.  Anyway, I believe in this.  I also believe in fate, Santa, and the basic goodness of human nature so shoot me now!

Over the last 5 months I've noticed that there's been an awful lot of white feathers about, which I took to be a good sign (I have a friend who prefers an alternative theory - lots of feathers = there's a cat about).  On my way to work on Thursday (last Thursday - last week) I walked past this (down there) and had one of those bizarre 'pulling' feelings on my conscience or whatever and had to go back and take the photo.


Two tiny feathers laying there like wings - how spooky is that!

Ok, I've finished now, I'll just sit back and wait for the men with the special white coat to arrive shall I?

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Tuesday 19 July 2011

Fiesty Friday!

I'm sorry, Fiesty has temporarily left the building.

I know it's still in there somewhere and will no doubt make a return at some point!

Which reminds me of the seven dwarfs joke....................................

Seven dwarfs were in the bath feeling happy, so happy got out and they all felt grumpy.

Oh, and 'dwarf' is one of only 3 words in the English language beginning with 'dw', the other 2 are 'dwell' and 'dwindle'.

I feel I've been sufficiently random now to warrant a swift exit!

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Monday 18 July 2011

Lie on the Grass Day!

Ok, playing a little catch up again.

Thursday was supposed to be lie on the grass day, I was supposed to be off work and visiting the Great Yorkshire Show (surely there'd be plenty of opportunity to lie on the grass?!).  Unfortunately it turned out the people I do volunteer work for were oversubscibed and they didn't need me so, at the suggestion of Helen, Thursday off work was traded for Friday.

As the sun was making an appearance and I was feeling just a tad restless (for 'tad' read 'wanting to tear my own skin off') I suggested a trip to Knaresborough and we had a picnic at the castle and spent the afternoon reading mindless magazines, which was kind of relaxing in that it felt like I'd actually left the planet for a very long time by the time I'd flicked through 4 of them!

I wanted to make the word 'lie' on the grass with people but didn't feel up to convincing 9 strangers to go along with my craziness so settled for this instead..................


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Thursday 14 July 2011

Bounce a Ball Day!

Today the idea of anything bouncing seems inconceivable - today I imagine dropping this fabulous bouncing ball (found on a path during a walk with Pops) and it shattering, like a fragile piece of glass, into a million pieces.


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Wednesday 13 July 2011

Don't Worry About Anything Day!

Well, Don't Worry About Anything Day - your timing is impeccable.

So................................

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha (and breath) hahahhahahahahhahahahahaha

Yeah, maybe if this had been Don't Worry About Absolutely Everything day I might have stood a fighting chance - as it was there was only room to worry about one all-consuming thing.

On the plus side (silver lining to every cloud right?), I managed one of the extras for this month - technically I wasn't 'out' but I did stay 'up' (and hanging out the bedroom window, which is kind of 'out') till it was properly dark - in fact I watched it turn all the way back to light again.  Which brings to mind a line I read once in an old Mills and Boon book (misspent youth - and by the way I totally blame Mills and Boon, Hans Christian Anderson and any and all other fairy tale spinners for the fact that, in the words of my good friend Helen (Broadie), all women are stupid) - 'even on the darkest night of your life you can always chase the dawn'.

Oh, and welcome to Trinidad and Tobago, of all the things to break through the numbness Billy Ocean's birth place as my latest reader was the most welcome.

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Tuesday 12 July 2011

Giant picnic for 100 people!

Ok, so this was an extra for this month and I was a little concerned about how I was going to manage this one - until I found out that there was a giant picnic taking place in the Valley Gardens on Sunday 10th July, perfect!

At least it would have been had the heavens not opened an hour before the event and dumped a ton of rain (sometimes I feel like the pink panther - sprinkle me pink!) all over the place. So, instead of a giant picnic for 100 on Sunday at the Valley Gardens I opted for a mini picnic for about 10 on Monday at the office (everything's what you make it, right?).

I say picnic, what I mean is biscuits, lots of biscuits, and mini chocolate rolls and mini jaffa cake rolls.

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Monday 11 July 2011

Stupendous Sunday!

Hmmmmm.

No, not really.

At least the chicken and chorizo paella at Bernie's was stupendous so it wasn't a total miss.

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Friday 8 July 2011

Strange Make-Up Day!

I decided to avoid the whole bizarre eye make-up of last year and opted instead to tone it down a bit (ok, I confess, this is because I was ill for half of June so didn't manage to plan ahead for July's 'days').

I covered my nails in shiny, sparkly sequins!  On reflection it wasn't such a good idea to do this the night before strange make-up day (they aren't half scratchy in bed!) but then again there's no way I'd have had time to do it in the morning before work (and at least I wasn't sticking them to my eyes this time)!




I've had some amzing ideas for next year though (Nikki, your help would be greatly appreciated!)!

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Thursday 7 July 2011

Extra, extra, read all about it!

I managed a couple of this months extras (and here's the extras photo - 2 months in a row, woo hoo!) at the weekend (and didn't realise they were on the list until I saw them on the office door on Tuesday!)!


Finish the ice cream - I've had half a (small) tub of Bymor's rum and raisin ice cream in the freezer for a few weeks now and, purely because I needed the room in the freezer, Dylan and I were forced to eat it all on Saturday! 

Go skimpy - this wasn't exactly planned and I won't go into too much detail but I was going skimpier than usual because of the amazing weather we were having..................I didn't mean to go quite as skimpy as I did though (mental note to self - take care when turning over on picnic blanket in skimpy top) ;-)

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Monday 4 July 2011

Walking on Sunshine Day!

Well if you read yesterday's post you'll know that I spent the first few hours of this day walking around Harrogate for a good cause - there definitely wasn't any sunshine though!

We did some sitting in the sunshine later when we went to see Casablanca outdoors at Montpellier Hill on a big screen - happy days!

I'm sorry, you must have known this was coming.................................



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Sunday 3 July 2011

Snoozy Saturday!

Hardly!

Ok, we did have a bit of a lie in on Saturday morning, well if you can call 8am a lie in!.

Then, as it was the St Mike's Midnight Walk, I left Dylan at home and went for a 6.5 mile walk around Harrogate at midnight (more about that later!)!  Before I did that though there was time for him to meet Pops and Olive (I felt slightly nervous about this until I remembered that he's already met Betty so it can't get any worse!) for a couple of hours, then I assisted in the kitchen while we made meatballs :-)

What's really tickled me is that, in addition to this day being Snoozy Saturday, tomorrow is Walking on Sunshine Day - not much chance of that in the early hours of the morning!

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Friday 1 July 2011

Spend 87% of the Time Outside!

I think this was actually supposed to cover the entire month of June - unfortunately a lot of it has been wet (not that I'd have a problem with that) and also I've spent a lot of it being ill and not setting foot outside at all!

However, in recognition of this day (yeak, ok, I used this as an excuse to write something for this day) I did get some sunbathing done on the way to my rescheduled physio appointment (what a good day to have booked off work as my privilage day!) and then Kevin, Ray, Ken and were planning on taking ourselves off to Mount Grace Priory with a picnic for an outdoor production of Sense and Sensibility (this may not have amounted to 87% but it certainly felt like a fair shot!)

Unfortunately the weather interferred with these plans so we opted instead for a meal at The Boar's Head at Ripley Castle.  The food was amazing.........here's a picture of my chocolate fondant with caramilised hazlenut and orange cream dessert :-)



We did have a walk around the castle afterwards which does at least count towards the 87%, yes?  And here's a load of photos - sorry, I went a bit snap-happy, I just couldn't get the camera to reproduce what my eyes were seeing!


Part of the one of the entrances to the hotel





Some bizarre feather thing going on at the gates to the cemetary........




The lone duck.................all its pals were swimming around at the bottom but it didn't seem to be able to figure out how to get down there!


A few shots of the castle (and Ray)







 And finally, the Hotel De Ville (instead of a town hall apparently!)


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