Wednesday 31 August 2011

Superhero Day!

YAY!

I've been looking forward to this one - it's gonna be a long post (sorry!)!

To start with, find your Superhero name/powers etc here!

My Superhero name is The Jade Finger
My Superpower is Solar
My Weakness is Vince Vaughn (which I reckon makes me pretty much invincible as the chances of an encounter are slim to say the least!)
My Weapon is My Sonic Belt
My Mode of Transportation is Hydrofoil

I wore a superhero costume to work (ok, not a full costume, just as much as I thought I could get away with) - I was also made to colour one of my fingers in a rather fetching green colour (Jade Finger)!



This was part of my costume, if you look closely it can be seen clutched in my vice-like grip in my 'mid-flight' photo!


Howdy!


'Mid-flight'
(you can just about see the edge of my cloak!)


See - there was a cloak!



I also made a CD to play at work (superhero/hero theme tunes and songs with Hero in the title!) and (finally) replaced the planets from Space Cadet Tuesday with glittery (all hand glittered by me) superhero logos!






I couldn't do Superhero Day without sharing my favourite Superhero with you............................Captain Chaos (a.k.a. HIM) from Cannonball Run (these clips actually had me crying with laughter) - genius!






Also, the day wouldn't be complete without this classic superhero clip (and now I've put all of this material in this post what on earth am I going to do next year!)!



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Tuesday 30 August 2011

Jump Out of Somethinig!

I thought about a cake but I think there's already plenty of cake related activity going on next month - I really don't feel prepared enough for next month so I apologise in advance if it's all rather ad-hoc (I think Superhero day (tomorrow) may have taken it all out of me!)!

Instead I decided to jump out of my skin - I took the highly unusual step (for me) of watching a scary movie on my own, at night, in the semi-darkness!  Maybe not such a good idea, especially given the highly imaginative dreams I seem to have been having over the last few weeks - however, I seem to have survived intact so I guess it's not all bad!  I did thoroughly enjoy the film too (Daybreakers) - bonus :-)

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Monday 29 August 2011

Perfect Your Cartwheel and Make People Watch You Doing it Day!

Um, no, I don't think so!

Just the thought of doing this reminded me of leap-frogging over the bollards round the cenataph many years ago - I was about 18 or 19, slightly tipsy and wearing a shortish skirt, it was all going very well until the last one when the back of the skirt caught on the bollard and had a pivot effect on me!  I just swung down face first into the bottom of the bollard - ah, happy days!

I am going to make you watch this though - it's beautiful!  This was filmed between 4th and 11th April 2011. Spain´s highest mountain @(3718m) is one of the best places in the world to photograph the stars and is also the location of Teide Observatories, considered to be one of the world´s best observatories.



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Sunday 28 August 2011

Travel by Train OR Have a Picnic Day!

This was originally scheduled to be Travel by Train Day (an extra for this month) but instead I had an opportunity to do the much moved Have a Picnic Day!  As I'm likely to be travelling to Wales by train in a couple of weeks I thought I'd shuffle an August extra in to September (what's a month between friends?).

So, Have a Picnic Day?

As I'd been lucky enough to be invited by Kevin to a personal guided tour (by Kevin) of Nostell Priory off I went for a day out with the boys (Kevin, Ray and Ken) in the hope that the weather would hold so we could have a picnic in the grounds!  The weather forecast prompted us to cancel the picnic plans but, typically, it turned out lovely at lunchtime!  We did manage a cream tea in the grounds during the last of the sunshine before the heavens opened which I'm including as a picnic of sorts!

Here're some pics :-)













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Saturday 27 August 2011

Sweet, Sweet Friday!

Friday before bank holiday Monday - Sweet indeed!

Having sorted through my kitchen cupboards a few weeks ago (according to Bernie in a 'Sleeping with the enemy' kind of way - yes, it's an example of my sometimes slightly OCD behaviour!) I thought this'd be an ideal diary day to bring some of the sweets/chocolates etc in to work and dish them out!

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Friday 26 August 2011

Dance!

This does seem to be a month of extras and here's another one!

And it's another one I can't really claim (that's right, I still haven't got around to picking up my line dancing again - next month I promise!) - instead I thought I'd take a photo of the picture in my front room (I haven't just taken a photo of a random picture - it's a dancing picture!  Not that the picture dances or anything, it's a picture of a woman dancing - just to be clear).



When life's at its finest I have been known to look at this picture and think.......'yep, that picture is exactly how I feel'. 

I do sometimes also feel like that, totally randomly, when I'm walking to/from work and a certain song can play on my Ipod and I have to fight off an almost uncontrollable urge to just start dancing!!

Thinking about it I did do a little dance earlier in the day when someone put the kettle on - but forgot to put any water in it (no, it wasn't me!)!  The kitchen area's directly opposite my office so when I noticed steam drifting in through my door I went to investigate.  The lights weren't working in the kitchen so I wandered in in the dark and noticed that the kettle was well and truly steaming, I went to switch it off but the whole thing was red hot and I burnt my fingers (this was the dancing part) so I switched it off at the plug.  At the same time, as fire marshal for the building, I was thinking how lucky it was that it hadn't set the fire alarms off - so guess what happened next?  Yep, all the alarms started going off, I had to sweep the building to check everyone was out (but at least I did get to wear my hi-vis fire marshal jacket - woo hoo!) then go and fess up that we were responsible for the false alarm and the evacuation of all buildings on site - whoops!

When it comes to dancing though this is pretty impressive!



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Thursday 25 August 2011

Blow Bubbles Day!

I've got a sneaky suspicion that this is another double booked day so don't be surprised if it shows up again at some point in the future!

The princess bubbles came in handy again but I have to admit that the mini bubbles left over from Helen and Bill's wedding were actually better!

Andy keeps his own bubbles on his desk (which I have to admit has quite impressed me) so between the two of us we keep up a fairly constant stream of bubbles throughout the offices!  Thanks to Andy and Neil for blowing the bubbles while I tried to get a decent photo!






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Wednesday 24 August 2011

Whistle Day!

Some of these days are quite difficult to do more than once - I think I pretty much exhausted this one last year!

I did distribute as many whistles as i could around work though in an attempt to encourage some whistling and tried to find someone who could whistle with their fingers (I can't - whistle with my fingers that is!)!

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Monday 22 August 2011

Make Lemonade and Become a BBQ Queen Day!


When life throws you lemons................make a large G&T!

Have BBQ will travel - in the absence of a garden I took my little pink BBQ off to Bernie and John's, donned my tiara and indulged my pyromanic tendancies!

As John did most of the work it was agreed that rather than being a BBQ queen I was more of a BBQ Diva!

(The first photo is of John in my tiara - just in case there was any confusion!)






I don't exactly look convinced do I?!!

And in the absence of a food blender I used Nigel Slater's simple lemonade recipe - for some reason the result made me think of a line from the Spitting Image Star Trek song (it's life (or lemonade) Jim, but not as we know it)!!  I love the fact that we had to make it in a casserole dish because we didn't have anything big enough!  It did actually taste quite nice though!


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Friday 19 August 2011

Smashingest Thursday!

It's another one with Kevin and Ray! 

I think it's probably important to clarify at this point that it was 'Smashingest' not 'Smashed' Thursday - although, given the previous form that Kevin and I seem to have, perhaps this should have been clarified on Wednesday!

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Wednesday 17 August 2011

Another Superfabulous Tuesday!

Again!

It certainly had its merits, and Tuesday's always better than Monday isn't it?!

Today's a good day, in fact it's been a good few days - in recognition of that fact I feel it's time to play this...........



I also had a rather entertaining conversation with Boss today, it went a little like this..............

Boss - (trying to come up with possible transport solutions should we be relocated elsewhere) "……….and there's always self-helps groups, I mean car share schemes……."

Me - (interupting) "Boss, did you just suggest that I seek a self-help group?!"

Boss - "Heidi, the group hasn't been invented yet that could help you and that's not a group, that's a stadium crowd!"

I got my own back though by singing  'I feel pretty' (yep, from 'West Side Story' although I have to admit I was thinking more along the lines of 'Anger Management' ) down the phone at him in the hope that (as has previously been the case) it'd stick and at some point in the afternoon he'd end up singing it at his desk ;-)

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Tuesday 16 August 2011

Walk a Different Way Day!

I thought I'd walk a different route to and from work today, this could have been dangerous given my ability to get lost in my own house...........however, it appears my bat senses are on full alert (in keeping with Superhero Day later this month!) as I made it to work and back again - ok, I have to admit that I did have to do extensive research (and print out maps etc) just to do a little detour but I didn't think Boss would appreciate a phone call at 10am to say that I'd be in as soon as I figure out where I am!

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Monday 15 August 2011

An Award Winning Saturday!

When you think about it, for all the simplest of reasons, this deserves to be up there when it comes to dishing out awards.

Spending the weekend at Kirkby Lonsdale with Bernie and John and being able to spend time with both Pops and Olive for their birthdays, watching the baby swallows being fed, mooching round Settle, lovely food and an evening of increasingly drunken dominoes!

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Sunday 14 August 2011

Bare Feet Day!

I'm always getting told off for paddling about the building without my shoes on so I thought it was probably best to keep the totally bare feet restricted to just my own office during the day (I'm also claiming that as one of my extras - I'm sure 'paddle' didn't mean 'round the office barefoot' but I'm having it!)!

I had to put my shoes on to walk to and from work although it's possible that I neglected to tell Bernie and John that I removed them and went barefoot in the back of the car on the way to Pops and Olive's!

This day reminded me of the many times I used to run totally barefoot through the streets of Starbeck in my younger days, and all the times I've walked home barefoot after removing crippling shoes on a night out - unfortunately it also reminded me of the shard of glass I still have embedded in my foot after dancing bare foot in a nightclub!  Believe it or not it's actually safer to walk the streets barefoot than it is to dance barefoot in the Viper Rooms!

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Friday 12 August 2011

Glorious Thursday!

You know what?  It actually kind of was - in an unexpected but welcome way!

Also............good news for Kevin, the long awaited release of a piece of work and an extra sauna all contributed!

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Thursday 11 August 2011

Yodel Day!

High on a hill lived a lonely goat herd……………………………………

Don't even try to deny it - I know you sang along with the next bit!

As did everyone else I said/sang it to today, it's one of life's little mysteries - an instinctive reaction!

Love this version of it!



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Wednesday 10 August 2011

Another Superfabulous Tuesday!

Another? I don't remember the first one! I'm sure there was one though - and, due to my rescheduling of most of this month, I've somehow managed to end up with yet another (next week)! Still, I guess you can't have too many Superfabulous Tuesdays (or any other day for that matter!)!

So, what was superfabulous about this one?

Well, the world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket but……………………………….

The sun is shining, it's sauna day (Elaine can't make the usual Wednesday sauna), I've booked some time off to get all my ebay stuff sorted ready for someone else to sell it for me (at this point it's worth paying 10% for them to do it - it's making me lose the will to live and I'd like what I laughingly refer to as 'a life' back (and I'd like to see what my spare room looks like under all that junk!)!!) and I've got my curls back - my hair's finally reached a length where I can just leave it to dry and it curls :-)

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Tuesday 9 August 2011

Showcase a New Dance Move Day!

Hmm, I was going to start my line dancing again for this one (which isn't technically showcasing a new dance move but it's as close as you're going to get!) as, between my holiday and various other things, it has slipped a little over recent weeks!

However, I think maybe the gardening has taken a toll on me and my back is well and truly feeling it - so, I decided on a long hot soak in the bath instead!

Boss did assure me though that he was doing a bit of Dad Dancing in his chair in the office so I guess I don't feel too bad about giving this one a miss!

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Monday 8 August 2011

Captain's Log Supplemental!

I'm back from my hols!

Whilst I was away in the deep depths of Mattersey Thorpe I even managed to get in a couple of this months extras - I worked on my white bits and went skimpy out in Uncle Tony's garden while I was getting my hands dirty and weeding, I've got a lovely gardeners tan!

It was an absolutely lovely week at 5 star Thorpe House with Uncle Tom and Marley - lots of good fresh food (and dining Al Fresco!), great company and conversation, and some really good bargains from Retford charity shops (including more sparkly shoes!!) and I've come back feeling a lot more human again!

Marley even managed to get me on a bike - that's as far as it went though!  It was far too high for me and I couldn't reach anywhere near the ground (I did try to tell her that, as I regularly fall off my shoes, putting wheels under me wasn't such a good idea!), so Marley held on to the bike and attempted to push me round for a bit - much to the amusement of the local kids riding all around us (I'd have managed much better on one of their bikes I reckon!).  In the end I couldn't concentrate on what I was doing because I was laughing so hard so I gave it up as a bad job!

I moved on to Gainsborough on Thursday night and had a fabulous time with Nadine for a couple of nights, the first night we got a little tipsy and I decided it'd be a good idea to climb over the fence at the bottom of the garden (in the dark) and run through the fields (in the rain) to find the bottom of the tree we could see in the distance (to check out its potential as a picnic spot).  Ok, it was a little crazy but well worth it - I got soaked, nettle stings all round my ankles and bitten by god knows what (it made a right mess and is still all swollen and discoloured now!).................but the tree has excellent picnic potential!

Here're some pics of the sunset from the back garden (and the moon and the power station, oh, and the tree!).







On the second night Nadine took me to meet her friend Tracy (and husband Jeremy (aka Scruffy Bastard) and son James), they were all really lovely and we had a fantastic evening sat out drinking Mojito's and champagne - I think at one point I was trying to recite my two favourite pieces of writing............and made a total hash of it but apparently it was entertaining nonetheless! 

James, Scruffy Bastard and Nadine..................




I definitely felt the after effects the next morning though - luckily Nadine got me home to recover in record time (the journey home and the recovery!).  The last thing I needed when I got back though was to open the fridge and have the door fall off in my hands - it was very funny though, Nadine's face was an absolute picture! 

There's something strangely reassuring about coming back to the usual little disasters though (phone was also dead and internet had been disconnected!) - ah yes, there you are life, it's good to be back!

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