Wednesday 10 July 2013

Seek Out Baby Animals and Behold Their Cuteness!

This one was easy - I just popped round to Bernie's and took some photos of Jasper (and a couple of Tilly even though she's not a baby) - decided to combine the day with Stroke Soft Things Day (an easy option and one that doesn't result in complaints or my arrest) so spent more time having cuddles (it's possible Jasper would have complained if he could) than taking pictures!







Tuesday 9 July 2013

Leave a Penny for Someone to Find!

I left seven (inflation and all that) in the usual spot at the Valley Gardens en route when I walked Chap Who is (still) Too Good to Be True to work (he is quite capable of getting to work on his own for those of you who may be wondering!). I hope that 7 people got wishes rather than one person using them all but maybe that's just naive of me!

Wasn't able to take a picture due to my camera battery dying during the Red Arrows flight at Waddington airshow the day before so I'm borrowing last years!

Saturday 6 July 2013

Mend Something Day!


It's actually been kind of a mend something month so far...
  • 2 badminton rackets
  • Necklace
  • Chap who's too good to be true's keyring
  • Chap who's too good to be true's sunglasses
  • My silver hair clip (which nearly cracked a bathroom tile when the spring sprung!)
  • Beanbag
All of which have just reminded me of the much used childhood phrase/command "Daddy fix it"!  I think the only time I attempted to fix something myself was the surprisingly effective toothpaste glue which held together my blue ceramic Roland Rat lamp for years and thus saved me from a proper telling off for breaking it in the first place!

Friday 5 July 2013

Eurovision 2013!


I know, I know, it's (more than) a little late - so sue me!

It was a slighty quieter Eurovision celebration at Chez Matthews/Claire - in terms of numbers if not raucousness!

First things first - we all had to hand over our entrance fee (£6) for the prize fund and pick our countries from the lucky dip.

Prize Categories

Winning Country - £10 (Denmark favourite to win)
Losing Country - £6 (UK's always a safe bet)
Most Outrageous/Disturbing/Bizarre/Hilarous/Poor Taste Performance - £4
Most Outrageous/Disturbing/Bizarre/Hilarious/Badly Dressed/Stupid Results Presenter - £4

So with 4 of us and 26 countries 2 of us ended up with 7 'picks' and the other 2 got just 6 - and a blank one.  I was very impressed with Ray's deviousness at actually writing 'BLANK' on the pieces of paper, Kevin was less impressed when he realised what had happened - after crowing with delight at spying writing and assuming he'd picked a country!

Ken and I were fortunate enough to be the 2 who ended up with an extra country - a fact which didn't do Ken any good whatsoever but which I definitely benefited from!

My Countries

1) Lithuania
2) Spain
3) Belgium
4) Germany
5) Ukraine
6) Norway
7) Ireland

I'm going to write about the ones that stood out - starting with Finland!

For me this was the winner, I loved this one!  It was catchy, cheesy and a little controversial - a perfect Eurovision hit!



Netherlands - this was just bizarre and, frankly, depressing (in a wrist slitting kind of way). I really don't understand why it was so popular!



Romania - (got my vote for Most Outrageous/Disturbing/Bizarre/Hilarous/Poor Taste Performance!) looked like Emperor Ming and has to be seen (and heard) to be believed!



UK - Least said the better.



Greece - best song title ever! I really liked this one, it was fun and let's face it how can you go wrong with a song called Alcohol is Free (and it looked like they'd been on it all year!).



There were some very strange song titles this year, I think Belgium with 'Love kills' came near the top of that list - plus I also thought the singer had serial killer eyes and there definitely seemed to be a theme going on of people standing behind each other. 

I was impressed with the fact that the majority were sung in English this year (the mosr notable exception was the obviously pregnant Estonian entrant - the fact that she was pregnant prompted Kevin to remark that it was irresponsible of her to be singing - she should be put away somewhere - and then he wanted to know why she was singing in a language no one understands (her own!)) and we all agreed that it was the classiest Eurovision we've seen for a while. 

The presentation was outstanding, I think one of my favourite parts of the whole show was the Swedish Smorgasbord interval act - fantastic!!



This was the first year I actually won anything (I've come close a few times though!) - I managed to win £6 for having Ireland (who came last) and I also managed to bag £4 for having the worst vote announcer (Lithuania or Ukraine - I can't remember and I've spent ages trying to find a picture of either!) - bonus!

So, there was the usual, what can only be loosely referred to as...'dancing' after the Eurovision - one of the the reasons I'm still amazed that Chap who continues to be too good to be true is still here is because he had the misfortune to arrive at this point! You'll be pleased to know I don't have any video clips of this part of the evening - partly because I'd have struggled to think how to title a clip of me on the floor with 3 men between my legs one after the other.  I feel I should clarify that this was because each of them thought they could do a better attempt at 'Ooops Upside Your Head' - being the only original member of the evening's line up I can categorically state that they were all as bad as each other haha!

Yes, this bunch of children can do it much better than any of us (admitedly they aren't under the influence - at least I assume they're not)!


Thursday 4 July 2013

June Togetherness Mantra - The Results!

So, in that lovely month of June did I in fact...

* Tell Jokes - I'm not allowed to do this anymore, I told my donkey joke once and I have a sneaky suspicion that the future of my relationship depends on me never telling it again!

* Pay compliments - Yes, I did this, I liked people's hair, clothes, artwork, cocktails, badminton moves, music, jokes (just cos I'm not allowed to tell them doesn't mean I can't appreciate other people's!), personalities in general and probably a lot of other stuff which I can't even remember!

* Send things in the post to people I love - I sent a telegram to a certain someone from this fantastic little website, a birthday card to my 'challenged in every way' uncle and I almost sent a Father's Day card but delivered it in person instead!
     
* Make it my mission to spread togetherness wherever I go - I think I can claim partial credit for spreading a little togetherness and being there at the start of a new relationship, admitedly John smacking the poor lad round the head and telling him to just get on with it probably had more influence though! It was National Kissing Day (you can find everything you need to know here) this month although I admit I was very selfish with my kisses and reserved them all for one person. And my final act of togetherness (that I can mention on a public forum) was to take part in the St Michael's Hospice Star Walk with 800 other people - dressed as a pirate (just me, not all 800 of us!).


     
* Test the theory that there are only six degrees of seperation - yes, it's true there are indeed. In fact sometimes there's less than six and it's a scarily small world...which isn't always a good thing!

* Meet new people - yep, met lots of new people both at work (it's been a workshop-tastic month) and at home (Chap who remains too good to be true is introducing me to folks!).
     
* Say yes a lot - um, yeeeesss! Probably far too much for my own good!

* ...and just kind of see what happens and where things take me - ok, I think it's fair to say that I didn't expect it to take me to the park, in various panda type hats, in the early hours of the morning after a bottle of tequilla  (despite the fact that this appears to have been my idea). 

Yes, June, you kind of were the month of go-with-the-flow-who-knows-where-we'll-go!

Wednesday 3 July 2013

July Before-Breakfast Mantra!

Dear July

I am going to be ready for whatever you throw at me, in fact, I'm going to throw a few things at you!

I'm going to learn to love mornings (even more than I do now) and walk a different way than I usually do, I'm going to mix things up and not accept the status quo.

Whilst I may not do something that scares me everyday I will certainly do something that makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up some days!

I will attempt the impossible - and endeavour to do it all before breakfast (it's ok to have breakfast at 10pm right?)!

Watch out July, month of new-ness wow!