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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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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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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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 :-)



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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 ;-)

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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!)!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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Think of Someone Else First!

First thing in the morning, last thing at night and all the bits inbetween - this one was easy, I did this one every day this month :-)

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Fabulous Friday!

I wasn't sure how this one was going to pan out - I was introduced to Dylan's mum and TWO of his brothers today, much sooner than anticipated!

Luckily they were all absolutely lovely, unluckily they took him away with them when they left - so it was half fabulous and half not at all fabulous!

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Stroke a Kitten Day (Puppies Also Acceptable!)!

Time for Robocat to visit the office again!  I was only in for half a day though so we had to make the most of all opportunities, having worn the 'wings' (bunny ears) last year it was time to try the red springy things (technical term) this year.

Elaine spotted the on-site black cat this morning as she arrived at work - no chance of getting close enough to stroke it though!

I think it might be time to check out Robocat's instructions as I'm not quite sure what mode he was in today but he kept emitting random psycho cat noises and taking off at break-neck pace across the desks in an attempt to launch himself off the edge - being in the office often has the same effect on me.

I left Dylan at home brushing Rosie and Jim (he had to go one better than stroking, it's his competitive nature!).

I'm loving that Boss thought it was 'Stroke a Chicken Day' though - hmmmmm.

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Arm Wrestle!

I suppose I could have challenged someone at work to an arm wrestling competition but given that I was only there long enough to pop in for a meeting I decided to wait and challenge Dylan instead!

I put up a pretty good fight (with left and right arms) but lost both attempts - I did win the finger wrestling though :-)

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Super Sunday!

Yep, despite the fact that we were recovering from Eurovision the night before, this was a Super Sunday!

A Glee fest for what was left of the morning and into the afternoon with a stroll through the valley gardens and a crazy golf challenge (which I won - by 1 point!) followed by comforting chilli for tea and plenty of zombie action made it a Super Sunday indeed :-)

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Simple Pleasures Day!

A lazy Saturday morning, a trip to Asda, my first ever Starbucks frappachino and also ..................Eurovision night!

What more could you possibly ask for, Kevin and Ray's annual Eurovision bash, the company of good friends, music, singing, dancing, good food and drink all coinciding with a visit from the amazing DBB!!

Pleasure pure and simple!

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Veg Out Day!

There wasn't really much in the way of vegging out going on.

I took DBB to meet Auntie Betty (dangerous I know - and possibly fatal at such an early stage of a relationship) which actually went very well!

I suppose you could say we vegged out at the cinema later in the afternoon (I think we both nodded off at various points!), back home for a joint effort at making tea (we ate veg - does that count?) and finishing the pavlova just as Bernie and John arrived for a fun filled evening which included listening to my extremely drunken voicemail messages and playing Articulate (loving Bernie's clue for insufficient - the opposite of the word that our dad was jokingly trying to spell for you in a note years ago, I got it straight away lol!)

I've realised today that over recent months I've totally forgotten to include the photo of all the extras for each month - of course the fact that I've remembered this and included this months is in no way an indication that the same will be said for future months!

 
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Marvellous Monday!

Waking up with the same smile on my face that I fell asleep with

Knowing there's only 4 more sleeps to go

March extra - Notice the Snowdrops, Aren't They Lovely

Chocolate Orange from Boss (because it just had my name written all over it ;-)

Complimentary end of year appraisal with Boss (the chocolate caramel shortcake bites and personalised desk area decoration may have influenced this)

Something that I've been waiting for arrived in the post

Elaine's efforts at gingerbread self portrait - to add to the collection!

Picked up another 2 dances (muscle memory is a wonderful thing!)

Long hot soak in bath

News that 4 sleeps might be only 3 sleeps!

Just overall marvellousness (did you know that spell check suggests murderousness for marvellousness!)!

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No More Naughty Things!

Ok, let's make this clear from the beginning - the diary says No More Naughty Things on Wednesday 8th March. 

It does not say No More Naughty Things for the Next Forty Days. 

Yes, I know that's probably what it means but there's no way I'm doing this for 40 days - in fact, to be honest, I didn't even make it through one!

I've already stopped smoking, I rarely drink, I'm not overly keen on chocolate or cakey stuff although I did pass on my usual morning ginger biscuit and felt quite smug about it!

So then it was just a case of avoiding bad, wicked or naughty thoughts (how hard can this be right?).

I spent most of the day with Eliza Doolittle's (as in Audrey Hepburn) 'I'm a good girl I am' running through my mind - it was all that stood between me and naughty things!  Well, this just goes to prove that my mind has always been my Achilles Heel - I effortlessly failed at about 2.15 this afternoon (one more thing I can blame you for DB!)!

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Snuggle Up Day!

I was lucky enough to spend a large portion of the weekend snuggling with the one person I'd like to have spent Snuggle Up Day (Monday 7th March) with, unfortunately he's now 212.5 miles away (I have this effect on men lol!).

Much as I love them, Rosie and Jim were poor substitutes on this occassion - it appears there's no going back once you've had the real thing......................

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