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!
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!!
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 :-)
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 ;-)
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!).
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!)!
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!
.
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................
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!
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!
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!)
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 :-)
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!
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!
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!
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!
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!
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!
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!
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!)!
Quite a few people have asked me what gamboling is exactly, my response has been that I thought it was what lambs did.
I thought I'd best google it before I attempted to do it (just in case!)............................
gam·bol intr.v.gam·boled or gam·bolled, gam·bol·ing or gam·bol·ling, gam·bols
To leap about playfully; frolic. n.
A playful skipping or frolicking about.
So there you go then.
Also, Gambol was one of Gotham City's crime lords - who knew?
Anyway, unfortunately I wasn't able to actually do any gamboling in grass clippings - the rain's interferred with my gamboling plans! I'll give this one another attempt next month I think!
Hahaha, so this involved being abruptly awoken by the alarm and then remembering to lay back down, lie still, close my eyes and listen for the birds - which also involved listening over the surprisingly loud, almost tick-tock clock, noise generated by my solar powered dancing panda in the window (photo to follow) :-)
And remembering to hit snooze on the alarm so I didn't drift back off to sleep - this might have been less risky had it not been a working day but my next day off involves having to be at the train station for 08:30 so I thought I'd best leave this day where it was!
Why is it that the the things which are good for you rarely taste as good as the things that aren't?
And it's not just us, the same can be said for animals too I think - Rosie's going through a phase where she's refusing to take the teaspoon of oil she has to have every morning so it's become somewhat of a battle of wills between us, one which I generally win with the assistance of a large towel and the fact that I'm bigger than her!
This morning I didn't wrap the towel tight enough and a paw snuck out and caught me - I still managed to get the oil down her throat though!
So, back to the matter at hand....................um, ok, I may have got today and yesterday a little mixed up!
I actually had some fruit and veg type stuff today - only because I had a crazy relative (Uncle Thomas - of the two brides fame) visiting for lunch (he demanded something 'special' for lunch so I told him I'd make sure Bernie was there ;-)
Lunch - Balsamic pork stir fry (peppers, rocket and watercress), which I forgot to take a picture of so I apologise for the fact that your retinas may possibly be permanently damaged by the following picture of said crazy relative eating it!
followed by Berries in Brandy Yogurt (berries), I was most impressed with my first attempt to do the swirly bits through the yogurt/cream cheese/brandy sauce stuff!
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.
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 :-)
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 :-)
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!!
Having pretty much exhausted all the superstitions last year I thought I'd aim for the one I didn't manage to do - walk under a ladder.
Unfortunately I didn't come across any ladders (or even any scaffolding to substitute).
Interestingly though....................it's 273 days since the last Friday 13th which means only 2283 days of bad luck left (following my wanton act of mirror smashing!). I have to say though that, based on the last couple of months, my luck seems to have turned for the better!
Well, as it was Martin's farewell lunch outing it seemed only fair to 'target' him as the recipient of my wink today (which sounds like this is a regular occurance for me - it's not.). So I went for the large, unmissable cheeky wink!
At least this was more successful than the whole windy/hair in mouth 'wink at a stranger day' last November - nowhere near as amusing though!
And for all of you readers of the opposite sex................................................
I wish I'd photographed Boss's reaction when he arrived in the office this morning and discovered it was Trust Your Uncle Al Day!
Over the last 2 (and a bit) years this has possibly got to be the most uttered phrase (closely followed by 'Heidi/Orange, get help.') by Boss - and, in fairness, he hasn't let us down yet!
I don't think he was overly surprised to find that I'd scheduled this day as one of my own 'extras' in the diary - he definitely wasn't expecting that I'd have a t-shirt and stickers made to commemorate the occasion though! Well done to everyone in the offices who wore/displayed a sticker!
I wasn't sure what to do for this one, I don't really know any men with dogs!
I googled in the vague hope that there just might be a related film and lo and behold....................
Man About Dog is a 2004 Irish comedy film starring Allen Leech, Ciaran Nolan and Tom Murphy - it wasn't really my kind of thing but it was watchable and satisfied the criteria for the day!
I decided to make Chrismas decorations! It may be a little early but I only had a few left to make after last year and I liked the idea of being able to cross something off my list of projects!
I waited all day for something jaw dropping but........ nada!
So, I trawled around and found some jaw dropping facts for you :-)
Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.
Your body’s strongest muscle is your tongue.
A pig’s orgasm lasts for 30 minutes (you've got to wonder how (and why) some of these facts are known........)!
All polar bears are left handed.
Butterflies taste with their feet.
Humans and dolphins are the only animals that have sex for pleasure (and not the pig? really?).
A cockroach can live 9 days without its head, it only dies because it cannot eat.
Starfish have no brains (personally I don't think this is limited to starfish).
Mosquitoes have teeth.
During historic civil wars, when troops returned without any casualties, a note was put up which read “0 Killed”. This is where we get the expression “O.K” which means all is good.
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!
(How spontaneous can it really be when it's already in the diary?!)
Spontaneous:
Coming or resulting from a natural impulse or tendency; without effort or premeditation; natural and unconstrained; unplanned
In which case, whilst not really a party as such, I'm pretty certain that it counts ………………. the whole day (Sunday) was spent acting on natural impulses, without effort, in a natural and unconstrained way!
To be fair the majority of it was spent on the sofa watching Glee (with a break to make a pavlova base) before deciding to wander into town for dinner at Prezzo's followed by catching the last half hour or so of the accoustic set in The Alex before a leisurely stroll back home.
