Making it up

In the sidebar, I did it!

Finished the never-ending shawl Only a week late, as Big is already fond of pointing out.

Ah well. Got other things to do tonight, like eat and sleep, so I’ll wish you all a very happy new year, and sign off til 2007

eta piccie taken by Small

is what you need when your kettle packs up

We seem to be suffering from electrical gremlins just now - the kettle demised yesterday, and one of the phone handsets is stubbornly refusing to charge. Lack of a kettle in this house is a traumatic event - we both drink copious quantities of hot drinks. Tim isn’t too badly off, as he has a Gaggia, and given that his Christmas present from me was a coffee mill and a supply of roasted coffee beans, I think he’s fairly happy. Given my current requirements for lemsips though, I could do without having to mess around with the camping kettle (that seems to have lost its whistle, don’t know how that happened )

It’s not quite boiled. I’m waiting for it to boil, so that I can have my lemsip, and then go shopping. I want to go shopping for once, I keep doing Tim lists and sending him out, but I want to go and shop and pay lots of miscellaneous cheques into accounts (Christmas has been good to us that way ). Should I buy a new kettle? I don’t think we’ve had this one very long - I think it may even have been a Christmas present a couple of years ago. Pretty pathetic for it to give up so quickly (and no, it isn’t the fuse, we’ve checked that).

Ah, that’s better. I have my lemsip now. It’s too hot to drink of course, but that’s only to be expected. Now I need to gather cheques together, and try to work out where the paying in slips go. How does that work? Each time I do this, I bring a supply of envelopes and paying in slips back, and each time I need to use them, can I find them?

Hohum. That underlines the problem throughout this house, too much stuff, in disorganised piles. Will sort it out. Later.

And that’s the second part of the problem, procrastination. And this machine is a large part of it. I have a tendency to switch it on, and then hide from the world behind it, while pretending that what I’m doing is having a (n electrical) social life. Let’s face it though, I’m not really, as with the honourable exception of Gill most of you are actually off living life (which in some cases means sleeping!) while I’m reading and she’s blogging.

So there will be less machine switching on, which none of you will notice as I can still blog just as often without sitting here for 80% of my non working waiting time. At least until we’ve excavated the house and moved.

I’m still working on my 101 in 1001 list. Which is slightly worrying, as I’m probably several weeks into the allotted time, and I haven’t worked out what I’m aiming to do in it. Will aim to get that finished and posted up visibly today. Part of the problem there is that I’m prone to make huge sweeping goals for myself which are completely non measurable or achievable, and then feel bad when I don’t get there. 101 is supposed to be achievable and measurable, so pruning my aims and ambitions down is a little painful, but I’m sure worthwhile in the long run.

Right, I think I’ve waffled long enough for my lemsip to have cooled down, so I’m off to get dressed and shop. See you all later no doubt.

Spotted on a site run by boys, (isohunt.com).

Sadly, I think this speaks for itself, but it could just mean that boys are sloppy and careless.

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Reverend Countess Jax the Weird of Burton-le-Coggles Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

First seen at Merry’s

that would have been when Small kicked one of Big’s teeth out then

It was wobbly beforehand, but she was still rather (loudly) traumatised. I hope she didn’t get blood on the sheets, as they aren’t our sheets, we were over in Meltham.

Other than that it was a pretty uneventful evening. Once the children departed upstairs, the adults ate and drank and chatted, and I did yet more work on the neverending shawl. That’s a part of my overall feeling of crapness - the fact that I haven’t finished making Christmas presents, let along giving them out I didn’t do home made presents for Big and Small, although I obviously have the yarn ready, and Big’s birthday is coming up, so if I get organised, I might catch up enough for that.

The reason why I was so late to CM3 was because as the guy who’d opened up the office at 8 walked out at 4.30, I noticed that the desk of the guy who was supposed to be locking up was empty. He was working from home. Who’s the other person with keys? That’d be me then. So I was there til 6, as that’s the time we shut up shop.

Not well organised. If I’d managed to pack my crochet hook I could at least have finished the shawl while I was there, but no, while I was taking Small’s spare clothes out of my day bag that morning, I must have pulled the crochet hook out too and left it on the table.

Oh well. Maybe next year we’ll just celebrate Yule and give up on the whole Christmas thing anyway. But only if we rent a small island for a month or so away from all relatives.

And I didn’t get the present I wanted either. I’d asked for Crochet Pattern-a-day Calendar but when mother popped into Hobbycraft where I’d seen them, they’d sold out, so she got me a very lovely pattern book, Easy Crocheted Accessories, instead.

I will just have to order my calendar with my christmas money. Got to find some way of using up some of my stash and cheering myself up too!

Jax may have missed “Christmas 3 - Revenge Of The Grandparents” but there were pictures, so that should console her.

My favourite part was where Small started to disappear into his sack as the level dropped and his excitement increased.

Avid readers may recall that last year Jax and I were given a hamper by my brother and sister-in-law. Well we got another. The hamper has a decidedly Suffolk flavour, with things like beer and marmalade from Adnams, ‘Suffolk Maid’ brand tea and chutney from Butterworth & Son of Bury St Edmunds but includes all sorts of other things which they thought we would enjoy…… well we will. It is a real treat, the beer didn’t quite make it back, being drunk on Christmas night, but we will still be enjoying our Christmas fare for quite a while. Incidentally, if you are passing through Bury St Edmunds, Butterworths shop in the town is a treasure trove of good eatings.

I missed Christmas

This would be Christmas mark 3? The one where my parents gave the children stuff. And me. And Tim I assume, although I didn’t see any presents for him.

It’s not been a good day. I feel like a pretty crap mother, partner and daughter tonight. I think I’ll go to bed and see if I can feel like a better one tomorrow.

First Prize: A tomato ketchup container shaped like a tomato.
Two Runners-Up Prizes: Special Poundland® tokens, entitling the recipient to purchase any item on sale in the store.

Please submit your entries using the comments box below. The winners will be the givers or recipients of the presents judged most rubbish by me. My decision is final, because I am always right.

Extra points will be awarded to presents which proved to be lethal or caused serious injury or embarassment. Recipients of presents who were killed by their gift will however be disqualified on the grounds of stupidity and their prize awarded to the giver.

Please explain why you think your present is particularly deserving of the award.

thank you for asking

Quick round up, as on the way out, I disinterred something large from the pile at the side of the bed, and that means that I now can’t see the bed

Parents popped in for first present giving on Sat morning - outfits for Christmas day. Small is short it would appear as the 3-4 trousers were far too big! We didn’t head off that afternoon as planned, I decided I’d rather have another night at home.

Christmas eve we headed off south east, stopping off to visit Bob, Katy and co for Tim to pick up a mysterious parcel. (Which shall remain mysterious for a little while, following a request for such discretion from Bob ) Small had a minor meltdown at the idea of leaving, so Katy contributed spare head man to the cause, and we have taken pictures of him on holiday with us

On to the travelodge to drop off our kit and then an evening meal with rellies. Back late, but with overexcited children, we offered an early christmas present in the hopes that it might encourage them to fall asleep during. No chance, Toy Story - 10th Anniversary Edition [1995] kept them riveted throughout, and it was nearly midnight when they dropped off, meaning that my traditional christmas eve wrapping kept me up well into the small hours

All worth it the following morning though - will get Tim to sort out piccies as I don’t have time right now to go through and resize them all.

Wonderful afternoon and evening at Tim’s brother’s family’s house, highlights including my team beating Tim’s team in the annual quiz

Tired children slept much better last night, and we had a quiet morning pottering into Ipswich to look at a jacobean building (Em, one of these days I’ll remember to contact you *before* I set off from home to your neck of the woods with no means of contacting you!) before going for just one more meal in Felixstowe. Left there mid afternoon and headed for a pitstop at the beans which was lovely. SB was the person that Big wanted to buy a chrimble pressie for outside of relatives, so it was good to be able to deliver that. And partake of Christmas cake, or course

And finally home. I’m back at work in the morning, so I’m off up to consider the bombsite that is our bedroom. Hope you all had wonderful holiday times too

[ETA how come so many of you were viewing the blog on Chrimble day (sorry not to have posted, but I didn’t take the laptop with me - just like last year, which appears to be an interesting topic too, as there have been over 300 views of last december. (sorry, no rechecked and it’s december 2004 you’re all looking at)) very odd. ]

with the man over the road in the little shop I’ve never been in in the six years we’ve lived here. You try explaining that you’re buying washers to make robots with!

with parents, children and Tim about arm length and body size after the 3-4 year old trousers for Small were ridiculously oversized. This led to Big lying arms outstretched on the floor to test the theory that your armspan is your height. With Big it is, with Small it’s not quite - he’s about an inch taller.

with someone at a party who said “are you a friend, a Labour party member or both?” ah, um. Well, actually, I’ve emailed her a lot, and spoken to her on the phone, and she sent me a Christmas card and an invite, so I thought oh well, loaded up the kids and we went to Natascha Engel’s housewarming/ Christmas drinks. It was rather fun actually, though just a little surreal. I do seem to get myself into these situations.

with Big at teatime, when somehow a conversation about not having a white christmas spun off into a discussion of atoms and molecules and scientific theory and the way in which at school they told us something as a fact and then next year told us that that was just the easiest thing to tell us at that point.

It’s not over yet. I’m not sure what other odd conversations may be lined up for me, but I guess that will do for now.

See Jax, see Jax dance…

Just a reminder that as you unwrap that awful present it could be your chance to win, win, win!

The terrific Making It Up prize competition is under way! Just think, in a few days the wonderful first prize of a tomato ketchup bottle shaped like a tomato could be winging its way to you. So get sending in those pics just as soon as Naffsanta has emptied his sack on your doorstep!

For runners-up there will be two fabulous prizes of Poundland Gift Tokens. Just think with one of these special tokens you will be able to browse the awesome range of goods at your local Poundland and buy any item on sale in the entire store!

Elfamorphosis

and some other stuff.

We popped to the shops this afternoon, it was busy but not unbearable. On the way back to the car we walked through an underpass and around up into the carpark. Above the underpass is a grass verge, and a fence separates the carpark area from the verge.

It’s not a very intimidating fence. I think there might be three horizontal bits between the posts, and pretty big gaps in all areas. Despite this, there was a boy of around 9 busily occupied attempting to kick a hole in it. The middle plank was already broken and he was merrily kicking away at the top, urged on by a mate.

“Excuse me, could you stop that?” I shouted.

They looked rather confused, but did stop.

We walked around another bit of path, and then came back in view of the fence. A third boy had appeared and was having a go at it.

“I’ve just said stop that,” I called.

“Stop it? I’m trying to get through.”

“The fence is there to stop you getting through. Would you stop kicking it please?”

“I want to get through.”

“Stop it, or I’ll send someone back round.”

Hm, that didn’t come out quite how I meant. I’d meant I’d find a security guard and send him over, rather than sending the lads round

Anyway, they did all stop it, clamber through and run off, across the road. I found the whole thing really depressing. I can’t think that at that age I’d have been doing anything nearly as destructive, but had I been challenged at any point during wrong doing by an adult, I’d have been utterly terrified, and I certainly wouldn’t have answered them back.

Tim and I chatted about it on the way home. The problem, I think, is that society is fragmenting. There isn’t a cohesive anything any more - just lots of ppl. It took ages to get to the shopping centre by car (it’s about 3 miles away I think, maybe a little further). I don’t think we passed anyone on foot apart from a few ppl crossing the road from the tramway. We did pass a new school site - it looks like a cross between a warehouse and a low security prison - 6 foot chain link fences and massive floodlights. Depressing.

Enough already. Or rather too much. A couple of more cheering snippets about the children.

Big amused me the other night when I went up to check on her in bed. She was busy reading while listening to a story tape - talk about multitasking!

Small amused me last night. As I mentioned I took them into the office with me while I locked up. There was only one of my colleagues left there - Big hid behind me in case the scary man talked to her. Small walked up to him and started a conversation! Guess he isn’t shy then.

Big is gently sobbing herself to sleep right now. Today was the Christmas party at school, and then I picked them up early and took them back to my office so that I could do the lockup. That all went very well, but unusually, neither of them fell asleep in the car on the way home. Instead, Small kicked me all the way down the M1, which really cheered me up, and then once we got home neither of them wanted to go to bed.

Instead, they played with their Christmas presents as mentioned below. Except Small’s guitar broke - he wasn’t doing anything other than playing it and it just stopped working. He took it reasonably well, but I’m assuming we’re going to have to replace it. I’d rather get him something half decent, but I’m not sure what to get - any suggestions? I did wonder about a child guitar or uke as I understand they are being used in some schools as starter instruments - anyone know anything about that?

Then eventually, I tired of it all and chased them to bed. Things went from bad to worse, and to cut a long story short, Big ended up crying in bed. Made me feel great

I just love Christmas. Not. Well, to be fair, it isn’t Christmas I have a problem with. It’s the orgy of commercialism it’s become - if it was about spending time and care making or finding just the right little present for each person, I’d still be stressed because I’m monumentally disorganised ;), but at least I wouldn’t be feeling guilty about the planet being destroyed at the same time.

Bleargh.

Half a day to go, and then it’s well into the swing of things. I can do this.

Belatedly from Sunday (Christmas mk 1 at Jax’s sister’s house in Wales)

Not only did I get a red nose which flashes….

… I got a guitar…

and a light sabre too…

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ht cottontimer

That did amuse me. Much needed after a day that seemed to start well (good drive to the school) took a nose dive (took an hour to travel 5 miles to work from the school), got complicated (colleague still off sick) and stayed hectic (learnt lots of new skills, and have stuff to finish off this evening).

Small is shattered - I think some time off is going to come at just the right time for him. It’s their Christmas party tomorrow, and then I’m going to pick them up and take them to the office for an hour as I’ve to lock up and I can’t be in two places at once (picking them up and locking up both at 6pm). I think Big is ready for a break as well - she burst into tears tonight when she realised Tim hadn’t been out to buy a new car seat for Small (he’s using her trio, she’s on the booster).

1 1/2 days to the weekend. What are my chances of finishing that shawl (yes, still unfinished) and knocking out a cardigan, a hat and some bits and pieces before then?

Ooh, and I nearly forgot to mention. Since signing up to myspace to get back in touch with an old school friend, I’ve also managed to locate an old uni friend through there. Just in case he pops by the blog, hi Paul!

Am finding work a touch stressful - as I mentioned yesterday we are very rapidly running out of bodies on the ground, and today was even worse than planned as someone rang in sick. So it’s been all hands on deck, and as soon as that happens, my work rate slows even further as I’m perpetually fire fighting rather than getting shot of the causes, and my stress level goes up accordingly.

Ah well. Not long til the weekend

And the journey home was a bit slow - car broken down under an underpass, and slow bits on the M1 where they were scraping other cars off the road Still, at least Tim got my car fixed today, so I can drive that tomorrow. His does have good points (like heated front windscreen) but I miss my little fiesta, and I get a sore neck driving his.

So that’s the down points - in plus points I made it to the post office to get my last parcel in the post on time, which pleased me. I’ve pretty much given up on cards (if you were hoping for one, sorry, it ain’t coming) which means that now I’m into the home stretch with preparations.

For the political stuff, don’t know how many of you remember me linking to a compass survey about nuclear weapons. I got a follow up email from them today, saying that the defense secretary has written an article for the site. It make interesting, if rather depressing, reading. Was quite interested to see a comment from our exMP on the thread. Oh, and we’ve been invited to the current MP’s for Christmas drinks

on my worst enemy.

Monday morning, and I finished sorting out a box of stuff from under the table before heading off to work. And then coming back inside to wake up Tim and whinge as my car wouldn’t start All that happened when I turned the key was a plaintive whirring noise, not good.

So I took Tim’s car and abandoned mine in the drive, and drove through the fog over the hills. It was very foggy - so foggy that at times it felt like I was the only person in a very small world. Probably having Marillion’s Season’s End: Remastered playing throughout added to the feeling

To work, for another hectic day. Team numbers are dropping off steadily now as ppl take their holidays before the end of the year. It’s making for a quiet building, but the work is piling up steadily on my desk atm. Ah well, keeps me out of mischief. Oh, and having my mobile phone pass out on me for the day just added to the thrill. Dunno what that was about - it came back on about half an hour before I headed for home.

Turns out the car just needs a new battery, so Tim is sorting that out tomorrow, while I take the kids to school. He says they’ve had a day of three R’s, reading, ‘riting and recorder Have asked that he blogs on home topics a little more often - it would be nice to be able to read what’s going on.

Now I must go get some food. Made the mistake of standing on the scales at my sister’s yesterday and I’m actually considering giving up eating for a week or so How did I manage to put on so much weight without noticing? Well, I did notice at the time, but I thought there was a good reason for it. Now how do I get it to go away???

Grumph. Must go and run up and down the stairs for a while.

BBC condemns Clarkson ‘gay’ jibe

Sorry but I think this is ridiculous. Complaining about Jeremy Clarkson’s derogatory use of a term for homosexual people is ludricous, or even ludicrous.

It is not Jeremy Clarkson’s remarks that are offensive, it is Jeremy Clarkson. All of him and everything about him. I know a lot of people find him entertaining and funny, Jax loathes him, I find him merely annoying and would be quite happy if the BBC dispensed with his services, let’s face it Top Gear is pretty pointless now, just a bunch of twonks racing about in fast cars 99.9999% of the population cannot afford and only 1% will buy.

The 25 Funniest Analogies (Collected by High School English Teachers)