The life and times of me!

SantaThing!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:58:00 +0000

I have been a LibraryThing member for ages. If you don't know what LibraryThing is, it's a place where you can catalogue your personal book collection and see what other people have (appeals to the nosy in me as well as the librarian!)

Two years ago the fabulous LibraryThing people started SantaThing and I joined in the first time around and got an intriguing book. The second time around I was a bit nervous of what I might get that time because I wasn't all that keen on the book that I had (which was The Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin - a distinctly acquired taste I think!) even though it was quite interesting and I did enjoy it, but I would not choose to read it again if that makes any sense at all. This year, I thought that I would get stuck in even though I am bit late to the party!!

So late in fact that the deadline for SantaThing is today at 4pm EST which actually means 9pm my time, so if you are British you have plenty of time to go and put your name down for SantaThing!! Simply put, you need to be a member of LibraryThing which is free up to a certain point and then you need to plunk down $25 (£15) to put your name in the hat and then once the names have been distributed (no addresses given out) you can have fun choosing the right book for this other person that you are likely to never ever meet!! And of course you get to have fun opening a suprise parcel - only a surprise in that you won't know what the book is!!

You know you want to do it!! ;-)

Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:40:00 +0000

It would appear that today is Thanksgiving over in the States! (As if I could possibly have failed to realise it after reading all those blogs giving thanks or telling us what they are going to eat!) Anyway it is, of course, an apppropriate time to say thanks.....

for antibiotics!! I went to the dentist the other day and it turns out that the newly filled tooth is fine, but I have developed an infection in the injection site!! (the trouble is that mouths are generally not very clean places) So now I am on two lots of antibiotics and two lots of painkillers - I must surely rattle!! Still, I am thankful to whomever invented antibiotics as I will now be on the mend.
for subtitles as it means that I can watch the television without having to guess what's going on (I really don't like it when a programme doesn't have subtitles as I do feel quite unable to watch it)
for the new friends that I have made on my recent Alpha course!
for my job that allows me to buy my craft things!!
for my family - I love you all so much!!

What are you thankful for?

Lazy Days

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:11:00 +0000

This Sunday has been a particularly lazy one! While the tooth appears to be getting better (she says tentatively), I am still feeling all irritable and so have spent today in my pajamas and dressing gown!! Not the most productive of Sundays although I did manage to clean up the cat's litter tray (it needed it!)

Sometimes though, a day a in pajamas is just what is needed - no obligations, jobs, visitors or anything. Anything of importance can go hang, time is better spent on the sofa in front of the telly with the cat on the lap and the laptop precariously balanced on the knees! I have spent the day rummaging blogs, chatting with Mum on facebook (and beating Mum at scrabble - but only just!); not to mention making endless cups of tea with the ocassional pill to keep the pain away - Nur0fen seems to work best, but I can only take one more today so I am saving that for just before I go to bed.

So, I refuse to feel any guilt for having an idle day as sometimes we all need one!

Toothy update!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:27:00 +0000

Well, it has been a couple of days since I went to the instrument of torture otherwise known as the dental chair!

Naturally it wasn't an entirely pleasant experience, but I had enough anaesthetic to numb the jaw right the way up to the ear - it is quite a weird feeling to have a hearing aid in a numb ear! The dentist did her best to clear out the decay and she said that she would put some medication in the tooth before filling it up.

Unfortunately the pain has not yet gone away - if anything - I would say that it has gotten worse! I suppose I was somewhat naive in thinking that as soon as the anaesthetic had worn off I would be entirely painfree. But on thinking about it, it makes sense that the nerve would be tender and sore after the drilling and poking around!!

In addition to which, the dentist said that the decay was rather close the nerve and so the nerve itself may be damaged and so if the tooth is still ultra sensitive (aka painful!) in about a months time then I may need a root canal. So I am really rather hoping that this pain is just a result of the "surgery" and not anything else. In any case, I am popping paracet@mol and ibupr0fen (safely of course!) and it seems to take the edge off. (I hate those funny symbols in the medical words but I have already had a spammer and I think that this is one way to prevent them from finding us!)

Stupid Tooth!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:46:00 +0000

For about a week now I have had a painful tooth and it is bugging the heck out of me!! Actually, I should be honest and say that it is nothing like a proper toothache as I understand that those are quite utterly unbearable. Nevertheless, this tooth is achey enough to be a real nuisance and for once I am actually looking forward to the visit to the dentist on Wednesday cos then that means the pain will go away!!

I do wonder how on earth people managed without dentists all those years ago!!? Yes someone would have eventually volunteered to extract the troublesome teeth, but the sufferers must have put up with a great deal of pain that just could not be managed effectively. That really does boggle the mind, especially when my pain isn't really that bad - just a constant irritation that doesn't go away unless I manage to successful distract myself (or medicate!!)

So, I just sit here and feel very sorry for myself!!! Tonight though, I managed to distract myself by going to the first night of a local craft club - read more about that over at my other blog!

Birthdays!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:05:00 +0000

No matter how old you get, birthdays are always good fun!! I certainly had good fun this weekend as I turned *cough* years old!

It was a weekend of fun and laughter as we walked through the woods, played bananagrams, tickled the kids, ate the cake I made – yes, I had to make my own birthday cake!! But it was very nice even if I say so myself.

If there was one moment that really revealed what year it was it was this one…

…yes that’s four laptops and one iphone you can see there! (even if you can only just about see my laptop!) In fact, it got rather funny at one point when Mum, Matt and I were messaging each other to say go and make a pot of tea!! We eventually all jumped up when one of us agreed to make the tea, the other to clear the coffee table and the other to dig out the bananagrams! A far cry from the old family birthday photos of cheesy grins and dorky jumpers!! ;-)

Life

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:17:00 +0000

Just what is it about life that gets in the way of things!!! I wasn't blogging because I wasn't doing very much and now I am not blogging because I am now doing too much and cannot find the time to sit down and compose a few lines or two!! (of course I am never too busy to do a bit of blog hopping or rummaging around facebook though ;-) )

Anyway, after a busy week I am now at my parents house where I am celebrating another birthday (am 21 again of course!).

Yesterday was great cos I had the day off work and so had coffee with an old school friend that I hadn't seen for years and then in the evening I went to the pub with another friend that I have known since I was about six but we just don't get to see each other very often. It was so nice to catch up on the news and just generally chit chat!!

Will get back to blogging as soon as the weekend is over cos I will be busy talking to family and playing with my nephew and niece!! Have a good weekend everybody!

Crafty Evening!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:15:00 +0000

The end of this busy week saw me visit a new card making friend at her Stampin’ Up Open House. If you have no idea what I am talking about then you need to know that Stampin’ Up is a craft company that works through individual seller (like Avon or Tupperware) to sell stamps, paper, inks and all manner of wonderful things. Anyway I had a great time at Hayley’s place and her blog is over here at All Things Pink and Fluffy.

Hayley is a Stampin’ Up demonstrator that has come back to the fold after a little break and so to get started again she had an open house where you could come along and meet some like-minded crafty people, make some cards, have a cuppa tea and just enjoy a good old natter with friendly people!

I ended up making these three cards…

I think that the first one below is my favourite, it is a z fold card and I just love that wintry looking Church on the front – you probably can’t see, but there are little bits of glitter strategically dotted about the place! (you need to wiggle the card a bit to see that as the glitter catches the light, but you can't exactly do that online can you!!?)

This red wreath was the first one I made tonight and I rather like how it has turned out – a clean and simple sort of card that can be made fairly quickly.

The last one looks a bit flat, but what you really can’t see in the picture is that the two green baubles are popped up on foam stickies, so they stick out from the rest of the card.

What this one probably needs is a bow or two on the tops of some of the baubles – the cards that Hayley showed us did have bows but I didn’t fancy putting a bow on at the time.

Although they are a bit expensive, the more I use the Stampin’ up stuff the more I love them – I just need to play a bit more! Anyway, thanks for a great evening Hayley, I look forward to many more!! (and if you guys want to see more of my hand made cards, you can see them on my card making blog!!)

Another Pub!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:21:00 +0000

Tonight was another evening spent at the pub!! ;-)

I had a great evening with a couple of friends from the sign language class, however, we had hoped that more from the class would join us, but clearly people had things to do or couldn't find babysitters or had come down with a lurgy of some sort!

Still, it was fun with just the three of us - we certainly weren't short of conversation and stayed two hours! I was actually quite surprised at how busy the pub was, but then isn't Thursday the new Friday - when people go out on Thursday cos they want to stay home on Friday because the pubs are all too busy on Fridays? ha ha!

Anyway - I have to say that I am not very used to being out nearly every night of the week - it takes stamina!!! So, I am off to bed now and hope that I can find something rather more interesting to say tomorrow!

The Five Bells…

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:44:00 +0000

….is the name of the pub I went to tonight. I am sorry to say that there are very few pubs in my village that I have been to, in fact I think that tonight was the first time that I’d been to a pub actually in the village.

I suppose I just don’t want to go to the pub alone as that doesn’t feel right, so when a new friend (from the Alpha course) suggested that we go for a drink I thought why not!?

It’s a lovely pub with cosy rooms, a roaring fire and, if you’re quick enough, a set of soft squishy armchairs – we spent two hours sat on these armchairs nattering away attempting to put the world to rights. Even if it was a Monday night, it was great to go out and just have a good old chinwag – I must do it more often!

I certainly felt very welcome in the pub, which doesn’t always happen as the atmosphere isn’t always right, but this felt like a typical village pub where all the locals go to and there are no “unsavoury elements”. I shall certainly go back again – if only I could drink cider without dashing to the loo every half hour!! ;-)

Quiet

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:09:00 +0000

Well, I have certainly been quiet on this old blog this week!! All I can say is that I have been busy and time certainly flies when you’re having fun!

So what have I been doing? Well, on checking my diary it doesn’t seem as though I have done all that much actually, but somehow it certainly feels as though I have been busy!! ;-)

In any case what stands out is that I managed not to embarrass myself at sign language class like I did last week when I failed to get full marks on the brief lipreading exercise!! But then again that proved to the hearing folks in the group that lipreading is difficult even for those that have been doing it all their lives. (it was still embarrassing!! ha ha!)

Saturday evening also stands out as Mum and her friend Debbie popped along from a conference nearby to have dinner with me and help me fix my boiler!!! Yes, that’s right – they had to sing for their supper! As it turns out it looks as though I may have a pressure leak in the system somewhere so I need to call a plumber this week.

This coming week looks like another busy one where I am somehow going to the pub twice!! (most unusual for me) On Monday I am off to a pub with two friends that I have met at the local Alpha course, on Thursday I am off to another pub with my fellow sign language students as it is half term so there is no class but we fancied going out for a drink and maybe even practice a few signs!! (if you see a bunch of crazy people signing “run rabbit run” in your local….that’s us!)

Show and Tell

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:44:00 +0000

It has been a while since I took part in one of the Stirrup Queen’s Show and Tells, but yesterday I received something in the post that is absolutely perfect for Show and Tell! If you haven’t come across this before, it’s essentially show and tell for the modern world – just take photos and blog about it!!

Anyway, this gorgeous purple wrap-scarf-thingie was handmade for me by the fabulous Katie who blogs at View from the Hill. It was made for me as part of this pay it forward scheme I have involved myself in. (I did take more photos but they didn’t come out that well.)

Which reminds me, I really had better get on and finish what I have chosen to do for this pay it forward – after all, I only have until the end of the year to finish it!! I don’t doubt that I will finish it, but it might get a bit close to the wire as I seem to have a lot going on at the moment, but hey, it’s not over until it’s over!!

In any case, thank you ever so much Katie for sending me this beautiful lacy wrap, I look forward to wearing it and being the envy of everybody I meet! ;-)

Questions

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:29:00 +0000

I’ve had a few questions asked in my blog comments lately and I never know whether to answer them in the comments or email the commentators back. So, I have decided to gather some of them and answer them here…..

1) Jelly on The Cuteness of Curiosity asked if I knew what kind of Hearing Dog I’d get. The short answer is no. There are many different kind of dogs chosen for Hearing Dogs – it’s not like Guide Dogs for the Blind where the dog has to be big enough to push/lead a person around. Hearing Dogs come in all shapes and sizes and given that my house (and garden) is relatively small, I think that a small-to-medium dog would be just about right for me. I definitely don’t want a dog that is too small – it’s still got to be dog sized!! ;-) But other than that I would be very happy to have any kind of waggy-tailed dog!

2) Jelly also asked whether or not I have someone to practice my sign language with. Again, the short answer to that is no. But I do try to practice what little I have learnt already – I just wonder what other drivers must think of me when they see this odd looking woman practice her signs for colours at the traffic lights!! Hmm…..hands free mobile calling just wouldn’t work for signers would it??!! It would most definitely be hands free driving – ha ha!

3) Literary Feline of Musings of a Bookish Kitty asked me what books I bought over the weekend. Well, as I said before, it was too good a deal to pass up - three books for the price of two. So good that I got four! (yes I know that doesn’t make sense – Mum bought the other two – making six in total.) So…down to the nitty gritty, I bought….

Although that is not a strictly accurate representation!! The four that I bought at the sale were The Lost Book of Salem, Drood, The Book of Unholy Mischief, and another one not pictured which is Covet by J.R. Ward. The other three books pictured came from different sources – Spies and the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency came from a charity shop on Sunday – perfect for my reading group!! The American Future I bought on Amazon along with The Learning Portfolio (not pictured). While I am not as bad as Alice who has given herself a book buying ban, I have not bought this many books in so short a space of time for quite a while! I certainly am going to enjoy reading all of them! (oh – the Amazon book parcel also included Nora Roberts’ latest book – Black Hills – which has already been devoured!)

Sunday Snippets

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:11:00 +0000

Well, I couldn’t exactly say “Sunday Sundries” could I? I think that would have sound rather silly! Anyway, on to the snippets…

After I’d tidied the house to spick and span status, I thought that I should make good use of the opportunity and invited Mum to come up for the weekend! Yesterday we spent in Bath once I’d gotten my hair cut and we had a good time – we had dinner in Sally Lunn’s (a super little cafe that I thought was called Aunt Betty’s or something similar!!). We also found one of those three bo0ks for the price of four deals where I usually have trouble finding three books that I want but actually managed to find four this time around!! (So Mum bought two books as well which worked out as a good deal for the both of us)
I managed to embarrass myself at my first sign language class on Thursday. The tutor was going round the circle and asking us to sign each letter of the alphabet, i,e A…B…C…D….etc only when he went round the circle at TUVWXYZ I got quite tangled up and simply could not, for the life of me, remember what letter came after V and managed to sign the wrong thing twice!!! It was a good ice breaker even if I did look a bit silly – I should clarify that I DO actually know my ABCs!!
Thursday was quite a busy day as I also went back to university for my second year of the part time Masters. The campus was just heaving with new students – it really was quite crowded and I had a few fond thoughts about my first time at university all those years ago!! I also got my last assignment and portfolio back and so I could read the comments that the tutor put on the portfolio that I only just managed pass. Clearly I have a lot to learn about extending reflective learning and actually taking it forwards rather than just reflecting. Fortunately I also had the boost of some excellent comments on the assignment that I’d handed in months ago – let me quote for you (cos I am rather proud of this one!) “a first class assignment with the investigation being explained in a clear and logical manner”. Which is lovely to get and shows that I can actually do this Masters!!
Well, this was less a post full of snippets but rather a post full of rather long paragraphs!! ;-) Still sometimes none of it is quite long enough for a full post and I just want to say something rather than nothing!

Yesterday…

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:05:00 +0000

…the house was as tidy as I could make it while still living in it. (by that I mean that there is quilting stuff all over the dining table and a pile of clothes on the chair in the bedroom, not to mention all the craft stuff in the littlest bedroom!)

All this unusual tidiness is because I was getting a visit from Julie from the Hearing Dogs for Deaf People charity. I have mentioned them before – when I was first thinking about it, and when I went to visit them at The Grange.

Anyway – this visit was the next stage of the application process where someone, like Julie, comes to visit me and have a rather long chat about me and my life! She arrived about 10:30am and left round about 1pm and we chatted about pretty much everything possible when it comes to Hearing Dogs.

She was ever so friendly and put me at ease while we talked – she took plenty of notes!! I can’t actually remember every little snippet of conversation but we covered things like what kind of dog I was hoping for, where I would take it for walks, did I travel on public transport, the fact that I’d have to pay for pet insurance (fair enough), and that Phoebe-cat might have trouble with the dog at first!! ;-)

The funniest thing to my mind though was that before she left she drew a little plan of the house and even went as far as to ask me what side of the bed I usually slept on!! Clearly this makes a difference when the dog is trained to jump on the bed or put a paw up to ~~get~~ drag me out of bed. (by the way – it is that time of year again when I have three different alarm systems going – the shake awake, the lumie, and a timer on the bedside light – not to mention the hungry cat – I really really don’t like dark mornings!! Or actually I like them too much!! tee hee!)

In any case, this is still just the beginning of the whole process! The next stage is for me to go to The Grange for an overnight visit, probably in the New Year sometime, so that they can assess how I am with dogs in general (also this allows them to see how determined to have a dog people are – I mean – you have to be in order to jump through all those hoops, and besides some people may not realise just how involved having a dog is and so this the time to reassess and change your mind perhaps). Then…there is a visit at work to get my managers on board and to see where the dog would be working – so it is no short and easy process!

Reading Group

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:57:00 +0000

Tonight I attended the first gathering of a new reading group that has been set up in the local public library. If I ever had any idea that reading was generally not a male hobby…I had it confirmed this evening – all fourteen people were female. That’s right – not one man – perhaps they all thought that we’d be blue stocking snobs!

Oh well – we spent an hour and a half talking about how we wanted this group to be organised and telling everybody about our favourite books/authors. Before the evening we were all told to bring a copy of our favourite book so that we could at least tell everybody about it.

All day I’d been thinking about what book to bring – should I be pretentious and bring something like The Pickwick Papers, should be low brow and bring Harry Potter, should I aim for the middle ground and bring a book by Bryce Courtenay? (all of which I have enjoyed reading!!) In the end I decided to go with honesty and bring one of my Nora Roberts books – just because they are romances doesn’t mean that I can’t tell everybody that they are my favourite books despite some people sneering at them.

And…..someone else at the group had also brought along one of her Nora books!!!! Vindicated!!!!!

Anyway, over the next few months we are going to be reading the following….Small Island by Levy; Spies by Frayn; To kill a mockingbird by Lee; The Island by Hislop; and we start off with the Number One Ladies Detective Agency by McCall. I have not read any of those so I am looking forward to this.

Saturday Sundries

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:40:00 +0000

And it’s another post full of nothing!

One of the people at work compiles the regional monthly newsletter and one of the pieces this week was submitted by someone calling themselves a “trainee library”!! Clearly she didn’t mean to say quite that, but I wonder what a trainee library would look like – would it only have little books?!
Did you know that today is World Card Making Day!!? No, I didn’t know that too, but then I suppose with all the other “days” out there, I am not surprised that there is a card making one too – so I have been making a few cards today – need to get ready for Christmas. (That said – I simply cannot believe that the shops are stocking their Christmas merchandise already – I am not looking at it on principle!)
I collected the new hoover on Tuesday and gave it a spin that same evening – it’s a pretty strong hoover!! I would certainly recommend the Miele Cat and Dog if you have a pet the sheds hairs all over the blooming place! I had to change the first bag pretty quickly cos my last hoover just doesn’t pick up all the finer hairs and when I did I thought that I had broken the hoover already!! I had to pull the bag out with a bit of a tug and the mechanism that holds it in also came out!! You can probably guess that I panicked a bit until I realised that it was meant to do that so it doesn’t get broken when pulling the full bag out!
This coming week is going to be interesting – on Monday evening I am joining a new book club at the local library, I have never been to one before so I hope it will be fun! Wednesday I have my interview with the Hearing Dogs for Deaf People – it’s going to be a long day starting at 10:30am and going on for as long as necessary – apparently it can take quite a few hours! Thursday I am back at university to start the second year of my part time Masters, Thursday evening I am off to a local college to relearn sign language and I am hoping that I can pick it all up again!

October

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:16:00 +0000

Well.....I can no longer deny that it is Autumn. Yes, it's the first of October today and yet; while it is rather damp and gloomy out there I am still wearing my sandals and am hanging on to summer for as long as possible and wringing every ounce of warmth from the sun as I possibly can.

Still, I think that Autumn is one of my favourite seasons - the air changes, the leaves turn red, the mist in the morning looks enchanting. If only the nights didn't get darker, if only the temperature didn't drop, or if only the spiders didn't start emerging (yesterday I found one in a shoe that I hadn't worn for a few months!!), along with those crane flies that dance around the room dangling their legs in your face!!

Nevertheless, I still like Autumn and the lingering warmth that makes for some excellent walks (although I really should actually GO on a walk or two!!). I like it when it gets noticeably colder and makes you want to snuggle under the duvet and really tuck yourself in to avoid that cold air, I like it when I can get the candles out as it just doesn't seem right to burn candles in the summer, I like it when I put on a jumper that I haven't worn since March.

Simply...despite my occasional whinges, I like Autumn!

Gah!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:16:00 +0000

I've just realised that my blogger profile wasn't showing my blogs!!

That will teach me NOT to mess around with my settings in an attempt to be clever!!

So...I apologise to everyone that tried to track me back through my comments in the last week or two!!

Ladders and Dads….

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:29:00 +0000

….don’t always go together!! Dad very kindly agreed to come and paint my upstairs window frames this weekend just gone (he’d painted the downstairs ones sometime in the summer).

Firstly we had to buy a ladder and Dad said that he would do that on Friday morning while I was at work. However….I had a missed call from him round about 10:30am and so I got worried that he’d fallen off the ladder or something. So, I frantically got a colleague to call him back only to find that he wasn’t able to buy the ladder because he’d put the wrong pin number into the card reader thingie! So, I went haring off to the DIY store and paid for the ladder, so I am now the proud owner of a very long ladder.

Anyway – I had not realised it, but Dad is not very good with heights (!) and yet he still managed to do three of the window sets. The fourth one he just could not do because the angle of the ladder was different due to it having to reach the window over the front door overhang and that really gave him the heebie-jeebies.

And that meant this….

Yes, that’s me up the ladder painting my window frames so that they are ready for the winter!

I wasn’t certain that I’d be able to do this, which is why I called on my extremely helpful Dad!! (Thanks Dad!!) But now that I have done one window I know that I can do it again if I need to; in addition to which, the next time the guttering goes funny, I will be able to get my ladder out and shimmy up for a look!

Saturday Sundries

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:41:00 +0000

I don’t seem to have a single topic or thought today so I think that “sundries” will suit this post right down to the ground.

How difficult can it be to find the hoover you need!!? I have been looking for a Miele Cat and Dog that can cope with all the hair the cat seems to shed! First I spend ages trying to decide which hoover is best (there is such a thing as too much research!) and then I can’t find it. But – it has now been ordered from the little independent shop in the high street.
I am always surprised by those people that manage to talk without moving their lips!! I attended the first evening of an Alpha group on Wednesday and really struggled to lipread one of the participants – oh well – I shall have to see if he attends next week and whether I may get better at lipreading him or not. (I can see why some deaf folk have lipspeakers!)
Dad really really doesn’t like to hear his one and only daughter swear!! ;-) It wasn’t even what you’d call properly blasphemous – it was just a “bo11ocks"!” cos I’d made a mistake with the shoe rack that was I was building. But you should have seen the glare he gave me!!! (tee hee!)
It’s definitely getting colder now – I had to go put a jumper on earlier today. It looks as though I will have to start wearing proper shoes soon and I just know that wearing socks/tights is going to feel very very strange!

And I think that that is enough for now – if I can maintain the habit of semi-regular blogging then I should be able to keep going!!

Irked!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:11:00 +0000

You see this book?

It’s the book that Mum and I have been waiting for for ages and ages (no exaggeration I promise!). It’s the next instalment in the saga of Claire and Jamie written by the fabulous Diana Gabaldon.

It was published today. So why does that irk me….because it was published today in the United States, but is not published here until January 2010. At least it’s not January 2011 I suppose, but still – that is truly rather irksome.

Why on earth do publishers decide to publish in different countries at different times? What could they possibly gain from it? Oh well, I suppose it will have to be an exercise in patience unless I can find a generous American friend - ha ha!

Cycling holiday

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:30:00 +0000

A little while ago Mum and I went on a cycling holiday around Suffolk. We chose Suffolk because it is a relatively flat county and as we are not expert cyclists a flat place is what we wanted!!

It’s not completely flat, there were enough hills to make our thighs groan and us having to get off the bike and walk up. We drove to Needham Market where we left the car for the week as we cycled from B&B to B&B in a circular route back to Needham Market. Of course, this meant having to carry our luggage with us, but we packed as little as possible and let the bikes take the strain!

Seeing as we have had a rather wet summer, it was a lovely surprise to get a week of hot sunshine with only a smidgen of rain. We cycled from place to place enjoying the views and checking the map as frequently as possible!! (we never did have to turn back on ourselves after making a mistake!)

Dad even surprised us one day by driving the few hours from home to join us for a days cycling, which was great – not just for the pleasure of his company but also because it meant that we could get a photograph of the two of us cycling down the road!!

All in all it was a lovely holiday – we visited Aldeburgh (the carnival was on!), Orford Castle, Lavenham and Framlingham Castle.

and saw many pretty buildings along the way. We mainly stuck to the small roads and managed to avoid getting run over!! We did have one or two near spills though – particularly as we cycled down a few byways that had mostly sand for a surface. This meant that the back wheels had a tendency to slip and slide – neither of us quite went all the way over but it came very close indeed!!!

Occasionally we ended up collapsed in a little heap as you can see. We did tend to revive after a good nights sleep and a hearty breakfast!

Filing

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:39:00 +0000

I got thinking about paperwork and managing the mounds of paper that we all seem to collect from every part of our life when I read the latest post at Magneto Bold Too.

Even though it's just me and the cat at home it sometimes feels as though paper just accumulates even when I don't give it permission to do so (and I dread to think how much more paper would pile up if there was a whole family living here!) Despite having signed up for a "no junk mail" thing at the Royal Mail, I still get paper I don't want shoved through my door. I've tried cutting down as much as possible by reading bank statements online or paying for most of my bills through direct debit.

However, my biggest issue with the paper that I do collect is the fact that I don't deal with it properly when it comes in to the house. Like many people I have a recycling box and so this is naturally the most appropriate place for my oodles of paper! Do I put it in there though? No is the short answer because what I do when I come in from work is feed the cat and that takes place in the kitchen....which means that all my paper ends up on the kitchen surfaces until I get fed up with it and sort it out!!

The silly thing is that most of it could be dealt with there and then, but once I've put it down I tend to forget about it until it gets in the way! So, it is all about changing the habits of a lifetime and keeping on top of the paper that I pick up from here there and everywhere!! I have to physically remind myself to deal with the paper there and then - I am sure that it would help to have the recycling bin in the kitchen, but there is just no room in the kitchen for anything else. (it does have the shredder in it though!) and so the recycling bin is in the cupboard under the stairs which is not ideal but it is easy to get to.

The other thing that helps with keeping paper is not giving yourself the opportunity to collect it all!! I have a two drawer filing cabinet that up until last weekend was just chock full of paper both new and old. I decided to put it to better use by storing my craft paper as that was piling up too!! ;-) So, I ruthlessly boiled the two drawer cabinet's worth of paper right down to a small concertina folder - because the folder can't hold that much I just cannot keep the levels of paper that I used to. I mean, for goodness sake, I found paperwork relating to my first flatshare which was about 13-15 years ago!!!

Unfortunately it is harder to crack the habit of leaving paper in the kitchen, perhaps I do need to get a small basket where I can just chuck paper and then check that on a weekly basis or something. Anything that is really important like the visa bill that arrived this week along with the car tax demand (!) tends to get stuck to the fridge so that it is in my face every time I get some milk for a cup of tea!! But ultimately I need to be aware of simply handling it all better in the first place - crack that and I've cracked it all.

What do YOU do to keep on top of your paper mountain!?

Study update!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:59:00 +0000

I have just realised that my first (possibly only!) post about my study for a Masters was written exactly one year ago today!! Before I even realised the serendipity of today I had decided to tell you about my progress so far as I couldn't think of anything else to blog about - but seeing as I need to work on this blog I thought that I had better write about SOMETHING!!

Anyway....I had two bits of good news the other week; the first, and most important really, was that my employers had agreed to fund my second year of this part time course - clearly they're hoping that by my studying for a course entitled MSc Leadership and Management in Health and Social Care they will end up with a better manager than the one they currently have to put up with!!

The second bit of good news was the information that I had actually passed my first year of study!! It really was quite a relief because of of the four modules that we had taken we still didn't know the results of the last two. In fact, it was becoming rather a long time in between handing in the third assignment and finding out the results - some of my fellow students were getting a bit noisy about having to wait so long!!

The bigger relief though, was the fact that I had actually passed the portfolio part of the course where we had to do a lot of reflective study and I knew that there was a good chance that I might have to re-do the portfolio because I hadn't given it the attention that it deserved. :-( So, scraping by with a 56% result for that particular assignment meant that I was a very happy bunny, even if I didn't deserve it!! (perhaps I should point out that my marks for the other three modules were somewhat better than that!!!)

The second year starts on the 8th October when we all attend the first workshop of the portfolio element of this year - so I am going to have to much better on that this time around!! At least this time I will have a much better idea of what is involved and how I should prepare the portfolio - but I tell you - it really was agony waiting for the results when I knew that I had quite likely failed! However, I know exactly what my problem is. The problem is that I tend to leave things until the last moment and a reflective portfolio just cannot be dealt with that way as it involves having to follow an issue from start to finish and examining each bit for how you approached it, acted on it, moved on from it.

Oh well - like I said - two pieces of good news - funding and a pass!!! That will do for me!