the blog o moosh

Whatever you do, avoid Hangar Lane

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 15:58:00 +0000

My blog ... moved!

You can now read the blog o moosh here.

Feed readers, adjust your sets to this.

It looks a bit rubbish right now, but pretty soon it will be greater than you or even I care to imagine. Really, it will.

No, really.

It's not really Birkenstock weather.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:43:00 +0000

It's official - my employers are morons. They've taken away for no good reason half the software I need to do my job and with it my will to go on. So I am not amused. My computer died again today for the umpteenth time, so once again, I have lost all my RSS feeds, favourites, log ins ... it's almost a 6 monthly occurence. So even tho I just got my blogging mojo back, I will most likely go quiet again as I work for dullards.

Over and out for now!

I can't believe I'm saying this but I miss school sooooo much.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:24:00 +0000

This is an appeal to you all. Please click here and sign a very important petition in support of a cause that is close to all of our hearts.

Yes, that's right - bring back the Crystal Maze! I LOVE this show. It's currently being rerun on Challenge at 6pm weekdays, so Lee and I have been racing home to watch it, shouting "get the crystal!" and "just leave him in there, he's a fanny!" at regular intervals.

For the uninitiated, here are some links to more info on the show:

About the show
Games on the show
Supposedly the only crystal maze in existence today! Let's go!

Richard O'Brien was by far the better presenter, in my opinion. Tune in to Challenge to have a look today!

Daniel's having a baby. I mean his wife is. He's not pregnant.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:13:00 +0000

Things are heating up to tomorrow's grand opening. It's exciting and nerve wracking at the same time.

Pop in and say hello if you're in the area! We'd love you to come and have some free cake and steady our nerves!

Ever since they introduced the wheeley bins we've got loads of mice.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:52:00 +0000

The economies of hatred

Pink Floyd

RSS feeds that tell you there is a new post when there isn't

Paedophiles

Lollipop people, especially the ones who let adults with no children accompanying them cross mere feet away from a pedestrian fucking crossing

the word trinket

nicholas lyndhurst

the term "touch base"

celery

That is all for now.

I think Woolies do duvet covers.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:43:00 +0000

Ok. I'm thinking of a number. Bzzzzzzz! I am telepathically transferring the number into your mind. Bzzzz!

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:37:00 +0000

Where did the time go? I've been so busy I've not had a moment to blog. So much has been happening!

Firstly - the flat. There has been loads of interest and viewers pretty much every night. However, if you'd care to cast your eyes leftwards to the photo, you'll see a new addition to our living room - the hole.

Lee sadly had an accident (not that sort) in the loft and descended through the ceiling to the living room below. Thankfully, he was relatively unscathed - a few bruises, a nasty cut on the hand (I had to cut the skin off it, it was hid) and a liberal coating of fibre glass - which is the main thing. But it does rather set back our plans. Can't be helped tho.

We had also been busy crafting our collective asses off for the Miso Funky market in Edinburgh on Saturday - it was a great day out, as always, but the weather was ridiculous. It was like the middle of December, rather than June - wet, windy, cold ... and that was outside, not even in the Caves! As a result, customers were rather thin on the ground, but the ones that did make the journey got into the spirit of it and parted with their cold wet cash, so all was not lost!

There was also the now traditional trip to Monster Mash to dissect the day, get mildly drunk on margaritas and eat our own body weight in stodge - my favourite part of the day! I had steak pie and it was to die for.

The next thing we are working towards is the very exciting grand opening of the Miso Funky SHOP! Yes, a shop! We are going to be trialling a unit at the Barras this weekend, so please spread the word and come along - there will be free cake and everything!

More news as it happens, people - new photos are on flickr.

I'm not gonna talk about it anymore because you don't listen and it only makes things worse.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 09:39:00 +0000

We're officially for sale!

And less than hour later, we have 2 enquiries. So exciting!

It's got those pop-pop studs instead of proper buttons.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 15:21:00 +0000

A quick round up on some new sites I have been reading.

www.tokyojazzpanda.co.uk

Please buy me things from here!

Discovered this today quite by accident and spent the best part of an hour with mar-c on msn going WOW at most of the things for sale! It is a real treasure trove of kawaii things and it is probably just as well I am so skint or I would have happily bought one of just about everything!

Note to friends - don't buy anything from here, because all my birthday and christmas gifts to you will be coming from here from now on!

A crafting bridge too far ...

Personally, I am finding this just a step across the line. Each to their own and all that, but this gives me the dry boak.

Rantings of a mad woman?

I just find this blog hilarious. I like blogs that are written in the manner that someone speaks and this person is just clearly deranged.

Why do they have escalators if they never work?

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:59:00 +0000

We are selling our flat! I think I mentioned it before, but it's time for a bigger place for us.

So, here is my shameless plug for our pad!

We have a one bedroomed flat in Maryhill. The flat is about 20 years old and is in a quiet cul-de-sac. In the surrounding area, the tenements are being demolished to make way for new private housing (so the story goes).

A new leisure centre is being built a short walk away at the site of Maryhill Burgh Halls so it's in a great location. There are also excellent transport links and only 20 minutes walk from Byres Road!

On to the flat itself:

The flat is the upstairs cottage flat of a block of 4. It has a hallway with stairs to a small hall and door to the living room.

The living room is fairly spacious and lots of natural light comes in from the picture window (double glazed of course!).

Off the living room is the kitchen area, which has an electric oven and hob and cooker hood, plenty of cupboard space and shelving and a funky round inset sink with mixer tap.

We have silver fridge and washing machine and a freezer which are negotiable in the price of the house!

On to the small hallway which leads to the bedroom

The bedroom is a double room with a large wardrobe with mirrored doors. There is a window overlooking the back garden and ample space for drawers, etc.

And that just leaves the bathroom, which I think is quite large for a small flat. It has an electric shower and funky silver tiles.

There is also a cupboard in the hallway with hotwater boiler in which is good for storage of hoovers, etc.

The flat has the added bonus of a loft which covers the entire flat - so almost like another room! Plenty of room for storage and ripe for conversion!

The garden is shared with the downstairs flat and is quite big - ideal for summer barbecues! There is also private parking for the flats.

So there we have it! Spread the word to your friends who may be looking for a first flat! Viewing available - just email me!

It's easy putting your vest on back to front.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:32:00 +0000

Inspired by mar-c, here is my very own list of procrastination techniques:

Opening my tins of buttons, taking some out and then putting them away again
Flicking thru Sky TV's kabillion channels to check that CSI isn't on somewhere
Looking at my Flickr contacts contacts to see if I've missed anyone interesting
Checking my RSS feeds every 13 seconds
Clicking the random article button on wikipedia and stocking up on random facts
Taking out fabric, looking at it and then putting it away again
Picking the fluff out of my hairbrush
Reorganising the things on my desk
Deleting old text messages
Checking my Yahoo mail every 3 minutes
Thinking of all the things I would do when I win the lottery
Mentally composing strongly worded letters to the council

There are many more but these are all I can think of right now.

You're not getting married are you? Really? Golly.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:46:00 +0000

Favour
Originally uploaded by mooosh.

I have so much to blog about, but I wanted to get my holiday posts out of the way first, so I have mostly forgotten what I wanted to say. My posting about holiday was sadly interrupted by the unusual step of breaking a finger. It doesn't sound all that bad, but man, was it annoying. How did I manage that, I hear you cry! Well, to cut a long story short, a box of books fell on my hands from the loft as I passed it up to Lee. The handles gave way and it fell on my outstretched fingertips, making a horrible crunching noise on the way. 4 hours in casualty later, I came home with painkillers and a strong desire never to be in a hospital again. When I got into the consulting bit, the nurses were all too busy to see anyone, being that they were crowded round a computer on Myspace. Grrrr.

Anyway, my right hand was all bandaged up as was my left one as it was quite bruised too, so I could literally do nothing for a week. I was off work as I am right handed and couldn't type, I couldn't craft and I could barely even make myself a slice of toast. It's fair to say that I was bored out of my mind. I was so bored I took an unhealthy obsession with Jeremy Kyle and Midsomer Murders - see my photo blog for evidence!

But, it's healing well and I am back to full mobility in both hands, interspersed with bouts of throbbing pain, bizarrely, usually in the middle of the night, down the side of my right hand. Not sure why that is, but I am actually almost glad to be back at work and out of the evil clutches of daytime television.

What else has happened? Well, there was the week of 2 weddings in a row (3 for poor Jo) - first Catherine and Lee's and then Jo's Dad. Catherine and Lee's big day was simply beautiful. They are one of my favourite couples, in that they are so clearly not only made for each other but so head over heels in love with each other despite being together for 10 years (a inspiration to us all!) Their wedding suited them down to the ground - relaxed, unhurried, romantic, touching, funny ... and that was just the speeches! Jo and I bawled our eyes out as Catherine made her way down the aisle to a Super Furry Animals song played by a 3 piece of flutes and (I think) cello and we were still bawling as the new Mr and Mrs Black (no more Nivlack!) made their way back up the aisle to The Beatles All You Need Is Love - I am welling up again just thinking about it. It was truly the perfect day for them and so much fun for us as guests! We met so many lovely people and had a great time in the evening when the rest of the crafting crew showed up. And I managed to just about eat my dinner one handed and was thus spared the embarrassment of having Lee cut up my chicken! Congratulations you guys!

Next day was Jo's Dad's wedding and it was another beautiful day! They got married in St Mary's Cathedral on GWR and the place is absolutely stunning inside. They had a religious ceremony with a full choir and then on to Cottiers for the reception - I'd never been to Cottiers but it is lovely there, the food is great and the staff very friendly. The evening passed in a bit of a haze I must admit, vodka induced this time, but I do recall a lot of dancing, chatting and merry making! Ann, the new Mrs Barltett's dress was stunning, I was most envious of her great figure in it! Jo was acting as wedding planner/organiser of everything and bridesmaid and also looked divine in her blue dress - see here for the photos!

After all that excitement, it was pretty inevitable that we should be made to pay for the fun we'd had - and Lee and I both caught stinking colds, which are still lingering. Lee's was so bad he was off work for 2 whole days - he's never off sick. We're both recovering now thankfully.

We are currently courting estate agents most evenings to see which of them are going to be the ones to sell our little flat! I have grown to love our home, but it's time for us to move on to pastures bigger and so we are looking at selling our place pretty soon and moving to somewhere with another bedroom which is generally bigger. Our place is ideal for a single person or someone looking to get on the property ladder, so if you know anyone who's looking, drop me a line!

I am sure lots more has happened, but I think that is the salient points for now. Back to normal now! Chin chin.

It's like that whiney band. Not Radiohead. The band with Gwyneth Paltrow's fella.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:43:00 +0000

Day 10

Up early (surprise!) to take advantage of the breakfast laid on - and very glad we did. You just don't get crispy bacon properly at home. We decided to just hit the road and get back to civilisation, I mean, Cincinnati, so we set off on the road home (and by now, it really was beginning to feel like home). We headed back down the I-75 and we stopped off properly at the outlet place to get some last minute shopping in. We'll definitely be needing that other suitcase!

Arrived back in Cincinnati late afternoon and thanks to another great map, arrived at Anne's offices without a hitch. We left the car there and headed back to chez McBride in Anne's enormomobile and had a few drinks on the patio before dinner. Mack was very confused to see us as he'd thought we'd gone home already, but was over the moon to have us back. He'd had his hair cut in our absence annd he was looking very dapper.

Up until now we'd managed to avoid Scottish Quest, the boardgame that they make Mum play every time she is there. It's very convoluted and unnecessarily complicated, and all the questions are based on Scottish history, culture and stuff. Tonite tho, we could not escape it and we played but sadly we were shown up and Jim won. Anne is VERY competitive so was not amused. It must run in the family.

As it was our last nite there, we went back to El Coyote for dinner, a tradition. Steaks this time which were just amazing and very cheap. More margaritas, more bemoaning the fact that it was almost time to leave. Back home to have a go at squeezing all our purchases into our bags - in vain. Anne and Jim have kindly lent us an enormo case and when they are over in the UK in November, will fill it up with things to take back with them. After packing, we headed back downstairs, but Mack would not sit with us - he knows we're going. Even the cats can tell and they are all sulking down in the basement. I don't think any of us are happy about it, but we must go!

Day 11

Up at a reasonable hour to fit in a last minute shopping dash. Anne insisted on doing all of our laundry (but I managed to hide some) so that we didn't have to do it when we got home - she really looked after us! Off to Target for a final stock up on chewing gum - why don't we get all the good flavours at home? Mint mojito and black raspberry - mmm! Anne has a Staples card! I could have spent hours in there, if only Jo had been with me to egg me on.

On to Skyline at the bottom of the road for lunch - Jim met us there from work. I had a nice burrito and we all tried not to think about our impending departure. Back to the house for last minute packing - I didn't think we were going to make it, but once we took the poodle out the case, it closed easily. And then, nothing else for it - off to the airport. Anne came in with us and managed to negotiate our excess baggage charge (only $25! They are really missing a trick). She accompanied us all the way to security by which point I think we were all in tears. We had such a great time with them we were so sad to leave, even to go to exciting NYC. In a way it was worse going on somewhere else as then it felt like we should have been going "home" to Cincinnati - maybe one day!

We arrived in Newark on time and headed for a taxi. The traffic was ridiculous despite us arriving after rush hour and it took over an hour to get anywhere near our hotel. The taxi driver tried to rip us off on his already inflated price, but I felt justified in ripping him right back off with his $1 tip. That'll learn him!

Our hotel was quite homely and felt like a flat I used to live in on Sauchiehall Street. Very comfortable bed, the only complaint being no curtain on the skylight window, so we were awake at daybreak every day. We got ourselves tidied up and hit the street to explore! We were perfectly situated for the East Village, so there were loads of restaurants to choose from for dinner. We chose a Thai restaurant with open patio doors as it was so warm and the food was fab. Very different ambience from Cincinnati - within 5 minutes of sitting down we'd spotted our first 2 loons of the weekend. After dinner, we wandered back to the hotel, taking in the sights and sounds on the way for a reasonably early nite in order to rest up for a day's hardcore sightseeing tomorrow ...

Day 12

Woke up pretty early thanks to the skylight. Got ready and planned our route to the Empire State Building on foot where we thought we could pick up the tour bus we'd booked. We had a leisurely stroll as far as Madison Square Park where we bough croissants and cranberry juice and had breakfast in the park. The park has a dog park where the city's kajillion dog owners are allowed to let them off the leash, so we had fun spotting all the different breeds and watching chiuauas mingling with roitweillers! I don't understand why so many New Yorkers have dogs in the city, but there we go.

Quickly discovered we had another 14 blocks to walk as we had to go to the tour office which was very inconveniently located. Picked up our tickets and then saw the queue to get on snaking out of sight and round the corner - why do so many people want to stand in a queue for hours on holiday! We sneakily decided to head back to the Empire State Building (yes, another 14 blocks) and pick up the tour there where we had to wait just 10 minutes before we were on board. Ha! It was a very hot, sunny day and we certainly weren't going to waste it standing a queue getting burnt when we could be sitting on a bus doing that!

We saw all the sights of the downtown area and decided to get off at the stop near the Brooklyn Bridge so we could walk across. We took our time as it was so hot and very busy. It's a great way to see the city from a different perspective, the skyline view is amazing. We had planned to pick up the tour bus on the other side, but by this time we'd missed the last one, so we had an unexpected trudge back across the bridge and caught the bus back to the vicinity of our hotel. After resting our very weary dogs, we went out for dinner and tried an Indian place in the East Village - the food was fantastic and our table was right next to a special room for making naan bread, so we had quite a floorshow. We worked out that we'd probably walked about 10 miles that day - we were very tired but happy!

Day 13

Decided to see the uptown area today so after breakfast at a Polish cafe (Christine's - the cleanest toilets I've ever encountered!) we headed to our tour bus stop. We caught it to Times Square and transferred to see Haarlem, etc. Another sunny day, but a bit cooler - my head was now purple. A great day for sightseeing tho and we saw a lot of really nice buildings and some areas a bit off the beaten track. We had a great day wandering round and then headed to Greenwich Village in the evening, only 15 minutes walk from our hotel. We'd had quite a big lunch (barbecued pork and margaritas) so we had another NYC classic - pizza to go - for dinner. Very good pizza from the Two Boots, should you ever be in the region. We came back via Broadway, earmarking shops to come back to during the day. We stopped off at Dean and Deluca and treated ourselves to some posh cheesecake for desert - $11 for a 4 inch cake! It was well worth it tho as it was to die for. Back to the hotel to rest up for tomorrow!

Day 14

Decided to make the most of our bus tickets by being out early, so back to Christine's again for breakfast - bagels with cream cheese and bacon - and then on to our bus. We were headed for Battery Park but the bus had to change over and our tickets were up, so we headed down to the subway. I'd definitely recommend using the Subway $7 day pass - such a bargain and you can literally go anywhere and everywhere in the city. We took the subway to Battery Park and had a wander round in the blazing sunshine and had hotdogs for lunch whilst waiting for the boat. We took a ferry ride round the bay, past the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and under the Brooklyn Bridge.

Once we were back ashore, we took the subway back to Canal Street at Chinatown and had a wander round there and then back towards our hotel via Broadway. We got to have a wander round the shops we'd earmarked the nite before to go back to and then went back to the hotel to get changed for an evening out at Retox, a bar owned by one of Anthrax and a Beastie Boy.To cut a very long story short, we got the address wrong and ended up 30 blocks away in a dark street with no bars on it. Thanks to the wonders of technology, we got the address from the internet via my phone and got the subway to the right area, eventually, walked another 5 million blocks only to discover ... it was closed on Mondays. It was fair to say by this point we were both peeved, having spent the best part of 3 hours getting to this stage and having missed dinner time! However, we pressed on and took a taxi to the Empire State Building where we'd planned to go after dinner. It was now after 11pm, so we took in the chilly, windy view from the top and bought bagels and dejectedly headed home to watch Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on TV. It was a good evening, and we certainly saw some off the beaten track parts of the city, albeit unintentionally!

Day 15

Home today, booooo. Up early to finish our packing. The hotel kindly let us leave our bags all day so we could make the most of our final hours. We headed to Broadway to take something back to Old Navy and for a last minute trip to pick up some things that Lee had been coveting. Then back on to the subway to Time Square for lunch at Hard Rock Cafe - the steak was absolutely divine! Sadly we didn't have enough time to spend exploring it all, so we had to head back to the hotel to catch our shuttle to the airport.

So, that was it, our holiday! I bet you are all glad it's finished now. Normal blogging service will resume shortly.

Over and out.

Royals. They are the worst cigarettes ever.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Sat, 19 May 2007 10:36:00 +0000

Day 7

More cake for breakfast - could get used to this. Then off to the zoo, with another very useful map to guide us there. Was very hot and sunny - over 30 degrees celsius. I should really have learned from before and worn a hat/sunscreen, but no, I got burnt again.

Lots to see at the zoo altho the giraffes weren't in, much to my disappointment. We did see a very cute baby gorilla tho, and some very sad looking penguins. The polar bear doing the back stroke was also quite a sight.

In the afternoon we went to Kenwood Towne, another shopping place. There is a fascination in this area with adding a superfluous e to the end of words, towne, shoppe, etc. I don't get it. Kenwood has some fancy shops, but also the only Sephora in the area, so we had made a special trip to stock up on make up. I had a long and varied list, but limited time so couldn't get everyone's goodies (sorry!), but did manage to get the bare essentials of my Bare Escentuals (arf arf). Lee bought lots of clothes from the PacSun there - they had a sale on their already discounted items, meaning some things were 70% off the sale prices and ended up costing £1.75 for a shirt which might usually cost about £40 - £50 at home. He was very pleased, needless to say.

In the evening, we cooked out again - steak, mushrooms, cous cous and the ubiquitous frozen margarita. We caught up with Anne, Jim and Mack and had another lovely evening outside. Could definitely get used to this!

Day 8

Up early again - there seems to be a pattern emerging. Off to Newport on the Levee today, which is a kind of entertainment centre - cinema, aquarium, some shops, cafes, etc. It's set on the river, and as it was a nice day, was a good morning for a stroll around. We walked halfway across the Purple People Bridge - only halfway as Lee got too scared by the height to go any futher ;) (ok, I was also glad!).

Back across the bridge in the car this time to drive down town to meet Jim for our appointment with the immigration lawyer. She had some good advice for us, about our goal of living in the US one day and it might not be as absolutely impossible as we once thought. Lots to think about!

After our meeting, we had a browse around Cappells, the shop that is our craft/stationery wet dream. I made quite a few purchases for Miso Funky but had to restrain myself from buying EVERYTHING! If you are ever in Cincinnati and planning a party, it's THE place to go, fo sho. After my splurge, we went across the street to a bar for some lunch - an enormous soft pretzel with steak and cheese (of course) - it was quite the best thing I'd tasted at that moment in time. Our plan after that was to go to the Titanic exhibit a the museum centre, but after a bit of a mishap with mistaken road names and ending up practically in Canada, we gave it a miss and headed home.

Once back, we got changed and managed to catch some football on TV, I can't remember what it was, but Liverpool won. Anne and Jim came home and declared it was wings and beer night - sounds good to me! We went to the local wings place which had the biggest selection of chicken wing sauces I've ever seen (and I've seen more than you might think). We had a great evening and discussed how sad it was that time was running out and there was still so much to do!

Day 9

Yes .. you've guessed it .. another early rise, but this time there was good cause, as we had a long journey ahead of us. First stop, IHOP for pancakes for breakfast - definitely recommended! Then off to Cleveland! It is about a 4 hour drive from Cincinnati to Cleveland, so armed with a map, an atlas and instructions on where the clean toilets were, we set off.

We had a sneaky stop at the outlet mall on the way there to collect snacks and fueloleum and then got all the way to Cleveland without so much as a single wrong turn. Anne had very kindly booked us into the Hilton Suites, which was posh, but a bit faded round the edges.

Our living room was roughly the size of Denmark and contained a sofa and a huge TV at one end of the barn-like hall and a table at the other - you could literally have parked a couple of cars in there comfortably. The bedroom tho, had an enormous bed in it with a kajillion pillows and was so comfortable, I could have stayed there forever. No time to waste, so we dumped our stuff and headed back downstairs, only to be greeted by a nice workman in the lifts who directed us to the free minibus to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! Now that's service.

A nice man drove us down to the RRHOF which is situated by the side of Lake Erie. Which means it was colder than a witches teat, as Groundskeeper Willie says. So we quickly got inside, unfortunately just behind a very annoying group of Canadian schoolkids. Thankfully we managed to lose them right after Tom Petty.

We had a great time wandering round, looking at all the stage outfits, instruments and other paraphanalia, including John Lennon's school report cards amongst other things. We also saw a few films and some special exhibits, including one very boring one about The Clash, who I hate, which was up a very scary staircase. There was also an enormous Pink Floyd wall thing, which had security not been so tight, I may have been tempted to try to knock over as everyone knows I hate Pink Floyd more than I hate paedophiles and lollipop ladies.

Anyway! After all that, we had a stroll round town and discovered that Cleveland is, would you believe, duller than ditchwater (but not quite as dull as Hull, which is very dull indeed). It is a city of road works and abandoned buildings it seemed, altho maybe we were just in the wrong part of town.

We wandered around for a while and eventually happened on a small street with some bars and restaurants on (after we stumbled thru downtown Hobosville), where we found the House of Blues. There was a baseball game on that nite, which we had thought of going to, but as we know zero about baseball, we thought we'd save that for when A & J could come with us and tell us what the hell was going on. Dinner was fabulous - have the meatloaf! I did of course have a margarita which almost knocked my socks off and after dinner we wandered leisurely back in the direction of the hotel hoping to find some entertainment on the way - but there was none. We spent the rest of our evening eating ice cream cookies and watching a TV show about a scary prison in Ohio.

The chances of you seeing a unicorn are fairly small.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Fri, 18 May 2007 13:20:00 +0000

Day 5

Up early to go to Findlay Market, an open air/farmers markety type place. We had a cheese pocket for breakfast - hard to describe this, sort of like a cheesecakey filling in a pastry case with sugar on top. Very nice, but cake for breakfast will have to stop pon our return to the UK.

Off to collect Liz and then down to the market, which is in an area called Over The Rhine, a reference to the big German population in Cincinnati. Every kind of meat cut you could ever imagine is available here - apparently one of Cincinnati's nicknames is Porkopolis. There was also a giant sausage stall - the stall was giant, rather than the sausages, which were bigger than ours, but not giant per se.

After a wander round and purchasing some sausages, we had a tour of the area, as Liz had been involved in planning a lot of it. Then we went to the Clifton area of town where Liz lives for lunch at Dewey's pizza. They have white sauce as well as tomato which was great, as was the roasted garlic ... mmmm! We had a wander round the shops and then stopped off at another Cincinnati institution, Graeters, an ice cream parlour. I had the raspberry black chip which was delicious! Yes, we did do a lot of eating there.

Back to the ranch for a brief sit down and to get changed for our date at the theatre. The show started at 5pm, so we got ready and headed to the Playhouse in the Park. The show was called Murderers and was 3 monologues set in a retirement complex in Florida - it was very funny, catch it if you get the chance! We met Anne's business partner Gred and his wife Dana there and then drove to the Mount Adams area of town to a restaurant called Teak, which serves Thai food. The food was lovely, but very spicy and it did take an age to arrive. Greg and Dana were, as expected, lovely. We had a drink afterwards at the Pavilion, which had a cool deck outside overlooking the city. This is where Anne and Jim used to come on dates, so it was a nice touch. We took a detour on the way home to see the city from an old water tower - we could see for miles, and the lights were very pretty. But we had to press on home as we had an early start in the morning for Kings Island ....

NB - the Thai meal was the first meal I ate since arriving that did not contain cheese.

Day 6

Another early start so we could get to the theme park early. Anne had again drawn us a very comprehensive map which got us there without a hitch. Arrived at Kings Island early and managed to avoid the hideous queues as we had bought our tickets in advance, and discounted too! Anne is really the queen of the bargain!

We took in all the sights and some of the rides, but not the very scary ones, much to Anne's disgust - she is a bit of a rollercoaster fiend! We did go on an old rickety wooden rollercoaster twice tho, that was a lot of fun - Lee's knuckles were white on that one :) Anne said when we got back that I must be adopted as I didn't go on the scariest of them, the Beast - it was about 9,000 feet tall, so we gave it a miss. We got very sunned on - Lee was very tanned, however, my face was lobster like, despite the factor 20 sunblock. Will I ever learn?

We got home and Anne had very kindly done all our laundry - she really looked after us! The plan for dinner was the giant sausages on the barbeque, so we sat outside by the fire (which wasn't on, owing to it being about 30 degrees celsius) and had another barbecue. The sausages were very nice, but my mother's side of the family hatred for sausages was in evidence, so we had leftovers for Mack - who was delighted.

Ha ha ha! A pox upon you!

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Thu, 17 May 2007 13:35:00 +0000

Day 3

Anne and Jim both at work today, so we are off exploring by ourselves. Up earlyish for breakfast. Anne had left me a birthday present to open which was an Old Navy giftcard. Hurrah! So we set off for Springdale, which has lots of shops including of course a branch of ON. Even Lee bought some jeans there!

We spent a few hours in Springdale then headed back. Lee managed well with driving, I think easier than California for me as navigator as the 275 is a big circular road, so if we ever did get lost, we could stay on it and get back eventually. We had a quick lunch at Wendy's which was staffed entirely by dullards of all nations. We came back via Withamsville which is nothing to write home about, except that it is about 10 miles in the direction opposite to where we were headed . . .

Back home to avoid the rush hour traffic and the rain - it started lashing down when we got back. Lee found some football on TV whilst I read for a bit and then played with Mack outside once it had stopped raining. He's so friendly and very well behaved. Anne and Jim got home around 6ish just in time to see the tornado warnings on TV! It was a bit scary as the weather reports looked like we were in it's direct path, but all we saw was some very heavy rain, thankfully. There is a scary siren that goes off on TV - we were upstairs and thought a war had begun. A & J were very blase about it, as it must happen often in the tornado season, I guess.

In the midst of all this, we had to leave to drive to Liz's for dinner. Liz is such a nice person, one of Anne's friends from college who is also a planner. Her house is lovely, old style Victorian type. Pasta for dinner and an amazing array of little cakes for desert - sadly I forgot to photograph them for Cake Tourism. Back home and we watched some TV and got our directions for tomorrow - we are off horse riding in Kentucky!

Day 4

Managed to sleep past day break for a nice change, got up to check the weather online and then had breakfast (a&j at work). Managed to seperate Mack and one of the cats, Gherkins long enough to have some toast - the cats are very grumpy as they are on a diet and the dog likes to wind them up. Headed up to Kroger, the supermarket to buy tickets for the theme park on Sunday. Had a quick browse of the aisles - it's just enormous and so much choice in everything!

Back to the ranch to pick up a change of shoes and then off to the farm! Maggie is Anne's friend's daughter who is about the same age as me and her and her boyfriend have a farm in Kentucky where they keep their own horses and board others. We met them at the Waffle House about a 30 minute drive from their farm for lunch, which could have been awkward seeing as we'd never met! But we hit it off very well and headed up to their farm after lunch.

The horses were all out in the field, so we brought them in and got them ready to go out, after a tour of the barn they are doing up. It will be a lot of hard work for them, but it will look great once they are done. We had a ride out around their land for about an hour or so and then back to tidy up and put the horses back out. A lot of fun, although I am sure it is going to hurt later!

We headed back to Cincinnati with a quick stop at Walgreen's - for some reason, both Lee and I had been sneezing and having allergy symptoms since we arrived on and off - for Lee it got worse in shops, so we had been dosing up on antihistamines. The planned cook out was off due to the weather which was cold and wet, so Anne was busy making a leg of lamb instead.

Maggie and Matt were joining us for dinner, with Maggie's parents - they were all delightful people, of course - we didn't meet a single person who we didn't take to instantly. Everyone was so interested in what we were doing there, what we did at home, etc. It was a refreshing change to speak to so many nice people with no worries about work, etc.

More important matters - desert - it was turtle cheesecake ... I had my doubts, but there was no shell involved, only caramel, chocolatey cheesecake. Delicious. I managed to wash all the dishes much to Anne's disgust AND dry most of them.

Another fun packed day tomorrow, off to bed!

Hmmm... it's a bit Bruce Springsteen.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Wed, 16 May 2007 19:55:00 +0000

Day 2

Woke up at 5am, wide awake. Managed to get back to sleep for a while and rose to the smell of those tiny sausages Americans are so fond of. Very tasty breakfast was waiting for us of sausages, cheesy scrambled eggs and coffee cake.

Out to have a drive around, Anne showed us the area and took us to Target which I think is my new favourite shop. Then onto downtown Cincinnati for a recce and a visit to Cappels which is just like Nash's was in Glasgow only better (if you don't know what Nash's was, it was like the stationery shop in heaven will be like).

Onto Rookwood, a shopping place (see, we got stuck in early) to DSW and Old Navy. DSW is a cheap shoe place - we all got shoes, even Lee - my Rocket Dogs cost approximately a quarter of the price they would have cost at home.

Had lunch at Skyline in Oakley, a very nice area of town and would be affordable for us. Liked the chili - we all had 4 ways, which is spaghetti, chili, onions and cheese (a lot of cheese). Lee had a cheese coney too, which is basically a hot dog with chili and cheese on top. It was good, but TOO MUCH CHEESE.

After all this, we went to Anne's office where we met everyone who seems very nice. Bonnie, Anne's secretary, had very kindly organised a rental car for us, so the man from the company met us there and we took delivery of our ride for the week, a PT Cruiser. It was a very nice car and we drove back to the ranch in convoy for a quick frozen margarita before dinner. We went to El Coyote for dinner, which is tradition with visitors, I hear. The food was fabulous - fajitas and more margaritas. Back home for a quick glance at the TV and some Mack-lovin time, before bed.

Man, I expected something more than salad.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Wed, 16 May 2007 19:42:00 +0000

A bit of background before I start my trip diary!

My mum is Anne's cousin, so Anne is my second cousin. Mum has been going over there for Christmas the last couple of years and last time she was there, she started keeping a diary for me to describe all the places she went and things she did so that we could compare notes when we'd both been. So she started the diary at the start of a new notebook and then I carried it on when we were there. Once I am finished making my notes, I will pass it back to her and she'll carry it on when she goes back and so on.

So, without further ado....

Day 1

Up at 4 am! Who knew there was a 4 in the morning as well as the afternoon?! Flight to Manchester in model airplane. Surprisingly smooth. Arrive at Manchester to see Graeme Souness getting on a flight to Edinburgh. He had terrible hair and worse shoes. I didn't recognise him at first without the moustache.

Whisked off in a private bus to another terminal, interviewed by a nice but firm elderly security man. Arrive on plane to the dulcet tones of Hall and Oates (this is relevant - my mum loves them). Discover that there is no seatback TV. Wonder if the Daily Record crossword will last 7 hours...

Managed to sleep for approximately 15 seconds - don't fly Continental, seats are very cramped. Food was surprisingly alright tho - lasagne! Lee dribbled it down his jumper, that's usually my job. Arrived in Newark eventually after having to listen to 3 generations of Mancunian dullards all the way across the Atlantic and worrying about the Manchester Uni gun club being on board. Got thru scary customs and headed to the bar for a drink. Nice man sang to us and offered us the milk of human kindness which seemed to be on draught as well as nachos. We took both.

Got on bi-plane to Cincinnati - I would swear I saw someone doing somersaults on the wing. Flew past Statue of Liberty once we eventually took off but more about her later. Arrived in humungous Cincinnati airport, completely missed the monorail thing and eventually got to baggage claim on foot and almost walked straight past Anne and Jim who'd come to meet us.

Got our bags very quickly and got out to their ENORMOUS car (it's a Nissan Armada, car lovers - it's literally the size of a ferry). We drove back to their house which is quite something - so beautiful. Checked into our room, very comfortable bed. Met the animals - Mack (the poodle) has fallen in love with Lee. Back downstairs to deliver Walkers salt and vinegar crisps and Diet Coke with lemon which inexplicably is not available in the US. Then outside to the patio for steaks on the barbecue and champagne. Managed to stay up til around 1030pm US time then collapsed into bed.

There's going to be a lot of macrame.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Tue, 15 May 2007 13:51:00 +0000

Another sign
Originally uploaded by mooosh.

An actual conversation overheard on Sunday in the car park behind the St Enoch Centre in Glasgow:

Ned Mother, 50's, orange skin, peroxide hair, fag hanging out of mouth at top of voice: "Ya wantin tae go tae McDonalds furst?"

Ned Daughter, 20's, orange skin, peroxide hair, fag hanging out of mouth, white jeans at top of voice "Naw, we're gaun tae the pound shop furst, wull get ye thair"

Oh, how we laughed.

It'll cost you many a shilling.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Tue, 15 May 2007 13:46:00 +0000

Butter stick
Originally uploaded by mooosh.

I'm back! But no, I didn't bring the butter with me, much to mar-c's disappointment, I'm sure.

I'd love to say it's great to be back, but it's so far not. It feels like there is nothing to look forwards to anymore, despite the fact that there is actually a lot going on.

Our trip was fabulous, fantastic, great - I have a whole lot of stories to blog about, but for now I am just saying hello world, I am back!

The train is no good, isn't it?

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:47:00 +0000

A letter to the council

I had the worst taxi journey of my life on Saturday.

Having gotten into this hackney cab with 2 female friends at the rank outside Central Station, we were subjected to a torrent of abuse throughout our journey by the driver.

Firstly we were told we were stupid for not standing in the correct place at the taxi rank, then he shouted at us for wanting to go to drop one of our group off at Sauchiehall Street.

Upon arrival at our first stop, he then inexplicably proceeded to swear and shout that we had told him the wrong destination and that he was trying to save us money. At this point, I asked him to stop so we could get out of the taxi as we were generally afraid of what he might do next. He would not let us out or pay for our journey so far so we could get out.

In the end, we alighted at St George's Cross after more abuse from the driver. Once we had paid the full fare and got out of the taxi, he then shouted further abuse at us as we walked away, calling us a number of choice names ... for simply wanting a lift up the road.

Had we been drunk or obnoxious, I could perhaps be more understanding, but we were 3 young sober women wanting to get home safely - and ended up being subjected to a terrifying ordeal at the hands of this man. In addition, the taxi looked in very poor repair and I have been unable to locate the name that was painted on the side of the cab to contact them directly.

I would appreciate it if you could investigate this taxi number and answer my complaint - I and my friends were genuinely in fear during our journey and I would like to ensure that no one else has to suffer this sort of treatment.

Would you believe less than an hour later, I had an email from the council asking for more details? They are going to be interviewing the driver and are "taking this matter very seriously", given the nature of my complaint.

EDIT: The council are in fact taking it very seriously - they are sending out a photo for us to ID him! How unexpected. In the mean time, I would encourage anyone who's had similar experiences to complain!

I was feeling very heavy and then suddenly I felt very light.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 14:11:00 +0000

Keys!
Originally uploaded by mooosh.

I had a strange experience this morning. I've often dreamed of being stuck in the house and not being able to go to work ... and today it almost happened!

This week has been a very busy one and I've been all over the place trying to do lots of things and please lots of people, so I was very tired last nite after a 6am start for a meeting in Edinburgh and then a craft thing in the evening. Thus, I did not think to get my front door key, as pictured, from Jo who had it to get the stuff for the market.

So, this morning, I made it all the way down the stairs to the front door, whereupon I remembered she had the key. No problem, I thought, I have my spare one. I located it and tried the door - nothing. It was too bent to work. Aha, I thought, I shall call Ryan and ask him to come get me - the key is in their house after all. Of course, I could have called him had I known his number and the battery on my new phone had not died...

Ah, but my old phone, it has some battery power left in it ... so I opened it up and went to put my SIM card back in it ... only to discover it was stuck fast ... I should really have given up then and called work, but I perservered and eventually prised it off with a biro. My chance was gone! Ryan came to rescue me and here I am posting on my mini lunch break about the whole fiasco. Bah.

Tomorrow I am going to a spa! For the day! A real novelty for me. Catherine has chosen a relaxing day for her hen celebrations and of course I am delighted to have been asked along - I just hope that she and everyone else can take it when I kick their asses at Singstar afterwards!

Acupuncture doesn't work like that... it's about dampness and reducing

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 13:40:00 +0000

Necklace
Originally uploaded by mooosh.

Here we are, this is one of my lovely purchases from Sunday. It's a vintagey necklace from Stella My Star. I like that it almost looks like one of those party ring biscuits off of the 80s. I would encourage anyone to buy things from Stella My Star for the following reasons:

The things are lovely, especially this necklace
The things DO NOT BREAK
Many things have owls or monkeys on
Jo is lovely
It will support the Geordies

I think that is more than enough reason to wear these things.

I also bought 2 pin cushions from Evil Twin but I think they are too good to be going sticking pins in. They are cacti! Or cactuses if you want to be pedantic. The girl from Evil Twin and her possible actual real life not evil twin who is The Black Button are 2 of my very favourite customers, as they seem to L-O-V-E the rejects. You can see them being happy with their purchases here.

Last nite I got busy making the invitations for Andrew and Aleks' wedding. I rashly promised to have them done before I go on holiday (did I mention I am off on holiday?), so I need to get them done this week. It is slow going though and I need the expert eye of Jo to help with the actual printing. It will have to be fitted in amongst all the other billion things I need to do this week, I am not sure I will have time for sleeping until Cincinnati - No! Sleep! Til Cincin! as some wise rappers once (almost) said.

This week is:

Community meeting to find out what is happening behind our house
Possible meeting re: project: zinc shoes
Meeting in Edinburgh all day Thursday
Fair on Thursday evening
Meeting up with Catherine to extol the virtues of Bare Minerals make up
Catherine's hen day at the Radisson hotel spa
Making some bags for my hair dryer, straighteners, etc to travel in
Tidying the hovel that is our flat

Now, I must be off and decide what massage to have on Saturday - wheeeee!

What constitutes deadly force?

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:52:00 +0000

An MF Trip To Newcastle
Originally uploaded by mooosh.

How can it be that I've not updated this since before Easter? Well, I suppose it might be because I've been very busy doing other things. What a boring reason. I could make something up about giant robots, or a boating accident, but in reality, I've just been very busy getting on with life.

The Easter weekend was especially busy - Friday me and my mum who was up visiting went for a breenj in town, some shopping, some lunching, some chatting. It was very nice to do this as we don't often get the chance, what with her living 500 miles away and me being busy every weekend between January and December. In the morning before I met up with her I had a secret meeting with some colleagues which has turned into project: zinc shoes. Very mysterious, but for now you will have to wait to find out more about that.

Friday evening, Jo and I found ourselves trundling down to the wilds of Ayrshire to host a Miso Funky party for someone's birthday - it was a great evening for us and I hope for the ladies who were partying. It's a bit like Ann Summers but less filthy and more funky - you can find out more here and even book one if you're so inclined. There's no stand up comedy or anything, but we do try to entertain.

Saturday was ... what? Sorry, what's that? A free day? In that there is no fairs of craft to be attended? But it's a day with a y in it! How did that happen? Yes, due to a scheduling hiccup, we had somehow found ourselves with a day off. I think that is one of the very first ones since Christmas. So, I of course filled it up with hair appointments and the like. I had my hair trimmed a little and also dyed a new shade of blondey brown for spring. I like it a lot, altho I think it must be quite subtle, because no one really noticed much.

Sunday and Monday were spent, yes, you've guessed it, at a craft fair. This one was at Queens Park on the south side and we found ourselves in the strange but curiously enjoyable situation of being in a big greenhouse next to a petting zoo. The sheep in particular was hilarious, with it baaing at all the right moments as if it was part of our conversation. The fair itself was busy, but most people were intent on extricating their sticky children from the animal pens and trying to bring them back into orbit after guzzling their own bodyweight in easter eggs. Still, it was a very productive 2 days, some sales, some stock taking and some crafting managed.

Project: zinc shoes was taking up much of my and others' thoughts last week, as well as making things and generally working, as my real job will keep getting busy and getting in the way of my more fun job. Plans were made for some more markets coming up which will be launched here when they are all finalised. By some stroke of sheer genius, Saturday was another day off - how this came to pass, I have yet to understand, but I used it wisely with my first stop post lie in being the local church jumble sale where I got 2 big bags of bargains for 4 of your earth pounds, including a GREAT stand for our record bowls which will be ace once it's painted. The lady who mans (and "man" is quite the operative word) the jumble was most peeved that I planned on cutting up her stinky duvet covers, but she eventually let me have them for 25p each. She drives a hard bargain, even in the Lord's house.

Afterwards, Lee and I had a lovely walk down by the Kelvin, through the Botanics and on down to Partick to the Farmers Market, where we had a stroll round and bought some great morsels, including some fab treats from Eastern Twist. We then strolled over to the Rio Cafe and had some lunch and a read of our New York books to see what we wanted to include in our itinerary, followed by a stroll up Byres Road, a swatch at the Orchid Fair at the Kibble Palace and a leisurely ice cream in the park - it was so warm and sunny and I had a great time! Once we got back Lee made amazing samosas and I got busy crafting and packing for our Newcastle extravaganza.

I had to get up at 6am on Sunday morning - yes, that's probably the time most people I know were coming home, but there we are. We had great fun on the train, despite having to hoick our bags around and you can see a photolog of the day here. The market itself was unusually quiet, owing to the tropical temperatures that the toon was enjoying, but we still had great fun. I made one or 2 purchases, which I will be posting about seperately very soon.

This week is filling up fast - meetings, a market, making things - but only 8 sleeps til holidays!

I can't believe she's getting rid of my old subbuteo set.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 16:13:00 +0000

I am a big fan of jazz hands, but it would appear that I am nothing but a rank amateur when it comes to putting on the ritz. Last nite, Catherine very kindly slid her spare ticket to Chicago my way and I had a fabulous nite out with her and her parents.

I have only been to the theatre twice before - once about a kajillion years ago to see Saturday Night Fever in London with my mum and on honeymoon in Vegas to see the Blue Man Group (you MUST see it if you ever get the chance), so it was quite a novelty to be there at all. I probably looked like a loon up from the country, I hope Catherine wasn't too embarrassed!

The show itself was spectacular - the cast, none of whom I'd heard of, were excellent - with all the singing and dancing at the same time, they never missed a note and the seats we were in gave us a perfect view of the action. There was even a man translating the entire show into sign language - something I hadn't seen before. The guy doing it was great and really got into character with the facial expressions and dancing! I thought he was going to start high kicking at one point, but he managed to restrain himself.

I've been humming "All That Jazz" all morning and no doubt annoying my new neighbours at work. I have moved desks from the second coldest place in the building to the MOST coldest place - I didn't think it was possible for it to get worse, but as I am sitting here with GLOVES on, I have proven it could. I have been used to being able to mutter to myself and laugh wryly at stupid colleagues' emails, but I must remember not to do that so much as the people sitting behind me are probably ready to commit me to Carstairs.

Today, I can hardly believe it, is my last day at work for FOUR DAYS! I am quite pleased by this. However, only one of those days is actually not taken up with craft things, given that we have 2 craft fairs and a craft party. I will also need to do things like organise travel insurance, get money changed and find something to wear to the numerous weddings coming up. But I am looking forwards to spending some QT with Lee along the way too, as I've been so busy I've not seen much of him this week.

Back on Tuesday - Happy Easter, and as Jo's gran says - remember the reason for the season!