wagwaan?

Friday night.

Still enjoying taking pictures, mostly with the iPhone, every day.

1. 11. Detail. A present from a dear friend. #fmsphotoaday, 2. 10. A place. The beach at my mum's, in Normandy. It's been our special place for 30 years and it's where I go in my head if I need to chill out. #fmsphotoaday, 3. 9. Tiny. My tiny little Momiji dolls that are swamped by the "normal" sized ones. #fmsphotoaday, 4. From my Easter basket this year :) #hellokitty, 5. 8. On my plate: toast & marmite. Mmmmm! #fmsphotoaday, 6. 2. Blue. Working in the NHS I am surrounded by blue... #fmsphotoaday, 7. 3. A is for ambulances. At my place of work. #fmsphotoaday, 8. 31. Stuff. This is just some of my crafting "stuff". #fmsphotoaday, 9. Happy Easter! (Shrink wrapped eggs thanks to #Tiger)

And listening to music. I don't watch American Idol but I pick up bits and pieces reading other blogs. This girl? Gave me chills....

 

 

Enjoy!

I should really be in bed by now...

You know what it's like, when you're doing something you love? You lose track of time?  Well I've been getting up to date with my Project Life and I had run out of photo paper so it was on hold. Today I managed to grab a pack and I've been printing out the latest tonight.

I love that the iMac is so fast I can pull stuff up on Photoshop, add text or create interesting inserts, and it's all so quick compared to the old slow PC. Nevertheless, I'm still up because it's been so much fun.  

While I work I'm listening to Bruno Mars on the headphones. Another track I like from the latest album is "Treasure" - from the slick horn section to the thumping bassline, it's a good one to walk to and from work, just the right speed for me. 

 

The whole of the UK is blanketed in snow at the moment. Here, it started while I was on my way to work, and fell steadily all day. As I was planning on walking home if there were no buses I wasn't particularly worried. We got sent home at 4.30pm and I shared a taxi into the town centre with a colleague who is not up to the walk, especially in this weather. 

I'm not really planning on going anywhere this weekend, but I'm hoping Monday is better because I have to be in London at 8.15am. Yikes.

I can't get enough of this song...

Could it have anything to do with the dancing? Is it wrong that I can find these young men attractive when I KNOW I'm old enough to be their mother? 

No, I'm sure it's the melodic content because I am a serious musicophile....

 

 

The downside

Ok, so I've paid for the excitement of the past week by being rather unwell. It hasn't happened for a while, but every so often I get cocky and think I've got the tiredness licked, only for it to come back and hit me big time. I had to cancel last night's outing with my girlfriends to go to a long-awaited carol concert because I was desperate for my bed by about early evening. On top of that I had a bad tum. I slept for hours and still felt like I'd been hit by a truck this morning so I stayed in bed. Didn't get up till gone lunchtime. I hate when that happens. I feel like I've taken a step backwards, even though I know I'm a million times better than a year ago.

Claire declared it was time to watch White Christmas this afternoon, so we snuggled under blankets with the tree lights on and had a lovely time. I took this from my armchair...

 

Before I close, here's a picture I took yesterday, before I got sick. I had received the score for Carol of the Bells and needed to work out my Alto part. I have no instruments here but suddenly remembered the iMac comes with Garage Band. Oh wow! All I had to do was open it, select "piano" and try out the notes. And voilà. I even recorded it so I could have it to listen back. Brilliant invention!  In the end I didn't get to sing it today but I'm sure it will remain part of the repertoire.

 

Fantastic! And now for bed....

Yes, time flies when you are having fun! On Sunday I had a newborn photoshoot in the morning and then an early dinner with my new beau. Well "beau" is maybe pushing it a bit, but I had a date anyway.  We decided to eat at TGI Friday as there is no problem parking there, whereas the town centre is a pain because everything is pedestrianised with multi-storey carparks dotted around. Anyway, we had a lovely time and then we drove back to mine and sat in his car with the heating on and nice music and chatted for an hour.  Claire is accusing me of acting like a teenager, and with that end to the evening it certainly felt like I had gone back in time!

Talking of acting like a teenager, I took part in a webchat with  my favourite singer, Lemar, at the weekend... and he mentioned me a couple of times (including a message saying "mad love" to me because I mentioned I've been following him for 10 years). If you don't believe me, check out below, at just over 33 mins in. LOL!   I am just mesmerised by his green eyes.

   

So, today was a quiet day but tonight I had a Trustee meeting and then our Trustees' Christmas Dinner so I'm rather full right now. And so the season begins!

Decisions, decisions...

Well it's been such a long time since I came to this here ol' blog, I bet there's no one left out there wondering if I'll ever revive it!   2012 has been a funny old year, and on top of that the computer is so. painfully. slow. I end up never turning it on.  Luckily, there is a brand new iMac on the way, so I expect you'll see a lot more of me. Or not. I might just decide to jack it all in.... (hence the title)

I feel like it's finally time to get ready for Christmas. My brain is actually getting into gear and I'm at last thinking of presents and in such a hurry to go to France to holiday with my family for the first time in 4 years. When Claire was working in retail she only had Christmas Day off and we just couldn't get away. This year we have already booked our ferry tickets to Caen and we will be spending the week. I'm so excited!  

Meanwhile, I have been working part-time since March and although at first it was very VERY hard (I've since discovered my co-workers were a bit worried about my health not being up to it), I'm loving it. There is a great team, a great atmosphere, and although the job itself is nothing terribly complicated it is varied enough to keep me interested.  I have come on in leaps and bounds since I started, I really have. It's been such good therapy, my brain is much more active and I finally feel "back to normal".  So many people have commented on it, it MUST be true!  February 2013 it will be 3 years since the aneurysm burst and my life changed completely.

So, that's it my friends. I've got a lot planned and I'm trying to squeeze so much more out of life.  Next Thursday I'm hoping to get to see my friend Noel at this...

It's in bloomin' Brixton, but I hope to find a way....

Right then, off I go to bed to listen to the rain drumming on the roof and to dream sweet dreams :)

 

 

Oops!

Well this is interesting - it appears I didn't blog at all in November!   I know I've been feeling a bit ambivalent about blogging; partly because I've been so busy, partly because I don't spend as much time on the computer when I'm not using it for work, and partly because I have nothing to talk about.  Well, nothing I imagine would be of any interest to my thousands (ahem) of readers, anyway.

So it's "beginning to look a lot like Christmas" as they say, and Claire and I have already watched two Christmas movies, but we haven't started decorating and there are no big plans afoot for Christmas again this year due to Claire's work schedule. Working in a shop - nay, MANAGING a shop - means that she only gets one day off,  i.e. Christmas Day. This is the third year running that we can't go to France to be with family and it's beginning to tick me off somewhat (I know it bugs Claire too).

Christmas has always been huge in our family, not only due to its size but also because my mum just "did" Christmas so well. Claire and I both love the season and she's bugging me to decorate tonight although I'm off out shortly for a doctor's visit, a Trustee Meeting AND a Trustee Christmas Dinner so who knows if I'll feel in the mood later. (Note to self - get Christmas boxes down so they're there if I feel like it). 

Although I haven't got my act together to do a December Daily I am really enjoying Ali Edwards's usual offering. You can check out Day One here. (Note to Chrissie: I think she lives in Eugene!).

And to finish off, a festive offering that I saw on a friend's Facebook page. It is really fun (if you can ignore the apostrophes in the wrong place...):

 

 

Music Tuesday

Love the latest (I think) Pixie Lott. My, my, doesn't she look all grown up??!

 

Music Tuesday

Oh boy, how I love this track!  I remember buying the cassette in the hospital gift shop on a visit to see my dad. Brings back SO many memories circa 1992....

 

Music Tuesday

I pressed shuffle on my iPhone and this is what came up: