2008: good riddance.

I was going to write a little looking-back on 2008 post, however I decided I want to take the chance here to pay tribute to my mum, who has gone through so much this year, and who is an inspiration to me every day of my life.

It was a chain of events which began in July with my mum going to hospital for a minor operation, she then suffered a heart attack. Two weeks later she needed another (allegedly minor) medical procedure which caused a blood clot, which required an emergency operation to remove it.

There have been other health setbacks for her since then: but despite these she is an amazing, strong and courageous woman who will not be beaten. She has never lost her sense of humour. She is thankful that she has been given a second chance: I hope that 2009 is a happy and healthy year for her. Her experience made me realise that you shouldn't get stressed out by the things that don't matter.

2008 wasn't all bad, there were personally some good things - holidays, weight loss, recognition for Planet Salem; but it would be fair to say that the personal bad stuff outweighed the good. And don't even start me on the credit crunch, the world recession and high street stores going bust one by one. And don't even start me on the broken boiler....yes that's right folks, once again this useless substandard (insert swear word of choice) has broken down meaning we've had no heating or hot water for almost 24 hours, and we don't know if anyone will be out to fix it tonight. EDIT: we had about 72 hours without heating or hot water, but thankfully it's been repaired again (well, till the next time)

This will probably be my last Random Ramblings post of 2008: sorry to end on such a downer, but that's the kind of year it's been. Still...new year, new start...Things can only get better!!!!

Best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009 everyone. X

Christmas = :))))

It was rather fabulous.

Spending Christmas with my loved ones: I can't ask for anything more.
And Santa was very good to me too :)))))

It's been absolutely wonderful. And as if that's not enough, we also had a great result at the Matalan sale today!!!

I'm just going to enjoy chillling out tomorrow before returning to work on Monday.

The boys of the NYPD choir still singing 'Galway Bay'...

...and the bells are ringing out for Christmas Day!


Yes it's nearly here...I've been off work for the past three days but to be honest it hasn't really felt like a holiday as I've been soooo busy.


Monday: haircut and food shopping.



Tuesday: buy new hi-fi, then have to do major surgery on my electronic-gadget-overloaded bedroom to find a space for it. Very nice though...and sounding great. Manages to play all my CDs and it has an iPod dock. Mmmm....nice.


Wednesday: a lie-in then housework and getting ready for Santa's visit. Santa texted me on his way home from work today!! He'll be coming over in a couple of hours. Whoopeeee!


I'm so excited - I really love Christmas Eve.


Anyway I'm off now to raid our considerable supply of sweets and chocolate biscuits and may be back on here tomorrow night, if not I'll definitely be back on Boxing Day.

Have a fab Christmas everyone!!

Back again...

Finished work on Friday but then it was into a very hectic weekend involving pantomime, wrapping Christmas presents and going out for pre-Christmas dinner to my favourite local Indian restaurant.

Today: I decided to treat myself to a trip to the hairdresser's, where they managed to transform my fringe from forlorn to fabulous, and cut enough layers into my currently shoulder-length hair to keep me going until...my next visit, whenever that may be!!

Next stop - Tesco, for the pre-Christmas food shopping. Trying not to look too smug that we only needed to buy the basics, unlike some who needed not one trolley but two.

Tomorrow it's all go once again as I head out to buy my new micro hi-fi, as my current, trusty old "music centre" can't cope with the CDs I'm feeding it anymore. Or is it trying to tell me something lol :)))

Burnout!

As I said over at EuropeCrazy I'm taking a few days out of blog-posting (although I'll still be visiting all my blog-friends and leaving the odd comment or two). Normal (!) service will be resumed on Monday 22nd.

Pre-Christmas preparations + work stress + totally unrelated events = burnout!!

This is probably one of the most useless things ever, a blog post to announce a break from blog posts :O

Anyway this is my last day at work and I'll now be on holiday till the 29th - YAY!!!!!

Mother of three (blogs) / Three people in this marriage

Just taking stock of my status as mother of three blogs: there is the lively toddler just about to hit the 'terrible twos' in March; there is the middle child who has recently become more demanding over recent weeks and will probably require all my attention for part of next year; and there is the baby, who sleeps for most of the time, wakes up and has a look around and then goes back to sleep.

Just as well I'm not a real parent and only a virtual one!!

Whilst comparing real families to virtual ones, I found a great post here at Blogging Without A Blog which describes an extreme scenario where there are, as someone once said, 'three people in this marriage'. In this case: a man, a woman and a blog.

Maybe it's just as well that I'm not married - faithful travelling companion would probably list 'Sitemeter addiction' as grounds for divorcing me!!

Same old same old

This weekend sees the annual ritual of the office Christmas night out. I used to be an enthusiastic participant but bailed out about 6 years ago and haven't really regretted it. Whilst it's nice to get all glammed up for the evening, you begin to wonder if it's all worth it - you sit down to overpriced conveyor-belt food, followed by dancing to music so predictable you're wishing the DJ had been shot at birth. Did you really go to all that trouble to get ready so that you could dance to the same music which has been played at every wedding and every party since the year dot?

I happened to mention to one of my work colleagues today that I wasn't going to the party, and he asked if it was "because they're not playing any European music?". I thought that was quite funny and my mind started to wander...

Imagine if I got to programme the music for the Christmas night out? Why have the Drifters, "Mustang Sally" and "Angels" when you could all be bopping around to BWO, Alcazar and Christophe Willem? ;)

There's no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes.

I heard that saying over the weekend....it's so true at this time of year!

We had a little but of snow overnight. One snowflake and everything comes to a standstill. Why is this country never prepared for winter?

Friday night, but not as we know it

Throat infection and lost voice = a break from my usual Friday night tradition of hanging out with faithful travelling companion. We have shared custody of this cold/flu/whatever, this week: he got the runny nose, I got the ear/throat/voice hell. Which explains my blogging marathon tonight.

Voice: missing in action

Now I have lost my voice and can only whisper.

I am still at work, I'm on my teabreak at the moment. Thank goodness I don't need a voice to type !!

Woolies R.I.P.

Recessions come and go, but the big stores always survived. Till now anyway. Woolworths have always been there, for everything from Pick n' Mix to half price suitcases to top 40 CDs to Ladybird children's clothes to insoles and superglue. They seemed to sell a little bit of everything, but even that wasn't enough to save them.

In a big city it probably wouldn't really matter whether they were there or not: but in a small town like the one I live in, Woolies is/was an essential part of life.

Their heyday is long gone of course. They started selling too much, the shop became so packed that you couldn't actually find anything in it and it all became a bit tacky. Back in the 70s of my childhood, their Christmas TV adverts were legendary and star-studded, in the days when celebrities actually were celebrities. But now, as those great philosophers the Kaiser Chiefs once said, everything is average nowadays. Celebrities, advertising, Woolies. Yet I'll miss them.

MFI has also gone into administration. Who's next?

When do I start feeling better?

Still got a sore throat, sore ears and a head full of goo :(

That's four days now, I'm very impatient with this kind of thing and would just like to start feeling better now. Pretty please.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

• Once again our town has recycled possibly the most insignificant Christmas lights in history.
• Panic spreads across the faces of all those who can't get their hands on this year's must-have, Wii Fit. (Get a life and do some real exercise then!)
• Panic spreads among work colleagues as they realise that a) the balance of the Christmas night out has to be paid asap, and b) the Secret Santa presents have to be bought in the next two weeks. Blogger trying not to be smug as I'm avoiding both of them.
• Christmas ads on TV - Ok these have been on since about September, what am I talking about :)

This may all seem a bit bah-humbug but I love Christmas all the same, and the annual Christmas tree ceremony at EuropeCrazy HQ has been pencilled in for this Sunday. Yes, it's still November. Yes, I know. Well if you can't beat them, join them!!

Weight-watching update

There is some good news though: I've lost two pounds.

Once again this leaves me at the 7 pounds-till-target-weight scenario: yes it's Groundhog Day yet again!

Once I start feeling better I will throw myself into all efforts to get this weight off and quit Weight Watchers once and for all...

There are not enough throat lozenges in the world right now.

Why do I always come back from holiday with a cold or a throat infection? Here we go again.

About 45 mins before my return flight home yesterday, I started feeling sick and feverish in the airport. A few hours later I'd developed a throat so sore that there aren't enough throat lozenges in the world to soothe, and I could hardly move my head or face for the pain spreading across and into my ears. My only consolation is that I'm fine from the neck down!

Just as well really that I was off work today, although my plans had to be scrapped in favour of staying in bed till noon and trying to shake off this infection. Hope it goes away before I have to go back to work tomorrow.

I'm not the only one with it either - faithful travelling companion also texted me to say he had a cold.

:(

No, make that :((((((((((((((

Meh.

Put out the flags and rejoice as a new word is officially added to the world's vocalbulary:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/odd/a135817/meh-added-to-english-dictionary.html

I actually think 'meh' is OK although I never really use it. It's still btr thn txt spk, which really annoys me and that perhaps explains why it takes me 30 minutes to send a text message.

Good week, bad week

Good week for: my five minutes of blogging-fame. Thank you Salem, you have lifted my spirits and made me happier than I can even describe.

Christmas shopping - it's under way, and at a pretty advanced stage I reckon.

Bad week for: sore feet.

Public transport - or should I say the lack of it, as my little corner of the universe suffers from a pathetic reduction of service and a (temporary) road closure.

Dieting - it's a losing battle at this time of year! Still I stayed the same weight so it's not so bad, but my plan to quit Weight Watchers at the end of 2008 has officially been abandoned and I've decided to go with it for another while yet!!

The control freak's Christmas.

Firstly, I love Christmas. But in a low-key, back-to-basics, quality-not-quantity kind of way. I don't want to be confronted with Christmas cards in the shops before I go my summer holiday. I don't want to go into Poundland in the first week of November to be confronted with "Stop The Cavalry" on repeat.

What I do love is....spending Christmas with the people who mean the most to me, doing what we really want to do.

I am lucky enough to be in a situation where I avoid overspending and subsequent months of debt-hell, because the most important people in my life share my view that Christmas can, and should, be done on a budget, whilst still ensuring that everyone gets what they really really want.

This Christmas - just over six weeks to go, folks! - it's going to be even more low-key than ever. For reasons known only to myself and close chums, I'm not going to the office Christmas lunch, and subsequently have withdrawn from the annual Secret Santa ritual. Secret Santa is, of course, that thing when you pick someone's name out of a hat and buy them a Christmas gift, putting some thought into it and making sure that it's something they would like to receive. Over the years I've been lucky with what I've received so it's not as if I'm carrying any grudge or whatever: I just decided to take a year out of it.

Presents list is now compiled and all I have to do is buy them.

Yes, I may be an easy-going enthusiastic kind of girl, but underneath this exterior lurks a control freak, spurred into action....!

He's done it.

Well done Mr Obama - welcome to the presidency!

I can't remember a time in recent years when the whole world seemed to be buzzing with excitement about a U.S. election result, there is such optimism in the air and the world really needs that right now I think, what with all this economic doom and gloom and the c****t c****h (I refuse to mention that catchphrase-to-describe-the-recession, it sounds like a cereal bar or something), anyway you just get the feeling that this is not just a fresh start for America but it's a new era for the rest of the world too.

So let's celebrate :))

I can't stand up for falling down.

It's not been the greatest 7 days, has it? (And I don't just mean for Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, ha ha)

Whilst walking home from work last Monday I went over on my left ankle and fell down, spraining my ankle and sustaining some very painful cuts and bruises.

Then on Friday at work it happened again, same thing. Have now attributed my repeated falls to a pair of very unlucky shoes which I will never wear again.

I do have a tendency to fall over quite regularly. Before you ask, this always happens when (a) I'm sober and (b) I'm wearing flat shoes. I can't wear high heels, but it seems that I'm not immune to getting up close and personal with the pavement even when wearing flat shoes.

The double-falls of last week are small fry compared to the Great Fall of 1999, during which I sustained a knee injury which is recurring even to this day. Then I had a very bad fall in June 2007 which I mentioned over at EuropeCrazy.

All this has knocked my confidence somewhat. Was feeling very sorry for myself on Friday but at least I've managed to get through the weekend without falling over :)

Here's a picture of my left knee: scary isn't it!! People of a nervous disposition, look away now...

America, it's up to you.

Two days to go till the American presidential election. The amount of coverage it’s been getting over here is quite remarkable, but it’s understandable too. It’s a bit like the 1997 General Election when a young, charismatic politician swept to power in a wave of hysteria. We can only hope that if he’s elected, Barack Obama doesn’t make the same mistakes and have the same fall from grace as Tony Blair.

I’m not American, but since everyone else has a view about it, here’s mine. Obama must win, because (a) if he doesn’t, we’re all doomed; and (b) there would be something truly encouraging about a multi-racial nation electing a mixed-race president for the first time in its history, and that alone would go a long way to changing the world’s view of America.

Is it just me, or did the world feel a safer place with a Democrat president in power? The last one, Bill Clinton, is now best known for dangerous liaisons and indiscretions, but I prefer to remember him as the man who helped end the Cold War. Republican presidents don’t end wars, they start them...

Since the Republicans have now run out of Bush family members to represent them, they’ve moved on to yet another over-the-hill guy named John McCain, and by picking Sarah Palin as his potential VP this has been a political masterstroke as she gets all the attention and could pick up the all-important religious vote. Obama on the other hand is a confident and strong campaigner who has impressed since beating Hillary Clinton as the Democrats’ candidate.

On Tuesday, American voters have the chance to change not just their own country, but the world we all live in. I genuinely believe that by electing Barack Obama as president, they might just save the world.

Fingers crossed...

Wherefore art thou, Mutant Cat?

There's been no sign of the mega-moggy this week.

Further news as I get it :)

Weight-watching update

You know that pound I gained last week?

I lost it.

Yay!!!!! Still got a way to go though, and I can't see myself quitting Weight Watchers Online just yet. Just need to motivate myself through the dark winter nights and hope that I can get through the next six months without succumbing to SAD once again. Fingers and everything else crossed!

Putting the 'brrrrr' into October

The last 16 days have brought nothing but central-heating-hell, hardly a day going by without a gas boiler breakdown at home, with no resolution in sight.

Think 2008 might just have stolen the 'worst year ever' title from 2007 :(

Oops....:(

Weigh-in day.

Gained 1lb.

Right, I need to get into this dieting thing...!

It figures

In my admin job I mainly work with words, not figures, which suits me just fine. I like words. Writing them, reading them, that's my kind of thing.

When it comes to working with figures, it has to be said that me n' those number things don't always see eye to eye but there comes a time you have to call a truce, and that day finally arrived. On Tuesday I took on a great big one-off finance challenge, so big that it's spanning two working days. One day down, and it hasn't beaten me yet. I'm smiling through my nervous breakdown.

I need to go to bed now, to get as much quality sleep to prepare my finance-unfriendly brain to engage once more in the battle with the spreadsheets tomorrow, by the end of which I will emerge triumphant. Either that or there's a deluxe padded cell booked for me for tomorrow night :)

Mutant Cat

It may have been "Big Cat Week" on TV, but here at EuropeCrazy HQ we have our very own mysterious big cat, which has been prowling through all the back gardens over recent weeks.

We don't know where it came from or who it belongs to, but we do know it's big. Very big indeed. So we have named it Mutant Cat.

Just thought I'd start a new blog...!

As if having two other blogs isn't enough, I thought I'd pollute cyberspace with yet another one which isn't about...

• Music
• Telly
• Travel
• Swedish singers I'm obsessed with

No, no, no, this is actually just going to be a place for me to rant and vent and express the odd opinion or two. Some of it will be serious and mature, some of it will be juvenile moans, and some of it will be nonsensical drivel. Enjoy!