Michelin Pog

Posted on January 20, 2016 by thepogblog

Most of the people in my office are at an event in the US this week.  That meant that I got to work from home yesterday and today and this has many benefits:

  • I get an extra few hours in bed – no 4.30am alarm – hooray!
  • I don’t have to de-ice the car.  I don’t even have to get in the car or the train (and no Sniffy Woman!)
  • I get a lot more work done than I would in the office because there are fewer distractions and I don’t have four hours of commuting to contend with
  • It doesn’t matter what I look like because nobody will see me
  • Nobody can see the two spots on my chin that are so big I’ve considered drawing arms and legs on them, naming them and involving them in today’s conference calls.
  • I get to see the gorgeous winter blue sky from my desk:

image

There is one big downside though:

The quietest place to work in Pog Towers is my conservatory (my neighbours only seem able to communicate through shouting, although to give them their dues, I’ve not had to ask them to turn down their music at all today which is rare).  Unfortunately, it’s really, really cold in my conservatory.  I’ve had two heaters on all day, but 10 hours later, it’s still only 12 degrees in here.  This morning it was silly cold:

That's -3.3 outside, 0.2 inside

That’s -3.3 outside, 0.2 inside

But that is ok…kind of.  As I said, one of the benefits of being at home is that it doesn’t matter what I look like.  So today I have been wearing:

  • One long sleeved thermal vest
  • Two woolly jumpers
  • One fleece lined hoody
  • One pair of thermal leggings (thank you Sister 1)
  • One pair of tracksuit bottoms
  • One pair of slipper socks
  • One pair of slippers
  • Finger less mittens
  • And….my bobble hat.  Boy, I’m glad I finished making it at the weekend.

image

I think Mum is right.  I am part toad :o)

Posted in Bumpkinsville, work | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Interviewing Pog style

Posted on January 19, 2016 by thepogblog

Towards the end of last year I got a weird phone call: a colleague wanted to put me forward for a job outside of our company.  I was flattered, then I read the job spec and I was terrified, then I felt a bit panicky as I thought I should apply so I didn’t look ungrateful.  I never thought it would go anywhere.  It was a BIG job (and by that I mean it had an important sounding ‘Head of’ sort of title.  And it was head of BIG things).   And I am not a BIG job sort of person.

To my amazement, I was offered an interview.

As a result of some training I did ages ago, I get regular emails on how to succeed at interviews.  It offers tips that, if you didn’t already know, you probably haven’t left school yet.  Things like ‘shake hands firmly, but not too firmly’, ‘maintain eye contact but remember not to stare’.  Of course, the end of the email always offers more detailed tips if you just buy the blokes book / pay for more training.  I considered it for about 3 seconds, but decided to do it my way.  My way turned out to be a little chaotic.

The interview was after work in another part of London.  I was organised and printed out detailed directions from the closest tube station.  Unfortunately there was an event in my office at the end of the day and I was so nervous by then that I decided to calm myself with a glass or two of prosecco.   I wasn’t drunk;  just a little less concerned about the impending interview.  Which caused another slight problem when, a short while later I managed the tube trip, located my map and walked.  And walked and…well, eventually, I realised that my map would have taken me to the offices I needed.  Just not from the tube station I’d got off at.  I’d printed almost entirely useless directions.

I did find the office though.  I was even early enough to stop for a quick drink and look over my CV again.  Not early enough for a coffee though, so I tried a ginger shot from Prêt.  It was tiny, but at least I wouldn’t need to go to the toilet part way though.  I drank it down in one and discovered that much ginger not only burns your throat – it strips all the skin from it and makes you do gaspy breaths which worry the other customers.

So after two proseccos, one cross country (London) walk and one throat stripping later, the only thing I could think of was some dating advice someone gave me a while back:  ‘Be yourself.  Just not too much yourself’.

I nearly fell over sideways when I got a mail a few days later to say I was through to the final round of interviews – I was in the final two!

This time, we had a team lunch.  This time I had a glass of wine.  This time I found my way there without a map. This time I had a ginger shot, but anticipated loosing the use of my throat for a while, and found it strangely enjoyable.

This time I was probably a bit too much myself, because I didn’t get the job (in retrospect, showing more interest in the interviewers cats than the job probably didn’t help.  She bought them up though…).  But I’m ok with that.  I got to the final two, God dammit!  But I do feel like there was something in my preparation for the first interview that worked.  If only I could isolate it, I could set up my own interview training.  Or maybe not :o)

nothing to do with the story, but I took it at the weekend and like it :o)

nothing to do with the story, but I took it at the weekend and like it :o)

Posted in work | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Fun and games with little people

Posted on January 17, 2016 by thepogblog

It must be complicated to be two years old. You understand what a monkey is, then someone tells you that some of them are also called gorillas. This makes Litte Pea very cross as he informs you, in a very grumpy way that ‘no, it’s a monkey’.

We had some similar confusion yesterday when I took him to his first pantomime.

image

He was very good, considering is was two hours long. That is a long time for a Little Pea to stay still. We only had a few oops moments though:

  • When he handed me something to look after and I spent a long time trying to work out what it was in the semi dark. I eventually realised it was a bogey.
  • When the cast came off the stage (as part of the performance) and he informed me he was ‘going to talk to them’ and rushed off to do exactly that.
  • When we had crisps in the interval and just as the pantomime started again the salt got in a cut in his lips, resulting in lots of tears. At this point I seriously considered licking his face to remove the salt really quickly to stop the crying (I didn’t…I just licked my fingers and wiped, but had a sudden ah ha moment around the icky things mums can bring themselves to do for their children.)
  • And going back to the monkey conversation…. Before we arrived, I had explained that the story was about Jack, a beanstalk and a giant. As each appeared on stage I pointed them out to Little Pea, and he understood, whispering back to me each time they appeared. Then there was the line as someone pointed to the giant ‘he’s terrifying’. Loudly and indignantly, Little Pea informed everyone that ‘He’s not a terrifying. He’s a giant!’ He got a laugh.
  • Finally, the last oops moment was as the curtain came down and Little Pea burst into tears when I said it was time to go home. What was the problem? ‘The chicken! I love the chicken’. I explained the chicken was tired from laying so many eggs and was probably going straight for a bath and bed. ‘But I want to take the chicken home!’.  Luckily, the chicken came out from behind the curtains and a star stuck Little Pea got to meet his new hero:

image

And slightly connected, two of my friends were in the pantomime, and Friday night I babysat their children while they did their first performance. When they (the kids, not the parents) went to bed, I decided to have fun with their toys. Babysitting can be a lot more entertaining for me than it used to be :o)

image

imageimageimageimageimageimageimage

Posted in Pog Life | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Have you ever tried a selfie with a cat?

Posted on January 15, 2016 by thepogblog

It occurred to me recently that I can hardly call myself a cat lady (with crochet habit) without having attempted a me and Norman cat selfie.  So when I should really have been doing something – anything – more useful, that’s what I did.  Or at least, what I attempted to do.  It turns out it’s not just me who should stay the other side of the camera:

image

And while I am embarrassing him, Norman’s newest ‘thing’ is to refuse to use his food bowl.  I put his dinner in the bowl, he removes it and eats it off the floor.  It’s not the end of the world, but it is a bit squelchy if he decides to take a break and I forget this new habit when I wander into the kitchen.

image

I love my furball.  Just a teeny bit less when I have some of the contents of a  ‘Whiskers fish selection in Jelly’ pouch stuck on my foot :o)

Posted in animals, cats, Pog Life | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Can you hear that?

Posted on January 12, 2016 by thepogblog

Do you have an ‘inner voice’?  I think it’s assumed people do – that little voice inside your head that gives you some sort of running commentary.

This came up in the final meeting with my business coach and a supervising manager.  They thought that perhaps, because I (apparently) put myself down a lot (I did point out that I just like to get in there before anyone else can), my inner voice was probably rather critical.  The manager at the meeting made a suggestion.  Her business coach had given her an exercise to do to sort out this negative talking.  She would give me the details and I could give it a try.

She sent them through.  The first step was to write down everything my inner voice said for a complete eight hour period.  I admit, I thought this could be quite interesting, so few weeks back I armed myself with a pen and some post it notes for the day, started listening and….nothing.  Silence.  I could hear a pin drop inside my head.  I was confused.

I tried it again this week – my inner voice could have had laryngitis last time I tried, after all.  Again though, I didn’t hear a dicky bird.

I can only assume that the view of friends I mentioned this to is correct: that I don’t have an inner voice, because every single little thing I think, I say – my inner voice has no clue how to stay…inner.  This was confirmed when I was talking to a few colleagues in the desks the other side of mine and none of them acknowledged me.  I said a bit louder ‘that’s ok, I’m happy talking to myself’ in  a slightly grumpy tone and they looked up.  Apparently I talk to myself so much, they had mostly given up listening to me as the majority of the time, what I say is not aimed at them, or anyone in fact.  I genuinely didn’t know I did that.  I know I have full on conversations with Norman Cat, but that’s completely normal, isn’t it?  This seems a bit different.

So then I started listening to my outer-but-should-be-inner-voice.  Unfortunately the first time I caught it, I was walking back to my desk from getting a cup of tea and said out loud ‘you stupid idiot, you need the toilet more than you need tea!’  The bloke walking towards me looked at the mug he was carrying, then looked confused, and possibly a little scared…

I think the next step in the exercise was to give your inner voice a personality and name, and challenge it (internally) when it becomes too critical.  I’m not going to do that though.  Knowing even the inner voice can’t stay inside, I think addressing it – by name as well –  could only result on all sorts of trouble…  :o)

I think this is what my inner / outer voice looks like: A naughty Norman cat

I think this is what my inner / outer voice looks like: A naughty Norman cat

 

Posted in Pog Life, work | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

It’s a teeny tiny world

Posted on January 10, 2016 by thepogblog

I went to a party last night. It proved to me that the word really is teeny tiny.

The party was for nearly neighbour’s partner. The first time I met him a few years back I realised I already knew him: we had got the train together to work for years, before my friend had ever set eyes on him.

Last night I met a very lovely lady. It turns out that she and her family live around a minutes from my house.  And she is a butcher. That impressed me, but what made me like her straight away was our first conversation.

Her: Hi, you’re Wendy.

Me: Um…no….

Her: No, you’re right. I’m Wendy…. :o)

A couple walked in an he and I realised at the same time that we knew each other. It turned out that we worked together about 13 years ago. I was confused as to how he recognised me – I look quite different from to when I did back then. A friend suggested that it might not be how I look that he remembered; more my personality. I don’t think that was a compliment…. Anyway, after talking to the couple, we found out that they live in the same road that I grew up in. My parents still lived there when they moved in and we knew a lot of the same neighbours.

Two other ladies are on the same face book groups as me. A couple of people recognised me from New Year’s Eve 2014/2015. One lady from the Philippines knew all the places I had done relief work.

It really is a small world.

And a couple of other thoughts:

Scalextric is a whole heap more difficult than it looks.  The general consensus seemed to be nobody would risk getting in a real car with me. No change there then.

image

I am starting to think after my last post that I have bag issues. These were the ‘essentials’ I took last night.

image

Flumps. Why would they ever be essential on a night out?!

It may be a small world, but it seems a big bag is always required :o)

 

 

Posted in Bumpkinsville, Pog Life | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

a spot of weight training

Posted on January 8, 2016 by thepogblog

I think it’s the bags fault.  It’s so big that it’s easy just to pop things in there.  If I had a teeny pretty bag I’d only be able to carry a few bits in it, but as I have quite a walk to the office, I was sensible and bought a hideous rucksack about a year ago.  It’s done me proud – it’s still going strong.  But because it’s big, I kind of fill it.  I’ve been doing my hour walk with a rucksack weighing 1 stone:

image

Yes, really.

I’m informed that this is really good training – people actually run with weights (both parts of that make no sense to me.  Why would anyone run out of choice?  Let alone with weights?!).  Anyway, after my first week back, I’m feeling a bit achy so thought I should do a spot of sorting and see if I could get the contents and therefore the weight down.

It turns out it’s not surprising it was so full.  This is what I took out last night:

image

In a kind of circular way, the items in the picture are

  • a pile of (clean, I promise) tissues and receipts
  • plastic bag
  • 3 freezer bags of mints
  • pile of random papers
  • water bottle
  • soup container
  • 2 umbrellas
  • 8 screen cleaners
  • 2 train timetables (neither of which actually cover anything useful to me)
  • webcam (which I’ve never used)
  • i pod
  • i pod that broke over a year ago
  • train pass
  • lead for charging something
  • blackberry
  • mobile
  • laptop
  • notebook
  • post its (with train times as those two timetables don’t actually have the right details in them)
  • clippy things
  • thing for using clippy things
  • 7 shoe liner thingys (even in a bag it seems you can lose one)
  • gloves
  • glasses case
  • purse
  • completely flat cereal bar that went off last month
  • office passes
  • 4 nail files
  • dental floss
  • inhaler (expired 2012)
  • blister plasters
  • half pack of polos
  • 3 deodorants
  • 1 hairspray
  • cold and flu tablets
  • throat sweets
  • a total of 46 painkillers
  • 3 pens
  • 2 e cigarettes
  • 8 lighters (6 empty)
  • hair stuff
  • lip salve

It’s amazing what you need to go to work…

I’ve removed some of the stuff, but most of it doesn’t weigh much at all.  All I can assume is that the actual bag is really heavy.  I’ll just have to look at it as training.  At least I’ll work off my post Christmas tummy :o)

Posted in Pog Life, work | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

An open letter to Sniffy Woman

Posted on January 5, 2016 by thepogblog

This post may be a little unkind.  But being British, the most I actually do each morning is tut under my breath in a disapproving way while desperately hoping that the lady concerned doesn’t actually hear.  And I need to get this out of my system – the tutting is not doing it!

An open letter to Sniffy Woman:

You don’t know me, but for some reason, even though there are FOUTEEN spare seats in the area where we both sit on the morning train (I counted yesterday), you always sit next to me.

I wouldn’t object to this too much (apart from the approach you take to choosing a seat.  Don’t you know when commuting you only sit next to someone as an absolute last resort?  Even when I put my bag on the chair next to me, you waited until I moved it before jumping in the space – even though there was almost nobody else on the train).  No, I wouldn’t object too much, if you didn’t then spend the next fourty minutes sniffing.  Every three seconds. (I counted that yesterday too).  I understand that this is the time of year for sniffy noses, but you have been doing this for at least the last two months solid. How have you not shrivelled up?  Surely you should look like a raisin by now, with the amount of fluid you are losing.

And it gets worse.  Just as I get to the point of offering you a tissue in a very pointed way (which I have been known to do a lot on trains), you get your own wad out and blow.  In the most disgusting and long winded (long snotted?) way possible.  I actually get sick in my mouth.  But I understand.  You have a sniffy nose.  You need to (eventually) blow.  But do you really then need to pull out that freezer bag and put your tissue in that?  And do you then need to leave the bag open, sitting on the top of your bag, inches from my face?  I can almost see the germs escaping.  That is why I wrap my scarf around my face as soon as you open your bag.  Sadly it doesn’t dull the sounds of your snot.  So that is why tomorrow I will be wearing both my face scarf and ear plugs as you settle in next to me.

Perhaps I will bring two pairs.  You can shove the spares up your nostrils and everyone will be happy :o)

Snowdrops. Because they are prettier than a freezer bag of snotty tissues.

Snowdrops. Because they are prettier than a freezer bag of snotty tissues.

Posted in Pog Life, travelling | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Attempting organisation – making soup

Posted on January 3, 2016 by thepogblog

A friend pointed out to me recently that no matter what I plan on doing, I always assume it will only take half and hour. And I am always wrong. I should have paid more attention. I thought a moment of organisation – making soup to take with me to work for lunch – this morning would be done and dusted in 30 minutes.

Three hours later and I have an orange kitchen (I was thinking of doing it up at some point, but orange streaks were never part of the plan) and Norman has taken to hiding by the back door to remove himself from the utter chaos. On the upside, I do have seven lunches – healthy (ish) lunches too, I might add – for the next two weeks in the office.  Hooray!

Should you have a spare three hours to do the same and simultaneously decorate your kitchen, here’s what to do:

Send your Mum this picture to find out if you have the quantities right:

image

You don’t. You need less than half a bag of potatoes.

Cut up the peppers and tomatoes, sprinkle with olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper (a la Gorgeous Godson’s Dads advice) and pop in the oven for aaaages.

image

Slice and fry up the onion.

Throw some potatoes in a pan with some stock until they are getting mushy.

image

Quality check a few of the tomatoes on a piece of toast.

Put batches of the cooked peppers, tomatoes, onion and mushy potato in the Nutribullet to make it all smooth.

Discover the reason you should not put hot things in a Nutribullet is because some weird suction think happens and you can’t get the bottom of the damn thing off. Repeat anyway.

Throw everything back in the pan and taste. Get that funny feeling in your gills because it’s rather bitter. Detract entirely from the healthy aspect of the soup by adding a few spoon fulls of brown sugar. Taste and approve changes.

image

Ladle into zip bags that can be popped in the freezer, dropping large quantities in that really annoying gap between the cooker and work bench.

If feeling particularly organised, add making some bread rolls (from a packet….let’s not get silly here). They turned out quite well:

image

Well, it might have taken a little over the anticipated half an hour, but I do now have seven soup lunches with tomato and Parmesan rolls, and a few spares. Not bad for about £5. I’m just still not sure about the orange decorations. I’d better get scrubbing :o)

Posted in Cooking | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Happy 2016!

Posted on December 31, 2015 by thepogblog

I just wanted to write a short post to wish you all a very happy 2016 and to thank all of you for following my ramblings for another year.  It makes me very smiley (and still slightly stunned that anyone would take the time) :o)

Norman and I have had a discussion about resolutions and we’ve decided, once again, to leave them to people with more will power than us.  In a year where, amongst ther things, I (admittedly very briefly) tried internet dating, made an accidental cameo appearance on a rather important live film, attempted a 2 hour commute with a giant Connect 4 board, secret bakered for a whole year, found rodents in varying states of decay scattered around the house, started fitball classes, developed and perfected the ‘belly flop’ yoga move and learned an awful lot from a certain Little Pea, I think if 2016 is anything like 2015, there wont be time for any resolutions.  Instead, Norman and I will be reminding ourselves of these words as often as we can:

image

(Although Norman is refusing to stick to no running in the house.  It doesn’t happen often, but he is not prepared to give up his racecourse nights.)

And just before I leave you for this year, I have a final tip:  Don’t try baking on one side of the kitchen while attempting something else involving super glue and teeny tiny mother of pearl buttons on the other (especially when your kitcen is the size of a postage stamp).  It creates a level of chaos I didn’t think even I was capeable of.  Still, I’m pretty sure the cake only includes the recipe ingredients.  It’s just that in ensuring that, I now have a number of buttons superglued to my work bench and the only thing decorating my fingers at tonight’s party will be the lumps of superglue that are refusing to budge.  :o)

Have a very happy 2016 and thank you again for being there, reading my blog :o)

Posted in Cooking, Pog Life | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments