Just a short one tonight – I thought you’d like to see this gorgeous view at the end of my road first thing this morning. Even when it’s cold and a bit bleugh there is usually something to smile about.
Well, it made me smile :o)
Keep warm, lovely people.x
I know it is the year of the queen’s jubilee, but it’s not for a while yet is it? I’m worried that by the time we get there, the country will be overrun with slightly scary, very bad images of the lady. Like these:
Sorry – bad photos but one was in a phone box (obviously…) and I didn’t think I was supposed to be taking the second! :o)
… ‘G’.
That’s because, despite being a Sunday in January when I don’t think the temperature got above 4 degrees, I learned to put up my new gazebo in mum and dads back garden.
Then I made a small herd of giraffes. As you do.
a lone Gregory Giraffe
Well actually, you do when it’s two weeks before you become a regular market trader at a local farmers market (one friend thought I’d changed careers and was about to embark on a lot of hand waving involving vast sums of money. This friend knows me well enough to have a bit of a panic about that scenario. I can assure you, that’s not the sort of trading I’ll be doing).
So I think I’m almost sorted – I have almost all my goods ready (and have a vitamin D deficiency from spending many weekends in the cellar as a result). I have put up the gazebo which will be my stall (and only made a small hole in the process…which I’ve sewn up) and I’ve started to worry about all the things that may or may not happen. One way or another though, I think it’ll probably be a giggle…. :o)
I have turned into my mum. Sadly, that doesn’t mean that I can now cook like a Masterchef contestant or knit like a demon. No, it means I’m officially technologically challenged.
I’ve fought against having a BlackBerry for work for years, but I’ve finally had to give in. I had fun and games getting it to work – it turned out to everyones amazement that it was not user error (ie, my fault), the problem was due to the fact that provider had not activated it. Once we’d established that I got it all set up and we were away. Kind of.
My first train journey with the BB of Evil I thought I should stay awake and learn to use the damn thing. Mostly, I learned that I clearly have fatter fingers than the average user and that I seem unable use a querty keyboard when it has been shrunk to the size of a broad bean. The outcome was one text message containing terrible spelling and another containing absolutely nothing (something mum does almost every time she turns her phone on). ‘I can improve though’ I thought.
I got home and settled myself on the sofa ready to overcome my sausage fingers and inability to find the correct keys. And discovered I had no reception – SOS calls only in fact…unless I leave it on the window sill. That’s when I learned how amazing my hearing is. I can hear the quietest noise the BB of Evil can make from anywhere in Pog Towers. And as soon as I hear the e-mail alert, I have to check it. In fact, within 24 hours, I was checking it in the car at traffic lights, in Tescos, and soon, I imagine, in my sleep. (And I can’t put it on silent as then I have to be able to see it in case the red light is flashing at me…)
But today I had even more fun. I was on the house phone on one call when the BB of evil rung at the exact same time as my mobile. I thought my head might explode. Even if I’d not been on another phone I couldn’t answer the BB of Evil as if I move it from the window sill I lose reception. I can’t dial voicemail either. In fact, I had to sit in the car to listen to the message…
So I now have three phones at home. Two I can use in the house, the third has working parts likely to induce a breakdown shortly and other parts that need me to be in the car to use. Isn’t technology great? :o)
It’s lovely having Sister 2 living opposite. Except for when she goes to work, I work from home and Bertie, her Boxer dog objects to being left on his tod. I thought he’d get a sore throat from barking for an hour, but apparently not. I was ready to shoot him. God knows what the closer neighbours wanted to do to him… Luckily Sister 2 had left me her keys in case I fancied taking him for a stroll at lunch time. Instead, I dog-napped him.
As you may have gathered before, Pog Towers is a teeny house and is quite full with me, Charlie and Norman. Bertie loves Charlie and Norman, but the feeling is not mutual. They moved out for the duration.
Then Bertie got to work. In the space of six hours he:
He is now back with Sister 2. I hope he enjoyed his day out. It was nice to have the company…just maybe it’s rather big company for Pog Towers :o)
Bertie having a quiet moment. Just the one...
I wrote last nights blog in the dark, in need of a cup of tea, 1.5 hours or so into a power cut, confident that things couldn’t get worse…
About 3 hours into the blackness, Sister 2 (my new neighbour) called to say that maybe we should go on a food hunt. That way we could experience heat and light again too (oh the excitement!). It takes a long time to leave the house when you are using one of these as a torch because you have lost the more standard battery powered version, as it goes out constantly…
It's one of those lighter-for-candle things
Eventually, we reached Tesco where we bought hot chicken, two tomatoes and a baguette (we know how to live…). We then went to Sister 2’s house to make hot sandwiches by torch light, which we ate wearing coats, hats and scarves by the light of a candle. To cut a long story short, the power was restored 4.5 hours after it had disappeared. On the upside it meant that I could get showered and dressed in the light this morning. (Apparently that made little difference to the proceedings though – I managed to drop my jumper down the toilet and only realised my dress was inside out as I was about to leave).
And of course, I was waiting for the new router to be delivered to the office today. ‘By mid day’ I was told it would arrive. It didn’t. Three phone calls to BT and one to Parcel Force and it turned out that yawny man yesterday had, despite being insistent that it had to go to wherever I was, sent it to where I wasn’t. My house. So when I got off the train I had to do a 30 mile round trip in the car to the depot to pick it up. Grrr. BT will feel the wrath of a Pog tomorrow…
But let’s be positive. I now have a working router so don’t feel like I am disconnected from life. And I have light and heat and a cup of tea. Actually, I don’t have a cup of tea….I have a HUGE glass of wine (well, it was one those days). Tomorrow can’t be worse. Can it?! :o)
I wrote this last night to entertain myself (and give myself a little light from the screen of the laptop) but couldn’t post it for reasons that will become clear:
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Today I was happily sitting here, working from home and my internet connection stopped working. With my technical expertise (that’s a bit of a joke if you don’t know me well), I deduced that the router was not doing what it set out in life to do and called BT. Last time I called them the lady was brilliant. This time I got connected, explained the problem and well, this is what happened:
Anyway, eventually it was (sort of) sorted). My boss suggested I take half a days leave and the router (in theory) will be delivered to the office in the morning. I got on with some bits and pieces feeling slightly grumpy that I couldn’t make better use of a half days leave but then…things got worse!
Pog blogging power cut style...
At 4.30pm Bumpkinsville had our 4th power cut in 24 hours – just the time when I was about to make a cup of tea (which, two hours later I am gasping for!). Outside the windows it is pitch black and it’s eerily quiet. Inside I’ve lit all my candles and, having survived sticking a pin in the back of a router connected to the mains, I am now in danger of suffocation due to the overpowering smells of nine different scented candles!
I think tonight might be the earliest night I’ve had in years.
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I didn’t go to bed. Assuming the router that gets delivered today sorts out the broadband issues, I’ll tell you about that later on….
PS: On an entirely different subject, It’s two YEARS today that I gave up smoking…woo hoo! :o)
It’s been a right old family weekend.
On Saturday I took my cousin up on an offer. Cousin 2 has a curtain and blind shop and was lovely enough to let me go and snaffle pattern books and remnants to my hearts content despite the fact that I’ve not seen him in 19 years. I was in heaven. (My car was not – it groaned all the way home under the weight of what I had snaffled) I have, of course, started using the material this weekend:
A knitting bag for mum
Huge thank yous to Cousin 2. You made this Pog very happy :o)
And then, Sister 2 moved into the house opposite me. If she looks out her bedroom window and I look out my lounge window we can see each other. For some reason this has caused us great hilarity and lots of laughing on the phone. I tried charades this evening but that wasn’t terribly successful. We’re now considering walkie talkies. Or Morse code. Or a laser beam. We’ll think of something…until then we can just look at each other from our respective windows and laugh a lot :o)
That's how close she is! (Top left window...)
Oh..and the other ‘family’ thing was the crashing and hissing taking place at the cat flap in the early hours of Saturday morning. I got up to investigate what animal Norman was trying to keep captive to discover that it was the actual cat flap that was the problem – he was trying to get out and it had actually frozen shut! Maybe he wasn’t hissing…maybe he was breathing hot air on it to defrost it. Maybe he’s not so daft after all…hmmmm.
:o)
Brrrr!
When I was younger mum always said she always knew if I felt really poorly because it was the only time I turned off my music. For the last two days I’ve been feeling very bleugh and I must have had some sort of bug as 1) I’ve eaten one piece of toast in 2.5 days and 2) I’ve not got the sewing machine out or made anything. Instead, I have impersonated the cats and slept for 90% of the day.
It’s not stopped me thinking about making-ness though and I wanted to tell you arather lovely thing that happened at the weekend. Last week my neighbour knocked on the door to borrow a stamp and envelope. He offered me money for them, I wouldn’t take it and he wandered off muttering that he had something else that I could have instead. On Sunday he rung the door bell and plopped a very heavy wooden case on the lounge floor. It had been in his shed for years and before that was his grandmothers’. It was this beautiful old Singer sewing machine:
Isn’t it lovely? Ok, I won’t be using it as it only does a forward straight stitch and I’m not sure I could coordinate myself sufficiently to use a manual machine, but wondering what was made on it in the past will keep my mind busy while I sew on my slightly more modern version. (I did triple check that my neighbour was sure about giving it away and he said it was me or the tip so of course I accepted it). What a great swap for a stamp and envelope :o)
I thought I’d make an effort this morning, for no particular reason other than the fact that I don’t usually. I put on my brand new black Gok Wan ‘Tummy flattering, bum-shaping, thigh-slimming, pleated palazzo pants’ (black trousers) and teamed them with a black polo neck. I looked in the mirror, realised I looked like I was going to a funeral and so put some blusher and a colourful scarf on too. I finished with my purple high heels. By the time I got to the station I think I may have looked like a transvestite (I’ve not worn proper heels for a while and had a few balance issues) but I was feeling quite good.
I’d only been in the office about 10 minutes when I rolled back my chair and realised I’d run over the bottom of my trouser leg. I rolled the other way and something bad happened…it got tangled all around the wheel and rolling to release it was just making matters worse. I ended up shuffling off the chair to sit on the floor to do a manual untangle. Happily, as it’s silly o’clock when I get to the office, nobody was there to witness the trauma. Instead I shared the lesson with my friends on face book…and was advised to invest in some bicycle clips or raid the stationery cupboard for elastic bands to secure the trouser legs to my ankles and avoid any further incidents.
If only I’d listened…because very shortly afterwards I caught one of my heels in the hem of the same trouser leg and the whole thing came down. Being a big hem it was very noticeable so I had to do something…I wandered around the empty office until I found some sellotape on the desk of the ‘Global Head of’ something or other. Picture the scene: I had one leg crossed over the other, trouser leg rolled up to my knee, pop sock on full show, one strip of tape in my mouth, another which I was attempting to stick the hem back up with and…the Global Head of something or other walked in looking every inch the professional. Of course she did.
So I think I probably won’t be making an effort again for a while. I’m clearly not designed to be one of those suited and booted professionals, but then, you’re probably not that surprised really, are you? :o)
How I usually look...
the pog blog 