The joys of commuting

Posted on December 14, 2011 by thepogblog

This morning I had to de-ice the car and the thermometer had only just gone up to 0.5 degrees when I got to the station.  I got in the train, curled up on my seat as best I could and felt grumpy that the train driver had clearly decided that it wasn’t cold enough to warrant heating.  The some bloke decided to open the window.  Genius.

I put a (shorter) version of this on face book when I arrived at work (a tedious status I realise, but I wanted to share my humphiness).  Sister 2 pointed out that I should ‘just tell the bloody idiot to close it coz ur freezing ur little backside off!’  My response was not to think how right she was…it was to tell her that ‘you can tell you don’t commute…you never EVER talk to people on the train’.

Because as stupid as it is, that is how it is.  Unless it is someone you’ve been standing at the station with for over 6 months and have gone through at least one major train delay alongside.  It’s such an established rule I’m surprised it’s not written at all station entrances for the benefit of less seasoned travelers…

Anyway, that was this morning.  This evening there was a bit of a pile up at the train doors where I was waiting.  When the doors opened a man started to get off who clearly didn’t feel he had enough room and rammed himself into my shoulder muttering some not very nice things.  I must have Sister 2’s suggestion to speak up to heart; because I suddenly heard myself call loudly after him (in a very Joanna Lumley type voice):

‘Now, I don’t think that was entirely necessary, do you?  Oh, and a Happy Christmas to you too.’

I can thoroughly recommend this approach.  Everyone laughed at him and I didn’t end up having another humphy journey, mulling over his rudeness.

To be honest though, I’m not sure I’ll be able to tell morning man to close the window should he pull that stunt again tomorrow.  It’s my last train ride of the year though….that thought should keep me warm.  HOORAY!  :o)

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A fantabulous idea?

Posted on December 11, 2011 by thepogblog

You know those ideas that seem absolutely fantabulous but soon after – usually at the point where you can’t really get out of them – you wonder what the hell you were thinking? 

Well, I’ve had one of those recently.  I pitched it.  It’s been considered.  And it’s been accepted.  And now I think I may have been a bit of a doofus.

I went to one of my ‘local business networking events’ and met a lady who runs a ‘personal introduction agency’.  The idea intrigued me so I bombarded her with questions and she promptly offered me a huge discount if I joined up.  I didn’t.

The next morning I received an e-mail from her (we’d swapped cards as part of the networking event) offering me half price membership.  I thought about it for about 10 minutes, came up with a plan and e-mailed back with a proposal.

If she agreed I decided it was meant to be. 

I said that, if she would do me an even better deal (I know, cheeky, but if you don’t ask you don’t get), I’d blog each of my experiences as a member of the agency for her website.  I figured that I’d be blogging an uncensored version for the pog blog anyway so I could just tidy it up for her.  I never thought she’d agree. Not really.

And now I’ve been offered membership at a fifth of the full price in return for my testimonials.  So now I kind of have to.  She does seem rather laid back about the whole approach so maybe she’ll leave it so long she forgets.  Or she’ll have second thoughts.  Or something…  Watch this space to find out I guess!

Ahh, what’s the worse that can happen? (Please don’t answer that.  As it is me, I am fully aware that it could go horribly wrong).  At least you lot will get a giggle.  The things I do for this blog…. :o)

this was another idea I had this weekend...I should have stuck with the 'making' ideas...

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Do you ‘get’ cats?

Posted on December 9, 2011 by thepogblog

Earlier this week someone told me that ‘they don’t get cats’.  Saying this to someone who has a borderline unhealthy obsession with their felines is akin to telling a new mum that their child is ‘not very interesting’ and is probably only advisable if you are trying to ensure removal from the cat owners Christmas card list…

I, however, took it in my stride and after a few days of wondering if I should never talk about the furballs here again (paranoid?  moi?), I decided instead to dedicate a whole blog post to them.  Just because I can.  And because they have been particularly.,…human….this week :o)

Charlie has perfected the art of escaping from the front door as I leave for work, hiding in the flowerbed and launching himself at my ankles as I walk past.  Brilliant 5.30am alarm.  Should you ever see me with a grazed nose it’ll be because I’ve fallen over him.

Norman has got the meet and greet down to a tee.  When I get home from work he rushes to the car as I park and walks me to the front door, just in case there is any danger I may forget which is out house.

Then we have the playing-up side.  They know when I am leaving for longer than a day.  The morning I left for work with my hold all as I was staying in London because of the Christmas party there were weird noses in my bedroom.  I went in to find Norman in the corner with a new box of tissues….

Which he’d extracted and ripped up.  It could have been his attempt at Christmas decorations (snow?) or economising (who needs an entire tissue?), but I think he was probably just trying to delay my departure.

And when I got home and unpacked he made damn sure I wasn’t about to go away to soon,  Not without him anyway…

Charlie meanwhile, demonstrated his displeasure at my stay away by ‘losing’ his entire collar.

Really though, it’s nice to be missed.  Even if it is ‘just’ by cats.  And if you still don’t get them, I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree :o)

Oh, and here’s a Christmas cat funny from Simon’s Cat.  Love it :o)

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Post Party Ponderings

Posted on December 8, 2011 by thepogblog

I think the camera might have been at the cocktails too...

You’re going to be proud of me.  For the first time in 10 years I didn’t take the day off work after the Christmas party.  I did a full days work.  I was even in the office before 9am.  It’s true, I had to make all movements slowly and I did look a bit green around the edges but I did it. 

No bouncers / white vans / French bull dogs for me this year.  This year, thanks to some very lovely friends I was ensconced in a teeny tiny hotel a short taxi ride from the venue.  There were a couple of things that maybe I wouldn’t do again if I had the chance though.  I probably wouldn’t have:

  • drunk the radioactive looking, bright blue cocktail of unknown origin
  • worn such a stupid pair of shoes (who knew you could blister the bottoms of your feet?)
  • expected two pieces of parma ham and four mini profiteroles to effectively line my stomach
  • laughed at the video some bloke took of me dancing in a drunken sort of way.  I would have deleted it…
  • drunk a second glass of the radioactive looking, bright blue cocktail of unknown origin
  • decided that as my bottle of water had run out again, I might as well drink Jack Daniels (I never drink Jack Daniels.  It is an evil drink.)

But all in all, it was far more sensible that last year.  I’ve worked out that I’ve had 6 hours sleep in the last 48 hours though, so now I’m off to bed (on tip toe though as that is the only part of my feet that isn’t blistered).

Night night.  :o)

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In the flow…

Posted on December 6, 2011 by thepogblog

Apparently when you are doing making type things it’s officially called ‘being in the flow’.  It’s said to be a good relaxing state to be in (although I would argue that when you are Pogimal making like a maniac for a Christmas fair, it’s not that relaxing…)

My last Christmas fair was this Saturday.  I have made the most of the pressure being off and erm…got right back in the flow.

Here’s a few of this weeks Pogimals:

front….
with embroidered bottoms:

...and back

 
 
 

Here is my first poggyW model in the goods:

he's one handsome litte boy

And here’s a certain fur ball fed up with the quantity of time spent ‘flowing’:

Now I just need to work out how to transfer the lovely flowing feelings to the office.  Maybe I could help my colleagues too….lunch time sewing class anyone? 

Nah.  Maybe not.  ;o)

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The first of the Christmas magic

Posted on December 1, 2011 by thepogblog

Sister 1 has been desperate for today to arrive since about….March.  Because as it is the first of December she is now ‘allowed’ to decorate for Christmas.  In her honour, I’m doing my first Christmas post.

So…

A couple of years ago I was talking about a friends Christmas party I’d been to aged 5.  Father Christmas had been there and I’d liked him very much, not because he’d given me a present, but because he’d let my best friend sit on his lap.  That made me very happy because, as you can see, my best friend was very poorly.

I was recalling this story with my mum and she laughed and said ‘We thought you’d guessed.  You came home and told dad that Father Christmas had a gold tooth just like his’.  Now, I may have been in my thirties at the time of this conversation but it still took some time for the underlying message to seep through…

That Father Christmas was my dad!  And it had taken me almost 30 years to work it out!

But no, it doesn’t stop there either.  I was telling the ‘finding out’ story to my sisters over a Sunday dinner and finished with a confident ‘but the Father Christmas that used to visit me at our aunts house…now, nobody knew who he was!’  It was important that there was a teeny bit of magic left in Christmas all those years back.  But Mum and Dad swapped looks…

Noooooooooooooooo.

So off I wandered to find the photo albums to see how stupid I really was back then.  And it turns out that yes, dad was the Father Christmas at my friends house, and yes, he had also been the Father Christmas at my aunts the year before. 

It was obvioulsy very yellow back in the 70's

BUT, the year before that it is not dad in the photo.  Nobody knew who it was.  So maybe, just maybe there was a bit of Christmas magic around back then :o)

Could this be the REAL Father Christmas?

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Tangles and Turkeys

Posted on November 27, 2011 by thepogblog

It’s been a long week.  Other than work and sewing I’ve not done much to tell you though so I will just leave you with three unlinked thoughts and photos:

1)     I was very happy to see Charlie finally in the dog basket.  When he attempted to move though, it turned out that actually he was tangled in that yellow elastic you can see and had just stopped for a breather in his escape plan. 

2)     At my third Christmas fair (I’m getting to be a bit of an old hand at this malarkey now) they had a guess-the-weight-of-the-turkey competition.  Mum and I spent ages looking for a plucked pale bird.  In the end we realised though…you were guessing the weight of this turkey…

3)     I’ve done some new making.  It makes me smile when my making works ok :o)

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Losing plots and gaining Pogimals

Posted on November 24, 2011 by thepogblog

I think I may have finally lost the plot. Yesterday I:

  • Melted a squeezey pot of honey (sadly the honey was still solid) having run the container under boiling water for the time it took for my porridge to cook.
  • Spent an hour in Pets at Home trying to select a cat basket for Charlie and Norman.  Having worked out that Norman was roughly the size of the toy cat on the shelf I used the toy to work out that there was no way he’s fit into any of those available (Norman does like to spread out at all times), so I left.  With a dog basket.
  • I bought a bottle of mulled wine and then decided it was a little extravagant to heat it up in a saucepan just for me (no, even I don’t understand my logic now) so I popped a mug in the microwave.  I think that signifies a new low on the scale of ‘sad things people who live on their own do’.
  • In a rather frantic Pogimal making session (I sold out at the fair last week.  The next fair is this Saturday) I think I fell in love with a Pogimal I created.  It may be touch and go as to whether I can let her go.  Take a look for yourself.  You might see what I mean…

Isn't she pretty?

And tonight I am making more Pogimals while she watches.  With a mug of mulled wine that I’ve microwaved.  And I may have to sit in the new cat basket for a while to encourage the boys (they’ve hardly looked at it so far).  Well, it does look rather comfortable.  And frankly, if you loose the plot, you might as well do it properly :o)

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Lovely Winter Grub

Posted on November 22, 2011 by thepogblog

I’ve just discovered this little lump of deliciousness and thought it only right to share it with you.

A Gem Squash (it's quite small)

You’re supposed to use a ‘Rolet’ or Gem Squash, but I reckon any sort of squash would work – you’d just need to change the cooking times.

For a Gem Squash you:

  • Cut off the top
  • Pop it in the microwave for 3 minutes
  • Spoon out the seeds and throw them away
  • Scrape out the flesh, mix in grated cheese and herbs (I just used mixed herbs and black pepper) and stuff the squash skin with the mixture.
  • Either eat it now, or pop it in the oven (topped with a drop or two of oil so it doesn’t dry out) until you’re ready to eat it.

    Nom, nom, nom :o)

I think it tastes like a cross between a sweet potato and a carrot – and is a more flavoursome version of a baked potato.  Nom, nom, nom… :o)

Fresh Squash shopping

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Lessons of the Week

Posted on November 20, 2011 by thepogblog

The last time I posted here I’d had a bad day, but it had finished with a smile.  It turns out that there wasn’t much karma around for me though as my week deteriorated and I struggled to find a smile among it all :o(

So here are my lessons of last week:

  • If you have a teeny tiny feeling you shouldn’t use a particular ATM, do not ignore it.  It may well accept your card, ask you for your pin number and then shut down.  It could then get stuck in a start up loop so you are not sure what its next move will be.  It will, of course be 2 hours before the helpline number opens and be the only partly working machine in London Bridge.
  • When you try to cancel your card, the ‘helpful’ customer assistant (who is clearly not based in the UK as demonstrated by her insistence that she needs ‘the first letter of your initial’) may well refuse to cancel your card until you provide her with ‘the long number across the front of the card’.
  • It could take around 7 different ways of explaining that, if you had the ‘the long number across the front of the card’, you would have the card in front of you and would therefore not be trying to cancel it.
  • This ‘helpful’ customer assistant may then not be able to tell you if anyone has used you card in the time it’s been un-cancelled in the ATM and will need to pass you to a colleague
  • ‘Helpful’ customer assistant number 2 may well be based in the UK but, without the exact date, detail and amount (to the penny) of a recent transaction on your account, will not be able to help you. (‘Regrettably, you have failed the security check’) – nevermind the fact that the last ‘helpful’ customer assistant knows every detail of you including your inside leg measurement.
  • The day this happens, you will probably only have 52p in your purse, no petrol in your car and an overdue electricity bill you were going to pay with your card that morning..
  • As you leave work after the day from hell, don’t say ‘it can’t get any worse’ because, it could turn out that during a software upgrade that sneaked in while you were at a meeting, something on your laptop has been corrupted and you may have lost e-mail, Word, Excel….the lot really….
  • …and after an hour on the phone to the helpdesk in Minnesota, you’ll find that actually it will take 4 hours to fix and can only be done in person (meaning you’ll loose half a day as there are no spare laptops while the fix happens)….grrrrr.

Hey ho, it did eventually start getting better and I did my second Christmas fair on Saturday with poggyW goods, and a lot more.  And that REALLY made me smile.  Sister 2 and I really were rushed off our feet (other than a brief interlude where we drunk mulled wine and danced a little) and we sold out of Pogimals and lavender bags!

So maybe karma does exist after all.  I just hope I don’t have to have such a chaotic week this week – I have a lot of Pogimals to make for the next fair next weekend and I don’t have the time for any more disasters! :o)

 

The boys had to shut their eyes a lot last week to block out my humphing...

 

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