ramblings

As I lard on the sofa - before I move my lardy arse to sit it on sarah's sofa for a bit of variety, I was reading some of my old blog entries, and noticed exactly 2 years ago I'd lost my voice too. ooo isn't life wierd.

today I will be mostly sneezing, croaking and feeling weak and feeble. :-(

the sound of silence

The silence continues, with the occasional croak or squeak from me. curse my tonsils... or whatever it is that always makes me lose my voice when I get a cold. I don't feel too bad now, much better than earlier this weekend, but I still sound horrendous so have decided to try and take things easy and work from home tomorrow, at least until the evening when I have to drive up to Chorley. No point overdoing it even more.

that said I haven't exactly lain on the sofa in recovery today. after lying on the sofa all day yesterday (once we got home from Repton), I decided that today's medecine was fresh air (as opposed to saturday's attempt at self-healing by "drinking through the pain"...).

So Emma, Paul and I chose to partake in a local cultural activity - namely watching mad locals throw themselves down a very steep muddy slope in the hope of winning an 8lb piece of cheese. Nutters. As Paul sensibly pointed out, what's the point of trying to catch up with a cheese which, by the very laws of physics, is always going to be faster that a person? Now I'm no physics expert as my dad will support, but even I can see the logic of that statement. Anyway, I'm all for the entertainment factor if not the common sense argument, so along we went.

The car park was closed due to the muddiness so we drove to a nearby spot - with a few diversions due to my inability to read maps - yes I am that typical woman - (and yes it's only 10 mins away from my house...but we were trying to avoid the traffic). We then trooped past the reservoir and up the muddy hill to join thousands (literally) of others who had also swarmed there from miles around. the sun was out, the cheese was rolling, there were mad people throwing themselves down and mad people trying to race up the slope. all was going well. there was even one lass in union jack vest and pants (which got a large cheer and 2 blokes hanging on for dear life to the top of a tree to get a good view. There were St John's ambulance people stretchering someone off the slope - not sure if it was a participant or a poor unsuspecting spectator hit by a cheese. They got the biggest cheer when they got their patient to the bottom.

Then it started to rain!
Then it started to hail!
Big Time!

But that just added to the fun. We left and slid our way back to the car, and the sun returned.

Afterwards Emma and I went to a local street fair to meet some friends. It was really nice, with little stalls and a band playing and the sun shining. we stood outside the pub having a drink, and then the rain came back, but in true British style everyone just put up their brollies or hid under awnings and carried on drinking till the shower passed.

So - a good day, with 2 pairs of trousers in the wash and the fresh air requirement fulfilled. back to that sofa.

fab wedding

the wedding was great - the gods smiled on the couple and the sun came out about half an hour before the service and the rain just dissapeared... how lucky! Will write more when I have energy but for now a quick summary..

Wake up feeling very rough - throat sore and voice teetering on going....
drive through rain but sun comes out eventually
Arrive, get dressed and find chapel
rob looking nervous but happy
bride looked gorgeous. dress was lovely, little sparkly things in hair
vicar's speech brilliant, what an earnest and nice bloke
Witnessed the wedding, (usually I'm a bridesmaid but at least as a witness you get to choose your outfit)
Guides do a guard of honour
walked to reception in sun
photos on steps with Pimms
hall perfect size and atmosphere, decorations just right (the guides did them proud)
lots more Pimms (helps if you know the waiter) - except we are only couple in the room that the waiter checks are not driving before he serves us...!
Bride and Groom arrive to squealing balloons
Cake is brilliant, tastes fab and the little statues were perfect (off Ebay apparently!)
Food lovely, sausages great, gravy seriously alcoholic mmmm
Red wine flowed (again - helped by waiter...)
Music arrives, band dance band very good. lead singer would rather be in Nirvana but clearly knows his stuff
By this time my voice completely gone, Paul very happy...
Evening closes and we head back to pub to sleep
Unfortunately lots of other people head to pub for a different reason and whilst Paul managed to slide into a drunken stupor I lay awake listening to the party until about 3am - hey ho
Drove back passing the Marmite factory to Miss Law's great delight

so that's it. Hopefully Mr and Mrs Court had as much fun as we did - they certainly looked as though they were having fun. This matchmaking stuff is a piece of cake...Right then, who can be my next victims...?

weddings

today is THE Day which is good news! the BBC weather report looks variable but we might be in luck. I'm sat in my PJ's with a cuppa tryign to motivate myself to get dressed. I have a raging sore throat which will lead to me singing the bass part in the hymns and coughing my way through the service. But at least you get sympathy when you sound rough. could really do without feeling so bad but I was only a matter of time really as I have been burning the candle at both ends work/social life-wise. Typical taht I get ill on a bank holiday weekend though, no doubt I'll be fine by monday night.

So now I'm off to buy a pair of Bridget-Jones style stomach flattening knickers to try adn stop my jelly belly wobbling in my new dress. If ever I get married I'm going to force people to wear jeans to my wedding.

Went to see X men 3 last ngiht with sarah adn paul, not bad actually....

birthdays

I've not really had much time to think about my birthday this year what with work, weekends away, weddings, washing, and all other "w" related things. But I think what i would most like for my birthday is..... um....well... not sure really. maybe...

a new job
a cleaner
a cat that doesn't wake me up in the mornings
calorie free red wine
an afternoon off.

well I will get the afternoon off anyway as I booked it today. so tomorrow I will turn off my phone, get my hair cut and buy myself a book and read it. how exciting.

pondering

why is it... when you konw you have to get up at a ridiculously early time in the morning, you can't bring yourself to go to bed it's the fear of knowing you'll not want to get up, when in fact if you'd gone to bed earlier you would have got enough sleep to make it ok. oh well, 6am here I come.

family committments

My auntie Ros was complaining today because I haven't updated in a while and she is now living her life vicariously through my blog. apologies for letting you down... and hopefully this will make up for it but I have good reason for not being up todate. mainly because my social life and work life have both gone into overdrive, to the point where I have stopped unpacking my suitcase but actually live out of it when I am at home as it's simpler. we spent last weekend at Cranham Scout campsite doing a bit of service work, painting a toilet block. I should have helped out on the sunday morning with the campfire circle too but i was too hungover and grumpy having devoured a lot of red wine and port the previous night. Paul arrived with a chinese takeaway for 11 people on the sat evening which went down well, apart from not bringing prawn carckers, but we forgave him when we realised he's bought seaweed... yum.

So then went up on sunday evening to the wonderful world of Chorley, once again, and started my week of work work work. meeting all day monday, travel to derby, meeting all day tuesday, travel to warwick (bit in the middle which i'll come back to in a minute) training all day wednesday, training all day thursday, home back to a hosue full of drying tents and dirty washing from the previous weekend.... whew I was knackered.
But in between all that I saw TAKE THAT!!!!!!!! oh boy oh boy oh boy. Along with sarah, emma, sax and karen I took sally who's normal choice of concert is more along the lines of Bon Jovi and Whitesnake. We got into the spirit with 100 glow sticks proudly supplied by sarah who had bought them from the internet. we glowed for england, so much that people we knew in the rest of the auidence could easily find us! Pretty much lost my voice from screaming "Gary" (I yes I know he's the fat one but I liked him). they really were fab, great showmanship, fab dancing, voices were ace and they genuinely seemed delighted to be back (as Howard said "I was about to move back in with my mum so thanks for buying the tickets!") Sally had a little trouble taking it seriously at first but I think she got into it by the end and was waving her glow stick with the rest of us. It took me an hour to get out of the car park but luckily I had bought a book with me to keep me amused.

So that was last week - apart from another event which may or may not have implications on work. but I will reveal more as and when necessary.

This weekend was a trip to Birmingham to see the fabulous Boo Hewerdine - somewhat different from the previous gig, less than 100 people but a brilliant concert, he is such a hidden talent but in a way, I like it like that (I guess his accountant would prefer him to be bigger but I like the smaller gigs). then on Saturday evening we had a meal out with friends at the fab Storyteller restaurant, we cleaned out plates, put the world to rights, bet on the Eurovision and discussed the Apprentice. Top quality night.

Today was a trip to Oxford for my cousins 40th. I forgot how nice Oxford is, evening in the pouring rain, must try and go back there soon. we caught up with the family gossip, saw some of Jane's lovely pictures - I liked the one incorporating Mr Kipling cakes, and ate chocolate cake - yum. Paul seemed to cope with the experience - he seems to have had an extraordinary number of family occasions this year, I've promised him that normally it's only 2 a year.... not sure if he beleives me though....

so there you go Ros - hope that keeps you up to date.....!

weddings and radio choices

Wedding season has begun, and, unusually, I’m not a bridesmaid! But that’s a good thing… we drove up to the lakes, met up with lots of old friends, drank copious amounts of alcohol, had a good dance, “aaahh’d” at the bride, drank more alcohol, and basically had a great time. Fab wedding indeed. Took lots of photos of lambs in Grassmere too, and ate gingerbread. Oh and went round to a friend of Pauls who’s a jammy git and has landed a house (attached to the job) which lies on the side of the lake, with it’s own private little jetty. Git – where did I go wrong.

I was thinking today about the fact that I feel like I’m in a cultural NoMansLand. Since Johnny Walker left the Drivetime show and Chris Evans took over I have had to defect to Scott Mills. So basically I listen to Sarah and Terry on Radio 2 in the morning, followed by Ken on 2 if I’m still in the car, rapidly turning over to Jo Wiley to avoid the horrendous Jeremy Vine if I’m still stuck in traffic by then. God only knows why people enjoy listening to that man. I tune into Colin and Edith if I’m out and about in the afternoon and now love Scott and his gullible mum on the way home. But then at 7pm I turn my back on country music/showtunes (on 2) and dance fever (on 1) and switch to Radio 4 for the Archers plus the odd comedy programme. PLUS I listen to the Woman’s Hour and Mayo/Kermode’s podcasts when jogging.

Yikes, I’m a marketing researchers nightmare.

weekends...

Great weekend, although the problem with a good bank holiday weekend is that you are even more depressed about the prospect about coming back to work! We went down to Woollacombe late Friday evening, in time to pitch the tent, blow up the lilo in the dark and have a quick beer before retiring to freeze our proverbials in the night.
Got up to a fairly decent day but not amazingly sunny – sat about and drank various cups of tea (not unlike a Sagga weekend at this point) before heading off to the beach. The sea was as flat as a pancake which didn’t inspire the keen canoe people (i.e. everyone bar me) so we decided to descend on the pitch and putt. I don’t think Tiger Woods should be losing any sleep… Paul even managed to land one in the road. I then wandered round the shops while the keen people played in the surf in their canoes. That evening, after BBQ’ing for England, buying a bottle of wine from a pub (ouch) after realising I’d left one in the shop - we had a few swift drinks in the campsite pub to get warm. I then went to bed with my woolly hat on, and walking socks tucked into my PJ’s. Who says romance is dead….
Sunday morning was evening slower than saturday, apart from the keen people (not Paul) who got up early to check out the surf, only to come back 20 mins later cos it was flat. The keen people then did a 6 mile coastal trip and we met them arriving on the beach. We then went to the pub, then drove home – well actually I spent the entire drive back asleep - apart from waking up when we stopped at the services to buy chocolate, eat it then fall back to sleep again. Sometimes being a passenger is a good thing.

Yesterday was quiet but relaxed, main achievement was putting up a trellis for my rose bush. It took 2 trips to B&Q and a call to my mum and dad but we got there in the end.