...Think, Think, Think...

B'bye 2009

I didn't really enjoy 2009.  Yeah, there were some good things that happened but overall it was a bitch.

Shame really, as I started it so optimistically.  It was going to be MY year, I was going to have a great one.

I didn't.  At least it feels like I didn't.

In January:

• My best friend and his partner took me wine tasting for my birthday.  I learned the proper way to get pissed on wine.
• I saw a burlesque/circus act where a woman pulled a hankie from out of "there" as a magic trick and another deep-throated the leg of a bar stool.
• I had a terrible birthday itself (got locked out in the rain, had to cook my own dinner).
• I fell on an incy pavement and hacked my knee to shreds (still have the scar).

In February:

• Someone tested the water to see if I'd be up for a threesome.
• I was a mere micron away from flashing someone in the pool at the gym.
• I got promoted.

In March:

• I felt stuck in a rut (kind of a theme for the year).
• I asked everyone to tell me their favourite quotes (then put them in a word doc and didn't put them into a book like I meant to).
• I got a funny phonecall.

In April:

• It was suggested I swear too much. (Fuck, no!)
• Someone looked at my blog in search of mother/daughter relationship advice (wrong blog, sistah!).

In May:

• I started to get reeeeeaally unhappy at work.
• I had a brief existential crisis.
• When asked to name an intelligent person who didn't exercise, I came up with Prof. Stephen Hawking.
• I entered a pub quiz on a team called "quiz on my face" (and I'm still laughing).

In June:

• I thought I was out of the rut (wasn't.  so wasn't).
• I lost one of my best friends because I guess he had to make a life choice.  I'm just sad that a compromise couldn't be reached.

In July:

• I got the goose flu and spent 10 days sounding like Marge Simpson.
• My mother dramatically damaged Anglo-Norwegian relations.
• I got my own domain.
• I got a crush on Danny Dyer (oh, the shame).

In August:

• I did a quiz so you could all learn more about me.
• I got annoyed with the neighbours and their screaming kids.
• I apologised for whining so much.
• I identified some things that really piss me off.
• I got ID'd in Waitrose buying posh fruit cider and dinner.
• Not blogged, but this is when stuff started to get really bad at work.  Like crying before I left the house bad.

In September:

• I shared some brief insight to what breakfast is like when I'm unhappy (hint: not healthy).
• I saw Danny Dyer in a play (he was 6 feet from me, if that).
• I experienced the pain of calf massage.

In October:

• Someone found my blog upon searching for "Young Person with Bags Under Eyes" - nice ego boost.
• I got free trainers from www.fitnessfootwear.com.
• I went on an unsuccessful clothes shopping fit and had someone imply I was fat.
• Not blogged, but my maternal grandmother (who I had no relationship with) died.

In November:

• Not blogged, I went to the funeral of my maternal grandmother.  It reminded me how friends are the family we choose for ourselves and made me wonder if I'd see any of the people there again.  It was a very weird experience all around. There were only 3 of us in the crematorium not really grieving.  I felt like I was trespassing.
• Not blogged, by now work was pretty much destroying me and I'd started work on my CV.
• I was in a minor car accident for which I totally blamed myself.
• I met fellow bloggers and saw a play called Poles Apart, which was a wonderful experience.
• I revamped the beauty blog again.

In December:

• My role at work completely changed, meaning that I do virtually no direct customer service work, am not responsible for a team and work directly for one person.  I couldn't be happier, its like starting afresh.  The extra nice thing about this was that the person I now work for specifically asked for me to be the one to help him and its all going really well.
• I struggled to find the enthusiasm to put up Christmas decorations.  In fact I struggled with enthusiasm for Christmas altogether.
• I got some sort of lurgie which the Doc initially said was eczema and forbade me from having bubbles or hot baths/showers.  Turns out, after a second visit to another Doc its Pityriasis Rosea which will eventually go by itself.  This means that I can't treat it and have returned to the world of hot bubbly baths and long, hot showers.
• I wished all of my wonderful readers a Merry Christmas.

So, a long recap there (check out the archives for the original posts).  It felt like such a long, stressful year and I was constantly run down and ill.  It seems that stress will do that to you.  

2010 will be different.  I'm not sure how, but it will.  Today I'll be tidying all my shit so that I'm starting the new year I'll at least be able to find things.

I hope you all have a fantastic time tonight, whatever you may do.

I'll see you on the other side!

Bx

Merry Christmas!

This will probably be my last post before Christmas as blogging has taken a bit of a back seat for me lately.

For those of you who are interested (which I doubt is many) - I'm at a point where I think the nastiness that has kept me away from bubbles is not eczema but pityriasis rosea.  In spite of doing what the doc told me, the lurgie has spread all over my torso and I'm now a mass of little pink blotches.  The interweb says its a common misdiagnosis, but I'm aiming to get back to the docs this week to make sure.  I've actually had PR before, so I know what to expect.  6-12 weeks of blotch that can't be treated, then normal again.

I am extremely pleased that Rage Against The Machine are the christmas number one.  I have a real loathing for the X-Factor nonsense and it was nice to have a bit of a rockier option.  So pleased was I, that I actually paid for a download of the RATM single in spite of the fact that the entire album sits on my cd rack.  I might be a little biased because I think Zack De La Rocha is the 2nd coolest person to be born on 12th January.  Coolest being me, of course.

Things are looking up at work.  I've had a major change of role to doing something I'm enjoying a lot more and I'm not dreading going into the office which is a huge improvement.

I am not liking the snow one little bit.  I don't drive, so even the shortest journey is a slip/fall/cut/sprain risk and as someone with virtually no balance or spatial awareness the chances of me falling are quite high.

So...that'll be it this side of Christmas but I'm going to try to get a 2009 recap done before we hit 2010. I hope you all have a wonderful time with your loved ones and that you eat, drink and are as merry as you can possibly be.

Lots of love...

To Do Today... / Christmas Decoration Trauma

Full list of actions to be taken to secure my status as Domestic Goddess/functioning member of society (for today at least).  In no particular order:

• Review of Poles Apart and lovely meeting with fellow bloggers
• Tidy House
• Bake - mint chocolate shortbread and homemeade mince pies
• Put up Christmas decorations
• Write Christmas cards
• Make shopping list for presents I still need to buy
• Assignment x 2 for courses I have ignored for almost 8 months
• Small amount of form filling for work, even though I'm meant to be on holiday

So far I have done none of these things.

I went out and bought a Christmas tree, lights and decorations.  The first lot of fairy lights did not work.  I find this out after I've wound all 100 of them around the tree.

I take these back for replacements.  I get home, feeling all clever in thinking I'll plug them in while I'm putting them on the tree so I know that they work. 

They do work.  For about 10 minutes.  Then... nothing.  Not even one little fairy light.  Unplug, replug, check for loose bulbs.  Darkness.

I can't put any more decorations onto the tree until I know whats happening with the lights.  Problem is I've now reached "christmas decoration apathy" and it can all just sod off. 

I realise this is probably my own fault.  These are Poundstretcher lights and you know what they say - buy cheap, buy often. But, I have another set of 50 from there that works fine, I just can't seem to make 50 go around the whole tree.

I will get to all the other stuff, but I now just can't be arsed.  Christmas is just so draining.

Merry Christmas!

I'm at home with my parents today and I'm just about to go downstairs for presents and Bucks Fizz, but I wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas.  I hope everyone has a wonderful day, gets some quality time with their loved ones and some lovely presents from Santa, not to mention stuffs themselves silly with something yummy..

Lots of Love!

Beth x

A Picnic in the Park

I hate London in the summer.  I hate being crammed onto the tube with people who have no idea aout persona hygiene.  People who have been passed by by the notion of deodorant.  People who don't respect your personal space.

The streets seem busier somehow.  More shoppers ambling.  More tourists stopping dead in the middle of the pavement to read their maps.  This frustrates me the most I think.  there are a billion cabs in london - get in one, then you don't need a map.  If you absolutely must go on foot, move to the side of the pavement, next to a building (but not in front of a door, moron) and check your map there.  do not stop suddenly in front of other people who know where they're going and don't have time to dawdle.  Eventually, one (likely to be me) will lose their rag and shout at you.

That aside, it was one of my best friends' birthday's yesterday and we had a picnic in soho square.  The weather was gorgeous and I can honestly say I have never seen so many posing gay men in such a small space.  They were everywhere.  Granted 40 or so of them were in our group, but there had to have been at least 200 more around us.

I love to people watch.  The boys were playing "cock or no cock" which I'd never played before.  Fun.  I kept noticing gay couples that matched.  I don't know if they did it on purpose, but an awful lot of them had very similar outfits on.  It was cute, in a "they've lost their individual identity" sort of way.  I learned that there are gay chavs.  I had no idea.  Twinks, bears - I know of these..but gay chavs?  Weirdest thing I've seen in ages and totally doesn't fit within my stereotype (although perhaps thats my problem and not theirs).

We drank a lot (Pimms, Bucks Fizz and various flavoured Vodkas were on the go) and ate picnic food consisting mostly of sausage rolls and crisps.  I learned that I photograph much better with sunglasses on and its my eyes that tend to let me down in pictures:

L to R thats Lewis, the birthday boy - me in the middle - my new pal Dwaine on the right.

I also found that deet smells disgusting and doesn't taste much better. My friend's other half had worn a yellow t-shirt and all insects in the W1 area seemed to think he was pollen and something had to be done. 

Our entertainment was in the form of a rather unfortunate bearded homeless man.  He was loitering in the park - which makes sense, the park is nice on a sunny day - drinking a can of stella, dribling in his beard and crawling around on the floor so everyone got to see his arse.  Three times I saw it.  Scary.  Hi disappeared for a bit and then came back in the early evening and proceded to puke on the grass - full on out of the nose hanging from his beard puking at that.  when we came to leave, we had all sorts of food left over and I decided it'd be wrong to waste it so i stuck it all in a carrier bag and gave it to him.  He didn't say anything and I can't imagine a bag of sour cream and pepper crisps, a bag of Hickory BBQ crisps, a pot of salsa, a bottle of lemonade and a carton of cranberry juice is really what he wanted but he took it anyway.  On the train home I realised that it was a small price to pay for such entertainment, so everything there went full circle.

I managed to do all of that, get home at a decent hour and this morning I don't have a hangover or sunburn.  A good day all in all!

Happy 2008!

I haven't updated since before christmas, I know, I'm a terrible blogger.  And I know, I say that a lot.  I also keep banging on about how I'm going to blog more.

Its been hard lately just because nothing is happening.  My social life has somewhat ground to a standstill and I'm throwing a lot of energy into my work.  The problem with that is that I can't blog about it, just in case I say something that annoys the boss.  This blog is totally accesible to anyone after all, and I write under my actual name so in spite of the popularity of my last name I think they'd track me down!

This year, I'm probably going to use the blog to write some memoirs.  Things that happened in my past and how they've shaped me as I've grown.  I'm also going to aim to post some more photos as I'll be buying myself a new camera later this month.

Until my next post (which with any kind of luck will be tomorrow!) - I just wanted to wish all my loyal, stick-with-me-even-when-I'm-so-damn-lazy-I-don't-post-for-ages readers as well as any newer readers and generally anyone stumbling across the blog - a very happy 2008 and I hope that its a good one for you!

Bx