So having posted about being overwhelmed I accidentally on purpose gave myself a blog holiday – part of it was being too busy to blog, part of it was not being bothered to blog and part of it was writer’s block.

Then again I’ve been brewing up a storm – I have a new idea for something and am trying to think up a name so that I can get a blog/website started to spread the word.

In the last 10 days I’ve had alsorts on including Our Sidekick’s birthday which including setting up an email account and a Facebook Account and all the other bits that come with that.

I had a second phone call/meeting about the idea which was super exciting, that same day I hung out with my Dad at The Fountain and drank hot chocolate while being taught how to play card games that I’m sure my Dad has taught me in the past but it was good to hang out and be taught them again.

I’ve then been off sick this afternoon from work. I hate having to do it but I just couldn’t get my brain through the fog to work – I managed to complete enough of my stuff that I didn’t feel too bad about leaving. I came home and took up residence on the sofa and worked my way through recorded TV. I’ll have to see how I’m doing in the morning as to whether or not I go to work in the morning. Normally I’m there trying to work through it and end up feeling worse and dragging the cold out – this time I’ve come home on the first day of properly feeling it and hopefully if I stay home tomorrow as well it will be enough to shake it rather than dragging it out – oh well let’s see how I feel in the morning.

How are you all doing?

April

Books Read
Divergent by Veronica Roth
The Radleys by Matt Haig
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Heat Wave by Richard Castle

Films Watched
Avengers Assemble
50/50
Big
Mirror Mirror

Month in Bullets

• I celebrated my birthday and my friends organised a surprise party for me – it was so good!
• The Fountain Opened!!! So exciting but mega stressful!
• My colleague was on holiday for two weeks so I was covering customer service at work pretty much by myself – had some help from some of my colleagues but some said they’d help and then really didn’t. (On the other other hand some of them spent whole days sat at our “island” to help me out – rock on!)
• Got some awesome presents including a bunch of books because my Mum couldn’t get them for my kindle. My brother bought me the box set of Seasons 1 to 4 of The Big Bang Theory.
• I’ve come up with a small business idea and I’m working on fleshing out the idea. Well hopefully anyway.

Has our definition of celebrity changed? I sometimes get recognised before my blog which is kind of what I want but at the same time I get all embarrassed about it. The most recent time was when I was helping out at opening of The Fountain at the beginning of April and someone who regularly comments on here said hello to me while I served him and his wife (or maybe girlfriend I’m not sure) and all the girls commented on their adorable little baby.

Does social media affect “in person” friendships? I keep trying not to use “in real life” to describe friendships that started or are away from social media because it’s all in real life just sometimes there is a computer or mobile phone that facilities the friendship (if that make sense!). On the other hand, my in person friend Libs used a private Facebook Event to coordinate my surprise birthday party – so Social Media does have its uses!

BGT – Me and Our Sidekick regularly discuss would we audition for BGT or The Voice? I say The Voice every time mainly on the basis that if I was bad or got a slagging from the judges on BGT it’s not only national now – just look how viral the good acts go – what if my audition was shown as a bad one and went viral for being horrifically bad!

Are pop songs getting ruder or is it just me? I did tweet about this last week and got a few responses but I wanted to see if there were more opinions out there. In the office I work in we have BBC Radio 1on most days. When I have the choice I flick it over to Radio 2 (well most of the day apart from a particular lunchtime slot that bores us all!) and listen to that – when song were clean and you could play them to your mum without dying of embarrassment.

The ebook petition – why are paperbacks etc VAT free but eBooks aren’t? I learnt about the petition from Katie’s blog but have noticed since getting my Kindle that the price are sometimes more than their printed counterpart (Especially when the publisher creates a set price for the Kindle version – Do Nook users have this same issue with Barnes and Noble? Or similar store?)

My friend Hazel Fairy sent this video on Facebook today……

oh, great god, be small enough to hear me now
there were times when i was crying
from the dark of daniel’s den
and i have asked you once or twice
if you would part the sea again
but tonight i do not need a fiery pillar in the sky
just wanna know you’re gonna hold me if i start to cry
oh, great god, be small enough to hear me now

oh, great god, be close enough to feel you now
there have been moments when i could not
face goliath on my own
and how could i forget we’ve marched around
our share of jerichos
but i will not be setting out a fleece for you tonight
just wanna know that everything will be alright
oh great god, be close enough to feel you now

all praise and all honor be
to the god of ancient mysteries
whose every sign and wonder turn the pages of our history
but tonight my heart is heavy
and i cannot keep from whispering this prayer
“are you there?”

and i know you could leave writing on the wall
thats just for me
or send wisdom while i’m sleeping,
like in soloman’s sweet dreams
but i don’t need the strength of samson
or a chariot in the end
just want to know that you still know how many hairs
are on my head
oh great god, be small enough to hear me now

(Source)

N is for…

Nelly Furtado

1. Finish The Host by Stephenie Meyer.
2. Read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.
3. Complete The Sketchbook Project 2013 (by January 2013)
4. Read 30 books in 2012 (Ends December 2012) (10/30 at present)
5. Take a photo everyday (3/365)
6. See 20 new films (ones I’ve not seen before).
7. Cook 1 new recipe a month. (0/12)
8. Go to a comedy night.
9. Complete The Green Sand Ridge Walk.
10. Sign up for a bible plan (to read the bible in a year).
11. Read the bible in a year (3/365)
12. Write a guest blog post for a friend (and be proud of it).
13. Give up caffeinated fizzy drinks for 3 months (or longer!).
14. Plan more date nights (at least 12! That’s one a month).
15. Save up £100 a month (That’s £1200 by my 27th Birthday)
16. Organise a girlie date night with Lil Sis once a month (or more!) (0/12)
17. Organise a “craft night” with my Mum.
18. Complete Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars on XBox (I’m on about 14% now).
19. (Finally!) Meet Ellefie in person (Twitter/Blog).
20. Finish The Hobbit.
21. Read Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.
22. Learn how to finger knit.
23. Make something by finger knitting
24.
25.
26.

I was let out of work early (well 4:30 but then I had to stay and answer the phones for a few minutes so I left at 5. I got home and me and Our Sidekick hung out, first we did French Homework that Our Sidekick hadn’t done on Thursday (and should have!) we also did Biology revision about cells and their structures – he gave me a big hug and said thank you for helping him with his homework. I think he struggles with French because he’s not confident to speak it out loud. I think he’s so used to being told off for doing something wrong that rather than take a chance and risk being corrected he’d rather not answer at all – which is a real shame. I don’t mind helping him with his homework. Foreign Languages was one of my favourites at school so I don’t mind helping at all. Following the homework we played Lego Star Wars and waited for Chris to get home from work.

Other than the minor issues with the homework, me and Our Sidekick had a lovely time hanging out and playing computer games – I’m not very good at it and tend to get a bit wound up but we were doing okay and managed to complete a few levels and beat a boss that Our Sidekick hadn’t been able to do by himself.

When Chris got in he said how he needed to go to The Fountain on the way to dinner because he’d forgotten some bits and they needed to be collected before dinner as one of the bits needed to go to my Mum. That’s no problem – we’ll just leave a little earlier as it involves going into town and then coming back towards our house to go to the restaurant.

I got a phone call from my Second Mummy asking if I was dropping Our Sidekick off at church for Rock Solid as she’d hang around and wait for me. Well I wasn’t going to be there but it’s kind of on the way to town so we’d leave in the next few minutes and go to the church but wouldn’t stop for long. I encouraged Chris and Our Sidekick to get ready and we headed off.

We got to church and Chris pulled the car onto the driveways in front of the garages near church. I jumped out and popped into church and there was my Second Mummy, her and our friend sung Happy Birthday to me really loud and gave me a massive hug. I then got a bonus hug from Princess Nat who had been dropped off for the youth group as well.

I went back out to the car and my Second Mummy came to say hi to Chris and Our Sidekick and then headed off. We drove into town and pulled up behind the back door at The Fountain. I jumped out the car and opened the gates then headed inside to collect Chris’s bits. He turned the car round and pulled into the yard behind the building. I popped through the kitchen and headed upstairs – we were on a time limit – in my brain we had about twenty minutes to get Chris’s bits and then head back to the Marina to get to the Beefeater to meet my family.

I went upstairs and opened the door, I took one step into the room and was about to look for the light switch when I noticed something stuck across the window at the far end of the room (you look out over the bus station). I took another step and could see two faces looking back at me – I was like “What? Why are there people here?” I took another step forward to ask what they were doing here and how they got in, when my brother, mum and dad and a bunch of my friends all jumped up and shouted surprise. There was like a moment of realisiation – I looked round the room and saw my friends and family was like “oh look, there’s Grandma, Grandad and Rich” what are they doing here?!

It was so amazing. One of the funniest parts was as I got there. I’d decided that while I was in the office getting Chris’s bits I’d nip to the loo. Well course everyone shouted surprise at me and I replied with “Oh Wow! Thank you! I’m super grateful but I REALLY NEED TO PEE!!!” followed by me trying to get to the door to go upstairs to the toilets. In the mean time, everyone wanted to hug me and wish me happy birthday lol.

I came downstairs and sat with my Lil Sis, she was sat all on her own playing with her phone and I got the feeling she kind of didn’t want to be there. She was okay just happy sat on her own so I pottered around and said hello to all the other people who were there. I took a look at my cake and was just floored. This is the amazing cake that Bex made for me – have you every seen something so cool?! It’s got like marbled icing on it. It’s just awesome!

I went back to sit with Lil Sis again and was given some presents. I’m never sure of etiquette - are you supposed to wait until you get home or open them at the party? Well it was all chilled out and I was chatting away to people so I sat there and opened my presents. Some were funny like the packet of oreos from Lil Sis, some were really me like the headband/scarf and necklace from Libs and some were just seriously cool and imaginative like the pizza cake that Lil Sis made for me. (Every time we hang out we end up having pizza whether it’s at the restaurant before going to the cinema or ordering in and watching a DVD).

I’m glad I opened my present from Libs while I was there – I wore the sparkly headband/scarf in my hair and put the necklace she gave me round my neck – it was so cool – it totally went with what I was wearing as well.

JD had wanted to come but she had her youth group first (She goes to a different church to me) but appeared shortly after the youth group finished. The card that she gave me had Hello Kitty on it and inside it were these stickers. I’ve stuck the one with Hello Kitty on the phone to my MacBook (I’ve started collecting stickers and stickerbombing it after I sticker bombed my phone case – and then wrecked the paint on it)

The issue with having a surprise party is that you don’t go armed with your camera. I had my phone with me and could take some of the pictures but I missed out the best bits – like the surprise reveal lol. My Mum took a bunch of pictures but alot of them were blurry – I’m hoping that my brother has some on his phone.

Today is my Birthday!!!

(I went a little made on birthday pictures! They were all found on Flickr (And should link there!) – apart from the top on which is here.)

Christmas 2006
Clearly I thought having my photo upside down was really cool!

February 2007
I wanted to prove that I could do it so I did – shortly after this Chris chimney climbed the whole doorway.

April 2007

Birthday Picnic in Russell Park. I turned 21 that year! Two weeks later me and Chris got married!

Swanwick – April 2008 (ish!)

We ran out of chairs in our huddle so I sat on the floor – it then was a joke that it looked funny with a bible in one hand a bottle of Bomberdier in the other so this became my profile picture for a bit.

Camping – September 2010

Our Connect Group went camping for the weekend. Me and Chris ended up lying on the car bonnet chatting – it was actually really comfortable once I’d fidgeted a bit.

This was the same camping trip – this is my latest picture. Ready for when me and Chris celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary in two weeks ish.

14. Watch the 3 Lord of The Ring Films (again) (1/3)
I watched The Return of The King while curled up feeling ill back in about January but that was as far as I got. I guess this is something easier to fit in between now and my birthday.

15. Read the 3 Lord of The Ring Books.
This didn’t happen. In my mind I was going to read The Hobbit and then move onto The Lord of The Rings and do them all in one go but again it didn’t work out. It’s three days to my birthday and I’m not even a third through The Hobbit.

16. Meet @Ellefie in person (If you don’t read it go read her blog – she’s my birthday buddy).
Again this didn’t happen the two times that I was most recently in London and had time to spare, Ellefie was busy, when she was free and could spare the time I wasn’t in London or was already on the train home. We will make it happen this year!

17. Watch all 17 Studio Ghibli feature films (no 18 is being released in July 2011 – 8/17 as of 21st January).
I managed eight of the films but no more than that. Leading up to Christmas – Film Four showed all 16 out of 17 (Arrietty had come out in the Summer and was too recent for televising). I sat down and set the TV to record all 16 films but the signal cut out on a few of the recordings and I think at one point the computer (that runs our TV) had been switched off or unplugged for about 24 hours and so that meant that the two films that fell in that window were also missed.

18. Watch Breakfast At Tiffany’s.
I either got this for my birthday or it happened to be on TV but this was a good one – it’s an iconic movie but part of me didn’t get what made it so iconic (If you can enlighten me that would be good). Then again part of me wanted to go buy a ticket to New York and jet off as soon as possible!

19. Finish His Image My Image by Josh McDowell.
This one was added, as this time last year the pastor at our church told me to read this book. So I did.

20. Finish One Day by David Nicholls (Done – 1st May 2011)
When I heard that the film was coming out, I had to read the book first. I really liked the book overall but I think there are bits I would change – but that’s just my opinion.

21. Go to a concert.
Somehow I heard that Cerys Matthews was on tour last May and so I got tickets. I wasn’t really sure if any of my friends would want to go with me so I booked a single ticket and got myself over to Milton Keynes. I’d never been to The Stables before and seeing as I had misread the ticket as well I ended up arriving in Milton Keynes over an hour early so I grabbed some food (It’s so lonely sitting in a restaurant on your own when everyone else is with family and/or friends). I had an amazing time – I’d ended up sat right at the front right in the middle. When Cerys did Galway Shawl/Strange Glue I was singing along – I’m not sure the people around me appreciated it though. I wrote about the concert the following day – you can read about it here or watch the video of Galway Shawl/Strange Glue here (unfortunately it’s not the version from MK).

22. Cook a Roast Dinner
This was going to happen at the end of last week but it turned out that the joint needed over two hours from frozen and we didn’t have that kind of time to do it! That was a shame as I was actually really excited about doing it. I might be able to fit it in this weekend but then it’s passed the deadline really.

23. Home make at least one Christmas Present (Done)
I made my Mum’s Christmas Present and made my Secret Santa present for Caz. I was so chuffed!

24. Read My Life in France by Julia Childs and Alex Prud’Homme. (Done)
Read, Loved, Seen the film (which is loosely based on it/Julie Powell’s imaginings of Julia Child).

25. Cycle to Sandy and back
Yeah so didn’t happen! Chris suggested this one because he knew it really would be a challenge but having cycled across town to my friends house and nearly dying, Sandy was going to be too far away.

You can find Part 1 here.

(Source)

L is for…

Lincoln Brewster

No-one noticed that my alphabet was in the wrong order did they? Lincoln Brewster is an American worship leader that my Uncle introduced me to. I hadn’t heard of him but I downloaded the whole album after listening to the 30 second bites of each track like three times over!