 blog from a broad*
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| blog from a broad*
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Noooooooooooooooooooooo! And for all you people finding me by typing "Convergys sucks", please refer to this site as it's probably what you're looking for. Dressing Up for the Carnival - Carol Shields (all files are mp3s, zipped) rented - "Enigma" and "The Score" lisa@wittydomainname.com
January 2002
Barbara Fletcher about me
Comments by: YACCS < ? six degrees # > |
june 30
3.25 PM meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean... This just in from my Dad (regarding my Grandpa's new nursing home): *insert "Great Escape" music here. Run, Grandpa, run! (Please note that my Grandpa has Alzheimer's and is in a home caring for the elderly with similar diseases, so the plastic bracelet idea isn't quite as barbaric as it sounds.) In other news, my Dad won $5,000 on a slot machine yesterday. Go Dad!
*warning: this next blurb will probably make little sense if you don't know me personally. Sorry! I promise to return to the silliness that is this site right after this post. A few people have mentioned to me that I don't seem bothered by something that's happened in my life recently. Since it's come up a couple of times, I thought I should post something here to clear that up a bit. This blog contains a lot of ramblings about me, but it's mostly on a superficial level. I don't tend to get into a lot of detail, and I don't tend to delve into anything too terribly heavy. So all that said, yes, I was really upset about it even though I didn't show that here (or even to people I speak to on a regular basis), and I am still pretty upset about it. I knew it was coming, and I knew it was the right thing to do, but it still sucked. It's impossible to go through the day without some sort of reminder and that makes it really heartbreaking sometimes. I'm okay, really! But yes, it's been hard. Since I got the piss taken out of me for posting something nice a few days ago, I'll end this now before I get the piss taken out of me for posting something depressing. Or before I start writing poems about my cat and how nobody understands me.
So my allergies decide to go ballistic on a day when I've run out of antihistamines. Is there a pharmacy open on Sundays within a 10 mile radius of my house? Nooooo. I've had too much to eat and drink this weekend. Like I care. Whee! Jack, Heather, Chris W., and Jim were over last night for Chinese food, chocolate, bubbly, wine, Big Brother, and Glastonbury fun. Jack and Heather brought me these "pineapple lumps"; which are extremely chewy pineapple flavoured (sorta) candies covered in chocolate all the way from sunny New Zealand. We made it through two bottles of bubbly (one bottle of NZ bubbly from J&H and one bottle of real champagne from Nova as housewarming pressies back in March), 4 1/2 bottles of red wine, and 3 bags of chocolate truffles from Thornton's. Ohhhh yeah, baby. Today I will be mostly drinking tea and eating toast. I was hoping to go on a test drive today, but my Ford Focus hasn't arrived at the dealer's yet. Poo. It's such a pain because I need an automatic (long story short, as a Canadian, I must take the driving test again if I want to get a license to drive a manual), and most dealers don't have automatics on site. Most can't be arsed to get one in for me (Renault, VW, and Toyota all haven't bothered to get back to me), so Ford's been the most helpful so far in that respect. Hopefully the test drive will happen next weekend instead. There are probably many, many spelling errors on this page and throughout the archives. I write this in Notepad - it doesn't have a spell checker and isn't terribly easy to read. If you right-click on this page and select View Source, you'll see what I mean. (I use Notepad by choice; it's perfectly fine for editing text.) Even though I write for a living, I can't be arsed to proofread my emails or this page for that matter. I write, I post, and very rarely reread what I've written. I never run this through a spell check. So, apologies for any errors that will undoubtedly continue to appear on this page. Think of it as adding character.
Things I miss about (aboot) Canada (eh?):
Things I like about (aboot) England (awright?):
I really can't handle going out on schoolnights anymore. Honestly. Went out to the Wrestler's (a pub that serves very yummy Thai food) last night to welcome my replacement to the Convergys gang. I really liked him - originally from the Southwest so he's got a bit of that "Arrrrrrr cider!" kind of accent happening. He impressed us by being able to down a pint without using his hands. Along with Jack's ability to thread all sorts of things through his earlobes, we're chock full o' talent and amusing bar tricks. I wonder if Jim remembers offering the new guy a room until he finds a place to live? Don't think he heard Jim mention it, anyway. Apologies to my workmate Pete who was apparently at the pub last night as well and tried to get my attention...unsucessfully. Next time, chuck a prawn cracker at me or something! Before I go, I must get your opinion on this one. Cauliflower cheese: main or side dish? Chris and the cafe lady at work seem to think it's a main dish. I swear, I've never seen anyone eat a big plate of cauliflower covered in cheese sauce as their dinner.
Thanks to Jiiiiim for the idea. Lisa isn't:
In keeping with the spirit of the game below, I present you with this gem:
Fun! Saw this concept on a few people's pages lately. Type "[your name] is" in Google and play along.
My sunflower is blooming! This was a housewarming gift from Jack and Heather when I moved into this house in March. It was but a wee sprout about five inches tall, and now it's about 2.5 feet tall. I don't know why it's blooming already as it doesn't seem fully grown yet. Still, a nice surprise when I looked out my kitchen window while making dinner tonight.
You know when you've spent the day nibbling on chilled squares of Cadbury's chocolate orange, then you go to your mate's house for dinner and eat a lot of curry and drink lager, then your mate offers you ice cream and strawberries, then she opens up the box of chocolates you brought and you eat a few 'cos they're there and they taste nice, and then your mate tells you to "go on - eat some more!" and you eat...one...last...chocolate? That's me right now. Blergh. Feeling like the fat man from "Meaning of Life", I do.
Spiderman! Spiderman! Saw the film last night, la la laa! (okay, so I couldn't think of a clever rhyme) Fantastic film, that was. Shame we had to see it in the world's skankiest cinema. Why is it that a town with 130,000 people only has two cinemas, one of which is absolute shite? My shoes stuck to the floor ewwwwwwwwww. At any rate, nothing could deter me from enjoying this film - it was absolutely brilliant. Another very large chocolate orange bar has materialised in my fridge. Along with the curry I'm having tonight and the Thai food we're having Tuesday night, it's safe to say that my diet has offically gone out the window. There ain't enough garden skipping in the world to compensate for all that.
"Smacking aphids off my rosebuds" is not a euphemism for anything naughty. You pervs.
I know I've had a few too many cups of tea when I find myself in the garden saying (out loud), "Get off of my roses, you little green bastards!" while smacking aphids off my rosebuds. Although I am comforted by the fact that Jack undoubtedly says far worse when tending his garden.
So I'm sat here feeling like maybe this isn't going to be such a miserable day after all. The match was dreadful, but we got breakfast (well, I didn't 'cos it was all pork and meaty things so I made myself toast), it was pastry day, it didn't rain on me on the way home, I got to chat with my beloved Susan, I made a gorgeous soup for dinner (grilled salmon and vermicilli, in a broth filled with garlic, ginger, soy sauce, spring onions, bean sprouts, and pak choi), and am currently enjoying a nice bottle of wine. Am getting sleepy. Sleeeeeepyyy.
Even though we were one man ahead, we still played like someone dragged us out of bed at 3am after a night of drinking. What a shite way to go out.
I often find myself describing people I know as "nice guys". To some men, this is the ultimate insult - who wants to be known as "nice"? Athletic, muscular, gorgeous, brilliant, clever, yes...but nice? Good god, no. The thing is, I know some truly nice guys. Sorry mates, but it's true. There's the nice guy I dated almost 18 years ago (!) who has maintained our friendship and has always given me the best advice; from relationships to cars. There's the nice guy I dated for the past two years who was able to end things on a sad but good note (which is something I've never experienced before when breaking up) and has made me feel like it wasn't all for nothing. There's the nice guy who drove out of his way to the train station to pick me up and drop me off in Daresbury (okay, so he got his kid to drive but it's the thought that counts). Come to think of it, there were plenty of nice guys at Daresbury who have been good friends to me over the years (extra bonus points to those who a) noticed I lost weight and b) told me that I'm losing my accent). There's the nice guy who has let me bitch at him countless times, who has a heart of gold and would do anything for a friend - even let them drive his Purrgooo. There's the nice guy who has done a lot to make things fun at the office, and sorted out ways to get both ICQ and FTP running through our firewall (shhhhh don't tell anyone). There's the nice guy who gave me my first permanent tech writing job, made me feel like a competent writer, and now makes me very jealous of his lucky girlfriend who gets gourmet meals out of him on a regular basis. There's the nice guy who I should really call a "good bloke" (as is his term of preference), who was the reason I finally got a job in the UK and has been an excellent friend. There's the nice guy who has given me countless lifts (even when I inadvertantly stood him up once and found my own way to the office - oops), and is probably one of the nicest guys I've known - and one of the funniest. Then there's the nice guy who helped me move, got me a singing hamster, bought me countless chocolate bars and a baseball hat, kept me informed of developments in the Big Brother house the entire weekend, "listened" to me moan about my horrible train journey via text messages, then showed up at the station with a Kit Kat in hand. Of course there are the nice guys that make me laugh with their comments on this site and in my inbox. Nice guys. Who says there aren't any left in this world?
I was having a chat with my workmate Andy about kids and the whole marriage/family thing. He's a Dad to two small children, and was asking me if I want to have a sprog of my own one day. Ah, the thought of a mini me running around, saying "Wot's that all aboot?", and helping me rule the universe. MUUUUHAAAHAHAHAHA! Actually, my response wasn't nearly that entertaining (?) as I said I probably wouldn't mind being a Mum one day. As to whether or not it'll ever happen, that's another story. When I was 20, I used to think to myself that I'd probably have a kid by 25. Then at 25, I thought 30 sounded reasonable. At 30, 35 was probably more feasible. At 33, I'm now thinking that I'm pretty sure my eggs will still be hatchable by 40ish. What I said to Andy probably sums it up best: I can't imagine myself having a kid right now, but I can't imagine myself *never* having a kid. Of course the lack of a partner at the moment does hinder this whole grand plan somewhat. Maybe I'll just get a small dog.
Fun night out last night! Everyone saw my bruise (whether they wanted to or not), Jack got a tshirt imported by me that said "Tabarnacle!" on the front and "Hostie!" on the back, Heather got my copy of "Larry's Party" by Carol Shields, Chris claimed that I email him 3 times a day (you wish), rumour has it that my ex-manager is going insane (damn, sorry I'm missing that), Jim had a parrot in his pocket all night long (or was he just happy to see me?), Micky's belly kept making appearances, Nova got rip roarin' drunk and kept cracking me up, and the rest of the gang behaved themselves (which is why they don't get a mention here). Texted Jack and Heather with "I'm in Bella Pasta!" from the other end of the table. Hey, it was far and they couldn't speak to me. What good fun and I'm not even hungover today. Hurrah! Today I will be mostly meeting with and entertaining a workmate from our Chalfont office. I am on a mission to find a decent pub with a nice beer garden for lunch today. We may end up in Tesco's car park. ...and before everyone asks me what today's subject line means, it's inspired by a little girl on a bus who turned to me and asked, "Are you Tristan's Mum?" because apparently we have the same hair and lipstick. Not sure how amused the parents were when I answered, "Not that I know of."
Pictures from last weekend can be found here. You may recognise some of the names from the comments on this page (although Dean usually signs his stuff "Plonka"). It was good fun and very nice to see everyone - it had been far too long. After running over a nail, my scoot was back in the shop getting a new tyre/tire this weekend. I swear, it's cursed. 30 quid for a new one...I am so not amused. On my way home today, I heard this horrible metallic banging noise. My first thought was that a cable had snapped (there go my brakes? rah.) or I'd run over something like a wire that was smacking against the scoot. Slowing down and swearing in several different languages, I tried to figure out what else was going wrong with my poor little scoot. Then I noticed that the zipper on my leather coat was hitting the side of the seat when the wind caught it. Ah, mystery solved. First time riding home with my coat unzipped, you see. *cough* In further annoying news, I have a massive bruise on the inside of my leg (anyone care to see it tomorrow night at Bella Pasta?) from slipping whilst getting into the shower over the weekend. Also, how long does it take for my stuff to show up on my virtual server?! This page is still linking to the Tripod server, for goodness sake. Feh. Yeah, I know. I need some sleep.
Just quickie (*wink*) as I'm totally shattered and need to get to bed. Had a fantastic weekend, drank way too much, shouldn't have had that Kit Kat tonight (curse you Jiiiiiiiiiiiiim, but thank you as well), pictures coming soon, Central Trains can bite my Canadian arse, I really want 8 hours of sleep one of these nights. Right, time for bed said Zebedee.
Thanks and smoochies to you all for the comments/compliments regarding the little redesign. I realise the blog column is too wide and hopefully I'll be arsed to fix it before I go away for the weekend. I don't test things in other weirdy browsers because I'm a wanker who uses IE. If this were a site I put on my CV, I'd definitely put more effort into it - and it does bother me that it's far from perfect. Then again, the "can't be arsed" side of me usually wins out. Hee! This site will be moving soon (finally getting this thing hosted properly), so stay tuned for the "good riddance to Tripod forever" party that will ensue. If you could, please make sure that your links are pointing to the wittydomainname.com address and not the molly_bloom.tripod.com/Thoughts.htm address. Cheers! Off for a weekend of booze and cheese toasties up in Daresbury with a bunch of good friends. Can't wait! I'm still packing (I'm bringing 5 pairs of new knickers. Why? Because you simply can't have enough new knickers. Or shoes.) and will undoubtedly forget something really important. Ohhhh like the time I went to the Lake District and forgot to pack the recharger for my digital cam. Doh. I am so full of Chinese food, I'm gonna explode. I can't even eat a wah-fer thin mint. Oh maybe I could have a bit of that chocolate that's in my fridge, though. Hmm good question - can we get cheese curds in England? Must investigate this. See some of you tomorrow night and see the rest of you on Sunday.
This site looked like utter crap for a while tonight, and it's not just my rubbish web design skills. I updated the CSS for this site, and my server has attachment issues. Specifically, it gets very attached to its cache and doesn't like to update things like CSS changes or image uploads for ages. Sorry 'bout that. All is well now. Well, unless you think it still looks like shite, then it really is my rubbish web design skills.
Well, that was a fantastic conference - and I got lots of free stuff! I came back with a tshirt, pens, a really tacky Robohelp button, a torch/flashlight, and a koala (one of the speakers was Australian and I won it by answering a question correctly). Met quite a few interesting and nice people as well. Really glad I got go. Saw "Panic Room" with Jim last night, which was really good fun. Not what I expected as it was sort of a combination thriller/comedy. Think of it as "Home Alone" with Jodie Foster as Macaulay Culkin and Dwight Yoakam as Joe Pesci (and in fact, one of the characters actually refers to Dwight as "Joe Pesci" at one point, so I'm guessing the "Home Alone" comparison was intentional). When I grow up, I'm gonna marry Jim because he gave me an enormous chocolate bar last night. No, that's not a euphemism. Orange-flavoured chocolate is the way to this girl's heart.
Bad cold. Body hurts. Tummy very annoyed. Nose equally unhappy. Having Lemsip for the first time ever (it's really feckin sugary!). Very disappointed that Lemsip doesn't make you sleepy like Neo Citran. Or maybe it does, but it didn't mention it on the packaging. Will find out soon. Must wake up at 5am tomorrow, so that means I've got to go to bed...hmmm...in an hour. Okay, more like 8 hours. Off to snuggle with my sofa now.
Too tired and too full of wine to add to this tonight. Ate the Kit Kat. I am a happy girl.
I'm old and boring, so I'm off to bed soon - but not before I update this page with all the fantastically exciting things happening in my life! Hoooo doggies! Well, okay it's not that exciting. At least reading this page keeps you lot off the streets for a few minutes each day. My loan has been approved, so I am definitely getting a car. I'm dragging Jim along with me to car shop tomorrow, which I'm sure will be buckets of fun for him. At least we'll be avoiding the hippies at Strawberry Fair. Pleh. Many, many, many thanks to Tony (da Canadian one) for loads of great car advice. I'm armed and ready to deal with smarmy salesmen. I'll be in London on Monday and Tuesday at a conference, which should be good. I've been trying to get to these things since moving here, but we could never go due to "budget constraints". Of course this does mean that I've got to be on a train at 6.45am on a Monday morning, but I think I can tough it out. Last but not least, well done In-ger-land! Fantastic match that was great fun to watch. We're gonna score one more than youuuuuu...ENG-LAND!
Thanks to Melanie for sending me this meeting of the minds from the Big Brother house: Spencer: "You know you see those people in Venice standing on the back
of gondolas, pushing it around?"
Wowie, the good times just keep on rollin'. Just got this from Amazon (I ordered a DVD for my Dad recently): Blimey, how many companies do you know who'd actually issue a refund because they discounted something after you ordered it? I'm impressed.
So here I am, still considering getting a car and thinking what a pain it'll be because of the scoot. I really like my scooter (on the most part) but what the heck am I gonna do with it if I get a car? It's going to be really hard to sell because it's a 1998, and only goes 40-45mph on a good day. And then lo, a knock came upon my door. Thinking it was Nova picking me up for dinner tonight, I answered to find a kid on a bike who asked, "Do you know who owns that scooter?" "Erm...me..." I said, looking over his shoulder at it and expecting him to point out how it's recently been vandalised or something equally annoying. "Do you want to sell it?" Did this kid hack into my computer, or what? Turns out that this wee lad just got his license (I swear, he looked 12) and like most kids that age, can't afford a car but a scoot would be perfect for him to get around. What's more is that he mentioned how much he'd pay for it - and it happened to be what I would have asked for it. Spoooooky. So if the car thing does work out, my scoot problem is sorted. Cool! On the other hand, when the weather's nice, and the sun's shining down on me, scooting into work is fantastic. I will definitely miss it.
Showering this morning was great fun. The combination of hot water, really good water pressure, and a sunburn was quite the way to wake up. Yes, I had aftersun. No, I didn't remember to put any of it on yesterday. Shush. I drank over 2 litres of water today, which is probably a sign of something sun-related. Or something. To continue filling you all in on my riveting holiday weekend (try to contain yourselves), I spent a few minutes skipping in the garden today. You heard me right. I have to get some cardio in somehow, I don't ride my bike to work anymore and don't have a gym near by so I invested in a skipping rope. C'mon, boxers do it so it can't be that sad. I have an enclosed garden, so no one can see me (or at least I hope they can't), and the neighbours next door have one of those funky Zen gravelly type gardens with lots of stones - so I can hear them go crunch crunch crunch as they walk around. As I started skipping, I could hear tentative footsteps getting closer to my fence, pausing, then retreating. This kept going on as I tried to jump my way to a new thin me (I was also swearing a lot because I kept getting the feckin rope caught around my feet), which was slightly unsettling. So now my neighbours are sitting there discussing what could possibly involve being in a garden, jumping up and down, and swearing. I love making everyone's day a little more surreal. I also played a lot of Luigi's Mansion on my Gamecube today. It's the one game that I'm not totally crap at - hurrah! I get the most amusement out of pressing the A button and making Luigi go "Maaaaaaaaaarrriiiooooooooo!" like some sort of bad impression of Rainman. Normally, the A button makes Luigi do stuff but when he's not near anything, it just makes him whinge. Fantastic! Jim and Jack did London today - got text messages from Jim telling me that he was at a pub and witnessed some sort of police action, and from Jack and Heather telling me that Buckingham Palace was on fire (Jack claims he's not involved), and that they won beer in a pub quiz. Man, I miss all the fun. The Kit Kat's still there, by the way.
Spent too much time enjoying our one day of sun. Big red crescent below my neck. Skin simultaneously hot and itchy. Have realised this is for nowt as it's supposed to rain for the next 7 days, so my attempt at getting some colour will fail miserably. I am destined to remain pasty year round. I have decided to cut down on the drinking. Stop laughing! Okay, I'm pretty much a lightweight compared to most of my friends, but I've been having more boozy nights than usual lately. All of this is in a vain attempt to get some more weight off. We go out for food, I drink, I eat too much, I stay squidgy. To quote Homer Simpson, "Woohoo! Lookit that blubber fly!" Day one of being well behaved and I can feel the effects already - I'm cranky, hungry, and would really like a nice glass of Chardonnay. Hmm perhaps this wasn't the best week to start detoxing. Crap, I just remembered that I've got a Kit Kat sitting in the fridge. Curse you Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim!
I am the clueless gardener. I've never had a garden before, so I'm kind of useless. I can water stuff, pick out and trim stuff that looks like it shouldn't be there, and spray aphid-killing/ant-attracting toxic chemicals on my roses...that's about it. I've said this before, but I'm old and repeat myself anyway so I'll say it again: it's fun not knowing anything about plants because I'm always so surprised when I look out my window and see things have changed.
Every couple of weeks, my village sends round a little newsletter. For a publication that's only around 4 pages long, it's a damn fine read. Some excerpts: A workmate brought his Gamecube in today, so it was a Super Monkey Ball fiesta at lunchtime. I'm trying to figure out why I'm still absolute crap at it when I've owned a Gamecube myself for almost a month. This same workmate can watch television on his PC, so the lads will be watching the World Cup starting tomorrow morning. The guy who sits next to me is French, so he's all agog to say the least. They're also setting up a screen in one of the conference rooms - it's World Cup fever, I tell you. I'll have to root for Ingerland 'cos Canada didn't even make it. We're excellent at football...if it's on ice and involves skating and a puck. In other work-related news, we had a fire drill today. For some weird reason, we all got ice cream and ice lollies afterwards...for being good? *shrug* It's a 4 day weekend here coming up for the Queen's jubilee. All my mates have plans (bastards!), so I'm trying to figure out what to do so that I'm not sitting in my pyjamas playing Super Monkey Ball and getting drunk on my own for 4 days. I'm thinking of heading up to the North Norfolk coast as it's really pretty up there and not too far away. Blakeney is high on my list of places to revisit, so that's a possibility if there's any accomodation to be had this weekend. So far, I'm not having any luck finding a room. Poo. Off to see Monsters Inc. tomorrow night at the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse, which is having a late night showing with free Ben and Jerry's ice cream! Woowoowoo! It'll be noodly things at Dojo's beforehand, drinks at The Mill, then off for the film. ...and to end this riveting entry, here's my summary of the Big Brother 3 housemates:
Yes, definitely need to get out of the house this weekend. Gads.
This made me giggle, but maybe that's just because I'm really tired.
I am now getting a kajillion hits for that bloody Eurovision song contest winner because of yesterday's post. Well, at least it's not about nipples anymore.
Thank you une mille fois to Tony F. and Deano for their excellent car buying advice! Top cars in the running so far are the Ford Focus and the Toyota Yaris. Lots more research to do, road tests to take, and oh yes, I should probably save up some money before embarking on this adventure. In the meantime, the scoot sits neglected at the bike shop because the mechanics are complete twonks. The words "warranty" and "replacement hire car" are really attractive to me right now. Plus, I'm 33 and it's about time I bought my first car, don't ya think?
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