A word to the wise...

don't use Mochalatte instead of milk on cereal - it may be made mostly from milk but it's not the same (and also, if you're having cereal at work for lunch, don't forget to check there's actually more than a dribble left in the milk bottle...)

Teal Green

You Are Teal Green

You are a one of a kind, original person. There's no one even close to being like you. Expressive and creative, you have a knack for making the impossible possible. While you are a bit offbeat, you don't scare people away with your quirks. Your warm personality nicely counteracts and strange habits you may have.

What Color Green Are You?

What???

I have a photo in my room at work of me and Leigh at my friend's wedding a couple of years ago - just heads and shoulders. The frame is like a black plastic sphere with a hole cut out of the front for the photo, horns and a tail (!). My boss came into the room yesterday and squinted across my desk at the picture and said "so who's the horny one then?" ...as if that wasn't bad enough he then picked it up for a closer look and said (in all honesty) "so is that Leigh and his mum then?"

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He then tried to fob me off with some story that he didn't recognise me because I didn't have my glasses on / looked really smart ...

Leaving that quickly behind - went to a sectional rehearsal for orchestra last night at the leader's house - been there a few times before, but always in the dark. So I though it would be easier to find in the light - oh no! At least two passes before I spotted it! I'm sure that more houses have appeared around it - always seemed to be quite isolated in the dark...

CSI...

Just watched CSI from last night...WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON WITH NICK...AND THE MOUSTACHE...AND THE HAIR?????????????????????????????????

Hell is Norwich

I have these journeys from time to time - I think I know where I'm going and then spend a good hour driving round a random town or village because I can't find my location - road names disappear, traffic lights get taken away - you know the kind of thing. I had a big mental block about the one-way system in Dereham for a good while...

Anyway, had a day off today to take Mum's computer to Norwich to hopefully get it fixed. There's something wrong with the tower, but Mum keeps saying she can't face sorting it out herself so I thought - take the bull by the horns and just get it done. I was aiming for a well known national retailer of computers - had the address and a rough idea of where I needed to go. Sadly not detailed enough and I didn't take a map...(my husband will tell you this is not unusual - just mention our trip to London - it's quite enough to get an hour long rant!) Got to the Cromer turn off from the ring road and realised it was completely wrong. So, pulled over, rang the shop and got a very helpful lady - went a bit like this :

me : I'm trying to find your shop - I'm in norwich and just turned off the ring road towards Cromer but i think that's wrong.

her : Yes that's definitely wrong.

me : where do I need to go then?

her : do you know where Asda or B&Q are? we're near there. Off the ring road.

me : not really, no. I've only just come off the ring road though so if I get back on it do I need to head back towards Thorpe or the other way.

her : oo. I don't know. I live in norwich you see, so I don't really know the names or numbers of any of the roads, I just drive to work. Follow the signs to the airport.

End of conversation. Sadly by following the signs to the airport I ended up ... the airport. Going the way I was round the ring road, the shop is actually the other side of the airport... Found it eventually but they were no help and too expensive to just have a poke round in the box. Ended up at a small independent computer repair place (very nice, but once again I turned off the road too early and was looking for it in the wrong parade of shops (how many can there be???)) - much more helpful, so I've left it there for a look. Apparently it's either the motherboard (potentially fatal due to the age of the machine) or the hard drive (more fixable). The annoying thing is that Mum has a laptop now so doesn't even need the computer itself, but is having some difficulty in motiviating herself into getting to know the laptop, whereas she's already used to the bigger machine. If the tower can't be fixed - maybe some kind of docking station could be fashioned - all the familiarity of the old system without having to buy a new tower???

Desk

Desk
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

This is what my desk looked like when I got in last Monday - bearing in mind I had cleared it on Thursday! well, that's what spending a day at another office does for you...

Hurrah!

Spent an exciting day yesterday painting the boiler cupboard and creating some shelving for our stuff. Picture makes it look pretty ordinary though - should have taken a before one as well... But a day full of new learnings - stuffing holes full of polyfilla and news papers, buying planks from B&Q, realising they won't fit in my car, going back home to get Leigh's car and buying them (!) and my first go with the jigsaw!! It took a couple of gos to get the hang of the thing, and my cuts are less than straight but it was pretty good and much better than attempting to hand saw the planks. And I'm quite pleased with the result - all my own work! Also good opportunity to sort out the linen and hide away all the pillow cases and tea-towels (which for some reason seem to number in the hundreds...) in the loft making the cupboard look far more roomy. I really ache today though. So not fit - supposed to be doing the Breast Cancer Race for Life in May - that'll be a laugh.

DIY...

DSCN1930
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

really hoping this picture comes out the right way round...

Ernest Part 2

Yes, I have just done 3 blogs in a row - thought it would be easier to read than one mammoth one??

Anyway, the saga of Ernest (my grandfather on my mother's side) continues. I thought I'd be clever and try to look up on the census who was living at the house Mabel was in service in about the time she had Ernest (just in case, you know!). Sadly, only the census' (censii??) up to 1901 are available for public browsing - the ones after that are still confidential.

But in 1901, the occupants of 6 Stanley Road were William, Mary and their son George - can't properly make out the surname. William was a house decorator. Wonder if they were still there in 1909?

Anyway, got a bit carried away after that so I also looked up our house now - 33 Waterloo Road to find that in 1901 it was occupied by Robert, Annie and Robert junior Malden, Robert was an assistant inspector of port men (at least that's what it looks like - sounds a bit suspicious to me!!). Then tried the house where my mum lives now in Great Yarmouth and where I spent my older childhood years but no luck - I think I remember anyway seeing old maps of Yarmouth and that our road didn't exist until the 50's - all sand until then. But...the house where I lived until I was about 9 was there - occupied by Thomas and Mary Harvey and the little Harveys Ethel Gladys, William Thomas, Leo (?) Frederick and Gertrude. That would have been a squash!!!

I'll have to stop now - getting a bit obssessive, but it's fascinating!! If I were to change jobs, I think I'd go into something like this - family research - I love the hunt for clues!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

I knew today was going to be bad, but this morning was absolutely rubbish. Thought my first appointment was in Watton - but the clients turned up at Thetford! So, mad dash to Thetford, putting me half an hour behind. Got reception to call my next client to see if they could stop her from leaving home for about half an hour as I would be late - she had already left and by the time I was at Thetford was waiting in Norwich! Couldn't wait around for me and the alternative I suggested she couldn't do and the alternative she suggested I couldn't do!! Bah! Rotten way to start the day and did not feel good about that. Got better after that, but still makes me feel unprofessional...

Strange sightings

On the way to orchestra last night got stuck behind two cars going very slowly with their hazard lights on - thought they might be towing, but no, it appeared that the lead car had a rather large unsecure mattress balanced on his roof! I guess the second car was there to point out when it flew off...because you wouldn't notice a large mattress falling off the roof of your car...

BTW - very excited about the programme for the July concert - Berstein Candide overture, Grieg's piano concerto and Dvorak's New World Symphony. It is going to be wonderful!

Walking on broken glass

I have been trying to find a copy of the video (Annie Lennox) for this on the web, but the only one I found needed me to install something on the computer which the firewall wouldn't let me do! If anyone has any ideas... I was listening to it in the car today and seem to recall it had Hugh Laurie and Stephen fry in it (?) but I may just be confusing myself with French and Saunders send up of Dangerous Liaisons, because there's definitely a lot of corsets and wigs going on in both!

And Friday is shaping up to be a fun day - I will be at 4 of the 5 firm offices at some point - we're starting at Watton for an early appointment, then over to Thetford (which is where I usually spend Fridays - some kind of cruel and unusual punishment no doubt!!!). Then to Bury for a meeting and a retirement lunch for one of our secretaries. Then to Norwich for a will signing (client going on holiday next week, usual last minute panic to get things finished which have been hanging around for months) and back to Thetford for what's left of the afternoon! I'm going to be spending more time in the car than anywhere else......

Family ties

Had an errand from my mum last week - get a copy of her dad's birth certificate. He died when she was 18, but she has a great love and admiration for him. Anyway, it appears he was born out of wedlock to his mother who was in domestice service at the time and mum wanted to know if there was a "father" named on the certificate - I think she was hoping for a link to nobility somewhere along the line! After lots of waiting (and lots of Leigh telling me there'd been phone calls saying the certificate couldn't be released because of national security (royalty!) considerations) - it finally arrived, but was blank!

I think mum suspected that was what it would be, but interesting all the same. Makes you think as well - Mabel was only 18 when she had Ernest and was in service in Eastbourne far away from her family in Cambridgeshire, having to cope with that all on her own, and not married (it was 1909). Poor girl.

Public safety...

okay, I have to put these on my Blog as well - particular gems are numbers 1, 7, and 10. Enjoy!

Smells

No, not to be too crude about this, but one of the worst things about my job is that fact that I have an office next to the toilet. Now in a modern building this probably wouldn't be too bad - but my work is in an old converted house (you know the kind - the attic floor is like an oven in summer, freezer in winter, and there seems to be no happy half-way) and my room is literally completely adjacent to the toilet. There's only really one offending person (not Rosie the dog as some may think - although she has produced some quite awful smells, and still thinks you'll want to rub her tummy! [yes, it is a real dog - boss's collie - she joins us when noone else is at home in the day and there's risk of mauled furniture]) and it was quite terrible today...oh dear.

Can you hear the people sing...

Brilliant day! Thought I ought to catch up on some blogging and have been especially busy the last couple of weekends.

Last weekend involved journey to Nottingham for cocktails, a great meal (at a restaurant I often passed at uni but never tried) and far too much wine...followed by a 7am dash back to Ipswich for a concert rehearsal. Concert in the afternoon which went really well - hopefully lots of very happy and musically inspired children in Ipswich now!

Today have been to London, treating Mum to a matinee of "Les Miserables" for her birthday (last Friday). The show was absolutely ace - I saw it first on Broadway when we went to New York, somehow Leigh mystically managed to get front row seats - today we were in the upper circle but it was great to see the whole stage and it really was wonderful. Mum said she really loved it so mission accomplished!

Not much on tomorrow thank goodness - really need to do more revision - tax exam coming up...

Treasures of the loft

Spent a productive couple of hours this morning sorting the loft out. For ages now we've been putting stuff up there which has nowhere else to go and it was practically splitting at the seams so something had to be done. Got rid of an amazing amount of cardboard - mostly hoarded boxes from appliances when they were new - kept in case they broke down.

But also found 2 modems, 3 double duvets (in addition to the 2 already in use in the house!), a B&D paint stripper which we had completely forgotten we had, a huge amount of chopped cardboard (we worked out it belonged to the box the bed arrived in about 4 years ago! and we had taken the time and trouble to cut it up and then kept it in the loft - what for??????) and a box belonging to one of our old irons with an even older iron in it! Not to mention a shoe box full of tester pots (of colours whicn probably no longer exist), broken video and DVD players and the old computer, and a mountain of stuff for Freecycling!

A very dirty and tiring (2 trips to the tip!) time, but it all looks very lovely and empty up there now. Still one end of the space to go...but we'll save that for another weekend. Oh the joy

Cookathon

Okay, I can see why I don't usually do the cooking - although hopefully if I did it more it would get better!! Leigh usually does the cooking in our house (and what a blessing!) but as it is Valentine's today, I offered to give it a go. Chicken and pancetta patties with potato rosti and roast squash, followed by a lime pie (lovers' lime pie that is...). Had a complete nightmare shopping for the ingredients - I took the afternoon off work today to make sure I got everything and was ready but I should have had the whole day!! Main problem being that nowhere seems to sell chicken mince now - what is that about?? Went to Sainbury's - no joy. Went to Morrisons and got turkey mince.. (no time to go anywhere else). Also wanted some nice candles from the candle shop in town, but that's now moved and I couldn't find the new shop!

So got home feeling rather frustrated and began my cookathon - actually everything turned out pretty well considering my cack-handed-ness (if that's a word) although I was getting increasingly concerned about the lime pie. It is a Nigel Slater recipe (and very nice too) but at varying points in it I was warned that if there any any holes AT ALL in the pastry then the filling will leak out! After cooking the pastry blind it was running with fat, and after taking out the beans and cooking a bit longer - the bottom of the pastry just ballooned up! Had absolutely no idea if that was right or not, so i just carried on and fortunately all turned out well in the end. I don't think I can take the stress though - it's almost worse than work!!!

Toothpaste

Oh. My. God. In my car on the way to work this morning I felt some kind of crusty dry stuff in my hair. Then spent the rest of the journey trying to peer at it in the rearview mirror while not crashing the car (I can do multi-tasking!). All I worked out was that it was white - thought it might be bird poo, but it smelt minty! Toothpaste?? If it is, what sort of freaky way do I brush my teeth that means I get toothpaste in my hair - and I'm talking about right at the top of my crown, not just the ends dangling into the sink.

The worst thing was that my bos noticed and said "oh you've got some paint or something in your hair." Did I reply "oh have I? I must check that"? Of course not - "Yes. I noticed. I think it's toothpaste." Brilliant.

Tights and velcro...

never a good combination. Who would be a girl...and more to the point, who has velcro under their chair seats??????!!!!! It's so wrong.