I'm going through Changes!

http://hageltoast.typepad.com/seeking_xanadu/

I am moving. Possibly, at the moment I am enjoying the 30 day trial period, but I gotta say I am liking the extra features. Any chance you'll follow me?

Simply Wonderful!

I like to sometimes wonder through random blogs, it's how I came across Nelly's Garden and One More Cup, and now I have found this
http://smartsimplewoman.typepad.com/
for those of you who like Flylady, but found her, frankly a bit pushy, this is a much gentler form of the same basic principal, how to simplify your life to allow more time for you!

Also, what's really wonderful is that Nik has finally gien in and joined us... yep , my one of my old Uni mates is finally blogging. Woot Woot!!!
http://jadis-nt.livejournal.com/

If you guys have any favourites you visit that you'd like to share with the rest of the class, i'd love you to leve them in the comments.

Dipstick!!

Seriously, I am... I just realised that on Thursday I am away, which is fine except that I hounded people ruthlessly to attend a meeting on, yup, thursday. I just got laughed at by one of the attendees when she got my somewhat sheepish email.

Otherwise, the week hasn't started badly. I am very tired as the heat is still stopping me sleeping properly, but I am loving all the sunshine in the day. Mark and I had a lovely weekend, we went to Charlecote Park which is a fantastic national trust house which wonderful outbuildings and grounds. It's licensed for weddings. *looks around innocently*. We then had a pub lunch at a really lovely pub, got caught in a horrific thunder storm, were stuck in traffic for a couple of hours due to a couple of feet of standing water on the main road (sheesh, you'd think we'd be used to water) and got home in time to relax for the evening.
Sunday we went for a swim, Marks first time at the leisure centre nearby. It was lovely, really enjoyed myself.

Of course it's swimming again tonite, with Anna and Jo LV, fat club swimming. :)

meme

c'mon, copy, paste, alter and leave on your own blog for the rest of us.

Four Things that you may not have known about me.....

A) Four jobs I have had in my life: No order of preference!
1. KFC food server
2. Office Manager
3. Team Assistant in Traffic
4. Transport Engineer
B) Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Rocky Horror Picture Show
2. The Lost Boys
3. Serenity
4. Batman Begins
C) Four places I have lived:
1. Near Fenny Drayton
2. Newcastle
3. North Shields
4. Leicester
D) Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. Buffy/Angel
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Bones
4. Firefly
E) Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Holland
2. Denmark
3. Wales
4. Germany
F) Four websites I visit daily:
1. my blog
2. loads of other peoples blogs
3. www.peaceandlove.org.uk (festivals in the UK and Europe)
4. my space
G) Four of my favorite foods:
1. Pasta
2. Pizza
3. Cheese
4. Chocolate
H) Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Home - in bed
2. camping
3. in the pub
4. at the pictures (air con)
I) Friends I think will respond:
1. Anna
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Make hay!

I grew up on a small holding, i may have said this before. A small holding is rioiughly speaking, between 1 and 1000 acres which are used for small scale farming. Over a thousand acres can usually be considered a working farm, a small holding should provide produce for the family and maybe a little over to trade. When I was very small we had a dairy herd, sheep, chickens, rabbits (bred as food), and orchard, a vegetable and fruit garden and we grew hay. This all got scaled down bit by bit over the years till there qwere 30 sheep and hay, then nothing, in its place we moved towards having a livery stables, where people could pay for the use of fields and stables for their horses. Mum had bred horses at one point and we loved having them around, all the girls in the family rode.

So, why am i saying this now, well it's the heat; no it's not messing with my head, it's just all this hoopla about how we have actually ad a couple of hot dry weeks and it's the greenhouse effect and things, but weather goes in cycles. I am not disputing the negative effect on the environment of our short term and selfish living practises, but as for this summer, when I was young, and we used to make hay you paid attention to the sun, your livelihood depended on it.

As I say weather goes in cycles, we would have two or three years where the sun came for two or three weeks, blazing down, the skies were clear and we could get the hay in at the perfect time in perfect conditions with minimum stress, then you'd get two or three years of having to jump on three days where it didn't rain and hope for the best or risk not getting it in atall, i remember shifting bales till midnight to get them all off the field and covered, and mum anxiously phoning up for the 5 day forecasts and worrying about every desicsion. For a few weeks every summer the weather ruled our lives.

Just saying really, I find it odd how people react to a little sunshine.

The blogging phenom!

I have just been reading in the Metro (free paper) that a quarter of webheads in the UK are blogging, yay us!! lol
It also gave a very brief explanation of how to blog, it suggested as one of the items to write about something which you know a lot about and other people don't to carve out a niche.
Well I don't know about you, but i don't blog in order to carve out a niche and be fabulously intelligent on a particular subject (just as well really). I blog pretty much for the hell of it, but nice to know how many of us are doing it.

Opening up the floor

It's another scorcher today and I am thanking all sorts of false gods (couldn't resist that Jazzer) for the air con at work, my house is a furnace so i have been getting about 4 hours sleep a night all week and am shattered, but loveing the sunshiny days.

Anyway, since nothing very exciting has happened this week - i went swimming with Jo LaVey and Anna, and last night Anna came to clean (yes, i caved and hired a friend to help, she's a neat freak so its all good) so i now have a shiny clean proch, even Eryk and Yorick, my concrete and plaster skulls got a polish (altho' i thought the webs and bits of spider added authenticity).

So I thought i'd open the floor to the readership for todays post. You may remember at Roskilde I was very dissapointed to see Axl Rose suck majorly, all the fucking about, hardly any tracks, even classics like Sweet Child performed at a mediocre level. The official excuse was he was having to take oxygen, well so did Dee Snider and i've seen twisted sister twice now and Dee still blasts out the best live performance of anyone, ever!!!

Sooo, my question to you all is what long awaited and anticipated live event has been a HUGE dissapointment to you, and what has been a plesent surprise?

By live event it doesn't have to be music, just has to be something you bought a ticket for and were really looking forward to.

Lady godiva

cribbed from a history website, for those unfamiliar with this english legend.

LADY GODIVA
Some 900 years ago an extraordinary occurrence took place on Market Day in the English midlands town of Coventry.
Two monks at St. Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire first recorded this amazing story in Latin. Roger of Wendover wrote of it in the twelfth century and Mathew Paris in the early thirteenth century.
As the Abbey stood at an important road junction, it would seem that the monks may have heard the story from travellers who were on their way from the Midlands to London.
This astonishing tale that has come down to us through the centuries is that sometime in the eleventh-century a proud, pious lady rode through Coventry on Market Day completely naked, covered by nothing but her long hair!
Was this true? Apparently so!
Who was this pious medieval streaker?
Lady Godiva was the lady, wife of Leofric, the Earl of Mercia.
Earl Leofric was one of the all-powerful lords who ruled England under the Danish King Canute.
Lady Godiva was a rich landowner in her own right and one of her most valuable properties was Coventry.
Leofric was a tyrant, he tyrannised the Church and did not hold the same religious convictions as his wife, nor her fondness for the Midlands and its populace.
Lady Godiva by John Collier Courtesy of the Herbert Art Galleryand Museum, Coventry
He mercilessly demanded from the people of Coventry an oppressive tax called the Heregeld. This tax paid for King Canute's bodyguard and Leofric made sure that the people of Coventry paid it!
Lady Godiva pleaded with Leofric to stop this hated tax and he is reputed to have said, "You will have to ride naked through Coventry before I will change my ways".
He was quite sure that his demure, modest wife would never do such a thing.
But, Lady Godiva took him at his word, and on Market Day in Coventry she rode naked, veiled only by her long golden hair. As her hair was long enough to cover all her body, only her face and legs could be seen.
Leofric was so stunned by the whole incident that he believed it was a miracle that no one had seen his wife's naked body, and he immediately "freed" the town from paying the hated Heregeld, and at the same time ceased his persecution of the Church
Leofric appears to have undergone a religious conversion after this incident and he and Godiva funded a Benedictine monastery in Coventry where they were both buried.
Unfortunately all traces of this monastery have long since disappeared.
By the seventeenth-century the story appears to have been altered slightly. The new version of the story said that before her 'ride', Godiva sent out messengers to go throughout the town insisting that all the people stay indoors with their windows shuttered on the day. As she was very popular with the people, (unlike her husband,) and every taxpayer realised that they stood to gain from her 'heroic act', they did as she requested
Everyone complied with her request except for one man who couldn't resist peeping, a tailor, 'Peeping Tom'.
He was, the story goes 'blinded by the wrath of Heaven' for his temerity in not obeying the order.
A statue, supposedly of Peeping Tom, a strange wooden effigy, can be seen in Coventry's Cathedral Lanes Shopping Centre. The eyes in this effigy appear blank, but that may be because the paint has worn off over the years.
The annual Coventry Fair kept alive the Godiva story until the Reformation when the festival was banned and it was not revived until 1678.
From this time on Godiva rode through the streets on a snow-white horse, accompanied by a man whose chief skill lay in his ability to make rude, suggestive gestures. Peeping Tom again!! The Godiva Procession has been revived in recent years and takes place annually in June (please see below)
Today a visitor needs only to look in front of Coventry's Cathedral Lanes Shopping Centre to see a replica of the sight which tradition insists struck Peeping Tom blind!
Useful Information:
The Godiva Festival
Lady Godiva is remembered each year with a Godiva Procession through the town.
More details: www.coventry.org/godiva

Ed- sadley the godiva statue in the city centre, which my freinds and i use dot sit on at lunch time is now fenced off, this came as something of a dissapointment.

Godiva

Me, mark, rob, graham and a few of gray's mates went to coventry yesterdayfor the godiva festival, its a free thing, run by the city council, just round the corner from where i went to junior school. In fact i used to have to do cross country runs for games through the memorial park where the festival was held. I think it's probably the first time i've been back since then, soooo, 18 years then.
Actually getting to Cov was fun and games, given its only 30mins away, less than 30 miles, we figured therre'd be a direct train service. Not only was there not a direct service, but it was running a bus replacement, so they wanted £6.50 each to take two hours, on two seperate buses, assuming everything ran on time, to do a 30 minute journey. Well stuff that. We had a swift pint at the bricklayers arms and caught the service bus, which took about 45minsn and cost £3.20.
When we got to Cov (just me mark and rob at this point) we went to the golden cross, which is a pub i used to haunt occasionally, and where i had my 18th birthday. Pleased to say it's still a rock pub and it hasn't changed a bit!!!



Afterthat we went to a wetherspoons for a cheap and cheerful pub lunch, and then jumped in a cab to the park, which turned out to be cheaper between three than the bus would have been.
We arrived in time to watch a bit of dog training and then get into the tent before the end of blackbud, who were a surprise. We'd never heard of them but they were pretty good. We met up with the others at the back of the tent at this point.

We stayed in for the Fratellis, who were excellent, plan to see them soon at the Charlotte.
After that we headed to the Cider Bar, for a drink of the splendid and potent Burrow Hill


there we met up with an old school friend of mine and her boyfriend, who stopped by to say hi. Trooper that she is, Lucie then turned out again later and ran us home in the middle of the night, stopping at mine for a cuppa before heading back to get a few hours sleep before going in to work on sunday. Yes, she is a star, no, I don't know what i do to deserve friends like these.

Finally we went in to see mercury Rev, who were pretty good. This being the end of the night there were plenty of example of how not to mix heat and booze.

Then we ambled home. It was a really fun day and always good to catch up with an old friend.

It's friday, yay!! I have an exam this afternoon about a subject i have totally failed to understand, booo! mind you, i asked around work and i am not the only one baffled by the dread soil mechanics. If i scrape a pass i will be haqppy, if i have to resit, i will not be entirely surprised.

Tommorrow we are going to the Godiva festival in coventry which is sort of live musicy, craft fairy and free, so it should be a nice way to spend the day. have soo much to do at work, maybe i will be able to focus better when i get the exam out of the way, get a few things rolling properly.

I am sooo tired I just want to curl up and sleep and i don't think all the coffee in the world will help me, i wonder if it's the hayfever tablets, they are supposed to be non drowsy, but thats not exaclty a garrantee is it.

ok, done rambling for now. gotta go study.

I can't quite believe it

It's a sad day for me today, a little late I popped into Gut Rumbles after not going in for a while and saw that Acidman is gone. His family are rather wonderfully using the site to let the blog community know what is happening rather than just letting it sit. I could cry. I wanted to comment, but I hadn;t long discovered it and didn't know what to say. So this is it really, what i wanted to say, thank you for Gut Rumbles, it made me cry laughing and think about things that otherwise i'd never have paused to consider, and thanks to the family for posting about what is going on.
This has brought home again just how real our little communities are, i may never meet most of my online and blogfriends, but that doesn't make you any less important in my every day life than the people i have around me, in some ways you have a larger role than many of my real life friends. KI've blogged about this before.
Anyway, just all of you take care of yourselves and do something nice, just for you today!

killmouskie

EEEP!!! i am soo happy, my lovely mark bought me a perzzie today, a brand spanking new wireless keyboard and mouse!!!! no more sticky space bar!!! The keyboard i had was extremely cheap and on its way to dead, i bought it in a hurry when my ex spilt coffee all over my beautiful multimedia expensive one that i loved and adored. I never connected with the cheapo thing i brought home to replace it. Is it silly that i like to have a connection to my computer equipment? It's such a vital part of my life, i hate using foreign machines that aernt familiar and comforting. I like the clunk of the keys on this one, and the quickness of the mouse, and i like that my pc is an old friend, i know its little moods, and its quirks.
Any way, i bring you this post courtesy of my new gorgeous keyboard, may he serve me long and well. :)

Famous last words

The worst thing is, this is just the sort of thing i would say, because i can never think of anything clever at the time.

Your Famous Last Words Will Be:

"Tell them I said something."

What Will Your Famous Last Words Be?

wickets

So, friday a few of us went to see the 20/20 cricket between leicester and durham at grace road on friday. We didn't actually watch much cricket. after finding a suitable bench and arming ourselves with beer we were too busy talking and laughing to watch very well, in addition i have no idea how cricket works so was bewildered. Mark grumbled it was not the "scorefest" he'd hoped for (what is this criketpalooza) and Kim joked that the guy sent off with an injury to his ummm... well, suffice to say she declared it a googley. We also managed a range of very purile jokes about no 99. Leciester won so we were pleased.
Then the boys had a quick game of scotch egg cricket, which transformed into hacky sack cricket later in the night at my place, where there was more beer.
Generally an entertaining evening.Rest of the weekend was quiet and sleepy and i failed to finish my assignment. oops.

The Lords of Altamont

Went to the Charlotte last night to see a band Warro mentioned to me a week or two ago. He Picked me up at 9 and off we pootled expecting to have avoided the support acts. We were wrong, the first band, the Cruellas came on at nine and after some fucking about produced some music which turned out to be cover tracks (Who knew). They weren't awful, but they seriosuly need to tighten up if they plan to perform in front of people. The best song of their half hour set was actually their own material. They were followed by the Cyclones, who knocked out some predictable rock, but they were a very tidy group and gave and excellent and very enjoyabloe performance.
Then the Lords came on, it was superb, it was a pity for them that no one seems to have heard of them here and they had a very small audience, but good for us as we were able to comfortably amble forward and watch the show from the front (the only place in the charlotte you can actually see from). With no fucking about they gave us some serious rock n roll (we like it, yes we do) and kept the small audience gripped start to finish.







Google them, they are good!

Valhalla

On tuesday M & I headed from Chesterfield to Manchester to catch a plane. Eventually, first we arrived an hour early for our train, which was then an hour late, then it limped along to manchester, where it finally died. We made it to the airport in the plentiful contingency time, met up with Rob and tried to check in. The check in was broken, an hour late people started to go through. We borded pretty much on time and the flight was easy. Everything ran smoothly the other end and we were able to meet up with the early party in Copenhagen. Tuesday evening we all went out into Copenhagen and visited the hippie commune Christiania, most ate there, but M & I headed with Rob and Warro to an indian restaurant which served excellent food quite cheap.

Wednesday we all headed to the festival, which took far longer than we thought but part of that was sitting on the train for a n hour and a half before it moved. Fortunately it gets dark really late there so we camped in daylight. The festival was good, big, considerable squalor and M & I struggled to get into the vibe properly, band wise, Bob Dylan was good, Opeth were excellent, Axl Rose was rubbish "stop fucking about" was the heckle for the Guns n roses set.

Saturday afternoon, with M's back still bad and the two of us failing to buzz off the whole experiance M & I headed back into Copenhagen, which was excellent!!! Beautiful City, we spent sunday wandering around it and visiting some of the sites.

Sunday evening saw us getting very drunk in the Hard Rock Cafe, with a dutch trucker and not leaving until they closed at midnight. Monday morning, complete with hang over we set of on the 12 hour treck home. We travelled with some of the others and in spite of setbacks and delays spirits were pretty high.
I am sure some more anecdotes will make there way into seperate posts, but that's the basic play.
Back at work now, have to settle into the real world. humph