Too many to do today so here they are all at once:
Katie…
...is repulsed by the dapper old man on the train filing his fingernails and then using the sharpened talons to pick interesting things out of his beard and peruse them.
...wonders how on earth The Thong Song got on her ipod
...is amused by the power exec in his large Merc listening to Guns n Roses’ Sweet Child of Mine at top volume at the traffic lights
...is pleased her car worked this morning – hurrah for WD40!
...is kinda relieved what she thought were just fat ankles are actually disfunctional muscle build up do to with things to do with her bad back. If the back gets fixed perhaps they’ll go away.
...likes the Green Slime chocolate rolls someone has brought in for their birthday cakes.
...is tickled by a restaurant having a caviar menu. Starting at £120.
Next week I'm away training in Paris, back at that lovely chateau. Shame.
Showing posts with label me. Show all posts
Showing posts with label me. Show all posts
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Friday, May 08, 2009
Musings on Sparklyness
One of the knitting girls quite rightly commented at the last meet-up on the proximity of a blog post here whingeing about not being engaged and wanting to be, and one featuring a heavily sparkly finger. Indeed an interested phenomenon. I’m 99% sure that The Man doesn’t read my blog, but hey ho. Just shows the power of articulating your wants and desires! Or something.
So, I am getting used to wearing a ring on that finger, so much so that sometimes I have to check it’s still there. I’m also getting used to being engaged. A couple of the girls at work warned against the one-week-cross, where it seems that about a week in you get cross and grumpy for no real reason, but apparently that’s normal. Have to say that I didn’t notice it, but now, at nearly a month in (already??!) I’m starting to come down off the champagne fuelled cloud.
I did initially have three days of panic at the prospect of organising a wedding, which really perplexed me because that’s the sort of thing that I usually love doing. (Some lovely friends talked me down with stories of how much fun they had organising their weddings.) I think now it was the prospect of the soul-destroying task of sorting the nice wedding things from the tacky hideousnesses that some purveyors of bad taste seem to think that brides will go for. Your portrait etched in a heart-shaped lump of glass and backlit in colour-changing neon anyone? See through lace wedding dress? No? I could physically feel my heart sink as I sat with the first bridal magazine in my lap, gearing up to peel back the cover. Needed brandy rather than tea in my hand. But I have found it very cathartic to scalpel out the few things I like and then throw the rest of the wretched publication away. To be fair there have been a few good ideas. As long as you try to ignore the pouting models with their heaving bosoms. The vicar would have a heart attack.
It’s been interesting to people watch girls on the train and around town with engagement and/or wedding rings, and speculate about their state of mind, especially when you see them out with their other halves. A ring is a real brand to the world that you belong to someone else. On one hand, that’s good – you are in a partnership, a team, and someone loves you enough to spend the rest of their life with you. But on the other hand, it changes you. I feel a little like a pie (bear with me on this) in which a slice has changed forever. That slice is now The Man’s, and that slice, slim though it is at the moment, cuts right through to the core of me. And it’s taking a little time to get my head around that, because I’ve always been very self contained, and to have something dissecting me is something I instinctively resist. Well, you do, don’t you? Change is hard. And that slice of pie (or thin end of the wedge, whatever) is just going to get bigger. I’m going to have to change my name! That’s drastic!
Do men go through all this? They just get to wear a ring, and even that’s not compulsory. They get a social secretary and someone to do the laundry. And bear their children if they want. Good deal?
Before I get Anon on my back again, I am very very happy indeed to be engaged, but I’m just taking a while to get used to it. And learning to get used to the idea that The Man does actually love me that much! He’s so laid back sometimes that it can be a stretch to imagine him doing something so extravagant, but he does, even though he’s only going to let me talk about wedding planning three days a week.
In other news:
1. Life coaching training continues this weekend and I’ve just started with a new client which went well, so fingers crossed it continues to do so.
2. Mum and I just realised that I’ll be away in Florida during the knitting show at Ally Pally this year, which turns out quite well because we both dread it and we can try to go to Woolfest or Wonderwool instead next year. Which are nicer and smaller and cheaper for exhibitors. Hurrah!
3. Have nearly finished the baby hoodie but the hood/collar border needs ripping out and starting again because I can’t work out how to overlap the front and keep track of how many k2togs I’ve done at the ends of the rows. But it’s nearly there.
4. Have picked up the cable/rib cardigan/gilet again and god, it’s the slowest knit in the world. [sigh]
5. Have had a genius thought that perhaps our yarn with work for Liesl. In discussions with mum about giving it a try.
6. Ordered more yarn for projects I don’t have time for, inc some malabrigo lace from Pure Purl, who I have to say have great customer service for people like me who can’t make up their minds. Thanks Kim!
And now I’m off to meet some friends who are taking us out to a posh restaurant underneath the Metropolitan hotel. Oo la la, aren’t we high falutin’.
So, I am getting used to wearing a ring on that finger, so much so that sometimes I have to check it’s still there. I’m also getting used to being engaged. A couple of the girls at work warned against the one-week-cross, where it seems that about a week in you get cross and grumpy for no real reason, but apparently that’s normal. Have to say that I didn’t notice it, but now, at nearly a month in (already??!) I’m starting to come down off the champagne fuelled cloud.
I did initially have three days of panic at the prospect of organising a wedding, which really perplexed me because that’s the sort of thing that I usually love doing. (Some lovely friends talked me down with stories of how much fun they had organising their weddings.) I think now it was the prospect of the soul-destroying task of sorting the nice wedding things from the tacky hideousnesses that some purveyors of bad taste seem to think that brides will go for. Your portrait etched in a heart-shaped lump of glass and backlit in colour-changing neon anyone? See through lace wedding dress? No? I could physically feel my heart sink as I sat with the first bridal magazine in my lap, gearing up to peel back the cover. Needed brandy rather than tea in my hand. But I have found it very cathartic to scalpel out the few things I like and then throw the rest of the wretched publication away. To be fair there have been a few good ideas. As long as you try to ignore the pouting models with their heaving bosoms. The vicar would have a heart attack.
It’s been interesting to people watch girls on the train and around town with engagement and/or wedding rings, and speculate about their state of mind, especially when you see them out with their other halves. A ring is a real brand to the world that you belong to someone else. On one hand, that’s good – you are in a partnership, a team, and someone loves you enough to spend the rest of their life with you. But on the other hand, it changes you. I feel a little like a pie (bear with me on this) in which a slice has changed forever. That slice is now The Man’s, and that slice, slim though it is at the moment, cuts right through to the core of me. And it’s taking a little time to get my head around that, because I’ve always been very self contained, and to have something dissecting me is something I instinctively resist. Well, you do, don’t you? Change is hard. And that slice of pie (or thin end of the wedge, whatever) is just going to get bigger. I’m going to have to change my name! That’s drastic!
Do men go through all this? They just get to wear a ring, and even that’s not compulsory. They get a social secretary and someone to do the laundry. And bear their children if they want. Good deal?
Before I get Anon on my back again, I am very very happy indeed to be engaged, but I’m just taking a while to get used to it. And learning to get used to the idea that The Man does actually love me that much! He’s so laid back sometimes that it can be a stretch to imagine him doing something so extravagant, but he does, even though he’s only going to let me talk about wedding planning three days a week.
In other news:
1. Life coaching training continues this weekend and I’ve just started with a new client which went well, so fingers crossed it continues to do so.
2. Mum and I just realised that I’ll be away in Florida during the knitting show at Ally Pally this year, which turns out quite well because we both dread it and we can try to go to Woolfest or Wonderwool instead next year. Which are nicer and smaller and cheaper for exhibitors. Hurrah!
3. Have nearly finished the baby hoodie but the hood/collar border needs ripping out and starting again because I can’t work out how to overlap the front and keep track of how many k2togs I’ve done at the ends of the rows. But it’s nearly there.
4. Have picked up the cable/rib cardigan/gilet again and god, it’s the slowest knit in the world. [sigh]
5. Have had a genius thought that perhaps our yarn with work for Liesl. In discussions with mum about giving it a try.
6. Ordered more yarn for projects I don’t have time for, inc some malabrigo lace from Pure Purl, who I have to say have great customer service for people like me who can’t make up their minds. Thanks Kim!
And now I’m off to meet some friends who are taking us out to a posh restaurant underneath the Metropolitan hotel. Oo la la, aren’t we high falutin’.
Friday, March 20, 2009
If you want something done….
…give it to a busy person.
Did anyone ever say to Richard Branson, ‘do you think you’re taking rather a lot on?’ Or to my parents even. They run three businesses and have various other enterprises on the side. I expect that’s where I get this entrepreneurial tendency to do loads of things from. But it’s true, finding a balance is important and something that my parents are just now starting to concentrate on.
Tosser did actually raise some quite valid points in his/her second comment, and some that I did consider myself when I decided to do the coaching course. I have a full schedule, work wise and socially, but then I am not a person who is happy to stay in and watch Eastenders every night. Achieving things makes me happy, and it’s really not that hard to do with a bit of application, organisation, imagination and common sense. Life should be an adventure, whether it’s work, travel, or having fun.
So, re time for coaching – yes, I will be pushing it while I am doing my training, but that is for four months. After that, I hope to keep it ticking over with one or two clients on the go at any one time, which is only a couple of hours a week therefore realistic to commit to, until such time as my situation might change and I want to increase the hours. As for it meaning I don’t see The Man, the sessions are most likely to be phone sessions (these days most coaching is done over the phone, or even over Skype) which I can do during quiet time in the evening while he’s happily watching the footie.
Do I see The Man enough? It’s true we’re both busy people, but we’ve discussed this in the past and we quite like it. It means we look forward to the time we have together and make the most of it. We go out to dinner and Talk To Each Other rather than sitting in front of the TV every night not communicating. We are both of the opinion that having our own interests is good for the relationship – we retain our own freedoms and that’s important, it means we never feel stifled. It also means that we respect each other more for our accomplishments.
The engagement drama was just a wobble caused by a combination of hormones, wine and all the girls at work talking about their own weddings / engagements / ring hunting. Yes, I am a confident independent woman who, if she wants something, goes and gets it, but on the other hand I also have a lot of old fashioned values about things like manners, integrity, professionalism and love, and one of those is that the man should ask the woman. I suppose the main justification of that is that if the man asks, without prompting and/or thumbscrews, then he should be really sure that that’s what he wants to do, and he’s come to the decision of his own free will. That’s what I want when I get engaged, and for that I have to be patient. (Patience, unfortunately, is something I know I need to work on.) The Man is totally aware of how I feel and knows how important it is to me, but I am not pushing it, it’s up to him now when it happens. And actually, I’m happy to wait. For a bit. *;)
Did anyone ever say to Richard Branson, ‘do you think you’re taking rather a lot on?’ Or to my parents even. They run three businesses and have various other enterprises on the side. I expect that’s where I get this entrepreneurial tendency to do loads of things from. But it’s true, finding a balance is important and something that my parents are just now starting to concentrate on.
Tosser did actually raise some quite valid points in his/her second comment, and some that I did consider myself when I decided to do the coaching course. I have a full schedule, work wise and socially, but then I am not a person who is happy to stay in and watch Eastenders every night. Achieving things makes me happy, and it’s really not that hard to do with a bit of application, organisation, imagination and common sense. Life should be an adventure, whether it’s work, travel, or having fun.
So, re time for coaching – yes, I will be pushing it while I am doing my training, but that is for four months. After that, I hope to keep it ticking over with one or two clients on the go at any one time, which is only a couple of hours a week therefore realistic to commit to, until such time as my situation might change and I want to increase the hours. As for it meaning I don’t see The Man, the sessions are most likely to be phone sessions (these days most coaching is done over the phone, or even over Skype) which I can do during quiet time in the evening while he’s happily watching the footie.
Do I see The Man enough? It’s true we’re both busy people, but we’ve discussed this in the past and we quite like it. It means we look forward to the time we have together and make the most of it. We go out to dinner and Talk To Each Other rather than sitting in front of the TV every night not communicating. We are both of the opinion that having our own interests is good for the relationship – we retain our own freedoms and that’s important, it means we never feel stifled. It also means that we respect each other more for our accomplishments.
The engagement drama was just a wobble caused by a combination of hormones, wine and all the girls at work talking about their own weddings / engagements / ring hunting. Yes, I am a confident independent woman who, if she wants something, goes and gets it, but on the other hand I also have a lot of old fashioned values about things like manners, integrity, professionalism and love, and one of those is that the man should ask the woman. I suppose the main justification of that is that if the man asks, without prompting and/or thumbscrews, then he should be really sure that that’s what he wants to do, and he’s come to the decision of his own free will. That’s what I want when I get engaged, and for that I have to be patient. (Patience, unfortunately, is something I know I need to work on.) The Man is totally aware of how I feel and knows how important it is to me, but I am not pushing it, it’s up to him now when it happens. And actually, I’m happy to wait. For a bit. *;)
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Navel Gazing
Apologies, but this will be a rather introspective post. I've been feeling a bit dreary lately, and while I could put it down to hormones or post-holiday blues, it feels like more than that. I had a minor meltdown on Sunday night, sobbing on The Man who dealt with it valiantly. Frustration and impatience seems to be the main problem at the moment. There are lots of major life changes on the brink of happening, and I want them to happen, but they're just not getting there, and it's driving me nuts! I'm so used to being a can-do get-done person that I obviously find it hard to cope when I can't influence situations and make them happen. So, I just have to sit and wait for the small sparkly ring and the new house, listening to the girls at work planning weddings and putting a brave smile on for all the people who keep saying, 'Has he proposed yet? Tell him to get a move on! Have you found a house yet? Yadda yadda yadda?' while inside a small (and apparently growing) part of me is screaming. That's another thing I've discovered about myself recently, I cope with stress by ignoring it and blanking it and blithely carrying on until finally I snap and crumple. This is not good. I need to find a way of monitoring the scale a bit better and doing something about it.The worst part about the minor meltdown was that The Man was trying (quite rightly) to find out what was wrong, and how could I say, 'it's because I want to be engaged dammit! And I want somewhere to live that has a garden! It's you and the housing market conspiring against me!' Garbled snotty explanations at 11pm must try anyone's temper, but he weedled it out of me anyway, assured me that it definitely all would happen, laughed at my fog-horn nose blowing, and somehow made it all OK. And then next day when I got home from work, hugged me again and checked I was still back in the land of the sane. He is a trooper that one.
Still, there are those people who have asked the $64,000 question - why wait? Apparently my brother was sure The Man would propose while we were away in the States, and mum said my brother was actually quite cross that he didn't. My brother proposed to his wife after six months, and fully subscribes to the 'if you know, you know, so why wait?' school. I think I'm sort of a 'wait a bit and check you can live with their weird habits' person, but if that's all good, yes, why wait? We might get run over by a bus tomorrow, or struck down with some dread disease.
So anyway the upshot of the meltdown is that I feel like I've put pressure on The Man when that was the last thing I wanted to do. Like he said, a proposal should be a surprise. I want to feel that he's done it 100% because he wants to, and I don't want even a tiny bit of the motivation to be because he knows it's doing my head in that he hasn't yet. So now I feel guilty about that too. The rational part of me says that of course The Man wouldn't do anything he didn't want to do, he's almost as stubborn as me and won't be pushed around, but hey, there you go.
Anyway, I must shake my shoulders, give myself a kick up the arse and cheer up, because it's really small fry in the great scheme of things, and life coaching training starts at the weekend. Who wants a gloomy melancholic life coach?
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Grass is always greener
Here is a cute little hermit crab from an island just off Hurghada. An 'uninhabited' island, apart from 300 tourists boated in every day for the amazing snorkelling!
This was the patch of beach at the hotel, which was brilliant.
Karnak temple at Luxor. The ancient Egyptians were amazing. They built all this stuff about 2000 years BC. There are heiroglyphs on just about every surface.
The Man at Karnak.
Us on the Nile.
This was the patch of beach at the hotel, which was brilliant.
Karnak temple at Luxor. The ancient Egyptians were amazing. They built all this stuff about 2000 years BC. There are heiroglyphs on just about every surface.
The Man at Karnak.
In the Valley of the Kings.
A camel by the Nile.
Us on the Nile.
We've been away on hols for a week, relaxing, doing nothing but sunbathing and reading, and yet this morning, having parked the car after going to Sainsbury's, as I walked back through The Grove with all its cool, damp autumn smells and fallen leaves, I had a very content smile on my face. I love being on holiday, and The Man and I had a wonderful time and were probably very bucket-worthy and loved up, but it's still the best thing in the world coming home and having to make the bed, do the shopping, clean the loo. Because it's my bed, my shopping, my loo, and it's all just the way I like them.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Somebody get me out of here...
Over the past two weeks I've had a horrible nasty glimpse at the stress levels a lot of my friends work under all the time and I really don't like it. But at least now I can empathise a little more. There's a Europe-wide network infrastructure project underway, commissioned by head office in France, and we've been trying to do the UK branch of it. Trying being the operative word there. I don't know what school of project management they've been to but now it all becomes clear why France always ended up waving the white flag in the wars. Organisation? Pheh.
It's just been postponed again for another month or so, so at least I get some breathing space for a while.
Meantime, Clare tagged me on a meme a while ago, so until my brain puts itself back together here goes:
1. What were you doing ten years' ago?
In 1998 I was at university, although it would have been the holidays by now, so I'd be at home in the two week recovery period that apparently I always took after the two-month jolly / bender / stress fest that was a university term.
2. What 5 things are on your to-do list today?
Fix DHCP scope on a DC
Conf call with France
Various other phone calls to sort out problems following conf call with France
Confirm all OK for The Man's b'day surprise
Get something for supper
3. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Be very pleased with myself. Invest some, give some to charity, put some into trust funds or other things for deserving relations. Buy a largish house in the country, where there should be: a large garden, a few acres for some horses, a large living room with a baby grand piano, a craft room (with lots of windows), a beautiful kitchen, and a kitchen garden. After I'd got bored of pottering around that I'd do something entrepreneurial, set up some businesses, invest in property. And qualify as a life coach. And get married and have babies. *:)
4. List the places you have lived:
A bungalow near Maidstone, with a few acres which contained sheep, chickens, dogs, puppies and a few racehorses.
A large white Victorian villa house thingy on a hill near Maidstone with ditto accoutrements.
A succession of rented houses while my parents looked to buy a farm, several of which I swear were haunted.
A mobile home, while we built a house.
A farmhouse lovingly built with help from all the family.
In the family house of a now-good friend's family in New Zealand.
A grotty student halls.
A grotty rented student house.
A castle, with a million steps and untold drafts, and water which came out of the taps orange from rusted pipes, but still, my address was 'The Castle, Durham'. It was a great place to live!
A flat in a converted Victorian townhouse in London (top floor - I hate carrying supermarket shopping up stairs).
A maisonette in a 1960s terrace in London.
A beautiful flat in an Edwardian house in T Wells.
5. List the jobs you have held:
IT Architect
Founder of a wool business (Co-Director, but I could call myself anything I like really!)
IT Service Technician
HR Assistant
PA
Waitress
Care worker in a brain injury unit
Bar maid
Grain sampler for farmers' cooperative
Check-out chick
Babysitter
Cherry seller
Veterinary nurse / assistant
Farm worker
Strawberry seller in Fortnum and Mason's (for a day)
6. List the people you'd like to know more about:
Buddha
The Man (he can be very elusive)
My parents and brother (life is often too busy to just sit and chat)
It's just been postponed again for another month or so, so at least I get some breathing space for a while.
Meantime, Clare tagged me on a meme a while ago, so until my brain puts itself back together here goes:
1. What were you doing ten years' ago?
In 1998 I was at university, although it would have been the holidays by now, so I'd be at home in the two week recovery period that apparently I always took after the two-month jolly / bender / stress fest that was a university term.
2. What 5 things are on your to-do list today?
Fix DHCP scope on a DC
Conf call with France
Various other phone calls to sort out problems following conf call with France
Confirm all OK for The Man's b'day surprise
Get something for supper
3. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Be very pleased with myself. Invest some, give some to charity, put some into trust funds or other things for deserving relations. Buy a largish house in the country, where there should be: a large garden, a few acres for some horses, a large living room with a baby grand piano, a craft room (with lots of windows), a beautiful kitchen, and a kitchen garden. After I'd got bored of pottering around that I'd do something entrepreneurial, set up some businesses, invest in property. And qualify as a life coach. And get married and have babies. *:)
4. List the places you have lived:
A bungalow near Maidstone, with a few acres which contained sheep, chickens, dogs, puppies and a few racehorses.
A large white Victorian villa house thingy on a hill near Maidstone with ditto accoutrements.
A succession of rented houses while my parents looked to buy a farm, several of which I swear were haunted.
A mobile home, while we built a house.
A farmhouse lovingly built with help from all the family.
In the family house of a now-good friend's family in New Zealand.
A grotty student halls.
A grotty rented student house.
A castle, with a million steps and untold drafts, and water which came out of the taps orange from rusted pipes, but still, my address was 'The Castle, Durham'. It was a great place to live!
A flat in a converted Victorian townhouse in London (top floor - I hate carrying supermarket shopping up stairs).
A maisonette in a 1960s terrace in London.
A beautiful flat in an Edwardian house in T Wells.
5. List the jobs you have held:
IT Architect
Founder of a wool business (Co-Director, but I could call myself anything I like really!)
IT Service Technician
HR Assistant
PA
Waitress
Care worker in a brain injury unit
Bar maid
Grain sampler for farmers' cooperative
Check-out chick
Babysitter
Cherry seller
Veterinary nurse / assistant
Farm worker
Strawberry seller in Fortnum and Mason's (for a day)
6. List the people you'd like to know more about:
Buddha
The Man (he can be very elusive)
My parents and brother (life is often too busy to just sit and chat)
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