Friday 30 January 2009

I feel a real twit

I'm in a quandary


Many moons ago I signed up to Friends Reunite. What fun I thought, you can look up your old school friends and see what they have been up to over the years. Then dear FR started charging for emails and frankly I was miffed - this wasn't what I signed up for but reluctantly I paid my £7 (?) and mailed a few old school mates. Now of course the service is free and you can mail away to your heart's content and believe me some people are doing just that.

This week I had a message from somebody I don't know, never heard of them, can't remember them for toffee and I don't know what to do about it- should I mail this woman back and explain that the ravages of time and a misspent youth have addled my brain and I can't remember going to school with her? or should I just ignore her message and leave it sitting in my inbox as a permanent reminder that I am a bad person who doesn't deserve friends? I did ask an old friend who has a wonderful memory for all things scholastic (I can't even remember the name of my favourite teacher - how bad is that!) but even she didn't know the name. I feel so guilty, this woman obviously knew me and even mentioned that I used to have long red hair - shit, what ever I do will feel wrong. I don't want to upset her by telling her that she is truly unmemorable but on the hand it seems rude not to reply, but on the third hand I tried searching for her in my old schools and couldn't find her, so maybe she isn't who she says she is - maybe she is a stalker - maybe she isn't a she at all - maybe I'm being groomed!! But probably I'm just being neurotic and should get on with some work.

While I'm rabbiting about this social networking stuff I have a confession to make - I have joined Twitter - and what a strange phenomenon that is. If I'm honest I only signed up because of an interview I saw/heard with Steven Fry who was raving about it, shallow I know but at least I'm honest.

The trouble is I don't know what to do on there. I am 'following' mainly news based and current affairs type stuff ( as well of course as Steven Fry) and it was very strange that half an hour after I started 'following' Barrack Obama (how cool is that) I had message to say that he was following me.....Do you think that means that some poor sod in the Pentagon or the White House is logging onto to Twitter each day to see what Barry's 'followers' are twittering about? I wonder how much they get paid? I wonder if they have ever considered employing a remote worker for the job? Just think they could be paying me for doing something that is a bigger waste of time than being a mystery shopper (don't ever believe that customer service is important in this country - that way lies madness!) after all what do they expect Barry's followers to be twittering about? world domination and the collapse of capitalism?? As far as I can see the only things being talked about are either breaking news from Channel 4 or random twitters telling you what they had for breakfast - as I've said many times before the web is a very strange place!

Tuesday 27 January 2009

The hidden dangers in a visit to the Dentist

Last week my dental hygienist sneezed and two days later I came down with a horrible cough and cold.  


I can't be sure that one discreet sneeze, which if I'm honest,  was behind my back and her mouth was covered by a mask, was responsible, but I'm still going to blame her - why? because I'm shallow and pathetic and feeling very sorry for myself - I've had my winter cold already - I don't deserve another one - it's not fair - why didn't she save her sneeze for the next patient who probably hasn't had a cold this winter and is due a snotty bug.

I should be enjoying the winter sunshine walking the dogs across the fields so Murphy can chase imaginary rabbits (bless!) and Bella can catch a ball and hide it for me to find (I think she might be a little confused about who is exercising who here!) - but instead I'm sitting here swaddled in woolly layers sipping hot fruit juice and popping paracetamol!

A little footnote to this rant - last night at 9pm Dave phoned me - we had a chat and were about to hang up when I realised that I couldn't remember what day it was, seriously I couldn't work out when I had seen him last and when he was due home next - can a mixture of a temperature, paracetamol, ibuprofen and a lack of sleep addle the brain or am I just loosing it?  It was about 10 minutes after our chat that I remembered that it was Monday and I had taken him to the airport that morning and he is due home on Friday - I don't know which upset me more, realising that I had forgotten, or it taking me so long to remember.

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Daily

When ever I log on I always check out the Blog of Note for the day. These are, in the words of Google 'Interesting and noteworthy logger-powered blogs, compiled by the Blogger Team'


I'm not sure what criteria they use to choose the Blogs in question but sometime they find a real gem. One I am following at the moment is An Explorer's View of Life.  This chap writes gentle tales of his life and family and it's not so much what he says that I find so fascinating but the way that he says it.  He writes so eloquently it is a joy to read.






Monday 5 January 2009

Twelfth Night

It's Twelfth Night tonight so all our decorations are now down and the house is back to normal.  No more Christmas trees with their twinkling lights, no more holly wreaths and baubles but we do still  have lots of chocolates and fancy biscuits to tempt the weak-willed away from their New Year diets - or maybe that's just me.


We had a lovely Christmas, lots to eat and drink and Santa was particularly generous as Dave was in such a hurry to get home that he left my presents in London and had to rush out on Christmas Eve with Lesley and buy replacements! Well done Lel - I love the bag and the digital photo frame!

For New Years Eve we all went our separate ways, James went back to Aber, Lesley travelled down to Somerset for a party and I travelled down to London to stay with Dave.  We had a fab meal in the most retro Italian restaurant in London.  It was like travelling back to the 70's, posters of Sorento on the walls and empty Chianti bottles hanging from the fake beams on the ceiling but best of all were the temperamental Italian waiters straight out of central casting - it was totally unreal! We then went to see Blood Brothers along with an audience of mainly foreign tourists.  Quite what they made of the references to Liverpool in the 1960's is any body's guess but if the standing ovation they gave the cast at the end of the show is anything to go by they enjoyed the night as much as we did. On New Years Day we braved the cold and went back up into town to watch the New Year Parade through Westminster and then walked through to Hyde Park to warm up with glugwein at the Winter Wonderland Fair

As we were travelling home on Saturday we had a whole extra day to ourselves on the Friday 2 Jan so we made the most of it and had a bracing walk along the Thames Path from Canary Wharf to the Tower of London, stopping along the way at various hostelries for alcoholic refreshment, before meeting up with Janis and Graham in the evening for dinner - smashing way to end the holidays even if it did mean that we were a bit bleary eyed on the 7.20am flight out of London City the next morning!