A new coat, Conor Oberst, books, rain and Superpoke

Highlights of the day

Listening to a live recording of Conor Oberst playing in Texas. Bought back such good memories of seeing him live at Camden. Brighten up my day no-end, even on this dull and wet autumn day. Thanks to Mike for sharing that with me.

Buying a new coat. Well, it was payday today and I have a thing for jackets and coats. A nice navy military style coat from French Connection. Perfect for autumn. The only issue is that the sleeves are a bit too long but I have that with every coat that I buy. My arms are just too short sometimes.

Thinking of Peter Kay. Thanks to Kate for implanting this in my brain for when it is a day of drizzle. The rain was so light that you think I don’t need an umbrella but by the time you get to your destination and without realising it you are soaked through. A classic Peter Kay observation.

Ordering three books off Amazon. I love buying books, there is something so appealing about it. Anyway, I got a book on colour (it’s an American book so it says color) for my website course. A handy reference book. Next was the survival book that Mike mentioned in his post – I have my own disaster/survival story that I will write about very soon but I thought this book would be interesting to hear the stories of other survivors too. The last book is a memory skills book so I can recondition my brain to remember useful things. I just seem to remember useless facts, like “don’t eat yellow snow”!

Superpoke. Facebook… I don’t really use it now but I do check it occasionally. Superpoke used to bring the child out in me – throwing sheep, buying drinks and going camping with “Facebook friends”. The funniest thing about Superpoke is their idea of other country “holiday” pokes. This gives a snap shot view of what Superpoke think the British get up to – “ride the TARDIS with”; “share a Pimms cup”; “take the piss out of”; “have a snog with”; and “love the Queen with”. Hah, so basically we love space ships in the shape of old police telephone boxes while taking the piss out of someone or snogging them while drinking a Pimms and most probably wearing a t-shirt with a picture of the Queen on it!! That did tickle me!!

Black trousers

What is it about women and black work trousers? At this time of year the black trousers start appearing at a surprisingly fast rate plus with the black wool coat it makes the streets of London most boring. Like everyone is going to a funeral. OK, I have to confuse that I have one pair of black trousers that I wear for work but I have looked many times for other coloured trousers like brown or navy. But all the shops have a large selection of black trousers – wide leg, skinny or the new ankle length. So maybe the answer is bright coloured skirts with tights. Black opaque tights! Hah, these are the new black trousers!

But getting new clothes cost money, which I can easily spend but I’m a lot better now. I think about the items of clothing that I have seen before buying them. There is a navy coat in French Connection that I like and have spent the last 4 weeks thinking it. Payday is tomorrow so I might just go shopping! Which is bad as then I will be moaning about how I don’t have any money for the rest of the month – oh well.

My posts seem to be getting shorter and I think repetitive – I need to book something or do something exciting so I can write about it. Now what can I do… go to an art exhibition, go to the theatre, see some live music, watch an ice-hockey game. Wow, when you think about it there is loads to do – now I’ve just got to find the time to do these.

A Lazy Sunday

Sometimes it is just nice to have a lazy Sunday. No plans, just decide what to do with your day at the last minute. As the weather was gorgeous today and my husband was going out on his mountain bike for the day, I decided to go over the country park for a long walk. The park is about ten minutes drive from my home and the park is a combination of open parkland and old ancient woods. It was so relaxing just walking around the park admiring the view (amazingly, this park has a couple of hills), looking at the wildlife – ducks, birds and cows (part of the park is still a working farm!), enjoying the sunshine – topping up my t-shirt tan, all while in a world of my own thoughts and dreams. The afternoon was spent reading the Sunday Times and my book, A Town Like Alice. Now I’m writing my blog and downloading some music on to my iPod. I think the weather had something to do with the great time I had out but hopefully I will get over to the park more often at the weekends in between ice-skating, running and studying!

Back to studying again

On a good note, I passed my first OU course on website design!! Yay!! My overall score was 80 out of a 100 so I’m quite chuffed with that especially as it was the first bit of studying I had done in about ten years. Writing a 2,000 essay was tough! Finding the time and motivation was hard at times as well. Now that I know that I have passed I’m really pleased and surprised that my brain managed to cope with all this new learning. So now it is on the next course “Web basics….” which involves learning how to create websites using XHTML and CSS. This course is going to be a lot tougher – three assessments during the three months and a final assignment with a 3,000 word essay, which has to be finished just before Christmas.

I have put aside tomorrow afternoon to start looking at the web design book sent to me as part of the course and to see who is chatting on the forum for this course. Last time it was always the usual suspects on there – so I imagine it would be like that again. Well, I should be off out tonight celebrating before I realise the time I need to spend on the next course. Yikes, what have a done… I’ve just got to remember that this is for my own good in the end and I do enjoy learning new techie stuff!

Sixteen days

Sixteen days – that’s the amount of holiday days I have left to take by the end of December. Three months to take some holiday without spending a small fortune but if I stay at home then it will be in the winter months. This has happened because last year we had about ten different holidays. That’s actually a white lie but two weeks in the Lake District with family, three weeks travelling around Australia and various weekends away with friends meant all holiday was booked up by the end of October. Working in between Christmas isn’t always fun but at least the hours are shorter! So this year I think subconsciously it was decided not to book so many holidays in advance, which now means I have sixteen days left. Five days to take over Christmas, two days carried over for the following year, which I will take for my work trip to San Francisco so I will have two extra days to recovered from jet-lag and add in some shopping, maybe some sight seeing as well. That leaves nine days – five for a week off in November maybe, a few long weekends but what to do.

Hopefully one weekend will be visiting our friends in Northern Ireland and another couple of days I will be out with my mum researching the family tree. I think the other days will be used up for study days. Wow, that used them up quickly didn’t it! I had a crazy idea the other day following a discussion about the Conor Oberst concert with a friend – how about flying to Chicago or New York and seeing him live again! Flights to Chicago are quite cheap, I thought anyway, £320 direct with British Airways – concert tickets must be only $40 or even less but it’s the hotels that cost the most. Well, nice and central located hotels are expensive. So if anyone has any get rich quick schemes or would like to donate around £700 then I could go. Oh well, that’s not going to happen but maybe in a few years time I could be extravagant and fly to the States to see Conor Oberst again.

Today’s thoughts on… Sarah Brown

Sarah Brown – married to PM Gordon Brown or as Barack Obama called him when visiting the UK a few months ago, Prime Minister Brown. And she is a PR expert. That definitely shows from the past couple of days. Gordon’s popularity was slipping down and then at the Labour Party conference Sarah made a surprise guest appearance on the stage beside her husband and now the press (they do matter more than the public as they will persuade the said public by their opinions on who to vote for) love her and, now Gordon too. Then, today Sarah Brown was photographed with Sarah Palin in New York at a charity event. These pictures were all over the news sites and the evening press but no pictures of Gordon, who is in NY to speak at the UN and to meet President Bush tomorrow (I know all this thanks to Twitter and No. 10!).

Now, does this mean that the press were interested because of Sarah Brown (or Palin) or was it because they were photographed together? Sarah Brown was very clever last week by hosting an event for London Fashion Week with lots of high profile models and designers mingling at No. 10. So she must be a great PR agent to have and maybe she could swap places with Gordon or will she do a “Hillary” and stand for party leader in years to come.

Blueberries and autumn

I was going to write about my healthy (and expensive) attempt to lower my cholesterol before my blood test next Monday but I thought no, that’s boring. Then again, why not write about it. So, I did buy blueberries, oatcakes, walnuts, avocados and some Benecol (clinically proven to lower cholesterol, hmmm, hope so for the price of it). So for an afternoon snack I had blueberries, walnuts and an oatcake – an odd mixture but quite nice. Blueberries are classed as a super-food – full of good stuff like antioxidants, which is great as they are yummy. Not eating cheese is the biggest thing for me but I try not to eat that much of it anyway. I’m blaming it on bad genes and I have to be good with food like cheese, pies, cream cakes and chocolate. Most of the really lovely tasting food then, but I do treat myself to very good dark chocolate – only a couple of chunks! So anyway enough rambling about my health, I’ve had enough if it lately.

Writing about autumn must be more interesting. The leaves on the trees are turning brown, the mornings and evenings are getting chilly but during the day it is sunny and fresh, flocks of geese flying in formation on their way to warmer climates. I like autumn, nice walks over the country park without seeing many people, soup at lunchtime and scarfs – I love a scarf. The only problem with autumn is that winter is close behind it and that also means Christmas, Bah Humbug. So I’m going to enjoy the evenings while it is still light out and hope that it doesn’t get too cold soon as I’m enjoying wearing a small jacket to work. See it’s always about clothes in the end!

White Coat Syndrome

I will first apologise for this post as it is about my issues with worrying about my health as it may appear that I’m a complete nutcase (is it politically correct to say nutcase?). Thus, this could lose me all my readers for this self-indulgent letting it all out post. Anyway, had a doctors appointment today since I’ve been feeling quite unwell since last Tuesday. My doctor has decided that my ears might be blocked so I need to inhale lots of Vicks vapor rub (other brands are available) but also decided to check my blood pressure which of course was high. Second time he took my BP it was lower but he decided that I now have to have blood tests, chest x-rays, 24-hour BP test and various other heart tests. Oh joy! Anyway, at least it will put my mind at rest in the long run. But half my problem is my fear of having a nasty disease and going to the doctors. This does not help matters with my blood pressure. So basically I think I have worried myself ill over the past week. I felt fine as soon as got back home and the rest of the day at work. See, I’m mad! But I suppose this is who I am and there is most probably worst things that I could be like. As part of my own way to calm myself down I used my iPod as a sounding board while waiting for the doctor. I think it helped to calm me down but there is a lot of odd thoughts that I wrote down. Sorry again for this but below is my random worrying thoughts.

I’m broken and need fixing. Don’t want this to happen again in January while away. Think outside the box. Get my ears sorted. So what if I have to have tests I’ve had them before. If it makes me feel better then that is ok. Doctors are only human. They are here to help. I don’t want to live my life always ill when it could be something very simple. Worrying doesn’t help. But this is who I am. I broken and need fixing. Think of San Francisco. Doctors will send me for tests, so what. It will make me feel better. If something is wrong then they will fix it. Maybe I like all the attention that I create. Like people to feel sorry for me. Other people are nervous as well as me. Doesn’t help that they keep you waiting. Would this happen privately?? At least my elbow is better now. Oops forgot to let Dan know about this appointment, oh well. Calm down. Glad I puy…”

Then I got called in. At least I didn’t have to worry about letting my colleague Dan know about me being late in the office as he was off sick. I’m just tired now after not really sleeping properly but otherwise my mind is a lot better. Normal, maybe not though.

Tourists

I might have mentioned before that I work in tourist central – Covent Garden. It still amazes me how I can spot a tourist a mile off from the group of Germans, the American couples and the French students. It’s not normally by their accents but by what they are wearing. The reason I mention this is by the American couple that walked past me today – slightly overweight with yellow satin bomber-style jackets with a NASCAR logo on it. Such a nice look?! The French students always look the same, a slightly odd mixture of clothes and from memory French students have always looked the same. Now I can’t really complain about tourists in London as they provide a lot of money for us and keep the London Eye going round. Also, it would mean that London would be a very dull place.

I wonder what other countries think of the British on holiday – Spain is an obvious one as it would be full of lager louts and very sun burnt families in Union Jack shorts! But what about cities like New York or Paris – have the British got a “look” that distinguishes us from the locals. Would it be that, whatever the weather, we always have an umbrella and a coat. That “just in case it rains” look. For any British tourist in the USA, would it be by the amount of shopping bags that one can carry at one time. The over 70s would be all dressed in beige and carry empty Carlton bags arriving in a city by coach. My next trip aboard will most probably be in San Francisco early next year so maybe I should find a non-tourist look so I could blend in or go completely the other way and walk around with a Union Jack umbrella the whole time.

Music on the net

On this strange phenomenon that is my change in music taste and trying to claim back my late teenage years (which from memory where where quite rubbish) I have now discovered the Kings Of Leon. This might be due to the fact that they have a new album out and a number one single in the UK charts. Lots of promotional stuff on the radio and the TV music channels. They have been on the Jools Holland show and a “special” on 4music. Naturally I was intrigued by all this fuss and I liked the single “Sex on Fire” so decided to have a look at them on the internet. Originally from the USA but have had more success in the UK in the past and have their fourth album coming out tomorrow. Which brings me to my so called “teenage years” experience and the beauty of the internet – I am able to find out everything about them, albeit on Wikipedia and not necessarily true, and download the single from iTunes. In the old days I would have had to go to the record shop and purchase a vinyl single or buy the whole album without listening to it beforehand. Now it’s so easy in finding and buying new music.

While watching the “special” on the Kings of Leon, they mentioned the Jonas Brothers and I have heard of this band quite a lot lately. So I looked them up, more new music, great. But no, a big no! They are some sort of Disney-inspired boy band with naff records and wear chastity rings, swearing to remain virgins until they are married. What the heck, these are teenage boys!!! Unbelievable but obviously it sells records. Is it good or bad that I can find so much out about rubbish music as well as good music. I will just have to avoid the Jonas Brothers like how I avoid Disney – with all resistance.