I've spent today pretending The Lurg isn't returning, and making my entry for the CrAftermath Craft Idol competition. This weeks theme is Pirates.

What's under the patch?

"So that's why they call you One-Eyed Willie"
Actually he doesn't have a name yet, suggestions welcome.

The embroidered eye was Porl's idea. He also suggested I cut out a Skull & Cross-Bones to put on his hat. I told him if he could cut one out that small then I'd sew it on. I think I might try embroidering one onto the hat later.

Now though I'm off to bed. I'm due in work in 8 1/2 hours for a wonderful 24 hour shift. I don't mind the sleep-in shifts, except on days like tomorrow when I've got to spend 13 hours on duty with the one member of staff I don't really like. I can think of better ways to spend Sundays.

I know I've spoken about my family history research a little on here, but I try not to talk about it too much. The main reason is that I have a very unusual name, and I'm scared of internet stalkers. I also don't want random friends and colleagues finding my blog by googling my name, so I don't think I've ever mentioned my surname on here, and I avoid my first name too. If people want to find me for family research purposes then they can search the relevant websites, but they shouldn't stumble upon this place instead.

This week has been eventful on the research front though, the skeletons have come tumbling out of the closet and I need to get it out of my system. They aren't my skeletons either, so I can't reveal all. You'll just have to excuse the lack of names and specifics. I hope you can keep track.

My Grandad always had a fascination with our surname, and where we were from, when I was little I used to quiz him on the family, and he'd tell me the odd story. I remember whenever we went on holiday in the UK he would always remind us to look in the phone books to see if there were people with our surname living in the area. I don't think we ever found any. He always encouraged me to research the name, but he always stressed, "look up the name, but don't try to contact people". He never said why, and I never really thought to question it. Genealogy at the time meant trawling through archives at Family History Centres, and I was only a child, so this wasn't going to happen.

Grandad died when I was 14, long before I had any real chance of finding anything out. All I really knew was that Grandad had 2 brothers, both had died before I was born, we had contact with the family of one of his brothers, however the youngest brother had spent time in jail, and then had been in an institution because he was epileptic. He had been married, and had 3 children, but we had lost touch with them.

A few years after Grandad died Grandma let slip a few details about the youngest brother and why he had been in jail, but it was a slip of the tongue and she wouldn't tell us anymore, we didn't even know if it was true. (I suspect she'd had a couple of sherries at the time.)

In 2002 my Grandma died. When Mum and Dad were emptying their house they found a lot of old papers which Grandad had saved. I had a brief look through them, but it wasn't until the 2003 after both my Grandparents from my Mums side died within 10 weeks of each other that I really started wanting to know more about my family. I discovered GenesConnected, and within a few months had traced my surname back to 1600. Having an unusual surname makes life lots easier.

I couldn't keep my promise to Grandad not to contact people though. It's hard to research your family tree without making some contacts, and I'd still be struggling to get past the 1800's if it wasn't for finding distant relatives who'd done all the work before me. Mostly though my new found relations have been 7th cousins twice removed, or something similar.

That is until this past week.

The papers we found at Grandads had made it very clear that the 3 children of my Grandads youngest brother wanted nothing to do with us, but they still gave us no idea why. What they didn't tell us though was that there was a 4th child who had been adopted when she was a baby.

This child had known from a young age that she was adopted, when she was old enough she had found out details of her adoption, her parents names, and that she had siblings, but then lack of funds meant she couldn't continue. She found my details last week and emailed me. Since then she's been able to confirm what Grandma let slip, as well as tell me a whole lot more. In return I've been able to provide her with documents which may help her find her siblings, and show her for the first time photos of her father and 2 of her siblings.

I'm finding it hard to get my head around the fact my Dad has a cousin who no-one knew existed, never mind getting to grips with the information she has revealed about the family. I can't even begin to understand how she is feeling.

I had a play at dyeing this evening. The lovely Tangerine over at Craftermath sent me some Kool-Aid to play with, so play I did.

I didn't want to risk felting all my rovings, so I started out with something safer. A cream bag which I love, but never use because pale things and me don't mix.

I just used 2 packets of cherry first, but it was very pink, and I'm not really a pink fan, so a Grape one went in too.
20 minutes later, I decided the bag was as dark as it was going to get, so took the pot off the heat and rinsed the bag under cold water. While I was doing that I very gently placed some of my cream roving into the pot. I didn't stir it at all, I just left it soaking for 10 minutes, then careful took it out which trying to keep it nicely spread out. I rinsed this under luke warm water, then cold water, and left it to drip dry.

It seems to have worked. I love how the bag is so many different colours, but it's pink. I hoped cherry would be red, not pink. I think I should have gone with blue berry instead... maybe it'll go back in the pot another day. The roving has dyed brilliantly, and doesn't seem to have felted at all, but we'll see what it's like when I try to spin with it.

Then I got silly. The water in the pot was still very dark, so much potential, so I went hunting for things to dye. Normally it would be off colour undies, but I've just had a clear out, so a silk vest which I never wear got put in the pot.

I went and ate my tea at this point, so the vest ended up slightly tie-dyed. Or as Porl pointed out "like a Global Hyper-Colour t-shirt that's lost it power"

Porl saw the gleam in my eye at this point and ran for fear I'd put him in the pot. He was lucky... this time. The stained tea towels got dyed instead.

So that was my fun evening. Now I've got the confidence to dye rovings without ruining them I'm going to do some more, I've still got, berry blue, strawberry, orange and 1 grape left to play with... maybe I'll turn Porl a nice shade of blue in the process... he'll co-ordinate nicely with my slightly pink fingers.

The lurg didn't go away.
I made it into work on Sunday and as my shift went on I got gradually worse. I couldn't go home early as the lurg had hit the house, meaning the girl I was meant to be working with had called in sick and I was on with Bank Staff.
6 o'clock was hometime, my temperature had gone through the roof so I phoned on call to let them know I wouldn't be fit for my Sleep-in the next day.
I've been off all week but I've said I'll be back for my Sleep-In on Saturday when the new client is staying over.

I know I'm properly ill because I've been watching daytime TV, going to bed at reasonable hours, getting up early, and worst of all I've been able to sit watching TV without having the need to do something with my hands. I knew I was over the worst on Tuesday night when I started doing some colouring-in.

I'm trying to decide whether to bid on a spinning wheel. I've been persevering with mine, but it's definitly an ornament. I managed to get a little done, not wonderfully successfully, it kept snapping as the bobbin wasn't slipping the way it's supposed to, and the fibre was being wound onto the bobbin without any twist being added.

The wheel I've seen is on ebay. It's an Ashford traditional, it has a lazy Kate, 4 bobbins and some carders. At the moment it's still only £60 + £20 shipping with 30 minutes to go. It is a bargain.
This is about the 3rd wheel I've bid on, I keep missing out due to being at work when the auctions end. There was another I saw last night which I had a part missing, but parts can be bought. I changed my mind on that one at the last minute.
However, Mum has put me in a conundrum. She phoned this morning asking if I'd won the bid, I told her I'd changed my mind and was going for a different one instead. Her and Dad have been talking. If I wait till my birthday in August, they will buy me a brand new wheel. They're concerned something off ebay might not work.

So do I wait till August and get a brand new wheel which will cost my parents about £200?
Or do I bid on this wheel which has lots of extras, but costs me money instead? (I could only afford about £120).
Answers on a postcard, to me, to arrive in the next 24 minutes please.

*edited to add* I missed out. By 10 seconds! grrrrr really really annoyed now.

Tomorrow is my one day off this week (so much for only working 3 days a week... it all goes wrong when people take annual leave.)
So one day off, and what do I plan on doing... well probably lying in bed sniffling and feeling rotten. I've got the lurg.

I was going to post something interesting, but I seem to have sneezed it out of my brain and the thought is lost.

So anyway, some random words... like snow, great, except when driving home in it... spinning fun, but making ankles hurt... overtwist issues will be resolved... going to have fun with dyeing (pretty colours, not from cold).. nice person sent me lots of Koolaid for free.. like nice person... daring Porl to drink Koolaid... would rather eat whole lemons... have lots of lemons from pancake day... might eat them all to cure cold... been at work too much, causes all conversations to be cyclicle... is that a word? is it spelt like that? if I've made it up, then I mean to go round in a circle...

Think I'd best go to bed now.

Ni-night

I found bargains today;

Claires Accessories are having a sale. This little lot cost me the grand sum of £5, full price they would have been £64.50!

I also got this.

Celestite. It's quite rare, I've only ever seen it once before when I was in Durham, and it was very very expensive. Thankfully this lump wasn't.
I've been reading up on the spiritual side of it, and apparently

Celestite relates to communication and creativity. Its special attributes are its ability to enhance peacefulness and mental clarity...Celestite helps us to quiet the circular and repetitive worries that so often fill our mind

Also;

It is an excellent tool to use in the pursuit of the finer arts - painting, music, sculpture, jewelry, designing, etc. One of the finest qualities of Celestite is its ability to bring one into a state of bliss.

Mmm... bliss... Personally I think it's pretty and a girl called Celeste shouldn't be without a lump of Celestite.

As I was in the photo taking mood this afternoon (I'd found some batteries that worked). I thought I'd show off my bargains from Tescos.

These boxes cost just 97p, somewhere like Hobbycraft would sell them for about £4.99. (They also had some twice the size.) I bought 4, and spent a happy night filling them up.
Why is arranging beads so much more fun than making jewellery?
I went back 2 days later to buy some more, and they'd run out. *curses*
Does that mean there's more crafters in Stalybridge? I bet if there are they only do cardmaking.
Please let Tesco stock these regularly. I hope they weren't just a one off.

Tomorrow is MOT day. I'm hoping that thanks to the crash in September my car won't need any work doing to it. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

In other mundane news it looks like the council have given up about 3 foot of added length to our garden.
Over the past year they have been putting fences up around the front and back gardens of the council owned properties on the estate. The house behind ours is being worked on at the moment so my neighbour and I are rejoicing. The garden was stupidly overgrown and had a variety of household appliances dumped in it. My neighbour has been complaining to the estate committee for years because she was getting worried about rats.
Anyway it's being sorted now, for an idea of how overgrown it was, I'll tell you that it took 3 days to chop back the bushes and trees, and 2 to put up the fence. Their garden is HUGE, it's a corner plot which starts in line with my neighbours boundary, and goes all the way across the back of 4 gardens. How come people who don't want to garden end up with so much land?

This is what it was like, this was taken last year when we were just starting the deck, but it's the best one I can find of the mess at the back of the garden.

This is it now;

It still looks overgrown, but that's just the stuff they cut down waiting to be moved/burnt.
The fence posts have been put in about 3 foot beyond our fence, so we have gained a nicely pruned tree, and 2 clumps of privet which are the only thing holding our fence up. We were going to be putting up a trellis in place of our fence to keep all the rubbish from their garden out of ours, but we won't need to now, we'll just take advantage of our gift and plant it up with some nice tall shrubs (I bought a Mock Orange and Forsythia today from Poundland of all places), the privet will be going asap, I hate the stuff. We can hide the compost bin behind the hut, and all the random bulbs I keep digging up from the other parts of the garden (I should mark where I put things) can be put under the tree. So long as we don't build anything there no one can complain about us stealing their garden, we're just keeping it tidy. The council own the land, and the council chose where to put the fence, we just got lucky!

I avoided ebay for such a long time because I was afraid of getting carried away and spending too much money. It wasn't until I got my old sewing machine that I plucked up the courage to make my first bid because I couldn't have bought the antique shuttles I needed in any shop. Then I bought a few other things, mostly craft related because the shops around here aren't great and I can get better quality items from ebay for the same price.

But then I started looking for things that I don't need but would love like a Spinning Wheel.
I know, I know, I already have one, but using it is a bit like driving a 1980's Ford Fiesta. It sort of works, but not wonderfully. Unlike a fiesta though it looks lovely. So I've been looking for another one (with the idea of sending mine off to an auction house where it should fetch far more than the £15 I paid for it.) I don't want the Ferrari of Spinning Wheels, the Ashford Elizabeth, I know I can't justify spending nearly £300. But on ebay there was a Haldane which had loads of accessories with it. It was at £35.50, 1 bid, and 12 hours to go. The auction was due to close at 10:05am when I would be at work, Porl placed the bid at 3am, and I kept my fingers crossed. At 10:02am someone else beat my bid.
I'm gutted.
One day I will find a wheel which I can afford and I'll be at home when the auction is due to finish.

I think I'm getting used to doing sleep-ins. I managed to get a half decent nights sleep last night, even though I was still woken at 4am. I got home and actually managed to do productive things like open post, do some washing, book my car in for an MOT, look at the snow, and speak to my Mum for an hour. It was her 60th yesterday (Happy Birthday Mum) but what with being at work I didn't get chance to phone her till the evening when it was quiet... and they'd left the phone off the hook, so I missed wishing her Happy Birthday on her birthday. 3 phone calls today have made up for that.
I was still awake at 12 o'clock and thought I might manage to make it through the day. I went upstairs to get some more washing, gave Porl a hug and next thing it was 3pm and I'd just woken up... oh well better than previous sleep-ins.
Next week should be interesting, I'm doing a sleep-in Tuesday, finishing at 8:30 Wednesday morning. Wednesday afternoon I'm on a course, Thursday I do another sleep-in. I can't wait till April when everyone is back off holidays.

This 3 sleep-ins a week lark is killing me, everything aches, I'm exhausted, and I've still got one sleep-in to go.

Today I plan on doing very very little.
Last night I started knitting my version of a Booga bag. Noro is far too expensive for my tastes, so I raided my charity shop stash and found some mohair in purple, cerise and pink. I'm knitting it up with some cream aran yarn, on 10mm needles. I'm going to try some yarn painting when it comes to the colour change, but that idea may be scrapped if it changes the tension too much.

Tesco's offered me the perfect way to keep myself doubly occupied whilst knitting, as they are having a sale on CD's and DVD's. DVD's start at 97p... unfortunatly the cheap ones were all cartoons, but I couldn't resist 2 of my favourite films. "Bugsy Malone" for £2.84, and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" for £4.96.

My day is planned.

Shell if I do find some surplus energy, I'll pop down to your mums with the wool winder.

How can I twist my ankle in my sleep?
Last night I was on a sleep-in at work. I went to bed fine, woke up this morning and my ankle is killing me. I can walk, but I'm limping so it's wrapped up... and I'm trying not to do my usual trick of sitting on it when I'm using the PC.

Today has been spent mostly sleeping, as I expect will be happening most of this week. I was on a sleep-in at work yesterday, working 8:30am-8:30am, I've got 2 more this week, plus a few hours overtime on Saturday. The money will be good, but I'll look like a zombie by Sunday. My boss came in this morning and admitted he hates coming in when I'm finishing a sleep-in, not because he has any problems with me, but because when I'm tired I get really bad black eyes and I look like I've been beaten up. It makes him feel guilty for putting me on the shifts.

In between the sleeping today I've been rearranging my bookshelves.

Ever since Dad built these shelves I've been looking for some lamps, not easy as the lamps had to be shorter than the height of a book. Yesterday I found these in BHS which are perfect and I love them.

I actually saw them months ago but had no money on me at the time, and the shop is out of my way. I was passing yesterday and nipped in, just in case, and was amazed that they still had loads left. I bought 3, they were £10 each. Annoyingly due to my tiredness I managed to smash one as I came through the front door this morning. Thankfully it has glued together and the damage shouldn't be noticed. I think I'm going to buy 2 more so that all the lamps in the lounge are the same.
Then I just need Dad to build me 2 more shelves to fill in the gaps so I can fit the rest of my books on there properly instead of having them stacked 2 deep.

My olympic challenge has failed at the first hurdle. I thought the yarn would be a bit garish when it was knitted up, so I was going to stick to small things like bags and socks, but I've decided I really like it, so I'm now on a hunt for a nice cardigan pattern, I'm eyeing up the chicknits ribby, but I'm not sure if I'll have enough. Suggestions welcome.

I've found a photo editing program on my PC, so pictures as promised.

This is the patchwork blanket I mentioned.

It's not the best thought out patchwork, but it's full of memories. Clicking on the picture will take you to flickr where you can see all the notes showing where many of the patches are from.

I also love that the blanket is far from perfect. When I started making this aged 7 I was only just learning how to sew, so the stitches are visible and very uneven. I'd obviously just learnt how to do blanket stitch at one point so decided to use that to sew some patches together.

I'm having to go over a lot of these old seams as they are falling apart, but I'm trying to stitch them in a way that still shows some of my original immature efforts. Thankfully by the time I reached my teens I started going back over all seams as I sewed them, but there is still about half of the blanket which needs re-enforcing.

Last night I also had a productive night playing with my wool winder.
From this:

To this:

In just over an hour. It would have been quicker if Gonzo hadn't decided to "help" on the 7th ball resulting in a giant tangle.
When they were all wound Porl and I had a quick game of Curling in honour of the Winter Olympics.

We had a timely delivery today, just ready for the start of the Olympics, when the telly will be showing 24 hour sport, our new DVD player arrived. We've tested it, and it's successfully managed to play every CD & DVD, in every format we've thrown at it. I can catch up on all the films I've missed, and I might even get to watch S7 of Buffy. If nothing is on telly tonight I can stick a film on, and cast on my first sock using the yarn above.

I took pictures to try to make this post more interesting, but photos need a photo editing program, which I haven't re-installed yet. So I tried re-installing Photoshop, but it's not working, and my brain is too tired to work out why right now. I'll try again tomorrow.

Instead here are 2 places I've been reading a lot recently.
CrAftermath hurrah for UK crafters. Especially ones who have a forum (tomorrow I might get around to posting in there too.)
Also Whip Up, which is oozing with inspiration... a link from there even managed to inspire me to tidy out my material chest this evening!

Must also mention The AntiCraft which I've been checking every few days for updates... I sort of wish I hadn't.

Every crafty blog seems to be talking about the Knitting Olympics. I wasn't going to bother, however, the spirit of The AntiCrafts Team Angstylvania has caught me, it seems to sum up my feelings at the moment.
In the true spirit of the team I haven't a clue when the Olympics are, and can't be bothered finding out. I can't decide what to work on at the moment, but I bought a nice bamboo circular needle off ebay which arrived today, so I'll probably try making a sock out of the multicoloured yarn I bought from the G-Mex months ago.
I'll be chuffed if I manage to finish one though, I never finish anything...

We all know computers can be really annoying at times... but sometimes they can be ace.
Winamp Random play came up with the Chris Morris "Bushwacked" speech... basically a cut up speech by George W.Bush, saying about how he's going to bomb Britain, Canada, France, Australia etc, and fund the Muslims... very fun, but dark... followed by the nice cheery sound of "Here Come's your Man" by Teenage Fanclub. I giggled a lot.

Computers also let me use Freecycle. Last night a Tanglewood Left Hand Semi-Acoustic guitar was offered. Porl's semi-acoustic is snapped and beyond repair due to the makers, Washburn going out of business. We've been saying for ages we'll save up to get him a new one, but there's always something else more important to buy. I replied late last night to the offer, (actually 3am), we've had our fingers, toes and eyes crossed all day, but no response, so I think we're out of luck. Porl now knows the true feeling of Freecycle disappointment. The guy offering it hasn't posted a TAKEN message yet though so I'm not uncrossing anything yet.

I did try to weight kama in our direction though by posting about the spare lawnmower and strimmer that I wanted to get rid off. They were picked up this evening, so I have space in the shed again... and sod's law, the girl who picked them up also was on the look out for a shed, I told her she was 2 weeks too late.

Anyway, now back to watching Shameless... Those silly Manc's make me laugh...
I also like trying to spot the places when we looked at houses.

The PC is alive again. It was the Windows Update I did which killed the machine. I was still running Win2k as my machine was wonderfully stable and I'd never had a reason to upgrade it. But the latest Windows Update didn't like my brand of hard drive (Maxtor) so it wasn't recognising it. So we gave up on trying to fix the problem, and instead plugged the drive into Porl's machine, backed everything up, and installed XP. It's been relatively painless... so far.

It's amazing how much rubbish you can accumulate on a PC in 4 years. I thought I was relatively tidy with my files, but my machine is in the kitchen so it gets used by everyone, Porl, random friends, I suspect even the cats have a play on it at night. There are wierd files and images saved everywhere.

Why have I got 2 karaoke versions of "Lady is a Tramp" by Billy Holliday
Why have I got a folder full of McDonalds Recipes?
Why have I got a whole bunch of text files with random sentences on them?
"lacuna a blank space or missing part"
Who in Emmerdale said "I've got more bling bling than J'Lo" and why did it warrant saving as a text file?

I also need to learn to be a bit more descriptive with my file titles. Names like "Stuff", "Document" and "hgnbvadgs", really aren't helpful.

I really should delete all this junk, especially some of the rubbish in the "Received Files" my friends send me some very odd things over MSN, but there are too many things that make me giggle and remind me of stuff, so I guess I'll be stuck with a computer full of odd files and images... I'll just sort them out into tidier folders instead.

I'm using Porl's PC, if you don't press the "R" key in ust the right way then it won't work. I expect I'll soon tire of going back to delete the errors.
My blog I'll do as I wish.

**Update PC is fixed, and the lack of "R"'s was annoying me so it's been corrected... also why didn't I think of using spell check to correct it?**

Why am I using Porl's PC? Well last night I booted up my PC and was faced with that wonderful "Blue Screen of Death" or a similar Win2k version. Porl tried searching the net for a solution, based on the wierd error message it gave us, but we failed. So I'm now stuck with a week off work, and no PC to amuse myself with. I blame either The Sims, which I had just got back into, or the Windows update I remembered to perform having realized I'd not done it for seveal weeks.

I predict I'll do a lot of crafting this week, the house will be spotless, I'll also be very irritated at the fact I really wanted to get lots of scanning done this week and now can't.

But it's also a reason for Porl and I to get out of the house and have some fun days. The reason for my week off work (other than that I had to use the holidays up before the end of March) is that Thusday is the 10th Anniversary of Porl and I getting our act together and start going out. It hasn't been smooth all the time, we choose to ignore the odd weeks of insanity when we split up, only to realize that splitting up with a boyfiend/girlfiend is one thing, but it's not so easy to split up with your best friend at the same time. Who are you meant to turn to for the hugs and compassion you need at a time like that? When you still live with you girlfriend/boyfriend/best friend, the answer is obvious.
So 10 years... a bit scary really.
So we're planning a nice day out to Monsal Dale for a slap up meal in the Monsal Head Pub. Depending on how hungry we are when we get there will decide on whether we take a walk down the valley first. If we're hungry when we arrive then we'll end up eating first, then realizing that walking down then back up that hill on a full stomach would be foolish.
We'll just enjoy the view instead.
Well, I will, Porl is too scared of heights to get too close to the edge.

I've been inspired by all the lovely patchwork I keep seeing around, and I need a throw to wrap myself up in when I'm on the settee, so I've decided to try to finish the patchwok object I've been working on since I was 7.
I say object because it started as a cushion cover, then grew to single bed size, and is now almost double bed sized. I love it because it's made up of scraps of material mostly salvaged fom old clothes and bedding of my family. I can spot the material used in the wrap-around skirt Mum made me (and I hated), there's a few pieces from duvet covers, several skirts of my Mum's, some of Dad's shirts, and the shirt my brother wore on holiday when he was posing in his glasses, thinking he was Tom Cruise. It's not as stylish and colour co-ordinated as some of the others around, but it's full of memories for me.

... and I cant post any pictures of it until my PC woks again...

Grrrrr why am I so reliant on something that can be so tempremental?

The break off work is over, but I'm still feeling lethargic and groggy. I did manage to accomplish some things though. Sunday I managed to get rid of the horrid plastic shed/bunker in my garden to someone on freecycle who was in need of one. The decking looks much bigger now, and it spurred me on to spend an hour in the garden planting some bulbs (which should have been planted in December.)
While planting the bulbs I dug up some others that Mum and I planted last year and I'd forgotten about, and as soon as this lot were in the ground I promptly forgot which bulbs I'd planted where. However, as I've also forgotten the names of the bulbs it makes no difference anyway. Spring will probably bring a riotous clash of colour to the garden.

I've also been busy scanning in all my Genealogical stuff, which meant another inevitable hunt online to see if I can find anymore ancestors. I think I've found some, but there will always be some tantalising mysteries.

I love researchng my family tree because of these mysteries. For example, I have this photo.

This is my Great Great Grandmother Annie Eliza Longden. I know this because it's been written on the back by either my Grandma or my Great Aunt Doris who would have known her.
Apparently the Longden's were quite well off, they donated Wadsley Scout group the large hut they held their meetings in. I spent a lot of my childhood playing in it too, but unfortunatly after a hundred years or so of use it was burnt down a few years ago by some bored teenagers who weren't interested in Scouts.
Annie's parents weren't very happy about her marrying my GGGranfather John Charles Machin, as he was wasn't well off, so we think she was dis-owned.
The problem is that I haven't sent off for a marriage certificate yet, so I don't know what Annie's parents were called, or how they got their money (if they had any.)

However thanks again to helpful relatives writing on the backs of photos I do know though that this is Annie Eliza's mother.

I find it fascinating that I can have a picture of someone, know what relation they are to me, but not know their name, (or what made them so miserable).

On a side note, because of this photo and the fact that I had an old Gypsy dressing up outfit from this side of the family, I thought that we were decended from Gypsies until I was well into my teens when someone put me straight.
Only then did I realize that the Gypsy outfit was fancy dress, not real... not many Gypsies had black velvet shorts and waistcoats, and pink silk shirts and head scarves.

What's even more frustrating though is that I also have these 2 photos.

The only writing on the back of these pictures is "This must not be taken as a specimen of Wright Bros. Work, as it is a Copy of an Old Photo". No helpful names for me, but there is definatly a family likeness between these 2 and Annie Eliza. I'm not an expert of dress styles but these are from a much earlier period (you can't see it very well on the scan but the woman has a frilled white cap on.) It could be that this woman is a younger version of Misery Guts, or they could even be Misery Guts' parents, and so my 4xGreat Grandparents. I doubt I'll ever know for certain who exactly they are, but it's things like this that keep me hunting for ancestors.

I'm having a short period of hibernation at the moment. Normal service should be resumed soon... I hope.

Hibernation has been caused by having spent a lot of days in work (for me anyway) which earns me a nice break of a few days. Unfortunatly the first few hours of the break were spent in hospital with a client. Thankfully everything is fine, but it did make me realize how attached I've got to them already.

I'm also hoping hibernation will help me kick the bad cold which I got just after new year. The sneezing has gone, but it's settled on my chest making breaking a chore, and I'm exhausted all the time.

I've got so many things I want/need to do, but I don't seem to have the time... actually that a lie. I have the time, just not the energy. I need some dynamite. Tomorrow I'm off to see Mum and Dad to pick up some old photos of ancestors which I can scan in with my new scanner (which is ace!).

There are other things I need to do (go to Stockport shopping, meet up with Shell, do some gardening) but all I want to do is sleep. Hopefully I'll get some energy if I sleep well tonight.

Christmas brought:
A scanner (so I can scan in those hundreds of photos I have of my ancestors)
4 pairs of pajamas (I did need them)
Benny & Joon DVD (have to buy a DVD player in the new year, I gave mine away to my Dad as a present. He wanted one, and mine was new but didn't do what I needed it to do.)
Socks
De-icing Scraper Mitt
A healthy amount of books (finished one of them already)
A box of Thorntons Continental
A Chocolate Orange (it isn't Christmas without one)
A huge plant pot, compost and seeds
Beads
Waterstones vouchers (hurrah more books)
A cardy (not sure about it but have the receipt)
A Pink Adidas Beanie hat (?)
A calendar
Some Oil of Ulay bath stuff (the secret santa pressie)
A little teddy bear bag (?)

Christmas Day was okay, my Christmas Dinner was fantastic though I do say so myself. I managed to convert Jo (the girl I worked with) into liking parsnips with my parsnips roasted in parmesan, she went back for seconds, depriving my of my midnight munchies. I'll let her off though as while I was cooking the meal she got one of the clients to help her wash all our cars. The clients were a little confused by our early tea, it messed up their routine, so by 7:30 two of them had taken themselves off to bed and the 3rd was yawning his head off so I had a very quiet night.

Boxing Day I got home at about 9am and went straight to bed. I woke at about 2pm and we opened our presents then I spent the rest of the day on the sofa reading, it was lovely.

Christmas has also brought the discovery of Last.fm I know it's been around for ages, but I never seemed to get around to signing up. Now I have it's kick started my obsession with ID3 tags again. I'd only just managed to break the habit, but Last.fm won't display the tracks unless the tags are correct so my obsession is back in full swing. If anyone is interested my profile is bilblio let me know if you have an account on there so I can add some friends, I feel all lonely at the moment.

Finally thankyou to everyone who sent me Merry Christmas text messages. I felt so rude not replying but I was out of phone credit. Which reminds me I still need to top it up.

Merry Christmas to One and All!

Not that I feel Christmassy in the slightest.
Spent the day at work, mostly in the kitchen. The Turkey hadn't been taken out of the freezer so I've had it in bowls of cold water all day, the label says by doing that it will take 20 hours to defrost. I've also prepared most of the veg for tomorrow, so in the morning I only need to prepare the potatoes, stuffing, and Yorkshires, and stick everything on to cook. Which means I can concentrate on opening the guys presents up and entertaining them. We're not eating till 3pm, so it will be a lazy morning. I've also decided the other staff member can go and take one of the clients on a long walk. It means he will get tired and won't be restless from being in all day, and I'll get respite from the staff member. I can cope with being in with clients all day, but you have to have conversations with staff (as opposed to talking rubbish to the clients) and it's tiring.

I did the same today, 2 staff took 2 clients out while I made a couple of lasagne's (one meat, one veggie) both of which seemed to go down very well thankfully. While they were out the other client had a nap (the joys of being 80+) and I stuck the radio on and had a dance to cheezy party tunes. When they got back we had a session of blowing up balloons, then I used the static from my hair to make them stick to the ceiling. I managed to get 23 up there, and 21 of them were still the when I came home. I was quite proud of my accomplishment, but no one else seemed to share my enthusiasm.

Now I'm off to check everything is ready for tomorrow. Presents need putting in bags for Porl to take to his parents, the litter tray needs getting out again, and I need to find my camera and pack my sleep-in bag. Roll on Boxing Day, I'll be home by 8:30 I hope, then I'll probably go straight to bed for a couple of hours before surfacing to open my prezzies.

Hope everyone has a Fantastic few days.
Merry Christmas!

Also not so happy about seeing Dukes antics.
He spent 5 minutes stood at the patio door making muffled miaowing noises at me expecting to be let in.
The miaows were muffled as he had a mouth full of mouse.
Thankfully the mouse was dead.
However, that fact did not make the sight of seeing Duke "playing" with the mouse any easier.
Especially when the playing involved throwing the creature up in the air, or at the patio window then catching it again.

The horrible little cat only got let back in when he had stopped playing and had put the mouse down.
Also when he was thoroughly wet from the rain.

Now I'm going to make sure he's not decided to sleep on my bed.
Horrible cat.

3 things making me happy at the moment.

Gu (sorry can't do the silly little dashes that should be over the u.)

The possibility that Burscough might get to play Man U in the FA Cup. If it happens we have to go and cheer them on. You never know they won the FA trophy 2 years ago beating a team 2 leagues above them. Hopefully they'll do it again. Man U are 7 leagues above them though.

Another 3 day weekend where I'm avoiding the computer and the rain. I might have to brave the shops tomorrow though and get some Christmas shopping done.


1 thing making unhappy at the moment.

The fact I'm doing the Sleep-in on Christmas Day, so I'll be in work from 8am Christmas Day to 8am Boxing Day.
Christmas is being postponed by 24 hours, and Porl is probably going to his parents for the day.
Thankfully I've got the 27th & 28th off, and also a couple of days over New Year.

Bah humbug!

I love snow. However I might not be saying that tomorrow when I have to get to work.

Tomorrow is my first proper day at my new job. I went over to the house Wednesday last week and met my new clients. They're 3 very nice elderly gentlemen. One has profound learning disabilities, and the other 2 are moderate to severe. Compared with other places I've worked, it should be very easy and relaxed. The staff seem nice, there are only 3 of them at the moment plus a Deputy Home Manager, they've been coping with agency staff for months. I think they were relieved to have got someone with experience. The manager seems very laid back, and the staff seem to be on my wavelength (we work for the clients, they come first, and we should be out of the house every day possible.) The house is in a lovely area, very posh! Not like Skem where we had kids breaking the windows.

The shifts are great! I only need to do 3 a week. 8am-7pm, 11am-9pm and the sleep-in shift is 8am-8am, that seems harsh, but it gets it over with and you're technically off duty between midnight and 7am. I would be home for 9am, and if I was tired (which is inevitable) I could grab a few hours sleep and still have a decent amount of the day left. The sleep-ins where I used to be were 4pm till 12 midday, which meant you were dreading the sleep-in all day and didn't have time to do much for yourself, and by the time you got home the following day and caught up on sleep the day was over. It's still going to take me 45 minutes to an hour to get there, but 3 times a week to a job I enjoy is fine by me.

For the first month I'm not doing any sleep-ins, but I'll still only be working 3 long days, and a half day. Bliss! No news on what I'm working over Christmas yet though, please let my have some time off and get to see my parents for a change!

I've made the most of my long weekend. Friday night we got invited out to sample the delights of StalyVegas. We've avoided these delights so far because the music played really isn't our thing, but a lad Porl has been doing some recording with invited us and it would have been rude to refuse. We started at Wetherspoons, where we met Carl, his girlfriend Rachel, and all her nurse mates, then over the next few hours we went to Lounge, Pad (where I had a dance to some remixed 80's songs, unfortunatly no-one joined me). Then we ended the night in Rififfi's, which may look like the Arriba in Ormskirk, but thankfully it doesn't smell like it, the music is better, and the clientele are generally at least 10 years older. The over 25 rule in StalyVegas isn't stuck to strictly, but it does help to keep out the worst of the riffraff.

Saturday was spent nursing a hangover. I can't handle booze anymore, Sunday we fought the crowds at Tes-cos and did our usual lunch which was as delicious as always. Both days successfully managed to avoid turning on the computer, and instead spent a lot of time on the sofa sewing this.

I started this over a year ago, but I haven't done any cross stitch for months. I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago and since then I've done most of the sea. I'm hoping to get it done for Christmas. The top half is done, thankfully the bottom half is less detailed so I might be in with a chance.
I doubt I'll be making my Christmas cards this year, and I'm not sure when I'll get any other presents made. Hopefully with these short weeks I'm working I'll fit everything in.

Well the job is still going great, I'm feeling a bit sore because for the past couple of days we've been doing Physical Intervention, and Restraint techniques. After a year of sitting at a desk all day my body is complaining about having to use muscles again, even for the most gently exercises. It's been interesting, I just hope I won't have to use it.
Tomorrow I'm going visiting the new home where I will be based. I'm a bit nervous as no-one I've spoken to so far has been able to tell me much about the clients, I'm hoping that means they're all nice and quiet as it's always the harder ones that you remember.

I've learnt, and confirmed a few things about myself too this past week. First that this is definitely the job for me. I knew that already, but it's nice to be reminded. On Tuesday evening I was sat at the PC with a big grin and feeling so relaxed, all the tension on the past year had vanished. Also I've been coming home at the end of the day (or early afternoon) and I have the energy and enthusiasm to do something other than fall asleep on the sofa.

It's also been interesting because I can see the changes in my attitude. When I was working for Chess I was always the quiet girl in the corner. Never spoke up, kept my head down and got on with the job. I couldn't do that as much at Atlantic because there were so few of us, but I doubt any of them would have considered me confident or outgoing. I was valued in the jobs, and I was asked my opinion, but I rarely spoke up.
However this past week I've been one of the more outspoken members of the group. I've even had to force myself to keep quiet to try to encourage others to speak. It's all because I'm confident in my skills and knowledge, and I care about getting it right, and helping others to get it right.
One of the managers at Atlantic said I wouldn't make a good manager because I was too quiet, but this last week I can see I could be a good manager in this job because I have the confidence. I can even imagine going on to do further study in topics then becoming a Trainer. Which would mean doing that most scary of things. "Standing up and talking to a group". Normally it terrifies me, but I've done it so often this week without even batting an eyelid.

So in conclusion. I'm happy. Hurrah!
I've got a cold though. Boo hiss!

Stupid Migraine.
First day at the new job went really well, would have been better had I not had a nagging head and felt mildly rubbish.

The first 2 weeks are training. Today we've done boring things like General Inroductions, Policies and Procedures, and Confidentiality. Also scary things like Fire Safety (I'm thinking about putting doors on the rooms downstairs, and I'm NEVER having a real Christmas tree again.)

Later in the week we get to do the fun things like First Aid, Breakaway Techniques and Challenging Behaviour. I've been working with people with Learning Disabilities for 10 years and I've never had training on Breakaway Techniques or Challenging Behaviour... although I have managed to train other people on them. So I'm quite looking forward to that.

I've also found out where I'll be based. Gatley. Which isn't great, but I don't care. It's not an office job and I'll not be doing it in rush hour. Annoyingly all the homes they had in Tameside are being sold off in December to a different company, so there's not much chance of being moved closer to home. Apparently it's a really nice easy home though, and the manager is very flexible so it should be good.

In the interview I said I'd like to work Part-time, but they obviously didn't make a note of that, so I'm Full-time. I'm pleased though, Full-time means that when the maternal instinct gets too strong I can have time off and get a decent wage, we'd struggle if I was Part-time. It also means more money if I want to try for a secondment and do a nursing course. But they're both thoughts for the future.

The main reason I wanted Part-time was so that I'd have flexibility with holidays, but thanks to Agenda for Change I've ended up with 27 days + 8 bank holidays. That's 7 weeks! That'll do me fine.

Now time for bed to sleep off the headache. I don't start till 9 tomorrow. Which means I get 2 whole hours extra before the alram goes off than I did this time last week. Luxury!

The last day at work went surprisingly calmly. On a Friday you can usually guarantee BT will cease one of our customers lines, but thankfully it didn't happen. Instead one of the problems which had been lurking for weeks got resolved, which was a nice ending to it all.
I got a lovely card off everyone, and assurances the if I change my mind about the NHS they'd be quite happy for me to come back... please... preferably next week.
But that's not likely.
Also got a big box of chocolates and a bottle of Rum... they seem to think I like it.
Which I do, but not as much as Porl does. I rarely drink much nowadays, but as Porl likes rum when I do drink that's what I end up with. Porl was most upset when I took this lovely bottle home and told him I was under strict instructions not to let him have any.

Yesterday I went shopping in Stockport, I finally got around to buying some jeans as all the ones I have now are either too big, or too small, it's lovely wearing trousers that actually fit.
I was also very good. I went to Hobbycraft and bought.... nothing! I've decided I'm going to save up for a £300 model Dolls House to make for my little girl.... when I have one... if not I'll adopt one.
I couldn't resist spending money in Borders though. I bought my Dad a birthday present, it's today so Happy Birthday Dad! A bead magazine, and another book which is going to be my main inspiration for Christmas Presents. Obviously I can't say what it is until I've decided who I'm making them for.

Last night I got all dressed up in my new jeans and we went into Manchester for Adam's 30th birthday. Adam was our lodger back in Ormskirk. He moved in for a couple of weeks while he looked for somewhere else, and he left about 18 months later to move to Manchester. It is partly thanks to him that out cats are as fat, and as friendly as they are.
Unfortunatly after about 5 minutes of driving in the dark my head started hurting. By 10 o'clock it was pounding and I was feeling sick so we had to leave. We got home I took 2 ibuprofen and was in bed for 10:30. I woke a couple of times in the night but fell straight back to sleep again until 12:30 this afternoon. I still feel woozy, achey and tired, but at least the headache has gone for now. I hate Migraines.

The only other thing I've done today is dig in my compost bin. In the dark. Moonlight gardening. My grandad would be proud of me.

1 day to go.
I'm starting to wish I'd given myself a few days break before starting the new job, but I need the money. Working part time means I'll have plenty of free days once the training is over and the new job starts.
The panic has set in at work. Everyone is trying to get everything up to date before I leave. I worked through every lunch break this week, and most of last week. But I've refused to stay late. I doubt I'd get paid for it.
Tomorrow I am Definately not. 4:30 I'll be out of there.

I have a leaving interview at 4pm tomorrow. It could be interesting. I'm curious what I'll be asked. I haven't decided yet how honest I'll be in my answers.
It depends who does the interview.

I've been avoiding the PC all week, I've been so tired and I'm fighting the beginnings of a cold, so I've been curled up on the sofa doing cross-stitch and trying to get early nights. The cross-stitch is coming on well, but I've not perfected the early nights yet.

10:55am


11:15am


It took all of 15 minutes for the 2 delivery people to put this up. I think the fact that it was chucking it down with rain may have made them more eager to complete the job swiftly. (The pictures are taken several hours apart really, hense the fact that the first picture is dry.)
Finally I have a space to put junk like pots of paint and tools, and my poor - probably rusty - bike.
My poor bike has spent the last year chain to a bench and covered with a slightly pathetic cover. I might have spent the rest of eternity in that state, but thankfully I've found the key to the lock so it can be released.
This also means the taunts about my Bike/Bench, or Bike with Sidecar, can be ended now... Jimmy.

I've had a lovely day off work today, meaning I have just 5 more days left. I've done very litle except play Caesar... I'm still stuck on the same level though.

I just got ID'd at the shop!
For buying cigarettes!!

Now I know I don't look 28, people usually peg me as early 20's, the look of shock when they find out I'm 28 pleases me every time.
Normally I blame my youthful look on the pigtails, but I didn't even have them in tonight.
I haven't been ID'd for a couple of years, so I thought those days were past, but getting ID'd for cigarettes is just silly. There's no way I look under 16... is there?
Maybe I have some wierd gene which is going to make me look younger as I get older. If I have I want to bottle it then I'll never have to work again.

Work today was interesting.
The guy who does the same job as me has been asked to leave. I haven't a clue why, he's a great guy and brilliant at his job. He's been there about a year, but I think they've just decided his face doesn't fit. My managers knew I was leaving before the decision was made, but it made no difference.
After that was announced, the team were then told that I was leaving. We were the only people who knew how to do our job, and it's a pretty key role. So that fact we're leaving within a week of each other has caused chaos. Rumours are flying around the other teams, Managers are in a blind panic, and if I wasn't stuck in the middle of it it might be quite fun to watch. I feel bad for the people I'm leaving behind, but the company knew the score so only have themselves to blame.
Thankfully no-one is being off with me. They've all heard me talk about how much I loved working for the NHS, I'm not going to the competition, I'm leaving for a more worthwhile cause.
I'm so pleased my notice period is only a week not a month.

The day started badly. The problems I'd had on Friday with BT hadn't been resolved, one of our customers had been without phones all weekend. So the usual routine started of me phoning BT, bosses phoning me, me writing emails to everyone under the sun began. At 11am we got their lines back up, but by that point another customers lines had gone down (2nd time in 2 weeks for that customer) and I'd started the routine over again. I'd also had some ominous news about someone I worked with which had put my head in a spin, and I didn't know whether I was coming or going.
Sitting under the table and crying seemed like a good idea.

By dinnertime things couldn't have got much worse.

So I told my boss I was leaving.

Seriously...

The exciting news I've not been able to say anything about is that I have a new job. I'm going back to work for the NHS as a Residential Support Worker, exactly the same job as I had before moving to Stalybridge, just working for a different NHS trust. I was offered the job in June, and it's taken all this time, 5 months, for me to get all the paperwork sorted and to get a start date. My last day at this place will be 11th November, and I start my new job on Monday 14th.

I have many reasons to be pleased about.

1. I'll be doing shift work again, I hated 9-5.
   
2. I'll be working in a home drinking tea and cleaning up, instead of in an office, answering the phone and sitting at a desk all day (I'm looking forward to losing the weight I've put on.)
   
3. I'll be contracted to work 25 hours a week, instead of 37.5, but there are always extra hours giving me lots of flexibility, bring on the 4 day weekends.
   
4. I'll be closer to home, probably Stockport which is about 25 minutes away. They have a home close to here, so if I'm really lucky I might have a 10 minute walk to work. Either way it has to be better than the 1 hour+ commute each way I have now.
   
5. I'll be working with people with Learning Disabilities again, and while they can sometimes be as frustrating as sales people, they're generally far more entertaining, and much happier.
   
6. Plus a billion other reasons.

I do feel bad about the way I've left work, but I didn't have much choice. This company only requires 1 weeks notice, that works both ways. I knew getting the paperwork ready would take a while, last time I worked for the NHS it took 3 months for me to get a start date. That time I told my employer straight away that I had been offered a new job, I had a Temp working with me at the time so they extended her contract, but it dragged on for that long that it got to the stage where they couldn't afford to pay us both so I quit. Luckily within days of handing in my notice the NHS gave me a start date so I was okay. I didn't have a mortgage then, I do now, I couldn't risk it this time. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks I'll be able to convince my boss of that, I tried explaining that at the time, but he was in too much of a daze to take it in.

So I'm feeling a mixture of bemused, excited, worried, and ... I'm not sure. The butterflies in my belly are doing somersaults.

I think I've just got time to write my resignation letter before bed.

Oh one last note though, the new edition of Magknits is out. I know it's Halloween but I didn't expect to be scared by finding a Doppleganger.

Oh one other last note. We've have about 12 trick or treaters, in about 6 groups. But the lad who came round twice earlier on in the week with his "Halloween is coming, the witches are coming" song hasn't been round at all.

Thank Crunchie it's Friday (Hmm not had one of them in years.)
Also thank Crunchie (or someone) that my partner in crime is back in work on Monday. So someone else can share the task of shouting at BT, and being put on hold by them for hours on end.
I've missed him, not just because I've had to do twice as much work at a job that I'm still learning how to do, but also because everyone else who sits near me in the office is so quiet, I also sit with my back to them, so it's been quite lonely.
No doubt by about 11am Monday I'll be back to telling him to shut up as normal though. He has one of those voices that carries.

Last night Shell came round. We did some knitting, talked a lot, looked at books, did a very good impression of Threadbared whilst looking at my Mum's old Knitting Machine patterns, and lost an hour.
I have to either work out how to fix the time on the video recorder (which is supposed to set itself as soon as you plug it in... but doesn't) or make a point of telling people when they come round that the clock on the video recorder is exactly 45 minutes slow.

So this weekend I plan on sleeping.
Lots.
Maybe some other things too, but sleeping is definately in the top 5.

Congratulations if you made it this far. I should have probably given some warning about this move, but I do like to keep people on their toes. Please remember to reset your bookmarks, change links etc, I don't want anyone getting repetitive strain injury by having to click a link twice. This address is much easier to remember, but the redirect page will be there for as long as my kind hosts allow me to keep it, unless it gets deleted by accident, or someone else decides to write something better.

Anyway, please bear with me for the next couple of days, I didn't realize quite how many files there were to be moved, so I apologise now if you find any broken links or dead pictures. They will be back online at some point soon.

I'm in the mood for posting... and I've got to do something to stop me from playing Caesar again...

LibraryThing has added a recommendations feature. It's a bit hit and miss at the moment, suggesting books which I already own, but other suggestions are spot on... There seem to be a lot of Classics in the list that I've just not got around to reading.

1. The Leopard (Everyman's Library Classics) by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa Never heard of it, so I'll keep an eye out for it
2. Bleak House by Charles Dickens I was actually looking for a copy of this in the charity shop the other day. I've never read it and I want to before the new BBC series is shown on telly
3. Lady Audley's Secret (Penguin Classics) by Mary Elizabeth Braddon Never heard of it, so I'll keep an eye out for it
4. Belinda (Oxford World's Classics) by Maria Edgeworth Never heard of it, so I'll keep an eye out for it
5. Possession : A Romance (Vintage International) by A.S. Byatt Classic I've not got around to.
6. The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald Classic I've not got around to.
7. Jane Eyre (Signet Classics (Paperback)) by Charlotte Bronte I own 2 versions of this already, I love it, but don't need a 3rd copy
8. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton I keep trying to read The Buccaneers by Wharton but can't get into it.
9. To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee Classic I've not got around to.
10. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling Already got
11. A Journal of the Plague Year : Being Observations or Memorials of the Most Remarkable Occurrences, As Well (Penguin Clas by Daniel Defoe Sounds interesting, I'll keep an eye out
12. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens Classic I've not got around to.
13. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf Never read any Woolf, should do
14. Aspects of the Novel (Pelican S.) by E.M. Forster I'll keep an eye out for it
15. Sense and sensibility by Jane Austen Already got, and love, studied it for A-Level so know it inside out
16. Literary theory : an introduction by Terry Eagleton No No No! I like reading, I hate Literary Theory
17. Alias Grace by Margaret Eleanor Atwood I'm sure I've already read this
18. Babel Tower by A. S. Byatt I'll keep an eye out for it
19. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot Classic I've not got around to.
20. A room with a view by E. M. Forster Classic I've not got around to.
21. The handmaid's tale by Margaret Eleanor Atwood Read it, loved it, studied it at uni. Where is my copy?
22. The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit Already got
23. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling Already got
24. Adam Bede by George Eliot Classic I've not got around to.
25. The plague by Albert Camus Classic I've not got around to.
26. Shirley (Wordsworth Collection) by Charlotte Bronte I'm sure I bought this a couple of weeks ago, not read it yet though.
27. Ulysses (Oxford World's Classics) by James Joyce I'm sure we had a copy of this being used as a doorstop... the size has always put me off
28. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Heard of this, never read it
29. The Woman in White (Penguin Popular Classics) by Wilkie Collins Whenever I see Wilkie Collins I think of Jackie Collins so I've never read any.
30. Romola by George Eliot Classic I've not got around to.
31. Nice work by David Lodge Never heard of it, I'll keep an eye out
32. The remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguro Never read this, but the other A-Level class studied it
33. Orlando: A Biography (Penguin Popular Classics) by Virginia Woolf I'll keep an eye out for it
34. Maurice (Penguin Modern Classics) by E.M. Forster Classic I've not got around to.
35. Sons and Lovers (Signet Classics (Paperback)) by D.H. Lawrence Classic I've not got around to.
36. The bell jar by Sylvia Plath Never! I've read bit of Plath and hated it all
37. Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell I'll keep an eye out for it
38. The vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith Who? I'll keep an eye out for it
39. Moll Flanders (Oxford World's Classics) by Daniel Defoe Classic I've not got around to.
40. An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears hmmm heard of the author, I'll keep an eye out
41. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh Classic I've not got around to.
42. The god of small things by Arundhati Roy I used to pick this book up in Smith's every week when I was commuting, but I always ended up buying something else
43. Beloved (Plume Contemporary Fiction) by Toni Morrison I'll keep an eye out for it
44. The Age of Innocence (Modern Library Classics) by Edith Wharton More Wharton... I'll try
45. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy I'm sure I've read this already, where is my copy?
46. The English patient : a novel by Michael Ondaatje I'm afraid to say the film put me off
47. A portrait of the artist as a young man by James Joyce Classic I've not got around to.
48. The Jungle Book (Penguin Popular Classics) by Rudyard Kipling It might ruin the film reading this :)
49. The Moonstone (Penguin Classics) by Wilkie Collins More Jackie Collins... I'll try
50. Washington Square (Penguin Popular Classics) by Henry James I'll keep an eye out for it
51. A Song Of Stone by Iain Banks I thought I'd got this book
52. Vineland by Thomas Pynchon I'll keep an eye out for it
53. The name of the rose by Umberto Eco Classic I've not got around to.
54. Villette (Wordsworth Collection) (Wordsworth Collection) by Charlotte Bronte Already got
55. Ethan frome by Edith Wharton Classic I've not got around to.
56. The waste land and other poems by T. S. Eliot Not really a poetry fan
57. White noise by Don DeLillo I'll keep an eye out for it
58. Lake Wobegon days by Garrison Keillor I've tried to read this so many times, can't get into it
59. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Classic I've not got around to.
60. Barchester Towers (Oxford World's Classics) by Anthony Trollope Classic I've not got around to... but the surname has always put me off, I think of Joanna
61. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson Classic I've not got around to.
62. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams Not interested
63. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Book 1) by J.K. Rowling Already got
64. Behind the Scenes at the Museum : A Novel by Kate Atkinson I've read some Kate Atkinson, not overly bothered.
65. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier I love this book, studied it at uni, where is my copy?
66. Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper I'll keep an eye out for it
67. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell Read this loads, studied it at uni, my copy is at my parents
68. Madame Bovary (Bantam Classics) by Gustave Flaubert Classic I've not got around to.
69. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley I love this book, studied it at uni, where is my copy?
70. Oliver Twist (Penguin Popular Classics) by Charles Dickens I love this book, studied it at uni, where is my copy?
71. The crimson petal and the white by Michel Faber I'll keep an eye out for it

One good thing, if I get through this little lot then I'll be a lot further on my way to completing The Booklovers Quest.

What a difference a few days off work can do.

Wednesday was Matt's birthday, & Thursday was Porl's, so after work I drove straight up to Ormskirk for celebrations. I had to pick Porl up at Burscough Train station first, I arrived there early and exhausted, so I fell asleep in the car while I was waiting, I slept for about half an hour, but it went dark in that time so I woke up utterly confused, and feeling like I'd slept for hours. Once in Ormskirk we went out to order Chinese and then a night of many pints began.
It was a great night, the gang back together, and everyone was in good spirits. Maybe one day I'll learn not to drink though. I haven't drank much this past year, and my tolerance for it has plummeted, so by the end of the night I was feeling a bit poorly sick. Luckily I woke up stupidly early the next morning, took some painkillers and went to bed until a more reasonable hour, at which point I felt mostly okay, and a walk round Ormskirk made me feel even more human. I'm jealous of Ormskirk's new Oxfam Book Shop though. I leave Ormskirk and they get a decent craft shop and then a 2nd bookshop. It's not fair!

The unfortunate thing about Porl's birthday being the day after Matts is that Porl always has a hangover on his birthday. So it was celebrated by going to his mums and doing very little. At tea time we went out for a meal, which perked us both up, then we headed back home to 2 angry cats who don't like being left alone overnight.

Friday I had a lazy day pottering around the house, giving it a good clean, I was supposed to be going shopping with Shell, but my lack of organisation and laziness let me down again. Shell is too much of an early bird for me, but after Wednesday night I really did need the extra sleep.

Today Mum & Dad came up and inbetween the rain showers we weatherproofed the decking. We're getting a shed delivered in about a weeks time, so the painting had to be done today, rain or shine. Tomorrow I might actually remember to take some pictures of it, I've been meaning to all week. Then Porl and I drove off to Ashton to pick up a Freecycle table for his room, and on the way back we stopped at Ashton market to get picnic goodies to eat. Mum had given us some money for a Birthday take-away, but we were craving healthy food.

I can't believe I've only been off for 3 days. I feel like I've had a holiday, and I've still got 1 more day of the weekend left.

Oh the baking went down well. The response from my boss (who rarely speaks to me) as he passed me back the empty box at the end of the day was "Yes, very good, same tomorrow if you please". From Matt I had an email titled "MMmrrffphh prrrfll" which was the sound of him eating cake.

I'm pretending to be a Domestic Goddess. Scarily this is the 2nd batch of cookies I've made this week. The last batch were half the size, I was supposed to be making them for work, there were only 2 trays worth, and by the time the second tray had finished cooking we'd eaten the first tray. So I made my apologies at work and this time I've doubled the quantities. I don't mind taking this lot into work, they're not as nice as the first ones. Cookies are supposed to be made with soft brown sugar. I didn't have enough last time so I used half soft brown sugar and half muscavado. They were sooo rich and delicious. When I went to the shops to buy more sugar for this lot they only had demerara which doesn't melt properly, so there's lots of crunchy sugar crystals in these. Oh well they still taste good... just not as good.

Last week at work was the week from Hell. I got none of my normal work done, instead I spent 4 days on the phone to BT trying to sort out the fact that they had cut off someone's lines a week early. But not just anyone's lines... no, they cut off the lines to a £400 a night Hotel. I stayed late every night trying to get it resolved. Eventually I found out at 5:30 on Friday that it was fixed. I got very drunk Friday night and forgot about it all.
When I went back into work Monday I was told that BT had done the same thing to one of the customers other sites on Sunday! Thankfully BT contacted the customer and got the problem resolved themselves that time.
Today we had our "High Points" email listing the good things which had happened last week. I was given a special mention for my battles with BT.
I'm worried... if my week from hell is a high point what is a low point?

I'm almost fed up with Christmas already. I love Christmas, but I hate the fact that it starts earlier each year. The shops are full of decorations, the main topic of conversation at work is the Christmas Do, and on the news they were telling us yesterday "it's only 10 weeks till Christmas".
I had a little rant:

It may be just 10 weeks till Christmas, but there are only 52 weeks in a year which means Christmas is still a fifth of a year away!

I try not to think of Christmas until December, or at the very earliest my Dads birthday which is 6 weeks before Christmas, I'm certainly not thinking of it now...

However in complete contradition I am thinking about New Year's Resolutions. I don't normally make them as I never stick to them, but there are a couple of changes I really want to make next years.
First, cataloguing my books has made me realize I don't read enough. So I want to try to read 50 books next year (Matt how are you doing with that this year?)
Second, I seem to talk about crafts more than doing them, so I'm going to aim for 50 completed objects next year, hopefully it will be far more.

As a boost towards starting this I'm going to take up the ArtByTheInch challenge again this year. There doesn't seem to be any movement on the website, but the LJ Forum is still alive so I won't be alone in my challenge. Also Matt is doing NaNoWriMo again this year with his own added challenge (email him if you want to keep him in check and read each chapter as he writes it) hopefully we can encourage each other.

Also, way back in July I had some news which I couldn't share. I still can't... yet, but hopefully it shouldn't be much longer now!

OW OW OW OW OW!
I've just broken my thumb nail while re-arranging the bookshelves. Lots of people are envious of my nails, they're very strong, so I can grow them long very easily without any problems. They rarely break, but when they do it really hurts.
I was trying to get a book off the shelf, the books are squeeeezed in tightly, and I managed to bend the thumb nail right back. It snapped about 2mm below where the the nail parts from the skin. I couldn't find any superglue, so the only option was to grit my teeth and rip it totally off.
I now have a very short nail and a throbbing, bleeding thumb.
The bookshelves look good though.

I finally succumbed to ebay last week and made my first bid. I didn't win, but I tried again, and I now have this boat shuttle and bobbins for my sewing machine. It was the bobbins I needed as the machine only came with one, but the shuttle may be useful. Now I have to resist buying anything else. I'm "window shopping" instead, adding things to my watch list to see how much they sell for.
I'm watching lots of boxes at the moment.
Must... not.... buy......

I've just finished cataloguing all my Mr Men books on LibraryThing, and I've hit exactly 500. I still have 2 shelves of books to do downstairs, they're mostly craft books and old hardback books so they might not be easy to search for, then there are the books upstairs. I think the final count will be about 700.
Not nearly enough.
Feel free to have a browse, or there's a link on the side menu.

Today has been spent rearranging bookshelves, obviously, and pottering around the garden while Mum and Dad built some steps. The deck is looking great, next week they should finish building the steps and put the top on, then we have to go shed shopping. Once that has been done we have to build a (strong) railing to stop people falling off and breaking their necks. It's very high up.
I can then start digging up the grass and putting plants in instead.
We've decided it'll be much easier to look after, the plants will hide the front of the deck, and there's so little grass there that it's hardly worth having. I hate gardening most of the time, but I am enjoying browsing through books looking for plants I can put in.

I'm exhausted. I've had a busy night. We had the rest of the wood delivered today to finish off the deck, so after tea (a love curry courtesy of Porl) we shifted all the wood off the patio and onto the deck frame, neatly arranged in the order Dad will need to use it. He hoping the weather brightens up so he can work on it this week. He wants to get it done as soon as possible. The aim is to get it finished and buy a shed before winter.

When we were halfway through shifting the wood the man arrived from the garage with my newly fixed and cleaned car. I'm so pleased to have it back, and so pleased my insurance is fully comp. £1600 it would have cost, and that's just mine, I haven't asked how much the Mercedes I hit is costing to repair.
I've just realized they got the horrid little Ka back with an extra £15 of petrol, I wasn't expecting to get mine back until Thursday/Friday, so I put petrol in last night.

After welcoming the car home I decided to rearrange the living room. I was going to put the sewing machine in one of the alcoves by the fire, but that would have meant I'd have to re-arrange the living room everytime I wanted to use it. So instead the Welsh Dresser has been moved into one of the fireside alcoves, and my sewing machine is where the dresser was. The living room looks nicer now too, bigger, but cosier...plus it's tidy which is always an improvement, wonder how long we'll keep that up for.

And now for bed... so tired.

If you aren't seeing huge differences here, then press F5. I've finally come up with a design I like, and have managed to get it finished and online before having time to go off it.
Please let me know any problems with it. As always constructive criticism greatly appreciated.

I've not just been doing webpages though. I've had a fun few days.

Friday night I went straight from work up to Ormskirk, Porl was already there. We did our usual thing, pizza, sillyness and vegging out. At about 2am I was browsing the local freebie paper and an ad caught my eye. Next morning, I phoned the number, and I'm now the proud owner of this...

Well I wanted a nice cabinet to go in the corner. But that's not what got me interested.
The fact that it's an antique treadle sewing machine too is what makes me love it.

It even has the original instructions, and loads of diffeent feet in their box.

I've wanted a treadle sewing machine for so long, but I didn't expect to be able to get one as nice as this. The woman had bought it as a decoration, she was told it worked when she got it but she'd never tried it. Looking at it I guessed that some WD40, wax polish and some TLC would do it the world of good, and I was right. A couple of hours work on it and it runs perfectly. I love it so much I feel all goo-ey inside.

I really enjoyed restoring it, and I've spent all day looking at other things I could restore. So you can understand why I'm trying very hard to resist replying to the Freecycle post from someone offering a 1920's Dolls House which needs a little restoration. She wants it to go to a good home.
I'm a girl. I've always wanted a Dolls House.

Lastly I forgot to post pictures of the 3 Belfast Sinks I got off Freecycle. I've started cleaning them up now and they look much better, there's no blue paint on them for a start. The planting scheme needs some work though, the corinador looks lonely.

I've tried so many times to make a catalogue of my books, but it's always failed, mainly because I have so many, and to do it properly (ISBN no, publishers etc) would take me forever. So Library Thing is the little godsend I've been hoping someone would come up with. It's so simple. You do a search for the book and it pulls up all the different version it can find on the Library of Congress gateway, and Amazon (US, UK, FR, Ger). If you can find the right version then all the details are there, ISBN, publisher, illustrator etc. It's frustrating at the moment that it doesn't find the UK versions very often, but the site has only been online for 2 weeks, and in that time the author has added many things that have been requested, getting the site to search the British Library is on his list of things to do, so I'll forgive him for now. You can add tags to books (like in Flickr & Delicious), write reviews, and see which other users you have most books in common with, which seems like a good way of finding new books to read. Now I'll just have to spend the next few weeks adding all my books into it.

In other news, the webdesign has come on leaps and bounds over the past couple of days. There's still a lot to do on the craft pages, but I'm hoping to get the rest online in the next couple of days.

Hurrah! They phoned this morning to let me know my car is fixable. I'm so relieved. It will take about 2 weeks to fix, but they delivered me a courtesy car this morning. It's a Silver Ford Ka (odd co-incidence as Jimmy just bought his first car a few days ago which is also a Silver Ford Ka.) I haven't been out in it yet, but I'll have to before Monday, I don't want my first trip out in it to be the journey to work.

I'm not hurting as much today, but I'm still sore. My head still feels like a heavy weight. I'm going to spend the day relaxing, maybe getting some webdesign done, some knitting, and maybe some glass painting. It's 80's Weekend on TMF, so I'm getting to see all the videos that went with the songs I loved so much growing up (and still do.) Everyone goes on about the bad dress sense of the 80's, but I'm sorry... the dancing! After watching Vanessa Paradis' video for Joe Le Taxi I'm wondering how she ended up getting Johnny Depp.

I've never been in a car crash before, I didn't know whiplash could hurt so much. My neck and back are killing me, I can move my neck, but if I move it too far the pain makes me feel sick, as does the occasional crunch that my neck keeps making. My head feels so heavy. My knee is fine though, so long as I don't touch it.

I had to go to the Police Station this afternoon to show them my driving license etc. Annoyingly I got off the bus far too early, as the Police Station that the Council website pointed me too has been shut for years, thankfully the nice lady in the library pointed me in the right direction, and had a moan about the state of the old building, and the fact that if anything happens to you outside mon-fri 9-5 then it's tough because the Station is closed.

I spent the rest of the day knitting my first pair of socks, watching daytime telly (I'm sure it used to be better), falling asleep, and trying to find out about my car. Apparently the insurance people were assessing whether it could be fixed, but no one phoned me back to let me know, and I fell asleep at half 4 so missed calling them back. They will only let me have a courtesy car if they are going to fix it, and I can't have on until they've decided. They can't deliver a car until Monday, but if they have made by tomorrow morning then I could go and pick one up. However that would probably cost a fortune in taxi fares, and I don't feel up to driving yet anyway.

If they don't fix the car then I have to buy a new one which will take several days, including taking a trip to Sheffield to get some savings (best way of saving money, have a obscure bank account where the nearest branch is 35 miles away.) I wouldn't be entitled to a courtesy car, so I'd have to hire one because commuting to work by train isn't an option I fancy. I worked out it would take me roughly 2 hours from door to desk. I start work at 8am, so I'd have to leave at 6. Not good.

Why is nothing ever easy?

Nanana nana Nanana nana naaaaa We're gonna crash!

I've crashed my little brum brum... it's very poorly, possibly dead. I'm waiting for someone to phone and tell me what's happening.

Now that I've calmed down I'm okay, just very sore, my neck, back and right arm are getting stiffer by the minute, probably whiplash, and I'm going to have a cracking bruise on right knee. I was a complete nervous wreck when it happened, in shock, I couldn't think what to do, the other driver had to tell me to get the car onto the hard shoulder, then it took me about 4 attempts to get the work number right. The other drivers involved are all okay, no one hurt, and their cars were fine to drive away. The car I hit was a Mercedes, he'll probably get a new back bumper, although it would probably clean up with some T-cut, but the front of mine just crumpled.

It all happened on the M60 on the way to work this morning, I wasn't going too fast, probably about 50mph, but it was wet, and my brakes just wouldn't work in time. An ambulance came to check me out, and I spent about an hour sat in a police car waiting for the AA, then got driven home.
An eventful morning, but I can think of better ways to get out of work.

I've had 'Crash' by The Primitives going round my head since it happened, but boy am I glad I opted for projecting my 5 years no claims when I renewed my car insurance just 4 days ago!

Oh fiddlesticks!

When will I learn that colours on the laptop are always totally different to how they should really look?

I'm having another of those "determind efforts" at getting the new site online. This time it's more of an effort though, I really am fed up with purple, so the desk has been cleared, I've brought a comfy computer chair downstairs rather than using a dinng chair, and I'm going to try to get somewhere.

The problem is, that the colours which on the laptop were various shades of blue, are now a mixture of purple and green. I'm trying to decide if I like it or not.
I think not.

Back to the drawing board, I will get there eventually.

Lots of thoughts in my head at the moment. Lots of things I should post about. Lots of things I'm ranting about. Porl is pretending to listen, I don't blame him for zoning out. Most are trivial, some are big, I'll try to keep each as brief as possible.

# What is is with everyone leaving their jobs at the moment? At least half the people I know are. I'd say who, but I'm not sure whether employers have been informed in all cases :) Good luck to everyone though, I hope we all end up significantly happier.

# I hate the Royal Mail. Why do they always manage to deliver the junk and lose the important stuff? And why haven't my new Knitting Needles arrived yet?

# Again I'm grateful I live in the UK, where guns aren't sold in supermarkets, and communities can get organised - I keep seeing news reports showing aid being dropped into New Orleans and seeing a few people grabbing it and it not being shared. I wonder why no-one is challenging this and trying to get things organised. Then I remember that I wouldn't challenge someone who may have a gun, so why should they?

# I'm also getting sick of seeing Americans moaning about the cost of petrol.
When I filled up the car on Wednesday it was about 92p a litre. After doing complicated late night maths (3.8 litres per US Gallon, then $1.81 to the £Sterling,) I worked out that's $6.44 per US Gallon. Nearly double what prices are in America right now.
These are the normal prices, they haven't gone up yet because of Katrina, we'll probably be paying over a pound per litre by Monday, and no doubt it will keep going up.
I sounds like I'm moaning, "ooh poor us and our high petrol prices" but I'm not, I think it's good that driving my car is expensive.
Driving is bad.
Pollution is bad.
Making people think twice about driving somewhere that they could walk to is good.
I'm far from perfect, the car is easy, and I'm lazy, but I'm paying for my laziness. I also realized that because I work so far from home I spend around 10% of my wages on petrol. That is stupid, I need to work closer to home.
Also, the worlds' biggest polluter has been effected by a natural disaster, the severity of which is a pretty good sign of the effects of Global Warming. Then people are complaining about no longer being able to put petrol in their cars and continue to pollute the Earth... it seems like there are a few skewed perspectives.
< / rant>

# Freecyle is being good to me at the moment. Hopefully by next week I'll be the proud own of 3 Belfast sinks which I can use as plant pots in the garden. I'll also have got rid of the other computer monitor.

# Had a HUGE thunderstorm the other night, which I managed to completely miss. Heard a few rumbles down at work, I think I must have driven around the storm on the way home because I didn't see anything. It took me an hour and a half to get back, several substations were hit so there was a big powercut and all traffic lights were out. Fun! By the time I got home, the power was back on. Porl was a bit jittery though, I love thunderstorms, he doesn't. He saw lots of sheet lightening, then fork lightening hit the field across the road, then he heard an even bigger bang round the back of the house. He saw a fire engine not long after.

# Going to the Stitching and Creative Craft show at the G-Mex tomorrow with Shell. I'll try to be good and not spend too much money.