My throats a bit sore today... no where near as bad as Porls head though.

Well done Steven Gerrard for sleeping with the trophy last night. I think I'd have done that too.

Now I just need Sheffield Wednesday to have the same luck on Sunday in their play-off against Hartlepool, then I'll be an extremely happy girl.

Is BBC3 trying to stop people having kids?
Tonights viewing was "The House of Tiny Tearaways", then "Desperate Midwives".

I can't watch Desperate Midwives, but I find The House of Tiny Tearaways quite interesting. I like Child Psychology, and I'm sure most people must watch it thinking "God what awful kids", I watch it thinking "God what awful parents".
I know I'm not a parent, but I've looked after enough kids over the years because of Mum's child-minding, my baby-sitting, oh and let's not forget those 50 or so kids with disabilities and Challenging Behaviour on the Playscheme. So I think I've got a fairly good idea of what makes children tick and how to handle them, even when they're kicking, screaming, biting and beyond reason.

Thankfully the advice the parents are given is what I'd do anyway.
It's relatively simple.
1. Remember who's in charge (the grown up, not the kid.)
2. Mean what you say. (Porl learnt the hard way. "You can hit me as much as you like it won't hurt." So the kid hit him as much as he liked.)
3. If a kid does something wrong explain why it's wrong.
4. Followed by the Playscheme mantra "It's the action that's bad, not the child."
5. Shower you kids with affection, (not money). Never let them go to sleep thinking they're not loved.
6. Respect them as people.
7. Show them Eddie Izzard from a young age. Make them believe it's all true. (Daddy is friends with the bees. Cats go to Jazz Clubs behind the sofa.)

Hopefully one day soon we'll be able to put this into practise (and try to stick to it). I think the offspring of Porl and I will be ace. Warped, but ace.

However if I see anymore than the 30 seconds I caught of Desperate Midwives there will be no little Celeste's or Porl's to experiment with.

Gonzo's eyes both continue to twinkle, and the magpie continues to swoop and cackle at him.

I'm going to have to take extra care to make sure Gonzo is in at night, otherwise that Magpie is going to be waking me up in the mornings.

The photos are very bad quality, but it was getting dark, (and I was doing my chav impression stood in the back garden in my pyjama bottoms... they're comfy, and I'd just spilt coffee all over my trousers)
I'm sure they'll be plenty of opportunities to take some better pictures over the next few weeks.

Dash it Obby! Dash it! It twinkled! I like twinkling things!

Magpie - The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew.

We may have a problem. Gonzo has a new favourite perch on top of our shed/storage thing in the garden. Unfortunatly a Magpie has decided to build it's nest in the tree directly above Gonzo's perch. The nest is about 4-5 foot above where Gonzo sits, he's far too heavy to be able to get up there, but we have one very irate Magpie who has spent the day lunging and diving at Gonzo trying to scare him away.
Let's hope Gonzo's eyes don't twinkle too much...

The weekend was quiet. Mum and Dad came up on Friday to do some DIY, then Jimmy and Robin came up Friday night we drank beer and had a silly game of Balderdash (not that it's possible o have a sensible game of Balderdash). I also slept a lot, read a little, and started crocheting a new bag.

Who needs expensive Noro yarn, when you can get 20p balls of yarn from Charity shops that work up like this!

It's quite fluffly, and using a 4mm hook it's working up quite firm, I'm having to feel where to put my hook in, because I can see any gaps. The finished result is great, almost like it's been felted. I'm not sure how tall it will be, probably about the same height again, I'll just keep going until I run out.

Work today has made me feel a bit more comfortable as I've found out what my new role will be. I was basically given a choice between working in Customer Service, Accounts, or Operations. As I hate customers, and have never worked in Accounts, I went with Operations. Which is what I wanted to do anyway. Now I get to process orders, sort out faults, and shout at BT and YC a lot, and not have to speak to customers. I'll also be the only female in a team of men which is how I like it. Women are wierd!

Finally we had Drama this evening!
Porl came downstairs asking what the beep beep beeping was. He thought it was on the telly, I thought it was a car alarm. After a minute or so of trying to work out where it was coming from he shouted "call the fire brigade it's next door!"
He'd seen smoke coming from the vent next door, but no windows or doors were open so we thought they were out. I phoned the Fire Brigade, while I was on the phone to them the neighbour came out, and smoke was billowing out of the door. I tried to tell them it was okay, but the Fire Engines were on their way already.
Her dinner needed 20 minutes to cook, but she'd left it in for 2 hours. The house was full of smoke. The fire engines arrived, we apologised and explained it was a bit of a false alarm, but they checked everything out and used big industrial fans to clear the smoke for her. They left then I had a chat with her and calmed her down. I was shaking like a leaf, and she was crying. Thankfully there's no lasting damage, and I understand her a little better.
That makes 3 times in 2 years that we've had to call the fire brigade. That must be way above average. I'd like to not have to do it again for many many years.

Hurrah for the return of pictures. It's all been getting too dull around here lately. So now we have pictures to illustrate my weekend, and a new design is hopefully on its way soon.

Had a relatively productive weekend. Yesterday I went to town to collect an Amazon package (CSS and HTML books, also a new Naked Lunch for Porl), while I was there I got around to joining the library (the rest of the books shown, 3 on the history of Tameside, 1 on crochet, and a great one on wirework.) Then I had a quick look around the charity shops in search of double ended needles. Failed, but did manage to get a couple of patterns, and some great yarn all for the grand sum on 60p. I gave them a £1. I'm not sure what type of yarn it is, but the colours are great, it goes from pink-purple-dark blue-purple-pink-purple. It's quite fluffy too, I think I might be using my re-found knitting skills to make a bag. The patterns are for a non-70's jumper, and a Mr Bean teddy bear. I hate Mr Bean, but I do like teddy bears. Which bring me onto the newly washed Donbit, doing his Marvin impression. He is sporting the latest in next winters fashion, hand knitted hats with knitting needles and paper clips in the top. He doesn't look happy, but I'm dead chuffed with this. I've got as far as I can with the circular needles, hence my hunt for the double pointed ones. Shelly I need your help. Fancy meeting for a drink at some point? Or I might just find somewhere online and by my own set of circulars and DPN's, I can see than getting a lot of use in the future.

Today Porl and I went for a walk, the paper has been advertising "Tulip Day" at Stamford Park, a kids fun day, with craft stalls, and a free tulip for all. We've not been to Stamford Park yet, so it seemed like a good opportunity to find out where it was. Well we found the park... eventually... but we never found "Tulip Day". We were only walking for an hour, but since getting the office job it's the most I've walked in months, my legs were like jelly by the time I got to the car.

When we got home I spent some time in the garden. Hopefully in a few weeks time we'll have some cut-and-come-again lettuce, also rocket & coriander. That is if the slugs don't have it, or if Gonzo doesn't use it as a litter tray, as I caught him trying with one of the other pots! Bloody cat!

Back to Alderley Edge tomorrow. I've found another thing good about it, the Newsagents has the largest collection of Craft mags I've ever seen! Hence the Simply Knitting Magazine. It's dangerous on my pocket though, and it's still MILES away!

2 days into the new job. First (and second impressions). It's MILES away! It takes me about an hour and a quarter in the morning, and an hour at night, I work longer hours, and the office is boiling, they're also stricter with the internet access. On the plus side, the people are nice, my TFT monitor is gorgeous, Alderley Edge is quite pretty, with posh charity shops, a craft shop and a cheese shop.

The biggest problem though (after the distance) is that I'm not entirely sure what my role is. Before I was Customer Services/Sales Admin/Order Processing/General Skivy Person. This company has a Customers Services Department, and Opps do all the Admin and Order Processing. Which leaves me with General Skivy. So whereas before when the Sales Guys annoyed me with their inane questions and their Peck-Peck-Pecking I would take so much, and then tell them to do it themselves, now it seems it's my job. I'm not particularly happy about this. But we're still getting set up, I haven't had any training in any of the systems yet, I haven't even worked out where the departments are yet, so we'll see. Hopefully over the weekend someone will invent teleporters and I'll figure out what I'm meant to be doing there.

In other news. I met up with Shelley on Monday. She's set me off making a hat. Last time I knitted anything other than a square was when I was 7, but the knitting skills seem to be resurfacing from the depths, as I'm finding it quite easy, so long as I don't try to talk and knit, then I get confused and knit bits which should be purls. It was so nice to be able to chat to someone about crafty things without them thinking I was a freak. I'm not sure the other people in the pub thought that though, we did get a few peculiar looks when we were knitting.

Last night was the Craft Club again. I got let off work early so I could get some tea before heading up there. It was our last week of card making. I was so tired I half thought of giving it a miss, but I'm glad I decided to do. A couple of hours playing at cut-and-stick and all my stressed dissolved. I'd take some pictures of what I made, but I'm exhausted. Instead I'm going to curl up on the settee with my knitting, and watch the man with the nice voice on Grand Designs.