Stalybridge is the 'slaef léah brycg', the 'bridge by the wood whence the staves are procured'.

The 'bridge' bit was added at a later date, so it's basically 'The wood where you get the sticks'.
Now last time I checked most woods had a surplus of sticks. The Stalybridge sticks must be pretty special for the place to be named after them.
Luckily the cats love sticks. They're their favourite toys. So the cats should be happy in their new home.

3 days to go.
Much packing has been done. Loads more left to do still.

Roll on Friday when it will all be over.
Except for the unpacking.

Two pieces of great news!

First, Sunset Beach is returning to Channel 5. Only repeats, but even so, Hurrah!

Second, we have a completion date! Friday the 10th, and hopefully we'll be moving out the same day. Which means I best get on with the packing.

But first I think I must procrastinate a little more.

Today has been extremely productive.

I've phoned and sorted out gas, electricity, phone and internet connections for the new house, filled in multiple change of address forms, paid all the bills which need paying before the move, and filed away all the paperwork which accumulates on my desk.Downstairs has been tidied and hoovered, and I'm going to do upstairs before I relax for the night.

I'm doing anything to avoid packing.

This is especially for Fiona, who left a message asking where I was. I felt loved.

I'm still here, and ever so busy. So here's a quick rundown of the main things.

Apart from all the overtime I'm doing at work, we're also up to eyeballs with house things. The house buying and selling is going through well, we're hoping to be moving in to our lovely new house overlooking the moors in about 3 weeks. So lots of packing and planning is going on. Phone calls with solicitors, estate agents, mortgage advisors, insurance advisors and what feels like a billion and one other people too. It's tiring and confusing and scary. I'll be so glad when it's over.

I've also had a birthday, combined with a holiday. Porl, Jimmy and I went camping in Derbyshire. We walked, we ate, we played cards and we watched lots of cricket in the picturesque village of Ashford-in-the-Water. Picture limestone grey tudor houses, village cricket green, balmy days, hot air balls overhead. The boundary line of the cricket pitch was the fence which kept the sheep next door in their field and off the pitch. It was lovely, and a much needed break with a couple of ace lads.

Of course in between all this I've been de-stressing with crafty pursuits. There's lots of new jewellery dangling off the corner of my shelves. I've also tried making beaded flowers and I have some cute bunches of pansies. I've had my first go at book binding, it turned out well, but there's a few things I'll do differently next time. Finally, the Spinning. I've been persevering with the drop spindle. It's going slowly, but I will get there.

So that's a rundown on the basics. Plenty of other stuff has happened, like Lynskey gigs for example. But it's far too hot to think about them, or type about them, so I'll leave it there. I'll try to write more often, but don't keep your hopes up. My new catchphrase seems to be "I'll do it after the move".

I bought the spinning wheel a few days ago. It cost £15. Happy Birthday to Me!

I visited the Wingham Wool Work shop for advice and supplies, and they were great.
The bad news is, that the spinning wheel isn't very good, and I'd probably never be able to spin well on it.
The good news is that if I take it to an antique shop they should pay around £150 for it. Which is almost enough to buy a lovely new spinning wheel.
Until I get that organised (i.e. after we move) point I am armed with a drop spindle and some roving
I also had a quick lesson at the shop, but I currently seem to only be good at producing lumpy strands that break and untwist a lot. I Will Persist!

House things appear to be going well. The survey has come back, this time round it's fine. Next week I have to organise the searches. I'm still trying to not get excited. Thankfully remembering that I have to start clearing out the glory-holes soon is calming me down.

For the past couple of months I seem to have had something planned everyday, work, house hunting, visiting places, etc. Over the next fortnight I actually had a few days with nothing to do. So silly me has volunteered to help on the Summer Playscheme for local kids aged 8-18 who have Learning Disabilities.
It's always great fun, and I absolutely love it. I haven't done it over the past couple of years though because of a falling out with some other people who volunteer. I've really missed it, and the people involved.
Without the playscheme I would never be in the job I am now so in a way I feel I owe it. I'll probably not be able to do it again because of moving, so I've decided to bite the bullet, and sign myself up. I'm fed up of missing out on something I enjoy just to avoid an argument. I'll do my best to steer clear of trouble and just get on with having fun with the kids. I'm hoping the other people will do the same.

I've been a bit busy recently.

Been to Sheffield too. Got a few odd looks for making bracelets on the train.

As well as a spinning wheel for my birthday, this would be nice too.
Steve Currey's Expedition Company - Voyage to Our Hollow Earth

"Cost: $18,950 US"

I really really want to learn to spin.
I have done for a long time, since I was a kid and got to do a bit of spinning at school.
I have half promised myself that when we get the new house I will get myself one

On the way home from work today I walked past the antique shop (Browzaround, just up from the library.) It was closed, but I spotted through the window a spinning wheel.
Tomorrow I'm going to nip in and see if it works, and how much it is.
Just for curiosities sake. I'm not going to buy it of course.

Totally unrelated note, but it's my birthday in 20 days time.

"Eeeeeeeee". Yup I'm happy again.

The weekend so far has been ace, and it feels like far longer than 3 days. Thankyou to everyone who's made it great

Friday Porl, and I were going to Stalybridge house hunting again. Jimmy and Robin decided (and were cajoled) into coming too. We were late getting there, and missed the first viewing (as usual.) Saw 3 houses, nothing special, had a nice meal at Wetherspoons and a browse around Stalybridge, then we went to Manchester for Amy.

Amy. Was. Ace.
Sweets, decorations, bands, lipgloss, dancing, shoe theft, champagne, more dancing, and friends. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves, but I think we were all sad, and wondering what we'd do the 2nd Friday of the month.
I have pictures galore. I'll post a few later (the nice ones only, I promise,) but I've also got a zip file of the lot if any attendees would like to see them all.

After Amy exhaustion hit and we all got to bed pretty quickly. Saturday started with copious amounts of coffee and a Trof breakfast. Then Porl, Robin and I headed home. Whilst everyone else went to The Pixies, Porl and I went to OrmFest. Bought a CD, arranged a gig, saw some people, got rained on, came home.

In house news, things are looking up again. Monday, my last post here said we'd found a house we really really wanted, but then lost it as another offer had been put on it. Tuesday the Estate Agents phoned back to say that offer looked like falling through and we still had a chance, if we sold ours in time. Today it looks like we might have a buyer.
I'm trying to not get excited. But can everyone please cross their fingers, toes, eyes and everything else for us. Thankyou

Lastly, I've been on another crafty spree. Beadie necklaces, bracelets and insects, duct tape flowers, and in the past hour, a Beadie Man.

Yes, I know his hands are huge, but it's my first attempt okay!

Ahhh... loads going on, and I rarely have the time, or inclination to write about it, but here goes.

Found an ace house, lost same ace house, bugger. But at least we've finally found a town were we want to live. Stalybridge, it's like Ormskirk but with hills, canals and no Scousers (hurrah!)

What else? EP launch. It was lots of fun. The Lynskey band are looking and sounding better every time I see them. Maybe one day Jimmy will learn to play, and smile at the same time, or at least not frown. It was great to finally see Cartwheel play. I was hoping for good things, and they far exceeded my expectations.

We've had a couple of viewings on the house, even with the complete incompetence of Estate Agents (they took a photo of the wrong house!) fingers crossed it will sell soon, so we'll have more hope of getting offers we place accepted.

My Mum and Dad come back from Spain soon. Hurrah! I normally speak to my Mum for about an hour or so everyday, sometimes several times a day. While they're in Spain I'm limited to 15 minute conversations every couple of days while they use their free minutes. Maybe the money I've saved on phone calls over the past month will be enough to cover the cost of a flight over there in August. Hmmm plan.....

While my Mum is sunning herself and nursing insect bites, Porl's mum is having a rough time of it as she was rushed into hospital on Saturday. She's okay, but she gave us all a bit of a fright. Fingers crossed she'll be discharged tomorrow.

In other news... I've been making lots of jewellery, and I bought new pliers, (not the kind I wanted, but they're still nice pliers,) and painted plant pots pink, (or maybe they're purple or mauve, I haven't decided yet, but they're definitely not red, the shop didn't have red paint) and I've bought a new bag, (I meant to buy a new outfit for Friday, but failed miserably,) and I'm really really really looking forward to Friday.

I've been missing my books a lot recently, they're all packed up in boxes at the MIL's house while this place is up for sale. I'm having to beg, borrow, and buy new books to read.
This afternoon I was reading about Britains most cherished contemporary novels. I was quite pleased that I've read 14 of the 50 on the list. A meme found on Yarn Utopia, and I'm not quite as pleased, at least I've got some inspiration about what I can read next though.

Copy the list, highlight which one's you've read

Beowulf
Achebe, Chinua - Things Fall Apart
Agee, James - A Death in the Family
Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice
Baldwin, James - Go Tell It on the Mountain
Beckett, Samuel - Waiting for Godot
Bellow, Saul - The Adventures of Augie March
Brontè, Charlotte - Jane Eyre
Brontè, Emily - Wuthering Heights
Camus, Albert - The Stranger
Cather, Willa - Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales (bits of it anyway)
Chekhov, Anton - The Cherry Orchard
Chopin, Kate - The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness
Cooper, James Fenimore - The Last of the Mohicans
Crane, Stephen - The Red Badge of Courage
Dante - Inferno
de Cervantes, Miguel - Don Quixote
Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - Crime and Punishment
Douglass, Frederick - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Dreiser, Theodore - An American Tragedy
Dumas, Alexandre - The Three Musketeers
Eliot, George - The Mill on the Floss
Ellison, Ralph - Invisible Man
Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Selected Essays
Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William - The Sound and the Fury
Fielding, Henry - Tom Jones
Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Great Gatsby
Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary
Ford, Ford Madox - The Good Soldier
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von - Faust
Golding, William - Lord of the Flies
Hardy, Thomas - Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Scarlet Letter
Heller, Joseph - Catch 22
Hemingway, Ernest - A Farewell to Arms
Homer - The Iliad
Homer - The Odyssey
Hugo, Victor - The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hurston, Zora Neale - Their Eyes Were Watching God
Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World
Ibsen, Henrik - A Doll's House
James, Henry - The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry - The Turn of the Screw
Joyce, James - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kafka, Franz - The Metamorphosis
Kingston, Maxine Hong - The Woman Warrior
Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird
Lewis, Sinclair - Babbitt
London, Jack - The Call of the Wild
Mann, Thomas - The Magic Mountain
Marquez, Gabriel García - One Hundred Years of Solitude
Melville, Herman - Bartleby the Scrivener
Melville, Herman - Moby Dick
Miller, Arthur - The Crucible
Morrison, Toni - Beloved
O'Connor, Flannery - A Good Man is Hard to Find
O'Neill, Eugene - Long Day's Journey into Night
Orwell, George - Animal Farm
Pasternak, Boris - Doctor Zhivago
Plath, Sylvia - The Bell Jar
Poe, Edgar Allan - Selected Tales
Proust, Marcel - Swann's Way
Pynchon, Thomas - The Crying of Lot 49
Remarque, Erich Maria - All Quiet on the Western Front
Rostand, Edmond - Cyrano de Bergerac
Roth, Henry - Call It Sleep
Salinger, J.D. - The Catcher in the Rye
Shakespeare, William - Hamlet
Shakespeare, William - Macbeth
Shakespeare, William - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare, William - Romeo and Juliet
Shaw, George Bernard - Pygmalion
Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein
Silko, Leslie Marmon - Ceremony
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Sophocles - Antigone
Sophocles - Oedipus Rex
Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath
Stevenson, Robert Louis - Treasure Island
Stowe, Harriet Beecher - Uncle Tom's Cabin
Swift, Jonathan - Gulliver's Travels
Thackeray, William - Vanity Fair
Thoreau, Henry David - Walden
Tolstoy, Leo - War and Peace
Turgenev, Ivan - Fathers and Sons
Twain, Mark - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Voltaire - Candide
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. - Slaughterhouse-Five
Walker, Alice - The Color Purple
Wharton, Edith - The House of Mirth
Welty, Eudora - Collected Stories
Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass
Wilde, Oscar - The Picture of Dorian Gray
Williams, Tennessee - The Glass Menagerie
Woolf, Virginia - To the Lighthouse
Wright, Richard - Native Son

I knew I'd forget something!

I have a Gmail account. This gave me the ability to spend a fun few days winding up my techie mates who really wanted one. But then I got invites and I made some techies very happy people (although my dire financial straight did make me consider selling them on ebay.)

I'll probably get some more invites at some point, so if you too want to gloat about getting the exact username you want then leave a comment and I'll know who to give the next lot of invites to.

I read something about blogging being what you do when there's nothing happening in life. This seems to be the case at the moment.

Since the last update, we've had several long tiring days in Manchester visiting estate agents and viewing houses. We know certain parts of South Manchester really well now, we can quote grid references from the A-Z.
We've seen about 15 houses, I'm losing count as they're blurring into one. Most have been horrid, some have been horrid to the extent that they became funny, a small few have been nice.
We've tried to place 3 offers, all have been refused, one as it wasn't enough, the second because a first time buyer got there first, even though we offered more money, and a third because when we phoned to place the offer we were told it already had an offer accepted on it. So what exactly were we doing viewing a house on a Saturday morning after 4 hours sleep when the house wasn't available?
I really really hate house hunting.
Friday we'll be doing it all over again.

In between all this house hunting there have been gigs galore. Porl has been involved in all of them, and as usual I'm the roadie, (not that can carry anything, but I'm the only one who drives.)
Lynskey is gigging to promote the upcoming EP Launch, the main bit of this will be at The Font Bar in Manchester on 25th June. If anyone's in the area come down, it'll be fun, and it's free!
Shirokuma played in a record label showcase in possibly the hottest venue in Manchester, The Night and Day Cafe, which really should learn about this thing called air conditioning.
Needless to say all the gigs have been great, and if I went into anymore details I'd be here all day.

Some other events of the past month, include trips to the vets after Duke developed a limp, he's fine now, Gonzo has his usual fat lip that he develops every summer, I'm sure the stupid creature eats nettles.
The blitzing of this house continues, we have new carpets everywhere, the smell of paint has finally gone, although I need to do some more touching up. I've been spending a lot of time gardening, the obvious signs of years of neglect are slowly disappearing, I hope the new buyers, whoever they may be, will appreciate our efforts.

I'm sure I've missed out plenty of things, but this month has become a complete blur fuelled by stress, excitement and disapointment. I'll try to write in shorter bursts from now on, it may be easier than trying to remember everything.

Poo poo poo poo poo

Everything was going so well with the new house, mortgage sorted, life insurance forms filled in, etc etc

Then the survey was done, and it's bad. Very very bad.

So bad that it looks like we'll have to look for somewhere else, because this house just doesn't seem financially viable.

Oh for the Scottish system of selling houses where the seller pays for the surveys to be done, not the buyer. This house has already cost me more than I can afford and I don't think we're entitled to any of it back.

I'd just started allowing myself to get excited about it all. I'd been planning where to put furniture and thinking about colour schemes.

Poo poo poo poo poo poo poo... and poo

Anyone who talks to me on messenger or talkers will know how bad my typing is. To make matters worse, half the keys on my keyboard don't work, the markings are rubbing off, and it's somehow the most un-ergonomical thing in the world. It cost me £5. I keep saying I'll buy myself a new one, but I never seem to have the money.

But being bad at typing doesn't neccesarily mean I'm bad at grammar.

You are a GRAMMAR GOD!


If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!


How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

And it's Quizilla, so it must be right!

I've got a million and one priorities in my life at the moment (packing, decorating, gardening, applying for jobs, mortgages, carpet fitters coming, remembering to phone the Council to get them to clean up the mess left by the fire Monday night*, going to work, and so on...)

In spite of all this, the one over-riding thought in my brain every time I sit down at the computer is "Must redesign website". I'm trying to avoid it. I'm trying to push it out of my mind until after the move, but it's so hard. I keep thinking to myself,don't do a full scale rewrite, just play with some ideas. But it's avalanche like. Every time I "just play with ideas", I always end up doing a complete redesign. It's unavoidable, it just happens. ("When you grow up, your heart dies.") I shall try not to give into temptation, but if things begin to go a bit wierd you'll all know why.

* Yes the fire. I forgot to mention that. I was at work, and I got a panicky phone call off Porl. He'd seen smoke coming from the back of the house, he thought it was from the neighbours kitchen, but he soon found out it was from our bins. He phoned the 999 and both the Fire Brigade and the Police came out. We have students living next door to us, and the back of the house is a bit of a mess, the council bin men only collect what is nicely wrapped. Plus as we're at the end of the alley the wind blows lots of things our way, so we have about 4 plastic dustbins there, the remains of a Christmas Tree, a kids bike and other random rubbish. There are only 2 kids who live near us, and they're not the nicest kids around. Last year they took to throwing stones at houses and broke a car window in the process. It looks like they got bored on monday night and decided to try setting fire to the Christmas Tree.
We were very lucky. It melted the vent for the tumble drier. If it had been any fiercer it could easily have got into the kitchen through the vent and it would have been bye bye Kitchen. Thankfully it was spotted in time and we just have 4 melted dustbins, and the trunk of a Christmas Tree to clear up. Something else for us to deal with. Hey Ho!

It's been a busy fortnight. On the fun side there's been lots of gigs, VIP passes and free champagne. On the not so fun side there's been lots of painting, lots of packing, and lots of serious grown up stuff like mortgages to arrange. I could go into it all in detail, but I'd probably end up having a rant, and that could be dangerous. So I'll bite my tongue and save myself getting into trouble.

Most of our belongings are now stored away in someone else's house, but sensibly I realized that I should keep some craft things here to stop myself going insane. So at some point I have to take pictues of the necklaces I've made. I also attempted to make myself a top, my first attempt at making clothing which needs to fit (unlike hats and scarves) unfortunatly it didn't go too well and it's going to need some serious adjusting, but it's going to have to wait until the house is either in some vague order, or more likely until we move. Last night I had a rummage and found some wool which had escaped the packing frenzy, so I started making a bag. It's just a simple string shopping bag, but it keeps me occupied.

Posts are likely to be infrequent for the next few weeks. With the move and Porl's music, life is very busy. I'd love to explain everything, but my tongue has too many teeth marks in it, rants are never far away, and I'm not certain of my readership.

Finally a little cartoon I found last night on toothpaste for dinner.

Well today was fun.

I thought the car was doing well on petrol. 400 miles, the gauge down at empty for days, but the little light never came on and I thought it might just be a quirk of the car.

Driving home from work, and it started chugging. I managed to coast along, out of the countryside, back to an area with houses, so close to home, but there's a distinct lack of hills in these parts, they're gentle slopes, so the car eventually stopped rolling, leaving me double parked on some yellow lines, about half a mile from home.

Bugger!

A car had just pulled into a drive behind me, so I went to explain my problem and ask if I could borrow a phone (the Law of Murphy ensured that mine had run out of batteries.)

The Kind Gentleman agreed, but there was no help at home, so the Kind Gentleman tried to help me move the car somewhere safer so I could walk to the petrol station. We couldn't move the car (silly kerbs), so he went off to fetch the Kind Sir he was visiting for some extra help.

Kind Sir arrived, I was suitable embarrassed, grateful, and explained my problem (new car, petrol light not working, didn't realize, very sorry.) Kind Sir told me he had a can of petrol which I could have so long as I replaced it. A very very happy and grateful me said I certainly would, I'd go straight to the petrol station and fill it back up for him.

So the Kind Sir fetched the petrol, and returned to his meeting (which I'd interrupted,) and the Kind Gentleman came with me to sort out my car. He did all the petrolly things himself, being a Kind Gentleman he wouldn't allow me to, even though he was in his suit, and I was in my scruffy work clothes (I'd been clearing out garages and filling skips at work,) so I felt doubly bad when he splashed petrol on his tie. I told the Kind Gentleman where I lived, and that I'd return as soon as possible with the replacement for the Kind Sirs petrol.

It was at this point that the Kind Gentleman informed me that the Kind Sir really was a Kind Sir. A Peer of the Realm Kind Sir. A Knight of the Garter Kind Sir.

I'd been rescued by a proper bonefide Knight!

He didn't have shining armour, or a white steed, he'd have stuck out like a sore thumb if he had, and I would have thought someone was taking the mick, but he was a real Knight and he rescued me. How many people can say that?

Uber-quick post as I have to leave for work in 15 minutes. I am still alive, but I'm REALLY busy.

In brief;

• We went to Amy, it was ace, my favourite ever.
• Went to Sheffield.
• Made some jewellery, Dad made me a Crochet Hook.
• The house is upsidedown as it's being decorated by Porl's parents.
• Bedrooms are done, bathroom is replumbed, but still in pieces, needs tiling, decorating, floor etc, the rest of the house is (probably) to be started at the weekend.
• We've been camping in Anglesey.
• We've viewed a house in Manchester.
• We put an offer on the house in Manchester.
• Offer has been accepted.
• We've bought a house in Manchester!!!
• I've nearly finished my poncho.

I think that's all. I've taken loads of pictures, so I'll do a pictoral run down when I get the chance. Time for work now.

Byeeee

I got in from a relatively easy lazy shift at work, to be whipped into a frenzy of First Aid. I've just sat down at the computer when porl started screaming, ran to me with blood all over his hand, then ran into the kitchen to show it under the tap. I had a quick glance round for the limb he'd cut off, then chased after him.

20 minutes later the (not very big) cut on his finger has stopped bleeding, I've been to the chemists to get a first aid kit, and it's all bandaged up. He's looking sheepish.

In other news. The poncho is coming along well. I've asked the nice Wool Man if he has anymore yarn as I'm running out. The contingency plan is to make the red trim that I'm putting on the bottom to balance off the red hood, a little longer. It's going to keep me ever so warm this summer on my camping trips.

Sorry for the terrible photos, the batteries on my normal camera have run out

Finally, I've got a new favourite distraction.Crochetville