Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Tickling the ivory’s

Yes, I’ve finally got back to learning the piano again.

Sadly I had to start right back at the beginning as it’s been such a long time since I played, that I’ve forgotten most of it.

You can tell it’s serious as I’ve started to make notes ! ! !

Who know this time next year I might accomplish my ambition. I’ve always wanted to play Scott Joplin’s ‘The Entertainer’. The easy version of course….

Marie

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Having the right tools for the job

Marie has a laptop computer. It's a Compaq Presario something or other and it hasn't been very well for the past few years. It needed a new keyboard about two years ago and it began misbehaving soon after. About eighteen months ago it packed up and refused to work.

Santa brought me a screwdriver set which included a set of torq bits. The sort you need to dismantle laptop computers. So tonight I decided to give it a go. Nothing ventured and all that.

I took the computer out of it's packaging and got the tools ready. Before I started I plugged in the power supply and pressed the on/off switch.

You can guess what's coming can't you. Yes - it started. And I'm using it to type this blog.

So there you are. All you need to fix a computer is the right tools.

John

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Intelligent, Us ?

According to the Intelligent Community Forum at the 29th annual Pacific Telecommunications Council the seven most “Intelligent” communities in the world are :

Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea
Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
Tallinn, Estonia
Ottawa-Gatineau, Canada
Waterloo, Canada.
Dundee, Scotland

And ...

Sunderland

Yes, really. Sunderland. Nice to know we live somewhere intelligent.

Seriously, the rating is based on how advanced the communities are in deploying broadband, building a knowledge-based workforce, combining government and private-sector 'digital inclusion,' fostering innovation and marketing economic development.

John

Thursday, January 25, 2007

I’m not proud

I don’t care who I pinch blog ideas from – sorry Jenny…

A - AVAILABLE: Depends on what you mean by available. For marriage, no. For a Silversea cruise next week, yes ! ! !

B - BIRTHDAY: September 9th.

C - CRUSHING: Haven’t the foggiest what that means…

D - DRINK YOU LAST HAD: Sipping a cup of coffee as I type.

E - EASIEST PERSON TO TALK TO: My husband.

F - FAVOURITE BANDS: Abba and Runrig.

G - GUMMY BEARS OR GUMMY WORMS: Gummy bears because I’ve never had worms. I’m sure they are very nice though.

H - HOME TOWN: Fulwell in Sunderland.

I - INSTRUMENT(s): Played at one time or another the recorder and the clarinet, plus the piano (badly…).

J - JUGGLE: Nope, keep dropping them.

K - KILLED SOMEONE: No but I’ve come close. Think new neighbours/Bob the builder….

L - LONGEST CAR RIDE: No doubt John will correct me as I’m hopeless at geography, but I think it was Sunderland – Bognor Regis.

M - MILKSHAKE FLAVOUR: Can’t stand them.

N - NUMBER OF SIBLINGS: One sister.

O - ONE WISH: That I can have three wishes…

P - PLACES YOU’VE HAD A CAMERA INSERTED: Never internally but have had a MRI scan. Does that count?

Q - QUIET?: Believe it or not, I am quite a quiet and shy person, especially with large groups of people.

R - REASON TO SMILE: It’s Chinese night tomorrow.

S- SONG YOU LAST HEARD: Starship - we built this city. It was just played on Radio 2. Well that’s not entirely true but that’s the last song I recognised. The ones after that were ‘modern stuff…’.

T - TIME YOU WOKE UP: 7.30am.

U- UNDERWEAR YOU’RE WEARING? Knickers and bra, both white (well if you can call them ‘white’). And no they are not matching. I can’t be bothered doing that.

V - VEGETABLE YOU HATE: What’s them…

W - WORST HABIT: Got loads so you’ll have to ask my husband which is my worst. However off the top of my head I’ll say hogging all the duvet.

X - X-RAYS YOU’VE HAD: Zillions.

Y - YOUR NUMBER OF FRIENDS ON MYSPACE: None because I don’t have a ‘myspace’. Is that the internet blog thing? (All geeks gasp in horror ! ! !).

Z- ZODIAC SIGN: Virgo.

Marie

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Getting picky

You know that we have scavengers who patrol the back lanes and will take anything not bolted down. If you put out your old granny, they’d take her off your hands….

A few days ago someone put out a picture. It wasn’t a very nice one but that wouldn’t bother the scavengers.

We had a bet as to how long it would remain there. I said two days, John said less than 24 hours. He was right.

However two days later it was back in the same place again.

Looks like the scavengers thought it was horrible too so returned it ! ! !

Marie

Thursday, January 18, 2007

The bells, the bells

This morning and part of the afternoon we had a lovely time – visiting A&E at the dental hospital. For once it wasn’t for me ! ! !

John felt a bit under the weather last night and this morning he woke to find he’d became the proud owner of an abscess.

Poor soul. His face is quite swollen and sore, and as Neil, one of his work colleagues asked, yes he does look a bit like Quasimodo.

Normally we would have just gone to the dentist but unfortunately John doesn’t have one. It closed 20 years ago and he hadn’t bother to find himself another one...

He’s feeling a pretty rough at the moment what with swelling, the pain and a hole in his mouth – they had to remove the tooth.

We called off at Sainburys on the way home as all he can have to eat for the rest of the day is very soft food. So it’s yogurts, mashed potatoes and baked beans until breakfast tomorrow.

Yummy ! ! !

Marie

Monday, January 15, 2007

Shopping

We went to Makro today.

Now, I know what you’re thinking and the answer is “No”, they haven’t got the Easter eggs on the shelves yet.

What they did have was a very tempting array of nice edible things all reduced. So we now have plenty of the nice edible things to put in the delegates packs for the HBA Spring Conference. And No, I’m not going to tell you what they are. Come to Northampton if you really want to know.

All we have to do now is resist temptation for two and a half months.

John

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Reporting in

Just realised that I haven’t blogged since Sunday so thought I’d better put pen to paper so to speak otherwise Jan will be calling us boring old farts again….

So is there any thing exciting to report - maybe some juicy gossip, some scandal perhaps. I’m afraid not.

What dull boring lives we have ! ! !

Marie

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Credit card workout

Yesterday I gave my credit card a bit of a workout.

Firstly we went to Matalan. Unlike some people (won’t mention names just in case they happen to read this and decide to sue….) I don’t have any hang ups with shopping there. Unfortunately they didn’t have what we were looking for. However I did buy John five new work shirts and myself 10 new pairs of socks.

Then it was off to B&Q. No it wasn’t to complain – but to have a look at some power tools for John. Sadly their range was pretty poor so we did leave empty handed. No matter as he’s found what he’s looking for in the Screwfix catalogue and much cheaper than B&Q.

Next it was the turn of PC World. My keyboard needs replacing and as I’m going to be spending more time bashing away at it, I thought I’d treat myself to something decent. Sadly their range was pretty poor as well so decided to stick with what I’ve got for now.

Leaving PC World empty handed is extremely rare. John decided to spend some of his Christmas money on some computer bits (I know what it does but can’t think of it’s name ! ! !) and I bought two SIM games and a family tree CD.

Finally it was the bed shop. We’ve been thinking about getting a new bed for a while but never got round to it, so thought as we were passing the shop we’d just take a look and see what they had. We left with a new bed being delivered in the next two weeks….

Sadly time was getting on so we didn’t have time to check out the carpet places as we’re going to replace the carpets in the main bedroom and my work room, along with the bathroom. Yes I know carpets in bathrooms are unhygienic but me, wet feet and slippery floors do not mix ! ! !

Marie

Friday, January 05, 2007

Paid up

I’m very pleased to report that this morning B&Q reimbursed me for the joinery bill.

Rather than send them the bill as per their instructions, I handed it into them personally. There was no way it was getting ‘lost in the post’, ‘lost in their internal post’ or for the Manager to simply bin it as he didn’t understand what the saga was about.

To make doubly certain I rang the person who I had been dealing with and told her I was on my way to hand it over.

There were no questions, no sharp intake of breath, or quibbles with the bill and ten minutes later I left the building with a wad of cash.

Lets hope this is now the end of the kitchen saga…

In other news. Spent the afternoon giving my mam cookery lessons. She was getting low on some of the meals I make her, and rather than me do them for her, I said I’d teach her how to make them.

We made two lasagne’s, three lots of chilli’s and two cottage pies. I had hoped it would from now on spur her into making them herself but sadly it hasn’t. At least she’s willing to make on a Friday again so I can’t complain about that.

Marie

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Want list

This time last year I did a blog saying I wasn’t a resolutions person, but I did have a ‘want’ list.

Well here is my ‘want’ list for 2007

1: I want to win the lottery. It doesn’t matter if it’s the normal lottery or the Euro. As long as it’s the jackpot and is over £1.5m I’m not bothered.

2: I want to lose two stone in weight.

3: I want to finish my novel.

4: I want to continue my piano lessons.

Yes I’m afraid it is a case of deja vu as that’s what I said last year.

Well that’s not entirely true as last year I wanted to win at least £1m on the lottery and to lose a stone and a half. Think if it as inflation….

Marie


PS It’s only day two of 2007 and I’m already on to my second cold sore. I’m not amused ! ! !