blink_lu’s blog

I really need to sleep, but last night I couldn't and I'm scared I won't tonight.

I've got lots of big things (good!) happening this year, and some big decisions that might mean big things changing - i.e. work etc and I'm not in the best frame of mind to think too seriously about things with a lack of sleep.

Also I have a chipped tooth and I can't concentrate on anything for long before nudging it with my tongue and feeling the rough amalgam - I was convinced I had pork crackling stuck in my teeth for an hour when I did it.  At least I'm off to the dentist tomorrow so that problem should resolve itself.

There is a lump in my throat and I'm not sure if it's me making it or whether a cold is growing there.

I want to make my resolutions, I kept a few last year so it seemingly was worthwhile...

All I've decided so far is that I want to lose 35 pounds in 17 weeks if possible...let's see how I get on.

Other than that I think my resolutions will centre around more sleep, more health, more reading, more friends, more self development and more Dr David Coddingsteine.

Currently reading...

God's Debris: A Thought Experiment

Scott Adams

Interesting, accessible and makes for brain crumbling thinking...I am the delivery guy and Dr David is Avatar when we sit up drinking and watching mindless TV and he gets board of the TV and I grow tired of thinking.  Halfway through and will let you know a final thought when finished as it's a thought experiment and I've not yet come to a full conclusion...

And so now I try and sleep a bit more than I managed last night...I guess that should start with me going to bed...

Night night.

So it's 2008, the year that I get married.....

Happy new year to all, I have had red wine and Coddy has been in bed all evening because he is ill...I should probably go to bed soon as I'll most likely be driving home tomorrow, to be at horrible work on the 2nd....booohooo hiss...hate it!

Love you all and happy new year!

Today is Vox's first anniversary since the official launch.  What's the best experience you've had on Vox in the past year?

Probably keeping in touch and getting to read Deletia's lovely posts and linking up with people like j3ssmin who have really interesting journals that I enjoy reading.

Well I have been pretty absent from both Livejournal and from Vox for a while now, and it's hard as I have so much outpouring that I would like to do and so much reading of my friends journals, but I am just completly lacking in emotional energy to do so.

Things are generally ok at the moment for me, but it doesn't mean that I necessarily feel that way of course.  I'll update my major news in bullet points....

• Our house will finally be progressing with development - we've spent a hell of a lot of money on a new kitchen and are finally getting a new front door that isn't single glazed and really ugly, we're also getting the broken window in the spare room repaired and missing bricks across the dining room window added...I won't tell you how much it all cost, but put it this way, when I spent it I nearly threw up and it costs more than our car...
• We now have a new car - a lovely shiny blue Toyota Yaris, it's a smaller engine, but does us fine and will be lower insurance next year with my now no years no claims bonus - I need to sort my head out and reduce stress so I'm not such a terrible driver anymore.
• We spent a lovely week driving from Leeds to Molesey to Exmouth to Plymouth to Callington to Molesey to Leeds seeing lots of friends and family - sadly we have to go to Devon again as Coddy's uncle has passed away.
• I ran Guide camp by myself with a pirate theme, it was really good fun and the girls seemed to enjoy themselves, even if it took hours to get the tents up on the first night!
• We're very much looking forward to Cuba in October with Rachel - I even have a new passport now and my photo makes me look fat, blonde and grumpy.
• We had a small leak in our conservatory, but the roofer guy identified the problem and like grown-ups we have fixed it without parental or professional support - we adjusted the ball cock in the toilet (the level of water in the cistern was too high and going out the overflow pipe which was broken) and fixed a new length of pipe outside.
• My running is improving, nike+, means that I'm more motivated to run regularly and I've run over 10.5K without stopping in 1hr 5 mins.  Rach and me are running a 10K race for charity next weekend and we are both really scared, so please sponsor us http://www.10ksponsorme.org/RachelandLucyRun
• I had a climbing lesson with Rach and Ian and am amazed that I managed to climb a fairly difficult beginners climb...

Ok so crashing a car is a very bad thing, but it has lead to me driving probably the newest car I ever will - my courtesy car is a brand new silver Ford Fiesta which had only 15 miles on the clock when it was dropped off.  I'm not sure if I like it, as much as my Polo annoys me, I think I prefer the way it drives.

I am still very angry at myself!

It is definitely time for a new car and a new start.  Have managed to trash what was a pretty decent weekend by pranging my car in Huddersfield.  I am very annoyed at myself.  Basically what happened was that we had dropped the Drs friend Tarran off at his flat in Huddersfield and were driving home through some backstreets that I don't know at all.  We came up to a junction which I didn't see as being a junction as the rain and sun had made the road look totally white and even though it looked like a junction and the thought went through my head, I kept going, and a car coming from the left ended up with my bumper in its' side.  Everyone was fine (well the uncommunicative driver didn't answer me or the dr when we asked, but him and his son looked fine)  It's going to cost me £250 excess which is a pain, and I'm so annoyed at myself.  Anyway I've been wanting a new (newer - not a brand new) car for ages and I think that this is the final thing to make me want it.  I'm thinking of a Peugeot 207/306 does anyone have any good/bad comments on these at all?

Yesterday was a bit annoying too.  I was all geared up to run Race for Life, but when we got there we found out that it was cancelled due to the rain, so I'm going to be doing it on the 28th July instead.  Instead I ended up plugging in my Nike+ and going for a 6.2KM run to enter into the spirit of it and then came back home and read:

Lucy in the Sky

Paige Toon

I really enjoyed this book as it was a nice chick lit type book which makes you all happy and smily at the end as well as a bit on the tearful side.  She's a lot like Marian Keyes which I think is a good thing, but it's not necessarily high class literature, but did have some nice cultural references. 

This week I have also read:

Confidence

Ben Richards

I also liked this book as it has again got some nice current cultural references, but it wasn't the most satisfying end to it, but it certainly isn't conventional in it's storytelling and there is a good degree of intrigue in trying to work out what will actually happen and how the conclusion will pan out.  It also amusingly has the description of a "Chavathon" event and it's almost worth reading for that alone as well as the fact that the main protagonist is called Kerenza and has a cat called Smut. 

I seem to be doing a lot better with reading at the moment, and although I set myself a new years resolution to have read 24 books by the end of the year and so by that token should be up to 12 by now, I feel that the 10 I am currently at is pretty impressive for me as I never seem to have time or energy to do much in the evenings at the moment.

Oh and because I like adding pictures - we also watched this last night which is one of my favourite films:

Ghost World [2001]

After a lovely lazy day of reading A Play on Words

A Play on Words

Deric Longden

in the garden and on the sofa in the sun room, I decided that today would be more of a day of action. 

I have succumbed to buying some new trainers - I use mine at least 6 times a week and I've had them for a year so felt that it was an investment - so I bought some special running trainers - some nike plus ones (I don't have an ipod Nano, but am thinking of getting on so that I can play around with it and find out how far I'm running)  I decided that I was going to do the following route - down the hill, to the canal, along the canal to Rodley and then along the road back here.  On multimap it looks approx 2KM along the road and approx 3KM on the canalside.  I definitely prefer running along the canal - it was flatter and the air was less polluted and exhaust fumed.  I managed to do the route in about 37 mins with a 1 min break at Rodley for some water.  I really need to get a pouch to carry things in as I took my mobile in case I needed to call Coddy to rescue me and it was annoying as I had a mobile in one hand and water in the other.  The new trainers have given me blisters on my insteps, so I obviously need to break them in a bit more.

I now need to tidy up the house, do the washing and ironing, I would ideally like to sand the ceiling as it is annoying me that we have still done hardly anything to make this house properly liveable yet....

I'm also scared that I will happen across a mouse.  On Tuesday evening I was watching TV and Stipey managed to bring in a mouse, I got Coddy to help me rescue the mouse and it was very much alive, but with it's back legs looking very poorly.  Being wimps and animal lovers we couldn't kill it, so we put him in a shoe box with some water and tissue and decided to bury or release depending on what we found in the morning.  Unfortunately when I took the shoebox down in the morning, there was no sign of Mr Mouse, lots of poo, but no mouse, I looked on top of the bookcase where his box had been (some 6 feet high) and there was poo on the top of there, but again no mouse.  We looked everywhere and can't find him, so god knows where he must be, I hope that he is ok though as he looked like a friendly little thing.  

I'm doing Race for Life again, and here is the email that some of you might have already seen if you know me IRL.  It's really important to me that I raise lots of money this year (as you will see on my sponsorship page) so if you can send a few pounds my way please do.

Dear all,

Apologies for the mass email and rattling of the charity tin again, but I wanted to promote the fact that I'm doing Race for Life again and am as keen as ever to raise lots of cash to support this excellent cause.

http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/Lucysthirdraceforlife 

Even if you only have a few pounds to send my way, they are all much appreciated and with gift aid as well can make a huge difference to the quality of care and treatment that cancer sufferers will receive.

Thank you for your anticipated support (and please cross your fingers for the weather as the last two years I've done the race I've got absolutely soaked to the skin!!)

Lots of love

Lucy

xxx

P.S. Rach the 10K races are later on in the year, do you fancy doing one with me - there is one in Leeds in September at Harewood House and there is one in Aldnick Castle near you (or something like that!)

I need to do a proper update, but I am a bit tired, so I'm going to show you some a picture instead...

PICT0004

Today we have installed the cat flap (well the Doctor did it and I screwed in a few screws)  Done a bit of clearing up in the garden of some leaves, the doctor mowed the lawn with the new mower and I pulled up a few weeds and put some bacteria stuff in the pond to make the water less green.  Oh and I planted some Irises that I won on ebay in the pond too.

I really want to do a proper detailed update, but I also don't want to forget what I've actually done this weekend so...it's another list-tastic post I'm afraid...

Friday

• Did mad tidying all morning with knowing that the parents of the doctor were coming to stay over the weekend, the house looks much bigger now.
• Parents in law arrived, settled in and then we took them for a walk down by the canal which they seemed to really enjoy.
• We discovered the battery on my car had run flat, so had to go to Little Tokyo for dinner in their car - the doctor's Dad isn't keen on city driving so this was a big achievement.

Saturday

• Called out Greenflag to sort out my battery, they arrived within about 15 mins (some good to living in the postcode next to their head office I guess!), fixed my car, but pointed out that it would likely go again, so bought a new battery for £53.99.  Most amusing thing was seeing Stipey with his paws up on the bonnet checking out what the guy was doing!
• We drove over to York, had lunch at a Greek restaurant - yummy, walked around the Minster, sat in the gardens and then went in the cat and teddy shops.  I want one of the teddies that smells of chocolate!
• Had fish and chips for dinner after we'd driven back home.
• The weather was beautiful all day - strange that, you'd never have predicted that to happen on the day that we were supposed to get married.

Sunday

• Introduced the parents in law to Buzz on the PS2 which MIL loved to bits!
• Went to Meanwood Valley Urban Farm and met up with my cousin who is due to give birth on Thursday, her partner and her adorable little girl.
• We had a slap up breakfast with organic eggs from the farm and also managed to feed sheep and goats that absolutely terrified the little one.
• We came back home and all had a lovely nap.
• For dinner I made chickpea nuggets and brown rice salad and then watched the rest of...
  

  Gosford Park [2002]

I enjoyed Gosford Park lots of good actors and actresses and the setting was interesting, although at the end I was slightly confused by the outcome, but I think that was more to do with the fact I'd been making beaded hair slides at the same time as watching the film, and they do tend to take an element of concentration.  I made a dragonfly one for MIL and a grape one for me.  It was also strange to see Diane from Trainspotting playing a very different role, and I didn't realise that it was made in 2001, I thought it was much more recent than that.

Monday (Today!)

• Got the Abel & Cole delivery, impressive that the only thing they didn't have was bread as their bakers are on holiday and they'd warned me in advance.  If anyone wants to give them a go, if you place an order and tell them I recommended you I get a bottle of olive oil or something like that - I'll split it with you - go on you know you want to!
• Went for a top up shop to Morrisons and then to "The Living World" to buy a pump for our pond which the neighbours had been concerned about stagnating and so had turned on our hose into it.
• Drove out to Haworth (Bronte country) for a visit.  It's a lovely quaint and pretty village, but is so ridiculously busy all the time.  Still we did get to go in the Apothecary and see Morris Men and Ladies dancing.
• Also we saw the art by a chap called Matt Lamb who is quite interesting, he produces up to 30 paintings a day and is involved in a great charitable project - Umbrellas for Peace.  I was more struck by a chap who was exhibiting on a smaller scale with him - Chris MaCarthy who encouraged you to touch his highly textured paintings.
• We drove home, and the FIL and the doctor managed to get the pump working in the pond after much effort.
• I then made a yummy peanut sauce - recipe came from Abel & Cole and played more Buzz on the PS2

Now I should be going to bed...we shall see...