Everyone deserves a dream

I watched the repeat of Britain's got talent this weekend. There really wasn't much else on and so me and Rainbow settled for this. Little was I expecting to have tears streaming down my face by the end of it. Susan Boyle, you were amazing.

I wanted to post about why I thought this was so amazing but then stumbled upon an article written in the Guardian which depicts my sentiments on this pretty much to a T and also manages to express these thoughts much more eloquently then I ever could so watch this first, then read this...

The pact of the household appliances

Why is it that every house hold appliance inevitably decides to give up the ghost at the same time, as if they have some pact to make life unnecessarily difficult? In the space of 3 days our kettle has broken, our washing machine has broken and our boiler has broken. I could handle the kettle; it made me feel somewhat wholesome and retro to be boiling water in a pan for tea and coffee. However, when the washing machine gave up I was particularly distraught as I’m one of those people who leaves all my washing until I have no clothes left to wear whatsoever and have had to resort to wearing layers upon layers of summer clothes mid winter in order to ward of hypothermia. So of course, it just so happened that I had reached that clothing crisis point when the washing machine selfishly broke (yes, a lesson learned). Hand washing clothes in the bath tub is not fun. Although at this point bath tub hand washing was my only option as I refuse to go to a launderette; those places scare me and I am somewhat of a snob. Hence, imagine my utter disbelief when the boiler came in on this little household appliance pact and left us with no hot water either. Great.

Fear not, boiler is now fixed (British Gas homecare is well worth the cost – thanks Landlady!). I wish I could say that there has been a happy ending to our washing machine chapter however Curry’s, who are supplying our new washing machine, have put a huge great big fat rusty spanner in the works. Why would they think any fun loving 20 something year old would wish to spend their Saturday of the bank holiday weekend waiting in between the hours of 8am and 8pm for a washing machine when there are pubs to frequent and fun to be had!? I am not that grown up. Needless to say, I am NOT staying in and so am currently trying to construct a suitably urgent reason/bare-faced lie as to why this delivery on this date cannot happen.

I’m pleased to say that the weekend was not all doom and gloom though. I made white chocolate brownies. They were delicious. Our oven has clearly opted out of the household appliance pact. Thank you oven.

Dreamy pictures

How pretty is the background for my header? I found it via a really sweet blog (which I’ve posted a link to on here so everyone can admire it). So this blog lead me to a wonderful website full of yummy pictures that I could loose myself in for hours. If you don’t hear from me for a few days, that’s where I’ll be……

What I'm reading....

This book is aaaaaaaaaamazing. I'm about to start re-reading it after my last copy (which I was half way through) was gobbled up by the hungry postman on it's journey back from Wales where I had happened to leave it. I cannot wait to start it again. Rather then be frustrated that I'm going to have to start from scratch I am so excited to have the words of this book pass through my eyes, into my mind, work my imagination and feed through my lips again. I remember it being completely breath-takingly beautiful...and that was only the first half. It's more than likely I'll post a review when I'm done so watch this space!

In other news.....the marketing peeps at Starbucks will be bitterly disappointed to hear that their branding just isn't quite cutting it anymore. Whilst carrying my grande skinny Americano to work this morning a man stopped me (yes, literally stopped me in the street) to ask where I got my tea (!!!!!!) from. After correcting him on the tea error, I, of course bemused, held up my iconic white Starbucks takeaway cup which not only has the Starbucks logo plastered ALL over it but also has it on the cardboard sleeve they kindly give you to put round the cup so that you don't give yourself 3rd degree burns on your palms whilst rushing through the crowds to work, and calmmly informed him "uuurrrrmmmmm, Starbucks" in a not so subtle "are you kidding me? You're delaying my rush to work by 30 seconds to ask where I got my drink from when from the point where we are standing I can literally see about 10 coffee shops?" kind of way. He sheepishly laughed and backed away from me slowly and so our roles were reversed. No longer was I the sane normal person on my way to work being interrupted by someone crazy enough to talk to a stranger in London; I was now the crazy person who can't answer a simple question, terrifying some sane person who just wanted a cup of tea.

Lastly, I think I want to get into photography. Properly. As a hobby. So am checking out courses and decent cameras online. If I'm still thinking about this a week from now I'll consider this more than just one of my ridiculous whims.

The loot

6 doors down from my wonderful house on Henslowe Road, about 30 steps past the baywatch car (seriously), there has been a pair of GHD hair straighteners, a hairdryer and a pair of (quite nice) flip flops sat on the wall for about 3 days now. Every time I walk past, I am faced with a dilemma. Surely these items no longer work….or do they…….? For 3 days now I’ve slowed my pace as I stroll up my road on my way to and from work wondering if I should take said items (I’d probably leave the flip flops, to be honest. Who knows where those feet have been and I’m not that big a fan of feet at the best of times) to test them to see if they still work. Not that I need any of said items. I have a perfectly decent pair of GHD straighteners myself and I also have a perfectly decent hairdryer, it’s just that the curiosity is killing me! I also think I could probably sell the GHD’s on ebay; people will buy anything. My colleague just bought a box of buttons for £7 from ebay. Why? I have no idea. But who needs a box of assorted buttons? Unless you’re very rough in getting dressed or undressed from your cardies….ooo…I should probably move on, not sure I want to continue down that line of thought.

I’ve even started thinking about the loot before I’m within sight or range of the loot, whilst sitting on the train home. Why not just take them? Well, the moment I think I’m going to do just that (person who lives 6 doors down clearly doesn’t want these items anymore, or if she does and has forgotten about them then that is gross neglect and she has forfeited her right to own them), I have visions of an angry Kiwi or Aussie (London is full of them) storming out the house and chopping my right hand off to teach me a lesson in right and wrong. Theft definitely being wrong. But more then the horror at the thought of loosing my right hand, my pride just will not let me pick up someone else’s leftovers. Imagine if another resident of Henslowe Road witnessed my swag? The way Chinese whispers work I’d probably end up forever being known as “that weird girl at no. 5 who rifles through people’s bins for food scraps”. Not cool. Who would have thought that I’d ever be a victim of keeping up with the Jones’?

So, I have no doubt that I will encounter a pair of GHD hair straighteners, a hair dryer and a (quite nice) pair of flip-flops on my journey home today. Maybe I’ll throw caution to the wind and pick them up in defiance of my 3 day reasoning. Or maybe I won’t.

In the beginning.....

Hi guys,

So, I’ve decided to start a blog to keep everyone up to date on what I’m doing here in the big smoke (which actually isn’t that smoky once you’re used to it and especially now the sun is beginning to make an appearance). It’s really just something for all my lovely friends and family to read if they want but mainly just because as many of you know one of my favourite topics of all time is, well, me!

I’m not going to backtrack on my days here mainly because most of you will be up to date on that already but also because a) I actually have a job which takes up pretty much most of my time and what with the recession and all, I’m not sure it would be a good idea for me to be writing about my personal life on a computer screen that faces the whole entire office (don’t really want to give them a reason to get rid of me, they’re doing pretty well at getting rid of people all on their own) and b) I can’t even remember what I did yesterday let alone a year or so ago.

I guess all that’s left to say is enjoy!

P.S. Please don’t feel obliged to read this or pity my, what can sometimes be a pretty mundane, existence; I’m just putting the words there, you can choose whether or not to read them!