All at Sea - with a bucket and spade!

This was the sight from my back door the other day. I thought it was beautiful. Stunning in fact. Ten minutes later it was raining so hard that the water was boucing back up a few centimetres. It was the day that a month’s rain fell. Whatever day that was. The photo doesn’t quite capture the contrast between the sky and the green of the trees. It made me feel lucky.

This morning I went to church. The worship was one of those times where it starts off with me basically apologising and ends up with God saying something lovely. I am struggling with being a Christian at the moment. No huge spiritual crisis. I’m just knackered. All the time. I can’t be bothered with anything. I feel happy and secure in God. I just feel uneasy that I don’t ever want to pray or read the bible or go to church. During what feels like tiny amounts of time off, I want to sleep. And watch telly. And play mindless puzzle games on the laptop. Which is basically what I’m doing. I don’t think there’s anything majorly wrong. But I do feel like I’m drifting. Anyway, today I dragged myself to church. I took some homework in case the sermon was boring. And during the worship, I talked to God. One of the guys playing a musical instrument had a t-shirt on with a logo something like this. I thought that kind of summed up how I feel as a Christian right now. Falling. To cut a long story short, a passage from the bible came to mind “The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms” and I remembered I’m not falling anywhere. I’m being held. It was a warm, cozy, secure few minutes. I remembered that I don’t hold it all together. I forget that sometimes. I start thinking that my own good behaviour, reading the bible and praying in some way protects me. And makes me a better Christian. And more of a worthwhile person. Which it doesn’t at all. Not saying it’s great or anything that I’m too knackered to care. It’s just not a life or death issue. In the big scheme of things, it’s really quite a minor problem that I’m sure will get sorted out in good time.

The sermon wasn’t boring by the way. In fact it was very very interesting. And freeing. And kind of fitted with my experience during the worship.

I am this very moment going to do a small amount of exercise followed by a bath or shower followed by a short television programme followed by bed. I have five shifts over the next seven days, each 12 and a half hours long. 5.30am alarm. 7am start. 7.30pm finish. 8pm home. 10pm bed. It’s gonna flippin kill me. Really it is. But in ten days time I have 4 days off in a row. Me and Emma and Leah are going to Bo Peep for the weekend. We’ve been before. In fact, we’ve been twice. I can’t wait.

I also blogged here today.

I made cookies the other day. Tesco cookie mix for 75p or thereabouts. They turned out pretty well I think. Three were wrapped up for Barry. Jeanette and Leah came round. They each had one. And one was saved for Emma. I think she enjoyed it. I think she had fun. She took a photo of herself with a cookie smile. Or beard. Or something??? And she took a picture of a cookie head Lindsey. I’m glad she enjoyed it. I’m glad she had fun.

This is Harriet. Harriet is a student nurse. She likes cookies. She takes one to work with her to eat in her break. She keeps it in her own pink bag. The bag makes her happy because it’s pink. With a smiley face button.

Harriet was made for a special friend’s birthday. I like making presents by hand if I possible can. I don’t always have the time. But this week, I had the time. Just. Harriet is made from felt. And stuffed with the insides of a discarded cushion. Her arms and legs are attached with buttons. See. Her face is stitched with embroidery threads. I used a bit of pink felt for one rosy cheek. I’m not sure why one cheek is rosier than the other. Maybe she got punched by an angry patient. I doubt she is teething. She’s a little old.

Archie the incontinent, as he is currently known, wanted to make friends. He is a very friendly bunny. Quite quite lovely. Unfortunately rather smelly as well. So I whipped Harriet away and wrapped her up in tissue paper of my very favourite colour. I also made some cookies and packaged three of those aswell.

Although my friend’s birthday had passed some days earlier, I did put a candle in a lemon muffin, to mark and celebrate her birth 32 and a bit years ago. I am quite glad she was born. Because I like her. She is a fine person. And one day she will be a fine nurse. The kind that really cares for patients. And doesn’t have to work at preserving dignity. Because it’s second nature.

Happy belated birthday Barry xxxxxxxxxx

Well, what can I say? Doctor Who was fantastic! [The pic above is watching confidential afterwards. During Doctor who, there was no talking going on whatsoever].

I didn’t for one minute think there would be a new Doctor. And I knew it was something to do with the hand. So no surprise there. The twist of the Timelord/human metacrisis was just perfect. That was a surprise. Part human Doctor! Part Timelord Donna. Amazing. And Rose got her man. Kind of. I loved it all. The whole 65 minutes. The end was a bit of a heartbreaker though. Poor Donna. Sad, slightly pathetic, Donna. Maybe with lots of positive praise from her family and evidence that they believe in her, life won’t go back to what it was. And Martha Jones. Fab.

Catherine Tate was brilliant throughout the series. I thought she was great anyway. I’ve always found her really funny. But I like her even more. She should be proud. And so many fab stories. Silence in the Library (and the second part) was my favourite. The girl was played by a brilliant little actress. It reminded me of the girl in the fireplace from the last series. Another brilliant little actress. Another fantastic story with loads of amazing detail. I also thought Turn Left was amazing. The lady who was trying to trick her was cool. She really did seem evil.

Lorraine watched it with us. And Jeanette and Ian. Well Ian. Jeanette took the opportunity to nick the laptop for an hour. She’s never really caught the Doctor Who bug. And Leah. Leah watched it with us too. She’s been a dedicated fan since the David Tennant era began. It has cost her the occasional night sleep. Bless her. But she loves it. I like watching with other fans. It’s so much more fun.

The daleks were great. I loved the way Davros laughed. And Dalek Kahn had me in stitches. Who’d have thought he was fighting on the doctor’s side?

Leah stayed the night. It was lovely having her around this weekend. She’s such a lovely girl. And she’s funny. Because we watched Doctor who again before bed, she didn’t really want to sleep on her own. I didn’t particularly want her to either. Partly because she’d keep waking me up if she was scared. And partly because she all warm when she’s asleep. Better than a hot water bottle. Better than two hot water bottles.

I don’t know what the highlight of my weekend will be now. Saturday nights just won’t be the same.

Saturday was a lovely day. Not least because I was off and didn’t have to get up at some ridiculous hour. Leah had a Brownie parade followed by a fete. Didn’t quite make the parade but saw the end bit when they were all assembled together in the middle of the field before marching off together. Leah has lots of Brownie badges. I think she likes Brownies. Abbie, Lauren and Libby met us there. Abbie and Lauren have matching pink stripy pushchairs. There were stalls with cakes, sweets, odds and ends. And tombolas galore. Leah won a horse picture. It’s hideous. Jeanette sneakily stuck it up in our lounge and both me and Emma are too lazy to take it down. It still has a ticket with the number 140 stuck to the glass. She also won a second hand soft toy and a gingerbread man that oiginally came with a McDonalds happy meal.

We came back and sat in the garden. I got the Barbie’s out. I say Barbies; there’s all sorts in there. Barbies. Sindies. One of the blokes from hearsay. A couple of Action men. A few cheap imitation Barbies. Random other similar sized dolls. Loads of kiddy and baby dolls. As well as a box of dolls, I’ve got a bin bag full of furniture. And a carrier crammed full of clothes. Evidence of the many car boots I have attended throughout my adult life. And charity shops. Leah used to play with them when she was a small person. Occasionally I still add to the collection. We all joined in, even Abbie. And Libby. Lauren picked out all the small people and had a little nursery going on. Leah wandered around taking photographs for me.

We had a picnic lunch. Emma made the sarnies and cut them into shapes with my cookie cutters. I liked the idea. I always overeat whenever there’s a spread to choose from. So at least the sarnies are small. Lorraine joined us which was lovely. She managed to avoid the camera most of the afternoon. We finished off what was in the fridge. Smoked salmon. Cocktail sausages. And crisps.

Abbie kindly brought licquorice allsorts and jelly babies. I love both. I managed to munch my way through most of the licquorice allsorts. Mainly because children don’t like them much. I love the big pink round ones with dessicated coconut in and a back centre. And the chocolate layered ones. And the blue jellies covered in hundreds and thousands. And the pink version. I also like the black cylinder sweets with white in the centre. And the pink sandwich ones. But I’ll eat any. I made cookies. Round oaty ones with sweets and chocolate drops. Chocolate ones cut into bunnies. And muffins. Plain muffins with smarties in. Yummy.

Last night Sue and Baz came over. We went to Hatton for a while. I bought some beads from the bead shop. Just a few. 300 to be exact. They were 2p each and cost me 6 English pounds. I like them. Letters, numbers, animals, shapes, that kind of thing. I’m sure I’ll find a use for them.

To celebrate Sue’s birthday, we went to the Fernleaf Cantonese restaurant not far from where we live. I like it in there. The staff are very friendly and warm. The food is lovely. We had Peking Duck for starters. The duck was gorgeous and it was fun making up the pancake rolls. The main course was equally lovely. Sue, Baz and I shared four dishes. We had Cantonese style pork. I really liked that; it was probably my favourite. The flavour was lovely but it’s the texture that really appealled. It’s chewy. I like chewy. We also had seafood combination chow mein. With squid. I like squid. But I get nervous eating it. In case I choke. I didn’t choke. I was pleased. We also had a beef dish which is my usual choice and always good. And house special fried rice. With allsorts in it.

Emma had omelette of the chicken variety. She enjoyed it a lot. She says she would definately order it again. It did look nice.

The food was good. The company was good. The conversation was good. We chatted about all sorts of things.

We went back to our house and ate cake I made earlier in the day. Sue blew out the candle while we sang happy birthday. I presume she made a wish although I couldn’t be sure. Then Baz blew out the candle. We didn’t sing happy birthday though. Then it was my turn. Nobody sang and I didn’t make a wish. Jeanette, who just happened to appear briefly at the right moment, took her turn. And finally Emma, who informs me that she didn’t make a wish either. We ate the chocolate bunny rabbit cake. I liked it. I do like Asda’s 74p chocolate muffin mix. And the extra chocolate, the chocolate spread and finally the chocolate frosting merely adds to the appeal. The sunshine was safely boxed up to take home along with these. And the pink bunny couldn’t handle all the excitement and had a little cigarette to calm down.

All in all, I think we all had a lovely evening. I know I did. I hope Sue did. HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR TOMORROW SUE xxxxx

Friday May 30th, seven whole days after my 36th birthday. There were a couple of reasons why I postponed celebrations. For one, my head wasn’t in it. Last term was really stressful. Not just for me, for quite a few people. Exams were the day before my birthday and assignment hand-in was actually on my birthday. My head wasn’t okay really and I knew it would take at least a few days to settle. Secondly, Enisa, who I share birthdays with, was 18 this year. It was nice to do a party just for her. But my unbirthday was worth the wait. Emma took the day off (which was brilliant) and brought me a present in bed. Little Miss Sunshine underwear set. I have a thing about underwear sets. I’ve got loads. I can’t afford them anymore, what with being a stooodent and all. The back of the pants are fab. There was a bag of haribo jellies in there aswell. We ate them between us. Little Miss Sunshine ate some too.

Downstairs I had a strong coffee in my Tim Horton’s travel mug that cousin Linda bought me from Canada. Tim Horton’s is a bit like Starbucks. Apparently if I go to Canada before the end of 2010, I get my travel mug filled for free at any Tim Horton’s outlet. I’ve kept the voucher. It’s unlikely. But you never know. Anyway, my coffee stayed warm. And that’s what counts. Linda also bought me a lovely handmade card which I shall keep. I got one hundred moneys in my cards. I never get that much money in cards. Nowhere near. I haven’t actually seen that much money for about 9 months. I was very very chuffed. Really really chuffed. More chuffed than that even. (I will also be keeping this beautiful card, handmade by lovely Leah).

I opened half of my prezzies in the morning, including this from Lindsey Barry and this from Emma Walker. I love them both. Probably for very similar reasons. After reading my new book and playing with David for a while, Emma gave me her card, a folded piece of paper with nice loving words from her bic biro. On the other side was a centre map of Westfield shopping centre in Derby. This was rather exciting. A paperchase store, loads of food and coffee outlets, sweet shops, new look, top shop and loads more. And 10,000 pennies. Good job I was all dressed and ready to go.

I bought rather a lot at Paperchase. £35 worth of a lot. I’ll blog that stuff later. Far too important to just gloss over. I was in there for ages. I actually thought I might never get out. But I did. And we went in search of food. Eating with Emma anywhere other than home isn’t easy. We eat very different foods. Her favourites just don’t excite me at all. And vice versa. Westfield has one of those food halls with various outlets around the edge and seats all together in the centre. Perfect. I was torn between Yangtze thai noodle bar and Yangtze chinese buffet. Both were similar in that you fill a box of a certain size for a set price. £4.20 for a combination of three dishes. £4.80 for a combination of four dishes and £5.20 for (a slightly bigger box) filled with basically whatever takes your fancy. Guess which one I went for? Egg fried rice, special fried rice with goodness knows what in it, singapore noodles, sweet and sour chicken (without the sweet and sour), beef and mushrooms, a fantastic breaded chicken dish, crispy shredded beef (which I’ve never had before but will definately be having again), crispy won tons, mini spring rolls, barbecue ribs, pork balls, deep fried squid and chicken wings. I declined prawn crackers on account that I didn’t want to appear greedy.

Emma purchased and consumed a cheesburger from Hamburger Union. It was cooked fresh. Looked nice enough. I didn’t manage to finish mine. Well, I didn’t try. Being very generous, Yangtze put 2 or 3 of everything dry in the box, and a large portion of everything wet (or ‘bitty’ like rice). I made sure I ate one of each dry thing and some of everything wet or bitty. Emma ate some of the chicken balls and one of my ribs. I had diet coke and coffee with my meal. Emma was very kind and generous. For pudding, I got a small pick and mix from The Nut Hut. I chose four pieces of turkish delight, one covered in pistachio nuts, and a slice of crystallised pineapple. It was all rather yummy. Emma got a cookie from Millie’s Cookie’s.

There are loads of outlets at Westfield, I think the website says there are over 175. Obviously, I didn’t go to all of them. Emma wouldn’t let me. But I did like Parchment. A gift shop. I took a photo off the coolest card ever. Unfortunately I accidently deleted it. It was a big piece of battenburg cake with a hollowed out doorway and window, and a couple of action figures (men dressed in pink), coming out of it. It was fab. I want one for my wall. I don’t know why I didn’t buy one while I had the opportunity? I also saw the best wrapping paper ever, a retro toddler trying out his first pair of roller skates. After lots more shops, Emma had a last coffee and cookie at Starbucks while I whizzed round New Look. I bought a little plastic ring. Exactly the same as another plastic ring I already own. But in a different colour.

The journey home was fraught with fun. Although the M1 was completely closed due to a nasty accident and we stood completely still for about an hour, David amused us immensely. He is far funnier that he leads us to believe on his TV show. First, he stuck two stickers on his chest to illustrate the fact that he has two hearts. I personally think he was just being smug. Then he posed on the dashboard with his eleven rabbits, one of which is a gigantic alien rabbit from the planet Zarg. Another is shocking pink with sparky ears and a glittery heart on it’s tummy. Very pretty but actually the result of a tragic accident which left him with neither home nor family. He tries to look on the bright side and always wears a smile. Seven are clones, created in the future, who cannot survive earth’s atmosphere. They live in a special chamber suited exactly to their respiratory needs. They’re surprisingly cheerful little creatures. The last two are simply rabbits. Earth rabbits. Snowflake and Snowdrop. Who knew Mr Tennat was a rabbit man? I like him even more now.

He also has a scary cat called Scratchy. Which unnerved me slightly, if I’m honest. Finally, after fighting off a giant duck and gazing up at a rainbow for a while, he climbed into his sleeping bag (the bag from Emma’s first cookie of the day) and slept. We were all very tired so I didn’t blame him really.

More presents. Including melt-in-your-mouth Lindor Chocolates from Emma. There were four in the box. Two for Emma. And two for me. None for David. But he did get to make a fort out of the box. Eventually I got to the last prezzie. Another underwear set. Started and ended the day with underwear sets. Can’t go far wrong with that. Good old Emma. Good old Asda.

I really did have a brilliant day, if anybody’s still reading this far. I took sooo many pictures. The rest are here. Thanks for my prezzies and moneys and love and good wishes. I appreciated it all a lot. I would seriously recommend anybody putting off their birthday to another day. Unbirthdays are way more fun

Last night was the last supper. Linda made gorgeous fish chowder. And I mean gorgeous. I have a tub of it in the freezer for a special treat in a few days time. There were flags on the wall. Canadian flags. Obviously. And matching wind chimes above the table. We started the meal with salad and bread. The salad had cranberries in it. And pine nuts. Which I absolutely love. Then the main course was a large bowl of fish chowder. It looked remarkably similar to this. This was swiftly followed by a second bowl. Finally, we had a beautiful dessert. It was similar to upside down cake. But nicer. It had apples and pears. And syrup. Linda served it with extra special Polish ice cream. Very nice. I made Linda a bunny rabbit while she was here. To make it more personal, I sewed the heart I bought at Hatton on to the skirt. And popped the teddy from Stratford into the pocket (after I blushed it’s cheeks with acrylic paints). I also blushed the cheeks of the bunny. I’ve never done that before. I quite like it. The waistband of the skirt is adorned with many bits and pieces including little sequin flowers which decorated the table at Enisa’s party. The Pooles and my mum took Linda to the airport today and as far as we know, she got off okay. We will miss her She’s lovely.

Emma took a very special picture of Ian. Through her big toe and the one next to it. How clever of her. And how very very wierd. And slightly gross. I wore my new purple trousers afterI finally mustered up the energy to cut 5 inches off and rehem them. They are very comfortable.

Bank holiday Monday was an interesting day. It started off not best for me. There was a distinct possibility of ending up in a very large open space with bad weather. Not my very favourite thing ever. To be honest. But thankfully, we went to a very beautiful and lovely garden centre instead. On the way in, we were met by a bunch of caged bunny rabbits. If you ask me, the conditions were just a little cramped. After shopping, we had a coffee and a good old Great British natter. Leah and Cousin Linda had ice-creams. I pretended to be a rabbit on account that I love them so much. Personally, I think I make a pretty good rabbit. It’s all in the teeth. Emma ‘won’ a car. In exchange for one English pound. But she did help the greyhounds. A rabbit followed us to the car and climbed (hopped?) in. It followed me into the house, up the stairs and into my room. It’s still there, standing in front of the fireplace. It is most welcome.

Jade and Josh are staying at my mum’s for the weekend. With a small person. Cousin Linda is staying with Jeanette and Ian. We all spent Saturday together. Except for Leah who was still away at Brownie camp having lots of badge-earning fun. First we went to Hatton. I bought a sweet little case/box/storage container for my room, two little wooden hearts (one to keep and one for a gift), and a very very very cool second-hand phone from the antique shop. It’s a funky white rabbit. It’s actually brilliant. Emma bought a camper van phone. Also brilliant! We all had coffee and some of us had burgers and spent a fair amount of time trying to decide if they were actually cooked. I also spent rather a lot of time in the sweet shop. I was very tempted by a tin with a lovely rabbity picture on the front. It contained four small bars of chocolate. It cost £5.99. I decided against it on this occasion.

From Hatton, we made our way to Shakespeare’s Country, the beautiful Stratford. People seemed to be very surprised that I am perfectly capable of giving Emma a piggy back despite the fact that she is approximately three and a half stone heavier than my good self. I can walk with her on my back. But I can’t run. I know this because I’ve tried. I found a sweet shop, equally as lovely as the one at Hatton. I bought for Emma a chocolate bunny rabbit. She said it was very good. It look very good. So I have decided to believe her. I also bought three small furry bears from the teddy bear shop. The turquoise one is for my room. The cream one is for a gift. The sunshine one will probably end up being a gift also. I got a large sheet of Rupert the Bear wrapping paper. Just because I liked it. Finally, I bought a strawberry print bag. It’s made of that plasticky paper that I would guess a ‘carrier bag for life’ is made of. It was very reasonably priced. There were also red polka dot ones. I’m now wishing I bought both.

All in all, a fairly successful shopping trip with some pretty bits and bobs to show for it. And a nice time with family