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.

From Mattersons. I like. Not worth 97p in my humble opinion. But very much worth half that. Which is what I paid in asda. Because they are on offer. They come in various flavours. I tried tikka. Me and Jeanette shared a bag of chinese spare rib. Emma had roast. And let me try one. All three were good.

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

Me and Emma spent some quality time together this week. We don’t often do that. That’s the thing when you live with people. You don’t always make the effort to have a laugh or even have proper conversations. We dressed up a bit smarter than usual and went to Tarsus. I love Tarsus. Especially the meze. It’s fun. You’re actually supposed to get your fingers all messy. I love playing with my food. Being a student and all, we didn’t go for the meze on this occasion. I alsways end up wanting dessert. Even though I’m stuffed. And dessert isn’t included. So it ends up a bit pricey. We had the buffet. It’s 12.50 per person. And desserts are provided.

I took a photo of my first starter. The nice waiter man brought us a basket of warm pitta aswell. Warm pitta and hummus is delicious. I also had rather large helpings of both taramasalata and cacik. Oh, and mozerralla on slices of beef tomato. Lovely. And lots of salad. I ate this twice.

Emma is a rather more delicate eater than my good self. For various reasons. One being that she doesn’t really like much flavour in her food. Unless it’s from the tomato ketchup she adds to everything. So she has considerably less choice in the first place. The main courses were really mouth wateringly good. Much nicer than the starters. I was already full but I didn’t let this deter me. The best bit - which I had about seven of - was barbeque pork ribs. Not like the usual scrawny bones. Full of meat. Tender meat that fell off the bone as you bit into it. Yummy. I also tried at least a small bit of everything else. Well you have to don’t you? Chicken curry. Magic mushrooms. Moussaka. Chicken kebabs. A rice dish? Something a bit like lasagne. But nicer. Roasted vegetables. Spicy potato wedges. Roast beef. Feta cheese pie. More salads. I had two large platefuls. And began to feel a little bit green if I’m honest. But still I soldiered on. I don’t wish to disclose which desserts I tried. But they were all yummy.

Anyway. A fun time was had by all. Lots of good conversation. A little wine. Lots of coke and lemon. I would definately recommend it to my friends. And we will be going again. The staff are very pleasant. The decor is unusual. I had to take a picture of the garden. Because it’s so lovely.

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.

I made some more bunny biscuits with my cookie cutter. This lot were for the Blunts. Well, Abbie and Lauren. Nick can’t partake of the majority of baked goods. And Libby doesn’t really have all that many teeth. Jeanette nicked a couple. I also made four just for the Poole household.

I nicked some of the mixture before baking. I didn’t bother with the biscuits. The dough’s loads better. Apparently they were nice. Some were pink with a strawberry flavour. Some had pecans in and a few drops of maple syrup. Some had chocolate chips. And some were plain oaty.

The mix is on offer at the moment. 50p. Not bad eh!

I also started a new blog. The link’s here. It’s a bit boring. Mostly to do with uni stuff. Feel free to have a look. Or not.

Isn’t he beautiful???

He’s also very lovely natured, not unlike Oscar in many ways. I felt all tearful again yesterday thinking about Oscar. I really never thought I would be the kind of individual who properly grieved over the death of a pet. But that was before I had pets. Oscar will never be forgotten.

Archie was recently found by the RSPCA. He’d been abandoned. He had runny eyes, infected teeth, a wet smelly bottom and his fur was all matted. His 4 front teeth have since been removed and he has just completed a course of antibiotics. He’s also just been neutered. He was underweight and still has a bit of catching up to do. He looks like a big chubby ball but it’s mostly fur. We don’t know how old he is but the vet person guessed at about 5. His food has to be grated on account of his lack of front teeth.

He has to be brushed every day to gradually get rid of all the knots. Thankfully, he’s very very trusting. As you can see from the pic. It’s also good to have Bess back. As much as she seems to be in a constant state of premenstrual tension, we did miss her and we do love her.

I love this picture of Bess. You can see she’s getting her shape back. She’s looking more like a lady rabbit. And less like a football. Bless her. Her tale is as sorry as Archie’s! And they really are a happy couple. It looked almost like it wouldn’t happen but Bessie did indeed choose herself a fine mate.

Emma has also blogged about Archie here. If anyone is confused about the lack of a Colin and the sudden mention of an Archie, they are in fact one and the same. We couldn’t keep the name Colin. It just isn’t him. Well, it isn’t a very rabbity name at all really (in my humble opinion). And it’s also the name of our next door neighbour. It just wouldn’t do. It wouldn’t do at all.

Bess has chosen a mate. Colin it is. Emma’s going to pick them up tomorrow after work. I’m so excited. But it does make me feel a pang of grief for Oscar. Colin’s arrival reinforces the loss of Oscar. But Colin is supposedly very lovely. He likes a fuss. Which is a good job because he needs to be groomed every day being a long-haired bunny. He thinks he’s being fussed when he’s being brushed so he’s quite happy. He’s old but we don’t know how old. I hope he lives a long time. I’d hate to think Bess needed to find a new mate again anytime soon. Pictures will follow soon.

Aunty Sue bought me a bunny rabbit cookie cutter. Today I made my first batch. Having made so many muffins lately, I automatically put the oven on gas mark 7. It should’ve been gas mark 5. Actually, they weren’t that bad. Slightly burnt at the bottom, but tasty. Especially because they were still warm.

I put the cookies in the oven in two lots. The second lot went in at the right temperature. Lots better. I made a round one for Emma because she likes things just so, you know. Me and Leah had a little play with the icing pens. I think the mixture’s about 75p from Asda. Just got to add a bit of butter or margerine and a couple of tablespoons of water. I got an oaty mix as well. For another day.

I was also assertive with the bank today. I got a letter the other day telling me there was a problem with my account. I bought something online last week which went over my overdraft by £1.08. The letter said I had to go into the bank and credit my account to get me out of the red and informed me there would be a charge. The letter neglected to say what the charge would be. I went in the bank with a few quid to deposit, hopefully covering the fee and leaving money in the account. I nearly fell over when they told me the charges were £38. And if I didn’t pay £31 of it today, my account would be in the red tomorrow, a new month, and another charge of £28 would be added. I was cross and upset. I didn’t put the money in but asked to speak to the manager. The manager was busy. I was promised that I would receive a call me before the end of the day. I wasn’t going to let it drop. £38 and another £28 all for £1.08. I’ve been with them 4 years and never had any charges incurred. I’m a student on a low bursary. I was really annoyed.

Anyway, the manager said they weren’t allowed to refund the fee unless there was a bank error but they did give me another number to call. They were actually pretty supportive. They told me the number was for the complaints department and that I should explain the situation and my current circumstances fully and tell them that I believe it is unlawful to charge such an extortionate fee for the sake of £1. I got through to one person who was very unsympathetic. I was basically getting nowhere. Thankfully my phone died. I redialled and got someone human. She (the lovely Dawn Barson apparently) refunded my account without any problem. I did head over to the cash point this evening and credit the account so there shouldn’t be any hassle. Phew.