Friday 13th... unlucky for some?

Well weather wise it certainly is unlucky, or yucky, howling wind, rain lashing down.  Tho the weather lot said it would all start at lunchtime, well it didn't get going here till well after 4pm. 

In meantime I settled down to an afternoon of photo altering...   which means a lot of faffing.  First finding the suitable images, and royalty free clip art,  then altering that to jpegs,  then taking away background, then a lot of cutting and pasting... you can see one result here.  Done 3 so far,   but need to get some nice borders. 

Should get back to crafting tomorrow.  Got to go get some toy stuffing for mum, so may see some nice bits for my boxes.  Forecast for tomorrow is just as bad as today.  Also have to call in to work,  said I'd go have a natter with a friend, she did look very fed up.   Well with me out of action, one who has left for new job, another who has been seconded, they are 3 staff short, and so are rushed off their feet.   I'd not put up with it, sadly some folk think they can't fight management, well they can, cos I have.   There are minimum staffing levels,  I'd start there, and when the place goes below it I'd shut the place down.   

Well got to get back to altering meerkats...

Think the sky must have sprung a leak....

As it hasn't stopped raining...  and more to come. Much rather have the frosty mornings,  that lovely crisp, clear air and blue sky.   Just think we could be in for a yucky winter. 

Well I am to be medically retired,  should only take a few more weeks to be made official.  So that is curtains down on another career,  if nowt else I've had an interesting life career wise,  the library has been the longest I've spent in any job.  Must say that the last two years have not been happy,  not happy with job, very happy with colleagues and many of the customers, but not the management - aint that always the way? 

Tuned into C&C today to find Leonie!  I wondered where she'd gone,  thought she hadn't had a mention on QVC these last couple of weeks.  I wish her well, I do like her, she seems full of mischief, but is a brilliant crafter.  She also has a new blog   LEONIE  where you can catch up with what she's up to.

I've done no crafting since Monday,  today was spent mucking with photoshop, friend asked me to help her design a badge,  so that meant me doing much altering of a photo in photo shop, but it worked.   Now need to find a santa hat to go on a meerkat....   the things you do!  Will go trawl the clip art sites,  bound to find something there.

Well this is just a quick catch up...  will be craftng tomorrow.

After the sunshine came the grey...

Yep, back to normal, dull, grey, cold, and raining....  tho seem to recall that this time last year it was really cold.  I also seem to be in hibernation mode,  woke up at 6 a.m., made cuppa, piece of toast and took it back to bed.  Was intending on getting up early, to put on washing, and get to supermarket early...  instead I wake up again at 9.a.m!   Really disgusted with myself, second time in a row I've overslept.  Got to get act together. 

Got appointment tomorrow at occy health, should be interesting, cos if the doc is an disinterested as he was last time he is in for a big shock.   Took me all my time during last appointment NOT to lose my temper with him.  He was pig ignorant.  I know exactly what my surgeon has said in the letter to occy health, he spelled out exactly how bad my injury was.  The dumb occy health nurse kept on telling me I'd be back at work in no time... not what my surgeon was saying.   The occy health nurse felt she was an expert on busted knee caps cos her BiL had one, and he was fine, made a full recovery... yeah well he didn't smash his to pieces.  I kept on telling her that mine was badly fractured, but oh no, she wouldn't taken any notice, wouldn't let me go for redeployment either.  So I complained, hence the doc's frosty attitude,  well if he tries that again he, as I said, is in for a shock.   He also refused to put me forward for redeployment, and I found out after that there were two possible suitable jobs! What is with these people?  I have a friend who is also having to fight bad managers....  I am sick of bad managers, those who end up in jobs of responsibility far beyond their limited capabilities.   And especially those managers who think they can rule by fear, that is not managing, that is being a pillock. 

Supermarket shop was painless,  well almost,  I am still baffled by people who insist on blocking an aisle with their trolley, while they wonder which tin of soup to buy!   Choose one and move on, or don't leave trolley abandoned in middle of aisle.  Also noticed how some supermarkets are determined that us shoppers will do everything,  now Tesco have the scanner ready for us to scan our club card...  nope, refuse to do it,  just as I refuse to use those self service tills.   I only ever see people having problems with them, having to ask for help,  hence the need for one assistant to be permanently stationed at them.   Look supermarket bosses,  I don't wish to serve myself at the checkout,  I want an assistant,  I want communication, a friendly face and a bit of banter...  not some ruddy machine barking orders at me, or telling me to prove I am over 18 so I can buy my wine!

Have done some crafting, just got nothing finished to photograph.  But have been playing with new toy, new camera, ooh it is wonderful!  Allows you to take soft focus portrait photos...   wonderful.  Plus all sorts of other options which I will have to explore.  And best of all I realised I got a bargain,  the camera cost me £129 in John Lewis, same camera in other stores was £150!   I came close to buying another model, with less features in Jessops.   Pic is of crown in Paddy's wigwam. 

Thanks for stopping by

OUCH!

It hurts when I cough, I seem to have pulled a muscle near my ribs.  I wonder when this body of mine will stay in one piece for longer than a few days? 

Didn't help things yesterday by taking mum out,  she was bored and so I took her to a garden centre.  Didn't think my sore ribs were that sore till I started driving.   It was sort of a pointless excercise taking mum for a day out, as she can't walk very far, and I'm not up to pushing her in a wheelchair.   But I guess it was a change of scenery.   I had looked at the craft stuff,  not that there was a lot of it,  so I had to go to The Range,  cos I did need some stuff to make a wedding box.   So that has been started,  found a card that will do nicely for the swap card,  and eureka, found the papers for the club xmas cards.... phew, thought I'd lost them. 

Course it was also Remembrance Sunday, sadly I got up far too late to make it to our local ceremony.  Well if I had two healthy legs I would have got there, but not in my hobbling state. So watched it on TV.  I would love to know why all the Royals have to dress up in uniforms, only two have a right to be in uniform... and as for the array of medals - it is ridiculous!   I'd rather they stood in civvies than pretend they're high ranking officers.  Edward left the services,  Anne never served,   Andrew did, so did Phillip and the Queen.  As for the hapless Mr Brown, can he not get anything right?  He forgot to bow his head after laying his wreath.  The real dignity came from the veterans, old and young.  Sad that there are still so many to be added to the roll of honour, and even more left with injuries that will affect them for the rest of their lives.   Any young person choosing to sign up deserves our respect,  they know full well they will inevitably serve in a war zone.  Let us ensure that their courage and bravery is appreciated, and that their sacrifice never slips from our memories. 

Lest We Forget....   

Damp squib

Had to laugh yesterday,  watched as the locals spent all day building the bonfire on the  field,   as it chucked down at same time.  Needless to say the bonfire was a bit of a washout, usually it goes on for hours, but not this year, it was all done and dusted by 8pm.  I'm not being a meanie, I love fireworks, I just hate those that just go bang, and do so very loudly.  Give me an organised display any day.  All the kids round here do is let off bangers.  Thought we may get more tonight, but nope,  aside from a few feeble bangs, it has been very quiet.  As was Halloween,  thankfully,  I don't mind anyone having fun, just object when the yobs start vandalising cars and property.  According to the local rag some 40 youths were arrested on Halloween for damaging cars.

Another yucky day weather wise,   a very grim and grey day.  Nowt else to do but stay put,   did a spot of shopping and that was it.  Hoping for better weather tomorrow,  may be tempted to go out and about.   All depends on knee, wasn't too good last night,  very sore in fact.  Not sure if it is the cold weather.  Just remembered that this time last year I was finally allowed to remove the knee brace, boy was that a relief!   Been a very funny year...    and very sad at times.   Yep life is never boring, it always has a surprise in store.

Enjoy your weekend.

Brrrrr....

Can't believe that last week I was wearing a short sleeved T shirt and today I am shivering.  Is this what makes us Brits so interesting, our nutty weather?   Be nice just to have four seasons and have them in proper order!

Well was miffed today,  saw two items I did want on QVC and by time I'd made it to computer to order both were sold out!  I swear some folk must have QVC on speed dial.    Then just checked on what was being sold during last hour, saw the sakura pens and went to order them, yep they were also sold out.   Got all the Christmas stuff I want.  In fact I'm finished making my Christmas cards,  just need to make a few boxes.

Had a funny old day yesterday,  did supermarket shop with a list and managed to forget to buy potatoes and mushrooms, which are the items I wanted most!   Then there was the QVC saga,  mum had her mind muddled over when her hairdresser was coming...   and I still had tons of washing to do.   By today there was a huge pile of ironing...   not my favourite thing!   But I did get a nice piece of brisket for dinner,  so cooked that with roasties and veg,  and it was deeeeelicious, the beef was so tender.   And cos the weather was so awful managed to get thru some of the ironing.

My mum is worrying me,  today the phone rang and she managed somehow to cut the caller off. So I said to do 1471,  so she did and then stared at the phone, snapped to me that it wasn't telling her the number - she was expecting the number to come up on the display.  So I had to explain to her that she had to call 1471, she still didn't get it,  I had to do it in the end.   Yet when I asked her about how to cook the brisket, she knew...  but when the taxi came for her she couldn't remember which part of the high street she wanted to go to...   She's acknowledged that her memory is bad,  I just think there is something more serious going on. 

And then this morning the TV was all funny, mum's words... we've had our analogue signal switched off, well soem of it, so we had to go thru another retune, but it couldn't be done till today!    I had 3 TVs to retune, what a pain, every menu is different, then I had mum's friends ringing me to ask how to retune their boxes...   nightmare! 

Hoping tomorrow I'll get some crafting done,  not done any for a while,  feel the craving starting. 

Thanks for stopping by

Fandabbidosi weekend!

This last weekend has been long awaited, and nearly got called off a few times,  luckily it did go ahead.  By Friday lunchtime I'd waved off mum,  then just had to wait for my two mates to get here. Sadly both got caught up in traffic on the motorway so were badly delayed.  Tho one, who has no sense of direction, and that is also with a SatNav, spent about 45 minutes circling the neighbourhood, forever missing the road/turning she needed...  she called me every ten minutes to let me know where she was... it was interesting!   But we finally got together, and after a quick cuppa and a hug, we headed off to get some food, managed to grab the last of the curry meals at supermarket,  and a bottle or 3 of wine - hic.   Took us ages to cook the curry using the microwave,  but we made pigs of ourselves and chatted the night away.   Next day it was up and at em to go get a battery charger for friend who had lost hers...   we couldn't get what we needed at retail park, so came home, and hopped on bus and headed for the city.   I did dither over the new camera,  looked in several shops, new Argos had one of the models I wanted,  but then saw a better model for just a few quid more, so got that.  It is a Lumix,  all singing and dancing,  course I had to buy the extra SD card!  It really bugs me that,  can you imagine buying a PC and then being told you need to then buy the hard drive... that is what it is like, and it is a rip off.  They should standardise the SD cards, one size fits all, same with the chargers.  Assistant did try to flog me the most expensive, told her to forget it that the cheapest would do...    so had new camera, off we went to celebrate our purchases with drink at tapas bar,  all very swanky with swanky prices.  It was fun tho, the staff were in fancy dress.  We intended to have one drink, but that turned into two...   and then we stopped,  cos it was far too expensive.  And off home,  we stopped at the chinese restaurant,  food was delicious but the portions were just too big.   Yesterday was all cultural,  we spent it battling the wind at the Pier Head, all 3 of us came close to being blown over, for some strange reason there were very few folk about, and no takers for the open top tourist bus!   After that we went to Paddys Wigwam, or the Catholic Cathedral,   it is a very striking building,  the choir was practising so it made it very magical, and spiritual.   We wrapped it all off with a mini tour round the Pool - weather was far too foul for anything else. 

And all in all a good weekend was had by all.  Mum also enjoyed her weekend,  so everyone was a winner :-)

And picwas taken with new camera  inside Paddy's Wigwam,  it depicts Jacob sacrificing the lamb... it was an amazing sculpture. 

Hope you all had a good weekend