Monday 28 November 2016

FUZZY NOSES!

So you might have seen from my post yesterday that I had plans to meet with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Just for the record, I totally did! Okay, okay, he didn't exactly have a red nose, but he did have a very fuzzy one! And fuzzy antlers! And a fuzzy bum with a cutie little tail. Basically, it was like my best day ever. And I'm not sure how I'm ever going to be able to top it...unless I get to sit on Santa's knee which I may just make my mission for the December month of daily blogging. Daily-ish. And, it could just happen as I know Santa, I totally do! 

Back to the reindeers though. There were 6 of them, including two babies that were born in May that were even more fuzzy than the big ones and might have made me squeak out loud at the total cuteness factor. Even though my life would have been made if I had got to touch a fuzzy nose, they were 'acclimatising' to their new environment - translation: eating all the food - before heading out on the magical parade so I just did a lot of ooh-ing and ahh-ing and left them to it. 

The whole other rest of the day passed by in an absolute blur. I was there to work, not just to meet fuzzy nose reindeers, and work I did! This particular work included running which we all know is not my top thing to do, but all for the sake of the job dahhhling. It was deffo worth all the running around as all the stuff we were putting out got all the love, particularly the Facebook Live videos which I've never done before but were so much fun to film!  

As well as reindeers of dreams, I also got to dance and jig about to one of my favourite local bands, The Wildcats of Kilkenny, join in with all the singing, countdown from TEN to ONE at the top of my voice and then watch all the pretty liiiiiiiights as they were switched on to massive cheers and applause, all in the name of work! I know, right?! It truly was an absolute blast and I was buzzing off it! I can honestly say, hand on heart, that it was my best day at work EVER! I love my new job so much! If you don't believe me take a look at the massive shit-eating grin in the photo below of me and my desk buddy Rach and all the pretty liiiiiiights:


Yes we are indeedy covered in all the sparkles on our faces. 

And I had Rudolph painted on my other cheek. 

And finally, can we say a big Yasssssss for the fact that I got to wear a bright yellow jacket...you will not believe how many people ask you questions when you wear a bright yellow vest! All the questions, all the day! 

Top class Sunday. 

I am very very tired now. But I have to go to rehearsal...until next time! 

Sunday 27 November 2016

The one where I meet Rudolph the Reindeer

Today I am meeting Rudolph the Reindeer. To be fair, I'm not sure if his nose will actually be red, but if it isn't fuzzy I am going to be very disappointed. 

Yep, I am working the Reindeer Parade and the Christmas Lights Switch On! I am very, very, very excited! Kind of like I am 5 years old. Even though I am at work I will try super hard to get some photos so that I can share the experience with you. 

Stay tuned...

Friday 25 November 2016

Listen Up! And hold onto your judgement...

I have absolutely zero shame in admitting that this is currently my favourite song. As soon as it comes on in the car I turn up the volume and sing very loudly, and dance in my seat, while driving very very safely of course... 

I don't even have an ex that I want to shout out to, it's just a blummin fab, catchy pop song, and sometimes that is all you need in life. 

Take it away ladies! 

Monday 21 November 2016

Bad Blogger, No Biscuits

So it turns out that this full time work, PA at theatre, keeping up with all the housework, and having to work on weekends turns you into a bad blogger. However I have decided that is okay, as I am pretty certain (hopeful!) that the people who follow along will patiently await my return...especially when I come back with two posts this week! 

So how have you been? You already know my story/busy - what have you been up to? Anything exciting? I baked my Christmas cake today! I know! How can it be that Christmas is only a few weeks away now? Scary. I also tackled the giant, mountainous ironing pile, first of all by watching Nashville...I love it, don't judge me. Closely followed by watching Wreck It Ralph, again I say, no judgement. However, have you seen that film? It was kind of like an hour and a half of Candy Crush, on speed. A little bit too much if I'm honest. 

On a side note, I recently decided that reinstalling Candy Crush was what I needed in my life. It took about a week to decide all over again that it was soul destroying and needed to be gone. Especially when I started seeing the orange candy thing floating in front of my eyes. Not good. That was a week I'll never get back again. 

We also took a stroll down the beach with the Bobbo this weekend which was frankly totally effin freezing, but I did wear my new 'Team Internet' sweatshirt which is possibly my most favourite purchase recently, as I am, well and truly, part of the team that loves the internet. Even when it's weird and odd and yep, even a little bit scary mary. It's best not to think about the scary side too much or you might lock yourself away in a room protected by a giant bubble and not come back out until it's all just gone away. You want to talk scary? My niece recently posted a selfie to her Instagram and 26 people commented to tell her she looked 'sexy' and 'hot' ... she is 12 ... I am terrified. And I have to admit, sorely tempted to bring her to the room bubble thing because hello, seriously, what the blinkin' eff?!?! For this I very much blame YouTube, but that is a post for a whole other day/life and maybe not one to focus on just yet or the fear will properly take over. 

To counteract this, here is me wearing my cool sweatshirt, wet hair fresh from the shower and a bobble hat. I know, I know, hot, sexy, oh yeah baby...HA! I cannot tell you how glad I am that I'm not 12! Interestingly though, a friend of mine recently commented about how cool it would be to be 18 but with the knowledge and experience that we have now...I think in some ways yes and in other ways, no thank you! Most of the fun was in making all of the mistakes! 



So there you have it. Random ramblings indeedy. I go away for a few days and all that profesh thing that I try to have on the blog goes right out of the window! 

I am still contemplating doing the whole December, post a day advent thingy. If I say I will and then miss a few days will you still come along for the ride? What say you? Reply in the comments with a Yassssss or a Nooooo you fool

Over and out. 

Monday 14 November 2016

Northumberland and Chill

Do you ever get that feeling when you just know that you need a break? Everything seems to be just that little bit too much and a general air of being frazzled follows around you like a black cloud? Yeah that was us. Busy work, busy life, busy at theatre, busy busy busy - definitely time for a holiday! Good job we had one booked in then, eh? 

Oh Northumberland. You beautiful, beautiful place with your massive skies and endless beaches that often have absolutely not a soul on them except you and your loves. It's my absolute favourite place to go, and a big part of my heart lies in it. We've had fab family holidays up there as kids, we had one king-size, all the family holiday as adults that is one of the most fun holidays I've ever had, and Dave and I have had a whole heap of brillo holidays up there too in the long while we've been together. And it's really just up the road a bit so absolutely ideal for a long weekend in November. 

The house we were staying in was absolutely cute as a button, even though we arrived in the dark and toured round the tiny village of Beadnell looking for it! We spent the weekend eating, drinking, strolling the endless beaches, running up and down the sand dunes with Bob and in and out of the sea - him that is, not us. The North Sea in November? No chuffin' way!! Reading, watching tv, listening to music, just pretty much enjoying doing absolutely nothing at all. 

It has truly worked a treat. I've come back rested and ready to face the bonkers that is to come in the run up to Christmas. 

That giant smile below? Says it all really. Northumberland - you truly are the best! 


Friday 11 November 2016

November Jollies

For the past few years we've foolishly decided that November is the perfect time to get away from it all. Not to a hot country with a beach, usually to somewhere even farther north than us that might just have snow. This year is no exception and this family of mine are off up to Northumberland for a long weekend. In November. We might freeze to death. 

But there will be endless beaches with no-one on them that Bob can run up and down to his heart's content. 

There will be some yummy, warming food, and hopefully some hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows. 

We're taking the camera, and this time we've even remembered the SD card #winning 

If we don't freeze to death I'll report back on what we get up to. Have an awesome weekend, wherever you may be! 

Monday 7 November 2016

Le Week-End

Look at that, another weekend vanished, poof! Why so fast weekend? This is the trouble with being in a theatre group that needs a giant set building - your Saturday, that first heady day of the weekend that you look forward to so much, becomes yet another working day that involves physical and manual labour! Sheesh, it's like having two full time jobs!! 

So Saturday. Building, painting, inappropriate sawing stations - just a usual working Saturday really...if you are in any way health and safety inclined, do not look at the photo below of Dave busily sawing away. No that is not a cigarette in his mouth but a pencil, a true Chippy! 


Sidenote: it was the ability to make things and be super handy that was a big part of me falling for Dave. Hope that didn't make anyone barf too much...

The rest of the weekend was also pretty busy but kinda cool. After a full day at the theatre job, we settled in for the evening with a cracking dinner, some pink fizz and proceeded to get really rather tipsy for no reason at all. We followed up the tasty tea by watching 'Le Week-End', a rather delightful film starring Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan that was all kinds of good and made me immediately want to go back to Paris. Immediately. We're already thinking Spring. CAN'T WAIT! 

On Sunday morning we cleaned the house from top to bottom. And did laundry. There is no way to make this sound exciting. 

I went shopping and bought a stupid amount of clothes for both work and play, including a fake leather skirt that I wasn't at all sure about, but a shout out to my gal pals on Facebook (and a text to my 12 year old niece who is equally as cool as her Aunty Claire) reassured me that it did look cool, I did not look like mutton, and now I need a night out when I can wear it. Yasssssss! 

My mam came round, which was lovely, as I hardly see her these days due all of the working. And secretly she misses the Bobster so likes to pop round every now and then to give his ears a good scratch. 

The evening ended with more tasty dinner treats and some TV watching before rolling into bed ready to start it all over again. 

Why is this month always so busy? I do not get it. If only we had 8 days in a week...

Tuesday 1 November 2016

All of the -ing

I am such a gad-about these days! Seriously, I'm hardly ever in the house so when I am it's all about throwing on my PJs, kicking back and doing some good old fashioned consuming of the things. So I thought why not share, and then you can share too and maybe we'll all get some new ideas for some further consuming. Tis the season for hibernation and all that! 

Doing
I somehow ended up being a production assistant again for the upcoming show at my theatre group. I know, I know, how many times have I sworn to never do it again? Anyway, this one is Dad's Army so at least rehearsals are funny. I'm working on charming the director into believing that he only needs me there once a week, otherwise how will I fit in all my gad-about-ing that is being done? Tricky...

Doing #2 - all the pretty liiiiiiiights!
Not only have I found a fellow cake fiend as my new work buddy(I say again, this cannot end well), I've also found someone who loves pretty liiiiiights as much as me. Luckily there is a whole shed full of pretty light stuff happening at the moment so plenty of opportunity to fulfil this new hobby of mine - chasing the pretty liiiiights. I already talked about 'Neon and That', this week I'm attending a 'Fire and Light Festival' - all together now, oooooh pretty liiiights, and then very soon it's the Christmas Lights Switch On for my work! Which also coincides with the Reindeer Parade. If I don't get a close up photo of a fuzzy reindeer nose I am going to be beyond consoling as it's my only mission in life right now. 

Watching
Going pretty well on the whole watching front, I've almost finished watching 'Stranger Things' - interesting observation, everybody else seemed to binge watch this in like 8 hours or something absurd like that. I think I'm about 2 months in now...I'm not very good at binge watching, I like to go to bed at 10pm, staying up until 3am to watch TV is not my idea of a good time. We've also been watching loads of 'Motive' which is tip top cop stuff and even though Dave hates it I'm loving Angie's new hairdo. Also watched a few films including 'The Imitation Game' with Benedict Cummerbund which I absolutely loved and made me cry muchly at the end. Very moving. And also weirdly thrilling, on the edge of your seat type thing when they finally figured out how to make Christopher work. I'm going to see 'Girl on a Train' tonight and am very keen to see how well/badly this has been adapted for film. The book had me gripped until the end when I was massively disappointed, will update you further. Finally my cake fiend/pretty liiiiiights desk buddy wants me to watch 'Orphan Black' ... I'm not sure how I'm going to fit all this in. Send help. 

Reading
Still reading my free book as part of the Big Bookcycle. I think it's by Camilla Lackberg and I've forgotten the title. This says a lot. I'm honestly a bit confused. There are a lot of characters and I can't keep up with it all. But now that I've given up the whole read a million books in 5 minutes challenge I'm not feeling as much pressure to finish. Though I do have the next in the MJ Arlidge, DI Helen Grace series on my bedside table which is calling my name. Such a great crime series, highly recommended! 

Listening
Mainly to Radio 1 in the car, particularly the Breakfast Show which often makes me laugh out loud and I'm sure looks very funny to other drivers who probably go out of their way to avoid the bizarre woman laughing at herself in the little silver car. I also love the drive-time show home and Rage against the Answering Machine is absolutely my favourite feature. I'm still telling everyone about the woman ranting about her friend's excessive use of hashtags! There's sometimes actual music as we eat tea, but that's usually the time we're catching up and chitting the chat too. 

Thus ends all of the -ing. How about you? Tell me about some of your favourite consuming and I'll add it to my list of things I wish I had the time for! 

Oh also, PS. hello two blog posts in two days! Time is creeping by and it's almost time for my annual advent blog month so I thought I'd get some practice in now!