lizzie_and_ari: (family)
Hello,

So much stuff!

We moved house this week - hopefully for the last time in a long long while. That's pretty much dominated the week.

1. The actual move was done on Friday, with a little leeway into Saturday morning to clear some final bits and pieces and clean - not quite to the standard I would have liked, but as it was we overlapped with Joanne and Giolla by about half an hour.

Fortunately, Dora was in nursery all day Friday. We are also so incredibly lucky for all the wonderful people who've helped with this whole thing:

Andrew Ducker, who arrived in Burntisland early to help Jo with her moving. He messaged to ask if we needed help and we threw ourselves on him in 'omg yes'ness. (Our main problem is heavy lifting - because I can't, that puts it all on Ari, and apart from the fact there's so much, some things are two person jobs.)

Alex Rodgers, who took the day off work and arrived super early for super hefting.

Most of all, Erin, who got up even earlier to come straight from Glasgow, with a suitcase, to carry and clean and strategise and plan and execute. She even cancelled early evening plans to stay later. She is a superhero (and commander of the flag).

2. The kids - Dora and Cedric - have both coped amazingly well with the move. For Dora, I think it was actually great to have the first night in the new house followed by a final trip to the old house. We said goodbye to all the rooms, and now it's "We live at the beach now, next to the dragons."*

Cedric was much the same - a big investigation followed by "cool; this'll do". We need to get a cat flap put in in, but it looks like there was one in the back door that's been filled in, so fingers crossed that won't be too hard. In the meantime, we're just letting him in and out. He went for a long trip outside yesterday - I wonder if he maybe wandered to the old house.

* there are some dragons who live at the beach. Some of them eat rocks and some eat lettuce.

3. The folk who sold us the house, aka our new next door neighbours, are just lovely, too. They did lovely thoughtful things like chopping us some extra firewood, and setting the fires for us all ready to go. They've been so kind.

4. Mum arrived the day after we moved, which in retrospect was a terrible idea. There are things *everywhere*, and we keep abandoning her to unpack etc :(. Once everything is properly unpacked (I give it 1-2 months) things will be able to properly be awesome. Plus, the weather will be on the mend. (Talking of which: Housewarming/my birthday party on March 4 - save the date!)

5. I had (possibly still have?) a UTI. That was a fun addition to moving. #tmi

However, it did give rise to Dora's comment: "Stop weeing, Lizzie's brain!“ Other classics this week include:

On coming down the stairs to find us yesterday morning, because we woke up before her:
"Mummy, there was a person in the bed!"
"Really? Just now?"
“They were looking for you."
"OK. Was it you?"
"Yes."

During a discussion about what we all liked most about the new house (the fireplaces? The view? The Narnia room?):
"What's your favourite bit, Dora?"
[thinks for a long time]
[points]
"That lightswitch."
(No, it wasn't even a particularly interesting lightswitch.)

6. She's also captivated by her new doll's house. I saw this listed on Freegle a few weeks back, and it turned out to be the person selling the house - so she just left it for Dora, who *loves* it. It's great; she will properly play with it for ages, while we get stuff done.

Other stuff... maybe...

Tomorrow Ari’s parents arrive, and that and unpacking composes all of our plans.

Happy Tuesday,

Lizzie xx
lizzie_and_ari: (lizzie)
Hello,

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This is highly unusual for Cedric; he’s not been sick since he was wee. So I was actually late for work. This is as opposed to just arriving on time, but without having achieved the things I had intended to, which is my normal late behaviour. I’m actually much much better than I used to be at getting to work on time even if I’m running late. Cat vomit is, however, not within my standard risk assessment. Bleugh.

Anyway….

1. Ari has Bad Teeth. She had to go to the emergency dentist, who prescribed her Metronidazole, the Beelzebub of antibiotics. I have spent time looking after her, cooking soup and buying icecream.

2. Have been feeling guilty about cooking recently: because I am out at work all way and Ari, whilst working, is not out, and because I have twice weekly exercise classes and Ari has nightly tours, she has ended up doing an disproportionate amount of cooking. Given that I did a massive shop on Saturday, I decided last night – when Ari was out at work – to Cook. I cooked up a massive batch of pasta sauce, made two lasagnes – one big enough to do tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s lunch, hopefully, and a smaller one which I put in the freezer – and still had leftover sauce which I froze and we can use to put on a pizza. So that’s basically dinner made for three nights this week. I made my sandwiches for today and did all the washing up and cleaned the kitchen. I also did all the laundry yesterday, which was a LOT. Just call me Donna Reed.

3. Aquafit was cancelled on Thursday, as the tutor was sick, so Ari and I decided to go swimming. We went to Porty baths, where the Turkish baths were half price, because something unclear was broken. It was quiet, so we mostly had the lanes in the pool to ourselves, so could do lots of stretching and fun stuff (I’m not a massive fan of the ‘lengths’ school of swimming; it’s why Aquafit suits me so well). Afterwards we got chips and walked home.

4. I also bought a Wagon Wheel from the chippie because they were only 25p and Ari had never heard of them.

5. Dinner with Hazel and John on Friday. Cheated the cooking part by buying Ricebox deep fried tofu and mixing it through with rice and egg. Voila: dinner for four. Then we got into some marvellously spirited discussions, but I’m sure we all still love each other.

6. Probably.

7. Went to Erin’s birthday party at the Regent on Saturday. Couldn’t stay for too long, as Ari was home in pain (see 1), but saw some cool bananas folk. I even intended leaving before I did but stayed ‘for five minutes’ to actually talk to Erin (the nature of these things being that I had talked to nearly everybody else). Then Erin played on my weak spot, suggesting we play The Machine. Diabolical fiend. An hour later, I left to tend to my sick wife.

Note: Erin was vere pretty with good eyeliner.

8. Had Epic Fail in making it to Hannah’s on Sunday. Day ran away with me, Ari was still really sickish, and Hermione had a flat tyre. Couldn’t face any of it.

9. Had some proper awesome time with Toby. Went over to distract him whilst Ems and Ade packed for their holiday. It was excellent because mostly, I go over to see the lot of them, and between wanting to have Grown Up Discussions with Emily, squishy cuddles with Seth and highjinks with Toby, I often end up doing none of these to any great effect. In this instance, although there was a wee bit of the first two, mostly it was about the latter. We played trains, and high speed buses, and lions and tigers, and horses (which involved him licking the rug; fortunately it’d recently been cleaned) and there was a lot of tickling. I had so much fun. It’s really important to me to maintain a relationship with him separate to my relationship with Emily, and with Seth (albeit that these are equally important), so it was just hella awesome. He is my homie and I love the bones of him. </sappy>

10. Epic Proofreading Fail: After encouraging John to register the domain www.edinburghthaimassage.co.uk, and redirecting it to his own site, despite it feeling a bit bold and cheeky, I thought I would take my own advice, and register proofreadingscotland.co.uk. I felt good about this.

I did wonder, however, why, after 24 hours, the redirect still wasn’t working.

It was at this point that I realised that I had registered proofreadingscotand.co.uk. Because I am both a numpty and, it seems, a terrible, terrible, proofreader. Good career choice, Lizzie.

11. My Ma is no longer mayor. She reached the end of her one year term in the blink of an eye. I’m hoping she will now have time for things like eating dinner, though. She’s planning to come and see us at the end of June. It’ll be a busy time; Ari’s 30th, and both Eve and Tristan will be visiting, too. Careful co-ordination a go-go.

12. Hoping we still make it down for her 70th. Booked flights + return of The Ash Cloud =Ah. Bollocks.

13. Had a job interview, at the end of which they told me they wanted to see me again. Spent a couple of days debating some dilemmas over it. They have not called me since. Think dilemma consideration may have been moot.

14. Due to run the proofreading course at Leith Academy again on Saturday, but last count there were not enough bookings. Have held off prep in case of wasting my time. Am very torn between the desire for it to run, for the money and practice, and the desire for it to be cancelled, as I have so much work on, and don't want to lose my weekend.

15. Now I am home and feeling really very not well. Achy face and nausea. Bleugh. 

Sleep and fun to the rest of you,

Lizzie xxx
lizzie_and_ari: (Lizzie sketchy)
Hello,

this-week )

Sorry.

Bye!

Lxxxxxxxxxxx
lizzie_and_ari: (Lizzie sketchy)
Hello,

In which I talk politics at length in point 1 (tagged a couple of folk for interest):
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1. So, our international readers: there was a referendum. Stupid 68% of people voted against electoral reform. There was also a Scottish parliament election. To non-Scottish readers: We now have an SNP Government. We did before, but this time, much more so. They didn't actually have a majority before, but they had more than anyone else had, so were allowed to be in charge anyway. But now the other parties have lost so many seats that the Tory, Lib Dem AND Labour leaders are all stepping down in shame.

Here are my thoughts on the election:

It's an odd kind of landslide, because, as far as I can see, it's not really about overwhelming support for the SNP. I think the most prevailing rationale for voting SNP was:
  1. I'm not bloody voting Tory: I'm Scottish and we hate the wee bastards
  2. I'm not bloody voting Lib Dem: they're the wee other bastards that got in bed with the Tories
  3. I'm not bloody voting Labour, they screwed things up royally
  4. Actually, the SNP are doing alright so far. Yeah, okay then. 
Few people seem to actually *like* Alex Salmond. I personally suspect him to be a pelican; one day he will open his smug wee mouth fish will fly out in every direction. Maybe he's got Nemo in there, and that's what makes him so self-satisfied.

It's making me really appreciate PR. I'm not going to go into the Scottish electoral system at length but: We have 73 constituencies, each of which has an MSP elected to it. There are then 8 regions throughout Scotland who each then get an additional 7ish MSPs who represent the area. In the previous 3 elections (the Scottish parliament being fairly new) there hasn't been a majority government.

I actually have no problem with coalitions and minority government - I think it can make for a more balanced and representative approach to government (although the current UK coalition is bollocks, because the two parties' political stances are so wildly different). But:
  • To get a majority government under PR really must mean that a significant majority of people want that government.
  • By the same token, if we only had the constituency MSPs, 75% of MSPs would be SNP, making them all-powerful, with 20% Labour and no-one else meaning anything. When they only had around 50% of the vote, that doesn’t seem right. But because we have other parties from regional votes, they have only a little more than 50%. Given that they had around 50% of the vote, this seem fair and, well, proportional, to me.
Although all the evidence is that support for the SNP does not translate into a public demand for independence, David Cameron (Tory UK Prime Minister/evil robot) is the single strongest weapon the SNP have for Scottish independence. He said "If [the Scots] want to hold a referendum, I will campaign to keep our United Kingdom together, with every single fibre that I have." Given that most people in Scotland would like nothing better than to see Cameron's fibres stretched out across Hadrian's Wall, that quote'll be going on the 'Yes' flyers, then. I'd rather have a pelican than a robot (which was the alternative title to this week's blog)

Nicola Sturgeon really needs to use some of her new found power to get a haircut.

I actually spoilt my ballot, because I couldn't decide. I was tempted to vote SNP, but the Labour guy we have - Malcolm Chisholm - is a good guy. This is testamented by the fact that he's now the only non-SNP MSP in all of Edinburgh.

Here are pictures and graphs I made. The whole country's gone yellow.

2. Talking of yellow, I painted the newly-emptied study. It's now the same colour as the rest of the house and this, combined with its emptiness, makes it look twice as big (It's not entirely empty, just not filled with crap)

3. Helped with marking (and fact-checking) at the Hearts & Minds quiz. Great to see everyone, and meet the New Sarah (whose name is actually Clare). The Traverse quiz team I’m technically part of was there too; lovely to see everyone.

4. Registered for Aquafit. At a tutor’s meeting at Leith Academy last week, I discovered that I get a free class per term. Water based exercise is my favourite kind, so I start a ten week course on Thursday. I will also be trying my best to make it to Zumba on Tuesdays, partly because I have not only Emily but also now Fiona guilting me into doing so. By the time I finish at Edinburgh Uni I’ll be able to climb the stairs (fourth floor) without being out of breath. I will!

5. Talking of Edinburgh Uni, (see how seamlessly linked my blog is today?) they’ve given me full time work for a little while, Really don’t know how long ‘a little while’ might be, but they’re trying to get me on a more permanent contract, at least. It’s not massive security, but it’s a start and I really like it there and they seem to like me, too.

6. I also got accepted as a home online copy-editor for a company who may or may not be a bit dodgy. Still, anything I get from them is bonus money, particularly if I’m working full-time, and I do love doing it.

7. Spent a lot of time moving things in and out of Warriston Road – moving Erin out on Thursday and moving John in yesterday. I should start my own removal business. As long as people understand I don’t like heavy lifting.

8. Went back to the doctor for a follow-up appointment and it was so nice. I saw my own doctor and he was lovely. I was very late being seen, and I was prepared for a quick ‘I was told to make a follow up appointment, but I’m fine now’ ‘Ok, bye then’, but he properly sat and talked to me for about fifteen minutes about how I was feeling, and what support I had, making me laugh and recommending a book which he said wouldn’t revolutionise everything but might help a wee bit. I mentioned in passing about the locum I saw and his iphone and he said ‘Yes, well, thanks for your feedback, he won’t be coming back.’ I get the impression they had a hard time all round with him.

It’s a shame I didn’t get to see my regular dude the first time, because he gave me what I really needed then. But at least I did see him. Though things are looking up generally anyway, I felt a million times lighter and better about the world when I came out of there.

I just spent a long time writing this, and Live Journal (which I intially write it in) deleted the whole thing. Fortunately didn’t take as long to rewrite as it did to write. Hope I haven’t left too much out. Grrrrrrrr.

Rock on,

Lizzie xxxxx
lizzie_and_ari: (Default)
 Hello,

Things! )

'Sprobably it. I think this week will be just the right side of busy.

Happy Monday!

Lxxxxxxxxxxx
 
lizzie_and_ari: (kissing dancing)
Hello,
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1. So, after last week's melt down I went to see a doctor. He was pretty unhelpful on the whole. He was a locum who I think had been pulled out of retirement. He strongly reminded me of if someone had asked John Wilson's dad if he would mind terribly being a doctor for the day, as they were a bit short handed. But less compassionate.

Me: So, I'm very badly depressed.
Him: Ah! Right! Now. Dr R said to me this morning that if anyone came in with depression, I was to ask them these questions'
Attempts to find relevant thing on computer, failed and takes out his iphone. Asks me a series of questions, this test here, easily found in a number of forms of the internet. I point out that the flaw to this test is that it asks 'over the last two weeks, and the answers are very definite yeses to all the questions, every day for five days, but that two weeks ago I was fine. I get quite pissed off. He doesn't seem to get it, but offers me antidepressants, and my answer is a clear 'No fucking way'. 

The good news is he signed me off sick for two weeks. Of course it's a bit odd, given that I'm self employed, but I feel that it's bought me permission to just have a wee bit of respite and be off sick and try and take care of myself.

I'm feeling much better than I was. My sleep patterns are still messed up, and I'm not liking going outside, but I'm more anxious than depressed now, mostly. Ari, as ever, has been a beacon of wonder and support.
 
2. Took advantage of the time off to sort out the study and the house generally. Tidying helps me with brain stuff, like I'm tidying my head, too. The study is now unrecognisable. We're taking down all the big shelves, and then we can finally paint it. We put a whole load of stuff in the attic (which has been a revelation to us both; there's so much space up there) and sorted a *lot* of things to give away.
3. Had an open house afternoon with a view to giving these away. Cat and Karen came over and took quite a lot of things, and we had tea and cake, which was lovely. Then Andy and Julie came and we had more tea and cake. It was nice and chilled. We got rid of a few things but will still have to drive the ridiculously short distance to the charity shop on account of the amount of stuff we have to give. We could sell it all, but: a) it would be a major hassle and b) we very rarely give money to charity, on account on not having any, so at least giving significant amounts of saleable items means we are giving to charity, kind of.
4. Made Easter eggs with the moulds my Mum gave me for my birthday. Lots of fun.
5. Had a lovely visit from Emily and the boys. They don't come to us very often, so it was dead nice. We managed to pull together enough things for Toby to play with, and he seemed happy. He's totally in love with Ari at the moment. I'm not jealous. Seth was dead contented too and ate a cuddly rabbit after I told him he couldn't eat my purse. Much more Easter-y.
6. Made dinner for Hazel and John and Gregor, which was really lovely. Hazel made Upside Down Split Knickers for pudding - a cross between a banana split and a Knickerbocker Glory, served in half an Easter Egg. Delicious. Then we drank gin and played 'Who's Naked?', which Hazel found in a charity shop and bought John for his birthday.

7. Tonight we have a friend of Ari's from uni coming for dinner with his wife. Ari is making pizza. I hope they're nice.

I'm back to work next week so plan to continue taking things easy this week as far as I can, and trying to get back on an even keel. Fingers crossed.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
lizzie_and_ari: (Default)
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Ok, so that *did* sound really effing dwelly. Sorry. The rest of the post should be much less melodramatic (edit: oh, you might want to skip point 5.) As you were.

2. Went down to Sarah's place in the middle of Dumfries and Galloway Thursday - Sunday.

Highlights:
  • Seeing Plutot La Vie's By The Seat of your Pants at CatStrand, which is five minutes from Sarah's place. (It's partly what precipitated our visit - we'd been meaning to go for a while and this seemed like a good excuse.) Gorgeous clowning show directed by Magdalena Schamberger who I worked with at Hearts & Minds. We both really enjoyed it, there was some immensely beautiful physicality in it.
  • Actually seeing Sarah. We normally get to see her fairly fleetingly, or on the internet, or not at all, so it was really nice just to chill out and hang out (dude).
  • Being in the countryside, with deer and rabbit and lambs and peacocks. Ari and Sarah discovered badget setts, near a druid circle - some brush had been cleared away and the big stones has been moved and there were little wooden discs hanging off a load of the trees. 
  • Eating all the food, cooked in an oven that goes above 150 degrees.
  • Having a bath.
  • Getting to clean the car (we can't stretch a hoover cord the quarter mile or so away the car needs to be parked)
Lowlights:
  • Getting lost on the way out there, and accidentally driving about 20 miles our of our way.
  • No mobile reception, which meant my plans to interview folk for May's Skinny went tits up.

3. Saw Tim Minchin's show. We were pretty excited about it. It was a really interesting show, pushing the boundaries of comedy and I think it was a really brave experiment. We met up with a comedian friend of ours before and met the first violinist, which was pretty cool. The orchestra was really amazing and some of the music was massively grand and awesome. The main problem with it, though, was that the music drowned out the lyrics, which ruined most of the comedy. To my mind, this ruined the whole concept of a comedy show. I think that part of what characterised his comedy was the fact that it was just him and the piano, and the concept that there 'should be an orchestra'. Bringing in the orchestra took that away and everything was subverted in a way that didn't work for me. I spent a lot of time with my fingers in my ears, seeing if that helped me make out the lyrics, and often with my eyes shut, because of the strobe lighting. There were some undeniably beautiful moments, but it wasn't my bag

My other problem with it, personally, was the number of sycophants in the audience. I hate it when people just start laughing and clapping when they recognise a chord. It's not unique to this show, it pissed me off when we saw Eddie Izzard too, even though he is my one true love.

He did a song called 'Context' which I liked (but can't find a link to), which contains the line (I may be paraphrasing) 'I really hate Christians, I just want to punch them in the face'. Now, he is a well-known rationalist and all but this was *not* a serious concept; it was part of a whole structure making a point about prejudice. However, the people sitting behind us *cheered* that line: 'yay, I want to punch Christians in the face for no reason'. They didn't seem to get the point of the song in the tiniest little bit. It's a kind of weird blind following: someone goes because they know he's a skeptic, and so as soon as he says something skeptic-ish they clap and cheer withouth actually listening and processing. Surely this is one of the massive problems of religion? Agh.

Anyway, Ari wrote up her review (Ari reviewed it rather than me because a) she knows more about music and b) she was more available to write it). I posted it up on Twitter with a link to Tim's twitter address. He tweeted back to say that it was a load of inaccurate condesceding bollocks, and why did I post it to him when I know he avoids reviews?'

I replied saying I didn't know that, but I would happily remove the post with him tagged in it, that I just tag people as a matter of process. He apologised for his grumpiness and said that in general, he wouldn't tag artists to negative reviews.

I really wanted to respond but I didn't get into a bitchfight on Twitter. I might write a longer and more detailed piece on this but:
  • I actually wouldn't tag artists to negative reviews as I generally don't post negative reviews up on Twitter at all; certainly not during the Fringe.
  • I tag people because it shows up for others, too, who might be searching for reviews or information. Given how clogged his Twitter feed is, I didn't really expect that he would be sitting reading all the posts which mention him. I suspect that me showing Twitter-naivety; I'm relatively new to it. (It was certainly his choice to follow the link, though - if he wanted to avoid reviews, then he didn't have to read it.)
  • I don't consider it to be a negative review. It is a three star review containing as many postives as negatives. It has been categorised as 'a bad review' on the basis of it's bad elements. I guess that's human nature, and again naive of me to think that if he did read it, he would think 'Hmm, sounds like I should just check the levels in sound check. What a good point.' I did really want to reply and say 'But it's not a negative review' but I can see that he wouldn't think that and it would be ultimately pointless and frustrating.
4. John has finally moved out. It was time and all, but sad and momentous.

5. Melodrama alert: Started to fall apart a wee bit Sunday, then couldn't sleep Sunday night. Monday I somehow got into work but didn't get too much none. The badness over the review stuff came in with pretty bad timing too. I came in the door in tears last night and had a god-awful evening. I'm just completely exhausted by life. The wierd thing is that things are coming together, but I have run out of steam. I feel like I can see a finish line but have run out of energy before I can get to it. If I drop everything now, I feel like I'll have lost everything I've worked for, but I think that might just happen because I don't have very much of a grip on things.

I was off sick today, and I'm going to see how tomorrow goes. I'm not sure what's going to happen.

Anyway, Happy Tuesday y'all, and enjoy the long weekend.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
lizzie_and_ari: (Default)
Ari had VERY good legs at Sketchy's.

She did not tell me to say that.
lizzie_and_ari: (Lizzie sketchy)
Lunchtime update today, if I can squeeze it in.

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I realise for a paragraph that started 'oh my, how lovely' that ended rather negatively. But it was lovely. I stayed home and Ari made mushroom soup and rubbed my feet and we caught up on Glee. Sunday, we went for a cat feeding mission again, then it was Sketchy's, which Ari was hosting again, then we went to Chop Chop to spend the £25 voucher they sent me. Hurrah!

2. On Friday I finished up my hours at Magnetic North. There may be a future there, but for now I pleased to have finished up that section of work, because it didn't quite go according to plan (my fault) and was stressing me a lot. Big weight off my shoulders.

3. Then I came home and, Ari was at uni getting pissed (HUGE deadline for her on Friday, lots of assignments in, she now has only her dissertation and no more classes) so I rearranged the furniture. I moved the sideboard sideways, and we now have it set up so the printer is a thing we can actually get to, and put paper in and stuff. Crazy biscuits. I can't remember if I mentioned this, but John and I investigated the attic a couple of weeks ago which was very fun. I am planning to box up a few things we need to keep but don't really need (like photos, and a Virgin Media box which they told us we have to keep (wtf btw?)) and stick them in the attic. It's part of a master plan to Sort Out The Study, which is part of a larger master plan to Sort Out The House, which is part of a larger master plan to Sort Out My Life

4. Went to a taster Zumba class, at the newly-reopened Calton Centre. It's only £4, and next to my house, so I think I might start going regularly.

5. Interviewed Tim Minchin. After a certain amount of delay in timings their end, I got put through, via the PR . It's the first time I've not just had someone's direct line to call. Obviously he's Too Big for that kind of thing. Still, it was exciting. 'Hello, Lizzie from The Skinny' he said 'Hello, Tim' I said, and managed not to giggle.

My feelings about Tim Minchin are in fact very mixed. I love his style, and the way he approaches comedy, and I'm really excited about his orchestra tour. I loved his Pope song because it got down to the important stuff, and 'White Wine in the Sun' has become an intrinsic part of Christmas in our household. But he's also a very Angry Atheist to the point of blind bitterness and losing track of aforementioned important stuff.

I had hoped to maybe get into all that a bit more with him, but I wasn't given much time, so I didn't. He asked me what I thought of Storm and what my views on religion v rationalism etc were. Re-listening to the poem afterwards, what I think is that it's bitter and self-contradictory. However, when he asked me I hadn't heard it in a long time, so all I could remember was it being quite forthrightly skeptical. I said that I thought skepticism could go too far sometimes, but that I really liked the Pope song and that my wife was Australian and we listened to White Wine in the Sun every Christmas, and cried. He said that was fantastic. I blushed.

Mostly because I still do occasionally, when coming out to people. I sometimes still feel awkward using the word 'wife', I suppose because it's not legally correct. I persist in doing it because I believe that is part of my small action to change society, but sometimes I blush. But it was also because I got a chance to tell the writer of one of my favourite ever songs that I loved it, and he seemed dead pleased. Hee hee.

Am planning a blog  / series of blogs about the whole religion/skepticism debate and may possibly use 'Storm' as a jumping off point. Let's see if that actually happens.

He direct messaged me on Twitter to say thank you. I giggled.

I am so contrary.

6. Got excited about a job and, after three phonecalls and two emails, was told the job did not exist, despite still being advertised. I know, illegal. I didn't report them because by that point it was the day before the advertised deadline. Seemed a bit pointless. There's another job being advertised at the moment that is quite shiny, so fingers crossed.

Ok,. that shot a tiny bit over my lunch hour. Better skedaddle, kids.

Have an aces week,

Lxxxx
lizzie_and_ari: (Default)
Hello!

Wow, this is the latest I've updated in a while. It's ok, not missing Monday. This is my 24th consecutive Actual Monday update. My record shall not be broken!

All-the-stuff )
 
Have a lovely lovely week,
 
xxxxx
lizzie_and_ari: (us in snow)
 Hello. Lots to report this week.

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2. There was a mouse in the house on Monday night. She sat in Cedric’s bowl, eating his food. This proved prophetic – after attempts to get her out, we had to leave her and Cedric to it. In the morning he was very happy, and not hungry. So much for his diet.

3. The MagicF continues. I went to Glasgow on Thursday night for it, and stayed over at Julia’s house, which was fun. I also didn’t so much as speak to Ari for over 24 hours. I think that’s the first time that’s happened in nearly seven years.

In Glasgow I:
  • Caught up with Sarah D. We went to see a slightly bizarre but cool show, and had dinner. I am waiting to see how the MOT goes to plan a visit.
  • Met up with Gareth to see the Magners Festival Club (very good, recommended, review should be up on the Skinny site soon). Unfortunately arrived late and were sat in the front row. Hate the front row when I’m reviewing the show. I would say ‘ha! Teach me to be late!’, but I was only late because of the other show and I will never learn to not go and see lots of shows.
  • Saw most of the Awesome Comedy Film Touching the Void. Gritty real-life mountaineering re-enactment with the best punchline EVER. Even beats Ari’s current favourite, from Life is Beautiful.
  • Got to hang out a wee bit in Glasgow, rather than my usual frantic back-and-forth. Have a newfound love for it.
  • Went on SubCity Radio to talk about the MagicF. Was a bit ill-prepared, but it was fun.
4. Everything is ending this week. Tomorrow is my last day at Hearts & Minds, and then on Wednesday I finish Stupid Dalkeith Job. Friday, or the beginning of next week, should be the last of my Magnetic North hours, too. The first is sad, but I did get a goodbye muffin. The second I’m pretty darned happy about, though I am also going for a last day lunch, mostly because someone else is finishing up there, too. The people are lovely, to be fair, it’s just far and dull. The third I will be glad to get tied up, just because it’s been delayed for various reasons.

5. Other work prospects are…ok. I’m doing some work on a symposium in Glasgow in June, which will be about one day a week starting for next week, a I have one day a week back at Edinburgh Uni, with the prospect of more hours. I need another solid day to be breaking even. It would be nice to start turning a profit and paying off debt though.

6. I totally saw a couple having sex on the street, on Rossie Place. I turned the corner and thought the girl was possibly being attacked; she was pinned up against the wall and moaning. Then I realised she was enjoying herself. Then I realised she was really enjoying herself, and crossed the street so as not to bump into them. Up against a colonies house! I ask you.

7. Saw Georgie – once at Jonathan’s leaving do, (where a friend of hers accidentally spilt a glass of red wine on me. She was * so * apologetic, and so marvelled about how nice I was being about it, that I can only think she must have really mean friends.) and then again yesterday for lunch. Always so lovely to catch up.

8. Secret project from last week was the making of Hazel’s doll’s house. Ok, ‘making’ is a slight exaggeration. It’s a house we rescued that had been put out for the bins, but was perfectly fine. I did it up for Hazel’s birthday, as she had an ‘everything is tiny’ theme. So for most of the past two weeks I have been:
  • Painting the outside of the house
  • Stripping some of the wallpaper
  • Painting the inside of the house
  • Ripping out the carpets
  • Tiling two floors; one in cardboard and one in real tiles (the mosaic tiles from our bathroom)
  • Knitting a carpet
  • Weaving a different carpet
  • Making tiiiny furniture, including a washing machine.
I think she likes it – I hope so. It was hella fun to make, but is not yet fully furnished so there can still be fun in Hazel’s future.

9. Saturday night was the night of two parties - went to Mo's fairly early, which apparently is a first - there were places to sit, and there was room in the kitchen, and all sorts of fabulous things. I had one glass of wine, which was apparently one too many; once I got to Hazels' house I went to lie down on her bed for about half an hour as the world was spinning and I felt really, really terrible. I got up and drank water and managed to get a little bit more balanced before I went home, though, and was able to appreciate the tiny tiny party, albeit through a brain fug.

10. Completed the census, with some difficulty. It kept asking me questions about my main job, and I don’t really have a main job, so had to give multiple answers.

11. I am very glad that March is on its way out. It has been a pisser of a month (albeit with some moments of joyful magic). I anticipate great things in April.

Happy Monday!

Lxxxxx
lizzie_and_ari: (Default)
I feel like I have done more things with this week than I would expect to do in a year.

Loooong )
Happy Monday!

Lxxxxx
lizzie_and_ari: (Default)
Hello,

Lunchtime update today as am straight on a train down south after work (and morningness not happening today).

Read more... )

1. Hermione is proper fixed. We even checked the tyre pressure (supposed to check every 14 days, we’ve checked every never). It was so good to be able to drive out to Dalkeith rather than spend hours on buses.

2. Also meant I could resume the driving of Toby to nursery – on his nursery day, I work round the corner, so is dead easy to drive him in. It's nice time for us to have together, too. It's been a while since I last drove him, and then it was mostly about stopping him from crying, but now he's totally chilled out. We had proper chats. He told me nursery looked like a big castle, which is not true. We also (I forget why) started talking about Peppa Pig and he told me that Peppa was a boy, and that George and Grandpa Pig were girls. I didn't correct him, I saw no reason to enforce gender constructs onto a cartoon pig. It was dead nice to chat to him though. 

3. Oh, talking of cartoon pigs, me and Ari have been tickled pink by this all week. I don't even know why.

4. In the interests of equal coverage, Seth is gorgeoussocks, too. He's teething and so has a propensity to grab various of my body parts (fingers and knees) and bite them, gummily. He is sooo cuddly and smiley and just fricking awesome.

5. Toby prefers Ari though. She hardly ever sees him, but he's so pleased when she does. We went over for tea and cakes on Saturday and the two of them spent most of the time drawing dinosaurs on the table with cream cake.

6. Had a hella Emily weekend, cause I saw her again on Saturday night. She painted my nails (with nail polish that, by the way, doesn't come off. I need clean nails before the funeral tomorrow!) and we talked about weddings and drank wine and watched some of Hot Fuzz

Pretty dresses

7. Watched the red carpet bit of the Oscars with Erin. Some lovely dresses. Some terrifying dresses. Yay dresses! Apparently there were film awards afterwards. I don't really like films.

8. Finally sorted out our own dresses for the ball, courtesy of the lovely Hazel. Mine is a vintage 1940s dealio, and Ari’s is the most amazing blue velvet. I think we will look like beautiful ladies.

9. Quite apart from the fact that we couldn’t possibly afford them, I am glad we didn’t buy new dresses. I am reading Sew your Own, which Erin lent to me. It’s very good but is making me feel very guilty about buying anything, or throwing anything away. So I have decided to start trying to make my own clothes out of reclaimed fabrics. I’ll start small, maybe a couple of things for Tobynseth, so that I don’t waste too much fabric when I mess it up.  I might do a course.

We went charity shopping on Saturday and I discovered that the Shelter shop on Nicolson Street has sewing patterns and lot of sewing bits and pieces at about 10% the price of John Lewis. 

It’s a good book, though, and it’s not actually preachy or anything. V recommended.

10. Getting an upgrade to my phone tonight, after work and before the train. Hopefully an HTC desire. Ooh. Leastways it will be one that doesn't randomly delete texts.

11. We also went to the Mosque kitchen on Saturday. Yumbolicious. That is all.

This week, its joys and pitfalls

12. Tomorrow, we make the last payment on Ari's MA. We got there on a hangglider.

13. I'm doing an open learning Editing and Proofreading course at Dumfries and Galloway college. I've had the stuff through the post though have yet to look at it.

14.
Generally I’m having a bit of a befuddled day. I boiled the kettle without the lid on this morning, forgot my sandwiches, which I stayed up late to make, and stood for about a minute outside the cash point wondering what it was I was supposed to do. I think I’m just nervous about everything the coming week holds.

However I am as read as I will ever be, I think. Ari is incredibly patient with my analness. I have left her with lists today, not because I don't trust her, but because I feel if I have written things down on a list then I don't have to think about them any more.

15. Friday is my birthday. I like diamonds. Thanks.

16. I think I prefer daffodils, actually. 

17. I am going to see every single member of my immediate family this week: both parents and both brothers. I think that last happened circa 1998.

Have a good week everyone. I will be glad when mine is over, though it will hopefully hold some nuggets of happiness, too.

Lizzie xxxx
lizzie_and_ari: (Default)
Hello,

things )

Ok I am going to go and fall asleep now. Enjoy the last week of February. With March, comes Spring, and daffodils. I like daffodils.

Lxxxx

lizzie_and_ari: (morags userpic)
Hi,

This was originally going to be called something like 'equilibrium'. But that was broken somewhat yesterday.

I'll keep this chronological, though. Skip to 4 if you like. Alternatively, skip 4 entirely. It's a bit bleak and personal and the whole thing is much cheerier without it.

many-things )

I hope you all have lives filled with love of all kinds, today and every day


xxxx


lizzie_and_ari: (Default)
 Hi all,

I have ten minutes; can I do this?

Read more... )

2. This is the beginning of my last crazy week; trying to fit more days into the week than exist. This means it's technically my last week out in Dalkeith. The only trouble is I strongly suspect they're going to ask me to stay on for a bit. I can't really afford to say no. Hmm.

3. Celebrated Christmas! February be damned!  John mostly missed out on Christmas, and instead had it dominated by Korean food. So we put all the decorations back up, got a really nice piece of turkey from the farmer's market, had crackers and Christmas music, and Hazel brought a Christmas pudding and a santa hat, and Gregor brought a LOT of alcohol. We had the most delicious mulled wine I've ever had (Red wine, mulled wine spices (Sainsbury's finest), port, spiced rum and polish honey vodka, sweetened with honey. Yum). It was really really fun and I highly recommend Christmas in February.

4. Rearranged the furniture

 - oh, ran out of time. Will try and finish this at lunchtime....

Did this because we were trying to move things around so that we could put our dining room table out with five people around it. We managed to do that quite comfortably actually and thus discovered a way to make the room much bigger! The sofa is on the corner/under the window and the table is now where the sofa used to be. This is all very dull, but has the following exciting outcomes:
  • The sofa is no longer in a direct draft
  • The mess of ugly wires from the corner is sneakily covered up.
  • There are now available surfaces to put a cup of tea when you sit on the sofa.
  • The table is accessible at all times, meaning we can actually eat dinner at the table, rather than on our laps. I've always been sad about our lack of a dining table and now the lack has gone!
I know this makes me really sad, but I don't care. It has revolutionised our lives

5. Made a courgette and lemon cake. For Fiona's birthday (at Hearts & Minds). Although I think I may need to make another one for Ariadne some time soon.

6. Am running my proofreading course at Leith Academy on Saturday. A wee bit terrified just now. Eek.

7. Cedric brought in a live mouse. He has never done this before. He didn't manage to kill it, despite batting it around and carrying it in his mouth a lot. He must be very gentle. Eventually Gregor caught it and took it back outside.

Sorry, not much excitement this week - tune in next week to see how the course went, and Lovesick, and getting in all my content for the MGICF.

Happy Monday!

Lizzie xxx
lizzie_and_ari: (Default)
Hello,

Wasn't sure if I'd have time this morning as I have been busy trying to look nice; I have a job interview at 11, though am into work first. I'm about ready though and I figured I'd feel calmer if I could do this before setting off (nearly wrote 'karma' there. I blame John Lennon, now on Six Music).

Also good for Jackie's Monday morning procrastination.
This_week )

Happy Monday!

Lxxx
lizzie_and_ari: (Default)
 Hello kids!

Well, I'm starting writing this at 7:58, but may not finish it before I get get to work. However, I am up, dressed, and have had pancakes.

Things )
Have a good week lovelies,

Lizzie xxxx
lizzie_and_ari: (Default)
 Morning!

Awake! )

Happy Monday,

Lizzie xx

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