We had a viewer (and his partner) today at the house! They came, escorted by one of the agents from our estate agent, at 12 noon to view our house.
Andy was out all day at a regional geocaching meet-up event, and I was out all day working at Congleton Lib, so neither of us were around -- I had to leave a note to ask them not to let the cats out.
I spoke to the estate agent secretary this afternoon and she said they usually ring the next day for feedback, but as it is Sunday tomorrow, she won't ring until Monday -- and I'm at work all day Monday, so I asked her to ring me on Tuesday.
I know I'm not supposed to get my hopes up, and my heart feels like it's breaking because I'm so sure they aren't interested.
Ugh.
and all the questions tomorrow because word will have gotten around that we had a viewer... I don't know if I can cope.
I helped Bjorn pull all the tiles off the walls in the kitchen on Tuesday, and then the very next day we receive a call from the estate agent wanting to know if someone can view the house on Saturday at noon!!!
Typical!!
So poor Bjorn and his buddy Chris have been painting and sanding and tiling like madmen trying to get the room ready!!
The kitchen looks fantastic -- now bright and cheery and very light!! Can't wait to see it all finished...
to my poor dear friend... who has been ill this week...
and the memorable quote from the church members' meeting?
"it's hard to concentrate when you're clenching every cheek you have..."
oh my.
I did ask this anonymous person how many cheeks they have, and they at least had the decency to blush!
has obviously not met my husband!!
the article appeared on yahoo news... about men chatting more on phones than women...
I'm lucky if I can keep Andy on the phone for 5 minutes when I need to!
me and my buddies --- Abi and Becky...
this photo was taken last summer -- when my hair was still long!!
yes it's true... I quote from IMDb...
"Jerry Springer on Monday appeared to join critics of the BBC's decision to air Jerry Springer: The Opera. They had complained about the use of four-letter words and jibes at Christianity that appear in the musical. The BBC said it had received 47,000 complaints about it -- before it was even broadcast. Although Springer had praised the show when it opened on London's West End last year, he said Monday, "I wouldn't have written it. I don't believe in making fun of other religions." Moreover, he pointed out, "On our TV show if people use inappropriate language we bleep it out, if there's nudity we cover it up, so that viewers at home don't get to see any of this." Asked directly if the BBC should have aired the musical, Springer replied, "Perhaps not. I don't know why they decided to run it on television, you would have to ask the BBC ... but, good Lord, if you don't like what's on television, that's why God gave us remote controls." "
nuff said.
I have always wanted to try things Delia's way.... and now I can, without having bought a book or anything!!
She's got a fabulous website with lots of how-tos and recipes galore!!
beat them Patriots... please!!!
Going to be an interesting game -- anybody could win it... next stop... the Superbowl!!
C'mon Pixburgh Stillers!!
Johnny Carson is dead. :( He was a hilarious nutty late-night talkshow host.
You can read up about him on IMDb.
is that you have no idea who is reading your blog or how they got there or even if they're reading more than one entry...
so they might be getting an impression of you that is entirely wrong and unfair. and they might post comments to your blog that don't make any sense whatsoever because they read something into your words that you didn't put there, and isn't you at all.
from an american blog about the Sundance Film Festival (now taking place) in Utah...
tchotchke -- which thanks to www.dictionary.com, I now know means "a cheap showy trinket" [Yiddish tshatshke, from Polish dialectal czaczka.]
I was just reading Jon's blog (well actually Si Cliff's "anti-Spiderman2 rant" on Jon's blog... and it kind honked me off... but everyone's entitled to their own opinion... even if they are wrong!! :) :) hee hee!
Anyhow -- I just was on IMDb and was reading the trivia bits for Spiderman 2 and found out that Alfred Molina who plays Doc Oc, actually gave names to his four mechanical tentacles (Larry, Harry, Flo, and Moe). Flo was the top right tentacle, because it was operated by a female grip and that particular tentacle was the most motherly, which removed his sunglasses and gave him sips of his drink.
Poor Shep and Curly!! Nevermind... he was going for the rhyming thing I guess!
Cabinet of Curiousities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child -- I found this excellent synopsis on Amazon...
"In downtown Manhattan an underground charnel house containing the bones of dozes of murder victims is discovered. Research reveals that a serial killer was at work in New York's notorious Five Points neighbourhood in the 1880s, bent on prolonging his lifespan...by any means. When a newspaper story on the old murders appears to ignite a new series of horrifyingly similar killings, panic overtakes New York City. Now, FBI agent Pendergast, journalist Bill Smithback and archaeologist Nora Kelly join forces to find a vicious killer...before they become the next victims."
and in case you're like me and have NO clue what a "charnel house" is...
it's "a repository for the bones or bodies of the dead". (good ol' dictionary.com!)
I'm going to look up some of their other books -- they had a snippet in the back of this one, and some brief synopses of other ones in the back, and they looked pretty good!
I got a bunch more pages done this week for my scrapbook!
I bought a really excellent book from Borders (Cheshire Oaks) from Making Memories (a company that sells scrapbooking items & books) that is a combination of 4 of their books together into one bound book. When we were home over Christmas I checked out several scrapbooking books from the Dublin Library and a couple of them were on cropping pictures creatively -- I had made a mental note to get them out again once back in the States, and one of them is in this book I bought! I was really pleased!
Pages I finished this week -- Anna & Paul's Wedding page spread (2 pages), Neil & Susie's Wedding page spread (2 pages), Ducks on the Pond page (1), Teresa's Wonder Woman page (1), and I've cropped my pictures for a double page Mia "Poppet" page. One of the ladies from Congleton Library called her that when they saw the pictures I'd brought back from home, and I really love it so I'm going to incorporate it into the title somehow.
I've also got pictures ready for pages about Mum & I -- trip to Chatsworth before Christmas, Little Moreton Hall, Blackpool Illuminations, and Chicago (Thanksgiving 2002 -- the year we missed Thanksgiving because the date I thought was Thanksgiving was actually a week earlier than the proper date!) and some pictures of my stitching and some pictures of the cats... (i'm going to have albums full of scrapbook pages of the cats, with all the pictures I have!)
just wait a few minutes.
That was literal today-- it went from gorgeous and sunny and bright (hardly a cloud in the sky) at about 9am, then about 10am it was cloudy and cold and starting to snow, and then the snow turned to rain and slush.... and then it did that for a while, and then we had lightning and thunder followed by more snow!!!
insane.
I don't know what's worse, the name of the town, or the fact that it gets so cold there!
check this out more in detail later...
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~tonym/quinnell.html
but I'm glad I'm not holidaying in Venice right now...
I've always wanted to go there! But apparently the water levels in Venice are really low, because of good weather and particular planetary alignments!
I found this article on Oddly Enough on Yahoo and those poor people!
Yesterday we went over to Andy's folks' house and his sister and her hubby came over and we all celebrated Christmas together (because we were in the States for Christmas). It was fun but very weird -- now my body clock is all thrown off, feels like I should have a few more days off!!
Nevermind...
It was a horrible trip over and back though -- I was very carsick. I hate travelling over all those hills and with all the twists and turns on a normal day, but yesterday was totally foggy and at points we couldn't see 20 feet past the front of the car! In the drive back, we'd never have made it except for the good ol' cat's eyes shining up at us from the middle of the road. There was one section of road (in the worst area -- sheer drops on the one side!!) where we could literally only see about 4 or 5 cat's eyes ahead of us -- the fog was like a wall!
It was awful -- I felt so sick when we got home :( All I wanted to do was go to bed...
Yesterday I took Teresa out to Lady Heyes and to Cheshire Oaks for half the day -- we never seem to have enough time. We always have a blast together -- she's totally nuts.
I gave Bob Carolgees a special lighter that has an adjustable arm, you can bend it and it would be much easier to light the jar candles he sells. Unfortunately I didn't read the back of the package until after I got back to England -- you can't refill them! So it's basically a really fancy disposable bic lighter!
Nevermind -- he was overjoyed with it! Like a kid with a new toy.
Then we went over to Borders and both agreed we could spend all day (week) and several thousand pounds before we were truly ready to go from Borders!!
They had a big shuffle round and moved all the fiction and some of the non-fiction around...
Tee and I both bought (she found it!) a British Slang dictionary that includes rhyming slang! £3.99!! Bargain!!! And I got a big whopping book on Scrapbooking (my latest craft craze -- I'm still stitching but really enjoying the paper craft thing too!). This book was a fab bargain because it's 4 of the Memory Maker books put together as one big book. And one of the books inside I had checked out from Mom's library and really liked -- lots of neat ideas on cropping photos in creative ways in that one!!
So I was really pleased.
Then we went over to Boots so Tee could save some pictures on her camera onto a Kodak photo cd for a friend (it was of their wedding) and she had taken this awesome picture of Scout (her lil Jack Russell) in the snow on Christmas (apparently it snowed Christmas eve and day and stayed for a couple of days!) and the picture was so adorable! So she printed off a few copies and even gave one to me! It's really cool how that machine works, even if it is a bit expensive!
Andy's looking into some digital printing places online. Watch this space... might have some more to report after we test a couple of them out!
they didn't find any. But at least now they're not wasting money pretending they're still looking!!!
I am so homesick right now...
It was really difficult to go to church this morning, and try to put on a brave face for all the people I dearly love. This is the worst part about moving. Knowing I'm leaving such wonderful friends and family and yet being torn apart with homesickness for my own family.
My aunt Sue isn't doing so hot-- she's in a rehab center at the moment, just began her rehab on Thursday. It's a great thing she's in, but I can only imagine how she is struggling.
I just watched a Carol Burnett show special on dvd -- only 40 minutes but I cried and laughed until I cried... and it made me remember watching it with my family in the evening after a bath... hilarious show.
ugh. Home... sick.
In an article in a Mississippi paper about the Technology Gadget convention in Vegas, they've reported this...
"Gates tried to show off a new Nikon digital camera when, according to published reports, his computer balked. In a later demonstration of a video game, touted by Microsoft as user friendly, a red-faced program manager had to endure the humiliation of a blank computer monitor and an "out of memory" message while his billionaire boss and an exhibit hall full of techies watched."
How fabulous would it have been to be in that audience???? I know I would have really enjoyed it when Gates got a taste of how crappy his OS can sometimes be!! They are so concerned with speedily releasing the new updates, they do it before they really work!!! There's no point in being first to release something if you're realeasing it broken!!!
I do feel sorry for the second guy though -- he endured the humiliation that I sure hope his boss was feeling too.
found this again on IMDb --- relating to the Jerry Springer Opera...
BBC Chief Defends 'Jerry Springer: The Opera'
Calling himself a "practicing Christian," BBC Director-General Mark Thompson has defended the decision to air Jerry Springer: The Opera Saturday night, saying that viewers will be warned about its content, which reportedly includes dozens of uses of the f-word. (The writers of the show deny accusations that it contains thousands of uses of the verboten word and claim that they actually number 117 "all of them sung beautifully.") Although the program has particularly outraged some Christians, Thompson maintained that there was nothing in the production that he believed to be blasphemous. His remarks were echoed by David Soul, who plays Springer in the musical. "I'm a Christian and I certainly don't see it as blasphemy at all," Soul said during an interview on the U.K.'s Radio 4.
outrageous.
are finally up on this website...
enjoy :)
Read this first -- from news on IMDB.com ...
Movie Bosses Warned To Accurately Portray Albinism
Movie director Ron Howard is being advised to tread carefully when filming the movie adaptation of novel The Da Vinci Code this year, by not permitting albino stereotypes. The National Organization For Albinism And Hypopigmentation (NOAH) has asked film bosses to make sure the upcoming movie doesn't portray its albino character as a red-eyed psychopath. NOAH president Mike McGowan says, "One huge problem with (author Dan Brown's book) The Da Vinci Code is how (the character of) Silas is described with red eyes. That's a myth. Most often in people with albinism the eyes are light blue or even hazel. Ron Howard can make a big difference for people with albinism by continuing the trend away from a hack device if they adjust the Silas character to not be an evil albino. Over the years the stereotyping and misinformation foisted on the albinism community by film-makers does real harm to real people." Tom Hanks has signed up to star in The Da Vinci Code, which is slated for a mid-2006 release.
Have these daft people READ the book?? How can he make the movie with Silas being a nice guy???? Silas is a bad guy -- but because he's an albino person he's supposed to be portrayed as a good albino?? Honestly. How rubbish would that film be with no tension because a good guy is chasing the ... other good guy????!
Gotta love it.
being embarrassed to be an American knowing that Jerry Springer is one, or being embarrassed with the British public for the crummy stuff that the BBC and other channels put on their television sets each night!
I find British TV appalling. The soaps are rubbish (at least the soaps in the States are on during the day where sensible people can ignore them if they want), and with so few channels, one would think that every once in a while they would get a good show on that wasn't a gardening show or a reality show?
How sick are you of those?? I am so sick of reality tv. And now this... the Jerry Springer Opera. in the following article from the website www.imdb.com -- the BBC are deciding to say two fingers up to what the british public have to say... they're broadcasting the rubbish anyhow. Fabulous.
BBC Won't Yank Springer Opera
The BBC said Wednesday that it will go ahead with plans to air the hit West End show Jerry Springer: The Opera despite reports that the broadcasting watchdog OFCOM had received 4,500 complaints and that some 15,000 people had flooded its own switchboard to voice their criticism of the public corporation's decision to carry it. According to the BBC's own publication Radio Times, the "opera" contains 3,168 uses of the f-word alone (albeit sung in operatic style). The Rt. Rev. Nigel McCulloch, the Church of England's spokesman on broadcasting, also condemned the BBC's plans. "Freedom of expression is not at issue here. My worry is that this program is a major departure from the current high expectations of viewers regarding offensive material on a publicly funded channel," he said. A message posted on a British entertainment website read: "OK, it has swear words in [it]. So what? It's on at 10:00 p.m. when adults watch TV, if people don`t like it tough! And if kids see it, what are the parents doing?" Another commented: "The religious right are a nightmare in the U.S. and the last thing we need is them gaining momentum in the U.K"
quick, send me back to the States! NOW!
Mama, I'm gonna just skip the crawling business... and get straight to the walking!!!
I came aboard the plane where there were only about 20 people waiting! I found my seat and the bloke who was sat in the window seat nearest to me smiled and said hello.
Apparently the plane was waiting for a number of people on a delayed flight from San Juan, and so that's why it hadn't taken off on time and I was able to catch it!!!
Mr. Friendly Philadelphia man (window seat) was trying to get a signal on his mobile so he could offer it to me to use to phone my parents (who by now would probably be freaking out not knowing where I was or if I got on the later plane etc.). But he had no signal so I was just going to chance it and hope that Dad was at the airport when we landed.
After about half an hour (you'd have thought they could have served drinks to us or something!!) the San Juan bunch arrived -- and I can see why they waited so long... the San Juan bunch nearly doubled the number of passengers!!
One guy was in shorts and a t-shirt and I had to laugh because he's in for a big surprise when he hits Columbus!
Once everyone was all settled, we were expecting an announcement from the captain saying we were ready for taxiing to the runway for takeoff. But instead we got a message that we couldn't back up onto the area to taxi because there were so many planes ready for takeoff, there's a huge queue. He also mentioned a long queue for the deicing machine (which we would need to go through), and explained that he was hoping the queue would have gone down a bit while we were waiting at the gate for the San Juan folks.
At this point, it's about 10pmish and we've just reversed to taxi and have moved somewhat, but are now sat still and the captain announces that there's been a little fender-bender up ahead, some luggage truck has been blown by a strong wind into a passenger plane, and they're having to clean up the mess and tow the two machines off and assess the damage. So they were going to allow people to use their mobile phones while we sat there.
I looked over at Mr. Kind Philadelphia and he shrugged helplessly in apology (still no signal for him), so I looked to my right hand side to a chinese gentleman and asked him if I could pay him $10 to make 1 call on his phone.
He asked if it were in the United States (at this point I was too tired to be upset that he thought I was English) and I said yes, and he said it would be no problem because on his calling plan all calls within the States are free!! So he didn't want my money.
He had a rather complicated phone, so I needed a weensy bit of help to figure out how to dial. (As an aside here -- it seems that almost all Americans I saw with mobiles (and I saw a LOT) they all have the flip up kinds, some with antennae, some without, but almost all are Verizon phones... they must be the UK equivalent of Nokia I guess).
I was able to get through to Mom (it's about 10:30 now) and tell her that we weren't going to be there for another couple of hours probably (because we were now in the queue for the deicing machine and it's a long queue) and she said Dad had just left so she was going to try and reach him quickly so he could turn around and come back.
I hung up and thanked the man profusely and we got into a really excellent conversation about living in a different society and having to go through transitions of translating stuff in your head etc. He is Chinese but moved to Canada to go to school as a teenager, then decided to become a Canadian citizen and now lives and works in the U.S. but still travels to Quebec frequently to visit friends. We talked about what he's done as a career, he's been a university professor and has a PhD in Mathematics, but now works as a Consultant on computer networking and security. Which is kind of what Andy wants to do, but not on a consultant basis.
This conversation lasted the whole way back to Columbus and I thanked him again when we landed. He didn't check any luggage so he was off when we disembarked (smart man!).
The rest of us made our way down to the baggage claim areas. Dad was waiting right at the top of the escalator and I was sooo glad to see him!! By now it was about 12:45 and in 15 minutes I would have been up for 24 hours straight!!
We waited for our luggage, and I only saw one of my pieces of luggage. :( Rats. They lost a bag. So I had to stand in a really long queue of all the San Juan people to fill in a form to say where to deliver my bag when it arrives the next day. My only smile at this point (and it was an evil one) was because mr. shorts and t-shirt man had been banking on the fact that his winter coat was in his luggage and he could put it on later.... or not!! So he probably froze his tookus off!
We got back to Mom & Dad's house just before 2am, so I phoned Andy really quickly and went to bed!!
My other bag arrived the next afternoon, thankfully all in one piece!
Thus ended the journey from He**.
What a great way to start a new year.... with a big grin from Miss Mia!!!
So I'm running down this corridor freaking out, wondering if there's a flight and if I'm going to make it because I've wasted about 45 minutes in the two queues for customs and irritation!!
I get to the luggage re-check in and they grab my bags and send me off with the trolley and my carryon luggage, and I have to run down two other long corridors and finally I get to where the other terminals are... and where the queue for security is!! Ugh. I nearly die. I want to scream out -- I need to get through, I'm going to miss my flight!! But I notice that all the other people in front of me are FROM my flight and are all going to miss THEIR flights!!!!
Ugh.
So there we all are, subject to these people working in security who obviously have no sympathy with people in a hurry. Not to mention the fact that they have no idea of the flights going out, and are breaking peoples' hearts by saying thing like "I don't think there's another flight to _______ tonight..."
Finally at long last, I get through security and am behind the girl who was going to Indy again -- she asks the person at security where to go and they tell her to go to the gate where her flight should have flown from and they'll tell her what to do from there.
So I do that-- unfortunately my flight was due to go out from Terminal C and I was near Terminal A... of course.
So off I run again... by this time I'm really hot and sweaty and extremely tired and thinking that if I have to spend the night in Philly I'll be devastated.
I get to my gate and they're boarding passengers for a flight to Georgia or someplace and I ask if there's another flight to Columbus and they say there is, at gate B16! (I've gone past terminal B to get here!!)
So I turn around and start to run and nearly trip over my luggage, but get my feet and off I scurry. Some lads were laughing at me, but I didn't care.
By now, I'm nearly in tears, sweating like a stuck pig, and ready to die. I get to Terminal B and from the map I can see that gate B16 is CLEAR THE HECK AT THE END OF THE TERMINAL.
So I look around to find the cart people and I say to one of them "can you get me to B16 I'm about to miss my flight and I'm going to have a heart attack from all this running..." She says "no heart attacks on my cart please!" and we start off... and she is going soooo slow and braking every time she's 50 feet from a person!! She comes up behind them and says (in a very quiet and timid voice) "excuse me... excuse me.... cart coming through... excuse me" and I'm thinking "OY YOU! GET OUT THE WAY!!!!" and wishing she had a horn or something to beep to make the people move.
We get closer to B16 and I notice that there are fewer and fewer people around. In fact, by the time we're at gate B16, I don't see a single person! The cart driver notices this as well and says to me "are you sure it was B16?" and I say I am, and she says "well maybe we can find someone who works behind the desk..." and just as she says this, as if by magic, someone comes out a doorway and goes behind the gate desk for B16!!
So I jump off the cart and thank the woman and run over to the lady at the desk and ask if the flight to Columbus is still here and she says it is and asks if I'm from the San Juan flight.
Which throws me off a bit -- huh?? San Juan??
I explain I was meant to be on the earlier flight but missed it because of the Manchester flight coming in late. So then she's able to find me and prints off my boarding pass and off I scurry down the runway, sweating like crazy and nearly in tears of thanks and relief.
But my journey doesn't end there... oh no.
(to be continued yet again!)
apparently a large number of people in America (and around the world!!) still don't know what a blog is...
scary.
Here's the article found on Google News -- CLICK HERE