Catch up with Karen

So this past week's been busy. And I have lots of pictures for you. Be warned.

Last Thursday I went to see a TV show being recorded. Not the best of shows but it was a night out. And it was kind of interesting to see what all goes into recording a show. It was a panel show called 'And then You Die' - attractive title huh :) It was a comedy show making fun of the horrible things we do and that happen to us. Oh yes, the host was a puppet. Hmm.

This was the stage set

I went with a friend / colleague called Siobhan

(Not the best picture, but it's what I got)

When I got home, Helen's boyfriend was here.

Friday night I drove to Derby. Every year I go to the fair with a friend of mine, Andrew. I'm not sure why I go to the fair. I force myself to ride one ride (don't like fair rides) and I'm not too hot on all the games. But despite it all, I love our yearly tradition!

This was taken in front o the ride I got on. It was actually a fun ride - and I didn't feel sick after it :) I out-did myself and managed a second ride this year. Impressive. It was only the Ferris Wheel, but that did make me feel sick. The bonus - really cool views :)

This is Andrew on ride number 3. Far too scary and nauseating for me.
Scary ride:

Saturday Andrew and I drove up to Manchester. Andrew was quite fascinated by this building. It is kinda weird architecture and somewhat amazing it's still standing. We then went to a science museum. There was so pretty old stuff in there. Ok, yes I know museum = old stuff on display. There were a few different buildings.

This building had old bicycles and motor bikes and cars...

...and planes There was another building with trains. This was Andrew's favourite I think. He's a bit of a train buff. He's engrossed by an engine here:

And the oldest train station was there. (There were no good photo shots, so I took one of the sign.) Sunday was church and then we went to a beautiful old estate and took pictures. It was a great afternoon out. Sunday night I spent visiting with Patty and John (my second set of parents).

Monday I visited with Ken (a great friend and the minister who married Ben and I). Monday night I went out with Grant, another friend. Then we watched a DVD, Tristen and Isolde.

Tuesday I had lunch with my former boss and then headed back to London. By the time I got to London it was rush hour. It was horrible. SO many people, so many bikes and motor cycles. I'm sure I almost hit at least 3 people on bikes / motor cycles. But luckily no hits.

Look at the left of this picture: see the mass of bike riders? And the blur of people:

When I got back, I noticed the pumpkin wasn't fond of the warmth of the flat. Mould had taken over, and poor Jack met his death.

Today Helen got back today from Ireland and we've been watching DVDs this afternoon. very forgettable ones, but a nice relaxing afternoon.

(Cheryl look in the bottom right of this picture .... can you tell what's on the mug? Your Alma Mater)

The beginning of the end

I guess that statement will never be more valid for me than right now. I started divorce proceedings today.

N.B. Instead of asking why it took so long, just be supportive and say "Well done, I know that was hard".

One of "those" days

Yesterday was rubbish. After school I went to get my legs waxed. I was more than a bit over due for a wax. I am now nice and hairless. After the waxing I came home and the day went down hill. I was hungry but nothing sounded appetising. I was bored but nothing couldn't think of anything to do. Making matters worse or better, I'm not sure, but my flatmate was in the same mood. [sigh]

We ended up watching Two Weeks Notice. A great movie, which I did enjoy. But throughout the whole movie I couldn't get comfortable. Then I went to bed and woke up today with a stiff back. Yesterday was a day not to be repeated. Ho hum.

Happy Halloween!

Yes, even though I'm "grown up" and there are no children to enjoy the efforts, I still carve a jack-o-lantern most years. The efforts this year for your viewing pleasure:

Got to love the slime!

I went to get something down stairs and came back to this.

It was too funny not to capture - knife in the eye, ouch.
The finished product

and of course a bit of fun was had :)
My mother should be proud - even the pumpkin seeds were baked. Yum yum.

Happy Halloween!

Water-logged weekend

My poor ipod! I was taking a bath yesterday afternoon, listening to my ipod (as you do), and then it fell in the bath. Bummer! It wasn't working properly last night - after its' swimming fiasco. Here's hoping it dries out and works fine. Otherwise - great Christmas present idea :-)

That was the exciting part of my weekend. I had a pretty chilled weekend. Friday after work I went to the local for a few drinks - but wasn't really 'feeling it' so I came home. My flatmate and I decided to watch a dvd - Sister Act was chosen. I haven't seen that in years! Saturday morning we carried on with the dvd watching, this time Return to Me was the selection - what a great chick flick! After the movie Helen headed off to watch the Rugby with her man. I stayed behind and did a bit of clutter purging. I ended up going through a lot of old photos. Man, how time flies!

that Friday feeling

..nothing more need to be said.

London

I decided a few weeks ago that I needed to take advantage of living in London. SO many things are going on that I don't do. Wednesday I arranged tickets for some friends and I to see the recording of Graham Norton Live. The tickets you get tell you that they give out more tickets than there are places to sit. Well apparently the studio had never had so many people turn up for the show. Bad news is as we were at the back of the queue...we didn't get in. Good news is that we got re-booked to see him later in the series. And this time we have priority seats which means no queueing or first come first serve - our seats are reserved. I ended up having a good evening even without Graham Norton. We had a drink looking out onto the Thames River and then went for an Italian. Very nice indeed.

Thursday I met up with Hayley. A pleasant evening as always - even though I was a rubbish friend (sorry H!) Sometimes friends should just listen to the woes of their friend and tell them how crap it is (that is instead of trying to explain the other point of view.) Anyway. We ended up at this swanky Chinese restaurant. You know that it's going to be a nice restaurant when you use the loo and to dry your hands there are individual cloth hand towels and a 'dirty clothes' shot to throw them in when you're finished. The food was exquisite. The service was attentive but not overbearing. The dinners sitting across from had their noses far to far up their own @sses! So irritating - even their tone of voice made my skin crawl. But it was a great restaurant* and wonderful evening. I love meeting up with Hayley.

As my friend (you know who you are!) has once again canceled the trip down to London, I'm without plans this weekend. But hey ho. I'll find something to do. I want to try out another gym, but not to keen on little kiddies being around. I don't like kiddies in gyms.

*I would highly recommend it: http://www.memories-of-china.co.uk/

More pain

Tuesday night I was at another gym. But this was the creme de la creme of gyms. I drove up and thought I should be in my Sunday best to go inside. Faaaancyy! It all looked state of the art / top notch stuff. Gym, pool, classes, tennis courts, squash / racket ball courts, beauty & spa treatment areas - pretty much everything - even a restaurant and bar. I must say the highlight was the spa. [Jaw drops] It was just, I mean, wow. Amazing. It made the work out worth it. In fact I think I was in the spa as long as the gym :) Come on - look at the picture - you would have done the same!

Voluntary Pain

Please can someone tell me the good aspect of going to the gym. I have booked a few free passes to gyms around my area (I'm trying to see which one I like the best, so I can join a gym). Yesterday was the first time I've been to a gym in several years. There was a 'Legs, tums and bums' class starting just after I arrived. Never having been to a class, I thought I'd check it out. Let me tell you my legs tum and bum felt the 'burn' last night, and my arms. Today, my legs tum and arms are still feeling said burn. Why pray tell do we feel the need to cause ourselves this pain. Why oh why.

Apparently a gluten for punishment, I have booked another trial at a different gym today. [Groan]

While looking for a picture to go with this post, I discovered:

Coffee may help relieve gym pain
Drinking coffee could help reduce the post-workout pain that puts many people off exercise, a small study suggests. The study found moderate doses of caffeine, roughly equivalent to two cups of coffee, can cut muscle pain by up to 48%....

news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/health/6254731.stm

A busy weekend turned quiet

Friday as I left work I was dreading the weekend a bit. Friday night I was out with work mates, Saturday a friend from Derby was coming down for the weekend, my new housemate was moving in and on Sunday night I was meeting up with another friend. This after a long, tiring week at work and knowing that the next week I was due to be out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. When was I suppose to recuperate?!

How foolish we are to make plans - knowing God just laughs at us when we do! Apparently God agreed with my subconscious and decided I need rest instead of excitement. My friend from Derby cancelled the trip to London. My soon-to-be housemate texted me late on Saturday saying it was a bit late and she would just come on Sunday. So Saturday, other than a last minute tidy of the flat, I spent doing a whole lot of nothing - in my pjs.* (The tidy of the flat also included a bit of handy-woman work. I unplumbed my washing machine, in it's place plumbed in my dishwasher. Put my new dryer (yippee a clothes dryer!) on top of the washing machine on the side of the kitchen. Bad news was the hose pipe didn't reach the new placement of the washing machine.)

Sunday I went into Croydon to get a longer washing machine hose pipe, return a dishwasher (long story...if I haven't told it - I can't be bothered to), get some trainers** and look for cushions for the couch. Success on all accounts. I spent a lot of the afternoon in queues - queueing traffic, queueing to return things, queuing to ask a question about the washing machine hose (to ensure this novice got the right thing), queue to ask for sizes of shoes, and of course queuing to pay for things.

When I got back to the flat I had a new flatmate. Helen had arrived. [she thinks] I haven't mentioned a new flatmate moving in have I? Opps. I have a new flatamte. She's a teacher here at school, and needed somewhere to live. I had somewhere she could live. A match made in heaven :) Sunday evening we watched a bit of tv, chatted a bit and had a few cups of tea. I can't remember the last evening I drank 3 cups of tea. Around 2am I remembered why I don't drink tea at night. Caffeine and insomniacs aren't a good combination. Lesson learned - until the next time I forget!
And now its Monday. Work. I need energy.

This is Helen and I
a few months ago on a night out.

*I love "pj days" - days where you stay in your pajamas all day
**I hated having to buy trainers when I know I'm going to the States for Christmas (yet another thing I've failed to update blogworld about - I'm rubbish!) and they will be cheaper there. But I had to bite the bullet. The last pair of trainers I bought was in 2002. They were trainers with the air bubbles in the soles - an although comfortable at first, they were more painful than most shoes when the bubbles burst a couple years ago. This summer I threw them out. As I'm looking for a gym at the moment (and trying to 'get fit' - ok fitter than I currently am) I needed shoes to wear. I didn't think running in flip flops or dress shoes was advisable. The good news is I found a bargain pair marked down from £64.99 to £15 ($132 to $30 for you American types). I reckon I can give my sister a run for her money with bargain shopping! :)

The faces we make

Have you ever wondered what you'd see if you shared an office with me? Wonder no more. A few faces my computer caught as I worked.

I bet you now wished you shared an office with me huh?!

Yes Mother, I know if I'm not careful my face will freeze that way :-)

Another spectacular fall

...this time with spectaters. Friday I went into the music department on my lunch break. There were students playing drums with the teacher so I thought I'd sit out of the way - on the teacher's chair behind her desk. Well apparently the teacher told me she put said chair there cause it was broken. She told me this after I sat on it and promptly made a spectacular fall. I played the brave soldier - 'I'm fine' I say....but it really hurt. My back was very sore after that, but I didn't want to seem the baby. When I was changing Friday night into my pjs I brushed my back and it still hurt ... so I gandered in the mirror - ouch! A nasty bruise covered a nice big knot - now wonder it still hurt!

Getting old sucks! I'm sure a few years ago I wouldn't have bruised!!

NB So this isn't a picture of my back ... I tried but kept getting the ceiling in the photo. Taking a picture of your own back is pretty hard. I found this one on the net, but it's pretty close to what mine looks like...ok mine's not quite as bad - but it hurts just the same!

The Boggie Man

There's many things you see when you're on the tube in London. Yesterday on my way home I got the pleasure of seeing a grown man (of around 35) not just picking his own boggies*, but then eating them. And he didn't seem to just eat them - it was like he was brushing his teeth with them. Even thinking about it now makes me want to hurl!

* boggie n booger. The charming little things everyone excavates from their nose now and again but likes to pretend they don't. Booger sounds too similar to bugger. Bugger is an inoffensive insult in modern terms but actually means something a bit worse - google it if you'd like to inform yourself.

Weekend 'up north'

It used to irritate me when people would say that Derby / Nottingham was in the north - it blatantly isn't. It's the middle of the country - literally. Thus it's the midlands. Now that I live in London though, I find myself calling it the north. I think Londoners* consider anything north of the M25** to be in the north.

That was my tangent leading up to - I was in Derby this weekend. I had hoped to leave work when school finished at 3:30, but I couldn't get away until 4:30. Not 5 minutes on the road and the radio announced the Motorway*** I use was down to one lane int he roadworks because of an accident. Sooo I decided to go to a colleague's leaving do at the local.**** (This was slightly ironic for me because I was heading to Derby because my friend, Jo, is moving and was having a leaving do. I ended up staying behind and going to my colleague, Jo, leaving do.)
Feeling guilty^ that I didn't head to Derby I called Derby Jo to see if she wanted me to head up (This was around 8pm). She said yes, so in my car I got. And drove. I got to Derby around 11:30 - not bad going. I called to say I was in town and Jo asked me to run to the shop and get some stuff. By the time I got to Jo's house (12:30) some people had left and the others were leaving, and Jo fell asleep. Bit of a bum evening - but I was also tired so it was okay.

Saturday morning I left to get my car sorted. It's been playing up lately. Sometimes I get in it and it's like I have a dead battery, but all the lights and radio work. Sometimes it's fine. A few guys (in my mind all guys know car stuff) said it could be my battery is low, and as it's been cold lately the car is struggling. So off to Halifords I went. I told the guy behind the counter something was wrong with the car - didn't know what but someone said it might be the battery. Outside we went with the battery testing equipment. Battery needs replacing says he. Battery replaced, car started fine, £80 paid. I then went across the car park to do a bit of shopping. Shopping done I walk back to car. Car doesn't start. Irritated I am. I went back to the store to give em h-e-double hockey sticks, but then changed my minding thinking the battery could have been part of the problem. Of to a car mechanic that I know. He listens to problem and says it's the immobiliser, but he doesn't fix those and no one who did would be open on a Saturday. Just don't immobilise^^^ the car and I'll be fine. Cutting this lengthening story shorter. I went back to Halifords and had them put my old battery back in and got my £80 back. When they showed me my old battery - the tester showed it was running at 83% capacity and a 'good battery'. I was sorta cross they took it out and replaced it.
After car trauma took up most of day, I went to a Chinese restaurant with 2 friends and we saw Run fat boy Run after. After movies the friend who I was staying with and I watched a dvd (which one fails me at the moment) and then headed to bed.

Sunday morning was church and then a drive back to London. Got home around 4:30 and lounged around for the evening. And then it was Monday again.

There you have it - you're all caught up with my weekend. Oh yea, I forgot to take any pictures - so it's just a boring long post with no pics. Sorry.

*Not that I class myself as one of those
**The M25 is the ring road around Greater London
***Motorway = freeway ... seriously you Americans need to learn my language - there's far to many of the side notes building up! :)
****Local Pub
^ A mate of mine was meant to be visiting London and staying with me. I asked them to postpone the trip because Jo wanted me to go to Derby. My friend postponed. I felt even more guilty for making them cancel for no reason
^^Halifords is a supermarket type place for car accessories and bikes and bits and bobs like that.
^^^I have a key with a button that locks and unlocks the car. There is not a key hole in my door to unlock the car. When I press the button to lock the car, the car is also immobilised; likewise unlocking it turns the immobiliser off. To lock the car and not put the immobiliser on I have to lock the car inside and unlock it from the passenger side door - what a bother!!!

Got to love Americans!

I am one, and I'm proud to be one. But I still love to laugh at the ignorance!
A website I know publishes overheard comments. This one man me laugh out loud!!!

At the bottom of Grafton St in Dublin there is a small pedestrian crossing.
A couple of years ago my cousin was walking down Grafton St with a mate after
work on his way home. As the lights changed, they made that beeping noise - 2
American girls were standing beside them and asked what the noise was. My cousin
told them that it was to let blind people know that the lights had changed, to
which the American replied "wow, that is so advanced! In America, we don't let
our blind people drive!!

A mother's worry

Seriously. You'd think my mother was happy enough with the information and detail she gets from me about my daily life. I set this blog up, I email her and call her regularly.
Tonight on the phone she says "You hadn't posted on your blog in so long, I check on Friday...I was getting so worried as I hadn't spoken to you in so long..." She checked on Friday. My last post was on Thursday - Seriously?!
I just needed to make fun of her and mock her a little bit. But I am glad to have a mother that cares about me and worries about me - 27 years on.

Ricky Pictures

Not my best look, but it's the only picture I've got. This is outside the theatre.

This is in between the warm up and Ricky Geervais coming on. Adam reckoned my necklace might suit him - what do you reckon?
When Ricky came on he came is a cloud of smoke with a King's crown and red robe. Nothing wrong with his self esteem :)
This was our view. In person is was much clearer than the photo, but we were in the nose bleeds. But what do you expect booking the day before the show, right?

and...

my flat is still clean. That's 3 days of a clean flat. A clean flat with no dirty dishes. A made bed every day. No clutter. It feels odd.
AND I've done 2 loads of laundry! What's wrong with me.

Ricky Geervias

Last night I met a friend in the city and we went to see Ricky Gervais's* act/gig/show.

The warm up act was ok. A bit forgettable, but a few good jokes. Saying that the thing I can recall the most is in the middle of the working out how old his father was when he was born. Not so good that my mind wander as he was n stage. Oh well.

Ricky was pretty darn funny. Some of his stuff sounded pretty scripted - but who cares - it was still funny!

As I walked to the platform checking my phone messages (not paying attention to where I was going, I ran into a co-worker - literally. I had just decided that I would stop walking and wait for the tube where I was when I ran into her. I've never met anyone in London unexpectedly. Of all the people there and the thunders standing on the tube platform - I stood next to her. Pretty freaky.

*He's a comedian. I believe he created The Office and Extras

It's still clean

You'll* be happy to know that my flat managed a whole day of me living there and it's still clean. I made food - and washed the dishes I used. I even did another load of washing. I made my bed this morning - I never make my bed! When I was a child and my mother made me make my bed - I slept on top of the bed covers and used a blanket to keep warm. In the morning I through tht eblanket in my closet - hey presto my bed was made.

*Well my mom will at least!

Canal boating pictures

These are the pictures from a fortnight ago. I went canal boating with my friends Jim and Jo from Derby. A few months ago Jim got a job outside Peterborough (look it up on a map - it's about 2 hours southeast of Derby) and bought a canal boat as his accommodation. During the week he lives on the boat and weekends he goes up to derby to their house. They have just bought their first house in Peterborough. Jo got a job in Peterborough and will be moving down next week. Where am I going to sleep when I visit Derby?! How rude of them not to consider this when they decided to move! :) Good luck with the new job and house Jo!

This is Jo and Jim (from ages ago) so you know who I'm on about.
After our supply trip (food, drink and disposable BBQ) Saturday after, it was off to canals of Britain. At a massive 3-5 mph

I was so tempted to do a "I'm the King of the World" scene at the front of the boat, but I resisted. I did however hang my feet to the front of the boat.

Jim and Jo driving the boat as I enjoyed the front to myself. (You can just make them out)

There were quite a few hot air balloons taking off as we got moving down the canal - how cool!

I liked this picture of Jim coming out of the hatch at the back of the boat. We moored* the boat opposite a massively huge stack of hay. It was easily 2 stories high. ...and had a BBQ. It's a good job we didn't light the BBQ on the boat - we'd have burned the boat down! The next morning as I was clearing up the rubbish I saw the BBQ had completely burned through the wood under it. It's pretty amazing we didn't set the field on fire.
Sunday afternoon after lunch we set off, "back home". Jim 'drove'....
...while Jo slept. It was Sunday afternoon to be fair. Not much better than a Sunday afternoon nap!

I kept Jim company.

In the middle of the boat there's this cool window that opens right up - a foot above the water. It's pretty neat to watch the canal go past through this window. On Sunday we passed a load of these fort things. They were pretty cool. Jim said they were forts from the war. You can see the 'gun holes' in the sides. Jim almost ran the boat into the bank so I could get this shot!

And that's your lot. I had a really good time. Thanks Jim and Jo for sharing your boat with me!

A note to my mother - you best be loving all these pictures. I can hear Cheryl in my head going on about how I'm like my mother taking pictures of everything :)

I DID THE DISHES!!!!

Proof - Clean kitchenThe dishes you see are clean and drying

...and more!!! The whole flat is clean - including fresh linen on the beds!


Now don't get too excited. I had to do the dishes and clean the flat. Someone is coming around to look at the flat this afternoon after work. In true Karen style, I waited until Sunday to clean the flat.* I finished sometime around 3 this morning and took a shower as I was sweaty and horrible - cleaning is hard work! This meant I didn't get to sleep until 4am and I was back up for work at 7:30. I'm sleep deprived to say the least. Do your muscles ever ache when you're over tired? My muscles ache like I worked out hard at the gym yesterday. I know it's just out of sleep deprivation, as it happens occasionally, I was just wondering if anyone else had similar experiences.

I also changed the layout of the lounge. I don't have any photos, I'll have to take a few before it becomes cluttered. I'm not sure if I like the new layout, but the couch wasn't in an accessible** position, so I've tried something new. I'll keep you posted - the new layout might not last.

*In my defense, if I cleaned the flat before Sunday it would have gotten messy again and I would have had to clean it twice!
**you couldn't see the tv, thus no one sat on it.

Thanks Mom

My mom is lovely. Even with her quirks and faults, she's a brilliant mom. A few years ago in one of the packages she sent me she copied out a quote from Ralph Marston, and I had highlighted the following bit of it:

The things that truly matter are the things you cannot lose. No person or
circumstance can take away your love, your faith, your integrity, passion,
determination or wisdom

Yesterday and today have been hard going at work for me. I have the above quote tacked to my bulletin board at work and today I noticed it. Reading this lifted my spirits - put my problems into perspective a bit. I'm still bothered about work, but do feel better.

Thank you Mom. Thank you for taking the time to write down quotes that you find. Thank you for taking the time to find quotes. Thank you for spending the money to send them to me. Thank you for thinking of me :)
I love you. And think about you often. I wish I lived closer to you so I could see you more.

Hopelessness

It's not often that I feel hopeless. I occasionally am mad, angry, upset, irritated, frustrated and the like - but I'm a "find the silver lining" type person. Sometimes the only silver lining I can find is that I know others have it worse off. But today I have hit a pretty low low.

Hopeless. Lost. Scared. Anxious. Frustrated. That's currently me.

And it's all over work. Work shouldn't run my life and / or emotions. I shouldn't live to work. I should work to live!!!

So the work thing - i don't know why they're going wrong.

There's this one problem that isn't a problem for 1 person down stairs but it is for 2 others. why? who knows. my fault - not in the slightest. seen to be because of something i did. absolutely
Some of the staff made some changes to student information last week - the changes are no longer there. my fault - how could it be? seen to be because of something i did. absolutely.

Do you see the pattern?
Understand my sense of hopelessness?

You get why I fancy crying? Or running away to Siberia?

Do I know anyone I can live with in Siberia?

PS. It's been a stressful day. I'm afraid I have to confess I'm now back to day 1.

Back to work

I dragged myself out of bed and managed to get to work today. Several people came to say hello, and quickly left my office. It was obvious I was germ infested. --sniff sniff--
Having a week off work during the second week of school - not such a good idea. Note to self - don't get sick next year.
Any other news .. not really. I have begun mission clean up kitchen. arg. I still can't be bothered by such things so I'm doing it slowly. I wash up my dishes I used that day* at least and usually a few more. My mountain of dirty dishes is more like a large hill now. I miss my dishwasher!

*crud. I didn't do the dishes from today.

Flu time

This week I've been suffering with the flu. I'm a big moaning, whinging baby when I'm not well. I hate it. To make it worse there's no one here to moan at or to make me soup or to wash up the dishes from the soup - I have to take care of myself! Man being a grown up sucks sometimes!

Camping .. on the water

I went canal boating with my friends Jo and Jim last weekend. It was quite fun. It was a bit like camping - caravan style ... only floating on water. We set out Saturday afternoon and moored up opposite a giant stack of hay. The other side of us was a potato field. Jo told me about a fun game of potato harvesting they (Jo and Jim) had played the last few times they'd been out. Basically at dusk they go out on the potato field and dig for a few potatoes. This seemed not so fun, but I participated and it ended up quite an experience. We came back with 7 potatoes each - no winner. I was disappointed - I'm quite competitive. Jo then asked if I was not feeling guilty - as I had 'stolen' the potatoes. At that point I did, and I still do.
Sunday I made a potato and cheese bake for lunch. The fresh potatoes sure were good. After lunch we headed back. Jo slept while Jim 'drove'. I stayed away from the driving as I didn't want to be blamed for anything that might have happened... although it would have been a bit difficult to wreck the boat as it only goes about 3 mph.
Pictures to come.

The devil makes easy work for idle hands