Don't faint......

But I finished off one of the knitting projects!!

Now, okay, I am not the fastest knitter in the world, but I really have no excuses for the fact that this particular pair of socks have taken me about 18 months to knit....... yep they are the pair I was knitting at the UK Meet back in July....

For some reason I just couldn't find my mojo for finishing these - although I've knitted other small projects in between.

One of my not a new year's resolutions was to try and knit something (completely) each month or to finish off a WIP that had been languishing at the bottom of the project bag.

Caught up in the momentum of finishing something I cast on another sock last night - and would you know it, I cracked on and am nearly at the heal flap already... which says to me it was something about these particular socks.

So, after the next pair I have to decide on whether to knit the scarf I promised someone for Christmas, to crack on with more socks I have homes for or to finish either the shawl I started about 2 years ago or finally do the wings and stuff the gargoyle I was making for my sister - yes seriously, that is all that needs doing to finish it... I just haven't got round to it yet.......

But for now... Yay!  Go Me! A finished item!!

Rinse and Repeat.........

So, normality (in so far as my life is in anyway normal) has been back for three weeks now.... and I am in the grind of get up, sort dogs, go to work, come home, sort dogs, collapse for a couple of hours in front of the computer/TV/Kindle/knitting depending on my mood, before going to bed and starting all over again....... and to be honest... just three weeks in and I am hating it....

Yesterday I let fly at my counsellor.... which I feel somewhat guilty about but he did say that it was fine and part of his job to help me deal with my emotions... the thing is, this rut I am in, I have no clue how to get out of it.  So guess what my homework is this week?

Aside from the people I work with and seeing my mum on a Wednesday evening and Saturday morning I don't really socialise at all with real people (caveat - my internet friends are real (and fantastic) I just don't get to see them in person).  I only really see my sister a couple of hours a week, but then she very definitely has her own life.

I know something has to change, and my counsellor is trying to give me a push......... but I have no idea how to go about it.  I have no choice but to work - and anyway, I actually like the job (most of the time - today is not a good day to be writing that as it's been pure hell) and the people I work with.  I don't intend to change anything about the critters I own - sure I know they are a tie, but they are also one of the only things in my life that keep me tethered to it.

I've come to the conclusion need to find a hobby or activity that gets me out the house in the evening.. or I perhaps I should go and  learn something new........ the trouble is, I have no idea what I want to do.......I am not really a sociable person, I am not a fan of meeting new people - partially shyness, but also a fear of people pointing and laughing (yes seriously it has happened in the past - making fun of the fat person is the last socially acceptable form of harassment and bullying) and of course their are the physical limitations of a body that doesn't work properly.

I keep going round and round in circles about what I might want to do... and am getting no where fast with any decision making....... so I guess I'll go knit in front of the TV whilst I think some more about it....

Cat Wrangling.........

Poor Mavis the Samosa cat isn't a happy cat.......... she has a flea allergy and a food allergy.... and unfortunately both have flared up.... not that she has fleas but she's one of those cats who likes to visit the local homes of everyone else that owns a cat on the off chance she can steal food.... this time she obviously picked up a flea and ate the wrong food....... clearly she should stop visiting other houses, but I doubt she will.

Anyway, the upshot of this was on Wednesday night I had a call from my sister asking how did she give a tablet to a cat......... I was slightly perplexed... I mean, you just open their mouths and chuck the tablet to the back, hopefully then they swallow it, but you might have to wait, holding their mouth shut, till they do....... well apparently they'd tried this and both my sister and her partner were now sporting some impressive battle scars, the tablet was covered in fluff from being spat out on the floor several times and the cat was back upstairs under the bed swearing at everyone......

I might have laughed at her a bit at that

On Thursday I went to demonstrate........ and watched them do battle to capture and hold her, before trying to get in the tablet using a pill popper....... they managed in the end, so yay!  they obviously didn't need my help........ only I then asked what they were doing about her tablets this weekend cos they were away and mum was popping in to feed the cat...........

So we struck a bargain........ as she is a bad and evil cat, and giving tablets to her is a dangerous thing....... If I came and did it for them my sister would pay me....... or rather... she'd buy me a new top I've had my eye on.......

So, Friday night, I went to meet mum after work at my sister's..... mum picked up Mavis, and I dropped in the tablet, by hand, in a matter of seconds, no fuss....... the procedure has been repeated three more times since then....... though without mum holding her ..... she swiped at me once but missed and then just looked extremely pissed off......... but that might have been because I locked her cat flap and she ran into it at speed trying to escape me and bounced off it head first......

My sister and her partner are back from their weekend away in the Yorkshire Dales this evening and are optimistically stating that Mavis will obviously be so pleased to see them and so used to taking the tablets that she'll be no problem.......... I give it till about 8pm before I get a phone call asking me to go give the cat drugs.......I wonder if I can get a second top out of it.......

Some days it would be better just not to get up.......

Today has been one of those days.......

Firstly, I slipped on the stairs going down to see to the dogs in the early hours... I didn't realise I'd done anything to myself until I was getting ready for work a bit later......... did you know if you've got very fragile skin you can actually give yourself a friction burn type blister by scraping it against the wallpaper?

Then, and okay, this was silly.  I saw something I wanted to photograph as I was driving into work so grabbed my phone out my bag, wound down the car window and tried to take the photo...... and promptly dropped my mobile out the car..... in rush our traffic... on a busy road.... thankfully it was while the traffic was stopped at the lights so I managed to retrieve my phone .. luckily not broken... and get back in the car with only minor beeping from the cars behind as they lights had changed......

At work I've been having trouble with my chair as a result of wearing the new skirts I got at Christmas...... it came to a head this afternoon as I slipped, not so gracefully, under the desk in the middle of the afternoon.... as I went one way the chair went the other, slid across the pod and crashed into a cabinet... yep.. so everyone noticed...

As if that wasn't embarrassing enough.... as I got to the car park I was fishing around in my bag for my pass to get me in (it's a secure car park) and my multi tasking abilities failed.... obviously walking at the same time was too much for my tiny mind... and I staggered.. probably looking like a drunk... and crashed heavily into the brick wall of the building.....

I should have gone straight home (and possibly to bed) but I needed to get some dog food... well chicken wings... so I stopped at the little supermarket on the way home. I had to buy a new bag to cart everything I'd bought....... when I got to the trolley park I picked up my bag, swung it over the side of the trolley.... and the bottom fell out of it... spreading what I'd bought all over the footpath and some of it rolled under the line of trolleys.... I then had to crawl about trying to collect it all....

I am home now.... and not intending to do anything exciting ... scrap that... anything at all for the rest of the day.... well except make tea... and looking at how my day has gone so far I'm slightly concerned I'll manage to blow the gas oven up...........

The joys of cat ownership - part, oh, about 63

This took place at roughly 2am this morning......

I am happily asleep all warm and toasty when I wake with that slightly creepy feeling of being watched... (even more creepy if you live alone) ... as I came round I realised there was quite a lot of pressure on my hip so rolled slightly and the pressure rolled with me.  Reaching for my glasses and switching on the light I found both cats now sitting on my stomach with their heads nodding from the ceiling to my face with expressions that I could only say looked both expectant and hopeful... the conversation went something like this... the translation from cat to human is a an important skill for any cat who owns a human.......

Gina - look it, human, spider
Hugo - yumm
Me - settle down and go back to sleep, you can't reach it *tries snuggling back down under duvet*
Gina - *glares* want it, get it for me
Me - No, sleep
Gina - *pats cheek with paw* please human
Hugo - *moving towards headboard* I'll get it
Me - no, you can't balance on there, and watch the face, ouch
Hugo - me getting it, me getting it ........... oops
Me - ouch, thank you, that's my ear
Spider - *smirks*
Gina - *chirrups and chatters lower jaw* 's moving, get it, get it, don't let it run away
Me - no
Hugo - *moving to bedside table* me get it
Me - Hugo, that's the picture hook your trying to attack half way up a wall
Spider - *rubs legs together and snickers*
Gina - *plaintive yowl* but, I need it....
Me - you can't reach, can we go back to sleep now?
Hugo - but I can get it..... crash
Me - no, that's still the picture hook
Gina - *applies claws* now human, get it!
Me -  *throws back duvet, covering Gina, switches off light and stalks off to sleep in the spare room*

Some weeks, nothing really happens.......

Excuse the blog silence of the last week.... I've been adjusting to being back at work full time after not only the Christmas holidays, but working 4 day weeks since sometime in November to try and use up all my leave.... added to which we are now into the final four months of the financial year... and the pressure is already mounting ... all of which means, I've basically come home in the evening and crashed on the sofa with a brain that feels like it's been replaced by damp cotton wool!

I'm afraid that all is very boring in my world at present... I get up (in the dark), walk the dogs (in the dark), go to work (in the dark), come home (in the dark), walk the dogs again (in the dark) and then retire to the sofa before bed (when guess what, it's still dark)........ I feel like I am turning into either some nocturnal animal... probably a sloth... either that or a vampire.... or a vampire sloth... okay stopping this train of thought before it gets silly... well sillier...

Tonight is for relaxing and knitting, then tomorrow morning is housework before I am heading off into Derbyshire for a jaunt round the countryside and a visit to the book and craft shop.  Sunday will be for more relaxing and going out and about again - in daylight, whilst I get the chance!

I am over winter already... unfortunately, the weather forecast says otherwise and our first snow falls are predicted for next week...... again, I am wishing for hibernation!

Hopefully I will have something much more interesting to talk about next time I blog.....

It's all terribly alarming........

This weekend has been one in which involved technology......... you have been warned...

I finally found out which safe place I'd put the spare energy efficient light bulbs in on Friday evening and managed to change the bulb on the landing.... which is good as I was getting a bit fed up of stubbing my toes on things as I ventured across it from bedroom to bathroom in the dark...... unfortunately, as I went to put the new bulb in I didn't realise that the light had been switched on and managed to trip the fuses and set all the alarms off......

Saturday morning and I decided it was time to finally get my finger out and buy myself a new telephone handset... it's been just over 3 weeks since I've used the old one as there was no dial tone and when I checked with my service provider I was told that they couldn't find a fault on the line and it was probably my handset....   I managed to purchase a nice two handset model - so I have one in the lounge with an answer machine and a spare in the kitchen..... I paid at the check out, walked to the main exit...... and set off all the security alarms in the shop.  You know that feeling when you wish the floor would open up and swallow you because everyone is looking at you ... yep... that one.... and bear in mind this is 11 am on a Saturday morning in an electrical appliance shop on the first weekend of the January sales........  I was waved out by the security guard after he'd checked the receipt against the purchase and made a swift retreat to my car...

Next stop was the haunted petshop.... where I stocked up on enough critter food for the week.... again I got to the doors and set of the security alarms........ now the beauty of the haunted pet shop is that despite the fact it's a huge warehouse type thing... there is never any one in it... or at most there are about 3 other people... so it was just the shop assistants who stared at me and then searched my bags.... Turns out the handbag my sister bought me for my Christmas present and which I'd only started using New Years Day, still had the security tag on............ when I got home I took the sharpest pair of scissors I could find to it to remove it!

Last night I went to mum's for tea and to watch The Hobbit DVD I'd bought her for Christmas... whilst I was there she asked me if I would change the times for her heating and hot water on the new controller the electrician had put on her boiler.... brave of her I know.... anyway, I did this but obviously not properly as I got a phone call from her today asking me to go back and sort it out as it hadn't changed at all last night.... so off I went.. .and I swear I only walked into the front door, across the lounge and into the kitchen... and the smoke alarm at the bottom of her stairs set off screaming........ We couldn't work out why, so hit the reset button.......

I am sitting quietly at home for the rest of the weekend hoping not to do anything else alarming!!

Reading statistics and favourite books for 2013

So, last year...

I read 306 books (not including the Love Has No Boundaries stories that were under 30,000 words)
251 of these were new books and 55 re-reads

In addition I dipped in and out of about 6 books for research into something I am plotting and hoping to write

My Goodreads stats have me reading 403 books - but that does include the short stories I haven't counted.  Next year I have challenged myself to read 350 books according to the Goodreads counting system :)

To help me I have joined in several challenges - I am still doing the "Pick it for Me" challenge but have added the "Bingo" challenge and the "Fleeting or Forever" challenge.

I've been carefully looking at the ever growing list of books that are lying around on my Kindle waiting to be read with these challenges in mind and think I can just about manage not to buy a new book until about March!  Erm, well that is to say... I can manage in terms of not needing to in order to read what I am meant to.... not sure I will survive without the therapeutic effects of buying new books :)

So, whilst I think about it - what were my favourite books of last year (sticking to M/M here - and not necessarily published last year, just read by me)

I considered all those I rated 5 stars during 2013 (there were just 23 out of the 251 read) and came up with a final top five (I really couldn't make the list shorter) ....

Raining Men - Rick R Reed - I am not sure how the author managed to take Bobby Nelson, the most unpleasant character from the first book in the series, and not only totally redeem him but give him his own Happily Ever After.  He didn't shy away from the unpleasant sides of the character or gloss over his problems which meant I really found myself rooting for him.

Safeword - A. J. Rose - this is the follow up to Power Exchange and shows the deepening relationship between newly out detective and sub Gavin DeGrassi and his Dom, the psychologist, Ben Haverson.  The author very cleverly weaves what is essentially a police procedural story with the couple's BDSM relationship.  Whilst the MC's were in a good place at the end I am hoping that the author will visit them again.

Slam! - J. L. Merrow - This book contained a lot of very British humour and for once I got it!  Jude, the narrator and main protagonist is over the top, over dramatic and in some ways a little immature where as his potential other half, David, is understated and something of an enigma.  The side characters, including Bubbles the dog, hold their own against the main characters.  This is one of those books for re-reading to cheer myself up on a cold, grey, wet British day

Learning Curve - Kaje Harper - This is the fourth and final book in the Life Lessons series.  It shows Mac's slow recovery from his head injury to full fitness and return to active duty as a detective whilst he and Tony juggle their relationship, the kids and Tony's job as a teacher at the same time as dealing with over riding crime plot.  These two have become one of my favourite fictional M/M couples.

Skybound - Aleksandr Voinov - I am not usually a fan of short stories, but this one was beautifully crafted tale of a young German aircraft mechanic and a fighter pilot during the final weeks of the second world war.  I connected with both characters and most unusually this story actually made me cry.


I am looking forward to reading through 2014 and hopefully finding some more favourites.

New year.. new blog....

Nope not this one.

Two of my very good friends and I, who consider ourselves an international internet family, have set up a new blog in which we are going to attempt to each post a photo a day as snapshots of our 2014.

The photos have to be taken only using our smart phones and must be taken on the day of posting..... we are quite excited about the project.

If you fancy a nosey or a follow we are at 3by3 - 2014 in photos

Wishing you all......

To all reading this blog

may 2014 bring everything you wish for