Feck that for a game o' sodgers!

I wish I could...
But I can't.....
I have tried...
I have dithered about decorating windows with fake cobwebs and the like.
I have procrastinated drinking coffee and now I am even writing a post about it, big *sigh*.

I feel like Hamish in this photo...

 because of this...

I am hoping, rather than bemoaning this outrageous mound dear friends, you all agree that this is the size an ironing mountain should get to before being embarked upon.  Please say it is so, I'd hate to look like a failure in the housewifery department!   *takes tongue out of cheek*

Feckity feck feck feckity feck feck!!!

I better get these out then, my ironing companions, the 10th Doctor will ease my pain!

 Sort of.......no he won't, who am I kidding???  Yet more *sighs*!  I am proper huffing now by the way!

X

Seeing black and feeling blue!

I'm fed up!

I'm fed up with feeling fed up!

Week three and I'm still poorly and it's starting to eat into me now.  Really starting to get me down, not sleeping well, no energy and so, so tired.  As Hubby Biscuit always says "I'm keeping it till it gets better" and I am looking after myself but impatience, hormones and a general lack of understanding as to why this b*****d cold will not go away are draining me.  

I'm feeling blue, finding it hard to see the positive thus seeing black and feeling affected by the rain and the lack of sun.

One of the reasons, if not the reason I started this blog was the idea of pulling my thoughts out of me and feeling the catharsis that brings.  I wrote a journal for years.  Books and books filled with ink;  my thoughts, feelings, ideas, my history and yet it stopped, stopped when the weight of motherhood caused such repetition I didn't want to listen to myself anymore.  

It was no longer cathartic discussing my life, life simply was what it was.  

After staring reading blogs I started to see blogging could open that door again so I tentatively began. I felt more freedom in my life and found a platform so here I am using that platform, putting it out there that I feel pants and saying (writing) that out loud and pulling it out of me helps just a little. Helps enough to motivate me enough to keep going and do the things I need to do today.  

Helps enough to know putting The Smiths on my ipod will put me over the edge so I won't be doing that then!

Ooh and my Doctor Who DVD may come today!  See, a positive thought! 

X

You know you are a geek when...

...you spend your money (very excitedly and with baited breath) pre-ordering this...

 image from amazon
(out on Monday - yikes!!!)

...instead of visiting your lovely friend and hairdresser (gorgeous bride in the photo of the wedding cake I made - remember her?) for a full head of highlights.  Bugger it I'll maybe go red instead, I can do that with a shop dye, much cheaper!

I am more of a geek than a lady, what can I say?

X

A poem and the return of moany face Ali....if she ever went away!

 

The Owl and the Stormtrooper!

The Owl and the Stormtrooper went to a shelf in a beautiful oak wood frame.

With a background of stripes and pretty flowers.

Oh how Owl yearned for a game.

The Stormtrooper yelled "NO!" and gave Owl a thump to which Owl showed him his back and was greatly with hump.

No longer friends the Stormtrooper made his leave.

Owl showed much relief at this sought after reprieve.

He now spends his days hooting away without violent frame-mates who don't want to play.

THE END

I wrote this while I spent the better part of Tuesday playing with Picnik and my Flikr.  I truly am at my most silly when avoiding the domestic drudgery that is housework. That was a day of mischief making........

Now yesterday was a bad, bad, bad day.  I understand in the big scheme of things a bit of perspective may be required but I am forfeiting that just now because I am distraught, as in, hand on my brow, yelling on Hill, in a Mrs Bennet fashion.  Our Sky+ decided to stop working, not that big a deal I hear you cry.  I for one only partake in TV of an evening so yes not really a big deal until you are informed that the only, the only, the only way to fix it is to reset the whole thing.  I have to take a deep breath for this bit..............and that means everything, everything, EVERYTHING in your Skyplanner will go, be gone, be erased, never to come back again.   

     Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

My Delicious Miss Dahl's, Time Team, Blitz Street, the Terry Pratchett stuff I haven't even watched yet................and

our 

effing 

Doctor Who's!

I love Doctor Who, it is my favourite (which I can just about say because no Criminal Minds were lost because I was up to date), it is my beloved, my Saturday 'to be repeated whenever I want' entertainment and effing Rory just died, not just died but never even existed (boohhoo!!) and I've only seen it once.  I need to see them more than once you see.  I am that geek who re-watches for missed bits or hidden things and to see if where there is that darn crack!  Again with the Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Look for the positives Ali c'mon!......

The dvd is due out on the 7th, sounds good until I saw at Amazon it's only three episodes for 9.99.  Pants to that.

Then I remembered BBC iplayer and my insides calmed just enough for me to breath once more.

I did manage to prevent my Biscuits from being too upset because I was the one having the drama queen hissy fit but do you blame me, really do you?

X

A Christmas Tradition..........

I lurve Christmas! 

You will hear me say this so very often in this blog. There is no 'Ba Humbug' in this household; it's simply not permitted.  No matter how busy or stressed I get I will not stop loving Christmas, in particular the traditions.  Here are a few of ours.........

Only bought once a year along with the Radio Times in which I still circle, with a biro, all the programmes and films I am excited about.

Nigella -the bringer of such goodies.  I use other books and recipes but for Christmas baking Nigella is Queen.   I always make and bake....

 cookies for the tree -  my boys enjoy this tradition even now at eight and six when other baking endeavours have lost their appeal.  I figure the pestle and mortar bashing of the boiled sweeties is key to this.

Christmas Cupcakes - mine look more like puddings and I wish I had a real photo to show you. ( partly the reason I decided to start a blog - up till very recently I never took photos of anything and really wish I had of many, many things I have made) I always cut out sugarpaste holly leaves and frost them with edible lustre and roll little berry balls for the top.  It's such fun!! I could eat these all year round but force myself to only bake them once a year.  I do usually make at least 48, sometimes more.  My friends and family would hunt me down if there wasn't a batch for each of them and also these....

mini apple pies (mince pies- yuck!!!) and...

Rocky Road - I combine the 'Christmas' and 'Express' recipes.  Heaven!! and each year on the Eve when my friends come round.....

a ham - in particular Nigella's Ginger Glazed Ham which I will be making again this year as it was so good last Christmas Eve. If you want the know-how check out Nigella.com for books and recipes.  

I also bake Christmas tree shortbread with my boys for their teachers. I know they would be disappointed if I made something else (a delia recipe). It is an essential part of the festivities that my kitchen ends up with a layer of icing sugar over everything in it because I have been baking so much.

Another tradition that I HAVE to partake in every year is Harry Potter.  I read the first four books my eldest's first Christmas and since then the build up to the big day HAS to involve re-reading (now) all seven.  I hear sleigh bells, I smell cinnamon and log fires, I taste buttery pastry and turkey and stuffing sandwiches on white bread.  Each year I lose myself in the magic of Harry Potter and in turn Christmas and all it's glory.....fairy lights, carrots for the reindeer, tins of colourfully wrapped chocolates, bulging stockings, friends and family and my boys' faces when they see Santa has been and they have been good all year!

 

X 

p.s the Doctor went a bit mental.  The Ood, Wilfred, Donna, Lucy Saxon and THE MASTER in the Christmas trailer! OMG Christmas is gonna be sooooo cool!!!!! and I'm sure I'll cry!!!!

Meet the furry, four-legged family on Friday!!

There are three furry felines in our household.  Want to meet them?

'Thamas!  Thamas!  There's a mouse in the house!'

This is our youngest, Thomasina (oringinally Thomas as we thought she was a boy at first, I know you'd think we could tell the difference), she's the baby at two.  All three cats have their 'Show'/'Horse-racing' names you can see under the photos.  It's just a thing we do!

 

'Eva weava web of mischief!'

This is Evie or Miss Evie, she deserves the Miss because she is such a lady and she is ten.

Last is the man of the (cat) house......

'The 'Hay' with the 'Mish'

This is Hamish.  There's two pictures of him to try and show how HUGE he is but he's my first baby as he's thirteen now.  He is also affectionately known as 'beau-beau', I was very into Tennessee Williams (a cat on a hot tin roof, the glass menagerie, streetcar named desire) at the time and loved the whole Southern 'beau' thing and ladies drinking mint juleps.  My eldest is thrilled he came after Hamish as it meant the name was taken already.

Have a great weekend everybody and remember DOCTOR WHO!  Yippee!!!!

X

p.s I just realized my cats look dressed for Christmas with all those bells on, they are in fact to prevent bird murder and they work, I'm very pleased to say!

Release the inner geek!!!

This weekend is a cool weekend.  I am taking my mum for a night away to a Hotel in the not so exotic Dundee. We were both born there, my mum spent quite a wild youth there, my mum and dad met there when he worked on the dodgems at the Shows (do I need to translate that to Fairground for the non Scots out there?) and this weekend we will be eating, definitely drinking and being merry there.  It's a nostalgia trip for her mainly as part of her 60th b/day (she still doesn't know the destination yet), although I did see a Morrissey gig in the Caird Hall in my youth, proud to say when I should have been studying for my highers.  I wasn't always boring, I really wasn't!  Under normal circumstances a night away without the men folk would have been amazing, tickled me pink to be fed by someone other than me, I like to cook but I like to eat more!  No chores, no shouts of 'Mummy!!!' well not unless my mum's annoying me, and well just getting away.........but this weekend something way cooler is happening.

Come Sunday night at 7pm, with a large glass of red, I will be plonked comfortably on my sofa with the men folk around me for the much anticipated ( I cannot emphasise this enough!!  I won't even knit while watching it!) latest episode of DOCTOR WHO.  I love Doctor who, I come clean now.  My name is Ali and I am a sci-fiaholic!!! I also love Harry Potter but I'll bore you with that on another occasion.

My inner is geek, my favourite books are those that take me to far away places filled with magic and machines that make perfect cups of tea in little china cups out of thin air.  If it has a vampire, monsters or spooky happenings I'm there.  As a youth I did read the classics too (still do!) but my heart was and still is with the fantastical, hence why the re-done Pride and Prejudice with zombies book was a hoot.  Above of the story must be good, I have cried lots at Doctor Who and will again come Christmas time when the tenth doctor must regenerate.  For those who do not know, this means he must DIE....boo hoo!!!  It will be a harrowing time but I will console myself with hands dipping into Roses and Quality Street tins.

Even though I shall be having a fab Friday night and an excellent Saturday morn c/o a full breakfast, Sunday night is where it's at!! (NB. This does include the Antiques Roadshow!)

I leave you with the tenth Doctor!!!   Enjoy!!

I have a confession about the larger of these action figures .... ..this blog is a long one but I do blether, all my report cards said 'Alison talks too much' but I figure it's my party and I'll vomit verbally if I want to.......when my eldest bought himself this figure ( I called it a doll, can you imagine the look I got?) I came over all funny and it hit me, full in the face, I MUST PLAY WITH IT.  So I did the only thing a girl could, I took all his clothes off and put them back on again, quite a few times I might add until I had got it out of my system.  I hadn't realized what had been laying dorment.  I remembered my days of playing with my dolls (I was a Sindy girl mainly but did get a Barbie eventually) playing house until I got older and made them sell their posessions and become punks.  I decapitated my Barbie later trying to brush out the backcombing.  Aah those were the days.........

X

Procrastination!!!

Like many of us I am a champion of procrastination! I get many things done when I should be doing something else.

Today's something else is ironing. I admit a love/hate relationship with all things domestic but I do get a certain amount of satisfaction in getting a job done. I have a hate/hate relationship with ironing. I confess a lot of the problem is me. I am not one of those people who iron each day to keep the pile down. I manage a couple of large sessions per week with lots of 'meaning to do it more often' in between. Even with a CD or my Doctor Who 'ironing DVDs' , I do not enjoy it and would do pretty much anything else to avoid it.

So........

Should I use up those overly ripe bananas and bake (THE BEST - courtesy of The Hummingbird Bakery Book) banana bread?

Should I reply to that letter from my US buddy that came this morning?

Should I get the felt and fabric out and start working on those designs for Christmas?

I could just sit and knit under the guise of needing to get on with those Christmas gifts.

I am even considering cleaning the toilets!!!!!!!!

OR should I just get away from this PC and get on with the IRONING!!!!!!!!

That is the problem with procrastination, you can't do it forever!

Ali