Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Robert Frogg's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, October 29th, 2009
11:14 pm	Good news and Fun! So, I got an e-mail the other day. Nothing unusual about that really, except for the fact that it was to my official e-mail account and wasn't from a mailing list that I was subscribed to. No, this e-mail was from Liverpool City Council, or more specifically from someone in the Councillors Community Initiative Fund who was telling us that our grant application (which was written by me) had been accepted and they're going to give us £1046. Sadly they aren't going to give us the 86p we also asked for *grin* This money is all going towards cooking and craft related things, so all my area. Yesterday I started going around Belle Vale and looking to see if I could find any of the important items in the cooking section for cheaper than I had put on the original budget, so things like aprons, oven gloves, baking trays: stuff like that. The money that I will save from those items will then be put towards ingredients or craft supplies due to the fact that both of those areas were more estimates and averages than actual costs, where most of the standard stuff in the cooking were definite prices that I was able to find at the time. I am very much looking forward to spending this money!!! The other thing that I was going to put here today was my ever growing list of DS games. Why? Uh... because I want to prove to myself and others just how much this is an addiction! By the way, just to put this list in perspective, I have been tidying my cupboard today and found about six or seven games for the PC in there, I have four downloaded games on the laptop and there's maybe one or two others in the garage/ hidden away elsewhere that were presents. ( List of DS games ) Other than that I was just going to say that I have been having a great time this week with half term and stuff, and that everyone soul check out some pictures of the work I've been doing with the kids in the kitchen. We've been decorating the kitchen and that has consisted of doing an autumn scene on the wall and getting the kids to paint it. The drawing were all done by me, some of the painting was by me, but mostly I've been getting them to do it, and I kept updating the pictures. There are two places where I have these pictures, they're all exactly the same, just one is sorted in reverse order, the other in sequential order. So, Deviantart for reverse order and photobucket for sequential. Dragons *** *** *** *** Current Mood: pleased (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
6:54 pm	Great weekends (Note the plural) Ok, so I actually meant to put a post up here ages ago about the fact that last weekend I was heading off to York to spend the weekend with Diana and Mike. The problem is that I am a bad, bad person and I kept forgetting to do so, and then since I got back I just haven't been bothered to say how it all went. It was great fun! ^_^ I arrived on Friday night after a horrible train journey which involved being completely squished (the train was so full that first class got declassified) and we had to stop for an age at one station because a woman was having a fit and we had to wait for an ambulance to come and get her! This was made worse by the fact that I didn't have a phone with me and so I couldn't let anyone know that I was stuck there and so Diana and Mike were worrying about me a lot! Saturday though, I wore my cat hoodie and tail, black trousers and t-shirt and my improved collar which now has a little name tag on it as well! *loves this!* I also had on a birthday hat which was shaped like a cake with candles on it and had 'Happy Birthday' written across the front. We also took Luna, Wolfie and Tigtig (the wolf and tiger puppets) with us and I ended up with Wolfie on one hand and Tigtig on the other and we waved at pretty much everyone we passed and enjoyed ourselves emensly whenever we went into a shop! Chris from Role Play joined us, so that was nice too ^_^ Sunday was mostly chilling, which was nice, though I went out briefly on my own (sadly the shop I wanted was closed, but oh well) and then I got on the train home. Then this weekend I've been in London with my dad and Sylvia.Now, I think I should mention at this point that my reasons for wanting to go to London this weekend were purely selfish- the Big Bead Show happens every year at Sandown Racecourse in Surrey, and it isn't far from London, and so I thought "I can go for the weekend, spend time with dad and Sylvia, go to the BBS on Saturday and then come home on the Sunday." I then thought that maybe Sylvia would like to go with me as well, being a crafty person like me (though normally more into the card making side of things), and so I got her a ticket too. This plan worked out exactly as I had hoped and we had a really good time at the BBS. It was so crowded and so shiny!!!! In fact I got a really bad headache from looking at so many shiny, shiny, sparkly beads. Sometimes I really was straining my eyes to look at things closely and stuff. This one guy was showing me stones that he'd actually cut (rubies!!! HE HAD AN ACTUAL RUBY ON THE TABLE) and telling me about some of the different stones he'd handled, and I met a girl who was an anime fan and told me that my t-shirt (the death note one) was really cool. It really was a brilliant experience and I spent... uh... a lot... Well, let's just say that I got out £200 before hand, I used my card once and I have about £15 left in my purse... yeah, lot of money. However, in my defence, there were a lot of things that I DIDN'T buy that I could have if i used my credit card (yes, I did say *credit* there) but I resisted. The one time that I paid with my card was on the debit and that was only because I knew there there was something else I wanted to look at (but I ended up not buying in the end) and I wanted to make sure that I had money. So it's been a really good two weeks, and I've enjoyed every moment of it. ^_^ Of course now I'll spend ages being depressed because I have less money, still don't have somewhere to live of my own, and I don't even have my Di-di and Mike-mike near by. I have realised that in my life it really does go lycoris and Diana > Family > Everyone else. I know that sounds terrible in some ways, but I really do care about those two more than anyone else. *huggles both tightly* (lycoris , I hope you don't mind sharing top spot? *meek*) Anyway, now I'm sitting on the train with free internet access (another perk of being in first class along with the free food and drink) on my way home. Sadly, because it's a Sunday, it's going to be a bugger with changes, but I'll cope. *sigh* Current Mood: giddy Current Music: 'Tattva'- Kula shaker (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 5th, 2009
11:53 pm	5th October IS MY BURFDAY!!!!! *DANCES!* Hello, it is my birthday for the next... 7 minutes! It's been a nice day in all and I'm happy, though I'm very aware of my age due to the very small amount of presents! Item! One Harry Potter Scene It Second Edition game Item! One encyclopedia of anime, of which I browsed through before work and laughed and mocked some of the summeries Item! A PURPLE WATCH!!!! Item! A pair of waterproof trousers for the use of keeping dry while cycling Item! A custard toffee doughnut (at which point I must point out that this is my favourite kind of doughnut and I crave them whenever in York!) Item! A pair of studs that I can wear while in bed so I don't have to worry about remembering to remove and replace earrings every morning and night Item! A Thorntons Chocolate Penguin Item! A bottle of fake blood Yeah, so those last two were from my younger brother! I love his bizare humour! I spent the day at work and Peter bought me a Subway for lunch. I was good and didn't get a footlong even though it was what I would have normally got. I had made two really simple chocolate cakes that I gave to the kids at club (one for the infants, one for the juniors) and then I made fairy cakes with the seniors. I really do like my job ^_^ On a completely seperate note, due to the fact that November is quickly coming up I have been thinking about writing and challenges and stuff. There are two that I know appear in November and it got me thinking whether there are many people who read this journal who get involved. So we have the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which commences on the 1st of November and lasts until the end of the month, and we also have the 12 days of Christmas challenge where the prompts first appear during November, though posting only starts on December 26th and lasts until January 6th. Are you involved? Do you care? Is there a challenge that you do other than these two? Have you managed to complete the challenges? How do your brains look after the challenges are done? (mine looked rather mushy) Poll #1466981 November challlenges Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6 Which writing challenge are you thinking of taking part in? View Answers NaNoWriMo 0 (0.0%) 12 days of Christmas 3 (50.0%) Both 2 (33.3%) Uh... Wot? 0 (0.0%) Neither- I have a different challenge 0 (0.0%) Neither- I don't do writing challenges 1 (16.7%) *** *** *** *** *** Night night! Current Mood: giddy Current Music: 'Toy Soliders'- Enimem (14 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
10:23 am	A short moment please... I just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYCORIS!!!!! Mum, dad, Sylvia and Milo (though I had to translate for him) all say happy birthday. Pete and Jim didn't because I hadn't mentioned it to them! Heh! Peter, John and Wole from Woodlands also say happy birthday! (They really did, I'm not just saying that!) Oh, and all of the people who are mentioned in your card this year say it as well! You are Luffed! I hope that today goes well and that you enjoy it even if there are things that you wish that you didn't have to do. Love you lots, and I'll see you at the weekend! Current Mood: giddy Current Music: 'Let Everything that Has Breath Praise the Lord' (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
10:50 pm	Updates of a random nature (Saturday) I'm writing this is my bedroom, but will probably be downstairs when I finally post it (if I remember to!) I have discovered that I have a typing speed of about 64 words a minute. I tested myself just now, though I can't say that it was a very accurate test. First I waited for the clock on my windowsill, which I face when I'm at my desk, reached the next minute and I started typing. I wrote a story that I know all too well and so don't need to have to give much thought to what I'm actually writing, just... type. This meant that there were only a couple of moments when I paused, and both times weren't for very long. I kept typing for five minutes, did a word count and then divided that by five. There were a couple of small typos that I could see, so not every single word was correct, but I'm not sure if that actually matters as that sort of thing would get checked afterwards anyway. Anyway, the finial result was something like 64.4, which I'm rounding down to just a plain old 64/min. I consider this to be quite good, though I'm aware that my speed changes depending on what I'm writing, the sort of words I'm using, whether I'm copying- from paper to computer- or coming up with it off the top of my head- like when I'm writing stories and stuff. And of course the story that I was typing to reach this number is one that I know very well and so am unlikely to pause as often as I would normally and there's nothing particularly difficult to spell, so I don't have to slow down my typing in order to think about which letter I need to type next. Also, and this is important in some ways, I was doing this without even looking at the screen, which can change my speed a lot. Most of the time my attention was just on the clock as I watched the time change, but normally I would either be looking at the screen, or elsewhere, and so I will be typing at a different speed. Saying that I do often think that I type quicker when I'm not looking at the screen because I'm not thinking about whether or not I'm getting the right letters, I'm just doing everything instinctively, whereas if I'm looking at the screen, I'm more aware of when I hit the wrong key and will instantly go back and change it instead of just continuing on. I'm now I'm babbling. I'll shut up now. (Sunday) I forgot! Ok, so this week has not been the best of weeks and only a couple of things have happened that have made me happy really and have made up for the rest of the crap that I've been putting up with. Alright, so there was the weekend away with the Cubs on camp, and that was fun, though I spent the most of my time putting up and taking down tents. In fact I put up and took down the same tent three times! It was a back to basics camp, meaning that we were teaching all of those basic camp skills that Cubs should know like pitching and striking a tent, fire lighting, tracking signs and how to use a hand-axe and a bow saw. I was on the tents bit and so there was definitely a repeated theme to the weekend! I came home muddy, but happy, and since then there hasn't really been a day when I have stayed clean. ( My messy week ) So yes, that was my week. Explorers was fun, despite the rest of the crap in the week. I made chocolate teddy bear biscuits, took icing sugar, writing icing, silver balls, chocolate sprinkles, colours and edible paper and just let them do what they wanted while we talked about what they want from Explorers and what they think about me taking over. I have high hopes for Explorers, I just hope that they come to fruition. Yesterday I started my semi-regular tidying of my bedroom, which I should really do a lot more often, but it's difficult when my room is as small as it is. I've sorted out the wardrobe and the floor, which are rather important parts because they're the ones that have the biggest knock on effect when they're a mess. I now have to do the under-bed-cupboards, the top cupboard, my TV stand (which has stuff underneath it) and my book case, which has started to accumulate piles of things that aren't books. Currently the books themselves are alright in terms of order and whatnot, but it's everything that's resting on top of the books that makes it look a mess. What I really want though would be for a decent internet connection to my room. This would have a lot bigger effect to the cleanliness of my room than people realise. At the moment when I want to go online I take my laptop downstairs and sit at the dining room table, which is why my location is so often the dining room. However, because I'm always using the laptop downstairs, I never bother to plug it back in when I take it up to my room, and so I start using the desk as a dumping ground. If I had internet in my room I would do this a lot less because I would regularly have the laptop set up on the desk instead of being downstairs. I'm writing this at my desk at the moment and there are a few things on my bed that had been on the desk, but looking at them, it's mostly stuff that I've borrowed from work, the library or lycoris's mum, and so I don't want to have to put them away anywhere or I'll forget to return them when it's time. Anyway, I'm going to finish off with my dragons and then sign off and hopefully I'll remember to post this tonight! *** *** *** Current Mood: blah (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
10:15 am	September Rambling ( loooong ramble ) Current Mood: bored Current Music: typing (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
12:06 am	Various quizzes because I'm bored ( enough quizzes to drive a sane man mad... or maybe not... ) OK, that's me done for the night Current Mood: bored (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
11:36 pm	I have just rewatched Schindler's List... So yeah, I have been reading 'The Girl in the Red Coat', which is by the girl who appears briefly in the film. When I was reading it I was thinking, I'm sure that girl appears in at least two separate scenes, and in one of them, she's just running down a road, but I can't remember anything other than that... and therefore I needed to watch the film again. I had tried to find it just after I fished the fifth chapter of the book, only I couldn't find the DVD on the shelf, and there was a small possibility that Mum and Jim had taken it with them to France, but luckily (depending on your personal opinion) lycoris spotted it while staring at the giant shelf of DVDs that belong to Mum and Jim. So I watched it just now and... I had forgotten a lot of it actually. There were two parts that I could remember perfectly, one that I had remembered really well, but had changed the gender of one of the people involved. I had completely forgotten the awesomeness of Stern, who has become my absolute hero of all time, and I had completely forgotten that Schindler is actually a bit of a twat at first! At first he's all "I'm doing this just for the money, in fact that's why I came here- to make as much money as possible! I hire Jews because they don't cost as much but I don't actually care about any of them. I'll also sleep with just about any pretty woman who comes within my sight and I won't even try to hide it from my wife." The fact that we don't even know that he has a wife until she turns up on his doorstep, meeting last night's shag, just proves that he really was a bit of a twat. But then time goes on and he becomes more and more fond of the people he has working for him and actually becomes a man made of awesome sauce! My favourite bit of the film has to be in the second factory when Stern is saying that the casings that they've made have all failed their tests and people want their money back. Schindler: Well, you know, teething problems! Stern: There's a rumour going around that you're changing things on the machines. Schindler: ... Stern: ... You're going to get arrested for this Schindler: Oh, just buy shells from other places and pass them off as ours Stern: I... really don't understand you any more. Schindler: If a bullet is ever made that can actually be fired, I will be very disappointed (and this line is an almost word-for-word quote!) Stern: I... I... I think I just realised that my boss is crazy, but I kind of like him... Anyway, that was a whole random ramble that I hadn't actually intended to do, but I just wanted to after watching the film. I don't cry, but I do make little whimpery noises at certain parts, and get a bit choked up and whimper more at the end when they're placing stones on the grave. Sore I have two little sores on the inside of my thigh. They hurt. The worst bit is that I discovered today that the skin is actually coming off them. Owwwwie. ;_; Games Proving a little at a time that when it comes right down to it, I am actually a bit of a gamer girl. Peter was playing GTA the other day and when he went to the loo, or went to do some other useless task, I stole the controller and attempted to play. The controls are really quite difficult and I kept crashing, mostly because I kept moving the camera instead of the directions for the cars. But Pete does have lots of cheats, so this makes it a lot easier for me to not get arrested. I've been playing Lego Battles again and I've now completed all of the King, Wizard and Pirate levels. The alien ones are really hard, probably because they're the last ones in the game, but I'm mostly managing to do them due to having collected a number of the red bricks in the game, which gives me bonuses such as one hit kills and invincible heroes! Lolcats I have been going through the Lolcats pages on www.icanhascheezeburger.com recently, and the night before last I managed to get to page 400 (at this point I must point out that I started at page 520something, so not as impressive as reading four-hundred pages of lolcats... or is that less impressive and more incredibly sad? I have also been saving most of them and currently have one as my desktop picture. This is a very rare occurrence as I don't tend to use pictures that aren't from anime/ manga or at least drawn by someone. Dragons *** *** *** *** Current Mood: pleased (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
9:09 pm	Update in life and making me sound like a geek DS gaming So I have been obsessively playing Lego Battles over the last few days. Lego Battles is like Age of Empires, only with two important differences! 1. It's Lego, which automatically makes any game so, so very, very cool! 2. I don't completely suck at it. I especially like the second difference! Anyway, there are six parts to this game- King, wizard, pirates, the... other sailing people against the pirates, earthlings on Mars and aliens.In each of the parts there are three 'acts' and in each act there's between four to five levels... I think... meh. Anyway. The point is that I've finished the entire king part and have just finished act 2 of the Wizard. I've also done act one of all of the other parts, except for the aliens one, where I'm stuck on the very last level of the first act. Poohy. PS3 gaming I don't have a PS3 (I don't even having a PS1!), but my brother does, and he's been playing in downstairs while mum and Jim are away, which is fine by me most of the time really. *shrug* The other night he wasn't sure what he wanted to play and I suggested Ghostbusters because... well, who wouldn't?! I love it! The graphics are very good and there were times when I did actually think "Hold on, is this filmed of CG?". The best bit though is the dialogue! Now, I will admit that I have great, great fondness for Dan Aykroyd and would probably watch him in just about anything, and he's one of those few actors that I actually recognise without going "now where do I know him/her from....?" and so the fact that he is one of the main characters and writers of the films and the game just help me in my love and he and... oh what's his face? The guy who plays Egon... *looks it up* Harold Ramis. What was I saying? Oh yes, that they've done a brilliant job on the script for the game and there are some BRILLIANT lines in it which made me giggle like a mad person! What makes me especially happy about it is the fact that it's all the original cast doing their characters' voices, including a couple that I wouldn't have expected. (I still rather hope for a film though...) Summer Club The summer started, and so did the holiday club that we dun in Woodlands. Every week for the next three weeks we're doing two trips and we're open from 10-1 twice a week. I'm trying to do different crafts each day (though I will admit to there being a couple of repeats), and I'm making plans for what I'm going to be doing next month. Seeing as it'll the start of a new (academic) year, I'm trying to give it a fresh... thingy... yeah. Today we took a group of sixteen off to Mapchallenges, which would be where I did the outward bound day back when I was with Crosby Training. One of the guys remembered me, which was great, and it was kind of a thrill to be treated as **THE** leader. See, I was the one who suggested the trip, contacted them, organised it, the invoice is in my name and my name is even down as being the organiser! It's so weird! This is the first trip that I've ever organised, and that ***INCLUDES*** all of the years that I've been with Scouts. I didn't have to do any of the course (which I probably would have joined in with if I'd brought clean clothes), but I did take plenty of pictures and help some of the smaller ones with a couple of bits when they got worried (namely Louie and Courtney) and was used as the human towel when people got muddy and had nothing to clean their hands on. I was wearing old clothes on purpose and when one of the girls got very, very muddy I suggested that she wipe them on the edge of my t-shirt. So she did, as did various others. I also walked through (on purpose) a giant puddle with Courtney and managed to stop her from crying, yelled at a couple of boys on the coach home in such a way that they realised that actually I do have a nasty side when they're misbehaving, and I got to go on the Giant Swing again. (yay!) Now, I love the giant swing, but I was aware that a number of the kids wouldn't. About two of the boys didn't go on and... four of the girls? Yeah, I think it was three or four. Anyway, I told anyone who was scared of going on when they saw it to just wait and watch some of the others go on and *then* make their minds up. This actually convinced a number of them to try it, and they really enjoyed it, and it also convinced Louie. Now, Louie is this tiny little eight year old, and Courtney is his even tinier five year old sister. They look five and three, seriously. So Louie and Courtney really didn't want to go on, and I was fine with that because I hadn't expected them to want to, so I just told them to sit with me and watch the others and laugh if they screamed. A few did. And I was telling the two little ones about the different ways that you can go on the swing (the staff were putting all of the kids on backwards, because it's less scary), and he decided that he wanted to go on, with me, and we would go forwards, which is a little scarier, though not as scary as upside-down or superman. So we were strapped into our harnesses and attached to the swing and winched up. I kept looking over at Louie and he was looking Petrified! I spent the whole time on the way up being rather silly, keeping a big smile on my face, relaxed and happy and not letting him think that it was scary, while all the time I was thinking "Fuck, fuck, fuck! I shouldn't have convinced him that this would be fun! He's going to hate it and cry and it'll be my fault and he'll be upset at me because I said it was fun!" We got to the top, we got the countdown, we let go of the rope and fell through open air! I screamed happily, as I do, and Louie had a big smile on his face and was laughing!!! He really loved it and spent the rest of the day talking about it and really wanted another go! Yay!!! I have also gained another follower into the Hannah Camp (yes, I do think of some of the kids who like me as my followers!) and when we dropped everyone off at the centre she told me that she couldn't leave without a hug from me. I was amused, as was her mum!! Sin I committed the Ultimate Sin a few days ago. I bought the DVD of '17 Again' and I watched it, and I enjoyed it. I laughed. I have been reassured that this isn't as great a sin as I thought it was, though my brother has informed me that nothing I do can save me now. Not even the fact that I bought 'Hitch' as well. (I like Will Smith) Other films I have been watching quite a few films recently, and TV series on DVD. It's always interesting to watch old versions of things that were then remade (specifically 'Addams' Family' in this case), to re-watch films that I have very good memories of ('The Pacifier') and re-watch films that I like, but have issue with ('P.S. I Love You'). Technically I really like the film, but I have a MAJOR issue with the end. Maybe if I read the book it would make me feel better about it, but if it ends in the same way, then I doubt it. The first time I watched it I thought that it was just because of the cynical mood that i was in that night, but now I've seen it again I'm sure that I'm right about this particular issue- and it's not even about the film itself, or the story, but about the possible future for the characters. Ah, I hate reading too much into things sometimes! Books I'm still making my way through the 35 Fantasy and Scifi Club books. I am up to numbers... 14 and... uh... 12? on my list. I forget exactly because while I'm reading them in order, I'm reading two at a time, so if I finish one before the other, I move onto the next book on the list, while still continuing with the other, and again if I manage to finish the next book quickly as well. I've also managed... about six borrowed books (from lycoris or Lee Valley Library) I'm feeling pleased with myself even though I only finished 1, if any, books last month. Dragons *** *** *** (Three bred, one picked up) Current Mood: pleased (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 3rd, 2009
2:11 pm	Three really quick things before I watch more Cinderella Man 1. Words!!! versipellis gave me ( cycling, church, Ban Midou, Lycoris and drawing ) 2. York (1) At the end of the month I will be going to York for the weekend to spend time with my lovely friend Diana. It will be her birthday on the 29th and I will arrive on the 28th, leave on the 30th. It should be a really nice weekend, especially as I'm planning on spending inordinate amounts of money on beads (both for me and for Diana's birthday present) and we'll go for a meal as well. I'm planning on baking a cake (though I must remember to make a seperate one for Peter at work for Thursday because it's his birthday as well! 3. York (2) I'm still planning on having my 25th birthday in York, though I haven't worked out the details yet- I know that it will either be the weekend just before or the weekend after my birthday seeing as my actual birthday is on a Monday and so I'll be in work. I'll probably have a pre-birthday night out with friends at home and then a post-birthday trip to York. And on my birthday itself (and the Sunday just before) I'll spend it messing about with Lycoris (hopefully) and tormenting young children and seeing if any of them attempt to embarrass me *grin* Heh Current Mood: pleased Current Music: dog snoring (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
12:28 am	Time After Time... Ok, so I should have updated before now, but I was being distracted by other fun things, which I will talk about it just a second. Meme Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you. lycoris gave me Friendship, manga, Getbackers, sweetness, massive lols. :) (I include the smile because it amused me!) ( words!!! ) Cake So that cake I was planning on making- I made it and it looked bloody fantastic, if I do say so myself. There aren't many things that I will boast about in life, but my baking/cooking ability is something I will boast about because I know that I do it well. Yes, there are people out there who can make absolutely amazing looking meals and cakes and things, but I make some bloody great things, and they taste good to boot. In York, and before, I would often experiment with cooking, and generally things have come out well and I've ended up inventing a number of interesting tasty meals for myself, and a few for others as well (things for myself tend to include an inordinate amount of spices or odd ingredients, and I am well aware that other people don't necessarily like that!). So it was chocolate upon chocolate upon chocolate and the ganache tasted... well... it was made from 6 bags of chocolate chips, 3/4 pint of double cream and 2 tablespoons of butter... it tasted like chocolate chips melted in double cream, and then some!!! The chocolate decoration that went on top apparently only just survived due to the fact that people were eating it before the cake was even brought out! I never actually got to taste the cake itself as it would have been a little difficult to cut any off it before the icing process, but I was told that it was really, really tasty. So I was very pleased. I do have a couple of photos, but I haven't yet put them on the laptop, and the camera is upstairs, so you'll just have to trust me. Dad's I went to my daddy's and I had a really good time. I saw my Nanny and Uncle Tom, and I saw an old family friend who I haven't seen in years. The weird thing is... she's EXACTLY the same as I remember her, in looks and attitude, everything! It was really nice to see her and get to talk all together and see the photos from her son's Korean wedding (Korean weddings look so pretty!!!). Dad's been given strict orders from the doctor to lose weight and I believe Sylvia backed this up with "Do you want to see your children grow up? Do you want to see your *grandchildren*? Well Do As You're Told!" I think it actually managed to get through to him for once. So we went cycling and swimming, only dad got hurt while we were out on the bikes. We were going down Kilburn High Road and I was just behind dad when suddenly this MORON in a red BMW opened his door and knocked dad right off the bike. I only just managed to not go into the back of the guy as well and I yelped when I saw dad go down. Luckily dad was more annoyed than hurt at first, and was able to get back, though got the details of the Moron and a lady in a car who stopped just behind us and actually made sure dad was alright. (Nice Lady, we like her. She can live when the revolution comes) BMW drivers have been bugging me recently. I'm starting to understand why a lot of people don't like them. Admittedly I am rather bias against all drivers due to my cyclist status, but recently three BMWs have been the cause of my aggravations. That guy, the guy who kept trying to push in front of us when in a traffic jam, and the guy who pissed me off while I was cycling to work on a narrow road where road works were being done. Grr. While I was at dad's I also managed to find a little silver (not real) book charm for my charm bracelet, so now I just need a little silver froggy, and I'm all happy! Yay. Oh, and I came out to my dad and Sylvia! Heh. It went well, a little awkward at first, and I managed to not cry at one point when I was worrying, but we were alright, and I think things are going to be ok. I now just have to tell Pete to his face. I have been told that he possibly already knows, but I want to be able to say that I have actually told my family. Well... close family. There are a few more people on the list that I want to tell, but it's not as important, just... people I think should know. Plumber On Friday I went over to Woodlands in order to do a few jobs I should have technically done while I was at dad's, such as phoning a plumber and asking him to come on Monday to sort out a leak or two. So on Monday I was back there again, did a few little jobs, played my guitar (Oh yeah, I brought my electro-acoustic guitar back from dad's. Yay!) and waited for the plumber to arrive. He had said that he would be there after 1, which could mean anything really, so I was sitting in the office, going through a catalogue from Viking Supplies (don't ask why I like office supplies catalogues, I just do!) when suddenly the alarm went off!! I run into the main room and quickly turn the thing off, wondering how the hell it could be going off seeing as I'd turned it off when I arrived and I'd been in the building for a while by this time. I look at the little screen and it says something, something, something 'Tamper' and I'm going "Wot?" and just as I'm standing there, still staring and thinking "Wot?", the plumber turns up a whole hour early! He looked around with his little assistant type person and discovered a few places where there are problems, and he's going to come back on Tuesday to fix the pipes back against the wall due to some of them being very loose (for that I blame the kids mostly!) and do what he can to sort out the leaks we've spotted. The only little problem with this is that club starts again on Tuesday, so he's going to come after one again and fix them, and hopefully won't take too long. Drama I have recently been watching a Korean drama called Cinderella Man, though it's more Prince and the Pauper than Cinderella, but that aside, it's really good. At first I wasn't quite sure about it, finding it a bit slow and not always being able to tell the difference between some of the characters (which could be excused in one/two cases due to the fact that they are actually played by the same person), but then the first episode finished at a really, really good moment, and they did it really well as well. I mean... the ending was one that you were kind of expecting, or at least I certainly was, and there was a chance that they would do it badly, but then they ended up doing it, in my opinion, pretty well. So I watched the second episode and the next, and the next! I'm now up to episode 10 and I've got really fond of some of the characters, so much so that I can't decide which of the two guys I like most deserves to end up with the girl character that I really like! Oh Daesan is LOVELY and the guy who plays him (I must really look it up at some point) is excellent, especially as he's playing two characters with completely different personalities and he manages to pull it off so well that at first I wasn't sure whether they were played by the same person or were actually twins. And Sao Yoojin (I think I spelt her name right) is so sweet and I love watching her become more and more confident and I really, really want her to end up with either Daesan or... oh I can't remember how to spell the other guy's name! Aaaah! *trying to remember without having to resort to actually watching another episode...* Lee Jaemin (though I'm not sure I've spelt that right either)! That's his name! Hah! (and I only had to do a hundred searches to find it! He's lovely too actually, that's why I want him to possibly end up with Sao Yoojin. But I Love Oh Daesan so much! He's sort of adorable and is lovely when he smiles! (I have to stop rambling about this drama now! Facebook insanity I am not a big fan of facebook, even though I have an account on it (started due to people in uni telling me that I should over and over and over again until I conceded). I mostly use it now to play games rather than to actually socialise and stuff. One of the games that I play is Farmtown, which is just really, really pathetic. (I have a farm, which I plant crops on and then I harvest them. It shouldn't be nearly as addictive as it is) The thing is, I was actually planning on giving up on Farmtown because I was starting to get bored of harvesting and plowing and planting new things (my farm is very, very large and it takes a bloody age, I have better things to do... sometimes), but then, while I was at dad's, I got a phone call off mum and she said that Julia and Fin (two friends of mum's) were horrified and very disappointed with me. By this point I had done the whole coming out bit, so at first I thought it was something to do with that, but then something clicked me: If this has anything to do with facebook you are all just really, really sad and pathetic people! mum: *laughing* Apparently Fin had been telling mum and Julia about how great my farm was on farmtown and had shown them it, but much to their horror, all of my crops had died (except the cotton, because that takes 4 days to grow) due to the fact that I'd had no internet connection while at my dad's- it was playing up and I was only able to get on briefly twice during the whole six days. And so I have been dragged back into it just to ensure that I don't get any more phone calls saying that the farm is dying again. However, this hasn't stopped Fin from phoning to get me to tell mum that her farm is needing harvesting or... oh what was it today? Oh yes, the server appears to be down on farmtown and so my job was to tell mum that it was terrible and there was much crying, swearing, name calling, hair pulling, eye gouging and gnashing of teeth, on her side at least. *sigh* I know crazy people. Random extra bit I bought a new guitar tuner today. It's COOL!!! Dragons When I got online at dad's I discovered that some of my dragons were in the wrong places on my scroll and that a couple appeared to be missing (I only discovered this because I attempted to breed one of my dragons and couldn't find her normal mate). I texted lycoris and asked if she knew what was going on and she told me that there had been a massive site failure thingy (ok, not quite those words) and people had lost dragons and it'd messed up the orders on scrolls. I lost four dragons, two of which were in a big family linage and I had tried very hard to get them both (particularly the younger of the two), and I wasn't finished with them yet! I was really upset about it and aware that it just messed up everything in terms of my family tree that I've made and stuff (I'm really pathetic). Thankfully I got all four back, though it took a while for one of them. As a way of celebration I'm NOT breeding any of them, and only picking up eggs from the cave/ abandoned page. I know most people won't actually care about this, but I just wanted to say. *** *** *** Current Mood: peaceful (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
11:45 am	annoyance This is just a quick thing before I leave. 1. I have been listening to all my musicals recently (please note that I was LISTENING to them- these are the ones that I have on CD, not on video/DVD) and a couple of things occurred to me. Firstly there was the moment the when I was listening to Phantom of the Opera, which still remains one of my favourite musicals ever (yay) and ‘Angel of Music’ was playing. There is a line which goes “Look at your face in the mirror/ I am there inside” I can’t remember how they did this in the stage version, but I know in the book the phantom reached Christine’s room via a passage way that ended behind her mirror and there was a tiny hidden catch in the corner that caused the mirror to spin and open up into the passage way. I had somehow managed to not think of this every time I’ve listened to it. Also in the book it does mention that Christine’s face becomes more sallow and pale and basically starts to look like the Phantom’s mask. Now, can I remember what the other interesting thing I thought of was? … bugger, bugger, bugger. I know there was a second thing that I thought of while I was listening to them last night. Was it something about Woman in White? Possibly. I am still wondering just how alike Laura and Anne look like when it’s done on stage and whether they actually try to find people who look very similar, or if it’s all done with makeup… or was it Blood Brothers, or Chess, or… (what else did I listen to last night?) Godspell, or Little Shop of Horrors? I KNOW there was something last night that I thought of! I’ll probably remember when I’m half-way home and then forget it by the time I get in. 2. This morning mum locked me out. I had gone into the garage to find a few things that I need for this afternoon (I couldn’t find them, but that’s a whole other worry/complaint) and I managed to knock over one of my boxes and spill all the stuff out of it. Mum came out to check what had happened and if anything had broken- it hadn’t. She goes back into the house, I continue my search. About five minutes after talking to mum I realise that I can’t find what I want, so I leave the garage, lock the door and go to the backdoor to get back inside the house… and find that it’s locked. I hammer on the door before I realise that mum must have LEFT FOR WORK!! Luckily the caravan is currently not in it’s usual position on the drive, so I was able to leave the back via the gate and go down the road to ask for our spare key, because Jim was out walking the dog. I then sent an annoyed message. Sadly Jim came in just as I was sending it and first I sent it to the wrong person. Oops. But then I sent it to mum. Apparently she had called Goodbye to me four times and had wondered why I hadn’t responded, not FIVE MINUTES after she had spoken to me IN THE FRIGGING GARAGE!!!! She didn’t even look outside!!!! I am not impressed, by anything at the moment. Current Mood: pissed off Current Music: 'Angel of Music'- Phantom of the Opera (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
12:16 pm	The only acceptable excuses for refusing cake are allergies and diabeties So, I do a lot of different jobs at work; sometimes it’s arts and crafts, sometimes cooking, sometimes I even get to be in the main room and get to watch over the people on the bouncy castle. It’s a very diverse job and I need to be ready to do a lot of different things. And of course each day can be completely different from the last. ( How I’ve spent the last couple of days ) Mary Poppins On Monday me, Sue and mum all went to see Mary Poppins at mum’s school. I have been to a couple of the performances that the school have put on and they’re… interesting. They’re not always the best acting or best singing, they’re not going to win any awards and sometimes you do wonder why certain kids were cast in the roles they’ve got. This one however, was really good. Oh there were times when people weren’t sure of their lines or cues and long silences were abound as they tried to work out who was meant to be talking, and once or twice the timing was a little off, but some of the singing was wonderful, there were some really confident kids in good roles putting a lot of effort in to the parts, and the costumes were all made up my one of mum’s colleagues and they were amazing! I want Mary Poppins’ costume and the lion outfit! The girl playing Mary Poppins, the lad doing Bert and the girl doing the bird woman all were brilliant- confident, good voices and they all seemed to actually know what they were doing and they got stuck with their lines a lot less than some of the others. George Banks was a bit of a let down, but Jane and Michael Banks were rather wonderful. And they did the Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious dance from the stage show. Other work thingies We’ve got the girl who’s hopefully going to be our new Gap Year Worker in today. She’s getting to meet us and see the centre and see if she likes the idea of actually working here, and we get to meet her and see if we think that she would actually fit in. She seems really nice and seeing as she’s already making fun of Peter I think she will fit in perfectly. She was telling us about her life and her Christian Experience and it sounds like she’s been through an awful lot of stuff and some really, really difficult times. She’ll be good at relating to the kids who’ve been through difficult times themselves, so that’ll be really good as well. Daddy’s On Friday afternoon, once I’ve finished work, I will be going to my dad’s (in London, for those of you who might have forgotten). I will still be coming online thanks to the excellent wireless coverage in my dad’s house, but at times it might be a little sporadic or at odd times due to doing different things. lycoris, if you just keep an eye on my dragons from time to time, just to make sure that they don’t start fighting with each other or biting other dragons or trying to steal pixels that don’t belong to them, that would be great. As for what we’ll actually be doing while I’m there, I know that we’re going to church on Saturday, I’m doing flag worship and Barry has asked if I will give a talk about the job that I’ve managed to get and “how God is using me” in that position because a lot of the people in the church were, and still are, praying for me. After church we’ll be going to see my Nanny and Uncle Tom (Uncle Tom is actually my step-granddad, but we just call him Uncle Tom!), which means I’ll be getting lovely, lovely food to eat and plenty of hugs, and I’ll get to play with the Pomeranian. On Sunday there’s a barbeque being organised by dad’s church, so we’ll be going down to that. And that’ll be lots of fun, yay. But for the rest of the week I have no idea what will be happening really. I think we are going to try to see the curling bridge which has been built- it rolls up into a circle, and I might get to see Sue and Simone if they’re about. Other than that… I haven’t a clue. Cake Tomorrow is cake baking day! I need to make my ganache and the chocolate cake, leaving the ganache for at least an hour in the fridge before icing the cake. I also need to get my round cake tins and my letter cutters out of the garage. The only problem with this is that Jim was moving some things the other day and I’m very worried that he’s put a ladder right in the way of where I want to be. This cake is to celebrate mum leaving her job. So I’m doing two chocolate cake bases in 9in circle pans, use a chocolate frosting/icing/filling/covering type stuff ganache in the middle and spread over the top and sides. From lilac roll out icing I’m going to cut the words “CONGRATULATIONS! YOU’RE LEAVING!” and put those on top and I’m going to ATTEMPT to make an icing flower to go in the middle. There’s also going to be a rather wonderful looking chocolate decoration that we saw on a cookery program. Melted milk and white chocolate dripped onto clingfilm on top a baking tray. The two are mixed with fingers to make a marbled effect and then chilled for 45 minutes. It’s then brought out and broken up and used to decorate. If it works, it should look bloody brilliant. This is the first time that I’ve made a cake specifically for mum, and it’s the first time I will have made ganache, an icing flower, or the chocolate decoration. I have NO idea how this is going to work out. But as this is the cake that mum is going to be taking to her leaving do, I really, really want it to look impressive (in a good way). I don’t want my cake to be a possible addition to amateur cake wrecks. Dragons Might as well close with these little monsters. They’re all from cave drops rather than breeding. For some reason none of my dragons wanted to breed the other day, so now I’m going to have to wait just under a week before I can try again. Bloody things. *** *** *** Current Mood: determined Current Music: 'Your Name is Holy'- Vineyard UK (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
12:43 pm	Risk- Closing Laptop on fingers. Likelihood- I dunno! I have just written a risk assessment for a cookery and craft club. I have only ever done one risk assessment before, and that was for RP. It was something like… Risk- falling off chair Severity of injury- not that bad, injured pride Likelihood of injury- with this lot, very! Action to minimise risk- tell them to sit on chair properly Risk- getting hit with a dice Severity of injury- Really not that bad, unless it gets them in the eye Likelihood of injury- really, really, really, really, really, REALLY small! Action to minimise risk- tell them not to throw dice at people! So yeah, not exactly taking it seriously! Thank God we never actually expected to get anything off the SU because they probably would have said “no” after reading that! Anyway, the one I did today was a lot more sensible and contained big words like… supervision, continually and ratio (which isn’t a big word, but does sound all official!) Assembly Today was round 1 (juniors) of the assemblies. It was Wole’s and we were doing the story of Daniel in the Lions’ den, which I mentioned yesterday. I managed to finish my lion hood (as you will have seen from the picture that I posted yesterday), and then Peter provided me with a sheet to cover the rest of my body. Because Dave has left there are only three of us doing the assemblies now, so Wole was the Narrator and the king, I was the King’s men (all of them), and the lion (along with a toy lion of course) and then Peter was Daniel and, amusingly enough, a lion! The way it worked was that I was the lion when Daniel gets thrown into the pit, but when the kings men get thrown in Peter was the lion and I got eaten! Heh heh heh! (and this is why I love being me!! The assembly did go well, and I do like doing drama for assemblies, because I know from past personal experience that it tends to engage young people a lot more. They enjoy it! The only thing I would say is that there needs to be a ***LITTLE*** work on the scripts at times, and really we should have a practice beforehand, but so often the scripts are only finished they day before/ the day of the assembly, and so there just isn’t time. It’s all good fun though, and the gap year worker type person who’s going to be joining us is into the drama and stuff and so she might be able to improve our little theatricals. Oh, and I had to say the prayer. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this, but I really, really get nervous about praying out loud in front of other people- I can actually hear and feel the blood pounding in my ears, which has got to be one of the most unpleasant things ever! I did manage to do it, but I still hated it! Explorers I don’t think I mentioned this at all, because I have been very lax in my updating, but I went on camp with the explorers recently (the weekend before last) and while we were there Tish and Bri had a bit of a shout at the lads who went because of certain things they did, or rather, neglected to do. Tish and Bri have been doing Scouts and things for so very, very long and have high expectations and standards and really, by now, the Explorers should know what they’re meant to do, only they don’t do it, whether because they being lazy, or they forget, or they’re doing what I do at home and just doing it on their own terms and in their own time, I don’t know, but I know that it really gets on Tish and Bri’s nerves, especially Tish. Anyway, I had avoided the shouting because I had gone down to the car park briefly and was warned that there was a telling off being done, but I think I did incur the wrath of Tish a little at one point (which I hadn’t felt was fair really, still don’t in fact). I then spent quite a while feeling a bit put out about all this and even skipped off Explorers last week, claiming that I had something that I needed to do by 9pm. TECHNICALLY this was true, because there was something that I wanted to get finished, though there wasn’t any real rush to get it done that night, only I realised that I hadn’t brought my pen drive home with me and so couldn’t do it anyway. I then saw Tish briefly on… Saturday when I got back from the second Barbeque, and she said that she needed a word with me at Explorers on Tuesday (yesterday). My thought- “Oh god! She’s going to shout at me about camp! She’s going to give me a good rollicking and I’m going to cry because I’m a giant wuss and then I’m going to get all fed up and then want to leave and that’s not good!” And then I was thinking about whether I’m actually any use at Explorers and whether I should stop going, and what I’m going to do when I move house, because I am going to be further away from Whiston and so it’ll take me longer to get there each week. So I went to Cubs, well actually I went to Beavers and had great fun playing with the kids and making a sheep/cat out of pompoms (it was meant to be a sheep but it ended up looking more like a cat!), and then did Cubs and kind of had fun there too, and then went through to Explorers. I was nervous and my heart was racing and I noticed that I was doing all of the things that I do when I think that I’m in trouble- I concentrate completely on the little things, even if I’m already aware of them, and I talk to myself just a little more than I would normally, not about anything in particular, I just say things out loud rather than keeping them in my head. So Tish told me to go into this little room off to one side of the main room where we do Explorers, and by that point I was absolutely sure that she was going to totally bawl me out and didn’t want to do it in front of the others. I sat down, she sat down, and she looked so serious and I was just thinking “here it comes, here it comes, don’t cry!” Then she asked me how I thought my scouting was going, and I was thrown a little, because I hadn’t expected that, so I answered a little tentatively, saying that I was enjoying it and I liked doing it, but that I wasn’t always sure how useful I was or whether I was always doing things right, because I thought if I answered like that (which is all true of course, I should point out), she might go a little bit easier on me with the shouting. She asked a few other questions and then ( the rollicking and my reaction ) Dragons *** *** *** These are mostly to continue my GetBackery broods, though not so much the floaty egg at the bottom. I now only need the sunrise/set dragons, and… the other colours of dorsal. (I think they’re the only ones I haven’t got yet) Current Mood: surprised Current Music: typing (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
12:10 pm	Lions and Tigers and Bears (oh my) So I've just spent... uh... something like three hours making a lion costume. Heh! In terms of cosplay or fursuit it's fairly crap, but it terms of being able to do the assembly, it'll probably pass the test. The question now of course is who has Wole cast as the lion? Because seriously, after making this thing, I want to be the one to wear it. I've even made a little tail! (a very little tail...) ( the lion hood ) I seriously love this thing!! Current Mood: silly Current Music: Clock ticking (Comment on this)
Monday, July 6th, 2009
11:41 pm	Good and Bad My Cool Job I sometimes am aware that I have a really, really cool job. I mean, in what other job can you have a weekend of music, food and fun, a morning of cleaning and doing paperwork and then being asked if you can make a lion costume for the next day?! I got a phone call a few hours ago from Wole asking if we've got anything that would work as a lion costume, or where we could get one from. After I said that I couldn't think of anywhere, short of going to a safari park, he asked if I could try to make one tomorrow. So that's my job for the morning- making a lion costume. I'm thinking... felt, wool... my cat tail from my wardrobe... in fact Wole should just cast me as the lion, because, seriously, I would make the best lion. Oh yeah, I forgot to say, this is for his assembly on Daniel in the lions' den. Hee hee. Pain I have got ouchies. I was riding home today and there was this MASSIVE flood on part of the road, and I went right through it on my bike. As I went through I realised that it was a lot deeper than I thought and so I couldn't really get through it properly. I then spotted a dip in the pavement by the road and I thought "ah hah, I can go onto the path just until I pass the flood and then get back on." So I head for the dip in the pavement. Only it wasn't a dip. No. It was just an uneven pavement and the water had covered the curb and so my front wheel hit it side on and I came off the bike, landing on my hands and knees. I have two bruised knees and my right hand is badly scraped (I have five holes in it!). I've washed my hand and sprayed all areas with Savalon (thank God for the spray version of that stuff!), but it hurts. The major problems are: 1. With both knees bruised I can't actually favour one over the other- I get hurt coming and going. 2. I'm right handed and so writing/ holding things/ typing/ whatever, hurts. 3. My bed is higher than the average bed and it involves either jumping or climbing to get in it. I tend to normally put my knee on the mattress and then lift the rest of myself on that way, lycoris normally does a little backwards jump, my brother, if he's getting on my bed for any reason, sometimes launches himself onto it, though I think that's more for the hell of it rather than being his preferred way due to the fact that he's tall enough to just sit on it. And when my nieces are in my room they use the little bookcase built into the bed to climb up (unless they're getting me to lift them onto it, which I think they prefer). However, due to me using my knees to get onto the bed, this currently HURTS!! 4. I already had a sore leg. Today the muscles in my right leg were really sore and I have NO idea why. My knees aren't helping. 5. My right knee hurts at the top and my left hurts at the bottom- this is just annoying. Dragons *** *** *** Current Mood: sore (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
10:46 pm	At home for once So yes, I'm updating at home while sitting on the landing- this is where I normally end up when I don't want to go downstairs to use the interwebs. I still don't have internet connection in my room and so I end up either downstairs or on the landing. *sigh* Oh well. House Hunting At the moment I have seen one place (which was tiny, tiny) and no others. Most places are either too expensive or in the wrong area, which is just annoying. There are two places that I want to see and one of them is in a very good place, but this involves phoning people to ask about arranging a viewing... Don't likesy phones. Gap Year Worker At work we get these gap year workers who stay with us on a full time basis, but work voluntarily and just get paid for their living expenses. Since I've been there we've had Dave from the Wirral, who is lovely, but sadly he left today and went home. Over the last month or so we've been trying to secure a new gap year worker from CareForce, which is the charity which supplied us with David. Just last week we heard from them and said that they had someone who would probably work well for us and sent us her details. Just by chance or coincidence she happens to be a friend of David's who he knew at university! So this girl is going to come in at some point so that we can interview her and see if she would be suitable and let her get an idea of what we're about as well. Apparently she's really into drama and art and plays the violin- so I'm already putting in a vote to take her on so she'll be able to help me with the crafting things and get the little brats children doing various interesting things. Dave Dave Left!!! Waaaaaaa. ;_; Ok, so I only knew him for 3 months, but he was fun and cool and he made the tea in the morning and did the washing up *grin* Dressing up 1. One of the girls from club wants to dress me up (her words) in a dress because she thinks that I don't like showing my legs. I explained that actually my reason for not wearing skirts or dresses is more to do with being able to move properly. Also there's the fact that with the lads that I work with in the club I wouldn't want the risk of one of them deciding to do something stupid like flip the back of the skirt up or something like that. Dressing up 2. ... Actually, I'll do this bit in a minute, let's go back in time a little... ( Nearly four days of food ) One of the lads was crying because of Dave leaving. It was nice to see how much they are going to miss Dave and there's a part of me that hopes that when I leave I will have made that much of an effect as well. I know they quite often talk about the other female staff that have been at the centre before me, but they don't seem to have a big as big an influence as Dave has been. I think he's done an awful lot with them and he's a lot of fun as well, so they really got close to him. Connor did inform me last week that I would be his replacement Dave though. *laugh* Dragons I worked out why I've been having problems with getting my dragons on LJ. When I've updated with dragons in the past I was updating on Semagic (as I am right now) and on there I don't have to think about sorting out the html tags, which of course the dragoncodes are. So now I have worked that out I'm a lot happier because I know that it wasn't that I was doing something wrong, it was just that I wasn't using the same software. Anyway, that said, here they are. *** *** *** *** Current Mood: full (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
12:32 pm	I started this yesterday... Updating at work as usual; I don’t know why I find it so much easier to update when I’m sitting here rather than when I’m at home. Dreams Had a weird dream the night before last. OK, so imagine Bender (the rude robot from Futurama) and some sort of weird monkey alien type thing. They were doing experiments on it for some reason and they realise that the monkey has this weird gene inside it which makes it like musicals and stuff. At this moment Bender, in classic Bender fashion, goes “Oh my God! The monkey’s Gay!” Sadly I woke up as soon as he said this so I never got to find out if the monkey actually was gay (I think that he was a little bit camp before they started doing experiments on it.) This dream has made me giggle quite a bit and makes up somewhat for my severe lack of fandom dreams EVER! Actually I had quite a weird one last night. I was on the QE2 with my brother Daniel. Of course the QE2 doesn’t actually make journeys anymore, but this didn’t seem to matter to my unconscious mind. We were actually getting on really well- which is how I know that it was a dream. I woke up feeling oddly disappointed. We were having a really good time. Grant applications I hate them. That’s all I have to say about that! Painting On Thursday last week and yesterday I have been doing painting in club with the younger group. On Thursday I just did normal painting with them, giving them paper and telling them that they could use any brush or colour, but please don’t mix the colours because I didn’t have enough paint to replace them all with. Near the end they got rather mixed, but I cared a lot less by that point! Yesterday I did sponge painting. I bought a pack of twenty kitchen sponges for 99p, then cut them up. I made squares, triangles, hexagons and what was meant to be circles… the circles didn’t really work out so well. Pooh. Anyway, this time the kids just dipped the sponges in the paint and printed them on their paper. Some of them made some really nice pictures, using all of the shapes to create bunnies and people and all sorts of things. Others just made nice colourful splodges with them and two decided that they didn’t want to print with them, but just rub the paint filled sponges all over their pieces of paper until there wasn’t a single bit of white left and the colour of the paint was interesting to say the least. I took one girls’ painting off her because she kept putting her fingers in the paint after I told her not to. She got in a right strop and stormed off. She came back a bit later to tell me that she would get her pictures when I wasn’t there and finish the painting anyway. I simply looked at her and said “You can try". She really didn’t like me for that. Oh, and she hadn’t washed her hands at this point and was refusing to, but a little while later she appeared again and said “I’m going to the toilet” As though I was about to argue with her about it. I just shrugged and was just continued with my smirky thoughts about how was going to be washing her hands in there and had probably got fed up with the drying paint. I think she was also trying to get some of the other girls who were in there at the time to steal her painting for her when I wasn’t looking, because of course I wouldn’t suspect them. *sigh* Oh how these children will have to learn that I grew up with two brothers, one of them younger than me, and have spent nearly fifteen years working within the Scout association. I know the sort of things they do. I hid the painting. *grin* Cooking Or rather baking. We have a girl who comes regularly to the club called Leah and it was her birthday last week. I asked her what she wanted to do to celebrate the fact that it was her birthday, and she got rather into the idea of making cakes. So on Thursday I went out and I bought flour and eggs and sugar and things to decorate with and icing sugar and, you know, all off the things that you need to make cakes. Including the butter which I hadn’t added to that list. So we got rid of the little ones, I cleaned the kitchen ready for cooking, we went for dinner, came back, I got the ingredients out and… and Leah never came. It ended up being more of the lads baking than the girls (which pleased me no end!) and they did actually make some really good cakes. Yesterday I brought stuff again and let them have a little more of a free reign. Three of the lads made batches on their own without me having to watch over them and only offer a little bit of assistance when they asked what to do with a mixture that was far too thick (add milk) and one that was far too runny (He hadn’t put any butter in at all, and I’m not sure that he had actually put in enough flour. They certainly didn’t rise as much as the other batches did.) One lad really wants to do meringues, so what I’m going to have to do is go back to the club earlier and start the meringues with him so that they’ll be all cooked by the time club ends- they take and hour in the oven, people will no doubt mess about and ruin the mixture and whipping the egg whites takes quite a while, so I need extra time to do it in. Hopefully he will actually turn up! I’m really pleased that they’re enjoying it because they want a lot more cakes done- specifically cakes, by the way, they do not want biscuits or sweet bread, or anything else; it has to be cake!- and I’m giving serious thought to actually putting together a cookery group for them to that one evening a week/ two a month just the ones who actually want to cook/bake can come in, try making something, have a bit of a play on the bouncy and the wii while things are in the oven/chilling, and then eat. I think it’d really work well if the effort was put into it. And, if we had a group, we could do a course on food hygiene, health and safety, etc, etc, etc (*trying not to think of ‘The King and I’*) and they’ll all be things that they can take with them into a career, and it puts them in a position where they’re more able to look after themselves and their families if the parents/ carers don’t really cook. I really want to get this thing going, if you haven’t been able to tell. I also want to get a jewellery making group up and running, both for young people and adults. And a dance group and I want to do guitar and… oh some many more things besides! In Other News… I hate watching the news- it depresses me, and yet I seem to watch it more now than ever because Jim watches it in the morning before I leave, and Wole puts it on when we’re having dinner. Grr. Stupid news. Depressing world that we live in. (“Crack addicted, AIDS infected… pitbull!”) I’m going to be travelling to London soon to see my daddy- 17th to the 23rd of July. It’ll be nice because dad’s not going to be working and so I’ll be able to have all my time with him rather than having to complete with him working as well. I don’t mind helping him when he’s working at the community centre, but I prefer just getting to do things elsewhere- like going ice skating and the theatre museum we used to go to, and all of those other fun things that we do when he doesn’t have to work. (Of course we also end up spending a lot of time at the house playing on computers or guitars, but I like those things too, and at least I get to be with dad!) Mum’s looking forward to leaving work… I’m going to be making and decorating a celebratory leaving cake for her (chocolate with a chocolate filling and chocolate on top… with chocolate sprinkles shaped like a box of chocolates?) My cousin is getting married at the end of next month and I have been invited to the reception. For the first time ever I had to buy wedding themed paper, stickers and stamps in order to make a congratulations cards. Of course I will probably never need to use them again because I don’t really have many people around me who are planning on getting married any time soon/at all. It’s not even as if I’d be using them for myself either because I’m not planning on marrying and so I don’t have to make any invitations with wedding things on them. *sigh* Oh well. Dragons It’s been a while, I know, but they’re here again. My pretties! *pets them* I don’t think there’s anything that I have to say about the little dragony babies this time around… no. There’re no genders I want, and no special family links. Oh, though I suppose I should have a small squee about the fact that I managed to get the dorsal dragon (the first one. His name is Blackcurrant Jam) *** *** *** *** Current Mood: blah Current Music: 'Crazy Train'- Ozzy Osborn (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 7th, 2009
10:03 pm	Boo! Today was a day for doing things! (Well... two things really!) But before that, I will tell you a couple of other things (because I can) Funding Grants I have been trying to sort out funding for work. Peter asked me to look into getting a small grant for about £500 to buy arts and crafts materials (so basically money for me to go and buy a load of tat!!!). I found a couple, but after reading the guidelines for one it turned out that it wouldn't fund us, and the other one I gave up onn after stuggling with the 34 page application form! *whimper* I hate filling out applications! I have now found a few more that might be better, and one of them does sound promising (in the amount of money they give, the sort of things they fund and the fact that there isn't a big long application form!) Mummy's Walk Yesterday mum did her sponsored walk of 26miles. She was one of a large group of people doing the walk and out of everyone there, she (as she said herself) was the fattest and least healthy looking in terms of being able to do the walk. However, for the last few months she has been training with a friend of ours who lives next door. She's done an awful lot of walking in the time leading up to the walk and she felt confident at least in being able to finish it. She finished first! Apparently she spent most of the walk at the front of the pack and was encouraged to stay there over the last few miles, unknowingly, by another woman who I think just wanted to get the walk over and done with. It just sort of amuses me that of all the people on mum's paper sponsor form, I have put down the largest amount of money and I filled it in before I was employed! TODAY! Sleep I may have turned off all of my alarms last night and slept until 11... (though it has to be said that I did wake up around 9ish, it's just that I decided to go back to sleep) House hunting Over the last couple of months or so I have been looking at houses and flats to rent online and for a while mum has been saying that we should drive out to see the areas that some of them are in, just to see what the outside is like, what's near by, how easy it would be to get to work, etc. But with mum doing walking in the evenings most days, mum and Jim going away at the weekends and various other things, we haven't got around to it. But we did today! This morning I rewrote the list of places that I had found, which added up to about 29 places, though there were one or two in the same place, then we went through the A-Z, writing down the page numbers and grid ref for each road so we would be able to plot a route of sorts, and then we set out. I'm not sure how many we ended up seeing, though there were quite a few. Some of them we sort of looked at and went "hmmm. Not sure about that..." and we crossed quite a few off the list when we realised that they were going to be way too far away for me to be able to get back to work easily. However, we did find ten places that looked alright from the outside and I could fesibly live in. They range in price from about £325 to £395 and a variety of flat/houses and number of bedrooms (see below) and all but one of them is unfurnished, so I will finally be able to get my bed out of the attic. 1 bed flat- 5 2 bed flat- 2 1 bed house- 1 2 bed house- 2 If I get a two bedroom place and the gap year worker that we get at work is female then she will stay with me and I will get £200 of my rent paid each month. If the gap year worker isn't female then I will put my books (some of them anyway), manga and computer in the other room in the vain hope that it will mean that I will actually sleep in my bedroom and work in the other room. I have sent an e-mail to the different letting agents asking to arrange a viewing as soon as possible, so hopefully they will get back to me sooner rather than later and then I can see inside them and start the process of moving out. It will be nice to get everything out of the attic and out of the garage. Especially the garage! But it will be a rather big thing for me because I once said while I was living in York "I will have officially moved out when all of my books, manga, DVDs, CDs and videos are out of storage and with me." Dragons I'm just getting tired of waiting for the hatchlings to grow up Mark Wan *** Yu Kuroudo *** Muesli *** Fruit Tart Green *** Blue Sorry, had to do it a strange way Current Mood: chipper Current Music: 'Woman's Work'- Tracy Chapman (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 6th, 2009
11:52 pm	very, very, very, very Quick! I just wanted to say that I have realised that while I'm currently obsessed with the bloody dragon cave thing, at least I haven't yet got to the point where I create a second account for the sole purpose of staking out the cave, waiting for pretty new eggs, picking them up, getting them to hatch, breeding them and passing on the offspring to my normal account (which I would probably use mum's laptop to log onto) The fact that I use the word 'yet' in that sentence should tell you something though... Current Mood: Obsessional Current Music: 'Way Back into Love'- Music and Lyrics (6 Comments |Comment on this)