Friday 31 December 2010

Feelings Shmeelings

This photo has absolutely nothing to do with this post.
But it is for my dearest Annie's honour/viewing pleasure. In large.
When I woke up this morning I still felt sleepy. I'm not sure if I still felt tired or if it was just a sleepy feeling. Because they are two very different things ya know? Either way Mr.K drove himself to work and I went back to sleep. 


When I woke up again I felt just a tinsy winsy bit bad that while Mr.K got up and got ready for work I blatantly rubbed my lie in right in his face. His stubbly face. (Shave off your goatee dearest, you know I don't care for it!)


Then I marvelled at how soft the new bed sheet feels. It must be a like a zillion thread count. (At least!) Actually, I'm quite sure that that doesn't even exist, but seriously, this sheet is softer than any other sheet I've had the privilege, nay honour, of owning. 


After I'd done a few other menial, housewifery duties, I went into the living room and it was cold. So cold that I could feel it in my bones. So cold that it made my fingers slow when I was sending a text. So I turned on the heater, put on a cardigan and wrapped myself in a blanket on the sofa and I got to think. Thinking about feelings. And my mind boddled*. 


(As a side note, I know the phrase isn't the mind boddles. It's the mind boggles. I'm not stupid. But I like to say the mind boddles to see if anyone notices my mistake. I also sometimes say congrads or congradulations for the same reason!)


But my mind boddled because feelings are such peculiar things. Peculiar and precious. Feelings help us to remember that we're truly alive. We have physical feelings. Like feeling cold or hot. Or feeling ill, tired/sleepy or full of energy. I think that these feelings are straight forward enough. It's easy to recognise that you physically feel cold or ill. The tricky ones are these emotional types. Feeling angry or excited is pretty straight forward too I think. But what about when we feel hurt, or lonely or anxious? Strange feelings. I wonder if they are the same for everyone?


I'm all for sharing feelings. It's how we get to know ourselves and other people better. And there's little that is more meaningful than making profound connections and friendships with people. 


I'm not too sure what to think about this post. It's more thoughtful than my usual style. I feel a bit self conscious about putting it out there for the whole world to read. Not that I'm deluding myself into thinking that the whole world even reads this...






* Something else that boddles my mind is thinking about colour. Well, how we perceive colour. I've always wondered if we all see the same colours. Like when I look at the grass, do I see the same colour or shade of green as Mr.K does? Or do we both see different colours which we know to be green, because we've be told that the colour of grass is green. My mind is spinning in circles right now. Is your mind boddled too? Maybe I will write more about mind boddling some other time. 

Thursday 30 December 2010

Curly Nannan

On this day, this very exact day ninety years ago a baby girl was born. Constance Eileen. Although by the time I came to meet her, I would never refer to her as Constance or Eileen. (She does generally go by Eileen though.) No, no, to me she would be Curly Nannan. 
Curly Nannan on the left, regular Nannan on the right.

In 90 years you have seen a lot of life. Heck, you lived through World War 2. You were the same age as I am at that point. I imagine that it must have been a very hard time, but not you - you remember it differently. You fondly say that you had a lovely war. I think that that's funny and I love you all the more for it. 

You've had three darling children, three darling grandchildren and and six even more darling great-grandchildren. That makes you a Great-Nannan in name and in nature. 

Your great grandchildren.
You looked after me when I was but a slip of a girl. You and Curly Grandad. I remember days spent at your house watching Bewitched and classic old musicals. I remember marvelling at your video collection and how completely organised and arranged it was. Still is. I remember your film fair treasures and your stories of meeting the man that played Darth Vader in Star Wars. I remember you taking me to dancing classes and tumble tots. I remember you making egg and chips for everyone. The famous Egg-and-Chips.  But not for me, because I don't like eggs, so I would always get bacon and chips and I thought that this was brilliant. You told me the stories to Treasure Island and Tom Sawyer, the great classics. I completely accredit my love of books and reading to you. In fact I'm sure that I would be entirely different had I not had such a sweet Curly Nannan to dote on me.

My memories of these times are fresh in my mind and heart and I'm grateful that today, on your 90th birthday, we get to have a party and all tell you how we love you and make yet more memories with you to carry in our hearts. We love you. I love you.

Happy birthday Curly Nannan. 

Wednesday 29 December 2010

Whadda Gem

Mr. K is playing COD. If you know what COD is and if your woman and if your a women that knows what COD is not because you enjoy playing it yourself, but frequently you are a COD widow, then I salute you. I bow to you in fact. I am still learning how to be a gracious COD widow. 

Anyway, this is not what I wanted to talk about. 2010 has been good to me. It's been good to many. For me, 2010 has been a very good year. Very likeable, very enjoyable and very memorable. And seeing as we're now practically at the end of 2010, I thought I'd make a quick list of some of my most likeable, enjoyable and memorable times. Here we go.

/ Getting married
/ Seeing the colosseum with my very own eyes
/ Going to the temple for the first time
/ Opening predictions with my beloved housemates
/ Buying a sofa (not a big deal for many, but it was our very own sofa. The first thing we bought together)
/ CentreParcs with my family
/ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1
/ A Thousand Splendid Suns
/ The heat in Rome
/ The best lasagne I've ever eaten
/ The mafia lord in the white suit and crocodile shoes
/ Peter Kay
/ Mr. K's promotion
/ Lots of firsts
/ The X factor
/ The birth of this here blog
/ Fireflies playlist


/ The creation of my plan (not an evil plan, a lovely plan)
/ Seeing so many friends get married
/ Random trip to A Month of Sundaes
/ These photos/times....
























































Monday 27 December 2010

The Flashing Lights of Christmas

This was taken last Christmas. I like this photo.


This Christmas has been a memorable one. Well, a memorable one and a not so memorable one. Some of this Christmas has been just like every other Christmas. I consider this to me a good thing. Family, carols, decorations, food, presents and lots of reruns on TV. Typical Christmas. And there isn't anything wrong with a typical Christmas. In fact, it's predictability is one of the comforts of Christmas. The jolly, merry surety of it all. 


Well, for me & Mr. K this Christmas was the start of a new Christmas groove. With it being our first as a married couple. We have to balance ourselves between our two families and make time to start a few new traditions of our own. That is no easy feat I tell you. 


So, we spent a quite Christmas morning by ourselves, opening our presents and drinking a cold Coke from a glass bottle. (This is one of our traditions) Then we hot footed it over to Grimsby, where all of Mr.K's family lives for Christmas dinner. Momma K sure knows how to organise a dinner. She said dinner is at 12, and it was. Almost exactly. That woman has a talent for organising dinners. After we'd had dinner, a few more presents, a chat and a nap me & Mr.K left for Sheffield. And this is where the memorable (memorable as in what happened was not part of the usual Christmas groove) portion of Christmas took place. On the way out of Grimsby, as we casually drove along, listening to the Glee version of O Holy Night, we see blue flashing lights in the rear view mirror. We got pulled over. On Christmas day! We were certain that we weren't speeding. And obviously we weren't drunk. The car is insured and all of the lights work. So, after Mr.K had spent 10 minutes sat in the police car and after he'd done a breathaliser that can back at 0.000 they sent us on our way. I was terrified. That was my very first run in with the police. And I wouldn't like it to happen again. So when we eventually got to Sheffield, we had more food, more presents, more family and more games. Comfortable Christmas. 


And now that Christmas is over I'm starting to get nervous about going to France. Christmas was the big event that stood between me and going to France. And now Christmas is over. So France is the next thing. Je dois apprendre francais rapidment. 

Tuesday 21 December 2010

I-Need-A-Little-Christmas

My house (I know, I know, it's a flat, but I call it a house) is completely devoid of any kind of Christmas decoration/cheer/festivities. 


In hindsight, I should have not let the practicality of my own mind take over where Christmas is concerned.  We don't have a Christmas tree. So no baubles, no tinsel, no twinkling fairy lights, no Christmas star. We don't have a nativity scene or any Christmas paintings. We don't have any gingerbread anythings or any popcorn garlands. 


We have a set of red reindeer lights strung around our TV and a felt snowflake garland hung next to the door. And that is it. Oh, and we have some snow. But we all know that I wish we could trade the snow for something else.


The humbug reason we don't have any of these things is because Mr. K & I thought that with it just been the two of us we don't need it. Mistake. We do need it. And the practical reason is that we don't have anywhere to store all of the Christmas decorations afterwards. 


So Christmas doesn't feel like it's happening yet. Correction, it feels like Christmas is happening around me. I love Christmas though. But I have a cold and I think that a considerable amount of mucus has settled on my brain and is impeding on the Christmas joy portion. Nice.

Sunday 19 December 2010

Talent and/or Curse

Dear Mom,
I have always admired your ability to simply look a wrapped present and know what it is. However, I have seemingly inherited this talent (or curse). I have now officially ruined the surprise element of Christmas for myself. I am quite (probably more like definitely) sure that I know what all but one of my pre
sents from Mr.K are. Admittedly, I didn't help myself much when I went looking for presents mid November and found three of them. But I then promised (Mr.K made me promise) that I would never go looking for presents ever again. And I haven't. But that is beside the point. I have ruined Christmas. Well, at least the present/gift part.
Thank you for blessing me with this hereditary gift and/or curse.
Sincerely your loving daughter,

XxXxxOOoXoO
(Big kiss, little kiss, big kiss, little kiss, little kiss, big hug, big hug, little hug, big kiss, little hug, big hug.)

Friday 17 December 2010

Winter Blues-ish

I am a lover of Spring, a lover of Summer and a lover of Autumn. Specifically (or pacifically, depending at which point of my life you knew me) I love Summer. I love long lazy days in spent lounging in the sun enjoying its gracious warmth. I love getting up when it's light outside and really feeling like you can make the most of the day with it's bounty of sunny hours. I love being justified in wearing sunglasses and eating ice cream from cones with chocolate flakes and sweet, sticky strawberry sauce.


I like the hope of Spring. The sheer optimism that warmer times are coming.


And I love the cozy, crispness of Autumn. Winding down from the Summer hype and chilling out.


The bright sparks among you will have noticed no mention and no appreciate of Winter. That's because I don't like the snow, sleet, slush and ice. I don't like getting up in the morning when it's still dark and I don't like getting home in the evenings with it being dark still. (I would never survive in Alaska!!) I don't like how the combination of the cold of the air and warmth of the central heating dries out my skin. And I don't like having a runny nose and cold.


I think it's quite clear that I'm not a fan of Winter.


Well, that ever so slightly changed today. And seeing as the snow is coming back maybe tonight or tomorrow, I thought I better immortalise my slightly cosier feelings towards Winter before the snow makes me forget.


It wasn't anything special. I took a walk up to the post box and forward on some mail for the woman who used to live in my flat and while I was walking, it was cold. Cold. Minus temperatures. But as I was walking I took in a big, big deep breath. The kind where you feel like you couldn't possibly hold anymore air in your lungs. But the air was cold. Really cold. So cold it felt a little painful to hold so much in my lungs. But it made me feel so alive.


And I enjoyed it so much that I took a major detour on the way home and walked through the park. The grass was crunchy under my feet. And people were all wrapped up in cute hat and scarf combos. Walking their dogs. I don't really like pets but I wouldn't mind a dog to walk.


So, today, while we have no snow and it was just a cold, crisp Winters day.

Wednesday 15 December 2010

I didn't quite get to 99 yesterday...





48. I sleep with two pillows a night.
49. I get really freaked out by scary films. Even ones that are only a little bit scary.
50. I probably have the neatest lecture notes that you will ever see. 
51. My hometown is Sheffield. All of my family still lives there.
52. I'm a hair twiddeler. 
53. I watch too much TV,
54. I miss my friend Grays. She's in France for a year. 
55. It's a Christmas tradition in my family that we can't go downstairs on Christmas morning until Dad has gone down and turned on the lights on the tree.
56. There are two things I can guarantee about Christmas. Firstly, I will get a chocolate orange. Secondly, I will eat more cheese wrapped in bacon things than anyone else in my entire family. Those things are my favourites.
57. I feel like I get a lot of knots in my back. I have one right now. On my right shoulder. 
58. I've never learnt how to dive. 
59. When Mr.K is ill, I think that he exaggerates a lot and isn't as ill as he makes out. Maybe he doesn't do this intentionally. Maybe it's just a trick of his mind. Maybe I just don't give him enough sympathy.
60. I have a best friend called Hannah. We are the kind of best friends where we don't see each other too often, but we're still best friends anyway.
61. I might make it one of my new years resolutions to take more photographs.
62. I will also make it a resolution to learn how to use my camera properly. 
63. I like to highlight things. 
64. My favourite dessert is probably pavlova. Anything with cream and meringue is good in my book.
65. When I was about 10 years old I started to write a book about a girl that had an evil step-dad that also happened to be her teacher. I never finished it.
66. I wish I had a sister. Although I wouldn't trade one of my brothers for a sister.
67. One day, I really hope to go to South America. 
68. History absolutely fascinates me.
69. If I had a time machine I would definitely go back to the 1920s. They were so glamorous back then.
70. I had never read Pride & Prejudice or Jane Eyre or Emma or any of those classic books. 
71. Actually, I have read Wuthering Heights, but I don't class myself as having read it, because really I studied for my English A-level, I didn't finish it and I didn't really like it. I didn't like the film either.
72. In my A-levels, for media I got the highest grade in my whole college. (Yes, I am boasting here. I don't do it often.)
73. I started to learn to play the piano when I was younger, but begged my Mom to let me quit because I hated practising and didn't want to do exams and grades. She let me quit but said that I would always regret. (You were right Mom.)
74. I have nine cousins. 
75. I hope that my children have more then nine cousins. 
76. I have blue eyes. (Did I write that last time? I don't remember.)
77. I wish the Mr.K would turn down the TV because he's playing on cod and all I can hear are guns and people dying.
78. I don't think that I have a favourite book or a favourite song.
79. I've probably seen every episode of Friends. I can quote a lot of it. 
80. When someone first told me that my star sign was cancer, I got really scared and thought that that meant that I would get cancer...
81. My favourite pizza topping is bacon and sweetcorn. Or BBQ chicken. Maybe BBQ chicken, bacon and sweetcorn is my true favourite.
82. I would choose chocolate over sweets most days. 
83. My Dad used to be a funeral director. Mr.K is a funeral director too.
84. I'm 5"9. Taller than the average girl. I like it that way.
85. My favourite word in French is pomplemousse. It means grapefruits.
86. I think that keep is a very strange word to look at and moist is a good word to say.
87. I have a picture on my bedroom wall that say 'keep calm and carry on.' I like it a lot. It reminds me to keep calm and carry on.
88. About six months ago I decided that I only wanted to own nice matching pyjamas. 
89. Mr. K & I went on our honeymoon to Rome. I'd wanted to go there since I was approximately 13 years old. Me & Hannah made mental plans to go together but her Dad said we were too young to go on holiday by ourselves. He was probably right in hindsight.
90. I'm very proud of the fact that every light in my house now has a lamp shade.
91. I have no preference between Dairy Milk & Galaxy.
92. When I'm in the car I listen to Radio 1.
93. When I become a grandmother (long way off I know) I want to be called Nana.
94. I can remember the very first time that I counted up to 100.
95. Sometimes when my knee hurts, if I hit it, it hurts less.
96. I most often wear the colour blue.
97. I have perfect eyesight.
98. I like writing my blob.
99. All of these things a true. Probably. I don't remember what I wrote yesterday...

Tuesday 14 December 2010

99 truths...




1. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
2. This means that I'm a Mormon. 
3. My middle name is Kate.
4. I want to have an even number of children. 
5. I want to have four children. At least. Ideally, not four girls and not four boys. A nice healthy mix.
6. I go on facebook too often. 
7. I'm actually finding this quite difficult. And I'm only up to seven. And I suppose this one doesn't really count.
8. I got an A in French at GCSE. I was probably the most pleased with that grade than any other grade ever.
9. I have two earliest memories - I don't remember which came first. 
               a). I'm jumping on the sofa in the house with the blue carpet, wearing dungarees and eating rolos.
               b). I'm blowing out candles on a birthday cake that has Winnie the Pooh & Tigger on it.
10. While I'm on childhood memories, I used to want to be Peter Pan.
11. When my first brother Richard was born, and my Dad told me I had a baby brother, I said "Yay! I have a baby brother. Wait, is that a little boy or a little girl?!" (I know now brothers are boys and sisters and girls.)
12. I will never be skinny, because I eat too much. Maybe I could settle on slender. I would like that. 
13. I wish that I still had long hair.
14. I can't go to sleep unless I have a drink by the side of my bed. I rarely drink it in the night though. And I never used to do this before I got married. 
15. I will probably never go back to using a PC. I love my Mac like a member of the family.
16. I love to cook.
17. And I love cook books. I probably have more cook books than regular books. And I always want to buy more.
18. Nigella Lawson is my idol.
19. When I eat a banana, I always throw the two ends in the bin. I don't ever remember having eaten them.
20. Sometimes I tell Mr.K that he's been snoring for ages when he's on the first snore. You have to nip these things in the bud. (What does that saying even actually mean.)
21. Sometimes when I speak out loud (especially with people I'm not too comfortable with yet) I stumble over my words and get embarrassed.
22. I don't like answering my mobile when it's a withheld number.
23. I've discovered in the last month that I like my steak medium.
24. I sometimes think that I really want to move to Utah and have a massive family.
25. My favourite colour is purple.
26. My three dessert island items would be Mr.K (oh I know, I am such a sweetheart), a TV with skyplus and crumpets with butter. 
27. I remember that I learnt the word trepidation when I was in year 6, from Mrs. Butler.
28. I once prided myself on the fact that I knew the first names of all the teachers at my primary school.
29. I'm at university getting me a degree in primary education so I can be a teacher. (And I will keep my first name a secret from everyone!!!)
30. I get a bit annoyed when people start a word with a capital in the middle of a sentence for absolutely no reason.
31. My spelling is not great. (I just had to correct spelling from speeling. That was a typo though, not really a spelling mistake.)
32. I like to think that I'm organised. In reality, I'm probably not.
33. I dream of having dinner parties and cooking for all of my friends. 
34. I'm a worrier. 
35. I love the Harry Potter series. I almost wish that it was real.
36. It really annoys me when people don't indicate.
37. Someone has to do an awful lot to make me dislike them.
38. I don't understand why anyone would ever choose to eat a bounty when other chocolate bars are available.
39. I don't like the snow. (Maybe you already knew that.)
40. I wore braces for a very long four years. 14-18. Bad times. I have lurvely teeth now though.
41. I want to have my teeth whitened.
42. Sometimes (a lot of times) I want to eat even when I'm not hungry. (See number 12)
43. I like to have painted nails.
44. I don't like my feet, more specifically my toes.
45. I don't like to take paracetamol. Like, I have a headache right now, but would rather just moan about it a little bit rather than take a painkiller. I only take them if I really hurt.
46. I have Osgood-Schlatter disease. (Doesn't that sound awfully serious?!) It doesn't hurt so much nowadays, but sometimes it hurts really bad.
47. If I laugh really, really hard sometimes I start to cry. Well, sob. Uncontrollably. Mr.K calls it craughing. (Crying + laughing. Clever, huh?) It's a bit strange, but cathartic too.






I'm getting very tired. I know 47 is a strange number to stop on, but I will resume tomorrow. 

Monday 13 December 2010

Life's Little Joys

Sometimes I wake up and say to myself 
"today I will experience joy." 
(I think that if joy were a colour, it would most definitely be yellow.) 
And I do. Sometimes I wake up and even though I don't say it, it still happens. I consider myself to be truly blessed because of that. Because let's be honest, who doesn't want to have a bit of joy in their daily lives? 


This weekend was one of those glorious times where it just happened without me saying it to myself. This last weekend, two of my delicious nieces came to stay with Mr.K & I and they really, really, really, really brought me joy. I don't think that it would be too much of an exaggeration (well, maybe a little) to say that they are practically angels. If I had a Christmas tree, (in fact I would need two Christmas trees) I would spray them with gold paint and put them on top as beautiful life size decorations. 


Not only did there presence bring a little extra joy to my life, but they helped me remember some other little joys. Maybe you think it's a bit over the top (OTT!!!) to label the following list as joys, but I'm ever the optimist and I'm all for embracing life's little pleasure. Plus, little things please little minds. 
Away, here are some of my weekend joys...


1). Using giant comedy straws to drink peach squash. Using them with two girls under 10 makes it a much more acceptable thing to do.
(Which, please note, is my second favourite flavour squash. My first favourite flavour is white grape & peach. I think you can only buy it from Asda.) 


2). Going to COSTCO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love that place. All of the exclamation marks are absolutely necessary. I love Costco so much that I even have a special song that I sing when we go. Maybe I'll teach it you some time. In a whole post dedicated to my love of Costco. Is that going too far?


3). Using those pictures that have a hole for you to put your face through. We went to the Royal Armories museum and they had one for King Henry VIII & for Queen Victoria. Ella is 7 (the one in this King Henry picture) and she very graciously corrected Mr.K when he thought that this was a different King. She is a genius at just 7 years old!


4). Giving out nicknames. Ella is already fondly called Ellabombella by the family, so I can't claim points for coming up with that one. Caleah didn't really have a nickname, so I decided to start calling her Ca-lee-lee. She smiled when I said it the first time, so I'm going to roll with it and see if it sticks. In fact, I'm going to make it stick. 


5). I went to the institute Christmas carol concert last night. Christmas songs bring me joy. Christmas songs been sung by some of my best friends brings me even more joy. After it had finished, I caught up with Angela (nickname: Fantangela. A fusion of the words fantastic and Angela. Genius.), Annie (Annie Apples) and Katie (Cakey). Angela is an absolute crack up. And she is the Queen of co-ordination and accessories. (They should make a picture of her with a hole for you to put you head through.) I used to live with Annie & Katie. I obviously don't now. I live with Mr. K...he is my husband after all. But I count them in my nearest and dearest. And they certainly bring me joy. Joy, joy, lots of joy. 

Thursday 9 December 2010

Time Well Spent

Ho, ho, ho!
Maybe I should have spent this week working on an assignment that I have to hand in a week tomorrow. It's a 3000 word-er. I've written approximately...300 words. (A tenth of the way through. Go me!) 
Instead, I'm sat in a wooden cabin (which, if I'm honest is probably a little bit nicer than my actual flat. Mr.K agrees.) surrounded by snow in the depths of Sherwood forest. This cabin even has a sauna. That's right, A SAUNA! I feel like I'm living in the lap of luxury. Well, I say this having only used the sauna once. I went in for fifteen minutes and honestly felt like the air was so hot that I couldn't breathe. And helpfully (maybe, maybe not) it's oh so nicely open all my pores and drawn out all the nastiness. But hey, at least I'm hidden away in the middle of the forest and there aren't many people here that I know to witness it. 


Anyway, while I should have been writing my assignment, which feels like the thing I should be focusing my time and attention on, I've been doing other things. Things which are much more enjoyable that writing an assignment. So I will consider it not to be a waste of time, putting off the things that I should really be doing, but instead, time well spent. Very, very well spent. 
Here's a break down. 
Approximately I've spent.....
9 hours in the swimming pool.
27 hours sleeping.
15 hours (maybe more) reading.
6 hours playing games.
Half an hour doing my nails & my Mom's nails. (Me-pastel purple. Mom-forest green)
1 hour walking through the snow.
15 minutes in the sauna.
1 hour in the bath.
Half an hour picking out and eating my favourite Quality Streets.
15 minutes taking photos. (Approx. 1 minute getting a picture of Father Christmas. Yes, he obvs hangs out here too. See below.)
And finally....0 hours & 0 minutes doing my assignment. 

Thursday 2 December 2010

Snow Away


This is day three of the BIG FREEZE! (Brrrr!) Or is it day four? I'm not sure. Staying inside for a number of days (3 or 4) can do this to a person - make them completely unable to distinguish one day from another. So they all (un)happily roll into one. I think I'm starting to get cabin fever. 


There is one tender mercy though. Mr.K hasn't been into work for the last 3 (or 4) days either. Hurrah for the 11 hour rule! (Don't know what that is? I'll explain some other time.) So we've staying inside our little, warm flat. We watch films and make food. I read/write blobs and he plays on his ps3. It works for us. 


Yesterday I had a break down. Just a small one. I was feeling particularly convicted in my disliking of snow and right then, it was snowing really bad. We'd tried to dig out our car with no success. We'd tried to shovel enough snow off our car park and steep, steep hill, and we'd tried to put some grit salt down to melt the snow. Guess what, no success. By then, I had cold feet, cold hands, cold ears, a cold nose and a cold head. So I had a little bit of a dramatic moment (I wanted to be an actress as a child you know) and I had a little cry. In hindsight, it was a little ridiculous. Mr.K said he had to try really hard not to laugh at me. I'm glad that he didn't. 


Once I'd had my...shall we call it a 'moment' we decided to go and buy supplies. From where we live, if you walk for about five minutes in the right direction you come to a little corner shop. This is where we went for our supplies. You might think that going out to buy supplies in the snow is a very sensible thing to do, and you might expect that a person buying supplies would buy things like bread, milk and other 'essentials'. Well, not us. Our supplies were to keep our morale up. Well, this is what Mr.K & I said. Realistically, I think that they were to make sure that I don't cry again. And I think that that is just as good.
We bought...
  • Chips (and might I add, BBQ rib is probably our new favourite flavour.)
  • Dip - obviously, which dipstick (I found the use of the word dipstick highly amusing here) would buy chips with no dip. Unless you already have dip..
  • Snack a Jacks
  • Pancake mix
  • Strepsils (sensible)
  • Peanut M&Ms
  • Dairy Milk & Galaxy
  • A newspaper & a magazine (which was trash if I'm honest.)

Money well spent. The weather forecast says tomorrow will be snow free. I think that sometimes the weather man guess or lies, so that we don't all go insane or get depressed. I live in hope of its accuracy. 

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Monsters Inc.

Mr.K/the monster
Yesterday, I told (really, it was more of a gentle informing) Mr.K that he snores. I've woken him (more like a gentle nudge) in the night a few times before to ask him to roll onto his side so that he'll stop. He always graciously obliges. And the next day if I ever mention that he snores he politely refuses the information. 

Mr.K has always prided himself on the fact (obviously not a true fact as I've discovered) that he doesn't snore. He would write to me whilst he was on his mission moaning and complaining about the fact that his companion's snoring terrorises him every night and stops him from sleeping. He would say that it (along with people that make munching noises whilst they eat) are the most annoying things ever. And he was glad and quite proud of the fact that he doesn't do either. Supposedly.

Well, I have discovered that this is entirely untrue. He snores like a trooper. I told him this yesterday and played for him a recording that I'd made, so that he couldn't deny it anymore. It was a prime example. A doozy some might say. So he admitted it. He accepted it. Then he apologised.
"I'm so sorry Becky. 
I'm exactly the kind of person the hate. 
I'm a monster."

Well, maybe that was taking it just a little bit too far. He might be a monster. A snoring monster. But he's a handsome monster, so I'll keep him anyway.


Tuesday 30 November 2010

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

Image from BBC.co.uk
Oh, the weather outside is frightful,
And I'm sure if we actually had a fire
(instead we have little wall mounted electric heaters in each room)
 that it would be so delightful. 
And since I have places to go 
(I missed two French lectures today because my car won't go up the hill)
 please don't snow, please don't snow, 
PLEASE DON'T SNOW! 

Sunday 28 November 2010

On it's knees

There is one sure way to bring England to it's knees. When it snows, England comes to a standstill. The tiniest flutter of those precious white flakes (who am I kidding, I don't like the snow. I certainly don't think that it's precious anyway.) and people lock themselves in their houses and go into a mini hibernation until it's all melted away. 


I have to admit, I am probably a little more than guilty of doing this. I just don't the impracticality of it. I explained to Mr.K (who was slightly amused by this idea) when it started snowing yesterday morning, that if it was up to me, when it snows, it would only snow on gardens, parks and other vast expanses of land. Basically, anywhere other than the paths and roads. Because the thing that I like the least about snow is that it means that it takes ages for people to travel anywhere, it's more dangerous and it's just basically very impractical. 


Mr. K & I like to do our bit though. We ventured out of our toasty little house, wrapped up in coats, hats, scarves & mittens to spread grit on our car park and hill. The hill is a monster hill. Steep, steep, STEEP! (The capitals are absolutely necessary here.) So we filled our mixing bowls with salt and marched up the hill several times, spreading our wares along the way. After we'd done this a few times and I had more grit down the back of my nails that I would have liked, we admired our work. In all honesty, it didn't look like it had made the hugest of differences. But the snow was a little patchier, and we felt like we'd given a little service to our neighbours. Win win. 


Friday 26 November 2010

Hats, Momma & life





I had the day off university today. Momma (can I point out that I call my Momma 'Momma' a lot more in writing than I do to her actual face. Normally it's just Mom. Mom, not Mum) had a day off work. So I drove to Sheffield this morning and we went shopping. We bought a few Christmas presents, a bed sheet and most notably a hat. My Mom bought a hat. Normally, she is not really a hat kind of person. But in about a week we're going on a little holiday, and it will be cold. We'll probably do a lot of walking out in the cold, so we decided that she should buy a hat. She tried on lots of hats and some of them were so funny that I wish that I'd taken pictures. Some of them were ridiculous. Lots of fake fur, massive bobbles on the top and one elasticated one that was made entirely out of silver sequins. I think someone must have sent it by special delivery straight from the 70s. As in the era. After all of the ridiculous possibilities, she tried on a beret. It looked awesome. Berets don't suit me. They don't sit on my head properly. But it looked awesome on my Mom. So she bought it. When we go home my brother's told her that it looked silly. I hope that she doesn't get discouraged. Because I like the hat very much, particularly of my dearest Mothers fair head. 
So far in this blob  entry has covered hats & Momma. I think that I will save life for another day. I do have things to say on life. Philosophical things. Definitely, I will save them for another day. 

Wednesday 24 November 2010

MST

Daylight saving time is sometimes pretty sucky. It means that when Mr.K gets up for work in the morning, it's dark. And by the time he gets home from work in the early evening it's dark too. 

Why do we even have daylight savings time anyway? Is it for the farmers? And if it is for the farmers, why don't they just get up an hour later when it gets to the wintery times and keep the time the same for always. That would definitely be helpful to my body clock. It always takes me an absolute age to get used to the clocks being back an hour. It gets annoying when I keep waking up at 6 in the morning instead of regular 7. Who am I kidding. I never get up at 7. (I have to make the most of 1). being a student. It's expected that students sleep late. And 2). not having any kids to wake me up at crazy early hours.)

One thing that I do quite like about time in Britain is that our time is what the rest of the world's time is set against. Like in France its +1, Singapore is +8 and Jamaica is -5. All depending on British GMT. It's good to know that even though Britain (Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves!) doesn't have an empire that is basically half the world anymore, that the whole world still sets it time by us. 

Aside from that little patriotic speech, what I really wanted to talk about (and I don't think that I actually have very much to say about it) is MST. Mormon Standard Time. It's not actually a real time zone or anything official, but it does exist. Oh boy does it exist. Really, it's just because every church activity that is being held in the evening starts at 7:30. Always. I think that there's an unwritten rule. 

MST has another meaning too. Well, not another meaning, it still means Mormon Standard Time. Basically, MST absolutely and completely ingrains itself into most Mormons (note, I say most). And when this happens it means that they are approximately half an hour late for everything. Who knows why it happens. But it does. I might even conduct an experiment....