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Ozzy visits Madame Tussaud’s

doow — Sat, 29 May 2010 12:04:56 +0000

7 Days – spring 2010 mosaic

doow — Mon, 24 May 2010 14:51:58 +0000

1. Kuky Ideas | Pupipanu | kvon540 | Anja9276 | girlwithgreencardandfabric!

11. ksands9101 | Snowfairy | Ricki / Tawandaaa | cwerner567 | Andrea loves autumn skies

The summer run of 7 Days starts on Saturday 19th June 2010

7 Days: Day 2 – Style

doow — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:34:53 +0000

My current obsession: Watching Pixiwoo videos and getting ideas for new makeup styles and techniques. My current bad habit: Watching YouTube videos on my iPod for hours when I go to bed.

Nuts, monkey and otherwise

doow — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:25:16 +0000

One of the peanuts I planted has now germinated, pinging above the soil, split nut and all. I spent the first day or two trying to cover it up again with the compost, before finally confirming that it was ok, it was meant to do that. Like all patient gardeners, I’ve also dug about in the soil to see what the other seed is playing at. It’s still down there, not apparently rotting, but not really doing anything. Meanwhile the first one is forming its green leaves. And I’m trying to resist the urge to pick up the nut and eat it.

But talking of edible nuts: you will remember that the delightful Bethany sent me a bag of candied nuts at Christmas. And the postman, fearing I may have a nut allergy, did the festive, kind-hearted thing and ate them for me.

Not to be out-manoeuvred though, Bethany sent me another big bag of (yummy!) candied nuts, this time done up in a small cardboard safe. Sure, they print instructions on the box telling the sender how to construct and seal it, but no guidance is given to the recipient as to how they should get into the box, losing as few fingers as possible. But at least it meant that the postman couldn’t get in either. And the nuts, they are mine!

7 Days: Day 3 – Nuts to the postman

doow — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:36:06 +0000

The gift I wanted to get Debbie for Christmas is best priced across the other side of the Atlantic and so I enlisted help from Bethany to place the order and then I’d pay her back (and we know how easy that was). Being a generous soul, Bethany enclosed a little something for me in the parcel too.

Today the packet arrived in the backlog of post that had built up over our snowy few days. Apparently our postman isn’t one for getting too much snow on his boots. There were envelopes from around the world for me and then Bethany’s parcel.

It was bound with tape that read “Received in damaged condition. Rewrapped by U.S. Postal Service”. The tape seemed to cover only a tear in the padded envelope and so I didn’t think too much of it. I opened it up and inside was the gift for Debbie, a Christmas card and a plastic bag – which had a sizeable rip in it and nothing but a few crumbs inside. The hand-written label revealed that they were the remnants of what I’m sure were delicious sweet & spicy candied nuts.

“Just for you” Bethany had written on the label, “Sharing is totally optional”.

Apparently not.

Hush money

doow — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:31:16 +0000

I needed to send Bethany this month’s hush money and so logged into Paypal to work out from previous transactions how much to add to the amount to cover the fee. Because you know what Bethany’s like – if I didn’t do that, she’d probably fly into a wild rage … while also blogging, watching Chuck, making vanilla, baking a cake for Brenda and taking photos of it all (including the rage).

The calculation was made with very little blood lost and I clicked on the “send money” header. I ticked the “hush money” box and duly discovered that Paypal provide their own little “I’ll pay the fee” box, pre-ticked. They know what Bethany’s like.

To keep her sweet I added a message in the box for Bethany. A few witty lines about how Paypal owed me for the time I’d unnecessarily spent with my calculator working out the fee. It was 300 characters long, fitting exactly in the box.

I clicked “send money” and Paypal announced that the exchange rate had recently changed, so I’d better check the transaction. It was fine. But my anecdote had disappeared.

So I added a different message about how Paypal owed me 300 characters and clicked on “send money”. And the exchange rate apparently changed again. Even though it didn’t. But my message had disappeared nonetheless. I clicked on “send money” again. Did I know the exchange rate had changed? Perhaps I’d like to check the transaction…

So I went back to the beginning and started again. This time it worked. Fourth time’s a charm.

And so that’s either the story of how Paypal owes me about 450 characters and two anecdotes, or it’s the story of how I sent Bethany a hundred bucks.

Shiny new

doow — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:26:03 +0000

I’ve been changing Dreamdust’s look this weekend, gradually changing a Wordpress template to suit my tastes and gradually discovering all the bits of CSS that had been weirdly zeroed, so as to interfere with other bits of CSS when you weren’t expecting it. A couple of chocolate and ginger biscuits helped along the way and now – ta da! – the blog’s all different.

I tend to be somewhat monotone when it comes to choosing colours, so using a fancy piece of software called Color Schemer Studio for guidance on what colours go together I’ve dared to step into the world of More Than One Colour At Once. Whether I’ve stepped on into the world of Too Many Colours At Once, I’ll let you decide.

And when you’ve decided you can leave me a comment in that there comment box. I’ve now abandoned the Haloscan comments in favour of Wordpress’s built-in comment facility, thereby taking the difficult route to eventually do the obvious. You’re welcome.

Breaking the internet meme by meme

doow — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:42:48 +0000

So Thursday did this meme and tagged me for it. And I read the rules and was like, well, they’re dumb, ’cause everyone has to change a question AND add a question and if this meme makes it another week around the net, it’s going to be 300 questions long. So I checked the blog of Sas, who had tagged Thursday. And I counted the questions. And discovered that Thursday hadn’t even followed the crazy rules herself. She’d been all wilful and shit. So I totally called her on it and she was like, *sigh*, and told me I had to change a question and add a question. So I counted up her questions again and was like, yeah, but you didn’t even do that. And then she was like, oh, well do whatever you want, I’m busy. And I was like, yeah, well I’m busy too and went back to wiping pollen off the window sill.

1. What is your current obsession?
This morning it was counting how many questions Thursday had changed/answered in this meme.

2. What is your weirdest obsession?
Probably my Statcounter habit. Hello, repetitive behaviour.

3. What are you wearing today?
Brown cords, green vest top, black v-neck jumper. Bright pink socks.

4. What’s for dinner?
Salmon, apparently. I asked.

5. What would you eat for your last meal?
Curry maybe, just to give the pathologist a fun time.

6. What’s the last thing you bought?
On the card: Train tickets to London when Suzy and I went to see Much Ado About Nothing at the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park. Where I took this Twitpic that never arrived in my Twitter feed.

7. What are you listening to right now?
Nothing. I’d hoped to have got round to putting on my headphones by the time I got here … Ok, iPod found and songs shuffled until something caught my fancy: “Oben und Unten” by Hubert von Goisern.

8. What do you think of the person who tagged you?
When I’m working in my garden I imagine her with me, reclined in a deck chair, looking all suave and elegant, sipping a drink that has a far higher alcoholic content than anyone realises, and bragging about her sweetcorn.

9. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?

Salzburg, with a view of the Untersberg. I know what the Gaisberg looks like (the big antenna on top is a bit of a giveaway, unless of course the mist has come down upon it) and I need to learn the shape of the Untersberg next. And if I’m charge of furnishing this house, it’ll have carpet – which tends not to happen over on the continent.

10. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Salzburg, to oversee the fitting of my carpets.

11. Which language do you want to learn?
I’m really good at German, but to be better would be great. To be able to write something for publication without having to wait for someone to check it. Or to manage to ask someone “what’s up?” without inadvertently asking them “What’s missing from your life?” Or to call someone my man on the spot without telling him he’s my man on the toilet instead.

12. What is your favourite colour?
#006666

13. What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?
The short-sleeved top I have in #006666 is currently high on my list. As is this black jumper.

14. What is your dream job?
Some sort of web-editing, photography-based job that pays a stinkload of money and leaves me plenty of time for staring out of the window.

15. Describe your personal style?
Pfft. I always feel that I don’t have one. So much comes down to what I can get to fit my shape – a rack that sits under my chin, a backside on which you could rest your dinner and legs that would be of no use at all were a pig to be loose in a passage. But slap on some mascara and a fancy pair of earrings and it all comes together somehow.

16. What’s your favourite tree?
Silver birch.

17. What are you going to do after this?
Look at Statcounter. Duh.

18. What’s your favourite fruit?
I do like a raspberry.

19. What inspires you?
Bright colours, portrait photography, quiet moments.

20. What are you currently reading?
The Week and “It Sucked And Then I Cried” by the internet’s very own Heather B. Armstrong.

21. What delighted you the most today?
Turning on my iPod.

22. By what criteria do you judge a person?
Whether or not they obey the rules of memes.
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Your job: Answer one of these questions in the comments

Considering myself tagged

doow — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:05:08 +0000

Three TV shows/movies I watch regularly:

* Damages is coming back on Sunday, so I’ve programmed the PVR to record it – in case I either forget, or get lost and need to rewind and see just how many times someone has been betrayed and/or lied to.

* The West Wing is usually on an endless loop in my DVD player, but Lauren’s stolen all my box sets, so that rather put a stop to that. But if it were here, it would be accompanying my lunch every day.

* I’ve been watching a fair amount of Frasier on Youtube recently too. But don’t tell anyone, obviously.

Three things that happened yesterday:

1. I spent a few hours working on making The Ultimate Address Book for John’s company. It’s amazing how long I’ve been surviving on an ad hoc basis, just getting people’s details from their email signatures and never putting them somewhere more permanent. But don’t tell anyone, obviously.

2. I checked on my Ebay auctions. It was time to accept that the pasta machine and attachments that have been in storage who knows how long were never going to get used. Currently the ravioli maker and angel hair attachment will sell and the machine has 7 watchers. The pieces are each as heavy as a big truck with two elephants inside, so postage is about the same price as the items.

3. I discovered that the world is entirely too small. A number of you know Guy from 7 Days. He’s worked with and for John and I’ve met him, paid him and harangued him a fair amount on the telephone.

Then there’s Jonas. He was tour manager for Hubert’s 2007 tour down to the Black Sea and back. I met him in Vienna and Bratislava. We’re friends on Facebook.

Jonas is working in Abu Dhabi. He takes photos and posts them on Facebook. He took a cool self-portrait of an eternal reflection in a mirror and I commented that it was indeed cool.

Guy left me a comment: how do you know Jonas?

Huh?

It turns out that Guy and Jonas have been working together in Abu Dhabi.

Can I get an OMG WTF???

Three favorite places to eat:

1. Wagamama: Yes, I always have yasai yaki soba, but I’m very much ok with that. It’s yummy and made of noodles. What more could I want?

2. Our Christmas dinner table.

3. Wherever my friends and I are having one of our traditional picnics.

Three things on my wish list:

1. Better luck in the vegetable patch this year.
2. A nicer computer chair.
3. I don’t seem to wish for much.

Three things I’m looking forward to:

1. Just like the lovely Full Instrumental, who tagged me for this without knowing she did, number one on the list is concerts. First trip in April to Saarbrücken and we’ll be staying in a fancy hotel too. Now that we’re staying two nights instead of one, I want to see if that means we get two free bottles of water, or still just the one.

2. Girls’ trip to Jersey next year for Helen’s wedding.

3. The magical day when a purge of a drawer or cupboard actually involves me discarding more than three small items that make no difference to the space.

You’re it.

Dear SexyGir|

doow — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:48:00 +0000

I’m delighted to hear that you loved both my profile and my pics. Though, truth be told, you’ve seen neither, have you? You are not emailing me from your friends house. You are emailing me from your friend’s house. Yes, I see you’ve provided me with your own email address so that I can get to know you and, yes, I do have MSN, but I rarely use it. I don’t want to chat.

Neither do I want to “do” you.

Happy Christmas, now go away.