fiendish_cat

It's cold here. It snowed yesterday and although little settled the ground is icy and slippery underfoot. And did I mention it's cold.

There's a girl at my busstop wearing shorts.

Short shorts. Hotpant length. Just covering the cheeks.

And canvas shoes.

Admittedly she was also wearing leggings and knee high socks and some rather cool knitted mid calf legwarmers with buttons. But even so....

Oh dear...I was listening to Woman's Hour just now and Jane Garvey said something along the lines of 'today's the first day of Advent'.

"Not it's not", thought I, "Sunday was the first day of Advent." And went on to think more thoughts about the Church Year v Church Festivals in secular world - so that most people think Advent begins on 1st December and lasts 24 or possibly 25 days.

Then I got on with my work.

However it would appear I am not the only pedant. And other people have more time and energy than I to phone/text/email/comment...so by the end of the programme she corrected herself. And noted with a slight snark the 'oh about 25,000 other people who commented on this'.

Yah.

Just because I've not been posting doesn't mean I've not been busy.......

So, I had a few people round for cocktails last night* (incluidng frankie_ecap , rhythmaning , rosathome , liadnan and hano ) and it struck me that my friends are an interesting bunch in what they bring to parties.

Most people rocked up with a bottle of booze of some kind - so far, so standard and oh so very welcome.  But here's what others came with

- chilli cake with ginger choclate icing
- banana cake
 
yum, yum

- gorgeous bunch of hydrangeas

now sitting on my sideboard and looking lovely

- laminated handdrawn picture and bookmark

(Ok that was from my five year old goddaughter - sooo cute)

and my friend J brought tupperware pots with portions of the food he'd cooked that afternoon.  For lunch/dinner for me today.  How nice was that.  But not the standard arrive at party present!


*yes, I know. Pretentious?  70s retro?  (well I did make a cheese & pineapple hedgehog

I'm going to Interlaken at the end of September for work.

Obviously I'm being all professional about it, but inside I'm squealing Chalet School!  The Chalet School  and Barbara was the first CS book I read (I was given it by a neighbour when I was home ill from school with tonsillitis) and it set me up for a lifetime of enjoyment of the series.  I tend to prefer the earlier Tiernsee ones but because of Barbara I'll always have a soft spot for Switzerland. 

So....yay....glee....Interlaken.  We even get to go on a boat trip on Lake Thun.  Maybe there'll be an Accident!  (Ooh, maybe I'll meet a handsome doctor, now that would be nice.)

Oops, I just failed the UK Citizenship Test.  Good thing I was born here eh.

Have a go and see how you do!

I'm sure when I used to go to the 'post an entry' page there was some kind of toolbar that meant I could easily eg make an LJ user name that I'd written become a link to that user etc.

But now there isn't.

Have I misremembered? If not, how do I get it back.

And if I have - how do I do such linking? And indeed things like bold. Apologies, I think people may have helped me with the latter before - is there a webpage somewhere that has all the coding?

It has come to my attention that not only are a good number of my friends on Twitter but also there's a whole work thing going on there as well that, as a good freelancer, I should probably be part of.

Twitter also appears to be like the only bit of Facebook I actually like- the status updates.

However, I am already capable of frittering away large parts of the day and night on the interweb so am scared that if I succomb I may descend into the depths of cyberspace never to be seen in reality ever again. I also may never get any work done.

So....those of you who tweet, what do you think? What are your experiences, good and bad? Should I or shouldn't I?

And yes, I appreciate I am coming very late to this party. I am so not an early adopter!

Does anyone know how long lard lasts?

I just found a pot of dripping at the back of my fridge left over from a roast shoulder of lamb I did at Easter. It's essentially just lard, none of meaty jelly bits at the bottom because I used all of those for the gravy.

Will it still be OK to eat/use?

(I appear to have left it uncovered if that makes a difference)

I am expecting a delivery today. They said it would come between 7am and 7pm.

Which means I can't go anywhere. (Sod's law and all that)

Which is slightly problematic as I promised to cook dinner for my houseguests. But I need to go shopping to do that.

Oh dear.

ETA: Well whaddya know, whatever the opposite of Sod's law took effect and just after I posted that, the doorbell rang and my package turned up. Yay.

I went to a wedding on Saturday. It was glorious. The bride was radiant, the best man was beautiful and the groom was very very happy. A few photos are now posted here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cal_in_the_city/sets/72157618100256393/

for them as wot might be interested.

My upstairs neighbour has just come home and turned on the stereo. Loudly. Very loudly.

He's playing "here comes the sun"

It's making me smile :-)

I had a meeting in town. And then a lunch. And then some chores.

And so I found myself on Picadilly and thinking taking a bus back home (I work from home) would be much nicer in this weather and these shoes, than the tube and a 20 minute walk.

And then I realised that unaccountably I had no reading material in my bag. (What can I say, I left the house in a hurry this morning with a new bag).

So I popped into Hatchards to buy a book. And I found one. And then I got seduced by their three for two offer. Damn them. So I ended up with four.

Oh well.

Heard on the radio this morning:

"Streaking through a nudist camp is really just jogging."

Too good not to share.

I have (very slowly) been re-doing my flat.  And it's all turned tastefully neutral. Butter milk kitchen cupboards, soft grey and pinky cream walls, stone coloured tiles (well beige really) and pebbles in the bathroom. Eau de Nil and creamy pale gold (well beige really) hallway.  I just ordered cream carpet for goodness sake

But my love for colour had to come out somewhere.  So I've been painting my very small toilet in bright orange and bright pink.  Think Indian sari.

The side walls are done and while they're drying I thought I'd get on and do the first coat on the middle of the back wall - but obviously I couldn't go right to the edge, so there's a bit of an irregular white border.

It feels like being in a Rothko painting.

I knew having a degree in Chinese would come in handy one day.

My brother called me earlier from Shanghai to say he was in his company's office there* and only had the name and address of his hotel in English so if he got into a taxi and the taxi driver didn't understand would it be OK for him to call me and for me to explain to the taxi driver.


*Where apparently the only people still working there apart from him were also non-Chinese speakers!

OK I know I post here so rarely that asking for the wisdom of my friends' list is a bit cheeky, but....

does anyone understand how the futures market works and if so could they explain it to me in words of one syllable*

*or at least in a way that I can understand.

Apparently today is World Maths Day

Thought some of you might like to know.

On a bulletin I've just received is a job ad for a "Gender Budgeting Expert".  In fact they want more than one of them in a variety of countries.

I have absolutely no idea what this job could entail.  Any guesses?

Oh yes.

U can haz Lol Saintz