There are NICE people out there.

Have a read of this and it will show that there are nice people out there.

Disco Penguin

One of my fabby Christmas Prezzies!

Not a New Year's Eve Party

Last night we went to Mark & Tracey's for what is fast becoming our annual 'group' get-together. The group constitutes Dan's buddies from school days - Mark, Julian, Choc, Chud, Rizz and Paul. Choc and his wife, Julie, where the only ones not there last night. But the rest of the guys were all there. Julian & Karen, Chud & Mandy, Rizz and Paul & Kirst and of course Mark and Tracey our hosts. They're fab, generous hosts, we had great hospitality, pizza, loads of beer and wine, a game that went BZZT and a pop quiz! What more can you ask?
Pictures will be in the sidebar over here for a bit ------------------------------------->
but the permanent link to them is here

Cooking Stress aka 'Prawnettone'

It's been a lovely Christmas, quite quiet, and 'at-homey' which is nice given that we've not had any holidays left to take! Christmas Day itself was lovely - and (even though I do say so myself) the dinner was FANTASTIC. However, when cooking the dinner, Dan and I did find it a bit stressful. There are just so many PARTS to a roasty dinner, and they all have to come together at the right moment in order to make it all work! It did come a bit close to failing when I smelled something fishy once or twice, then realised that Dan, in his keenness to get the prawns defrosted, had placed the bag of frozen prawns on top of the boiler, and the bag was leaking prawn juice on to all the things underneath....bottles of wine, knives, a chopping board, the panettone for the bread and butter pudding! Fortunately most of the things were washable - apart from the panettone which was totally soaked - fortunately the cake itself was double wrapped in cellophane and it was only the box that was prawnified. It DID give us a little bit of extra stress on the day - and we managed to have a laugh by renaming the panettone to PRAWNETTONE! Who knows, it may catch on!

3 Christmas Eve traumas

Well here's how it nearly went horribly wrong on Christmas Eve - a triple whammy.......

1) What's the 1st thing you do on Christmas Eve morning when you get up and you know that you have guests coming to stay in all your spare rooms? You strip the beds. So that's what we did. What's the 1st thing you do once you've stripped all the beds in your house? You put a load of washing on, that's what. What happens though, if you turn the washing machine switch round to select the right program and it goes, click, click, click....spin? Well first you twiddle it a bit, then you push it a bit, then you switch it all off and then on again. Then you phone your sister for moral support, as you take the top off the damn thing. Then you work out how to take the front off - click click - then you realise that the bit that turns the mechanism around to select the program is a piece of plastic that has snapped? (See picture) Well then you phone your wonderful local repair guy who comes out on Christmas Eve afternoon and fixes the washing machine for the grand total of £42. How wonderful is that? For reference....his name is Steve Burton and he lives in Tingley.

Disaster no 2 was later on that evening, after work....

2) I was just laying the table and moving the glass place mats to get the candles in the right places, when I happened to touch a glass oil bottle with the stack of glass mats...then THIS happened - it must have been made out of safety glass because it actually broke into little 'cubes' of glass (no shards) but about a million of them. All over the table, floor, and generally EVERYWHERE!





Our third and final "nearly disaster" was a mega one

3) Michelle and Conrad were en-route down to Leeds, and were just about at Stirling (an hour into their journey) when the oil light came on in the car. They kept trying to convince themselves that all was OK with the vehicle, but it kept making stranger and stranger noises, and in the end, they stopped and called a recovery van to come and take them back to Errol. It could have been disaster - but they're not the kind of people to be put off by a leaking car and a chilly 2 hour wait by the side of the road, no, they got back to the house, had a cup of tea, got in the other car, and headed back south - and so at 10:45 on Christmas Eve, they arrived after 10 hours of travelling, tired, but still on good form! We had a fabby curry (which we made the night before) saw in Christmas Day at midnight and ended up going to bed at about 1:30am!

Forty and Fab Tour

Well ,

We are getting on a bit , and will nearly be hitting the big 4-0., So we are going to have to start looking at places we are wanting to visit.

Out initial thought is to take off a minimum of 3 months and travel around.

I have had a quick look on the web and thought this was a good site talking about planning it .

This also looks good.

Busy Weekend

Well starting with the 'moonlit shopping' it's been quite a busy weekend. Probably too many things to mention in detail, but we've...

• picked up my car from its MOT
• been to the farm to get some beef fillet
• posted parcels to Surrey and Brazil (guess which one was more expensive?)
  
• tidied up the house
• stripped beds in readiness for our guests
• done loads of washing
• wrapped a few more presents (I keep finding them)
• cooked a curry for tomorrow night
• sorted out some paperwork

Phew, I could do with some time off this 'at home' lark. Oh good, back to work tomorrow....for a rest!

ps the parcel to Surrey was £3 more than the one to Brazil!!!!

Secret Santa

We did a 'Secret Santa' thing at work. £5 max for the gift, and each picked a name out of the hat. We gave the gifts out on Thursday lunchtime and I got THE MOST FAB prezzie of a USB aquarium. Non techies: don't ask!...just know it's a really cool thing. However, there was something wrong with my fish. They wouldn't swim....and so I had to ask my Secret Santa politely for the receipt back...but of course, it being a secret, I didn't know who had given me the prezzie in the 1st place.
I started writing an email to all the team who had participated in the Secret Santa and begin it by typing...'Help me Secret Santa'...now clearly I AM a poet, and those of you who have known me for some time will remember some of my famous rhymed outpourings (not least of which my speech at Rose and Liam's wedding!) but as soon as my fingers typed the 'Help me Secret Santa'...I could hear the metre instantly...and nearly as fast as I could type it, the rhymes and rhythms came to my fingertips....

Help me Secret Santa
Thank you Secret Santa,
It really was just fab,
The present that you brought me, will
Look great in the test lab.

You "got me" Secret Santa
It's just the thing I like,
I'm... "gadgets gadgets gadgets!"
Not ... "give me a new bike".

So imagine how I'm hurting,
I hope it's not a joke,
I hate to tell you Santa,
But the gift you bought was BROKE

Please help me Secret Santa,
It would be really neat,
If, in secret, Santa
You could give me the receipt.

So please help me Santa,
And grant me this one wish,
All I want for Christmas is....
An aquarium with SWIMMING fish!

Needless to say, after my poetic overtures, the Secret Santa made himself known and I'm going to take my non-swimming fish back to where they came from. (Sainsbury's!)

Dodgy Christmas Tie

Chris, a lovely colleague from work, is well known for his sartorial eclecticism - that's a dodgy choice of shirt & tie combination to you and me! As yesterday was his last day in work before Christmas, he brought out one of his seasonal classics - a very scary looking Father Christmas. When you press his nose (Father Christmas, not Chris) his eyes flash and he plays a twinkly Christmassy tune.
Very very dodgy if you ask me.

Great night out

They're coming thick and fast now, it's the time of year! On Thursday night we went out on an IBM Leeds Location 'do' which involved a super quiz and a buffet spread! The do was in the Townhouse in Leeds. The quiz was really superb - not least of which because our team 'Recovering Arcadians' came 2nd!
These distinguished looking gents came second from bottom.

Christmas Madness

We did the weirdest thing this morning - we'd woken up in the night - about 3am, neither of us could get back to sleep. So, I was surfing a bit, and Dan was reading his book. At about 4am we were wide awake and Dan said, why don't we go shopping? It took me a minute to get my head round it, but at 4:25 we left the house and headed for Tesco's in Batley

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Interestingly, there were quite a few people there - although there were definitely more staff than customers, nevertheless, there were more people than you'd imagine at 4:30 on a Saturday morning!
There was a very jolly spirit - most of the shelf stackers were wearing sparkley deely boppers, and various festive paraphernalia . There were LOADS of wheeled cages with goods in ready to be put on the shelves - it made the place a bit difficult to navigate with an increasingly full trolley, but it did afford lots of opportunity for chatting with the staff who were all quite available for a bit of banter. I commented to one lady that I had no idea all this went on at night - she replied that most people thought that fairies got the stuff on the shelves - but that at Christmas, it was actually elves doing the work. Completely bonkers :-)

The Best Concert !

This whole public transport thing is becoming a bit of a habit; we went to Manchester on the train last night to see HARD-FI - my favourite band of the moment. They were playing at Manchester Central (formally the G-MEX) which is a venue that I've never been to before. It's kind of like a huge aircraft hanger, and I was a bit upset that it wasn't completely heaving.....BUT......at least it meant that I could get nearer to them!
They came on and played brilliant track after brilliant track. It was (I think) nearly all of the new 2nd album, with a few classic favourites from the 1st. I'm absolutely hoarse today from SHOUTING my head off in the crowd.
We took some excellent photos (they all look the same, a dark area surrounding a bright light!!) but they're up on picasa anyway!

Here's a song frm the new album - 'I can't get along without you'

Barry Norman !

Well maybe not Barry Norman, But i have been watching a few movies this weekend and was going to give a quick review of each.

1) Eastern Promises (Trailer)

Russian gangsters. Dead woman. New baby. A Nurse. All bundled up. It was pretty good. Worth a watch.

2) Shoot Em Up (Trailer)

Classic movie if you are into the "Die Hard" genre. It doesn't take itself seriously at all. It's all out shooting and fast driving. Brilliant way to while away a couple of hours.

3) The Brave One (Trailer)

Jodi foster is pissed off and she wants to kick ASS. So if you like those kind of movies then this is for you. It's worth a watch but know what to expect!

I have seen these other movies over the last few weeks

4) The kingdom (Trailer)

Bombs > FBI > CIA > Find baddies > Try and kill baddies > Get chased by baddies > Big finish
It was ok.

5) Sicko (Trailer)

Michael Moore. Finding out about the US health system. Just make sure if you ever go over there, that you are insured. If not then sell your bloody house to pay for your care!
Scary. But done well

Manchester + Beer = AZ unix team night out

Well we hit Manchester on Wednesday night to celebrate up-coming Christmas and also because it had been a few mad weeks and we needed alcohol to let out hair down .

Miles and I and a two other guys had booked some digs (Posh flats) for £100 a night. The 2 bedroom flats are located above the Hilton hotel in Manchester in the tallest building in Manchester (it's located on deansgate).

The picture below is the view from the flat in the evening and see this further link for more piccys

The only slight ISSUE we had was when we got the keys from some dodgy geezer outside the hotel / apartments and then parked up and then got in the life to go to the 34th floor. The lift stopped on the ground floor and security were there and asked us to follow them !!!
So we followed them and they said "sorry, you can't stay here tonight, The rooms you have booked should not be rented out; its against the lease. You will have to find alternative accommodation."
So as you can imagine we were slightly concerned, as Take That were playing that evening, so we had no chance of getting any further digs.
After various phone calls to the owner and discussions with the security people, They said "We can't physically stop you going to the rooms, but would like you not to." So we went to the rooms and left our gear there and and hit the town, hoping that we would have our clothes left once we got back.

We then met in "All Bar One" a nice bar full of lots of solicitor types , but we found a table and then waited for the other people to turn up.
In the end approx 15 of us turned out. And then we left there and left some of the people there who didn't want to move and went to another bar (Lime), which was pretty good.
Only slight issue in this bar was that one of the guys met his ex-wifes best mate and she kicked off bigtime when he didn't say hello to her (Bloody manc women!), She lost it and started kicking off calling him all the names under the sun . Very weird. They guy gave us the history about it and she was OUT OF ORDER.

So more beers were had, and we went off to some other IRISH pub , not a clue where it was, but we stayed there for lots more beers and Miles and I then chipped off for some food (a kebab) which was great but then we found ourselves in a casino!

So we went to the pontoon table and played 20 quid each, both worse the wear. Lasted 15 mins and then left.

Got back to the flat @ around 4:30 and then woke for work, FEELING the love ! (Which is "Dan" for feeling krap!)

Excellent night had .

Anthony's Wine !

I went searching for some of the vino that Li enjoyed fully the last time we went to this excellent restaurant .

And i found it. The wine is Maury La Preceptorie De Centernach "Cuvee Aurelie".

So I have ordered some for xmas . And while I was on this site I ordered some Foie Gras so should be a great meal.

Turkey Lurkey

My task this weekend was to try and find / arrange our Christmas lunch (or @ least part of it).

So went to out local farm shop which has its own butcher and looked at the turkey crowns there, but they didn't look that great. We have had ones from there before, but they were packaged differently then. This time they seemed to have been split down the middle and packed that way.

It put me off so I went googling.

I found a couple of places that still would deliver and finally picked on kellys turkeys

They deliver this Friday, so have gone for 2X turkey crowns. (It said on the site that 1 crown would do 4, and there are 6 of us for Xmas dinner). Li I know we are having beef fillet as well. But I am also making sure we have some turkey left between Xmas and new year so sarnies and SOUP.

The girls' night in.....got out!

I'm not sure that Leeds is really ready for it - but the girls' night in escaped last night from in front of our TVs, DVDs (and in Michelle's case her Nan's video recorder) for our December gathering.

The first part of the evening was very exciting (on my part, anyway) because I had to get on a BUS to get into Leeds - first time in MANY years on public transport! (Yes I am the queen!)

Brasserie Blanc was the location for the dinner part of the evening. Very nice venue - great atmosphere and everyone's meal was fantastic mine wasn't that fab, but I think I might have made a wrong choice - they'll get a second chance anyway as I've promised to take Dan there.

It probably shouldn't happen too often - as previous experience would show that we can get a bit giddy if we're let out! Poor Anthony (of Anthony's Restaurant) may have a twitch for the rest of his life after having met us under similar circumstances after a fabulous night in his restaurant.

So it was all rather civilised during the meal. We took some piccies and the only trauma was that they'd run out of the Xmas menu, just as we decided on the Xmas menu!

After dinner we headed towards millennium square to the Epernay champagne bar to meet up with some of Michelle's suppliers who were in town and who she'd normally be going out with if it hadn't been the GNI(O). They were absolutely top geezers and bought a LOT of champagne for us - Thanks guys! There were loads of silly piccies taken, not least of which because Michelle's camera took a fatal turn for the worse after an earlier nose-dive so my one got passed around everyone (hence all the slightly sideways ones of champagne glasses!) Apologies now if you have an aversion to lots of drunken cheezy grins and a load of red-eye!

Link to the piccies here ---> GirlsNightInOut

Great Meal(s) Great Miles

We've had a good weekend! It has involved food and wine, and lots of both. Dan's buddy Miles was over for Dinner on Saturday night. (Intended) menu as follows...

• Oysters with lemon and vinegar
• Antipasti with dates wrapped in pancetta
• Seared scallops with chilli
• Crostini with garlic, tomato, olive oil, capers, anchovies, ham
• Tuna Carpaccio with pink grapefruit juice and sesame oil
• Watercress soup
• Beef Wellington with baby veg and sweet/normal mash
• Lemon syllabub served with pomegranate seeds soaked in pimms!
  

Unfortunately, between course 1 and course 5, we managed to put away a *few* bottles of wine and actually we never quite got to the soup! It's a good job we'd had quite alot of food before!!!

On the up side, the courses that were left...

• Watercress soup
• Beef Wellington with baby veg and sweet/normal mash
• Lemon syllabub served with pomegranate seeds soaked in pimms!

...made for a perfect Sunday lunch! It's a good job Miles didn't have anywhere to get to too urgently on Sunday, and he joined us for part 2 of the dinner!!!
It's now Monday night and Dan and I have had....avvos, dates in pancetta, crostini and the roast beef for tea! We could have fed about 12 people I think!

Mad Dog, Mad Dan

I've just uploaded my 1st movie to YOUTUBE! It's a silly one of Dan and Winnie playing in the garden....

*** Update - 32 views on YouTube (and no, they weren't all me!!!)

Perry Como - fab!

Oh I'm definitely feeling twinkly!

1st Christmas Cards received!

Ooooh it's very exciting! We've had 2 cards already....thank-you Bev & Daniel! I'm so glad I've written all mine! They'll get posted over the next few days you'll probably get yours soon, postal services permitting, of course!
I'm nearly done on all the prezzie buying because we started ordering things in November (more or less from when we came back from holiday) so it's actually given us a bit of time to enjoy the run up to the festive season! As you can see from the picture, Dan is totally delighted and feeling very Christmassy too!

Putting up the tree

Well it's Sunday afternoon and I'm sitting here with Gracie - we've spent a very nice day together. First of all we did the *quickest* dash round Tong Garden Centre to get a tree. In fact were in and out in under 20minutes. Gracie picked up the 1st tree we came to, it was perfect (she has an eye for the artistic!) and off we went. Good job too, Dan was having a claustrophobic trauma about there being too many people. He doesn't like too many people! It rather spoiled our attempts to purchase every sparkly gold thing in the building. But, never mind, we managed to get 150 lights, 5 baubles, and 2 pieces of gold tinsel! Dan, in the meantime, took out 2 Father Christmasses and an entire family whilst swinging round with an 8 foot tree in his shopping trolly!!! It was THE WORST weather in the world. Freezing, raining, and so windy that I ended up looking like I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards! So, tree safely in Dan's car, and Grace, Harry and I safely in mine, off we trotted to Frankie and Benny's at Junction 27 retail park. We started off with some nice garlic bread (and some with cheese, which we mostly all thought was nice) and then we had....

• Gracie - Margherita pizza
• Harry - A BIG lasagne
• Liza - chicken salad (and chips)
• Dan - calzone

As you can see from the picture, we finished ALLLLLLLL of it. We were so full at the end that we couldn't even think about a pud!
When we got back here, we started with the tree in its stocking, putting some cobble stones into the barrel base to keep it upright. Then we filled the gaps with little stones. This provides a very very solid base for the tree. One false start though - we were concentrating too hard on the stones and the tree started leaning at a funny angle! Not a problem, we took the stones out and started again, and this time the tree was more or less upright!!!!
We first put up the 3 new sets of lights. Fab, muticoloured ones. I bought them because the old set was really dying. Or so we thought......when Dan and Harry went into the loft to get down the ornaments, 2 new sets of lights were in there!!! I'd forgotten that we bought them last year. So all in all there were 326 (coloured) lights - one set a flashy flashy one! And one set of white ones (120) which will go into the lounge. Very nice. And slightly forgetful. Ooops!
After that it was a matter of minutes before all the baubles were up - with some query as to the tastefulness of each ornament as it went up on the tree. Some were discarded in bad taste! Others deemed to be so bad, they were good, in a kitsch way.
So now, we're sitting here admiring our hard work, and putting the photos up onto the web - link ---> here if you want to see more.

Dad demos the use of a fridge

Going....














going....














.....gone!

Getting more like home

The renovations have been going on behind the scenes and one week on from the last set of pictures you can see that there have been some big movements forwards with everything. The kitchen, the dining room, the lounge, have all started looking like rooms again rather than a builders' yard! Isn't it looking lovely? The floor is amazing and the rooms still look massive! There are stil a few bits needed. A sideboard and a table (the thing in the picture is actually 2 tressles!!!) and there's a bit of redecorating to be done still, but it's really looking like home - although, not home, if you know what I mean!!!
It's GORGEOUS!

Getting all Chrimbly at work

Donna and Nicole and I were talking about Christmas yesterday (Friday) at work. We were getting all very enthusiastic about it. OK, let's be honest, we were getting giddy and excited! After an expedition across the road to poundstretcher, we came back with some very very classy decorations (ho hum!) and then spent the rest of the afternoon getting the tree up! Well nearly! It looks very nice and will set us up nicely for when we get back after the weekend - after all it is December! We also got a load of tinsel to decorate the desks on Monday - it's going to be fantastic and Christmassy. Can't wait!

The nicest Advent calendar in the world!

Yes, it looks like St Mark's basilica in Venice. That's because it is! It's huge, gold, gorgeous and has (apparently) pictures of various Venetian works of art behind each window!
Thanks Jacq!