Iola

Who knew that 8 weeks of pretty much total abstenence from sugar would cause the smell of it cooking would give me a slight "oh too much sugar" stomach sensation. (made some buns the like of which I have not previously cooked plus date and walnut slices this afternoon). That was cured by my presence in the gym earlier. Sadly I've caused it to return by cooking some apple slices and eating a piece of the data cake. Which would be more understandable if there actually was much sugar in these recipes.

The cats are totally confused because my presence in the kitchen for over an hour has not resulted in something they think it is right a proper to get a little taste of. (OK so they think they should get a little taste but I beg to differ).

Yup I wasn't at werk today - I have new shower, large quanities of new makeup, cakes and had a massage. My review of the Experience at the weekend was joyful but challenging. I do like remembering that Life is indeed a go for it event...

Have returned from my Keldy adventure. 4 people, 3 nights £150 quid. Hot tub on the deck. Fabulous walking location, could have gone to other places* for fun stuff too if the weather hadn't been so lovely. (did a forest walk Sunday and the Hole of Horcum on saturday). Sadly no steam train today as R had to return to go to her passport interview (because the £XK and interviews to get her citizenship don't prove who she is enough already. Personally the sooner I can just be a citizen of this planet the better) and it was absolutely p-ing it down at 9 am there this morning.
We had great food, great wine, great company, much silliness and much walking. I may not be a very good girlie girl but I think I've mastered the art of the girlie weekend.

*Pickering, Whitby, Scarborough, all less than 1/2 hr away

Oh great hive mind - Where in leeds do I buy corset laces - my lace on my boot snapped this morning and if I can avoid waiting a week to get some through the post it would be good as it's now too cold to wear shoes with my skirt and I no longer fit my work trousers (and got a couple of work skirts from Freecycle this week, sadly the 20 pairs of trousers are all for Petite length legs...)
boot laces sadly are too thick and not long enough....

Oh dear
I just saw the "manage your friends" button and read it as if it was an order.
I have to say it's a great comliment to you all that I wouldn't want to manage you even if it was possible, although I'd quite like it to be possible to manage some stuff out of peoples lifes sometimes.
as you were.

have appraisal tomorrow.  I find these a worthwhile activity if I put the work in I can get a lot from them.
can think of ONE THING I feel i've done particularly well since starting this job and that frankly was easy peasy.  Can think of no objectives other than "get a sense of purpose and where this role is taking me"
Don't even know what kind of training I'd like to do because
1 - I have my prince 2 practioner (not that they pay for that here) and actually prefer business change to project management.
2 - I don't know if there are formal business change quals
3 - I've failed to explore the "retrain as an OT" option that I have been thinking about loosely for a couple of months which suggests that my subconsious prefers the appeal as a hypothetical to a reality.
Grrr how frustrating - I've been so good at being postive in myself recently too you'd think I could work this out!

Hangovers are not compatible with the WW cult.
I still have hungover hunger today - and it was only a bit too much drinking on Saturday night.  It's definately the lack of lard that does this. Probably the gym didn't help but I needed to trade how hungover are you stories with the person who works there who accosted me on Saturday night (who was stunningly drunk).  A good weekend was had, I failed to do many of the chores I should have done and this week is looking pretty positive too. 

I do fail to function with the clock change - I slept in far too late yesterday (may have been something to do with beer and gin) and couldn't get to sleep last night and woke early this morning.  You'd think it would be the spring one I'd have a war with but it's always the autumn one. 

Advance notice: Wrens 27th November - there will be people there marking birthdays I believe (well I will be since I'll have had one earlier that week and I think there may be others around that time too with whom I've discussed the possibility)

At lunch time I agreed to do something this evening because I had no valid reason not to (got to push ones comfort zone) ... but I had planned to try to set up the shiney new laptop I purchased on Sunday and see how far I could get before having to call on more technically savvy friends.  (because sorting it before the old computer dies seems like a good idea and I ran out of patience with myself so I didn't wait till this weekend to go shopping despite the VERY obvious reason to do so).  Really that's not a valid reason to say no when I can do that any time but now I feel nervous/sad.  I wish I could tell the difference between "nervous" and "I really don't want to because of X valid reason"

today I have discovered exactly why braces are not so popular  on trousers for women - so I'm a bit slow on the uptake... I've only used them on skirts before so it's not been an issue.
I suspect that I'll give up on them before the end of the day - having to unhook quite so much every time one visits the little room is really quite tedious.  So my great plan not to worry about having to pension off my favourite work suits due to my membership of the "WW cult"* is heading to rack and ruin.  Time to get the sheering elastic out afterall.

* - they must be a cult - they take money off you, they indoctrinate you in their way of living and they try to convince you this is how you must live from now on and that it's REALLY IMPORTANT.

This year my attendance at Light night is limited by a funeral in Oxford in the afternoon.  Here's hoping I manage to leave in time to join nalsa and the lovely S at 9.30 pm at Temple works, but I know what I'm like, what the M40 and M1 can be like and therefore feel free to run a sweepstake.

Was very entertaining at Huddersfield Lawrence Batley Theatre.  He peaked a little early and the 2nd half was less sparking, and I suspect it was a very toned down performance - too many middle-aged-straight couples in the audience for his taste.  Not been there before and it's lovely, a modern take on the traditional theatrical shape (less clinical than the Carriage works but similar capacity)  but the front row really is neckachingly close and not for the long of leg.  Dyl thought I was the target of a couple of comments, I thought it was the "lady"* next to me since "she"* was the one responding. He was disappointed to get no response to his "Camp" t-shirt...

* I thought it was a woman suffering mutton dressed as lamb syndrome (as in too thick make-up for her skin, her age and a Thursday night).  Dyl thought TV. 

"would you like some cake?"
"No thank you "
"But it's cake"
"I don't like cake"
"but it's for charity."

Is not a cue for someone to tell me why i should want cake, I should like cake and I should give them money.  If you want to give money to a charity do it - don't spend it on bloody cake and they try to emotionally blackmail me into buying it.  See I'd have given you £1 for your charity but not now, Not once the blackmail starts,

the iamnotyou web site tells me my name is unique in the UK but the Dr's secretary I spoke with yesterday tells me that not only am I not unique there's another one of me in Leeds, but with a different DOB, (and "figures" so I assume height and weight) and address on her consultants list.

all I can say is poor bugger and wonder how they prounounce their name....

Dorian Gray at the flicks last night - darker than I expected and really rather entertaining.  Colin Firth however does not suit a beard.

I don't have a paid account any more: it expired and i forgot to renew it.  Then all the LJ will die now 6apart own it stuff started.  I thought I'd renew it when the advert levels got annoying, but they haven't so I didn't.   I know that there is an advert box on the home page when I log in (it usually says part of the "LCC blocked" website thing in it, and it's the reason I go to LJ via google not the url at work I guess if I don't want LJ to be blocked).  I don't seen any other adverts when I view my LJ friends page - So where exactly would you follow advert links from?  

Today I decided to liberate the compost from the No1 composter and plant lots of stuff in it.  I now know they are called Avocado stones for a reason.  Apparently I ate a significant number of avocados the first year I lived here and the stones  are pretty much the only thing that remained identifiable in the compost.  Perhaps putting them into No2 composter wasn't my best move. 

No1 Composter is now empty so there's space for any grass clippings, uncooked vegetable waste etc that anyone in Leeds who may want to put them somewhere other than a bin that may not be emptied in the next few weeks. 

Thanks to the joy that is the hidden leeds website I've seen the video of someone travelling along meanwood beck from Meanwood to the dark arches and wondered where various surface elements were.  Today I walked to a meeting on Mabgate and discovered a whole tranche of the above ground bit along with pretty victorian bridge crossing over it.  This was indeed the high point of my day.

Why is it that the amount you get on your wage slip is never enough for what you really want to do with you money each month?  I'm going to have a live like a pauper month big style for the next 2 months...
However on a more positive note I've lost 1kg of the 8 I'm trying to offload so I rock.  And the poverty diet will hopefully help.
Plus the plumber fixed the plumbing properly first time, no flooded house for me when I got home last night:  he rocks too!

Due to cocking up fixing the thingy that was causing my toilet to constantly leak out of the overflow I have now been in the world of virtually no running water for 14 hours.  The plumber will come between 9 and 12 this morning.  I have never realised just how often I just rinse my hands, use a little water for X, rinse Y, always wash my face with water before putting make up on (so haven't yet even though its a work day) etc .   I've got a couple of pans of water and when I want more I can turn the stop cock back on and get more but that does lead to the cistern actually running over if it's done for too long (or would do if I did so).  And of course this means there isn't any hot running water.   I so don't every want to live in a world where this is situation normal.

Dial M for Murder at the WYP in Leeds.  Iola's top tip:  go see it.  OK so I didn't know the plot already which may have made it even better but I think I'd still have been happy with my front row seats and that much eye candy.  Lordy lordy.
(I have hidden shallows within my shallows don't you know....)
Leeds Gilbert and Sullivan at the Briene works was a very entertaining lunch time - they rehearsed there for 50 years and it was part of Heritage week.  I do like a good engineering works.

the trouble with bargains is you forget they were a bargain and you think it was a fair price.  So when it costs £20 to replace the blender attachment on my Kenwood I think it's expensive.  Just because I paid £44 for what is currently £76+ of kit doesn't compute in my head. 

However you can't turn all your leftovers into soup is the blender attachment is leaking as much as mine has been - perhaps I should have noticed the cracks about a year ago when the leaking started.  And why is it that when you notice the cracks the leaking gets worse instantly?

Hmmm upgraded to explorer 08 - check
security settings for cookies set to medium - check
(in the multitude of places that exploer08 seems to have cookie jars)
ability to log on to the guardian website/access the guardian jobs section details at home - still not possible
how bizarre - can log on at work but that's not really much use.
If only I had the money to purchase a new PC then maybe i'd overcome this trauma