January 16, 2007

Clumsy Is As Clumsy Does!

Being ever so slightly clumsy and slightly accident-prone myself, and after a particularly eventful evening I decided to try a bit of Internet research on the subject. So I typed into the search box ‘what makes people clumsy?’

A surprising amount of the hits that were returned seemed to be connected to alcohol, understandable enough I guess but I feel I’m a little more specialised than most in as much as my clumsiness, when intoxicated (and I don’t need to be anywhere near drunk to do this) seems to focus on an ability to spill red wine. Never White Wine, I can hold a gallon glass of white, perch it precariously on the arm of a sofa, knock it, walk past it, kick it, you name it, it never topples – but give me a glass of red and I only need to be in the same room before it inevitably ends up covering something. The amount of wine spilt and the resulting stain seems to bear a distinct correlation to the colour of my surroundings at the time i.e. the lighter the colour ergo the more likely to stain=the higher the chance of spillage. So I was more than a little concerned when Matt and I started looking for a new place to live and the cute little furnished cottage that we really liked had two white sofas in it. As anyone who’s ever spent an evening drinking with me will tell you – it’s only a matter of time! No matter how careful I am I WILL spill red wine on one of them sooner or later. So it wasn’t the end of the world when the estate agents phoned today and told us that the Landlord has now decided that he wants to rent the place unfurnished! Phew!

We haven’t got it in the bag yet but here’s hoping, not that I’m looking forward to actually moving it feels like I’ve done nothing but put things in boxes and move them from one place to the other for the last six months, but it’ll be worth it when (if) we get there, it’s got a garden, and a garage and everything!

So back to today. We have one of those slow closing things on the toilet door at work, which has to be bolted shut at the end of the day. I went in to get a bin liner from the cupboard in there and the door started to close ever so slowly, just as I heard a customer come into the shop. In an attempt to finish the job in hand before I went to sort out the customer I pulled on the towel rail on the outside of the door to close it more quickly which promptly came off in my hand sending me flying backwards into a pile of boxes of wine stacked on the floor. Fortunately the bottles didn’t break and I think I’ve managed to stick the towel rail back into the screw holes convincingly enough that no one will ever notice it was torn from it’s fixings, and I'm sure the bruises will fade quite quickly this time! Then I came home, watched an episode of Heroes (well worth checking out) than proceeded to knock a glass of wine all over my computer desk (none on the carpet, honest Matt!) twice and all this after only three small glasses.

I looked on Wikipedia and apparently clumsiness is caused by neurological problems and thankfully I don’t seem to suffer from any of the other symptoms associated with them when not drinking red wine so I can only come to the conclusion that red wine just turns whatever part of my brain that controls coordination, often with devastating effects on upholstery, (and my head, I still have a lump from a particularly unfortunate incident involving red wine, falling over and a pint glass, filled with water at Christmas)into a pile of mush.

Though it pains me to say it, it would appear that the only cure is a life devoid of red wine. Oh what the hell – what’s a carpet or two between friends anyway.

UPDATE

We got the Cottage, whoopee more moving, more packing, more lugging boxes around and then forever trying to remember which box things are in. Moving Day 26th Feb. I can't wait :)

January 12, 2007

Ok Go

Great vid, I quite like the song as well.

January 10, 2007

What If...

Made me smile :)

January 04, 2007

New Toys



I did very well this Christmas, Santa bought me lots of new toys including some extra memory for my poor old Mac which means I can use the full version of photoshop now instead of having to stick to Photoshop Elements. Now all I need to do is work out how it all works and what I want to do with it but I'm looking forward to learning.

We had a few friends round last night for a post Christmas/New Year catch up and a few glasses of wine were consumed so today was a bit of a slow day as far as anything constructive went. I spent most of the day playing with photoshop. It's still a bit of a mystery to me but I did learn one trick, making abstract circles from my pictures which turned some of the ones I'd filed away into something slightly more interesting. It's not difficult (here's how to do it if you want to give it a go). Now all I need to do is work out what all the buttons do on my camera and I might be able to take some decent photographs this year! :)



January 02, 2007

Robot Santas Spotted In Odiham?

I spotted these in the window of the local Ford Garage and couldn't help but think that they bore a little bit of a resemblance to the Robot Santas that appeared in both this years and last years Doctor Who Christmas specials (with a bit of imagination!)


(Real Robot Santa pics taken from Doctor Who Online)

Almost Back to Reality


Well that's it for now, the holidays are almost over and it's time to get back to the reality of work, although Matt and I managed to hold off for one more day. I did a few hours work this evening but we had a pretty lazy day.

There was a brief expedition to try to find something to take some pics of but inspiration and subject matter was a little lacking so instead we just had a quick walk along the Basingstoke Canal to clear the cobwebs and then a quick drink in the George and Lobster at Church Crookham (New Year - new pub!)

After the excesses of Christmas and New Year celebrations it was quite nice to have a sober evening and it's off to bed early tonight with slippers and cocoa (well cocoa anyway, some rather nice Spanish Drinking chocolate that Santa bought me) ready to face the shock of the alarm tomorrow.

January 01, 2007

New Year



As another new year starts the obvious question that everyone seems to ask is 'have you made any new years resolutions? The answer - No!

I hate the idea of resolutions. You start of by making a list of all the things you want to do/change about yourself then when you haven't achieved them by the end if the first week in January you give up and get nothing done - or maybe that's just me?

Personally I was glad to see the end of 2006 and even though 2007 started with a king sized hangover I find myself feeling more positive about the future than I have for a long time. There are still loose ends to be tied up from the business that we were forced to put into liquidation in October of 2006 and no doubt plenty of obstacles to overcome along the way but I hope to be able to start afresh with an online shop and balloon decorating business early in 2007.

Add a few obvious aims to my list for the year like stopping smoking, losing some weight, getting fitter etc. I also want to learn more about photography (and what all the buttons on my camera do!), write more, learn more about websites, wine and running a business. The list goes on and I hope that this year will be full of new things and self improvement, but most of all I hope that this year is a much happier one not just for me but for all of my friends as well.

Happy New Year.