Drip, drip, drop little April shower...

Yeah, I know April is notorious for rain (yesterday's thunderstorm was awesome) but please! A bit of warmth for 2008 wouldn't go amiss. I'm still wearing my winter 3/4 length coat to work. I even got my boots resoled the other day just because its still too cold to wear my shoes. With all the hype surrounding global warming I would expect temperatures to exceed 15C by now...

Mice for lunch

So apparently we have mice in the office and it’s a result of people eating at their desks. So could we please eat elsewhere? Sure, just tell me and I’ll go. Let me just give you a few pointers first:
1. Work is inside an industrial depot in east of Tottenham with no canteen
2. The park at the front is notorious for mugging, pervs and drug dealing
3. The nearest eateries are a 10min walk and have a Burger King, Pizza Hut and KFC (not good for the calorie conscious… or any type of conscious if you eat junk for lunch every working day)
4. The high street is 10min walk in the other direction, notorious for mugging, stabbings, shootings and drug dealing
5. … Well, other than my car there isn’t anywhere else to eat. Guess I’m staying at my desk.

Crafts by Clare

I have just spent the last 2 days making wedding invitations. I never want to make another card again! At least they’re pretty. And everything is done and dusted now so all we have to do is wait for the reply cards to come flooding in and we can do a table plan. Then we just wait for the big day!

British Summer Time...?

The clocks went forward at 2am this morning for the start of British Summer Time. Summer is officially here! And outside it is snowing. Yep, you read correctly, it is snowing.

Reuben is in Manchester watching Liverpool v Man Utd. My cousin got free tickets for an executive box, someone dropped out, and would Reuben like a 3-course meal and a chance to watch his fave team for free? Well, there’s a no-brainer!

Reuben said, “Man Utd won 3-0. At least the food was good…”

Wanna V?

V festival tickets went on sale today. I had 3 browsers all set up ready to buy and when 10am came around, whichever opened first would be the place I bought from. 10.01am and the whole thing crashed. Panicking I open them up again to find two have busy servers and cannot access the page. Nargh! Gigs and Tours has miraculously stayed open but tickets are selling fast. It’s now 10.06 and all weekend and red camping tickets are sold out. I email Anna and ask her if she wants to buy yellow camping tickets (don’t necessarily have to camp!). They sell out before she gets back to me.
I phone Reuben. “How do you fancy Staffordshire?”
Pause. “You really want to go?” Pause. “Yeah it sounds alright...”
I immediately book 3 tickets for Weston Park.

So we’re off to Staffordshire this summer!! Should be good, possibly less crowded and full of nicer people than the Essex chavs we always come across in Hylands Park. Chelmsford is the venue all the radio stations mass book so they can give out tickets during the weeks leading up to the festival. No-one mass books Staffordshire.

Lineup for now: Muse, The Prodigy, Squeeze, Kaiser Chiefs, Kings of Leon, Chemical Brothers, Scouting for Girls, Amy Macdonald, Newton Faulkner, The Hoosiers, Amy Winehouse, The Pigeons, Girls Aloud, Duffy, The Verve…

Florist

The florist flunked out. We went to get a quote 3 weeks ago and she still hasn’t sent us the quote. I phoned a few times and we went into the shop twice but she keeps fobbing us off with excuses…“We close early so we’re busy at the moment”… “It’s Mothers Day weekend so we’re on a tight schedule”… I don’t care. I told her so. Details have repeatedly been left. We’ve decided not to go with her. If she’s like this over a simple quotation who knows what she might be like on the day…?

Jaysen

So Reuben is in Mauritius suddenly because his cousin died over there. Actually his cousin died in The Seychelles but he is from Mauritius and was working in La Digue for a year. Anyways he drowned while swimming in the sea (it is cyclone season so it was maybe a bit foolish to be there in the first place) and Reuben is going over for the funeral.

I feel lonely at home. Everything is too quiet. It is nice to be able to watch the TV without him yakking on the phone though…!

Green Street

Reuben’s mum, dad, sister, aunt and I went to East Ham today to go sari shopping. Amanda needs a sari for her wedding in August and I need one as a pressie from my future in-laws. Green St in East Ham is amazing. Every shop is a sari shop, a jewellery shop or a shoe/accessory shop. The colours, embroidery, beading, fabrics… It was dazzling and gorgeous!

Anyway Amanda got a gorgeous cream one with gold embroidery and gold and red beading and I got a baby blue one with silver beads and crystals.

Then we went browsing for shoes. The shoes were far more elegant than regular shoes and have crystals on the straps and engraving on the heels. They are all mostly either flat ballerina shoes or skyscraper high heels. I’m waiting till my sari has been made before I go crazy and buy every shoe in my size…!!

PS Reuben said I couldn’t have any more shoes. Surely another 3-4 pairs wouldn’t hurt…?

V Festival - Day 2

Kinda tired from yesterday but nothing too major. Really glad I bought those wellies. The grass was a bit squelchy on the way out last night. And my coat was soaked with drizzle and the hood kept the wind out so I was nice and toasty warm!!

I cooked brekkie for everyone this morning and we left around the same time but, alas, too late to see the Goo Goo Dolls. We heard ‘Iris’ playing as we queued to get in – bother! I was kinda mad for at least an hour. Today we saw Sophie Ellis Bextor then McFly… over most of KT Tunstall which I was also mad about but Anna guilt-tripped us into seeing them – she said we made her see Sophie E-B. “Er, no, I said you should see James Morrison instead,” I reminded her. But she conveniently forgot I said that. And then we needed the loos. So I saw KT Tunstall on the big screen and a glimpse of her on the stage but that was about it. The Fratellis rocked the place and everyone sang every word of ‘Chelsea Dagger’ and ‘Whistle for the Choir’. James sang ‘Sit Down’ and it was electric! Then Kasabian came on. I watched for 20mins and didn’t know one song. I went off to the other stage and watched the Manic Street Preachers who were totally fab and even sang some new stuff. Then I went back to the main stage to see The Killers. Oh my God. They were fan-fucking-tastic! Totally worth my backache and the rain!

Unfortunately our plans to go as soon as the encore started were scuppered. They sang one song as an encore. Everyone left at the same time and it took 1 hr 45 to leave the field! We got home about 1am and I went to bed at 1.30am… Only to wake up the next day at 8am for work! Yippee (!). I’m totally shattered…

V Festival – Day 1

Yay! V Fest! I haven’t been since 2005 so hopefully it’ll be a good year. Rain has been promised all weekend so we head off to Harlow town centre first to find raincoats or ponchos of some description. Every Argos in North London is out of £4 ponchos so we hunt around Milletts… which turns out to be very expensive - £35 for a kag. Anna hunts around for a sports shop and we end up buying large boys coats with hoods in the sale at JJBs. £13 each – bargain!! Reuben is content with a fleece and his Indy hat.

So armed with new coats and wellies we head off to Chelmsford. We wait around for Lynne and Ian to find us – we have their camping cooker and some food. Eventually we head into the park and see the The Proclaimers. Of course ‘500 Miles’ was very popular! The Thrills were a cool band and Paolo Nutini was too, but he sang more covers than his own stuff. Kanye West was pretty rubbish – he just yelled over samples of other songs. Everyone thinks he’s great but I was not impressed! ‘Stronger’ was his only decent song. Pink was easily the best performance of the day. She had a brilliant band and a really cool stage set-up. Snow Patrol was excellent and had a cool light show. The Foos played brilliantly in the face of wind and drizzle! Was a bit miffed that I missed their ‘secret’ acoustic gig under the pseudonym 606 on the C4 stage earlier…

We left after the encore started and was out of the park in 10 minutes. We arrived home really tired and suddenly quite peckish. So 11.30pm and we were ordering pizza! It was cool. And I slept like a log. My back hurts from standing up all day. Reuben keeps calling me an old woman…

UKC 2007

Oh yeah! This time we're all on our merry way to New England for Road Trip II. I'm already looking forward to going into Boston and retracing the footsteps walked by Ally McBeal who I totally identified with during most of my twenties. The problem is that, other than Boston, I really don't know what else I want to see and do up there so I'm looking at a bit of research between now and then!

I just realised. This year marks a decade since we all met at UKC!! It feels longer... ;) LOL!!

What the Dickens...?

A theme park dedicated to Charles Dickens? What a fantasmagorical idea! Take me there!!

Surprise, anyone?

How evil are you?

It's Official!

Right, now that all the important people have been told, its time to tell the general public... I'm engaged! Yaay!

Reuben proposed to me over a vacuum cleaner. Not the most romantic of situations I have to say. But nonetheless he said it and I had to wait 2 weeks before we could get a ring and tell people properly. I was itching like crazy to yell it out to all. I eventually did yell "I'M ENGAGED!" in a crazy high-pitched squeal down the phone to my brother. All he could say was, "Oh, Clare, wow, oh, wow..." and his g/f was laughing her head off in the background. I rendered him speechless. :)

So we got a ring and it was hot and sticky under all the lights in the jewellers so I thought my ring was a little on the big side but nothing major. By the end of the day it was falling off all the time. So its now sitting in its box waiting till we find a time to go back and get it altered.

Hurrah!

I haven't been able to post for ages since Google took over. I keep crashing. Will just have to restrict my posts to the comments on mel and Jen's posts. :(

Quasi-celebrity

I went back to work today and felt a bit like a celebrity. Everyone had heard about my ‘incident’ on Tuesday and wanted to know all the gory details and if I was okay now. I didn’t get a scrap of work done because I spent the day chatting to everyone! LOL!!

Sonic Death Monkey

I received a parcel from Mel today (which by shrewd deduction means that it was probably Jenny who sent the chocolate treat maker - thanks guys!!). Inside were some lovely smelly lavender bath cubes and a bottle of Lush shower gel called Sonic Death Monkey. The name made me laugh out loud which hurt my stomach. It apparently smells of chocolate and coffee which sounds scrumptious but I decide against sniffing at the bottle just yet. Just smelling toast this morning was enough to make my stomach turn...

Stomach bugs and gremlins

I woke up about 6.30am feeling really hot and slightly nauseous. I went to get up but couldn’t; I felt really weak. A few deep breaths and I somehow managed to haul myself up and into the en-suite. I don’t turn on the light because I don’t want to wake up Reuben and I kneel down and await the dreaded moment. Suddenly the light turns on and Reuben is behind me and helping me up. He said he heard a thud and came to see if I was okay. I say I’m fine and need the loo. He leaves me and I’m doing my business. Next thing I know I’m staring at the en-suite ceiling and Reuben is calling an ambulance. I had collapsed and was out for a minute or so. I wasn’t quite sure where I was so I (weakly) ask, “Where am I?” “In the bathroom. You fainted. Sod this, I’m calling an ambulance.”

I can’t move at all. The ambulance crew are there within minutes and bombard me with questions. They help me to my feet and sit me on the bed. One takes a blood sample and the other uses the handheld pump to take my blood pressure after failing to find my pulse anywhere in either of my wrists. I feel like blacking out again. I then throw up and feel marginally better.

Apparently it’s a bad stomach virus going around and I got it bad. Tell me about it! I felt dizzy every time I sit up or stand. Reuben took the day off work just in case I collapsed again and called in to my workplace for me too. By the evening I still felt quite bad so we called NHS Direct who were very helpful and gave us some good advice. They said if I was sick again or had stomach or chest cramps I had to call an ambulance. A rather eventful day in all...

Back to normal

I went back to work today and made the classic mistake of signing a works order with 04/01/06. Oh well, at least its done now! And I know I’m missed from the office though I’m not sure it’s for the right reasons. I walked in and my colleague said, “Oh I’m so glad you’re here! The photocopier hasn’t been working for a week!”
I put my bag down on my desk and said, “And a very happy new year to you too!”

It turns out that three of the four drum cartridges went out and nobody knew what to do. It’s a big thing when the drums go because no-one can print, photocopy, email or fax from the machine. Anyhow it turns out I only have two spares so I phoned the company and ordered some more supplies. I then had to sort out three problems with emailing and one problem with spreadsheet page margins. By 10.30am I actually managed to have time to make a cup of coffee. Considering I start work at 8:30am that was a long time to function without caffeine!!

2007

Another year rolls by... Happy new year everyone!!