I have gone mad....

With reference to my last post - this is currently the winner of " how not to use initiative".

Two men are referred to a job that involved taking a water storage container apart.
When after 4 hours had passed and they were due back at base, someone was sent out to investigate their whereabouts.

Upon arrival at the location of the water storage unit, the men were found leaning against the water unit, clutching plastic beakers and looking rather bloated.  (You can see where I am going?)

It was put to them that they had been "some time" when the younger one quickly ran off to relieve himself and the other (in charge) lamented that it was taking them longer than anticipated to empty the unit.   (The size of a domestic household oil tank)

The supervisor just calmly took off the top of the container and tipped the water away.

I kid you not.........

I might just go mad

Since being successful at a recent interview and accepting the job, there has been a persistent and slight gnawing suspicion that I might struggle with a complete culture shock when returning to the "office environment".

The team is very friendly and the quick wit of the Welsh in on tap throughout the day, along with the ability to talk incessantly about inane banter for precisely 444 minutes a working day.

Today however, whilst talking about what some "business" tenants will complain about and expect an immediate response to, my jaw dropped at around the same time as my first line of defence to mental sanity.  Here are three of the best:

• Can you come and sort out the toilet seat - it moves when I sit on it and there is a screw on the floor
• There is a spiders web in one of the back windows
• What shall I do about the daisies growing outside

Initiative it would seem, is rather selective..........

Ahhh - Real Music!

I am in music heaven and had forgotten what it is like to be able to put a set of headphones on and lose yourself in sound that I am in control of selecting and listening to without screams of anguish from #1 & #2 in the back of the car.

Their usual selection is as follows:

• Walt Disney Themes - only certain selections from Lion King, Hi Ho (Snow White) and Beauty and the Beast allowed.
• Abba Gold - EVERY SINGLE ONE
• Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits (#1 adores The Chain)
• Green Day - American Idiot (#2 adores but we had to remove from sight since skipping over the swear words became too much of a parental responsibility when moving at high speeds in the car)
• Times Tables (sheer pain for myself)
• Animal Jungle Songs - say no more

Due to an evening of absolutely NOTHING on the television worth wasting my sight on, I have retreated to the computer and reclaimed the use of my ears for pure enjoyment of blocking out the real world with a lovely new pair of headphones (the last lovely pair had an unfortunate accident with the hoover a few weeks ago and floated off to headphone heaven unnoticed by me as I was trying to unravel them from the hoover's innards) and submerging myself into a magical world of me, myself and I.

Tonight I have really enjoyed listening to The Black Keys on Spotify and could not place my finger on why I enjoyed listening so much to their Brothers album.  A quick email to a very knowledgeable individual who works in the Music Business pointed out that the lead singer of The BK is Dan Auerbach whose album "Keep it Hid" I was given to by another very knowledgeable individual who knew instinctively that I would love it.  

Singing in the Rain

Went to see Singing in the Rain on the weekend at the Palace Theatre in London and felt it worthy of a posting - not least as we actually had "A Weekend away from the CHILDREN!"

The show itself was very entertaining and the biggest pull was definitely the real "rain" scene.

Those sitting on the front seats were treated to regular showers of rain when the "Singing in the Rain" took place near them and resulted in anticipated howls of "mock shock" which then reverberated around the theatre and added real excitement to the set.

The singing was not the strongest feature of the production I felt but I loved the set dance pieces and the way in which the nearest and dearest's favourite film has been reproduced for a theatre audience.  

Well worth a watch if you are a Gene Kelly fan and especially so in the front seats!

Here is the show trailer which is pretty much spot on given what we saw.

Spider Fright

Yes all - this friendly little chap tried to take refuge in my cleavage last Thursday night and due to a weekend away, I have only now felt up to re-living the moment when I discovered "it" trying to ease itself into my warm pillows.

At first I thought it was a rogue hair that had floated away from my scalp in the way that hairs sometimes do, and bother you with that little "tickle" but after a few little "tickles" and a curious feeling of something not quite right, I looked down to see this ridiculously large house-spider literally on my chest.

Now I am not that bothered by spiders normally but I must admit on this occasion to uttering an expletive rhyming with duck and then dancing like a fool in the living room (thankfully I was on my own) in order to jiggle the offending arachnid off.  It took ages as the front claw (as pictured above) was tenderly embedded in my duck down gillet.

I can confirm that I DID NOT KILL IT and it now lives outside in the outside utility area.   

The nearest and dearest would probably have fainted if the incident had happened to him and he is now in the process of planning to block up the hole where we think the rest of them remain........

One last coincidence is that this article was quite popular on the net the day before my experience took place. Males be warned.....

Sex "in" the Spider

Icy Tool

Again, a very quick post as my hands are going blue due to there being no heating in this study.  

On the theme of "freezing", I just had to share a recent picture I took when taking #1 & #2 up the Table Mountain a few days ago.   We started out with seeing how far we would walk up the mountain but both were in fine form when it quickly became apparent that I could bribe them to the top with the promise of "playing on the computer and the DS after lunch".  

#1 pointed out that after all the exercise, it was only fair to then sit in front of a screen and play Worms or Star Wars, whilst #2 was more interested in the promise of a hot chocolate and one of those Chocolate Fudge cakes at the top. (see recent post for pic).

Anyhow, whilst on our way up, I noticed a wide variety of ice formations but the one pictured really does win hands down (please excuse dirty pun).

The Apricot and Almond Loaf

A very quick posting of the above delight which did not last 5 mins.....must taste good then.  Also from The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake book.

My biggest tip would be to make sure that you use generous chunks of chopped marzipan in the mix along with  tidy chompings of moist (I just love this word and had to get it in - PWAR) apricot.

Baking Day

As it has been cold enough for a glass eye today, I took the sensible option of spending the afternoon in the kitchen and trying out some new recipes from the latest Great British Bake Off: How to Bake: The Perfect Victoria Sponge and Other Baking Secrets.

After a quick jaunt into town to christen my snow boots, collect some necessary ingredients and accompany #2 who was armed with two sandcastle buckets for "collecting things" - we managed to get back in amongst the squally snow showers with the items to create some Chocolate Fudge Cakes and an Apricot and Marzipan Fruit cake.

The Chocolate Fudge Cakes were easy peasy to make and all I really had to do was bung it all into the food processor.  They went down a treat for "pudding" after dinner and here is what they look like.

Very much like a brownie to be honest but with a little more sponge like texture towards the bottom of the slice.  A good recipe for children to do as the measuring out of all the ingredients beforehand is key to the speed and ease of getting this one into the oven!

Letters in bath update.......

A brief post and with good reason.

Last night whilst helping #1 & #2 wash away the days dust and grime, the letters were again being put to good use.  On this occasion however, they were creating proper words as part of #1 testing what #2 had learnt from their Read Write Inc sessions in school.

After hoisting #2 out of the bath and helping pat away the "cold drips", she suddenly starting to repeat the letter "o" over and over again.   I thought perhaps she meant "oh"  meaning that it indeed was cold but when I glanced over to #1, my mental fog consisting largely of post school and early evening tea madness became quickly focused upon the cause of sudden merriment.

#1 had taken the liberty of selecting the foam letter "o" and had (like a true male) placed it with perfection over the spectacle of his young manhood and was showing it off it with some considerable pride.

I suddenly wanted to scream out "Oh" following quickly by "No!" but instead turned #2 away and asked him to remove the letter whilst trying hard not to combust with refrained laughter.   I felt that laughing out loud at the letter "o" might bruise his pride and give him an early complex and I did not feel ready to enter into a conversation about how the male appendage is generally something to be laughed at.

Finally, I did not want to linger over the event in case the letter "o" during the next Read Write Inc session, is something I am suddenly called into school to explain.


Note to self - I must go out and purchase new bath toys.......