OMG! How long has it been since writing on here!! And I was doing so well too. Oh well, life does often get in the way doesn't it?
How am I? Ok, I think!
Had more problems with neighbour's dog recently so called in the local Council AGAIN!!! Got a new warden so had to explain everything all over again. However, he did arrive with a mate so two for the price of one. Isn't that a BOGOF deal? Well, I wish my neighbours would bog off!!! Anyway, they went round and 'had a word' and miracles of miracles the guy has removed the rubbish from up against the fence, so theoretically dogs/kids can no longer climb up and over my 6.5ft fence! Partner is, so he says, going to go round over weekend and offer to help remove the rubbish completely! I have visions of the kids pulling it all back so that they can climb up again, but trying to think positive. We've offered before, but nothing came of it. Hopefully this time he'll be a bit more insistent and Callum can start to enjoy the garden again!
What else? Well, bedroom ceiling had to be pulled down before it fell down!!! So house is basically covered in dust and now every room apart from Callum's is in a half state! Either there are bits missing in ceilings or it's chunks out of walls. Will be nice when finally finished, but I'm beginning to feel like that is never going to happen! Phil, my partner, has said that he will take a week off in September and get our bedroom finished completely!! Would be nice! Will be able to finally unpack my books and dragons after nearly two years of living here and have a nice room to chill out and sleep in! Only another 5 rooms to do after that! Eeek!
As to my state of mind. I'm going from manically depressed about house/dog/garden to 'wild thing' about the same! I'm trying to read about 6 books all at once, which probably isn't a good idea!?! And I suddenly remembered that I started knitting Callum a jumper months ago! As I'm such a slow knitter I better get on with it otherwise it'll be finished and he will have grown out of it!
Have decided also that I need a laptop! Callum has been in computer mode again, so getting on here is pretty rare and when I do it's normally a bit late, so I check my mail and FB and leave it (another reason blog isn't being done). Trying to write is quite hard when you're shattered and the computer chair is knackered, so I end up with back ache after any length of time. I really really want to write and not just my blogs. I've got about 3 stories on the go at the moment and really want to finish one of them and have a go at publishing it. But by the time it gets to about 10pm and I'm finally able to sit down at computer, I really don't feel like doing it. So laptop required! That way, when C is playing on computer I can sit in a comfy chair and tap away quite happily.
I can even do it in early evening while the rest of them are watching telly. Why don't I go on computer then I hear you ask? Well I have a strange obsession about not letting anyone read what I write until it's finished. Even these blogs (which are completely public) I don't like letting anyone read until done. So the fact that my computer is in the corner of a room that everyone has to walk through to get to the kitchen and screen is in full view makes me paranoid! Silly I know, but I hate the thought that they can look over my shoulder and read what I'm typing. So laptop is going to have to be the answer!! (I'm typing now because my son is upstairs playing with his best mate, so won't see them for ages, and my partner is at work!)
On the rest of the life front I'm still currently obsessed with you know who - haha! Hopefully now the series has finished I can wean myself off and find someone else - I'm such a fickle thing you know! However, I am (or rather we are) going to Earl's Court to see Top Gear Live in November (early xmas treat), so probably be a while. Plus I'm still tired, grumpy, getting older, home educating, knitting, reading, cooking, gardening, meeting new and wonderful people, seeing current and fab friends and generally enjoying myself. So it isn't all bad!
Cya
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Friday, 20 August 2010
Sunday, 6 June 2010
MID-LIFE CRISIS, RESPECT AND JEREMY CLARKSON
Right, I'm now a year older!!! Wiser I'm not so sure about; grumpier I'm positive about and definitely older! So what has been going through my head this week?
Well, to start with cars!!!! Now let me first inform you that I do not drive and I couldn't tell the difference between a Volvo and a Golf if you paid me. My normal description of a car is that it has 4 wheels, is big/small, is 3 door/5 door (yes I can tell that difference) and it's blue/green/white/black........you get the picture!! So why this week have I been thinking about cars? It may have something to do with Jeremy Clarkson, but then again it may not! I'm a little obsessed with Jeremy at the moment. It's my mate's fault; you know who you are (hehe)! She bought Phil two of his books for his birthday and one day, while bored and wanting something light to read, I picked one of them up and started reading. We are big fans of Top Gear in this house and I have to admit that Jezza makes me laugh and his books are even funnier! He is probably the most un PC person on the planet, but I find myself nodding in agreement to a lot of what he says even though I feel guilty for doing so and the way he writes is just genius! Anyway, after devouring both books in a matter of a week, I spotting in a local charity shop one of his others; this time about cars! I started to read with a little bit of trepidation as, remember I don't know anything about cars, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it, but I did!!!! I loved it! It was still humourous and still full of his little rants and views on the world he inhabits, so I asked for another one for my birthday! I got 2!!!! Another World According To and a car one Driven to Distraction. I've already finished the World According To one and am about 1/4 way through the other. So my head is a little more car orientated than normal, but it still has not increased my understanding of cars at all. Which brings me onto the other reason I've been thinking about cars.
A friend of mine, who shall remain anonymous, has just bought herself a 2 seater sports car! What's the problem with that I hear you ask? Well, there are 3 of them in the household: herself, her partner and her son plus they have her partner's son every other weekend. Now, my uncarlike brain says why on earth would you buy a 2 seater car when you clearly need a minimum of 4 seats!? Her answer was that they rarely spent any time with all 4 of them in the car at the same time and that they could always use her partner's car if they needed to. Plus she wanted to be able to have a posh sporty car before she entered the world of senile dementia that she was so obviously heading for, now that she was nearing her 50s, and be unable to drive one! Good and fair point, but this got me thinking! Do woman now have the classic, if cliched, mid life crisis that men are supposed to have? You know the story; man hits middle age, goes out and buys the fastest, flashiest car he can find and runs off with his secretary who is half his age and has large breasts! It is terribly cliched, but not uncommon and you do see them driving around. Or do you? This was the problem; I don't! I've only ever seen them in television dramas or in glossy magazines where they end up looking, well, a bit of a prat!! So I've made a conscious effort this week to look out for flashy cars and to see who is driving them. I might have to re point out here that I know nothing about cars, so a flashy car to me could actually be a complete dumpster to a petrolhead, but on the look out I was. What were my findings? As I don't live in the most upmarket of places in the first place I only saw about 3 cars that I would possibly class as flashy and one of them was a pick up, so that one probably wouldn't even count! And who was driving these cars? All men; one woman, two men; no, all women! Yes, all 3 were driven by women! But that's not all, all 3 were driven by woman who were also blonde. All had enamelled fingernails that had sparkly trimmings. All looked pretty anorexic and only one, the one in the pick up, looked under 30 with a child in the back; the other 2 looking pretty much my age. I could be completely typecasting here but I swear that if I could have seen what they were wearing it would have been designer jeans and each would have had a designer (or at least of copy of a designer) handbag! Now, I'm not disrespecting my mate or, in fact, these other woman; at least I'm trying not to. How they live their lives is up to them and I dye my hair blonde now that it has turned salt&pepper grey and my original brown hair makes my face look washed out as my skin has gone paler as I've got older. Fair play to them if that is what they want to do and they can afford to do it. But, just as middle aged men in fast, flash cars with 'trinket' girlfriends look complete prats to me, these woman basically look like wannabe WAGs to me too! I just hope that they are not trying to relive their youth or, worse still, have a fear of getting old. Remember the phrase "mutton dressed as lamb", well now it seems it isn't just clothes, it's the car you drive as well but, I hate to say it, it still looks bad!! Sorry girls, my opinion only!! And I still love my friend dearly!
The other thing I've been thinking about is respect, or lack of it! My mum may not have wanted me or been the most loving or protective mother in the world, but she did teach me respect and I'm hoping that I've taught my kids the same (on reflection of what I've written above, I'm not being very respectful this week, but I did warn you that you might not always like what I'm thinking). However, this week I've noticed that there really isn't a great deal of it about nowadays. It all starts with dogs barking and ends in noise from neighbours!
I'm a dog owner/lover, in fact I love most animals, and even if a dog is launching itself at my fence with what can only been seen as a view to getting into my garden and ripping apart my child and dog (this has happened recently, but has now been resolved), I know it isn't the dog's fault, it's the owners. Although, saying that, I wouldn't think twice about grabbing the nearest item and beating the shite out of the animal should it have succeeded in it's mission. But back to the barking. I have several houses around me that own dogs and there is definitely 3 of them that consistently allow their dogs to continuously bark. If my dog barks, and obviously he does otherwise he wouldn't be a dog, I tell him to stop or I bring him indoors. I'd be mortified if I thought that anyone was sitting in their house/garden thinking "I wish they'd shut that bloody dog up!", but these owners obviously don't think like this at all. If fact, I don't think that they think much of their dogs either to be honest! A dog normally barks for 3 reasons: intruders, boredom or fear! Now if it is an intruder, surely you should be going to check it out; if it's boredom, then you aren't looking after your dog properly and if it's fear, you should again be checking it out. But these owners don't, so personally I'd like to go round and remove their dogs and rehome them in better homes, but I'm not allowed to do that so I have to put up with the barking.
The other is neighbour's noise and in particular DIY noise. The house next door to me has been sold and they are totally gutting and renovating it. I don't have a problem with this as it's something we need to do ourselves, but is it really necessary to start banging at 10.30pm? Yes, I said pm, not am! It has been known to be as late as 11pm before they start! Ok, I'll own up and say that it is rare and only once has it been 11pm and it normally is finished by 11pm, but even so. Are there not enough hours in the day already to get this sort of thing done? And the fact that they know that there is a child living next door really pisses me off (sorry)! It just comes back to respect; they haven't any! My worry is that, at the moment, they are not truely living at the house as it's pretty uninhabitable so what will it be like when they finally do move in permanently? Will I then have neighbours like my last lot that played European disco music (they were Polish as are these) really loud until God knows when! I truely hope not as I don't want to have to start another mini war. And that's another thing, why is it always crap music that's played really loudly. My next door neighbour but one was playing some excellent music the other week while out working in his garden, but I could only really hear it when the wind blew in the right direction; I was almost tempted to yell at him to turn it UP!!
Oh well, my rant is now over, my brain has been downloaded and possibly half the population has been ostracized, but I don't care as I'm off for one last cup of tea before going to bed! See you next week.
Well, to start with cars!!!! Now let me first inform you that I do not drive and I couldn't tell the difference between a Volvo and a Golf if you paid me. My normal description of a car is that it has 4 wheels, is big/small, is 3 door/5 door (yes I can tell that difference) and it's blue/green/white/black........you get the picture!! So why this week have I been thinking about cars? It may have something to do with Jeremy Clarkson, but then again it may not! I'm a little obsessed with Jeremy at the moment. It's my mate's fault; you know who you are (hehe)! She bought Phil two of his books for his birthday and one day, while bored and wanting something light to read, I picked one of them up and started reading. We are big fans of Top Gear in this house and I have to admit that Jezza makes me laugh and his books are even funnier! He is probably the most un PC person on the planet, but I find myself nodding in agreement to a lot of what he says even though I feel guilty for doing so and the way he writes is just genius! Anyway, after devouring both books in a matter of a week, I spotting in a local charity shop one of his others; this time about cars! I started to read with a little bit of trepidation as, remember I don't know anything about cars, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it, but I did!!!! I loved it! It was still humourous and still full of his little rants and views on the world he inhabits, so I asked for another one for my birthday! I got 2!!!! Another World According To and a car one Driven to Distraction. I've already finished the World According To one and am about 1/4 way through the other. So my head is a little more car orientated than normal, but it still has not increased my understanding of cars at all. Which brings me onto the other reason I've been thinking about cars.
A friend of mine, who shall remain anonymous, has just bought herself a 2 seater sports car! What's the problem with that I hear you ask? Well, there are 3 of them in the household: herself, her partner and her son plus they have her partner's son every other weekend. Now, my uncarlike brain says why on earth would you buy a 2 seater car when you clearly need a minimum of 4 seats!? Her answer was that they rarely spent any time with all 4 of them in the car at the same time and that they could always use her partner's car if they needed to. Plus she wanted to be able to have a posh sporty car before she entered the world of senile dementia that she was so obviously heading for, now that she was nearing her 50s, and be unable to drive one! Good and fair point, but this got me thinking! Do woman now have the classic, if cliched, mid life crisis that men are supposed to have? You know the story; man hits middle age, goes out and buys the fastest, flashiest car he can find and runs off with his secretary who is half his age and has large breasts! It is terribly cliched, but not uncommon and you do see them driving around. Or do you? This was the problem; I don't! I've only ever seen them in television dramas or in glossy magazines where they end up looking, well, a bit of a prat!! So I've made a conscious effort this week to look out for flashy cars and to see who is driving them. I might have to re point out here that I know nothing about cars, so a flashy car to me could actually be a complete dumpster to a petrolhead, but on the look out I was. What were my findings? As I don't live in the most upmarket of places in the first place I only saw about 3 cars that I would possibly class as flashy and one of them was a pick up, so that one probably wouldn't even count! And who was driving these cars? All men; one woman, two men; no, all women! Yes, all 3 were driven by women! But that's not all, all 3 were driven by woman who were also blonde. All had enamelled fingernails that had sparkly trimmings. All looked pretty anorexic and only one, the one in the pick up, looked under 30 with a child in the back; the other 2 looking pretty much my age. I could be completely typecasting here but I swear that if I could have seen what they were wearing it would have been designer jeans and each would have had a designer (or at least of copy of a designer) handbag! Now, I'm not disrespecting my mate or, in fact, these other woman; at least I'm trying not to. How they live their lives is up to them and I dye my hair blonde now that it has turned salt&pepper grey and my original brown hair makes my face look washed out as my skin has gone paler as I've got older. Fair play to them if that is what they want to do and they can afford to do it. But, just as middle aged men in fast, flash cars with 'trinket' girlfriends look complete prats to me, these woman basically look like wannabe WAGs to me too! I just hope that they are not trying to relive their youth or, worse still, have a fear of getting old. Remember the phrase "mutton dressed as lamb", well now it seems it isn't just clothes, it's the car you drive as well but, I hate to say it, it still looks bad!! Sorry girls, my opinion only!! And I still love my friend dearly!
The other thing I've been thinking about is respect, or lack of it! My mum may not have wanted me or been the most loving or protective mother in the world, but she did teach me respect and I'm hoping that I've taught my kids the same (on reflection of what I've written above, I'm not being very respectful this week, but I did warn you that you might not always like what I'm thinking). However, this week I've noticed that there really isn't a great deal of it about nowadays. It all starts with dogs barking and ends in noise from neighbours!
I'm a dog owner/lover, in fact I love most animals, and even if a dog is launching itself at my fence with what can only been seen as a view to getting into my garden and ripping apart my child and dog (this has happened recently, but has now been resolved), I know it isn't the dog's fault, it's the owners. Although, saying that, I wouldn't think twice about grabbing the nearest item and beating the shite out of the animal should it have succeeded in it's mission. But back to the barking. I have several houses around me that own dogs and there is definitely 3 of them that consistently allow their dogs to continuously bark. If my dog barks, and obviously he does otherwise he wouldn't be a dog, I tell him to stop or I bring him indoors. I'd be mortified if I thought that anyone was sitting in their house/garden thinking "I wish they'd shut that bloody dog up!", but these owners obviously don't think like this at all. If fact, I don't think that they think much of their dogs either to be honest! A dog normally barks for 3 reasons: intruders, boredom or fear! Now if it is an intruder, surely you should be going to check it out; if it's boredom, then you aren't looking after your dog properly and if it's fear, you should again be checking it out. But these owners don't, so personally I'd like to go round and remove their dogs and rehome them in better homes, but I'm not allowed to do that so I have to put up with the barking.
The other is neighbour's noise and in particular DIY noise. The house next door to me has been sold and they are totally gutting and renovating it. I don't have a problem with this as it's something we need to do ourselves, but is it really necessary to start banging at 10.30pm? Yes, I said pm, not am! It has been known to be as late as 11pm before they start! Ok, I'll own up and say that it is rare and only once has it been 11pm and it normally is finished by 11pm, but even so. Are there not enough hours in the day already to get this sort of thing done? And the fact that they know that there is a child living next door really pisses me off (sorry)! It just comes back to respect; they haven't any! My worry is that, at the moment, they are not truely living at the house as it's pretty uninhabitable so what will it be like when they finally do move in permanently? Will I then have neighbours like my last lot that played European disco music (they were Polish as are these) really loud until God knows when! I truely hope not as I don't want to have to start another mini war. And that's another thing, why is it always crap music that's played really loudly. My next door neighbour but one was playing some excellent music the other week while out working in his garden, but I could only really hear it when the wind blew in the right direction; I was almost tempted to yell at him to turn it UP!!
Oh well, my rant is now over, my brain has been downloaded and possibly half the population has been ostracized, but I don't care as I'm off for one last cup of tea before going to bed! See you next week.
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