My So-Called Life
the random and not-so-random musings of a twenty-something history geek
My So-Called Lifethe random and not-so-random musings of a twenty-something history geek |
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| About Lizzie: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Lizzie is a fully qualified history teacher having finished her course at Canterbury Christ Church University. She's also a geek who was secretary of the University of Kent Computing Society during her three year BA at the University of Kent. She is very much in love with her shiny Husband, though she is sad that he doesn't glow bloo :( More about her on her website: http://carina.org.uk |
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| Oct. 24th, 2009 @ 12:56 pm Eye test | |||
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Hiding out here: CT2
Yesterday was rather busy by my standards. It was the 6 year anniversary of Ben and I getting together and we went out for dinner at Cafe Des Amis in Canterbury - the first time I've been and it was yummy. I would highly recommend, though wish you better luck in who you sit next to. The people next to us started arguing and walked out half way through the starter. Exciting!Mostly feeling:  happyNow Playing: Buffy the Vampire Slayer S2 E1: When she was bad Ben was very sweet and got me chocolate, Season 3 of ER and some flowers. It was lovely and the flowers look so cheerful :) We ended up in town in the afternoon because he had the day off and I needed (was overdue) an eyetest and wanted him to come so I had some advice on what glasses to pick afterwards. Even if my prescription had remained the same, I needed new glasses anyway. Sooooo... previous eye test. New eye test: (Sph is my short sight, Cyl is my astigmatism) Right eye Sph: -1.75 Cyl: -1.00 Axis 20 Left eye Sph: -2.50 Cyl: -1.25 Axis: 180 So my astigmatism is marginally better in my left eye, and my short sight marginally better in my right eye, but this eye test has pretty much confirmed that my sight is settling down, which is nice. I suspect, short of laser eye surgery I won't have 20:20 without glasses, but I'm pretty pleased that it's at least not really getting worse any more. It turns out that with glasses I have superhuman sight! BWhahahahahaha - well, what I mean is, with my new glasses I have better than 20:20 vision (two notches better apparently). It's a pity that without them everything is blurry :( Will post pics of me with new glasses when I get them (on Thursday). These are them (and these are my new sunglasses). It's a bit scary how fast money disappears when you buy an eyetest and new glasses (even on 2 for 1). |
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| Sep. 4th, 2009 @ 12:08 pm Yesterday was a bad day for travelling... (for me, anyway) - long, contains angst! | |||
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I went up to London yesterday to see pot luck theatre* with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} no1typo. We ended up seeing Hairspray, which I hope to write about at a later date. I've been all writers blocked recently, even when I've had things to write about, and so this journal has been very quiet.Anyway, to return to this entirely uninteresting tale of Woe, for which Livejournal is famous and I just want to get off my chest... I should have known what the travel situation would be from early(ish) in my journey, when I drove onto the slip for the M20 (off the A249) and stopped. And stayed stopped for over three quarters of an hour after an accident on the M20 between the junction I was coming on at and the next one, which closed the whole carriageway for most of the time I was stopped, and two lanes were still closed when I finally got past. It wasn't really the best start, and very nearly made me late for picking up no1typo. After that things went mostly to plan (bar the overcrowding/traffic jams of a bus getting around London at 5pm :)) and we got our tickets, had dinner and wandered to the theatre. It was after the show that it all started to get interesting.First, as to be expected really at Theatre kicking out time, the traffic was solid for a while and it took us ages to get a bus back to Victoria - a number 38, which advertised Victoria as its destination and then kicked us (and the rest of the passengers) out at Green Park. By this time it was nearly 11pm, we were getting tired and Victoria was a dark and scary walk away across the park (yes, I know it's not far, but it was dark and scary. So we decided that, given we couldn't really be bothered to wait for a bus that may or may not come (and may or may not pick us up when it does come) we got a cab the rest of the way to Victoria. Where we found a train back to the place we had left the car was indefinitely delayed because of problems at Clapham Junction. After half an hour or so of waiting, we decided to get on a train to East Croydon, because at least then we'd be getting closer to the car and home and we could always get a train from there to Purley. When we got there we found that, again, the closest train for Purley, had it been On Time was still ages away and it was already showing as "delayed" (by this point, I was getting heartily fed up with signs at train stations merely saying "delayed"), which could mean anything for us and our wait. At which point we completely lost our heads and Definitely a mistake. All was fine until I hit the M25 (for reference this is my normal route home from my mum's) at which point it became mostly single lane because of roadworks, and to my utter woe the sliproad to the M26 was closed, meaning that the M26 itself was closed, meaning that I ended up going to the Darenth Interchange and straight on to the M2. The M25 was single lane pretty much from the point I joined to the point I came off at Darenth. Despite the fact that the route I ended up taking is only ~10 miles further than the route I usually take, it took me significantly longer to get home, because for the entire stretch of the M25 (which, I remind you all, dear reader, was single lane) I was at 50mph or less. Luckily the rest of my drive was ok, but I ended up nearly freezing myself with the aircon to stay awake, so it took me ages to thaw when I got home. So it took me forever to get home. The show finished at 10pm and I didn't get back until around 2am. It was a brilliant evening otherwise though :D *What I call it if you go with the intention of seeing a show, but are not bothered as to which one thus purchase your tickets for far less than you otherwise would from a booth like tkts in Leicester Square. (A list of what they have on sale today.) |
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| Jun. 20th, 2009 @ 09:42 am Ben's doing the London to Brighton bike ride tomorrow! | |||
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Just a quick note as I'm standardising today for edexcel. Basically benc (my lovely husband) is doing the London->Brighton bike ride on Sunday (tomorrow!). He's been riding for a year or so now, and this is a very important milestone for him. It's for the British Heart Foundation. If anyone has the time/money/inclination it'd be great if you could sponsor him. Just Giving. Thanks :) |
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| May. 1st, 2009 @ 10:44 pm A few hours in London | |||
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Some friends and I are going to see Les Mis in July, and I went up to London to book the tickets in person at the box office at the Palace Theatre. I could have done it over the phone or the internet, but I had a theatre voucher and the easiest way to redeem it was in person, so I made an afternoon of it, and went on the train which, while not the cheapest way to travel, is by far the most relaxing (when things go right!). My trusty backpack and I started off from Canterbury West. Saw a cool new train being tested (saw loads more at Ashford, mostly unliveried, which means they must be pretty new :) They certainly looked pretty). At 10:40 the train was nice and quiet so I got a four-seat with table all to myself and spread out a little.     (Click to embiggen) I went all arty on the journey, both in to London and back to Canterbury, experimenting with my camera, getting lots of pictures of trees and things whizzing past while moving...     (Click to embiggen) ...and structures when we were stopped, or going slowly.       (Click to embiggen) I met red_pill at Charing Cross, and we wandered round "Theatreland" taking some pictures and looking for the Palace Theatre so I could buy the tickets. The Priscilla, Queen of the Desert title thing and giant high heel was especially cool. The picture doesn't really do it justice - it was all sparkly!  On our way back to Charing Cross, we accidentally ran in to the May Day protests in Trafalgar Square, but we escaped without being bludgeoned by the police or the protesters :)  Headed home at 2:50pm-ish. Long way to go, but a lovely day in London and nice to be out. More importantly I was going home with what I'd come to London to get :D   All pictures. I'm getting quite excited about going now :D If only I didn't have to wait till nearly the end of July! |
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| Apr. 19th, 2009 @ 02:22 pm Exciting post and geeky bear | |||
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On Friday there was some interesting post and for a change it was all for me! Usually all the postie brings me is bills and bank statements, but today I got a much better haul, which inserted some excitement my usually predictable days.  First up was the TV Licence (excellent value for money IMO). Ok, so it's not very exciting, but it was part of my haul, so I included it for completeness' sake. What that TV Licence does mean is that it is coming up for four years since we moved in to our flat and had a "putting Ikea furniture together and watching Eurovision" party (pics of that here, here and here). It really doesn't seem like that long. It's also worth saying that there is nowhere near that much space in our flat any more!  Next up was my Graze Box, which was supposed to arrive on Thursday, but got stuck in the post somewhere and actually turned up on Friday instead. It was yummy - especially the fresh apple, which appeared not to have suffered from being in the post an extra day :) If you want a free first box and half price second box (you can easily cancel after the free one has turned up), then go to graze.com and enter the following code: QV67PBDC.  Last in the stack of post, a set of 15 War films given away in editions of the Daily Mail a month or so ago. Huge thanks to no1typo, who sullied her bank account and house by buying the paper and sending off for the films. They arrived on Friday, with the rest of my exciting post and I don't own most of them. I'm looking forward to settling down and watching them over the next few weeks :) Finally for this post, I took the above today of my favourite bear Max posing with benc's eee 900A. I've made an icon out of it :) All of the pictures are here. Sometimes I think I have too much time on my hands ;)EDIT: On the theme of geekiness, my new laptop should hopefully be showing up on Tuesday. If you've not voted in my name poll, I'd appreciate it if you would :) |
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| Mar. 13th, 2009 @ 08:51 pm Personality meme and a couple of videos | |||||
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And a couple of videos for you all, from my recent trip to Wildwood. ( Phil on a swing ) ( Phil on a mini zipwire ) |
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| Feb. 21st, 2009 @ 06:51 pm More on "One for the Chalet Fans" | |||
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One for the Chalet Fans (posted last night). I finally managed to sleep, and when I woke up my camera was charged, so with benc's help, I photographed the cover again, properly, in decent light (so ridding the pictures of that yellow fuzzy hue).Here's the decent version:  (There's also a huge version) Here's the cover, free of annotations:  --- Spent today doing the above, shopping and seeing my in-laws. I can tell you are all awe-inspired by the excitingness of my life right now ;) |
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| Feb. 2nd, 2009 @ 12:28 pm Bulldozers in the snow | |||
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There's still snow here today, not as much as most of you but a good inch or so, and more is falling now, meaning UKC is closing at 2pm, and a couple of schools are closing now that were open earlier due to worsening conditions. Our stairs, which have been swept and salted twice since yesterday are overwhelmed with snow again. It's all rather exciting ;) For readers elsewhere I should explain that here in the UK, especially in the South East corner (and I'm almost as south and east as you can get) we don't usually get snow, especially snow that settles enough to do stuff in due to the jet stream which keeps Britain warm, despite it being on the same longitude as Moscow (I believe). So when it does snow and settles it causes chaos ;) Our excitement this morning was doubled (or more!) by being able to have a proper play with benc's Christmas present, Lego Technic set 8275, a Motorized Bulldozer in the snow.Research suggested it would work very well in the snow, as there are videos of the Lego development team testing one of the development models in the snow, but we still wanted to have a play ourselves. This most recent (and heavy) snow has given us the perfect opportunity. So we did. Here are the videos to prove it! First benc had a go while I filmed:Then I drove it while benc filmed:( Picture of ben playing with his shiny ) I think I can safely say that a good time was had by all :) |
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| Nov. 7th, 2008 @ 08:42 pm Milestones | |||
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Firstly I feel I should mention the US election. Yay! Obama won! :D I wanted him to win, and have thrown aside my cynicism for now to become really excited by a politician. A terribly important milestone too - the first black president of the USA :D I hope he could be like Kennedy for my generation. Except for the sleaze. And the Assassination. Definitely don't want those bits. So maybe not like Kennedy, maybe more like staying as awesome as he seems now when he's actually President. The less said about Prop8 in Cali and an organisation I was formerly a member of, the better. Now that's out of the way, two rather important milestones happened to me today. I. I turned 25 sometime around midday today. I suppose I'm now officially on the wrong side of 25 now ;) . I have had a lovely day, and got some lovely presents and cards. Huge thanks to everyone who has wished me a happy birthday so far :) (Various on irc, some via text, alisondh and moonhot97 on lj, and a couple via facebook). Thank you all - they were really appreciated.II. My final appointment with Nikki the Mental Health nurse was today, and we talked over some stuff about keeping well, dealing with triggers, preventing relapse and what to be aware of in terms of signs that I might be relapsing. Also lots of stuff about rebuilding trust in myself and my wellness, so one bad day doesn't panic me or those close to me. I'm told this is pretty much the last thing that comes back. I'm feeling pretty positive tonight at least, and I'll be happy if I maintain this level of okayness for a year. If I do, then comes the Big Scary of coming off the pills. But that's in the future. I want to use this space now to thank everyone who has supported me over the last 18 months or so. I couldn't have done it without you guys, whether you are aware of having helped or not. Now the Black Dog is banished to his Kennel. I hope he stays there. So for tonight I'm celebrating two huge milestones for me - being 25 and being discharged from the Mental Health team. Yay! Come celebrate with me :D Drinks on someone else!  |
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| Aug. 30th, 2008 @ 08:29 am Summer Holiday | |||
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We're off on our Summer Holiday today, heading up to Rosedale Abbey on the North Yorks Moors and staying in one of these. I'm looking forward to it more than I can say :D Yay Holiday! Yay Yorkshire! :D As with last year's trip to Skegness, this one covers our wedding anniversary. Believe it or not as of 3rd September we'll have been married for 3 years! :D If you need me then you can get my via my mobile (see Giant Floating Contact Details Post if you don't think you have it), but I won't be online till we get back next Saturday. Have a lovely week everyone :) |
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| Aug. 29th, 2008 @ 08:16 am The death of a pet | |||
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For those of you who didn't read this entry of no1typo's, Tiptoes (and here) died last night. He had been taken to the vet because he was terribly thin and wheezing a lot of the time, and he was kept over night so they could give him some thyroid and asthma medicine and be checked over properly (though the vet said he thought Tiptoes still had some life left in him), and he died during the night. He was 17 or 18 years old by my reckoning, and had had a good life, but I'm still rather sad. He came in to our lives on a wet April night making a dreadful racket, moving in from next door and causing no end of hassle by refusing to go back to our neighbours using any number of hiding places when they came to get him. Eventually he got his own way and he stayed, and was by far the most vocal of the cats with a purr that sounded like a pneumatic drill and a cry you could hear all over the house. He will be greatly missed. Entry from when Kitty died. |
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| Aug. 2nd, 2008 @ 05:30 pm A trip to Greenwich Market | |||
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I went with no1typo today to Greenwich to have a wander around the market and we had a lovely time. We both arrived early because we did not want to be late, and had a starbucks with a pastry which was excellent (in my rush to be not late, I skipped breakfast), after which we went for a wander through the market. We saw many excellent and lovely things and I wish I could afford or have space for half of them. In the end I came home with a pair of earrings and two pairs of socks, which are just awesome:/dsc00071.jpg.html) /dsc00072.jpg.html) The giraffe ones are my absolute favourites. In the course of our wanderings we saw this shop with its retro 80s sign, had a peek at how the Cutty Sark was doing, saw low flying RAF rescue helicopter which landed near the Dome (I hope noone was hurt) and had a ride on the amusingly named "Wheel of Excellence" (here). The view was spectacular. It's there till some time in September, so if you're in the area I can recommend a trip on it. It's only £7 for an adult and I think good value for what you get :) It's no London Eye, but it doesn't really pretend to be in size, legnth of ride or price :) All pictures here. Sorry for the quality - I didn't take my lovely Panasonic to Greenwich with me, so took them with my phone's camera. |
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| Jul. 7th, 2008 @ 12:10 am Apostrophail | |||
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Mum, Phil, Ben and I went to the Cemetary today to do some general housekeeping on daddy's grave - cleaning the headstone, fresh flowers and stuff while generally remembering him and having a rather nice time. His birthday would have been tomorrow (or today! - 7th July) and even if we only go once a year we generally try and time it around his birthday. Anyway, walking the quarter of a mile or so back from daddy's grave to the main gate Ben spotted this spectacular error in grammar.  As Phil said, you would really think that people would check things are correct before going and actually etching it in to stone. It's not as if gravestones are particularly cheap. |
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| Jul. 5th, 2008 @ 01:42 pm Happy Birthday NHS | |||
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Today the NHS turns 60, and I want to wish it a very happy birthday and wish it well for the next 60. I know there are plenty of problems with it, I am not blinkered enough to say that there could not be improvements, but I believe that it is one of the greatest achievements of this country, especially in the post-World War II period. Here's why. In 1900 (that's only 108 years ago) in this country: * Life expectancy was below 50 years * 163 out of every 1000 babies born died before they reached the age of 1 (that's 16.3%) * The majority of families could not afford to see a doctor The government refused to interfere as the emphasis at this point in time was on a "laissez-faire" country, meaning that things should be left to take their own course. It was believed that interference by the Government would strangle the economy, so generally people were left to sink or swim as they could. During the latter years of the 19th Century, and the early years of the 20th Century many reports began to come out which drew attention to the plight of the poor, which was reinforced by something of a recruitment crisis for the army during the Boer War. Of those who volunteered 35% (over a third) were rejected as medically unfit, generally because of problems related to poverty. This changed in 1906 when the Liberal Party was elected, with David Lloyd George as their Chancellor of the Exchequor, and what followed was a package of reforms that ultimately led to a constitutional crisis. The reforms included the setting up of Old Age Pensions, free school meals (which went quite some way to tackling malnutrition among the poor), slum clearance programmes and Labour Exchanges (see here for more information). The most pertinent reform to what I'm discussing today was the 1911 National Health Insurance act, which brought in various safeguards for those in employment who could afford to contribute to a scheme, which would then pay for them to go see a doctor if ill, and pay a small sum every week if the contributor were unemployed or unable to work. The government paid a sum to the scheme, as did the employer. The limitations of this scheme were numerous. It only covered those able to work, which at this period were mostly men, and even then the only hospitalisation it payed for was sanitorium treatment for TB. It did not cover those earning too little to be able to afford to contribute, children, the elderly, women, and those who were chronically and mentally ill. As a result, many still relied on the quack remedies that they had done before the scheme came in to force. The sad truth was that despite the advances in Medicine that had taken place, most people could not access it. The major problems with NHI showed themselves in the 1930s during the Great Depression when so many were out of work, and so many accounts in arrears (upwards of 4 million) that the companies running the schemes made no profit, which was compounded when the government reduced its contribution. The turning point came with the Second World War. The Government were in possession of some rather terrifying figures about expected casualty rates as a result of any enemy bombing action, which thankfully never came to pass, though the Government did not know this at the start of the war. ( Expected Casualties (because I found this during my dissertation research and I think it's really interesting) ) As a result the Government planned various strategies to deal with the expected casualties (including a stockpile of cardboard coffins). The one relevant to this "History of the NHS", is the Emergency Hospital Scheme, which was funded and run by the Government and was "designed to serve the purpose of a moment" - to look after those injured in the war, especially bombing victims. Under this scheme any treatment needed, including hospitalisation, was free. It was during this period, in 1942, the the Beveridge Report was published which proposed a "free national health service" as a way of combating the five 'Giant Evils' of Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness. The Conservatives, who nominally had the majority in the Commons at this time (though there was actually a "Government of National Unity" in power) refused to commit to putting in place the reforms, which was one of the reasons why they were beaten so comprehensively by the Labour party in the 1945 General Election. One of their first acts when they got in to power was the 1946 National Health Service Act, which provided in law for a free and comprehensive health care system. The first day of this National Health Service was to be 5th July 1948 but there was an enormous amount of work that had to take place before it could start, including the nationalisation of Hospitals, the creation of health centres, the better/fairer distribution of doctors around the country and the creation of a new salary structure. On top of all this work, there was a huge amount of opposition (as with any large and sudden change). Most Local Authorities and Charitable Organisations who had previously run hospitals were opposed, as were doctors, who did not want to be employed by the government, or told where to work. In fact, at the beginning of 1948 90% of doctors said that they would not co-operate with the NHS. There was also opposition from many who were scared by the huge costs involved, but Aneurin Bevan who was Minister for Health at this time argued that Britain could afford it, and had to afford it. Bevan worked extremely hard to ensure the creation of the NHS, and by hook or by crook (he allowed doctors to work for the NHS and keep private patients while getting the public to sign up with doctors for the NHS - if a doctor didn't sign the form, he risked losing the patient [and the funding that came with them] to a doctor who would), made sure that over 90% of doctors had signed up by the opening day. The benefits of the NHS were visible very quickly, especially in those groups which had not been covered until its creation. Maternal and infant mortality levels fell very quickly and life expectancy rose, especially as the new techniques and drugs (such as Penicillin) became available at no cost to people who would have died for want of them. In 2008 we're looking at: * An average life expectancy of 77 years, with more and more living until 100. * An average of 5.2 out of every 1000 babies dying before the age of 1 (0.52%) [figures from 2006] * Everyone can see a doctor, irrespective of whether they can pay What I'm trying to say in an incredibly long winded way is that the NHS may not be perfect, but in comparison to what we have had before it is amazing, and I sometimes think we lose sight of just how brilliant it is amongst all the complaining about the things that are wrong and the compromises that sometimes have to be made. My dad was chronically ill with Type 1 Diabetes most of his life, and we did not have to pay towards his care. His final illness and the two weeks spent in intensive care did not bankrupt us. When my mum hurt her back and she was in bed for 6 weeks her care (a physio, home help twice a day, doctors visits, nurse visits) did not cost us. When my mum was pregnant with me and was kept in hospital for most of those 9 months my parents did not have to check her out because they were worried about the cost, nor did they have to worry about the bill they were getting at the end. When I was ill with depression I did not have to worry about the cost of my prescriptions or my counselling. The times Phil has injured himself we have not had to worry about the bill from the Hospital for getting him checked out. Ben and I have not had to worry that while I've been off work I've been without coverage for my health (or traded electricity/food/rent for insurance coverage). I think there's a lot to be said for that. So Happy Birthday NHS, here's to many many more. ETA: Pretty much 1500 words. I wrote as much as that in some of my degree essays. Sorry guys! |
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| Apr. 14th, 2008 @ 09:40 pm Mum's birthday and Wildwood | |||
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On mum's birthday we went to Hampton Court Palace (click for pictures). It was a lovely day :) This week is part of the Easter Holidays for schools, and Sue asked me if I would like to go with her and three of her children to Wildwood. It seemed like a nice way to spend my afternoon so I agreed. Here are the pictures of what I did my afternoon :)  Wild Boar Piglets  Badgers  Polecat It was a lovely day :) |
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| Jan. 18th, 2008 @ 10:55 pm John's first steps | |||
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I've just been informed that my lovely amazing Godson has taken his first steps :D I am very proud indeed :D In other news, spent a brilliant evening playing Guitar Heroes 1, 2 and 3 with Ben and Adam and eating curry. Mmm, curry :) |
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| Jan. 4th, 2008 @ 12:55 pm Book a Week Challenge 2008 | |||
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The Chalet Bulletin Board is having a Book a Week challenge for 2008 and I have decided to take part. It would be a personal challenge to read at least one book a week so non-competitive, although I think the titles of the books read should be listed on CBB, along with author and a brief description or opinion if you felt like it. Rules would be: 1) No rereads allowed towards bookcount 2) As long as you have 52 by the end of the year, that is fine. A book a week means on average. As I read them I am also planning on saying at least a little bit here about each one. Perhaps more than a little bit if it takes my fancy :) ( A meme I have stolen from Phil ) Finally, a very happy birthday to my lovely husband, ben ( benc) (who has been featured in the LA Times this week!) |
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| Jan. 1st, 2008 @ 07:54 pm Weighted Companion Cube Cake | |||
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Ever since Portal came out in Mid October last year, my husband benc has been more or less obsessed with Moist Delicious Cake and The Weighted Companion Cube which are both "components" of the game. His Weighted Companion Cube Plushie arrived just before Christmas and he fell in love with it. I decided to make him a cake for his birthday on Friday. I'd been toying with the idea since the game had first come out in October, but with the arrival of the plushie version I had a 3D model I could copy. Today me and my friend rahslowe got down to work and spent the day making a Weighted Companion Cube Cake. First we went shopping for the necessary articles with which to make cake. No mean feat, given today was new years' day and only Sainsbury's was open (Morrisons and Asda being shut) and even Sainsbury's had very little in the way of what we needed. Luckily we just got more expensive stuff and managed to get everything we wanted.  The cake ingredients  and the icing ingredients. First we made two basic sponge cakes. The recipe we used was simple and easily scalable- 1 egg to 2 ounces of everything else. We used three eggs so the quantities were: 3 eggs 6oz Caster Sugar 6oz Butter 6oz Flour We chose to be masochists and mixed the cake by hand, then cooked it in Rah's rectangular Lasagne dish as we felt it was a suitable size. While the first cake was cooling we made the second cake. As the second cake was cooling we began to construct the cube. First we cut the first cake in half and stuck the halves together with Jam (strawberry, but you could use any that took your fancy). We used the second cake to continue the construction, also cutting it in half and sticking all the bits together with strawberry jam. Then we trimmed the sides to a greater or lesser extent to make a cube shape of what was left.  The offcuts.  The naked Companion Cube. While various parts were cooking and cooling we made templates from cardboard to cut into the icing around so we had the right shapes to decorate the cube with.  The templates with the plushie version which we were copying. Next came the really messy bit - making the icing! We used a large box of ready to roll royal icing and icing sugar to act as "flour" and stop the icing from sticking to the work surface. We added black food colouring sparingly to make varying shades of grey and some pink food colouring to make the hearts. These got covered in white icing sugar in the process of colouring and rolling it out, but a pastry brush and water took care of that and restored them to the colours they were supposed to be. To use the templates, just lay them out on top of the icing on your worktop and use a sharp knife to cut around them (much as you would with a pastry cutter). The thin lines of pink were writing icing. The hardest bit was getting the bottom layer of icing the right shade of grey and long and wide enough to cover the entire cube. Then we used water to stick the pieces of icing which had been cut from the templates onto the bottom layer. The consistency when wet was something like wet clay. Eventually it was done, but wet so we left it to dry while we cleared up the terrifying mess we had created. Finally it was more or less dry and looked like this: ( mmm, caek ) Unfortunately we only managed to make half a companion cube out of cake, but we're already making plans for next time, one of which (suggested by Ben) is to make two half cube cakes and serve them one on an orange plate and one on a blue plate. If you have played portal you will get the reference ;) All pictures of the event can be found here. I recommend getting a friend to help you, it would have been much harder without Rah's help. Thanks Rah and Happy Birthday Ben :) [EDIT] Cross posted to my website. How to make a Weighted Companion Cube Cake. |
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| Dec. 30th, 2007 @ 11:27 pm Godmother | |||||
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Today I renounced Satan and all his works and asked various saints to pray for us at our local catholic church and I am now a Godmother! :)
(Yes, I am just as petrified as I look there)
My handsome Godson, John Andrew :) The service itself was very quick, not even any incense. Afterwards we went with the family to the local pub and had a roast dinner. Later I gave him the present I brought him for his baptism - the complete collection of Beatrix Potters. Hopefully it's something he'll still have when he has children :) I'm very tired now. It was a good day, but very long. Yay for being a Godparent though. I could just about burst with pride! :D |
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| Dec. 27th, 2007 @ 04:46 pm Christmas writeup | |||
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Since December started I have been burning my advent candle: opening my advent calendar (from Thorntons, mmm :)):  and looking at how pretty our tree is:  .Pressies were brought and wrapped and on ( Christmas Eve ) ( And so Christmas Day dawned ) ( Boxing Day started bright and early... ) ( And then the Mormons turned up ) In the evening we watched part of Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds in Concert and then I switched over to watch ( Ballet Shoes ) Phew. That was a very long update. If I updated more often then I daresay I would not post such long rambling entries. Ah well :) |
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| Sep. 30th, 2007 @ 08:43 am Comics | |||
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Hiding out here: CT2
I'm sure very soon I'll write a proper update, including pictures of the beautiful bunch of flowers I had delivered yesterday. For now though you'll have to be content with a couple of webcomics that have amused me greatly over the past few days.Mostly feeling:  tiredNow Playing: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe   Today I'm off for a huge family meal with my Aunt and Uncle from Canada (Lee and Brad), my Auntie Pat and Uncle Allan, mum, Phil, Ben and a whole bunch of Overal relatives I have never met before (and didn't know existed until 6 months ago) at Cafe Belge. It should be interesting if nothing else. Like I said, proper update soon ;) |
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| Sep. 13th, 2007 @ 10:11 pm Quiz! (and other stuff) | |||
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A quiz, stolen from bethanthepurple 1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/. 2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark. 3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions. 4. Post the top ten results. 1. Anthropologist 2. Archivist 3. Historian 4. Child and Youth Worker 5. Adoption Counselor 6. Writer 7. Print Journalist 8. Critic 9. Market Research Analyst 10. Translator In other news, the flat inspection went fine and we still have a home. It's even a very clean home, the cleanest it's been (imo) since we moved in 2.5 years ago. I'm glad it's over because it was a real strain on me. Having spent all the time since we returned from holiday stressing and angsting over it often while cleaning as I have never cleaned before and only not doing those things when I've been asleep I am now very very relieved but also incredibly tired, which I think is mainly due to the depression. no1typo is coming for a visit tomorrow and I'm looking forward to a relaxing wander around Canterbury or an afternoon spent in Espression with her, depending on time factors and the weather. |
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| Sep. 10th, 2007 @ 04:02 pm Holiday in Skegness | |||
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Hiding out here: CT2
As I mentioned in my last entry we went on holiday to Skegness/Chapel St. Leonards for a week in a fixed site caravan. We had a lovely time and selected photos are here and some different ones here. All photos were taken by Mostly feeling:  nervousNow Playing: Various programmes from the BBC archive trial benc (I was taking black and white pictures on a film camera which have yet to be developed).We did a fair bunch of stuff, though it was all sadly rather curtailed because the effects of my depression are such that after doing something for 3 or 4 hours I was so tired I had to come home and sleep. One of the things that we did that isn't in pictures is we drove an hour and a half to Stamford so we could see The Dam Busters (which had been cleaned up a little) on the big screen. Well worth it :D though I was dead almost all of the next day. When we went to Skegness we saw the Skegness lifeboat with its awesome tractor which pulls it down the beach to the sea and pulls it back out again:  It was sooooo cool :D I won a zippy toy at the "Hook a Duck" stall on Skegness pier and he "did" Skegness:  In Chapel St. Leonards we found possibly the most offensive building in all of the UK, the Golden Palm:  The pictures don't do it justice - the palm trees *flashed*. The shopping arcade owned by the Golden Palm also produced the worst curry I have ever had - sauce like water, sweetened with sugar and chicken so dry it had probably been sitting under lights for hours. The curry places around Skegness were all very special. None of the ones near to us did "Curry". They all did Curry/Kebabs/Pizzas/Burgers. Really we should have known better than to buy from there. On our last day we went to the beach, as it was the only day really nice enough for it. I buried Ben:  We worked on a sandcastle:  Which had a working moat :D  Thus, our work was done:  (Mine is the blue spade). Finally, ben brought me a giant Eeyore for an anniversary present:  He's pretty awesome :) Today I have called the Job Centre plus in an effort to apply for Incapacity benefit as advised to me by Payroll at UKC. It seems very complicated and I have no idea if I'll be eligable but I don't loose anything by applying. I have also been abusing the BBCs archive trial and now have about 12 tabs of things to watch. Ah well, will keep me busy! And finally, the reason I chose the icon I did: we got back from holiday to a letter from our Letting Agency saying they'll be coming to inspect the flat for the first time in two years on Thursday. It's a routine inspection but I'm bricking it and utterly convinced we'll be evicted despite saner voices telling me I'm being a muppet. I'm sure on Thursday I'll be able to come back and tell you all that they were right. Until then I suspect I'll be a bit of a nervous heap. |
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| Aug. 31st, 2007 @ 11:11 pm Dalek Toy | |||
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I found Dr Who Operation in Asda (aka, shop of evil) earlier and immediately thought of bethanthepurple (who probably wants one for Birthday/Christmas/$random celebration), though I knew it may well interest any of you other Dr Who addicts out there who happen to read my LJ. Picture below. Sorry for the crappiness, I took it with my cameraphone :S  In other news, I'm off on holiday tomorrow, to that most romantic of locations*: Skegness (actually, a fixed caravan in a caravan park in a place nearby called Chapel St. Leonards. It's in this lovely location, where benc used to spend his holidays, that we will be celebrating our second wedding anniversary. Doesn't time fly!Completely gratuitous picture of the wedding below. This one isn't crappy cos it was taken with one of Jibbler's uber cameras.  Be safe while we're away. Contactable on my mobile if it's urgent. If not, sod off - second honeymoon don'cha know :P* Will be without internet till we come back, which is next Saturday at some point. Byebye for a week friendslist! *despite how I sound about this, I am actually incredibly excited...or will be, once the packing is over! *This doesn't include you, family...and certain friends, I think you can guess who you are :P |
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| Feb. 21st, 2007 @ 08:29 am Espressions - Pictures of the finished articles! | |||
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I mentioned in this post how mum and I, and prior to that, Rah, Claire and I spent afternoons in Espression, Canterbury. Today I went to pick up the finished articles (that have been glazed and fired) from the shop and have taken pictures of them for your viewing pleasure. I also took a picture of the Vase I painted when I first went (the trip with Rah and Claire). ( The Vase ) ( Mum's flower dish ) ( My mug ) Anyway, to summarise: before and after. |
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| Feb. 15th, 2007 @ 11:05 am Espressions | |||
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Yesterday no1typo came to Canterbury and we had lunch in Burrito Bob's (excellent mexican takeaway and not nearly as busy as it should be. In case you live in Canterbury and you don't know where it is - it's next to Super Noodle on Northgate). From there we went to Espression which is just opposite Westgate Games. Basically you go there and paint pottery. Lots of different items at lots of difference prices, the price you pay for teh item is all inclusive - for the item, the paint and the varnishing/firing process. I went before with rahslowe and claire_tanner and did a vase which turned out beautifully. This time I painted a mug. Mamma painted a little flower dish. We had a drink (her coffee, me hot choc with whipped cream :D) and painted. What a lovely (and fairly cheap) way to spend 2 hours :DPictures of the unfinished articles here. In the evening we had Kudos. Nice day :) |
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| Jun. 10th, 2006 @ 06:52 pm My own personal piece of World War One | |||
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no1typo, my mamma, just got back from her holiday in Yorkshire with the news that I had two great uncles who died in World War One. Wow. I never knew that! I found their records on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission online database and here they are: Fred Widdowson who died in 1915 near Arras, and Arthur Widdowson who died in Northern France just 10 days before the end of the war. It's kinda cool, kinda sad. I keep thinking about their family. Having one die so close to the armistace just makes it so much more bitter. |
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| Oct. 1st, 2005 @ 11:29 pm Shameless plugging | |||
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Mostly feeling:
I want this film on DVD. I have it on VHS but the tape is knackered :(. It is also on my wishlist. headachey and tipsyNow Playing: A Matter of Life and Death In other news, I had a lovely evening with mamma and Sue. Had lots of wine. Headachey now :( Mum asleep on sofa :) Bless :) Ben at LANParty. Bah! Will sleep on own tonight for firs time since married. bah bah bah. Sleeeeeeeeepy. |
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| Oct. 1st, 2005 @ 04:32 pm Announcement | |||
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Mostly feeling:
I love my mummy. happyNow Playing: ER She is wonderful :D |
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| May. 4th, 2005 @ 06:45 am London | |||
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Mostly feeling:
Yesterday I went to London with the wonderful  bouncyNow Playing: Super Sekrit Moosik no1typo to get some Wedding Dress fabric from  The Silk Society in Berwick Street (off New Oxford Street). It's lovely fabric and the people in there are so incredibly helpful. Go there if you need fabric. It's excellent and the fabrics are really really lovely :D The inside of the shop is just like a treasure trove :DAfter the business was out of the way, mamma and I wandered towards Covent Garden and had a lovely drink in the courtyard, looked round the stalls and then went off for lunch. On the way mum pulled me into Bravissimo. Wow wow wow wow. We got measured and I got two new bras in my new size (36 FF! :O). THey only do bras for the larger of cup (DD up) which is a refreshing change for those of us with DD+ - they get increcingly difficult to find in ordinary shops. Anyway - GO THERE if you have large breasts. The bras are so supportive and comfy :D Thanks mamma :D Had lunch in Cafe Rouge and had a big laugh. Lots of fun. It felt really nice :) Ambled back to Victoria and headed back to Canterbury. Met up with ben, had chinese for dinner. Numnum. Mum's pics of teh day are here and mine are here. Work now :) This was an update brought to you by the latters H-A-P-P-Y. |
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| May. 2nd, 2005 @ 06:54 am MMM, Rain. | |||
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Mostly feeling:
It was very hot yesterday, 25 celcius and the air was quite stuffy. I just woke up to the sound of torrential rain outside and there's a lovely cool breeze with it. Everything is fresh and lovely :) happyNow Playing: The rain :) So, what does a geek do when it's too hot? Well if that geek is me then they go out to the beach at Whitstable and then for a drive along the coast all the way to reculver. That geek will then take lots of pictures and have a generally lovely time exploring the Kent countryside. My favourite picture. Ben also took some pictures (lots and lots of them ;)). His are here. He has some really great ones of waves breaking. Take a look and you'll see what I mean :D I also got other pics off my camera last night, including dinner at Supernoodles with the Monkeys and Ewan who I had never met before. He's certainly an *experience*. I quite liked him :) Before I met him I only knew him as the guy Allan taped into a phone box (the last frame, bottom row here.) Anyway, that was great fun :) I also put up my pictures of a stray cat taht turned up at the kids house one day. It was a very sweet cat ;) Tomorrow am off to London for Wedding Dress Fabric :O Quite excited. WIll be heading home tonight to _44l (which contains my lovely mummy, no1typo and my brother, red_pill) tonight :DCan't think of anything more to say so that's about it from me :P If you're ever stuck for something to do on a nice day though, drive out to Reculver along the coast road. You will not regret it :) |
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| Apr. 2nd, 2005 @ 12:00 am Happy Birthday Mamma! | |||
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Mostly feeling:
energetic
no1typo |
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| Oct. 21st, 2004 @ 09:24 am For those of you who don't read my mum's LJ or blog | |||
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Mostly feeling:
This morning the oldest of our cats Kitty died. She was over 16 and very frail and had been getting worse and worse over the last year. When I saw her on Saturday I couldn't believe how frail and thin she looked. Yesterday it was clear she was very ill and had stopped eating and an appointment was made at the vets for tonight. melancholyNow Playing: Barber: Adagio for Strings This morning she died, peacefully in the bottom of mamma's wardrobe where she had been sleeping for the past few weeks. 08:05:33 < typo> she got up and had a drink of water 08:05:42 < typo> and then wnet back to her cubby hole 08:05:56 < typo> but found breathing an effort and just passed away Mamma was stroking her when she died. She is now buried at the bottom of our garden, with a large basin on top of the patch so foxes can't get her. Next week winter pansies will be planted in it. Kitty was very special, she came to live with us just after daddy died, and when we were upset she'd nuzzle away our tears. I'm so very sad she's gone, but I'm glad she's out of pain...and even more glad she was at home when she died. She was truly special.  |
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| Sep. 30th, 2004 @ 01:55 am Abseiling for the prince's trust (An Appeal) | |||
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Mostly feeling:
Hi all. eating :SNow Playing: Barenaked Ladies: Pinch Me Today my mum is doing an abseil to help fund the activities of her Prince's Trust team, on their community project which looks like it will be doing up a nursery run by the YMCA. I'm in for a tenner should she complete the abseil, so I was wondering if anyone else wants to sponsor her and if so could they comment here or on one or other of her blogs how much you're in for that'd be cool :) If you're in canterbury I can come collect and give it to her when I next see her. Those who have her mobi number please text her to support her, cos understandably she's a bit apprehensive :) In other news my Friend Jonathan is going to be on ITV1's Moving Day today at 2, so everyone set their VCRs :D *goes do work or something* |
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| Sep. 4th, 2004 @ 06:28 pm Meme (and wedding-1) | |||
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Mostly feeling:
Leave a comment with your name if you want to know what I really think of you, and I’ll reply and tell you. No lies, all honesty (or whatever came to mind at the time...) scaredPost it in your journal after I do yours so I can see the reverse (This could end badly... so think before you ask....) In other news, my dissertation is now in properly and yesterday was the one year and counting mark for my wedding \o/ Went to Frankie and Benny's which was fairly standard execpt for the puddings which are fantastic and teh real reason to go... :D My aunt from Yorkshire said she'd make my dress and Amy (one of my bridesmaids) is excited about her role. See piccies of the weekend on mum's website. Work not bad tho I got taxed nearly £60 - need to yell at Agency then inland revenue I thinks. *potters off* |
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| Mar. 27th, 2004 @ 12:27 pm Last few days | |||
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Mostly feeling:
I've been up and down like a boat on stormy seas. restlessNow Playing: Sting: Fields Of Gold Now...Just about to go to town with ben and Phil to have a beanos breakfast and plot secret plans and clever tricks. Off I go... zoooooooooooooom <-- like that. |
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| Mar. 8th, 2004 @ 10:59 am Weekends | |||
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Mostly feeling:
As a rule, I love weekends. They're great cos I don't have to do any work and I get to lie in. gloomyNow Playing: Gabriel Faure - Libera me This weekend sucked. I woke up on Saturday at silly times and when I managed to get back to sleep I ended up sleeping away the whole morning. Was in a crappy mood so ben ended up coming round and making me go out. I did some washing up and had a bacon sarnie then we went to town for what we presumed would be just a couple of hours. As usual we lost our whole day there. We wandered round, had starbucks and brought each other little things for Saturday was our 3 month engagement anniversary. I got my ring back from the jewellers where it was being mended and they cleaned it so it was all shiny too. Just about to go to Safeway to shop when we got a call from Chris and Eileen offering to buy us coffee so off we went and met them, seeing a nert on the way.Ended up shopping in Sainsburies. Car was tight squeeze. Dropped my food back at 19b then ran back to car so got lift to fr. Had half home made half store brought chinese/thai and was muchos nice. Slept for a bit and then got lift back with adam cos he's lovely. Ended up sleeping at 2:30ish. Was up the next day at 7am :( Had all day choir rehersal and was bad tempered and sulky. Was very very tired. Sulked all the walk home and then ben and I curled up and slept a bit. Felt better for that. Was going to have Sausages and bread for tea but ended up with just bread cos ben burnt the sausages from the inside out. They were "special". Ben massaged my back and then went home for an "early" night. I fell asleep almost straight away. Weekend tiring. Feel very bleh this morning. Luckily work was good and beks was very very well behaved. Don't think I could have delt with her otherwise. Mum has gotten on the waiting list for a secondment to the princes trust as a team leader which will be a welcome change of scenery for her :D I'm very very happy for her :D *notes late for semnar* *notes she doesn't want to go* Bleh |
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cheerful
listless
productive
okay
satisfied
creative
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