...Well, it probably isn't. But that's okay. I've been absent a while, noticeably or not I'm not quite sure. It's been one of those weeks. No, it's been one of those months. Work, work, more work. And Alex's birthday this weekend just gone. I took him and 3 of his bratlet friends to the cinema to see Prince Caspian (great film), then celebrated his birthday proper on Sunday. 8 years old! I don't know where the time has gone, at all. It's scary.
Life is just a whirl of work, Alex, Mat, eating, coffee, nicotine, more coffee, more work...if I'm lucky I get in 4-5 hours sleep on a night, and if I'm extra lucky I get an hours nap in the evening. I'm worn out but not in a bad way...I feel like I'm being productive and at least being busy keeps my mind off missing Mat. Which I do, a lot. We're at about 8 weeks till his next visit now, and I really cannot wait. I know I've said it before, but he's just an absolute treasure. I couldn't get through all this craziness without him. He is the sweetest, smartest, most gorgeous, most talented person I have the honour of knowing and I'm thrilled every day that he's mine.
Okay, okay, enough of the sappy. And on to the more serious. I'm not in blog-land a lot, it's apparent...I just don't have the time to maintain it any more. I may come and loiter at the home page but I get overwhelmed by the amount of reading material there and I don't have time to go through it...so I end up retreating, guiltily. And I can totally understand people not wanting to keep up a more-or-less one-sided friendship, online or otherwise...so y'know, feel free to delete me. No offence taken at all. I'm not going to do an attention whore-y "I'm leaving forever!" post...cause it's likely that when things calm down some, I'll be back around. Hell, I've been here before with 360.
I have had so much going on lately, I don't even know where to begin. I'd really take a few extra hours in the day just now.
Last week I had so much work that I was often still at it at 10pm, having got up at 6.30 to start...that seems to be continuing this week, on top of that I have my first ever paid photo thingy tonight, the local church is celebrating its Silver Jubilee this week (50 years since it was built, I think). There's going to be a big service with bishops and whatnot, and the choir from Leeds Cathedral. It's a big thing and they've entrusted the pic-taking to me. I'm scared rigid, what if I mess up? Afterwards there's some sort of social gathering at a nearby golf club and I have to go and take pics there too...I'm dreading that mostly, social gatherings full of strangers, gahh. Mat advised me to spend lots of time fiddling with my camera and looking busy...I think I'll be taking that advice. I have to take pics of another part of the celebration on Friday evening, though that'll be a lot more low-key. So there's all that...plus Alex's birthday in a few weeks (that's not too hard to handle, I've ordered most of his presents online, all I need now is gift wrap and a card), then he breaks up for the summer vacation at the end of July and is off until September...it's going to be interesting trying to keep him occupied while I try and work at the same time, I need the money so it's not like I can just stop. I feel frazzled :(
It came down to a choice of 3 for this topic, one of my choices would have been the Palais Royal in Madrid, which was spectacularly opulent. Even that didn't blow my mind quite as much as the interior of the Duomo in Pisa. Right next to the Leaning Tower, it's just incredible. Really high, ornately frescoed ceilings, arches, intricate stonework, marble, it's just amazing. Extravagant and expensive!
Breathtaking still.
I couldn't let this theme go past without a nod to my new camera, my baby. My old, beloved camera met an untimely death, thanks to an incident involving my 7yr old son "helpfully" taking said camera upstairs. And dropping it. The "clunk" sound was heartbreaking, I knew it was a goner. I hadn't budgeted for a new one, but got an amazing deal on my new love. Still feels very much an extravagance in these economically hard times.
Curves had me musing for a while. I took a look through the pictures I took in MADRID last week, lots of beautiful arches and curves in the architecture. The one that stood out most to me though was this one. Ancient sculpture does it for me, the inordinate care and skill that went into creating the curve of the chest, the curls of the beard and hair blows my mind, plenty of curves here!
I went on something of an impromptu trip this week, to Madrid. I say impromptu, I'd known about it for a while, but had been putting off making a decision on going cause I didn't really want to be parted from Mat for that amount of time. I can see how people wouldn't get that, given that we spend most of our lives apart, but it's different. We have our little routines, I see him in the morning before he goes to work, and we spend time together every night when he gets home, and there are games and phone calls and much smooshiness and I do love that. So, I wasn't going to go but then my friends and Mat started telling me how I'd regret it if I didn't go etc. Would I have regretted it? Meh, I don't think so. It was a gorgeous city, but my mind was elsewhere and I had the usual stress that I always get in new places. I have some stupid social disorder that makes me feel like people are staring at me. It's worse some times than others; for instance, in my home town, I hardly feel it at all. Foreign countries though, I always get a little panicky. I know it's stupid, and I'm quite sure people have better things to do than look at me, but I get really self-conscious and nervous. So there was that. Plus I was with my stepdad. He's not the most fun person on the planet and drives me insane at times. I've been away with him before and it always, always ends up with me having to bite my tongue because he's driving me so nuts....everything has to be so regimented, the "holiday" must be planned down to the minute. That's not my style, I like to take it easy and see what happens. Also, he expects me to read maps. That might be fine for some people, but this is how maps look to me:
I suck. And my drawing isn't awesome either :P Oh and he made me negotiate the Metro (underground trains). This involves knowing which station you are going to, and what the end station on that line is, also the number. It's confusing and the Metro smells like pee and failure. In every country.
I shouldn't complain really, I got to eat some really nice food (nom nom, octopus and squid, hot chocolate and churros, and paella. Though not all at the same time.) It was a beautiful place, the first full day there we took in this sightseeing bus...basically you get an all day ticket and it has stops at all the major points of attraction, the buses are about every 20minutes and you can hop on and off as often as you like. There's also an (amusingly badly translated) audio guide, and the top deck is open air so you canlean out dangerously to take pictures get a really good view. There is an amazing palace there, the Palais Real...it's just awesome. It's right opposite the fairly new Cathedral (amazing in its own right) and if you ever go to Madrid, I'd recommend a visit to both. There are many little squares and plaza's dotted around, fantastic architecture and my favourite, a genuine Egyptian temple, painstakingly moved brick by brick from Southern Egypt. Alex was so fascinated by this, he's been learning about Ancient Egypt at school and it's his new favourite topic. Genuine heiroglyphics on the wall, you're not supposed to touch but I couldn't help myself. I love to lay my hands on ancient stonework and imagine the people that might have touched the same spot in ages past. I think my favourite part of the visit was going to the zoo. The Metro dumps you in this suburb surrounded by open countryside, no signposts to direct you to the zoo, and my map (not that I could read it, see above) didn't extend that far. So we had to take pot luck and wandered off into the scrub. Whereupon 2 very camp British gentleman approached us and asked if we knew where the zoo was. Strange world. So after a very scenic 15 minute walk, we finally found the zoo. I'm always torn on them, I know I'd never get to see these animals without zoos and I do understand how much they help with conservation of threatened species but at the same time, it saddens me when you can see an animal doesn't want to be there. Still, the giraffes were just gorgeous (they're so wrong! Nothing should be proportioned that way!) and the penguins were adorable. There was also an aquarium, with sharks, and an insect & reptile house, with snakes, spiders, tree frogs, lizards, and locusts that scared the hell out of Alex.
So that was that. It was a nice visit but I was grinning so big when the plane touched down on home soil yesterday. It sounds strange, but England looks so very...English, when I've been away. It's so lush, and the oak trees are so verdant and pretty, and so quintessentially British after the olive trees and cypresses you see all over Spain.
The best bit of news this week was Mat getting his tickets to come back over here. 100 days and counting :D It sounds far off, but we've been here before and it did go by quickly, with hindsight. I can hang in there, plus I get him for 2 whole weeks this time :D :D I can't express my happiness. I just checked my calendar. 100 days. 15 weekends. 15 more episodes of Doctor Who (not that there are 15 episodes in a season, but I'm just saying). 15 more lazy Sundays with the trashy tabloid paper. 15 more fun-filled weekends with Mat. It's so dealable. Right? There are tons of interesting facts about 100, but my favourite by far is..."100 - the number of tiles in a standard Scrabble set". Seeing as how we met through Scrabble (or its Yahoo counterpart Literati), it seemed fitting :)
I'll leave you with some pictures. The first 2 are the view, left and right, from my hotel balcony. The balcony of doom, it was about 1 meter in length and maybe 60 centimetres wide. The floor sloped down. We were 6 storeys high, I got dizzy every time I looked out. Eeek. I hope everyone has a great weekend, and if you haven't been to see Indiana Jones yet, go do it! I took Alex last week and it was wonderful!
Another week, another Picture Perfect...I was all confused, it seems to be getting earlier each week, but new rules suggest Wednesday is going to be the new regular.
So. "Broken". I spent a good hour sifting through my Flickr archives, mostly concentrating on some pictures of ancient, decrepit temples in Greece. I couldn't find one to my liking and got irritated. Pictures of Stonehenge, again none caught my eye. Then I remembered this that I took a couple of days ago. I spotted it, lying by the roadside as I walked along the street. Very much dead but so perfect. Personally, I find it a poignant image, although I suppose there are going to be be people that find a picture of a dead animal offensive. It's not intended to be, I think there is a real beauty in it. The wings remind me of an angel.
Interesting idea, the competition edge that PP has been given. I'm sure there'll be some beautiful shots. PICTURE PERFECT
Well, far be it from me to pass up an opportunity to share in food-related goodness. My entry here is from a dish I made a couple of weeks ago - chopped up some chicken breasts, marinated them for a while in some soy sauce, honey, sesame oil and a bit of finely chopped garlic, and left for a while. Stir-fry the chicken until browned, add some baby corn, mange tout, mushrooms (I used chestnut mushrooms) and some thinly sliced onion, and stir-fry until the chicken is cooked through, while the vegetables are still crisp. Meanwhile, in a dry frying pan, I toasted some sesame seeds...they need a close eye kept on them or they'll burn. In (yet) another pan, I cooked some egg noodles, and when ready tossed them with a little more sesame oil, honey. soy sauce and coriander (cilantro) and added the chicken and sesame seeds. Garnish with a little more coriander, and there's a tasty and very quick dinner :)
Thanks to Mitch for this blog idea! His can be found HERE.
I didn't really have a picture in mind for this one, so I went to my archives and trawled through my pics for July and August of last year, and came across this one:
I remember it well. It was just a few days before my son's 7th birthday (he's on the right there), and I had taken him and his best friend to a place called "Tropical World". It's a butterfly house/aquarium, as well as having the second largest collection of tropical plants in the UK. It is also home to reptiles and some very cute meerkats. Anyway, it was a beautiful day and the sun was shining, and the boys were full of that childish exuberance you don't see often once you hit adulthood. Fun times :)
This is such a specific theme, I suspect there will be a lot of wonderful spiderweb pictures out there today! My contribution, taken on a frosty morning in February. I loved the way it almost resembled a snowflake, I'm terrified of spiders but it was worth getting this close! :D
...So make your own up. I've been so bad at blogging lately. I have good intentions, it just never seems the right time. But I have a bit of blog material saved up now I guess.
Firstly, you might have noticed, I'm sick. I think it's flu, everything aches, from my head and neck right down to my shins. I have no energy, I'm all stuffy, my glands are up, my eyes are sore and puffy and I'm so chesty it's not even funny. I think it's a very large hint to stop, or at least cut down drastically on the smoking. Easier said than done, although I've barely smoked at all this week. I'm so wheezy though, when I open my mouth to speak you could be forgiven for thinking my next words will be "Luke...I am your father". Alex has been really good for me, for the most part, and keeps giving me large soft toys to keep me company. Mat's kept him entertained for several hours here over the weekend with games of online pool and hangman, giving me a chance to nap. That really is the sweetest thing, it's lovely to be taken care of, and so much appreciated. Thank you so much, Mat :). Alex tries, but given that I barely trust him to pour his own juice, never mind make me soup, it's kinda hard. Still, he's a sweetheart. He's currently engrossed in an Indiana Jones movie, his latest obsession. It's kinda cool that he's now enjoying things that I enjoyed in my childhood too. He can't wait for the new film to come out at the cinema. Aside from that, what else...oh, I started a new digital photography class. It's just a free course at Alex's school, 2 hours once a week, I'm really looking forward to learning some new things. Though an awesome camera wouldn't go amiss :| I get so envious when I look around some of your pics, especially Mat and Viv, both of whom take some incredible shots - not that it's down to a good camera, but I feel like I could do a lot more if I had a better one. My camera's just dying a slow death and a new one is not even nearly in the budget. Actually, pretty much anything non-essential is not in the budget any more. I know I said it before, but it's really getting scary, the economic situation. not just here but worldwide. I really hope things pick up, and soon.
One awesomely good piece of news is that Mat will be coming over again in September. It feels like forever away but still, it's so nice to have something to look forward to, a bright spot on a horizon that seems to be getting further and further away from me. And for longer this time, a couple of weeks hopefully. You all know I'd keep him here forever if I could. Actually, I'm considering it. Handcuffs? Traumatic goodbyes vs possible criminal record for false imprisonment...hmmm, decisions, decisions. Anyway, I can't wait. Although I have to, obviously. And he's very worth it. So much so. :)
I can't really think of anything else. We have a day off tomorrow, May Day Bank Holiday, and I suspect it'll involve a lot of lazing around. Yay :D
Hope you all have a great week to come and are all keeping well :)
Another busy week! Work, Alex off sick, spring cleaning, Mat off sick (get well soon, gorgeous! I'm sending virtual chicken soup but I know it isn't the same), another visit to see my friend and her baby, more work, more cleaning, blah blah, and worrying about the economic climate. Yeah, I'm actually starting to feel it quite hard now. Everything is going up in price, well, except my wages which steadfastly remain the same. We really seem to be in meltdown, I've seen friends lose their homes recently through being unable to keep up with mortgage repayments, everybody is struggling. Except those at the top, it seems...but then, they never do. I hate Gordon Brown. Truly. I'll admit, by the time Tony Blair left office, I was feeling pretty pissed off with him. A lot of promises and not a lot of following through...that's politicians through and through though, right? But still...he was likeable in a way, approachable, and I felt he had the ability to poke fun at himself a little, which is always a good trait to have. Gordon Brown, on the other hand...ugh. He seriously has no redeeming features and he seems to be single-handedly crippling this country. Go away, Gordon. If that is your real name. There was an episode of Doctor Who that featured a species of alien called "Slitheen". They took over the Government by killing the real humans and using the bodies as suits. The only giveaway was their terrible flatulence. That, and they could unzip their foreheads and turn back into big scary monsters. I think Gordon Brown is a Slitheen. He just has that air to him.
Gordon Brown:
Slitheen:
It seems obvious to me.
And now on to the next part of my blog. I was trawling through iTunes and *a perfectly legal music download site* last night, looking out for some new music. I have a ton of music but seem to end up listening to the same songs again and again. Anyway, I came to the conclusion that I have some seriously dodgy music in there. For the most part, I love my taste in music. But there are those songs that, even though you know they're embarrassing, you can't help but dance along to. So, in a sort of bad music amnesty, I'm asking you to post those songs you're kind of ashamed of but can't help loving anyway. Find the vid on YouTube, paste the embed code into my comments, let's see what what heinous skeletons come tumbling out of the closet. FIrst up for me, Sweet Home Alabama, by Lynard Skynard. Southern rock at it's "finest". And I use that term in the loosest sense possible.
Secondly...gah, I'm cringing already. Shakira - Whenever, Wherever. I can't help it *cries*
Thirdly...Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff. The guy's 30+ years old and still an emo teen at heart. I could not find the clean version of this anywhere on YouTube, so if you're offended by the F-word or have kids present, don't play it. Just a warning.To be fair, I don't actually pack a chainsaw, and I'm not planning on skinning anyone's ass raw. But I think we all have days where we wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and hate everyone, and take everything personally. It's for those days.
And last but not least...well, this one manages to combine 2 of my secret vices. Britney's Toxic, and the B-52's Love Shack. I don't know who thought of this but, wth, really?
OK, I'm done...I leave it in your capable hands from hereon. The worse, the better :D I'm heading off to do some shopping. Assuming I can afford anything any more :|
I know, I'm a bad, none-blogging Tally. I really haven't fallen off the surface of the earth though, honest, and I'm not ignoring anyone. It's just been one of those hectic weeks. A good one, though. Especially when compared to last week, which as a few of you know, was really quite heinous. Glad to say that's all in the past now, and everything is awesome. Holly, Viv, Fuzzy, Mags, Kerry, Steph, you're good friends, and much appreciated :) Alex (finally!) went back to school this week, after the seemingly never-ending Easter holidays. We did have a really nice break though, with some wonderful days out. We did The National Media Museum, in Bradford, the next sizeable town over, where we took in an amazing 3D film about prehistoric sea monsters at the IMAX cinema. I can't even explain how awesome that was, Alex was utterly captivated, and even I jumped a few times as giant Megalodons appeared to lunge right up to our faces. Eek! There's also a brilliant photography section there, that I could have happily wandered around all day. We also took in the Thackray Medical Museum here in Leeds, where we've actually never ventured before. It was gory, historic, and interesting all rolled into one. Perfect for a science, history and gore loving 7yr old :D The nicest day trip was probably the one to Howarth, out on the Yorkshire Moors, home of the Bronte Sisters (Wuthering Heights, Heathcliffe wandering round looking brooding and insane, you know the one). It's just one of my favourite places in the world. Sure, it's a tourist trap, and every other shop lining the steep main street is full of overpriced crap, oh and walking that hill is just plain torturous, but it has a beautiful church and graveyard (what? I'm bleak and brooding, I'm allowed to love graveyards), cosy little cottages nestled along the way, a plethora of cats roaming the place, an old-fashioned sweet shop, and just an aura about the place that I love. Not to mention the outlying scenery is spectacular. We had a lovely mooch around, and a delicious meal and went home very satisfied. At the weekend, Alex spent his pocket money on the 2 original Star Wars movies. My boy is destined to be a geek. That's just fine with me. He loves, as I mentioned, history, science, lego and Star Wars. But then, so do I. So does Mat, actually. It all works out well ;) I'm a huge geek, no doubt.
Any how, Monday he went back to school. It's too quiet without him, he's actually getting to the age where I really enjoy his company, not just as my son but as a proper little person, if that makes sense. He's funny. He makes bad puns. He's affectionate and loving. And he's super smart. I miss him when he's not around. I feel like such a lucky person. Still, if he changes my computer desktop to a picture of Yoda one more time, I will send him away to the Home for Naughty Children. This week, I've mostly been catching up with work, though I had a really enjoyable day with one of my closest RL friends and her adorable 6 month old daughter. Jeesh, that kid makes me broody (sorry Mat, don't be scared!). She gets all excited when she sees me now and giggles and eats my hair. It's charming. I also had a good lunch catching up with my Dad who's just got back from a work trip to China. He brought me back some incredibly evil-tasting chocolate. I didn't think such a thing was possible; it's chocolate = tasty goodness, right? Wrong. Blech. Even Alex won't eat it. Don't eat Chinese chocolate. He also gave me some spending money (he's an awesome guy but his parenting skills don't extend far beyond the giving of money. That's fine.) So, finally, I got to treat myself to something new. It's been a while. Between Alex, bills, and saving, there's usually very little left. So I was extremely happy to go purchase things just for me. I took Alex with me, and after picking up a couple of things for him, decided to go peruse the underwear department. Alex was bored within seconds, and started hiding in the racks of bras (boys, they start early). Then he starts laughing really loudly, I went to see what the issue was. He's brandishing a box from their *ahem* "adult fun" range, containing a sexy French Maid outfit. Gulp."Oh look!", he says. "It's for a grown-up fancy dress party!". What could I say, but "yes, sweetheart. That's exactly what it is! Now let's put the box down and go very quickly to the other side of the store :|" Sigh. Such fun.
Well, I've rambled on quite long enough here. Hope you've all had a great week and have a wonderful weekend to come :)
I had 2 pictures in mind when I saw the theme this week. Eventually I settled upon this one, mostly because even looking at it again reminds me of the sheer jaw-dropping feeling I got being up close to such an amazing landmark. When people think of Paris, I think the Eiffel Tower is one of the first things that springs to mind. It's so obviously recognisable and to be there, soaking in the atmosphere, was a pretty awesome moment. I like Paris. I spent a lot of time in my teens down in the South of France, and it's a very different atmosphere. Paris has quite a haughty sense of self-importance, still you can't help but love it.
What better to do at 3am, in a bout of insomnia, than compose a birthday blog to a wonderful guy? He is, I hope, sleeping peacefully right now. Anyway, my gorgeous, sweet, Star Trek and Lego-loving boyfriend; this one's for you :)
You share a birthday with Elton John. But it's not all bad :P On this day in history: The British Parliament abolished the slave trade (1807) The modern Olympics began in Athens, Greece (1896) Rebel battle flags captured during the Civil War were returned to South (1905) Greek Independence Day was established (1920) 97 percent of all Dutch physicians went on strike against Nazi registration (1943) While still in his twenties, Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 to the state capitol in Montgomery, Ala. (1965) John & Yoko staged first bed-in for peace in Amsterdam (1969) And, take note that a Royal Air Force sergeant in 1944 survived a jump from his Lancaster bomber from 18,000 feet without a parachute.
I hope your birthday is everything you wish for, baby. Here's hoping that some time we get to share one without anxiously hoping the mail service will get packages delivered in time, and without the use of stupid computers. I love you very much Mat, thanks for being the awesome person you are :-*
It's been a while since I posted a blog that wasn't Picture Perfect (which I'm enjoying a lot), so I thought I'd do a quick one. I've not really been in the mood to blog just lately, it's been kind of a rough time. Issues in the wonderful world of "real life" reared their rather ugly head and caused lots of stress. I'm hoping that's settled down, it was something I'd hoped I'd never have to deal with and it really hit me for 6. Added to that the never-ending brooding over not being able to go be with Mr. B. full time, and the fact that it's purely down to a lack of money makes me feel helpless and like I'm constantly wading through treacle, trying to move and never getting anywhere. I should've kept him here while I had the chance, huh? It's a hard time and I've been really blue. Try as I might, I can't seem to snap out of it. Sometimes it's really hard to put the requisite "happy face" on for the world. But now it's the Easter Holiday, Alex is off for 2 weeks. Kinda makes no sense to me, Good Friday was yesterday, he only broke up the day before. I'm hoping to get a few days out with him. We're going to go to Flamingo Land one day, it's a theme park and big zoo combined, and not too far away. If nothing else, it's a whole ton of photo opportunities, which always cheers me up.
We just got done watching the movie version of 101 Dalmatians. Alex has watched every installment of Harry Potter, some episodes of sci-fi dramas Doctor Who and Torchwood that I considered fairly scary, even snuck in while I was watching the latest Stephen King movie 1408 (which I cannot recommend highly enough if you like your horror more psychological than gory, scared me stupid and I don't scare easily), and he didn't bat an eyelid. Not scared in the slightest. I don't know if kids TV and stuff like HP desensitizes kids nowadays, but he is just not scared by much on TV. Cruella De'Vil though (as played by the marvellous Glenn Close) is another story. Alex has just spent the best part of the last couple of hours cowering under a blanket, hiding from the scary woman. Yesterday he insisted we went to the park. Sigh. The park, in sub-zero temperatures, and howling gales. Gosh, what a joy. Today we woke up to snow, for the first time this year. It's all pretty much melted, pathetic kind of snowfall if you ask me. That's it, in a nutshell. Sorry for the lack of happy-making! I hope you all have a fab Easter though. I for one will be making the most of an opportunity to eat a lot of chocolate :)
Nothing like a nice British expression for a change :D It really didn't take me long to find the pic I wanted to use this week. This was taken in Barcelona 3 or 4 years ago, Alex was only about 4 and in complete awe of the city. Barcelona is absolutely bustling with life. Every corner is home to to these "living statues", mimes without the miming if you like. We saw all kinds, Mary and Joseph, Greek gods and goddesses...and this one. Satan and God playing chess. I'm sure it's all kinds of sacrilegious, but good lord, it made me laugh. The make-up was amazing. As we walked past, Satan winked at Alex and I, and gestured for me to take a photo...of course they expect a little of your loose change for the privilege, definitely a price worth paying. Alex wasn't quite as enthusiastic. Just as I was about to take the pic, Satan put his arm around Alex and brought his face up close with a big scary grin...I can see Alex virtually retreating into his hood here. It might not convey his absolute shock, but believe me, he felt it. Never was there such a "WTF?" moment.
I can't believe Picture Perfect has come around again so quickly. I had intended to take a pic especially for this theme but they day sort of got away with me so it was back to looking through my archives...and I found this one. Taken sometime last year in the Yorkshire coastal city of Hull, it was a very bleak day. Looking out to sea, it was a really desolate feeling, I could've been all alone in the world. Thus, empty.
It really was an eerie view, somehow. This is the kind of picture that makes me afraid of the sea, wondering what monsters lay beneath the surface.
I'm sure we all have them. Or maybe I'm just a freak. That could also be true.
I'm so ridiculously afraid of some really stupid things. Ever since I was a very young child, things have scared me. When I was a little younger than Alex, I thought scary clowns with moon-faces would come out of my closet at night and kill me in the night. When I was 10, my best friend and I used to play Dracula (we were quite morbid children). One time I got really convinced that she actually was a vampire and ran home crying. I might be edging ever closer to 30, but the silly fears still exist. So here are a few. Laugh all you want, I might like to present the snarky exterior but I'm soft as anything really.
Whenever I make coffee, in my French Press/cafetiere, I get this fear that the water will be too hot for the glass, and it'll explode outwards, covering me in boiling water, coffee grounds, and jagged shards of glass. I have this thought every single time I make coffee.
I hate buying sealed bags of bananas. You know why? Because one day, I'm going to open those bananas from Costa Rica or Africa or wherever they come from, and I'm going to get covered in angry spiders. It happens! There was that woman who bought the bananas from the supermarket and a few days later, she noticed, among the bunch, a dead spider. With an empty egg sac on its' back. 2 weeks later her house had to be fumigated after an infestation of deadly spider babies. That story made me feel nauseous.
I often wake up early, 5 or 6am. I live in a pretty quiet area, and sometimes when I go outside for my morning smoke, it's completely silent outside. Especially over winter, when the birds aren't around to give me the dawn chorus. Standing outside, in the silence, with not even a vague whisper of traffic in the distance, I wonder if the apocalypse happened while I was sleeping. That would suck. Although the peace might be nice.
I have a big fear of things that wobble in the wind. We've had a lot of very strong winds here lately. TV aerials, chimneys, lampposts, traffic lights....they're going to fall on me!
Unknown animals. I'm quite happy from a distance. But if they get close and over-excited and start jumping up at me, I get nervous. This is a legitimate fear I think, I've required hospital treatment after bad bites from cats, a dog, and a pony. Though not all at the same time.
Spiders, and insects of any kind. I have to go through this ritual at night of shaking out my blankets, and my pillows, and giving my room a thorough search for spiders. When I get into bed, I pull the blanket right up to my neck, make sure my arms are covered, and tuck the bottom of the blanket under my feet. Nothing's crawling on me in the night :| I also find myself on the verge of falling asleep and sitting up violently, convinced there's something in my hair. Gah!
So, am I alone? Or are there others out there with silly fears?
Hope you're all having a good week :) I know I haven't been around too much to comment on blogs etc, but I'm pretty snowed under at the moment. All in a good cause though.
I only wish I'd had a camera in hand this morning, when I managed to collide at top speed with a door, and give myself a black eye. Not the greatest movement ever, but it sure would have fit the topic! This was an interesting one. I had so many pictures in mind but none seemed quite right when I went to look. In the end I settled upon this one:
My son, Alex, having a wild time on the carousel. Personally, their faces always scare me a little. But I look at this and I can almost feel him whizzing round, laughing every time he went by me. Happy memories :)
