fudge

Wednesday, 22 August 2012

Quote Challenge – Day Eleven

Donna at My Write Spot has been posting a quote challenge every day for the past 10 days.  Today is day 11.

Now I love quotes and, as most of you probably know, I'm a big fan of Erma Bombeck and Groucho Marx amongst others.  I even like to fondly think that others might, at times, find one or two of the things I say worth repeating ... 

Ok, unlikely but hey, lets not shatter my illusions ;-).

Anyway, I have been following the challenge (although not joining in or commenting because I've been such a crap blogger for the last few months) but I've decided that should really change because I love my blog and I'm buggered if I'm going to let it just slip away so I'm going to start with joining in the challenge for today at least and see where it leads me.  (When, just like the old days, you find that you are drowning in Fudge feel free to head over and take it up with Donna :-).

Today's challenge is to post a quote about love.

I'm really not a romantic in the traditional sense.  I don't want big gestures or declarations.  It doesn't need to be all deep, profound and meaningful.

Those of you who have been around for a while may recognise this quote from a post a I wrote over a year ago now.  For me it sums up the true meaning of romance, the way I think things should be and the way I'd like to feel.


"You make me understand how wonderful it is for little lizards when they find that one special rock that's perfect for sunning themselves on. You make me lizard-happy." - R K Millholand

Sunday, 19 August 2012

Boo

Hello ...

It's been a while hasn't it?  No excuses really, no particular reason other than the fact that I don't seem to have had a great deal of time to sit down and write lately.  I think about it quite a lot, there's been loads going on but it's just finding the time to put it all together in some kind of order that's eluded me recently.

It would serve me right if you've all buggered off and found new friends.  Maybe let me know if you drop by, you know, something like 'I was ere', you could even cut and paste that couldn't you ;-)

Anyway, what HAVE I been up to??

Well, I've decorated Miss Macs bedroom.  Now that deserves a whole post on it's own and it will get one at some point.  I think I'll title it something like  'Battleship Grey on a Budget', catchy no?

I've been to the beach (but of course!), met up with friends, been out listening to live music (where I was propositioned by not just one but TWO women one night). Stood in the middle of a field watching a fire eater and listening to a great band with possibly the worst lead singer I've ever heard but who exuded sooo much self confidence that I began to wonder if it was my hearing that was at fault rather than his vocals (it wasn't, he WAS crap).  Camped in a thunder storm with torrential rain, eaten cherry bakewell galeto on the seafront, been car booting, made a start on renovating my garden, come to lots of conclusions and made a life changing decision (more on that at some point).

I've dabbled with FB, in fact, this post WAS going to be much longer (and funnier I though ;) but that would involve trawling back on FB to find out what I'd been up to and right now I have decking to take up in the garden so that will be another day.  I've largely given up on Twitter, the instant gratification junky in me struggles with the lack of feedback.

So this is really just to say hey, I'm still here and I'll be back soon to tell you all about my brand new neighbour who hasn't seen me half naked yet.

Friday, 27 July 2012

Such A Perfect Day

Every now and then you get one of those days where everything just seems so right in the world.

We've been having some beautiful weather here in the UK and I've been lucky enough to be able to take full advantage of it.

There have been trips to the beach, walks along the canal, lazing in the garden watching my washing blowing in the breeze and time spent with the people I love the most.

Yesterday ...  yesterday was a halcyon day.  Nothing jarred, nothing hurt, nothing made me feel 'if only', 'I wish', 'I miss' ...

Everything was there, all the elements came together, all the ingredients that combine to make my happiness drifted through the day in a shimmering haze of heat.

I know, I know,  this is all a little poetical for me ;-)  Normally this kind of stuff is reserved for my fiction but I haven't been writing much of that lately, maybe I should ...

Today I woke up and that feeling is still there. 

I'm not longing for yesterday, I'm just glad for it's existence.  I feel peaceful, happy, content.

Of course my life isn't perfect, yes there are things I'd like to change.  Somethings I can, some I can't ...  Somethings may always be beyond my grasp and somethings I may have lost forever but the time for dwelling on that is past and I'm grateful, I'm happy for what I do have.  For the people who are in my life because they chose to be.

Because for them I am part of the happiness process.

Do you think I may have had a little bit too much sun? ;-)

Ha ha, well, that's entirely possible so I'm going to stop waxing lyrical here and tell you about yesterday.

I met a friend for lunch, someone I love very much.  Someone who is very important to me and who I hope will always be in my life.

Someone I nearly lost just over a year ago.

You may remember this post.  I wrote it on a very dark day.  A day when I couldn't see any light at the end of the tunnel.  That darkness stayed with me for a very long time, casting it's shadow over my life, pulling me into the darkness at every turn.

It's lifted, it's softened, it's dissipated but not quite dispersed.  I think it will always be there as a gentle reminder of the way things were, the way things could have been BUT!

It's ok, it really is.  We find new ways.  You cannot maintain that level of unhappiness and despair without destroying yourself and I am NOT destroyed.

My bruises have faded, my wounds have healed.

The faint silvery lines of the scars remain and I'll always carry them and I'm glad of that, I'm glad of the reminder, it's a part of me.

God, I'm doing it again aren't I?  this isn't the way this post was supposed to go, I'm supposed to be telling you bout my perfect day dammit!

Ok, well, it WAS perfect.

I met my friend, I took all the good things from that meeting.  Things have changed but things remain the same.  I walked away happy for the friendship we still have and not sad for the friendship we had lost.  I still love my friend and you know what, I think they may still love me too so maybe the only thing we really 'lost' were the 'what if's' the 'maybe's' and who knows if they would ever have brought us what we need.

And so, to the rest of my perfect day.

SD, as I've mentioned before, is a teacher.  The really good thing about that is that he now has a whole 6 weeks off for the Summer and the even better thing is that he chooses to spend much of that time with me and, (yep, it gets better!) we love to do the same things.

Got to be the beach hasn't it ...  ;-)

Yesterday afternoon we went to Hive.  A beautiful little beach a few coves around the coastline from Lyme Regis.  It's made up of tiny pebbles rather than sand and it's tucked away from the main road which means it doesn't tend to get quite so busy as some of the other beaches.

It's beautiful, look!

Umm, yes, dead fish ;-)  They had been washes up in a row along part of the beach - not sure this photo shows quite have pretty they were.

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endless expanses of sea, cliffs and empty beach


slightly windswept but yes, it was actually warm enough to swim!

 Then we drove along a couple of coves to West Bay - I LOVE West Bay where we stumbled into a raft race.  More English madness where some very strange people fashion homemade rafts out of just about anything, I'm not kidding, could literally be anything.  Throw them in the river, jump into them (usually sink) and race.

Lots of dressing up, mostly men dressed as women but there were a few cavemen, etc
Like I said, mostly they sank!

chappie on the far right made a very improper suggestion as to what I might like to give him in return for a photo (I THINK he was joking ;)

We then bought the most amazing lime and chili fishcakes and chips and sat on the sea wall watching the sun go down.

A truly perfect day.

More madness, less maudlin' coming very soon ;-)

Monday, 23 July 2012

Alas poor Figgy ...

'Link up your funniest post' she said - 'Make me laugh' ...

God Robo - don't you know I'm a self depreciating English girl and I'm not allowed to admit that I might be funny sometimes??

So, well, yeah, I was going to link up 'F*ck, I've killed the cat' but I thought you might find a story a bout a dead hamster more amusing .....

Linking up with Robomum for The Lounge this week.

There's nothing worse than thinking the hamster's dead and then discovering that the hamster is indeed dead ...

Now I've been here once or twice before so when Miss Mac made the sad pronouncement I was ever so slightly sceptical.

I went upstairs and together we contemplated that fat little hamster for a while.

"Poke him Mum, see if he moves"

"No, YOU poke him, he's your hamster".

"You poke him"

"I'm not poking him!"

"Well, I'M not poking him"

"I'm a kid, you can't make a kid poke a dead hamster ..."

Bugger it, she had a point.

I poked him ...  He didn't move ...

I still wasn't convinced.  If I'd buried that bloody hamster EVERY time he was dead ...

"Let's just leave him for a bit and see what happens".

"Mum, Figgy is dead, all that's going to happen is he is going to carry on lying there being deader!"

In exasperation she picked him up and turned him over.

"See!".

Poor Figgy remained curled up in a stiff little ball of fluff, his little hamster teeth grinning at me as though to say, "I told you I was dead". This time it seemed he wasn't messin' with me.

It was time for another hamster funeral ...

Unfortunately I'd broken my spade whilst ...  well, you don't really need to know how I broke it. Anyway, I had a quiet word with SD who promised to bring one round later and even offered dig the hole for me (although that may have been nore in the interests of keeping his spade intact).

We chose a spot in the garden under a bush and SD being careful not to dig up road kill (dead bird - another story ...) set to work whilst Miss Mac and I pondered on the best material for a hamster coffin.

I like to be a little inventive with such things so Rascal, (Miss Macs first dead hamster who was a ginger colour) is buried in an orange mobile phone box (geddit?? ).  Sir Frederick Fluff Balls was buried in an (empty) coco pops box (coco pops look a lot like hamster shit).

We rifled the recycling to see what we could use.  SD having finished digging the hole came to 'help'.  What about this he asked pulling out the cardboard inner from an empty kitchen roll.

"SD, I am not burying the fucking hamster in that, it'll look like a bloody Christmas cracker!!!"  Added to which Figgy was slightly larger than the cardboard tube and Im buggered if Im going to try to shove a stiff hamster up a hole that's too small (say NOTHING ok, this is a VERY serious matter!!).

Eventually we fashioned a box from part of a cardboard box with lots of sellotape, filled it with sawdust, laid poor Figgy in it and taped it up.  We sat for a moment, each thinking out different thoughts when that fucker Bear (our cat of little brain) jumped onto the table, skidded and sent poor Figgys coffin flying!  Lots of shouting scared the crap out of that bloody cat and he shot outside whilst I reverently picked Figgy up and put him gently back on the table.

"Mum. have you got him the right way up???"

Ummm, well actually I didn't have a clue, we may well have buried Figgy upside down but I assured Miss Mac that I did indeed have him the right way up and off we went to the garden to finally lay Figgy to rest.

You know what I said about the shouting scaring the crap out of Bear ...?

Well it seems hadn't. Well, not quite ALL of it anyway.

That bastard cat was busy excavating his bowels very loudly and very pungently in poor Figgys newly dug grave!

I will never forgive SD for not appreciating the solemnity of the occasion and laughing until he cried.

Miss Mac will never forgive either of us for not appreciating the solemnity of the occasion and laughing until we cried.

Figgy hopefully doest give a stuff that the three of us did not appreciate the solemnity of the occasion and laughed until we cried.

And Bear, well, I have decided that I shall have him creamated when his time comes and (in an act previously only reserved for ex lax) scatter his ashes in a cat litter tray so that he may be crapped on by a multitude of cats!

Thursday, 12 July 2012

Exposing Myself To The Neighbours (again!)

There's nothing worse than thinking the hamster's dead and then discovering the hamster is indeed dead!

This morning I discovered Figgy in his wheel.  the wheel is sealed and fits to the rotostack with entry by means of a tube.  How the fuck are you supposed to get a dead hamster out?

It's pretty hard to tell if a hamster is dead or just sleeping so I span the wheel a bit just to check.  A live hamster probably would have woken up rather than just thudding around (in a solid fat hamster kind of way ...).

The only solution seemed to bury poor Figgy in his wheel which is kind of gross as it's not biodegradable so next year Id probably be accidentally digging up his decomposed remains in a bright yellow plastic coffin.

Anyhow, turns out Figgy isn't dead at all, phew! 

This is supposed to be a post about my frankly hilarious (judge for yourselves and then lie and tell me I'm right ;) and completely ignored Twitter tweets (seems there should be a better way of putting that).  I re posted a couple on FB because, well because I require the adulation and gratification which was sadly lacking in Twitter land. For good measure I may throw in a couple of FB status updates that didn't make it as far as Twitter and maybe just one or two random thoughts that ought to really just stay in my head.

So to start you off, here are the tweets that the twits ignored ...

'Hormones may turn me into a complete bitch at times but boy they get the house clean! (and, if I don't want to clean it, I just break it')

'Arse, gloss paint - elbow, emulsion - yes doubters, I KNOW the difference! '

'Without GHD's my hair would probably qualify for it's own postcode! ' (this one had previously appeared on FB but given the state of my hair on that day was worthy of a rerun)

'just looked in the mirror - it gonna be another day of relying heavily on personality and mouthwash - mostly mouthwash to be fair ... '