Wednesday 30 January 2008

Oh it's a lovely 'oliday with Sarah...

This week, I have abandoned the Library and I'm on holiday. I say holiday, I have a week off to try and impose some sense of order upon my abode and to do the things for which weekends are generally to precious to waste (eye test, buying a hoover, going to the tip) the most painful of which is my decision to empty one full bookcase and take it's contents to the Charity shop have you ever tried to do that, it's like choosing a child to get rid of, well is for me anyhow, I have to get the "ladies" (read evil octogenarians with no concept of time) to prise the bags out of my hands. Is it just me, or does everyone else have holidays like this.... I'm even planning another week in March so I can have my garden done (oh the excitement). I'm getting v jealous of Sophers who is off to Uganda in July, so please someone tell me, where can I go on holiday for ten bob?... answers on a postcard....



Sarah (it's only my happiness that keeps me going) the misery arse

Friday 11 January 2008

On the day the celebrations begin...

Today Liverpool begins it's celebrations in the year it is European Capital of Culture. Ringo Starr will be singing (or swinging - no not that kind) on the roof of St Georges Hall. It is being televised on Sunday I believe...

Think of Liverpool and you'll think of football, the Beatles, the ferries, the Liver Birds (as seen in this picture of The Royal Liver Building by Dave Wood which can be seen with more at this site)

People are what make a place, this city has many brilliant people who have helped make it what it is...as a poet from these shores once said...

'Lippy loose-limbed liberatingly lyrical

Irreverent inspired je ne sais quoi

Vibrant Visionary with a capital V

Edgy eccentric essentially europhile

Racy restless raw rock 'n' roller

Pacy passionate positively pop

Obsessive optimistic on the go

Off the wall outlandish ee aye addio

Legendary life-giving life- loving Liverpool'


-- Roger McGough

Tuesday 8 January 2008

hello...

My goodness me, it’s been more than a month…

… it hasn’t been intentional to leave it this long… well not entirely intentional…

I want to make this post, my hundredth something to remember, not only because it is number 100, but also because it a year on the 16th since I started this blog.

I’ve been trying to think of answers to the questions that people asked in the comments to the last post I did plus some other suggestions from people who I’ve enlisted to kick me out of this scared of the next post hump I’ve been in. So I’ve decided to go the whole 100 things list as well as answering some of the questions using that list (if that makes sense…I hope so)

1: I adore music and so was pleased when asked to name my past present and future songs! I’m going to go a little further….I’m also going to tell you what I want at my funeral, what makes me cry and just some others ‘cos I love ‘em so!…. From my past I love a song called Days like these by Matt Munro, currently I’m loving Take That, Rule the world which is surprising as I don’t really like Take That…. And inspirational rather than future I love Tonight We Fly by the Divine Comedy. Away in a Manger makes me cry EVERY TIME, Sweet Georgia Brown played by Django makes me want to jig about, On the Street where you live makes me sing good and hearty, giving the neighbourhood cats a run for their money! The Black Hills of Dakota joins a few of us together and at my funeral I want The 1812 overture complete with cannon fire!
2: Favourite Book….mmmmmm….. Danny The Champion of the World by Roald Dahl, sure there are other more worthy recipients, but this one was different.
3: Favourite Film… again too hard… either One of our dinosaurs is missing, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Goodnight Mr Chips or The Love Letter …. (or who am I kidding… die hard…) :-)
4: I’ve been thinking hard about afternoon tea and where I’d like to have it most…. And I’ve come to a conclusion, there are two types of afternoon tea…. One where you have your tea in a mug standing about in the middle of a mucky job with the people you like best, and the other where everything is perfect with the cake-stands and the china and your hands are clean (and the language!) and Ruth Etting and Django are playing in the background. You know what… both are as good as each other as long as the company is right. Although I’m hoping that one day I’ll be taken to the garden room at the Ritz.
5: I can do without historical figures, I want to meet both sets of grandparents in their prime to ask them questions that it wouldn’t have occurred to me to ask them as a child and in one case just to meet him.
6: Often (at least twice a day) I wish my brain would kick into gear before my mouth opened
7: When you are in the mood, there is nothing, repeat NOTHING better than chips and gravy
8: I’ve always wished I was 6’2”
9: I’m the quietest one of my siblings (no, really)
10: I’m the shyest one of my siblings (no, really)
11: I adore peonies, tulips, hollyhocks, sweet peas and hydrangeas
12: My sister and I are very alike for people who are very un-alike. We’ve both come to the realisation that if one of us moves to another continent then the other one will have to too otherwise neither of us will cope.
13: In one of my previous jobs I used to sing so loudly the lady in the next door office used to knock on the wall (it was a Library)
14: I often wish Television had not been invented
15: I have a health and safety obsession and I have to check hairdryers, irons and ovens have been turned off many times and that doors are locked too
16: Sometimes there is nothing better than curling up with a really cheesy Mills and Boon!
17: I have a very sick/morbid sense of humour that has been known to shock people
18: I find it very upsetting when someone I know does something that oversteps my personal moral code and find it difficult to come to terms with
19: I’d never tell them that though
20: If I see an elderly couple in the street holding hands it makes me want to cry
21: I find the sound of ambulance sirens a very comforting sound
22: I’d rather be too cold than too hot
23: I’m incredibly selfish, I mostly think it’s a good job I live on my own, no-one else would be able to cope with me
24: When I feel threatened rather than retreat into myself I go straight into performer mode, some people have never seen me out of this mode.
25: I’m a worrier, a first class medal winning worrier
26: I don’t want to be a Librarian for the rest of my career
27: I’m a night person
28: I have a huge problem saying no
29: It takes a large amount to wind me up and I rarely lose my temper but when I do it is the stuff of legend and once resulted in dialogue that John Wayne would have been proud of
30: I’m constantly surprised by the kindness that some people display and staggered by the thoughtlessness of others
31: I hate being told what to do
32: I hate it when people don’t stick up for themselves although I’m the first not to do it
33: I’d love a beach hut
34: I’d rather buy a book than a new pair of shoes
35: I get really, really, really vivid déjà vu….
36: I love red lipstick
37: I would allow you to rip off my arm to beat Boris Johnson or John McCruick with
38: Bigots should have their tongues ripped out and fed to larks to make amends
39: I wish I had a walled garden
40: re: life – what is it about the joke that I’m just not getting…?
41: I wish I had enough money to not have to work full time, I’m not talking a huge amount, my current salary on a part time basis would be lovely.
42: I love it when I’m the only one in the Library and there are no Library users in. I’ve been known to lie on the floor with my paperwork
43: If I could go barefoot all the time I would
44: I think I was born after my time
45: I’d love to own a shop
46: I daydream about it on the bus to and from work
47: I’m terrible with names, it’s like I have one file for names, another for faces but the two have no connections whatsoever
48: If there is a spider in the room, cancel that… within a fifty foot radius, I will see it, they frighten me and will end up under a glass
49: I prefer the bubble and squeak on boxing day to the dinner the day before
50: I’d love to be able to let go
51: I don’t understand this whole fake tan malarkey, it’s not big, it’s not clever, and no-one is convinced. Keep away from the cuprinol
52: I wish my office at work had a window
53: I wish I could put bunting up all around “my” Library
54: To anyone under the age of 16, the word is asked, not axed
55: I prefer Eddie Izzard in his make-up and his heels, he’s more him
56: I love Terry Wogan on the radio in the morning. I get annoyed when he goes on holiday
57: I deliberately use bad grammar around my friend who is a teacher just to annoy her
58: The only reason I go to the hairdressers to have my hair dyed is because I love having my hair washed
59: I can’t drive, I think learning is probably beyond me
60: I adore hairy men… well not so much hair as carpeting…
61: Some of the best holidays I’ve ever had were the ones we spent clearing and doing up my Grandparents home, despite having to fill skips, rip up floors, re-plaster walls and only have the world service to listen too. Somehow it was more simple and I used to love sitting around the dining table in the evening reading in the candle-light because the old wiring and lighting system just wasn’t strong enough, and sitting on the wall out the front with my cup of tea in the morning
62: I think Geraldine McEwan is the BEST Miss Marple, she has that twinkle in her eye that I imagine when I read the books
63: I think the next Doctor Who should be a girl

64: I love Top Gear, don’t know why, just do
65: If money was no consideration I’d have the following homes, Diane Keaton’s Hamptons house from Something’s gotta give, The house from Practical Magic, Kate Winslet’s house from The Holiday, The Dashwood’s Devon cottage from the current BBC version of Sense and Sensibility and Ugo da Como’s house in Lonato, Italy

66: If it were a choice between Red Wine and Tea, forever and ever, Tea would win.
67: I eat more garlic than is probably socially acceptable!
68: I get really Christmassy in September and the feeling usually wears off by the end of October, so I propose we move Christmas back a bit…
69: The older women I know are mainly better company than the younger ones, they also know dirtier jokes!
70: I love Simon and Garfunkel
71: I trust anything George Alaghia tells me, I could listen to the Man read the phonebook
72: Guilty pleasure no.1 – listening to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban read by Stephen Fry
73: Guilty pleasure no.2 – Tinned Macaroni and Cheese with Walkers Cheese and onion crisps
74: Guilty pleasure no.3 – secretly (obviously not now) liking the new Take That
75: When I watch the Vicar of Dibley, I can see parallels with people in my family…
76: I believe Celery to be the work of Satan
77: Tomatoes and Tangerines however are knitted by Angels sitting on the softest clouds
78: I know I should use local bookshops more, but damn you Amazon, you are cheaper I wish it wasn’t the case
79: I think the working week should only be 4 days long
80: I wish I could make things for a living
81: I’ve never had a filling or a tooth out or braces, everytime I go to the dentist he looks and says “I’m never going to make my fortune from your teeth am I?”
82: I wish I could go back to my 19 year old self and say, when you’ve gone upstairs that fateful February night… stay up there, you will fall over the cat (because you’ve had a few sherbets) and break your leg and it’ll never be the same again
83: I want Anton to teach me to dance
84: I want them to give Anton someone good to dance with next series, come on lads – he deserves it, no more lame ducks for him!
85: My Mum’s Dad looked just like Bing Crosby
86: I have a bit of a stationery fetish, in fact my colleagues keep the catalogues for them on the top shelf……..
87: I have a healthy respect for my mother… rather like you would a shark
88: It makes us all laugh when she slips into Devon speak
89: I have many sayings and I’m always ready with an analogy or a come-back line
90: I’m still looking for the person who can deliver a line that I can’t come back at
91: I’m going to be in serious trouble when they do
92: Sometimes they are wrong when they say never go back, but mostly they are right, I discovered this on a night out over Christmas
93: I think sometimes I have too much influence
94: I’m glad I started blogging
95: I’m glad because I’ve been in touch with so many wonderful people because of it
96: I love colour, especially green
97: I have a bit of a polka dot obsession!
98: I’m looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen as part of Liverpool’s Capital of Culture, I have a cultural embassy just up the road and I’ve signed up to help with the gardening
99: My outhouses sold my house to me, they are so cute, proper dinky!
100: One day soon, I’ll be organised
I’m not going to re-read these, I’m just going to post them and send them off into the ether…
… oh and by the way…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!