Phenomenon

Three things are going through my mind...

1) Phenomenon. I had to spell this word backwards correctly during a game of Cranium on Saturday, and, well... I didn't. Since then it has been running through my mind on and off, and I can do it now:

n-o-n-e-m-o-n-e-h-P. See.

2) I have a 1 in 4 chance of getting promoted. I'm beginning to get very nervous about the interview.

3) Mmmm fudge. I've just found some leftover fudge from Edinburgh from the the best fudge place in the world ever. Yum. I'm particularly enjoying the belgian chocolate, as it's not quite as hard as the others. I've also just discovered that they do mail order, which is a really bad plan for the waistline, and decided that if I ever ever get married, I'm going to have fudge as wedding favours. How cool is that!!

Another summer's day has come and gone away

I completely forgot that the clocks had gone back when I woke up this morning. So there I am, getting ready to leave Na and Steve's for Kent... and then Na reminds me that actually it's only 8.40, not 9.40, and that not only am I therefore not late, I've also got her up an hour than she needed to be! Sorry Na!

The reason I had to be up was twofold... we spent Saturday night at No 28 having a games night. Otherwise known (this won't surprise most of my readers) as an excuse to eat food and get drunk and play board games. It was a very funny night, although us girls weren't quite as amused at the end of the session (2.30am!) when we lost to the boys, especially when there was two of them and three of us! Anyway, Na Steve and I walked back to theirs at 3am, leaving my car there, and I therefore had to get it, hence the need for a lift from Na, before heading off to Kent. The walk home was special in itself, it's been a very long time since I walked home drunk in the early hours of the morning in Hatfield with the birds!

Once I'd impressed my mum and my nan by turning up in Broadstairs on time (more by luck than design due to my timing problem above!) we had a lovely day. Went for a pub lunch, and, although we didn't, it was easily warm enough to sit outside. At the end of October. Weird. Lovely though.

I particularly enjoyed getting out in the countryside and seeing autumn evolving in the wintry sunlight, checking out all our favourite old landmarks and visiting places. The only thing which disturbed me was that it was dark by 5pm... although that made for a good drive home because I sat in the outside lane for most of the M2 and cruised along at a decent speed, with Classic FM to accompany me.

I have moments (they are rare, and I haven't had one for a while) where Classic is just what I need for a longish drive. It's stimulating enough to keep me awake, but calm enough to prevent me from getting road rage with those irritating Sunday drivers. And there are a lot of those in Kent. One of our childhood pastimes used to be to count the number of three wheelers... today's count was 11.

I have my new camera now too. Although I've not had much chance to use it yet, and definitely haven't worked out the settings etc to get the most of it, check out my Flickr site here to see the results of my efforts. Expect more to come. I'm a snappy snappy photographer rather than a selective perfect shot photographer, so I plan on populating the site with a fair few photos over the next few weeks.

The title, by the way, is from Michael Buble's 'Home', which I've become rather hooked on recently. It's a Magic FM tune rather than a Classic FM tune though!

When a Belgian taxi driver tries to crack on to you, it's time to change your perfume

I went to Brussels for the day today. Well, I say the day, as I said in my previous blog, we were only actually there for about 5 hours!

On the way back to the station, the taxi driver tried to crack on to me. The conversation went like this:

Him "blah french something blah perfume"
Me "pardon?"
Him "I like your perfume"
Me "Thanks"
Later...
Him "the control for the window is here" (in the control panel by the handbrake). Accompanied by stroking leg action
Me "Uh, thanks"
At the station, I'm paying...
Him "You have beautiful hands. I hope I meet you again"
Me "Thanks". Run. Now

Then, I texted someone at work to say we were on our way back, and that a taxi driver had tried to crack on to me. He replied

"Must be your perfume"

And, indeed, unbeknown to him, it was!

This is not the first time recently I've had an 'interesting but wrong' flirting type encounter.

Maybe I really should change my perfume.

Unexpected

I've got an unexpected night at home (I was meant to see KWTNH, but he had a problem at home with a BT man) and now I'm not sure what to do with myself. There's lots of things I should be doing, like washing, ironing, washing up, or perhaps working on my CV, but I don't actually fancy doing any of them and am not very motivated. Which is the end result of an interesting shift, because I've been far more motivated at work these past few weeks... just not at home!

So, for the time being I'm left pondering the wisdom of my day tomorrow. I'm going to Brussels with work. Which is great (apart from the fact that I currently can't find my passport, so really should be looking for that too!) as I've never been there before (although I'm a bit worried about my lack of French skills) BUT I've just worked out the timings for the trip. It's going to take 4 hours and 56 minutes of travelling (first class on Eurostar though). And we're only going to be there for 5 hours and 7 minutes. That's only 11 minutes longer than the travelling will take!!!

Wet, soggy, and... happy

Today I have been very very wet, three times, from the rain. It's horrible. The only good time for rain is a weeknight when you're at home and don't have to go out, or a Sunday when all you feel like doing is hibernating.

I hate this period of weather. I'm a summer kind of girl, but I can get on ok with winter when it's cold and dry, and when it's snowing. I just don't like all this soggyness.

Anyway, I've had a good day today, I've relocated and restructured my job, and been encouraged to apply for a job which I didn't think I could apply for, so I'm thinking what the hell, I'm going to go for it and see what happens, the worst thing that could come out of it is that I don't get it, but I do get feedback from two people who will be reasonably instrumental in my career for the next few years, so that can't be bad.

And, I had a lovely lunch with Pete and a lovely dinner with Sophie. A lovely way to spend a Monday!

Puberty Police

As Marty has previously mentioned I seem to have some sort of odd police homing device attached to my car. Especially in Hatfield, and especially on Oxlease. Where I got stopped AGAIN tonight (5th time in about 2 years) by the police.

They wanted to know what I was doing in Hatfield when my car is registered in Docklands. I felt like saying "I pay my road tax, I can go wherever I want can't I?!" but I restrained myself, and simply said "I've been visiting friends". Puberty policeman number 1 then said "well, it's a bit late to be doing that on a Sunday night isn't it, what other reason have you got for being here?".

It was 8pm. I told them that unless they could tell me I was actually doing anything wrong, I was leaving. And I did.

(In case you're wondering, I got the 'puberty police' phrase from Wonder Boys)

Other than that, I've had a good weekend, good food, good company, and gardening, which I always enjoy. There's something about pottering around in the garden which means you can't help but relax. Although I did combine that today with some random destruction of a very big bush, which was quite satisfying!

I'm hoping that this week will be a better, less weird, and less toxic.

Day two in the Kate hangover house

I'm still struggling. I still feel hungover. Usually after a night's sleep I'm ok, but this particular one is really quite harsh. I'm going to take myself off to bed soon and hope that I feel ok tomorrow!

The route of all this was my attendance at a conference in a lovely hotel in Manchester. The 4.30am drinking stint clearly wasn't a good plan though. Why didn't I think of that at the time? I clearly had a beer head on. Had a very good laugh though and met some very interesting people and had some very interesting conversations.

Some of which have led to some interesting work opportunities, which now have my already confused head in a bit of a spin. I'm hoping that once I've had a good night's sleep and done a bit of the necessary reading, things will all be a lot clearer by Monday and then I can make some decisions!

3 1/2 hours

Me, lots of booze, bed at 4.30am, breakfast meeting at 8.30am.

Me not a happy Kate today :-S

The Cats

I'll post a longer post about my weekend and the cat project soon, but for now I just wanted to share this with you:



The Cat Survival Trust

Cocoon

My Big Bed (6’6” square) is pretty comfy usually. That’s a lot of bed for just me, and as I seem to be unable to sleep diagonally in it, I don’t use very much of it! Every now and then I have a fantastic night’s sleep in it, and wake up so perfectly comfortable that I can’t think of a way of being more comfy. I’m lying in the right position, the pillows are plumped up in the right way even though I’ve been sleeping on them all night, I’m the right temperature, not too hot, not too cold, and there are no annoying noises going on. This morning was one of those mornings, and it was delightful, for a short time, until I realised that I was going to have to get up for work.

Why can’t those mornings happen at the weekend!? What usually happens on weekend mornings instead is that I wake up at 8.30, feeling groggy, and can’t get back to sleep because I know I’ll get a headache and I’m just not comfortable.

Please can the sleep fairy arrange for these instances to be swapped round so that they come on the right days? (And if you wouldn’t mind finding me someone to share the bed with at the same time, that would be great too ;-))

Why?

Whilst I was having my mid-afternoon-I’m-not-feeling-motivated-to-do-any-work-even-though-I’ve-got-loads-to-do-lull this afternoon (they usually happen between 2 and 3, and I’m having real trouble shifting them at the moment), I read this interview with Heather Armstrong, creator of Dooce (with thanks to Marty for the reminder of the link, I used to read it a while ago when she lost her job, but had forgotten about it). Somehow, although I now can’t work out how (and therefore can’t link to it), those links also led me to an article in an American business magazine about the reasons why people blog, and some basic thoughts and principles behind blogs (eg unless there is absolutely no one you can think of who you DON’T want to read what you say, don’t say it, because people will always find things on the web these days).

It really got me thinking about the reasons for blogging, and whether by creating a blog and exposing my thoughts to the outside world, I was really doing myself, or anyone else, any good or if those thoughts should actually be confined to the mad washing machine spin cycle churn effect that is my brain these days.

The main reason for me setting up a blog was to see if I could do it (although Blogger is pretty elementary I have had to learn some new skills and a few bits of code to make it work like this), to keep in touch with friends who I don’t necessarily see very often and let them know what I’ve been up to, and to tie in with a Flickr site (which I haven’t actually got round to sorting out yet, but then as I haven’t got round to buying a digital camera yet either, the whole project isn’t quite ready yet, and the blogging has advanced without it!)

It’s part of a coping mechanism too. (I’m brewing a longer and separate post about that, but it’s not ready for public consumption yet). I used to keep a diary regularly, but I don’t any more, I stopped in my final year at Uni, although I’m not totally sure why, I just did. I’ve always found writing about what’s on my mind soothing, and despite following the ‘don’t say it if you don’t want people to read it rule,’ and therefore restricting what I say somewhat, I’m finding the blogging has the same effect.

It’s also giving me a chance to write and test whether I can retell the funny experiences which my drunken, accident prone life tends to generate in a humorous way. That seems to be going ok so far (I think!)

Now, I’m off to make that Flickr site I think… and decide which camera I’m going to spend my hard earned pennies on.

UPDATE: An hour later, I now have a Flickr site. You can find it here. The photos on there at the moment are kindly borrowed from Pete and Helen, and they are of our legendary trip to Dublin in May this year (where I earned more nicknames than I've ever had, including Get Em Out Griffiths and Gravity Griffiths).

Top of the Hill

Top of the Hill
Originally uploaded by Kate Griffiths.

This is a test to see if my newfound Flickr skills will transfer to my newfound(ish) Blog skills.

This is a random photo from the selection from Dublin I've just posted (credit to Pete and Helen again). Although, there's something a bit Pride and Prejudice about this photo, Na and Steve walking through the bushes in a slight wind. I like it. And it has lots of sea in it too, which I always like!

Rules and hairdryers

Last night I went to Rules, London's oldest restaurant, in Covent Garden. They do a great post theatre deal of two courses for £18, which is good value given that most of their main courses are more than that on their own. However, there was three problems with our master plan...

1. We'd not been to the theatre first, we'd been in the pub
2. We were therefore starving when we got there at 10pm, which is when the deal starts.
3. We decided to have an extra course (cheese) and that came with port

SO not a good plan on a Monday night. Rolled home at 1.30am (after the cab driver drove into the movable traffic bollard outside the flat) and passed out.

And then I had a very strange experience at 5.30am. I heard someone leave the flat, and thought 'ah, flatmate leaving for work early, back to sleep', but then I heard his alarm go off, and heard him switch it off. So who had left the flat? Next thing I know, whoever it was is coming back in the flat. By now I'm convinced it's a burglar (bear in mind I was almost certainly still drunk and therefore it was all a bit hazy). So, being the sensible girl I am, NOT, I grabbed my hairdryer in preparation for going in the hall and challenging said burglar. What on earth did I think I was going to be able to do with a hairdryer?!?!!??

A much sunnier day

I'm feeling a bit better today. I'm having a sort out at home, I'm going in to work to have a sort out there too... and yesterday I spent time with, and time chatting to, some very special people who did a very good job of cheering me up and making me realise that I'm lucky to have such great friends, and a great job.

Happy Sunday

:-(

Today is Black Friday.

Haven't got the pupillage I want, can't apply for the job I want, haven't got a man to spend my few free hours with, and various other things are going wrong.... and to top it off, I've now realised I've missed The Brief with the lovely Alan, and I forgot to set the Freeview magic technology to record it. Gutted all round.

In my 'Sunday Sunday' post, I resolved that I wasn't going to post when I'm drunk anymore... but Tania has encouraged me to continue, so here you go. I seem to be the only one of the "new Bloggers" ie Steve, Na and Tania who is blogging on a regular basis. Not currently sure why that is...

Maybe it's because I get more drunk, more often, and that generates more posts. It can't be because I am more bored at work, because I can't access this from work anymore (and I'm ridiculously busy and will therefore even be going in to work on Sunday!). But, maybe it's because I'm quite good at rambling, and no one who was interested is remaining interested anyway... If you're still here occasionally, let me know! As my boss observed accurately today, I don't stay down for long, so it's not all doom'n'gloom.

Disorientated

When I left work today, I was convinced that it was 8pm. Not too bad, I thought, hard day etc, still a reasonable amount of the evening left. So imagine how pleased I was when I sat down in the Chinese take away and saw that the clock said 8.10..... I'd suddenly gained an hour of my evening back!

Bit disorientating though. And that feeling was increased when I walked past the Muslim Community centre and smelt a particular type of incense, which I currently can't put my finger on the name of, which I always used to burn when I was a teenager. It bought back a lot of memories... I always used to burn it when I was shut away in my room trying to deal with whatever angst was going on at the time. I thought I had some spirited away here somewhere, which could help me deal with my current angst, but I can't find it. At the time, those traumas seemed like the end of the world. On reflection now, they were actually quite straightforward, and the traumas and complications of life as a mid-twenty something are infinitely more complex, confusing and need-for-incense-to-give-calm provoking.

Maybe I should nip back to the Community Centre and borrow some of theirs...

Bread, Cheese and Wine

Bread, Cheese and Wine. The food of the Gods. And a chance for me to try posting a picture. And what I'm currently eating (and drinking in the case of the wine of course!). It makes me happy.

Had a slightly better day today, with some pomp and circumstance this morning to remind us of the coolness of our jobs. Hard work though, and I still can't believe it's October already. I really don't feel like I've had a summer (apart, perhaps, from the long weekend I spent in Jersey). And now it's almost cold enough again to start wearing a coat. So not good. I want summer back sob sob.

Sunday Sunday

Ah... I really shouldn't post when I'm drunk (not a new observation that though). I think someone needs to invent a breathalyser which is linked to the computer, to stop me from even logging on when I've had a few too many (or, as was the case on Friday, a few too many far too quickly, red wine and champagne, what was I thinking!!)

Anyway, it was at least some form of stress relief at the end of a long and complicated week. Although I fear I'm about to have another one of those, which is why, despite the fact that I've had a lovely relaxing weekend, I'm now working at home. Grim though this is, it is motivated by a desire to get on top on my work (see my post about that), and has involved a small amount of hilarity. I've not got a great deal of desk space in my room, so finding room for a laptop and lots of papers etc has been difficult. I've now reached a happy improvised solution, by putting the laptop on a baking tin, on a cardboard box, on my set of steps, so that it can be close enough to the phone port and also close enough to my desktop computer to enable me to be able to work, MSN and blog at the same time!!

My evening has just been brightened as I write this though, because I've just seen an advert for Alan Davies' return in The Brief on Friday nights. Might be a slight issue because it is on on Fridays and I'm usually always out, but I'll have to put Stephen's new Freeview recorder box to the test to ensure that I can get my weekly intake of Alan and his great curvy legs. I finally found someone on Saturday night (Tania's friend Laura) who understands my curvy leg theory. At last.

Talking of Saturday night, we all had a great time at Moeker's gig at the Spitz (a great venue, and close to my roots in the East End). Marty played on a mini drum kit, and remains critical of his performance today. But, for what it's worth, I thought it was great. It helps that now we've all got the album, we know most of the words to the songs (although the new song was really good too). Although Dobbin wasn't in evidence. I think he'll have to make a return, along with the big kit with all the toys, at the next gig?!

And just to complete the weekend of East Endness... Na, Steve and I went for pie and mash for brunch! Fab.

If only weekends were three days long, I'd be completely happy today.