"These Are The Day-hays Of Noah"

A well known UK worship song tune, nicked by me and re-written to describe this week generally speaking...

These Are The Day-hays Of Noah

These are the day-hays of Noah, but not in the way you might think;
For Britain was always an island, but now we're close to the drink;
Oh these are the days of great rainfall, of flooding and water extreme;
And we are the people caught up in it, we are the ones you hear scream:

"Behold it comes! pouring from the sky! not a bird in sight, theyre clever enough to hide! Lift your brolly, it's the year of sipping tea, to try to warm us up, and console our soaking feet!"

These are the day-hays of Noah, H20 being restored;
And these are the days of endless precipitation, making our britishness raw;
Oh these are the days of great brollys, so big they can cut off your head;
And these are the days of the great big wussy's, deciding they'll bunk off work instead;

"Behold it comes! pouring from the sjy! not a bird in sight, they're clever enough to hide! Lift your brolly, it's the year of sipping tea, to try to warm us up, and console our soaking feet!"

I thank you.

Thos brits out there may hum this tune all day in your head if you so wish.

Apologies.

I'm aware I haven't blogged for a while. I'm having a bit of a mare at the moment, work is just stupidly stupidly busy, and I have a ton of projects/reports/stuff to do and a petty petty beast of a man as my manager.

I'm pretty peed off at the moment, so my apologies but I can't blog until these next few days are over and my mood has changed significantly.

Subway Challenge!!

Ok, can I eat the rest of my footlong Veggie Delight in the 6 minutes left of my lunch hour?!

You bet I can.

:p

Old Things!!

I have a new myspace that eventually will have some of my own acoustic music on it.

For now, because I'm struggling to find the time to use my sister's mac, and because I haven't quite got to recording everything yet, I've put two tracks from my old band, one sung by me after our lead vocalist baz left (2000 years) and one sung by Baz, our original vocalist. (Blurred)

Both songs were written by me and you may mock... er I mean listen to your heart's content!"

I plan to do acoustic versions of them soon to put on, but for now, it's the old stuff!!

My new myspace is here, please bear in mind a couple of things as you listen:

1. This was at least ten years ago!
2. We were a rock band
3. Although we used very good equipment to record, it was all done in our church hall!
4. I have been training my voice since then, so now ten years later can sing better than it sounds there lol
5. The other track Baz sings may not have loaded yet, as it was big! (and he did have a better voice than me then, though ten years on I think I could give him a run for his money!)
6. Both songs take a while to load as they're big files!

Ok. That's all the disclaimers I can think of at the moment!!

:p

Well, It's happened!

My 'little' sister is 25 today.

I feel so old!!!!

Bah.

Day Off? - Not Likely!!

Well today is officially known as my day off, but I plan on it being quiet productive.

I have already been successful in that I managed to get up at 9:10 am, and get showered and dressed in time to get the train in to town for my Optician's Appointment at 11. I had the weird experience of entering a world of blurry fuzzy shapes since I woke up this morning, because of a mistake my Optician made on an earlier visit. *sigh* I'll explain...

About a week ago, one of those tiny little screw that holds your glasses together, and both lenses in place at each end fell out, thus causing on e of the lenses in the frame to subsequently fall out. This would normally not be a major problem, as I can normally find the screw and borrow one of those tiny screwdrivers specially made for glasses and suchlike off my parents.

Unfortunately in this case I could not find where the darned screw had fallen, and after much searching I gave up, and resigned myself to the fact I wasn't going to find it and a trip to the Optician's was in order. I put my contact lenses in and went to work...

That day in work (Tuesday this week) I went to the Optician's and explained what had happenned to the frame, holding out the source of my problem, the offending lens that had fallen out. The optician said "wait her one minute, that's no problem". Unfortunately for her, as she was walking over to another counter to re-affix the lens, she dropped it.

(N.B, one thing you should know about me. I have VERY bad eyesight, and have to have specially made prescription lenses; because of this, they have to be made out of glass, not plastic.)

This being the case, when she dropped the lens, it immediately hit the tiled floor, and.... you guessed it.

It shattered into a thousand tiny pieces.

She lokoed at me with the kind of expression I can only think would be the same expression a deer would maybe have when it was illuminated in the headlights of an oncoming car, just before it was dealt a fatal blow.

She profusely apologised and said she would get a replacement lens straightaway. I smiled, knowing they would have to send off for it, because it what's known as a "complex" prescription. Good to know I have "complex" eyes eh? ;) Anyway I digress....

She confirmed they'd have to send off for a new one to be made, and said they would pay for it, which was good of them considered I'd come in with glasses that needed repairing and ended leaving with no glasses at all!!

Anyway, that brings me right back to my world of fuzziness today. I had an eye examination today, and for those, you can't wear contact lenses beforehand, and obviously not during, otherwise it would be absolutely useless for working out what prescription you need!! So I had to wake up this morning and wander around in a blurred state, get the train in and back from town all in this crazy world of vaguely defined shapes and colours!!

Thankfully, my test results were positive! My stigmatism in my left eye has decreased, partially thanks to the Gas Permeable lenses I wear apparently! My eyesight is better than it was a year and a half ago, which someone with MS is always pleased to hear; and my eye general health is excellent :p

So I returned from town to find an empty house as my sister has gone out and my mum and dad are away in Belfast till monday morning! As soon as I returned I put my lenses in, and was delighted with the power of being able to see again!! I read blogs for a while, and then carried on reading which I've not done much lately and am really enjoying getting back into. (actually "diving back into headfirst" is probably a better description!)

I started a book yesterday, and have read 160 pages and am halfway through already!! I'm really enjoying it!

Anyway, back on to the subject of my day off!!

After reading 100 pages in about an hour and a half, I've decided to take a break and once and for all tidy my bookshelf and room!! I'm also planning to cook, as the house is empty and no-one can laugh at me... (hehe!) I'm going out shortly to buy the ingredients and hopefully later will have cooked three completely different and unrelated dishes: Basil and Tomato Soup, Mushroom Pie, and Chilli Potato Burritos!!

I am off to tidy now... wish me luck!! :p

A Post Of Links...

Today I am extremely STRESSED.



Why? you may ask.



Well, this has been a very busy week in work, and I have had lots to do with very little staff.



In a week and a half's time I have our July Stocktake, in which we have to count everything in the shop, and we also have a massive recall to do, which I am in the middle of, and to top it all, last night I didn't get in till 10:45pm as we had a booksigning/lecture of Jonathan Aitken's new book on John Newton.

Today I have come in, and there's only a member of staff and myself in all day.

I have tons and tons of things to do.

I have been drinking this, and eating this (all butter shortbread rounds) to aid me in battling my stress levels.

It's unfortunately not worked so far.

I've just ploughed through serving a massive queue while Linda went to the bank, and am now sitting down to vegetate for 45 mins in a quiet dark room.

*cries*

Oh Happy Day!!!

Sorry I know it's a bit irreverant considering the subject of the song, but I am very happy today!!

Here's why:

• The Bank Charges I won have just been paid into my bank and I'm approx £3800 richer than I was yesterday!!
• When I rang up to pay off my debts, I had paid off more than I thought over the last couple of months, and one company had written off half of my debt already!!
• I have just paid my best friends who loaned me a large amount of money a few years ago, and who I'll never forget for what they did :-)
• I've just opened a savings account and put £800 quid in!!
• I've just booked my flights to visit margo at the end of Aug for two weeks!!!!!
• It's my day off today, and I've just decided to go to the Cinema

I'm just so happy and relieved!!

It's great to be out of debt, God is so good!

:-)

The Difference Between Men & Women: 2 Examples!!

Ok I know I'm hugely generalizing here, but most of us will know about this book.

Well although I don't agree with all of it, here are two examples that made me giggle this week in work. Both give the best of the opposite sex, and show the inferiority / weaknesses / ridiculousness of the other!!

1. A couple comes in to the shop, gets some books and goes to the till to purchase them. After purchasing them, the woman asks us for some directions to a part of the coast near here, about 7 miles away. Then ensues an argument between Val & Linda (both drivers) about the best way to get there from the city centre. The argument is about to turn nasty, as they both live opposite ends of Liverpool, when Jm (the non-driver) hands the lady a planned route printed out from the internet off of the AA route planner website that he loaded up while they were both arguing... Woman accepts the printout of directions gratefully and laughs noting that while the two ladies were arguing, i went and researched and printed them out and makes a comment about the difference between men and women lol! Her husband adds "I'm not gonna comment on that statement she made, and I reccomend for your general wellbeing the rest of the day, you shouldn't either" rofl!!
2. Jm has a customer on the phone whos rung up asking for presentation labels for a prizegiving, and has to get out and describe all 12 different designs we have in the drawer . Jm is struggling at this point and says something like "Right... well er... one has like flowers around it and theyre all different colors on the side and the top, but not in the middle bit of the label... er.... um..." (Val sees Jm struggling and says quite loudly so the lady can hear at the other end of the phone) "what he means is, it's a floral border". Lady on the other end of the phone says "oh yes! I'll have some of them please!" Jm sighs with relief!

haha both of these situations made me laugh a lot yesterday!

More Changes Maybe?!

Today completely out of character, I asked for an application form for a job I saw advertised. It's a post for a full time youth/schools worker with a well known national Christian organisation, and even the wage is higher than what I'm on as a Deputy Manager of a shop!! The starting date would be in September, and it's very close to where I live, so it's ideal really.

The closing date is Friday, but the lady I spoke to said they will extend the date because they'd have to post the application form out today!!

I'll receive it tommorrow, so will have to fill in the form straightaway tommorrow night and post it off the next day!! It'll be a bit of a quick turnaround but never mind!!

Let's wait and see!!

:p

The Great Deoderant Hunt!!

You know one of those mornings when you haven't put your contact lenses in yet, but you can't wear your glasses cos a screw fell out yesterday and now one lens has completely fallen out, and you're running late and you strain your eyes peering into the murky blurredness that is your room looking for where you put your deoderant yesterday?!

*sigh*

Yeh well, I'm having that kinda day!!

Eh?!

Does anyone know what's happening with DJ's Blog?!

It asks me for a password and nickname when i want to go to it?

Has he had some trouble lately?

If someone could let me know, thanks.

The Power Of Music!!

Well, it's been an interesting day so far in work.

It's been deadly quiet, and I've been getting on with a list of jobs I usually dread this time of year. To explain, we have a stocktake twice a year, in which we count ALL the stock in the shop, and then Andrew (my boss) and I balance the figures against what our stock levels are supposed to be, and see whether we're on budget, etc.

It's a lot of work, and we have to stay open during the stocktake, so it usually takes us most of the day, even with all 8 staff members in at the same time!! Andrew is very organised about it all, and has stock sheets for each section of the shop, and we work in teams of two, one staff memeber calling out prices as they go along each shelf, and the other person typing them in to an add-machine. (electronic prinnting calculator thingy for the technical people out there!! :p)

We do some pre-counting before the actual stocktake day, just to dave us some time. One of the jobs that needs to be done each year is to go through every shelf in the shop, pulling off stock that is 18 months older or more, and add-listing it and marking it down for the Summer Sale. I've been doing that this morning, and it's a very boring job, but lot's of concentration is required, as you're going through each shelf, looking at the dates on the price labels, and taking off anything 18 months or older.

So, to make a long story short, I put on a CD that we've recently got in, it's completely instrumental, and is an orchestra doing instrumental arrangements of well known hymns and worship songs. I thought I would need what I call "civilised music" to help me concentrate you see. Well, it worked!! By the time I started my lunch I had gone through the whole of one wall of the shop taking off older stock and putting it on the back counter to add-list later!!

I really like the CD, it's very relaxing, and because the shop was quiet, i sat cross-legged on the floor when I was checking the lower shelves, and it was very peaceful.

It's sometimes nice to give yourself a job like that, because it makes you concentrate and takes your mind off all your other thoughts and other people, and just lets it go blank and into "work mode" for a while!! It's sometimes nice to do that, especially if you're a person like me who thinks all the time, and finds it hard to just stop thinking and pondering things.

Who'dve thought that by working i find some rest for a few hours?! that's surely a paradox!!

Blogging Under Duress!!

Ok this is a quick blog under duress, enforced by the Blog Police...

It is Monday at 7:22p.m, and it has been 75 degrees all day. I have spent all day sweating in the shop, and would really like a cold shower about right now. I have finnaly stopped sweating and am changed into nice fresh clean clothes. I am currently wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but am seriously considering stripping down to my boxies as it would be a lot cooler.

Probably not though, I don't want to give my neighbours on the other side of the Railway Embankment a fright through my window.

I'm sending a letter off to a solicitors tommorrow. It has come to my attention that various people may have mis-interpreted my previous post, so I would like to clarify the situation...

The good news I had yesterday was that my bank is willing to settle out of court for my bank charges claim, but I can't go into details at all otherwise it would make the settlement null and void. I can't even say which bank it is, or the amount or anything. It is I can tell you a fairly significant amount, which will get me out of debt, and let me afford to fly to the states and meet margo and stay with her family on the first proper holiday I've had in about 3 or 4 years!!

It also means from next month, for the first time in about 5 years, I'll be getting 3/4's of my full wage each month, so I can start saving now!! :-) £500 better off a month is nothing to sniff at!!

That was my good news.

So I'm sending the letter back tommorrow with my signature on it to the banks solicitors, and they are gonna credit my account with the money by the end of the month.

I'm unbelievably shocked that I've won and am very very pleased at the moment, not just because I've won, but for various other reasons as well...

;)

That's all for now folks...