Tomorrow, Saturday, I will be off to Jersey, ,
to spend with M's lovely family.


There will be and quite a lot of and

and probably too many .


but i will be to in front of with and .


Despite LG's , we're not likely to get any .
Its a rare event in the .
On the very odd occasions when it does the island goes into a panic.
Just a few will persuade people to stay at and cause them to take , such as buying up irrational amounts of

and fitting to their .

Snow would be rather nice - and who wouldn't want to make a ?
but I hope to do some with my,

especially along the


Going for long is a good way to escape the .

This is especially important when Eastenders is on

with its Christmas menu of

.




It makes me want to .





I may not get much access to a while I am away.

An IT will be quite nice actually, and I look forward to

and .

I an animated for
but the only moving knitting pictures i could find were .





Bah !



So bye bye for a while lovely bloggers, seasonal wotsits and all best wishes to all of you. Hoping for a more just and peaceful 2009 and for happiness for all of us.





Animations from: www.gifs.net
http://www.animated-gifs.eu/leisure.htm
http://www.webdeveloper.com/animations/
http://web.piczo.com

IT trouble

computer update: i don't know if this supports the "female trouble" theory (though of course, Reya, you are right) but its the Logic Board on my beloved computer which has gone doolally.

and which would cost more to fix than the cost of a new computer.

:-[

so i'm currently slumming on LG's computer, once my very own but nearly 10 years old and SO SLOOOOOOW

and now I'm used to better things, I think i shall have to save up £££...




so

frrrt
a-bvvvvvrrrrfff
piffle
bbbrrrrtt
thpppppppppptttttt
b p b b p b p h h h
pwwwwfffffft
pbthththt
bood bood
broink
poot


to that


(fortunately I have my christmas blog post prepared already, all-but covered in sticky-backed-plastic, ready to post sometime soon....)

tecchie

Street art in/around Brick Lane, London


My computer is going into the shop tomorrow.

It is very reluctant to wake up these days, rather like me. Once it is powered up, everything is functioning just fine, but it takes quite a while and rather a lot of pressings of the button. And unpluggings. And plugging in-agains, sometimes with the "on" switch held in. Sometimes not.

Pressing Ctrl, Alt and Delete doesn't seem to help.

A certain amount of nonchalance and starting to use LG's computer instead do sometimes seem to help.


This is the latest and most upsetting of a series of technological playings-up where machines which perform perfectly for M are recalcitrant for me.

This was M's computer until a few months ago, and he had no trouble with it, no not ever, not even of any kind.

We joke, in our house, that this is some kind of incompatibility of female hormones and technology. After all, many cultures have seen menstruation as having the power to kill crops in the fields or curdle sauce in the kitchen.

I'm not convinced its a funny joke.
Depending on what time of the month it is.


So bye bye dear computer, for a while. Hopefully not for too long.

I hope the nice Apple Mac people sort you out quickly and don't charge us too many ££££.

breathe

graffiti in Williamsburg, NYC

I keep having to remind myself of the need to just breathe.

And just look

and feel

and appreciate



most of the things which need doing will be done
most of them in time

and some of them really don't matter that much after all


and changes at work which have been worrying me will be resolved
one way
or another

and it will be okay
one way
or another


And in the meantime, there is so much in life to enjoy and appreciate
if i can just remember to breathe

and look

and feel

and appreciate.




Looking for all the world as if it was breathing on Friday night, here is one of the Trafalgar Square lions:




and here is a glimpse of some of the other Trafalgar Square life:

onomatopoeia

tch

aaarggghhh

pffttttt

woaaahhh

boo hoo

ssshhh

phew

phwoah

whoop

bah

oooooo

meh

zzzzzzz

wheeeeeeeeee

blahblahblah

hah!

teehee

doh

huh?

eek

poo

awwwww

bleah

mmmmmm

tut

grrrrr

yuck

errrmm

woohoo

hmmm




did i miss any?


what i really really want, tho, is a combination of letters which will communicate the blowing of a raspberry.

any offers?




I am having intermittent computer troubles *raspberry blowing* so please forgive me if I am a bit sporadic in my commenting...

closed

Cundy's ex-Tavern, Silvertown, London

I take quite a few photos of pubs which are now closed - ie, shut down, closed for good, gone forever.

It started with pictures of particularly interestingly abandoned or derelict buildings - like this one:


the ex-Victoria, Charlton, London.

the back of which looks like this:



Its hard to imagine this one not remaining closed.



This photographic habit of mine has grown in the light of what seems to be a trend - the demise of the great British local.


the ex-crown & shuttle, just off Brick Lane, London



the Village Blacksmith, Charlton, London & the Mitre, Islington, London.



The Prince of Orange, Ipswich

As my collection of photos grew, I even thought of starting a Flickr group. Only to discover - of course! - that there is already more than one group devoted to this theme.


the ex-Thames, Greenwich & "Safa House" (don't know what it was as a pub) Deptford.



This (below) is a pub we sometimes used to visit in school lunch breaks. No, not to drink - they used to do market research on ice-cream - free ice cream, in return for evaluation of the relative creaminess, tastiness .. of various samples.


The ex-Rising Sun, Catford, London




The ex-George, Catford & The ex-Green Man, Bromley - both London




The ex-Old Friends, Greenwich


Fear ye not, however.
There is still an abundance of pubs in old Blighty, many of them good and should any of you ever visit, I would be more than happy to buy you a drink in one of them.


More happily 'Closed' - my bureau.

this fairly recent post has a picture of the heaps of assorted "stuff" which used to make the bureau un-shuttable and the drawers inaccessible.

And here it is now, after lots of sorting and lots of filing and lots and lots and lots of shredding




I read/heard somewhere that we in the UK have more shredders per capita than anywhere else in Europe. I wonder what that says about us.

When I'm finished working at my newly spacious bureau, or writing, or sitting and feeling smug - I can close it like this:




I am very pleased with myself.

does that mean i need to get out more?