Sunday 29 March 2009

Little Baker Girl

*dancing around the kitchen* I baked! I baked! I baked!

I seem to be going through this really strange phase at the moment whereby I appear to be enjoying mixing a bunch of ingredients together and producing something extremely sweet and unhealthily fabulous! *lol* It should probably be noted that although I have a degree which incorporated a huge amount of cooking etc, I'm rubbish in the kitchen. I usually use it purely for making coffee (I could rival Starbucks!) and making bowls of cereal. I'm such a non-cook that I actually didn't own a rolling pin or cookie cutters until last weekend when I decided to bake gingerbread men and oatmeal & coconut cookies. Then last week when I was off that random day I baked two loaves of gingerbread and a tray of Scottish vanilla tablet. It should be noted that I used the wrong type of butter in the tablet so it never set. But ho hum, the gingerbread was fab!! *yay*

Thursday 26 March 2009

If I had a Band and they had an Album...

I've noticed on Facebook that loads of my friends have been completing this little quiz and the results have interested me enough for me to say "I want to do that too". So I did. But not on Facebook. I decided to post it here.

If I were in a band and we wanted to design our first album, we'd rush straight to Facebook (obviously) and follow these trusty instructions:

1.) Go to "Wikipedia." Hit “random”. The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2.) Go to "Random quotations", http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3.) Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”. Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4.) Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

So here it is... Introducing my band, Palais de Reine's first ever album, 'Stop Fighting With Your Thoughts.' After much cynicism here is my album cover and I have to admit that yes, it looks pretty cool. =D Any ideas what else I could use this little quiz theory for?

Wednesday 25 March 2009

What to do with Myself

I decided to take a random day's annual leave so I'm off today. After getting up super early to take Derek to work, I had a doctor's appointment to go to. Sparing you all the biology lesson, I'd been having some weird tingling and numbness in my leg so I thought it best if I got it checked out. Bottom line (no pun intended) is that I have a trapped sciatic nerve; the big nerve that runs from the lower back right down to the toes. I'm not in any pain but it's weird losing some sensation in your thigh, you know? Anyway it's easily fixed by light exercise. Hmmm, just gotta find the motivation for doing that! *lol*

On a lighter note, I got a new mobile phone! It's a Nokia E71 (looks a lot like a blackberry) and I love it! LOVE IT! It's so sexy and professional looking. =D I feel like such a newbie though 'cos I can hardly use it! I've had Sony Ericssons for the past four years so even getting used to the new interface is like learning a new language. But hey, I'm sure I'll pick it up soon enough.

Ok so like I said I'm off today. I have the car so the world is my oyster. What to do? Where to go? I think I'll start by going to Morrisons for some ingredients so I can bake this afternoon. =) After that, who knows...

Saturday 21 March 2009

I <3 CR

As you all know I'm a Starbucks addict. LOVE IT! Been to Starbucks in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, New York, Jersey City, Toronto, Richmond... you get the idea. I'm addicted. It's like a comforter to me - you always know where you're at with a Starbucks. Now, I hold my hands up and say that I'm maybe not as loyal as I used to be because there's a lovely wee Caffe Nero around the corner from my office which I go to a lot, but I'm a Starbucks girl at heart. Well, very recently I discovered a contendor to the Seattle chain... in the form of Coffee Republic. Admittedly I've only been once for coffee so far, a skimmed vanilla latte, which although good confused me as it was served in a totally different shaped mug to the usual Starbucks form I'm used to. *lol* I know what you're thinking. What attracted me? Believe it or not it was something as simple as their logo. I *heart* CR. Now, I don't hear that very often...


Thursday 19 March 2009

Revitalised Thanks to Sleep

I feel very revived this week.

Sunday night was the first night in months I’ve managed to get a full eight hours sleep ‘cos Jazz didn’t waken me! =D I even managed it again last night! Yay! Seriously, having a cat is as hard as a baby at times (I’m guessing) ‘cos he can wake you up three times in the middle of the night. If he’s not clambering about on my pillow he’s pulling stuff off the bedside table and if he’s not doing that he’s purring right in my face. Thing is, you take one look at him and you cannot be angry with him, even though you reeeeeally want to be! Is this a face you can stay mad at? *awww*

This whole week's been good. I've been managing to get my early(ish) train every day and had lots of work to be getting on with so the days have gone quite fast. Plus the boss is keeping out my way so I can be extra productive! I feel like I've had loads of time to myself this week which is fab! Means I've been reading loads, playing Mario Kart loads (*lol* btw if any of you guys reading this have a Wii console number of Mario Kart licence number please let me know 'cos I only have one MK friend and he's never online!) done ironing, placed a huge Avon order and made a babygrow for yet another customer. On Monday night I felt totally energised - so much so that I ironed the mountain of clothes piling up in the spare room before spending a good hour straightening my hair. I can barely remember the last time it was straight – I can never be bothered and usually throw it back out the way. I couldn’t stop running my fingers through it on Tuesday ‘cos it was so silky soft! *lol* Let’s hope this productivity stays with me for the rest of the week!

Happy Birthday Louise!

Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday dear Louise,
Happy Birthday to You.

=D

Monday 16 March 2009

My Literary Dilemma

I just finished reading Sophie Kinsella’s latest book, Remember Me? It reminded me just how much I miss reading. When I was younger I used to read loads, and I mean loads! I must have read the entire Sweet Valley High and The Babysitters Club series’. Oh, and the Sweet Dreams series. I remember when they made SWH and TBS into TV shows – I was hooked! It was like a dream come true lol.

I see that Sophie Kinsella also writes as Madeleine Wickham in a whole other set of books. Since I’ve read all of her Shopaholic ones and the other SK ones she’s written I think it’s time I move on to MW. But I have a million books in the house to read first. What a dilemma lol.

Since we made the decision to move, I have packed up two boxes of stuff; one of extreme winter and summer clothes (scarves, gloves, bikini’s and shorts *lol*) and one of books. It’s not much, I realise that, but it’s a start. To give you an insight into my tastes, here are a selection of the books in my collection: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, Relentless by Simon Kernick, Marshmallows for Breakfast by Dorothy Koomson, Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes, The House at Riverton by Kate Morton and The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka.

Quite a variety! *lol* Oh btw, I decided what to read next: The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella. After that I've officially read all of her books. =)

Friday 13 March 2009

Random Fact of the Day

I guess it’s true: you do learn something new every day. Take today for instance. I went on to Wikipedia, clicked on random article and learned that Midtronden is a 6,759 ft high mountain with two peaks in the Rondane mountain range in Dovre, Oppland, Norway. Useless? Perhaps. But just think what would happen if I ever found myself on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and the question “Which mountain range is Midtronden part of?” I’d know the answer!! =D

But all joking aside, this got me thinking. How great would it be to teach yourself a new fact or word or literary titbit each and every day? Imagine how fast your knowledge bank would grow in just a matter of weeks! Imagine how vast it could be! When I was at high school I had to learn 20 new words of volabulary in French and Italian after every other class and I’m certain it paid off. So today I learned the Norwegian mountain fact. Plus I learned that in Norwegian “Midtronden is a mountain with two peaks in Oppland” is “Midtronder er eij Fjell med to toppar i Oppland.” How cool is that?? =D

Oh, and on a total tangent, I got the weirdest piece of mail today at work! I got a letter from an organisation called Cambridge Who’s Who claiming that I was “recently proposed as a biographical candidate to represent Lanarkshire in the 2009/2010 online Cambridge Who’s Who Registry among Executives and Professionals.” Sounds swanky! Apparently they think I’d make an interesting biographical subject. Hmmm… I’m sceptical. It all looks like a bit of a scam to me - a database of people with jobs who will probably end up having to pay for the priviledge of having their name on a website. Straight in the recycling it goes lol.

Thursday 12 March 2009

Welcome!

“The first step in getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.” [Benjamin Stein]

Welcome to my blog. I imagine that most of my readers are my friends and family so hi guys. =D Should you be a completely random person, unknown to me, who stumbled upon my little space on the internet, welcome. In any case, feel free to leave comments or e-mail me. It’s nice to know people are reading this. =)

You’re probably wondering what the quote at the top of the page is all about, right? Well I was looking for something inspirational but not too cheesy and while looking for inspiration I came across this. It just seems to fit my life right now. I ’m almost 29 and still feel almost as clueless as I did when I was 22 and had just graduated uni. I didn’t really know what I wanted then and not, seven years later, I still don’t really know. So recently I’ve been trying to decide what I really want out of life and the simple fact is that in order to get what I want, I first need to know what I want. That’s a given, right? Sounds easy? Ha! It’s not. I want the same as everyone else in that I want to be rich and successful, I want to be recognised, and I want to be happy and healthy (not necessarily in that order) but it’s easier said than done. One thing that I’m certain I want more than anything else is to be happy and I know exactly what will get that ball rolling… living in Edinburgh again. I appreciate that I began my married life in the West and in the past four years I’ve matured so much and developed and grown so much in myself that it’s hard not to feel an affinity with my current home. But I’m a capital city girl at heart and having lived in Glasgow for almost four years I’m ready to go home. I miss it so much. =( Last month we took the first steps in making that dream a reality… we put down a deposit on a house in Edinburgh. The missives have since been signed so there’s no going back!

Welcome to EH14.