Journal Entries
Memory Lane...
Posted Oct 19, 2012
I saw my very first crush today. Okay, maybe not my first, but the first that really made an impression. 
What's scary is, not only have I not seen this boy (man) for about 12 years, since the day he left our school for another, but he's been married for 7 years, has two sons and is about to qualify as a Minister.
And despite this, my silly, juvenile heart - knowing he was going to be in the practice, having seen his name in the diary - did flutter a little bit when he came in the door.
Isn't that sad? I just remember this guy as being lovely and sweet and kind and he was a good friend, who made me feel like a nice person, like I was worth something. We were never more than friends, and we'll probably never see each other again, but he was still the first guy I ever felt that way about.
I hope, one day, I meet someone like him again, someone who makes me feel like that and who, hopefully, I can make feel that way too.
I'm an old romantic at heart. 
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Latest reply: Oct 19, 2012
Celebrations, confrontations and specs...
Posted Aug 28, 2012
Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike doing holiday cover? In one respect it's great. More hours equals more money. Who doesn't like having a little extra cash at the end of the month to go towards bills or savings or indeed to keep out of the savings jar in order to treat oneself for a change - last months, my 3rd round of holiday cover and I finally treated myself, and bought a pair of curling tongs to try and tidy myself up without going to the hairdresser. Anyway, I won't complain too hard, the money is nice, I like knowing that I'm saving towards my future 
it just seems like there's someone off every two weeks at the moment!
It's actually been relatively quiet this time around, or at least until Saturday when not only was there a confrontation with a patient which has put everyone not only on edge but in a complete and utter panic, but the roof has begun leaking and needs replaced. So that's anywhere between £5,000 and £20,000 pounds depending on the damage. You can imagine how well that's gone down at work. I am relieved however there was someone living in the flat, had there not been it may have been left unnoticed and that would have been disastrous!
Typically, we had a celebration in amongst all this turmoil, my little sister turned 25 yesterday on the same day my grandmother turned 86. So a double birthday celebration all crammed into one day as panic about the week ahead re-emerged. Don't worry, little sis never minds a bit of turmoil on days she gets presents, cake and the chance to watch Jeremy Renner run around in the Bourne Legacy 
.
Oh, and I'm getting specs again! To be honest, I've never not had specs, mostly just for reading, but despite my optom being my dad, i haven't been tested in 9 years and it turns out I'm not only long sighted but I'm also now a little short sighted. So I am getting multifocals with prisms so I can wear them for reading and working and driving and hopefully he can fix my convergence problem. So I'm sitting here, typing to myself and the few people who may read this and switching between two of the pairs I've whittled the choice down too. Typically the ones I'd planned for, the ones I'd hidden in my room, I'm now not sure about. 
Sods law! xxx
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Latest reply: Aug 28, 2012
An entertaining morning...
Posted Aug 6, 2012
An entertaining morning was had by all in our household - bar my little sister who slept through it all.
I was woken up by the sound of chain saws.
Over the past few weeks the path down beside our house - known locally as Coffin Way - has been being widened and surfaced in order to allow the kids coming back and forward from the new school to walk back safely on proper pavements. Fair enough. So, they've been digging up things, trimming back trees and making a ruck-us all summer.
Today, as I said, I was woken up by chainsaws, being wielded by men who were cutting back three of our trees a good 6 foot up their trunks (they've also taken out all the elderflower, so next years cordial will be lacking). So I phoned my parents, seeing they had been promised this wouldn't happen and I didn't know what to do, who turned back from their trip out, gone from the house no more than 20 minutes, and told me to go out (in my pyjamas) to see what was going on.
To the guys credit, he was very nice, he wasn't aggressive or unpleasant, in fact he was apologetic and explained what was going on. He said that he was a subcontractor and that he had been told to do this by the council - who as I said had promised the trees, which are all in our garden's boundary wouldn't be touched. When I told him about where the official boundary is he was apologetic because the council hadn't told him that. The official boundary I should add is another metre or two outwith our garden, when the houses were built the builders couldn't be bothered trying to secure wire fences on the slope so just plonked it where the ground dropped away. So there is a stone marker to show this...we know this because a few years after we moved here, the council refused to remove the elms which had dutch elm disease because they were in our property, so us and our neighbours at the time paid for them to be taken down.
Anyway, the parents came home, dad talked to the guys, mum and I talked to a few of the neighbours on the other side, who are also not happy because their gardens are now going to flood because of the path and undergrowth being cut back - it used to be quite swampy over there and the ground at the path and foliage helped to suck up the water. Dad has also talked to the man at the council he'd spoken to before and complained. And someone official seems to have already been down there.
But it's done, and the garden/house is now exposed to anyone walking along the path, and the next stage is cutting into the embankment by 1 metre which will then probably make said shallow rooting conifers so unstable that they'll need to be taken down or they'll smash into the very nice neighbour across the ways fence and shed the next time we have a high wind.
This neighbour also said that they've been having problems with teenagers gathering and drinking behind their fence and have noticed the increased traffic of kids on bikes, skateboards, mopeds etc belting up and down the new path since it's laying and there is also some 40 yr old moron who drives a petrol fuelled toy car up an down there at 30 miles an hour on a regular basis which not only makes a hideous noise, but is dangerous.
In some respects, we've all had a very British reaction to it and it's nice to see that the other neighbours are also unhappy.
Anyway, rant about the lying local council, the workers have gone and it's started to rain heavily, so now we just have to pray that those trees don't come crashing down - one did a year ago, luckily missing the neighbours fence. A blackbird was not so lucky.
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Latest reply: Aug 6, 2012
At the bottom of everything is a paper reef...
Posted Jun 28, 2012
Over the past three or four weeks my mum, my little sister and I have been working on the new window display for work. Which I think has probably secured itself not only as our favourite but as a means of truly showing that I am considered a complete weirdo at the local supermarket.
Mum had been wanting to do an underwater window for years, and once we introduced her to Pinterest, it was set firm in her mind that the next window we were going to do was a reef, so here we are. We put it in on Saturday/Sunday and it has taken about 1,800 cocktail sticks, 2,400 cotton buds, 6+ papers, 2 pads of tracing paper, a dozen candles and 200 odd cupcake cases, but here we are, our very own paper reef.
Photos are on my blog:
http://snowinateapot.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/at-bottom-of-everything.html
And no this isn't blatant self advertisement for my blog - what would the point be in that, only 63 people read it and I think most of them probably don't - it is just me being proud of a window display I loved making. And I did, I haven't had this much fun making a window display in months because normally the obsessive quality that means I get it finished on time, involves a small breakdown in the middle, but this one I really wanted to keep making things! Maybe it's because the internet as a means of unwinding has kind of lost its lustre since I started staring at a computer for most of my day at work or maybe it's me getting my making mojo back, but whichever it is, it was a nice feeling. 
Just got to do a few more tweaks to get it finished at one side. Off to do that today, and make strawberry jam, having made raspberry jam and elderflower cordial on Tuesday. Between glue and preserves I've spent a lot of this month with sticky hands.
Em x
PS: wonder if there are any babelfish 
lurking in the reef?
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Latest reply: Jun 28, 2012
Happy Birthday Part II
Posted Jun 1, 2012
27 now...officially on the wrong side of my twenties! And actually feel okay! :D
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Latest reply: Jun 1, 2012
Emily...overly fond of the ellipsis...and top ten lists...submit yours @ A87824361...
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