Fifteen to One

I sit in an open plan office with a lot of people that don't work for the same company as me let alone the same department as me, and so annoyingly I can't tell any of those people to shut up when they talk so loudly! And there are a lot of them, I know so much about some people that I've never even said more than a hello to. There is one bloke that I notice talking a lot, probably because he sits fairly near to me, and probably because he does talk a lot and loudly. But the main reason I notice him talking is that he sounds exactly like William G Stewart, the presenter of Fifteen to One.

So now everytime I hear him, all I can think is "Question or Nominate?"

Heat

I've finally given in and put the heating on for more than an hour and it's great! It's warm and cosy and a lovely place to be. Now why didn't I do this weeks ago?!

Fruit Salad Berthdays

It was my friend's birthday on Wednesday and as she's a school teacher and spends the day with 6 year olds she planned a Fruit Salad Day. Now why don't I get to do things like this during the day! The day before they had to draw their fruit bowls and plan what fruit they were going to put in them and so that she knew what fruit to buy so that on Wednesday they spent the whole day cutting up fruit arranging it in their bowls and then eating it! I'm going to suggest this at work!

For the time in between making fruit salad they had some free time so they sat at the craft table and knowing that it was her birthday most of them made her a card. Some of them were so cute! As they are still in the early years of school they've been taught different word sounds and how there are different spellings for the same sounds. They've not really got as far as knowing exactly which ones to use yet so my favourite card read "Happy Berthday Miss Larner, I hoap you have a good berthday"!

I think that was better than the letter I had in at work on the same day, from someone a lot older than 6 years old, which I will give full marks for consistency but was amazed at the spelling of Cud and Cuddent (for Could and Couldn't in case you hadn't guessed!).

Another Change of Route

Thankfully not the scale of changes that I had last week to Glasgow but instead of the planned driving miles to Sally's this weekend I ended up having to add in a trip to Swindon before hand. So the driving miles were reduced 86 with just the trip to Mum & Dad's for amazing praise, while the train miles increased by approx 600. I usually take the train via London for Swindon as it is quicker than the cross country route which meant that I could get a lift across to Southampton Airport on Friday and just had to get a train ticket from Southampton to Reading on the Monday to be able to use my return ticket that I had from work. So it cost me £7 to have a weekend in Southampton - must plan it that way again!

The weekend was lovely, Alicia came over from Bristol on Friday night so that we could have an early start at the Bridal shop on Saturday morning looking at bridesmaid dresses. We had seen a dress that we liked already (and bought already) but we wanted to check that there wasn't going to be anything that we preferred at the shop. It turns out there wasn't, and we've decided on the ones that we already have, which I'm very pleased about because I love it! Looking forward to getting to wear it for the day, just need to find some shoes to go with it that won't cause me too much pain.

Amazing Praise

It turns out I can still play the Cello, just. After getting the music last weekend, 6 days before the concert I didn't have much time to practice this week - and then on some days couldn't seem to raise enough energy to try. So Friday night I spent 2 hours with Mum going through all the music. I don't think we did too badly but it was useful to play things at roughly the right speeds and figure out which parts I wouldn't be able to get no matter how much we practiced. I picked out one in four notes that I knew I'd be able to play in some sections and wrote in the names and fingering for the notes in other parts!

Thankfully there were two other Cellos that came to the practice and concert on Saturday so I managed to claim the second desk, nicely hidden away behind the harp. The concert seemed to go well, everyone said that they enjoyed it and the main thing is no one seemed to notice that I hadn't been playing exactly the right notes in some parts! There were some lovely pieces of music, my favourite being Gabriel's Oboe which I think I'll have to find a recording of somewhere.

Now that I've made it through the concert again maybe I'll stick with playing and find somewhere in York to carry on, or maybe it will be the same as last year and it will stay at the back of the cupboard for another year!

Change of Route

I made it to Glasgow this week for work but not without a minor diversion. As there was industrial action by the Scottish Signallers last week my journey to Glasgow took a slightly different route. I should have gone direct from York to Motherwell but checking the rail timetable on Tuesday night I found that train had been cancelled so I had three alternatives written down for me to pick from.

It was a very early start and after the alarm went off at 5.30am, I had a taxi come to pick me up at 6am - being the over cautious person that I am I was then at the train station half an hour early! In the end I decided to go for the journey with the most changes but the shortest travelling time, even though this was still an hour and a half longer than my original journey. So at 6.37am I got on the train and an hour later got off in Newcastle, I had half an hour to wait so I had breakfast at the station (discount with a Network Rail card comes in useful!). The next train was the longest of the journey - 90 mins from Newcastle to Carlisle. Unfortunately it was also the most uncomfortable train. It was one carriage and even for my short legs there was not enough leg room, somehow I did manage to fall asleep though, only to be woken up by a very loud Newcastle pensioner telling stories of her family.

From Carlisle I ran from one side of the station to the other in time to get straight on the next train to Motherwell. Unfortunately from there I felt the full effects of the strikes when I got to Motherwell asked when the next train was to Blantyre and they looked at me quite blankly and just said 'None'. Not particularly helpful for an information desk, then they offered 'Bus?'. Thankfully I had already warned my colleagues of the problems and they were already prepared to come and collect me if needed.

The journey home was much more straight forward, although no train from Blantyre to Motherwell still, I did go to Glasgow and from there direct to York. For someone who doesn't like trains, I think I'm getting the hang of this now!

Travelling

Mum complained that I hadn't blogged about anything for two weeks so I'm going to do a quick recap of the things I've done in that time.

I've driven 382 miles
- From York to Preston for work.
- From York to Manchester for Charlie's birthday - a lovely 2 days of mooching, shopping, walking, eating, drinking tea and admiring the new piano.
- From York to Kirklevington for another lovely weekend with Mum & Dad of eating (for Dad's birthday), shopping, reading and sleeping.

I've travelled approx 680 miles by train
- From York to Swindon via London Kings Cross for work.
- From York to Doncaster (twice) for work.

I've walked 34 miles
- From 7 days of walking to and from work.

In the next two weeks I should travel -
34 miles walking to and from work
400 miles on the train to Glasgow for work
600 miles driving to Mum & Dad's next weekend and Sal's the weekend after.

And during that time I will
- Be learning how to play the Cello again in time for next Saturday's Amazing Praise concert, having not played at all since December.
- Trying to find a place to hide the lovely chocolates that are tempting me to eat them so that when I get to Sal's in two weeks I fit into the lovely bridesmaid dresses.
- Get myself to Tesco because I've not had decent food in the house for two weeks.
- Clean the house, which desperately needs it and finally
- Throwing away the perfurme that felt like it had burned my neck this morning and has left it red and swollen.