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 |   Originally efforts for the 30 Day Blogging Challenge in July... now just a blog |
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The 30 Day Blogging Challenge ..... lets see how far I get... Pretty far it seems! Winner (1st place) for the July 2013 "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  Second place for the September 2014 "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" |
| Once again, this post won’t be long. I have a lot to do. It is 10:30pm but I can’t imagine I’ll be going to bed any time soon. Today I have written 53 very short (and possibly very shit) poems for Chris’ scrapbook. I also collected lots of other bits to go with them. Poems written, I was just about to turn up the music and start cutting and sticking. But my best friend called asking for help with moving out of her house. Hence, I have a lot to do. It doesn’t help that, as of tomorrow, people will invade my home and space! My best friend attracts bad luck. Fact! I’m not sure how, but she is never without trouble – especially at Christmas. This year is no exception. I won’t go into detail, but I am very proud of her for (nearly) sorting everything out. The artist of my track today, would not normally feature on any play list of mine. Ever. But whenever my friend is having a really tough time, this artist’s songs will always be heard. Therefore, when this track came on the radio as I was driving to help my friend with her biggest challenge yet, I had no choice; I needed to include it today… [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| Tonight's blog is literally a flyer, for two reasons: 1. I feel like a mother at Christmas. You know, mothers that fly around getting everything done and no one really notices til it is done. Only, I am not a mother. I just have a husband and a temporarily homeless best friend. 2. Now that I've nearly finished Chris' present, I've decided it needs something extra. This extra thing will take up so much time than I actually have! Anyway, I'm drinking Baileys... Therefore... Its CHRRRRIIISSSSTTMAAAAAASSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| Until this morning, I had never heard today’s track before in my life. It made me smile, but that was about it. However, as today went on, it became more and more apt. I started my day trying to get some paperwork done. I needed a copy of our marriage certificate for something. Hmm… I looked for it for about and hour and a half. It was under the sofa! I have no idea why or how. I then needed to get some Christmas presents done. Most people are getting photos in frames. I’m not going to lie, this is because we had a free £70 Ikea voucher to use up. So, we’ve saved a fortune. But putting 18 photos in 18 frames was a bit tedious. To continue the theme of presents that require effort, I needed to do some work on Chris’ present. I’m making him a scrapbook of all our wedding cards. He is very sentimental and desparately wanted to keep them all. But we got so many, I could see them taking up space as they were. However, to do this, I’ve had to cut out all the messages and pictures. It has taken hours so far, and now I have to put it all together. At about 4pm, I got a bit fed up and poured myself a glass of wine (its okay, it’s Christmas!). I decided to make some mince pies, very quickly wishing I hadn’t. I have no idea what happened, but the pastry would not stop sticking to me. I definitely couldn’t roll it out. I literally just had to press it into the tray. It took forever! They looked horrendously bad when I put them in the oven. I thought they would never be edible, but I had to cook them to be able to get the bloody stuff out of the tray again… They’re not bad actually! Go figure! Therefore, based on the foundations of my day…. [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| I’m a little late with this post than I intended. I spent the day writing emails and sorting Christmas stuff out. I took a few bookings for January, which is always good. I’ve then spent the evening replying to/reading/clearing out my WDC emails. There were hundreds. Now there is just one – I’m very pleased. I feel much clearer. Tomorrow, I might hit the big one. My work email. It’s amazing how a tidy email can feel so good and positive. I’ll keep it brief tonight. Chris has just gone to bed and I seriously need to work on his Christmas present. I haven’t gone for the easy option: of course not! But I’ll explain about that at some other time. Today’s song is one that I’d forgotten about until this afternoon. I’ve been listening to Christmas albums/songs throughout this blogging challenge, and I am surprised that this hasn’t come up at all. Are people avoiding it these days? If so, why? War? *shrug* When my friend mentioned it as one of her favourites, I simply said “of course!” How could I forget this one? For some reason, the track reminds me of my father. Whether that is a good or bad thing, I’m really not sure. I have no clue why it reminds me of him. Perhaps it was his favourite and he played it to death? That sounds about right. [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] First verse & chorus: Hey, Mr. Churchill comes over here To say we're doing splendidly But it's very cold out here in the snow, Marching to win from the enemy Oh I say it's tough,I have had enough Can you stop the cavalry? I have had to fight, almost every night Down throughout these centuries That is when I say, oh yes yet again Can you stop the cavalry? Mary Bradley waits at home In the nuclear fall-out zone Wish I could be dancing now In the arms of the girl I love [Chorus:] Dub a dub a dumb dumb Dub a dub a dumb Dub a dumb dumb dub a dub Dub a dub a dumb Dub a dub a dumb dumb Dub a dub a dumb Dub a dumb dumb dub a dub Dub a dub a dumb Wish I was at home for Christmas Genius chorus by the way Did you know?: Jona Lewie told the Daily Express on March 12, 2005: "The soldier in the song is a bit like the eternal soldier at the Arc de Triomphe, but the song actually had nothing to do with Christmas when I wrote it. There is one line about him being on the front and missing his girlfriend: 'I wish I was at home for Christmas.' The record company picked up on that from a marketing perspective, and added a tubular bell. The song went to number three in the UK, and topped the charts in several European countries." |
| Good evening! I am technically off work now until January. But I think I have written more emails today than I have in the past two months. I am trying to catch everyone before they go off for Christmas, in the hope that I might bag myself some more work next year! Today’s Christmas track holds some resonance for me, I guess. I, in fact, got engaged last Christmas. No, the Christmas before. Oh, I don’t know! I got engaged one Christmas Day, at some point! Chris can’t keep a secret. So, I knew it was coming, I just didn’t know exactly how or when. I got up early that Christmas. I always get up pretty early because I always think I have a lot to do – even on Christmas day. Chris followed me down, not long after, which is odd for him. He had his advent calander with him, and here’s how the conversation went: Me: Morning! Merry Christmas! C: Hi. Would you like my Christmas Day chocolate? Me: Not right now ta. Maybe later. C: Oh, go on! Me: Nah – its only 7:30am. C: Just have the bloody chocolate!! Me: Sheeeesh alright! There was no chocolate! Just a ring… he proposed with an advent calendar. Not only was there no chocolate, but there was no Christmas present either. Just a ring (a pretty ring). All I got for Christmas was him; a husband who leaves socks everywhere… for the rest of my life!  [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| Good afternoon to all my lovely readers! I feel good today. This is helped by the fact that I have finally got round to replying to the person who told me I wasn't very good at one of the roles I hold. The reply I really wanted to send said, "I am a 29 year old, disabled, female! The average person in this role is a 62-year-old, non-disabled, male! I'm pretty impressive really dude"... But, obviously I didn't say that. I was polite and took on board their comments. Now, all I need to do is hit send! Anyway, to today's Christmas track! This song came on my computer earlier today and I was reminded of a journey I was on with Chris a few years ago. As usual, we were travelling to his parents house for Christmas. They live about 160 miles away, so it is a fair few hours worth of music. A few hours into the journey, today's song came on the radio. I love it, it is possibly my favourite Christmas track of all time. So, obviously, I turned up the volume! To my absolute horror, I heard Chris say, "oh god, I hate this song!"... I was gobsmacked! Is that even possible? I spent the whole of the rest of the journey questioning and asking him to justify his opinion! I am still not sure how he can be serious. Enjoy! [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| It is time for today's Christmas track. There are only seven left after today. I say only, but I'm actually not too sure what those seven tracks are going to be. Mind you, I definitely have one more lined up for sure. Today's Track inspired one of those "what the hell is this?" moments, which quickly led to me thinking, "this is so crap that I would be genuinely stupid not to include this is my Christmas soundtrack". Although, I can almost guarantee that you will all want to throw rotten fruit at me. Fair enough! It's awful! As I said yesterday, I spent the day with Chris. We had to go into town so he could do his theory driving test. Now, Cambridge is not a giant city but it sure does have a lot of cars and bikes. For some reason, as soon as December comes along, you can guarantee that all those cars will "need" to get into the town centre. So even though I only live 2 miles away from town, I think I spent about two and a half hours in the car. As we were trying to get out of the multi-storey car park, with people beeping their horns unnecessarily, this song came on the radio. It took me a little while to realise what I was hearing. Enjoy! [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| It is only day four of this blogging challenge, but so far I have changed my mind about which track to showcase each and every day. I did promise you all a more uplifting track today and I think I will deliver. I feel much brighter today. Thank goodness. I spent time with Chris, who took today off work. We don’t get much time together during the week, so it was nice. He took his driving theory test today and passed! He’s one step closer to driving. I also got to drive his brand new Golf GTI around all day. I cannot tell you how jealous I am of that car. Chris has now gone away for the weekend, so I have two days of uninterrupted peace. I do love time to myself, its good for me. He went to a wine tasting last night. He got too drunk to buy me nice wine but he did bring my back a bag of cheese and bread. As you do! So, I decided to start my weekend with a feast of nice bread, cheese, oil and vinegar, wine (supermarket crap) and chocolate hobnob biscuits. I am now suitably full. To go with my feast, I decided that it was Love Actually time. Love Actually is the only Christmas film I actively set out to watch. No Christmas is complete without me watching it one or two times. I remember seeing it at the cinema with my, then, best friend. Since then, I’ve probably seen it about 80 times. On that note, I present today’s track… [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] Love Actually facts…  The “Lake” that Lucia Moniz and Colin Firth jump into was actually only 18 inches deep. When filming, they had to walk on their knees and pretend they were swimming in deeper water. Unfortunately for Firth, the water was covered with mosquitoes. The actor was badly bitten, and had to seek medical attention for his elbow, which swelled to the size of an avocado. Emma Thompson had a hard time filming the scene where she holds up two Barbie dolls for her daughter’s friends Christmas presents. That’s because the dolls weren’t Barbie, but Ken dolls dressed in drag. |
| Unfortunately, yesterday’s song wasn’t very uplifting and I don’t think today’s will be, either. I swear tomorrow will be brighter. Today, I was a guest at an event held at my old school. It was odd to be somewhere that felt to familiar and filled with distant memories. I had to speak about my experiences and watch as young people learnt to be sports officials and volunteers. I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t the most exciting day – I prefer to be more hands on rather than merely an observer. Throughout the day, I spoke about my achievements and motivational tools with students and teachers, even through my non-existent lunch break. I wasn’t told what the organisers wanted me to do until 4pm yesterday, which annoyed me too. If I am honest, I can be rather modest and always surprised when people are impressed the things I've done. Today, more so I feel. On my way home, I was thinking how mad everyone was and questioning why I still held this position in society. I was, somewhat, annoyed by the fact that I am seemingly being thanked for doing a job that bored me. In a sense, I was unreasonably annoyed that this nonsense was being forced on me. Then, as I was nearing home, today’s song (well, the new version) came on the radio. Within the first few bars, I was sorry! I was sorry for moaning about earning a living in a pretty cool way, really. So what if I don’t get a lunch! So what if I need to work late sometimes to make sure people get what they deserve from me! So what if things that I am clearly far too complacent about impress people! Immediately, images were swimming through my head. I’m not talking about my imagination or images I’ve seen in the media. No, I’m talking about actual memories. Memories from when I lived in Africa. I’ve seen real poverty and illness first hand. I had friends who were grateful just to share my two-penny ice-pop; grateful for a roof over their heads. But they were, on the whole, happy. What do I have to moan about? I have a good job, I’m comfortable, my house is warm, I’ve got a great opportunity to inspire others, I have food, and I’m happy. Sometimes, we need to step back and think. Or, at least I do. I’m not preaching here, these are the genuine thoughts that came to mind when I heard this song… [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| Well, I had a pretty crappy day. Nothing really terrible happened it was just one of those days - you know the ones where you spend the entire day thinking, "what the hell am I doing?" I think I might be having an identity crisis at the moment. But I think that might be a subject for another blog Post. I also think that receiving an email telling me I'm not doing a very good job in one of my many roles didn't help matters. I know I'm not doing a very good job! I just wish I was - I always like to do everything well and if I can't, it really pisses me off. Anyway, this morning I went to work for a few hours - shock work! Then I was just going to come home And catch up on some emails. However, that did not happen! I stopped at the supermarket to get some lunch and suddenly found myself distracted by stationary - and you do! Well, as I do. I am a complete stationary addict. This shows by how carried away I got. I ended up buying tons of notebooks and things to use to tidy my desk.   You see, while I was in the shop, I suddenly decided that the world would be a much better place if I simply tidied my desk. You know, the one I don't really use. But, I thought, if I tidied it up, I would definitely be more likely to use it. Therefore, I might become better at the things I do. You can see my logic, right? As it happens, I am currently writing this at my desk. It worked! For now at least. So, I came home and sorted out the whole lot! My best friend has claimed my office as 'her bedroom' because it has a comfortable bed in it. But I really need to claim it as 'my room' - somewhere I feel comfortable and actually want to use. Today was a step towards that. I also needed to clear up around the sofa. When I broke my foot in early August, I sat on the sofa and didn't really move. I even did NaNo from there. So, as you can probably imagine, there was stacks of books, notebook, pens, Post-it notes... You name it, anything a writer might need, it was there. So, I bought it upstairs and tidied it away. Not before taking a photo to show you how much crap there was...  In case you are even remotely interested, I also took before and after photos of my desk efforts...   If you have got this far, you are probably sitting there wondering when the hell I will actually get to today's song and what any of this could possibly have to do with a Christmas soundtrack. I see your point, but I am getting there I swear. As I was tidying, I was listening to a bit of Sarah Mclachlan, which is not unusual for a down day. Having said that, I have not been listening to any music what so ever over the last year or so. It is only recently that I've found myself searching through Spotify. Anyway, yes, Sarah. Her Christmas album came on, which I have to say I haven't listened to much. I do feel that I need to stress that it was, indeed, a Christmas song on a album! It might not sound like it, but it really is. One song in particular came on that I, in the mood I was in, could relate to. Don't we all wish we could skate away from time to time? [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] Strange/sad fact about Sarah McLachlan: Faced a lawsuit in 1994 filed by an obsessed fan named Uwe Vandrei who claimed that his letters to her had been the basic idea of her hit single "Possession", but the lawsuit never came to trial as the man was later found dead because of suicide. (from aceshowbiz) |
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