Tuesday, 16 July 2013

Day 166 - Cast

 

16th June 2013

So...this happened.

After a day of being careful with my wrist I took off the tubigrip supporting it and thought "oh..that looks a bit swollen now". Having got myself a ridiculous injury earlier in the year I tried looking up what time the non emergency centre was open at Hammersmith. The internet didn't seem to yield any answers, so I gave NHS Direct a call, they'd directed me there before, maybe they would again. 

A short time later I was walking back into the front room and saying to Tom and Naomi "Apparently I need to go to A&E." Sigh. So I did. After was was in reality not an overly long wait, but one that for me lasted an eternity as I was sat next to four of these so-called 'teenagers' who are definitely all that is wrong with the world ever. 

I was x-rayed and first told that everything was ok, I had a sprain, and they were going to get my a splint. Phew. Then they appeared back again and were now not 100% certain that a line they could see was not a fracture. Which meant me going into a backslab...aka, plaster on the back of my hand, running from the middle of my fingers to a few inches before my elbow, all wrapped up and in a sling. 

I'd never been in plaster before, no one in my family had for as long as I could remember at least. I had no idea what to expect, if I had known I would have been full of the glumness of a glumling. I had it on until I could get an appointment at the fracture clinic, which turned out to be two weeks later. 

Here I am, returned to the flat, tired and mildly grumpy. 




This is my main reason for my absence. Typing was long and boring with one hand. Taking photos left handed was not easy, and whilst I did use my camera I would often revert to my phone as it has the handy characteristic of being easy to hold with one hand. Where do they come up with these things? It's as if they know.

Stephie

xxx

Day 165 - Bex's Birthday part ii



 

15th June 2013

For Bex's official celebrations, she is so much like the queen in many ways, we went on a treasure hunt. Text clues were sent to her phone, and we scurried over the place finding our answers. On a sunnier day this would have been perfectly lovely. However it was an exceedingly rainy day, so we were forced to seek shelter in a pub for awhile. Ah well, these things, they happen.

I had to depart from the hunt earlier than I really wanted to as I had to get home, throw new clothes on and head back out. To celebrate Shreena and Krishna's last time in London before he steals her away and imprisons her in Texas, we were off bowling and to a 90s vs 80s night. The last time we had been at this night it had been off the wall BRILLIANT, and I was looking forward to repeating it. 

As I was still injured and not wishing to inflict further damage on my hand, I was bowling left handed. My first ball was much better than expected. After that I was basically flinging it down the alley and trailed miserably. Boo. 

The night was fun, but I'm afraid it didn't live up to the last time. Samantha and I were the last ones left, and endured a night bus home, with me inexplicably telling her all about how you say 'I find', 'I believe' and 'I think' in french. It utterly baffled me when we got off the bus and it was daytime. I'm not usually an all night partier, and our arrival after the sun had risen had more to do with the eternity it took to get the bus home rather than our party stamina.

It's the daytime!!!

Stephie

xxx


Monday, 15 July 2013

Day 164 - Orange Juice




14th June 2013

I feel the same way about Orange Juice as I do pastrami. I breeze through the stuff, so I've tended to buy a few packs of these to have on hand in the house. No, it's not the best, but it's still delicious. Goes well with my bagel.

Stephie

xxx

Day 163 - Pastrami


13th June 2013

I'm having a love affair with pastrami. I don't know exactly what started it, but I do know that a pastrami bagel with american mustard and cornichons makes an almighty lunch. I also knpw that the pastrami left over in the fridge after making one of these bad boys doesn't last very long.

Drool.

Stephie

xxx

Day 162 - Ba-bling

 

12th June 2013

Bling. Another of the myriad of perks of my job. When a necklace can be made, you better believe I'm getting one. I narrowly avoided walking home like this. 

Lucky really. Would have almost certainly been mugged again for my fabulous jewels.

Stephie

xxx



Day 161 - Injury


11th June 2013

That's right, yet another injury and once again sustained at work. I'm starting to get a reputation.

There's a lot of scope for repetitive strain injury working at a school. At the beginning of the year when I was preparing things for the classroom I got blisters from all the cutting. This particular injury I can only describe as Stapler's Wrist.

There I was, happily making a boat for a display. We end up using staples a lot as our glue is usually covered in glitter and paint and isn't the most useful in the world. It's also quicker and stress relieving. So I'm there, stapling portholes and the like and putting a lot of force into it. As I have explained to many friends - the problems were threefold:
  1. Bad stapler. 
  2. Wrong staples.
  3. Too. Much. Stapling.
Our stapler disappeared into the depths and whorls of time many moons ago. So we started using another one. This one was stiff and required a lot of force to work, on a good day. Having inspected the staples we have come to the conclusion that the wrong size staples had been loaded into that deadly chamber. This combination lead to a stapling situation involving my good self here putting my whole weight onto the stapler with each go.

Afterwards my wrist hurt but in that kind of...ooh, I've done that particular activity a lot just now kind of way. By the end of the day it was still hurting, a lot, and so I picked up a support wrap on the way home to give it a bit of a rest.

To be continued.....

.....Except most of you know what happened anyway, so there's relatively little suspense here.




.............Damn.




Stephie

xxx

Sunday, 14 July 2013

Day 160 - Bex's Birthday


10th June 2013

It's Bex's birthday! Lucky me, she was over west for the day and so I was able to meet her for dinner. My plans fell through somewhat when it turned out the Haven doesn't do food on Mondays. I KNOW. We enjoyed our wine and decided that we would head to Hare and Tortoise, a place I adore and can rarely turn down when offered, much like the burger.

After much birthday chat and hugs, Bex wended her weary way back to Leytonstone, and I walked the ten minutes back to the flat. Being that far from home when I leave these girls is a rarity and I enjoyed every second.

When I arrived I found a belated birthday present from Stu, Sara and Keira.


Isn't it fantastic?! All my darling Niblings, and a wonderful name for the cakes I make when given the chance. Nibling...nibbling...d'ya see? Hehe.

Stephie

xxx

Day 159 - Wrapping Paper

9th June 2013

After leaving Bex's, where I was lucky enough to stay the night, I headed into town to find a few presents. The presents themselves took a little time to locate, but having done that I found this beautiful wrapping paper, which I bought two sheets each of. Presents wrapped, I was left with a sheet left of each...these are going to become posters because they are just too wonderful to me.

A lovely portion of my day spent with me. Sacred coffee, choc chip muffin and a good book. Oh my goodness yes.
Stephie

xxx

Day 158 - Zuzi's birthday wander


8th June 2013

Back off over East to see Zuzia for her birthday. I saw this necklace on the tube and it set off all sorts of ideas about how it had come to be there. There must be a million short stories across the world spawned by things like this, it's just so interesting to have something of a glimpse into someone else's life. We've all experienced that moment where you realise x is missing and you know at that precise second when you've looked too long for it to still be upon your person.

For Zuzi's birthday we had a lovely relax in a park and wander along canals. It was a beautiful park but I have obviously forgotten the name...I need to get back there soon I think. 
 
Calvin Kyle. Dolce and GaKyle. Donna Kyle. Etc.
Stephie

xxx



Day 157 - Nocellara del Tardis

Nocellara olives make my life so very happy.
7th June 2013

Since moving into the flat Tom has started leaving the odd Tardis around. I approve. I like the Tardis. I also really really really love Nocellara del Belice olives. Like...so much. And now Asda sells them on a regular basis I am a very very happy person.

Stephie

xxx


Day 156 - Kyle does dinner


6th June 2013

Kyle's turn to make us dinner. It was a fantastic meal, started off with some chat and doritos in the sun. Bliss.

Stephie

xxx

Day 155 - Chalk

More life drawing mess.
5th June 2013

I love life drawing. I need to find a less messy way of transporting my materials.

Stephie

xxx

Day 154 - Haven Arms


Best Burger in Ealing. At least. Maybe world.

4th June 2013

Since discovering the Haven Arms in Ealing does the Best Burger in Ealing I have been unable to let it go. If we go there I feel duty bound to have one. If Nichola merely suggests the thought I have to do it...the thought of going without this burger breaks my heart. Go there, eat one. Make sure it has bacon.

Stephie

xxx

They sometimes dole out the smallest lime wedges (it's a slice, come on) on the planet.

Day 153 - Shopping


After treating myself to some flowers after a 'big shop' wine was deemed necessary.
3rd June 2013

After reading Cat's wonderful Take Courage post about treating yourself to pretty things occasionally I decided she was right. When was the last time I had flowers in the flat? I bought some to make me happy. It worked.

Stephie

xxx
My new map of Canada, all ready to be covered in dots and lines!

Day 152 - Swap Shop


2nd June 2013

Of course the first post requires attention, it was too fabulous a day.

Zuzi invited me to my new favourite thing. A swap shop. I duly looked out some clothes, shoes, a dvd or two and a whole mess of books that I wanted rid of and trundled them across town to East London. Once we found this little place, secreted away in a parish hall through a café, we gave them our things and received in return a raffle ticket for each item. This ticket was worth another item...and we were set free to browse.

I had imagined something larger, but I actually enjoyed the smaller atmosphere, there wasn't too much to look through and you could be sure you'd get something if you wanted it. I came away most happy, and with 5 of my 16 items previously being owned by Zuzi or Bex. Only 1 of these was intentional, a dress I had always loved when Zuzi wore it at uni and was finally able to seize the opportunity to make it mine, ALL MINE. I found some dvds, some scarves, a hat...! I absolutely loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Someone organise one in West London please. I have tat to get rid of, and I'm sure I can replace it with more useful/pretty/different tat.

Stephie

xxx

Day 151 - Rendezvous with relax


1st June 2013

Now, the plan was to go and play some dinosaur themed mini golf. However, Nich had to go and screw that all up by being injured. For goodness' sake. Suck it up woman! "Moving" isn't all that important.

Instead I chose to make the most of one of my last days of half term and start my next book. Since getting my Kindle at Christmas I really have been reading a whole lot more, despite my lack of commute and therefore ideal reading time. My main reading time is either on the way to Leytonstone, when I can get a couple of hours in no worries if I don't nap, or in the bath.

So when I found myself with time to use in exactly the way I wanted to, why not read? I love a bit of a futuristic story...dystopias are among my favourite, though I will always have a soft spot in my heart for murder *maniacal laugh*.

Rendezvous with Rama was recommended to me by my brother, who had also bought it for my sister at Christmas. As siblings go, we are pretty similar in our tastes for tv, film and books, so it is unsurprising that we all should enjoy this. Thanks to our wonderful Dad we all have a bit of love for Sci-Fi, though Stu and Jen far outrank me in their love for all things 'Star'. I've watched more than my fair share of Star Trek in all its incarnations, but only because they had the control of the remote and they are older than me. I have much to thank them for though, making references to Voyager or similar has earnt me looks of surprised respect on more than a few occasions.

Thank you Dad, you made me the geek I will always be at heart.

Stephie

xxx

My deepest and most sincere apel-oh-g-eez.

I hope there are many that appreciate that phonetic spelling there. All for a smirk.

I am very sorry for my lack of posting. Don't you worry, I haven't neglected my photographic duties. I have had a mix of a busy month, coupled with lazy feelings and ridiculous injury. In order to catch up with all my posts I am going to post a lot with just captions - many don't need anything more than that. Ones that require an explanation will get it, otherwise you will just have to use your imagination.

Much love.

Stephie

xxx

Monday, 8 July 2013

Support Death Ship 666!



I know, I know, I'm terrible. I've been taking photos, but the energy to write has been severely lacking. I intend to post up all photos soon, likely with captions instead of a post.

What I wanted to post, before it is too late, is about Death Ship 666!

One of the many wonderful people I've met through Nichola is Gemma. Gemma is fantastically funny and talented and lovely and clever and I associate her with Professor Brian Cox. In short, she is everything that I should hate her for, but in fact I enjoy her company immensely. Witchcraft at work methinks. 

She is one third of Box Step Productions, yet more fantastically funny an talented people who have written all sorts of things in the past. Now they have written Death Ship 666! A Titanic parody play.

I went to see the London previews a couple of weeks ago, expecting it to be brilliant, but I have been utterly blown away by how exceptionally AMAZING it is. You know how you expect friends' stuff to be good, but then it surpasses it times a million? That. It's so much fun, the cast are perfect and the work that had been put into it shines through. There are so many moment one could rave about, but some miming involving after eights has proved to one that there is so much more to be mimed about after eights than one might imagine.

They need your help. They have a kick starter campaign, and have managed to make their minimum total needed to take them to Edinburgh and be able to like, eat and stuff. Unfortunately their accommodation has fallen through an they need to get up to £7000 ASAP. 

Please please please pledge. The whole group of people have worked so hard and deserve this break. I loved the show, and have had to talk myself out of seeing it a third time. I can't say I've been entirely successful, I'm quite grumpy with myself for being so inflexible about the whole thing. 

Please pledge, go to Edinburgh and watch it, and thank me however you see fit. I accept jewels.