Birthday Girl

Its my birthday and I'll (paraphrased to fit actual events) ...open pressies/go to the pub/drink cider/watch Doctor Who/go for a curry if I want to!I am up to the drink cider bit currently. Me and the BOOTS are going for a curry in a bit :-)

Just checking in

Been busy recently. Last Thursday we went to see friends who were over from Ireland. On the Friday we drove to the other end of the country to see ma and pa. We got half way back (Nuneaton to be precise) and stopped overnight in a Butlins style Motel, complete with Corby trouser press. The next day we went to see ma-in-law, and on Sunday evening a mate came round. Today its jut me and the cats and a wind down. I also got a pair of NEW ROCK BOOTS!! Yay! They are FAB - dead comfy and a bit scary and they add about 3 inches to my height. However, they were so expensive that I shall never be buying a pair of boots ever again.... And I found these two links today: 50s style housewifery and addictive gaming cute (in a Happy Kitty Bunny Pony way!)

This week.....

I have mostly been working, but the boss is back (complete with a toy stuffed Camel for me- my choice:he isnt that kind of man) so normal service will be resumed. Had hotdogs last night. Now, I like a proper hot dog,not those out of tins,and I like them with mayo,hot mustard, chilli sauce and cheese slices. All together. The buns take on a very interesting colour with all that lot mixed up. On our regular charity shop trawls in Chorlton (before it got a Subway), we used to go to a place that did proper grilled hotdogs with toasted buns.They were dead long as well. MmmMmmMmm. You can tell I am going out for my tea again can't you :-)
Its Nawab again. Only this time we are getting a taxi so we can have a bottle of wine and both drink and thus avoid the "its your turn to drive" arguments which usually culminate in him indoors bringing up the fact that when I passed my driving test I said I would be happy to drive us everywhere. That was 8 years ago! Why on earth does he think that I still mean what I said???
I have turned the back bedroom into a music room. Every bit of musical gear we own is now up there, apart from my bass rig and his Marshall setup (as these are in regular gig/rehearse mode and therefore would beUNBEARABLE to carry up and down stairs every five minutes), and I didnt realise we had so much! A couple of guitars remain downstairs for convenience (its nice to know one is to hand when you want to churn out a few bars of something or other) and the hall is still crowded with speakers, but the keyboard is plugged in and ready to go should we fancy a quick whirl. I struggle though. My left hand will not obey me when the right hand joins in. On its own its fine. Maybe its like that film "The Beast With Five Fingers" and its not reallyMY hand at all.....

Pub Crawl

My boss is on holiday and work is a terrifying place as I am responsible for everything. Consequently I have been stressed out a bit and so yesterday we decided to get the bus into town so we could both have a drink, and do a bit of mooching about.
Left home at 3pm and went to Waterstones, where I bought a book about Lynyrd Skynyrd and that Excess All Areas book about Status Quo. Then we went to The Sawyers on Deansgate and had a pint. Then we went to a South African place called Barracuda, then to The Salisbury.
Here is a picture of our pints. And another of the alleyway outside.


















Then it was off to the Lass O Gowrie for another. And then we WERE going to go to the Old Monkey, as we used to spend a lot of time there many years ago, when it was new. Except we changed our minds and went into the smallest pub in Manchester, The Circus Tavern. Its REALLY small but very nice and we met some Danish blokes who were going to see Stiff Little Fingers.
Then we were getting hungry so we thought we would head into town. We almost walked past a little Italian resteraunt but then changed our minds and went in and I glad we did because it was lovely! We had a bottle of wine and I had a blue cheese pizza and him indoors had a seafood one. It was proper pizza, nothing like Pizza Hut or any of those places, and soooo garlicky. And I cannot for the life of me think what it was called! Its either Don Antonio or Bella Roma, and I would like to get it right because it was very, very nice. Small and a bit poky, and the waitresses didn't speak much English (in fact they were Chinese!), but the service was good and the food was lovely and it wasn't too dear.

Its on Portland Street if anyone knows it? There are more pictures but they are on my phone and the blue tooth wotsit is at work so I can't get them off until tomorrow.



Then it was last drink in the Bulls Head before getting a taxi home and realising it was nearly 10 o clock.....

Down Mexico way....

We have just been to Chiquitas, a psuedo Mexican place that has as much to do with Mexico as one of my cats, but its a very nice place. Sombreros on the wall, pictures of mustachioed bull fighters all over the show - you get the idea. I had sizzling chicken and steak fajitas and him indoors had chargrilled swordfish. Mmmmm. I also had a Mai Tai. Double mmmmmmm.
What WASN'T mmmm was the tshirt worn by one of the hoards of 17 year olds waitressing : "Famous for Fajita's". Fajita's WHAT? Grrrrrr.
What else have I been up to? Not a lot really. I won the whole Malory Towers series of books off Ebay for £4 and I am up to Third Year at Malory Towers. They even have the same covers as the ones I used to have but which got lost somewhere along the way.
I never, ever liked Daryl Rivers. For someone who went about losing her temper and slapping people/shoving them in swimming pools, hurling them over chairs etc, she seemed to be far to well liked for me. Alicia was much better. And Mary Lou. And Sally. But no, I don't like Daryl.
Ooo I tell a lie - I HAVE done something. The new drummer we auditioned was a) good, b)not an idiot or a serial killer and c) seems to like US, so we are on a roll again. Had a rehearse somewhere in Wigan and it all went very well indeed. Hopefully gigs will be on the horizon soon, unless he turns out to be awaiting sentence for drug dealing/has a psychotic girlfriend that will burn his drum kit/get run over by a bus. Fingers crossed guys.

More snow

And it looked like this....
It also looked a lot like other things but I didn't want to bombard you all with pictures so I stuck them all here
We (Born Idle) went to meet a potential new drummer today. He seems ok and we are off for a rehearse this week. As you may or may not know, we are like Spinal Tap when it comes to drummers, and this one seems far too normal, so he is bound to turn out to be an axe murderer or something.
And I have finally ditched Internet Explorer.Its Firefox on the laptop and Netscape on the pc. I got too fed up of its bad behaviour.

Poorly

Blimey, have I been poorly this week. I have got this stupid cold type thing that has turned into a kind of debilitating fug that has descended on my head. I feel rubbish. My poor mum and dad have got it too, especially my indestructible dad, and he's dreadfully poorly, so nice thoughts in his direction please.
More photos uploaded to Flickr if you want to see the inside of Faery Towers. And some new ones of the pussy cats.
That's about it really. I am listening to Northern Lights (Phillip Pullman) on audiobook and reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (Susannah Clarke), and I just won the entire set of Malory Towers (Enid Blyton) books on Ebay for £4!
Off to suffer on the sofa. Bye. Cough. Sneeze.

Let it snow

It took me two hours to get home from work yesterday because of the snow. It started snowing in the afternoon, and by 4pm it was getting quite heavy.It wasn't so bad in central Leeds but coming down the M621 to get on the M62 was a different matter! Although it had been gritted it was coming down so heavily that it was sticking, and there was a good inch or so on my back window. It was freezing cold and just like something off a Christmas card. Although its a motorway, its quite scenic, and what little I could see of the countryside was very, very pretty. And I had ample time to admire the view because going at anything above snail's pace was a risky business. By the time I got off the motorway it had almost stopped, but the snow on the ground stayed where it was. Morrison's car park, where I stopped off for provisions, was like an ice rink, as by the time the snow was beginning to freeze. Everyone was wrapped up like Eskimos (do I have ti say Innuit now?), apart from one mental woman in flip flops and a short skirt. You always get one...
I made lovely chicken casserole and crusty bread for tea, and the evening was spent hibernating...
This morning it was all bright and sunny :in fact THIS is what it looked like.....

When cats go bad

Imagine the scene. Its Sunday night. I am feet up, glass of wine, nice bit of cheese to hand, him indoors is pootling around with a cd he recorded of his band, the laptop is on my knee, I am surfing around Ebay and all is well. Oooooo three minutes from the end of an auction for something Holly Hobbie-esque which I REALLY want and is dirt cheap.. and nature calls.
I place laptop carefully on floor and go to bathroom. I return to find THIS has happened...



I lost the auction. No, this is NOT cute. This is .

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pure cat evil.

Camera Phone

The first mobile phone I got was back in the "brick" days, and was a provided by work one. I was a bit scared of it. How things have changed. I now have a TINY phone and I am not a bit scared of it . It also does nice tunes and takes pictures, although its not too hot at that. I ran out of room on it the other day so I cleaned all the pictures out. So here are some to look at.
We are cats and we love the microwave. More fool you for moving everything off it and trying to clean it. Its ours now. OURS we tell you....










Go AWAY! I am SLEEPING.

Look at me! I smile and I am not photoshopped!

This is the toilet of our latest fave eatery, Nawaab on Oldham Road. Obviously its not the actual toilet itself, just the kind of ante room to the toilet, but its very glam for a loo.











And finally, moi, taking a photo of myself reflected in the wobbly mirror of the above establishment.













And finally AGAIN, my fluffy dice.

The rythym of life...

is relentless. I haven't had two seconds to rub together recently. The bathroom tiles are ALMOST painted. I have ammassed cushion material. I have read a LOT. There was a cancelled gig last night, so some chums came round and we had a merry time. Today I bought lightbulbs. Yesterday we went to Gorton market, and they have a real life car boot sale at the side of it. Not a trader in sight. I got 2 Patches annuals and a Photo Love annual (all early 80s) for a quid each, and him indoors got a Mike Harding album in mint condition for another quid. Result!
We got me a new front door key cut (in a Bionic Woman type episode, I broke mine in the door!), and that's about it really.
Here is my office (or at least a bit of my desk). More like a home from home really.

Flickr

Hard to spell but easy to set up. I run several different machines and photos are spread all over the place. Trying to get them together is a nightmare. So I set up a Flickr account. That way, if I ever go mental and delete them all, they will still live SOMEWHERE.
It starts here....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/faerywings/sets/

A hedge and more photos

I made a list of all the things that need doing to the house, and I have made a start. Its a VERY long list and I can't afford to have some of it done. So I have started with the things that don't cost money, or not much.
Yesterday we bought a new (VERY cheap in a sale) bed, and took the old one to the tip.
Yesterday I made a tablecloth out of an old curtain and covered the three kitchen chairs with the left over material. Its a bit 1970s Bistro chic (red and white checks) but its ok.
Today I started work on the hedge from hell. Its a privet hedge, about 30 feet long, and on next door's side its about 6 feet high. On OUR side its about 20 feet high. Next door kindly lent me some kind of medieval torture implement to saw down some of the three inch thick branches. We knew there was an elderberry tree in there somewhere, and that has now got room to breath. There is also another tree we didn't even know we had! I THINK its a rowan, but we will have to see what it turns into now it has been revealed.
I weeded and chopped and him indoors put the back gate on properly (it fell down in a storm and was hanging on by, well, by nothing really).
And I am now shattered. But I can cross a few things off the list at least.
And now for the photos. This is a resteraunt called "Winkles" in Rhos on Sea, North Wales, as of June 2005.
It USED to be a cafe called "The Point Cafe" circa 1974 - 1984, when me, Mum and Dad, Nana, Grandad and Uncle Simon used to go on our communal, anunal jollies each summer. When it was The Point, we used to have sausage, egg and chips, and the salt and pepper shakers were in the shape of an orange and black stripey rectangular tiger. Its hard to describe. You could buy them from the cafe, but no one ever bought me one, or there would be photographic evidence. Oh, the cruelty of parents....




The B and B we stayed in to take the above photo was out of the ark, and very nice it was too. Over on the left is the sink in the bathroom. Just smashing. Look at those taps!

Favourite Photos from the archive...

Going through some old photos, sorting them out and things.I have SO many random folders and pictures in weird places that I thought enough is enough and I will SORT THEM OUT.
Here are some of my favourites...

This is Felix, age 15, on the somewhat raggedy lawn in the back gardenin October 2004. She is a very cuddly cat most of the time. The rest of the time she is evil and violent and will NOT take any notice of anyone.

This is a house in Whitby, that I would be very happy to live in. We have spent many a long weekend in Whitby, me and him indoors, and I would VERY much like to live there. The last time I went was at a DC79 gig in December 2004, and I arrived in the dark and went home in the dark, had no time for sightseeing, and no time to get down to the sea. I did manage to get to eat some lovely fish though :-)

Speaking of fish....here are some that live in the Blue Planet Aquarium in Ellesmere Port. August 2004.

Photo Shop Brushes

As my social life (aka DC79's gigs) has been in limbo, I have reverted to type and am crocheting a blanket, reading His Darkest Materials and discovering Adobe PhotoShop Brushes! Awesome. There was an artist in me and its come OUT. Take a look at the rest of me link over on the right - the pictures and images on my website were made by ME from scratch and I am so proud of my new talent!
On another note, I am annoyed with Amazon. I bought a diary and 2 calenders (1 for home and 1 for work) all claiming they were available for despatch in 24 hours. Only 1 calendar has arrived so far (I ordered on 31st Decemeber) so I reckon they owe me money for loss of dates....

Good evening little school girl :-)

Taken on someone's camera phone. Thats my mate Mand behind me. This was at that Snowball thing. I had horns on my head.

The Snowball

Mid day saw us on route to Wrexham for DC79's headlining thingy at the Snowball, a one day ACDC convention, hosted by that Krusher bloke.
We were staying overnight in a hotel, so it was a no holds barred drink fest (well it was for me...)
I went mad and wore a pair of fluffy red horns and dressed up like a schoolgirl but what the hell, you only live once.
They were excellent as ever, and did about 8 million encores, and we rolled into the hotel at 3am, up at 9am for a full breakfast and then the awful "drop people/gear/vans" off bit, which takes FOREVER. Consequently I am now VERY tired.
Sadly the photographic evidence is a little shaky, as my camera is rubbish at taking pictures in the dark, but here is one of the posters....

Christmas

Christmas day dinner theme was Argentinian, so it was a marinaded beef affair (something like chimichurri - I think that's how you spell it), with home made chips and carrots and Argentinian wine. Very nice indeed.
I got loads of stuff with faeries on, an ACE book about Free (signed by the author dontcha know), a biography of Kate Bush and some other good stuff.
Went to the Ma in laws on Boxing day and had a meal out, then got drunk on bizarre cocktails made by junior sister in law (provisions by senior sister in law, who was driving so couldn't actually HAVE any so it was very kind of her).
A lot was eaten and drunk, but not overly so, and I didn't have turkey once.

Tree Time!

Christmas begins

Today we went to the Christmas markets in Manchester. We had a german steak burger, a cup of something-wein (can't pronounce it but it was hot mulled wine with blueberries), then a cup of somethingelse-wein (as before but with cherries) and THEN a cup of cider punch which sounds vile but was so lovely we bought two bottles of the stuff. Also got some posh fudge, some dutch cheese ("for those about to rock - cheese!" as the dutch bloke selling it said when he saw my ACDC tshirt) and we kept the cups the something-weins came in as well.
The markets looked like the above (I don't know who the people are!)
Oh yes, and I also got The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on dvd, and Lionheart by Kate Bush. And a fantastic book of 60s adverts, more of which later.

Here is him indoors agog with desire at the huge pile of olives and garlic....

And the world's OLDEST baby Jesus....

A MASSIVE Father Christmas (sorry - can never get the hang of all this "Santa" business)