This morning I pressed my nose up against the bathroom window to see what kind of day it was outside.
At that moment a robin flew onto the window sill and found itself looking right at my face.
It got a bit of a fright and flew off.
But it was ever so sweet. : )

My bank sent me a new debit card today, which surprised me because it hadn't run out and i didn't ask for one.

It's a new style debit card that has a sensor thing in it so that you can swipe it in some shops to pay for purchases under £10 without enetering your pin or signing for anything.  Eeek!

Why would I want a card that someone could take off me and use without any form of id?  Even if it is for purchases under £10?  I would much rather go through the 'hassle' of entering my pin...

The annoying thing is that they automatically cancel your current normal debit card.  So now they have to send me out another new one without the sensor.

Although on the plus side my bank is awesome and always sort any query I have within about 30 seconds of being on the phone (it's Bank of Scotland aka Halifax btw).

Also last night I started filling in the book I got for my birthday from my parents.
It's one of these:

http://www.suck.uk.com/product.php?rangeID=99&showBar=1

It has only just dawned on me quite how long it will take to fill in the last 25 years...
It is quite exciting though.

I like today's google quote:

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.
- Richard Feynman

It reminded me of idle thoughts I was having last night when curled up on the sofa in a tired daze from running around all weekend. I wonder what the next new material will be? I don't mean little tiny changes... but like when people first discovered bronze or iron or the invention of plastic/bakelite. Or maybe not just materials when you start thinking of things like electricity. It's quite a nice thing to think about the fact that there is likely to be so many more life-changing materials and technologies and conceptrs to be discovered. Wouldn't be nice to invent the next one?

Warm and Toasty things

Sneaking around in the dark
Silly rites to 'he of the shiny locks'
The luuurve captain's fan club
The fan club encounter actually leading to roleplay later on despite being very silly.
Tea parties with M4 - brilliant
Talking about corsets and research with Sally
Fighting people - I enjoyed myself
Enthusing with Tig
Getting flyers for cthulhu : )
Ben being awesome
Lolli
Roy coming along and having fun
Ships in trees!
Holding Arthur hostage
Being controlled by Vlad, and being named Penelope
Imps called ittimin!
Using my 'new' hobo frock coat
Becoming very inspired for my next character (which is good news if ittimin happens to die)

Cold and Shivery things

OOC violence. : (
Leaving my warm boots at home
Leaving the stove and cooking stuff at home
Not being around to see Ciro's family (i miss ciro)
Car battery being flat when trying to get off site (though yay for tim having jump leads!)
Not being able to find the correct harvester after time out.

The answer will be posted on Sunday I'm afraid.
I left the final figure at home and we're off to Candlestone straight from work.

We shall just have to leave you in suspense...!

Right... i don't know if any of you remember, but this time last year ben and I started a jam jar of treasure!

This jam jar is a place where we have put all the money we have found on the floor over the last year.  Not pennies we find in the house - just stuff found outside in the big wide world. 

We did this because a) we were curious as to how much money you find on the floor in a year, and b) it makes it a whole load more exciting finding money on the floor if you have a treasure jar to put it in.  ; )

So... the year is up, and we have just counted the treasure...

Anyone want to guess how much?

How do you get an invite? Can other people inite you once they are members (like gmail used to work)?
If so... I don't suppose any of you would mind inviting me?

We launch a new product this week that isn't a vacuum cleaner, a hand dryer, or a washing machine!

Teaser here:
http://www.dyson.co.uk/teaser/default.asp

Today I went outside and for the first time this year the air felt like autumn.

I love that.

DeepOnes Duet masks complete (and most of the rest of the costume - though those photos can wait til the night).

Back from the free family holiday in Spain (my parents won one which is cool).  It was lovely - mainly because I got to see my family all in one place.  I was kinda jealous that ben got to stay at home and do nothing (i need a week of doing nothing).  Having said that have gone back to work and been surprised at how much easier some things are if I have lots of hours sleep each night for a week... so the time off did me good despite travelling places.

And I managed to get my dad a birthday present that he loved - which is quite an achievement!

It was also lovely to come back home to ben after having been away from each other for a week.  Makes you appreciate things more.

So - back to a mad life full of organising cthulhu bellydance and practicing harp for Ben's sisters wedding.  I'm learning everlong by the foo fighters on harp... tis interesting. 

Hopefully next week will consist of meeting some lovely people in a pub in Bristol, and maybe some cellarp.  : )
And we have Wednesday off because it's Ben's birthday.  Yay.  : )

PS - if anyone has emailed me and I haven't replied its cos I have 100 messages in my gmail and it's taking a while to sift through - sorry!

Thank you to everyone who responded to my last couple of posts.

Kate did indeed win the competition. : )

"Posted by Admin | July 1st, 2009
And the winner of Tell Me About Your Character is:
Renette
So congratulations to Kate Evans, who will be travelling across the pond to visit Gen Con Indy this August.
We’d like to thank all the entrants and all of you who took the time to sign up to this site and cast your vote. There were some very good submissions and it’s just a shame that only one person could win in the end."

Kate is now in the final to win her trip to roleplay goodness in the US. Please go and vote for her again today and help her win! would

Vote for her character - Renette
www.tellmeaboutyourcharacter.co.uk


"Hi all

A friend of mine Kate Evans who plays Gerogie in the Urchins in the Harts Faction has managed to get herself into the last 4 of a competition to win an all expenses paid trip to Gencon USA (Probably the best roleplay convenion out there).

The last step of the competition comes down to public votes, so this is a shameless beg for any of you who have a few minutes to head on over and vote for me if you feel so inclined.

The website is www.tellmeaboutyourcharacter.co.uk and you will need to vote for her character, Renette

You do need to register before you can vote but this only takes about 30 seconds and your information will be deleted as soon as the competition ends so you won't get any spam, etc.

Voting is done in a knockout style tournament, so if all goes well and she gets through this round I would ask you all to pop back to the site on tomorrow to help get her through the final and win.

Needless to say this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I would be eternally grateful to anyone who wouldn't mind helping her grab hold of it!

If you could please ask any of your friends, relatives, neighbours, people you meet on the bus, etc etc to vote for her I will be eternally grateful!

Cheers
Chris Barron"

Forwarded from various other peoples' ljs... would really love to see Kate win (Georgie in the urchins), so if you do have time please go and vote for Renette. www.tellmeaboutyourcharacter.co.uk


"Hi all

A friend of mine Kate Evans who plays Gerogie in the Urchins in the Harts Faction has managed to get herself into the last 4 of a competition to win an all expenses paid trip to Gencon USA (Probably the best roleplay convenion out there).

The last step of the competition comes down to public votes, so this is a shameless beg for any of you who have a few minutes to head on over and vote for me if you feel so inclined.

The website is www.tellmeaboutyourcharacter.co.uk and you will need to vote for her character, Renette

You do need to register before you can vote but this only takes about 30 seconds and your information will be deleted as soon as the competition ends so you won't get any spam, etc.

Voting is done in a knockout style tournament, so if all goes well and she gets through this round I would ask you all to pop back to the site on tomorrow to help get her through the final and win.

Needless to say this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I would be eternally grateful to anyone who wouldn't mind helping her grab hold of it!

If you could please ask any of your friends, relatives, neighbours, people you meet on the bus, etc etc to vote for her I will be eternally grateful!

Cheers
Chris Barron"

I just rescued Ben from a big scary spider.  hee hee.  : )

I wasn't going to post about the Michael Jackson thing, but actually I've changed my mind.

There are much more important things going on in life closer to home, but it actually does make me kinda sad.  Two things:

1) The first pop song I ever really liked was Bad when I was 3 and had to do a dance to it at kindergarten. So that Christmas my parents bought me the album, and it was the only album I owned until I bought the spice girls album when I was about 10 (my taste had obviously gone down hill!)

2) My best friends at primary school formed a Michael Jackson fan club, but I wasn't allowed to join because I was too self-conscious to do a Michael Jackson impression.  :-P

Ben and I were in a toy shop in Bristol on Saturday, and we discovered that they have re-released "Crossbows and Catapults".  Not only that - it was in the sale for a tenner.

Haven't palyed that game since I was very little.

I wonder if it's still just as exciting?

It does say max age 10yrs on the box.  So should be just fine for us.  : )

Well... I tried to cycle into work this morning.  As I have finally got myself a pump to stop my tyres being flat.

Except it turns out that said pump has a part missing and therefore I can't pump up my tyres.

Which means I can't cycle to work.

Boo.

I have been trying to work out what weekends I have free in October.  So for those interested:

Jackals 9-11th
Vipers 16-18th