no time no time no time

IT SNOWED TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Too busy, too much to do. Tomorrow will have more. Plus pics of snow. ooer.

brrr...........

Abandonment Issues
Kitty has left me. Don't be fooled by the fact that she may occasionally post on here. She's left me. She now mainly bogs on the greener shores of her personal blog kittyonsafari.blogspot.com. I don't feel stabbed in the back as much as pitched out of a moving car onto the side of the road in the middle of the desert. (Just joking K, you go forth a blog where you may...)

What will I not do for a photo?
Lotte came over for tea and cake yesterday afternoon and as we were looking at her photos from Prague, we came across this one which was taken when we stayed a friend's place in Devon ages ago. There was this digger on the side of the road which we walked past every day and Lotte and me being Lotte and me, of course we had to hop in to the scoop bit to have our photo taken. Look at me being all (unintentionally) calender-girl in the digger. I'm looking a smidge hoochy-mamma-esque, well as much as you can in jeans, t-shirt and a wooly hat with a bobble on it...


so this is what winter feels like
It came out of nowhere- overnight (it felt like) an almost 6 degree drop in hit us. One week we're basking in an 11˚ winter and suddenly it's 4˚. Jesus. It is C O L D. Brilliant timing on behalf of my wonderful Mummy though- I left some clothes behind in NZ (actually it was all undies and some may laugh at me getting them sent over because yes, you can buy underwear in Britain but my Mummy knows how attached I am to my sensible cotton underwear in totally non-sensible colours so she was a honey and shipped them over) and the package arrived today and even though I said I didn't need thermals, she sent me a thermal singlet anyway which was a Godsend because when I headed for the gym this morning I forgot a jersey and was freezing my bits off in my polyprop and t shirt so THANK YOU MUM YOU ARE A GODDESS. I am wearing the thermal now.

I have stuff I feel I could/should/will write in response (somewhat belated in some cases) to stuff my Dad has written in his blog but I don't have time right now so instead write this in the hope that he at least will remind me that I have to do it. Fantasy writing/ good and evil/probably something else but can't remember what....

I did a bad thing

I've updated our blog to the new blogger thingy, I'm sorry if this actually becomes a pain for you Aynia, but they kept asking so sweetly.

SO I'm in America! In Pt Reyes which is just out of San Francisco, to be specific.
So far I have:
Eaten: Big burger curly fries, cherry cola, mexian food including tamales and tacos. Lot's of goats cheese (for some reason), granola, goldfish crackers and I just had a big piece of pizza.
Been to: Some of San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, Oakland, the pacific coast, a swing dance restaurant, an american-as-heck bar, a burger joint, a fancy japanese restaurant, and a house with heated floors and a double door fridge.
I plan to in the near future:
Go to a shooting range (awesome!), horse riding, go to a roller derby (where girls on skates fight -ha!), go to live music, Vegas, and the Grand Canyon.

I've been hanging out with my brother Peter and his new wife, Bonnie, and her 3yo daughter, Sophia. I'm going to be doing some work for Pete - web and graphic design stuff, and hopefull will earn mega greenbacks so that I can treat Aynia when I come visit after April sometime.

check out my other kitty specific blog yo.

so happy that I'm jumping

I HAVE MY iPOD BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whoppee! No more broken-record-Aynia-brain. No more enduring shit gym music. Oh the rapturous joy. Oh the happiness. Oh the dance of I've-got-my-iPod-back. Oh the funny looks from people on the office...

WARNING FOR DEADWOOD FANS- POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD
I'm writing this in small print so that it's easier for Deadwood fans to skip over this bit. Like Julie. I was thinking of her last night when the episode from Season3 featured a fight between Dan and The Captain, Hurst's muscle guy. Now Dan isn't a nice guy but I was soooooooooooooooo rooting for him and had absolutely no idea who was going to win the fight. It really could have gone either way and would have had quite different plot consequences. It was tense. I was tense. I was also thinking of my sister because I was doing what she hates most and talking at the TV. There were lots of cries of "Oooh" and "NO!" and "Get him" as well as an almost constant chant of "Go for the eyes, go for the eyes, gofortheeyes, GOFORTHEEYES." Dan did. He won. But I had anticipated eye-gouging, (which is bad enough) but in true Deadwood style, it was an eye popping-out. Which was quite graphic- it was swinging around and everything. And of course it's game-over at that point. Kinda gross but so well done, as the whole show is. Ka Pai makers so Deadwood.

Ok, it's fine to read again now.
Just to bring you up to speed if you skipped the fine print, I was talking about a fight between two characters in Deadwood. This morning when I walked to the train, I was thinking about it and it made me think of how my martial arts has influenced my opinion of fights I see on TV/in the movies. So often, people are fighting nicely- I always want to yell, "Bite him!" or "rip that finger off!" or "go for the eyes". They don't, and I just sit there shaking my head in disgust. I learned a lot a fancy moves doing martial arts but there is a HUGE different between busting a move when the person is working in the same style as you and it's a training environment and busting a move in the real world. Real world people don't move or react the same way and although I consider myself competent, when faced with a big chap wanting to whale on me in some dark alley way, I would not use my training methods to deal with him as I might in sparring. I'd stay as far away as I could and if I got in close, I'd be biting anything I could and gouging eyes and pulling hair. And I feel no shame in that. Down and dirty is the way this girl would play it. Straight arm? I'll break it if I fear for my safety. Shove your head near mine as you try to strangle me? If you're stupid enough to leave my arms free I'll poke your eyes out. Oh I'm a charmer. :-)

Military Alphabet
I live with two travel agents and it has become a matter or pride to me to learn the military alphabet which they have to know because they have so many codes with letters in them. So I thought I'd drop it in here for the sake of posterity. Also I've been watching too much of The Unit...
A: Alpha
B: Bravo
C: Charlie
D: Delta
E: Echo
F: Foxtrot
G: Golf
H: Hotel
I: India
J: Juliet
K: Kilo
L: Lima
M: Mike
N: November
O: Oscar
P: Papa
Q: Quebec
R: Romeo
S: Sierra
T: Tango
U: Uniform
V: Victor
W: Whiskey
X: X-Ray
Y: Yankee
Z: Zulu
See? Don't you feel so much better for knowing that? And so much cooler?

And now work calls. I have a weekend looming and stuff to do. Ciao. xx

'fessing up

So it turns out that the real reason that I need my iPod back is that is saves me from myself. Left to my own devices, my brain will amuse itself (in a totally sadistic way) but doing endless broken-record-styled repeats of snippets of some of The Most Crap Songs Ever which I swear by everything holy to me* do not exist anywhere on my iPod or, for that matter, anywhere is my music collection. Yesterday I almost stopped walking when I realised with horror that the song snippet on endless repeat was , "It's getting hot in here so hot so take off all your clothes I am getting so hot, I wanna take my clothes off." This may have been partially due to the fact that I was getting bloody hot walking along as I was layered up and tend to walk quite fast so tend to get a bit hot and sweaty. But still, I don't think that makes it forgivable... The other day I had a snippet of a Pink song (not as bad as Nelly but still less than ideal) and for days and days I had the song from The Lion King that Julie and I sing as a duet. Now a duet can be defined as "A piece for two performers" in which case yes, this is a duet. But in reality it's Julie singing and my piping up at the end. It's from near the end of The Lion King where Timon and Pumba are creating a distraction so they sing this song (Julie sings Timon, i pipe up for Pumba, in a faux bass tone):

Timon: If you're hungry for a hunk of fat and Jjuicy meat, eat my buddy Pumbaa here because he is a treat! Come on down and dine on this tasty swine, all ya gotta do is get in line! Are ya achin'...
Pumbaa: Yep Yep Yep!
Timon: ...for some bacon?
Pumbaa: Yep Yep Yep!
Timon: he's a big pig!
Pumbaa: Yep Yep.
Timon: you could be a big pig too! Oy!
Timon and Pumbaa: AAAAAAAAAAH!

Too much info on the quirks of my relationship with my sister? Maybe. But that tune's been in my head ever since we sung it when I was home. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. If only I could record us doing it and put it on here as an MP3. That would make it all so much more understandable. (? Really?! Oh the illogic of the Aynia Brain....)

Speaking of songs, my flatmate Sean has a ringtone at the moment that isn't entirely public-friendly. It's a sound bite from Southpark and I can't find it on the web (although if you want to see some quotes from the show, check this out. (Scroll down past the show listings.) So inappropriate but so hilarious. As is the Uncle Fucka song.) Anyway- Sean's ringtone has a bit where Cartman is going, "Who are you calling fat you fucking Jew?" Then Mr. Garrison tells them off for swearing and Kyle goes, "What? Fuck? Fuck fuckity fuckfuckfuck." It's the kind of ringtone where you want to answer your phone reallyREALLY quickly. It's embarrassed him a couple of times but I have no sympathy for him, I've told him he needs to change it. Hilarious? Yes. Suitable for an everyday ringtone? No.

*choccie, family, the beach at low tide when the sun is rising and I have it all to myself, the laugh of a small child**, the moment just as the plane takes off and leaves the ground

**so some of this is a bit cheesy. So sue me.

I'M LEARNING TO DIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well it finally happened. My boss came in to office one day and announced that we were learning to dive. (We being me and three other girls from work.) We are being shipped off to the Red Sea for a week from March 1-8 for sand, sun, lots and water and hopefully some Nemo sightings. AWESOME! I've wanted to learn to dive for absolutely ages and having this trip in March will break up the British gloom quite nicely. So now I have 43 days (yes, I set up a new countdown widget) to stop eating and exercise lots and miraculously be able to wear a bikini. NOT. This body is a bikini-free zone. If God had intended for anyone to see my stomach he would given them a second eyelid or something similar to help reduce glare and help numb the pain.

I am also going to be going to the Outdoors Show which is cool but mainly because they're having the European Bouldering Championships there which I reallyREALLY want to see. I'm sure I'll be able to sneak away for the finals and to have a play on the wall. Hee hee.

So it looks like I have quite a few holidays and things to look forward to which is what it's all about really. At least it's part of what my being over here is meant to be all about.

I've been really good with the gym since being back but if I thought last week went slowly I was sadly mistaken. This week has crawled. Yesterday morning my alarm woke me up at 6.20am and as my hand scrabbled for it automatically, my brain was going, "Oh God no, just make it stop. It CAN'T be time to get up." Brain 2 chipped up with, "It's not that bad, you've only got one more day of this to go then you can sleep in."
brain1: Oh thank God.
pause for mental gears to actually start working
brain1: no wait a minute, this is only Tuesday. FUCK!
brain2: OH GOD! Only Tuesday?!!! Shit! [Editor's note: my language aint' at it's best first thing in the morn] How can we only have done this dragging ourself out of bed at an ungodly hour to shuffle to the train station like a zombie to then shuffle further to the gym to sweat and do exercise (at 6.30am that is rather like a dirty word) only once this week. ONCE. Jesus. I just can't do this. HELP! Argh!!!
brain1: Dude! Pull yourself together. Just get out of bed, it'll be fine.
brain2: oh fuck off *grumble* *grumble*

Thank God for auto pilot I say. Now that I've started doing this 25 min walk to Putney overland, I usually prefer it to my combo of walk, tube & walk or just taking for the bus (once it deigns to turn up) because it's good time to think and the walk is actually quite a nice one- plus it's far more reliable time-wise than the other options. But the past couple of mornings the love has been gone. I'm sure things will be better once I get my iPod back. The thought of doing cardio at the gym without my own music for motivation is a bit daunting. I get bored easily on the machines and the music at the gym is absolutely bollocks. But my baby should be returned to me by Monday, oh the joyful anticipation.

boo

It seems that since getting back from NZ I've been swamped. That and week one was pretty tough- motivationally wise. But I've made it through one whole week of work now and have even been to the gym in the mornings so, having proven to myself that I won't die doing it, I'm up for round two.

Once again though I seem slightly lacking on the whole time thing so today's entry consists of two links. This website I liked for two reasons, well maybe three. In no particular order:
1) The blue background
2) The supercutie robot animation. I was gutted that I couldn't make him move more
3) The way the pages link together. It's like you're moving around on a huge palette and I think it's quite a nice idea.

This site is totally awesome when it comes to choosing colours for web pages. If you click on the link it will take you through to a homepage. There will be a purple link near the beginning of the text which says 'spin the colour wheel'. It brings up a pop-up window (hence no direct link) and you spin the wheel and it randomly generates three colours for you and previews them in relation to each other. Hard to explain (at least for me) but very very cool. For someone who find the task of choosing colour schemes for websites quite daunting (as I do), this site is an absolute Godsend.

Oooh ooh ooh AND I have booked my flights to go to Portugal at Easter to stay with Cathy and co. This means I will get to witness Sean and Daisy doing their Easter Egg Hunt which will have to be übersupercutiepie, especially as this will be Daisy's first Easter being completely mobile so she'll be doing all the hunting herself.

what a Monday needs

I know that I need to do a decent entry. I really really do. I even have stuff to write about. Just slightly lacking on time and motivation... So instead I will leave you with this gem that was passed on to me by my buddy Dave:
a music video using treadmills
God only knows how they came out of it alive. I would have broken something.

I will however share just 2 pics from NZ. In the first I am cleaning my hiking boots in prep for waterproofing them. I really kinda let myself go in my two weeks at home. Who on earth would think that I am a designer and have any sense of what good taste might be? Red t-shirt, stripy polyprop, purple butterfly flannel pajamas, not to mention topping it all off with leopard-wannabe fluffy slippers. Dear God. I am a cacophony of colour.



This one is a big-small that Dad and I had fun setting up at Lover's Leap. A holiday, (not matter how rainy) is not complete without silly big-smalls.

what a jolly entry.

Before I left for NZ, I had a countdown widget. Basically you name an event and put in the date and everytime you looks at your widgets, there's a little message that tells you how many days it is till the big event. Mine was "HOMETIME!!!!!" so my message would read "2 days till HOMETIME!!!!!" which was all well and good but coming in to work today, I went to feed my tigergotchi widget and to my great horror, my countdown widget now reads "17 days since HOMETIME!!!!!!". All those exclamation marks leap out from the page and mock me. I must find something to replace it with as right now it's pretty bloody depressing.

Apart from widget horror, I have nothing to report apart from jetlag which seems to be manifesting itself as overwhelming apathy. I can't be bothered, not with anything. And I'm not really tired, at least not in the jet-lagged-I'm-about-to-drop-dead-RIGHT-NOW-I-need-to-sleep-so-bad was I'm used to, I just don't care.