game on

I don't think I mentioned our flat's mouse adventure about a month ago. A little guy (I'm assuming, I called him Stuart anyway, I mean what else you are going to call a mouse?) appeared in our living room/kitchen (it's open-plan) and it took me and Sean about half an hour to get him out. Well we put him outside and I foolishly thought that that was the end of it. Little did I know...

Last Friday night I heard a scratching noise inside the wall under my window and thought, "Hmm.... I bet that's Stuart." so I got up, thumped on the wall and said, "I'm trying to sleep here!" and the noise stopped. On Saturday, I came home, laden with groceries and as I stepped into the living room, this little furry bundle came streaking out from under the sofa and made a mad dash to squeeze himself under the washing machine. I couldn't help it, I literally did scream like a girl. Well more of a short, sharp shriek but it was far girlier than most noises I make and had me yelling, "Oh for the love of God! Stuart! You can't live here!"

Now killing Stuart is not an option. As far as I'm concerned, it's not his fault that our house is warm and dry and has potentially unlimited food sources but the reality is that we cannot live together. If nothing else, I'm very possessive about my food and I suspect it's not entirely hygienic. So I bought 2 very expensive sonic rodent repellent things which you plug in to the wall and are meant to emit a sound that humans can't here but is bad for rodents. I also got 2 humane catch-them-alive traps. And for a while everything seemed okay until last night I came home from climbing, walked into the kitchen and turned on the light and ZOOM Stuart legs it out from under the washing machine and dashes up into some hole i never knew existed underneath our cupboards. In fact I thought he had disappeared into thin air so I dropped to the ground and had my face pressed against the floor trying to find him when I see two little paws appear over an edge and a little nose stick its way out and start sniffing. It would seem that me post-climbing was far too easy to smell as he retreated.

He's just way too cute though, I'm an incurable softy but cute will not save him. This has now become a battle of the wits. Clearly these sonic things aren't worth sh*t so it's game-on with the live traps. Where can I place them to catch him best? What does he want to eat? Dried apricots seems a no-go and so far choccie hasn't worked so I think I'm going to have to go for the cheesey cliché.

However the day he makes it up to the cupboard above the extractor fan and starts in on my baking ingredients it will be game over. Nobody messes with my baking ingredients.

inspired

I can't help it. I had to share this picture with you all, mainly because it makes me think of Calvin and Hobbes and the ones where Calvin acts like a dinosaur and pulls ridiculous faces. Admittedly, boosting brightness and contrast and sharpening things in photoshop helped but the result is, I think, very Calvin. I haven't been able to find the exact picture to compare but I think you guys will get the idea:


One of the many things I'm looking forward to when I get to Oz is having my Calvin and Hobbes collection with me once more. It's genius.

Handbag Friday

I've already commented on the danger of looking at handbags on Etsy but I have a long holiday weekend coming up and I'm thinking I should sew for a day. Hit opshops on Saturday, sew on Sunday, it could be great. SO of course I headed to Etsy for inspiration and now all I want to do is list things that my friends should get me for my birthday. You may notice a theme in pretty things that catch my eye, I totally blame my father for my obsession with owl designs which has somehow extended to a general avian theme...


The other bags are cool but I want these two, the one above and the one below, BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD. They are gorgeous. What is it about a nice handbag that gives it the ability to make the world a better place? Like a good pair of shoes really.

Right. I have to stop now. Enjoy the weekend folks.

grumble, bitch, moan and wallow

Maybe it's the word wallow that brings to mind this kids' book which my sister and I loved while we were growing up, Piggy in the Puddle. And in fact just thinking about it and googling it and I've found some of the lines. The rhyming is pure, simple, ridiculous genius and is going a long way to lightening my foul mood (which I'm swimming in at the moment until my fingers go all pruney). So I shall share some of these wonderful rhymes with you all before I proceed to bore you to tears as I vent.

See the piggy
See the puddle
See the muddy little puddle
See the piggy in the middle
Of the muddy little puddle
See her dawdle, see her diddle
In the muddy, muddy middle
See her waddle, plump and little
In the very merry middle.

and other gems such as "squishy-squashy, mooshy-squooshy, oofy-poofy nope".

And now to rant: the comedy of errors that was my morning can really be summed up as such: read till 1am so slept in and ran late, missed train by 2mins, next train delayed by 15mins, very late to work, phone ran out of money so couldn't tell anyone, weather which looked sunny when I left home has turned windy and overcast so I'm FREEZING in my skirt and jandals and don't have a proper jacket to keep me warm after climbing (or on the way to climbing). All I have is a piss-weeny cardi) and my gmail still isn't working properly and I don't feel I can justify taking lunch off for the gym as I was so late and want to run away at 5pm to climb and in general I am in a Foul Mood. Being cold really doesn't help. I'd change in to my 3/4 pants I have for climbing but they're all chalky and scodey from Mon night. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even the thought that I'm getting another press trip- Gran Canaria this time (June 19-24 so really soon) isn't cheering me up. Fester fester fester. Rot rot rot.

ripped off

Through my blog explorations, I came across this website. Now I think this stuff is pretty cool and I was really chuffed that it was based in Oz so I went to their site to check prices and OMG some very bad language started coming out of my mouth. That is once I'd finished with squeaking indignantly at an almost supersonic level. (I have that horrible feminine tendency to go quite high pitched when excited.) Now price equivalents between countries can be tricky. I've found in my time here that some things are the equivalent once you do the converting whereas some things are the same price without, ie somethings I'd pay £30 for here and pay $75 back home OR something I'd pay £30 for here I'd pay $30 for back home. But these canvas prices nearly stopped my heart at how expensive they are in Aussie. Over here, you can get a 100cm square canvas for around £130* (AUS$269) but the same thing in Aussie, from my quick scan of the internet, could cost me AUS$495 (£190) which is RIDICULOUS. As I calmed down a bit and hunted around a bit more I found www.ntdgraphics.com.au who seem to have prices similar to the UK but still, I cannot believe the price that some companies charge for this. I may well end up printing things here before I head south and save myself the headache...

*although one of the girls at work said she got one about that size for £80 somewhere.

Valencia

Well this trip was by no means what I had expected at all and in some ways was disappointing but it was salvageable. It bucketed down 90% of the time but we had one sunny afternoon where we got a city tour and I got to see some truly insane architecture.

This is their new Palau or art centre. I could write essays on this building. Essay upon essay upon essay, and actually enjoy it. The whole complex is simply insane and amazing and I was grinning like an idiot as I walked around it. My one regret is that I didn't go inside any of the buildings and didn't get up close and personal with the Palau. The arching item over the top is meant to be a feather and appears completely unsupported from almost every angle.

I'm easing you guys into this but you can start to see how this place has a very sci-fi feel. These buildings are fantastic mix between robotic/ alien/ and natural forms.
I'm sure this guy is a dormant autobot whose name would be Ladybug. Or maybe Beetle.

I cannot remember the name of the artist but this reminds me so much of black and white drawings that my Dad has in a book of sci-fi/futuristic architecture. I can't believe that someone did drawings as proposals for this design and people looked and it and went, "What the hey, let's do it!"
And this is where Futurama meets Gaudi.
Gaudi. Gaudi. Gaudi.*


This row of what looked to me like giant urinals was easily 20m long and they are easily 2 high and all mosaicked. Holy shattered tiles Batman, that's a lot of mosaic.
See? Urinal.


There wasn't much graffiti in Valencia, which surprised me given how much I'd seen in Barcelona but I found what I could.






These signs in a park made me laugh. I'm still trying to figure out what some of them mean....

This made me think that it should have been a door knocker in Labyrinth.
*But of course not really Gaudi.

smells like home

Right. Wales. I'm running behind with blogging (Valencia is next) so will do my picture caption trick. I can say this though, despite having some of my worst hayfever, it was a great weekend. It looks freakishly like NZ but being out and about and in fresh air again was simply delicious.

Here is me enjoying fresh air and green fields. Mmmm..... smells like home.
Looks like home too. Tussock and sheep, who'd've thought?


The compulsory bigsmall.We took a pretty decent walk around some waterfalls. I can't remember heir names or locations and considering that the Welsh seem to have some kind of almost religious objection to vowels, I couldn't pronounce it even if I could remember it.




We went to visit a castle (again with the lack of name remembering) and there was this staircase which went down into the ground for ages and was totally pitch black (Antony had a head torch and I went all MacGyver with using the infrared light focus from my camera to light my way) and we go through all this dark, dank tunnel to find what? This:
This is a cool Priory whose name I cannot remember but I shall never forget it because this is where I turned into a circus freak. Since I have no shame and I really did look like a freak, I had to share the pic with you guys. It was totally strange. My eye started to itch, then got all hot and I ran to the bathroom to take out my contacts to find that my eye was nearly swelled shut. This was about lunchtime on the Monday so I spent the rest of the trip without my contacts and hiding behind my sunnies. I went to the doctor the next day who was, surprise surprise, not very helpful but gave me some drops, told me to keep up my hayfever pills- even though they were quite clearly having no effect at all that weekend and sent me on my way.
Tintern Abbey. The one place name I can remember.

please God let it be sunny

This weekend is a Bank Holiday Weekend so Monday is a day off so instead of going to Amsterdam as originally planned, 5 of us are driving to Brecon Beacon in Wales and hiring a cottage.

The weather could well turn out to be totally pants but I'm really hoping for some sunshine so that I can go for long scenic walks. And if not, well our cottage has red leather seats, a fire and we are stocking up on tea, books, boardgames and booze so fun shall be had no matter what the weather. I am however re-waterproofing my hiking boots tonight. I'm also taking a half day off work so that I can go to the library to stock up on books and bake muffins so we have weekend treats.

Ole! Andale! Ariba!!!

I have (finally) managed to score a free press trip from work. From May 8-11 I shall be riding the gravy train all the way to Valencia. Initially I was excited because it was a free trip to Spain, then I was excited because I get a free day diving over there, then I was excited because of the amazing places we will be taken to eat but right now, I'm just excited to see the building. Yep, my architectural geek has asserted itself and I'm gagging to get stuck in with my camera because the complex where the exhibition is taking place looks AMAZING. Check this out for cool pics of the place. I am drooling.


Oh yeah, and another highlight? One of the people I've had to contact is, in good Spanish fashion, called Jesus. Those who know me well will be able to hear my cackle of glee as I compose emails starting, "Hi Jesus" or ending "thanks Jesus". Aah it's brilliant.

I have also now got my own brand spanking new wetsuit. It is so pretty. Or at least as pretty as you can expect a wetsuit to be... It arrived at the office yesterday so of course I had to try it on to make sure it fit and boy oh boy was that a nasty sweaty experience. Those things are HOT and getting in to them is a struggle at the best of times but still, it had to be done. I, of course, look nothing like the lady in the picture but still, is pretty, ja?