Happy Halloween

I was catching up on a backlog of blogs (in the time I don't have at the moment) and saw a link on The Daily Monster to Monster Go Away Spray. The Daily Monster blogger was, justifiably outraged but I had to check it out:

Monster Go Away Spray

Most children both younger and older will at one time or another be afraid of the boogie man, ghosts, monsters, spirits and even the badly behaved house elf. Monster Go Away Spray was created by a mom to help her children get to bed and go to sleep much easier. Simply spray your child's room, the closet, under the bed and anywhere else monsters hang out. You can do this ritual with your child before bedtime or spray their room ahead of time and let them know the coast is clear. Many children have the gift of being able to see the spirit world, so it is important to never tell your child that what they are afraid of doesn't exist. But together you can asks the spirits to leave and create a safe and peaceful sanctuary. A light spray on their pillow will ensure a peaceful nights sleep. Ingredients are all-natural and include essential oil of French Lavender, Roman Chamomile and Italian Mandarin Orange.

This is definitely one way to deal with kids being scared of the dark and things that go bump in the night but I must admit that when the time comes, I will be able to deal with this issue in a more Pratchett-like fashion. I remember reading, I think it was Hogfather years ago and Susan, the daughter of Death, was nannying some children and two issues got raised.
1- the monsters under the kids beds or hiding in their closets were there as they had been created by the parents. "If you don't brush your teeth before you go to bed to horrible XYZ monster will come to get you."
2- Susan's way of dealing with the monsters was to walk in to the room with a large baseball bat (or discworld equivalent) and smack the &%** out of it. When one of the kids came running out to get her

And should we even start on the Monsters Inc take on things? All I know is that I will definitely be taking the 'stand up for yourself' line of approach and hope that any kids of mine are precocious enough to follow my lead. And I guess even better than the ass-kicking approach would be the Daily Monster/Monsters Inc method.

hanging on by a thread (and some superglue)

Today the stress has hit the fan. My days left here are numbered and I'm starting to feel it, I'm in my final fortnight of work and, true to the laws of Fate, it's our busiest fortnight in a long time and my boss was off sick today and I myself am fighting off a cold. Usually, burning off stress and clearing my mind isn't a problem. Minor levels of stress can be baked or doodled away but for this kind of variety, I usually hit the gym or, even better, the climbing wall. Unfortunately, having literally hit the climbing wall last week, I am banned from figuratively hitting it for another week. And I miss it, I really really really miss it. Aaah well, I'm sure I can de-stress some other way.

Just call me OneStitch

I was lead climbing last night on a route with 2 shelf overhangs and peeled off just under the 2nd shelf. I fell and unfortunately it was just the wrong distance and I landed just below the first shelf and although I had my hands up to save my head (not the face!), my knees were just at the wrong height and my left knee clipped the edge of the shelf as I swung underneath. I thought it would just be horribly bruised and I'd need ice but when I pulled up my pants there was this massive gash. My poor belay buddy blamed himself for giving me a crap belay but really, it's just one of those things. 10cm more less and my feet would have been on the wall and 10cm more and my knee would have sailed underneath.

So we headed to Charing Cross Hospital A&E and I was in and out in about an hour which has to be a record. Sadly I only have one stitch and some superglue to show for my efforts and annoyingly I'm out of commission for a week. And taking stairs is a pain in the, well, knee.

And of course I documented it but to keep gore to a minimum, I've done a montage of my latest adventure. Needless to say I have more pics. And excuse my manky thumb (chipped nail polish and I had just been climbing) but I needed something for scale.

I wish I felt like this every day

Canterbury- UK stylz

Last weekend I went to Canterbury with my friend and her parents. Despite the pouring rain and occasionally very gusty winds, it was very picturesque.

These bits of graffiti on a local monument just made me laugh. People choose some weird things to scrawl on buildings.


Nightclub?!?!
I'm not sure if I want to know what this sign means...


This picture is almost a family in-joke but I had to put it on. it's a tribute to my sis.

I like the way this dude looks like he's curiously peering out of his alcove.
Ok, is it just me or does this totally look like Wesley in his man-in-black phase from TPB?


Not surprisingly, I have an issue with religion and and the glorification of martyrdom but I'm not going in to it here. (Because it's Friday and because I can't be bothered.)

I think this is where people get baptised/christened? I have two main issues with this structure, the main one being that it isn't centered properly. Is it wrong to find this annoying? If it were my church and I had to look at it on a regular basis. It's not centered AND it's not straight. It'd do my head in.
This is my other problem with the structure. How terrified would you be having this hanging over your head. All I can think of is 'sandwich'...
One of the best aspects of the town were the awesome shop signs.