Bill's Leaving Do

On Friday we left the office and went for a few drinks for Bill's Leaving Do.

We went for a few drinks, then a meal, then another few drinks. I was quite bad (drunk) by about 9 or 10 o clock. All the others played pool, while I danced to the jukebox by myself (embarrassing or what?). Then we went to The Barn. The dance floor was a virtual ice rink of spilled drinks and I kept slipping over and falling on my ass. Then I nearly went to sleep in the corner while my colleages played fuseball (remember the football table that Joey and Chandler had in Friends?). This girl came over and yanked me up and said "get up cause the bouncers will throw you out". Then I regained my "second wind" so to speak and carried on dancing. In the end I ended up outside stealing my boss's chips! We got a taxi home and I was nearly asleep between my boss and Bill (the guy who was leaving). Then they were trying to wake me up by shouting "where do you live?", but I made it home safely and slept it off on Saturday morning.

Quick and Easy Mini Rant

I picked up the latest copy of Quick and Easy Magazine last week. Because other members of the Margaret Sherry Cross Stitch Group are on subscription, they had already received their copy and forewarned others that the magazine cocked up when they printed the charts for the MS Ballerina Hedgehogs. There's three ballerinas but only two charts printed (one is duplicated twice in the mag).

So over the weekend and for the best part of the week we've had a rant war going on the MSCSG about who has actually managed to get in touch with the magazine to tell them they've cocked up and to request a copy of the missing chart in the post. You can read more about this on San's Blog.

It seems that phoning the magazine is the best option - everyone who did so seems to get straight through, but I resorted to email solely. The email address printed in the magazine is wrong (another mistake) and bounces straight away, another address that we found just times out with delivery and you get the message back 3 days later as a bounce, on my third attempt I found the correct notify address of q&eproduction@futurenet.co.uk after another member posted this on the group and now I got a real response back and I may just get a copy of the missing chart after all. What a palava!

Stash Alert!

Been doing loads of extra hours at work this week, trying to bing the accounts up to date as April 30 is the end of our financial year. Starting work at 7:30 in the morning and not leaving till 6:30 severely curtails into your stitching time, but before I left the office this evening, I did an online order with Sew and So.

Goods purchased and order totals
****************************************************
Code Name Quantity Price/Ea. Total
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9213 014 Very Fine (#4) Braid 1.00 £2.60 £2.60
12898 085 Very Fine (#4) Braid 2.00 £2.60 £5.20
9241 102 Very Fine (#4) Braid 1.00 £2.60 £2.60
6221 00150 - Grey 1.00 £0.98 £0.98
6213 02001 - Pearl 1.00 £0.98 £0.98
6278 03022 - Royal Tea 1.00 £1.06 £1.06
6245 03034 - Royal Amethyst 1.00 £1.06 £1.06
6225 03041 - White Opal 1.00 £1.06 £1.06
9779 MH13002 - Margarita Amethyst 1.00 £1.69 £1.69
9829 MH13052 - Very Small Teardrop Amethyst 3.00 £1.69 £5.07
9830 MH13053 - Very Small Teardrop Emerald 3.00 £1.69 £5.07

So far..... that's a total of nearly £30 and that's just the stuff I need for the Mermaid Queen....

16847 Standard Bulb: 75 Watt: Edison Screw 1.00 £2.29 £2.29
10050 14" x 14" Plastic Snap Frame 1.00 £11.02 £11.02
35097 Bee My Friend 1.00 £11.11
14388 Size 28 Gold Cross Stitch Needles(3) 1.00 £1.41 £1.41
19688 Beading Sizes 10 - 13 1.00 £0.64 £0.64
Sales Tax: £9.42
Shipping: First Class Recorded Post: £2.24
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total: £65.50

Whoops!

But still no choice - have to buy all those Kreiniks and Mill Hill things online, I don't even know if there is a supplier for them anywhere in Cornwall. I've got to go to St Ives as it is just to buy and odd strand of DMC... and I can just imagine the look on the proprieter's face of Cornish Stitch Designs if I asked him about buying Mill Hill Treasures - evenweave is a new and big deal to them!

The Bee My Friend kit is a Margaret Sherry design. It's the one that AngelSan stitched recently. I just loved it so much that I couldn't resist any longer - got to keep my Margaret Sherry Cat Stitch collection complete - haven't I?

Interestingly enough, I had a bit of trouble finding Bee My Friend on the Heritage website, he's not listed under "Margaret Sherry Cats" - but under Millie, the little girl instead. Do you see Millie on this chart? He's clearly a cattitude!

The dance of light and shadows...

A weekend's worth of stitching on Venice produced this...

Biggest Waves Ever Seen

After staying in all day yesterday and having a massive stitching session on Venice while I watched The Osbournes, Con Air and season 9 of the X-Files. At least I achieved something: Venice is nearly done - just the sky and cloud patterns to stitch now. I'll take a pic and post it later on tonight.

So after feeling a little cabin fever after staying in all day I decided to venture out today so I left about 8 this morning, stopping off at MacDonalds for Breakfast before I drove to Newquay. It's about an hour away from Penzance. There was this bus riding my tail most of the way there. It's bad enough when it's a string of cars - but a bus - honestly! Still I made it in one piece and found a place to park.

Even though I've been in Cornwall a year already (yes it's a year now and counting), I've not visited Newquay in this time and have never explored it before. To say that I have never been there is not true, for Sean drove me there in August 1999 (eclipse week). We drove there, drove through the town, he got pissed off cause he couldn't find anywhere to park and then we left. So much for Newquay.

I started exploring my going around the top of the headland near the harbour and eventually found my way down on Fistral Beach.

Fistral Beach Webcam

I can clearly see why Newquay is the surfing mecca of the UK. The waves today must have been about 6 or 7 feet high. I've never seen bigger waves, even the ones hitting St Ives last July during a storm weren't this big! I sat in the downstairs beach cafe bar and read the paper before walking back to the town, and getting slightly lost coming back through the golf course - I kept my head down! FORE! lol

Newquay town center is not as bad as I expected - I've been told that it's the "Margate" of Cornwall, it's a little bit more upmarket than Margate. But the amusement arcades are the same. I had not been there more than 10 minutes when I was lured into an arcade with 2p shove machines - my one gambling curse! lol. I spent £3 in 2ps over the course of the next half an hour or so, but I did manage to get 2 bagpuss keyrings and a pig key ring out of them so the £3 wasn't completely lost.

Then I walked past a Somerfield supermarket. The first one I've seen in over a year. I went in there and stocked up on three multipack bags of Golden Wonder Salt and Vinegar crisps - I love the taste of them and most shops don't sell Golden Wonder crisps anymore. So I went to Newquay and bought: Crisps! How strange. lol

I then searched for somewhere to eat lunch and eventually found a Shark Bar cafe that was doing Sunday lunches. They were doing roast beef so I had that. The meat was a bit tough - but the potatoes and vegetables were nice and there was plenty of everything - too much really because I couldn't eat it all and had to save room for my carrot cake pudding!

After I had eaten I walked back down to Fistral beach - this time finding the road which makes getting there so much easier. I did intend to sit and do a bit of stitching on Venice - but it was a little windy - and I just couldn't take my eyes off those huge waves.

I'd love to be able to surf myself - one of my favourite movies is Point Break with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, and after watching that I "get" the whole surfing ethos and the thrill of the ultimate ride - but I can't do it myself, and even trying is probably going to mean I drown myself!!!

• first of all I'm extremely unfit
• a poor swimmer
• I have a phobia about my head going underwater (probably because I nearly downed as a toddler in a paddling pool).

I think I might try body boarding when it gets a bit warmer. This is just floating in on half sized surf boards in the shallows - much less energetic and dangerous.

The Fixation with Digital Cams

Ooops.... I confess to raiding Ursh's webshots (a pic took during our weekend away)

Nigerian Scammers

My boss the Twat nearly got money scammed this week by a Nigerian money scammer. The story is that he lets out a holiday apartment in Marazion during the summer and this guy had applied to rent it out for 3 weeks in May. Nothing dodgy about that right? And the guy who wanted to rent it out was supposed to be a Reverand of Nigerian decent, born in Australia? Starting to get strange here isn't it?

Well truth is stranger than fiction, for then the payment for the rent on the apartment was made via a cheque from his "sponsor" and the cheque was for over and above the rental on the apartment, 50% over in fact. Then the scammer wanted a Western Union cash transfer for the balance. It was at this point that the alarm bells started going off. It sounded so suspect. But if I hadn't heard about this sort of thing happening to other people on Watchdog and told my boss about it I think the dopey twat would have handed over the cash, then the dodgy cheque would have been returned as being fraudulent and he would have been £1600 out of pocket.

I had great fun last Friday with the Nigerian Scammer kept phoning up. I demanded that he provide a landline so we could call him back, he claimed he was staying in a hotel in Japan, but seemed to have an awful memory recall problem trying to remember where he was staying. Even when he did manage to provide a name of a Japanese Hotel (which he probably got off the net) and a number, the number still proved bogus.

You'd think that at that point he'd realise that we were on to him, cut his losses and do a runner? No, of course not - the scammer continued to phone the office at least 10 times during Friday morning and lunchtime, so I took great pleasure just cutting him off, or leaving him permanently on hold.

My boss phoned the bank and explained the situation to them. They said that the cheque wasn't due to clear until Wednesday anyway, and then surprise, surprise on Tuesday it bounced!!!! lol

On Wednesday, we got the following message from the Scammer after we'd told him that we would not pay him a penny until the cheque was proved not to be rubber:

IF THIS IS YOUR CONCLUSION COULD YOU PLEASE KINDLY RETURN OUR CHECK AND CANCEL THE BOOKING AS I AM NOT COMFORTABLE WITH THIS TRANSACTION WITH YOU ANY LONGER.
SEND THE CHEQUE BACK TO MAXWELL WITH THE ADDRESS PROVIDED EARLIER.

THANKS AND GOD BLESS.

REV GEORGE CRAIG



My colleage took great pleasure sending the below:

Look, you dopey TWAT, the cheque has already bounced. Now f*** off and leave us alone!

God Bless

Got to love that final touch!

;-)

Invisible Gulls

Just found a bloody spam auto-posted on this blog! What a cheek. Have had to disable the email-posting option now.

Anyway, the reason for this post: Tuesday night, I was just walking home when there was a white splat about 3 metres ahead of me on the path. I immediately looked up but there wasn't a bird in the sky. Do we have invisible seagulls now in Penzance I wonder.......

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week: Model Stitching

Have you ever been asked to do model stitching? Did you do it? If so, what was your compensation? (money, stash, etc.) If not, why not?

If you haven't done it, if you were asked would you? Why or why not?

I’ve never been asked personally to do model stitching, and I think that even if I was asked there would have to be a very large incentive to do it because it would cut into my own limited stitching time.

Lowery Stand

Here's a picture of my new Lowery Stand which I got from Jayne's Attic. Jayne was very helpful in helping me to choose which one I wanted, and didn't pressurise me into getting any attachments for it, even though I wanted one - her advice was, try it out first.

It was very easy to fit together, almost instinctual even, and it is so easy to use. It is great being able to flip your work over at to get at the back to fasten off a thread at the turn of a screw.

The design I'm working on that is attached to the stand is "Sparkling Waters" a Sheila Hudson design of the Venice canals.

I'm amazed that so many people have already commented on this post, before I even managed to come back and edit the original photo post myself. Thank you for all your lovely comments. If you are thinking about buying a lowery yourself, don't hesitate, they really help you with your stitching.

My Working Week - or my Boss the Twat?

The beginning of the week was OK. My Boss (for the rest of this post known as the Twat!) was off Wednesday and Thursday = AGAIN!!!! He's had about 5-6 foreign trips abroad already this year since January.

This time he went to Italy to watch that football match to support Liverpool, the match where all the riots were supposed to take place because of a 20-year grudge since the two teams last played together. Everyone warned him about going there - but he just ignored the warnings, which was very irresponsible as he had his seven year old son in tow to see the match too. Apparently the Twat turned up at the football ground's carpark, with face painted in the England Colours and his son decked out in the England kit and they were going to go and watch the game dressed like that!!! However, they passed someone who already had a face full of bruises and gashes and he finally saw sence, went back to the car, washed his face and changed his son's clothes.

With him being away at least the phones were quiet (but they absolutely exploded yesterday again with all of Twat's idiot clients wanting to talk to him and him continually avoiding them) and for the most part I was able to get quite a bit done. But one of the other IFAs is leaving the office and now he's in a flap to get the final things finished off - dotting the i's and crossing the t's on his finance reports before he goes. That's not a problem: the problem is that he shows up to the office in the middle of the afternoon with a full day's work ahead of him, expecting the admin support (i.e. me) to do the same when I've already been there for the best of full day already.

I ended up staying till 6:00 pm on Wednesday and 6:00 on Thursday because of this, I made it clear on Thursday that I just wanted to go home (I'm supposed to leave at 5:30).

Yesterday he didn't turn up in the office till 4:50!!! He came in plonked some folders on my desk that contained information for some letters he wanted to dictate. Then he went upstairs to his office and then started talking to one of the other IFAs. I thought "great" while he's destracted, I'm sneaking out! So I managed to leave at 5:30 yesterday - folders and undone letters still on my desk! Serves him right for not organising his time better. Bill's great fun to work with, but his time-keeping is most enfuriating!

Wednesday and Thursday evening Bill was in the office till 10pm. There have been workmen in the main street digging it up all week and making a hellova racket all the time (when I walk past them in the mornings on my way to work, I give them the fithiest of looks), and they turned the water off on Thursday night, so Bill told Norm on the phone today that he was there working that late and he couldn't even have a cup of tea.... then Norm just asked Bill why he didn't use the water from the water cooler???? DOH!

I have been considering booking a holiday this summer (describing the above, you can see why I need one): Cornwall is lovely, but I'm finding that it's usually a bit breezy for serious sunbathing unless you can find a sheltered spot out of the wind. How much I appreciated my grassy knoll in Marazion last year!

I'll be travelling alone - (no choice - there's no one else to go with me and I need a serious holiday), I want to make sure that I go to a place that I'd feel comfortable. There's quite a few places in the world that I want to go to - Egypt for example - but I don't think I'd have the courage to tackle that one by myself because of all of the arabic men hassling single white women. Tunisia gave me an idea what it will be like there.

I made some online enquiries this week and finally found a place that I've wanted to go to for ages the: Papagayo Arena Resort in Lanzarote. I've wanted to go here from some years to see the Volcanic Landscape. From the pictures I've seen some of it looks like the Lunar surface and other parts look like the deserts of Mars. Fancy riding a camel across the martian landscape? well you can here. Maybe this can be the first stop on my "Volcano world tour" as I'm fascinated by them.

As I've already been to Spain a couple of times (ok this is the Canaries - but the culture is the same) I feel comfortable to go it alone. It's a new resort that's opened up, all inclusive, there's even supposed to be a cinema there. I wanted to go here with Sean and he agreed to go in principal until he saw the prices, and that's after he promised me another holiday to make up for putting up with his spawn-of-satan kids in Spain in 2003. After the events of last year though, that never came to pass. However, the only flight I could find in June going from Exeter is 2nd June.

They won't let me go at work. I'm absolutely steaming about it (Look at how many holiday's my boss has already had this year!!) and because while it doesn't conflict with Hayley's holiday, aparently my Boss (or the aforementioned Twat) has agreed that I'm supposed to go up to Ray's Office and cover Linzi's holiday - without telling me!!! We've yet to have words about it, but I'm seriously pissed off.

I'm still toying with the idea though: fly out from Gatwick (via Newquay) later in June and go for two weeks instead of one and make it even more inconvenient for the office with me being away (I know what happened when I went away for that long weekend), the difference in the holiday cost is only about an extra 400 for the extra week, plus of course the Newquay flight costs which are actually cheaper than I anticipated. But can I leave Jade for two whole weeks???

And also my first WIP shot of the Mermaid Queen.

Took this photo this morning. It's my fourth WIP shot of Sparkling Waters by Sheila hudson.

Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week: Seasonal Stitching

Do you "stitch with the seasons?" (This could be reflected by the colors that you stitch with, the themes that you choose, or even that during your favorite season you stitch more (or less) than in others.)

I definitely stitch more in the warmer summer months. I think this is due to the availability of good light conditions. I noticed this so much when the clock's changed a few weeks ago, suddenly I wasn't coming home from work in the dark anymore, and instead of just pouring myself a drink and plopping down in front of the telly for the evening, I seem now to have more energy to want to do something else before I kick back and relax.

Of course, during the summer, I just love sitting out in the garden and stitching in the sun. This year I've already bought myself a big floppy hat adorned with a string of shells to protect my face and head from truly toasting. And now living here in Cornwall, I've got the option of doing this by the sea instead. I whiled away quite a few hours on the cliffs above Gwithian beach with a picnic and a portable radio and my Amalfi Coast project last summer.

In fact, even last week I was sitting on the Promenade this very Sunday stitching on my Venice project while the water lapped below me. I was really surprised when I looked down into the water as there were large 2" fish in the shallows. Someone later said they might have been mullet.

Reading back through my first stitching diary (now archived on Geocities) you might like to read about the lovely sunny day that my Paradise Island project went for a swim on August 23 2003.

Who is your inner european?

Your Inner European is Irish!

Sprited and boisterous! You drink everyone under the table.

Who's Your Inner European?

Thanks to Renee who posted this on her own blog. I'm not surprised at the result, I am after all half irish on my Dad's side.

Naughty Naughty!

What started out as a browse through my stash this morning resulted in a new start. Oooops....

I decided to have a look though my Silkweaver stuff for a piece of fabric big enough to stitch the Queen Mermaid on.... I did have a large piece of pale blue reflections which I put to one side, then I discovered a piece of Ocean (Reflections). Which is absolutely perfect for a Mermaid... wouldn't you agree?

The piece is only just big enough though 13" x 18" and the Mermaid's stitching area is 11.5" x 15" on 32 count, so it's going to be a little tight, but as the material is already serged at the edges they'll be no fraying to worry about.

Anyway after finding this piece, I had a dig under my sofa and found my two disassembled stitching frames - only to discover that one frame has a bar missing. I don't know what happened to it - I think it may be lurking around somewhere, I'm not sure - moving can be really chaotic to your stitching supplies, so be warned.

The next thing I know I'm reassembling the first frame with an allen key and tacking the "Ocean" fabric to it. Then without any conscious thought I started working on the Queen Mermaid.... the hands just did it all on their own! I swear!

I've only done about an hour and a half's stitching on the Queen so far as I was in St Ives most of the day and bought a nice windcharm to hang in the window.

I feel really guilty now about starting this piece as I still have so many other WIPs to finish off first, Venice, the Embroidery and Hardanger pieces and so many other things, not to mention that I'm due to start stitching the next Cattitude for the RR about now too.

Downturn in the Weather

Yesterday morning I went out wearing a summer skirt, top and cardigan, and came home v. v. cold. Tonight it's hailing ice particles..... what gives with the weather???

Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week: Speciality Stitches

What is your next speciality stitch?

It's probably going to be finishing off the Satin Stitch Needlework Bag that I started at Judy Dixon's Stitching Weekend Workshop. I also have the Lavender Spray hardanger piece to finish too. But Venice is taking all my stitching time at the moment.

I'll be forced to stitch Venice again in a few minutes. Battery is dying on the laptop now and there's no power outlet in the conservatory. Adaptor is inside anyway and I'm still locked out!

lol

Garden Surfin!

It's my afternoon off and I'm at home enjoying the sun in the garden. This wireless thing is really great when I can blog from the garden in the sun.

The Weather this morning looked pretty dismal, it was raining overnight, and just as I was about to leave this morning the heavens let loose again. It stopped raining pretty quickly though, but I still wore my cagual too work
for fear of another shower, but by mid-morning, the sky was blue again and
it has turned into a simply glorious day. In fact - what am I doing here
sitting here wearing thick black tights??? I'll get them off when I finish
this post and start working on the tan of my legs for the summer.

I went for a bit of a walk - just a detour really, on my way home along the sea front - it's a bit windy down there, but at least some parts of the garden are sheltered a bit from the wind. I bought some compost on Monday
and I'm going to repot my two fushias, they are only in 5cm pots and they
are now about 6 inches high.

On the stitching front, I'm still working on Venice. Made quite a bit of progress on it over the long Easter Weekend and I'll probably do some more work on it this afternoon - in fact I've got it in a bag on the ground
beside me. I might post a picture of my progress later on tonight.

Traffic Cones

From an episode of Red Dwarf -The Last Day:

KRYTEN: Is it just me, or is that cockroach shuffling too loudly?
RIMMER: Kryten, it's called a hangover. Don't panic.
LISTER: On a mining ship, 3 million years into deep space, can someone explain to me where the smeg I got this traffic cone?
CAT: Hey, it's not a good night unless you get a traffic cone.

Well, I must have had a good night - because I came home from the nightclub at 2:00 am carrying two!

lol

Stitching Bloggers' Question of the Week: Stitching Evolution

How has your stitching evolved since you first started stitching?

When I think back to when I was stitching my first kit, I look back in time and shudder. I was doing so many things wrong!

But as time went past, my stitches got neater - they started going all the same way for one thing - and I got better at following charts and patterns. Then I started to learn about the advantages that certain items of stash could give you - like gold needles that don't go rusty on day one of using them. I think the biggest evolutionary change was trying evenweave for the first time. Provided you have good eyesight, you don't want to go back to Aida after trying it out for the first time. And now, several years on from now, I know that there are so many types of special hand-dyed linens and evenweaves that make stitching on it a real treat and pleasure.