Still here and happier than ever in 2015!

Well here we are nearly half the way through 2015 and not a single blog post to be seen from me.
 Well really - what a very poor show!!!  ;-D
Back at the start of this year I made one single resolution (that's one more than normal) and it was to be more selfish.  More selfish with my time where it concerned people who sapped the life from you, more selfish with myself round people whose endless negativity drags you down, and more selfish in pursuit of a lasting happiness for me.
That is not to say I immediately set off on some sort of hedonistic crusade and forsook all my friends.  In reality only a few things changed, but key was deciding I deserved more of my time.  So to that end; and this is all a bit of a roundabout way of saying it, blogging has taken a backseat along with a few other things.
So what have I been doing?  Applying for work, a little bit of temping, some sorting out of the house, and (this is the biggy) telling the man I fell in love with 22 years ago how I feel!!!  Now that was somewhat scary, but it was a gamble that paid off.  Turns out he feels the same, right down to liking me back 22 years ago.  Who knew??!  (We were both far too shy to do anything about it then.)

The Scotsman on the ancient
clapper style bridge at
Postbridge on Dartmoor.

Now the practicalities of this are not exactly straight forward, which is why I've never admitted it to myself before, let alone him.  He's in Aberdeen.  I'm in Exeter.  These are more than the Proclaimers famed 500 miles of walking apart.  Doh!
He came to visit for a week and with that time together we both realised we were more sure of this than anything before, so we will make it work.
We had a fab week, even though the weather wasn't all it could be, and his friends have already been asking when he's transferring down here!  That's all for the future though.  In the meantime I'm just as happy as I could possibly be, and it's truly wonderful.

So in other news; I have been doing some more temping and am currently on a 2 week assignment as a telephone receptionist.  In between calls though they are happy for me to potter around on the t'internet hence me taking the time to write this post.  Pretty decent of them I'd say.  :-)
On Friday I attended 2 interviews through a different temping agency and, (wait for it) have definitely secured at least one of the positions!  The lady from the agency is calling me back with full details later but apparently they came back with a big 'yes' to me after my interview.  Which is nice considering I'm very out of practice and was physically shaking going into it!  Perhaps a little more faith in myself wouldn't go amiss!  This may mean that I can't get up to Aberdeen as soon as I might have wished to but I will have to wait and find out as the company in question was advertising both 6 month fixed term contracts and permanent positions.  Exciting stuff though, none the less!
One of the other major decisions I have taken is to give up the allotment.  The friend I was helping bowed out at the start of the year and I have come to realise that a full plot on my own is just too much.  Instead I want to concentrate on the much neglected back garden at home.  Although small it's plenty of space just for me and has the advantage of not requiring me to tramp along the road with tools or a wheelbarrow en route to do a bit of digging.

Unsliced bamboo shoots

Otherwise I've been busy in the kitchen - a lot of noodles have been consumed recently as I've been getting right into the Cheung Fun (flat rice noodles in rolls) they sell fresh in my favourite Chinese
supermarket.  I also discovered recently what bamboo shoots look like before they're sliced - crazy huh!
My family came to visit for the annual Exeter Festival of South West Food and Drink.  Saw many lovely things, sampled some of them and bought some cheese.  A lovely time had by all.

Bonus find

Look what I found on my way into work.  I love blue glass too.  How fab was that?!

This image found on-line here makes me chuckle inside every time I think of it - really cheered me up yesterday after another day of evil office 'politics' - AKA back stabbing.  Is it really so much to just want to get on with my job?  Anyway - this is currently my 'go-to' pic to brighten my day.

Another rather wonderful find was at the continental market on in Exmouth last weekend.  A cheese bus!  How fantastic - I think I may have found my true calling.  :-)  We stocked up on cheese and also got some rather lovely olives, toulouse and merguez sausages (him), geranium soap (me) then watched the rugby in a local pub.  A weekend of win.

It's been a while...

I haven't posted for ages!  Slack!  All I say is I plead busy-ness.  Got sent to Brighton for work last week for 3 days.  Nice to catch up with some work peeps I haven't seen for ages.  Blimey it was nippy though but at least the sun came out.

Also had a visit home to Dorset for Ma's birthday.  Had a little peek at big sis's allotment and a rather nice meal at The Thimble Inn in Piddlehinton.  A pub with it's own stream round the outside! 
Outside a different pub I spotted this.

I'm intrigued to know what 'pie' pie is I must say!
I'm looking forward to next week as I've booked it off work and have a list as long as at least both of my arms of things I want to get done round the house and in the garden.  Fingers crossed the rain holds off for a few of the days at least!

Pre-loved beauties, some bargain foods and post #300!

Well I'm safely ensconced back home now after finally being allowed out from the hospital last Monday after getting into theatre on the Sunday for my second op in the late afternoon.  Not much to report since then as necessity has dictated I have done very little as standing about is on the banned list which means most cooking / baking activities are curtailed.  I have been falling back in love with bulgar wheat though having got 4 x 500g bags of it in my latest Approved Food order for the princely sum of 99p.  What a bargain!!  And as it only requires soaking in boiling water for 30 mins I don't have to stand there cooking it when I want something to eat in the daytime and the Chap is out at work.  Incidentally if you haven't come across Approved Food in your frugal wanderings then check them out.  They sell discontinued, end of lines, change of packaging and out dated stock which changes constantly.  The postage can sound a little steep as it starts at £5.25 but that covers up to 25kgs of goods so it's the kind of place to shop when they have a whole bunch of items you'd like.  If there are items you can get in the case deals; as I did with the bulgar wheat, then all the better.  I also picked up a load of pasta, various sauces and indian meals, cat food, tofu, 12 pack case of cous cous (also 99p!), crisps etc etc and my favourite; 1.9kg of Bisto veggie gravy granules for £1.49 - that should keep me going for a while as it makes 25 litres!!!  This is just some of the items I got as I've already started using various things and packed away others but it gives you an idea.  My order came to £29.74 in total including the postage - I got a little discount on that as certain items carry a P+P discount.  Full price for these items is £87.52 so that represented a saving of just under £62!.  Not too shoddy at all.  :-)
Anyway, the point of this post was to show you some other bargains I got from our local charity shops on one of the few forays out of the house I've been allowed. 

 Cast iron griddle pan - I'm especially pleased with this as I've wanted one for a few years now but as I wouldn't use it overly often I can't really justify spending £20 or £30 on one so when I saw this in perfect nick for a mere fiver I snapped it up.  Coincidentally I've also been running an idea for a sandwich with griddled halloumi through my head in the last few days (as a possible entry for this months 'No Croutons Required') so this was a truly serendipitous find.
The gorgeously coloured glass vase is for my mother, it's truly beautiful made of a mixture of blue and green glass fused together and blown into this sort of swirled bauble shape.  This was a whole £3 and is perfect with nary a scratch or mark of any kind, not even on the base.  I thought I might see what pre-loved items I can spy for chrimble pressies for the family this year, in addition to home made goodies.  For the last few years we've had more of a home made / token gifting theme as we're all of the age now that we have houses full of stuff pretty much.  That said this piece obviously does fall into the 'stuff' category but my ma loves glass pieces like this so I immediately thought of her when my eyes alit upon it.

Finally some wool - yarn - whatever it is.  And needles.  Knitting ones.  Though they're the wrong size I've since discovered.  Tsk!  Being of a somewhat ambulatory challenged nature at the moment I felt that perhaps the time had finally come to learn how to knit, even if only in the most basic fashion.  I want to make myself a hat and for the last year or so have been gently getting around to it.  I spied 2 balls of this rather pretty graduated grey soft wool/yarn malarkey and equipped myself with these and what I erroneously thought were the correct size '8' needles indicated on the label.  Apparently not.  That referred to the 8mm size not a UK size 8 which is in fact 4mm.  Obviously.  (There's 3 sizing conventions commonly in use for knitting needles I've discovered so as a newbie what chance did I stand?)  Anyway that charity shop had a whole box full of different needles so I plan to visit again on the morrow on my way home from the latest doctors appointment and have a rummage for a bigger set.
Finally - the more observant amongst you may have noticed a certain alluding to the fact that this will be the 300th post on my blog.  It should be rather more by now for a blog that's over two and a half years old but I have been somewhat slacker at posting this year.  As we enter autumn and the nights are drawing in again I feel hopeful that this may change and I can shake off the edge of general malaise I have felt around my spirits for the last few months now.  As one who has been dragged rather deeper by that before I have no wish to revisit it so am doing my utmost to be resolved to do more, make more, bake more, plant more and last but very definitely not least, keep trying to change job as to quote my beloved Firefly, my current one is 'damaging my calm.'  So - a small pat on the back for post #300, and thanks for joining me here whether you've flitted past by accident or are one of my small band of followers.  And a cheering image taken on Saturday during one of the many downpours we've been having.  Pretty huh?

Quick bit of crafting

I know I haven't been in evidence for far too long (over a month - I think this must be my longest gap yet) and I'm somewhat annoyed with myself for that.  All I can say in defence is that work has been hideous, chaotic, overly-busy and massively under planned for by the powers that be.  Grrrr....   Now - I will get round to posting the Scilly Isles trip up - some good pics (I think) but for now here's a quick little purse revamp I did the other morning when I woke up at silly o'clock and couldn't get back to sleep.

Do you remember my pretty purse I made using Ma's sewing machine - I was ridiculously pleased with myself over it. 

Well, a year has passed and it was looking rather more sorry for itself.  The satin fabric starting giving out along the bottom edge then just frayed hideously, the zig zags came loose and finally I recently decided something needed to be done. 
In the back of the second pic here you can see the old top I had decided to upcycle to be the new purse.  Sadly the zip had gone on this but I think the fabric's far too pretty to just dump it so wanted to find something to use it for.

Well, a little bit of cutting round the purse, sewing along the bottom edge and sides of the resulting rectangle then stitching the envelope thus created onto the top edge of the existing cotton 'under-purse' as neatly as poss and ta-daa!!  Cost even less than the last one as no power other than my own was used in it's making and it reused the existing zip and cotton backing.  (Incidentally - you're quite right and I'm sure that 'under-purse' isn't widely recognised as a descriptive term but hey - you instantly knew what I meant right?)

Not too bad for a 5am job eh?  :-)

Hob nobbing with the royals...

The queen visited my work place today!  I am one of the many people working on the University of Exeter Streatham campus in Exeter itself.  (They also have one in Falmouth in Cornwall and another in Exeter called St Lukes.)
For the last 2ish years they have been redeveloping the centre of the campus with what is called the Forum project – an all singing all dancing space with lecture spaces, study spaces, shops, food, banks etc etc etc.  Oh and lots of glass, some trees and a rather spiffy copper roof we saw in this post.  I work in a building pretty much slap bang opposite so we were right in the middle of the action with snipers on the roof and a massive (and loud) sound stage positioned immediately outside our front door!
The visit meant the day consisted of bouts of work interspersed with rumour of her arrival time, routes she’ll use and much standing around waiting; flag in one hand and camera in the other.
I’m not really much of a royalist although as I’m told it they bring a fair few tourist dollars.  However it was a nice thing to have been there and in the thick of it today.  ‘Nice’ in that peculiarly indefinable British way of being proud of someone but too embarrassed to show it and won over by what is in essence any one of us but for an accident of birth and a damn big car.  

There was also Prince Philip who is so far beyond politically correct I have to admit to finding him hilarious.  Anyway – it was a far more fun way to spend the day than my normal working 9-5.30 is plus the sun came out and I got a free ice-cream from one of the new Forum shops.  So all good.  J

Quick update and a *phew*

Well I've just had my PDR at work and all fine, no surprises and actually feeling somewhat positive which is no small thing in itself for me recently. I got myself all stressed and worked up because I just do about these things; even though I know I am good at my job, without sounding up myself. Anyway - tizzy over. Now just gotta walk home in the rain!

Late nite at the office...

...aka depressing as f*ck.

Choice - either stay even later on a friday night when you're really tired / bored / reached saturation point of work for the day or - leave now - YAY and however - come in at the weekend. BOO!!

I'm opting for a couple of hours at the weekend, really can stand it no longer now. Sure there's a pint with my name on it somewhere...

Musing - is WM wussing out? Hmm...