Just Me!! The Butterfly effect

There is something quite comical about the snippets one overhears while out and about, the half sentences, utterings of people passing by as they converse with their friends, partners, family. I always kinda put my own take on these snippets, like the woman who passed by in a cloud of perfume telling her friend? "It's so not happening" OK, so the pub bore asked you out? Better still hubby asked you to wash up?

Mostly they keep me entertained for all of a couple of minutes while the next snippet comes along or something else captures my vast and never ending imagination, until today that is, and this one has had me puzzling all the way home and am puzzling still (in between other more important things I might add) overheard snippet from a police officer to his obviously rookie charge " thats why I say always carry cheese slices" intrigued? You bet I am, what!!

Why would a policeman carry cheese slices with him on the beat, is this some new and infallable weapon we have not been made aware of? Is there a purpose for cheese slices other than placing them on toast? Or on the tops of burgers?

If there are any policemen out there, please put me out of this turmoil and explain to me what the cheese slices are for, because it has me beat.

Meanwhile I wonder if any of you lot can come up with a cheese slice scenario that would make carrying them seem sensible (or not knowing you lot )

You may (or may not) have noticed a distinct lack of morning posts over the last four days or so. I made a decision last week and on Monday I lay down the gauntlet so to speak and have been attempting to give up the mighty weed known as tobacco.

Armed with my trusty inhalator I have entered the fray, though I have to admit to the odd slide into a quick puff or two, I am finding that I want them less and less, they make me feel nauseated and dizzy and instead of perservering til it goes away, I put it out and dont bother, I want to do this and I know that I wont if I dont do it this way.

The inhalator as opposed to patches, the reason I chose it that way apart from the fact that I have tried patches and failed is that patches release nicotine slowly into your bloodstream over 24 hours, you then have the problem of weaning off the patches, so it is like a twelve week process, it only takes nicotine 4 days to remove its presence from your body, the rest of the craving issues are down to behavioural problems, the lighting of the cig, the times you had them, e.g. after meals, first thing in a morning. The inhalator uses nicotine cartridges that you place inside, when your craving for nicotine is at its highest you simply place in mouth and take a drag, much like you would with a cigarette, the amount you inhale is down to you and how hard you suck (behave boys!!)

This way you are combatting both sets of craving issues at the same time, behavioural and chemical, and to be honest a lot of the time just placing it in the mouth the same as the ciggy takes away the craving itself without actully taking any nicotine in.

Finding things to do is always going to be an issue, especially if you are out of work as I am, going out for walks is fine, but not when it is pouring it down with rain and a gale force wind blowing, so I have been trying to find all sorts of things to occupy myself with, omg isn't fcebook boring!! Parts of my family have just become addicted to it, well the games on it, zoo and cafe and farm, I have had a little play over the past couple of days, but I have to say, I would rather level my Druid!

So this is the reason that I have been AWOL, I wanted to give it a try before announcing it to the world, hopefully by this time next week there will be no slides back to the odd puff here and there and I will be smoke free

Have a good day

Sunday, a day of rest and relaxation, well mostly anyway.

I am making the dinner which we will have at 6-30pm because of son working til 6pm, I also went and bought all makings for sunday dinner in the very nasty weather we are having, gale force winds and torrential rain, a window got smashed across the road because they had it part open and the wind caught the catch and slammed it into the wall, that will cost them a bob or two! And of course trees are groaning and leaves are flying, and I almost was too, the wind though couldn't make up its mind which way to send me so I managed to keep both feet on the ground

I needed a relaxing day after the madhouse of yesterday, and the very long day it turned out to be, though much fun was had, when I got home and finally sat down after nine hours on my feet I realised just how tired and achey I was, nice long hot bath and some quality chill out time got me relaxed enough to have an easier day today without still aching.

And that is it for now, not a morning post I grant you, but at least it is a post

What sort of person is up and about at 6am on a Saturday morning? The sort that has been awake on and off since 2-30am, and then has to get up to make sure that the boy gets to work and that all his stuff that he needs is in his bag, and even makes him a cup of tea to take with him in one of those travel mug thingies.

It would seem that all is well in blogland again as we welcome back our intrepid reporter Juzzy and there is also the return of Neilonline, it is nice when wanderers come home

My week has been busy and today promises to be as busy if not more so, has everyone gone mad this year? I think it is the publics way of battling the recession and all the gloomy news that has been abounding for months, party season lets start it with a bang, there was an 18th last night and all I can say is that she is a very popular young girl, a lot of people have put a lot of effort into their costumes for the fancy dress, I know I have helped them choose most of them I hope that she had a great party, the costumes alone have cost a fortune!

And then there is halloween, which is of course today, lots of parties going on and even my own family are joining in, my son and his wife are going to friends and the ladies are taking the children out trick or treating while the men stay at home and prepare food stuffs and dole out treats to the people coming to the door, seems a bit back to front to me, but this is the modern way

I will have the house to myself and shall enjoy the peace and quiet that I dont get very often, it will be heaven to be able to sit and relax and watch TV on my own and I am looking forward to it very much.

And now I shall go have a bath and prepare myself for the final onslaught, all the ones that have left getting their costumes until the last minute, today will be mega fun

Have a great day

The beginning of the weekend, hope everyone has a great day

Running late today, white rabbits abound!

Have a great day

Experience is supposed to be valuable, but these days they dont look at your experience so much as your age and your value in monetary terms, for instance they would have to pay me more than they would have to pay a 17 year old that they could train to a degree and keep for maybe six months or a year. A 35 year old with less experience could also be paid less money and be kept for a lot longer, they would advise that she/he could advance within the company, carrot dangling, wheras they would look at my age and work out how much they would have to pay me and how long they might be able to keep me as the carrot would not work due to the experience.

Of course the fact that I have done four years of Uni also doesn't help though you would think that it would, it apprently means I am worth even more, except people dont want to pay it. With so many out of work in the area they can afford to be choosy, so underqualified for some work and over for others makes it hard to find that middle line. Trudging streets and constantly bugging employers doesn#t seem to work anymore than the constant barrage of applications I have made to the same places, of the few that I manage to get further than the bin, and finally get an interview it seems there is always something that doesn't work for them, I have great intrviews and no job, the last one was a really bad interview, and no job.

It seeps away your self esteem, your confidence ebbs a little more each time and you begin to feel inadequate, this affects your interviews, I know this happened last time, they asked me a question that I had difficulty in answering and that was it, the rest of the questions felt like hurdles and the confidence I felt at the beginning slowly disappeared, I wouldn't have hired me either. I know I could have done the job, the problem is that they dont, and they do interviews to gauge that, had they given me the chance I could have shown them just how good I am, but people dont do that because it is too big risk.

So now I take a deep breath and learn some more, another lesson in how not to get a job, and a little wiser we think next time we learn all we can beforehand, the problem is that they want more than they advertise for and how are you supposed to know that or what 'more' it is that they are looking for? And the cycle starts again, the season of goodwill is almost on us and it is possible that I may get a temp job somwhere but, when that is over we are back again to the same cycle, do you not take it because you fear it will make things worse or do you take it and hope that they might keep you on while at the same time looking for other work?

Ah well, someone out there is looking for what I can offer, and eventully we wil cross paths.

Hope everyone has a good day

T.T.T.Tuesday!

Nothing much happens on tuesdays does it? It's that day that is neither here nor there, Monday is the beginning of the week, wednesday is half way through, thursday is looked on as the day before the last day and friday is the last day before the weekend, but tuesday, well it is a nothing day.

I like tuesdays, when I worked it was the day that I was always raring to go after the rigours of Monday catchup's, it was always more relaxed than Monday and not dreaded as much as wednesday, not as hectic as Thursdays and not looked forward to as much as Friday, so Tueday should be the calm day, the day we all sigh and say 'well it cannot be as bad as yesterday' The day you can breath as all the weekend work was caught up on Monday and the rest of the week has not yet happened.

And next.

Helping my friend in her fancy dress shop has been hilarious this past couple of weeks, she does all kinds of fancy dress and party stuff but the emphasis at the moment is on halloween. You have to use your imagination here but some of our ladies costumes are made to maximise the ladies assets, short to the point of non-existence and basque like tops, with flimsy netting on the arms (if there are any arms) or fish nets on the legs. Now they are very beautiful, we have witches and devils and brides and fallen angels, we have mid length and long as well and Landers would have a field day in there . The other day we got a group of young people in, all in their early twenties, three girls and two boys, they were choosing something for halloween, a couple of the girls were easy to sort out and the boys knew exactly what they wanted, both the boys were tutting and fussing over the girls costumes, one more so than the other, I almost thought Landers had a contender for his queen crown

One girl could not choose, they looked and they discarded and they tried on and discarded, and there was one particular costume that was very flimsy, but pretty which was a ballerina which looked superb on the girl, but she worried about the shortness,in the end Mr Landers wannabe turned round and said "Oh my god girl you are harder to please than me and I am gay!' so immediately I turned round and said 'Well it will look lovely on you too' at which point they all fell about laughing, and it seemed to loosen up the poor girl. We did manage to find her a lovely costume in the end, after an hour and a half, and they all left with the promise of coming back in Decmeber for their party outfits.

We had a guy come in five minutes before we closed as he wanted a costume for his wife, he wanted the one that was in the window, which was the last one of that design, so we asked what size is she, Um! he said, so my friend said 'is she my size?' so he looked and said 'oh,no!' (my friend is a 14-16) then he turns to me and says 'take your scarf and coat off' what! (I wear my coat and scarf cos it is cold) so I did, 'that size' he says and then 'can you try it on for me?' imagine that this is one of the outfits I described above, basque top, flimsy skirt, But, we dont want to lose a sale do we? So I did, but over my jeans and top The guys was well suited and though it was one of our more expensive costumes bought it and went away happy, well he was smiling so I presume he was happy

My friend and I just looked at each other after he had gone and cracked up, 'right' she says 'in future you are modelling them'
'Only if you get fur lined ones' says I

So it has been a lot of fun, and given me something to do and gets me out of the house to boot

And now it is time to go and make myself presentable to the world, so have a great day and see you later

Monday dawns grey, cold and wet, another week and the last week in October, where has the year gone?

I had lazy'ish day yesterday, nipped into town more to get out of the house thn anything, nice hour out, but was cold and wet when I got back

I only really went to get a hot water bottle, yes I have succumbed to the cold that much, so what happened to the prices of them? Morrisons are charging £8.00 for a hot water bottle just because it has an animal cover on it, now admittedly it is nice, and yes I would have liked one but I cannot justify spending that amount of money on something to prop my feet on in the cold nights. Down the road I bought one with cover for only £3.00 not as pretty but i am not exactly going to be sat looking at it am I?

Prices seem to go through the roof at this time of year, of course it is hard to even find a hot water bottle in the middle of summer, but dont you think that the upcoming season has a lot to do with the price of goods from October to January? Come January sales that hotty botty in Morrisons will probably be half what it is now, along with many other things that you dont buy every day.

And of course come the end of the week and it is halloween, and while it is good for the place I have been helping out at, it is not good for old folks and pets, no more than bonfire night is, the constant knocking on the door, strangers in costumes, very frightening for some old folks, so if you are going out trick and treating, bear a thought for the poor old dear that just wants to sit and watch her soaps and be left alone, it is a scary enough time of year without adding to it. Though on the other hand there are the ones that treat it with fun, and will be waiting for the unusual visitors with bags full of treats,it is knowing the difference that counts. Just remember trick or treating is an americanism and some old folk dont understand it for the fun it is supposed to be.

What else, hmmmm, dont think there is anything else this morning, brain is kinda blank, time for coffee and get ready to go to town, hope everyone has a good day, catch you all later.