Ain't it great when a plan comes together!

Sorry about the delay in updates, things went a bit nuts there - well here are the pic's of my (almost) finished room..

It feels like my space now and is a lot more chilled to be in! Not a bad transformation huh?

On the work front, things are going well at the Red Lion, only 4 weeks left there now.

I took the job with PEEL after they took out having to do DJ/Tech, made me DSM/Lighting Tech which means I am in the main lounge all the time and I still get to do the lectures and talks etc which should be interesting. I leave on the 31st of March. During my time onboard (if I am there for the entire contract 'til Nov 8) then I will visit the Canaries, Scandanavia and Russia, The Med and then down to the Red Sea with a few weeks in Egypt - I am sooo chuffed - especially about the Egypt bit! :))

The down bit in the last 2 weeks is that Vix has broken up with her fiance. Feel's a bit odd; at least it wasn't really a shouty/screamy break-up.

Frasier for the working girl!

Well, Over the last few days I've made good progress, and my viewing (in the background!) of choice has been series 1 - 4 of Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond S1 and 1-3 of Red Dwarf. I find it much more effective than music for some reason!

Old Bathroom:
I papered the window area. and finished painting everywhere. Now just have a few finishing touches.

My Room:
Have papered the window area and the painting is almost done (just the woodwork to neaten up. I decided to paint the window area, and it paid off. The room looks a lot brighter. My colours finally went on (I LOVE the blue - although I pity the poor sod who tries to paint over it!) and now there's just the shelves to put up and the desk area to build!

Painting progress:

One of those days..

Have now felt vaguely depressed for about 2 days.. I hate it when I get I like this, I start obsessing about things and getting all het up over nothing - sometimes it sucks being female!

Managed to take my Jujitsu trousers to work instead of my apron tonight, thought I'd lost my key but then found it in the pocket I'd already checked 5 times, got stopped from using the food till - "until I've been shown how" Exactly how does he think I managed on Saturday when there was only me on.....? Ah well, it was still a good night and I do enjoy working there.

On the work front I am currently considering the P.E.E.L offer of DSM again. Spoke to M today, a guy I trust and get on with, who explained things well and did a good job of boosting my self esteem. He said they had created the role for me because they wanted to invest in me and help me with my career - wow, now I feel pretty humble!

Have progressed well with the decorating, paper now over the polestyrene in the bathroom and the final layer of paint on the oerh walls. Progress pic's soon.

Update:

Old Bathroom: Put Polestyrene on the outside wall, painted the other walls (I did not choose this colour! - we wanted something lighter but there wasn't - not in Kitchen & Bathroom, anyway!)

My Room: Polestyrened the window wall, hung my first piece of wallpaper (well lining paper) EVER!

"Look It's straight and everything!"

And then I did the rest of the room except the window area.

Decorating patience!

Well here are the progress reports:

Old Bathroom:

Stripped all the wallpaper and Polystyrene (what was the obsession with that in the 70's?) and found 2 messages - one from the owner in 1974

which reads:
"If you think this paper is bad you should see what we had to remove"

and one from 1984 written by my Dad:

which reads something like...
"Well, It really lasted. Hope this does as well"

But unfortunately due to the damp and the state of the walls:

the messages had to be plastered over (masterfully done by one Rob Thompson) but I'm going to start my own one to keep with the tradition!

This evening I cleaned and then painted the half of the bathroom ceiling that is prone to damp with special paint. The paint is thick, it has to go on with a brush - and for some reason the ceiling has this SHARP pointy texture thing going on so IMAGINE how much fun that was!

My Room:

Started off like this - lovely Forever Friends wallpaper (remember that?) from Vix's era in here (about 10 years ago), One wall of corkboard, clouds on the ceiling and a textured wallpaper everywhere in between!

Stripped the wallpaper (and of course the Polystyrene) off and it resembles this...

Chunk of plaster fell out of the window recess in the process....

but Rob fixed it - and some other holes that had mysteriously appeared!

So this evening I have been doing this....

My colour scheme is victorian based. I spent ages looking through various paint catalogues, sorted out a scheme

and then had to get the two colours for the walls mixed by then nice man in B&Q

SO full steam ahead tomorrow with polystyrening (how do you even say that?!?) the walls back up....now....I wonder how that's done......

ELR Overload

That's "Everybody Loves Raymond" my show of the moment. If you want a great laugh then follow this link to the video outtakes/seconds section of Ray Romano's Website. The "Regrets, he has a few....." clip is fantastic!
Seconds (as you will soon discover!) are where the cast get to do some different one-liners in response to scrtipted line - a few of the clips in the gallery are outtakes i.e what happens when the second is just too good! :) Also check out the one in the bottom left hand corner 'Ray and Debra, doing "more stuff" together':)

If you need a giggle.....

I was just scouting through Blogger's "Blogs of Note" and found these boys - scroll down to the Gallery and pick your song - so purile, and sooooo funny :)

All Change

Well, the Broadband is fixed - sort of! It took several phone calls (the most recent taking 25 minutes!)and fiddling around with the line and the modem, but almost normal service has now been resumed!

Since last blogging:

*My 25th Birthday happened, it was fun, got cool stuff had a nice evening at Emma and Adrian's with some folks form church and kicked a** at Disney Trivial Pursuit (Can you name the cat up the tree at the beginning of "The Incredibles"?....I did - I know, I'm a freak :) )

*Also for my birthday, the mother, the sisters and I went for a fab meal at the "Red Lion" in Earlswood. I picked it because the serve Hunter's Chicken..mmmm.. my favourite (Chicken served with BBQ sauce covered in Bacon and cheese....mwa!) so we had a fab evening with Red Wine an open fire and, oh yeah, I got a job!

*Last week I started at said pub as a waitress, something I've never really done before but I do a bit of bar work now and again so I feel at home. It's a lovely place to work and keeps me busy!

*Also on the work front P.E.E.L rang me to offer me a job on the 'Celebration' over summer (well Feb-Nov, that's a LOOOONG summer!). It's a new position involving DSMing 2 evening plays (which replace 2 of the more usual musical shows) and a day time play, as well as sorting out the various lecturers/speakers who will be on the ship giving presentations. It sounded great except for the fact that I would have to DJ/Tech for 2 months before I started it and then I would be DJ/Teching when I wasn't working in the main lounge. I feel that I've served my time as a DJ/Tech and really can't see myself going back to that position....in fact....I can't stand the idea! SO I turned it down....First time I've done that - kind of a scary feeling!!

I was SM on the 'Destiny' before we left and I thought I did a pretty good job, I really enjoyed the work and loved the responsibility so I'm not sure I really should go backwards in the line of command. I'm going to call this week and have a chat to the Top Bods who were on there at the end with me and see what's happening.

* Have completed decorating the 'New' (it's about 12 years-old now!) bathroom, stripped all the paper in the Old Bathroom (now just waiting for plasterer) and started on my room. I've dismantled my huge, but v.useful corner workstation (coming to eBay soon!) and am creating one with various shelving parts from IKEA. Have planned a sort of Victorian colour theme for the walls and bought all the paint etc. Also fitted a new light and Junction box (yes, it's been tested by an electrician!)for my room so my Mum will no longer complain about the fact that I have three bulbs on, on a dark afternoon!

So all in all have been pretty busy! Will have some photos up soon of the decorating progress but also hoping to spend some time updating my Morris Minor Blog before I go away again.

Our Broadband needs a break!

Haven't posted in what seems likes an age! mostly to do with actually getting to enjoy Christmas and the New Year and partly because this pain in the a**e of a computer keeps disconnecting itself from the internet, oh, and when you attempt to reconnect it tells you 'there's no Dial Tone'.....It's a Broadband connection - what the hecks it's problem????!!!??? (any ideas gratefully accepted!)

I was hoping to put a few photo's up from the festive time but the computer won't allow me the liberty of time, but I had a fabulous Christmas and a great New Year (Murder Mystery at Adrian and Emma's - riot!!) and now just waiting until my Birthday on s`aturday and that's all my celebrations gone for another year ;)

Logic Gaming at FASCO rocks!

Was checking out some blogs via various routes and came across this game:


You HAVE to go check this out. It's a point and click style mystery - the idea is to get out of the room by finding objects and working out the clues. Amazing design with flash player and so addictive. WARNING: You will need a good 30mins to an hour spare. I played this room and then the Viridian room - next onto the Blue Chamber!
Load the English Version then click on the title screen to start the story.

The "URL" clue doesn't work - HINT: 1994

If you need a tip then just leave a comment on this post.

Week going well so far. All Christmas cards written, most foreign ones posted (held up most of the cue in the post office buying stamps for various countries!) and presents wrapped. Enjoying various Christmas "do's" this week - all church related - fabulous!

The Lurgy cometh

I have been ill for roughly the last 4 days. Caught the rather dislikeable sickness bug that is going around the wilds of Wythall and Hollywood at the moment, so spent most of Sunday in bed unable to move, eat or even drink water - which then leaves you with a stunning headache. I also developed backache not sure whether it was the bug or just me lying there but I have to say that I haven't felt quite so pathetic in a long time. I'm just waiting to get "The Cold" now....bring it on....

I'm enjoying this life of leisure so far. I went to see the new Harry Potter film with Mum, Vix and some of Mum's friends. It was good, although due to the length of the film vs the leangth of the book quite a lot of the non-essential plot gets missed out. Visually stunning, packed with action and I have to admit to shedding a few tears at the v. well handled ending. My favourite scene is in the Great Hall when Harry, Ron and Hermione are studying and asking about dates they are taking to the ball - Alan Rickman doesn't have a lot to do in this film - but this is truly his finest comic moment!!(although I'm going to have to chec in the book to see if that actually happens!)

I've been to see various folks, done some Christmas shopping, had a trip to IKEA with Jo and we moved my room about - no matter what you do to it it still reembles a box with a window!- started to organise a work placement/visit and got various bits of work for the next couple of months.

I have 3 Christmas "Do's" next week - 3! and they're all for Church related groups!!