Sugar And Spice And All Things Nice

I saw on Kim's blog a link to some idiot's report on female bloggers. Apparently we are nice and hot and friendly and everything. And the female bloggers at BlogHer already know about blogging so he didn't have to explain what blogging was to the little ladies.

Ian Betteridge has already picked out a few choice sentences for us to marvel at, but here is one of mine.

BlogHer this weekend created a lifetime of memories. Women are different from men, here I am at age 51, and I've still got more to learn. They come in all ages, shapes and sizes and they came from all over the world.

No shit Sherlock!

Man Of Steel

For my sixteenth birthday I went to Niagara falls. I had asked to go there are my birthday treat on the off chance that Superman would turn up, ( I had watched that segment of Superman II with narrowed eyes) Of course he didn't and I didn't risk throwing myself into the Niagara river just to prompt his arrival.

I loved the first two films of the 1970s series so I was nervous that the new Superman Returns film would not live up to my expectations. However I had no need to be worried. As soon as the opening bars of John Williams original theme tune came out of the cinema's speakers a broad smile crept across my face and I was again the eight year old who fell in love with Christopher Reeves' Superman

Bryan Singer's Superman is a triumph although constantly referencing and riffing off the first Christopher Reeve film, his never feels like a pastiche, he has moved the story along and firmly positioned Superman as the only essential superhero we need bother about for the next few years.

He got a fine performance out of Kevin Spacey who stayed on this side of scenery chewing and the film is better for it. Brandon Routh was superb as both Clark Kent and Superman for me he filled the boots with ease but he also gave continuity through incorporating some of the quirks and mannerisms that Reeves gave Superman. Posey Parker brought her comedic skills to the part of Kitty and the supporting cast was uniformly very very good.

I could quibble - the McGuffin that explained away Superman's missing years was a bit weak, if you are a fan of Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics as I am, there was enough to get your teeth into but if you can believe a man can fly then you an forgive the odd cape flapping in space. Margot Kidder's Lois Lane was more feisty and believable as a go getting girl reporter than Kate Bosworth's she was too fragile and just a bit wet to really carry it off but I have a feeling that is partly how the part was written. But those are just quibbles in order to be picky even the little dodger who played Lois' son wasn't nauseating.

We didn't leave the cinema with our coats over our shoulders one arm in the arm pretending to Superman but it was a close run thing.

Overall 9 and 3/19th sloth points out of 10.

Woosh

This time last year I went to an airshow at a families day at the local RAF base. I blogged about it and lamented that I was not able to get any photos because my camera had died.

I was able to go again this year and managed to get Bex a ticket as well. This time the camera didn't fail, I didn't get sunburnt but it was perhaps a tad too warm.

The Red Arrows were the highlight of the afternoon as they were going to give a full display and they got about a third of the way through it until suddenly they stopped. According to the RAF guy who was providing commentary two "intruders" had strayed into their exclusion zone one seems to have quickly bimbled out again but the other, a glider, wasn't contactable by radio and was ignoring the visual signals that the Arrows were giving him. They flew over to where he was and left trails of white smoke I'm guessing this is an agreed "bugger off signal" he didn't bugger off and they ran out of time/fuel so it was curtailed.

Grrrr

But I managed to get some photos which are here.

Portsmouth

I had to go to Portsmouth with work yesterday, a factory visit, I've only just got back within the last hour, work wise it was a useful visit, it always nice to meet some the people I've only ever have spoken to over the phone and being a bit of an engineering groupie I love going round the factory floor.

However the major plus points to the visit from a purely selfish point of view

1. The hire car we got had air conditioning.

2. The hotel we stayed in had air conditioning in the rooms

3. Most of the factory was air conditioned.

Last night we went down to Gunwhale Wharf for dinner, It was almost sunset as we walked towards the restaurant and I was able to get a couple of nice pictures of the Spinnaker Tower and the sunset.



There was quite a spectacular electric storm last night, we watched from the restaurant last night, we thought we would be in for a very damp walk back to the hotel but the storm missed us.

It's just stopped raining here now, the sun is trying to come out so the humidity is rising again, my hair is in ringlets and my eyebrows are trying to curl.

TMMSASTMQ'CIWA

Save it, Smiley, originally uploaded by nytejade.

Becky and I were chatting on IM this evening about useful shorthands for showing that something is amusing. Bex had just published the second in her Tranny and TV series and it's rather good I think, I thought the first one was very good as well and commented "snigger" as that's what I did when I read it, but that didn't go down too well as Bex thought that I hadn't really found it very funny.

The problem is that with over use of various shorthands on the internet to show amusement it takes a ROFL!!!! to know that you've raised a slight smile. What is needed to reverse this inflation is a campaign to insert a few TLAs and phrases to cover from stoney silence to injury threatening laughter. Thing is I'm not having much luck coming up with any ideas. "That Made Me Smile And Snort To Myself Quietly 'Cos It Was Amusing", doesn't really roll of the tongue and as a TLA it's shocking.

Wrongness

Wrongness
Originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

This computer game "Hooligans - Storm Over Europe" is just wrong, I've not bought it or played it but there was enough about it, the blurb on the back, 8 "missions" across Europe, the premise organise your own hooligan gang, the red and black packaging to make me feel very ick.

It could be a delightful humourous send up of yob culture but somehow I doubt it.

Recovery

A rather wan Simon is now back in bed, still recovering from the Summer Ball we went to yesterday/til stupid o'clock this morning. We spent the evening drinking (although no pimms this time), dancing, eating, socialising and bashing the stuffing out of people on the dodgems. I have a doozy of a bruise on my inner right knee from a crash, it was great.

Thing is such fun takes its toll on the body and when we woke up this morning Simon looked as shabby as I felt not so much the hangover, although that was there it was the general tiredness and out of syncness with the day.

It was a smashing do which is really thanks to the staff there, they worked like stink to make sure we had a good time whilst managing to keep their sense of humour and seemingly enjoying themselves.

Performing highlight of the night was the Kylie tribute act, she was very good vocally, had legs that reached all the way to the ground exceptionally pretty with a lithe body. She also had a mesmeric effect on a lot of the men, the dancing was not pretty as so many of the audience were not concentrating on what they were doing.

But today we have been mostly doing nothing except sleep bimble about the shops and eat replenishing food like sausages and baked beans the alternative to the bacon buttie.

Too Darn Hot II

Too Darn Hot

It was/is hot today, the air in the office felt like over-brewed coffee. The supermarkets seem to have been stripped bare of salads and ice cream, so I will have to cook tonight, pasta tuna something I think. And it's thunderbug season, they get inside flat screen displays, one of the little creatures got inside the LCD display screen on my camera yesterday. And, of course, they can get inside smoke alarms, all this week we've watched people from different buildings troop outside onto the grass in front of my office as they wait for the fire brigade to turn up to confirm that it was a false alarm.

So far my building has been spared this but it will happen to us at some point. Be interested to see if the Kylie Calender comes out side this year.

It's too hot to think as well I was trying to review a document this afternoon but had to give it up as a bad job when I realised I had read the same paragraph about 6 times. We have some Americans visiting us this week, you would think that they would be used to this heat and be able to take it in their stride, after all they are from Arizona. Well they are used to this heat but only from the comfort of air conditioned offices, cars and homes none of which they have access to here. But bless them they are bearing up stoically even though they have given up all pretence of dressing smart for the office as it is just a bit too warm.

Today I Took Some Photos

Today is Non Photography Day, supposedly. Rubbish I say so I took my camera to work and took photos on the way home.



I took photos I'd be meaning to take for a long while but before I had always felt a little self conscious about doing so. At first I felt a right prat taking photos of various signs and objects but then suddenly my awareness of what other people might think totally disappeared and I found myself happily photographing away. One of the things I had been meaning to photograph is this below.



It's going to be a "community centre/learning zone/space" type thing, all very worthy and worth support I'm sure but visually it is foul, it's trying to ape the rather lovely Georgian windows across the way with having "sash style" windows in the second floor but they've done it all wrong with nasty plastic double glazed casement windows and they've paid no attention to symmetry. On the ground and first floors they have a totally different style, the entrance it different again. I can't think of a nice thing to say about it.

Honestly it is shite.

And what is the point of the coloured tile squares?

Gah.

/rant

More positively I picked up our tickets to the Summer Ball. This time last year I was pondering on how to get to it, bus or taxi and a certain Ms EnVérité volunteered to act as my chauffeur, this year she is coming with me. Who'd have thought it?

Today, I Have Been Mostly

Helping my Mum get rid of an old bed. Well the mattress for it the base was far too big to get into her car. We took it to the tip along with an old cheap rocking horse my niece used to play on when she was smaller then we met Simon for lunch in the local pub. We had a slight detour into the lingerie shop next door to the pub, they were having a closing down on retirement sale, which is a shame as it was a smashing, if expensive shop. I managed to pick up this little piece of nonsense for £5.



After lunch Si and I went shopping for a bbq tomorrow, so we bimbled round Wilkinson's grabbing the basics, I was sorely tempted by this on the basis as a Tardis although it looked small it would be able to carry everything seeing as it's bigger in the inside than on the outside, but according to the Wiki entry it's a fictional thing so it couldn't.



Plus at £6.99 it was a bit much for a joke.

Grandfather Was A Spurs Fan

Jo's post today reminded me of a story my late Grandma told me.

My paternal Grandfather was a Spurs fan, he was a season ticket holder back in the 1950s, in one of the areas where you stood of course. My Grandmother though thought that perhaps as her sons got older that she and my Grandfather should spend some more time together of a weekend. Apparently my grandfather thought about this, so the next home match he got two tickets in the seated area for himself and my Grandma on the basis that if she enjoyed it she could go to the matches with him.

They watched a game against Chelsea, Jimmy Greaves was still playing for the blues. Grandma was fairly unmoved by the experience. She didn't get her own season ticket.

Pretentious, Moi?

I went down to a meeting at the contractor's today, don't worry I won't bore you with the details as it is of no interest to anybody cept those who were there, I have those sort of meetings, not smoke filled rooms where decisions that will change the world as we know it happen, but the humdrum boring ones that most people have to suffer.

The buffet lunch was excellent though, which was nice.

On the way back as I wasn't driving, I don't do driving I learnt 20 years ago, passed my test and have only driven a handful of times since. I don't enjoy it and can't afford to run a car. Anyhoo as I was saying on the way back I started to think about the construction of language, really it is absolutely a bit of genius that switching the order of a few words can change something from a statement.

I can have an ice cream

Ich kann ein Eis haben (school girl German w00t!)

to a question

Can I have an ice cream?

Kann ich ein Eis haben? ('O' level Grade C not bad eh? - I'm dyslexic remember and took this exam 20 years ago)

That is bloody genius it really is, maths doesn't have that level of subtlety well not at the level everyone can understand. I am quietly gobsmacked at the cleverness of it. Now you may all be saying "Get over it Jane it's nothing" but I'm a scientist by training and not versed in the ways of linguistics so I'm easily impressed by this.

That's all I wanted to say really.

And In Other News...

Huge co-ordinated bomb blasts on the Mumbai (neé Bombay) commuter train system happened today, at least 170 people killed. According to the BBC no one has claimed responsibility yet. India has had her fair share of home grown terrorism over the years, so it could be domestic incident or it could be linked to the "war on terror". It's a ghastly ghastly act whoever has done it and we should not ignore it or treat it as being less newsworthy because it hasn't happened in Europe or America, which we have a sad tendency to do.

Validated

One of my pictures made it into Flickr's explore



I've been posting pictures for over a year now, it makes me feel as if I've arrived. I'm not sure where or what I'm supposed to do now I've got here but I've arrived.

Happiness?

I was doodling while on the phone to a colleague yesterday. When I finished the conversation I found that I had drawn this. I think I may need another holiday or something! I don't have anything against the person I was talking to as far as I'm aware. I've never drawn a pistol before cars, flowers, houses, abstract squiggles and jagged shapes that sometimes end up looking vaguely phallic are more my style. I hate to think what a pop psychologist would make of it.

Henna Hands

Yesterday was my works BBQ. Normally this event drags somewhat after waiting for the food, bitching about those who have gone up for seconds before some people have had anything to eat, the list of fun things to do run out. However this year my colleague Ramela brought in some henna and was doing "tattoos" for anybody who wanted it.

Honestly it was like face painting for grown ups, Ramela worked like a slave as she had people queuing up to be done for most of the afternoon and she had a constant audience of people watching her as she did her designs.

I had my hand done, natch



Once the henna mix had dried to almost bone dry I had to wrap my hand in clingfilm cos the heat couldn't escape easily the sweat and warmth was supposed to make the henna take better. Ramela told us that when this is done properly before weddings it's done last thing at night and the bride to be goes to bed with her hands sealed in plastic bags. Mine only lasted to about 5pm, so it isn't as dark as it could have been if I had been more patient.



It's exceptionally pretty and should last about 2 to 3 weeks and then can have another one done, perhaps!

It's Raining

But if you are canny enough you could probably dodge the drops.

Norfolk Crunchy Pudding

Simon "made" our pudding tonight, I stuck luck in Sainsburys getting a load of rump steak for £3 per kilo so most of that is in the freezer the rest is in Si and I. That was nice with a wine sauce, mushrooms and tomatoes. About an hour ago I heard Si rummaging about in the kitchen, when I checked he wasn't up to something I offered assistance I was told I wasn't allowed in. It's an old secret recipe he couldn't share with me he called it Norfolk Crunchy Pudding. And very nice it was too creamy yet crunchy, the colour of Norfolk sand but with fewer shells and bits of seaweed.

Coke Fountains

Very cool. And probably sticky.

Experience Over Hope

On the way into work this morning I saw the workmen with their forks and spades getting ready to dig this up.

Ouch Revisited.

I was going to blog a picture of my sunburnt foot to gain maximum sympathy and milk the situation for all its worth but when I took some trial shots it looked so horrific I've decided not to inflict it on you all. It really isn't pretty.

If it hadn't been for the sunburn the day at the beach would have been perfect, we got there early and could park up close to the beach we had our choice of where to sit the only other people there were two sets of couples who had slept on the beach overnight. The water was cold but just about bearable after a while it felt positively warm (OK perhaps not warm warm but not like ice water).

Every time we went for a dip though it was the same, stride up to the water confidently then the first icy wavelets cover our toes and we would stop.

"Oooh, that's a bit cold that is" shuffle forward

"nah it's really too cold" then the I'm not going to be shown up by a mere 6 year old feeling would kick in as a small child would run past us into the waves with a maniacal giggle so we would stride in til the water was covering our thighs.

"I don't know what you are complaining about it's not cold" stride stride stri... you know that feeling when icy cold water first hits the lower part of your torso? It's the one that takes the breath away and make you wish that your legs were about 6 inches longer, well that's the point where you might as well get completely wet so first time in I tried to rugby tackle Simon. It didn't work and I sort of slide down his torso into the cold briny water. And then you get used to it, it's not that cold and we swam a bit, floated on our backs looking at our toes and people watched. Then it would get it a bit boring so we would get out, marvelling at how warm the shallow waters are at the edge.

Ouch

Went to the beach today. I, we have red glowing feet and sore shoulders. Opps I never burn when abroad only at home, seem to misjudge the sun every time.

Possibley the Gayest Germany Fan In The World?

IMG_0865
Originally uploaded by elhamisabel.

All credit must go to Elhamisabel for this photograph