Fire and Ice

Last night I read the funniest and most cringe-worthy thing I have EVER read. Unfortunately it’s not for sale so you can’t read it, it’s a sort of one-off. A manuscript, even. It was one of my earliest journals, covering 1986-87, the years when I was in 9 th grade and then graduated onto High School. So pretty formative couple of years, really. I’ve been doing some sorting out and found a whole lot of fascinating memorabilia (of which I should write in my blog later, really) but this journal probably was the best thing. I flicked through it before going to bed and was laughing and embarrassed all at the same time – it was like watching The Office. It’s amazing the amount of detail I put into this thing. I wrote nearly every day and recorded pretty much every single thing I did, what my friends did and even what scores I got on exams. It was like looking at my past, and I remembered people that were so important to me then but I didn’t even remember. I was surprised to read...

I've just entered my previous post into Babel Fish and BOY is it funny! It's actually funnier than the original one I wrote and it really, really lost it's way near the end, where it's come up with stuff that has almost nothing to do with the original words. Obviously, automated translators can't cope with slang and are hilarious when translating metaphors literally... so if you're a translator I can definitely say that your job is safe, at least for a few more decades.

(With apologies to those that don’t speak Spanish…) Es raro escribir en español. Desde aquellos primeros diarios que tenia yo a los nueve años, siempre he escrito en Ingles. Como que es mas fácil, siento que las palabras fluyen mas fácilmente y no me tengo que preocupar mucho por los acentos! Luego me cambie a un país en donde se habla Ingles y obviamente mi uso del español se redujo drásticamente. Era todavía más fácil seguir mis diarios en ingles y cuando comencé este blog, pues ni siquiera le pensé y siempre ha sido en Ingles. La verdad es que el Ingles es un idioma muy fácil para mí. Tengo prácticamente el mismo tiempo hablándolo que el español y en cierta forma conozco mejor el Ingles por mi educación y por el hecho que tengo más de 10 años de vivir en Inglaterra. Si voy a escribir algo, prefiero hacerlo en Ingles… …pero a la hora de hablar, el español es más divertido. Los modismos, las frases y hasta las maldiciones se escuchan mucho mas divertidas e interesantes en ...

... and it was awesome! I'm happy, tired, stuffed, hungover, the proud owner of new shoes and music and with a mind full of memorable moments. All I can say is that friends are worth more than their weight in gold. Friends, good friends that you can be yourself with, are rare, and time spent with them is definitely good for the mind, the heart and the soul. I love every single one of them and even the ridiculous distances between us will not change that - because good friends live in our hearts and will always be there when needed.

For a long time know I’ve been a little bit sad that I am so far away from my oldest, truest, bestest friends. They all see each other regularly, have the best times, can still catch up and talk about nonsense, shop together, have dinner and do all those things that we all take for granted. I’ve been feeling like I didn’t really know what I was getting into when I married and moved abroad. This weekend though will go someway to address this: I’m going to Madrid where I’ll hook up with two of my oldest friends – all of them from Mexico – and we are just going to be silly together, catch up, gossip, shop and do all those lovely things. I really can’t wait! Seeing my old friends always fills me with energy and makes me feel that actually the world isn’t that huge a place. Sure, I can’t be there every single day but thanks to the Internet I sometimes feel like I am… and the time I do get to spend with friends becomes totally quality time with no distractions: no work, no chores, n...

It wasn’t that long ago that I got myself a new mobile . After a while of trying to learn how to use it, I finally got it and actually quite like it – especially the fact that I can browse my Facebook while on the move. It does have some annoyances (mainly that some features are hidden or under strange menus so I can never find them again) but in the whole it’s a pretty cool phone. But yesterday out of the blue the phone stopped working: it wouldn’t make or receive calls. At first I thought that it may have somehow lost some settings but after a while studying the O2 site and my phone’s instructions, I was none the wiser. I even got myself into a crappy mood because I hate it when things don’t work and I can’t fix them. Today I decided to take it to the shop. I mean, the phone is an O2 phone, bought from an O2 shop and I’ve been an O2 customer for, like, ever so surely they could help me? Boy was I wrong! I’d totally forgotten that I live in the UK and the customer is hardly ...

Sometimes Disney songs surprise me by how deep they can seem: We can reach for the stars we find along the way Dreaming as we learn to love everyday Promise you will take my hand As tomorrow comes, we'll go on. They can also seem surprisingly romantic even though the song itself isn’t used in a particularly romantic setting: We'll go on growing closer through the years Moving on through the good times and the tears Ever on another thousand circles around the sun A new life has begun The two of us as one We'll go on. If you don’t already know what song this is, it’s “Promise” which is one of the songs that formed part of the Epcot Millennium Celebration. I believe this song played after the main Illuminations were finished and as guests were exiting Epcot, in the dark with the country pavilions brightly lit and Spaceship Earth glowing up ahead… so it is a little romantic but the song is surprisingly tender and loving. I wouldn’t be surprised if people have us...

You know another great thing about Sex and the City ? This show gave curly hair a sexier image! Think about the time when it first hit our TV screens: I think everyone wanted to have straight Rachel hair and we spent hours with straighteners and hair dryers trying to achieve this look. For some girls this came easily as they were naturally blessed with poker-straight hair but for some of us it was a bit more of a challenge. But it was the fashion and we all suffered for it! But then came Sarah Jessica Parker and all of a sudden having curly hair wasn’t a fashion disgrace – in fact, it could be the opposite. You could see that the catwalks now had models with curls, magazines suddenly had pictures of girls in less-than-straight hair: curly hair was vindicated. I myself have wavy hair so, to be honest, it could go either way. It isn’t terribly difficult to straighten it but it does take time and it is quicker to get it to go curly. I hadn’t really embraced my curly side since...

Running isn’t something that comes naturally to me – I have to work at it and fight my natural tendency to be lazy. There are three main things that motivate me to get out there: The desire for sunshine and to be out on a lovely day (which makes treadmill running extra-hard) The knowledge that I need to exercise to get fitter and to lose some weight, especially if I don’t want to go on one of those restrictive diets The need to take some time out and listen to my music I really can’t control the weather (I've tried) and the improved fitness takes care of itself once I’m out there, so the one thing I can control 100% is my music. As long as the MP3 is charged up, that’s one less thing to worry about and very often, the choice of music is what pushes me through a less-than-great run. So what music do I listen to? I’ve written a little before about my eclectic music choices when I am running. But what does my playlist actually look like? Well, I’m actual...

This morning I arrived at my desk at work before almost everyone else and, after filling up my water bottle, took a drink. The little red tip of my bottle fell onto the floor and I briefly saw it bounce on the blue carpet after disappearing. When I looked for the lid, it was nowhere to be found. It is bright red and should stand out against the blue carpet, not to mention that the office is very tidy so there aren't that many places to hide. Well, I've spent the whole of the day trying to figure it out: where is that little red cap? I've had a real good look around and even checked my clothes and all around but nothing. I saw it bounce on the floor - I'm sure I did. As it's now totally disappeared I think that it may have found a 'window' into another world and it's now sitting there, unable to return to our world. It's the only explanation!

I went to my all-day crop yesterday in Olney and had a very enjoyable and productive time. There was such nice atmosphere there yesterday and we all chatted and gossiped and created amazing layouts as well as trying some very yummy cakes) I worked mainly on my Florida album which focuses on all the other things we did while down there in January except for the marathon (because as you know that is the subject of a separate album ). Some of the pages I worked on yesterday are below. I'm trying to stick to a very limited supply list for this album, which makes the job easier as well as creates a unified look. So the patterned paper is mainly DCWV ( Pocket full of posies ), the cardstock is both Bazzill and DCWV , and the chipboard flowers are Maya Road . The Journaling is on Seven Gypsies cards or using Autumn Leaves fantastic journaling stamps. I also used letter stamps from Autumn Leaves and Rusty Pickle and even some Heidi Swapp ghost letters . This first one is simply showing ...