Let's talk about poo

Warning: this post contains a lot of talk about poo.

I'll admit that whenever I'm in work, I spend a fair bit of time in the loo (toilet). This is mainly because I seem to have a tiny bladder, and whenever I try to drink water I need to go almost constantly. On a somewhat sneakier note though, we're not allowed to use our mobiles in work, and the toilet trips do provide an opportunity to check my messages, and maybe send a particularly important text. I'm sure everyone does it.

Anyway, that's not really my point. This week it seems, I've been going into the toilets after someone has had a poo (purely coincidentally, I'm not some sort of poo fetishist). Now, I realise not everyone is as neurotic as me (I refuse to go for a number two in work) and fair play to them if they need to do this and can. I don't mind the smell too much, in fact a few people open the window too so that's quite nice of them. What I do mind is walking into a toilet cubicle and seeing poo smeared around the toilet bowl. Have these people never heard of a toilet brush? There is in fact one sitting right next to the toilet and it wouldn't take much to use it. All I'm asking for is a little consideration, it isn't nice cleaning up someone elses mess.

And I thought women were meant to be the clean and tidy ones...

New Job?

I had a phonecall today about a job. It's closer to home, so it could mean no more travelling an hour to get to work. It pays more money, which is money in the bank for fees for my next degree. It appears to be a similar type of work to what I'm doing now, and much more than that, it's permanent. I should be excited and looking forward to applying, but I'm not. I'm actually happy in my new department. I like the people I work with, and I feel part of a team, with goals to work towards. The work may be dull at times but the people definitely make up for it. I will apply for this job, don't get me wrong, but I'm not completely happy about it.

PS. It's pancake day! Go on, have a pancake, you know you want to. My personal recommendation is a bog standard pancake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and maple syrup. Mmmmmm.

The real pick of the fornight

As per my last post here is my blurb about a blog. I've decided on a fortnight because I think I'd be too lazy to do it once a week.

Very recently I discovered a rather unusual blog. I've put it in my links under "personal blogs" but this blog is different from the normal bog-standard personal blog.

L'undone is a blog detailing a specific time in the blog writers' (Lolas') life. It's a rather unusual episode which she has decided to focus on, and although it mustn't have been entertaining to live through, this blog certainly leaves you needing to know how the whole thing ends. I wont give anything away as to the details of this incident, because there's no way that I could write it anywhere near as good as Lola has already done. She's an excellent writer, which makes me a tad jealous. So go and check it out and see how it all began.

If you're not already convinced then I will leave you with some of Lola's own words about her story; "Here is a tale of high-weirdness, big love, cyber-crime and the mutual insane obsession of two people that never even met. This blog is the true story of how it happened."

Pick of the [insert time limit here]

Recently I'm finding myself browsing a lot more blogs than I ever have done before and occasionally I come across some really fantastic blogs. Now, while I do add these to my links at the side of this blog, I thought it may be fun to write a little blurb about some of them, as other than the categories I've put them in there is no real way to work out what they're about other than going and seeing for yourself.

So as a bit of inspiration for me (for when my life is so dull I couldn't possibly blog about it) I thought I'd take a pick of some good blogs and write about them in a post. I'll probably start with some of the blogs in my links, but if anyone wants to recommend a good blog to read, then I'm all ears.

I found me

I found me, or rather I found my blog on a review site. Here is the review if you fancy a read. I agree with the comments made and hopefully shall take some of them on board in the near future.

I'm quite pleased now.

The Biscuit Theory

While working in my new department at work I've developed a little theory. Take today for example, we had a workshop day over at our training building. Being at the training building invariably means tea (or coffee, for the weird ones among us) and biscuits are laid on in abundance for our breaks there.

So on to the theory. I feel that the optimum number of biscuits per cup of tea is three, making the cup of tea to biscuit ratio 1:3, plus or minus 2 biscuits, depending upon circumstances such as amount of biscuits on the tray in the first place. There were three opportunities during this day to have a cup of tea and biscuits, so taking the optimum number of biscuits this would equal nine biscuits consumed for the day (with a possible range of 3 biscuits to 15 biscuits).

My conclusion from this theory is that I'll never lose weight if I keep working here...

Just a quickie...

Please vote for Merys (I'm not a drain on society) in the love to lead competition for a brand spanking new laptop. As she is a poor student, she is currently in great need of one of these, so please get voting for her!

That friday feeling

Yesterday afternoon at about 15:45 (for those not in the know, that's when my working week finally comes to an end) I found myself wishing that my life could be a musical. Now, I'm not thinking that someone should make a musical of my life, because to be fair, that would be pretty dull, maybe apart from the poledancing bits...

No, what I mean when I say musical, is that I wish that songs would randomly play when I'm doing certain things. This friday I found myself walking down a corridor at work, on my way out of the building. The song I had stuck in my head was The Nolans, I'm in the Mood for Dancing. I couldn't help but think how cool it would be if people would start popping out of their offices to sing "do do do do do de de do do"

Well, share that friday feeling with me (despite it being Saturday) and have a listen to the song!



By the by, I'm hoping to get a new computer (not that there's anything wrong with my old one apart from it running Windows 98) but I'd like a new computer. Can anyone who knows a bit about computers recommend something? I've been looking at www.pcworld.co.uk, and I'm looking for something with 1gb of RAM, at least a 160 gb hard drive, costing around 500 quid give or take a few pounds. I've seen a few and can't make up my mind between them. Also I haven't a clue if I should get Vista or not, because I remember all the security flaws that were discovered when XP first went live. Help!

Zombie-fied

I am so knackered right now. It's been a long day. I've just finished putting together a powerpoint for a teaching session I'm doing tomorrow, which I agreed to do at last minute (i.e. today), so it probably makes very little sense right now. I'll have to check it again when I'm more alive.

Also I passed my AED requal, depsite forgetting to call for an ambulance, but suffice to say that if (god forbid) I ever had to use the defib in real life, I would be pooing myself so much that the first thing on my mind would be calling in the professionals.

I'm too tired to write more, so night night.

PS. I just had a thought, the entire country is braced for snow tomorrow, wouldn't it be funny if it didnt happen, hehehehe.

Bah

My hopes of winning the lottery have again been dashed, and this time I had actually bought a ticket...

Ah well maybe next year

Well it's been an up and down week. Best not to ask anyway.

As for the 2007 Bloggies, I wasn't on the shortlist, which didn't come as a surprise to me. But what did come as a surpise to me was that several of my favourite blogs didn't make it in either. Well, barr the amazing Girl with a One Track Mind.

Anyhow, I'm using this as a reason to find more funky blogs to read, so please do as I do and have a read of the nominated blogs and vote.

I'm off out now, yay I have a social life!

A typical night out

This is what happens when Lola gets tipsy and there are poles about. We should try to not let this happen in future as it leaves very painful bruises and aching muscles.

Hello all

This will be the last time I post as a 21 year old. In half an hours time it will be my 22nd birthday, now hands up who thinks I'm old *puts hand up*.

Anyway tomorrow I'm off to London with my family for a birthday weekend to remember. Shopping, theatre and drinking. You can't beat it with a bouncer.

Finally there's still a tiny bit of time left to vote for your favourite blogs in the 2007 Blog Awards vote for me, it's my birthday! I'm kidding, vote for your favourites while there's still a chance to.

Right all, enjoy your weekend, I shall be enjoying mine, even if I will be 22.

Bloggies

Just came across this: 2007 Weblog Awards. So vote for your favourite blogs as I know I will be.

As for how I'm doing right now, I had a bit of an upsetting night last night. Nothing I can't handle in the cold light of day, I just get on with it and put my brave face back on. But suffice to say I don't think discussing it further would help any. That includes the people who know me outside of the world wide web, I don't want to talk about it.

Anyhow, before the night turned bad I managed to learn a few new poledancing moves. I actually went upside down (with the help of a poledancing randomer), it didn't look good but it'll improve in time... Here's someone who's a lot better at me at poledancing, although I just learnt how to do the move she does at about 1 min 3 seconds, enjoy.

Happy New Year!

Well it's now 2007 and I'm still left wondering where the heck 2006 went. So I decided to find out where the year disappeared by thinking over what were the highlights for 2006 for me, the best times, the worst times and the plain odd times. Carmelo inspired me to write this after I saw his post on the topic sorry for robbing off with your idea, Carmelo!

This day one year ago started off with me at a friends house celebrating the beginning of 2006. By about 2am I had managed to fall asleep on the floor using my best friends leg as a pillow, I don't think he minded too much. I didn't sleep for long and soon headed back to my house.
Note: This is a strange parallel of this year, where I stayed at home, fell asleep on the sofa in the early hours and woke up and went to bed at 6am.

As I'm a january baby the next highlight for me was my birthday. I was 21 years old and for the first time ever I had an exam on my birthday! I survived evil exams but only just, and made a resolution to study harder for my next exams (which I did). The fun came roughly two weeks after my birthday, when exams were over and a group of my friends and I painted the town red. It was the first time I'd ever been into Reflex, and although I didn't swing round the pole on this occasion, I did pose on it, leading to a rather infamous picture... Later in the year I would play on the pole and it would lead to bruises and an incomprehensible urge to play some more.

In 2006 I was chairperson for Links (up until the summer anyway) and therefore had all the stress associated with running a division, plus that of being in my last year at University. My hair was slowly coming out in rather worrying clumps in the shower. However 2006 was the year I managed to get it together, and not only did the unit survive me running it, but I managed to cope with my last exams and dissertation reasonably well.

In Jan 2006 my Dad started the job of decorating the hallway and dining room, and I'm pleased to report it was finally finished in October/November 2006. Only several months behind schedule.

I attended the Grand National, one of the biggest horse racing events in the world. I went with St John, as there was no way I'd be able to afford a ticket. The first day of it I was paired with a friend of mine by the parade circle. Highlights include us standing still too long in the cold and then being unable to move our legs, getting a cuppa while a race was on and having to gulp it down as we had to get back to our post before they cordoned off the area for the horses to come back in, getting soaked in the torrential rain while talking to some police officers (they were wondering why they were doing this, but at least they were getting paid, damn them), and returning to the first aid post after aforementioned drenching, looking a bit frostbitten and getting a nice sit down and a cup of tea in there. Good stuff.

The second day I was on the other end of the grounds and was with the now current chair of Links (my vice chair at the time), we were given an AED and when we got called to a something where we would have to use it, I was nearly pooing myself. We couldn't find the casualty and we were running like hell while I tried to get a more definite location from control over our radio. We ran into my best friend (a paramedic) and then we found the casualty, the ambulance service were already working on him, and we got stood down, thank goodness for that. My mate was laughing at me later on saying he'd never seen me move so fast in his life. This was also the day when I "got arrested". We were walking a casualty back to the first aid post when all of a sudden I felt something stop me, I looked behind me to find that the strap of my first aid kit had somehow brushed against the handcuffs of a policeman and the handcuffs had snapped shut on the strap. The policeman seemed as embarrassed as I was, and handed the handcuffs to his female colleague while he searched for the key. Other St John members who passed by stopped to take pictures... (excuse the edited picture, I just thought it would not be a good idea to post a pic on the web of the police officer). The final day wasn't as eventful, which is surprising considering the actual race is on that day. Alas I had forgotten to put a bet on as usual. The winner was Numbersixvalverde, which to be honest I don't think I would have bet on anyhow.

The Links weekend away was a good time, we went to county Durham, and as usual, had a little walk, drank a fair bit, and did activities. This years activities were archery (I rocked) and a tree-top rope course which scared the hell out of me at first and then led to me and a friend of mine referring to ourselves as "tree whores" as we were straddling every tree going. I also amused myself by hanging upside down on a wire suspended high above the ground. No pictures of that unfortunately. Other higlights include having to put on a play for the rest of the group, using a bag of props we got handed. This led to some bad chinese food puns, Scooby Doo, partial nudity and a monkey called Bubbles, that's all I'm going to say.

I got ill, for one of the first times ever. I had flu just as my dissertation was due in. I got a doctors note and an extention, and as a result I've now got a dissertation that makes sense.

I got offers from all of the schools of pharmacy I applied to, and chose Manchester as my first choice. I deferred entry until 2007.

I again survived exams, but the difference this time was that I knew what I was talking about on them.

I started my brief job as a lab technician at a college. The job held such highlights of getting hopelessly lost on my first day (my sat nav took me to the right road but in the wrong area), getting to make fake blood, microwaving hearts and denting my car.

As you can see my now linking to blog posts, this is when I first started my blog. I've chatted to some fabulous people through it, and as you can see from my first post, I never imagined that anyone other than my friends would read it. So thanks to everyone who's either read or commented on any of my entries on this blog (and thanks to anyone who's reading this doozy of a post, it is a bit long). I'm looking forwards to reading more blogs in this new year.

I graduated with a 2.1. It was my first degree and I loved doing it, even though I played harder than I worked for the first two years. I think in the last year I made up for it. I'm slowly losing my ability to remember all the drugs I learnt about, but hopefully my books, notes and vague memory of this degree should stand me in good stead for the next degree. I sometimes think that it would have been easier if I'd have applied for pharmacy in the first place, but although it would have saved me time and money I wouldn't be where I am now in terms of my emotional development. I wouldn't have met some of my best friends ever. So although it has taken me longer to do what I want to do I wouldn't change it.

I went on holiday to Turkey for the fourth year running. I wont say much here except it was an enjoyable holiday.

I had an interview for the pharmaceutical company I now work at. I thought I'd blown it with my jet lag related nattering, but for some unknown reason I was taken to work in the QC department.

I attended Creamfields as a member of St John, and I can't really say more than what I already posted here.

I went on the course I did to become a first aid trainer. It was hard work but fun, with lots of staying up late and drinking wine while planning our teaching sessions.

I placed third in the "So you think you can blog competition" on the blog Theory of Thought. Many thanks to Thethinker.

I went to London to see Wicked, and The Last Five Years.

I had fun dressing up for Halloween.

I got really bad tonsilitis and moaned a lot about it.

A friend of my sisters passed away.

I discovered baileys irish cream brownies, and ate way too many.

I had a good Christmas. I laughed at my sisters expression when she opened what she thought was a 25 quid bottle of champagne and turned out to be a bottle of bucks fizz. I then later got to see her face when she opened the real bottle of 25 quid champagne. I got dvds a-plenty, ate a huge meal and partied in the evening.

I got taken to a casino for the first time, didnt spend a single thing all night, and made 35 quid from a tenner, not bad for a first timer. We also had a meal in china town afterwards at about 2am with salty rice, yuck.

Then we come to New Years Eve. We had a chinese so big that I had to open my top jeans button. Then we saw in the new year at home and watched most of "2006 most annoying celebrities".

2006 has been a fast year, but eventful. I've done plenty of firsts. I've been hurt, and hurt others. I lost my temper on occasion. This was the first year I became a redhead, and right now the red is here to stay. I've partied hard, worked hard, and also been incredibly lazy. I have grown into a more mature, slightly sassy girl, who can be sensible when she tries, but most of the time she doesn't want to try.

Happy new year everyone, I hope 2007 will be a good year for all.

(Thanks to all who have read this far, why not post a comment just to say hi!)

Twas the night before xmas

Well, it's about 1/2 hour to go til Christmas and so I'm posting this now, rather than tomorrow, as I doubt even I would be sad enough to post on Christmas day. Mum has chased me upstairs so she can wrap up my presents, thus ruining the idea that Santa is bringing the gifts. Then again, I am 21...

Anyhow, merry Christmas to you all, may your tipple glass of choice never be empty. Have a good time!

The girl I mentioned in a previous post passed away today. We were told she went peacefully, and she was in no pain. My thoughts are with her, her family and her friends. Rest in peace.

Gooey chocolate irish cream goodness

Ooh I honestly don't know why I've never baked Baileys Irish Cream brownies before, they're delicious and so addictive. I have the strangest feeling that I'm going to be waddling through Xmas if I eat any more of these gorgeous treats.

For anyone who wants to recreate the pleasure of eating these in their own home, I shall post the recipe. Be warned these are fudgy gooey type brownies, if you want more cake-like brownies either add more flour or only put in 4 eggs rather than 5.

Baileys Irish Cream Brownies

6 tbsp Baileys
5 large eggs
8 tbsp granulated sugar
250 g butter
150 g dark chocolate
60 g plain flour (this is a bit of an estimation, so you may need to pop a bit more/less in if you think it warrants it)
Chocolate chips (as many as you like me dears)

Icing (optional - but very tasty)

4 tbsp Baileys (or a little more if you're feeling merry)
3 tbsp butter
Icing sugar (as much as it takes to get to the consistency you want)

Method (I feel like I'm writing a scientific report here)

Melt the dark chocolate and butter together (I use a bowl over a pan of boiling water because I tend to burn the chocolate in the microwave, but if you are microwave-competant go for it), and allow to cool (sitting the bowl in a pan of cold water works great if you're impatient like me)

Break the eggs into a bowl and add the sugar, beat together, then add 3 tbsp Baileys and the cooled chocolate mixture. Mix and slowly add the flour, mixing well. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Line a baking tray with grease-proof paper, smear with butter and dust with flour if you like. Pour in the brownie mixture and allow to cook for about 20 mins at 200 °C. Test to see if they're done by sticking a cocktail stick into the middle. If it comes out with crumbs attached to it, it's done, if not give it another 5/10 minutes, and so on.

Once it's cooked pop it out the oven and let it cool. This bit is torture for me, as all I want to do is eat the warm brownies. But show some self-restraint and all will be well. Once cooled poke it with a fork a few times, randomly across the brownie surface, and drizzle the other 3 tbsp of baileys onto it.

Now for the fun frosting, melt the butter slightly in the microwave and mix with the 4 or more tbsp of baileys. Add icing sugar and mix until you reach the consistency you want. Then whack it on top of the brownies and voila, there you have it. All you have to do now is eat them, and trust me it wont take long.

Happy eating, I'm off to get another brownie.

Meh

I wish this drug really did exist, I need it.

Tonight I had some bad news. A girl my sister knows, who has cancer, is seriously ill in hospital. I've never personally met this girl, my sister has only met her a few times. I watched a documentary she was in, about her illness and how she was organising a fundraiser for her local hospital unit. In the documentary it was said that her cancer was terminal. At the moment she is estimated to live maybe another three weeks, it will be her last Christmas if she makes it that long.

She's 19 years old. It isn't fair is it?