Ravin in India

Some pics of wee Ravin when he was in Mumbai with his mummy in January. He's growing up so fast!!!

Here I am!!

Sorry about the delay. Normal service will now resume.

Driving news:

I passed my driving theory test last week, hurrah!!
My practical driving test has been booked for the start of April (not telling anyone the actual date)
I have been driving myself to work in my car (accompanied by dad of course) and getting more confident behind the wheel. I no longer panic when I stall, I just tut a lot and huff and puff at myself.

Work news:

Been applying for some jobs. Annoyingly lots of jobs require you to be able to drive. I often find that I have all of the essential and desirable criteria apart from a full driving licence.

Baby Ravin news:

The wee man will be coming over at the start of April. Can't wait to see him talking and walking especially hearing him call me "Auntie Emma"

Postal Strike News:

It finally ended after three weeks and the mail is starting to trickle through again. There was some talk of another strike taking place, an official one this time which will affect all of Northern Ireland.

Other stuff:

I went out for a day last thursday with the Conservation Volunteers. We went to Delamont Country Park and helped cut down and chop up tree/hedge things along the hedgerow which had got overgrown. This was to allow for regrowth and to keep the place clean and tidy. It was nice to do something manual and outdoors even though it was quite cold and wet. I'll probably go along again sometime. They go to different places and do different things all the time. You just go into town and the bus picks you up, takes you to their headquarters and then they sort you out with what you are doing and what tools you need and take you there. Apparently they were making willow domes earlier in the week.

I finally went to see the Belfast Giants!!! It was the last home game of the season and it was against the Cardiff Devils. We lost!! Oh well. It was an interesting experience. The ice rink was much smaller than I thought it would be and it's not as fast as it looks on TV. I didn't really understand what was going on. They kept stopping all the time and then loud music kept playing in short bursts and there were quite a few punch ups at which times "I Predict a Riot" was played which really amused me. There were lots of children going mad and screaming. I did quite enjoy it and will probably go to a game again. I watched a bit of ice hockey in the olympics so have more of an idea of what's going on now. I think there are play-offs or something coming up at the end of March so I'll probably go to one of them.

I'm contemplating dying my hair, perhaps browny red chestnut type colour. What do yous think?

Last episode of Life on Mars tonight!!!!

"BELFAST IS THE MOST ROMANTIC CITY IN THE WORLD"

As ridiculous as it sounds, someone famous did actually say that. I'm not sure if this person was on medication or experimenting with drugs at the time.

It's in the January/February Belfast guide which we distribute at work and there are also some "useful" ideas for romantic activities in Belfast.

I don't see how Belfast is romantic really. Apart from a walk up the Cavehill there's nothing else romantic about Belfast as far as I can see (and I can see very far from the top of the Cavehill!)

I'm not going to tell you just yet who this famous person is because I want to see if anyone can guess. I'll have to give you some clues I suppose. This person is pretty old, definitely older than 50 and is well-known in the UK and possibly other places for their love of music and they have a long running music programme featuring live bands and artists performing all sorts of music. That's all the clues so far.

I suppose Belfast might turn out to be romantic for me over the next week as my beloved will be here with me. We'll definitely be going up the Cavehill. Perhaps I might discover other romantic things to do in Belfast. Maybe I'll find that walking past the City Hall is romantic or that queueing at the bus stop ignites passion. Hmm.....

Winter Olympics

Hurrah!!! The opening ceremony is tonight and the games start tomorrow. I like the winter olympics better than the summer ones. It's just more fun to watch sport with snow and ice for some reason, especially when you are nice and cosy in your house. Anyway the BBC Winter Olympics Website is excellent. It explains all the sports and their rules and you can download tv listings for all the games. I'm going to print them off and put them on my wall hehe. I think I might highlight all my favourite events as well.

I might watch the opening ceremony tonight which starts at 6pm on BBC2. Generally I'm not keen on opening ceremonies. It's just alot of people dancing about with coloured paper and things supposedly telling stories from the past of the place where the games are being held and you never know what they are going on about and even when the commentator explains the meaning behind all the dancing and running about, it still doesn't make any sense. It all looks very expensive and a waste of money. Anyway I said I might watch it because there's nothing else on at 6 apart from the news really and I do like the part in the opening ceremony when all the countries come out and walk round the track. I like to see all the different flags and see countries I haven't heard of before and I like to see who has the smallest team. Having said that though, that usually comes at the end so I might wait until about 9 before watching it. It's on until 10pm apparently. That's 4 hours worth of coloured paper and dancing!!

Anyway, enough of that. Did I mention before that we are looking after my cousin's kitten? He's black and little and very mad. His name is Jack. I had a good photo of him somewhere but can't find it. I shall have to post a picture of him. He's behaving at the minute and sleeping on my bed. Mostly though, he's destroying furniture, attacking people, running about like a speeding bullet or hassling my poor wee rat Henry. However, he is a very cute kitten and he does let you give him cuddles sometimes.

We have now had 2 weeks without post. There's no sign of this strike ending. The longer it goes on though, the more support the postal workers are losing. I imagine that if it isn't sorted out by monday, people are going to get rather fed up by the whole thing. It's not really affected me too much, apart from not having my appointment letter which I need to sit my theory test. I'm going to phone them up though and I'm sure that under the circumstances they'll still let me sit it without the letter.

Time to mimic a gene

Well not really, but I looked up Wikipedia to see what this "meme" word means seeing as these things are very popular on blogs and the word was bugging me. I thought it was pronounced "me me" but it's actually pronounced like "meem" and rhymes with "theme". The word was coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book "The Selfish Gene" and comes from the words "mimic" and "gene". Basically he used the term to refer to things which replicate but not necessarily identically and they can also change and become modified as they replicate. Anyway, there is a huge page on Wikipedia about it here. It goes on to talk about genetics and Descartes and Karl Popper and memetics and other sorts of philosophy and science things. I just skim read over the rest of it because I had enough of that sort of stuff at University. Anyway, you know the etymology of the word "meme" now if you didn't before.

Right, that's the exposition over with, now time for the meme itself which Biscuits tagged me for:

Eight points of my perfect lover ( when I first read the title, I thought it meant "intimate" things!! But it doesn't so that's a relief. Not the sort of thing I would post on my blog about)

Anyway I'll get on with it now:

1) He must be nice and cuddly and give lots of hugs
2) He must like animals especially cats and rats
3) He must be about my height so I can gaze into his eyes easily
4)He must appreciate my frequent silliness and put up with me laughing at things which no-one else finds funny but which I find hilarious
5) He must be intelligent and know lots of things especially science type things so I can ask him lots of questions because I don't know anything about science type things and I like asking questions. He must be intelligent as well so he can intrigue me by telling me things I didn't know but not too intelligent that I can't tell him some things that he didn't know. Also he needs to be intelligent so that we can have intellectual (slightly) conversations which I like to do sometimes.
6) He must give me lots of love and attention and let me know how much he cares
7) He must like some things that I like esp. comedy things and music but also like lots of things I don't like so there is some variety.
8) He must be gentle and caring.

And the sex would be frequent.
And the other type of sex would be male, hence the word "he" in all my points.

I don't need this person made for me because I already have the perfect lover :)

8 people is not really manageable. I shall tag my mate Vix at Mad Bunny World, Snake at
Something for the Weekend, Graham at Gad 123 ( there you go, tagged at last) and finally Desk Monkey at Haggiswurst

Still no post

We have had no mail since 27th January!! Still no end in sight for the strike. Now Royal Mail have said that "mail posted in Belfast will not be processed or delivered".

That must also mean that mail posted from anywhere will not be delivered in Belfast seeing as we haven't had any mail for over a week. I hope they sort it out soon. What about all the Valentine's cards I'm expecting!!!??? hehe I've never received a Valentine's card before. How sad is that?? Well my granny sent me one years ago but that doesn't count. I knew it was her because I recognised the writing and also she never uses postcodes, she always just writes the nearest main street instead. I think people used to do that in the "olden days". We get lots of cards at Christmas addressed like that.

We had a big meeting in work today about working sundays all year round as opposed to just during the tourist season which is March to September. Absolutely no-one wants to work on sundays but do management listen? Of course not. They aren't paid to listen, they are paid to make us listen to them!!

Every time we proposed a problem or difficulty, they either changed the subject, answered a different question (as politicians do) or twisted things to make them sound good and feasible. Luckily as an "on call" member of staff I can say when I can and can't work and I shall be saying I can't work sundays. My bus service doesn't even run on a sunday!! Everyone was fuming after the meeting. Maybe we should strike like the postal workers and let the tourists use their brains to read maps and guide books instead of getting us to lead them by the hand!

Yes, I know I'm in the wrong job. I can't be bothered with tourists.

I don't mind visitors but I hate tourists!

Here is the four things thingy that Emma at
A day in the life of a terrible mother tagged me for.

Four jobs I have had in my life:

1) Sales Assistant at Evans clothes job
2)Sales Assistant at Paco clothes shop
3)Customer Service Advisor at Aberdeen Football Club
4)Travel Advisor in tourist information office

They are basically all the jobs I've had in my life!!!

Four movies I would watch over and over again:

1)Withnail and I
2) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
3)The Lion King
4)The Life of Brian

Four places I have lived:

1) Belfast
2)Aberdeen

That's it, I've only ever lived in 2 places

Four TV shows I love to watch:

1)Life on Mars
2)Black Books
3)The Mighty Boosh
4)Harry Hill's TV Burp

Four places I have been on holiday:

(I have never actually been "on holiday" but these are places I have been to visit relatives)

1)New York
2)Washington DC
3)Connecticut
4)Yorkshire

Four websites I visit daily:

1) BBC News
2)Channel Four Comedy Forum
3)and um....people's blogs.

That's it. Don't know how I manage to spend so much time on the internet really!!

Four of my favourite foods:

1) Thai green curry with chicken
2)Chicken tikka masala
3)My homemade Chicken Chow Mein
4)My own invention pasta dish

Four places I'd rather be right now:

1)Anywhere Dean is

Umm... that's it.

Four people to tag:

1) My lovely boyfriend at World of Ordinary (I'm not hopeful, he hasn't posted on his blog since October!!!)
2) My mate Jackie at her Jax blog
3)Jackie's boyfriend Adam at The Demon Realm
4)My web-friend Biscuits at Tea and Biscuits

News from Belfast

Well, we have had no post all week because there is a postal dispute at the main sorting office in Belfast and now it seems to be getting worse and another sorting office has joined it so I won't be getting my new bank card or the confirmation of my theory test for a while. Its causing some hassle at work as well because on top of the many requests for 2006 brochures which we are already behind on, the postal strike is making things worse so many people aren't going to receive brochures for a while especially if they are overseas so people are phoning and emailing asking where their stuff is.

Other news, there was a bomb found in a car at a police station just down the road from me. The security alert lasted all day and residents were evacuated, army carried out a controlled explosion etc. I was surprised it was a real bomb. We have had alerts recently which turn out to be empty bags and things like that. So far there's been no mention of what sort of bomb it was and who is suspected to be behind it. There were a couple of other security alerts elsewhere in Northern Ireland today as well.

Something unpleasant in the news. Police are looking for the body of a baby in a landfill site on the shores of Belfast Lough, apparently after reports of a suspicious death. It's like something from TV detective drama things. It's all very creepy.