Friday 31 May 2013

Five, No....fifty things Friday



So I came across this website while flitting around on google and found it quite interesting:  http://www.marcandangel.com

It appears to be a website or blog which is based around lists and lets face it, having OCDishness means I like lists – A LOT. So I stayed for a while and came upon one list I found quite intriguing:



I thought it might be interesting to see just how many I could do seen as my mum has always said that I have no common sense. Helpfully, the site includes links to allow you to seek information on what you don’t know – judging by the result I may need to spend a while reading the links!

1. Build a Fire – Fire produces heat and light, two basic necessities for living.  At some point in your life this knowledge may be vital.


Yes I can, as long as I have wood, paper, firelighters, matches or a lighter.

2.  Operate a Computer – Fundamental computer knowledge is essential these days.  Please, help those in need.


I can turn it on and use it as long as it works as expected.  If the internet stops working Hubby rings our provider because it drives me crazy that it just cannot WORK AS IT SHOULD!

3.  Use Google Effectively – Google knows everything.  If you’re having trouble finding something with Google, it’s you that needs help.


Don’t you just put what you are looking for in the nice little box?  If you start trying to tell me I need + and ; signs to use it more effectively I may lose the will to live.

4.  Perform CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver – Someday it may be your wife, husband, son or daughter that needs help.

No but I have Beautiful B for that so I’m safe.  On second thoughts, best check she knows the Heimlich Maneuver.

5.  Drive a Manual Transmission Vehicle – There will come a time when you’ll be stuck without this knowledge.

Yes, but I wish I had an automatic car.  Hubby gets frustrated when I forget to put it in first when we are at a traffic light.  It’s his fault for talking to me as I am easily distracted.  Probably shouldn’t admit to that…

6.  Do Basic Cooking – If you can’t cook your own steak and eggs, you probably aren’t going to make it.

I can, especially if it involves putting something in the oven and just warming it up but that probably isn’t considered to be cooking.

7.  Tell a Story that Captivates People’s Attention – If you can’t captivate their attention, you should probably just save your breath.

Simply, no.

8.  Win or Avoid a Fistfight – Either way, you win.

Been in one, not sure I won and it should have been easily avoided by me realising the person was losing it. I knew there was a reason I preferred to avoid conflict in all ways, shapes and forms.

9.  Deliver Bad News – Somebody has got to do it.  Unfortunately, someday that person will be you.

No. I hate causing others pain but I like working with teams so I guess I can do it I just hate it. 

10.  Change a Tire – Because tires have air in them, and things with air in them eventually pop.

That’s what AA Road Assistance are for.

11.  Handle a Job Interview – I promise, sweating yourself into a nervous panic won’t land you the job.

Again, simply No. I should give up trying to get promoted.

12.  Manage Time – Not doing so is called wasting time, which is okay sometimes, but not all the time.

Wait, my sides are splitting, call an ambulance.  Flexible working hours do not help people like me become punctual.

13.  Speed Read – Sometimes you just need the basic gist, and you needed it 5 minutes ago. 

No but I really need to learn – those 75 books I have to read would be read in no time.

14.  Remember Names – Do you like when someone tries to get your attention by screaming “hey you”?

No, I am better with faces but I get frustrated trying to put names to faces - guess I was pretty crap at playing that children's board game 'Guess Who'.

15.  Relocate Living Spaces – Relocating is always a little tougher than you originally imagined.

Yes. Having a dad in the army kind of does that to you.  I also pack a mean suitcase too, just hope I am there to repack it for you otherwise you will never get it all back in.

16.  Travel Light – Bring only the necessities.  It’s the cheaper, easier, smarter thing to do.

No but at least I am not as bad as Beautiful B. The army suitcase packing skill comes in essential in this area.

17.  Handle the Police – Because jail isn’t fun… and neither is Bubba.

Too much handling of them with a previous partner thank you very much.

18.  Give Driving Directions – Nobody likes driving around in circles.  Get this one right the first time.

No, unless it involves telling people where to get to by using buildings and landmarks instead of roads.

19.  Perform Basic First Aid – You don’t have to be a doctor, or genius, to properly dress a wound.

Again, Beautiful B to the rescue.

20.  Swim – 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water.  Learning to swim might be a good idea. 

Yes but not for far but that is because I am fat and my breathing compromised basically.  At least I am better at it than Hubby.

21.  Parallel Park – Parallel parking is a requirement on most standard driver’s license driving tests, yet so many people have no clue how to do it.  How could this be?

Yes, especially since I scraped one side of the car with bollards I did not see. Yes, I am much better now; that kind of forces you learn pretty quickly.

22.  Recognize Personal Alcohol Limits – Otherwise you may wind up like this charming fellow.

Yes, actually sticking to them is another matter surely.

23.  Select Good Produce – Rotten fruits and vegetables can be an evil tease and an awful surprise.

Isn’t it obvious?

24.  Handle a Hammer, Axe or Handsaw – Carpenters are not the only ones who need tools.  Everyone should have a basic understanding of basic hand tools.

Dad to the rescue.

25.  Make a Simple Budget – Being in debt is not fun.  A simple budget is the key.

I should be. As an accountant I should quit my job if I can't.  Whether I stick to my simple budget on a personal level?  Again, another matter entirely.

26.  Speak at Least Two Common Languages – Only about 25% of the world’s population speaks English.  It would be nice if you could communicate with at least some of the remaining 75%.

No, despite having a qualification in German.  I do know a swear word in German though. My friends would probably say I have my own language - I don't I just understand what I am saying when nobody else does.

27.  Do Push-Ups and Sit-Ups Properly – Improper push-ups and sit-ups do nothing but hurt your body and waste your time.

Yes. Sit ups I quite like, push-ups not so much but both are better than the plank as my back injury tells me to 'stuff off'.

28.  Give a Compliment – It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give someone, and it’s free.

I would like to think I can give a compliment to my friends especially.

29.  Negotiate – The better deal is only a question or two away.

No, especially with Beautiful B.  Some might say I can negotiate with Hubby but they are wrong - a) he tells me I handle the money so I decide, b) he is that laid back he is practically horizontal and c) he would let me have whatever I wanted.

30.  Listen Carefully to Others – The more you listen and the less you talk, the more you will learn and the less you will miss.

Erm, ask my friends.  I have a tendancy to talk to much when nervous so I listen less at work and don't know when to shut up.  with my friends, I can listen and hope I listen with them more than I talk.

31.  Recite Basic Geography – If you don’t know where anything is outside of your own little bubble, most people will assume (and they are probably correct) that you don’t know too much at all.

Somewhat, Hubby is great at it, I am fair and Beautiful B – well, lets just say she needs to read a map.

32.  Paint a Room – The true cost of painting is 90% labor.  For simple painting jobs it makes no sense to pay someone 9 times what it would cost you to do it yourself.

Yes, as long as it doesn’t include the parts of stairs; then I hire an expert. 

33.  Make a Short, Informative Public Speech – At the next company meeting if your boss asks you to explain what you’ve been working on over the last month, a short, clear, informative response is surely your best bet.  “Duhhh…” will not cut it.

No and any speech I do is never short.

34.  Smile for the Camera – People that absolutely refuse to smile for the camera suck!

Yes.

35.  Flirt Without Looking Ridiculous – There is a fine line between successful flirting and utter disaster.  If you try too hard, you lose.  If you don’t try hard enough, you lose.

No, and I don’t recognise when someone is flirting with me until it is pointed out by a friend.

36. Take Useful Notes – Because useless notes are useless, and not taking notes is a recipe for failure.

No, my notes are copious.

37.  Be a Respectful House Guest – Otherwise you will be staying in a lot of hotels over the years.

Yes. I sometimes have to be told to step away from the sink or hoover when staying at friends. When we looked after my brother's house over New Year I actually cleaned the house before the cleaner arrived.

38.  Make a Good First Impression – Aristotle once said, “well begun is half done.”

Definitely not.  They do say that if you eat a bit of something you don't like, lets say brocolli, every day for 30 days your brain believes you like it (or you can train yourself to like it).  I'm like that, persevere and I become easier to cope with.

39.  Navigate with a Map and Compass – What happens when the GPS craps out and you’re in the middle of nowhere?

Absolutely not. I cannot read a map for a start.

40.  Sew a Button onto Clothing – It sure is cheaper than buying a new shirt.

As long as it is just a button.  Anything else and I am useless.  My Home Economics teacher once told my mum and dad she despaired of me.  Convincing herself I was messing around in her class she seperated me only to discover that even when trying desperately I was still unable to hem a straight line.

41.  Hook Up a Basic Home Theater System – This isn’t rocket science.  Paying someone to do this shows sheer laziness.

I disagree, it sure looks like rocket science.  Surely a man wrote this sentance?

42.  Type – Learning to type could save you days worth of time over the course of your lifetime.

Yes, I was qualified enough to teach it at 16 years old.

43.  Protect Personal Identity Information – Personal identity theft is not fun unless you are the thief.  Don’t be careless.

I should think so.

44.  Implement Basic Computer Security Best Practices – You don’t have to be a computer science major to understand the fundamentals of creating complex passwords and using firewalls.  Doing so will surely save you a lot of grief someday.

Yes as long as there are destructions.

45.  Detect a Lie – People will lie to you.  It’s a sad fact of life.

No. I trust people far to much but I would rather trust and be hurt than not trust at all.

46.  End a Date Politely Without Making Promises – There is no excuse for making promises you do not intend to keep.  There is also no reason why you should have to make a decision on the spot about someone you hardly know.

No.  I have been so far beyond not being able to end a date politely that it isn't even funny!

47.  Remove a Stain – Once again, it’s far cheaper than buying a new one.

Lots of stuff on the market, that should do.  If the world as we know it ended and we were in a Revolution (the series) type situation I would be a bag of bones in a year and would have been stinking to high heaven and covered in stains from head to foot within a week - I rely far to much on my cleaning products.

48.  Keep a Clean House – A clean house is the foundation for a clean, organized lifestyle.

Yes, I get antsy if it isn’t – I am SOOOO much fun to live with. Dad's fault, well the armies really.

49.  Hold a Baby – Trust me, injuring a baby is not what you want to do.

Beautiful B is still alive, enough said.

50.  Jump Start a Car – It sure beats walking or paying for a tow truck.

Again, AA Roadside Assistance to the rescue.

So I am looking at approximately 12 that are 'yes' and some of them are questionable – so how would you do?

Thursday 30 May 2013

Emails, insurance claims, male bodies and garden furniture



My first day back at work and I returned to 102 emails which is half of what I was expecting so a good start to the day.

Prioritising, and lets just be clear that is prioritising for my benefit which does not necessarily provide a benefit for my company, I was able to delete 55 emails in the first hour simply by perusing through and deleting random circulars and far too many emails on job alerts and determining that I did not fancy travelling 500 – 600 miles a day. 

There was one job approximately 15 miles away from home but I figured that I probably couldn’t wing pretending to be a trained psychologist and even if I could I would probably be the one put in a straight jacket by the end of the week.  After all, I am sure that someone who jokes that she has little aliens in her head that provide her energy by bouncing around like rubber balls probably isn’t the best person for the job.

The rest of them look scary in the main so I was hoping that at least some of them were emails chains to which my boss has responded too.  All I can say is that it is a good job I came into work for 7am and intend on working until 8pm or so.  I lucked out as at least some of them were and it is now lunch time and I have 11 of my own emails left to look at, then I start on my bosses.  Of course, me being me, I have left the most difficult to last and my bosses are always more difficult than my own.

I have another long day tomorrow as I cannot come into work on Friday.  I have a 5 hour appointment with a furniture restorer after Abi fluff decided that it was fun to not only teethe on a spindle of a rocking chair but 3 different areas of the brand new leather 3 piece suite.  Some would argue that the suite is my fault; after all, it isn’t the cleverest idea to buy it just as she was being born.

As Abi fluff doesn’t do anything by halves she chewed a little on one chair, then decided she was bored with that bit and moved to another before moving onto the third chair.  Of course, during the initial damage assessment with the insurance company she sat on my knee as good as gold and looking as though butter wouldn’t melt.  She was obviously on some kind of charm offensive.

As much as two 13 hour days seems a little mental, Friday at home gives me another day to, you guessed it, do some football accounts because I did not get any done on Tuesday as I suspected.  By the time I finished chasing my tail with my many appointments it was time to collect Hubby from work.  Knowing 2 long work days were in order I decided Iron Man 3 was in order that night; Hubby was exhausted and while I munched my way through some nachos and salsa he slept - for 11 hours straight; well, obviously I was home and sleeping too at some stage; eating nachos for 11 hours would just be greedy! 

It was a great film but I have to admit I am a little bit biased.  Being based on Marvel comics it has to be big and brash and totally unbelievable so is just the kind of thing I like (and Hubby hates) having grown up with Spiderman, Superman, and lets not forget Captain Cavemaaaaaannnnnnn. 

I have a soft spot for Robert Downey Junior, you know him being kind of cute and all; who was supported by Guy Pearce’s very nice chest which was a very nice bonus. In fact, Robert is a bit like a fine wine (if we ignore the fact that I think all wine tastes awful) and he gets better with age.

See now, that has got me thinking about my list.  My list of 5; which if I recall correctly, Rachel can name her 5 right of the bat while I am still very much indecisive.  I am beginning to think that Robert may well make that list but only if he was amusing in reality because that is half of the appeal.

I have just sent Hubby 2 emails as I am perusing (again, I am multi-tasking you see – there should be an award for it) garden furniture and trying to convince him that a) Rattan furniture is worth the added additional outlay as it will last for YEARS and b) it really isn’t as uncomfortable as it looks. 

I’ve also seen a very nice rattan sun lounger which I would be willing to give up the garden glider for…….

Wednesday 29 May 2013

How many appointments!

So yesterday was my last day of annual leave and I will today go back to over a week of extremely long days to catch up on 200+ emails and as my boss is on leave I will cover her work too.  All I can say is that it is a good job I have another 3 days leave booked for the 10th June because I may just need them to catch up on sleep.

I intended to spend my last day of annual leave doing accounts.  I am writing this at the beginning of that day so this may or may not have happened. 

On the last day of my annual leave priorities have changed to:
  • making an appointment at the doctors for Beautiful B for the day after she returns from Greece;
  • requesting an emergency prescription of my migraine medication as part of my bank holiday weekend was spent fending off a migraine with Tramadol as I was stupid enough to not realise I had used all my pills up;
  • making an emergency dentist appointment as I have lost a ginormous filling; and by ginormous I mean nearly half the tooth including part of the front and it being an incisor means any smile frightens the little ones away;
  • while I am at the dentist later today he may as well make me another appointment to not only crown that tooth, but crown the other incisor, refill the tooth next to it, replace the crown on the back tooth and make another post and tooth for another one that fell out.  As you can see, I don't need a lot doing!
  • Go to my mums to snaffle lots of photos of mum and dad throughout their lives together for a special Christmas project.  As the key to their house is with my Aunty I will spend an hour or so catching up with her.  I cannot leave it any later as mum and dad return from their holidays later in the week;
  • put petrol in the car because Hubby missed his bus this morning so I took him and I am collecting him from work.  Let's face it, running out of petrol is only going to detract me from accounts again;
  • As an aside, I can forgive Hubby for making me get out of bed to take him to work (trust me, he didn't have to work hard to do that because I am a softie) and pick him up which will further detract from accounts because he offered to go and see Iron Man 3 with me despite my warning that there is nothing remotely realistic about the film.  As he doesn't like any film that is not realisitic it is obviously his way of apologising for being too lazy to get a bus today.
  • Football and snooker club money to be banked before the end of the day and getting a signature on a cheque from the chairman of one of the clubs to pay a bill is going to be another 2 hours.
Having read this list I am beginning to think I will be lucky to get any accounts done before dinner which is going to make for a very long evening.



 

Tuesday 28 May 2013

What I learned this week

I'm a bit late today because I was busy yesterday doing, well....nothing.  So even I am asking myself the question why did I not arrange posts in advance as usual.  Anyhoo, this week I have had a lot of time to catch up on sky planners, books (of which I read all of about 20 pages), game playing and accounts (of which I did very little).  So what did I learn:

  • You can stuff a dogs bed too much....to the extend that it is almost as tall as Abi fluff, and you can wonder if it was the wrong thing to do when Freddy refuses to lie on the big bed that you bought him and then lovingly stuff with more fluff;
  • You can again decide that you are too good (?bad) at insisting on things working out straight away because 24 hours later he will happily sleep on his bed that now feels like a cloud;
  • Accounts for the football club appear to be at the bottom of an importance list regardless of whether they should be there or not;
  • Organising dinners in advance on a sunny bank holiday is not such a good idea because impromtu BBQ invites materlise from nowhere;
  • Impromtu BBQ in the sun invites are brilliant;
  • You can catch up 40% of programmes on the TV planner quite easily when on leave from work for a week;
  • TV watching gets in the way of reading any of the 70+ books you have stored in the house for reading;
  • The house is surprisingly quiet without Beautiful B in it;
  • Listening to Beautiful B and Ry's banter over the telephone from Greece makes your heart sing;
  • You can resist tidying Beautiful B's room for her with a lot of effort especially when you are not sure she will appreciate it as you both treasure her personal space;
  • You can actually look forward to driving to Manchester if you are picking up your Beautiful B from the airport;
  • If you spend all week playing computer games and catching up on TV programmes it leaves you an awful lot of things to do on your last day of annual leave.
So what did you learn this week?

As ever, I love to hear your comments and if you wish to join please leave a comment and if you have a blog follow the instructions below. Look forward to hearing from you.

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1. Any time this week, publish your What I Learned This Week post on your blog.
2. Within that post, please mention the What I Learned This Week carnival and link back to this post and to Julie's blog: From Inmates to Playdates. If you don’t know how to link, have a look at the rules on Julie's blog.
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