Monday 29 November 2010

Snowstuff



















These were all taken between 7.45 and 8.45 (or thereabouts) this morning. I can no longer resist taking loads of photos even though they all probably look the same anyway. I hate getting up on mornings, and I had to get up at 7.30 today but the walk to work was so beautiful and waking up to the snow that had fallen in the night, was so worth it. The power lines outside my widow were thick, I mean I didn't even think snow could settle on something so thin.
I went to sleep at around 11.30 last night, read a book (reading the wind in the willows at the moment) for a bit and then hit the sack cause I had to be up early, and I was already pretty tired. Early by my standards but bed is a lot easier to get into now that I've put the electric under blanket back in. It hadn't been snowing much all evening/night. I had a weird nights sleep anyway, for some reason in the last couple of years even if I'm pretty tired, it always takes me a lot longer to drop off than it used to. I'd been dozing for about half an hour, it was about half 12 at this point, and I decided to roll over, and have a cheeky look out of the window.
It was snowing like hell. Pretty fast falling really big flakes, I knowww I keep saying this but it just looked SO beautiful. I laid in bed just watching it, it stopped after 10 minutes, but it was a very serene 10 minutes, everything was silent, and even though it wasn't late I felt like I had awoken in the dead of night and was witnessing something that I wasn't supposed to be, something secret. In a good way of course. Like waking up to find the tooth fairy taking a molar from under your pillow, or like sneaking down in the night and seeing Santa putting out yr presents and him not noticing you and then finishing up and leaving without ever seeing you. If that makes any sense, that's what it was like.
I had expected it to snow in the night but not till long after I was asleep, and while I had been reading I kept stopping and looking to see if it was snowing but it never was each time I checked. I guess it snowed a hell of a lot more throughout the night when I had finally got to sleep. When my mam woke me up this morning she said it'd been thundering but she'd only heard one rumble. Tonight I heard a loud rumble as well, kind of cool but I can't get my head around snow and thunder at the same time.

So anyway, the trees were so covered in snow this morning, whiter than I've seen them all week, the snow on the pavements was really really deep as well. Its getting on my nerves a bit that people are moaning about it already, even though this weather has been here less than a week, the proper proper setting snow has only been here a few days.
Its Christmas for gods sake, it only snows for a tiny portion of the year. Just enjoy it please.
Anything that makes Stockton-on-Tees look pretty can't possibly be a bad thing.

Friday 26 November 2010

New

New post, new job, new weather, new socks.




I haven't worn them yet, and I don't suppose they're new anymore, cause I bought them about a month and a half ago, but I've been waiting until its more festive to wear them. And that time is round about now. Might wear em tomorrow, over tights of course, I'm not insane enough to go partially bare legged in snowtimes.

Speaking of which, Stockton is very snowy at the moment and I'm trying very hard to not go off on one and jabber on and on for ages about how magical it is, and how much I'm enjoying it and how much I missed it.

In other news, I need to find a new way to start new paragraphs. And also, remember the ranty post I made about that gay interview I had for Clintons? Well the lady from there, the boss of the Stockton store, rang me on Monday and blah de blah to cut a long story short, she asked me to come in for a chat if I was interested in a crimbo job, and now I'm working there. I get finished on Crimbo eve, I don't think they can take me on after that, they seem to have a lot of staff already. So I had my second day today and it was alreet, its no being an Elf, but its been good so far. I feel sheepish for ranting so much about how lame the interview was for the job I didn't get. But anyway I suppose its all good, got a bit of money for the festive season now and I feel 100% less of a jobless waster now. (I filled a massive helium balloon today, it was fun).

Its great being able to start sentences thusly - So I was on my way home from work today - it'd been snowing on and off pretty much all day, I only worked till 1pm, when I finished I went to boots to buy a natural collection lipstick for £1.99, and then when I left, I got totally blizzard-ed on. Which was pretty wonderful. I was wrapped up well, and just having a thoroughly great little time walking home in such snowy weather, sporadically laughing to myself cause I was just having such a damn good time.
Here's some views from on the way home.




At this point I was so so tempted to just throw down my bag and start building a snowman, but I had no gloves and would have lasted about 2 minutes before giving up, and also I wanted to get home to watch the Nadal/Murray game.



When I arrived home I looked like this -


Don't wear mascara when it snows, unless you want to look slightly Alex Delarge


Later on we walked the dog, the street looked pretty.





And that's about all I can be bothered with for tonight.
Thankyou.

Monday 22 November 2010

First question as an agony aunt

From the lovely, Anonymous, I am going to assume you're a girl, though my response would probably be the same if you were a guy.
Anonymous says-

"There is a boy so pretty I cannot bear. All day I wish to kiss him and it is difficult but I must not.
We are friends and I do not want it to be spoiled. What can I say...Do I stay quiet forever?
"

The short answer is this, No.
The more in-depth answer is this, I understand the whole not wanting to spoil the friendship thing, but imagine how much more worth it the risk is, if you kiss him one day and it all ends with a happily ever after.
Now imagine you never take the chance, have a string of boyfriends until you eventually just settle for someone in your 30's who makes you happy, not ecstatic, not thrilled, not filled with passion every time the guy you settled for even smiles at you. But happy all the same. You'll never know if this guy, the one you want to kiss, would thrill you and make you happier than you ever thought.
Of course it could all go the other way, you could tell the boy that you want to kiss him, and he might knock you back, or he might say he feels the same but after a while it doesn't work out. This sounds bad, but isn't it worth the risk?

Anyway, I'll restrain myself on the rambling and get back to the question. Is the reason you must not kiss him just that you don't want to spoil the friendship? If that's all that's stopping you, its really not so bad.
I think the only reasons you shouldn't kiss this boy are if -

-You have a boyfriend
-He has a girlfriend
-You're related

If none of the above apply, then girl, you're good to go. (If any of them do apply, then whoa whoa whoa, let me know and I'll dish out more advice)

So assuming all systems are go, lets cover the kissing. I understand this part of your predicament very well, kissing is my number one favourite thing in the whole world. However, unless you think he feels the same, its probably not the best idea to just ambush him with kisses (as much as I reaaaaally do want to advise you to do that).
This brings me to the next bit. Do you think he feels the same? Do you think there is even a maybe?

That opens up a whole other bag of, stuff. Its hard working out if a boy you like likes you back. Its been years since I've really been in that sort of situation, and only with the gift of hindsight have I picked up the signals that I naively missed the first time around. I think its the same for everyone. You just don't realize what what he's saying actually means. I think boys get accused of doing it all the time, missing what us girls think are totally strong signals, but in my old age I realize I've missed fucking loads, not realising what was going on. I guess its just as hard for everyone.
I think basically you've gotta trust your instinct, your gut feeling, your intuition. If you think its looking like he's into you, then its quite likely that he is.

In conclusion, don't stay quiet forever. Tell him you like him, and that if he wouldn't mind, you want to kiss him please. If you're exceptionally nervous, maybe give it a week or so. Or if you're too nervous to tell him to his face, maybe you could leave a little note for him. It sounds like its your time to do it, good luck!
Let me know how you get on, and if you're crazy enough to want any more advice, agony Bianca will be here!

Friday 19 November 2010

Agony-Bianca

I had a great bath tonight. I kind of miss showering, but showering in winter is just far too cold, I hate cold at the best of times, so you can imagine how much I love being wet AND cold. I always thought that if I ever get rich, I'm going to have a dealie in my shower whereby once the water has been turned off, hot air blowers come on from above, and possibly all sides, like a car just coming out of the car wash. Not only does it eliminate the need for huge bath towels, but its warmer than getting out of the shower and fannying around for ages huddling near the radiator. Also its just totally cooler. Until then I'm sticking with baths each winter. Its wonderful how a bath just always makes you feel better, when you're having a bad day, when you're upset, when something happens to make you feel a bit shitty or when you're pissed off, a bath always seems to just absorb all the bad stuff you're going through, and suck it away with the water down the plughole when you get out. I find that I always feel a least a little bit better.

Anyway, on an unrelated note, I was thinking recently that I think I'd be a pretty good agony aunt. Partly this is me just being nosey and wanting to know peoples juicy problems, partly I want to know if I really would be a good agony aunt. I have the clear steely heart and mind of someone who has neither been in love, or knows dick about it. Which I think might come in pretty useful if you want the impartial views of someone who's never been sucked into that world. An outsider looking in, if you will. Imagine Carrie Bradshaws Sex and the city column, but in reverse, and if she was giving out advice.

So, come one and all, roll up roll up, agony-Bianca at your service. Send me all your queries, questions and problems, love related or otherwise, and I will be here, a virtual shoulder to lean on, my life experiences and skills and most importantly - worldly advice, to impart to you.
Send problems to my email address or in the comments box, anonymous or yourself, and they shall be answered.

Sunday 14 November 2010

Friday 12 November 2010

Chocolate-toffee-danish

Chocolate toffee danishes can only be purchased from the bakers known as Cooplands. I had one today, because I realised I hadn't had one for ages and wanted to rectify the situation.
Here is my artists impression (because I gobbled it up before I even thought of taking a photo)
Basically, as the name suggests, Imagine a regular danish, but instead of raisins imagine loads and loads of chocolate chips. And not just your regular chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips that are sort of mushy. And then instead of boring old sugary icing, imagine toffee sauce type icing drenched over the top of the danish. And you're about there.
They are heaven. All the toffee sauce/icing stuff settles in the chambers, like a delicious snail.

So, next time you're passing a Cooplands and want a tasty tasty treat, remember Chocolate Toffee Danish.

Thankyou

Thanks for whipping those arcade fire tracks over, I'm having a bedroom tidy and they are an excellent accompaniment.
Thankyouuu
:)

Sunday 7 November 2010

LastFM OCD

Got a touch of OCD on Last FM the other day. I just had a mega strong urge to make all the numbers of plays on my top 8 artists even. Got the top four evened out, until I miscalculated and gave an extra play to Bon Iver. At which point I gave up.


Last Fm is interesting though, its a pretty good idea, I like to keep track of whatever I've been listening to. I would never have expected YYY's to be my top artist, though I do love them. I love all those bands in my top 8 though. Interesting that The Smiths and Bon Iver are currently neck and neck, though I have a suspicion that if Bon Iver had as many songs on Spotify as The Smiths, they'd probably just have the edge. Also I would like to mention my disappointment that Spotify has no Arcade Fire and I also suspect that if they did, they would be my top artist by a country mile. As well as my mentioning it, I would like to make a pledge to anyone reading this who might have a host of Arcade Fire mp3's, to please send them my way. I really miss listening to them. Any takers can email me, my email address is in my profile, should you be so kind.

Now thats out of the way, the updates on my aunties bonfire party are as follows.
Got there at around 6.30, sat around not really doing anything for about 5 minutes because nobody was there yet who wasn't a Brown. Picked a few wotsits off the food table, had a glass of WKD (blue) that an adult bought me for my birthday that I had taken round. I'm 24, I guess old(er) people think that thats all young people like to drink. Anyway, it was the thought that counts so I'm not gonna bitch about someone buying me WKDS. Also I had topped the bottle up before I went round with extra vodka. After that 3 of my aunties neighbours arrived, they're real nice oldish women. Then I stuffed my face with party food whilst drinking more blue stuff, and one glass of wine. And then chocolate gateaux. Went out onto the front to watch the fireworks at around 7.30, they were pretty lovely. Not so lovely was my aunties bald fat neighbour coming out in a T-shirt and boxers. This is the second time I've seen this man in his boxers. Anyway the less said about him/that, the better. I didn't want to watch the whole display through a viewfinder (and I had no idea about the settings, apart from some vague Internet instructions that I couldn't remember) so I only took a handful of photos (unlike bald fatman who snapped away for pretty much the entire thing)
I know they didn't turn out properly, but here's just one for now. I'll post the rest later.

(this was photo number 3333 on my camera)

Glammed it up a little bit, not so much with clothes but I wore some make up. As you can see I'm venturing out into the world of red lipstick. Tricky because I know fuck all about lipstick, its all about "underlying tones" and all that crap that I don't know/give a damn about. Also when I think of red lipstick, I almost always think of this http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=fashion which sort of worries me. But seeing as it was night time, and I was only going round my aunties, and I was in a glammy sort of mood, I went for it. I'll do some further testing regarding the red lippy and get back to you.
I took the bonfire night opportunity to add a bit of glitter and teeny tiny stars to my face. They didn't show up on this picture, but they were there, somewhere.



So anyway that about covers it. It is now the 8th of November, already. (buy a poppy, people!) About 5-7 days untill the time of year last year when I got the ball rolling on being an Elf. More on that as/when/if it happens. My mam told me its going to be horrible weather tomorrow, I'm going to wear my massive red jumper. If I can find it.

Till next time...


Friday 5 November 2010

Martin Hughes-Games

Is who I currently fancy the pants off. I've had a crush on him for about a year, and he is beautiful. He is also 54 which makes him a nice round 30 years older than me. 6 years longer than I've even been in existence. Other than bed-man*, I've never really had a crush on someone old enough to be my father, but MHG just sort of, makes me go all weak. He rides a motorbike and is a vegetarian, which are the sort of things that wouldn't really occur to me in regards to people I fancy, but on him, kind of makes him about 5 times more attractive to me than he already was. Add to that the floppy messy curly hair, the smooth voice and the fact that he's into wildlife and stuff, and I'm in swoonville.
AND on auntumwatch last night he was wearing a tweed suit, and for a few delectable seconds spoke french. Or maybe he put on a french accent, I can't remember which because I was too busy A) trying to act cool in front of my mam and trying not to reveal how much I fancied him, B) thinking that it was a good job I was sitting down because my knees might have actually buckled otherwise and C) my brain was struggling with processing MHG in tweed, speaking french.
Anyway that about wraps it up, I won't post a picture because I can't find a decent one of him, and my friends already think I have bad taste.
Just watch Autumnwatch on Thursday ok?
I should also add that for the last few weeks, I've been more excited about watching AW than about nevermind the buzzcocks which comes afterwards.
What is happening to me?!

*
http://biancapol.blogspot.com/2009/10/bed-man.html

Parties and old tv programes

Ten past two, Friday afternoon. I've just painted my nails metallic blue, you may or may not be interested to learn. I wanted something glitzy and glamorous cause its bonfire night tonight and my auntie is having a sort of bonfire party. I'll probably be the youngest there, probably by about two decades now I think about it, but actually I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to stuff my face with party food, and then I'm going to get drunk on the provided wine, or maybe I'll do that in the reverse order, or maybe I'll just eat and drink at the same time. I'm going to get dressed up, because it is a party after all and I haven't dressed up for anything in ages and I'm sort of having an urge to wear ginormous heels, and put on makeup. My auntie lives real close to the town, and thanks to her street being where it is, we get a pretty good view of the fireworks without having to go into town and be packed in like sardines. Hopefully, we'll also be far enough away that we can't hear the Bollywood music which is the theme for this years display. I hate Bollywood. If our luck is really in, we'll also be out of hearing range of last years X-factor winner Joe McElderry performing his new song "Ambitions" (I doubt it was his ambition to come to Stockton On Tees). Speaking of X-factor, I will freely admit that I have been watching it this year, and if Wagner Carrilho was in town instead of the pretty crap joe, I would definately brave the crowds and go see him, because he is ACE.
Cagney and Lacey is on at the moment, so I'm watching that in the background. It's so good!! I don't know why I like it so much, or how I even got into it. I hate all those other crap detective and murder mystery programmes, this one is great though. Actually I probably love it because I love new york, and I especially love old footage of New York in the 70's and 80's. If anyone's seen the film "Coming to America" (mint film by the way), you'll know what I mean, that bit where they first move to Queens? Yeah, amazing.
Also Cag and Lace has a miiint theme tune. Its just a whole bundle of cool things. You should maybe watch it sometime. And definitely watch Coming to America

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Halloween and soup

So. Halloween was upon us. Seeing as I wasn't doing anything, my mam bought me a pumpkin. These are the results.






My very first pumpkin, so I was pretty happy with how it turned out. It was messy and fidgety but worth it, and I enjoyed making him. Spent proper ages fishing out the hundreds of seeds that were inside and separating them from the weird pulpy stuff, and then washing them and then drying them. I had planned on making pumpkin soup with the innards see, but it was only afterwards when I googled how to make the soup, I realised its the hard shell bits you need, not the stringy wet stuff. Anyway, I asked my soup making auntie if it was alright to use it anyway, and she said yeah, she did. So that's OK then, I thought I'd use it after all, might as well use the whole thing.
This evening I got to work on it, chopped up my pumpkin, got rid of all the skin and bits I couldn't use, did everything, made the soup, and then when it got to the blending I realised that when I had borrowed my aunties blender, she failed to put the blades in with it. I was gutted, I was really looking forward to my soup and now I'll have to wait another bladdy day. I'll let you know how I get on. Also I had so much pumpkin that it wouldn't all fit into the biggest pan we have, so I'm gonna make another batch, with chili and peppers and curry powder. Works out nicely all round. ALSO I'm going to toast the seeds with some nice flavours and eat them too. Not too sure how I feel about eating seeds, theres something about it that makes me feel a bit wrong and uncomfortable. But that's probably down to a childhood link to someone telling me if I ate apple seeds an apple tree would grow inside me.

Anyway. Carried on thinking about the orphanages thing, went on a bit of a mad researching spree. Sent off for and received information packs from about 3 companies, actually got a phone call from an American woman from one of the companies which was unexpected but good I guess. It all looks great, its something I'm most definitely doing, I'm certain I want it to be Romania seeing as I went there before and it just really appeals to me. But there is a deep cynical streak running through me about these companies, which is odd cause I'm never really cynical about anything much, but I just worry that the money you pay to these companies isn't going to go to the projects you're going to. They're pricey these things, and I have absolutely no problem paying that much, If the majority is going to, say, the orphanage I'll be going to or whatever. I would hate it if the company just took most of it for themselves.
Anyway, all that just got me thinking I can't really allow myself to get into all that until I have a goddamn job.

I've been thinking recently about being an elf again. The last couple of months I've been toying with the idea generally, but I'm so fickle about it, at first I was really into the idea of getting a job as an elf at the Metro Centre, because I fucking love the Metro Centre for some weird and completely inexplicable reason, and their grotto's are amaaazing. And I though, ohh yeahh ace, I can get the train there and back, it'll be proper bo. But then I changed my mind and though ohh I can't really be arsed, trekking that far twice a day in the cold and dark. Tossed that up and down a few times, concluded that I didn't really want to do it after all.
More recently I figured I'd get a Christmas job around about now, but just a few days ago I realised that shop jobs are just so shit at crimbo, just being rushed and stressed off your feet the entire time, most of the time they make you work boxing day and new years eve/day. And then you're finished. You've done all the dog work, thanks, cya next year.
That made me think, maybe I should go for my elf job of last year again. Theres something making me think it'd be kind of lame, going back, they'll all be "oh so what did you do since last year?" and I'll just be all "umm ohh, well fuck all".
That said, that's a stupid reason not to do something I enjoyed loads last time I did it. It was great in that we got paid weekly and only had one late night shift each week and obviously Christmas eve was the last day you worked. And just how much I enjoyed it generally. Milling about the mall on occasional quiet spells, playing with the toys on the toy stall behind the grotto, and facing a sweet stall at the other side. It was actually perfect. Remembering all that stuff, (combined with being totally broke and wanting to do loads of stuff in the next couple of months) really really encourages me to do it all again. In the end, I probably will.

I'll shut up now, exept to say that last week I discovered Joan Armatrading and she's ace.