New Year Revolutions

I don't make resolutions - they would inevitably get broken into.

But I will try to be better.  By that I mean more positive. Which is difficult for me.  I've always been negatively motivated. In that I know what I don't want, but I've never known what it is that I want.

I finished reading Lady Chatterley's Lover....  I was more impressed by the overall anti-war tone of the story than the supposed scandal of the sex scenes.  Yes, it's ambitious in the description of how the physical sex act feels, in trying to explain what effect it has on the participants. Yes, some of the language is absolutely filthy, and to my mind it didn't add much to the story. What I felt was more interesting was that it was written in 1928 and Lawrence died in 1930, and it's prophetically, overwhelmingly about doom and gloom, the hardships of the mining community, the downward spiral of the marriage of the Chatterleys for obvious reasons, and obviously the mood of the time was of incredible pessimism.  I'll have to look up on Wikipedia the reason why it was banned.  Interesting. I'm pleased I've now read it.

Since then I've 'slummed it' with non-fiction 'The Doctor will see you Now' by Max Pemberton. Humorous medical memoir of junior doctor in modern times. Eye-opening and eye watering in equal measure.

I'm now reading 'One Day' by David Nicholls, which is easy going, easy reading and quite enjoyable so far. I want to know what happens to Emma and Dexter.

The Christmas break has been busy, of course, with quite a lot of travel.  We learned that taking the dog with us on the 200 mile trip to Lancashire to collect the children from grandparents' house, and then return home was quite difficult in my new Skoda Roomster - not a roomy as the Honda CRV, but much more economical to run.  However, the children's bickering means fewer long trips, or  leaving the dog behind - either way it's expensive.

We also learned that a 'quick trip to Ikea' takes on average 6 hours.  This is because it's 1 hr to get there/come home.  Then queueing for the car park, and finding a parking space takes an extra 40 minutes. Then queuing for a quick lunch is tricky if you get in the wrong queue (we didn't want meatballs...).  Then the usual let's walk you round the store/display area via the longest route, find your items in marketplace and guess what, let's queue again to pay for the things.  

That said, Phoebe's bedroom is much improved, and the new desk in the study is a triumph!

I'm really looking forward to getting back to work on the 3rd, and even more looking forward to the children returning to school on the 8th.  Just how are you supposed to be a working parent if you're not employed in education???  

On a lighter note, it didn't rain today, and I'm going to clean the oven.  

Happy new year to one and all

keep it sweet  :)  Kat

Grrr... brrrr!

All this driving's making me mad!  For the split seconds that I feel like Steve Wright's 'Mr Angry' character when I'm behind the wheel, I wonder what sort of person I'm facing as they pass towards me in flagrant disregard of the rules of the road.

Give way to oncoming traffic when the obstacle is on your side of the road.
Observe safe lane discipline - i.e. don't veer towards the white line in the middle of the road.
Dip, don't dazzle.

I'd have to look them up in the Highway Code, but that's what I was taught.

I was also taught to remember the three 'C's:  Care, Courtesy and Caution.  Not necessarily in that order.  And these also apply well to most situations in life, not just driving...

So I reported the white van man in Faringdon the other week.  He was turning right in front of me whilst I gave way at the roundabout.  As he passed in front of me I noted (i) he'd not indicated and (ii) he was talking on his mobile phone and consequently was steering with one hand on the wheel (the other hand was holding his phone).  OK.  we've seen it before, and we'll see it again, but I thought a few choice words to myself, and noted his tagline on the rear of the vehicle 'Brian Hall, The Complete Builder'.  'Complete idiot' or words to that effect I thought to myself.  I proceeded to follow him as the break in the traffic had allowed me in.  A short way along the road he turned left abruptly, and I further observed (iii) his left indicator wasn't working, or he'd failed to use it, and (iv) two of his brake lights were out (his vehicle was equipped with three brake lights, the only one which worked was the smallest one at the top of the van)....

The above combination of poor driving provoked me into reporting his actions at the police station.  I didn't have his licence plate number, as I was driving, and it was mostly obscured by dirt, but I had his name, and knew he was 'the Complete Builder'.  Job done.

But what irritates me about this is that all the above was absolutely avoidable.  It adds grist to the mill of the argument in favour of a system of re-testing drivers at regular intervals throughout their driving lives.  Say every 10 or 15 years you re-take the driving test / a version of the test.  If you fail or don't meet acceptable standards you're allowed to continue driving on a provisional licence and have to re-take the test within a certain timeframe, say 6 months.  You could have further tutoring during this process.

I think this would (i)  improve general driving standards (ii) provide employment - more tests = more testers required to examine the drivers  (iii) improve safety of other road users as test failure would result in licences being revoked.

There, got that off my chest!

This morning whilst walking Roly in the park the moon was still high in the sky.  Although the sun had got up, it looked like it wanted to go back to bed.  The shadows of the trees were long in the tooth, but in this hemisphere at this time of the year that's what we get.

When I get home from picking Tom up from school, it's pitch dark and the hens have gone to bed.  Well, they normally have.  Tonight one of them had got separated from the rest - she'd broken into the area I've fenced off as it's been so wet - so she was still out when I went to close the pop-hole.  All hands on deck, I got Phoebe to help, and Simon to hold the torch, and we went to catch the hen and put her to bed.  The sky was clear, and the stars were all out, and I don't know how she'd have got on if I'd not noticed she was missing from the coop....  b r r r !

Paint your own impressionist lake!  The wonders of zoom on a digital camera....

That's it for now,  bed and hot water bottle beckoning.
Keep it sweet!  Kat

Knitting with biros...

I kid you not.

At work on Monday afternoon we (my boss and I) were putting the finishing touches to our festive decorations.  We'd taken inspiration from a previous display at Carterton Library, where they'd used old deleted stock (books) to make Christmas Trees with.  Essentially you fold over the pages from the outer edge to the spine a couple of times, and repeat all the way through the book.  This gives a cone form which can then be decorated with glitter glue and the effect is, well, appropriate for a library...

Our version of the trees this year is part of our display in the junior fiction area.  After some experimentation with the glitter glue spray can, we went for gold spray paint sprinkled with glitter. We're all about the bling!  Here's the end result...

In the middle of the display (to the left of this) there's another camel, and a fluffy sheep, and of course, a shepherd...

We also made paper folded angels... there's a paper folding theme here, and it's not origami!

But the 'pee-ace de resistance', our show-stopper, our magnus opus is the snowmen.

Again, more folding of books deleted from the catalogue...  Actually, you'd be surprised how many books we delete a week. Why do we do this?  Well, if the book is over 6 yrs old in circulating terms, and has come to the end of it's rota, and hasn't issued for more than 6mths (fiction) or 1 year (non-fiction), then it's deleted from the catalogue and sent back to central to be sold.   This way they make something back from something that's outlived its useful life in circulation terms.  But, I digress.

So the snowmen were folded slightly differently in order to make the more spherical shape (they're actually a bit pointy in the middle, but no-one's perfect).  Polystyrene balls were purchased for the heads, and twigs were collected for the arms.  So far so so. But, but, but. What do all snowmen need?  What do they call out for in the chill of the night?  What do they want to keep them warm?  A scarf.

We looked in the craft box as Pauline thought there was a scarf already made, but we couldn't find it.  We did, however find 2 balls of wool.  Useful.  If only we had knitting needles.....   IMPROVISATION is a great skill, and one which should be taught in schools.  We used biros.  6 stitches, and you get a really chunky garter stitch.  Nice.  1 hr later, both snowmen were suitably attired, and the job was done.  See what I mean?

Bless, this is Pauline's (my boss) scarf.

This is my effort.  Ho, ho, ho!

So, how we'll cope after Christmas I don't know, in that we've made all these decorations which will more than likely go into the bin, as we're so small there's no storage space to save them.  It'll seem jolly plain once we've taken it all down.

On a more positive note I'm actually looking forward to Christmas this year (after last year's stressy time with the business going into administration and us being redundant...).  My library closes on the Saturday 22nd at 12.30pm, and re-opens on Thursday 3rd January, and it's only costing me 3 days leave.  So here's to Oxfordshire County Council, I'll give them my vote of thanks, and wish them a very merry one!

I'm off to see what's happening in LCL (Lady Chatterley's Lover).  Wish me luck!

ttfn.  Kat  :)