Posted by Tiff on December 22, 2011 in
2011,
All About The Author,
Blogging |
∞ Redundant-No longer needed, superfluous, omitted without loss of meaning or function.
Laid-Off-Having lost your job, discharged, dismissed, fired, pink-slipped.
Today was my last day at the job I’ve spent the last 3 years at. To start with I was scared, what was going to become of me? Where was I going to go and what was I going to do? I hated the thought of being the new girl all over again, I thought I’m to old for all this new girl shit.
That line of thinking dissolved into thinking about all the adventures that are ahead of me. It was time to go, I’d reached the top of what I was going to be able to do there. Time to see what comes next. I always do like a new adventure after all.
My last paid day is the 31st of December. That’s a very important date to me. December 31st 1997 8am, the day my plane landed at Manchester airport. The day that my biggest adventure started, 14 years ago. So as I mark the anniversary of that big adventure, I’ll be looking forward to a new one.
All the best things happen when it’s hard or painful, if everything was easy no one would want to try to do anything. Life would be really dull if everything was easy.
I drove out of the parking lot today, window rolled down, the stereo turned up to 11 (please someone get that joke!) and had the song TubThumping blasting into the warm, blue sky, day. If you don’t know the song most of it consists of this one line sung over and over again:
(We’ll be singing, when we’re winning, we’ll be singing)
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down
And you know what? That song is right. I get knocked down, but I get up again.
Come on gang, jump in the back of the van lets see where this road goes.
Posted by Tiff on November 21, 2011 in
2011,
The Great Remodel 2011/12 |
∞ Went back to the house on Saturday and again today. All the pipes are now under the floor and not running along the bottom of the walls. Which means we’ll be able to get some good storage units in there once it’s all over.
Unfortunately the electrician has said that we need a new fuse box. I’m not surprised as the one we have is really old. It uses fuse wire. So we are going to have that replaced. Hopefully it wont cost to much.
I have to admit it’s all getting a bit tiring for me. It should be all finished and we can move back in on the 30th if everything goes to plan. I didn’t expect it to take this long, well that’s not totally true, I didn’t think about how long it would take.
Still I can’t wait to see what it’s like in the end. It’ll all be worth it!
Posted by Tiff on November 21, 2011 in
2011 |
∞ Fail Car has made her last journey to Scrap Car Heaven (I kid you not that is the name of the place).
As much as I resented the car and all that it stood for, I have to admit I’m going to miss her a bit.
Tomorrow after work I go collect Zippy.
Posted by Tiff on November 18, 2011 in
2011 |
∞ It’s with regret I announce the sad demise of Fail Car.
Wednesday afternoon at about 5:30pm Fail Car and a RoyalMail van met in not the nicest of ways. To look at the damage there doesn’t seem like much is wrong. However, to attempt driving it is another matter. To say that the steering is wobbly is an understatement. Maybe this is what Fail Car would have felt like if I’d driven it drunk.
As much as I have complained about Fail Car, I have to admit I’m going to miss her. We’ve had some spectacular adventures, most of them coming from getting lost. There was the epic journey with Cheryl in our attempt to find HobbyCraft. Which entailed the two of us driving around in circles while never being more than spitting distance of the shop! The continual and most always accidental trips to or through Warrington.
Fail Car has done me proud, well as proud as Fail Car could do. Soon she’ll be off to ‘Scrap Car Heaven’ yes I kid you not that is the name of the place she’s going to.
And the world once again moves on.
*why are all cars a she?*
Posted by Tiff on November 17, 2011 in
2011,
The Great Remodel 2011/12 |
∞ It has begun! The long awaited remodeling of the house has started. By the end of yesterday we had three new double glazed windows. Also the workmen had arrived to destroy the bathroom so they can put it back together again only this time better! I felt like it was Christmas.
The first time we attempted to remodel/redecorate the bathroom ended in disaster. Well maybe not that bad but it sure didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to. Constant issues with the tiles, sealant and grout continued to fail regardless of what we did. It was all a bit annoying and depressing at the same time.
It’s like a new era for us, we’ll have a house stamped with our personalities and it will be an amazing transformation. I’ll be updating with photos and how things are going as much as I can.
Posted by Tiff on November 16, 2011 in
2011,
All About The Author,
The Gang |
∞ Over the weekend I was in London attending Uncon with Dave and Adam.
Uncon is a convention that’s put on by Fortean Times. It’s a two day event featuring all kinds of lectures on a vast array of subjects, none of which could be called mainstream.
I got to meet Jon Ronson and he signed my copy of The Psychopath Test which was so cool. He would be signing books after his lecture but I saw him out side the venue and pounced on him. Okay not literally but I did make sure he didn’t get away. He even commented on my politically incorrect pen saying how nice it was. I’m not sure which was better, getting his autograph or him liking my pen.
Anyway, during one of the lectures I wasn’t interested in I wandered out to where the vendors section was. I picked up my free Uncon T-Shirt (which I may actually fit into one of these days!). I noticed Hunt Emerson (he draws the cartoon in Fortean Times) was there and he was selling caricatures for £5. I couldn’t resist! He was lovely to chat to and just an all around nice guy. I love the drawing he’s done of me, it will be framed as soon as I can find a frame for it.
The one thing that struck me about the whole weekend was that I didn’t feel out of place or weird the whole weekend it. It was easy to just be me, to be able to discuss things that interested me with complete strangers. I enjoyed the debate that some lectures created, and there were jokes that only this specific group of people would get. I’m still surprised how mainstream we all look, apart from the few odd-balls, you’d never guess any of us would attend something like this.
Maybe it’s me who thinks that, maybe I feel like an odd-ball because I read it. I do think that it shows how many people enjoy stuff like Uncon and that it’s not as weird as others think it is.
Regardless, I had a great weekend, met some new people and got to spend time with two of my favorite people.
Posted by Tiff on October 17, 2011 in
2011,
All About The Author,
Blogging |
∞ This morning on BBC Breakfast there was guy talking about writing a letter to his 16 year old self. It caught my interest mostly because I’ve found that writing is the most therapeutic thing in the world to me.
I have journals and notebooks full of streams of conscious, I’m writing whatever comes into my head, I’m working out a problem, or how I feel about something. If anyone ever reads any of that stuff they’ll discover two things. 1) They’ll think I’m far more crazy than they ever thought and 2) They’ll be able to see my thought process at work and wonder how I’d avoided the nice padded cell.
Read more…
Posted by Tiff on September 30, 2011 in
2011 |
∞ So we are in the middle of ‘Fall That’s Really Summer’ and we had the ‘Summer That’s Really Fall’ yeah the weather has gone a bit nutty here. I woke up this morning and felt a bit confused, it was warm and the bedroom window was open but it was dark. This must be like to live in Australia.
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Posted by Tiff on September 11, 2011 in
2011 |
∞ I can’t believe it’s been 10 years. The world changed that day, it’s smaller now, it’s more scary.
Everyone remembers where they were. I’m no exception. I was in the back of a taxi on my way to Manchester airport, Pop and his partner Dale would be arriving shortly. I heard over the radio that a plane had crashed into one of the towers.
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Posted by Tiff on August 21, 2011 in
2011,
Facebook,
Social Media,
Twitter |
∞ Watching all the news coverage of the recent riots was odd. It was train wreck TV at it’s best, I couldn’t watch something else but sitting there watching it all felt so wrong. And for all of it to have grown out of peaceful protest about the police shooting of a man. At one point I told M that all the rioters looked like feral people.
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