FASHUN BLOGGING = SO HARD, you guys! Witness:
In other news (which will be totally repeated news if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter: sorry!), yesterday morning we woke up to this:
Well, actually we woke up in the middle of the night, to Rubin barking hysterically in order to alert us that the the house was falling down. It wasn’t, thankfully, but it really did sound like it for a while. This is the fourth time we’ve lost our fence in the past few weeks – I’d blame the fence, but everyone else’s was more or less the same. (And normally it just blows down: this time it snapped right out of the steel fence posts, thanks to our neighbour’s bin being thrown at it by the high winds.) We got off lightly, though: there was some pretty major damage around town/the country in general, and I from what I’ve heard, at least two people were killed, so we were lucky: fences can always be fixed…
Tagged green dresses, I hate winter, rubin
I know you’re all sitting on the edges of your seats right now, thinking, “OMG, I wonder how on earth Amber is coping with the First Snowfall The World Has Known, Ever!” so let the record show that:
1. Amber has a sore throat and a runny nose. She doesn’t actually think this is connected to the presence of the omgsnow – it’s actually more likely to be just the usual pre-holiday lurgy – but she’s going to blame it anyway. For everything. Even the existence of Crocs and other horrors.
2. Amber is apparently speaking about herself in the third person now. That’s the snow’s fault too.
Anyway, here’s today’s drop, and yes, I have just become one of those bloggers who posts photos of the weather all the time. It’s only one small step from this to posting photos of my food every day:
OK, that one was just so we can get the “pretty” out of the way. That’s the snow in the woods across the street from us. Here it is outside our house:
I don’t know why I’m smiling here. I mean, it’s not like I haven’t spent the past few days weeping.
This used to be Terry’s car:
And this used to be our garden:
As you can see, we had to clear an area of snow for Rubin’s, er, use. (And by “we” I mean “Terry”, obviously). As you can also see, Rubin’s not particularly impressed by it, because even although the snow would be over his head everywhere but this cleared area, he still wants to go for a walk, and he wants to go NOW. Or how about NOW? NOW?
In less snow-centric news, tomorrow is the first day of Dressember, so I hope you all have your dresses at the ready. (Note: not you, dad, if you’re reading this.) There are now 173 people in the group, and it was suggested last week that we try to use Dressember for some purpose other than simply encouraging us all out of our jeans, so those taking part are now dressing up all month in aid of the women and children’s charity Refuge - you’ll find a link to the JustGiving page on my sidebar, and we’re hoping to raise even a little bit of money, while also hopefully having a bit of fun.
For me, I think the real challenge won’t be wearing a dress every day, it’ll probably be remembering/finding the time to blog about it every day. Still, I guess if the snow keeps on falling, it’s not like I’ll have much else to do…
Tagged I hate winter, snow
So, this happened:
And this, my friends, is why I leave the country every December, if it’s humanly possible. “Imagine if we weren’t going on holiday soon!” I said to Terry last night, as we watched a couple of cars get stuck in the small smattering of snow that lay in our street at that point. “Just imagine how much I’d be complaining right now!”
Terry could only nod silently, and turn pale at the very thought of it. And, as you can see from the photo, it’s actually a very modest amount of snow. I mean, it’s not even covering Rubin’s paws, and although it’s deeper on the grass than it was here on the patio, it’s still not very much snow. Nevertheless, it has plunged the country into End-of-the-World style hysteria, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since, oooh, since about April, I think, which was when we last had snow. I’m puzzled by this, because the thing is, we’ve known the snow was on its way for at least a week. Every night this week, I’ve checked the news before going to bed, and it’s been full of stories about the omgsnow that was going to fall overnight – so much so, in fact, that I have dreamt about snow every single night (made a change from the crabs, I guess) and have woken up amazed to find that it still wasn’t there.
Not so the schools, airports, and highway maintenance people, though. Nope, despite a week’s worth of warnings about the omgsnow, these agencies were completely unprepared for it: in fact, they could not have been more surprised by it if the snow had fallen in May. (Which actually did happen, now I come to think of it…) So we woke up yesterday morning to find that, while the snow hadn’t quite reached us yet, not far north of here the schools were closed, the airports were closed, the roads were closed, and the news reports were full of slightly dazed looking people walking around going, “OMG CAN YOU FREAKING BELIEVE IT!!! SNOW!!! IN WINTER!!! CAN YOU EVEN?!?!?”
Comment of the day yesterday went to Sky News, which solemnly informed us that “experts” had predicted that “the wintry spell” may last for another ten days, omg! The hell does that mean? The winter’s only going to last for ten days? And what, then it’ll be summer again? Because I may be going out on a limb here, but for my entire life, the “wintry spell” at this time of year normally lasts from November – March (and last year it lasted from October – May). In fact, most people have actually stopped calling it a “wintry spell” and just refer to it as plain old “winter”. But hey, if Sky News have “experts” who say it will only last for ten days this year then that is, indeed, cause for rejoicing.
No one, however, is rejoicing more than Rubin. The title of this post, you see, doesn’t refer to me (and thank God for that, I hear you say!) but to him:
TUFF.
SO. NOT. IMPRESSED.
Don’t worry, I don’t make him keep the hood up. (And he was actually unimpressed purely because as soon as he laid eyes on the jacket, he knew he was going for a walk, and so he didn’t want to sit still and have his photo taken.) In fact, he normally wears this:
I should probably point out here that I’m not a fan of making animals wear clothes just for the sake of it (Well, not unless we’re talking about the Yoda costume we bought him for Halloween that one time): it’s just that Rubin has hair like Velcro, and his belly is close to the ground, so without something to cover that area at this time of year, he tends to return from his walks covered in mud, and leaves, and twigs and all kinds of other nasties, and have to go straight into the bath.
(I should also point out that Terry refuses to be seen with us when Rubin is wearing his little duds. It’s OK, though: Rubin says the feeling is mutual.)
Yesterday, then (also known as Before The Snows Came, Bitter Chill It Was!), I thought I was being ohsoclever by getting Rubin into his little red coat in preparation for his walk. I continued feeling clever even although as soon as I got the coat on him I realised I couldn’t fit his walking harness over the top of it, and would have to put his collar on him instead. And I STILL felt clever even when I couldn’t find his regular collar (red, to match his coat, natch) and had to use the fancypants gold “bling” collar I bought as a joke/because I am stupid one year, and which has a diamante “STUD” charm hanging from it along with some other sundry blingtastic items. (Terry REALLY didn’t want to be seen with us that day, seriously.) In fact, I continued to feel clever right up until about ten minutes into the walk, when it became clear that Rubin had eaten something that disagreed with him, and he had an, er, “accident” which resulted in him coming home and having to go straight into the shower ANYWAY to be disinfected. Then the shower had to be disinfected. Then I had to be disinfected. Which just goes to show that while fine feathers make fine birds, fancy duds don’t necessarily make clean dogs.
And yes, I did just write an entire paragraph about dog poop. Sorry. Just be grateful I didn’t take photos of the aforementioned “accident”, as I’ve seen some potty-training mothers do on Facebook.
Tagged I hate winter
On Sunday, I decided that, after a beautiful, warm September, I could ignore the truth no longer: winter was upon us, and it was time to conduct the Great Wardrobe Switchover for the second time this year.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Didn’t she just DO that?” And seriously, it really does feel like that, doesn’t it? I mean, I know I say this all the time, but this year is passing SO fast, it’s totally freaking me out. For instance, it feels like just a couple of weeks ago I was gleefully packing all of the winter stuff away, and now here it is back again, like a particularly nasty rash:
(To be fair, only the contents of the two plastic coffins boxes are my actual winter clothes. The rest is stuff I’d been clinging on to for years and which is now making its final journey to either the charity store or the rubbish tip, just as soon as I can get around to organising it.)
What made this whole experience even worse, however, was the fact that when I did pack away all of my winter stuff this spring, I couldn’t help but be struck by how very dull it all was. “God, lookit all this stuff!” I thought, throwing it into the plastic storage boxes I’d bought for that very purpose with gay abandon. “It SUCKS. I’m glad I don’t have to wear this crap again for months!” And then the year somehow got stuck on fast forward, and how here we are again. Gah.
“I ate string this weekend. The contents of these bags would be nothing to me. Rarr!”
The whole “OMG, there is something living in our attic!” saga from earlier this year added a frisson of fear to the whole experience. Every time I opened one of those bags I was terrified I’d find a family of mice, or a severed head or something inside. Instead, I found a bunch of old clothes from the mid 90s that I’d totally forgotten I owned, which was almost as scary, to be completely honest.
Oh, and those plastic storage boxes? THOSE were fun to bring down from the attic.
TERRY: Here, I’ll pass it down to you, you just grab it and lower it to the ground.
ME: Are you kidding? You could fit a BODY in one of those things! There’s no way I can support its weight above my head!
TERRY: Stop being a drama queen! Just take the weight and lower it to the ground.
BOX # 1: CRASH!
Whoops.
Anyway, I dealt with the charity stuff, then I emptied all of the winter stuff out onto the bed, and begun the sad, sad process of packing away the summer:
Buh-bye summer clothes! We barely knew ye…
Buh-bye, really quite frightening evidence of my obsession with polka dots! We, er, well, we really DID get to know ye, didn’t we? Maybe a little bit too well, if the truth be told.
(Also pictured: the duct tape that’s now holding that particular box together.)
And so it begins: winter. The season of my (normally quite vocal) discontent. And I know, I know: some people don’t got no winter, I should be grateful that I have the opportunity to live through months of end of gloomy, freezing, depressing weather. I KNOW. And I do secretly enjoy having a huge clear-out, and feeling all organised afterwards.
I’m getting out my S.A.D lamp RIGHT NOW though…
Tagged clothes, I hate winter
(Taken just a few minutes ago: excuse the dark photo, it’s, er, nighttime.)
NO. Nonononono. NO. It’s almost APRIL. It’s SPRING. Actually, as of Sunday morning, when Daylight Savings Time started in the UK, British SUMMER time has officially begun.
And it’s snowing. SNOWING. And quite heavily, too.
I mean, they DID tell us it would snow this week. The weather people, I mean. And I was all, “Yeah, yeah, whatever! I’m totally switching over my wardrobes this weekend and getting out my summer clothes. I wore a trench coat this month, for God’s sake, so the snow can kiss my ass!”
Well, it looks like the snow decided to KICK my ass instead. I seriously cannot stand much more of this. We’ve just had the worst winter since records began, and it really feels like it’s never going to end. WAAAAAHHHHHHH! Woe is me! Woe! Woe! No, seriously: WOE.
If that snow hasn’t melted by the time I wake up tomorrow, I’m … well, I don’t know what I’m going to do. Cry, probably. And maybe book another holiday.
WOE.
Tagged I hate winter, snow
Do you think we could maybe just start again with this whole “2010″ thing? Say, next week, maybe? Is next week good for everyone? Because so far this year isn’t really working out for me. It’s mostly because of the horrible weather. I’ve always viewed winter as a kind of obstacle in the year – something like a dragon, say, which you have to slay before you can emerge triumphant onto the sunny plains of Spring, but this year the dragon is seriously pissed, and I have the feeling it might just emerge the victor.
In other words: I’m feeling a bit flat. I hesitate to mention this here, because I know I’m just opening myself up to a whole bunch of “some people don’t even HAVE weather!” comments, and trust me: I know how lucky I am. I’m just suffering a case of the Januarys, and going by my Twitter feed, I somehow don’t think I’m the only one. I, of course, have it better than most in that I don’t have to deal with the daily struggle to get to work when most of the roads are impassable and the public transport is non-existent, but there’s a general feeling of gloom in the air at the moment, and while that’s more or less the norm for me during the winter, it does seem worse than usual right now.
So, my proposal is that we write off the first two weeks of 2010 and start again on Monday. By then I’m hoping the snow will have undergone a Melting; the roads will be back to normal, I’ll be able to wear heels again without breaking my neck, will have spent some time in front of my S.A.D. lamp, and will have returned to the gym, for the first time in… umm, let’s just say a while. I will start again on Monday, and by then, the dragon will be dead, and January and I will be back on speaking terms. I hope.
Now, who’s with me?
Tagged I hate winter
Well, it’s January 7th, and I’m just going to hold my hands up here and admit that I haven’t left the house for five days now. Other than to take this photo, that is:
 Obligatory "Look, I am standing in snow!" photo Did you know it’s been SNOWING here in the UK, readers? Ha! What am I saying? Of COURSE you knew! Because for the past few weeks, there’s been only one topic of conversation amongst us Brits. Can you guess what it is? Yes? It’s SNOW! Someone please shoot me…
It started snowing while Terry and I were on holiday. That’s almost four weeks ago now, for those of you playing along at home. It basically hasn’t stopped since, which is actually pretty unusual for this part of the world. Sure, it’s always cold (and I DO mean “always”), but snow is quite rare, and when it does fall, it’s normally gone within a day or two, much to my joy. This time, though? This time it decided to stick around, see in the New Year with us, maybe try and ruin Christmas… stupid old SNOW.
When our flight landed at Glasgow airport, there wasn’t much snow in evidence. “Ha!” we thought. “We have missed the worst of it! Media was exaggerating! Parents were exaggerating! Airline which kept us stranded for 17 hours was exaggerating!” Then we drove into our street, and straight into a huge pile of SNOW, which we remained stuck in for the next 30 minutes, until our kind neighbour finally took pity on us and came to dig us out. Which just goes to show what WE knew, eh?
Two days later, we pulled out of the driveway to head to my parents’ house for Christmas, and instantly got stuck in the SNOW. Our neighbour helped push us out. Then we drove to my parents’ house and got stuck in THEIR driveway My dad helped push us out. Then? We drove home. And got stuck in our driveway. Our neighbour…actually, you know what? Just fill in the rest of this yourself, OK? My point is: it’s not been much fun. Because this country isn’t really used to prolonged periods of heavy snow, we just aren’t prepared for it. Like, AT ALL. This means that our street still hasn’t been cleared since that initial snowfall while we were away. A couple of feet of snow has now turned into solid ice, and is absolutely treacherous to walk on. So we…. haven’t been. Walking, that is. We’ve not been having our rubbish bins emptied either, because the council (Who’ve failed to clear the road) now say they can’t access the street. One bin WAS finally emptied today, but the other’s getting on for four weeks now, and, you know, that’s not much fun, especially not over Christmas.
The upshot of all of this is that we’re currently more or less housebound. We CAN leave the house, but it takes such a long time to dig the car out, deal with the horrible conditions on the main roads (lots of abandoned cars lying around because people get stuck and can’t move them) plus the small matter of having to walk on a virtual ice-rink, that it barely seems worth the trouble. Of course, in our case, this isn’t too big a deal, because we’re fortunate enough to be able to work from home (I don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful for that fact than I am this week!), but I really pity the poor people who’re basically having to risk life and limb every morning just to get to work. Did I mention how much I hate the SNOW? And the winter in general? They’re saying it’s the worst winter in 40 years, and it feels a bit like being in an End of the World movie.
My only comfort in all of this is the time I’ve spent planning our next holiday, to somewhere where there is no SNOW. Well, that and my new boots:
My in-laws, meanwhile, travelled home from Greece yesterday. They WERE supposed to be flying from Athens to London Heathrow, and getting a connecting flight to Edinburgh, but the connecting flight was cancelled (due to SNOW), so they had to re-book for another, much later flight, which would have involved an overnight stay at Heathrow. I say WOULD have because unfortunately THAT flight was cancelled too. Then their flight from Athens to London had to be diverted to….
Glasgow! This was really, really lucky for them, because Glasgow is obviously a whole lot closer to home than London is, but not so lucky for the Londoners, obviously. Remember that Melting Terry predicted last year? I really hope it’s coming soon.
Roll on Springtime…
Tagged I hate winter, shoes, snow
Well, it’s September, then. That sucks.
And I know: I know everyone who reads this will be all, “Yay! Winter! There will be long walks in the crisp Autumn leaves, while wearing long scarves and looking just like Ali McGraw in Lovestory! And there will be chestnuts roasting on an open fire! Yay, yay, and thrice yay!” And when you say this, I will nod and smile, but secretly I will be thinking “The hell?” Do these people live inside a movie or something? Because, seriously, I don’t even KNOW anyone who has an open fire, so all of you people who look forward to snuggling up in front of one while the snow falls picturesquely outside the window may as well be on another planet as far as I’m concerned. I mean, I guess I could try to roast chestnuts/marshmallows on one of the radiators, but I just don’t think I would get the same effect, somehow.
Long walks, kicking up the crisp Autumn leaves, as if in the montage scene of a movie? Nah. Here we just go directly from “what passes for summer” to “Holy crap, it’s freaking WINTER”. We do not pass ‘Go’. We do not kick up the crisp Autumn leaves. And we certainly don’t look anything like Ali McGraw in Lovestory, because, well, that was actually a movie. As I’ve said before, there is no such thing as winter “fashion” in Scotland, because we just have to wear everything at once. Or at least, I do.
From this, you’ll gather that I’m not exactly enthused about the end of summer. (It actually ended about six weeks ago, here, obviously, but it’s taken the rest of the world a while to catch up.) This weekend I had planned to do my annual wardrobe switchover, when I pack away all my (mostly unworn) summer dresses and short-sleeved tops and get out all of the warm sweaters and thermal underwear I live in for 8 months of the year, but I just couldn’t face it. It was too soon. So, instead, I went shopping.
Before you get excited, though, it wasn’t THAT kind of shopping – you know, the kind that’s actually FUN? It was a “stock up on winter essentials” kind of trip, and it was actually fairly successful, if not exactly enjoyable: last winter I bought a bunch of stuff I didn’t actually wear because it was always too cold and miserable, so this year I decided to just accept the inevitable: that I will be wearing roughly the same outfit from now until next May, and so I bought some warm sweaters and a scarf, and no shoes whatsoever. (Not that I won’t be wearing shoes, you understand: just that I won’t be wearing particularly nice ones, because it will be wet and freezing all the time.) I was hoping that, by doing this, I could force the summer to hang on for just a little longer, just to spite me, but nah: last night we were actually woken up by the sound of the torrential rain hammering on the window, and today it’s more or less “winter”.
I wish I could hibernate until Spring.
(I know: here I am complaining about the weather and SOME PEOPLE DON’T GOT NO WEATHER! The cheek of me.)
Tagged I hate winter, the weather
I haven’t left the house since we got back from the Halloween party on Saturday night, other than a quick visit to Terry’s mum (who lives just around the corner) on Monday.
I have no idea how this happened. I mean, I’m going on a beach holiday next month for cryin’ out loud - the plan was to at least go to the gym every day, to prepare myself for the “eating my own body-weight” fest that will be December (holiday AND Christmas – whoops!), but somehow it got to Monday morning, the alarm went off … and I rolled over, looked at it, gave a small, piteous moan, then went back to sleep.
Then I woke up a while later, realised I had seventy gazillion blog posts to write by the end of the day, and ended up still sitting at the computer at 11pm, rubbing my eyes and wishing I had a normal job – you know, one where you don’t have to complete an entire month’s worth of work in advance, just to take a two week break. (Complicated, but that’s how it works, trust me.)
The next day? I did the same thing again. D’oh.
And so it’s gone on, to the point where I opened the blinds in the office this morning, looked out and was actually quite surprised to remember that hey, there is a WORLD out there, people! With, you know, STUFF in it. Yeah. Who knew?
Actually, the Grand Opening of the Blinds this morning was quite the event in itself. You see, up until now we’ve had mostly brilliantly sunny, but bitingly cold weather here. You’d think all this sunshine would make me happy, because I am all about the sunshine, right? Wrong. It does not make me happy. (“Fickle” is my middle name. Always remember that.) Not at this time of year, anyway, because that damn sun is so low in the sky that you walk around permanently blinded by it. And the way our house is positioned, we basically have to have the blinds shut ALL THE DAMN TIME from about October to May, because otherwise we can’t see our computer screens at all. (No, moving the screens doesn’t seem to help. Tried that.)
So, basically, what I’m trying to say here is that I’ve been sitting in a darkened room since Sunday, and actually? I’m starting to feel a little bit hysterical. So when I woke up this morning and realised it was a dull, foggy day, I actually gave a little cheer, because hey, there may be no sun, but at least I can has daylight! For the few short hours that we actually get daylight at this time of year, that is.
Did I mention I’m going on holiday soon? And that it cannot come quick enough?
Aaaand, that’s enough whining from me for one day, I think. How are you?
Tagged holidays, I hate winter, Pro-Blogging, the weather, working from home
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