woooof..

is my new favourite exclamation
it has a positive tone, kind of a woohoo attitude, but more subtle. its not a woof, like a dog. which is usually more of a 'u' like in 'bus' anyway, but more prolonged and works well in conjunction with a sort of sigh of happiness.
such is the sound that i uttered several times this weekend, which was not only a fin de semaine, but for me a fin de l'hiver. the sun came out, the clocks got shuffled on and the brocklehursts were back in the neighbourhood.
poker was played,
cocktails invented,
new trof was investigated (reading group on the top floor, anyone...?!)
shoes were not bought
sainsbury's voucher fairies were honoured and beloved,
a record short amount of time was spent in the osbourne (one pint and no longer..)
articulate was so so much fun!
skate park prayer time was better than good.
beef stew was a triumph,
the crossword tried and failed
was in bed by 8.45 with a harry potter book, a sneaky (non-options)hot chocolate (can i get a gasp from the ww crowd...!?)
and i was asleep by 11
woooof

hace cuatro años..

who was there, that time at cultural shift, when it was announced that the government had not received enough votes in the debate to be able to go to war..., any of you?
i'm sure oz and cate were there.....
i don't think i'll ever forget it. for a brief time, i allowed myself to think that it would make a difference. the massive protests in london and round the world were scheduled for the next day, and the combination of the two events meant that it seemed as though the invasion was going to be averted.
they say that people today in iraq believe themselves to be less safe, less provided for, than under saddam..i can believe that. i can also, however, believe the people who say they are happier to know that they at least have the option to vote, that the future is wider open than it ever seemed before. but i guess its like the whole of life, the more you open yourself up to joy, the more open you allow yourself to be to sadness..the more you allow faith to grow in you, the more disappointed you may be when it doesn't work out..the more you fight for democracy the more fighting you seem to provide space for..the less you know about what you're fighting for, the less you end up achieving. on that basis, the fact that we had no idea why we were going to war, really, pretty much means it was inevitable that in the aftermath, we would have no clue what we were doing.
the full extent of just how irresponsibly we went at it, knowing how little we knew about what to do once the statues were torn down, is what now stuns me the most. the naivete, the sheer stupidity, of looking at a country and saying, oh, we've figured out what your problem is, so we'll take him out of the equation, and see how you fare. oh, you don't want to behave? fine, we'll kill you, on a fairly steady basis, for probably a good ten years, and then see how many of you are left standing with which we can form a puppet government. Afghanistan. prime example.
i hate this, i hate how cross it makes me, i hate how much they didn't listen, i hate how no-one has still come up with a viable alternative to the way things are going. leaving now would mean exactly what it meant in afghanistan. a country left to self-mutilate for another couple of years until we feel threatened enough to be able to justify spending more on going back in to re-stabilise things.
what a load of shit
today is s sad day, if you ask me. which you didn't. sorry x

ticking all the boxes..

here we are managing to live up to as many irish stereotypes in one evening as we can...






and one sad paddy with no magners left..

size matters..

three things over the last week concerning size, that i have laughed at or otherwise enjoyed alot alot
1 - the optician lady, while examining my eyes (for my new super amazing contact lenses, to be ready shortly - woo and yay..) suddenly enquired -have you always had such enormous eyes..?!- to which i mumbled a yes, thinking she must surely be taking the mick because everyone knows that everyone's eyes are all the same size....or so i thought! turns out mine are officially half a whole millimetre wider in diameter than your average peeper..! who knew..
2 - on speaking to chloe for ages on the phone last night, which was delightful, as soon as i informed her of my new WW allegiance, she exclaimed -but what about your lovely jubblies, you're not going to lose those as well, are you!?- i laughed alot alot, and then later grew in my increasing anxiety that in all my dietary piety, i may about to lose some of my greatest assets..
3 - i bought a skirt yesterday (mt, about a £1..!) and got it home only to find that i have already, yes, already lost a dress size. glory be.

spring is springing..

j'adore the spring..
and here's one of my favourite things about it..
it makes people sing...
just now, i was in the hsbc over the road, waiting my turn when this man came in singing -mardy bum- and not even quietly. he was just pottering around, going to the cash machine, singing away...i was grinning at him so hard that i think he felt it cos he turned around and caught me grinning and just carried on, me, firm in my theory that he'd heard it on xfm at 8.20 this morning as i had, and we'd both had it stuck in our heads since!
that, right there, is what spring does to you if you let it...
i let you i let you!!!!!

so here we are..

i am having a resurgence of my former affections for bloc party. the album -silent alarm- is inconsistent but its bright moments are wonderful, i think..
it has helped put my mind in a frame of whimsy though, which is only a part-time bad thing..

happy birthday sal...!!

..in light of which,

..supper out this evening beckons...
so i have done my research, and plan to thoroughly put these wise words into practise..
i searched for "eating out while on weight watchers", and got these..
(there were long and detailed explanations of each one, but they sound so much funnier without those parts...i've been out of the dieting game for such a long time, i'd fogotten the strange, coded, boot-camp language that "they" seem to think so necessary!!

Dining Do's and Don'ts
1. Set a budget.Determine how much you're willing to eat before looking at the menu.
2. Put on your game face.
3. Make special requests.
4. Practice portion control.
5. Break down (language) barriers.
6. Downsize the super-size.
7. Watch out for extras.
8. Don't go top heavy.
9. Don't drink away your progress.
10. Resign from the "clean plate club."

funtimes ahead, hey..?! anyone present this evening, you are welcome to call me on any of these if you see me straying from The Path...!
xxxx

spring comes to narnia..

look..! just look... this is where my brother shall be wed, in august.. and a few weeks ago it looked like this: mais maintenant, it looks like this:it really is a bit like narnia, see..

mumma and mr tumnus!!

and here they are..

the happy couple...(or if you look at nick, the petrified couple..!)..and the rococo wedding planner..

moonpoker..

my weekend in summary:
fresh air..full houses...oap evoision....wedding venue treasure hunts....

ah, the sheer joy of a poker evening at home with mum and dad, nick, rob and amy and me....i think i am finally understanding the whole game a bit more, but bluffing remains a mystery to me..pheobe was right when she asked "and is that not just another word for lying...?" i think its quite difficult. especially when you just don't want to look like a dunce if you take it really far and then lose....i guess we should ref that as per john hainses' wise words regarding another situation in a previous post...!

so i arrived home on friday night to steak and then a few hours in the rene with the rentals and nick and angela....we played poker and i drank cranberry juice..good to keep a clear head about these matters...! on saturday day mum and i explored the land of narnia also known as the rococo gardens....a whole post on that will follow....and then saturday evening we took it in turns to run outside into the freezing cold to check on the status of the moon, pausing at the bar (the back door step) for another cold drink on the way back in, hastily throwing cigarettes down in favour of not letting mum get away with "shuffling" the cards while no-one was looking...! the moon was beautiful, the game amateurish and hilarious, the company some of my favourite in the world, and the new discovery of dry martini quite an eye-opener for me...
yesterday got lost in the hills of nailsworth with nick and dad...managed to avoid seeing the grandparents, made time for the archers omnibus and had some soup...and still home to the north in time for another chapter of the order of the pheonix before a jolly good sleep.
i love it up here, but shire holidays are ever-necessary..
xxx

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

in about 33 minutes i leave for the shire

amen, henri..

Daily Meditation for March 2, 2007
written by Henri Nouwen
_........................................................._
God Covenant
God made a covenant with us. The word covenant means "coming together." God wants to come together with us. In many of the stories in the Hebrew Bible, we see that God appears as a God who defends us against our enemies, protects us against dangers, and guides us to freedom. God is God-for-us. When Jesus comes a new dimension of the covenant is revealed. In Jesus, God is born, grows to maturity, lives, suffers, and dies as we do. God is God-with-us. Finally, when Jesus leaves he promises the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Spirit, God reveals the full depth of the covenant. God wants to be as close to us as our breath. God wants to breathe in us, so that all we say, think and do is completely inspired by God. God is God-within-us. Thus God's covenant reveals to us to
how much God loves us.

continuity flaw..

well my doves, i feel it is time that, for the sake of continuity and for the purposes of my children being able to use this baby to make a tidy sum from my posthumously published memoirs, i ought really to conclude the valentine tale....

it has ended, and with not a little cry, and with a great bundle of lessons learned, joys anticipated, self risked and insanity considered, i may now own that i am set to move on.

i enjoyed the experience immensely, it gave a small spark on the odd rainy morning, and a wry grin at the reality of my own foolishness on drunken evenings when i'd come home and still find myself wondering about...him...

i need wonder no more, for it is not to be.

and would i undo it? take it back? reverse all that has been versed? maid non, pas du tout...je ne regrette rien..

who said that? somebody famous...

my loves, here's the thing: i have won as they call it at the MOD the battle for hearts and minds...i have won, over my own mind, set in fear and self-doubt. and i have triumphed in the game of risk, where all i had to place as my bet was the small bit of my heart that it took to see it through.

i win
ok i jesus wins too. he really does. and he deserves to..deserves a medal for putting up with me, and my endless questions, my laughing at his silly notions, and never seeming to fully trust what he's up to there in the background...

and yet...he waits for me to catch on, do the math and put the pieces together, enough now to see that its not my time. not today
xxx