I wanna be loved by you..

I was contacted by an old school friend via one of the many social networking sites that I frequent. Well, I say school. It was a boy who was *allowed* to come to our (girl's convent) school to take part in a joint play we were putting on with their school.

Anyway, he admitted to a huge crush on me....28 years ago. And I felt all warm and fuzzy for a couple of days afterwards......That is hopelessly sad, isn't it, and I really...REALLY need to deal with my self esteem issues soon, don't I?

This is me when I was the object of his affection. No...that most certainly is NOT him in the picture. And I am applying stage make up, not gazing lovingly up into this fella's eyes! I was stage manager, you see.....I spent weeks painting shoe boxes. That will give you a clue to the play if you want to have a guess.

It's been a hard days night

I've been a bit distracted for the last few weeks, and hugely stressed. I've had a lot on my plate, and now it's all over I can share it with y'all. Ironically, I'm finding time to get back on with blogging because I'm off sick, which is probably my body's reaction to the end of the stress!

So, there's been work...there's always work, but June is the end of our FY, and targets are not met, and, well, you just try that extra bit...to try to make a difference. Then we had some very important clients coming to visit...oh and the small matter of a two day user conference to organise and host. Everything went fine...client is extremely happy, user conference was a success.

Simultaneously I was organising a couple of minor things at home. Laura's 6th birthday party, which should have been straight forward. I booked a local pub play area, and they do all the work. Just turn up with the cake and the child. But we had it on a school night, so there were lifts for various children to co ordinate, and party bags...who knew that could be so complicated?

And then there was husband's 60th birthday....oh the build up to the event of the decade has been going on for 6 (very long) months, since I had the foolish idea of a sixties themed party back at new year, and then somehow this got combined with the reunion of the band he used to play in 40 years ago....hence the posts about the purchase of the drumkit(s).

So, I booked a venue, designed the invites, sent the invites, managed the replies, booked the caterer, organised a cake, liaised with the disco (my brother), booked the live band (my next door neighbour), organised costumes and had a few tears and a tantrum. Peter reaquainted himself with drumming. And...thank christ....the party was a great success. Oh, did I mention, all of the above - work and home events, happened over the space of 5 days? Now you know why the immune system has given up the ghost! Here are selected highlights....







For the foolhardy or the extremely bored all the photos can be seen here.

Sweets for my sweet

It's obviously the 24/7 librarian bit of me, but as soon as I read Mrs Pouncer's reminiscences on the Caramac bar over at Kevin's Commonplaces I felt the urge to google and see what I could find....



Thanks to the wonder that is t'interweb you can learn about Caramac,
Buy Caramac..and..um...well, actually, I'm not sure why you'd want one of these.

Take all of me

I have inadvertently got an award - simply by being one of the first five folks to comment on Scarlet's blog. I get to post the award picture, which is nice.



However, I also have to list 10 true facts about myself. I did something similar a few months back at the behest of Kevin. As I am not a very interesting person it is going to be tricky to find more to say about myself, but here goes....taking more than a little inspiration from Scarlet's "truths":

1) I am not ginger either. No, seriously. I really am not, but I always wanted to be. I love red hair. Then my daughter was born ginger, or orange, as she likes to call it. Be careful what you wish for.

2) I have two scars under my chin, both about 1 cm long, parallel. Both childhood accidents - one from slipping in the public swimming pool and banging my chin on the edge, and on from hitting my chin on one of those 70s standup ashtray things.

3) In my job I get to visit lots of buildings and organisations that many people wouldn't get access to. I didn't go to the Lloyds of London meeting, but I have been to the Bank of England and the Lebanese Parliament, to name a couple.

4) I too got Unclassified in my maths O level, despite a home tutor as well as regular maths lessons. I was supposed to retake it the following january but didn't even bother to show up. However, it has been one of my many hang ups about my lack of academic prowess. Despite doing (and passing) statistics as part of my degree, I eventually took an OU maths course a couple of years ago, and PASSED! It was one of the happiest days of my life.

5) I am crap at sport. I was always one of those sad ones picked last for teams along with the fat girl. I was on the arts side - but I was always picked for the school play, so that was good!

6) I am a glasses wearer because I can't really get on with lenses. I have several pairs.

7) I have never been to a Cure concert. I did, however, dress as a pirate for a Bow Wow Wow concert.

8) I am a voracious reader - cannot be without a book anywhere. My dad used to help me with my reading when I was younger by getting me to read hymns - that's left footers for you!

9)I have never been a contestant on a game show, but my husband was a contestant on a radio music quiz. He was knocked out in the first round, but we had great fun at the recording, and had drinks and nibbles with Ned Sherrin.

10) I went for a riding lesson once with a horse mad school friend. I fell off, and thought it was hilarious. I wasn't a horsey type. As with the sport, I was too busy doing plays, doing dance classes or reading a book.

Pretty in Pink

Shamelessly jumping on the Jukebox Monday bandwagon-

There has been some pointless nonsense in the papers about girls and pink recently.

But back in the good old days we knew that is was OK to be pretty in pink.....

Make it magnificent tonight

Prompted by Scarlet's Jukebox Monday Blondie track, here are my two favourite tracks:



Not filmed by me....and be warned, the sound is shocking....but I was there. I'm one of the heads bopping up and down in about the third row, right in front of the stage.




And here is she is again.....I don't care what she injects into her face....this is one of the most beautiful women on the planet.

Champion the wonder horse

Or rather, Lizzie the champion librarian and internet geek....Scarlet...here is the version of White Horses you would not be embarrassed to have in your collection at any age...

You know, I really love t'internet

Especially for you

These are for you, Kevin - to show how much fun it is to work in a public library...



1984/85...Open Day at Hounslow Library. We had moved to the other end of the High Street, into a bunch of pre-fabs, in a car park, next to the careers centre, while the old library was torn down and replaced with a new shopping centre, library and theatre. Guess what..visits and issues went down, so we held an open day to remind people where we were. This included staff dressing up as Postman Pat and Jess the Cat, walking up and down the High Street, handing out balloons and leaflets.



Next stop, Twickenham District Library, summer of 86, just before I migrate up north to do my librarianship degree. The Borough Children's Librarian actually sought me out specially to wear the Spot costume because somebody had spilled the beans that I was game for a laugh. I didn't even work in children's..heck..at that stage I ran the Twickenham Housebound Service. (Shows how seriously they took that service...I was the second most junior library assistant,age 20, and I was responsible for the book selection, and the management of the WRVS volunteers!). The highlight of the day was that access to the staffroom was via the reference library, which was quite a laugh as I came scooting through dressed as a dog. Actually, I'm not sure any of them noticed.




Then, my swansong. Summer of 88, just before my final year at Library School, I went back to Hounslow Library....still in the same pre-fabs, but this was the summer they moved back to the new library. Children's summer programme. The girl with the green hair is actually the assistant children's librarian. I'm the one in the basball cap. I think I was a punkesque clown.




And finally, this one really is for you, Kev. Back to 85 and the Open Day...what better to celebrate libraries than to have a BOOKSALE!! (And the tall lad is my brother, who by that stage was a saturday assistant in same library)

Sitting....parts 8 and 9

Thank you for the kind words of encouragement,Kevin, but it's all down hill from here.

You were warned. Next film will have me sat at the front, drooling over the lovely Mr Dafoe - sweaty, grubby and in a uniform! Yep, it's Platoon. Academy award winner, and the lovely Willem was a nominee. And to continue a bit of a theme, it was the first in Oliver Stone's Vietnam trilogy. More trivia - I've just discovered Johnny Depp was in it. Can't say he made much of an impression on me during the numerous viewings! Oh, and I had the poster on my wall all three years I was a student. And, of course, the beautiful Barber's Adagio for Strings.

Ninth day, and I'm giving you an easier ride now. Let's hear it for Pretty in Pink. Classic (or is that cliched) tale of girl from wrong side of the tracks meets boy from 'right' side. He dumps her through peer pressure, then finally finds the courage to get back with her. All this, an amazing 80's New Wave soundtrack and Harry Dean Stanton. Oh, it is a total nostalgia trip.

Whistle while you work

Or in my case, shove on the headphones and play 80's music at top volume. Bit of preparation required - all my phones (all?? Yes - homeworker has three - home phone, work mobile and personal mobile) have to be in my line of sight so I can "see" them ringing. Actually, it gets very complicated if one does ring, as I use headphones for two of the three phones, so I have to remove one set, and replace with another...which are invariably all tangled up with each other, so I end up struggling to stop something falling off the desk, while trying to answer the phone promptly and in a professional manner(!)

Anyone, the point of the post was to share with you the music I am currently listening to, on a daily basis. This will give Vronni a laugh......click here or here.

And the first person to mention Tranvision Vamp's version of "Tell that girl to shut up" gets a slap.