Category Archives: daily

Nice Hit Count Yesterday

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I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

In other news, after my post about Vaudeville the other day, I was talking to my dad. We were talking about my Great Great Uncle Jacob ‘Jack’ Leyser, aka Louis Lytton, who was an actor. He literally ran away from home and joined the theater.

I am trying to find out more information about him, but it is sparse. My Aunt is our family historian, so I sent the above link to my dad who sent it on to her (I didn’t have her email address…now I do!). She has all the old pictures and an advertising brochure from Uncle Jack: –

“Louis Lytton was guest lecturer and critic at Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, during its Shakespeare Festival in April, 1941. In recent tours he has appeared at the Universities of New Mexico, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Indiana, Illinois, Montana, Ohio, Minnesota and other states. He has performed at senior high schools, clubs and educational centers throughout the United States. During a complete theatrical season recently he acted the role of the Duke of Venice in the celebrated Paul Robson production of “Othello.”
“Mr. Lytton is available for universities, colleges, high schools, little theatres, clubs, eductional units, etc.”
We are talking about sending some of the biographical information, like his birth name, to the IBDB.
So.Very.Neat.

Once More, With Feeling

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Okay, let’s try these pictures again, shall we?

The hallway after you first come through the front door of the flat: –

At the end of the hall there are some of my masks,  I have quite a few.

This is the hall bathroom, which is the first door on the left as you enter the flat: –

Nice, big, deep tub.  Shower too!

The next door on the left is our bedroom: –

If you look very carefully, just past the second set of pillows, you will see my dragon.  Her name is Isabella Francesca.  I got her a few weeks ago.  She is green and purple with silver fingernails.  I may take a closer picture of her later.

Another thing to note in the above picture:  There are, above our bed, two pictures that are exactly the same.  They are prints of a Georgia O’Keefe flower, framed identically.  I bought them at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  I framed them the same and posted one to Simon when I was in San Francisco and he was in Belfast.  Now they hang side by side.  (they hang a bit crooked because I used existing hooks…man are the walls *hard* in this place!)

The next picture is the view from the other side of the bed: –

That’s my dresser, which I use as a dressing table.  You can also see the very nice, big jewelry box that Simon bought me as a gift one year.  I love that thing.

And the other side of the room: –

Where the stereo lives!  That door straight ahead is to: –

Our ensuite bathroom.  I deliberately didn’t shoot the floor, but trust me, its blue. The shower is to the left and the toilet to the right.  That glass shelf with the towel rack Simon and I installed ourselves.

This is the view from the door of the Master Bedroom down the hall to the lounge: –

On the top of the shelves to the right you can see some of my puzzle globes.

The first door on the left is: –

The library.  All that bedding on the bed is new as of yesterday.  I was in Primark and found a duvet set, with sheet and pillow case, for about £7.  And a duvet for £4.  And its pink because I expect the only person who will ever stay in there will be my nieces.  And they love pink!

If you stand with your back to that bed and look to your left you will see: –

A set of bookcases.  Look, there is *actually* room for more books!  Those pictures at the top are of my nieces and nephews.

And the other side of the room: –

More bookcases! Hence being the library.  On top of those are my baseball caps.

The next door down the hall to the left is the guest bedroom: –

I have no idea why that duvet is so lumpy…anyway it is completely coincidental that the duvet cover actually matches the curtains.  We brought the duvet cover with us, the curtains were already there.  And that picture on the wall? Its a chicken.  That was already here!

Here is the view to the foot of the bed: –

Wait, you mean you and Simon have even *more* bookcases? Why yes, yes we do!

Next up is the view from the lounge door back to our bedroom: –

More masks on the right there.  And another shot of my globes!

And then you enter the lounge: –

This is what you see when you look left.  Well, Simon isn’t always there, but a lot of the time!

And when you look right: –

The dining area.  And a bit of the kitchen.

And here are our new wall units: –

Look! All my pretties are out!  And that curved shelf is my perfume bottle collection.

And finally, the kitchen: –

Isn’t it pretty?

I hope you enjoyed the tour.  Come back and see me sometime!!

MAKE UP! *POOF*

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You probably only get my title if you are my father (hi dad) or if you know anything about old Vaudeville Comedy.  Here’s the joke:

Funny Man:  I really miss my girl, we had a big fight.

Straight Man: You really should kiss and make up!

Funny Man: MAKE UP!! (hits the Other Man with a big powder puff of powder)

The old jokes are the best.

Anyway, I am in the process of changing Make Up (MAKE UP! POOF!) brands.  I usually use Benefit, which I really really like, but it is really really expensive and we are trying to watch our spending right now.  So I went to Boots during the week and picked out a few things to try. (Let me just note here, for the record, that I bought 2 powders and 3 foundations for about £25.00.  *One* item of Benefit is usually about £23.00).

And the winner? Mabeline (can you hear Simon singing their theme in the background there?) Minerals *rock*.  I have my new foundation brand.

In other shopping news, bought some stuff today.  Jeans, undies, PJs and some stuff for the house.  And had two really great moments.

The first was when I was in Boots (again, I swear I spend more money in that store…) and was wandering the make up (MAKE UP!! POOF!) aisle again.  I turned the corner and there was this older couple, probably late 50s, early 60s, standing by the cheaper brands of perfume.  And the husband kept grabbing the bottles and spraying his wife with them when she wasn’t looking.  She was giggling like a school girl.  I said “You have to watch him every minute, don’t you?” “Yes, yes I do.”

Then I was in New Look, looking for shirts (sidebar:  I am not living in Victoria London, why do all the ‘work’ tops this season have lace and flounce and stuff? YUCK!).  I was walking towards a woman with a baby buggy and two other school aged children.  She was off to one side, organizing her various packages.  A box she was trying to get into a bag flew out of her hands and she instantly grabbed it.  “Nice catch!” I said to her.  “Thanks,  you get used to that sort of thing when you have three kids!”

So bits of human contact in the middle of my shopping.  It was nice.

What is *not* nice are the self checkouts Tesco at City Centre has installed, rather than have enough cashiers on duty.  We made it through using one, but it was very annoying.

And, finally, Simon and I watched Stargate SG-1 Arc of the Truth last night.  And at one point Cam says to Sam “Do you want to sit in the big chair?” and she replies “Nope, but I’ve got your back!”  And Simon and I agreed that we could totally hear my sister in law, B, saying that to someone.  It was very B. (sidebar:  We’ve been calling her B for much longer than Faith called Buffy that.  Like the whole time she’s been married to my brother, which is somewhere around 16 years this June).

SMTP and AICAMML Ride Again

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So today was the move.  Everything was moved by just after lunch.

AICAMML wanders in around 10:30.  Stands around until the trucks are loaded.  Says to boss “I am leaving, there is really no point in my being here until everything is unpacked.” I was standing there and said “You can unpack yourself on Monday.”  Boss says “Or you can come in this afternoon after everything is moved.”  AICAMML leaves for the day.  Building Manager thanks him for all his help.  He probably thought she meant it.

SMTP comes in around 1:30 for a meeting to be held at 2.  Comes to new office looking to work.  Nothing is set up at that point.  No phones, no computers, all files in boxes.  She sniffs and says she’s going back to old building.  Then says she working from home from now on.  Good Riddance.  *Then* she says “So will everything be unpacked today?” To which I reply “I doubt it, but you could come help unpack, since you didn’t help pack.”  Once again she looks like I asked her to shoot her puppy.

By the time I left at 5, all desks were in place, all cupboards were in place and we had the beginnings of connectivity.  Monday will again be spent unpacking.  The rest of the week will be spent *finally* writing the minutes for the Board Meetings that took place last week.  I hope I remember what they talked about….

How To, Once Again, Piss Off Your Admin Team

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So we spent today packing the office for the move.  Me, Reception, Projects Assistant and Building Manager did little else all day.  We kicked ass and got the entire office packed by about 3.  Including a nice long sit in the sun with company bought pizza at lunch time.

Building Manager notices that Accounts Idiot covering Accounts Manager’s Maternity Leave (hence forth known as AICAMML) doesn’t appear to be packing.  The following conversation ensues:

BM: have you packed?

AICAMML: My desk is packed.

BM: What about your cupboards?

AICAMML: I have to pack my own cupboards?

BM: Have you not been here all week? Were you not in the staff meeting last Friday? Yes, you need to pack your own cupboards.

Then I had the following conversation with one of our Senior Management Team.  Please note that the *only* member of the SMT who did not pack his own things was the CEO.  This was because a.) that’s what he pays me for and b.) he was involved in the US NI Investment Conference all day, then had to go to the dentist.  The other 3 members of the SMT packed themselves completely, except for the one will call SMTP, for Senior Management Team Princess.

Me: SMTP, do you have a lot to pack?

SMTP: There is that stack of stuff that (her predecessor) left behind.

Me: Have you looked at it since you took over?

SMTP: No.

Me: So I can bin it?

SMTP: No, it needs to be gone through, but I don’t have time today.

Me: Fine, it’ll be dumped in a box.

I go on with other packing, such as my own desk and cupboards.  SMTP reminds me *three* times that her stuff needs to be packed.  I finally said “If you’re that concerned about it, grab a crate and pack it.” She looked at me like I told her to shoot her puppy.

Finally, Events Person packs her stuff and then sits at her desk the rest of the day.  I finally said to her boss and to my boss “EP is *not* making friends today.  The rest of us are packing our asses off and she’s just sitting there.”  Her boss tells me she is doing work.  I finally say to her “Please start the kitchen.”  She does *one* cupboard and then goes and farts around.

So out of a team of 10 people, about 6 of us did the whole office.

I will get my revenge on those that didn’t help.  Don’t you worry.

And tomorrow, we move.

Dammit!!!!

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I just messed up my comment moderation and marked a bunch of legitimate comments as spam!!

So, if you commented recently and now it is gone?  I messed you up.

I think it will also automatically marked all future comments under your name as Spam.  So, those of you I messed up, you might need a new nickname to comment here.

I’m so sorry!!!!

More UK versus US…

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It seems odd to me that the British are considered, historically, more formal than the US, but the language isn’t necessarily so.  Elevator seems more formal to me than lift.  Escalator more so than Moving Staircase.

In the US you would probably not hear someone ask, in a shop or a restaurant, where the toilet is.  In the UK its the most common term.

I think UK slang is just more interesting than US.  Quid versus Buck.  Wanker versus Idiot.

There is slang that still gets me in trouble.  Blow someone off has a totally different meaning here.  I’ll you figure out what it is.

Fanny is not your bottom in the UK. It is a woman’s front bit. 😉  Want to get a bunch of UK natives chuckling?  Tell them you own a fanny pack.

Interestingly, a penny is a penny all over the UK and US.  In fact, I found an American penny at work one day and our accounts manager refused to believe it was also called a penny.  I had to prove it to her online.

I still call potato chips chips.  And I still call french fries french fries.  Except when I don’t!!

And in other news, the lift in our block of flats announced the third floor again as we went by.  Silly Lift.