Friends Ferroever

I was really nervous about today.
We picked Maria and Nadia up and went to Oxford for lunch. Although we have known each other through blooging for a while, I was wondering before we got there whether Maria was going to be the same person I know online. She was. Meeting her was better than I could have imagined.
We sat out in The Mole's garden (not that git) and had some lunch (no fork biting) and after lots of laughter and a few drinks, we dropped Nadia off at the station and took Maria to Radish.
Aside from the bloody awful Syrian perfume Maria was wearing that made me feel quite sick, I'm so glad we met and have had a fantastic day that I'll never forget.

Sin and Lob reunited

I almost lost the plot when Fur pointed the name of this pub out

Yum

Don't forget Sin

Stuff and ting

How will I recognise Maria on Sunday? Suggestions on a postcard or on the back of a stuck down envelope please..


I found some pretty flowers in my orifice this afternoon for no apparent reason. They had been left there by the kind, caring people I will miss when I leave in a couple of weeks.

Oh deer

I saw a roe deer grazing this evening. He was standing alone on the edge of some woodland in the New Forest. I gasped as I first caught a glimpse of his outline.
Why is it that deer always stay until you reach for your camera..?

Proof that bunnies are fick

Erk

Sulk away, Sin

We had a huge thunderstorm last night. Someone should have a word with those pesky dwarves.
By morning, the stormy weather had cleared, out came the sun and up went the mercury!
Huzzak! Not.
I made the mistake of cooking a lasagne. It was so unbearably hot in the kitchen that I forgot my name. I also forgot to go back to the phone, after leaving it to one side to check on the food whilst talking to my mum.
I'm pleased she saw the funny side as she was waiting for quite a while.
Office tomorrow (spit). If it's as hot as it was today, I shall refuse to work and read bloogs instead.
Vive la Revolution!

I forgot

On Saturday, I said 'Don't forget to buy Marmite'.
On Sunday, I said 'Bugger, forgot the Marmite'
Yesterday, I said 'Please don't let me forget Marmite'
Today I forgot the effin Marmite, despite saying 'Marmite, Marmite, Marmite, Marmite, Marmite, Marmite, Marmite, Marmite, Marmite' until I was quite blue in the face.
Now that I have bought some, I have to stop Sin from eating it.
Sometimes, life isn't fair.

Moochy

I've heard quite a few accounts of Saturday's storm from friends who were out in it.
One yacht was struck off Yarmouth and suffered moderate damage, boats struggled through 30-45 knots of the huge squalls, horizontal rain and visibility of about 10 metres, lightning striking all round.
The general concensus was wet, blowy and scared witless.
All this in 10 minutes. I was impressed.
We went out on Sunday for a play in some decent breeze (10-20 knots that gradually dropped off) and only had to deal with one squall that gave us enough time to get the sail down. I forgot my SLR and the waterproof boat camera was having a bad hair day, so couldn't get any pictures.
The Needles looked so serene and lovely today. You'd never know that when the weather is bad here, the conditions can be some of the worst in the Channel. We've been through on a bad day and at one point, I was convinced that I was going to die.
Sailing, some say, can be described as hours of boredom, interjected by moments of sheer terror...

Sailing wossit?

Arse and poot.
We have been watching this storm build for the past couple of hours and it's now breaking.
Hopefully it'll clear by this afternoon.
I don't like being caught in a thunderstorm. I don't suppose any of the boats out now, that are screwing up into this will be enjoying it either.


Ah well, spose we'd better think of something else to do. Can't spend the rest of the day foot staring.

NB To anyone inclined to leave a creepy comment, I do NOT have a foot fettish or hairy armpits.

No change

'Ot, 'ot, and humid.
Thanks goodness for outside seating and fans.
Whizz Bang was around tonight.
Spent a few hours chewing the fat with him, enjoyed another fabulous literary creation of Charlie's today and am all geared up for sailing now.
Whoopee! Sleep in tomorrow, great weather and all that stuff.
Good innit?

Blooged out

Sitting in the office today, I felt like an over steamed sugar snap pea.
It was quite unbearable, apart from being able to pass the time engrossed in some of talented Charlie's writing.
I am a bit bloogless. Lazy, full of dinner and slightly tired. It would be really nice to go to sleep tonight without the fan. The fan is good, but not to sleep to. I might try one of the tricks I was taught in Greece and wash my feet in cool water before I lie down. A sort of internal, yet temporary air conditioning.
I'm not complaining. It would just be nice to sleep all night and wake up in a bed that looks like 2 people have slept in, instead of 20 writhing boa constrictors.

Bunny boiler

I gave in earlier today and went out to buy another fan.
This has proved to be a very popular move indeed. We had been glowing somewhat.
This afternoon, after a mooch in the New Forest, we stopped on the shore for a look at the water.
There wasn't a breath of wind. Some people were swimming whilst their dogs tore around like mad things.
One, a little wire haired ankle biter, had a tennis ball in its mouth and decided that I was going to play.
So I lobbed the ball about, trying not to throw like a girl for a while and little muttley was having a great time. So was I until I stopped playing to get back to the car and the bugger tried to bite my hand after jumping up on my clean linen trousers.
On the way home, shortly after commenting to Fur about the fact that his driving licence is now clear of points, he almost clocked up about a zillion and quite possibly a ban on the motorway. He was overtaking a car at quite some chat, when we both saw flashing blue lights approaching rapidly.
Fortunately, twas only a lone rozzer in the car and he didn't get enough time to catch Fur on his camera. I don't think he was too pleased about it either, as he switched the flashing blue lights off whilst swearing quite a lot about missing the opportunity to collar him.
I don't think Fur is going to be speeding for a while.

Fantastic

We set out in some decent breeze and gusts of around 25 knots, that gradually dropped off to around 15 knots throughout the rapidly warming day. Quite aware of the spring flood tide against us, we needed that extra puff at first.
After winding the boat up, much to the delight of my mum, who loves trimming, we began to make some pretty good progress, despite the 2-3 knots of tide against us.
By 1130, twas hot. With the wind mostly up the chuff, I was grateful for the occassional gybe for a little shade.

XOD

The Solent was busy, though less crowded than usual, as a lot of boats, especially the stinky ones, won't go out if the forecast is for more than a F4.
We were hoping for this, as the tide was not going to let us get to Yarmuff as soon as we would have liked and the chances of the harbour filling up were less than on a light winds/favourable tide day.
As we arrived and tied up, away went the water bottles and out came the beers. More and more boats arrived with the now ebbing tide and within an hour or so, the harbour was full, as were the outer moorings by dinner time. Phew!

Western Solent over the breakwater and rafts of yachts

Yarmouth Harbour filling up

After a rather disappointing meal and stroppy waitress, we retired to the pub for a quickie, fell into the dinghy and once back onboard, lit the candles on my mum's cake.
A bottle of champagne and a few drinks later, I was slurring away to the moon, stars and anyone else who would listen.
We woke up this morning to the sound of my mum noisily moving a gas bottle, but let her off as it is her birthday!
No hangover, so bacon was definitely on the menu before we cast off for a fantastic beat home.
Nothing smells quite like the waft of cooking bacon from a boat first thing.
The boat was flying, until the light breeze we had finally died away, so we had a cherry stone spitting contest.
We're all a bit sunkissed and tired after so much sea air (and booze).
Yarmouth Harbour is always beautiful and the sailing, celebrations and laughter this weekend have all been brilliant.

Don't forget...

Take ice packs out of the freezer
Linen trousers
Water
Lemonade (Pimms, rah)!
GPS (yeah, I know)
Sin (meow)
Antihistamine
Sunscreeen
Oilies
Boots
Cake
Fur
Cameras

Can't wait!!

Organised mess

As I feel that things around me at work are about to go kaboom and am beyond caring about it, I am making a list to cheer myself up and to also ensure that I remember at least half of the things I am supposed to:

Charge both camera batteries
Remember sunscreen
Get ice packs from boat and put in the freezer
Get birthday present
Go and buy food
Washing
Treat self to puppy (preferably springer spaniel, cocker if run out)

The Thursday Curse

Returned today.

Cherry oh baby

Whilst I was washing these cherries and thinking about the Witches of Eastwick, I thought of another reason why sailing is cool. You can have cherry stone spitting competitions without disgracing yourself, as nobody is watching and you don't have to tidy up afterwards.

Higher and higher

It's my mum's birthday this weekend. We are going sailing on her boat to Yarmouth.
The weather is going to be fantasic. The current forecast is for about 10-15 knots of easterly breeze up our chuff, accompanied by lots of warm sunshine. The Azores High is very well established at the moment and a part of it is set to break away to the north and linger over the country, for a while at least. This is good news for the UK, as Summer depends on this high pressure system to keep the ever moving Atlantic lows at bay.
I'm looking forward to Saturday. We did the same for my mum's birthday last year and had a really good weekend. I've booked a table at a restaurant that has a terrace overlooking the western Solent. We will have to make sure we arrive early though, as the harbour fills up very quickly on good weather days.
There are only a few walk ashore berths, most of the harbour is made up of pile moorings or large floating pontoons. This is what I love about Yarmouth. There is a water taxi, but it's much more fun to use the dinghy to go ashore and fall back in afterwards to get back to the boat.
I'm going to try to be good this time as I remember being very very drunk last year. Everybody had gone to bed, not in the least bit interested in my slurry star identifying waffle. I think I noticed this when my mum disappeared into her cabin, as I poured myself another glass and leant back again to enjoy the view of a zillion twinkles.

Obsessive compulsive..

If I drink out of a can, I wash it first. Nutter?

The right thing

Last night, after semi-recovering from the shock I got when arriving home, I tried to have an early night and ended up watching TV from bed until the small hours.
There was an all night volcano theme on one channel. I've always been quite obsessed with natural disasters.
The film Stromboli followed the interesting documentaries that were on for most of the evening. I hadn't seen it before, wasn't sleepy and guessed the cinematography would be good, so I watched it.
I didn't think it was up to much, but watched regardless, utterly unimpressed with the putting of a bunny to a ferret half way through. The tuna gaffing was a bit gory and glorified too. Anyhoo.
So, today I woke up and got to work, stopping during the day to have near arguments with the people who had allowed the vandalism of my wall, to no avail of course, yet.
Why is it that in order to get most people to do things properly, one has to battle with them?
'Why' has been the mot du jour unfortunately.

Oh fackety fack!

Fack fack fack fack fack fack!!!!

I came home earlier to this sight. The door entry system installed after a 7 month mess around and the bastards have put CONDUIT on my nice wall. FACK.

Bugs on the brain

Ooerk. I've only just realised that the scented candle I bought yesterday smells like Baygon cockroach spray. Help!

Reborn

We have been out and about for the afternoon and saw this pretty little restored yacht. She shot into Christchurch harbour with the tide like she was being sucked through a plughole. When her owner gives her some new portlights she will look even lovlier.
I admire people who take on old, tired boats and bring them back to their former glory. There is always something especially sad about boats that are left to the elements in boatyards and on the mud until they seem to eventually die.
After our moochette, we picked up some tipples and a couple of DVD's. Fur has also bought a game; Star Wars - Empire at War. That's my peace and quiet well and truly trashed for the next couple of weeks.
Right, time to watch Lost in Translation and drink booze.

Enter Sin

It's been a while since I posted a pic of my fave lupine fiend. He's been very busy arranging hotel rooms in Leeds, thus impossible to catch, let alone pose.
The naughty little git has been quite good recently. I wonder. Has he turned over a new leaf or is he just foxing...

Still not afraid

I almost always forget silences but I'll remember today's.

Rude interruptions

This morning's second wake up alarm was the sound of very loud thunder. Fur had already left for work and I was not very happy. Thunder scares me. Silly I know, but it does, especially if I'm on my own. My mum used to tell me that thunder happens because of fighting dwarves in the sky. She was a hippie in case you hadn't already guessed.
The first rude awakening, before Fur left for work, was a very large moth. It flapped and divebombed round the room quite unpredictably, making me hide under the covers, almost running out of air until it was chased out. I would have left the building had it been up to me to get rid of it.
I will close the blinds tonight. It's too humid to even think straight but cooler than the last few days.
I learned a useful lesson today too. Heavy food and hot weather don't mix very well.

Bite me

I thought I'd escaped the dreaded mozzie when I left Athens four years ago. I have a swollen bite on my left arm. Not usually one to react to mosquito bites, dirty marina water probably doesn't help (was going to take a picture of it but thought you'd rather I didn't).
I did leave them nasty cockroaches behind however.
I grew up mostly in Greece and have never been able to cope with roaches. No matter how disinfected your apartment block may be, a few every year will manage to fly onto the balcony and get in. They would not only frighten me but leave me so utterly disgusted that I wouldn't eat for a day or so.
My cat was very good at hunting anything that moved.......and would dine upon her catch too.
On one occasion, she brought me a loathsome present in her mouth, still alive. She dropped it and left it until it moved, she looked at me (I was halfway up the wall by this time), then played with the damn thing until she picked it up and considerately took it outside to eat, whereupon the balcony door slammed behind her.
On reflection, it wasn't such a bad thing. I didn't have to kill it and then dispose of its flimsy, shell like corpse, but the cat didn't get a lot affection for a while.

Stuff

Don't you just hate it when the time comes round for a visit to the dentist?
I can't stand it when they prod at your teeth with the pokey thing. It makes me want to gag and punch the dentist, not necessarily in that order.
After arriving wet haired and in a bit of a kerfuffle, as I thought my appointment was half an hour later than it actually was, I was duly released without further action and allowed to retain my no fillings record for another six months. Phew.

S'ot

Pimms anyone? Hic.

Wash

Good sailing, about 15-20 knots later on due to a bit of sea breeze, good thing too as the stinkpots were causing a heck of a lot of wash in their efforts to get back in time to watch the football.
Pity about England losing on penalties , never a fair way to lose, plus I was looking forward to seeing smily faces when we got home.