Three - The Internet Non-Provider

I'm just feeling the need to vent some anger!

I'm with the crappest internet provider on the planet!  Seriously! I phoned them up about 2 weeks ago, absolutely fed up to the back teeth with their poor service, and got some bloke in Delhi on the phone trying to solve my problem.  Which, I might add, he obviously didn't - BECAUSE I AM STILL HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM!!!!!! AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!

There's only a handful of internet sites I visit regularly at home - facebook, youtube and blogger.  And every evening, without fail, these websites simply will not load up!  This is why my blog output is so pov, because I have to type it up in Word or Stickies or something, then copy and paste when I am on an internet connection that doesn't cost me £15 a month and ISN'T CRAPPY OL' THREE!!!!!

It's like, tonight, I have been online for an hour and a half, trying to type up 3 quick blogs - and I get part way through and this happens:

Now I know you probably can't read that - but what it says in the lovely red writing on the bottom is 'Could not connect to blogger.com.  Saving and publishing may fail...' which means 'The internet dropped out again you dufus and saving and publishing?  No chance!'  Do you know how annoying this is? Aaaaggghh!  You see, obviously as a woman I am able to multitask quite effectively, so I'm doing several things at once.  Being a Mac, my computer can handle it absolutely no worries.  But Three and their dodgy internet?  No, they suck!  I'm trying to send an online birthday card on facebook, upload some video on youtube(so I can put it on blogger) and update my blog - and my internet provider lets me down without fail - you could lay money on it!  Both sites can't be connected.  It's madness for me to be paying £15 a month for this non-service - yet when you phone up and complain, they tell you their service in your area (like the man in Delhi can really see this information) is working fine.

It's working so fine that Stella doesn't get her birthday card and thinks I've forgotten, and I can't upload video I wanted to post on my blog - which doesn't matter, as I can't save to my blog anyway!  I'll just have to go downstairs and use the neighbour's free internet instead (obviously they're not with Three!).  So everyone, take heed - do not get your internet connection from three - unless you like paying good money for absolutely nothing...

Big Bangin' Fireworks

As many of you will know, November 5th is Guy Fawkes day in Britain.  This essentially stems from some gunpowder plot where a fella called Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament but the plans were foiled, and he was hung, drawn and quartered for his crimes.  How that now constitutes into 'fireworks night' I don't quite know - but basically its a good excuse for the Brits to put together a dirty great big pile of rubbish, stick a fake figure on it (calling it the 'guy'), set off a load of fireworks (nearly taking off their arms in the process) and release the inner pyromaniac in all of us.

So Laura, Sara, Katie, Andy and I set off on Saturday night to the display in Carshalton.  It was really good too, the fireworks went on for ages, and were, to be fair, rather impressive.  Not 'light up the Harbour bridge' impressive, but still - for a local display, they were pretty spesh.  And the music was really good (well, except for the unfortunate Celine Dion moment, but I guess we can forgive them that).

I couldn't quite believe just how many people turned out for this event, considering that at any time the heavens were about to erupt and dump a deluge on us (like it had been doing all day).  The one bad thing about it all was that with the weather having been bad all day, the park was like "Wet 'n' Wild" - slip and slide!  I was lucky not to stack it several times, including the one where Laura and I did a little slam dance (which caused a twinge in my back as I landed wrong - ow!).

Afterwards we went back to Katie and Andy's for chili jacket potatoes and to watch Wallace and Grommit (seeing as I have never seen any of the episodes and Laura had been going on about it because we were at the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes recently...) - it was really good, a top evening!

Anyway, here's a bit of video I captured on my phone:

Keeping My Eye On Barama

Now, I know this is going to be a big whacked out for many of those who know me, as although you know me as a practising Christian, I'm not normally prone to outbursts about profound Christian concepts, and particularly not stuff about end times theology (not like I once did as a teenager, put it that way).  But recent world events coupled with some stuff at church has got me thinking about this, and I wouldn't be being true to myself or my faith if I didn't put pen to paper (electronically speaking) and share my thoughts in a Nostradamus type way. You can choose what you do with them. Anyway, the reasons for this thinking have been a combination of Major Mingay, Gill Bonner and the Songsters, a movie I watched and the US election coverage on the BBC. How? Well, there are Major Mingay has been preaching a series called 'Cosmic Jesus' which is about the book of Revelation, Gill Bonner did a devotion at Songsters on Thursday night about Barack Obama, I recently rewatched 'Left Behind' (well I needed to have a perv on Kirk Cameron) and finally, the BBC haven't stopped showing their coverage of the whole US election and its effect on not just the US, but the whole world. So there I was on Thursday night, listening to Gill talk about Barama, and I suddenly got to thinking about Barry Smith. Barry Smith was a NZ evangelist who used to travel around the world preaching eschatology (that's 'end times theology' to us plebs). He wrote several excellent books, which I can highly recommend, especially if you, like me, find Revelation pretty heavy going - First Warning, Second Warning, Third Warning and Final Notice. In these books, and in his sermons, he would talk a lot about the signs of the times, and how they point to Jesus' Second Coming. There's lots of schools of thought on exactly how this will happen, but the end result is usually the same - Jesus takes the believers back to Heaven, and the non-believers get judged and sent to Hell (that's it in a nutshell). Another good series of books about this were written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, called the 'Left Behind' series. They actually made this into a film, and I was watching it the other day. In this series, suddenly millions of people vanish from the face of the earth, and then a charismatic, incredibly intelligent, well-spoken leader rises as the head of the UN, who eventually becomes the leader of the whole world. This is a young man who is able to relate to so many different people because of his international background. They made these books into movies, and if you can excuse the obviously much lower budget than your average Hollywood flick, they are really quite gripping and quite well done. So anyway, I'm rambling a bit now - but all this has got me to thinking about Barack Obama. Can he be this leader that is prophesied in the book of Revelation and Daniel, who will bring about a 7 year peace treaty in the Middle East, but breaks it after 3 1/2 years? Could he be the antichrist that is prophesied? Now before you think I'm completely whacked out, I urge you - do your own research. I typed in "Barack Obama antichrist" and "Barack Obama 666" into google, and I've seen the hundreds of webpages and blogs that others have written along these lines. I checked some of them out, and some of them don't even quote the bible properly - so how they think they're making a plausible argument is beyond me. I'm not trying to do that. I'm just telling you that I'm going to be watching Barack carefully, matching up what I know from my own research with what he does - and if I see signs of the following, I'll know that its true: 1. He will confer a 7 year peace treaty in the Middle East and break it after 3 1/2 years. 2. Either at that time, or at the end of the 7 years, there will be a mass vanishing of people - the Christians will have been taken into Heaven 3. He will cause everyone to have a chip or some sort of device implanted in their right hand or forehead so that they can function financially - there will be no more cash, no more fantastic plastic - you will be your own walking debit / credit card. 4. Then there will be a series of plagues and devastations before the final judgement. I know, you think it all sounds nuts - and that's ok, but if ever any of that happens, you'll remember reading this, and it will get you thinking. I suggest reading the LaHaye / Jenkins books, and having a look at Barry Smith. Anyway, that's it. That's why I'll be taking a closer look at Barama when he comes to power...

Meanwhile, here's the trailer for the Left Behind movie:

Barama and The Fish N Chips Man!

I don't know about you, but if I hear one more thing about the US elections, I'm going to scream.

I mean, last time I checked, I was still in the UK, not the US.  So why is it that every time I turn on the TV, or the radio, or heaven forbid, read a newspaper, I am bombarded with US election crap?  They're reporting more on that here than they do for their own election!  Like, even LBC, the radio station I normally listen to in the morning, are broadcasting their daily breakfast show this week from Chicago, so we can get more involved in the elections!  Honestly, I could care less!

I understand that the President of the United States is a very powerful man, and we know that the current one has seriously mucked up various countries around the globe, pulling the Poms and even us Aussies blindly into the muck too - but really!  None of us have a vote in this election, so do we really need to be bombarded with all this hullabaloo?  I know, its history, history, history - but it isn't my history!  

Today, whilst they were waiting for the result, they got so desperate for 'new' news (let's be honest - how many times can we hear the reports of people queuing around the corner yada yada yada to vote, care factor really), that they even crossed over to Kenya to do a report on Barama's (I can't be bothered to say Barack Obama) Kenyan grandma.  Honestly!

And as for McCain, the fish n chip man, well, did he even have a chance?  Of course not!

I'm glad that the whole thing is now finally over... maybe now we'll have some peace and quiet....

The Search For Janet Foss

Here's episode 2.... what do you think?

In Search of The Yorkshire Yeti

This week, having been the half term week, I went away with my friend Laura to the Yorkshire Dales for a week of walking.

We had an absolutely fabulous time!  The weather was really good (despite being cold), and we did heaps of walking around Ingleton, Malham and Hawes.  We ended up walking some 33 miles in total, which was pretty good!  We used a fab book which I had been given by a lovely old man called Tom on my last trip up to the Dales - the book was Mark Reid's Walking Weekends in the Yorkshire Dales - I can thoroughly recommend the walks in this book, they were just brill.

Having taken a video camera this time, and with not much to do in the evenings, we decided to have a bit of fun... so here's the first episode in our "In The Wild" series... see what you think!

Totally Tapas!

So recently at Sutton they've reinstigated the "Friday Night Food Project" - only now it's the Saturday night food project.   Basically what happens is that each month, one of the small groups gets together and caters a night of food from a different country.  Last month Gill and Adrian's small group did Sweden - and let's be honest, they cheated - they bought a load of meatballs and stuff from Ikea!  Don't get me wrong, it was lovely, and the entertainment was brill, but still - it was cheating.

Anyway, this month it was Steve's small group - which basically consists of him and Neil (and Col occasionally).  Last year when it was Steve's group's turn, he asked me to join in, as the theme was Oriental food - so we cooked up a load of Chinese food, had green tea and so on as well - and I taught the fellas how to make sushi.  It was a huge success - so when it came around this time, Steve was anxious to ensure that we lived up to our reputation.

The theme this time was 'Totally Tapas'.  We decided to make a whole load of tapas dishes - gazpacho, croquetas, chorizo, garlic mushrooms, nastillas... so Col and I went around Steve's the week before for Sunday lunch, and we downloaded the various recipes and planned what we would make.  Then, on the Saturday, we met at the hall quite early (well I was a bit later because I was giving Jamie a piano lesson - he has his Grade 3 exam in a few weeks).  Steve and Neil were there from 9, and then went shopping, and I joined them later at 11.  This might not seem like a big deal to you, but put it this way, the evening didn't start until 7pm, and we basically cooked all day non-stop!  In fact, the only break we had was a quick, on-the-go coffee and toastie from Tariro's (which is based at the hall anyway, so it's not like we got to leave the hall or anything).

I'd decided to do gazpacho and croquetas, and then help out with whatever other dishes I could.  The gazpacho (cold vegetable soup) was easy enough - although took a little while on account of we had about 50 people to cater for - but the croquetas!  Well they also were easy enough, but took ABSOLUTELY FOREVER!!!!  Have a look at the recipe here.

Those things are well fiddly, and took so long to make that I didn't get to help out with much of any of the other recipes (other than to make non-alcoholic sangria, which went down a treat!).  But we had an absolutely brilliant day preparing all the food, non-stop whistling (particularly of 'Doh, a Dear' - because Steve's son Alex had come into the kids' hall next to the kitchen and started playing it on piano - nothing is so difficult than to get rid of an annoying tune like that from your head!).

Our culinary efforts were very well received by those in attendance, so it was all worth it in the end.  What a fab day!

Ruby's Been Healed!

Finally!  Ruby has been healed!  And what a palaver that has been!

Basically, where I left you was that I had contacted a guy about buying a new bonnet, in the same colour, and then Ken was going to fit it.  The bonnet arrived, and Ken went to fit it - and it was the wrong colour, had a dirty great big scratch down it (worse than Ruby's already was) and wasn't even for the right model Ford.  I wrote back to the guy but he has conveniently gone quiet - so whatever you do people, don't use the Nationwide Car Repair people - they really suck.

So then Ken advised me to go down to the local body shop and ask them to do a 'blow-over' - but the guy quoted me £175 for that - or £20 for a pot of paint to do it myself - and then he couldn't match the colour!  So I was really starting to despair...

However Mat, my mate at work, had a brainwave.  He suggested that I ask Kirk, the fit young Jamaican school-keeper, to take the car to one of the body shops and try to pass it off as his own - therefore more than likely getting a better quote than I ever could.  Kirk actually went one better than this, he had a mate of his own who could do it for me!  Brilliant!

The quote was around £70 or so, which I thought was quite reasonable, and the only inconvenience was that Ruby was out of action for the best part of a week, as this bloke was obviously fitting her in in his spare time (a bit of pocket money for him, I guess).  I didn't mind (well only one day, but that was when there was a problem with the Tube) - and when you see the results, I think you'll agree with me that it was worth it.

Have a look for yourself:  here's the "before" shot:

And the "after" shot:

He's done a good job, hasn't he?  You can't see the scratch at all!  Thanks, Kirk (and Kirk's friend)!

We're Big, Brunette and BEAUTIFUL!!!!

One of the lovely things about living in London is the opportunity to go to the theatre. Not that you don't get that chance in Brisbane, but in London, there's literally 20 or 30 odd shows on at any given time (and the rest!) that you can go and see - in Brisbane, you're lucky if 2 or 3 visit QPAC in a year... alas...!

Anyway, I have recently realised that with the return to the Bris Vegas fast approaching, I need to fit in as many shows as I can (plus it's one of the things I said in my phone interview, so I suppose I better do it!). So on Wednesday night I went with Laura to see Hairspray.

I've never seen the film - just snippets of it - so I wasn't really sure what to expect - but I thought it was just brilliant. Michael Ball played the mother and he was hilarious!  I had always thought he was a good singer, but he's a pretty good actor too, and he just made the whole thing.

The music was terribly catchy - I have to borrow Laura's CD or buy my own or something - you just leave the theatre singing all the songs.  My favourites were 'Big, Blonde and Beautiful', 'Hey Momma, welcome to the 60s' and the last one which I've now forgotten the name of! 

Accidentally Friday Street - Revisited

Saturday morning.  You'd think, after my big night the night before, at French and Saunders - and after a busy working week - I'd have a bit of a lie-in.  You're kidding, right?  Me?  Sit still for one minute? Ha!

I'd made arrangements with Laura and Katie (and Andy) to spend the day walking at my favourite, localish to London walking place - Friday Street.  We'd planned to meet at 10.30, but then that was scuppered slightly by...

...the fact that I got a job!  I thought to myself, as I was procrastinating and sort of getting ready, oh I'll quickly check my email - and discovered one from my new headteacher, the one from that absolutely diabolical interview the other day - and they'd gone and given me the job (they need their heads to be read, seriously!).  So there was much whooping (shame that Jean wasn't there - I could only whoop to myself) and then frantic calling to Mum and Dad to share the news - which resulted in my being a little late to Katie and Andy's.

That wasn't a big deal, seeing as actually Andy was at the barbers at the time, and also he was a bit crook too - at one stage we thought he mightn't make it.  But fortunately he did, and about 11.30 or so we set off...

We made good time down to Friday street and then embarked upon the printed out walk from www.walkingworld.com.  Now what you have to understand is, I have done this walk 3 times or so, but I have never ever managed to do it exactly as it is printed out.  And you have to also understand, Katie and Andy are walking gurus.  So I can't afford to look like a dipstick (she who has done this walk 3 times before!), and I need to save face - so I tried to pass off the directions sheet to Katie (I mean, seriously, she had the full on OS map of the area, and I'm sure if I looked in her backpack, she probably would've had a compass or something in there!  hehehe).  Katie, however, is an extremely intelligent woman - and passed the flippin' sheet straight back!  Hmm...

I needn't have worried.  Andy has ridden his bike around here several times and therefore knows the area like the back of his hand.  In fact, he was pointing out a whole load of very dangerous looking bike jumps and shortcuts (sheer vertical drop, anyone?) - which I am pleased we didn't take.

About halfway through the walk we arrived in the village of Coldharbour, which has a lovely little pub in it, strategically placed at the exit of our walk - which was just as well, as we were in need of the facilities.  We then headed out to the beergarden at the back, and with myself and Laura on the lookout for the publican, we proceeded to have a little picnic.  We had bought drinks there - Katie and Laura, in true Famous Five style, drank "lashings and lashings" of gingerbeer, whilst I restrained myself with just a diet coke, as usual.

Anyway, after our lunch we set off again in the direction of Leith Hill, which we eventually managed to climb (I practically hyperventilated my way up the hill, all the time pretending to the others that I was Miss Superfit, and therefore all right).  The view from the top of the tower was lovely... even though a little overcast...

We then started to make our way back, and it was at this point that the diet coke in the pub, the water en route, the frappucino at lunch, and the cup of tea at the tower started to take its toll on me.  Seriously.  Where's the 'Depend' when you need them? (Tena lady for the UK readers).  So I hopped over the hedge and went behind a tree, and was no sooner in position, bottom at the ready, when 2 cyclists come flying up the hill.  You have never seen me move so fast!  Trousers straight up, zip up, and then I had to try and look like a botanist, and not like someone who had been caught short... I don't think I fooled them though!

We made it back in good time, and then headed back to Katie and Andy's for a quick cuppa before everyone came over to Jeans for a bit of pasta (literally only a bit, I underestimated the size of the gnocchi and so everyone's plate was a bit light on) and a movie...

What a fab day...!