Wednesday, November 24th, 2004
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10:43 pm - The most anticipated film release of next year...
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...Brokeback Mountain!
Check this out -
"Heath [Ledger] almost broke my nose," says Jake [Gyllenhaal]. "He grabs me, slams me up against the wall and kisses me... I got the crap beat out of me."
Yum.
I'm also eagerly anticipating Alexander, of which one reviewer says, "Alexander often seems a couple of heartbeats away from turning into a gay porno film."
Excellent.
current mood:  naughty
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10:00 pm - Healthy eating shock!
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I've not had chocolate for almost a week! :) This is almost a first for me. The only other time this has happened is when I had morning sickness and I couldn't eat choc for 3 weeks. The reason for this chocolate abstinence is that I was sick as a very sick dog on Friday. All day from 4am until 4pm I puked. Had to get my folks round to look after the kids whilst I huddled in bed with a hot water bottle thinking I was going to die. I caught the tummy bug that has been doing the rounds and both my kids have had it. Hubby has somehow miraculously managed to avoid it. Anyway, took me the whole weekend to recover my strength and my appetite and now that my body has had such a major detox it seems such a shame to ruin it all by stuffing my face with crap.
So I've been taking it easy this week and eating carefully and healthily and I plan to keep it up for at least a couple of weeks. I'll see how it goes but the great thing is that once you give up sugary foods you no longer crave them and I'm in no rush to slide down that slippery slope again. Winter is the worst time for me - I comfort-eat like crazy. And then it's a downward spiral of feeling crap and tired and needing a quick fix to perk me up again and so on. So we'll see how long I last. If you see me eating a biccie then slap me, okay?
current mood:  pleased
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Friday, November 19th, 2004
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12:18 am
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Tuesday, November 9th, 2004
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12:00 pm - Wayhey!
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That's put me in a good mood! The estate agent said that we could get £100,000 more for this house than we paid for it 4 years ago! Woohoo! *dances around whilst being careful to keep everything tidy*
A little research has come up with this little family home that we now realise we could afford in NC:
Lovely, eh?
(More details here).
Not sure yet if we will actually buy when we're over there, we'll probably rent for a long while first. Nice to know that we can afford something that's not too shabby though ;)
current mood:  cheerful (for a change!)
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Monday, November 8th, 2004
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10:31 pm - For Sale
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Our house is going to be put up for sale. The estate agent comes round tomorrow and I've been scrubbing and cleaning like a mad woman. The place has never been so clean and tidy. It's like a Stepford house! People are going to come round and wonder if real people actually live here. They'll think we have no possessions (everything's in the attic!) and that our kids have only a couple of toys each (ahhhh!). We now have a lovely cream carpet throughout the house so people will think we are the cleanest family in the world. I lost it a little yesterday when, after spending all weekend cleaning, I caught my daughter dancing around the living room brandishing a piece of chocolate cake, scattering crumbs in all directions. I shouted rather a lot. I almost went hoarse! And then felt really guilty for getting so mad at one so small and cute (but clueless). It's alright for those two gay guys on tv who are always telling you the best way to present your home in order to get the best price etc - they don't have kids whose sole purpose in life is to undo all your hard work and make mess everywhere.
*stressed*
I'm aware that I've been a grumpy old shite of late. I know I have nothing to moan about really and that my life is pretty darn fantastic but I just don't cope with stress very well. And I always get very mopey and introspective during the winter months. I define 'Winter' as anything which isn't 'Summer' so therefore it lasts about 9 months of the year for me. I really miss daylight and once the clocks go back that's me until they go forward again. So I'm at the start of my lowest 5 months and that's quite a depressing thought, considering that this year the winter blues kicked in in September. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought that I'm moving to somewhere where they have sun. Sun that actually shines! It'll probably be happening before the clocks go forward again. What joy! Did you know that in NC it will always be light by 7.30am at the very latest? Always. *sighs*. The worst it gets is sunrise at 7.26am. Lucky bastards. Compare that to here where the latest sunrise is 8.55am. It'll be an hour later than that if those mad Eurocrats get their way (what the hell are they thinking???). And the earliest sunset in NC is just after 5pm. Wow. Imagine. For at least one month of the year it's dark here by 3.40pm. Some days it just never bothers to get light at all and I need the sunlamp on all day. I will be soooo glad to leave those sunlamps behind (they won't work over there anyway, but I'm really hoping that I won't need to buy new ones). So that all adds up to an extra 3 hours of daylight per day!!!! In the middle of winter!!!! It's so wonderful that I just want to cry. How life ever evolved in Scotland I'll never know. Even the Romans thought it was too shitty a place to bother with! Just sit in an industrial-sized refrigerator with no lights on and you'll get a good idea of what it's like to live here most of the time. For 2 days of the year you're allowed to lie on a sunbed and have 22 hours of daylight. Then it's back to cold and darkness for the other 363 days. Gosh, I never knew I felt quite so bitter about this. I deserve some sun, Goddammit! All this, of course, is leading to the conclusion that after a few years over there we'll never be able to live here again. How could we come back to darkness? If we come back we'll have to go somewhere further south. The bottom half of England would be a vast improvement from up here in the Arctic Circle. I just can't take Scotland any more.
I remember watching Groundhog Day in disbelief that there could be anywhere in the world where it is daylight at 7am (or was it 6am? - it was early anyway, whichever one it is) on February 1st. Yet every day Bill Murray woke up and it wasn't pitch black. I think that was maybe the first time the thought occurred to me that I must emigrate...
current mood:  tired
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Thursday, November 4th, 2004
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12:45 pm
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Twas a pretty shitty birthday this year. Got nice pressies 'n' all and we went out on Saturday night instead (more about that later), but having your birthday on a school/work day just makes it seem like any other day. Still got to do all the cooking and housework and childcare just as usual. My 2 year-old decided to choose this day to learn how to climb out of his cot (yeah, we'll be getting a bed for him soon) which meant that he refused to go for his afternoon nap and I couldn't just enforce it like I usually do! This meant that he was crabby as hell and I didn't get a break from him at all. Then he had a tantrum when we dropped his sister off at her ballet class (I think he thought we'd never see her again!) so we came back home and we were both in tears and I'm afraid I rather lost it with him. I hate 2 year-olds when they get stroppy. You can't even explain stuff to them like you can with, say, a 3 year-old. The only tool at your disposal is to ignore them. Shut them in their bedroom and come back in 5 mins when you've both calmed down.
And then the last straw was finding out that Bush Baby has another 4 years to f*ck up the world. Great.
current mood:  pissed off
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Monday, November 1st, 2004
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12:04 pm - Madrid
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BTW, Madrid was wet. Very wet. Rained for 2 whole days and 2 whole nights. Felt like Noah's wife. Watched the rivers of water flood down the hillside and hoped that our villa would stay put and not be washed away in a landslide. Apparently it hadn't rained all summer. Typical.
Brightened up mid-week and actually got out to do some sight-seeing in Madrid. Did the touristy bus tour thing and the cultural art gallery thing. I quite liked Madrid but not the outskirts of the city. Once you get out of the city it's just a slum. Saw loads of prostitutes too. Took a wrong turning whilst trying to find the Zoo and ended up in hooker-ville! Twas quite an educational experience for the likes of us who've led quite sheltered lives. So, yeah, it was quite a different Spain from the Costa de Sol Spain that I've been to. I guess we saw more of the 'real' Spain. Not sure I liked it too much. Bit shabby, but definitely an experience I'll never forget!
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10:52 am - It's gonna happen!
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We've had the go-ahead for our move to the states! Looks like it will actually happen. We've been getting quotes from removal companies and we're putting our house up for sale sometime in the next fortnight. So we're very busy getting the house ready, packing excess stuff in boxes and trying to tidy the place up so that it looks like 2 kids and all their accompanying toys and mess don't really exist. Had a carpet guy in today to measure up so that we can get a new hall carpet for that all-important first impression (I've paid attention to House Doctor yknow). By the end of next week the place will be unrecognisable and it'll look so nice that we'll wonder why on earth we're moving! This always happens. When the time comes to sell your home you always end up doing all the jobs that you've been meaning to do for all the time you've lived there but never got around to. *sigh*.
It'll cost anywhere between 5 and 10K to move all our possessions across the water. We'll have a better idea tomorrow when the guy from the removal company comes round to gasp at the amount of crap we have. Luckily we won't be footing the bill for all this, but it's a slight concern that if it all goes pear-shaped and we decide to come back earlier than planned then The Company won't pay for our return journey. And then there's the small matter of what to do with the cash that we get from the sale of the house, 'cos we'll be renting a place in America I guess. But that's quite a nice 'problem' to have so I won't worry about that too much. We should probably consult a financial advisor of some sort and invest it somewhere. Must pay more attention to Working Lunch and learn about such things :)
And then there's the emotional cost of the move. There have already been a few tears. Our families are putting on a brave face but I know they're devastated at the prospect of us taking the children away from them. Guilt guilt guilt. Not made any easier by the fact that my brother plans to return to Canada in February. We're planning to go in March. Double whammy for my poor old mum :( My sis is busy moaning that she's the only one left and so she'll never be able to move away (like as if she would). But me and my bro have already worked this all out - we don't want to be around for when my folks go senile and need help getting on and off the loo. We'll leave my sister to get on with that, haha! I'm only joking... Probably.
The tears keep creeping up on me unawares. It can happen anywhere at any time, suddenly something sets me off and I think I'll miss that or I'll might never do this again or whatever. My wee girl was crying about leaving her classmates at school. Goodbyes are always hard. But then I find myself crying for joy too. When I think of all the wonderful things that await us. All the opportunities and possibilities. (And all the vegan food!). Sometimes I get emotional and I'm not really sure if I'm crying 'cos I'm sad or happy but somehow a strange mixture of both. It's all very spiritually cleansing in a way too. Sorting through all our junk and chucking stuff out. Very liberating.
So much to do!
current mood:  busy
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Saturday, October 16th, 2004
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12:42 am
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I'm off to Madrid for a week. Wish me luck! The weather looks set to be a bit crappy. Nevermind, Spanish rain has got to be warmer than Scottish rain, eh? *waves*
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Sunday, October 10th, 2004
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4:54 pm - Movies
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Took my little squid to the cinema for the first time yesterday. He was very good and didn't squirm too much. I think this is because we took him to see a movie about his favourite subject - sharks!
Yes, we went to see Shark Tale. The kids liked it but I thought it was a bit crap. Too 'in yer face' and zany. I see it was made by the Shrek people so this explains a lot. Didn't much enjoy that either. I think they're trying a little too hard. Either that or they figure that their audience all suffers from attention deficit disorder. I much preferred Finding Nemo and it's hard not to constantly compare the two whilst watching Shark Tale. Nemo was just lovely and beautiful to look at and you cared about the characters. Shark Tale had none of these things. The characters (esp Will Smith's main character, Oscar) were trying too hard to be 'cool'. And I think young children will find it much too confusing - they'll think that fish live in little cities under the ocean, complete with high-rise flats, billboards and (American-style!) mailboxes!
I also saw Lost in Translation yesterday. One of my dvds that I got through Video Island. I thought this was quite a sweet gentle film. I'd heard that you either love or hate this film. A lot of people have reported falling asleep during it! But I found it to be engaging enough. The 2 main characters annoyed me somewhat though, as they seemed perpetually bored. I know it was mostly down to loneliness and that was the main theme of the film, but as a mother of 2 I found myself envying this pair who had so much time on their hands to explore an exciting new city - ALONE! I can't even remember the last time I went somewhere by myself. It must be great! Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, but how I crave to be away from them occasionally! I've had to take one or two small children everywhere with me (even the loo!) for over 6 years now. I would love to go to Tokyo for a week and just hang out. So, anyway, that was my take on the movie. I guess loneliness is all relative. One person's loneliness is another person's freedom.
current music: Pearlfishers - Flora Belle
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Friday, October 8th, 2004
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12:33 am
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I'm sorry I never get chance to come here any more. I would dearly love to post here every day but by the time I've done all the crappy things that need doing every day I'm too exhausted and the thought of having to put thoughts together in a coherent manner is just too much.
Must try harder. Must journal.
Anyway, here's a very quick summary of the past few days:
- my wee boy is now 2! Yay! He's so much fun at the minute.
- we will probably be emigrating to US in Feb. Too exciting!
- going to Madrid on holiday in one week. Yay! Going with parents (why???). Boo.
- Reiki client still coming once a week and seems to be benefitting. I feel so useful and needed :)
- one of N's aunties has left her husband for a woman!!! Family scandal - doncha just love it? Esp when it's not my family...
- cannot get credit card as not earning 12K per year. What??? But I'm married to a cash machine, doesn't that count? He earns, like, 5 times that amount. But no, must get man of the house to apply on my behalf. Pah! Discrimination, etc.
- feeling so tired lately. Must get more sleep. I just can't seem to get my ass in bed. Too much to do and much panicking about item no 2 in this list.
current mood: tired
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Friday, October 1st, 2004
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11:23 am
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I've been a busy girl. It's my wee boy's 2nd birthday party this weekend and he's rather Nemo-obsessed so I've made a little something to go on his cake:
It's made from an apricot fruit bar, some rice paper and some licorice. Hehe.
current mood: productive
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Friday, September 24th, 2004
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5:33 pm
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One almost-2-year-old. One full pack of baby wipes. One toilet. Leave unsupervised for approx 5 mins and the result is one heck of a job for mummy :(
Luckily he only managed to get through half of the baby wipes, but that's still leaves 40 of them for him to stick down the toilet. I'm just so glad he didn't try to flush!
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Thursday, September 16th, 2004
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11:22 pm
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I had my first paying Reiki client today! Go me! I only have time for one client at the moment but it looks like it will be a regular weekly appointment for at least the next few weeks. Ker-ching!
current mood: pleased
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Friday, September 10th, 2004
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3:18 pm
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Hey! I have that Friday feeling! This is quite rare for me these days, to actually be in a good mood. I've been a bit of a mopey bitch lately :)
It must be the coconut oil. That's the only thing that's different this week. I've been trying to incorporate it into my diet because I read this:
Natural coconut oil-not the hydrogenated version often found in processed foods-is a saturated fat, but not the kind your doctor has warned you about. Studies have shown that this uniquely curative oil actually has innumerable health benefits ranging from disease prevention to anti-aging.
When taken as a supplement, used in cooking, or applied directly to the skin, coconut oil has been found to:
- Promote weight loss (Yippee!!)
- Help protect against heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and many other degenerative diseases
- Strengthen the immune system
- Improve digestion
- Prevent premature aging of the skin
It has anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties and is good for just about everything. I've been using it on my face instead of moisturiser (it works if you let it soak in for a while and then blot the excess off with a tissue - otherwise you look like you've slept in a chip pan!) and it's worked wonders on my spots.
Quick recipe tip: coconut oil is fantastic when used instead of your usual frying oil - I tried a stir fry with it and it tasted divine. And yesterday I used it for roast potatoes and I'm completely converted. How can something this tasty be so healthy?!
current mood: happy
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Friday, September 3rd, 2004
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4:54 pm
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Saturday, August 28th, 2004
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12:45 am - Taken directly from this week's Heat mag:
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"Add Johnny Depp to the list of big actors snogging men for the cameras - he has a male lover in the 17th-century-set The Libertine. Colin Farrell plays a bisexual in both of his next two films, while Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal go gay in up-coming western Brokeback Mountain."
!
Well that stopped me dead in my tracks, I can tell you. It took me quite a while to pick myself up off the floor. I still haven't managed to wipe the silly grin off my face :)
Idle Google-ing on the subject has paid off with the discovery of what has now just become my favourite site.
current mood: naughty
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12:44 am
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Paula, Paula, Paula. Oh dear. What the **** happened? What a disaster. I think now would be a good time to quit the day job for a while and have some kids...
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Friday, August 27th, 2004
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6:03 pm
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Oooh, bit of a rollercoaster week. I had a very sore ear for most of it (damn ear infection) but it's much better now so I can actually think straight and get things done without wincing in pain every five minutes.
Wasn't it sad about Paula Radcliffe? I did want her to do well in the marathon but to just fall apart like that must have been devastating, not to mention plain embarrassing! Poor poor girl. I hope she does something half-decent in the 10K tonight.
Some scaffolding fell into our garden from the building site over the fence. It was very scary to think that the kids could have been playing out there, luckily it was raining and they were indoors. It was an 8 foot long piece of angled metal, very heavy and very sharp. It fell from a height of at least 10 feet. Scary. I gave the builders hell and they eventually agreed to put up some sort of wire fence along the scaffolding to prevent similar occurrences. I'm not totally convinced of their commitment to my family's safety so I'm just not going to let the children out to play any more. How can I risk their tiny little bodies being squished by heavy falling objects? So now we are trapped inside this house. Only allowed into the garden on Friday afternoons ('cos the builders knock off at 3pm on Fridays), Saturday afternoons and some Sundays (never figured out yet why they work some Sundays and not others). But still, even if the builders aren't there something could still become dislodged and fall down! Oh no, this is too scary. We should be issued with hard hats.
This is how close they are to us:
Made so much worse by the fact that I used to have an open field behind my garden (yes, it's the same garden, we've done a little work on it in the past 3 years!):
Now you see why I want to move :(
On the emigrating front, it's looking more and more likely as the weeks go on that The Company will say 'yes', mainly because if they were going to say 'no' then they would have done by now. Exciting, eh?
current mood: Mixed
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Saturday, August 14th, 2004
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6:06 pm
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Saw an episode from the new series of Six Feet Under whilst we were away. The new series actually looks quite good! Yay! The great thing is that Lisa is actually funny now that she's dead. She crops up from time to time in those funny dream sequence bits and she seems to have had a personality implant. At last! Looking forward to the new series now.
It's stopped raining at last. It's only been almost a week. Hubby's out cutting the grass and generally trying to keep our overgrown mess of a garden under control. Bless him. I'm glad at least one of us does it.
Now for some film reviews:
Troy. Whoah! Such a crap film but so delicious to look at. Giggled childishly throughout. Hee hee. It was great. Orlando and Brad in leather skirts. Hee hee. Actually Brad looked a bit of an arse in his costume. Not sure why. He just looked a bit silly. Gorgeous, but silly. Orlando suited his look a lot better I thought. Or maybe it's just that I fancy him more. Here ends this highly intellectual movie review.
21 Grams. Don't see this movie if you are feeling depressed. It may just tip you over the edge. Jeez. You just watch in disbelief thinking surely it can't get any worse. Any minute now there's going to be a happy bit. Surely. The last film I saw that was this bleak was Shindler's List.
The Cooler. This was actually quite fun. A lot better than I thought it was going to be. William H Macy was excellent as usual. Alec Baldwin was very good as a total sleaze-bag.
Igby Goes Down. I wondered if this was going to be really dirty - the title could've meant any number of things... It was quite sexy and really good fun. Any film with Susan Sarandon in it usually has some merit and she was fantastic. Keiran Culkin was brilliant as the petulant moody teen who has a few issues. Don't be put off by the fact that one of the Culkin clan is in it - Kieran has grown up. And my how he's grown :) He looks very much like a very young Tobey Maguire (and let's face it Tobey doesn't exactly look old either!). All doe-eyed and vulnerable. So cute. This is the perfect movie if you're a dirty older woman who likes to perve at young boys. He he. (You know who you are..)
Spider-man 2. Talking of Tobey, here he is flying through the New York skies, spinning webs everywhere and generally looking quite miserable and down on his luck because he can't persue his relationship with Mary-Jane. *sob*. Familiar doe-eyed vulnerable expression which starts to get a bit annoying after a while, but the movie was still great fun. I just can't look at Kirsten Dunst without thinking of Claudia from Interview with the Vampire. For me she was Claudia. She even has quite fang-like teeth. I find it most distracting because I think of her as a little girl.
Dodgeball. Avoid this movie like the plague. Unless of course you're a Ben Stiller fan in which case your twisted mind might enjoy it. Ugh!
Anyway, must go and resume my wifely and motherly duties.
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