A little extreme maybe?

My revered place of work is on an economy drive recently it seems, the usual stuff, combat shrinkage, use less of this and that, don't waste things unnecessarily, that's all good, the tree hugger in me approves, no problem, I'll happily comply.

As in most businesses of this size fuel costs are high and so have been addressed, again the usual things, turn off unwanted heaters, lights etc. and yes it makes a difference, leaving a whole floor of lighting on overnight when no one needs it is a terrible waste not to mention cost. The electricity usage and charges alone for this building would make your hair curl.

What has amused me is this. I have become accustomed to rushing into the toilet or cloakroom and finding I'm in the dark, the managers office is at the far end of the corridor and each time he walks along it he pokes his hand through every door and turns off the lights but yesterday he surpassed himself.

I had cause to visit his office, (no not to take ownership of my P45 pity) and as the lights were off and the room was in complete darkness I assumed he wasn't in residence, imagine my surprise having bowled thought the door into the dark to then find him sitting at his desk! Hmmm, I thought, show concern, he must have a headache, the lights are maybe broken but on making enquiries as to the reason for this rather strange behavior I was informed, perfectly straight faced that he was saving electricity!

Ok, joke I thought, but further questioning proved it to be otherwise, straight up, he was working in the dark to save electricity, there are no windows no nothing, ........maybe just a little extreme!?

What next, perhaps I'll find him working by candle light tomorrow!

Oh to be this chilled!

Ok...

........I'm having another one of those days, my mind is a blank, so rather than post complete drivel I wont post anything at all!

Hey, it counts as an entry for the day! ;o)

How much....

.......do I want this!


Ok, I dont usually do the 'head up rear down' kinda bike, the reverse is usually my preference but hell......it's pink! What more can I say?! :o)

*Thanks to Joanna for the image and for always keeping me updated on Daytona!

I'm sat here like a pudding...

......it's early morning and this is the time I usually post something here right? Only today I'm sat here, my mind is a complete blank and the equally blank page is staring back at me with a sneer on it's nasty white face just knowing that twelve hours sleep in the last 72 is not conducive to anything remotely purporting to be a half way interesting blog post!

So I give up, I'm not even gonna try right now, oh, save for one little snippet that I found amusing if a little annoying.

Yesterday was mothers day of course, I work in retail, the two things usually dictate a hectic day and this particular Mothering Sunday was also the start of British summer time. Already grossly under staffed for the day, it always happens, someone forgets to move their clocks on. As ever yesterday was no exception on that front but it is worth noting that of the three people who failed to register the time change and rolled in an hour late.....one was a supervisor and the other a manager!

Need I say more? ;o)

An unsuitable place to sleep!

No prizes for guessing who!

In fond memory.......

....Of Karine, who through her blog Graybar was one of the most inspirational people I ever had the good fortune to call a friend and who very sadly died one year ago today.

My thoughts are with her and the husband and young son she left behind.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The spirit of humanity

It's been kind of a heavy a few days here in gemmak's-ville recently, a few days of emotional extremes, of living life on an emotional roller coaster, of hopes and dreams alternately raised and shattered and raised again and of standing by, often feeling powerless to help, while a very special friend has faced and tried to understand the situation they have found themselves in.

There have been times of confusion and of profound pain and introspection for my friend, of questioning the very reasons for life, of looking deep within oneself and of trying to find at least some answers and through it all I felt privileged to be so trusted as to be involved and to be allowed to try and help where I could, though often I have felt that familiar feeling we have all experienced of feeling utterly, utterly helpless to truly be of any help at all, of wanting to be able to take away the pain as if by some magic and not being able to, of only being able to stand by as the situation unfolded and hope that my being there might at least offer some support.

.......but through it all I have been reminded of the spirit of humanity, of the strength to fight, of the courage we have to take on our demons and to win even when we are scared witless, to look life in the eye, flip it the bird, regroup and move forward.

Sometimes we have to hit crisis point to be able to take the next step forward, we have to feel the pain to be able to heal and we learn from it, grow from it and peversely gain strength from it. Above all I have been reminded in the last few days of the power of two things, of friendship, which we so often take for granted but which can be truly invaluable and inspirational and of humour in the face of adversity, for even in the darkest moments, however irreverent, there can be found humour, and the power to laugh and to retain the spirit to laugh is immensely valuable.


~ Go find your happiness my friend, you deserve it and you damn well earned it these last few days ~

Is it just me....

...or can no one upload images or vidoes to Blogger the last few days?

Amusing stupidity

Imagine you're 19 years old, you have a court appearance pending and into your bail conditions there is written a curfew, so what do you do...THIS is apparently what you decide is a good move!!

Ok, so all things considered it was unlikely this girl was ever going to be renowned for her intellectual capabilities but you can't help wondering, and laughing just a little, at the level of utter stupidity she managed to display on this occasion!

Almost perfect

Picture the scene, an almost unbearably hot bath, bubble filled and scented with chocolate truffle, steam rising and warming the air, the soft light of candles flickering on the walls, a mug of Charbonnel et Walker hot chocolate in hand and James Blunt gently breaking his heart in the background....sound almost perfect?

....did I not mention forgetting to close the door and rather than luxuriating, spending the entire time endeavoring to stop one small mischievous cat from slipping in off the edge to join me, or catching her tail alight!

Sunset and snow!

How peculiar, not that you can tell in the image but as this sunset was glowing on the horizon yesterday evening.....there was now falling on me!

I might add that it was almost 7pm.......spring and longer days are on the way, despite the still sub zero temperatures!


Sunset and snow.

Something good....

....happened this morning.

I sat here last night feeling sorry for myself, thoroughly and pathetically fed up with one thing and another, nothing earth shattering, just a constant stream of small problems recently. I even blogged it, I typed out a long, boring and protracted post of my small woes, one of which was the constant hassle and problems Gemmak Designs has been since the sad demise of the original site. I was about ready to jack it in, the hack to a porn site and the ensuing work and bother had been just about the last straw......but something stopped me hitting the publish button, don't ask me what because other than maybe I was ashamed to be moaning about something so relatively insignificant, I have no idea why I didn't just post it there and then, but I didn't, instead I went to bed.

This morning as ever, as soon as the obligatory early morning coffee had been made and cigarette had been lit I switched on my pc to check my mail....and there, first in the list was a mail from 'someone' telling me they had managed to rescue and reclaim the old DAB url that had been hacked!!!! Yayyyyyy, no more porn, no more buttons to change on numerous blogs, no more complaints and even a redirect to my new site now in place!

Really, I don't think my day could have started better if I had won the lottery, I feel like a new woman, things are beginning to turn around at last maybe.

Thank you 'someone'...you know who you are and you really made my day/week/month..........

Oh...and I deleted the original post!

Checkin' out the sounds!

London...at last!

Finally, having sorted out my delightful hackers as far as I can and completed the weekend at the day job I have a few moments to recount a few details of our recent trip to my parents. For those of you (Dale), wanting photographs my apologies, I didn't take many, the weather was for the main part dull and dismal and bitterly cold so I spent more time scuttling from one warm place to another than I did bothering to stand in the wind with my camera plastered to my eye!

So, the journey south was shall we say 'interesting', we woke as you already know to my much wished for snow, on the only day of the year we didn't actually want it! The first part of the drive was a little 'hairy', in places the effect of the falling snow and that which was drifting off the fields and hills in the wind was of whiteout, one moment we were driving in reasonable visibility and the next it was impossible to see anything at all.....but it was beautiful, the drifts has formed themselves in the wind into wonderful eight foot high, round white sculptures, with clouds of ethereal white snow dust swirling all around them. Now that was something I would have loved to photograph but stopping on the side of the road in such conditions is not advisable!

As we progressed further south the lying snow became less but the falling snow still hampered visibility and so the going was slow, peculiarly just as the forecasters had predicted as we hit the midlands the snow completely disappeared, the sun filtered through the clouds and the road was dry...almost as if one had drawn a line under Birmingham!

And so...eventually, eight hours later we arrived to much celebration and chatter. Not only had we not managed to visit since the summer but also it had been my fathers birthday the previous day so the 'party-ing' had been held over for a day. Only a small celebration, we are not into big events but it was fab and it meant that for the first time in over two years I got to see my brother and his wife and spend an evening catching up with them.


London Eye.
Monday we ventured onto the underground, 'post rush hour' I might add, and headed for the South Bank and the Hayward Gallery to see the Dan Flavin exhibition Now art might be one of my 'obsessions' but I don't profess to understand most of what I see and that is probably the best description of how I felt about this particular set of offerings, I just didn't understand it as it was intended. Another of my little passions is lighting, something I must have inherited I think from my TV lighting employed father and whilst large numbers of multi coloured fluorescent tubes gave off a kind of aesthetically pleasing light I think I was missing something somewhere from what Mr Flavin was trying to say! Hey, but the building is fab!


From the South bank.


Over the river
Onward from fluorescent art via a walk along the South bank in the wind and much coffee, we decided next to visit the London Imax cinema for an African Safari....wow, I have to say this genre of cinematic technology had never really appealed to me but it was really something else. If you have ever viewed a 3D imax production you will know exactly what I mean and if you haven't you really ought too, just once. It is phenomenal and so realistic that if one snuck a look at one's fellow cinema goers it was apparent that it had the same effect on everyone....all around kept 'poking' a finger into mid air...because it really appeared that what we were looking at was literally just a few inches from our faces and not yards away on a screen. To begin with it was actually a little disconcerting but it quickly became just completely absorbing. Really worth a visit if you have never been to one before....oh and of course there is popcorn!


London Imax.
The remainder of our two days were in the main taken up with optimizing the opportunity for retail therapy, something not easily available at home, and the evenings were spent happily eating and drinking copious amounts of good food and wine (my self excluded of course from the wine, yes, really I'm tee total) and catching up with six months chatter and gossip!

The day we returned back to Scotland...it snowed again, how typical...but thank fully nothing significant, we stopped off at my sisters in the Midlands en-route and spent a few hours of fun with her and my nieces, and then it was onward in the wee small hours back to Scotland and two very boisterous, waiting cats!

Only four days I know but a lovely fours days spent with my parents, in the bosom of my family, chilled out....hell, it seemed like only a few hours by the time we got back!

Design buttons

If you have a link button on your site that looks like either of these:




please could you email me and let me know.

Since DAB closed someone has taken over the URL and redirected it to a porn site, the above buttons carry that link. I have mailed everyone I can find with the offer to remove/replace it but if I missed you I'm sorry, I only keep records for six months and I am sure I haven't been able to trace everyone affected.

If you mail me I will remove the button for you or replace it with the correct one, or if you prefer, supply you with the appropriate code.

Thank you and my apologies for any inconvenience or embarrassment.

Going south

I will eventually get to post a little at least, about our short holiday in London, but for now, as I rush off for my first day back at work, these pictures might give you an indication of what the journey headed south was like!

Gemmak Designs.....

...seems to be fixed and back to normal thankfully but I'm not holding my breath just yet....the button will stay down until I'm sure, though with a little luck that's one problem solved! :o)

A better perspective

Life seems to have a habit of forcing us into seeing things more clearly at times.

By lunch time today I was so stressed and harassed about Gemmak Designs and DAB being hacked and whether or not I could keep it all going somehow that I fled the flat and escaped to the beach for a while...but I didn't ever get there. En-route I had one or two errands I decided I ought to attend too and called into work where I learned that another colleague and friend died this morning, leaving a wife and two sons.

He was diagnosed with an apparently treatable form of cancer just a few weeks ago but something, somewhere was obviously not as first thought.

Just kinda makes hacking and all that malarky seem considerably less important doesn't it.

I'm back......and hijacked!

...and with a massive thank you to Fletch for his stoic efforts in keeping gemmak's-ville up and running and getting a post here every day in my absence! I had intended to try and filter in the odd effort of my own from London but each time I popped in you all were having such a good time I made the most of the break and decided not to interrupt!

The holiday was fab but more on that later, for it seems I have arrived home to to a new problem on the blog front. As if Gemmak Designs and it's predecessor had not been problematic enough of late now I discover that both the old URL for DAB and my new one have been 'hijacked' by some smart ass bastard who has placed a redirect on the URL's to a porn site! GAH!!!

I have absolutely no idea how to resolve this at the moment, I have contacted blogger but thus far have had no response so all I can do for now is wait and see and apologise profusely for the fact that if you carry one of my buttons it will most definitely not take you to me! Please, feel free to remove it from your site completely if you wish, or to contact me to do it for you if you need help.

At the moment I can't post on Gemmak Designs, it just won't let me so if any of you out there know anyone with the button I would appreciate it if you would alert them.

Oh happy days, seems like my last days holiday is going to be taken up with trying to sort this debacle out! Grrrrrr.

The Last Post

The Last Post, thank God for that I hear you all cry, well I'm releaved to... :o)

So what have I learnt from this whole 'Blog Sitting' experience...

Well it has illustrated to me that I Blog when I have something to say, something I need to get out my system and because I'm usually a stable(ish) guy that means I'm an infrequent poster... My Blog is all about me and my needs... Selfish as it sounds...

But 'Blog Sitting' has shown me it's a dam hard commitment to make, 'having' to post every day (and I only had to do it for four!!!). You've lost your freedom to just say, "F**k It" I'm off down the Pub, or when you really have nothing to say you just can keep quiet, you have that responsibility and pressure to your 'Readers' to post.

So I think as a passing farewell, I'd like to salute in a massive way Gem and all the rest of you avid bloggers out there that can be 'bothered' to keep it going relentlessly, I couldn't do it...

Hat of to you all... :o)

Yeah Yeah OK , shes back tomorrow :o)

So to the Gemmak Posse, it's farewell from me and thanx, it's been emotional... :o)

Ciao Ciao
Fletch
Confused from Chichester
I BLOG There4 I Am

PS. Wot No Anti-Cat Gag... Na, consider youselves lucky, I was going to post my favourite Thai recipe for sweet and sour pussy but thought I'd be nice to all you sad cat lovers instead... (Easy there Tigar !!! ;o) )

Gems Latest Holiday Photo

Gem's latest Holiday Snap... Why couldn't she let PG Drive !!!

Oh... if you zoom in over the womans right shoulder, I think you can make out a wee ginger moggy being brutally savaged by a Big Hound !!! ;o)

Hey, penultamate post here... I know, your relief must be massive, mine is !!!

Ciao Ciao
Fletch
Confused From Chichester
I BLOG There4 I am

PS. OK OK so its not really her !!!

The Devil... Is he all bad?

So then you lot, it's past mid-night so this counts as a tomorrow post...

You want some humour then do you? Hey it is usually lacking from this Blog, unless you count a Dum cat chasing it's tail... ;-) (Oh if u haven't noticed, I'm in the chair for making as many subtle anti-cat gags as possible this week... ;o) )

OK here's a funny little Scratching I came across via the old Tinternet/Email thingy...These sentences actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services,'Thank God' for church ladies with typewriters :o) (What! It's the cleanest funny thing I could find!)


1. The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

2. The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."

3. Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.

4. Don't let worry kill you off, let the Church help.

5. For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

6. Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

7. At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

8. Scouts are saving aluminium cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

9. Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.

10. The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.

11. This evening at 7pm there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.

12. Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10am. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the BS is done.

13. Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7pm. Please use the back door.

14. The primary 7's will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7pm. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.

15. Weight Watchers will meet at 7pm at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.


Well they made me laugh anyway... :o)

Yeah I know what your thinking, but no, she's not bloody back yet! ;o)

Ciao for now people...
Fletch
Confused From Chichester
I BLOG There4 I Am

Where, what and why?

Has she gone yet... ? Kool :o)

And what does she mean 'No expense spared'... I'm cheap, ask any of the girls I know!!

Right, this is Fletch and as you’ve probably gathered Gems on Holiday, but to accomplish her promise of getting at least one Post to her Blog each day, she’s conjured up a scheme for letting me Guest post to it for a few days whilst she has no net access, therefore ‘technically’ she’s fulfilled her posting promise. I know it sounds like very suspect solution to me to aswell, but then again shes got previous for this already, I mean just sticking a picture of some mangy cat up surely can only be clasified as a very loose post at best... But on the up side it will be a very pleasant change to have a Cat Free Zone for a while... Yippee :o)

So then, what going down? Well I thought I would start with a sensible post today and see whether or not that works for us all :o) If it doesn't then for my future entries I will stoop down to my usually level of cheap T&A jokes and profanity etc.

So here goes.

At present personal reasons have brought to my mind the very serious option of getting out the loop, just selling up to ‘walk the earth’ for a few years travelling, maybe write a book etc. (Just the usual escapist ideas to avoid reality). So what I thought might be an interesting question to pose the Gemmak Posse in the name of personal research that is, if you could visit one place and one place only anywhere in the world no expense spared, where or what would it be and why?

No pressure to add your answers in the comments, but if no quality thoughts emerge then I get Cart Blanche in future posts to write whatever I like without trying to be sensible on this Blog again and trust me, that’s probably not a good idea, if only because Gem might loose some of her valued reader’s :o) (Hey and we all know she’s a ‘Hit/Comments’ Junky ;o) )

Your missing her already aren't you...? hehehe :o)

Ciao Ciao
Fletch
Confused from Chichester
I BLOG There4 I Am

PS I'm open to Bribes for changing the BLOG layout aswell... (Now, what ever did happen to the title image with the suspect nipples showing... LOL :o) )

Meet your host for the week

Even while I am away on holiday you don't get to escape this little patch of the blogosphere, after all, it was some of your number that challenged me again to complete another year without missing a single days posting!

To that end, and the rules dictating that it doesn't matter how I get a post here, just that I do, I would like you to give a big hand and a very warm welcome to my guest blogger for the week. Yes, be assured there has been no expense spared in my search for a replacement, I bring you the one and only, the famous (or should that be infamous), the utterly entertaining, the inimitable *insert drum roll*........... Fletch, he of 'Answers aren't at the back' fame.

Yes, for the duration of my holiday your host at gemmak'-s-ville will be my good friend and buddy Fletch. Ok, so maybe I have taken my blog's life in my hands in this decision, anything could happen and probably will, but hey life's a risk!

So that's me out of here for a few days, if I can I'll try and interject occasionally from London but until then I leave you in the very dangerous capable hands of my blog-sitter.

Please be gentle with him....at least until he settles in!


Cheers Fletch, you're a star ;o)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The promised snow has arrived, a little later than originally forecast and thus only a dusting so far though it's beginning to look like it has the possibility of becoming pretty grim out there. Were gonna hit the road earlier than we had planned in the hope that we can out run it south, fingers crossed we don't get stuck at about Newcastle!

I'm gone.......have a good week guys and I'll look in when I can. :o)

Oh how utterly typical!

Call it sod's law, call it God's punishment, call it what you like but it seems that gemmak is about to get her comeuppance in typically inconvenient style!

Just how many times have I wished, nay almost prayed for snow, how many forecasts and weather models have I scoured for a sign of the white stuff and just how many times have I wittered on about it here?

Well, it would seem that today, on this one occasion, the weather is doing exactly as the met. office models predicted it would, it could only be this one time they get it right couldn't it! It has just started snowing lightly and our forecast is for up to 15cm overnight, everything looks set as it should be for the prediction to become reality!

Just great, fab, utterly typically marvelous, the one day in the whole winter we have to leave at the crack of dawn to drive the 400 miles to my parents!

One way and another actually getting to this little holiday seems to have been fraught with difficulties in and it looks like the next problem may well be on the very heavily clouded horizon!

Ppfftttt.

Saturday silliness

How typically 'cat'!

I really want need me.....

...one of THESE! ;o)

Tilly and the terrifying machine!

Un-domesticated as I am in culinary affairs it seems the bread machine (if you can call a bread machine 'culinary' in the first place) that loiters in the corner of the kitchen, has not been pressed into service for sometime but a sudden realisation that we were breadless meant it was forced to spring into action. Tilly has never encountered this terrifying device before and it's long period of inactivity has caused it to develop a rather hideous squeak into the bargain......madam was not impressed.

The 'new noise' required much tentative investigation, caused a deal of nervousness......

Tilly and the terrifying machine
Video sent by gemmak

and finally, when she found her courage it came under attack.....

Attack!
Video sent by gemmak

Apologies for the quality, my father might have been in the business all his life but a camera-man/woman I am not!

I hate going to the hairdressers!

Today heralded one of the as 'infrequent as possible' trips to the hairdresser, there was no escaping the fact that my once neatly trimmed locks were beginning to favour an Old English Sheepdog and so the appointment was made and off I set this afternoon with the usual lack of glee such trips hold for me.

Things as ever were not to progress easily, though on this occasion that was due for the main part to my own stupidity. Let me explain.

My hairdresser left her usual emporium of employment a few months back after some altercation with her boss. Things were looking good, twice she came to my home to do the deed, a far more preferable option than the trek into town and tolerating of the usual hoo ha. But this happy state of affairs (for me not her I might add) was not to continue and soon she was re-employed, it was to this new salon I was to go today.

Only I didn't listen when I was told the name and address of said business premises. Instead I thought to myself that I could easily find it, the town afterall is not big. I thought I knew the address and I thought I knew where that address was.....wrong!

Having scampered, now late, the length of the street had I imagined my port of call to be situated on, I realised that the street name was not the one I expected. Plan A having failed it was onto plan B, look for the shop name....er...suddenly it became very apparent to me that this was another vital piece of information I somehow had ignored!

As I mulled over my options I noticed I was stood outside the police station, that's it I thought, I'll just pop in there and ask, there's bound to be a civilian on the front desk who will help me. Bear in mind this is a small town, the local bobbies mostly know me from work and they know I have to attend court to give evidence soon. Well after today's embarrassing debacle I doubt they think I'm fit to organise a child's tea party let alone be a reliable witness.

I had imagined having a quick conversation, being given directions to the street I wanted and exiting....if only it had been that simple! I was met by change by a police officer just inside the door and in the foyer were a number of people all just pertinently positioned to hear my stupidity! Gah.

So I asked a little meekly for directions to the street I wanted and was duly given them....but I protested that I knew there was no hairdressers on that street. I should have known better, oh silly, silly me, I should have taken my window of opportunity when it presented itself and fled, but no, I was having an utterly 'stupid' day. The bobby tried again, asking the name of the establishment I was looking for. At this point I just knew I was about to be horribly embarrassed....who on earth goes to the local nick to ask the way to a hairdressers? Stumped I muttered that I didn't know the name, the look on his face said it all. I mumbled some more that it had a name something like 9/11 but that no one could possibly name a hair salon that, so I must be wrong...maybe, I offered pathetically, it was 7/11, I had some recollection by now that the name included the number eleven.....but I was rambling by this point, as one does when one is mortally embarrassed.

I was dying a death here, the officer landed with me obviously doubted my sanity, the onlookers were sniggering and I was stood there blustering like a fool just wanting to escape......but things were to get worse yet!

"You think the name has an eleven in it do you" the officer asked me, "yes" I replied, just wishing I could get the hell out and go find it myself now. "Ah", came his reply, "I think I might know the place you are looking for". relieved that I might soon escape I awaited his direction....but no word came, instead he took me by the arm, propelled me politely out of the door to the pavement and pointed straight ahead. "is that the place you're after I wonder" he said.....and there, directly opposite us was a salon with the words in foot high letters along the front saying 'Hair @ eleven"!!!

Need I say more.......to add insult to injury my hairdresser, who was waiting for me wondering where I had got too, was stood in the window laughing for all she was worth! Bitch!

Please, I don't ever want to be reminded of this incident again, I'm off to crawl into a big fat hole of embarrassed stupidity now.

Not long now

It's only three more 'sleeps' ( I use the word 'sleep' very loosely in this context)now until we escape for a few days to may parents for a break and a long awaited visit....and I can't wait!

We haven't managed to get to London since last August and it's beginning to feel like forever, the fact that we are going at all was in the lap of the God's for a time, courtesy of out court system, but at last it is looking like it will actually happen. Famous last words perhaps, for it would appear that my long wished for snow might typically fall in abundance on Saturday night, we travel early on Sunday morning and sod's law would dictate that this will be the one occasion that the met. office get it right!

I'm begining to really feel like I need to escape for a few days, my holiday thus far, whilst it has been preferable to going to work, has been kind of odd, and with PG on nights, aside from the postman and himself asleep, I don't think I have seen another soul for over a week. In fact, I don't recall even going outside the flat further than my car, for a whole week!...... and I'm actually looking forward to the normally dreaded visit to the hair salon this afternoon, hair salons have people in them right?

I have spent almost 24/7 with my rear end parked right here for the entire week trying to catch up on the design business debacle, I have had precious little sleep, in part because once I 'get on a roll' I loose track of time and don't go to bed until the wee small hours but also, in large part, because Tilly insists on waking me each morning at around 5.30...... and then makes absolutely sure I can't get back to sleep as the result of her antics. Don't tell me to 'exclude' her, it doesn't work, she merley howls like a banshee as a sleep prevention method instead

So, enough is enough, I need to escape this life of hermit and html if only for a few days, go have some fun, spend time with my parents, indulge in a little retail therapy (yes, cities have shops unlike fields) and sleep, sleep, sleep. Tilly will be ensconced in a cattery with Ditto , her first time and I'm kinda feeling like a mother sending her child off to school on the first day, but the upside will be that for the first time in six months I can sleep, wonderful, uninterrupted, un- nose chewed, un-hair pulled, un-trampled under paw SLEEP!

Is it any wonder.....

....I worry from time to time about the safety of one 'not so small anymore' young cat!

Her behavior has changed as she's gotten older, she no longer climbs the curtains at such regular intervals, she doesn't decimate books chewing on them and she has ceased the door climbing antics to a greater degree but this does not make for an any more peaceful life. Instead she has merely advanced to other mischief and has a particular penchant for all things electrical.


She has long had a passion for the spaghetti mess of wires at the back of the PC but now we can add to that constant attempts at removing the bulbs from the bedside lights, creating an 'oh so attractive' perforated pattern in the delicate paper shades as she does so, an obsession with jamming her not so tiny furriness atop the stereo, resulting in pitiful cries when she gets stuck and a rather worrying new delight in sleeping ontop of the television!

This small cat is a 'dribbler', she purrs incessantly and when she does she dribbles, I know, most unpleasant but it's a 'cat thang'....this would be fine, dribbling I can cope with, it at least illustrates her degree of happiness but dribbling, perched ontop of electrical items carrying high current is just not good!


It is a constant battle in her waking hours, she flies, at high velocity, around the place from one of her favoured places to another constantly, with me in hot pursuit attempting to remove her time and time again. Time out tactics don't work and she seems to know I can't squirt her with the once dreaded, but now ignored, water sprayer when her preference for naughtiness is an electrical item!

Nothing works, nothing will cause her to desist and on the very rare occasion I manage to dissuade her for a time, she turns her attentions instead to clawing at the now ruined speaker fronts! I've given up replacing things, they can wait until she has grown out of her mischief, thus far replacement has been good money after bad, I just wish she would cease taking her little life in her paws around household electrics!

This little Tilly cat is a darling, I adore her but over the months she has more than earned her now regular title of 'hell puss'!

Crush ~ a sickening report

The world has gone mad....or at least some of it's population, though hopefully only a tiny minority. My apologies for this post, it does not make for pleasant reading, quite the reverse, but the more of us that protest our outrage, perhaps the more chance there is that

This woman is dubbed 'The Kitten Killer of Hangzhou',


and she is apparently responsible for one of the most sickening acts of barbarism I have had the misfortune to read about in a very long time, she produces 'crush videos' from China, which if you haven't until now been aware of, are videos of extreme cruelty perpetrated against defenseless animals in the name of 'amusement'. China, we know has no legal protection in it's statutes for animals but that doesn't excuse the complete lack of humanity displayed in this woman's actions. You can read more of the details HERE, on Paddy's blog or on the Newsvine link HERE but I don't recommend it, it took me four attempts to be able to read it in it's entirety.

Aside from my obvious feelings of horror that this woman could in the first instance behave in such an utterly heinous manner, what concerns me even further is that for her to produce videos of such monstrous behaviour must by the very fact that she does, mean that there are individuals out there who want to purchase them!

What kind of sick and twisted mind derives pleasure from something like this? What kind of psychological dysfunction do people who enjoy any cruelty, but particularly this level of cruelty suffer? I am not naive, I know that man perpetrates against man even more horrific acts of violence than this, there have long been the truly evil individuals that produce and purchase the likes of snuff movies but this is just one more instance of our world gone mad.

Most days I love those who inhabit this global village but some days, when I read of atrocities like this, I hate it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~


N.B. If you hit this post as a result of a search for the above mentioned 'adult movies' I will do my level best to trace your I.P.

Your day will come!

From my inbox this morning and ok that's cheating but it's scarily true ....if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!!

Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder

This is how it manifests ..... I decide to water my garden. As I turn on
the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the front verandah table
that I brought up from the letter box earlier, just after the mailman had
been.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I put my car keys
on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage bin beside the table, and
notice that the bin is full. So, I decide to put the bills back on the table
and take out the garbage first.

But then I think, since I'm going to be near the post box when I take out
the garbage anyway (and the mailman picks up the mail at noon) ... I
may as well pay the bills first. So, I take my cheque book off the table,
and see that there is only 1 cheque left. My spare cheque book is in my
desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Coke I'd been drinking earlier this morning.

I know I going to look for my cheque book, but first I need to push the
Coke can aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. The Coke is
warm, so I decide to put it in the refrigerator to make it cold again. As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the dining room table catches my eye -- they need water.

I put the Coke on the dining room table and discover my reading glasses
that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back
on my desk, but first I'm going to put more water in the flowers. I set the
glasses back down on the table, go to the kitchen sink to get a jug and
fill it with water and suddenly spot the TV remote on the window sill.
Some-one left it there.

I realise that tonight when we go to watch TV, I'll be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the window sill, so I decide to put it back in the lounge room where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I pour some water in the jug, but spill some on the floor.

So, I set the remote back on the kitchen bench, get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was
planning to do.

At the end of the day:
- the car isn't washed
- the cheque's aren't written for the bills to be paid
- there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the dining room table
- the flowers don't have enough water,
- there is still only 1 cheque in my cheque book,
- I can't find the remote,
- I can't find my glasses,
- the garbage hasn't been taken out
- and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day, and I'm really tired now.

I realise this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail.

Don't laugh -- if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!!

Head to head!

I think there can be no disputing that these two are now firm friends!


(Clickable)

Saturday skies

All in the space of twelve hours!




(Clickable)

You won't believe this.......

....well actually you probably will!

I called the 'powers that be' again yesterday in a final attempt to solve the debacle of the court case date with the intention if necessary of then withdrawing my statement and taking whatever the consequences of that might be.

After much ado I managed to get hold of a member of their staff I had dealt with previously and who had been less inept than the majority. She took the details again and promised to call me back....which she did inside of an hour.

The problem was solved and despite myself I couldn't help hooting with laughter down the phone, probably rather impolitely, as a response to the information she gave me.......the date given for the case, only two days after the original date, the 15th of March.....was a typo!!! it should have read the 15th of May!!! Impressive stuff eh?

To give her her due she was full of apology and thanks that I had brought it to their attention and saved all and sundry turning up on date when the case wasn't able to be heard....can you imagine my joy had I cancelled my holiday and been one of those stood in the cold with no case to hear?

I know we are all human and to err is part of that but hell fire, does no-one proof read or check anything these days?!

SNOW....we got SNOW!

Snow!
Video sent by gemmak

Breathing a tentative sigh of relief

Today is the first day of over two weeks off the 'day job' for yours truly and I think after the last week I am going to treat myself to a day off everything and just do, for one day what I want to do!

It will doubtless still mean I am glued here, PG is working and it's minus four outside so I have no wish to venture further than this warm little spot but I'm going to play just for the one day, maybe re-vamp this little patch and actually get time to read a few blogs for a change....oh and I might even get to sleep some!

I am finally catching up a little on the design problems I have encountered over recent days, I still have some work to catch up on but the main difficulties have been attended too and though, in fear of speaking to soon, I think I deserve one day off and to tentatively begin to breath a big sigh of relief.

Tomorrow it's back to 'Gemmak Designs' for as long as the work I have lasts and then at the end of next week we are off to London to my parents for five days....things are beginning to feel a little back to normal and it's a good feeling. Long may it last! Did I just tempt fate in saying that I wonder?

Life in gemmak's-ville is going to be somewhat quiet, if still busy, for the next week or so, PG is working night shifts which means he sleeps all day and is gone all night, Lisa is busy and not online much right now to chatter and my usual 'all day email companion' is away on a much deserved holiday as of today, yup, it's gonna be quiet here, real hermit stuff for a little while but there is of course still Tilly to ensure I don't get too complacent or bored! ;o)

You couldn't make it up!

Remember the debacle last month in which my endeavors to do the 'right thing' (mistake) and appear as a witness in a court case ultimately resulted in my being threatened with arrest for contempt of court?.....well today the system involved truly excelled in it's efforts to lose any remaining respect I might have held for it.

The crux of the problem, if you recall, was that the court date was set for the 13th of March, a date I am due to be in London visiting my parents. I went through the correct channels in an attempt to get it changed explaining countless times that from the 12th to the 17th of March I would be unable to attend court. Ultimately I succeeded in getting an adjournment but it was no mean feat and along the way it seemed I was the one being treated as a criminal.

So what happened today?

Today I received the paperwork notifying me of the new date the case is to be heard and informing me that I am to attend. And what date is it?..... I'll tell you what date it is....it's the bloody 15th of March is what date it is, just two days later!!! Hell fire...am I speaking English here because it sure seems like I'm not making myself understood in some quarters!

So once more I have called the illustrious CPS and once more I have explained, and although I received an apology there is of course no guarantee that the date will be changed yet again.

What is guaranteed now however is that I will go on holiday, enough is enough. I tried my best against the apparent ineptness I was up against but I've given up .......if they change the date I'll be there, if they don't then I won't and if they see fit (which I doubt in reality) to issue a warrant for my arrest then so be it. I tried, I really did, to do what my conscience told me I should but it's beyond funny now and I'm not playing anymore.

Back in business

I've done it!

As of now Gemmak Designs is open for business! New look, new URL, new beginning.


It's just under a week since it's predecessor hit the skids and one way and another and I can't say it's been a week I would like to re-live but it's over with now and there's only one way to go....forward.

I still have much to catch up on, I've lost a week of working on existing designs for clients who have been waiting patiently and I still have a million little bits to sort out but in essence 'Gemmak Designs' is now up and running, though it might take me a little time to get it back up to full speed.

Now I have to beg!

The demise of the 'former enterprise' also meant the demise of any advertising, links, search engine returns etc. etc. that we had accrued, I have to start from scratch again so to that end,....this is where I beg, if any one of you feels charitable enough to carry a 'gemmak Designs' button on your site I would be eternally, unendingly, utterly, grateful. Just drop me a mail or a comment and I'll send it to you, I'll install it for you if you prefer or feel free to take the code from below with a big thank you attached.

So all that remains is to hope I actually get some custom under my new guise and to thank all of you for your support and encouragement. There were a few moments along the way where I almost decided to pack it all in for good, but I didn't, and for that I owe many of you a big thank you, but particularly two people,(and I'm gonna get shot for this so anyone close by, duck now please) P.G. who has tolerated the last weeks fallout magnificently and Fletch who has been an absolute star.

That's it then, I'm on my own, kinda scary still but hey, onward and upward and (more begging) please, if you fancy a new look anytime go HERE!

Here's the button code:
<a href="http://gemmakdesigns.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29/gemmak/gemmakbutton.gif" /></a><br /><a href="http://gemmakdesigns.blogspot.com/2006/03/steal-my-button.html"><h6>Steal this button here</h6></a>

It's snowing!!

Ok....so the picture is appalling and it's not much snow but it is snow, real snow!