Random X-mas Tuneage

Have been waiting a couple of months to post this little gem....How did I not know about this album

Oh, The Weather Outside is Frightful.....

Yeah. So. Bit nippy. I've been at my sisters place kitten sitting and all was going swimmingly....until it suddenly went all winter.  The rest of the country has been languishing under harsh blizzard and icy conditions for the past week, but so far the very south has been immune...much to my disappointment.

Then last night the disgusting freezing murk, which had been the weather condition of choice for the last few days, was happily replaced by perfectly formed crystals of H2O falling....and most importantly settling...we all got a little excited, apart from the kittens that is who were utterly confused.

Like a small child at Christmas I was up at the crack of dawn...after politely declining the request to go out the night before to build a snowman in my pyjamas at 11pm, as suggested by a certain Floridian...*coughs* Kim *coughs*...up and out shortly after 8am I wandered through Old Portchester Village to the Castle.

How about this for some stereotypical winter scenes

Unfortunately the gates to Castle were shut, but I managed to walk all the way round the outer wall.

And the snow was virtually untouched since it was so early...after I'd wandered around...not so much...meh

Stopped by this lamp post to see if Mr. Tumnus was about, alas no

I did manage to get a pic of the church through the gate, that sky looks a little ominus

I found a little wooded glen which had yet to be explored in the snow which was frightfully festive indeed.

Yet still no characters from Narnia....starting to think that it's not a real place y'know ;-)

 And then there was the village itself, ancient thatched cottages with rickety roofs and fences...how very 'Ye Olde England'

Unfortunately the snow was too powdery to attempt a decent snowman, but I did find enough to thrash my sister in a snowball fight, her partner's sudden disappearance as the snowballs started flying shows what a big wimp she is.  I did however end up, rather suspiciously I might add, with a self imploding snowball which covered my face and most of my upper body with snow....and that stuff gets everywhere, including the underside of my glasses, in my mouth and up my nose....good times!


Shortly after we retreated back into the flat to thaw out and I'm currently relaxing under a warm blanket with A Muppets Christmas Carol on the telly....even contemplating cracking open the hot chocolate, on the whole a un-sucky snow day.

Let Me Hear Your Body Talk

Today I observed a complete poser attempt a set of push-ups at the gym, he puffed his way through the first five and decided what his workout needed was a big finish...the next push-up attempted was similar to those where beefed up chaps clap their hands at the apex of the 'up', landing comfortably on the palms of their hands....this particular chap seemed to forget the nature of defying gravity would involve a particularly high 'up' and barely managed a golf clap before face planting the floor.  Shaking off the incident he continued with two more regular push-ups before moving on to a less ego deflating exercise...I chuckled to myself as my quads burned during my own workout and wondered if this bozo had perhaps mistaken the Arun Leisure Center for Muscle Beach.....minus the sun, sand and beautiful people....pleb!

And the Rain, Rain, Rain, Came Down, Down, Down.....

Too bloody right it did, a months worth fell in just 24 hours...most of it, apparently, in West Sussex (80mm was recorded locally in the Petworth area).  Torrential rain in fact, along with blocked drains from all the autumn leaves being on the ground, and fairly gusty winds have meant for a miserable time for most commuters and Bognor for the first time in over ten years almost becoming completely cut off, as main routes were over run.  Flooded roads and diverted drivers caused folks to break down and were rescued by the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution)....working in the middle of a public highway is not exactly where one would usually expect a sea based rescue service.

Also out of the book of ood was the local duck pond which also flooded big time last night and the carp dad and I witnessed swimming around, what used to be, the pavement.

And now some piccies

To give you an idea of the depth of the water those bollards peeking through the top of the water are around 3ft and a bit

The ducks seemed a little puzzled as to the sudden expansion of their abode, the fish however were having a decent explore.

Interestingly this used to be the main road past the duck pond...yeah, good luck with that

Perhaps not the best day to rest on a bench to contemplate life the universe and everything.

And, as always, I suffered for my art and slightly misjudged the edge of the waterline, walking home with a lovely squelching feeling in my right trainer.

And the weather people have said there's more of the wet stuff on the way....joy

Tried to Shift It, Couldn't Even Lift it, We Was Gettin' Nowhere, And so we Had a Cup of Tea....

And then we went home.

Ah, those gloriously dull and dismal winter months.  Nothing to look forward to except cold, windy, cloudy and wet until at least next April.  And so how to attempt to trick my body into believing all is not completely un-summery....do a bedroom make-over and bring a little of the tropical snugness into my little corner of the northern hemisphere...of course.

And so here's a little before and after, pictorial edition.

I usually like to go for bold colours, I'm not a pastel person

This does however lead to a slightly darker room, not helped by the fact that I have a north facing room and a roof overhang above my window.

 I have a love for old fashion tin toys and had a shelf around much of my room to display them, as well as vintage metal signs....leading to a retro Americana feel...or a themed pub, meh

And so a real change was in order. time to lighten and brighten and encourage a more tranquil environment....

There are way too many versions of 'cream', eventually I opted for Timeless...which I guess is a little ironic considering the amount of time it took to choose

Out with the purple and blue and in with....

Dad built the two units for my vast, and ever expanding, DVD collection.

I still wanted a bit of colour and in keeping with the tropical theme a sea type green fitted quite well...not that the sea round here is EVER this colour. (and yes I still have cuddly toys on my bed...I'm a girl, it's part of my genetic make-up to have lots of cuddly fluffiness in my life...even a couple of original Care Bears and a Figment off of Disney in there somewhere)

 And the thing I wanted the most, for a change, was some amazing tropical/beach type canvas pictures...to at last try to imagine I'm somewhere a little less bleak than Bognor Regis in the middle of winter....where it's dark by 4pm.

It was at this point that we discovered  that when the house was built in the 70s the builders were perhaps a little loose with the whole concept of straight and level walls.  Dad and I went virtually cross-eyed trying to match the pictures to the ceiling and floor...chucking away the spirit level and eventually hanging the pictures at an angle to make them look straight.

And I won't repeat was my dear father said when trying to make this particular picture match with not only the floor and ceiling, but also the image itself...there are many, many holes in the wall behind the canvas ;-)

Overall it looks pretty darn lush!

The Ghouls All Came from Their Humble Abodes....

Hope all is well for those on a post sugar rush crash and that there were more treats than tricks, unless of course you prefer tricks...but then that would make you a little bit weird ;-)

Halloween has become more popular over the last ten years or so in the UK, though when I was a kid trick 'n' treating was something which just appeared on TV shows and films from across the pond.  I have always been partial to the odd scary flick (scary not gory as that in my mind is not really the crux of Halloween) and this year my sister invited me over to her flat for an evening of appropriately themed flicks and munchies...who was I to turn that down.

A merry ol' time was had by all....

Guess the movie?

Next up Ghostwatch and when this aired in the UK way back in 1992 the docu-style approach caused such a kerfuffle that it has never been shown on British TV again...it still manages to send a shiver down the spine of those who saw it at the time.

A few witches fingers for munching on in the evening

Appropriately themed atmosphere

A table of fully unhealthy snackage and fried stuffs...yum

 My sisters first ever attempt at carving a pumpkin...pretty darn cool I would say

Archie, however, not quite as sure

Then the sneaky little bugger decided to half inch my drink while I was partaking in a rather sweat inducing coupla rounds of 'let's dance' on the Wii with my sister-in-law-to-be...fortunately it was just water and not gin.

So that was my weekend...gigglesome and non-sensical and only scary when my sister insisted on watching X-Factor ...oh, the humanity!

"Hi, I'm Chucky. Wanna play? "

Found this on that special interweb place called You Tube and thought I'd share since Hallowe'en is near...the perfect gift for little kiddies to have as a bedtime buddy....if you forever want them in therapy!

Warning: Those who are ultra sensitive to creepy-ass looking dolls look away now

Seriously though what kinda of facial expressions are they suppose to represent...sloshed, poked in the eye and stroke?

Occasional October Outings

A couple of weeks ago the weather was fine, the sun was shining and a stroll along the prom with a stop for a picnic lunch and getting lost in my latest Clive Cussler beckoned.  A glorious weekend was had by many who took in the, very, late summer weather, shorts and ice cream popular choices on a day which mostly looked like this.

Less than two weeks later, a rather different story...a comfortable 23 degrees was replaced with a teeth chattering 5 degrees plus wind chill.  I, rather foolishly, had been clinging to my summer duvet...gradually adding blankets/sleeping under laundry...in an attempt to convince myself that winter isn't on the way....mayhap it could skip Bognor altogether this year, we did after all get our fair share of 'brass monkeys' weather last winter.  Alas suddenly it's all -5 at night, dark in the a.m...and getting darker in the p.m. also. The only thing to keep me warm now is my fluffy slippers, my Ti-double 'g'-er hot water bottle and weekly dose of various hunky and adorkable chaps on Merlin.

Though along with the despicable weather there is, every so often, a clear spell in which to enjoy some of the aspects of Autumn.  And last Wednesday we did just that

Welcome to Sheffield Park Garden

And for those interested it looks like this in the summer

And as a bonus there's a pub a few miles down the road which does great homemade food with a cracking view to-boot