Trees

It's been raining and miserable here, as well as dark, even in the mornings.




This picture is a bit odd, it was getting dark (well, even darker than it already was) and the only part that has come out is the moon. It's a bit like looking through a hole.

In A Pickle

I think I might have become slightly too reliant on the internet. It's not so much that I don't know how to do something (although actually, that is quite often the case) but that I think I don't know how to do something and don't trust my memory.

The other day I was trying to get a pickle jar open, it was so tough I couldn't manage it and I really wanted a cheese and pickle sandwich.

I sort of vaguely remembered something about running the lid under hot water to loosen it but I wasn't sure whether I got that muddled up with something else and whether that might not be a good idea (I'm trying to think more carefully before I do rash things these days, its getting quite embarrassing when people come home/enter the room (usually the kitchen at work) to discover I've spilt/broken/ruined something or burnt myself. Again).

There was noone else in the house at the time so there was only one thing to do, look it up on the internet.

So I typed 'loosen jar lid' into Google and managed to find a website with advice on how to open stuck jars. It told me to run the lid (not the jar) under hot water for a minute so it would expand and loosen itself. So I ran the lid under the tap (nearly forgetting not to run the actual jar under it) and when I had finally been patient enough to actually hold it under the tap for a few seconds and not keep trying to undo it before it was ready, it actually worked. The pickle was a bit warm though, which was weird. In fact they weren't even particularly nice pickles, I think they were Waitrose own brand, which should be nice surely? But never mind, that's beside the point.

When my mum came home and I told her 'can you believe I actually had to look up how to undo a stuck pickled onion jar on the internet? Is modern life making us all stupid?' she was actually quite surprised at the hot water idea and asked whether it wouldn't just make the jar crack (which is when I was really glad that I had remembered to move the actual jar out of the way of the hot water because I had a feeling it might lead to complications).
'No no, you only run the lid of the jar under the tap' I said, with visions of the pickled-onions-in-vinegar-and-shards-of-glass-all-in-the-sink disaster that had been averted. She suggested that using a rubber glove would have worked.

Christmas Belle

Here's Belle with her blanket that she got for Christmas.

Red Hot Chili Pepper

On Saturday I decided I was going to have some chili con carne for tea, just some stuff out of a tin with some rice. We had some chilli peppers on the side lying around and I thought I would chop one up and put it in.

Unfortunately I forgot to wash my hands, I must have touched my nose because it started burning. It was really painful and swelled up and went red. I washed it loads and it didn't make any difference, my eyes were watering because it hurt so much. In the end I got an ice cube out of the fridge and held it to my nose, which was the only thing that stopped the pain. I had to do that the whole time I ate my dinner because as soon as I took it away it started burning again.

Anyway, it went away after about an hour or two and it was fine after that but I can't believe how painful it was. I'm just glad I didn't get it in my eye! I also can't believe how daft I was to forget to wash my hands afterwards. I think I might keep away from hot chilies for a while.

Links

Someone at work found a really interesting blog the other day, each post is a link to something interesting on the web. I quite liked this post that links to a tutorial showing you how to make a spooky house in Photoshop, and also this one showing you how to make a quill pen out of feathers is interesting too.

Cold

I got sent home from work on Tuesday because I was coming down with a rotten cold. I got a lift to the station which was nice, but then the train was 25 minutes late so I had to wait around feeling ill. It was one of those colds that makes you feel all weird, I was standing on the platform feeling like I was on a merry go round or something ugh. Anyway I'm feeling a lot better today, finally. I've been bored stiff all week because obviously I haven't been able to do anything much.

Anyway, I was looking through my bookmarks on my browser and was thinking that its funny how many pages you can bookmark and then don't look at again, or can't remember visiting in the first place. Before I reformatted my computer a couple of months ago I had loads and loads of bookmarks, but I completely forgot to make a note of them and lost them all. It annoys me to think of all those useful (well, in some cases anyway) links that I've lost.
Here's an interesting link I've got at the moment. I have no idea how I came across it and I don't remember bookmarking it but it does seem vaguely familiar.

...Seafaring Shoe

Seafaring Shoe, originally uploaded by Biscuits of Hobnobia.

And here's a trainer I saw shortly afterwards. The photo is a bit dark but it sort of goes well with the bin picture I think haha.

Nautical Bin...

Nautical Bin, originally uploaded by Biscuits of Hobnobia.

Last week I spotted this bin buried half in the sand. I don't know how long it had been there but it was quite deep.

Mmm brown

You might be thinking my blog looks the same but different. I decided to go for a new colour scheme for a change, biscuit colour with a hint of... um... blue.

Better Late than Never

I've finally got round to making a post. I've been having a weird week.

On Thursday the train was an hour late. I was standing around with a couple of people I talk to at the station, a bloke who is about thirty something and a woman about a year older than me. The man reminds me so much of Ricky Gervais. He does the same expressions and says funny sarcastic things, he could almost be his double. He gets very bored and buys cans of beer when the train is late (which is nearly all the time). He was pointing out a woman who always buys chips whenever the train is late, who he finds very amusing. It looks like he's going to turn into an alcoholic, and the woman who likes chips is going to end up with clogged arteries or something if the trains don't start being on time heh.

The train was so late that the announcer blokey who talks over the tannoy advised everyone to get a form and complain! He sounded angry. He said that 'as a career railway man' he didn't think much of it, and that he had told the people on the phone (some train people in charge of... something. I don't know any of the train jargon.) what he thought of the situation. Haha. Previous to that he had told us a train was going to be stopping at our platform. It came, but it shot straight past.

Anyway I didn't get home until twenty to eight, and my dinner was ruined because mum had expected me to be home and put it in the oven. It was a pizza and it looked like it had been barbecued. All that was left for me to have for dinner was a tin of chile con carne, I had all of it with rice and then I fell asleep on the sofa.

I think the dark evenings are starting to annoy me a bit, I feel like I want to go to sleep all the time. I seem to have spent most of the week wanting to drop off. It doesn't help that we're running a bit low on things to do at work, because it's near Christmas and everything, so it's all a bit dull.
Yesterday I was having a conversation about it being my dads birthday today and that I hadn't bought him anything because I had forgot. The people I work with kept coming up with suggestions and decided they're going to ask me what I had got him on Monday. I bought him a levitating pen in the end, that will be an amusing to tell the people at work haha.