Just a quick one

Hello there dearies! Just thought I'd best put in an appearance on the ol' blog in case you think I've forgotten her again :o)

I actually meant to post last night, but then I went out on an impromptu 'date' with the NBM. We had a lovely time; we went to the flicks and watched Juno, which I can wholeheartedly recommend (we both enjoyed it, anyway). And beforehand we went for a cheap-and-cheerful tea at a Mexican restaurant. So a fun evening was had by all - and it was nice to do something a bit different of an evening.

The other very exciting thing about going out was that it took us past a newsagents, where I managed to find a copy of a magazine I was looking for. I had seen this post from Moogsmum and really loved the softie cow from a magazine she'd found (pic at the bottom of the post); being ever-willing to jump on a bandwagon, I thought I might attempt a cow of my own, so that's why I wanted that mag... only now that I've seen the pattern I'm feeling a bit daunted! I'm still going to give it a shot, but don't watch this space :o)

Erm... I think there was something else, possibly even including pictures.... but I don't seem to be able to remember what it was. So maybe I will just cut my losses and click 'publish' (the sure-fire way of remembering whatever I'd forgotten to say!)

This is very old

..... so you have probably seen it before. But it is so great that I thought I would post it anyway, just in case anyone is unfamiliar with it. If your computer has speakers, turn them on; but if not, you do still get to play, because it's primarily a visual joy.



How fantastic is that? OK Go, I salute you.

(And just as an aside: I'm not usually a big fan of going to the gym, myself... but I'd be there like a shot if they decided to offer 'Synchronised Treadmill-Skating' classes - it looks like so much fun! So if Duncan Bannatyne or any of his ilk are reading this, you can have that idea for free. Although recompense in the form of discounted entry to my nearest 'STS' session would be much appreciated.)

I'm still here

Here is the update from the Chicken Estate.

This is finished (hooray!):

Exhibit A: one newly-laid train line

But this is not finished:

Exhibit B: my personal work mountain

So, many apologies for the lack of blog posts here recently, and also the lack of comments on your own lovely blogs: I have been stopping by, but have not always been capable of forming meaningful responses stringing together more than two words at a time.

I do hope to return to a fuller service shortly. In the meantime, here are some pictures of soothing things that make me smile, and thereby prevent my head from feeling like it might explode. Firstly:

My new boots - half price from that nice Anne-Marie Brantano

(Actually, I'd appreciate your thoughts on these, because when I bought them - and when I wore them earlier today - I thought they looked quite classy... but now that I see this picture I fear they may make me look like a lady of ill repute, and/or an auditionee for the lead role in Puss in Boots. Neither of which are quite the look I was going for.)

Secondly, monkey, monkey, and thrice monkey:

All-pile-on!

And to finish, another gratuitous flower shot:


Please call back soon for more stop-gap photos of mundane items! Next time, I hope to bring you my epic masterwork - The cutlery drawer: friend or foe?

My inner geek speaks

You have to accept the fact that you are either a) working too hard or b) a big geek when the highlights of your week include the following:

1) Receiving a fridge magnet in the post from a teabag manufacturer

Tea, Monkey, and a magnetic shed: what's not to love?

2) Discovering a fab use for a spare hunk of railway line:

My new doorstop

(Please don't ask how I came by said hunk of railway line. Suffice to say it was legal, and involved negotiation with an official rail-works employee. But I really don't want to start telling you about the re-laying of the railway line that runs past my flat. Or how it's taking place over one solid 100-hour shift, day and night. Because it wasn't too bad to start with. But today they have been angle-grinding track pieces (noisy), and dragging them along the line (ear-piercingly squealy), and using a sleeper-laying device complete with extra-loud horn for the announcement of its every move (noisy and squealy and irritating). So I'm not got going to tell you about any of that. Because I might cry. Instead I will concentrate on stuffing cotton wool in my ears and looking forward to sleeping at the weekend.)

And those really are the best bits of the week so far. I know what you're thinking: my life is sooooo exciting, right? Uh-huh. You betcha. Please don't be too envious :o)

Various valentines

As part of Lucy Locket's Valentine Swap, the lovely Trashalou sent me a fabulous parcel, which arrived yesterday and contained all these great things:

There were delicious chocolates and homemade biscuits, some very pretty (and very soft) green wool, and two beautiful handmade items - a knitted flower brooch, and also a little cushion which had a knitted heart on the front, and the best little embellishment on the back:

AND, as the eagle-eyed amongst you may already have spotted - THERE WAS A OLD-SCHOOL PG TIPS CHIMP IN THE PARCEL TOO! HURRAH!! He made himself right at home hugging the NBM's tea mug:


I think he's going to fit in well around here :o) And just in case you were wondering, he opted for NBM's tea mug becasue he couldn't reach around my king-sized one. What can I say? It was first thing in the morning and I needed the caffeine...

So: thank you, thank you, thank you, Trashalou - it has been a pleasure to swap with you, in my very first swap. And thanks also to Lucy for organising it all :o)

And just quickly before I go, I've got a couple of other little Valentine bits to show you (a bit late I know - oops). Firstly, the flowers that my gorgeous girl brought home for me:


And secondly, something silly that I got for her:


Champagne marmite - possibly the most bizarre novelty gimmick ever. But the perfect gift for my marmite-loving girlie, who liked it a lot.

Right, that's all I have for today... except to leave you with another gratuitous flower shot.


Enjoy the start to the new week, all.
VCxx

Gosh, would you look at that?

..... nearly a week's gone by: I've been neglecting my blogging responsibilites. I'm sorry. That last geektastic post must've taken it out of me more than I realised :o)

Anyway, the good news (depending on your pespective, naturally) is that I'm back again. And the bad is that I don't really have anything to report...

On the vaguely crafty front, I have actually been doing a few things - but not things that I can show you, I'm afraid. I finshed my gift parcel for my swap partner in Lucy Locket's Valentine Swap, and posted that off... but I don't want to spoil the surprise by posting any pics of the contents. And I also made a corsage-y-esque thing for my Mum's birthday, but I can't show you that becasue the only pictures I have are grainy, off-colour snaps on my phone, and I don't know how to get them from the phone to the computer. So I'll have to ask the NBM about that one and get back to you.

So anyway - have I waffled enough now for this to constitute a finished post? I do hope so.

Sorry for a post that defies the 'quality over quantity' maxim; I will try to be more interesting next time. And I'll bring pictures. Probably.

A very geeky thought-experiment

Do you remember these fellas?

The Monkey Army

Well, back when they were being given away with boxes of PG Tips, the NBM some people seemed to think that five monkeys might be too many monkeys for one small flat. Discussions ensued; discussions along the lines of how many monkeys constituted too many monkeys; discussions where a proposed ‘NO MORE MONKEYS’ rule was debated. Anyhoo, suffice to say that the monkeys stayed, but their number was not added to.

But then, the other day, I read how many free monkey friends PG Tips gave away in total: it was 2.3 million. I’ll repeat that: TWO POINT THREE MILLION. Let’s all just take a moment to imagine 2.3 million monkeys, shall we?

........ it’s a beautiful thought, I know. But actually quite difficult to visualise.

This, for example, is only about 230 monkeys:

A fraction of 2.3 million (0.01%, to be precise).

2.3 million monkeys seemed like a fabulous, wonderful concept... but the concept was just not enough for me. There were two things that I really wanted to know, and those things were:

1. What would 2.3 million monkeys actually look like, in practical terms that I could understand?
   
2. What number of monkeys would officially be ‘too many’ monkeys for our small flat?

And that, kind reader, is how I came to find myself measuring a monkey, and working out its approximate volume, and then estimating the dimensions of our flat, and working out its approximate volume. And this is what I discovered...

If I took all the unnecessary things out of my flat – like all the furniture – and then packed little monkeys floor-to-ceiling, I’d get approximately 150,000 monkeys in there.

Artist's impression of 150,000 monkeys

So, even with the whole gaff bursting at the seams with monkeyage, It'd still only accommodate just 6.5% of 2.3 million. Thus, I’d need 15 or 16 of my flat if I wanted to house all the little monkeys. And I'd also need to sell all my furniture, obviously.

Now, for those of you who don’t know how big my flat is (which I’m guessing is all of you), I thought I’d do a quick conversion into more widely accessible terms….

… and the humble double-decker bus was my volumetric object of choice. And wouldn’t you just know it? It turns out that an average one of these has roughly the same volume as my flat! So, you’d need a fleet of 15 or 16 of these babies (with their seats and stairs and things removed) to store your collection of 2.3 million monkeys.

And do you know what? Even I had to agree that that, my friends, would probably constitute ‘too many’ monkeys.

And on that bombshell, this geek is signing off for today :o)

60-second post

Can't stop long - on my way out for pancakes. And we can't be late because we're taking the batter (and because the NBM has a 'thing' about perfect punctuality... shame she's saddled with me really, as I'm not always strictly to time, despite my best intentions...)

Anyhoo, I digress. I'm really here to present a stop-gap post, with another gratuitous picture of Waldorf (sorry, Lucy - you'll get him soon, I promise!)

Here he is enjoying the dregs of his last mug of tea before I parcel him up to go to Lucy Locket. He's a little anxious about the prospect of several days in a jiffy bag without another cuppa, so Lucy, if you could get the kettle on now, that might be wise - you'll be all prepared for when he shows up, gasping for a brew.

Right, must go and take that batter to the waiting troops... Enjoy your pancakes, anyone who's having them!

And the winner is...

At 6:00pm this evening, an independent adjudicator (the NBM) picked a name out of a bowl of names, to determine where little Waldorf would be heading off to.

This picture brought to you by curl-cam

It was a fair and impartial drawing (I made her shut her eyes), and after she'd had a bit of a rummage, the hastily-scribbled name that she picked out was....

LUCY LOCKET-POCKET!

So, hooray for Lucy! Lucy, if you could email me your postal address to the_vicious_chicken@yahoo.com then I'll get Waldorf packaged up and sent out to you as soon as I can :o)

Thanks so much to everyone else who left a comment - I really appreciated all your 100th post good wishes, and I was delighted that so many of you were willing to give Waldorf a good home. I'm just sorry you couldn't all win... I suppose I'll just have to have another blog giveaway soon.

Happy end-of-weekend to all, VCxx