Tuesday 31 August 2010

I love James May

Lots more to follow on this but my family are here now and I have to go.  

I'm  back to tell you the whole story about this James May guy. He's actually got a twitter account in the name of @fiatpanda in which he denies he's James May, he says he's Mames Jay, well, seems a funny thing to me to have a twitter account not in the name of James May but then have 'I'm not James May, I'm Mames Jay' all over the background of your page, and a blog stating the same thing. Why would people think he was James May in the first place if he hadn't written that?

I guess I could try and go back to his first tweet, if they're kept that long, but so far I haven't tried.  I've gone back a little way to see if there's any clues I can jump on and retweet back to him, saying 'yeah baby, look, you must be James May, look here what you said!  Sadly so far I can't find any clues.

He's got 10 thousand followers and you don't get that many unless you are indeed someone, but then another twitterer told me they follow a 'celeb' who has the same amount and they also are fake.  That kind of baffled me, why would people follow a fake unless the fake was interesting enough in their own right to follow even if not a celebrity.

This will be the case with James May I think, if he really does turn out not to be James May, then I will continue to follow him as he's a funny guy and a great writer, from the few blog posts I've read and his very witty tweets.  He must be a professional writer at the very least, but for now I'm content he is, in fact, James May!

I've followed him for a long while and I'm what calls a 'denier', which basically means I'm a bit stupid and gullible, but I can't help it, no, I can't.  I've read his blog and I see some people have left comments agreeing that he's not James May.  I, though, will still live the dream.

Anyway, yesterday we had a long twitter conversation about pooing in space, mothers, and the fact he wasn't James May, and the upshot was I asked him to follow me, he said not if I kept banging on about washing machines, which made me laugh, to think of the great man reading about my mundane rubbish.

I promised to desist on washing machine talk and lo and behold he gave me a 48 hour trial period and then followed me!!!

I was so excited and have page printed the fact and offer it here as proof.  In fact, when I had a message to my email stating that Mames Jay was following me it also said Stephen Fry was following me!  I rushed back to twitter, scanned through my followers and it was indeed so.  I don't know how I missed this but it was back in the day when the blog was about higher education, so thank you Stephen for following me, and his is a verified account.  He does follow a lot of people though but this has my celeb count of followers up to a mighty 3!!

And here is the proof, Mames Jay/James May nestled between two strange random followers!


PS.  At least we now know who the Stig is for sure.

Edited to add I have looked round the @BBC_TopGear page on twitter and they do indeed out him as not being James May but with all the stuff surrounding the Stig, I guess I'm not paying too much mind to that.

Lazy cook

I have to admit I'm a very lazy cook, but these recipes and lovely coloured photo's are making me get my cooking mojo back.

Take a look at these mouthwatering vegan dishes here at The Healthy Vegans web site.  Here's one to be going on with.


There are loads of hints, tips and sage advice for eating a healthy vegan diet.  Another one I've come across is Sweet on Veg, both packed with information and links on to other great sites.

Enjoy!

Monday 30 August 2010

10 things I'm happy about in my life

1 My family are the best, two daughters, one son, two granddaughters and one grandson on the way.  They make me proud and are the best things in my life.

2 My best friend who has stuck with me through thick and thin.

3 I haven't had a drink now in over seven years.

4 I gave up smoking in the same year.

5 I studied for and achieved a degree and a couple of diploma's.  I'm proud of that as I left school at 14 with hardly any education.

6 I've pretty much stuck to my diet, losing weight slowly but surely.

7 I've done some serious decluttering and can now see the wood for the trees.

8 This is getting hard, I might cheat and change the title to 7 positive things about me ;-)

9 I positively loathe it when technology goes wrong.

10 Nearly there, mm now, what for this one?  I'm positively going to sleep now because it's late:-)

I bet others can think up many more than that, so please have a go at thinking about your own positives and maybe post them here:-)

New look

This is it!  This is the new look and this is how it will stay.  I'm not totally happy with it, but it took me hours to get it right.  I had to go into the html but to change the colour on the linked text, and html is not a happy place for me to be.

I eventually did it, and I'm not going to chance it going wrong again, so this is it.  The yellow for the text I want highlighted looks pretty anyway.

On an even more mundane front, my brand new washing machine stopped spinning, I tried everything, even looked at the manual, even though I have had washing machines for more years than I care to think about.

Eventually I had to give up and phone the help desk.  This is where it gets scarily stupid.  I was told I can't put just a few garments in at one time, for instance, if you have one of those awful garments that toss out colour like no tomorrow and you want to wash it separately, no way!!  In my new washing machine that ain't going to happen.  I was told it has to have a certain amount of washing to counter balance the spin thing.  It's the first I've heard of this, and it's the last time I buy a cheap end of the range machine.

So now I'm doomed for ever to putting in just the exact amount of washing, not too much, not too little, just right!!

I'm just off now to see if it's done the job as I added a few more oddments to the wash just to get the one thing I wanted washed and dried.

Laters!

Ho hum

I'm rethinking the layout, font and colour of this blog.  I've been fiddling away for a few days, changing bits and pieces but I think it needs to be completely redone from scatch.

The colours aren't all changing the same, some stay red, some go puce, and some stay the same.  It's very annoying but I need to get it right before too many posts are here and it gets too much of a big job.

Right, get to it.  Hope the results are pleasing.

Sunday 29 August 2010

Nice words






Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.


Written by David Wagoner 



Desiderata

Desiderata


— written by Max Ehrmann in the 1920s —


Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.


As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.


If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.


Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.


Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.


Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.


Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.


With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.


Thank you to my daughter for this one.

What a nice start to the day!

After a pretty abysmal day yesterday, I have to say today has started much better.


Well, apart from one selfish person who spoiled my nights slumbers, but put that to one side for now.


I have my first celebrity follower:-) Yes Sir, I have!! The famed stand up comic Mike Gunn no less, him who dallies with the likes of Deborah Meaden, amongst I guess, many others. We have a couple of things in common I see, pessimism being one of them, and I love a dry sense of humour. I guess the commanalities end there as he's young and famous and I'm not!


Here is proof on my growing wall of fame. Thank you Sir, you sit well here.




Settles him in the comfy seat so he can watch the wall grow.

click pic to see in big!

Find below the beginning of the awesomeness of being followed by Mike Gunn, from a slow start, building to the crashing crescendo of excitement.

I won't tell you how it really started because it puts me in a bad light lol, so we will go from when I apologised for the thing that put me in a bad light.





And then tra la tra la  .. drum beats  .. loud applause please ..


There you see!!  I told it was worth waiting for.  A particularly in depth and telling discussion between myself and Mr Mike Gunn.


I've included @Victoly as she is a star to me:-) xxx

Saturday 28 August 2010

Funny old day

Yes it has been just that.


As this is my positive blog, I've waited till I actually felt a bit more positive to write here. I have up and down days, don't we all? But my down days cause me to plunge into an abyss of anxiety, ok, a bit strong, but you get my drift.


Recently I've been feeling better overall. I suffer, and have suffered over the years, with anxiety problems, and today I felt very anxious since waking from a not very good nights sleep. I kept telling myself it was only nerves and only in my head, over and over, being positive. I kept repeating, I am a positive person, I am a positive person, and just after tea time it seemed to kick in as I have felt more calm the last few hours.


So to end the day on a positive note I did get through it, and without reaching for any medication. Yay for me!


Here's to better days to come. Yes there will be better days, how dare I even contemplate anything else!

Friday 27 August 2010

Howdy world

Well, off we go.  I'm starting another new blog, to join the others I always mean to keep up but don't.

I've decided this will be a different one, full of optimism and silliness, to make my mind change from being negative and pessimistic,  to make my mind and body DANCE as my good friend Mudd Lavoie would say:-)

Here's my first little bit of silliness.

I've saved all the lovely celeb replies I've had on twitter and I'll post them here for your gratification.  I was so thrilled to get a reply from Richard Madeley who not only replied but retweeted as well!!  The next day I was honoured to have a reply from James May and then. Duncan Bannatyne  My cup runneth over with celebs:-)

Oh you see the picture above here, that's my open road and that's where I want to be, oh yeah!!

I digress, here are the twitter pics I promised.  Ohhh the excitement!!

Starting off with .. drum roll please .. ta da  .. I give you Richard Madeley.


Next my first one, yes first one, from James May! I've had two replies from this kind sir.


and the next one


and his reply


                               
and last but by no means least is the Dragon himself Duncan Banatyne telling me most emphatically that Theo is not on twitter.



Haha, well there we go, my first post on my brand new blog.  How excited I was to get my first celeb reply in over a year on twitter:-)


Oh if you click the pics, you will see them in big, so you don't have to squint and you get full on pleasure of my famous friends. 

More silliness to come!