My very own URL

After much messing around, which as a techy I love. I have loaded this blog to my own url.

You can find it at www.jordylass.com. I hope to keep this one up and running, but it will be Jordylass that has my main focus.

Latitude 2008

Dave Gorman @ Latitude

I just realised that I haven’t posted anything about our recent trips.

The first one, at the end of July was Latitude, a 3 year old festival which is really coming into its own. It was referred to on more than one occasion as “the middle class festival”, and it probably was. This festival had the feel of a village fete where you were welcome to pitch up your tent.

It rained, of course, but there were never the mud baths of Glastonbury. The cider was Aston’s and nice, but not nearly as good as Brothers.

The whole feel to the festival was wonderful, very laid back and cultured. I missed the only band I wanted to see (Black Kids), Blondie was the other big contender, but she was on at the same time as Dave Gorman, so for me it was a no brainer, Dave had it. He did an entertaining set promoting his book Unchained America. It’s a chronicle of trying to get from cost to coast without giving any money to “The Man” (corporations). He had to find all gas, food, lodgings and (many) car repairs from independent, “mom and pop” businesses. I didn’t buy the book, but got it from the library when I returned, but I’ve only managed half of it, I was a bit disappointed with the prose, it’s very flat compared to Dave’s live presenting style.

The other highlights for me were the readings done by Word Theatre. Gary Dourdan read Martin Luther Kings I Have A Dream, and it gave me goose bumps and Beatie Edney, who I had never heard of previously, but had an amazing presence. I wouldn’t have thought I’d be interested in this sort of thing (readings and stuff), but both me and my 15 year old daughter were very impressed and went for all of the readings, I’d definitely look them out again.

There’s no comparison to Glastonbury, it’s like apples and oranges. This one was very convenient as we had to be in Suffolk that weekend to pick up the littlies, and I hope it falls like this for us next year as well.

Boot Sale Bargains

I go to a boot sale almost every weekend, this is something my partner and I enjoy, although we don’t often buy very much we have had some wonderful bargains. My best possession from a boot sale purchase has to be my Kenwood chef, which I got for £10 including a potato peeler and mincer.

When I was there this weekend, I turned on my newly installed sports tracker on my lovely N95 phone. It did run out of battery, but not sure yet if that’s because Sports Tracker is heavy on juice or because my phone had not been charged overnight. Even with the new software I’m lucky to get 24 hours out of the phone, and often much less with any applications running.

It did manage to plot my whole walk though and I was quite surprised to see that I walked 3 miles. It looks odd on the Sports Tracker website as you see my concertina path through a field. While I was there, I was thinking about the strange things you see at a boot sale, there often tends to be runs on things and for a while almost every seller had a glass chess set, then there were salad spinners to be seen on every other stall.

Although there is often something unusual, this week was head and shoulders above the rest. On one stall I saw a broken mannequins arm, as people went past most picked it up and examined it closer. I thought about it for some time, but apart from possibly some sort of bizarre art or paperweight, could think of no reason for wanting to own a severed arm.

As we left the field and joined the car park a man was taking a pony out of the back of a van. I’m not talking a horse box here; this was a small Bedford type van, and a very small cute looking pony. Maybe he had became agitated it the back of the van, something had obviously excited him, as I noticed after I took the photo minus the pony’s head.

My purchases this week.

Ø A couple of DVD’s to sell – Exorcist Trilogy and Blazing Saddles (both now sold)

Ø Books for my daughter – she’s currently reading anything about people who have overcome tragic young lives. A popular subject apparently, and we got her 4 books.

Ø Denby coffee pot and jug – this was a real find, everyone was packing up and this was behind a picture all they wanted was £1 for both bits. They had broken the sugar bowl and creamer on the way there. Profit from them will be sweeeeet.

OMG – I got a JOB

I’ve not been able to commit myself to much writing lately, because 3 weeks ago I GOT A JOB. I wasn’t sure I wanted a job and now I’m doing it I’m even less so. But… The people I work with are OK, and I could do the job standing on my head.

It does fill my time though and I work 30 hours when 16 would have been enough. I managed to make cake at the weekend so that we had a treat in our lunch boxes. Luckily Dave is a great help, and makes our lunch (bait) every day. Now that I work outside of the house. I have to make some effort to look presentable and I find that takes me most of the morning, besides which most of my new income is spent on clothes, (as I lived in jeans and T’s for years) and make up. What a treat it is to buy lovely make up.

I’m trying to maintain my frugal lifestyle and getting word of mouth recommendations for make up etc, and all of the clothes I have bought for work have been from ebay. I am strictly sticking to my packed lunch every day even though I can smell lovely bacon sarnies from the sandwich van which is parked right outside out building. It takes me about 7 minutes to drive to work, but a couple of days last week I got DH to drop me off in the mornings and I walked home. It is a really pleasant walk, by the map it is about 3 miles, but I can’t find sat nav (GPS) for walking and find it impossible to read a map, so I went round the houses a bit and it took me 90 minutes to get home.

I would have walked today but I went to the boot sale yesterday. The temperature was 21oC, and although I put SPF 15 on, and was only out for 2 hours, I managed to get seriously sunburnt. So today I feel all stiff and brought the car.

I have Friday off this week, ‘cos I’m going to visit my 2 youngest in their boarding school, for the weekend we get to camp and hang out with our kids, I always find it a really relaxed, chill out time and looking forward to it very much.

Life and Miracle Fruit

We got our tickets to Glastonbury festival . This has been a major event for the past 4 years. This year I didn’t want to go. We got the tickets just in case but it was really miserable last year, and I have cancelled mine. Dave is going to go with Chris. Although should it look like it may not rain I may well be trying to get tickets last minute. Apart from last year there being pretty miserable. It does not work out at a good time for us this year. Visiting the children is 2 weeks before; normally we’d visit with them for the weekend then drive on down to Somerset on the Monday, spending a couple of days camping and get into the festival on the Wednesday. This year we have to visit with them for a weekend, come home and spend the next weekend here then drive back down to Suffolk to pick them up and then on over to Somerset. Apart from which Katie who has just finished her mocks has a proper exam when we would be away.
So I’m looking forward to a girly week just her and I and lots of Ben and Jerry’s. Yes I am very fat already and really should not even think about Ben and Jerry’s let alone eat it. I am absolved though because of 2 things.

1. I have bought Wii Fit – and yes I have done it, quite a few times actually….

2. I have bought some Magic Berries – now this little miracle fruit as it is known, is going to save me from myself.

I had great hopes for these little berries. I could see how it would mean I wouldn’t have to add sugar to anything and I would ‘get thin’, but it gets washed away with hot food, so my coffee still has to have a little sugar, and when I suggested we all chewed a bit of this so we could eat rhubarb crumble without sugar, the rest of my family looked at me in disbelief. Just because I want to put all my faith in a magic little berry does not mean they will follow me. I know this from previous run-ins with my previous occasional obsessions of ‘truly wonderful ideas that will work’. These wonderful ideas are not limited to dieting. When I hit on a good idea it overtakes me and for weeks I can think of nothing else. At the moment my magic berries are hitting the spot, but running concurrently but a little under the surface at the moment is a love and demand for all things kenwood chefy. I know I need a chef. It would look so great in my kitchen. It would do all of those mundane tasks I hate and everyone on the MSE old style board has one, loves it, and uses it daily. I am mostly old style. I cook a lot, I eat even more I know I would benefit from a kenwood chef. I got an old one from a kind freecycler and it is stood in pride of place in my kitchen, unfortunately it does not work so well. The attachments work, the liquidiser, mincer, and slow speed chopper (don’t those words make you drool in anticipation), but the actual turny thing, the bit that would make perfect cakes and bread dough, that does not work. It will not turn. Dave took it apart straight away of course, he’s an ‘engineer’ but alas he thinks the gears are broken. This leaves me in somewhat of a conundrum. I have to search ebay twice a day for the answer. Do I buy the gears and fix the old machine. Look for another old one, or horror of horrors Dave thinks I should buy a new one. He obviously has no idea on the amount of research that went into this kitchen necessity and those in the know. (The regulars on the kenwood chef thread on MSE), their collective wisdom is that old is better than new. So while I dream about A701/A901, I know that he too is caught up in his own little obsession. As a family of geeks what more perfect present for my love than an Ipod Touch. It was his birthday a few days ago, and I believe he has had that touch in his hand more than his (err other favourite thing) since then. Not only has he filled it with stuff and moved stuff around and completely frustrated himself in his attempts to get his email on it. I’m sure he is stroking it when I’m not looking. On a positive note it seems to be the best birthday present he ever got, which makes me a perfect wife for this week anyway…

Goal Setting

Goal setting, I decided on this topic because my wonderful son asked me what had I wanted to do when I was a child. I remember vividly that I wanted to be American. I expect I was swayed by the wonderful lives I saw that American kids had via our TV. Huge, plush bedrooms with walk-in closets, school with no uniform you could chew gum and play baseball. It was a magical place, and it wasn’t that I was growing up in poverty or destitution or in a developing country. I lived in the UK.

Now of course I see that it was idealistic but when my son asked me and after thinking for a while I responded. “As a kid I wanted to be American”, it is probably no wonder that the states feels like my spiritual home. I’ve been lucky enough to spend extended visits in Florida, and I never want to come home. When I do get back to the UK I yearn to be back in the states. When I visit, my homecoming starts when I step off the plane, that first interaction with the burly security guards, who call me “ma’am” how nice is that, how polite it sounds. Obviously I didn’t know what to expect on my first visit, but it surpassed my imagination. The vastness of it, no wonder there are walk in closets there is so much room everywhere. This is particularly noticeable on the roads, they are so big, the difference was highlighted on the movie “The Holiday” although not all of our roads are as tight as the one Cameron Diaz was filmed in, they are not unusual either. I love to drive in America. I drive an automatic at home, so I’m comfortable with that, but the idea that I could get on a road and drive for 10 hours and not see the sea, that I could drive for 20 hours and still be in the same country, that is spectacular to me.

My ambition as I got older (and still) is to do a road trip in the states, to spend 6 months driving around and meeting people in the different states, finding out about their lives. When this dream first started it was going to be motel to motel, then I thought I’d rent a motor home, but now I know I’d do it by couchsurfing and visit with people on my way, because for me, it’s much more about the people than the place.

Family Easter

We got a new Fridge/Freezer. It’s very nice all brushed stainless and really fits in with the kitchen. Something I said has obviously pricked Dave, because since then he has connected the oven properly, even going to buy the right screws to fit the socket to the wall, he would usually leave that hanging and changed a cupboard that we bought back in September to one that is the right size. Now he has started to nag me about the things I have hoarded and getting rid of them. I did list most of it on ebay last week and have sold some. The rest has gone on to freecycle and will hopefully be collected today or tomorrow.

I have to get it shifted as it is taking up space in Charlotte’s bedroom, and she is back from school this weekend. I am really looking forward to having her home, and planning my shopping with her favourite foods in mind. I bought a lovely leg of lamb yesterday and had my first organic delivery today, so that is going to make a wonderful Easter dinner, which we’ll have on Monday, as we’re traveling all of the weekend.

You’ll know from my posts that I love to read Zen Habits, and today I’m trying to keep in mind, that Dave is already perfect in every way. I am so not bothered about his doing DIY usually, and don’t mind the unfinished things, but with my daughter bringing a friend home and her parents are coming to pick her up, I really want the place to look nice. I have to remember we are nice people, we are welcoming her to our home which is clean, tidy and warm, we have good food and nice family times, and it really does not matter that our floor is a messy mix of carpet and tiles, most of which are split.

Dinner

Usually, I can just get on with dinner. I enjoy making the food for the family, and this week has been the easiest for a long time. For the last few months in accordance with my frugal ways I’ve made a monthly meal plan, and for the most part that has worked out. I work much better with lists and my life feels ordered if I know what we are having for dinner tonight and tomorrow night and next Thursday night. With the exception of a few items very little has been repeated over the last 2 months. We have similar themes: curry, fish, pasta, rice and something and soup night. This week has been better than others I have planned, and I can only assume that is because I haven’t stuck to the plan at all. I feel safe with the list, and always know I can cook what’s on it, but feel much more relaxed making what comes to hand. So for instance tonight was supposed to be sausage plait. Well, I bought sausage meat from my butcher last week and made some sausage rolls for packed lunches, and although they were nice I was fed up of sausage and didn’t buy any at the butchers this week. What I did get was 2lbs of beef mince.

That was on Monday. and everyday I’ve thought, we’ll have that mince tonight. I have been going to make burgers with it all week, but last night decided instead we’d have a mince curry made with it. Dave took me out to the post office when he got in from work. I had a quick skate around the supermarket for eggs, and saw some reduced organic turkey. So we had turkey curry instead.

Tonight we are going to have the burgers, I’ve bought buns, and we have to because the mince won’t last any longer. Normally I’d have had the burgers made and in the fridge ready to be cooked when everyone is home this evening. But, I’m putting it off, I know I am procrastinating on it, but not sure why. There is no way I will waste the meat, so it is going to be cooked, and I just have to get on with it. Zen Habits is great for help with procrastination, and reading from there I’ve learnt that it’s no good trying to rationalise or convince. I just have to do it, not think about just get on with it.

Therefore, I just have to finish this blog, um, better check my email, and er, sure there’s a program I want to catch up on, but then absolutely nothing will stop me making those yummy burgers.

Stale Muffin

Hard topped muffin for breakfast.

Not for everyone of course, Kate has fruit, Chris cereal, and Dave crumpets. I could have had any of those, but there was one stale shop bought muffin left, and even though it was made with eggs which aren’t free range, (bought by Dave of course) wasting food seems like a bigger crime. It sat on the end of the bench where things are relegated before the bin, and I had my eye on it as I went to and fro through the kitchen. First time was for my wake up coffee, and at that time I wouldn’t have cared if it had been put in the bin. Next was when I made the lunches, and even considered throwing it into Katie’s pack up, she wouldn’t mind, she’d be pleased to have something shop bought and full of sugar, but my parenting guilt kicked in and she had a pear instead. My final and fatal trip was for my 2nd (and last) coffee, which I can sit quietly in front of the PC with, as they’ve headed out to school and work. While making this regular morning treat, I am cleaning away the results of the packed lunches and wiping down the benches. Last chance for the muffin, if it wasn’t eaten then it would go into the bin.

Of course before my blogging, eating that muffin would not have had this level of scrutiny, but it’s crumpled, tired wrapper is next to me as I type, and has me wondering why I ate it. Waste of course is one of the options, but the possibly, more realistic reasons, are greed and laziness.

I have always been greedy, only the last year or so, since turning 40 does it seem to be abating. I always had a passion and hunger for life itself, but that too seems to be abating.

How to start a non pretentious blog!

I’ve tried to start writing a blog and even have a few entries in cyberspace, but never managed to keep it up. Apparently this is a problem for many blog writers.

This time, it’s going to work. I feel positive about it.

Until recently I wasn’t into the whole blog thing. I never read them and my writing of them, well, that’s already been explained. Then a frugal forum I regularly read had a link to ‘The Years Are Short‘ it is a wonderful one minute movie about how quickly our children grow, and from there was a link to the movie producers blog, The Happiness Project. This truly inspired me, not to blog at first, but to read blogs. I loved the concept behind The Happiness Project. This was something myself and my daughter had discussed on a few occasions, could we ‘choose’ to be happy. Gretchen has gone through this subject with a fine tooth comb, and what she does not know about how to be happy, really is not worth knowing. From Gretchen’s blog, there were links to many other’s, some I read for a few days and some I’m subbing to and reading avidly. The most recent favourite is Zen Habits I’m definitely looking at ways to incorporate ideals from there. I’d already started decluttering, but it’s a slow process. The goal setting is the next thing on my agenda. Yesterday for a few minutes I sat with pen and paper and wrote the goals that came to mind. I want to spend more time on them and then share, but what surprised me was that finishing the kitchen was not one of them.