Trailing behind/Kreativ Blogger

Okay, I seem to be slightly behind everyone else at the moment. I mean, I've only just found out that Edie has died in Desperate Housewives (I'm playing catchup with DVDs) and when Sally mentioned she'd nominated me for a Kreativ Blogger award I didn't actually know what she was talking about. But now I find I've missed loads of interesting personal facts being divulged and even missed Jackie and Lacey nominating me too! A week away from blogland is a very long time indeed.

So, I'm getting my act together, resisting the urge to blog about the boiler exploding and my life imploding and finding my manners to say thank you very much :-)

Now for seven hopefully interesting facts about myself. Hmm, well:

1. I used to read and write arabic as a child but can't remember a thing now. I also used to speak fluent spanish and ditto. Everyone said it would come back (my parents now live in Spain) but it never has. By the time I was three years old my teddy had a BA frequent flyer's badge because we'd flown so many trips together (I was an ex-pat kid).
2. I was evacuated from Iran during the revolution, along with my sister and mum. I remember everyone being very stressed and huddling round radios to find out what was going on.
3. I managed to create a few dramas of my own by nearly dying several times as a toddler - I caught a tropical fever and had to be packed in ice, walked to the bottom end of a swimming pool and had to be resuscitated and fell off a sofa and stopped breathing.
4. I once rode a racehorse belonging to the Sultan of Oman.
5. I've been told this week I have 'Acquired Dyslexia' - it happens sometimes after a head injury but no one really knows why. Ah well, at least I know why everything's been coming out as gibberish when I type.
6. I used to work somewhere that was used as a film set and was caught hanging out of the window trying to get a glimpse of Colin Firth as he went for his lunch. I also saw most of the cast of Harry Potter and got to ogle the props (the Knight bus, a hippogriff and some of the Hogsmeade shops).
7. I've had tea at Buckingham Palace and with the Archbishop of Canterbury (Yes, really!)

Now, who to nominate? Most of my blog friends seem to have already been nominated so I'm doing a quick think about who I'd like to know interesting facts about. So I'm nominating:

• Joanne Pibworth
• Joanne Cleary (who's already been nominated but has yet to divulge so I'm adding to the pressure - dish the gossip Jo ;-)
• Sri Pammi
• Lucy King (who did a recent interview for Cataromance, I don't know if everyone saw it?)
• Judy Jarvie
• Waiting for the Call
• Rachael Johns (when she gets back from holiday!)

Reasons to be cheerful

Yesterday was 'Black Monday' the day of the year calculated to be the most depressing by well, h'experts I suppose! When chatting to my mother in law about lack of heating etc a couple of weeks ago I said "Well, things could be worse". She replied doubtfully "I fail to see how." But in the past week I've been proved right - we ended up with no cold water either and then when the thaw came had extensive power cuts and the drains overflowed and blocked. I also got a stomach bug in addition to my cold.

In the interests of not depressing the hell out of my blog readers I've been thinking of reasons to be cheerful other than "it could be worse". They are rather shallow I'm afraid but they've worked for me ;-) Oh they're also a bit UK centric I'm afraid but I figure if you're in sunnier climes you might not be in as much need of cheering up!

• Hustle is back on BBC1 with the lovely Mickey Bricks (Adrian Lester) who steals from the bad guys and is the epitome of alpha control :-)

• Season 1 of The Mentalist will be out to buy on DVD very soon. I still haven't decided if it's Patrick Jane or Simon Baker I'm in love with :-)

• Most fab news of all is that a new series of NCIS is on! I am a huge Michael Weatherly fan, but perhaps you've noticed that???

The rampage of the tea-aholics

Now hot water I can do without. Heating I can do without (just). But the one thing guaranteed to put me in a strop is being deprived of my cup of tea. Not having one to start off the day just feels all wrong and trying to write without tea in my system, well...

And tea for me requires milk.

Unfortunately by the time we got out of our snowed-in village we found panic buyers have emptied shop shelves of every single drop of milk, even the skimmed and UHT stuff I've never known anyone to like.

Combine that with tankers being unable to access dairy farms and you have total and utter chaos among the tea-aholics. I'd used some of our last precious reserves for my husband's emergency flask (as advised by every single news broadcast I've seen) as he set off in the snow to see a client. Said client spied the flask and leapt upon it (well he hadn't had a cuppa for two days so I do sympathize). Then he and the husband shared the contents closeted in the office where the other staff wouldn't see them.

Anyone who's ever worked in a British office knows if the kettle ceases to the work the workers begin to revolt. I fear if milk deliveries don't resume we will have a national crisis on our hands.

You have been warned. Expect reports of cow rustling soon...

It doesn't snow but it pours...

Some lowlights of 2010 so far:

1. Falling flat on my face in a frozen forest and giving myself a black eye.
2. Discovering this morning that the temperamental hot water supply has gone the same way as the heating and is now refusing to put in an appearance at all. Not great when the temperature is going down to minus 9 at night and unlikely to rise above zero for at least a week.
3. Open warfare, resulting in a vet's visit this week, between my two dogs who have happily shared a basket and been the best of friends for four years. Any tips on how to restore harmony gratefully received.
4. Going down with yet another stinking cold. Honestly, I didn't get colds at home in the Northern Highlands (too cold for the germs to survive perhaps?).

Some highlights of 2010 so far:

1. Being snowed in today meant I got to miss physio and actually made some progress re-writing Secret Billionaire. Nobody faint, please ;-)
2. The snow also meant I got to see Holly do a mad 5 minute roll in the snow, making very cute squeaky noises and making me laugh.