z list celebs

On a more cheerful note today I finished my Christmas job, and on the last day I worked at 'the store' I was asked if I could go and help out in the coffee shop. Before you have visions of me wearing a nice little waitressing outfit and carrying trays with a lovely smile - it was far from that.
I reported for duty in the kitchens and was given my 'outfit' in preparation for the job in hand. I was presented with a hair net and a purple cap. Those who know me well, know that I do not do hats never mind hair nets - but who was I to argue the health and safety of a big concern.
I squashed my hair into the net, stuffed on the purple cap and my glasses and skulked out into the resteraunt like a movie star trying to avoid the paparazzi. As I was in the public, clearing and cleaning the table, I hoped and prayed that I would not meet anyone I knew. If anyone came in that remotely looked familiar, I slipped into the dark recess where all the dirty dishes were stacked.
Oh the glamour and excitement of my life at the moment !! It is just so hard to beat ;0)

Christmas is over and this year and although very different from other years a really good one. I spent time with Droo and Lesley and it was a really lovely day (especially the words Mr Magoo made up ! ) only thing missing was the little one :0)

I finished my Christmas job on Saturday and it was good just to have time to myself, but I found that I had to much time to reflect on things over the last year - which was not really a good thing.

2007 is going to be a year where I centre more on my needs and those of my closest friends. I think I have had a real wake up call in the past 12 - 14 months. True friends are always there for you, and I have discovered a few who have been there to laugh with me and at me and cry with me - these friendships have been symbiotic (word gained from my little biologist).

I have tried to maintain friendships this year that were not really worth the time as they have not be reciprocal, I have given energy that I could ill afford to people who took, and gave nothing in return. I can blame nobody but myself because although I consider myself a very perceptive person, the child in me is still very strong and I maintain the trust and optomism of a child until somebody breaks it.

I could write so much, but it would only be jumbled and confused so below are some of the words that Gibran wrote on giving and on friendship.

On Giving

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;


On Friendship

And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship."
Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.
When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.
And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

topsy turvey

Yesterday must have been a doomsday for my cakes. Yesterday evening I had a friend over for dinner and had iced and decorated the coffee cake with nuts so that it looked very pretty. As my visitor was leaving the cake fell out of the tin and landed (yes that's right face down on the floor).
My only hope is, that as he went off quite happily with his cake re packed and sellotaped into the tin, that he does not get a fur ball as it landed near the cat flap - and I am sure they shed the odd one during the day (or the week, depending on when I last swept!!)
Today has been such a bitty day, I have given up even attempting to get any more work done, and decided to put my writing skills to the test again.
Christmas is only a couple of days away, and I am ready as I will ever be, with the turkey in the fridge, the brussels sprouts waiting to be served to my son who just loves to eat them :0/, the wine is chilled, the christmas pudding awaits consumption and all I need to do is find some guests !!!!
Tomorrow is Fee's annual Christmas cocktail party, so on with the finery and lots of nibbles and drinks to get us in the festive mood. If I continue to nibble and eat the way I have, I will make excellent crackling when exposed to high temperatures :0)
Last day on Saturday at my 'its not just a Christmas job, its a **********job', so that will leave me more time to hopefully get out in the 'fresh' air (sans wind and fog) and time to prepare for a new years eve party with a difference (still beed a bit of inspiration there)
Hei Ho nearly time to get the express

Birthdays and chocolate upside down cakes

It has been many moons since my last post, only because I have been busy in my day job and enjoying the spoils of the its not just ********** role - I think I may have become more voluptous all the delicious things on offer across lunch time.
My stint comes to an end on Saturday,and although I feel quite tired, I have had loads of fun and met some really really interesting people. The tiredness will wear off, and hopefully my freezer is well stacked with lots of lovely things that will feed me for at lease the next few months.
Last night I baked and iced a couple of cakes, and spent ages making sure that the choc cake for the office one was perfect, as it was for someone's special birthday. Carefully I carried it to catch the bus (still doing my bit for the planet and travelling on the express over the mountain) Carefully I carried it into the office and even more carefully placed it upon the desk. About 10 o'clock Norm got a bit enthusiastic and decided to dive in before the presentation and cake cutting ceremony, so my dear colleague Bev managed to intervene and put itwhere she thought it would be safe from overenthusiastic employees, under her watchful eye and on her desk.
We were all working and carrying on with the job at hand when there was a shreak from Bev, who had upended the cake - so there was my carefully iced choc cake now an upside down cake. It was just like the whole bread and butter scenario where bread always lands on the butter side up - and then it sticks like glue and you really have to leaver it off. As the birthday boy was not aware he had cake, it was somewhat like a British farce, with Bev and I as discreetly as possible levering the cake off the desk with a big egg slice, using a butter knife to stick the icing back on again and pretty it up, and praying that there were no loose staples or paperclips on the desk that would eventually make their appearance :0)