A long overdue post...

It has been a wee while, hasn't it!  Not sure what happened, to be honest, I just got out of the way of doing my blog posts, even though there were things I really wanted to write about!  Anyway, I'm back again now, so it's all going to be OK...

First things first, thanks to all of you who contributed knitting to the Sit And Knit A Bit event - when I took in all our collective pieces we had about 20 squares between us, which is quite an achievement!  There were sacks and sacks of knitting in the Tramway when I went so I don't envy the people who're stitching it all together!  I am very much looking forward to seeing it all put together, and I propose a wee trip to the Tramway hidden gardens where it'll be on display.  Even if you didn't do any knitting you're more than welcome to come along and check it out, and I'm sure we can squeeze in some tea or coffee while we're there!  Here are some of knitted squares before I handed them in:

In other news, as I'm sure many of you are aware, I got my hair cut and went for a chunk fringe.  I must admit, at first I was a bit unsure if I liked it but I've totally warmed to it and now I'm really pleased with how it turned out, even though it does take substantially more effort than I'm used to.  I've also discovered that it's hard to get away with not washing your hair because the fringe will always give you away.  I did come up with a solution last night though, which was to stick on an elasticated hair band and let that hold the fringe in place. Genius.

Yesterday was International Women's Day (such a big event I think it deserves it own post), and in the evening I went along to an introductory talk about The Key To Wealth Health And Happiness.  Now, I'm not a big self-help fan, but I really connected with this idea, which is to use positive energy to influence your life, which will in turn attract positive things to you - the Law of Attraction, it's called.  Anyway, the full course is £165 so not sure I can afford that but even the wee talk last night was very interesting, so I'm glad I went along. 

Afterwards, I went to Yo! Sushi with Keira for some Japo-tastic delights.  We had many cups of Miso soup (free refills, innit), firecracker rice, duck gyoza (by go-to sushi dish, I can't get enough) and some Californian rolls.  Awesome; love it.  The staff are always very friendly in there too, perfect place to go for a delicious, nutritious, chilled-out dinner.  Even though Hot Sushi Man is no longer there.

Now I'd better go, because I've to go up to work for an hour of 'staff training' - I'm sure you can all guess how much I'm looking forward to that.  Is this kind of thing worth it for a 6-hours-a-week job?  I'm starting to think not.  Especially seeing as the money I make gets taken off my job-seekers allowance so I'm not actually gaining any money.  On the other hand, I've still to get paid for a shift I did a couple of days ago so I suppose going up for that alone will be worth it. Snore.

More later peeps!

I Am Not A Morning Person

I woke up the morning about 9am, switched on my phone and had, wait for it, nine missed calls from my boss, plus a text asking me to work today at the last minute.  Just as well that I usually switch my phone off when I go to bed because, as anyone who's ever seen me first thing will know, I am not a morning person!!  Also, he rang Ross in my work at 5am to ask for my number, I would have been less than impressed with a call at that time, and would have probably said I couldn't work out of sheer grumpiness!

Let that be a lesson to you all:  any calls before, say, 10 am and/or two cups of coffee will not be kindly met, assuming I even answer.  Text messages all the way, please.

Anyway, I did end up working and it was quite busy, so it passed fast.  I might be doing a volunteering project with the YWCA and then meeting Hannah to get her knitted squares off her.  I've also some stuff to do for the Glasgow Feminist Network: I volunteered to write up the minutes of the last meeting so I'll get cracking on that.

The meeting went well, we got quite a lot organised, including a day in the Glasgow Women's Library to celebrate International Women's Day (8th March) plus a vigil in George Square to protest and draw attention to the latest (in a long line) rapes that have recently taken place.  Hopefully we'll get a good turn out and we might have guest speakers from Rape Crisis Scotland.  Hopefully get a bit of press coverage, too.

All this stuff has relit my feminist fire and I'm (again) looking into postgrad degrees in Women's Studies.  There are actually about 8 unis in the UK which offer this course, so I just need to get all the details of each one and decide which looks best.  And make sure it's not in a crap place, too!  I'd love to do it in London, but who the hell can afford to be a student in London?  You'd have to work full-time as well just to be able to afford to live!  Anyone got any uni recommendations?

My neck is killing me from steaming a pile of clothes today, I think I need to work on my technique!  I'm off for a cuppa.

My wonderful friend KH

...just got a new job, so hearty congrats going her way.  Sounds like a much better job plus a humongous (how do you spell that?  Is it possible to mis-spell a word that doesn't actually exist?) pay-rise and more holidays.  KH always provides a couch for me to crash on when I go to London, and she also does a great line in tanking bottles of red wine and then marching (drunkenly) out without paying for them.  What more can you ask for in a best friend, than someone who also loses to track of what you've paid for already and what you haven't?

Anyway, I'm very chuffed for her, and whenever I hear success stories like this I start thinking again about post-grads, masters, second degrees etc etc etc.  Can't say the current climate really does much fr the confidence but even so.  Case in point is Glasgow Uni who are currently in the process of savagely obliterating their language departments in order to spend millions on new computer systems and encourage higher-fee-paying oversees students to do business courses.  On the cut list are:  Russian, Polish, Czech, Portuguese and Catalan.  These are all the kind of more unusual languages which are taught in very few unis across the UK so they actually attract students, and cutting them makes no sense at all.  It's all just going down the tubes.

Day off tomorrow, and I'm meeting my Auntie C for a coffee and then I think I'll go to the west end and buy the dress from the shop (not hanging about though!) and then see if I can get an appointment to get my hair cut.  I think I'm going to leave the length but get a chunky fringe cut in.  I had one a couple of years ago in Valencia and I saw a pic of myself recently and remembered that I quite liked it!

I have a voucher to get £10 off a haircut, plus another fiver if you book online, so it'll come out at about £18, which is pretty good.

Oh, for anyone who's interested, Waterstone's have a deal on modern day Penguin Classics at the moment.  Books of short stories are £3 each and 3 for the price of 2.  They had Virginia Woolf, Camus, Kipling, Hans Fallada, and loads more so worth popping in if you're looking for something to read! 

I also got an amazing voucher deal for the Body Shop last night - buying the £12 voucher gets you £30 to spend in store.  Think I'll stock up on some moisturisers and things that are normally too pricey for me!  The wondrous Beauty blogger RJ hooked me up with this one.  I'd highly recommend her blog for all sorts of barginous make-up stuffs!

Oh yeah, I also have to make some cake and biscuits for the Glasgow Feminist Network meeting on Saturday.  There's an awesome blogger called The Caked Crusader, and it was her Bakewell tart recipe that I found, and it's always a big hit, so I think I'll make that again and maybe one other cake, I'll have a look on her  page and see what else she can recommend that looks easy and doesn't need any weird ingredients!

Aahhh, cake.  There's something very satisfying about baking.  When it goes well.  When it looks like it's going wrong it's quite stressful, but I've loads of time to do it tomorrow so I'm sure they'll turn out fine and tasty!

Day Off. Typical.

After hardly sleeping last night (bloody insomnia), I got up nice and early this morning to get some stuff done before work.  Then I got all ready and was literally on my way out the door, hat on, coat laid out... when the boss called and said I didn't need to go in because it was really quiet.  Very peeving, especially as I've just realised that a dress we have in there would be perfect for my cousin's wedding in June.  It would go very well with my nude stilettos and my pink feather bag that I got for the Wards' wedding a couple of months ago.  Here's the dress:

I think it might be slightly too long but my heels are pretty big and it's one of those dresses with an elasticated waistband that you can pull up and drape the top over, so hopefully the length wouldn't be too much of a problem.

Anyway, I might see it tomorrow instead and if it fits and I like it on I think I'll just buy it.

Don't know really know what to do with myself now tbh.  My granny's just come in so I'd better go for now.  Hope you all have a more productive day than me!