I'm at Home, but not. It's all very strange.
Some observations and randomness:
Good friends make the passing of three years feel like three minutes.
Hearing automated announcements in Scottish accents freaks me out.
Seeing a poster for this in Glasgow Central station on the way home on Thursday night made me giggle like a loon, and got me funny looks when I took my camera out to take a photo of said poster.
Speaking of phones: Old and busted - New Hotness
Expect cute cat photos and movies, or at least, the cloest I can get to cuteness from the least camera posey cat I've ever known. He *so* hates having his picture taken.
I survived the seminar giving without making an utter arse of myself in front of either the clients, or my boss, who I was doing the seminar with. This is undoubtedly a good thing.
I've managed to only cry once (so far) since coming home, but it still makes my throat tighten to see my dad's coat still hanging on the peg in the hall.
When laying my clean, cat-hair free, black clothes out in the morning before going to seminar deux, I will, of course, lay them on the bit of the bed that the cat rolled around on the night before, and they will instantly become magnetic to every cat hair in a 5 mile radius.
Being up, dressed and out of the house in bright sunshine at 8.30 on a saturday morning on a bank holiday weekend is so. very. wrong.
Going back to bed at 2pm for 3 hours makes things slightly better, but it's still all wrong.
There's no chinese food in the world like the stuff from the restaurant nearest the house you grew up in.
The local pub has a stunningly beautiful art nouveau fireplace stuffed away in a corner of the bar, where nobody but beered up blokes go to play pool. This is very wrong, and I want to go set it free, so I can put it in my bedroom.
No matter how much I miss my mum, and my friends who live up here, London is most definitely now my love, my life, my work and my home.
I'm running around like the proverbial poulet sans tête, and this is why:
Today: Going out for lunch, plus meeting in the afternoon
Tomorrow: All day seminar (giving, not receiving)
Thursday afternoon: Fly to Scotland
Thursday evening (if I get my act together): drinks with friends
Thursday later evening: travel back to my mum's house
Friday: All day seminar (giving, not receiving) (in my home town!)
Saturday: Spend the day with my mum
Sunday afternoon: Fly back to London
... and somehow, I'm going to try and reboot this design around all that lot.
I haven't got a hope in hell.
Oh, and thanks for the feedback. I take the hint: inline linklog bad. Will re-think.
In other news:
This is driving me mental.
The as yet unnamed chilli is doing fine in it's new home.
I need to remember to see if I can still arrange to vote near my old address, which is a shame, because my current MP has been really good in responding to my letter and I can't vote for her.
Actually, voting is going to be very strange for me, because I still want to vote for the SNP.
Yes, I've always voted SNP. Yes, I live in London. Yes, I know.
I think it's going to rain. Wish I'd brought a jacket to work with me.
So, having taken 15 months to get this design up and running, I'm going to change it all as part of the CSS reboot on the 1st of May.
Well, not change it all.
Enhance. Add to. Improve upon. Modify. Tweak.
Given that a lot of this work is for you lot, my lovely readers, I thought I'd open up the opportunity for you to stick your oar in.
I want to know what you like about the design, and what you dislike, what you'd like to see more of (and less of). What I could do better.
I can't promise I'll do everything, but I can promise that I'll consider them all, and try and make them work.
The things I have in mind to add are (in no particular order):
- Linklog (probably included inline a la Kottke or Plasticbag)
- Live comment preview (a la Malarkey, Andy Budd, etc.)
- Style switching to increase the width of the page for larger screens, if I can't make the site properly liquid (and possibly, style switching for those who don't ever want to see the photos, or want to read on a mobile)
- visual tweaks (e.g., alternating background colours for comments, adding gravatar support, potentially using some kind of image replacement to give more of a styled look and feel, adding other little decorative touches)
- getting over my aversion to full RSS feeds, and providing full feeds (at least for words, not sure about pictures) for those who prefer to read that way
If you think I'd be wasting my time doing any of the above, let me know. Equally, if you wish I'd do something that I haven't already, and haven't mentioned, then speak up.
So, have at it.
Let fly the slings and arrows of outrageous feedback.
Holy cow.
Where did the weekend go?
I'd swear that only a minute ago it was Friday and there were two whole days stretched out before me. Offering themselves to me. Mine, to do with as I wished.
I think I broke them.
They're almost spent and I'm left watching dolphins swim around in my pink tequila, in a glass that I'm sure used to be a jar of Nutella.
I've been thinking a lot lately.
Too much, probably.
Long-repressed neuroses rising to the surface like farts in bathwater, but far more poisonous.
I need some Oust for my brain.
Never mind.
The window is open, that'll have to do for now.
Tomorrow is another day, and my dolphins are almost gone.
... where a young dog's fancy turns to thoughts of vigorous humping, and a young lady dog's owner makes it the laughing stock of the street by forcing it to wear a chastity belt.
I kid you not.
I saw it with my own eyes just this very morning.
There is no easy way to say this.
I've never done this kind of thing before.
Come to think about it, I'm not even sure that this kind of thing ever actually works.
A colleague of mine has just come back from a life-changing round the world trip that she spent a lot of time planning and making sacrifices for (including postponing it for a year to be a bone marrow donor), and when she came back, she discovered she'd sacrificed more than she intended. Which sucks, big time.
So when she sent round a mail yesterday afternoon looking for help to get a free ipod, I rolled my eyes a bit, muttered to myself that it'd never work, and then when I thought about it a bit more, I signed up, because, well, it won't solve her problems, but it might cheer her up, and that'd be a good thing.
Here's the thing though.
I really want an ipod.
Really, really.
So in the spirit of the game, and partly, as a bit of an experiment, I'd really, really appreciate it if you would help me get a free ipod too.
I have no really good reason, other than I'd really like one and I don't have one already.
I have no real justification, although I tell myself that if I get an ipod photo, then I can get the camera connector and I wouldn't have to get a laptop or handfuls of CompactFlash cards to keep me in photos in the unlikely event that I ever go on holiday.
I don't even really have a sob story.
I'd just really like one.
So if you're feeling generous, please, help me get a free ipod.
Thank you.
P.S. Auntie Beeb says it's ok.
I will freely admit that I am rarely, if ever, the epitome of style and elegance, even when I'm making an effort.
That said, to the lady who got off the tube in front of me this morning, who was wearing:
- leopard print strappy sandals with a 3" heel;
- red fishnets;
- a royal blue irridescent evening skirt with an asymetric hem and random gathers;
- a black t-shirt type top;
- a leopard print teddy bear fur jacket;
- huge hoop earrings;
- a bright green hair glasp with lace and a bow.
I have to ask...
Did you get dressed
a) in the dark?
b) in a hurry?
c) by diving head first into your wardrobe and seeing what stuck?
d) all of the above?
Because wow. I wish I had your courage. I really do.
The first day this year I think to myself "It's a lovely day, I don't need to take a jacket to work with me..." and what happens?
A thunderstorm.
A HUGE thunderstorm.
With hailstones.
Oh spoons.
... if I told you that Tony Blair waved at me this afternoon?
No?
Neither would I, if I were you.
Only he did.
It must be an election year.
... the online home and (not very) alter(ed)-ego of Ann McMeekin, a recently freelance Web Accessibility Consultant.
... passionate about many things, most of which will turn up on this site at some time or other.
... contactable via email.
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