Crikey

Is it really that long since I wrote anything on this blog?

Must do better. I'll be back when I have some time and something interesting. It'll probably be about knitting, OK? yes - I thought you would like that.

Well. It was quite quite boring. And Ludlow lost 8 nil. I feel no need to ever repeat the experience.

Let's leave it there.

Football Crazy

I've always hated football. I grew up in a house where my mum supported Birmingham City and my brother Aston Villa so every Saturday in 'the season' (question - when is not 'the season?') they would argue about who was the best and my brother had a succession of ever more horrible sweaty nylon football shirts in claret and blue.

When I went to work in a public library, Saturday was our busiest day so the Saturday argument and the results were not welcome music when I returned from a hectic day of stamping records (it was a record library). And then of course on Saturday night and Sundays we had the ghastly matches played on the telly - it was hell to a person of my sensibilities.

So when i tell you I am going to spend the whole day at a football match tomorrow, you'll wonder why, won't you?

I know I'm wondering why.

Ludlow Town Legends v Manchester United Legends at Ludlow Football Club. To include buffet and dinner.

Why did I say yes?

I shall update you after the awful event.

Wheel 'em on

I've recently returned to using my trusty electronic steed the Dreadnaught. It's an amazing wheelchair that I bought when I could hardly walk at all and it only gets an outing every now and then cos it's been a bit unreliable. However by the simple expedient of buying some new batteries (cost of £125 each)it's got going again and on our recent visit to Centerparcs we had a fun time with me buzzing around in it while the others cycled everywhere.

Of course you feel slightly fraudulent because people see you in this giant contraption like nothing they've ever seen before and think you must be an utter basket case. Then when I jump out and walk round shops they think some miracle has taken place. But anyway I had forgotten how people stare and how over keen they are to help, one bloke almost flattening me with my own wheelchair when I get a bit stuck against a fence post. With no experience of driving the thing he cheerfully grabbed the joystick - I'd got out by this time - and of course it lurched towards me quicker than I could move out the way. But he wasn't daunted by this and had another go until Jack fortunately came back and rescued me before too much 'help' led to me losing a leg.

It does anyway mean that i can explore the countryside without pain so I took off up the dingle at the back of our house. Yes, you're quite right I WAS wearing my slippers. How chav is that?

Squid Who?

Anyway as I was saying. As the MD of a rich and successful internet company PerfectArc (or Perfect Arc as some would wrongly have it) I thought it was about time I mentioned that fact on this blog. We've gone a bit 2.0 for those of you who give a **** about stuff like that. Andy discovered Squidoo - http://www.squidoo.com - okay a few other people had discovered it before him. So we went a bit mad and signed up lots of useful looking URLS like http://www.squidoo.com/annawilde which means I have two blogs to keep up with now.

I don't know about you but I have this thing wrong with my head. I buy and read a business book, say, or a self help book. I read it avidly. I think 'there's some great tips in there'. I even make notes. And yes you guessed it, 5 minutes later I can't remember a single thing about it. Why is that? I guess my memory is like my last post about the cupboard clutter - full of stuff like birthdays and shopping list and must-pay-the-bills and so the new information falls out of my ears somehow. Maybe I should keep lists on Squidoo of books I've read and the three top things I learnt from them.

OK I'm bored now. Going to eat some cake.

Weird things in cupboards

Huge excitement as I have finally bought a breadmaking machine. It's got all kinds of extras like a timer and everything, and a drawer for adding nuts and raisins so that it automatically opens and throws the stuff into the dough at just the right moment. Actually it's really sad to use the terms huge excitement and breadmaker in the same sentence but there you are, that's getting old for you.

Anyway the shiny machine provoked a trip into Sainsbury's to stock up on bread flour and yeast and stuff, which we did with gusto. Walnuts and dates, seeds and special bread mixes, we hauled a load home. Which meant that today I had to climb up to sort out the contents of the cupboard and Make Room for the new stuff.

Now the top cupboard is a bit of a forgotten land as climbing on chairs is a bit forbidden to me what with a bad leg and osteoporosis and all. But I do occasionally foray into the cupboard realm and what strange things I find there:

- boxes of cup -o' -soup . The thing with cup o soup is - why? It's vile and there's no need for it, chemicals in a cup. All of ours was very out of date so i threw it away, just like that.
- food colouring. Just as in my mum's store cupboard, so in mine. Lots of it. Legacy from children's birthday cakes I reckon.
- bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and cream of tartar. I've never been too sure what these unholy trio does for you, and they were 4 years out of date with approx 0.5 teaspoons removed from each pack. Reader, I threw them away.
- empty, completely empty boxes. I blame Poppy for this one.
- rank old remains of oats, dried fruit, skanky sachets of sugar etc - it's like there's a world crisis and we've hung onto these as a protection against the emergency. Except there isn't one.

When I was about 6 my mum bought me a cake with a sugar Humpty Dumpty on it. I kept the HD in a tin for years in the pantry - years and years - I used to take it out and look at it every now and then, and then put it back. It had special significance as Firkin's the bakers had a whole window of cakes that I used to look at every Friday when I went shopping, with a kind of acquisitive envy. My mum used to make us lovely cakes but of course the shop bought ones were always better in my eyes, so she eventually bought one from Firkin's for me. I did have years of pleasure from the HD though of course I never even nibbled on him. So he stayed in the cupboard and then probably got thrown away in a mad purge one day.

Anyway i could go on but you get the picture. And i couldn't reach into the furthest corner so there's probably some other unmentionable horrors lurking therein. My point is really that I expect everyone has a similar list of nasty things in their cupboards and why do we keep them? some sort of native hoarding gene in case we fall on hard times?

Next week - watching paint dry.

BOTROS

I went with a friend to a famous tea room for lunch last week - it's called Bird on the Rock. It gets rave reviews and wins awards for being as authentic as they come - with a thirties/forties style atmosphere and decor and original teas to match. They don't trouble with a website otherwise i would stick in a link.

Anyway my friend was worried cos I was late and though she had booked - apparently essential - the guy on the phone had told her they were 'very busy' and she was concerned that we would lose the table. When we got there she dropped me at the gate and went to park the car. I walked along the path which had a procession of notices, handwritten and stuck in the ground. These notices announced such things as ' At busy times we are often fully booked and you may have to wait a while' - next one 'Please queue here - we are very busy but will do our best to accommodate you' - next one - 'Please wait to be seated - although there may appear to be empty tables, many are booked in advance'.

Anyway I went in and - yes, you guessed it - it was of course nigh on empty. A few people turned up and of course it was the beginning of February and I'm sure it does get very busy in the summer, on the three days a week they are open. The lunch and the service was pleasant enough and the place itself is jolly good for a trip down memory lane (Mabel Lucie Atwell postcards took me straight back to my childhood holiday accommodation). However it did make me think how people and organisations can develop BOTROS (Bird on the Rock Occupied Syndrome) where they are sure and certain that they are too busy when actually the evidence is completely to the contrary.

Later that same day I had the bad luck to witness another example of BOTROS whilst at Hereford Hospital with my mum who had had another fall. We were warned that there was a three hour wait as they were 'very busy' but during this time I saw no evidence of anyone being other than mildly occupied, with a lot of standing around and chatting. The NHS - with whom I am a frequent flier - has got the worst attack of BOTROS ever known. They are 'heroes' and 'angels' - and yes, I've known them be all those things - but a lot of the time they are doing routine tasks in an unpressured environment. Now I know Hereford is hardly inner city complete with knifings and perhaps I'm being unfair but honestly, there were a few kids with bandaged limbs, a drunk with a head injury, mum and a few others looking a bit peaky and that was it. Huge gaggles of staff stood around nattering or mooched about with a desultory bedpan.

I've seen worse BOTROS at PerfectArc on an average Wednesday.