to here -
www.outofthefieldmabel.wordpress.com
It will be a work in progress for awhile......
Sunday, 31 December 2017
Moving.....
Posted by grapecat at 17:20 0 comments
Friday, 29 December 2017
Thursday, 28 December 2017
Ooofph
I've just hauled myself out of the most luxurious lavender bath (courtesy of Neal's sister's Christmas parcel which arrived today and was full of amazing goodies and thoughtful gifts). The clock says it is 630pm on Thursday but to be honest, at this point I'm just taking their word for it. It's the liminal hazy free-for-all days between Christmas and New Years and I think this may be my very favourite time of year.
We met up with some local friends of ours this morning and went on the long route to the Shipwright Arms, along the sea wall through the marsh. It was muddy. Slip-sliding, wipe-out, extra-ten-kilos-of-mud-on-boots muddy. But bright and sunny and just heart-stoppingly beautiful. And, bonus!, all the cows are in for the winter so the paths are ours. We met more friends in the pub (not planned but the beauty of a small town) and it was nearly impossible to drag ourselves away from the roaring fireplaces and the ale, but when we did we were rewarded with the most amazing winter light across the marsh -
Posted by grapecat at 19:03 0 comments
Sunday, 10 December 2017
4 down 4 to go
Panto. Wow. I don't even know where to start. Here?
Posted by grapecat at 18:05 0 comments
Friday, 1 December 2017
wah wah wah wah
So I am playing the trombone in the pit band for the Faversham Arden Theatre's Christmas Pantomime, Little Red Riding Hood. I know, I'm not sure how either. Drinking in local pubs can be dangerous. Let's just leave it at that.
Anyways, they want a "sad trombone" sound for one of the jokes - a "wah wah wah wahhhh". I don't know how to make this noise so I looked it up on youtube. People, did you know that there is an entire world of funny trombone noise videos? I kid you not. I found what I was looking for -
Posted by grapecat at 17:19 0 comments
Sunday, 26 November 2017
Christmas Lights
Posted by grapecat at 12:11 1 comments
Friday, 24 November 2017
and so it begins
Tomorrow is the Christmas lights turn on. Again! Already! How can this be? I just blinked and it was August. Tomorrow marks the start of the slide into insanity that is widely seen in households that combine Christmas season overtime with participation in various musical endeavours that require rehearsals, practices, and eventually Christmas performances culminating this year in an already dreaded 6-shows-in-4-days starting on 14 December. On top of the 4 shows the week before, 2 additional rehearsals, 2 work Christmas lunches, a Knit Night Christmas party, and - oh yeah, work. Neal's working 6 day weeks and the house is slowly but surely turning to the dark side. At least now we have a dishwasher so there will be no more wineglass meltdowns this year (recap: "I have two degrees how can I be incapable of cleaning a bloody wineglass?") It's the most wonderful time of the year indeed.
Work is crazy because we are starting on site two weeks from Monday.
Bear with me for a moment while I remind myself not to hyperventilate and have a large slug of wine. OK. We can continue.
It will be fine. I am learning a lot (COUGH). I have spent the last two weeks running around like a headless chicken trying to solve problems I didn't even know I had - and that, I suspect, is setting the pattern for the year ahead.
By Friday my poor brain is so knackered that I am reduced to inarticulate gibbering by 4pm. This evening I sat down to do the last finishing on a Christmas knitting gift that needed a hanging loop sewn on. I did a magnificent job - really taking pride in doing it thoroughly - "no way is this going to fall off" I thought as I stitched away. "Look," I said, holding it up proudly, whereupon Neal nearly fell off his chair laughing. I had sewn the loop to the wrong side. Very thoroughly indeed as it turned out. "Muppet," he said lovingly, still laughing.
And that about sums it up. It's been a remarkably dry Autumn, which is probably terrible for agriculture but has been very nice indeed for long runs. The dark is closing in but this side of Christmas I don't mind so much somehow. The pubs have their fires roaring, knitwear feels snugly, and beef stew and ham hocks taste fresh and exciting. You'll remind me of all of this in February and I will wonder what on earth I saw in it all, but for now, it's all good.
Posted by grapecat at 18:42 0 comments
Friday, 27 October 2017
Confession
I miss writing. I didn't realise it but I really do. I had to write up a report this afternoon. I've been putting it off (it's not just the blog I avoid!) and finally I just sat down and started to write and it FELT SO GOOD. This word? That word? Is this what I really mean? Is that the right phrase? Can I say it better? Make it more active? Clear? Ah it was great. I may have gotten a bit carried away (instead of 'Pros and Cons', I listed 'The good, the bad, and the ugly'. I am not entirely sure I will get away with that but what's done is done).
So here I am. I miss you :)
I was so exhilarated after sending my report that I busted through several difficult emails, sent a few update messages, and decided that I had accomplished enough for one day and I should stop while I was ahead. I caught an early train, came home, and went for an afternoon run in the autumn sunshine. The run was a bit of a slog (it's been a long week and by Friday afternoon I am tired) but the views were unparalleled and it was just what I needed.
Happy Friday people! Have a good weekend! See you soon x
Posted by grapecat at 16:55 0 comments
Friday, 28 July 2017
well that went to plan, didn't it?
have you been enjoying my regular updates?!
i know - you know - summer, work, chaos, etc etc etc
i have a brief moment of calm just now. n has gone off with h&j to collect young f from holiday day camp (as h&j's car has rather inconveniently decided to die). i am sitting on the sofa with a gin and tonic (is gin one of the best inventions ever? i mean the wheel is useful and all - but - in terms of just making everything seem a little more bearable - surely gin must be right up there). it's been a long week at work - i have several projects all on the go and it is exciting and fun and exhausting and i love it really but i am tired. i have been to london most days over the past weeks and i am london'd out (samuel whatshisname was wrong - you can still tire of london and be perfectly ok with life in general. also i can't be bothered to look up his name. you shall know me as the ignoramus that i am). i have also frankly had enough of people. i love them too but good heavens they are a needy lot, aren't they? always complaining and asking stupid questions. it's a good thing it's friday really, all said.
unfortunately the machine-dying has not ended with our friends car as n's pc also kicked the bucket this morning. went to the hard drive in the sky? pining for the uranium mines of uganda? anyways it appears to be dead. expensively dead. this after just replacing two pairs of spectacles (so so not cheap) and so many other bits and pieces. we are very fortunate and i know it but we are also very skint and i do worry sometimes. i am not sure how we are going to fix this but i guess i don't have to know right now - we'll work it out - we always do. maybe this is just what life is. new and unusual ways to haemorrhage cash until you die. in which case i am succeeding beyond all expectations!
they are home now - i must go and pour some lifesaving gin for us all (not f, obviously - he gets apple juice). heavens knows we need it...
Posted by grapecat at 19:10 0 comments
Monday, 26 June 2017
update - finally!
i've gotten myself into a bad loop - i want to tell you about what
happened next after my last post but i keep putting it off and then i want to
post something else and i don't because i haven't told you what happened yet. i
realise it doesn't actually matter but for some reason i seem unreasonably
attached to the linearity of it (not a word? tough). so - i will bite the bullet and unjam the logs (and mix every metaphor available
to me in doing so).
after my nice relaxed post i had a nice relaxed evening
and went to bed early. at around 230 i woke up hearing rushing water. that's
some rain i thought groggily, then i FELT water, on my foot. suddenly, horribly awake, i leapt out of
bed, turned on the light, and immediately turned it back off again because
there was water streaming down through the light fixture. i ran upstairs -
there is a loo above the room i was sleeping in - no taps on or anything but i
could hear water. i ran down to the boiler and turned it off just in case and
by the time i got back to the corridor outside my room all the lights and power
in the house went out and there was a horrific WHHUUHHMP sound (which it turned
out was the ceiling of the room i had been sleeping in moments before crashing
to the floor).
clearly this was not good. i knew i had to get young f out of there so after
making sure he was ok (sleeping soundly) i ran next door to the neighbours who
we know as well - the kids all play together. they were immediately helpful and
amazing and made a bed for f on the sofa while i went back for him. i carried
him over the rubble and we went outside and
played "walking outside in our bare feet isn't this fun!" (oh it was
so so so not fun!)
once he was ok we tried to figure out what was going on. no one could reach
h&j as their lovely boutique hotel had no phone signal and no one answered
the landline. we worked out that a pipe under the upstairs bathtub had blown
but we couldn't find the stopcock (!!!!!!!!!) to turn the water off. finally
someone from southeast water was able to talk us through turning the water off
on the street, and the rushing water finally blessedly stopped. at one point
the neighbour and i were standing in the street staring helplessly at water literaly gushing out of
one of the landing windows. it was beyond awful.
another hour later and a walrus-moustachioed angel arrived in the unlikely form of a
southeast water emergency engineer. he found the stopcock, capped the broken
pipe, punctured holes in the ground floor ceiling (thus saving that from
collapse as well) and was so calm and good natured and matter of fact that i
could have married him on the spot. he turned the water back on for the street
and disappeared.
somehow a signal made its way to j's phone and he rang - completely freaked
out by the 526 million or so missed calls and garbled text messages on both
their phones. they drove straight home, and to this day their only concern was
that f and i were all right. we're fine but - ah - your house - .......
your house is not fine.
and we are fine. f thought the whole thing was a fantastic adventure and
has shown no sign of trauma whatsoever. i am glad to know my adrenaline system
works (!!) and although i still jump at the sound of unexpected water, i have
no other ill effects. there was a slab of plasterboard across the pillow if the
bed i was sleeping in so heavy that it needed 2 contractors to remove it so it
was a lucky break to wake up when i did. apparently litres and litres of water
were coming through every second, and if no one had been home the whole house
would have flooded. insurance has covered the cost and although it has been a nightmare for h&j the work is pretty much done now.
luckily my plague of stopcock mishaps ended there and life has been much less eventful in recent months, although i have added “stopcock location” to my list of must have information
for any premises I may be responsible for at any point.
whew. all caught up. we can now return to our regular posting!
Posted by grapecat at 15:15 1 comments