Cerberus

I was walking in Ely the other day and I saw a two-headed labrador from a distance.

This confused me slightly.

Sadly, when I got closer, it turned out to be two virtually identical dogs standing next to each other with nothing moving apart from their heads.

It's a pity, I bet there's money in a two-headed dog.

Anyway. I've been rather lax about posting recently but hopefully I will be a bit better soon.

I'm a bit knackered right now, having had a blinding night out followed by an 8am start for gymnastics coaching, plus I am being drawn into the world of the delectable Captain Jack Sparrow.

So I think I'll go.

More on that story later.

He was a scooter boy

I was driving into Cambridge this afternoon and, it being a-number-of-days-before-Christmas-that-I'm-not prepared-to-work-out, the traffic was pretty heavy.

HF was driving, so I was staring mindlessly at what was going on outside the car.

A boy with a cardboard box over his head went past on a scooter.

I shook my head. Huh?

But HF had seen it too.

The kid then removed the box and attempted to put it on the scooter by his feet. It didn't really work. Then he put it over the handlebars and went off on his merry way.

Huh?

I mean, why would he be that desperate to bring this cardboard box wherever he was going. Or did he get the scooter out of the box and decided he couldn't manage without the box? Maybe his parents sent him off to go and find them a lovely box?

So here's a question. If you had a large cardboard box and your mode of transportation was a scooter, what method would you use to get both of them to your destination?

I'm thinking collapse the box and slot it between you and the handlebars. But maybe there's a better idea.

More on that story later.

Images of Thailand

Okay, finally, some pictures of my wonderful trip to Thailand.

Firstly, an elephant.



Next, something Thai people love - shiny stuff. This was, I think, in Wat Phra Kaeo.





Thirdly, how about a perfect Koh Tao sunset?






Some dogs cooling off after a hot, sweaty day.





Oh, and one more - a shadow on the water.




Want more? They're all on my flickr account.

I am an ace photographer.

I should add that to the special skills section of my CV. That and my pole-dancing experience, I would be impossible not to hire.

In case anyone was wondering...

I now have a ring.



This ring.

Do you like it?

I do.

A day in Oxford

I spent approximately seven hours on a bus yesterday (in total, not seven each way, that would be silly) going to Oxford for various reasons.

One of the reasons was to meet my mum for lunch - always pleasant, particularly when she comes in generous mood, insisting she pays and bringing lots of gifts from Kenya. This included a wooden hippo and a pair of earrings in the shape of some strange little men on this occasion. Strange, but very cool.

Anyway, we went to some place called Zizzis - or possibly Zizzi - and a confused mum ordered two starters as the waitress didn't speak the best English ever and she said the starters were very small and the main courses were what sounded like enormous - but I think she actually said normal.

Gosh, that was a bit dull.

Anyway, somewhere near the middle of the meal, the very friendly waitress had a conversation with some kind of maintenance type man. She then came over to us and said in not quite broken English
"Hello, we have to change electricians now, so don't be too scary, okay"

I'm not entirely sure what it was they were changing. But we did our best not to be too scary and I think we got away with it.

In other Oxford related news, we saw the Beep at his market stall. It was quite funny. I've never seen the Beep or even a picture of him. Mum saw him briefly once but apparently his hair has grown since then. We had, however, seen a picture of a particular round mirror he had on his stall. So on this particular market, there were lots of fairly similar antique stalls and we spent some time surreptitiously wandering around the market, peering at the stall holders and saying things like "blogging" and "beep" quite loudly. Unsurprisingly, we got some funny looks.

But we found him! He had the best coat, I was really envious. I'm not good on sartorial matters but it was very stylish and also looked long and warm. He also had some really nice yellow patterned china (on his stall, rather than his person) which I wanted but could see was perhaps not the most appropriate thing to take back with me on the bus. Sadly, we didn't have too long to chat but he seemed very lovely. And also had a really nice, sort of plummy voice. I'm told he offers bloggers discount on the stall, too. As well as the funky mirror and the gorgeous china, there was a rather sweet-looking Paddington Bear, so if that's your thing, clearly the Beep is where it's at.

Anyway, it was a very pleasant day, helped by the fact that it was a gorgeous day. And I got presents, too.

More on that story later.

It's all about me, me, me

Thanks everyone for the congratulations etc.

So my mum over at Pictures Speak Quietly has vaguely tagged me to say eight things about me. Clearly, inspiration is running dry, cos I decided to take on the challenge.

1. When I was at primary school, we were asked to design our gravestone. My epitaph read: "Here lies Frangelita, died aged 104, beloved mother of 13 children, died of exhaustion." Needless to say, my ambitions have changed somewhat since then.
2. I have a scar on the palm of my left hand where I grabbed some barb wire to climb underneath it. Highly sensible.
3. The only film which has ever given me nightmares was Childsplay.
4. The first album I ever bought was Parklife, by Blur.
5. The first film I saw at the cinema was either Masters of the Universe, or possibly Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
6. I had my first kiss at a New Year's Eve party at my parents' house when I was 15. It was rubbish.
7. I've had chicken pox twice - once I missed Father Christmas's visit to my playgroup and the other time I had to stay at home in bed on my birthday.
8. I've never been in a fight although I did slap a girl in the face once because she was irritating me so much. I immediately apologised.

More on that story later.

An announcement.

Things seem to be rather looking up. I went into my spinning class today and my exceptionally enthusiastic America instructor told me I looked happy.

This is a good thing.

I have two things to report. I will start with the one I mentioned last week. Some months ago I entered a short story I had written in a competition run by a national newspaper. As I heard nothing, I assumed it had been unsuccessful. I wasn't too fussed, after all, there must have been thousands of entries. Last week, while I was in Thailand, I got an e-mail from a book publishing company asking me to call their senior publishing director in relation to my entry to the competition - but not until Tuesday.

I was extremely over-excited - this was a really big publishing company and this woman had read my story. Big deal (no sarcastic overtones). So I called her. It turns out that they have narrowed all the entries down to the last 16 - of which my story is one. And they were ringing to ask my permission to publish my story, with the other short-listed ones, in a book going on sale on World Book Day next year. An actual, real, paid for book that you can get in WHSmiths and other book sellers.

I'm going to be an actual published author! I mean, the story's only brief and apparently may have to be edited slightly because the book is aimed at people with a low literacy level (their words, not mine) but you will be able to find this book on a shelf and look inside and see my name. I know my name is read by 11,000 people in the newspaper I work for every week, but this is different. This is what I've been wanting probably ever since I read Emily of New Moon. Bloody good book. And maybe someone will read it and think "Oh look, this girl is better than sliced bread, she's like toasted bagels and everyone likes them" and ask me to write lots more stories for money. Well, maybe not, but still, I'll be in a book!

Plus, I still have a shot at winning the competition and accompanying £1,000 tower of books.

Woohoo!

The other news is more personal.

I am now engaged.

HF finally popped the question in Thailand (it was romantic but naturally not as straightforward as it ought to be - he has difficulties asking simple four word questions, he prefers the 83-word procrastination). So after six years together, we're going to get married. I sort of knew he was going to ask, but he kept letting perfect opportunities slide (perfect sunsets, moonlight walks, star watching etc) then he did it on our last night. Which was still romantic, as we were on a beachside restaurant and I had just eaten the best prawns ever. Unfortunately, I probably wasn't looking as ace as I normally do because we had checked out of our bungalow and I was wearing what I had been wearing when we went hiking up a VERY STEEP waterfall - a green bikini, a vest top of the non-sexy kind, and some shorts. Rather disconcertingly, the sweat had left a manky boob mark on my top. Clearly, HF saw beyond all that to the fabulous person inside.

Anyway, my fiance is waiting in bed for me (I mean that in an innocent sense, honest) and I am a trifle tired. Anyone got any good ideas for where we should get married? I currently have a budget of £3.50.

More on that story later.