Tag Archives: musings

Laryngitis and a Polygamous Relationship with an Aldi Raspberry Sorbet

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Last weekend I felt really rough. I put it down to being hungover after going out with my friend to celebrate her birthday on Saturday night – my failing voice and sore throat was initially thought to have been caused by singing a bit too enthusiastically as I was dancing around, which isn’t uncommon. However, by Monday afternoon I started to feel particularly unwell – hot and cold flashes, sore skin, headaches – and by Tuesday morning I realised that my ‘hangover’ was actually full-blown flu, which was later accompanied by a nasty head cold and a hacking cough that just wouldn’t go away. After spending the week feeling like death-warmed-up I went to the doctors where the genuinely lovely GP took one look at me and said ‘yeah, you’ve got laryngitis – I had it myself two years ago so I know you must be feeling quite poorly.’ I really did – the most poorly I’ve felt in a very long time. Continue reading →

Lessons, Limoges and Lilliput Lane

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George Orwell’s house in Notting Hill

This week has been a little hectic. The Bloke has had a week off, we’ve been organising a bajillion things at once and trying to spend some quality time together, and I’ve been desperately trying to keep on top of my daily checklists. It’s been a mixed bag of fun and stress all rolled into one busy package.

But, we’re never too old to learn new things, and this week I have learned a lot.

A raspberry in a glass of prosecco makes it taste less like what I imagine unwashed feet do. I must be the only female I know who doesn’t like it, but it’s almost palatable with a raspberry.

Upgrading on a travel West Midlands train is a pointless waste of money.

I make a mean French Toast, after trying it out for the first time last Sunday. My buzz was cut short, however, after my friend informed me that her 11 year old regularly makes it for herself. Continue reading →

Ignore the Chicken…

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I awoke to find that something had happened overnight with my blog. In my sidebar I have a number of widgets – blogs I enjoy, awards I have won, some of my favourite posts etc. However, this morning I discovered that some of these have been resized and replaced with random images from my media library, including a picture of a chicken named Tikka that I met at the weekend (you’ll see what that was about in my post later today).

So, for now, while the lovely engineers at WordPress are working out what on earth is going on, please ignore the chicken and other random pictures that are currently sitting at the side of my blog. Well, don’t completely ignore him (he’s an awesome chicken), but don’t think that I have a habit of promoting random fowl on the blog. That is, unless you read my post about Derek, the Stealth Chicken who appeared in my back garden a few years ago…

The Problem with Overthinking

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Of all the negative personality traits that I posses, one stands high above the rest as being the most destructive.

I’m a thinker. If something bothers me, particularly in a situation where I feel unfairly treated, I’ll think about it… and then I’ll think some more. I’ll even think about the way that I’m thinking about something and by the time I have finished thinking I will have inevitably blown the initial annoyance out of all proportion in my mind. I think about what I could or should have said or done, what I wish I hadn’t said or done, what I will say and do in the future. I think about what has been said and done to me, and what should have been said to me instead.

It’s a lot of thinking… and it’s exhausting.

Despite the fact that I’m fully aware that this is not a healthy thing to do, I have found it difficult to control at times and the end result is always the same – I will have wound myself up and become agitated, the problem still remains unresolved and the only person left feeling angry, anxious or hurt is me. Continue reading →

Adopting my Inner Sheldon

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There’s a scene from The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon is ill. We hear “Leonard! I’m sick!” and see Leonard frantically running out of the apartment, still trying to get dressed. We quickly discover that Sheldon is particularly dreadful to be around when he is ill, to the point that his friends have a code where they hide as much as possible to avoid having to look after him.

That’s me.

I really dislike the term ‘man-flu.’ When The Bloke is ill, he gets up and carries on as normal. When I’m ill, I turn into a snivelling, snotty mess and spend most of my time complaining. Continue reading →

How to Stop Being a Doormat

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How to stop being a doormat

It’s nice to be nice. It’s nice to do nice things for others. However, when nicety is unreciprocated, taken for granted or turns into an excuse for others to be dismissive of you as a human being, then it becomes a problem.

It occurred to me a few years ago that I was held in a very different regard by others to what I had always assumed. Activities and meet-ups often involved multiple changes that would inevitably make it more inconvenient and expensive for me. I spent hours waiting for people to turn up. I was repeatedly interrupted. I was owed money. It wasn’t uncommon for me to receive messages or have conversations that began with a phrase that I have come to loathe:

Can I ask a favour?

The favour. The seemingly easy and straight-forward request that would always turn into a complicated mess and leave me feeling stressed and resentful, particularly when there was no acknowledgement or thanks afterwards. And yet, the one time I remember needing help which would have meant someone having to go out of their way, not a single person responded. Not one. Continue reading →

The 2017 Magical Manifesting Diary!

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With the start of the new year, I have read a whole host of posts by bloggers who are making plans for the next twelve months. One of the most prominent themes within many of them is how to plan and the format in which to do so.

I love diaries. Love them. I also love planning, writing lists, keeping inspirational quotes and recording my daily adventures in journals, but it is rare that I can find a diary that has all of them together in one place. However, I was on Facebook last month and I saw this:

Continue reading →

A Saturday Night In…

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saturday-night-out-kidding-in-my-jammiesIt’s Saturday night, and I’ve got myself into a highly comfortable position on the couch, snuggled up in my jammies and fluffy blankets. It’s the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, it’s St. George’s Day and if any day was the day to don my England shirt and go to the pub, it would be today, but I’m having my own little personal celebration at home instead. I’ve got my headphones in as I’m listening to Steve’s Talk About Pop Music radio show, while The Bloke watches a random film with the ever lovely Jason Statham, and the cats are still snoring after stuffing their face with fresh chicken earlier in the day. I’ve made myself an Amaretto Sours too! Actually, that’s a lie – I’ve poured a load of amaretto in a pint glass, shoved some lemon juice and lemonade on top, and then tipped lots of cocktail cherries in to finish it off. The cherries are now sitting on the bottom, I’ve forgotten to put the egg white in and I can’t be bothered to get up again to sort it out, so I’m making do – it still tastes yummy regardless! I would show you a picture, but it looks like I’ve urinated into a glass… Continue reading →

Three Things Thursday

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imageThis was an idea I originally saw on Jenny in Neverland last year, and then a similar thing appeared on Facebook a few weeks ago. I thought it would be a fun idea to try it myself…

Three names I go by:
(Of the printable, non-offensive ones…)
1. Sue (which is odd for me, as until I’d moved to Birmingham nobody ever called me that)
2. Suzie
3. Madam (the school that I often work at insists that female staff are referred to as ‘Madam,’ instead of ‘Miss.’ Even after 4 years I still find it odd.)

Three things I blog about:
1. My daily life – almost in the form of an online journal.
2. Things that amuse me.
3. Restaurants I visit.

Three places I have visited:
1. New York
2. Pompeii
3. Barcelona

Three places I would like to visit:
1. Tokyo
2. Sydney
3. Las Vegas

Three places I have worked:
1. A well-known fast food restaurant. (I was there for eighteen months and can categorically state that if any other stores are like the one I worked in, the horror stories you have heard are most likely to be true).
2. Supervisor at a nightclub (best job ever – like getting paid for a night out).
3. Secondary school.

Three favourite drinks:
1. Volvic Lemon and Lime water, straight from the fridge so it’s ice cold.
2. Raspberry mojito.
3. Amaretto sours, with the egg white.

Three favourite things to eat:
1. Garlic and rosemary roast potatoes.
2. Yorkshire pudding.
3. Chocolate fondant.

Three memories I cherish:
1. Sitting on a balcony in Malia at 2pm on a blisteringly hot day, with a beautiful view of the ocean, sipping a drink and smoking a cigarette whilst listening to Eva Cassidy’s ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’
2. Last Boxing Day with my whole family – our partners were all with us and we sat, played games and laughed lots. Can’t get better than that.
3. Watching a cellist perform Bach’s ‘Air’ outside the Sacre Coeur in Paris.

Three things I am looking forward to:
1. Going on holiday with the whole family – we’ve never done this before and I’m sure it will be a laugh…
2. A few days to myself. When that will be, I don’t know, but I like to have a few days alone every so often just to recharge my batteries.
3. The surprise I have planned for The Bloke next month.

Three words I love to use:
1. Cherub – I call my students this every day and I love the confused look they always get on their faces.
2. Nonsense.
3. Shrubbery, usually with a Monty Python style accent.

Three dreams I regularly have:
1. That I can fly (those of you who know who Keith Harris and Orville were will know the song I currently have in my head).
2. My teeth fall out.
3. I’m in a school I don’t know, I can’t find my timetable and every time I try and ring my mum (?) to help me I keep pressing the wrong numbers. That’s always a fun one…

You can also find me on Twitter and Tumblr @suzie81blog, and don’t forget to check out my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/suzie81speaks, my Pinterest page http://www.pinterest.com/suzie81speaks and my Instagram page http://www.instagram.com/suzie81speaks.