Listography – Top 5 Websites

The subject for this week’s Listography over at Kate Takes 5 is your top five most commonly used websites.  Here are mine:

1. iGoogle

It’s my home page, and also contains my Google Reader, so it stands to reason that this is my most used site.

2.   Mail Online

My go-to daily site for a catch up on world affairs in order to read scurrilous celebrity gossip and look at the photos, with a nice cup of tea.

3.   Auctiva

The site I use to host my eBay listings – boring, but definitely one of my daily go-to’s.

4.   Amazon

The site that gets the benefit of my internet shopping addiction on a far more regular basis that I would probably admit to. Not a week goes past that I don’t either buy something or add something to my Amazon wishlist, particularly since they now sell a huge range of shoes as well!

5.   Lovefilm / IMDb

I know that’s two different sites, but as I always have them open simultaneously, it’s kinda like just one, really.  Very useful for feeding my film lust, both.

I could go on and on with this week’s Listography, but as the rules say it’s a list of 5, I’d better stop here!

Pop over to Kate’s and see what everybody else is looking at on the internet, too.

Friday Is Here!

As there are approximately seven minutes before I need to leave for a Friday evening pub date with friends, I’ve only got time to share three things that I liked this week – two that made me laugh, and one that made me think.

 

My house isn’t very clean.  Don’t know if that’s good, as it means the computer isn’t broken, or bad …

Bwahahahaha!

Bit difficult to read the writing – it says “Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there.”  I’m no great environmental warrior, but this struck a chord, as I once had a stern talking-to by the Deputy Captain for my refusal to allow my night staff to dump rubbish containing plastic overboard when I worked on the cruise ships.

Happy Weekend, Everybody!

Frock It!

Awards season is with us, and the stars have been out and about sporting some lovely (and not so lovely, of course) outfits.

I’m starting this week with a selection of red dresses, just for Glynis, who commented on the last Frock It post that she does like to see a red dress at this time of year.  I wholeheartedly agree, Glynis – nothing like it to brighten up this gloomy time of year.

One of my favourite red dresses was this one worn by Stacey Keibler (George Clooney’s latest squeeze) at the Golden Globes last week:

Apart from blending almost perfectly with the red carpet, this dress is pretty near perfect, I’d say.

Another red dress I liked was the one worn by Katherine Heigl at the premiere of her new movie, One For the Money.

I really like the shoulder detail on this one (and the sparkly shoes!).

 

Wasn’t so keen on this red number, though …

… as worn by Layla Flaherty of new TV show Desperate Scousewives (I’ve yet to experience this viewing extravaganza myself).  The dress itself is not so bad – and is even quite similar in style to a dress worn by the Duchess of Cambridge recently, but what’s the story with the exposed bra?  Weird – and not in a good way.

Let’s move onto the Golden Globes – and the great and the good of the film world were out in force that evening.  I could go on and on, but in the interests of ever getting any dinner cooked this evening, will just show you my three favourites and my three least favourites:

Favourites:

Kate Beckinsale – this woman literally cannot put a fashion foot wrong as far as I’m concerned lately.  LOVE everything about this look.

I do find Angelina’s fashion choices a bit hit and miss, but she certainly pulled all the stops out with this dress – I can’t remember ever seeing her look so good.  If I’m being really picky, I’d say the pulled back hair is a little bit too severe – a few  curls escaping would have softened the look a bit.

 

My third (and somewhat surprising) favourite was Tilda Swinton.  I’m not keen on her androgynous make-up free look as a rule, but I thought this outfit was just gorgeous – love the colour, which really suits her, and the style.  Far and away the best outfit I’ve ever seen her in.

Now let’s move on to my least favourites:

 

Erin Wasson (a model, apparently).  What.  Were.  You.  Thinking.  Just revolting.  I wouldn’t have let her in.

And Wendi McLendon-Covey (Bridesmaids actress), who obviously thought the idea was that everybody looked at HER globes rather than the ones being awarded.  Goodness only knows how that dress is staying up.

Now let’s have a look at Sarah Harding of Girls Aloud, whose personal life is making the papers far more than her pop career these days.

 

I noticed this picture of her out and about in London recently, and thought how smart she was looking.

Not so much the very next day, however, when she was pictured in the paper like this:

How rough does she look?  And did she forget to brush her hair for about the last week?  Yuck.

Another horrible dress was this one sported by Christina Aguilera at a recent NBC party – she’d do herself a massive favour by losing that horrible brassy blonde hair now – she looks very muttony with it, in my opinion.

And I’ve saved a lovely one for last …

Vanessa Hudgens at the People’s Choice Awards.  Unusual, not too blingy, and very glam – loved it.

And finally, just before I go, I thought I’d share with you what we can all expect the men in our lives to be wearing next Autumn/Winter, with this splendid outfit shown on the catwalk at the Thom Brown menswear A/W 2012 show.

I’m off to order one for Ashley right now!

 

 

Christianity, Catholicism, Christenings & Controversy

I am not a fan of organized religion.  Having had it shoved down my throat by two batty spinster headmistresses at the girls’ school I attended in my early teens, I emerged having had more than enough to last me a lifetime.

I am also of the opinion that organized religion was a) invented in order to subdue the masses, and b) is the cause of as many wars and acts of terror in our world as politics, if not more.

Equally, however, I believe very firmly in one’s right to choose – and if regular churchgoing gives you comfort and joy, then why not?

I attended Sunday School as a young child, which I remember quite enjoying, and my mother used to say a prayer with me before bed (“Gentle Jesus, meek and mild …”) but my family were not churchgoers, and my brother and I weren’t ever christened.

My father, however, was brought up as a child as a very strict Catholic.  From what I gather, however, as soon as he was old enough to make his own choices, he stopped going to church and I never remember him showing any interest in religion at all.

However, six or seven years ago, my father suddenly started going to church again every Sunday, regular confessions, attending Holy Days of Obligation, and direct debiting money every month to the Catholic Church.  He is so anxious not to miss a Sunday that he has hunted down and attended the local Catholic service in such places as Mauritius, Antigua and St Lucia.  (Although I’m not convinced he’ll find one in Oman, where he’s currently on holiday!)

And why not?  As I said above, if it gives him comfort and he enjoys it, then it’s all good, as far as I’m concerned.

About a year ago, Dad told me that it was his greatest regret in life that he hadn’t had Nick and myself christened as babies, and that it was now his dearest wish that we would be.  After some closer questioning, he admitted that he believes the Catholic teaching (whether current or when he was a child, I’m not sure) that people who have not been christened end up after death in Purgatory (not a nice place, Google it).

The two main points that struck me from this conversation were:

1.   My understanding of ‘God’ (Allah, Buddha, whatever label you want to give ‘him’) is as an omnipotent force of GOOD, not somebody who would send an innocent baby or child who hadn’t been christened through no fault of their own, to burn in purgatory for the rest of time.

2.  My father is an otherwise intelligent, well-educated man, who has been indoctrinated (and I don’t use that word loosely) by Catholicism to actually believe that I’m going to purgatory because I haven’t been christened.  Under any guise other than that of the Church, words like ‘brainwashed’ and ‘cult’ would be bandied about.

Several months down the line, and after discussion and consideration, Nick and I have both agreed to be christened – not because for one millisecond we believe in ‘one Holy Roman Catholic Church’ (words that I understand we may be required to say during the event), or indeed because either of us believe that we’re going to Purgatory after we die.

No, the reason we’ve agreed to it is because if by doing this one small thing that’s so easy for us to do, despite it being meaningless and insignificant to us in the greater scheme of things, we are able to grant our father’s ‘dearest wish’ (his words, not mine), then after all he has done for us over the years, why would we not go ahead and do it?

And to me, that is what Christianity is all about – not sitting in a building parroting words made up by somebody else – but living as good and kind a life as I can, being loyal and thoughtful and trustworthy, and being the best daughter/wife/mother/sister/friend that I can be.

And here endeth the lesson for today (!)

 

 

Menu Planning Monday

I missed meal planning last week, as I was going away for a couple of days, and am so pleased to be back to it this week.  It’s so much less stressful knowing what you’re going to cook for dinner every evening, not to mention knowing that you’ve got the ingredients you need to make it as well!

So, this week’s plan is looking something like this:

Monday – Chicken stir fry with leftover chicken from Sunday

Tuesday – Chick peas with spinach (Jamie Oliver recipe that caught my eye in the Saturday paper this weekend)

Wednesday – Butter bean and cumin soup with garlic bread

Thursday – Mexican pork steaks with chilli lime yogurt and sweet potato wedges (recipe below – excuse the word ‘preview’ all over it – I just copied the jpeg straight from my Tastebook.com file – lazy blogger that I am)

Friday – Chinese takeaway (excuse: I’ve run out of those handy plastic containers that Chinese food comes in!)

Saturday – who knows?

Sunday – roast something or other.

 

Weekly Goals #4

The nice thing about having weekly goals, rather than New Year’s Resolutions (or goals for the whole year) is when you cock up one week, there’s the chance to start again with a brand new sheet for the following week.

Yep, I messed up big style this week – when I got back from London, I didn’t put the brakes on the drinking and eating, and I spent most of the weekend arsing about on the internet and not achieving very much at all.

So last week’s goals were all a big, fat FAIL!  

Never mind.  Onwards and upwards.

This week:

1.   Walk six days, total of at least 10 miles.

2.   Find 1/2 an hour to read during the day – I’ve fallen into the habit of reading only when I go to bed at night and want to change this.

3.   Lose 2 lbs.

4.   Clear my desk every night so I sit down to an empty desk in the morning.  This habit has dropped by the wayside a little bit over the last week, and I need to reinforced it.

5.   Make list of what needs to be done in William’s new bedroom and the new spare bedroom.

6.   Make curtain for William’s bed.

7.   Make a start on sorting photograph files on computer.

Think that’s enough to keep me going for this week.  Let’s hope the results are an improvement on last week’s!

 

Sunday Car Booty

I was unenthused about getting up early this morning, but as there’s not a car boot sale next weekend (or so I overheard somebody say this morning), I was glad I made the effort, despite the fact that once again pickings were somewhat slim.

Mancala game (we LOVE this game, and all play a lot at home, so I was delighted to find this one for 50p to keep in the villa in Spain).  Clarins toner £1.50.

Long Tall Sally Tunic top – £2.50.

Slimming World books – £1.50 the lot.

Purple jumper for me £1.50, black boots £2.00

Two pairs of summer shoes – 5op each.

And here endeth today’s bargains.  Don’t know WHAT’s up with my internet connection – it’s just taken about 15 minutes to upload these photos.  Yet another joy of living in the bloody countryside.  Harrumph!

Am working on Ashley re a move to somewhere where we can walk to shops, pubs, restaurants – in fact we went to a view a house in town yesterday.  Huge project – HUGE project – but not for us, this one.  Lots of reasons, but can’t say I was sorry – don’t know if I’ve got another huge rebuild in me, to be honest.

**Linking up this week with Second Hand Finds at Me The Man & The Baby , and Magpie Monday at Me & My Shadow **

London & Shopping

Got back earlier this afternoon from a lovely time in London with Mum, shopped till we dropped, never stopped chatting, ate some lovely food, drank more wine than we probably should have done, and generally enjoyed ourselves enormously.

I did lots of shopping, and thought I’d show you some edited highlights of my purchases (sure you don’t want to see all my new M&S underwear, for example!)

Lovely new blue suede shoes!

Colourful tea towels to replace my horrible old, stained ones, and brighten up my kitchen.

A couple of new Boots No 7 products I’ve been wanting to try for a while, and a gorgeous turquoise nail varnish.  I was quite excited to buy these, as they are the first beauty products I’ve bought since my year-long ban on buying any new toiletries, skincare or make-up.

Flip flops (summer – yay!) from Primark – only £2.50 a pair, so it seemed a shame not to get a pair in each colour!

Fabric to make a curtain for Will’s cabin bed, to hide all the junk underneath it.  Couldn’t believe John Lewis still had the same fabric I bought for this exactly purpose (but for the other end of the bed) four years ago – what a result!

New jewellery. I had a big earring clearout recently, so wanted a couple of new pairs to replace some of the ones I’d got rid of.

Another highlight of my London trip was meeting up in real life at last with my long-time blogging buddy Teresa, who blogs about her lovely life and all the things she gets up to over at TCakes.  Although it was a flying half-hour cup of coffee, it was great to meet in person at last, in the ‘big yellow store’ where Teresa works.

Hope everybody’s had a good week – I’ll be catching up with my blog reading over the weekend.

Weekly Goals #3

First of all, a summary of how last week panned out:

1.         Walk every weekday. SUCCESS!  I walked a total of 12.5 miles and even dragged the family out for a 6^th walk on Sunday.

2.         Have six alcohol free days.  SUCCESS!  Although I drank rather a lot of wine on Friday night at Wetherspoons!

3.         Write down everything I eat.  FAILED.  Again.  Don’t know why I can’t get my head around this one.

4.         Lose four pounds.  SUCCESS!         I lost of a total of 5.5 lbs and am v. pleased.

5.         Move some money.  SUCCESS!  Switched a savings account to one that had a better interest rate, and moved the money that’s been sitting earning nothing for months.

6.         Have breakfast within 1.5 hours of waking up.  PARTIAL SUCCESS.  I wouldn’t say that I managed this every day, but there was an improvement overall.

7.         Make sure the pile of ‘stuff to do’ on my desk is cleared every evening.  SUCCESS!  It was so lovely sitting down to a cleared desk every morning and starting afresh.  This is a habit I intend to keep on with.

And here is this week’s list of goals – fairly short as I’m away for a few days this week:

 

1.  Do not put on any weight.  I’m off to London on Wednesday and there will be much eating and drinking, so I don’t think it’s realistic to expect to lose any weight this week.

2.     Three x 3 mile walks.

3.   Cross two things off my 50 small projects list.

 

 

Sunday Car Booty

Cold and windy this morning, but inexplicably I’d been tossing and turning since 6 am, so getting out of bed at 7 wasn’t a hardship.

Once again, an awful lot of tat to sift through, but I suspect that it’s just the time of year – looking back at the last couple of year’s Sunday Car Booty posts in January, bargains seem to be thin on the ground.

Anyway, without further ado, here is what I bought this morning:

Shoes – £1 per pair

M&S ladies’ linen shorts £1

Debenhams prom dress – nicer in rea life than my photo would have you believe – £1

Per Una Skirt £1.50, Laura Ashley cardigan £1

Perfume giftset £1.50, Avon eye cream £2

Crabtree & Evelyn La Source Giftset – £2

And with that, I’m off for a large cup of tea and a sit down with my book!

 

**Linking up this week with Magpie Monday over at Me & My Shadow, and Second Hand Buys at Me The Man and The Baby.**