I don't normally care how early shops put Christmas decorations etc up, but that's insane! The chocolate will go all stale and gross before Easter!

It'll still be edible... chocolate doesn't really go stale, it's just that the cocoa butter rises to the surface.

Looks horrible but still tastes nice!

Have a look at all the chocolate santas and snowmen on sale now in various retail outlets - if they are not sold off, they go into storage and come back out again later!

We had hot cross buns for breakfast on Christmas day. It seemed so wrong it was right. It makes me grumpy as well especially as they will have sold out by the time I think it is the right time to buy these things.

No, noodle is being reasonable. The beginning of Lent is quite early enough to start selling Easter eggs etc....

I think my lesson isn't going to go well tonight... family nightmares, too much beer and lack of sleep mean that I look like something out of a Tim Burton film at the moment...

We had a huge storm here last night.. it had been raining all day (not unusual for West of Ireland), but then when it got dark it turned to snow and it was so cold that it settled... but there were also lots of flooded roads..not at all good driving conditions.

OH is away playing gigs for few days so had planned to go up to the village pub for a drink with our friend who lives around the corner..

Went to collect her and on way to the pub popped into my own house to drop of shopping, bag of music from rehearsal and firewood etc... my drive was like an ice rink as it's on a slope and even after salting it could not drive up it... anyway, we managed to clamber up the drive, put bags into the hallway and then I realised In had left my handbag at her house so we went to go round the corner to collect it..

We had got about 100 yards down the road when we came across a fallen tree completely blocking the road. Rang the police who said they would send out the council to take it away. He then said "is that ***** (my name) Anyway, turned the car round eventually in narrow lane and tried to go round the other way oonly to find ANOTHER fallen tree this was by pure coincidence right outside another friends' house and we were able to climb under it (all this in gale force winds and snow). Knocked on her window and then rang the police again to tell them about 2nd tree so then had to reverse my car down the narrow lane, leave it in a safe place.

All was well and was reunited with handbag and stayed at other friends place after being plyed with mulled wine, a hot water bottle and warm bed...

Home now and tidied up a bit.. storm blew bins into road and a few container plants came out of pots...

EDIT. found out after that the police knew my name because he was a neighbour and recognised my voice

What a night!!

I really wish they wouldn't put them out so early! Far too much temptation, far too early! That said, it is preferable to the decorations and Christmas music coming out in the shops in Oct/Nov!

I wonder why all this stuff is not available all year round!!

It's not really an argh, but...

1) I am back at work after 16 days off. Somehow, in those 16 days, I have contrived to do no music practice whatsoever. This morning I got an email from my teacher saying that actually rather than starting next week, term will recommence this week. So now I have a lesson on Thursday, performances on 16th Jan and 20th Feb, an exam later this term, and all those things I swore I would sort out in my time off still hanging over me. My own fault, I know, but things like family visits and unblocking the drains ended up taking priority.

2) I am back at work after 16 days off. We've been shutdown as a company for 10 days of that. So how has all heck broken loose? I have got so many URGENT things to fix today, the things 'we'll leave that till the first week back' will probably have to move to the second week back!

3) It's too cold to cycle

Gah, apparently everybody has had their brain fall out over the holiday.

When certain data are entered, an email is triggered and sent to a mailing list. One of the all heck breaking loose I came in to this morning was that data meeting the criteria had been entered, but no email received.
Lots of fussing from on high. Various bits of poking around. I know the email was working, as originally I was on the mailing list (I am on it for testing; once it functions correctly at least once in the live environment, I come off the list). Couldn't see any changes to what makes the email send.
Wait patiently for other members of this distribution list to come in. They did receive the email. So it is now down to the recipient - spam filter perhaps? Can't be incorrectly recorded on the distribution list, since it is chosen from an address book, not free-text.

Further pondering. Going to have to hand it over to helpdesk so that people with access to the back end of the live environment server can look.

Get another email from the person who is missing her report email. Forwarding me two emails she had received, asking why the sequence number was the same in each case.

Firstly, that's because sequence number is unique per subject record, not across the whole database.

Secondly, the bottom of the two emails you sent me is the one you have had me frantically trying to find for the last six hours, with various panicked THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT commands from Really Important People. You received it at 16.10 on 31st December - exactly as expected, exactly the same as everyone else, within 2 minutes of the entry of the specific data.

Hmm. It's decision time shortly on whether to put in the next exam application this month. So over Christmas, apart from normal practice, I was going to go through all the pieces on the syllabus to decide which to prepare, do some more theory (finish a workbook) and tie on some cane for some more scraping practice. Did any of that happen?

No it's not. I think you'll enjoy this video posted by one of my mates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzudolPNp80&sns=em

Unfortunately that's pretty much how I cycle when there isn't any snow at all

6 and a half hours to go.... I stupidly decided to go out and get completely obliterated last night Ugh.

That would explain the Beetlejuice picture Hope you get through the day OK

Second day of term and I've got one at home sick already

Headache.
Stuffy, stinging nose.
Sore throat.
Achy muscles.

Oh dear, impending cold. I can only hope it's bad enough for a day off work (I'd rather feel grottier and have a day in bed, than feel less grotty, keep working, and then next week have to correct all my grot-induced errors!)

Hubby went back to work yesterday after being on holiday from Christmas Eve. By 11pm he had succumbed to a stomach bug which kept him up for most of the night, so has spent the day either in bed or languishing on the sofa. He's still not well, so won't be going in to work tomorrow either.

Just hoping BerkshireSon and I don't catch it from him!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXLHWmjA5IE

tbqh.

that is pure genius!

(at least no-one here has a hurty knee )

man-cold...

My ears hurt so much!!
I never had ear infections as a child, alone or with a cold. A couple of years ago, at the age of 32, I had a very nasty cold which included ear pain for the first time ever. Now every cold I get includes serious amounts of ear involvement...hurting all on the inside where you can't get to it and you can't do anything about it...grrrrrr.

Ouch, poor Maizie Get better soon.

Aw, Maizie. I can sympathise - I used to get awful ear infections as a child and am currently suffering ear infection-like symtoms, and it's horrible. Hope you get better soon.

Sympathies, Maizie. I had awful ear infections as a child and can still remember the pain (and trying to sleep with my head on a hot water bottle).

Feel for you Maizie. I don't get ear infections often any more, but I had one a few years back that was the most painful thing I've experienced outside of childbirth.

I hope you're having it treated - recurrent ear infections can lead to hearing loss, as I've learned to my cost. Cherish your ears!

I do hop you're feeling better today Maizie. My son used to suffer from painful ear infections when he was little, until he had grommets when he was four. It made a huge difference, but even now when he has a cold, he's likely to get earache and it's one of the symptoms which is so hard to alleviate. If you think it's an infection, do get it treated.

Thanks all - I will mention it to my doctor next time I am there. I think it is a bit better today, especially re-reading what I wrote My colds now do seem to involve a bit of earache since that biggy two years ago, not heaps of earache as I said yesterday! But this one is the worst one in a while, i.e. proper ear pain not just 'stuffy ears' to go with 'stuffy nose' sort of thing.

All this talking of ears, my right ear is now itching, but down where you can't reach (and you're not supposed to poke things down there to scratch!)

Glad you're feeling a bit better. Hope you're back to full health soon

AAargh! Trains!!! According to the national rail website...trains from kings cross could be delayed up to 40 mins...broken down train at cambridge causing delays...etc. There's no actual indication of when/which trains might actually be running and the entire website seems to have pretty much groud to a halt presumably because everyone's about as confused as I am and trying to work out what on earth is going on. It will be a miracle if I actually manage to get to my recorder lesson on time this afternoon!

I've lost the piccolo part for Riverdance, which I desperately need to practise for a concert next Sunday. I can't believe it! I'm just so annoyed at myself! Gaaaarrrrr...

Never stick anything larger than your elbow down your ear........it's very dangerous.

What's up?

oh dear...

I have a liitle - first time in ages I can make an SRP meeting, and it's become a weather victim...

Argh.

I hate low C!

Would you prefer a top, top C?

How top is top?

I can hit that one sometimes if it's the one I think it is. Bottom C is not working though

The 4th C up. The one above the 5th ledger line.


Is your embouchure loose enough?

Argh! I was just getting into my essay stride, confidently discussing the importance of feminism in Angela Carter (and incidentally society)... And my 14 year old sister came online on msn with the screen name 'use me all you want babez, just dn't throw me away... <3 [boyfriend's name] forever and ever!!!11!', and I lost all hope for my generation.
It might just be an excuse to stop writing my essay, but I feel slightly sick writing about feminism now.

Probably not I've not managed it properly in ages. C# is fine, but the C rarely comes out

Have you checked the balance between the 2 keys? i.e. is the little roller you press for the C closing both the C and C# keys equally?

You have just solved the problem... thanks.

It must be embouchure-related then. Try bending the pitch of the C# downwards using your embouchure and airstream only (i.e. don't turn your flute in to make it flatter - that's cheating for the purposes of this exercise ). Once you are getting the C# to bend well, then try the C again.

I'm pretty sure I played it on saturday?

Edited my post

In that case the little screw which does the balance between the two keys needs adjusting. I've no idea how to do this on an Azumi flute though. I could do it myself on my old Pearl, but different flutes have different mechanisms and screws.

Thanks. One of those days when absolutely *everything* went wrong. I even lost the will to rant Can I scream some more?

I see. The roller is not closing the C# key as well as the "thing to play C#" key is.

I'll probably ask my teacher next week. Thanks for solving my flute issues Flossie

In that case you can probably get round it temporarily by pressing both the C roller and the C# key to get bottom C.