I'm working in an office not far from the Houses of Parliament. There has been a helicopter overhead for most of the day now. It's beginning to get more than a bit annoying.

I can hear the same helicopter from here! Around Soho.

Only just saw this.
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And more good wishes for lilly. Hope she feels like returning in another guise, as some other folks have done...


Definitely take them. I'm not as brave as TSax with tenor sax but I've taken my oboe with me on several occasions.

I think I might leave it behind in February, though, when I go off to Winnipeg. I don't think it will like going from +30C to -30C (or even down to -50C with the wind chill factor). Nor horribly dry centrally-heated hotel rooms.

Aarrgghh!!! I managed to leave my plastic dustpan on a HOT ring and now there's melted plastic on the hob - and I have a flat inspection next week! Does anyone know how to remove melted plastic from an electric ring?

When I did that with a plastic collander, I waited for the hob and the plastic to cool down, and then lifted it off and threw it away.

Ok, most of it came off, I think I'll just have to scrape the rest off...fun

I dislike paperwork.

I didn't know that Grieg arranged Mozart's piano sonata K 545 in C for two pianos. on Radio 3 and doesn't sound very good to me...

Very miffed with a squirrel in our garden. We have (had!) 3 small daisy type plants. A female squirrel has completely denuded one of all its leaves. I saw her. She carefully selects the choicest leaves and then <snip> with the incisors and sits and munches them .... in full view of the kitchen window. When she sees me watching, she simply turns her back so she can't see me. The cheek of it!

Regular readers will know that I have a slight unfortunate tendency to damage when allowed loose in a kitchen.

Sbhoa has watched me stab myself in the hand with a fork while trying to open a tin of tomatoes, while Andante in C has had to check all my fingers were present after chopping veg, and I've lost count of the number of times I've impaled myself on sharp knives while trying to stack the dishwasher. (Actually, I think it's three times. Or maybe four.)

Todays oops is even more stupid than those - moving a used chopping board to the washing up without checking where on the board's surface the knife used with it was (or wasn't as it turned out). Direct hit on my left foot by falling knife.

Who's idea was it to get me to do all the new starter forms todays? 22 of the things, I don't want to see another of those for a long time, I did nothing but creat user accounts for 5 hours today.

Has someone done a toe count?

Poor katyjay. Hope your foot's ok.

It's fine thanks, Katica. All toes present and correct.

Well at least it couldnt damage your lovely voice !

Are there no tin openers in the Jay household?!

Sorry to hear about your foot. Please don't ever try using a chain saw, will you?!

Well yes, there is a tin opener. But this was one of those tins with a ring-pull, and I couldn't prise the ring-pull up to pull the can open, so I used the nearest implement to try and lift the ring-pull, which was a fork. And then I missed.

my dear houseguests managed to lock me out by putting the nightlatch on. I had to call my neighbour at 12:30am. Never something I want to do. Really quite cheesed off, PRECISELY BECAUSE I had explained the whole nightlatch thing to them. WHY don't people listen????

I have not done my ironing.

I am thankful for small mercies - as Andy has no work, I have no shirts to iron....

Surely the t-shirts/ polo shirts he wears need ironing?

not if he's not going out of the house!! I hate ironing and only do what is absolutely necessary - oh and I've trained 13yo daughter to do her own uniform

LOL Ironing, erm whats the point? Unless you are wearing smart shirts?

Yes, that says how lazy about housework I am but at least I have a little more time for the things I love doing

I have ironed half my shirts. The rest can wait until after work tommorow.

Sounds painful! I should try a spoon handle next time - easier on the hands.

Isn't the English language wonderful? I could imagine from the above that VH has ironed the left hand half of all of his shirts!

overheard conversation on the bus.

"My daughter has just started having some dental work done. She's got one of those big brace things to wear at night time. Fortunately she doesn't have to wear it during the daytime because teeth only move at night."

Yes indeed, as we approach Christmas, its worth repeating a story from last year of the little lad who chose to breathe in the wrong place whilst playing the first wise man in his nativity play:-

'We have come to see the baby (breath) Jesus, we have come a long way !'

Ouch! Miscalculated.

My mother's car is parked on the road outside my house. She is not in the car. Nor is she in my house.

I just popped out for a quick walk at lunchtime, in to town, stopped at the bank where the ATM promptly ate my card and refused to give it back. 15 minutes later they managed to retrieve it (which saved an engineer, an emergency cash withdrawal on my driving licence information, and waiting to see if I could get my card back). Then of course the shops were much busier so I had to queue longer. But I popped in to my optician and the lady receptionist was very helpful and even had an appointment tomorrow at 9.30 for me to have which is good (now hopefully Mr Optician can work his magic like he has before so I can only see one of everything again ) Which all meant my quick walk in to town took about 30 mins longer than it should!

And now I have walked back home and my mother's car is there...but she isn't...

Am pondering a name change ...... The observant among you should still be able to identify me by what I choose ...... Feel the need not to total anonymity ..... but to be a bit less obvious about who I am ......

She not doing your back garden is she ??

Nope, I checked out there too! I've also checked all the rooms in the house so she's not hiding. Well, unless she's in a wardrobe, but I've been home long enough now, she could never stay hidden for 45 minutes I'm checking out the window every few minutes to see if her car is still there...!

Long time, no see.

Hope all's well.

One can get a bit cavalier about Internet anonymity... until something gives a jolt. I recently discovered that someone I'd have called a stalker if the term had been around 30 years ago has been Googling me - even though I haven't seen him in that 30 years (thank Heavens). He found nothing I suspect/hope because I have a very common name. All the same, it feels creepy and I am looking over my (virtual and real) shoulder once in a while.

^^^ agree entirely. I don't mind people knowing who I am in "real life" but I just don't want to have my username and my real name together in one place, because that makes it searchable online.

I also had to change: Guess its about time I removed my former username from my signature. I think most people have got used to this one now...

Same here....

Has Mrs Maizie turned up yet ??

She must have done, as her car went away. I can only assume she was here on this road to visit someone other than me!

I've been lurking a little but not been on so much no .... Had a major jolt in the summer - and have reassessed my life a bit .... Spending less internet time in general now.

Nice to be missed tho'

On the name change front still not sure ... I mean I have many posts with references to my daughter using association to my username so it'd be obvious who I was ..... but I'm aware of the smallness of the world and that 2 parts of your musical life that were entirely separate can come together and suddenly you wonder if the discussions you've had on here about previous/current teachers, pupils, colleagues etc were so wise .... Though we all have to have a place to ask those things that bother us, seek advice and obtain guidance I'd like it if people couldn't obviously identify me.....

So is a name change the way to go?

I must admit I have been wondering something similar.... Dawns change together eh? Now that would confuse everyone

I like it !!! Yeah you become me and I'll become you - that'd really confuse them

Since Dawn = sunrise, you could be Sunrise 1 and Sunrise2

I was thinking about Aurora as that is sunrise in Spanish....

Tesco's tiramisu is much nicer than Sainbury's. (Sainsbury's's?? )

EDIT: But why does their bread taste of lemon?

*surprised I managed to remember my password to this forum*

My BT webmail account got suspended. I had to call BT tech dept. to get it unlocked/reset. I never thought I would ever call a helpdesk as I work on one myself.

Just out of interest , the 3rd movement of Shostakovich 12th Symphony is called 'Aurora' apparently after a battleship. But the 4th movement is named 'The Dawn of Humanity' . How strange is that !!