Last night was spent happily with Lori and her hair.

Yes folks! Lori actually trusted me with scissors and two packs of dye! The results below astound me (I've never cut long hair before even though it's only a trim) and please Lori.

Which is all good.

( My first attempt at hairdressing long hair... )

Back from Yorkshire. Tired but happy.

This was a rather eventful trip down. I could go into all the details but the gist is that even though I got an earlier train to Waverly a puddle on our side of the tracks had us sitting outside Gogarsburn for too long. Being 6 minutes late for the York service resulted in a 2 hour wait in Waverly and a 2 hour wait (midnight to 2am) in York, before the Manchester Airport service took me half an hour down the track to Leeds.

Apart from the travelling I had a lovely time. We visited my sisters' mum Rena, who was 55 at the weekend. Visited my Aunt Sandra and Uncle Trev who got to show me how far along she's got with the family history (it was 10 years ago she said she was almost finished and would give us all a copy. My mum says that 20 years ago she was telling her the same thing :-)

Visited my Grandad and aunt Mabel. Grandad's memory really is failing him. It took him such a while to remember who I was. It comes to us all doesn't it?

Can't wait till I can visit again and see my soon-to-be-born neice.

I've already been given a job for August- look after my newphews the night before the wedding. This was meant to be Hollie and Dave's job, my sisters friend, but Hollie is now pregant and will be 2 weeks off giving birth by the time Rosie's big day comes round.

Here's a wee heads up for all you lovely people who live in our dear green place.

Do you like MySpace? Do you have a sense of humour or are just curious?

Check out AyeSpace. I'm on there as Ayrshire_Lassy. I thought it looked interesting.

Today was a nice finish and start to a week.

It's the start of the working week in Rosebys and we finished today above target again. Yesterday we finished the week over £1000 over target! So a good weekend was had. Maybe we'll get a well done in the weekley budget emails, maybe we won't, but hey, we did our best for Angela.

After work I met up with tanngrisnir for a coffee in Cafe Nero in Easy Internet. We then ended up in Ichiban on Queen Street. Treated him to try and cheer him up, as well as extend the time he was spending out. It's was nice to see him.

I'm meeting up for a date tomorrow. Unsure whether it'll be indoors or outdoors yet but it'll be really nice to spend sometime together before he starts his nightshift.

Well. So much for that night out! I was supposed to be out helping zantic celebrate her birthday along with psychochicken, but turning up after a days work and a heavy meal I only had enough energy to sup a half pint of Kronenbourg Blanc before degenerating into a very tired lump in the corner. Sorry folks x

I'm home now and promptly going to bed. At least I'm not due in work till 11am and I close up shop at 4.30pm. Short day! Woo hoo!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to have coffee with tanngrisnir and maybe pass on some cushions and such like. (I'm clearing out most of my possesions.) Monday I have off! Can't wait tbh.

I've just been looking over brenmacneil's LJ site and found a list of up and coming dates of interest.

Some of the cinema dates which caught my eye were-

25 Jan - Sweeney Todd
26 Jun - The Chronicles of Narnia- Prince Caspian
25 jul - The Dark Knight
01 aug - Hellboy 2
07 nov - Bond (#22)
21 nov - Harry Potter and the half blood prince
26 dec - Star Trek XI

Maybe I'll lay off cancelling my Cineworld card till later in the year :-)

I feel totaly drained but happy tonight. Just slept for a few hours while Shae and Bruce, my flatmates, were out at the Viking re-enactment group. Some nice things have happened over the past couple of days. I'm aparantly sickeningly happy in work right now, or was that blissfull, anyway. Things are good.

Before work finished today a little girl walked up to me and handed me a bag of Thornton's chocolates. She thanked me. She was so happy that we'd kept her bag of Spongebob Squarepants toys that she'd lost around Christmas. Her mum came in a week ago to find them. It blew me away how earnest and sincere her thankyou was. Totally sweet.

Earlier in the day one of our favourite customers came in. Mandy. Mandy isn't actually a customer. Her mum is. Mandy is the sweetest wee pre-schooler you've met. Little oriental girl who has the whole shop smiling. Robert was jumping around the shop playing. She loves to come in as we all make a big fuss of her.

Got what should have been bad news but to be honest I just found it hilarious. Our cluster manager was in at the weekend when I was off. She criticised the wording of a poster I'd been told to put up by a ring-round from our Paisley store. She also criticised the notes I had hanging up detailing our Lost Property and what customers were asking for that we didn't have. She ripped these up. Aparantly I'm too efficient! Her biggest criticism of me is that I AM TOO EFFICIENT! Whatever next? I wonder if she'd give me a written warning I could show to future employers?

I thought I'd share a bit of my musical taste here.


An artist I found only in the past year is Azam Ali. She has one of those voices you can't help listen too. I'm fond of beautiful female voices and eastern influences so it's no surprise I've fallen for this angel.



http://www.azamalimusic.com/

( Hear some of her music here )

Other female musicians that make me smile are Eliza Carthy and Kate Rusby


http://www.eliza-carthy.com/

Eliza Carthy is the daughter of the group Waterson:Carthy. With folk roots and an amasing skill in fiddle playing, this woman is something to behold. She spans both the traditional and modern. Making the old her own.




http://www.katerusby.com/

Kate Rusby is another Yorkshire born folk singer. Her style is open and sweet. I first encountered her voice when she sang 'The Recruited Collier' with the band 'The Posies' on the soundtrack to the tv series Sharpe. After that the rest was history really. She too has a talent for staying true to the old while making it both her own, and lovingly new to todays audience.

You may have heard of the band 'Dead Can Dance', the collaboration of Perry and Gerrard. Well Lisa Gerrard has the most amasing voice! I came across her when I fell in love with the film Gladiator. The (at times) heart wrenchingly beautiful female voice is that of Lisa Gerrard.


http://www.lisagerrard.com/


Finally, some of you who know who she is and know her music may look at me in disgust here but I do like Loreena McKennitt. Some people find her music to be fake Celtic and it grates on their ears but I've found I like it.


http://www.quinlanroad.com/

Thanks for reading my little gush about a few of my favourite female artists. Hope you may find some enjoyment in their work.

Spent the day with a friend (Graeme) walking from the Botanic Gardens to Dawsholm Park via the Kelvin walkway, and back again. The world was white with frost. Seen quite a bit of wildlife. Herons, cormerants, the usual small bird fare, as well as a small vole and many kinds of fungus pointed out and named by Graeme.

Some of the frost was quite strange and spectacular. Take a look for yourself. It was almost like strands of fluff.








Some of the nine cormorants that seem to live along the Kelvin now.



EDIT- found out about the frost. They're frost beards! A form of frost flower.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost_flower
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:FrostBeardDetail.jpg

Please use the link below to navigate the listings. Otherwise they may quickly become confusing!

Note- values contained within brackets e.g (5), denote the condition of the books.
1 poor - 5 new condition


*Be quick! 12 Books sold already!


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Today was a satisfying day in work.

I found quite a few things lurking in the dust of the office and staff area that we'd been looking for. So now we can fulfill our health & safety and maintenance obligations. I can test the fire system as we now have the key, I can test the emergency lighting as I've now found the button and we can please the Fire Officer as I've found the fire assessment sheet. I sorted other things but my work in Rosebys can't really interest anyone but myself.

Last night was good. Went to Revolution for ellenorah's birthday. Got a bit drunk. A Jaffa Shake, WooHoo and Mudslide left me a bit tipsy. Ended the night eating a pizza I hadn't meant to buy, infront of the telly watching Constantine which I'd missed the start of. Alcohol is great. Cocktails are too tasty to be bad for you ;-)

Tonight I spend going through all my things. Sorting the rubbish from the charity stuff, and the items I'm keeping from the items I'm selling.

For those interested- I will post the items for sale up here on LJ before they go to auction. Lets friends have first dibs on offers before the general public. I will post prices too- or make me an offer!

Ah! It's so nice to start the new year afresh and have all the silly and tackiness of that wonderful Christian-Consumer-Celebration (Christmas) over and done with.

We had snow the other day. Not quite the Wonderland sort, but still nice to see.

2008, for me anyway, is shaping up to be something to look forward to. Or at least from this end of it. (I will post in full about this maybe next month but the weather forecast is looking bright!)

Good news today- one of my colleages got sacked. I know this is cruel of me to be happy. Those of you who had the misfortune to hear or meet this person will know they were of the smelly creepy sort that no one liked. The shop dynamics are wonderful now. We are like a small family. Our customers love coming in as we're 'noe like they dour gits in other shops'. ;-)

( After Boxing day... )

Christmas day was a blinder even though I wasn't holding out hope for it!

My sister Rosie. Who I've already gushed on here about how fab she is, my two brilliant wee nephews, the fact she's due soon with my new niece to complete the set, and that she's a cool wee big sis.

Well, she's to be married to Danny!
(Danny is sound. Total good bloke)

Yes ladies! Danny (who had aparantly phoned my Dad a wee while ago and asked his permission to marry his daugher) got down on one knee, on Christmas day, and popped the question! Rosie of course said yes!

I'm over the moon to see them happy. It'll be great having Danny as a brother-in-law.

More news from Christmas day will be revealed at a later date.

( Recap of the past four days for those interested. )

I need to lie down and sleep for a week! Or just sit with a cuppa for more than 10 minutes...

Can't complain really, though. It's my own doing that has me running about all over.

( Busy Week- Monday 17th to Sunday 23rd )

I am shattered tonight. I had a very busy weekend and loved every minute of it!

Friday night

I went over to Edinburgh after work and surprised Ali. We chanced upon a homeless bunch of flowers in the street, and then he bought me diner, which was lovely. He was going to a friends party so we made our way over the Meadows to the flat. On arriving I promptly fell asleep for the next four hours. Only waking up for the final hour of interesting conversations before heading for the bus. Ali enjoyed the party and I kept up my reputation of being unable to stay awake in Edinburgh. Might I add, though, that this is a phenomena also experienced by at least another of my friends; when she visits her bf in Edinburgh she too has problems staying awake. Comments about the fresh air and lazy West Coast lassies have been passed.



Saturday

I came back to Glasgow for Bedlam. Got all dolled up in my new fab dress. Picture it- dress just above knee level: chocolate with lime and turquoise leaves; halterneck. Ripped black fishnets. Black leather high-heeled killer boots with fully lace-up with white laces. Exotic eye makeup. I was almost too embaressed to go into the QM as I've never dressed like that. Lori was there so it was all good.

Crashed at Lori's after having Chinese round the corner at 3 in the morning. She has a super-king size bed- awesome! We slept in though.


Sunday

After a panicked dash about, a taxi, and getting lost we finally made it to the Yule Ritual in Pollok Park. It was a beautiful ritual. Moving.

We ended the day having lunch in the Burrell Collection cafe, a drive home with friends and a wander about the Xmas market. I got some last minute gifts. I aslo splurged a bit in Lush on bath bombs. I LOVE BATH BOMBS! Especially the Avobath, Honey Bee and the bath bar Blue Skies And Fluffy White Clouds. Next year I will be expanding my range of 'I LOVE...' lush products.

Lush is good.

I've been getting all excited over the approaching 2008. I'm happy and so excited I could dance about ... and I will! Part of all this energy has gone into research what will be happening in the coming year, and here's my list so far-


Saturday 1st- Thursday 6th March
Trip to Benidorm with my mum

Wednesday 30th April - Saturday 3rd May
Paisley Real Ale Festival (21 years of)
Paisley Town Hall

Friday 13th - Sunday 29th June
Glasgows West End Festival

Saturday 24th June
Pagan Federation Conference Edinburgh

Friday 18th- Sunday 20th July
Pagan Federation Summer Camp
Inchberry Hall, Moray

Saturday 30th August
Pagan Con Glasgow
Glasgow University Union


There will be more dates being added for camps and trips. Soon to be decided.

Acquired from rhionnach

Take the first sentence (or 2) from the first post of each month. This is your year in review. Or take the first few sentences as it made more sense to me to do so.


January
Just flying around town on my lunchbreak. Got an eye test booked for tomorrow as I've well and truly lost my glasses and slowly but painfully turning squint. The joy! lol.
Found out yesterday that Pappy's headstone is in place now. Black granite, very beautiful but very cold message on it.


February
*feebley waves* Just off my 8-7 second day of my first set of shifts.
Got my 4 day weekend to get through. Yes, get through- travelling to Wakefield on the 0700 Glasgow train. Can't be arsed if I'm honest. Dragging my brother with me too, about time he spoke to the Shearmans. Things are very low for me at the moment.


March
Yesterday I was down in Stevenston for the day. Things were only bad because of memories, as for the actual the day it was fine. My brother has cleared away Pappies hut (built from wood Pappy salvaged from his job in ICI- the planks still had the ICI mark on them) and his glass lean to. The glass house will be next and the hut that's left of the avairy. The backdoor will then be a blank canvas to be modernised and made sellable.


April
Holidays never last as they should. I could quite happily, in all seriousness, phone RBS and tell them what to do with the job. It would be so lovely to even have another week here.
The weather is a joy. 34C today, blue skies, nice humidity and a pleasant breeze; just another day in paradise as my Dad says. I've caught up with old friends, made many new friends and hope to be back sooner than my 3year gap.


May
The sun has just set. So really I've missed Beltane now. I hope you all had an enjoyable one in your own special ways. Nothing much to say really. Enjoyed my hours walk home, had my 'ready meal' of spagbol that I'd made yesterday, now about to have some of that rhubarb and apple crumble I made yesterday too.


June
This year just flies by and in one month alot has happened.
I spent one of my 4 day weekends in Spain with my mum, nan and brother. It was all mishaps and a bit of sun and shopping.


July
Today is the first anniversary of me graduating from University with my 2.2 honours in Zoology. Where am I? Working for Greenflag- the spawn of the Royal Bank of Scotland.


August
I awake to find I'm still in beautiful Scotland. Yesterday I got up and a strong summer sun was beaming in the window. Today we have the classic driechness. Refreshing downpours, mist hanging in the trees and fading the horizon. We are a country of moaners but I'm sure we would moan more if we didn't have variety :-)


September
Glad that weeks over. I always hate the 12-8 week.
I did get Wednesday off so got to spend it with Ali as he had it off too. Friday I spent at my mums. Nan is out the hospital but not looking great, bit ghostly. Got my hair cut at my mums so now I'm about on parr with Sinead O'Connor and G.I. Jane. Last night I headed over to Edinburgh to be with Ali. He had a shift on tonight so I'm back home now.


October
Greetings. Brief visit to the cyber world. We are still without internet but our broadband sorceress Shae is working on it!
It's Monday and I should be in work. I'm not though. I felt like crap so I called in sick. Pah! I'm going to get out of there. Who am I trying to kid that I actually can/want to last another SIX MONTHS in there!?! An extra months wages as a bonus is an incentive but it's taking the piss.


November
Fireworks Night! Didn't quite go with the bang I'd hoped but then again I hadn't actually given much notice or thought to it's organisation.


December
Strange Days. Went through to Edinburgh but things didn't really turn out as planned. I sat reading book nine of Sandman in the Auld Hoose pub on the Pleasance. Put away almost a full bottle of 'Clever Currant' Caern O Mohr wine to myself and met up with Ali.



So that was my year. Ups and downs, though; such is life.

I've been clearing out my email folders and came across the one named 'Jokes'. I do apologise but I couldn't resist posting afew up.





( World's Easiest Quiz )

( Church Misprints )

( Ain't it True! )

( Hips )

( Billy Connolly )

( Diets )


The next thrilling installment will include funny pictures!

Here are the pictres of my mums new cat that some of you have been waiting for-

( Suzie )

Strange Days.

Went through to Edinburgh but things didn't really turn out as planned. I sat reading book nine of Sandman in the Auld Hoose pub on the Pleasance. Put away almost a full bottle of 'Clever Currant' Caern O Mohr wine to myself and met up with Ali. Though I was really there to meet up with Vy and John. They were meant to be coming through to Glasgow for the weekend but Vy wasn't well therefore I came over to join them in Edinburgh. I think things have gotten a bit worse as she didn't make it out the house.

The night ended with me going home with Ali after a heart to heart and much crying over a couple of topics.

Saturday was a nice day spent at the German Christmas market off Princes Street. It ended with us watching Firefly back at the flat and me being a sickie. I had a lovely throat and nasal infection and a rather high temperature.

Today I'm pretty much fine. My throat is almost clear and my temperature has gone down. Just got a sniffle.