Water, water, everywhere...

Don't you just hate it when you come home from a great night out with the girls to find not one, but TWO people having a wee in your road?? What is it that encourages the nation's youth to piddle liberally in public? The first one was bad enough - five metres away from the main road, and I was forced to athletically leap over the small stream that was running down the pavement. I was NOT amused: I was wearing my favourite pair of shoes (as is warranted on girly nights out). I continued on my way with much tutting and huffing and turned down the side alley that leads to my gate. 'Nearly home, pyjamas, tea, bedbedbed', I was thinking merrily to myself. Not quite.

Perhaps here I should explain: the gate to my flat is located at the end of an alley (where I park my car). The alley is rather wide, has a dead end and obviously space for parking. Anyway, back to my journey home... As I turned into the alley, I was firstly almost mown down by a youth on a bicycle who was SHOUTING at a girl who was SQUATTING down behind my car. With the evident intention of weeing there. 'Please don't wee on my car!' I cried (I'd had a few drinks - otherwise I would have scuttled off). A conversation then ensued between the two youths as to if she was going to go there or not, as I flung myself through my gate in shock. I think that she made apologetic noises, but I'm not sure if that was real, or the shock of being caught short behind a car. I was VERY relieved to finally get home.

The one where I do something daft. Again.

Occasionally, in my busy life of Woman About Town (this is what I would like you to believe, my real life of Woman On Sofa is considerably less exciting), I manage to do something quite surprisingly stupid. This is not perhaps as rare an occurance as I would like it to be. This week, I reminded myself quite how skillful I am in the stupidity area. On my way out of the house to fulfull the important task of getting my fringe cut, I closed the door behind me with a sinking feeling. I was on the outside, but my keys were on the inside. Yes folks, I managed to lock myself out of my own house.

Now - I have to be thankful for small mercies - if I didn't do these occasionally daft things, I would have a lot less to write about, so I guess every cloud really DOES have a silver lining. However, when it's pouring with rain and I can see my keys through the letterbox, I am inclined to have something of a sense of humour failure.

It's not like it's the first time I've forgotten to pick up my keys before I leave the house either, I have in fact done it before. At least this time I was alone. Last time I was with my sister and I don't think she was amused. However, I did manage to fashion a rather magnificent key-fishing tool out of a coat hanger, a bamboo cane and a roll of parcel tape (those endless years of avid Blue Peter watching evidently paid off). AND I managed to get my keys with it. This time though, there were no helpful neighbours nearby and the most useful things I could find were a couple of soggy sticks and some garden wire. I managed to prod my keys slightly further away from the door, but that's as far as it got. I was forced to admit defeat, phone The Housemate and sound pathetic enough for him to come and let me back in. Luckily, he did, and I only had to sit shivering on the steps outside my flat for about 15 minutes. Just enough time to phone my parents to tell them how stupid I was and to update my Facebook status to let the whole world know too. (WHY do I feel the need to do that?)

So, my happy thing really has to be the wonder of human kindness. It's good to know that there are helpful people out there when you are in the middle of a personally inflicted crisis. Now, where can I hide the spare set of keys....

Shoepershoe challenge #1 - off to a good start

I am a dedicated shoe-aholic and I have spent a good deal of time and money investing in a collection of beautiful shoes that I mostly never wear. For some reason I'm always drawn to the more fabulous end of the shoes spectrum and I work in a park where such footwear is rather out of place and occasionally looks downright stupid.

However, I think maybe 2011 is the year in which I should make the effort to look downright stupid, so I've signed up to the Shoepershoe Challenge and aim to wear every single one of my 54 pairs of shoes by February 14th 2012. A challenge indeed.

And here are my first ones!!

I am GOING to improve on my photography technique. Maybe with a proper camera, or an assistant, or something. Anyway, these are my favourite Dune wedges. I love them because they go with EVERYTHING and they are damn comfy to wear. I partnered them with my green dress from Gap-in-America, and a ubiquitous (for this time of year) grey cardie. Here's a close up.

I'm not much loving the 'cankles' in the picture, or the fact that they look a bit too big (they aren't) but at least my shoes can be admired in their full splendour. I actually got called glamorous at work whilst wearing them, which always makes me think of grannies, and feels like a bit of a backhanded compliment, but I guess you have to take it on the chin. I don't think I'm going to manage to wear all my shoes at work though - somehow I think my red, patent KGs or my purple and gold suede numbers might be a little on the overdressed side... 

Waiting...waiting...waiting

It's Thursday already and I have NO idea where this week has gone, or what I've been doing for most of it. I do know that work has been Very Busy. I'm not sure I even have anything interesting or funny to write about, but I thought I'd make the effort and do some Good Typing, just in case anyone is interested in what I have to say.

I had the fortuitous opportunity this week to display some of my control freakiness about Time Management. Now, this is a MAJOR issue of mine. Whenever I've arranged to see anyone (friends/family/work/doctors/ANYTHING) I am always, always at least 15 minutes early, I tend to add contingencies for contingencies onto my journeys. I spend a lot of time waiting. And waiting. And looking at my watch. And waiting. I think you get the picture. In the strange corridors that make up my mind, if you make a meeting for 2pm, it STARTS at 2pm, so you be there, ready, BEFORE then. I hopped about with a great deal of impatience yesterday when the group of students I was working with were late. I think I went out to look for them (just in case they missed the BIG ENTRANCE DOOR) about five times, stared out of the window at everyone who went past and . This week so far, I spend 25 minutes waiting for my friends at the Museum of London, about half an hour on Tuesday and another 20 minutes today for another meeting. That's over an hour of my life I have wasted this week stomping about and muttering to myself in a sort of '...late...rude...useless...big stick...late' fashion. Argh. This is NOT GOOD. I need to make people wait for ME for a change (I think I'm worth it...).

As for things that have made me happy for the last few days, I've been rushing about so much that I haven't had the chance to take pictures of anything. I wore my favourite shoes on Tuesday (just cos I could - that's the level of craziness I work to), and the sun looked amazing as I left work today. I also saw some real life daffodils growing out of the ground (and not out of a bucket in Tesco).

My name is Zoe and I am a cheese-oholic

As anticipated, I am feeling rather toxic after an excessive weekend. I did have a lot of fun though, so I'm pretty sure it's allowed. However, I feel like I might give red wine, cheese and G&T a wide berth for the next few weeks days at least. I hope they don't feel abandoned.

Cousin Liz and I had a very good time catching up and putting the world to rights over a bottle (or two) of Rioja. When we weren't drinking, we were eating, and on the rare occasions we weren't doing either, we were probably preparing for or recovering from a different session of indulgence. Ah well, I can't be a respectable and upstanding member of the community at all times, that would be frightfully dull. I would like to spend just a line or two trying to put into words the extreme pleasure associated with the discovery of one Worcestershire sauce flavoured cheese - my cholesterol levels must have rocketed. I won't dwell on the memory too much - I still feel slightly sick.

We did manage to venture into the great outdoors on Saturday and I took Liz on a tour of the place where I work. I expect my general enjoyment of the outside world might become rather boring in as spring continues to...er....spring, but please humour me.

Crocus shoots - yay!

On Sunday I came over all cultural and went to see the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead exhibition at the British Museum. It was very interesting, and my friends and I only giggled in corners once or twice.

Having decided that I would virtuously stick to lemonade during our post cultural drinkies, I accidentally drank about five G&Ts. Whoops. I hate it when that happens.   

Just call me Jane Fonda...

I have been SO good this week. I've been for a run, a long walk, and yesterday I did my first ever Zumba class and it's ONLY Thursday. Even better - I've been really healthy at eating, have had no crisps at all AND my lunch today included celery. I seriously think I've lost AT LEAST half a stone. I'm sure I deserve to after all that effort.

I thought I had better be good this week as my cousin Lizzie is visiting me for the weekend. Our family feel we are a Bad Influence On Each Other - mainly because when we get together we drink a lot of red wine and giggle. So, I've been detoxing in preparation for the retox.

Back to the Zumba thing - on Monday I decided I would try a new exercise class. I already run a bit, play badminton and up until The Fall, was a fairly regular rider, so I'm not hideously unfit - but I fancied a change. Now, I decided to do this on Monday because it takes me a while to talk myself into committing to exercise - I have to psych myself up to it. This way there's less chance of me getting 'distracted' by sitting down when I get home. So, last night, I ventured to Zumba. I registered, signed in, and then spent 10 minutes standing at the side of the room all by myself humming to myself and sporadically checking my phone, just for something to do, and smiling at other loners. You see, I was Brave, and went on my own. Anyway, no one talked to me - I think maybe the inane smiling and humming might have made the wrong impression.

All of a sudden, everyone arranged themselves into lines and the dancing (zumba-ing, whatever you call it) began. I found a space and attempted to fling myself in the right directions at the right times. I only got a few evil looks (mainly from the woman next to me - I think she took some form of instant dislike) and managed not to hit anyone (or myself). I have reasonable rhythm, but it turns out that somewhere in the last few years I seem to have misplaced the ability to coordinate my arms and legs with each other. My arms in particular behaved in a very unruly fashion - they were either doing everything backwards, in the wrong direction or, rather alarmingly, at double speed. It was like they didn't belong to me at all. I shouldn't really be shocked by this, as I am the only person I know who has managed to hit their own self in the head with their own badminton raquet. No, I don't know how I managed that either.

Today my body is punishing me a bit for all this unwarranted exercise, but I guess that just means it's working. I certainly feel a bit smug from my excesses, and feel justified in being lazy tonight, and celebrated by putting on my pyjamas when I got home from work. It's also raining. A lot.

In which I get inspired, go shopping and become a domestic goddess

Okay, so I've decided to drop the daily (ish) posting thing. I'm still going to think about my Happy Things and take pictures of them, but just have round ups a couple of times a week. I'm a busy girl.

On Thursday, I went on a conference and met an Inspirational Person. It doesn't happen often in my field, but this week I got lucky. One of the speakers was an ex-sportswoman who had turned away from the multi million ££ lifestyle to open an environmentally sustainable business. There was just totally no bullshit about her, and I really like that. I think, however, I might like to try the multi million lifestyle just a little bit, just for a few weeks, just in case I really like it. It's not likely to happen in this lifetime though.

This weekend has been another quiet one, so I decided to revisit one of my favourite hobbies - shopping. I had a purpose, honest. I needed to buy some black trousers for work. Finding suitable work trousers is kind of like trying to find the holy grail. My most recent pair of black trousers were purchased in 2002 when I started working, so I felt it was reasonable to try and buy some new ones, especially as the old ones went to charity quite a while ago. There's only so much dressing and undressing that I can cope with in one day though, and after the too-tight-camel-toe variety (HOW can size 12 differ so much from place to place??), the too long (is everyone else in the world a giant?) and the downright hideous (I'm not even going to go there), I have been forced to conclude that the trouser look and me just don't go together. So, I went home empty handed... apart from the blue dress and the grey cardigan which had more than 50% off - it was practically free. Obviously. Shopping = Very Happy Thing.

A strange feeling came over me today - I was consumed with the urge to cook huge amounts of food to put in the freezer. Once it is in the freezer, I will admire it and feel smug that I am so efficient, and most likely forget to eat it. Never mind, the motive was a good one. Apart from my crazy cooking afternoon, my Happy Thing for today was my first sighting of spring. Yay! I saw some crocus buds peeping out of the round-about island near to where I live. It's quite a challenge taking a photo whilst in a car in traffic, but I managed it.

 If you look reeeeaaalllly carefully, you might just make them out. Hooray for spring!

2nd February 2011 - Lights of London (ish)

After a busybusy day at work (are there any other kind?), I've been to the cinema again this evening with my friend Nic. Tonight we went to see Black Swan. And I really DON'T GET IT. Okay, so the acting was great, blahblahblah, but I don't understand. Was it real? Was it all just madness? I have no answers. I just don't know. I feel like it might have been trying to be slightly too clever, at least, it certainly was for me.

On the walk home, I took this photo of the lights shining in the river in Richmond.

It looked much better in real life, honest. Note to self: start carrying a proper camera around instead of relying purely on the iPhone.

1st February 2011 - Sunrise, early in the morning...

My happy thing for today was pretty much the first thing I saw when I looked out of the window.

I likes a good sunrise.

31st January 2011 - Not making an idiot of myself and shoeper shoe challenges!

I did a clever thing today - I managed to turn up to my course on the right day, in the right place, at the right time. A great achievement, I realise. After the disaster that was last week, I was pleased.

For a while now, I have been blog-following http://www.shoeperwoman.com/, a woman after my own heart with a passion for all things shoey. Over the last year, Shoeperwoman has been undertaking a challenge to wear all of her collection - use them or lose them. This year, she's encouraging her followers (this is where I come in) to do the same, starting on 14th February. As a long term shoe affictionado (it's genetic - my mother and grandmother are JUST as bad as me), I'm going to give it a go. So, in a little over a week from now, I am going to have to start investigating my archive and wearing my shoes. Please note: I have a lot of fabulous heels and I work in a PARK. It's going to be tough.

So, my happy thing today is OF COURSE my own shoes. There are some very good friends in my cupboard. Actually, there are 54 pairs of friends, and here are a few of my favourites.

As part of the challenge I need to take photos of me wearing the shoes, so look out for my mission to rescue my babies.

28th & 29th January 2011 - OUCH

So I've been doing good photographing of happy things each day - just not of posting so I'm settling down for a catch up session this evening.

The weekend was another quiet one, I do enjoy the credit crunch SO much. And luckily, this weekend began with no hangover, which was a bonus. I don't remember doing anything of great excitement at all on Saturday - it was one of those sorts of days. Sunday though, was a bit more dramatic.

After a lot of soul searching, procrastinating and moaning to everyone who would listen (and a few who probably didn't - I'm sorry about that) I've decided to give up the horse share. It's expensive, a long way to travel and I REALLY need to save up some money after the redundancy thing and ploughing through my savings. So, today was my last ride as a proper sharer. I was expecting a few tears, perhaps a bit of an emotional goodbye with Connor when he'd try to knock me over with his head, bite me - that sort of thing.

WRONG.

It was a beautiful sunny day, so we went for a last hack around the beautiful Epsom Downs. The view from the top was amazing, I could see right across London. I thought it would be nice to have one last gallop up the hill before we headed for home. So off we went. Like a rocket - or even worse - like my sister after a packet of Skittles. And he wouldn't stop. Not for me, not for the walkers who were forced to leap out of the way to safety, and finally not for the LARGE TREE IN FRONT OF US. I did the only thing possible in such a situation, I fell off, into a bush. Note to readers: falling off a horse galloping flat out is NOT FUN. The two main thoughts that flashed through my mind were 'how the hell am I going to catch the disobedient bigger' and 'how the hell do I get back on'. Luckily, I managed not only to do both, but not cause myself any significant damage. I do have this rather beautiful reminder though

As bruises go, I think it's quite splendid.

As for the Happy Thing in this whole episode, it's probably that I didn't break my neck. You've got to take pleasure in the simple things!