Nips and Wips

Clever bloggie friends, you've rescued me again!

Thank you Abby of Manx Mnews and Amy of the House of Cats for pointing out that the B to the left of my blog homepage is also "dashboard". I have never even noticed that B to the left, let alone clicked on it!

I'll be sure to have a big choccie muffin in both your honours! :-)

Apologies to Blogger for thinking they were trying to control me against my will. Next time I shall just have a nice cup of tea if I think such things again!

Isn't the blog an amazing community?

Speaking of which (notice the not so smooth segueway there! LOL!), I found this fab site The Global Language Monitor. It tracks the amazing way language (they concentrate mainly on the English language) continues to evolve.

Blog was added to the official Oxford English and Oxford American Dictionaries in 2005.

In 2009 the top word in the English language was Twitter.

Language is definitely very much alive and kicking!

I find super duper evidence of this in all your fab blogs from the use of "nipfests" - catnip indulgence to "wips" - works in progress.

Charlie says: I'm off to find some nip while you work on your wip.



Have wordfest Sunday everyone!

Old Stick in New Mud

I think Blogger is trying to tell me something. No not trying – more like blatantly telling me something very specific.

If I look at the right hand side of my blog homepage screen: “Dashboard” has been removed.

The words are now “Your@email - New Post - DESIGN - Sign Out”

Personally, Dashboard is the most useful link for me – click on it and I am in my “Blogs I Follow" page and I can view the comments left by you lovely bloggie friends.

For Blogger to remove the "Dashboard" quick link and add "Design" is therefore a BIG THING.

And the way I see it, Blogger is screaming:

“Your blog is OLD – it needs to be revamped - look at our new young fresh templates – choose one now! Click on the Design button. NOW!”

It’s a shame then that I don’t take kindly to sudden changes or to blatant hints! LOL!

Then again, I could be such a stick in the mud when I want to be.

No wonder my mother despairs.

[To get to Dashboard, I now click on New Post, then Dashsboard.]

Charlie says: I don't think it's your blog that needs a revamp. Look at this mess!



Have a summery Saturday everyone!

Frollicking Friday

The wonderful Susan Fields nominated me for this really pretty award - thank you, Susan!

To earn it I must reveal 7 true things about myself. Yikes!

1. I can't swim. I've got numerous Certificates of Attendances to prove that I have tried to learn and I've even got the swimming cozzie just in case the Thames breaks its barriers. But alas, I wasn't put on this earth to float...

2. I'm a snorer.

3. I used to want to be "an air hostess" until I stopped growing at 5ft 2 inches (without heels) - this was before the days of Equal Opps.

4. I tend to speak to myself alot. Once in a supermarket (not Waitrose!) I caught myself doing it only because a couple of people were staring at me. In my defence, I didn't know which flavour cat food the Cat would like and was trying come to a decision - not my fault the Cat couldn't come shopping with me!

5. I have a real aversion to mobile phones.

6. I think Barry Manilow is the Second Coming.

7. These days, I cry a lot. Especially after watching Beaches..

Now before I nominate everyone, just another quick note to say: Look what you can buy online AND in bookshops!!!!

And nominations go to you gorgeous guys and gals and if you've got it already, have another one!
fairyhedgehog - again for the lovely Hamster! , musings on a small life , stacy's cafe , substituteteacher's saga - hope you're feeling better! , spinster of the parish , welshcake , lexi , cat in the buff , block or not , Mille ,Ann , patch of dirt , Jane , Alex, Kate , Jenny Woolf , SuzyQ , Noir , KarenG
Amanda , Melinda , Amy and the House of Cats , Amy and the Meow Family , iasa , Susan, Wild Cat Woods , Simon , Umi_e, Sharon, VKT

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Roll out the Red Carpet and a dog called Skeletor.

I've got an award! Yay!

The fab Nicki of Wool'N'Nuts has nominated me for this award:

Thank you, Niki!
Now for the piece de resistance...

I have to tell six untruths and one not so! Eeek!

1) I am 6 ft 2 with golden flowing locks, legs up to my armpits, cheekbones to rival the best ski slopes and a wiggle that always stops traffic dead.

2) I am descendent from an ancient Martian race who crash landed on earth trillions of years ago but who have now been so assimulated with the human population that no-one knows how the First Ones looked like

3) I worship at the Altar of Chocolate and pray to the Goddess of Muffins. Everyday. Without fail. At least 3 times daily. During the Periods of Brunch, TeaTime and Dessert. It says so in the Book of Cocoa

4) I love Marmite. On Everything. Except on muffins.

5) I can belly dance.

6) I've been handed a court order to stop stalking the original cast of Star Trek.

7) I've always liked P.E lessons. Always.

Phew!! That was HARD! I think now you have to guess which is the truth amidst the cornucopia of lies. I just want to run away and hide somewhere safe... LOL!

And this is the best bit. I get to nominate... EVERYONE!! Well six but Maths has never been my strong point!

fairyhedgehog - again for the lovely Hamster! , musings on a small life , stacy's cafe , substituteteacher's saga , spinster of the parish , welshcake , lexi , cat in the buff , block or not , Mille ,Ann , patch of dirt , Jane , Alex, Kate , Jenny Woolf , SuzyQ , Noir , KarenG
Amanda , Melinda , Amy and the House of Cats , Amy and the Meow Family , iasa - hope you're feeling better! , Susan, Wild Cat Woods , Simon , Umi_e, Sharon

And finally... a little lovely story brought to my attention by the fab Amy and the House of Cats.

A guy is having his breakfast on his porch. A dog wanders up to him. The dog is a great big pit bull. The dog is also starved, neglected, abandoned and very hungry. The guy is now looking after the dog, called Skeletor. Here is their story.

Have a lovely Saturday!

A Happy ending for Brenda ! And a home for Charlie..

Story no. 1: SOS Brenda Carter:

This is a great true story. And it could only have unfolded in blogworld.

If you know about it, I hope you don't mind me re-telling it again! It has all the ingredients of a short story thriller! There is mystery, intrigue, community spirit and eventual happy ending.

Yesterday the rather wonderful womagwriter sent out this SOS on her blog post entitled: "Calling Brenda Carter".

Apparently the editor of Women's Weekly loved a story submitted to the magazine so much she wanted to publish it. But - and this is A BIG BUT! - the author didn't attached any contact details to the story. All the editor knew was that the story was written by a Brenda Carter.

The editor asked a few classy blogs for their help and so the SOS was sent out. For a few frantic blog posts whizzing all over a place, a virtual cry of "Calling Brenda Carter" went up in glorious virtual technicolour.

You can read how the this story unfolded in the comments section of the SOS piece here.

I'll let you guess what happened next.

Moral of the story: the nice blogging community ROCKS! Oh and always attach your contact details to any submission that you send out to editors.

Story no. 2: Charlie needs a new home.

This story is looking for a happy ending:

Charlie the cat needs a new home. You can read his story here and see glorious pics of him too. If you can help please do. I'd love for this to have a lovely ending like Brenda Carter's.




Cat Clip Art">

p.s. It's MY WEEKLY not Woman's Weekly, sorry! :-)

A plumber with a big wrench

Intruder alert!

The Cat and I huddle in fear and trepidation while Tony the plumber stomps along in the loft, runs up and down staircases and gallops in and out of the house. All to fix the water tank.

The only safe place for the Cat is behind the door of my little office space. At first she stares up at me with big black eyes. Then she falls asleep.

It's my turn to find my own safe place. Or places.

And I find them here:

Ann's poem inspired by the everyday.

Kate's flash fiction story.

Catdownunder's father's wisdom.

fairyhedgehog's amazing Rufus and hammock!

EllenB's reflective piece.

KarenG's evil laugh. Much nicer than the plumber's stomp.

Joel Strickly's oh so true silliness.

SF's (and now mine!) wishlist.

Spinster of the Parish's knowing observation. No it's not a rant!

Welshcake's dog that she doesn't have!

My horror at discovering Lexi's real surname (you're forever Revellian to me!).

Constantly clicking Guy Saville's site so he'd get lots of hits and finally gets published! Come on Curtis Brown do yer job! :-)

And because I do love planting something and watching it grow to goodness knows what, I await with anticipation the progress in Kate's garden.

And because I do love baking I hope to see more yummy fudge and buttery goodies at Plain Jane (anything but!)'s and more yummy pastry experiments at Lacer's.

And the many, many, many, more blogs I continue to visit and the many, many more I hope to discover soon.

The Cat's and my equilibrium are now fully restored.

Oh and the overflow pipe no longer leaks. Thank you, Tony.

p.s. I did offer Tony a cup of tea but he didn't like the soya milk that went with it.

pps. And this was Tony's parting adieu: "I've never seen anyone with so many shoes."