Today I did something very stupid….

And as you all know that is very unusual for me!

I had a meeting today at a Primary School in an old pit village outside Barnsley. This village is pretty much how you would imagine a very depressed area with high unemployment. The school is practically a prison. The fences are 6ft high palisade with the tops that are designed to kill burglars. These fences aren’t designed to keep the children in but rather the druggies out at night. This particular school also happens to be slap bang in the middle of the village’s council estate. Lots of the houses are boarded up and covered in graffiti.

So I arrive just about on time for my meeting this afternoon. The school has some LEA funding due to it being in such a shit area. I think it is classed as being poorer than most of Usbekistan. The school are targeting the early years in an effort to get the youngest children toilet trained or something along those lines. They therefore are building a brand spanking new foundation unit.

Enter Jane. This school is an hour and a quarter drive from shef. I need a wee and am in a rush. And a flap. She is on time but will be late if she doesn’t get a wiggle on and change out of her driving shoes, brush hair, locate drawings, etc. It is also pissing down with rain. I run inside. Have 2 hour meeting discussing merits of scheme and how LEA have no money. At this point school has finished and not many people are about. It is still pissing down.

Return to car. Realise I have left lights on. I am also, bear in mind, in the middle of nowhere, a distinctly dodgy nowhere. Get in car. Try and start it. BUGGER. Not working. Before all you lot go ‘How on earth could you forget?’, the bullet does not have a buzzer telling you the lights are on when you open the door. Far to sophisticated for a J reg Nova. I start to wonder whether I really should have joined the AA. Like the advert where the bloke bought some Jeans instead of joining and then got stuck. (Except I have a nasty feeling I spent mine on gin.)

Then my client (a typical local authority employee who is incredibly nice but a bit useless) appears. Thank god…savour in a crumpled suit. Mr W (for that is his name) very kindly jump started the bullet for me. I am so grateful the school car park was on a bit of a hill. He then told me to be careful not to stall it on the way home and drove off.

The paranoia. I hardly ever stall. I have never driven as carefully as I did on my way back to shef. I made it though and the bullet is safely outside and I will never leave the lights on again. Really.

I've been saving this since Friday's Final

A quick note about a TV programme that all 3 of us at Ball Road got addicted to for the last month. Masterchef goes Large.

This programme (series linked) was for half an hour every week day and was the 2nd year of the updated version of the Masterchef programmes that odd bloke from ‘Through the key hole’ presented in the nineties. (His name escapes me at the moment but he now has a line of pasta sauces oddly.)

After a month of viewing and a final that lasted a whole week I just had one thing to say. Digger Dean was robbed. Peter should have been chucked out weeks ago for being a pompous idiot.

I feel a bit better for having a public forum to express this view. I may even email the BBC.

Ill

Today I have a cold. Not flu or anything. Just a cold. I hate colds. That is all.

Photos Imminent

I have finally got round to signing up for a flickr account so Just Faffing will be coming to you with actual pictures as soon as I upload them!

I went to visit Lottie at the weekend and have some very cute pictures of Harry. I haven’t seen Lottie since she was pregnant and now Harry is 11 months old. Time has definitely flown. We are going to his naming ceremony at Easter too which I am looking forward to.

We had a really nice weekend in Lincoln. Phil and Neil were sent off to the pub to watch the rugby and Lottie and I went and had a good shop and a sit and gossip. We all watched The Island on Saturday night which was complete drivel. Review later.

Lottie and Neil are also proud owners of a classic Beatle and they took us for a drive around Lincoln on Sunday. It is a very cute car but very noisy and cold due having no heating system. I forgot to take a picture of it so you lot will just have to put up with baby pictures when I upload them tonight.

Architecture Book Review

With my Christmas bonus this year I decided to buy one architecture book. (My work do give us more money than that but I wanted to spend the rest on paying off my credit card and decorating our bedroom!).

I hardly ever actually buy a new architecture book. Mags keep us up to date on buildings around the world and now all architects have websites if you particularly interested in something it is easy to look it up on the web. At work we also have the barbour index which means it is pretty pointless buying technical texts especially considering how quickly it goes out of date.

For ages I have wanted a book which has lots of construction details. Like a cross between detail magazine and the Barry and Mitchell books which are pretty horrible. I found the book while reading book reviews on archinet (A good architecture forum). It is a classic architecture text that has been recently translated from German. It is like Chudley with a bit of class added. I ordered it from Amazon in January and it finally turned up this week.

It is called ‘Constructing Architecture’ by Andrea Deplazes. The drawings in it are simple and easy to read. It is really useful to have a set of standard details for every kind of junction ever imaginable as well as loads of info on vernacular structures and historical details. It even details up solid concrete modernist houses. Not sure they meet regs here though!

The details give you the principles of using different structure and materials together. It doesn’t give you the up to date u-values etc so most of them will need amending but it is nice to know I could now draw up a glass staircase without too much hassle.

The book also has lots of pictures of the details in reality which I think are useful. I quite often draw something up (like weep holes) without knowing what they will look like until the builder has done them. I think that is because I haven’t really been to site much.

Right, anyway better get back to actually drawing some sections. Hope I haven’t bored you non architects too much.

Two bits of News

1. A couple of weeks ago I bought some proper running trainers, what Phil calls a spastic water bottle and some new running trousers. Typically since then my private job suddenly got urgent, it has been bloody cold and I’ve been away so I haven’t actually run in them yet. So tonight I will christen them. I am looking forward to it, as they really are the most comfy shoes I have ever owned. Thanks for the advice from Chris and Jane. I still can’t run very far but hopefully I will improve! I will only be on a treadmill but as soon as it stops bloody snowing I will go running outside.

2. Can’t remember what this news was now. I’ll get back to you

3. Oh yeah…sorry I have a bad memory. I booked a table at Fifteen (Jamie Oliver’s restaurant) for lunch with my mum and sister in the summer today. I am quite sadly excited about potentially seeing the man himself. They do a set menu for £25, which I thought, was bargainous.

Misadventures in Birmingham

Why is it you always have the best nights out when you aren’t planning to? The big nights out that you plan always seem to be a bit of a let down. And then a night out takes you completely by surprise and you have a real laugh.

You may wonder why I ended up dancing to Kanye West at 2.30am in a classy joint named Rococo on Saturday night. Well I went on a girlie weekend! I can’t remember the last time I left all the boys behind and had a really good shop and boogie. I think it was Rachel’s hen do when she made us do an aerial assault course before any alcohol was cracked open!

Lisa, Jo and I thought it might be fun to go away for a night and as Lisa has just got engaged we thought we could have a warm up for the Hen night. So off we went to Birmingham. It seemed the obvious choice. Not very far, good shops and a big enough city for a good night out. We met at shef station and stocked up with M&S Harvey Wallbangers and we were on our way. Jo discovered that M&S sell portable cocktails on a journey to London when she drank 5 while sat down and then could hardly walk when she got to St Pancras. Lisa and I tried them when we were getting ready to go out one Friday night and they definitely hit the spot.

We got to Birmingham with no hassles on the train mind you, you do have to wonder when people are drinking cans of Tennants at 10 in the morning. Dumped our stuff at the hotel and went shopping. Lots of money later we stopped for a boozy lunch in café rouge then it was back to shopping. We made it back to the hotel by about 4 and had a good snooze before we started on the cocktails. It all started going downhill from there really.

We didn’t make it out until 9. We had a pizza for tea and decided it was a brilliant idea to have a bottle of Prosecco then it was onto the Pitcher and Piano next door. A couple of gins down the line and some very dodgey men claiming it was their birthday we decided to make a swift exit. Then we hit a problem. Where to go next. We asked some girls in the loo. We even asked the bloke who claimed it was his birthday. Everyone replied Reflex or Walkabout, which surprised us, but we decided to go with the flow. Reflex and walkabout were just round the corner but they had huge queues! After a look at the people in the queue for Reflex we decided to go with pot luck instead. That was how we found ourselves in the Rococo bar.

Those of you who haven’t been out dancing for a bit like me and certainly been out dancing in Birmingham will forget how odd a weekend night out can be. I ordered 3 Cosmopolitans at the bar thinking ‘that’ll save time they’ll make them all together'. But no the bar man made each one by one and kept putting the ingredients away after each pour. Odd. Jo kept saying…’This is what it is like in the Midlands. I hate the Midlands’, and chasing off hopeful looking drunk men who were eyeing up Lisa. When you aren’t on the pull and sufficiently drunk to keep spilling your own drink over yourself and not caring, like I kept doing, Saturday night out on the town was surprisingly amusing.

The next morning my god we were relieved the hotel bar was closed when we got back. At the time we were very disappointed but with a few more drinks the hangovers would have got out of control. And god did they hurt. Lisa’s lasted a good 2 days. That is the last time I drink cocktails, bubbly, vodka and gin in one night. No really.

Private Job

Yay it is FRIDAY!!!

It seems to have been a long week. I have been doing my very first private job which constitutes a Building Regulations Application. I need to get it done so we can apply before the new Part L, Part B, Part P and Part F come into place in April.

It was hard enough doing all the details without having to deal with revision to have the blooming regulations. The new legislation is meant to help reduce carbon emissions and will be quite onerous. They will for the first time effect house renovations. If you are refurbishing more than 25% of a building element i.e. rendering one wall out of 4 you will have to apply, so look out house owners out there.

I have hated every minute of doing this private job. The money is good but I definitely prefer the spare time. I spent hours on this one mainly because it is the first application I have done without the benefit of advice from my directors, full use of the library, etc. Definitely a steep learning curve but god am I glad to be nearly finished. I just need to write my specification at the weekend and it is all done.

I am off on a girly weekend to Birmingham tomorrow which will be nice. Will probably go and try very expensive shoes in Selfridges so expect some girly fashion pictures next week!

I made my mind up

I know I am a few days late with this post but i haven't had much time to write this week as I have been trying to finish off a private job. But I have been saving this one up....

One word which either brings up emotions of dread, amusement or indifference.

EUROVISION

I love eurovision. I love its cheesiness. I love the way that neighbouring countries always vote for each other, Terry Wogan taking the mick. Watching subtitles for the dodgey lyric translations.

I can think of nothing better than settling down to watch eurovision with my sister. When we were teenagers we marked each act. We did this again last year and I don't remember laughing so much for ages, although there is a higher alcohol consumption now we are nearer 30 than 15.

Each year we give points for costumes, unlikely instruments and bonus points for any additional gimmick for example pieces of clothing being removed. If my memory serves me right last year the act with a knitting granny in a rocking chair got our highest bonus mark.

I watched 'Making your mind up' on Saturday night. For all you noneurovision fans this is the programme in which the UK showcases our finalists for our eurovision song. You must bear in mind that we don't actually enter the competition expecting to win. It is all in the taking part.

All the acts were dreadful. Not in the eurovision spirit at all except one. Daz Sampson. He looks like a 40 year old plumber from Newcastle (slighty pervy really), wears stone wash denim, Raps about teenage life with 18 year old girls dressed in school uniform dancing in the background. Pure eurovision genious.

For info see his website. I'd post a picture but I haven't worked that out yet instead here are the lyrics for 'Teenage Life'

Teenage Life

Now hear this
"What did you learn at school today?"
That's what the teachers used to say
But they don't know
Don't understand, do they
Why do they always give advice
Saying "Just be nice, always think twice"
When it's been a long since they had a teenage life
"What did you learn at school today?"
That's what the teachers used to say
But they don't know
Don't understand, do they
Why do they always give advice
Saying "Just be nice, always think twice"
When it's been a long time since they had a teenage life
Dwelling on the past, from back when I was young
Thinking of my school days and trying to write this song
Classroom schemes and dreams
Man they couldn't save me
Cos my days were numbered when I signed down on Avy
Teenage kicks running out what could we do
I still show respect to my boys who made it through
And getting told off Mr T how my life would be
Then giving him a signal
So everyone could see
Sunshine and shade
Those girls I'd serenade
Thinking of those sixth form chicks that misbehave
Hoping that those days would go on and on forever
Every day something new

Now that is my style of model making.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4733304.stm

(I promise to ask Phil how to make these links actually work without having to cut and paste them.)

Thank crunchie it's Friday

My legs feel like they are going to fall off. My arms aren’t doing to well either. Bloody training regime. There was I thinking

‘Oh well I’m not very experienced in this running lark. I know I’ll get a review at the gym as well as following the training thing on the website.’

Enter Nipher. Nipher, god knows why he is called that as his name badge says Neil, got very excited when I said I was going to train to do a run. I should have known then I suppose. He fooled me by being small and friendly looking as opposed to some of the other trainers in the gym who look scarily muscly and big. So he devices me a plan of cardio and resistance training that will compliment my running. Compliment my arse. Actually that is probably the only place that isn’t hurting at the moment! Humph. Hopefully it will get easier the more I do it.

I was going to start a regular feature today in honour of Lisa. Ever since we discovered cuteoverload.com and kittenwars she always calls me over to have a good ‘ahhhhh’ atleast once a week. So the feature will be:

‘Cute picture of the week’

(Hopefully a girly enough feature to keep Christian happy). But I have absolutely no idea how to get a picture onto my blog yet and no time to find out. I will ask Philly how to do it this weekend.

I’m off to have a good nosey round Karen’s brand new house this evening so I will report back next week

A nice alternative to the normal error message.

http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~geoffo/humour/flattery.html

Running (well more like jogging at the moment)

I am doing the race for life this year and I am feeling quite worthy (although scared). It is a 5km run for Cancer Research.

Those of you who run regularly will be going

‘Oh that is soooooo easy. I run that in 10 minutes’

But those of you who have never run for longer than 5 minutes in their lives will understand my feelings of trepidation. I am not a natural runner. I am blessed / cursed with a large proportioned top half which has led me to buy the unsexiest piece of underwear to keep them under control. At the moment I am on the hunt for a pair of trainers that don’t give me blisters and aren’t going to cost me more than a pair of heels in Karen Millen. I bought a new pair of running shoes in the John Lewis sale. But unfortunately I made the elemental error of not really trying them on.
(Yes the train of thought went something along the lines of: God aren’t trainers boring? Would be much better to spend this money on a nice pair of flats that I saw in Faith. Oh these will do.)
So I have found that they are enormously uncomfortable and give me very big blisters. Grrr.

So I will keep you guys updated on the training or possibly the worrying lack of it and post a link for sponsorship so I can make lots of lolly for Cancer Research.