Geek Mama

At long last I have a shiny new laptop, which means (in theory) that blogging is back on the agenda. I was using a desktop PC that I built up when my laptop died on me, but it was awkward and I just didn’t feel the love with it, so couldn’t be arsed, basically. I’m a bit concerned that Twitter may have sucked the life out of my blogging mojo, but I’ll give it a go anyway.

The UK is in the middle of a heatwave at the moment. Up here in Scotland it’s certainly warm, but pretty much permanently cloudy which gives it all a strange end of the world feel. One up side of no sun is that I can sit while the boy plays with his sandpit and scooter and am able to see the screen of my laptop without a hand cupped over it.

It is the first week of summer holidays here in central Scotland, and I’ve decided we’re having a lazy week to ease us into it gently. The Boy has just discovered the joys of playing outside with friends, so I’ve been not been doing much apart from sitting on the steps in front of our building reading/browsing the net/gossiping with neighbours with brief intervals to make picnics and assist various children in dragging yet more toys outside. If this is what summer has to offer, bring it on! The only concrete plans we have made so far is Lazytown Live this weekend and a weekend in Blackpool with a huge group of friends and their children at the end of the month. We’ve made various loose arrangements to “do something” with various friends and their children at some point, but that’s as far as it goes.

I’m also having a bit of a detox at the moment. We came back from Spain 2 weeks ago, and I’ve just not had the motivation to cook properly. I’ve had far too much eating out, eating crap or skipping meals in favour of junk. I feel constantly lethargic and my skin is awful. My diet coke addiction is getting dangerously out of hand again too. So as of yesterday I’m having a few weeks of healthy eating. I’ve cleared the fridge of crap and filled it up with fruit, veg, salad, salmon, seeds, Muller Light and hummus. I’m forcing water down by the pint glass and limiting myself to one 2l bottle of diet coke A WEEK. I’m also only allowing myself 1 cup of coffee a day, as opposed to the 3 or 4 that I have been drinking recently. Day 2 and I’m feeling fine, hungry and peeing like a racehorse, but fine Well it’s 3pm, 2 hours since lunch and all this talk of food has made me hungry. I’m sitting in my mum’s garden at the moment, so will go and have a rummage through her fridge and see what’s healthy to snack on. She’s also doing a bit of a detox this week. She went shopping last night for healthy food and came back with a BOX of South African red wine. Gotta love my mum!

I have been playing this song on repeat for the last week. It’s renewed my love for proper punk rock and inspired me to dig deep into my hard drive and rediscover some of the tunes I was listening to in the early 90s.

It’s from the Watchmen soundrack, which is a fabulous soundtrack by the way, if you like that kind of thing, and is a (loose) cover of the Bob Dylan song.

I’ve just, in the last 10 minutes, installed wordpress, imported all my posts, and uploaded and modified a temporary theme. AND IT ALL WORKED. Woot!

I should actually be having quality time with my child, so will make this a short one, but just wanted to make sure everything is working as it should be. I’ll redo my blogroll this evening, so if there’s anyone who’d like added (who wasn’t there before!), leave me a comment and I’ll tag you on. Apologies if any of my posts have content missing, I’ll go through them all once The Boy is in bed and check everything over. I need to sort a proper theme out, but I’m actually loving this minimalist one at the moment.

I’m planning on redesigning this shizzle over the next week, and have just bought a separate hosting package for it all.  Up until now I’ve just been pointing geekmama.co.uk to my other hosting account, and it was annoying me that I couldn’t do all the cool stuff I wanted to, with it just being a redirect.

Soooooooo, if this page disappears in the next 24 hours and is replaced with an empty generic looking blog, you’ll know why.  All my content will still be here, but will only be accessable via www.angybabi.co.uk/geekmama  for a day or so.  I’m not deleting anything until I know I’ve imported it all to my new domain.I do not trust myself to not lose the lot otherwise.

I’m so sad, I’m really excited about having something to geek about with for a while, haha.   I have no idea what the new geekmama.co.uk will look like, none at all, but that’s half the fun.

Look at me being a responsible blogger, doing my first Musical Monday in months!

This one is a bit of a cheat really.  I do love the song, but am posting it mainly for the video. I recently read the Twilight series of books, and thoroughly enjoyed them, to the point of obsession. I lost a week of my life as every spare minute was spent reading.  I know the books were written for teenagers, but as long as you aren’t looking to be intellectually challenged and concentrate on the story, they really are a great read.  I also went to the cinema to see the movie adaptation (before reading the books, I may add) and have become slightly obsessed with the actor who plays the vampire lead. He is a beautiful specimen the male form, it has to be said.  I feel a bit like a lecherous old woman lusting after an (eternally) 17 year old vampire boy, but he’s 22 in real life, so it’s all above board and legal in the real world.
Anyway, here’s the song, Paramore - Decode.  Yummmm.

Oh, and if you want to see more of Robert Pattinson, check out his recent GQ photoshoot. PHWOARRRRRRRR

I’ve just built a temporary desktop PC to tide me over until I can get a new laptop, so can finally get myself sorted and back into some kind of Internet routine.  The laptop I’ve been using since my beloved Gateway machine went to the big computer graveyard in the sky was AWFUL.  It had 6 letter keys missing from the keyboard, as my delightful child picked them off when he was a toddler, so I had to guess the letter and stick my fingers in a hole to type properly, or use a separate keyboard.  It was an 8 year old thinkpad, and SO slow.  It couldn’t run Tweetdeck, Photoshop, any messenger programs or even Flickr uploadr, and could barely run Firefox without freezing every 10 minutes.  This set-up I’ve just built (and am using now) is by no means top of the range, but the processor is fast enough to use everything I need to use in the meantime.  I’ll need to get a new graphics card, as my old one has blown, so will Ebay one during the week, and then I can get back into photo editing again, but for now I’m perfectly happy to be back.

This weekend has been spent shopping mostly.  I was getting to the stage that I was fed up looking at Callum in the same clothes he’s been wearing for months, so a shopping trip was in order.  I got him some lovely little tops from Mini-Mode, and some jeans from M&S.  I’m quite disappointed with the Next range this season, so left there empty handed - a first I think.  Zara have some lovely T-shirts in, but they are mostly short sleeved, so will wait another couple of months before stocking up on them.  I can’t wait for the nicer weather so I can put him in cut 0ffs and converse, *sigh* (me too, actually)

Tomorrow we’ve decided to be tourists in Glasgow, and go to the Art Galleries and Transport Museum, so that should be fun.  My camera battery is on charge as I type.  Cal has been a bit under the weather today (bit of a cough, and I thought he had the start of a temp this afternoon, but it didn’t come to anything) so it’s all dependant on how he is, but I’m looking forward to the prospect of some great Glasgow culture.

Speaking of cameras, did I mention that my lovely friend Emma sold me her Canon EOS350D DSLR camera when she upgraded a couple of months ago? I adore it, and can’t wait to start taking some lovely outdoor shots with it. I’m still very very rusty with it, but am having fun learning how to use it.  (Which reminds me, I must re-download the manual to this PC..) A lovely man that my mum works with gave me a telephoto lens to use with it too, which was really nice of him, as they cost a bomb!  I also have my eye on a prime lens for portraits that a couple of people I know have recommended, but that shall have to wait until the laptop issue is properly resolved I think.

I went to Manchester last weekend with my lovely friend Kelly, and met up with another 2 of our good friends - Emma (of bargain camera selling fame up there ^) and Suzanne - for a night out.  We met up with a load of girls from a facebook group we belong to and went for a chinese in The Printworks then onto the Birdcage drag club.  It was a great night.  My friend Suzanne has a beautiful little baby girl who we met for the first time on the Sunday, oh she is heart meltingly gorgeous.  I think we all fell in love with her a bit.  We also met up with Mel and Shelley on the Sunday too before Kelly and I jumped on the MegaBus back to Glasgow.  (Never travel by megabus, btw).

I have a semi-busy week ahead this week, have to do some things for my mum at her house on Monday, and am off to visit my friend’s new baby girl one day too.  (YAY, baby shopping!).  I think I’m going for lunch with one of the nursery mum’s on Tuesday too, and need to arrange to see my best friend as I’ve not seen her for over a month now, eek,  so busy busy.

Right, it’s 11.40pm, so that will have to do for tonight, I promise to update frequently from now on, honest!!

Byeeeee!

xxxx

p.s.  - I’m ADDICTED to Twitter.  Follow me, I’m geekmama

Well the Christmas tree is gone, the chocolate pile is depleted, and we’re back to nursery tomorrow.  Looks like the festive season is well and truly over.  I am not looking forward to getting back into the routine of having to be out the door at a certain time 5 days out of 7, but I think it’ll do The Boy a lot of good.  He has so much excess energy to use up at the moment, I really feel for him.  This freezing weather isn’t really optimum out and about “tire him out” weather, so we’re spending alot of time indoors being generally bored.  He’s even bored with painting and play doh at the moment, so I know he needs to get back to nursery!  Hopefully it will help his sleeping too, as he’s been waking quite a bit in the night over the last couple of weeks.  I’m sure it’ll take a few days for him to adjust but I’m hoping he’ll be back to his 7pm-9am sleep marathons again within the week.

I need to start a detox ASAP.  What with winter colds and being run down, and the excess of alcohol and  delicious but unhealthy foods that accompany the festive season, my skin/hair/waistline/sleep pattern and general well-being is not at it’s best, to say the least.  I’ve already ditched the diet coke for pints of water, and am using up the crap from my freezer so that I don’t cave in to the temptation of shoving some additive filled crap into the oven instead of cooking something vaguely healthy after I do my weekly food shop this week.  Midweek drinking is over too.  I was looking forward to the bracing walk to nursery in the cold tomorrow, both for the exercise and the energy boost it would give me, but my lovely friend called this afternoon and offered us a lift tomorrow as her husband is off work, and I could not refuse. The lazy bastard in me won over again, bah. Ah well, there will be plenty of other opportunities to freeze my bum off this week I’m sure.

I also realllllly need a haircut.  I’m growing it at the moment but it’s at that annoying stage where it’s just about to descend past my shoulders, so still needs some semblance of shape to it, but never keeps it because it keeps brushing against my shoulders.  I also can’t decide what to do with my fringe.  Grow it out and be a spamhead? Get it thickened? Argh, I hate my hair, and my forehead.

I think the depressive, lethargic blah feeling of January just magnifies all my flaws and insecurities.  I feel run down, so my skin is crap, making me feel ugly and pasty. I eat too much, leaving me feeling bloated and sluggish, making me feel fat and unattractive.  The weather is shit, leaving me with no motivation to go out and do stuff because I’m ugly, pasty, fat and unattractive and, well, the weather is shit!  Need to sort this ASAP.  Get off your arse Geek Mama and get some motivation!

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
I spent new year 2008 in Australia, which was a first.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next
year?
I don’t tend to make resolutions at new year. If something
needs changing I try and do it when it needs it and not when the calendar dictates.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My brother’s wife gave birth to another beautiful little
boy a couple of months ago. My friends KElly and Suz had their gorgeous baby
girls, and I have more friends’ babies births to look forward to in the next
few months. *ovaries twitching*

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, thank god. I’m all deaded out.

5. What countries did you visit?
Australia (Perth), Portugal (Algarve) and England (Blackpool
and London).

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Cwtches

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
10th January, it’s when we flew home to Scotland from
Australia after a scary couple of months.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Sending my beautiful, confident and funny child to nursery
and getting back glowing reports all round. (Not really MY achievement, as he’s
wonderful all on his own, but I do feel very proud of him nonetheless, and I
made him so I’m claiming it)

9. What was your biggest failure?
Diet. Again.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not to any degree. Just the usual winter crap.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My new DSLR cameraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Thankyou Emma!!!!!
x x x

14. Where did most of your money go?
It just went.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Getting my new camera! Going to Blackpool to meet up with
my OLM friends - I was stupidly excited about that. Also new seasons of Lost,
Desperate Housewives and Heroes caused little pant wetting moments for me too.
Simple things…

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Take That - Shine

18. Compared to this time last year, are you richer or poorer?
Richer

19. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Sleeping

20. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Eating

21. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent it with my mum and my aunt (and callum of course).

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Yep

24. What was your favourite TV program?
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh…… hard one. Lost probably.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No, I don’t really actively hate anyone

26. What was the best book you read?
Chelsea Cain - Heartsick.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That Take That in 2008 are better than they ever were!

28. What did you want and get?
New phone, new camera, GHDs

29. What did you want and not get?
New waistline

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
I don’t think I had one.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 32, and I went out for dinner with my mum, son and
best friend. Then we came back here for cake and bubbles. My mum took Callum
for the night and my friend and I got absolutely slaughtered. Good times.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Ha! A bit of the other

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Thrifty. (for me!)

34. What kept you sane?
Probably my mother, who has also saved Callum’s life a
couple of times by rescuing him from his hormonal banshee of a mother on occasion
at 5 minutes notice.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Hmmmmmm, probably Josh Holloway. Sorry Gordon Ramsay,
you suck now!

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Obama. I had tears.

37. Who did you miss?
My nephew Cameron<3

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Ohhhhh goodness, I met some really really cool people
this year. I’ll do ti the fair way and choose the smallest cutest one. Her:

Eva <3
Notable mentions also to Kelly, Michelle, Sandie, Emma, Anna, Cathy, Carrie,
Suz. Mel and all the OLM girls I met in Blackpool. Oh and my friend Jen who
I met through nursery.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
This year I learned to be at peace mostly. I’ve spent
the last 2 years feeling like I should be grieving more, and healing myself,
but not actually doing either of those things because I didn’t need to. I’ve
dropped that guilt. I’ve learned to look at what’s important and be happy with
it, and to drop the obsession of panicking about the future (well, not dropped
completely, but it doesn’t consume me anymore). I’m fine, Callum is fine and
there’s nothing to suggest he’ll turn out anything other than a happy well adjusted
young man in a few years.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Stop being so hard on yourself
It’s not good for your health
I know that you can change
So clear your head and come round
You only have to open your eyes
You might just get a big surprise
And it may feel good and
you might want to smile,
smile, smile.

And it’s all over for another year. Booooo!

We stayed at my mum’s on Christmas eve so she could watch Callum opening his presents in the morning, so she came to pick us up in the afternoon (after a mad dash to Sainsbury’s to try and find mascarpone for the cheesecake - talk about leaving things until the last minute). We had some chinese food delivered and then I went out for a walk, and met one of Santa’s elves who gave me a special present for Callum to open before he went to bed. What a stroke of luck - It was some lovely christmassy pyjamas for him to wear to bed! How exciting! Callum looked terrified when I told him I had met an elf though, he was looking behind me incase it had followed me home. It was at this point I decided not to mention the fact a big man would be coming into his bedroom while he was asleep quite so much as I had been doing.

Callum hung up his stocking and left some apple juice, a jammy dodger and a carrot for Santa and his reindeers. According to Callum Santa doesn’t like milk, but wanted apple juice in a spiderman cup as it’s his favourite one.

In the night, SANTA CAME!!!!

8.30am the next morning I woke to a very small boy clutching a bulging stocking excitedly telling me that Santa had been and he had left him prizes!!!! We hotfooted it through to gran’s bed to open the stocking. He was so excited. The only thing he had repeatedly asked for was some Pixar Cars cars, which he already had around 30 of. Santa had managed to find 6 that he didn’t already have, so he was absolutely delighted to find them in his stocking.

We eventually managed to get him downstairs for major present opening. This was his “santa has left MORE presents” face.

Last year, I had to virtually force him to open his presents, but not this year. He was so excited and pleased with every single thing he opened. He had a wee play with or at least good look at with whatever he opened before putting it in an ever growing line of toys/games/books before moving onto the next one.

All for me??

We had strategically placed the big present right at the back so he’d open it last. Aye right! He went for the biggest ones first and just climbed over the pile to get to them.

The workbench was a huge hit - thanks gran!

A few more present opening pics:

Bucks Fizz for Breakfast. (Don’t worry, Callum didn’t drink his, it was just
so he could “do cheers”)

I never managed to get a photo of the table this year. I normally always get one. We were somewhat running behind all day. Anyway, dinner was delicious as usual. This was Callum before the 2 hour tantrum he had which started during the main course. *sigh*

I didn’t take many more photos of the evening due to the tantrum killing my Christmas spirit, but here’s a wee one of Callum just before his proper bedtime. He came downstairs all smiles after a while so we let him play for a couple of hours before going back upstairs to bed. Night night Callum, Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has had a magical Christmas and has a great new year when it comes!

I know I was supposed to come and do a photo post from the weekend, but I need to resize the photos to post them here and I’m terminally lazy.  I’ll definitely get round to it soon, I promise!

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this here before, but a couple of months ago I was asked for ID in my local “friendly” Co-op while buying a bottle of wine with my shopping.  To put it mildly, I was absolutely raging!  I have been in that shop almost daily for the past year, and have bought many a bottle of wine there (hic).  The old hag woman who served me is the same woman who has served me every day for the last year, but suddenly, on one cold windy day in September, decided that I look under 21 and was not to be served alcohol.  I left my shopping on the checkout and walked out, and went to Sainsbury’s instead.  I fired off a total stinker of an email wondering why every other day I must have looked every one of my 32 years, but now I’ve suddenly lost at least 11 of them?  Anyway, I calmed down after a few days, and have never been asked for ID since.  UNTIL TODAY.  Same old hag woman, “do you have any ID on you love?” ARGHHHHHH.  I virtually threw my passport at her (the paranoia the last IDing incident caused has not left me, and I carry it everywhere now) and spat out that I’m still 32.  I am so angry at this stupid woman, she knows I’m over 21, absolutely knows.  Her bosses and supervisor serve me no problem when she is standing right next to them, my friend just started working in there a couple of evenings a week, and actually said to her about it (in a jokey way, of course), and still, she asks me for ID today. I really am taking it quite personally.  Not a happy bunny today about that at all.

And breathe.

Here’s a Callum-ism to balance things out.  I have a new mobile phone which The Boy is not allowed to play with, so I normally put it up on a high shelf so he doesn’t get his grubby wee mitts on it. I had been transferring some MP3s to it last night so it was lying on the table beside the laptop, and he was hanging around me looking really uncomfortable. (I actually though he needed a poo!). He eventually piped up with “Mummy can you put that phone in your pocket please?”. I asked him why, and he said “Because I really really want it and I might pick it up, put it in your pocket so I can’t get it”.
After the howling laughter from me subsided, I was actually quite impressed with his willpower.  He knew he wanted to grab the shiny gadget and play with it, but knew he wasn’t allowed to.  He knew his limits and that he wouldn’t be able to resist it for much longer, so wanted me to take temptation out of arms reach for him.  He really is an incredible wee boy, he amazes me every day.  (I did let him press the button to take a photo while I held it as I felt so sorry for him after that).