Best review ever

I'm planning another trip - whilst I'm off work I may as well, right?

This time, we (Mr B and I that is) are going to Amsterdam.  It's not somewhere we've been before and we are both looking forward to it.  We have some friends there who we plan to visit as well as seeing some of the sights.

So, as usual, I am doing my bit on the planning and looking in advance for things to do during our trip.  Tripadvisor is always one of my first stops for reviews on activities and tours etc so obviously I headed straight there.  One of the recommended attractions is the sex museum, so I had a quick browse through the reviews and spotted this absolute gem (only the title and the first line are relevant)....

I do love how people can draw comparisons against absolutely nothing.

Ready for the next adventure!

Before I post about Japan, I have other news...One Wednesday a few weeks ago, my workplace announced redundancies, my job was one no longer included in the company after the proposed restructure so by the following Friday I had already put in my application for voluntary redundancy.

Also by that Friday, the information of which jobs were placed at risk had leaked out and people started giving me the side-head "I'm sorry" speeches. It was a bit awkward because I'm really not unhappy about it so I responded with a cheeky grin and an explanation that I view this as the universe simply giving me a nudge to go and move on to my next adventure.

I feel like I have the whole world at my feet right now and honestly, that's quite exciting. I know that I'm lucky, I have very few commitments, so this is a great freedom for me whilst I understand that for others it could certainly feel like their world is crumbling.

A few days before I left for Japan I got called into the boss' office and they gave me the best news - My application was being accepted and I was being put on garden leave from the following Tuesday (I needed to come in and see my direct boss before I could officially go anywhere and she was off on leave).  I admit that I didn't do anything from there onward that might have constituted work for the next few days.  My team were shocked at the speed of the process (from announcement to final decision in less than a week) but it was far better for me not to have it drag on.

So now, I'm free....

I'm feeling a little odd about it, if for no other reason than I've not been unemployed since I was a teenager. 

I often said that in this situation I might consider starting my own business - I still might - I've not even started to decide yet. At the moment, I'm planning on taking a few months off and going on a couple of trips with Mr B before I really start to think about getting back to the grind. 

Goodbye 2018...Hello 4th Decade

Well, 2018 was a bit of a rough year.  Throughout most of it my geriatric cat - Tori - was very ill.  A liver condition that we knew she wouldn't recover from.  She kept going until August when it all became too much.  She followed my grandfather who also finally gave into his illness at the ripe old age of 97.  I'll admit that both of these instances left me emotionally drained and it is taking a while to build up those reserves again - but I'm working on it. 

I turned 40 at the beginning of 2019 - yeah, I can't quite believe it either.  Hopefully, my 4th decade will be as filled with growth and fun as my 3rd but I'm not quite sure it's sunk in yet (whatever "it" is - I still seem to have the mind of a teenager so I don't think I will ever grow up now!)

Anyway, to help me get back to being more...me, I have booked myself a trip to Japan and a holiday to a sunny spot with the lovely Mr B in the coming months. I know that getting back to Japan and some good training will be highly beneficial and a sunny holiday always does everyone good.  I just have to brush up on my Japanese and dig out my bikini!

I will likely have lots of upcoming ramblings about Japan after my trip - if the excitement gets to me you may get some pre-trip too! - and probably some photos of the sunny holiday (not of the bikini though - no one needs to see that)

Sandman Returns

When I was aged about 15, I got into comic books.  This, according to Mr. B makes me not just a geek, but an uber-geek.  Between then and about aged 25, I amassed quite a collection.  I was always loyal to the same shop - Abstract Sprocket - they were friendly and didn't treat me like an alien (as many comic book shops seemed to do back then when a g.i.r.l. walked in). 

Most of the comics I collected were slightly off the wall, independent publishing house type stuff.  I never really went for the standard super hero type of thing.

One of my biggest loves at the time was Sandman - I have the all of the comics from the time of their release (although admittedly, some of the earlier ones in graphic novels rather than in single format, although I do have single copies of No.1 and a No. 7 (the first introduction of Death) regardless).  They all live in designated comic boxes in my study, only opened with permission, and books handled with care - especially as being aged 15 was quite some time ago now!

I was delighted a year or so back, when Neil Gaiman announced the release of The Sandman Overture, a short miniseries following on from the end of the series.  It was great to be able to step back into the stories I once loved so much again.  This month was also pretty exciting, as a new series was released - The Sandman Universe.

Obviously, I no longer live in the same place as I did when I was 15 - the comic book shops locally didn't seem overly appealing (I did try one - I swear!)  Thankfully, whilst my old childhood comic shop doesn't have a website, they do kindly transact orders via email, so a brief exchange later with the wonderful Mr Dean and No.1 of the new series landed on my doormat, securely packaged like the prized possession that it should be!

I'm now looking forward to the rest of them...

Twisted Barbie: Karaoke Queen

I love singing.  It was my ambition to be fully professional when I was younger.  Unfortunately it didn't quite work out how my young brain had planned so the best I managed was a few support gigs and some local pubs - I still love to sing though. 

The only opportunity I get now is at Karaoke.  It's a marmite pastime, some love it some hate it, but thankfully I have a few local friends and a world full of fellow ninjas who also love it!  I occasionally drag along poor Mr B, who seems to enjoy the atmosphere but wouldn't get up to sing if I held him at gunpoint!  He claims to not be able to sing...I know differently, but to get any better he actually needs to do it more often!

Everywhere I go there seems to be karaoke arranged...

Ninjas in Berlin

Dentists in Hong Kong

Proof the Mr B does come along!

The home of Karaoke...

Proof that I do get up too!

One of the things that I enjoy about it most is the look of surprise on the face of people who don't know I sing.   I must have a terrible speaking voice as people do seem awfully shocked! The group in Hong Kong are even demanding my return simply so they can get me on the mic again...maybe I shouldn't give up on that dream after all...

Attack of the boxes...

I've just moved house.  I don't really like the experience..Don't get me wrong, the first bit - looking at places on-line and going on viewings - is fun, but the actual moving bit is a total pain. 

It's been a fairly big move, into a different city that I have only known for 6 months.  (My main excuse for no posts of late has been an eternal commute across the country everyday for work which took me out of the house for at least 12 hours a day) I'm still learning my way around and getting used to the different rules that come with a new city.  For one, people here don't queue.  I'm so used to the (generally) ultra polite ways of both Norwich and Edinburgh that this fact has been a little hard to get used to.  On the positive side however, the majority of people here are very friendly, and the standard of customer service in general is far higher...it's nice not to just receive a grunt from checkout operators in supermarkets! I'm certainly enjoying living in Glasgow so far, the reputation that puts people off visiting doesn't appear to be well earned...I've yet to witness anything that I wouldn't have seen on the streets of every other city in the UK.

We have been lucky enough to land ourselves a much larger flat than before, the same number of rooms, but better proportions and less wasted space than our last place.  The only downside to that is that all of our furniture (or what we have at the moment) now looks very small and doesn't really fill many of the rooms...I'm a fan of minimalist living but this is a little extreme!  The boxes were making up for it but as we empty them the place is...emptying.  I can see some shopping in our future in the months ahead.  (The cats on the other hand are loving their new spacious playground and have been in box overload...whenever you open a box...there's a cat.)

You never seen to realise quite how much junk you accumulate until you have to pack it all up and then unpack it again into a different place, the books that came off a bookshelf should all fit back on right?  Not according to the laws of physics on my bookshelf! I've even removed several large books and there still doesn't seem to be enough room...


I've unpacked a vast amount of boxes and have now officially entered "home making mode"....my desire to hang pictures and place furniture is overwhelming but making my new place feel like my home is an important stage of the whole moving process for me...I can be very territorial and get rather antsy if I don't have recognisable objects around.   I have spent hours today wandering around the house armed with various pictures and other objects trying to figure out where I want them...B Man gracefully lets me have free reign of this part of the decoration, provided that I leave control of his man cave to him.  I can handle that.   I still have many hours of wandering ahead before I get all the pictures I have up (never mind the ones that I'm sure to find on my travels and add to the collection!)

Once I've finished with the boxes, and I stop getting lost on my way to work, I'm looking forward to life settling back into a nice easy routine...one with evenings and weekends when I actually have some spare time!   I'll let you know how that goes....

The Obligatory Festive Posting...

Can you actually believe its January again already?  2012 went extremely quickly, I guess my lack of posts kinda proves that....*whistles*

I've actually had an excellent time this festive season though, a nice quiet time mostly spent relaxing around the house with Mr B...we both had a cold (I've still got mine unfortunately!) so didn't really get around to getting out very far but we are both a little reclusive so that suits us just fine!

We had a fair bit of excitement when it came to our gifts though....I got the best present I could ask for of a new computer. There was much jumping around and clapping when I opened it!  I've always had hand me down machines from other people and never actually a nice new one of my own (not since I was 10 and I got an Amstrad for Christmas! - you know the ones with the tape deck in the keyboard)   Everything is all nice looking and shiny on the interwebs now and I've been loving turning up the graphics on all my games at last! Anyway..enough of my gloating, I should just say I was very spoiled. 

After a huge amount of food and a couple of family visits, suddenly new year was upon us.  Again the reclusive side of me would be quite happy to sit at home in the warm, but we had been invited round out for some drinks and movie watching instead...Apparently we all got bought slogan t shirts for Christmas too... 
  

As an odd choice of "festive" movies we watch Nude Nuns with Big Guns (I know it sounds like an adult movie but it wasn't completely (Gurn argued this vehemently as it was his choice!)...I wouldn't however recommend anyone adding to to their must watch list!) and after the bells had gone and we had hung out the window watching fireworks we watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  B and Lorne had never seen it so have obviously been begging for the education :s...They both seemed quite amused and weren't too put off by the rest of us singing along and joining in with the audience participation so that's something!

Another new year is here now though...lets hope that 2013 is a year of peace, love and happiness...but doesn't fly by quite as fast as 2012 did!

Happy 2012

We made it!! Another year successfully completed! (Yes, I know, my mind IS convinced I live in a sims style computer game)

B-Man had a celebratory tub of haribo at Chez Gurn ....

and a game of Vampirology... (I was so excited to see that they provided a purple playing piece specifically for me!)

Happy New Year!

Barbie takes a holiday Part 2 - Perge

To some people Perge is a big pile of rocks. I think my neices thought so after the first half an hour in the scorching heat! I thought it was fantastic site however, I could have spent the whole day there. If you're interested in the historic info wiki is a helpful place! I took more photos in two hours here than the whole holiday!...heres a few....

Stonemasons mark?....or graffitti of a hammer?

Theres a lot like this, random piles of stone and columns

The Acropolis. The shadowy figure at the top is B-Man. I think my sister (posing at the bottom) didn't want to walk any further by this stage.

Site map - Its a big place!

Mosaic floors


No, I can't read it either...it possibly says "Claudius woz ere"
Columns...


This isn't me trying to be artistic...The texture of the rock in the bath house was really odd!


Tower gateway


More Columns...
Fantastic place - I'd like to go again to see how it develops (theyre still uncovering and reconstructing the whole place)

Barbie takes a holiday Part 1 - I Survived!

Oh its been quiet hasn't it? Probably because for the last few weeks I have been either working extra hours because of a planned holiday or that I've been on holiday! I'm back now though and have a few posts up my sleeve - once I've uploaded the photographs!

Anyway, my first overseas holiday in 21 years is now over. I went to visit my parents in Turkey with B-Man, my sister, her husband and their children. I wasn't quite sure what to expect to be honest, I had heard many things about turkey and many of them weren't all that great. What I experienced however was totally different! The people we met were fantastic and I saw a side to the Turkish way of life that I can sincerely appreciate.

I was a bit concerned that I would suffer badly in the heat as I have very fair skin that burns quickly even in the UK, I managed to slap on enough factor 50 sunblock to stave off the sun (until the last day when I was caught out by the fact it was cool and rainy - I still managed to get a little burned) It was hot and for the first few days I really felt it. I was just starting to acclimatise when it was time to leave!

I was also a little concerned that a whole week with my parents may be a bit too long for comfort but we got on relatively well with only a few minor squabbles that you'd expect from family. In short, I had a great time and I'll definitely go back again. I certainly have a new found appreciation of the country!

Two sides of the same coin

Edinburgh. I live here all year, and its generally a lovely place. For one(ish) month of every year however my feelings aren't as clear cut. The month in question is August. Festival Season.

I have mixed feelings about the festival(s), on one hand I love it, the city has a buzz of excitement, theres lots of extra things to see and do, extra money available if you're willing to work for it, and can be lots of fun....On the other hand there are thousands of people EVERYWHERE. They are often either confused or downright rude too which doesn't help, and this means I also hate the festival(s).

You can see my dilemma. B-Man came up with a good plan recently (which I'm sure the council would throw money at! hahahahahahahahaha) that the people who live in Edinburgh really deserve something to make up for the fact that they are expected to hand over their hometown to complete strangers for a month. Not monetary compensation or anything grandiose (especially as we would all probably end up with approx. 10p) but something to say thankyou. Maybe the performers could organise somethings amongst themselves, and just have a few extra shows before it all kicks off with free tickets only for Edinburgh dwellers?

I'm sure every city has a similar issue if they have a large tourist season, so maybe we should just educate the tourists - make them pass a test on the border all about buses, how not to walk into people with your backpacks or stand in the middle of oncoming traffic maybe?

I'm off to be a tourist next month myself...the big question is, should I give them a taste of their own medicine or be a shining example of good tourist behaviour and not be a pain in the ass???

Barbies revelation

Living in a city that I didn't grow up in can be quite a challenge. Not just because I'm still not 100% on where each part of the town is in conjunction to the rest of it, but because as an adult, getting out and making friends is a very hard thing to do. **important note** I'm not making any false claims - my local geography knowledge does lie somewhere between medium-bad and utterly useless!

Firstly, please dont get me wrong here on the friends issue. I have some wonderful friends, many I have known for decades, (which when I think about exactly how long is a little scary and makes me feel old!) but the vast majority live a great distance away from where I am now. I moved to Edinburgh in 2005, and contrary to my actual "normal" nature, I can be a bit of a wallflower in person, social situations often get me exteremly nervous and I become introverted which I'm told can come across as aloof and snobby. This doesn't help.

I've now lived here 6 years and its taken me a while to even start to build up a circle of friends. I do feel like I'm getting there but its taken patience, a bit of alcohol(quite a lot on a few occasions!), and a few pep talks from the ever trusty B-Man!

So, my advice for anyone who has those desolate, stranded feelings? Get up and do something about it! Strangers are not going to come knocking on your door seeking out friendship, and striking up the odd conversation about the weather on your daily commute probably isn't going to bud into a lifelong friendship. Join clubs, meet friends of friends you already have, go to work social events. It may sound cheesy and cliche but it actually does work. I have proof. Right here :)

Nostalgia strikes

I had a very short conversation with B-Man today about Dick Dastardly and Muttley trying to catch the pigeon...it was very short because he has no recollection of the cartoon and thought I was losing the few marbles that I have!

So to prove that I'm not completely insane and just watched some very dodgy TV when I was young here is Dick Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines...

On the bandwagon

Last weekend everyone seemed to be far, far, far, far more interested in the royal wedding than me. (I do know of a few others who didn't partake in any celebrations, but truly not many.) I'm not a fan of weddings to start with, I'm not a monarchist, and I despise pomp so this was never going to be a thing of excitement. I was quite pleased to get an extra day off work however ;)

As soon as the wedding was announced everyone who paid even the slightest amount of attention was talking about the dress, and the flowers, and what the after party would be like and on the day itself every channel (with the exception of E4 - thankyou E4 you saved my life!) was showing approximately 6 - Yes 6! - hours of footage of the events. Thanks to a combination of E4 and the lovely internet I did manage to see exactly zero of said footage. *phew!*

The news over the last few days has obviously also been filled with stories about the wedding. There have been wild theories thought up as posted by the wonderful B-Man, but it seems that the biggest star to erupt from the wedding has been not the bride or groom, or even the brides mother, but a hat....

The hat worn by Princess Beatrice to be exact....


Ugly huh? The hat amassed fans (or rather haters) on facebook within minutes, spawned blogs and websites such as Princess Beatrice and her Hat and Princess Beatrice's Hat and countless news articles.

I think that this hat looks very much like the type of mirror used by the evil queen in Snow White... maybe she was trying to ensure that she was the fairest in the land?


others however have had their own ideas....


Then again, there no such thing as bad publicity...all the media interest must be great for Beatrice....She'll get offers for reality TV next...

Who says food shopping has to be boring...

I dragged BMan to our local shopping centre for some food today. It was nice out so we decided to have a little wander round at the same time...

Part of the centre is a small indoor market with random stalls in, one of these is a lovely smelling herb and spice stall bearing this fab sign...





On unpacking the shopping I read the label on the garlic mayo I'd bought...




They're obviously very "proud of their squirt"!