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There are sounds that, strange as it sounds, I sometimes struggle to distinguish…

This hasn’t been the case the past few years, which I think just reflects the areas/house layouts I’ve lived in. But when I was younger, I’d lie in bed at night (this sounds like my previous post!) and hear a noise, and really not be able to work out what it was. Sort of this low rumbling noise, and each time it was one of these things:

• An aeroplane or helicopter overhead (happened suprisingly often – I wonder if helicopters trained over Romsey at nighttime… that or I guessed wrong most times!)… When I was little, I used to be scared it was the beginning of World War Three… I was even more of a wuss then!!
• Someone putting their wheelie bin out
• thunder
• a garage door being opened or closed…

I used to have a massive problem distinguishing between them!

Too weird? What other sounds are really similar?
This post was probably a bit too dull, right?

I like Maths. I think it’s really fun.

There I said it – may I be judged for enjoying something so ‘dull’!

This week at work I actually had to use Pythagoras’ Theorem which I was probably too excited about to be normal anyway, but this then led to a discussion of what fun things we did in A Level maths! Started with differentiation, then integration, then integration with limits, and then even radians in it all! (I may have added the word “fun” in there…)

It honestly made me want to buy an exercise book for some A Level course, either a pure or mechanics one, and go home and do some sums!

But that would make it a hobby wouldn’t it? I don’t think anyone does maths for fun…

Is that too weird? What hobby’s do you have or wish you could have that most people would think you bizarre for?!

How many times a day do you use the phrase “makes life easier”?

I was considering the phrase a month or two ago, and since then have realised just how much I do say it!

• It’ll make life much easier if I just defrost some chicken in the morning
• “I just need to grab a pen” “Do you want to borrow mine?” “Oh yea, that’d make life far easier, thanks”
• and of course, my stupidly obscure thought on twitter last month

Make’s life easier?! Does those with nothing think any of those things would make their life easier? Think of someone who wouldn’t know the word defrost, let alone spotify! Someone who if asked what would make their life easier, I’m pretty sure food, shelter and good health would be near the top, not those things. Maybe they’ll make life a *fraction* easier for us, but I seem to have absent mindedly used words like ‘much’ and ‘far’ in those examples, which are *definitely* out of place!!

Do you say it much? Is there any phrase you use often that you’ve realised is a bit odd?

Starting to think this blog should be titled “Maybe it’s just me, but…”

I’ve just spent the last week drinking pretty much just fizzy drinks, but I don’t feel bad about it. If I’d spent a week drinking just coke, lemonade and cherryade, I’d feel a)giddy, b)massive concern for my teeth and c)a fairly high level of guilt – so why don’t I?

I’ve spent the last week drinking Bitter Lemon and Canada Dry Ginger Ale. These are Christmas drinks, so you’re meant to drink them and only them all week, right?! 🙂

I never eat the Clementine in my stocking, I admit it, I just bung it back in the fruit bowl a day or two later.

This year, I arrived at my parents a couple of days before Christmas to see that my stocking had formed part of the Christmas decorations, and so assumed the time had come that I was now too old for Santa to visit…

But Christmas morning there it was, with one big change: No Clementine in the toe, just a mini bag of Haribo!

I don’t know how I felt about this – total break in a tradition, but one that was completely pointless!

Do you still get a stocking? What’s in the toe of yours?

For years and years I’ve had a fear of public speaking. This goes from speaking up in class to leading a group, or anything in front of church. Anyone who was at my baptism, saw me say my testimony and heard more than 2 words of it clearly was very lucky indeed – I reckon I broke a words per minute world record that day!

And I’ve always assumed that was it.

But this weekend, I realised that’s not what my fear is!

On Sunday I was welcomed into membership at my church (which is great!!) but, when I was up the front, all I had to say was “I do” and even that bit was fine, but standing there, in front of everyone, was just horrible!

I don’t mean that in a nasty way. Having the whole congregation there promising to support us too was wonderful. But just in front of that many pairs of eyes, well, the pinchmarks on my hands spoke for themselves!

It seems my fear is more to do with being the centre of attention. Leading a meeting, up the front of church, these things all involve the whole room looking at you, and that’s not fun at all!

Do you have any fears that are not what they seem?

Sometimes I just don’t think we’re grateful.

I was brought up to say please and thank you at all times, which I like to think I’m pretty good at, but this doesn’t mean I’m always grateful.

I’m probably least grateful every morning when my alarm clock works and wakes me up. In fact, that normally makes me grumpy and/or angry!

This whole idea of how ungrateful we can be really struck me a couple of weeks back, just after the bank holiday. We all had an extra day off and all we did on the Tuesday morning was complain about needing longer – I’m pretty sure that’s the jist of every conversation I had that day! Don’t get me wrong, we did say it was nice to have the day off, but I don’t think we were entirely grateful!

I’m good at moaning, and sometimes I think that might be the opposite :S

I often wonder what my favourite age was, and I guess there’s many ways to measure this, but here’s one.

The first birthday I truly dreaded was my 20th. After being a teenager for so long, changing the first digit of my age felt like so much more of a step and suddenly so much more grown up and responsible when I was still just a student – I didn’t look forward to it one bit! So I guess I often think of 19 as my favourite age, that was 2nd year of Uni, which was when I really started to enjoy it (apart from the studying of course!). I took massive steps forward that year, learnt a lot, am a better person for it!

Those of you who know me will know I watch a fair amount of tv, but it’s a long time since I’ve watched anything new. This last week and a bit I’ve been on leave with very little to do since my holiday was cancelled and over the week I’ve caught a few new tv shows.

The IT Crowd

My brother told me a long time ago I should watch this. I caught episode 1 this afternoon and it’s looking like a good laugh! It’s almost a novelty these days to find a show that’s only 30min not an hour, and with the series each being so short, I think I might carry on with this one! The other bonus is that every episode is on 4od, so I can work my way through at any old pace!

Franklin & Bash

So, I saw a trailer for this with Mark-Paul Gosselaar of Saved By The Bell fame, alongside the guy that played the skateboard guy in Clueless! Seemed like something to check out! Basically it’s a law programme, which don’t normally interest me, but it really was quite funny in it’s own way. These aren’t ordinary lawyers! To be honest though, I’m just excited to see some 90s stars back on the tele 🙂 I’d like to keep watching this but the episodes are an hour a piece. Again, they’re available on 4od, but expiring a month after they’re aired, so a little pressure to keep up!

Jonathan Creek

This felt like I was watching something with my parents. Very cleverly written, I was definitely completely drawn in to the one episode I watched, staying to the end to find out how it was done. But at an hour a time and a little drawn out, without catching the start of an episode unintentionally, I’m not sure I’d make the time to actively sit down and watch it again – happy to watch it if nothing else is on!

I’ve also been introduced to a couple of shows like Toddlers & Tiaras, which was one of the weirdest, disturbing shows ever – toddler beauty pageants, if they must exist, should not involve that much makeup, and definitely not bikinis!

While I’ve been writing this post I’ve watched another IT Crowd episode…. definitely light viewing!