I have created horror

Excuse the scruffy kitchen.

I think this is as bad as it gets

I have made a pot in my pottery class which is so hideous I almost feel the world can't support it, and then I have taken a hideous photo of it in the kitchen while it is scruffy (while the kitchen is scruffy) and in bad light. It cracked after its first firing (the bottom dropped off), and I was secretly delighted. I looked at the pottery teacher sadly and said I felt it was unrescuable. He looked at me back and said 'nonsense. Araldite' and I knew I was doomed. In the end, the glaze stuck it back on in the second firing and I am instructed to 'put a plant in it because then the water can drain out through the crack'. You see, it's almost like a design feature.

The small blue pot with the protrusions I quite like though. Admire my innovative use of glaze!

Bonus picture of stylish new boots. Yes, I'm shamelessly taking you right back to 1991

Sod it

I'm back on blogger.

Yeah, yeah

I know this is the wrong blog. Why did I go off blogger? I can't remember. Anyway, I have a new hobby and I'm going to show you pictures.

Mosaics! This is an excellent hobby because it's like patchwork but quicker and with shiny things. I make these in the ten minutes in the mornings when I am waiting for my croissant to heat up in the oven. As a result I have taken over the whole kitchen with grout and tile nippers and I accept that that might be inconvenient but tant pis.

This was from a kit. It was great. Like painting by numbers

This is a peacock feather I made up myself, and Partner, who is now partially sighted (long story) keeps walking past it and asking me what it is. Well I think it is obvious and partial sight is no excuse. He has still got one eye that works (almost)

There will be no stopping me with mosaics when I am able to take a hammer to crockery, as this will be cheaper and will give me more options. However I am finding it very difficult to actually smash crockery up, even when it is cheap and there are millions in existence, i.e. I am not actually going wildly about smashing up Ming vases to incorporate them into a birdbath. I don't know how you get over this emotionally. Clearly therapy must come before mosaic work.

I have a new blog

And that is where I will be from now on! I have engaged with self-hosted wordpress and I cannot really understand what I am doing so bear with me for a bit while it all looks a bit empty and I add helpful things to the sidebar. Also there is a bit about follow me on twitter, but I have never actually tweeted anything so I would not rush to do that and I will let you know if I ever start. I only signed up for it so I could look at My Cat Is Sad.

Anyway thank you so much everyone who's been a reader of this blog - it's been so much fun, and now I'm writing the new chapter. So you're very welcome over at my new blog if you'd like to come on over:

www.cloudandrainbow.com

(You know I can't do titles!...)

Onwards!

So this is where I'm going to go wrong

I'm going to have done the 40 things in a month. I'm organising things like a fiend. And what then?! Emptiness and confusion?

{God. I'm going to have to put some energy into my job if I'm not careful...}

I know it's been done. But. 40 before 40!!!

I'm back.

We did not eat them. You have to know what you are doing

I've been to Derbyshire where I've been roaming about looking at woods like a good pagan.

I also made that quilt and that cushion and painted that table. Go me

I've been knitting like a fiend as well, but I keep giving things away and forgetting to take photos, so photos will have to wait, although, I do have this one of my new crocheted throw I shared a while ago on Facebook (so sorry for duplication, anyone who's on my FB). I've woven in the ends now. I'm on fire!

I wander past this every day clutching my glass of water

And I've been wandering about taking pictures of Sexy Urban Art. The second one is actually on the wall of the stairway in my office. Never (says she, violins swelling) in all my time in the voluntary sector have I ever worked in a building that is not mad and has normal facilities, except for one time when I was at e-space in Littleport and we had things like carpet and sofas, it was utterly disorientating. And I was utterly miserable. So that just shows you.

He is my big fat lad. Oh bloody hell Alfie, go home!

Dan my brother has found this lost cat sign for you and I have taken a photo. I think the cat was called Alfie. Don't look at this picture if you are having a bad day as honestly Dan and I were just emotionally stricken to the core in the middle of a rainy street in Derbyshire in our waxed jackets and woolly hats. Partner says the cat has probably just gone next door and no-one needs to worry. But we need an update! Like with Mabel!

From my new office which I am going to manage. O but how can I do both?! It is the classic double bind which leads to psychological confusion

Now I share with you the hideously naff thing I have done. Over the last year or so {clears throat}, one of the things I did was to try to scare myself and do things I would not normally have done with a view to expanding my horizons. I recommend this approach to you very highly: I had a great time. I mean, I'm not saying I set the world on fire, but I did things like the pole competition, oil painting, fan dancing, bleaching my hair, trying physical theatre etc etc. It was interesting because I always felt like I ought to be an introverted, studious kind of person, but actually when I really sat down and thought about things I was interested in doing none of them were studious or academic at all. I mean, I'm certainly not saying this is good, but, you know, self-knowledge is a wonderful thing and if it turns out that what I'm actually interested in is anything that creates a huge mess or where you flap about and have everyone looking at you then there's no point me pretending that I want to sit in a library translating Sanskrit. Anyway, to the hideously naff thing. I am 39 on my next birthday (soon) and then I will be 40 and that is a milestone. So I am creating a list of 40 things to do before I am 40.

I know it is overdone. I know it is counterproductive. I know it is naff. But I am inspired by a woman I read about in the Derbyshire Times. We were particularly charmed by her intention to massage Bernie Clifton. I would like to state at this point that I have actually met Bernie Clifton, and there is a photo extant of us together which my mother would probably email me if I asked her nicely. But I am not putting him on my list (although he is perfectly nice. Don't feel rejected, Bernie, I'm happy to massage you if you're ever in Cambridge, although I'd probably rather just buy you a coffee). So I shall finalise my list and then I will consider if I want to share it. I will consider.

Anyway, sorry to be away so long! Grit your collective teeth for the random thoughts to come...

Another good thing

This is a daft one.

So, the other day I did my first 10K. I didn't do a race, I measured it with my GPS watch thing. Dan (brother) was doing a 4.8 mile fell run in Derbyshire and, because Dan is my Running Inspiration, when he does a race I sometimes do the same distance here out of solidarity. (Because I am codependent). Anyway 4.8 miles is as far as I have ever managed hitherto, but, when I had run that far (7.7K) I decided I would just carry on and do my first 10K and so I did, and that is pretty much all I have achieved this weekend. Anyway, I was very proud, but, when I did my run this morning I was just knackered as you can imagine, and gave up after about 25 minutes and staggered home.

On the street behind our house lives the Worst Black Cat in Cambridge. I have blogged about this animal before and how it waylays people and weaves around people's feet, putting its nose in their shopping, and how you cannot walk past it without stopping for petting and homage, however busy you are. Anyway, Partner had remarked to me recently that he had not seen Bad Black Cat for a while and we hoped it was ok. But, today, as I staggered home, next door to Bad Black Cat's house was a notice on a lamppost - missing cat! Bad Black Cat had disappeared! I learned that Bad Black Cat is a she, is called Mabel, is 5.4kg, will not wear a collar but has been chipped, and has a line of white hairs underneath which is only visible when she rolls over. And has been missing since July. So I was really sad, because who knows what had happened to Bad Mabel, and I remained sad until I got to the second notice on a tree this time, where I saw what I had missed the first time: someone had updated all the notices with FOUND NOW!!!! across the picture of Mabel!

Which seemed very sweet. Because, not only is Mabel reinstalled in her nice house where she won't wear a collar and no doubt is into everything, but, instead of just taking the posters down, whoever had put them up had wanted to update people so they didn't worry about Mabel. So they had gone to every poster - there was one on each tree, and let me tell you, there are a lot of trees on that street - and they had altered them all carefully with a biro. Who says people have no sense of community obligation? I wish everyone updated posters, because I often wonder about Lost Cats (Partner has never forgotten one called Genghis, who had a single very visible fang. What happened to Genghis? Did he meet an untimely end or is he now living in the Master's Lodge at Trinity? You never know).

And now when Bad Black Cat wants to look in my shopping, I know her name, and I will be able to say firmly, No, Mabel, Not For You. And I am sure that will work very effectively...