Look North

I was watching Look North this evening and Claire Young of the Apprentice (which I haven't seen) was a guest on the show discussing charity work she has been doing and also some people who have made a Christmas CD to raise money for Bluebell Wood - all good things really.

It really annoyed me as the presenter Christa Ackroyd kept interrupting and asking trivial questions such as "Do you travel first class or economy class?". Then when the male guest is promoting the Christmas CD, he says who wrote it, and Christa responds, "He's quite famous isn't he?".

It seems a question someone who wasn't really interested would say.

Then the female guest begins discussing Bluebell Wood and her time being at the hospice and what a great cause Bluebell Wood is and Christa responds with "You didn't meet Sean Bean did you? Isn't he lovely?"

The final annoying and thoughtless thing was when Claire Young says she isn't having Christmas at home as she is planning Christmas for 1500 children and rather than discussing that, Christa asks her who her celebrity crush is and they begin discussing that!

I dislike Christa now, the stupid woman!

I managed to find it on the BBC website, but I suppose it won't be up for long:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7736486.stm

Puppy Cam

I recently stumbled across this: http://cdn1.ustream.tv/swf/4/viewer.45.swf?cid=317016

or if this HTML thing works, this:



It's a live stream of a litter of puppies. I keep going back to it to watch them going about their daily lives. Watching them being alive is so engrossing and fascinating and not to patronise them, but it's also quite sweet!

It's Christmas Soon

This post might be a bit too early! But oh well...It's Christmas soon. I sense it's Christmas soon as in the supermarket things such as tinsle, christmas cake, and presents are streaming through the checkout. I'm not religious but do I accept and send presents and eat lots of food. For people who are religious it's celebrating Jesus' birthday-if you didn't know that boys and girls. I have been reflecting on past Christmasses, and Christmas day is always dull and quiet in my house.

People see Christmas as CHRISTMAS DAY and everything before it is the administrative work in preparation for the big day but I think the most fun of it is what is before Christmas. My favourite bits of this commercial holiday are:

christmas cards
buying and wrapping presents
baking food
christmas songs and carols
brass bands
having "it's christmas soon" conversations with people
writing "it's christmas soon" blogs
decorations - tinsle, fairy lights, festive ornaments
looking at people's decorated and glowing houses

I have already started listening to Christmas songs, I am getting into the spirit rather early.

My Favourite Ways To Relax

I think relaxing is quite important. I only work part-time most of the time so you would think I get plenty of time to do so, and I do, but I don't often feel so. Right now I feel awkward and brittle.

My favourite ways to relax are:

Having a bath - I think like many others, the moment you sink into the water something is released and you tingle and whatever guard or brittleness you had dissolves in the water. It's a really great luxury as I have only had a bath in my house for a few years and so never got to have them before. Afterwards I always feel fresh. My 4 year old neice enjoys baths, in her words..."I like baths; I like being nice and clean." I agree with this and something bath lovers will all relate to and understand.

Watching a film - For me personally I find going to the cinema quite relaxing as the big darkened room is an escape from the real world. If you go to the Cinema in the afternoontime it's really good as there are never many people there...sometimes if there are a lot of people there crinkling wrappers and stuff, it makes me the opposite of relaxed.

Craft-y type things - Anything which you can lose yourself in is very relaxing. I have recently started drawing and painting, and even though I'm not "good" I don't mind at all as I like doing it regardless of the result which is something that makes it enjoyable and relaxing. If I was worried about the result I would find it the opposite. I worry quite a lot of the time - and having something to concentrate on relieves my mind of most thoughts as I can just think about the task at hand.