Mad Day No. 2 – Grrrr! Super Chains (by sarah)

Right - there was on thing I really liked about Cheltenham - a thing I have adored since the first time we visited it on some long ago Litrature festival. What is this wonderous thing I hear you ask!

I was Otticas a large apparently Tin Tin themed bookshop with a coffee shop deep in its bowls - ok well on the 1st floor anyway. On any outing to Cheltenham we have gone and had a little sit down in there. So when I started about two mounths ago having to go to Cheltenham for appointments I thought excellent - I get physio excersie walking to the shop for coffee and its not a Star Bucks - ok so its a costa but I thought it might help a bit with the whole Star Bucks, Tescos, Waterstones take over thung that is going on - ie the Super Chains as I have dubbed them.

Last Monday Otticas had a notice on the door saying they were shutting for three days for staff training - Oh not too bad I thought as it wont hit a Monday so I can still browse the books - maybe get another one for Als project and drink my hot choc. So I wondered up to it yesturday - past the Waterstones smiling to myself and feeling proud that I support the other book shops when I got to the door of Otticas - but it no longer said Otticas - no in fact it said Waterstones - I stood I stared, I steped backwards - I thought I had gone mad!

Ok I thought if its a take over then all the deals and stock will be different the layout will have been changed wont it? Andwhy is there still the other Waterstones which as always was doing a stonking trade. I said out loud 'Mew - I dont want it to be a Waterstones' then realised I was talking to myself! I went in - it was all the same... same staff, same books, same layout, just with Waterstones written on things.

In the coffee shop actually asked if it had been a Waterstons last Monday and the girl said no - they'd been taken overand I wasnt mad (I suppose lots of poeple would have been thinking the same).

Still I did find a nicer place earlier on to have lunch in a place called Moo Moos - its really lovely I will probably drag people there for tea and cake!

Mad Day No. 1 – social nutters (by sarah)

Man do I attract scary people or what?

Yesturaday I was doing my weekly mooch round Cheltenham - going to the libary and what not - as I was passing the posh girly school (looks like it belongs in Harry Potter) when a smarlty dressed (though not proper suit) large black man (do not know the PC term here besides that wasnt the issue) was heading towards me - I started to think - erm... he's now directly in my path - erm... I'm going to have to move or we'll collide!

I moved - swerving out to avoid collision - he steps in front - panic alarms ring in my head they had been giving me warning bleeps as it was. He says 'You are the most bueatiful one - you should go through that way' jestering to my origonal path. I would like to add at this point that I was dressed in blue bobble fleece, torn combats with a green shreik bag, I am also spotty with cold sores at the mo, look ill and had frizzy hair due to the drizzly rain not too mention still being over weight! Right so now that we've established I am 'the most bueatiful' - well this has happened twice before to me and both times I reacted wrongly so this time I simply said 'thankyou' and went to continue walking - he then grabbed my hand to shake it and told me his name and the country in Africa he is from (I was actually quiet panicking at this point I just remember that they seemed to both start with B).

Now I was still giving this guy the benifiet of the doubt - after all cultural differences may have ment he wasn't aware how inappropriate his actions were and perhapse he was just being freindly - wanting to know our culture or something like that - he asked my name - being polite I told him it was Sarah.

He then said 'Sarah that is a nice name in my country Sarah means ''Suduce Me''. I said 'Really' in a dead pan voice. He said 'Yes in swarheeli my mother toungue it means Suduce Me' now if I'd not been panicking I would have said - oh really strange no one told me that in Kenya! Akoona matata goodbye - but alas I didnt. I got my hand free and moved slightly to try and prevent him blocking me in anymore than he had - again those few months of Whu shu really helped me. I maintained distance without being aggressive.

Looking about to try and estimate my escapeage chances - knowing that last time I ran from one of these blokes it made things worse. He asked me why I was in Cheltenham - this I'm afraid is were my morality went out the window and I begain to lie - I said I was having meetings - well - if me and the libary and medical stuff can be termed 'meetings'. He then asked what sort - I said business meetings - yes I suppose they are if you count it as a staff outing plus research in the libery some of which is for Al. He asked what type of business was I in - I said Computer programming - well I am a director of Warhead. I also siad that I didnt do the programming my HUSBAND did.

I made it plain that I needed to get to my next meeting so he grabed my hand again - asked if I was computer literate - I said yes, he then started going on about how he was too and thats why IBM had flown him in especially (hmmm why did he not mention this earlier). So he said maybe our paths would cross again - I said maybe, he had started to my distress stroking the moon or venus mound thing on my thumb - so I pulled my hand thinking enough is enough - I walked firmly away - although there was a bit of low wall for traversing first!

Ok now I'd best explain the previous two times hadn't I?

Well the first was in my first year of uni - it was 5 in the morning and I was coming back from some goth club - you know the sort thats in the basement of a house - I had remnants of black lips stick and the like on was in a flowing black velvet dress and it was snowing. Just along Queens Gate - which is just round the corner from where I was living, this man tall thin white junky musician type came up and started asking me questions about was I hungry? He would feed me for a week if I went back with him etc... I just kept walking saying no thankyou go away. He then started saying I was being rude and things he asked me where I lived - I lied and told him one of the other streets regretting I was wearing heels n it was icy n I had a chest infection so running was pretty much out - he asked who I lived with so again I lied and said I lived with Dad and my brothers - in the corse of this conversation - it turned out I had three brothers all older than me one of which was a cop. The guy didnt believe me and was closing the remaining space between us -I dont know how badly this cwould have ended cos by a freak chance my friend who is a cop was on patrol and had seem me and thought I didnt look happy so they circled the car around the block and came and interupted things - funnily enough as soon as the car stopped the creep dropped back and was down one of the mewses before anoyone could do anything. Later that week a fellow geologist was accosted and offered a tin of baked bins to go home with probably the same guy. It makes me shudder to remember that - it didnt actually seem that scary at the time - sigh.

Right the other time was just after our wedding - I cant remember if I was coming back from a shift at the union or what but it was say 11 but possibly earlier. I went to get a hot choc as it was cold and there was like a 20 min wait for my train - this shall we say 'bling bling' guy came up to me again using the line that I was bueatiful blah blah blah - would I go for a drink with him?

I said no, he got insistant, I said I was marraid - he said so what! Like it didnt mean anything at all. I then decided to walk to a safer place as there were vertually no people where I was. He started following me saying that he insisted I go for a drink - in the end I ran and he tried to grab me, tried to drag me back. Shouted at me - ran after me - I headed to the one place I knew would be highly populated at this time of night - the McDonalds just out side the station - it was Liverpool st for anyone who can actually be bothered to read this.

i thought he'd go away but no - he was standing just outside the door waiting - making gestures through the glass. I ended up enlisting the help of the staff and phoning Al - who came and rescued me. I felt really silly.

Ok why I am on a rant about this sort of behavour I just want to relate the fact that when I used to go to Heavan and the equivalent clubs - I was always horrified at the number of men who would try to pull me - along with such stock phrases as oh your only here becuase you've never had a real man! Now I obviously like men - but I was at a gay night - mainly becuase I didnt want sleezes trying to pull me etc... and alot of my friends vertually lived in these clubs. it always amazed me - every flipping time and they were soooooooo sleazy - I'd be chatting to a friend and some would actually come up and ask if he could see some lesbo action!!! Grrrr!!!!

Right anyway - I will now merge a draft post into this one - a post that was from about twoo weeks ago! I hate the fact that I always assume the worst of people who friendly start conversations up with you in the street. I wounder to myself why I feel like this - today me and Al went into Gloucester obviously we had Jean in the push chair - this girl came up and started chatting - asking how old Jean was etc... she had a plad pram etc... but there was something odd about her - at the time I was worried it was a pick pocket diversion, then maybe a sales pitch as she wouldnt stop talking and followed us for a bit - but what it was is simple she is a bit mentally slow her little girl has just started school so shes back at college and it was her first lunch time. I felt so guilty for thinking the worse 🙁

I now see why I felt so jumpy!

Anyway to conclude - you probably all think I was being paranoid about this guy but there I was later on sitting on a bench when I heard shouting - this guy had got himself into a sort of fight and was being shouted away from this girl when - he spotted me and started heading over - fortunatly he was the other side of the road and its a bizzy junction - i legged it and hide in the side road where Al picks me up. I seemed to spend a long time fretting Al would be late.

Jean’s Day (by sarah)

Today we woke bobble up and she was HAPPY - grinning and squealing with excitement just becuase she could crawl towards us and hug us and crawl to the next perant and be tickled and hugged and sung to! She is generally really happy like this most mornings but often we dont have the energy/time to truely appreiciate her and that cheeky little grin.

She eat a hearty breakfast of weet-a-bix with goats milk and friut - well actually due to cutting another tooth she didnt eat all her brekki but she tried - got distracted by kittens - and then helped us tidy the bedroom. She was a great help - taking everything out of the laundary bag! The bag that is that I had just filled. Lunch was a similair story to brekki and she seemed a bit crumpy so we tried to settle her with some milk and a napp - nope! No chance she was too energetic - so we had a great time playing 'Jean Do!' - we did funny noises with our mouths and clapping our hands and saying A both vocally and in sign. Jean even pointed to things she wanted and almost managed patta cake without getting distacted or just missing the point of the game.

We went out for dinner just to Pizza Hut as an end of the week treat - she as always wowed everyone and got herself a balloon! Then home to sleep (we thought hahahaha).

The tooth had liturally just broken the skin - I looked in to see the white/pink spike in her gum away from the other teeth - this explains the three 'eggs' she laid today. Obviously this ment she didnt want to sleep but was tired, wanted to be hugged but felt wriggly - the solution?

We watched on of the Winni the Pooh DVDs Michelle gave us at Christmas - Jean was entranced - it was so sweet to watch and then - just as the second fromlast story wound up the eyes started drooping and by the end of the last one she was practically asleep!

Lovely bobble - even teething she was being a lovely baby today 🙂 🙂 🙂

I must be MAD! (by sarah)

Ok so I'm supposed to be taking it easy and cutting down on the stuff am doing - but I am BORED!!!! and I still only know about 5 people in the village - so me and Al thought how am I going to make more local friends?

Oh look they are having a Scout open day as they are reopening the Scout groups here after over 20 yrs of absence even though the County things are here :/ we could go along suggests Al and maybe you can help out a bit as you miss Thriftwood so much. Yes I agree. So we went - this was Sunday afternoon - it was nice weather - we chatted we played giant connect a four, we baked dough twizzle things on an open fire. Somehow my interest in helping had been turned into 'wants to be a leader come along on Thursday'. So I went along last night - and well erm.... I've said its only temporary but I appear to now be going to be running Beavers and Scouts - MEW!!!!!

They are on the same night though so not too bad - Al thinks this will actually be good for me as I tell other people to carry the heavey stuff and appart from a bit of organising and the like I'll be doing the sort of thing I love - the sort of thing I did full days of at Thriftwood. Of course I have to do some training but that doesnt look to bad either - especially as I wanted to redo my First Aid anyway as I think it expired about a month ago!

I have to learn knotts but hey that should be fun - at the moment I know about five - all of which are climbing ones plus the handcuff not which I'm sure I learnt on route to some 'firemans' sling thing - honest guve!

I've made sure they know about the medical situation and stuff as well - so hopefully it should all be fine.

Sigh - I've already started thinking about what I am going to do as activities :/ I think I might be being too uber keen here.

So I have just increased my sadness quoter by about 50% but hey we had our wedding reception at a Scout Campsite - so I think I'm already tarred with that brush - what with being a Geek/hippy/goth/erm dont put me in a box person through my youth (I think I still just count in their groupings as youth - being 25!).

Oh Lordy - ok Sarah don't panic - panic is the mind killer - erm I think I've writen a post like this once before - oh yes just before everything went pear shaped - oh well lightning doesnt strick twice does it? Oh dear it does doesnt it - ok ok just flow with it and see where it takes you!

p.s. I forgot to mention the cute baby piglet!!! It was there on Sunday - it was just hrs old and being hugged in a blanket fed milk - the kids werent petting it before people get stressed it was there as its mothers ill and its siblings had all been still births and one of the organisers happens to be a farmer and she couldn't really not come and it doesnt harm the piglet it was warm and being fed and kids are less noisy than piglets. Did I mention its cute? And large!

Doodles (by sarah)

Ok I know I promised ages ago to show you all some of my art work but I havent got round to the scanning etc... I have some shoddy pics here I took with the camera of my doodles in a little A5 note book I have - these really are light doodles though so dont expect anything good!.

This was me trying out ideas for webcomics - but found something too similair since 🙁

Ok I was thinking of gothulu and the like when I drew this - this all started cos a gothic horror/dark sci fi and fantisy inprint is looking for pictures.

More of the same.

This one is based on a dream I had - the style is me mucking about with ideas of how to illistrate something for Al.

Erm.. I was bored?

Ok this one again was working on styles for Als thing.

In desperation with the fact that I appear not to be able to draw anymore I went hunting for a book - becuase of the specific project I'm working on I was excited to find a book called Anatomy for Fantasy Artists - I copied this from just inside the front cover - 1st time I've done a copy like this in 4yrs :/

I was attempting to manga/cartoonise a photo here.

This is another one from the book - its supposed to be the barber's daughter - the book makes a big point on how difficult it is too draw children and how right they are - I was copying and have managed too draw her older sister who is blatently a teenager!

Floatling heads - I was just trying slightly different styles.

Yes well it was late ok.

I was crossing over styles with this - just doodling really as they all are!

Again just trying out different styles.

Ok I was trying to make someone look ill - and the pen slipped but its a nose bleed ok!