Sitting at home recovering from a mild bout of food poisoning and surfing the net fairly randomly, I found this site: which has microhero versions of the Endless from Neil Gaiman's Sandman books, and lots of other microheroes too. What I was looking for was a template that I could use to do "wardrobe" pictures of items of clothing which fit me and look good together and on my currently lumpen body. (To save me from my sometimes over-ditheriness when getting dressed ). There are microhero templates but the process of customising them is very complicated and I want something easy, like a paper dress-up doll that I can colour in. No such thing seems to exist, so I guess I will carry on dithering.The food poisoning was caused (I think) by cold chicken thingummies I had for lunch at a profesional development network meeting I went to on Friday. The meeting was useful and I came away with a couple of articles that I will be passing on to my students next term, but the aftermath was dreadful. As well as the most awful stomach upset, I had a headache and shakes and shivers, which luckily only lasted 24 hours. It started on the bus on the way home (not good), and I was lucky to actually make it home before it set in with a vengeance. I will not be eating chicken again at that particular venue.
I have in mind to empty my wardrobe and keep only those things I actually wear. So out will go the ankle length suede cowgirl skirt and sundry other old things. The trouble is, I really LIKE some of this stuff, so I know it will find its way back into the bottom of the wardrobe again. I have to do the clearout though. I have a small but irritating colony of clothes moths, which means that I occasionally find small holes in my favourite t-shirts. I find the idea of having a small "capsule" wardrobe really appealing (says the woman with six pairs of Rayban look-alikes), in the same way as I like having empty white rooms.
Anyway , today was the day I was going to make a start. BUT - first I had to check my email to see if there was a reply to an important message I sent last night. Then I had to see if I could beat my rivals at Bejewelled and Biotronic . Then I had to uninstall the Sims, which just slow down my laptop too much. Then Tori came over with baby so I had to cuddle him for a while. Bex and Tori went out (with baby) to MacDs and brought back plain filet-o-fish for me. An unusual Sunday dinner, but never mind. I have to have my macfish plain. Can't abide slimy mayo-ish sauce, even if it is supposed to be tartare. The last time I had macfish it came up with the label on the box which said "cooked to your special order - plain". They made me wait five extra minutes for it to be cooked to my special order - plain (that five minutes feels like a year in a macdonalds). When I came to eat my (takeaway) order it was full of cheese and mock-tartare sauce, even though the label on the box said "plain", so I had to go hungry. This time, it was , thankfully, plain. And hot. Anyway, having had my filet, I then had to babysit while Tori went out, then of course I had to write this blog whilst keeping one eye on CSI Sunday and the other on my grandson (asleep). He is the most gorgeous little boy, but growing really fast. I will need to start knitting baby sweaters again for the winter, as all the stuff I have already made will be too small once the weather starts getting cold again.
I broke my Nintendo DS whilst using it to demonstrate a maths game to my trainees, and have been struggling to use it with gaffer tape holding the hinges together. So a couple of weeks ago I bought a new DSi, which has built-in cameras. The picture quality isn't great, but it does mean I always have a camera handy, especially for those moments when Tori turns up on the doorstep with pink hair!
I needed a suit, so started searching local (and not so local) shops for something a little bit edgy. As usual nothing fitted me, so I almost despaired, thinking I would have to turn up at the event in my ubiquitous trousers-and-cardigan combo. I really wanted black, as I have a problem with colours with clothing (those who know me well will understand this). In the end I went to Bluewater and found a reasonable facsimile of a suit with an edge-to edge buttoned jacket with some interesting pleating. Couldn't get black, so had to settle for a charcoalish grey. I ended up buying lots of stuff - unusual this, as in the last year or so I have been known to walk around the whole of a shopping mall and come out with nothing. The most recent instance of this was when I went to Westfield, which is HUGE - you'd think I would find something I liked! (Actually, there were lots of things I liked, including the complete contents of the Radley shop and all of the de Beers window, but I couldn't afford anything from those particular shops).
Anyway, at Bluewater I bought the suit, a tee shirt, some black wedgy sandals, some black Havaianas, a yellow fan (to keep in my yellow bag) and a copy of Sims 3 (the special edition with the cool free flash drive). I am not sure if I like this version of the Sims as much as Sims 2, but it's early days yet, and the flash drive is fun. I can wear small amounts of colour, generally in the form of sunglasses, earrings etc. For example, yesterday I wanted comfortable feet (for yomping round the mall), which meant Nike toeshoes. These happen to have a yellow flash, which meant I had to have something else yellow. This was going to be yellow RayBan-lookalikes, but I broke them as I was rummaging in my bag, so I had to go with the yellow handbag, bangle and earrings . I considered wearing a yellow silk scarf, too, but that frightened me as it was too much colour. I could have worn the scarf and gone with a black handbag, but then the shoes would have felt wrong...... Sometimes it can take me a whole morning to decide what to wear. Hence the preponderance of black in my wardrobe. I was hoping to be able to find some replacement yellow sunnies, but it was not to be. I have red, pink, tortoiseshell, turquoise and three pairs of black sunglasses - all the same RayBan wayfarer shape. I even sound weird to myself.Culture this week was a lecture on Victorian algebra (yes, it was really interesting!). They were handing out flyers for a film called "Fermat's Room" - a "maths horror" movie (this seems to be the start of a new genre). Apparently it is on "all over London" this week. They lie. It is showing in a very few cinemas dotted around the UK - the next London showing is in July, in Hammersmith, which is a bit of a trek. I might wait for the DVD.Tori had tickets for the launch of this year's Big Brother, and I was babysitting Paul (who is an absolute darling). At 9pm Bex and I were settling down with the TV to see if we could spot her in the crowd when there was a knock on the door. Who could it be? It was Tori - the launch was first-come first served, and she and a few hundred other people were turned away. Why do TV companies give out far more tickets than they have audience space for? I feel another moan coming on....
