A sunny autumnal day on Dawlish beach, 12/10/10

A mid october's day, 2pm

The sky is blue. The waves are gently crashing onto the beach. The sun is hot, beating down on the world below it. A toddler is playing on the shore line, with his dad walking beside him. He splashes as he walks. Arms out-stretched. His face is beaming with a smile. He suddenly falls. His hands hit the sand. The inevitable wail is never heard though; except he grabs handfuls of sand, stands up, then runs off. Meanwhile a dog is chasing a ball down the beach to the waters edge, its face in the sand, tail wagging and flailing sand everywhere. There is a man on the shoreline, stood next to his fishing line, in thigh high wellies and a wax jacket. Sea gulls are hanging out on the water line by the concrete pier, playing chicken with the waves. The toddler is now sat on the waters edge patting the sand. The dog is digging it's ball into the sand now, in a vain effort to get at it. The wind is cool, but the beating sun is hot; an odd mix. Almost like hot fudge cake with ice cream. A girl is sat at the top of the beach, her back against the wall. A pen in her right hand, and notebook in the other. She sits and looks at this happening on the beach, and she stares out to sea. She is happy. This girl, is me.

Friends

Friends are funny things arn't they, especially best friends...to me, they are supposed to be there for you through thick and thin; listen when you need to talk, dry your tears when you cry, catch you when you fall, help heal your heart when it get's broken and put a smile back on your face. You laugh together at the silliest of things, which for some reason you only find hilarious. And true friendship means that your best friend will see through your smile to know your true feelings.

Now, I do have best friends who will do this, and recent events have shown me the true friends I have...and I am pleased to say I am blessed with many of these beautiful angels in disguise. It's funny isn't it, how you see who your true friends are when something major happens in your life. But some have shown their true colours and have been replaced with strangers. It is sad when you lose a friend, however, I still have my gorgeous best friends who I love with all my heart.

An empty tea cup!

Have you ever picked up a mug of tea to drink from it only to find you had actually finished it and the last dribble was stone cold? Well, that has just happened to me. I seriously don't remember finishing it, really I don't! Maybe it is because I have been tackling databases and the hideousness that is the accountancy programme Sage all day, inputting data, making sure it has the right code and put into the right tab or folder. Or maybe because it's midnight, my brain is fried and it's had enough! It was a cup of sleepy tea as I call it, it's real name is Organic Sleep Easy tea, from Clipper Tea's. It tastes yummy, and I think it does help me sleep, or at least send me into a rest-less sleep, with less random dreams anyway! God my dreams are seriously odd and so random! I have actually started writing them down, or at least all that I can remember the next day...as my god, they would make such a good story! I hope to be able to include them into my book that I am writing, as it sure would make a fabulous "page turner" as they call it. Either that, or I would be sectioned...Ha! 

As the wind whistles and howls around the house, and the rain lashes against the window, it reminds me that I should snuggle in under my duvet, all warm and cosy, and get some zeds. I can then launch myself into the fabulous world that is my dreamland....living with volcanoes in my house, running across bubbling seas and fighting.....well, err....pirates (well probably!!).

Night all :o)

The best sandwich...well for today anyway!

I have to share my sandwich creation with you! I just had it for lunch, and it was that good I thought the world needed to know about it! haha. I generally make a sandwich with what I can find in my fridge, and it has to have at least 5 different components, but the more the better the sandwich tastes, in my eyes anyway. I don't eat anything that once walked on two or four legs, so my sandwiches mainly consist of many yummy and interesting flavours, rather than dead animal. I like to create sandwiches that wouldn't normally be sold in Tesco's and such, as mine are normally a taste explosion!

Right, the sandwich:

• Bread (best of both - for softness)
• Layer of houmous (reduced fat)
• Salt and Pepper
• A thick layer of tangy tomato cous cous (left over from last night)
• Slices of jalapeño pepper, cut into bits and added on top of the cous cous
• Slices of tomato, about half a large tomato
• Then spread a layer of houmous over the other slice of bread
• Then carefully put the slice of bread, houmous side down onto the tomato, and squish!

Cut into half, and hey presto, a rather scrumptious sandwich, low in fat and tasting amazing!

My rather yummy sandwich! 

October...

So October is here, and with it, it brings howling winds and driving rain...and apparently we are getting more of this weather for the coming weekend, great! Do we welcome October with open arms I hear you say, no we bloody well don't! If this is what you are going to bring with you October, you can sod the hell off and then return with some decent weather at least. 

We have gone from this.....

.......to this! (the sea is there somewhere I promise)

I know its autumn now and we should expect "autumnal" weather, but not wet, cold and morose weather. I want crisp, frosty mornings and the golden colours of the trees with crisp, golden leaves flying in the air with a cool breeze though the autumnal sky. To me, that is what autumn should be...crisp mornings with the ground covered in dew, golden leaves falling from the trees, with the cool feel to the air that winter is ready to drape its icy cold fingers over us, that's makes the world seem dead for many long and cold months. But instead our first taste of autumn is a cold, wet and soggy day, with soggy muddy coloured leaves falling from the sky...mixed together with a feeling this is what autumn will be this year....hmmm.....well we can but hope it will get better!

So come on autumn, lets see what you are, in the glorious array of colours you give us, just asking us to take photographs of your show, in preparation for winter's grasp. Autumn I do await you...so come on!

The Ikea Advert.....Happy Cats.....Happy inside

So I thought I would start of with my favourite things...and this advert is one of them. 

The new Ikea Advert is just gorgeous and always makes me smile. I have seen it that many times that as the first note is played, my head turns immediately to television. The song played, "Pianni" by Mara Carlyle, makes the advert even more magical, and works with the cats so well.

The basic idea was that they got 100 people (either Ikea employees, Ikea advert/film production staff, and the general public) to bring in their cats along to this experimental film. They put up a wall around an area on the shop floor in one of Ikea's flagship shops, in Wembley. They filmed this at night, and had many different camera's ready to film the cats. It was totally an experiment as they had no idea whether it would work or not, and had no control over the cats and what they would do etc. 

The idea of 100 cats running around an Ikea store is just totally amazing really... investigating in and around all the furniture, playing, chasing and fighting with the other cats. The end result is just fabulous, and almost magical....and of course so cute! The advert is called Happy Cats, and it finishes with the words "happy inside", relating to how your house should make you feel. But to me, watching the advert, makes me feel happy inside and smile lots! So thanks Ikea :)

This link will take you to the advert on the Ikea youtube channel, if you haven't had the chance to catch it on television yet!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7vXP3tHzhA