Minimalist or hoarder?

Which are you?

I am somewhere between the two, and feel like I have a little angel and devil sitting on each shoulder. "But it might come in handy" says little devil. "It would be so much easier to clean without the clutter" says little angel.

I think this feeling of being pulled in both directions stems from my childhood (this is starting to sound a bit Freud but bear with me). My Mum is a certified OCD hoarder of the kind you might see on Grimebusters or How clean is your house? No joke. It is so bad that even though she has a 3 bedroom flat there is no space to put up guests. You can barely find an uncluttered route to walk across the floor and the carpet hasn't been seen for years. This made it hard growing up; I could keep my room reasonably tidy but the rest of the house was impossible. I'd find excuses to put friends off visiting. I'd meet boyfriends in town rather than risk them seeing my mum's place. When I was 16, I made my escape by going to college on the other side of London and moving in with my Dad.

I know how this sounds... selfish. Why didn't I help? I have tried but it is the sheer volume of junk. I once had a week off work and spent it going through the crap with her (she refuses to let us chuck out anything, even a pile of old newspapers, without her consent). We ended up with 12 bin bags of rubbish, 8 for the charity shop along with a few pieces of furniture, and several wheelie bins worth of recycling. It barely made a dent on the flat. Then I found she had been sifting through the bin bags and pulling stuff back out. I was physically and mentally done in.

Not surprisingly, K hasn't been round there yet. Me, my brother and our partners are hoping to blitz the place in the new year. The council are fitting a new kitchen and bathroom in April so they will need space to get in!

I am pretty ruthless when it comes to clearing stuff out but sometimes I think "Why did I chuck that? If only I still had it". I had one of those moments when I saw this...

Brigitte Herrod Button Badge Heart Picture

I have a feeling my badge collection was in one of the 8 charity shop bags. Otherwise I might have a go at making one of these myself!

I'm your biggest fan...

...I'll follow you until you love me,
techno, Technorati

Good old Lady Gaga. (Is she really a man? I've seen the photo but I'm not convinced).

So, I am 'claiming my blog' on Technorati. I don't actually know what the benefits of being listed with them are, but I'm doing it anyway. Here it goes...

WQKJ9K6C35PE

Internet shopping hell

 

The holy grail 

I sometimes think that I take my bargain hunting too far. This morning for example... I had been reliably informed via the hotukdeals website that Boots would be having a 'better than half price' deal on a Soap & Glory gift set today. So, I jumped on my computer and went to the Boots website and there it was in all its [soap and] glory. Usually £50 but on offer at a reasonable £20. I forgot to mention that this wasn't part of my xmas shopping - it was for me, me, me! I added it to my basket but when I tried to checkout, up popped a holding page saying that the server was busy and to try later. I tried hitting refresh and after several attempts I got to the next page where I had to register my details. Then up popped the same bloody holding page showing an annoying toothy couple. Much hitting refresh and swearing later, I had finally got to adding my card details, clicked on 'place order' and got the effing holding page again. Arghhhh!!

All the while K was being good and playing on the floor. The sun was shining outside and the snow was beckoning. How much time was I going to waste arsing about to get some fancy shower gel and moisturiser? It was worse than trying to get Glastonbury tickets! So in a huff I shut down my computer and took K out for a lovely walk in the snow. Even my grimy corner of London (which is too close to the concrete jungle of Croydon for comfort) looked clean and respectable under a layer of crisp snow.

My mum had called just before I went out and I told her about my plight. When I got back from my walk, I got another call from her saying she had popped to her local Boots and picked up the gift set for me. Thanks mum :D

Let it snow

 

It's snowing! I just took K out in the back garden for her first glimpse, and touch, of snowflakes. It was lovely and has made me feel really Christmassy (despite waking up with a dodgy tum and wanting to stay in bed all day - that'll teach me for writing smug posts).

 Is it too early in the day for mulled wine?!

Chazzing & Chrimbo

Me (looking like cousin It), K and our little tree

Christmas cards are written and posted, decorations are up, presents are nearly all bought and most are wrapped. I'm even making some mince pies (I usually hate them but I found this easy recipe that converted me). Who is this domestic goddess because it certainly doesn't sound like me?!

Yesterday I went to Lidl's to get some cheap treats. We're going to be on our own for Boxing Day so rather than cook a big meal we thought we'd just have lots of nice stuff to pick at. My basket read like a list of "don'ts" when pregnant: parma ham, chorizo, gorgonzola, prosecco, smoked salmon. I bet none of it makes it past the end of the week.

I also went chazzing. I found a V-tech pop-up surprise ball which looked practically new for £2, bargain! K was getting grumpy by this stage so I gave her the toy to occupy her. I soon realised why the ball was in the charity shop looking so shiny and unused - it is so bloody annoying! After 5 minutes of its beepy noises and condescending voice you want to smash it. Or at least lose it.
Please, please, if you know of any other annoying toys that should be avoided tell me now!

Weekend freebies

Apologies for the surge of posts lately, talk about verbal diarrhoea!
I just wanted to quickly share these freebies. Both are from the Torygraph Telegraph:

On Saturday there is a voucher inside the paper for a scarf worth £20 from Phase Eight. Would make a nice xmas pressie.
Simply collect the voucher printed in The Daily Telegraph this Saturday, December 12th and take it along to any stand-alone Phase Eight store. Then choose your free scarf. There are three colours to choose from including: pink, black and green (see pic). Please note this offer is strictly while stocks last and subject to availability. Please ensure you visit the store early too avoid disappointment.

On Sunday there is a £5 voucher for the Body Shop. There is no minimum spend and it can be used up to 19th December.
One voucher per customer per single transaction. It's not valid at The Body Shop at Home, Northallerton, Reading, West Quay Southampton and Northern Ireland stores. No change will be given if your item is less than £5.

And for anyone looking for a bit of 80s nostalgia, Body Shop has brought back Dewberry and Fuzzy Peach!

Release the hounds!

There has been a security breach!

Maybe I am being overly paranoid but I typed my (real and very unique) name into google as you do, and along with the usual links - Facebook, my IMDB stuff - up popped my CV complete with mobile number, and a link to an online journal I kept while I was pregnant. The CV doesn't bother me too much as it's part of my design website, but the journal was meant to be private, just for me.
Now I'm wondering who has seen it. Probably my mum! Anyone who knows my name could have had a peek. It actually makes me feel a bit sick.

I couldn't even work out how to delete the journal or change the user name so I deleted each individual post instead. Nine months worth of notes down the toilet. Bugger.

I should probably lighten up and realise that people have better things to do with their time than google me!

Image courtesy of Josh