ceriselle.org

Good afternoon!
Feels like a while since I have actually sat and written on my blog about random bits of stuff, so here goes.

Work is going…very slowly at the moment. Over the past few months, I’ve been having a bit of a crisis thing going on where I have no idea what I want to do or where I want to be in one year, never mind bloody five years! This has involved quite a bit of girl crazy, but I think I know what is right for me now. Maybe. I just need £1500 for a course. Right. That will happen.

Socially, I am feeling very settled for the first time in a very long time. That sounds like an odd word to use, but I guess what I mean by that is that I feel like I know my place and where my friends fall into that as well. I honestly can’t remember the last time I felt like this, could even be as long ago as my final year at university!

I’m really excited at the moment, as some friends that I’ve met via Twitter and I are setting up a new website. Its going to be a mixture of articles and stuff, but once we have more details, I can’t wait to tell you more! In fact, this weekend, I’ve been sitting at the dining table with the iBook, tapping away at articles and jotting down some ideas, etc, of things I want to do!

How are you today anyway?

I’ve been asked this question a few times lately when people have heard that I’m doing Race for Life for the third time this year, and I thought it would be a good idea to get it down into words (because my answer is usually “er…to raise money”)

As many of you probably know, my mum died of cancer in December 2005. When she was diagnosed in May 2005, Mum and Dad phoned me to tell me about it. (They were going to come down to Bristol that weekend, but I somehow knew that something was up.) I immediatly assumed the worst, but the doctors had told her that it was a very treatable form of cancer.

Throughout the summer, everyone was very positive, so I began to relax a little and webt back to University in September feeling rather confident that everything was going to be OK.

At the start of December however, we were told a different story. Things were much worse than originally though, and at that point, we were told Mum had about 3 weeks to live (and she managed to keep to that as well – exactly 21 days afterwards, she died)

Anyway.

So the reason why I choose to raise money for Cancer Research is because my thoery is that if Cancer Research recieves more money through things like Race for Life, then more research can be done, not only into things like detecting certain forms of cancer at an earlier stage, but also into different treatments and possible cures. The less people that have to go through what my family did, the better.

However, if I could, I would choose to split my fundraising money between Cancer Research and Macmillan. The Macmillan nurses were pretty good to my mum, and I know she appriciated the help and support that they gave her.

If you’re not itching to give some money to charity, then you can sponsor me to do the Race for Life in June by clicking here (or indeed, why not join me in Bristol on the 12th June by going here) or you can donate to Macmillan via this link

Click for full sized - this is beautiful!

Twitters been all ablaze since last weeks “leaked” BBC document (now confirmed) that as part of cost cutting measures, 6Music and the Asian Network at to be closed, as well as BBC Online to be “scaled back”

Whilst I’m not too fussed personally about the closure of the Asian Network (lets face it, I’m not exactly the target audience) I can see why its a problem if it is shut down as its such a niche product. I doubt there will be many (if any) commercial based replacements from any of the major broadcasters.

When I’ve been able to listen to it, I love 6Music. But theres the problem. When I’m able to listen to it. Because 6Music is a digital only station, its difficult to listen to it in the typical places I would listen to the radio. Its fine if you like to listen to the radio whilst sitting at your computer (and even then thats dependant on whether you have a decent enough connection to the Internet, and if you’re at work, whether you’re allowed to listen to the radio) or if you like to listen to it in your front room (using either a DAB tuner or your TV) but most people choose to listen to the radio in their car or on their phone. Digital only stations soon become pretty useless.

Cutbacks for BBC Online can only be a bad thing – the Beeb produces a massive amount of content online every year, which is usually a good place to start when researching something. Personally, I don’t tend to believe a news story on Twitter until BBC News has covered it – its only real when its on the BBC.

Everyone has their own theories on how these cutbacks could be avoided. Many people have suggested getting rid of Chris Moyles from Radio 1 as his salary is allegedly the same amount needed for 6Music (I’m totally against that – Moyles is the only thing that gets me up in the morning. Whilst we’re on this topic, is it really that likely that he would recieve £6m per year? And if he does, why is it not on the above “BBC-o-gram“? On that same note, why keep Jonathan Ross? Why pay Graham Norton £2.5m?)

Why not get rid of 1Xtra? Cut down on soaps or childrens TV (Why is so much being spent on childrens TV whilst teen output is being axed?) Stop broadcasting Radio 3 or BBC Parliament?

No matter what is done, its bound to be unpopular with someone. If you feel strongly on this, head over here to sign a petition or two to save 6Music and the Asian Network, search for #save6music on Twitter, or read the open letter to the BBC Trust from PWL on his blog…..

So maybe you remember me writing about how you could influence the next profession for Barbie (here’s the link if you need a reminder)
What a shock. You put a poll on a website and say “Hey geeks! VOTE NOW ZOMG”. Sure enough, the next Barbie is going to be a computer engineer.

OK, I don’t really have a problem with how she looks. Sure, theres a bit too much pink for my taste, but back when I worked in IT, I pretty much dressed like this every day. Some people have complained she’s dressing too obviously casual, and others have said that she should tie her hair back cause it will just get in the way. These people have a bit too much time on their hands.

Still on the topic of Barbie, ASOS are currently selling Barbie Basics, which are…well, Barbie with a black dress on. Nothing that special really, but the dolls are selling for £30, with accessory packs to “customise” your doll for £15.

Barbie Basics™ is all about permission to play. Each doll is in the fashion staple “Little Black Dress”—break her out of the box and customise to make her your own.

Ohhhhhhhhh-kaaaaaaay.
Of course, I’d have to go for this Barbie:

You know, because….it looks like me. No? Damn you all.

So me and Hayley (well, it was me) came up with the idea of guest-posting on eachother’s blog; mine being located at the “it means nothing, honest” foshiznik.com.

Once this was agreed and Wordpress account set up, the problems begin: what to write about? Should it be my take on something on Ceriselle – shoes, maybe, or Bristol – or something common to my site instead?

How about a link to both. Me and Hayley are both Apple geeks. She has, as I am sure you know, an iPhone, and iMac, a Hackintosh or two. I’ve got a MacBook, two old G3 iMacs, a just-about-retro 2nd gen iPod Nano, and a hankering for the rather pointless big-iPhone-without-a-phone iPad.

So. iPods. And progress. Recently, Google introduced us to Google Wave, and Google Buzz (“Twitter but Shitter”). Neither of these have taken off brilliantly fast, especially in the case of Wave, and I point the finger of blame firmly at progressing too fast.

Think about it. Things need to come in stages so we get used to them. Look at Facebook. Every time it has changed to “the new Facebook” it has introduced a few changes that they could have done all at the same time, but didn’t. You may think this is because they hadn’t developed it that far, or hadn’t had this or that idea yet. But if they have, they still would have had to do it step by step, because too much progress in one go scares the fuck out of us.

Back to the iPod. Remember when iTunes store didn’t exist? And when it did they added each function one at a time and told us “soon you can do this, but not yet.” It’s because Apple know that if they had bombarded us with the full functionality straight away, we would have mostly been baffled by it and it would have failed.

If, when you got your first AOL account back in 1997, you could have had 20meg broadband you would have thought “I don’t need this”. If YouTube and Facebook and iChat and Twitter had all been launched on the same day, with all their current full functionalities, we would have balked at it – remember that at this time, AIM was “well futuristic”.

So they like you to think that each innovation is a natural progression. This is where we round off nicely with iPods again. I’ve noticed recently that my 4 year old Nano has developed an alarming propensity to know exactly what tune to play, when. On the way to my brothers it played Dragonforce; when I arrived at his Dragonforce was on in the house. I have a bit of lady-related grief and it plays all the songs we both love. I lit a fag just before exiting the Grafton Centre the other day and was treated to Eminem telling me he’s a criminal. I met my uncle so he could give me a birthday present and as he drove away, his iPod shuffled to the number one from the day I was born.

Where am I, and indeed Apple, going with this? It’s pacing and mirroring, basically. iPods are learning to react to us. And eventually they will start controlling us, little bit by little bit.

Then, Steve Jobs will be able to put an Apple logo on an actual brick and sell it to us for £349.99. And we’ll love it. It’s going to happen. Mark my words.

I’ve been biting my tongue (yeah, OK Zoe, not really) on this item for a while, but enough is enough.

Slankets.

These are possibly the worst thing, fashion wise, since Ugg boots, since rah hair (seriously, I DO NOT understand this trend of looking like you’ve been having lots of fun in a hedge) and yes, even since Crocs (whats worse than the smell of one pair of Crocs? A shop full of them. I went into a Croc Shop in Amsterdam a few years ago and had to leave straight away – the smell was even worse than a branch of Lush!)

Anyway. Slankets.

The idea behind them is reasonably logical. If you’re curled up on the sofa with a blanket on, its a bit difficult to reach for things cause your hands are all nice and cosy.

However, the fact that someone has not only “designed” a blanket with sleeves (so, er, whats the difference between that and a dressing gown put on back to front?) but is charging between £20 and £25 for something that without sleeves will cost you £5 (oh Ikea <3) is just amazing.

Whats even more ridiculous is that people are actually paying this for a fleecey blanket!

I find the Slankets insane enough (and honestly, a little bit chavvy) but to find that there is one so you can snuggle up with your significant other nearly made my head explode. (Seriously, super uber smugness right there. Look at their smug little faces)

If anyone even tries to suggest buying one of these for me, I will hurt you.

(P.S. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT? Apologies for the language, but its insane!)

According to “How To Tell A Woman By Her Handbag“, shockingly, you can tell a lot about a woman by her handbag and the contents of it. (Whilst that book is visually quite pleasing, quite honestly, it seems like another self help book of little content)

Anyway. I always like these sort of things, because I’m very nosy to see what stuff people carry around every day that they consider important. And not because I think that if you have a bag overflowing with everything from old bills to make-up and bus tickets then you must be “an imaginative free spirit”. If you could see me right now, you’d see I was shaking my head in a sad, disappointed way.

Click the picture to see the Flickr page, which has notes all over it.

Dear Iggy.

You are 62 years old

Can you start wearing some clothes please, the sight of mens nipples, particulary men who should really be at home wearing a nice cardigan, really puts me off my dinner.
Ta.

p.s. WTF is this thing in your latest Swiftcover advert?! It scares me a LOT

…I am excited for: This weekend. Its our anti-ante Valentines weekend, and we’re heading down to my best friends (aka the Wife’s) house just past Shepton Mallet. There will be mooses milk, lingerie shopping and shooting things with bows and arrows. (Crap, those last two items are actually a bit Valentine-y/Cupid-esque isn’t it?)
…I am bored of: Oh auditing. Job searching. Being a lazy arse.
…I should never have Googled: Sploshing. Thanks Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Now I look like a perv.
…I hope: that it doesn’t bloody well snow again. We had an exciting little flurry the other day, five minutes, that was long enough thank you!
…I dream of: Mulberry handbags. Purple and grey leather purses and handbags. (I am not even kidding here, I daydreamed about them the other day.)
…I love: Nutella on bagels. What, you thought I was going to get slushy? Do you even know me?

So I’ve been meaning to review the wonderful Goldbrick House since last August when we went for our Accounting Geek Reunion 2 and loved it lots then. However, I’m a lazy arse. I thought you guys knew this by now?

Friday was Alex’s (sorry, aka The Boy) birthday, so as part of his celebrations, I took him to Goldbrick House for a meal.

We ate in the restaurant, which was pretty full at half 7. We ordered some wine, and nibbled at the bread while trying to choose from the yum menu. I’d had a head start (I’d been gazing at the menu at work while my colleagues disappeared downstairs to Cosmo for lunch. I may have been sulking slightly that I was missing out on deep fried mushrooms. Still, looking at the menu helped me forget about the MSG overload they were getting)

Eventually, Alex chose one of the starters from the specials menu, which was some sort of pasta parcel (Ha, pass the parcel. Oh shh.) and I did the traditional girl thing of forgoing the starter in preference of a desert. I’d been eyeing up the jelly and ice cream on the menu from their website all day – I was far too excited about having jelly and ice cream for pud pud (Ahem. Pudding.)

For mains, Alex had the rabbit (Rabbit leg stuffed with tapenade, with an olive and potato cake, rocket salad and a light dressing), and I had the chicken (Corn fed chicken breast served with garlic gratin potatoes, honey-roasted parsnips and buttered kale) which was so yum.

It came to pudding time, and I was upset to see that jelly and ice cream wasn’t on that night. Disaster! I chose the vanilla cheesecake with strawberry coulis (mmm, awesome) and Alex chose the chocolate torte, served with blood orange sorbet. The cheesecake was awesome, but Alex found the torte just a little bit too rich. (Hence the discussion about ordering the same desert. He thought it was smug. I thought it was sensible.)

After all that delicious food (and I suppose great company and good conversation ), it was time to pay. For a starter, two mains, two deserts and two glasses of wine (he was driving, I feel guilty if I drink lots when he is sober!), it came to just under £60. (In their latest newsletter, there is a promotion offering 50% off main meals, which is what reminded me to book (with that offer) but for some reason it wasn’t taken off.)

Still, if you’re looking for a different, but elegant meal out, why not give Goldbrick House a try? I’m already looking forward to my next visit!

Website: www.goldbrickhouse.co.uk
Address: 69 Park Street, Bristol, BS1 5PB
Phone: 0117 945 1950
Opening Hours:
Cafe/bar Mon – Sat: 9am – 11pm, Sun: Closed
Restaurant Mon – Fri:Noon – 11pm , Sat 11am – 11pm, Sun: Closed
Champagne/cocktail bar Mon – Thur: Noon – Midnight, Fri & Sat: Noon – 1am, Sun: Closed