Lost, Twilight: Eclipse

Published on by Violetsteel Category: Journal

I watched the Series Finale of Lost tonight. I really liked how it ended. I’m kind of sad it’s all over, even though I didn’t get into the lest 2 or 3 season quite like I did the first 2.

Movie tickets are booked for early UK previews of Twilight: Eclipse on Saturday 3rd July.  😀

Engagement party dissapointment, Lost Finale, Libby’s 4th Birthday.

Published on by Violetsteel Category: Journal
in Milton Keynes the week after getting engaged

We had our joint engagement party & welcome home Becky party on saturday night, we definitely had fun but at the moment I’m annoyed at the people that just didn’t pitch. I invited my entire extended family, and other than Becky and her parents, not a single one of them arrived. I don’t mind the people that replied saying they couldn’t make it, but some said they would, and others were maybes but not a single one arrived. Pathetic. Various friends and colleagues also didn’t arrive, so it was a very disappointing turnout. In the end this actually helped because as it was, we had such a mixed group of people that it was actually hard work trying to talk to everyone. But it’s hurtful when people don’t even drop you a txt to say they won’t make it and then make lame excuses. It’s not ok.
It’s not the kind of event I would ever do again. It also reminded me why I know not to get expectations up for any kind of get together. People will inevitably let you down and the impromtu get togethers are always the best anyway.
However we did have loads of fun with the people that did come. We got a lovely gift from Pete’s colleagues and a signed card that Gemma arranged. I really thought it was so lovely that she went to such effort. We stayed out very late and Liam, Greenie and Becky ended up back at our place, drinking until the sun came up.

Summer has certainly arrived. The weather has been spectacular all of last week and the weekend. Yesterday Pete and I spend the day on the couch watching Season 2 of 24 recovering from Saturday, but I did managed to take advantage of the heat and get the freezer defrosted.

The Lost Finale aired here at 5am this morning, I’ll be watching that tonight, so I am avoiding facebook and twitter so I don’t read any spoilers. It is also my God-Daughter Libby’s 4th birthday today, so I’ll be popping around there to wish her a happy birthday and give her her birthday pressie this evening.

Facebook, £20 & Engagement Party

Published on by Violetsteel Category: Journal

It seems facebook is creating waves with their overly complex privacy and account setting at the moment, and many are theorising that this can lead to the decline of facebook and open the market to new competitors. Personally I don’t know if this is as serious an issue as it’s being made out to be. Yes the number of customisable account setting are totally ridiculous and many people are probably sharing information publicly without realising, but facebook has already stated it’s looking at simplifying this, and the amount of publicity the issue is receiving, they’d be stupid not to. On the whole though I think most users aren’t actually that bothered, and possibly not even aware. Those of us who follow the news and tech sites will know about the current state of affairs regarding this issue, but the avarage user probably doesn’t. I know from the span of my friends, family and colleagues on the site only a small handful are “power users” that follow anything beyond that goes on beyond their wall posts, the rest are happily oblivious to there being an issue. I can’t see there being a mass flocking to any “competitors” just yet. What are your thoughts?

£20

Did you know the old £20 note is starting to be withdrawn from circulation? Time to clear out the old matress and get your old notes exchanged for new ones.

Engagement & Welcome Home Becky Party

Tomorrow night is the party we are having in town to celebrate my and Pete’s engagement, and also to welcome home my cousin, Becky, who’s moved back home after living in London for 3 years. Hopefully we have a good night with friends and family. I’ll take pictures.

Gym

Published on by Violetsteel Category: Health, Journal

I’ve been unhappy with the weight I’ve gained over the past few years and over the last 6 months or so I’ve been working to do something about it. I started by joining My Fitness Pal and started counting my calorie intake. I know this can seem really complicated to most people but this site makes it so simple. You can do literal searches for generic items like “apple” and thanks to other people inputting details for themselves you can also search for things like “bird’s eye simply range – pollock fillet” and all the details are right there for you. Thankfully here in England, nutritional information is listed on every product, so if you can’t find what you want, you can enter it yourself and it’ll be saved for future us and others to use too. If you cook a complicated meal you can detail what’s in it and save it to your “meals” to use again, and it saves your commonly used items to “favourite” for quick adding any time. It makes watching how many calories you consume very easy, and also helps you plan a weightloss program and tracks your progress. Doing this I’ve manages to drop about 4kgs over a couple of months.

Now to kick it up a gear I’ve joined the local gym. I’ve never been much of a gym-goer, but the few times I’ve been so far I’ve really enjoyed it. The machines are great! I can plug in my iPhone and listen to my own music or an audiobook while I work out and the built in tv displays menus, television and information about my workout. Plus it automatically saves my workout to my iPhone and when I get home I can sync it to Nike Running. All this together helps keep me motivated as I can see my progress and set goals on the Nike website.
I’ve only been going 2 weeks but I’ve been twice this week and cycled there and back both times. Thankully the weather has been really nice so hopefully I can keep my motivation up when it’s not so nice. I’m sure there will be weeks where I can’t be bothered but while my motivation is high I’m going to make the most and try keep my eyes on the goal.

Size 8, here I come! 🙂

Public blogging & Careers

Published on by Violetsteel Category: Journal, Tech

I was inspired this week to get back into public blogging, thanks to the post on authenticity by vancityallie. I realise my real life and online life are 2 rather seperate things and I’d quite like to merge them somewhat. Though this actually scares me as I’m a rather private person and don’t really know how much I want to share between the 2. But what does this actually mean? Sharing day to day activities is one things, but is that enough? How much of myself should I give, what is too little and what it too much? I’d like my blog to truly reflect who I am, but how does one do that? I’m not one for lengthly entries about my view on the world and things that interest me. Maybe this is something I should explore more? Force myself to stick my neck out and expose myself to possible discussion and debate. It could be very interesting to see where it goes.

Career Change

I’ve never known for sure what it is I really want to do as a career. I’ve had a series of jobs since I left school, but haven’t started a career. However, for my work experience in school I chose to go to my old Primary School and experience teaching, and this is something that keeps popping into my mind and I think, “I should have persued that!”. Over the last year it’s been playing on my mind a bit more and I’m going to look into it. I briefly discussed it with Pete and he is supportive, though we know it would put a damper on our current goals of getting a house, married, travel to South Africa, etc. I’d have to study for a few years to become a teacher and the idea of leaving full time work is terrifying, but if I don’t at least look into it, I know I’ll forever regret it. It’s something I may decide not to do afterall, but at least then I know I looked, and decided for myself. So I plan to start by speaking to local college’s and University to find out the requirement for entry, duration, cost, and also try find out what it’s actually like to be a teacher; and then go from there.