And the award for the most creative way to return a borrowed pen goes to...

...Mr Skimble Shanks, for this little beauty that further brightened up my already bright day!

Take one borrowed Miss Bic for Her* biro, and cunningly disguise it in a padded envelope sent from Singapore, complete with customs declaration marks.  Make and print a fake label with the pen owner's work address, and attach to the front of the envelope.  Put this envelope inside a company internal mail envelope and send to the pen owner...

Maybe it's just cos it's Friday, but I was tickled pink to receive this surprise foreign package at work.
(I was also very glad to get my pen back, as my other one has just run out**.)

Thank you! 

*Other gender-specific writing implements are probably not available.
**As a woman, I can't be trusted with more than one pen at a time.

*Guest Artist Corner*#3 (or "Oh yes he did...")

So last year my Partner-in-Crime decided to write a pantomime script, as you do...

I'm very proud to say that not only did he write possibly* the best pantomime script EVER, but I had the privilege to act in it alongside some of the loveliest and talented people you could ever meet. 

The whole thing was so joy-inducing it makes me want to be in panto forever!
Thank you thank you thank you, everyone**. 

* Disclaimer: I've not actually read that many panto scripts.
**Including the little boy who said that the Page (me) was his favourite character, because of being so happy all the time!  Bless! 

My friend went to BETT...

My doormat has been disappointingly empty of late...  so let's hear it for the company internal mail system!

Here's a lovely surprise I received in a big shiny orange envelope, courtesy of fellow blogger and all round top bloke Mike:

A musing on mail:
Maybe the use of superfluous postal admin (Mike works just downstairs) adds to the excitement of both sending and receiving something.  Why hand-deliver a birthday card, say, when you can pay the Royal Mail 60p to do it for you in secret?  Does the added risk that it may never get there, or at least on time, make the whole thing a bit more of an adventure?  And does the recipient feel a bit happier knowing that someone has gone to the extra trouble of formal postage?

A New Leaf

The new year brings new experimentality in an unlikely guise...  KNITTING!

I entered into a friendly challenge: learn to knit (from scratch) in 2014. 

I was going to leave it until later in the year, but then a late night text message from my friend / challenge opponent ("I'm knitting!" said she!) nudged at some dormant competitive streak within my psyche.  Oh yes, I thought.  It is ON!  I went out and got me some 4 mm needles and a ball of double knit that very next morning.

I never knew I could get so addicted.  I have shown more perseverance in teaching myself to knit than with most of my past relationships.  I have calmly unravelled bad row after bad row, and just cast those stitches back on again and again, never once feeling the bite of frustration or temptation to give up.  After all this time I have found the thing to teach me patience, that most elusive of virtues!

Serendipitously, I stumbled across a beautiful local art project (Canopy) requiring knitted submissions by April.  So I upped my game from 'knit one purl one', and have been knitting my first leaves to hang in the woods!

I'll update you on my progress throughout the year.

Retrospective Resolutions

This post has been exactly 1 year in the making...

At the tail end of 2012, my friend and I were discussing potential New Year's Resolutions for 2013, and she told me about an idea she'd heard about as an experimental alternative.  Instead of setting yourself goals for the year ahead, the aim was just to live life as it happened and write down on a bit of paper every good (but unanticipated) experience that you ended up having, and put the bit of paper in a jar.  Then at the end of the year you can see all the things you never resolved to achieve but did anyway.  We decided to give it a go...

Undeterred by the lack of an actual jar (I used a broken mug with a plastic lid instead, y'know just to keep it real), I got the year off to a good start with some spontaneous and serendipitous midnight morris dancing, so into the jar mug went my first 'resolution'...

I hadn't expected to fill up the jar.  In fact I had no expectations at all of how my year was going to pan out, which left me wide open to grab all the adventures that would come my way.  The beauty of this challenge is that it forces you to notice everything you do that makes you feel something, which in itself amplifies that feeling.  Note by note my year progressed, and my cup ranneth over...

Last night I emptied my mug and read every single note I'd put in there.  There were at least 10 notes for each month of the year, and for some months I wondered how I'd ever got any sleep as they were so jam packed with experiences.  And I remembered every single experience, because I'd actually taken notice of it at the time, and reading these little reminders made me feel it all over again.

I am overwhelmed with gratitude to all the people mentioned on my notes - you know who you are.  Chances are, if you're reading this you'll be one of them.  I only hope I've done my job right and brought some joy to your 2013 too, or that you at least know how much I've valued your company.

Happy Old Year my friends, and let 2014's adventures commence!

Decisions, Decisions...

What should you do when struck down with indecision over the best way to spend a festive evening with your partner-in-crime?  Let the cards decide of course!

• Select a card at random from a shuffled pack.  
• The suit of the card determines the theme of the challenge:
• Hearts = go out for dinner
• Diamonds = get a take away
• Clubs = 'Supermarket Sweep' - find something meal-worthy from your nearest convenience store on a limited budget
• Spades = 'Kitchen Cupboard Challenge' - cobble together a meal from a limited number of ingredients, also restricted to whatever is already in the house
• The number of the card (ace = 1 or 11, picture cards 10) dictates your menu choice if eating out or getting a take away, or your supermarket budget (in £), or the number of ingredients to use for your makeshift meal.
• Once the initial theme card has been selected, the rest of the group can take a card to add some different numbers to the mix if necessary.

The results...
Stop reading now if you get bored by hearing what other people have eaten (that's everyone then).
We picked the 9 of diamonds, followed by an ace, so went for an Indian take away, selecting options 1 and 9 from the starters, special mains and sundries.  I would never have willingly chosen the 'girl curry' we ended up with, or a paratha naan, but I'm very glad the cards made me do it, as it was all delicious and experimental.  We could also laugh about 'what could have happened' had the ace of spades come out (giant pile of fish fingers anyone?).

Verdict:  A late 2013 goal for experimental living.

Christmas Special

Like many people, I struggle to feel festive at this time of year.  In a bid to offset my annual December meltdown, I threw myself into some hardcore crafting.  What better way to ignite that warm fuzzy glow inside* than to think of the great joy brought to your loved ones by some hand-made 'glad tidings' in postcard form?!

Here are a few of my little creations before they went in the post box:

And I found myself with silver card and enthusiasm to spare to make some mini 'Winter Wishes' too:

Merry Christmas Everybody!

*Ah yes, gin.