bookmark_borderRug

New Rug

I’ll happily admit that whilst I might not be the best at it, I do love a bit of interior design. As such I’ve been trying to find a rug to ‘fit’ my living room.

The main highlight colour of my living room is red, with some red striped cushions (from Next) and a red TV unit (a hacked Lack unit from IKEA) and this is hopefully completed by walnut woods and the brown leather of my sofa. I think it works, which is all that really matters. I might add in a couple of red lamps soon too…

I know, get me!

I’ve still to replace the coffee table, a tricky choice as it’s a piece of furniture that will be central in the room, but the new rug has already brought things together nicely.

The rug came from an online store called Not on the High Street which, I warn you now, will throw up all sorts of wonderful things you will want to buy all sourced from small British businesses.

Disclosure: I received the rug for free in return for this blog post. Regardless, I’ve already got my eye on some other bits and bobs on the website, it’s well worth a look!

bookmark_borderAlright me Babber

I was in Brizzle on Friday, I mean Bristol. It was a bit damp, but that didn’t matter as I was there for the wedding of a wonderful woman called Ann and a rather charming man called Karl.

I had some time to myself during the day, and wandered round the harbour area, avoiding the drizzle as best I could. It’s a nice place, from what I saw of it, and the people are really friendly. I’m sure it’s even nicer in the sunshine!

The wedding itself was one of the better weddings I’ve attended, not least for the company, many of whom were bloggers, more of whom were Twitterers (Twittees?), and all of whom were friendly, funny and most certainly game for a laugh. The bride looked stunning, the groom dashing, and I even got to wear a kilt for the evening which is always good.

Several highlights spring to mind, not least watching the bride pogo to Smells Like Teen Spirit. Meeting several people I’ve known online (some of which for almost ten years) for the first time is always fun, although we never did figure out quite who all the other people on Twitter were (hashtag for the evening was #pixnups, yes, it was a geek wedding!). There was beer, cameras, knitting, good chat, shoe porn, laughter, toy cars, and even a spot of dancing. Fun fun fun!

Mind you the getting up at 5.45 the next morning for the flight back, not so much fun!

Nor was locking myself out of my flat when I left on Friday morning, which meant I had to go pick up the spare set from the letting agency rather than just crawl into bed, whimpering.

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet, but all added up to being a very good weekend indeed.

Come back soon for the next thrilling installment when I’ll be blogging about buying and constructing bookcases from IKEA, and plans for my next tattoo. The fun never ends!

bookmark_borderHappy being ordinary

I think it’s safe to say I am a fairly average guy, with an average life. I spend my working week at the grindstone, pottering about in the evening, watching TV occasionally, playing computer games, or mucking about on the computer. Weekends are usually full of family or the usual lot of the average man; B&Q, IKEA, and as much time spent sprawled on the sofa watching footie as I’m permitted. Occasionally we got out for dinner, or visit friends, or attend parties. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary.

It’s safe to say that I am not extraordinary.

And you know what, I’m quite happy with that. I’ve made peace with the fact that, whilst everyone is unique, mostly we’re all similar. We have similar habits, similar patterns to our daily to-ings and fro-ings. Yes, I’m happy being ordinary.

To a point.

Not being extraordinary does mean that you miss out on things. It means realising that others, those that shout louder, will get the attention and all too frequently the glory. I mean they do say “Nice guys finish last”, don’t they.

That makes me sound bitter when I’m exactly the opposite. I’m sweet. I’m sugar. Candyfloss and marshmallow am I.

Because, you know, one of the advantages of being ordinary is that when you do make a little noise, it goes a long long way. The rewards swing round, and you realise what you suspected all along.

Sure, the extraordinary noisemakers get the glory, but us ordinary people, we get respect and kudos. And you know what.

That suits me just fine.

bookmark_borderMusic for the masses

I’m still ripping CD after CD after CD into MP3 format. I’m stashing all the CDs in boxes and lugging them up into the loft alongwith the CD towers (which might go out later but for now can live up there out of the road… yes yes, we’ll declutter the loft as well).

I have… sorry… we have… no, actually, bugger that. Louise has maybe 30 CDs out of 600 or so and I’m the one doing all the work here… so..

I have another 3 CD towers to go (Benno from IKEA if you must know, 6ft tall, about 12 CDs wide), and going by the previous 2, I reckon that each tower has about 20 or so CDs that I’ve not ripped to MP3. It’s still time-consuming to check them all but it’s not as bad as actually having to rip every single one.

Thing is, I reckon by the time I finish I’ll have over 100GB of music (currently at 94GB and rising). That is, even for a music lover like me, patently ridiculous.

I may start deleting some tracks.

Now, that previous sentence may look quite short, the construction is simple and grammatically speaking it isn’t the most challenging to consider. So let me make sure you fully understand me here, and that you are paying attention because that was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to write here.

And not only is it not easy to write but it’s not that easy to do either. There is a lot of classical stuff in there and that tends to take up a lot of space, not to mention all the Xmas tracks which are only dragged out in the month of December. I am very much an album kinda guy as well so deleting individual tracks really just isn’t on. I guess it’s just as well that hard-disks are so cheap these days, and it does mean that my iTunes memes should be more entertaining in the future.

Speaking of which, when was the last time anyone helped propagate a meme? Have they died out? Another passing fad gone the way of the Hampsterdance? I might just have to do something about that.
Continue reading “Music for the masses”

bookmark_borderYou've been framed

Given the events of the past few weeks our normally ‘minimal’ approach to having family photos on show has changed. Last night Louise and Susan went to IKEA and she came home with four lovely picture frames in a variety of styles. Tonight she picked out the photos, tomorrow I’ll print them out (after getting some decent photo paper).

Whilst it’s never bothered me that we didn’t really have photos on show, I have to admit that just having the frames sitting on our little sideboard is making the living room seem a lot more ‘homey’.

Now all we need to do is find a couple of prints (or maybe get a couple of photos enlarged) for the main wall above the fireplace and the room might, finally, feel complete. Ohh apart from the curtain rail I’ve never fitted on the back window… details, details.

Do you have many family photos on show?