Mothering Monkey Sunday

Today is mothering Sunday, so I went for an elegant lunch at a posh restaurant with my family. The surroundings were all lovely and genteel, that is until I arrived with my parents, brother, grandparents and my nan's cousin from Spain.

My nan and the Spanish cannot hold their wine at all, despite 50 years of practice, so they were really pissed. They can, therefore, be excused for their ridiculous stories and drunken screeches. My grandad, however, was the designated driver, and therefore the reason for his telling the following Karl-Pilkington-Worthy story are unclear. Apart from he is amazing.

"When I used to work at the animal rendering plant, we used to get all sorts in. We had monkeys, an elephant..."

"AN ELEPHANT?"

"Yeah, a small one. Anyway, there was this bloke, Bob Nugget, who was as lazy as anything. He'd always be going over to people saying 'Oh, he's a lazy one, that Barney McBurger, he never does any work,' but he was the one who never did anything."

"Anyway, we found out that he was always sneaking off to the toilets, so over a few weeks we found out which was his favourite toilet to go in."

"So as I say, we used to get monkeys in, so one day we got this big bugger in, so we put it in Bob's toilet. It had clothes on, we'd put trousers on it and it had a cigarette hanging out of its mouth. We waited until the time that Bob would go to the toilet and put it in there."

"Now it was quite dimly lit in the toilets, so Bob went in, shut the door and everything and then went to sit down..."

"...and he sat on somebody's lap..."

"... and he turned around and it was the monkey, sat on the toilet, with his cigarette."

"So he yelled the place down and came out effing and blinding at us, asking who it was. But as I say, we used to get all sorts. There was an alligator once."

And that is how I spent my Mothering Sunday.

Fresh February

I'm currently in the process of what I call 'Sorting Out My Life'. I am reliably informed that this is commonly referred to as 'Growing Up' by people in some circles, but I will not subscribe to this nonsense.

In order to do this I am doing some boring money-ish things, but I'm also doing some exciting-ish things such as;

1. Re-decorating my bedroom
2. Getting rid of old stuff
3. Not buying ridiculous disposable fashion
4. Sorting out my bloody wardobe.

In order to do this I've decided to have a bit of a Fresh February and to help me along I am doing a couple of challenges I've found on other blogs.

For starters, I am doing Shoeperwoman's Shoeper Shoe Challenge. It starts on the 14th of February and lasts for one year. The idea is to count up all of your shoes and wear every single pair before the 14th of February 2012. Every. Single. Pair.

Oh my. The point it that if you haven't worn a pair after a year then you throw it away; use it or lose it!






I'm also going to blog along with Kendi as I do the 30 for 30 Challenge. She has done this several times as a way of Remixing her wardrobe and I think it's a brilliant idea! The rules are;

1. Pick 30 items from your wardobe (not incl. accessories ie; gloves, scarves, necklaces, hats).
2. Style them into 30 different outfits over 30 days.
3. Do not shop for 30 days.

  
I'm so excited to give this a try. I recently organised all of my laundry and I had seven loads of washing. SEVEN. That is RIDICULOUS. I think that after 30 days of not wearing certain items I'll be able to make much more rational decisions regarding getting rid of old clothes ("If I've gone without it for 30 days and had forgotten it existed...."). So I'll be starting that on Tuesday the 1st of February and blogging my outfits. I'm hoping I'll be a little more imaginative with my styling as I'll have much fewer pieces to work with.

I've also noticed that Gemma of Big Girls Browse is having a Frugal February and not spending on non-essential items for a month. I think this is a good idea that I will try and stick to as much as possible (avoid the stationary... it's like crack to me), probably excluding my trip to Tuebingen to visit Miss H. I won't be buying clothes anyway for the 30 for 30 Challenge so hopefully it'll be easier, and much kinder on my pathetic bank account. She's now posted a few more detailed 'rules', click the button to see them!




So that's it for now, all that's left to do is do it, really. I'll be posting photos irritatingly often from now on, probably. Oh my.

Goals/Hopes/Dreams 2011

1. Be healthier. Exercise more, eat better, take my diabetes seriously.

2. Get a job that I enjoy and that enables me to save up some money.

3. Travel. I want to swim in a clear blue ocean before 2012.

4. To only buy what is necessary or lasting. My bursting wardrobe of clothes I never wear is testament to my ridiculous habit of spending on disposable fashion. If I buy anything this year, it will be functional, beautiful and completely me. No compromises. I know my own style, I know what suits me, so why do I find myself still buying into trends?

5. Enjoy myself. I've spent so much of the past two years worrying about the future that I didn't give myself the opportunity to enjoy the present. This year I plan to have fun. I want to laugh, I want to dance, I want to read and I want to walk the dog. It's strange to think that the very first time the concept of "If it's making you miserable, stop doing it" entered my head was only six months ago. This year, I want to smile.