Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Scrappers Cat


12 weeks old and already Alfie is a true scrappers cat. Bless.

New Blog

Decided to move my blog as my previous host was quite limiting and I wanted to try new things. I am still in the process of moving my archives as I would like them all the in the same place. I will just lose out on all the lovely comments that I had. Never mind I can always go back and read them.

My old blog is located here

Saturday, January 28, 2006

What a load of Pish

We had a group of people stay at the hotel over the past few days. On day two one of the guests asked housekeeping for a new sheet as she had 'spilt' something on the bed. Housekeeping went up and tried to change the bed but the woman was insistant on changing it herself. I was suspicious so asked the housekeeper to go back into the room when the guest went out for the day. She did and what she discovered was a nightmare.

The bed had been ruined, the woman obviously had an incontinent moment but had tried to hide it and had added water to it to try and clean it maybe as well as turning over the mattress thereby soaking the base of the bed too. We removed the bed from the room and put a spare one in. Unfortunately the bed she damaged is a specialised Zip and Link bed that you can only buy in pairs. When she came back to the hotel I explained that she would have to pay for new beds to replace the one she had damaged. I felt sorry for her as she was only a young woman and obviously embarrassed. They way she dealt with her embarressment was to be rude and arrogant to the staff for the duration of her stay.

The day before she left she did not want her room serviced and that set off alarm bells for the Housekeeper who came and informed me. I told her to go check the room when the woman left the room. However the guest stayed in the room all day and we could not get access.

Reception were ready the next morning and when the guest checked out they informed the housekeeper as soon as she departed the room. When the Housekeeper checked she found the same problem, another bed ruined. I was very angry at the fact that the guest could not have come and informed us herself. I understand that she was embarrassed, however, had she informed us in the first place that she had an incontinence problem then we would have placed waterproof sheeting on her bed for her, saving her hundreds of pounds and saving her even more embarrassement. After the first incident we gave her the benefit of the doubt and presumed it was a one off.

So now we are two beds down on a busy weekend as the new beds don't arrive until Tuesday. The life of a hotel manager is such fun!

Friday, January 27, 2006

Tagged again - sheez.... thanks Clare

Here are the questions:

What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was 24 and working for a charity who helped homeless young people. I was with my partner and we had not long bought our first house.

What were you doing one year ago?
Much the same as this year

Five snacks that you enjoy (in no particular order, as all snakcs are created equal):
1. Fresh crusty bread and butter
2. Royal gala apples
3. sunflower seads
4. peanuts
5. crisps

Five songs to which you KNOW all the lyrics:
Tons and tons, with singing lessons I have to learn all the lyrics so there are too many to mention

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. Give up my job!!
2. Move to Spain
3. Start an Art/Scrapping holiday retreat company
4. Hire a personal trainer
5. Hire a Housekeeper/cook

Five bad habits:
1. Tactless
2. shopaholic
3. eating the wrong things
4. Too much time on the internet
5. grumpy when hungry

Five things you like doing:
1. Creating
2. Photography
3. Singing
4. shopping
5. Talking with my friends

Five things you would never wear, buy or get again:
1. White high heels
2. batwing sleeves
3. scrapbooking kit from Lakeland
4. blue mascara
5. black lipstick

Five favorite toys:
1. Laptop
2. camera
3. Game boy
4. craft robo
5. rubber stamp collection

Made a decision NEVER to send these tags on.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Icky Yucky

Well this week has been full of sickness. I hate feeling sick, I hate that my stomach feels like a washing machine. Have you ever tried holding back long hair whilst being sick and fending off two curious kittens at the same time?? Not a situation I would recommend to anyone lol.

We have a new receptionist at work and I have been training her all week. She is really lovely and picking up the job amazingly well so that means I can now get back to looking after the rest of the hotel.

Feeling very creative tonight, even though I feel a little ill. So I am having a sick scrapping night rofl.

I've been tagged by Shell this time!!

First time you got kissed. How was it?
I cannot remember, played kiss chase as a kid in primary school but don't remember my first proper kiss.oops!

First time you drove a car. What kind of car?
Don't drive.

First time you scrapbooked. When you look at your page do you love it?
The first I scrapbooked was in April 2005 and it was awful. Jigsaw frames from lakeland etc. I shudder at the thought of it

First time you went on a date. Where did you go and with who?
I went for dinner with a boy called Edwin to his parents. We had steakfor main course and angel delight for dessert. I took his mum a box of roses as a thank you. I was age 8.

First time you fell in love. How did you know?
I have only been in love 3 times in my life. Not sure how I knew but I did.

First time you cooked for someone. Was it yummy? What did you make?
My memory is pants as I cannot remember this. I cooked alot at home as my mother was a single parent and I used to cook for her coming home from work.

First time you got on a plane. Where did you go? Were you scared?
I was 13 and we went to Menorca, I loved it and still do :)

First time you shaved your legs. Did you cut yourself?
I was 13 and did it for going on the holiday above. Managed to not cut myself

First time you put on make up. Looking back how did you do? Did you look good or like a clown?As a teenage goth I wore black lipstick as well as green lol, I looked like a typical teen goth.

First time you moved out of your home. Was it an apartment, house, etc?
i moved out of home at the age of 19 into a shared flat that was a converted stable, above a motorcycle repair business. I shared with 4 complete strangers 3 became friends and one a lover :)

Monday, January 23, 2006

End of a Digital Era

Tomorrow is the last day of our Digital Divas Circle Journal. Everyone who took part has been fantastic and worked very hard to create some stunning layouts. I was very proud to be CJ host and enjoyed every entry I made. Here are some of my entries that I made below.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Crop Day

I had a wonderful day at the crop today. We had four new people come to the crop today, Mame, Becca, Maria and Elaine. All four were lovely people and integrated into the group brilliantly. Helen's baking skills were exemplary again with the yummiest carrot cake. Becca made scrummy cakes too.

We are having to look for a new venue as the numbers are getting so high at the crop. Its great for the crop to be so successful.

Had great fun showing Becca and Elaine how to use TH distress inks and well done to Becca for having the guts to crumple paper for the first time.

Managed to get lots of work done too, got my one cj entry completed and another one created for posting in the week.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Friends & Bitches

I want to say a big thank you to my friends for the fun we have had over the past few months, I am really enjoying our place to hang out its home from home for me. I want to especially thank Clare for her comments in her blog yesterday. The incident was not particularly pleasant for me and the goading that went on was immature, no-one else was dug at in quite the same way and I have done nothing to offend any of the people involved. In fact I have kept my distance from them all since November. Some people are just nasty to the core obviously. Needless to say I won't be seeking out any of their company anytime soon.

I am pleased to see the implementation of changes on UKS. I really feel for MA and the moderators they are not having an easy time of it and hope that they can get back to enjoying the forum again. UKS got me into scrapping in a big way and I will always have a soft spot for it. I have distanced myself a lot from it in the past few months and to be honest it has been good for me.

Being a member of ScrapPad has encouraged me to scrap more which can only be a good thing. I am surrounded by the most amazingly talented scrappers and they are all an inspiration to me.

Scrap-a-ganza

Woooo Hooo I am very excited as I have booked my flights for Scrapaganza in Holland later this year. Cannot believe I will be taking scrapping classes non stop for a few days I have heard only good things about this event as opposed to Bonanza which never appears to have good press. Quite a few of my scrapping buddies are going too so all in all it should be a great event.

I am also looking forward to our crop at the weekend. I am giving a craft robo demo so I suppose I will need to brush up on it. I have a new cj starting and need to get that made. I manage to get 4 CJ's completed at the weekend and hopefully will get another couple of entries done tomorrow evening.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

I've been tagged.again!!!

Thanks Clare!

Four jobs you have had in your life:Hotel Manager, Scrapbook Tutor, CAB Advisor, Paper Girl
Four movies you would watch over and over:Moulin Rouge, Calamity Jane, Grease, Chicago (can you see the theme lol)
Four places you have lived:Livingston, Edinburg,h, Altrincham, Hale
Four TV shows you love to watch:ER, Lost, Greys Anatomy, any documentry
Four places you have been on vacation:Malaga, Paris, Canada, Ibiza
Four websites I visit daily:Scrap Pad, Cat Pages, Yahoo, Blogs of friends
Four of my favourite foods:Fillet Steak in Peppercorn sauce Chilli Lamb on Couscous
Gambas Pil Pil, Enchiladas
Four places I would rather be right now:Spain buying a house, At home scrapping, Visiting friends, Out at a nice restaurant

Four bloggers I am tagging:
Jane
Kat
Need to find another 2 who have not been tagged yet!

Headspace

Earlier this week I decided to have no internet or a few days Personal choice of course. I just wanted some me time away from it all and chose not to do any creating or scrapping either. It worked, I am more refreshed and feel I can make a start scrapping again. I guess it had all got on top of me a little and I had a CJ mountain beginning to appear. Managed to get a couple of CJ entries done last night and hope to get a couple more done tonight in time for posting tomorrow. I am behind in one CJ by a week but that will be uptodate by tomorrow.

I have never been a person to miss deadlines but I do know that after my current CJ commitments I will not be doing anymore for a long time. I want to scrap for me and put my creative energy into projects that I really want to do. Don't get me wrong I love my CJ's and adore the returned books , it just takes so much of my energy when creating an entry as I want it to be the best I can do for that person.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Alfie is home


Our new kitten is home!!!

He was so calm and relaxed on the journey home. He came into the house and had a wee explore now he is curled up on the settee fast asleep. Our older kitten came in and sniffed him then left the room.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Inverting Colour


In my daily photo journalling I thought I would experiment with inverted colours and I adored the end result of this ivy climbing a wall. It looks like something from another planet!

Monday, January 02, 2006

Photo Journal


With inspiration from my friends I am starting a photo journal. That means trying to take one photo per day over the course of a year. I may not manage everyday but I will be happy with whatever I achieve. Today's photo is a picture of Sappho resting in her favourite place.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Happy New Year

Here I am at work slightly bleary eyed. I hate late/early shifts at the best of times but at new year its worse. 4 hours sleep and then back on duty.

Never mind its a new year and that means resolutions for the start of the year. So having thought about it here are mine:

1. Lose some blimin weight and keep it off!!
2. Sell the flat 2006 must be the year
3. Buy a house in spain (subject to above)
4. Time manage better so that i can get more scrapping done
5. Keep my scrapping area tidy so that I feel more inclined to scrap
6. Do my CJ entries the week the cj arrives!
7. Improve my spanish
8. Watch more spanish tv to help me complete number 7
9. Enjoy my life to the full.

I also want to thank all my friends and family for their love and friendship in 2005 and wish them all a very happy 2006.