Monthly Archive for March, 2009

The magic buttons

Published on March 27, 2009 in General. 0 Comments

Can I just take a second to register a complaint about pointless uses of technology? We have a very, very nice Bose stereo system in the kitchen (thanks to Simon, of course – I am completely indifferent to sound quality and see every new addition to our AV arsenal as just MORE WIRES to trip over), and while yes, it’s a great stereo, I find it incredibly annoying that you can’t operate it without the remote control. There are no buttons of any kind on the stereo itself. You can’t even turn it on or off without the remote, which is about the size of a credit card and tends to conceal itself rather cleverly in our enormous kitchen. While I appreciate that having the option to use a remote control to operate the stereo is a good thing, I’d like to at least be able to turn the damn thing on without having to mentally retrace my steps and forage under every movable object within a twenty-foot radius. Technology is supposed to SAVE time and effort. Not CAUSE it. And not only that, but – what happens when the battery in the remote runs out? We will be without The Archers until we get it together enough to buy a new one! This is not convenience!

Simon, incidentally, has started calling the remote “the magic buttons” for some incomprehensible reason, and now I’ve started doing it too, and it has become a daily ritual for one or both of us to stalk round the kitchen chanting, “Where’s the magic buttons? WHERE’S THE MAGIC BUTTONS???” whilst frantically turning over tea towels and peering under the toaster. Anyone witnessing this oddness would probably worry about our sanity. But then again, most people already do.

Cuckoo, Cuckoo – Etsy start-up kit

Published on March 22, 2009 in Find Me Here. 0 Comments Tags: .

We’ve had a spring cleaning frenzy here at RTD HQ. It was becoming a dire necessity – my will to do housework has descended into actual negative integers since I’ve started working office hours again, and the housekeeping had descended into quite a sorrowful state. I was a bit worried that the scary women from How Clean Is Your House were going to turn up and give me a stern talking-to. This weekend Simon and I finally decided we couldn’t take the filth anymore; so he scoured the ground floor and I did the first floor, and you know what? It was great. I like cleaning our house, because our house is just SO NICE when it’s clean. This is the nicest place I’ve lived since…well, forever, actually. I’m in love with this house. Especially the kitchen. (Granite countertops! Ceramic hob! An Aga! Oh my!)

Simon, of course, did the HEROIC MAN CLEAN on his section of the premises. He turned everything upside down and scrubbed it until it begged for mercy. There was actually furniture on the lawn at one point. Whereas I did what I do best, and organized the bejeezus out of everything I saw. I even sorted my sock and underwear drawer, which was incredibly satisfying – I’m so sick of rummaging around in the dark every morning trying to pick out one black pair of socks and one black pair of pants and one black bra from the SEA of odd black socks and slightly torn black stockings that I couldn’t be bothered to throw out. (I do tend to favour black a bit.) I even separated the drawer into partitions, using some spare foam board I had lying around. Because I am just that punk rock.

We also got a bit of gardening done, and generally enjoyed the lovely weather. The damson tree in the garden has burst into bloom (kapow!), there are daffodils everywhere, and all the trees are budding enthusiastically. Hooray for spring.

I’ve done a new collage based on a public domain image of a cuckoo that I found on Wikipedia Commons (love, love love Wikipedia Commons! All hail!). It’s available through my Cafepress shop as cards, journals, postcards, coasters, various ephemera and what-have-you; and for Etsy sellers as a complete shop start-up kit, including three shop banners/avatars, reserved/thank you graphics, and business card. (The banner design is one of a kind on Etsy, and will never be sold to anyone else.)


View on Cafepress


View on Etsy

Kew Gardens

Published on March 17, 2009 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Last weekend we went down to London to see my mom, who was in the country for half a day on a stopover on her way to a friend’s wedding in India (she is SO excited – she’s wanted to go to India for ages). We met her at Heathrow and took her out for a nice walk in Kew Gardens and a pub lunch to help get her over the trauma of the first nine-hour flight and ready to face the second leg of her journey. Personally, I wouldn’t have been in a fit state to do anything at all except lie on the floor curled up in a ball and whimpering (long haul flights are horrible – horrible and evil), but my mom is a trooper. She was annoyingly un-dishevelled and even cheerful. I’m really not convinced that I’m actually related to her.

Anyway, here are a couple of the photos I took at Kew. The crocuses were absolutely glorious!

And here are some of the pressies my mom brought me for my upcoming birthday…an antique medicine jar (I love blue glass!), and a 1945 printing of Wuthering Heights with woodcut illustrations. Yay! My mom is great.

Back to the rat race

Published on March 6, 2009 in General. 0 Comments Tags: .

So I’m back in the nine-to-five routine for the time being. We’re feeling the pinch here at Casa Camps, just like everyone else in this country (except the bankers who started it all, of course – it’s good to know that if I want to retire at fifty with an assured six figure income for life, all I have to do is bring the nation’s economy to its knees), and we need some proper dosh, and not just the pittance I’ve been bringing in doing design work over the past six months.

I’m not going to stop my Etsy work, of course – so far I’ve managed to keep pretty good momentum going, carrying on as usual with my custom orders. I was a bit worried that sitting down at my laptop after a full day at the office would feel like a chore, but it doesn’t. It feels like fun. In fact, I have a hard time sitting down and watching television without having something on the go on my laptop. TV alone is not enough to stimulate my goldfish brain! My brain must be fed! Must eat braaaaiiiiins…oh, sorry! Came over all zombie there for a minute.

And so far the job itself is mercifully tolerable. Believe you me, I’ve had some mind-wrenchingly awful and stressful jobs (like every single job I’ve had since moving to Britain), and this is not one of them. The office is very laid back and everyone is super nice; and the job itself is similar to stuff I was doing in the government before I left Canada. Not only that, my boss is from Canada, and the team manager is from New York. My accent almost feels normal again! And it’s nice to be back in the public sector. There’s much less of a competitive, go-go-go mentality. My last office job in London, by contrast, was doing document control work for a HEEYUGE construction management company with some HEEYUGE contracts, including one on the 2012 Olympic Park, and my GOD it was stress-ridden. I would go home at night with blood leaking from my ears, from the stress. Really. OK, not really. BUT IT FELT THAT WAY.

So all things considered, it’s actually nice to have an assured income again, even though it means facing the Dreaded Alarm Clock every morning. I am not a morning person. No, no, not at all. Really not. I hate the entire world before eleven AM. I hate puppies. I hate cupcakes. I hate rainbows and I hate goddamn unicorns. Basically I become Jean-Paul Sartre in the fore-noon hours. However, I am becoming pretty good at getting used to changes in circumstances, and it didn’t take me long to learn to hide my murderous rage at 6 AM and just get on with things, unless my husband gets in the way, in which case I am (apparently) quite terrifying. Sorry honey.