Freezing of the Nat Nav

No sooner had I designated  Needlework Natalie as Nat Nav then she it she starts to fail.  It she it she has started to freeze mid function as the weather has turned colder. 

On Wednesday my Nat Nav went to catch the gentleman's country train, without me!  I was in one of those office impromptu conversations at a desk.  You know the sort, the ones unarranged but most useful. Anyway, I ran and caught up with my oh so independent Nat Nav at the station.  Here I noticed a train in the platform and shouted to my Nat Nav that we needed to run over the bridge.  I did.  She it she did. The doors beeped.  I ran and jumped on the train.  She didn't.  The doors closed.  My train departed leaving my Nat Nav on the platform.

The next morning I found Nat Nav on the platform  (not the same platform.  She did appear to have gone home to sleep overnight. ) I commented that a train had just gone through that she could have got on. She told me that she saw it and was so busy carrying out her morning Google searches and start processes that it didn't click that it was her train to work.  Yes, dear reader, she'd frozen mid function again. 

There's a few bugs going around.  I might have to run an anti-virus. 

In other news Friday was a Southern strike day again.  Our country gentleman's train decided not to run from Gatwick.  I actually, yes really, bated breath, caught a non running empty Southern Train to London!

This is how empty the train was.

Rhinos and Flowers

Dear reader,  hard autumn has arrived.  It was on  Wednesday.  Sadly our late blooming flowers will be tinged brown with a frosty burn soon.  Luckily Mr Him took these pictures on Saturday prior to the frost's descent on our garden. He was remarking on the late display as he captured their pink and orange radiance.

Talking of Mr Him. ..well let's first look at this baby rhino.  It's just been born and is taking its first bath.   Look at mum and baby rolling on the floor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT1AJUidMOk

That leads me nicely into telling you that Mr Him has taken up pilates.  I can't say it's the most elegant I've seen him as he does his floor exercises.

Elegance reminds me  to tell you Mr Him has  bought himself a new  jacket, sorry, blazer he tells me, from TK Maxx.  He was given  £30 Love to Shop voucher as a reward at work and I think it was inspired to spend the voucher in TK Maxx where he could leverage on their discounted clothing. 

Cakes and More Cakes

British Bake Off has a cult following in the UK.  Me, on the otherhand,  I'm a cult fan of cakes full stop.  This is one half of my struggle with weight.  Easy you say,  don't buy cakes.  Yes, and I don't ! The second half of my downfall is that in the office we have some master bakers.  These offerings have befallen my waistline over the last few weeks.  Well would you say, no?

Videos Balcombe Viaduct and Canary Wharf

Dear reader, 

A simple blog today.  I have taken a video of our viaduct in the for.  I go over this viaduct every work day and this time of year it has an eery atmosphere as if we are travelling above the clouds.  You can't see anything bar fog.

Balcombe viaduct




Another video that I took for you was of the skyline of the Canary wharf area in London.  I visit a few times a year for work and it always strikes me as our little bit of New York.    

Canary Wharf

Wonder Woman and the Cleaner

Dear reader,  I was greeted at work last  Monday morning with a cupcake on my desk.  This was from Petra, and no, it wasn't in the form of apple for the teacher. 

Petra told me that she had gone to a first birthday of a baby of one of the school mums.  This mother apparently gave a gift to each child that went to the party as a from the baby present.  She did all the baking and with a baby! I commented that the wonder woman clearly had too much time on her hands.  'Well actually, ' Petra told me,  'this lady works as a fashion designer of children's clothes full time!  She baked at 4 am for the party!' 

She could have iced them! At 6 am maybe.

I have warned Petra that this wonder woman has set the bar. 

On the other end of the spectrum is me.  I'm an 'enough to get by' person not a perfection person.  I'd have bought cupcakes. In fact why have cup cakes at all!

This week I've gone a little further on the  'buy in'  scene.  I've bought in cleaning.  Yes,  finally I put it to the others in the household the idea of paying a fiver each and having a cleaner on a Saturday morning.  As we all work all week we find weekends short and precious.  None of us are of a mind to clean at 4 am.  I did ask them.  It was in fact my intro to the conversation. 

Our cleaner started Saturday last.  It enabled Miss 21 to sort out her car repairs,  me to do ironing and blogging and some other cleaning,  Mr Him cleaned the car.  None of us could  be lazy whilst the cleaner  was there.  Instead  we cracked on with these other tasks earlier in the day then otherwise would have been the case.  The whole weekend rolled back two hours.  Relaxation started at 2 pm on Sunday instead of the normal 4pm.

Whilst on the topic, and knowing how popular my undersink blog was,  I captured some pics of Mr Him s efforts at sorting out the understairs cupboard.  I know you like that sort of thing,  dear reader.

No Phone

I repeat no phone! Here I am on strikeday travelling rural by diesel to work accompanied by Needlework Natalie but not my phone.  Not that I use my phone for phoning. No, I use my phone for blogging, tweeting, emailing, IG-ing, Googling, looking up times of trains (non-existent or otherwise).  Don’t worry, I have a scrap of paper in my bag.  I have found a pen.  I can blog.  I have my Kindly, oh, no, flat battery.  Note to self, on scrap of paper, charge Kindle when I get to the office. Its not as if my charger is going to be used for anything else today is it!

I know where my phone is. Propped up in the kitchen where I was taking a selfie for my Style Blog.  Darn blogs!  Miss 21 texts me to let me know of her arrival at work. I will email her from my laptop in the office and hope she gets that on her phone.

Jealous.  I am jealous as I watch Needlework Natalie browse, surf, tap and look up our connecting train times.  I must sit on my hands for fear of snatching her Nokia out of her clutches. 

Lovely views, concentrate on the lovely views, and not a Mr Him in site.  Trees travel past in a green blur. Yes, still green. Concentrate. Ignore the lack-of-phone hyperventilation.  Breathe deeply.  Distraction.  Oh, I went to Pilates last night.  That was fun.  I used to be advanced but that was 15 years ago.  Still its like riding a bicycle. You don’t forget.  Shame my body forgot.  Flexibility is missing and stuckness has arrived.

No-one’s talking on the train today.  They are all peering at their phones.  Aagh!  My trains trundling to Dorking now. Distraction. The Girl on the Train, looking into gardens. 

Needlework Natalie is my search engine.  I’m calling her Nat Nav.  It has a ring to it, well tap to it.   ‘What platform do we need?’ I ask  my Nat Nav.  I like this voice control search engine.  ‘Platform 2,’ Nat Nav responds.

Sheep, breathe, look at the sheep, cows, ponies, horses.

Nearly there.  Nearly able to open email, nearly able to use landline.  Nearly connected.

Great Western Gentlemen

For 3 days my feet haven't touched the street.  Tuesday I worked at home,  Wednesday I was chauffeured from my driveway to the office parking lot and back.  I could wear slippers really!  Thursday morning I was  once again picked up from my driveway, and that's without street walking!  (Mr Him blames the builders next door. )  That evening myself and Needlework Natalie  experimented getting home via magic carpet Great Western.  Surrey to Sussex via Cornwall Guildford and Gatwick on the  diesel line. 

At this rate we're going to run out of working from home excuses. 

We travelled on the diesel cross country line and found it most pleasant.  We had a seat,  there were no delays,  we saw views of grazing horses rather than cement and suburbia, and people talked. 

Yes.  Talked.  I was trying to capture pictures for you and gentlemen moved aside, put down their papers so I could get a better view of them the countryside and 2 of them  pointed out where the best view was,  and it wasn't at home sitting on the sofa in the guise of Mr Him  (the View).  The 2 gentlemen didn't know each other and were sat opposite sides of an aisle.  This was a social and relaxing journey, with,  yes gentlemen not commuters.  If you are looking for a gentleman I suggest the Great Western line.