Welcome! New fishy friends!

Well finally!
Please join me in welcoming our new editions to the design studio!

Keverne & L.m.n.o.p!

They're only just settling in but we hope they are feeling welcome and stay with us for quite a while! I even bought a plant and Gary i must say is looking MUCH more cheerful since their arrival.

(round of applause!)
Thank you and goodnight

Gary looks up clearly in awe of his new tank-mates...

Keverne eyed out the castle right away...



one new happy family!

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Follow-up on freaky feathered friends

clearly the Jacobin is NOT bred for flight! lol!

Ahem! mutated rats of the sky!!!

Here are the pigeons i was tellin ya'all about! :)




well, SOME of them anyway

This is just for anyone (probably that covers everyone else i know! hehe) who didn't catch the same riveting documentary on the genetics and abilities of these birds!

Turns out not everyone feels they are swooping, evil vermin of the sky? Some believe them to be the "fighter jets of the bird world"!

i kid you not.
I'll admit to being fascinated.

(but only that one time!! honest!!! :P)

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Anyone for a game of wiff waff?

London mayor Boris Johnson
This guy is great!
his speech reads pretty much on the same entertainment level as an Onion article :)

"Virtually every single one of our international sports were either invented or codified by the British, and I say this respectfully to our Chinese hosts who have excelled so magnificently at ping pong," the Mayor said in a tongue-in-cheek speech.

"Ping pong was invented on the dining tables of England in the 19th century and it was called wiff waff.

"There I think you have the essential difference between us and the rest of world.

"Other nations, the French, looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to have dinner, we looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to play wiff waff. That is why London is the sporting capital of the world."

"And I say to the Chinese, and I say to the world, ping pong is coming home."

those were the days...

With my daily e-mail came a rather fantastic quote! I'm adding it to my favourites :)

Word of the Day

hyperbole \hy-PUHR-buh-lee\, noun:

Extravagant exaggeration.

Hyperbole comes from Greek hyperbole, "excess," from hyperballein, "to exceed," from hyper, "beyond" + ballein, "to throw."

Those were the days when I still liked hyperbole, before an excess of real drama killed my taste for the manufactured kind.
-- Katherine Russell Rich, The Red Devil

my sentiments exactly!

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Finally went to the Assembly!

and let me say, considering we managed to go on an electro night of all nights, and we STILL had a great time... THIS place is sincerely worth your time!

Whats weird and kept popping into my head the whole time as i saw him walking around, checking up on things and chatting to people is that the person who seems mainly responsible for this great great venue, is the same guy who seemed to have such gawd-awful friends back in high school and who seemed to be SO on the side of the popular, current, cool and just socially eeevil meanie-meanertons that Tracey, Mel and I encountered on the infamous Bergvliet ovs tour :)

It's weird to see, uncomfortable to remember, but also GOOD to realise how much time can change things!

your very first shortly realised perceptions of people could often be wrong and some people CAN seem to change and so can you!

I think this is my major lesson I'm learning in 2008.
People can change.
Some for good, some bad.
But i personally have to learn to let go. Try let go of the things people did in the far away past to hurt, but also let go of those who become hurtful :)

darn balance!
so hard to achieve :)

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hmmm bad news for Saffa's?

isn't this the main reason for half of the people i know moving to london? :P
surely it was a perk tho...

ah well... i think personally that they should RAAAAATHER ban smelly hungover people from the trains.

The stench of that one single man that overwhelmed our whole compartment on Lucy and my train journey still haunts me... and probably will forever.
I have NEVER felt that ill from smell or wished myself further from any human being.

*shudder*

well... maybe one or two other hehe

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Oooooeeeeoooo! looksee what i did!

Yes ok so it's not the most astounding design in the whole world but i think it's quirky, fun and a little bitty of... me!

I created it this afternoon after stumbling apon a forgotten folder lying gathering mac-dust on my desktop

Ya'all are welcome to make comments!

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Bills in Context

see now this i think would be MUCH harder to do with our notes... hmmm

"yes! wait! hold still mr lion! ok... a little to the left and if you could tilt your head down just a tad?"

but an awesome idea anyway!

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A different view to the one i usually hear

I love Noodle's blog and try to visit it almost everyday.

I thought i would re-post this as Gaylin and I were having a very unproductive conversation about this the morning of the strike.

Makes me feel better :)

"Power to the people

Whilst driving to work today through empty roads in the comfort of your car. Spare a thought for the trade unions who are on strike today in protest of rising food and electricity costs

I'm not sure what we would do without the trade unions, for it seems without them our nation would not have a voice. They simply demand answers from government. They don't sit at home whinging about how bad things are, they go out and make a stand. Coz that's the only way to make a change."

Bits and pieces i loved from this article

By Lisa Kogan from "O, The Oprah Magazine," March 2008


Cybil sent me this fun article! Great advice and good laughs!

In 1977, my friend Brenda and I went for dinner at a little Chinese restaurant called Empress Garden. She had the lemon chicken, I had the shrimp har kow, and we each had an egg roll because in 1977 you could eat sugar and fat and deep-fried everything without its signifying that the apocalypse is at hand.

Our waiter placed the entrées in front of us and ceremoniously lifted the shiny silver domes. Brenda's chicken was crunchy on the outside, moist on the inside, lemony all over, and I knew in an instant that I'd made a hideous error in judgment --I should've gone with the chicken.

I tell you this story to illustrate my willingness to admit when I've made a mistake. In fact, I've rarely ordered a breakfast, lunch, or dinner I didn't regret; at this very moment, I'm wishing I had an iced tea instead of a Diet Coke.

But aside from the food thing and one very adorable guy in the early '80s who was all you'd want in a man except for the fact that he was also looking for all you'd want in a man, I am never, ever wrong.

Now, I'm not saying I always take my own advice or trust my own instincts. I'm merely suggesting that the world would be a much better place if everyone else were to do exactly what I tell them to do. Arrogant? You bet. Narcissistic? I suppose. But c'mon, admit it, you've had the very same thought kicking around for years. Still, I'm the one with the column -- so now without further ado ...

Everything I know about the world and how you (yes, you!) should live your life:

• If your outgoing phone message is longer than, let's say, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian of the Year segment of the Oscars®, it's time to rerecord.

• Calling to let your friend know you're running late does not excuse your constantly running late.

• I'd like to say a few words to every crabby traveler who responds with disgust whenever a baby cries on an airplane. Perhaps you don't know how babies work, but there's been a study, and it turns out that giving a 4-month-old the stink eye doesn't actually accomplish anything. Either have a little compassion or a little Ambien.

• Here's something for any gentleman who may be reading this: If you look good in a Speedo, you will look even better in virtually any other kind of swimsuit.

• I am a cynic. I am a pessimist. I came of age with the Watergate hearings playing on the tiny TV in our avocado green kitchen. But every four years, I wrestle my apathy into submission, read up on the issues, and cast my ballot. You must vote. I don't care who you vote for (that's not really true...), but you've gotta get in the game.

• One word: Floss.

• Any man who begins a conversation with, "I don't want to hurt your feelings ... " is about to hurt your feelings. It's the kind of phrase that's never followed by, "... but I just don't think you're eating enough. Please have more lasagna while I get you a brownie." Other opening gambits that pretty much scream duck-and-cover include: "Don't take this the wrong way... ," "You can feel free to say no ... ," and the always popular "Look ... "

• Get so excellent at something (long division, friendship, Parcheesi, removing cranberry juice stains, decoupage -- it doesn't matter what) that your genius will be impossible to ignore and your legendary expertise at removing cranberry juice stains while dividing six-digit numbers by 37 will either bring you glory beyond your wildest dreams or, at the very least, help you feel vaguely competent as you make your way through the world.

• I like a plastic bag and a bottle of water as much as the next self-involved me monkey, but it takes 430,000 gallons of oil to manufacture 100 million grocery bags, and if I were capable of doing even the most basic arithmetic, I'd say -- well, who are we kidding? I'm not capable of doing even the most basic arithmetic -- just know that we're in great danger of making Al Gore really, really mad.

• Words matter. It's time to stop prettifying the ugly stuff. Spousal abuse means wife beating. Global warming means the Earth is toast. Enhanced interrogation means torture.
  And here's a bit of trivia for you: The Bush administration did not coin the phrase enhanced interrogation. Nor did it come from Jack Bauer on "24." Nope, it was the Gestapo that originated that little bon mot back in 1937.

• To quote Elmer Fudd, "Be bwave, widdoe wabbit." Take a chance, wear your heart on your sleeve, ask the most attractive man in the room to dance, say what you want, demand what you're entitled to. There's a pretty decent chance that you won't get it, but who will you be if you never even try?
  Note: Only attempt the dance invitation if there's actual music playing.

• Sometimes I worry that we've all become workaholics -- because getting through life can be really hard work. But (with apologies to the fine people who pay my salary every week here at the fabulous Hearst Corporation) we need to log off, go home, and remember what it is to have dinner, conversation, and sex ... not necessarily in that order.

foot in mouth... doh!

hmmmm... it's in some ways GOOD to become a bit more vocal in your office.
Or at least that's what i think? because if you don't ask for things how will anyone ever know you want them?
I mean if people in charge (in general i mean) can get away with ignoring you... I'm pretty sure they would?

But i think my new weeks resolution is going to have to be this...
Maybe i should just hold back a LITTLE on how vocal i get. :P
Ultimately if you're running things by your colleagues first about a particular problem you're having... trust me... that will be the moment the offending party walks in to hear you!
and all you'll sound like is a moaner. doh!

I'm going to hopefully find this balance between not being a push-over and just another one of the minions, and just sounding like a whiny worker!!

in the meantime tho I've found this convenient site!
http://www.bureauofcommunication.com/compose/apology

here's mine to make up for what happened Friday :P



*sigh...