Confessions Of A Secret Keeper » Things That Make Me Happy

Oh Happy Day (Sing with me!)

Jen — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:24:58 +0000

So yesterday the Budget was announced and I pretty much cleaned up – no increase in fuel or alcohol taxes…WHOOP!! Nothing else really affects me, we might even end up the tiniest bit better off.

So today I was pretty pleased with myself, generally because nothing disasterous had happened PLUS no extra alcohol tax (just yet)….THEN my boss told us we could have the afternoon off for the football…YES!!!

So I got to my parents house and mum had laid on a delightful lunch (Marks and Spencers is literally the best food shop in the world!!) AND then we only went and won the football!! I know it was only 1:0, and I’m not a massively huge football fan, but I think we played well – definitely like a 100 times better than the last 2 matches.

All in all an excellent day!

That is all!

P.s it would be even better had I remembered to take my debit card on a little shopping trip prior to the football the day would’ve been even better as I would have been able to buy these:

Let’s hope I don’t have a moment of clarity before I go in the shop next!!

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And All of a Sudden It Hit Me

Jen — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:19:49 +0000

When you’re happy you don’t have to talk yourself down from the hard sobs that make you stop breathing.

When you’re happy you don’t have to hide your face at work in case anyone sees how red and puffy your eyes are in the morning.

When you’re happy you don’t have to wait until your boyfriend goes to sleep every night to sneak off to the spare bedroom and cry yourself to sleep.

When you’re happy you don’t write hundreds of blog posts, during your hyperventilatory crying, about how awful you feel and how it’s like the walls are crumbling in…and then delete them the following day.

When you’re happy you don’t have to pretend.

When you’re happy you appreciate good things that happen .

When you’re happy you feel genuine empathy when bad things happen to others.

When you’re happy you genuinely smile and laugh, instead of doing it because that’s what people expect from you.

When you’re happy you accept invites out from friends.

When you’re happy you try to make it up to those friends you’ve flaked out on for the last 12 months+.

When you’re happy you treat yourself better.

When you’re happy you feel lighter.

It took 18 months but I’m happy.

I’m happy.

I’m actually happy.

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Possibly My Best Day in 6 Years!!

Jen — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:32:35 +0000

And that isn’t even a joke!!

So, I’ve been struggling a little to blog lately for a number of reasons. The main one being that work has literally sucked the life out of me! Why you ask (well if you didn’t I’m going to tell you anyway!)? Here’s the story…

There’s this woman at work, I’ve spoken about her before, and she has been making my life an absolute misery. Like you just cannot imagine!! She came back from long term sick leave just before Christmas (having had 6 months off with “stress” and also claiming to have been bullied by management – I would have sympathy if there was even the tiniest shred of truth in this) with a list of demands and one of those was that she wanted my job. And she got it. That’s why I got the new job, sort of.

Anyhoo, it’s not just my life that she’s been making unbearable…it’s literally everyone in our section of the department I work in. She’s the sort of person who you can’t talk to in case you say the wrong thing, but if you don’t talk to her she’ll complain about you. She’s also a little crazy in that one minute she’s over the top happy and boisterous and the next she’s flying off the handle at the smallest thing, and not even in a bipolar way!

She took over my job (when I started the new one) 2 weeks ago. In 2 weeks she has had 3 complaints made against her, had numerous arguments over the telephone and caused an unmeasurable about of stress and anxiety for those still working with her. She’s also try to get me into trouble over many many things, mostly fabricated, to cover up mistakes she has been making. All in just 2 weeks! Hopefully you can imagine how horrible this would be!

Our management have been working with Human Resources to accommodate her / get her out! Yes, bizarre, I know. She’s the sort of person who knows every rule in the book and every sneaky thing to get her out of sticky situations…so she’s very difficult to deal with. She also lies, but isn’t a good liar because she forgets things that she’s said!

At lunchtime today, after another bad day with her yesterday (she’d caused multiple problems before 9:30 yesterday morning), our managers phone rang (her office is opposite mine) and she let out a scream of delight, I kid you not, and ran out to tell us that the woman will be leaving on Thursday…and not of her own choice!

It might sound horrible but I cannot even describe to you how relieved I feel. The past 2 weeks I have gone to work and almost every morning felt sick with anxiety, so much so I was convinced I was going to get a stress ulcer because I just didn’t know what to expect when I arrived or how she was going to be. I have never known one person to cause so many problems and such tension in an office.

So, I’m sorry for neglecting the bloggety blog….but now that I’m feeling happier I hope to be back with you!! x

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30s….The New 20s!

Jen — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:38:42 +0000

It was my birthday last Sunday (there was a birthday post but my photos wouldn’t load so I gave up – I will try it again though) and despite the fact that I’m still quite a way off 30 you do have to wonder what things will be like.

I’ve said for a long time that my 30th birthday party will be a sombre occasions, everyone must dress in black and there will be a funeral service (for the death of my 20s), but actually, I don’t think it’s going to be that bad!

Something has changed….and not just for me.

I think we are putting too much pressures on ourselves to make our 20s the best time of our lives. When actually, that doesn’t have to be the case. Your 20s are for establishing yourself. Finishing college / university, finding a career path or your dream job, having fun and being fickle! You don’t have to party every night but you also don’t need to find a significant other…you’re not going to shrivel up and disappear if you don’t have a guy or girl before your 30!!

I was gchatting with a blog buddy the other day and we both agreed that the recession has really made things a lot harder on our generation. Maybe our 20s would be the best years of our lives if we weren’t too wrapped up in worrying about money and whether you’re going to lose your job in cutbacks.

So, I’ve decided to cancel my funeral and possibly live my 30s like I’m a teenager again (but without the bad fashion (which never happened to me) neons (that also never happened to me) and lots of other things (that quite obviously never happened to me).

What do you think has gone wrong with our 20s?

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Hit Me With Your Best Shot!

Jen — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:28:44 +0000

I’m not generally a competitive person, but I think this is mostly because I’m not that good at…well…anything! No joke! I’m at generally useless, I mean I’m good at things to a certain extent, like baking, cooking, reading, my job,

Just recently though,things are a-changing!!

I bought KPC a Wii for Christmas the year they were released, whenever that was. The only game I’ve ever really paid much attention to has been Guitar Hero (for some Pat Benetar). Oh, and Surf’s Up, but that doesn’t really count because I loaded the cheats for it and got bored very quickly. We’ve had a game called Links Crossbow Training for a couple of years at least, and to be quite honest, it freaked me out and scared me everytime it was on! There are fire breathing frogs, scary skeletons a-plenty, crazy looking things called Oocca’s that look like my cat with wings, these giant weight lifting toads (I’m not a fan of slimy things that wee on you) and loads of other creepy shit. There were many occasions KPC was not allowed to play this game because, yes, I am pathetic.

Just after Christmas my sister bought a Wii, and literally days later, my parents got one too (they have jealousy issues, I’m sure).

Anyhoo, now we all have this game…and I’m obsessed! No joke! I am literally addicted to it! I’ve made a Dog the Bounty Hunter Mii (he’s protecting me!) and we are blowing the competition out of the water (when I say “we”, I mean Dog and I of course). I cannot get enough! Even though I’ve got platinum medals on all levels, and that’s the highest you can get, I cannot stop playing!! I need to bake a cake or something! This competitive stuff is no good for me, I think it’s giving me anxiety issues!

I’ve even had to have a break whilst writing this post to play the fracking game! Help me!

If you don’t hear from me for a while, this is the reason! But you can always check out some of my favourite people and I over here!!

I’ve been trying to coach my mom to be better than Dad as well because, let’s face it, Dad is pretty competitive (it’s a man thing apparently)! I actually told her to “stop dilly-dallying”, dilly-dallying? Seriously. I said that! I think I need to put my addictive tendencies into something good, something creative that’s more worthwhile. Maybe a drug addiction would be good? Better than this anyway!

Title from Pat Benetar – Hit Me With Your Best Shot

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Fix Up, Look Sharp

Jen — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:10:49 +0000

Last night, it an attempt to get closer to the Martha Stewart (remember, the younger and hotter version) I want to be, and also to keep the boyfriend happy, I made pancakes. For the first time.

When I was younger my dad used to love making pancakes. I could literally watch him for hours trying to make the perfect pancake (whilst eating all the not-so-perfect ones).

I decided that English pancakes, which are thin, but literally the size of your frying pan, and require flipping (or tossing…whatever you prefer) might be a bit complicated for my first attempt. So I went with the, possibly, easier American version. I say ‘easier’ because they’re smaller and there’s no flipping / tossing (again, whichever you prefer!).

OH. MY. GOODNESS! I now know why I’ve never made these before!!! I love pancakes and always thought of them as a bit difficult to make so avoided them! Dad always made the “making batter” part sound a bit complicated (clearly, he was lying to me!). As it turns out they’re super easy and I’m going to have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner (and maybe dessert) for as long as I shall live!

Thank you Jesus for allowing us to eat pancakes when you’re stranded in the dessert with no phone or cab!

In other news I was delighted to see Dizzee Rascal winning awards at the Brits last night. We obviously know I have no shame so I will tell you that this…

…is actually one of my favourite songs EVER!

Have you checked this out yet? We’re giving out plenty of advice at the moment! These are tips you definitely might need!

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Junior, You’re a Genius, You Think with Your Mind and Not Your Penis

Jen — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:01:48 +0000

Well, I wonder what that title will do for my search results!?

Post titles are becoming increasingly difficult to think up. I know they’re not exactly rocket surgery (haha, see what I did there? No? Oh, well rocket science + brain surgery = rocket surgery), but still, it’s difficult to find something captivating, or that I think is captivating. So, I think they’re just going to be random things for now…but I’ll let you know where they’re from at the end of the posts….because I’m good like that.

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Today is a relatively good day, despite the rain and cold weather (and still lack of snow!). Were you around this time last year? Well if you weren’t you wont know about Hush. Hush is another blog where myself and another blogger used to post…sporadically!! Anyhoo, that kind of stopped when I had my blog meltdown (I like to be occasionally dramatic) but we have started up again with some exciting new bloggers and today is our first day!! You can check it out here(and made sure you subscribe Via the Google Friend Connect box or by RSS!!! It’s imperitive to your daily living…or will be!

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There isn’t much to report from the weekend…I have a cold, so I was predictably miserable!! Seriously, I cannot believe I just said that there “isn’t much to report”…one of my friends had a baby! That’s pretty big news (for them anyway!). It’s school holidays this week so work is bound to be awful, this is literally the worst week to get sick because hardly anyone is at work and having time off isn’t even an option. Sucks! I shall need some good blog posts to read to keep me pepped!! Anyone got anything good planned for this week?

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Post Title: Damian Marley – Hey Girl

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The Final Excuse

Jen — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:36:31 +0000

I know what’s happening.

I have absolutely figured it out.

Randomly, I was reading an old school report which says “Jenny is very erratic in her work” and several other non-complimentary things, and it made complete sense to me!

All through school every teacher I had, apart from Mrs Davidson, loved me – but that’s okay because she was crazy, no really she was. She fell and hit her head on a microwave oven and had a nervous breakdown, whether those things are connected I never asked. But clearly, she had issues, therefore it’s not my fault she didn’t like me.

So anyway, it always tends to be through moments of erratic hyperactivity that I decide it’s a good time to sit down and blog. Then I would end up just doing a “that’ll do” kind of post because it made me unhappy that I couldn’t concentrate or figure out what to write. Now, I’m pretty sure you can see the flaw in my plan here. But I couldn’t. Until I got the old reports / report cards out and realised that I am actually pretty erratic.

How can you sit down to write something when you’re mind is all over the place and you are literally trying to do 100 things at once?

I’ve found that my best (I use that word loosely) ideas actually come when I’ve worn my brain out and I’ve gotten into bed. Then I end up staying awake so long, literally writing the stuff in my head, that I’m worn out and have forgotten by the next day. There’s another issue here. If I’m telling myself that I’m getting in to bed to get some good blog material then surely my brain will still be overdoing it and so it will be just the same scenario as before.

So, I’ve made a deal with my brain. I’ve told it that I’ve bought a little notebook (although, it probably already knew because it should really have been there whilst I was buying it) and that it just has to write little notes of the things I think up whilst I’m snoozing and then I’ll plan them out later when things are calm.

In other news I’m going to share some personal emails with you soon; they are the reason I should possible rethink my “never delete once typed” philosophy (the same goes with blog comments, it could get me into trouble one day). There is also something semi-exciting on the horizon in relation to some of my favourite bloggers.

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Everyone Loves A Gift (or 5)

Jen — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:45:42 +0000

My parents always made a massive fuss over Christmas’ and birthdays. Every year was a magical land of surprises (and if I’m honest it still pretty much is – I’m keeping the parents tuned in to these “traditions” until they have grandchildren!!). This dedication from my parents has instilled in me the need / want to make things special for other people. I love to buy gifts. I love to give gifts. I love to wrap gifts. I love to receive gifts – but I do love to give them more. I get some kind of crazy satisfaction or thrill from stumbling accross the perfect gift or wrapping a beautiful parcel. I think I’m actually crazy.

But Valentine’s Day is not just around the corner. My gifts are all wrapped and just waiting for me to get chance to go to the post office – I hope to do this tomorrow or Wednesday. Just be prepared for a belated Valentin’e gift as I can’t control the postal service (and my carrier pigeons are on their winter holiday) – although there’s a chance I could do a better job that the postal service should airlines decide to give UK bloggers some freebies!?

Anyhoo, if you have signed yourself up for a V-day gift from me….get excited…they’ll be on their way soon.

(Footnote: There’s nothing edible included…but I might surprise you in the future!)

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Is This Story Ever Going to End?

Jen — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:21:30 +0000

I thought about it last night and I really didn’t end last yesterday’s story in a good place…How can you start a meaningful relationship from a one night stand, right? Well, I didn’t!

I actually had no intention of going home with KPC. But I did eventually tell him my name.

The jealous friend left the club in a bit of a strop (there was a lot of pouting and hair tossing involved in her Oscar-style dramatic exit). KPC and I continued to chat until his friends came over because they needed to leave. He asked me to go with him. I said I would walk as far as the cab queue with them. Half a mile after the cab queue it dawned on me that I hadn’t stopped for a cab. We carried on walking (it was mid-December and I was extremely glad to have worn trousers that night!!) to his friends house – it was about 2 miles from the club we’d been in (but luckily I had a jacket potato for company).

When we got to his friends house everyone went to bed, apart from KPC and I. We were up talking until 6am, when I decided it was probably time to go home. I called a cab and was getting ready to go. I must add though, until this time there had been no kissing of any description and not even any hand-holding – for some reason I was playing it very very cool.

The cab arrived and I went out to meet it. I said goodbye, walked down the steps and went on my merry way. When I got to the cab door KPC ran down the steps (with a look of disbelief of his face). “Can I have your number?”, he asked, “why?”, I replied. “So I can call you”, he said with a confused look on his face. I gave him my number and got into the cab without even looking back.

I did the walk of shame across my parents drive and got in as my Dad’s alarm was going off for work (yes, I’m that classy).

He called before 9am the same day.

There are two morals to this story ladies! Don’t always listen to your friends advice, not in all cases, but sometimes they might be saying what’s best for them and what’s not best for you. But also….be fickle! Prior to meeting KPC, I had a large number of meaningless relationships, hook-ups and the odd relationship that felt like love but probably wasn’t. It would appear that acting just partially interested (and not over-doing things / Facebook stalking) can actually make a guy like you more!! Don’t believe me? Well KPC and I have now been together for just over 6 years (I think – yes, I am a terrible girlfriend), so it must work!