Don't like it? Then customise it!

There are many things in life that we dont like, but sometimes we don't do anything about it, because it's probably just a little bit too much hassle. Some things cant be changed, but the smaller things can.

Thats why I quite often deny myself those precious hours of sleepytime.

As with any standard cleptomaniac, I have lots of 'things'. And when I want new 'things' I don't bother to get rid of the old ones. Instead, I give them a new lease of life.

For example . . . A once white hoodie

Tarnished with a beautiful glass of red (yuk) wine. There aint no vanish that could get rid of the stain, so, I dyed it orange! It now looks even better than it did when brand new.

Example number 2 . . . Jeans

If you're feeling brave, and you want jeans in a darker colour, stick 'em in the washing machine and put in some dylon. My sister bought some super skinny blue black jeans from Gap for a stupid price, they looked awesome. I couldnt afford some at the time, but I already had a pair of skinnies, so bought some dye, and now I have my own pair, on the cheapidy cheap.

Example 3 . . . Mac laptop

After having a hefty bashing a few christmasses ago, I never thought it would open its little blinky eyes again. Two years later and I'm still typing away on it. I can't say that its customisation is the reason for its extended life, I think that's just trusty old Apple. But, I can claim that the new paint job I gave it DID cover up the number of dints to the lid. 

My finest, and most recent, example is my old snowboard helmet. 8 years ago when I first learnt to snowboard, camouflage was THE pattern to have. I kept it tame with just a jacket and helmet though. For one reason or another, I slowly stopped using my helmet, so has been left defunct in a dingy corner of my room for quite some time. Realising last week that I might need to start using my helmet again, I unearthed it, to find the camo was peeling off, revealing plain grey underneath. 

So I set to work with my trusty metal ruler, and sat for two or three nights, scraping all the pattern off. I ended up with an achey hand and some blisters but was quite satisfied anyway. There were some extra scrapes and scratches (quite possibly put there by accident) so I bought some wet & dry paper, and smoothed it all over.

Now my helmet made me look normal, and not like a little boy anymore (yays!). But still, it looked pretty boring. For about a week I've pondered over how to make it look better. For totally different reasons, I was googling tattoos at the weekend. One popped up that took my fancy, not for my skin (mum, relax!), but for my helmet.

I love the Cheshire cat, and I love smiling (it's my favourite), so I thought this was very apt, and it fit quite well into the helmet 'dynamics'.

Helmets have 'breathy holes', as I like to call them, and I always think they look like extra eyes. So, armed with my HB pencil, marker pens, my rubber, and Boots No.7 nail varnishes I got cracking. I drew on the design, and fine lined it all with the marker. Then I did my very best at staying inside the lines, and coloured it all in. Once finished, I was pretty god damned chuffed.

Nobody else has one like it, and that's why I like to customise!

I heart Thursdays

They say things come in threes, they also claim 'third time lucky', and I believe in both.

This Thursday was my third time at skating. And it was definitely lucky. I may have had to wait for a non existent bus for half an hour, but I got there earlier than last week, which meant an extra half an hour playtime. And I was glad for those extra 30 minutes.

Whizzing round in the same manner as the two previous weeks, and avoiding any collisions with kids along the way, I pondered on what to force myself to learn. So, I tried a few t-stops. Number one wasnt interested in playing ball, number two had a stutter, number three I tried with my right foot, and that was a big mistake. Somehow my brain said 'move foot' but my foot said 'whatever brain', ending up in an arms forward slam into the side stop. Let's stick with left footed stops for now. I kept trying them, and each one got a little better. I cant claim I'm any good at them yet, but I am getting more comfortable doing them. 

After about 20 minutes, the professionals turned up. Not the ones from that old tv show, they'd surely be on zimmer skates, or maybe even coffin skates by now?! They scooted past, making it all look VERY easy. Then some more folks turned up, and started going BACKWARDS! Time to make conversation - 'you make that look way too easy' I yelled. And that was the beginning of the rest of the evening. The guy I yelled at had come with his two friends, one of which plays derby, and her friend is just learning to skate. It was fun to finally have people to skate around with, and if anything it made it easier. I forgot all about the skating, and I ended up doing crossovers without even having to think. The surprise on their faces when they found out I'd only been roller skating for three weeks. I somehow managed to fool the friend into thinking I played roller derby. 'oh nooooo' i said 'I WANT to play, but I need a lot more practice'. She claims that I looked pretty confident and comfortable, and that my crossovers were very tidy. 

After much discussions of joining, and practising, they all advised to get myself kitted out with pads and wrist guards. I've been told that elbow and wrist guards dont need to be the most expensive, so to get cheaper ones, and the money saved on them should be put towards getting decent knee pads. I was then told 'i can guarantee that as soon as you get your knee pads on and start skating around, you'll want to do this . . . ' and she proceeded to get one knee down on the ground, slide along a little then get back up. Yes, I think I will definitely have to give that a try.

My new comrades introduced me to the two folks i'd seen on my first week. We all skated round as a group for a little while, with some folks pushing through and nipping past at times. That was when I realised I definitely want to play. We talked about training sessions, and how the girls practises are full but the blokes only have 12 people at theirs. A passing comment was made about me wearing a moustache and gatecrashing the boys practises. I guess it wont harm to ask. 

Anyway, the evening drew to a close, time DOES fly when you're having fun. We piled back into the boot room, and I had fun poked at my retro-esque skates. I was told I would need a new pair for derby, these ones just wouldnt work. I also managed to get a lift home, that saved waiting in the rain for the imaginary bus again.

I got home, and started the online hunt for pads. A recommendation on wrist guards had already been made, and they were only £9, either that or broken wrists? It took two nights of deliberating but finally all my bits and pieces are on order, and will hopefully arrive before next Thursday. 

 

Looks like I may have to make some hats and mitts, and cats to sell before I can afford to buy some skates, but thats what winter nights are for arent they? Staying in and plonking yourself infront of the sewing machine for a few hours, or infront of the fire/tv with a crochet needle and thick wool. Especially if each thing made gets you £15.

I may just have to put up a little bloggeroo about my handiworks, spread the word and earn some cashlings :-)

The inevitable Halloween Blog

Halloween weekend was a busy one.

With Mummy Buckle coming to visit we were up bright and bouncy on saturday morning, tidying (a little bit) and faffing. I do love a little Twitter.

Mum arrived safely in Sheffield, and after picking her up we drove back to the house for a cuppa tea. From there, Sister Buckle and I went and fixed our hair and made ourselves presentable for the day ahead. Sis stayed in the house to do housey things while Mum and I wandered up to the shops where we did the rounds of the charity shops. I dont recall buying anything apart from GIANT sandwiches (yum!)

Being a beautiful autumn day, I opted for my new DM's, cosy socks, lots of layers of tights, shorts, cosy jumper, two scarves and my 'Barbara' (pretend Barbour) jacket. Mum made a passing comment on my outfit choice, saying how funny to have 'bare' legs on such a cold day. Lucky for me that as long as my feet and torso are cosy, my legs will nearly always be okay.

So, after tucking into our sandwiches, us three, and our housemate ventured down into the city centre for afternoon tea. Very tasty, even the jam! We let the day carry away with itself and by the time we finished, we only had time to do a quick round of TK Maxx. I fell in love with a pair of mittens in there, but at £25, I couldnt justify buying them . . . yet!

From there, we met sis's workmate and headed for a light tea before then going to city hall to see Sarah Millican. Much laughs for the next two or so hours, can't even remember any of the jokes but it was definitely a great night.

The next day was 'halloween' even though it wasnt, it was only the 30th. The city was celebrating a day early, which meant only one thing . . . fancy dress ALL DAY!

I decided I wanted to be a 1940's housewife skeleton, but after the barrel fringe went tits up, I went as a fancy pretty skeleton instead. hah! So I had the uber cool curly to the sidey fringe, pretty starry scarf, the homemade halloween tshirt, skelly hoody, and skelly leggings . . oh, and the ever favourite black baseballs boots and floppy black leg warmers.

I must admit now that I looked pretty darn hot on sunday. My fringe was amazing, my make up was pretty, and my bottom looked fab. I need to wear my skelly leggings more often!

Fright Night was upon us in the city, the streets were strewn with thousands of people, stalls, rides and tat stalls (which we succumbed to and bought light sabers!) We bumped into some friends, ate candy floss, and burnt out our eyes with brandy 'hot chocolate', which was really just a cup of hot brandy and milk! We ate a cheapo cheeseburger from one of the stalls, they're sooooo good! There were lots of amazing costumes, but the 7 year old kids dressed as Chucky were a step too far!

Who ya gonna call?

We broke off the evening in town at around 730, and headed home to carve pumpkins. And they were friggin awesome ones at that! We stuck on 28 weeks later, which isnt actually that scary when you're carving a pumpkin and not paying attention. We each grabbed a laptop and googled some cool designs. Our housemate did an owl, sis did a ghoulie and a cat, and I did Darth Vader and the Death Star. It was a late night, finished carving at about 12.45. Totally worth it though. At one point during the night, we also dressed up the kittens in halloweeny tights.

Actual Halloween was quite tame, but we did go on the City Ghost Walk. We saw no ghosts, but we were told some great grisly tales, and heard of ghostly sightings and happenings.

So, that was halloween in a giant nutshell.

Thursdays . . .

are officially now my favourite night of the week.

At a cost of £3.50, I can now fill three hours of my thursday evenings with roller skating! YAY!

Last night I got home early from work, got changed, got my skates in my bag, and hitched a lift with the sis through what can officially be called rush hour traffic, and got dropped off outside the roller rink.

The last time I'd been inside was probably bang on eight years ago, on my first ever visit to Sheffield during sis's first year at uni. Apart from the outside of the rink getting a glamified makeover, the inside is pretty much the same as it was nearly a decade ago. It was an ice rink back then, but now the ice has gone, and it's literally just a roller rink.

Filled with some nerves at how truly retarded I may be on skates, I laced up and shuffled out onto the rink. Thank god it was dark! I thought I was going to stick out like a sore thumb with a comical bandage, but in actual fact I was possibly one of the more competent people there (on quad skates that is). Needless to say, I was soon outmaneouvered by a couple that I can confidently say belonged to the roller derby team. I plucked up the courage to pick up the pace, and was soon whipping round like nobody's business. Thinking about the list of things I was told to learn, I chose to go in at the deep end and try some crossovers. I can remember doing these on the driveway back home on my inlines a very long time ago. The only problem was that the corner i practiced on was right handed, and all rinks are left handed. 

Time to overcome the 'cant turn left' phase and go for it.

I managed one or two steps, and had a bit of a wobble, so carried on around the rink a few more times. I tried again later on, and managed a few steps. Thought to myself, ah, this maybe isnt so bad. I stopped at the side, and tried to relieve my 'fat hand syndrome' (where all the blood rushes into your mitts from all the arm swishing- is this a bad habit I need to stop?). I went around the rink a few more times, then joined in on the marked out derby track in the middle. I picked up the pace again, and went in for the 'kill' I managed a whole corner with crossovers and it was AMAZING! It was really smooth, and I picked up a lot of speed. I felt quite chuffed with my little self :o)

So the crowd of folks that were also skating varied quite a bit. There were your typical teenagers that obviously spent all their pocket money on going there, there was a kids birthday party. Lots of screaming 10 year old girls, insistent on going the wrong way round. Then there were the old timers that had no concept of speed and that if they hit a kid, that kid may just explode on impact. Then there were the quad pro's, the derby folks. A guy and girl just there practising different stops and having a lazy skate, and another girl joined in wearing a full derby 'boutfit' (as I've seen them called). Vest top and matching mini skirt (with polka dots and yellow frills), hot pants and a pretty bomb proof set of knee and elbow pads. They just pootled around, minding their own business, going sideways, doing fancy stops, fancy footwork, just generally looking very cool and putting me and my fat hands to shame.

Saying that, I didnt fall and I didnt make a tit of myself either, well not that i'm aware of anyway, despite the numerous arm flappings. I will most definitely be returning next week, maybe avec some extra padding?

I have recently become a Twitter convert, and on my return home I tweeted some of the girls, from the roller derby team, that I follow and told them about the fun I had. I'm quite happy to say that I got some very nice responses. There's a possibility that one of them may try and get to the session next week too, so hopefully I can get some tips from her. I'm pretty sure it'll be a big help to get some advice, plus it's another new person in the city and someone that I can talk to rather than skating in silence for the evening.

I called my parents and told them about my evening too. Dad tried to put a sensible outlook on it and said something along the lines of 'if it doesnt work out then i'm sure you'll find something else to join'. My response was 'no, i'm determined to make this happen'. There have been too many things that I've said I want to do and I've never done them, and I'm disappointed in myself. This is one thing I have the chance of doing, and I refuse to do a half assed job. It's not expensive, it's a great way to keep fit, and its the perfect way to make new friends. I may end up with a few bruises along the way, but if I keep a stock of arnica in the cupboard I'll be reet :o)

I think I'm in love

ROLLER DERBY WAS  . . . . . . . AWESOME!!!!!

Even though I was suffering from one of the worst hangovers known in the history of mankind, I can happily say that once the bouts were underway I soon forgot about needing sleep, food and painkillers! 

The promo posters were stolen, the team tshirt was purchased and the request email has been sent to get my name on the waiting list!

This is something I am determined to see through to the end.

Times to get my skates on, practice those t-stops, and get a gumguard (yes mum, that comment has been added for your peace of mind)

Are you ready for 'the whip' . . . ?

Ever heard of Roller Derby?

I watched my first game on TV at 4am whilst snowy holidaying in Andorra, i think it was 2006.

In a slightly drunken stupor I sat in bed, bleary eyed, and watched the teams of girls speed, shove and smack their way around the banked track. Helmets, padding and cool outfits a-must, this was one interesting sport. After watching an hours worth of girls battling their way round the track on skates I fell asleep and woke the next morning wondering whether it was all a dream. I stayed up again the next night to try and catch it again, but I didnt find it. I soon forgot all about it, but always remembered that it looked really good fun.

A Marathon Sport, rumoured to have started as far back as the mid-1880's (!!!), it has slowly developed into a full on spectator entertainment sport. In its hey day, Roller Derby was a multiday endurance sport, with cash prizes. In the 50's and 60's, when interest began to wane, RD was reinvented in order for it to be televised. In spite of this, spectator levels dropped, on trackside and through the airwaves, and the sport was no longer interesting. Not much else happened for the next 4 decades.

Dry those tears though because in the noughties Roller Derby was reintroduced to society. The revival hailed from Austin, Texas, and soon caught on worldwide. Back with a vengeance, roller derby gave a voice to girls who maybe never made it onto the sports teams at school, or maybe never made it onto the cool wall. Girls could be more than who they wanted to be without being judged. The girls involved with the sport didnt mind having a crappy job, because it was their spare time that they lived for, because that was practice time, that was when they went from being the girl with the standard issue uniform and name badge, to the girl with the cool uniform and cool nickname!

With the release of 'Whip It' in 2009, roller derby made itself known to the masses and RD Fever took over. Drew Barrymore did an excellent job directing AND starring in the hit movie. I'd like to say thank you and well done to her to bringing roller derby into my life.

Roller Derby 101

• Matches are called 'Bouts' and are played on either a flat or banked oval track
• Each Bout is 30 minutes long and are made up of shifts called 'Jams'
• A jam ends after two minutes have passed, or when the leader of the winning team places her hands on her hips.
• The teams are made up of 5 players: 4 Blockers and 1 Jammer (they wear a star on their helmet)
• The two teams of blockers create the 'pack' and start ahead of the Jammers
• The pack starts on the first whistle, the jammers set off on the second.
• The Jammers have to break through the pack, avoiding any pushings and shovings that are thrown their way.
• Once broken through the pack, the jammers have to get back round the track and through the pack again before they can score any points.
• A point is scored by a jammer for each member of the opposing team that they pass.
• Oh, and safety first, the girls have to wear helmets, knee and elbow pads, gum guards, wrist guards, and the most important of all . . . roller skates.

My local team, the Sheffield Steel Rollergirls are playing tomorrow in their final bout of the year . . . and we've got tickets. Not just that, but I've also got the email address to get in touch, just in case I decide to join up after tomorrows event :o) Well, I've already got the skates, the helmet and the nickname (which I'm keeping secret for now). Roller Derby isn't for sissies. There's violence, blood, broken bones and bruises. I read a quote today: 'it's not if you get hurt, it's when you get hurt'. If I do join, at least I'll learn how to take a fall and grow some balls, it might even give me more confidence, not just in life but to try new things out on my snowboard too. On the actual plus side, it could be a great way to make even more friends in my new city, and I've heard its a great workout for legs and bums. Au revoir cellulite! haha

The cure to all broken hearts . . .

What's a girl to do when in desperate need of a pick me up?

Buy new shoes of course!

And what could be better than a new pair of boots, ready for the winter months. 

For about the past three years I have hunted high and low, for the whole autumn/winter season, in desperation for THE perfect boots. They needed to be brown for starters. They also needed to be long, dont want to get cold shins. They also, as an absolute must, had to have 'roundy toes'. None of this pointy or kind of roundy toed nonsense. If they're not chunky, I dont want them on my feet.

So anyway, I never found these mythical perfect boots, until this monday. After what could have been the breakthrough to a new start on life, a big mother fluffer of a bombshell came and shat on everything. Back to square one it is for me then. So, feeling further than down in the dumps, and on the verge of vomming at every dreadful thought, I knew I needed to get help. 

On Monday I left work early so I could make it to the shops for some much needed retail therapy (forgetting the muchly needed deodorant- thank god I live with my sister and she has some spare!). I visited my favourite haunts, TK Maxx, HMV and Lush (just for the smells that day). On the way to TK Maxx, I spied THE boots in the window. I looked at them with big puppy dog eyes, in the hope that a member of staff would see my pain and give me them for free . . . that didnt happen. Plus, the price was too much for me to afford. Instead I then went to HMV and treated myself to some silly kid films, guaranteed to cheer me up again. I then went about my business in a few more stores, before then taking a leisurely stroll back home, keeping an eye on those thundery clouds though, they looked angry. I made it home safely, but couldnt forget about the beauties I'd just set my heart on. I knew I needed them for the winter, so saving up a pound a day wouldn't get me them until next spring. So I emailed mummy with my conundrum. She replied the next day, and lucky for me she said in a roundabout way 'buy them and put money back into your savings later'. SCORE!!! 

I wangled a trip to Meadowhall with Big Sis that evening, and made a beeline, via Primark, for Schuh once we got there. I've never spent nearly a weeks wages in one go, but it can safely say it has definitely made my world a happier place.

The following is, in short, the way I made a happier difference to my life this week:

Step One: Calm those nerves and de-stress

Went to Boots, bought Rescue Remedy, and turned that frown upside down 

Step Two: Buy a new hat (or two)

Step Three: Buy new boots

Step Four: Calm those nerves and de-stress from the thought of the price of said 'Wonder Boots'

Take more Rescue Remedy and dont look at the bank account for another week.

Along the way I also bought a new jacket, because my boots needed something to match. The boots are not just something to make me feet look awesome, they're a kick ass couple, ready to take on the puddles, leaves and snow of the world!

For those of you interested, they are Dr Martens. They're the Triumph Shearling, in the most beautiful roughy brown leather, fleecey lining, and ribbons for laces. I always have and always will LOVE Dr Martens. I had loads of pairs as a kid, then as a teenager, and now as a 'Big Lady' I have brought another pair into my life. I dont really care about the price, because you can count on DM's, they're trustworthy and they'll last a lifetime. Not just that, but as my good friend Sarah told me today 'u can always rely on the Bouncin soles to put a smile on ya face :o) xxx' and she was right! Thanks Saz xx

So, I would like to introduce my new boots to the world, because at the end of the day, amazing things are here to be shared. 

Please welcome Amelia Pond and Rory Williams, Wonder Boots of the Universe, my new best friends. Existing to make the world a better place, put bad people in their place and to put a big fat smile on my face.