DATE: 09/29/2007 05:37:19 PM
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Yup that's me in one word
PA
THE
TIC
I was due to fly out of Heathrow last night to attend the workshop my friends {nat}, {schulu}, {andrea} and {liz} were holding, when my fear of flying came back at such full force that I couldn't go on the flight. I could cry...well, actually - cry, I did. A LOT.
What bugs me most are these looks you get from some people when you explain to them that you just can't be on that plane, like you are totally deluded and irrational. The last word really winds me up a lot though. It sounds patronizing and I actually find it insulting when I hear it - to me, the fear, which makes me hyperventilate is NOT irrational at all - it is very much there, and me going ON that plane would be irrational, as not only would I get hysterical fits on the aircraft, I would upset everyone else on that plane....so, I asked the guy at the gate to take me and my suitcase off, I just couldn't do it. He looked at me in this patronizing way, explaining that there is nothing wrong with the plane and it would be safe to fly....I was close to thumping him then. Did he really think I was just blowing almost £300 on the flight, the workshop and my bus ticket just for the sheer heck of it?? I had to save up a long time to afford this holiday and I just don't give it up easily.
After I called Nat and cried my eyes out, I spoke to my Mom who was equally sad that I wouldn't make it but she understood. She has been through this with me before when I booked flights out to Hamburg to see them and cancelled them on the last minute. And now that I think about it, they were always the flight going out of Heathrow...weird, hu?
Let's start at the beginning though and how it built up to such a horrible day for me - because I know, I would have flown if the plane would have gone from Southampton or Gatwick. I can handle those airports.
First off I always plan my connections in such a way that I have a leeway of approx 2 - 3 hours in between, to cater for any delays and such. So taking the bus from Southampton at 13:45 to catch the flight leaving 18:35 from Heathrow was more than sufficient - or so I thought.
The bus didn't even arrive on time and was half an hour late, then getting from one stop-and-go to the next. Instead of arriving at 15:20 (as expected), we arrived 16:45. Seeing that I never travel BA or from Heathrow I also didn't know that you have to check yourself in (no mention of that during the online booking process either), so like a good little girl I queued up with everyone else. There were 4 sections for European destinations and all had queues stretching all the way to the next section. After 15 minutes someone actually advised us that we need to print out our own boarding pass...WTF???? So I (and others) had to come out of the queue, get to some weird touch screen and get the ticket printed out only to then having to queue AGAIN, to drop the bags off. By the time I was through to Passport control, it was already 17:30 - and was beginning to worry that I will not make the flight as the gate was supposed to close at 18:15.
Passport control was a doddle but then we had to go through the security check - frickin' heck!!!! queues again as long as they eye could see...I had a good mind turning around and not going anymore. By the time I got through to the departure lounge it was 17:50 and I started to freak, thinking I am never gonna make that flight, only to find out that my flight to Hamburg was (of course) the only one delayed already....the screen said 18:25 boarding anticipated. But it also flickered between two Flight Numbers from BA to JL and I got really antsy by then, asking at Customer Services why my flight had two numbers and if that meant I am not going on a BA plane. The very nice lady explained to me that this was a "shared" flight for some travellers who had come from overseas with their JL flight and were continuing on to Hamburg.
At 18:25 we still had no information as to which gate to go to or at what time the flight would leave. 15 minutes later I finally knew I had to get to Gate 43, of course one of the ones the furthest away and according to Heathrow's time chart it takes approx 10 - 15 minutes to walk there. Great.
At the gate there still was no indication on when we'd be going and announcement was made that due to the plane being delayed it would still take a while and at around 19:00 that's when I totally lost it and demanded to be taken off. It was just too much going wrong on this day and I felt apprehensive about setting step on a plane that I did not feel comfortable about.
My suitcase was waiting for me at the carousel, a lonely pink suitcase filled with scrapping goodies for my friends (who probably will never, ever invite me again) and I was in tears again.
But if I thought that the worst was over, I had to think again. The journey home was unbelievable.
Changing my bus ticket to get home that night was no problem, even though I had to pay a fee. Waiting for my bus to leave at 20:45, which would have meant me being home at midnight, at 21:15 I started to get really annoyed. No sign of the bus and no sign of anyone at National Express taking any responsibility or (heaven forbid) even given us a scope on when the bus would arrive. Tempers flared amongst everyone waiting for that bus as all of us missed vital connections, some having to face being stranded in Southampton for the night with no place to stay.
1 hour and 15 minutes after its scheduled departure our bus finally came - no word of apologies or anything and a bus driver which I would have loved to punch in the face. Seriously, that guy was so late, had a number of passengers on board of whom he knew we needed to get to Southampton pronto so we would make our connections and the bastard stops for a CIGARETTE break!!! I stormed off the bus and ordered him back in - told him that I will not accept missing another car ferry due to him being late. Somehow I must have gotten to him as he only dared to take on drag of his ciggy and then got us to Southampton 1 hour and 25 minutes late.
To cut a long story short - I missed another car ferry and had to wait at midnight, in Southampton, on my own, amongst all those drunkards who came from their night out, for an hour before I could finally get on my last leg of this "fantastic" journey.
At 2:30am I finally fell into bed, hugged by Lyndon who - I guess - was the only one really happy about me being back earlier than I should have been.....
I am not quite sure what to make of my fear coming back so strong but personally I put it down to all the all the delays and I am sure my next flight will be fine - yesterday I was determined that I need to cancel my upcoming cruise as I have to fly back from NY, but you know what?? I am gonna beat my demons again. I think it is different as well - being in NY I have no way of getting back home if I chicken out....
I am still upset that I didn't make it to Hamburg, but the best way to deal with these w eird "quirks" of mine is probably to scrap them....so that's what I did - scrapped yesterdays failure and feel much better about it already.
Now I need to go and get totally and utterly wasted on some booze, to wash the thought of yesterday away.
Nat, Schulu, Andrea, Liz, Daniela - I am ever so sorry that I let you guys down but I will be brave next time. That's a promise!
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TITLE: ~*~ I'm Off ~*~
DATE: 09/27/2007 07:03:42 AM
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I am soooooooo excited because tomorrow I am flying out to Hamburg to indulge in a weekend of scrapppin' and chattin' when I attend the {work shop} held by the most talented German Scrappers. My bag is as good as packed, just a little bits and bobs that I need to throw in tonight and then it's UP UP and AWAY until net Thursday. Well, I only stay in Hamburg until Monday but I am gonna need two more days to catch up with everything else, I am sure.
So, be good while I am gone and keep checking the {rusty pickle blog} for some more giveaways.
Oh and if you want to grab yourself some bargains, have a look over there ----->
In the gallery "stash for sale" you will find stuff that I am purging right now, starting with an awesome Kit for an awesome price. More details can be found when clicking on the individual pictures.
Be sure to check back as I will be adding more goodies
Later gators..
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TITLE: ~*~ Lyndon says....We have a Winner!!! ~*~
DATE: 09/25/2007 06:54:29 AM
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I hate picking winners, I really do. That's why I leave the "dirty" work to Lyndon - at least then I can point the finger saying "it's all his fault". Not that my winners mind when Lyndon picks them. The funny thing is though that he has a knack of picking someone who usually is dear to me...
Anyways, yesterday I asked him to pick a number between 0 and 18 (as the number of comments was 17) and he came out with "why Seven, of course!" straight away. He always picks numbers relating in some way to his beloved {liverpool fc} - and seven being the shirt number of his favorite player ever, the legend -> {kenny dalglish}.
But I ramble now - sorry! Of course you wanna know who the winner is -> the sheets of the acrylic album go to:
NAT!!!
Congratulations chica - I know you will do wonders with them.
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TITLE: ~*~ Lifted & Freebies ~*~
DATE: 09/22/2007 07:13:49 PM
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What a week it has been - lost of fun things happening in my normal 8 - 5 job and with my hobby, so brace yourselves for a long{ish} post.
First of all I am totally happy to say that I had the honour of being scrap lifted by the wonderful {mojo holder}blog. The girls took my Nekkid Truth layout and ran with it - didn't they just do amazing?? I love their versions so much more than my own. I would not be able to pick a favourite out of them because they are all amazing. If you are ever missing your Mojo, you wanna check those girls and their challenges out.
Remember that I got those awesome acrylic albums from {rusty pickle}? Well, I fell in love with the scalloped and the tabbed album straight away and {admittedly} looked at the flower shaped one with a bit of a belly ache, wondering how I could turn this into something which would do its shape justice. Then I thought of the pictures I took on my Mom's 70th birthday and adding them to the book would make up some sort of a birthday bouquet, right?? If my Mom wants she can take each individual blossom shape and clip it onto those funky photo-clip things, so she can have it displayed on her desk. I love how this album turned out and I can't wait to do another one. I adore that when you use double-sided paper, that it will show through {obviously} on the other side of the acrylic sheet and you can basically complete two pages in one go. Just add pictures and you're done. Even the buttons which I adhered with glue dots are seen through on the other side - I think I am falling in love with the acrylic stuff already!
So, for those of you who would like to try their hands on an acrylic album - I have three sheets of the flower album left over BUT they are already painted on the edges with white paint {the same way my album is painted} - if you don't mind that and would like to get these three sheets to play with and to see what an AWESOME quality these are, please leave a comment and I will pick a winner on Monday.
Have you all heard that Rusty Pickle have launched their brand spanking new {blog} with daily give-aways of their new Memory Trends products?? All you need to do is leave a comment on each new post to be in with a chance to win. Yesterday saw our first winner nabbing one of the HOT HOT HOT acrylic albums and tomorrow we are choosing the winner for the Acrylic alphabet {dude, even I don't have that one!!!! Insert a jealous face here!!!!!!}. From October we will be holding monthly challenges all of which will see YOU win tons of Rusty Pickle product. Better add us to your favourites RIGHT NOW!!!
Tomorrow night is {pencil lines} and this reveal is particular exciting for me. Wanna know why? Well, then you better check in tomorrow night, but I am happy to leave you with a sneakie...
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TITLE: ~*~ Pickelicious delights ~*~
DATE: 09/18/2007 07:03:41 AM
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Holy Schmoly!!!! When I came home from work yesterday I had the MOST amazing happy mail day as my most recent "Chef Kit" from {rusty pickle} arrived. The new chipboard shapes and albums are amazing enough and I am still totally in love with the latest releases but I am in TOTAL heaven with the brand new, amazing, gorgeous, wonderful Acrylic albums!!! I am fortunate enough to have been given a tabbed, scalloped and flower shaped album to play with and I can't wait to get started.
The quality is amazing - really sturdy acrylic and they will be coming in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Wait until you see the acrylic alphabet *drool*. The albums and the two new lines "French Market" and "Chocolate Kisses" are debuting at Memory Trends so you should be expecting them at a store near you soon.
In all the excitement about new stash and me getting prepared for the weekend in Hamburg at the end of the month I almost forgot to share my latest layout for the A, B, C challenge. This time I had to dig into my Hambly stash to get my letter "H" done. It was REALLY difficult and I never thought I would struggle with Hambly so much. I used to love their papers and overlays so much but now I find it virtually impossible to get a nice layout together. So I am not really thrilled with this one - but at least I can now move onto "I" (Imaginesence)
Products: cardstock - Bazzill ** papers, overlay, rub ons - Hambly ** stickers - KI Memories, Making Memories ** tag - Rusty Pickle
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TITLE: ~*~ Scrapping Frenzy ~*~
DATE: 09/17/2007 06:59:09 AM
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Wow, those muffins I baked on Saturday must have given me an extra boost to scrap because I had one heck of a productive weekend - not only did I finish quite a couple of layouts for upcoming Pencil Lines sketches but also for some magazine calls and other assignments. And if that wasn't enough I even managed to finish two more layouts for my A, B, C challenge....woohoo.
Last night was reveal at {pencil lines} and I really loved working with that sketch. Even though my layout is a wee bit simpler than my usual style, I am very fond of it as I think it is the last picture of me and my Grandad together.
Products: cardstock, chipboard alpha - Bazzill ** papers, rub ons - Frances Meyer ** tags - WHsmith (aged with Walnut Ink) ** stamp - Maya Road
Products: cardstock - Bazzill ** papers - Adrienne Lohmann ** stickers - 3Bugs ** silhouette words - Heidi Swapp
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TITLE: ~*~ Domestic Goddess ~*~
DATE: 09/15/2007 02:00:40 PM
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You have to know that the last time I actually baked something was about 3 years ago and I am kinda rusty in the kitchen. What with Lyndon doing all the housework, I think the last time I washed up must have been 1953....
Lyndon was also close to a nervous breakdown because I actually washed up the mess I left in the kitchen, AND I sat down with him watching a movie, while feasting on the muffins. Usually would have been in my scraproom already, so he must have thought it was was Christmas come early *snigger*
The picture shows one of the many beautiful buildings in Prague and whilst I wasn't totally blown away by Prague itself - the architecture was second to none!
Products used: >> cardstock - Bazzill ** papers - 7Gypsies ** stamp - Fontwerks ** rub ons - Frances Meyer, 7Gypsies ** chipboard star border - Li'l Davis <<
Products used: >> cardstock - Frances Meyer ** papers - Frances Meyer ** stamp - Stamps Away (journaling circle ), Asta Arts (border) ** rub ons - Frances Meyer, Making Memories ** stickers - Frances Meyer, Making Memories ** ribbon - Creative Impressions <<
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TITLE: ~*~ Ooops ~*~
DATE: 09/12/2007 08:47:44 PM
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Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?? Seriously I didn't even realize that I haven't blogged in some time as I am still in total amazement over the fact that I am going to meet my wonderful friend Jae' in a months time.
We "met" online about three years ago and became inseparable pretty much instantly. Together with Jen, we made an awesome trio, dubbing ourselves the "dysfunctional angels". We have been through thick and thin, supporting each other, crying and laughing with other and basically having oodles of fun. Of course we had some bad times too, when our friendship was tested to the extreme but we made it trough. When Jae' heard that I would be on American soil in October, she didn't even think twice and said she would fly into NY to meet up with me - I am so excited about it, I could wee my pants on a daily basis....naturally everything paled in significance to it (meeting Jae, not weeing my pants....*snorts*)
Anyhoo, in the last couple of days I missed to upload my latest projects for {rusty pickle}, which must have been hindsight as one of them was already picked up for publication a day after I posted it online, so I would have had to take it down anyway. If you wanna know which of my two layouts are going to appear in the next edition of {ready, set create} you better get yourself a copy...
Then I found out that one of my {frances meyer} projects is now featured as a step by step project on the {michaels} website - how awesome is that??
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TITLE: ~*~ I can see clearly now ~*~
DATE: 09/05/2007 06:59:21 AM
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When I said that I was missing my Mojo, I didn't expect her to come back with such a force that I started dreaming about doing layouts again...I rarely sit down to eat after work these days but dash straight into my scraphole and do layout after layout.
Even though I love my Job at Carnival, right now I am so full ideas that I wish I had a two week holiday just to scrap!
Materials: All papers, stickers, tags, small buttons - Rusty Pickle ** Stamp - Maya Road ** Flowers - various
Also, I managed to finish another letter for my Scrap-Your-Stash challenge and can tick off "D" from the list, after I managed to scrap the Daisy D papers I had for over a year now. As I don't have anything for the letter "E" I will continue with yummy papers from FoofaLa next.
Materials: cardstock - Bazzill ** papers - Daisy D ** chipboard swirl, alphabet stickers - Rusty Pickle ** Blossoms - Daisy D ** stamps - Asta Art (bird), Stampin' Up (celebrate)
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TITLE: ~*~ We have a winner ~*~
DATE: 09/02/2007 06:06:24 PM
Remember that I asked for your help at the beginning of August to make a new banner for my new blog?? Well I received a lot of awesome designs and I found it so hard to decide that I had to enlist Lyndon's help once more and we both decided that SJ's design was the most fitting for the title of my blog and the mad person that I am.
So, SJ, I guess we need to start discussing sizes now {ooooh errr, missus....}
Thanks to everyone who has submitted, you designs were wonderful and I was seriously contemplating taking them all and changing the header every months or so, but I didn't have enough prizes to give away for you all.
Sometimes scrapping is a funny hobby - you can be so determined that a particular company or a particular design is something you will never be able to scrap and than all of a sudden ~ boom, it clicks and you find yourself loving stuff that you disliked before.
That happened with me and {rouge de garance}. I never warmed to their papers at all, they seemed to loud to "outta there" to me and I was sure I would never ever, not even if you paid me, scrap with them.
Enter the >>{august contest} at {scrap muse}. For a chance to win you are asked to create a layout featuring pre-dominantly RdG papers / embellishments. I thought "what the heck" and got myself some RdG.
You know what?? I LOVE them and I can't believe that I never tried them before. In fact I loved them so much that not only did I finish my entry for the contest within an hour, I even created an upcoming Sketch for Pencil Lines. I am so gonna need more of their papers, but I will have to carry on with my A, B, C challenge first, so I better get a move on, hu?
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TITLE: ~*~ By Royal Appointment ~*~
DATE: 09/01/2007 01:42:49 PM
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I am totally and utterly doing the happy dance right now. As part of my yearly "things to do" list at Cunard I am now going on a working cruise on the biggest, tallest, and widest Ocean Liner in the world, the Queen Mary 2. My boss told me yesterday that I will be doing the transatlantic crossing on October 13, 2007. I will be shadowing staff on board for about half the day and the rest is free or me to do what I like. You have no idea how excited I am right now!!!
Once we get to New York I will be returning via plane back to Heathrow. Sure I could have stayed on for an extra night or two but I wouldn't enjoy it without Lyndon at all, so I rather come straight back before I get caught up in the time difference. My hope is that this way I won't get too messed up with the jet lag.
Naturally nothing else matters to me now, well ok - the {workshop} in Hamburg is top of my excitement list, quickly followed by my cruise!
Pictures were taken during our first Winter trip to Berchtesgaden in 2005. The Zauberwald (Magic Forest) was really funny. Whenever we made dismissed comments about what would be so magic about it, little things happened, like a 2 second snow storm appearing out of nowhere, or trees "dumping" their snow on us, but only on the path we took. It was great and I very much want to go back there at some stage
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