A Light's On V2

Losing

2010-02-08T11:23:00.004Z

We didn't do too well in the rugby - England beat us :/ It was a good game, though. There was a moment when it looked like we might pull it back but then England scored again and it was pretty much all over.

It was double the fun (or should that be triple if you include the Welsh squad?) because both Prince William and Harry attended the match. Wills supported Wales - as Prince of Wales it is his duty to love us ;D - while Harry supported England.

Next week we face Scotland. Daddy's invited us over to watch that match at home, and he's promised us Cawl (veggie version for me, obviously) at half-time :D Which, let's be honest, is the only way to watch Welsh rugby!

Pick Me Up, Gavin!

2010-02-04T10:45:00.005Z

I watched a programme about Welsh Rugby in the Noughties last night. It was funny how many of the games I remember. Funny because let's face it I don't watch rugby for the skillful play; I watch it for the cute guys in shorts ;) I was eagerly awaiting the Gavin Henson Pick-Up Tackle but they didn't show it!

Now, whether you're a rugby fan or not - how amazing is this tackle?

The Six Nations start on Saturday and I cannot wait. It's really making me long for rugby games on cold Saturday afternoons ;)

Harry Dances Calypso

2010-02-02T10:57:00.003Z

You know I love the Princes. Last time I swooned over Wills, this time it's Harry. On an official trip to Barbados he did a little dance on stage at a benefit show to raise money for Haiti.

[I hardly ever click on videos people post but this is literally eighteen seconds of adorableness ;D]

Finding & Understanding

2010-01-31T20:31:00.006Z

I've just watched the second in the series of The Bible: A History. And it's proven to me just how uneducated I am on the Christian religion.

I was raised to believe whatever I wanted to believe. Religion was not discussed in my house very often. I went to schools that always prayed during assembly and taught us the main favourite stories from the Bible (stories I have since found out are not actually lifted word-for-word from the Bible ;D). I would say my parents leaned more towards atheism. My father doesn't believe, my mother was raised to believe - neither of them are overtly religious.

My finding of religion - of God, rather - came when I was nearing my twenty-first birthday. It came completely out of the blue. I was a bitter person at the time, angry and sad a lot of the time and full of woe - as we all are at that age, I think ;) I was of the belief that religion caused war and upset and played very little part in my day-to-day life. I had been raised to always treat others as I wished to be treated (something I wish more people were taught) and that had done me fine without my needing a deity to worship.

But while I was away dog-sitting in February 2004 I watched Dogma and, as funny as it sounds, it opened my eyes to religion in a way I had never experienced. It wasn't just this archaic thing that caused war and had no reference to my life. I picked up the Bible (the people I was dog-sitting for had a copy in the house) and started to read and I was filled up in a way I can't really explain. It sounds corny and I am fully aware that I end up sounding like a religious freak but... God's love really did fill my entire being. After that moment I was changed. It was that quick, that instant. I don't believe it was an accident. I believe God guided me to that film, which in turn guided me to His words. But that's not what this post is about.

The programme I watched tonight discussed Abraham and how he features in three central religions. I didn't know that. I knew his story from my reading of the Bible but, as I've already explained, I was not taught anything about the history of my religion.

I will have been a Christian (in that I believe fully in and have a relationship with the Christian God) for six years next month. Tonight I was reminded how short a relationship that is and how much more I have to learn. I don't particularly want to get bogged down by Man's interpretation of God's words but to learn it (no matter how frustrating it can often be) is something I think would probably benefit me.

British Comedy

2010-01-29T11:09:00.002Z

Through our relationship Ray has introduced me to many TV shows. I'd watched a few of them on and off but was never able to fully appreciate them because I am pretty useless at remembering when TV shows are on ;)

Red Dwarf, of course - Chris Barrie <3 But my second favourite has to be Black Books. It just incorporates everything I find funny - cute, angry, drunk Irish man who constantly berates in a very homo-erotic way a long-haired, dopey-looking guy with a name like Manny! Throw in the absolutely hilarious drunk, man-obsessed Fran and I am in heaven. It's just one of the funniest shows I have ever seen. We have watched the three series back-to-back too many times to remember and yet I still burst out laughing at certain points.

There's one quote that we both love and I found out that there's quite a few people out there who like it, too. There's even T-shirts! With the next bit of spare money I'm totally getting this for Ray...

I think British TV needs to throw out some new comedies like "Red Dwarf" and "Black Books". I miss having a TV show to follow religiously now that "Gavin & Stacey" has finished. At the moment the two comedies I am enjoying are The Big Bang Theory and Glee but I need more! ;)

Living Through The Eyes of Politicians

2010-01-28T15:57:00.005Z

My mind is being completely taken up with Tudor history in preperation for the new book I'm writing, which is going really well. It leaves little time for much other thought.

I've given up trying to work out what's going on with the US Health Care Bill. I think as a non-American living in a country that has free health care and free prescriptions for everyone I just can't get my head round what the problem is. [Thanks to AM who tried to explain ;)] Then there's the Inquiry into the Iraq War where I can't be the only one who thinks the truth is that we went to war so that Bush wouldn't go in alone and completely dominate the country and eventually claim ownership of it. Unless you really believe Tony Blair is a war-hungry man (you've got to kind of laugh at that image) then really money and power are the only two options left in government decisions. The UK didn't get any money out of it, we didn't get any power, but perhaps our presence held back someone else gaining it. I'm not saying getting rid of Sadam was a bad thing, and of course that is a justifiable reason for going to war but I'm not naive enough to think that that's why the politicians really did it.

Uh, politics is just giving me a headache at the moment. Perhaps submerging myself in the Tudor politics by day and then having to listen to the modern version of it by night is not a good recipe for a quiet life ;) But, as frustrating as it all is, it's still completely fascinating. The struggle for power and money and allies all wrapped up in lies and back-stabbing - it's better than fiction! As long as you remember there's a million other things going on beneath what you're being told then you don't get hurt ;)

Acting Wife

2010-01-27T10:31:00.004Z

I made my first Moussaka last year. I went out for food, tried a veggie-moussaka and really enjoyed it and thought if I substituted the aubergine for courgette I'd like it even more.

I haven't actually cooked anything from scratch since before Christmas. I just got bored of cooking. But I've got the bug back again. So last night I attempted my veggie-moussaka.

Only I'd forgotten the recipe.

I'm not sure if the web-page I got the recipe from has gone down but no matter how much googling I did I couldn't find the exact recipe I'd made it from last year. Add to that that I couldn't even remember what had been in my moussaka I was suddenly a bit lost. I had to admit defeat and just make it with Quorn-mince.

Forgetting the recipe was the best thing to have happened because it's so much nicer when you use mince :) Being a vegetarian, when I go out restaurants always want to give me a veggie equivalent to a meat meal only they just add more and more vegetables instead of using a meat-substitute like Quorn. So the moussaka's I'd eaten - and made - had had no mince in them at all. But from now on they will ;) The only fail I had was when I tried to make the white sauce and it just turned into porridge! Ha! I've been able to make it every other time so I guess I'm just out of practise.

Okay, so it doesn't photograph well but it tasted lovely ;)

I'm donning my chef's hat again tonight. I think I'm going to make home-made potatoe wedges because I found a lovely pot of herbs in the cupboard that will taste lovely sprinkled over the top. Sounds like an easy one so I hope I should succeed ;)

Winter Sun

2010-01-25T12:05:00.006Z

Saturday morning I took a walk into town and back with my husband. There was nothing unusual or exciting about the walk. It was as uninspiring as any other street in any other town in the country. Yet the sun was shining and the wind had finally calmed so that we were able to walk without being bundled up in three-layers of clothing, and not being blown off our feet. Somehow the presence of the sun always makes things seem ... possible.

The night before we'd suffered a bit of a set-back in our plans. I'd like to say we had a reality-check but really the only reality that was checked was how far the budget would stretch. Funny how money is always the thing that makes reality need to be checked, isn't it? But in the bright morning sunshine, with clear heads, we talked and discussed and made tentative plans. So much depends on other people's actions at the moment that we can't plan too much but to know we have options is a big relief. I suppose the initial reaction is always to panic. The next day nothing seemed as bad as we'd thought it did and we're still on track to move come summer.

The good day didn't end there. I had one of those perfect twenty-minute naps in the afternoon. Then had to silence my inner-muse by writing in the evening (read more here). The three of us spent a good few hours this weekend playing Halo Online, which always makes us giggle. And I had a lovely visit home to see my parents where we reminisced and laughed a lot.

I always start the new year in a funk. I've done it every year ever since I came into adulthood. There doesn't seem to be any reason for it. I suppose the exciting part of winter has passed (Christmas) and there's a while before the snow can cheer me up (most years anyway ;D). The comedown from the festive celebrations, coupled with the comedown of the excitement of marrying Ray, really did send me into a bad mood this year. I am glad to say that some winter sun, tentative plans, Halo Online and writing has given me the kick I needed to get myself back on track.

HD Ready

2010-01-20T10:54:00.003Z

Two days ago we went visit my in-laws, as usual, and they surprised us by giving us a belated wedding gift of money. They said they wanted us to get whatever we wanted rather than they try and guess what we wanted. We got quite excited, planning on putting the money sensibly into a new savings account towards the big house move in the summer.

Yesterday when I switched the TV on to watch the afternoon news it started flickering. I thought it was just the Sky playing up, because it does that a lot in unsettled weather. But the flickering continued to get worse until in the end I had to switch it off in fear it was going to blow. Ray came home, gave it a slap (apparently that's what you do to it to make whatever is touching inside the TV come apart again) and it seemed to fix it. But within a couple of minutes it was just as bad again. It was a second-hand TV from Ray's co-worker so we knew it wasn't going to last forever.

The surprise-money we'd had from the in-laws suddenly made sense. We'd needed it because the TV was going to break. It certainly wasn't what we'd planned on doing with the money but considering neither of us had expected to have the money in the first place we reasoned that spending it on a new TV wasn't the worst thing in the world. Although we actually don't watch much TV (much to the chagrin of everyone we meet who always want to discuss the latest going ons ;D) we do play a lot of xbox-360. Going without a TV just wasn't going to happen.

We had no idea what size we wanted, we just knew we had a budget. We thought we'd buy a 22" one but decided to spend the extra £30 and get a 26". The old TV was a 30" screen but there was no way we could afford one that size ;) So we settled on this one:

The colour is amazing, the picture quality not as good as the previous set, and the sound is great. It sits nicely on the old TV stand and everything works fine off it. The integrated Freeview doesn't work for us 'cause we're in a poor signal area but that's fine cos we've got the FreeSAT anyway. And because it's HD-ready Ray can now get his special cables and play his xbox games in HD.

So a surprise wedding gift saved us from having to dip into our savings. God really does provide, doesn't He? :)

The Future One

2010-01-18T11:22:00.004Z

Although I have always been fascinated in past Royal Families, I was never that keen on the recent family. I felt the Queen was too controlling of her family and in her inability to bend she ruined her children's lives by forcing them to marry people they didn't love and to then stay with them when the marriages ultimately fell apart. I suppose for most people it all came to a head when Princess Diana died. The Queen handled it poorly.

Ironically, since the truth about Diana came out the Royal Family's popularity has shot back up. I was always in awe of Diana - she represented to me, as a young teenage girl, a woman who could not only change other people's lives but could raise a happy family at the same time. I wanted to be her - beautiful, successful, giving and a wonderful mother. I was quite upset when I learned that most of the things I liked her for turned out to be a lie. She was still a wonderful woman who gave a lot of herself to people who most in society turned their backs on, but she was not as selfless as she was portrayed and she was not the amazing mother I thought she was.

The mix of the good sides of Diana and the good sides of the Royals has brought about a popularity for William and Harry that I'm sure no one would have guessed at ten years ago. Just when the Queen was thinking Diana was going to bring the Royals down, just when William and Harry watched as their mother's name was dragged through the mud by the same press that had built up the lie around her, there was borne a new love for the young princes and, in William, the future King of England. Yes, Diana was a bit unhinged and, yes, Charles was as stubborn and unwilling to bend as his mother, but the blend of those two lives - and the image popularised of both parents by the press - has brought the Royals back into favour.

Regardless of whether I liked the Royal Family, I was slap bang in the middle of William and Harry age-wise so I grew up with them and could therefore relate to them. William has always been my favourite ;) As my wedding day approached I realised that I would never be able to fulfill my dream and marry William and be his Queen. He's not allowed to marry a divorcee. I suppose I could still be his mistress... ;)

When I was younger I followed the crowds and was very anti-Royal. As I got older and started learning for myself and forming my own opinions I realised just how silly I had been. The Royals do a lot for this country - the main one being that they keep our political system in line. Although they don't appear to have any say over the ruling of the country behind the scenes they certainly do. I do not want to have a president ruling the country, I prefer our safer system :)

I am very excited to see William become King. And the best part is I get to grow up with him, learn with him and watch him take on duties and finally to become King.

Dressing My Age

2010-01-15T19:17:00.004Z

I know, I know: new layout again!

I just wasn't happy with the other one. When I first started the old layout I hadn't had the brainwave to make the index page my homepage. Although I did change it over to those settings the layout never quite felt right to me. So in celebration of another change I made a new layout ;) This one is far more girly and cute. I love the lady in the pencil skirt in the banner picture. I love pencil skirts - whoever's in them ;) They're just so feminine and sexy. They really show off the lovely curves of a woman's body. I've been slowly but surely adding more to my wardrobe. Until this morning I hadn't realised I actually had quite a few in my collection.

I recently bought this classic black pencil skirt, which was just the most perfect fit. I was literally bouncing around the changing rooms I was so excited ;)

I already had this lovely pencil skirt, which has a fish-tail on the back.

I then have a skirt that isn't actually a pencil skirt but fits almost like one.

And I also have my gorgeous vintage 1940's A-line skirt. A-line skirts are nearly just as sexy as pencil skirts ;)

I also have two other knee-length skirts, which fit nicely in with this batch of skirts. All my adult life I've wanted this range of style of skirts. I've always felt quite self-conscious when wearing skirts, as if I'm over-dressed somehow. It's much easier to just cosy up in a safe pair of jeans. But no more. One of my New Year's Resolutions this year is to start dressing as I want. I've slowly started doing that more and more as I've got older and grown in confidence but this year I want to make full use of the gorgeous items I have in my wardrobe.

Look out world: my calves are going to be revealed to the world ;)

Innocently Name Dropping

2010-01-14T15:12:00.004Z

Ray went to the cinema last night with his cousin. I got a text from him saying that Lee Halfpenny had been at the counter ordering tickets but for a different film. How typical that the one time I don't go with him he sees one of the Welsh rugby team? ;)

I've had a couple of other brushes with the Welsh rugby team. I saw James Hook in Topshop. He was sitting in the lady's shoe section reading a magazine; I assume he was waiting for his girlfriend ;)

I also saw Shane Williams walking into the grounds when I went to watch the Ospreys play the Cardiff Blues.

And then there was Dwayne Peel who, being a local boy, was always hanging round the rugby club. He also went to school with the boys I used to go out clubbing with so he came out with us a few times. He smacked me on the butt the first time I met him. Not the best first impression. At least he apologised!

I was quite innocent to the fact that these men were "famous". I was quite surprised when girls were stopping Dwayne and asking him for his autograph. When some girls I met a gig found out he hung out where I did they nearly screamed. I've never got starry-eyed over the rugby boys. They're just guys playing rugby. I just like looking at cute boys ;) The only rugby star I have got wobbly-legged over seeing was Jona Lomu but that's cos he's a proper rugby legend. I tell everyone I have a personalised card from him ;)

Doctor Does Good

2010-01-12T19:08:00.005Z

I've had a growing crush on David Tennant over the last year or so. To be honest I didn't really see what all the excitement was about him to start with but he certainly has a charm about him. And just today I've learnt that he is also a Labour supporter. But, more than that, he thinks David Cameron is a terrifying prospect and gets quite panicked at the notion that people are buying his rhetoric, because it seems very manipulative to me.

[ Full Article ]

I was starting to think I was the only one left in the country who still had faith in Gordon Brown and the Labour party. Gordon Brown, the man who was once heralded the Best Chancellor This Country Has Ever Known. Oh how fickle people are. Because now all I hear in the news is that he came into Downing Street without a plan, and had no idea how to be Prime Minister. He'd only been helping Tony Blair run this country for ten years previously, and apparently doing a wonderful job. Sometimes I hate politics and the fickleness of the British people.

Happy New Year... Belated

2010-01-11T15:25:00.003Z

I'm happy today and finally feeling like myself again. The start of the year wasn't good for me.

I suppose it was bound to happen. The excitement of planning and then having the wedding was sure to leave to me feeling pretty flat afterwards. I know a lot of brides feel the same way. It's the void that the planning of the wedding has left behind, which has probably been the hardest for me. I like to be kept busy, to always be doing something. Whether that be writing books, learning history, reading stories, planning weddings, keeping on top of the bills, cleaning. I either have to do something that stops my mind from thinking (i.e. the cleaning) or else I need to keep my mind occupied. I don't know why; I just always need to be doing something.

I busied myself with new layouts on my sites, I started the new book, I even had snow to keep me entertained. But I still just felt flat. I didn't let it worry me; I knew it would pass eventually because underneath that flat-feeling I was so happy and content. The conflicting emotions were confusing but that's normal for me ;)

Today I kept myself busy - walked the dog, scrubbed the bathroom, wrote all afternoon - and I feel much more myself. I no longer want to hide away from the world, I am ready to start the new year as a new bride and be happy that we got through it all with such a perfect wedding day and honeymoon. This year should bring a new house and the official start of our married life together. That's something I'm so excited by because that is when I get to make my own family, my own world and fill it up with things that make me happy :)

Still Re--Designing the Re-Design

2010-01-10T16:34:00.002Z

There's been a bit of a change to the layout again.

The page was loading slow because of all the links I'd put in. So I decided to use my brain just one last time (;D) and make the root - http://www.alightson.still-sharpe.com - my homepage. All the links I use are now at that address, which has freed up the blog from the extra external sites. I miss the pretty links that were on this page but they look much better all gathered together on the homepage.

Take a look here to see what I've made :)

Layouts

2010-01-08T14:14:00.003Z

I made a new layout for my writing site:

I'm feeling quite creative when it comes to site layouts this week. You may have noticed I've added a few more things to this page. I finally realised - ten years later! - that I could make my blog my homepage and therefore put all my favourite links onto it, which would save me surfing around looking for the different sites. So I now have my news widgets, radio console and all the external sites I visit running along the top. I suppose I could have made Still-Sharpe.com my homepage but I think the root page should look clean and easy to navigate.

I've run out of sites to re-design now, though. That's the only downside about having so few sites now - I can only make up so many layouts at a time ;) It's much easier to keep up to date with them now, though.

I <3 Books

2010-01-07T12:24:00.003Z

With my Christmas money I ordered some books...

I have nowhere to store them, I can't start reading them yet cos I have Abarat to finish first, but I am so happy to see them cluttering up my desk.

Snow Day

2010-01-06T14:27:00.002Z

Today was our first official Snow Day of 2010. I love Snow Days. Where the world is white, you go for long walks in your boots, the Pug runs around eating snow, you walk into town and pick up things you don't need just cos it's nice and quiet, and everyone's whining on the news about how disruptive the whole ordeal is.

Yesterday morning I got a text from Ray: the snow was coming down hard where he was working and they'd had to down tools, climb into the van and try to make it home. An hour later he told me he was back at the car but wasn't sure he'd make it back because the snow had blocked the roads. Here it was clear. We'd had snow showers but none of it had stuck. He was home by lunchtime.

I went to bed not even thinking about snow. I was woken at eight by Ray climbing into bed. "Are you not in work?" I mumbled, still half-asleep. Apparently it had snowed. I looked out the window and the world was white. I've never been surprised by snow before. I'm usually tracking it on the weather, waiting for it to hit. It was nice to be surprised for once. So we put on our many layers, zipped Sweepie up into her winter coat and walked Jem to work (because she can walk to work she didn't get the day off).

We haven't had as much snow as the people in-land but it still blocked the side roads and forced me to cancel a lunch date with a friend. I love walking in the snow. And Sweepie goes nuts. She runs around, snuffling her little face right into it, eating it, chasing her father, refusing to chase the snowballs he throws for her. I think today she missed her Auntie Martha because they always used to play together in the snow.

The snow is quickly melting away now and I've seen two conflicting weather forecasts - one says we won't have anymore snow, the other says we will early tomorrow morning. So things might return to normal tomorrow. Everyone back in work, me back writing, and Sweepie her usual sleepy self. I don't mind how long it lasts. I enjoy every moment of it :)

Cat Out of Bag

2010-01-04T16:12:00.003Z

The cat's out the bag. I have finally admitted what that secret project was that I've been working on for the last couple of months.

The Siblings Come To Power

Now I'm a bit scared ;)

New Layout

2010-01-02T17:29:00.002Z

Yes, a new layout already. I wasn't entirely happy with the other one. This one is more old-school-blogging, I think. I know I said there would probably be a Doctor Who layout to follow but it didn't work out so I went with this one. Which was highly inspired by Ray's new game Dead Space.

I'll probably tweak it again soon but I'm waiting for a pizza to be delivered so I want to get offline quick so I can eat ;)

Happy New Year :D

It Tickles

2009-12-30T12:13:00.002Z

When I was a child I used to always be ill in time for Christmas. In adulthood my body prefers to catch illnesses in time for New Years. This year is no different. Something's got into my sinuses so that I now have a tickly nose and throat, and weepy eyes.

I've climbed into my new pajamas and am not moving off the sofa for the rest of the day.

Poupee Christmas Stockings

2009-12-27T15:54:00.000Z

This year my Poupee Girl treated herself to four Christmas stockings from Kath's shop. And on Christmas Day when they opened (or actually three days later when I finally got online ... ;D) she received four new sparkley presents:

A Cake Hat

A Snowflake Ring

A Ribbon Watch

A Heart Necklace

The last batch of Lucky Bags Katherine was selling turned out to be filled with crap so I was very happy with what I got this time ;)

I Need A Doctor

2009-12-27T14:46:00.000Z

I might have a new layout up here in the new year. I had series 2 of Doctor Who for Christmas and it has beautiful packaging.

When I next have a session on the computer I think I'll scan the pictures through and get a new layout up in honour of us losing the gorgeous Mr Tennant from Doctor Who these holidays.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T12:07:00.001Z

Christmas officially started at about 4 o'clock yesterday. Ray finished work a day early! Tomorrow is Christmas Eve when we'll all pack up and head to my parents' house for a few days. I cannot wait to spend Christmas at home again :) Doing it in our own house last year was really fun, and definitely something we should have done for our first year out of home, but this Christmas I'm looking forward to being a child again ;)

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!

I hope you have a great holiday.

Wedding Photos

2009-12-22T22:11:00.000Z

I finally found a wedding photo album today. None of the shops are selling them at Christmas time. I can't believe the sale price online cos I payed full price in the shop! Typical ;)

I had lots of fun filling that album and the other cream one I got. And then we got to show them off again this time to my in-laws. I get to trot them out again in a few days. Ray's sister will be visiting and I'll probably show my parents them again now they're printed out (they originally saw them on the computer). I'm turning into one of those types of people who constantly bores people with my wedding photos haha ;)