Saturday, October 7, 2006

Heavens to Betsy, I'm back!

It's good to be back, and thanks to G, I have at least only missed one day. It was nice that several people phoned me to point out that I had not blogged on Thursday - and you were all absolutely right! I would like to blame this on the errors of Tiscali, but Thursday I actually clean forgot. Blame a long meeting in Winchester with the lovely people from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Association, blame the need to type up the notes as soon as I got home, blame a few too many glasses of wine with Kate, just don't blame me!

Anyhoo, all blame cast aside like the dysfunctional concept it is, I am so glad to be back. And, I have to say, so glad that Tiscali broadband have pimped out their telephone tech support to a call centre in India. The wonderful Raha, who just assisted me and got me back online in three minutes flat, was such a joy to talk to and I can honestly say that I haven't received customer service that was so inherently pleasant in a very long time. After typing in some bits of code into a box I didn't understand and could not locate again if you threatened my reputation with serious slander, Tiscali's smiley homepage reappeared and the following conversation went something like:

Me: It's working!! It's working again!

Raha: (Laughing) Oh, very good. Well done, Miss Cheverton!

Me: That's amazing, I have no idea how you did that. Thanks very much, you're a star.

Raha: No, it is you who are the star. I did not do anything.

Me: Yes, you did! I couldn't have done that!

Raha: But you did do that.

Me: Ok, at the very least let's call it a team effort?! You have a great day, thanks again.

Raha: Yes, alright, a team effort, then. Thank you for calling Tiscali, please have a very good time. Goodbye.

I promise, those were his last words to me, "Please have a very good time." Which may become my new philosophy and sign-off du jour.

I've heard a lot of bad things from stand up comedians about blogs this week. The overwhelming conclusion seems to be that blogs are for saddos with no life. I took this news on the chin and tried not to let my ego do the talking. After all, I reasoned, if I didn't have one, I would just have laughed along and assumed it was true. Now, I don't laugh along and worry that it's true, which is not as much fun, but there you are.

When I logged on to Blogger today though, I had a quick look on 'blogs of note' on the front page to check out this theory. The first one I stumbled across was the lovely Clare from Tunbridge Wells, whose blog, Three Beautiful Things made me think again. The concept is as simple as the title: each day, Clare writes 3 beautiful things she's seen or experienced that day and she posts them. The first thing I, like, I suspect, many others, thought when I read it was, What are my 3 beautiful things today?

So here they are:

1. Waking up this morning after dreaming about a young, spiritual, almost monk-like young man, who I was in love with in my dream; and feeling refreshed and content for the rest of the day.
2. Lying on the couch, drinking fresh coffee and reading the second Harry Dresden novel, Fool's Moon.
3. Finally getting around to cleaning the flat, filling a bag with clothes and 'stuff' for the charity van and seeing the bedroom carpet again.

What are your 3? If you need some inspiration, or just because you can, check out Clare's site: http://threebeautifulthings.blogspot.com/

Last but not least, you have to, have to, have to check out this video from Gnarls Barkley, though not if you don't like the idea of flea porn. You have to look at it now, don't you?!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a brilliant video,how I laughed-genius!!

My 3 beautiful things for today.

1. Dancing to very loud music and for a moment was able to 'just be'.

2. Being woken up this morning by a phone call from a very close friend (very comforting and beautiful).

3. looking out of my window watching the birds glide over the water (How I wish I could fly-not so sure I would be as graceful!)