Five little known facts about Curly K

My eccentric Spanish friend Manuel Stimulation has tagged me to reveal five little known facts about myself so here goes:

1. I was once caught with my knickers down at my knees in public! I was about seven or eight at the time and we'd been sent down the road to look for a missing dog or child, I honestly can't remember. Anyway off we went in search of the missing being and got to the end of our road and onto the next road where there was a factory located at the time. We went into the field where the factory was and I needed to wee really badly so with a little encouragement from the others I assumed the position and was mid pee when a man from the factory came around the corner to move us out of the field - die! I don't think I've ever been as embarrassed since!
2. I was pretty much a goody goody at school and never mitched or got in trouble with the teachers. I only got put in detention once for not cleaning the classroom when rostered to do so and that only happened because it was the first day back after the holidays and I honestly didn't know I was supposed to!
3. I once lost out on a pay-rise because I went out for a drink with a guy - that drink cost me about £2,000 IR. I was on a business trip abroad with my boss and clients and this guy had joined our company several times and offered to show us around as he was working in the country on a long-term contract. At the time the clients said "You go, you're the young one in the group, us oldies aren't interested..." my boss agreed with the clients and said I should go but I subsequently learned, after I had left the company that she held back my pay-rise because I had gone out for the drink!!!
4. I've recently developed a slight sunglasses fetish - hey when you're fat with broad feet it's a hell of a lot easier than having a shoe or clothes fetish!
5. Sometimes when my brain is in overdrive and I'm having a thinking overload day I wonder if I'm normal - is that normal?

So there you have it, five little known facts about me, clearly not as exciting as Manuel's but what can I do! I therefore tag CatGirl, Conor, Paige, Doris and Omani. Feel free not to do it and likewise if I haven't tagged you and you would like to share with the group go ahead!

Reflect & Review!

So on my return to blogging after my short sojourn I was going through some old posts and came upon a post from January 2006 where I listed some of the things I needed to do then and I decided to go through it and see where I'm at. I certainly can't be accused of over-doing things by the looks of it;

• Finish report one, which is in draft form, for work - CHECK
• Decide what clothes etc. I need to take on my forthcoming work trip (I always aim to travel as light as possible) and ensure all the clothes that I need to bring are clean and ready to go - CHECK
• Start three other reports for work that are way, way, way overdue - CHECK
• Clean my house from top to bottom (as I've mentioned before housework ain't my forte in life) before Kim & Aggie seriously come to visit - CHECK BUT NOW DUE AGAIN
• Write a reference that someone asked me for ages ago - CHECK
• Visit my friends that live up the country and I haven't seen in too long - CHECK
• Attend for a necessary blood test that is at least two months overdue - CHECK BUT DUE AGAIN
• Do a serious de-clutter on my wardrobe and everywhere else - PART CHECK, LIKE IRISH RAIL - A LOT DONE, A LOT MORE TO DO!!!
• Get my car door fixed (not my fault, some blind prat reversed into me!) - CHECK (WELL SOMEONE ELSE'S PROBLEM NOW!)
• Change my mortgage to obtain better rate of interest (better get someone who could be bothered to understand all that double dutch about interest rates to come with me) - CHECK TO FIRST PART
• Find someone who could be bothered to understand all that rubbish about interest rates - IN THE END SOME THINGS YOU'RE BETTER OFF DOING YOURSELF!
• Trade-in my car for a newer model - CHECK, CHECK, CHECK - BETSY IS A BEAUTY!
• Call a plumber / fix-it person to repair the boiler, install my oven (it's a long story but suffice to say I don't bake a lot!!), repair what I suspect is leak in my attic, put up a blind and some shelve (oh and ALL my photos and pictures) and fix my outside light. - CHECK TO OVEN ONLY - WELL NO POINT IN RUSHING INTO THESE THINGS!
• Get someone to redesign some of the storage in my kitchen, whoever designed the current one obviously has never stood in a kitchen - it just doesn't work! - AS IF THIS WOULD BE CHECKED WHEN THERE IS SO MUCH STILL OUTSTANDING!
• Get the window cleaner and chimney cleaners in - ENTAILS CLEANING INSIDE OF WINDOWS AND INDEED THE WHOLE HOUSE FIRST MYSELF SO A DECIDED NO!
• Ensure guttering is mended and cleaned - I THINK YOU KNOW WHERE I'M GOING ALREADY - AS IF!
• Buy a dishwasher - AS ABOVE
• Buy a garden shed - AS ABOVE ALTHOUGH HAVE ACTUALLY STARTED TO CHECK INTO THIS ONE
• Buy a new computer - HARDLY YET - STILL TRYING TO DECIDE WHICH BROADBAND TO CHOOSE WHEN USING THE LAPTOP
• Plant my garden for the spring - WHAT DO YOU THINK?
• Go to the physio for my back as advised by the bleedin doctor - COULDN'T I SPEND THE TIME I'D SPEND IN PYSIO OUT SOCIALISING OR SOME OTHER SUCH WORTHY USE?
• Lose weight - DOES CUTTING YOUR TOENAILS AND HAIR COUNT ON THIS SCORE?
• Get healthy - I ATE THE OBLIGATORY SALAD THAT CAME WITH MY STEAK AND CHIPS IN THE RESTAURANT THE OTHER NIGHT, DOES THAT COUNT???
• Give up the cigarettes - PLEASE, HOW ELSE COULD I WASTE SO MUCH MONEY IF I DID?
• Try to meet a funny, charming man with a mind and personality - CHECK AT PRESENT- HOORAH, HOORAH, HOORAH!

Guess some day I'll become organised, efficient and a complete health & cleaning freak - live in hope, die in despair as they say!!

Six months, where have they gone?

I said I would be back, didn't think I'd be away for so long but hey c'est la vie! Curly K is back in the blogosphere! So, where did I go for six months (I can't believe it has been that long!)? Well, work was busy, dial-up is a pain in the arse and I was trying to sort several things out (changing mortgage, buying a car....), thought I'd get a lot more done in the time but that's the story of my life!

Firstly, apologies to those who I have really missed but not kept up with as I've not been online; CatGirl; Omani; JL; Doris; Conor; Treasa; et al; your blogs are part of the reason it's taken me so long to come back, I felt I should have kept up daily and didn't - so where does one pick up? The longer you leave it the more guilty you feel and the more work to catch up you believe you have. So for now I've decided I'll just try again from the start and play catch-up as and when I can.

I hear the Blog Awards were brilliant (how could I have missed Conor O'Neill dancing whilst inebriated??) Also, it seems there are lots of great new blogs I have to get to read but all in good time.

So what have I been up to? Good question - here goes. Changed mortgage - nightmare which went on for months. Initially was going with EBS via a general finance broker - they (EBS) broke my heart; to be fair if I'd gone via the local EBS broker it would have been fine but alas I didn't do so chosing, as I thought at the time, the best possible option in an independent broker. But EBS corporate in their fatcat headquaters had other ideas; put her through the mill, ask every in-depth question you can think off and then tell her fuck that - you have to pay the fees we said we would pay. Two months after the ordeal began!!! Two good things I can say about the whole experience, the broker I dealt with had the decency not to charge me for house valuation that they had paid for as they recognised the shit I'd been through and most importantly the fact that local banking/mortgaging etc. is best. I cannot speak highly enough about the manager of my local TSB, a gentleman, efficient, easy to deal with and talk to and a breath of fresh air in mortgage application terms! All sorted in less than a week as opposed to almost three months with EBS corporate and nothing but being treated like a leper to show for the trauma!

So mortgage change in place I did what I thought I'd never do; I bought a spanking new car - Betsy II - a Seat Ibiza 1.2 Metallic Black and a complete beauty! She is fantastic everything I hoped for and more!

Further to my post of the 23rd August last year (scary) I went on my date, met a fantastic guy and have been seeing him since! He's clever (sometimes too clever!), funny, attractive, doesn't talk for the sake of talking (unlike me!) and intriguing. We're very different which is brilliant sometimes and challenging for us both at other times! It's really good to be able to sit beside someone in silence for a long time and feel comfortable, it can also drive me to distraction as he can sit without saying anything for a hell of a lot longer than I can! When we're good, we're really good, as for when we're not; we could drive each other to distraction by our misinterpretation of our differences to the other!

Work has been really busy and I'm glad I don't have to travel again for a wee while, arriving home to Dublin Airport on the 22nd of December was not my idea of fun! I'm waiting anxiously for several friends to have their babies, get engaged... and the best news for me right now (friends impending births notwithstanding of course!) is that I'm finally getting on a sun holiday after four years! I can't wait!

Do let me know what you guys have been up to! Talk soon.

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