Pressure and a social experiment

It's been a quiet week in the BlackLOG household, with Mrs B still suffering from a badly swollen and bruised foot. I'm sad to say that both cats took advantage of Mrs B's distressed plight and like the wild animals, in their long and distant ancestry, they sensed her weakness and totally conned her into giving them a second dinner... Not such an issue for Mischief as she just vom's up any excess (yes we have a bulimic cat) but a huge step back for McG's diet.

McG proudly shows off his latest catch

This hiatus in household activities does give me the opportunity to turn the spotlight on a couple of our friends. Regular readers may remember the lead up to Christmas where Mrs B decided to make life interesting when she decided that we needed, at short notice, to decorate a large part of the house, replace the fire place, get a new stair carpet and get a new sofa. Boy did that lead to some fun for us.... Well, not to be out done Mala and Craig have decided to raise the pressure bar and have undertaken the following :-

Move house - OK that's not totally unusual but when you are renting and looking to buy, the last thing you want to have to do is move from one rented property to another. To make it more interesting the new property was just down an alleyway, a short walk but not wide enough to get much of the furniture down. Vinnie the “pillow assassin” (a future potential Olympic sport) and myself helped and hindered in equal measures....

Got engaged - Again this happens all the time but not often at the top of a mountain in the Lake District in a force 9 gale. OK I may have made the bit up about the strong wind but from what I heard Mala's acceptance more than made up for any lack of wind as it engulfed Craig before he had even finished asking. Just as well he had not just bent down to fiddle with his rucksack and ask :

Craig - "Mala I was just wondering if you would....."

Mala - "Yes, yes yes! Ooooh I'm getting married"

Craig - Producing a thermos flask "Like a cup of tea?"

I understand, as is traditional at such times, there were a few tears shed but I think that's because Mala was jumping all over Craig's toes in her excitement.

Craig "One minuet I'm kneeling down getting out my 

thermos flask, the next thing I'm getting married .....

Now I'm not saying Craig is competitive but he did set a little quiz for us with the announcement :

1. Where did I propose to Mala?

2. What would a new fiancée naturally do?

 A : Stay in her fiancé's arms, enrapt in newly engaged bliss or

 B : Leave her fiancé for two weeks? (Try being creative with that... ;-))

3.How soon can you arrange a marriage and not lose your sanity?

Mrs B won with the following entry :

1. Clearly you were Tango-ing during the tea dances at the Georges Cinq hotel in Paris and instead of that last dramatic roll from your arms as Mala "dies" at the end of the dance, you*.......................No? What do you mean, a mountain top in a force 9 gale?

* Craig and Mala met at the Bishops Stortford School for special needs dancers - I was dragged along for a number of sessions but expelled myself after my killer moves proved almost lethal to all around ...

2. B. Duh - obviously skiing with us is a far more attractive proposition...................what can I say? We're irresistible.

3. I'd think anything in the, oh I don't know, 6 week timeframe would be certifiable.

Getting married - again not an unusual thing for engaged people to do, except they decided they were going to get married as mentioned above, leaving just 6 weeks to get everything sorted.

Changed jobs - During this time Mala was busy interviewing for new jobs (congratulations on being successful) as well as :-

Going skiing - Make that 5 weeks to plan the wedding, as Mala was already booked to go skiing with us - What I thought was a pathetic display of over-emotion as Mala spent much of her non skiing time on the phone to Craig, turned out to be Mala trying to help organise caterers, a venue and all other wedding related matters that most people take six months to organise...

Going to India - Oh no, make that 4 weeks to plan a wedding. When Mala booked to come skiing with us there was no engagement, impending marriage or new job on the horizon and she had been assured that she would not need to go to India until later in the year, as her cousin was looking at a summer wedding. Imagine Mala's delight when she discovered that she would be practically getting off one flight from skiing and onto the next flight for India when her cousin changed her plans....

Wow! I can hardly keep up, I feel I should be getting stressed on their behalf. The Beast is happy though, he is not to be the official photographer but has been asked along to produce some informal shots of the event, so look out for those in a future BlackLOG.

Mala "OK, it's Thursday do I change

job, move house, go to India or pass go

and collect £200?"

Blog swap, a social experiment
- The Mayhem of BlackLOG for an organised fashion blog
I've got some good news for you, although it has been a quiet week I have not spent my time idly....I have gone out and procured a Blog swap for you. Next week's BlackLOG will come to you from the talented hands of Amy Clair Thompson, a top Northern** fashion editor. While I will be over at Confessions of a Fashion Editor on Sugar no doubt confusing and alienating her readership....

** Yes the very same people that brought us hob-nail boots, flat caps and whippets as de rigeur fashion accessories and that was just the women.....Sorry Amy, just kidding, I did read your thoughts about how London thinks that there is no fashion in the UK outside of the capital. Have they not seen the Newcastle lassies with their short skirts and blue legs during the most severe of winters.....?

Amy put me through a rigorous interview process (i.e lots of email exchanges), after I applied to her Blogswap advert on Brit blogger, before agreeing to commit her fashion blog to potential blog suicide.

Me - Amy, Interesting idea but I had better warn you my idea of fashion is what got dragged out of the wardrobe (Mrs B despairs of me) and I don’t normally notice when I’ve had a haircut, let alone anyone else. More despair from Mrs B , especially when I’ve dropped her off at the hairdressers and still forget to comment when I pick her up later….. I can also confess to not noticing new clothes but I do try to make amends by saying regularly "Is that new, it looks good...."

My blog is a weekly look at what happens in our life*** , with a bit of stretching, for attempted entertainment sake….featuring friends, photographs and the odd inappropriate comment (Life’s too short not to) . I don’t have strong opinions on many things ( that’s not to say there aren’t a few subjects that get me going…. ) but will happily argue any point, in a devil's advocate kind of way .

*** No don't run just yet. I'm not blessed with a multiple personality, I write on behalf of Mrs B and our two cats McG & Mischief

Amy -  Don't worry about "my idea of fashion is what got dragged out of the wardrobe", because seriously, I am the world's most unlikely fashion editor. I bloody hate fashion. I just kind of got stuck here. Which is why I always appear over-opinionated...

*Ahem*

So, I had a quick look at your blog, just now, and it seems to be a rather eclectic mix of, well, everything... would I be right in saying that? And, if so, how would you define it for blog-swapping purposes? :)

Me - Can't argue with the term 'eclectic' for the BlackLOG but isn't life like that? Or is it just my mind..... I was never really sure what the BlackLOG should be categorised under, perhaps :-

"Shit happens, get on with it...." is as close as I can get.

Although I hate the term organic, I like the fact that the BlackLOG has the freedom to stomp over any topic that comes into view. I honestly don't know what will be included each week. Friends often say "Oh, that will be good for the next BlackLOG" but when I sit in front of that blank sheet of paper it just does not happen.....

So what I'm offering your readers is randomness on either fashion or any topic that you choose to select for me.....While you get the chance to write about your week in an attempted amusing way. Feel free to bring structure and sense to my readers, I won't be offended and they could probably do with a reality check as well as a much deserved break....

P.S. They seem to like photos.....Perhaps so they don't have to read the random words....

P.P.S. Not sure I ever deemed the BlackLOG to be suitable for blog-swapping purposes, I just liked the concept.

P.P.P.S. If you do go for a swap you will have to try and select at least one music track that goes with your blog....

Amy - Wow, that sounds like a delightful little challenge... I would be very glad to rant my week out in pictures and words, with music to accompany it. In fact, I kind of wish I did that in my blog, all the time, to be honest... :)

And if you're willing to take on the style-or-lifestyle challenge, then I'm game! :) Obviously, I don't just write about fashion (for fear of boring myself to death). My scheduling process works so that

Mondays and Wednesdays are fashion,
Tuesdays and Thursdays are whatever I fancy posting about,
Fridays are Feel-Goods
Saturdays are local-based
and Sundays are Alphabetti Spaghetti

so when you pick the switch date, can you bear that in mind...?

How does that sound? And pick a date, any date! :)

Me -  Oh my god I have never seen so much structure. I think I'm melting......

Amy - I have to be structured. I'm a head teacher's kid; organisation is my life-line... :)

Me - My mother spent the whole of last year in a loony bin (Not PC but the best description that I can think of....) I kid you not Girl Interupted This may account for a lot. I visited on a number of occasions but always managed to be let out, which makes me feel a bit happier about my own grasp on reality...

I'm not sure you are getting a great deal out of this in that I give you 1/7th of your week's blog output while you get to do all of mine (mine is a weekly blog). Still I can live with it if you can.

I kind of like the idea of having a crack at fashion but I'm not sure it would be fair on your readership.....especially as I am to fashion what Mira Hindley (or to be more trendy*** Catholic priests) is/are to child care...and as it is your un-chosen profession I had better leave that alone.

*** see I already have the fashion lingo

Do your readers really want to know about Bishops Stortford? probably not so that's Saturday out.

That leaves Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.  Since I try and update somewhere between Monday and Wednesday (what did you expect?  Actual structure in my posting schedule? Yeah right...)

So how about next Tuesday 20th April? - Gives you time to collect your week's experiences and me time to read some of your back numbers and put together a totally unrelated post.....

Amy - Please, feel free to write a fashion piece if that's what you want to do! I swear, it's a whole lot easier than you'd think. Essentially, it's just finding synonyms for "pink". Trust me - I've been at it almost 3 years! :)

Me - Oh no not Carte blanche (which to my warped sense of things sounds like it could be a shade of pink) I have already got some ideas floating around the fairly empty space between my ears.....Tuesday sounds good, though! :) Excellent (typed in a Mr Burns type voice, while rubbing hands together) Smithers, wheel out the "Guest Blogger machine...."

Amy - Carpe Diem should totally be a shade of pink.

Me - You say it like it isn't....

Amy - I'll try and work it [Carpe Diem] into a serious [Fashion] article, at some point, and send some kudos your way, for it :)

Me - Please send it [The Kudos] but don't expect me to eat it, sounds unhealthily like an exotic vegetable*****...

***** One other thing that came out our exchange, I finally worked out my problem with organic food -

It's just an impressive marketing ploy for selling, at a huge

premium, odd shaped and strangely coloured food that

previously would have been rejected as unsuitable for

human consumption.

The New Labour's spin team would have been proud if they could have come up with it themselves. No doubt in years to come they will claim it as their own, as they have done with any half decent policies that they have "borrowed" recently....

So tune in next week for an exciting and, I can confidently predict, a more organised spin on the BlackLOG.