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An Apology and a Thank You – BBC Children In Need & Busted

Nov19

So I was so lucky to be able to go to BBC Children In Need’s Appeal Night last night. 

I was 7 years old when I went to a Harvester restaurant with my parents and they had a colouring competition to keep the kids entertained while waiting for orders to arrive. I sat there for half an hour colouring in this picture of Pudsey bear. I have always been a bit of a perfectionist, that bear was coloured in as accurately as possible using perfect colour selection. Yellow for his body, black for his eyes and a white and red spotty eyepatch. There would be no purple and green spotted bear submitted from me! As we left the restaurant Dad pinned my bear up with all the other enteries and we went home. Mum and Dad got a phone call from the Harvester a week later and turns out I had won! I won a meal for four at the restaurant but most importantly I won a cuddly Pudsey Bear. Me and my Pudsey Bear have sat and watched Children In Need from start to finish together ever since even though I am now 24.

This is how I fell in love with this charity and I have fundraised for Children In Need for the past 8 years. 

Anyway back to the purpose of this post

Last night I was at the Elstree Studio watching the filming for Children In Need and I didn’t feel well. I poked my friend who was sat next to me and fainted/collapsed. 

The team at the studio and the paramedic (your name was Brian, but I apologise I cannot remember anyone else’s name, sadly I do not remember much from the evening!) were all absolutely brilliant and really looked after me. Thank you so much for everything you did, I had no idea I was ill, I thought I was just a bit under the weather. I will go to the doctors first thing Monday morning as promised and will not be going to work until the doctor says I can. I apologise for being a really stubborn and difficult patient, I’m not myself after a fainting episode and I promise you I’m a lot nicer and a lot less difficult normally! 

Unfortunately the second time I collapsed they helped me stumble my way out of the studio door. I got just outside the studio door and I am told that I hit the floor in front of Busted who just got off stage. I have camped out for McBusted and Busted several times and really wanted to see you guys perform, I’m gutted I missed you. (I came back in after the first fainting episode after your performance had already ended and the second one occurred shortly after!). I’m a 90’s baby and a massive Busted fan, so I cannot express how embarrassed I am that this happened, and I’m very sorry! I’m told you guys said you wished you could help me, which is so kind so thank you so much. I have always wanted to meet you I just wish I remembered it!!! 

So just a big thank you and sorry to the team at BBC, Brian and Busted. 

I really hope I get to see the show live again some time. It has always been a dream of mine, I just wish I could have actually seen it! Until then it’s time for another cracking year raising money for such a good cause, it’s going to be a busy one!! 

Thank You

– The Girl in the Pudsey Onesie that you spent half your night scooping up off the floor 

Otato Nessie Ladle

Nov14

I was looking for kitchen appliances today after seeing a rather nice slow cooker advertised in between an episode of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. I could not find the slow cooker but I did however discover this Loch Ness Monster shaped ladle. 


It is made by a company called Otato and there’s a whole range of Nessie related kitchen utensils including the whole Nessie family in Blue, Pink and Green! Must be the most adorable kitchen utensil of all time? 

How could anyone be sad with this little guy to keep you company in the kitchen while you’re making your soup?


Just when I thought I couldn’t love this range any more I delve a little bit deeper and discover this little guy!!! 


Little Nessie Tea Infuser?! 

As I’m franticly adding a whole Nessie family to my basket and selecting next day delivery my flat mate says to me “Samie, when do you ever make soup?”

Now I’m having to regretfully remove this little collection of adorable little monsters from my basket to make room for the more boring things I need in life like an ironing board!

However if you are a soup maker or you have the benefit of being able to offer a loving home to these adorable little guys why wouldn’t you?! 

1 Week to Go!!!

Nov11

1 week until one of the most important nights of the year!

BBC Children In Need is such an important charity who make such a difference to so many people. That is why it is so important to show your spots and raise lots for Pudsey! I am so proud to support this charity every day with both work and in my own time and incredibly excited that for the first year ever I will get to watch live from the studio!!! 

This year will be the first since Terry Wogan sadly passed away in January this year and I’m sure the amazing charity that he helped to create will continue to do amazing things.


Plans already in place for the fundraising for next year and it is looking like it is going to be a jam packed Pudsey filled year! 

Homeless: 250 Ducks

Nov9

When I moved into my lovely little old flat 15 months ago we inherited a rather large built in display cabinet. Neither of us had much of value to put in it and so it was decided that the Ducks could move in. 


The Ducks were lovingly arranged into the cabinet by my flatmate Ellie, they have been a lovely central point to our living room ever since and earned our flat the title of “The Duck Residency”.

It has suddenly dawned on me that I do not have a big display cabinet in my new flat. Where will the Ducks live? 😦 

Sam for Prime Minister?

Nov9

So this man is now the President of the United States? Surely this means I can be the next Prime Minister after Theresa May?


I may need to win the lottery first. They say money cannot buy you happiness, but in this case it looks like it can buy you a country.

Still waiting for America to turn around and claim the worlds best troll for 2016 and then quack on with a real election. 

Dear Mr Ford…

Nov8

Dear Mr Ford, I hope you are well.

How do I know you Mr Ford? Well I do not know you exactly. I know you as Mr Ford as that was the make of Wing Mirror I picked up off of the floor after you ploughed your car into mine at 8am this morning. Accidents happen right? I know driving onto the other side of the road and into another car could have been caused by a minor lapse of concentration. Maybe you were tired or you’d had a bad day and were reflecting on this, who knows? You drove into me, so I beeped the horn to alert you to stop, switched off my engine and opened the door thinking we were about to exchange details. But where were you Mr Ford? 500 metres down the road driving away as fast as you could. I picked up your wing mirror, so if you would like it back it is in the boot of my car waiting for you. I don’t suppose you’ll be back for it though, you can’t have wanted it that much to leave it in the middle of the road. Luckily you didn’t hurt me, or cause much damage to my car, not that you bothered to check and you definitely came off worse. Maybe next time you decided to hit someone at 30mph though it might be nice of you to check that you havnt hurt them. After all the damage to the car can be repaired and frankly is not worth my no claims bonus, but this was a quiet road which no cars could go down for long periods of time. Are you really happy driving away and leaving someone potentially hurt in a car where no one would find them? Shows a lot about character Mr Ford, and it appears you are one of society’s scumbags. 

Regards,

Miss James Blonde Adam Slam with Black Stripes. 

The Duck in the Room

Nov6

I have a lot of Ducks. I had a friend of a friend visit last night, he came in and sat down in my living room which currently houses a rather impressive duck collection. As I have only met this guy once before I was doing the usual hostess things, offering Chai Tea, and apologizing for the current state of my flat.

About 8 minutes of being sat surrounded by these ducks he says “So… About the Ducks?”

So about the ducks. One Duck was bought for me around 8 Years ago. It was a Statue of Liberduck. Or Duck Number 1 as it is now known. I liked this duck, and then I saw Michael Quackson, Bad Mother Clucker advertised on eBay. Dad had the job of waiting up that night in order to bid on this duck with absolutely no insight into what a snowball effect it would create. Suddenly I was receiving ducks from everyone for every occasion and before I knew it they were everywhere.

As I told him of this story it was dawning on me that I was perhaps coming across a little bit strange. Not so much a crazy cat lady, here I am as a crazy duck lady.

“Have you ever thought of setting up some sort of Duck fan base?” he asked.

I told him that no that was not something I had considered doing, but I had just started blogging.

“Is it a blog about Ducks?”

Not as such, it was originally to blog about my experience of home buying, but that all happened a little bit too fast, and now I was blogging about everything and anything that springed into my mind.

“So it’s not a Duck fan base? What’s it called?”

A Little Bit Quackers….

Sorry Nikki, I did try to be normal but I think I will always be that slightly embarrassing friend…. #JustActNormal

Hogging the Hedge

Nov6

The things that stick…

I was having dinner with my flatmate, her other half and my friend a couple of nights ago when we got into a discussion of remembering things. It is funny what things we remember and the things that stick with us. What is it that makes a memory stick?

Ellie was talking about a night we had out many years ago which I had no memory of, yet it is something she has always remembered. We could not figure out how long ago it was but we did know that a lot of wine was consumed. Mainly by me. As I am not a very big drinker this took me by surprise, could it really be my drunken self that was a defining memory of our friendship?! We were in a taxi driving back from town and apparently they dropped me off home first. I got out of the taxi and fell straight into a hedge outside my parents house.

My Friends leapt our of our taxi to come and retrieve me from this hedge that I had managed to get myself well and truly stuck in. Although I have no recollection  of this event I have been told that hedges are very difficult to get out of. You fall into them very easily as all the branches and leaves just give way, but trying to get out of the hedge is not easy as the branches do not offer enough support to push yourself out of the hedge.

Anyway Ellie attempts to pull me out of the hedge, I look at her with 100% seriousness and inform her that “I am a Hedgehog”

“Why are you a Hedgehog Samie?”

“Because I am Hogging the Hedge”

hogging-the-hedge

How she managed to get me out of the hedge I will never know, but I was so disappointed in myself for not remembering this, and so proud of my drunken 19 Year Old self for such a fabulous pun.

Fear not my lovely friends, I too have lots of stories to tell about you…