Remember way back over August bank holiday I picked these:

And promised to make sloe gin with them? Well, one evening in September, after much finger pricking and juice squirting I made this:

And put it in the cupboard under the sink, turning and shaking everyday for a week and a couple of times weekly afterwards. Until I suddenly decided tonight that it was frosty cold outside and distinctly wintery, and about time I warmed myself with a class of delicious homemade sloe gin…

Isn’t it a lovely pretty colour! It’s VERY tasty too!

This is Zandra. She’s cute, isn’t she?

If you like her, you could technically buy her here. Or, you could nip on over to the Sew Make Believe blog and follow my step-by-step instructions to make your own! Which won’t make me any money, but if you comment to let me know you’ve had a go, will make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

Well, today was officially my day off, but as is my habit of late, I spent it at interview. Having been unable to locate my interview suit I have been switching between my pinstripe trousers and my beautiful red jacket for interviews at more traditional companies and my navy knitted dress, navy tights, navy shoes and the same beloved red jacket for more creative roles. Today’s interview was for a role with a combination of print and web publishing, so I figured creativity would be expected.

The interview did not go well. This is very rare for me, as interviewing is one of my few talents. It’s pretty much the only situation I don’t feel embarrassed about bigging myself up in, and I’m usually fairly good at anticipating what it is that people are really asking behind their questions. Plus, it’s the one area of my life in which I have complete confidence – I know that I am good at what I do. I ask for feedback from failed interviews, and have never yet been told that my interview technique is anything but excellent.

Today’s interview started out the usual way. I arrived 10 minutes early, and sat in reception with a glass of water until the pre-interview test was ready. I followed the girl through to a side-room where I read the test through, panicked, then calmed down, reread it and completed it without a problem. I went through to be interviewed, shook everyone’s hand, made myself comfortable, fielded the first few questions without problem… then one member of the panel handed me over to answer questions from another. And his first question threw me.

I couldn’t make what he was saying make sense to me. I didn’t know what he wanted from a literal answer, let alone what he was getting at in the subtext. I could see he was completely unimpressed, and though I got straight back on track and answered the rest of the interview questions without problem, he looked bored throughout. Like I knew I’d failed and he knew I’d failed, and he wasn’t sure there was any point continuing with the farce. It didn’t help.

This is the third company I’ve interviewed with  so far since R-day, and will probably be the first I don’t get a callback from. I have second interviews next Wednesday and Thursday, both in Oxford, both for jobs which would look decent on my CV… And I have a couple of further opportunities to chase up. The most important thing for me to do right now is ensure that I don’t let today’s bad experience knock me. As I said, I know I’m good at what I do – I just need to cling to that and say that today’s? Was not meant to be!

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Twlight fans, if you’re Team Jacob this is the book for you!

Although the plot obviously differs, an element of me read this as the love story that could have been for Bella and Jacob – had Edward never been on the scene. That said, Grace is a lot less annoying than Bella (with a lot more about her) and Sam is not quite as endearing as Jake… yet still quite alluring!

Overall, this is a great teen romance-adventure novel, packed with love and lust, danger and suspense, and the requisite teen werewolves, of course.

Gripping reading, but definitely one for the girls!

View all my reviews >>

Seeing as I’m not currently able to entertain you with images of my daily outfit choices it seemed only fair to entertain you with images of my evening shenanigans. In this case, trying on stuff from the fancy dress box.

Wanna see something?

This is the bridesmaid’s dress I wore to Daddy and Lorraine’s wedding in the mid nineties. It’s black velvet and green taffeta, and back in the day was a little less… fitted! Well, I was 14 at the time! But I actually really like it again now – want to wear it out and about – though I’m not sure I go anywhere it would work.  Any ideas where I could wear it, oh wise readers?!

(P.S. Yes, I’m losing weight. Side effect of lugging books about and running up and down stairs all day every day!)

This post has been a long time coming – I’ve been short on time and energy, but this evening I finally feel something approaching motivated.

So, about three weeks ago now, Kate bought me a present. This pumpkin:

It’s a very pretty pumpkin, is it not? Tasty looking! Well it was! It made me three days’ worth of gorgeous pumpkin curry, some delicious salted, honeyed, chill seeds for snacking on and a big jar of sweet, cinnamon pumpkin puree for which I’m searching for inspirational recipes – suggestions welcome!

1) Pumpkin curry

Spice-marinated roasted pumpkins

Pumpkin and chick pea curry with peanuts and coriander

2) Pumpkin seed snacks

Seeds soaking in salt water

Roasted in honey and chilli flakes

3) Pumpkin puree

Mmmmmm!

Pics of the finished dessert – once I’ve worked out what it will be – to follow!

Getting in the spirit:

Well hello Mr Reindeer! Cheeky wee thing you!

Every autumn I spend days – no, weeks actually – browsing the high street trying on coats. And every autumn I fall madly in love with at least one. This year it’s this one:

Longline shawl collar coat: £150 £120 from Laura Ashley

The collar, the buttons, the asymmetry… it’s beautiful. When, way back in September, I mentioned this coat to Sarah Sunflower, she told me I should definitely buy it. (Bear in mind I still had a job at this point!) I said I couldn’t buy it – I already have a red coat (which I noticed today is looking decidedly tatty ), a green coat, a black longline jacket and the grey full-length coat with faux fur collar I got to wear over platformed knee boots and mini dresses at the height of the Spice Girls’ fame! (Which, oddly, looks decidedly less tatty than my red one.) Sarah’s response was to point out that I didn’t own a purple one. Which is very true!

For the record, this coat is coming a close second:

Farrah fitted coat: £180 from Coast

And if I could find out where the lovely, royal blue, princess-line coat with peter pan collar I’ve seen three girls sporting this week comes from, I’d be adding that one too!

UPDATED:
Following Fi’s comment on here I nipped over to the Dunnes website (never heard of Dunnes before – they don’t have stores anywhere I’ve lived!) and found another one!

Double layer coat: €50 from Dunnes

SPENT: Goodness knows! £5.70 per day bus fare; £16 train ticket to Oxford; £12 Primark (socks for Toesles); £3.20 toy stuffing; £16 top-up shop; £1.80 buttons (for eyes); £5 charity shop jars/bottles (for Christmas gifts)
BOOKS BOUGHT: 4 on BOGOF thanks to Waterstones’ generous “discovery” staff gift card freebie
INTERVIEWS ATTENDED: 1
INTERVIEW INVITATIONS: 2
HOURS WORKED AT WATERSTONES: roughly 30, but time passes so quickly there it feels like three!
FAIRY SALES: 8 x large, 4 x small = £52
SCHOOLGIRLS WHO ARE “ACTUALLY GOING TO DIE” BECAUSE THEIR IPHONE HASN’T ARRIVED: 1 (I wonder if Apple know they’re responsible  for “actual” teenage deaths…)

Apologies for the absence, the 12 hours out of the house each day are leaving little time to do much in the evening. I get home physically exhausted, cook my dinner, answer my emails and collapse in an exhausted heap. The upshot of this seems to be no blogging – that and a throat and ear infection which is my body’s favourite longstanding way of telling me I’m burning the proverbial candle.

I’ve said before that autumn light has a particular quality to it, a golden sheen. This week I’m discovering that dawn light has its own quality, a sort of cool lilac, waiting to be warmed. Being a night owl I can’t remember the last time I saw dawn… but this past week I’ve been leaving the house in sync with sunrise. And it’s kinda pretty!

In further phone-related news, mine appears to have developed an ironic sense of timing. Twice now it has cut out as I said the words “my phone might cut– ” Amusing, yes – irritating – more so!

FAVOURITE OVERHEARD CONVO OF THE DAY:
WOMAN ON MOBILE PHONE: Yes, yeah, we’re just doing some Christmas shopping. Where are you? Oh, we’re just around the corner – come meet us! You come to us? Okay, okay, we’ll see you in a minute – we’re in Smiths.

Ummmm…. no, you’re really not! Smiths? Our bookselling rivals? Next door but one.

FRIDAY:
Spent: £5.70 bus fare, £2.45 hot chocolate, £2.99 meal deal, £2 toilettries, £3.49 wine (it’s Friday!)
Hours at Waterstones: 8.5
Applications: 0
Cuddles from my baby nephew: never enough!

I was too organised for my own good on Thursday night, and packed everything but my lunch in a bag ready to grab and go this morning. In theory this meant that I couldn’t forget any of the items I needed to take with me to work. In reality, I forgot to get my sandwiches out of the fridge. Hence the unexpected spending accounted for above.

It was unexpected spending, but not altogether unwelcome. I’m finding myself permanently chilled this week, unable to keep warm despite layers, gloves, hats and scarves. I’m cold at work, where we have to keep a moderate enough climate that our coat-clad shoppers don’t overheat; I’m cold waiting for and on the bus in the morning and evening; I’m cold in the flat at night. My only respite comes when, chilled to the bone, I get off the bus at night and strike out with as much speed and vigour as my muscles can muster in a bid to get the warm blood pumping through my veins. By the time I get home I’m usually rosy-cheeked and breathless, but the effect is soon lost thanks to my Scrooge-like refusal to use the storage heaters until there’s frost on the ground at the very least!

So, in the event, the need to buy food made the purchase of hot chocolate seem a far-and-away more appealing prospect. And while I may have momentarily despised myself for giving in and further lining the already rich pockets of that most famous of corporate coffee giants, it did at least mean that I returned to shop floor just a little less frozen than before. A most pleasing side effect!

********

The loonies were out in force yesterday, with one customer after another complaining loudly and aggressively about things beyond my control. A man in a t-shirt said the store was too cold, which I agreed with, but could do nothing about, what with the rest of our customers being wrapped up against the November chill. A woman who had to queue for at most 5 minutes pointed out that we were somewhat short staffed, which, again, I was well aware of, that being during the only half hour of the day that I was the only bookseller on shopfloor. A young lad shouted and argued and insisted that I phone head office to complain because all our job applications have to be done online and his CV was already printed out and ready to hand over to me. Waterstones has an online-only application system due to the sheer number – which runs into the hundreds even for a 6 hour Sunday job (i.e. mine) – received for each one. The lad himself was not doing especially well, having answered my “Hi – can I help you with anything?” by thrusting his CV under my nose saying “What’s that look like to you?”. To then shout at me, complain about our policies and state that filling in a form online would take up too much of his time did him no favours! He had no way of knowing that I wasn’t a manager of some description, and did not show himself to best advantage!

But my favourite (ahem) loony of the day was the fella who spent ages in the shop asking me to find books, passing me items to add to his growing pile of purchases behind the till point and never once greeting any of my helpful advances with a polite thank you. In fact, he pretty much blanked me – barely made eye contact, and when he did, looked through me. Finally, he asked for one last book, which he took out of my hands, glanced at, and tossed dismissively on top of the shelf. “Oh dear,” he said, “I seem to have messed up your display.” With which he sauntered from the shop without taking any of the books he’d requested. I could have screamed: rude, yes, AND surely mad as a March hare!

I do think everyone should be forced to work in the service sector for a few weeks at least once in their lives. I’m a polite person by nature, but knowing how much I appreciate friendly, polite and grateful customers makes me more patient and cheerful as a customer myself. It makes me more aware of my own actions and makes me smile and make eye contact. And it reminds me that, yes, we retailers are paid to tidy up after shoppers to an extent, but we do have other chores to do, and putting unwanted purchases back where they came from is something that someone, somewhere on shopfloor is appreciating enormously. Sometimes we all need reminding how the other side feels.