Happy Birthday to the lovely Karen!

She is celebrating her birthday today and has very kindly bought in cake (for those of us not battling to keep our Lent diets on the go!) and is looking resplendent in a a beautiful new pink coat and a healthy dose of her signature leopard print!

She has just received a v nice bunch of flowers (we think they are from her husband but maybe it was one of her admirers...!)

Hope you have a great day Karen!
Lots of love from all of us! x

The MSC Birthday season is upon us again!
Yesterday was Craig's Birthday (He was 28 - well that's the age he still feels apparently!)
And today is Deb from the warehouse's birthday.  She has the day off so not much celebrating though!

Happy Birthday to them both!

A few more birthdays to come this week as well.  I'll keep you posted...

I've been completely outdone recently on the blogging front (that will teach me to nag everyone to to join in - now I look lazy!)

Today is St Piran's Day.  St Piran is the saint of Cornwall.  So it is only really the Cornish that celebrate it.  Obviously.
Sounds nice though, I don't think i have a significant local Saint to celebrate!

The largest St Piran's Day event is the march across the dunes to St Piran's cross which thousands of people attend, generally dressed in black, white and gold, and carrying the Cornish flag. I didn't even realise Corwall had a flag! (it is black and white if you didn't know either) The gold come from the Cornish Duchy and is represented with daffodils in the parade.  V nice!

Today is World Book Day.  This is an annual celebration of books and reading in the UK and Ireland.

The main aim of World Book Day in this country is to promote reading and a love of books with children, support packs are sent to schools with pupils each getting a £1 book token.

Children redeem the voucher against one of 6 specially chosen books from participating retailers.

Being an avid reader myself I think this is a great idea to encourage children to pick up a book!

Celebrations for Saint David's Day are taking place across Wales today, with marches and concerts in honour of the Welsh patron saint.

Many people wear one or both of the Welsh national emblems, a daffodil, which is in season during March, or a leek, which is St David's personal symbol.

The traditional welsh dish, Cawl, a stew like meal consisting of meat, often lamb, and vegetables, including leeks, will also be enjoyed during the celebrations.

Happy Saint David's day to all our Welsh blog readers.

Always a division as to who is actually the best drummer of all time - but this not the worst list I have seen... I liked it better from 29 onwards though and it was interesting to see President Obama at number 11 bit of a suprise that one..!

Regular readers of our blogs will know I keep chickens, who produce a good supply of very tasty eggs.
 A chicken keeper from Norwich had a big surprise this week on collecting his eggs. One of his Rhode Island Reds has laid an egg a whopping 6 times heavier than an average egg!

 Poor Matilda, the chicken, it must have bought tears to her eyes giving birth to such an egg!

We came into the office yesterday morning to find we had no internet service! After Craig making a phone call to our provider we discovered a man in a digger had cut through a cable! This wasn't on our doorstep but some 30 miles away in Wolverhampton!  Well we didn't know what to do with ourselves, no e mails, no internet browsing, no Facebook!
We actually had to talk to each other at lunch time rather than playing games. As you can see normal service has now been resumed - much to our relief!

We are very lucky to have on our doorstep a Steam Engine Railway, known as the Severn Valley Railway. The line runs for 16 miles through the beautiful Worcestershire and Shropshire countryside, closely following the river Severn, travelling from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth. A highlight of the trip is crossing the river by the Victoria Bridge, a 200 foot single span bridge, which features in the film 'The Thirty Nine Steps' starring Robert Powell. The railway is mostly run by volunteers, and they hold various special events, including Thomas The Tank weekends, Santa Specials, and a 1940's weekend. I enjoyed a cup of tea at Bewldey station on Sunday afternoon after a long walk along the river bank! Well worth a visit if you are ever in the area. More info from www.svr.co.uk

Thank you very much to Deb for pointing out a rather interesting site that makes custom coffins!
It sounds a little morbid but is actually very funky and very environmentally friendly.  They are made of cardboard and can be customised with any design.
Some of them are quite amazing!
Check them out here

Following on nicely from Karen's Shrove Tuesday blog, today is the start of Lent.
Every year, i give things up as a kind of post-christmas detox.  This year i have given up all chocolate, cake, sweets etc (as i do every year) plus i have also given up crisps and mid-week drinks!
Not sure how long that last part will last...im off to my local pub tonight to try their new menu!  But will definitely give up the lovely sweet stuff!
Counting down 40 days and 40 nights till easter....

Today is Shrove Tuesday, the day we enjoy the custom of making and eating pancakes!
Shrove Tuesday, (shrove stems from an old english word, shrive, meaning 'confess all sins') is the day before lent, invented to use up all the ingredients that were to be given up for the fasting period, milk, butter and particularly eggs, which were not to be eaten again until  Easter.
In other parts of the world Shrove Tuesday is celebrated differently, in New Orleans its Mardi Gras,  and in Rio de Janerio its carnival time!

Yesterday was Chinese New Year! (as well as Valentines Day but we all know about that one)
The Chinese Year is now Geng Yin 4707.
That's Year of the Tiger in English.

The Chinese calendar has a cycle of 12 years with a zodiac of 12 animal signs for each year. The Chinese believe that the animal of the year you were born is concealed in your personality.

It is said that people born in the year of the tiger have characteristics which include bravery, sensitivity, and confidence, and are thought to be bold, powerful and adventurous. Yet, tigers are prone to be short tempered, indecisive, are suspicious of others, and are risk takers. It is thought that tigers make good bosses and leaders, and are superb actors, writers, and publicists.

If you are interested, you can find out what sign you are here.
I'm an Ox...not all that glamorous really!

Hehe, just had a hearty laugh-out-loud moment at this picture
(click it to enlarge it)

Hopefully it will put a smile on your face too!
Hehe!

Last night I finally went to see Avatar.  I hate to conform to the masses, especially when things are so hyped up...but it was awesome!
3D on the big Imax screen made it even better!
I was particularly fond of the glowing foliage, I want to get me some of that!
It is officially the highest grossing box office hit now (beating Titanic - also directed by James Cameron!)
Interestingly, if we take into account inflation and relative profits, the actual highest grossing film is still Gone with the Wind.  Nothing like a classic!

Oolong the rabbit became an internet superstar when his japanese owner started posting photographs of him balancing objects on his head.
Oolong was able to balance various household items on his head such as tea cups, toilets rolls, carrots and his final balancing act was a waffle!
Sadly Oolong passed away in 2003 but his owner Hironori Akutagawa is training his new rabbit.
I'm off to see if I can balance an Aquarian drum skin on my rabbit,Tinkerbell's head!!

You've got to laugh! bless them, they're probably going to make a fortune!
I was incredibly annoyed at first watching them on X Factor.  Must admit they were quite amusing in the end though....

Today is the day that an overweight groundhog called Punxutawny Phil predicts the weather in America.It is a very popular event drawing huge crowds.(Especially since the film of the same name)
"Groundhog Day is a lot like a rock concert but the people are better behaved and there's a groundhog involved," said Tom Chapin, editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper.
Apparently he is 123 years old and will live forever kept alive by a secret elixir  fed to him each summer in a secret ceremony.Call me a cynic but I suspect that the only thing eternal about him is the name.

I have enjoyed a long weekend away. I finished work on Thursday evening, then Friday morning drove myself and hubby to Chester, on a surprise break for his birthday. We were booked into a lovely four star hotel and spa just outside the city. We had an afternoon of spa treatments which left us feeling very relaxed and chilled out. Saturday was spent exploring this medieaval walled city. The picture shows one of the gateways into the city, with the clock which is supposedly the second most photographed clock in Britain. All was going well, until I unfortunately slipped over & sprained my ankle! Still, had a very enjoyable weekend & I have limped back into work today!

It's Australia Day today! (well its nearly over in Australia what with the time difference)

This time last year I was there! Had an amazing day (all part of a very amazing trip!)

My Australia Day included a bunjy jump, swinging though the Cairns Jungle, an Ozzy BBQ, countless party games and dips in the pool and all the beer we could get our hands on!
(the pic is me doing the bunjy - and with a considerable tan that has now well and truly disappeared!)

Not quite so good this year....its still a bit cold and there's not nearly enough beer...

There is a campaign underway to make Heavy Metal an official religion!

Similarly to the 'Jedi' campaign in the 2001 census (more than 390,000 people listed it as their religion, making it officially the 4th most popular religion in the UK!), this time round we are encouraged to list 'Heavy Metal' as our religion.

With the recent success of the Facebook campaign that got Rage Against the Machine to Christmas number one, its fairly possible this might just happen!

Check out the facebook group for more details.

On a vaguely related note, check out the official guide to Heavy Metal Satan Fingers on the left.

So Cadbury's had been taken over by a an american cheese company.  Obvious choice, don't you think? Maybe i'm missing something!

Its a shame for yet another British product, and in fact industry, to be taken over.
Plus American chocolate is rubbish...hope they don't change it!

I've been to Cadbury's World a fair few times (well i did grow up about 40mins away from it).  And i've also seen the Cadbury World in New Zealand (didn't go in, couldn't imagine it being as good as the one in Bournville!)  Over there, they don't even realise it's an English brand! scandal!

Mmm...quite fancy some chocolate now!

Craig is out of the office this week, he headed to LA at the weekend in preparation for the NAMM show.
I am normally very jealous of his trip but he did have a bit of a nightmare getting there.
The snow of last week meant there was a backlog of flights and Craig got delayed for a day.
But he is there now and i believe the weather is more than pleasant.
He kindly sent us this picture to show where he was and the lovely sunset he was watching.
Jealousy resuming....

Its been a funny old week.  The snow seems to make everyone extremely excited or act extremely stupidly! I'm more scared of other drivers than the snow when i'm out in the car!  i witnessed so many accidents on Tuesday, and then had to turn back in the end anyway because a lorry had turned sharply, got stuck and blocked the road.  Crazy!

Then again, i am enjoying it when i don't have to drive.  I made a snowman with my brother and everything!

Snow is still fun for big kids too!

Only some of us made it into work today. Matt, Helen and Jodi wimped out.The rest of us battled on.The courier company has just  asked if our parcels are urgent. I told him all deliveries to our customers are urgent.But between you and me as soon as he has gone we will be going too. Hopefully we will all be back tomorrow.

Happy New Year everybody. Happy New Decade in fact!
We are all back in the office and back to work today.
The office, and particularly the warehouse, are absolutely freezing having been empty for 2 weeks. I'm still having trouble thawing out my fingers...maybe by the time we go home it will have warmed up!  Fun's over with the cold now - bring on the summer!
Best wishes to everyone for a prosperous 2010!

Christmas number one for Rage Against the Machine!
Fantastic!
Must admit, i felt a little bit sorry for X Factor Joe, i did watch the show and he was a very nice boy.  He'll still do well though!
Great to stop the 'X-Factor' Machine from stealing Christmas again. Well done everyone!

I had rather an amusing  conversation late yesterday.  I answered the telephone to a local garage, they sell very expensive cars, only available in red. The man informed me that they had received two letters addressed to The Music Shipping Co, I jokingly replyed,
"What are they like" ( catchphrase of a Catherine Tate character) he replyed "They are white envelopes with stamps on"  I  of course, was being funny, meaning what is the post office like!  He obviously didn't have a sense of humour! Gave us all a laugh in the office.

I can't believe there are only two weeks till Christmas!
That has snuck up on me completely!

I have been a bit of a geek this year though, and bought all my presents a couple of weeks ago.  That is until my boyfriend handed me a list of all the people he needs to buy for...it seems to be my responsibility now!  Boys, eh!  Although i do love to shop so i'll let him off!

V excited about Christmas this year, i didn't get a real Christmas last year as I was in Australia (oh, the hardship, i know!) so its extra special for me! woohoo! Christmas!!