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Posts Tagged ‘facts’

  1. July 2, 2011 by Amy Hansford

    Today I learned that the Americans call a bouncy castle a ‘Moonbounce’.
    A friend learned that a group of giraffes is called a ‘tower’.
    What have you learned today?

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  2. Top Five for June

    June 30, 2010 by Amy Hansford

    Monthly, I analyze my website statistics thanks to Google Analytics. The most entertaining stat by far is the collection of keywords typed into search engines that have led people here to awakey.com. Below I answer the top five queries, followed by my award for the Most Random Keyword.

    awakey
    Yep, you found me. It’s a good little handle. I’ve had it for about 15 years now, so I’ve become quite attached to it, and it me.

    sequin top hat and tails gold
    You’re looking for Columbia stuff, right? There’s three things you can do.
    i) Get a bog standard one-size-fits-all jobbie from the interwebs.
    ii) Get a ‘Columbia In A Bag‘ – we like to see people have made the effort buy investing in a costume, but we like you more if you add to the costume, i.e. sew some proper ribbons on the shorts, reinforce the top etc.
    iii) Get As If By Magic to make you one.

    Columbia Rocky Horror pyjamas
    Do yourself a favour – don’t go mad on trying to get film accurate ones. If they’re blue and white stripe, or even blue and white in some sort of basic pattern, it’s absolutely fine! Besides, no-one will even notice once your nipple’s popped out.

    Rocky Horror costume guide
    You’re looking for one of two things.
    Either Ruth’s Anal Retentive Costume List, or the Student’s Guide to Rocky Horror Costumes. The latter, I created back when I was at university. Shamefully, not updated much past the girls, but the basic ideas of how to whip together your own costumes are there.

    Vyvyan Young Ones
    It continually entertains me that this search term brings people to my site regularly. This site has summed up the components of the outfit marvellously, but don’t forget the stars!

    And the award for Most Random Keyword for June is…
    9 1/2 toes

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  3. When things go bump in the night

    April 14, 2010 by Amy Hansford

    The time has come (the Walrus said) to speak of spooky things. To give you a little history about me and my family, The Lodge has been the family house since about 1994. From then until about 2006, it contained my mum, me (popping home from uni for four years of it) and my dad. Since 2006, my sister has lived there with her three kids. Prior to this it was owned by an old lady about whom little is known, and before that it was part of the nun’s estate next door. Before that it was part of the land owned by the Earl of the town, and before that… goodness only knows. Either way, it’s an old house.

    When we first moved in it really looked like a bomb had hit it. It was dilapidated – children were afraid to knock there on Halloween for fear of what was inside. We had a camper van at the time so some of the residents had assumed we were squatters to begin with. My dad redid the entire place, adding a big extension on to the kitchen (was was pantry sized) and an extra room. It was proper old – we were ripping off the wallpaper and found an additional door into the kitchen, previously hidden. Nothing exciting, no portal to another world, just a door between the hallway and the kitchen, but the plaster that was coming away contained horse hair and everything. So everyone understands it’s an old house with lots of history, right? Right.

    Some more backstory now – since I remember, the house has been haunted. Yep, I’m cutting straight to the chase here – there are dozens of anecdotes I could share, and I probably will in time, but the important thing here is that when everyone’s gone out for the day, the house is not empty. When you think you’re alone, something happens to prove that you most definitely are not. Depending on who you are and what’s going on, the house will either be welcoming or looming.

    What we do know is that we have evidence of this ghostery. The form of that evidence… well, you’ll have to stay tuned for that.

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  4. September update

    September 13, 2009 by Amy Hansford

    I thought I’d just write a quick update on me, myself and I.

    I still haven’t worked out exactly what this site should be. If it were devoted to costumes, the updates would be sporadic. If it were devoted to me, it would become a job and would rarely be updated with anything interesting. Besides, I’m better at funny stuff in 140 characters or less now than swathes of text. So in the meantime, it’s a mish mash of everything; costume lists, things about me and The Student’s Guide to Rocky Horror Costumes. For now, a bit of an actually-about-Amy post.

    I got me a job! It’s only temporary for now, but I’m working for Bedford Borough Council. It’s really good for me, getting back into the 9-5 way of things and being able to do something I can do well. Fingers crossed it goes permanent.

    I got me some kittens! They’re called Echo and Max, are black and white short hair crossed with Siamese so they’ve very talkative, and they are great fun. I try not to witter on about them, but it’s hard not to.

    I got me a show! After the debacle of Rent (there’s a secret sacred code of am dram that says ‘you go with what you’ve got’), I ran to the welcoming arms of the Griffin Players and am delighted to have been cast in the comedy role of Barbie (Jack’s bratty little sister) in their 2009 pantomime, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. More info on that along in time, I’m sure.

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  5. Analysing

    July 1, 2009 by Amy Hansford

    About once a month or so I use Google Analytics to have a quick look at how many people have looked at the site. My favourite facility on this is seeing what people have typed into their preferred search engines to find awakey.com – don’t worry, I only see the search term, not who looked for it.

    Here’s my favourite three this month:

    Gizmo costume – I love the idea of a Gizmo costume. Not one of those follows-your-body-line ones, I mean a full on ratio costume like a mascot. Big cuddly belly, soft fur and a big head. If you ever find that costume, let me know!

    A Team Kids Costume – if a mini Mr T is as brilliant as the mini Hagrid costume worn by a kid attending a Wizard Apprentic party I ran once, it’ll be pure genius. And yes, I do love the Marathon/Snickers advert. Foo.

    Bishopshalt School has Swine Flu – Really sweetie, every school in the country does by now. No point in telling you though – the world would go mad. Yep, it’s all a big conspiracy. Surprise!

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  6. Buying a house

    May 17, 2009 by Amy Hansford

    Following in the footsteps of a friend? who has done something similar, I’ve decided to keep a basic track of the house buying process. More for my own delight in efficiency and organisation than anything else, but I like to think it’ll be helpful for other first time buyers.

    Do bear in mind that if something took us two weeks, it doesn’t guarantee it’ll only take you two weeks. Every house sale is different, so just see it as a time guideline.

    We started looking around properties in April 2009. We decided to look at non-terraced houses (from a sound point of view) and we knew we wanted a garden, garage and/or driveway, within 3 miles of the train station to allow for commuting and three bedrooms to allow for a guest room and office.

    We saw an upside down house, a multicolour bungalow (twice), a tiny house, a big smelly house and a house on a marina. In all the initial viewings we looked at the space, facilities and general order. We realised we wanted to move in somewhere with no work needed, which led us to see the house on the marina again.

    On the second viewing (mid May – we could only do house stuff on weekends) we thought ahead about what we wanted to lookely more closely at and what questions we wanted to ask the vendor. We looked in more detail: up in the room space, at the state of the wooden balcony (being by the marina made me suspect [correctly] the wood could be damp and rotten), kitchen space issues (we’d need to sacrifice the washine machine for a freezer or visa versa) and vermin issues around marinas (rats, ducks etc).

    The day after the second viewing (Alex advises to not jump on immediately or you look too keen and you won’t get a good deal) we rang the estate agent to make an offer. It was ?12,500 under the asking price as we had to consider the following:
    – replacing the upstairs and downstairs wooden balconies
    – new downstairs toilet and basin
    – purchase of our white goods
    – making an interior door to the garage (needed as we’d be putting the washine machine and dryer in there as per the kitchen space quandry)
    – solicitor fees
    – moving fees
    – survey fees
    We wanted to stay in budget, hence why we factored in all costs. We were also aware that we wanted to stay under the ?175,00 mark – over this and you have to pay 1% tax on the house. However, we also said we’d like to negotiate fixtures and fittings. At the same time, we put in a lower offer than that which we were willing to pay, preparing for the offer to be rebounded and needing to raise it a little.
    This means you can say ‘we’ll also have the curtains, light fixtures and that nice wardrobe for ?xxx’ and it’s counted outside of the purchase price.
    The estate agent came back twenty minutes later, said they understood our offer as it was in keeping under the stamp duty bar and that the vendor would accept ?175,000 on the dot. After a quick chat, we called back to confirm the offer of ?175,000, and thus began the next stage of the buying process: fiddy bits.

    So to review:
    1 month: house viewings (over two weekends)
    1 day: offers made and accepted.

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  7. Swine Flu

    April 30, 2009 by Amy Hansford

    swinfluavatarbigThe BBC are toying with how severe the Swine Flu pandemic really is.

    The breaking news this morning is that the threat level has been turned up to Level 5 (of 6) [I find this a tremendous advert for Watchmen], how the Health Service have started up the helpline etc.
    The follow up news story on the same programme says how really, it’s *just* the flu. We’ll get Piggy Sniffles for a week and get better. It’s never nice to be ill, but that’s all it will be. Unless you’re an ‘at risk’ person (old, blood problems, respiritory problems, pregnant) in which case, well, yeah, we’ll sweep it under the carpet, but yeah, you could get really ill.

    However I have worked out how to truly gauge the severity of the pandemic.
    The more severe the pandemic, the wackier the ‘and finally’ story.
    Today it was about cross country skiers in their pants. From this guideline, we can assume that we’re all going to get a little woozy in the coming months.

    I work a mile or two down the road from Barnet where a case has been confirmed and this weekend we’re off to see my elderly grandparents in Paignton where another case has been confirmed. We’re not running away, just stocking upon Berocca.

    But well done Michael Jackson. He saw this coming from a mile off. He’s been wearing his mask for years.

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  8. London London London

    April 2, 2009 by Amy Hansford

    A friend visiting London was asking for some advice on places to eat and shops to visit. It’s not the first time, but I always forget what I’ve said. Through sheer laziness of not remembering this nugget of information for every person, I thought I’d put a few notes down here for future reference.

    Dinner:

    TREAT: Ping Pong. These do Dim Sum and are cool without being snooty. There’s a few around including one near the National Theatre on the Southbank.
    PUBBY: The Crooked Surgeon. This is just off Leicester Square (not far from The Prince Charles CInema) and does decent pub grub. It’s not a traditional pub – they’re so hard to find these days – but it’s okay value.
    CURRY: Masala Zone. This is off Covent Garden. They, like most places in London, do a pre-theatre deal. You don’t have to be going to the theatre to use the deals! About a tenner for a very tasty three course meal.
    FUN PUB: Ben Crouch’s Tavern. It’s off Oxford Street. Probably the only place I feel at home in London! Again, good menu, great value and it has a horror theme. Don’t tell your family about the screaming/chainsaw sound track playing in the toilets!
    Plus there’s plenty of Wagamamas around and all the usual chains.

    Shops:

    CAMDEN is all there and complete. The smaller market by the canal’s closed, but everything’s there. Sadly, they ditched the hotch potch covered stalls in all the arches for some glass monstrosity that I’ve not looked into – all glassware and t-shirts – but Punkyfish and the New Rock boot shops are all around as are the goth shops.
    OXFORD STREET is still packed with every shop imaginable.
    Check out FORBIDDEN PLANET for amazing sci-fi and film goodness.
    For your musicals, check out DRESS CIRCLE off Covent Garden. It has everything to do with every musical ever made.

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  9. 16 things

    January 23, 2009 by Amy Hansford

    There’s one of these quiz virals going round at the moment suggesting you list 16 interesting facts about you. This is preferable to the usual 100 question long list quizzes full of yes/no answers. Sorry everyone, but the people who read these ignore pretty much every ‘yes’ and ‘no’ in favour of thte interesting full length answers. So why not give this one a try?

    My 16 interesting facts are below. Please note that they are interesting according to what *I* think is interesting and what isn’t already common knowledge. For example, most people know I’ve been on kids tv a few times and that I have 9 1/2 toes. No need to include them…

    1. I was the first pupil in Bishopshalt school to go on the internet.
    2. When I was little, if I saw Bill Oddie on tv, I thought it was my Dad.
    3. I secretly enjoy alphabetising things.
    4. I was about 4″ tall until year 8 (age 12)
    5. As such, my original career plan was to be a stunt double for children.
    6. I have never broken a bone in my body, but have broken the bones of others.
    7. My tap dancing has been critiqued by Lionel Blair and Wayne Sleep.
    8. I’ve beaten death several times.
    9. I had lunch with Doctor Who.
    10. I’ve provided financial advice for a celebrity.
    11. One of my relatives was eaten by cannibals.
    12. Being told I’m really efficient is a bigger compliment than being told I’m pretty.
    13. I am prouder of my nieces and nephew than anything else I have ever personally accomplished.
    14. I judge everyone on tv.
    15. I wore fake boobs for a year. No-one noticed the difference except me.
    16. I was almost the owner of the only replica Ecto-1 in the UK.

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