Woah!

It's working!

I gave Blogger a try this morning cos I've been up since 5 because I'm not organised enough to have painkillers upstairs by my bed. So instead I get up and get them, and then can't go back to sleep. Naturally it has to happen on a Wednesday when WoW is down for maintenence...

But it means I've been and read all the blogs I used to read (which is many more than those linked to on the side BTW) and had a phone call from a grumpy man just leaving Ruislip (he's on nights this week) and actually feel like I've been quite productive so far this morning.

The yawning every few seconds thing is a bit boring though, but it will pass soon before re-emerging at 16.30 and leading my colleagues to be sarcastic.

Naturally now that I've been able to pop on here and type whatever is in my head...it has gone empty.

But Emily is getting me The Moomins for my Christmas/Birthday present!

Frustration

(written on 19/11/06)

I still can't get Blogger to work when I want it to!

I think of something to write (usually while I walk home) and then get in all eager to write it, then Blogger tells me there is an "error". I've then been too grumpy to write whatever it was in Word and so my musings either blow away on the wind or Anthony talks me through whatever it was. Not that I wouldn't talk about it with him anyway, but I wanted to write about it too.

So this one I have put into Word, after a week of trying to post nightly (well, barring Wednesday when we were in the pub) and a weekend trying to post every 3-4 hours (barring Saturday afternoon/evening when I was in Nottingham).

Things haven't been out-of-this-world exciting, but then life rarely is. Things have been important-to-me exciting, which is far more likely.

I went to see the Bonzo's with my dad way back on the 9th (I wrote a whole post for this but will add it later), and Miss Campbelli came back to work on Monday! (the 13th)

It has been very, very nice having her back. In the five days that we've had her, she's helped us rearrange the shop (seriously - the whole ground floor layout has changed), filled a whole notebook with her plans for the children's section, and entertained us all at the Xmas meeting on Wed - by NOT getting drunk! I don't think I'd realised just how much I'd missed working with her. Hearing that dirty laugh from the back of the shop, hearing her tell me or RichieFingers to focus, and even just seeing her bombing around with an armful of stock that you know will be in exactly the right place when you go to look for it later.

This weekend I went to Nottingham to meet Anthony's sister's family for the second time. We're going to theirs for lunch on Xmas Day and I'd only met them once so Anthony decided that a visit was a good idea. I had a very nice time too. Yes, there was the moment when I got there and I suddenly didn't want to get out of the car, but that's normal for me. We chatted about random things, discussed food choices for the Xmas lunch, and even played a little Guitar Hero with the boys (Jon and Matt, very much his nephews). So now I'm much more relaxed about spending the day there, which is one bit of Xmas less to worry about.

That does make it sound like I'm stressed out, but I'm not. I'm a lot less stressed than I was this time last year, when I was trying to organise buying presents for 10 people (including myself) so the fact I have three to buy for my family, all of whom have actually told me exactly what they want this year, and a few to buy for Anthony, who doesn't know what he wants at all. I have fairy lights up already (but only in my bedroom) and I'm gradually getting the high at work that enables you to serve on the till while helping two other people with enquiries!

Blogger, bowling and a slightly mad cat

Blogger is on the blink for me at the moment, but since I really felt I should be posting I am writing this in word and will publish when I can.

I had a very nice weekend last week, Anthony came round about 3ish and took me out to Merry Hill for a spot of shopping (a nice treat since I spent the morning doing my weekly house spruce-up). We went into lots of shops, but managed to stay controlled enough to not go into Lush and to only buy some of the chocolate buttons from the new Hotel Chocolat shop. We did spend a little bit of dosh in Ann Summers though…but those purchases are not for public consumption.

In the evening we went bowling with Alf and Mick (who’s just split with his fiancé Sarah, so needed cheering up). The bowling alley we went to is the one where one of Anthony’s ex’s works, which worried Alf slightly, but since Sam is an ex from about 1998 I didn’t have a problem, and she’s a lovely girl.

Now I haven’t been bowling for about 5 years, I think the last time I went was with Emily and I had very long blonde hair…I think it was Easter 2001! So I wasn’t expecting to do very well so requested cider to drink. This was I would either get tipsy and my game would improve, or I’d get tipsy and not care.

The first game I got 5 pins with my first ball…and then didn’t score for five more balls. Ah well. But as you will see from the scores below, the cider did indeed affect my game.

Mick 85 107 90
Alf 93 105 95
Anthony 74 127 111
Kate 48 51 97 - I came second in the last one!!!

Anthony would have got even higher than 127 if he hadn’t saved his three strikes in a row until the last three balls of that game. We only paid for two games but got three because Alf kept breaking the machinery and we had to keep swapping between lanes 1 and 2.

After that I lost 4-7 to Anthony at air hockey as by that time I’d had too much cider and kept missing the puck. The cider consumption also meant that I sang along to Queen all the way home, although Anthony was kind enough not to cover his ears all the time.

When I felt better on Sunday morning, we went to Asda in search of Sunday lunch and bought some very nice sausages to have with mash. Once again I peeled far too many potatoes but this meant that on Monday night I could have lovely fried up left-over mash and sausages…mmmmm.

Then the rest of this week has been work and sleep really. Regional manager visit on Tuesday, phone calls from Campbelli at Sutton Coldfield to ask my advice on Crime books, Bod gave me a very nice box of Thornton’s chocs for working at the uni (I’m back there again tomorrow as Sat is an Open Day there) and RichieFingers has been generally amusing and occasionally Scottish as he tidies front of store.

Addendum: The mad cat is Foley (as usual). While I was typing this, she came hurtling in from outside and climbed up my back onto my shoulder. Then she was purring like a mad thing and rubbing her face round and round in my hair (just washed with Lush stuff, including the last of my Veganese conditioner). Then she started kneading my head with her paws and chewing my hair while still purring like a flipping train. This lasted five minutes and then off she went again. Cheaper than an Indian Head Massage I guess, although I don’t think it’ll catch on with the general public.

Feeling old

My baby sister turned 21 today.

Since I can remember pretty much everything I did the day she was born, it's made me feel rather old.

Spending my fourth day in a row trying to make the Children's department make some kind of sense didn't help me feel any younger. Especially when I recommended the brilliant Each Peach Pear Plum to a customer and then realised that the book was published in 1978 so it's the same age as me. (It does mean I've requested the 30th anniversary edition as my 30th birthday present from Emily).

Chris was being grumpy today so I asked him which episode of Grumpy Old Men he would be appearing in so I could tape it. Much to my surprise he didn't throw anything at me and just replied that it was the episode after the one of Young, Gifted and Broke that I would be in.

I think that was quite a nice compliment really. Everyone knows I'm broke, but it was very nice to be called young and gifted too!