Slow Stitching

I don't think I'm going to get this finished in time for my mothers birthday...





















It's a lot harder than I thought it would be, partly because of the colours. There are four main shades of green and four of yellow and I have to do the lightest then 2nd darkest, then the darkest, then the 2nd lightest. (So shades A,B,C,D in order from light to dark have to be stitched A,C,D,B). Otherwise it's hard to tell which shade goes where. B is definately the one I have to do last each time which is a slight pain at the moment - you see the big empty space on the left, in the middle, that's pretty much all B... I am still enjoying it though.
It also hasn't been going too well as Anthony has been on evenings for the last few weeks, and is until we go on holiday. This means that the computer is all mine (mwahahahaha) and so I have been either tatting about online or playing WoW instead of sewing while watching films. Tonight is Veronica Mars night so I shall attempt to resist WoW and do some more work on it.

Other than not doing sewing I haven't been busy. I have been doing a diet that was working brilliantly - until my parents came to visit and I fell off it for the weekend, now I don't want to start it again. Basically it's a low-carb diet, I get to eat lots of cheese and smoked salmon, drink loads of water, but no chocolate, booze, pasta or bread etc. I managed a week (and lost 6 lbs) then missed a couple of days (last weekend), then did another week (and lost another lb) but came off it on Friday when we went for Chinese. Day 5 is the worst day as that's when I'm exhausted and my body is going mental for sugar, then Day 6 is good. I think I shall go back on it on Thursday as that way day 5 is my Monday off rather than my Sunday at work.

The diet thing is cos I'm fed up with carrying about 2 extra stone of "grief" (it's the two stone I put on through comfort eating when George and my Grandad died and I was off work with a broken arm) as it's a bad memory of a bad time. I just want to get back into the jeans I wore when I moved up here and stop my knees aching so much in cold/damp weather. It's getting easier the more I do it, partly cos most of the bad food has gone from my house and also cos I love the fact that eating peanut butter from the jar by the spoonful is sort-of allowed.

I figure two more weeks of being strict will have lost the first stone, then when we fly out to Spain in Sept (which I am sooooooo looking forward to) I can relax for a week. It's all-inclusive too so it would be rude not to drink....

Oh yes, my holiday - Anthony will only let me take three books! How will I cope! I've just read the first Lee Child book and enjoyed it so I plan to make Alf take some of those so I have so extra books. But what should my three be?
Can anyone recommend me a good holiday read?

Gone'd

My ability to blog seems to have vanished into the ether.

I think of something to write about, but when I start to write, it stops.

This is why it has been so quiet and Kimi having a shit has been at the top of my blog for so long.

I am trying to find my blogging ability so some posts should hopefully start appearing again soon.

I hope I find it soon as I have already been spoken to sharply about my lack of posting, and if I don't post soon I am worried that Campbelli will find something to stand on so she can clip me round the ear for not writing.

I go to hunt down inspiration...

Grand Prix

Gosh I rather dislike that boy (listen to me being good and not swearing like I want to).

For your viewing pleasure I bring you Hamilton and Alonso before today's incident...




...and Kimi, being his fabulous self. This one's for Emily:

Book Queries

Books I have been asked for recently:

The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (Yes, it's a real book)

That new childrens one about the rubber ducks - not 10 Little Rubber Ducks but Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks (which is not a childrens book)

The second book by the fridge guy - that'll be this one then.

Today I also had a phone call where I was asked the following:

Caller: I'm looking for a book
Kate: Yes....
C: It's called Downpour.
K: There's nothing coming up, can you give me the authors name.
C: I'll have to spell it, D-W-O-P-S and the first name is Wayne.
K: *sigh*
K: Nothing coming up for that (thinking: but you know that don't you)
C: Can you just repeat the book you're looking for please.
K: *sigh* Downpour by Wayne Dwops.

Then I sighed again, rolled my eyes and hung-up.

It turns out that I was phoned by Scott Mills. Not only that but Emily heard me on the radio. She said it hadn't sounded like me (which is a small bonus I guess).

I'm just doing the listen again thing from his site...

Update! The one that's in todays broadcast isn't me! Yay! That's probably why it didn't sound like me. It was also slightly after 10 that I was phoned which could very well mean that it was either them recording ahead, or some bored student copying the radio.

Reading my subconscious

I'm reading all sorts of things at the moment. After Potter I picked up Hexwood to reread as I wanted something fantasyish but not too over the top. I then reread her latest book The Pinhoe Egg which means that in the next few weeks I'll probably go through all of the Diana Wynne Jones books.

I also read Flora Segunda of Crackpot Hall which Campbelli had a proof of. It was ok, took a while for me to get into it and it's made me want to read some Sheri S. Tepper which I'll probably move onto after I've finished all the DWJ books.

I've bought, but not read yet, the fantastic reissues of Just Another Angel, Angel Touch and Angel Hunt by Mike Ripley. I can still remember when the third one of these had just been published and dad found it in Chelmsford library. The grin on his face as he said "Look what I've found" and flashed the front cover at me. I'm so glad they've been reissued at last.
They also have nice introductions by him which talk about how he started writing them, the tv rights and all sorts of other interesting asides. (This more than makes up for the fact that the insides are not as beautiful as the covers).

I also shot through Lean Mean Thirteen last night, Janet Evanovich's latest Stephanie Plum novel. All good fun as usual, shootouts, Grandma looking for a man and the eternal dilemma of Morelli or Ranger...
Extra: Keris has an essay in Perfectly Plum which I'm planning to buy in August.

My reading matter yesterday affected my brain...no honestly! I've been rereading Books, Baguettes & Bedbugs and The Child That Books Built and reading The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop for the first time. This means that I had a fabulous dream this morning.

I was walking down a little arcade alleyway when it started to rain. I ducked into a dress shop that I'd been in before to find a prom dress (not in real life, in another dream. I seem to have a remarkable internal world in dreams, places pop up repeatedly). I looked at the clothes for a while and then wandered through a door into this huge bookshop (again, I'd been in there before). It's in a huge stone market hall and most of the stuff is second-hand. Big old bookcases just leaning against the stone walls and everything all mixed in.

I walked through the halls looking at the shelves and found copies of all three of the books above, then I turned out into a small courtyard. I asked if I could take the books into the stall on the other side (it's like lots of separate bookstalls in there) and then went over there for a look around.

I found a large box of Chalet School paperbacks, 60's Armada covers (the ones I love) and all brand new and shiny - and all 10p each! I handed my sister (who'd just appeared) the list of the ones I already own (which I don't actually carry with me, I'm not quite that bad) and then spotted a big shelf of foreign children's books.

On there were a selection of Moomin flashcards (which I'm pretty sure don't exist) and lots of Babapapa books. I was just about to take my armfuls of books to the counter when my flipping alarm went off and they were lost to me! I shall get back into that shop at some point and try to sit and read them!

I have a craving for a visit to a second-hand bookshop now, not one of the charity shops that never have anything good, a proper twisty stair cased shop with treasure waiting to be discovered. Now I just have to find one, I wonder if Anthony would like to go on a drive on Saturday...

The End of Harry Potter...

Well, that's it. The end of Harry Potter. Three hours of overexcited customers including two of frantic bookselling, and then 2 and a half hours of reading and it's all over.

It was bloody good though.

The two major characters that she said died...it was more like 5 to me. One death I knew was going to happen from the minute I finished the Half-Blood Prince, one was totally totally unexpected and had me shaking and in tears. Another was a surprise but not such a shock, and the other two were so linked that if one was killed the other had to be.

There were actually quite a few characters who didn't make it to the end but couldn't really be described as major really. They were kind of accumlative deaths if you know what I mean. Big huge fights have to claim more than one victim and they need to be named characters.

I can't quite believe it's all over. But it very much is. That last chapter that she's had written for years is sort of a "happily ever after" one, it leaves the way open for a little more, but also means that you leave characters happy and getting on with life rather than just after the fighting has stopped and the dust is clearing.

Ah well.

Right then, I'm due back at work in 5 hours so I'd better go and get some kip. I wonder how many plot hints I can drop at Campbelli tomorrow before she thumps me?

Black Dog

I'm having an attack of the Black Dog at the moment which means I haven't been doing a lot of anything.

It's ridiculous really. My life is good, I'm not in debt, I have a great job, cool friends, fabulous boyfriend...but something in me just wants to sit in a corner and cry. I've put a few bits of paper saying "it's a chemical imbalance" in places where I'll see them if I get too blue, but otherwise I'm just trying to chill and ignore it. Unfortunately that's not really working. So I've been coming home exhausted, half-heartedly checking my emails and then slouching on the sofa watching CSI or the Dukes of Hazzard. Half the time I'm on the sofa I can't even be bothered to do any sewing. Anthony understands which helps immensely. He gets it too sometimes and knows when to prod me to go and make dinner (which helps cos then I've accomplished something) or when to pass me the icecream and give me a big hug.

I did manage to blitz it yesterday afternoon, I had a half-day and left work feeling like crap. I went and bought a load of M&S Bucks Fizz and then treated myself to a cab home and an afternoon in the sunshine drinking the Fizz, reading Harry Potter and going slightly pink. I plan to try and do a little bit of this again today.

That afternoon "out" of life has helped me get excited again over the fact that I get to see Emily tomorrow! She is coming to visit for Harry Potter night and we are going to have a great time! Yes, she will have to put up with Anthony and the cats on her own on Sat as I'll be at work (after very little sleep), but she managed to put up with the Yeti last time so this time it'll be a matter of stopping talking to read the book rather than reading the book cos there's no-one to have an intelligent conversation with.

Before I go and do some housework in honour of her visit, a list of some things that are making me smile:

My gorgeous new shoes
Sexy chocolate buttons
My new waterbottle
lolcats
This strange creature, which apparently Katie W. has something to do with...

More holiday

My second holiday week was just as relaxing as the first, but had the added bonus of Anthony.

We went shopping a couple of times, including buying some heavenly choc drops in Hotel Chocolat, and also went and looked at fish tanks. We saw some lovely ones that doubled up as coffee tables, which we could actually picture in my front room...with Foley doing her best to get into them! So the fish plan is on hold for the moment.

We stayed at Anthony's house a couple of nights, and he made himself very happy by managing to get WoW on both computers so we could both play. This was part of his cunning plan to get me to level 70 before the end of the week, cos otherwise I'd tell him to play while I worked on finishing my cross-stitch.





Both of these tasks were achieved!






I've also picked out and started a new cross-stitch project. So far it looks like this ---->
Obviously it's a work in progress, but it has a deadline so I plan to photograph it each week to encourage me to work on it!


I loved both Grand Prixs during my holiday, not just because Kimi won both of them...honest! Although it was a little scary when I phoned home yesterday to natter about them, to have my dad say "I hear you have a kitten blog" (!!!) I think my sister has been talking about me behind my back (which isn't hard when she's in Essex and I'm up here!).

I'm back to work tomorrow which I am actually looking forward to. I have a few things to sort out that I can't wait to get my teeth into now I'm all refreshed, plus it's less than two weeks until Potter!!! (I have been practicing staying up to read it, at least that's one of the excuses I used when I went out for a night on the town and didn't get home until 4am).

Cat Scratches

"Mum, I'm stuck! Shall I jump?"

"Sorry, look I be cute and fuzzy and make your back feel better."

Anthony reckons they're the worst scratches I've had so far so they had to be recorded for posterity. The blood has all washed out of my white top though.

Lazy Holiday

I have very deliberately not done a lot so far this week. I've slept until I wake up naturally (usually about 10am) or if woken by a cat at 6am (Esme) then I doze in bed until I want to get up. I've been going to bed at night when I feel tired (about 1am) and yesterday I had a nice little nap on the sofa when Henman got rained off.

I've been tatting about with photos on Flickr and got myself a pro account on there at last so I can load what I like. I've even set up a blog just for Foley (Esme will be on there occasionally too) to highlight the fact that she is in fact completely barmy.

Foley has both honoured and disgraced herself this morning. She fought and defeated an evil spider-in-the-bath and brought it to me as a trophy.

Then she alerted me to the fact that when I'd put the washing machine on I hadn't moved the hose and so the kitchen was getting a little wet. (Nothing got horribly soaked luckily).



However she let herself down completely when she jumped up onto the hatstand. Instead of meowing like mad until I stood up and let her jump onto my shoulder, she took a flying leap to land on my back where I'm sitting at the computer...in just a vest top. I sense I will not be wearing one of my new back-revealing tops on Friday night, as I fear people will think I've got too close to a tiger! (The bleeding did stop eventually).

Apart from being clawed to death and flooding the kitchen I have also moved all the stuff that was piled up in the back room, painted the piggy bank I got for Xmas, finished listening to The Last Continent on audio, read several books, connected up the Wii (although I can't actually make it work and will have to reorganise the scart leads once Henman has played), eaten lots of cheese on toast, read lots of random blogs and gone ding (leveled up) quite a lot on WoW. I've also created two new characters (Undead Warlock and Tauren Shaman) to get myself away from my Alliance bias.

I did find something funny when I was sorting out pictures onto Flickr. In my collection of old information posters (photographed from a diary my mother gave me and now cut out to go up on the stairs) I found this <---- picture. Now that is when I've got my holiday this year, I've been daring and actually taken two weeks off together now, and then I've got a week in September (only partly cos when I went to book holiday July and August had already been snaffled by Campbelli, Fingers and Ian). This time of year has always been different. Last year, rain and sun, year before sunny, year before that I got sun burnt one day and then nearly drowned the next. This year I decided to be optimistic and buy some sun lotion...so naturally the weather is terrible, and I'm starting a cold! I have high hopes for the end of next week though. As an aside, I do think that those information posters should be revived. Think about it, we saw those growing up and so know not to drop litter, how to cross roads etc. Today's "hoodies" are just exposed to adverts for things they should aspire to own rather than ways to behave. Maybe they should be brought back by our new PM?

The cheese in the fridge is calling me...

Bookness

With my nice back-pay that I got on Wednesday I decided to treat myself to a few books that I've had my eyes on for a while.

So I now need to add the following to LibraryThing:

• Chocolate Cakes - in an attempt to actually bake...


• Jarrold Short Walks in Birmingham and the Heart of England - to burn off the effects of the baking!


• The Unseen University Cut-Out Book - my second copy of this so I might start work on it in my holiday-time over the next two weeks.


• The Ankh-Morpork Post Office Handbook - I'd had this stashed for about 6 months so thought I'd better buy it!


• Moomin - Totally beautiful book. Read about it on our intranet and ordered it for a look and then decided I had to add it to my Moomin/Tove Jansson collection.


• Nobody Does It Better... - I love French food, and I love the idea that I could actually cook some of it. Ok, so we've covered why when I think of cooking I think of it as a hassle, but I want to get past that and cook lovely things and enjoy it!


• The Good Fairies of New York - this is another one I saw recommended on the work intranet a long while ago and I'd ordered one for stock. When tidying Sci-Fi/Fantasy I found it and added it to my haul.


• Stranger in a Strange Land - I read this years and years ago and have wanted my own copy for a while (another one of my dad's books). Another one found on my trawl through Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and then promptly moved to the front 342 table.


• Casino Royale , Live and Let Die and Moonraker - I've always loved James Bond and when these sexy new/old covers came out I figured it was time to invest.

I know that these won't keep me going for the whole two weeks so I shall be visiting the library again next week (that way I get a lift as Anthony is on holiday then too) and try again to pick up some stuff that I wouldn't normally read.

Truths

Matt is very good at pool. Anthony and Katie W are pretty good at pool. I am not as good at pool as I was when at uni, but I still think I am until I start playing.

Contrary to a belief I have held for a long time, I CAN walk and dance in shoes like these without breaking an ankle. (although my calves are killing me this morning).



(For me, that is a very big heel!)

No matter how good Campbellis sexy pizza was, I refuse to believe it could be nicer than my BMT from SubWay.

Black Russians are still a very nice drink. Having them made of Kahlua, vodka and Pepsi instead of Tia Maria, vodka and Coke was something I thought would make them less nice, I was happily proved wrong.

The Quadrant is a nice place to have cocktails but the music is too loud for sensible conversation. This is why we spend most of our time in there stroking Campbellis legs.

Campbelli looks bloody gorgeous in a dress!

The Royal London has a chandelier that I may have to steal. Although I'll pass on decorating my loo with a collage of Barbie pictures.

One Barbie picture was a colouring page that said "Theresa has come over for a sleepover. Brighten up our night with your pens" Naturally someone had added an i to that last word.

Anthony is still asleep and snoring, this is possibly because he is trying to avoid the fact that we either have to go to Ikea today or next Sunday and he's trying to forget that fact.

We are going to Ikea to get a frame for my sexy picture that he bought me when we went to see the BTCC. (It's the one in the middle of the top row here.)

My sister is at Le Mans this weekend and I am very slightly jealous. I have been promised that if she enjoys herself I get to go next year!

I am going to wake up Anthony and remind him of Ikea...

Happy things for Campbelli

A collection of nice happy things has to be kicked off with It Is Just You, Everything's Not Shit which always has something on there to make me smile.

Heard of lolcats? I LOVE lolcats. I can only cope with them in small doses though as otherwise my incorrext spelling gene kicks in. I love going to I Can Has Cheezburger? for a daily dose.

Miss Campbelli has the most beautiful umbrella that has blue skies and clouds on the underneath of it. I've never seen another one anywhere but this one comes close to it. Pretty!

Another happy thing (but unlinkable really) is the fact that among the other things I did today at work, I removed 31 copies of a book that was cluttering up her children's section!

Love you Campbelli! xxx

Curry and Lyrics

Curry:
I am going to be eating a fantastically nice curry in a minute.
We bought it from Asda the other day, Limited Edition Buttered Chicken Marsala. I had it on Thursday night along with three naan breads and a large glass of shandy. It was bloody lovely. So lovely in fact that we went back to Asda tonight after I finished work so I could get another one. Anthony is just dishing it up now... YUMMY!

Lyrics:
It's not just Green Day that suffer from me mishearing the lyrics. Everyone knows that ABBA sing the line "When I saw you last night in Tesco", but have you ever heard of the Yappy, Yam and Yead songs?

John Denver sang the first one "Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy". Yes if you get all proper and sound your haitches then it's fine, but when you're singing it mutates into "Sunshine on my shoulders makes me yappy". This is what I used to sing when I was little and later led to the second song...
Take That and Million Love Songs - "A million love songs later, here I am". This one was pointed out by my dad when they came on TOTP and he said "Not that bloody yam song again!"
The Yed song is a relatively recent addition. Sung by Blink 182 it talks about the fact that "you're just a voice inside my head", again with the haitches!

(Pause to eat some curry)

I really do mishear lyrics all the time. The most famous example is a song my parents have that apparently talks about Alan being an Elfchild. Not to me. To me Alan will be forever an Eldron, whatever one of those might be.

Classic.

I just googled for the song, and got the lyrics below. No Alan mentioned! So the line I have always sang as "Alan was an Eldron, Eldron, Eldron. Alan was an Eldron down beneath the sea".... was not even close!

Ok, I think I need to stop now!


Steeleye Span - Elf Call Lyrics


i heard a bonny cow low, cow low, cow low,
i heard a bonny cow low over the lea.
and it was an elf-call, elf-call, elf-call,
and it was an elf-call calling unto me.
and the little elf-call, elf-call, elf-call,
and the little elf-call said unto me:

“come and nurse an elf child, elf child, elf child,
come and nurse an elf child down beneath the sea.
come and nurse an elf child, elf child, elf child,
come and nurse an elf child down beneath the sea.”

“what do you moan for, moan for, moan for,
what do you moan for?” the elf king said to me.
“i'm moaning for my own child, own child, own child,
i'm moaning for my own child far across the sea.”
then the little elf king, elf king, elf king,
then the little elf king said unto me:

“come and nurse an elf child, elf child, elf child,
come and nurse an elf child down beneath the sea.
come and nurse an elf child, elf child, elf child,
come and nurse an elf child down beneath the sea.”

i heard a bonny cow low, cow low, cow low,
i heard a bonny cow low over the lea.
and it was an elf-call, elf-call, elf-call,
and it was an elf-call calling unto me.
and the little elf-call, elf-call, elf-call,
and the little elf-call said unto me:

“come and nurse an elf child, elf child, elf child,
come and nurse an elf child down beneath the sea.
come and nurse an elf child, elf child, elf child,
come and nurse an elf child down beneath the sea.”

“come and nurse an elf child, elf child, elf child,
come and nurse an elf child down beneath the sea.
come and nurse an elf child, elf child, elf child,
come and nurse an elf child down beneath the sea.”

Looking for the Moomins

Today I made a promise to Campbelli that I would write a blog tonight, one on Saturday, one on Sunday and one on Monday because she wanted something interesting and strange to read. It would probably have been better if I had some vague ideas of things to write about before vowing to do this, but then again if I'd HAD ideas for stuff to write about I would have blogged it anyway.

My head seems strangely empty at the moment. It's like my internal dialogue has turned itself off. I don't know if this has anything to do with my mother telling me that she worried herself when she did something silly and the little voice inside her head said "Now we both know that you didn't want to do that." Both!?!

Anyways, my head seems mostly vacant. It might be because my life has changed completely since I moved house. Not in a "I've had a stroke and have to learn to talk again" kind of a way, just in a "I've pretty much stopped watching TV and now spend my evenings attempting to unpack boxes and then giving up and going to play WoW" kind of a way. Surely this should mean that my head has more time to do its own thing without trying to figure out who did what in CSI, but this seems not to be the case.

I've also developed even wonkier eating and sleeping patterns than normal! This is something I'm working very hard to sort out as it's quite annoying spending mornings at work like a zombie and then being bouncingly awake until 1am. I've even started trying to eat breakfast again. Ok, so it's either a SlimFast cereal bar or shake, but it's breakfast! (and a bit more nutritious than a Mars bought on the walk to work). I've even cut down on the alcohol. Again, it's mainly cos I've got a taste for bitter shandy at the moment so I'm drinking that rather than Kronenbourg but it's an improvement.

I've taken to listening to my iPod when I go to bed in an attempt to switch my mind into sleep mode. A nice dose of Pratchett audio while I play solitaire and the light dims down. I just have to try getting to bed earlier. I did try playing music instead of the books but that wakes me up too much so I shall just have to hang onto my Audible subscription for a little longer.

(I'm rambling now and have lost all direction in this post, can you tell)

Right. The title for this post came from the fact I was listening to Green Day on the walk home and discovered that in When I Come Around he does sing "I'm just looking for the Moomins" at one point. I thought that this would be a good title for a blog post in which I could ramble on about the music I've been listening to lately. But it's too late and I shall do that tomorrow instead!!!

Lack of blogging and unpacking...

Hello folks! (in best Neddie Seagoon type voice)

How you all doing out there? Well actually I know how most of you are doing as I've been reading your blogs but not actually writing one of my own. Campbelli told me she was shocked at my lack of bloggage so I thought I'd better whip up some inspiration from somewhere.

I'm still unpacking, naturally. In fact, there's still stuff at the old house to be moved over here! Most of it is bits and bobs that weren't essential to be moved straight off (xmas tree and decs, boxes of stuff from school and uni) but there are occasional things over there that I really wish I had moved that weekend (like the microwave). Since it is only a two minute walk between the houses, moving things hasn't been too bad, it's just getting up the umph to go and get them!

Most rooms are mostly done, but there's still boxes and bin bags scattered round the place. I've taken some photos of the house so far (which I will post when I've uploaded them) including my current wardrobe arrangements (black bags scattered across the spare room floor), the front room (with boxes of odd things that currently have no home) and my bookshelves in the middle room - which are about the only things that are "properly" organised so far.

Those bookshelves actually nearly drove me round the bend, trying to fit my favourite authors onto them in combinations that made sense but that also fitted! Then yesterday I made the mistake of buying the new Meg Cabot book (Size 14 Isn't Fat Either) and nearly cried when I realised it wouldn't quite fit! Luckily my bookselling skills came to the fore and I was able to fit it on in true bookseller style - the kind that usually fits 8 hardbacks in a space that should only hold 5 paperbacks, you know the style.

I have been "nesting" like crazy. Not in a broody fashion (although I am and trying to resist it), but in a wanting this place to feel like my home quickly fashion. The nice people at Additions decided to raise my credit limit just before I moved so I have splashed out on new throws, cushions and curtains. Now I just await my new statement and monthly payment total...eek!

In other news:
- I got to speak to Mark today after one of his colleagues was an absolute star.

- Campbelli didn't win the award she was up for :-( but she is still the best bookseller in our Division and we are very proud of her for that :-)))

- I have become far too enamoured with Facebook. I'm not spending hours and hours on there, but with the broadband changing (and thus the browser I use) it has become my new homepage... Once I've come online and poked everyone and then gone round and read blogs, whatever it was that I'd planned to blog about has just whooshed straight out of my tiny little brain!

Oh, and the various problems with this house (back door now broken) should all be getting fixed next week as the guy phoned me today to sort out coming round on Monday to start work. Yippee!

Right, I'm off to see what goodies we've got for dinner and to see if anyone has written on my Wall...

Rollercoaster Ride

So this morning I went off to sign my new letting agreement for my new house. Got there at 10.30, read through and signed the contract, then had to take a quick detour into town as they couldn't take my deposit off my debit card and I don't have a chequebook.
Holding £950 in my sweaty little hands was quite nice, although Anthony insisted that we didn't walk back to the car past work in case I was overcome and spent the lot on books.

So, contract all signed, money handed over and key obtained! Yippee!

Then we went over to the house...

Basically for a house that's just had new heating, new carpets and been decorated, it wasn't really "finished" (as those TV people would say). There are marks on the walls by the paintwork and stains on the new carpets. Fine I thought, I'll just make a list and take photos so I don't get penalised at the end. Bit of rubbish in the garden, again, this can be sorted.

Came back here and did a bit of packing and had a nap as I was shattered, although Mr Nightshift couldn't get any kip so he's been up now for 24 hours... (not good when he's trying to disconnect my washing machine).

We went back over there to hoover the carpets ready for tomorrow and to write a list of the marks etc. Three A4 pages later I decided we'd better go see the letting agents. Basically, as well as the marks and unpainted pipes (which are just cosmetic so not that hard to live with), only two of the doors actually shut properly, we couldn't find any way of making the shower work, and in the passage between the houses where you can take the bin out, you can look up and see the floorboards of one of the back bedrooms. Most of the things were there when we viewed it the other week, but then they hadn't put the carpets down (they only went in yesterday) or finished off so I just thought they'd have fixed them.

Anyways, the list is with the letting agent and they're going to speak to the landlord tonight. I will almost certainly be moving in tomorrow and Sunday as I can't really move at any other time due to work etc. The guy at the agents is going to sort it all out apparently - I'll just have to trust him.

I did annoy myself by almost crying when trying to explain to the letting lady about why I had to get this done. Work this week has been very stressful and next week with certainly not be any easier so I wanted moving to go as smoothly as possible.

Ah well, that's life. It's all a learning experience.

I'm off to pack more things, I just hope that everything in the house gets sorted double-quick, that Virgin Media can connect me up nice and quickly, and that I hear some fabulously good news about Miss Campbelli on Tuesday night!

PS: I do have a 1kg bar of Dairy Milk for when I get overwhelmed!

Meh

Nothings been happening that's worth blogging about really. I'm worrying about having a house to move into, trying to eat healthily, trying to pack all my possessions and enjoying the fact that Anthony is working days this week so I actually get to spend time with him in the evenings.

I haven't been spending much time online other than to nip on and check blogs/FaceBook so I can't even post an entertaining list of random blogs that I've been reading.

Today I went and paid the admin fee to get my references for the house I want. It's on hold for me now and when (not if) my refs come back fine I can then sign the contract - appointment made for next Friday at 6. So that's helped with my stress a little bit, the fact that I can't seem to get myself in gear and actually pack things is another problem.

I've got almost all my books packed up, and have also filled a box with bubble-wrapped precious things. I get all proud of myself that I've packed lots...and then I look around and realise I haven't! That's partly cos I'm leaving the things I use most until last (of course) and so they're everywhere making me think I've not done enough.

I'd been thinking about changing my broadband/tv to try and save some money and then a nice guy from Virgin phoned today to offer me some funky package. Apparently it'll be easy to install and all that and can be done next Sat when I plan to move in. So hopefully I shouldn't be without broadband for too long when I move, but I shall keep Twittering via mobile so you should know whats going on.

Better go pack some more stuff...

Cleansing

Had another attack of packing and clearing out on Sunday. All the books from upstairs are packed and I think we're up to 25 boxes now. Just the downstairs books to pack, although that does include Pratchett who'll probably fill three boxes on his own! (I don't mean Mr Pratchett himself by the way).

We also managed to fill three bin bags with rubbish, four if you include the bag containing my wedding dress...

Yup, you read that right. It's a fabulous dress and I adore it, but it'll always be my wedding dress. I'm not binning it before you scream in dismay, it'll be going into the clothing bank at Waitrose. I figured that I could have taken the time to list it on eBay, but I just want it gone with no hassle. It's sharing its bag space with my velvet cloak, and a long velvet dress that I don't think has ever fitted me and would probably only look good on a stick.

I also threw all my wedding photos out. I've still got copies of them stashed on my Yahoo webspace, but I don't want/need paper copies so they've gone too.

It was very cleansing, but also rather scary. I did burst into tears at one point after looking at the wedding photos, but it was because I couldn't actually believe I was ever that girl rather than from regrets. (Which Anthony was very pleased to hear through the sobs).

Last year I kept a sort of diary for a few months. It was basically a list of all the things that had made me feel good that day. It's very cool to look back on it and remember how I was finding myself those first few months. To remember the nights out with Campbelli and Katie, Phil getting rubber bands stuck on his head, and RichieFingers stabbing himself in the head with a stanley knife when answering the phone.

Moving house is just the next step in moving away from the person I was when I was with the Yeti, and the next step into a future of happiness and sunshine.

Update: Silly silly me. I mentioned getting rid of my wedding dress to my mother and promptly got a 15 minute guilt trip. So it will be getting sold on eBay after all. I love my mother dearly, but sometimes I wish she understood me.

Hell Yeah.

Nothing else needs to be said about this post, it's perfect.

Baths

Books/Boxes, Boxes/Books...

I have been putting off starting to pack. Partly this is because I wasn't sure if I was ready to move, partly because I had no idea where to start!

I'd collected a load of boxes from work (the first of many loads I think), got some brown tape (although I want a tape gun now) and even found a black marker to write on the boxes with - but didn't start.

Today I did.

So far I've done five boxes (1 x Penguin, 2 x Transworld, 2 x HarperCollins) of books, only the tip of the iceberg. I had to be careful about how I started to pack them too. What I wanted to do was group them in boxes the way they need to go on the shelves...but I'd be here til next June doing that! In the end I did it the "booksellers way" - by size.

It was quite freeing really, grabbing an armful of 'A' format (think most crime, horror, fantasy) and filling a whole box with them. Some Anne McCaffrey, the Chalet School series, the Redwall series, a scattering of Enid Blyton, a few Kelley Armstrong... they all went in together. I've emptied one whole bookshelf of 'A' format, leaving behind the occasional stray hardback for an author.

Yes, it might be a bit of a bitch when it comes to unpacking, but better that I faff about arranging them and listing them on spreadsheets then, rather than doing it now and not being packed the day before I have to move.

Since I have also rediscovered LibraryThing it's a good thing for me to pack my books quickly. I keep losing whole chunks of time by popping on there to just change a couple of covers to the correct ones for my editions and then getting sidetracked. I actually even made it a paid account since on a free one you can't have more than 200 books, but when I loaded up my spreadsheet it loaded all 500+ and I had a note from them to say:

*****
Hi Kate,

I've noticed you've managed to catalog more than 200 books yet remain an unpaid account.

As the terms of use state, "LibraryThing users may not subvert the system. For example, right now there is a bug that lets you add more than 200 books without paying if you do it in a special way. If you do this by accident, fine. If you do it on purpose, you have legally promised to pay us $10. Fork it over."
*****

So I did. (Especially since I'd had that note back in Oct but only went back on there the other day and they hadn't deleted anything or suspended my account).

When I went upstairs I decided that the first thing to tackle should be a big box (Penguin) full of paperwork that was part mine, part the Yetis. It turned out to contain things like my debt management paperwork from three years ago, old cards, copies of C.V.'s and all sorts of leaflets and tat. I got ruthless. If I found any of my payslips I kept them, but everything else went into a bin bag. Yes there were things like P45's and P60's in there, not to mention chequebooks and exam certificates... BUT NONE OF THEM WERE MINE!!! Like I'm gonna throw my stuff away like that hehe. Very very satisfying in a way.

I eventually stopped packing boxes when Foley came and sat on the one I was trying to seal in a "Both of us have had enough of this, come and have a snuggle" kind of way. So Foley is snuggling on my lap while I type this, and I'm actually cooling down enough to need to put my jumper back on.

Prevarication 2

One word only
1. Where is your cell phone? Sofa.
2. Describe your boyfriend/girlfriend? Mine.
3. Your hair? Blonde.
4. Your mother? Complicated.
5. Your father? Sarcastic.
6. Your favourite item? Book.
7. Your dream last night? Friends.
8. Your favourite drink? Lemonade.
9. Your dream car? Bugatti.
10. The room you are in? Tidy!
11. Your ex? Yeti.
12. Your fear? Lonely.
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? Settled.
14. Who did you hang out with last night? Cats.
15. What you're not? Tactful.
19. The last thing you did? Stretch.
20. What are you wearing? Jeans.
22. Your favourite book? All.
23. The last thing you ate? Chocolate.
24. Your life? Full.
25. Your mood? Relaxed.
26. Your friends? Fabulous.
27. What are you thinking about right now? Packing.
28. Your car? Anthonys.
29. What are you doing at the moment? Prevaricating.
30. Your summer? Endless.
31. Your relationship status? Heavenly.
32. What is on your tv? History.
33. When is the last time you laughed? Yesterday.
34. Last time you cried? Friday.
35. School? Life.

Prevarication 1

(I actually did this after the other one, hence the quantity of one word answers!)

My Autobiography
Fill this out IN YOUR OWN WORDS and repost as, "My Autobiography" ... And use your own answers, not anyone else's.

My Autobiography

1.Where did you take your profile pic?
Sitting on a bench in Bath.

2.What exactly are you wearing right now?
Black slouchy trousers, big blue jumper.

3.What is your current problem?
Getting distracted by things instead of packing books.

4.What makes you happy most?
Anthony, the cats, my sister, books, sunshine.

5.What's the name of the song that you're listening to?
No music on...

6.Which celeb you would marry?
None of them.

7.Name someone with the same birthday as you?
Marlene Dietrich

8.Ever sang in front of a large audience?
Yes, with Johnny Ball.

9. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity?
Nope.

10.Do you still watch kiddy movies or kiddie TV shows?
Yep, but only classic ones.

11. Do you speak any languages?
English, tiny bits of French and German, single words in lots of others.

12. Has anyone you've been really close with passed away?
Yes.

13.Do you ever watch MTV?
Nope.

14.What's something that really annoys you?
Customers who act like they're better than me cos I work in a shop.

Chapter 1:
===============
1.Middle name:
Mary.

2.Nickname(s):
§kate§, BookshopKate, Oi You!

3.Current location:
Living room, My House, Wolverhampton, England, Earth, Solar System, Universe.

4.Eye color:
Blue.

Chapter 2:
===============

1.Do you live with your parent(s):
Nope.

2.Do you get along with your parent(s):
Mostly.

3.Are your parents married/separated/divorced?
Married, but sometimes I wish they weren't.

4.Do you have any Siblings?:
Younger sister.

Chapter 3: Favorites
===============
1. Ice Cream:
Phish Food.

2. Season:
Summer.

3.Shampoo/conditioner:

Lush Karma Komba and Veganese.

Chapter 4: Do You..
===============
1.Dance in the shower?
Nope, just spend waaaaaay too long in there.

2.Do you write on your hand?
Yes, at the moment it says BOXES!

3.Call people back?
I try too.

4.Believe in love:
Yes.

5.Sleep on a certain side of the bed:
Usually.

6. Any bad habits?
Millions.

7. Any mental health issues:
Depression.

Chapter 5: Have You..
===============
1.Broken a bone:
Left wrist twice, left arm once, collarbone once (can't remember which one now!)

2.Sprained stuff:
Ankle, wrist.

3.Had physical therapy:
Nope.

4. Gotten stitches:
Nope.

5.Taken painkillers:
Yep.

6. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling:
Nope.

7.Been stung by a bee:
Yep, and it went septic so I have a nice scar on my leg.

8.Thrown up at the dentist:
Nope, but I've wanted to.

9.Sworn in front of your parents
Hell yeah!

10. Had detention:
Yup, Miss Black and her Drama favouritism.

Chaper 6: Who/What was the last
===============
1.Movie(s):
I Capture The Castle.

2.Person to text you:
Anthony.

3.Person you called:
Customer at work about their order.

4.Person you hugged:
Anthony.

5.Person you tackled:
Emily probably.

6. Person you talked to on IM?
Emily.

7.Thing you touched:
Apart from this keyboard, Esme - sitting on my lap and purring.

8. Thing you ate?
Chocolate.

9.Thing you drank:
Buttercup cough syrup.

10.Thing you said:
Urgh - after coughing for about 5 minutes.

11.Person you kissed:
Anthony.

Library trip again

Yup, it's that time of the month again.

I read 2 of the books I got last time; The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets and Red Planet. I'm currently halfway through Special Topics in Calamity Physics and The Puppet Masters / Waldo / Magic,Inc so I renewed those two.

Latest batch of books:

Sharpe's Prey, Sharpe's Escape and Sharpe's Havoc - Bernard Cornwell (to keep Anthony busy).
Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs - 100 Years of the Best Journalism by Women - edited by Eleanor Mills (it was the first book I saw when I walked in).
One Big Damn Puzzler - John Harding (fabulous cover attracted my attention and I remembered I wanted to read it).
The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton (I'm trying to read more of the books I "should", and this is one of them).
The Sittaford Mystery - Agatha Christie (I sold a load of these the other day and since I've never actually read one I thought I should give her a try).
The Pilo Family Circus - Will Elliott (I remember this coming in at work and loving the cover, then the blurb. Spotted it on the "Just Returned" shelf so grabbed it.

I got about halfway through The Sittaford Mystery while waiting for Anthony to turn up from work and I'm enjoying it so far.

Reading not essays

When I was at home for the weekend my mum announced that she always thinking that it's a shame I didn't do English A-Level. "But you never liked writing essays did you" she suddenly said at the dinner table - just after my dad had attempted to increase the intelligence level of our wittering by asking what the best book we'd read so far this year was.

Me - "It wasn't because I didn't like writing essays, it was because I couldn't stand the way that 1984 got ruined for me when I did it for GCSE and I didn't want that to happen with something else."

Mum - "Rubbish. Don't you love talking over a book with someone and discovering new layers of the story and the characters. It's wonderful."

There speaks a woman with a first class degree (honours) in English. (Done through the OU too, so while she was bringing us up).

I conceded that I do like talking through books with people, but that it was probably a combination of my English teacher and the fact that we didn't look at the text that way (have to extract the maximum juice for your essays, not ENJOY discussing it) that put me off doing English for A-Level.

(I actually got quite lucky with the conversation as she then didn't go into her "I wish you'd done the IB" speech, when I would have had to throw things at her).

I read books that catch my attention. Sometimes they're recommended to me by people, or there's a link from another book that makes me hunt down something obscure. Sometimes it's just pure chance. I only read Animal Farm and 1984 all those years ago (I was about 9) because they happened to be on the bottom shelves of the bookcase next to the sofa. Animal Farm had a bright cover and I liked reading it, so I read the other book there by that author. I did read some random stuff off my parents bookshelves by cover choice - strangely the black covered "classics" never got picked up.

Anyway, this whole post came about because I started reading one of my newest batch of library books last night - The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice. I picked that up because Mark had recommended it but since it also states on the back that it is "in the tradition of Nancy Mitford and I Capture the Castle" I would probably have picked it up at some point. I found a brilliant bit in it last night that summed it all up perfectly.

***********************************************************************

"I had been looking forward to the English course, but soon found the endless dissection and analysis of the books utterly destructive. I wanted to read, but not to write about what I had read. Shakespeare was the greatest trial. I had adored watching The Merchant of Venice and The Winter's Tale, but had no interest at all in talking about the minutiae of the text."

***********************************************************************

That's it! I can read something and enjoy it, maybe write a review of it for work and wiffle about it on here. What I can't do is go "why did the writer choose those words in that passage?", "why was she writing in the kitchen sink?", "what is the significance of the dog being called Heloise?". ARRRGGGHHH!!!

I have tried rereading 1984 a couple of times, but I just can't get into it anymore. I can hear Mrs Jemmerson's voice in my head as I try to read about Winston in his flat and the magic of the words gets chewed up and lost. Maybe it's a subconscious reason I avoid the classics so I don't get into a discussion of exactly what the author meant by this or that.

Every now and again I think of doing an OU English course, thinking that I was pretty good at writing essays (I was, I just never got the hang of the endless rewriting) and that I'd end up reading some interesting and important things. Then I hear Mrs Jemmerson in my head and shudder, flicking back to the science degrees instead.

---------

BTW, I haven't read a single one of my new library books yet, been too busy. I am about halfway through Special Topics in Calamity Physics (I have to keep stopping to let it settle in my head) and, as stated above, started The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets last night. It's this having time off work thing, I have lots of other things to do at home and so lose my guaranteed (lunch) hour a day of reading time.

Best books of the year so far: Anthony and mum passed on answering, Emily said the new Tamora Pierce, I went with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and dad chose The Tenderness of Wolves which won this years Costa Prize.

---------

Ooh, and that 100 again post was my 500th post on this blog. That's rather scary.

Plastic Pink Champagne Glass

PinkChampagne
Originally uploaded by Petronella Rose.

See no's 47/48 from the 100 again post.

100 again

1. I find typing out the numbers from 1 to 100 really satisfying.
2. Little things mean a lot to me.
3. I’m not adventurous with food…
4. …in restaurants I pick what I know I’ve had before, or steak, or a burger…
5. …except at Café Champagne where I have to have something different each time.
6. I like simple food. (typed while eating bread and cheese for lunch).
7. I can’t now remember why I decided to do this again.
8. But I’m sure it made sense at some point.
9. The cheese I’m eating came from the Fine Cheese Co in Bath.
10. We bought some Old Spot Real Ale Chutney from there for my dad…
11. …but after I tried it we had to get him a new jar (and a spare for me).
12. I know Foley loves me because when I get a glass of water she has to taste it first to be sure it’s ok for me to drink…
13. …then I have to go get another one!
14. I don’t like tea or coffee, the only hot drink I like is hot chocolate.
15. I drink a lot of squash and fruit juice.
16. I keep a bottle of Bucks Fizz in my fridge at all times (Champagne is too expensive).
17. I also keep sparking mineral water in there to have with elderflower cordial.
18. One day I want a big American style fridge with lots of space inside!
19. I am very much enjoying my holiday.
20. It’s giving me time to get to know myself again.
21. The nice letting agent (James) phoned this morning to let me know I’ve got 2 months left in this house. (Their notice period)
22. This is both good and scary.
23. I’m looking forward to moving somewhere that is just mine.
24. I will definitely have a proper spare room for Emily to sleep in when she comes to visit in July for Harry Potter.
25. I’m terrible at keeping in touch with old friends.
26. When I write letters they’re just like my blog posts…
27. …all long and rambly with the important bits crammed in at the end!
28. This year I made a vow to read 12 books that I’m “supposed” to have read.
29. I’ve managed one so far.
30. I have a book that I write down quotes and poems that I like.
31. When I move I want to (finally) get a pin board to stick them all on.
32. I last had one when at home before uni, and I miss it still.
33. These 100 things are quite hard as my thoughts are not flowing right now.
34. I daydream a lot.
35. I just watched the episode where Buffy has to kill Angel and cried as much as I did the first time I saw it.
36. At the moment Buffy is on while I play WoW...
37. ...although later I might watch it some more while I sew...
38. ...or I might watch Shooting The Past that I've borrowed from mum.
39. I love Stephen Poliakoff's work.
40. I tried to watch a Harold Pinter play the other day and it just gave me a headache.
41. I guess I'm not very cultured really.
42. But I'm happy with what I watch and read and that's what counts.
43. As Emily would say; "Meh".
44. Does watching the TV while playing on the PC count as multi-tasking?
45. I'm not very good at only doing one thing at a time.
46. This means I have lots of half finished cross-stitch projects as I sew different things depending on what I'm in the mood to watch on TV.
47. While washing up I thought about how much I love the glasses I have...
48. ...so I had to stop and take photos of them...
49. ...and then Anthony had to finish the rest of the washing up.
50. It's exactly a year today (5th April) that I first had an email from him.
51. I can't believe that it's not been a year yet...
52. ...and my mother already made him put up curtain poles!
53. We only have "serious" conversations in bed.
54. The rest of the time we're always norking tonsense!
55. That was Thingummy and Bob language by the way.
56. They're from The Moomins.
57. Which I still haven't finished watching on DVD...
58. ...but it is 474 minutes long (plus the 696 minute German language version).
59. I love my sister.
60. That might seem a random jump, but she bought me the DVD for Christmas.
61. I still can't believe I won't be in this house after the 4th of June!
62. I shall have to have a big party...
63. ...or maybe just a grown-up dinner party.
64. I never thought that at 28 I'd still be thinking of them as "grown-up dinner parties"...
65. ...I guess that's cos I still feel 21.
66. I always feel younger in the summer.
67. It's my favourite time of year.
68. I love just basking in the sunshine.
69. I was probably a cat at least once in a former life.
70. Although I don't really believe in former lives.
71. I just believe in something.
72. Just don't ask me to define it.
73. (I know it's not stereotypical anything though).
74. I want to go to Ikea and buy lots of glass prisms.
75. Then I can hang them in all my windows to fill my house with rainbows.
76. I would like to be good at gardening.
77. But I forget to water things!
78. At the moment I have 5 different notebooks for writing things in.
79. One day I'll just put everything in together rather than having different ones for different things.
80. But I love buying pretty notebooks and then I need things to write in them.
81. I adore my new tattoo.
82. It's in the perfect place, but sometimes I wish it was somewhere I could see it too.
83. I'm on the lookout for a labyrinth rug that Ikea used to sell.
84. Then I can have it in my new library room to make it even cosier.
85. I'm dreading the thought of packing my hundreds of books.
86. My spell checker had a problem with this number and a full stop, but not with any of the others.
87. Stopping typing just made Foley wake up and give me a sarcastic look.
88. That usually only happens when I start being noisy, not when I stop!
89. I like things to be beautiful as well as functional.
90. That's why I love my see-through umbrella.
91. And also why I crave a straw dispenser.
92. I have a passion for fairy lights.
93. I want to write by hand more.
94. I feel guilty when I have to work sunny summer Sundays, like I'm insulting the wonderful weather.
95. One day I hope to finally stop biting my nails.
96. I love being blonde again.
97. I feel more like myself than ever.
98. That is A GOOD THING.
99. I have just remembered there are Gu Puds in my fridge.
100. I made it to the end again!

Cheesy grin

Cheesy grin
Originally uploaded by Petronella Rose.

Anthony in the park below The Royal Crescent

Anthony in the park below The Royal Crescent
Originally uploaded by Petronella Rose.

Our House?

I fully intended to blog all about Bath and what a lovely time we had there, but events have overtaken me. (I shall try to do it next week instead).

When we got back on Wednesday I had a phone call from my landlady to tell me that she would be selling this house. She offered me first refusal on buying it and then said she'd pop round Friday night so we could sort everything out. Well she didn't pop round, but that's not really a problem, just means I have to sort out with my useless letting agents (of which more later) exactly when I can give notice.

We had a scoot through the local paper and found a couple of houses in this same area that are up for rent, one of them is even cheaper than this one (cos the road is dodgier I think) which is saying something as the rents have changed in the three years I've been here. Also, the house opposite is up for rent again, and that would be a nice easy move! I like this area, yes it's a bit dodgy in places, but other areas at the same kind of prices are all out of town and would be a 40 min walk or a bus ride. This area I know (cos the house I lived in before was only down the road) and it's a nice easy walk to work.

The only bugger was waiting for the landlady to come round meant I didn't do anything about finding out how much the one over the road is. There have been several groups move in and out of that house in the time I've been here, mainly Polish folk, so the landlord there might not want someone "long-term" like me.

The main thing that's making us both really ratty, is that when the landlady offered it to me, the first thing I did was refuse. Now thinking about it, we could afford this but... I've known Anthony less than a year do I want to buy a house with him? Buying somewhere now hadn't entered our thoughts before her call (although we looked in lots of estate agents windows in Bath - doesn't everybody?) so why should one phone call change that.
I think it was that when he mentioned it to his mum, she said why don't you buy it. It's made us both get all paranoid and think, well why not. But we know all the sensible reasons for why not, not least the fact that technically I'm still married to someone else and if anything happened to me the Yeti probably wouldn't miss a trick if there was a house involved. (My nice little self-written will should be fine for all other things, but I bet he'd go to court if there was any prospect of real money).

I just hate the not quite knowing. I didn't want to stay here forever, I want to own a house, and live there with Anthony, and get married again and have babies and cats and dogs and happiness - but that's all an ahead dream, not a buying a place right now dream. The fact that we've both admitted to this should make it easier, but as it is the not-knowing about when I have to move is making us ratty and snappy and worried. Gah!

----------------------------------------------

The other, ongoing, problem is with my letting agents over my rent...

- 5th March, rent goes out of my bank account.

- 9th March, rent came back...confusing me.

- 9th March, phoned letting agents to discover cause of rent coming back. Informed that accounts have changed and should have had a letter, girl on phone informs me it would have been sent a couple of weeks before and addressed to a Mr Polly. I say that a) it's Polley, b) he hasn't been a tenant here for a year so it should have been addressed to me, and c) that I had no letter anyway. She then gives me a bank account no and sort code over the phone and tells me to use the reference HILLM. I ask why this reference, she says "it's your name". I point out that it isn't and tell her my normal ref is 37BURLEIGH. She says to use the new one. I say I'd like it all confirmed in writing.

- 12/13/14th March - no letter yet.

- 14th March, go in to see agents and ask for letter with details to be posted. Explain yet again that Mr Polly is no longer a tenant.

- 21st March, as no letter yet received go in and see agents. Get great satisfaction from walking in and announcing that I have a complaint. Everyone in office stops to help! Get official bit of paper with bank details on. (Acc number different from one given during phone call). Asked to sign this. Query why I am on there as Mr, and why ref is POLLYA. Told ref is POLLYA as he was original tenant and the one references were taken for. Explain we were joint tenants and refs were taken for me as well, also that Polly is spelt Polley. Man says is a Head Office thing, correct Mr to Ms and sign paperwork.

- 21st March, set up new standing order and do bank transfer of rent from March 5th.

- 22nd March, money comes out of account. Sorted!?

- 29th March, morning, receive letter from agents informing me that I have not paid my rent, their ref 37BURLEIGH. Phone agents. Get original girl on the phone and explain, she says I'll have to speak to the manager, Michelle, who is out but will ring me as soon as she gets back.

- 29th March, as no call received, phone agents again. Get same girl who is now rude as I have phoned back without waiting for Michelle to phone me. Say I phoned at 10 and it's now 4. Rude girl says Michelle is with someone, but has had my message and will ring me straight back.

- 29th March, no phonecalls.

- 30th March, ring agents twice, busy both times. No calls from Michelle.

- 2nd April, go down to letting agents with pieces of paperwork showing three different references and two different account numbers. Get very very very angry.

*breathe out*

Needless to say I won't be renting my new house though Martin & Co as they are a waste of DNA...

Holiday!!!

I am on holiday for two and a half weeks now...I go back to work on the 12th of April! The half week is due to Easter Monday and then my day off being the Wed, and having an odd day of holiday to use so taking that Tuesday.

The last time I had two weeks together off work was back in 2003 when I broke my arm, and then before that was Sept/Oct 2002 between moving up here and getting my current job.

It's very odd. Even with a week off there's a certain amount of "must do this today" but I have no feeling of that at all. Yes I only get one week of that with Anthony (since I get a weeks more holiday than him and our holiday years fall differently too) so we have to move all the bookcases this week so I can rearrange to my hearts content next week. Other than that...nothing HAS to be done on any day.

We're actually getting to go away too. My mother is spending this week in Bath where she's rented a flat. She made sure when she rented it that it would be able to fit two errant daughters and one of their blokes. Although Emily possibly isn't coming now, it means we get what is essentially a free holiday.

Yes we'll be taking her out for a slap up meal etc, but we've had assurances that she'd have rented that flat just for herself anyway (especially comforting when Anthony's car went bang on Thursday and we didn't think we'd be going at all.)

So I have a guidebook to all the places there are to go and a man who is happy to go to most of them (although he's not too keen on the Museum of East Asian Art). The only slight downside is that this will be the longest I've been away from t'internet for a while. I shall have to get used to getting my news from papers and the radio, and my entertainment from other things.

That really does make me sound like a sad junkie, I'm not. I'm just used to being able to pull up things as and when (like info on the Poll Tax after we had another political discussion in bed this morning - is it just us who only have discussions on religion and politics in bed?) and not having to wait for info.

So now for a few days of culture and shopping...well certainly shopping anyway!

Gadget Lust

I really shouldn't read the IWOOT catalogue when they send it to me...

There's this Lifetimer, and this Adopt a Vine, and this Binary Clock and there's definately, definately this Moon In My Room!

"The Past Is The Future, With Lights On"

(title pinched from Emily's current MSN Messenger note, dunno where she got it from)

I joined Facebook the other day. Mainly cos certain people kept raving about it, and partly cos I was bored. It's alright. Highly addictive at present as many new and exciting things are to me.

I've got all the usual suspects from work as friends on there and thought I'd do a bit of browsing around to see who else I could spot. I found my uncle and aunt which surprised me, and a few old friends from school but not as many as I thought I would.

One in particular that I found is a girl I met when she started at my school in the 6th form. I remember her mainly because she did what she wanted. She wore what she liked, listened to the music she wanted to and basically didn't take any shit from anyone.

For little me, just starting to emerge from the cocoon I'd stuck myself in to hide from the bullies - she was amazing. I can remember envying her confidence and abilities, but never ever disliking her. She was just who she was, no pretence in order to please anyone, just herself. She helped me grow a lot that first year and most of my memories of that year have her firmly in the heart of things.

Going into London to meet her and go to Covent Garden - not a big thing for that London-bred lass, but quite a big adventure for me compared to the life I'd been leading.
Her coming to the station to see us all off on our Biology field trip and singing The Beatles in the common room while the "in-crowd" argued over what was cool enough to play in there.
The reaction of one of the "in-crowd" girls when she turned up for the 6th form photo wearing a stunning vintage green dress. Apparently she was going to ruin the picture and stick out like a sore thumb - the first thing you see when you look at it is the in-girl's Union Jack top and her fake bleached smile. The vintage dress however, looks beautiful.
Walking round and round Witham in the middle of the night with me the week after Jamie died. She knew exactly what to say to comfort me, but wouldn't bullshit me that everything would soon be ok, she knew it would be tough but told me I'd get through it.

We drifted apart a long way during the second year of 6th form. We no longer had Chemistry lessons together, although that wouldn't have mattered as Chemistry was the main lesson I'd miss - I'd be hiding away in the computer room, swigging my Fanta laced vodka. When I did start coming back to myself, 6 or 7 months later, she was one of the first to pull me back into the crowd, to treat my life as normal again.

Seeing her face on there made me think about how many things I'm proud to admit that I enjoy now that she has influenced me on, even though it's 10 years since we've even spoken I think.

My life is going in cycles, this is one reason for the labyrinth tattoo. My life loops around and back on itself and things from the past come round again in the future. Last year was a time of growth for me in many ways, as 1996 was the lovely summer when I felt like I had the world at my feet.

I'm grateful for my friends, they teach me so much even when I am far from them in space and time. Whether this Facebook thing means I rekindle old friendships or not, it's good to know that these people are still there, doing their things and lighting up other peoples lives.

More books

I went to the library again today. Since Anthony needed food for lunch (and I wanted lemonade) I made the executive decision that we would go to Sainsbury's via the library and then I wouldn't have to carry a(nother) heavy bag of books into work with me.

I didn't manage to read all the books I got last time. I passed completely on Thunderball and Sense and Sensibility. This was partly due to the fact that I loved the Kim Harrison book The Good, The Bad and The Undead so much that I bought all five books in the series from work and have been working my way through those.
Luckily it was the last library book I read as then The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and Full Dark House were granted my full attention and I very much enjoyed them both. This does mean that I now want to get my mitts on the rest of Christopher Fowler's books - *sigh* The library was supposed to be SAVING me money!

Anyways, this time I got this mixed selection.

Watch Your Mouth - Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket).
The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets - Eva Rice (as recommended by Mark).
The Cryptographer - Tobias Hill (which some mad woman was hassling Campbelli about the other day).
The Puppet Masters / Waldo / Magic,Inc - Robert A. Heinlein (3 in 1)
Red Planet - Robert A. Heinlein (I used to love reading his stuff, so thought I'd try it again).
Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl (which was the first book I saw, practically snatched it out of someone elses hand).

I also came away with two books by Duncan Harding, Sink HMS Kelly and Sink HMS Cossack. Anthony picked these up to take on holiday as he's having a break from Pratchett.

I've also got provisions for while I'm reading, lovely lovely cloudy lemonade and squidgy chocolate brownies!

Tattoo

Anthony took some sensible pictures of my new tattoo the other day.

Here you can see the relative size of the thing.



(I know, I'd been scratching round it...)

Then he took this rather funky angled shot that shows him, me, and both of my tattoos (even if my hummingbird just shows as a small black blob!)



I have a day off tomorrow so I shall attempt deep thoughts and post something...or I may just play lots of Zelda.

(I'm annoyed that my hair still looks so red. It's very blonde until people take pictures of it! Roll on the summer and pictures taken in natural light!)

Monkey brains

Yesterday I went upstairs to cover Maggies break and took over seeing the rep from Elsevier. I'm flicking through the catalogue of books that mostly don't apply to our store and I said to him that most of these books seem like the one on monkey brains that another rep showed me the other week. I was a bit embarrassed when the other rep turned out to be him as well.

This then led to a conversation about time speeding up recently, since it had been a month since he'd been in and it had only seemed like the week before that I'd seen him. He was saying that he'd just had his birthday and that he couldn't believe how old he was when he didn't feel it, and how stuck he felt when he thought of all the things he could be doing.

We had a chinwag about this for a few minutes before he went, but it really got me thinking.

When I was little, 28 was old. I know that about 9 years old I thought that when I was 27 I'd be married and have kids, that was an aim right up until this time last year in fact. Not a big aim, but the kind of childhood aim that stays in your subconscious and hangs about there, occasionally making itself known. Last year I really felt I'd failed this aim that I'd had for such a long time, and it took a bit of work to acknowledge that although it was a valid aim, it just didn't apply anymore.

I think part of the problem is that the media feeds such a constant image of not good enough. Celebrity magazines say that you're not thin enough, or your life is not worthwhile if you don't have these sunglasses, that dress, those shoes. Lifestyle magazines try to sell you the perfect home, the perfect cleaning product to clean your perfect new gadget with. Advertising is designed to sell you a product by selling you the image (and I'm the advertisers dream according to my dad) but the whole of the media seems to be going this way. Even book prizes do it, the idea that you HAVE to read the Booker/Orange/Costa winner or not be a serious reader.

TV programmes show you the dream of quitting the rat race and going to grow vegetables, but they gloss over the hard work and focus on the "goodness" of eating your own produce. Relocation, Relocation did a programme when a mother and daughter followed their dream of going to run a pub in the country (which our new manager was raving about it being a fabulous idea), but it never mentions the fact that someone has to be up early for deliveries, someone up late to close up and you never get a day off. (My parents have friends who own a pub, and all this was mentioned when once I said I'd like to do it)

It's no wonder that we sell so many Pop Psych books, the world just seems to be set up at the moment to tell you that you're not good enough. Your job isn't paying enough, you should love your job, you should be going to these places on holiday, you should be recycling more, eating better, reading these books.

For a long time I thought it was just me, doing my whole paranoia thing and feeling generally insecure. But having a chat with a guy who said that he harbours dreams of living like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall but knows he wouldn't like the hard work bit has helped me realise that it's something affecting other people than just me.

I don't know if I'll ever manage to be free of it, but knowing this is helping me look at it that much clearer.

Photographing your own back is difficult

Yes you can see I've been scratching, bad Kate!

I'll get Anthony to take a better one tomorrow.
Then you'll actually be able to see what it looks like properly!

Bloody family

My horoscope this morning made me grin.

"Worries about a relative who lives far away might be plaguing you today, KATE, and the situation isn't helped by the fact that you may not be able to reach them by phone or e-mail. You may have to go around them and contact mutual friends who might be able to give you the information you need. Circumstances probably aren't all that dire, and there's probably nothing to be overly concerned about, but you need to hear this. Keep trying!"

They're all fine, I thought to myself. Spoke to the parents at the weekend and IM'd with Emily the other day.

Then tonight I got a phonecall to inform me that a member of my family had fallen down the stairs when pissed, no bones broken but some nasty cuts from the glass they'd been holding at the time.

It wasn't my student sister, it was my old enough to know better father.

He downplayed it all when he called me, it was mum who said that when she saw him at the bottom of the stairs she thought he'd broken his neck.

But he's fine, got all checked out and patched up by some lovely Essex paramedics and technicians. Mum was saying that if he hadn't been pissed he wouldn't have tripped, but if he hadn't been he'd definately have broken something.

Honestly, you get to the age where they've just stopped worrying about you, and then you have to worry about them!

So I'm distracting myself from the desire to go straight home and hug him by playing some WoW.

*sigh*

Inspired...

...to wash-up by Keris, I looked up at the two pictures stuck to the window frame above the sink and thought I'd try and find them to share with you.

So I Googled one of them and instead of what I expected, I found this...

Contemplating Washing-up

This is the one I was looking for



So I search for a picture for Keris...and find a picture from Mark instead.

We really are all interconnected in strange ways.

Grumpy Cats

Esme and Foley are not very happy with us at the moment.

This is because we took them to get spayed yesterday... Foley was unimpressed with car riding and yodelled all the way there, then went very very quiet.

Everything went ok at the vets, then yesterday afternoon it was a question of keeping an eye on them while the drugs wore off.

Foley made a break for freedom as soon as the carrycase was opened when we got back. She made it a whole three steps before realising that her back legs were still numb and falling over. That was how the afternoon was spent, watching them stagger from one sleeping spot to the next and then conking out.

Today they are better, Esme is almost back to normal, but Foley squeaks if you touch her back anywhere. They're curled up on the spare bed in the sunshine and look very cute apart from the bald bits.

Poor pussy cats, they'll appreciate it when they realise that this means I can let them outside a lot more.

Happy Valentines!

This is what I got for Valentine's Day...



It's nestled just between my shoulder-blades and currently aches.

I think the aching is also possibly due to the fact that Anthony bought a Wii yesterday too. All that nunchuk waving as I try to spank Rabbids and bowl strikes has made my arms ache. It's exercise though!

That's one of the contributing factors behind its purchase, the fact that Campbelli has one and has stopped going to the gym because she's getting lots of exercise from it. Also the comments that one of his co-workers made about "sitting back and watching her bounce up and down" (ahem) - I can't even work out how to explain that so it doesn't sound smutty so I won't.

Anyways, it's stonkingly good fun, although the cats are a little confused by it.

You'll get a photo of the actual tattoo when it's no longer covered in clingfilm and antiseptic cream - in about two days.