New Addiction

Looking on YouTube for that Albers "accident" meant that obviously I went on to spend a chunk of the evening on there looking up various things.

Anthony got in on the act and found this nice piece of footage that I can remember watching in one of the uni bars.



Another good example of why wheel tethers are a good thing, can you imagine being the poor bloke who had to go and find the two wheels his drivers car is missing?

It is a good example of a crash where every single driver walked away unhurt, but I still love this particular moment in the pit lane. Again, I can remember watching this.



Nobody hurt, apart from Jos's singed eyebrows because he had his visor up.

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There are an awful lot of crashes on there that I won't watch though. Ratzenberger and Sennas fatal crashes for starters, in fact any of the fatal crashes really. I couldn't even bring myself to watch Ralf Schumachers accident in the USA Grand Prix in 2004. I can remember watching that at the time and that's enough thank you.

I did watch Nikki Laudas crash. I'd never seen it and can remember dad saying that when he saw it he couldn't believe that he got out of that car, that ever time he sees him in the pits or on the grid he can see that crash and is always so amazed.

The one I did watch that I shouldn't have done was the crash that killed Roger Williamson. It was the reaction of David Purley that was the thing that got to me. I watched that one because I'd never heard of the guy, and I felt I should. As with many of the other crashes, it's one that changed the setup of F1, changed the safety rules so that others would survive, including Nikki Lauda and Gerhardt Berger.

A Masterpiece of Modern Engineering

Two weeks ago I was watching the Chinese Grand Prix qualifying when I saw something very funny. Kimi Raikonen was zooming round doing a hot lap during the second session, and his wingmirror fell off.

Yup, there he is, 180 odd mph and his wingmirror just falls off. On the on-board camera you see it just ping off, and then hit Jensen Button which wasn't quite so funny.

However Christian Albers managed to top that at last weeks Japanese Grand Prix. I've managed to find it on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.



All he did was brake for the next corner and poof. The wheel tether failed because the bit of car it was attached to went with it. The big silver bit of metal is his drive shaft which ended up lying in the middle of the track until a marshal ran out to pick it up,

Emily was watching it too (at about 6.30am) and her text message read

"that was awesome he must've been oh um shit right um pits?"

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find the ITV interview that he did where he described it happening to him.

"Well I just braked for the corner and then my wheel and wing were going past me. But F1 is very safe"

Feeling good

I'm feeling so much better today. Last night I was exhausted and I'd really had enough. Tonight I'm feeling more confident about myself, which means I'm feeling less tired and a lot less blue.

We had a big branch visit today which we'd all been very stressed about, and it went well. It also meant that Bod was up with us for part of the day and I hadn't seen her since the day she asked me to work up at the uni. Basiclaly she told me I was doing a good job and put my mind at rest. Just the fact she said that has stopped me feeling so bloody useless and enabled me to feel proud of myself again. Plus getting texts from Campbelli reminding me to eat have been very helpful too! WE WANT HER BACK BEFORE DECEMBER 20TH THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Another thing that happened tonight made me realise just how much I've changed in the last few months. As I was walking back across the Civic Square I saw Jo/Mab who I was quite good friends with a couple of years ago. We haven't spoken for about 18 months, and I can't remember the last time I saw her. She is the kind of person who knows if you're there when she walks into a pub, so the fact she could walk straight past me without recognising me is quite a compliment to the amount I've changed since I last saw her.

Now I have a nice couple of days off and I intend to do some relaxing and have a nice lie-in tomorrow. Sunday I'll be up early for the Japanese Grand Prix however.

The only thing I have to worry about at the moment is a stonkingly great birthday present for a lass who will be 21 soon. She likes pink, Jack Daniels, photography, reading and tea. Any ideas for presents will be gratefully received.

(You can always give me some ideas yourself Miss Emily if you don't like what the readers come up with)

Glargh

I thought I was tired two weeks ago....

I've been meaning to post for a few days but I'd fallen into the routine of work, then home to food cooked by Anthony while I spend the evening dozing on the sofa until it's time for bed. But this week he's on nights so I have to get organised and cook for myself.

Eating in the evenings is something I really need to do this week. I don't get food during the day at the moment, none of us do. From 11 til 3 the shop is jumping and we don't get 30 secs between customers, let alone the chance for a nice hour lunch break.

So the three of us are surviving on Mars Bars and black coffee (or Lucozade for me) and all saying that we'll definitely eat something when we get home. Except then I'm too tired to eat!

I'm actually going to say: Roll on Christmas. Yup, Christmas is always hectic and stressful, but there's enough staff so you can stop and eat, there's a dedicated Goods In person booking in the stock for you to put out when you get the chance and you can rotate between the till, enquiries, stock and floor walking instead of trying to do them all at once.

I'm going to be good and go eat something other than chocolate now...

Mmmmmm...shiny!

I've got my lovely new Pratchett book!

I went down to work from the uni at lunchtime and walked straight into goods-in to see if it was there yet. I then hassled poor New Chris (our new goods-in lad) to look through the EDN's to see if it was in one of the TBS boxes that were sitting in a pile.

It was! Chris was then very lovely and unpacked me a copy and I grinned all the way back up to the uni knowing I had it to read while I ate my Thursday SubWay.

It is gonna annoy a few people though.

The other two Tiffany Aching books have been published as "children's DiscWorld". They've come out in the spring and have been slightly smaller and thinner than the usual DiscWorld novel that comes out in the autumn.

Big Chris hasn't read them for this reason. Even when he's been complaining that Pratchett hasn't done a Witches book for ages and I mention them, he's been dismissive.

Well this one has been published as one of the "adult" ones. It's the big format, it's been published in the autumn, and it's a Witches one.

I know we've had a few other customers too who've been very dismissive of the "kids" DiscWorld books, looks like they'll be buying them now!

(Oh, and I'm about a third of the way through and it's heavy on the witches, especially Granny Weatherwax).

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Oh yeah, my early night on Tuesday? 3am...

Last night I went to bed at 8, woke up at 2am...

I have another sodding bladder infection so I'm very grouchy and am rather tired. This is another reason that getting Wintersmith early was A Good Thing.

Phew

Things here are a bit hectic this week.

I've been meaning to post about the other stuff I did during my week off, the fact that Phil got asked about the Female Booker Prize, Campbelli and her mad travelling and the fact that slugs keep appearing in my kitchen sink.

But I'm just too tired.

Partly this is due to the fact that I'm working at the university branch at the moment. Jayne had her daughter Elinor two weeks early on the 10th Sept (and she popped in today and Elinor is so adorable) and so Deb needed someone to act as a duty manager there, so Bod asked me to do it. It's not fantastically hard work there yet, the horribly busy bit starts next week, but the fact I have the extra responsibility made me very stressed last week. I've just been horribly worried that I'm going to do something horribly wrong, but so far everythings been ok so I feel like a wally for worrying so much.

Last night I was in bed before 9, that's how tired I was. Tonight I'm aiming to watch a programme about Stephen Fry and his manic depression and then toddle off to bed about 10ish, which is a sort of an early night I guess.

Anthony is working the 5-1 shift this week, which means I don't have him to snuggle up to and chill with, but the cats are trying their best to relax me. When I came in tonight I could hear Esme giving me her little "Hello" meow, but couldn't see her anywhere. I looked behind the sofa and in the dresser, but no Esme. Then all of a sudden the throw on the sofa started moving and I realised that she'd burrowed underneath it and gone to sleep all cosy and hidden. Luckily she'd been sensible enough to do it in the middle of the sofa, rather than the end where I throw my bags when I get in, or I'm sure it wouldn't have been "Hello" meows that I'd have heard!

Tomorrow is pay-day, which is always good. Also, Wintersmith should be turning up this week so I'll have a lovely new Pratchett book to read.

Oooh...the good thing about working at the uni...NO WEEKENDS!

Holiday week (1)

For once I only had 7 days off in a row (I'm usually clever and manage 9) but since only 4 of those counted as holiday days I'm lucky there!

We started the week with a list of things that we wanted to get done.

1) Blind up in living-room.

2) Curtain poles up in back bedroom and new spare bedroom (which is currently the library until that moves downstairs).

3) Cut back hedge.

4) Take the three unwanted mattresses to the tip.

5) Move library downstairs.

6) Put up curtains in dining room/new library.

7) Clean all the ground floor windows.

8) Collect Anthony's old bed from his house and put into new spare bedroom.

9) Buy new pillows, duvet and bedlinen for spare bed.

10) Choose paint colours for rooms. (These all have to be passed by the landlady too).

11) Collect fish tank.

12) Move all Yeti's rubbish to front room.

13) Move computer boxes to spare room cupboard.

14) Fix door to back hallway.

15) Defrost fridgefreezer, move it to front room so the Yeti can take it away, and replace with Phil's fridge.

16) Buy curtains for upstairs and front room.

17) Buy blind for living room.

We managed 10 of those things (2,3,4,6,7,12,13,14,15,16) and managed to buy a duvet for the new bed, but no pillows yet.

My garden feels so much bigger now. Wednesday Alf came round and between then they took about 2 foot off the height of the hedge which has increased the amount of light amazingly. They did manage to piss off my Asian neighbours though, as the old guy (the one who hit Foley) came out into the garden to watch them, and ended up throwing branches back over the fence. Don't really care if we pissed them off though, after all it's their hedge and they should have been cutting it back too. Angela noticed it straight away as it also means her garden gets lots more light which is brilliant.

Wednesday was also the day that the mattresses went. Alf brought his trailer and they went off along with all the bits of hedge to some nice tip somewhere. We nearly cleared out a load of the wood from the garage too, but the gates in the back lane got locked after the first trip out (and I have no key) so we've left that for another time.

The curtain poles were bought and measured up on Sunday while I was at work. Then when I was waiting for the Yeti to arrive on Tuesday to take his stuff away I spotted some nice curtains on Bid-Up.tv and bought those for £9.99. We've just put up one of each in each of the rooms upstairs as we don't need more than that up there and they look gorgeous. (I really have to get a new battery pack for my camera so I can take pictures).

The front room now seems so much bigger since the Yeti has taken his junk away. The horrible unit is still there, but I'm planning to start dismantling it this afternoon and then the bits should be easily disposed of. Then we can move the bookcases downstairs and start making that room really cosy.

Yes, I intended to post about my holiday week tonight, but I got caught up in my struggle to get my new paladin character to level 40 (time for a free horse) tonight.

This also meant that after I'd had Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on, the tv got left on during part of How To Find A Husband. Now I like that Sally girl, but it's not my kind of show at all.

I'm glad I left it on though, as she was holding a dating night in a laundrette in Notting Hill and when she mentioned Notting Hill I looked at the tv just in time to spot Mark's bookshop! This has meant that I've had to leave the programme on just in case he turns up, although I'm sure he'd have mentioned it.

I promise to blog about my relaxing week off tomorrow...honest.

Book

I've just read the best book I've read for ages. The only bad thing about it is the fact it's not published til January so I have to wait til then to start recommending it to customers.

It's called "Growing Up Again" by Catriona McCloud.

Janie Lawson's life hasn't turned out quite the way she'd hoped.
Nearly forty, she's in a marriage that's frozen over with a mother-in-law she despises. Before Janie can take the final step towards divorce, though, her fate is taken out of her hands. Janie wakes up in her old bedroom and finds it just as it was in her teens. But it isn't until Janie looks in the mirror, to be confronted by her fifteen-year-old self sporting the most diabolical 80s perm, that the reality of her situation sinks in. She's been swept back in time to 1981 and all the signs suggest that it's a one way trip. But there's an upside - Janie has the chance to make her life turn out the way she wanted it. She's determined to help her parents, make her fortune and do some good in the world, starting with saving Lady Diana Spencer from her fate. But pretty soon Janie realises that even second time around, nothing is guaranteed...

This doesn't even begin to cover how good the book is. The fact she remembers everything is perfect, and there's no worrying about exactly what will happen when she changes things. Sure, there's a little grief at the fact that William and Harry might not get born, but other than that she's single-minded in the pursuit of her goals. I love the postcards she gets, the fact she uses her 40 year old adult self's sarcasm on her teachers and the way she spends most of the book trying to remember her hamster's name!

I actually had to set my phone alarm so I wasn't late back off my lunch cos I was so engrossed in this.

And no...I won't lend you the proof cos I'm worried I wouldn't get it back!

Good weekend

I had a really lovely weekend in Essex. It was very quiet without my sister being there, she was singing her heart out at the Reading Festival.

We went out for dinner on Sat night to the Outback Steak House in Basiland (Basildon) which was ok but very dark and noisy so won't be going there again.

On Sunday Anthony helped my dad put up new curtain rails in the living room and dining room. The curtains that had been up were the ones my mum bought when me moved in, so new ones are very very welcome.

We also watched the Grand Prix in Essex which was cool to watch it with my dad again.

In the end we came back here on Sunday instead of Monday as we decided to go out with Alf on Monday. Anthony did love my directing in Essex. We came down the M11 so I managed to direct him through the edge of Brentwood on the way there (passing all the signs for the Secret Nuclear Bunker) and Chelmsford on the way back.

Monday we were going to go to the market at Halfpenny Green (I think that's it), but it turned out not to be on so we met Alf at a car boot sale somewhere else and then went to Bridgnorth in the afternoon.

Today I had a day off too and we did some washing and made plans for our week off next week.

Anthony has written a list which includes things like putting up curtains in the living room, dining room and upstairs bedrooms (since the only room with curtains is my bedroom) and moving the library downstairs into the dining room so that I can sort out a proper spare bedroom and so the library will have chairs in and get used more.

One of the things on the list is "Get the Yeti to take his festering shit away" as I've finally snapped and decided I wanted it gone. Five months ago he asked to leave some of it here and pay me £5 a month for doing so. It's now four months since I've last seen him, I've had no money (and have no hope of getting any) and I've had enough. I don't want to keep his stuff here until he decides he wants to take it away, I've already had to throw out so much rubbish that he left behind.

So hopefully he'll come and get that nice and early in the week, in fact I'll tell him he can come Mon, Tues or Wed and that's it. Otherwise it's all going to the tip. Gas cooker, bike, hideous fake wood unit, and all the other junk.

I'm working this weekend and then I have a nice 7 day break including a party at Pami's on the 9th (staying at my folks again) to top off the week.

Attention to detail and sweating the small stuff

I am a stickler for the small things in life.

Misplaced apostrophes make me cringe (except for the bit in Going Postal where the greengrocer's speech is deliberately peppered with misplaced ones - which I notice every time), I won't order things from companies that misspell words in their terms and conditions (Bulldog, this means you) and I loathe and detest people who don't bother to say please or thank you.

I try to curb my pedantic tendencies at work as I worry that they make me seem really pessimistic. Fingers will ask what I think of his window display and the first thing I point out is the fact two of the books are backwards.

Fingers said yesterday that this was a good thing (and I'm trying to believe him).

We had a visit from our new area manager Paul, who went round the front of store with Bod and Fingers, commenting on all the displays and sections with them while I stayed on the till. When they came back to me, Bod introduced me and said that I was just as creative as Fingers (thanks boss!) but that I was quieter about it and my projects were smaller.

Fingers then compared it to the fact that he might decide to paint the front of store so he'd start splashing paint about, then I'm come along and point out the bits he'd missed.

This did make me feel pedantic and fault finding until Fingers said that it was a really good thing. That it meant that he could paint front of store bright yellow (for example, I don't think he will be) and rely on me to point out to him that he'd missed a section of shelving out, or that when he shows me one of his fabulous headers he is happy that I pick up on his spelling.

I am trying to see this as a good thing. I try to do small tasks, or at least break down the big ones so that I know that I've done them fully. On changeover days I'll happily wander off with a list to check that the right books have got the right stickers on while Fingers concocts fabulously beautiful window displays involving kits and deckchairs (part of the current summer theme).

I just have to balance this against being too picky, against getting stressed because no-one seems to be noticing what I'm doing cos they're all looking at the windows. I talked about this with Bod a few months ago and she reassured me that they do notice, but that I don't shout about it so don't get the same reactions. (Not saying that Fingers does shout about his window displays, he just shouts when he gets stuck and needs a hand out or another book or bit of sticky tape).
I just look about and spot the jobs that need doing and do them - just wish I could do that at home!

I have had a slightly stressy day today (which is where this came from). Woke up on time but have just felt like I've been running slightly late all day. Even my 12" Italian BMT at lunchtime didn't help!

Stressing the small stuff is also why I haven't posted since that 100 things post, although I have intended too. I just want my posts to be meaningful and more than just "been busy, sorry". I haven't had anything I've felt worthy of being the follow-up until today.

I'm going to try and chill this evening. Anthony bought me/us the sweetest little DVD player from Tesco yesterday and I have a couple of films I wanna watch and some sewing I want to do so the plan for this evening is relax I think.

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Oh, BTW.

I now have short, very blonde hair.

But I haven't been able to take a picture of it that I really like yet which is why I haven't put one up although I have had it for nearly two weeks now.

I shall try and get my mum to take one this weekend, since I'm going back to Essex to celebrate my dad's 60th (which was last Sat, but I was working).

Anthony is coming too...

100 things (how long before Emily pinches this one)

1. My favourite font is Comic Sans MS.
2. I hate the Arial font with a passion since it's the "standard" font.
3. That's pretty much the reason I hate writing in blue ink too.
4. At school I had three fountain pens filled with black, turquoise and purple ink.
5. My English teacher marked me down for writing in purple because it clashed with her red pen.
6. I liked English at school (despite that teacher).
7. But I hate writing essays so I didn't do it for A Level.
8. I did Maths, Biology and Chemistry instead.
9. Then I went to uni and did a science foundation year since my A level marks were pants.
10. Then I did the first year of a Molecular and Cellular Biology degree...
11. ...before dropping out after realising that although I liked it, it couldn't be my career.
12. (oh, and partly cos I failed the first year and would have had to resit it again).
13. Working in a library or bookshop has always been something I wanted to do.
14. I started my own library at 8 lending out my pony books to friends.
15. I still have some of those books...
16. ...and they still have the little number strips on the front that I made.
17. I feel that I don't have enough space at home...
18. ...even though it's just me and the cats in a three-bedroomed terraced house.
19. This is partly because the littlest bedroom is just used for drying washing...
20. ...and has two mattresses in that I wanna throw out.
21. The other spare bedroom is my library.
22. I'm thinking about moving it downstairs into the dining room
23. Anthony wants to create me a nice cosy reading space in there.
24. But we have to get the Yeti to shift his stupid hideous cabinet first.
25. Then I can have a proper spare room for when people come to visit, instead of making them sleep with the washing like Emily had to.
26. I want to get this done before November when my dad comes to stay.
27. Because we're going to see The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band at the Wolves Civic.
28. You may not recognise that band name but you'll know their most famous song, "The Urban Spaceman".
29. My eclectic taste in music is all my parents fault.
30. My mother got me liking Billy Joel, Elton John, Queen, Chicago and Bread.
31. My father is responsible for The Bonzos, Flanders & Swann, and CSN&Y.
32. They are probably about equally responsible for Joni Mitchell, and The Mama's and the Papa's.
33. My father is also responsible for me liking The Goon's and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
34. We used to listen to them when driving long distances on holiday.
35. We also used to listen to I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, which starred John Cleese and Bill Oddie among others.
36. This means that just saying "Lady Constance" or "Shut up Spot" makes me giggle.
37. Not to mention "He's fallen in the water!"
38. I say gnome as g-nom and legend as leg-end.
39. I can't spell out loud, I always have to write the word down.
40. I don't type properly, I only use two fingers on each hand.
41. This is because I learnt to type faster when I used to hang out in chat rooms a lot.
42. Despite the fact I only use four fingers I still type pretty fast.
43. But my spelling can be terrible as my head is usually two words ahead of my fingers.
44. When I read I read two sentences at a time.
45. This is why I read so fast...
46. ...but also why I'm not very good at reading out loud...
47. ...or reading non-fiction books.
48. I do try and slow down my reading sometimes by imagining I'm reading out loud.
49. But as soon as I stop concentrating on doing it, I speed right back up again.
50. I learnt to read very young.
51. I can remember mum teaching me with flashcards before I went to playgroup.
52. This is why they tease me for saying ball-et instead of ballet and mart-ron instead of matron when I was little.
53. Because I never heard them said, just read them.
54. That's also why I didn't know you said Sean like Shawn until I was 11.
55. My mother had an argument with my teacher when I was 7 cos I was reading The Hobbit in class reading time and the teacher didn't like it.
56. She said I should be reading Hammy the Hamster as it has "some very adult concepts in it".
57. Needless to say I carried on reading the Hobbit in class reading time.
58. When I read Lord of The Rings I still hear the voices from the BBC Radio Four production in my head.
59. So Ian McKellen isn't Gandalf, Michael Hordern is. (although I love the films too)
60. I don't actually own my own copy of LOTR, or the Hobbit.
61. But I do own all the DiscWorld books...
62. ...and have the first 15 in leather bound editions too.
63. They aren't for reading though, and I don't think most of them have even been opened.
64. I still have the first Terry Pratchett book I ever read.
65. It was Strata (not a DiscWorld book) and I bought it from the Barnardos in Billericay High Street when I was 10/11.
66. I used to buy most of my books from that Barnardos or from the Oxfam shop in the High Street.
67. Both shops are still there, and still in the same places.
68. Which is more than I can say for most of the shops I remember being there as a child.
69. I moved to Billericay in October 1984 when I was 5 (nearly 6)
70. We moved there from Istead Rise in Kent, where we moved after living in Stroud in Gloucestershire.
71. Before that we lived in Bahrain which is where I was born.
72. I do think of myself as an Essex girl at heart.
73. Even though I've never lived in East London I'm very drawn to that bit of London as that's when my parents are from.
74. That's why I support Leyton Orient (Come on Ronnie!) like my dad does.
75. Like Michelle I have an addictive personality.
76. I don't know if I come from a long line of alcoholics (I know I come from one) but I think that is a factor in the addictive personality thing.
77. This is why I try to avoid going on eBay or I just buy buy buy.
78. It's also why I try not to keep vodka or spirits in the house...
79. ...as when I get blue I like to drink...
80. ...which is one of the reasons I failed my A Levels as I pretty much spent the second year drunk.
81. But I'm proud of myself for not going down that route this year...
82. ...instead I got hooked on posting in this blog...
83. ...and now I feel guilty that I don't post so much.
84. But life is so busy now, and I have someone I can talk to so my random thoughts don't need to get posted for me to feel peaceful.
85. I hate when the phone rings with a random sales call and interrupts my train of thought. (as it just did).
86. I love my two cats, they make me smile all the time.
87. Well, not when Foley chewed through the modem cable.
88. It's crazy to think that only four months ago I hadn't met Anthony in person...
89. ...and now I can't imagine not knowing him.
90. I love the little glass pots that Raspberry Gu Puds come in, even though Foley just broke three all over the clean kitchen floor.
91. I decided to do this 100 thing post because I wanted a break from cleaning on my day off...
92. ...even though I'm proud of the way the bathroom looks after I scrubbed the floor.
93. Now that I'm getting near the end I'm finding it really hard to pick the last few things to put.
94. My sister bought me a My Little Pony Baby Blossom Set as a present when she was born.
95. Even though all the stuff in my living room is mine it still doesn't feel quite like my room...
96. ...but I am resisting rearranging the whole thing as I will get fed up halfway through and then it will just be a mess.
97. But I am going to throw out my pentacle picture and paint a new one for my wall.
98. Although I might do some work on my new cross stitch project, the sixth one I am working on at the moment.
99. I really love those three little dots ...
100. I nearly didn't do this because I didn't think I could think of 100 things and in fact there are lots of things I had to leave out.

(101. I hate American spell checkers that want me to write cozy instead of cosy and think that Hordern should be replaced with hardwired, Gandalf with candelabra and playgroup with pleasurable). (and where the learn function seems to be switched off so it always queries the same things).

I know...

...but life has either been boring or hectic. I had a stress headache for the whole of last week and so my evenings were spent sleeping or playing WoW. This week Anthony is here so I am understandably distracted.

So to keep you all entertained I stole borrowed this from Michelle.

150 Questions
The Bold Ones Are The Ones I Have Done.

01. Dyed your hair
02. Been a DJ
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Been arrested
05. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol (only an air rifle at a summer camp, I prefer archery)
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said "I love you" and meant it
09. Taught yourself an art from scratch
10. Done a striptease
11. Bungee jumped
12. Had a booth at a street fair
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long, and watched the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
19. Touched an iceberg
20. Slept under the stars
21. Changed a baby's diaper
22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
23. Watched a meteor shower
24. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
25. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
26. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph
27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
28. Had a food fight
29. Built your own PC from parts
30. Taken a sick day when you're not ill (but not recently...honest boss!)
31. Asked out a stranger
32. Had a snowball fight
33. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
34. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
35. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over (Well, it was moving back home from Canterbury, but I think it counts)
36. Enacted a favorite fantasy
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip
38. Taken an ice cold bath
39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar (yup, he sells the Big Issue and is a total dude)
40. Seen a total eclipse (France, summer of 1999)
41. Rode on a roller coaster
42. Hit a home run
43. Rode on a motorcycle
44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day (On my 17th birthday I spoke in an Irish accent all day until my dad threatened to report me to the RSPCA)
46. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (Leyton counts right?)
47. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild (Probably, I've eaten them on holiday in France in little cafes in little villages so I would think so)
48. Rode a horse (I love horseriding, one day I shall have my own horse)
49. Had major surgery
50. Loved your job for all accounts
51. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
53. Had amazing friends (Have got them now)
54. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
55. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
56. Stolen a sign
57. Backpacked in Europe
58. Taken a road-trip
59. Rock climbing
60. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read (I should probably do this...)
61. Midnight walk on the beach
62. Sky diving
63. Changed your name
64. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
66. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language (My French partners grandma. She spoke no English and my French was crap but I remember having a great day out with her)
67. Benchpressed your own weight
68. Milked a cow (years ago...)
69. Alphabetized your records (my DVDs certainly, otherwise I group my CD's and books by how much I like the artist/author)
70. Pretended to be a superhero (when I was two I "flew" off a top bunk onto a stone floor...I was a terrible child)
71. Sung karaoke
72. Lounged around in bed all day
73. Posed nude in front of strangers
74. Scuba diving
75. Got it on to Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye
76. Kissed in the rain
77. Played in the mud
78. Played in the rain
79. Gone to a drive-in theater
80. Done something you should regret, but don't regret it.
81. Parasailed
82. Discovered that someone who's not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog (Well I found out that someone reads it to find out what I'm doing, although I knew that they knew about it)
83. Skipped all your school reunions
84. Started a business
85. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them (I was at uni and it was the uni pizzeria)
86. ...and gotten 86'ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
87. Taken a martial arts class
88. Swordfought for the honor of a woman
89. Written your own computer language
90. Gotten married (yup...see no. 95)
91. Been in a movie
92. Crashed a party
93. Loved someone you shouldn't have
94. Kissed someone so passionately it made you dizzy
95. Gotten divorced WORKING ON IT!!!
96. Had sex at the office (back in Canterbury at H&B...)
97. Gone without food for 5 days (does soup count? this should say solid food)
98. Made cookies from scratch
99. Won first prize in a costume contest
100. Rode a gondola
101. Gotten a tattoo (I love my hummingbird)
102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on (and I love the smell of leather too)
103. Rafted the Snake River
104. Found out someone was going to dump you via Blogger
105. Got flowers for no reason
106. Masturbated in a public place
107. Got so drunk you don't remember anything (yup...a few times...)
108. Gone back to school
109. Performed on stage (I went to see Jack and the Beanstalk with Jonny Ball in it and got called up. I sang Chick, Chick, Chicken and got an autographed book...I was very young)
110. Been to Las Vegas
111. Recorded music
112. Eaten shark
113. Had a one-night stand (had a few)
114. Gotten someone fired for their actions
115. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
116. Bought a house
117. Been in a combat zone
118. Buried one/both of your parents
119. Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off
120. Been on a cruise ship
121. Spoken more than one language fluently
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
123. Bounced a check
124. Had your picture in the newspaper (I won some treasure hunt thing at a local country park and won a book about old crafts)
125. Read - and understood - your credit report (This is a recent thing, and I'm proud of myself)
126. Raised children
127. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy (I did just buy "The Tiger Who Came To Tea", and one of those tappy pin board things at xmas)
128. Eaten kangaroo meat
129. Been a sperm or egg donor
130. Eaten sushi
131. Found out something significant that your ancestors did (My great-great grandmother (I think that's right) was a cigar maker in Leyton and her father was a Master Mariner based in Liverpool. That's significant enough for me.)
132. Called or written your Congress person
133. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
134. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
137. Had plastic surgery
138. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived
139. Wrote articles for a large publication
140. Lost over 100 pounds at one time
141. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
142. Piloted an airplane
143. Petted a stingray
144. Broken someone's heart
145. Helped an animal give birth
146. Been fired or laid off from a job (H&B, the manageress was a biatch)
147. Won money on a T.V. game show
148. Broken a bone (I've broken my left wrist twice, my left collarbone once, and my left arm once)
149. Had sex on a moving train (a Tube train no less, but a good few years ago now)

Best flip-flops in the world

While browsing the CSNY site I discovered these flip-flops in their store.



I think I need to shop...

Complaints

I know there are a lot of people who can't stand Jeremy Clarkson (Mark and Keris being two), but I think he's funny. He's like a caricature of himself sometimes. So it was nice to see that the BBC have issued this statement about Top Gear.

Other complaints come from my cats. (and Esme is showing her objection to me typing this by lying her head on my left arm so I can only type with my right hand).

I'm chilling tonight (after stickering approx 1000 kids books with 3 for 2 stickers)by having some nice beer and sticking my Crosby, Stills and Nash (and a little Neil Young) onto media player and singing along.

I was warbling along to Ohio (not a lyric link, but the story of the song) when Foley jumped on the desk and smacked me in the mouth with one of her front paws. Understandably I stopped singing for a second, but as soon as I started again, she did it again.

Humph. No-one appreciates my musical "talent".

(Aside: I love the fact that David Crosby looks pretty much the same now as he does in that picture from 69/70. His hair's got whiter but he's got the same smile. Neil Young's the same, he's just lost the sideburns. The other two look so different, except round the eyes.)

Their songs are the songs that have shaped my life. Thanks for that dad.

Teach Your Children

Our House

Carry On/Questions

Kate -- [adjective]: Smells like teen spirit 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

What crazy thing will be your demise?

A super secure bank vault

... (why?)

Because it caused a parallel universe to form

'What crazy thing will be your demise?' at QuizGalaxy.com

In the event of a lottery win, Kate should buy...

An Escher-like mansion in which people get stuck

'What should you buy if you win the lottery?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Caravan

Mirror, mirror...

...on the floor.

My bedroom has/had three mirror tiles on one wall that made up a full length mirror. The joins were a little annoying as they were at the wrong points - it's hard to tell if a skirt looks ok when the mirror join cuts across in just the wrong place.

I say had for a reason...

Last night we'd actually gone up to bed relatively early as we were both knackered. Left the fan on for a little to cool the room off and then dozed off peacefully.

I was woken up at 1.30am by a really loud crash, didn't have a clue what it could be. Pushed the light up (it dims up and down since it's a dawn simulator), and couldn't see anything wrong, so assumed it was something outside and went back to sleep.

2.30am I woke up with a scream when something shattered on the floor next to the bed. I was convinced someone had thrown something through the window, but when I put the light up I saw mirror glass all over the floor.

It turns out that those tiles were just held up by sticky pads, which had obviously weakened in the hot weather. The second crash was what I thought was two of those tiles falling down and smashing everywhere.

I was very glad that Anthony was there as he managed to calm down my fit of hysterics and get me back to sleep again, promising he'd sort it all in the morning.

5.30am...the third tile fell off (but didn't smash).

This morning Anthony cleared up all the bits for me (as he had shoes upstairs and I didn't) and commented that it didn't seem like enough glass for two tiles. I found the first one behind the bedstead just by my head, unshattered but cracked in two. This one was what caused the first crash.

So I'm now without a mirror in the bedroom, I'm quite grumpy due to heat and lack of sleep, pissed off that someone could have fixed those up with just sticky pads, glad that Anthony was there, and very glad that the one that fell behind the bed didn't land on me.

Phil doesn't think it'll count as seven years bad luck since I didn't break the mirror, it broke itself.

Now I just need to find a nice new mirror and Anthony has promised to put it up properly so I don't get the heebie-jeebies at stupid o'clock in the morning when things start smashing.

Currently uninspired

I'm sorry I haven't been posting much, I just haven't been able to think of much to post about!

I haven't been having any deep thoughts (too hot), or funny conversations with Campbelli (cos I hadn't seen her for three weeks and on Monday she heads to London for some top secret Head Office thing and won't be back til November!). Even the cats haven't been doing particularly funny things.

My mother came to visit on Saturday and she met Anthony (and thinks he's cool "he actually talks! Not like the last one who hardly said a word to me.") and we went for dinner at Cafe Champagne which she also loved.

I have approximately 3,000,000,000 flea bites (bloody cats) on my ankles so the house is being defleaed, and all the washing I had done has to be done again.

I've joined Spark People in an attempt to eat healthy and have started drinking lots and lots of water. This means that I am challenging Campbelli in the number of loo breaks at work, and I've also managed to lose 6 pounds so far. I know that's almost certainly just cos I'm drinking more water so my body isn't storing it, but hey, it's a start.

Right, I'm off to eat some healthy chicken and turn the fan up higher.

More music

My parents have a whole batch of old tapes that they made back in the late 70's. They were living out in Bahrain and my dad used to set up the reel-to-reel (which is still working and used most days) to record Radio Dhahran. Then they would pick out their favourite songs and they'd get put onto tapes.

I think there are about 15 Dhahran tapes, and three or four more that are Best of's. The only problem was that they just used to broadcast the songs one after another, with no breaks apart from the hourly news and weather (one weather broadcast is immortalised on one of the tapes). This meant that the artists and song titles were never mentioned.

Because of this there are a few songs on the tapes that have ?? as the artist and a guess at the title. One of these I remember is "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac which was down as "Running in the Shadows" by ?? for a long long time. It's my writing on the case that changed it to Fleetwood Mac...

One of the songs has defied all identification for a long while. Dad thought it was possibly Suzanne Vega, but it was recorded before she started performing.

Tonight, prompted by the discovery of a Carole King concert on BBC4, I decided to google the lyrics...and I found the artist.

Falling Star by Karla Bonoff

Oh my heart aches
Deep inside me
Oh, how I miss you
Will you come back?
Oh, why’d you leave me?
Oh, what can I do?

‘Cause every night
I sit here by the phone
You know it rings a lot inside my head
I daydream you're home
I never knew that it would go this far.
Come pick me up
I'm going down
Like a falling star.

And the clock strikes midnight
And I'm lying here alone.
I can't sleep, I hear my heartbeat.
Oh, I can't stand the monotone.
And every day I have paced the floor
You know it rains a lot inside my heart,
But I still ask for more.
But now I know that love can leave a scar.
Come pick me up, I'm going down
Like a falling star.

And when the birds fly south for a while,
Oh, I wish that I could go.
Someone there might warm this cold heart,
Someone there might know.
But every day I have paced the floor.
You know it rains a lot inside my heart,
But I still ask for more.
But now I know that love can leave a scar.
Come pick me up, I'm going down
Like a falling star.

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

That's another one crossed off, and I am a happy bunny. (Now I just need to get copies of all those tapes for myself...)

Cat

The other day I was sitting peacefully at the computer watching Foley running up and down the fence in the garden.

Then one of my neighbours came out and hit her with a broom so that she ran the length of the fence squalling and vanished.

Unsurprisingly I shot out into the garden to give the neighbour a piece of my mind (or as Anthony put it "to stick that broom where the sun don't shine").

But as I appeared in my garden the neighbour went inside, leaving me to fume.

Foley didn't reappear so eventually I went next door to see if they'd seen where she'd vanished to after they assaulted her.

Foley had apparently vanished into their garage full of junk, and after much crashing about by the lad, she reappeared and shot indoors.

What did the neighbour have to say about the hitting her with the broom? "We didn't realise it was your cat."

Fume, fume, fume...

I kept the cats in the next night but let them out last night and all day today (since I'm off work due to passing out after my blood test at the doc's earlier). No sign of anyone next door, but the cats have been mostly chasing flies rather than on the fence.

Foley is such a soft cat now. When I think of how she was in Feb, growling if you went to stroke her tummy, and now she sits on my shoulder and squeaks in my ear!

Although there are times...

A short musical interlude

I have been inspired by Keris to do this ipod meme thing.

Well...since I don't HAVE an ipod it's going to be an MP3 player and media player meme (but that's besides the point).

The rules (as stated by Marie) are "no repeat artists, no foreign muck, no songs where the title is in the first line, and nothing that even you with the title in front of you have no clue what it is"
So here you go folks.

1. Well I came upon a child of God. Woodstock by Joni Mitchell. Got by Mark.

2. You don't know how you met me, you don't know why. Follow Me by Uncle Kracker. Got by Mark.

3. I know it's getting late, but if you'd like to talk a little more. Sleazy Bed Track by The Bluetones. Got by Mark.

4. She said she needed a break, a little time to think. Ohio (Come Back to Texas) by Bowling for Soup. Got by Mark.

5. I'll light the fire, you place the flowers in the vase that you bought today. Our House by Crosby, Stills and Nash. Got by Emily (in two guesses).

6. I got my first real six-string. Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams. Got by Mark and Emily (although she got the artist wrong).

7. You got a reaction, you got a reaction didn't you? Blue Orchid by The White Stripes. Got by Mark.

8. Street's like a jungle. Girls & Boys by Blur. Got by Emily.

9. What you do speaks so loud I can't hear what you say. King of Bloke and Bird by Robbie Williams. Got by Michelle.

10. Sell the kids for food. In Bloom by Nirvana. Got by Mark.

11. In an upstairs room in Blackpool, by the side of a northern sea. Military Madness by Graham Nash.

12. Friday night I'm going nowhere, all the lights are changing green to red. Babylon by David Gray. Got by Emily.

13. Do you have the time to listen to me whine. Basket Case by Green Day. Got by Emily.

14. Four of us were having dinner and I threw down the paper with a curse. Tracks in the Dust by David Crosby.

15. I hate the world today, you're so good to me I know but I can't change. Bitch by Meredith Brooks. Got by Emily.

16. Three little birds sat on my window. Put Your Records On (Let Your Hair Down) by Corinne Bailey Rae. Got by Mark and Overnight Editor (combined).

17. I got a letter from a friend the other morning. Permanent Vacation by Aerosmith.

18. Where is the moment we needed the most? Bad Day by Daniel Powter. Got by Emily and Michelle (combined).

19. A wild ride, over stony ground. Animal by Def Leppard. Got by Mark.

20. Blue jean baby, LA lady. Tiny Dancer by Elton John. Got by Mark.

21. Got your tape and it changed my mind. Singing in my Sleep by Semisonic. Got by Emily.

22. He came dancing across the water with his galleons and guns. Cortez the Killer by Neil Young. (Best guitar intro ever).

23. Feeling blue, when I'm trying to forget the feeling that I miss you. Colourblind by Darius. Got by Michelle.

24. I thought I knew you, but I did not know myself. Turn Back the Pages by Stephen Stills.

25. Never win first place, I don't support the team. Don't Let Me Get Me by Pink. Got by Michelle

Good luck folks, I'll be updating as you get them.

Updated to show who guessed what and the final few answers.

Uh-oh...

I've been doing some work on my Booklist in a vague attempt to get it up to date. I was adding some Sheri S. Tepper books and needed to check the series order so made the mistake of going onto Wikipedia to check it.

Yup, I promptly spent lots of time looking up odd things and learning interesting facts (with a small break in the middle to fetch in the laundry cos it's started raining).

Sheri S. Tepper
Ecofeminism
Thiepval
Edwin Lutyens
Great Dixter
I Capture the Castle
Lucy M. Boston
James Toseland
Aston Martin
James Bond
Sean Connery
Labyrinth
House of Leaves
Neil Gaiman
Billericay
Ingatestone
International Baccalaureate
DiscWorld

Mmmmmm...

I'm more relaxed than I have been in such a long long time.

Last week I had a week off work and I chilled.

Ok, so on the Saturday night I was rather ill due to attempting to drink the same amount of wine that I would beer...but I'd stopped being sick by 2pm Sunday and I was actually feeling better by the time the Canadian Grand Prix came on.

I've been to Merry Hill and Dudley Zoo.
I've played varying amounts of World of Warcraft.
I've watched some football...
...and some tennis too.
I've played with the cats.
I've done ALL the laundry (the washing up has all been done too).

And I've spent time sitting in the sunshine, drinking champagne (only one little bottle) and reading DiscWorld without a care in the world.

Life has been pretty damn good.

Now I'm back at work and the man who enabled me to have such a stunning week is working 11pm til 9am shifts this week so I probably won't see him until Saturday night (and it's my weekend in at work). Guess what? I don't care. I have a heavenly week to look back on, I actually ate something healthy for lunch (chicken and salad pittas that I made myself) and the cats have stopped fighting too.

Now that I've experienced proper chilling out, I may have to do it more often!

Lovely Wolverhampton

They have built a £300,000 superloo just up the road from work.

I walked past it the other day on my way back from Subway.

"Oh, there's that superloo that was on the news...that attendant looks bored..."

"...and there's a small boy peeing in the doorway of the shop next door while his mother tells him to hurry up..."

Lovely, lovely Wolverhampton...

Cafe Champagne

On Sunday night, after we had gone for a wander around the streets of Wolverhampton, Anthony decided he fancied a curry so we drove off to Cafe Champagne.

It's an Indian Fusion restaurant that everyone at work keeps raving about so we thought we'd go along and see what all the fuss was about.

We parked a few doors down and walked down to the restaurant passing a green Mini on the way.

Get inside, ask for a table for two and follow the waiter into the restaurant.

That's when it happens...

"Kate!"

I look round startled.

"Kate, over here!"

I turn round to face the long table of 10-15 people (celebrating a birthday as the banners and balloons would seem to indicate) and RichieFingers appears from behind a pillar.

That's the thing about going to restaurants that everyone else loves, they'll probably be there too!

Richie confirmed that it was his Mini, that it was the birthday of his girlfriend's sister, and that work had been slowish that day.

He also asked me not to call him Richie.

Why?

"Because whenever Nik orders takeaway she does it under her surname which is James. They've been calling me James here for the last 2/3 years".

Sure enough, when Anthony went to pay the waiter asked him how he knew "James".

Oh, and the food was delicious indeed. I had lovely venison and enjoyed it muchly.

----------

The scariest thing is that when I mentioned this to Campbelli yesterday she said "Oh! We nearly went there last night too. But we didn't cos I'd had a big roast lunch."

I think that would have been a little freaky. An unplanned work meet-up in an Indian restaurant where RichieFingers is known as "James".

Miscarriage

How miscarriage can hit very hard.

I taped this today but I don't know when I'm going to watch/listen to it (videoed it off Sky).

On Friday it'll be a year since my first miscarriage, feels both longer and shorter. The test results came back and there's no hormonal or blood related problems on the first batch of tests. Have to have another couple of tests done though.

Jayne from the uni branch is working with us for the next few months and she's six months pregnant. Today wasn't too bad, have to see how the rest of this week goes. If I'm having a bad day I tend to avoid the pregnant customers, or the ones with little babies, so I'm not quite sure how it's going to happen with Jayne there. I can't exactly walk away from her. But Bod understands and told me to let her know if I need to be upstairs or something. She was the one who brought it up too. I wish everyone had a boss as understanding as mine.

---------

This isn't why I haven't posted all week, that was cos Anthony was working 7-4 and so he was here all week. This week he's doing 11-9 (that's 11pm...) so I shall be catching up on sleep and hopefully posting more too. And I only have 4 more days of work before I'm on holiday for a whole eight days straight!!!

Money, Money, Money...

When I went to see the bank the other day I was all prepared for an argument and then no resolution.

Instead I got my overdraft extended to £300 and a note on the system about my circumstances. To get the £35 dropped I need to phone my branch of Lloyds (Canterbury) but the lady I saw said it shouldn't be a problem.

I didn't really want my overdraft extended so much, and I certainly don't want the loan she was saying I could now have.

But the overdraft extension has meant I didn't have to pay my last £5 in to get my rent paid, that I could buy some proper food for my lunches, and that I could buy a bottle of pink M&S wine to drink after work yesterday.

The first 48 hours of an overdraft are the worst for me. That's the time when I start thinking about new CD's and DVD's and books. I've got past that now and it's only a week til payday when I can buy things I have budgeted for and feel a sense of achievement rather than feeling guilty for once again spending money I don't actually have.

Intelligent Yogurt

I thought I'd better post about this before someone took the comment about Campbelli's intelligence and yogurt the wrong way and thought I was saying she was as intelligent as a yogurt.

The other day I bought two Tesco's healthy living yogurts to have for lunch. It was hot and I wasn't in an eating mood but I thought I'd better have something. So I bought a peach one and a raspberry one.

Both stated that they were only 85 calories yet the raspberry one was worth 1.5 WeightWatchers Points while the peach one was only worth one.

This confused me so I started reading the labels carefully.

Although they both had the same number of calories (well kilocalories if you want to be pedantic or were in Chemistry lessons with me at school), the raspberry one had 5 more kilojoules than the peach one. This is presumably due to the fact that the raspberry one had 0.4g more sugar in it than the peach one.

What's all this rubblish got to do with Campbelli's intelligence?

Well she did the WeightWatchers thing a couple of years ago and is still a healthy eating queen (she tells me off all the time too). I'm just so impressed that she can do the complicated maths required to work out how many points are in what so that she could stick to her points allowance and get to the weight she wanted to be.

So here's to the fantastically intelligent Campbelli and her mathematic skills.

!!!!!!!!!

Oh my god, it's actually working!

I clicked out of habit, expecting the "this page cannot be found" page, and instead I actually got "create post"!!!

I'm even more shocked than I was when I flicked on MTV to discover Paris Hilton singing a little ditty while wearing a leopard print bikini and covered in artistic dabs of sand.

Yesterday I worked through half the England game (first half was my lunch break), serving about three people. Today I will be working through the British Grand Prix but hopefully serving a few more. After all, it's been sunny for a few days now and people must need new books to read in their gardens.

Hopefully this thing will still be working tonight and I can post a proper post, full of exciting comments on hedges, laundry, cross-stitching and Popular Psychology (one of my jobs today is to A-Z it again).

Humph

I had planned to do a few posts yesterday, but after that last one Blogger started playing up again for me.

So my musings on yogurt and Campbelli's intelligence will have to wait til tonight.

Emily is here, on her fast overnight stopover to go see her bloke in Birmingham tomorrow after he lands from Kos. I met her at the station yesterday and we wandered home crushing the occasional person under her pink suitcase on wheels. She made the mistake of bringing me a book I hadn't read yet (and that's not out in the UK for the foreseeable future) so I popped her onto WoW so I could do some reading.

I think she enjoyed it, certainly she was still playing when I went to bed at 10.30 and I don't have any idea what time she went to bed. She has a body clock like mine, likes to get up late and stay up late. (she just appeared and apparently went up to bed at about 12.30, but only went to sleep a couple of hours later)

It was so nice and sunny yesterday I managed to get three big loads of laundry washed and dried outside. The cats liked it too since I let them out in the garden for a while. Esme spent lots of time climbing in the hedge, and Foley climbed up my drying bedspead and attemped to walk along the washing-line (without success).

Today I have to go and shout at the bank. They bounced my rent standing order because I was £3.47 short of the £390. So they've sent me a nice letter to inform me of this fact and they're going to charge me £35 for bouncing it. I really need to change banks, they're always hitting me with £30 charges for being £5-6 over and I'm never going to catch up at that rate. When I went in to see them to explain I was about to become the sole tenant etc and to ask for an overdraft extension to cover a few months to prevent me paying charges - they refused because I was "consistantly over" my current overdraft limit. In vain I tried to point out to them that this was because they keep charging me £30 a month for anything that is over my limit.

I also spotted that my Yahoo website payment (that used to come off the Yeti's card) of £2.50 attracts an overseas transaction charge of £1...bastards.

Better attempt to dislodge Emily from the bathroom and get myself out into the sunny world and off to work.

Molten Chocolate Babycakes

Yesterday I was heading down to Cookery clutching a copy of How To Be A Domestic Goddess to put on the shelf.

As I walked I flicked through it so see what yummy things I could find...

Kate (walking to Cookery) "Oooh....Molten Chocolate Babycakes!"

RichieFingers (Hiding behind the Film browser) "I've asked you not to call me that at work sweetie."

Sometimes I have to remind myself that there are people who have lives that are less fun than my job.

Grrrrrr...

I tried to post on Sunday night and Blogger ate it.

Monday morning...Blogger ate it.

Monday night...Blogger wouldn't even let me get to the Create Post page.

Tuesday morning...same again.

Tuesday night...didn't even try it!

Today...it seems to be working!

Now I just have to remember exactly what it was I wanted to blog about!

Time

Time is odd for me at the moment. It's going all quick-slow-quick-slow-quick even more than it normally does.

I mean, there's the usual thing where my lunch hour goes 100 times faster than the hour I spend covering upstairs. But at the moment all time seems to be going really really fast. I last wrote here on Tuesday morning but it seems so much longer ago.

Things seem like they happened weeks ago rather than days ago. It feels like weeks since I went out with Anthony to meet his friends (and I was nervous) yet it was only Saturday night. Monday, we went to watch racing at Hednesford and that feels even longer ago.

Things I have been doing in this amazing long/short week include:

On Monday I managed to drop my phone into a glass of water. This was almost a total disaster but luckily it was saved by Anthony's quick thinking. The phone spent the night on the radiator and apart from a tiny bit of condensation in the screen on Tuesday morning it's been fine.

Tuesday I managed to forget that it was Tuesday as soon as I got home and therefore forgot to watch Lost. Since I'm off next Wednesday I shall just stay up on Tuesday night and watch two episodes back to back instead.

Other than that I have been playing WoW, thinking about selling things on eBay, actually selling a couple of PS2 games at the local CashConverters place, attempting to eat more fruit, playing with the cats, reading Sabriel, doing laundry and attempting to break bones by tripping down the stairs at work.

Tonight I am definately not going to play WoW, not even for a second or two.... I am going to watch the last ever episode of Charmed, do laundry, eat sensible dinner (not pizza) and do some sewing, probably.

Emily is coming to stay here for a night next week so that she can see her bloke in Birmingham (he's from Scotland so I'm not sure why he'll be in Birmingham but hey ho). I might let her meet Anthony, and I might even cook her some food.

PS: My hair currently looks very like that of my Yahoo Avatar. It's brown with blonde bits. It will be going blonder on the 21st June (day off after payday) and I promise to post an actual picture then.

The Cupboard Under the Stairs...

I am tackling it slowly.

This cupboard was basically just piled with stuff when we moved in here. Stuff that didn't have a home but needed putting out of the way. This included three bin bags of non-essential washing (no washing machine at the old house), lots of boxes and assorted other junk.

Last week I filled a black sack full of assorted things from under there.

Today I filled another one.

I can only do one black bag a week because with all the other stuff I am throwing from the garage etc that is all that will fit.

Despite the fact that I have only thrown out two bagfuls and taken another bagful of clothes out to sort and wash (as they're mine and nice), the cupboard is looking much less scary.

I daydream of the day that its empty and I can store the hoover in there.

Bookselling to the Stars

On Thursday Campbelli and I went to a book event at the Jenny Lee Centre in Wolverhampton. Malorie Blackman and Jeremy Strong did talks and signings, and we also met Paul Dowswell, a local author who was there to host a workshop and ended up helping us and doing a mini-signing at our bookstall.

Now I'm not as lucky as Mark, I don't get to meet many authors (let alone have them comment on my blog), but meeting Paul was a highlight as he's a really lovely guy.

Campbelli and I had been trying to work out why he looked familiar...then he mentioned that he came in every couple of weeks and we both went "Ahhh...". We might not have known who he was, but we recognise our regular customers.

In other book news, a customer asked for Sink Reflections, the FlyLady book, and I told her that although we can't get it (not available in the UK), the website has good shipping and as long as you watch the total of your order you shouldn't have to pay tax.

Phone calls

Someone or someones phoned me at 00.03, 01.28, 03.53, and 5.48 this morning.

I was unimpressed with being woken up by the phone, especially since even when I'm up and dressed there is no hope of me getting to it from upstairs before the answerphone cuts in.

I reassured myself the first time by thinking that if it was important (like a family emergency) they would phone my mobile (on, and next to the bed as always). The second and third times I went and did 1471 and discovered they were "caller withheld numbers". The fourth time didn't wake me but when I did 1471 just now I discovered there had a been another call.

So today I am sleepy, after going to bed early too!

Nice view

While pootling about on Emilys Flickr account I followed a link to Mattys pictures.

The I found this one...



Wish I had a pub garden like that to go and sit in.

Blood

I've just been to have the blood taken for the tests that the consultant recommended. I was sensible enough to mention to the lovely nurse/doctor/technician (not sure which she was, just that she's lovely every time I see her) that I get panicky and dizzy so she decided I'd better lie down.

This meant that when I did go very dizzy, I didn't fall over, I just talked complete nonsense in an attempt to take my mind off it.

When she'd done she asked if I was ok and I replied that I'd been unable to get the line from Hancock out of my head..."A pint, why that's very nearly an armful!" and then she reassured me by saying "Yes, that's about right actually" EEK!

So I'm now under orders to take things easy(ish) for the rest of the day. I shall get my laundry done, and move my tv to make way for the bigger one that's arriving this afternoon with Anthony (friend of a friend of his was getting a new one) but other than that I think I shall play some WoW and possibly list some books on my spreadsheet if I feel energetic later.

Life

I feel like I haven't been on here for ages and ages when in fact it was only Saturday night. I just haven't had a whole lot to write about really. Well, I have, but I'm actually doing things on my weekends now instead of just surfing all day and then going out and getting bladdered with Campbelli at night.

Campbelli and I are doing an event at a local learning centre on Thursday. These are always fun. We set up a bookstall and then kinda half listen in to the talks going on (only kinda cos they happen in a different room and we can't always hear them). Then we sell books like mad for a couple of hours and then have another rest during the other talks. It's a good time for quiet nattering and book reading and general feeling like we're having a good time while we're working.

This morning we took a first batch of books to the place and went in round the front (the events are held at the back) through this fabulous automatic door. It wasn't like the ones in the Mander Centre where you have to push them to start them opening, this one started opening while we were still about two metres away. I did my usual trick of saying thankyou to it for opening (Think Hitchhiker) and gave Campbelli a giggling fit.

This was nothing compared to my reaction when she said "You know, those kind of doors intimidate me a bit. I feel like they're more intelligent than me. If I was an automatic door I'd be all Oops, sorry, didn't see you there and not opening for people." I was crying after she said that, and had a stitch from laughing for at least 10 minutes.

Campbelli would like to point out that "I'm not as stupid as you all think I am you know. I'm actually a certified Mensa genius, I just don't want all the pressure. Thinking's just bad for you"

After I actually grabbed some paper to write that down so I could post it on here she announced "I'm gonna start a t-shirt company. Pink t-shirts with slogans on. I'm gonna quit bookselling and make a fortune. Funky Campbelli t-shirts."

Finland!

I was supposed to be painting the town red with Campbelli last night but the poor little mite wasn't very well so she stayed home to watch bad Vin Diesel films instead.

I headed off to Tesco with Anthony to buy cat and people food and got home just in time to catch Finland's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Now after all the fuss that there was about them, I wanted to see exactly what had caused all the kerfuffle. The song was ok, the costumes were fairly cool, Sir Terry Wogan's comments were as good as ever.

Much to Anthony's displeasure I left the show on (although I turned the volume down) to listen to the God that is Terry Wogan dissing everyone and generally being the sarky bugger he always is at Eurovision time.

Then we watched the voting together and waited for the winners to be announced..... FINLAND Woo Hoo! They didn't quite break 300 points though but they certainly spanked everyone else.

As for our entry....no comment.

I wonder how many countries will be entering rock acts next year?

Nine times out of seven

I dreamt about work last night. It was an interesting dream that included my assistant manager (Chris) walking about in a nice blue gingham shirt and shorts combination. This is due to the lovely new posters and shelf strips that I was putting out yesterday that are all in various colours of gingham. Front of store is blue, kids is lilac and travel is an interesting shade of green that looks just about ok as the gingham, but horrible as a block of colour on a shelf strip.

Yesterday and today have been spent doing changeover stuff, yesterday with RichieFingers entertaining me, and today Campbelli was back from her few days holiday with lots of entertaining stories and gossip. She is also responsible for the title of this entry after telling me that nine times out of seven she does something. I think that's a good successful rate there!

My house is oddly cold and hot at the moment. If I turn the heating up by one more degree I'm boiling, but at it's current setting I'm too cold even in my big jumper. Just me being odd I guess.

I finished rereading "Fire and Hemlock" today for like the 15 millionth time and I still love that book. I grabbed myself two proofs to read at some point and I do honestly mean to start "A Short History of Nearly Everything" again. I keep getting halfway through and then finding something else I really really want to read. I shall start it tonight and hopefully not get too distracted when I buy my three Miss Read books (being reissued by Orion) tomorrow.

Ahhh...tomorrow. PAYDAY! Although I'm aware I can't actually buy anything that isn't essential (those three books count) and have all my bills to sort out I still feel a lightness in my heart knowing that tomorrow my bank account will have a positive balance for a little while. In fact it had better have it for at least two weeks as that's when the rent comes out!

Gonna go and turn the heating up by that one degree as sitting here freezing while wearing a giant chenille jumper is just daft!

Sleepiness

I dunno. I take my iron supplement and my vitamins and I get to bed early, but I'm still knackered! Funny how when I try to eat healthy I get tired and lethargic but as soon as I quit and have some chocolate I'm bouncing around like a mad thing. Yeah, I know that it's probably a "detox" period from all the sugar in my system - but I stuck with it for two months at uni and felt terrible the whole time. All things in moderation I guess.

I was at work this weekend (one of the reasons for no posts) which wasn't as bad as usual. Yep we were all running about pulling returns and trying to tidy the shop when the fire alarm went off and we ended up outside for TWO hours... but even that was fun as it wasn't raining much and counting the increasing frequency of Chris's swearing (1 in 7 words at the beginning, 1 in 3 by the end) was entertaining.

Anthony picked me up from work on Saturday night and then we went in search of a drill and to price up curtain poles. Somehow this took us into Asda where we bought yet more food and I got a present of a proper Stella Artois glass (and 4 bottles of the stuff itself). I finally got to watch 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' and got teased for crying when Cedric died and for getting all soppy over Hermione looking so grown-up.

Sunday was work again for me (and BTCC for him) and I spent the day trying to make room for shelf offers and teasing Phil. I got taken to Spice Avenue for dinner and had a very nice Balti (the "Bal" being pronounced like "balloon" rather than "bald" - which makes RichieFingers giggle) although I didn't realise the place wasn't licensed so couldn't have a nice beer with it.

Yesterday involved a trip to B&Q in search of that drill again, and since Ikea is only over the road we had to go there too..... I do now have a cable tidy (to stop Foley chewing things), a lightshade (for the bedroom cos I didn't have one) and a nice lamp (to help with my cross stitch). We also got the curtain pole from B&Q and then drove home via Argos to buy the drill!

Life should now be quiet until next weekend. I'm planning on spending the week catching up on the films I have out from Screenselect and possibly watching some CSI too as I have all of Series 1 sitting neatly on my desk.

Haven't got anywhere with reading "A Short History of Nearly Everything" as I've been working my way through some Raymond E. Feist books instead and I also bought the new Jaclyn Moriarty book today ("Being Bindy MacKenzie") which I'm half-way though and about to go and finish while drinking some of that Stella.

Life is good, although the letter I got from Ashley made me teary this morning. It's hard to get a letter from your sister-in-law when you're in the middle of working out how to get divorced...

The Smell After Rain

It poured with rain while I was walking home today. Rain and lighting and thunder - lovely! Extra lovely because I'd "borrowed" an umbrella that had been left at work so I got to stay mostly dry. Ok, so it was a pink see-through plastic umbrella, but I like it!

Foley nearly got himself in serious trouble last night. At 2.15am I was woken by him tearing up the stairs and into the bedroom. He jumped on a bedside table, ran along the top of my clothes rails, bounded onto the top of the wardrobe (which is my old kids one, hence the rails) and then onto the curtain rail where he started yodelling. Luckily the curtain rail didn't come down (which is cos Anthony had a go at fixing it on Sunday) and when I shouted at him he jumped straight onto the bed and snuggled up under my chin purring like a mad thing and promptly fell asleep. If he hadn't been so cute I'd have kicked him out but in the end his purring lulled me back to sleep nice and quickly.

It's my weekend in this weekend so I miss the Spanish GP *boo*, but since Anthony is out at the BTCC at Oulton Park he'll miss it too. This means I still get to spend some of Sunday watching F1 with him, just that it'll be Sun night rather than the afternoon. We have a "visit" next week so Sunday will be spent getting the shop into tip-top condition ready for the customers to trash on Monday.

Cynical? Moi? Not really, just realistic! I did get to see one of my favourite customers today. He came upstairs while I was covering M's lunch and said "Ahh, the best place to spend some time, with the attractive Pagan lady". He's a lovely guy and we always end up having a chat about something. This time it was the fact that even though he's a Catholic (and does something for the cathedral, can't remember the word he used though) he's "on your side because you at least believe there is something". As I said before, he's a dude. More customers like him please!!!

New Hair and Man

Ok, here you go. Three pictures of my new hair and one picture of Anthony....





Ok, here he is....



Sorry, he's shy.

We're now going to eat pie and chips and watch the footie (as prompted by Mark).

Cleaning Demon

I've been zooming around my house this morning and I'm so impressed with myself. I thought everything was going to take ages and ages but all apart from the hoovering and mopping is done. Those I shall leave for when I get back from the hairdressers as my appointment is at 1pm.

So later I shall have lovely short locks again, no more trying to tuck it behind my ears all the time! Then it's just 10 days until they do the first bit of blonding! Woo Hoo!!!!!!

I'll get Anthony to take some pictures of my new do later and then they'll get posted pronto.

The cats are pissed off at me right now. Not only did I keep them waiting for their breakfast while I washed up their bowls, I also dared to scrub out the litter trays with Dettol (I use liner bags so they only need doing every now and again) which made Foley start sneezing and Esme walk off in a huff. They're both sulking upstairs now, but I'm sure I'll be forgiven by the time I get home.

Nothing to worry about

In the end I took a couple of cabs (using my emergency £10) since they're digging up that end of town and I'd never have made it on the bus.

The consultant was a nice guy, we went through the whole history thing and what happened when yadda yadda yadda.

I have to get some blood tests done next week sometime (on days 2/3/4 of my "cycle") and then he'll let me know what the results are.

As I said to him (and he agreed) although he can do chromosome tests and all sorts, there's no point at the moment since I'm not now looking to have kids for quite a while, and definately not with the Yeti.

So blood tests and results to come and that's it!

The nice thing was that when I phoned the cab company to get back into town and told the woman I'd be standing at the roundabout by the entrance (so they don't have to go all the way through the hospital) she said "Is that Kate again by any chance?" I was so amazed she remembered me from February when I was up there two/three days in a row.

I'm gonna go play with Anthony in WoW now (he's happy to be named on here, he said A. made him sound like a master criminal) since he bought it the other day after getting hooked the other weekend.

Day off tomorrow, and hair-cut too!!!

Butterflies

If I was any more nervous about this gynae appointment I think I'd probably faint.

A lot of it is to do with the fact I hate being late and yet I have no idea what time the buses run or how long they take.

Ah well, I'll let you know if I get there on time.

Funky girls

Katie W sent me some pics of her and me and Jess (her mad sister) so here you are.







This is my 402nd post by the way, doesn't feel like that many!

OOORRRIIIEEENNNTTT!!!

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

The boys done good!

Leyton Orient will be playing Division One football next season!

This also means that the chairman, Barry Hearn, has to fulfill his pledge to take the players to Las Vegas....all expenses paid!

Although I think he did revise his statement to mean flights/accomodation/meals rather than their gambling money too...

OOORRRIIIEEENNNTTT!!!

I'm being laughed at by A. for having spent the time since 4.50pm yesterday in a very bouncy hyper state. But he supports Man U so probably can't remember the last time they got promoted.

OOORRRIIIEEENNNTTT!!!

Long Distance Nagging

I've just changed my April Things to May Things as prodded by my sister. Amazing how she manages to nag me all the way from Wales! (love you trouble)

I managed to take my iron supplement for all but 5 days of April, and those five were all weekend days when I either forgot or was hungover. I'm going to try and keep it up this month too. The cat litter trays is something I tend to do every three days and they really do need doing more, I just forget.

The cross-stitch is going very slowly as I'm on the computer so much more. I'll have to take a newer picture and put it up so you can see how it's going.

I'm annoyed at myself tonight. Last night I'd decided to be sensible and change my yahoo password, but then forgot it and now I'm in the middle of waiting for emails so I might be able to get my account back. It's a bit serious if I can't cos that's my website and everything. Never change your password when you're tired folks!

Ok, I need to go and tidy and clean and have a bath. There will be a man on my doorstep at 1am and I want the house to be tidier than it was last Sunday!

There's probably time for a little bit of World of Warcraft first though....

Grumpy again

I think I've hit some kind of odd burn out point, obviously bouncing around like a crazy person all of last week has taken its toll. The fact that I'm working upstairs can't be helping, I see roughly 1 person every 15 minutes, sometimes a customer, sometimes a colleague and at the end of the day I tend to see no-one from 4.30 until 5.25 when some annoying bastard will come in and try to spend 15 minutes ordering a book.

So I've been doing lots of thinking about lots of different things. The fact that I'm happy to spend time with A. and it feels really nice to be cared about even though lots of people keep telling me its too early to start seeing someone else. The fact that I have a gynae consult next week to try to find out why I had those two miscarriages. The fact I'm trying not to think about the future regarding A. but have to think about the future regarding work and having a lodger.

Plus the cats just broke my favourite favourite vase that was a wedding present from Mo, the lady who drove my mother to the hospital while she was having me. So I am grumpy at the cats, and grumpy at the fact the Yeti is popping round to get his post, and grumpy at the fact I'm going through phone credit so fast, and grumpy at the fact that A. is working tonight and I just really want a hug.

Meh as my sister would say.

I think I shall eat some nice lasagna, some more Gu pudding and snuggle up on the sofa to watch some tv. After I've done the washing-up and hoovered though, somehow I didn't do any housework at the weekend.

(I don't know why I'm always so grumpy on Thursdays either).

Sleepy Kate

I did try going to bed early yesterday, and kind of managed it too. Bed before 11 is unusual for me and yet I'm going to try to get to bed by 11 every work night. That's not my usual bed at 11 where I start getting ready for bed at 11, that's in bed with the lights out and snuggled down. I'm not very good at getting to bed, I'm definately an evening person. Mind you Monday and Tuesday I was awake at 5am so I guess a few early nights are needed to make up for that!

Work was better today, mainly cos there was a little more stock for me to put out. I did finish all the stock today though so tomorrow morning I may well be tearing my hair out. Ahh well, only two more days of it.

I've also been trying to catch up on the TV I've taped for the last week. That does make it sound like I watch lots, but it's actually just 1 programme on each night except Friday. I've caught up on Grand Designs (and this weeks one is on now) and Charmed (ready for tomorrow) but last night I taped three episodes of Lost and so put myself right back where I started from. Those will probably get watched at the weekend - and as for my new DVD's.....I really need a holiday!

Mmmmm, gonna eat a Gu Pud and then womble off to bed.

63 hours

That's all it was. 63 hours from 6pm on Saturday til 9am today, but it feels like a weeks gone by at least.

Saturday night I did get drunk. I also apparently danced with three guys (I only remember two), insulted Campbelli's man (she's forgiven me now) and asked lots of strangers for money so I could have more beer.

This of course resulted in me not getting any of the things done on Sunday morning that I meant to do. When the doorbell went and I let A. in he took one look at me and said "Sit down, where do you keep your painkillers?" So I obviously looked totally ravishing.

After a few hours lying on the sofa and talking crap I'd recovered enough to go to Sainsbury's and buy spag bol ingredients, then we came back here and I chopped up lots of stuff and then he took over the cooking as I was still in no fit state. Then we talked more and more and more about totally random things.

At one point this blog got mentioned and he had a little look at some of the recent posts (he loved the baby photo). He then went through the list of questions and scored himself an impressive 32 yeses, 5 half marks (8,16,19,24,35) and 2 nos (9,11). To be fair to him he is trying to quit smoking and only smokes when he gets nervous (so quite a few on Sunday). He also started washing-up when I nipped on to check my email "Well it's on that list..."

Monday we went into Wolverhampton and visited Campbelli at work so I could apologise to her. A trip into HMV for a copy of Warcraft almost ended in failure (as it's £10 more in the store than online) but then he bought me Amelie on DVD so that he didn't have to leave empty handed. I also acquired the box set of the deluxe editions of LOTR on DVD nice and cheap from Music Zone - woo hoo!

So that was my weekend really, lots of talking and hugs "You know, I think you need hugs more than anything else right now" and then I got a lift to work this morning before he had to head back to Brum. Now I have a week to catch up on my housework before my doorbell rings on Friday night and I get to have another good weekend.

BTW, upstairs today - I was so bored I thought my eyeballs would start bleeding. Only three days to go....

Good genes

If you haven't been there already, go check out my baby sister's photos. Can I just say "Oh. My. God.", and damn the fact that she got to play in that end of the gene pool. I knew her legs looked good...but whoah!!

In other news...he's still here....