Not-quite-so-Spring Cleaning

We had something of a blitz on the flat yesterday. I cleaned the kitchen on Wednesday night (or it might have been Friday, I can't remember now) and yesterday Paul did the floors and I did the bathroom - which included, I should add, mopping the walls.

Yes, you did read that right...

We needed a new mop, as the one we bought when we moved in was one of those bits-of-rope-tied-to-a-stick types and has gone all stiff and horrible. So we got a slightly better one, and a squeegy type one for the express purpose of cleaning the bathroom tiles. It's too small a room to get the step-ladder out, but the ceilings are too high to reach on my own.

The amount of dust up there was terrifying... After mopping they were literally 2-3 shades cleaner, and the colour of the water afterwards was horrifying.

Still - cleeeean now! I need to dust the shelves in the kitchen tonight and possible have a little rearrangement in there, as I am questioning the sanity of keeping the stereo on top of the microwave... :|

Shepherd's pie for tea yesterday (and lunch today), using frozen mash from Iceland for £1 a bag, which turned out to be much better value than Aunt Bessie's and just as tasty. We stocked up on some frozen stuff while we were in there to avoid having to go to Asda for another couple of months.

Oh, I thought I'd broken the fridge yesterday, too... I was cleaning the wall behind the bin because it tends to get covered in a fine layer of crud (to put it bluntly), and I unplugged the fridge in order to wipe down the top of the plug, and when I plugged it back in it made no sound... Seemed to be fine a few minutes later, though. It doesn't help that for some reason, there's no light in there...

In other news, still no sign of my bus pass. On checking the details of my account on the website it quite clearly states three important things:

1. The transaction / process is "Completed", which means...

2. ...the pass will be sent "2-3 days prior" to the start date

3. The pass should be from "05/09/2008 to 02/10/2008"

All of which mean they should bloody well have sent it by now. I will give them one more day (i.e. today) before phoning them up to shout at them.

Y'know, I cancelled my Centrocard for this exact same reason. TWM have usually been quite good about sending the pass out. Clearly my address is jinxed.

( A little extra thing I meant to post about... )

Aaaand finally, I conceded defeat and put the heating on Friday night. Which is vaguely ridiculous, really, because it's only the beginning of September, even though the wind and rain would have you believe otherwise. *shakey fist* Stupid weather.

*STABBITY*

This afternoon has been infuriating, for absolutely no reason whatsoever...

Firstly, at 1.45pm, the panic alarm at work went off. Our team's reaction to this was not, in fact, panic, but a sense of befuddlement. After about a minute we decided we should probably vacate the building, and someone from upstairs informed us to do so, but upon getting halfway down the stairs we were then informed that it was an electrical problem, and not, in fact, a bomb.

I left work at 3.50, when it was STILL GOING ON, on every single landing, with periodic bursts of 500 decibel siren occasionally piercing through in our office. By the time I left, my left ear (the one closest to the door) was actually starting to hurt.

The bus journey home involved the usual fare of insane driver + squawking children, though thankfully the latter was few and far between.

I got off a stop early to investigate possibly registering at the newly-opened shiny surgery on Vicarage Road, because mine is annoying. I am now of the opinion that all NHS surgeries are annoying, and hence understand why people go private. According to the NHS website listing for the surgery, they close early on Wednesdays, which is the main grip I have with my current surgery. They're as bad as banks, except actually worse, given they don't open on Saturdays either. LOOK, SURGERIES. YOU ARE A PUBLIC SERVICE. CLOSING EARLY MID-WEEK AND AT WEEKENDS IS NOT HELPFUL.

Anyway, it took me about five minutes to find their front door because it's hidden round the back and only has one nonsensical signpost, and nothing over their front door to indicate that it's their front door. When I eventually got inside, I discovered that you can only register on Mondays and Tuesdays at 1.00pm.

Could you possible make youselves any less work-friendly? I'm really beginning to think it might be easier to register with a GP in Birmingham City Centre if they are so content to be completely inaccessible to those of us who work full-time. Employed people get sick, too. Strange but true.

So that's that. I won't be bothering, most likely. This is the first surgery I've encountered where you have to register at a certain day and time and it's really bloody stupid. My old old surgery made me temporarily register at the reception desk when I was practically doubled over in agony because of my kidney infection and didn't even bat an eyelid.

It's the NHS, I suppose - you get what you don't pay for.

Add to that the fact that about 50% of the people I encountered on the streets today obviously thought I was invisible or made of air, as they seemed content to try and walk straight through me.

And obviously, still no sign of the bus pass. I should really phone them today, but sensibility dictates I should wait until tomorrow, as I'm really not in the mood to speak to some gormless phone-monkey when they should have sent the bloody thing about a week ago. *burns TWM headquarters*

I'm already annoyed with my Cabaret layout, also, so have reverted to a calming pink-coloured one in the interim whilst I make a new one.