T'eyla Minh

This is not work moaning, more, erm... mockery? I dunno. :P My colleagues have caught Stupid Plague this week. It must be the heat.

( In no particular order... )

We have to laugh or we would cry go on a screaming rampage with bazookas.

I haven't been able to update much this week because Paul and I are renewedly attending the gym, which is obviously eating a lot of time. We went on Monday and Thursday night, plus swimming on Sunday morning, which is our new regime.

The plan this time is to book a holiday for September in advance with the hope that it'll be an adequate incentive to lose the weight. Let's see how successful that is, eh?

( Bit of a work moan - well, it's been a while. :P )

( Boring Gym Bunny Stuff )

Embroidery-wise, I have two more pictures to post later on. They would have come sooner but I had to re-order the thread (again) because it ran out. I think this is a direct result of having lost the original thread list and the online pattern being very slightly different, but in any case, the ordered thread ended up being a different shade to that I'd already used, so I had to unpick what I'd already done and start again. Anyway, I got through two shades yesterday so will post those later.

I'm also going to do a Facebook album at some point of my various completed stuff, as I've been working through some of the half-finished bits in the footstool that my mum gave me and some are now done, in addition to what I already have framed, etc., and it would be nice to have a record somewhere. :)

Oh yeah, that was the other irritating thing. I ordered some apparently "wide calf" biker-style boots from eBay as in the picture they looked promisingly roomy. I couldn't pick them up from the depot until Saturday, and it transpires my definition of "wide calf" and that of the seller differs by about four inches. Also the boots weren't as good quality as they appeared in the picture (they were faux-leather anyway, but still) as they had no proper 'tongue' to speak of because it was all sewn together. Annoying because the foot part of the boot actually fit perfectly, for a change. So I'll be sending those back for a refund. I will keep searching, and actually measure my calves so I know what to go for. Some sellers are actually nice enough to specify the width measurement. (Although I am irrationally annoyed by them still being photographed on skinny models; clearly we can't be having fatties modelling them, can we? /bitter)

After the post depot we decided to get the shopping from Dudley rather than Bearwood for a change, and ended up spending £25 in Wilkinson. :P Some of it was stuff we actually needed, though (a hook for the bedroom door, a self-adhesive one for the bathroom, a new kitchen drainer, some tall glasses and a funky new bathroom set). We had a sharer in the Wetherspoon's which was actually really nice (either they're still using up the "Christmas chips" or they've changed them forever; I hope the latter. :D) I am tempted to try their other food now to see if it's as good.

Okay, I think this is quite long enough. Nearly lunchtime (chicken sandwiches om nom) so I'll post this and wait for the man to finish fixing the printer so I can collect my transcript. :P

So, this morning was fun. Not.

( In which I am fast, but not that fast. )

Grr. I have since vented this at Sharn so feel a bit better. It doesn't help that I'm knackered from trying to juggle gym attending, cat-fostering until Saturday, and packing up the detritus of my life for the past five years (thus far I've done ornaments, Wii and DS games and our CD's - still everything else and furniture dismantling to go). I could do with the entire of next week off to get on top of it, but I have Thursday and Friday and the intervening weekend and evenings. Whoever stole the last month, kindly give it back!

With any luck Moany will stop talking enough to finish her police tape today and I can distract myself with the other one... :P She did eventually finish and I did mine in just over an hour, as it was only 10 minutes long and the interviewee basically said "no comment" as every answer. Ah well.

PS: Here's some lulz for you, in the alternative form of colleague stupidity. The above-mentioned faulty printer has a broken fuser cartridge, as I mentioned. Marie is visiting and asked what was wrong with it. Moany said it had a broken "fuselage"...

I think I told most people about this on Friday when I actually saw them, but since Forgetful has just managed to annoy me again (and it's only half-ten), I need to vent it...

( Friday onwards... )

That aside, on Friday we went to the Briar for Lloyd's birthday drinks, and did nothing all weekend except (as usual) play Super Mario Galaxy. IT IS INSANELY ADDICTIVE.

On Saturday I was in a baking mood for some reason, and after deciding that biscuits were too much of a hassle (my kitchen is too small for dough-rolling) ended up making a chocolate-orange cake with marmalade cream, as it was the only one in the book Paul would eat. As yet he has not eaten any of it. :P It turned out okay, though I might use pre-crushed almonds next time as my blender didn't do very well at those - but in the alternative, it whisked the egg whites in about 15 seconds. :) (I only discovered my blender had a whisking attachment about a month ago, after looking in the box for the slicing blade, finding a strange round attachment and looking in the manual to find out what it was...)

The marmalade cream was amazing, though. I will definitely make that again if not the cake. :) Here is a recipe for the cream if anyone wants it:-

( Recipe: Marmalade Cream )


I also made us a steak-and-ale pie, made with Guinness (belated St Patrick's Day celebration) which was AMAZING. The Guinness really seems to work well because it's so thick, and the gravy was lovely. Also I never buy supermarket braising steak any more because it's better quality from the butcher.

We also bought two pheasants from the butcher (for £9.99!) and had one for Sunday lunch - wrapped it in bacon and shoved apple wedges into the cavities before roasting - which was nice. Still a bit of meat left so I can have pheasant sandwiches later in the week. :)

Anyway, nothing much else to report. We're two days behind on typing today thanks to my doing police tapes on Friday (go figure) so today is going to be busy, and that's about it. Over and out.

Oh, I also need to do a bit of an update about our current house-hunting status and adventures thereof on Saturday, but I'll do that when I get in later.

I have no idea when I last updated or what it was about, but here is what I've been up to...

( Birthday Stuffs )

After that Paul and I both had a week off work. The beginning of the week mostly involved doing nothing, going to Aldi, and watching Duckula, in my case anyway. I've got through the first two discs so far.

On Thursday we headed off to London for a couple of days. ( London Stuffs )

In other, more positive news, TAX REFUND, BABY!!! Apparently for 2008-2009 I overpaid over a grand in tax! Considering I had to extend my overdraft again last month just in case I spent too much money in London, this little windfall is very much appreciated. In addition, I achieved my pay increment at work and should be getting a chunk of backpay tomorrow in my wages, which initially I was going to spend on an eye test and new lenses. Instead I'm going to use the tax refund to pay a chunk off the credit card and pay for the eye test, and hopefully spend the backpayment on something NICE for a change. :)

I anticipate something horrible will happen to me in due course when Fate realises she made a horrible error in judgement. But in the meantime, it's nice to have a bit of luck for once.

Also, I started watching Damages on Monday night and I'm about nine episodes in. Quite enjoying it, though I can't decide if Patty Hewes is pure genius or pure evil... Whichever it is, Glenn Close is sheer awesomeness incarnate, but we already knew that. :)

I think that'll do. :)

I just had the following exchange with a WPO colleague during our (wholly unproductive) team moanathon meeting. Surprisingly, Moany wasn't even there. This conversation took place with newly-aliased Forgetful, so-named for her previous statement about forgetting everything we'd learned about Iken because she would have slept in the interim...

Me: [regarding dictation] I've said to Lisa that if she has trouble using the untethered device, she can always use Kate's [her jobshare] when she's in.

Forgetful: That's not fair, you'll pick up a piece of work from Kate and discover it's Lisa.

Nice attitude. They don't like Lisa's work because (a) she never dictates matter numbers (which is why I produced a reference list of them) and (b) she likes scanning and sending emails, OH NOES THE HORROR. Which is exactly why I keep getting lumbered with it on a regular basis, because I do it without any hassle. (Lisa actually using the digital dictation system is a whole other rant, mind you, because of said scanning issue, and I tried to resolve it before it became a problem to no avail... My attempts to explain why it wasn't just as simple as giving her a dictation device and the appropriate training were not met with the appropriate enthusiasm. I have now washed my hands of it.)

Also discovered in course of said meeting that Forgetful had clearly completely ignored the helpful email sent some months back by one of our IT guys, attaching the desktop links for the other two shared drives on the network, subsequent to the original office move back in January. We use 'socshare' (Social Services), and there is also 'pubshare' (Public Law and Property) and 'litshare' (Litigation). Pubshare is used for Education Team's work and litshare for Employment's, hence why we needed access and links. She was asking where we were supposed to save work for Employment because they never make it clear, and I said their case files were on litshare, which was enough to send her into paroxysms of confusion and affrontation.

Look, if you ignore an email because you think it does not apply to you personally, that's not my problem. Considering everyone else knew what I was talking about, it clearly IS just you. Yes, fair enough, Employment shouldn't be using the network drives, but they are, and that's their choice. Until they start using Iken, just do as you're bloody well told.

GRAH, so frustrating.

As is having vegetable fail at Tesco. They had no parnsips AND no leeks. I know they're winter veg, but come on!

Dear People-at-the-Bus-Stop,

Why do you feel the need to try and get on the bus before the passengers disembarking have a chance to get off? Apart from being rude, what do you expect will happen? You're not going to get home any quicker than if you were to wait, unless those few seconds are absolutely vital. I appreciate, man-at-the-front-of-the-queue, that you did apologise to myself and the lady before me, but that does not negate the fact that your foot was already on the platform as soon as the doors opened.

No love,

teylaminh

It's not just randomers, either. As I was getting off the bus this morning (I had to sit upstairs because I left five minutes late - go figure - so I was one of the last straggers to get off), I think I saw one of the fee earners in Adults haranguing the driver. It sounded like her, anyway. It's not a fee earner I particularly miss since the move, as she was constantly pestering me and announcing her PC issues to the entire office. After the incident this morning, it reminded me that, yes, she did have an air of self-importance about her which would explain what I saw happening.

I assume she was trying to get somewhere on the 50 for a meeting or otherwise. As I and several other remaining passengers were still getting off, I spotted that she was standing by the driver's cabin. I think she was trying to ascertain how much it would cost, as I distinctly heard, "I've only got £3.50..." before I got off myself. And yes, there was a queue of people waiting to get on. The 50 stop is a busy one no matter what time of day it is.

I can almost accept it from teenagers and old people, the two groups who seem to believe the world owes them something (I can understand it from the pensioners; the 'yoofs' have no excuse), though it's still a sad picture of society in general that we live in a universe of self-absorbed egotism and downright rudeness. I just hope I don't reach the point of having so much money that I consider myself so entitled that the rules of manners no longer apply. Money buys you lots of things; it does not buy you respect.

I think perhaps this would not have annoyed me quite so much, if not for this week at work being completely horrendous. We are still three days behind on typing, and today I feel like I've been horribly unproductive, despite the fact I literally haven't stopped except for lunch. I don't mind being busy (I would rather have too much work than none at all), but there are limits.

Gah. Only one day to go, anyway.

I got into work this morning to find the heating was broken. Ten degrees celcius at 9.00am (I was delayed by traffic stupidity in the first instance), so I went straight back out to get a hot drink, following which I've been sitting here in my coat all morning.

The heating was fixed by about 9.45 or thereabouts, but given the office takes the best part of a day to warm up anyway, and is always quite chilly on Monday mornings even when the heating is working, over the course of a couple of hours the temperature slowly clambered to 15 degrees.

There are very few people in today, and thus there is nothing to do. At 10.15, David said that if the temperature had not improved in an hour of so, he was happy for Noor and I to go home and he'd take the blame for it if questions were asked later.

So, at about 11.30, the temperature had not improved sufficiently, and we still didn't have any work to do. He then set about trying to find someone appropriately in charge of the WPOs in Marie's absence to authorise us going home. He then came back from his mission to inform us that it was significantly warmer on the other side of the building, and our options were to either go and sit at a spare desk over there, or merely have an extended lunch until the building warmed up. He could see the lack of sense in having two dithering WPOs sitting at their desks with nothing to do, but didn't want to just send us home when it transpired that the WPOs over there (i.e. Marian) were staying put.

Anyway, a few minutes later Carol H wandered over, the secretary named on the rota as covering in Marie's absence. Obviously, she wasn't about to send us home. There was some discussion as to whether it was down to manager or employee discretion, whether we would lose pay or have to use up leave, etc; Carol went to "ask Jerome" (her Head of Service) and didn't reappear, so we assumed that we were not allowed to leave - neither of us are going to be so presumptuous to merely walk out without permission.

The most irritating thing in all of this was that Carol said we should go and sit over their side and help Marian - when we checked a few minutes earlier, there was no work anywhere, and no help therefore required. The suggestion of helping is not annoying in and of itself, as if there was any work to do it would be done with pleasure. It was the implication that we simply weren't bothering which irritated me. Noor and I are the only two WPOs who provide full cover at any given time. This issue has been raised over and over again without resolution, but that's neither here nor there. As ever, those of us who are willing to be flexible are penalised for it.

And now, to top it all off, the lift's broken.

I should have stayed in bed.

For some reason lately, people have been infuriatingly dim-witted.

( Cut because it's stupid and petty but I need to vent it before I hit someone. )

Nowt else to report, alas. I finished my fifth Christmas decoration embroidery last night (five more to go - argh!) and took photos of that and the fourth one, except our internet was down and I couldn't post them. Will do that tonight if it's back up.

Okay, so on Thursday afternoon I had booked flex leave, which meant that I spent most of Thursday morning typing like the clappers to get the pile down to a manageable level, sending copious emails, hiding my stationery, etc.

I left work shortly before 1.00pm and went to get my hair cut, then went back via Wilkinson to pick up some bits, and some lunch from Greggs. The rest of the afternoon was spent doing various household stuff and dying my hair, which is now black again. :)

On Friday, we got up at 7.15 in order to catch a coach to London, arriving just after 12.20 and immediately tube-hopping to the O2, where we were going to see ( Gunther von Hagans' Bodyworlds Exhibition )

After that we had loads of time to kill so wandered around Soho for a bit (firstly getting lost - it all looks different in daylight!) to find the bistro we always go to. Lovely food, as ever. We had a couple of drinks in some pubs, and passed a liquor shop selling two rather exciting things: a bottle of Absolut vodka ensconced inside a red, besequinned jacket, advertised as "100% gay vodka!"; and, apparently, some fizzy vodka. Paul spotted this, though I didn't see it, however I made sure to inform Sharn at work this morning, who was suitably impressed. ;)

We also accidentally stumbld upon L'Escargot, Marco Pierre White's restaurant, down a back street in Soho. I literally double-taked and was like, "Is that the real L'Escargot?", and we wandered over to have a look at their prices. Surprisingly, they're no more expensive than some of the high-end of independent restaurants in Moseley...

Coach back was at 8.30 and I dozed off and on all the way back, which at least made the journey pass a bit quicker.

On Saturday I was knackered and slept in until around 11.00, before heading out to meet my mum and David to see We Will Rock You at the Hippodrome. ( OMG SO AMAZING )

In the evening we met up again to go out for a meal at La Fibule, which is where Paul and I went on Valentine's Day. It's quite pricey, but the food is absolutely amazing. For starters, Paul and my mum both had the three-cheese salad, David had... damn, can't remember, and I had the falafel, which was nice, if a bit dry. For mains, Paul had the king prawn skewers, David had the fish stew (which was a GIANT PILE OF SEAFOOD in sauce, amazing), mum had the Poulet Khaddra (which I had on Valentine's Day) and I tried the Tagine D'Agneu D'Asilah, which was lamb cooked in yoghurt, sage and mint. OMG so delicious. There was far too much, so alas I couldn't finish it, but it was so creamy and amazing. Wow. If it wasn't so expensive I would eat there more often.

It was baking hot in there, also, which given it's Moroccan makes for an authentic dining experience.

Sunday, thankfully, was lazy - I put washing out, watched EastEnders, had a shower, the usual.

Back at work this morning to find a note on my desk from Gaynor, apologising for the fact none of the work had been done in my absence (Noor is also on leave). Apparently one of the seniors in Central Team had decreed one particular fee earner's work to all be urgent, because they were holiday cover notes, thus effectively depriving us of one typist; another typist got lumbered with the three-taper off Lisa which was needed for Monday morning, which I had hoped to get done before leaving but had deprioritised to get through everything else, and after she'd finished that managd one other thing after lunch before swanning off at 3.30.

So this morning I had to do the 1.5-tape from Lisa (also needed for Monday, as above), plus the remainder of Thursday afternoon's work AND all of Friday's. By the time I left this afternon at 4.45, I had just caught up to the stuff from this morning.

I don't know why I bother trying to be organised. Meh.

Okay, that's enough for this entry. I should have done the WWRY review straight afterwards, but I was bloody knackered from all the rocking. \m/

Over and out.