T'eyla Minh

I briefly mentioned this on FB and Twitter but here's the full-blown version of our unsuccessful Sunday afternoon daytrip.

( In Which I Am Once Again Punished For Not Driving )

So yeah. That was our weird, unproductive Sunday afternoon.

( Saturday = FAIL )

Sunday was sedate by comparison. The usual. EastEnders and embroidery. We also investigated the new bargain shop at the end of our road, which isn't as bad as anticipated - lots of good deals on all sorts of things, including sweets, so we've been ridiculously unhealthy all weekend. Meh.

Today I had my follow-up appointment at the hospital and everything is fine so I've been discharged. Trying to get to work through Bristol Road traffic wasn't so much fun (probably should have gotten the train, really) and I finally got in at 10.15 or thereabouts. We have been ridiculously understaffed all day (so what else is new - where the bloody hell is everyone?!) and helping out the other side AGAIN. Noor, who normally stays late on Mondays, had to go at 3.30, and I went at 4.00. Fuck it, I've had enough of being the only one willing to stay late, quite frankly. Sandra and Joy were both in anyway, they can do some work for a change.

Cleaning the bathroom on my return home has clearly not mellowed me, sorry. :P

*goes away*

All these tapes in my head swirl around
Keeping my vibe down
All these thoughts in my head aren’t my own
Wreaking havoc

(From "Tapes" - Alanis Morissette)

These lyrics kind of sum up my brain at the moment. Nevertheless I'm overdue an update, so here is something resembling one.

( An update. )

That's about it. At the moment my brain is full of what the heck I'm doing week after week, so if I don't update, that'll be why...

...continued yesterday. I rang them up at 12.45 to be informed that the person who could help me was on lunch. So I rang back at 1.15 and went through the rigmarole of my name, postcode, yes I did upload a photo, to be informed that it was sent out on the 1st. They said they'd send it out again.

Then, an hour or so later, rang me back to say they were sending it special delivery. Originally to my home address, but when informed I would be at work* took that address instead, so it should hopefully arrive this morning. *crosses fingers* I've bought a Daysaver just in case.

So, they have at least redeemed themselves slightly with the special delivery thing, which is more than Centro ever managed...

For anyone interested, we have an open rehearsal next week. Ask me for the details if you want to come. I may leave at the break, though, because open rehearsals have an extended break and we don't end until 8.45pm, which is very annoying.

I don't have anything else to add to this entry really... We've run out of butter and, er, my washing is dry? I'm not very exciting lately.

* Clearly only unemployed people get the bus. Well, Jeremy Clarkson would certainly have you believe that.

Or I need to make entries which are about one thing instead of many. :P

( Cut cutty cut cut... )

Was that rambly enough for you?

PS: To any that may be interested, there's another open rehearsal for the choir in a couple of weeks. I'll scan the flyer tonight and post it...

Well... three, anyway. That's all this weekend has involved, really.

On Saturday I met up with Denise (and subsequently Lloyd, as it turned out) to see The X-Files: I Want to Believe. I thoroughly enjoyed it, thank you very much. ( Some thoughts )

Of the evening Paul and I attempted to get Batman Begins to work on Virgin, but they were full of fail. So instead we watched it on Sunday morning, and then headed out to see The Dark Knight in the afternoon...

( More thoughts )

In other, non-film-related news, Centro have forgotten to send me my pass AGAIN. That's twice they've managed it. I was going to switch back to a TWM card anyway, and this has provided a more than adequate excuse, You fail, Centro. I was only holding onto the Centro card as a means of using non-TWM buses, and having a 'Zone 1' card means I can get as far as the Jewellery Quarter / Five Ways on a train and hence there's little point in having one. When I was using the train regularly it worked out cheaper, and perhaps if Kings Heath station ever re-opens I may go back to one, but it's not worth the extra money any more. Both Centro and TWM are obviously in league with Satan, so it's a literal case of the lesser of two evils. ;)

I'm on my own this week. So far it hasn't been too annoying... Anyway, I'll post this and do another hour's work, then it's lunchtime... *munches on Scotch egg*

Gah, I was SO TIRED last night. I left work at 4.45 and got home an hour later thanks to the worst bus journey I've had in a while... I decided to get the 35 because it was sitting there as I crossed Corporation Street and usually it's marginally quicker than the 50 as it's a slightly more direct route.

Possibly, when the doors clipped me as I stepped onto the bus because the driver hadn't seen me coming, that should have tipped me off...

The journey started out okay. We got as far as Highgate and then, er... well, I have no idea what the driver was doing, but somehow we ended up going down the Pershore Road, then turning left onto... Edgbaston Road? Whichever one it is with the MAC / cricket ground. Somehow he managed to get us back on track by the time we'd reached Moseley, but GAH. I was really starting to panic for a while. I mean, what do you do for the best? Get off and hope you can find another way home (if we'd gone any further down the Pershore I was ending to get off at the end of Fordhouse Lane and get the 11...) or just keep going and get irrevocably lost?

I suppose one good thing about Birmingham (especially that bit of Birmingham) is you can easily get back there, even if you can't get out again. ;)

Anyway, thanks to that journey (and also working full days all this week despite because of Noor's absence - I've soon gotten used to early afternoon leaving times) I was in no fit state to cook, so Paul did our stir fry. YUMS. (Remains of Monday's roast pork, fried until crispy, with green peppers, mushrooms, onion, garlic, and some Blue Dragon oyster sauce, with noodles.)

Watched telly for the rest of the night: My Name Is Earl and Big Bang Theory. Need to get both of them on DVD...

I did wake up once in the middle of the night at around 4.30am, which was quite surreal. I think I woke up as a combination of Paul rolling over to hug me and also needing the loo, combined with light coming through the curtains which made me think Paul had literally just finished reading and was randomly cuddling me, so I asked him to turn the light off. Most confusing.

I've been knackered all week, not to mention disorganised. Must get back into the proper habit of breakfast and packed lunches next week, and also not sleep horrendous amounts this weekend... I don't think it helped, really.

In other news, apparently the rest of season 2 of Ugly Betty was meant to start today, but apparently Celebrity Wife Swap is on instead, and obviously Big Brother starts soon after that. (Oh joy, more car crash television...) I checked the C4 forum this morning to see what the latest news is and apparently now it won't be on until the autumn. The US has had the season finale already and quite frankly, my patience is now wearing thin. (The reason C4 have given is that they had to plan their summer schedules whilst they still didn't know the outcome of the writers' strike, which I suppose is fair enough, but it would have been nice if they hadn't built our hopes up with S2 repeats on E4 and the endless torrent of complete and utter dross they were showing the UB slot on Fridays for the past three months...)

Anyway, as a result, I went to Amazon and have requested that they email me as soon as the season 2 DVDs are ready for pre-order. Up yours, Channel 4. :P (I wouldn't mind as much if I hadn't been waiting on seeing the end of season 2 before watching the season 1 DVDs Paul and I got for Christmas. I didn't want to start them because there are so many sub-plots that it would only confuse me. I may just make a start now in readiness for eventually getting season 2 DVDs...)

So, yeah. There we go.

In other news: the roofers are coming to fix the leak today, and I've hidden the washing that's drying in the bath by drawing the shower curtain across, just in case Trevor comes wandering in again (we're meant to dry it in the loft but it was so bloody cold up there I moved the drying rack downstairs). He'll probably go into the bathroom to look at the dodgy light pull, which will also be fixed next Saturday.

Also, we are having my grandmother over for dinner next Friday. Hopefully by then I won't be so completely knackered, especially as it's my turn to cook...

Which reminds me, we need to do a meat shop this weekend...

I shall now stop writing this entry before it gets even longer... ;)

Despite only leaving the house 5 minutes late this morning, I didn't get to work until 9.50. I was stuck on the bus for at least an hour between Moseley and Balsall Heath because of heavy traffic. Whilst waiting, two ambulances went past in the direction of whatever was holding everything up, so obviously I assumed there'd been some kind of horrible traffic accident.

When we finally reached Moseley Baths, the culprit turned out to be a piddly bit of road works on both sides of the road just before the Baths, which was holding up the traffic in both bloody directions. I ask you, what was wrong with waiting until the weekend?

So that was fun.

Last night was about decent television, although I do wish the BBC wouldn't compete with themselves as well as everyone else. There were at least three things I wanted to watch last night: Ashes to Ashes (9.00pm on BBC1), the new That Mitchell & Webb Look (9.00pm on BBC2) and My Street (9.00pm on C4). Luckily Mitchell & Webb were on replay, but no sign of the street thing yet... the ending was good, so I wish I'd watched it. Channel Four is unwatchable through the aerial so I couldn't even tape it...

I am thoroughly enjoying Ashes..., though. As much as I enjoyed Life on Mars, this is different because I at least remember most of the 80s...

( On shipping )

In short, Gene/Alex FTW! ;)

Aside from the horrible journey this morning, today hasn't been too bad... Not long after I'd sat down, one of the senior solicitors from next door popped over to ask if I'd done the 8-page file note for her last night, then said it was "spot on!" (no amendments) and that she'd passed the message of thanks onto Marie for me as well. :D Oddly enough, during our team meeting yesterday (which was very silly and not even remotely serious throughout) it was discussed that all the teams have to go through the questions on the Staff Satisfaction Questionnaire and talk about how they can be improved or changed, and I was thinking something along the lines of gaining more job satisfaction through better praise and reward systems.

The people here are generally a lot more praising and appreciative of the typists than at Ladywood (or the rest of the Council in general, judging by the piss poor rates of pay we get elsewhere outside of Legal) but still, it's nice to be told. ;) I do feel a little like I'm making some small waves here. I'm the least senior WPO in the team (the temp aside) but have already been told that I give the impression of being here a lot longer. I was quite shocked recently to see amendments that came back for one of the long-term WPOs where the fee earner hadn't dictated which part of the UK the DX address was for and the WPO had sent it back to ask - which would be fair enough for something outside of Birmingham, but they should KNOW by now that C&J are based in Northfield, or AC are Birmingham 1, etc. It's like learning postcodes - makes your job easier and quicker. Are they all that lazy so as not to have learnt them, or am I just expecting too much?

Ah, well, this new performance-based payscale will hopefully separate the wheat from the chaff, as it were. I think some of them have only ended up as seniors because they've been here for centuries...

Half an hour til lunch. I am tempted by Pret soup today as one of them is mushroom risotto... mmm, rice. Of course, I will probably also have rice at wagamama later as I will inevitably be indecisive and fall back onto the chicken curry, but still... at least that's different rice. ;)

I shall now sign this off.

...and about 25 more years, and I could be Norma Desmond.



(Sorry about the blurriness; I couldn't be bothered to mess with the digital camera so I used the webcam.  It could do with a bit of exercise anyway. :P)

There was going to be a longish rant here about idiots in cars who think it's funny/cute to beep their horn at you.  But since having a shower has mellowed me out, it'll be slightly shorter.

I was beeped at whilst walking up the main road after work earlier.  This is annoying at the best of times, since my instinct is to look and then realise they're beeping at someone else entirely - except this time, I was confronted by some idiot gawping at me and waving.  No, I didn't know them.  I was wearing tight-ish jeans (not by choice; my arse has expanded) and was the only female on the pavement, but that's no excuse.  The male argument at this point would be "You should be flattered" - screw that, thank you very much.  My argument is that blokes who beep their car horns at women on the street should have said car horns wired into their privates so they get a similar shock when they decide to beep at said women.  Negative conditioning and all that.

Because, y'see, when I've just left work, am listening to my MP3-er and am also tired and grumpy, when I get a sudden shock like a loud noise, my first instinct is to lash out and kill things.  In which case, the idiot waving at me should be very glad he was safely behind the protective body of the car, and that he wasn't stuck in traffic.

Also annoying was the fact that I had to wait for the next train because the 5.35ish, peak time train from Snow Hill to Stourbridge Junction was two carriages long, so by the time it'd even left bloody Snow Hill it was rammed.  I suspect it may also have been late, as the next one turned up a lot sooner than I was expecting.  That one wasn't much better, either, being only three carriages long, but that one carriage makes a hell of a difference.  Whose bright bloody idea was that, anyway?  Yes, encourage people to use public transport, but make sure it's unreliable, uncomfortable, and generally unpredictable before you do so.  I wish I was that clever.  Really.

Er, yes.  Despite this, all is now well in the world, as we're having exotic-sounding sausages and mash for tea (some of them have cheese in!) and if I'm not exhausted tomorrow I'll be going to see butterflyburn's band, Sinistra, at Scruffy Murphy's tomorrow.  In which case, I apologise in advance if I don't make it...

Message end.

You'll all be glad to know, I found my bus pass.  Under the bed.

I had a nap when I got in.  Or tried to.  I lay down at about 6.00 and despite the fact that my eyes physically hurt, I didn't nod off until about 6.45 so didn't get that much sleep.  I hate my brain's complete inability to switch off.  At least when I was going through whatever I was going through (I'm loath to call it 'depression' for fear of all the actually depressed people on, like, pills and stuff leaping down my throat) I could get to bloody sleep when I was tired instead of lying awake for hours.  I'm not sure which I prefer.

Also, it took me an hour to get home by bus this evening.  And Paul's been waiting for an 11 for about 45 minutes.

I am going to blow up all the buses.  And then all of the cars.  And then build more buses that will be on time because there'll be no traffic to hold them up.

This entry is fragmented because I'm hungry and tired.