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.

So, yesterday was interesting and annoying in equal measure.

It was Liz's last day, so we were having a leaving lunch in the Conference room. I made some fairy cakes (which actually got eaten this time) and we had a ridiculous amount of food.

We started preparing everything at about 11.00, which included cooking stuff, decorating the room, putting the food out, etc, etc. Nina (annoying Senior Prac from upstairs; she's a very good social worker, but she's demanding and irritating and won't accept no for an answer) wandered down to ask me to tell her when everything would be ready, so I said we were aiming for 12.30.

I was in the kitchen chatting to Tina H about stuff while we finished microwaving the rice, having left an empty room for ten minutes. I went back in to put out another big serving spoon and the bloody Social Workers were queuing to get into the room.

It's just as well the chicken balti Liz had made was the last thing to go out, or there would've been none left for us. I was especially annoyed by this, as I'd taken my camera in and wanted to get a photograph of the spread.

I'd also planned to get some photos of the team for Liz but work stress got in the way of it. I don't know why I bother.

(Mrrrgh. Go away, phone. I don't want to talk to Maxine.)

So, anyway, in all of this, we discovered this morning that we'd forgotten to give Liz her card. She liked the bracelet part of the present and said nothing about the perfume, so she either hates it or has about six bottles of it already... Which is my fault, as that was my idea, and I was the one who found out which one it was that she used to wear...

I left work at about 4.15 and was back an hour later (258 bus's fault) and left the station to find a rainbow in the sky, which was quite pleasant. I did take a picture with my phone, but I'm not sure if it came out... will find out later.

Anyway, I headed back out again at 6.00ish. Had to wear my trainers because my feet were being annoying and cramping up again, but since they're sparkly it didn't look too bad, and my jeans were long enough to conceal them anyway.

I wasn't looking forward to going that much, and I've realised that my nervous reaction of yawning uncontrollably, tired or not, is more of an anxiety reaction than anything else. We started at All Bar One, and due to aforesaid anxiety I drank my first glass of wine a bit too quickly. We had some of their little platter things (6 for £20) between four of us, which were quite nice.

There were 8 of us at the start: me, Liz, Sandra, Natasha, Cynthia, Amanda, Val (who will be replacing Liz in a couple of weeks) and Liz's friend, and Val left at about 8.00. Also, Cynthia and I were wearing the same bolero top, which luckily nobody except us noticed...

We went to Risa afterwards, where we all got IDed. Liz thought the bouncer was kidding, until we spotted a sign on the door that said if you looked under 25 you'd be asked for ID. Ironic, considering I was the only one there who was actually under 25. They let us all in, anyway...

In Risa I had two vodka and pineapples and one glass out of a pitcher of Sex on the Beach (orange, cranberry and vodka) and was feeling drunk-tired but not overly so. We sat and talked until the music got too loud (I hate that) and I left at about 11.00.

Which is when the annoyance started.

I was waiting for the 126, which was due at 11.10. At 11.05, all of the buses due at that time turned up - on time. I waited until 11.15 and presumed that the 126 had come early and I'd just missed it, so I wandered off to get a taxi.

I'd no sooner got into the taxi when the 126 pulled up three cars behind. Which meant that I spent a tenner on a taxi that I didn't have to.

And this morning I couldn't find my bus pass.

Okay. So it was in the (large, flat; large enough for a bus pass but not large enough that it would fall out) back pocket of my jeans while I was waiting at the bus stop. I took it out when the fleet of 11.05 buses turned up, just in case one of them (ha!) was mine. Then I put it back, and I know it was in there because I had my hands in my back pockets to keep them warm.

So it's either fallen out in the back of the taxi (no idea how) or it's on my bedroom floor somewhere from when I took my jeans off again. I didn't have time to look properly this morning, but I'm incredibly annoyed by this. If my bloody bus had been on time, I would've put it straight back into my purse after getting on the bus, rather than leaving it in my back pocket in the taxi. If it's not in my room, I'll probably never see it again, as I have no idea which taxi firm it was.

I'm sure I can phone Centro and tell them, but it's still annoying, and it'll probably be a battle of wills.

I became convinced a long time ago that TWM is, in fact, the Devil incarnate. However, I am now led to believe that they're in cahoots with Broad Street taxis. I mean, on Friday and Saturday nights they don't serve the top end of it, so you either have to walk all the way down to McDonalds/OhVelvet, or get a taxi. They're only every half an hour, and even then they're not on time, so you get cold/bored/tired, and so you get a taxi.

The taxis, by this logic, are therefore Mephistopheles, the Tempter. Sitting there in their warm, comfortably-furnished queues, their little orange signs glowing appealingly, whispering "Travel in meeee."

Either way, they're all bastards, and they need to go back to the depths of Hell from whence they came.

I am not impressed. I really hope it's on my bedroom floor. :(

I did an entry this afternoon at work, because I was losing the will to live...

( This afternoon's entry )

So, yes, not that exciting, really.

It took me slightly longer to get home today than I would like.  I left work at 5.30 and got back at 6.45, due to train stupidity.  It was delayed by 10 minutes and subsequently rammed (mostly because it was only two carriages long - nice planning there, Centro) and then another one turned up 5 minutes or so later that was empty.  The bus wasn't too bad.  Also, the lights in the tunnel just before the station weren't working, so there was a big, spooky chasm to the right...

We're having enchiladas for dinner. :)

Going to Paul's tomorrow so will update on Thursday, assuming anything exciting happens, which it probably won't.  We're still working through Twin Peaks so should at least get up to episodes 2 and 3 tomorrow night.  It's not like there's anything on telly.

I got the train home today (£1.50 single from Jewellery Quarter to Rowley Regis) and it took me 45 minutes to get back instead of the usual hour and a half.  This is a Good Thing, although I need to find a better place to cross the dual carriageway so I'm not walking back on myself about half a mile. It's about a 10 minute walk to the station from work (uphill, mostly) so this also means getting some exercise on a daily basis as well.  Definitely of the good.  Now I must investigate how much train/bus/metro combined passes are, as it'll probably save me some money; I'm spending random £1.60s all over the place getting to/from Bournville to see Paul.

tengirlsago and bizarrethe2nd, thanks so much for the Christmas cards!  You both have lovely handwriting and I now feel somewhat ashamed of my untidy scrawling...  Fliss, I promise, we will meet in 2006.  I shall warn all appropriate parties/universes beforehand, obviously... ;)  Though I managed to meet both beyondthebadge and thefleshfailure on several occasions without ending the world, so we may be safe. :)

I don't want to go to work tomorrow.  Amanda's off, Sandra's in, Cynthia's in for about 5 hours, and sod it, I'm going home at 3.30.  Then getting ready to go out again to meet Aisha at 6.45 before heading off to Bella Italia.

I also had a nice idea for Christmas that I shall put to Paul tomorrow: since we can't spend Christmas Day together but are meeting up on Boxing Day to go and catsit for purrr3, we should wait until then to open our mutual presents (there's one addressed to both of us from my grandmother.  Aww...) and pretend it's Christmas Day then... but we'll see.  I need to give him the stuff for his mum and brother anyway, but I'll just hold onto his presents until I see him Boxing Day so he won't have any choice. ;)

Right, I need to go to bed...  LAST DAY OF WORK TOMORROW!!

( ...as per this. )

It has snowed considerably more here than it did in Birmingham city centre, but it still took me nearly two hours to get home... I left at 5.25 and got back about 6.45.  Bastard traffic.  I was waiting 15 minutes for an 8, then another half an hour or so for something that would take me home, since the first 126 that went past in either direction - luckily, homewards - was packed to the gills, as was the 128 I finally managed to get on...  Also, my trainers can't grip in slush so I had to walk through three inches of snow to get down the hill, so my feet were frozen.  I mean, I like snow and everything, but why does it result in such bloody chaos?

I mean, aside from the fact that TWM are messengers of Satan..

I have decided: every person who damns the snowfall makes another snowflake die.  Which is why just when the snow's getting good and pretty and deep, it stops again.  STOP KILLING THE SNOW, YOU FASCISTS!

( Some pictures )

That's it, I think...  I remembered the other night that I'd started working on a PADD-style layout to use for my Star Trek fic-page on my website, so I might go and find that in a moment and see how it was coming along...

Okay, here's the thing.  It should not take me twice as long to get home than it does to get to work in the first place.  Aside from the annoyance, it's just not fair.  Especially when there's a rainstorm out there of Mancunian* proportions.

Honestly, Britain.  The London Underground is attacked and everyone goes about their business.  A little bit of rain and the entire of bloody Birmingham's gridlocked.  Forget bombs; try terrorism by weather.**

So, yes.  That aside, wheeee!rain!

When I've eaten, I shall dye my hair.  Then there shall be photos. :D

* Maybe that's a tad overstating it.  Biblical, maybe...
**I do not, let it be noted, advocate terrorism of any kind, nor am I understating the atrocity of the London bombings.  Just to clear that up.

This month has sucked, to quote Buffy, beyond the telling of it.

Well, most of it has.

I did not sleep well last night.  Was being oddly distant (apparently) with Paul for no apparent reason and irritable in general, kept having half-waking dreams about nothing in particular (though in residual memory, I'm sure I dreamt about the keypad on his mobile...) and woke up defeatedly at 7.30.  The bus took 15 minutes to turn up and then saw fit to sit at a later stop for five minutes (there is very little in the world more annoying than that), as well as getting stuck at every single set of traffic lights between Five Ways and work.  So I got to work at 9.30, which is an improvement on most, but would have been about 20 minutes sooner if not for the above.

Not a good start to the day.

Since I was due for My CareFirst training at Chamberlain House (Kings Heath) that afternoon, I decided to buy some lunch from the local newsagent, and got one of those pasta-n-sauce things... but forgot that I needed a) a saucepan/microwaveable container b) milk c) something to measure above with, so couldn't actually cook the damn thing.  It didn't matter, though, as it transpired, as I just left work at 12.00 and had comfort food in Subway instead and still got to the training before everyone else - and let it be noted, I was going by bus and didn't have a clue where I was supposed to be...

The 50 is a good bus.  It is regular and frequent and on time.  Other buses should learn from this.  But that's neither here nor there.

More suck came in the form of Paul's bank being arseholes and not giving him the loan extension they promised in the first place, which means he has no money and can't afford Derby, which means the whole thing is cancelled.  Watch this space, as I go slowly stir crazy from two weeks in the house.  He emailed me to tell me so and then rang me up five minutes later, which only made things worse because he kept frelling apologising, so I had a little cry about it and seethed for about two hours until it was time to go.

Hence, comfort food in Subway, in the form of hot chicken on Hearty Italian (6-inch) with barbecue sauce...

The training was meant to be from 1.30 to 4.00 and lasted just over an hour in the end, as it was designed for training social workers and was barely relevant to our job except to show us what the new, easier menus look like on the programme.  If it had been just me, it would have been over in about half that time, but I have some rudimentary knowledge of computers to start with...  Tina H gave us all permission to go home and claim pay til 4.00, but I have a serious amount of work to get through before I go on leave so I got a lift back to work (I'm an idiot...) and left at 5.30.  But with any luck, I should be able to leave at 3.30 tomorrow if I get in early enough...

I'm having my pasta and sauce for tea. Unfortunately, my brain is so addled, I can't even read the instructions, so it's being made for me.

Oh, and if that wasn't enough, my body is finally rebelling against the head-explodiness by giving me another kidney infection, so it looks like tomorrow will mostly be spent on the phone cancelling hotels and booking emergency appointments...

If you don't mind, I'm going to follow Maddy's advice.  If you want me, I'll be in the corner waiting for oblivion.

Today, as days go, wasn't too bad.  The battery ran out on my MP3-er and practically deafened me in the process, but I knew that was going to happen sooner or later this week.  Inline wasn't too snarky, I had some email tennises with some people, and supervision with Tina was fine, and she's going to get me access to CareFirst because she hadn't realised I'd not got it.  I got through to the IT Helpdesk relatively quickly and they sorted out why my email wasn't working.

There was a bizarre piece of bizarreness when I phoned the MHLive ticket people to check if they'd got my email address right, at the exact second the bloke who answered the phone happened to be sending the e-ticket... which was incredibly impressive, to say the least.

One of our clients got arrested in the corridor at about 2.00pm, with much swearing and shouting.  The two officers eventually called for backup because he was resisting arrest, and another four cars turned up - for one fourteen year old boy.  Of course, that set Cynthia off being upset because her son's fourteen, but aside from that it was quite exciting.

I left at 5.00 to go and pick up my prescription.  My surgery has recently opened a pharmacist in the same building to make getting your prescription easier... but I absolutely hate it.  The staff are slow, even though there's always a Head Pharmacist in there, there's about three of them, but only one of them ever wants to serve you.  Grudgingly.  And it's tiny, so it was full of people.

Nevertheless, prescription having been obtained (the NHS are now charging £6.50 per item...), I wasn't in such a bad mood... until I started waiting for the bus. It was only about 5.45 by this point.  Twenty minutes later, I was still waiting for sign of any bus, let alone one I could catch...  Then I got a call off mum saying that she and David were at the The Dog, and if I walked down I could get a lift home... unfortunately, she thought I was at the Bearwood bit of Hagley Road, not the Sandon Road bit of Hagley Road (it's about an extra quarter-mile to walk), so I was decidedly aggravated by the time I got there...

And now I'm just frelled off with the entire world, for no feasible reason.  I'm also very tired, which might have something to do with it, but being frelled off for no reason makes me frustrated, and I'm hungry, and I want everything to bugger off an leave me alone now, please.

None of this being helped, of course, by the fact that there is still no e-ticket in my inbox, nor my Junk folder.  I'll give it until tomorrow and then call again Thursday, which I'm sure will piss them off, but I can't help being paranoid when the damn thing's in two weeks and I don't even have tickets yet.

Which reminds me: two of my people may not be able to go, so there's two Most Haunted Live tickets up for grabs (well, I presume, if I ever get them) if anyone wants them.  If you live in London, that would also be a bonus... though quite frankly, by this point, I couldn't care less.

Feeling a lot less aggravated today, though only after a while.  The car refused to function again this morning so I got the bus.  Stupid woman at the front of the queue didn't make herself obvious enough and the bus drove straight past (though in fairness to Stupid Woman, he was going at quite a lick anyway and clearly had no intention of stopping) and then the 11C stopped at a completely different stop to the one it stopped at yesterday. Look, 11C, just because you've been diverted down Hagley Road doesn't mean you can cause more annoyance by randomly changing your mind about where you stop.

Anyway, much calmer now.  Semi-considering going to the Inline MGM on Friday as I'm being coerced by random people, so will have to think about it...

Heads-up to Yoshi, etc., if they happen to wander over here. :)

Oh, yes, and the stupid on-bus CrystalEyes television/entertainment/information system decided to proclaim the Oscar winners in big, bright letters. Thanks a lot.  Though I suppose it does save me watching them and being disappointed, after four hours, to discover that Johnny Depp wasn't chosen a-frelling-gain for Best Actor.  Philistines.  I guess Finding Neverland was too long ago for the ancient Academy members to remember, and it lost out to the third bio-pic of the year - and De-Lovely wasn't nominated even once!!

Academy Ancients - you suck!

Nothing else to report.  Will try to make a start on chapter 8 of Come Forward tonight.  (Oh, and Sweet/Eve, if you're that desperate to read something of mine that's original, there's 7 chapters worth of a novel sitting right under your noses over at FictionPress under my Electra Creek pseudonym.  Not... terribly original, granted, but it's better than nothing, right?  So stop complaining and gimme some reviews! :P)

"It's typical, isn't it?  We've been in deep space for three million years at this bus stop for quite a few hours, and there hasn't been one.  Then, all of a sudden, five of them turn up at once..."

So, this morning was bloody ridiculous.

We were late leaving the house, see.  Only by about five minutes.  It doesn't make that much difference to my journey, just means I end up getting a later and slightly more crowded bus because all the annoying Aston boys and 'oh-so-trendy-because-we're-not-using-the-far-more-efficient-school-bus' Handsworth girls.  Anyway, as you might have noticed, it was raining this morning.  And for some reason, the fact that it was raining meant that every driver in the world simultaneously went:

"OMGgottagetoutthehouseanddrivetoworkrightthissecond!!!"

Because, obviously, leaving earlier when its raining is really logical. *shrug* Don't ask me.  It was a complete mystery as to where all the random traffic in Bearwood - and all points between it and Ladywood - came from.  The first 11C that came to the bus stop - a nice, centrally heated and non-noisy shiny new 11C - said, quite politely, "Sorry - Not In Service".

*sigh*

Well, okay, fine.  I'll just wait for the next one.

This was at about 7.50.  I'm normally on the bus by then.

8.45.  Still standing at the bus stop, getting slowly drenched (the brim of my Eponine!hat was actually dripping) and incredibly annoyed, and two 258s, three 120s and two 128 buses have all gone past.  This is quite impressive in itself, given that all three of those services only run every 20 minutes as it is, and are rarely on time.

Finally, an 11C turned up.  Luckily, a nice new one.  I sat upstairs, listening to my MP3-er and slowly dripping all over the floor, and sat it out in the horrendous 9.00am traffic up City Road.  I figured even if I went through town I'd get stuck, and the traffic's always worse on Hagley Road and the journey takes twice as long.

9.15 (already an hour late for work) I'm waiting for my second bus outside Winson Green prison - my route is so salubrious, you notice - and luckily, a nice warm 101, which I ride for all of three minutes, turned up.  Before that, guess what?

Four 11C buses sailed past the end of the road, one right after the other, give or take the occasional car.  i finally got to work, drenched and disgruntled, at 9.30.  9-frelling-30!!  I'm normally in at 8.15!!  This couldn't happen on the week when I can afford to lose the hours, could it, noooo...

See, the thing about 11C buses... is they're crap.  And the thing about Travel West Midlands, the service of Travel West Midlands, your basic Travel West Midlands service... is it's crap.  So how are you supposed to get to work?!

Oy - and, indeed - vey.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - 11C buses are, in fact, exactly like black holes. :)

Anyway, having finally got to work, all went fairly well, aside from the social worker who was adamant she wanted copies of things that she can already access and print off from the U:/ drive.  Er, not gonna happen.  I have a pile of typing nearly a foot high.  You want photocopies, do them yourself.  You should have them anyway.  That's what those pretty blue things are that we send to you through the post.  Ye gods...

And I also met Breda for the first time.  She's the Reviewing Officer who's replaced Judy (the one who gave me the tapes for typing; I really miss them.  Sue Stokes' are practically incoherent... she has conversations with people in the bloody middle of them!)  So, Breda wandered into the office, and I did a comedy double-take.  I swear.  She looked exactly like Faith Brown.  Same hair, same height and general shape, same sort of style.  I was very, very disturbed, and spent the majority of the time she was talking to Cynthia staring at her.  I'd spoken to her on the phone before, but never seen her.  On closer observation, she actually looks nothing like Faith in the slightest, but on first glimpse... wow, that was disturbing.  She even has a very similar personality.

We should all be very, very glad at this moment that there are no male personages who could be Joes... because that would be even more disturbing, and my RP shipping begins and most definitely ends with Most Haunted, thank you very much.  However, that being said, there is a delightfully camp new social worker in CM6, who has taken it upon himself to ask me and Zoe for help whenever he gets confused.  Ah, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship... ;)

Over and out.

Well, I went an entire week without the Internet. No big, you might think. But I did it willingly. I needed the time out.

Anyway, apologies for whatever I said last post; I don't remember, but I know I wasn't in the best of moods. I did an incredibly lengthy and rambling and thoroughly irritating post on the train (more on that in a moment) on the way home, but it's still in the notebook and will probably remain there. In any case, I've caught up on sleep, if not work - still have 10,000 words to write, alas - whilst at home, as well as finishing chapter two of Broken Record. Priorities, people. :)

Will doubtless see several of you tomorrow, some of whom I must talk to about Top Secret Things, but I don't think either of them read this any more...

Anyway, the train thing. You have to do it at least once in your lifetime, I think. I got on the wrong train. All right, stop laughing. In my defense, the train to Crewe shouldn't even have been at that bloody platform in the first place, and I couldn't hear the announcements over screaming children and station traffic. They didn't check the tickets until Uttoxeter (two stops later) and then I got off at a place called Blythe Bridge, waited twenty minutes for another train (the next wasn't until an hour after that; there was a pub nearby, but I had images of it being "A Local Pub for Local People" and was very glad the train to Derby turned up) then finally got home three hours later than anticipated. But it was interesting, to say the least...

Went on a three mile walk in the Lickeys on Tuesday, and will post interesting photos when I'm back on... Tuesday, oddly enough.

Don't think there's anything else of interest. I got bought clothes! It's been so long! And will wear the new jeans on Monday, doubtless to much pointing and laughing because I'm a Big Greebo in them. Have still not sent Eni the Sunset CDs, cannot be buggered to read the communities on my friends list, so I hope there's not too much from everyone else to plough through... I think that's it.

Signing off now. Only on to check email - incuding to see if there's anything from Plagiarising Bitch Girl, who maintains she'll just repost. Well, hon, I can play the game as long as you can; you repost, I'll re-report. Anyway, if there's anything from her, I'll delete it unread. I am washing my hands of the entire incident.

That's it...

i can start doing real entries again.

okay, so i've spent basically the last week walking bloody everywhere, including about 4 hours of solid walking in manchester, walking to and from uni on monday and thursday, and walking into town, and down to laverstoke last night. so i'm slightly tired, and my legs and ankles hurt.

which is why i decided to get the bus in today. see, my theory in moving into these halls was that the bus came every 10 minutes instead of every 30 minutes. which appears to be true.

i had a 9 o' clock lecture, so, knowing the journey only takes about 10 minutes on a good day and 15 in bad traffic, i left at 8.30. i waited. the bus appeared, sailing past princess alice court, where there was an even longer queue of people, and then sailing right past us.

well, fair enough. there'd be another one soon enough.

another one came along. it let on many people at princess alice, became full, and drifted past us again. by this time i was not only slightly disgruntled, but it was also 8.50 and i was heading dangerously close to being late.

then, wonder of wonders, another bus appeared. and it wasn't full. and i finally got to uni at 9.10, only slightly late...

i shall concede defeat and walk in every morning, and if don't feel like walking, i'll leave at sodding 7.30...

*heavy sigh*

today had a definite feel of 'monday' about it...

i got up in ample time and got out. then realised i had no money and had to steal 90p from the kitty (which i WILL pay back later...)

the bus was meant to arrive at 10.30 so i could get in for 11.00 for the module info day.

the 10.30 bus simply failed to turn up. the 11.00 bus was late by 15 minutes and didn't arrive til 11.15, which meant i didn't get there til 11.45 and completely missed the info thing...

i made a doctor's appointment for thursday afternoon so i can get this bloody cough looked at again...

and town was just busy as frell, again, and all i wanted was a phone topup card and a french loaf (and i had to get a big french loaf as they'd run out of the little ones, AGAIN!)

and tomorrow i have to plead insanity to mary and get the module handbook out of her so i can peruse it at my leisure.

and i STILL have to do my 20th century fiction coursework, but i will start that in due course...

so it was, over all, a very crappy morning.

but.

i checked the post.

IT'S HERE!!!

and i haven't read it yet, and eve's getting impatient, so i'm about to do just that... and it's hand addressed, no less :D

will be back very shortly...