T'eyla Minh

Our references from our respective employer(s) and landlord have now gone off so fingers crossed we'll have some good news this week about the house, and can start packing... Not a concept I am looking forward to but I won't make the same mistake as last time of filling a large moving box full of books and not being able to move it. :P

Our oven works again; a nice Italian man came out on Saturday eventually, after two deliveries of the wrong part to the shop, and fixed it in five minutes flat. It now heats up in about ten minutes, and I can COOK THINGS again, so hopefully we can stop eating junk food after the gym now. I had lots of good intentions but they were scuppered by exhaustion and a lack of oven. :P

Other than that, this weekend we didn't do very much. Went to Asda on Saturday to stock up and spent about £100, half of which was on booze (several bottles of wine, some beer, three bottles of cider, two bottles of vodka... they had a litre of Russian Standard for £16!!), I watched EastEnders (OMG David Essex!!) and then we went down to see Paul's mum to update on house-type things. We watched Staggered whilst there, a Martin Clunes film from the 90s. Quite amusing.

Sunday it was raining, so we stayed in and did nothing. Paul cooked a roast chicken dinner and we invited Lisa up and then all sat and watched The Kings Speech on demand, which was really good. Hard to explain why it was really good, but we all enjoyed it muchly. I might buy the DVD. :)

Also, I shall share with you my Relevant But Appalling Joke under the cut.

( Really, it's absolutely terrible. Don't say I didn't warn you. )

Gym tonight. I need to get back into the habit of going three times a week and learn to manage my time better. It'll be better for me when we can go on Tuesday nights when choir breaks up as we're currently going on Mondays and Wednesdays, which are both supposed to be my 'early' nights at work. I did gain loads of flex the other week, but not being at home three afternoons a week is making me disorganised (as is having to constantly wash gym clothing and towels, making everything else pile up).

But yeah. I need to get back on track and start eating properly again because currently I'm maintaining my weight instead of losing it (at the first four-week weigh-in I'd put on 1kg, in fact), and I have until September to get trim - before ruining it all by eating junk whilst on holiday, obviously. Although hopefully the moving of boxes in (hopefully) about six weeks will help, too. :P I started my food/calories diary again but the lack of having an oven meant I kept forgetting (and felt guilty about the amount of pizza, etc., we were getting through), so I need to get back on track with that, too.

Okay, that's about it. Hopefully I will post soon with good news about the house...

Edit, 13.30: Refences cleared and offer letters in the post!

I have fallen quite far behind on my Fandom for February posts. I will do an update later incorporating days 13 and 14, as they're both quite small, and then attempt to catch up with the rest over the course of the week. I think days 17 and 19 are both going to be quite lengthy, but there are some less wordy pairings as well. To be honest, it's probably going to run over into March anyway.

For now, here's a general update.

( Thusly. )

So, back at work today. Due to some late nights this week (and late mornings), I had coffee this morning out of sheer habit, forgetting that in fact I've not had any in a week. I have fun jitters as a result (hence the icon). Just as well really as there is a backlog in the typing, and apparently whilst I was off the toilets were flooded, only to be back in service yesterday. Talk about good timing. :)

I think that'll do for now. Much work to do, can't waste time writing LJ entries. ;)

PS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to commoncomitatus. We will try and find time to come up and visit you, if the birthdays in March ever let up... at which point you will receive a belated card and some variety of present, as I am horribly disorganised.

Well, less kitchen sink and more bathtub, though the kitchen sink is an unfortunate side effect.

You may remember I posted a couple of weeks ago about our bathroom / overflowing basin disaster, as a result of the bath being blocked.

The bath is still blocked. Since that incident we've tried two different types of Mr Muscle - the gel and the foamer.

( In which I am losing the will to live... )

Oh yes. On Saturday we had our second concert of this season (I missed the Verdi thanks to the sprained foot, though apparently it didn't go that well anyway), the Bernstein/Parry/Faure/Durufle one. We had a low audience turn-out (as usual) but those that attended seemed to think it went well. I think the Bernstein Chichester Psalms went the best out of all of it, but probably only because we've rehearsed it to death. The Faure (Cantique du Jean Racine) was pretty, and the Parry was... well, patriotic. Durufle's Requiem is a lot nicer than I remember; in fact I could only recall having sung it with Derby Choral Union but had forgotten it all completely.

( Choir stuff )

I think I'll post this otherwise it'll never end... I shall put in an early BAH HUMBUG just to get it out of the way. :P

So, today was annoying. I meant to leave at four; I left at six. That kind of annoying.

I was going to rant about it, but I don't have the energy any more. The only snark I can muster is the passive-aggressive message I left for Paul on the notice board in the kitchen* about the fact that he owes me three (underlined several times) rounds of washing up now. He had reduced it to two, but we have the gas man coming tomorrow and in my attempt to merely pile up the dirty dishes for Paul to do them tomorrow I was assaulted by a horrendous smell and decided to do it myself.

Anyway, the work annoying was the same annoying as it always is, revolving around Moany, Forgetful and Demanding, as per frigging usual. I might post about it tomorrow if I'm so inclined, but right now I just want CHIPS and SLEEP. Except CHIPS will entail actually having to move. Can someone email me some chips? Please?

* I bought this notice board back in July with the intention of writing upon it the contents of the freezer / fridge. I got as far as putting the fridge's contents on it but we never actually sat down to note what was in the freezer. The entire purpose of this was so we actually could get organised and get stuff out for tea in advance, like we used to when we first moved in and weren't so bone idle / tired, but then the freezer was empty again so we didn't bother, etc, etc. I wiped it clean the other day because most of the fridge stuff had also changed / gone and, well, at least I used it for something...

Electrics are back on, lift is functioning, heating is (just about) working, though the radiators are lukewarm and they're going to call the engineer out again just to double-check things are actually okay...

...but it did take me an hour and a half to get to work.

Okay. I admit that this more snow than most of us under the age of 30 have ever seen in our lifetimes here in Britain, but... come on! It's been snowing on and off for about three weeks solid, and when it hasn't been snowing there've been sheets of ice everywhere isntead, so why the panic like it's something new? Gah.

I know we're running out of grit and the roads are treacherous and blah blah blah. But the roads would be less dangerous if there weren't so many idiot drivers around making them dangerous.

Anyway, that's enough on that. I know that my opinions on this are unpopular. :P

( Another potentially unpopular opinion )

I wrote down the basic points of my epic dream last night so will attempt to type it up again later on, assuming I can get home tonight without having to walk. It wasn't so much a lengthy dream, or even particularly involved / plot-driven, it was just very detailed and intricate in terms of its atmosphere. So, watch this space.

I also need to update about the weekend just gone...

On Friday night Lisa decided to cook for us, which effectively ended our what-to-have-for-tea conundrum. She made beef curry with wild rice and naan bread, which was very nice indeed. We then stayed downstairs in the warm and had a few drinks (Lisa and Paul considerably more than me and Pete [Lisa's bloke]) before finally going back upstairs at about 2.30am!

On getting home Friday night we realised that the bath contained a pool of water, there being a blockage. So the majority of Saturday was spent attempting to unblock the bath.

( Epic Tale of Unblockage )

On Sunday, due to losing most of Saturday, we did absolutely nothing. :P

And this week, obviously, has been a constant stream of building-related woes. It feels like I've been back at work for months, and it's only been a week and a half. Bloody weather.

Priscilla review is still not forthcoming. I intended to work on my shorter work version this weekend but was scuppered by a horrendous cold and didn't bother.

Hm, I think I need to update from a little earlier...

My mum popped around on Wednesday night to drop off some bits and bobs, including some extraneous birthday cards and my present from my grandmother - a pair of fuzzy Ugg-boot style slippers, which are lovely and warm. I was intending on buying some new slippers anyway, so that'll save me some money. :D

She also brought over my rucksack and sleeping bag (not that I ever intend to go camping again, but it'll be useful if anyone's sleeping over and we run out of beds / duvets), and a full set of good quality saucepans and Tefal frying pans. They're redoing the kitchen again, including a new oven/hob, and they can only use certain types of pans on there, so I've inherited her old ones. We tried them out last night and wow, I'd forgotten the difference a decent set of pans can make. We've been using Trevor's stuff since we moved in in terms of saucepans, and they're rubbish...

(The one good thing is that I now have a large, deep frying pan / saucepan with a lid, so can finally make all those recipes which call for such. Like jambalaya! :D)

On Thursday I had a bad throat, though it wasn't too bad. Then we went to visit Paul's mum of the evening, where my cat allergy kicked in and set the cold off properly.

Friday the cold wasn't too bad. I forgot to change my bus pass datecard and for the first time ever the bus driver actually noticed. He was willing to let me on anyway, but I didn't want to run the risk of there being an inspector on the journey home, so had to buy a Daysaver. The cold wasn't too bad, though was getting worse by the afternoon, and I left at 4.15 to attend my GP surgery at 5.00pm for a 'flu jab and asthma check-up.

It took half an hour just to get out of Digbeth. I have no clue why. The traffic just simply wasn't moving. By 4.45 I was only at Highgate, tried to ring the surgery to tell them I might be late for my appointment (which I'd thankfully already moved from 4.45 to 5.00 in case of traffic issues... pre-emptive much?), except their answering machine message takes forever to finish and halfway through my phone announced "One minute remaining!" and subsequently cut me off, so I just had to pray I'd get there in time. Thankfully it then only took 10 minutes or so to get to Kings Heath and I legged it to my appointment just in time.

The walk home (and presumably the 'flu jab) finished me off. I popped into Wilko for more fabric softener and new toothbrushes and toothpaste, then into Sainsbury's to stock up on juice and get something for tea. I finally got home about 5.30 and promptly put on my pyjamas and wallowed in self-pity for the rest of the evening. Didn't even feel like having the curry I'd bought, but ate it anyway...

Paul rolled home around 11.30 or thereabouts from his night out (somehow going from somewhat tipsy to completely drunk after one more drink), at which point I fed my cold a Benylin night-time tablet and went to bed.

Thankfully the worst of it had passed by Saturday. Paul was in work until about 1.30, and I spent the day working on my Christmas decoration embroideries. I managed to finish a whole decoration over the course of the weekend (whilst watching Oklahoma! on Saturday, heh), and made a start on the first colour of the next one. Three down, seven to go... I'll try and remember to take a photograph tonight.

We watched Teeth on Saturday night, on Filmflex; not 10 minutes into it the doorbell rang, so we unplugged it. Bloody Trick-or-Treaters. I absolutely was not in a Hallowe'en mood this year. Just as well we didn't have a bad movies night because I would still have been full of cold and absolutely knackered. As to the film, it was weird but enjoyable... though I'm guessing the males in the audience would appreciate it less. ;)

Aaand that's about it. Except that it again feels like something's brewing at work. Christmas leave is sorted out; we've now been asked to request our Easter leave! I hadn't even thought that far ahead yet! *depairs*

Over and out...

Yup, nothing much happened this weekend... However, as there's already nothing to do here (10.50am) I shall ramble about it anyway.

( Cut for length. )

Oh yes, we had to put the heating on by Saturday afternoon, and I've left it on since. It's officially winter. I was trying to hold out as long as possible, but I've been cold since about mid-August.

There might be a hen-night-type deal this Friday for my mum but we're not sure yet, as several people are on holiday, so it'll depend on availability. I've booked the day off anyway, initially because I didn't want to run out of energy by 10.00pm, but even if it doesn't happen the day off would be much appreciated.

At some point this week I need to watch Order of the Phoenix and give it back to Gemma at work - on Thursday I ended up embroiled in a rambling conversation which started off about comedy and moved somehow onto Harry Potter, so Gemma lent me the DVD. I had planned to watch it this weekend but didn't find time / forgot, and I don't want to hold onto it for too long...

Choir restarts tomorrow - hopefully I won't be too knackered to enjoy it. Just before the break I missed the final two rehearsals because I was on leave (bad, I know) and because I wasn't feeling any love whatsoever for the two pieces we were rehearsing... I know when things come together it will sound brilliant (I hated the Verdi when we did the opera concert, then ended up liking it immensely once we got the hang of the Italian), but I wasn't in the mood for stumbling over things. I probably should have practiced it over the break, but time has run away with me as usual... I'm muchly looking forward to doing Faure's Requiem in April (finally, something I know!!) and of course there's Christmas to look forward to, despite the sheer amount of hard work in November.

Ah well, at least it'll stop me doing nothing.

Right, that killed an hour or so (with some typing in the middle), so I'll post it and find something else to do.

So, went to Ikea, spent just over £100 and it went on the credit card. Though really, that's not bad considering I got all of the following:

2x DVD cabinets
2x CD cabinets (dunno if we might need another one, though)
1x griddle pan
1x wok (£2.93! Bargain!)
1x lime green bathmat
1x set of funnels for kitchen
1x set of cutlery
100 tealights

My first attempt at DIY is ( under here )

We're going to have to move some furniture.

Well, today wasn't as bad as anticipated. I wasn't insanely tired - not even any requirement for coffee this morning. Let's see how long that lasts.

I had a pleasant surprise on my desk when I arrived, in the form of ( this )

.

I had 233 e-mails (whittled down to 43 of any remote importance), which was a lot less than I was anticipating... Have been recounting the Tale of the Foot all morning.

On Friday night, we went out to the Lutley Oak pub for my grandmother's birthday. Despite them not arriving until about an hour after the allotted time, and the food taking ages to turn up, it was very nice indeed. I ended up having a steak with stilton and peppercorn sauce, which was lovely. Seeing as we didn't get back to my mum's until just before 10.00pm, Paul and I ended up staying over for the night, getting up earlyish the next morning to be driven back home. We all stopped off at Moseley village to visit the farmers' market, where we bought two interesting Derbyshire cheeses (garlic and herb, and real ale and mustard - the latter is very interesting...) and some wild boar sausages, after trying some on the stall for breakfast. There was a lot more I wanted to buy and there was a hog roast which looked mouth-wateringly delicious, so we'll definitely be going back next time...

Got back and my mum and David had a look at Lisa's paintings (with the possibilty of commissioning one when the lounge is decorated!), and David gave her some advice on where to get framing materials to make her own canvasses. After that it was a rehearsal for me, and then the concert of the evening, though I managed to get through the majority of Coraline in the break between the two. Concert went okay, though the turn-out was a bit poor...

Yesterday I did more embroidery (scan later, probably), and put up our ( new shower curtain )

As for work today, it's been mostly painless. The backlog is now cleared and that's about it, really. Still half-considering going for the secretarial position (secondment until September, when Marie is back off sick leave, as Gaynor is covering in her absence and thus the post of David's Secretary is up for grabs...), purely because I think Sandra is also considering it and the thought fills me with vague terror... and the rest of our team, too, I would imagine.

The AD wants to know by Friday, so I'll give it a ponder. The extra money would be very much appreciated. Apparently David thinks I could do the job (at least according to Gaynor...) but I'm also their fastest typist and don't want to leave them in the lurch with another Rubbish Temp. We have one Rubbish Temp already, and one of the fee earners in that team already avoids her like the plague. :P

So... watch this space, I suppose.

I think that's about it. I shall post some more photographs on Flickr momentarily.

I don't ordinarily post this early, but hopefully someone might PAY ATTENTION and answer my query by the time I come back to this.

Our kitchen sink is blocked. No idea how or why or what might be down there.

In any event, WE NEED A PLUNGER.

I am calling upon the Collective Brain: where does one buy a plunger these days? (I would normally go to Woolworths, but it be dead.)

KTHXBAI.

Edit, 11.55: Looks like succinct forcefulness works. :P Most comments in one go ever. ;)

Thanks for suggestions. Wilkinson was my first bet but the one in Kings Heath is a bit hit and miss with what they have in, and the decent homewares store has closed down these days, though there are a couple left. Homebase is a last resort really, as it's expensive.

Failing being able to get a plunger (or the plunger not working), Plan C (sink unblocker was Plan A; failed) is to ring the landlord or his handiman mate.

The most annoying thing? I cleaned the kitchen on Saturday and it was fine. The only thing we've even done in there since then and yesterday was Sunday lunch (nothing out of the ordinary...) and dinner on Monday, which consisted of burgers. I have no clue why it's blocked, except possibly to mock me, as I mentioned to Paul on Sunday that we needed to get a hold of some more of the stuff my mum gave me that dissolved blockages in 10 minutes...

Bah, stupid sink.

So, here's the latest affliction to hit our accursed house - due to the torrential rain over the weekend (and even before then) there is stagnant water in the basement which is stinking out the bottom floor. Unfortunately, it's Lisa's flat which is most affected, so she's attacking it with Oust and air fresheners. Apparently this is affecting a lot of properties in the area, so it's not just us... Trevor is being his typical bumbling self about it, though he did in fact clean out the drains yesterday and has opened a 'door' somewhere so the basement can air-dry, as there's no point doing anything until that's done.

This is when Paul's housing experience comes in very handy; and the fact that Trevor has given up ringing me and has Paul now as the first contact means that he's more than capable of dealing with it, whereas I would have been completely lost. Lisa is understandably quite aggravated, especially as at first it seemed as though Trevor was going to try and blame us for it. Whilst I was out on Tuesday Paul checked and cleared the drains (and the water level didn't change in the slightest), just as a matter of course; although quite when Trevor expects us to have gotten out there lately to clear them is anyone's guess, given the downpours all weekend.

Ah, the perils of cheap rent..

Oh, also, Trevor rang a couple of weeks ago to ask us to check in the other half of the attic (where the panel is screwed on) to see if we had an insulation, and if not he would contribute towards the cost of the gas company coming out to fit some. My hope is that they might take one look at the open part of the attic and decree it to need re-plastering, but I think that might be grasping at straws. There's not much point insulating in there anyway, really, as the window is open all the time as it is... Not particularly energy-efficient, but no worse than a power-guzzling drier would be...

I'm rather worried about what we might find in the closed bit of the attic, though. Will we release the evil spirits ensconced in the roof? My theory is there's a body up there. ;) It wouldn't smell if it was a skeleton, right?

Nothing much else to report. Concert on Saturday and pretty much busy weekends until Christmas, when it starts all over again with constant birthdays... It seems there's just been no respite this year from forced sociability... And on that note, if you invite me out a week before Christmas, I will probably launch a grenade in your general direction. Just so you know.

That was a nice quiet weekend, for once. Paul's lurgy is taking ages to work out of his system so he spent the majority of the day taking tablets and sitting on the PC / using the DS. We popped out to Sainsbury's for some basics and stuff for dinner (chicken pesto pasta; I've perfected it with creme fraiche, although it has the unfortunate smell, whilst cooking, of old socks...)

In the evening we watched Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, as Paul had never seen it all the way through and I hadn't seen it since the DVD release, which was probably about 2002 or thereabouts. We had to start again, though, because a conversation somehow ensued about space travel, aliens, alternative universes, ghosts and everything in between, all from me saying that if I won the lottery I would spend it all on a tourist space flight. ;)

The ending is totally WTF, and even though die-hard Apes fans slated the Burton "re-imagining", I think it does have some good elements. The extras show just how much effort went into the make-up and also 'ape school' for the actors so that they could learn to move like apes, and there are lots of references to the original ("Get your hands off me, you damn dirty human!", as an example...) and various other things. There's a direct quote from Batman and it's full of some typical Burton elements. I personally enjoyed the way the spaceship was half-buried in sand in a very similar way to the Statue of Liberty in the original. Paul was having great fun slashing General Thade and his second-in-command, also. ;)

Sunday was much of the same. Lisa decided she wanted to make the front 'garden' (I use that term loosely) look a bit better because she's having a visitor over in a couple of weeks, so she went out to buy liner and pebbles. It looks much better already, though we're going to get some plants to put there as well. We should probably tackle the back garden again at some point; the bit we weeded and tidied up last year has gone wild and mad because of all the rain and desperately needs taming. I'm tempted to rip the trailing plant up and start again with actual flowers or something.

I watched more X-Files (I've started my re-watch, finally, though have not yet been inclined to use my 'X-Filter' to make posts... I don't think there's that many people left on it because of deleted journals / f-list purging... I've just watched "Lazarus" so there's still a long way to go) and EastEnders. At 9.00pm Alison rang me to ask me to email Danielle because she'd been locked out of her house. Other than that, it was an uneventful evening.

Oh yes, and we dyed my hair purple. Surprisingly, it actually worked. I'l post a photo later if I can find a good enough light to stand in; it looks vibrant red-purple in bright light and just dark purple normally. Woo, purple. It's a bit fluffy at the moment because of the provided conditioner, so hopefully it'll calm down once I wash it normally.

In other news, my Amazon order was apparently dispatched on Monday and it has yet to turn up. Stupid Royal Mail.

That was quite a productive evening, really.

I ended up staying late-ish at work because I picked up this report to do around 4.45, intending to go home at normal time and finish it in the morning if I had to, except I ended up with some urgent amendments in the middle so just decided to finish it off instead. This turned out to be a good plan, as it happened, because Paul was in town to get a CRB check done at Extra (he's going to be starting a Saturday job with his ex-manager in an effort to gain more money and pay off various debts), so I met up with him and we went to Wagamama for dinner.

Whilst in there, we ran into my mum and David, who had gone to see Cabaret that afternoon and were in the process of finding some food. They popped in to say hello and then went away again, and we ran into them again on the way out. They will be coming over at some point for food and to hand over a sewing machine and some recipe books. :)

Back home, Paul got changed and headed out again to a gig, and I set about a 'quick' tidy-up because the gas man is coming this morning to check the boiler and fires. Mostly I just planned to do the washing up, but then decided to finally clean the wall shelves and have a bit of a rearrange. ( I'm sure nobody really cares about my kitchen adventure... )

I've also moved the coffee table out of the way so the gas man can get to the fire a bit easier...

Our electricity company has sent us some free energy-saving bulbs. Can anyone on my f-list please explain something to me? The two 'wattages' (i.e. the wattage equivalent) are 60 and 75 respectively for the bulbs, but what I would like to know is this: do energy-saving bulbs kick out the same amount of heat as their wattage equivalent?

The reason I ask is that the paper lampshade in the living room can only safely withstand a 40-watt bulb without catching fire from the heat, but because of the dark walls and the fact that the shade is red, the room is very dingy. If energy-efficient bulbs don't produce the same amount of heat then I would consider using, e.g. the 75-watt equivalent in the living room to shed some literal light on things.

Can the technology-savvy please enlighten me?

Failing the collective brain, I'll use Google. :P

If the rain ever stops, I might go and collect that bike off Paul's mum this weekend. We are overdue a visit, and I've had the bloody bicycle pump for a month. :)

That'll do.

Mmm, four-day weekend. Most of which has been unproductive but sociable, so not an entire loss.

Friday - we rearranged the attic, which didn't take as long as anticipatd. The wardrobe is now storing all the videos and some boxes, thus clearing floor space, and the television is plugged in, to prepare for such an eventuality that we get a console of some description or an aerial at the very least, so that if people stay over they can watch it. :P

Most of the rest of Friday I spent finishing the redux_08 community. OMG, so good. Epic, but brilliant. I just couldn't put it down. I advise all others who were disappointed in At World's End to have a look - especially if you are of the Jack/Elizabeth school of thought. ;)

On Saturday I met up with Alison and we went to Kings Heath park for a bit, where we chatted and watched toddlers running about the place. Quite a nice day, weather-wise. Paul and I also watched the Simpsons movie in the morning on Sky Premier.

Yesterday we met up with Denise and Lloyd and not Derek, and subsequently Lorna and Bethan and several other people. I ran out of energy pretty quickly, though, for some reason, and we sloped off after a couple of drinks. One more drink in Bacchus and then home via Blockbuster to pick up some films. Once back we watched the first of them, Funny Games US, which was good, if a little slow and strange. I want to see the original UK version even if the American one is shot-for-shot, just because.

Oh, yes - also yesterday I encountered the biggest spider I've EVER seen outside of a pet shop, sitting on the reverse side of the voile at the windows. I thought it was a daddylonglegs at first because of the general shape of it, and then realised what the Hell it was. Needless to say, I legged it. Paul attempted to catch it, but apparently it ran away behind the wardrobe. Meh. I've been horribly paranoid ever since. *shudders* I'm amazed I managd to get out of the bedroom, in actual fact, as usually I end up frozen in terror at the very sight of the bloody things. Perhaps I'm getting slighty better...

Later today we having Lisa up for dinner, and that's about it. I'm still bloody knackered, though - four-day weekends are clearly not good for me.

The re-tagging of my journal didn't happen, either. Ah well, it's an ongoing process...

Not me, that's who!

I just moved the bookcase/s on my own, i.e. two bookcases one on top of the other to make one. I want the black bookcase which should appear at some point to go where the white ones currently are, which is at the top of the stairs, so had to move the white ones to the bottom of the attic stairs instead. Oddly enough, this occurred in much the same manner as the first time... except with additional books. I cleared the top bookcase by laying each shelf's books in a row, then upended it and placed it where it needed to be, and wedged it with some pieces of corrugated cardboard to stop it leaning forwards. Then I put the books from the other bookcase onto the moved one, which is now the bottom rather than the top.

Then came the fun part. I upended the second bookcase (previously the bottom one) up the step and then hoisted it onto the swivel chair for the PC, then hauled it up onto the other one. I did think I was going to drop it at one point and my knees hurt now (meh??), but I managed it anyway. And then put the other books back on to the bottom-now-top bookcase. And then vaccumed the space where it had been, rearranged the rug, etc. And then BANGED SOME NAILS into the wall in order to hang some pictures, which was more fun than the heavy lifting. ;)

Raaah, I am strong! *flexes muscles* I will doubtless regret it tomorrow, and obviously I haven't had any food because Paul is out for drinks, but aaanyway, it's done. Assuming it doesn't rain tomorrow we have the less pleasant task of getting all the videos and the wardrobe / TV unit up into the attic, and I have no clue where it's going to go, quite frankly... I suppose it'll just have to block the window for now, or something.

Now I am going to sit here and die quietly, thank you. :)

Strange night's sleep. I slept straight through, but didn't manage to go to bed until half an hour later than anticipated, thanks to tweaking my LJ layout. I really need to learn the S2 style system one of these days, as the defaults are so restricting / glitchy...

Then, despite being horribly tired, I couldn't get to sleep because for some reason my eyes started itching in an allergic-type fashion, which was incredibly annoying...

This morning I had a strangely fragmented dream which finished off with the couple from this year's Big Brother (Lisa and Mario), who owned an online dating service and really wanted to sign me up despite the fact I was with Paul... it was very odd.

Today I have spent half an hour destapling old instruction sheets from August 07 onwards, because when Kathy does the stats she keeps bloody bringing them back in case there are any queries, which there never are, and they've slowly started piling up on top of the drawers under my desk. So I fed the green recycling bin and saved a few trees...

Must tidy up flat tonight in readiness for grandmother arriving. Just for the sake of appearances, you understand. I don't want to look like the slob I am, obviously. Anyway, the bathroom needs cleaning since Phil came to fix the light, as there's plaster on the floor, and the stairs need hoovering (Paul's job), and I need to find somewhere for that bin liner full of board games to live. I was going to put them in the sideboard and then remembered that's where I put my sheet music...

Nothing much else to report, really. The last week before impending annual leave of any kind (whether long or short) is awful. I want to go back to bed. :(

Oh, before I forget: something resembling a to-do list for my week/s off:

• Update fics - Jonathan Creek and "Strange Glue"
• Read Eni's Seekrit Fanfik
• Work on Voyager page for website (I made some vague attempt but need to brush up on my HTML and also make it much less complicated than at present...)
• Start re-watching The X-Files - there's absolutely no chance in Hell of finishing all nine series before the new movie opens in August but I can have a fair go...
• Watch some DVDs
• Day trip with Paul on 20 June (no idea where as yet)
• Remember to go to choir / swimming
• Obtain bike
• Ride bike
• General housework
• Possibly obtain material for curtains
• Make tie-backs at the very least
• Attempt to tag entire LJ

That's more than enough to be going on, really.

Also, very little work here today. *goes to sleep*

That was quite pleasant.

Due to the nice weather on Satuday we decided to go out for the day. This was after an excursion to the butcher to stock up on meat (and also goose fat as it was better value that Somerfield), and to pick up some plug unblocker and washing liquid. There seems to be an epidemic of supermarkets no longer diong their own brand of washing liquid... I'm not paying £4.50 for a bottle of Persil when I can get two massive bottles of Somerfield's own for £4.00. It does the job.

The bath is now draining smoothly, thankfully. Our pipes are set up stupidly but I suspect it's because of having converted the house into flats. There is obviously a down-pipe from the bathroom as it has always been a bathroom, but subsequently the kitchen and bathroom sinks also join the same pipe from the bath so when you drain either of them it comes up into the bath. Nice. Anyway, I poured Mr Muscle down all three plugholes and have also now flushed it in both directions, which seems to have dislodged whatever was in there. Loooovely. (The downside is that the bathroom smells RANK when you pour dishwater down the kitchen sink. Obviously.)

After that, anyway, we wandered down to the Nature Centre at Cannon Hill Park as neither of us had been for years. A lot of the animals are either not there or being moved so some of the displays were empty, but it was pleasant nonetheless. Otters are cute, but I've always thought so... and so are meerkats, for that matter. :)

We had a bit of a wander around the park and the funfair (Paul won a snake on the hook-a-duck, which was SO EXPENSIVE. Gah.), and we were going to have a go in one of the rowing boats, except two selfish men decided to take the last two, thus scuppering our plans. So we wandered over to the other boating lake to go in a pedelo, except they were closing in three minutes. Bah.

I managed to navigate us back to Moseley on the 1 (which we waited ages for; clearly spoiled with the 50 these days) and we played half an hour of pool (which came to a grand total of £2.00) in Rileys. My brain was not willing to cooperate by that point...

Of the evening we watched the finales of I'd Do Anything (my hatred for the general public has increased. Jessie was CLEARLY the superior candidate...) and Britain's Got Talent (hatred for public somewhat declining, although meh to Escala* not even being in the top three...) and not much else...

Sunday was the usual, with the added excitement of a fox wandering into our back garden for a nap. No, really. It was totally surreal. He stayed there for about 15 minutes and then wandered off again through the fence. There are some photographs on Paul's phone which need to be uploaded. For a moment I was worried he'd just come into our garden to die, as he was very still. Very bizarre.

Also, we started watching Jack and the Beanstalk last night on Sci-Fi. Whilst it is very much appreciated that they're showing these mini-series, it would be better if they weren't trying to cram each one into three weeks instead of their allotted six. Tin Man was hard enough to follow without there being just under two hours of it each week, and Jack is almost as bad...

I think that's everything. Foxy pictures coming later...

*Okay. I am convinced that Escala once released an album and I can quite distinctly remember them playing their 'signature' tune a few years back on some talent show or another. This is about 5-6 years ago now. I also have it in my brain from somewhere that at least one of them went to my school - specifically the violin player. From a quick google search, I am informed that her name is Izzy Johnstone, and her age would place her either the year below me or two years below, depending on when her birthday is. Can any Old Edwardians remember her? She's horribly familiar and it's driving me mad...

(In this picture she's the one on the far left...)

That was quite pleasant...

On Saturday, as promised, we moved the bedroom around. Turns out my measurements were more than exact, as the computer desk only just fit into the gap I'd allocated for it. The actual moving of furniture only took about two hours (considering we didn't empty anything after all, and only took the mattress off the bed) but putting the PC back together again and sorting out the boxes took a lot longer. Paul also had the lovely task of having to untack the ethernet cable from the top of the stairs as there was a spare two feet of it which we needed to stretch into the bedroom, and then the subsequent re-tacking of it to the carpet/skirting, which was less fun.

Anyway, as a result, the following things have been achieved:

1. The PC is by a radiator, which means no more cold fingers in winter.
   
   
2. There are no more boxes on the bedroom floor, and it is subsequently a lot tidier.
   
   
3. The light seems to come into the room a lot better now, too, although I think that might be my imagination.
   
   
4. There is room to move on either side of the bed.

The amount of dust under the bed and my bedside table was utterly terrifying - we filled the Dyson twice over. Also, the carpet where the bed had been is lovely and squishy. :) Paul has had some trouble sleeping because of the change in light / position, but hopefully that will pass soon enough.

Sunday was spent recovering from Saturday, although my back, amazingly, didn't hurt at all. Rather, the backs of my legs were aching instead. Still are a little this morning... dunno what I did to cause that. We decided to watch The Crow later on as it had been a while since either of us had seen it. Odd, actually; it's totally a B-movie which is prettily shot and ended up with cult status; if not for Brandon Lee dying I doubt anyone would remember it quite so well... (Especially considering the god awful sequels.)

On Monday it was much of the same, with the added bonus of having Lisa up for dinner - I cooked my chicken/gorgonzola/mushroom pasta for her with tonnes of garlic bread and salad, and there's STILL some left over for Paul's lunch today. So, actually, the recipe for two feeds three and a bit. Madness.

After the meal we decamped downstairs to watch Moulin Rouge! on Lisa's funky new DVD player and sound system (I always forget how brilliant that film is) and then back upstairs again to have ice cream and watch The Inbetweeners on Replay - which is puerile and mildly amusing, though I prefer Skins...

Having moved the bedroom around, I am now making plans for new curtains once we've decorated. Now that the wardrobe has obscured the wall there isn't any room for a tie back, so I think I'll go for one very wide curtain instead and just the one tie back on the other side. (I'm going to use my old choir dress as the fabric. :P) The curtains in the living room don't need changing, but I'm using an old red corduroy dress for those tie backs, at some point. Fabric's expensive, y'know...

That was quite a pleasant weekend...

I don't think we did anything productive on Friday except go to the pub for tea... definitely need to break that habit again, it's getting to be a regular thing.

On Saturday morning Paul went out to the bank to turn his collection of 5p pieces into actual money - £10's worth, in fact. (There's a gigantic box of pennies still to sort out...) Then later that afternoon we braved the awful weather to go and see The Orphanage (or El Orfanata, if you want to be specific) before it stopped showing. As ever, Cineworld pulled firsts on it and treated it with very little respect, but at least we got to see it...

( Review / spoilers )

Most definitely recommended - try and see it before your local cinema gives up on culture...

Later that evening we watched The Witches of Eastwick just because it was on, although Paul managed to fall asleep before the end.

Sunday was alternatively lazy and busy. Paul went out at 12.45 to play badminton with Drew - or not, as it transpired, as Drew, having reminded Paul that the clocks went forward, then forgot to change his own watch and was an hour late. So obviously Paul took that as an adequate reason to go drinking. Whilst he was doing that, I did some housework; as ever, one thing led to another, so I cleaned the bathroom, then hoovered the bits from the side of the cooker in the kitchen and cleaned the floor (vaguely), then hoovered the landing, dusted the bedroom, hoovered the living room, and got as far as stripping the bed before I had to have a sit down because I'd not had any food before starting... When I start things I tend to spot other things that need doing.

Paul came back and proclaimed that it was a nice day and we should go out again. He made it out to sound like the most glorious summer day in the history of all summer days, when in fact it was just about average for the end of March - the sun was warm but the wind was cold. Nevertheless, I didn't need a coat. We had one drink in the Pavillion where I got a bit upset because Paul was trying to be nice about supporting me in whatever I decide to do with my life, but the conversation was frustrating me more than it should have done... Then we moved on to the Kings Arms for some food (just sandwiches and some chips, which somehow came to over a tenner...) and a couple of drinks, then went home again.

And then we dyed my hair, which is now red. Not as red as I was hoping, but it's better than nothing. I need to get it cut at some point this week before the wedding on Monday. The back is far too thick so possibly layers may be in the pipeline.

Oh, my credit card PIN has turned up, now I'm just waiting on the card. First purchase will be a new camera, at long last, which Paul will pay for half of.

Tonight we are going to see Derren Brown in Derby, so I'm leaving work at 3.30. I can't decide if I'm more excited about Derren or going to Derby for the evening. ;) It's been a long time, and I do miss it there, especially as it starts to turn into summer...

Anyway, that's this entry done with, I think...

I am still alive...

I haven't done an LJ entry in over a week, but mostly because I haven't done very much... Usually my 'not doing very much' equates to 'lurking about online', it's too damned cold to sit in the corridor on the computer... So, anyway, here's what I've been up to in my week/s off...

On Thursday I did my usual fare of nothing. The other reason I've not been spending too much time on the PC is because the monitor is too high (due to this one being a desktop rather than a tower) and it gives me a crick in my neck... and if I adjust the chair my legs won't fit under the keyboard tray. Inconvenient, but at least the bloody thing turns on...

I believe most of Friday was quite similar... Of the evening we went out with Paul's mate, Tor (who announced she was pregnant), because the going-out for Jen and Dave's pre-wedding get-together didn't happen due to illness... I don't think I could have coped with another night out after last week, though...

On Saturday it was falling_softly's birthday, which was actually mostly quite sedate... The only downside was the Drunken Twat at the table near us who was offended by our very presence, but thankfully he left after an hour or so. Mostly the clientelle of the Briar Rose is okay, but unfortunately the combination of cheap booze and (now, alas) television screens showing the rugby brings in a lower denomination of human life, like the aforesaid Drunken Twat.

Other than that it was a plesant evening. Denise and I watched the boys playing two silly drunken games ("Fizzbuzz" and "I Have Never", the latter of which I loathe and detest), which was possibly more amusing than actually playing. Paul got a little bit annoying on the way home but at least realised that and calmed down again. I think our *ahem* screaming row a few weeks ago helped to clear the air and made me perhaps a little more tolerant. As much as the rows themselves aren't particularly pleasant, they are useful for getting stuff out into the open...

Sunday was lazy...

On Monday I cleaned the kitchen cupboards and rearranged them a bit so we can find things... also made a bit more room in the process, but only just. The rest of the week has involved doing nothing whatsoever except watching my usual fare of Rubbish Daytime Television (This Morning right through to Jeremy Kyle... I know, I know...)

Oh, on Tuesday morning I traipsed up to Selly Oak Hospital to the Dermatology Department regarding the mole on my stomach. The doctor there recommended that I didn't get it removed because the scar that would be left would be more irritating and quite possibly bigger than the mole itself. Not what I wanted to hear... obviously I didn't bring up that I wanted to get a tattoo over it anyway, as he would probably have recommended not doing that, either. He also said that most GP surgeries are quite happy to remove moles themselves once they're happy that Dermatology have cleared them, but, well, my GP surgery doesn't have the facilities to do that, which is why I had the referral to the hospital in the first place. *SIGH*

It was incredibly frustrating and I spent the rest of the day feeling mildly annoyed, to the extent that I didn't bother going to choir. Just, the thought of having to go out again when I was already cold (I had the fire on from about 2.00pm...) and having to keep repeating stuff because it wasn't right... it didn't appeal. We have next week off for good behaviour for Easter, also... Instead, Paul and I went to the pub for tea (local Ember Inns), which was nice. I've been feeling a bit meh since Saturday, to be honest... Mostly I attribute this to the fact that Ali and I haven't been swimming for two weeks for a number of reasons and my endorphine levels are low, but there is also a Certain Issue I'm trying to work through which wasn't helped by Saturday.

Subsequently my productivity thus far this week has been to almost finish my rose embroidery. I should get that done today and then I can finally frame and hang the thing, then work on getting another one started... I find embroidery quite therapeutic, somehow...

(And last night I joined geneandalex, an Ashes to Ashes shipper community, and read lots of fanfic. The Inner Shipper requires feeding, and the Ugly Betty section on FFN has been a bit sparse lately...)

On today's to-do list is to go through the boxes in the attic, but BLOODY HELL, it's cold. Where's spring gone?

Yeah. I've done literally nothing this weekend and it's disappeared at a rate of knots...

On Saturday we were up earlyish and went to the cafe for breakfast because everything edible was frozen. Back home via Lidl to pick up bin liners, juice and air freshener because the bottom of stairs - nay, our entire flat - smells horribly musty. This wasn't something I noticed when we first moved in because a) Trevor had put plug-in air fresheners everywhere and b) it was the middle of a heatwave so we had the kitchen window open all the time... Anyway, there's a plug-in behind the bin in the kitchen and one of those 'airwick'-style things on the stairs, which seems to be working.

I should also point out that the flat periodically just smells of socks. Not mine, I hasten to add. :P

Apart from that, I spent the day listening to music and doing a puzzle book, whilst Paul played his silly battle games on the PC. We had pork belly, garlic mash and broccauli mash for dinner and then watched The Number 23, which... wasn't entirely what I was expecting, although for once Jim Carrey didn't feel the need to play down the drama with slapstick or visual comedy (even in Eternal Sunshine there's that scene where he's a small child hiding under the table...) I enjoyed it, anyway. Possibly it has redeemed Joel Schmacher a little as a director, even though I still haven't forgiven him for Phantom...

Sunday was equally lazy, and mostly involved, for my part, fixing various items of clothing - mostly lost buttons. (I am a domestic goddess, oh yes.) It was only later on that I discovered the button I'd stolen from another part of my khaki padded coat in order to replace the missing one from the front was a completely different size... annoying that I lost the original and the spare in the first place, but yeah, I'll have to either resize the buttonhole or try and buy another one that's similar in size and colour... Can you even buy buttons any more?

So, three buttons and one fixed pocket lining later, and Paul headed off to play badminton. FFN decided to stop working, unfortunately, thus scuppering my plans for the evening, although I did finally finish "Only When It Rains" by hitting it with a mallet. Bloody thing just wanted to keep going.

Paul ended up not coming back until about 8.30, and also the chicken we'd planned for tea hadn't defrosted, so we walked to the chippy instead. Grumpiest serving girl ever.

Evening spent watching Wife Swap (this series they're really scraping the underbelly of society; it seems to have consisted entirely of religious nutters...) and then the final couple of episodes of Monkey Dust. The Brian Blessed animations are so totally out of place that they're hilarious. In the middle of this clever, post-modern series of animated shorts, you get a silly, Python-esque animation of Brian Blessed quoting random films and booming "HULLO! OI'M BRIAN BLESSED!" at the beginning and end. Sheer brilliance.

Oh, and on Friday we had a very nice meal at wagamama, although both Paul and my mum were totally drunk before we got there and it was a bit busy, but we all had a good time anyway. I'm finding it a lot easier these days to try and explain to my mum what I went through in 2005 without bursting into tears - it's just easier to talk about it in retrospect. Possibly I should have talked to her at the time, but that would only have made me feel worse, I think. Anyway, we had a long and slightly rambling conversation about things - including some current things - and even though the subsequent conversation with Paul ended up being a little melancholy, at least it wasn't too bad.

Gah. I meant to wash my hair yesterday and then decided against it because I'm going swimming tonight, but it's absolutely disgusting. I need to start remembering to have showers mid-week, but my hair's usually okay until about a day before I'm due to wash it again. I'm not one of those people who showers every morning, mostly because showers just make me tired, and as far as I know I don't smell - and even if I do, people are too polite to mention it.

Though, surely... if I did... I'm sure Sandra would have taken great pleasure in shouting it to anyone who would listen... ;)

As ever, when I do nothing all weekend I manage to write reams about it. Scintellating reading, I'm sure. :P

This Sunday is Mother's Day. I'm doing my Valentine's Day chicken-mushroom-gorgonzola creation again because there was plenty of it, and I think we're going to Asda on Friday because we've basically run out of food again... but considering we bought the majority of the last batch just before Christmas, two months isn't bad going. I really need to get a credit card for this kind of stuff...

Anyway, that's enough. This week I must make a start on chapter five of "Strange Glue", otherwise I'll be finishing it for next Christmas and it'll actually become seasonal again...

...and, of course, just in time for Noor being off on annual leave, so I have plenty of work to do...

Somehow I've ended up with lots to write about without having really done very much at all. I think this is because the computer is in the coldest part of the house and it's too expensive to run an electric heater near it (as well as a lack of plugs) so I've not felt particularly inclined to sit there and write LJ entries... I shall cut where possible, as this is fairly rambling.

( Concert )

So that was quite strange. Hopefully on Tuesday I should be able to pick up my Tewkesbury CD also, so watch this space for an MP3 of us performing. :D

We went to the Briar Rose for a drink afterwards, where we ran into herringprincess, who was out with Trev and Dave and some other people I didn't recognise... Then we walked Paul's mum to a bus stop and went to Wagamama for food, because it was quick and cheapish (although realised upon getting there that I'd forgotten not only my debit card but my bus pass... I had £7.00 on me to pay for most of my half of the food, and Paul scraped together enough change to get us both home... The perils of changing bags and getting taxis.)

( Saturday night B-movie )

( Sick leave television adventures )

So that's been quite entertaining, in a sort of horrific, "I can't believe I'm even watching this dren" kind of way...

Also... I have partly succumbed to I'm A Celebrity by virtue of Cerys Matthews, Anna Ryder-Richardson, Janice Dickinson being regularly tortured (quite deservedly) and Christopher Biggins. BIGGINS FTW! And Cerys if not!

( Kitchen utensils )

And finally - it's frelling freezing. I spent most of yesterday completely holed up in the living room (with an OMG-uber-dramatic 'Stenders) with the fire on and the curtains shut in an attempt to remain warm, and subsequently, when I went into the kitchen to start cooking dinner (a very yummy pork joint from Sainsbury's), was very surprised to find the world had turned white.

It's a strange thing, being in gainful employment, when it snows. Because there's part of me that thinks "YAY! SNOW!" and another part which thinks, with equal integrity, "Shit, it's going to be impossible to get to work..." Mostly I try to suppress my inner grown up and let the bouncing three-year-old run rampant, but there's also another, even more grown-up bit which puts its hands on its metaphorical hips and quite firmly states "You're not going outside in THAT, you've got a cold", thus suppressing the desire to go out and build a snowman. Ah well.

Still, the early appearance of snow (might we dare to wish for a white Christmas?) is more than enough to warrant my Kim Boggs icon, and Monday is my early day so if there is any more snow I should hopefully beat the worst of the traffic...

I do believe that's everything.

Has anyone else been really cold of an evening lately, or am I just a freak of nature?

Had to put my hand-made quilt back on the bed last night. To think, I was going to switch to the summer duvet back in April. Probably just as well I didn't...

Whist this is infinitely preferable to the heatwave we had last year, it would be nice if it wasn't having-to-put-the-heating-on temperature at night... I even had to sit in front of the fire on Monday evening.

Bloody global warming.

In other news, it's been nearly a year since we moved into the flat, which is cause for celebration (also read: a year without a big row over something, and only a few disagreements), but less so because the attic is still full of boxes. If I can screw the bookcases together this week then I can spend a day sorting through books. Lovely, lovely books. And then maybe I'll be able to find something to read.

Talking of reading, I'm trying again with Virginia Woolf's Orlando and finding it just as tedious as when I was forced to read it at Uni. I've re-read some stuff from the course and found it really good (it's difficult to really appreciate a book when you have a week to read it and subsequently have to analyse it) but Orlando is defeating me. I also started A S Byatt's Babel Tower but may have to start again as I've forgotten which plot thread goes where.

This was meant to be a short entry. I'll shut up now.

That's much more like it.

I was up at 10.00 this morning and have so far achieved the following:

~ Put washing outside to dry because it was sunny.

~ Brought washing in again 20 minutes later because it had started to rain.  Bastard weather.  It'll probably be glorious sunshine all next week, just wait...

~ Painted other bookcase.  Swapped bookcases over so that stickers are against the wall, by way of lifting the upper bookcase onto a swivel chair and then onto the other one.  Not very elegant, but got the job done.  Also glued base back onto top bookcase using uber-Bostik of gluey doooom.

~ Attempted to sand down bannisters.  Gave up.

~ Painted bannisters.  Took about two hours.  Some white bits, but I'll go over those tomorrow.  Looks okay; no paint on carpet, some paint on self.

~ Hoovered hallway and landing.

Am now boiling potato for my lunch.  There's no bread left so I'm having fried potato with scrambled / fried egg.  Yum.

I was meant to clean the kitchen today but that'll have to wait until later or tomorrow because I am now knackered.  Stair rails are not the easiest things to paint in the world...

Edit, 5.30: Kitchen is clean and relatively tidy, and I have a Rocky Horror themed layout to boot. I managed to get the S2 version of Tabular Indent (which I usually modify for my layouts) to work how I wanted it in terms of layout, although it appears to be ignoring my custom CSS and still takes days to load. I really need to upgrade my PC now...

Conversation from this morning:

Trainee Solicitor: Someone's password-protected my trainee diary, can you get into it for me?
My mouth: The network is playing up at the moment; try it in a few minutes.
My brain: I AM NOT THE IT DEPARTMENT!!!

The lack of anything to do at work (as well as the annoyance of people taking all my work away) has clearly had an adverse stress reaction. My nails are brittle and the skin around them has started to peel. No noticeable extra hair loss so far, but it can only be a matter of time. I also have a headache gnawing away at my temples...

On Sunday we bought a bin for by the computer and a new washing up bowl, which is see-through. Hence making it easier to tell when the sink is disgusting. The old bowl was starting to split and was also so encrusted with grease that doing the washing up was a rather pointless process...

Yup, my life gets no more exciting than a new washing up bowl...

I've been watching a lot of those DIY SOS / House Doctor / generic decorating type shows lately. The US series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is simultaneously heart-warming and incredibly depressing, because you know they'd never be able to do the same thing over here. For those that haven't seen it, the EM:HE team go to someone's house, rip it down, and build it again so it fits their needs, i.e. disabled access with lifts. On the one I watched last night they also managed to raise a load of money to help the family pay off their mortgage repayments.

They couldn't do that here, because the majority of people live in a) terraces or b) listed buildings, and the land is all owned by councils. So you can't just rip someone's house down and build it again. FFS, you need planning permission to build a bloody shed in your own back garden. It's a shame, as I'm sure there are just as many needy, broke families in the UK who need a better home who might benefit from the EM:HE team bulldozing their house. But I suppose they'll have to make do with Nick Knowles and DIY SOS instead...

Mosty I'm watching them for decorating hints. There was a brilliant idea in one of them where they used an OHP to project a silhouette on the wall and painted around it so it was a 'negative' white silhouette on the main wall colour, which looked amazing.

In my week off next week I intend to repaint the stair-rails on the landing, as they do need repainting and I have some blue gloss to use up. We should probably tell Trevor first, but I'm sure he won't mind. Although having said that, Trevor's idea of nice decorating is magnolia. Sorry, we're going to paint the kitchen blue and the bedroom pale blue and turquoise anyway. And also possibly the living room brown will become red. Eventually :P

Before that, however, I need to buy paintbrushes, turps and sandpaper...

That's about the only productive thing I intend to do in my week off, unless we get bookcase before then, in which case I'll sort out books instead. ;)

I think that's about it... I actually have work to do today. Woo.