T'eyla Minh

Fandom dream last night (filtered), about Ugly Betty. ( Some rather boring pondering thereon. )

Bugger off, life. Go and bother someone else.

(Oh, and the typing faga continues: 1 hour and 45 minutes for half a tape this morning. Which is still better than nearly 6 hours for a full tape, but this morning it was an urgent. In my brain, "urgent" translates as "back within an hour" - and she sent an email in the course of typing it. Or more than likely before even starting it. I might take photocopies of our typing book and highlight the offences to Marie when I have my supervision, whenever that is, because it's getting silly. It reflects badly on me and our team's turnover, because when things don't come back within the expected (i.e. 'my') time, I'm the first port of call for the moaning.)

I should sign this off. I'm far too tired to be trying to think, let alone string coherent sentences together.

Haven't really done anything - quiet weekend, writing fanfiction. Second choir rehearsal tonight and I hope to God this bloody opera stuff gets easier.

Went swimming with herringprincess for the first time in five weeks yesterday and didn't drown - we managed eight lengths but it took a bit longer than usual. I'm hoping swimming will be good for my back, anyway.

The latest Ugly Betty fic is coming on in leaps and bounds, which I suspect is because of the hiatus. I really need to finish the other one, but may post the first chapter of this one (hopefully tonight or tomorrow) as it's now finished, to make people aware of my presence again... It's not like the other one is in plot limbo, I just keep losing inspiration for it...

Vicky (Uni Vicky) has invited me to EuroDisney with her parents and herself (four-people-are-cheaper, obviously) some point next year so that'll be cool. May have to take a day out to go to Paris, though. Also would love to be able to make my own way there via plane and train again, but suspect that would be rather stupid on my own, even though I remember the route. The train navigation was my favourite bit of the holiday in September, second only to the Palais Garnier. I hate being reliant on tour guides and taxis, it takes all the fun out of things...

I think that's about everything. Watch this space for the UB-fic update, if anyone cares...

The past two days were most enjoyable...

On Saturday we did very little indeed except go out to the pub for dinner (mostly because it was such a nice day), ending up a little bit further afield than usual at the Kings Arms (I think), a local Amber Inn pub. I had a chicken madras with a side of potato and spinach, and Paul had a sort of mushroomy peppercorn sauce thing which was apparently very nice...

Then Paul headed off to shabe's birthday / house-warming party and I went home to mess about online for a bit.

I've done a bit of work on my newest Phantom fic, entitled "Whisper" and based on Katie Melua's I Cried For You. I'm currently writing two bits of it at the same time, though not intentionally. I started it somewhat in the middle and then decided to go from the beginning, so hopefully at some point the two bits will meet up... So far, quite pretentious. A beta (or at least a read-through) would be much appreciated just to see if any of it makes sense.

Yesterday was also lovely. We went to my mum's in a taxi, whereupon we had an impromptu barbecue. When the sun was out it was very warm, but the wind was blooy freezing. We battled it nonetheless and the food was very nice indeed.

David had bought mum a mini chocolate fountain so we tried to use that outside... and soon gave up when the chocolate ended up over most of the garden because of the gale. So that was amusing.

David then invited over Blanche and Chloe from next door to help us finish off the chocolate. Apparently David has befriended our previous neighbours-from-Hell as 'damage limitation' - it's Blanche's other, older daughter (Kim) and Kim's brats (Shannon and Courtney - chavalicious!) who are the problem, as they're over there constantly despite having somewhere to live of their own. Hence, David's plan is to try and get Blanche on our side so she can maybe stand up to Kim and make her bugger off to her own home.

In nine years of living at that house, it's the first time Blanche has set foot inside the front door, which I hadn't even realised... She is the self-confessed "neighbour from 'Ell from next doower" (you try and phonetically spell Yammish and see how far you get. :P) but seems to be otherwise pleasant.

Going 'home' always reminds me how much I love the accent. There's something quite comforting about it, something more lilting than Brummie.

Anyway. David got slightly drunk and decided to pay our taxi fare home (he gave the driver moer than enough to cover it, apparently) and I am slightly hungover this morning but at least I can leave early and things haven't been too annoying.

We're going to see Cats on Wednesday night, so that'll be nice... if only because these days, "Jellicle Cats" doesn't make me want to throw myself under a bus. The UK tour ain't London, but it's better than never seeing it again...

As punishment for all the eating out and subsequent overspending, my body has somehow managed to put on half a stone.  Half a frelling stone.  Bringing my weight up to 11st.  Given I was 'officially' overweight at a stone lighter, this is incredibly annoying.

I would like to think that it's because the swimming has been doing some good and turned the fat into muscle (which is, of course, heavier), or my scales are rubbish, but somehow I don't believe either of those, and the real reason is that I'm a big fat pig.

( On and on and Ariston... )

I had a lot more to say but since having a bath my eyes are tired and I need to sleep...

Last night was odd...

I started feeling incredibly tired as soon as I got on the bus, to the extent that I read a bit of the Birmingham Mail I'd picked up for Paul, then sat staring out of the window. Too tired, even, to remember to put my MP3 player on.

I got in and asked if he wouldn't mind cooking, then went to lie down for a nap, in which I probably got about 20 minutes total sleep in the hour and a half I was in the bedroom.

At about 7.45 I gave up and dragged myself back out of bed, still deathly tired, and went to watch some rubbish television while Paul cooked (and filled the kitchen with smoke - our grill needs cleaning again), then went online for as long as my brain could cope, then watched Big Brother, then went to bed and attempted to sleep until 1.30am.

Obviously, I was too tired to sleep, as well. My eyes were aching but my brain wouldn't shut up, and then I'd just nod off and Paul would wake me up (either with "Are you awake?" or just by snoring...) so, all in all, a horrible night's sleep...

And naturally, I am today exhausted. Apparently I even look tired, which is an achievement. At least it's Friday. Tomorrow I need to take my bike down to Halfords for them to have a look at it... hopefully it WILL only be £25 to give it a service and not anything more.

Talking of Big Brother, I realised last night that Charley really, horribly reminds me of Sandra. I think it's the accent more than anything else, but wow. She has the same typical Londoner attitude and doesn't know when to shut up. She even looks a little bit like her...

*shudders* I just can't get rid of the woman.

I think that's about it. Finale of Ugly Betty tonight, and even though I'm thoroughly spoiled I'm still very excited. At least the fandom is steadily growing and there should be a fair amount of fanfic to keep me going between seasons... besides, end-of-season fanfic is ALWAYS fun. :)

Today was one of those days of running into people I know, and all in the space of 30 minutes.

Firstly, I Becky P (a trainee who has now moved on to pastures new) spotted me on the bus, though at first I didn't recognise her due to her hair being different...

Then I spotted broken_sticks bus surfing as he got off.

And then I saw composim coming out of work as I got off the bus.

Small world, really, innit?  Kings Heath, I mean. ;)

Today has been quite productive.  This morning I put some washing out to dry, and put the bed linen in to wash.  Messed around online for a bit, and then paul helped me put the bed linen out before we popped out to Somerfield to buy cheese.  Well, technically we went out for broccoli, but since the only cheese left in the drawer was parmesan, a cheese shop was overdue.

We came back with mature cheddar, wensleydale, red leicester and brie.  So at least now when we offer you cheese and biscuits, the options won't be "Er... oh.  Cheddar."

And then we had a bit of a spring clean.  Paul vaccuumed the stairs for me and then I did the landing and hallway, and we put boxes in the attic so the bit at the top of the stairs is now clear and ready to receive bookcases.  And once we have bookcases I'll be more inclined to sort through the boxes in the attic properly...

The washing has been brought in, also, because the neighbours are having a barbecue.  I am muchly looking forward to Alison's barbecue on the 19th, even though it does fall on the same day as my concert.  Barbecued food will be a nice reward, I think. :)  Oh, and if Alison is reading, there's a gas barbecue being sold for just under £60 at the discount 'miscellaenous furniture' store by McDonalds.  Failing that, apparently Somerfield are selling various types of barbecues quite cheap as well.

I am going to attempt to make a strawberry parfait for said barbecue, if I can get a tin to freeze it in.  I may make lemon cake as well.  It depends how creative or culinary I'm feeling. ;)

As mentioned yesterday, the overhead views of Birmingham on GoogleMaps are now in more detail, so in honour of the occasion, have some random icons:



Rather self-explanatory.

If anyone wants one (and you live in a well-developed area, i.e. not a small village in the middle of nowhere), gimme your postcode!  And any, er, distinguishing features about your house that I could spot from the air, i.e. "bright pink car on drive" or "second house after the gap" or something like that.  A house number won't really be any good ;)  They will obviously be subject to the level of zoomification that Google gives; most major cities seem to have a very close zoom level, but then there are sections of field where you can see each blade of grass, but not the house ten minutes down the road.  I suppose it depends on where the satellite is.

I will screen comments in case people are uber-paranoid about people stealing their postcodes.

Here's the entry I forgot to email home yesterday. I would put it under a cut, but there are cuts within it...

---

After my last entry on Saturday I finished the majority of chores (put half the clothes away, had tea), had a bath, and watched the end of the 100 Greatest Tear-Jerkers thing on Channel 4. I was quite horrified to discovered that Titanic came third (must... kill... public...) but that was made up for by The Green Mile coming second. I can't remember what was first... I might go and see if the full list is on their website as I'm intrigued what ended up on there... What was more annoying even than Titanic was the fact that it was being presented by Jimmy Carr. They'd have this lovely, melodramatic clip from a film dealing with a sensitive issue (like Sophie's Choice or The Elephant Man), and then he'd open his big mouth and make me want to slap him. There are times when sarcasm is appropriate, and times when it isn't. A list of great tear-jerkers is one of those latter times.

Jimmy Carr has apparently studied the 'science' of jokes, or so he was saying to Jonathan Ross. Which, I suppose, rather explains why he's such a crap comedian. There's no point finding out what makes a 'perfect joke' if you can't deliver it properly, or with any sense of self-deprecation. He takes himself FAR too seriously to be even remotely likeable.

On Sunday, we didn't do very much. We had to pop out, firstly for eggs, and then for more beer for Paul. Luckily, both the halal butcher/greengrocer and the off licence were open.

Paul played more of his silly UFO game (five hours) and I watched the first two episodes of a Channel 4 dramatisation of Zadie Smith's White Teeth, the first chapter of which I remember reading at uni. Might look for that on Amazon... There are still two episodes left to go, so I'll see if I can squeeze them in this week, before they disappear off the replay thing...

We cooked our enormous leg of lamb (£7.00ish from Aldi) and invited Lisa up for Sunday lunch. The lamb was frelling gorgeous, if I do say so myself. We watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (I'd forgotten how funny it was) which Noel got me for Christmas, and then Lisa went downstairs.

I've taped a programme on the Turin Shroud and The Passion of the Christ to get around to watching at some point. I say 'at some point' because I still have a load of stuff to watch from when we moved in, let alone Christmas...

On Monday we had lamb sandwiches for brunch and then headed out to go to the cinema to see Sunshine. ( Reviewish and spoilers )

We also saw lots of trailers for several things, including 28 Weeks Later. I'm not sure on the plausibility of a sequel for 28 Days Later, but it looks as visually interesting as the first one and might be worth a look... My favourite bit of 28DL was the swooping shots of a deserted London, and I'm not sure how they can top that...

I need to make a list at some point of all the stuff coming out from May onwards so that I don't miss anything. There are at least six things on the list already:

1. 28 Weeks Later (11 May, I think)
2. Spiderman 3 (which I'm not THAT keen on, but will only kick myself for not seeing at the cinema afterwards)
3. Shrek 3 (WOO!)
4. Pirates 3 (*bounces*)
5. Harry Potter 5 (must finish book before June.)
6. The Simpsons Movie (in July)

Plus a few others, no doubt. Saw IV should be due at Hallowe'en as well...

Anyway. After that we tried to get a drink in the Figure of Eight. The barmaid had poured my drink and THEN decided that she was going to check for ID. According to the Wetherspoons magazine all of their pubs are now cracking down / joining in with the "Under 21" rule. So that rather put a damper on things, and after that I couldn't be bothered with pubs any more so we went home and got a curry.

At this rate I'm going to have to carry my bloody passport around with me, which can only result in my losing it right before I actually need it.

( Pub Moan )

ANYWAY. Moaning aside... er, here's more moaning.

( Work Moan )

Just as well I'm not at choir tonight (we get this week off) and I can leave at a reasonable time. They probably don't even need me here today, but since Noor is off (seriously, you have to book you leave three years in advance to beat her to it...) I have to be in. Ordinarily at Easter I take the concessionary on Tuesday and then Wednesday to Friday as leave, but that isn't an option here. I've got next Monday and Tuesday off, but that's only because it's our anniversary.

We're supposed to be going to Bacchus, assuming they're not shut or something equally annoying, and possibly Dudley Castle, as it's nearer and cheaper than Warwick Castle. I also wanted to get some photos in Warstock Cemetery but I doubt my camera will hold together long enough and I'll spend most of the time trying to keep it in one piece.

ARGHEVERYTHINGISANNOYING!

I will be calm. I will. I am only in for four days. *breathes*

(Added, 1.40) Apparently Noor is going to be off sick for two weeks, which means two more weeks on my own seething at being 'helped' when there's not enough work to warrant it. I am SO taking some well-earned leave at the end of this, dude. Maybe the rest of the week off after the first May bank holiday...

I'm considering mid-June or early July for the theme park trip/s, so watch this space. I'll post entrance fee/train deal details nearer the time to get a better idea of numbers.

---

Yesterday evening I went to bed at 10.30 because I was tired (it's paid off, though, as I actually feel like I got enough sleep for once). I'm sure Paul thought I'd gone to bed early because I was annoyed with him for snapping at me. Amazon are selling Dead Like Me season 2 and Life on Mars series 2 at discounted prices (DLM2 for £30 instead of £40, and LOM2 for £21.85 [ish] instead of £40.) There are also a couple of books I want to get as well. Knowing that Paul also wants to see DLM and LOM series 2, I suggested we should get them, to which he replied that "we don't have the money".

To which I replied, "I'll remember that the next time you want a crate of beer". He'd had a bad day at work and was cranky, which is fair enough, and it's not like I don't take my bad days out on him, but still. I was thinking of him when I suggested it.

( Money Moan )

*sigh* I'm sure it'll get better. It's just been like this since about February, and it's frustrating.

Roll on the April pay rise, please. I could do with a few extra quid a month...

I shall now stop moaning and get this emailed / posted...

I have an inhaler, thanks to wrysprygoat.  :)  I need to give it back when I've got my prescription on Tuesday, so will most likely pass it to herringprincess on Wednesday evening.

Ahhh... clear lungs!

So, yes.  Paul has gone to play badminton with Drew, hopefully to be a weekly thing as part of his new 'exercise regime'.  I will clean the kitchen floor and probably do the washing up and give the bathroom a bit of a clean as well, after this entry and when I've cooled down a bit.  It's a lovely day. I went out to get toilet roll and pick up said inhaler from Drew, and ended up having to take my coat off.  Also, I've put the washing outside to dry for the first time since we moved in.  Which reminds me, I must collect all the stuff from upstairs as well...

Early this afternoon I watched Birth.  I admit to having zoned out for about 10 minutes in the middle because it was slow-moving and a bit confusing, but what I saw was very good.  I have no frelling clue what it all means, but I think some of it was quite daring.  Might try and watch it again if I get chance, as I think it would benefit from further viewings...

I have nothing much else to say.  I am currently working through reading all of Midasgirl's fic on FFN, as I was out of the fanfic-loop for so long I missed an entire story.  And then I'll work on reading Reine's.  I really want to get back into fanfiction again.  I stayed up to finish reading a story last night until five to one in the morning, and I'd forgotten how much fun it was.  The emotions run so much higher in the small hours, and it makes the whole experience much more satisfying.

Ho hum. Chores to do, anyway.  Also need to change the bed and vacuum the mattress...

( Under here )

Well, today was a bit mad in terms of work.  They were helping me this morning because - again - the pile was full of stuff from last night.  In the meantime, a whole bunch of urgent stuff came in, so I wasn't getting through the yesterday-stuff in the slightest, so they kept coming up to get rid of it... so by the afternoon, when they'd cleared the 'backlog' but there were STILL urgents coming in, I was starting to flounder a little bit... but after some manic super-fast typing, I managed to calm it all down again... there's about six things in the tray for tomorrow, plus whatever comes in overnight, and then the saga starts again. ;)

I suppose I'm just so used to NOT getting any help that it's a rather alien concept... but given the fiasco yesterday with the amendment that took 50 minutes of retyping, sometimes the help is less t han helpful.  I think I need to take a list into my 1-to-1, if it ever happens...

I must post a picture for jackiesjottings to show her the current length of my hair, at least before I cut it all off again.  I've still got the bright pink dye from last year that I was going to use for Pride and didn't get around to, so I've decided - or at least half-decided - to cut my hair short again and dye it pink for the duration.  I don't know what work will have to say about it, but at least the pink eventually dyes out and turns blonde.  Once the blonde has grown out I'll cut it again, and then start to grow it out - at least with straighteners that annoying in-betweeny stage won't be too aggravating.

It's just reaching a point now where it's getting annoying... it tangles as soon as look at it, and my original reason for growing it was that I was bored with it being short becuase I couldn't do anything with it - and I'm not doing anything with it now anyway.  Besides, I don't want to spend another summer like the last one with a huge mass of hair at my neck.  Yes, short, easy-to-manage hair for me, I think...  I'm only growing it out again because Paul has moaned so much about preferring it long...

So, yes, a photo, for posterity.

And that's that.  At least it's Friday tomorrow.

1. I must remember, when I run out of medication, to throw away the empty bloody boxes. I had a brief panic last night because I realised I'd run out of Pills, which would have meant trying to make an appointment this morning, using up my lunch to go to it (assuming they had one today), waiting ages for the prescription, not being able to get it, and subsequently not being able to go swimming on Wednesday. But then I checked the date and GP address on the empty box this morning and it was my old surgery; I'd had a prescription since then, when I registered at the new surgery. So I checked in my purse - ah, glorious prescription!

2. Upon picking it up this morning (big queue at Boots, bus stuck in traffic, late for work) I ran into Pritpal from school. What with Crystal and Jenn at swimming, it's starting again... I wonder who else I'll run into? [ETA: I saw someone else in the sandwich shop, who I think was called Lucy. She was in my A-Level English group, anyway. I doubt she'd recognise me, and I don't think I turned round long enough for her to see me...]

3. Our fee earners need to learn that I cannot magically make their documents appear. Nor can I do five things at once. Bernie put an urgent in last night which I would happily have done this morning, had she not then put ANOTHER urgent in after that which was needed for the same time. And given I was in late (9.00 rather than 8.45) I lost the precious 15 minutes in which I could've done the first one. So instead I had to do one and give the other one to our temp (Val), so it didn't get done in time. But honestly, it doesn't help when Bernie asks me where it is in such a manner as to imply I should conjure it out of mid-air.

4. Add to that, "the printer's out of toner", "Tray 2 is empty" and "can you do this one next please?" and I've only just (at 10.00) managed to get into a proper routine.

5. ( On reading, and also writing )

I do believe that's everything.

Choir tonight. At least I'm not insanely tired for a change. I woke up at some point this morning thinking I'd fallen asleep with my side lamp on, as the room seemed distinctly blue, but it turned out to be daylight over the top of the curtains. I think Spring is trying to, er, spring. It just needs to warm up a bit. But not too much. about 10 degrees would be fine. :)

Firstly, a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to falling_softly.  Which of course means today's icon is a pirate, according to tradition.  Or something.

Anyway, despite telling myself I wouldn't do anything remotely energetic today (and I still have to go and get more rubber gloves and that bloody superglue, which can wait until after lunch), I have achieved the following:

1)  Put clean washing upstairs to dry.

2)  Put tablecloth back on table, rearranged chairs in readiness for Sunday.

3)  Sorted through big yellow plastic box and put miscellaneous junk into miscellaneous junk box in attic, jewellery boxes in bedroom, vaguely oriental-inspired boxes into living room, and other bits elsewhere.

4)  Put various bottles for recycling into big empty yellow plastic box.

5)  Moved wooden bookcase to bottom of staircase.

6)  Taken books out of various carrier bags and put onto bookcase in somewhat random fashion, as they won't be staying there indefinitely.

7)  Put other boxes onto bookcase.

8)  Covered bookcase in pretty throw.

9)  Vaccuumed the hallway, which is now clear.

10)  Tidied the living room a bit.

11)  Tidied shelves by computer.

12)  Put recycling paper into bigger box, thus saving space.

And now I'm done.  It looks much better.  We're getting there, at least.  Of course, now the attic stairs are mostly inaccessible without being very careful, but they're less hazardous than they were before, so that's a bonus.

Tomorrow I will relax, hopefully.  On Saturday we need to go Mother's Day shopping... I would try and find a card today, but I only have about £1.50 in my purse...

Anyway, I shall now see if my pasta has finished cooking.  Mmmm, leftover bolognese... :)

Well, some internet is better than no internet, but the connection seems awfully temperamental.  Yesterday morning it worked fine, but then in the afternoon we had to reboot the router before it would acknowledge the internet connection.  This morning it works (after a ten minute wait)  but is deathly slow.  Like, dial-up slow.  Semagic loads just fine, but it hasn't managed to load Livejournal properly and isn't acknowledging Yahoo in the slightest...  *kicks internet*

I do believe my slow PC is partially to blame for this, but it's still bloody annoying...  Hopefully if I ever upgrade it might be better, but until then we'll just have to deal with it... meh.

Anyway, yesterday was quite nice.  Firstly we did our usual trick of going out shopping for five items and spending over £40 on general shopping.  Which is probably why I never have any money left.

Got back, had some lunch, and attempted to use the internet, only to fail and instead finish Myst.  Then I sulked for a bit and watched the pilot of Nip/Tuck on the Virgin Choice channel (I think that's what it's called), which has archived the first couple of episodes of various serieses on there.  As much as I prefer Sky to cable, the Teleport Replay and Teleport Movies are a nice bonus...

Then in the evening we headed off to the abode of herringprincess and wrysprygoat for dinner.  Drew cooked us a very nice veggie lasagne, and in the evening we played Scrabble and made things out of play-doh.  There's something quite therapeutic about play-doh, and the smell reminds me of childhood.

Which was quite strange, actually, since that morning I'd bought some tinned turkey breast from Sainsbury's to use for sandwiches, which was another vestige of my childhood was nostalgia in smell and taste form.

Anyway, assuming this thing posts, I might get to check my friends list at some point this bloody afternoon.

I do like time off work, you know. It takes me about two days to kick myself into productivity, but once I do, I actually manage to achieve stuff.

I am actually fairly certain that nobody is really that interested in my day to day life, but I’m of the opinion that I will read back on this journal in a few months of years (as I frequently do) and remember things better for writing them down at the time.

( Wednesday )

( Thursday )

( Friday )

Over the weekend, we did very little. I finished the curtains on Saturday – the white floor-length voile in the bedroom looks SO much better than the half-window net that was there before, and the black voile in the living room takes the edge off the harsh sunlight first thing in the morning, and should look lovely in summer. I also created a tie-back for the yellow voile in the hallway using the purple ribbon that was on my Lush giftset, and Paul helped me hang blue voile across the hallway so that now the lower bit of the landing looks like an actual room. Very nice. Pictures coming, etc, etc…

More Life on Mars. Paul went out with Alex at about 7.30 and I sat down to watch the premiere of Brokeback Mountain at 9.00, though only managed to watch the first hour of it before Paul came back and I turned it off, which was the easier option than trying to watch it over his drunkenness. What I saw was good, at least.

Sunday was also uneventful but for a couple of games of Scrabble. I reinstalled Myst on my PC and started to play it again (although as it’s designed for Windows 95 at the latest and requires 256 colours, it has a tendency to either crash or freeze and then return with the colours all wrong.)

And that is everything.

There is nothing to do at work today. ( So I start rambling about annual leave. )

So, yeah. As I already stated, I couldn’t be bothered to mess with the network on Thursday, so I’ve come back to it this morning. Ben has suggested buying a double-protected anti-interference cable to try, but before that eventuality, we have three immediate ports of call.

1. Tortuga. Ben thinks there might be some electronic interference causing the cable to drop packets. The only thing even remotely nearby, other than the PC itself, of course, is our infrared wireless doorbell. So firstly I’m going to move that away from the PC and into the living room, where hopefully it won’t interfere with anything else.

2. See if our connection will work with Lisa’s cable unplugged. If this is the case, then it is either a router problem or a Telewest / Virgin Media problem.

3. Phone Telewest, to make sure they are providing us with what they said they were. We specifically had the higher broadband speed for the purposes of networking, so it’s best to double-check it will actually support one…

And failing that, it’s the router being an arse.

I’m not prepared to drag my PC downstairs and try all combinations of short cables to check it if works, because it’s a hassle I can’t be doing with. However I am at least fairly confident that we will overcome this annoyance and finally Have The Internet.

I shall now sign off this ridiculously long thing and post it.

There has been an IT-type man wandering around our office lately sorting out various problems and making sure everyone is on the correct versions of things. My Lotus Notes is now blue and has pretty letterheads (which makes a change from the horrible 256-colour pixellated things they used before). Yesterday he was asking everyone if they had internet access... so I said I did, but it was an old Social Care and Health password. Which is true.

It seems like they may be gearing up to give everyone in Legal Services internet access, rather than just the solicitors. Which is nice. In SC&H we had access so we could look at stuff on Care Knowledge. It may be there's a similar thing for Legal. But anyway, it's a very nice gesture...

In other news, I am getting quite into Ugly Betty right now. I wasn't sure what to expect when it was advertised, but it has proven itself to be very good. I just hope, like everything else clever to come out of America, that it doesn't get cancelled before its prime.

And, yes, I'm already shipping it. But considering I've not had the energy to watch or ship very much of anything before now, I'm quite pleased about that.

I've also started watching Most Haunted again since discovering their new medium (Gordon?) is no longer there and Derek has been fully replaced by the ever-loveable David Wells. Of course, Derek's absence is still obvious at times, but I'm more than happy with David taking his place. The next live show, whenever it is, is in Transylvania, so that should be really good. I'm quite liking the new format for Most Haunted Extra as well, with Karl giving away little secrets of television, although it's still not as good as the Series 5 episodes with the silly outtakes. I wish they'd find a format and stick to it...

Seether's "Broken" was on my MP3 player this morning and I got slightly nostalgic for the good old days of MH, before it went overseas and Derek and Yvette started snarking. (The reason being that "Broken" provided the lyrics for my old D/Y LJ layout... and the animated icon used in this post, in dedication to the moment I squealed like a lunatic and fell off the sofa...)

Anyway. I also randomly missed Asa this morning too, although frell knows why. He was just heading off to Gran Canaria when we went to the Welly on my birthday, and I didn't actually get to say goodbye at the end of the night because a certain someone was too drunk and moaning to go home. We were supposed to give Sober Paul one of our mobile numbers to get in touch in case he came back (which was Asa's suggestion, not just presumptuousness on our part) and forgot.

I dunno, it's just not the same without Vanilla...

Also, and finally, I was re-reading my paper journal the other night, and it seems the apathy that took over everything started as early as December 2004, although at least at that point I still had the mental capacity to whinge about it. I think the lull in writing came around February 2005, as there is a lull at that point until I was first going out with Paul in April, when I started writing things down for posterity. And then it completely dries up again until about October.

Maybe I should stop trying to figure out when I went crazy. But since I already know why, I keep trying to backtrack to find the initial starting point. Possibly that was just 'leaving Uni' or 'getting a job'.

Anyway, I should sign this one off.

I'm going swimming with herringprincess tonight, in an effort to stop sitting on my big fat arse and start doing some exercise. We're going to Cocks Moors Wood Leisure Centre, which is just up the road from me. Hurrah.

Of course, I haven't been swimming in frelling ages so will probably attempt to do a length and die halfway through. We shall see. Practice makes perfect, and I was quite good at it at primary school. (I got both the Junior and Senior Swimming Cups by the end of year 6 at our Speech Night.)

I don't have any goggles or swimming cap, alas, and have no idea where to buy them from. I might have a little look at lunchtime but failing that will hope that the Leisure Centre has a shop where I can get some.

Now for what the title refers to... I went onto the birmingham.gov.uk site to find out how much it costs to go swimming these days and discovered that CMW does trampolining courses / sessions for adults. I used to go to trampolining lessons (with Aisha) at Hadley Stadium in Bearwood / Cape Hill when I was 15/16, initially as part of the physical aspect of my Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award. It was so much fun I carried on doing it.

It's a bit like gymnastics in that most kids (girls mostly) start it when they're five or six, so the other two girls our age were much further advanced than us at the time. It was also full of small children, most of whom were lovely.

Anyway, it turned out to be very good exercise for my legs (I used to have very well defined calf muscles as a result) so I figure something that's fun can't be bad.

I'm going to see if they have a leaflet or something when I go to the centre tonight (the website isn't very clear other than the times/days) to see how much it costs and what the nature of their sessions are.

In which case, would anyone up Kings Heath end (or within easy access of the 50 bus route) be interested in joining me for some Tiggerific bouncy fun? I don't mind going on my own, but it's better to go with a friend.

From what I can see so far, adult trampolining is on Monday evenings, 6.15 - 7.00pm. It looks like a full 'course' is £33, but I'm hoping they might do it on a weekly sessional basis as well. If it's £33 for a course it might have to wait until I have some more money.

It also means the start of my week will look like this: Mondays - trampolining; Tuesdays - choir practice; Wednesdays - swimming; Thursday to Sunday - death. But I am determined to lose weight by the summer, damnit. I can't eat any less.

Quiet weekend for once. Been calculating my finances and have allocated myself £20 per week spending money until the end of February, by which point my bank account should be looking a bit more healthy (this takes into account booking up for Cats in Birmingham after I get paid next Friday). We were meant to try and sort out the bedroom (which basically involves putting the cuddly toys PROPERLY on top of the wardrobe and finding somewhere for all of my bags to live, in order to get rid of the two big boxes on the floor and gain some space again), but couldn't be bothered in the end.

Suffered with a headache on Sunday and had a nap after the EastEnders omnibus. Paul went to Richie's gig, I had a shower and watched Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events on DVD. That is all.

Brief update into the Life of BeX.

+ window still leaks. Suspect this may have to be fixed via landlord.
+ currently without washing machine since boiler refit, as Phil forgot to plug it in and I'm not sure if it was intentional or forgetful. Must ring Phil to find out.
+ subsequently need to do some washing
+ should phone grandmother to arrange her coming over for dinner. Can't be arsed.
+ am getting new phone tonight, a Motorola RAZR V3 (ph34r my inner poser) because my old Siemens is irritating me. Got it for £67.50 on eBay, brand new and boxed. Lovely.
+ current celebrity crush: Noel Fielding. I fear Boosh fangirling can only be a step away.
+ as a result of which I have started to like Russell Brand... for this I also blame The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, where Noel and Russell were teamed together. "The Goth Detectives" should be an actual series. And if there isn't Noel/Russell slash out there already, dude, there so should be.
+ addicted to Celebrity Big Brother and wanting Cleo to either win the show or lose her sanity totally.
+ should be internetted quite soon and all for under £30.00. Hurrah.
+ after which I will create and post a few new icon ideas: Little Britain meets Wellington snark, and some of my favourite bits from Jerry Springer: The Opera.

That's about it, I think.

Long time no post. Hope everyone is still alive and still has me friended; if not - eh, it's your loss. :P

In brief:

~ had very nice Thai food and plenty of time off work to enjoy my birthday and received lots of nice things, including every episode ever of Dangermouse and Jack Sparrow's hat.

~ visited London from 20th to 23rd October (ended up staying one night longer than intended) to see The Producers and Avenue Q and thefleshfailure and lots of animals, which were all very enjoyable. We spent too much money and giggled quite a lot. There'll be a proper write-up, complete with pictures, when - as usual - I have a computer again.

~ had a Hallowe'en gathering on Saturday that comprised a total of five people but was quite pleasant nonetheless. Watched a very silly B-movie called Vault of Horror that completely defied any logic we tried to attach to it.

Other than that, I am currently quite irked by the following:

~ we bought a £289 Dyson on Sunday for £180, but had to have the display model due to them selling out. We got it home to discover the bloody hose was missing so I have to go back to Currys (in the Bull Ring) to shout at another gormless sales assistant. That's after I spend an hour trying to find one.

~ Argos, and their persistence in not reordering the black chandelier that I want for the bedroom (it's only small and £20). I spotted it back in September when I had a £20 voucher to spend, and their helpful stock-check machine told me that the sales assistant could order one for me. The sales assistant couldn't order one - in fact, she couldn't even tell me when the next batch would be arriving, or even ordered in. Let it be noted that they have apparently sold out city-wide; so basically 3000 people in Birmingham have ordered the same lampshade. Er, right. Of course they have. I tried again earlier and still no joy, so I suspect they may quietly discontinue it without actually telling anyone, which is incredibly annoying. (I wonder if city-wide includes Oldbury... or if I can order it online, which may be my last resort.)

~ in summary - Argos R suck.

~ the flat is falling apart, literally. The curtain runners in the living room AND the bedroom have both fallen out of the wall because the plaster and brickwork is crap (but at least the one in the living room still works) and now the sink is coming away from its mounting... Also, the pressure on the boiler doesn't want to stay where we set it, and the stairs smell musty. I can't complain too much because it's a very old house, but still, I'm beginning to see why the rent is so cheap...

~ Birmingham trying to be London. Paul and I both bought funky trainers in Sole in London's Neal Street (near Covent Garden) only to discover an exact replica of the same shop - with the same trainers and the same sale - yesterday. This is annoying, as it rather negates the "I went all the way to London for these!" factor of buying them.

~ The Bull Ring also R suck.

I need to get back to work...

Last night I made possibly the healthiest meal in a while, though that was rather negated by the sheer amount of it.

( Pesto chicken pasta )

I also did this with home-made garlic bread (yes, I am a kitchen goddess) and it was lovely. There was rather a lot of it, so I had the rest for my lunch today... The only bad thing was that the yoghurt overpowered the pesto flavour a little bit, so I might try it with double cream next time (just to make it slightly less healthy...)

Tonight I'm leaving work at about 5.30 to go to a rehearsal for the City of Birmingham Choir (if I can find the bloody place), in the hope of auditioning next week. Christmas just isn't Christmas without a good sing-song, so I'm biting the bullet and trying to join up. Here's hoping my soprano hasn't withered and died. Wish me luck!

On Friday, if it wasn't obvious from my post that day, I decided to start attempting to pack stuff up.  So I put together a box, and started to fill it with books.  Then I tried to move it.

I got it halfway down the first flight of stairs, and then managed to get it wedged between the bottom step and the bookcase, and it was too heavy to move.  So, I got another box and put some of the books in that one, making sure it was light enough to carry, and deposited a few more books on the staircase until the first box was light enough to manouevre past the bookcase.  I got it down another flight of stairs until halfway down the second one, where, again, it got wedged on the bookcase.  So I took even more books out of it and finally managed to get it down the stairs.  I filled them up with DVDs after that, and there are now three boxes in the hall full of books.  There are also still books on the landing that didn't fit, plus all the hardbacks.

After that, I had a shower and went into town to meet Paul.  We went to the Shakespeare in the city centre.  A slightly drunken woman coerced us into going in there when I said it looked full.  She wandered off with her friends (apparently to the Newt) and then came back an hour or so later to have a bit of a shout and try to beat up the bar manager, who called the police.  He looked a bit like Alan Davies...

Saturday, we had to get up early and get to the flat for 9.30 to await washing machine delivery men.  This was via Sainsbury's to get magazines and puzzle books, as, obviously, there's no television or stereo in there as we have yet to actually move in.

A delivery man appeared at about 11.30.  Bloody typical.  There was only one of him, and he said that they would be there before 2.00.  Trevor-the-Landlord was due to turn up at 12.30, so we rang him to put him off, then rang him again when they'd arrived.  The machine was fitted fairly quickly, anyway, and the fitting charge was only £20.  It's a nice, simple washing machine with one temperature dial and a 'start' button, designed for washingmachineaphobics like me.

Trevor turned up shortly afterwards to mow the lawn, collect the first month's rent and depost, and collect the guarantee paperwork for the washing machine. Managed to clear up a few questions about what we can do to the walls in regards to fittings and such.

Finally, at 3.15, we left the flat, went to the pub for a bit, and went back to mine via the chippy, where the stupid girl got the order wrong AGAIN.  She's obviously the granddaughter of the family that own it and she'd rather spend her summer doing, well, teenage things, rather than getting covered in chip fat.  She's also incredibly dim.

Today I have cleaned the kitchen and played Scrabble a bit and not much else.  Had to take a short trip to the shops to get bread, as the stuff in the breadbin had gone mouldy and the other stuff is frozen.  Mum and David are getting back some point tomorrow, so I'm going to hopefully go to Asda for some bits of food shopping and hoover/dust as much as I can.  I'm still somewhat recovering from Friday's moving endeavours, though, so I don't know how long it'll take.

I'm knackered... Bedtime.

My body has yet to understand the concept of period pains coming before the thing in question. Meh. They're not as bad as they probably could be, but they are made worse by unnecessary stomach pain...

Executive decision: the barbecue is cancelled, mostly due to lack of interest. I can't really afford it, I can't really be arsed, and there was only one definite attendee anyway. Either way, this is my last effort to be sociable. You all know where I am.

Anyway. On Tuesday night, I decided to watch White Noise, which turned out to be quite a bad idea because I'm generally not very good at horror films. I liked it, anyway. Echoes of The Ring in places, completely inaccurate in terms of what EVP is actually like (it's rarely as clear as they were making out), but a clever twist at the end anyway. Would have been a lot less scary if Paul hadn't decided to ring me at 10.30 and scare the bejeesus out of me, since the phone rang at the exact wrong time.

As a result, I ended up watching another hour of television to calm myself down. A random episode of Life Begins, as it happened, and was very tired most of yesterday.

We met up in town after work and ate at the Yard of Ale. They've changed their menu and made it boring. Which is apparently the in thing these days, since Wetherspoons did exactly the same, having abolished their delicious shredded BBQ pork baguettes and the interesting-looking platter that I never got a chance to try. Bastards.

After that we hopped on a bus down to Tanoshi Bar, which used to be The Lazt Word, next to Morgan Computers on Hagley Road. It's now a Thai restaurant/bar. It's very pretty. They have swinging chairs downstairs (like you see in American films on the front porches of ranch houses) and the upstairs is painted green and gold with amazing wooden tables that look like bits of tree trunk. Fairly reasonably priced. I didn't try the food but it all looked very nice.

We were there to hear Richie do his first solo acoustic gig, and were led to believe that it was to start at 7.30. This was the original start time before it was moved from the James Brindley. It turned out that it didn't start until 9.00.

So naturally, by the time Richie had gone on, half an hour late, and performed, I was whinging and wanted to go home. Paul whinged back, convinced me to stay for another drink, and we sat through the quite boring second performer (a girl from Gibralta) and some of the third. Naturally, when I got home it took me ages to get to sleep again, despite nodding off in the pub.

Knackered again today. To-do list:

~ Tape House and... the other thing I don't remember, for David. Repeat next week.
~ Go next door and tell Jean that I won't be there at the weekend and ask her to water the plants in the back garden and the tomatoes in the back room.
~ Attempt to pack stuff...
~ Remember cheque book.
~ Empty dishwasher, clean George Foreman grill.

I think that's it, actually...

Ho-hum. Work.

For some reason, whenever I complain about being uninspired and unable to write, I manage to write something. The something being about four paragraphs of random Buffyfic for the end of "Broken Record", which I'm never going to get to use because I'll never get that far, but anyway. It's something.

So, an update.

Friday was boring at work. In the evening, Paul and I saw an amateur production of Little Shop of Horrors with Alison and Drew. Quite good, all things told. Audrey and Seymour were both good, though there were a few glitches with microphones and horrible accents. I think they may have stolen the Audrey II handpuppet from the production I saw in Leeds and painted it yellow... either that or there's a company somewhere that specialises in Audrey IIs...

So that was entertaining. It was by the Crossed Keys Musical Theatre Co., who apparently meet somewhere in Acocks Green. Am half-considering phoning up for an audition, but this may have to wait until Paul and I are in situ in Kings Heath, as it's nearer...

After the show, we dragged Ali and Drew to the Wellington, where Gobby Paul hurled some abuse at us, called us "the camp table" and likened me to Nana Miskouri. He also tried to make us get up and do karaoke as it was fairly empty in the back room. We left at about 11.30 (to a "T'ra, wenches!"), convinced that we could get a 45 on Bristol Road and then realising we'd have to walk half a mile to get one... luckily, the last one was at 00.13 so we were home reasonably early, and without the inconvenience of a taxi.

One good thing to come out of the evening was some confirmation that Asa/Vanilla is back from wherever he went off to at Hallowe'en, and our Pride Weekend is now sorted out. Vanilla's doing a show on Friday night so we'll be at that, then follow the parade on Saturday and most likely end up at the Welly again, and then Vanilla's on again on Monday night. God bless Council Tuesdays. :D

All this, of course, is money- and energy-dependant. I need to adjust my rainbow flares so that I can walk in them, but at least I've found my bandana from last year.

Saturday was quite sedate. I went home at about 5.00ish because Paul was going to a gig at the Market Tavern and I didn't have the energy for it. Instead, I stayed in, did some embroidery (nearly finished the blue!) and watched Hide and Seek, starring Robert de Niro and Dakota Fanning. Which was actually quite good, and at least I know now that Dakota Fanning isn't just another annoying child actress, as she's really quite good.

David fell asleep twice during the duration and subsequently missed the twist at the end... and didn't understand the film. He was, of course, wide awake again afterwards when he realised Independence Day was on. We're trying to educate him with some decent films, but it's just not happening. I suppose I should be glad we got control of the evening's viewing for once. Makes a bloody change. :P

I went back to Paul's on Sunday (horrendous journey there with buses being late), where we watched EastEnders and "Backwards" of Red Dwarf, then went into town to waste money in the Flapper's ItBox. I have learnt that I can play much better pool on American tables as opposed to rubbish little British pub ones. So there we go.

We watched a couple more episodes of Red Dwarf once back (or was it one?) whilst eating half of a gigantic cheesy-mash bolognese. We had the other half for lunch today.

The weather is horrible... possibly I'd be feeling better about it if I was wearing a hoody of some description, rather than a velvet blazer. Oh well.

Quite a nice weekend, really. I think next weekend should be quiet and sedate to save energy for Pride...

Hm. Interesting. This weekend has been quite lucky all around, really. Friday was MGM-night, which saw a greater turn out than last time and more people at the Flapper than I've ever seen in my whole life. Probably because it was the first warm, summery day we've had in months and everyone headed for the nearest beer garden.

We discovered that the Flapper's ItBox, at least on Friday, was set up for idiots, since we put two quid in and played at least 8 games off that because the Ant and Dec game kept giving us the Back To School category. As a result, we decided to come back to it at another time and win lots of money.

The evening was quite subdued, all things told. We were informed by Tom that the Inline forum is now being fully investigated and they're targetting the top 10 posters. Once again, this makes me quite angry. The fact that nobody had the foresight to realise the 'chat' privilege would be abused is bad enough; trying to make up for their own stupid mistake now is just plain ridiculous. It means that good workers are being penalised and investigated just because - god forbid - they tried to stop their brain from leaking out of their ears during work hours. If the investigators actually looked at productivity, they'd probably find it was higher for those using the forum.

Anyway. I won't get started; the entire thing makes me very annoyed and it's not worth the energy.

On Friday afternoon, I came home to find a letter on the kitchen counter inviting me to a 'work-based assessment' for that Legal typist job I applied for. Not sure if it's just the assessment or whether there's an interview as well, but either way it's this frelling Wednesday at 11.30. I think they literally got that letter out within their 4-week timescale, just when I'd given up any hope of hearing back at all. This has resulted in my feeling rather apathetic and meh about the prospect of the entire thing, especially given I know nothing about Legal and didn't bother to do any research because I didn't expect to get this far. So, yeah. I have to look presentable in two days. Considering I look and feel like a large blob, this isn't going to be very fun.

Saturday we did nothing except play Scrabble. All day. 10 games, and the second tournament. Plus a trip to the off licence for wine and a lottery ticket. We had a very nice spaghetti bolognese with home-made garlic bread for tea, though.

Sunday we played some more Scrabble in the morning (help, am trapped in addiction) and then went to the Flapper to kill their ItBox. We won £8.00 out of it, stuck a couple of those into the pool table, and then put the rest back in again. The coins were sticky and disgusting because someone had spilt something horrible in the collecting tray. Nice. The bar staff are tramps, obviously.

Upon leaving the Flapper, we heard a Very Angry Man shouting into his mobile phone about how he'd been stranded in Birmingham. He then threw his phone into a hedge and shouted "What are you looking at?!" to an innocent Chinese bloke who was walking on the other side of the road and not even looking at him. Purposely, I imagine. We shuffled behind him (going in a different direction, luckily) with our heads down trying not to giggle, as he was clearly in search of someone's head to kick in by that point...

We went to Sports Cafe expecting it to be empty, only to find it completely full. Damn. So instead we went to Sainsbury's on Broad Street to get some wine, except they'd sold out of the nice rosé they'd had on Friday. Cue a trip (and a long walk) to the off licence once back home, to get crisps as well.

More Scrabble. Which resulted in an argument, somehow, and with arguing also going on downstairs, I wasn't a very happy camper, to say the least. Mum and David are arguing about money because our water heater's given up the ghost (the shower is heated separately, luckily), and they need to get rid of the lock-up. So basically they now want me to move out as quickly as possible so they can get rid of the stuff in the lock-up, and Paul and I still don't have a frelling timescale on when we can move in. Being in this endless limbo is almost worse than not getting the flat at all...

However, on the plus side, we checked the lottery numbers last night and discovered we'd won a tenner. It only took, oh, four months...