T'eyla Minh

Right, since the transcription nonsense the other week, I've been trying to keep my head down, and other than a few minor irritations (the same old story of people not reading / paying attention to the emails I send for informative purposes) things haven't been too bad. On the Monday after the event, I emailed Senior with my observations of what occurred in respect of the transcription, including Demoted's refusal to undertake the work and my worry that it might be perceived that I was 'avoiding' the work in Winscribe, and she responded in fairly reasonable terms that indeed, it is not my place to sort out Demoted when she's being difficult, and thanking me for trying to sort things out in her absence.

( Boring work stuff - not moaning! )

So last week was rather uneventful other than the above, though nonetheless I only managed to spend one evening actually at home. Monday we went to the pub with Lloyd and Denise, Tuesday (obviously) I had choir, Wednesday was Noel's birthday so we went to Paul's mum's, Thursday GLORIOUS NOTHING (read: catching up with household chores like laundry) and Friday we went back to the flat for Lisa's birthday and enjoyed a very tasty curry. Graham (the new tenant) popped down to join us and it we got to know him a bit better; it transpires he's a complete lightweight when it comes to booze.

It just took me about ten minutes to remember what we did on Friday; this month is so insane that my short-term memory is frelled. I did, however, enjoy my quiet weekend, as this week is also going to be insanely busy. On Saturday we finally went through the freezer and filled out the whiteboard, realising the insane amount of food we had bought but not eaten. If we are actually organised we won't have to go shopping for at least another month. (Ah, it's so scintellating being a grown-up, innit?)

So, this week:-

Monday (yesterday) was meant to be a gym day but neither of us really fancied it, so instead we went to Bella Italia. Oops.

Tuesday (today) - last rehearsal before Equinox.

Wednesday - going to Spring Hill Tesco to pick up chicken livers and various other ingredients in advance of Mother's Day

Thursday - spare shopping day in case Tesco have no chicken livers, also getting cards/gifts.

Friday - leaving work at half-three to get home and bake cake.

Saturday - rehearsal at 11.00am, concert at 7.30pm, out of house all day, Paul going out to get meat and Guinness for main course and whatever else is left to buy.

Sunday - up early to make pate and whatever else needs making, tidy and clean lower floor of house, rest for a bit, family arriving at 6.00pm, eat, drink, sleep.

The week after that is mostly uneventful except for seeing Oliver! on Wednesday. :)

On Sunday we went out for a pub lunch at the Kings Head, walking to Bearwood and trying out the Abbey for a quick drink. Seemed okay on the Sunday but I wouldn't want to go there of a Friday evening.

Roll on April and our week off; even if we can't book anywhere to go it will be nice not to be at work. :P

Oh, and talking of which, we've finally booked our holiday for September. 11 nights in Corfu. :) I've booked off an extra two days (18th and 19th September) in addition to the two weeks I already had as we arrive back at 6.30am on the 16th and I'll need more than a day to recover. :P

Okay, that's more than long enough. Over and out.

So, despite the start of yesterday, my shopping day didn't turn out as bad as anticipated.

( Cut for length )

I have also finally allocated which of the gifts I've bought are for Paul's birthday and which for Christmas, so I could figure out his spend limit on me. I've spent FAR too much money on his birthday (especially considering last year was his 30th...) but I'm hopeful he'll like everything I've chosen. Bloody men are impossible to buy for. ;)

The remainder of December looks like this:

Saturday 12th - meal at Jen and Dave's.
Monday 13th - get stuff in post / hand out cards.
Wednesday 16th - support team lunch
Thursday 17th - visiting grandmother after work
Friday 18th - south team lunch (I'm going to be fat by the end of the month)
Sunday 20th - Christmas concert
Tuesday 22nd - Asda shop
Wednesday 23rd - pick up turkey, family over
Thursday 24th - at work until 2.30 (amount of work pending) and then pubbage
Friday 25th - CHRISTMAS! Off until January!! YAY!

*checks* Nope. Amazingly... still not stressed. Aside from that little glitch yesterday, anyway.

Right, that's QUITE long enough. *stops rambling*

Back from London - proper update to follow, as I had about three hours of sleep last night and am about to go to bed. I think I'm only still awake but for the grace of good coffee and sheer will power.

In summary (in no particular order):

• Priscilla was a thousand worlds of awesome and a big "THANK YOU!" to Eni for buying the tickets. :D *hugs*
  
• Apparently Bernadette is channelling Norma Desmond. Quite terrifying.
  
• We spent FAR too much money today but so totally worth it nonetheless.
  
• Barely took any photographs but have video footage of a man escaping a straitjacket and chains in three minutes...
  
• My leg hurts - explanation forthcoming...
  
• My super-cool uber-pointy Moulin Rouge ankle boots of Victoriana doooooooooooom are IMPLEMENTS OF TORTURE. Waah.
  
• National Express have a Big Ranty Email heading their way quite shortly for the bloody fiasco on Friday afternoon...
  
• Southerners are wusses.

As I said, full write-up to follow. Possibly tomorrow, more than likely on Monday over the course of the working day. ;) Pictures will inevitably come a bit later.

Night night.

*falls asleep*

Once again, there's nothing to do at work (I started this entry at 9.35am), which can only mean that next week it'll either be more of the same (gah) or insanely busy to compensate. There is literally no midpoint here; it's all or nothing. Tomorrow I'll have been at this job for three years, and more or less with the Council for four years in an official capacity, excluding my time spent as a temp. (So next year, I get an extra day of leave to play with, woo.)

Today my LJ is eight years old. Not quite all growed up, but we're almost into double figures. I had actually started this insanely long essay on why I got my LJ and my life since then, but I figure nobody is actually interested. I did just over 1000 words and gave up... I glanced at it out of the corner of my eye and thought "My God, that's long"... and if I'm thinking that, I dread to think what everyone else would think.

This is precisely why I'm rubbish at Twitter. :P

If anyone is remotely interested in my ramble, I'll be willing to share. I don't think there's anything there which people don't know already, however. I've mentioned most of my life stuff on here in some capacity over the course of eight years, so I have no idea why I decieded to reiterate it in a word-heavy form. Because I can, probably.

Er... I'm at a bit of a loose end now.

In 29 days it is my birthday. If anyone is feeling generous, here's a list of ideas. :P

• Lush stuff - soap, bath bombs, shampoo, etc. Gift sets are fine. I'm really not fussed.
  
  
• A Jar of Pens from Muji (they have them in the window - the little felt-tips. Dunno why, I just like them.)
  
  
• Vouchers for clothes/shoes/entertainments.
  
  
• Anything off my Amazon wishlist (search by email: teylaminh at yahoo dot co do you-kay), which I'll update tonight. I haven't prioritised any of it because it's also an aide memoir for me to buy stuff...
  
  
• Make me something - a CD, fanfiction, drawing, etc. (See interests list for fandoms and pairings of choice. :P Bonus points if it's Norma/Joe, Jonathan/Maddy, Erik/Christine or Daniel/Betty...)

There's nothing else I particularly want, or at least nothing I would expect friends to buy for me. Or, well, there are things I want which money cannot buy, like sanity.

I imagine there'll be some form of drinkings on the 17th (Saturday) but will announce nearer the time. Tradition dictates this will take place at the Briar Rose, unless I can think of anywhere else.

Um. Right. I am now very definitely bored. Some people are dictating, so hopefully we'll have something to do soon.

*goes to sleep*

Last week's stress has finally begun to manifest itself - the skin around my right middle fingernail is peeling quite horrendously, and the ring finger's started to go as well. Left hand is okay so far. I might put some Sudocrem on them tonight... All of my random stress reactions take about a week to kick in; at least this time I was expecting it. I'm usually trying to remember what kicked it off. ;)

They've turned the heating off at work this morning, so I had to run out at about 10.00 to get some hot chocolate in order to warm myself up.

Weekend was quite fun. Saturday morning was slightly marred by having a headache first thing, which I attribute to not eating properly. When I have brown bread every day I do tend to feel generally healthier, and my stomach has been a bit complainy of late, too. Back to the healthy(ish) eating today.

In the afternoon we went out to Alison's birthday picnic at Cannon Hill Park. Obviously, it was lovely and sunny on the way there - we walked from Moseley having just missed the bus - until we were walking through the park, when the heavens opened. The rain kept coming, off and on, for the majority of the afternoon, and the picnic took place on the bandstand. Much amusement was had, especially when Paul and Lloyd got fed up of sitting on the floor and went to fetch a picnic table, until someone said that the bandstand wouldn't withstand the weight, at which point they abandoned the table halfway up the slope... My description of this is done better justice by the photographs, which are on Facebook, here.

Paul and I left after an hour or so because we were cold from the walk in the rain. At the point we decided to leave it was chucking it down again so we held on for a bit and then - obviously - when we walked back to Moseley (uphill, gah), the sun had come out again. Typical. :P

In the evening we rented Zack and Miri Make a Porno from cable, which was actually surprisingly good...

Sunday was fairly sedate. We were going to go out if the weather was okay, but obviously it wasn't, so we stayed in. Watched the second Jonathan Creek Christmas special, "Satan's Chimney". I appear to be finding Carla a lot less irritating than the first time around, which is somewhat worrying. I now suddenly realise I completely missed the postcard scene... am now wondering if it was in a different episode entirely, though I'm fairly sure it's in "SC", because I mentioned it in my post-episode tag... Hm. Might need to re-watch and find it.

( Some random thoughts )

Other than that, I did some more embroidery and watched The Unloved, part of C4's "Find Me A Family" season. Also made a spaghetti bolognese last night with some pancetta in it that we picked up from Sainsbury's, and mmmmmm nice.

I don't think there's much else to report.

Birmingham Hippodrome has ganged up on me; suddenly there are millions of things on over the rest of the year that I want to see. Of course, I also haven't been on their mailing list for years, which might have something to do with it...

In the hope of finding other interested parties (but don't expect me to organise anything without extreme cooperation from other parties...), here's a list of stuff I want to see...

We Will Rock You UK Tour - 1st July to 5th September. (As Paul doesn't like Queen I doubt he will want to see this with me - any takers?)

Little Shop of Horrors - 15th to 19th September.

Evita UK Tour - 5th to 17th October. (Anyone want to take me for my birthday? :D)

Rocky Horror Show - 2nd to 7th November. (YAY!)

Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray - 10th to 14th November.

I think that's about it. I'm not even checking the Alex's listings.

Mrrg.

Anyway, yesterday was our four-year anniversary. Quite a pleasant day, awful weather aside. We went briefly into town for a drink at Bacchus and then the Trocadero, one in the Yard of Ale, then back home for a bit before going out for the meal at Byzantium, a local tapas restaurant, at 8.00. We also stopped off at HMV to have a look and came back with £50-worth of CDs: an old PJ Harvey album, The Killers's latest album, Peter Docherty (the new solo album), the new Dido, the new Lily Allen, and the latest Seasick Steve. Some are mine, some are Paul's and some are joint purchases...

As for dinner, the food was lovely and the entire meal came to about £25.00, which was insanely reasonable. We were slightly ambitious in our choices (a little too much food), but it was all delicious. Starter dishes were flatbread, hummus and olives. I tried an olive, but found them intolerably weird. Mains were 'patatas bravas' (roast potatoes with tomatoes), mushrooms stuffed with tomato and red pepper, skewered chicken with vegetables, and calamari with garlic mayonnaise. YUM.

We would definitely go there again, and I would recommend it to anyone else seeking good food, good service and reasonable prices. Unfortunately I didn't have any room for dessert... ;)

We watched Benny and Joon in the evening before bed. Didn't get up today until about 11.30 and I had an insanely long dream, of which I can remember precisely nothing except the bit I will post separately in a moment. Paul is off now until Monday but today is a lazy day of not doing very much. Need to clean up in the kitchen, and I've done a blue load of laundry and a bit more embroidery, with more to come momentarily.

We did our ICC background music thing last night. (If I didn't mention this, or if you've forgotten, the choir were requested to sing at the Voice09 conference last night, providing background music in the form of 12 madrigals and then doing a performance of Zadok the Priest, for which we were paid about £3000. Obviously, the members don't see any of this money, but it should soften the blow of rubbish ticket sales.)

( Not that good, really. )

I was going to get the number 1 bus home, but none of their timetables seem to be consistent with each other. I'm sure the one in Moseley says it keeps running until about 11.00pm, but the ones of Broad Street say it stops running at 6.00pm. I did intend to check online beforehand (I figure that's probably the most up-to-date information) but forgot. Tell me, what IS the point of a bus service that stops running at 6.00pm? The 258 is the same. Utterly rubbish. Anyway, I ended up having to walk all the way across town and didn't get back until 9.00pm as it was, even though we were only rehearsing until 8.00.

Ah, well. Now we can concentrate on the Elgar and Rossini pieces instead. What we did last night didn't seem TOO hard, but time will tell... At the moment it's just a relief to be able to sing again after having to sit it out for two weeks.

In other news, the rest of February is looking to be quite busy...

14th - Valentine's Day. Unfortunately it's on a Saturday, so I imagine most places will be rammed, but we've booked a table (just about) at La Fibule in Moseley, which is apparently Moroccan. Our initial plan was Ponte di Legno (Italian place on Woodbridge Road) but they weren't answering their phone, and Byzantium (Tapas restaurant in Kings Heath) were fully booked. Our seating at La Fibule isn't until 9.30pm, but at least it's booked.

21st - David's birthday. We're going to my mum's on the 20th to stay overnight and they'll cook us a meal.

W/C 23rd - using up my annual leave, though I still have to us up a half-day somewhere.

27th - going down to London in readiness for...

28th - seeing Sunset Boulevard with Eni for her birthday. YAY! I've read one review, which had no complaints about the performances, just that the set seemed very minimalist... I shan't pass judgement until I've seen it, but the minimalist set worked brilliantly for Sweeney Todd when we saw that... I don't know if it'll work with something like SB because it's very extravagant, but having said that, the UK tour only had 2-3 sets anyway, even if the staircase was elaborate. It should be interesting, at the very least. And, well, it's Sunset Boulevard in the West End so that's quite good enough for me. (David Willetts is playing Max, also, so that should be cool. :D)

And then I think March is chock-full of birthdays. And April is our anniversary, and a week of leave for me. :D

I think that's enough for one entry, especially as I have an X-Post to do. :)

The above can best describe my current mental state. The pre-Christmas stress is manifesting in Going Slightly Mad this year. Well, it makes an interesting change from feeling trapped and rushed...

My back keeps twinging ominously and feeling like it wants to flare up to remind me its there. Which is annoying, as I've not had an incident with it for several months and thought it had got better, but in any case I've proved that it gets worse at times of stress. I placated it last night with Olbas Oil and a hot water bottle. Not quite as effective as the eucalyptus-y aromatherapy stuff Lisa gave me last year, but has the same basic ingredients. As I put it to Paul, "Mmm, burny burny soothing". :) (It achieves the same effect as that 'deep heat' stuff but without the minging smell and with the added bonus of being able to remove the heat when it gets too much...)

Still a little achey this morning, but I do at least have cocodamol at work. I should probably stock up on various medications before Christmas in case I come down with a cold or something...

Anyway. Tonight Paul and I are going to attempt to finish Christmas shopping, as for the majority of the next two weeks we'll be seeing various people before the actual day. We're seeing most people after the concert on the 21st, but as we can't do Christmas Eve this year we're trying to at least see people for more than 10 minutes, and to avoid having to drag presents to the Town Hall...

So, from what I can remember, the run up to Christmas looks like this:

Tonight (12th) - finishing (or trying to, at least) the shopping. I only have my grandmother, David, Darren, Andrea and Patrick to get things for, plus some additional stuff for my mum and hopefully something for Alison, but if not she can have it later.

Tomorrow (13th) - seeing Sweeney Todd at the Crescent with herringpricess in the afternoon, when I can hopefully hand over her present and card. Saturday morning to be spent wrapping some stuff up.

Sunday (14th) - going to see my grandmother - must remember to check train times. Hopefully my father will not repeat his trick from last year of sneaking up to the front door to post a card and then running off again.

Tuesday (16th) - last choir rehearsal before Christmas.

Thursday (18th) - going to my mum's for tea.

Sunday (21st) - concert.

Monday (22nd) - going to Asda for Christmas shop - basics only so we don't spend a fortune.

Wednesday (24th) - at work until lunchtime and then presumably the Briar Rose...

Then it's finally Christmas, and then from 5th to 8th January I'll be at EuroDisney with Vicky and her parents, which I'm hoping the break will have given me enough energy to enjoy. (I am unfortunately at work from 29th to 31st December, but have manged to get 2nd January off...)

All a bit hectic. In between all that we also need to try and see Darren and Andrea and the kids but that's an as-and-when situation, really. And also wrap presents / send cards, which I think may happen at some point next week if I've got everything...

I'm hungry. :( Ah, well. Lunchtime in an hour...

Telephone call received from Raj, who - of course - didn't introduce himself but opened with: "You sent me an email?"

He seemed to think someone else had invited me to his supervision even though said email came from him... In any event, he says he's emailed Tina R's secretary to find out what's going on and will let me know. Apparently she's not in until Monday, so I'll just have to sit tight until then...

From the sounds of it, he doesn't remember who I am. ;)

God know what's going on.

Another interesting point I think I forgot to mention: the email came to my name but with "Social Services" after it as the directorate; when I moved they changed it to "Legal Services" but kept the same account, which sort of implies it's come out of an old address book entry.

Hrm. Guess I'll find out next week then.

(If I have been stressing and panicking over nothing I will NOT BE PLEASED.)


I didn't have to sleep on the sofa last night, thankfully, though for some reason am more tired than yesterday. I have a hectic couple of days coming up: I need to make cheesy Hallowe'en biscuits tonight for work (should probably make some kind of leaving cake for Heather but won't have time, I don't think; I have a 1kg tub of margarine to use up so need to make many cakes), then we're seeing Nosferatu tomorrow, party on Saturday, and then a busy couple of weeks, too.

As for cakes, I have at least two lined up: Hallowe'en cake for Saturday / possibly just fairy cakes as they are easier to eat, and birthday cake for Paul's mum. And possibly two Christmas cakes for work and family.

I think I've caught Paul's bloody lurgy. WONDERFUL.

This entry is of no consequence except to say that choir restarts tonight and thankfully, I am neither knackered nor stroppy, which makes a change. :) I will probably be horrendously tired by the end of rehearsal, and my not-quite-a-cough has decided to return for no apparent reason, which should make actually attempting to sing quite interesting.

This entry is merely a to-do list for myself so I don't forget these things:

• Book concert ticket for Keith.
  
• Arrange who wants tickets in immediate family/friends and book those too.
  
• Photoshop Vicky's flower-tattoo design.
  
• Redo LJ layout.
  
• DON'T FORGET TO GO TO CABARET ON THURSDAY NIGHT. (I probably won't, but you know.)

That'll do pig.

We just had our BEST meeting, which was actually fairly productive, and - like all of our other team meetings - tinged with a hint of silliness. It's one of those "you-don't-have-to-be-mad-to-work-here..." situations. I have managed to get myself lumbered with the responsibility of being our fund-raising / charity monitor because I suggested we should do more charity work. Am considering turning Talk Like A Pirate Day into a possible charity venture (though possibly only with dressing like a pirate) to raise money for a suitable cause, e.g. Shelter or Save the Children... we'll see. I'll probably chicken out at the last minute.

Right. 40 minutes to kill before I can leave. Best post this and get on with some work, really...