T'eyla Minh

Here's a bit of an update. And by a bit, I mean a lot, though much of it has no substance. (Also, I am no longer on my period, but I rarely get to use this icon...)

Looks like the summer is officially over. Britain has once again done its usual trick of going from one extreme to the other; I've been freezing for the past two weeks but steadfastly refusing to put the heating on because it's frelling August, not that you'd believe it from the temperatures lately. (Having said that, today it seems to have brightened up a bit...)

Earlier this month I googled to find out when the Birmingham International Food Fair would be taking place this year, then misread a whole bunch of anomalous results about last year's dates and thought they were for 2014. This resulted in us (Paul, my mum, David and I) going into town on Sunday to enjoy said Food Fair, only to arrive at the usually designated area and become utterly confused.

Thankfully there was stil a load of free entertainment happening around Southside (by the Hippodrome / Arcadian) so we sat and enjoyed that instead, but TBH I was mostly pre-menstrual and felt rubbish about my failure to read properly. It seems to be the case that the International Food Fair isn't on this year at all, which is a shame as it's always really popular despite BCC's complete failure to advertise it. My inner cynic suspects it may never come back now; it's often hailed as being the "sister market" to the Frankfurt Christmas Market, but I've always got the impression that BCC grudgingly allowed it to happen and weren't that invested in it. (Whereas the stupid Christmas market will be advertised several months in advance and doubtless get EVEN BIGGER now that space at the front of the library has opened up.)

My PMT came to a head with a godawful migraine on the Sunday, which I think was partially caused by having to squint in the sunlight. We had been planning on eating at the Food Fair so instead ended up going to Big Wok (or getting a baguette, in Paul's case, as on the evening he went off to help Darren with his Two Towers beer festival). Big Wok was nice enough, but I'd been looking forward to the lovely French food. :( On the plus side, we couldn't really afford the Food Fair so we did at least save ourselves some money... but then, we couldn't afford to go last year either, and if it's never coming back I've missed my last opportunity now to get some lovely cheeses and whatnot. Best. Gruyere. Ever.

My PMT also (AGAIN) ruined my enjoyment of seeing Wicked for Lorna's birthday at the Hippodrome on 21st August. It didn't particularly help that we were at the subtitled version, as that just kept distracting me out of the action on stage. Nevertheless, here is something resembling a review.

( Thoughts on Wicked. )

On Monday, thanks to period pains and awful weather, I did absolutely bugger all except sit on the laptop all day.

( Except for this... )

Anyway. On Tuesday we are going to Brighton, staying for two nights and returning via London with an eight-hour stopover, as it's been far too long since we had a good old wander abaht. With any luck the weather will clear up by then...

Also: I still have this sodding UTI or whatever it is. Just finished my two-week course of antibiotics and it's still hanging around - after a brief period where I thought it had gone away - so I think I might just take myself to A&E this weekend as I suspect the GP will still not actually do anything about it. I could go after we get back from Brighton but I don't want my entire fortnight of leave to be a write-off of trying to sort out health problems.

( Just realised I forgot to recount the GP fail from my last visit... )

I'm struggling to remember any point this year where I've actually been healthy. :(

That was a bit of a moan again. It doesn't help that work is a massive ball of stress at the moment due to continued breakdowns in communication; last week I likened it to our team being under an umbrella in a rainstorm of information, i.e. nothing actually gets through to us. Things change literally week on week (sometimes day on day) and everything we do know is through hearsay. It's frustrating and disheartening, and every single day is a battle of not understanding, not being able to help people and not knowing where we stand. But at least everyone is similarly afflicted, and it's not just me. :P

Hopefully next time I update it will be with something more positive, i.e. a Brighton write-up.

I meant to post this a little sooner, but yesterday my brain was being eaten alive by PMT of Doom. Like, at one point I would happily have murdered all of my co-workers and stood cackling in a pool of their blood. Today, however, I am feeling human again, and I've had my PDR with Senior so spent an hour and a half venting all of the past year's irritations to get her up to speed. (She admitted wanting to throttle Snowflake at times, so it's not just me!)

There were annoying things yesterday but they were made worse by my brain being full of ANGER, so I won't bother to recount them and anyway they were mostly just Snowflake throwing her toys out of the pram and being generally irritating. :P

Anyway, here's a recipe. ( Recipe: Chicken, Bacon and Leek Pie )

So, there we go.

Minute-taking test tomorrow! Last night I went to Matalan to get myself a new suit jacket and a blouse, the only decent one of which I could find is royal blue satin... My blue suit does just about still fit but the jacket is a bit tight. Not sure if I even need to dress up for the test but first impressions and all that. :P

Will doubtless report back at some point.

TTFN.

Dearest ovaries,

Thank you for choosing, after all this time, to punish me for ignoring you, rather than easing me back in gently to the joys of womanhood.

No love AT ALL,

teylaminh

(Still, it's been a while since I got to use this tag and this icon! Though the latter is not strictly true. My PMT surfaced as snapping at Paul last night for showing off his new muscles [I remain fat, of course] and blowing up about something relatively inocuous at work this morning. Heh.)

Last night in my post-gym brain-fuzz I made myself a prawn and potato curry. The recipe serves four, so I halved it, with the intention of taking some for lunch today or whatever. Upon eating it later I thought to myself, "Hm, this is quite a bit hotter than last time". At which point it occurred to me that I forgot to halve the spices. I added a bit of cream (the only yogurt I had was orange-and-chocolate-flavoured) to try and tone it down but yeah. OW. Once it had cooled (temperature-wise) it was a bit better, although that could have been because I'd burned off most of my tastebuds by that point...

I had to throw the rest away unfortunately because it was too hot for (a) lunch and (b) Paul. Which is a shame because it actually cooked properly this time. :P

Instead, for lunch today I have a pheasant wrap, with some of the cranberry&honey sauce from Sunday as it needs using. :D

Today is slightly tedious as most of the fee earning staff are out at their training day. Ho hum.

You'll all be glad to know that what I thought was the start of my PMT on Tuesday turned out to be the end of it.  In which case, the Valerian definitely takes the edge off by generally being more awake. But only just.

Last night I had an extreme allergic reaction to one of Paul's cats, which decided to come and sit on me for a couple of hours.  My cat allergy is a weird thing; instead of sneezing, my left eye just swells up and starts watering like crazy, and itching, so I rub it, so it itches more, etc, etc.  It was still swollen two hours later and this morning it looked like I'd been punched in the eye.  It's still significantly smaller than the right one.  Madness.  I'm hoping it does go away soon.  Stupid allergies; why couldn't I be allergic to something I don't like?

We watched Terry Gillliam's Brazil, which was... very, very strange, with lots of familiar faces. It stars Jonathan Pryce, and there's also Ian Holm, Michael Palin, Robert de Niro, Bob Hoskins, and various others. Jonathan Pryce used to be pretty, which was quite disturbing. I can't even summarise the plot except that it's set in some bizarre 1950s-esque future. Something of a cynical take on buereaucracy, I think.

As a result, I think Pryce is becoming one of my favoured actors. Since De-Lovely, anyway, and his performance of "Blow, Gabriel, Blow!". I'd forgotten until last night when explaining it about the interesting twist at the end, so may have to watch that again very soon...

Anyway, now the brain-mrrgh is over and done with, at least for the time being, I've suddenly realised that it's nearly Hallowe'en!

So now I'm in a rush trying to make an effort, obviously.  I think my decided costume plan for Saturday is to be "suicide goth", and will basically comprise the following: black pinstripe mini-skirt; spider-web/stripey tights; pinstripe corsetty thingumabob; black glittery spirally see-through shirt; big boots.  Also copious gothpaint and hoping to create slit wrists with latex rubber stuff (that I used to try and make a Bajoran nose, back in the day, before I bought a proper one...) and blood red lipstick, if itl'l work.  Going to wash my hair tonight, straighten it tomorrow and then attempt to spiral-curl random sections of it for interest, which'll probably fail horrendously but is worth a try nonetheless.

So tomorrow I have to go to Woolworths to find either black hair dye (for Paul's mime outfit - by the way, we have some white gloves)  or hair spray and possibly some fake blood, even though the city and its dog will also be desperately trying to find Hallowe'eny stuff.

And  now, to get you all in the mood, have some recipes, courtesy of Asda about 6 years ago...  Measurements in metric and imperial, but sadly no cups for you Americans...

( Hot Spiced Apple Juice )

( Pumpkin Turnovers )

( Savoury (Bat) Biscuits )

( Apple & Cinnamon Crumble Bars )

There you go.  I fully expect everyone to have made at least one of these by Monday.

Friday, Paul and I will be carving the pumpkin.  And not making pumpkin turnovers, because I have no puff pastry...  Saturday will be spent probably trying to dye his hair.  Sunday is meant to be spent making biscuits, as above.  This should be interesting.

So, yes.  My hair desperately needs a wash, so I'll sign this one off...

see, the only good thing about really, really bad angsting is that when the PMT finally ends (that's what it was, apparently), i'm ridiculously hyper for days :D

it's christmas! yay! *mad laughter*