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Saturday, November 28th, 2009
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9:47 pm - So things have been a bit mad as of late...
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And where in heck have I been exactly? Not far really. Life in general is split between work, couch (which covers basically TV, writing a little each night, finding something to eat) and sleep - seriously. With a restructure and a refurb going on at the same time I seem to be using half my work hours travelling between meetings and the other half catching up with all the things I'm missing whilst I'm travelling between meetings. Life in the bus lane. I love it - the worry is the refurb finishes in about 2 months and the restructure a couple of months after that. What am I going to do with myself when it's all done?
All caught up with me this week though, I must have been overdoing it. About 3 weeks ago I had a cold - not a major thing, I got away with 1 day off work and some sniffing on the sofa (not literally on the sofa, I did have some tissues to hand, wasn't blowing my nose on my pants or anything). Was left with a slight cough, nothing to worry about, until about 10 days ago when I woke up in the middle of the night thinking someone had set fire to my throat. 3 days of a painful throat later, I took 1 day off to rest and then went back to work on Tuesday. At lunchtime on Tuesday I was brought back home by a colleague spent the morning telling me how bad he thought I looked (gee thanks), and despite several attempts I haven't been back since.
On Wednesday I (a) turned 42 and (b) spent most of the early hours in the bathroom coughin' up greenies. It wasn't until Friday when things actually got worse that I capitulated to the nagging of my family and went to the doctor's. What was most embarrassing to realise was that, having needed a lift to the surgery from my mother so I could make the only appointment they had, I then found myself in with a doctor I'd never met being nagged by both him and my mother for not having looked after myself properly. I left with a prescription for multiple meds, and earrache which has persisted through every family member doing the old 'I told you so's. Grr cough.
So for my birthday I got a halogen oven, some cash and a chest infection. Still, off to Devon next weekend if I can shake some of this, for the first part of Christmas celebrations.
As I haven't updated for quite a while, here's a few extracts from the potted recent history of me:
- Made it to London for a day to meet with a couple of ex-colleagues - the weather was glorious so we spent much of the time wandering slowly down the South Bank and taking in the sights. Walked everywhere, didn't get on a tube until heading back from Tower Bridge, grand total of about 28500 steps on my super-accurate and quite expensive pedometer. Which at least helped to get rid of the calories from the several lattes and nice food we consumed! Had to bite my lip when Frank Skinner walked past us on a corner of Leicester Square, easily the most recognisable 'face' I've seen in public for years. Wanted to say something but didn't think he'd appreciate having attention drawn to him, he was on his way to something far more important than a trio of librarians I imagine.
- We're onto buying lots of furniture in the refurb now, so I'm having fun looking at colour swatches to find what colours clash most horribly and saying 'that one'll do'.
- The mp3 player in my DAB/mp3 has died - I tried reformatting it but now it won't let me save anything to it so now only the radio works. Which is OK, I bought it for the DAB in the first place but it's just annoying not to have the extra function. I've promised myself a giant iPod when I upgrade my iMac in the new year, but until then I'm going to have to get a cheap mp3 to keep me going.
- Off to Devon this week as mentioned previously, in another couple of weeks Maria is coming down from Edinburgh to discover the delights of Birmingham and Worcester. It'll be the weekend before Christmas so I aim to get her completely wassailed and to find ourselves carol singing in the fountain in Chamberlain Square at 3 in the morning.
- My niece managed to run up her family's phone bill by (cough) hundred quid through dialling mobile numbers every time she claimed to be phoning her friends on landlines. We considered selling her into slavery as my sister's family live on a low income and there was no way they could afford to cover this additional amount. So in order to ensure they can continue to have a phone line, guess who's ended up paying it off for them? That's no sweeties for me for a couple of months either. Of course I reminded my sister - after she'd spend a happy evening screaming at her teenage angel - of her own misspent youth when she regularly picked the lock Dad had placed on our old dial phone to stop her spending hours a day on the phone...
- And I've got to buy a new bed. Spending so much time every night waking up to cough and then lying staring at the ceiling has made me very aware I've had my Sealy divan for over 10 years. It's also granted me lots of time to write a list of lots of other things I want to buy - looks as though 2010 is going to be an expensive year!
current mood:  sick
current music: Just the telly
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| Sunday, July 26th, 2009
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7:52 pm - Goodness
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It's been a busy few weeks - refurb at work is under way so I've been running round sorting out changes to building programmes and how these link in with electrical and IT work. It's a lot of fun but leaves me tired, so probably not the best week to have been out late two weeknights in a row for Harry Potter (Tues) and a meal out with a new colleague (Wed)! At home I'm generally either watching one of my Who new series boxsets (up to about haflway through Series 4 now), writing (friended one of my favourite fantasy writers today - Barbara Hambly - having not realised before that she had an LJ - odd thing is I've been rereading bits of the Windrose Chronicles recently, despite my concerns that age is turning me into Seldes Katne rather than the character I'd most like to be, and apparently there's the possibility of a new Antryg Windrose short story online at some point - just a possibility is very exciting, it's only been about 9,000 years since the last book), and generally recovering from the day.
Tomorrow we re-open after two closed weeks, with more closures to come and promote - I confess to being slightly concerned at the knowledge that no matter how hard we've worked to get the condensed library looking clean, ordered and lovely, lots of people will not be happy at having to go upstairs to access everything. I've put together a one-way traffic system for the lift to try and reduce bottlenecking, and the builders have kindly whitewashed interior glass panels to eliminate rubbernecking. It's for less than a month before we move everything back downstairs but will people be happy to bear with us in the meantime?
Swine flu finally struck us this week too - one of my team went off on Tuesday and had the lurgy confirmed on Thursday after the GP wouldn't let them into the surgery. We're more affected by needing to send staffing to other libraries to cover for their illnesses but there's a hope that we won't be hit too hard by this.
current mood:  mellow
current music: Newton Faulkner - Dream Catch Me
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| Monday, July 6th, 2009
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10:37 pm - View from the plinth
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So today Gormley's Fourth Plinth project gets underway in Trafalgar Square - watching the first people to get up there, I have to admit I feel envy... And yet I was a contender, for a short time. How come? Because I got selected in the draw for places in August, much to my amazement - the slot being an early morning one on a Sunday (you don't get a choice with when you get to stand up there). I wanted to be up there, I was thrilled I got a slot - and it happened to be one of the few days I couldn't get there.
I don't know how many other people are in this position - having won a place but having to turn it down. Am still quite cross about it. Arse. Arse arse arse arse arse. It doesn't mean I won't get another chance, I'm still in the draw for September and October and my feeling is, if I'm meant to be up there, I'll be up there. A mate has promised to put me up in the city so I can get up when the time comes, if, indeed, it comes again.
What would I plan to do up there for an hour? Not sure. I might want to take some pics. I might take a chair and sit and write for an hour. Or take my mp3 player up with me and just listen to a mix of all the chunes I love from the time when London belonged to me and I to London. Maybe all three...
Meanwhile, work is mental so time at home for anything is limited, I'm focusing on relaxing and keeping the brain in gear. Yahoo Messenger has upgraded and won't let me in unless I go through the website (arse again). And I've got so many photos to upload from my recent holiday, with neither time nor inclination to go through them. Ah me. And arse.
current mood:  lethargic
current music: Half Mast-Empire of the Sun
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| Sunday, May 31st, 2009
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9:28 pm
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I have been very mobile again today, and have the blisters to prove it. Had a lot to do this morning so I was out and about in the lovely sunshine which to be honest gets on my tits after several unremitting hours. And that's with the iced latte and cold water I had on the way.
Made it home by 2 with less hair than I had this morning, bearing several tons of fruit (OK, fruit prepared, sliced up and prepackaged by someone else because I'm too bone idle to handle a mango by myself) - just in time for this to turn up as I was finishing putting my stuff away - it was all very exciting:
Their arrival cleared the field - then out came all the neighours. I just got this one shot from the rear, what I wish I'd got was the crowd all pointing cameras to film the helicopter when it took off - there were a lot more than you see here!
There's a problem with the time of year - as we move into summer I'm finding it harder and harder to convince my brain when it's an appropriate bedtime, which means most evenings I'm around watching stuff, reading or writing until 11 or later, then awake again before 5 raring to go. Which in turn means by 9am I'm raring to go back to bed. Maybe I should take long walks of an evening but my idea of an evening walk is to the local supermarket to look lovingly on the Haagen-Dazs and reassure the little ones Mummy will be back for them another day.
current mood:  hot
current music: Alright Guy-Gary Allan
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| Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
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9:05 pm
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Had a luuuurvely weekend - Nicky and Barry came up from Devon and we went out to play for 2 days.
Though I have to say, there was a time when 'going out to play' meant bouncing around drinking a lot, seeing several films in a row, doing *very* naughty things in large public galleries (take *that* Rachel Whiteread) and eating more food than can be considered humanly possible in one sitting in super Chinese, Thai and pizza eateries around London. These days it's a long but gentle stroll around lots and lots of shops with a sit-down for coffee roughly once every 50 steps. We talked about the weather, and trees (hard not to, three quarters of the population of Worcestershire is wooden), and spent two evenings in a row sharing a bottle of lager in front of a nice DVD on the telly.
Saturday was Worcester - we walked part-way into town and lunched at a little deli in the old side of the city, where I parted with a silly amount of cash for some wonderful white tea - it looks like wee but tastes like wheee. On Sunday we went into Birmingham, a city neither Barry nor Nicky had ever visited before. And we decided to walk down to Digbeth to see where the Custard Factory is.
It was closed.
Nice picture though - the weather being so beautiful I could have pointed my camera at a turd and it would have looked smashing. There being almost no people around, there was nothing between me and this gorgeous creature.
So there was nothing to do but head back to the Bull Ring and shop shop shop shop shop etc. Nicky spent about three times as much money as she was planning to, Barry managed to dig two shirts of a slightly different pattern to the 60-odd he already owns out of TK Maxx and I got a pretty thing to put my travel pass in. We ate at a noodle bar in the Chinese Quarter, mmm chicken with honey and chilli. I may possibly have bought some sweets too - they aren't here any more so I can't really be sure.
Catching the train back, we realised we were in the presence of greatness on the opposite platform:
Does this mean Birmingham New St is the real life secret hideout for the Tracy family? Thunderbirds Are Go - when the signalman says it's time.
current mood:  happy
current music: Automatically Sunshine - The Supremes
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| Monday, May 4th, 2009
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8:34 pm
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Thought I'd try this out as an excuse to get myself down to London for a short trip:
The Fourth Plinth - Take Your Place!
It has, to be honest, been a rather dull bank holiday weekend. Wanted to go out but the weather wasn't really up to it so instead it's been DVDs and an attempt to drink all the alcohol in the flat, which frankly wasn't much.
current mood:  bored
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| Sunday, April 26th, 2009
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7:45 pm
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Oh, and it occurs to me, whilst spending the last hour or so going over recollections of this and that, I've hardly been out in the last few weeks - which is very unlike me. Most of my free weekends are spent doing the obligatory family thang on Saturdays and parking butt on the sofa on Sundays with tapes and DVDs, CDs, books. Yea verily, even when the weather is good. I think it's because I've been writing a lot more again - A4 notebook almost permanently by my side at the moment. The last draft from some time ago has now been stripped back and transferred to electronic copy, and most days I find myself scribbling something new in front of some intelligent TV. Hell's Kitchen probably. Since I moved offices again at work (I'm now back in the Queen's Chamber which is bright and airy at the front of the building, and private which is nice), I've got a small framed photo of Marco Pierre White from about 10 years ago in a place only I can see from my desk :-)
And about that contact I made with someone a few weeks back - I didn't hear back, but it's OK. I get the feeling I'll get something back eventually on that one. Curiosity makes me do silly things sometimes and I have no shame! As I suspect my CD and DVD collection will prove.
current mood:  working
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6:15 pm
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Heard on the late news last night about the passing of Bea Arthur. I remember watching The Golden Girls on Channel 4 whilst I was at Uni and she was always the outstanding character, mainly, I suppose, because she was such an unusual and arresting woman. I just thought she'd be this major Hollywood ego though - which meant it was even more of a surprise to meet her and find her engaging, funny and welcoming to everyone who wanted a brief word or an autograph.
I was helping out at Shop Assistance, a Terrance Higgins Trust event in Covent Garden in 1992 (Septemberish if I remember rightly) - in between being Felicity Kendall's minder and hanging out in the rest area at the Theatre Museum (my main memory of which is making a complete tit of myself in front of David Thewlis who'd turned up in his costume from Naked which must have been filming around that time - he was very nice to me and I was a complete mess in fangirl mode), I got to go around and see lots of famous people. Bea Arthur was the one I most wanted to see because my Mum loved The Golden Girls - I got her autograph, we had a little chat and I went back to the Theatre Museum, to be told when we got back that someone needed to go and escort her back so she didn't get mobbed. My abiding memory of her is of a group of us standing around in the foyer debating who would go and pick her up - whilst we were doing so she strolled in by herself having made her way back across the piazza completely undisturbed and wondering what all our fuss was about. I loved her. Wherever she is now, I hope it's whatever she would want it to be.
Have just remembered my other favourite memory from the day - Todd Carty had to climb out the back window of a shop because he wouldn't have made it through the crowds at the front alive.
current mood:  sad
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| Saturday, April 18th, 2009
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9:13 pm
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Hello - is that the Society for Suspension of Disbelief?
I've just been made to sit through Dragonball Evolution. I think it would be the toughest challenge you've ever faced.
I will admit this was a funny film, but for all the wrong reasons. File under 'so cheesy I can't watch it without crackers'.
current mood:  indescribable
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| Saturday, March 28th, 2009
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9:35 am
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So... Yesterday's planned shenanigans were postponed owing to lurgy (not mine), but as it turned out this was a good thing since I ended up spending the day with family members sorting out how to deal with the problems I mentioned previously. All the paperwork had arrived from the employer, and basically there were some serious porkies in there. However, it's conveniently a case of one's word against another's and we could see what the likely result was going to be. The real worry wasn't losing the job (we'd all agreed none of us would go back to a job where this had happened) but having a reference that wouldn't help in getting further employment.
Thus a trip to the JobCentre to check advice with them re: what to do in the event of the job being terminated one way or another (and I have to say the chap we spoke with deserves an award for customer service, I'd employ him in a flash). Then back to mine for a couple of hours on the phone to ACAS, the employer's HR and the JobCentre again to set up an appointment - job has been resigned with immediate effect, HR will provide reference which will be fine, and meeting set up with JobCentre. Smiles all round instead of stressy weekend - and it transpires that having done budget calculations this week expecting to be unemployed with no prospects relative can actually afford to take some time off and then work part-time, which was a plan before but one they never had time to carry out. So effectively the boss who was trying to screw them has done them a big favour!
After all this we were too knackered to do anything much so went out for lunch and some light shopping before I got back home, more shopping on the Internet - I'm suddenly in a CD buying phase despite not having bought any for months and often not playing the ones I've bought for months after I've bought them - which is a bit of a bummer if they turn out to have anything wrong with them. Then... went food shopping and came back with lots of cleaning/ toiletry stuff but very little food apart from stuff for a casserole for my Dad (and several bottles of fruit cider which I'm sure must count towards my 5 a day). Casserole stuff went in the slow cooker overnight and I woke up to the whole flat smelling of dinner. Very nice dinner it has to be said but not quite what one wants at 7:30am. Now just lounging around with some nice healthy soya milk - ok, chocolate soya milk - trying to decide what to have for breakfast as the choice seems to be cider or malt loaf.
What the heck :-)
current mood:  accomplished
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| Monday, March 23rd, 2009
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9:58 pm - Excuse me whilst I bang my head against this wall for a bit
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A member of my family will, quite probably, be fired from their job by the end of this week. The employer in question has a list of misdemeanours which includes one that could potentially be enough on its own for the action to become final. The rest are either unjustified (not turning up for work on a day additional to their normal work pattern and about which they had not been informed they were expected to turn up, just asked about the possibility with the query not being followed up), or downright silly. I've directed them to the CAB and stuffed my hand in my mouth to prevent myself screaming because it's just such a ridiculous situation and they, frankly, are not blameless and should definitely have known better. If they were working for my employer this would be a warning, but they're not.
Aaaaaargh.
Other than this it's just a matter of waiting for the probably inevitable.
current mood:  annoyed
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| Friday, March 20th, 2009
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9:30 pm
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One of the really astonishingly annoying aspects of working for my current employer is the length of time it takes to achieve clearances for new staff to start work - the absolute minimum for everything including CRB has been three weeks, but more than one of my team had to wait three months to get the requisites. So now I'm onto HR yet again with a little gentle persuasion so we can get the rest of our new bunch on board - highly frustrating.
Apart from that though, it's been a pretty decent week, all told. I had a couple of days off in the middle, one of which was largely spent assisting my (just) three-year-old nephew in expanding his vocabulary (no rude words - not from me anyway), the other meeting up with my ex-boss for civilised tea and more tea and gossip before getting home to greet the electrician come to fit the permanent shower switch to replace the temporary one which replaced the manky fishy one that was trying to do away with me all those months ago. Have sorted a new lease on the flat too, it's not a palace but it's got lots of space and apart from being on the ground floor so I can't do stuff with the curtains open and lights on at night without making a complete exhibition of myself it'll do me for now. Drafted the local action plan for my library (yay) and have pushed it at my team for comments with the proviso that they don't add another page to it, otherwise I'll either have to kill them or withhold chocolate (the latter would frankly cause far more distress).
Working again tomorrow so trying to keep to an early bedtime tonight - not before I've uploaded the latest update for my MP3 player though. The new Annie Lennox retrospective has got my 80s juices flowing so it's going to be mainly Eurythmics for the next month it seems. As you can tell by what I'm listening to on iTunes ce soir.
current mood:  peaceful
current music: Here Comes The Rain Again-Eurythmics
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| Sunday, March 8th, 2009
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9:34 pm
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Nearly fit again - despite coughing most of today and having the added bonus of having dropped a broken drawer on my left big toe this morning (a toe which has twice before lost its nail due to having things dropped on it). Toenail is now a bit blue so I imagine will be very attractive again for the next few months. Took advantage of the blue skies to skip into Worcester and skipped back smartish when it started to rain heavily.
Made it into work yesterday and had a surprisingly good day, it's amazing what marching around a large public building ranting at the customers can achieve. Interesting encounter with a young lad who had somehow decided that the correct response on discovering someone was in our public toilet was to (a) attempt to kick down the door before (b) getting out a key and picking the lock by using the key as a screwdriver. Luckily the 2 people inside were doing their hair and not actually on the loo (which would have been tricky as there's only 1 loo in there). He had tried to persuade them that this was actually his loo - he was 14 and it was frankly weird behaviour. What was quite disturbing was he couldn't see what he had done wrong and was very upset at being told to leave and informed we'd get the police in if he tried it again, his only concern was that he wasn't going to be allowed to use the computers for a few days because someone had told us what he'd done.
Speaking of public loos:
I saw this in the Ladies' loos at Snow Hill Station in Birmingham a week or so back - having never seen one in all my years in London! I was quite nonplussed - especially since everyone else in the loos at that time was over 80 and probably wouldn't have been mainlining anything stronger than Sanatogen.
current mood:  uncomfortable
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| Friday, March 6th, 2009
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9:09 pm - Pay rise
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I forgot to mention (must have been the excitement), we got word this week of the result of the ACAS arbitration over public sector pay rises - interesting to see how many people have opted to interpret the 2.75% as being additional to what was awarded towards the end of last year, when it's actually a total of 2.75% including the 2.45% last year and an additional 0.3% now. Which won't actually cover the 2 days' salary lost by those who went out on strike - and you can bet some cuts will be made somewhere to cover the extra costs.
It's not a victory for anyone. If you work in the public sector (as I do) it's not much of a rise, especially if you're at the top of your pay scale. Outside the public sector lots of people view this kind of rise as unfair because they don't get cost of living (especially those in self employment). Others get whackingly huge rises each year plus bonuses.
I appreciate fully that the general view of the public sector is of bean counters in offices working 9-5 Mon-Fri with every weekend off. A lot of the office public sector folk I know work very long hours trying to do things that make other people's lives more bearable. My own team are mostly overqualified and all well experienced, work long hours doing often very physical tasks, are involved in developmental and strategic planning, consultation, in contact most of every day with the public and if they don't know the answer to an obscure question they do need to have a good idea of where to go to try and find the answer. Our colleagues may be care home workers, trainers, countryside officers. We're not all bean counters by any means.
See - I can't bore people vocally at the moment so I have to resort to LJ for my brainless ranting...
Cough.
current mood: bored
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8:49 pm - Not alright, still...
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After 4 days this is getting annoying. I made it into work yesterday but didn't last out the day - there's something about virtually everyone one encounters saying 'ooh, you don't look well' that has a habit of reversing any improvements in health one may have been feeling. On top of which sleep is a no-no most nights because of the continuous cough cough cough hack which I'm convinced is waking all the neighbours at regular intervals. Mind you, after waking at 4.30 this morning for the latest ectoplasm generation exercise I reached for the heavy painkillers with caffeine, thinking I'd have no chance of more sleep but they might at least soothe things a bit, swallowed the meds and woke up 3 hours later feeling no twinge whatsoever.
Until I got out of bed anyway, when the coughing started up again. Bet if I try that again tonight it won't work.
Ah, work. I'm making another assault on managing a full day tomorrow - whatever happens I've got the following day off so I shall be brave. And drink about 93 lattes and lots of proper honey and lemon since they do make the throat feel a little better. Theoretically Saturday night is cinema night but I doubt I shall be gracing the pictures this week - not unless I want people throwing things at me for choking over the key bits of dialogue anyway.
current mood: cough cough cough hack cough wheeze
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| Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
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9:06 pm - Unfair world
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Today was my official scheduled regular day off. And the weather was appalling. Not only was I sitting through the rain, however, I spent it looking out from my living room, from the sofa, catching up on Lark Rise To Candleford and reflecting on the annoying fact that yet again I am struck down with a throat infection. Not even tonsillitis - no, I'd feel justified feeling cross with a proper obvious infection-type thing - but instead just very very sore and no voice to speak of (or indeed with). Which doubtless will be a cause for celebration at work tomorrow - assuming I make it in, I'm seriously considering picking up the phone and attempting to tap 'I'm not well' in Morse code down the receiver since if tomorrow is like today I can't actually make myself heard.
Have cheered myself up with quick shop for nice earrings on eBay - can't bring myself to buy any more DVDs at the moment since I've got stuff I bought around Christmas and still haven't finished watching.
Have eaten all my ice cream too (in other words I'm not that ill.
Boo.
And furthermore, meh.
current mood: sick
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| Thursday, February 26th, 2009
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9:20 pm - Branching
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A month has gone by since my last post - which I appreciate is a slightly pointless statement since if you've looked at the dates on my entries you'll have spotted that already. I feel like I've spent the last several weeks breathing out the 18 months since moving back home. Have got into a tiny rut of work/sleep/food/shop/walk a bit without really leaving my locality and I think what's basically caused this is it's my body's reaction to no longer being in Temporary Contract Oh Heck What If It All Goes Wrong-ville.
To celebrate and spend a little time outside my working environment I've booked a few isolated days off, just to extend some weekends and let me get away for a bit. Work isn't rubbish in any way - it's a scary boiling madhouse and I absolutely love it (at least until Monday when I get back to find the place has burned down or something). But it's time I extended a little further outside the comfort zone and did some comforting things. So am meeting a friend for nice lunch, nice chat and a pog round somewhere I don't get to very often. I'm taking my camera to see if I can get some really dreadful pics no-one else will be able to identify. Meanwhile I've also been exploring the options for weekends away, even days away, to see how far I can get for how much - the plan being to get away and play a bit more and a bit more often, rather than escape purely via my DVD collection!
There is another reason for not posting in a while - when I very first started an LJ I was writing a lot - this has petered in and out of my life for years and years, and just lately the imagination has fired up again so when I pick up a pen/ keyboard at home, odds are that it's for something creative. Ish. So I'm working through the notes from a draft from some years back, transferring what works or has potential to work to a new file and binning the rest. As I'm doing this the story is rewriting itself and it's odd to find myself reacquainting with characters I've known internally for years. I don't know how long this phase will last (anyone who knows me knows I'm notoriously flighty about lots of things except (ironically) the tendency to be flighty.
And speaking of reacquainting. Ever have the urge to track someone down you knew long ago, just to see how they're doing and how life has treated them? I have that urge right now - and today I think I've found how to get in touch with someone I knew a long time ago. (PS trav, I know what you're thinking flower, and it's someone else!)
I'm going to email him now. Fully expect to be told to bog off but there's a reason we do these things, even if only to get a clear message that we should be concentrating our energies on something else!
current mood:  restless
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| Friday, January 23rd, 2009
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10:51 pm - It's all over
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Had my interview this week - it was hell.
Pure, stinking, evil, hell. With a presentation.
But I won :-)
Permanent contract - go me!
Now just want to sleep for a couple of weeks to get back down off the stress mountain.
current mood: knackered frankly
current music: Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley (no X Factor gubbins here matey)
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| Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
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6:43 pm - Doctor Who No-Longer-Confidential
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Matt Smith profile
Officially excited now. I loved this boy in the Philip Pullman adaptations he did with Billie Piper. Desperately trying to overlook him being 12 though.
Am off to do some eBaying and finish watching 'Doctor Who and the Silurians'. I'm such a fangirl right now. As you can probably tell from the overuse of italics.
current mood:  excited
current music: White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes
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| Monday, December 29th, 2008
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9:49 pm - Yes, all right...
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I've been nudging myself for weeks that I really ought to be posting more regularly than this - truth is, work has been a little, ahm, tense of late and there hasn't really been much of an urge to record the weeklies on that, would have been mildly repetitive. So here are the rushes of the last week or so:
- Finally - finally!!!! - my contract is to be sorted one way or the other. In January there'll be an interview, and then I'll know.
- If I get the permanent job, I'm restructuring my own team whilst putting the finishing touches to the plans for refurbishment due to start sometime in 2009. Everything's happening at once, quite literally. Which is 50% OMG-that's-fantastic and 50% eek.
- Hence a peaceful Chrimble with the family whilst I gird loins ready for the onslaught of interview. By the end of this week I'll have my personal statement prepared, by the end of next week - well, it might all be over.
- On the upside, I made contact with my best mate from school and we're meeting up soon.
- On the downside, I've been lurgified again and it's only just clearing, so haven't been making too many long phone COUGH COUGH COUGH calls lately.
- On the upside, my brother and his wife renewed their wedding vows on his birthday last week to commemmorate 25 years of marriage.
- On the downside, I coughed through most of the vicar's bits until I remembered the Bradosol in my bag - then I didn't cough at all but released a gentle mist of menthol vapours. Which was nice.
- On the upside, my ex had a great Christmas - first time I understand for him in many years as his Dad passed away one Christmas Day when I was living in London. I don't have any urge to get back with my ex, but we've rekindled a nice gentle friendship, we understand each other I suppose, and it's quite important to me that he gets his sense of fun back as he's had a particularly crap time for several years.
- On the downside, two Christmas presents I ordered didn't arrive on time (one an umbrella that lights up and phases through different colours for my sister, the other some DVD-R dual layer recordables for Dad) - neither has yet appeared
- On the upside, I have proudly fulfilled my annual resolution - before New Year's Day even - to spend so much in the sales that I'm officially skint till next pay day - which is the 28th of January. So it's lunch a la Greggs for the next few weeks when I get back to work on the 5th!
- On the double upside, I am now the proud owner of my second talking TARDIS money box, so I have my original Tennant/ Rose with a much-coveted Eccleston/ Rose model side by side - not to mention finding a Doctor's Fob Watch for less than half price in the shops today, thoroughly embarrassing my mother who was with me at the time I paid for it with much excitement (and some cash of course).
And beyond that? 2008 hasn't been a walk in the park for a lot of people I know. If anything my New New Year's resolution for myself and others is to make 2009 the best it can be - recession reschmession. If all goes well at work, by the end of the year I will have cleared every loan/ credit card I've ever had and will be credit-free for the first time since leaving Uni. That's worth celebrating now. Pass the Jim Beam and that bottle of really nice port that comprise my current drinkies cupboard (I drink rarely but when I do drink, I drink well - though I did crave a vodka and blackcurrant tonight and I don't think I've had since leaving Uni), and I'll raise you a glass.
current mood:  determined
current music: Human-The Killers
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cisco664's journal