Slacker

20/9/7 - Under Caroline's orders I skived orchestra and went home to watch girly movies. I think You've Got Mail was the cheese of choice. I was responsible though, and sent my music and the keys and the chequebook along. I hope they appreciate that.

21/9/7 - Friday. Still felt pretty under the weather and grumpy. Had little to do at work. I went to wash the car instead. After work I went to the Virgin Active gym near the bus stop to work, the theory being that I can go on the way to/from work and might actually do it. It has a sauna and steam room after all. But it's £52 a month! And that's with corporte membership discount. That may be cheap if I go 3 times a week, like the lady calculated (wrongly, and far slower than me, even though she had a calculater (I trusted her until then)), but I've got more rehearsals and weekends away than will that let me go that often. But I should get fit, so I'll think about it. Firstly, I might try cutting down alcohol... That said, after looking at the gym I went to the cinema and pub with Adam! Saw Hallam Foe. I loved it! Being set in Edinburgh/Scotland helped, but I think I'd have liked it anyway. Everyone should go see it. A couple of pints and a catch up were just what I needed, but feel I wasn't that sparkling company due to absolute knackerdness.

22/9/7 - Got up and pottered around. Didn't do as much cleaning and tidying as intended, but did do some, so that's ok. Then Adam came over and we went bathroom shopping*! He's been trying to get a new bathroom since at least January, and I've been round all the shops with him before. This time our adventure took us to B&Q where we pondered for ages before booking a consultant to go round to Adam's. This is when we found out that B&Q don't fit bathrooms above the second floor. IN EDINBURGH! That's crazy. A huge percentage of the population live on 3rd and 4th floors! Strange. Have booked an appointment anyway, and Adam is going to see what they say when they arrive. Mission closed for the day, we had a drink on a boat and then dinner at a lovely little restaurant called International Starters. It's basically a tapas resaurant, but with dishes from different continents. Yum. The day ended with a trip to Simon and Joanne's flat (Adam's friends from uni, who are staying in Simon's brother's wife's lovely flat whilst they are in Australia) where we drank wine and played yahtzee. The girls won.

The evening was somewhat ruined by a mamoth headache that was VERY annoying. I tried to ignore it, but am quite sure that some of the time I stared into space and didn't know what was going on.

23/9/7 - Full. On. Migraine. Spent most of the day in bed dozing on and off. GRUMP! Not that long since the last one. Hmmm...

24/9/7 - Work was pretty dull and I still had a hangover headache. But I got through it. I even was allowed to play with some syntax. Woo! The evening was spent at the cinema with Caroline, Sharon and Caroline. Apparently not as confusing as when 3 Caroline's went to the pub together. We watched A Mighty Heart. I thought it was going to be a chick flick. It was not. It was about a journalist who was kidnapped and then beheaded in Pakistan. True story. Excellent film. Bit more serious than I was expecting and usually enjoy, but I'm glad it was thrust upon me in that fashion.

Got home fairly early (9 ish) and pottered around. Rhian came back from her weekend in Cambridge. Was weird to have someone else home! I've been on my own with Spellbound since Thursday. Cats are weird. She ignores me unless she needs food or am in bed. She's been scratching and meowing at my door when I've gone to bed, so I let her in and she curls up and goes to sleep, which is fine. But then when I'm asleep she gets up and starts playing with things and climbing on things, so I have to chuck her out. I don't get cats!!

*Another reason I'd be the best girlfriend ever. I'm quite happy to wander around DIY stores and be logical and reasonable about things. Sometimes I think I should go into interior design. I'm not sure if it'd work though, never having my own place to play with. It might look awful. My parents have a theory that if I like something, then go for the other one...

This afternoon I shall mostly be...

Cleaning! I'm going to take the work car and wash and vaccuum it. That's the "work" I get to do this afternoon. Then I am going to go home and clean the bathroom and kitchen. FUN!

Shattered

Is what I am.

13/9/7 - I had a pretty productive and lovely evening. Pub before orchestra had a new face (Andy Bassoon) although lacking in old faces (Katrina Violin in attendance, Tim Viola now in Sheffield, Ali Cello always too busy for us, Caroline Violin and Eoin Clarinet late). Rehearsal was fine. We seem not to be up to full flow yet. But I'm glad to have Neil back. Yay! After rehearsal we had a quick meeting (Note to self: you have the church keys. Don't forget them on Thursday...) which was ace! Felt like everyone cares and I think there was one thing that I'd not thought of. That could be a lie though. Savoy pub crawl was rubbish. Well, it wasn't rubbish, but Frankensteins is, for trying to chat at least. Plus I was worried about Rodney. But was lovely to see a few people. Hope to see them better soon!

14/9/7 - Up early, early, early to pack and get to work. Did well. Work exceedingly dull (see previous 2 posts) but short. Had a quick drink with Erin & workmates before train. Bought wine for the train, but had to get a big bottle as M&S didn't have little ones. Then had to drink out of the bottle. Classy. The lady next to me saved me when she went to the buffet car and got glasses, so I shared with her and had a lovely chat! I also read the script for Three Little Maids in Sherwood Forest - the show I'm producing & doing costumes for at work. It looks good! Let's see what the auditions bring on Thursday...

I eventually arrived (after a looooong last hour) and got the bus to Rusholme. Fantastic surprise of ex-Housemate Dan getting on the bus! He was drunk and amusing. Yay! Then to Hardy's to find a plethora of lovely people (Charlotte, Dan, Liz, Andrew, Cass, Joe, Rosy, Andy, Emily, Rich, Miranda & Steve). Was disappointed that Wolf wasn't going to be there, as he was on a sofa dressed as a cowboy. Strange. But true to form he appeared a la pub anyway. I stole his hat for a bit. Then it was back to Charlotte & Dan's* with Cass & Joe for tea and bed.

15/9/7 - The boys had to get up early to go to work (ha ha!) and Cass left to go pack for her camping trip (i.e. get back into bed). Lazed around with Charlotte, then we went to meet Justin and Ian in Solomon's for breakfast. I forgot how much I like that place. Was good to see Justin before he goes off on his Madagascar adventure - I look forward to hearing about what he's been doing. After a good catch up we all went our separate ways and I headed into town. Met up with Adam and Tim from maths and we played around in Urbis. I liked it muchly! I've always had a pretty negative impression of Urbis without ever going there, but now strongly encourage people to go, if only to feel like you're in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and go in a diagonal lift. The exhibit that meant you can throw balls at strangers and play with children and a fake picnic is now gone, but go see the Hacienda exhibit. I learnt things. There's a new one opening in October about some design awards or something. So there.

After playing Shaun and Dean found me, and we found Del and lunch and beer. Great plan! But by then I was tired, as getting to sleep on Charlotte's sofa when drunk was fine, but getting back to sleep at 4 was not. So went back to the hotel with Del for naps, but then I failed to have a nap and did my nails instead. The it was off to the party. I managed to get us a little lost on the way, which resulted in wandering around rather dodgy looking areas. It was fun. We found a new bit of canal and thought about arriving at the party by boat. Party was lovely! Sarah and Cattac looked lovely, and there were many, many splendid people there. I snuck off for a while (I think only Mahinda noticed and I was suitably mysterious, just because I could be!) to say hi to Mark who was drinking along the road. Got back to the party at kicking out time and managed to steal** some decorations.

16/9/7 - Woke up about 4.30 and couldn't get back to sleep. Grump. Eventually got up about 9 and showered. Got out of the shower to discover a text from Mark asking if I was up and saying they (Mark, Andy, Sabeena & Kieran) were drinking in Hulme Park. I didn't really believe they'd got up that early, but it turns out they hadn't gone to bed. Far more believable. So I met them for breakfast. It was amusing being so fresh in comparison! I was even wearing the day before's t-shirt and jeans, but 3 hours sleep and a shower made me superior. That and the fact that I ordered a vanilla latte when they all ordered black coffee... Then off to Kro Piccadilly to find Anne, who was up from Norfolk for the weekend. Lovely! Andy & Emily were first to arrive, and that surprised me a lot! Anne and Charlotte and Dan were late, and Liz, Andrew & Ian were later, but they weren't supposed to be on time. Catching up and Guinness followed. I was really quite rubbish by then though - not much sleep many nights in a row.

Left Kro and headed under Adam's escort to Piccadilly train station to find Maths Liz. We couldn't decide what to do, and as all we wanted to do was hang out, we did it right there in the station. Well, upstairs in a bar bit. Oh, forgot to say - all this time I was carrying around 2 balloons (1 popped on a scallies cigarette). Anyway, we played on a quiz machine and caught random bits of each others lives. Lovely. Liz had to go pick Carl up from Scouts and she casually mentioned that he'd had a 3 hours heart operation including having to be fibrillated in the middle! Scary. I was going to go to my parents' then, but it turns out they were in Bangor trying to fix the internet, so I wandered off to find Mark, etc. at The Cavendish for pool. Was funny - they were all amusing and occasionally falling asleep at the table. They needed curry, so I then did head home where Daddy and Jodie (dog) met me from the train. I think I was a little tipsy and I think my dad knew... Oh well! Tea was had, stories were swapped, plans were made, bed was found. Lovely.

17/9/7 - Random Bank Holiday, just for Edinburgh, not even the whole of Scotland. I'm not complaining though.


/me does the paid holiday dance.


Wasn't sure where I was when I woke up! Turned out I was in Jennifer's room, due to complication of the house being a show house for selling and not wanting to iron sheets. Yet again I'd woken up many times in the night. I then failed to get up when my alarm went off and had to be woken up by my mum to get out of the room for the window replacer man. Enjoyed the luxury of the bathroom and eventually did what I was supposed to and went into the loft. I was right - I have two boxes of kitchen stuff, one of which I wouldn't care if it vanished. The other one contains my Beerfest glasses and some mugs that I don't want smashing, hence why they are not in my flat up here. Then went on an adventure with my mum and sent her to the hairdressers. I wandered through Bolton town centre, and discovered it's actually quite nice! The town hall is beautiful, and there are new flower beds and the fountains are looking better now they've blended in. Shame it's still full of strange looking people, and I've no idea if it would be nice in the evening, but it's gone up slightly in my estimation.

Train back was uneventful and dull. I was pretty glad to get back into my own flat. It'd been a long weekend. But a fantastic one! Was great to see everyone that I saw. As usual, I missed some people out. It just wouldn't have been possible to see any more people. I got over 3 crushes but gained 2 more. Decided not to unpack, but to get in bed and watch Walk The Line. Ace.

18/9/7 - Got incredibly lost on the way to the care home. Oops. They didn't care though, as they didn't know I was coming anyway! The afternoon one also said I wasn't due until the next day, so I went to the one that I had for the next day, and they thought that too. But did the interview anyway. The evening was Emma time as she's away for about a week. We watched Grease II and Cry Baby and drank wine.

19/9/7 - International Talk Like A Pirate Day! But I forgot and did not play. Possibly would have if I had been in the office. Was at the same place as yesterday. The morning's interview was very smooth and quick. The afternoon's wasn't so smooth, as there were many interruptions. I didn't mind though (I'm never in a rush!) and enjoyed a bit more insight into what else they have to do. I quite want to be a specialist palliative care nurse now.

In the evening I managed to do some washing up and feed the cat. Not nearly as productive as I would like, but a start! Then went out for a drink with Nikki. She's ace. We had a good catch up whilst drinking raspberry beer through giant pink straws. I managed to get myself locked out, but luckily New Housemate Rhian came back later on and I could get in. Hurrah!


20/9/7 - Today I am mostly miserable. I'm hoping this is just through being tired, so I might skive orchestra tonight to fix it. Although I think it might be more to do with being fat, and the more miserable I get about it the more I eat. It doesn't help. I need to fight my way out of it, but I really can't be arsed.



*Lots of people kept calling it Dan & Charlotte's, which, although technically wrong (I knew her first!) is easier to say...

**By steal, I mean take with permission. You've got to be careful about what the internet says! It is all true fact, you know.

Spring Clean

Panic happened in the office. Apparently we're going to have a "deep clean" on Monday when no-one is here. They have given us very little warning (about an hour before the earliest we can leave, but everyone else gets here about 4am and leaves as soon as possible) and it appears most of the office is on holiday anyway. Like usual for this place. Anyway, they all had a panic as we can't possibly be ready for a clean with that short notice. Maybe a valid point, but I think your desk should always be tidy except for what you are working on.

Anyway, I'm really just waffling. I did manage to be useful for a while, both personally and professionally, but am still counting down the hours until HOME TIME! Might to early and do a little shopping... My jeans are far too small. I haven't got bigger... No. Well, maybe. A LOT.

If only I could get Facebook at work... I could happily spend my days stalking people again...

That Friday Feeling

I am sick of being at this desk. Sometimes this job is amazing. Sometimes it is not. Today I have nothing to do. I know I say this quite a bit, but there's usually something not very urgent or some menial task to do. Today, nothing. Next week should be ace - Monday is a bank holiday and I'm going out on Tuesday and Wednesday, albeit to Glasgow and to the same hospital each day, but 4 different wards and it should be interesting. Then when I get back I'll have stuff to do.

It doesn't help that I'm very much looking forward to leaving the office. I've got my weekend bag with me and it's straight to the pub then train then pub. Even the train will be good as I've got a script to read and I'm going to get some wine - it will be ace.

I've spent the morning making things for Erin. I hope she doesn't read this! She only just discovered I had a blog, so I'm hoping not. Anyway, I wasn't going to get her anything before she goes off travelling, but then I was bored all morning and it was all I can think of, so I have used office supplies. I'm really going to miss her. I'm glad she's got to come back in between and at the end of her backpacking before leaving us forever. It's going to be weird in the house without her, but I guess it was weird when anyone else moved too. It's not as if it's been a surprise - I've known since the day she moved in!

Anyway, I'm going to go and see if I can create myself some work. Whatever I do will be pretty pointless, but so is this...

Pick up her pants

I just misread 2 spam e-mails - "Pick her up", and "What's in your pants?" became "Pick up her pants". Much better, imho.

10/9/7 - After work I met Dan and Gesine in the Elephant House for a catch chat. Turned out to be a little silly, as Gesine now lives here and I'll see her all the time, and I'll see Dan on Saturday in Manchester. But was lovely to see them together and talk rubbish. I then nipped home to gather housemates plus couchsurfer (lovely lady called Cynthia from Florida) before heading to The Stand for a night of comedy. Red Raw is the Monday slot, and for £2 you get 8 novice acts plus a professional compere and headliner. Not all as funny as each other, obviously, but overall a funny evening, especially for £2!

11/9/7 - Jo (who we went to Roskilde with) came round to see Erin in her last week (*sniff sniff*), so I cooked her a random dinner and we all watched Bill Bailey's Part Troll with appletinis. Yum. I hope that I manage to stay in touch with Jo, but so far I've only managed to communicate through Erin. I'll try!

12/9/7 - Stayed at work late (ha ha, only till 6, but I've not managed that for a while - there's just no need to) and then got a lift with Dan. It took us both far longer than normal to get home, due to getting lost advenutres, but had a good gossip, which made me feel better. Accidentally on purpose got into bed when I got home, and had a little nap. Managed to get up briefly to do my nails and watch Addicted to Love with Emma. Nails a disaster though, so will try to find time to fix them later.

13/9/7 - Today. Got orchestra tonight followed by a committee meeting. Wanted to go to a Creative Space meeting and a Savoy meeting to discuss costumes for their next productions. Creative Space is a group from work that put on shows. I'm producing the next show, so they organised a production meeting for tonight, that I can't go to. Interesting. We'll see how this one pans out... If they keep doing annoying things like that, then I'm just not going to help. Not sure what kind of cosutmes Savoy want for Salad Days, so want to have a discussion with the directors and Nikki and Gesine and anyone else who's interested to see who should do costumes. But I can't go to the open meeting, so I shall just join them on the pub crawl after my orchestra committee meeting and see if anyone makes any sense!

Tomorrow I go to Manchester. I'm quite excited! Friday night is going to be a cosy night in Hardy's Well with Charlotte, Liz, Cass, etc. Saturday brunch with Justin, hopefully meeting maths/teaching people in the afternoon, then Cattac's 30th in the evening. Lots of older generation MUGSS should be there, including Mike and Pam! Aces. Not sure what Sunday holds yet, except I know it will end at my parents house. This might be my last visit to that house. CRY! I look forward to writing about this all after it happens.

Now, I go hunt for work.

September

I'm not going to bother filling in the gaps, but I'm going to turn over a new leaf and start at the beginning of September. Plan.


1/9/7 - I woke up on a floor. This isn't as random as it would appear, except that the day before isn't included a la blog, due to it being August. I was at Lolly's house in Whitley Bay near Newcastle for the weekend, with Helen and Archie too. We started the day with breakfast on the beach with Lolly's parents, and had a paddle too. Lovely. Then we went to Newcastle (it has a castle! Who knew?!?) and explored and had tea and cakes and a little accidental shopping on route. Then back to Lolly's house for tea and getting ready. Helen was quite obsessed with SingStar or whatever it's called on whatever gadget Lolly has. Watching someone doing karaoke whilst sober and drinking tea is quite surreal. We then went out round Whitley Bay and a good time was had! Whitley Bay does seem to be full of old sleezy men though...

2/9/7 - Another night on the floor was really not good for me! I haven't mentioned that I'd been quite ill and off for most of the previous week. So I really needed a nice restful weekend with good quality sleep. Never mind! Sunday morning was spent mostly tidying up and stuff, followed by a trip to St. Mary's Lighthouse, which handily happens to be on a tidal island! I'm doing fairly well at collecting them. Woo! We walked all 167 steps to the top and enjoyed watching the CCTV camera. We also enjoyed talking to a man about birds. Helen appreciated his beard. I did not. I just about made it back to my train on time. Phew. Got home and attempted a little nap, but think I failed and did something useful, before going to see the Fireworks! Caroline had managed to acquire some last minute tickets to the gardens, so along with Eoin we packed a picnic and had a lovely view. Nice.

3/9/7 - All the activity hadn't helped anything, so I was off sick. Fun.

4/9/7 - Ditto.

5/9/7 - Had the first of two sessions of viewing the flat. Met lots of people, some of whom I would live with and some I would not! Think that might have been all that happened.

6/9/7 - The first orchestra of the term. Am still quite annoyed about the organisation of the orchestra (says the treasurer who has no clue how to do the accounts...). We started the term without knowing when the concert is going to be and what music we are playing. And we didn't have enough parts for everyone. And only half the committee was there, without telling the rest of the committee. But on the positive side Eoin is getting there with the website, so fingers crossed. And Neil was back! Hurrah! I like sitting next to Neil. He gets everything right, but refuses to lead the section. So I lead the section with everyone knowing he's better. That's just fine. I'm usually in the right place at the right speed (Neil's so fast!) which will do.

7/9/7 - Hand hurt a lot. Glad I told the doctor and am going to see a specialist. Although feel I may not have told him exactly what hurts, as I'm not sure. Hopefully all ok. I hope I don't have to give anything up. Left work pretty early to go back and show people around the flat. So many people! Was a bit crazy. But enough nice people that we knew we could cope with. Lovely. Then off to the pub to see Tim before he moved to Sheffield. It was fun, although I wasn't there for long before heading to watch The Graeme Mearns Band starring Ali from orchestra. Such a good band. I love them. Then we stayed for a few drinks, which turned into a bit of a session, for which I entirely blame John. He's such a bad influence! But lovely.

8/9/7 - ZOO! For Erin's birthday I gave her a voucher for a trip to Edinburgh Zoo, as I knew she wanted to go before she left. So we went with Emma as well. It was ace! Fun, fun, fun. We saw the penguin parade and had a picnic and took silly pictures of us with our heads/hands in strange places. Pictures on Facebook. Then we went to see Run, Fat Boy, Run, the new Simon Pegg film. He's lovely. Then we watched Rocky Horror Picture Show as neither Erin nor Emma had seen it. I think we were all too tired though! Great day.

9/9/7 - I spent most of the day in bed with a migraine. Nice. Managed to go to Tesco about 7.30 and then cook tea and watch Shooting Fish, then back to bed. Oh, at some point we did manage to sort out a new housemate and tell all the others that it's gone. Phew.

10/9/7 - Today. Head still hurts and am knackered despite millions of sleep. Today is the beginning of National Suicide Prevention Awareness Week. I doing know what I'm going to do to support it yet. Maybe I should have thought of this before. But something... Something...

The house

http://www.findaproperty.com/displayprop.aspx?edid=00&salerent=0&pid=883984&agentid=09468


That's it. It's on the market. My parents are actually going to move! Strange. People have already looked round even though there are no pictures and it only went in the paper on Thursday. My mum's been having a fight about the caravan being in the picture, hence it stopping where it does (caravan is to the right of the garage).