Sara's Little Blog

Wishful Thinking

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:49:00 +0000

If I could have one wish for 2010, it would be to bring Gu back.

Over the last 14 months, since I moved up to Reading really, she's gradually got worse. She's a shell of who she used to be, and can no longer do things like get dressed, or go to the toilet without help. Dadcu looks after her without complaining, but it's recently started to get to him. She used to love painting, and card making, but can't do these any more.

Over Christmas I volunteered to stay with her and while I was there I painted her nails for her, and did her hair. Then we sat down to watch tv in the lounge as it's the warmest room in the house, and while we were watching Pride & Prejudice we ate some quality street and looked at some photographs.

They'd gone over to my aunty's for dinner on Christmas day, and we'd visited my aunty on Boxing day. While we were there my aunty rhetorically asked us, where the hell Gu had gone. During a conversation you can see in her eyes that she's there, and then the next minute her eyes are blank and you get a vague answer, and then she's back again. She also commented that Gu's appetite was good, and she ate two dinners.

While we were watching Pride & Prejudice she opened a box of Quality Street and helped herself. I had a few, but didn't want to ruin my appetite for tea, and that my aunty had said she'd eaten well on Boxing Day. She replied 'a good appetite is a sign of good health'. That just got to me, and it's stuck in my head and keeps repeating itself.

Some days are good, others are bad. When I ring to say hello, I never know if it will be a 30 second conversation because it will be so difficult to carry a conversation and she doesn't like talking on the phone on a bad day, or whether it will be a good day and we'll be talking for 5-10 minutes.

What bugs me most is that I don't know if she knows or not. When she went to the doctors in October she did a memory test (on a Tuesday). She thought it was a Thursday, in June, in 2001. Yet, she knew her age accurately, she didn't think she was 8 years younger than she is. And when my grandparents came down on Saturday (they pop down most days) and Dadcu couldn't remember who the person he'd seen in a tv show was, Gu answered correctly, twice.

It's a hell of a strain on him, and we rely on him the most out of everyone in our family. He's always there for us. He picks Daniel up from school, always picked me up from school, train stations, whenever I need him, he's there. When I split with my ex unexpectedly and was a complete mess, he drove up from home to come and take me home. Mam doesn't like driving due to her MS. He takes Mam food shopping, or anywhere she needs to go, then takes Gu out to do theirs. He helps out with any DIY we need - he's the family DIY king. And now he looks after Gu, and if anything happens to him we're screwed.

Tom tells me to try not to think about things too much, but I can't help it. I worry about the fact I have nothing to worry about, it makes me paranoid I've forgotten something. And I'm hyper aware of when I can't remember things these days. I'm hyper aware that I already have the shake Gu has always had, and that I am not as bright as I used to be, and I'm only 22.

I wish thing's could be simpler.

Let it Snow! (Reprise)

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:25:00 +0000

Evening :)

Happy bunny today! The Met Office issued a severe weather warning for the area covering Reading today from 6pm to 11.59am tomorrow. So this morning I made sure to pack my wellies in case it did come down and I had to walk home. And at 5.30pm it started snowing! It's still going! There's about 6 inches (or was when I arrived home).

We knew it was going to be difficult to get the cars working as the snow was sticking from the start. Within the first hour the snow had started covering the parts of the road that had been gritted.

Luckily the couriers managed to make it on time, and one wasn't scheduled, so we were done by 21.45. I did the pourer stacker again tonight. Had a bit of hassle in that the agar sets quickly when it cools down. Tonight it cooled down so quickly from being in the tubing that I had to remove the tubing and try again. Literally pumping it from the agar preparator to the pourer stacker right next to it, and it had solidified. Great stuff! So apart from that, it was all good - and seeing as I had lots of help pipetting my hand doesn't hurt either.

The 3 of us who normally share a car on the way home from late shift had to walk it, and we all live in the same general direction so we walked together. Took me 55 minutes to get home as they walk quite quickly so it meant I couldn't keep stopping to take pictures like I would have if it had been me on my own, and they even walked a little out of my way, so I walked a little longer out of my way. It's about 3 miles according to Google Maps. It's normally 2.6 if I go in a straight(ish) line.

I love it when it snows. It brings out the kid in me and it makes me happy and chills me out. I don't like it so much when it goes slushy and icy making doing anything awkward after the first few day though.

Enjoy the snow!!

xx

ISA

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:44:00 +0000

Afternoon,

As I was saying to Tom last night, I've put £1,500 in my ISA since October so there's no reason why I can't get to £3,600 by April if I stretch a little more. If I do it will be the first time I fill an ISA allowance - no wonder I have no savings!

Just got off the phone to First Direct, it seems that Halifax turned down my ISA transfer request as my ISA with them is still registered to my old address and doesn't match the address registered to the FD ISA. Which is fair enough I guess. Anyways, as soon as I change that I can ring FD back and they will re-send the transfer request, and hopefully it will go through by April and top it up!

Back to work today. I was feeling quite ambivalent about it last night, I'm used to going to work now. But this morning it was so cold I hated having to get out of bed, especially as my electric blanket is still in Reading. There's still an inch of snow back home but none in Reading! Last week all the snow was in Reading, and barely any at home.

Nonetheless, I'm now back in Reading, just time for food and then I'll be heading to work to start the second week of lates. I'm really hoping my hand doesn't freeze up like it did last week. We already have one person in the team who has bad wrists and doesn't do it very often as a result. I'm supposed to be learning how to run it to help the team out more, I don't want to add more restrictions. I guess I could try to do it twice this week and see how that goes. It might be dodgy because it's not used to the large amount of work it has to do quickly over the period of an hour or so.

We'll see.

xx

Frustrated

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:38:00 +0000

Evening,

It's been a good start to the new year. On Friday I met up with Angharad and Kirsty for dinner and christmas present swapping. We went to China China and it has started to snow as I left the house so I had my wellies on. While we were eating the snow got thicker and thicker, and by the time we were driving home the roads were white. Not wanting to get the car stuck I jumped out halfway up the road to my house so that they could make it home easier as they live further up the valley than I do, and normally have the snow a lot worse. It was great fun as I'd taken my camera with me so I loved walking about in the snow, even though I was a bit annoyed I'd had to leave my presents (a Mathmos thaw light I've been hankering over for the past 2 or 3 years, and a gorgeous Japanese Geisha styled money box) in the car so as to not unbalance myself and increase the chances of me falling on my arse!

On Saturday then the snow was still around and I'd promised to meet up with Adam, so I put my trainers on this time as the snow was still fairly fresh and hadn't iced over. I walked into the main part of the village and then caught a bus into Swansea from there. I'd gone to bed at around 5am because I'd been up all night researching DSLRs. I've spotted a deal on Jessops which seems good, a Nikon D5000 with two lenses, memory card, bag and 2 filters for £689 or a Canon 500D also with the same bundle but a little more expensive. I need it on credit and I would need to do that back in Reading so I went with the hope of being able to play with one and deciding which one to get that way as the reviews I have read seem very 50/50 split, and it comes down to having a preference of Nikon vs Canon. As I have no lenses whichever decision I make now means I am tied into that brand for the 'life' so to speak as it is not worth chopping and changing, unless something radical happens.

Nikon are renowned for having the best lens quality, and at the end of the day that's what a slr camera is all about, interchangeable lenses. The canon ones are supposed to be slightly easier to use, but you can learn to use anything so that's not really a factor. As it is I'm 70% I want a Nikon D5000 but haven't got my hands on one yet. The independent shop I went into to ask was completely sold out of both.

Adam's well, it was good to catch up with him as I haven't seen him since August when I was incredibly ill on those Mojito's from Potion Bar in London! We went for a meal and had a few drinks, and chatted until he had to head back to Cardiff.

Today Angharad, Kirsty and I'd agreed that we were going to go see Sherlock Holmes. As Kirsty got called in to work we went for the 11.10am showing which is the earliest I have ever been, and I thought the film was pretty good. We then headed to Harvester for some lunch, where there was an Audi with a smashed in window. Turns out the owners left a tiny baby and a 2 year old in the car while they were sleeping so they could go shopping, and the police were called. They smashed the window to check the kids were okay, and the parents were arrested for neglect.

Having come home I've been on Flickr and fiddling about with the camera. I've come to the conclusion that I can't justify spending £800 on a camera even though I really, really, really, really, really want to. It's £800 that would be better off in an ISA, as I can't eat a camera when I'm in uni and skint. And I'm unlikely to ever make money from selling prints. Which I'm quite gutted about. I need to learn to use what I already have before I upgrade, otherwise I'll end up just using the camera on auto all the time and not learning how to manually use it and become a better photographer. I also need to buckle down and sort out my laptop, or buy a new one, so that I can actually use Photoshop Elements and Lightroom. At the moment PSE is so fucking slow that I give up, and I don't feel happy putting the pictures I've taken up on Flickr as they can be and should be vastly improved in PSE first.

Sad times.

xx

New Widget!

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 03:02:00 +0000

Howdy,

Seeing as I am unable to sleep, I have been busy and added a little Flickr fun to the site. It probably won't get updated very often as I have been taking plenty of pictures recently but very few that I think are good enough to share publically, and I'm feeling far to lazy to photoshop them - especially now my laptop is on the blink again!

xx

London

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:15:00 +0000

Howdy,

Heading into London today to introduce it to my brother. We're aiming for the Imperial War Museum as I would like to go back, and Daniel is doing a history GCSE (like me!) and hopefully it will help him remember it.

After last night in work I'm incredibly glad I have today off. When I arrived yesterday we were told we were having reduced sample numbers and would probably be done by 7-7.30pm. Also one person was off sick, and no one stayed to help out as we weren't expecting much. I made plans to meet the family for dinner last night for 8.30pm. As it was I left the lab at 23.15pm last night, thoroughly knackered and in pain (my hand doesn't appreciate me running the pourer stacker as it involves pipetting and making the same movement at least as however many times whatever 30x15 is. And running around trying to be faster than a machine.

Got a taxi home in the end then went to meet Dad as we drove up to Swindon the night before to make sure I could get to work okay as the weather forecast was dire. Got to Reading at 12pm yesterday and then had lunch with Heather and Jim, Dad's friends from university who live in Reading. Was a good day until 2pm!

xx

Let it Snow!

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:22:00 +0000

Chaos.

That's what last monday was like. Absolute chaos. It started snowing around 11am, and was coming down pretty thick but wasn't sticking. Around 2pm it started to stick. By half past the floor was white. By 3.30pm we were getting a bit worried in the lab as to how bad the traffic was. We could see that the cars outside had been at a standstill for a while. I was offered a lift because it was likely that the buses would be cancelled, and hurried to get my work done quickly so that I could.

By 4.30pm there were massive tailbacks everywhere, and some of the cars of people who had left early at 3.30pm to try and avoid the inevitable queues had turned around and come back to work, then walked home. I rang Tom to see if he was having any luck and if he might be able to pick me up, and though he managed to de-ice the car, the cars at the top of the road where it joins the main road (one of the busiest in Reading) had been stood still the entire 20 minutes it took him to de-ice it.

On Saturday we'd gone to a pub for lunch and I'd been slipping all over the place, and fell at one point. I went from worn out Vans to Converse, and then had no shoes left with grip. Converse + ice = bad. We went into town on Sunday before work so that I could pick up a new pair, and I got some Sketchers that looked like they would have much better grip. I wore them out of the shop, and as soon as we started walking down the pavement it was clear that the £50 was pretty much wasted as grip was barely improved.

So on Monday evening, knowing that I was going to struggle if I tried to walk in the Sketchers I had gone to work in, bless him, Tom offered to walk to work to come and fetch me. He brought my backpack with my giraffe wellies (first time they've been used outside of Reading Festival) and a raincoat. I swapped over, and kitted up, and then we left work around 5.45pm.

It was good fun walking, it was very pretty, and because it was fresh snow I had no problems walking on it. I probably annoyed a fair few drivers as I walked past singing 'Walking in a winter wonderland'! We walked past cars that couldn't go up slight inclines as they had no grip, with people banding together to push them up the hills and then run back down to help the next car. There was even a lady outside a B&B handing out cops of hot ribena for the cold drivers. And lorries and vans parked everywhere that daren't go up or down hills.

It took us about 40 minutes to get into town, and it was really odd walking across normally busy roads and roundabouts with cars stranded and frequently abandoned everywhere. Kinda apocalyptic. We were a bit hungry by then, so we stopped in La Tasca and took advantage of the all-you-can-eat for £10 deal they have on Sundays and Mondays. Then we walked the final bit home.

Next day I was working 12-8 and the buses had started running again so I caught one of those to work. When I got there, I found out that quite a few people had had to stay overnight in the meeting rooms and tea room in work as they had been unable to go home. Some of the managers stayed in the B&B. All the meeting rooms have motion sensor lights so it made me laugh to hear that people had complained that each time they turned over the room lit up! Bet they didn't find it funny though.

It took Lauren 7 hours to get home to London, she left at 4pm, and by 8pm was still in exactly the same spot outside of work. It took someone else 7.5 hours to make a normally 10 minute drive. The security guard at work's relief had been 3 hours late and he had been unable to get home, so he had been on duty for 36 hours. John's brother is a bus driver and had been told he was forbidden to leave the bus, so would have to wait all night until the replacement night driver turned up to continue sitting in the bus seat.

And all because the council didn't grit. Twitter was really good, it came into it's own. The #rdg tag meant that we were able to swap information and find out which places to avoid, which bus routes were cancelled etc. Really good, and I'm a much bigger fan of it now that I was before!

Chaos,

xx

Nadolig Llawen!

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:28:00 +0000

Ho ho ho!

So all the presents are wrapped, we've finished our lovely turkey and mayo sandwiches for supper, and no doubt my brother will knock on my door in a little while so we can sort out our Christmas pillowcases (no stockings in our house!)

Hope you have a fab day, whatever you get.

xx

Who's Number One?!

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:39:00 +0000

We are!!!!!

I bought two copies of RATM's Killing In The Name Of. It's one of my favourite songs, and I'm chuffed it got to number 1 finally. I do feel sorry for Joe though, but I'm glad it's stopped the usual '[enter winner's name here] - [enter covered song title here]' being number one for a change!

Just found a wasp/hornet in my bed, pretty concerned right now!

Have a look at the Frequently Bought Together on this page
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Texet-Cross-Cut-Shredder-Litre-Waste/dp/B002EVOTQO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=officeproduct&qid=1261334170&sr=8-3

xx

Avatar

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:53:00 +0000

Evening,

Not on call anymore! Woo! Just had to work this weekend instead. I've been working or on call every weekend this month. Roll on Christmas with some rest and relaxation!

On Friday we went to see Paramore in Wembley Arena. They were better than I was expecting, but I was expecting them to be awful live. To be fair, she does have a good voice, and unlike some other gigs I've been to where you can barely hear the singer over the music, let alone make out the words, but it was really clear and good.

Only bad bit was the point where a little kid younger than us (23 and 22) got up on stage with his girlfriend and proposed to me in front of the sold out arena. Well I say 'bad bit', it was cute, but I dunno, was a bit cringy I guess. I know, I'm a cynical bitch.

Had a long wait in Paddington to get back home, we've had lots of snow which has now frozen, and the trains were delayed. We waited 45 minutes for one to Reading, and we had to run as soon as it was announced - along with 300 others. It was only a tiny commuter train too, so we were glad, and lucky to get seats. It's a lot colder in Reading than in London.

Went to see Avatar last night. I thought it was brilliant. Tom wasn't so fussed but don't let that put you off. Go see! We saw it in 3D which was definitely worth it to get the sense of scale and depth. Would have been a lot flatter overall otherwise.

Was quite a late showing, it was supposed to start at 22.30 but didn't start until gone 23.30, so we left the cinema at 2am! Knackered today, but still glad we went. I was talking to the security guard in work today who is a pc gamer, and he's been playing the Avatar game and he says it's really good and that he's enjoyed playing it, so I may add it to my list.

It's still icy now, it had been snowing while we watched Avatar. Tom decided we were going to walk to a pub in Caversham for a cheap steak last night, and that it was 'only a mile'. Took about 45 minutes and I fell on the ice on the way. Turns out it was 1.6 miles, and we've agreed we are definitely driving there next time. My shoes have no grip whatsoever, so we went into town this afternoon before work to buy some new sketchers with better grip. The grip is marginally better, but I'm still slippy sliding everywhere. Christmas in 5 days!

These are slippery times,

xx

Oooh!

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:20:00 +0000

On a happier note, it's been snowing!

Both today and yesterday, and it's supposed to come down quite thick tonight, yay!

xx

A Little Better

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:09:00 +0000

Evening,

So Tuesday I was feeling pretty shit. On Monday evening I started having a sore throat. Then I had a call from the late shift telling me that they'd heard there was going to be a call out but nothing had arrived at their end. So I rang the courier contact and was told that there were 3 call outs and that he was going to collect them all and then bring them to the lab at the same time. Then the phone rang from the Lab Liason to tell me that there had been an event and that there were 8 emergency samples arriving at 11pm in addition to any call outs.

So in order to try and time both arrivals we waited until 12.30am, and then I did the 8 emergency samples. As I was in the lab I rang the courier again and was told he would be arriving at 1.30am. I was feeling pretty dodgy by then so Tom & I hopped in the car and went to Asda to stock up on strepsils and paracetamol. Then we went back, I did the call out samples and we went home to bed.

Next day I went in at 12.30pm as we'd left the lab 2.5 hours after midnight so I had 2.5 hours of extra stand down time and could start 2.5 hours later than I normally would. I woke up and felt like shit. I felt like I'd been beaten up during the night. I went in at 12.30, did all the things I had to do then grovelled to the manager and left at 14.45. It was pretty bad. I slept for 4 hours when I got home, then struggled to sleep the whole night. Typical.

Yesterday I was feeling a little better, and there was no call out thankfully. We watched 2 episodes of Gavin & Stacey and then went to bed at 11pm. Today I covered 12-8 for someone's sickness. We have 24 staff and 7 are off sick. I quite like it when it's like this though, there's a much better team/camaraderie going on. Pretty sure I'm going to get a call tonight though as there were 6 failures at 4pm so it will be interesting.

xx

Uggghh.

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:15:00 +0000

Evening,

Not a happy bunny today. I feel lousy and I had to leave work early because I felt so bad.

Got called out last night, and it ended up with me not leaving until 2.30am. Not in the mood to divulge atm so another time.

I hate being ill.

xx

Fun Times

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:45:00 +0000

Afternoon,

It's been a good week! Sunday and Monday were pretty stressful in work due to having to sort out other people's mistakes and a whole catalogue of errors, but that's over and done with now. Wednesday I made up some more time so went from -10 hours to -1 in a week.

Then on Thursday it was Tom and I's 3 year anniversary. I met him in the nearby car park where he pulled out a long stemmed single rose with a black ribboned bow and a note attached to it '3 fantastic years. I'll try to save box 5 for us x Opera Ghost' on it. And then two tickets to go see Phantom of the Opera that night!

We legged it to London and made it in perfect time for the show. Ordered two glasses of wine for us - then freaked when it came to £18!! The show was really good, all kinds of special effects and left me wondering how they'd done them/gotten away with doing things without me noticing sometimes. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Earlier I'd said that I'd never seen the christmas lights in London, so we went for a walk down Regent Street to go and see them. Was good fun window shopping too. We went up a little side street as Tom thought that's where the Absolut Vodka Icebar was and we thought it would be cool to go and see if we could see it. When we got there Tom asked if I wanted to go in, I said 'Yes!' and then he strode up to the two men on the door and it turned out we had a booking for 11pm for two! Consider my night made :)

We waited for a little bit, I went to the loo and was shocked to discover that the male and female toilets are connected via the hand washing basin! As I was washing my hands a man put his hands under the stone the taps were attached to and reached out to see if he could grab anyone's hands and scare them!

We each got given, well thrown, a massive waterproof poncho with wool lining and mittens attached and then we were in! The bar is named Below Zero as it is -5 degrees in there. You're only allowed in for 45 minutes for H&S reasons and you have to book in advance. The entry price includes a cocktail, which are served in square glasses made of ice with a hole in the middle. You're ordered to ensure you wear your mittens when handling the drinks to avoid your hands freezing to them. The theme changes every 6 months or so, and at the moment it's 'aquatic'. It's basically a submarine, with a control desk in the middle with sonar, dials and buttons etched into the middle of massive blocks of ice, and a periscope, with fish carved into ice and port holes too. It was great fun, and I reckon would be a fantastic place to start off a night out for a birthday :) We headed home and both agreed that Reading felt colder than the icebar did!

I'm on call again now. So on Friday I rushed out of work and met Tom at the cinema to see New Moon. I wasn't as impressed, I preferred the original and the books are vastly superior to the film as it makes a lot more sense of things! I had to explain a few bits to Tom as it went on. We saw the 5.30pm viewing to ensure that I wouldn't miss a call, but I ended up not getting any so that was good.

Last night was the work christmas do. My second. Last year I'd got back from Cardiff a few hours before after travelling back up from staying overnight after getting back from Paris for our anniversary. Last year it was in TGI Fridays and wasn't that great. This year it was at Bell & The Dragon and we all really enjoyed. The food was lush. We headed into town during the day to buy a shrug for me as it's particularly cold at the moment and I was wearing a dress, and I dragged Tom to Yo! Sushi where he enjoyed some Duck Udon Soup and chicken teriaki and I fulfilled my craving for salmon sashimi!

For starters I had deep fried brie, which was a slab - shocked me a bit! - but very nice. I actually ate the rind for the first time ever too, I normally hate that bit and have to cut it off. It was with a cranberry chutney and pear salad which was yummy. For my main I'd gone for turkey. I ended up giving my pig in blanket to one of the team leaders sat next to me as I'm not much of a sausage fan, but the rest of it was eaten. The desert was a chocolate tart with chantilly cream and pistachios, which was gorgeous and went down a treat.

We then headed to Copa where I met up with Tom who'd been watching Villa beat Man U for the first time in 27 years, and then we went on to Purple Turtle. Took a while to get into the mood but we did and I enjoyed it. Felt a little hungover when I woke this morning, but I'm all recovered now and sitting here typing this up as Tom watches the ubiquitous MOTD before we go for a Toby carvery :)

Have a nice Sunday,

xx

Good Game

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:15:00 +0000

Evening,

Last night I met up with Alex and Marc and we went to see Me & Orson Wells after work. We were supposed to go and see 2012 but the only seats left were at the right at the front of the screen and we didn't fancy the neck ache.

I thought it was alright, Zac Efron wasn't as annoying as I thought he might have been, and I have no idea who was playing Orson Wells but they were good. The lovely Claire Danes was in it too, which was good because I really like her after seeing her in Starlight a few years ago. Must watch that film again sometime.

Working this weekend, and as I was busy reading plates earlier I had a text from Alex recommending I get hold of a game called Dragon Age: Origins. As we left work quite late due to delayed couriers I didn't end up with enough time to go home, eat and change so I went to BK for a while instead to pass the time, and then headed over to Game to pick up a copy of DA:O. It was cheaper than I was expecting at £20 so that was good. There's a special edition with some more free content for £30 but decided not to go for it.

Made some space for it (20GB!) when I got home and got it all set up and running. I've linked it to my Steam account so that I can talk to Alex through it while playing, as he bought and downloaded his copy through Steam instead of getting a disc version. He's had it for a week or so and already sunk over 30 hours into it.

First impressions - awesome. Rushed home from work today to carry on playing, and I didn't want to leave for work in the first place. It's the first time I've woken up early by accident and got up to play a game instead of going back to sleep for a while instead. Which is a good sign, as I rarely ever do that.

So if you've seen it and you're wondering, get it :)

xx

Cute

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:17:00 +0000

Sobering

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:57:00 +0000

Morning,

Went to bed early because of only having an hour or so's sleep last night and now I'm wide awake.

So I just completed my first ever year long revenue tracker. I started it on another sleepless night back in May or so when I was moaning about how little money I had saved up, and how everyone else (read: one ex-housemate) could afford to lose a £500 deposit on a flat when things didn't work out with his girlfriend quite the way they'd planned, or how he could afford to buy a scooter, and then a car. Jealous, moi?! Naturally :)

So I used a Works spreadsheet as I was too lazy to do my own. Lo and behold I have actually kept it updated - thank the lord for online statements that's all I can say.

So the depressing news. My total income for last year was £18,944. That includes salary, people repaying me money, basically anything that comes in through my bank - except the movements I make transferring money from one account to another. I discounted that as I make at least two transfers a month. My total expenditure for last year was £18,152. The £793 I saved is currently in an ISA where it is being added too.

According to this little genius calculator in order to save £12,000 in the next year and 9 months before the theoretical university start, I would have to save £467.52 a month.

I logged on to check my ISA transfer process to see that I've received a message stating: We confirm that we have received a letter from Halifax stating they are unable to proceed with the transfer as the address details in their records differs from the transfer document. Another thing to add to my 'to do list'.

Better get my skates on. Oh, and Christmas is cancelled.

xx

Good Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:16:00 +0000

Evening,

It's been a good few days. Tom came up on Thursday and picked me up from work after I finished my late shift. We headed home for some Flash Forward with a bottle of wine and caught up 2 of the 3 episodes we'd missed which were awesome. Then on Friday not much happened due to headaches stuff, but after we'd slept for a couple of hours and the tablets had kicked in we watched the 3rd episode of Flash Forward.

On Saturday Tom met his friend Paul and went to watch Villa play in Birmingham. I was due to go over Lauren's but due to her incredible hangover (some people in work were still hungover today) we gave it a miss. So I finally finished painting my canvas squares that I started randomly back in July as a distraction technique for avoiding my photography course submission. Not entirely sure I like it, or what to do with it, but I'm glad I finally finished them. Watched 3 hours of 6 Feet Under while I slowly did them, and now I only have the penultimate episode left, which makes me sad. There was crying.

Various room tidying (much to Tom's surprise) along with doing most of my christmas shopping online and getting it delivered back home ready for me means that it was a productive day even though I didn't leave the house. Tom's train back was cancelled so he was a little late in getting back, and seeing as he was drunk and tired he pretty much came back, undressed and fell asleep. I waited for my chinese to arrive and then tried some Pork buns Dim Sum for the first time and had some 'crabmeat' and sweetcorn soup which tasted more like squid.

On Sunday we went to Tesco to get an extension lead which means I can now use my electric blanket - bliss. Nothing better than getting into a cozy, warm bed. It backfired on me a little though as with Tom there too it meant that I was stupidly hot so didn't fall asleep until gone 6.30am today. After a quick trip to Tesco we went for a Toby Carvery which was yummy, although I'm not sure if it was that we were less hungry this time, but it didn't seem like quite as much of a feast, to me anyway.

After a quick snooze on my behalf, and Match of The Sodding Day on Tom's, we went to the cinema and saw The Men Who Stare at Goats. I thought it was okay, not brilliant, but there were definitely some funny moments. When we got home neither of us felt sleepy, so we watched Twilight which neither of us have seen before. I am now a Robert Pattinson fan like all other females it seems, and pondered on the film for a while, which may have contributed to the lack of sleep. Wooden acting, but I still enjoyed it. Kinda wished we'd watched it in the morning then gone to see New Moon in the evening instead of TMWSAG but ah well.

Tom's coming back in just over a week for our anniversary so we may go and see it then. I'm lucky that Tom doesn't mind watching rom-coms and other similar(ish) types of films with me, and not-so-secretly enjoys them himself.

Was my last work free weekend this side of Christmas, so it was good that it was a long relaxed one and now I have a dreamy warm bed to snuggle up in too :)

xx

Headachey Bits

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:07:00 +0000

Afternoon,

Last night I was due to go to the leaving do of someone in work. Throughout the late shift my head started hurting as usual. I get a headache pretty much every day while on lates, kinda sucks. I managed to get out early so rang Tom for a lift, only to find him in bed in the dark whimpering on the phone that he had what sounded like a migraine and wasn't able to get any paracetamol the one time he tried to find it cos my room is slightly messy at the moment. Tom never voluntarily takes anything. So it had to be bad.

Quick trip to the medicines aisle in Morrisons, and then a half hour wait for the next bus. While waiting I started feeling nauseous as well, and by the time I got home I'd pretty much decided if I did go out I was going to feel like crap. Pounding headache in a loud club is never good. So I made my apologies and Tom and I laid in bed in the dark like losers for a couple of hours while the tablets kicked in until we felt well enough to watch an episode of Flash forward, and then went back to sleep for 8 hours.

Don't think either of us are 100% yet, was due to be going to London today to meet up with another colleague from work, but she's hungover - feel a bit guilty as she stayed over someone's so that she could stay out the night and I didn't make it out at all - and so that's not happening either. Lazy day called for methinks.

Oh, I got my Christmas present from Tom yesterday :D I am now the proud owner of an electric blanket. Yes, I really do have the circulation of an 80 year old!

In return I gave a Pizza Boss 3000 from that he'd liked a while ago.

xx

Strange Visitings

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:43:00 +0000

Morning,

So far this week has been okay. I was supremely tired on Tuesday after swapping from late shift on Monday to 8.30-4.30 but luckily we had a very busy day in Sludge. We had 52 samples come in, the record is around 60 I believe. And we struggle to process more than about 40 in one day, especially on a Tuesday as normally we don't receive any on Monday and Tuesday which means we have those 2 days to replenish our media stocks which we dispense ourselves.

As it was Lauren joined us for a few hours in the afternoon and dispensed for us while we processed the samples, and seeing as the 3 of us get on well it was a good day. We went for sushi along with another on Monday as it was Blue Monday in Yo! Sushi and had a fantastic time. (Went for the first time last week and have been really and truly bitten by the sushi belt bug!) Being busy kept me from feeling so tired. After we were mostly finished, Lauren had to finish off some Algal ID's so I went with her to observe. After a mishap with the microscope in the lab we went in to the microscopy room that I've not been into yet, which houses two microscopes, one of which is linked to a large computer screen. So I sat in front of that and was introduced to various blue-green algae and diatoms. I found it quite interesting, and we ended up leaving at 6pm which meant that we'd both clawed back some time as we are both on minus hours at the moment.

I was pretty shattered though, so I ended up skipping the Photography meeting which starts at 7pm, and by 8.30pm I was in bed and fast falling asleep. Woke up at 2am for a listen to the storm raging outside, and then woke up at dead on 8am. It definitely did me good as I wasn't my usual complaining-about-how-tired-I-feel self so it was nice to feel wide awake for once!

Today is Thursday which means several things. It's nearly Friday, it's the last but one day of the 2 weeks of late shift we have to do which I hate, there's a work leaving do tomorrow night and last but not least, Tom is arriving tonight to stay until Monday (I believe). There's a late Villa match on Saturday so he's staying at mine so that it's easier for him to get there and back to mine rather than going back to Cornwall.

We had a note posted through our door on Monday from our neighbours. I can barely make out the scrawled handwriting but managed to read it in the end. Apart from one word which looks like 'lappro'. Whatever it is, they are complaining about one of our wake up alarms at 7am. We think it may be the housemate who says she leaves her alarm going for ages, and it may also go off while she has gone to London for the weekend which happens frequently. Whatever it is, they want us to use an alarm clock instead and don't appreciate being woken at 7am!

Mysteries, mysteries...

xx

Ninja Cat!

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:26:00 +0000

Cheering myself up.

And the return:

xx

Whooosh! There Goes My Dream...

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:40:00 +0000

Evening,

On a bit of a downer tonight. Just got off the phone with my dad (it's his birthday) and the conversation led to uni funding.

Long story short with my dad's salary as I would not have been independent for 36 months (it will be for 24 or 34 with a deferment, absolutely gutted), if I lived at home during my degree and claimed for the NHS bursary I would receive an estimate of £21 a year. That's not even worth bothering about. If I lived in halls I would receive an estimate of £821. That's not going to stretch very far, and I would not receive anything toward placement costs in either case.

So it looks like I will have to defer. I really don't want to. But there isn't another choice, I can't rely on taking out a PCDL loan or any other type of loan.

Sad times.

xx

Stalker!

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:08:00 +0000

I forgot!

Back in February I received a random bouquet of pink roses on Valentine's Day. They were delivered to work and this perplexed me. I hadn't given my work address out to family or friends, and it is not on the company's website. Also the way it was addressed sounded like someone from work had sent it. I posted this
Back in September (slipped my mind, sorry!) I randomly had a tweet through Twitter. The username was gibberish, and the 'real' name was 'Rawr Rawr'. He made the account purely to contact me (and has not tweeted since I blocked him after finding out who it was). Which initially made me interrogate Tom a bit more, as I had always just assumed it was him even though he knows I don't like pink roses. However curiosity and all that, I slowly uncovered who it was, and that person was indeed from work, and has since left which is why I think he felt okay to contact me.

However I am still at a loss as to how he found me on twitter. I do not use my real name on there, and my username is not something you would automatically connect with me. I've already had a mini-stalker and it wasn't nice, I don't want another one.

xx

Nightmare

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:06:00 +0000

Afternoon,

Last night was a nightmare. Everything that could go wrong, did. Lots of the major roads in London were closed, and we rely on our couriers to drive through London, pick up samples, then drive back through London and drop them off with us. So it was chaos on the roads due to usual Friday night traffic, which is never good, along with numerous accidents. They had to keep shutting a particular tunnel due to an accident meaning that cars were stationary in there for a while and the fumes weren't being ventilated properly for example.

We have samples from one place which are due to arrive in the lab at 4.45. Last night they turned up at 9. We had to leave one courier to the call out person as he wasn't arriving at the lab until nearly 11pm (was due at 8). We had a lot of the early couriers turn up around 7ish, which meant that between 5 and 7 we had barely anything. Which I thought would mean that it was a good time to give the plate pourer stacker machine in work a try. I've been there a year now and have still not touched it.

However, somehow while cleaning the new machine in work last Friday I managed to break it... I don't know either. All I know is that I cleaned it like I normally do, maybe a tiny bit more vigorously, and then when it was time for it to be used it kept showing an error message and we couldn't get the damn thing to work. So that's now sitting in the storeroom waiting for a kind repairman to put it out of its misery.

The old machine is crap. It was replaced for a bloody good reason. It's awful. It's twice as slow as the new one (good for learning how to use one though) and it misses plates a lot. Missing plates isn't good but we can at least put them back into circulation when we see them. It also 'crunches' plates. If it's not aligned perfectly, and sometime even when it is, it will punch the bottom out of plates, spraying the contents everywhere - great when it's a clean lab, or they will tip over and spray the contents everywhere, or it will somehow lose the lid and it will try to fuse with another plate...

So last night I watched Kelly set it up to learn how to do it, and it started crunching. The first night in 7 days that it's started crunching. Typical. It was only a small run the first time so we got through it, I carried on pipetting while Kelly had to just stand there and watch it like a hawk. This thing beeps when something goes wrong, but it doesn't recognise when it crunches a plate or misses them. Got through it with only 3 plates having to be redone because it had taken chunks out of them. Two were blanks, one was a sample.

The second run I set the whole thing myself. And within a few seconds it started crunching. The first one it crunched was the E. coli control plate, which sprayed E. coli all over the machine which contaminated the whole thing and we had to stop it and spend 10 minutes cleaning it all up. Great stuff. Then the next batch of tubing (fresh one has to be used each time) was too short to reach, the next one did the trick. It still crunched and missed, but not as bad as the first time. I was told that I might as well go back to doing my normal though, as it was in such a shitty mood that Kelly had to carry on watching it. This machine is somewhat like looking after a baby. It screams at you - beeps, it poops - tips agar everywhere, it pees - sprays agar and samples everywhere. And you are constantly checking it, making sure it's okay.

I can't wait for the new machine to be repaired.

xx

Unsure

noreply@blogger.com (Sara) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:47:00 +0000

Evening,

I'm still unsure about what the best way forward is. At the moment I am thinking of applying to Cardiff only which is where I want to go to, and then staying at home for the first year which would help me save money considerably. The disadvantage of this is that I would be missing out on the experience of halls, and would probably find it considerably harder to find someone to live with in the second and third years - assuming I can afford it. My previous experience of living at home also did not go well.

Don't really see that I have another option though.

xx