Sara's Little Blog

Tools of the Trade

2011-11-23T18:55:00.001Z

Job for tonight, attach my anatomical markers to some ribbon so that they are funky usable on placement :-)

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.1

9/11 WTC Attack Photojournal

2011-09-12T01:33:00.001+01:00

9/11 WTC Attack Photojournal, a set by *Hiro on Flickr.

Changes

2011-08-18T12:04:00.000+01:00

Morning,

I just woke up to a text from Mam to say that my brother got AABC in his AS level results today. I'm so proud of him, I knew he would do brilliantly if he wanted to do it. It's the first time I've ever seen his revise. Mam was so worried about him and kept nagging him to revise for his GCSEs, and then these. This time he knows what he wants, knows what uni he wants to go to, and knows what he wants and needs to do.

I remember today, 7 years ago. I was shit scared, we went up to the school early and I got a BBCC. I was gutted. I'd never had a C before and I went home and cried. Both of them made absolutely no sense. A C in Biology, my favourite subject, and a C in Psychology which included a U (unclassified) in the coursework module. How the hell could anyone get a U in coursework?! As it was I resat a biology module, and ended up getting an A in the A level, and I re-did the coursework and ended up getting a B in Psychology. But by the time the A Level results came around I'd already come undone, and didn't care so much about the results. I knew that I wasn't going to go to Liverpool uni to study Medicine whether I got the grades or not, I didn't want to go anymore.

Looking back I have always said that I made the right decision not to go. I was a mess between 17-19, and I still don't think I would have been able to cope. It would have been the making of me, and seeing as it took me long enough to sort my head out in the end I think I would have ended up dropping out, or not reaching the required grades to continue into the following years.

There's been a hell of a lot of changes in my life recently. I'm not the same person any more. I found out on Tuesday that my place at Cardiff University is NHS funded, which means I am officially going. I'm handing in my notice next week. It's been common knowledge for the last two weeks that I am leaving. The managers have known since April 1st, but the news broke 5-6 months ago in work apparently (not from the managers), there is such a bitchy gossip culture sometimes it's unreal. I'm quite scared of leaving all of a sudden. I've made so many new friends in the last year, I don't want to leave Reading any more.

Back in March/April I decided through a lot of soul searching to end things with Tom. I loved him but I'm not in love with him. I'm not the same person that I was 3 months ago, let alone 4.5 years ago. He deserves someone who can love him back, and will always be there for him. I'm disappearing to university for 3 years, and it's unfair to ask someone to wait for 3 years and to potentially then turn around and still not want to settle down. We split up shortly after Glastonbury, and I know I've hurt him a lot which I regret.

My gran has recently deteriorated a lot. The same one that's been steadily declining since I moved to Reading almost 3 years ago. She's been unable to stand since August last year due to a 10 week stay in the hospital where she was not allowed to stand, and has never regained the muscle mass needed. She has carers that visit 4 times a day, and used to be hoisted out of bed and into a chair in the lounge each morning, but this stopped a couple of months back. I had a phone call two weeks ago from my Dad telling me that I should come home to see her shortly, because he'd been to visit her and he was so shocked by her decline. Needless to say I rearranged what I was doing and went home the next day. The following weekend they were unable to wake her for 36 hours. Two minutes after I had the phone call from university confirming my place, I had a text from Mam to tell me they've signed a Do Not Resuscitation form for Gu.

xx

Bill Bailey

2011-08-16T07:26:00.000+01:00

He's so much fun :)

24/365

2011-07-29T00:06:00.001+01:00

24/365, a photo by supersara2001 on Flickr.

London by night.

Cat Overload?

2011-07-26T23:10:00.002+01:00

Click to make it bigger!

xx

7/365

2011-06-01T12:25:00.001+01:00

7/365, a photo by supersara2001 on Flickr.

7/365 - Malababa skull necklace present for a dear friend in work :)

6/365

2011-05-31T23:40:00.001+01:00

6/365, a photo by supersara2001 on Flickr.

6/365 - Macro shot of some scarves.

Just spent the last 1.5 hours handwashing some new scarves to try and prevent them from staining my neck when I wear them. Oddly enough, the water washing a scarf I bought 4 years ago still ran blue despite the fact it no longer turns me blue :)

5/365

2011-05-31T23:34:00.001+01:00

5/365, a photo by supersara2001 on Flickr.

Brighton Rocks!

4/365

2011-05-29T23:48:00.001+01:00

4/365, a photo by supersara2001 on Flickr.

Mariam.

3/365

2011-05-28T18:17:00.001+01:00

3/365, a photo by supersara2001 on Flickr.

Went to Gregg's house warming party last night after work. Swapped my late shift so that I could make it. Glad I did, was a brilliant night! Everyone was really friendly, and it was a great catch up as I haven't seen Gregg since Jenelle's leaving do last year. After the party I convinced Craig (guy doing the high kick) to come into town to Deja Vu where my housemates were salsa dancing. Ended up dancing till 4.30am! Great night :)

2/365

2011-05-27T18:03:00.001+01:00

2/365, a photo by supersara2001 on Flickr.

Picked up some new shoes for a bargain price when buying a present for a friend. Finally arrived today :)

1/365

2011-05-26T22:54:00.002+01:00

1/365, a photo by supersara2001 on Flickr.

I've started a 365 project. Not just self-portraiture though, but random things. Hopefully I can chart the big and little things that happen in life.

I need to boost my confidence in my abilities, and in general. And I already wanted to be more creative. Here's to the next 364 pictures :) xx

Creativeness

2011-05-24T12:07:00.000+01:00

Morning,

I've been thinking in the last few days about creativity. A few months back my mother told me she thought I was really creative, while she had no creative bone in her body. I shushed her and laughed at her and what she'd said. On Sunday my housemate told me she thought I was very creative, and I laughed at her and her suggestion too.

This morning I was talking to a friend about the first time I used an SLR camera, and how wierd it felt. Then I remembered that out of that very same day, less than 20 minutes later I took a shot which I put up on Flickr a few days later. A complete stranger contacted me about it and asked for my permission to publish it a Schmap Guide to Cardiff. The link to that photo is here.

And it strikes me that while I'm already aware that I have major self-confidence issues at times, and I'm quite cynical, and can be quite sarcastic, I turn all of that inwards and direct it at myself first. If people think I'm harsh and bitchy, I may well be, but I have already thought it about myself first probably.

I think it's one of the reasons why I can't accept compliments. I remember reading somewhere that you should think of compliments as gifts, and everyone knows how rude it is to refuse a gift from someone right in their faces. But that's what I do. If someone tells me that I look nice, I'll either answer with 'uh, thanks' and roll my eyes, or go the other way and say 'ha, I know!'. Neither of which are exactly great responses. The first makes it obvious I think the person's lying, the second makes me seem egotistical when it's usually my way of brushing it off and moving on (but hoping it won't offend the person as much as rolling my eyes).

I know my self-esteem is crap and I would dearly love to be able to accept compliments without feeling awkward. I vividly remember a best friend in school telling me she thought I was pretty. I was high on that compliment for days, it's the first one I can remember paying any attention to and thinking it was genuine. A week or so later my skin inevitably flared up, and I burst into tears looking at myself in the mirror. Ever since then any compliments saying I look good are automatically ignored. I look awful, I know better. I don't understand how people can say it, but boy do I love it when I get a rare photo taken of me that I like! Egotistical hypocrite or what :(

I genuinely don't think I am creative. I was crap at art, at home and in school. I still can't draw or paint to save my life. I took up cardmaking because I loved the beautiful things other people could make. If I copied something I saw I could make beautiful things too, but off my own bat the results normally weren't as good.

I can knit, and I can knit fairly well. However, that's all about following a pattern. I'm a scientist, of course I can follow instructions! I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to go about free hand knitting, and there's no way anything good would come out of it. Design my own pattern?! As if!

I can take photos. And I do. I've had my work in two exhibitions (one is currently open at Reading University), been placed in a few competitions and as mentioned about had some work published online and in a photobook. And yet I don't think the pictures I take are very creative. When I think about it, some of my most popular ones are my macro shots, which can be quite abstract and creative. But if I go on Flickr and see what everyone else does I feel like the most uncreative person in the world, without a 'creative bone in her body'.

Is it seriously all from a lack of self-confidence? I think of all the mistakes I've made, the bad shots I've deleted, the number of times I've ripped and frogged my knitting, and I still don't feel that creative. I look at how people decorate their homes, and compare it to my woeful attempts to decorate a single room. I look at how others dress, and again compare. I have always compared myself to everyone else, and have always had low self-esteem.

I love the idea of one day opening my own little shop online, and being able to sell my own hand dyed yarns, possibly even own a craft shop or just be creative all day without a care in the world. I would absolutely love to be able to make a living from photography, be it photographing weddings, and being able to capture how happy people are, doing portraits of people, pets... But I hate studio sessions because I never have the guts to stand there in front of the other person and take pictures. At the PhotoSoc, studio sessions are done in a room with 30-40 people waiting their turn, with all eyes on me. I would love to be creative, and be regarded as good, but I obstruct my own way.

I don't really have a conclusion for this post. I know my self-esteem is crap and I would dearly love to be able to accept compliments without feeling awkward. I vividly remember a best friend in school telling me she thought I was pretty. I was high on that compliment for days, it's the first one I can remember paying any attention to and thinking it was genuine. A week or so later my skin inevitably flared up, and I burst into tears looking at myself in the mirror. Ever since then any compliments saying I look good are automatically ignored. I looked awful, I know better.

I don't really have a conclusion for this post. I'd like to learn to be more confident and stop faking it so much. I'm good at acting. I'd love to have the confidence in myself, and my body so that I didn't care what people said or thought. But in the meantime, I continue to preempt what the bitchiest person could say about me.

xx

Productive Times!

2011-05-22T16:18:00.002+01:00

Afternoon!

Ta dah! My first finished sewing machine project! Regardless of the fact I actually started it in January then ran aground, I reckon I could make one of these in a few hours if I started another one. It's surprisingly roomy - I don't really pay attention to those 1/4 inch seam allowance notes yet :S - and believe it or not, there's a full skein of sock yarn sat in the bag in that picture. This is my knew knitting bag (see what I did there?) and it's gonna be awesome :)

xx

I'm on a boat!

2011-05-21T17:23:00.000+01:00

Quick drink with Tom on the Tattershall Castle, a moored boat turned bar/nightclub at Embankment overlooking the London Eye at the side of the river Thames.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Knitting with Guinness

2011-05-01T22:19:00.001+01:00

Aaaaah :-)

Haven't been knitting many squares in the last week or so due to travelling to Watford, working then travelling to the Cotswolds and Swansea. Nevertheless, I'm making the most of sitting in the pub with Dad and Dat!

xx

Blimey!

2011-04-14T11:19:00.009+01:00

Morning :)

Just had an email from the Photosoc President. Back in January I submitted 5 pictures for a competition run by the History Dept. at Reading University. The brief was that they wanted a series of photos showing the history of Reading, to be displayed on the website, and other publications in the department, with full credit given. 12 of the best photos submitted would be displayed in an exhibition, with first prize being awarded £100 and the largest print in the exhibition.

Last night I had an email to tell me that three (!!) of my photos have been picked for the final 12!! There's an official opening ceremony on May 12th, that I have to attend with the speeches starting at 1pm! Nervewracking! It means I'll have to convince work to let me escape for a few hours, with a promise of coming back!

Exciting times!

xx

Its a new month!

2011-04-02T19:01:00.001+01:00

So its a new pair of socks :-)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

An Awesome Way to Spend the Day!

2011-03-24T17:22:00.002Z

Unfortunately I didn't get to spend all day knitting socks and drinking cider.

However, I did manage to get out of work before 3pm, on a gloriously sunny spring day :)

xx

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Darkroom Shenanigans Reprise!

2011-03-24T17:14:00.002Z

I spent a few hours in the darkroom on Friday, and I thought I'd sneak a few pictures while my film was developing and it was safe to have a light on!

A picture of 36 pictures... (kinda)

The darkroom is in the 1960s block of Reading uni, next to the nuclear bunker! It's a cool looking, oldy place. I like it :)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

First one down...

2011-03-07T23:35:00.001Z

Finished the first of a pair for my March socks :-)

xx

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Darkroom Shenanigans

2011-02-24T13:08:00.000Z

Afternoon :)

I'm a happy little bunny today. Yesterday I had my darkroom induction and I was kinda dreading it. The whole loading film in the dark and screwing it up thing.... when I worry about things I worry about them far in advance!

I met Andy at 9.30am at the only spot on the Reading Uni campus I know, which is where our meetings are usually held. The Darkroom is housed in an old nuclear bunker building though, which involves walking to the other side of the campus, crossing the lake and then finding the 1960s building with a water tower on top of it! I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to get there smoothly when I go on my own for the first time!

Regardless, we got there and then got settled in. The room's fairly small, but will fit 2 people quite comfortably. Three would be pushing it! The door to get in is a tiny corridor with a lightproof door. It's the lightproof door that the fun lies behind!

Andy started off with showing me things one step at a time. So the first step was to load my film onto a spiral and place it in a developing tank. Andy demonstrated, then I practised twice and then it was time for the actual thing. Off went all the lights!

Things went pretty smoothly as you can start to feed in the film to the spiral using the feeder before you need to turn the light on. However I did manage to get the film to pop out of the holder at one point, so Andy intervened to fix it. The second time it popped out I did it myself :) It's really wierd trying to pass something in the dark to someone that you know is stood in front of you but you cannot see at all!

Once it was loaded, the lights got switched back on. Then we mixed up the developer and it was time to start! This stage goes pretty smoothly, so long as you keep an eye on the timer! Once the developer, stop bath and fixer have been done, the tank is flooded with running water for 5-10 minutes to wash away any remaining chemicals and silver.

Half the water is poured away, and two drops of wetting agent are added to the remainder, and the tank is shaken for 30 seconds. The tank can be opened with the light on because the film has been fixed. The spiral opens and two clips are attached to the film on either end. One is weighted and placed at the bottom, the film is then squeegeed and hung up to dry in a drying cabinet. It's then cut into strips of 6 negatives.

That's the film developing done!

xx

First Night Down

2011-02-19T09:08:00.000Z

Morning!

This is my first weekend off this year! And by off, I mean that I'm actually off with absolutely nobody that I'm travelling to see or spending the weekend with, and the day is all mine.

(Apart from the little fact that I'm on callout. But last night I had 0 calls, and it was lovely.)

The last week or so I've been making up hours in work by catching a lift with my housemate in and arriving at work by 7.45am after waking around 7am. This is on top of having not actually had many days off since Christmas and having made an effort to wake at 9.30am while on late shift last time so that I could get things done before I had to head to work.

Yesterday, a shift swap which meant that I worked a late shift for someone, I woke at 6.20am. This morning, a glorious rare Saturday where I am not working (technically not true) I woke at 6am. Shit!

I've never had a sleeping pattern, have always kinda liked that unlike the rest of my working friends I have no problems with staying up until 3am and then getting up at 8.30am to get to work. I don't want to be waking at 6am every day! I'm on late shift for the next two weeks, and I'm gonna have to knock it on it's head. I don't mind waking at 10am, but seriously - waking at 6am with a horrific hangover and having only had 3 hours of sleep? No thanks!

I was supposed to be getting up and having a full day of photography fun today. It's miserable and grey outside. Always the way. I need to finish my rolls of film by Wednesday, and I'm notoriously bad for actually getting round to doing stuff before work when I'm on late shift.

So what to do with myself?! I was thinking of skipping the gym if I was going to be walking around all day taking photos. However now it's grey and eww until about midday according to the BBC and I don't really fancy venturing out for a while, to the gym or with a camera.

Last time I had the morning off while waiting to catch a train I got so bored I'd been into town and back by 11.30am and I had no idea what to do with myself!

xx

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot!

2011-02-18T09:50:00.000Z

I'm getting a car!!

I'm getting a car!!

I'm getting a car!!

I'm getting a car!!

(And I'm a little bit excited!)

Sorry :) I had a random text yesterday from my cousin asking if I was interested in having her car as she was looking for a good home for it.

(Bit of background: when I was 15/16 my cousin was going to uni and my Dad gave our family car to her (we called her Moth). She was a Vauxhall cavalier and Dad didn't think she had more than a year left in her, was getting his first company car and my cousin Jess needed a car for uni so he gave Moth to her for free.)

Well, several years on my cousin has now got her first company car with her new job (that she actually started last summer, so it's hardly new now!) And her little car that she bought as a replacement for Moth when Moth finally gave up - Moth carried for another 3-4 years - has been sat on her driveway since then being neglected. So Jess thought of selling it, because it wasn't fair (or economical) to only keep it for breakdown emergencies etc, but then thought of people that might possibly want it. Her brother already has one, and so she thought of me :)

Here's the biggie: I passed my driving test in September 2008 and have not actually driven since the test. I was driven home from it, and have been a passenger every since. So I'm going to have to arrange a few refresher lessons because I can barely remember which pedal is which! I used to be a pretty good driver, always considerate (I don't like it when car engines scream!) and I passed first time although I was pretty unconfident in my abilities and delayed the actual test by about a month or so because I was scared of doing it. My instructor had more faith in me than I did!

However the car is mine if I want it (I do!!!) and having spoken to Jess, and my family we've decided that it's an opportunity I just can't pass up! For the time being Chloe (provisional name) will be staying at home in Wales, and living in our garage which isn't being used at the moment. Dads latest company car doesn't fit in it (BMW 3 series that I could theoretically be put on the insurance for, yikes!! - more background: I do not want to drive large cars, I learnt to drive in a 1.2 Corsa and massive cars scare me).

My brother is 17 and has just applied for his provisional licence. Theoretically he could use it - but will he f&%k! Hands off mate! Hehe. My Dad has offered to pay the insurance for me for the first year at least, which will help a lot. There's no parking where I live now, so Chloe will live in the garage and I'll take her out for a spin when I go home for weekends to see the family and friends. If it gets too expensive to keep her then we can just cancel the insurance and let her sit in the garage with a disconnected battery until we're able to use her again.

So Chloe is a 2000 (W reg) 1.1 litre petrol Clio, in good nick with a new battery and decent tyres. Only bad thing that my cousin (who loves this car and would still be using it if she didn't have a company car) knows of is a paintwork spot on the bonnet where it's not 100% and she did think of getting re-sprayed. However it's a silver (yay!) car, and the metalwork underneath is also silver, and so long as it doesn't rust we don't think it's a problem.

Chloe looks something very similar to this:

(Not my picture, cos she's not sitting in my garage yet!)

I'm so happy, I've always liked Clio's because they are small, great first cars (I know several people who have/had Clio's), cheap to run and insurance because of their size and some 2000 Clio's are still asking for between £1-3k online! Massive, massive thank you to Jess for giving me her little Car for nothing :) Dad said 'what goes around, comes around' and I guess this is proving true!

xx

The Dangers

2011-02-16T22:47:00.001Z

Evening,

I started watching 'Is Oral Sex Safe' on iPlayer tonight. The link is here if you want to see it. The main reason I'm posting it here is because it has a cancer patient who's been through radiotherapy explains to the presenter (Jaime Winston) what happened, and they show his mask that I saw being made last year. It's in the first 8-12 minutes or so of the show, so if you have time I recommend watching it.

xx

Darkroom Induction

2011-02-16T06:56:00.001Z

I finally made it to a PhotoSoc meeting last night and made friends with the lovely Andy who has booked a darkroom induction with me for next week. Excited!

xx

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Having fun?

2011-02-11T07:16:00.001Z

On yes :-)

xx

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

B.I.N.G.O

2011-02-07T18:17:00.000Z

Evening!

Just a quickie today. I'm at home for a few days and on Saturday my Dad decided he fancied playing a game (or twelve) of Bingo. So we hopped in the car and made it just in time for the main session. I was 1 number - 29 - off winning the National Game (prize of up to £25,000).

I met up with Angharad today, and she very kindly helped out/entertained me while I was sorting through 5 years worth of papers in my room (long story). As she had to leave to go to work, I half-jokingly suggested we play some Bingo tonight as we'd been talking about Saturday earlier.

Long story short, I'll be seeing Angharad and possibly Kirsty very shortly for a few games!

xx

Full of WIN!

2011-01-21T07:47:00.001Z

Morning!!

Yes it is 7.45am, and I would not normally ever be seen at this hour when I'm on lates but last night I thought, well I've been normally getting up at 8.30 this week, so why not try an hour earlier and see if you can catch any Wollmeise. This stuff is like catching fairy dust - sells out in minutes, so I wasn't expecting to get anything.

YEAH BABY!!!

Log on, see stuff on the in stock page. *happy dance*

A skein of the gorgeous sabrina (100% superwash merino) is aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall mine!

*Stock image from Wollmeise.

It's a gorgeous colour! More of a turquoise/green teal than a blue teal I think. Time will tell! I'm hoping that seeing as it's from Germany I won't have to pay tax on it because it's from an EU country.

Happy :) Good morning!

New Club

2011-01-20T10:17:00.000Z

Morning :)

I was so convinced it was the weekend this morning. I very quickly realised that meant that I was working and was running late, followed by the realisation that it wasn't and I was working at 2pm. Bleuch :( Including this forthcoming one, I've worked 3 out of the 4 weekends in January. And no half days either! Kinda tired now.

Good news! I finished my socks, and they are awesome. Also, my knitting class has been extended by 6 weeks, which is brilliant! I'm thinking of also going to Outcasts on Wednesdays when there's no PhotoSoc on. It's another knitting group, that appear to be made up of very arty people (which I'm not, I can follow a pattern but stink at making up my own things) so I'm not 100% yet, but 2 of the girls from my knitting class go and I'm intrigued.

Time to go eat pizza for breakfast, Tesco just delivered :)

xx

First Socks!

2011-01-18T21:41:00.002Z

Evening,

I finished them! I am rather proud of these babies :)

They fit perfectly, and are knit in Abstract Cat Crafts Pool Party. Love them! Go get yourself a skein and join in the fun :)

Cute!

2011-01-12T09:31:00.001Z

Aren't these great?!

Handmade ladybird lampwork bead earrings. You can buy yourself a pair (or for me) from PyroAngel's Sweet Trinkets on Folksy :)

Last night we got out of work at 8.40pm. We normally leave about an hour later on Tuesdays as it's one of our busiest nights. We still had shit loads of samples, we just got through them really quickly somehow! Plus we had luck with 2 of the last 3 couriers not having anything for us :)

Unfortunately I was in bed by 9.15pm! I've had a nasty headache plaguing me for the last 2 weeks on and off. I'm hoping I can drown my brain in water today and it will stop it happening again :(

xx

Intervention Needed

2011-01-04T21:51:00.001Z

I seriously need to stop buying yarn. In the last 5 days I've bought 5 skeins of yarn. And not the cheap kind either. My excuses? I joined a sock knitting club, I should buy it while I can afford it, I can always re-sell it...

xx

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Sick Day

2010-12-29T18:24:00.000Z

Evening,

I made it into work this morning but I left early. I've got something that's decided it wants to make a home in my lungs. I came home from work early and slept for 4 hours. Feeling a little more with it now.

Made the mistake of watching Iris though. Not in a good place anyway, so not the best decision I've ever made.

xx

Random Fact

2010-12-28T10:29:00.003Z

Last night I found out I was christened with water from the Nile.

xx

A lovely little day

2010-12-27T19:26:00.000Z

Evening,

Today's been a lovely little day. Yesterday I was speaking to Angharad and Kirsty to figure out when was a suitable time for us three to meet up to exchange Christmas and (for them) birthday presents. Last night as I was heading to sleep I had a text from Angharad saying that she'd pick me up between 10-11am today. That was sent at 1.16am! It was already getting late so I bedded down.

This morning I woke at 9.30am and was in a bit of a rush getting ready to go. Angharad picked me up and we drove to the Morfa to meet Kirsty. It was only 11am so there were no restaurants open yet. We went into Game where I picked up some bargains (I think!) which were Fallout: New Vegas for £14.98, and The Sims 3 - Ambitions expansion pack for £14.98. Fallout was reduced from £29.99, and The Sims from £24.99, yay!

After that we headed into Starbucks and got ourselves a comfy sofa. The girls both got a toffee nut latte and I got some orange juice. I'm not a coffee drinker. I've been feeling pretty ill the last few days, something's making itself a home in my lungs :( It's now reached my sinuses because I could barely smell or taste the orange juice, and I know from previous experiences and from asking the girls that that brand is a particularly pungent and loud tasting juice!

We all swapped presents which was fun. I gave Kirsty a bin, and some tea/coffee/sugar tins. And a biscuit tin when it eventually turns up! A little random, but Kirsty is currently in the process of buying her first house and these were specific items that she wanted for her kitchen. In return I got a very random personalised jelly mould (!), some tangerine flavoured jelly and a mini bottle of Schmirnoff vodka! Love it! Now I can make jelly that says SARA when it's turned out :D

I gave Angharad a sock puppet kit, some wind up meerkats and a scarf that I knit myself. She loved the scarf which was good, and I hear she's going to play with the meerkats tonight :) In return she gave me 'Le Whif' which is kinda random (click the link to see, it's a chocolate inhaler), and I'm not sure is something I should be using with a suspected chest infection but I gave it a go anyway, a David & Goliath I <3 Ninjas top which is brilliant, and an awesome photo frame made up of 5 prints from one of my favourite new photographers, Suzy Wimbourne. A while back Suzy was selling 5 prints of her work for a very reasonable price, and I bought 2 lots. I recommended her to Angharad, who then bought some and put them into a frame for me :)

After finishing our drinks and swaps, we headed to the Harvester for some lunch. I managed to have a mahoosive coughing fit, which always scares the crap out of me. Thankfully it stopped fairly quickly (felt much longer than it probably was) and we finished our meals which was nice. We had an hour or so to kill before Kirsty had to leave for work so we wandered over (it's a shopping complex that happens to have a football/rugby stadium in it) so went to Argos to pick up something for Angharads niece, then had a wander through the Next sale which wasn't that great. Last year I picked up a dress at random because it wasn't the kind of thing I normally wear, and it's gone on to become one of my favourites :) I like my multicoloured zebra!

We said goodbye to Kirsty so that she could go to work, then Angharad and I went into Swansea to pick up something from the other Argos store which was out of stock in the first one. I used to work in the second Argos store. It's massive, it was hard work but I loved it, and it hasn't changed a bit. There are even some of the same old ladies working there! And the blonde whose name I can't remember, but even know I remember that her boyfriend was called Dean cos she used to screech his name up the belt at him in the stockroom so much!! I do kinda miss working there, although I'm not sure if I miss the work or that particular time of my life.

Angharad and I went to see Burlesque. We both through it was was pretty good, and I enjoyed it - although if you're not a fan of Moulin Rouge then I would probably say to give it a miss. It's not as musical, as there aren't as many numbers, but it's in a similar vein. I'd watch it again at home quite happily.

I'm at home now, and Dad's just called me to our usual Christmas-time-of-the-year buffet so I'd best scoot! Night!

xx

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-26T12:17:00.000Z

And a happy new year! I hope you all have time to do something you like over Christmas :)

Yesterday was lovely. I had a sewing machine!! Well excited about that, does anyone know of any blogs with sewing tutorials on? I've not used one before so I'm looking forward to doing new projects and learning as I go. There is a dressmaking for beginners course run by the centre where I attend my knitting course, but it's 15 weeks long and it's going to be too difficult for me to rearrange all my shifts in work so that I can attend them all.

I also had a brilliant knitting solutions book (I'll get the proper name soon) which is written by an experienced knitter and is basically full of answers and solutions to problems knitters may come across. I've only had a quick flick through but it does look great - a brilliant Ravelry alternative if I can't get online as well!

My grandfather (who recently had a heart attack) came for Christmas dinner with us, and it was brilliant to see him looking like his old self again pre op (even if he couldn't have pepper on his food because it makes him cough which is bad for his stitches in his chest!). Apparently he's become something of a legend in the hospitals he spent time in - and an ambulance man told him that he was in the small 5% of people that actually survive having a heart attack in those circumstances. It's his 80th birthday this week (he was born on 30/12/1930) so he's doing extremely well.

Unfortunately 3 out of the 4 of us are ill with something, but it's still nice to be home even if I am ill! Mam has laryngitis, Dad has a chest infection and I've got the beginnings of something (constant headache and coughing). My brother is lucky and so far illness free. Even Tom text me to say that he's also feeling ill, which isn't great :(

Last night we had some drama with the two cats. I was woken by them screaming and growling at about 5.30am. From what we can piece together we suspect one of the neighbourhood cats tried to get in through the cat flap and they attacked. There were 11 pieces of claw casings (not sure of the correct term, but it's similar to when snakes shed their skin) and lots of tufts of ripped out hair - grey, black, white and ginger. Our two are ginger and white, and black and white. There are 2 grey tabbies in the neighbourhood. One is our next door neighbours, and the other lives on the next street up whom my cats hate. Any bets?!

Anyways, I've had 10 hours of (almost) uninterrupted sleep now and it's gone 12pm so I should really get up and get out of bed! Mam's teaching me how to use the sewing machine today, yay! :)

Merry Christmas xx

I may be a geek

2010-12-07T18:13:00.001Z

But I'm a happy geek :-)

xx

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Callout Again

2010-12-07T01:54:00.000Z

Taxi drivers are creepy.

There's this one particular one who always acts really over-friendly. I don't know his name, I've barely seen his face and yet he knows the phone number, my name, and where I live.

And tonight he drove me to my house, remembering my house number then said as I got out:

TD: 'I really hope you stay safe tonight'
Me: 'I hope so too! Do you know something I don't?!'
TD: *mumble* I wish, hahaha!'
Me: Clamber out of the car quickly.

Then he watched me get into the house before moving off.

Creepy.

xx

New Tricks

2010-11-23T22:30:00.003Z

Evening,

Tonight was Photography night (PhotoSoc). It's the first one I've been to this academic year, as I've just been busy in work, ill or just didn't feel up to it! Bad habits :( Tonight was a practical studio session which was unlike the one last year in that last years was specifically so that the DramaSoc could get shots done for an upcoming play programme. Tonight's was more on different types of lighting, different ways of setting the shoot up to achieve different effects etc. And I got to have a go! Last year I only had my digital compact, which while fully manual is not ideal! I couldn't attach the flash sync, so had to try and time my shots to catch the flash set off by those doing the photography with SLRs using the flash sync. Kinda difficult! Plus at the end of it all, even thought I got some good shots, the ISO noise rendered them useless.

Tonight I had my (borrowed) SLR and now I just need to have a look and maybe do some tweaks before I can put them on Flickr :)

Happy Sara :)

Tentative Sleeping Pattern

2010-11-20T08:27:00.000Z

Morning,

Just a quick post before I head to work.

Dat is doing well. He had a triple bypass on Monday. Went down at 2.15pm, and came out at 10.30pm. Everyone's pleased with his progress. He was moved from ICU to HDU on Tuesday but (to my knowledge) is still there. An over-zealous nurse walked him too far on Thursday and it made his heart rate (duh!) and temperature rise. He's being given medication to control those and I haven't had any more updates.

I woke up this morning at 6.45am.

I've woken up every morning for the last 6 mornings at 6.45am. This was the first morning when my alarm wasn't set to 6.45am.

I've been getting lifts in with my housemate in the morning. She works in the school opposite work and gets to work by 7.45 ish so that she can do her marking and lesson planning before the kids come in. Then she stays until about 5.30-6.30pm. I get a lift in with her in the mornings so I get to work at 7.45 ish as well. Before last week I was -9 hours, last night when I clocked out I was - 20 minutes. Which I'm rather impressed with!

Went for sushi last night :) It's payday so my friend and I went. She normally drives to work as she lives outside London (and hour each way) but this time she came on the train so that we could have some cocktails after the sushi. We finished work by 5pm, then ate lots of yummy with a glass of rose. Then we went to Las Iguanas where they had a happy hour promotion so we had 3 Iguana-wana cocktails each. Peach schnapps, vodka and orange juice. They were nice :)

Our work do this year is being held at a bar called Sahara. It's a cocktail bar primarily, and we're having a buffet thing too. My friend has never been to any of the work do's because her husband has his birthday the same weekend that work usually organises it. So we went to Sahara so that she could sample and see what it would be like. She had a cocktail called Tukker which had raspberry, cucumber and something else in it (which was surprisingly nice) and I had a Royal Passion which had peach and raspberry puree, vodka and something else in it (which was nice also).

I've been getting to bed by 11 this week because the long days and early starts have taken it out of me. I was in bed by 10pm last night! A phone call with Tom delayed it by about 40 minutes, but otherwise I slept for a very nice long time :)

I still feel pretty tired today though. Stomach isn't 100% from all the orange juice, but I'm hoping it will settle down quickly because it's the same housemate's birthday today and we're all going out tonight for it!

xx

Vintage Knitting Course

2010-11-15T17:52:00.000Z

Evening,

Life is pretty good (hopefully). Dat's currently in the middle of his triple bypass operation. It was scheduled for Wednesday but an earlier slot came up, they asked if he wanted it and Dat said yes.

I've just bought my wool for my jumper pattern. I started a vintage knitting course last week. Last week was about meeting everyone, talking about the course and picking some patterns that we each liked. I found three I wanted to do, and after having some trouble with my favourite (second most difficult of the three) I'm now making the easiest pattern. I've not made a jumper before so it'll be challenging. It's a 36 line repeating pattern so I'd best not mess it up!

xx

Promising Start to the Week

2010-11-01T23:07:00.000Z

Evening,

I went to visit my grandfather today. He's doing well. His heart isn't actually healing as it is at the moment because he still hasn't been transferred to the bigger hospital to have further tests to determine if he needs a stent or bypass operation. But he looks like himself, he was talking animatedly and even stood up and moved around a few times too. He's doing well :)

My aunty picked me up and we both went to the hospital. It was interesting because I haven't spent much time on my own with her, this might actually be the first. She's a headteacher who teaches, which means she's basically doing two full time jobs. She works 70+ hours a week. She's bone thin, gets up at 4am each day to be in work by 6.30am, and works until 6.30-7.30pm. She tutors after school, and goes in and works on Saturday afternoons. That's dedication!

I had a lovely surprise this afternoon. I came home this morning so that I could visit my grandfather. I helped Mam with the last little bits for my brother's room who arrived back this evening. He loves his new room :) We also got him a Spongebob helium balloon to welcome him in!

Not long after we got back home from the balloon buying Angharad & Kirsty showed up! I had arranged with Angharad for her to come and visit so that she could see whether the width and length of my scarf would be what she wanted for the one I make her. She said it was ideal, so at least know I know how many stitches I need to cast on! We then went for an impromptu meal but had to drop Kirsty off at home first. We went to her house and I was introduced to her dog Coby who is HUGE and furry. He's a 1 year old puppy and comes up to my hips (I'm 5'7"). If I wasn't worried about my weight I'd be tempted to try going for a ride on him!

Angharad and I then decided to go and find someplace to eat. I had to be home by 6.15pm to get picked up by my Aunty and the clock was showing 5.30pm so we had to hurry. The local cafe was closed so we went to Tescos and picked up some sushi. We got back to mine and ate. Mam had left to pick my brother up from his school so we sat and chatted for a while. At 6.40pm I realised that my Aunty was late which is unlike her. At 6.41pm we realised that Angharad's car clock hadn't been changed back yesterday when the clocks went back!

So all our rush was for nothing as we actually had a whole extra hour. It was nice though because we got to have a good chat while my cats clambered for attention, and it's always nice to be at home and catch up with friends :)

Hope you had a good start to the week too.

xx

Lucky, Lucky Man

2010-10-28T11:28:00.000+01:00

Morning,

Work wiped me out last night so I decided to wait until today to update. It's the second half of the two weeks of late shift and I'm tiring out easier, plus there's a lot on my mind.

My grandfather had a heart attack on Monday. He died three times. He was running for a train to go to a Ramblers meeting (he's a really fit man for his age) and had run up 2 flights of stairs, across a bridge and down 2 flights of stairs. He bought his ticket, sat down on a seat on the platform and keeled over.

Incredibly luckily there was an off duty policewoman and an asian student also on the platform. Someone noticed Dat had collapsed and they both knew first aid and went to help. They did CPR on him for 20 minutes until the ambulance came. He had another heart attack on the platform during the CPR, and another inside the ambulance where they used a defibrillator and brought him back again.

This all happened at 9am. I turned up at the same train station at 10.30am, got my train from the same platform quite happily and went home. There were no signs of anything having happened.

I then had a text from Mam at 3.30pm to say that he'd collapsed and she'd be in touch. Over the next half hour or so she told me what had happened.

He's currently in Coronary Care which is basically intensive care. They're hoping to move him onto a normal ward soon, if not already, as his blood pressure and heart rhythm are stable now. We're waiting for a bed to become available at a larger, specialised hospital. They rushed him to the nearest available one when he collapsed, but it doesn't have the necessary equipment to see whether he needs a stent or a bypass operation. He'll be moved to the larger hospital to have the tests and the operations if needed.

He doesn't remember anything from Monday. The off duty policewoman turned up at the hospital afterwards to return his rucksack which had been left on the platform in all the fuss. It had his car keys etc in it, so when Dat had come around he'd been fussing over it. This incredibly nice, good person went to the hospital and asked around to track him down and return the rucksack. She met Dat and my Auntie who was with him, and they got to say thanks personally to her for saving his life, which is an awesome thing. They are going to try to track down the Asian student to thank as well.

He was very, very, lucky.

xx

What a Monday

2010-10-27T13:02:00.000+01:00

Afternoon,

I'm on my way to work so this won't be a big post. I'll update tonight.

My grandfather (on Dad's side) had two, possible three heart attacks on Monday morning.

He's okay, he's alive. Waiting for a bed in a specialist ward in another hospital so that he can be transferred and then a stent/bypass operation scheduled after completing tests.

xx

Prepping The Floor!

2010-10-24T17:01:00.002+01:00

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Post Imminent

2010-10-24T16:45:00.001+01:00

Howdy,

I'm currently taking a break from cleaning my brothers room in preparation for varnishing the floor. Will be updating later.

xx

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Miniature Pigs!

2010-10-23T01:56:00.002+01:00

Cute :-) (Found these in a magazine, but not sure which)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

It's the Weekend!!

2010-10-22T11:37:00.000+01:00

Almost :)

One more day in work and then two days off. I'm going home this weekend as we're going to decorate my brothers bedroom -

Happy birthday Daniel!!

He's 17 today, which is scary because there's no way in hell I would get in a car with him, and yet he's legally allowed to! Plus I got in cars with other 17 year olds when I was 17... Think it's just the whole 'oh I feel old' thing.

Anyways, he's in Canada at the moment on a Rugby and Choir trip with his school. He's part of both. They left at 3am yesterday and they're there for a week. There's no chance he'll see my blog because he doesn't know it exists so it's safe to spill the secret on here :)

Daniel doesn't know his bedroom is being redecorated. When he left it was still red and white, and covered in Manchester United posters, wall paper boarder and curtains etc. And when he comes back it's gonna be totally new furniture, navy/blue and white. It was last done when he was 12 so it's kinda due for an update!

I'll probably be too busy to post as I'm gonna be doing most of the painting, so I wish you all a good weekend!!

xx

Just a Little Whinge?

2010-10-21T17:46:00.002+01:00

I'd like to go home and not have to go back to work please.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Late Shift Woes

2010-10-20T22:46:00.000+01:00

Evening,

I'm back on late shift for two solid weeks. It feels like I've only just come off it, as I did a few extra days for people. I can claim the favours back to cover my lates when I'm attending the Knitting course I signed up for or PhotoSoc which started back last week.

I'm just not in the mood this week. Everything one person does on the late shift grates on my nerves. I'm starting to be majorly surprised if I see them doing any work, and getting annoyed when I hear them playing games on the internet or their phone etc instead of working.

This person cannot stand silence, and is constantly listening to music on their phone or the radio.

I would rather work in silence if I am around this person, simply because I quite like silence, and being silent sometimes.

So far this week I have kept my head down, my mouth shut (helped by the fact I am still losing my voice and have a constant sore throat in work from the air conditioning), and got on with the job.

Not much else I can do really. I'll stop whining now.

xx

My blanket

2010-10-10T10:47:00.002+01:00

It was my Mams birthday yesterday so I'm back home for a few days. I took my knitting with me to show Mam seeing as she was the one who introduced me to it.

Mam has a needle case with about 20 needles in it that she's given me! It's got straight, double pointed, cable and circular needles. I'm hoping I can get her to keep some of the duplicates and get her back into knitting. Probably wishful thinking though.

While looking for the case in the attic, she found my baby blanket that Gu made me. I'm the only one of the grandchildren to have one, I was the first of 4. The blanket is gorgeous. It's made in a cream baby wool, and in an intricate leaf lace pattern. It must have taken months to complete! She was a really talented knitter. It's taller and wider than I am 23 years on so I snuggled up under it last night while watching the tv feeling loved and cosy.

For the time being it's going to stay at home safe, but when I get a house of my own its going to have pride of place.

xx

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

Test

2010-10-09T02:16:00.001+01:00

I've downloaded a new blogger app on my phone so we shall see if this works :-)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

Busy, Busy, Busy (Again)

2010-10-04T13:54:00.005+01:00

Afternoon!

I've taken a cheeky half day off work so I'm at home and loving my lazy Monday!

It's been a while since the last proper update, I just wasn't in the mood. The last month has been pretty long - busy each weekend someplace different, I worked a call out again, long days training on a new area, working weekends...

So the news?

I'm now properly into my knitting, and I've nearly finished my first scarf which is currently about 5 feet 5 inches long (it's 2 inches shorter than me). I've booked myself on a knitting workshop on Friday morning at the Knitting & Stitching show in London, which I'm looking forward to.

I've been bitten by a spider! I tried to throw a spider out while sleepy from my nap (trying to catch up on sleep from being on call) and managed to fumble it a number of times. I scared the bastard and when I did actually pick it up properly it bit me. Fairly painful actually, I couldn't quite believe it had bitten me! It was one of the 'giant house spiders' as they are known on google (Tegenaria duellica). We've never had any spiders smaller than these ones in my house, they are fairly monstrous. Big ones that crunch when you mangle them with a shoe after they've bitten you.

I've been training in a new area in work, I'm now working in the Taste & Odour lab which basically means I spend all day setting up controls and samples for 3 panellists to come in, smell and taste - similar to wine tasting but with water. It's not very interesting, but I don't mind if I can keep myself busy. And when I can't it appears I can take a half day, result! Apparently I may be getting signed off by the end of this week.

One of my ex-housemates from the first house I lived in when I moved to Reading is moving to Manchester. She's from Australia and hated her job, so I was expecting her to move within a few years. Her boyfriend is in the Army and based in Manchester, so she's got herself a new job and is moving there at the end of the week. We all went out on Friday night for her leaving party, and boogied in Reflex which was a good laugh. I'll miss her.

In geeky news I'm currently backing up and deleting photo files off my laptop. It's currently creating a new back up to my external hard drive, and burning a DVD which means that it's currently estimating 2.5 hours for the DVD completion, and 37% for the back up. I need to go post a parcel so I think it's safe to leave it for a few hours while I head into town!

I've also finally opened a new ISA. It's been overdue but I've got one now. Bit of a faff, as I had to send my passport which left me with only my driving licence for ID. Which wasn't given back to me when I renewed my railcard in Watford. Tom performed an emergency delivery on Friday and also came out for Jenelle's leaving do as everywhere in Reading is strict on ID and I get ID'd *everywhere*. I was also asked for ID to pick up my passport from the Royal Mail sorting office, so I'm very thankful to have it back!

Hoping you all have a lovely Monday afternoon!

Extreme Sheep Herding

2010-09-19T00:24:00.001+01:00

What We Saw

2010-09-02T11:31:00.001+01:00

Morning,

Here's the list of the bands we saw at Reading Festival this year.

Friday
Billy Talent
Gogol Bordello
NOFX
Lost Prophets
Streetlight Manifesto
Biffy Clyro
Queens of the Stone Age
Guns N' Roses
Alkaline Trio

Saturday
The Futureheads
Mystery Jets
Gaslight Anthem
Hadouken!
Frank Turner
The Cribs
Dizzee Rascal
The Libertines
Arcade Fire
Bad Religion
Pendulum

Sunday
Lights
Los Campesinos
You Me At Six
Limp Bizkit
Cypress Hill
Weezer
Paramore
We Are Scientists
Blink 182

There are some gaps, so Tom please comment to fill in the gaps!

xx

Reading Festival!

2010-08-26T16:41:00.000+01:00

Howdy,

I'll be on a little blog holiday for the next few days as it's once again THAT the time of year!

This year we decided to stay at my house each night rather than camp, and I'm SO glad we did. It's been chucking it down for the last 2 days. This is the first year we've had rain, and *bad* rain it is too. My friends from Pembroke are camping, and ended up trying to put up a 6 man tent (there are 3 of them) in the pouring rain which took an hour, and some money given to a toilet cleaner to get up!

Showers and wellies all round to get through the mud I think!

xx

Sunday Mornings

2010-08-22T11:22:00.000+01:00

Morning,

Aren't Sundays great? You wake up and know you don't have to do anything. It's also the one day that you can really reason that you can have a lie in.

My friend Adam came up on Friday. We went to a friends' housewarming in the evening which was quiet, but nice. Think there were about 12 people there so it was pretty chilled out. Someone brought their guitar hero guitars with them which I wasn't too fussed about because I don't really like the game, and I suck at it, but the rest of us had fun watching them.

We went into London yesterday for a few hours. We visited Harrods which I've never been to before (£14 for a flute of champagne?!) and put my name down on a waiting list for a dress I saw in a magazine that I liked. It probably won't fit but it's worth trying.

Then we headed for some Yo! Sushi after a mini-argument about which one to go to, and then Tom took us to Jewel and Dirty Martini for happy hour. Jewel we weren't too fussed on, the bartender was unfriendly and they wouldn't let us sit at the tables which were empty and 'reserved' even though no one came for the half hour we were there. Then we went to Dirty Martini which was a lot busier, and more fun. The bartender was pretty cool and the guys had really nice martinis.

Today - who knows? Tom wants to go see the football which means that Adam and I are at a loose end. Tom suggested we go see Toy Story 3 so we'll probably end up doing that. I don't feel very well today, I woke up with a sore throat and I just feel achey and weak. Lots of sugar will hopefully be the cure to that, my hands are visibly shaking.

Have a good Sunday,

xx

Callout

2010-08-16T22:15:00.000+01:00

Things I like about call out:

Things I hate about call out:
No/little sleep
Crap pay
Taxi drivers
Constant tiredness
Rude couriers
No sleeping pattern
Constant phone checking
Knowing the phone will ring, but not knowing when.
Having to take the phone with me to pee.

xx

Callout. Again.

2010-08-12T00:51:00.001+01:00

Morning,

It's call out time again. And yes, it's still being it's usual bastard to me. This time I'm doing Mon-Sun instead of Fri-Thurs.

On Monday night I had call out at midnight, nothing too bad about that. I got home and slept for 2 hours when I finally fell asleep at 2.30am. Then the phone rings at 4.50am, telling me that samples are arriving in an hour. I rang my boss. At 5.15am. I woke him up which I felt pretty guilty about, but he gave me the answer I wanted - that going in at 6am to do the samples was pretty pointless and to not bother. I then went back to sleep, finally dropping off about 6.30am and sleeping until 9am when I rang in and asked if I could grab another hour of sleep, which they surprisingly allowed.

On Tuesday I went to bed at 7pm because I was so tired from lack of sleep the night before. I woke at 9pm when a manager rang to tell me that there was going to be a call out. I then went back to sleep, thinking I'd be able to squeeze in another hour or so. I woke up at 1am panicking that it had been 4 hours and I hadn't heard anything! I gave them until 1.30am and then I was going to ring them myself and find out where they were, as sometimes they don't ring and samples sit there overnight because we don't know they've arrived.

The phone rang at 1.15am with a bumper crop of 27 samples, and 4 swabs. Which is a lot for a call out. It had been around 3 different sites since 7pm, and got to the lab at 2.15am. I went in, set the samples up and got home just before 4am. I had a meeting at 12pm that I had to make, otherwise I would have stayed in bed and not gone in until 1pm!

Tonight, well tonight I assumed would be awful because there was a fatality on the M25 and tailbacks between J14-17 which affects all our couriers from London. Luckily when I rang the lab at 10.10pm wondering if they'd still be there, they replied and it turns out they stayed late for the delayed couriers, and also did a call out that turned up that I wasn't rung about.

The phone rang half an hour ago with a second call out. I'm gonna ring for my taxi in about 5 minutes, and then the whole charade begins again. 19 samples this time. Hopefully I'll be home by 2.30 ish.

Just as well I cheered myself up by going for sushi tonight (technically my breakfast) for the first time since my birthday :)

Sweet dreams everyone else,

xx

Loneliness

2010-08-09T02:07:00.002+01:00

I hate feeling alone.

There's a huge difference between wanting to be alone, and feeling alone.

xx

Easy Like a Sunday Morning

2010-08-08T12:06:00.000+01:00

Morning,

I love being back at home. My Mam recently bought the house new pillows, and they are the most comfortable things ever (but my fleece covered pillow still has the edge, just!). There's a black and white cat lying at my feet, who knows he's not supposed to be there, but there are already hundreds of cat hairs there so he's obviously found his way in since the last time I was here!

My first cat, Tom (who was a girl we found out later) used to climb into bed with me. We had her and her sister when I was 15 and they were 3 months old. I used to leave my door open (I wasn't allergic to them like I seem to be to the two long haired cats we have now) during the night, and Tom would creep in, then burrow under the duvet and back up again and curl up next to me :) I miss that cat, she died after 8 months of having them. Looking back it feels like we had her for a hell of a lot longer, funny how time stretches out when you're younger isn't it?

I used to get up at 6am when we first had Tom & Bethan and go downstairs to be with them. When we first had them which was in July/August during the school holidays, we kept them in the lounge which was the only room we had a door on. I got up, wrapped my dressing gown around me and crept downstairs avoiding the squeaky bits on the stairs and hallway, and inside the lounge. Then I'd lie on the sofa, and both kittens would come and lie on my stomach and legs. I'd sit there with them until my parents got up, or my parent's came to yell at me for not getting ready for something. I still did it when it was the school term time, but on the weekends which made it more of a treat.

This was during year 11, when I was studying for my GCSE exams. I'd taken German and I used to go up my grandparents' neighbours house once or twice a week to spend time with them as they are a German family. They were incredibly patient with me, and I used to read their daughters books out loud while she giggled at my horrible pronounciation, or sit in the garden going through the textbooks and books to try and improve my vocabulary, grammar and comprehension. I usually went up on Fridays.

One Friday I had a message from my Mam to go home instead of going to see them. As soon as I walked through the door I knew something was wrong.

Tom had started vomiting about 2-3 weeks before. He'd (we still called Tom a he, even though he was a she) started vomiting after eating, and had lost a lot of weight. We'd taken him back and forth to the vets and he'd patiently had various injections aimed at boosting his health while they tried to figure out what was wrong. That Friday, my Mam had taken him to a bigger vets branch of the chain, and put him under anaesthetic for an x-ray. They'd struggled to intubate him, and when they finally took the x-ray they saw that his lungs were white. White = something dense, like bone, or cancer. Lungs are supposed to be black on x-rays.

As soon as I walked in through the front door and yelled that I was home (and wondered why Tom hadn't come to see me, he was normally waiting for me to walk in each day at 4pm) my Mam came down the hallway struggling to hold back tears. The vets had phoned her to tell her what the x-ray showed. Mam had rightfully asked them to not let Tom wake up again, to put him down. He'd been vomiting because the cancer had grown into him oesophagus, and was obstructing the food from getting into him stomach. If we'd brought him home he would only have lasted a week or so at the most, but would have been in pain. Tom was 11 months old.

Sadly Bethan died about 3 years after Tom died when she was 4 years old, so neither of them lived very long. Bethan had leukaemia. I've always thought it was odd that both cats died from cancer at a young age. Must have been something in the genes.

Pictures to follow when I get home to Reading.

xx

A Very Busy Weekend

2010-08-04T12:23:00.001+01:00

Morning,

Been a bit busy so haven't posted since Thursday. On Saturday I woke up early after going to bed late and jumped on a train. I've noticed that if I have something set to wake up for I can get up, but if I just tell myself to get up early that it doesn't always work. About a 30% chance of it happening, instead of 95%. Even telling myself that I have to get up early because I need to go into town to the bank, or get the jobs on my list done won't work. It has to be an appointment or a train etc. Something I have no control over.

Anyway, back to the point. On Saturday I went home. I spent the afternoon at home and helped a little with Mam around the house, changing the beds as she hadn't been able to etc, forcing my brother to change his bed and tidy his room as she hadn't been able to climb the stairs to yell at him etc. Then in the evening Dadcu came down and took me to the hospital to visit Gu. Wierd moment: she's in the neurology ward that I did work experience on when I was 16 with Mam's consultant. Like it or lump it, that hospital is irrevocably woven into my life!

We took some KFC with us to try and coax her to eat. It wasn't much, just a chicken breast and a small portion of chips. And she ate it! All of the chicken and about half of the chips. Dadcu was gobsmacked, as she'd been refusing to eat the hospital food, and only picking at what he brought it. We also managed to get her to take all of her medication (the night before's was still sitting on the table at 6pm). We've realised that Gu needs constant pushing. If you leave her to sit there she won't really do anything. She'll just look around or watch TV. She doesn't read or do puzzles etc any more. She also won't drink water or eat if you just put something in front of her, which is all the time the nurses have time for unfortunately. As I was sat next to her, every 10 minutes or so I'd ask her if she was thirsty, or tell her to drink and then she would. We got her to drink 1.5 beakers of water in 2 hours, which is about 1/3 of what she'd have in a whole day. She has to have an IV drip overnight to stop her from becoming dehydrated.

I also took some Guylian chocolates with me as Mam said they were her favourites. You can always get Gu to eat sweets or chocolate :) Now I know where I get my sweet tooth from! She had a few of those while we were there so the two of us left pretty happy.

On Sunday I went up their house to help clear out Gu's craft room. Like I said, she has a tremor and can't do any drawing, painting or cardmaking like she used to. But the downstairs front room is still of all her supplies. It took 4 hours to go through everything! I knew she had a lot but I didn't realise there was *that* much! She had hundreds of peel offs, 8 rolls of sellotape, 3 or 4 unopened tins of graphite, colouring and watercolouring pencils, pads of paper, envelopes...

I went through the whole lot and sorted things into an Ebay pile (things that were brand new/unused), a pile for myself, a pile for my Aunty and a pile for my Aunty's friends who are into cardmaking. Dadcu also took a bag to the girl in the bed opposite Gu who likes cardmaking as a way of saying thanks for looking out for Gu during the time he isn't there. There's also a pile of art books that my friend is going to take a look at, and the rest will go to a charity shop.

Dadcu left to go to the hospital at 2pm for the 2-4pm visiting hours. Which left me alone until 4pm. So I emptied everything from the room. I dragged out the wheelchairs, boxes, a table, the piles of supplies now in boxes... I pulled everything out. Then I rang Mam and spoke to her for half an hour and let her know what we'd managed to do. Then I started hoovering and I was still hoovering when Dadcu got back. He was pretty impressed at the size of the room without all of the supplies in it. It's probably the same size as the one I'm sitting in right now. I want a craft room!!

We loaded everything up into the car, apart from the sewing machine. Yep, I'm having the sewing machine as an inheritance present! Gu had an amazing old one, which unfortunately broke last year (although I'm thinking of rescuing it from the attic and seeing if it can be repaired as my Mam loves it). Dadcu bought a new one to replace it and managed to use it twice, but jammed it on the second use. I had to laugh at the image of my farrier DIY extraordinare who can do all his own plumbing, plastering, painting, wallpapering, wiring.... sewing!

So I'll get that the next time I go back home, and once it's fixed it will sit in my bedroom at home (which means that I'll have to save up projects and take them home with me, but more importantly means that my Mam and Dadcu will be able to have access to it and use it).

It doesn't look like I'll be going home this weekend, I was planning on helping out with the painting but I rang Mam this morning and Dadcu did it all on Monday (what did I tell you?!). So there really is nothing left to do now but wait for the council to approve the care package, install the hospital bed and hoist and then bring Gu home :)

xx

Sod's Law

2010-07-29T13:20:00.000+01:00

Afternoon,

I should be on a bus right now heading into work. I can't face going in early today though. I've felt rotten all week, and last night I ended up having to run because I thought I was going to throw up several times during the late shift. Not ideal.

Yesterday I signed up for SpareRoom again. I used it to find the room where I am sitting right now. I've been thinking of moving to somewhere cheaper for a while. I need to save money, and that's probably one of the easier ways of doing it (as opposed to pulling more awful call out shifts which I'm also doing). I thought I'd sign up, see what's available etc as I won't be moving until September at the earliest, and I also have to give 1 month's notice to my landlord. I also didn't show my phone number this time because I hate having randomers contact me.

My landlord has contacted me in response to my SpareRoom ad (without realising it's me).

On the plus side I found out she's going on holidays. On the bad side now I have to email back and turn her down gently. Twice.

xx

Holidays!

2010-07-23T18:44:00.000+01:00

Howdy,

I'm going to go visit Tom' parents this weekend in Cornwall. I'm taking both digital and film SLRs, and my digital Point & Shoot camera - I'm ready!! (Oh and film, and about 20 new batteries hehe.)

I hope you have a great weekend, and hopefully I'll be able to post some new photos.

This week has not been great. My grandmother is currently in hospital and her official diagnosis is that she's to receive palliative care as there's absolutely nothing they can do. Not great. My mam has also been in hospital as she's had a Multiple Sclerosis relapse, thankfully they have given her some steroidal tablets which should sort that out.

On one hand I really need to get away, and on the other I'm likely to brood and this could lead to some arguments. Fingers crossed it all goes well.

Cakes Galore!

2010-07-19T21:37:00.002+01:00

Howdy,

As mentioned, I spent a looooong time yesterday making cakes. Why? Because we organised a cake sale to supplement our fundraising for this:

Yup, there's my medal! I'm pretty pleased with a time of 32 minutes :)

Work has a scheme where you can apply for matched funding if 3 or more employees take part. One person took part in the race with me (and kept me going), and another in a different department completed her race two weeks before. So we decided that between us we'd organise a cake sale.

I made a cupcake mix using this recipe from iVillage. I made 12 large (normal sized) cupcakes, and 16 mini cupcakes using mini silicone moulds. I've never used silicone moulds before but I was rather impressed. They didn't stick to the cake, and I didn't even have to turn them inside out - I just picked them up from the moulds. I picked them up from a Poundshop, and even if I never use them again I got my worth out of them!

I substituted strawberry flavouring for vanilla as I didn't have any, and used some leftover chocolate icing from a chocolate cupcake kit.

Tom decorated these chocolate cupcakes himself. They looked (and tasted) yummy. These were the first cakes to sell out when they went on sale! I ate the last one :)

There was loads of the icing left over, and it was a fairly runny consistency so I dipped the mini cupcakes into the icing rather than trying to spoon it everywhere. Tom thought I'd accidentally dropped the first one though :) The strawberry flavour wasn't very noticeable, so the chocolate/strawberry combination worked.

These were the 'large' cupcakes made using the same mix. I made up some icing and used one tiny drop of red food colouring. Tom decorated these ones too (I did the icing bit).

(The Race For Life encourages women running to take part wearing something pink - which makes for an awesome sight when there are 2500 women in pink zigzagging around a park.)

I also made some jammy fair cakes using a victoria sponge mix and some seedless raspberry jam. I iced those with white icing but didn't take any pictures of them. I need to figure out a way of stopping the jam from sinking and pooling in the bottom of the cases...

Tom reckoned the icing would take about an hour to set, so after he left to drive home I stamped some labels for the cakes so that people would know what was what. The jammy fairy cakes and normal cakes looked pretty similar as the pale pink icing was a pretty pale shade of pink.

I used a Papermania stamp from a Birthday themed pack I picked up in Hobby Craft for £2 in a bargain bin. I saw the same stamps on sale in WHSmith on Sunday for £7.99! That's probably what reminded me of the stamp and gave me the labels idea. I was going to cut each one out like this but my hand started cramping and I decided it was too fiddly. I just stamped about 10 on some pale pink paper I already had and trimmed them to size.

I'm really annoyed I didn't take any pictures, but photography isn't allowed at work. Should have sneaked one on my phone...

My running partner brought in a cool, chirpy multi-coloured polka dot tablecloth and loved the labels idea. She has pretty funky handwriting too, so she wrote the labels and we stuck them to the plates/tupperware the cakes were in.

Altogether we had a multitude of cupcakes, jam tarts, an iced banana & sultana bread loaf, coconut macaroons, 'dream cakes' (caramel shortbread) and chocolate brownies. We laid out the cakes at 10am, and by 5pm the coffee mug we put out for the donations was full! Looking forward to counting it tomorrow :)

I Did it, I Did it! (Properly)

2010-07-18T23:35:00.000+01:00

Evening,

Just a quick post as I've been busy making cakes for the last 6 hours (don't ask!).

Yesterday I ran the Race For Life 5km run. I completed it in 32 minutes :)

xx

Middling Old Week

2010-07-14T19:19:00.003+01:00

Evening,

I stayed true to my word and was up early on Sunday! I walked to the gym and then ran 1.5 km. I had to slow to a walk because I was getting out of breath and things were getting a little painful. I've realised that even though I probably could have continued, I didn't want to put myself through the pain to do so. I do give up too easily some times.

I started running again though and I had to stop, it seriously hurt. I had to half hobble/half walk home. I'd taken my film camera with me to take some pictures by the river on the walk home, but I couldn't stand the thought of lingering around. I walked home as quickly as I could (rather slowly) and then had a fairly cold shower which was glorious :)

Then I had to leg it on a bus and do a shift in work. I don't mind working weekends sometimes, the money is good but the worst thing about it is the uncertainty of when you will finish the workload (meaning I can't plan to meet anyone) and the having to work 12 days straight.

I've started doing some stretches before I go to sleep, and first thing in the morning as the pain in my calves is where I imagine my calf muscle meets the Achilles tendon - not something I want to be hurting!!

I didn't walk home from work Monday because I wanted to give myself a rest, like I did on Thursday last week. I didn't walk home tonight either because the weather's broken and I just wasn't in the mood for it. This week I'm rota'd onto the most physically active job in the lab - lots of manual handling, lugging things around, stocking cupboards, pushing, walking...

Oh and last night I went to see Twilight :) I enjoyed it, although I think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't read the books. As it was, it felt a little flat because their emotions just didn't feel true at times (and I'm taking about Kristen and Robert). But I enjoyed it all the same, and I went to see it with my closest friend in work so it was good to be able to do something together outside of work for a change.

I've also started watching True Blood this week, so it's a Vampire Overload!! Hehe :)

xx

Where Does Time Go?

2010-07-10T23:32:00.003+01:00

Evening,

A quick post tonight, it's late and I'm tired. Actually going to force myself not to check blogs and go to bed instead. My plan for tomorrow is to get up early(ish) and go to the gym, run 5k then leg it home for a shower and into work.

I was in work today from 9.53am until 19.29pm. Pretty long day, and there was also an ICC 25man raid scheduled at 7pm that I was trying to get home for. As it was I was lucky that they hadn't set off yet and I squeezed in. Non WoW players can happily ignore that bit :)

I didn't walk home from work on Thursday as I was working late shift, and I wanted to give myself a rest. There's only a week left until the race. This time next week I will have long completed it. Where the hell does the time go?! I did walk home from work on Friday however, and this time I walked comfortably and didn't consciously push myself. I still completed it in 43 minutes though, which means that I am getting less pain while pushing myself and am walking faster than I realise hopefully. Or taking longer strides!

Neither did I walk today, but that was because someone offered me a lift and having been in work for 10 hours I gladly accepted it. I've been pretty tired this week. Hopefully it's due to increased exercise and will gradually fade away, but the last year or so I've just mostly felt tired all the time.

I don't want to whine all the time, so on a funnier note - Tom managed to fall off his roof this morning, he's okay though :)

xx

I'm Running, I'm Running!

2010-07-08T11:00:00.000+01:00

Morning,

I went to the gym last night! I have now done 5k. I don't hurt too badly this morning either which is a huge relief. I'm working late shift tonight so won't be walking back from work, and it's probably best to give my legs a breather today anyway.

Out of the 5k I managed to run 2.5k of it. I ran the first km then found I got out of breath quite quickly (most exercise I've done since being in school) so I walked 0.5km then ran 0.5k and carried on alternating.

I have never spent 41 minutes on a treadmill before, not entirely sure I want to do it again! Anyways, it's for a very good cause as all the money raised is going to Cancer Research UK and I'm hoping to apply for matched funding with work to double the total amount raised. If you can, please dig deep :)

Thank you,

xx

More Sushi!

2010-07-06T20:02:00.000+01:00

Evening,

I got kinda hungry and bored last night. And I had a rather large, rather ripe avocado that needed eating or throwing. The solution? Sushi!! Not the kind of thing I normally make on a 'school night' but I was feeling alert and awake after walking home from work.

It went with my mushroom miso soup quite nicely :) And I finished the rest off in work today, yum yum yum!

xx

Power Walk!

2010-07-06T18:09:00.004+01:00

Evening,

I literally just got through the door. It's hot today if you walk home from work. Yesterday I walked it in my jacket, which is fairly thick. Today I wore a light full sleeved cardi (I don't like being outdoors with bare arms as I burn exceptionally easily, plus it's a self conscious thing) which is much cooler. I feel hotter today though, and my face is kinda purple.

I pushed it today. I don't think I could have walked much faster. I even ended up using my iPod's Nike+ Power Song! which is set to The Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy, Hey Girl (absolutely love that song, and it has the perfect beat for walking).

My iPod says:

Time: 37min 16s
Pace: 9:48 min/km
Distance: 3.79 km
Calories: 234

So the distance reads kinda different from yesterday, but I took the same route. Theories are:

- the sensor in my shoe wasn't being pushed fully each step, especially on steps.
I climb 2 sets of stairs, and go down 3 flights of stairs. The sensor is set so it's underneath the arch of your foot, I tend to go up stairs on the balls of my feet but I did try to do them flatfooted.

- I was going for a fast time, which meant that I took the shortest route possible. I did yesterday, but may have gone around less people today.

- traffic lights. When waiting for the lights to change so that I can cross I'm not sure what to do. I've been moving my foot in time with the beat so as to keep the sensor active (as it deactivates after a certain time) and other lights I decided it was cheating and stayed still.

I'm pretty sure the calories will be a little higher as I pushed myself harder this time. But this isn't about walking to burn off calories anyway.

My pace is 40 seconds quicker per km. That sounds like a good thing. And my overall time was quicker, which is also a good thing.

My feet still hurt on the sides of my toes/metatarsals though. It kicks in when I'm walking up the hill and then stays until I get home and rest them for about 10-15 minutes. Not entirely sure what's happening there, I hope it's not my shoes pushing my feet to walk on the sides of them.

On a side note: My film and lens cleaning bits arrived in work today. I had loads of fun popping the supersized bubble wrap! Annoyingly I bought 2x24 colour film at £1.99 and paid £4 for 1x36 exactly the same film in Jessops on Sunday. Damn my impatience!!

xx

Gutted!

2010-07-05T21:24:00.000+01:00

Evening,

I picked up a copy of the latest Let's Make Cards this morning. I'm looking forward oto using it, there are lots of bright, summery colours, and it looks like it should be fun to use.

BUT I am unhappy that I have only just found out about Bust's Summer Craftacular London that is being held on Saturday. I'm working the weekend and it's probably going to be too short notice to get anyone to swap with me, especially as the girl I would normally swap with is already signed up to work the weekend instead of another. I'd love to go, and I think the Fascinator workshops and Tatty Devine jewellery would have been fantastic to see.

The website describes the fair as

An indie shopping mall in York Hall! With DJs, drinks, DIY and an alternative food court of sweet and savoury treats.

There are goodie bags(!) for the first 100 through the door, raffle and more. The people who are running the workshops also run several classes throughout each month so I may save up and attend one as a one-off treat.

There's also this (which I love the idea of)

DANCE to DJs The A-Maisonettes, The Vinyl Vendettas, She Runs With Wolves (Ladyfest Ten); learn to Lindy Hop and Jitterbug with a special beginner's class by Swing Patrol from 5.30pm to 7pm.

Dance classes too!

There don't seem to be very many craft fairs in the Berkshire/London area which is why I'm most annoyed about missing this, I wonder why?

xx

First Steps

2010-07-05T17:47:00.007+01:00

Evening,

Tonight I walked home from work for the first time (intentionally). I did it twice back in January when the foot of snow meant that the buses were unable to get anywhere, and I donned my wellies and stomped home (stopping every now and again to take pictures).

Last week I'd agreed with my friend in work that we were going to go to the gym after work. However she hurt her back on Friday, and so I assumed we wouldn't be going. This morning I decided to take my gym bag anyway, and if we didn't go to the gym then I would walk home and break in my new trainers that I bought for the Race For Life event.

So after work was done I popped my Nike Plus sensor in my shoes, attached the receiver to my iPod and set off. I started recording the data when I clocked out of work, and stopped it when I walked through my bedroom door.

My iPod shows:

Time: 41m 03s
Pace: 10:27 min/km
Distance: 3.93 km
Calories: 242

That's not too bad. I wasn't walking flat out and I didn't get any cramp or pain (apart from a steep bit on the hill where I slowed a little, then picked up going down the hill). I stopped for about 20 seconds outside an estate agents but I'm gonna disregard that as I didn't stop after that. I even passed a new Oxfam shop that I want to pay a visit to and walked past!

I got home to this:

Good timing eh?! It's a little information pack with a few hints and tips of what to bring/do on the day, and some testimonials from people who have taken part, cancer nurses etc.

This is my running number - it's all official now!

It also has some suggestions for kickstarting fundraising. Out of all of them I found two that Tom might be interested in...

xx

A 'New' Toy!

2010-07-03T19:58:00.006+01:00

Evening,

I have a new toy I'm quite proud of. A while ago while at a friends house I spied a rather old 35mm film camera. My friend told me I could have it, as he didn't use it any more. He was the President of the PhotoSoc so he has a few cameras. He's now graduated and moved back home but was in Reading last night so I went to say hello and picked up my toy.

I don't normally go out after working a late shift because I'm normally shattered, especially after callout. I was last night too, and I managed to get wasted on 2 glasses of wine and a bottle of Brother's cider as I'd only eaten a pasta salad at 4pm.

I managed to find a website with a full manual on how to use it, so I've been reading that today while playing. I love taking pictures and then winding it on to the next frame. Spent a long time playing with that :) It's also really cool as once you take the lens off, and take a picture you can poke your finger straight through the camera! Which I've also spent a fair amount of time doing. Tom thinks I'm a bit nuts for that but there's no way that it's possible to do it with a digital SLR and while I'd always vaguely known how SLRs work after doing it as part of a course I completed, I now definitely know and could quite happily explain it to anyone. Which I did, to my housemate :)

Anything that improves knowledge has to be a good thing, right?

Here he is!!

He's a 1979 Canon AV-1 :)

I'll hopefully be able to upload some of my film pictures when I buy a printer/scanner/all-in-one which is a pipeline dream. The Photosoc has it's own darkroom and they provide the chemicals so long as you provide the paper. It costs a little extra to use for the whole year, but seeing as it's the end of the year/beginning of the new one I'm going to politely ask to see if I can pay just once. Oh, I'm also hoping to put down a deposit and hire some of the club lenses that will be suitable for the Pentax SLR, yay!

My friend James is also a Photosoc guy and he wants to learn how to use the darkroom too. We're going to have some lessons in how to use it so we can develop our own film. I bought 3 rolls of film off the internet this morning, which are due to arrive on Tuesday. I nearly went into town today to buy some in Jessops but decided that I was really hungover (stupid wine) and that I couldn't be bothered and couldn't really afford it. Roll on payday!

I see an interesting summer ahead!!

xx

Hot hot hot!

2010-07-02T11:41:00.002+01:00

Morning,

Apparently this weekend is meant to be pretty nice. It's looking pretty grey outside this morning so fingers crossed.

Yo!Sushi has an offer each weekend during this summer. It's kinda convoluted so bear with me. Each time a 'restuarant hotspot' (that they change weekly) has a weather forecast that reckons it's going to be hotter than 25 degrees you get that much off your Sushi.

So basically if it's 27 degrees (as it is this weekend) then you get a voucher for 27% off. Last weekend it was 29% off. However if it's only 24 degrees then there's no voucher at all.

As I was talking to Tom last night the email came through, so when I went to work to process the call out samples I figured I might as well get something good out of it and printed off two copies of the voucher. That was I can go on Saturday on my own, or with my Dad if he fancies it on Sunday. I might also speak to a Sushi virgin and convince him to come - I had him convinced last weekend but he was a little skint until payday, which has now been.

I also have the ingredients to make it myself at home so if I can't make it there I'll have some fun making it myself :)

Rhubarb!

2010-07-01T12:43:00.003+01:00

Afternooooooon,

I bought some rhubarb on Saturday to make a rhubarb crumble. What with doing call out and not getting to sleep much before 5.30am this week I had yet to get around to doing it. I had a butter mishap too, I forgot to put it in the fridge after I bought it because I was so tired after getting home from work. I went back to buy another last night but I've just realised that at home we keep our butter out in a terracota 'Safari Cooler' which is similar to this Butter Box. I think it's made by Henry Watson. It's awesome and keeps butter fresh but at room temperature.

So this morning I woke up earlyish to two of my housemates chatting quite loudly in the hallway. One has a study day and the other has two days off work and is having a nice long weekend. So it was nice to chat to them as I haven't seen anyone for the last two weeks or so because I've been coming back from work quite late.

I'd decided to make the crumble this morning anyway, and it was good to chat while chopping away instead of me being on my own as usual. It took a while, but my crumble is finally in the oven and bubbling away. I'm gonna leave it for a little longer and then hopefully have some but I think it will be too hot to eat until I get back from work tonight which is a shame - I should be leaving for work in the next twenty minutes or so really.

Have a good day everyone!

xx

Birthday Present!

2010-06-30T12:18:00.010+01:00

Afternoon,

I've been a bit quieter this week as I picked up an impromptu call out for this week on Monday. It's extra money and I had a letter Monday morning telling me my overdraft is being removed on July 26th so I kinda need it really.

I had a present yesterday! Leah rang last week and asked where it was best to send a large box to :) The postman arrived just before 11.30am and woke me up, but this time I didn't mind.

It looked pretty big but thankfully was really light. If I had missed the delivery it would have been delivered to the depot which is next door to work. It turns out I would definitely have been able to take it home from work on the bus which was my main concern about missing it.

I grabbed my super sharp decoupage style craft scissors I bought from The Range last month. They are are amazing, but kinda scary at the same time. Leah used the type of tape that has lines of cord running through it, and it just sliced through them. I'm screwed if I ever drop them on my foot. Anyways, so I opened the top part of the box and this little flap of cardboard opened up:

Hehe! I love the irony, and Leah being a fellow Welshy will too, although she probably didn't realise how true it was as the box was posted on Saturday before the game on Sunday when England crashed out of the world cup!

So inside the box - was another box!

And this box stated:

[Backstory] A month or so ago Leah posted on her blog that she'd been to visit the Cardiff Pumping Station which houses a collection of various antiques and bits and bobs. She found a lush dressing table vanity mirror and asked if I liked it, as a potential birthday present that she would then upcycle. It was huge but gorgeous. But when she went back to buy it, it had already been sold.

[Present day] So I had to open the box :)

Yep - even more packaging!!

Put it all together and you get...

Yeah baby! You remember my Kokeshi doll right?

Thank you Leah, I love it and you :)

xx

Mmmmm Miso Hungry!

2010-06-26T14:45:00.008+01:00

Afternoon,

Apologies for the bad pun. I love Miso soup, I always have some when I'm eating sushi and I buy the sachets to have it at home too - it's my version of drinking tea or coffee.

A couple of months ago while walking around Reading Tom and I noticed that a new chinese/japanese shop had opened. They had a huge poster with pictures of different types of sushi so I insisted we went in. Inside they had the cheapest nori I've ever seen. It sells for about £2.50 in Tesco for 8 sheets, and in Waitrose for £3.70. Due to having no car it's unfortunately easier to get to Waitrose. This new shop in Reading sells a block of 50 sheets for £4.99. Wahey!!

It also sells these:

We didn't have much time to browse and I was skint, so I said I'd come back another day. That day has arrived!!

I bought that packet as I love the little bowls you get soups and miso in so it's a bonus. I also bought some mayonnaise in the squeeeeeeziest bottle I've ever felt:

I'm hoping it will taste like the one they use in Yo!Sushi because I've had daydreams about that stuff!

I also bought some noodles for a quick meal after work:

Random: Tom just arrived for my belated birthday celebrations in Reading. And broke the bed, lol!

Anyways, back to the point. As the set I bought was mushroom flavoured miso soup, I thought I'd also get some more typical miso flavour sachets for variation:

I picked up some other bits and bobs while I was in town, including some rhubarb (I intend to make some rhubarb crumble :)) and some food.

Then I legged it home as I couldn't carry any more - waaaaay too hot.

After unpacking everything I settled down to make some miso :) We're going to Yo!Sushi this evening before we go out drinking, but a girl can never have too much miso! Unless she bursts.

Note - I was yet to eat (and it was 2pm) so my very bad shakes have defeated the in built shake reducer. Flash was too bright to use in some of them so my apologies for the blurs. My nerves on the other hand, won't apologise for anything. Bastards.

And inside the box...

Inside each sachet is one of these little pots:

They're quite random! I like it thought. As you add the water it dissolves and all the lovely mushrooms come swirling out. Rather pretty effect, especially with the swirling paste too.

Mmmmmmm :)

As I said, Tom arrived this afternoon. While he was here I made another bowl of Miso to show him. For some reason he has it in for seaweed (nori) which is served in most miso soups (and almost every piece of sushi, and the soups etc in Yo!Sushi). However as this one didn't have any in it, he said he quite liked it. Which means I can use that as an excuse to buy more, yay!!

Now all that's left is to eat the rest!! Will probably use them as hangover cures tomorrow morning. The salts in them must be good at replenishing electrolytes right?!

xx

Oh Dear!

2010-06-26T12:11:00.003+01:00

Morning,

I was supposed to get up early today and head to the gym. My phone was dying and I couldn't find the charger so I set up my bedside one that runs off of batteries. Turns out that this is running 2 hours behind...

Why the sudden interest in going to the gym? Because I've just signed up for the Reading 2010 Race For Life that's what!

I'll set up a fundraising page in a few days, I'm hoping to recruit some others from work (we need a minimum of 3 to apply for matched funding from work). I have one other interested, struggling on the third.

It's 3 weeks today, and I'm seriously unfit as usual. Help!!

xx

Charlie Bit Me!

2010-06-22T01:01:00.001+01:00

I realise I am (as usual) several years late in posting this, but I've only now seen it.

xx

Awesome Friday

2010-06-21T11:13:00.006+01:00

Morning,

I had an awesome weekend this weekend - hence the radio silence! That and a broken touch screen phone so I can no longer update to Twitter on the move :)

On Friday I came back up to Reading about Midday. The desktop hasn't been touched and won't be until the man my Mam relies on to fix my old laptop comes to get it. My Mam always does her Beta Interferon injection on Thursdays nights which means that Fridays are a complete wash out, so Dadcu drove me to the train station. My Mamgu was there too, as they were planning on going to the beach for a few hours after dropping me off. Apparently she goes 'loopy after being in the house for too long' and I guess there will come a point where she won't be able to, wheelchair or no wheelchair.

So I eventually got to Reading with way too many bags - was kinda painful to walk home. Couldn't get there fast enough. Then had to jump in the shower, paint my nails, do my hair and put cream on, then get dressed and jump on a train to London to meet Tom!

Had a dilemna though, we'd agreed that I was going to go back to Watford to stay at his, but I don't have a black bag big enough to carry a change of clothes. In the end, minger that I am, I found the bag I normally use for interviews etc which my pair of black wedge/kitten heels fit into because I knew I wouldn't last the weekend in the ones I was wearing and my cream/make up. Yep, no clothes. Remembered my camera but forgot my bloody glasses. Then had to leg it to the train station as I was wearing the black heels I bought to wear for Leah's hen night and I'm not used to walking in heels any more.

My train got into Paddington at dead on 6.15pm and I scared the crap out of Tom by going up to him and standing there until he next looked around. He'd got there a few moments ahead of me and was gloating he'd had further to come and had still got there first. Think he took it back after I scared him!

We jumped on the tube and then walked to the Royal Albert Hall. Hyde Park is apparently very big but without my glasses and not being able to see it properly it didn't seem that huge. The biggest thing in there was the Prince Albert Memorial which is opposite the hall - which is fucking huge.

Very pretty though, there were lots of people outside it queuing to get in. We'd had courier issues with tickets so we were picking them up from the box office. To reach it we had to walk around the back of the hall to another entrance which took us past the Stage Door where there were several people milling around. One was a pretty ballerina with her hair in a neat bun covered in some loose fitting clothes to keep her warm smoking. Was a good picture until I mentioned the smoking right? We also saw Jason one of the judges from Dancing on Ice (I'm told, I didn't recognise him).

If I haven't mentioned it already, we were there to see Swan Lake by the English National Ballet. It was my birthday present from Tom :) I've always wanted to see it but have never been. I used to go see Ballet's a lot when I was younger in the Swansea Grand Theatre. The Royal Albert Hall is a bit different! For one thing the stage is a large oval shape in the middle of the room - unlike the traditional stage there are no sides to it. The choreography by Derek Deane makes full use of all the extra room.

We were sitting up in the gods which was good as it meant we could see all the patters as they were dancing, but not so good when you've forgotten your glasses and are short sighted. Still, I actually saw rather well, and seeing as I was keeping my eyes trained on the some distance I managed to see the footwork rather well too. At one point I was going to tell Tom that the longest unbroken chain of pirouettes in a ballet is 33 - or so I believe. This was after the senior principal Elena Glurdjidze playing Odette/Odile had finished doing several in a circle around the stage. She then launched into 33 pirouettes :) She's by far the most technically brilliant ballerina I've seen so far.

The whole thing was fantastic, and even Tom enjoyed. We went to see The Nutcracker in the Millennium Centre in Cardiff the night before I handed in my dissertation. It was good, but it was done in a more contemporary style which although might make it more attractive to newcomers, I personally found disappointing and I didn't like it as much. I did classical Ballet for nearly 11 years, so that's where my heart lies! For example, the lead soloist wore a blue and white polka dot halter neck dress in the Nutcracker. In Swan Lake the costumes and tutu's were delicate - and go some way to explaining my fascination with full skirts and skirts that 'go out when you twirl'!

The show was 3.5 hours long, so we got out quite late. Thankfully we were lucky with the tube and the train so it didn't take too long to get back to Watford. We then popped into Tesco for some tea as neither of us had eaten properly before the show. It was a good day :)

xx

Birthday :)

2010-06-17T22:41:00.001+01:00

Watch this space :)

xx

Happy Birthday to Me :)

2010-06-17T09:34:00.000+01:00

Howdy,

Have a fab day wherever you are, hopefully I will too! 23 today :)

xx

Still a Little Achey

2010-06-16T23:58:00.000+01:00

Evening,

Today's been busy. My grandfather rang and heard that I wanted to go for a walk, so my Mam and I went up to my grandparent' house where my Mam stayed to look after my Mamgu (as Dadcu doesn't like to leave her alone any more) and I went for a walk with my Dadcu.

He's always loved going for walks, he used to take my brother for walks that would last the whole day. I went on my fair share too but my brother could keep up better than I could. I think he enjoyed being out of the house though. We went up on Gelliwastad mountain, and in the end it was just over an hour. I took 134 pictures, and I really like some of them. It felt good to be back up there, I spent a lot of time there when I was younger. Most of the places I used to play are overgrown and difficult to get to now though.

As I was walking I thought that it would not be a good day for someone to start a fire. It's been 22 degrees today, and the heather was extremely dry - and there's a lot more than I can see from my room. In fact we walked past two spots where someone had obviously tried to start fires. One was small and burnt out very quickly recently, the other was a lot larger and older - there were ferns and other plants with shoots growing already. That one had spread a lot more, but had been stopped thankfully. Being up on that mountain if there was a fire would not be a good thing at all.

Once we were back I had a look at their computer. It's ground to a halt over the last 6 months or so and they've been complaining about it a lot. I backed up all their pictures as most are of my grandparents when my grandmother was fit and healthy. I also discovered that while the rest of the specs are decent, the RAM was only 512MB. So we opened it up and we've taken out the RAM.

Tomorrow we have to get up early to go and buy a replacement 2GB. I then have a filling appointment and then we'll go back to my grandparent' house and install the RAM and hope for the best. I've not taken a desktop apart before so it was quite cool - although there were 3 leads that weren't plugged in when I opened it up, so I'm hoping they've always been like that! I wouldn't know where to start with trying to plug them back in!

On our drive back home, we were stopped by a fire engine (the smaller kind that holds equipment) and they asked us directions to Gelliwastad mountain. My heart leaped and then sank. It was only an hour or so that I'd been up there, and I hate it when people think it's fun to light fires, it actually physically hurts to think about it because of the destruction it causes. There's at least one big fire every year.

On our way back we decided to have chips as a treat. As we got to the shops, another larger fire engine went past. I didn't see any smoke rising, so I'm hoping it was an exercise they were running. There seemed to only be the driver in it.

This evening I met up with Angharad and we went for an Orange Wednesday at the cinema. She's already seen SATC2 so we went to see Letters to Juliet. I read a lot of chick lit books from the library as I normally head straight to the 'Recently Returned' section and just pick books up from there as I go through them rather quickly. I normally take out 5 or 6 at a time and return them in 2 weeks. This means that I'm quite good at predicting how the stories will end, and I could predict this film too. The funniest moments were the ones we weren't supposed to laugh at. All in all it wasn't a waste of time, because I kinda like those kind of films, but I think Angharad hated it.

Oh dear :) Ah well, it's now 23.58 and I'm turning 23 in 2 minutes. It's going to be odd saying 23. I've had trouble getting used to being a year older since turning 20. Don't like being out of my teens :(

xx

Aching

2010-06-16T11:10:00.004+01:00

Morning,

It's a really nice day today. I'm going to grab my camera and head out but I haven't decided whether to walk out across the mountain or whether to go down the nature reserve. Both have their own challenges.

I prefer the nature reserve as it is smaller and closer, and is built around a river. It takes about 1-2 hours to walk around, and it has an upper trail that is fun to do which goes past the old Coal mine my grandfather used to work in. It's now a bird reserve run by the RSPB and you can see more details here. However my lens isn't going to be fast enough to focus on moving birds, and there are lots of trees everywhere which could obscure getting a good shot.

Going over the Gelliwastad mountain takes a little longer. My house is in the valley of this mountain, and each time I look out of my window this is what I see. It's changed quite substantially over the years. My back garden has heather in it that's come across from the river, although there isn't much heather left on the mountain itself now due to stupid twats deciding it's fun to see a mountain burn. Since then the trees have gradually grown over most of the mountain.

Last night Kirsty and I went rock climbing at Dynamic Rock. They run taster sessions to introduce you to it, and I signed us up for one of those. It opened after my first year of uni and it's in a gutted Public Hall that I used to live down the road from. I used to sit on Sion Corn's lap there every Christmas :) It had two floors, with a shop on each and these have been knocked through and they now have 12m high walls to climb instead.

I think I enjoyed! At the time it was hard work, so quite a few times I just thought 'fuck I can't do it'. Especially when my grip was slipping, or I didn't think I'd be able to push myself up because the of how high one leg was above the other. We did a lot of walls though. The session was an hour at £15 each with all equipment included. We started off in the bouldering room where they have large mats on the floor and no harnesses are used. We were taught how to move up and sideways. We climbed the short wall, and then the taller (which go up to 4.5m) which was scarier as that was a fair distance off the ground to fall! In fact Kirst got her legs twisted at one point and had to drop back down.

After the second bit my forearms were aching, although most of the work should be done by your leg muscles as your arms aren't designed to support your weight during climbing. We then went through to the proper climbing room and put our safety helmets and harnesses on. Poor man had to leg it back up 2 flights of stairs to get me a 'midget helmet' as Kirst put it. Yes, I have a small head :)

For some reason I was picked to go first during the small room, and second during the harnessing which suited me as it gave my arms more chance to recover. Kirsty is a lot quicker than me though as she's done it before. All in all we did 7 of the high walls with different degrees of difficulty. They range from 1 (the easiest) to 6 (the hardest) and there's ABC's and +/-'s involved also. Dynamic Rock starts at level 3 and you can pick a colour to climb where you are only allowed to use those as handholds and footrests.

The last two walls things were getting really painful. Kirsty had to stop after halfway as her hands were hurting so much she couldn't hold on anymore. I managed to make it to the top for both, but I still don't really know how. The instructor was telling us that we needed to move a little quicker, but I was slower than Kirsty. I did stop to shake my hands and get the blood back in them so maybe that helped. Either was, I surprised myself by being able to complete them so that was a good feeling.

I think I would probably go back, but after hitting the gym to get a little more strength! I think Kirst would probably be interested in going back as well but I'm going back up to Reading on Friday. I have a date in the Royal Albert Hall :)

Right, time for breakfast and backing up my SD cards while my batteries charge and I hunt down my walking boots :)

xx

Kokeshi Dolls and Games

2010-06-14T17:27:00.000+01:00

Howdy,

I've been doing a little Wikipedia reading on the Kokeshi doll Leah gave me for my birthday. It seems that the design of the Mii avatars used in Nintendo Wii systems are based on them :)

I started playing Half Life 2 today. I bought it last week as it's a game I tried to play last summer but the Ravenholm zombie level got the better of me and put me off playing it. As it's a game everyone says I should play, I bought it quite cheaply off Steam and I started it today. At the moment I'm nearing the end of the Route Kanal level. I'm not sure if I like it or not, I don't appreciate getting virtually shot at, and it's making me rather jumpy!

I also bought Fallout 3 this weekend as a birthday treat to myself, but so far I've not been able to get it to actually load on my laptop. I get as far as the menu screen, but as soon as I click Play the menu goes away and nothing happens. There's no programme open in Task Manager or anything, nadda. It's a bit odd.

In other gaming news, I read today that Portal 2 has been delayed by at least 6 months until 2011. I'm quite gutted about that as I adore Portal and I was really looking forward to it's release. To balance it out I also found out that allegedly Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion is set for release in November. Time will tell.

xx

Welsh Birthday

2010-06-14T00:40:00.005+01:00

Evening,

It's the end of a good weekend. On Friday Tom drove to my house in Reading. I packed and we drove to Swansea. We got home about 11.15pm. Pretty much headed straight to bed as we were pretty tired.

On Saturday we woke up fairly early as I had a hair appointment in Swansea. I didn't really want to get out of bed though, so in the end we had to leg it into town as I thought my appointment was at 11. Turns out it was at 11.30 so we had a little time to wander around and I picked up a new necklace to go with the top that I bought on Monday.

After my hair appointment Tom picked me up from town. We stopped off in Asda on the way to buy some drinks and when I got home there were 12 balloons sitting happily on my bed :) This weekend is my 'Welsh Birthday' as my birthday is on Thursday but it's quite awkward to arrange a night out since everyone has begun working in proper jobs. Not long after we'd been at home Leah and Oli turned up.

I haven't seen them since their wedding in April so it was really good to catch up with them again. Leah had two gorgeous Japanese dolls that are made by hand. I picked a pretty green one, and Leah is keeping the other as a 'twin' which is painted in a lush burgundy colour. I forgot to take a picture of both dolls together :(

I then jumped in the shower quickly and when I came out we started on the alcamahol. Then Kirsty, Angharad and Jonathan arrived at 5pm. All 5 of them were staying the night, so Leah and Oli had brought their double airbed for the other three to use in the conservatory with our sofa bed.

We ordered a chinese and I left to collect it with Dad. By the time we'd finished eating it was 6.15pm and the taxi was booked for 6.45pm! Legged it upstairs to get ready. The taxi company screwed up the taxis they sent which wasn't brilliant. The first 5 went in a taxi while Angharad, Tom and myself stayed for the second one. It arrived about 20 minutes later.

Once we finally got into town we met up with the others who were in Yates. As you may be aware the World Cup has begun, and it was England vs America. Both Oli and Tom are English so they made sure we were sat opposite a TV screen. The drinks in Yates were pretty cheap so the rest of us were quite content to stay there as well. Two surprises turned up which was fantastic. My best friend from school Liz, who currently works with orphanages in Romania, is home for two weeks and came out until 11pm to see me. We always meet up when she's in Reading as she went to uni there and her boyfriend lives nearby.

The second surprise was my other best friend in school, Lauren. We've lost touch over the years. In school it was Liz & Ed, Lauren & Liam and me and my ex. Three girls and three boys, we kinda ruled over the 'Workroom' where we hung out. Ed and Liz split up fairly early on, and Liam and Lauren split up a couple of weeks into the first year of uni. Lauren and I kinda lost touch then, as we only saw each other when I was at home. I last saw Lauren the day before I moved to Reading so it was really good to see her. She used to be quite insecure but she's really settled in her skin since going to uni which is lovely to see.

We moved from Yates to Pitcher & Piano which has a really good 241 cocktails offer most days. We got there quite late so it had finished, but we still had a few drinks. Someone decided it was a good idea to buy a round of 'Brain Damage' shots with Baileys, Archers and Grenadine. The Bailey's curdles so it was lumpy which was kinda offputting but it tasted okay overall. Not long after that someone bought a round of other shots which had Black Sambuca, Absinthe and Red Aftershock. That one wasn't so great.

Liz had to leave at that point and we were going to be heading to the club before long so we said goodbye. The Lauren's sister finished watching SATC2 in the cinema and she left to meet her to head home. She stayed with Tom in Yates while her sister drove to get her and the rest of us headed to the club but got blindsided by the McDonalds. Eating chips in a bus station is always fun - and a good chance for Leah to rest her feet as her shoes were killing her. They looked good though.

We got into the club and sat down at a table temporarily. Oli fell asleep about 10 seconds later and Leah stayed with him while the rest of us went into the Disco room to dance. After about 10 minutes I went back to see what was happening but it was pretty clear he was out of it (personally methinks the boys all peaked too early from drinking while watching the footy) and Leah took him home in a taxi.

The rest of us stayed for another 2 hours and once again I lead the way in dancing to Whigfield's Saturday Night :) We were going to leave after the first hour as people were starting to flag, but then the music got good again and we couldn't leave! We did eventually leave and made it home by 3.30am. Had a mini argument in the taxi with Tom who was adamant he could direct the taxi driver home to my house and that I was directing him the wrong way. I let Tom direct him and we drove the wrong way and ended up in someone's driveway - much to Tom's confusion. Mistake corrected by myself we headed home and to bed :)

This morning my stomach felt fine, but I had a pretty bad head. And we were out of paracetamols so that didn't help matters. Oli and Leah left around 11am as they were pretty tired and wanted to get home and I headed back to sleep for a couple of hours. The 5 of us then went to the Harvester for a meal with Dad and Daniel in his car and Mam, Tom and I in Tom's car. After eating he carried on driving back to Watford and got there about 9pm which is a good time according to my Dad.

My Dad has a little ritual that he and his Dad do every Sunday. He drives to pick Dat up and then they go to the same pub. Dad drinks two pints and Dat drinks one. They sit and chat, or sort out any issues Dat has for two hours then Dad drives them home. I almost always go if I'm at home because I don't see much of my family and it's the little things that I miss.

They started doing it after my gran died in 2002 and my Dad really enjoys it, although he gets quite infuriated sometimes. My grandfather didn't have a debit card, and doesn't like using cash machines so he used to drive to a village to take money out at the Co-op Bank which was expensive in petrol money, and then drive to another bigger Co-op to buy food then drive home. He's 79 and didn't have a bus pass either, so he's been paying for buses all these years when he could have been going for free. When Nan died my father had to teach him how to write a cheque, Nan did all the 'domestic' things. Like I said, it's the little things but it adds up.

xx

The Weekend.

2010-06-08T08:09:00.002+01:00

Morning,

I'm kinda glad to be done with last weekend. Work screwed up the rota and it meant that there was only two people down to work it, myself and my friend. I'm very thankful that I was partnered with my friend because it made it more fun to do, and it would have been awful being paired with someone I don't get on with so much because as it turned out we were there for 12 hours.

Yep, 12 long hours. Normally 3 people work 3 'stations' during the day, between 9.30am and 2.30pm. Then we switch to processing the samples that arrive during the day, culminating with the last 2 couriers due at 4.30pm. We used to have issues getting out early, but in recent months they've worked hard to rejig the couriers so they arrive earlier, and now people get out 6-6.30pm on average.

We finished at 9.10pm. And I had to hang around for a bus at half past. Our couriers didn't turn up until 8pm, which is when they would normally arrive (and be considered on time) if it was Mon-Fri. As it wasn't, they were 3.5 hours late due to Blackwall Tunnel being closed for the weekend.

One courier even told us he'd gone an alternate route only to realise he didn't have his wallet with him and couldn't pay the toll to go over the bridge. First off, who the fuck leaves the house for 6 hours without a wallet or a debit card in this day and age?! Secondly why the courier company doesn't have an expenses card that they can spend more than petrol on is beyond me. Thirdly how come he only realised when he pulled up to pay...

Anyways, had a bit of a 20 minute corridor meeting with the general Micro manager yesterday about it. He thanked myself and my friend for sticking with it. The courier contract is up for tender and they are making sure the new contract actually penalises the couriers for turning up late and forcing them to install GPS trackers that we hope to have access to in the lab.

Been a long weekend, and because we get paid for the weekend as overtime it means that we don't get any days off the following week, you just work 12 days straight. Went to bed at 10pm last night cos I was pretty shattered after going shopping with the same friend for an hour or so.

We also went to the gym on Friday night and I wasn't aching, but after standing for 12 hours on Saturday, and 8 hours on Sunday I've been aching since Sunday. I'm still aching today :(

Hope you have a good day (yes I typed this out so I could postpone going into work for half an hour).

xx

Bloggy Birthday

2010-06-05T22:31:00.001+01:00

Evening,

Just realised while talking to Leah that this blog is just over 2 years old! I started it on May 16th 2008 before my finals.

That's gone by really quickly!

xx

Mixed Week

2010-05-28T19:15:00.004+01:00

Evening,

This week has been better than last week. I've been on a preferred area in work, and the manager who was at my back last week has still been patronising - sitting me down to tell me how to write a QC report when I've written the most out of the department this year - but it hasn't bothered me as much.

I've also sorted out my hours problem. I was -29 hours and couldn't seem to get it back up again. So I've now swapped my weekend at the beginning of May for the equivalent amount of hours, and am now +3 hours. Which means if I collect 46 minutes more I can have a half day off...

My Dad is here tonight. He had to fly from London City airport as BA are on strike. So he left the car at mine for two days while I looked after it and replaced permits as needed. Except that I've been on call this week (Mon-Fri) and didn't replace today's permit until 10.30am so my Dad may have a parking ticket. Kinda too scared to go and look, but if he has I'll pay it. When he arrives back we'll have a takeaway and have a look.

Call out hasn't been too bad either. I'm pretty tired, but that comes with the territory. At least this Monday is a bank holiday, which means a 3 day weekend, woop! Hopefully going for sushi on Monday as Yo! Sushi's Blue Monday's offer still applies for bank holidays.

Have a good weekend xx

Stupido!

2010-05-21T18:50:00.002+01:00

Evening,

My stupid moment confession of the week.

I threw out a brand new white board on Monday. It was still in the cardboard packaging it was delivered in.

In my defence, it was still in the cardboard packaging it was delivered in. And next to other empty and collapsed cardboard in the area we reserve for things that are to be recycled/thrown out.

My friend and I struggled to bend it in half, and once we did a brand new holder to put a wiper and pen fell out. Then we saw what was inside.

On Wednesday the guy who had ordered it came around asking if anyone had seen a whiteboard.

xx

Next!

2010-05-20T23:25:00.002+01:00

Evening,

I went back to the manager with the 'social skills of a rock' and asked him if he'd heard back from the girl who had complained. Turns out I misunderstood him. The girl didn't complain, he just looked through the window and saw her filling a cupboard and assumed I wasn't doing my job properly. The thought that she might actually be helping me out probably never crossed his mind. She may have been, I wasn't in the lab at the time...

He spent all of today in the lab, so I feel like I'm being watched at the moment. I probably am. At least for the next week.

Still, the baton was passed on today. My friend covered a Saturday for me 3 weeks ago because she needs the money. We aren't supposed to scribble things out if we make a mistake, everything has to be crossed with a single line, initialled and dated. On this occasion my friend was on autopilot and scribbled. Today our line manager paid her a visit and said that because it was a red flag if we get audited the manager with the 'social skills of a rock' had decided along with his best friend, another manager, that my friend now has to write the girl who might-have-but didn't-complain's quality control failure report because she didn't want to do it. Confusing I know. Read it again :)

Was supposed to be going to the pub tonight with my workmates as today is pay day. Came home, showered, went for my first raid in 3 weeks (which was successful, yay!), listened to Skylar and sorted out my crafts storage box instead. Wasn't really in the mood for drinking, and it's cheaper.

This is the latest I've stayed up this week, I'm quite impressed with myself!

xx

Bundle Box

2010-05-19T06:48:00.001+01:00

Morning,

I have just signed up for Bundle Box. I read about it a while ago and seeing as I'm thinking of buying some things in America that you can't buy over here I've signed up.

If you fancy it here's an invite link: https://www.bundlebox.com/invite/GB0510SDA4/

xx

2010-05-19T04:45:00.003+01:00

Morning,

I just feel completely disillusioned at the moment. On Monday I found out that a friend of mine from a forum had passed away suddenly from cancer. She was 39, and was told on Thursday it was terminal.

Yesterday a supervisor, who thinks he's a manager but isn't, came up to me and told me that someone had complained about me and asked if anything had happened on plates on Monday. Nothing happened at work so I said no.

The same person who complained has grassed up a few people before, most notably when a friend was talking about internal vacancies because she hadn't seen the website before or realised they were listed at work. The complainer then went straight to their manager and told him the friend was thinking of leaving, and when she did could she have her day job so she wouldn't have to do late shift any more.

Basically she complained that I hadn't done my job properly because she'd had to fill up a cupboard with stock. It's beyond me which cupboard or what stock, because I had checked the cupboards and filled the ones that were low. There were some that were not low, but also didn't need topping up. So why she felt the need to is beyond me. Why she couldn't ask me directly seeing as I was in the same room as her for 4 hours is another matter. Maybe she has an axe to grind because she's noticed that I've been a lot happier personally recently. It wouldn't surprise me.

One of my biggest obstacles is that I dwell on things. A lot. Especially bad things. It takes a lot for me to put something out of my mind and stop thinking about it. What with Sarah passing away I was already feeling down, and then spent all of yesterday just not wanting to be in work and wanting to just hightail it to bed and sleep so I didn't have to think about it.

As it was I was in bed by 7pm.

On a better note, my friend and I have decided we are going to attend some gym classes at my gym after work. We'll start with once a week, and work our way up to two. She lives in London so it's more convenient to go to mine, and also both of us know that we should go to the gym, but hate going alone and would rather go to a class. So it's a solution that suits. We popped in yesterday after work and found out that she doesn't need an induction and each class will be £5.30 for her. That works out as £21.20 a month for 4 classes, and my membership is £30 a month so I should also try to attend the gym on a weekend in order to get my moneys worth.

I woke up at 2.30am and spent an hour and a half looking for jobs back home in Wales. There's barely any science jobs though, and while I should take a boring admin job if it pays better, I'd kinda rather not. Plus Tom has only just moved closer, and it would really annoy him if I disappeared. But I lose £5,500 a year in rent, and it would make much more sense to get out of a job I am fed up of, and to move back to Wales where the rent will be so much cheaper to save up for uni.

xx

Back!

2010-05-15T03:01:00.002+01:00

Howdy!

We came back from Texas late Wednesday night. Our flight was delayed by 7 hours so it was just as well I'd arranged to take the Wednesday off and not tried to make it back in time for late shift!

Will update properly over this weekend, knee deep in uploading pictures to Facebook which is trying to refuse everything but photos spoon fed in small batches at a time. Having a dodgy laptop that keeps freezing and having taken 1,057 photos this may take some time...

xx

On Again, and Off Again...

2010-05-02T18:14:00.002+01:00

Evening,

My god it's cold today, the temperature has really dropped. Had to wait 20 minutes for the bus and I still can't really feel my fingers.

I worked this weekend. The opportunity came up and I took it, I need the money. However my hours are still down in work, so I am going to ask if I can not be paid for Saturday and have the time I was there converted into hours which should give me back around 10 hours.

I was also on call. Even though I said I'd never do it again. There was a gap on the rota and no one volunteered. I would have taken it but I'm going to Houston on Tuesday (Yay!) and so it stayed blank. Our manager emailed everyone in a panic on Wednesday to ask if anyone would volunteer to cover a few days. I said I could do Fri-Sun, and was allocated Fri-Sat which suits me better. Also as I am working the weekend our manager has given me a day off in lieu, so that's not too bad.

Had to get up and be in work by 7.55am today to ensure I could get agar ready in time to avoid plate cancellations. I knew the other guy wouldn't be reliable and I was right. He was supposed to be first in by 9.30, and turned up at 10.10. Yep, I have met a person lazier than me and I hate him sometimes, like today.

Need to tidy and pack today. Angharad and Kirsty are arriving at 1.30pm tomorrow and we have to be up at 4.30am on Tuesday for our flight at 10.40am. Will probably not get another chance to post, so have a good week :)

xx

Choices Made

2010-04-26T20:21:00.002+01:00

Evening,

I just accepted Cardiff as my firm choice. Apparently you can only have a firm and insurance offer if the offers you have are conditional.

My UCAS track screen now shows a 'Congratulations! Your place at Cardiff University.... has been confirmed.'

*Happy dance*

xx

Teehehe!

2010-04-23T10:20:00.004+01:00

I hate the whole election campaign - lifetime of growing up with 4 family members who each campaigned and stood for local elections etc.

But still, I like the Cameron one (click to view large, it's worth it) :D

xx