Tuesday 31 July 2007

Busfares, Baths and Bauer

That was a waste of busfares (nearly £4!)... I got to my interview, but my interviewer didn't! Ah well, I got to show off my CV to one of the other bosses, and have relisted my interview for tomorrow instead, so all is not lost. Although, this is slightly inconvenient, as I think it conflicts with my OTHER appointment to sort out paperwork, but Murphy's Law says it's going to mess up anyway, so can't worry! Got lots of paperwork arrived in post, so I'm struggling through all the red tape that's insisting on hanging me upsidedown from the light fittings.

When I got home, I ended up going back out again when more of Dave's mates turned up. We ended up going to town to drop off some parcels, I found an old fashioned fudge makers (complete with copper heaters and marble topped table) where I bought some VERY expensive but extremely nice orange chocolate fudge. Took me a while to work out how to eat it - pull a bit off, and it crumbles, leaving you smelling pleasantly of oranges, but covered in dodgy brown patches. After a few minutes of trying to lick these off, I just bit into the fudge - problem solved! (It was GOOOOO-OD, and I still got covered!)

I'm still trying to work out why someone rang me up and asked for "Angela", well, that's not me, and the other two don't even start with an "A".

Aye, ended up being charged £11 to look round a Roman swimming pool. But it was very interesting, lots of water, and wet stones to look at, and some algae. The hidden spring was bubbling away merrily, making it surprisingly warm (about 46C!). They'd found scrolls of lead and pewter at the bottom of the spring; little curses that locals of old had thrown in, in the hopes that the goddess that kept the spring would heed them. And then I came face to face with the goddess, Minerva, protector of Bath's Bath. Ooer. At least she was locked in a case.

As always, I nearly got lost when everyone wandered off without me, and my sense of direction proved itself non-existant. (I keep trusting it, and it keeps lying to me.)

Completely nuts, people are throwing NOTES into the shrine. There's all manner of currency in there (and as expected, a LOT of American Dollars), so I added a couple of my own coins too, because I could. Well, I gave some to the others, and we all lobbed one in. Tristan tried to skim his (it sunk), Vicky (sensibly) just hurled hers, and I spun mine - it went in with a loud "BLOP". I'm very proud.

Big shout to my mate Brett, ta for the music! (Here's the YouTube version - Bauer, Connected. Enjoy! It's WELL worth buying their singles, they're a class band; more on Bauer later.)


Agh, I burned my tongue! Noodle soup VERY hot, and great fun trying to eat soup with chopsticks!

"I'm stretching my eyelashes. Oh, and she should get out of bed earlier, then she wouldnt be Russian..." - Red, commenting on one of my housemates.

Monday 30 July 2007

Sainsbury's for Shopping, and Sketch for Showtank

Kane survived the first night, which is a good sign. When I salt-bathed him today (much to his disgust) the wound was clean, fungus free, the bone is a good colour, and the surrounding flesh looking smoother already. He's not eating today, but if he makes it to Thursday, I will have some live food for him (with a bit of luck).

Discovered the local Sainsbury's today, and bought some CHEESE! (Heads-up Gray!)
I miss my mum's tuna bake y'know. Can't use Salut on that, but it's bloomin' good. Worth going home for even... Sainsbury's was great, went for three items, came out with dozens. Well, the mince was half price, and all sorts of usable things... The pic is "Green Park" (taken 1983, thanks to Nevard.com), Sainsbury's bought it and redeveloped, as a grand entrance to their superstore!

Was... interesting on the way there, Dave and I took a shortcut along the river, and discovered a mess of drunks. One stormed straight up to us, "Where's ya tool!?" Now, I'm from a pretty rough town, and even I was confused by this. There's incoherent, and then there's just plain ODD. Probably a silly thing to do, but I laughed at him. And he laughed, and went "Ah, just tuggin' ya." and the others clustered about a bench laughed, so that was ok. Until we got up the steps, and he yelled "Where's ya tool?!" again. And then an obscure threat involving a cucumber, which was downright bizarre. My response: "No ta, prefer my cucumber in a salad."

A quick sketch of an idea for Frankie's new tank - I'm building a self-contained fountain to go in it. Will probably do a different sketch later, when I've decided what looks better. (Because I already don't like parts of it, and I've found more stuff I want to go in it...)

Sunday 29 July 2007

Pheeble 'Phibian, Plants and Preparation.

To keep with the apples theme going on with my newts (Braeburn, Smith and Malus) I've called him Akane, or "Kane" for short. It's a another unusual species, the 'Tokyo Rose', a small to medium sized apple with an attractive bright cherry red fruit color. The juicy, white crisp flesh and sprightly flavor resemble Jonathan, but with even more complex flavor.

I found this poor little fella in a heated aquarium, and as you can see, he's missing a foreleg and severely underweight. Fortunately for him, it's freshly missing, and very clean considering. I went over to one of the assistants, and he was shocked. Gave me the newt there and then, saying he'd tell the boss that he's not going to let him bring in anything else unusual, if the boss won't research it first. He quickly sorted the rest into a colder tank, and I'm dealing with Kane here.

I've given him a salt bath to clean wound and will give him a half dose of aquatic antibacterial in a sand substrated, quarantine tank with some mangrove wood for climbing on. If he recovers, and it heals well, he can go in with my other CFBNs. Wish me luck with him!

Update: I've managed to trick him into thinking two defrosted bloodworms are alive, and he's eaten them!

I managed to get the first part of my dragon garden home too, a nice garden mint, a sweet basil and a parsley plant to go alongside the big chunk of slate. Also, I watched what happened with the sunshine, and moved the slate to the best afternoon patch, by the shed.

Impressively, with all the plants and the injured newt, I also managed to wheel home 25Kilos of yet more sand (comes in VERY useful for tanks) - so I should be able to deck out Frankie's new house, sub-layer my new dragonhouse, and give the axies some more too.

Quote today: Kris - " Now I can't say S's." Me - "Why S's?" Kris - "I got bored on Thursday." Me - "Huh?" Kris - "Got my tongue peirced 'cuz I could." (Bear in mind, Kris is quiet, laid back, and very "English", that's the last thing I expected!

Saturday 28 July 2007

Au Revoir Medallion, Awkward Axolotl, and Aloo.

Sadly, Medallion (my freshwater Swan Mussel) passed away today. I did pretty well, seeing as according to various websites, they don't normally survive more than six weeks in home aquaria. I must have done something right, he'd been here at least six months, and put on another half his own size. But these things happen I guess. Thank you shellfish, you did a great job of annoying the axolotls, and filtering the water...

Mind you, they're good at getting into trouble on their own. They often climb in the foodbowls and spin round for a bit, but earlier this afternoon Benny got himself properly stuck, whole body wedged in the bowl. He finally stopped panicking, and was sat carefully thinking about it, waffing his gills. I took mercy on him, shaking the bowl gently until he fell out. He's gone to sleep - too much excitement for one day.

We all went for dinner to the YakYetiYak - a Nepalese restaurant today, my housemates, myself and two friends I mean. It's certainly a new experience for me! We all had something different, and I discovered how nice Lisse is. This is like a milkshake, but made with yogurt; mine was full of real blended banana, very sweet, but very nice. I ended up with fermented bamboo shoots stir-fried with new potatoes and black-eye peas, finished with fresh vegetable stock. They say it's a Kathmandu speciality, and I would recommend it. Ignore the aroma of the fermented shoots, and the flavours are superb! The table in the second picture was ours, there was an extra floor cushion at the head, and that's where I was sat. (Thanks to YakYetiYak.co.uk for the image)

And here's a couple of links that regressed me to being very small (yes, even at my height, there was such a time) when I used to stick my head in the glass bowl door of the washer to watch my socks go round and round... They can take you to age three and a quarter all over again; they are exactly what they say they are!

http://www.switchitoffandon.com/
http://www.watchitwash.com/ - (you will need to turn the dial, middle top, play with the dial!)

Quote for today: "Surely that would make "potato aloo" potato potato? Is that like potato with a side order of potato? And maybe a small helping of potato to go with the potato and potato? Dunnit look weird when you keep typing the same word? Potato potato potato...." - E.G (Confused by aloo meaning "potato" or so the Nepalese waiter told me)

Friday 27 July 2007

Medicine, Machine-washing, Meats and Moussaka!

This morning, my housemate woke up feeling bad, so I did the errand-running about, as her boyfriend had gone out. (Yes, I'm a soft touch.) Went downstairs, put shoes on, forgot jacket, took shoes off, came back up, got jacket, went downstairs, put shoes on, forgot keys, took shoes off, came back up... Well, got out in the end! Shop for stuff, cornflakes and milk (she wanted some, we had neither), came back, door playing nice today - to realise I had forgotten the cornflakes. Went back out (see rigamarole above, and repeat) and retrieved said 'flakes. Served some up - and then went to chemists. The door was still playing nice.

Anyway, bundled her off to see the doctor, and got simple bits like washing up done, put washing on (see Mum, I'm not too bad at this lark!) with this new natural organic no-nasty ingredients liquid. I think I did it wrong, but washing has come out looking clean, and smells faintly of lemons. Murphy's law though, looks like it's going to rain.

Turns out Frankie likes turkey-ham. Oh well, can't help some creatures. At least he's eating. Didn't give any to the axolotls, because they're fat enough as it is this week. (The photo is Benny.) They've been fed all sorts just lately, they really like my housemate because she gives them scraps from feeding her angelfish.

Introduced to moussaka today as well. That's peculiar stuff, but certainly edible, once I got my head round the concept of baked yogurt. Some interesting combinations of foodstuffs, but it works! Meaty, soft vegetable-y, and sort of cheesy...

Quote of the day: "Say hello to the food for me O_o" - Erkan, on misunderstanding Moussaka...

Thursday 26 July 2007

Some Success, Sand and Security (Too Secure!)

Had a mess about with Frankie's old setup before going out, just to give him something to do whilst I get the new one done. He's now sat making "ting" noises in his glass foodbowl. Correction, now he's making little "zing" noises as he's climbing out ninja-styly. Quiet for him anyway. I can hear Frank tapping on the corkbark peices now, he'll be having a look at how I've rearranged it.

Left about tenish this morning, umbrella in hand to combat the drizzle, and soon discovered I had overestimated how long it would take me to get to my interview - when I arrived half an hour early. Whoops. Ah well, the interview went well, I had a talk with the boss fella, met some of the staff in the department, got into a discussion about thermodynamics with the tech-bloke, chatted about my odd animals, and was given a lift home.

Which turned out to be when the trouble started. I stuck the key in the dodgy lock, twiddled it a bit - and it wouldn't open. I kept trying and trying, and I still couldn't get in. So, after about half an hour of this, and fighting with my umbrella in a drizzle turned nasty, I phoned the letting agents. They rang the landlord, the landlord told them "It's a bit fiddly, you have to fiddle it a bit." Interesting but annoying fact: You can't open our front door from the outside with the door handle, even if it's unlocked. You HAVE to have the key when you go out, or get someone to let you back in. And that's not today's picture of the sky by the way. Too wet to take camera out...

Well. When they called back and told me that, I responded a bit... bluntly. "Yes, I know it's a bit flaming fiddly, it's always been flipping fiddly and I've been f*ing fiddling with it for the last 30 minutes. So would you tell him I'd like him to come and let me in NOW." It was hammering it down, and I was getting very cold, very wet and VERY bad tempered. I kept trying it in the hope it'd let me back in.

Nearly an hour after I'd discovered I couldn't get in, the landlord rolled up, took my key, stuck it in the lock, and opened it with almost elegant ease.
I blinked.
How the HELL did he do that?
I asked him that too.
He sort of shrugged, said you had to fiddle with it a bit and showed me.
I still can't do it.

But we should be getting a new lock now, as I told him I was not prepared to faff around every time I wanted to get back home.

Smell like old tank now. One of my housemate's friends turned up with a blue van, full of tanks and some metal racking. There's seven tanks in total, and we're all pitching in to scrub it all down. I'm cleaning, another's stacking/drying/etc, and the third is washing sand to put in them all. At least I don't have to wash the sand to go in Frankie's new tank, that's been done for me. A winning smile won 'em over. This pleases Spyyk, one of my axolotls, because he likes digging. Otherwise, he he trashes things, as you can see!

Turns out my winning smile is doing me well today, got a call back from the interview too. If red tape goes well, I should start my new job in just over a week. Alright, it's a temp job, but it's stuff I like doing, and there's a slight possibility of it going full...

Quote for today: "This was between Andy and me whilst driving in a Mercedes: Me - it makes me feel like a dog with worms. Andy - huh? Me - well it's so low down, it feels like my ankles are round my ears and my a*se is scraping the road!" - The delightful Emma.

Tuesday 24 July 2007

Wireless Woes and Weary from Walking...

It's been nice and quiet so far today. Got up, had a nice shower (not scalding for a change!), munched on a bowl of cereal (and sneaked in some macadamia and dried cranberries) and mooched a bit. Wandered into the city centre, got lost a bit more. I ALWAYS take the wrong turning, I should have learned by now.

But I got to the bank eventually, and had a tussle with the machine on the telephone.
-Machine: "After the tone, please say the number of your choice"
- Me: "One."
- Machine: "I'm sorry, we did not recognise the number you have selected, please try again after the tone."
- Me: "ONE."
- Machine... You get the idea.
- Me: "ONE!!! DAMMIT!"
- Machine: "You have selected one. One moment please."
*sighs*

I still haven't worked the buses out properly either. Last time I got the bus back, I got lost. Well, I got off earlier and schlepped up the hill a bit, and the bus merrily trundled past me. Now, why didn't it go that way last time? Or did it???

Mmmmm, macadamia nuts... why are they such neat hemi-globe shapes?

Hmm, I have a question for my readers - why is it that, even though I paired all my socks when I packed them in my case, I STILL ended up with an odd one when unpacking again!? Perhaps they bred, like odd socks do in the tumble drier? Would make sense, the sun was hot, and the car rattled round a bit, so perfect conditions for sock-breeding... Any sock experts out there?

Wireless still doesn't work. Techie Dave stumped. Apparently another techie friend has now been roped in to come look at it. The chemist, the Russian and the 'phibber couldn't do it, so maybe the engineer can! Still, managing on this cable, helped a friend who for some insane reason has decided to buy an amphiuma... Although did manage to confuse the engineer friend, because we were discussing internet. He's without at the moment, and getting it installed same time as his phone line. I pointed out one big store do a telephone that works like a landline through cable internet, which would have saved him time and money. He misunderstood and thought I said it was a store that did an online service to check if you could HAVE a telephone. I don't know, I thought these people were supposed to be practical...

Quote today: "Can you tell I have a new keyboard?! I can use 's' without having to beat it." - Sharkdude

Cheese, Cupboard-hunting and Cycling...

(Actually 25th July, Weds)

Here I am, merrily reading a pirated PDF copy of the new Harry Potter (Yes, I know pirating is wrong, but I was emailed it, and I'm poor, so there.) at 9am, and realised it was too quiet. Turns out everyone vanished off to the University about an hour back.

My housemate got internet access at the library there, and slung me a message: Can you go look for a plastic tub like the one in the freezer but under the sink? And wash it? And find my keys? (And a shout to Graham for the random cheese!)

Okay. So I went to look for it. Having pulled everything out of the cupboard in the end, I decided it wasn't in there. Turned up in the cupboard the OTHER end of the kitchen. So I washed it, and the other couple of pots, and popped it on her bike. (She wants me to run the bike down to a garden centre with the tub y'see.)And then had to find the key for the lock - which turned up down the side of her bed...

I set off to the garden centre, and WHOOOO that's a hill. I put the brakes on because I was going FAR too fast - and I was still going faster than the cars! Got there, and my housemate wasn't. Spent the next fifteen minutes having a leisurely wander about, and regret not taking my camera. I promise I will next time, they had an adult lionfish in full "plumage", and "Captain Jack" - a most STUNNING South American Red Tailed Catfish. He was HUGE. I mean, as long as from my wrist to my shoulder huge. HUGE.

Then I had to go find said housemate, down the way a bit, and we visited the OTHER housemate's flat to go pick some rice up that he'd left behind. Finally got back to the garden centre, and my female housemate decided she needs some sand for her new tanks that are on the way. And I needed a big slab of slate. And she needed some plant pots. And I found a plant I liked. So umm... in the end, there's 25kilos of sand, and my 15kilos of slate, piled on the back of this bike. My laptop case has another couple of kilos of rice in it, the plant pots and the weird curly plant. (Did I mention it was uphill all the way?) But I admire her skills with aquascaping. Click the pic for full size - how about that?!

Talking of tanks, Frankie's new glass box has just arrived. It's a bit grubby, but what can one expect for a tenner and free delivery? When my other stuff turns up, I'll get it set up and talk about it more then. Frank's hiding in a corner of his old tank; I haven't trained him to be a wuss!

Apparently Tofu is acceptable too. Dave did a stirfry, and we were low on chicken, so tofu went in too. Raw tofu is strange, it LOOKS like cream cheese, and feels like very soft, wibbly cream cheese. Stirfried, it takes on the consistency of cheese omelette. Couldn't describe the flavour though... But it appears that I don't mind it.Talking of cheese, another cheesy drawing by my mate. Ta G-Man!

Quote of the day: "Police tried sitting me 'n' the ex down to talk, but by this time I was done crying and was well angry, so I went to hit him with the chair... Oops. Police fella laughed at me!" - Ms K.

Monday 23 July 2007

Savings, Struggling (with technology) and Stalkers...

Looks like I should be getting me a new tank for Frankie. (remember, the Hermit? Look back a week) A nice two foot glass box for £10, free of charge. I've got my grapevine chunk dried out nicely, some bits of mangrove wood, and some funky new shells for him. I should be going to the city centre tomorrow, so will try to find the garden centre to buy some more sand too. I'll take photos on Thursday; all going well, the tank should arrive on Weds evening.

I've been fighting with the wireless router all day. Nice one Mum, your prediction was spot on - it doesn't bloomin' work. Like you, I can get the one across the road (which is no good, sorry whoever it is's - there's about 10 other people around stealing it too. Really slows it down for me...) I'm hardwired into the router which is sodding inconvenient to say the least..

Slept late, which was nice. No tanks to wake me up, or fish to rattle about! Whoo!

I am, however, being stalked by a pidgeon again.

I can't remember if I mentioned it previously, but birds and I don't get on very well - and I'm being stalked by a wood pigeon. I don't know why, but most of the time I look out of the window, she/he (how do you tell the difference?) is there, staring at me. Since I came here the first time, I saw it. When I went back, I wasn't stalked. But now I've come back again - it's stalking me. Don't get me wrong Bird, I'm very flattered, but it's creepy. Go stalk someone else. I don't think you can get court orders against avians...

A shout out to a very good friend of mine: "Oh dear, your shorts fell down. How distracting for you..." I was very amused indeed.

Quote of the day: "If anybody asks you what Industrial music sounds like, tell them it's like a bunch of angry Belgians having a fight with a washing machine..." -lol93, cb.com

Sunday 22 July 2007

Travel, Trials and Thanks

Another ridiculously long car journey... A four and a half hour trip, so google maps says, from my home town to my new one. You go figure why it took over NINE hours.

Actually, I'll tell you. It's because for some reason (and bless her, I do love her to bits) my grandmother despises motorways, so we have to take A and B roads all the time. Oh, and the Fiesta when loaded isn't happy going up and down all these hills at anything over 40mph. Oh, and the atlas we have is over TEN YEARS out of date. Seriously. We ended up stuck in one place for over an hour. Which would have been fine, I was happy in my headphones (and asleep as it turns out) until the shouting started. I don't do well at being woken.

Mind you, needed the sleep as it had been a long day yesterday too.
Visited my father, and peace is restored there, so am happy with that. Got home, attacked some more packing and was amazed yet again at the amount of chutter I have (Why do I need several hundred glass marbles???) Finally got to bed after dismantling newt tank about 1.30 am. Filter on other tank buzzed at 2am. Fixed it. It buzzed at 2.30 am. Fixed it. Loaches woke up at 3, and played splashy thuddy games for the next half hour or so...

When I went to visit in the morning, my mother introduced me to a family tradition I didn't know about. Just as I was leaving to set off to my new house, she stopped me, ran into the kitchen, then the living room, and came back. "Call me supersticious, but you need these!" Yup, that's a KFC pack of salt, a vanilla scented tea-light, and a tub-thing of some sort of dairy-product "with non-dairy fats" proudly embazoned on the top. Turns out it's symbollic - the salt is so we always have food, the milk so we have drink, and the candle so we always have heat and light. Thanks Mum, a bit wierd, but I really appreciate it! (They're safely tucked away in one of my stackaboxes) My housemates thought it very quaint, but liked the idea too.

Wagh, I leaned too far back and fell off my bedchair. Nertz. Sorry about that. Probably my signal to sleep...

"I flushed my hands and washed the toilet" - DBG

Friday 20 July 2007

Parcels, Presents, Plonk and Pool.

Wow, I never realised not working could be so exhausting!

Spent the morning playing with my new laptop (yes, it's arrived already, I am impressed!) and getting it all set up, so that was fun. Shipped out a parcel of plants in return for Malus and got sidetracked by the loaches darting about like manic Chinese dragons.

Then had a panic as it's The Vicar's (Mum's mum) birthday and ran to get bus into town. Having wandered around for about an hour puzzling what to get her (and accidently buying a 512mb memory chip for camera, whoops) I ended up in my friend's crystal store, and bought a VERY nice bit of fluorite. A natural spinel, perfectly symmetrical with lots of rich purple, clear, rainbow and stripes. Then I had another wander around trying to work out how to PACK it. I ended up nipping back to my old workplace and using my skills with cellowrap and ribbons.

Got the bus down to her house and, as luck would have it, the heavens unleashed their torrential fury JUST as I stepped off. Drowned rat I believe is the term. My Nan was amused. And insisted on feeding me tea and rhubarb pie. A couple of relatives swung by to wish her a happy birthday, and my grandfather set the cat on me. Not that I mind, but Charlie chews. By the time my mother turned up, I was coated in cathair, and had probably consumed plenty with my biscuits. See today's quote. Grandad was sulking, because my stepfather was driving, my mother already had a brandy, and he had no-one to share this ANCIENT bottle of white with. I was "volunteered". Actually, it turned out to be a pretty good 15% vol Muscat, a bit syruppy with age, but smelt and tasted like honey.

Hitched a lift with Mum into town to go out, so managed not to get drowned whilst just trying to breathe. (Yes, at one point it really was that bad - nipping to the cash machine left my step-father soaked to the skin, even through his jacket) It was great to be able to go play pool with the lads - haven't had chance for MONTHS. (That's my good friend Ross and his peculiar curly beard.)

Mind you, we were falling about at Kris - he lined up a nice shot, tap the yellow off another yellow to land it in the pocket, then chase first in with second shot. BUT - the cue bunny hopped perfectly over the first ball, hopped again over the second... and landed neatly in the pocket. SUPERB! "I did it on purpose!" Uhhuh, if you say so. Shame I wasn't fast enough to catch his facial expression with the camera, but was too busy juggling drinks orders. Needless to say, I went on Ross's team.

Turns out he's worse - we lost 4-1. Ouch. Kris laughed: "Karma!"

A quote today: "Don't worry, we were all brought up on cat-hair and two veg."

Thursday 19 July 2007

Machines, Malus and Mum.

WHOOO! Guess who's getting a LAPTOP!

Brand: Gateway MT6223B
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with up to 224MB Shared Video Memory
Hard Drive: 80GB
Memory: 1GB DDR2
Processor: Intel Celeron Processor M520 Cache 1MB L2 Speed 1.6GHz
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Basic
Wi-Fi 802.11g Wireless LAN (Realtek MC)
Screen: Widescreen 15.4"
Optical Drive: DVD-RW
Software Load: MS Works 8.0, MS Office 2007 Student Teacher Trial, Adobe Reader 8.0, Cyberlink Power2Go, MS Media Player 11
Audio Features: High Defination Audio 2 Channel
Mouse: Touchpad (with scroller)
Number of USB Ports: 4
Card Reader: Yes

And the internet was installed at my new house today! So this is looking super-cool.

A new newt arrived for me today as well, this little chappy needed rehoming and suddenly turned up on my doorstep. In a box of course. He's miniature compared to Braeburn and Smith, and in keeping with the "apple" theme, he's now called Malus. As previously mentioned, I thought I'd newt-proofed the tank thoroughly, but as is usually the case, a new newt - a new hide away. Straight into the fountain, straight through a TINY gap. I'll fish him out on Sunday, and secure it for next time.

Nipped round to see my mum today too. All the time I've lived in my village, I've never actually cycled there - so I did, for the hellayit. Had a nice natter, she mutilated another foodstuff - "Hole Strain Mouse Turd". Whole Grain Mustard of course.

Nearly forgot to put my shoes upon leaving, much to Mum's amusement. Mind you, she says it's not as bad as picking my brother up from school, having forgotten to take off her pink fluffy slippers. "A case of, do you go back, do you leave em on?!" She took em off and carried them...

Quote for today: "It takes a lot of time, effort and money to look this mediocre!" - Mum.

Wednesday 18 July 2007

Colours, Cyprinids and Casualties (almost)

I have now some funksome hair. I got the yellow back in, two splashes on front, all back, but got a life-blood red flash done too. Cut a LOT shorter than my usual mess, so can now SEE, huzzah!

Managed to clean and sort enough space to juggle some more fish into my house, so brought my loaches home from my ex's. Erwin and his family are DELIGHTED, they've got lots of sand to dig in, plenty of objects to re-arrange, and clean water with a properly maintained filter. Them whiskers have been everywhere - I thought I'd cleaned my small tank well, but they're good at making a mess.

Mind you, have to laugh. Awkward, stilted conversation as expected, but when the ex opened the front door to get out, it bounced off a pile of shoes and nearly belted in face... It took all my strength to keep a straight face and be concerned.

Quote of the day: "I see no pencils." - Roo

Monday 16 July 2007

Recreation, Resting and Relaxing.

Oh aye, I've been offered another job. Brook's are determined to tell me I'm a banker. Although I did get a call to confirm my details going through to the MOD as well, so pleased with that. £6.27 an hour - that's better than anything I've been paid so far.

Today has been Deeee-liciously quiet. I didn't get up. I then didn't do much. I ate a pomegranate (is that spelt right?), read a book, packed some more stuff, got shocked at the amount of junk I own (why on earth do I need 8 blib-blob ornament things?!), poked around on eBay to find a heat-mat, lightning took out the net, went out and bought some sage and coriander plants, and proceeded to do little else. "Naff all" I believe the term is. And it was GOOOOOOD. 'Bout time I did nothing.

If you're bored (you must be, you're reading THIS!) then take a few minutes to look at this website. Don't try to digest it all at once (unless you're brave and have a strong stomach), just take nibbles, sample it a bit. Clicky here! Steve is a genius, has me laughing for HOURS. Natto - urrrrgh.

Anyway, I'm off to do some energetic mooching.

Quote for the day "He's so sorry he can't even begin to explain, he loves me more than life itself and knows it will be hard, but he's willin to try anything. I said "Try any thing? How about a bungee-jump minus the f**kin'cord..." - Kirsty

Assorted Arthropods

Me, my brother and my younger sister went for a walk on Sunday, up some muddy track and hills - woo, more hills, just what I needed - Bath is one BIG hill... We ended up passing the the time trying (without much success) to keep/catch up with my stepfather by counting what we could see. Which was mostly grass (bit hard to count) or bugs.

I will point out it had been raining somewhat. We counted 161 various slugs and snails, much to my delight! We normally get brown slugs, but these look more like half-sucked liquorice, and anywhere up to four inches long. The snails came in all kinds of varieties, my sister liked the chocolatey-mahogany coloured one, whereas my brother and I liked the cream ones with a black stripe.

My family has taken another turn for the insane, renaming yet more foodstuffs. So far we have "Cow's Turd" - custard. "Toffee Lumpy Bum" - this was Toffee Lumpy Bumpy, until a waitress left the blackboard at our table and my mother edited it. Now we have "Fecal Fart" - Treacle tart. Delightful, I'm sure.

Saturday 14 July 2007

Beautiful Bath and Bristol, Vindictive Vegetables, Super Slugs and Hellooooo Hermit!

Whooo. It has been HECTIC!

Well, my train journey to Bristol went fairly smoothly, only got lost the once. Bristol's a magnificent city, rather lovely in it's own way. Some nice bits of architecture! I went to find my way to Brook Street Agency (they accepted me straight away) and only got lost twice on the way there; which is impressive for me. I can get lost in a telephone box, so I'm regularly told. Anyway, meeting there went well, the filling of forms and the online form for a big bank also went well - so well in fact I had a telephone interview there and then! That was a breeze (big thanks to Ms Rondell), and have secured a proper interview slot! Oh, and I've probably landed myself a temporary job with the MOD until then. Yes, I'm a little smug to say the least. Can you blame me?!

Coming BACK was a different story altogether. They say 13 is an unlucky number, and this is platform just that, waiting for the London-Paddington (first stop Bath Spa). It got delayed, then a bit more delayed, and a bit more for extra fun. Thirty minutes later, it comes in, I get on - it's ready and just about to go when the tannoy suddenly calls out "Due to the delays on this train, first stop is now Reading, and not Bath Spa." Oh SODS. Several passengers (including myself) freak as we try to get off in time, and run all the way over to platform SEVEN, where a train to Bath Spa has been moved to. Another couple were getting on the L-P train, and I informed them of the latest tannoy. They said they'd be over soon - I pointed out the train was going in a moment. "Oh, it'll be fine, we'll be there in a couple of minutes." Well, I just shrugged and ran to get my seat. And waved as it went without them...

Travelling to Bath initially was incredibly dull for the most part, as my grandmother has this hatred of motorways which means a four hour journey took eight. Although I was greatly amused when she was telling me they went all the way to Kettering to see the Kites, spent hours going round and didn't see a single one. Chance would have it that we were driving through at that moment - and lo, what was that going literally straight over the car?! - Only a huge male red kite, flicked wings and red forked tail... WOW! Camera wouldn't get a shot, as road too lumpy.
I did see a very cool slug though.

I also had a wander around Bath on several occasions (and yes, got LOST on several occasions), and I have to say, it's rather nice. There's lots of quaint little shops, lots of big versatile shops, for some reason there's no Woolworths, but there is a (an?) Habitat, and lots of great organic food shops. And fresh fruit is WAY cheaper! Oh, they also have a couple of Thorntons! On one of my getting lost sessions, I managed to find it; that's a good start at least.

NEWSFLASH: The crazy lady on the bus (remember I mentioned her earlier?) - apparently she flipped and attacked a bus driver. Nice...

I also tried a lot of new stuff this week, I tried a strawberry and raspberry ice smoothie which I liked, a bit of white chocolate coffee cold thing, which I didn't like. Turns out I LOVE home made chicken korma and vegetable jalfrezi, but I don't like ginger and butternut squash soup at ALL. I'm also having to learn to cook proper stuff, which is a bit different - but my garlic mushrooms turned out really well much to my delight. My hands still smell of garlic though. Yummmm - can't complain. I chopped about six onions - the first five were fine, but the sixth one was a real killer. By multiple heavens, my eyes were quite literally streaming...! Gwuh. Green onions = NASTY VINDICTIVE VEGETABLES!

And I found an insane new pet! Meet Frankie Jexx - he's a land hermit. He's living in temporary accommodation at the moment. It's not great, but he's got sand, some water, plenty of humidity, stuff to climb. He's also learning to be hand tame, and gets to be a free range crab for 20 mins or so each day. He seems to be pretty happy - I just hope I chose a good one. They have a habit of not being very hardy, so Google tells me. He's got lots of fresh stuff and commercial pellets to eat, so hopefully he WILL eat something soon and be ok.

Quote for this week: "it's great - i can't hear a thing - i'm going in for more" - I'm forbidden to say who it is, sorry. They're a bit famous.

Wednesday 11 July 2007

Sneaky Surfer!

Aha! I have sneaked online in the Bath University Library (which is superb, might I add).

It's been... manic! Correction, it still IS manic. The axolotls didn't like the 250 mile journey, but have stopped sulking at me finally. My housemates are great, I have to say, so big thanks to them for only being mildly insane! :P

I've got to run, just dashed off a few urgent emails, (and sent my CV off to yet another company) but don't worry, I'm taking some photos! There's some VERY pretty stuff here - it's a glorious city.

Take care, have fun!

Quote for the day: "My gods, it bends in the middle!" - Me. About the bendy buses.

Sunday 8 July 2007

Dillo Doo Doo :S

Had a fascinating discussion with my friend today. He keeps some VERY strange pets.

He said to me, having just returned to the PC "The armadillos have taken to pooing just inside the door. So when i open it, i stand in it."

Understandably, I laughed myself silly. I also suggested he bought some slippers.

"yuk no way"

This confused me, perhaps he was responding to an earlier comment. Yuk at slippers, fine standing in 'dillo crap?! I told him he's WEIRD.

"i am, yes"

Oh well. Can't say much to that really. This is one of his two pet 'dillos.

It's either Shirley or Dave, I can't remember which. He's also trying to breed them, so good luck, and can't wait to see a wee 'dillie!

Quote of the day: "My cat is sleeping. -_- he always sleeps unless he's hungry, or thirsty, or horny. Last one he usually goes outside. Well - where else would he find female cats?" - E. Nederlander

Saturday 7 July 2007

Thanks Team!

Wow. I'm not very sober at ALL. Methinks between me and the other staff at work (as it was my last day) we must have drunk a bottle each. Nice rose though. Where's the thing to put the thing over the "e"??? Yes I know it's pink. And no, I don't care.

é - that's the one! Some very nice bottles of rosé.

Mine was a Pinot Grigio (Marks'n'Sparks), there was a very fizzy pink Cava, some Lindemanns... and some others which I forget. Oh well.

Oh, and some chocolate. No wonder we were a bit gone, no dinner!

I did have a quote - but I forgot it. Sorry.

THANKS TO EVERYONE THERE - WILL MISS YOU!

Friday 6 July 2007

Clingfilm / Gladwrap

Had an hysterical evening arguing with my Aussie friend via microphone about cling film. They call it "Gladwrap" over there, and I think that's really very, well... poofy.

Now, considering he's someone who's insistant that he's right ALL the time, it was VERY funny when he conceeded defeat as to awful names for products.

Thanks to Redline for a webcam photo of said "Gladwrap" Ziplock bags. HAHAHAHAHAHA

Thursday 5 July 2007

Shelves and Shocks...

Normal, slightly more mildly annoying than usual day at work.

The header on the shelves kept falling off, and wouldn't stay back up. As tallest in store, I have to put them up again, and put all the parcels back on the shelf every time it falls and knocks them off. Believe you me, after the first four times, you get pretty sick of it.

At least the dodgy air-conditioning isn't going "beep-beep, beep-beep" constantly today. It's just piddling bits of water and ice on the floor. And I've been distracted by the "radio-in-my-head" saying funny things all day.

Heading home took an interesting turn. Hurrying round the corner, texting, I ran straight into a group of townies yelling.

Then I notice the trail of blood. Pushing through the circle of them, there - in the middle, was an oldish fella, stinking of booze, bleeding heavily from his arm and hand. Turns out the chavs are trying to keep him in one place, not trying to hurt him

It's that beautiful moment of pure slow-time clarity, your brain hitting top gear in an instant; when each drop is perfectly captured in a split second, red jewels against the grey of the street, frozen mid-air...

So I rally round, calm everyone down, fly into MacDonalds, grab the first aider, ambulance sorted, and fly back out. There I am, trying to calm this rather drunk and angry guy (called Colin) down, and find out what happened. The first aider is being worse than useless, stood gawping. Turns out he punched a window through, lacerating his arm, and tearing open his hand. The ambulance people took him off to hospital, mind you, not before he accidently splashed some poor woman by waving it around too.

One thing stands out the clearest - one of his trainers was white, the other bright red and squishy...

Wednesday 4 July 2007

Wrapping and Wonderment

Wow... It's been a... day. *raises eyebrows*

Sorry, that's a bit vague - let me explain.
Halfway through the morning, I'm happily gift-wrapping at work (call me odd, but I really like gift-wrapping, something very theraputic about a job you can do with your eyes shut, and still end up with an elegant final product)when the phone went. Don't be fooled, this is normal. Anyway, my colleague answered - and it was for ME. Which ISN'T normal. No-one ever calls me at work. It's the Customer Services department, so here's me thinking "Oh no, what's happened..." because they rarely call unless something's gone wrong.

But no - apparently there's been a letter come in from a customer I served, saying how good our branch are, and that I'm "an absolute gem, keeping both daughters agape with interesting Thorntons knowledge" etc etc. (I hope to get a copy of this letter, so will publish it here if I do!) I'm even getting a letter from the Retail Director! I don't ever expect it, but it's nice to be recognised for your work! Made my day that did.

Oh, and by the time I'd finished gift-wrapping the first five boxes (two big, three small) in "Coral" with "Chocolate" paper highlights and gold ribbon (wow, that sounds a wee bit girly!), a bloke came in, and bought the whole lot. Now, I like all my creations to be unique, so I try something new each time - and I guess this customer appreciated the effort. These are some of my signature designs. You can always tell my wrapping, because the edges are folded to near-retentiveness...

On a down note, missed the bus by a couple of minutes, waited around 30 more whilst two more people hid from the rain under the shelter for the same bus... Bus arrived, we stood up to hail it - and the bus kept on going. Believe you me, NOT happy.

There's an incredible sunset going on - I'm going to take a photo - one minute... I think I stuffed up the EV settings on my camera - but it has produced a glorious effect, snapped all the colours out clean and sharp.It looks like there's two sunsets going on, because of the way the light is falling. The "orange" one is the "true" sunset, but I liked the pink/purple going on over the other side.

The big yellow cloud looked pretty cool, and I've also trimmed out my favourite purple bit to zoom in on. It's since turned into a smudgy grey mess sadly, but it looked great for the few seconds I needed to grab my camera and snap it!Call me a bit soft, but I do like nature's wonder - the world outside has a lot to offer. Summer rain (although, I think I might revise that to warm, light summer rain, seeing as all the flooding we've had this year...), fresh cut grass, woodsmoke and wildlife... All good.


See, isn't that just astounding? Really makes you wonder, when you consider the chances of the atmosphere even being there, never mind the possibility of people to look at it... (Sorry, been reading a lot of physics theory lately)

Tuesday 3 July 2007

Adios, Administration...

Today was my last day at my administration job at the solicitors. I'll miss it there, they were a nice bunch, and I learned a lot over the last year. However, needs must if I'm to move a couple of hundred miles I suppose.

Green sheets by the wodge in the morning, carting books around in the afternoon - and then I'm sprung on by the admin faculty with this signed by EVERYONE in the building, a super-massive-gigantic card, and £25 worth of Woolworths vouchers! The practice manageress must have been setting it up for some time, as one of the blokes that signed has been on holiday for two weeks. I certainly didn't expect it, so that was a nice surprise.

Needless to say, I'm touched. Thank you, I won't forget it.
And yes, I'll send you a postcard as promised!

Gosh, when I finish my other job on Saturday, I'll have a whole day to myself. I don't know what I'll do I'm sure. A quick reminder, I'm off to look at my new house from the 10th through to 13th, so may not be an update between then, but plenty when I get back if there isn't!

Least I can ask the folk here to look after the animals for a couple of days.

And my bank is aching now I've sent off that cheque...

"I smoked a kipper once but the bear in the garden ran off with it." - R.Bass

Monday 2 July 2007

Worrying Wonderings...

Well, it's the little things that worry you most.

Like - why DO clouds stay up? That's a whole LOT of water...
What if the strings of the universe decide to play a note? I mean, you don't listen to the same track for millions of years, do you? And if ghosts are real, there's a whole lot of people that will get bovine haunted shoes. How scary would THAT be?

Oh aye, but these are the things that keep me up at night; I regularly get woken by irrelevancies, like how to spell "Synagogue", shouting it at three am and scaring myself silly because there's a loud noise!

Bearing in mind, I'm the eldest child of the same person who lost a rolling pin for a year, only to discover it in with the wrapping paper... And I put the phone in the fridge not long back. Couldn't find it for AGES.

My animals are worse, Spyyk does the "I'm not tooouuuching" thing to wake me up in a morning. He sits and STARES like he's trying to do some psychic thing until it wakes me up. I go "What?" and he just smirks at me. I throw a pillow at him. And he smirks some more.

Even the BUDGIE is completely insane, panics at her own feathers, goes to sleep, falls off her perch, panics and slams into the side... She'll attack humans, but cowers away from a blade of grass.

And my pet swan mussel likes to scare the shrimps by "huffing" at them. His name's Medallion.

Quote of the Day: "When asked for advice "Don't wet yourself in public" is not what they were looking for..." - Shroom.

VERY silly video - made me laugh

Sunday 1 July 2007

ANTS!? (And Annoyed Axolotl)

Woah. I just went into my room to get my camera chip, came back out, and noticed my doorframe is one big arch of ants!!!

Turns out they're coming in through a gap just under the left-side frame, and going straight up, across, back down, and on into the hallway.

I have NO idea why, except that the heavy rain and flooding has probably forced them from their nest. At least it's only my doorframe they're on, and they don't appear to be anywhere else, so I've dealt with those by scraping off and chucking back out, dosing the area with T-Rex cleaner (for animal enclosures) and pulling up the carpet to get the rest.

Blimey! There's a TUNNEL under my carpet, a hole through my floor! I really dislike killing animals for just being there, but this is ridiculous; there's winged ants walking around my door. Like the whole nest decided my doorframe was a good place to live...

My axolotls and other tanks are now shrouded in sheets to protect them from the powder that's been put down. Spyyk isn't best chuffed about it, so here's a nice photo I can tell him about. Sounds nutty, yes I know, but they like the attention when I stop to natter to them, because it means they have the chance to beg for treats and get fat. Sorry, I'm a real softy at heart!

Well, there was probably more stuff I was going to add, but I've completely forgotten what it is now. Ate too much rhubarb crumble though.

Quote of the day: "You know when you need a really big fart, and you just can't?" - Mum.

Saturday: another day at work. This time next week, it'll be my last day. I'll miss working there I think.

We got out half an hour early, as stock checking is supposed to take three hours (5-8) but I put in two extra hours. Well, working 10-1, there's was no point me going home (takes an hour) and coming back (yup, another hour). Had an extra long dinner break instead and finished my Tom Holt book.

Hit my sales target, and then some, and spent an hour counting chocolate bars. What really gets me is that I tidy the shelves as I count, so that I don't have to go back and re-tidy afterwards. This is wonderfully efficient - but it then means I have to spend the time I saved cleaning up the mess others made when they counted their areas. That sucks.

Quote for the day: "Somehow, I don't think I'll re-eat that carrot." - David (just to annoy: "Dave") G.