Snow, Screwdrivers and Solid...

Sunday was quiet, caught up with some serious bloggage as you've probably already noticed, did a lot of washing, picked up some wood from Homebase, discovered that screwdrivers get wet when you drop them in fish tanks and the fish attack you when you go to get it back.

I did lots of ironing whilst being disappointed by "Around the world in 80 days" - I think having read the book several times kind of gave me high expectations, in that I expected the film to at least sort of follow the plot. I don't recall Queen Victoria, robbing the Bank of England, jade Buddhas or dodgy (not to mention physically impossible - Hank and I pulled it to peices theoretically) aeroplanes...

Monday was hard work, today was more hard work. But we have Chinese... mmmmm! My darling siblings found the photo of the snowman they made!

Dragon found something crunchy behind the TV table to enjoy (Yuck) and tried to bite the dice with a loud CLUNK of teeth on very solid plastic. I didn't know whether to sympathise or laugh. So I did both. Silly beastie!

"Yes, I think I just called my uncle a roller coaster." - Shroom

Liquid Sunshine and Sunnyside Up?

Such weather is highly unpleasant when you've never ridden a motorbike before. It was a fair old attempt though, stalled FAR too many times, but getting slowly better even whilst being blasted off sideways by galeforce winds. I have to go back next week when hopefully the weather is more friendly to complete my CBT - as a complete novice it was too dangerous for me to go out on busy roads. I'm still somewhat soggy!

Being as I was already damp, I walked down to ASDA to pick up a couple of bits, remembering we have a bit of bacon here. I grabbed some eggs and mushrooms, few other pieces, came home (again, in this hair-raising-then-flattening rain) to discover my rather lovely bloke had been out and done the same. Has anyone got any good ideas what we can do with 18 eggs and 4 boxes of mushrooms?

I had a "Yumyum" today. These are weird things. They look like traditional twisted cheese straws - except they are sort of damp to the touch. They're distinctly pastry, but biting into them is like biting into a doughnut, the texture, the flavour... It's very odd. Rather good, and very sugary. Probably horrendously unhealthy, but damned to healthy, it was nice.

"It seemed suicidal to just fall off the bench." - Shroom, in his bizarre, beautiful and brilliant blog: http://www.shrombie.blogspot.com/

Soggy Shifting.

It rained.
It rained hard.
And someone had put the back door key in a new place, and I was reluctant to wake up my housemate early in the morning just to ask where it was. So I did the decent thing, went and asked the neighbours if I could hop through the broken fence to open the back gate from the garden, so I could ferry things right round the block to the front. I managed to haul the bag of sand, the rhubarb plant and the spade round, carefully circumnavigating the nettles, hopping over the bramble and briar, and slithering down slippery rotten bits of old broken fences. And then it RAINED. Within seconds, I was a walking drip - just in time to finish hoovering as my lads came to rescue me and drive me away to my new home.

I'm glad to say the only casualty was an old tank, stressed by the weather and finding a rhubarb plant placed on it, it gave up the ghost. No matter, these things happen. Oh, and a Thorntons Toffee and Fudge cake. It wasn't squished, we ate it. And it was gooooood! Yay cake!

PS, Image from Natalie Dee - I love Natalie Dee. http://www.nataliedee.com/

"Come with me, oh lesbian seagull..." - A random little song...

Buhbye Bath...!

Tuesday I worked late, came home, packed, and slept on the floor.

Wednesday I worked late, went to the library, came home, finished packing, slept on the floor.
Thursday I worked late for my last day, went out to the pub with a couple of colleagues, had a good laugh, shoved a few last things in my bag and slept on the floor.

Actually, Thursday was very funny - if you recall, back in December I went to the Hilton on my first date with His Lordship, and it was ... pants. Uberpants. But He got an extra pate they kept trying to give me. Over at the other side of the room, Mike was being offered my terrine repeatedly until he gave in and did without his ordered starter and had that instead. Turns out that Mike's original order was the pate... Fortunately he saw the funny side! (Image thanks to Hilton.co.uk/Bath)

Happy Birthday to Grandad too! Good luck with getting on to the Deal No Deal Audience - we'll be watching for you! (Better yet, let's see if you can get on the show!)

I also had to chuckle at another story - one of the lads had been attacked in a bar for no good reason - some bloke had just laid into him to look hard. Here's a note to all the fatheads out there who pick on and kick the daylights out of decent blokes - decent blokes have a beautiful streak of revenge. Yon poor bruised lad was handed a wallet by a bystander, and pocketed it, thinking it was his. A short while later, he found HIS wallet in another pocket, and discovered the new wallet was his attackers. With much smirking, he nabbed the cash, and quietly put the credit/debit cards, drivers licence and other such useful items down the nearest drain... Definitely a dish best served cold - stone cold sober in the morning when the fathead can't find his wallet.

Quote of the day: "Oh yes I like animals. I've got a hamster. But it died yesterday." - a delightful lack of mourning from Alex.

Tidy Tables and Clean Carpets...

Hank recons the axolotls look like soggy carrots, and having had another look at Benny Beanz, I really do have to agree. His Lordship says they're like wibbly blobbly things. With waffers. Spyyk (the white one) has recovered very well from his hefty head-ding, and both ate well from a bit of ham, shlorping it down. Dragon has already got used to having her dinner in the shed, and is fat from cleaning up stray bugs trying to escape as I transferred them to a new storage container.

Spent the majority of the day dashing around tidying things, clearing a lot of the dining/games room, emptying boxes, rearranging cupboards (now all the cleaning stuff is sorted by room and usefulness - far more practical: "Augh! Spilt something on the living room table - grab polish and cloth from front of basket on the left... - Easy!") and running dragon around the house. Oh, His Lordship came out with another classy comment this morning: "You have a semi-Hiroshiman glow..." Very poetic.

Quote of the day: "A good pun is its own reword." - old, but still good.

Snow and Salad.

Oh dear. Work was... interesting. I was very nearly late, as my train was held up halfway for half an hour. They all knew I didn't want to do Saturday shift as Easter trains are unpredicatable, and I have too many jobs to do. No matter, I got there. Good job I did, a lot of people didn't - and THEN we couldn't get into the tills... An hour later, we finally got the keys and opened the drawers to serve, but by this time the banking hall had a queue that spilled onto the street and down it. Come 3pm and we still hadn't defeated the queue. Oh - and I was the only cashier by that time. Quick news: Bauer: 28th March, Mutineers Moho Live, The Aftershow, Manchester.

No matter, getting home made it worth it - dragon had had a good day as He'd built her a new climbing frame (so she was sat going HAaaaa on it) and fed her greenthings, and then He'd made up a nice salad with cheese, ham and tiger bread - yummy!

Up North, there is snow! My family have made a snowman too, and my brother keeps leaving the door open, much to my sister's annoyance. Mikey says "Don't eat yellow snow. Jesus wouldn't let the monkeys into heaven because he didn't like the pixies."

Random word: Assmosis: The process by which some people seem to absorb success by sucking up to the boss rather than working for it.

The Quote: "Augh! You have nostril-seeking hair!" - Three Guesses.

Sales, Sweets and Snuggled (down to sleep).

Bank holiday Friday, a nice relaxing morning of doing nothing other than laugh at dragon skittering about and sunbathing on the duvet (all three of us). She likes it when He grabs the big crystal off the windowsill and makes lightbugs scatter about the room, she'll happily spend minutes watching and trying to lick them. Having just composed this pretty stripy image for Him, I may have changed my mind because He's just gone and dribbled all over my arm. Mmm. Not pleasant. However, He's desperately trying to wipe it off and kissing said arm. Might let Him off after all. Especially now He's decided I'm gross, after I retaliated with a "Wet Willy" - my mother would be proud.

We went and watched Meet the Spartans at the cinema after a quick lunch of pasta at Tesco, and then back to Tesco to do the shopping. I admit to spending a fortune, but it's lots of good stuff that will feed me/us well for quite some time - I have cupboard space to put BOGOFs in! Lots of pasta sauces, some yummy honey and mustard sauce for Sunday's dinner with plenty of veg, stirfry for tea this evening, fisherman's pie for another evening with more veggies, all kind of tasty and simple meals. Oh! And a specially baked Tiger Loaf, last one of the evening - huge thanks to the local Tesco's for sticking one last one in for us. It was WELL worth the hour long mooch for a bite of fresh, hot Tigger.

Dragon is currently sleeping in an empty chocolate wrapper on top of a laptop. Odd beastie. Never mind. I shall go kip now too - it's late. G'night folks.

Today's Quote: " Start every day off with a smile and get it over with. -- W. C. Field"

Early and Exciting Evening.

Very early. 2.20am to be precise, and I can't sleep. Crept downstairs to do some washing up (“Ninja Clean!”) and raided the kitchen for the few pieces that remained in there, some bowls shoved in the very back of a cupboard, likewise some cups, some little bits left in the fridge, nothing special. My head's hurting and I still can't sleep; I'll be fit for nothing come morning. I finished two good sized novels too this evening.

This afternoon everything went a little pearshaped. A lack of communication, or rather a fault in communication, and the blokes thought they were moving all my stuff this afternoon and that I had the day off. Fortunately this was no big problem, they just went round and emptied my stuff out anyway, without me there. Somehow, and I don't know how, they've managed to bring a really crummy book I was going to throw away, but neglected to bring the scrummy chocolate cake I'd left for them on the same otherwise empty shelf... Spyyk got a bump to his noggin and is a bit worse for wear, but I imagine he'll come around with a bit of care. I'm letting him sleep it off.

This evening was truly a mess, boxes and tanks EVERYWHERE. And my wonderful bloke had made me a delicious fluffy omelette containing garlic mushrooms ready for when I walked in the door. An hours work got the tanks into their correct positions and some of the boxes empty, but they're still stuff all over. At least most of the kitcheny stuff is in the kitchen, and most of the beastie stuff is in the shed.

Must get on, it's getting cloudy and dragon is trying to sunbathe on the window.

Quote of the day: "Friendship is like peeing on yourself: everyone can see it, but only you get the warm feeling that it brings." - Coolfunnyquotes.com

Calm amongst the Chaos

So here I am, sitting amongst the chaos. Tomorrow things become hectic, but for today there is a quiet calm. I enjoyed going into work late, sneaking out so as not to be spotted by the housemate as I'd stayed at work late yesterday. The sunshine was glorious! I've packed just about everything I can think of, and am now surrounded by a clutter of cardboard boxes, bundles of bags, containing my meager possessions. I own a lot of nothing – but I think I discovered that last summer too. Dragon is very fat, having pigged on many of the bugs that were hiding in the fake foliage of her tank (which she also tried to eat, now packed in a big bag) and is sleeping in my shirt again. I'm just happy she's eating again – being away from home must have been too exciting to do boring things like have dinner!

Quote of the day: “I really don't think a man of my age should have a box in his wardrobe labeled 'Space Orcs'...” - Him.

Spoons, Stools and Shieldy-thing.

Not sure I mentioned about the borrowing/cleaning tiff, won't bother (Oh, and found this oddity at dinnertime.) – but I didn't know whether to laugh or be cheesed off this morning. Some of you may know I rather like spoons. Just occasionally one will captivate my amoeba like attention to such a degree that I will have to have it. I have two spoons from Poole, sundae spoons, that did just that. This morning, I found one of my beloved sundae spoons in a blow of grubby fishtank water on the landing; a spoon I had been looking for, for some time now. Needless to say I have rescued it and put it with its partner – I am happy and spoonful once more. Attempted to tidy up, but when most of your belongings are in boxes and bags and THEY'RE what's causing the mess, it's a pretty frustrating exercise. I cleaned the axolotl tank instead. (Ooh! Konqueror Office recognises “Axolotl” - but not its own brand name... Interesting.)

Quote of the day: “Is that you leaving a trail of stools behind Mike?” - Me, at work.

Work, Water and Wreakage.

Got up stupidly early, kissed Him goodbye for a few days, shlepped my bags onto a train with a sleeping dragon in my shirt, and likewise fell asleep until Bradford-on-Avon. Which turned out to be one of the places the Avon River blew its banks whilst He and I were Up North (and avoided all the rain). A bridge had become a slightly damp road, the waters were that high. Managed to leave old phone at His, so am having to learn to get used to the new phone. Worked, didn't fancy going back to my bedroom, so had Mozzarella dipper things at TGI Friday's and watched Juno at the movies. Didn't think much to that – neither did Dragon, she happily slept through it. Got back to my bedroom, promptly had a nosebleed and discovered the heatlamp has gone pop. Dragon now basking under my reading lamp in her vivarium. Axolotls have created chaos, too tired to mess about in their mess at the moment – a job for later/Wednesday. Actually, would make more sense to leave it – come Thursday I'll be nearly emptying the tank so's to move them anyway. Peh.

Quote of the day: “Biff the dragon from me” - Him.

Phones and Playing

Gloriously lazy, catching up on some well earned rest before my stressed-stomach syndrome kicked in. Spent a lot of it playing with my new phone, trying to get used to its mysterious ways. I'm a stubborn creature, I've had my old 3310 for many, many years – I'm not keen on change. In fact, I do believe I still have a new phone in my top drawer I got two Christmasses ago... Also watched Domino with Teriyaki stir fry dinner. Dragon revelled in a new place to run around, insisting on sticking her pointy little nose anywhere she could (and at times couldn't) reach, so far as to run halfway down the stairs until I got tired of her hyperactivity and dropped her in the bath to work off some steam on its steep sides.

Quote of the day: “We had a pointless game called 'Cotton Houses', which involved nothing more than sitting against a wall with our duffel coats on backwards and the hoods covering our faces.” - Kate Saunders, Bachelor Boys.

Munchies, Music and Melodies (Re: Lost In A...)

Ah Friday. He invaded Kuwait, I rewrote the Bible, and we both found the missing part of the Magna Carta. No, of course not really, you big PLUM!

Today, we woke up late, intending to take it easy. Instead, we got hauled several miles out to Rimac. I like Rimac, but at this time of year it is a little barren. Fortunately, it was quite calm amongst the big dunes and the sun was warm enough for Dragon to have a quick yomp about in the rough grass and soft moss. He laughed at me when I got stuck in a hole. Thanks.

Later on in the afternoon, we pitched back out to Mum's with a lurverly packed lunch my Nan insisted we take with us and bundled back into a car for another haul out of town - this time to Leeds. This time to the much coolness of Delays (with Scarlet Soho as warmup).

And by Gods, it was GOOD. It was so loud, my ears were still ringing and muffled on Saturday evening and we'd supped a wee bit too much, which made everything much funnier.Especially when I got ID'd. For goodness sake, I never USED to get ID'd - I'm 22!

The crowds went mental for Love Made Visible (which His Lordship missed - he got stuck trying to get through) and I got jumped on by an insane bouncing boy, whom I promptly elbowed, just like Mummy taught me! Hehehehe.

Lost In A Melody got everyone leaping all over, Jon was literally splashing people with sweat, Mum got an earful, but his hyperactive boinging meant we had plenty of space to stand safely in - we knew we wouldn't be jumped on, noone else did.

His Lordship was having a good laugh, trying to get through the crowds He didn't stand a chance - so he grabbed a weapon. A pint of crowd dispersal: a cheap lager to slosh on people that didn't move quick enough! "Oops, sorry... Can I just get through?"As always, Mum got The Nod from Greg which made her grin, and we stopped off for Pringles on the way home. Not that they got eaten - us lightweights practically passed out in the car, and we were both asleep within five minutes of getting through the door. Photographs Copyright and Courtesy of Him.

Quote of the day: "Lay down your raincoats and groove." - Poet Jon

Word of the day: Medectasia. It sounds right.

Happy Confusion To You! (We've got the days mixed up...)

My dear lover has been renamed ThingThing by my darling mother. Perhaps that sounds odd, but I suppose I should explain. We each have bizarre names from Mum, my sister is EmoThing, my brother GrubbyThing, my stepfather NoisyThing and I'm LongThing. ("Names subject to change without prior notification.")

Chili was superb as ever, with cheesy buns and a spot of champers to go with chocolate cake for tea. When asked what did we do for His birthday, I do believe the response was "Not much, but that's brilliant!"

This morning sort of meandered past, and a lot of the afternoon was spent at my other grandparents, trying to keep Dragon away from the cats. She wanted to play about, and once Charlie was put out, Riley wasn't too bothered about the little scuttly reptile. For some reason, we have a loaf of brown bread, a bottle of Rosè and some Irish Cream. Blessem, and thanks! Afternoon was another dragon-fest, scaring an ex-colleague silly and delighting a random friend who works at Quirlys. http://www.quirlys.co.uk/cgi-bin/agora.cgi

Word of the day: BustDusterDustBuster. Could be classed as an invention! Hard to say fast.

Quote of the Day: "And your mother smells of elderberries" - REJ, supposedly from Monty Python.

Hitting the Bar, and Happy Birthday!

Monday: We got wet. It rained. Hehe, we are up north after all. We mooched round town, visited some people that were in and are coming back to see the ones that aren't. It looks like the age of the fluffy critturs may be over - the cute and scaly may be coming in! Even Simon the security guard didn't give me a serious throwing out from Freshney Place, but he knows me too well. Nipped into Thorntons to go see the lovely Ruth, who was quite surprised to find a dragon in my shirt, but was happy to natter and of course, to sell us chocolate. (They're doing a MASSIVE box for about £6.50 - we couldn't resist) Went and munched on cookies from Millies, met a couple of friends at Starbucks and went for drinkies.

Poor Ross - he's grown that daft curly beard back (see very early on in this blog) but with his long hair it looks faintly ridiculous. He's got a new nickname too - see today's blog Quote below. Suits him terrifically well! Once the alcohol started to get through, we decided it was a good idea to go get some food - so we went to Da Vincis. They fed us very well, I went for my usual Penne de Pollo della Casa, and He had Spaghetti Polpette ("Best meatballs I've ever had!") with garlic bread, Sticky Toffee Pudding for me (of course, as usual) and Brioche Pudding for Him. A stagger home on the bus, and a bloated early night. Superb!

Tuesday: His birthday. Happy Birthday You! Card with money from his folks, chocolate from my grandfolk, Anywhere Wireless Internet from me (and canvasses) and a carrotcake at lunch.
(Image courtesy of Somecontrast.files.wordpress.com) Oops. I squished the dragon when I sneezed. She's been all sorts of excitable today, charging around the front room, hallway etc, and running flat into the hearth... We have to trundle, we're at Mum's for her amazing Chilli tonight!

Quote of: "Honeymonster? I wouldn't buy cereal from that!"

Boring Magazines and Blue Martinis

Saturday: Dragon ended up coming with us. She found the train fascinating and spent most of the day staring out of the window. Until she decided His magazine looked very tasty, leaped on it and then proceeded to poop on it. Dragon is an Anti-Geek device, not only does she sit on keyboards to get in the way of typing, but she chooses the most difficult to understand technological-word-containing page to go toilet on. Good reptile!

Sunday: Chaos. Nothing goes simply on my holidays. Mum's street has a drain blockage, and Ernie Becketts was full when we went for dinner. A good mooch along the beach and some munching of candy letters (Ew, you P'd in my mouth!) lead us to some food, which frankly wasn't brilliant. But Mum's roast with the chicken gravy (*does the gravy song/dance*) waaaay made up for it! We laughed much at my stepfather being a bit crappy - he'd been having to clean the drains - which of course ended up with a roll (a loo roll) of really sh*t jokes. Then my mother tried to kill He and Me with one of her wonderful Blue Margaritas. (Image courtesy of istockphoto.com) BMs are two good shots of tequila, one of blue curacao, one of lime juice and one I can't remember, but it's based on brandy. Then make it Mum-measures - it was a hefty glass of the stuff. YUM, very sour!

Payments, Pomelos and Pandemonium.

Tues: Got rattled up after I'd fallen asleep to be told I'd forgotten to take out the recycling (and not to do it again) and that I'd have to pay the last of my rent to move out. Which, actually, suits me quite well – rather than losing, what, £600, I only miss out on £150. I can manage with that. Kitchen looks very clean. I thought I was supposed to clean it this week, but I don't know.

Weds: Spent most of today packing odd items. I hadn't realised how little I actually own. Far too many books of course, indeed, about eight carrier bags full now, but besides those, my tanks, and some basic pots, I don't really own much. Oh well! Less to worry about I guess. I did buy a new shirt though – does that count? Image: Harold I - the Pomelo! (Immortalised forever as a planet for my sister, with love from Him.)

Thurs: Work of course threw a new element of complication into it, requiring me to work Easter weekend Saturday – the day I intended to move things, but this can't be helped I guess. A quick reshuffle after much cussing and attempting to reorganise staff, and I'm still working the Saturday, but I'm shifting things on the Thursday instead, as I have the Friday off. It's a nuisance, but at least they're prepared to accommodate the fact that I'll HAVE to work in Yeovil central branch for the first two weeks; that's their fault after all (and they haven't told me which one of the two I'm supposed to be shipped out to anyway.)

Friday: Cleaning of the bathroom, and Pizza for tea! Last minute packing to be done - back soon!

Manic Monday and Magic Mandibles...

I have neglected to mention the lovely meals I've been having lately. Valentines, He showed off by whipping up an asparagus, mushroom and pasta dish with a light garlic vegetable stock. Yum! We've had spicy chicken fajitas, yummy omelettes (pictured here), pork sweet 'n' sour stirfy, toasted bananas with pomegranate, raspberry and passionfruit coolie, greek yogurt with various toppings, duck spring rolls... anything tasty we can think of to try, we're trying! (Ideas gratefully accepted, please use comments or email!

Ugh, and I got off to such a good start with this new Operating System. I'm attempting to live with FreeSpire, a Linux spinoff. I will say, it is quite Windowsy in its layout, but it's a stubborn pain in the bum!

Maybe He just has the magic touch. Either way, it's annoying when it was working happily the other day, and not now. All I want is a bit of internet! One minute there are several open connections, the next, only this one; none of which I can get on anyway. It does have a handy help button – but you need the internet to use it, which moots that point.

Still waiting to have a word with one of the housemates, they've got a friend round so I don't really fancy interrupting to tell them I'm going to sod off by the end of the month. Kat found a baby mouse wandering in the house, which is somewhat worrying. It died shortly after she'd put it in a tank thing, so it was fed to my snake. Again, I was a little concerned about parasites etc, but Eden seems to have enjoyed it...

The Quote Of The Week: "The early bird get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese." - Bloke called Brian

All Change...

Two purposes - learning how to use PaintShopPro at last, and secondly - my friend Sian is on QTFM.co.uk, and is rapidly making it up to be the finest female online radio presenter! Woo Sian, you go, you rock, you know!

Another slow week so far, bickering with work and idle contemplation. Am pleased to say I'm eyeing up the prospect of owning a Yamaha YBR125 in black, but nothing happening yet, it's just an idea. Although, a very practical idea...

I have a dragon asleep in my shirt, a cookie in my hand, BeetleBum in my ears (on the radio), a book on my lap and a content grin knowing it's not long until Friday.

And now a muchopantness broken laptop. To put it simply, logging on to your computer is like crossing a bridge from mainland to island. I've damaged the foundations of the bridge, which has fallen in. But, if I use a boat (the OS I'm running now, Ubuntu, via CD drive) to get to the island, I can rebuild the bridge. So yay for fixables!

And Dragon is busy shoving my feet out of the way, to sleep on them I guess. Bless her.

It's going to be an interesting few weeks - I need to get my provisional done soon, and work want me to relocate... There's been a lot of staff shuffling just lately, one girl sent to Wells, another two have been moved to our branch, which means I have to ship out shortly too. Been given notice I'm going to be sent to either Martock or Petherton, that's going to be interesting.

Fortunately, I do have a backup plan, but I'm going to have to discuss it with the housemates - it's going to be too impractical (and expensive) to commute every day, and He has been asking me if I want to move in - it'd make his, his housemates and my life easier. Sunrise, or sunset? Will it get brighter or darker from here?

Well. You know what I'm like - I can get these things done on a twopence edge nowadays. And we're off back up north next week, that'll make things easier I hope.

Quote of the day: "Two and sixpence - it's a good quote."