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."

Congratz, Crikey and "Cacnel".

Congratulations to my friend Will - I look forwards to hearing more on Cody's progress, and good luck to you mate! You deserve the best and I'm glad to hear things are working out nicely.

It's been a while away from ye olde blog. Things have been a little hectic with work, lack of internet, and various other etceteras.

Work has been particularly hectic - finally they've started sorting themselves out, so I'm working like a dervish, going above and beyond my listed title. I'm rather proud of myself, as I was on a steady buildup to Friday. Alright, I wanted to be out of work an hour early, and to do so, I had to beat ALL targets. I did that, by a mile. I needed: 1 mortgage, 1 lending, 3 general, 5 topboxes and 1 concern. I got: 1 mortgage, 2 lending, 5 general, 7 topboxes and 3 concerns.

Little dragon is quickly turning in to HUGE dragon, having reached a sturdy foot long already, with an appetite still to match. And yet again, horrible creature decided to swallow bugs whole - and this time hock it up whilst sat on my chest. Urghhhh! However, she still adores Him, and spent hours just curled up on His chest, licking His chin from time to time, much to our amusement. What can I say, she's a sweet, docile little reptile that uh, just keeps on giving. Wish she wouldn't though. Oh, but she does so like Morio worms - they're crunchy!

And Tuesday was an interesting day at work. Lemme put it this way - I had a right laugh with the customers I couldn't serve. Basically, we all went out in the hall before opening for the daily breifing - and the internal door jammed. Meaning we were ALL locked out of the back offices, where the tills, safe, our bags etc are. As I said to the customers, at least we know the money is safe, if even the STAFF can't get in to it!


Sorry to hear about the screwup Bauer, but well done on hitting top 45, even if Wippet have decided to bunk off with all your cash. Much obliged to all the supporters, watch out for the next coming single!

A peice of "legitimate software" asked me if I'd like to "Cacnel". Sorry, but it made me laugh...

Quote of the day: "If a bear falls in the woods, does the Pope sh*t?"

Much Mooching

Another week idly strolls by, another bit of my computer is once more repaired and I am able to type a little more. (Namely, my soundcard and DVD player work again, and big bits of useful things, like my hard drive.)

Week has been a little slow, came home Monday, cleaned the animals and a quick clean of the shower. Came home Tuesday, cleaned the living room, diningroom and hallway (including scrabbling up the stairs to find the stray hairs that I get told off for if they're still there. My list of jobs specifically states if there is a hair left, I have to hoover the stairs all over again...) and came home Wednesday and packed my stuff. Thursday I spent with Dragon, playing and reading my book, and Friday I poddled back a bit further south to hide at His house - Home.

R.I.P Mr Anderson. You were a fantastic fish.

Poor Bloke has a cold. But Youki-Hi bathbombs made him laugh.

And Dragon made me laugh. There she was, merrily eating dinner, and practising her new trickof swallowing them whole. I did worry about that myself, but it backfired. And I fell about when she suddenly looked like she felt a bit funny, opened her mouth, and spat up a bug. Which promptly ran for cover. Normally when one's dinner comes up again, it doesn't tidy itself away. She was too puzzled to go eat it again. (Mum says - ewwww, mobile vom!)

And Yay for Bauer! I got my CD in from Mikey Guitar, signed by all the members, and a big smiley face from Mr Guitar himself! Ta lads http://www.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=294844 - hurry, grab one whilst they're still available!

Quote of the day: "You have the willpower of a melted Mars Bar..." - Carol at work.