One of those days...

It's been a good week and a bad week all rolled into one. I had an interview on Monday for the job I'm temping in at the moment, and my current frame of mind says I will see someone else get it. I was nervous as hell, forgot half the things I should have said, fluffed a load of it and practically threw up just before the interview.

The good side of it has been seeing pics of my friends' new baby daughter who is just as cute as a button. I really have to get started making tiny clothes for little Miss E, but right now I have no surfaces on which to sew, what with the kitchen being in the dining room and half the dining room being in the living room. I've also fixed things at work for my boss and have been puting in a few more hours than I should to get work done, although admittedly that's to make up for me going to be late in tomorrow.

Tomorrow I get a lie in. About an hour, but it's better than a smack in the teeth. I have a hospital appointment at ten where they tell me that despite the fibroid they found on the scan I had a couple of weeks back, I won't be getting the hysterectomy I really want. I haven't been told already. I'm just going by the usual for me. Apparently ablation is the way to go, which is where they cauterise the womb with a hot wire. Supposedly for 50% of women, it stops their periods completely. Guess which half I am bound to fall into...

I'm just having one of those days. I'll get over it if I can get some sleep tonight.

Fatso, Stupid and Miss

My three cats are being rather odd this evening, and possibly with good reason. Each of them has been subjected to the humiliation of the flea comb, although they were Frontlined recently, so no fleas. The flea comb was because they were starting to look scruffy, so grooming was essential. Fatso (aka Mouse, but he answers to either name) initially resisted being groomed, but gave in after a minute or so when he realised he was being petted and made to look smart at the same time. He purred and settled in for the long-haul groom and got annoyed when I stopped. After sitting looking smug for a minute or two on the cushion, he slunk off out the cat flap with a look that said "Oh, you stopped. How dare you. I'm going out then" and was later found in the kitchen on one of the cupboard shelves. Don't ask. He seems to like it in there, and there's no door to stop him. That will all change with the new kitchen...

Stupid (aka Patch. She answers to it, and it's more appropriate as a name since she's mental) has taken to hiding in corners ever since we had a strange cat in the house, which was about four months ago. Nothing seems to stop her from finding awkward spaces to hide in and she was unceremoniously dragged from under stuff in the junk room for the grooming. And a worming tablet. Sulk? Well, she hid behind the dishwasher. We closed the junk room door to prevent further instances of hiding in the junk. It's getting too hard to get her out of there.

Miss (aka Rosie, the Prim and proper one of the three with an unhealthy obsession with washing herself and anything she comes into contact with) was the worst-faring cat of the evening. After a swift groom, I discovered a large welt under her chin which smelled... well, nasty. At first I thought she had just passed wind when she got dragged onto the grooming cushion, but the smell was the welt and her collar which was rubbing against it (a close sniff nearly made me gag). The collar got binned and Miss went for a shower. She fought (as cats do) when she was getting wet, but gave in when she realised that himself and I are bigger than her and she wasn't getting out of it. A wash of the welt later and she was purring and submitting to the ignominity of being a very soggy moggy. Two towels were needed to dry her (I think cats are made of sponge) and she was happy enough to be swaddled in a towel being rubbed dry, purring like anything. She got a treat of a tin of food put down (normally it's dry biscuits at night) and scoffed the lot. She'd been off her food and hiding in the junk room for the past week with only a swift glance of her as she headed out the cat flap at the run, or back upstairs at the same pace. Now we know why. When I checked on her half an hour ago, she was sat by the cat bowl looking for more, so I put down some biscuits for her.

We have fish as well, and some are getting to be a ripe old age, and unfortunately that has meant a couple of fatalities. The tinfoil barb (about 6 inches long and of uncertain age as it was given to us) was found floating yesterday morning. Tonight there was one of the two-year old corydoras went for burial at bin (it would have been burial at sea, but we are inland). The tank was checked just in case, but everything is fine. The rest of the fish are doing well, although we expect a few more fatalities on the way. We have some elderly fish now, since some are two or even three years old in the case of one neon tetra. The joy of having pets...

Life trundles on...

Life trundles on...

Just spent a weekend watching chick flicks and eating junk food with a friend. Oh, and there was a bottle of wine involved as well. I'd forgotten how much fun it is just vegging out with a mate doing nothing important, not worrying about wearing the right stuff and just getting on with it.

We watched Phantom of the Opera, the full BBC TV Series of Pride and Prejudice, Ice Age 2, The Princess Diaries and the Princess Diaries 2. Complete vegging material, and definitely required viewing when you have junk food and a bottle of wine. Hopefully by next girlie weekend I may have the first series of NCIS, the TV show which we are both fans of, so that will be one night's viewing sorted out.

Ah well, time for bed said Zebedee. I have work in the morning. I'm going to barter for some extra time this week, because I have my ultrasound on Friday to determine whether I can get some sort of sterilisation, or at least something to stop my periods which are more like sentences these days. Got to leave work early, so I'll see if I can make up my hours during the week.

It's all excitement here, isn't it?

Another grey day

Everything is snappish now. Nothing is peaceful or nice. Polite doesn't exist.

I've been sat in front of my computer all evening and he's been downstairs. Last night I was the one downstairs while he was on the computer all night.

I'm at a loss what to do. I have a permanent headache when I'm home. I don't know what to say or do any more and I'm tired.

This week...

Another week passes by and I'm tired. This week has been... interesting... for all sorts of reasons.

First up was the prolonged argument/non-communication of last weekend which seriously dampened my humour and made me wonder "What the hell is it all about? Really. When you get down to it, is there a point in me saying anything?" because it was painfully obvious (and still is) that me saying "I don't find the smut amusing. I find it offensive and quite possibly a little threatening" (I did say it... In a roundabout way) to some people read as "Thou shalt NOT speak to (insert name here)". Instead of "Oh, sorry. I'll tone it down/ask for it to stop" I get sarky comments and laughed at because I didn't find it amusing. Of course I didn't. I'm not let in on the joke in the first place. It has now gone back to me not knowing if conversations are actually taking place, and I think I will leave it at that. Let them get on with it if they want. I'm tired of arguing about it, so I shall sit here and ignore certain people, because obviously to them I don't exist, so why should I bother to act like they exist?

Anyway, I digress... I shall move on before I get irritated by the whole thing again. Frankly, it's not worth it any more.

Highlights of the week: New washing machine, and hopefully a new kitchen by Christmas. The guy came round last night and designed one for us. It was supposed to take about two hours. He arrived at just past six last night and left just before midnight. Not that I'm too bothered about it to be honest, because I am going to have a kitchen that is modern, fresh, clean and above all, a better use of the space I have. The kitchen isn't big. In fact, it's the smallest of the public rooms in the house with the exception of the hall and landing (not really taking these into account though because they aren't "living" spaces, just bits to pass through). Let's face it, the kitchen is tiny. It's so narrow, you can stand with your back to the wall and touch the units on the opposite side. Lengthwise, once we get rid of the God-awful larder area (very nice and functional when the house was built, but a waste of space now) there is enough space lengthwise to have the drainer of the sink (sink at 90 degrees to the main bank of units), a 5-drawer unit, washing machine, dishwasher, cooker, cupboard (I think) and a double cupboard unit. That's it. I'm getting more cupboard space by the addition of extra wall mounted cupboards (currently three, going to be 5 plus a corner cupboard unit) and I have plans for extra shelving which I can add after the kitchen is finished. Apparently it's cheaper to do it myself than to have it fitted with the kitchen, so fit it ourselves we shall. It means I will go through all of my kitchen stuff and have a good clear out of anything we don't need/want or that's just taking up space. I will also have more worksurface to play with, which can only be a good thing.

The rest of the week just feels like it's been hard work. I'm still trying to design a website with the help of a good friend, although he's technically just puting together what I give him. I have been doing all the literature for the site and I realised after he did a mockup for me to see that my pics are... well, not to put too fine a point on it, crap. I need to take a load more and then I think I will send the literature, pics and a few ideas to my friend and tell him to just build me something out of it. I seriously need to get it done and soon.

Work itself hasn't been too bad, although I keep having to ask for jobs to do because I run out of work too fast for people to keep up with my task list. I sometimes end up scratching around finding things for myself to do, like the library project I took on which kept me busy in my "free" time for a couple of days. It sometimes makes the days seem longer because I'm constantly looking for things to do.

The weekend looms large and I have no clue what to do with it. I have a whole load of stuff I want to get on with, but frankly, I'm knackered. I need to go find a new pair of shoes for work, and a new pair of gloves now the weather has turned cold. Cycling into work and home again, my fingers freeze. I also have to retake all the gown pics, tidy and hoover the living room and dining room, clean the kitchen floor, because they ripped up the last of the carpet tiles from under the old washing machine when they installed the new one and there's a bit of a mess on the floor still (been too knackered the rest of the week to want to tackle it) plus I need to get to the sewing machine shop in Salisbury to get a new overlocker foot for my machine, since I broke the last one and it's not quite working the way it should, although it still does a reasonable job in a pinch. Not really good enough for christening gowns though. I also need to start thinking about cleaning out the kitchen to get it ripped out and a new one put in. They said four to six weeks, but it may well be a lot sooner than that.

Ah well, I'm tired, and in among all those jobs, I have to get some sleep at some point. And cook dinner. And there's washing needing done. And ironing. And the bathroom is half painted and needs finishing. Not forgetting that the garden also needs a bit of attention as there's weeds in the gravel. And I need to tidy and sort the hallway to put the new shoe rack in that I bought last weekend.

I wanted to make a start on another gown to add to the collection, but I don't think I will have the time with all the rest of the things I have to be getting on with.

Ho hum... Looks like I'll not be having that lie-in tomorrow. Or Sunday.