(It's way overdue, and fairly long, but It IS DONE!)
Quote 1: (While watching an episode of SG-1 with brother) Mark: Su-i-cide! Su-i-cide! Su-i-cide! Me: CSI?! What’s that got to do with SG-1?!
Quote 2: Me- (Re falling off a curb and skinning knee) The curb and I had a disagreement… The curb won.
Quote 3: Judi- It’s raining Mark! You know… the wet kind!
Album 1: Bon Jovi- Slippery When Wet
Album 2: Colin Hay- Going Somewhere
Album 3: Einaudi- Echoes: The Einaudi Collection
Song 1: Lilly Allen- Alfie
Song 2: Fall Out Boy- Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner
Song 3: Red Hot Chili Peppers- Death Of A Martian
Lyrics 1:
I’ll be your best kept secret and your biggest mistake- Fall Out Boy- Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner
Lyrics 2:
When I first set eyes on you
First you beat me up
Then you kissed me too- Colin Hay- Maggie
Lyrics 3:
If this is true to life
Feed me fantasy instead- The Beautiful South- Meanwhile
Wow… I’m actually sitting down for long enough to be able to write something. Depending on how it goes I may be able to put the entire thing up that I want to say, but most likely I’ll put up what I write now, because then at least you all have SOMETHING to read and cant yell at me for not updating in, well, forever really. And I may have had an excuse for 2 of the weeks that I didn’t post, but only a very small one really.
I’ve been having an error message up on my laptop recently, and after having the same warning message for the 20th time or something like that, I got fed up with it and decided that maybe I should put some anti-virus on my laptop. Cos I’ve had it since December 2004 and never gotten round to putting any on. And mum had just bought half of PC world the other week, and so there was some anti-virus that I could install. So I installed it, got all excited, and then the bugger decided to break down on me.
It would load up in normal mode, but then wouldn’t open any of the applications or anything. Which, well, sucked. So, realising that maybe it was the anti-virus that had caused this nice new non-working state of my laptop, I figured I could load it up in safe mode and remove the anti-virus. Only problem was, I couldn’t remove software in safe mode, I had to be in normal mode. And if I load up in normal mode, I couldn’t do anything. So you see my problem.
After explaining this to my dad, he started suggesting ways in which I could get around it. Like putting the software in quarantine or something. (Can you even do that?! I have no idea!) Anyway, after about 2 weeks of not having my laptop working, mum had a guy out form PC world to install a wireless network in her house for her mark and Judi’s computer. And he was just “oh, restore it.” And I was like “Um…What?!” So he took me through it and IT WOKS!!! WOOHOO!!! AND I can get on the network too… hence being able to write this now.
So yeah, that’s one of the reasons I haven’t updated recently.
Other excuses I could (and have) used… I’ve been at work. Yeah, I’m a working gal. And I SO need a job when I go back to uni in the autumn, cos otherwise I’m just going to run out of money in the first or second month or something. So yeah. Been busy that way.
I have come to the decision recently that technology, if it’s mine at least, doesn’t like me. See, not only did my laptop break and freeze up on me, I think it taught the trick to my phone. Cos that just sits there and freezes up on me too. So, I put the SIM into my old old phone. (The phone I had before the phone I had before the phone I have… If that makes sense…) But then THAT phone, although it worked in a functioning way, didn’t want to work in a phone way. It wouldn’t get a signal to allow me to send/receive texts or event o talk to people. So I am currently using my MUM’s old phone. I.e. the one she had before the one she has now. And that one at least works. And allows me to text and phone etc. The only slight issue now is that I have a limited number of contacts on the phone, because my current phone doesn’t work long enough for me to be able to get numbers off it. So if I haven’t contacted you recently via phone, odds are I don’t actually have your number at the moment.
Been to the pub a few times recently. Been cool. Caught up with people who I don’t normally get to see. Done a few of the quizzes if they’ve been on. Not that I can answer many of the questions, but the intent was there. And I suddenly have new respect for people who work on a bar. I was working at the racecourse at the weekend, and they put me on clearing. This basically means I get paid to sit around for about 3-4 hours doing BUGGER ALL until people come in, and then clear up empty cups etc. And yeah, it can be a bit boring, but at the end of the day it’s money. So anyway, working on Saturday, and then it got a bit busy in one of the bars. I happened to be inside having a 5 minute break and gulping down a pint of water cos it was HOT! And then one of the bar guys comes in and asks if I would mind helping out on the bar cos it’d gotten really busy.
Now, you have to understand that the total experience I have at serving on a bar is 1 night at the arena when the Guns and Roses concert was on. And even then it wasn’t serving everybody, just the odd people. So I was basically thrown in at the deep end. And then everyone started yelling at all the bar staff about it taking forever to be served and that if we didn’t know what we were doing we shouldn’t be on the bar. (Um… I WASN’T MEANT TO BE ON THE BAR IN THE FIRST PLACE!! I WAS HELPING OUT!!) And then, because it was SO HOT in the cellar where the barrels were, the Fosters was coming out all head and not much else. Meaning that it would take a while to pour 1 pint, never mind more than 1. So we’re all getting yelled at for that. And there’s nothing we can do about it. If you don’t like it, order something different!
And then there was the way that they had the system set up. There were 3 tills, and each till had someone on, and then the rest of the staff were serving. Meaning that you had to serve the person, then find out the price, then get the money, then take that to the tiller who then ran it though for you to hand back the change. The system at the arena was much better. It was the people on the tills that got the drinks, and then there were other people keeping the fridges full and working on the 6-pint-pouring machine (ok, so I don’t know what it was called. I knew how to work it. That was enough for me!)
So, going back to Saturday, for coming in to have a 5 minute break and a glass of water, I got to spend 2 hours on the bar. And I swear this one person was taking the piss. Ordered 4 drinks, fine, no problem. Poured them and got the price. Went back with them to the lass who ordered, who then ordered more drinks. Ok, fine, not a problem. Got them, and then had to go to the tiller to find out the new price. Went back with the drinks and price, for her to order 4 MORE drinks. So, get them, have to go to the tiller to find out the NEW price, and went back to the lass, who by this time had finished her first drink and wanted another one. She spent about £58 on this one order that took about 15 minutes to finish, and did she give a tip? Did she hell. The lass on the till kept looking at me every time I went back to add something else on as if I had grown another head or something.
So yeah. All those people who work on a bar regularly and enjoy it, I don’t know how you do it. Big respect.
Ok, so what else has happened since I last actually updated? Oh. I met Jan! She’s the person my dad has been seeing for about a year now, maybe just over. But yeah, met her. And got on really well. Met her for the second time last Friday, cos mum had taken the siblings to Blackpool for the weekend and so dad took me on a sponsored shopping spree. Which was nice of him, considering he didn’t have to do that. It’s so much fun when the girls outnumber the guys. Dad was like “you don’t need that skirt really, do you?” and Jan and I were “Yes. One can never have too many clothes.” And then after shopping went out for a nice Italian in this little café place that Jan knew. I must have walked past the street a hundred times or more and I never knew it was there. Had a lovely lobster and cheese filled ravioli with a prawn sauce. Gorgeous.
So yeah, mum took Judi and Mark to Blackpool for the weekend. Well, long weekend. They went on Thursday and came back Monday, leaving me with the choice of staying at hers in an empty house, or going round to dads. So, figuring that in all fairness I should have been at dads for the fortnight starting the previous Monday, I opted to go to dads. Of course with all the changes that had gone on etc, I had forgotten the dad was spending most of the week and the weekend at Jan’s, leaving me with an empty house. Well, apart from the cat that I didn’t see much of anyway.
So yeah, that was fun.
It has just occurred to me the number of times I have said “so yeah” in this update so far. Um, sorry about that. I’ll try to tone it down for the rest of the post.
In the weekend when I had the empty houses, dad popped back for about an hour, just to check that the house was still standing and to drop off some washing. When he was there he figured he better check his e-mails, and it’s a good thing he did! See, we’re going to Italy for 2 weeks next week. We were meant to be flying out on the Thursday, but Easyjet, who have been cancelling flights left right and centre in the last couple of weeks had cancelled our flight. So now we’re flying out on Wednesday. This basically means we get an extra day on Florence. And hey, somewhere where I’ve always wanted to go, I ain't complaining! The thing is, dad is pretty certain that they have also cancelled the flight home. But the airline isn't contacting the people involved until about 2 weeks before the flight. Which is fine for flying out to Rome, but we’re there for 2 weeks. I.e. the day we fly out should be the day we get notification on if our flight home is still happening. So we might be flying back a day before we were meant to, because Judi gets her results the day after we were meant to get back. And obviously she’d rather be there to get them then waiting around for a plane out of Rome. Have to wait and see.
So I’ve been doing some thinking recently. And I have decided that what my mum said about me doing things only to please others was complete bull, and there are a number of things that I do for me and not them. Hell, I get the same talk about some of the things every week or there abouts. If I did things just for them I wouldn’t need the talks, would I?
I haven’t been sleeping well. Max of 4 hours a night. Been having a recurring nightmare too. And normally I wake up and I know that it was a nightmare, and can eventually get back to sleep. Except there was this one time not so long ago where it felt so real that I almost called up the person it was about just to make sure they were alive. And then last week I did actually do that. So if I’ve been a little off or distant in the last couple of months then that may be why. It could be something completely different of course.
Been to the cinema a fair bit recently. Well, more than what I had been when I was in Brum. Not sure if that’s cos of the film choices or because of the company. Probably a little bit of both. Been to see The Lake House, X-Men 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (twice, on account of seeing it with different people. But let’s face it… Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom… Not exactly complaining…) And then hopefully going to see Superman Returns, but might have to wait until it comes out on DVD to see that, on account of having NO MONEY!
Of course that hasn’t stopped me going out to the pub. See, the thing about the pub, you don’t have to be drinking to be able to enjoy the experience. I tend to go for seeing people who I don’t get the chance to see otherwise. Like Mike and Lorna. And I think I may have mentioned that bit before, but not sure. Anyway, Mike had this idea of writing a children’s story, putting it to music and recording it, and wanted our help in coming up with ideas for it. And what better way to do that then to get people slightly drunk and bounce ideas off each other? Heard the resulting story last night, and I have to say it was fantastic. Really really enjoyed it. So yeah, that was a cool time.
Had an interesting phone call today from Orange, wanting to reward me for being a loyal customer or something. So, ask if I'm still on contract, what phone I have, and how it’s working for me, so I tell the nice guy on the other end that actually, it’s broken. Completely frozen. So then he goes on about how I can get an upgrade for my phone, get a new tariff and a new handset, providing they have the model I want in stock. And then he goes on about all these new tariffs I could get. And yeah, if you use your mobile for talking, their pretty good deals. 275 minutes and 100 texts for £25 a month, brill. If you talk. Which I don’t. I text. And 100 texts a month isn't exactly going to get me far. So, he says, ok, how about 375 minutes and something like 175 texts a month for £30 a month. So I explain that that still won’t be enough. I use an AVERAGE of 350-400 texts a month. So he comes up with this contract of 500 minutes and 500 texts a month for £35.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, I don’t really use my phone for talking. My current tariff is 120 minutes and 1000 texts a month for £29. And I still earn rollover minutes. I don’t need all these extra minutes on my tariff, I wont use them. They’ll just sit there, mocking me… so then the poor guy went off to find the manager to discuss what they could offer me that is better than what I have currently. And that was at about 1 and i still haven't heard anything. Here’s a nice easy answer… just give me a handset that works! If I can get a nice handset that I don’t have to pay any extra for, great. If it turns out that I'm on the best tariff I could be, that just means that I have a brain, and the people in the orange shop actually know what they’re talking about!
Had an idea for a little challenge thing to put at the end of my blog posts. It’s a conundrum. The idea is that the man letters in a phrase are removed, and any numbers in the phrase are represented as such. And because small words such as “on, of, the, a” etc are hard to guess, they are put into the phrase. For example, 18 holes on a golf course becomes 18 H on a G C. 12 signs of the zodiac becomes 12 S of the Z. etc.
So… an easy on to start you off… 15 M on a D M C.
