Kates Journal

I know, I’ve become one of those become one of those people who rarely updates. I think  that’s because, well, most of the time I’m busy and really any of my spare time I want to spend with Kathryn. I don’t hugely want to spend time writing about what I’bve been doing. Because at the moment I’m sat waiting for MacOS to install on the ‘main PC’; purely because I want to install Linux on the laptop – and I’ve reached my tollerence for my laptop’s pause every few seconds to go to 100% processor usage, then resolve. It does it when it’s running firefox, not when it’s running anything else. But at the moment there’s not enough space on it to download the install of Gentoo – not that I could burn it, because the PC in the lounge / the homehub seem to be locked in a perpetual battle of wills – one of  them tries to connect, the other will work for a while, then they fall off. I can’t help blaming the homehub – it being so crap in every respect means that even if it isn’t it’s fault I’m gonna blame it for this problem.

At any rate, it’s left me sat upstairs with the laptop in my lap to keep me company while Kathryn is applicationifying and showering and doing morning things. I can’t help but have paranoia that it’s some sort of keylogger – but I’d presume it’d be better written than this is. Anyhow, so I’ve been working with kids a lot recently – not through choice, I hasten to add, but just because. I’m increasingly of the opinion that I’d quite like a kid sone day. They can be terribly sweet – even in the incredibly stressed environment of an A&E department. That doesn’t stop them being horrendously scary – not least because I don’t know enough to look after them as well as I’d like. But still. Not yet, I also hasten to add; but at some indistinct point in the future.

So, yes. work yesterday was tiring. We cleared out the Resus bay only for it to more or less instantly fill up again. And these were sick people; not desperately desperately sick people. Thankfully I’ve only had one of them in the Resus bay, once. Although, that said it’s probably good to get the skills down. But, yes. I may book myself on the ILS course. But I just feel so much out of my depth some of the time.

I’m worried that I’ll go on the course and I’ll still be out of my depth, surrounded by nurses who are way more experienced and way more knowledgeable than me. But I guess learning is learning :)

And actually it probably makes sense to do it now, just so I can apply the principles.

Kathryn and I (mostly Kathryn, actually) have been attacking the bathroom some more; she’s painted the top section white, I’ve filled the ceiling, so it now needs sanding and then painting with some of that smoothing paint. I’ve sealed around the shower too, so that’s now ready to be tiled. And finally we’ve both been tiling. It’s only a small section of tiles that’s up and on the walls, but it’s a good start and it does make a difference, at least mentally. I shall pounce and attack them tomorrow – try and get a chunk done. We’re having a friend over to stay, so it’d be nice if it was nearer finished. Not least because the less stuff there is being stored in there relating to building the more space we have that we can clear stuff from the spare room into.

Um, somewhat of a lazy title – but lots has been going on here. The last week has flown past; I’ve had a lot of hard shifts at work, and a very good shift – I’ve finally started suturing. I can now officially say that I’ve put people back together. Not necessarily very well… But they seemed to think it was neat enough. I had a good old wash out of the wounds and my suturing seems remarkably neat. Given my complete lack of sewing abilities the fact I can sew people back together has come as somewhat of a shock.

I’m really pleased to have got started on that though.

I’m told that I can go into minors again on Thursday and if that’s possible then I can do *more* :)

Kathryn and I spend a really nice day in London yesterday; I felt very decadent, somehow. We went to drop off some applications for her, well, that and some errands. And made a day of it, she posted about it here… I was just going to comment a little on Venus as a Boy – the play we went to see. I am still surprised at how the tale of a male prostitute’s descent into prostitution and eventual demise – a tale which centred around basically all the unpleasant and awful things which happened in his life – remained an incredibly positive feeling play. And the ability of the performer (who’s name escapes me) to carry me (at least) to the places he described; and to portray ages very different than his own – and multiple different ages though the play really impressed me.

So, that was us, last night, at Soho Theatre.

Today we got some of this… and put it here. It was a hideous job, it’s not quite finished, because a small section of the loft is floored – and rather than take that up, because we want to floor it anyhow – so there’s just that small section to be insulated. But it was filthy up there – and the guy and insulated it using randomly selected carpet and underlay, and apparently the lining of a mattress. All of that’s come up now and been relayed with 200 mm of glass fibre. Glass fibre is itchy, no matter what it might say on the packet.

And in final other news; my laptop also needs reinstalling. It’s regularly hitting 1005 processor usage. By which I mean, every few seconds. I can’t actually type and have the results come up on the screen at the same time as I type. They come up in floods after I’ve typed entire sentences – and correcting mistakes takes minutes. But I need to retrieve the files off it first…which means getting either the Mac or the Windows box working well enough to copy them. Gah.

Since everybody else is doing it :)

1. Sprinkler System Installer
2. Chiropractor
3. Massage Therapist
4. Dental Hygienist
5. Physical Therapist
6. Kinesiologist
7. Optical / Ophthalmic Lab Technician
8. Audiologist
9. Welder
10. Tilesetter
11. Boilermaker
12. Automotive Painter
13. Dentist
14. Orthodontist
15. Autobody Repairer
16. Nurse Practitioner
17. Tailor / Dressmaker
18. Pet Groomer
19. Security Systems Technician
20. Acupuncturist
21. Nurse
22. Cabinetmaker
23. Plumber
24. Sign Maker
25. Electrician
26. Dental Lab Tech
27. Electronics Assembler
28. Race Car Mechanic
29. Appliance Repairer
30. Motorcycle Mechanic
31. Automobile Mechanic
32. Aircraft Mechanic
33. Diesel Mechanic
34. Heating, Air Conditioning, Refrigeration Tech
35. Respiratory Therapist
36. Elevator Installer and Repairer
37. Hairstylist
38. Small Engine Mechanic
39. Esthetician
40. Millwright

This past week’s been a really interesting and incredible one. Kathryn finished her course and moved down to Slough last Tuesday; and y’know what I’m very happy. James commented that we smile a lot (“You both grin like mad things”) – and y’know what, it’s true. Somehow I just feel happier.

Sorry, I realise that we’re also sickly sweet, but hey, we’ve only been actually able to see each other for more than a couple of days at a time for one week, tomorrow. So, yes. So that was Tuesday; I’d just come off nights and have to admit that the whole thing was kinda blurry for me.

The rest of the week’s been made up of working on the house (the bathroom ceiling’s flakey paint has now been largely resolved; Kathryn revealed a continent of plaster, and I increased it’s size tonight before slathering the whole area in dilute PVA before applying lots of filler. Much sanding now awaits), helping out at my mum’s house (and here’s another example of where being with Kathryn is just better’n being by myself. Not only do I get her awesome company, but she reminds me to take advantage of being out in the countryside).
Having wandered around we picked blackberries to go with my mum’s home grown apples – which on getting home we made into a really rather nice apple and blackberry cake. It didn’t quite rise right, but next time we’ll use the oven not-in-fan-mode.

Then we headed up for Pari’s 2nd wedding – which was just beautiful. It was really great to catch up with some people I’ve not seen since university; I was actually incredibly nervous – having not seen them for 7 years; but in the end it worked out well. Kathryn’s posted about the wedding here – and when I get the photos off my camera, if any of them are any good I’ll flickr’em, but that means getting my Mac working. Which I could’ve done tonight, but didn’t. Instead I watched the IT crowd :)

Finally we headed back via the Gaydon Heritage Motor Museum, which was hosting the VVOC’s AGM – and I got to meet (briefly) some members of the VVOC, drip a lot of oil on the car park, collect a new head (which will be made unleaded) for Brick, and also got to spend some time looking at the world’s earliest production Morris Minor. Kathryn too pics of me next to the Minor, so expect them too; I also took a fair few pictures as I wandered round.

We also sat in a Think, Ford’s acquired-then-sold EV – it was interesting, but also disconcertingly dull. I guess that’s what we need, dull EVs for people to just buy and use. It appeared to be built to Ford’s usual standards and it was interesting to see moulded plastic door panels with the kinds of door gaps I’m used to on the Minor. (I have to say, looking at the photos of the newer ones, it looks like they’ve improved somewhat on the very early one we were sat in)
Anyway, Brick brought us home despite atrocious traffic on the M40 – and the temperature gauge hanging around just before the “I’m letting all the water out now” marker. There were quite a few modern cars with the traditional pool of green water underneath them sat on the hard shoulder, so I am quite impressed with Brick’s performance, especially given the stuff that’s passing for coolant in ‘im at the moment.
1000 miles in a week not bad for a 35 year old car :)

So I’ve got Brick back, and the Mac is now at least booting; although I need to reinstall again once I’ve moved some files about (to save them from a more thorough nukeing). But now the Laserjet’s died. “50 SERVICE” is all it says now; which appears to be most likely to be a fuser problem. I know the LJ 4 is hardly the newest piece of kit, and probably barely worth fixing, but I rather like it and it’s vastly cheaper to run than my DeskJet. It looks like it’s about 30 quid for a replacement fuser unit, which is a bit annoying. I guess I’ll take it apart and check first – but the fact it decided to die having sat and been working, rather than failing in first use is quite annoying. Anyone got a spare fuser unit for an LJ 4?

And this is taken from  Kathryn’s LJ:

1) One Book that made you read it More Than Once: “Surely you’re joking Mr. Feynman!” – I read this loads of times as a kid and now have a copy all of my own.

2) One book you would want on a desert island: The SAS Survival Handbook. Is that a bit practical?

3) One book that made you laugh: I could leave this with Kathryn’s answer(‘The Eyre Affair’ by Jasper Fforde), but I’ll put down Gridlock – the beginning of which made me laugh a huge amount.

4) One book that made you cry: I *think* Tipping the Velvet (Sarah Walters) did; there have been several but I can’t think of them right now.

5) One book that made you wish you had written: I don’t know the answer to this one. No book’s ever made me wish I’d written it, I guess…

6) One book that made you you wish had never been written: While there are many hideous and unpleasant books in the world, none that I have read would I wish non-existence upon.

7) One book you are currently reading: Theoretically Kushiel’s Avatar is next, but there’s also the Toyminator and Megatokyo 5 hanging about; and Scott Pilgrim (book 4) should be arriving soon.

8) One book you have been meaning to read: The Well of Loneliness (Radclyffe Hall).

9) One book that changed your life: The closest to this is a book on the theory of how people deal with bad news and bereavement (Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kubler Ross) which I read because of my course but it coincided with my dad’s illness and death.