Kates Journal

So, today we checked in with the ring people – they’ve sent us a new design, between it and the previous one I think we’re 100% there. They just need to combine the mountains from the previous design; the roots and trunk of the previous design and the spread and foliage of the tree in the current design and they’ll be there.

We have driven to Southam to get the minor looked at – they need to take the radiator out and whip the timing cover off, ‘cos it is that it’s leaking from but they think it’s holed; this is terribly frustrating as essentially we wasted 4 hours driving up there and back, but hey. Live and learn. It’s going to be a while ’til that leak gets fixed tho’. The minor’s performance is pretty spiffy though; top speed’s not hugely high (it’s very high geared), but there’s loads of torque available to get you there. A new gearbox and diff and we’ll be sorted. You can feel the slop in the diff when you let off the accelerator (throttle/gas pedal) and the gearbox just sounds awful in 2nd and 3rd. Ah well.

Anyhow, after a long drive we made it to Ikea (Wembley) which was, as you’d expect for Saturday (and Saturday after pay-day) absolutely bloody packed. We made it out alive though – carring the bathroom stool, bench, a towel rack (we didn’t expect to get that), the futon-sofa-bed and mattress (better one that we were intending to get, ‘cos the cheap one was out of stock; if anyone fancies getting us a sheet to cover it with, tho’, that’d be nice ;) ), a rug, napkins, a drying rack for the kitchen (I’m sick of the rusty plastic/metal one I’ve had forever), a pack of glasses…and I think that’s it. The list could have been much longer.

I also got stopped for my shoes – first time this has happened with a couple (both) wanting to know where to get them from. I reckon Vibram should offer us free cards to dole out to people, with a number on, such that you can get a discount if enough people buy using your cards… I’m still very much enamoured with them, and impressed with the fact that I’ve spent the day driving and my shins, which normally would ache after such a long drive are absolutely peachy. They were also good for hopping around the pallets left out in Ikea where they were low on stock, and saving me waiting for the very slow people to move through the store.

It all squidged into the car fairly easily and the journey home was amazingly not too horrendous. Unfortunately, arrival home was disappointing in that the builders who’s promise for the day’s work was:

- Plaster the walls and ceiling
- Finish and level the floor
- Fit the new door
- Brick up the old door

(Essentially everything that’s left to do)… Yeah, of them, they’ve managed to brick up the old door. The outside of it is a very nice job; the salvaged bricks look really good and once it’s painted it’ll probably be barely distingishable. The inside’s blockwork, and is fine, neat enough. But for the second day in a row the door isn’t in despite promises that it would be. Possibly the mortar’s still to wet, it’s been very cold. But I need some kind of update, and am very unimpressed with the way they left the back of the house.

I’m theoretically waiting on a call back from the builders, but it’s after hours on a weekend, so I imagine that I won’t hear anything until…well… Monday? When I’m at work?

*sighs in a frustrated way*

I’ve also got a headache from being in the sun without enough water…which isn’t making the world any shinier right now, which is a shame, because I was quite looking forward to coming home to a nice door (well, an okay PVCU door) and a nice ceiling (I didn’t think they’d get *all* of it done, but more than that…). Not least it’d've been nice because there’s lots left to do in the rest of the house (including assembling a bunch of shelves which we can’t currently put up ‘cos we can’t get to the wall :-/

Poot.

*le sigh*

Anyhow, I’m going to go and try and stare at the ATNC book and ignore the headache (and yes, I’ve taken painkillers :-p )

So, yesterday, while being chilly it didn’t feel icy cold; today I had to wipe the windows on the car before moving and it felt pretty darn nippy getting into ‘becca. The house, if you leave doors open has that cold-cold feeling, and I’ve actually turned the heating on (although this is no-doubt assisted by the fact there’s a 1100mm wide hole in the rear wall which is ‘boarded up’ using the cunning technique of sticking 4 nails in a board loosely applied over the apparture.

I love having builders in…

So, today is serious ATNC day. I’m up, I’ve given up on the hoped for early arrival of the builders and after about 10 minutes of wandering around the house hunting for the old ATNC manual (they’re both the same, but the new one didn’t survive the post so well and hasn’t got my hand-scrawled notes in the margin). I also have a pile of CDs next to me which need ripping (‘need’, is perhaps more accurate). We, on our trip to the states got:

Radiohead – In Rainbows
The Zincs – black pompadour
The Linn Youki Project – (hash*)01
Sub Debs – She’s So Control
Folk Impolosion
The Duhks – Fast Paced World
Blinker The Star - Bluish Boy (free single)
Graham Coxon – The Golden D (free single)
Joal Rush – Imagination (free EP)
spinART’s bundle of joy (free promo album from spinART records)
Jean Claude NAIMRO - Digital Dread
The Pierces – Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge
Regina Spektor – Soviet Kitsch
Sonya Heller – Fourth Floor
Ramona the Pest – Little Knives

I’ve also still got my copy of Seanan McGuire’s Stars Fall Home to rip (because my Hackintosh was having a sulk about CD Ripping, and the Shiny Mac’s CD-Rom’s finicky; but hopefully with Max we seem to actually be having some luck. I’ll see though, when I actually listen to the first CD Rip of the day :) ).

The irony is, the idea was it’d be easier for me to listen to my music once ripped, ‘cos I can listen ‘anywhere in the house’ to ‘any cd’. Only, since the 10.4 mac and the 10.5 mac don’t like talking all the time, and the linux PC I’ve not sorted out networking on, and frankly, the Music ‘n’ video (10.4) mac is louder than I’d like – but the network’s not quick enough to stream video over (actually, it might be now…but at any rate I’ve not got a silent machine to put in the lounge to be the video / music player) – so actually I end up not listening to as much as I’d like. I rather liked the dinky shuttle PC with it’s touch screen – that’d be ideal because then I wouldn’t have to turn the TV on to select a track, which is more hastle than going to the CD box and getting the darn CD out :)

Never mind.

Anywhy, it’s time for me to set to and work (now I’ve found my ATNC manual) and learning shall be afoot. Incidentally, if anyone’s got about a spare 12-14 hours, I could do with them. I need to service the DAF and am running out of occasions when it might actually be (a) warm (b) dry (c) in time to do it. It may have to get done next weekend before nights, just so it’s *done*.

*Now, the problem with using an old PC keyboard on a mac is not knowing where some of the keys are, in this case, where the hell have they put the hash (aka pound) symbol?

Well, what do you expect. Overtired, ’s me. I can’t seem to get up to doing any work of any substance, but I did do the Manual Handling Online Doojit for my agency work; and similarly effective work wise was organising the delivery of items from our wedding list (they’re coming!). My main problem, today, I feel is a complete absence of coffee. I had a lousy cup of Earl Gray that I made this morning… and that’s it. How am I meant to survive on that?!

On the plus side I have the bits required to fix the two broken windows (and apart from one of them being on the upper floor of the house, reachable only by a ladder, then it should be all hunky dory. Of course, the fact it’s cold and horrid at the moment, as a general rule, does mean that I’m less enthused about fixing them.

The hammering and general thunking that’s going on doesn’t help with studying either, to be brutally honest, and while I’m terrified to realise that thanks to the wonderful shift-rostering I’ve done in conjunction with my ward manager I’m working nights again the week after next… so I really need to get my lazy ass in gear and get understanding this course, the fact is I’m just too frigging tired today :(

What I may do, however, is eat another plum.

So, ’scuse the post spam, but I thought I should clarify that whilst I’m exhausted I am up and surviving the day. I don’t feel as attrociously awful as I might – although my stomach is still churning away. Maybe microwave lasagne and microwave mushroom stroganoff is not the way to live. I’m sure it is possible to live healthily with only a microwave, for my mum has some incredibly cunning microwave only recipes, but we don’t…

I am sitting awaiting the arrival of the builders so I can head out to Lidl and get the Orchids and the USB hub. I’ve made the world’s worst cup of tea, which is a shame, ‘cos it’s probably the only hot drink I’ll get today. I’ve sadly noticed that the sockets I sunk in the kitchen aren’t even. They’re all within about an inch of each other, but it’s quite frustrating to realise how far out one of them is. Well, one of the ones that was meant to be level. I may end up tetrising the kitchen, or I may end up just plain tiling it, but either way I’m going to have to try and hide the misleveling of the plugs. For all my laughing at the people who built the house’s failure to use a level I’ve gone and bloody done it myself :)

Ah well.

In other news….uh….what was I going to write here?

I’ve done some more of the ATNC course…no, that wasn’t it… I don’t think I was planning to write about the DAF (ting ting ting), or the poems or that we wrote out the order of the ceremony… poot. I did have something to say. Well, expect more post spam if it comes back to me.

Ah, no, you’re saved. So, yes, I e-mailed one of the ‘we’ll get you to Vancouver’ companies, it seems that the schedule we’d laid out was about right; assuming they’ll let me apply with only 1-and-a-bit year’s experience. I’m praying that they will, because I really want to get out of Slough. And I’d rather do it in a civilised one-step-leap rather than a move-elsewhere-then-abroad-twin-step-leap which it would have to be, because I concur with Kathryn’s desire to be out of Slough at the end of another year.

One of the things which struck me, is my brain’s inability to understand the size of the world. The world can seem so very small, just yesterday we chatted to Sarah on the phone, and a couple of weeks ago we were sat in her lounge chatting away. Getting my brain to follow the reality that they’re thousands of miles away is hard. That hours must elapse on planes between seeing them and seeing my family isn’t something which comes easily to my head…

Anyway, now you’re awake, whatcha doing with your day?

I’d forgotten how unutterably frustrating and upsetting it is not to be able to sleep. I’ve led in bed for 45 minutes with the only thoughts in my mind being how tired I am and how physically tired I feel and my brain trying to will me to sleep. I get up now and feel the urge to sleep. But laying there it’s completely elusive. I counted breaths, I counted anything I could, I curled around Kathryn, Kathryn curled around me. But sleep remains elusive. I still feel slimey from napping in my clothes yesterday (in bed) but it was cold, I was tired.

I will be exhausted today, because I feel exhausted now. I feel like crying. I do not take sleep deprevation well, and though I remember insomnia from university, days and days of sleeping for a few hours here and there, and spending hours creating on the computer, I do not remember the exhaustion, the frustration, and the desperate desire to sleep. My eyes are tired and close while I type, I’ve picked up the ATNC manual but I am not conviced I can read it. I miss the lounge where I could have curled up on the Sofa with the manual and the little standard lamp and waited for sleep to overcome me. Now I sit in the upright chair in the computer room, scrunching as much as I can, but sleep won’t come here.

Bollocks. I should’ve known better than to nap the day after nights.