So, uh, yeah.
Yesterday.
Right, well. It’s very odd. This house feels more like a home now, a month in, than the old house felt like during our entire tenancy. I feel much more comfortable here. Although it’s odd. I think the ‘days when we’ve not had friends staying’ could actually be counted on one hand – this is most definately not a complaint. Just weird… It was odd for the few hours on Friday night ‘twixt Kate and Nikki leaving and James arriving on Saturday it seemed very quiet… and empty… and hrm. It’s odd anyway. It’s going to be odd when Nikki and Kate get a place down in Brizzy and aren’t kipping in the spare room during the week!
But it’s not just Nikki and Kate, we’ve had Other Nikki and Chrissy, and Emma, and now James. It’s been like a permanent dilute party! ;-)
Anyway, it just struck me that, yesterday.
Anyway, I’m trying to cut down on the showers. I’m not sure why but the shower here seems to be drying my skin out. So I’m trying to reduce it just for a week or so, slather the moisturiser on, and then go back to my usual regime. I hate not showering, but my skin was looking really crappy. I think maybe my skin doesn’t like the soap I’ve got; it can be a bit picky. I might go buy some nicer stuff…. but I really shouldn’t buy anything. Which makes this….
…. so much worse.
I did set myself an absolute maximum of 10 quid yesterday, when I went with John, James and Lauren to BookBarn – a warehouse full of bookshelves. It’s huge…and fucking cold!. It was colder in the darn warehouse than it was outside. So cold. But so much. It just seems to go on for ever. Entire sections devoted to leaf spotting and cabbage hunting. There was a shelf of books in Russian! Woot!
Couldn’t find anything in Maori… Mind I’d’ve not known if I’d’ve seen it! Unfortunately I did find…. A Morris Minor Owners Manual by Haynes (for 2 quid), a nice little dictionary, the Electrical Handbook for Women. Now when I saw that title I nearly wet myself laughing. Looking at the rough age of the book, and a glance inside the cover (which revealed a photograph of a kitchen)… Well, I was amused and smug. Then I looked through it.
Let’s just glance through that contents page….
Electricity – What it is and what it can do (oh he he he)
Electric Lamps and Lighting…
The Electric Home Laundry…. (snigger)
See now, doesn’t that fullfil exactly what you’d expect. Only it doesn’t.
Because to get that I’ve had to be *really* selective about what I put in. Why? Because it’s a book for female engineering geeks from the 30s. It just starts from the basis of not knowing anything but takes you understanding the legislation, designing the wiring for your house, how to fault find, first aid… it’s got a map of the Central Electricity Board’s Transmission Lines, and the sites of the powerstations. It’s incredibly, incredibly cool. I’m intrigued to know who Clare McMurray is, who the book was awarded to. Is she some 1940’s engineer (well, she was at school then, so I guess 1950s engineer). I’m just really really impressed. It’s exactly the kind of thing I want to sort of do on telly for cars… Anyway.
I also picked up a copy of Inconceivable – the Ben Elton book I don’t have (apart from the plays, which I also don’t have). Not that I have time to read it, I’ve still got the book that Trey gave me when she came back from the land of ‘merkia, which I’ve been looking forward to reading… but keep putting off on the basis that I need to work. Or ring Trey. Or exercise.
I couldn’t work out why it (the Ben Elton book) looked so odd though, I’d never seen one with the cover this one had… And then when I got home I realised. It’s the American Edition. HELP! It’s getting everywhere! I’ve started to….like….Hershey bars. And… and…. I still like Mountain Dew…. and and…. and… yes… I admit it. I’ve caught rising inflection.
It’s terrible. I always thought I’d stay really British wherever I went, even in my accent. Although I pick bits and pieces up from everywhere (I mean people already have real trouble guessing where I’m from; I think people have guessed my location as being from every continent ‘cept the African subcontinent). And yet… suddenly I find myself picking up Americanisms. I mean, I started calling it a cellphone, and a butt. It’s like… … see! At any rate, I still say Telly, and always will, because that’s what it is. It’s a Telly. And Doojit. And zebra. Yeah. So. Uh.
Nyargh. I don’t want more people thinking I’m American! They might have a go at me for Bush, the same way I do to Americans ;-)
That’d be terrible!
Anyway. Enough wittering. Just a quick note to say I stuck up the two none-too-cheery entries from when I was at home and when I was struggling in a 04/03/2005lecture (we had to read about an individuals experience of cancer…). They are literally scans of what I wrote in my notebook, so you’ll have to put up with my terrible scrawl.
