Mostly lemon based

Category: General

  • News from the Kate-i-verse

    So, Xmas and Boxing day and so on. Yup.

    Xmas – I worked the morning, and then went to my sister’s in the afternoon. This is the first year I’ve not got Xmas dinner, probably in my entire life. It’s weird, I’ve actually *lost* weight over Xmas (which is good), but I still feel pissy that she (that is, my sister) invited me for Xmas dinner, and then proceeded to cook and eat it before I even left work for the day.

    Fortunately I had nutritious, healthy, traditional ‘left over Xmas Eve Pizza’ to eat; so I didn’t go too hungry. She did cook an awesome xmas pudding. Then boxing day, I spent that with Claire and Michelle, and their 2 kids, and their respective families. I had a great day, but I must admit it was a trifle odd to spend Boxing day essentially as a psuedo-family member. I had a great, relaxing evening, it kinda reminded me of Alaska – in the whole – being part of a family that’s not my own.

    I spent some time thinking about my own family that day, and that night. And my dad, and the destruction his loss and illness has wreaked upon my family. Where once we seemed such a nuclear family, now we’re all feuds and arguments and it seems so odd. It’s not like my childhood was idillic or anything. But compared to the disaster that is my family now? I guess I find it all a bit weird.

    My BT Broadband connection / Homehub continues to be fairly atrocious; if you put the wireless bit under any kind of load then you rapidly seem to loose all connectivity. It also appears to need to be beaten with the power-switch of doom on regular occasions. this, once must say is less than impressive.

    That thought was brought to you by ‘oh look, I’m disconnected again’.

    Anyhow, so, I met up with Amy, or more hunted her down in the store where she works. Impressed, I must admit, was not the first look that crossed her face. In fact, the meeting was ‘difficult’ at least, from my side. She doesn’t want to see me again. That, I have to admit, is another new experience for me. Not one that I’m keen to repeat. So, yeah. Her loss, and incidentally, from her revelations on that night I’m quite *pleased* that I’m not seeing her again.

    My car, that’s now got electronic ignition; she’s running a lot better now. She’s also serviced. She’s still not *right* though, I’m not quite sure why, I suspect I need to read that Timing lamp’s instructions again, and the instructions in the haynes manual. She’s definately running better. The handbrake however, remains a bit of a mystery. The cable seems to have stretched, and is, I suspect on it’s way out. But I’m not sure that the rear brakes are really doing that much… I think I may have to resort to the ‘someone with more experience’ looking at it.

    I also need to find out when the MOT is, just so that I can work out how much to panic about the now missing new exhaust.

    Oh, and I’ve painted the woodwork in the lounge…

    One thing that has been odd in my little world, I’ve taken to listening to CBC Radio 1, which is what I listened to in Canada; I’m particularly fond of the Dead Dog Cafe, but generally quite enjoy listening to Canada’s equivalent of Radio 4. But it’s odd, because I read Torontoist, and you start to feel a real connection, or a greater connection to the place when you’re reading the news, and hearing the news, and it’s difficult to explain, particularly in my current really quite tired state of mind… but it’s odd.

    Yeah.

    So that’s been my last few days, what’s happened in your world?

  • One month in…

    And my hands are cracked to shit, my budget’s screwed by a plasterer of previously unknown quantites of evil and… the room’s got an undercoat of white paint. All of it. The room is WHITE. It’s like a special meeting of the BNP in there, between the white filler dust which coats every surface, the white matt on the walls, and the white undercoat on the skirting, it’s very white.

    Photos of the progress at one month on Flickr.

    I’m quite pleased with myself, and at the same time frustrated by most of the ‘professionals’ I’ve worked with, who’ve been late, not turned up, or overbooked. Which has meant that, as a general rule, I’ve been waiting on them turning up. I do wonder if the room would have been finished by now if I’d’ve not had the (really not very good quality) skim done. At any rate, I’m pretty pleased with progress. Sadly, my Xmas present to myself is not to be a lounge.

    But it’s nearly there. In other news, Rebecca’s present this year is a Xenon Timing Strobe – because Halfrauds no longer stock ital points. At least, Slough halfrauds don’t. So, in 3 days time we’ll *hopefully* be on electronic ignition. Or I’ll be totally in the poo. In more biting news, presents are all wrapped, and I’ve discovered just how dangerous care of the older person nursing is.

    In all my 3 months in A&E I got some verbal abuse from drunk patients, but never anything more. To be fair I was working in Bath, which is terribly posh. But still… In 2 months in CotOP, I’ve been slapped, had fingernails dug in, frequently been grabbed, and today we added punched (not hard enough to leave a mark, but enough to be sore) and having a glass of water thrown over me.

    I have to admit, with the punch, the person got told off, right there, right then. The word ‘No’ got used quite a bit. With the water, I just cursed lots (having gone off to dry myself a bit), and then went right back to persuading this (very confused) woman that perhaps she would like to take her tablets (she will, happily, just I’d dared to move the glass too quickly). *sighs*.

    Sometimes my job is less fun than it could be. Although, all in all today seemed to go pretty well. Despite being slow, and very thorough (my Xmas Eve gift to the universe); we still got to the end of the shift, and had time to do nice things. Which is always good.

    So, yeah, and now I’m off to ring the Trey creature (and by extension, the Kara, and Kara family creatures).

  • Reading, writing and arithmatic

    So, yeah. Um. Been a couple of weary days; Xmas shopping is complete, Xmas wrapping is not started. Cards to go to the states, still not sent. Absence of local post office. I take that back, apparently there’s one about 10 minutes walk away – but I haven’t seen it. I am, however, reknown for missing things. So uh, Xmas cards will be somewhat late this year.

    Mostly, though, I’ve been desparately ploughing through work in the lounge, attempting to reach completion; having no rooms to outright relax in is quite tiring – although it’s driving forward the lounge project at some rate. Today I started slapping white matt onto the walls of the lounge, which should help make the rather nicer Dulux red and off-white-brown really vibrant. I have also thrown concrete into the fireplace to raise the level of the hearth at the back to the same as that at the front; it needs a bit of self-leveling compound I suspect to get it completely level, but it’s certainly nearly there – and should be ready by tomorrow afternoon.

    I’m moderately certain I’m boring you all witless. Thanks to A. H. Contractors statement that you have to pay by Cash or pay VAT I’ve ended up paying *even more* for what is quite frankly really and truly shonky workmanship. Much, much filling, sanding and more filling, and more sanding, and more filling and yet *more* sanding and the finish is still no-where near as good as the work my (far more honest, far more decent) plasterer did the first time. So he’s hopefully going to be coming back to do the renovations in the kitchen.

    In other news I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time listening to Frontline Assembly’s track: Providence. You should go listen. James provided me with the linkage… I’ve also spent an inordinate amount of time laptop in hand reading the free PDF of Rick Dakan’s book Geek Mafia. It somehow reminds me of Hiaasen’s work; and is a compelling and entertaining read. The PDF is nicely produced, although there are some real stinkers of the typographical error variety in there :-)

    I really rather fancy owning a dead tree copy (not least because you can’t easily curl up with a laptop, or I can’t); but am rather resenting the idea of paying $15 shipping. For that I’d expect it to arrive wrapped in freshly polished plutonium, carried by a band of faeries sat atop a unicorn. Or in other words, I think $15 shipping for *one book* is entirely unreasonable. Ironically, were the book $10 and the shipping $10 I may have gone for it. But the balance is all wrong.

    Anyway, it’s an excellent book, and I recommend the free PDF, and the book to those living in the US. :-)

    And now, I must away.

  • Ah, the joy of Adequate

    So, my plasterer came back, after some cajoling, and basically the fact I wasn’t going to pay him ’til he fixed things. It’s truly sad when someone has skill, but can’t be *arsed* to do a decent job. And in my opinion, that’s how A J Contractors behaved. The job they did the first time was shoddy, the best part of their excuse for leaving it half done:

    “It takes a long time for plaster to dry on that bonding, so I’d’ve just been stood around for 2 hours waiting for it to dry”.

    Ah, so you left it half done because you couldn’t be bothered to wait. Oh, that’s alright then. That’s fine. I’ll put up with shonky plastering in my lounge, because you’re busy.

    Bloody builders.

    Still, with a great deal of work with the sander (or as I said to James: “Sanding down the crap like the sand bunny of doom”; perhaps I’m overtiried), and a not unsubstantial quantity of filler, I’ve *hopefully* got the beginnings of a fairly neatly finished lounge.

    Although, I’m now wondering if the radiator will go where I was planning to put it with the sofa I’ve got. Sadly I’m too tired to measure it… so it’ll have to wait until after the fire-place fitting, which should happen tomorrow.

    In other news, I have forgotten to post Xmas cards. This means they’ll almost certainly be late. I apologise, I have been somewhat tardy in organising xmasy things this year.

    … and no, I never did hear from Amy.

  • There’s this point right…

    …where the personality you put into something starts to cross with a real suspicious set of traits from that object, which starts to make you really feel that the object has got some kind of soul.

    I guess, after 37 years on this planet, my car’s collected enough quirks and fiddley bits, and having been hand built, largely, has quite a lot of personality. But this morning, I’d spent a solid 10 minutes trying to coax her to start. We’d passed through ‘no longer going to be early’ and ‘on time’ to ‘do I ring them and say I can’t get my car to start’?

    I’d got a work lamp outside, a 1lb lump hammer to ‘tap’ the sticking starter and she still wasn’t starting. I’d get one shot at the starting thing, and it’d then stick, and then I’d curse, run out and tap it. Sometimes it’d free off, and then I could have another go.

    Finally, in desparation I sat there and I said:

    “Please Rebecca, I *promise* I’ll fix you tomorrow, I *promise*. Please start.”; Turned the key and was met with the completely unexpect and slightly startling sound of the uneven beat of my engine… Not only that, but she idled while I packed away the work lamp, extension lead etc, and washed my hands.

    I actually made it into work a mere 2 minutes late.

    And I’ve kept my promise, well, actually I worked on her when I got home from Xmas shopping (still not got everything, not managed to send my cards to ‘merkians (bloody post office shut 2 minutes before I got there)). And found much to my distress: uneven running – related to crap points I suspect. Poor starting: points now so worn away that there’s virtually no heel left. they are wearing *insanely* fast. I never got the ‘running well through correctly set points’ phase. Starter motor – casing has cracked. Starter motor sticking due to insufficient lubrication. New graphite applied (thanks to Trey’s habit of ‘saving’ pencils from work, I have a moderate supply of graphite).

    In other news, someone poo’d in my hand today – while I was wearing gloves and had a wipe in my hands, thankfully.

  • Lazy Sunday

    At least, the idea in my head was ‘shift, run to mom’s, collect tools, home, write xmas-cards’. In the end, when I ran home I ended up chopping wood. I was late leaving work, and I’ve brought home more tools than I meant to. It’s actually left me feeling pretty knackered.

    Especially given Friday night was the work Xmas do (excellent fun!); Saturday my mum came and we did uber-shopping for tools, floors, paint, and I found the bits I think I want for my Bathroom…

    And then James came round. And then I worked an Early this morning. And now I’m waiting for pizza to arrive.

    My life is so dull…

    The girl I met, the cute one with whom I [DELETED]; she’s not texted me back, which is rather depressing. Well, maybe not so far as depressing, but certainly disappointing. She was cute damnit. Cute and [DELETED]. So, yeah.

    Apparently, my chinese dress provoked some comment at work yesterday, I think I pulled off the look pretty well at the Xmas do, but I’m always one for Paranoia, so hey. Who can say.

    This really is an astonishingly dull post, isn’t it? Well, we’ll continue the dull… My poor car is due a service, well, was due a service some time ago. It’s now past due a service. It’s really struggling to start in the mornings, I really do need to get the electronic ignition fitted – but that needs a strobe to set up the timing, and I’ve not got a strobe. *sigh*. Anyway, that’s my sunday. What’ve you all been up to?

  • Slowly collecting foodstuffs

    So, despite spending 90 quid at World of Tesco last week, I still spent 60 this week – and to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what I bought. There was a replacement energy saver for the one that went ‘fzzzt’; and lots of other odds and ends, some more cleaner (kitchen cleaner this time, for the cooker), and some stocking up on frozens.

    I also have a huge problem with World Of Tesco, it has lots of culturally diverse produce. Now, this is in many regards not a bad thing. In many ways it’s a postively good thing. Except… I love food. I love trying new food. I like re-sampling food I’ve already had that I liked. And y’know what? There’s so much shiny stuff there. So much. Oh god yes. So even when I’m not hungry intrigue takes over and I buy Plantain Crisps and Jamaican ginger beer. Bad Kate.

    Still, we’re nearly at the stage where I just need fresh veg, so that’s fine. Cheese and veg. Must find a better cheese shop.

    In other news, the corridor is probably a couple of hours from being paintable. Technically I could make it paintable today, but I’m not gonna. Uh-uh. Mostly because I am flat-out exhausted. All my body wants to do is sleep – and soon I’m gonna let it. Tomorrow I collect the van and I do tidying *to the extreme*. The day after, well, that’ll be the dayy-ay-ay that I dance. Work, then dance. Then the day after…. that’s moving day. Are we all clear on why Kate feels like hell on earth?

    The builders will be around on Saturday and Sunday. They are knocking a fucking huge hole in the chimney, putting in a new lintel, then render; plaster and plaster the other walls…

    You know, I forgot to add in the cost of the floor. The lounge may be 300 quid over budget; on the other hand, the hallway may be rather under, depending on the new carpet I select. So. It could all work out in the end.

  • Some things are scary

    So, I got some shiny new builders in to quote for the work. Rather more expensive than the last one, but they can do it this weekend… Which is incredibly handy… And they’re aware that I’ll be moving in on Sunday. So, yes.

    The lounge comes in approximately 100 – 200 quid over budget, which is bad. But in this case I’m paying for convenience. I also picked up the radiator to go in the lounge today, just because it was on offer and thus the same price as screwfix direct. The radiators for the rest of the house have to wait, so I’ve also picked up an oil filled radiator (thanks James for the suggestion).

    What is scary is how quickly the money is disappearing. Having lived in Rented places for the last 10 years, it’s somehow odd to think this place is mine. I don’t really *feel* like it. Nor, on the other hand, do I feel like I’ve been spending money like it’s tap water. I haven’t got a huge amount to show for it, at least it feels that way. I suppose in reality I have. And moving house *is* expensive. Still. If all goes well this weekend then the lounge will need the radiator fitting (up with the floorboards somewhere else…) and the new floor putting down, the walls painting and the skirting board painting and it will be *done*. Impressive n’est pas?

    I am going to get out and carry on with the hall way in a few minutes. We’re down to sanding in there, and then painting. I bought the paint (hence the expensive trip to Wickes (builders merchant / DIY place). Not as scary as Travis Perkins. That’s a proper builders place. While I feel a bit out of place on my own in B&Q and Wickes, I feel downright like a neon sign is flashing above my head going “SHE IS A GIRL” “THERE’S A GIRL IN THE STORE” when I’m in TP. Otoh, shopping at TP, I feel like I must proper-know what I’m doing ;-)

    Anyway, back to the grind. Well. Sand. I bought some ear defenders today, these go with the mask and goggles I’ve been sporting this morning. If this goes well then I could start painting the corridor today. That would be *awesome*…

    And yeah, um, Wireless news – the Home Hub despite BT’s transient claim that it wouldn’t do WPA-PSK is now doing WPA-PSK, and after a torrent of abusive thoughts from me, and no changes in configuration now works this morning (unlike yesterday afternoon where it refused to connect using Wireless). So, yes, Ms House, meet technology :-)

  • Frustration 101

    Today is my last of two days off when I am *actually* at home during the week – so I *had* hoped to get the plasterers in. But again ACE plasterers, for that is who I used have excelled themselves by not returning my calls yesterday or this morning. This is frustrating because it means:

    – The room won’t be plastered before I have to move my stuff in.
    – The room won’t be painted before I have to live in it.

    But it gets better. The builders I rang yesterday; they’ve not rung me back either, so I can’t get the fireplace cut out and the new fireplace put in. I didn’t expect that to happen today, but it would have been nice to get some kind of movement on that. But *that* means that the floor isn’t going down in the forseeable future. Which means that I have to put minimal amounts of furntiture in the lounge.

    Which means that everything has to go up in the spare bedroom.

    Which would have had to happen anyway thanks to the plasterer and their ability NOT TO TURN UP OR FUCKING RING.

    Builders and, frankly, everyone in the UK seem to have this Appauling level of customer service. Well, fine. I won’t be ringing them back. Time to call someone else.

    Fucking useless people.

    *This* is why I do everything myself, when I can, because not only do I turn up, I actually do what I say I’m going to do.

  • Normal Service Has Been Resumed

    Sorry for the loss of service guys, I didn’t realise my domain expired this year, but now it’s renewed again you can expect the usual level of useless rambling from me.