well, probably not, actually.

It’s 8:32, or 8:30, or 8:35 depending on which of the local (to this room) time display devices you choose. And I’m ready for uni. Which is odd, because this morning I’ve done some exercise (not much, my knee decided it’d had enough after about 10 minutes, which was a bit distressing), had a shower, eaten breakfast, faffed around finding the Leki walking stick I need to return…

…and now I’m waiting, to leave *early* for so I can pick up my prescription before Uni. What is going on?!

If I fill my morning I’m early. If I’m lazy and slack and just shower and eat then I’m struggling for time.

I’m a bit pissed today ‘cos they’re going to (re?)vaccinate me against mumps. I’m not sure I ever had it as a kid, and since there’s been a ‘possible mumps contact’ then I’m going to have to be jabbed with a needle after queuing for an hour. Fun fun fun.

Still.

Better’n mumps. ‘cept the vaccine can make you ill. Uh, so. Feh.

Exam yesterday went fine in the end. Wrote 9 sides of probably complete tripe, but hopefully enough correct and legiable stuff for someone to give me lots of marks. I can never decide if me feeling good about an exam is a good sign or not! Normally when I feel good I do shockingly badly. But then when I feel bad I do shockingly badly. I think I did okay, so I could have done okay or quite well, I think. I hope.

Anyway. Enough from me. The weekend commeth, and I’m going to be racking up about 800 miles I reckon, in one weekend. Which is going to be one *hell* of a lot of driving (at least by UK standards). I understand in some other places that’s a trip to the ‘local’ shop.

Annnyway. On with bike gear and off with Kate :-)

So, exam. 13:30 is exam time. Oooh, just thinking that made me all stressy. Which is odd, because I’m reasonably happy that I know enough material to get a good pass. Which is oddly relaxing.

I feel a bit shit though, stomach wise. I didn’t ring Trey last night either, we were watching Mystery, Alaska. Which kinda showed me what a beautiful place it could be (even if it was largely shot in Canada ;-) ). Was a cool film too, highly recommended. Made me miss playing hockey though (even if it only ever was indoor school level hockey). I know indoor hockey’s not as fast as IceHockey (not even vaguely!) but it’s bloody good fun and I miss it.
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So…

There I was doing some revision.

And the post came.

And lo, I’m stressed. Another unpaid bill; this time it’s the electricity from our old house, and this time at the level of debt collection agency.

Gah.

Where are they all coming from, and why did they leave it all till now to do it?

Part of me thinks: You should get back to working. Part of me is in a bad mood ‘cos it looked like it’s going to piss it down when I’m riding to Bath to see my mentor for my next placement, and part of me just wants to curl up in a corner and make it all go away. The monetary balancing act I’ve been performing for the last two years seems to be ceasing to work.

I know this is just a glitch; but I fear more bills. A day when a bill didn’t arrive would be nice.

Still, I spent yesterday organising my office a bit, or some of yesterday at any rate, and the place is now substantially more copeable. There’s still a fair bit of sorting to do and a mountain of paper work to sort out, but hopefully, for a while at least, I can move in the right direction.

The ‘new’ laptop (n^th hand (via Lauren, via John, probably via a few other people)) – a Dell CPiA PIII 450 seems to be working and my nice shiny windows install on it (relative term) seems to be fast. Using ffdshow the machine’s playing back video nicely and it actually feels faster than my desktop – which is presumably ‘cos my desktop although it’s 4 times as fast is running Win 2k and being my storage server :-/

Ah well.

… my bike has started having brake problems
… my car’s engine has died
… the student loans company have started taking payments, despite the fact I’m paid a whopping 2400 quid a year
… the credit card payment I made was delayed (meaning a fine and a nasty letter)
… a new income tax form has arrived
… I realised I’ve not paid my tax for last year (burried under a pile of other bills)
… Regolith has lost all it’s money and I need to go and shut it down
… I’ve discovered I’ve got 3 months when I’m not going to be able to work (much, if at all) to make up the shortfall between my living costs and the amount of money I get from parents/NHS
… I’ve just today discovered that the standing order has failed to transfer the money out of my housemates account to our letting agent’s account. This obviously is bad. Especially when it’s not happened for 2 months and she’s in hospital a couple of hundred miles away where I can’t take her cheques or anything of that ilk.
… my placement runs across: my court date, pride, the national mog rally. I don’t know if I can attend the latter two.

I just need a nice day. A single god-damn nice day where no disasters attack me, where I can just relax and enjoy it. I need to sort out Regolith’s last VAT return…. I need this all to stop, just for a bit, so I can get my breath back. Please?

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Liberal Democrat

Your actual outcome:

	Labour 3
Conservative -43
	Liberal Democrat 72
UK Independence Party -2
	Green 25

You should vote: Liberal Democrat

The LibDems take a strong stand against tax cuts and a strong one in favour of public services: they would make long-term residential care for the elderly free across the UK, and scrap university tuition fees. They are in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, but would relax laws on cannabis. They propose to change vehicle taxation to be based on usage rather than ownership.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

Uh, so, apparently despite not really being a geek anymore, um, I’m still a geek. There’s a suprise.

Still, it wasn’t a very geeky test. And it didn’t take account of the idea that people might not want computers as a job despite quite enjoying playing with them. :(

News on the big project is delayed again.

And I really should be working. Bah.

The first batch of (bike) bits arrived today. Am trying to locate enthusiasm to take apart brake caliper, clean it, and reassemble it, pending arrival of other parts. Not succeeding. Still, had a fabby ride today; although Claire had a bit of a laugh with jumping out of gear at exactly the moment that the bike decided to run on to reserve (fuel). So there I am, just come off a roundabout, outside lane of a dual carriageway accelerating ‘hard’ and “ker-klunk” out of gear… about to snick back into gear when “cough-cough-cough”… Oh ha ha Claire, ha-bloody-ha :-)

Still, was a nice day, gorgeous weather, got my exam paper for next week’s memory test and am suprisingly tired. Oh, and even treated Claire to Super Unleaded. Get that 97 Octane. Mmmm.

Traffic was terrible, but filtering was fun. Mmm. I really am quite tired. Bleah.

I have a congential inability to spend money on myself. By which I mean, clothes (even underwear!), books, cds, televisions. I can’t buy these things for me easily. This is because I’m broke.

But vehicles? My minor’s just eaten 271 pounds (that I don’t have), and will need a further 50 plus petrol to go get the engine. Oh, and renting an engine crane? Uh hu. Yeah. So there’s that.
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