Mostly lemon based

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  • Tired and partially accomplished.

    So, this weekend’s been good; we’ve been down to see my mum, we’ve sorted out some of the mains wiring in the kitchen, there’s still some of the new fascias to go on, and the kitchen light is still in the wrong place; oh, and I remembered that we’re meant to be switching the old strip light for a couple of new halogen lights (not very energy efficient, but on a bulb-blowing basis they’ll probably be switched mostly over to ultra-bright LED lights).

    I ordered tyres for the Jejy, door pulls and new wipers for Rebecca, all of which arrived today, so I headed over to HiQ who are my local supersnarky but actually very helpful exhaust place. While they laugh and the phrase “I’m not driving that thing in” was uttered, they jacked the car where I asked, and not on the Air Duct, they switched 4 of the tyres (warning me that the spare is *not* to be used except in an absolute emergency, and really it should be changed (it’s perished as hell, and that was the best of the tyres on the car)), and popped on the four hideous Camac tyres (well, they’re better than the 20 year old tyres, and I’ve got flipping Nankang on the mog; so much for my no-budget-tyres policy). Unfortunately they didn’t have the exhaust mounting rubber in stock, so I had to go down to Allparts, who exclaimed that they had (a)nothing listed and (b) nothing similar in the catalogue. 5 minutes later the guy came back with a mounting rubber which was exactly the same, except for a small lug on one side… Were I hastled I could’ve cut the lug off, but frankly, once the exhaust’s cold it can go on with that in place.

    We also went for a quick jaunt from junction to junction. Actually, once on the motorway Jejy’s pretty settled. I didn’t really push hard, but we nipped up to 65 and trundled before coming off at the next junction; I also opened the vents – the idea being to clear them out as much as possible before I (possibly we) clean out the car at some point (‘cos it’ll be distressing having twigs and leaves blown at us when we’ve cleaned ‘er). The car was almost instananeously filled with a wedding-day-like confetti of dried leaves, bits of acorn and accumulated dirt. Having got that over and done with I flipped the vents the other way and sprayed the windscreen with a similar array of shite before things settled down. You can now move the heater flaps with nary a crunch, so I think we’re getting there.

    Last night, during my awake period, I managed to find FCP and get it installed, it does of course not recognise the EvolutionTV (which was a bit hopeful, really); the EvolutionTV however does do MPEG2 capture (thankfully, I feared it was MPEG4 only for a while) – and seems to be very good, actually. Quite to my surprise.

    So I’ve captured the majority of footage from my mum’s ceremony and now only have ours to do (90 minutes! A lot of that is dancing though, I think the ceremony’s about 20 or so). I just need to edit my mums, and was planning to do some really basic playing with Garageband to see if I can make some nice appropriate music. Either that or we’ll be breaking out the classical music CDs :)

    Oh, I also left a message for the Registrar for our ceremony here, and we booked a pub to go dancing in after the event. Shibby-Shibby :)

    We’re positively storming through the list of things to do. Now I’m just waiting for the bloke to come and do a quote for the building work, and we’ll be sorted.

  • The pre-nights posting spree; now with Grotesquely Ugly Shoes

    So, it’s that time again (already?!) when I stay up most of the night to try and swing my body around to nights. This is, of course, tedious. I actually have something I want to be doing; I want to be capturing my mum and Paramito’s wedding – I plugged in the Miglia box, went to load FCP and realised that FCP isn’t installed anymore. Then I looked around the chaos that is the desk, and considered weeping openly. I checked the OS X box in the hope that, like Photoshop I’d’ve stuck the disks somewhere ‘sensible’. But of course, I haven’t. I’ve no idea where FCP is.

    This is ‘upsetting’, to coin a phrase. It’s what I’d planned for the entire evening. Capture and then FCP my evening away editing first M+P’s, then Kathryn and my ceremonies.

    I may have a solution though, so we’ll see if it works out.

    Anyhow, since I’ve got some time to kill, here’s a little early on review of the Vibram Five Finger KSOs.

    I’d been intrigued by these since

    [info]howlsthunder

    mentioned them, the concept of bare-footing without bare-footing, and the positive statements she’d made about stress on joints and comfort made me think, hrm, worth a shot. I’m used to paying around 15 quid for my runners, the most expensive shoes I’ve got are my £55 Doc Martens that I bought for work, and which, are now 5 years old and still in service. My *best* pair of shoes, which I wore to destruction were a pair of £6 boots from Bacons, or PriceLess or Shite-CheapoShoe in Birmingham (not even a particularly salubrious bit of Birmingham) – they were in a sale, and I loved and loved them.

    So forking out around 60 quid for a pair of runners, not least runners which actually consist of, frankly, very little, was a bit difficult for me. That and the buggers wouldn’t ship to the UK…

    But having bitten the bullet, so to speak, I ordered them and they were delivered to Kathryn’s Mom’s house while we were in the States (just). We’d already left, but we were meeting up to say bye, and they kindly brought the runners with them. After a bit of wiggling I managed to get my toes in the right holes. It wasn’t difficult per-se, but I have quite long and dexterous toes (monkey like ;) ). I proceeded to wander around the hotel lobby in a very odd way.

    My first thought was that it was freeing, and also that the world seemed a more tactile place.

    I’ve not managed to get much wear time in; my job means I can’t wear them at work, but I’ve worn them to the shops, and just around about. And I think my first opinion was right. The world is just a more interesting, tactile place. I’ve always liked my experiences on the visceral side; mountains, sea, forests, fresh air, dirt. I drive a car with the minimum between me and the road because I want to *feel* the road. I ride a bike so I can feel the world going by. I take joy in the world. These shoes enhance that joy.

    Going outside barefoot tends to hurt my puny feet. Pointy rocks and bits of jagged stuff dig in and make it an uncomfortable experience. The Fivefingers, well, it’s like going barefoot. The difference between KSO’s and a pair of ordinary runners is like the difference between, say, a Ford Mondeo and an Ariel Atom. I was concerned that the KSO’s, like my ancient Lonsdale (OneStar clone) runners, would suffer from the thin sole making walking on Concrete or Tarmac (or any hard surface) uncomfortable. But the majority of my walking has been on such surfaces and it’s not been a problem so far….although the sight of grass or earth or pebbles leads me to disregard any pretence of decorum and stalk over to whichever surface it is, then walk about on it like a cat, while saying “OOoooh, textured!” (or possibly “Pebbles!”).

    I’ve found that zipping up and down stairs and perching, my balance is better. My toes are able to do their job and curl around things or adjust my posture to make me more stable (and lord knows, I need stability ;) ).

    The only bad things I’ve found are that there’s no ability to try them on before you buy; mine are very marginally smaller than I’d like, I think, but Howlsthunder suggested that the next size up is actually ‘huge’, since they don’t do half-sizes. I think the next size up would be too big, but I’d like to check. I’m sure that with wearing the KSO’s and me’ll get used to each other. It’s really a couple of millimeters I want, and just on one toe (the big / great toe).

    The other thing is people’s reactions to them; most people don’t look that closely at your shoes, but Paramito’s comment I suspect sums their opinion up when they do: “Grotesquely ugly”. I actually don’t think they’re ugly at all; interesting is the word I’d’ve applied. It perhaps doesn’t help that mine are the black/black KSOs, which essentially swarth your feet in a layer of black material and plastic. But quite honestly, these aren’t shoes for people who care about what people think. If you spend your life wondering whether you’re looking suitably fashionable and cool, these aren’t the shoes for you.

    But they are the shoes for me, ‘cos while I don’t want people to go ‘ugh’ when they see me, I’d rather be reasonably comfortable than knacker my knees any day :)

    And there endeth today’s review.

    Quick pop quiz, is Katy Perry’s song ‘I Kissed A Girl’ derogatory or not? I quite enjoy it, in that way that I do, but then I have my concerns about an artist who’s toured US churches and makes comments on her Christianity. Previous knowledge suggests that US Churches, as a rule, do not look on being gay favourably…. and that makes me ‘suspicious’. Unfortunately it’s a boppy bouncy song, and I’m known for liking boppy bouncy songs.

  • I had forgotten…

    …how hard it is to get hold of 145R14 tyres. This obscure size happens to be that of the Morris Minor *AND* the DAF 44. Interestingly, it’s also the size of the Lupo 3L, but that doesn’t seem to have helped our cause a great deal, in so far as the 3L didn’t sell that well, and thus the Bridgestone magic tyres that fit it are apparently on back order.

    I’ve now rung every tyreplace in the Slough phonebook, of which one has come back claiming that Continental make a 145R14 tyre (I’m not convinced, I’ve never heard of these, and last time this ‘oh, we can get such-and-such-a-brand’ happened I got there and that garage’d ordered the wrong size); and most of which have gone “we can’t get them”. My best option, as it stands, is to order them from Bull Motif (a moggie specialist) and get them fitted locally, a painfully expensive process (well, in all honesty, compared to most modern cars, no, it’s really cheap, but to me it seems painfully expensive), but marginally cheaper than the best local quote so far.

    It’s frustrating, the DAF persists in this state of ‘so near, yet so far’. The tyres currently fitted I’ll take around the town in the dry, gently, but the motorway is definately out as the newest dates from 1994. The oldest, I suspect, is late 70’s (on the spare) and the two rear tyres are probably early 80’s as they have lack date codes and are a size that doesn’t exist at *all* anymore…

    Still, it’s been fun pootling around Slough in the newly taxed DAF. And it gives poor old Rebecca a break from being the only car in the family. Anyhow, I’ve astonishingly failed to get any work done this morning, so I’m going to craft a quick e-mail filled with questions to (a) My sister and (b) the hotel where we’re getting civilised, and then I shall away with the fairies to lunch then work :)

    (As a side point, Cory Doctorow just replied to my last post. How the hell did he *know* I’d written about Little Brother, behind a cut tag on my obscure journal?! The world is a strange strange place. I should have mentioned that I’d recommended it to Terry (via Sherry) for her to use as a resource in training teachers, but I forgot).

  • So…I was wrong.

    My apologies to Kate, when I first met her, for tarring the whole US with the one-size-fits-all-America brush. Again. I can’t believe how awful I was when I met her, but thankfully she, being a very generous person actually allowed a second chance and eventually I learned to stop being mean about the US…

    So I just spent 3 weeks in Washington state (Olympia, mostly; but also a little in Seattle and Bellingham, and one day in Vancouver B.C. :) ), meeting Kathryn’s friends and family, celebrating our commitment to each other, getting dresses…well, I’m getting ahead of myself here. Shall we start at the beginning? Yes, we shall…

    So, the original purpose of our trip to the States, when it was first booked, was to go to Jessie and Justin’s wedding. Jessie and Justin being friends of Kathryn’s. Because we were going, and many of Kathryn’s friends / family can’t make it to the UK celebration we decided to have a commitment ceremony in the US as well (because the stress of one wedding just wasn’t enough for us :) ). Since this was to be at the end of the first week, and also because we had various things we wanted to get for the UK ceremony (dresses, rings…) which needed as much of the 3 weeks as possible, then we spent much of the first week running around like maniacs. We picked out colours, we picked out candles, we attempted to fold napkins… In between all of this, as we went around Olympia, Kathryn pointed out bits of her history…

    I finally got to meet Kathryn’s Dad and his partner, who were really really lovely. It can’t be easy meeting the woman your daughter’s going to marry commit to, after they’ve chosen to commit to each other. Even more so when that person is from another country, and your daughter is intending to stay there for another year… It was faintly terrifying, but seemed to go very well, and actually I enjoyed the meeting.

    Kathryn’s mom (and Terry, and family as a whole, and friends) were generally awesome, essentially doing everything for the celebration short of writing our vows. We made paper cranes, we helped set up the marquee and the lighting, but the pot-luck, the centre-pieces, the whole event really came together because of everything they did. Jan, our officiant, did the most beautiful job. It was, to be honest, just wonderful…

    Of course, being as it was our celebration, apart from me poking around with the video camera now and then (which Terry and Stephanie took over, thankfully); we didn’t take any photos; so we’re waiting on them being sent to us by other people! We’ve got the video and despite it being shot on my ancient Hi8 camera the sounds not awful (you can hear what we’re saying) and the quality’s about Hi8’s usual adequateness.

    Kathryn’s mom gave us the gift of 2 nights in a Guesthouse (Fertile Ground), so we were taken there after the ceremony and then headed into Olympia, the next day. Olympia is an interesting city, it’s pretty and appears to be terribly lefty-liberal in that way that I most definately like.

    Piano planter

    Lots of interesting shops lurk in the city’s down-town area, including orca books – a dangerously large new and used bookstore. Between there, the excellent restaurants, the record store (5 CDs) it would have been easy to spend a vast amount of money. We also spent a chunk of Saturday looking at Sand in the City (Olympia’s sand sculpture contest)…

    Sand in the City Sculpture

    Sunday we had brunch with Sherry (Kathryn’s mom), Terry and Terry’s mom. I think it was also this day that we headed out to see some friends of the family, for dinner (Salmon, grilled, mmmm). Sadly, during the trip out I got slightly car-sick. Not actually physically sick, but I just felt ‘off’ for the whole rest of the day. I was somewhat quieter than normal (even by my meeting-new-people standards), which was somewhat of a shame :(

    The next week we spend some of just resting and relaxing; we headed up to Tumwater falls and Kathryn pointed out the abandoned brewery (sadly, due to not knowing WA’s trespass laws as well as the UKs we weren’t going to trespass to take photos of this terribly interesting building), we went up to Seattle to meet Rob, and to spend money in the Elliott Bay Book company. I finally got around to buying Little Brother – which it turns out is an *excellent* book. Mostly I ended up getting this because it was in hardback for $17, and because as I picked it up the shop-assistant-bloke said “it’s awesome”, and then we had a chat about the frustration of not being likely to see Cory Doctorow, despite living just near London. I spent the next 3 days avidly consuming the book in every spare moment. It is, in fact, excellent. Go read.

    We also headed back to Tumwater falls (to a different park) to see if was possible to get near the abandoned brewery to take photos (without trespassing; the answer is no). Had the old railway bridge been intact (it’s completely removed) or the park have extended around to have a bridge over the river, then yes, it probably would have been possible. But as it is, without walking directly past No Trespassing signs, and clambering over a gate it’s not. Distressing as it is, we weren’t up for being arrested in the USA – it would have cut into our holiday time ;)

    (look at it! Doesn’t it call out for a bit of urbexing?)

    I find myself slightly struggling to organise exactly when things happened, but we went to Harbour Days (Oly’s harbour festival) – and spent a morning meandering around the arts/crafts stalls (of which there were many), and poking around a boat built in 1908.

    I think that that was Saturday, and that Sunday we headed to the beach. I’m not normally one for laying on the beach doing sod-all (‘cept reading); but it was just a gorgeous day, not too hot, nor too cold, and so laying there reading (I as done with Little Brother, so was reading a Shape-shifter/werewolf/vampire detective/thriller novel for Young Adults. It was light and fluffy, but also absorbing enough to keep me very enterained (Moon called, by Patricia Briggs). Whilst I certainly should have been working on my ATNC course it’s sometimes nice to get away :)

    The next week we headed back up to Seattle, via Ikea (a tourist attraction, alledgedly) spending the Ikea gift voucher given to us by one of the incredibly generous people who came to our ceremony… We spent more money in Easy Street records – and could have spent a lot more than that (it’s quite distressing really, how easy it would be to buy so much music), and then met up with Jessie and Co for her Hen night. One excellent Thai meal later and we went back to Jessie and Justin’s to sleep the night, before heading further up to Vancouver B.C.

    By sheer freak of luck we arrived the second day of the Vancouver Fringe Festival and thus spent a very touristy day looking around Granville island (oh! the food!), yaletown (easy to get to by water-taxi), going to a show (Afterlife), picking up property papers (what?!) and eating all you can eat Sushi (oh, so good!).

    Then we headed back down to Bellingham, spending a morning relaxing before Jessie and Justin’s wedding rehersal, and the next day, their wedding. Finally we made it back to Sea-Tac for our flight the next day…

    …getting a quick chance to meet up with Sherry and Terry (who very kindly brought my Vibram FiveFinger KSO’s with them, allowing me to bring them back to the UK (“ooh, the world’s all textured”, more on that later)). So much happened that it’s impossible to remember it all. The really nice flight attendent on the way there giving us Champagne because we’re getting wed. People just being really friendly and generally exceptionally nice to us. Eating dinner with Sarah and Eric (Eric’s an awesome cook, Sarah’s great fun). I’ve missed out so much, just to keep it a reasonable length… and because it pops into my head in a random stream-of-conciousness way. So, yes.

    Awesome time. Fantastic Holiday. Lovely people. :)

  • A marginally more informative update

    Today I have:
    – Found out that Nurse Vancouver are at the Practice Nurse doojit in London. I shall go.
    – Sorted out the Nursing Agency problem which meant that I was no longer registered. I shall be registered again as of later today.
    – Read lots of the ATNC course.
    – Checked and found out how Kathryn gets more time here after we’re civilised. Another £395 quid! This gets us 2 years residence, which is more than we need, but means that Kathryn doesn’t get permanent residence (which only comes after 2 years). I’m not sure why she’d want it here, but hey, it’s useful to know these things.
    – Put out the recycling
    – Worked out from where the water that’s taken to appearing on the floor by the shower is coming from. It is, as I suspected the silicone sealant which has failed at that end of the shower, which is good in that I know where it’s coming from, but ups the need for me to fix that. I still don’t know why it won’t stick to the shower base.
    – Confirmed that UK Civil Partnerships are recognised by Canada.
    – Moved my motorbike so as to allow Kathryn to get her bike in the shed.
    – Uploaded an enormous number of photos to Flickr
    – Listened to the ‘new’ Radiohead album, and a few other new albums we acquired in the USA.
    – Put my somewhat more mangled suitcase away, thus saving me debating it’s future anymore.

    I’ve not rung builders yet.
    I’ve not decided whether to switch the Denon amp which does work (but with a knackered and awful CD changer and no phono input) for the amp in the lounge which needs it’s volume control slider switched.
    I’ve not done anything on the house.

    I don’t mind tho’, ‘cos frankly, we spend 18 hours travelling yesterday and I’ve swung my body clock through 8 hours, so I think I’m doing pretty well to not be feeling like death microwaved.

    :)

  • We’re back!

    Update on the holiday to follow; pictures are on Flickr, as per usual. But if I’m feeling good I’ll link them in as I post :)

    Studying rules that I’ve set myself mean that I can’t post today (I spent all my non-work time uploading the darn photos!).

    I’ve attempted to catch up with LJ, having not looked at it at all for 3 weeks, but friends-page-doodad only goes back 320 posts, so if I’ve missed anything important, you’ll have to tell me :)

  • A nights post that went unposted

    As per usual it's been a while since I've posted. As I write this it's 3:30am, and I
am actually at work. Shan't post from here though; this is an e-mail to myself to be
checked and hopefully posted later in the day.

So, the entirity of last week was a battle to get the house to a state where when
Paramito and my mum came we could actually - y'know - decorate. It took an awful lot
of effort to get the walls plastered and the room sorted - but we managed. And on
Saturday morning we cleared the edges of the room, and spent a lot of time
plastering.

I can't say as my plastering will ever win any awards - and even after sanding it's
not like it's beautiful. But it's adequate - and it looks so much better than what
was there. I'm really quite proud of the curve under the window - that is quite,
well, curvey.

With much help and assistance, the cupboard doors have been painted - Kathryn and I
slapping more coats and the varnish on ('cos it's ordinary emulsion). The framing's
had one coat of paint too, needs at least one more and then varnish. Hopefully after
that we can hang the doors - which should be pretty spiffy. What has been really
nice though is that we finally painted the (newly plastered) walls. The whole room
is now a soothing shade of Green instead of bare, disintegrating walls.

Unfortunately, this weekend we also discovered that, and this is revolting, a rat
has discovered our compost pile. In response to that we've bought a proper compost
bin which we'll be erecting. We're also trying to organise a skip before we leave,
to clear the garden of the vast amounts of building rubble, which I suspect are
providing shelter for the evil little rodent. Well, not so little. Ick.

It looks like there's a few 'same day' delivery and collection skip hire places. We
only want it for a day or two...

...however, fitting in loading the skip around the rest of the work that needs doing
in preparation for the wedding is somewhat of a challenge.

The list we made is about a mile long; and virtually everything on it is
non-optional. Both Kathryn and I have been laid back about the marriage and the
USCeremony - perhaps slightly too laid back. And now it's come back to bite us a
little...

...still, Kathryn finished the drawings for the invite yesterday, and I spent the
afternoon laying it out. Set it printing and brought them in to work to use the
guilotine. Of course, it was manic until 4:30 - and then my lazyness with not
ensuring the crop marks were correctly aligned bit me - I had to spent quite a bit
of time working out where to crop them because the crop marks aren't lined up on the
two sides.

Still, having a double sided printer finally paid off :)

I hate to imagine how much our invites would have cost from a professional printing
firm - and while it might have been nicer to have proper printed quality as opposed
to inkjet - I have to say that I think they're *gorgeous* and Kathryn's concept was
(and is) beautiful.

  • I shouldn’t whine :)

    So, it’s been a bit of a busy week and posting (while it’s been in my head) has been a bit of a not-happening-thing.

    Amazingly, on Tuesday Jonathon at JLH informed me that Rebecca was (or would be) ready to pick up that evening. Sporting a new MOT, and despite the gearbox sounding like a blender filled with spanners, all the work that was paid for and asked for was done, with the exception of a few piddly jobs. I chatted with Kathryn and we decided to head up after work on Wednesday and bring Rebecca back to the fold.

    We flew up there on Wednesday, the trains being amazingly good to us (although Virgin had double booked our seats, but we found a pair together elsewhere on the train); and the timetable’s incredibly irritating, because you arrive from the FGW train in Reading just after the previous Leamington Spa Virgin train service has left, so all the staff go ‘oh, platform…no, sorry, you’ve just missed that one’…

    Having got there we were met at the station by Jonathon (who really is terribly nice), who also kept us entertained with tea while we waited for Rebecca to make her way back from the engine-place. She’d gone back there because she’d sucked up a bunch of crap from the petrol tank and wasn’t idling very well. Carb cleaned out (and apparently ‘could do with a rebuild’, *sigh*); she returned. She sounds *fabulous*.

    I’ve missed that A+ series engine. It doesn’t clatter musically the way the A series did (mind you, all my engines have been pretty worn out), and is apparently now developing a shocking 75bhp, approx. ISTR that it was originally rated at around 56 or 65bhp, but I doubt that the A+ I had was developing more than around 50 or possibly 40. It was pretty sick. And by the time we got up there, probably around 30 :)

    Anyhow, she sounds lovely, and quite sporty. But, in the way that’s traditional, Jonathon reckoned that they cold just pop the new heater control valve on, so we’d not cook on the way home. That 15 minute job took a couple of hours (waiting for the car to cool down, tap not fitting, different tap not fitting, studs going in, coming out…) – and when we finally went to leave, just as they’d locked up the garage and the gate they realised that Jonathon’s car had a flat tyre… and Jonathon was leading us to the nearest local petrol station…

    We finally started making our way home at about 2100… And finally got home, having not eaten dinner, just after 2300. I fell into bed and then had to get up at 0500, to get to work. But it was nice, driving the minor. The reason the journey home took that long is we have to run in the engine. People don’t seem to bother (or know) about running in engines anymore. But having just forked out a grand for an engine I’m going to give it lots of love; so I’ve been good about not taking it far over 45mph (I’ve not even hit 50 – as 45 was the limit that was proscribed by the engine builder).

    Apart from the sidelights stopping working (ack! turned out to be a corroded fuse) and the starter motor jamming on (and not working once, I think I need a new solenoid), it’s been trauma free. And I’ll tell you something, she’s darn nippy. Roundabouts in particular are standard-suspension-pushing.

    But one of the *bestest* things about having Rebecca back (apart from the stupid grin it puts on my face) is that we took her to my mum’s house at the weekend – and drove my mum to her wedding. Paint all washed and shiny (at least in quite a few places – particularly the back where she’s been painted, the roof which they ‘mopped’ and the bonnet which they seem to have also polished), sporting a cream ribbon (which Kathryn went and got, ‘cos she’s a *star*), we carried my mum to and her and her new hubbie from her wedding; which felt quite fun.

    The wedding itself was really beautiful. It was a small affair, my mum and Paramito invited only close family and a few friends; in all I think there were 10 or so people. The Register Office in Newbury is really grand – it’s a huge old Edwardian manor, and is quite beautiful. It’s just a shame that you only get a few seconds for photos – but James – who is also an awesome friend – came and took photos of the wedding.

    The rain even stopped long enough for M&P to be photo’d outside. It started again as we did the group shots…

    Once we got back to the house, and everyone was being fed by my mum (who remains a truly awesome cook) the weather cleared completely and we spent the afternoon and evening hanging around outside in the sun.

    Then Sunday we hurtled (for very low speed values of hurtling) back home, tidied and greeted Ali and Kris – two of my friends who Kathryn’d never met and I’d not seen for 2 years! We had a fairly chilled afternoon just sat chatting. There was a lot of catching up to do, and it was just really good to see them. With all my friends being so far away (well, um, 45 minutes in their case *embarassed*) it’s sometimes easy to forget how generally awesome they are.

    We then spent the evening doing a wedding gift list. We’d not been really intending to do one – on the basis that there’s not much we *need*. But the requests came in for one; so we sat down and worked out things that’d be useful, or that we want, but that aren’t insanely expensive. Annoyingly Ikea have no gift-list system, and their gift-card system is a non-online one. What planet are they on?!

    *le sigh*

    Finally, today’s been spent working on the house; well, more accurately it was spent at work, then in the supermarket, then working on the house. As it’s now ten to 12, I think it’s time for me to head to bed… I’ve run out of plaster and the wall is as smooth as I can manage in my tired state :-/

  • Disappointment

    I really feel like I’ve let down my mum on this; it’s not anything that I can really say is my fault, but just… I was meant to be taking her into Newbury for an appointment, which we had to cancel because I’d not got a car that worked. And I said at the time that I’d get there and we’d head in before she got married.

    I didn’t, because I’ve still not got a car.

    If I’d’ve spent 25 quid on the V5 for the DAF earlier, I’d’ve had it back by now, and would – to some extent – have a car.

    But worse; for me at least; is that I was meant to be providing the car to take my mum to the register office for her wedding. In my head I had Rebecca with some cream ribbon from the bonnet flash up to the front windows. Washed and even polished, to make her the shinest she can be. My mum’s given me so much over the years and it was a little something to give back…

    …and it looks like Rebecca won’t be ready for the wedding. The engine is still not back, I can’t say I’m exactly impressed. It’s not the fault of JLH – but the guy’s had the money for the engine, it was paid for in advance, and it’s been over a month. The crank’s still not been reground, and therefore my car while complete in every other regard is completely lacking in engine.

    I feel like I’m letting my mum down. Hell, as it stands we’ll have to get a lift to my mum’s house from Paramito (her fiance), and back on the of the wedding, or the day after. Unless the DAF’s V5 appears. Since I only sent off for the V5 a week and a half ago it seems unlikely (they say 4 – 6 weeks, and I’m suspecting that Joan, the previous owner, isn’t going to be lightning fast returning the ‘I sold the car’ letter).

    The bike’s showing the usual symptoms of warm-weather unhappiness; it’s top speed was down around 45 today. I just feel a bit like I suck, really. Which is an unfair damning of myself, but… money’s a big stressor at the moment, and because of that I’ve not been able to see as much of Kathryn as I want to, and… oh, it’s all just a bit of a problem at the moment. It’s being a lot of hard work, and I don’t feel like I’ve achieved anything much.

    Anyway, bed now, because Kate’s have to get up at 5:30am.

  • Theory and Practice

    About 6 or 7 weeks ago I sold the Viva; it had become somewhat of a millstone, sucking money in and making me miserable. It also had sprayed me with hot coolant, and looked likely to fail it’s next MOT without fairly substantial works to at least one sill, if not both.

    On the plus side, the Minor looked to be nearly ready and so it made sense to sell a car with an MOT, rather than sell it without. It’s now about 7 weeks on, and the minor hopefully should be ready this weekend. We’re apparently waiting on the engine, which itself is waiting on the crankshaft, which needs to be reground. I’m praying that it’s done and back and being assembled as we speak. I promised the Minor to my mum for her wedding, plans involving white ribbon and all that. I know she’s hardly the world’s shiniest minor, but she’s part of the family.

    Part of the reason for selling the Viva was, I’ll grant, that I thought I’d have the DAF up and running too. This was, of course, dependent on the original owner coming up with the V5. Which she hasn’t done. Which means that the DAF – while roadworthy (although needing brakes adjusting) is stuck on the drive – the ridiculousness of the DVLA’s policy (that an MOTd and insured car needs a V5 to get a tax disk) does frustrate me. If I’d stolen the car, d’y’think I’d *really* turn up at a DVLA office asking to *buy* a tax disk? Really?

    I can’t actually think of a criminal process which would involve buying a tax disk for an illegally obtained car, and therefore find the idea that I can’t have one dumb.

    At any rate, we’ve now been without a car of any road-legal sort for 7 weeks, and I’m beginning to tire of it. This wasn’t meant to be a long old whine, but frankly, it cost me 65 quid to make the journey to *agency nurse shift* and it should’ve cost me around 35 quid. To be fair I could’ve ridden the bike, but also to be fair, the bike’s top speed can drop as low as 45 on a really bad day, and 2-3 hours of riding at that speed would make me want to weep.

    Anyway, so, skipping the whining, we had a productive week- in so far as I made lots of money  (more than I make in a week at work) doing 2 agency shifts (does anyone see how ridiculous that is?) and we replaced the old metal shed with a new (attrociously poor quality, but looks the part) wooden shed. We spent almost 12 hours solidly working on the shed (apart from a very quick break for lunch), the old one being surprisingly hard to take down. Rotten though it was there was a lot of rusty old steel holding it together. The block-work back wall was as bad as I feared though and I just pushed it over. Kathryn and I broke it up a bit once it’d been pushed over – so as to clear it away somewhat more easily. Unfortunately, the guy who said he’d come take away the steel hasn’t turned up; and our back yard looks like a scrap yard. We need to get a skip in, and my plan to put the car on the neighbour’s drive (the one of the abandoned house) has been foiled by him turning up and putting his car there. The swine.

    I don’t see any action on the house though, so I guess he’s just dumped his car there and gone off on holiday (it’s a handy spot to park if you’re flying, I guess).

    Anyway, so I’m back at my usual work after a week of nights, and the week ‘off’ with the 2 agency shifts – and I’ve screwed my body up by doing one night in that bunch. I’m tired and grumpy feeling – and I meant to ring the doctor this morning to sort out an appointment (I’m due my regular blood test to see if my liver’s got worse, I need my allergy meds and I want a referral to Guy’s allergy clinic). Unfortunately, I sat being apathetic until I finally rang and they’d no appointments left. Some days I really suck :-/

    I’ll have to do it one day next week now, which is a shame because Kathryn might be at home and I’d much rather have spent time with Kathryn. The problem is, I’m achy and tired, and the sofa is terribly comfy.

    Other tasks which were up for this morning included wandering to B&Q and seeing if they still do the dire, cheap, wobbly metal shelving which I could screw to the back wall of the thin-staple and nail shed so as we could actually have our kitchen back. I reckon that with a couple of sets of shelves there’d actually be enough space in there to put *all* the decorating and DIY stuff. Possibly even the relevant bits of the Charlie when I bring her back from my mum’s.

    I’m, it must be said, getting desperate for a bike which does more than 50 mph. It’s mind blowingly tedious, the motorway at 50mph. And it’s not even like I’m getting awesome fuel efficiency from Cherry at this cruising speed, some of the petrol’s going into the gearbox, and lord knows where the rest of the 60mpg is going (it’s still running around 45mpg).

    I *am* in a whiny mood.

    I think I’ll go shower, and then put some more filler on Jejy, and watch We love XKCD a few more times. As a side point, one thing which I have noted for it’s awesomeness, apart from my luck at meeting Kathryn who is awesome beyond words, is that cooking one’s food from scratch does result in meals that are delicious. For years I’ve espoused this theory, and being one who can knock up a reasonable tomato sauce in the same time it takes to warm a pre-bought one (mine’s better :-P) had lived on basically: wraps, pasta, curry and pizza – those being the recipes I had in my head – for years. But being with Kathryn, and being bored of those minimal choices, we’ve started cooking our way through a couple of cook books – including the world’s most gorgeous chicken pie (coming again this weekend, because while it’s phenominally unhealthy (pot of cream, block of butter) it’s just so damn good that occasionally we have to eat it), calzone (we overcooked it slightly and it was still bloody delicious), curried parsnip soup (my dad’d be proud, bit too lemony but also great), and a miriad of other great dishes – and y’know what, my diet is much better and (apart from being knackered) I feel healthier. And it’s just damn spiffy.

    Yes, we loose an hour every night to cooking, but quite frankly it’s worth it. Unfortunately, however creatively I did the sums I couldn’t make buying cereal more expensive that making our own granola. Our own granola was excellent. Truly, we had hit on the celestial being’s own recipe for granola. But now we’re back to Tesco Crunchy and Kathryn (not being a huge fan of it) is back on Fruit and Fibre. It’s somewhat of a comedown.
    The other disappointing thing is not having time or space to invite others to come share with us. I miss having people come around to stay, and come for dinner. Hopefully, once I’ve got my debts a little more under control, and perhaps got money back from Charlie for the bodged restoration of Rebecca, and the house is more finished we can get back to a more luxurious lifestyle. Anyhow, I should move off this sofa, because I’ve been sat here all morning.

    …oh, I’m still tickled that we don’t look over 18 :)