Mostly lemon based

Blog

  • Pointless rambly thinking aloud.

    So, those of you who know me, know I went out on Friday night to meet someone I’d met on the internet. I had an excellent time and spent most of Saturday irritating my work colleagues by being revoltingly cheerful – despite us being incredibly short staffed (someone’d forgotten to book shortfalls, so we only had 6 (instead of 8) staff). Next time I go out and intend to come back late I’m going to take a train timetable with me, so that I have a better idea what time the trains run ‘cos it’s really quite chilly in Paddington at 2 in the morning. Although I’ve discovered that the lights around the side of Paddington are really quite warm, if not ‘outright hot’, so that was quite handy…

    So, on to the rambly thinking around. I really don’t know what to do about Rebecca. I’ve had one quote for the engine which is about 500 quid. A bit over, actually, if I get everything done. And that doesn’t include getting a new head – although I should be able to get one from a scrappy, or off e-bay for not too much. But it’s more the degree of urgency. The rocker gasket has now failed (I had to switch rocker covers for some reason when I serviced the car (there was a good reason)) and tried to get away without changing the gasket (‘cos I didn’t have a spare, okay!). I’ve not got away with it – and she’s peeing oil out like it’s going out of fashion.

    At any rate, it’s another issue – one that’s quick to fix, but needs me to go and source a gasket – and given that she’s not really starting well, and vibrating like hell I feel like I should let her get off the road as quick as possible. But at the moment I don’t really know what to do about it.

    I’ve got Howard – friend of a friend – being asked if he’s got something in the 200 quid range (i.e. sheddy but MOTable) that’ll keep me able to get to work. The problem is I really hate driving modern cars, really do, I just get bored and meh about them. And financially, they’re more likely to be more of a drain. I’m not good with front wheel drive vehicles – rear wheel drive is just so much simpler – so if it’s fwd I probably won’t be able to look after it myself. But I’m starting to stress, faintly, about the whole ‘will it be sorted before Rebecca’s engine packs up’. That and, well, I’m slightly concerned about what damage the vibeyness of the engine might be doing to my car – or the rest of it’s transmission. Rebecca’s gearbox, apart from an occasional very excessive whine on first appears to be pretty good (very, actually); and I’ve got no other real problems with her transmission – so running with an engine which feels like it’s trying to shake itself to pieces isn’t going to be doing a great deal of good to all of that.

    I guess the ‘sensible’ solution is to ride the bike when it’s warm and dry enough and keep Rebecca running only as long as I have to. But it’s been fracking cold, and frequently wet recently. That and… well… the bike really needs sorting too. Meh. It’s all a bit, well, shat really. This they don’t mention in the student brochures – 3 years of bodging everything on everything I own has started to come to a head…

    Anyway. Didn’t really help, no solution is in sight… I’ll just have to see if Howard gets back to me with something simple and look-afterable that I can nab. Depressingly it’ll be the most I’ve paid for a car.

  • Wonderfalls

    So, I started watching Wonderfalls again. I could read, but at the moment, with the whole verticality thing I find that I don’t really enjoy reading. I’m still aiming to head out tonight – on the basis that I can sit down most of the evening. Not too much dancing for the Kate Creature.
    Anyway, it’s weird watching Wonderfalls having been there. Niagra I mean. And indeed to Toronto, because some stuff appears to rather randomly – and very identifiably – be shot in Toronto. What’s weirder is that despite being set in America, the only way to get the perspective on the falls from which Wonderfalls is shot is to be stood firmly on Canadian soil – I actually find myself trying to see places I’ve been.

    It’s odd, anyhow. It’s still an entertainingly good series, and it’s keeping me distracted from the fact that the day is marching on without me doing anything useful. I was going to paint, but still, the whole ‘vertical’ thing remains a bit of a problem – and so spending ages stood on the stairs seems to me like a recipe for me falling flat on my ass.

    Anyway. That’s me.

  • Pics (and not just house ones!)

    So, I should be asleep. I will be asleep in a few minutes. First up – when I said it rains in my bathroom I wasn’t kidding…

    And – due to flat batteries, *really* flat batteries I missed taking pictures of the prettyness that was snow, but I did just take some slightly odd nightshots of the snowman. I hate being easily distracted sometimes.

  • It’s unpleasantly like being drunk

    I think we can say that I definately do have a mild mid-ear infection. My balance is not all it could be. Verticallity has been obtained and with care, I made it round tesco. I think plans for tomorrow may need to include ‘handling Kate with care’.

    It’s snowed. Sadly it’s now raining, but I did briefly enjoy the 2″ of snow that we got. My little mog demonstrated that she, despite her ailing engine, can still quite cut it through snow. I knew that the bizzaroid not-quite Town and Country’s had a purpose, and actually, they were really good on the semi-frozen roads this morning. And whilst others slid about we pootled in the direction we desired (i.e. tesco). I now also have food. This is good.

    I finally attempted mould reduction in the bathroom. To give you an idea how damp it is in there, it rains. It actually rains if you have a bath – there’s permanently a pool of drops on the ceiling and anything that tips it marginally over that balance makes it rain in there. Which is a bit, well, unpleasant. Especially because the ceiling’s got big gobs of black mould on it.

    I’m sure they weren’t there when I arrived. But having checked the grout, the white on the walls around the window – it’s all heavily mouldy. I sprayed it with gallons of evil nasty chemicals, scrubbed it and washed it with mains-pressure water through the shower tap. It’s cleaner, but not ‘clean’. I really, really can’t wait to be ripping that bathroom out – terrifiying electrics, crap shower and all. I can’t wait for it to be gone.

    I slept funny last night – probably because it was pretty nippy – and my neck now has a krick in it. I’ve smeared deep heat on it (with no impact whatsoever), so now I think it might be time for ibrufen gel :-)

  • The problem with promises…

    I promised my GP I would spend my time off relaxing and healing. I’m unfortunately at that frustrating level of ill where – whilst I’m aware that I’m not well, and standing up for long periods definately leads to woozyness in the head department; I’m also terribly, terribly bored.

    I’ve got plenty of books I could be reading, but there is an insistant desire to be *doing* something after days and days of lying around.

    However, I’m being good, mostly though that’s ‘cos my head feels like it’s attached to my body by wobbly string. The new remote arrived – cheap and cheerful as it is, I wasn’t expecting it to be quite such a behemouth. Still, when I’ve got 4 charged batteries then hopefully I can get it all set up. I fear it’s battery usuage too. I’m quite looking forward to being able to watch all my DVDs though.

    In other news, I’m debating another minor – if I’m offered it at a price I can afford. Rebecca’s engine really sounded attrocious yesterday, I’m not certain how long it’ll last – so a cheap second minor to run me round while I get Rebecca properly sorted would be handy. The one I’m considering though, has somewhat of a reputation, so, we’ll see. It’s not been a bringer of great luck.

    In other news I finally worked out how to get coverflow up on the Windows machine’s iTunes. Okay, it’s obvious – but if you don’t *know* it’s there. What’m I meant to do, click on random buttons? *sighs*. I love macs, I love my mac, but sometimes *get a clue guys*. It’s not, incidentally in the help file anywhere.

    Does anyone know (before I spend hours hunting) of any utilities that allow you to add more art for CDs it doesn’t recognise. I don’t expect it to know about AM / Underground or AM / This is me dancing. Or indeed quite a lot of my more eclectic music, but I’m sure I can dig out covers (or at worst, photograph the originals (yeah, yeah, I’ll get a scanner again one day)). I can’t see an *obvious* way to do this, and I’d rather not do each and every one manually. The original coverflow pulled covers from various sites, but the one embedded in iTunes can only use the iTunes store, which is a bit pants. That and the embedded one won’t go full screen. Come on Apple! Give me fullscreen album art lovin’!

    What else? Hrm, dunno. I’m meeting someone on Friday – and as is normal for meeting someone new for the first time my body has responded – it’s produced a spot the size of frickin’ Mars on my bloody nose. Am I not old enough now to not get spots? Seriously.

    *sighs*

    I guess that’s enough of an update for y’all.

    Oh, but before I disappear, falling into the ‘humour’ catagory, just like last year – severe weather warnings…

    Snapshot of the BBC website's severe weather article

    Oh my goodness no. Not 2 entire inches? Good lord. What will I do. I best break out the snow plough, the snow machines and start preparing to shovel my drive ;-)

  • Well, a British Concorde may not fly…

    But stuff BA. They vandalised planes that don’t belong to them (incidentally – don’t fly BA, anyone…). Well, *technically* they do, but when you buy something for a quid from the British people? That the British people paid for? We kinda expect you to *LOOK AFTER IT*….

    Anyway, the French, apparently, know how to look after the old girl properly. Which gives me some hope that I’ll see another one of these beautiful birds flying again one day.

    In other news, throat – pain much reduced. Nausea – much reduced. Temperature – much reduced, periodically normal. Dizzyness – still very very present. GP tomorrow at 11.

  • I just got asked…

    …if my mum was in to take delivery of the shopping… How old do I look? 12?

    I’m not sure whether I’m flattered or insulted!

  • Continuing the theme

    So, with the whole lying on the sofa and being ill malarky continuing (yeah, I’ll go and see the GP on monday, okay?) I’ve had plenty of time to discover some oddities.

    – GATACCA, the original DVD released years ago, it defaults to having the subtitles on on my DVD player. This we discover because I still haven’t picked up a universal remote that’ll control it (I did try ‘vito’ remote, but since that wouldn’t actually work my TV which it claims it can… unimpressed I am).
    – Hackers – you can’t play the film just by pressing play. Irritating that.
    – They’ve updated Adium, my mac now has a shinier, newier version of my favourite client. Now, anyone want to buy me a Mac laptop?
    – This is very silly.

    In other news, I still have a headache, still feel awful, still am continuing to spike ridiculous high temperatures and really am starting to wonder what on earth it is I’ve picked up and where from. I am hoping that Tesco will deliver today, ‘cos I was looking forward to my porridge this morning, but couldn’t have it because… I’ve not got any milk. I am *so* unfit to drive it’s untrue.

    Uh, so, what’s going on in your world today then?

  • NY Times is on Crack

    It’s the only explanation for this bizzare article. According to this, Euro-using european countries, Britain and Canada don’t have pennies. Um. Yes we do, yes they do, we all have pennies, apart from euro-using-europe which has the 1 cent coin, which when we do, eventually, adopt the euro will almost certainly become called the penny.

    Please could someone call planet NYT and ask them what colour the sky is on their world?

  • Is it day 4?

    I can’t remember how many days I’ve been sick for. I think 4. It’s got kind of blurry, the haze of lots of sleep, lots of TV, lots of web browsing, and lots of pain killers, anti-emetic and anti-biotics have got me feeling really quite tired, lost and fed up.

    I don’t really ‘do’ ill. I am ill, but I have a hard time accepting that – until I try and do anything – at which point it’s become rapidly apparent that I’m not in great shape.

    I think it’s the antibiotics making me sick now; my throat feels raw – but not as bad as this morning when I could barely swallow. It was another bad night – once of the waking up drenched in sweat ones, I’ve not had the fan heater on in that room, and I know it’s cold in there, but I feel like I’ve been sat next to the sun for a few too many hours.

    Anyway, just to let you know I’m still alive :-)

    I am not, however, enjoying my holiday :(