This week has seemed so long. It's certainly been busy. First of all, some fun links:

Slap the Candidate (and by candidate it means presidential candidate)

Parking Battle of the Sexes - in which, slightly bizarrely, level 1 is the hardest

Monday

I did order a signed copy of the Tertiary Phase, which mum is going to pay me for, so it's a Chanukah present. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities to listen to it over Christmas while doing puzzles.

I also wanted a desk chair because the one I have isn't doing much for my back (she says, after three and a half years). I found a lovely comfy one at Staples but the best they can do, delivery-wise, is sometime in the next ten days. And not on a Saturday. So just one problem with that... I'm going to have to talk my sister into taking me to get it, assuming we can find a date we can both make (I have every weekend between now and Christmas booked up for at least one day).

I also agree to do a Tae Kwon Do grading on 14th November. I hate gradings, they're horrible scary things. And I haven't done much theory stuff recently (or practical, lets be honest). So serious practice and reading of the book will be needed between now and then.

Tuesday

5.15 (we finish at 5.30), and two days before my appraisal, incidentally, someone discovered a mistake in some work I'd done some time ago. So I was there till nearly 7pm sorting it out, and just about made it home for some dinner before Rotaract. My head was still in work as well, so that meeting didn't go too well from my perspective.

On the plus side, I discovered The Dead Zone finally made it to TV. Late enough that there weren't any adverts either, which was good. I didn't watch it till Wednesday, but I enjoyed it anyway. And Teachers was funny, which I wasn't expecting. I barely noticed Brian and Kurt weren't in it any more.

Wednesday

Wednesday was only yesterday, yet it must have been good because I can't remember it. I wrote a macro so that the problem this person had found the previous evening won't recur.

Thursday

I went all over town looking for a 35cl bottle of vodka. Which you wouldn't think would be difficult but Waitrose and the off-licence could only manage 1l or 70cl, which is just too much to carry. I eventually found one in the local corner shop. And then got ridiculously wet on my two minute walk back in rain that was coming down in sheets. I could actually wring my trousers out by the time I got home.

I also had my appraisal. I'm always really scared of them. We all joke that's when you're going to get fired, but in reality they wouldn't wait for appraisal time to do it, if they were going to. It was both better and worse than I expected, which is what happens everytime really. At least that's over for another six months or so.

I am now really tired for no reason whatsoever. On the good side, though, I am off to a windmill this weekend with some friends from uni, which will be good fun. Then I'm back in work for two days then I'm off to SG8. And I get paid tomorrow, which is handy really, cos I'd be so broke otherwise.

I got a bit tipsy on Friday night, which I think is the closest I've got to getting drunk all year. I have discovered, though, why so many people from work get drunk all the time - they drink wine. Apparently it's more potent and two glasses will do it. If I got drunk on two drinks I'd be drunk a lot more often. Sadly, though, wine is really disgusting. I can manage two sips as long as there's enough time in between the two for me to forget how bad the first one was. And that's red wine. White is worse. I think I'll just stick to the spirits. And anyway, watching other people being drunk is so much better.

I was having a cross stitching crisis, now I'm almost having the opposite. I spent a small fortune (or at least it seems like it, as they're so expensive) in Hobbycraft yesterday and now I have three. And my mum wanted to check which ones so if she were to buy me some for a surprise she wouldn't get the same ones. I pointed out the slight problem in that argument to her

I'm not doing terribly well with Chanukah presents at the moment. I can't decide what calendar to get my sister to get me (we have an agreement not to do birthday presents and just get each other calendars each year). This is partly due to the Friar Street Bookshop not having very many in. Their choices were Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Buffy and Angel. None of which were very exciting - of the ones that actually showed you all of the months, at least.

My grandmother has already asked me what I want, but I expect that in October. My mum told me how much she's prepared to spend but there's no rush. Which is just as well because all I have on my list for definite so far is a potato peeler (I'm envious of mum's new one) and a tape measure.

Typically, of course, it pissed it down the whole time I was in Reading yesterday, so I got really wet. Today it hasn't rained yet. If I'd stayed in yesterday and gone there today it would have been the opposite way round.

I'm almost looking forward to work at the moment, but that's because I have a four day week, followed by a two day week, followed by a three day week.

I'm feeling slightly more rational about Farscape now. There was an excellent homage to 2001 in the last twenty minutes. So much so (and bearing in mind we're talking about my favourite film here) that I have no idea what happened in that scene. Except there wasn't enough breathing. It did remind me that I really want 2001 on DVD, but then it would also require a big widescreen TV and surround sound to watch it properly, so no rush.

I can't help wondering how different the mini series would have been if it had been a whole series. And whether it would have been better or worse. But what really clinched it was when I watched last night's Bill earlier and it was a two sick bucket job, at the end. And let's not even mention the whole of the rest of the episode. I should watch tonight's but I've finished my cross stitch, and I can't watch another episode without one, I'll get too bored. Mind you, I'm really tired from going to bed really late all week, so I might be in the right state of mind for it.

I spotted our next Davis Cup match is before I go to Australia, but it's in Israel, which is no help. I hope we get through it and get a World Group qualifying match at home.

I won a packet of jaffa cakes in a raffle last night. Well, I got to pick the prize, but frankly everyone in the room was eyeing them up, so we shared them amongst the club. We also came fourth in the quiz, which was fairly respectable, although Langley and Iver beat us again, annoyingly.

Half term started today. We're on the new six term system, which I forget how it works now, except that half terms are longer, summer holidays are shorter and all terms are six weeks, regardless of when Easter is. What it meant was there was no-one around when I walked to work today. Which only goes to show how much of the rush hour traffic is school-related (although this is only a market town, so rush hour pretty much means there are cars on the road. Apparently this wasn't the case before they built the bypass).

Ever since the article in the Guardian Online the other week about workplace bloggers I've been reading two of them that particularly interest me:
The Policeman's Blog - who has some good advice about how to deal with crimes and the police, and lots of stuff about what really goes on
and Doing Less Harm - who works in IT in the NHS. Today's entry in particular made me laugh, because I come up against similar stuff myself.

Blogger is being really slow and annoying me, and I really need to sleep. I stayed up late to watch new Farscape and I really wished I hadn't. But not in the way I thought I would. If I'd stopped watching about twenty minutes before the end I would have been fine. I was warned that the last 5 or 10 minutes were cheesy, but actually, the last 20 you need a sick bucket for. In fact, a fair bit of the John/Aeryn stuff in part two required one.

I was thinking yesterday, after I'd seen part one, how I really want it on DVD when it comes out. Although I at least now know which bits to skip, I suppose.

Well, kinda. In the sense that I got into a Harry Potter thing and couldn't get out of it. Which is not to say I wanted to necessarily. But, I wrote the first draft of my Elrond essay at the weekend (it's terrible, I need to re-write it) and now I have Elrond back in my head. Suddenly I care less about Sirius & Remus and more about Elrond & Arwen.

I also realised, the other week, that I quite liked Sirius & Remus not fancying the pants off each other when I read Mad Martha's One Week in Summer (which is really very good). Except that I went looking for such fics and couldn't cope with the idea that they're not going to get together. And then I realised what I liked about One Week in Summer was the mention of Remus's son, and Sirius & Remus's relationships with Harry.

Which is exactly the same stuff I like in Smallville (Clark's relationship with his parents) (apart from Clark/Lex and Clark/Chloe - I never said I was consistent) and LOTR (Elrond & Aragorn). So perhaps in some ways it doesn't matter what fandom I'm reading because I'm ultimately reading the same story.

I've been good and dynamic today. I lazed around in bed (where it was nice and warm) and watched The OC while making CDs. I dusted and hoovered my room. I did back-ups while watching The Bill. Actually, someone from work told me this weeks was really good, but this was coming from someone who likes soaps, so I wasn't going to get my hopes up. Just as well. Only good thing about next weeks is that [censored] is going to [censored]. At last. I've even written my piece about Rotaract for Rotary (it is due on Monday) and a first draft of my Elrond essay for Idol Reflection.

I also, and this is the most impressive part, made a lasagne. Myself. For the first time ever. I ate it for lunch, and not only did it taste nice, I'm still alive. I might make it again, although I'm going to run out of mince - the recipe thinks I want to be using half a bag!

I also put my photos onto my computer. They're all behind an lj-cut and you can click on the photos to get a bigger one.

Avon asked for:

Where you live. Not the exact house or anything, in case you have a lurking neighbour stalker, but a typical house/ street where you live.

There are all sorts of different housing round here, but the part of the road I live in is all fifties housing. I took a photo of the most colourful ones:

( houses )

Nilmandra said in her journal:

I would love to see the homes/pets/favorite rooms of my friends!

I took two of my room - one from the doorway and the other from my bed. The first one came out really dark, so I took it again later in the day when it was getting dark outside, so the light looks completely different in these two.

( room )

And because no photo session is complete without the animals, I also have ones of the cat (Merlin) and the baby fish (Tim) I took when I was last home.

( animals )

I had a bad day yesterday. I was the first one up and discovered one of my landlady's cat had crapped on the kitchen floor. Despite there being two litter trays in there, and they had access to outside. I'm quite glad I still don't have my sense of smell back.

Then at Tae Kwon Do (I ache after that in parts of my legs I didn't know existed) I got kicked in the throat. Which is really unpleasant. It still feels funny when I swallow sometimes. That became the least of my problems when I got home, though, because I banged my head really hard on the underside of the stairs. My head still hurts, and I'm really hoping concussion won't kick in tomorrow.

And then I got to my room to find my video wasn't recording Spooks (so pressed record, but I had missed the first fifteen minutes). I had a play with it later and found it had recorded over Rosemary and Thyme (taped in case it was the episode they filmed here). Well, actually, the first ten minutes were there. Which I can't make sense of at all.

I had to tell people not to talk about Spooks today at work until I could see it. I did get round to watching the latest Enterprise. Which wasn't as bad as I feared. Still crap, of course, but it could have been worse. Possibly.

I'm also really tired because I keep waking up much earlier than I need to. It doesn't seem to make much difference what time I go to bed, I still wake up after seven hours - and usually at least once in the night as well. I can survive on seven hours sleep but not indefinitely. It's driving me mad.

And my cold's still lingering, which isn't helping my throat because it doesn't like being dry at the moment, but the not being able to smell is quite nice. Or would be if it wasn't for the fact that the only thing I can smell is cigarette smoke. Pleasant.

It occurred to me yesterday that I have a tendency to have dreams that involve book shopping. Which, incidentally, is what I did today. Well, I spent time in Borders, Blackwells and Waterstones and am planning to buy some books on Amazon (or on-line at any rate, being as it's cheaper).

I spent lots of time in Borders, as always, although partly because I got distracted by the rabbit books. Which is not a good idea as I can't have rabbits until I have more money, a house with a garden to put them in, and a change of lifestyle.

I discovered Waterstones has a Costa Coffee (and toilets) which I didn't know. Although I'm still quite worried about the idea of WHSmiths in Reading having a coffee shop. It's not as if there's a shortage in Reading.

I have fallen in love with Blackwells though. Partly because it's massive. I went to the Computing section thinking it was tiny, then found some of it behind me. And more round the corner. And then it just kept going. And also because it's the Oxford University student bookshop, which was perfect for what I was looking for. I mean it has Pascal books! Only a student bookshop would stock that because only students would use them. Although the year below me they switched to Java anyway.

I've seen this meme going round:

I can't be arsed to look up all the others but this is certainly accurate when it comes to:

She Might Be an Academic Girl if:
4. She'd never: read Cosmo.

Well, of course I'd never read Cosmo. Or any of the other 100 magazines like it. There's nothing in it worth reading! Anyway, I think I only came up with that answer because I think holidays are for doing things - I don't know how people who go on holiday to lie on a beach don't get bored (or why they bother spending all that money to go abroad, there are beaches in this country, and for all of the country they get to see abroad, they might as well be here).

I realised last night that my cunning plan for Saturday, which involved going to Borders in Oxford to read books (and then buy them off Amazon where they're cheaper) and then going to Tescos in Didcot (there's not one in the centre of Oxford) would be cheaper (and therefore more cunning) if I ordered my Tesco shopping online.

The Tesco website always plays up for me for some reason. However, it was fine when I went in there, wanting a delivery slot of 6-8pm and there not being any. I went for 7-9pm but then got distracted by changing my clubcard vouchers to evouchers so I could use them online. When I went back to the site it had stopped working.

It worked fine in Firefox though (although I had great difficulty establishing what my username and password was, and then changing them). But apart from that it all went fine and I managed to order my shopping.

An hour or two later I realised I'd forgotten some stuff (a common occurence). Luckily, they'd recently changed everything so you can change your order. I successfully managed to do that and all was fine.

At 4pm I had a phone call to ask if they could deliver my shopping early, and we agreed on 6.30pm. I was eating dinner at 6.30pm which I felt sure would mean they'd turn up then. When it got to 7.30pm I gave in and rang them up. And spent ten minutes on hold while the (possible) Indian I spoke to tried to ring the store and the driver.

Eventually he told me that they were short staffed and were just leaving the shop now. He couldn't tell me why they hadn't rung to tell me that. In fact, if they'd never rung me at all I'd have been perfectly happy.

An hour later (it takes half an hour to get here from Abingdon, where there's a big Tescos) my shopping turns up. I couldn't bring myself to have a go at the driver because she was really nice and apologetic and said that she'd been having a nightmare that evening.

And they did, for possibly only the second time ever, manage to deliver everything.

On the plus side I do now have food. However, tomorrow is pub lunch day, and I'm going out in the evening for a quiz, which includes food. So I don't actually need most of it - I just needed it delivered before Saturday so I could go to Sainsburys in Oxford and get the things they couldn't manage to deliver. (I still need to get fruit & veg because they can't be trusted, and I need dinners because I couldn't decide what I wanted last night)

Now I just need to put it all away and watch The Bill that I missed, due to thinking they were going to arrive at 8pm, when it started.

Superset tennis on Sunday was mostly good. We did have to queue outside in the rain, and it was really busy with people inside. They also took everyone's bottle caps (except mine because they don't search bags properly) but no-one would tell us why. Which did mean we spent the whole afternoon thinking up reasons. The only one we could come up with was that we'd throw them at the players but we could think of far better things to throw. I found out when I got home, from my landlady's boyfriend, is that they do that at football matches to stop people throwing full bottles. Cos I totally see tennis fans doing that [/sarcasm]

Apart from that, we saw Greg Rusedski with very girly hair and a hairband, who dragged his match with Boris Becker out to a tie-break (at 10-10!) but did make it to the final. I spotted John McEnroe commentating on this match - he disappeared after that.

Next up was Goran Ivanisevic (forever known as Gobby Goran in our house for his nasty habit of spitting on the court). He also had a hairband but his hair was its normal longish length, so looked a bit less girly. He played around, as per usual, but didn't put up much of a fight against Tommy Robredo.

The eventual winner Mario Ancic played Robbie Ginepri and then we saw John McEnroe who easily outplayed Andy Murray - a seventeen year old Brit, who is apparently someone to watch out for. Although we've heard that one before.

Tim Henman had pulled out after the Davis Cup, with injury and had apparently been commentating. Which would have been, um, interesting, to, er, listen to.

It was a weird experience. I was still recovering from the flu, so the flashing lights didn't do me much good. And I don't know whether it was the lights or the colour of the court, but it was really hard to see the ball sometimes. I did like the players appealing to Hawkeye though. It's always interesting to see whether the linesmen have got it right and for it to count.

The thing I can't decide is whether I'd go again if they did another one. Wimbledon, on the other hand, is great for the experience (and a bit of tennis) and Davis Cup is great for the atmosphere (and both are good for getting to see doubles, which is much more interesting).

Edit: those photos looked much better when they were four times the size and about 700k (instead of ~20k)!

There were all these I was going to do this week but then I got ill. There is a cold thing going round - I, of course, manage to turn it into flu. Doubtless because I am getting a flu jab (free) on Thursday. I'm sure there were things I was going to comment on, and I was marking as unread, but then it all got a bit silly, and I'm never going to catch up if I'm constantly behind.

To start off with I'll talk about last Saturday and answer Gemma's question about the new Bullring.

Cadbury World was great. We each got a Dairy Milk, Dairy Milk with Wafer, Buttons and Curly Wurly, and we got to try some liquid chocolate. Bits of it were better than others but the best part was seeing the packing in the factory. Although this was because the box making machine broke, so the machine putting the bars into the box threw a wobbler. Which was fun to watch (especially the poor woman who had to sort it all out!).

We had an hour in the Bullring before we went there, and then another hour afterwards, so I can say I've definitely done the Bullring now. The toilets were quite nice, the Borders wasn't quite as small as it originally looked, and there was a Lego shop. Where you can go an play with lego. In all sorts of colours (including pink and purple!). There's not really much to say for it apart from that - it's a bit like the Oracle in Reading: full of expensive clothes shops. We're planning to go back for a Christmas shopping trip at the end of November, so I will definitely spend most of my time out on the streets in the shops there instead.

Sunday I went to see Wimbledon (the film that is). It was okay - it's not as if the plot isn't obvious - but I think the most interesting part of it will be the behind the scenes stuff when it comes out on DVD. I was quite impressed that the actors did look like they were tennis players. For some strange reason there didn't seem to be a fourth round, and the shadows on Centre Court were quite obviously wrong for the time of day it was set (well, obvious if you've watched a lot of Wimbledon, and know they filmed it on middle Saturday last year before any of the real matches started).

Tomorrow I'm going to Superset Tennis at Wembley. They only play one set and can appeal to the videos for line calls, which given that John McEnroe is playing, could make it interesting.

My landlady recently bought a set of electronic scales. So I took to weighing myself once a week, just to see. My weight changed about two-tenths of a pound (I think, I don't tend to remember it in that much detail) in about a month. Except for this week. Sleeping all day and therefore not eating much took me down a pound and a half. It's probably just as well I don't need to lose or gain weight.

However, establishing what all the numbers on it meant was a trial in itself. I really don't understand the metric system, so I could quite happily stand on my parents scales and give a number in stones, half-stones or quarter-stones, but no more accurately than that. Which is fine with a dial, the numbers were confusing though because they were:

a.bb.c

a I could tell were stones, but bb and c I had no idea. It was dad who suggested leaning on it a bit and watching the numbers go up. He also reminded me how many pounds in a stone and ounces in a pound, which I always forget, so I knew what to look out for. It turned out bb was pounds and c was tenths of pounds. There's nothing quite like making it complicated. It would make life so much easier (in the long term, if not the short) if we just went metric.

And lastly, cos this post isn't long enough, there's a meme on Blogger's front page:

Ask your readers to think of three photos they'd like to see posted to your blog. (Things around your house or whatever.) When you have enough requests, post them!

Since I have a digital camera, I can totally do this. I also have photos from Wimbledon (which I can't post), Monkey World, and of the cat and the baby fish lying around if anyone has a burning desire to see them.