Why I haven’t posted for the past two weeks
Saturday 4th February 2012 9:33 pm
I purposely uploaded my Bad Day icon to my Dreamwidth account so I could use it when I crosspost this to LJ and DW. Yes, things have been that bad. It's mostly been lots of little things, but I am definitely having a bad year. The past two weeks I have:
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Not getting much done
Saturday 7th January 2012 7:44 pm
I had all these things I was going to do. And then I remembered that working is quite wearing, and by the time I've got home, had dinner and a lie down, there's not a lot of evening left. Especially when I have to have a lie down later on. I much preferred not working, I hardly got tired or dizzy over the Christmas holidays.
But I was still going to get lots done this weekend. Until I got dizzy on Thursday. Since this is a random dizziness for no reason, it takes a week to go away. After two days of not working, I'm now bored. Not because I have nothing to do (I have plenty to read and write) but because I feel fine when I'm lying down and want to get up and do things. But I can't. It's so frustrating.
Categories: Life : Ill |
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New Year Resolutions
Monday 2nd January 2012 8:22 pm
I don't really make new years resolutions because I tend to forget them. Plus you can't change the whole of you all at once, so one thing's enough.
Last year I said I would go on a day trip at least once a month. If you count up the number I did and divide my twelve I succeeded. If you count it by month I failed in October. I knew it as well, I just didn't want to go anywhere.
This year I have resolved to put things off less. Before I was ill I used to try and get things done, then I could sit down and do what I liked. But that doesn't work any more because I have to stop and rest. So instead I am going to write down things I need to do as I think of them, and then do them. And try not to leave them all until the weekend, but it doesn't matter, as long as I do them. And writing them down should mean that I remember to do them. I already have three things on the list...
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An updatey thing
Sunday 18th December 2011 5:19 pm
My sole post all week has been the latest Big Finish releases, which included the subscriber special The Five Companions. Which was fun - I want to see more of Ian and Steven teaming up now.
Friday was our work Christmas party, which I've only just recovered from. All I did was to sit around and talk (and stand for an hour) but I was tired from it I slept for 11 hours Friday night, still felt tired and slept for 10 hours last night. Now I don't feel tired.
In the work secret santa for the first year in I don't know how many, I didn't get a Doctor Who related thing. I got a rabbit instead. Which is good, because generally you can't go wrong with with rabbits. However, this one has a hole in it that you're clearly meant to put something in, but no one knows what. There was no packaging, so presumably my santa doesn't know either. The most suggested things at the party were mobile, iPod and remote control. I tried putting my phone in it and the hole holds together too well to get anything in there easily. So I am stumped.
There was also food, which I mostly couldn't eat. The chef wouldn't understand that I just wanted to know what was in it, I didn't care about contamination, which she was more interested in telling me. I don't think she wanted me to eat at all. Fortunately, I brought my own - I remember last year well when I got a salad.
I have things booked for January now. I am going to see the Gymnastics at the O2. It feels like we can't get away from that place. I'm also going to see Spamalot. For the third time. But the first and second times were on Broadway and in the West End, this one's in my nearest city.
Categories: Life, TV, Work : Doctor Who (Classic), Life, Work |
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Winter
Thursday 8th December 2011 9:34 pm
It's definitely winter - my hands are dry and have started cracking This is even though I wear gloves whenever I'm outside or in the car, and for doing the washing up and when it's cold in the house I wear fingerless gloves. But there's only so much you can do and I'm not feeling desperate enough to wear gloves when washing my hair or showering. It's not as bad as when I had a rabbit because there are some things you can't do with gloves on because straw and food sticks to them.
But at least there's only 11 days of work left. Well, 10 and a half for me as tomorrow I am off to see Coldplay. Annoyingly we have to be there two hours before it starts to avoid the rush hour, as it's on the wrong side of London. And by the time it finishes we'll be on the last train and I'll get home at 1.15am! Which is why all I have planned this weekend is to catch up on some of the stuff on my PVR because that's definitely all I'll be capable of. I know I will enjoy it, despite the fact that I got dizzy last time I was in the O2 and the last time I was up that late at night I couldn't stand up without falling over...
Categories: Life, Music : Coldplay, Life |
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Food, glorious food
Sunday 4th December 2011 9:02 pm
I am so glad there's only three weeks left before Christmas, when I get ten days off in a row (including weekends and bank holidays). Although the two weeks coming are likely to be the busiest as we try and fit as many projects in as possible before Christmas in a rush.
In other news, I had mushrooms last night and wasn't ill. They were nice as well, I'd forgotten! Even better, I had them on pizza. Sainsbury's Free From pizza bases don't go completely solid in the oven either. They're just expensive, which is why pizza is a treat. But since the smallest amount of mushrooms I can buy was 150g, I will be eating mushrooms every night this week.
Mushrooms are the last thing I have to try before I'm onto wheat and wheat gluten. It's a tricky one because I don't want to eat something that I'll remember the taste of and then might not be able to eat again, but I could eat half a breaded fish from the fish and chip shop, so I will need to eat quite a bit of gluten to test it. I am intending to have a tube of Pringles because limiting yourself to one or two is really hard. I think it'll have to be pasta - I have plenty, so I can always have half ordinary, half gluten free.
At some point I will have to try an actual egg and not just egg in bread and biscuits. But since I really don't want to remember what one tastes like and then potentially not be able to eat one again, I'm not in a rush.
Categories: Life, Work : Food, Work |
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Meme
Monday 21st November 2011 9:45 pm
I have been meaning to post all week, but I've just been so tired. Work was busy and I keep getting woken up by the heating coming on. Which is bad enough usually, but was worse on Friday when I got up extra early to collect for Children in Need at 8am. I would have caught up on my sleep this weekend, if I hadn't been waking up early for no reason.
But I do have a meme from selenay936:
Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your blog/LJ/DW (or just add a reply back to me). Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.
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Categories: Animals, Life, Meme, Rotaract, Sport : Cat, Doctor Who (New), Life, Meme: other, Rotaract, Tennis, Timmy |
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Food
Saturday 12th November 2011 7:42 pm
I have finally finished my diet. When I started three months without anything I can't eat and sugar and yeast sounded like forever. Now I've got so used to it I can't remember what I used to eat.
But now I get to reintroduce foods one at a time to see if they make me ill. I'm starting with soya. When I first couldn't eat soya it seemed like it was in everything. Now I'm struggling to find things to eat with it in. It's my cheese, but I was eating that anyway, as I could tolerate that much. It's in chocolate, but the nicest (dairy free) chocolate is soya free. I've been forced to eat Swedish Glace ice cream, which is such a hardship as you can imagine. Especially since the only flavour Sainsburys had was Neapolitan.
After three months without cheese I had some in my sandwich at lunch. And it tasted so odd. Granted, it does anyway - it doesn't taste like cheese, hence why I like it. But ice cream tasted so odd too and I was eating that, albeit a different brand, three months ago as well.
Categories: Life : Food |
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About names
Sunday 6th November 2011 2:55 pm
I hate it when people spell names wrong. Well, mostly mine, but I can do hatred by proxy too. It would have been more timely if I'd posted this on Friday, when I was called by the wrong name twice by email and Alexander Armstrong posted this to twitter about people getting his name wrong.
I have got used to people spelling my last name wrong so generally I spell it straight after saying it. It cuts down on people saying "Is that with an e?" me saying that it is and them then putting two es in. Yes, there is an e in my surname, but not there.
I have got used to people getting my pseudonym wrong. No one ever spells it wrong, but people do put random capitals and spaces in there. The only capital is a p and there are no spaces. Despite it being two words put together it really is one word. But I reached the stage of not caring about that long ago.
My first name, on the other hand, that I care about. People spelling the shortened form wrong is quite annoying, but people give you odder looks for spelling it than they do when you just tell them what it is, so I've given up on that and just don't look when they write it down, it saves time. My full first name on the other hand... There are some other spellings of it, but on the whole they're rare and people don't guess those. What they are incapable of is one letter that changes my whole name. That's not my name and it's not me and there's nothing that annoys me more than people getting that wrong. Even the Tories having a general election five days before my 18th birthday is only second on the list of things that really wind me up. Don't get me started on that.
So I get annoyed my proxy at people writing Sarah-Jane Smith or Elizabeth Sladen or Russel T Davies because that's not their names (and there's no excuse given that they're clearly written on screen). It's also because I can't personally mix and match spellings. I can't remember someone's name unless I know who it's spelt. Even though they're only one letter difference and pronounced the same, Clare and Claire are different. Perhaps it's the way my brain works, but it probably has something to do with why I can never remember character names on TV programmes. Although in that case it doesn't help that people mumble and pronounce things differently and it turns out that what you thought was Emma was in fact Erin.
So the moral of this story is, get my name wrong at your peril. Or at least be prepared to apologise profusely afterwards.
Categories: Life : Life |
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Having a social life
Thursday 3rd November 2011 9:12 pm
My October's been quite boring. I've just done nothing to speak of at all. Which is partly due to not having Rotaract any more, so I have much more free time, partly because I've not organised myself to do anything, partly because work's been busy because I've not had the energy, and partly because I just can't do that much anyway.
So I am being better for November. I'm already going to the tennis at the end of the month and home for a long weekend. At some point once I can get everyone to agree on a date we'll have a Wii night at my house, where we can use my big lounge to its full advantage. And I'm going to the fireworks on Saturday - I haven't actually been to a firework display in years. It looks like it might be dry, not too cold, but muddy.
I have still been going to ballet. Last half term there were only three of us, none complete beginners and it was nice to have a small class. Now we have more beginners and it's nice to see how far I've come in a year. Although I still get very confused. The most amazing part about it is that, given my dizziness, I am getting better at pirouettes. Last night I even managed a couple where I didn't completely fall off at the end. But when the Winter Olympics were on one of my exercises was turning round in a circle slowly, which I could just about do. So pirouettes is a major advance. I can't do many, but then I wouldn't have been able to do before I was ill either.
Categories: Life : Life |
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Update
Friday 28th October 2011 8:09 pm
I keep not updating this much because I have nothing much to talk about. At least not in the sense of what I've been up to. This month I've mostly gone to work and made bookcases. It's not been helped by work being busy. I've had some really crazy days. I'm just hoping that it'll calm down in November therefore. I can't hope for December being calm, it never is.
I have one bookcase left to make. At some point once I've made them all and got all my books on them I will take a photo (well, it'll take a few photos) to show how many there are. LibraryThing tells me I have 430 books, but there are some I could get rid of.
I have started reading A Game of Thrones. I'd been putting it off because it's 800 pages in a small font, but it turns out that the chapters are only about 10 pages each. So it's easy to just read a chapter before bed. I am enjoying it - the TV series followed the plot well and the book is explaining more of the background. So I will watch the next series before reading the second book.
Before I read A Game of Thrones I read Snuff. Which I was never not going to like.
My copy of Mylo Xyloto (Coldplay's new album) arrived on Monday. And I finally managed to listen to it today. I got through the whole of it on my journey to work and back. But since I was busy driving and navigating the fog and making sure my windows stayed de-misted and talking, I can't say that I listened to it that closely. But not as closely as I did X&Y - I had that in my car when I moved house the time before last and my sister had it in her car too. Given there was a 10 minute journey between my old flat and the new, we both got sick of the album. I couldn't listen to it for ages after that.
I have almost finished playing Lego Harry Potter. I would have finished it ages ago but I came across a bug, so I was forever stuck at 98%. Once my sister's finished Lego Pirates of the Caribbean then I can play that and she can play Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7. And then I can play it once she's finished. I have bought games for my Wii, but only three and only because I'd played them and liked them (and in two cases because they came with nunchuck/extra bit to make the remote more sensitive).
Categories: Books, Life : A Song of Fire and Ice, Discworld |
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Another week has gone by
Sunday 16th October 2011 6:35 pm
Last week was ridiculously busy at work, so I was looking forward to a weekend with nothing planned, getting on with a few jobs. Sadly my immune system had other ideas and I had a sore throat and a cold instead. Although I did sleep for twelve hours on Saturday night, which made me feel so much less tired.
So I spent the week feeling rubbish and improved towards the end of the week. Which is the opposite of how I usually feel when a week goes by.
This weekend I spent getting the jobs done that I should have been doing last week. Oh, and spending the whole of this morning fixing my computer. Theoretically it was an easy fix, if only my Ubuntu installation pen drive. But I have now added to my list of Linux distros I've used with Puppy Linux. Which looks like the Windows sort of environment with Linux icons. And barks when it starts up, which frightened the life out of me because I wasn't expecting it.
I did finish a fic a couple of weeks ago and then didn't want to post at the same time as the other one, otherwise I'd look far more prolific than I really am. But I have now: John Chesterton: Time Lord (spoilers for When a Good Man Goes to War and Let's Kill Hitler). When I first had the idea, at the end of the first half of the series, I was intending to write something serious. But by the time I came up with a plot it ended up being not terribly serious at all.
Categories: Computers, Fan fic, Life : Ill, My fanfic, Netbook |
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What I’ve been up to
Tuesday 20th September 2011 8:25 pm
Last Wednesday I randomly got dizzy. Which is crap, but on the plus side, at least it wasn't this Wednesday, as that's when ballet starts again and I finished my Girl Saves Boy ficathon fic last Tuesday. Once I had the idea I sat down for an hour on Sunday evening, Monday evening and Tuesday evening and then it was done. Minus betaing obviously.
So my life for the past week has been very boring. Apart from discovering a big spider on my bed last night, which is the sort of excitement I can do without.
And Spooks is back, yay! Sadly only for six episodes. But this week's featured Dayna from Blake's 7 (I spent the whole of the first scene she was in trying to work out if it was her). When I went on the website to check the credits I realised I knew why I recognised Elena - she was the Borg Queen. Only First Contact was quite a long time ago.
Categories: Life, TV : Spooks |
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This week
Friday 2nd September 2011 8:18 pm
This week I have:
- Made a shepherd's pie for the first time ever. It didn't stick together, but it tasted nice and that's all that counts
- Had a fry up for breakfast because I ran out of porridge - well, I say fry up, but actually only the tomatoes were fried. The has browns were cooked in the oven the previous night and microwaved. But they did taste very nice
- Got the car out of the garage without having to go forwards for the first time ever
- Seen a lot of tractors on my way to and from work. On Wednesday I managed to get stuck behind one when it was stuck behind a cyclist going up a hill...
Categories: Life : Life |
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A post that’s not about moving
Friday 26th August 2011 8:55 pm
Yay for it being a three day weekend. Although that meant today was manic at work as we all tried to get stuff launched before the weekend. I am looking forward to three days off and watching Reading. Although it clashes with Doctor Who, so I'll have to tape them both.
Yesterday I managed to post my femgenficathon fic: Stuck With You, featuring Jo Jones née Grant.
I've been watching Downton Abbey too. I kept meaning to watch it, being as so many people talked about it, and then I heard there would be a second series in the autumn, so I thought I ought to get on with it. I was expecting it to be the usual serious period drama, but it's actually quite ridiculous and I am liking it.
Categories: Fan fic, Life, TV : Downton Abbey, Life, My fanfic |
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Internet
Wednesday 24th August 2011 8:37 pm
I have internet back again! As great as it was to have BT OpenZone, it was slow and I couldn't use it on both computers at once (well, I didn't try, I just assumed) and it randomly went down.
Maybe now I can start feeling like things are normal again. Although it still feels like I'm living in someone else's house.
I have uploaded photos - they're the first eight at http://www.flickr.com/photos/paranoidangel/tags/house/
Categories: Life : Moving |
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Moving (and Game of Thrones)
Sunday 21st August 2011 10:50 am
I am all moved in. I just need to sort out the mess in the lounge and put up some posters.
I managed to move on a day when it rained pretty much all day. The removal men came, packed everything in an hour and a half, then moved it over to the house. It was so quick that my PVR hadn't lost any of its settings.
Since I've moved in I've discovered that the shower is a trickle (although I think that might be because the shower head is tiny and useless), the light switch in the kitchen is upside down, the oven doesn't work unless you set the time and the smoke alarm just outside the kitchen (which has no door) is really sensitive.
I also have internet, courtesy of BT Openzone, which I have paid for, but it's better value than dial-up or 3G. It is a bit slower than I'm used to, but far faster than the alternatives. At least it exists, which is great.
While I unpacked I listened to The Rocket Men (Big Finish Ian companion chronicle) which I thought was quite clever. And has jet packs in. Once I've had this month's credit card bill I will be giving Big Finish lots of money for a monthly releases subscription, the Benny box set and the Jo companion chronicle coming up.
I've also been watching Game of Thrones this weekend, since I promised people at work I'd marathon it this weekend. I don't know if I'll finish it though, since I'm only halfway through and it's already mid-morning on Sunday. But so far I am enjoying it, with the aid of a character and actor guide. I spend half the time watching it checking who the characters are and then going to imdb.
I had no idea so many actors I knew were in it. I am less keen on all the sex and gore, but I do like the sword fighting. I definitely need to read the book to understand what's going on - the episodes don't make it clear how much time has passed, which has been confusing me. So far I like Ned Stark dealing with his daughters making his life complicated. Which is much more interesting than him dealing with politics.
Categories: Life, TV : Game of Thrones, Moving |
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New house
Monday 15th August 2011 6:07 pm
I went and saw my new house today - for the second time technically, but this time it didn't have other people's stuff in it. After last time I moved and discovered the flat didn't have a freezer, I was ready to have a mad panic about something else instead. But there isn't anything.
The kitchen doesn't have a door (to be fair, there isn't much space to have one open and has a smoke alarm right outside(!), but the lounge has a door, so I can still shut away the noise of the washing machine. Which seems to be a washer/dryer. Not that I'm likely to use the tumble dryer that much, but it does make towels nice and fluffy.
I measured my furniture with bits of string, then took the string to the new house to work out where to put everything. I'll get to see on Thursday how accurate the string is... But it looks like I can fit all my bedroom stuff in the smaller bedroom (which only shares a wall with my neighbour's bathroom), so I'll have plenty of space for books and other stuff in the big bedroom (which shares both its walls with both my neighbours. I will take photos after my stuff is moved in, it just might be a while before I can upload them.
I also spent the afternoon ringing companies up to change my address. My car and contents insurance have both gone down, which is good. And all the people I talked to were English, apart from one who was Scottish. But on my list of people to tell my new address is 'Friends'. And I've lost track of who even had my address to begin with, so if you'd like my new address (or phone number), let me know.
Categories: Life : Moving |
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Nearly moving
Sunday 14th August 2011 8:29 pm
I pick up the keys to my house tomorrow - I can't believe the date has come around already. I'm not used to having so long between finding somewhere and moving.
I am so glad the removal men are packing my stuff because there's no way I'd have the energy to do everything by myself. This weekend I got about halfway through my list of people to tell I've moved (although some are unimportant and can wait), spring cleaned the lounge (except for the book shelves, which I did a couple of weeks ago), defrosted the fridge and did some other odd bits of cleaning. And done some betaing. It's just as well I'm not actually moving until Thursday.
Given that my contract for the new place says I have to have it professionally cleaned before I move out, I hope that means the last people have done that, so I won't have to clean it before I move in. Just buy a few things that I need - so far I know I'll need some airers to put on the radiators, as I don't have any. But I'm still paranoid that things will go wrong. I have to try putting my car in the garage tomorrow - I don't know if I can do it or if I can even open the garage door, having never done either of those things before in my life.
On the plus side, I have a couple of friends who live five minutes walk from my new house. They already lent me their electric cool box, so the entire contents of my fridge fit in that and stayed cold while the fridge defrosted. And I will be borrowing space in their freezer, as I have to defrost the freezer for moving it. But they are getting whatever tea bags the removal men don't drink in return.
Categories: Life : Moving |
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Diet
Wednesday 10th August 2011 8:31 pm
Because moving isn't enough for one month, I am starting a new diet this week.
There's a theory all these food intolerances are caused by not enough good bacteria and too much bad bacteria in the digestive system. Which itself could well be caused by stress, at least in my case. I was stressed by becoming lactose intolerant in 2005 when I got most of my intolerances. And I became soya intolerant the last time I moved house...
In order to get rid of these intolerances I have to not have any of the things I'm intolerant to for three months, as well as not having any yeast or sugar. And only three portions of fruit a day.
I say that it will get rid of them, but the doctor couldn't say for sure. The only evidence is from alternative medicine, which doesn't prove anything. But Mum tried it and it worked for her, so it's worth a go.
So far I've been eating up things with sugar in that won't keep or are frozen. There are plenty of things I know sugar is in, which is fair enough. But then I'm finding it's in things like cornflakes, sausages, chips, stock cubes, pasta sauce. Ok, so I got unlucky with the chips because they don't all have it in, just the packet in my freezer. But there are no stock cubes I've found on the Sainsburys website that don't have either sugar or yeast in.
I'm feeling positive about it at the moment, but I might well be sick of porridge for breakfast and rice cakes for snacks in three months time. Especially when there's nothing I can find to spread on rice cakes except for butter. But on the plus side I did make my own pasta sauce tonight. I've tried it once before and I didn't like it, but I don't remember what I did. Tonight I had tomatoes, tomato puree and basil in what ended up being random amounts, but it came out tasting nice. I've been meaning to make my own pasta sauce for ages, so when I've finished the diet I might stick with it. Apart from the jar I have in the cupboard that will need using up before it's best before date.
Categories: Life : Food |
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