The World Spins Madly On

I haven't even got round to getting my pics off my camera yet.

I got back from my trip and got a hideous cold - chills and all, so I was off work on Friday. Saturday was orchard day, and gloriously sunny and warm, so I mooched up and put myself on 'lighting the fire and getting the kettle boiled' duty. I actually ended up feeling much better for it.

And then on Saturday night, I got some kind of stomach bug. Oy.

Through all that and since, I've been busy with fandom fest-stuff, so the house and garden require some urgent attention. So I'm writing myself a To Do This Weekend list. And inflicting it on all of you. You know you love it.

- Finish weeding front garden
- Plant bedding plants in front garden
- Pot herbs, and sort out hanging basket, etc.
- Weed back garden - 2/3 done
- Mow lawns (or possibly make flatmate do it next weekend)
- Dishes (cos ew, kitchen)
- Vacuum
- Laundry
- Clean the cat's bowls
- Clean the litter tray I borrowed and return it

The last couple of days in the area have been very frosty. No really. See how white it all is? Frost.



Only, yesterday the snow kicked in as well. Now before you make mock, keep in mind that most of England doesn't get a lot of snow on a regular basis, and the South West very rarely. This is the second time in nearly 7 years I've seen a significant amount of snow on the ground. So I'm working from home. In fairness, I wandered out the front about half an hour ago and no one has even thought about trying to get their car out. Not from my road, anyway.

I'd say I was staying safe, except that I slipped on the stairs earlier and fell down. No major damage, but I've definitely jarred my back a bit. Flatmate's second response was, "Are you OK?" Her first response was, "Well that was clever." Funnily enough she got told to fuck off.

Ooooh, spot who's in a bit of a mood.

Anyway. Here is my back garden as of 8.30 this morning.

I bought this at the Christmas Market in Sunday (OMG SO MANY PEOPLE). It's made of dried oranges, slices of apple, chilli peppers and cinnamon sticks and it smells amazing.

I finally heard back from the property managers about whether I can have a cat, and the answer is a conditional 'Yes'.

The conditions are an additional 2 weeks worth of security deposit, that if it's a male it must be fixed (apparently the landlord has had a previous bad experience with moron tenants whose unspayed male cat was kept indoors and the inevitable happened), and that if I put a catflap in I have to pay to have it put in and removed again at the end of the tenancy. In short, it will be an expensive business, and therefore won't happen in the next couple of months, what with months of jetsetting, and Christmas and all. But it could happen. :oD

( And now onto the pic-spam: )

I just emailed the property manager to get them to ask the landlord whether it would be OK for me to get a cat.

I MIGHT BE ABLE TO GET A CAT!!! I MISS HAVING A CAT. AND IF I'M ALLOWED, I CAN GO HANG OUT AT CAT HOMES TILL I FIND MY CAT. IT WOULD BE SOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!

Me: Chicken Pie is good, but it could probably have done with a bit longer in the oven.
Flatmate: Oh sorry.
Me: No worries, if I get a raging case of food poisoning, it's all your fault.
Flatmate: OK!

Flatmate: Can that really happen?
Me: ...

The pie wasn't that cold, but I must say that I have not felt at my best for the last few days. How can you NOT KNOW THAT, and yet not die of dysentery? Also, how do you start teaching someone who's almost 30 basic food hygiene?

I haven't done a proper post in so long, I think I've forgotten how! Where to start?

I have been climbing a couple of times this year, but not as often as I'd like. I signed up for the Neolithhic Britain course, which is really interesting - looking at, amongst other things, the transition from hunter/gatherer lifestyle to settlements and domestication. I am part-way through stress-management coaching, which is also very interesting - thinking about how you respond to things and why, and how to change it. Hopefully that will help a lot when things pick up at work again. (Work has actually been pretty quiet lately, realtively speaking.)

Last night Flatmate and I threw a party, basically because it has been grey and manky for ages, and I figured everyone needed an excuse to throw on their glad-rags and get pissed. It seems I was correct. :o) Formal dress is always fun. Especially when the guys get out the dinner jackets. Class. I busted out my dress from Miss Scarlet's wedding. Which I am proud to say still fits! It's a little tighter than it used to be, but apparently that doesn't detract. :oD Although I think what impressed people most was the lunar eclipse I laid on. Can I throw a party, or what? The last folk left about 4.30. I have not been up that late in a very very very long time. Then I got up at 8.30 to feed and water a couple of friends who had stayed over, but had an early start. This afternoon is not going to be pretty. I am going to go have my breakfast/brunch/lunch/whatever. Mmmm, fried everything.

Imogen Heap is excellent morning-after-the-party music.

I started typing a rant, but I'm too tired to even type out the whole debacle. Basically, we're on a tight timeline to get the paperwork sorted for moving in on Saturday, and a number of people have mucked up along the line, so that when I called back for the second time this afternoon, the short version was that we couldn't move until Monday at the earliest. I don't even need to explain all the ways in which that is a disaster.

The woman on the phone stonewalled me the entire conversation, failed to tell me what the actual problem was, only that it "Probably wouldn't be solved tomorrow", and generally just responded with "No" to any suggestion I had. Flatmate goes in after work finds out that they couldn't get in touch with the guarantor (flatmate could and did). Information was exchanged. We await one last piece of info for flatmate's reference and we're good. Handover can happen tomorrow afternoon. I have to take some time off work, but I think they'd prefer that to me (and my furniture) moving into the downstairs office for the week.

It all sounds like it might be OK now, but there was an hour and a half or so this afternoon that was NOT GOOD.

I need another drink.

Watch this space.