Tuesday 22 April 2008
Somehow, I became trendy...
Or at least my hair has, apparently. I saw a blurb on my email homepage today that said that frizzy hair is the new trend. This is something I have tried to combat all my life, and now it's trendy? Even though I try to avoid all things trendy when it comes to fashion, my hair has managed to become trendy all by itself. Amazing.
Sunday 20 April 2008
It's been an Ikea-tastic weekend.
For their 21st anniversary, Ikea had a 21% off sale yesterday. They also threw in free breakfast for Ikea Family members (which we are) and 21p hotdogs. Yum! The stores were opening early at 6am and staying open until midnight.
When I mentioned this to Andy, saying we should take advantage of this since Ikea do not do sales and since we had several things we'd been talking about getting at Ikea, he looked less than interested....until I told him that we'd get free breakfast. Food...that's definitely way to my husband's heart and a most definite way of getting his attention and interest.
Andy had grand plans of us getting up at 5:30am, leaving the house straight away, and driving to Bristol so that we could be at Ikea by 6:15 or so. Since we can't even get out of bed when our alarm goes of at 6:30am during the week for work, I had my doubts about this. However, we were up by 5:45am, I think, and out of the house by 6:15am. Because it was so early in the morning, we made it to Ikea in a record time (usually takes us about 45 minutes), and although it was clearly busy already when we arrived at 6:50am, we were still able to get parking near the entrance in the covered parking area. Our first mission...to have free breakfast. We then spent the next 3 hours shopping until we literally could have dropped.
Ikea Bristol expected to have 40,000 people descend upon their store yesterday. They had actually hired police officers, EMTs and their ambulances, and extra security staff to ensure everything went smoothly. They must have had every single employee in that day; every single till was staffed and open, and even though we got to the store really early and got through fairly quickly (considering that there were huge queues of people waiting to order things like kitchens and bathrooms and people simply loading up cart upon cart with stuff because of the sale), we still had to stand in line a fair while because not only were there a lot of people, but there were a lot of people with a hell of a lot of stuff in their carts. Saturdays are extremely busy, of course, but I doubt that many people come to the tills with the sheer volume of stuff that most people had. The guy in front of his had every centimeter of his flat bed cart packed full with flat packed furniture boxes. He could barely move the cart by himself it had so much stuff.
Once we bought all our stuff (two display cabinets to be mounted on the wall, two small bookcases, two CD/DVD towers, tons of shelf brackets, a laptop table for my friend Theresa, and a myriad of other odds and ends), we got it all in the car (all I can say is thank goodness for the Micra...it may be small, but we can fit an amazing amount of stuff, even really large stuff like what we had yesterday, with very little problem), and then went back in the store to have something to drink and some hot dogs before we left.
Overall, it was a really successful shopping excursion, and although we saw the usual obnoxious and rude people stealing carts from one another and the like, we didn't see any real trouble-makers, which was nice. The biggest annoyance came when we finally were trying to leave, and some genius had to block in our car and all the traffic in our row of parking with his enormous SUV. The idiot had backed into the space, knowing he'd be buying quite a bit of stuff to load into the back, so he had to pull his SUV out to load, blocking us all in. Even after having to sit around waiting for this guy to move, it took us quite a long time to get out of Ikea because of the mass exodus of people. Then, we found they'd blocked off the road we needed to take to get back to motor way, so we had to go on this long and convoluted route to get back to the motor way. In the end, I had to sit in the back of the car, crammed in with the stuff stretching from the trunk of the car to the front seat and just fell asleep. I was soooooo exhausted!
So...we now have numerous Ikea boxes sitting around the house. We put together the DVD and CD towers last night, and I'm going to sit down this morning and put together our small book cases. Andy may go out today to one of the DIY stores to get some wood cut for the shelves we want to put in the cellar and in one of our spare bedrooms (that's why we bought a ridiculous amount of shelf brackets), so hopefully sometime in the near future, we'll have a significant increase in our shelving space. We have books just stacked up, and we have so much clutter in our cellar...these shelves and bookcases are definitely welcome!
My mom couldn't understand why people got so excited over a 20% off sale, so I had to explain to her that Ikea is cheaper than most places anyway, and they just don't do sales. They occasionally mark a few items down and do give discounts on a select few items for Ikea Family members, but they don't do sales. So, if someone is wanting to redo their kitchen, their bathroom, their wardrobes, redecorate, whatever, a 20% off sale at Ikea is definitely something to get excited about.
Anyway, I'm off to put more new furniture together. Hurrah!
When I mentioned this to Andy, saying we should take advantage of this since Ikea do not do sales and since we had several things we'd been talking about getting at Ikea, he looked less than interested....until I told him that we'd get free breakfast. Food...that's definitely way to my husband's heart and a most definite way of getting his attention and interest.
Andy had grand plans of us getting up at 5:30am, leaving the house straight away, and driving to Bristol so that we could be at Ikea by 6:15 or so. Since we can't even get out of bed when our alarm goes of at 6:30am during the week for work, I had my doubts about this. However, we were up by 5:45am, I think, and out of the house by 6:15am. Because it was so early in the morning, we made it to Ikea in a record time (usually takes us about 45 minutes), and although it was clearly busy already when we arrived at 6:50am, we were still able to get parking near the entrance in the covered parking area. Our first mission...to have free breakfast. We then spent the next 3 hours shopping until we literally could have dropped.
Ikea Bristol expected to have 40,000 people descend upon their store yesterday. They had actually hired police officers, EMTs and their ambulances, and extra security staff to ensure everything went smoothly. They must have had every single employee in that day; every single till was staffed and open, and even though we got to the store really early and got through fairly quickly (considering that there were huge queues of people waiting to order things like kitchens and bathrooms and people simply loading up cart upon cart with stuff because of the sale), we still had to stand in line a fair while because not only were there a lot of people, but there were a lot of people with a hell of a lot of stuff in their carts. Saturdays are extremely busy, of course, but I doubt that many people come to the tills with the sheer volume of stuff that most people had. The guy in front of his had every centimeter of his flat bed cart packed full with flat packed furniture boxes. He could barely move the cart by himself it had so much stuff.
Once we bought all our stuff (two display cabinets to be mounted on the wall, two small bookcases, two CD/DVD towers, tons of shelf brackets, a laptop table for my friend Theresa, and a myriad of other odds and ends), we got it all in the car (all I can say is thank goodness for the Micra...it may be small, but we can fit an amazing amount of stuff, even really large stuff like what we had yesterday, with very little problem), and then went back in the store to have something to drink and some hot dogs before we left.
Overall, it was a really successful shopping excursion, and although we saw the usual obnoxious and rude people stealing carts from one another and the like, we didn't see any real trouble-makers, which was nice. The biggest annoyance came when we finally were trying to leave, and some genius had to block in our car and all the traffic in our row of parking with his enormous SUV. The idiot had backed into the space, knowing he'd be buying quite a bit of stuff to load into the back, so he had to pull his SUV out to load, blocking us all in. Even after having to sit around waiting for this guy to move, it took us quite a long time to get out of Ikea because of the mass exodus of people. Then, we found they'd blocked off the road we needed to take to get back to motor way, so we had to go on this long and convoluted route to get back to the motor way. In the end, I had to sit in the back of the car, crammed in with the stuff stretching from the trunk of the car to the front seat and just fell asleep. I was soooooo exhausted!
So...we now have numerous Ikea boxes sitting around the house. We put together the DVD and CD towers last night, and I'm going to sit down this morning and put together our small book cases. Andy may go out today to one of the DIY stores to get some wood cut for the shelves we want to put in the cellar and in one of our spare bedrooms (that's why we bought a ridiculous amount of shelf brackets), so hopefully sometime in the near future, we'll have a significant increase in our shelving space. We have books just stacked up, and we have so much clutter in our cellar...these shelves and bookcases are definitely welcome!
My mom couldn't understand why people got so excited over a 20% off sale, so I had to explain to her that Ikea is cheaper than most places anyway, and they just don't do sales. They occasionally mark a few items down and do give discounts on a select few items for Ikea Family members, but they don't do sales. So, if someone is wanting to redo their kitchen, their bathroom, their wardrobes, redecorate, whatever, a 20% off sale at Ikea is definitely something to get excited about.
Anyway, I'm off to put more new furniture together. Hurrah!
Tuesday 15 April 2008
I thought this day would never come.
My dad has officially announced his retirement. He turned 65 last year and celebrated his 25th anniversary at the Bank. Several months later, I was told that the Bank had been sold and that he would stay long enough to settle in the new owners and make sure his employees and customers were ok, and then he'd be retiring. I know my dad, and I know he's a complete workaholic, so I really never thought the day would come when he'd actually set a retirement date. However, he has finally announced that April 30 will be his last day. I can't believe it. As morbid as this sounds, I always thought (and so did my mom) that he would probably die at his desk - that he would never leave the Bank.
Don't get me wrong...I'm absolutely ecstatic that he's finally giving up work. However, I'm not sure how long it will last. He's good at what he does, and he is well-known for it. He has apparently already been asked if he will train employees at another bank. I know the new owners of his Bank have asked him numerous times to reconsider and to stay, but he's said no. I'm sure he could get some consultant work with very little effort, so I'm not entirely convinced that he's giving up work for good. As long as he doesn't go back to a full-time gig anywhere and get as heavily involved and invested as he was in the Bank, then I think he'll be ok. In fact, I think doing some consulting and keeping active will be good for him and keep him going. However, I also hope he leaves himself time for some hobbies, some relaxation, and some travel. Apparently he has already mentioned getting a passport to my mom, so I'm hoping he'll get on with it so that they can both come visit this year. My mom hasn't been here for over two years, mostly because of her back and leg pain (which thankfully the surgery has fixed), and my dad has never been here, so it would be very nice to have them both here.
I've tried talking my mom into getting a Nintendo Wii, because I think my parents would really enjoy it. There are fishing games that I'm sure my dad would LOVE. Hopefully if they do visit, we can get them to have a go on our Wii, and I bet they'll enjoy it. I think my dad will probably start being more interested in a lot of things my mom and I have tried to get him into in the past now that he's going to be retiring. I thought he'd really enjoy having an iPod; he loved playing with my iPod last time we visited them. He'd probably enjoy reading more and possibly playing around on the computer more; he does so much of that at work, he doesn't really want to spend much time doing that sort of thing at home. My mom thinks he should join a gym, and I just doubled over with laughter at the mention of that. I just can't picture my dad on a treadmill or rowing machine. First off, with his horrid smoking habit, I think he'd end up in a coughing fit the first time he tried to use one of those machines, and second, I think he'd need to take a smoke break every 5 minutes. I just can't see him being interested in it, but hey, you never know. My mom works out three times a week at Curves and does yoga twice a week, and who would have ever expected that?
Anyway, in other news, I met with my personal tutor today and had a chat about the mandatory course we've had to take this semester. It's been an absolute shambles - completely unacceptable. I know my fellow students have complained verbally, and apparently they have also submitted a written complaint on behalf of the rest of the students, which is fine with me. However, I told my tutor that I am going to be writing my own formal complaint, and I will be requesting (demanding?) compensation for loss of earnings and travel expenses for the time and money I've wasted on this class this semester. I also said that although we only have two classes left, I want to leave the class and retake it next year. I don't see any reason to attempt to write the essay; none of the essay questions are very clear, specific or interesting, but more than that, I really feel that to make an educated attempt at writing any of them, I should have had the mandatory History & Theory course last semester. The part-time students were told we could wait until next year to take it, but I have found that I really needed it to do a couple of the courses I wanted to do this semester, including this mandatory course. However, I was told I didn't need it to do the mandatory course this semester; I've found that this hasn't necessarily been the case. I've felt a bit behind the rest of the class at times, and most of the essay topics would certainly benefit from the History & Theory course. Yes, I could read a couple of History & Theory books, but I really need the experience of the class discussions and instruction to feel confident. Anyway, both my personal tutor and the department administrator agreed that it was a sensible idea to take the class next year, and the administrator even offered to email the tutor for me. So, hopefully I will hear back in the next few days that it's not a problem for me to do that. No one seems to think it should be an issue, but who knows what the course tutor will have to say. I'll feel much better once I've heard that he's not going to try to object to me leaving the class.
Other than my meeting today with my personal tutor (which has made me feel much better), I've made chicken fajitas for dinner, and Miriam and her son came over for dinner and to play on the Wii. It's been a nice evening. (That's Mexican food five nights in a row now, and probably for at least another one or two nights, with leftovers!)
Don't get me wrong...I'm absolutely ecstatic that he's finally giving up work. However, I'm not sure how long it will last. He's good at what he does, and he is well-known for it. He has apparently already been asked if he will train employees at another bank. I know the new owners of his Bank have asked him numerous times to reconsider and to stay, but he's said no. I'm sure he could get some consultant work with very little effort, so I'm not entirely convinced that he's giving up work for good. As long as he doesn't go back to a full-time gig anywhere and get as heavily involved and invested as he was in the Bank, then I think he'll be ok. In fact, I think doing some consulting and keeping active will be good for him and keep him going. However, I also hope he leaves himself time for some hobbies, some relaxation, and some travel. Apparently he has already mentioned getting a passport to my mom, so I'm hoping he'll get on with it so that they can both come visit this year. My mom hasn't been here for over two years, mostly because of her back and leg pain (which thankfully the surgery has fixed), and my dad has never been here, so it would be very nice to have them both here.
I've tried talking my mom into getting a Nintendo Wii, because I think my parents would really enjoy it. There are fishing games that I'm sure my dad would LOVE. Hopefully if they do visit, we can get them to have a go on our Wii, and I bet they'll enjoy it. I think my dad will probably start being more interested in a lot of things my mom and I have tried to get him into in the past now that he's going to be retiring. I thought he'd really enjoy having an iPod; he loved playing with my iPod last time we visited them. He'd probably enjoy reading more and possibly playing around on the computer more; he does so much of that at work, he doesn't really want to spend much time doing that sort of thing at home. My mom thinks he should join a gym, and I just doubled over with laughter at the mention of that. I just can't picture my dad on a treadmill or rowing machine. First off, with his horrid smoking habit, I think he'd end up in a coughing fit the first time he tried to use one of those machines, and second, I think he'd need to take a smoke break every 5 minutes. I just can't see him being interested in it, but hey, you never know. My mom works out three times a week at Curves and does yoga twice a week, and who would have ever expected that?
Anyway, in other news, I met with my personal tutor today and had a chat about the mandatory course we've had to take this semester. It's been an absolute shambles - completely unacceptable. I know my fellow students have complained verbally, and apparently they have also submitted a written complaint on behalf of the rest of the students, which is fine with me. However, I told my tutor that I am going to be writing my own formal complaint, and I will be requesting (demanding?) compensation for loss of earnings and travel expenses for the time and money I've wasted on this class this semester. I also said that although we only have two classes left, I want to leave the class and retake it next year. I don't see any reason to attempt to write the essay; none of the essay questions are very clear, specific or interesting, but more than that, I really feel that to make an educated attempt at writing any of them, I should have had the mandatory History & Theory course last semester. The part-time students were told we could wait until next year to take it, but I have found that I really needed it to do a couple of the courses I wanted to do this semester, including this mandatory course. However, I was told I didn't need it to do the mandatory course this semester; I've found that this hasn't necessarily been the case. I've felt a bit behind the rest of the class at times, and most of the essay topics would certainly benefit from the History & Theory course. Yes, I could read a couple of History & Theory books, but I really need the experience of the class discussions and instruction to feel confident. Anyway, both my personal tutor and the department administrator agreed that it was a sensible idea to take the class next year, and the administrator even offered to email the tutor for me. So, hopefully I will hear back in the next few days that it's not a problem for me to do that. No one seems to think it should be an issue, but who knows what the course tutor will have to say. I'll feel much better once I've heard that he's not going to try to object to me leaving the class.
Other than my meeting today with my personal tutor (which has made me feel much better), I've made chicken fajitas for dinner, and Miriam and her son came over for dinner and to play on the Wii. It's been a nice evening. (That's Mexican food five nights in a row now, and probably for at least another one or two nights, with leftovers!)
Sunday 13 April 2008
Bleh
I feel like I've wasted the day. I've had what I call "migraine aftershocks" for a good part of the day. By the time I got to bed last night, I was in a tremendous amount of pain and had to get Andy to bring me a cool cloth, which wasn't cold enough for me, so then he ended up bringing me a bag of frozen vegetables from the freezer. That, combined with prescription pain medication eventually seemed to get rid of the migraine. I could feel another headache come on during the night, but overall, I got a pretty good night's sleep and didn't get up until after 9am. However, I woke up with a headache, took some more pain meds, and by noon, the headache was stronger, and I was falling asleep on the sofa. So, I ended up back in bed for over two hours, and have been battling the headaches ever since. I finally took more prescription pain meds this evening, and that seems to have helped. I just feel very fragile and worn out today. I have no idea what brought on the migraine, but I'm just hoping it doesn't decide to do an encore tonight.
What was really weird about this migraine is that while my whole head usually hurts and feels like it is in a vice grip, this time, it was the left side of my head that was in agony. My whole head definitely did hurt, but it actually felt like I'd had an arrow shot through the left side of my head. It was very strange. Even the left side of my neck hurt.
Anyway, I feel I've accomplished very little today, because I just haven't been able to do much of anything at all. I've stayed in my pyjamas all day and really could have spent the whole day in bed. I can't believe I'm back to work tomorrow, and then I'm off to university on Tuesday for a chat with my personal tutor about a major dilemma I'm having at the moment. I'm wondering if fretting and worrying over that conversation is part of the reason I ended up with such a nasty migraine this weekend.
What was really weird about this migraine is that while my whole head usually hurts and feels like it is in a vice grip, this time, it was the left side of my head that was in agony. My whole head definitely did hurt, but it actually felt like I'd had an arrow shot through the left side of my head. It was very strange. Even the left side of my neck hurt.
Anyway, I feel I've accomplished very little today, because I just haven't been able to do much of anything at all. I've stayed in my pyjamas all day and really could have spent the whole day in bed. I can't believe I'm back to work tomorrow, and then I'm off to university on Tuesday for a chat with my personal tutor about a major dilemma I'm having at the moment. I'm wondering if fretting and worrying over that conversation is part of the reason I ended up with such a nasty migraine this weekend.
Saturday 12 April 2008
Not again.
Migraine, migraine, go away,
Please don't come back another day.
I haven't had a migraine/tension headache/whatever the hell it is for a while now, and I was really hoping I'd gotten rid of them. It's not responding to any of the pain meds I've taken so far, and it hurts to move. I think I must have combination tension/migraine headaches, which makes them even harder to treat and eradicate.
On a happier note, Andy bought me roses today. I'm lucky to have him.
Please don't come back another day.
I haven't had a migraine/tension headache/whatever the hell it is for a while now, and I was really hoping I'd gotten rid of them. It's not responding to any of the pain meds I've taken so far, and it hurts to move. I think I must have combination tension/migraine headaches, which makes them even harder to treat and eradicate.
On a happier note, Andy bought me roses today. I'm lucky to have him.
Mexican feast update
I ended up only serving the dip and the pork burritos. I never even bothered to cook up the fajitas and the tacos, which was really a good thing. It was just too much food. I had prepared it all to cook, so it's all just gone in the freezer. I might make fajitas later this weekend to use up the cut veggies. The burritos were good, if I do say so myself, but even with five people eating big burritos, we still didn't eat all the meat. So...that's gone into the freezer as well, perfect for defrosting and using on a baked potato if we don't feel like having burritos.
We all played on the Wii, as well, which was good fun. I'm so glad we got the Wii, and I'm very much looking forward to WiiFit, which we just pre-ordered a couple of days ago. It comes out on my birthday, so it's a good birthday present, and it means that Andy's birthday present for me is taken care of...he didn't even have to do the ordering! He knew he wanted to get it for me, so when I had an online voucher for Play.com, we just decided to go ahead and preorder it so we could use the voucher.
I'm not sure what the rest of the weekend will hold. Right now, I'm so full, all I want to do is sleep.
We all played on the Wii, as well, which was good fun. I'm so glad we got the Wii, and I'm very much looking forward to WiiFit, which we just pre-ordered a couple of days ago. It comes out on my birthday, so it's a good birthday present, and it means that Andy's birthday present for me is taken care of...he didn't even have to do the ordering! He knew he wanted to get it for me, so when I had an online voucher for Play.com, we just decided to go ahead and preorder it so we could use the voucher.
I'm not sure what the rest of the weekend will hold. Right now, I'm so full, all I want to do is sleep.
Friday 11 April 2008
I'm drowning in Mexican food
So I've invited some friends over tonight to have a Mexican feast, play on the Wii, maybe watch a movie and maybe play Dragonology, a game that one of them gave us for Christmas. (It's good fun, but a bit complicated at first and LONG.)
When I asked everyone what they wanted me to make, the answer I got from everyone was...well...everything. Beef tacos, chicken fajitas, pork burritos, and my fabulous nacho dip made with minced turkey. Good lord. There are only five of us! Oh, and I'm going to make up some batter ahead of time to make Belgian waffles for dessert, should anyone still be able to fit in dessert after all of that food. We've bought ice cream, chocolate sauce, Green & Black's chocolate hazelnut spread, whipped cream, caramel sauce, and some other drool-incuding toppings for the Belgian waffles, so people may still try to have dessert. We may all have to take a nap after all that food. At least I'm going to have a lot of food leftover to freeze for future meals....unless everyone tries to sneak home leftovers as they've sort of hinted they might do.
I've already got the pork cooking on the stove, and it smells goooood. Soon-ish, I'll probably start doing the dip so it can cook for a while in the electric slow cooker, as well. At times like this, I could really use two electric slow cookers. Slow cooking the pork on the stove top in a pot is fine, but I don't like leaving the stove on if I have to leave the house.
Anyway, tonight should be fun, although I may have to beach myself like a whale after dinner.
When I asked everyone what they wanted me to make, the answer I got from everyone was...well...everything. Beef tacos, chicken fajitas, pork burritos, and my fabulous nacho dip made with minced turkey. Good lord. There are only five of us! Oh, and I'm going to make up some batter ahead of time to make Belgian waffles for dessert, should anyone still be able to fit in dessert after all of that food. We've bought ice cream, chocolate sauce, Green & Black's chocolate hazelnut spread, whipped cream, caramel sauce, and some other drool-incuding toppings for the Belgian waffles, so people may still try to have dessert. We may all have to take a nap after all that food. At least I'm going to have a lot of food leftover to freeze for future meals....unless everyone tries to sneak home leftovers as they've sort of hinted they might do.
I've already got the pork cooking on the stove, and it smells goooood. Soon-ish, I'll probably start doing the dip so it can cook for a while in the electric slow cooker, as well. At times like this, I could really use two electric slow cookers. Slow cooking the pork on the stove top in a pot is fine, but I don't like leaving the stove on if I have to leave the house.
Anyway, tonight should be fun, although I may have to beach myself like a whale after dinner.
Thursday 10 April 2008
Another bad fan quiz
So Stef just recently blogged about a Star Trek fan quiz where some of the very basic Trekkie terms were spelled wrong, so I blame her for causing me to look out for things like this. On Facebook, one of the ads that show up on the sides of the pages advertised the following:
Harry Potter Quiz
Answer questions on Harry, Harmonie, Hogwards and more.
Um...Harmonie? I'm not familiar with that character, unless you mean HERMIONE, one of the main characters of the books. Good lord. It just takes a moment to do some proofreading, people. It's not that difficult!
Harry Potter Quiz
Answer questions on Harry, Harmonie, Hogwards and more.
Um...Harmonie? I'm not familiar with that character, unless you mean HERMIONE, one of the main characters of the books. Good lord. It just takes a moment to do some proofreading, people. It's not that difficult!
Is it bad when you procrastinate blogging?
Right...so much for thinking I would try to blog on a semi-regular basis.
Anyway....there hasn't been a huge amount to blog about recently anyway. I've just been trying to juggle working part-time and doing my MA part-time. I've also been battling a succession of colds and sinus infections the last couple of months, which has been good times all around. Other than that, there hasn't been a huge amount going on that is of interest, aside from the purchase of our Nintendo Wii. That has definitely been lots of fun, although Andy still seems to think that we need an xBox.
I'm sure I'll do some more blogging in the next couple of days. Some things have come up recently for which I need an outlet, but they're not things I feel up to writing about at the moment.
Anyway....there hasn't been a huge amount to blog about recently anyway. I've just been trying to juggle working part-time and doing my MA part-time. I've also been battling a succession of colds and sinus infections the last couple of months, which has been good times all around. Other than that, there hasn't been a huge amount going on that is of interest, aside from the purchase of our Nintendo Wii. That has definitely been lots of fun, although Andy still seems to think that we need an xBox.
I'm sure I'll do some more blogging in the next couple of days. Some things have come up recently for which I need an outlet, but they're not things I feel up to writing about at the moment.
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