So... the sun comes out in Sweden. (Research of this kind is necessary. That's why I'm here.)

Anyhow, bumped through some clouds yesterday and here I am. On the escalator down to the train from the airport terminal, I was molested by a very distressed bat that had somehow managed to get in through one or the other set of automatic doors and was now stuck in a strangely-shaped and upsettingly well-lit cave with sonar-disrupting escalator hum. It must have been bat hell, sadly lacking in bat-friendly exit out of.

Also, at least three people asked me where/when to find the train to Stockholm. In Swedish. One of them even looked surprised when I turned out not to speak Swedish. That would be me: the small, dark, Nordic type.

* posted by nat 4:25 PM

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Well, okay, not all men. Just ex-boyfriends. Baris turned up on messenger so, given it's been about a year, I thought perhaps we could manage a "hey how are you?" conversation. But not so! Instead it was the "I still love you come back to me!" (Huh?) conversation. The oh-hell nature of the afternoon was compounded by the fact that Mustafa kept popping online for five minutes every two hours and making helpful comments such as "Your webcam isn't working. I can see you but you're not smiling. I'm going away now." I ended up having a marathon whine at Mark, which is never, ever good for either of us.

Tomorrow I am off on an emergency food-drop (PG-Tips to Sweden). In the meantime I am Watching Men Hug (yum, test cricket)!

* posted by nat 4:36 PM

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Argh. I should not talk to men. Any. Ever.

Argh.

* posted by nat 3:08 AM

Thursday, August 25, 2005

I have bounced back to London again - I'm not sure where I am supposed to be, these days, but eventually I will get settled in here. At least that's the plan. I've dyed a duvet cover, filled a bookcase, discovered the place in the house with the best acoustics (right at the top of the stairs) and cooked up a curry in the largest saucepan I could find. I'm currently hoarding jars to put beans and lentils in. I'm doing all the right things, except the emergency chocolate keeps getting eaten, which suggests that there is more that I could be doing.

However, as long as there's a chance of ogling Michael Vaughan on the TV, that's about all I'll be achieving.

* posted by nat 7:22 PM

Sunday, August 21, 2005

In sudden desperation embarked this evening upon minor ransack of property in search of live-affirming substance, i.e. chocolate. Despite assurances from APs that none was to be found in the entire house, briefly considered making do with cocoa before most fortunate discovery of long-forgotten Easter Egg. Green and Blacks Maya God (in fact Gold but the distinction is minute) lying there in plain sight! Consumed a goodly amount and have thus undone all the merits of the aforementioned exercise. And so to bed.

* posted by nat 11:47 PM

Today I got up at 8:00 and went swimming. Shock horror! Also with a bubbly jacuzzi and steam room - that managed to be very steamy without actually being very hot.

But still, I have exercised. Go me! This makes me feel better about consuming too much ice-cream and generally achieving very little. Except spending money, which I seem to keep doing no matter how hard I try to stop. Oops.

* posted by nat 1:01 PM

Friday, August 19, 2005

Last Sunday morning, something too large to be a spider (I saw the shadow first) crawled up the back of my bed and plonked itself, rather tired but looking very pleased with itself, on the headboard.

It was a Common Frog:


I'm not sure how long she'd been there or even how she got in - maybe climbed up the outside of the house and through a window? I don't think it can have got up the stairs - but who knows? Anyhow, she posed for photographs and then walked calmly into a little box I found and I released her back into the damp, slightly overgrown, fairly frog-friendly garden.

* posted by nat 12:55 PM

Friday, August 12, 2005

So I should be writing about going to the Proms to see Ravi Shankar, or going to the GBBF, or Thai curry and random argh with El, or washing nicotine off doors (the door is not dark yellow - it's a sort of dirty blue!), or going to the Ben and Jerry's thing on Clapham Common last Sunday and eating too much ice-cream while listening to good music none of which I'd ever heard of - but I am now a Yeti convert, or pulling cast-iron air vents out of the wall, or playing badminton in Hyde Park at Kat's birthday picnic, or having Mustafa yell at me via MSN for not taking care of myself enough.

However all these things currently come secondary to the fact that I am sitting here with a packet of Timtams and a glass of chocolate soya milk, and they are working together exceedingly well. So hurrah!

* posted by nat 3:47 PM

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

All of a sudden my life is all about furniture. Sad, really. It is mostly a case of stealing things from relatives.

Told my brother and he said, "But how are we going to get rid of it all, I don't want to get stuck with it!"

I pointed out we could worry about that when we had got it and I was not going to live with no funiture for a year. And anyway if we put it outside on the pavement someone would probably come round and snarfle it. Or maybe I have just been living in Turkey too long.

Then my mother wondered why I was unpacking.

Pointed out that I live here now.

Yesterday someone excessively bright and chirpy phoned up from the Carphone Warehouse to ask if my phone was working okay.

"Well it makes calls," I said.

There was a pause.

"All right, and what about your voicemail?" (Voicemail is an exceptionally silly word. I need to use it a lot.)

"Haven't tried it," I said.

There was a longer pause. "Okaaaay," she said.

It deteriorated a bit after that.

* posted by nat 11:25 AM