I am in Sweden yay and it is sunny yay and it is good yay and who needs a brain anyway yay!!!

Ah, the wonders of fresh air! And Johan is making tortilla stuff. What's not to like?

* posted by nat 1:59 PM

Friday, April 27, 2007

Grrrr. For lots of reasons. Grrrr. Argh. But mostly Grrrrr. And sulk.

Still, today I have vented at Vanessa (who was very nice about all my venting) over enormous salad lunch in Neal's Yard.

And I have vented - only on matters medical, not that that is not utterly allowable - at my rheumatologist (who was very nice and slightly apologetic for having been a minor reason for my venting, and more apologetic for the fact that he couldn't do more. And then we talked about children, because I felt it couldn't possibly get any worse, but in fact he had more hopeful news on that score, so, yay, there is always something good!

Working now, finishing off the DCA stuff. Working and RPing and packing all in one go. I need out! I am gooooooing to escape to Sweden, land of cloudberry jam and many, many games. Yay!

Wonder if I'll get any sleep?

* posted by nat 11:57 PM

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Today was officially a Stupid Day.

I came round listening to Today (instead of, as has been lately, wondering why everything is so bright!) and wasn't really listening until the announcement that due to a huge fire in New Cross, there weren't really any trains. In fact, there were none at all.

Hmm, I thought. And then, having absorbed this a bit more, "Argh!"

So I took my box with two+ reams of paper, got on the bus and sat in traffic until Greenwich, then lugged it over to the DLR to Canary Wharf and the Jubilee to Southwark, which all in all took nearly two hours. However, there was solace to be found in the fact that they were handing out free packets of extra strong Polos at Canary Wharf tube (as well as peanut butter Kitkats, but there's nothing comforting about those!) - the tube train smelt very minty. This ought to be done more often!

Sat in a Dell meeting for a couple of hours, inner monologue mostly going 'Why, why, why?' Then chatted with Bara and Nina - Bela hauls us all in from SOAS eventually - and then cleared the Czech Dell backlog which took the rest of the afternoon. Still, it was relatively mindless and not as frustrating as the other accounts I've been working on this month - and it's nicer to be in the office than at home, too, as I can escape up for a walk along the South Bank, or just pop into Tate Modern if it's raining - and there's always something happening.

Then I went to meet Rae, which was super fun, off to Carnaby Street and Mangosteen for Pad Thai and far, far too much conversation about the current plot on DF - my excuse is that she asked first - but then again we rarely have normal conversations anyway (who'd want that?). After we had stuffed ourselves we walked round the corner and found another fire - this time on Oxford Street. Like true Londoners, we went /towards/ it!

By this time I was wondering what else was going to burn down today, so this merited a stop off in Haagen Dazs for ice-cream and behaving like small children. Hurrah!

Got home (after walking to Charing Cross, realising I was on Oyster, and going on to Waterloo instead) eventually. House still unburnt. Phew!

* posted by nat 11:37 PM

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

This morning: too sunny, too little sleep, and a fox made it to the best sunbathing spot in the back garden before I did:



Last Friday I went to the doctors over the dizziness and the feeling sick, not to mention the lack of Celebrex, and was summarily issued with a whole load of blood tests to go and have. Except I have been too dizzy to get down to Queen Mary's. I got more Celebrex though, so everyone in the chemists was happy (they all know me by now, especially after last month's little manic spell of 'What do you mean they've only prescribed me one a day? I caaaaaaan't do that woe wah argh!')

Dad phoned on Sunday morning early to say that Grandpa had gone; it's always harder to say it than to hear it - saying a thing makes it more true, I suppose - but generally the feeling is better to go then to hang on. You can't be too sad when someone's ninety.

* posted by nat 1:19 PM

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Hurrah! Have booked tickets to Copenhagen! Now need to sort out Sweden, and I'm away.

I have been suffering this stupid cold-feel sick-am sick-is sick-bleugh bug for the past few days, wandering through the day in a half asleep manner and the nights in a half-awake manner; this is wonderful for writing poetry and long angsty tracts (mainly of RP), and pondering the state of my life, and the universe, and what isn't in the fridge, but is doing very little for work deadlines, house-agenting, house-considering, and other such mundane realities.

I did manage to book a flight though. I think that says a lot about my priorities! (In that they haven't really changed...)

I have huge black bruises all down my arm, from I don't know where or what. It's not as if I've been anywhere. I might have walked into the occassional doorframe in some of my less upright moments, but it doesn't really quite explain them. Actually they are not black. They are blue and purple with pink bits. Makes a change from those nasty nicotine-stain bruises I usually end up with. I'm quite proud of it.

I spent two hours dozing in the sunshine in the garden this afternoon, listening to Manu Chao, and the blackbirds in the tulip tree above competing with my music.

Ian has phoned occasionally to say things like "I'm on the Common," and "I'm on the Common with a beer," and "I'm on the common with Adam." (Those last two mean the same thing). Jess phoned to canvas my opinion on what certain types of flowers were and quite what I should be eating at her wedding - she did try to do this without giving away the menu, which rather defeated the object!

I still haven't finished quite one Easter Egg (see evil-sick-bug, above) and my hair needs cutting. I missed Doctor Who last night because of the football - Mitch Benn was RIGHT! I have 7 Celebrex tablets left. Life could possibly get interesting if the doctors don't play ball.

Grandpa has gone into hospital. Waiting for updates.

* posted by nat 4:26 PM

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

I woke up this morning to find I have caught my brother's cold and as per usual more stuff is coming out of my head than staying in it. Nice.

England is bothering me. I need to go away.

* posted by nat 1:27 PM

Beep.

* posted by nat 2:03 AM

I don't feel like Lent really happened this year. It certainly didn't feel at all like a hardship, which is good, because I need to continue, but also because hardly any weight has fallen off at all, which is unusual. But then again I seem to have spent a good month of the entire time almost comatose.

I am working my way slowly through a Green and Blacks egg, and Ian has got me a rather exciting Thornton's one. Ian has also, after a few too many months of waiting, got a new job following his interview last week, which is all terribly exciting and means leaving the delights of South-East London, which we will miss, for more westerly locations. We are going to move in together, which is frightening on one level - I still do not want to settle down, thank you (I am being out(in?)settled by a man far younger than me, and that's a scary enough thing of itself!) - but on another, should be fun, as long as we can work out not to kill each other. In my opinion, this will require a decent sized kitchen, and a room I can turn into a study and surround myself with books and clutter. Call it a happy place.

This week I am entertaining estate agents. Ugh.

* posted by nat 1:23 AM

Friday, April 06, 2007

On Monday I went to work. The weather was pretending to be Springtime, and the South Bank was all in the sun, and very pleasant, if one ignored the wind - most people appeared to be trying.

I went in and was immediately swallowed up by people asking me if I wanted to go back on the Dell account. Tried to resist. Did training. Failed resistance. Did some Czech Dell. Got roped into the Ofcom account instead. That took a whole day.

Afterwards, Bela and I went to the Thai place and spent four hours going through my photos of Japan and Australia. Bela and I are perfect travel talkers; there are very few people who really want to see a hundred photos of Miya-Jima, or who stop you from skipping through Blue Mountains pictures because they want to see them all, but Bela and I can go at it for hours - and we do. And I got to meet her new man, who was lovely and bought me fish cakes and asked if I was a professional photographer, and seemed to be entirely serious about it, which of course all together earn him my undying love.

It was a bit of a full day, and I took two to recover from it. Now I'm back in Eltham, and plodding through DCA articles, interdispersed with RP, which is all to the good.

* posted by nat 1:07 AM