Wash out

I hear that parts of London have been flooded and that some tube stations were closed - what a pain for those needing to commute out of the city. But anyway it looks like this rain is set to stay with us until the end of time. It's going to be a soggy bank holiday but I'm sure we'll make the most of it anyway. There's 2 great films on at the cinema that I want to see - Kill Bill Volume 2 and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Apparently, the latter may have a trailer of a film (Garden state) written, directed and starring the main guy out of Scrubs and it's supposed to be one of the best trailers of all time - I've heard that people have got addicted to it, downloading it online and watching it over and over again, frame by frame. So I'm looking forward to that!

We're not going to be able to send the application off this weekend after all as Graham's transcripts won't be arriving until next week. Darn. Oh well, at least the end is in sight. I'm going to be doing a lot of celebrating when we finally get word from the courier that it has arrived safe and sound in the arms of one of the Canadian High Commission's members of staff. The champers is on standby.

We've got a Dyson! Sorry that's old news, but very exciting. I haven't used it yet, but I intend to tonight and am actually looking forward to doing the housework for once. We're selling our old hoover to Kerrianne (library assistant here) so everybody is happy!

Am determined not to play on the Xbox tonight. Well not for more than half an hour anyway. We stopped playing just after 10 last night and it was the first time since Monday that I haven't been dreaming of racing around the streets of Edinburgh/Stockholm/Yokohoma (delete as appropriate). Probably only because I watched the end of High Fidelity for half an hour before going to bed.

One of our students walked in this morning with 3 bottles of diet coke. I think she's here for the duration. That's 12 hours of solid study. I haven't seen her move yet, but she's 1 bottle down already. People are acting a bit oddly at the moment - there's nothing like a few exams to ease the onset of mild mental illness.

It's May on Saturday - yay, my favourite month. Nearly my birthday too. And I've got a weekend away in Cornwall and Matt's engagement party to look forward to as well as 2 Bank holidays. The weather has just got to get better.

Zoom zoom zoom

Having Broadband is very good and very bad at the same time. Xbox Live is evil. We have been playing it until way too late every night. Racing against random strangers on Project Gotham 2 is somehow far more addictive than playing against computer cars. And I beat Graham on the last race of the night - haha!

Today Graham is getting a bankers draft to pay for the visa application. All that's left to do now is write a covering letter and have our photos taken and decide whether we are going to use a courier to get the package to London or trust Royal Mail. I think too much depends on this package to let Royal Mail get their mitts on it so using a courier will be well worth the extra money. So, all being well, we're looking at our little parcel being sent off this weekend. Eek!

Mum rang this morning from Melbourne - they are heading back to Wangaratta already after spending a few days with my cousin. I can't believe how quickly their time there is going. They'll be off to Brisbane shortly. Emzy emailed today from San Francisco - she is having a great time and walking herself thin. They are heading to Yosemite national park tomorrow, then onto Death Valley, Las Vegas and Los Angeles before their next flight takes them to Fiji. I try hard not to be envious!

It's miserable and rainy and cold today - am hoping this will be the last of the bad spring weather as we're all hoping for a bit of sunshine in our lives so we can sit outside and drink beer and run around being happy.

Blackouts

The weekend turned out quite nice in the end - really warm weather so we were out most of Saturday. The only problem was that Graham has developed bruising around his ribs and has been in agony - he can't move properly and finds breathing hard too. It is slowly getting better now with a good deal of painkillers to hand - thankfully he doesn't seem to have done any lasting damage.

Saturday was a good day - watched Button storming his way to pole position in the qualifying. Yay! Had a few drinks outside various places on the Whiteladies Road, then we got a rug, a bottle of wine, a bottle of champagne and some nibbles and picked a spot on the Downs to sit and chill out until the sun came down and it started getting too cold to stay out (Graham had his shorts on). It was the first of many summer days to come in our "back garden". Got very drunk, had a good long chat about Canada, got emotional about family and laughed at drunken teenagers spinning around with a branch in their hands, trying to jump on it and falling over. Then we went back to watch Kill Bill on DVD and Graham spiked my Fanta with vodka so I ended up in a bit of a drunken slumber by the end of it. I must have blacked out as the next thing I know Graham was really upset with me for not having helped him into bed (he was in a lot of pain). I swear I was asleep on the sofa all the time, but he reckons that I spoke to him and just ignored his requests....

Sunday was good because Button came second in the Grand Prix. He must get a win this year, surely, but that would mean Schumacher's car breaking down - and that hasn't happened in about 50 races, so maybe he won't after all. We didn't do a lot else that day apart from housework and TV watching, and I wrote one of the letters we need to submit in our application for Canada.

Today I have the tune whistled by Daryl Hannah in Kill Bill going constantly in my head and it is really annoying me. Apparently it is the theme tune of a really bad British 60's slasher flick written by the guy who did the music for Psycho.

Work has been busy but fairly normal, apart from a huge power cut we had for half an hour earlier. We are still only running on backup power now, apparently, and might be doing so for some days as the main cable supplying the whole university has been damaged - industrial sabotage? Once we got back on power I was trawling the Lonely Planet website and came across a posting from someone who had been trapped in a lift in a powercut today - turns out he/she works at the uni in the maths department. Weird when you meet someone randomly online when they are just up the road from you.

We have just got broadband installed at home. Graham is over the moon and I expect he will be playing on Xbox live forever more. At least I'll be able to use the phone at the same time though. I might just be able to get him to take me to the supermarket tomorrow if I'm lucky...but I won't hold my breath!

O.K....

I take it all back. Graham was tired but not in a bad mood when I got home and instead he was lovely and cuddley because he had missed me. He's still a daft apeth for falling off a wall though, and he is in a sorry state. Hopefully he won't need to go to the doctors.

It's 2pm and I don't know where the day has gone - into a black hole or something.

I have just finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Man, that was one hell of a read. There's something amazing about the way Murakami writes, he somehow makes the mundaneness of everyday life seem very very interesting, and when bizarre things start to happen you just accept them at face value. Like sitting down in a bottom of a dry well clearing your head of all thoughts so that you can pass into another darker world and defeat whatever it is that is causing all these bizarre things to happen is just as normal as making spaghetti and listening to classical music and stroking your cat. The ending left so many loose ends that will never be tied up, but I felt satisfied with it anyway.

I also finished reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold the other week - it was a really nice story and I find that the characters remain in my head even now, wondering how they are all getting on. Considering it is a book about a teenage girl getting raped and murdered and commentating from heaven about how her family are coming to terms with her death, it is a surprisingly uplifting read, and the main character (Susie) infects you with a love of the simple things in life.

I'm now onto reading Girlfriend In A Coma but i'm not finding it as instantly appealing as the other Douglas Coupland book I read. I may get into it yet (I'm only on chapter 4), but I'm not finding the characters so engaging.

I have to teach Kerrianne about the wonderful world of journal binding now...

Yuk

I must commend the Great British weather for providing us with yet another rain-filled, windy April day.

The drunk boyfriend

Graham's impossible when he gets drunk. I phoned him last night to ask him about the heating - I had been freezing and wanted to turn it on, but it wasn't going on. Turned out he had switched the gas off at the wall, but the conversation around him telling me that was hard. The guys from Nortel were paying for a night out for him and Shaun and they had been out drinking since 6. At 10 O'clock he was completely bladdered and speaking a lot of gibberish, repeating himself and talking to me as if I was a little kid. I also got lucky, getting to speak to Shaun as well who was only slightly more comprehendable (is that a word?). Once I'd got the heating to work it smelt of burnt sawdust so I turned it all off again and went to bed. I stupidly texted Graham to tell him this and he rang me and went on for about 10 minutes about switching all the switches off (which I already had) and how I was cold because he wasn't there to cuddle me.

I knew he was going to be feeling really rough this morning so I thought I'd better phone him (at 10.30 so he could have a lie in) to see how he was. He said that he was broken. They went on to a pub/club after the restaurant and drank even more (wine, champagne, beer, you name it). He went outside to get some fresh air at some point and fell off a wall, and he now has a painful twisted knee and sore hand to show for it. He can't remember anything much about the night (he couldn't even remember speaking to me), and nor can any of the others. I said that I hoped he hadn't done anything foolish and he said "I did, I fell off a wall!", I said "I meant in front of people" and he said that the whole thing was captured on CCTV and showed to him this morning. Silly boy.

So, unfortunately, when I come home tonight he will be tired and sore and probably in just a bad a mood as when he left on Sunday so once again I won't get a happy boyfriend to snuggle with.

Grump, grump, grump.

Sandy the cat ran towards me this morning - so she is now officially my friend. Unfortunately I seem to be allergic to her fur and spent the hour after stroking her with itchy eyes and nose. But it was worth it. I want a cat!!! I also want to spend my whole life travelling and solve the world's ills with a click of my fingers, but it just isn't going to happen. I want doesn't get, in most cases anyway.

I treated myself to a Starbucks chai tea latte this morning but wish I hadn't as I tripped up the steps on my way to work and spilt it all over my fleece. dime bar, that's me.

Chicken

Have been having fun with the Subservient Chicken today. Try it out. It doesn't do everything but it does attempt to stand on its head and lay an egg if you ask. Type in taco bell or burger king for more weirdness.

Determined to eat nice things, I started out with a hot chocolate this morning followed by a little sushi. Had a fruity smoothie for break, and pasta with tuna for lunch. Went downhill a bit just now with a packet of McCoys unfortunately. I'm a sucker for the advertising. Tonight I will eat pizza and carrot cake and drink lots of tea. For punishment I will do lots of housework, trying to get the last of the dust and dirt out of the flat.

I saw the ginger cat again yesterday, and she has a proper name (Sandy) and an older step-sister who kept trying to butt Sandy out of the way to get me to stroke her instead. It made me happy anyway.

Been using my time without Graham to chill out to some music. Before I moved in with him I used to sit in my bedroom a lot of the time just listening to my favourite CDs and relaxing with my thoughts, but I don't often listen to music now, and when I do, it tends to be something that we both like as he's not really into my tastes. And yes, I have watched 4 episodes of Ally McBeal on DVD, but since the Xbox sounds like it is going to blow up (big buzzing noises) I have decided not to do the marathon thing.

I'm a bit appalled at the lack of decent comedy on terrestrial tv these days. There used to be Ally, and Spaced and Scrubs and Frasier and Malcolm in the Middle, and Little Britain etc etc, but now there is just Friends and the hideous Will and Grace. I wish we had a comedy channel on our digital box, with all the things I like (rather than just reruns of Cheers like Paramount seemed to have). I'm also a bit gutted to learn that although Scrubs is well into it's 3rd season (with 20-something episodes per season), it's not actually made its way onto DVD yet - any region. Boo.

Oh, and Canucks lost to Flames last night, so now I will have to back Calgary and Montreal in the Stanley Cup. Oh well "there's always next year".

Tired and emotional

I was so emotional yesterday. Was crying for about an hour after Graham left. I was upset at first because I wanted to spend some nice cuddling time with him before he went away but he was in a bad mood because he couldn't chip his Xbox and he had a sore back. But even after he left I continued to cry for no discernable reason - I'm not the crying kind. Maybe it's the new pill I am taking.

Well, the doors look very nice, even without having been painted - so all the mess was worth it. Spent close to 3 hours hoovering the flat to get rid of all the wood chippings and sawdust. It's so hard to hoover the carpet as it is thick and woolen and the bits of wood just get stuck in it. I'm giving it another go tonight, but then giving up and from then on we'll have to clean up the flat by taking the occasional splinter in our feet.

Mum rang from Oz yesterday. Was really nice to hear her voice. They seem to be having a good time. Maureen is responding well to treatment so far. Zoe seems to be even more adorable now that she has golden curls and can talk and walk, and even gives kisses now instead of just hugs. It's my turn to be jealous of my parents!

Canucks beat Flames Saturday night - the score was 5-4, the winning goal only being scored in 3rd overtime. Must have been one hell of a match to be at. All I can do now is cross my fingers and hope they pull through in the last game tonight. Their future in the playoffs depends on this one game. EEEEeeeeeeee, I'm excited don't you know.

Well it's just turned 6pm so it's hometime for me.

Bed head

The students are being noisy today. Fed up of telling them to shut up. I hate doing the whole "Shhhhhhhhh!" librarian bit.

Oh poo. The Canuckleheads lost against Calgary last night. Only 2 games left. If Calgary win tomorrow night then Vancouver are out of the Stanley Cup and Graham's bro won't let us hear the end of it.

The atmosphere between Graham and I was much improved last night since he has the day off today and so wasn't so stessed. I spent most of the night having my hair cut (at long last) and cooking tonight's food though so didn't really take advantage of it! I hope the door replacing shenanigans are going well today. Haven't heard anything so I assume everything is going to plan.

My hair is now a bit shorter and a lot tidier, and the woman who cut it was like a less educated 40-year-old version of me - so we got on really well. She was a really down-to-earth sort which relaxed me a lot as I hate the trendy types who look at your hair snobbily and think only of fashion (it was a trendy salon so I was dreading getting the same sneering look as the receptionist gave me when I booked the other day. Maybe it's all in my mind because I feel a certain sense of inadequacy, but I don't think so). Not sure it was worth £35, but there don't seem to be any cheap hair salons around this area!

I'm drawing a bit of a blank today - not really in the writing mood I guess, so I'll leave this for now and hope to have more to say after the weekend.

Peace.
Unity.
Love.
And having fun.

Wedding bells

So everyone seems to be proposing to each other at the moment. First it was Matt and Sharon, and yesterday I had an email inviting me to the engagement party of my friend Tim from uni, and then Alex told me that Amber (mate from school) has also been proposed to. Liz from uni is also getting married sometime soon, but I'm so crap that I haven't spoken to her in a long long time and so I don't know what her plans are.

I wonder who will be next? No, it's not going to be me and Graham - he still seems to be very anti all that stuff, and there hasn't been the most romantic atmosphere between us of late (hopefully that will change pretty soon - the atmosphere not the anti-marriage stuff).

Al seems to have finally accepted the fact that he works too hard and needs a break. He has managed to get a 4-month career break in order to go and chill out on a deserted island in Thailand for 3 months. It's all rather sudden, but then he was talking about going last year and never made it, so it's not exactly surprising. I hope he can get used to the idea of doing nothing for so long!

I'm not really looking forward to the next few days. Tomorrow Graham's mum and her partner are coming down because Graham and Keith are going to replace all the internal doors in our flat. I know it will look lovely when it's all done but I can imagine it's going to be all messy and noisy for a couple of days. I'll be out of the flat as much as possible with Crystal, leaving the men to it (they don't want us hanging around getting in the way - their words, not our excuse). Then on Sunday Graham is going away with work for 3 nights and I'm going to miss him. Suppose I should make the most of the free time to do what I want to do (which probably involves watching Neighbours and Home and Away, eating junk food and watching 10 episodes of Ally McBeal back to back) but I find it difficult sometimes when he's not around because since I started living with him I rely on him for my routine. When he's not here I tend to forget about making dinner till it's too late, and forget about going to bed until I wake up on the sofa at 1am. God, that makes me sound so sad!

Mum and Dad will be in Wangaratta, Australia now, cooing over my cousin Lorraine's baby Zoe (I really miss her, she's so so cute - I'd never really liked babies much till I met her) and waiting for my aunt to get back from her chemo session. I hope she feels OK throughout the treatment and that they are all able to have a fairly good time together. I'm going to be thinking about them so much over the next few weeks.

Emzy will be off on her trip round the world now. She's off to California first, then heading to Fiji before stopping in New Zealand for 8 months to work and travel around. Then it's Australia, Thailand and India. Lucky girl. Well, I had my chance and I only went for 11 weeks because I didn't want to work abroad so it was my own fault. Now I'm hoping not just to work abroad but to live there too! One of these days I should appreciate living where I am now instead of thinking about all the other places in the world, but it's hard to get a grip sometimes. There's just so many places I want to visit - I could spend my whole life travelling and never see enough. OK, the UK is nice, but it's a tiny island in a huge big world of adventure and that is why I don't want to spend my whole life living here.

Work, snooze, work

Well, it's back to work. Had a great Easter break - one of the best ever.

Thursday - Ed came round for drinks and chat. Was really good to see him, and we all got drunk (me more than anyone else) which contributed to me having a splitting headache all day Friday until I started drinking again.

Friday - bright sunny morning, cruising down the M4 listening to feel good music - which made us feel good. Hotel was nice enough and very well located. Had lunch then went to the Natural History Museum for a bit of culture. Blue whales are BIG. Sperm whales are funny looking. Fascinated by hundreds of stuffed dead birds (not of the Xmas-dinner variety). Onto Al's bar and a great night was had by all. Started off small scale, but just the right size and crowd to get the piano player and Tim the singer in the mood - very entertaining. Later the bar filled up possibly a bit too much - but that had to be a good sign. I got chatting with a few people I don't see very often, and also spent a fair amount of the night on the door with Alex, trying to stop people from leaving rather than going in! Don't think the guestlist was checked by anyone. The bar closed at 11.30pm and so Graham, Hing-Yu and Julie and I went for dinner in Chinatown. Singapore noodles and chicken satay at 12.30 wasn't the best idea for me, and my stomach complained the next day.

Saturday - on our way from our hotel in Russell Square to meet Hing for lunch at Waterloo we passed lots of touristy things(Covent Garden, Downing St, Trafalgar Square etc) and went into the National Gallery for a while which was so fab I can't think why I've never been there before. After a naff lunch we went back to Hing's for coffee and Xbox before driving home.

Sunday - Liz and Kel came down and we went out for pizza in Clifton. On our way to a bar afterwards Liz walked into a post and really hurt herself but we couldn't do anything but laugh amidst making sympathetic noises. Had a couple of drinks and cooed over the pub's Rottweiler puppy. Couldn't be bothered to go out in the evening so Graham and I curled up on the sofa to watch Moulin Rouge and I cried for ages afterwards because it bothered me that she wasn't allowed to enjoy her happiness!

Monday - went to see Shaun of the Dead at the cinema. It was a real sunny day so cinema was practically empty. Film was very silly in the way I like best, and so I gave it a thumbs up. Then we went out on the town, exploring new drinking/eating areas around the university - found a couple of nice small "local" pubs, then went and had a curry at our usual place, and that was empty so the waiter Naz sat down next to us and spoke to Graham about cars for our whole meal. Ah well, he's only 19 - so he only has cars and girls on his brain.

Tuesday - lazed about all day. Went to try and have my haircut but couldn't get an on the spot appointment, so I'm booked in for Thursday night. Then went to the solicitors to have things signed - he was a weird guy, glad our business with him only took 15 minutes.

Today - back to work. Back to the usual routine of having no work and kipping on my lunch break. It has been busier today though at least. Sue brought me back a pint of scrumpy in a jug from her hols in Cornwall so I'm going to give it to Graham tonight as I can't stand the stuff!

Elation

Wow, I'm in such a good mood today. Happiness almost to the point of excitement.
The new girl started work this morning - we've been gossiping all day. We're pretty similar so we've had plenty to talk about.

And I've now got a 5 day holiday - hurrah!

Canucks beat the Flames 5-3 last night to claim their first victory of the best-of-seven first round playoff.

Mum and Dad are on their way to the airport now - flying at 10pm tonight.

Happy Easter.

Phone calls

Feel a bit numb today. Calm but bored.

This morning I performed a meaningless task. In order to become more aware of what's going on during my walk to work I counted how many paces I took. It was made all the more meaningless since I only started counting about a fifth of the way across the Downs. But from there to the door at work it was 3712 paces. Tomorrow I am going to take notice of every single shop or business that I walk past. I can't tell you why I would want to do this - I'm just weird.

Mum rang me a while ago. She's off to Australia tomorrow so wanted to talk to me as she knew I was going out tonight. Going to miss them over the next few weeks, but she's good at updating me by email and phone.

Last night Ed rang and said he couldn't come for dinner because he was on medication for a poorly tummy, but he will still come to see us and our flat on Thursday. Al rang too, giving me the lowdown on the bar's pricelist which he knew I wasn't going to like too much (cheap as far as London prices go, expensive for us Bristolians). He said that he hadn't priced the wines yet so I told him to make sure that the house wine was affordable so I could drink that all night. Looking forward to it - I might even sing my heart out round the piano if I'm feeling brave enough.

I phoned Cheltenham Library today to find out why they haven't sent me the details I'd asked for. I was told by the nice man at the desk that the person I had sent the letter to was on leave so I left a message and asked him to get the office administrator to phone me as I knew she knew me and figured that Sue would probably have spoken to her about it. She just phoned to say that the person I had sent the original letter to had left (? "left" and "on leave" are very different things), that they didn't have any records of me anymore but that she was going to fax through the letter to someone in personnel who had promised that they would act on it immediately. So hopefully I will have a letter from them stating that they no longer have any details for me if nothing else. I have my P45 from them anyway and a list of all the hours I worked for them up to the September because it had been printed out once when I had queried how much I was getting paid.

No word from Burger King either but that's hardly surprising. I thought I had better not ring them at lunchtime - I know how mental it gets there at that time of day. I'll give them a bell tomorrow morning but I don't expect that they'll be bothered to help me.

I have come to the conclusion that I'm not much good at talking to people on the phone, I find it so much easier and better face to face. That might be a bit of a problem if I move away!

Graham was in a better mood yesterday, but not quite his usual self - I could tell he really was tired though.

My printer has just run out of toner at a wholly inconvenient time and I'm not quite sure what I did with the replacement cartridge as it had been hanging around my desk for so long that I moved it to somewhere less annoying and buggered if I can remember where.

I think if I just went to sleep for the next 2 hours nobody would notice. They have a little bell that they can ring at me to wake me up if they need me. But I'm going to read Ed's book chapters that he sent me instead, as it's a more constructive use of time and probably more fun.

Reflections

I think that ginger cat has gone and disappeared on me.
Just as I had given her a name - Fizz.

I was in a good mood last night but I got home to find Graham in a strange one. He didn't want to talk about it, said he was just tired, which didn't really seem to be the case. He didn't want to talk, didn't want to cuddle, didn't want to eat, didn't want to read, didn't want to watch TV, didn't want to sleep. Just sat there looking like there was something serious on his mind, but pretty vacant really. I don't know whether it's something to do with me, or with work or something else, but I hope he has a good day today and gets back to his usual self. I take our happiness for granted when everything is going well as it normally does, but just one weird mood from either of us and it can feel a bit delicate. Maybe I am just taking it too personally this time, but I feel that if I can't get him out of a mood and into happiness then I am failing him, which then makes me depressed!

It was so windy walking across the Downs on my way home last night. If Matt and Sharon had tried to fly a kite at that particular time I think they would have taken off, only to land many miles away, perhaps even in the vicinity of the wicked witch of the west.

I walked to work today and was in my own little world as usual. Sometimes I reach work and I can't even remember anything about the journey there I've been so caught up in my own thoughts. I remember when it snowed last month and I had to tread very carefully, it was the first time I had really taken in my surroundings. I had to notice all the little slopes and potholes that I would usually ignore. It's true that it takes something out of the ordinary for you to take notice of the ordinary. Really we should be concentrating on every detail and appreciating it as it's not going to be around forever, but then I guess if you tried to take everything in you would just have sensory overload and your brain would give up. Like the autistic character in the book I read recently - where you or I would see a man, maybe take notice of the colour of his skin and hair and his height and build, he would take in every minute detail of the person's face and body and clothing and smell - he couldn't not notice everything and because of this if there was more than one person or thing to concentrate on he couldn't cope, his brain would hurt and he would end up curled up in a ball on the floor, screaming in order to block everything out.

So maybe it is better that my brain chooses what to concentrate on and what to ignore.

Hmmm, taking stock of the week. This is the last evening me and Graham have free together for the next few days, so I'd like to relax but there are things to do. Cooking and kitchen cleaning at least. Graham was upset because I had cooked some sliced potatoes on a baking tray with no rims, so a load of olive oil had run off and started burning inside the top oven. He reckoned he had to fumigate the place when he had turned the oven on to cook something before I came home last night. So I'll have to clean that out, and whilst I'm doing that I might as well do the hob and the units and the floor.

Tomorrow night we go to the Ruparells at 8pm. Sanjay and his wife - I must remember to find out her name before we turn up on their doorstep otherwise we will appear very rude. On Thursday night my friend Ed is coming over for dinner and drinks - he hasn't been able to see our flat yet as he's been in Brighton for most of the year doing his teacher training course. I'll be glad to see him - I guess he's my only real friend who is kind of Bristol based - not that he ever plans to come back to Bristol for good now, too many bad memories for him. Then on Friday we're off to London. Looks like we will be having lunch with Graham's friend Hing-Yu and going to the Natural History Museum before spending the evening in Alex's bar. We'll probably come back Saturday afternoon, but we have got the option of staying over with either Alex or Hing-Yu if we want to.

Today is going quickly, it's nearly lunchtime. Amber will be here in a minute to cover for me for an hour. Apart from that it's anther one of those days when I'm on my own, with little work to do, few students to bother me and a whole lot of thoughts in my head. I'm trying hard to do something constructive but it's all too easy to start dreaming about houses in Canada when I've got the web at my fingertips - I've already selected 1 house in Salmon Arm, 2 Houses in Vernon, 2 houses in Kelowna and a condo in Vancouver's West End to be on my wishlist. Who knows, I may be able to buy them if I sell myself. But I imagine that I would spend most of my money on trying to buy back my freedom!

Man, who am I trying to kid with all this waffle. Truth is I'm worried about my Auntie Maureen and trying to keep my mind clear of worrying thoughts, but it's not really working. Not that there's anything I can do. I'm going to email my cousin.

Time management

It might seem like I've done no work today, but I've actually been doing more than normal in between writing this, finding how much I'm worth and general surfing of the web. I just feel in the writing mood today - which can never be a bad thing for me.

We've just arranged to go and see the couple who are moving to Toronto this Wednesday evening. I'm feeling a bit nervous as we can't meet down the pub or somewhere neutral. They've got 3 young children who they find it hard to get babysat so they've invited us round to their house after the kids have gone to bed. I just hope that we've got enough to say to each other!

Fell asleep in my lunch hour again - just dozed off whilst reading. It must be the atmosphere in the stack room where we have our breaks - stuffy, no windows, lots of dusty old things. I would have gone out to air my lungs but it was raining. Thought I heard thunder earlier, but disappointingly it turned out to be people rolling things around on the patio above my head.

Going to see a solicitor next Tuesday to notarise our documents and witness our statutory declaration. We're so near now...

Keep getting a strange sense of deja vu today - it doesn't normally happen this frequently. Wonder what's going on - the flow of the world is shifting round a bit perhaps. Whether that's a good or bad thing, who knows?

I've just ordered some DVDs - play.com has a lot to answer for. I was missing Ally McBeal a lot as it hasn't been on regular telly for eons, so I bought one of the box sets (second half of series 2, the episodes with lots of John Cage and Barry White) and then noticed the special offers. I got hooked on the 3 for £20 offer so I bought American History X, Frequency and Magnolia. Thanks Mum and Dad - that was your Easter present to us!

Only an hour left before closing so I'd better get on with this work I've lined up for myself.

FLF

Self Worth

Just done some stupid quiz to find out how much I'm worth on the open market.
Apparently, I am worth $1,592,070.00 (US) - according to www.humanforsale.com
Not too bad. If I wanted to sell myself I could buy lots of nice things with that!

Relaxation and the nature of self

For once I feel refreshed after the weekend. Maybe I should have a bottle of wine every afternoon.
I'm joking, of course.

The Canucks won their last game, and Colorado lost, meaning that Vancouver won the Northwest Division, coming third in the Western Conference and they get to play Calgary in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. I'm really looking forward to it - Graham's brother is a Flames fan so I guess we'll be taunting each other every time they play. It's best of 7, the first game this weekend.

Jenson Button got on the podium for the second time in a row - amazing. So cool. It almost made up for the fact that Ferrari got another 1-2 and Michael Schumacher is running away with the championship. My driver of the day was Sato though - he was never that far behind Button and did a great job considering his lack of experience.

I finished Hey Nostrodamus! on Saturday - all in all I found it a very good back, and I found the ending quite satisfying, unlike Graham who thought the whole of the last chapter sucked. I'm halfway into a new book now and so is Graham - we've started to spend time with each other reading instead of watching the TV recently, which has been really nice. I decided on Saturday that we don't use the rooms in our house enough, so we decamped to the bigger of the spare rooms and spent the afternoon in there - me perched on the beanbag and him sprawled on the futon, listening to the rain come hammering down and getting lost in our individual literary worlds.

We built up our stock of wine on Saturday after visiting one of those wine warehouses. 12 good quality bottles (including 2 champagnes...ahem...I mean sparkling wine...for £75, which was a pretty good deal. We even managed to get our hands on a bottle of Mission Hill pinot blanc - a Canadian favourite of ours (the wine is made in the Okanagan Valley in BC where we're visiting this year).

Watched Adaptation on Saturday night - made by the same people as Being John Malkovich. It wasn't nearly as good, but I quite enjoyed it anyway. Graham had his work cut out trying not to fall asleep.

I'm looking forward to going to London this weekend. Alex's bar should be really good - it's a piano bar with cocktails and stuff, and it's all relaxed and dress-down - he likes to call it Shabby Chic. He-he. Wonder if he regrets that soundbite.

I was doing a hell of a lot of thinking this weekend, about everything under the sun. It was good to exercise my brain. I may share some of the thoughts with you later in the week if I don't get sidetracked by the everyday.

Last Friday I was on the bus and I saw this guy talking to himself - just saying random things. Not gobbledegook - proper sentences, but nothing that had any relevance to what was going on around him. I got to thinking - what if I'm like that. What if I am just walking around in my own little world, talking to all these characters, living what I think is my life when in reality I am some madwoman roaming around in a box room talking to the walls, talking to myself, making up situations in my head, acting them out and being observed by people who are trying to understand what's going on in that brain of mine? It's something I used to think about a lot when I was younger, but that thought hadn't crossed my mind recently until Friday. Maybe I think my life is more important these days so I find it hard to imagine that such an important life is actually all a figment of my imagination?

Positivity

Blimey.
I've not been very good at updating this this week have I?

Well, just been busy I guess.

Driving forward with the application. Today I have been in contact with the local magistrates court and a solicitor about notarising some certificates and witnessing our statutory declaration of common-law union. The person responding from the court suggested that perhaps me or my wife should come to the court in person and discuss the legal matters that were concerning me (mainly diffference between notarising and certifying documents). The fact that they couldn't even get my gender and marital status right left me with cause for concern that their legal advice might not be too accurate either! Meanwhile, a solicitor told me he'd do the lot for £50 which I don't think is too bad considering as some solicitors charge £50+ per document and we wouldn't need to take off time from work to go and see him either.

I asked my employer for the reference letter yesterday and they put it in the post yesterday afternoon. I'm so impressed with them - I really wish my past employers were as efficient. Still no word from 2 of them, so I will need to chase them up. Graham's got all of his stuff from past employers, now just needs a couple of things from past schools, and his contract and reference letter from his current workplace.

I even got my police clearance yesterday, a lot sooner than expected. Graham's should be in the post by Monday, if he hasn't been a naughty boy in the last few years.

Vancouver Canucks are the top of their division for the first time since January and with just 2 games to go it looks like they might be playing Calgary in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs if they keep winning and Colorado keep losing. That should be a good series.

Michael Schumacher is beating everyone again in testing. Hope someone manages to wipe the smile off his face come race day. It's going to be a good one - brand new circuit in Bahrain, so no one really has the advantage and there's going to be a lot of engine blow outs because of all the sand.

Feeling chirpier and less ill today - ready for the weekend.