I'm worried.

I'm beginning to show signs of either old age, or boredom, but neither are good. I'm only 27!

At the supermarket this evening I went hunting for a customer feedback form. I filled it in requesting that they write to me to explain why they don't sell bourbon biscuits anymore. (I also complained that their pen didn't work, but that's by the by.)

For months I've had to make do with Chocolate Digestives, or Fig Rolls, (both of which pale in comparison to Bourbons,) and Porl has had to cope with me complaining and sulking and stamping my feet about the lack of Bourbon Biscuits. Tonight though was the PMT induced last straw. So I complained.

Rather than come home and forget about it though, I came online to do a search for Bourbon Biscuits. I'm quite pleased that I did, because through the wonder of the internet, and A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down I have found that Tesco aren't Bourbon Philistines, but that there is actually a Bourbon Biscuit shortage, caused by the flooding of the McVities factory in Carlisle in January.



Thankfully the government have also realized how desperate this Bourbon crisis is, and they have offered McVities £1 million to help get the factory up and running again. Reading other news reports I've found that the factory still isn't open, but hopefully it will be soon. I don't know if I can cope with summer camping trips which don't include Bourbons.

I've just had a thought!
Maybe I'm not getting old, or bored.
Maybe I'm just have an acute Bourbon Addiction!

Soooo tired, but trying really hard to keep this semi regular updating happening.

The Easter break was much needed, and I got a lot done, unfortunately not all the things I wanted.

Thursday night my computer blew up again. Properly this time, burning fans don't smell good. We've come to the conclusion that it might be because my PC is next to the mains electricity box, and it's interfering with the power. So we've got to either find a new home for my PC, or when my Dad builds the cupboard to house the mains get the cupboard lead lined.

Saturday I decided to cut the grass. It's the first time I've had to do it since we moved here, my Dad did it last summer, and I now understand why he keeps suggesting we dig the front out and make a drive. The front lawn isn't very big, but it's on at least a 45 degree slope. The back lawn is slightly better but not much. I decided it was easiest to stand and the top and mow down the hill, but I nearly fell over a few times, but I got it done and it's looking pretty good, however my right hand is now bandaged up due to a sprained wrist and thumb. My shoulder is pretty sore too.

Saturday night we'd arranged for Gareth and Danny to come over, then Sam and Jimmy phoned too and came over from Ormskirk on the spur of the moment. I think Sam likes his late night motorway driving. It's the first time I've had a drink in a pub since early January, I wasn't too messy, but Sunday was a write off due to me feeling pretty delicate. Beer bad.

So we have a nice neat garden, I got loads of cleaning done, it's possible to walk into the spare room without having to climb over boxes, and for a few brief hours we even had an empty wash basket. Unfortunately all this domesticity meant that I got nothing more done on my Month of Softies doll, nor any other crafts either. Hopefully tomorrow night I'll be less tired, and my hand will be less painful, so I can get it done within the specified month.

If you click this link, you'll curse me for it's addictiveness. I've spent hours over this years playing this game, so an online version is a dangerous thing.

How's this for efficiency.

The boy Robin in a net cafe somewhere in deepest darkest Peru (I think) left a comment requesting pictures of our fat and furry friends, and around an hour after spotting the message they're online.

These were taken about a fortnight ago, Duke in typical Duke fashion decided that the prime spot to sleep at that precise time was the bowl on the Welsh Dresser that we dump our bits and bobs in when we come in the door, keys, pens, bits of post etc etc. As well as this bowl being full of junk, it's also about 3 sizes too small for a large cat to fit in, and due to it's small base it was precarious to climb into, he almost sent it flying. Gonzo though, as we know is far to clever to do daft things like that! He just spends his time chewing nettles.

Robin, since you went on your travels, and we moved here, Duke has got fat, and Gonzo has got fatter. So feel free to chase them round the house trying to pat them and go ahhhhh, because they need the exercise.

In other news, work has been a chore this week. I hate BT, and Phones, and Customers and YC. If I can get my brain to switch off and stop thinking about it I might be able to enjoy the Bank Holiday.

Today has been wonderfully lazy. I woke quite early, the newly fixed bed is very comfy, then I made the most of not having to get up, by laying in bed reading, and trying to spot any painting that needed touching up. Thankfully couldn't see any.

When I eventually surfaced we had a trip to Tesco's for bits and bobs. I've picked up a hair dye. I hate dying my hair, but I'm noticing more and more white hairs so something needs to be done. I'm trying to take consolation from the fact they look white rather than grey. I'd prefer my hair to stay dark brown, but that's not going to happen.

While Sunday lunch was cooking did some updating to the Shirokuma site. Just some new photos added, and the news about the download EP that Mark has done for Twisted Nerve Records. I've had some ideas about a new design and layout for the site, I know Mark wants me to do the work, but it's a bit too complicated to do for a freebie, so I'll have to wait until Mark talks to F&H.

After that I decided to start work on my Month of Softies dolly. Earlier I'd asked Mum and Dad how they pictured me as a child. Mum said "red wellies, red cagoule, yellow hard hat. Oh and a toy gun". Dad said "Red wellies".
Of course before making mini-me I went off on a tangent and re-organised the bookshelves, but I've got the main body and red wellies cut out, and I've picked the material for everything else, we've also got space to fill with more books.
I did get the sewing machine out, but then the internet distracted me, so hopefully I'll feel in the mood for sewing after work tomorrow.

Ergh work. My 4 day break has gone by far too quickly. But I'm not too disheartened. Only 4 days to get through before the next 4 day break. Hurrah for Chocolate Bunnies, Chocolate Eggs, Chocolate Jesus's and Chocolate Bank Holidays.

The main thing that I've done recently is to write some songs for the Harry Potter film, but that's just a shameless effort to try and ingratiate myself with kids.
This made me chuckle.

The bedroom is done. It seems bigger and lighter, it's great. If I could find the cable for my camera I'd post some photos. I'm sure it's in one of the "boxes things to be sorted".
I might get around sorting them out tomorrow, then I can post pictures again.

I've been looking at all the cool toys everyone seems to be making at the moment. I haven't made toys for so long, and I fancy a change. A Month of Softies this month is "Self-portrait of the Artist as a Young Child".
I had horrendous dress sense as a child, and I loved my red wellies.
I might get the sewing machine out tomorrow.

I forgot to say, I've been redesigning a lot over the past few days I've got a lovely new stylesheet, but I'm keeping it offline for a few more days while I tweek it. I have made some changes to the menu though, hopefully you won't spot any errors, but apologies if you do.

Little things making me happy tonight, Cabaret on telly, milkshakes and the wierdness of my friends messenger names.

There are reasons why I don't update often, and that's because I'm so tired that I can't think what or how to type, or how even how to form sentences. I'm like that now. But I'm determind to update regularly, so ...I...must...type...though this. Maybe it'll get easier.

Anyway, yesterday and today have been busy. My Mum, Dad and I have been painting the back bedroom. It's not been easy because it was a bit of a state, I think the people here before us did it in a rush, so we've had a lot of holes to fill in.
It doesn't help that the three of us are all perfectionists.

We've finished most of the painting, just another coat of gloss and some touching up to do tomorrow. The curtains pole is up, the broken light switch is replaced, and the phone wires are now finally fastened down. Never again will I trip over them, hoover them up, or listen to the cats "kill" them in the early hours of the morning.

Tonight Dad is making some taller legs for the bed. It's a very low bed, and there's no space for storage in the room, so he's raising the bed up and he's going to make some drawers for underneath. Hurrah for My Dad.

My original plan for this weekend was to have lots of days out and get to know the area better, pretend we were camping, but without the sleeping outside bit. But then painting got suggested and that seemed more important.
Everything will be finished tomorrow though, so I'm trying to decide what to do on Sunday. I could just relax, but we're thinking of going on an Adventure, and it could be a lot of fun... we'll have to see though, it might not work out...

Eeeeeeeeeeeee!

I've just got an email off a mate who I've been trying to find since about 1997.

I'm a happy girly!

In other news I've got Thursday and Friday off work. There'll be no relaxing though, the dire state of the bedroom has finally annoyed me enough to force me to do something about it. Tonight we've been painting squares and looking at lots of not-quite-white samples. We've decided we can't tell the different between any of them, so we're going to go with "Plage" because it's got a silly name.

Lastly, thanks to the wonderfully magic of Jimmy, both mine and Porl's computers are working again now. Jimmy couldn't really find anything wrong with them, and they worked fine at his house, so we've decided that, like me, they too were just feeling a little disallusioned and wanted a change of scenery. However, I'm still using the laptop, I've become strangely attached to it, plus there's a draft where my PC lives and it's warm here.

At about this time 6 months ago I was frantically running around a lovely old house in Ormskirk, cleaning up, checking cupboards, trying to fit the last few items onto the van, including stupidly, the doors to the cat boxes. Porl was termporarily richer, and we still hadn't had confirmation that we were okay to move into the new house.

So this is my 6 month review of life in Stalybridge.

The Good

• The view from our front room - I fear my neighbours think I'm incredibly nosey, but I love standing at the window looking at the view. Even when it's pitch black.
  
• The fact that the radiator is under the window so I can keep warm and look at the view.
  
• Laminate floors, so easy to clean, so much fun to watch the cats skid across.
  
• Seeing more of Mum and Dad.
  
• The general friendliness of Tamesiders. From the bloke at the corner shop, to all the people we've met in the pubs.
  
• Specific people we've met who've done so much to help us settle in, Dorne, Beckie, Bod, Cheryl, Herbie, Jimmy, Joan. Thankyou all.
  
• Rekindled friendships with Gareth, and Adam.
  
• No Students. I'd forgotten how annoying they were until I went back to Ormskirk.
  
• Snow. There's been snow on the hillside for 3 weeks now, and more is forecast for the weekend. Snow in Ormskirk never stayed for more than a couple of days.
  

The Bad

• I miss our Ormskirk friends.
  
• I really miss my old job.
  
• Cream carpets upstairs. Stupid idea.
  
• Gonzo thinks it's a good idea to pick fights with the huge dog (alsatian/wolf cross breed) next door. Stupid cat.
  
• No Little Italy. I haven't found a decent pizza place yet, the Thai place is amazing, but Friday nights aren't the same without Little Italy Pizzas.
  

& The Confusing

• The light switches, I still can't remember where they are.
  
• I keep calling Stalybridge Ormskirk.
  
• Things haven't worked out with the Manchester bunch, I suspect Porl and I have taken the blame for a lot of things which haven't happened, and it's a shame it's all turned sour.
  
• Tameside/Manchester. I'm getting bored of Magical Mystery Tours, I just want to get from A to B without going via the rest of the alphabet.
  

So in general Stalybridge is good. Some things have gone wrong, but the majority of things have turned out far better than expected, I was never expecting uprooting to be easy.

In the next six months there's one major problem which needs resolving, I can't mention it, but it will be obvious to those who know me. Then there's things like the start of the Craft Club, and getting my own website sorted out at last. Also the weather is warming up, which means camping season is coming.

The future is looking promising, fingers crossed the next 6 months go as well as the last 6.

... and then there were two.

Porl's computer has died now too.

Last night a light bulb blew. When a light bulbs blows in this house it knocks all the power off to that floor. So Porl's computer got knocked off. He went to bed and didn't think about it. This morning it won't turn on. Jimmy thinks it's the graphics card.

So now we have to learn to share the laptop. Thank god we still have the internet.

Wish us luck.

My computer has died. Not competely died, but it's not a happy bunny.

It started randomly turning itself off on Wednesday. It wouldn't stay on for longer than 15 minutes. But it didn't shut down completely, it was still whirring, and beeping at me. I've turned off and it's staying off.

Last time it went wrong I managed to fix it, but this time I'm scared. So it's sat it the corner until I either get brave, or get visits from people clevererer than me.

However today I spent about 45 minutes on the phone to Jimmy while he helped me get the laptop working. We got there eventually, and I cannot describe enough the aceness of Jimmy. He has saved my sanity. Unfortunatly I havent got access to all my files, and I'm loads of programs missing, but I've got the internet.

 

The broken computer has given me the push I needed to make a few changes which I have been considering for a while though. The main one for here is that I've take the RSS feed down. This won't make a difference to my sporadic posts, but it will make a difference to my attitude to blogging, and in my illogical brain taking the pressure off all makes sense.

Through 6th form and university I always had a notebook with me. I used to leave it lying around for people to write in, and I'd stick random things in it. I'd like my blog to be like that notebook. At the moment I feel like I'm it as a message board. In my mind taking the rss feed down make the site back into a notebook again. I never said my mind was logical.

I'm going to do a redesign too. Spring cleaning. I'm working on the craft site at the moment, as well as trying to update the shirokuma site, and it's spurred me on to have an overhaul. Unfortunatly I can't get photoshop at the moment so I'm struggling. I will let you know how it goes though.