My spectaular fall

Who else could fall up the stairs? Man I'm talented!!!

See the swelling? I have 2 knee caps!

Week 4

I have a few posts to do today, but I'll start with this one .. today marks 4 weeks since I started my smoke-free campaign towards a smoke-free Karen. I miss them less now; I'm getting used to not smoking, although there are certain times I do still miss them (like when I go to a pub and have a drink ... a cigarette goes nice with a drink. The fact that smoking is now band in public helps with this though*) I am still wearing a nicotine patch which helps immensely with the cravings. I've gone a few days without the patch and I find the cravings are much worse on those days. So there you have it - day 28.

*For more information - http://www.smokefreeengland.co.uk/

My flat

Continuing with the photos, here's my flat.

You walk into the flat into a hallway that to the right has stairs downstairs to the bedrooms, loo, and outside area. If you go straight ahead there is a door that lead to the open lounge and kitchen.

This is angle is from the kitchen

This is the shot from the hallway door
When you come in from the hall this is the view to your left.

(The kitchen obviously)

Downstairs is quite a large landing where I currently have a desk and 2 sets of dresser drawrs. It does look too great, but the flat is a lot smaller than I was used to. I had / have too much stuff.

As you come downstairs,
the loo is to the right

Straight ahead you have 2 doors, to the 2 bedrooms, identical in size and in share (other than the odd patrooding box where the electrics / plumming is). Mine is the one on the right. The pictures are of the spare bedroom. Please take note of the lovely, and stable furniture - I put the bed and the wardrobe back together after the move. I felt ever so proud of myself.

Both rooms then have French doors on the patio-ish thing.

This is a picture of my one and only house plant. I've had her 3-ish years. When I moved to London, I gave her to Jo, my friend. When I visited her a few months ago I noticed that the plant was vertually dead. It could have easily gone in the bin. But I somehow brought it back to life (don't ask me how - I don't have a green thumb! I used to water the plant only when all the leaves had drooped - its a very hearty plant!) But I'm very proud of bring it back. I'm also chuffed to have her back.

Pictures Pictures Pictures

The only digital camera I have is on my mobile phone, which is old and rubbish. This means the quality and quantity of pictures I take isn't that great, but hey - it's better than nothing. I lost my cable to hook my phone to the pc so I could transfer my pictures online until recently, so I have quite a few months worth of pictures. Most of them relate to older posts, so in time I will link them up with the right posts as well, but as I expect no-one to read through all the posts, enjoy the pics:

Starting with the most recent, this is from mid-July. I often go to Adam's gigs. I met Adam last year at a gig in Derby. He moved to London, to pursue his music career, the month before I did. So I go to support him .. and cause I like his music :) I took a few pic this night - Adam like them and wanted a copy, so I used blue-tooth to send them to him .. but instead of copying the pictures to his phone, I moved them from mine to his. There were several cool picture, but this is the only one I have **sigh**

Wimbledon pictures - June 30th. Most of the day was spent in this room Kelli (the mate I went with) and I found. It was dry and warm. We spent quite a bit of time sleeping in here. This is the one time we got on the court. Not a great photo, but that's Maria Sharapova (in her match against Ai Sugiyama which she won 6-3, 6-3)


This is from the Princess Diana concert. I have no idea who this is on stage. I went with 2 colleagues (and mates) from work and Andrew, a friend from Derby (well that area at least)

And now a bombardment of pictures of Bob. The first few are when she paid a visit on 23 June (don't worry, I'm not counting the days since I last saw her ... the photos are date stamped). You'll notice I put her tag on her in the second picture. When she graced us with her presence a few weeks later this tag was missing - very irritating. As if someone took it off.) The last picture shows her sitting on her cat tree - with the window open behind her. I didn't want her to associate being in my flat as being trapped. So I begrudgingly let her go. She stayed about 5 minutes after I opened the window.

The next set of pictures are from when I brought her from the neighbours. We kept her shut in the falt and didn't let her outside.

This was during my stent timetabling. I found her sitting on my work - I guess she wanted me to give her some attention instead of working.

I mentioned I felt bad for imprisioning her in the flat. This is a picture taken to show her behind bars (it's obviously taken on my stairs) While she was trapped in the flat she had a lot of excess enegry so I was trying to get some of it out this day. So the next few pictures are of us playing.

Another all-nighter

Look at the time stamp of this post. Yes it's 5:45 AM. What pray-tell you ask, was I doing this Friday night that kept me up til 5:45 in the morning. Yes, I'm afraid it's true - I was reading Harry Potter. I feel a bit empty inside now; I've finished it. There will never be any more new tales of Harry, Ron and Hermione's adventures. **Sigh**
Loved the book. Well, that's a bit obvious as I pulled 2 all nighters* to read it after work (interrupted from reading it only for work and a night out). This evening I audibly gasped a few times. I let out a couple cries of 'oh no!' and Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!' My heart rate speed up as I read through some of the story as I feared for the outcome. And yes, I even shed a couple tears at one point - real actual tears! The transformation I must say is complete - I am truly Jean's daughter through and through.
For those of you who have read the book and are curious of where the tears were shed, I shall post a comment. I don't want to ruin anything for those of you who haven't finished reading the book.

*Why couldn't I have been this interesting in the reading assignments at school - those books always put me to sleep - especially when I needed to do an all nighter so I could pass a test the next day!

A question answered

So how is our smoke-free campaign going?

Today is day 25 of my smoke free quest.

I forgot the best bit

well maybe not the best bit, but a very notable bit. I take a train to get into the city (it takes about 20 minutes) and took this time to put on my make-up. Those of you who know me won't be surprised by this. When I finished putting on my face, I noticed a guy staring at me. This isn't uncommon but usually when you meet someones eyes on the train they look away (or you do) but this guy kept staring. I thought nothing of it - as I was putting on make-up and it isn't the most common thing to see on the train. I then picked up a newspaper someone left and perused through it. I found the sudoku in the back and dug out a pen from my bag and preceded to occupy my time doing sudoku whilst bopping my head to my ipod. I could see the guy (through my peripheral vision) and he was still looking at me. I must have been having a good hair day. A couple more times I looked up and he was still staring. Unfortunately he wasn't a guy I would rate*. train arrived in London and I headed for the tube. Just as I got to the entrance of the tube station someone tapped me on the shoulder. I thought I must have dropped something. Nope. It was said guy! He asked if he could have my number. I was so impressed by his nerve (it takes some balls to walk up to a stranger and ask for their number) that I gave him mine. And I even gave him my proper number!
While I was out with Hayley, I got 2 missed calls from a number I didn't have in my phone - presumably said guy (I can't remember his name.) Way to boost my ego :)

*I didn't think he was very attractive.

Night in the city

Last night I went into the city to help my friend Hayley (pictured above) celebrate her 27th birthday with a few of her mates and her boyfriend. The conversation was very much what I would deem as 'girly talk. Jono (Hayley's boyfriend) must have felt like he was watching an episode of Sex and the City; I know a few episodes crossed my thoughts through the night. I did enjoy myself but for some reason* headed off at a reasonable time.

Turns out it was a good thing I did as I caught the last tube. Since when did tubes stop at 10:15 at night?! The tube was absolutely jammed full - like something out of a cartoon! When the doors opened people literally fell out of the train as they were jammed against the door. This was understandable as it was the last tube of the night. What I didn't understand is why it was the same way when I went into town. The tubes are indisputably busy during rush hour, but I went into town at 7. Why they were still so busy at 7 I don't know. But there you have it. I got up close and personal with a few too many Londoners last night.
And yes, when I got home I did read some more of Harry Potter - but only one chapter as I was quite tired from the previous night's reading :)

* Reason being: I don't have much money left for the month and didn't want to blow it all on one night out. I thought I might appreciate easting for the rest of the month instead :)

Harry Potter Obsession

I had a very productive evening last night. Although I moved into my flat last November, I still have boxes piled in corners. As my flatmate is moving out next week (have I mentioned my flatmate is moving out? Hmm. Well now I have) I have decided that I should try and clear some of these boxes and clutter away as my next flatmate might not be as tolerant of the boxes. I reckon Hannah (current flatmate) came to love the boxes as I did :) I spent several hours clearing out the hallway and cupboard under the stairs and managed to get through several boxes - all the boxes that were there actually. There's some residual clutter that I need to sort, but by 9:30 last night I'd had enough of clearing - I did start around 5.
For the last couple of months I have been "re-reading" the Harry Potter series. I have actually been listening to them on my ipod player. Thanks to my father I have them as mp3's. I have read the books a few times through - each time a new one came out. But by listening to them I can do other things while "reading" at the same time - ie unpack boxes, ride on the subway (I get motion sick to easily to actually read a book on the tube), and even do work (at work) - this makes it easier / faster to get through the books again. When the seventh book in the series came out, I was dying to read it - but I was only half-way through re-reading the 5th book. Okay, now I'm just giving you too many details and drawing my story out.** Anyway, yesterday I finished the 6th book. I could finally read the 7th book. So excited was I (I realise how sad this is - but hey, it's Harry Potter!) that I started reading the 7th book straight away. This was around 10 last night. I tried to put the book down several times to go to bed ... but I was addicted. "I'll just finish this chapter" must have gone through my head a dozen times. Half way through the book and unable to concentrate any longer, I put the book down and went to bed - just after 4 this morning!

**Thanks for the reminder James - stay out of my head! :-)

This is what you get with too much time on your hands

3 weeks

Can you believe it? 3 weeks since I started my 'smoke-free' campaign. You'd think I wouldn't want one after all this time. You'd be wrong - as you can see I'm not handling it all that well.

Number 5

My car got hit again while it was parked outside my flat last night. Joy of joys. This is the fifth time it's been hit. Now to add to my damaged bumper and the red paint, I have a scrapping of white paint. **sigh**

Elsewhere in my life's news: Day 18 today.

Day 16

I won't say it doesn't play on my mind .. but I seem to be getting used to not smoking. I seem to be terribly tired all the time though. Grr. I went through this when I was giving up Coca Cola as well. Ho hum.

Weekend 'up north'

I went back home for the weekend. I took Friday off and drove up. Success story: I managed a smoke free journey. There were many many moments where I REALLY wanted a cigarette, but I resisted (or I couldn't be bothered to make a 10 minute stop and get some - either way I made it.) After a long journey (far too much traffic) I made it to my old place of work. They have moved offices, so I got the new tour - impressive! Friday night I went for a couple of drinks with a few people I used to work with and then a couple of us went for a chinese after.
I'm still registered with a doctor in Castle Donnington (where I used to live) - I like my doctor too much to re-register. I picked up a prescription on Friday on the way to Derby. Saturday morning I realised they didn't give me the right prescription, so Saturday morning I toddled back to Castle Donnington.* Then it was off to Long Eaton to get my hair chopped and my legs waxed. After a few hours of pampering I went to Derby to visit Jo and Jim (more friends - I know it's shocking that I have them - get over it :) and their kids Molly(3 1/2) and Ethan(3ish?). Molly has an obsession with me. Everywhere I went - she went. I put my feet up on a chair - she put her feet up on the chair. I was sleepy and wanted to lay on the couch - she was sleepy too, so got her blanket and laid down with me. It was very cute...until I need the loo. Hmm. Saturday night I met up for a very quick cup of tea with the Whealtys - someone had forgotten that he was leading the lesson on Sunday - so had to prepare for Sunday morning.
Sunday was church and then a pot luck** afterwards. Yum yum. Free food, you just can't beat it :) It's always good to get to see everyone at church when I'm back in Nottingham, but it's always so short lived, so it was good to have extra time to spend with everyone at the pot luck. With a full stomach, and suffering the Sunday afternoon nap syndrome, I had a lovely drive to London to look forward to. The traffic in London was worse than Friday when I drove north. It was very irritating, but I made it home finally. Driving down I was a bit bummed as the weather was so brilliant I wanted to be outside enjoying it. Getting out of the car when I got home ... well I decided that being in an air conditioned car for during the heat wasn't a bad option either :)
And now it's back to Monday morning and work. **sigh**


*This was after a wonderful breakfast of pancakes and Bacon - Thanks Patty!
**Everyone brings a savoury dish and sweet dish, you put it on a big table and everyone tucks in.

A big test on day 11

A drive back to Derby. Deep breathe. I always smoked a lot when I was in the car. Just making to work and back has been somewhat of a struggle, now I'm facing a long drive north. Day 11 of smoke-freedom hangs in uncertainty.

Day 10 and counting

It's the evening of my 10h smoke free day. Today has been considerably easier than the last couple of days. Still had cravings for cigarette, but they weren't as bad and didn't last as long - are you people praying for me? Well it worked, so keep it up.

In other news....
(to update you on more of my life than my quitting smoking and the work I did the last few months,) I went into London to meet Haley, a friend of mine from Derby that moved to London shortly after me. As always, I had a good time out with her, chin-wagging. I like meeting up with Haley; I always feel better afterwards.
My flat-mate also gave me her notice that she'll be moving out in a month. This is sad because she's a pretty easy-going flat-mate and I'll have to find another one - one that I don't know. This could be a good thing because she doesn't quite pay half the bills. This was agreed when she moved in, but with my recent financial eye-opening, it could be a good thing to get more money toward bills and such. This could be a really bad thing as I'm known for my laziness and I really can't afford to not get someone else in. Guess I best get off my tookus (my bum).
Someone paid me a really big complement yesterday. Well I thought it was a big compliment. Someone I've lost touch with got back in touch yesterday. This said person happens to be of the male variety and I met him after Ben and I separated. We were only ever friends, but there was an obvious chemistry between us - it was just never taken further. He has since moved on with his life as have I. He basically told me that I was the one that got away, and that not pursuing that was his biggest regret. Ah. What a compliment. Ah well - more fish in the sea (hopefully).
Anything else....can't think of anything.

9 smoke free days

Another day almost completed. Today was harder than yesterday, and yesterday was hard. 9 days smoke free.

What I'd really like to do is have a cigarette and think it was horrible. Then it wouldn't be so attractive. However, I believe if I have a cigarette I'd enjoy every second of it and I'd have suffered these 9 days in vein. Oh the hard life.

I think my problem is I'm currently enjoying smoking. Or I should say I was enjoying it. I went through times where I didn't enjoy it and I did it out of habit; there were also times I really enjoyed it - now is one of those times. And there's no immediate incentive. For instance - if I was with a bloke who didn't want to be with a smoker - incentive. If I were pregnant or had children- incentive. I was enjoying smoking, I didn't want to give up - it was just a good time and when I had planned on quiting. I have no short term incentive. Yes, yes, I know all the health benefits blah blah blah. Nothing immediate. It's hard to find the will power when you don't have the incentive. Any suggestions on how I can tell my mind that there is immediate incentive are welcome.

I CAN'T DO IT

Too weak. Temptation is too great. Boredom is a killer!
I WANT A CIGARETTE!!!!

8 smoke free days and counting.

Smoke free for 7 days!

Those of you who know I smoke, I have now been smoke free for 7 whole days. Wa'hoo. I have always smoked less when I helped out at camp, so I thought this would be a good time to stop completely. As I'm in a field miles away from shops that sell cigarettes, it was easier to avoid temptation. 3 days of cold turkey ended when I went into town and found it very hard to resist - so I bankrupted myself and bought some patches. There were several moments where I didn't think I'd resist, but I've managed a whole week now. One day at a time.
For those of you that didn't know I smoked, now you do. I started smoking in 2005.
...if you wonder what made me think to post this - today is my first day back at work and I'm gagging for one!

Home again

Oh how nice a warm dry bed is! I have done a whole lot of nothing today, which has been wonderful. I most enjoyed my long shower when I got home and getting in my own bed last night! Oddly enough though this evening I'm missing the camp fire and it feels weird not walking around in my wellies, covered in insect repellent with dirty finger nails ... do you know it's impossible to keep your fingernails clean while camping?
Well I have a year to recover until I get to do it all again.

Yipee

I'm back in civilisation! Wahoo for electricity, beds, dry clothes and floors not made out of mud!

I'm still in Northern Ireland, I fly home tomorrow, so another night in a strange bed - but at least it's a proper, dry bed!

Looking forward to my own bed in 2 days!

Cold, wet, sleep deprived, covered in insect bites and over-all, just plain exhausted. Why oh why do I convince myself that I love camping?

signing off

I'll speak to you again when I get back on the 28th. Until then pray for good weather and good health!!

job anyone?

Short and sweet: after a year of working, I've finally passed my probation. So I now have a permanent job. I guess I'm here to stay.

32 hours to go...

Til I'm in Northern Ireland :-)

Why can't someone just tell you the right thing to do?!

What are you suppose to do when you have a conflict that you don't know how to resolve but you can't ask for help because you know that no-one will be able to help you objectively?

- Make a pro / con list for the options - done that, didn't really help
- Simplify the conflict - someone saying that and actually being able to do that - very different
- Sit by and do nothing - well in a way that's taking a stand for one side of the conflict, and then your choice to be able to decide how to handle it is stolen from you.

So what do you do? Buy some antacids for the ulcers you've caused yourself. That's all I can think of.

**sigh**

??? to go .....

It's done. All done. Head of departments have their department timetbales. Teachers have their timetables. Student timetables are being printed. It's all done! How exciting!

I worked out that since June, I've worked over 20 hours of my own personal time on the timetable. That's over 26 working days! How sad is that admission.

I do have a minor problem though ... what am I to do with my time now?

What a great day today is!

What a great day today has been!
This morning Bob greeted me at my bedroom door. I assume she got in through my flatmate's window (it's usually open in the mornings). Very special - and SO good to see her again! Her ID tag wasn't on her anymore. Whether it was taken off or fell off, I'm not sure. I have a suspicious nature and I think someone took it off. But all is well cause she came to visit :)
And this afternoon the person that infuriated me earlier in the week (post on 9 July) has seen sense and now agrees with me :)
I wonder if I should chance my luck and get a lottery ticket as well :-)

A lot about me that you never asked to know, but now you do!

1 Are you taller than your mom? Yes. She's short
2. What colour is your shower curtain? tan
3. What is the closest thing to you right now that is red? stapler
4. What is your ringtone? ringing
5. Does anything hurt on your body right now? my head. I have a head ache :-(
6. What colour is your favourite pillow? White. Aren't all pillows white?
7. What is your favourite video game?Don’t play them. But from olden days - Tetris
8. Had a nap today? no
9. Gold or Silver? Silver
10. Is there an animal that creeps you out? don’t like snakes.
11. Who was the last person you rode an elevator with? random people at the grocery store.
12. Did you go ice skating as a kid? NO! My mother promised me I could, but she let me down **sob**
13. Ever have stitches? Nope
14. Favourite non-alcoholic drink? Coke – I’m addicted.
15. How long ago did you hug someone? The early hours of Sunday morning.
16. What's something you want to do before you die? Go to Hawaii, go bungee jumping, go sky diving, go on a cruise, Be in love again, have children … I could go on.
17. Have you ever caught something on fire? a tea towel
18. Have you ever seen a ghost? No
19. Have you ever seen northern lights? No
20. Do you know how to use chop sticks? Yes
21. Name something good that happened today? I woke up and I was still breathing.
22. What room are you in? My office.
23. Are you worried about something you can't control? Of course.
24. Do you take daily medications? Yep – now you’re curious :P
25. Ever been in a fight? Physical fight – once, I was 13.
26. Are you wearing nail polish? Yes, the colour is called Merlot
27. What time is it? 15:41
28. Innie or Outie? Innie
29. Ever used a Ouija board? a wha?
30. Sweet or Sour? Sweet
31. Sun or Moon? Moon
33. Favourite eye colour of the opposite sex? Piecing Blue
36. Time of day you were born? 10:10 pm
37. Do you know your blood type? nope – it’s really common, that’s all I know
38. Do you know how to kill a zombie? nope
40. What would you spend 5,000 dollars on right now if you were handed it? Debts. (I would save a couple hundred to go on holiday though :)
41. Name something annoying in public ? people
42. Would you rather be in a picture or taking the picture? Both
43. What’s your background on your pc? A photograph of my old work colleagues
44. Did you grow up in the city or country? town
45. Would you ever consider going on a reality tv show if offered a large sum of Money? Yep
46. Have you flown in your dreams? In a plane or without the help of technology?
47. What's one thing you're really good at cooking? food - hehe
48. Kisses or hugs? depends on who’s giving them. Kisses are more personal.
49. You have 10 dollars to spend in the dollar store... what do you get? Ten things worth a dollar.
50. Slurpee flavour? Blue raspberry

Re: a comment from my last post

Anonymous said...
I'm sure that there's a message in there, but for those of
us that have little idea of what you're talking about, could you try again using
different words, or at least the same words in a different order?

I'm angry* with someone I work with. As I don't want to chance said person reading my blog and seeing bad things about him, I was vague.

*By angry I mean I'm spitting nails and want to chop his .... off!

I'm gonna explode!

It's just not right. I'm being taken for granted and advantage of. A year's notice - that's how long I gave. No problem. I work hard. I deserve it. I am tired of being (metaphorically) spat upon. There's only so much a person will tolerate!
I don't care what he says! I'm going! Try and stop me!

0 to go .. but so much work to do

The simple explanation is that I did something I know better than, the longer explanation includes me placing blame on the software company for allowing me to do it.
In timetabling you take a little bit of data out of one programme (Admin) and work on it in another software programme (scheduler) and then put it back (in Admin) - and like magic you have a pretty timetable (kind of like if you took something out of Word and worked on it in Excel - then you have to put it back in Word for the finished product). Well I took the data out

of Admin and worked on it in Scheduler. Unknown to me I was using incompatible versions of the software (like if I used Word from Windows XP and Excel from Windows 2000). So now I have a complete timetable in Scheduler that I can't put in Admin. All a bit to technical still for you? Simple translation: I have a useless timetable that took me ages to do. Woe is me!

0 to go .... can you beleive it?!

The draft copy of the timetable went out. I've still got work to to on it, I need to give the teachers rooms for instance, but I can see the end of the tunnel. My hard work and angst has given me several compliments - apparently the timetable has never* been issued before the end of term (usually it was given to teachers on the inset days 2 days before school started). Staff are also complimenting my timetabling skills as we have a 2 week timetable and for the most part week A is the same as week B. For you non-timetabling types: I've been complimented on my skills. For you timetabling types - if you don't think it's hard - you've never done it :)

*Never might not be true, but at least in the last 12 years.

2 to go ....

I love men. If you tell them what's going to happen (i.e. tell them what to do) they'll throw a tantrum. If you spend a bit of time allowing them to come to your conclusion they get so proud of themselves for thinking of the answer. Dear me.

I'm still alive...

For those of you concerned about my well being as I live in London: I have not been affected by the suicide bombers - except for a bit more traffic to contend with.
For those of you who don't know English geography well (or don't know that I moved down to London) - the floods in the midlands (middle of England) have also not affected me.

My Sunday - church and concerts

Just back from the concert for Princess Diana. Overall, a very good day out - but long. I also visited a new church in London in my quest to find a new church home. A very full day. Off to bed now - more details to come.
I saw the princes >>insert big smiley face here<<