As you’ve probably noticed, I’m still not done with the complete switcheroo of my site, but then I’ve been busy as fuck since I started the changes, so it’ll have to wait…

Like I said, I’ve been exceedingly busy, what with wedding, role-play, work, camps and reading. With the exceptions of reading and, possibly, work, my time has been mostly spent organising and planning, and, too a lesser extent, plotting and scheming.

The wedding stuff is mostly complete:
- Car? Check
- Photographer? Booked, yet to pay for. Half-check
- Outfits? Bride, check, bridesmaids, check, parents’, check, ushers, half check [ian and my brother have yet to be sorted completely], groom, check.
- Flowers? Half check. The ones free-standing ones have been dealt with, the brides bouquet has not.
- Sound? check. still debating a live band.
- honeymoon? half check. still needs to be booked and paid for
- Hen/ stag doos? quarter check
- ceremony and reception halls? check
- caterer? check
- notice given? can’t do that yet
- Invites? Still being printed, addresses yet to be obtained

So what of the camps?

Well, the Long Island Adventure is drawing closer, and with only a max of 4 of us going I’m hoping it’s still going to be as fun as with the whole group of us that I wanted.
Amusingly enough, we only have the loose plan of ‘assemble raft out of stuff, sail to Long Island, stay the night, sail back, hope raft doesn’t fall apart at any stage…’
Not quite sure what we’re doing for ‘accommodation’ so to speak [or food for that matter], I think I might ask Barry if he wants to share my 3 person, instead of taking his 1 man. I know owen and the rag will have their various funky bivouacs, and I was just planning on having an orange survival sack, but owen’s cautioned me against it…

The second camp will be us back-packing up to Cropready for the Fairport Convention festival. Hopefully we’ll use the lessons of last year well, and I think it’ll help that we’ll both actually have money instead of scraping the bottom of our accounts and me going into my overdraft. I don’t recognise many of the names, but then I guess I didn’t last year, so I’m sure it’ll all be good fun and stuff again

I’d like to do more camping, but at the moment it’s trying to find a weekend free/ being able to get a Saturday off/ finding willing participants, none of which is easy. And soon we’re going to be running out of good nights [most of my gear is only suitable for ‘fair weather’ camping. You probably won’t find me out and about come October time… Ah well, always next year.

What’s next on the updates list… ah yes. Reading. Some people might call me obsessive or mad, but I really like my books. I always have done and I’m sure I always shall. It’s just a pity that nearly everything else get in my way of finding time to read. Some people also might think me mad when I remind them I still don’t have anything that passes for a bookcase, and yet I went and bought 18 more [for around £60 inc. delivery]. To those people I say: I could easily have spent a lot more Oh and then Andy and I bought another 4 at the weekend.

On to role-play. The past week hasn’t been all that busy regarding role-play [except if you count the nice young man we met at the works] but the previous weeks have seen a spate of character building and new campaigns being discussed and planed. At the moment we’ve got 3 running: Andy’s Wushu game, Future’s Past, Luke’s Ebberon game Savage Tides [actually drawing to a close] and Greg’s A Fragment Of Time, based on the campaigns that spawned Alexis Dalliance. I’m looking forward to the epic battle that will end this part of Savage Tides, but I have to say The Wushu system is a refreshing change from D&D, and I’m enjoying it immensely. A Fragment of Time is only just getting started but I hope it’ll be as fun and exciting as the previous campaigns. I just hope that Alexis [me] hasn’t changed to much in the two months [almost a year!] since we played together.

Thinking of creating stuff, storytelling and fantasy, reminded me of something else in planning: The Stone of Tides. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about how this is going to turn out. I’ve never written anything this big before, neither have I written with someone else either. So I’m going to cram these two new experiences, along with a boatload os characters and a setting that I’m still not sure I’m familiar with or ‘feeling’ into the hectic experience that is nanowrimo. All whilst being a newly-wed with a stressful, full-time job. Now you can tell me I’m mental, and I’ll probably agree… Ah well, in amongst everything else, we’ve got 4 months and a week to get into it and finish planning before all hell breaks loose.

So on to work.
…
So Marie left on a Saturday. On the Monday I got made supervisor-in-training. On Wednesday I got made officially-still-supervisor-in-training-but-really-assistant-manager-in-training. That was… wow… almost a month ago [I don’t quite know where it went - I barely any recollection of it]. So now I’m getting paid 30p more and have a whole lot more trouble on my hands because of it. I feel like I’ve jumped from big stupid mistake to big stupider mistake, but strangely after breaking down at work in front of my boss I’ve felt better about the whole thing. On top of this I have the NVQ which so far is seeming easy, but still taking up time. I’m afraid it’s going to get harder though… I still don’t know what I think about the whole shebang, and it’s so hard not to take my lead from James when it’s just he and I, and I think I’m doing badly, but Manager-san hasn’t turned around yet and said ‘your fired’ so I suppose I’m doing something right… It’s just all big and confusing and scary and not especially cool and I don’t know if I want to do it and I don’t know if I can and if I’m capable and have absolutely no confidence in anything I do

Anyway. I think that’s me all up-to-date again. if you made it all the way down here, congrats for making it and thanks for being interested enough. Have a cookie

So, like, I cried at work today. I know, I’m such a wuse. Basically, ever since getting made supervisor, I’ve felt like I’ve made one huge mistake after another, and like I can’t do anything right. At some points it’s felt like everyone expects me to instantly know what I’m doing, and be the perfect assistant manager material, even with barely any experience of retail in general. What makes it worse, as Andy pointed out, is that I’m one of the harshest critics.

I knew I was getting pretty stressed out over it, but I thought I was coping. I guess I was doing a good job of hiding it, because it wasn’t till today, when I made my biggest mistake and couldn’t hold the tears back any longer, that my manager realised how tough it’s been for me to basically fill the almost perfect shoes of the girl who left.

I can’t decide if I feel relived, or embarrassed and more stupid. Either way, I’m not sure the overwhelming urge to burst into tears every five minutes is going to disappear any time soon [especially not with my period coming up…]

Oh well, I ’spect I’ll manage…

As you can see I’ve changed my site. I’ve upgraded to 2.4 [from 1.9] and installed a new theme. Unfortunately I can’t seem to get the rest of my site quite working with b2, but I’m working on it. So don’t click the ‘rest of site’ link yet as it doesn’t work…

So in preparation for this year’s NaNoWriMo, Dark and I made a site on WikiDot. It’s not public as we don’t want people nicking our world before we’ve even really developed it. Also, I have two novels for previous NaNoWriMos to edit. I haven’t even touched The Genre-ation Game, and I’m only on page 22 of The MOW Files. As well as that, I want to start writing articles for Spacefem again, and I looked at my website today and decided it needs a complete overhaul.

Lots of projects in the making, so what’s the problem? My problem is I can’t see to figure out where to start, with any of them.

I start typing an article and it just sounds silly to me, so I don’t bother finishing or posting it. My website needs re-organizing, a new design and the blog needs updating, but it’s difficult to decide what to do about it all. I’m not sure how to start on The Genre-ation Game, since the end is so spiffy but the first half is a pile of dren - I don’t want to scrap it and start again. The Mow Files is somewhat easier, but I have to be in exactly the right frame of mind, which sucks because what with everything else [wedding, NVQ, making Supervisor, general chores] that’s hard to achieve.

I’ve never been very good at personal organization. It might look excellent [or even obsessive-compulsive] from outside, and I can organize other people splendidly, but myself? I suck at making the whirling mess of thoughts in my head appear even somewhat logical, prioritized and actionable.

If only I could find someway of making it all make sense and stopping it from spinning so much. Graahhhh

1. What’s one of the nicest things a friend has ever done for you?
Saved my life. Ages ago, a group of us where walking home and we were all stood on the island in a very busy road. As a joke someone behind me pushed me. I lost my balance and stepped forward into the road, just as a car was coming. Ryan grabbed my shirt and pulled me back in time.

2. What’s one of the nicest things a stranger has ever done for you?
When I was leaving school once I wasn’t paying attention I slipped and hurt my ankle, and this guy came and helped me up and kept asking if I was okay.

3. What is a trait in another person that you instantly admire, and that draws you to them?
Having an easy laugh I think.

4. What is a trait in another person that instantly repels you, and prevents you from forming a close relationship with them?
I’m not sure. My friendships seem to be formed randomly…

5. Time to vent: tell us about something rotten someone has done to you.
Heh, the list is too long…

1. Whats harder to live without, chocolate or alchohol?
Alcohol
2. Does the colour yellow remind you of anything?
Sunflowers and buttercups, madness, van gough

3. Who most annoyed you last week?
The guy who hung around 15 minuets after closing, chatting about shit.

4. Do you have a cutesy romantic nickname for your partner (or previous partners)?
Yep, he is my Squishy, I also call him Green- or Dragon-eyes

5. What is your favourite Stephen King movie?
Not seen any of them.

1. Love at First Sight: Fact or Fiction?
Fiction. I’ve never ever seen it happen [except in the movies]

2. Fortune Telling: Fact or Fiction?
I’d like to think some of it is fact, but I’m co=ynical enough the think it’s all fiction.

3. Other Life: Fact or Fiction?
Fact. How could there not be? Just because it hasn’t dropped by to say ‘howdy neighbor’ yet…

4. Afterlife: Fact or Fiction?
Fact, but it’s gonna be what you make it.

5. Bigfoot: Fact or Fiction?
Like with fortune telling, with it was fact, but more like to be fiction.

1. If you had the ability to legally change your name, would you? To what?
Probably Brinna or Drusilla. I’d keep my last name though because it’s so unusual.

2. What do you with with change that you receive from banks/purchases/find on the ground?
I put it in a container and when it gets really heavy I take it to be changed into whole money instead of dribs and drabs.

3. If you could travel back in time to change the course of one historical event, what event would it be?
Not sure, maybe stopped that Austrian duke from being killed, or even, killing someone like Saddam Hussein while in the womb.

4. Would you rather live a safe, stable, moderately interesting life or one where every day was dangerous, volatile, and different?
If I had to pick between these two, the safe one I think, but I’d ideally like a mix of both: generally safe, but with lots of different interesting things happening.

5. What do you think you’ll be remembered for when you die and, if you could, would you change it to something else?
I think I’d be remembered for being a generally nice person, but that sucks. I’d like to be remembered as a great author.

# If you became ruler of the world, what three things would you do first?
Be a bit WTF? How did this happen?; Absolve all National Debt and associated interest; Make Africa one big country with a elected government and charge them with bringing it up to Newly Industrialized Country status.

# If you were a superhero, what would be your name and what powers would you have?
Drusilla Black and I would control electricity and lightning.

# You can ask one question to someone who knows EVERYTHING. What is it?
Is there a God?

# If you were invisible for a day, what would you do?
Skiv off work… and do thing I normally do… Yeah so I’m boaring

# If you saw a mythical/religious deity walking down the street, what would you do?
Mythical: I’d be all OMG! and star struck and get pictures and stuff
Religious: Ask for The Answer and then Ask the Question if the answer was still 42.

Okay, so I’ve managed to let a week slip by without typing up Andy and I’s highly domesticated holiday, but never fear! here it comes…

Holiday really started Sat evening when my Dad picked us up and we headed over to my parents for tea. The whole gang was there, All 5 Sullivans, all four Hurrells, a Montgomery and an Allen. Much food was consumed as was much Asti, and of course much merriment was had.

Sunday, Andy and I spent the morning doing small chores together and in the afternoon set off for Upton Country park. It was a very windy day, but very bright and an other wise lovely walk around the end of Poole harbour and through the woods to the House. We met up with my parents again, and wandered around a craft fair [where I bought a little mole door stopper, a postcard of this and a necklace - four round moss agate stones in a circle]. We also walked around the grounds a bit - found the Tree I helped plant when I was Brownie and showed Andy the Romano-British Farmstead reconstruction - before heading home to my parents for scones, cream and jam

Monday we headed out, again with the Sullivans [minus kelly, as well as the rat and his s/o], to Tollpuddle for a walk and then went back to the Sullivan’s for dinner and a movie.

Tues, we went out with Greg to B&Q to get pain for the planned decorations [more on that later] then went and did some shopping [we had no food due top a snaffu on TESCO’s part on Sat] came home and ate and spend the rest of the day chatting.

Wed, I baked. A lot. I made a banana loaf, rocky road cake, a Victoria sponge and rice crispy cakes. Ian came over at some point and I got Andy to tidy a little and put some bits of furniture into the spare room ready for…

Thursday, in which we decorated! In the very morning, Kat and I went into Poole to pick up some stuff at the farmer’s market which consisted off mustard, white pudding, bread and cheese for me, jam, bread cheese and sausages for her. We also got a couple of sponges and a bucket for the decorating, and I delivered rice krispy cakes to work and Freespirit. Then when we got back Kat sat down and did getting job stuff, while the rest of us [luke, greg, ian and Andy] washed walls and painted. In the evening we had DnD and ate kebabs.

Friday Luke came over and we just sort of chilled for a while, discussing how to get into business and when we would write on the walls in our Dragon’s Blood, when Luke found a really nice Gaelic blessing:
May you have -
Walls for the wind
And a roof for the rain,
And drinks bedside the fire
Laughter to cheer you
And those you love near you,
And all that your heart may desire

He and Andy spent 3 hours translating it into Elvish and that’s what we now have transcribed on our walls. I’ll take a photo when I get the chance.

Sat day Kat, Luke, Barry, Daniel and and I went into Southampton shopping, which was a bit of a bust really. Kat and I found some nice [expensive] clothes from a place called Jane Norman, but other than a present for Kat, some rum flavoured mints [that turned out to be horrible and I gave to Luke] and lunch I didn’t really spend much at all Anyway, once we got home, they all come back to mine and we had Chinese.

Sunday was nice and relaxing, Luke came over and he started putting the stenciling on, we chatted, had pizza for dinner and generally geeked out.

[I’ve made up for not spending on sat through… With what I had left on Tuesday or Wednesday I bought Drama Con v2, Grave Peril by Jim Butcher and The Phantom Tollbooth [because of a conversation while walking on the previous Monday], and since then Drama Con v3, Roadsong v2, Sorcerers & Secretaries v2, Aoi House v2, Summer Knight by Jim Butcher and Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction from Amazon]

1. What type of food do you most like to eat?
Meat, preferably lamb or beef.
2. What type of food do you most like to cook?
Pre-prepared, or anything generally ‘easy’
3. What ingredient could you not live without?
Lee& Perrins Worcester Sauce
4. What do you never let in your kitchen?
Nothing much, maybe anything to do with lentils or chickpeas
5. What is your favorite drink?
Tea!

1. Did you vote in your most recent applicable election? (If you’re not yet old enough, do you plan to vote in the future?)
I believe that was a Local election, and yes I did.

2. Have you ever protested or attended a march?
Yes, I attended the ‘break the chains of debt’ walk through London back around 1999. I had my photo taken

3. What political issue is the most important to you?
Not sure, there are quite a few which stir me up: Cost of housing/ living; The Environment; Crime; Education to a lesser extent because it doesn’t directly affect me any more.

4. Are you a member of a party in your country? If so, which?
No I’m not. I thought about becoming a member of the Liberal Democrats, but I wouldn’t want to get tied down.

5. Do you ever plan to run for office?
No.

The past few day’s I’ve had off have been spent by being incredibly lazy. This past week, I’ve finished off Ian M Bank’s Look to Windward and chomped my way through Why I Write by George Orwell, Selling Out by Justina Robson and Loamhedge by Brian Jacques. Four books in a week might not seem like a lot to some [*cough*Andy*cough*], but I’m quite proud of myself.

[Of course, we’ll ignore the laundry and washing up not done]

I’ve also been spending time playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on the PS3. Andy bought it for me some time before Christmas. I played it once I think, when we got it home, and I hated the controls. Picked it up again, and now I’m more use to the way the PS3 handles, I’m getting better at it. It’s fun I have become the infamous food thief, running around the country side eating everything I can lay my grubby little paws on… [it’s only food because you can’t steal the lights in this ]

What else?… Oh yeah we got a Roomba-a-like that we’ve called Marvin. Ah, it’s so funny and cute. We also finally got a printer, so I can print my story out and let people read of it’s awfulness

That’s out about it, work is fine, there hasn’t been any more talk of me becoming supervisor, and we have a new work colleague after Jack left.

I haven’t really been as exercise active as I should, but still, I feel slimmer, [even after everything I had to eat last week… pizza and ice cream and cookies, oh my].

And that I think concludes my little update

What do you see when you are looking out of the window closest to you?
The next apartment building. If I go and stand in front of the tiny window I get the most beautiful view of Poole Harbour through masts from the sailing club.

Who was the last person coming into your room?
Andy

What is the most predominant colour around you?
Magnolia! And pale wood..

What is right behind you?
Chests of clothes drawers, and piles of other clothes, and a few ornaments.

What is on today’s calendar sheet?
Nothing specifically, but the potential of a visit by Ian and a swimming trip with Kat.

1. What song would you sing to your newborn child?
Probably nursery rhymes or other lullabies I know, such as ‘All the Pretty Little Horses’ [except those aren’t exactly the lyrics I know]

2. How do you think animals think? (i.e. in animal language, human language, etc.)
In sounds and smells and body language.

3. As a child, did you have a dream to make a difference in the world? Can you describe your dream?I guess so, but it wasn’t in a specific form, more that I wanted to help people I think in any way that intere4sted me.

4. Do you believe in God/a Higher Being?
yes, an undefined, amorphous extra or super being.

5. Do you believe in aliens?
It’s hard not to think, that in a universe as big as ours, that there isn’t any other intelligent life or life capable of evolving to ‘intelligence’ out there someplace. Do I think aliens come and prod southern American hicks? not really.

1. How long ago did you join LJ?
My first post was made on: 25 April 2004, so I guess that’s when I joined.

2. How did you find out about LJ?
Nearly everyone on spacefem uses LJ, so I joined so I could post on their blogs.

3. If someone introduced you to LJ, is s/he still on your friends list?
Spacefem herself still is, and so are a lot of others that I’ve met through the froums, so yeah I guess you could say that.

4. Have you introduced anyone to LJ?
I think I said to a couple of people to get a blog of some kind, and most of them picked LJ

5. Is your LJ public or friends only, and why?
Public, because I don’t see the point of having private when all I post there are the occasional rants and test/ quiz answers.

As you can see I’ve answered a shit load of Friday Fives that I missed, but other than that I haven’t really done anything I can point to and say ‘I did this today’.

I’ve spent:
- most of my time messing around on the interwebs, browsing Dark’s links on Del.icio.us,
- a little while trying to plot out a story and not getting very much furthur than writing down some thoughts I’ve had for a while,
- a little more time removing the spam from Open Contribution, and thinking how nice it would be to get that back up and running properly. The main issue is just that the core developer [ie Andy] doesn’t have any time to work on it and, since no one else is helping, can’t be arsed to either. I’d be nice if I had some sort of control on the site, so I could delete all the spam accounts, but only one guy has any access to that sort of level of control, and he doesn’t seem to be very interested in the project any more. Though I did a whois on the domain name, and noticed he renewed his purchase of it last year. we’ll just have to wait and see if he does it again this year…
- a very small amount of time doing chores

Anyway, I’m bored now. I don’t know what to do. There are a couple of projects I could be getting on with, but I just don’t know either where to take them next or how to go about them or w/e. I feel almost like I’m being deluged with air: I have all these random stray thoughts that I’m not sure how to organize in order to accomplish any of them. I’m feeling very blocked right now. Anyone have a mental laxative?

1. When did you “lose your innocence"?
At 16.

2. Would you say you have an accent?
Yes, but only because everyone around me seems to have an Essex accent so my mish-mosh is more noticable.

3. Do you hope to be married (married again if divorced)?
Yes, it should be happening this year

4. If you could take one technology to a desert island (the obvious satellite phone excluded), what would it be?
Some form of water filtration system, so I like, wouldn’t die.

5. What is the last activity you bought a ticket for?
Going swimming.

1. What is your fave thing about Christmas?
sounds cliché, but being with friends and family.

2. Did you believe in Santa Clause? If so, what was the best gift from him?
Sorta. I belived in Mrs. Clause and she brings me really useful gifts like toiletries and pants. So the best gift would have to be three lipsalves that last me through the year.

3. Do you have a Christmas Tree? Ribbon, Angel, Star or ______ on Top?
Yes, but it’s top went all funny and so even if I did have anything to put on top, I couldn’t or it would have fallen off.

4. Best stocking stuffer you got?
I didn’t really get any little presents like that…

5. Wishing for a White Christmas?
always, but never happens.

1. Pick one label that you think does describe you (race, religion, hobby, etc.).
Geek.

2. Pick one label that is often put on you, that you really think is inaccurate.
Normal.

3. Pick one label you wish could be put on you.
Attractive

4. What is one kind of label that you think is universally wrong to use (race, gender, height)?
None.

5. Labels, used intelligently, can be a convenient rhetorical shorthand for identifying how a given person will fit into (or react to) a given situation. Labels, used incorrectly, can be an excuse for dismissing the differences still inherent in the people to whom the label is applied. Discuss.
I refuse, on the principal that this question has already stated my own feelings on the matter: that when used intelligently and correctlty Lables are a good thing, but in the hands of those who have no tolerance or what to cuase pain, and sitr hate they can be a dangerious weapon.

1.Have you ever stayed in a hostel? If so, where? Did you like it? If you haven’t stayed in a hostel, would you?
I stayed in one as part of a school trip, in the sense that the trip took over the main rooms of the hostel, so it was only people I knew. It was alright, the bed where a little uncomfortable, but it was clean, so yes.

2. What is your favo(u)rite airport that you’ve been to? Why?
I guess Gatwick, because I don’t remember the airports at Malta or in Dubrovnick, and we didn’t have enough time to look around the one at Orlando.

3. What is the best museum you have visited on vacation?
I can’t really remember… I go to a lot…

4. Have you ever made friends while traveling whom you keep in touch with on a regular basis?
No, I’m not really that sort of person.

5. Have you ever had a conversation with a seatmate on a plane?
My only seat mates have been my parents, so yes.

1. What’s the most strange thing anyone has ever pointed out to you?
Not sure…

2. What’s the most obvious thing anyone has ever pointed out to you?
‘Tree!’

3. What’s the most miserable thing anyone has ever pointed out to you?
That money is a lie.

5. What’s the greatest thing that anyone has ever pointed out to you?
At this moment in time, that I have a house!

1. Do you ever wonder if the way you see things visually aren’t how other people see them?
I use to when I was smaller, but since reading a book on philosophy I don’t any more. After all if I look at an object and someone else looks at an object and we both describe it as being brown and rectagular with 4 legs, then obviously we’re both looking and seeing a table the same.

2. What kind of sounds are the most annoying?
High pitches squealing is the one I hate most.

3. When walking through a store, do you shop with your hands by touching/feeling the texture of things?
No.

4. If you could only smell three scents for the rest of your life, what would they be?
Roses, Andy and Tea [like when you go into the hot drinks aisle at a shop]

5. What sorts of things do you savor when eating them?
Chocolate things, things I can’t get very often because they’re foreign or expensive.

Name five…
1. … things you can’t live without.
Andy, computer, books, tea, Microwave

2. … of the best moments in your life.
Winning NaNoWriMo 2007;

3. … celebrities you can’t stand.
Any of the ones that give there money to crappy ‘religions’ instead of to needy charities [think tom cruise/ john travolta with Scientology]

4. … books you enjoy(ed) reading.
The Broken God by David Zindell, The Ill-Made Mute by Celia Dart-Thornton, Julie and Julia by Julie Powell, Callahan’s Key by Spider Robinson and The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

5. … items on your desk.
Mug containing tea; Old World of Warcraft CD made into a coaster; Red Hat lanyard with attached multitool; Pink plastic pint glass containing pens; the sand-filled turtle that has been my monitor buddy since I get my own computer.

Bored as I was this afternoon I’ve done a variety of crafty things:
- Made myself a bead necklace that [I think]’s pretty good. I can’t photograph it though, because I made the string too short and now I can’t take it off…
- Finished a cross-stitch that I started well over ten years ago.
- Put felt on the backs of some pretty CDs so they could be recycled as coasters.

All that has kept me occupied for just under 4 hours. Not bad going for someone avoiding the washing-up

This morning was pretty crafty as well, given that I spent a good 2-ish hours making an image for the front cover of Tusumov, and another hour messing around with making another site layout [that I ultimately gave up on cuz I suck ]

EDIT [now a couple of minuets later and I’m bored again… D’oh!]

I’m helping to run a discount evening event at work on Friday 29th Feb. I’m pretty excited since I’ve been wanting to this for ages, but the circumstances that made it come about are pretty annoying. Ah well.

If you’re interested, basically anyone who can prove they’re some kind of scout guide or enrolled in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award gets 15% off all full priced items and 10% of sales items. There is a poster if you want to spread the love.

[I’m just worried I’m going to bring the poster in later today and get told we’re not doing after all, and all my hard work at making the damn poster and trying to spread the word on facebook and else where will have been in vain.

Empty store,
and lame music,
inoffensive;
Lights too bright and
bored out of my mind.

Just another day at work.

Slow day,
oh slow day.
When wilt thou end?

An hour and thirty
- with nothing to do -
Providence!
Send customers my way,
I beg thee,
or I fear I shall die of this tedium…

Today I have:
-Cleaned myself
-Cleaned the Bathroom, Lounge and Kitchen from top to bottom, including all tables and work surfaces.
-Put up all of the posters that have been flattening for the past two weeks
-Polished my boots [boy did they need it ]
-Dusted in the spare room and my room
-Polished my wooden items with Linseed oil, something I’ve been meaning to do for yonks
-Done two weeks worth of washing up and put it all away
-Done two weeks worth of laundry [that includes washing, drying, folding and putting away]
-Caught up with some Friday Fives, so gotten back into semi regular writing
-Turned the sofa cushion over [anyone who’s had to move that thing will know that wasn’t an easy task for me to do on my own]
-Ventilated the whole house [by opening all the windows real far and consequently freezing my ass off]

Still to-do:
Tidy my desk
Put away all the things that were in the wooden boxes I’ve just polished
Re-place some odds and sods in the lounge
Finish pricing our videos
Integrate mine and Andy’s music collections
Make Andy a delicious Valentine’s meal, complete with candles and stuff. Choose music and what to watch afterwards

1. Do you consider yourself to be a good housekeeper? Why or why not?
I’m okay ish. When things get hectic at work and I’m doing lots of stuff, the house tends to suffer but I’m house proud and I like things to be tidy and organised so I do try.

2. Are there any household chores that you enjoy doing? If so, what and why?
I wouldn’t say I particularly enjoy any, but the less tedious are things like general clearing up/ putting things away because it’s usually pretty easy and yields greatest result.

3. Which household chore frustrates/angers you the most?
Washing up. It just never ends…

4. When doing household chores, what do you do to make them seem less of a “chore"?
I play loud music with an up-beat tempo and words so I can sing and dance as I’m doing stuff.

5. Which chore do you find yourself doing most often, and why?
Laundry, but I’m not sure why.

1. Do you believe you can have more than one soulmate in life?
I think it’s a possibility, but I don’t think you could have more than say three.

2. Are you with that soulmate now?
I’d like to think so.

01. What types of portable audio devices do you use?
I don’t really.

02. What format of music do you listen to most often?
Ogg or MP3

03. How do you get your electronic music files? (pay service [i.e Napster, iTunes, eMusic, etc.], file sharing, artist/label web sites, etc.)
File sharing with friends and ripping a physical CD.

04. What type of headphones do you use?
I don’t

05. What is currently on your portable music player that you are using? (Post artist, album title, please.)

1. If you could do one thing in the world, what would you do?
Money no object etc., I’d like to travel the country DnD style.

2. If you could be any character from a book, movie, or television show, who would you be? Why?
Some one like Kallen [from Terry Goodkind’s sword of Truth books], Faye from Cowboy Bebop, Max from Dark Angel or my own Asuka Rackell because they’re all such emotionally strong, sexy, kickass people.

3. If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?
I would alter people’s brain chemistry so everyone was more tolerant of everyone else, and I’d change people’s memories so they didn’t want to go back to what we have now.

4. If you could make out with one person of the same sex, who would it be?
My mate Fern, she’s really hot.

5. If you could make out with one person of the opposite sex, who would it be?
Andy. Duh

# What is your favourite fruit?
Banana.

# What is the last book you read?
100 Must Read Science Fiction Books

# Do you like any of your school photos?
Some aren’t too cringingly embarrassing.

# Do you ever blow-dry your armpits to get the deodorant to dry quicker?
I don’t own a hair dryer so no.

# What was the last film you watched?
Blade Runner: The Final Cut

Sop, if this doesn’t make any sense, that’s why. I might also make this private if it’s that terrible…

Anyway. Greg barry dan and ian don’t realise this but I do have an ulterior motive in going on the adventure I’m planning for them this july. this will probably sound horrible, but I want to know if I can trust them and if I can work with them as a team. see, since joinging milllets it’s occured to me how notas-a-team we generally work. but we’ve never had an oppertunity top, or at least thats how I feel it. I’vbe always been a bit of a maverick [or loner if you want to see it that way] and I’ve never played well with others, but since being with millets I’ve realised that working as a team is quite fufilling. I have my place and I’m rising to the challenge of filling it and it’s good. maybe I read too mucyh, and maybe I watch too much tv but it always seems to me that the people I see and read about all have eachother’s backs and they all have theirt places and know the other’s have their backs.

is it silly to want the same thing, that sense of closeness? I feel bad for just asking thast question, like it’s almost a crime to want to know I have thatv strength of relationship with the people in my life. and I realise that a test such as I’m proposing is no subsitute for the real deal as it whwere, of people relying on those around them implicitly in some sort of crisis. maybe I just want to test myself as well, but it occured to me as I was writing my last nano novel and various other events that I want to feel more of a kinship and team-ship with those poele who share my life,. idealy I’d like adny top participate with us, but I doubt that wull happen.

am I just being silly? [and this isn’t a drunk thing, so don’t just pass this off as that]

it’s just, as I get older and thinking atbout marrage and kids and stuff I want to know where I satnd with andy and the others and I want that sort of closeness of having experienced that kind of teamwork with someone outside work.

it’s not just about testing them though, it’s about testing myself. I want to know I can rely on myself justv as much as I want to kbnow I can rely on everyone else around me. Maybe it’s just to make myself feel more confident, maybe I should be aLREADY.

feh, I hope they don’t mind…

I saw a man today.
I thought he was a friend,
one I had not seen in…
such a long time.

I walked up to greet him,
a smile ready on my face,
but he looked up at me,
and I saw
[with embarrassment]
it was not my friend at all.

The smile lingered thought,
and he smiled back
[though he must have been confused]
and in my awkward British way,
to cover the mistake,
I asked him for the time.

But as I walked away,
a thing I once heard someone say came to mind:
Strangers are friends waiting to happen.
I paused in mid step,
turned back,
[with a bigger smile]
and handed him my card.

Maybe he’ll e-mail.
Maybe he’ll call.
Maybe he’ll not.
Either way, I made a new friend today.