i_just_hide | Nov. 15th, 2008

I've been a really rubbish LJer lately. The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy and I'm tired. It doesn't help that I was woken up at 3.30am this morning by a huge crashing noise. It seems that someone had decided that the early hours of Saturday morning would be a good time to do some noisy maintainence work on the level crossing 10 metres from my flat. Poor me!

Lots has happened since I last updated properly. I went to see the free firework display at Streatham Common with my Streatham dwelling friends last Wednesday. I caused consternation by arriving late as a result of dashing home to get my waterproof and then getting stuck on the train because of signal problems in the Balham area. Aarrgghh! My friend was rather wonderful and put together two fajhitas for me to eat cold when I finally arrived. I ate them both in about 10 minutes flat. The fireworks were excellent although they were a bit out of time with the musical accompaniment. The fireworks started and the music started a couple of minutes later. Unfortunately, this kind of ruined the dramatic effect of the Star Wars theme. It was free though so I guess I shouldn't complain. We don't have any free firework displays in the Hounslow area.

Last Saturday I joined my friend's fiance and brother on their joint birthday Monopoly pub crawl. The idea is to have an alcoholic drink in a pub on (or as near as possible to) every street featured on the Monopoly board. In order to get around all the pubs you have to start at Elephant and Castle (Old Kent Road) at 10.30am. I decided to join them for the afternoon - evening shift. I planned to meet them at about 2pm but then realised that I really wanted to see the last episode of Greek on BBC Switch. In the end I met them for the Picadilly pub at about 4pm and left them at Leicester Square at 10pm. At that point they still had six pubs to go. I didn't think they'd make it round but they did. Anyone who is friends with me on FB will probably have seen some photos of the event. The event had a hat theme. This was useful as it made it easier to round up the people in our party ready to move on. You have to be pretty strict about getting people to drink up and leave on time if you're going to make it around 22 pubs in one day and there were lots of other groups doing the same route. My hat was a bit of a disaster. I planned to wear the red cowboy hat I've had since uni. Unfortunately, it was in my wardrobe back at my parents' place and mum had put two feather pillows on top of it. Consequently it was totally squashed. I had to leap into action to find a replacement quickly. The only place I was able to reach in time was Hounslow which does not contain any shops which sell novelty hats. I ended up buying a shocking pink novelty bopper from Claire's. Basically a headband with two springs attached to it with fluffy stuff all round it. Everything I've ever purchased from Claire's has been poor quality and an utter waste of money. The bopper was no exception. It fell apart after I'd been wearing it for half an hour. I took it back and got a refund today. As a result of this misfortune I'm the only person without a hat in the photos. I look like a right miserable cow. I'm glad the night went well though. My friend's fiance dressed up the guy with the top hat from Monopoly complete with monocle. He looked great. We also got to see the City of London at night which I've never seen before. I loved all the floodlit old buildings and the private members clubs in the Picadilly area with real flaming torches outside.

On Sunday I attended Rememberance Day parade with Brownies. For the first time I can remember it rained on us. I felt bad for the Brownies, Cubs and Beavers. We always get shoved right to the back behind the Sea and Air Cadets so they can't see anything. This time the parade marshall didn't even call out our colours. The flagbearers had to do the flag lowering for the Last Post and National Anthem in amongst the crowds. Not ideal. Mum came along to watch and got to sing her favourite hymn 'Those in Trouble on the Sea' so she was happy at least.

Monday was horrible. It rained heavily all day. I got absolutely drenched walking from Reception to my office. Not a good start to the week.

On Thursday I went to see Hounslow Light Operatic Society doing Gilbert and Sullivan's 'The Gondoliers'. I was really impressed. About 30 people were took part and they are only an amateur group. I didn't know there were so many trained opera singers around.

Today I went to Kingston to have my hair done. She blowed dried it in a differnt way to usual. It looked great for the first half hour after I left the salon and then gradually went flat and reverted to the style it's normally in. It drives me mad. I think the only answer is to have it all chopped off. I have to wait until after the wedding though as my sis has asked me to keep it long in case she decides she wants me to have long hair. I also looked at loads of clothes but didn't buy any. I urgently need new work clothes but it's so difficult to decide what to wear. My office is freezing in the morning and boiling in the afternoon so layering is necessary. I might have a look around town tomorrow and see whether I can find anything in New Look or Dotty P.

That's me for now I think.