I'm back!  I have a new laptop and a new router so I'm finally able to rejoin the 21st century.  I looked back through my FB posts and worked out that I've been without the internet for around 11 weeks.  I can't believe I lasted that long.  I've been staying vaguely connected by using the (woefully slow) cyber cafe at work when desperate and checking in from my mum's PC every Sunday.  I think I've managed to keep up to date with most important stuff on Facebook and Hotmail and I'm able to check Twitter from my desk at work anyway so I hope I haven't missed anything vital.  I feel a bit guilty about anyone I've not been able to wish a happy birthday because of the lack of FB so if you fit into that category I'm sorry and will try and do better next year.  I now have over 600 emails to sort out in Hotmail.  They are all from businesses rather than contacts so I feel a bulk deletion session coming on.

Tomorrow is my last day of 2.5 weeks annual leave.  I decided to take advantage of the Bank Holiday season to do some desperately needed decorating.  I set myself a target of painting the bathroom, re-sealing part of the bath, filling the crack in my bedroom wall, painting my bedroom and replacing the curtain rail in the bedroom.  I'm not doing too badly.  I need to do one more coat on about half of the bathroom and one more coat on one of the bedroom walls.  Then it's just a case of moving all the furniture back into the bedroom and getting dad to put up a shelf in the living room and a finger plate on the front door.  I'm aiming to finish the painting tomorrow,  The process hasn't gone too badly.  The worst thing has been coping with having all the stuff from the bedroom (apart from the bed) in the living room.  There is currently about 2 square metres of spare floor space in my fairly large living room.  I'll be pleased when it's all finished.

I've tried to alternate one day of decorating with one day of fun stuff in an attempt to try and stay motivated.  It seems to have worked as I haven't slacked off at all.  

On Easter Saturday I went to Oxfordshire for my aunt and uncle's golden wedding anniversary party.  It was nice to see all my 2nd and 3rd cousins who are nearly all teenagers now.  That made me feel a bit old.  In keeping with family tradition we played a selection of silly games.  I proved that I'm not competent at sucking a pea through a straw and moving it across the room.  I'll remember not to include that skill on my CV in future!

Last week I met up with a friend in central London.  I'd planned that we would look at the exhibition currently showing on the South Bank and grab some food at the Royal Festival Hall or the NT.  However, I'd failed to realise that most of the complex was shut for the few days between Easter and the Royal Wedding so we ended up walking up to Westminster Abbey to see what was going on.  We saw lots of tourists, some of the crazy people already camping across the road on the Wednesday to ensure they got the front spot and zillions of media teams from all over the world.

On Friday I watched the wedding on TV.  I am slightly ashamed of myself about this and will not be admitting it to anyone at work.

Earlier this week I went to the Museum of London with my parents to see the London Street Photography exhibition.  We also looked around the newly refurbished modern galleries.  It was the first time I'd been to the Museum of London for many years and I really enjoyed it.  I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a free day out in the city.  We were there from 11.30am - 5pm and we saw less than half of the permanent exhibitions.  In the evening I treated my parents to tickets to see Smash! at the Menier Chocolate Factory, an independent theatre in South London.  This marked the second time in as many months that I'd been in a theatre audience with a famous person.  Back in April I was in the audience of 'Shoes: the musical' with Gok Wan and then I was in the audience of 'Smash!' with Steve Coogan.  I was literally standing right next to him as we left the theatre.  My parents had no idea who he was!

Today I went to Balham for lunch with my friend and her 7 month old son.  We had lunch in a lovely boutique cafe and then went for a walk on Tooting Common.  The little-un was positively angelic and the sun came out in the afternoon to allow us to wander around.  I felt a bit guiltly that I still haven't finished sewing the baby's christening gift.  He was Christened in April and it's still not finished.  I'm doing the final stage at the moment but I've run out of one colour of thread and will have to send to the USA for an extra bit.  My aim now is to finish it before he's too old to want it on his bedroom wall.  A highly scientific survey of males (I asked the bloke who sits diagonally opposite from me at work!) informed me that it'll probably be OK until he's about 7.  I'm pretty sure it'll be done by then!  However, I think not having the internet has helped as I didn't have that to distract me in the evenings.  I'm going to have to be disciplined in the coming weeks.  I haven't done anything to it this evening.

So tomorrow is reserved for finishing painting and Saturday for moving furniture.  Hopefully, everything will be back to normal by Sunday.  Then it's back to work on Monday.  Time flies when you're having fun.

I'm not happy.

Yesterday I resealed my bath.  Obviously it was more difficult than it looked.  DIY stuff always is.  My major error was cutting the nozzle on the tube of sealant to the middle setting rather than using the smallest one.  In hindsight I should have tried using the smallest setting first and then adjusting it later.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing.  The excess sealant means that it now looks messy.  Where there was previously a nice straight, narrow line, there is now a wonky, splodgy line.  When I'd finished it I sat on the bathroom floor and sobbed.  This morning I felt a bit better about it.  The sealant looks messy but at least it looks like the bath has been sealed effectively and won't be flooding the flat downstairs.  Additionally, it looks nice and white rather than black and mouldy.  Some of the sealant behind the taps was previously mouldy all the way through.  Finally it's not like it's permanent.  In a year or so it will have gone mouldy and will need replacing again.  I can either do a better job next time or get a professional in to do it.  It's not the end of the world by a long way.  The whole DIY thing gets on my nerves a bit.  Sometimes I wish I could afford to pay someone to do these types of jobs.  Other times I think that I <i>should</i> be able to do these little things myself.  I am an independent woman.  I need to be self sufficient to some extent.  I'd never attempt anything complicated or potentially dangerous (like plumbing for example) but I should be able to cope with a bit of light decorating.  Oh well, it's done now.

I'm also unhappy because I've missed out on piano lessons this term.  I went to open evening at the College on Monday because I had some queries about the course.  When I spoke to the tutor there were still six places left on the course.  I went away to think about it and by the time I attempted to book on Thursday night it was full.  Now I'm going to have to wait until January.  I'm going to be sooooo bored this term.  All my friends are really busy or have moved to Watford (only one friend has moved to Watford, it's not a mass exodus or anything!)  What am I going to do with myself?

Finally, I'm a bit fed up with Nationwide building society.  They keep sending me letters telling me that my mortgage deal is going to expire on 31st October 2009 and urging me to phone the branch to make an appointment to discuss it with someone.  I've failed to get through to them on the phone several times and no one answered so I went in on Saturday morning to try and make an appointment in person.  When I asked the assistant she told me that they no longer have mortgage advisors in branch and I need to speak to the call centre.  I don't want to speak to the call centre.  I want to have a face to face meeting with a human being.  I had several meetings at that same branch when I originally got my mortgage and they were great.  It makes me want to move my mortgage but if I did that I'd have to pay a £1000 early repayment charge and there's no saying that another lender would be any more helpful thatn Nationwide.  Argh! 

On a more positive note, I've been looking at B&Bs in Nottinghamshire with mum in preparation for our short break at half term.  We're going to do some family history stuff in Bottesford (near Belvoir Castle) and hopefully explore the area a bit.

I watched the final episode of ER last night.  I've never been an ER fan as I don't cope very well with blood, gore and death but I can appreciate that it was ground breaking TV.  I watched a few episodes of the final series and I thought it was done very well.  It was great that they managed to get many former cast members to return for odd episodes (even one whose character died on screen!)  I hate it when important former characters are forgotten in shows (like when peoples relatives fail to attend their weddings in soaps).  It was also nice to see the very beautiful Parminder Nagra as leading lady of the final season flying the flag for us Brits (and Thandie Newton and Alex Kingston in the final show). 

Oooh, and I bought clothes today.  I got a winter coat for the bargainous price of £35, a black sweater dress reduced to £12 and a grey cardie for work for £15 all in New Look.  I'm going to buy a couple of V necked jumpers in Dorothy Perkins then my winter work wardobe should be sorted.

Gosh!  It's been absolutely ages since I updated properly. 

I am currently feeling accomplished.  This evening I finished painting my living room/kitchen ceiling all by myself.  I'd never painted anything before and didn't expect it to be an easy job so it's good to know that it's now complete without any major disasters occuring.  One problem I hadn't anticipated was that it is quite tricky painting something the same colour it is already as it's difficult to tell which bits you've painted already and which you haven't.  I tried to work in a logical order but once you've gone down the ladder, put more paint on your roller and then climbed back up the ladder again it's easy to forget where you were.  Anyway, it's done now.  It's not the best paint job ever.  You can clearly see that it's patchy and some areas are better covered than others however it is just the ceiling and I'm hoping people won't look to closely.  Most importantly, the patch of Coca Cola blotches over the sofa are now gone so it's mission successful.  I've spent the last few days living in chaos as the furniture has been all over the place.  The process of moving stuff out of the living room has reminded me of two things (a) what a nice, big space it is and (b) how much better it looks when it is tidy.  I'm now considering some changes to the furniture.  Also I was given a large piggy bank as a late birthday present which won't fit on any of my living room surfaces at present.  It'd be good to have a nice big display shelf to put it on so it doesn't languish in my bedroom forever.

I'm doubley pleased with myself for completing the painting as I'm really quite unwell at the moment.  I woke up with a sore throat on Tuesday morning, wasn't too bad on Wednesday, sore throat returned on Thursday and has now turned into a chesty cough which I have a horrible suspiscion may be an 'upper respiratory tract infection'.  I had my tonsils out when I was six and I now seem to get such and infection when everyone around me has tonisilitis.  Fingers crossed it goes away with me having to go to the Drs for antibiotics.  I didn't sleep well last night as I kept waking up to cough which is why I'm still awake now.  I'm hoping if I make myself tired enough I'll sleep through.  Typical that I get ill whilst I'm on annual leave.  I was talking about this to Mr Mole earlier on and it probably is the fact that my body has 'allowed' me to get ill this week whilst my guard is down.  Bother.

( We love the 1980s )

I took this week off work as annual leave.  The main purpose was to paint the ceiling, however on Monday my Dad suggested that we go on a trip to Blenhiem Palace.  Blenhiem Palace is in Oxfordshire.  It's famous because it's a Baroque style building and it's enormous.  It's also famous because Winston Churchill was born there and later proposed to his wife there.  It is quite an impressive place.  The architecture is certainly different.  It's made out of a yellowy coloured limestone which is quite unusual.  You enter through a big courtyard which is covered in gravel.  It wasn't a very sunny day when we visited and it all seemed quite bleak.  Mum said that it could do with a few pot plants for interest!  Inside, the decor is all about excess.  The palace was built in commemoration of the first Duke of Marlborough's victory at the Battle of Blenheim and the whole place is full of references to this.  There's a massive mural on the ceiling of the entrance hall showing him giving the note stating that he'd won the battle to none other than Britannia.  When I say massive, I mean massive.  It's in a similar style to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  There is also a whole series of huge tapesteries and a silver table centre all about the battle.  In the grounds there is a Nelson's Column style column with the Duke on the top, with a blow by blow account of the battle written on the lower parts.  We walked over the the column through a field full of very woolly sheep who were doing a good job of keeping the grass short.  It would be fair to say that the Marlborough's weren't modest at all!  The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough still live there some of the time.  The Duke is in his 80s and married his fourth wife in December.  He's disinherited his oldest son because he doesn't approve of his lifestyle.  Don't you just love the British aristocracy!

That's all for now.  I'd better get some sleep.  I've got a trial at the hairdressers for my bridesmaid hair tomorrow afternoon.  Very excited (and nervous!)

I have been a lazy livejournaler. Facebook is taking up an increasing amount of my limited online time and I fear that my trusty LJ is being neglected. The following entry is my attempt to redress the balance.

Last Wednesday I went to Ikea in Croydon with a uni friend. We went on the tram from Wimbledon which was quite exciting for me. Trams are cool. Sort of like the lovechild of a bus and a train, but cheap and without traffic jams. My shopping list consisted of the following items:

A new cover for my sofa
Dividers for top drawer of chest of drawers
Dish drainer
Cutlery dish for kitchen drawer
Coat hangers for trousers

I returned with the following:

A large stainless steel bowl
Two replacement heads for toilet brush
Magnets for fridge door
Fish slice
Glass jug
Coat hangers for trousers
Two lampshades

As you can see from the discrepancies between the two lists the trip was not very sucessful. This was made worse by the fact that the bowl wouldn't fit into any of the many kitchen cupboards except the extra large corner cupboard. As a result I had to rearrange all my crockery to squeeze it in. This process reminded me of the puzzles they used to have on the Crystal Maze! I was particularly irritated that they didn't have any covers for my sofa. I have a standard Klippan sofa which currently has a black cover. All I want is more colourful one and every time I go there they're sold out. Tut! Additionally, I finally relented and purchased two paper sphere lampshades for the lights my lounge and bedroom. I don't like them but they are the only ones I can find which fit the high tech, super energy saving light fittings in my flat. The light in the hall is causing more problems as the bathroom door skims the light bulb by a few millimetres when it opens. A paper lampshade would be destroyed in no time. The trip wasn't a complete disaster though. I had a very nice (and very cheap) dinner of meatballs followed by chocolate mousse and it was good to catch up with my friend.

On Saturday I went to a garden centre with mum and dad to choose some plants to put on my tiny balcony. I really wanted a small tree and some big daisies. We got the small tree but daisies seem to be out of season at the moment so I got dark pink petunias instead. The pot which the petunias are in will be my 'seasonal' pot. I'll re-plant them each season with a suitable plant. I'm looking forward to some winter pansies in a few months time. Mum helped me put the plants in the pots and on Sunday night we bought them back to the flat. They are now brightening up my balcony a treat. I think I need one more slightly taller plant to set it all off but I'll have to wait until I have more cash.

There's been some good TV this week. I enjoyed DanceX on Saturday although I thought Bruno made the wrong decision when he ditched Becky. Also, the sleazy looking Maltese guy who Arlene rates so much is a dreadful singer. He was so out of tune in that second song it made me cringe! Roll on next week.

I also enjoyed Sanjeev Bhaskar's show about India and Saira Khan's show about Pakistan. I knew a bit about India but practically nothing about Pakistan despite having many friends and work colleagues of Pakistani descent so it was really interesting to see inside the country.

And in food news... I managed to destroy a marinaded chicken breast this evening. I think there was too much excess marinade on the chicken when I put it on the grill because it burnt. When I picked the burnt bits off it was quite nice underneath. Oh well, I certainly live and learn when it comes to cookery. I'll be testing the baking credentials of the oven on Friday night when I make cakes for my friend's barbeque. I've got my fingers and toes crossed for sucess in this feat.

The burnt dinner didn't matter too much as I went out for a Thai meal at lunch time. It was a double leaving do and 27 people turned up. There was only one waitress and she coped admirably under the circumstances. The meal was pretty good for only £4.75. However, I wish people would stop asking me about my exam results. I'm trying to forget about them!

Some readers may know that I had a bit of an emotional time over the weekend. Both Cardiff Bloke and my ever dependable Mum deserve big thanks for putting up with me and providing wise advice.

Right, time for bed.

Furniture comes with so much packaging. After 10 years or so as a dedicated recycler I think I've undone all my good work in the space of a fortnight. On the plus side, the flat is starting to look habitable now. Only one bit of furniture remains un-assembled and that's the coffee table which isn't really essential. My dad has informed me that the wrong screws have been sent with it, but I'm not going to start complaining until I've had a thourough look at it myself as the diagram is very confusing. The bedroom furniture arrived on schedule yesterday in the hands of a very grumpy delivery driver who proclaimed that there was nowhere to park and that he'd been told off for parking in the Blockbuster carpark opposite. I pointed out that the area directly outside my block was a dedicated loading bay, but he wasn't convinced. I felt like informing him that two Argos delivery men with much larger vans had managed without moaning on Saturday when the traffic was worse but I held my tongue. The bedroom furniture is great though. My dad proclaimed it 'very solid' which it darned well should be for the price I paid. I'm pleased that the chests of drawers arrived without the knobs attached as I was planning on buying different ones anyway. When I first looked at the flat the bedroom seemed tiny but it actually looks bigger with the furniture in it. Think I might have to put a blackout blind behind the curtains though as the station is lit all night. The lounge is finished now apart from the aforementioned coffee table. Dad finished off the dining table today whilst mum and I put the panels on the vertical blind. The blind was nearly a disaster as we cut the panels incorrectly but we managed to salvage the situation. Let this be a lesson to you reader... if you purchase vertical blind panels from Argos they are not all the same length therefore deciding to shorten them by measuring the length needing to be cut off and cutting the same amount off of each panel it won't work very well to say the least. It does look good now it's sorted though. Unfortunately, it doesn't block out much light and I can't afford curtains so anyone who has to stay in the lounge may not sleep very well. The BT man is coming next Thursday to sort out the phone line so I need to sort out when I'm going to move my general stuff from here to the flat. Mum and I also hope to complete the general jobs on Thursday like fixing the full length mirror.

I've also discovered the horrors of the bin store this week. It's smelly, horrible and full of flies. Urrgghh! I'll be trying not to go in there very often.

Very much enjoyed seeing Julia Sawalha in 'Who do you think you are?' on Wednesday evening. Quite sad that despite being the highest rated show for the timeslot her episode had the lowest viewing figures for the entire series. It seems that quite a few people opted for the first episode of 'Torchwood' on BBC2 instead. Julia came across both as someone close to her family and as someone genuinely interested in her family history. It always amuses me that she is most famous for the roles of Lynda Day and Saffy Monsoon, characters who rarely laugh, yet she laughs all the time in real life. She must have a natural ability to keep a straight face when all manner of hilarity is going on around her. Now I hope that she decides to return to acting. In my eyes she is the actor who never grew up. I read an interview done some years ago in which she said her agent was advising her not to take so many teenage roles but she wanted to as she felt it would giver her career longevity. She has played a few adults noteably in Jonathon Creek and early 90s movies etc. but all her 'big' roles were teenagers. I think the last one was 'Pride and Prejudice' in which she was about 28 playing a 16 year old. Jonathon Creek was a shame as it was past it's best by the time Julia joined. I think many viewers gave up when Caroline Quentin left as they were only watching for the Jonathon/Maggie spark. Also the stories didn't seem quite as clever in the Julia episodes. Anyway, she's nearly 40 now and looks just as amazing as she did in Press Gang 13 years ago, so it's time for her to do something brilliant and resurrect her career. Dexter Fletcher managed to establish himself as an adult actor in 'Lock, Stock' so Julia now needs to do something similar, although with less gratuitous violence obviously.

On a completely different note, violetcreme has reminded me that I forgot to write up laurasplog's stand up gig which I attended a couple of weeks ago, so here it is. I went along with my sister, her boyfriend and some of their friends to The Cricketers in Kingston to see the Laughing Horse comedy night which is held there every Saturday. laurasplog was waiting by the bar when we arrived but I didn't go and speak to her as I wasn't sure she'd recognise me and I felt that going and randomly asking "Do you ping?" in front of her fellow stand ups may cause embarrasment and confusion. We each paid our fiver and took our seat. I'd never been to a stand up gig before and was bit nervous as I knew audience members are often picked on from the stage. One of my sister's friends wanted to sit right at the front but we managed to talk her out of that idea. This was good as the first thing the MC did was ridicule the jobs of the people sitting right at the front and I think, as I'm a Personnel Administrator, I would've been easy pickings. The first act was a very charismatic South African guy who joked about happy slapping and being mugged. Doesn't sound like great subject matter but it was actually a very good warm up. Laura was on next and her act was a complete contrast to the first guy. She reminded me a bit of Jo Brand only happier, thinner and with better dress sense. Her jokes are observational and probably appeal to women more than men. My party particularly enjoyed the ones about speed dating as one of our number is a speed dating veteren. I feel a need at this point to inform laurasplog that not all blokes called Barry are a dead loss. I will elaborate if asked but possibly in a locked post! Back to the gig, I though her act went down very well so early on in the evening. The crowd wasn't particularly charismatic but she got some good laughs. I'll definitely go and see her again when she's next in the area. The evening continued with some good acts and some bad ones. The guy who followed Laura on was gay and autistic and had based his act around these points. Unfortunately, he was very nervous and didn't really find the level of the audience. The guy after him was obviously much more experienced and sent us off the interval in a good mood. After the break there were two very funny acts with an inexperienced guy who ran out of material after about five minutes in between. Throughout the evening my group had to keep being told to be quiet my the MC. My sister's friends are a bit louder than the people I normally hang around with. The night was also noteable as I tried Magners for the first time. It was an enjoyable experience as I like cider but I gave up drinking it years ago as my friendship groups always considered it to be suitable only for old men and kids hanging aroung getting drunk in parks. Thank you Magners for making cider socially acceptable again!

I am now a home owner which is, in my opinion, one step further towards being a 'proper grown up'. Technically I only own a 50% share of the flat with the housing association still holding on to the other half but as everyone keeps saying it's a step on the ladder. If anyone is interested there are some photos here . You can see that I'm very close to both the station and Heathrow airport. As I don't do flying one of these will be much more useful than the other. It also means that no one has an excuse not to visit despite the lack of parking. Talking of the lack of parking there was a letter in my mailbox from someone else in the block complaining about the lack of parking, stating that the NCP carpark next door was very expensive and requesting that everyone raise the issue with the council. I'm sorry but I have little sympathy with this person. It was clear when viewing the block that there was no parking nearby and I made a point of asking about it before I decided to buy the flat. I'm aware that beggars can't be choosers when moving into social housing but still I'd think that if you were that desperate to own a car you'd find somewhere else to live. I don't know what the council will be able to do about it either. They can't magic up parking spaces in a very crowded area and everyone knows that NCP are an evil and expensive private company. I've been past the MD's house in Teddington and it's gigantic!

Anyway, I now have enough keys to consider opening a key shop. I just hope I don't lose them all. I also have a lot to set up and lots of manuals to read through. I spent 15 minutes on hold to BT today and still didn't get through so I hope this won't be the case with all the other companies I have to contact. I also discovered that my water rates are included in the service charge to that means there was something I budgeted for which I won't have to pay :) All my required furniture is either on order or being purchased in IKEA tomorrow. Big thanks to my sister's boyfriend who has hired a van and is driving me to Croydon tomorrow. He used to work for Pickfords so I'm hoping he'll help carry everything up to the flat without taking chunks out of the new plaster. I ordered four items from Argos this afternoon and it's being delivered next Saturday. I'm not entirely convinced that it's going to turn up though as the guy who served me was incredibly nervous when he found out it was all home delivery and went to pieces a bit. Initially he asked me which timeslot I wanted and I requested the afternoon. He then said the afternoon wasn't available so it would have to be delivered between 7am and 12noon which is really inconvenient as I won't be living at the flat then so I'd have to get to the other end of town for 7am on a Saturday. Then when the receipt printed out it gave the afternoon times! Goodness knows what was going on there. I should've ordered online or over the phone.

The housing association gave me a welcome basket which I wasn't expecting. It consisted of posh Twinnings tea, coffee, a small bottle of red wine, a small bottle of white wine, some shortbread biscuits, some sweets and a duster. I'll be needing the duster as the builders haven't tidied up after themselves very well.

Sadly, I can't live at the flat until my bed is delivered and that could be another fortnight. At least that will give me a chance to get things sorted out ready to move. My life is chaos at the moment.

I've volunteered to take part in a research project at work which is looking at how part time post grad students organise their study. I'm hoping it'll guilt trip me into working harder. At the moment I do most of my work in the 40 mins Arrested Development is on TV every Sunday night. This is obviously not a good thing as I have twice as much work to do this year.

In other exciting news, I've been invited to my friend's hen weekend next February. We're taking over an entire self catering block in a country house hotel for the weekend. It's going to be so much fun :)

Entertainment wise I've missed several things I wanted to see. This included Mitchell and Webb on BBC2 and Rubbish on Radio 4. I'm most disappointed about Rubbish as the Radio Times doesn't list Paul Reynolds as appearing this week. I did however find time to post an episode review of Breakfast at Czars (first episode of series two of Press Gang to the uninitiated) to Holding On. Really looking forward to the rest of the discussions for S2 as it's by far the best series in my opinion.