It is officially known as "being crazy busy"

And is a horrible condition that I have blindly stumbled into without even realising it.

• Yesterday - dress fitting (including racing out of work early and also paying for it- now v.poor and about to get poorer, see below)
• Today - car getting fixed and so I was on the train, and having to pay out more cash
  
• Tomorrow - boiler being replaced
• Thursday - still boiler, and lots of cleaning up to do
• Friday - the best weekend ever begins (which makes all the rest pale into insignificance). I don't want to put too much 'it must be amazing' pressure on the weekend plans, but I think the rules of physics clearly state that when all the cool kids are in the same place (for the first time in *years* greatness must happen or the universe will end.

Of course the good side to all this is...

• It's my wedding dress!
• My car works again, so I no longer have to lift the bonnet in every school car park before I leave.
  
• The new boiler means Ands and I will *both* be able to have a *proper* bath (that is, more than 2 1/2 inches deep and still actually hot) without sharing (eeeew, boy!) or waiting three hours inbetween.
• Everyone who's coming to stay will also be able to have hot water.
• All my best friends from all over are going to be in the same place, with me. All weekend.

So I may be notably absent for a few days, for the best of reasons xxx

Sunny day saturday

If my rum cocktail in the sunshine has mango in it does it count as one of my five a day?
It already has extra benefit to my mental health because I've been slowly sipping it whilst sitting out on a rug under the shiny happy sun in my back garden.

Vehicular Update

Short version: I have my car and she goes (up hill as well as down). I've put off the big money work but she will need it :( poor poorly car.

Long Version:
I set off for the garage Monday morning (after a phone call on a terrible line to a man I couldnt really hear talking. He said something that sounded vaguely positive so i set off). Rosie was making some rather strange noises, not unlike someone rattling a bag of nails :( so I drove slowly and careful and didn't make any sudden movements. Which meant I missed the turning for the garage and as I was turing round realised that it felt like I was trying to steer a tank, that was full of cement.

I revised my prediction of what is wrong to definately the power steering, and handed her over to be inspected. The burly knight in greasy overalls rang back a couple of hours later. I still couldnt really hear him but there appeared to be options. Either patch or possibly top it up (very bad phone line) or pay him £235 and not have my car for two days. Top her up I said (though I didn't know with what, or why yet).

The leak is from the power steering rack, which after some google searching I can confirm has something to do with the power steering (again I have a tiny bit of car knowledge). The encylopedia of google also informed me that it can be much much more expensive to fix (though that also makes me nervous...why so cheap? will it actually be fixed or will he simply wrap duct tape round it and take my money yelling "sucker!". Then I feel bad for thinking badly of him, of society, of the universe etc etc etc)

So thank you all for your kind thoughts, prayers and postive vibes. I have been able to get back to work, and drive to my parents' so I won't have to miss a friend's funeral tomorrow (a bigger worry than work to be honest). My plan is to get the car properly fixed next week because I have an office day then. Until then my boot contains a handy bottle of power steering fluid (which is the same stuff they put in your car's gears...you learn something new!)

And in a change from our scheduled programming...

I am at home, when I should be at work. Some would relish this extra self-time, but I am far far far too busy at work and have no time left to reschedule the things I have had to cancel.

At about 7pm last night I was putting some laundry away when I glanced out of the window and saw a little cat hiding under my car. Or so I thought. When I looked closer I realised that cats aren't usually flat and shiny. So I took my puzzled self outside and stuck my finger in the shiny patch of glistening something that was oozing out from under my car.

First thing this morning I rang a local garage and got Rosie to limp down there, making some strange noises but going. They are going to check her over and ring me back as soon as they know what's going on. My money is on oil (level has dropped below the dip stick even though it was fine a week ago) and/or power steering fluid (it felt like driving a sleeping tank full of cement). Plus, both of those are shiny oily things that can leak out of a car. This is my level of car knowledge. Please please please don't be too expensive!

So I rang work, got them to cancel my morning appointments and have been getting back on top of the house work. Hopefully I'll know what's going on soon, so I can either go and pay for Rosie's release or leave her to be mended whilst I get the train to work (to catch up on paperwork all afternoon).

prayers and positive vibes greatly appreciated, thanks

Warning: Politics

I was beginning to feel hopeful for politics and the people of Britain after the reactions to the recent debates but I have been plunged back into despair (very Anne-like of me). I've just spent a ridiculously long time trawling many internet pages to find out which constituency I live in, who is running for parliament and who won the last election here (and by how much). It is not the party I hoped, and they won by far too much (about 16,000 votes). I live on the wrong side of the tracks, quite literally.
I'm now in a dilemma of strategy vs. ideology. What I need is to develop strong enough mind reading capabilities that I can tell what 22,000 other people are going to do, and develop them before May 6th.

I have a new dress!

and it is *so* pretty it makes me want to wear dresses all the time.

although it is orange, which I wasn't sure I could pull off. It seems I can.

The dress...



Thank you Marks and Spencers (but your pictures are *small*)

This is quite possibly a bad idea...

I have spent the last many hours in the company of some of my best people, have had curry and several glasses of wine and been listening to some frankly *terrible* wedding bands in an attempt to find entertainment.
To make up for this auditory assault we have run to seek solace in the sounds of delirious and jason mraz which has helped but the experience has obviously traumatised us as the discussion has now moved onto the death of the 'round poo wombat' and the evolutionary triumph of the square poo wombat. (quote of the week...reasons to go to Austrailia... "single men and wombat poo")

Normal service will be resumed on Monday xxx

progress report

the bathroom is nearly undercoated. I have entirely under estimated the amount of time it takes to strip a room of paper, prepare the walls and paint them. I gave myself the entire bank holiday weekend (apart from the visiting time) and we finished the undercoat last night. It's disheartening really; I'd built myself up to be super home maker and start making this place our own. The only expectations I'm failing are my own, but that's a habit I have. The feeling of failure when I miss a self-imposed target is pretty much the same as missing a real one. I need to work on chilling out about that really.
I did ring a lady about a wedding cake though. She sounded lovely, gave me some information and I'm to ring her back next week to talk details and arrange meeting up.
My head is a spinning to do list atm. I have until about 7:30pm to pack for the weekend (yay!), empty my boot of work things, check the oil in my car, make some dinner, tidy bedroom and living room, sort my laundry so it'll get done whilst I'm away, deliver some flowers to a friend from work who is poorly and get myself to aqua. Go go gadget Yen.

(my life is more than to do lists...it just doesn't feel like it at the moment!)