Thursday, August 31, 2006

I Don't Trust It!

My water was due to be switched off at 8am this morning, and for the next three mornings, for "essential engineering works". It's still on.

Building work was supposed to be starting in my house at 8am this morning, to add a fifth flat to the loft space. I got a letter today saying it had been postponed to mid October.

Two things that were going to interrupt studying for my exams on Monday, suddenly disappearing? Call me paranoid, but I don't trust it. Something else is going to go wrong, and this time I won't be expecting it! A nice little power cut the night before my exams, maybe?

In other news, Kieran started nursery yesterday. Where is the time going? My sister said that, despite her being worried about him being clingy, he was fine. In fact, he couldn't run away from her to the toys quickly enough. And she was fine too. She didn't get emotional. Much!

Monday, August 21, 2006

Goodbye Chips



My dog was put to sleep this morning. He was having difficulty breathing over the weekend, which was attributed to bronchitis, so my parents took him to the vet and got some tablets to help it. Unfortunately, it got much worse last night and he was taken to the vet again first thing this morning. After some x-rays and tests, it was discovered that his windpipe had collapsed and that he had also developed Cushing's Disease. There was an operation he could have undergone to fix the windpipe, but the trauma he'd experienced over the weekend had exacerbated the disease, and he would still have been extremely ill. So it was decided that the kindest thing to do would be to put him to sleep.

He was an old dog with a lot of health problems, and every time I'd go home, I'd worry that that would be the last time I saw him. But even though I've been expecting this phone call from my parents for a while, it doesn't make it any easier.

Chips originally belonged to my brother in law and we took him in when my sister and brother in law moved in together and they weren't allowed pets. It was only supposed to be a temporary solution, but 10 years later, he was still at my parents house. He was a crazy little Jack Russell pup who mellowed a lot in his old age, but I was still gobsmacked at the amount of energy this 14 year old dog had. He was almost completely blind, but that didn't stop him wanting to play football in the back garden every chance he could get. It didn't matter to him that he couldn't see the ball unless he was two inches away from it! He would sleep in my bed with me whenever I went home, and he liked nothing more than someone taking his collar off and giving his neck a good scratch!

He was such a good dog, and I'm going to miss him so much.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Big Mistake. Big! Huge!

I have been so tired lately, which I don't understand because I've been getting as close to eight hours sleep a night as possible, which is practically forever for me. I usually get by on about six hours sleep perfectly fine, but I find myself barely being able to function at work at the moment with the extra couple of hours.

I got home tonight and was so completely wiped that I lay down for half an hour before I did anything. Two hours later I woke up. This was a big mistake for several reasons.

1) I didn't do any studying tonight - not a huge deal though, because I don't know how productive I would have been anyway;

2) I bet you I have trouble sleeping tonight, despite the fact that I still feel like a walking zombie;

3) That will just mess up my study day tomorrow because I'll feel tired and lethargic all day. I don't mind feeling that way at work, but it pisses me off when I ruin my study days by feeling that way!

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Typical Me

I really like this photo of me.



It pretty much sums me up. Plus, my hair is so shiny! :P

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

12 of 12 (but not!)

I was going to do one of those 12 of 12 posts, but Blogger is being all funny with me and not letting me load all of the photos. (I know, I know, it's supposed to be done on the 12th, but I missed that bit in Helen's post when I decided to do it yesterday. Yes, it took me two times reading it for that to register, despite it being the point of her post. I'm thick, so sue me!) Which is fine, because it was turning out to be a really boring post, and I was just using it as an excuse to tell you something anyway. So I'm just going to tell you the normal way.

I sat my theory test for driving yesterday.


I passed! Woo!

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Why Do You Build Me Up?

My mum and oldest sister are coming to visit me in December. The main purpose of the trip is for them to get a bit of Christmas shopping done and for me to treat them to a West End show, Wicked. It's been organised for a while and they booked their flights months ago.

I mentioned it to my other sister last week when I was getting ready to book the theatre tickets, on the off-chance that wanted to come. She was really excited about it. It'd be a weekend away from the kids, which she's never had since Kieran was born. She just had to make sure that Graeme could get the time off work to watch the boys, but that wouldn't be a problem. And it wasn't.

But I got an email from her today saying that she can't get the time off! She hadn't even considered that!

Boo! I'm really, really disappointed. Once the idea took root in my brain, I started to get really excited about it, a weekend with just my mum and her girls*. Finding out it wouldn't be happening threw me in a way even I didn't expect. I was really quite down about it for a few hours after I got the email.

I've spoken to my sister since, and we've come up with a couple of different options, included her trying to convince someone at work to swap holidays with her, so it's not compeletely hopeless. And even if she can't come down, I'll still have my mum and my other sister, which will be great! But how much better would it be if it were the four of us? So, please keep your fingers crossed that she can get the swap?


* I did also mention it to my dad, but his reaction was:
"A shopping weekend in London with four women, even if it is my wife and daughters? No thanks!"