There seems to be a whole lot happening around me these days, and I'm feeling more and more like I'm reacting to it (badly) instead of actively participating in it. I feel like a bystandard in my own life. Recently, I can't seem to shake the feeling I have that I'm drifting along, but I don't know what to do about it. All I want to do is stay home and read.
Tag: slice of life
February has been a shit month
The month is over and I'm glad it is. Looking back on it, February has been a shockingly bad month. Craptaculous, even. Katy was sick. Tokyo was cancelled. We both had a case of the grumps. The fridge decided to pack it in and blew up† and now the laptop is showing signs of imminent total graphics controller failure.
I can only say:
†We had a power cut last Wednesday that was supposed to last 2 hours but ended up lasting about 15. When the power came back on, it did something that the fridge didn't like. It started making a really loud clicking noise and was pronounced dead the following evening when we realized that everything in the freezer had defrosted. It's not too bad – we managed to salvage most of the meat by making huuuuuuuuuge meals and keeping stuff in the office fridge. We only lost about £70 worth of food (an average weekly shop). The really annoying thing though is that even though it's all under warranty, they can't send an engineer over until next Tuesday. So yeah. No fridge. Fun…..
Weekend update
Last week felt like a long one, and the weekend wasn't long enough to compensate for it. Katy felt it more than I did because she had to go into relationship counseling mode for Donna and Will and Jules and Sarah. She should start charging for it. There was work drama on top of the relationship drama (thankfully neither involving her directly). Still, she got caught up in the middle of it trying to make things better for other people. In the end, it left her wrung out.
Stephane arrived on thursday. He's crashing at ours until he gets his flat situation sorted out. We think he's going to like living in the UK, even though his waistline is going to take a serious beating. I know, I've had the same thing happen to me for the same reasons: it's so much easier to find safe foods to eat that you kinda sorta go mad at first. Stephane left Tescos with half a dozen little boxes of goodies that are so good but so bad :)
I'm starting to get things ready for my trip to Tokyo on wednesday. I need to pack and make some flight-friendly food. I also need to get some directions sorted out on how to get from Narita airport to my hotel, but that should be fairly easy to do.
I've booked the services of a volunteer guide organization to show me around town on the 8th to the 10th. It's a service that's coordinated by the Tourism Office of Japan. They're called goodwill guides, and are mostly housewives and students that take gaijin tourists around the major cities. They don't charge anything beyond the price of admissions to the places they're taking you and travel fare for the guides (and a meal if you're having one). Cheap at twice the price for the peace of mind of having a native that speaks the language :)
I'm looking forward to being there (though the 12 hour flight is going to be a pain) but at the same time, I'm a bit distraught at leaving the girl for 10 days. Le poo. I'll just have to take her with me next time I go there.
Board Chow
I was browsing when all of a sudden, the letter 't' decided that it become stuck on my keyboard, even though I hadn't even touched the damn thing. I had to do a hard shutdown of my laptop because I couldn't do anything else.
I flipped my keyboard and shook it on my desk. A rather distressing amount of board chow rained on my desk… Granted, I've been working with this keyboard for about 3 years now without ever cleaning it.
I dare you to flip your keyboard and give it a shake to see what rains out of it.
Um, ew?
Making it more difficult than it should be
We went to Starbucks last weekend. I just wanted a cup of tea. The dialogue went something like this:
Me: I'd like a cup of tea please
Starbucks Zombie: what size?
Me: Medium
SZ: what kind?
Me: um, English breakfast?
SZ: one bag or two?
Me: um, two?
SZ: room for milk?
Me: buh?
I ordered something for Katy as well. I always feel like a bit of a berk when I say “I'd like a grande one-shot decaf skinny caramel macchiato with whipped cream”. Makes me feel dirty, somehow.
The outside coming in
There's a snippet of one of Dennis Leary's stand up routines where he talks about his kids and describes the “dangerous quiet” – the one where it's too quiet, the one where you find your kids giving the dog a bath in the toilet…
I have encountered my own version of the dangerous quiet this morning. The Kitten of Doom is normally vocal, demanding and rambunctious. This morning, all was quiet in the house. Nothing was stirring. Except the dead vole that was being batted around the living room and being happily disemboweled on the rug.
It would seem that the big fluffball is bringing presents back to the little one (who hasn't mastered the art of the catflap yet and isn't going outsite). If the kitten can't go outside, the outside will come to the kitten, apparently.
No real content post
Things are finally settling down on the home front. We've opened the cat flap so that the large grumpy beast we call a cat can go out and do cat-like things (usually involving getting rained on and walking back into the house with muddy paws). The little toxic waste we call a kitten is settling in. She's still farting, but at least they're starting to not smell as bad. She's taken to sleeping on the bed with us at night. She's an attention whore, but a cute one so it's all good.
I went to see the Terracotta Army exhibition at the British Museum last Sunday evening. It was a very interesting outing. I knew that the first Emperor of China had created over 7000 clay soldiers, but I didn't know he'd also included city administrators, acrobats, strong men, horses and carriages. Apparently, there are hypotheses that say that the central burial mound, which remains unopened, contains a recreation of the landscape of China (with a pearl-encrusted sky and mercury rivers). Toxic, but sweet!
We're going to do a bit of home reorganization this weekend. We've sold the large blue Ikea sofabed and we're going to move the office into the guest bedroom. We're also going to go visit some flats for ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
sbourge. He's under the optimistic impression that he can rent a flat in less than a week so we're going to do some of the leg work for him while he's playing in Montreal.
I've started looking into things to do and places to see for when I visit Tokyo in February. It promises to be an interesting trip. I only wish that Katy could come with me :( On the other hand, it gives us a reason to go together at some later date :)
Next weekend sees us in Londondinium. Still need to book the hotel for that…
The americanization of the British airwaves
It seems that every popular american TV show is getting a Brit counterpart: UK's next top model, Biggest Loser UK, Pimp my ride UK, Queer eye for the straight guy UK, The Apprentice UK, and the list goes on. Hell, there are even rumours of a Law & Order UK spin-off.
My favouritest US->UK program ever has to be My Super Sweet 16 UK though. Only there can you hear a public school boy say in his best home counties accent Fo' Shizzle, it must be said.
Gotta love it.
The weekend can't come soon enough
I don't know why, but I'm so tired today I can't think straight. It's been a loooong week and, at times, not a very good one. I think that I've caught whatever bug took Katy down last week. Hopefully, it won't be as bad. I feel like I haven't had a good night's sleep in too long and it's making me a bit braindead. I've been staring at my screen trying to fire up enough neurons to start some debugging, but it's not working. I just want to go home and go to bed. Sadly, the universe doesn't work that way.
Fooey.
Not a morning person
I'll be the first to admit that I am not a morning person.
Seriously, I'm not.
My normal morning routine is to snuggle next to Katy until the snooze button has been smacked a few times, then go downstairs to make tea and get breakfast ready. I'll watch the news, wave Katy off to work and then sometimes make myself another cup of tea while I check my email. I'll get dressed and mosey on off to work.
This, I find, is a gentle way to get ready for work.
Giving a shit-covered cat a shower at 7:30 in the morning is not, I repeat, not a preferred way to start the day. It happens to rank quite highly in my most-unpleasant-things-to-do-before-tea list of badness…