Today...

...would have been my Dad's 63rd birthday.

Happy Birthday Dad.



Miss you lots.

----------------------------

In other news.

Me and this daft man here...



...went to the bank today and got ourselves a mortgage.

I iz a grown-up.

I iz a HOT grown-up due to the air con at work not working.

Here is a picture of me looking hot:


In fact not just hot, hot AND sarcastic.

To celebrate both of today's events - beer. (in one of my Dad's glasses)




Cheers.

I have had...

...a very relaxing five days off. Well, four so far and then rest of today which will be the only one of those days sans Anthony. Which has been lovely too.

We have both had haircuts, we've driven round various areas of Wolverhampton trying to find bits that we'd like to live in, we've been to Waitrose three times and Hobbycraft once and we've got the V+ Box down to 40 hours of free space (rather than 5).

Anthony showed amazing patience when helping me choose a new pair of trainers:
K - Not those ones
A - Why not?
They've got too much white on them
What about these ones?
Too grey
How about these?!?
Yuck!
These ones? (said through gritted teeth)
Hmmm....
Eventually I decided on a pair of the Hmmm... ones (what do you mean you can't tell the difference?)

(pictures (in order) for those who did not want to link click)




They also ended up being men's ones rather than women's, partly due to the fact that all the men's ones were out for people to try while you had to ask for the women's ones (and I couldn't put the poor shop guy through it).

That's the first pair of trainers I've owned in 15 years...my last pair were for PE at school and they lasted through my gym moments at uni too. Since then I've not really worn trainers, and the pair of Anthony's that I "borrow" are a size too big and so unrunnable in. Not that I'm about to take up running. Definitely not.

On Sunday I cooked up some Veal Scaloppine. Or at least I would have done had Waitrose had any veal left. They did not, so instead we had Pork Scaloppine.


I very slightly over salted it (due to not being used to using salt when cooking but following instructions in the book to the letter) but Anthony said it was "Bloody lovely". So that was a success.

In two weeks time I have promised to cook Chicken in Garlic Sauce for Angie, Paul and Joe - eeek! Cooking for real people! People who won't be afraid to tell me if it is actually inedible (Joe), but who will also pour me more wine if it is (Angie and Paul). Angie also hit the nail on the head when she called me a 'dinner party cook'. It's true, cooking is such a big event for me at the moment. One of the reasons she therefore decided I should have a dinner party!

Back to work tomorrow...I have three days in, then one off, then four in, then NINE off! (Then my next break is June, then Monza!)

I didn't cook...

...Cheese and Corn Pudding or Ragout of Venison with Wild Mushrooms or Creamy Tarragon Chicken this weekend. I didn't cook Beef Wellington either.

Instead we had roast pork with roast potatoes and parsnips. Lovely. Not photogenic though, sorry.

As well as that we also broke a world record - "Shortest Amount of Time Spent in Ikea and Actually Managing to Buy What You Wanted".

This is a picture of my old desk back when I'd just moved into this house (note hideous rental curtains and the evil pinkness of my uncovered armchair).



This was OK back when I first got it, but now it was just annoying. The top was all warped, the whole thing wobbled like hell whenever you typed and the chair wouldn't fit under it properly meaning that you couldn't actually get close in.

So I have been hunting for desks and failing to find one that I liked. Then some clever person posted a link to Ikea Hacker on Twitter and there I got a few ideas.

Then I went on the Ikea website and plotted and planned. I had to do lots of this so that Anthony would think a trip to Ikea was actually a good idea.

We went on Sunday morning and got there about 10.30...we left an hour later. (They open for browsing at 10 and for sales at 11, there were only about 20 cars in the car park when we got there and no dawdling people AT ALL).

That hour saw us locate the table top, table legs, shelf and kitchen cabinet legs that we needed. It also included the obligatory hot dog and trip to the food shop for pink mushrooms and a bag of Daim bars.

Sunday afternoon was spent creating a masterpiece (hence the no faff roast for dinner).

May I present for your viewing pleasure, my new desk.



(Note lovely cream curtains, throw disguised armchair and also new blue rug to try and protect the hideously cheap carpet from dying under the chair castors).

All solid pine which has made the living room smell absolutely lovely.

It's also made me much more confident about creating the desk space I will have one day when we actually own a place and can build proper fixed-to-the-wall things.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

...oh look, it did.

Reading through my Google Reader I notice an awful lot of people who have been off work/college today because of the snow.

Jammy buggers.

I must admit that work was ok today because it was so flipping quiet as anyone with any sense has stayed at home/gone sledding. This did mean that the customers we did have were as mad as a bag of snakes. Oh, and Gavin popped in. But it was his birthday (25) so we'll let him off.

Today I wished I was between the ages of 6-11 again. In fact we could stretch that slightly to 6-18 as my senior school would have shut due to the snow too.

But my memories of playing in the snow are from 6-11. Building igloos in Melanie and Lauren's back garden (proper high walls and everything). Building forts in the front garden and engaging in snowball fights with Calvin and Martin.

Instead I pulled a few returns, informed people that the cookery book published by "someone named Marjorie, used to live next door to me, it was about Black Country recipes" was out of print ("so how long will it take you to order it?") and was generally rather bored.

Sometimes I wish I lived further away from work so I could say I couldn't get in. Sometimes I wish I was 6-11 again. Sometimes I wish I had kids so that they'd be off school so I couldn't go in.

Here's hoping for two out of three (since I ain't gonna get younger).

One Day.

Yesterday was supposed to be...

...Blue Monday.

(At least it was according to some strange formula which made the news full of it)

The most depressing day of the year.

It could very easily have been.

It was the day before my payday - which used to mean 19p toast for lunch (except that the Tesco Value sliced loaf has rocketed up to 40p since I last bought it) - but as we had thought ahead I had lovely galettes filled with cheese and ham instead.

The shop was very very quiet - which could have meant us all worrying about our jobs - but instead we wrote reviews, pulled returns and made suggestions for Richie Fingers' display of adult picture books (sick puppies, this kind of book, not that kind of book).

I got incredibly broody over an adorable little girl - which could have ruined my whole afternoon - but instead I thought that although I don't have that right now, I will in the future and so it's something to look forward to, like a holiday is.

Oh yeah, did I mention? I'M GOING TO MONZA!!!!!

*ahem*

Today is also going to be a very good day.

I have just slathered Marilyn all over my hair so that it currently smells gorgeous, and in 5 minutes it will look gorgeous too (once dried anyway).

I have two houses to go and view just up the road. I still want to move and even if they're no good I like looking at houses.

I plan to do some nesting things and some bookish things and with any luck Keris might have Joe while I'm at home to read the updates! (although not looking promising so far)

I've gone online to do all my banking and remembered that I don't have to pay any Council Tax this month! That makes me £71 richer than I thought I was. I'm going to be good too and not just go straight to Etsy with it...I shall pay off my book club instead.

And Nie is posting again.

Life is good.

I'm a little bit...

...fed up with the fact I've caught the flurgy twice in the last four weeks.

Partly cos it nearly killed me yesterday morning.

I was nicely asleep and having a surreal dream about Grandma Mazur (reading too much Stephanie Plum methinks) when I was woken up by a sneeze.
I reached down to the box of tissues...empty.
I woke up Anthony to check his side for tissues...nada.
So I hauled myself out of bed to go downstairs to the bathroom and grab some toilet roll.

Except the fact I was still rather sleepy meant that I didn't put my left foot where I should have done at the top of the stairs.

This resulted in me sliding down the stairs on my right side and landing in a heap at the bottom. (Anthony was out of bed and nearly at the top of the stairs before I hit the bottom).

Ow.

Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW!

These are the stairs that I went sliding down (note the white marks on the edges of the bottom seven stairs).

Below you can see what my right calf and right thigh looked like just afterwards (those white marks on the stairs...the skin from my calf). The swelling on my thigh just kept growing, it was a B cup size before any bruising started to come though.





I trotted off to the doctor (ie Anthony gave me a lift there and then I took 20 mins to do the 5 min walk home) since I'd also banged my head (no bruising there, sorry) and he was quite amazed that I hadn't broken anything (as was I). I just had to wait for the swelling to subside before I tried to spend a large amount of time on my feet. He also said "You'll probably have a little bit of colour change around that swelling in the next few days".

He wasn't wrong.

So for your viewing hilarity I present to you.

Kate's Rainbow Leg (over the course of yesterday afternoon)




The bit above the crescent shape is where it is still swollen (although probably only an A cup now) from a haematoma that is "probably going to take a few weeks to come out properly" - as in the swelling to go and that bit of bruise to come out. Since this is me...the folks in the Center Parcs Spa will probably be wondering how I got that bruise when I go there in March!

I hate Maths...

...no really, I do. (Emily - please ignore the fact that I decided to do it at A level for a minute here, I got a U anyway)

Every time I do some Maths, I get horribly depressed.

Usually it's because it's payday and I've just logged on to my internet banking and transferred over half my wages across to go on my rent. Then I have to divide up the money left onto council tax, water, gas and electric. Then I take one look at the amount that I have left...and buy myself some books with it in an attempt to distract myself from the fact that I'm skint.

I don't think that's going to work this time.

I've just had my gas and electric bills for the last year. Now they're not actual bills because I have those pre-payment meter thingies. The ones that I decided to keep an eye on like a grown-up.

I read them again the other day and once again had to press millions of buttons on the evil gas meter and just one on the lovely electric meter. I carefully wrote down the numbers in the same way I'd written them down before so that I could compare the figures - and then I found a letter from British Gas with a nice little booklet in giving me the new prices and checked that they matched.

Well when the bills came today I thought that I would be very very grown-up and do some clever Maths to work out how much it cost me last year (cos it doesn't tell you that, just how many kWh's you've used) and then how much the same amounts would cost me this year.

I really wish that I hadn't bothered.

WARNING - MATHS FOLLOWS

Electricity usage = 4126 kWh.

Last Years Rate = 11.89p per kWh + 11.72p per day standing charge.

355 days between 31/08/07 and 20/08/08 means that the standing charge total was £41.61.

11.89p x 4126 = 49058.14p = £490.59

£490.59 + £41.61 = £532.20

This Years Rate (so far...) = 13.10p per kWh + 11.85p per day standing charge.

Using the same amount of electricity as last year at this years rates = £582.58.

Ok...that's not too bad I guess.


Now for the gas.

Gas usage = 19923.33 kWh.

Last years first 2680 kWh rate was 7.501p. So 2680 x 7.501p = 20102.68p = £201.03

Last years rate for the remaining amount was 2.865p. So 17243.33 x 2.865p = 49402.14045p = £494.03

Total gas cost = £695.06

This years rates are 9.084p for the first 2680 kWh and 3.814p for the rest.

Using the same amount of gas as last year at this years rates = £901.13.

£901.13

£901.13!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had to work that through again to make sure I hadn't made a mistake...but I hadn't.

This year it will cost me more than a months wages for my years gas. That's just a little bit wrong, surely. Surely?!

Last year I would wear two jumpers, tights under my jeans and fingerless gloves at the computer in an attempt to keep warm...I don't quite know what more I can do this year.

All that is why Maths is hateful. Yes, ok, I get that it's useful for allowing me to work all that out. But now I need to go and buy books...big thick books...for building a well-insulated book hut for me to live in!

Sometimes...

...I should quit while I'm ahead.

After seeing this story about the huge British Gas price rises, I thought I'd better look at my pre-payment meters to see what they say at the moment. That way (like a grown-up) I can keep track of how much my gas and electric actually are, rather than just thinking "Blimey, that £10 went quick".

So I looked at the electric one first. It says that I have £5.84 on there (good) and that my standing charge is 82p and that I am paying 11.89p per kWh. (I will find another grown-up to explain to me if that is good or bad).

Lulled into a false sense of security by my lovely electricity meter (where I just pressed one button a few times and it gave me those numbers), I decided to look at the gas one too.

Biggest mistake of the day.

For the gas one you have to put the card in, and you have to press the two buttons in sequence, and then you have to go through millions of tiny hard-to-read screens before you find one that looks as if it makes sense.

Also, if you try to just crouch down to do this, forgetting about your dodgy ankle, your ankle will give way and you'll start to fall over. So you'll grab at the gas box, and it will pull away from the wall (just the box, none of the piping - don't panic about that).
Then you will fall over onto your back like a drunken beetle. In front of people.

Luckily I missed cracking the back of my head on the wall, I hit the bin instead. The graze on my hand has almost stopped bleeding now too.

Of course, after I'd hauled myself upright again the meter had gone back to the original screen so I had to press buttons randomly again.

My evil gas meter says:
credit £12.67 (good)
tariff 4 7.501 (uh-huh)
tariff 5 2.865 (errm)
wid4 7.34 (wid4? wtf???)
C.V. 41 (??????????)

If anyone knows what the fuck that all means - I don't care anymore.

I shall be aware of the rate on my lovely electricity meter and ignore the evil gas meter.

And I shall continue looking for a new place to rent. Somewhere without big gaps round the doors, with double-glazing that is actually effective, and where the gas meter is not of the evil pre-payment type.