Friday, April 28, 2006

Things to Buy

Since both L and I are out of our overdrafts, we’ve decided to save up for the things we want rather than buying them and then paying for them after. So, we’re saving up to buy:
  • Two new sofas, brown, leather, two-seater.
  • Telephone, cordless. Preferably two handsets.
Ok, the list isn’t very long yet. It will grow.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Civ 4

Since we joined Screen Select which is a postal DVD rental company, I got a free voucher for DVD.co.uk so I surfed on in and had a look at their offerings. I bought the missing book from my Patricia Cornwell collection, and also Civ 4.
I’m quite impressed with the game. It’s a little slow, but I think that is most likely because my PC is on the cusp of the minimum requirements. In fact, every time I load the game, it reminds me that my graphics card does not meet its minimum specifications! Poo. I have had a crash incident, though I’m not sure whether I, the game, the anti-virus or Windows is to blame. As the game was trying to play the Stonehenge movie at the time, I’m inclined to think that it was the game, however, my anti-virus was also being rude about my having switched it off. Hmm. Well, I’ll keep trying, but it does look like a new PC is on the “Things I want to buy soon” list. I’m considering getting a laptop rather than a desktop, though you tend to get more for your money with a desktop. I would probably sit in silly places with a laptop too…
Anyway, the game looks cool nonetheless.

Monday, April 24, 2006

War of the Worlds

So, on Sunday we went to see War of the Worlds, the Musical, Live.
It was absolutely fantastic from beginning to end! Justin Hayward still has a fantastic voice, and he didn’t do anything crazy to any of the songs. Russell Watson beat my expectations, and made the part of Nathaniel his own. I would gladly have a new version of the album with him on. (I always forget the name of the other guy anyway). The fellow who was the Artilleryman (Alexis James, so the website tells me) was so enthusiastic and really gave the part lots of energy! I liked that very much too. The graphics on screen were excellent too! Lots of combinations of stills, drawings, actors and real Victorian footage. The “Richard Burton in sound and vision” was, frankly, scary! A giant head! I guess it must have looked pretty cool from the back though. There were some great performances from the guitarists (there were four players, but more guitars) and I counted at least 33 violin and violas! Plus eight cellos and a harp! Brilliant. Geoff Wayne looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself. We were lucky, too, because Russell Watson had dropped out of the Birmingham show with a knee injury.
I also took my first ever trip on a tram in Manchester (or anywhere for that matter!) which was fun. And on the way back we took the tram all the way to the station, which saved walking through Manchester in the middle of the night!
Overall, excellent!

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Wedding

Yesterday was Tom's wedding. It was very nice. The ceremony was tasteful and sweet, and it's always nice when the participants actually believe in what they are doing. Gem looked gorgeous and I'll put some pics on when I get some sorted.
The lunch bit was excellent, and we met some nice new people.
The evening do was brill too, there was a band, food, dancing (for me at least) and general merriment.
Had to spend some time avoiding the "baby corner" where there was one actual baby and at least two soon-to-be babies.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Music

As I have made more than one post in one day, I’ve decided to give them “themed” titles. How exciting. These are all named after songs (even this one!)

One Step Beyond

Life seems quite hectic suddenly! I have lots of exciting things to do this weekend. First, we’re going out on Friday night to meet James’s new squeeze, and to have a meal. (I know I’ve been whinging about money, but it will just have to be fine.) Second we’re running on Saturday morning in training. Third, it’s the day-do for Tom’s wedding just after noon. Then at about 3pm we’re in Fulford to have the meal. Once that’s done we’re heading back to our house to collect Leon’s parents and let them in to our house. Then I’m getting changed into a nice frock and we’re off to the evening-do at 7:30. I dread to think what time we’ll get back from that. Sunday we’re heading off to the War of the Worlds concert in Manchester, including eating out somewhere. I’ve left that to Leon to plan. Thank goodness I’ve booked the Monday off work! I do enjoy having things to do though, so woo!

Material Girl

I have to admit it, I like nice things. I know that you all must have worked that out anyway. There are sooooo many things I want to buy right now though. Around this time of year I am always itching to spend my bonus, but unfortunately it went on clearing my overdraft. We do intend to get ourselves a car once Leon has passed his test. We’re also after some new sofas which we’ve seen. Then there’s the bathroom, which we want to re-paper. (I’d love to rip it all out and begin again, but that’s way out of budget!)
Then there are always clothes and shoes I want. Especially since I’m having to re-wear a dress I already wore for the evening-do. And I would like to get the groovy guitar game that Lint introduced us to the other night; that was wicked. And there’s a bunch of DVDs I’d like, and CDs, and books. I’d like to get Civ4 too, as Iasonas speaks highly of it, and I do quite enjoy taking over the world! Though it sounds like it’s not as easy to conquer the World in Civ4 as it is in Civ2. I wouldn’t mind getting Singstar Rocks too. It is also a sad fact that we have a very old and pants analogue cordless phone, which is badly in need of being thrown in the bin and replaced with a nice shiny new model.
So this is quite a big wish-list for someone with no money.

Nine to Five

I seem to have become Little Miss Paperwork now. Little Miss Programmer has not been needed for some time. It’s annoying, my boss insists that I assign a titchy change to the person who wrote a program, yet also tells me that I should not be the only person who knows about the Automation I have been creating. Raa! It’s really frustrating. Of course, there’s always the option to look for other jobs elsewhere, but I’m afraid I’m all talk at the moment. And then, to make it even better he decides that actually he’ll do all the coding, and I can do the chuffing paperwork for it.
As if it isn’t bad enough that my pay rise was pathetic; they go on and try to push me a whole bunch more really uninteresting and monotonous jobs. (Monotonous is a monotonous word to type too…) I guess I shouldn’t complain too much, I don’t work many hours or that hard (mostly for the reasons stated above) so it’s not that bad. I’d still like to do something about this lot.
The amusement for me at the moment is that it looks like we’re going to be severely understaffed for a fortnight in May. Yey. And that can only be blamed on the person giving all of the leave, which is not me. Muhahaha. The down side to this is that it can only be moments before they ask me to cover the missing person(s) because that seems to be the way it is at present. Either that or they’ll have to refuse a holiday request, which might be a little harsh.
Maybe now wouldn’t be the best time to put in a request for some holiday time?.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Happy Easter

So, it's Easter weekend, sort-of starting now!
Yey! Four whole days of not being in work which also gives me the chance to do some more running and perhaps some shopping and maybe make some fudge! Woo!
My sister visited this week, to use my broadband mainly!
I'm finding, though, that I'm not quite as cheery as I aught to be. I think that something is bothering me. I just don't know what...
Oh well!

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Item: Get Out Of Overdraft

This is done, now I just have to stay out of my overdraft!

Road-runner

Yes! Today was my first attempt at running outside
Ok, not the first attempt ever - I'm not six.
As a result of being entered in the Race For Life, I've had to think about training. Yesterday Leon and I went to Up and Running which is a shop that sells running gear. I tried on what seemed like hundreds of pairs of trainers. Dissapointingly, the pink ones were not the best fit for me. I now have some shiny new white-and-lime trainers. I will run because I paid a lot for these trainers.
I also bought a "sport jock" sports bra, which did what it claimed it would, so yey. No "jogger's nipple" for me!
My final purchase of the day was a set of three pairs of sports socks. They are in three colours (white, purple, pink) and in size 5.5-8 (I'm a 7.5 in trainers apparantly! - odd, as I'm a 6 normally!)
So, then it rained on us, and I didn't go out running.
This morning it wasn't raining - in fact it was quite sunny. So, Leon dragged me out of bed and we went for a run. I had a mile-long route pre-planned. We ran from my house to the second juntion into Lint and Mr.Black's estate, back onto my estate and then round the one way system home. approximately 1 mile according to my software. Took 12 minutes, of which about 2.5 mins were walking. I was quite pleased that I made it all the way round and didn't die or anything. I was pretty knackered when I got in though. Despite which I still went upstairs to our "gym" (second bedroom) and did my usual array of crunches, squats and curls. I will probably regret it tomorrow.