Right then...
Nov. 9th, 2006 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gothams3rdrobinThis is going to take me a while. It's also gonna be long, so I'm lj-cutting it.
So last week Rowan and I invaded![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thaya_rayal's new flat in the wilds of Hampshire. It's a very nice place, and is amazingly close to everything. The train station is just outside - and is not noisy enough to be a problem - plus the town centre's a five minute walk away. It's not a very big town centre, and I found myself seriously missing Cardiff, but it was still quite respectable. There's also a park five minutes in the other direction that got Rowan's seal of approval.
It was wonderful to see Thaya and her boyfriend Caleb again, though poor Caleb was very ill the entire week. Despite that, he was very good company and was amazingly tolerant of Rowan, who chose last week to be at his most irritating. He barely shut his mouth the whole time he was awake, and hardly ever did as he was told. He also drove us all crazy by trying to run and jump all over the flat; he's used to my basement flat where he can run around and not bother anyone, but Thaya's flat's upstairs and she was concerned about her neighbours. Considering she's only just moved in, that's perfectly fair. Unfortunately Rowan couldn't keep still, even though he was perfectly aware he was doing something he shouldn't. *sighs*
When I told Mam about it on Sunday her reaction was "He's a typical four year old!" Yeah right - you can't even cope with him for more than a few hours, woman! And he was ten times worse last week - for seven solid days! By Saturday all three of us were about ready to strangle him.
However, he was much better yesterday evening, when I got him home from school. He amused me by wandering around our flat quietly singing a track from The Feeling's album! *chuckles* He's heard it a million times when he's come to snuggle with me before we officially get up for the day, and he's decided its his favourite song.
Last weekend was Bonfire Night, and there was a display scheduled at the park near Thaya. We had planned to go, but Rowan's misbehaviour put paid to that plan and we had to settle for watching it from the living room window. Despite that, it was a very impressive display. We also had home-made pizza and cheesecake which was scrumptious!
I got Thaya and Caleb completely addicted to 'Dr Kawashima's Brain Training' on the Nintendo DS *evil grin* I haven't done a brain age test since I got back (though I did do some daily training on tuesday - it's probably gonna tell me off for not being on for a couple of days again...) but my test results have been improving since I started. I don't feel like my brain's woken up again yet though. I think Rowan's also missing Caleb's Playstation 2...I have video footage of the three of them playing with the Eye-Toy camera games, which I will upload at some point.
It was horrid starting back at work again on monday, after a fortnight away. I was amazed to only have about four hundred corporate emails to look through though - not bad for fourteen days... I was also very surprised to learn I won 'Comment Form Of The Month', which means I get to finish an hour early one day of my choice - I've opted to do so tomorrow. My manager gave me a box of spiced orange flavour truffles as congratulations (I don't drink so the usual bottle of wine is inappropriate) and I tried to palm as many off on the rest of the team as I could, since I'm fat enough as it is. Most of them said no though, the fools. They were really tasty.
I was horrified to learn, on returning home, that the work to my flat was still not complete. They still had to put in the kick-boards at the bottom of the floor-units in my kitchen, put up the rail for the shower curtain and other little fiddly jobs. So I had to leave my key with my upstairs neighbour again, and wasn't very polite with them when I got home from work that evening. Between me and the people living in the two ground-floor flats, I think they're getting rather fed up with all the criticism! They'd also not done a very good job of installing the top kitchen drawer, and it took two attempts to get them to fix it.
They needed access again on tuesday, so I left the key with Pat again, returning home to find they'd left it with Yvonne who lives opposite. I won't go into why this didn't please me, as it makes me sound very unkind. I have no idea whether they still needed access after that (which is frankly ridiculous as they'd already had a fortnight by the time I got home), but they've left tiling grout, a stanley knife and various other odds and sods on top of my fridge-freezer.
I decided I'd had enough Tuesday night so I started tidying the kitchen and bathroom up again. The tiles were absolutely covered in this horrid dust, and it took me about half an hour to stop the bath feeling gritty (aside from the special 'anti-slip' spots, which I'm dubious about). Then I decided to test the shower to make sure I knew which setting to have it on in the mornings - and guess what? I don't think they've installed it properly... it's only running at scalding hot, and nothing I can do seems to make it cooler. Feel my joy...
Unfortunately I've not been able to get to talk to the workmen about it, as I've been having to run for the bus in the mornings (he's back to his old tricks of taking almost an hour to eat his breakfast - I'm instituting a deadline from now on) and by the time I get back home they've packed up for the day (about four o'clock - how pathetic is that?).
I also have reason to believe they've walked off with my sweeping brush and dustpan set. As in, I can't find them. *scowls*
My french course started while I was away, and I had my first on-line tutorial on monday night. (BTW: Props to anyone who recognises the quote from the lj-cut text) It was seriously un-nerving as it's held on this special software where you can meet up in virtual 'class-rooms' and talk to people all over the place. My tutor's in Penarth, which is just down the road, but there was also a student in London. I can't remember where all the others were.
I'm a little un-nerved by the course so far, as it's supposed to be for complete beginners and I don't see how that could be the case. I think I've only been able to work through the modules so far because I can vaguely remember what I did for GCSE. We'll see how we go.
Ugh...brain melting now so I think I'll stop there. I'm currently listening to a new CD - the Radio One 'Live Lounge' album, which has live tracks (naturally) from artists that visited the Meida Vale studio in London. They do a live version of their current hit, and also a cover of someone else's song - there's a mix of both on this CD. One of my favourites - and the reason I bought the album - is Will Young's gospel version of Outkast's 'Hey Ya!' *grins*
So last week Rowan and I invaded
thaya_rayal's new flat in the wilds of Hampshire. It's a very nice place, and is amazingly close to everything. The train station is just outside - and is not noisy enough to be a problem - plus the town centre's a five minute walk away. It's not a very big town centre, and I found myself seriously missing Cardiff, but it was still quite respectable. There's also a park five minutes in the other direction that got Rowan's seal of approval.It was wonderful to see Thaya and her boyfriend Caleb again, though poor Caleb was very ill the entire week. Despite that, he was very good company and was amazingly tolerant of Rowan, who chose last week to be at his most irritating. He barely shut his mouth the whole time he was awake, and hardly ever did as he was told. He also drove us all crazy by trying to run and jump all over the flat; he's used to my basement flat where he can run around and not bother anyone, but Thaya's flat's upstairs and she was concerned about her neighbours. Considering she's only just moved in, that's perfectly fair. Unfortunately Rowan couldn't keep still, even though he was perfectly aware he was doing something he shouldn't. *sighs*
When I told Mam about it on Sunday her reaction was "He's a typical four year old!" Yeah right - you can't even cope with him for more than a few hours, woman! And he was ten times worse last week - for seven solid days! By Saturday all three of us were about ready to strangle him.
However, he was much better yesterday evening, when I got him home from school. He amused me by wandering around our flat quietly singing a track from The Feeling's album! *chuckles* He's heard it a million times when he's come to snuggle with me before we officially get up for the day, and he's decided its his favourite song.
Last weekend was Bonfire Night, and there was a display scheduled at the park near Thaya. We had planned to go, but Rowan's misbehaviour put paid to that plan and we had to settle for watching it from the living room window. Despite that, it was a very impressive display. We also had home-made pizza and cheesecake which was scrumptious!
I got Thaya and Caleb completely addicted to 'Dr Kawashima's Brain Training' on the Nintendo DS *evil grin* I haven't done a brain age test since I got back (though I did do some daily training on tuesday - it's probably gonna tell me off for not being on for a couple of days again...) but my test results have been improving since I started. I don't feel like my brain's woken up again yet though. I think Rowan's also missing Caleb's Playstation 2...I have video footage of the three of them playing with the Eye-Toy camera games, which I will upload at some point.
It was horrid starting back at work again on monday, after a fortnight away. I was amazed to only have about four hundred corporate emails to look through though - not bad for fourteen days... I was also very surprised to learn I won 'Comment Form Of The Month', which means I get to finish an hour early one day of my choice - I've opted to do so tomorrow. My manager gave me a box of spiced orange flavour truffles as congratulations (I don't drink so the usual bottle of wine is inappropriate) and I tried to palm as many off on the rest of the team as I could, since I'm fat enough as it is. Most of them said no though, the fools. They were really tasty.
I was horrified to learn, on returning home, that the work to my flat was still not complete. They still had to put in the kick-boards at the bottom of the floor-units in my kitchen, put up the rail for the shower curtain and other little fiddly jobs. So I had to leave my key with my upstairs neighbour again, and wasn't very polite with them when I got home from work that evening. Between me and the people living in the two ground-floor flats, I think they're getting rather fed up with all the criticism! They'd also not done a very good job of installing the top kitchen drawer, and it took two attempts to get them to fix it.
They needed access again on tuesday, so I left the key with Pat again, returning home to find they'd left it with Yvonne who lives opposite. I won't go into why this didn't please me, as it makes me sound very unkind. I have no idea whether they still needed access after that (which is frankly ridiculous as they'd already had a fortnight by the time I got home), but they've left tiling grout, a stanley knife and various other odds and sods on top of my fridge-freezer.
I decided I'd had enough Tuesday night so I started tidying the kitchen and bathroom up again. The tiles were absolutely covered in this horrid dust, and it took me about half an hour to stop the bath feeling gritty (aside from the special 'anti-slip' spots, which I'm dubious about). Then I decided to test the shower to make sure I knew which setting to have it on in the mornings - and guess what? I don't think they've installed it properly... it's only running at scalding hot, and nothing I can do seems to make it cooler. Feel my joy...
Unfortunately I've not been able to get to talk to the workmen about it, as I've been having to run for the bus in the mornings (he's back to his old tricks of taking almost an hour to eat his breakfast - I'm instituting a deadline from now on) and by the time I get back home they've packed up for the day (about four o'clock - how pathetic is that?).
I also have reason to believe they've walked off with my sweeping brush and dustpan set. As in, I can't find them. *scowls*
My french course started while I was away, and I had my first on-line tutorial on monday night. (BTW: Props to anyone who recognises the quote from the lj-cut text) It was seriously un-nerving as it's held on this special software where you can meet up in virtual 'class-rooms' and talk to people all over the place. My tutor's in Penarth, which is just down the road, but there was also a student in London. I can't remember where all the others were.
I'm a little un-nerved by the course so far, as it's supposed to be for complete beginners and I don't see how that could be the case. I think I've only been able to work through the modules so far because I can vaguely remember what I did for GCSE. We'll see how we go.
Ugh...brain melting now so I think I'll stop there. I'm currently listening to a new CD - the Radio One 'Live Lounge' album, which has live tracks (naturally) from artists that visited the Meida Vale studio in London. They do a live version of their current hit, and also a cover of someone else's song - there's a mix of both on this CD. One of my favourites - and the reason I bought the album - is Will Young's gospel version of Outkast's 'Hey Ya!' *grins*
