Changing Rooms? PAH!

We're now in the process of transforming a cheap chest of drawers into a cheap chest of drawers with new fronts. The idea was to cover them with the leftover wallpaper and thus make them match the spare room. But, as usual we only had enough left to cover three of the five drawers. We're now going to have to use that special paint for faux wood and MDF and paint the remaining two with that to make the whole thing match. Now, this is either going to look ludicrous, in which case it's time to get to Argos, OR it'll look spot on. The wallpapered ones look good, and I have a new found love of arts and crafts, but I'm not so confident of our prowess with the old spray can, but we shall see.

As you can tell, we STILL haven't finished the spare room, the shelves are going back up tomorrow, and the full length mirror went up tonight. I shall hang the pictures last of all I think and I'm still in two minds as to whether I want my PC back in there. If I put it back then it will free up space in our room for us to put something in it's place and if I don't then it'll be the nicest room in the house that no one ever goes in. This in itself is a problem because I want a nice room that no one messes up, but it seems like an awful lot of wasted time and indeed money for no one to use it.

I went to work for the last time this year today and it was terminally dull. We've also been to the SALES! Except I have bought nothing except a pair of black jeans that I didn't try on because I expected them to fit. Turns out they don't and further more they are too big, so every cloud and all that! I've got to take them back tomorrow morning which I expect will be fun.

Merry Festive Season Happy Greetings!

If anybody is reading this then I wish them a very happy Christmas and I hope you got everything you asked Father Christmas for. I have more chocolate than is humanly necessary, so if anyone wants one, help yourselves.

I've spent an enjoyable few days with my family and am now back home after a not too bad journey cross country. In fact, there was little traffic on the roads at all including the M62 which I was expecting to be the worst. I went for a bracing walk on the seafront on Boxing Day and have never been so cold. We set off walking into the wind and lasted about five minutes before we turned around and walked the other way only to realise that we would still have to turn around and walk into the wind on the return journey. Still, it cleared out the old sinuses.

I'm looking forward to the new year now because I'm determined we will start the renovation of the living room. I'm a bit sick of it being a state. I plan to take up the fire surround and take off the fireplace and replace them with something much nicer and more to our taste. I also want to strip back all the lining paper the previous occupants put up. It's coming off the wall in places, so I suspect once it's off we shall find ourselves with a few problems underneath. Anyway, enough of that......for now......

Ready, steady......GO!

Finally, it's all done, and everything is wrapped. We did pop to town this morning for a few last minute bits and pieces and I was surprised to see that the panic buying hasn't really started in ernest, maybe everyone is waiting until Christmas Eve or something. The supermarket however was a bit more busy than I'd like, and there were NO cheese footballs!

Don't panic though, we managed to get some from Iceland - we know how to live!?

Waiting for Godot

So, this morning at around 8:30am the cooker man rang to tell us he would be with us between 12pm and 3pm. This gave us some hours in town to try and buy the Christmas presents we haven't yet. We basically ran around town because we thought, nay hoped that the cooker man would be coming around the 12 mark rather than 3. Well, we got back just before 12, and waited, and waited, then waited. 1 came and went, 2 came and went, then 3 came and went. He eventually turned up around half past after sitting outside in his van for at least 20 minutes. When he eventually decided to come in, his reason for being late was that he was watching a plane circling. Not just any plane mind you, a plane that looked like it was going to crash land and was circling to get rid of it's fuel. Apparently his brother had seen it and called him to say he could see it and that it looked like only one of it's wheels was down. Cue much speculation as to whether it was going to make a crash landing. Now, I'm not overly certain this wasn't an elaborate excuse, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt as he's fixed my cooker and it now reaches top temperature.

Another weekend flies by

This time last year we discovered that our brand new cooker didn't quite reach it's top temperature, needless to say we left it until two weeks ago to do anything about it. We are lazy and probably only really decided to do something when the grill ignition gave up a month ago. Tomorrow the repairman is coming to hopefully sort it out as we had to send off for new parts but it's meant taking a day off work to wait in. Of course they can't give us a time so it's looking like it's not going to be overly productive tomorrow.

We've not done a great deal this weekend, I went to work on Saturday and missed going out for a friend's birthday on Friday night. Then last night went round the corner to see some friends for a few hours. They're looking after another pal's cat. He was in the bad books though after defecating on the brand new stair carpet. Having said that though he seems to be settling in as he came and sat with us in the living room for much longer than he had been doing.

Madam Paws woke me up this morning by standing next to my head and shouting at me. I desperately tried not to open my eyes as that is the kiss of death as then she knows you are awake and will not leave you alone. I wasn't successful though and so she meowed for around half an hour before I gave in and got up. Seems I'm destined to never ever have a lie in.

I think I'm starting to come down with the illness that seems to be doing the rounds lately, I've had a sore throat since Friday afternoon. Just my luck to get it in time for Christmas!

Christmas

I love Christmas me. Or at least I did before I got a job where I would have to work on odd days throughout the festive period. This means I can't spend any of this holiday for any length of time with any of the people I care about. I'm going to my parents on Christmas Eve itself, which means a good four hour journey if I'm lucky, and if I'm unlucky, I'll arrive sometime around midnight. Then, I'll have to travel back on the 27th, so I can be back in time to go to work. I'm starting to wonder what my boss would say if I decided to book two weeks off next year right over Christmas....

Having said all that though, I am looking forward to the time I am going to spend with the folks, I don't see them as much as I would like, but I guess this is what being a grown up is all about, isn't it?!

We've nearly finished all our Christmas shopping too, only a few more people to buy for and then we're done. However, we've jumped the gun a little where the festive snacks and Roses chocolates are concerned, and nearly finished a bag and a tin of both.

I am a liar

Yesterday I went to town to buy some Christmas presents and as I walked to and fro I passed not one, but two men selling memberships to the RAC. On both occasions I said, "Sorry, I already have membership", when asked would I like to join. I DON'T! I don't feel very guilty, mainly because some answer has got to be better than just being ignored, hasn't it? I always stop for those people doing surveys as well, even though I know that I am going to be unable to take part because I work in the Meedja. I just feel that it's hard enough to get people to be civil as it is, so I figure it's better that I don't add to the general rudeness.

I've been internet-less at work for about a week and a half and surprised myself at how productive I can be! I got it back today though and automatically fell into the same old patterns, it's like a drug! I don't know what people did at work before computers!!!