June Round Up

Gosh, the past few weeks have been a real blur.

Witnessed England getting dumped out of the Euro competition by the usual penalty shoot-out, celebrated a birthday (yes another year older dammit!) with the usual outing with the girls but also a meal out (yes really) with Boom. Also got to hold an Olympic Torch (guy at work was a torch-bearer and brought it in, and yes, that's my arm!) - it was pretty heavy!

Also, my parents are visiting for the first time in two years - aha, now I know why it's all been a blur lately..I've been too busy TIDYING UP! Anyway, must have done an ok job as my mum mentioned it to my sisters!

What else have I done this month? Decided that I'm going to buy a new car (I had a plan two months ago when I only renewed my Tax Disc for 6 months) and was speccing out and pricing up VW Polos but that's not what I've gone for in the end.

I'll post again when the car arrives...

Social Geeks

Following the ‘relative’ success of the last meet (I say relative because a couple of people fell out afterwards but that’s another story…), I drove up to Darlington the other weekend to meet up with some fellow World of Warcraft players. Ok, so to use our WoW character names, I met up with Lapi,(Cheryl) Uri (Bri) and Undead the guild leader (Adam)  whom I’d met previously and Antek (Ant), Gotwood (Curtis), Angrysheep (Paul) and Jonnydepths (Jordan) who I was meeting for the first time. We did look a motley crew hanging outside the B&B as I checked in – yes, I was last to arrive, despite being the closest; Gotwood and Angry drove up from Dorset the previous night, Undead from Leicester.


As always with meeting people for the first time and chatting face to face rather than online, it was a little bit awkward at first but things relaxed really quickly. We chatted about all things WoW, guild progression, basically ideas to get people motivated again about the game since many are just waiting for the next expansion set to come out. I still love playing but it’s a shame Boom has gone over to the ‘dark side’, ie playing the Star Wars game now when he has time. It was a lovely sunny day – seemed strange that I was sat outside in my vest top sipping beer as if I wasn’t in a northeast town in March!

I was the oldest of the group this time, the youngest only 19 but I didn’t feel out of sorts. I was careful not to drink too much though (didn’t want to be old and disgraceful) plus didn’t relish a bad hangover the next day. Lapi and Uri invited us to their home and introduced us to their dog Lister.

All in all, an enjoyable day and night out – after a nice meal in a local restaurant (my steak was a bit overdone but it was ok), we went to find somewhere for a drink and a chat – unfortunately, it was Darlington on a Saturday night so the only place we could find reminded me strongly of Peter Kay’s ‘Phoenix Nights’ - a little working man’s club, complete with glitter ball, 3 people inside, woman singing karaoke and playing tracks from the 70s! We only stayed for one drink as the 19 year old was ready for home after trying to keep up with the men all evening.

Nice B&B, with a mini military museum-cum-bar downstairs and my hangover wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t enjoy the full cooked English breakfast the next day!

The next meet will probably be sometime after Lapi has given birth (in real life, not in game!)

Enter The Dragon

Kung Hei Fat Choy! Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year!

Called the family and had a good chat to all who were celebrating in HK. Me? Well, I cooked something Chinese for me and Boom for tea at the weekend - that was the extent of my celebrations!

The Dragon is my opposite sign so this is supposed to be lucky. How lucky depends on me so I hope I make the most of this year.  A big lotto win wouldn't go amiss haha!

2012 has started at a relentless pace, especially at work but with the economic outlook heading towards a double-dip, I have to be grateful I guess that I'm working and that I'm busy.

Am paying more into my pension (not my choice), things are not getting cheaper so I'll need to be less frivolous this year. Time for some supermarket budgeting and perhaps cutting back on the alcohol...maybe!

Harry Made Me Cry Again!

Was resigned to missing all the summer blockbusters due to Boom not getting enough time off but for once, things turned out alright and we went to see the last of JK Rowling's movie franchise, 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2'. (This was after I'd driven to the old cinema which was all boarded up, shows how long I've been there!)

It's been a couple of years since I read the book so my memory of a lot of the storyline was a bit hazy but I think this (plus the film before) are now my favourites as I loved the books when they turned dark.

Top performances by the 'kids', actually the title of this post is a lie as Harry didn't make me cry, it was Snape, ie Alan Rickman who made me shed a tear!

Frankie and Benny's afterwards - food now sitting feeling very fat in my belly. I need to cut down, love handles are starting to appear, I swear! :-(

[posted in Jan 2012 - stuck in Pending]

21 again and again

Bugger - not been about and got so much on at the mo that I've not had a chance to update.

Anyway, it's my birthday today, I think I'm still hungover from Saturday, even though I don't think I drank that much, I'm just rubbish at drinking wine!

Hightlight whilst I was at work was my nephews and niece calling me from Hong Kong and singing 'happy birthday!' Fab!

Boom stopped by despite things not being great with his mum at the moment - just good to see him even for a short while.

Anyway, yay me, another year older but not a lot wiser lol! :-D

Games On!

The London Olympic tickets are up for sale, or rather, the ballot is now up and running. Wisely, there is a large window of time during which you can request allocation of tickets which has meant that there has been no meltdown of the website as hordes of people log in to try to buy.

If Big Sis was still living in Surrey, I’d have probably applied for loads of tickets and taken a week off work and stayed down there for an ‘Olympic week’. Since she no longer lives there, I have to be selective with what I go for – need to check dates and prices.

I know some people are a bit ‘meh’ about it all but I grew up watching the Olympics and this is probably a once in a lifetime thing really for me - it’s got to be done, I must be able to say that I’ve attended at least one Olympic event!

Athletics has always been my favourite but I find that I can happily watch any event, even the really obscure ones.  

Not been up to much really recently – Boom’s 40^th birthday the other day but he didn’t want to go out to celebrate/commiserate. I bought him a Hugo Boss wallet which he thought was mega! Been working hard in my aerobics classes since I seem to be eating loads at weekends – not sure I can fit into my size 6 jeans anymore! Think I’ll just cut down on my carbs for a while, which means no pasta or potatoes. I'd rather not cut down on my alcohol so something else needs to go!

Hat-trick

I cheered at all 3 goals, sitting next to two United fans who thought that using the 'c' word at the ref and Liverpool players every so often and giving me daggers would shut me up.

It didn't.

Fortunately the guy sitting at the front with his kids got them to shut up.

And Boom didn't reply to my text after the match, even though I didn't rub it in (not really!).

Grazing

Still trying to lose my 'winter layer' - I think I'm sorta winning - in terms of going to the gym two or three times a week to do my aerobics and my yoga/pilates classes, I feel pretty fit but not at the level of 'body tone' that I would like.

My diet could be better - I don't tend to eat much during the week but at weekends, I eat a lot, a lot of it is rubbish, there's a fair bit of alcohol (though probably not excessive) and recently, I appear to have developed a need to snack, mostly savoury as opposed to sweet. Still on the other hand, I've also started to drink green tea on occasion instead of normal tea, so that cuts down my milk intake, although I've yet to do this at work.

A colleague suggested I check out graze.com - healthy snacks delivered to your door (or workplace) for convenience.  I was a bit dubious at first, thought it would all be flavourless nuts and seeds  with the consistency of cardboard but I was pleasantly surprised when my first 'graze box' was delivered this morning. Yes, I've got some seeds, but also some savoury Japanese crackers, mix of dried fruits and a flapjack. Yes, even flapjacks can be healthy compared to that packet of crisps! You get to choose from a huge range of snacks they provide, saying what you like/don't like, but what they give you in your box is always a surprise mixture from your choices.

Anyway, anyone interested in getting a free box can quote QFH6ZZH - think this is for a limited time only but hopefully I'll get other codes as I plan on continuing to buy from graze.com

Still struggling to get enough sleep these days, tired in the mornings, wide awake at night. I'm due a big lie in at some point to catch up. Also, I miss Boom when I don't see him...bummer! Must keep distracted and busy!

V Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Yep, no sooner are the Christmas cards and decorations out of the shops, the next commercial push for people to splash their cash needlessly is for all those 'romantics' out there. Next week, it'll be Easter eggs...

Anyway, me and Boom exchanged cards last night - he arrived too late for us to go out to eat so we just grabbed a takeaway. He also gave me an unexpected present, apparently a belated Christmas gift in fact - a nice set of speakers for my iPod!  I wasn't expecting anything from him as he'd already given me a monitor for my pc so this was a very nice surprise.

Had he given me the present on time though, I wouldn't have just last week bought myself a mini speaker myself but I did need small speakers to take on holiday so it's ok.

Rabbit Rabbit

Gosh nearly forgot to post - Kung Hei Fat Choi, or Happy Chinese New Year, all!

Seems to have come round extra fast this time round, not had my second wage packet this year yet, so struggling with the usual new year payouts to maman, papa and grandmere!

It's the year of the Rabbit (or Hare) - supposedly not a great year for me...ah well, hopefully my 'dragon' pendants and emblems will help me out here!

Not been organised at all, just plodding away but loads to do, dunno where to start!

Had the great idea of getting the house cavity walls filled and the loft re-insulated (cos the house has always been bloody cold!) - got a good price for it, but was told that I had to get the fireplace checked out. It failed the British Gas inspection as it was unsafe...bugger!

Now, have to get that sorted first, before the other jobs and still not started on my own 'little' project.

And I continue to bury my head in work, WoW, my books, football stuff and the gym. Oh and seeing Boom - spent some time with him on several occasions already this year, so already it's better than this time last year... :-)

So gotta get my arse in gear badly - how to motivate myself though??

KK

The Toon have/had King Kev, we have King Kenny, ie Anfield legend Kenny Dalglish.

I've barely posted about football recently because for me, the football season has been depressingly abysmal. I mean, we were in the relegation zone, only 4 points above it now! Top 4 club? In our dreams... :-(

The Scousers, having gotten rid of Rafa replaced him with Roy Hodgson - a likeable chap but someone who was not up to the big job.

The team only won 7 out of 20 league games and the new US owners have decided enough is enough and brought in King Kenny until the end of the season.

I must say that when I saw the news, there was a tear in my eye - Kenny was my favourite player when I first started supporting Liverpool, back when they used to win stuff. A lot.

Now, his first match as manager will be the FA Cup tie against Man U at Old Trafford (Boom will be there).

Good luck to KK and good luck to the team. It'll all be highly emotional.

*Edit* The matched finished 1-0 to United - a penalty awarded for a Berbatov dive in the 2nd minute. Soon after, Stevie G saw red with a silly challenge, so given that only 10 men stayed on the pitch, it was 'good' result I guess.

And so...

...hope you enjoyed the new year celebrations? Another quiet one for me, at home with a bottle of wine. Boom's mum has taken a turn for the worse - I don't know how serious though... :-(

Anyway, was kinda glad to see the back of 2010 - wasn't a great year, though had its good points as well as the bad.

The Bad - my mum's illness and subsequent operation; my car accident; my teeth and the expense of sorting them out; feeling out of control at work, generally not being appreciated; not seeing Boom as much as I'd like to

The Good - my mum making a good recovery and getting on with her life; Little Sis getting married and becoming Mrs Smith (!); various gigs and shows over the year; a relaxing beach holiday on my little ownsome; getting to see Boom at all.

New Year Resolutions?

Kept to most of the ones I made last year - I'll make the usual personal/private ones but my others are:

a) - Not to buy any reading books*
b) - Make a start on sorting out my 'Financial Project' by the first quarter
c) - Not get too stressed out by b)!
d) - Gym workout twice a month, as well as my usual biweekly aerobics sessions

* Ok, you may wonder how I can keep to this resolution with my new Kindle? Well, I'll be getting Amazon vouchers from this TopCashBack scheme.  As long as I only get books using these vouchers, I'm not technically 'buying' them, am I? Or am I kidding myself, lol? Ah well, we'll see!

Good-ish Tidings We Bring...

A recap of sorts before I do my year end posts.

Much of this month has been made up of:

•  not-so-nice days at work, I'm pretty much drowning in paperwork :-(
 
• a well-earned 4 day break to take advantage of the release of the World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm 

• our departmental Christmas lunch (since we couldn't get a night out sorted, the guys are just rubbish!) which was a good laugh, great Thai food too

• the Courteeners gig (- pictured - good music, drunken idiots throwing beer though)

• getting my tattoo touched up - apparently this is quite common on black tattoos once the skin has settled but I wasn't expecting another half hour of pain! Yowch! 

• my bad cold resulting in my taking a day off work and cancelling the girlie Christmas outing!  :-(

• cold weather and snow, though not enough to stop me from going into work (unfortunately) but cold enough to freeze my pipes so that on two occasions, I had no water, having to go to the gym to shower in the morning. After that first time, I stocked up on water just in case (need for kettle and loo!) but have recently been putting the central heating on full blast - not looking forward to the bill. 

• a lovely Christmas dinner with the glamorous C and her kids - very relaxing, good food, great company. Christmas morning, I Skyped the family - was fab to see them all, bar Sis #3 who was in Singapore with her family.

Caught up with Boom a couple of times - was supposed to meet him on Boxing Day but he couldn't get nurse cover for his mum and when I did see him the other day, he'd come straight from the hospital so hadn't brought my present with him.... Have to say that as he'd given me a pc monitor last month, I wasn't expecting anything from him.

Other presents-wise, I got a mixture of daft gifts including a WoW calendar, photo frames, CD, gig ticket, lots of alcohol, a 'Hit Girl' t-shirt but my main present is my Amazon Kindle - it's well cool, very easy on the eye, is kinda like a book when it's in its leather cover but to tie in with my usual new year resolution, I need to make sure I don't go mad with buying and downloading books for it (unless they're free books).

BTW, blog likely to change - at some point, need to sort out template, hate the standard widgets I have at the moment.

Potty

Boom and I made a rare trip out to the cinema to catch Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows part 1.

It's been a while since I read the book so I could only recall bits of the story, particularly that most of the action took place outside of the usual surroundings of Hogwarts.

This, plus the fact that the 3 main stars have grown up, made the film more adult orientated than the previous ones and it was also a lot darker.

Yes, I know what happens in the end - still looking forward to the last film though.

Update

Not much to say really, except that my mum is home and recovering. Have spoken to her a few times on the phone and she sounds pretty strong - half the battle is said to be psychological and it looks like in that respect, she's done really well.  She may still need chemotherapy though.

Work's really manic and getting a lot of people down - sure, busy is good but when you're pulled from all sides and everything is a priority, it's hard not to let it get to you.

Seen Boom a couple of times since I got back from my hols which has been nice - his mum is still poorly so whilst it's great to see him and spend a bit of time with him, it's not all fun and games, neither of us really want to drag the conversation onto how we're coping with our poorly mums. :-(

The World Cup coming up will be a nice distraction for me, also what I've got planned this weekend.

Hope you're all having a nice bank holiday.

Rather Headless

Went to the library on Saturday, as I had a couple of books to return and after a quick browse, found a book that I thought would make for more suitable travel-reading than the big tome that I'm currently ploughing through.

From the library, I walked to the newsagents opposite to buy my lotto tickets for work's syndicate and from there, I walked to M&S to pick up a spot of lunch. I then drove home...only to find that when I got there, I no longer had the library book!

After searching the car in case it had slid under the seat or for some reason I'd stuck it in the boot, I drove back to the newsagents and M&S - nope, no book found or handed in. I retraced my exact steps in case it was just lying on the ground. No such luck.

The library had closed by this point so I went back the following day to report the book as lost. They went to put a note against my record only to find that there was nothing outstanding against my account - apparently, someone had found the book and posted it through the library letter box so it had been logged as returned! Phew, thanks to whoever found it but what's bugging me is where on earth did they find it????

My memory seems to be getting worse these days, or maybe I'm just distracted all the time. I mean, I don't mind travelling on my own but be it train or plane, at some point, you'll see me running down the platform or through the airport because I've been distracted by something and then suddenly remembered where I was supposed to be going!

So, I'm going to be away for a while - off to Hong Kong to see my little sis get wed, to spend time with the family and friends and to chill. Boom came round last night so it was good to see him before I went away - again, so much I wanted to say to him but I didn't… And I forgot to give him his easter egg! Also a shame as he would have come with me under different circumstances.

In work today, so much to do that I don't know what to start and what to leave. Stressing about it...

Anyways, ciao for now, best crack on! x

Subdued

Finally managed to meet up with Boom to give him his birthday presents.

It's been so long since we've seen each other that it was a little awkward. I just wanted to give him a big hug but he was a bit distant. I should have been expecting it but I was just so pleased to see him again.

He has got so much on his mind - his mum's illness has meant that he has no real life of his own these days - it's just been hospitals, operations, doctors, tests, consultants, worry and stress. He says he knows she's not going to get any better - they are just prolonging her life. What can you say to that? :-(

He's thinking of getting rid of his car as he may not be able to afford paying for it and to cap it all, he's been summoned to his work HQ, so he could be out of a job too, or at the very least downgraded.

He's in a rotten rotten place, but he won't let me in to help him. I don't want him to feel that my offering to help  is turning into badgering but I don't know what to do.

At least he didn't just shoot off  after picking up his presents and did stay longer than I thought he would but oh, still too brief. There was so much I wanted to tell him but my mind was just blank, just taking in that he was there.

I cannot give up on him or our relationship but it isn't easy. I just wish I knew what to do or say *sigh*.

Not sure when I'll see him again.

Feeling Sorry For Yourself?

I have to admit that thus far this year, I've not felt motivated, felt pretty listless, pessimistic, dare I say it a little depressed. Put it down to the horrid dark days of January, stress from work but as I think I acknowledged previously, most likely stress over Boom.

Wallowing in my own self-pity, I've wondered why events beyond my control have meant that our relationship couldn't go back to how it was. I do not for one bit begrudge him wanting to spend all his time with his family because of his mum's illness but I can't help asking 'Why me? Why, when I've met someone that I really care about?" Fate brought us together but Destiny thinks otherwise?

The other day, Boom's mum had some scans and they've found a brain tumour. I feel ashamed that I've been feeling sorry for myself when he and his family have been going through all this.

Anyway, I did a first over the weekend, needed to get out of the house so I went to the cinema by myself and watched Avatar (a film Boom wanted to go to see but he hasn't been able to find the time). A beautifully made movie, I cried unashamedly at parts - I think I needed a good cry.

When I left the cinema, I saw his car outside his flat, which he'd been renting out to a colleague whilst he's been staying at his parents'. We hadn't arranged to meet up and although I really wanted to see him, I appreciated that he was probably there to sort some things out and would want some time to himself, so I just went home. Maybe I should have gone up to see him but I think I made the right decision at the time.

It's his birthday soon - I hope to spend a little time with him then.

I Can't Get No Sleep

I've been suffering badly from insomnia for the last couple of weeks. I'm a night owl at the best of times; during the week, will generally go to bed around 12.30-1am.

But lately, I've been really struggling to fall asleep, still awake around 2am and on a couple of occasions, woke up for no apparent reason around 4am and was only able to nod off after reading for a while.

I know it's stress - stress about work. Stress about Boom. Mostly the latter, I would say.

I've mentioned previously that Boom's mum has been seriously ill - in fact, for most of our relationship thus far, she's been in and out of hospital, various emergencies and operations. I've never met her. When her health was 'ok', we hadn't been seeing each other for long so it's was too early to 'meet the parents'. Since she's been so ill, it's not been right for me to turn up and make introductions when she's got tubes coming out of her and needs oxygen to breathe.

I haven't seen Boom this past month at all - we've been communicating by leaving each other voicemails mostly as we kept missing each other. He's now only working part time and has temporarily rented out his apartment, so he's living at his parents'. As expected when we've spoken to each other, he's not wanted to really talk much about his mum's health, her heart and lung problems are pretty much terminal and as he puts it, it's just 'delaying the inevitable'. I never know what to say, feel awful having to ask after her knowing that he doesn't want to talk but feel as if I have to ask otherwise it's as if I don't care how she is.

Anyway, he said she was due to have a critical operation. I didn't try to call him, just sent him a couple of texts, to pass on my best wishes. Didn't hear from him all week, so I just left a quick message asking how things were - phone was switched off as it went straight to voicemail. Usually, he would call or text soon after receiving my message but nothing this time. I waited another few days before sending another text, also trying his other mobile which he uses when he's abroad. Nothing.

By now, I was really worried - had the operation gone wrong? How was she recovering? Was he ok? He was in my thoughts constantly, I had to know how he was. It got to the point where I was thinking of going to the hospital where his mum was and just scouting around the carparks to see if I could spot his car, or try to track down his parents via the electoral roll (I don’t know where they live). Desperate measures and verging on being a stalker. Not like me, losing it.

I sent him a little email, just so I'd covered that mode of communication and last night, I got a reply - I nearly wept with relief. He said things were really tough and that he had to dedicate all his time with his parents but that he would call me, though not at the moment.

Last night, for the first time in ages, I slept well.

My next post should be a bit more lighthearted.

Wow WoW!

Still not blogging properly yet, work is distracting me and I'm really disorganised. So much to do...will start at the weekend. Have some holidays left so perhaps I'll use them to get myself organised at home.

Anyway, today marks one year since I was sucked into playing World of Warcraft.

For good or bad, I'll be playing for a while - will be a long time before I get bored of it as there's always stuff to do, if not on my main character, then on other alternative characters. Plus, there's a nice little gaming community too. Stats here if anyone is remotely interested, lol!

Anyway, tonight, I saw Boom for the first time since before Christmas. More on that later, I guess.

First Body Attack aerobics class of the year tomorrow - not looking forward to it!