Chaos-23

Xmas was poo as usual. But then when the family is forced to be together it’s bound to kick off I s’pose. Xmas Day went OK, but Boxing Day was just one big argument.

For Christmas Eve we went to the Rising… big mistake. I really don’t ever want to go back there until they get a proper full-time landlord. One that actually gives a shit. Why oh why did they piss about with Ollie & Danny. They were the best landlords that place had in years… Anyhoo, This time they were serving Coke from big store-bought bottles so they were flat & disgusting (I hate coke, but watered down pub Pepsi is OK), so then I went for Smirnoff Black Ice which tasted a bit odd, so I checked the best before date… best before AUGUST 06!!! Alcohol takes ages to go off, they must have had those bottle for years! When it was taken back to the bar they got another from out back & said “August 06? Is that OK?” No it’s not OK, you could get closed down you fuck-heads! You have no idea how tempting it is to report them for selling out of date beverages (it was clear all of the bottles were out of date & that they had no intention of disposing of them) and the state of the ladies loos and watch the place get shut down… Oh yeah & I forgot the laughable bit… they charged people £2 to get in. There were about 10 people in there FFS! Luckily we got in before that started happening. There is no way in hell I’d have paid for that.

So anyway, gifts. This year I got:

Rent paid for December | Bird Table | Bird Feeder | Air Plant | Zoundz | USB Cells (basically USB AA batteries) | a big fluffy (toy) rabbit called Horatio | lots of chocolate | a Baking Tray | QI General Ignorance book | PhD book? | Gloomy Bear slippers | Vanimal Zoo Human Gass figure | Invader Zim/Gir talking figure | a fluffy hat | Very Intelligent Pocket

For myself, I got a new mobile phone. I hadn’t upgraded in 2 years and I really wanted a wifi phone. I spent ages looking around, but t-mobile just doesn’t have the best range of phones. The only 2 wifi ones in my upgrade price range either didn’t have a camera (yeah I hated camera phones at first, but now I’d be lost without one. I use it for all sorts of things where I would once have written stuff down) or didn’t have vibrating alert (nothing dodgy ;op but if I didn’t have this I would never answer my phone or know I had messages. At loud gigs it is invaluable). So I’ve given up on a wifi phone for now (praying that the N93 or better is available for my upgrade next year). I settled on the BlackBerry Pearl (8100g). I know lots of people hate blackberries, but this one was the same size as my current phone so not too bulky, but still with a large screen (I hate small phones, I’d lose them). I ordered on-line on the Thursday, heard nothing at all, not even a confirmation so then I queried it with CS on the Friday & it was dispatched immediately & turned up on the Saturday. Woo!… except it didn’t work :o( The phone itself was OK, although it kept hanging whenever I did anything. The camera on the other hand was completely DOA. Every picture came out bright pink and green. I uploaded an example. Clearly a hardware error. So I e-mailed CS again & got told no-one would be able to answer my query until Monday at 08:00. *sigh* I waited until Monday & at 10:30 gave up and phoned t-mobile. I was told I could either get it fixed, or send it back & get a refund. There was no way I wanted it fixed. I’d ordered a new phone, not a refurbished one. So I e-mailed off an RMA form. Waited 3 days (damn Christmas post!) for a pre-paid SD bag to arrive and sent it back. I’d been told it would be 5 days (not working days) from them receiving my returned phone to being able to re-upgrade. So I swapped my Christmas leave with a colleague so that I would be in Reading on the 5th day, ready to go into the t-mobile shop this time & re-upgrade. After hanging around in the shop for an hour & a half I finally got my upgrade, free this time, and the camera works! It’s great, I really like the numberpad and shockingly I’m actually using SureType & not multi-tap. I’m not as fast at SureType as I am multi-tap yet, but I’m getting there. SureType beats T9 into a bloody pulp so far imo. I didn’t want to scratch my new little beauty so I bought a skin for it, shame the black one isn’t out til January. It currently looks like it’s wearing a pink condom. Poor thing. It has a nice little 2GB micro-SD inside though :oD

As I am now ill with festive germs, I will no doubt be spending NYE at home. I’ve gone through the pain of the sore-throat and the general acheyness, but now I am a snot factory. I have to go back to work on Tuesday too. That’s too soon!!

First off, Vicks First Defence doesn’t work. I took it at the very start of the cold and it’s developed into a nasty thing anyway. Makes me wonder what the Vicks stuff was for as it stings like hell, makes me sneeze and tasted foul for hours. :o/ So I am officially a snot monster for Xmas & New Year yet AGAIN. Story of my bloody life :o(

On the other hand, Internet shopping rules! I’ve been so slack this year what with everything that’s been happening *sob* So I only got round to doing my Xmas shopping last Sunday. By yesterday afternoon everything had arrived :oD That rox soooo much. No standing in queues with annoying mothers & children for me.

So I treated myself to buying loads of oils & candles & herby things - rah! Hopefully I’ll get them for next week when I’m off work.

*sigh*

Well, that’s it, my birthday over for another year. It was pretty cool, I got good presents, I bought myself some funky stuff too. Now though, I’m sat at home, alone… cold… bored… I have tomorrow off work, Chris doesn’t… wish I was staying at his tonight. :o(

I might ask him if I can stay round at some point during the week. I want to get away from my annoying house & the folks. You could tell my birthday was over today when the first things I heard from them were “turn your PC off tonight, it interferes with our radio.” when I explained that something’s knackered it & it’s hit & miss whether it’ll switch on again they accused me of knowing nothing about computers. This would be the 2 people that are scared of anything technical…

Maybe I should just get really drunk tonight. Didn’t get a chance to do that on my birthday. The pub was empty, only Shorty, Tony, Nick, Andy, Rich & Lou really came to see me. Stumpy brought me a drink & I got a brief “hello” from Pete, Adam tried to molest me as usual. Unsurprisingly James totally ignored me. Whatever…

Where did all my friends go? I used to go out on my birthday & spend the night surrounded by people plying me with drinks & laughing all night long. We left before 23:30 and I’d only had 3 bottles of Smirnoff Black Ice & a Shot of AfterShock ( cheers Sim :o) ).

I wonder how this post will go. I just upgraded FireFox to v1.0PR & downloaded some more Extensions. I’m using Deepest Sender to post this.

Looks like my NYE will be spent at home with a hot water-bottle. I feel terrible. I over-slept which started it off and I have a headache again (I had a migraine last night).

The positive side is that NYE’s are never as good as you think they’re going to be. They’re good when you’re young and single and there’s all the gossip going on, these days most of my mates are in serious relationships though so no gossip *sigh*

I still would like to go out though. Chris isn’t too bothered so I s’pose we could spend it in, or he can go down the pub. Wonder if there’s much on telly.

I took a piccie of my Bonsai trees, they’re sooo cute!

Yew Tree Bonsai

Lime Tree Bonsai

My babies!! :o)

I hate Christmas for one reason… food. I must’ve eaten more these past few of days than I do in a week. Mainly chocolates too. I swear Chocolate Oranges are addictive.

I’m more sniffly today and my throat hurts again. Hope I’m not going to get ill AGAIN. That would really suck. I only have a couple more days of my antibiotics left. My lungs sound like they’re full of liquid.

Oh well, tomorrow is the start of my last week off work for quite a while so I will start as I mean to go on. Eating some fruit and ending the Festive pigging out sessions.

These antibiotics have really cleared up my sinus infection so I’m not waking up with headaches before the rain anymore - yay!

Chris was dead chuffed with his Robot. He’s called him Dave and intends to scare the living crap out of his cat, Magic, when he gets home. Poor thing will pack his bags and leave!

Still no idea what’s happening for NYE, but I guess it’ll be the Rising again. I really should drink this year as the last few years of not drinking have been a nightmare.

The Hawk was in the garden earlier, eyeing up all the little finches and sparrows. Beautiful bird, but I don’t want it stalking in my garden! I must get a picture of it as it has no fear of humans whatsoever. I walked right outside past it before it flew away. If only the Crows would take a leaf out of the Hawk’s book. We only need to walk past the window and they’re off.

I’m off now to read all about Bonsai and make sure I can keep my little trees alive for as long as possible. The Lime should be OK cos it’s an outdoor tree… the Yew may need a bit more care and attention though.

My list of Xmas pressies:

a Bonsai Lime tree that my Aunt has grown from a tree in the Avenue behind my house;
an Indoor Yew Bonsai tree;
a book on Bonsai;
a Bonsai set (see a pattern forming?);
a Milka Cow Pencil Case full of choccies;
a cow plate;
a cow bookmark;
glowing ‘ice’ cubes;
a book (Shite’s Unoriginal Miscellany);
a leopard print candle;
a big bottle of Vodka;
Toblerone;
Mini Rolos;
a Jumping Spider;
Eucalyptus Honey;
Glass Caution Coasters (Flammable, Poisonous, etc…);
Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube Game);
Viewtiful Joe (GameCube Game);
Touchable Bubbles;
Mars Mud;
a Stress Busters Kit;
a Bracelet;
lots of silly little things.