A house guest

So I'm in the dining room making polyclay beads a little while ago (I know, it's really late, but my sleep is fucked up still), when I spot something out of the corner of my eye, in the kitchen. Not that my eye was in the kitchen, the thing I saw was.

Anyway, in front of the sink cupboard was a mouse. A pretty big, healthy-looking one. It had a look around. It sniffed the air. Then it disappeared, presumably under the sink cupboard.

So I got up and grabbed our multi-mouse no-kill trap from upstairs, baited it with peanut butter (that got Summer's attention), and set it on the floor by the sink. And went back to the beads.

A little while later the mouse (well could have been a different one I guess, it was a mouse anyway) strolled on past my chair, along the wall. Behind the rabbit's cage and round the other side back towards me. I tried not to move, because despite not really wanting mice in my house, I'm interested in how they behave. I often spend time watching them eat the food I put out for the birds. Cute little things, but destructive and rather unhygienic. Rather like children.

Anyway. This mouse either didn't clock me, or just didn't care that I was there - it practically ran over my foot at one point. Then it headed out into the hallway and I lost it.

Presumbably it went into the understairs cupboard.

Which is an absolute tip.

It's full of the vacuum cleaner, tools that are so essential that they don't live in the garage (like the big torch), dry dog food, dry cat food (for Basil the hedgehog), rabbit food and wild bird food. All in open bags. The little mouse must be having a field day in there!

Annoyingly this means I now have to clear out that cupboard and buy storage containers for the food and probably throw a lot of it away because it will be contaminated with mouse doings. Because mice are continuously urinating.

There must be a market for incontinance pads for mice.

Typical, when I have stuff I really need to do tomorrow, I've got to deal with the black hole under the stairs which may now be home to countless mice and spiders (not that I mind either, but still...) and possibly a small third-world country. When i should be making cute little cakes with glitter to take to the Activities Fair on Thursday, so we can bribe freshers into joining SingSoc.

That and doing something which I can't tell you about til Sunday.

Oh and while I'm here, are there any birders who want to play Guess Which Completely Unexpected Bird Turned Up In My Garden Last Week Which Isn't A Garden Bird And I Think Must Have Been Having A Rest During The Start Of Its Migration - before I post pictures of it?

Hell, non-birders can play too if the want!

The best houseguest ever

I'm planning a proper post about the Halloween party later, but I just thought I'd tell you about one of the guests.

I hadn't met Louise before - she's the partner of my friend Daniel. They both came to the party and stayed overnight on a mattress in the computer room.

When they arrived (early), she thanked me for inviting her about 3 times, and insisted on helping me with the food and decorations. And she brought me a little goodie bag containing some seashell chocolates and three little bottles of wine.

We collectively went to bed at about 5am after the party (I'm not sure what time it actually was because the clocks went back, so it was either 5am or 4am or something, it confused me).

Me and Michael got up about midday, and were shocked to find the kitchen had been cleaned. The rubbish was bagged up ready to put in the bin, all the glasses and punch bowls had been washed up, and the plates and dishes put in the dishwasher and rinsed. The surfaces had been wiped down, the floor swept, and all the Halloween confetti I'd scattered about the place carefully collected up. We thought we'd had a visit from the cleaning fairy.

Turns out Louise had got up early, cleaned, then gone back to bed.

I thanked her for the cleaning, and she said something like, "Don't be daft! It was the least I could do."

WTF??? Now that's not normal. I mean the cleaning was one thing, not in the least bit expected and very much appreciated, but the fact that she thought she could have done more surprised me a bit.

Plus she's absolutely lovely. Dan's found himself a good one there.

So yeah. Best. Houseguest. Ever.

Taking a breath

Well, it's been a busy few weeks.

As I've mentioned before, we were aiming to get the house looking like someone owns it (technically looking like we own it, rather than looking like the colourblind tasteless bodge-it merchant that used to own it, owns it) before the Hallowe'en party (which was last night).

Which actually did happen. Here's some before-and-after type pictures.

The walls in the living room, before we decorated. It's okay I guess, in a council-house sort of way. I never liked the dark wood though, it looks pretentious in a 1960s house.

We leave the fireplace dark, but paint the skirting boards and dado rail white. I also clean the carpet and got new curtains. We're waiting for the new sofa to arrive, once it does I'll do proper pics of the room.
A corner of the dining room, and some of my recipe books. Note the awful silver wallpaper and silver dado rail. Yuk. We decide to strip the walls and paint them.

The walls are stripped, and we realised how bumpy they are. Nightmare! My dad comes in and skims them.

Note the tasteful wallpaper over the patio doors, which had just been papered over with the blue/silver.

After some deliberation, we decide on this laminate flooring, and me and my dad start to install it.


Dining room nearly finished, we carry on into the kitchen (they are separated by an archway), and ultimately the utility room.

Kitchen gets floored. The fridge moves into the dining room until the floor in the utility is finished.

Summer tries to find a space to lie down out of the way. Daft dog.

Dad very selfishly goes on holiday, leaving me to finish the utility room floor all by myself.

Summer tests the new floor.

I paint the walls cream, and the silver radiator in sensible old white.


Now onto the hallway/landing/stairs. And perhaps the most distasteful décor in the entire house, with the possible exception of our bedroom.

We rush around and find paint. I start painting the walls. I decide I don't like the new paint. So we get different paint which is much darker than I wanted, but I really like.

Pretty.

I'm going to put up more photos later... this post is big enough already!

And the party was good by the way. :)

Bah

I'm just not in a good mood.

The sum total of my progress today has been grouting maybe 2 square feet of tiles. I fecking hate grouting, it hurts my wrists and it's dull and tedious and boring. I'm gonna leave it for Michael to do I think.

Michael's off to Edinburgh tomorrow with work, for the fourth time in three weeks. It's pretty bad timing, because I'd like him to be getting on with some house stuff here rather than sitting on his arse all night in a hotel on his own. And I'm so used to him doing certain jobs that I forget about them when he's not here, so the bins don't get emptied and the dishwasher doesn't get unloaded, simply because I don't think about it.

It worries me a bit that I don't really miss him. I seem to just get on with it. I think I'm just not in emotion mode right now, as I'm not feeling anything very much, like just emotionally beige or something. I guess it's better than being depressed, and it's probably a result of me not doing anything fun for ages.

Another thing that's winding me up is my left wrist. I had a ganglion removed from it 5 or 6 years ago and I have a lovely little scar and a lump there now, which swells up and hurts a bit occasionally. Basically it's not the same wrist as it used to be, but it's pretty much okay. Took me months to be able to use it properly after the op though. It was bothering me last night, and I noticed another ganglion has popped up to the left of the op scar. It's quite tender and achy and annoying. I don't know whether I want to have it treated or not because of the pain and inconvenience of the op - maybe I'll wait to see how bad it's going to be. And if anyone else tells me to hit it with a Bible I'll scream! First, I'm an atheist. I don't have a Bible. And second... I have no desire to be hit hard on the wrist with a heavy book. Call me weird.

So yeah. I'll try to be productive tomorrow. I certainly feel better when I'm doing stuff. Or am I doing stuff because I feel better? Either way - I'm not happy today. Just frustrated and tired and blergh.

I was going to post this in Pirate-speak, considering what day it is. But I really can't be arsed.

Wow, it's been ages!

I don't have an excuse, I just can't be bothered with blogging recently. Which is a shame, because I do actually enjoy it. Apologies for not keeping up with reading everyone else's blogs too - I actually miss you guys.

In my defense, I can't be bothered with anything much recently. I essentially spend my days reading, watching stuff I've recorded on Sky+ (recently The House of Eliott and My Parents are Aliens) and playing computer games (Zelda on the Wii, Pokemon Colosseum). Oh and feeding the birds mealworms. I'm still singing, in fact singing is the only thing that I'm managing to keep up. Sometimes I go birdwatching, or take the dog out. And I'm bored, but I can't motivate myself to find something interesting to do. I seem to have no mental energy left at all.

Anyway. Here's a quick recap, in bullet point form, in no particular order.

* We have a new kitchen. It's really nice. I'll post pictures later. We still need to tile the walls, and put a floor in, then we can decorate and it will be finished.
* My chinchillas died. We put a big cardboard tube in the cage for them to chew on, unfortunately it fell over and trapped the two of them inside. It's taken weeks for me to even be able to post about it, mostly because I feel horribly guilty that it was my fault (even though obviously I didn't mean to hurt them, I just didn't think). I miss those little guys. I cried a lot.
* Holly and Ivy (my two hedgehog guests) went back to the garden they came from. They'll be properly released within the next week or so - they are big girls now and more than ready to lead a natural wild life.
* My friend Boo died. I posted in my other blog about her so I won't repeat myself here, but she was a wonderful woman who I met through the hedgehog forums and Yahoo Messenger chat. I miss her too.
* "My" robin (imaginatively named Mr Robin) built a nest with Mrs Robin in one of my conifer trees. They hatched four chicks, which fledged a couple of weeks ago and are hanging around most of the time waiting for me to put more mealworms out! And the parents have another brood now which judging my the amount of food Mr Robin is taking to them, won't be long before they fledge. I like that I'm making all their lives easier by providing loads of worms.
* Mr Robin will now land on my hand to take worms. He's a bit flicky and nervous about it, but doesn't hesitate when I put my hand out. Also two of the fledglings come to my hand too - one's nervous and the other is very relaxed about it and will actually stand on my hand while I put more worms on it with my other hand. Bless them, they are gorgeous.
* Two of my choirs have a concert on 12 May. Andrew Carter's Benedicite, Paul Basler's Missa Kenya and Karl Jenkins's The Armed Man. I really like the Benedicite, can't say I'm over keen on the others. Should be fun to sing though. Andew Carter's actually coming to work with us in our rehearsal tomorrow night - the man's a legend.
* Ladies' Choir have a concert tonight. Some poems by Wordsworth, Tennyson, etc, set to music by Harriet's dad, Stuart Johnson. They are pretty.

I'm sure there are more things I wanted to tell, but I can't think of them right now.

Oh, just wanted to do a quick plug for my brother's band, Turning Hollow. Here's their MySpace page. I'm going to do vocals for them, maybe even do some gigs with them!

Later guys.

Mostly SingSoc stuff

This will be a long one – bear with me, I’ll use sub-headings. How organised of me. ;)

Formal
So SingSoc had a formal meal last Saturday. Three course meal, champagne, fire-jugglers, disco/karaoke and a masquerade ball theme. Pete (choir director and my singing teacher) did the food, and I offered to help. On the Thursday we went to Tesco for the ingredients, Friday I got my hair done in the morning and spent all afternoon and most of the night preparing 40 portions of sweet potato and red pepper soup and 20 potions of baked cheesecake. I had a slight panic when I burned one of the cheesecakes and had to go out for more ingredients, but it turned out okay, as the next ones were far better anyway.

Saturday I was in the kitchen all afternoon. I made the other soup (creamed spinach) and helped with the lasagnes for the main course (a meat one, a salmon and prawn one and a veggie one) by cooking the fish, and keeping an eye on the meat sauce - tasting and improving it, and making what seemed like gallons of white sauce, and grating huge blocks of cheese and shelling 24 boiled eggs. I also made chocolate cream for the pavolva. All in all, cooking for 50 is hard work, but it was very much appreciated by everyone and everything tasted really good. I was very proud of us and enjoyed it so much even if I was knackered afterwards.

I dashed off to get dressed just before we served up. I've never got dressed up in 10 minutes before, it was an experience! Luckily my hairdresser had made a fantastic job of my hair the day before and it still looked really good so I didn't have to do anything with it. I've had it coloured (it's a warm brown with fine red streaks in the top) and she straightened it and now I have to buy myself some ghd straighteners because they actually made my naturally wavy, frizzy and uncontrollable hair look shiny and healthy as well as poker-straight. Expensive straighteners FTW!

The dress was a different story. I'll do bullet points.

* Wednesday. I meet Pippa at Meadowhall.
* We go to Debenhams.
* I find a dress I like. Blue, simple but classy, floor length, little detachable halter neck strap.
* I try dress in an 18. Too big.
* We look for a 16. There isn't one.
* I ask at the till. They check with the Sheffield store to see if they've got one. They have. They reserve it for me.
* We got to Faith, where I buy shoes. Cream, high heel, round toe. I predict that they will kill me, but Pippa persuades me.
* We buy strapless bras. Pippa buys makeup and a brush.
* We head back to Sheffield.
* After some searching, we find the Debenhams.
* I pick up the dress.
* I try the dress on. Too small.
* I panic.
* I look for another dress, but can't find one I like in my size.
* I panic some more.
* I realise that I could buy the bigger dress and get it taken in, especially as it's only the bust that's a problem.
* I call the dressmaker round the corner from my house. She says she can alter the dress in time for the formal on Saturday.
* I steal Pippa's all-day tram ticket and go back to Meadowhall. She goes home to finish making masks for the decorations.
* I buy the dress in an 18.
* I head home on the train.
* I call in the dressmaker's on my way home. She askes me to try on the dress.
* I try on the dress. The dress fits.

I guess what happened was that the dress I tried originally was actually a 20, but had been sized as an 18. The third dress (the one I finally bought) was sized correctly. Debenhams will be receiving a complaining letter from me, as they caused me unnecessary hassle. Gits. But I got the dress in the end, and it looked fine. Would look better if I lost a few pounds, but still... it suited me, and I was happy with it.

And the formal was great fun. :)

And last night Pete asked me to be in charge of the food for next year, and I accepted. I'm actually very excited about it.

Election
Last night was the SingSoc AGM, where new commitee members were elected. I nominated myself for Membership Secretary because I'd love to be on the commitee. Unfortunately I was running against Sarah, who is a friend of mine from the Small Groups choirs on Monday nights, and she's lovely. I'm going to refer to her as SopranoSarah from now on, because I'll be talking about another Sarah soon. We both felt pretty bad at having to run against someone we like, but as I pointed out it's better to lose against someone you like than someone you don't even know. SopSarah won the vote, but apparently it was very close. I didn't mind losing to her, I think she felt worse than me, so I allowed her to buy me a drink in the pub after rehearsal to relieve some of her guilt. How kind of me. I'm still going to help out with commitee stuff, even though I'm not on the commitee.

Other Sarah, and social stuff
I noticed AltoSarah last year, sitting at the front of the alto section. Actually I noticed her guide dog, and wondered how on earth you can manage to sing in choir when you can't see what the conductor's doing, or read the music, especially when the conductor says something like "Right, let's start from bar 11, top of page 4". Being me, I was too nervous to say hi because I didn't know her, until we both went to a SingSoc picnic in October. I took Summer, so that broke the ice a bit - we got chatting and she's really nice. We took the dogs for a walk afterwards and got on well, so I've made the effort to go and talk to her when I see her, because she can't see me and can't really approach people.

I'm full of respect for her, especially with the way she copes with the problems of singing. I have enough trouble, and I can read the music and see the directions and the beat that Pete's giving us.

I do find it difficult though, mostly because I don't know how much help to offer her. I don't want to ignore her needs, because obviously she does need consideration, but I also don't want to offend her by trying to do too much, and babying her. I'm approaching it by just being honest, and telling her to let me know what she needs me to do, and to complain if I'm being really stupid or something.

She's said a few times that she often feels very left out, especially in the pub after rehearsals, because no-one talks to her. And of course she can't approach them as she can't see who people are, and can't see obstacles, etc. And she can't go ot the bar to get her own drink because of her dog, and she can't find her way back to the table. Recently she's stopped going at all, and just goes straight home, which is a shame. And she's thinking of leaving SingSoc, which is an even bigger shame.

I think that, ironically enough, people just don't see her. They talk to their friends and that's it. It's not just her, it's everyone who isn't part of what I call "the hardcore group", i.e. people who've been in SingSoc for ages, know comittee members, or are part of Small Groups (because there are fewer people, it's easier to get to know everyone) - the ones who go to the pub and socials and join in with stuff that isn't related to the main concerts, like carol singing and the recent 24 hour sing. And there are little cliques even outside the hardcore group. And I don't think the committe realise what's going on.

It's going to be my mission to sort it out. I'm going to talk to SopSarah and Pippa (who is the new Social Secretary) about how we can integrate people more. I was thinking about some sort of cheesey team-building type events, like ice-breaker stuff. Maybe starting with putting people into groups of maybe 5, then asking them to find out 5 interesting facts about each person. Then the groups present all the facts to everyone, maybe from memory. And hopefully we'll all then find out eveyone's name and remember at least one thing about them. Anyone else have any good getting-to-know-you type activities I can steal?

Kitchen
The new kitchen is now under way. We decided to incorporate the unility room into the kitchen design, and we'll have units and worktops in there. There's a door in their that's now been bricked up, and a new window put in overlooking the orchard. Yesterday the installation of a new hotwater/heating boiler in the utility was finished. Once everything's in place, the fridge and the washing machine will be in there, and we'll have a dishwasher in the main kitchen under the sink (where the washing machine is now). There will be a new oven and hob, new dishwasher, new microwave, and all the cupboards will be new. Once it's fitted (hopefully by the end of next week) we'll choose a new floor and wall tiles and redecorate. Loads of work to do. but it's going to look fantastic.

Me
I'm feeling okay. I'm dealing with the uni situation by not thinking about it until everything's sorted with the kitchen. then I'm going to talk to a different doctor, and tell my tutor I'll be repeating Level 2 next year (but possibly I might do a couple of the modules in the summer to lighten my workload a little in the autumn semester).

Actually being busy seems to suit me, because I'm sleeping better and I generally feel better if I haven't got as much time to worry about stuff. And I'm trying to think more positively - I'm happy with myself right now and I think I'm dealing well with my self-esteem issues, so next I'm going to work on my other negative thinking about stuff outside me. Like thinking that things are going to go horribly wrong no matter how hard I work, things like that. I'm not feeling negative like that at the moment, but it will probably come back at some point and it's better to work on it before it starts to make me feel shitty.

I'm probably not going to be around that much until my house stops being a building site. So don't worry if I don't post, or don't come into chat. I'm contactable by text though - if you haven't already got my number then mail me and I'll consider passing it on... ;) scarlett_silverleafATyahoo.com - replace the AT with @.

Sniffle

I'm not well. Again.

I felt pretty out of it yesterday - all heavy and tired and headachy and the back of my nose/throat all clagged up, and somehow cold and shivery and uncomfortably hot at the same time. But I managed to get to rehearsal and had a pint afterwards with choir people.

Got home about 11.45pm feeling worse. My body felt like several people had been hitting me all over with big sticks, and I couldn't breathe through my nose. So I filled my hot water bottle and covered myself in ibuprofen gel (and promptly stuck to the bedsheets), but I just couldn't get comfortable.

Around 1am I turned over and suddently got cold. I shivered so hard I actually woke Michael up. He kindly got me another blanket - but I didn't get warm enough to fall asleep for another hour.

Then I started with the waking up (what felt like) every few minutes having to move because I was in pain. Also having frustration-type dreams (which involved something to do with trying to memorise a huge list of pictures, including on of a bar-tailed godwit - make of that what you will).

And a little later I realised that although I was still shivering, I was also way too hot. So I kicked off the extra blanket. And then slept a little better.

8am, Michael brought me some co-codamol, but refused my request for him to stay home from work and look after me. Bah. And I slept some more, and woke at 11am feeling a bit better.

Now I'm still very achy, don't feel like eating (that never happens to me), headache and swollen sinuses. But I'm much better. Fingers crossed that I'll be okay for Barnes tomorrow! I'm going even if I'm too exhausted to walk - I've paid for the train tickets and I want a ring-necked parakeet dammit (Pete promised me several). I'm actually quite looking forward to navigating the tube once I get to London - I've never been to London on my own.

I'm pretty cheerful today really, I've fed Mr Robin his mealworms and I saw one of the wrens and I heard a great tit singing nearby, which was a treat as I've only ever seen one once in the garden. No idea why, they are so common but don't grace me with their presence. Loads of blue tits, starlings, house sparrows, blackbirds, of course Mr Robin (he has such a beautiful voice) and some jackdaws and rooks and a collared dove out there today. And a lovely sunny warm spring day.

And my new oven arrived!!! All I need now is a new kitchen to put it in...

I know, it's been a long time

I'd like to say thanks to those of you who have kept checking back, only to find that I still haven' t posted... thanks for waiting for me!

So a quick update.

I haven't been well for a while. I've had various colds/coughs/sore throats/sinus problems for the last eight weeks or so, and while none of it was bad enough to put me in bed for more than a couple of days I've had no rest from general crappiness. I'm feeling much better now, all I have is a cough which is improving slowly.
Maybe it's the diabetes fecking up my immune system. I've never had a winter like this. At one point I was worried that I had meningitis because I felt so bad - presumably I didn't!

I can't remember if I told you guys that my (other) house sold back in September, so we have some spare cash for work on this place. Soon we'll have a new kitchen. Thank goodness for that, I hate my current one. It's ugly and old and dark and not well designed.

The carol book fundraising has gone very well, I'm pretty sure we have enough money for the books now so thanks to everyone who contributed. You're all stars. :)

I've recently started singing lessons, which although I've only had two so far (being ill I haven't been able to go for a while) I can tell they've made a lot of difference to my voice. My singing teacher is the guy who conducts the main SingSoc choir (the one whose car got stolen) and he really knows his stuff. He says my voice is good and that the only problems with it are things I don't know because I haven't had lessons. I'm working on sight-singing and breathing and supporting the sound in the correct way - it's very hard to change the bad habits I've picked up over the years but it does help so much. And it's fun!

And while I'm on the subject, I'm currently recording vocals for an album my brother is making. It's an exciting project, and although the music isn't really my style (it's kind of folk rock type stuff) it sounds good. It's fascinating to see how the sound changes as different musicians add their parts to the track - we start with my brother's vocals and mandolin part then I write and record the harmony/countermelody, then guitar, drums and bass are added by other people. And by the time it's finished it ends up in a different place to his first concep, but it works. It's certainly an experience.

Probably there are other things, but I forget. If they're important, I'll remember them later.

It's nice to be back. Especially as Blogger has finally decided to let me go Beta.