Blogalogalog!

I have signed up for the Blogathon – if that day ends up an insomniac one, I’m sorted. Heh. Anyhow, I set up a little sub-blog thingy to do it on, which can be found here EDIT: see next post.

I’m going to be blogging in aid of the Association for International Cancer Research, since I’ve had several family members and friends affected by the disease. I’m in need of sponsors – either by the hour or a lump sum, even small sums help. To sponsor me (please!) click here.

Wow, I’m tired.

Well. Hum. I’ve gone a bit wonky again, so I don’t know how much I’ll be posting over the next few weeks. Still, I’m trying to get myself back into gear, so you never know. I think I’ll have a go at the Friday Five though:

1. What were your favorite childhood stories?
I was a big Enid Blyton fan, and collected many many of her books – the Famous Five, Secret Seven, Mystery, Secret of, and school series ones… might have forgotten some there, too. That was between the ages of 6 and 9 or 10, I think. I read an awful lot in general, mind you.

2. What books from your childhood would you like to share with [your] children?
Hmmm… I guess the Blyton books – they aren’t remotely up-to-date, but they were entertaining in their way. I’d mainly encourage kids to read as much as they want, and whatever they want, and get to know the local librarians – my teachers and librarians suggested books to me that I wouldn’t have thought to read otherwise.

3. Have you re-read any of those childhood stories and been surprised by anything?
I’ve re-read books that I read in my early teens, and got different things from them, but I wasn’t really surprised by that since I know I’ve got a different perspective on things now that I’m older. One that did surprise me, I suppose, was David Eddings’ Belgariad series: I originally read that when I was 10 or 11, and while I quite enjoyed it, I later discovered on re-reading it (aged 22) that I’d missed a lot, and hadn’t really “got” it in some ways, I think. I enjoyed it much more the second time round.

4. How old were you when you first learned to read?
I knew how to read / write my own name, and maybe a few other words, when I went to school (aged four, but just a month off of my fifth birthday), but I didn’t learn to read “properly” til I was at school. I didn’t consider myself a very good reader until I discovered that I could read much much better and faster to myself, rather than out loud, as you had to at school to the teacher.

5. Do you remember the first ‘grown-up’ book you read? How old were you?
I’m not 100% sure, since I raided the parents’ bookshelves, and joined the adult library from a fairly young age. But I think it was Where Eagles Dare by Alastair McLean, when I was 10 or so.

That took longer than I thought. Shall take myself back off to bed now. See if I can actually get some sleep. Oh, and speaking of which, since I’m not sleeping anyway, I think I’ll sign up for this year’s Blogathon. If I fall apart a bit more and can’t manage it, then that’s what happens. But it gives me something to aim for, rather than floating in fuzzy vagueness the whole time.

*sigh* Don’t want to whinge on and on about this, but… bah. Still not well. Do I have a sign on my back that says “Germs! Come and infect me!”? It certainly feels that way. So I’ll keep on taking my medicine, get plenty of rest, and hopefully be back at work in a few days. It’s so frustrating. I just want to get back to full time work, and to normal! Argh!
Have had blood tests, too, to check there’s no underlying thingy going on. To be honest, though, I think I’m just kind of run down. Or maybe it’s like the “fresher’s flu” syndrome that happens when you first go to uni and get exposed to a new place and loads of new people from yet more places, with various germs that you’re not naturally immune to. I might just be working through that, as it were, from starting back at work again after being pretty much by myself in my house for six months. Whatever it is, I hope it stops soon.

While faffing around the net a bit this afternoon, I came across the BlogChalking site, and so this is my blogchalk:
United Kingdom, East Yorkshire, Hull, English, Lou, Female, 26-30.
And it’s repeated in the nav bar down on the left there. Ta-daa.

Good news – the doctor thinks that the overtiredness, etc, is due to my hayfever tablets and my other meds disagreeing with one another. So I’m to stop taking the hayfever ones and see how it goes. Fingers crossed!

Bad news – I just wrote a monster-long post here which included typing up the entry I’d written long-hand on the train, about last weekend. And then the browser crashed and I lost it all. Cannot be bothered to type it all up again – it took me ages as it was. So here’s the short version:

Friday – travelled down to London, was sposed to meet Mum near Charing X at 1:30pm. She’d been staying at my aunt and uncle’s place while they were away to look after their cat, and my grandad. However, my grandad went and vanished on her, so she had to call the police to report him missing and all that. He has Altzheimer’s, and has gone out and forgotten where he lives before now. I had to lurk in central London (chose a net café, then Yates for food, as my places of lurking preference) while this was sorted out. Grandad then turned up none the worse for wear, announcing that he’d been to Southend. Whether he really had is anyone’s guess. Ho hum. Eventually met Mum and made it to Hastings. Admired lovely shiny new car (Rover 75) when Dad picked us up. Mmmm, air conditioning! Had a barbeque in the orchard in the evening. Lovely and relaxing :-) Brother is turning “the mud pile” into “grassy knoll with gunman gazebo”. Going to look gorgeous, I think.

Saturday – went to pub-restaurant for Dad’s 70th birthday dinner at midday. Got Dad an “I am 70” badge, as no-one would believe it to look at him. Food was heavenly – I had Gammon steak in a peach and honey sauce. Yuuuuuuuummm. Couldn’t manage desert, though! And they had homemade Banoffee Pie!! *wails* Then we went over to Eastbourne Marina / Harbour / thing and meandered around the Crumbles (retail park bit). Weather v hot. Looked at the new model Micra – quite a nice little car. Shall consider that for when I’m looking at getting a car (hopefully later this year). Went home, slept for a bit (overtiredness kicking in, there), then had birthday cake and watched some telly with the family.

Sunday – Er. Slept quite a lot. Read a bit. Went to Dymchurch with Mum and Dad to visit my aunt Frances in the afternoon. She’s the twin of my aunt Mary, and they’re 10 years older than Dad. They also don’t look their age. I haven’t seen her for ages, so that was good. Tuned her TV in for her – she has the parents’ old one, but doesn’t have a proper arial, just a portable one. Fixed that so it stands up. She now has a decent picture, and the right channels on the right numbers. *g* Was a lovely drive out there over the marshes, then back over a different bit of the marshes (via Camber etc). Though I did fall asleep for some of it. Heh. In the evening, Alison picked me up and we went round to Chaz and Clara’s place where we watched Martin’s DVD of the latest Bond film, and had a bit of a natter. They asked me when I was moving back to Hastings, and I told them I’m not because I’m allergic to it. It’s true – my allergies go mad at that end of the country, hayfever and asthma and all that. Hull is much healthier for me.

Monday – Tried really hard to wake up. Didn’t succeed, but did at least *get* up. Packed, had lunch, and was taken to the station where I got the train. Journey up was fine, and I made it to Kings X with plenty of time to spare. There was the soppiest dog on the tube, though – large chocolate lab who must’ve been still a puppy despite his size. Awwww :-) The train from Kings X was a bit less fun for a while – I was on the side that the sun was blazing in through, and the air conditioning didn’t seem to be working very well. I don’t cope well with being in the sun. Bleurgh. In the end I went to ask if they could put the air conditioning on, and discovered that the next carriage was wonderfully cool – they just had probs in the end one. So I moved and was much more comfortable. Caught a bus straight away when we got into Hull, and I was home by about 7:15pm. Xandermog was pleased to see me be let outside. Terrible monster :-)

My grandad, by the way, will hopefully be going to a care home sometime fairly soon – he still lives on his own at the mo, and that’s clearly not working well any more. He doesn’t recognise it as his house a lot of the time anyway, so it won’t make a lot of difference if he’s elsewhere, and then there would be people to keep an eye on him all the time, which my aunt and uncle can’t.

And that did get quite long in the end. But not half as long as the original. It’s probably for the best…. :-)

I’m feeling pretty frustrated right now, because I’m stupidly over-tired and muzzyheaded, and I just can’t manage to *do* anything. Is not good. It’s worryingly like I was feeling last year, but not quite the same so I really hope it stops soon, because it’s horrible and not helpful to the whole getting back to normal thing that I *really* want to be able to do. Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Doctor said this might happen, but I really hoped not, but I spose it has so i have to find some way of dealing or solving, or whatever. Must. Keep. Eyes. Open.

Think I’ll do the last few weeks’ worth of This-or-That Tuesday. Maybe that’ll help my brain focus a bit, and whatever, it’s better than sitting on the sofa and drifting in and out of consciousness. That’s v disorientating, which is why I’ve put the computer on. To see if trying to do something helps. On the bright side, my vocab doesn’t seem to have abandoned me this time. Right, on with the meme:

June 3: Animals
1. Cats or dogs?
Cats, because I’m under the paw. But I love doggies too.
2. Butterflies or birds?
Flutterbies! Pretty :-) But again, like birdies too.
3. Horses or cows?
Moooooooooo.
4. Turtles or snakes?
Snakes, I think. Always liked snakes.
5. Frogs or grasshoppers?
Frogs are cuuuuuute.
6. Lions or tigers?
Can I have both?
7. Elephants or mice?
Er. Either / or. Ickle mouses are cute, though, especially the ones that live in the Underground.
8. Porcupines or aardvarks?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaardvaaaaaaaaaaaaaark. Hee!
9. Unicorns or dragons?
Dragons, I think. Dunno why. *shrug*
10. Thought-provoking question of the week: You live in a rather dumpy apartment. A friend offers you a chance to be a roommate at a new place s/he is moving into, but they don’t allow pets. You have a pet. Do you find your pet a new home and take the new place, or do you keep your pet and stay put?
Heh. My pet comes first, always. And stays with me. I’ll wait until I can find somewhere nicer for me and the mog, thankyouverymuch.

May 27: Personal Habits, Quirks, Routines, etc.
1. Do you prefer silence or do you like background sound (music, TV, etc)?
Well, I don’t mind silence, and it does depend on what I’m doing, but in general I will have some kind of background noise. Got the radio on right now. Will generally be radio or music channel unless there’s something on telly I fancy watching.
2. Bathe/shower in morning or evening?
Shower in the morning, bathe in the evening. *g* Having a bath is more a once-a-week pampering occasion, though. Showering in the morning is the usual routine.
3. Sleeping in complete darkness, or with a nightlight on?
Darkness for me. If I have any kind of light, I’d just be too tempted to read or write or whatever. Or maybe tempted is the wrong word. I’d feel like I ought to be doing something more constructive than sleeping, perhaps.
4. Lay out clothes the night before, or just grab what’s closest in the morning?
Don’t actually lay my clothes out, but if it’s a work night then I’ll generally decide in my head what to wear the next day so I don’t have to think about it in the morning.
5. Hang up/fold clothes neatly, or just toss them wherever?
Depends, but I usually hang / fold them neatly. Just not all the time.
6. Work out at a gym, or at home on your own (or do you not bother with exercise)?
Not very good at exercising at all, but I do go to the gym with H from time to time.
7. Talk on the phone, or via IM/e-mail?
It all depends who I’m talking to. But I am online most evenings, so I probably talk on IM / email more than on the phone at the mo.
8. Are you usually on time, or late?
*sigh* Late much more often than I’d like. :-( Trying very very hard to change that.
9. Spendthrift or frugal?
Heh, once again I’m trying to be frugal rather than splurging my money away. Doing quite well now, actually, since being off sick meant I *had* no money to spend – my budgeting skills have improved hugely.
10. Thought-Provoking Question of the Week: You work with someone who is not in the habit of bathing regularly. The smell seems to be getting worse and worse! Would you: 1. try to do something about it, or 2. try to grin and bear it? If you said 1, what would you do?
I would probably grin and bear it… maybe try and sit a bit further away, or something. I’d have no idea how to approach a situation like that. Maybe I’d find out if another colleague was a bit braver and willing to try saying something. It’s a difficult one.

May 20: Even More Potpourri…
1. Large or small family?
Small, I spose…. I just have the one brother, and that works pretty well for us. But a large extended family, which we also have, is also great :-)
2. Potato chips or pretzels?
Potato chips, I spose, if that’s the same as crisps. Don’t have pretzels very often, mind you.
3. House or apartment?
House! *hugs house*
4. Zebras or giraffes?
Ummm. Giraffes! For no particular reason at all.
5. Candles or potpourri?
Candles.
6. Flowers or trees?
Treeeeees. They’re all nice and green and shady. And flowers make me sneeze. I like the flowers in my garden, though :-)
7. Right or left-handed?
I’m right handed. *shrug*
8. Model trains or dolls/stuffed animals?
Dolls / stuffed animals, I guess.
9. Comedy or drama?
Yes.
10. Thought-provoking question of the week: The city of Boston has recently banned smoking in all restaurants and bars. Would you want to see such a law passed in your city/town/country, or not?
Well, I wouldn’t mind, actually. I can imagine a lot of people would be seriously unimpressed, and it might end up with big crowds of smokers lurking round the doorways of pubs and so on, but as an asthmatic non-smoker, it would personally suit me well enough.

May 13: *Another Potpourri Edition*
1. Packrat or minimalist?
Oh, definitely packrat. I horde. I have done a lot of clearing out in the last year or so, mainly cos Mum came up to stay and made me do it. *g* But I’ll never be anything remotely like minimalist, and neither will anyone else in my family, I think.
2. Computer: desktop or laptop?
Well….. desktop for preference if it was one of the other. Which is it for me right now, of course. But I’d like both, ideally *g*.
3. Seashore or mountains?
Seashore, but seashore with mountains nearby would be nice :-)
4. Carpeting or bare floors?
Depends on the room. Generally carpeting, but wood floors are also lovely, and I prefer tiles in the kitchen.
5. Drinking water: bottled or tap?
Tap, unless I’m on the move… and even then I’m likely to fill myself a bottle from the tap to take with. *g* Abroad, bottled.
6. Shopping websites: eBay or Amazon?
Amazon.
7. Cute little kitties or big scary tigers?
Can I have both?
8. Front door or back door?
Um? Huh? For leaving-the-house-from? Front, cos I can’t lock my back gate from the outside.
9. Lots of jewelry, or little/none?
Relatively little, quite often none. When I do wear it, it’ll most likely be earrings, three celtic-y rings (on two fingers) and my christening bracelet (my hands / wrists are tiny, so it still fits), all of which are silver, plus the “one bracelet” which is a leather plaited band with a little metal celtic knot thingy on it. My hobband has the other “one bracelet”… which, yes, makes two. Shhh. I also have a silver celtic knot pendant which I sometimes wear.
10. Thought-provoking question of the week: At the last minute, you obtain tickets to an event you’re dying to attend. However, you have to work that day! Do you ask the boss for the time off, or just call in sick?
I ask for the time off. I couldn’t be off dishonestly – the guilt would destroy any enjoyment in the event, I should think!

May 6: *The Media Edition*
1. TV or radio?
Hummmm……. well, I watch TV more, but I like listening to the radio a lot as well. Er. Both?
2. On the radio: talk or music station?
Music station, but one with occasional talk-y bits. I like Radio 2 a lot.
3. Actual books or books-on-tape (or e-books)?
Actual books! I love my books…. and I would hug them at this point, but I have far too many to even consider trying it.
4. Actual newspaper, or web version?
Generally, the web version, since I never actually buy the real thing. But I do read them if someone else has got one.
5. Wall Street Journal or National Enquirer?
Errrr. The Times. Or sometimes the Mail or Express, if I’m feeling intellectually lazy ;-)
6. TV news…news channel such as CNN, or your local broadcast news?
I’ll generally wait to see the ‘normal’ news…. I like both the national version and the local version (does American telly work like that? We have half an hour of national news, then half an hour of local news in the early evening). I only usually go to a specific news channel if there’s something big happening, or if there’s *really* nothing else on and I don’t want to listen to music. *g* Oh, or if I’ve missed the normal news and I think there was something I wanted to know about.
7. A movie you’ve been looking forward to seeing gets bad reviews all around. See it anyway, or pass?
Probably see it anyway, unless my brother says it’s rubbish as well – if he likes it, it’s pretty certain I will.
8. See movies when they first come out, or wait a few weeks for the lines at the theater to get shorter?
Depends on what the film is, and how organised I’m feeling. If I’m going to see something popular when it first comes out, I’ll prebook seats anyway, so I don’t have to queue.
9. TV: cable, satellite dish, or just plain old antenna?
Streamed over ADSL *g*
10. Thought-provoking question of the week: If you had to choose only one form of media to come into your home, which would you choose…print (newspapers, magazines) or electronic (TV, internet)? Why?
As long as print doesn’t include books, then I’ll go with electronic please, Bob. Because it’s more frequently updated, more instantly available when I want it, it’s dynamic, and… er…. well, it’s suits me better :-)

OK, well, I do think I feel a bit… hmm…. livelier, if not exactly more awake. That’s good. I’m going to make sure I go to bed way early tonight, so hopefully I’ll be able to haul myself up and out to work OK in the morning. I can’t be doing with this, otherwise. I need to find myself some energy-boosting foods or something, as well. Perhaps if I try and eat quite a lot for dinner, that’ll help a bit. Fingers crossed…….

Well. Um. My brother seems to have given me his migraine, or something. Which is really !%&%*$” annoying, to understate a tad, since it’s meant I missed work today :-( Then, to add to the fun, after I woke up from the knock-me-out painkillers I got from the chemist and dared think that since I could see again, I could go into work this afternoon…. my nose started bleeding. And has been doing so for the last few hours, pretty much. I really hope it’s stopped now, because having it go on this long is probably not so healthy. Grrr.

Anyhow, I shall go and feed myself now. Stuff with plenty of iron and stuff, I think. Yes.

If my head is still OK later, I’ll see if I can get my con report from last weekend done, or at least get my pics with the guests up.

I’ve been pretty busy this week, with that work thing and all. Doesn’t half take up a lot of time, that! ;-) But I’m enjoying it, and there’s lots of different stuff to do, which is good – if the phones aren’t busy, then I have other projects to work on, which means no getting bored. Always good.

Met Megs, Nic and Chris yesterday – the original plan was to meet at Planet Coffee, but Nic and Chris were running late. Still, me and Megs stuffed our faces, and I had a yummy banana shake – a proper one with a banana pulverised with ice-cream and milk, not a chemical-y powder one. Mmmmm, shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake. *drools* [/Homer]
Anyhoo, Megs and I went up to the costume shop and sorted out the rest of our costumes for next weekend. We’ve each hired some stuff, and bought some other bits to add to things we already have. The one I hired was a schoolgirl outfit for the Friday night, as I don’t have anything remotely school uniform-y any more. Megs hired a Riffraff suit, for the Sunday Prom night (going with the Sunnydale-Prom-with-hellhounds kinda theme). I got myself some more fangs (since I killed my last set) for the Saturday Vampire Ball, and some accessories for the Sunday Prom (long gloves, feather boa and feathered mask…. even though it’s not a masquerade theme, I just really wanted one *g*)
By the time we left the costume shop, Nic and Chris had reached Newland Ave, and it was chucking it down with rain. So we dodged in and out of a couple of charity shops, where Megs found a skirt for her anti-Britney outfit, and then the others made their way off to Beverley while I went and got myself some hairdye then went home. Phew!

Must remember to get a new battery for my clock. It’s been quarter to eight for the last two days….

Aaaaand here’s the friday five:

1. What was the last TV show you watched?
The latest ep of Angel, “Sacrifice”. Though that was a downloaded version, obviously, so if we’re counting the last thing I watched on the actual telly, then tonight’s ep of Charmed.

2. What was the last thing you complained about?
The weather. I’msoBritish. Heh.

3. Who was the last person you complimented and what did you say?
Told my Mum she looked really good in the pic that she sent me today, of her at Scotney Castle on her birthday last Wednesday.

4. What was the last thing you threw away?
The packets that my dinner came out of, an empty cat food tin, and some junk mail that came in the post this morning.

5. What was the last website (besides this one) that you visited?
My LJ Friends page. Just to make a change. Heheh.