Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, blog hoppers!

Hope you are having a great weekend (long weekend if you've got a kind and benevolent boss who's given you time off... I haven't, hence the fact I was working Friday and I will be working on Monday - but I was off yesterday (which was my Saturday off anyway)), with lots of chocolate, hot cross buns, and traditional Easter films.

But whatever you're doing, have a good one!

And to those of you who remember the true reason for the holiday... God Bless...

*Adopts Silly Irish Accent... Rather Badly, It Must Be Said*

Faith an' begorrah... To be sure, tis St Patrick's Day... Hope you has a good'un...

Top o' the mornin' to ye... Guinness... Sheleighlie... Feck... Kiss the Blarney Stone...

Sorry - I'll stop now and go back to my normal Orcadian accent before any leprechauns come round to beat me up (lining up after the girls named India, obviously).

Happy St Patrick's Day, wherever you are, and whether you've got Irish blood in you or not...

That's It, Life...

You just keep right on kicking me!

Walking home past my brother's tonight I spotted a familiar sight... and a text from him just confirmed it...

"Your hire car is back parked outside the house..."

On Monday, we hired a car for the day, and David drove us around to see some of the sights... And tonight same rust-coloured (not rusty, just reddy-orange) Nissan Micra is parked outside his house... no doubt hired by some tourist who is staying at the hotel next door to him.

And flicking through iTunes just now, I came upon "Minority" by Green Day... one of the songs that Viki turned up loud and bounced around the living room to.

To quote the great philosopher Monty Python...

"Life's a piece of shit, when you look at it"

Reasons To Be Sorrowful... 1.. 2.. 3...

1. As aforementioned, this morning I waved Viki off at the airport as she made her way - her LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way - back to Hungary... wondering when I'll see her again without a webcam and being at the mercy of my MSN which keeps crashing, and her speakers which keep squealing and crackling until they have to be turned off, meaning she can't hear me.

2. Back to work and the idiot Flunky today. And did he cut me some slack since I was upset? Did he fuck!

3. Between saying goodbye to my Hunsis, and returning to the Hell Hole that is my workplace, I went along the Citizens' Advice Bureau and started my bankruptcy application.

Actually, there are more than 3 reasons... mainly tied in with my best friend leaving...

After work tonight I had to go to Tesco to get cat food... and as I walked round, I was so aware that last time I had been in there was with Viki and we had been having fun laughing at our Tesco and theirs (did you know that Tesco in Hungary sells cock rings!?) - and now I was back to miserably pushing a trolley around and thinking I couldn't buy certain things because they'd be gone off by the time I used them myself.

Stayed at work until about 7pm, because I didn't want to come home.

As I was walking about the street this morning before I came back to work, I kept thinking that just yesterday I'd been laughing and browsing in those same shops with Viki. Was in Trenabies on the way up to work to get a takeaway coffee, and the table we'd usually sat at when we had our lunch in there most days was free... but I couldn't bear to sit in. And even my latte didn't taste so good without someone (ahham) stealing glomps of it despite having her own double espresso every day!

And since coming home tonight I've had iTunes playing, and it's really been taking the piss out of me... either playing those songs that Viki had been playing on top volume while she was here (it's on shuffle, and the bastard thing has thousands of songs to choose from... so why does it keep picking Queen? And "Barbie Girl" was the real nail in the coffin). Or picking songs that remind me how alone I am...

"Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue?" (yes, I have brown eyes)
"Everybody Hurts"
"Over The Hills And Far Away"
"The Deepest Blues Are Black"
"Walkaway"
"The Power Of Goodbye"
and, currently, "There Is Always Something There To Remind Me" by The Beautiful South.

Bastarding iTunes!

In the week or so that Viki was here, and for a couple of weeks before, I never took my anti-depressants... never needed them... never felt down... But today I felt the temptation to vent my frustrations in the old way for the first time in ages. But I didn't... and I won't...

Instead I'm going to go to bed and cry.

Alone Again, Naturally...

It's 9:45am on Wednesday the 13th of August, and I've just waved my Hunsis, Viki, off at the airport about 8o'clock after what has been the best 8 days of my life.

I've spent a long time convincing myself that I don't need friends, that I'm okay with my own company (me and the cats), that I don't miss having someone around the house... but I do, I'm not, and I do...

Ever since first Mum died, and then Dad wound up in hospital and subsequently died, I've kidded myself on that I'm happy enough to come back to my little house after work and listen to music or play spider solitaire on the computer... but I had forgotten how good it is to have a friend to listen to music with, or to watch a DVD with, or just to talk to and laugh with. I've never flat-shared with people my own age, but I really want to now... so I'm desperately hoping that Viki will decide that she loved Orkney so much that she wants to move here permanently.

But now, I'm going to put on a brave face, go get a coffee, and go back to work to face Flunky once again (boss is away again - this is going to be a regular occurrence now... two weeks here, two weeks not... fun and games(!))... Before coming home tonight to my sad, empty house, and my sad, empty life.

Puszikak, Viki... Szeretlek...

The Final Countdown!

day to go!

This time tomorrow, Viki will have been here in Orkney for nearly an hour (plane delays notwithstanding), and I will be blushing a bright shade of bitrut (beetroot... it's a text thing) and giggling like a lunatic.

It's ridiculous... I thought I had grown out of this, but I'm still so pitifully shy when I meet people for the first time (about 17 years ago, first time I met my then to be sister-in-law, I hid in the kitchen of our house for ages and made excuses not to come through... in the end, she had to come through and drag me through... and within minutes we were picking on my brother and laughing like we'd known each other for years).

I'm sure me and Viki will be the same but, just for the moment, I am crapping myself!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!

... days to go!

1 hour and 35 minutes to go until I'm officially On Holiday!

Woo-hoo!

Gulp!

It's now just...

days until Viki arrives!

Actually, less, because she comes on Monday... so there's only 2 full days (not including today)!

Eeeeeeeek!

It's now less than...

days until Viki comes!

Countdown...

days until I'm on holiday!

The Countdown Continues...

days to go!

Shit... it was tonight I was meant to start the tidy-up in earnest, wasn't it?

One Week...

Or...

days until Viki comes!

The tidy up starts in earnest... er... tomorrow...

There's....

weeks to go!

It's Now...

... weeks until Viki arrives!

I'm less nervous now... We've had a couple more webcam chats, and that's really helped.

I'm most worried about cooking for her... I mean, it's okay if I give myself food poisoning, but it's not really good etiquette to do it to your guest - especially when they've travelled so far to visit you!

On the up side, she's promised to make me goulash! Yum, yum!

Now There's....

... weeks until Viki comes! And 4 weeks until I get a holiday!

Please, gods, let the weather be good...!

5 Weeks Today...

until Viki arrives from Hungary on holiday!!!!

Flights are booked... she's got British money... and we're both getting really nervous about meeting now - This is getting so real...!

I was never really able to have sleepovers when I was a kid (and because I was a bit of a Billie No Mates, no one ever wanted to come and stay over anyway)... so this is my first time playing host to anyone - and the first time anyone's stayed in MY house... not Mum & Dad's house...

I'm already planning some of the places I want to show her in Orkney (hope the weather stays good)... I just hope she's not disappointed with the place, or with me...

It just seems really strange to be meeting this person who's normally a series of words (and smileys) in an email or on MSN... but I'm looking forward to it.

Roll On August!

Woo-hoo! Yippee! Yay-hay! Etc!

Can you tell I'm a little excited?

Do you remember me telling you that something was going to be happening, but I couldn't tell you what it was because I didn't want to jinx it?

Well, "it" wss the fact that my Viki, my friend from Hungary, is coming to visit Orkney (and me... well, hopefully me first...) in August - and today she booked her tickets!

And she's going to be here for my birthday! I always hate my birthday, but this year's going to be different...

I can't wait to show her around... hope the weather's okay and the snow's not too deep (Joke, Viki! We don't often have snow in August).

I can't wait! This year can't pass quick enough for me now!

In Case I Don't Come Online Tomorrow....

Happy Easter to you!

If you're a Believer, God Bless...

If you're not a Believer, enjoy your days off thanks to those who are Believers! ;^D

And remember...

If you pig out on chocolate and end up sick, you've got nobody to blame but yourselves!

As A Fellow Celt...

Can I just say...

"Happy St Patrick's Day"

...(what's left of it) to anyone from Ireland who might happen along my blog....!?

Lovesick?

No, just sick of love!

Look, people, this...

is NOT a heart! THIS...

is a heart!

It's a lump of muscle that pumps your blood around your body... it doesn't think... it doesn't "love"... it just sits there going "dum, dum... dum, dum..." until one day it doesn't go "dum, dum..." anymore, and that's you pushing up daisies!

So why are so many of you buying into this commercialism and one day of sickeningly sweet cards and teddies and flowers and shit like that?

Of all the pointless holidays we have, Valentines Day is probably the most pointless... For the last month and a half, the shops have been full of things reminding us that if you really, really love your partner (if you have one), then on this one particular day, you should spend massive amounts of money on tat to show it! The other 364 days of the year, you can feel free to ignore, abuse, or take them for granted as much as you like.

I've spent the whole afternoon in the shop today while person after person came in wanting "a sheet of red card, please" - and you just know it was to make a Valentines card. *Insert vomit sound effect*

Then you hear on the radio about all the people who have been dumped today - the day BEFORE Valentines Day - or people who are having a real dilemma because they've agreed with their partner that they won't get each other anything... and they're all upset because they really wanted a tacky card... or they're frightened that their partner is going to go against their "pact" and they'll waken up to a card tomorrow morning, when they haven't bought one coz they were being obedient! This, of course, would be disaster because it would mean that their partner was one up on them, and obviously loved them more...

Then there are the sad singletons (and, yes, I'm single) who measure their self-worth in Hallmark envelopes and are made to feel like lepers because they've got no tacky cards in the post.

For god's sake, can't you just quietly do your couple thing every day and not shout it from the rooftops on one day of the year? What would you do if you never quietly told your "other half" (god, how that term makes me want to vomit! Aren't you a whole person in yourself?) how much you "wuv" them, and they were knocked down in a road accident on February 13th!?

Every damn type of shop is pushing hearts down our throats, and some of them are so blatantly cynical attempts to part us with our cash - no longer is Valentines Day a holiday for jewellery shops, florists and card shops... No, now butchers (celebrate with steak), bakers (heart-shaped biscuits), and DIY shops (buy your loved one a drill) are cashing in on it!

Okay, rant over...