What's Wrong With Me!!!???

Woke up this morning at 7am, with the sun streaming in the window, not feeling sleepy and crabbit as I usually am... Got up and let the cats out (they blotted their copybooks yesterday by peeing TWICE on the floor, but we think that was just a hint that their litter tray was needing cleaned), and didn't go back to sleep, for a change.

Instead, I listened to some music on the computer for a wee while, then got dressed and ready for work. Left the house about quarter past 8 (normally I'm not even up then), and walked (yes, that's right... WALKED) to work... with a brief detour past my favourite coffeeshop for a caramel latte to sup on the way. It was so beautiful walking out along the seafront, watching gulls, ducks and 8 or 9 swans on the Peedie Sea on the other side of me.

Arrived at work almost on the dot of 9am, feeling refreshed, happy and not at all tired. It would be nice if this would stay with me, but I suspect it won't. Tomorrow morning I am sure I will waken up all knackered and grumpy, and it will be a last-minute rush to get to work in time by taxi.

God, it's a beautiful day today! Hope it's nice and sunny too where you are.

That's More Like It!

Today sees a return to good fortune on the Fruit Pastille front...

2 Yellows
1 Green
2 Oranges
5 Reds
and 4 Blacks

And the sun is coming out again here... and I'm finishing work early today since I've got to work Saturday... not a bad Thursday!

Nice Weather For Ducks?

After my music videos post today, I hardly dare to say this but...

The sun is shining this morning!

Going to make hay... see ya...

It's Just Been Pointed Out To Me...

... that I haven't blogged any of the good stuff that happened today, and that's why I sound so psychotic.

So I'll tell you that I met Viki (who is on holiday today and tomorrow) when I went home at dinnertime, and we went to Starbucks for takeaway coffee, and then across the road to a shop for bacon & tomato ketchup rolls (2 each) and then we went to the Museum Gardens for the first time this year and had lunch on a bench there in the sunshine.

Yes, the sunshine... It's a beautiful day in Orkney today!

Oh, and last night I took Viki a walk up the road from our house to show her the woods and the burn at the Willows, and then up the back of my old infant school and primary school, to my old grammar school, before going back down the road past the woods again and home.

The night before that, we went a walk out to Weyland before tea.

I love that the evenings are getting lighter and the days getting longer again.

Oh, It's Not Such A Good Day...

Okay... all things considered, it was still a pretty good day, because it was a Thursday, but I wasn't working... but some of the things that were going to make it a good day, ended up going that little bit wrong...

First, the electrician that was supposed to come at 9am this morning... we stayed in til after 12 noon, and he didn't come. But I phoned him, and he said he would come after 5pm.

Which he did... but then the aerial that he fitted in the loft didn't make a blind bit of difference to the TV picture! Mainly because I live in a little single-storey house... and across the road from me (blocking me from the television transmitter on top of a hill outside Kirkwall) are all 2-storey houses, and then there's the oil tanks, and then a dirty great big hotel... all blocking the signal from getting to my brand shiny new aerial! Grrrrrr.... anyone got a bulldozer?

Then, whilst it was nice and sunny while we were inside, waiting for the electrician... as soon as we ventured out to the shops (I swear, as soon as we opened the front door) - it started to rain! It stopped after a while, but after the rain, it stayed cold and wet and windy for the rest of the afternoon.

Maybe I won't bother buying a lottery ticket for Saturday after all!

It's Been Friday All Week...

Unfortunately, this Friday (er... tomorrow) is *gulp*...

Let's start my woes with the weather and my washing... I hung out some washing about tea-time on Sunday, and the weather was fine for drying it. Left it out all night, and didn't have time to take it in before work on Monday morning... and it rained before I got home! So, not having anywhere in the house to hang wet clothes, and no tumble drier, I left it out. It dried Tuesday because the weather was fine - until just before I got out from my counsellor's appointment... and it rained! Left out washing, dried Wednesday... rain comes not long before 5o'clock (are you detecting a theme here?), so washing gets left out... Today was cold, but mostly dry until... do I really need to go on? Suffice to say, the bloody washing is dripping away out the back and can stay there until Hell freezes over for all I care!

Then there's the cat... who I can't stop from pissing behind the front door. I've fixed a carrier bag over the letter box, so at least my mail doesn't land in it any more. But I've had boss and flunky berating me for not "rubbing her nose in it" - so I tried that last night. Result? She was terrified of me for a while, then sulky, then eventually forgave me - and there was a puddle behind the door again tonight! Picked her up, got to within 2 feet of the door... whereupon she obviously sussed what I was going to do, and she struggled out of my grip and away behind the chair... where she stayed until I'd got it all cleaned up, eventually coming out for a cuddle once it was too late for me to punish her. Please... there must be SOME way to curb this behaviour? It's only started since I moved...

Then there's the fact that work is so quiet now that we've sold the shop... and I'm so up-to-date that I've got nothing to do most of the time. Business should pick up as the nights start to lengthen again, but that's a long way off.

Well, that's about all for me, I reckon. Off for a quick scoot about and then down to visit my brother to see "Heroes" a bit later.

Nothing To Report...

Well, nothing I WANT to report... so I'm focussing on music and waffle just now.

Maybe you'll hear about the shit stuff with money and decisions to be made and things like that in a couple of weeks (by which time I've got to make a big decision on the money & lack of it front), or maybe you won't...

But on the less-important crap things happening, Harriet is still pissing behind the front door (usually once or twice a week), and the reasonably new ivy plant I bought for work is barely clinging on to life... Julie, I need your green fingers! Do ivys need a little water, or a lot? Coz I watered mine and all the leaves shrivelled up... And do they like sunshine? Or no sunshine? HELP! Before the boss and flunky call in the local undertaker...

Oh, and the really pissing-off thing... I'm being charged over £60 by my bank for an automatic card payment that took me less than £10 over my overdraft limit for about a day... and it was for my broadband that I'd forgotten to cancel... and which I haven't got set up at home yet due to the problem with the phone line I had. So I didn't even HAVE the service I was paying for! Tried to get the bank to waive the charge, but no... my bank are bastards! AND my counsellor was fog-bound in one of the isles on Tuesday, so I didn't even have her to talk things over with!

Anyway, at least the rain's buggered off again, so I'm going to bugger off and walk home (since I can tonight without getting wet... last night I had to use my second-last £2.70 and get a taxi because it was raining... the last £2.70 was to get me to work this morning - Good job pay day is tomorrow).

Ta-ra!

The Sun Has Got His Hat...

...er, off again!

Yep... today's been dreich (it's a Scottish word... and it describes the weather perfectly... damp, muggy, dull and grey)... and just not long before 5o'clock, it started raining. Not heavy - just enough to add to the general feelings of "Bleurgh"ness.

What's actually needed is a real downpour, possibly with a rumble or 6 of thunder, just to clear the air. Because it's really oppressive at the moment... the kind of sticky, hot air that gives you (well, me) a sore head, and makes you (again, me) just want to sleep.

But if the rain could come overnight, that would be good, thanks.

(Sorry about all the weather posts, but it's about as close to any news as I've got for now).

Going to go shopping soon... Oh joy, oh bliss, oh rapture(!) (Yes, that is a teeny note of sarcasm you can detect)...

The Sun Has Got His Hat On (Again)...

Hip, hip, hip hooray!

Yes, after a dull evening & night yesterday (with rain), and day (up until about an hour ago) today, the sun has come back out again - and very welcome it is too!

According to the Met Office, the average May rainfall for Orkney is 49.3mm... and this May we've only had 5mm.

If this is Global Warming, we'll have some more of that, please!

It Had To Happen Sooner Or Later...

After at least 3 weeks of dry weather and sunshine...

... Today it's raining.

Snow Joke...

Day 4 of the snow, and it's starting to go away now, I think - but there are still snowy showers on the go, and it's effing cold!

I've decided I'm a soft touch where my moggies are concerned. I came home last night and they were huddled up together on the sofa - Now, usually they will lie close to each other, but with no actual physical contact. So I decided they must have been cold - And this morning when I went to work, I left my plug-in convector heater on low for them... eating up my electricity, and doing me no real good at all (except the living room was a wee bit warm when I came home tonight).

Work's been strange the last 2 days... not being in the shop. There's no denying I cursed for it, but there's no denying I miss the interaction with the customers. You don't get the same banter with men coming in for cable.

Well, that's about it, I think - guess I'll bugger off to bed now.

8:30am And All Isn't Well...

I've been at work for half an hour... and it's utterly baltic here in the office!

Bloody typical - no snow all winter (apart from one day), and Easter weekend it's snowing (but not really lying - except on higher ground... like outside my hoose!) and temperatures are struggling to get very far above zero with added windchill.

Brrr.

Just Chillin'

That's what the bottle of wine I bought to have (it IS only a baby bottle!) while I have my tea is doing just now... and that's why I'm killing time here in the meantime...

Was in the shop working today - it was kinda average... not busy, not quiet... just steady. The weather's been really odd today - sunny periods, and then real belters of rainy, sleety showers, so we did get some folk in when they were on.

Then a visit down to see my brother, and then home, via the supermarket... where I have reached new levels of laziness... I like hot pancakes, and I thought I was being really lazy buying those bottles of pancake mix that you add milk to and shake before cooking, instead of making proper pancake batter... but I've gone a step further...

Tonight I bought a packet of (oh, the shame) Auntie Betty's FROZEN pancakes! Bung them in the microwave for a minute or so, and Robert's your mother's brother!

I'll tell you the morn if they're any good.

And now I'm offski coz my wine should be sufficiently cold, and I'm going to stick my fajitas in the oven, and settle down to watch at least a bit of the dvd of the BBC adaptation of "Jane Eyre" that I bought cheap from Woolies earlier (watched it when it was on, and loved it... and the actor that played Rochester is pretty damned hot!).

Oh, and going to check if I'm a millionaire on the Lottery. If not, I'll probably see you tomorrow... If you haven't heard from me by this time next week, I'll be sunning myself on my private yacht somewhere that's a damn sight hotter than Orkney!

The View From The Office Window Today...

A white world (taken with a phone camera through a dirty, steamy window)...

Last night we had hailstones... this morning when I peeked out the curtains at home, the ground had a couple of inches of snow, and falling from the sky was a steady, slow, leisurely curtain of those really small, fluffy and really pretty snowflakes.

As I mentioned yesterday, we were supposed to be shut for stock-taking yesterday and today, but that didn't happen. Well, the snow would have stopped half our counters getting into work anyway - we had to shut the shop after all because the lass was stranded in the country. Unfortunately, my taxi (only just) managed to get me up to the office, where I had to stay while the boss spent 90% of the day away on some errand or another. Not that it was busy... we might as well have stayed shut. But, hey, it IS my paid Saturday, so I shouldn't complain.

Boss is away next week - I've got Monday and the start of Tuesday in the shop, then I'm in the office the rest of the time, apart from college on Wednesday morning... Honestly, it's a job to know where I am half the time just now!

Well, I'm just about to bugger off for something to eat, and to check my lottery numbers... and then I think a DVD and a glass of something vaguely alcoholic, maybe. Catch ya later...

The Best-Laid Plans Of Mice And Companies...

All too often go completely and utterly all to cock!

Today should have been a really busy day at work - we were meant to be shut today and tomorrow for stock-taking, but that's had to be put off for a week or two (due to circumstances outwith our control). I was meant to be left all alone up at the office, entering all the figures on to the computer, while 5 or 6 others counted stuff down at our shop. Instead, I've been in the shop all day, which has been quiet - partly because there was an advert in the paper saying we were shut, and partly because the weather's been rotten today and people have been staying home in droves (in fact, there's a light dusting of snow / hail outside now - We made it through December & January with only frost, but first day of February - bam! we get snow!).

And then, when that was over (and without saying too much), things should have fallen into place, and this should have been a very good weekend for the firm - but that's all on hold at the moment.

Boss goes away on Sunday for a week or so - So it'll just be me and Flunky up at the office.... Oh, joy(!) And there's another spanner in the works for a week or two - that I'm going to be left to explain to people!

It's really not been much fun the last few weeks at work - just hope that light up ahead is daylight at the end of the tunnel... and not the train coming at us at great speed!

Not much other news from the last week - just the same old crap.

Eeeeeeeek!

It's hard to believe it's been nearly a week since I've been on here to do anything more than post the daily music video, but it's been a busy week - but here I am with a potted summary of the past 7 days....

Sunday night & Monday night I watched cop drama "Messiah: The Rapture", without the yummy Ken Stott this time - but with the just-as-yummy Marc Warren. Didn't enjoy it quite so much as previous ones, but I think your gritty detectives are always better played by Scots... Think about it - Taggart, Cracker, Red Metcalfe (Ken Stott's copper) and Mike Walker (David Hayman) from "Trial & Retribution" are surely 4 of the best cops on telly (okay, Cracker's not strictly a copper, but still...). *

* Yes, the fact that I fancy 3 of those 4 may cloud my judgement just a teensy tiny bit, I guess....

Tuesday was at my Counsellor after work... She's given me a book that we're going to work through now - "Mind Over Mood" - which is part of this cognitive behaviour therapy or whatever it's called. So now I get homework from her as well!

I was a doofus on Tuesday and Wednesday night too... Tuesday night I put on the heater when I came home, but the place just didn't warm up any. Wednesday night, I turned on the heater, and turned it up a bit - and noticed with shock that there was no heat at all coming out of it! I cursed my boss up hill and down dale for buying cheap shit heaters, and sent him a text complaining that it had stopped working after only a few months and that I'd be bringing the damn thing back the next day!

Well, Thursday morning I went to unplug the heater... only to discover that the plug was about 4mm out of the socket! Then I remembered - when I came home on Tuesday night, I'd been going through to the kitchen, and I'd tripped over the cable... and it must have pulled it out just far enough to cut the power! I pushed the plug in again, and was met with a blast of hot air! So I had to go to work and confess my dingusity to my boss!

So, what else has happened this week? Not a lot really... just work, college, bad weather, and the usual shit.

Working tomorrow from 8am (yuk), and I'm all on my own up at the office.

Well, I guess that's about it, so I'll end now coz my brother's coming to get me soon to go shopping - and then I'm going down to his for haggis and clapshot... Yummy!

Probably see you the morn at some stage!

Bloody Hell, Folks

I don't know what it's like where you are, but in bonny Orkney tonight it's cold enough to freeze the cassocks off a brass monk, and everywhere is covered in a layer of lovely, sparkly - and very, very slippery - frost!

Seriously, the roads and pavements are like a skating rink! It was slippy when I went to work this morning, it thawed a bit (where the sun shone) all day - and as soon as it got dark down came the ice again... meaning it was already slippy when I finished work at 5pm.

And, speaking of roads, I wish I could line our roads department up against the wall and shoot the whole bloody lot of them... Remember I told you on Monday that they road men were digging up outside the house again? Well, they've turned the bit outside my house, going up to a housing scheme, into a no-through road! There's a big square in front of the house, and they've put a kerb right across it - effectively cutting my house off from the rest of the street (I'm the top house). It means now that to get to the taxi in the morning, I have 3 choices:

1. Go down the road a bit.
2. Go along the road a bit.
3. Get the taxi to go down my road, along another road, up a road, round a corner, along a road, round another corner and down a bit to get to the parking space outside my house.

I'll take a photo once they've finished so you can see how bloody stupid the idea is. I'm actually glad Dad's not here anymore, because there's no way he'd have been able to walk the distance out or down the road to where the taxi would stop... and I'd bet that at least 90% of taxi drivers wouldn't go the longer route to get a 90 year old man to his gate!

And all this because somebody complained that the road is "dangerous" for kids playing - despite the fact I've not heard of any accidents in the 20+ years I've lived here... and despite the fact that there's a big sign on the wall a bit above my street that says "NO BALL GAMES" - so they're not MEANT to play there!

Grrrrrrrr.

Work was boring as hell today. In the office, catching up on what I can't do when I'm in the shop... and it's flipping cold in our main building (the shop's lovely and warm because the heating needs to be on to keep the paper dry - no such luxury in the electrical bit). Boss buggered off for a while at lunchtime, then mid-afternoon, then decided he'd go home 10 minutes before 5o'clock, and leave muggins to close up. So I didn't get past Starbucks for my usual XL gingerbread latte with cream - and I'd had no coffee all day, because every time the boss went out, he "forgot" to buy milk! So, no caffeine, and no warm liquid to warm me up... Is it any wonder I'm a little wound up?

Tomorrow I plan to do as little as possible. Not heard from my friend yet, but I suspect tomorrow's not going to be ideal for balloon-releasing either. I don't think it's going to be windy enough... and if it's still freezing, I'd rather not venture too far. I've no desire to start 2008 with any broken bones, thank you very much!

Right... I'm off to (possibly) treat myself to a Sky Box Office film. I kinda fancy seeing "Hairspray" - just for the absurdity of John Travolta in a fat-suit and frock. It might be funny... But, on the other hand, it might just be cringeworthy. Oh, what a dilemma...

Okay, see ya!

Nothing To Report...

... apart from a busy day at work (change of plan there... first at the office, then in the afternoon at the shop) and the foul weather (was at my brother's after work, and the walk from his house to the taxi rank - about 100 yards - saw me sheltering in a doorway for about 5 minutes, and then braving the rest of the distance... and by the time I got to the taxi I was soaking wet and my eyes were so full of rain I could hardly see where I was going). It's blowing a gale outside, and the rain is running in rivers along the roads.

Shit! Harriet's out (she insisted on going out when I got home... I tried to tell her it was horrid weather!)... I'd better go and let her in. Bet I get dirty looks all night now...

And if Minnie starts creating havoc like she did last night... running up and down the stairs while I was trying to get to sleep... then I shall open the door and boot her bahookie out into the wind and rain!

Hanging On In There...

That's 2 days I've made it through! Only 4 more to survive before I get one day off... and then another 6... and this having to cover the shop really isn't helping matters. As long as I'm down there, there's so much up at the office I can't get doing.

I was up at the office first thing today so that I could do the wages, but I'd not even started them before the boss was on the phone (for he was down in the shop) asking when I'd be down for he needed to do something back up at the office.

So, I made it down to the shop about 12o'clock, let the boss go, with the promise that he'd come back "just after 1pm" to let me go for lunch... He arrived at 10 to 2 (like yesterday) - funny how shopgirl HAD to go for dinner on the dot of 1pm, isn't it? Oh, and he told me I'd be pretty much "guaranteed my Saturdays" until we get a new shop-assistant... In other words, not a chance of a weekend off! Sort of Ex-Shopgirl is still going to be doing some Saturdays for us, but this weekend I'll be up at the office attempting to cram 5 days' work into one day - as well as trying to fathom out what the boss has done to "help" while I've been down the shop, and fix his mistakes!

My feet have got back into shop mode anyway... they hurt like hell - and it's not like the soles of them... it's the tops, and it seems to be in the bones... and it's sore...

Well, that's about all for my moan for the day - going to let the cats in now (funnily enough, Harriet was in all last night, and there was no way she was going outside that door before I went to work... just in case I didn't let her back in again). Oh, NO! I've just noticed something... It's raining outside... meaning soggy moggy cuddles! Yukkie!

G'night...

I Made It!

I survived my first day back at work since Saturday 29th December... but it was a struggle.

For a start, I was so afraid I would sleep in that I woke up sometime after 3am, then again about 5am, then I lay and sort of half-slept until about half past 6... at which point I gave up trying to get any more sleep and watched cartoons instead.

Then, when I ventured outside to wait for my taxi, it was to a hard frost, and the council workmen making ready to start digging up the road outside again (they've stuck silly pavements at weird angles in the roadway outside to try and slow traffic - which took them about a bloody month before Christmas, and I thought they were finished... but, no, they're back again).

Work was busy... down in the bloody shop all day - I'll be so glad when we get a replacement for our ex-shopgirl. At least I'll be up in the office for the morning part of tomorrow, because I've got to do the wages - but I expect I'll be back down serving the masses in the afternoon.

Came home to a line of cones, and a trench dug across the road, meaning you can't get a car within about 50 yards of the place... and it was frosty again... and it will be again tomorrow morning - It's going to be a miracle if I get to the taxi without landing on my erse!

Also came home to a poor cat who'd been closed out all last night, and today... Harriet didn't come home last night, and she's obviously got used to me being home all day, because she didn't realise she had to be in before 9am if she wanted in before I went to work. Poor mog... but she should learn from her mistake for tomorrow morning, if she happens to venture out tonight.

Well, that's about all from my day. Has life returned to normal for everyone else, then?