STAIRS!

Today, I helped to fit a stair carpet, and by help I actually do mean help and not just standing around barking out orders.

I think I'm a natural, if my career doesn't go well, I could always become a carpet fitter!?! It's quite satisfying to stand back and say I did that, and I can see it from my desk and I'm feeling rather smug.

Another thing I discocvered this week was that I am right eye dominant. To check this, what you do is point at the corner of the room with both eyes open. Then you close one eye and see what happens to the finger, if it stays pointing at the corner that's your dominant one. FUN!

The Great British Pastime

So, on my way home from work I pass a council tip, I myself have been to this tip once when I first moved in with A and I made him get rid of loads of broken junk he had been collecting like the womble he is.

As I made my way back home today I passed the afore mentioned tip and saw what must have been thirty cars all queuing to get into it! Now, I'm all for dumping things responsibly - but why do they all feel the need to go on a saturday afternoon?

Is it a big fun day out for all the family? Does one member of the household say "ooh I know what we can do today, let's go to the tip and dump that tv that hasn't worked since 1978!" amid cries of "YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY" from all around them?

It got me thinking though, we as a nation spend a lot of our lives firstly queuing and secondly going to dull places. The garden centre being one of them, or any number of DIY shops. I honestly can't think of anything more boring than going round a DIY shop looking at taps, bolts and various lengths of piping! Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that the weekends may be the only time that people do work on their homes or gardens, but surely there has to be more to life than painting the fence or digging up the lawn. There is isn't there?!

Hi Ho Hi Ho It's Off To Work We Go

So, I've been off work all this week and have done the sum total of nothing. Well, that's a lie - I've cleaned and done washing. It's made me all the more determined to never become a housewife. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, I just don't think it's very me. To be honest I get terribly bored very quickly. I've been practising my mixing but I get frustrated too easily with that as well. My friend Ed has been very good and has been throwing some pointers my way - but I doubt I'm ever going to be very good.

I am also quite sure that when I go back I'll be desperate to be off.

To Sleep Perchance to Dream

I'm off work all this week on holiday and have spent much of today in bed asleep. Now I don't know if that's because I need the rest, or because I'm just very lazy. I think it's the former because I'm still tired. Now the problem as I see it is that I could utterly reverse my body clock carrying on like this.

So, do I go to bed early? Do I balls.

It's All A Load Of Rubbish.

I was asked the other day whether I recycle or not. The answer, NO. This is mainly because the council have introduced a new system of rubbish collection which includes two boxes for recycled waste which they will take away. This you may think is a very good idea and you'd be right, except for the fact that they didn't give us these boxes, and we've asked for them and they STILL haven't brought us any, and told us they will. We're now waiting.

The rubbish collections across this county have proved somewhat controversial lately. They've started this fortnightly collection which runs in conjunction with the recycling, the idea being that if you recycle correctly you won't have as much rubbish to throw out. So, they allow everyone a wheelie bin full and the afore mentioned boxes. Again, a really good idea. Now for the best bit - any bin that is found to be overflowing could cause a £50 fine and this is the bit that is causing all the problems - this bin is the same size for all families, and obviously the two of us don't fill a bin in two weeks whereas our neighbours (a family of what seems like eight million) could fill three in the same space of time. Now, up and down the street bin day is like a chess game. Particularly since we've all had warning labels fixed to our bins week in week out. Now it becomes a race to get the bins back in the respective yards before anyone gets the chance to put their surplus bags in or worse still steal it! We became the victims of this when we accidentally left our bin out only to find it full two days after collection.

The fine associated with this also troubles me, how on earth in this situation are they going to enforce this? Are they going to get us all together and start pulling bits of rubbish out and then starting asking "Who bought and used this pint of milk?" whilst we all shrug and look at each other sheepishly? I think not.

Let Them Eat Cake

In my neverending quest to find puddings that aren't going to make me the size of a house I decided today to make jelly.

It was surprisingly easy, boil water, stir in, add cold water - chill and voila! Because I am a domestic goddess now, I made individual ones with slices of strawberries in it.

God, what a dull existance I lead.

A Woman Has The Age She Deserves.

Last night I spent the best part of an hour trying to remember how old I was. I think we finally decided I was 27. At what stage does this happen to someone? I mean - one day you are desperately proud of being 10 and a half, or 18 or 21, then one day you wake up and can't remember. And then after this middle period of not knowing you suddenly hit your eighties and start telling people you are 83 and a third like it's something to be proud of.

This all came about because a member of my staff said I was old - she's 22 and thinks that anything above 25 is positively geriatric. The thing is I don't feel old, someone once told me that you tend to feel as old as the happiest times of your life, I think for me that must have been when I was 16 and thus I still feel like a 16 year old.

I've started to get back into the old house music clubbing scene and although the basics haven't changed I find myself amazed by how all these girls in their early twenties can dance for so long on such high heels. I know I did it, because I still have a much loved pair of shoes that have about a two and half inch heel that I wore to Gatecrasher and Sundissential on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong I love a nice pair of shoes as much as the next person (A will testify as to the bulging wardrobe full of shoes) but I now am at the stage whereby I'm erring on the side of comfort everytime. As a recommendation I recently spent £25 on these.

Christ, I just read that through - I AM OLD! I better go for a cup of cocoa and a lie down.

Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

Note to self, if a hairdresser tells you that a style is fashionable it doesn't necessarily mean it will suit you. You may have guessed I've had a haircut today and yes it looks ridiculous. The thing I have found is that no matter how much you explain what you want they always have an idea of what they think should be done, now I'm all for creativity BUT do I really need a big thick fringe????!

My dad always says there is two weeks between a good and a bad haircut so I guess I need to ride it out for the duration.

Final Weigh In

At the start of my weight watchers experience my target loss was half a stone. After doing so well in the first week and doing so badly in the second I figured I wouldn't actually make my target. Yes, I'm making the excuses already. Anyway, I got weighed and it seems that this week I lost 2 1/2lbs. This brings my total loss to 7 1/2lbs. I've done it!

So, will I be eating all the crap and putting it all back on as soon as possible? Well, hopefully no. I'm going to try to continue eating sensibly and even try exercise (although I am procrastinating massively about this step).

Wish me luck!