New theme

Blossom.nu has a new theme (I didn’t make it) and has gone pink for October in support of Breast Cancer Research. You can find out more about that or sign up yourself here. The new theme needs a bit of tweaking, and please let me know on MSN if comments don’t work.

It;s got to that stage again where I’m going all dizzy from being on the computer too long, so I will blog with what I intended to say later

EDIT: Ok, I’m back. I think it’s my low blood pressure that made me light-headed…I lay down on my bed for a bit (and fell asleep for two hours lol), and now I feel much better.

The image-text in the top left of this theme is REALLY annoying me because it’s so blurry…but I’m using my laptop and I’m not exactly sure where my notebook mouse is – I have two, but can’t remember which one it is that doesn’t work…So basically, it’s a lot harder for me to zoom around PSP, Animation Shop and Photoshop using a touchpad, and it frustrates me a lot.

After suffering from the last two years of 1) an internet connection in halls that refuses to let anyone upload anything without a fight 2) a computer constantly in use by other members of my family and 3) the slowest broadband connection ever, that’s when the internet worked, I am now faced with 4) a messed up gateway. Basically the internet decides it doesn’t want to stay connected any more, usually when I’m about to save something/am in the middle of uploading something. After moving cities, locations within cities AND using 3 different broadband providers, I’m not sure what else I can do. Except repair my internet connection every few minutes. Which is, to be fair, one particular reason (of many) why I have let this site get into the poor state it has done.

Hmm. So, what else? I have a ton of reading to do, but no lectures as yet due to babies and bloodclots and pretty much every other reason under the sun. I’m slightly concerned as I do have an exam in a couple of weeks and haven’t actually started my course yet…but hey, I *want* to be taught, it’s not my fault if there’s no one to teach me. I have a reading list a mile long, so of course I decided to start reading Virginia Woolf’s diary (which isn’t technically on my reading list). I have to read a novel, a short story, two essays, two chapters of my cognitive poetics book and a poem for Thursday and the beginning of next week. I’ve been in the library doing work for my dissertation (which I don’t technically begin until next semester). I think I need to prioritise a bit more.

So tonight I felt guilty because I had to throw away some mushrooms which I really should have used ages ago. I also had a smallish box of tomatoes which I really needed to get using. I put one on my sandwich for lunch, and then decided to base my meal around all my scraps tonight. I had 2 naan breads, cheese, and tomatoes which all needed to be used up, as well as 3 peppers. So I just spread the naans with a small amount of tomato puree, sprinkled grated cheese on top, then sliced a pepper and some tomatoes and added those. Then I put them in the oven (gas mark 6, if anyone is interested in making them), and about 15 mins later they were ready to go. I’m quite proud of myself because I avoid cooking as much as possible, and also I used up stuff that needed to be used successfully…I did end up with 2 slices of bread on a plate once, one tuna mayo and one baked beans (maybe I DO have some typical student qualities after all…).

I’m loving my housemates this year, so far so good, though the first few months are usually the easiest. They are also amazing cooks – Reenu’s lemon drizzle cake is to die for. Death by overeating might be one of the best ways to go. Unfortunately Jen’s been really ill over the past couple of days (though I think it would take a lot more for her to not watch America’s Next Top Model), and she went to the doctor’s today, so hopefully she’ll be better soon.

Some woman came to the door this evening and, when I opened it, asked me if ‘my mum and dad’ were in. I think she was confused..I was surprised I have to say. She probably saw Jen’s boyfriend on the sofa (he’s about 26, looks older, and is white), and got rather confused as to what relation he was to me. My older adopted brother, perhaps? I decided not to tell her that actually, my parents were unlikely to be in as they live 70 miles away, but decided I didn’t want to be harrassed about giving money to animals (hey, I feed the ducks in the canal with wholemeal non-E-numbered bread, what more do they want?) and simply said ‘No’. Her facial expression told me she didn’t believe me, but I don’t care. You insult me like that in my own home and then expect me to give you money???

I went in to work yesterday to give them my new number (again). J looked really happy to see me and said she had been going to email me. I was telling her about my friends joking that I’d been fired without being told, which was why they hadn’t phoned me. She was all, ‘Noooo…you’re one of our favourites! We don’t have favourites, but you’re one of them.’ Which was nice, even though the only reason I’m a favourite is because I’m a pushover and they exploit the CRAP out of me sometimes with working hours and the like…also, you know, I do some of the work of engineering graduates for a hell of a lot less money. I don’t mind much, it’s a good job and it only gets annoying when I have to correct the work of some of the other students there (that’s what happens when they try to [poorly] teach basic HTML to people who can barely use MS Office in literally 10 minutes).

I went home last weekend; my train back on Sunday was cancelled because of a ‘fatality’, and I ended up waiting an hour on the platform in the cold for the next one. It was well worth it though – I ended up sitting with some crazy women (one of which was a vicar’s wife), egged on by a random Geordie, a drugs and alcohol counsellor who offered us beer, and it was altogether a very amusing trip. It’s not often that complete strangers have the ability to make you nearly piss yourself with laughter for an hour, including conversations about bombs and straitjackets…

I was going to blog separately about my visit to Auschwitz (when I went travelling), which I will do very soon. I think my experience needs a whole blog entry to itself, which makes things a bit confusing chronologically in my life, but I think it’s only right. I think it needs a lot of thought, and will probably end up being one of those intense/philosophical entries I go for sometimes. So look out for that.