Our House

There's a problem with my new place. It's cold. Really cold. It wasn't so bad when we moved in (August), but even then you noticed the lounge being distinctly colder than the rest of the house. Now that it's autumn & frosty, the temperature difference between back & front of the house has become even more noticeable. While the kitchen is quite bearable even without heating & seems to keep warm quite long, the lounge (& upstairs bedrooms) resembles a freezer. It takes ages to get warm, while the radiator in the hallway happily toasts the staircase & loft, & gets cold again as soon as the radiators cool down.

This massively pisses me off. It's actually making me quite miserable. I like my house warm, without having to throw money out of the window to keep it that way. It doesn't help that one of my flatmates claims to never feel cold & the other one hides in her room with a little fan heater.

I'm entirely not happy & this situation is not made better by my flatmates not really being very sociable types. I spend most of the evenings I'm at home alone in the lounge, while they hide in their rooms to watch their own TV. I like my personal space as much as everybody else, but I'm not living in a flatshare because I don't want to hang out with people.

I've spent most of this week trying to figure out what to do. Not that there is much I can do, except move. And this is made difficult by the fact that I've signed a 12 month joint lease.

The landlord's coming over tomorrow & will hopefully make the radiator in the bathroom go warm, tell us how to turn off the one in the kitchen & be able to tell me when the boiler has last been serviced (I'm assuming never). I don't think he's going to be very open to my suggestion to insulate the wall & the loft, which is what this place really needs.

Depending on how all of this turns out, it might start hitting the estate agents again.

Bugger.

Back!

Oh, hello! Been gone for a while, what with moving house & Sky taking absolute ages to sort out my interwebs (they were even worse getting my TV set up, but hey, I'm not paying for anything so can't really complain).

Things wot happened since I left Kilburn & set up shop in Acton were many.

I had a wonderful Planet Angel party weekend, mainly due to the afterparty being quite rad & featuring Arnon who was visiting from Canada & stopping by before he was flying back. Earlier that month I had both him & his girlfriend Cara staying over at mine for a few days, but hardly got to see them due to work & their sightseeing schedule. Can't wait to see them again next year at Burning Man :)

I finally gave up & got my hair cut, it's now a layered bob & much less of that mess that was gracing my head previously. Mysteriously, I seem to have developed somewhat wavy hair. I don't understand why & am not sure if I should be worried or pleased, my hair's always been straight as hell, but I can now definitely spot some wavyness to it.

The new flat is nice, it feels a lot more like home than the previous place ever did. My room's got all it's furniture now & I even bought a new bed (& a double duvet, today), all I need now is some decorative elements. My furniture is white, the bed is silver metal, the walls are white & the floor is some weird shade of charcoal/blue. I'm thinking some bamboo boxes to replace my shoebox storage & pink/purple colour touches. I had seen a great poster at Ikea (online), but unfortunately they didn't have it in the store. So now I'm on a quest to find grey/pink/white bed linen (need new covers as I didn't have a double duvet before) & something to put on the walls, although I'm not entirely sure how/if I can attach things to the walls as they seem to be rock hard.

What else? I've been working a lot, but seem to get recognition for it as well, which at least is something. Unfortunately being stressed & having manic workdays means I need the weekend to chill out & mainly slump on the sofa, which is not really what I call a banging social life. There are some parties coming up, so there's hope.

Hooray!

I'VE PASSED MY PROBATION!!!!

Words cannot explain how relieved I am. My boss came back from holiday, we had a catch up & he passed me without further ado. It's so great to get rid of this uncertainty. It does not, however, make my main client any easier to work with. But now that I don't have to constantly fear that one bad step will cost me my job, I can be a bit more relaxed. Also, my boss won't be going away again that soon, which makes things easier as well.

Not much else to report, really. I'm still packing my stuff for the move on Saturday, man&van (+John) are sorted for early afternoon. After lots of calls to our competent *cough* *cough* call center & FINALLY getting someone who knows their stuff with the third call, I've now got phone & broadband for the new place sorted. As in I'm paying for it for now, as it turned out we need an active (i.e. with number) phone line before any of the free staff offers can apply. I'm hoping that getting the rest set up won't take forever, but at least I'll have interwebs within the next 10 to 15 days. With all of that I'm surprised we're still wondering why sales are down.

I'm going to the dentist tomorrow to get the ugly temporary crown replaced with a shiny, permanent gold one. Happy days.

Oh, and two people I met on the playa in the Lost Penguins camp are coming over to London & staying at my new place. I'm excited & their visit happened just at the right time as now I've actually got sofa space to offer & understanding cooperative flatmates.

There actually seems to be a chance that I'll be back to my usual, happy, relaxed self end of this month.

Plans for when that finally happens are:

- loose weight (no excuse for chocolate binges anymore)

- go clubbing (should tie in nicely with the weight loss plans)

- catch up with everyone I've neglected due to being stressed/miserable/too busy

Yes, indeed.

The Edges Of The World

This week has been a totally mixed bag. I think I might've messed up my probation *again*, due to sending out a report with data that I thought was ok, but actually it wasn't. Apparently one department had known all day, but had neglected to tell anyone else. I thought the data looked a bit dodgy, but it had been looking like that since a week ago, so decided to send out the report. Big mistake. I don't know if they can really hold me responsible for this, as I honestly didn't know about the missing data logs that were causing problems, but they're probably going to say I should've spotted discrepancies etc. etc.

Due to all of that, I've spent the last 4 days nervous & quite anxious & really not very relaxed. I do like the job, although working with a certain person is hard, stressful & not very fulfilling at the moment. But the rest of his team are nice, I feel like I can move something. I'm very worried that my boss is going to tell me tomorrow that they're not going to make me permanent.

I have decided that, no matter what happens next week or on the 23rd (the official end of my probation), I'm going to try & get certified as a translator. It'll mean studying & exams again, something I thought I had left for good when I started working, but it would also give me a second leg to stand on, career wise. I'm not sure if I'm actually cut out for corporate life.

So, at the moment the light at the end of the tunnel quite possibly could turn out to be a train.

In addition to that, I'm preparing for moving to Acton next weekend. I've packed half of my room, have to sort out actually details for the man&van early next week, the furniture is built & as soon as Lynn has the hoover fixed I'll clean my room to get it ready to move in.

Oh, and I'll get the permanent crown fixed next week as well.

Not sure if that's what they mean when they say when it rains it pours. I'm glad when August is over, no matter which way things go, at least they're settled. This uncertainty is killing me, I just want to sit down & relax & just not have to worry anymore.

To get my mind off things for a little while, I met up with John today to do some culture. We hit the Hayward for Ernesto Neto's "The Edges Of The World", which also featured some Design exhibition which threw up the age-old question what actually should be considered art. We weren't exactly sure, but we were certain that none of the exhibits excited us much. Ernesto Neto, though, was stunning. You could touch it, smell it (cinammon, lavender...), walk through it & over it. It was so much fun!

To round the day off, we ate some al-fresco sushi at SoBa. While all of this didn't totally relax me, it was nice.

My boss is back tomorrow, I'm very apprehensive going to work & having a meeting with him. I so hope that everything turns out alright.

Wish me luck!

Adventures In Flatpack Land

I went to IKEA & bought things last Tuesday. I then spent Friday evening & Saturday afternoon assembling my purchases, helped by John who turned out to be astonishingly skilled with the (electric) screwdriver. It actually was kinda fun & strangely rewarding to build something that I can now use to put stuff into. Also, John & I were a good flatpack assembly team.

This means that my new room is now more or less ready for me to move in. Well, it still needs a proper hoovering which I'll hopefully be able to do on the coming weekend, provided Lynn has managed to fix our hoover.

After spending quite some time in the new flat it has somewhat grown on me, I feel quite positive & happy about the move & I think my room might be about the same size as my current one, which means I should be able to fit all my stuff in it unless I randomly buy more things in the next few days (not planning to do that).

Other than dealing with move/flat related issues, not that much has happened. I've been to the movies twice in the past 7 days. I've traveled all the way to Wood Green to watch Inception with Stu, Benjy & some others last week Wednesday. Unlike the others, I wasn't too impressed. Not sure about everybody else's dreams, but mine are a lot more surreal, exciting & weird than the ones they were dealing with in the film. I was expecting more mind-bending landscape action & some weirdness. It was rather bland & boring instead.

And I went to see Toystory 3 (in 3D) with John last night. It was good, I'm not (& have never been) a huge fan of the Toystory franchise, but the story was gripping & it was well executed.

This week so far is looking rather uneventful. I'll have to start sorting out stuff for the move soon, I'm planning a trip to the Hayward on Sunday for the Ernesto Neto exhibition. Might hit the park or the shops (depending on weather) on Saturday. I'm really quite happy not going out for a month or so, September will be busy on the party front again & after all what my body went through in the past month I think I deserve a bit of rest.

Oh, on that matter, my arm's healed now & is 99% functional again. My tooth now has a temporary crown, which will be replaced with a full gold one next week. I had some sleep issues lately which seem to have been sorted out by taking some 5 HTP before going to bed. Now all I need is to get my weight back to a pre-London figure.

In The Secret Garden

I'm back from a long weekend in the Cambridgeshire countryside. Yes, I went to Secret Garden Party & it was absolutely awesome!

The trip there was a bit, errr, unplanned. I was supposed to get a lift from Jon's girlfriend on Friday, which was great as I had already taken Thursday to Monday off work which meant one more day of relaxing & getting ready. It also meant not paying £100 for a rental car that I couldn't really drive as my arm is still slightly dodgy. All was chilled & fine until I got a call around 4pm on Thursday asking if it would be ok if we drive down that evening... well, it was not really what I had had in mind, but it was her driving & who am I to argue. So I got my stuff ready & we left mine around 8.30pm. Then proceeded to get lost & got on the wrong motorway (why am I supposed to know that there's a M1 and a A1M???), subsequently arriving at the venue around 10.30pm. A LOT of faffing ensued while she got her stuff ready to meet the boys at the gate. I think we finally made it to our camp an hour later, where I had the pleasure to set up my tent in the dark (thank god my tent & I are good friends & I can quite easily set it up in most conditions). I didn't bother to head down to the festie once I was done & moved in around 2am, but decided to call it a night & postpone explorations until the morning.

The following days were filled with

* fish nibbling on my feet, which tickled a lot & left my feet a bit softer * witnessing a gorilla getting married to a banana * weird bunnies walking around & throwing shapes * a fantastic gig by Stereo:Type & Hybrid * the blimp on the lake burning on Saturday night with lots of fireworks & Chinese lanterns floating into the air * watching a dog fashion show * standing up for the British anthem & subsequently doing the birdie dance * watching mud wrestling at the Collo Silly Um * walking around lots * crossing the lake various times via a very wobbly bridge * being a total hippie * attending a raw food workshop * watching Shitfaced Shakespeare * trying on a Boe jumpsuit & it looked really good on me * eating very tasty vegan food * giving up on waiting for my camp mates who were the kings of faff * going on the ferris wheel at dawn * drinking tasty chai * & quite possibly a lot more that I don't quite remember...

Overall, a really good festival. The experience was slightly hampered by the trip home, which happened about half a day too late for my taste. I was kinda happy with the thought of going home Sunday night, as the festival calms down loads by then & there really wasn't anything new to do any more. My festival saturation was reached. But everybody else wanted to stay, so we did & I finally got home Monday 6pm, thanks to the extreme faffiness of my driver. I waited for half an hour by the car because she had to say goodbye to people she'd just met & of course all took much longer than it would have needed to. Next time I'm driving there myself again.

But despite of that, I had huge amounts of fun. The Friday night was spent with Stu & Robin, just wandering about. The Saturday night was spent watching The Gorillaz Soundsystem with a lovely stranger, who tagged along for the rest of the night with my camp.

I'm a bit under the weather right now, my stomach's gone somewhat wonky & I probably still need to catch up on quite a lot of sleep, but it was worth it.

See you in the garden...

A Totally Mixed Bag

There is an explanation for my silence...

So I met up with that guy from OKCupid on Thursday after my last post. Expect of some delays of the actual meeting (flights delayed & such), the evening was very enjoyable, we had lots to talk about but there was no spark. He took me to a lovely Japanese diner & to the Blues Bar. Very nice indeed. So all was well until he walked me to the bus. On the way there my foot got caught in a grate on the street, I tripped & fell. I hit the ground pretty hard, apparently it looked rather impressive, but didn't think much of my arm hurting afterwards. Got home, noticed that elbow was a bit swollen & stiff, but hey, it's bruised or possibly sprained. Spent the night in agony without much sleep, went to the doctor in the morning who sent me to A&E to get xrays. Turned out I fractured my elbow (radial head), only a tiny hairline fracture but enough to cause swelling & pain. Great, I thought, so I'm going to get one of those really cool coloured casts now, right?!

I didn't. All they did is give me a sling, told me to be careful & come back in a week. So I went home, called in sick, called my mum to get a little sympathy only to hear that she's broken her foot (which, obviously, scores you more cripple points), got recommendations for painkillers & subsequently stocked up on them, hung around for a bit watching TV & then went to bed at 8pm.

Woke up feeling a bit better, in less pain from the arm but still having a persistent toothache. Went to see a flat with Lynn & Kate which was quite, errrr, snug & well overpriced. Just because it's in Hammersmith doesn't mean you can charge way too much for it. Needless to say, our lower offer didn't get accepted.

The next offer got put down on a flat that was AWESOME but £300 over our budget. Despite the agents conviction that they would accept because we're great tenants, they didn't. Thanks for that.

Cue a week of almost non-stop flat hunting, arm in a sling & toothache. All not entirely pleasant. I went to the dentist again on Thursday morning, who confirmed my suspicion that the nerve in the tooth was quite irritated & most likely wouldn't calm back down on it's own. Thought he'd then get the instruments out to perform a root canal, only to get told that he can't do this & the specialist they have in the surgery is fully booked for the next 4 weeks, mainly due to the fact that he only comes in every 2nd week for a morning. My protests that I'm not willing to be on painkillers for that long only got me shrugged shoulders, so I took matters in my own hands & found myself an Endodontics specialist, who I've seen today & who will be performing a hopefully successful root canal on me on Thursday morning. It better works as I'm paying shitloads of money for it. After that I'll have to find someone capable of putting a decent crown/veneer on that tooth.

I got rid of that pesky sling on Friday after a visit to the doctor who told me to start using/moving the arm again. Hooray.

The flat hunting came to an end on Saturday when we put in an offer for a flat in Acton Town, a fall away from the tube station & above a dentist (irony?). It's got 2 tiny rooms & one big one, which I bagsied straight away. I need my space & the others were so keen on the flat that they said yes. It's got a massive lounge & kitchen, some very likely illegal outside space, bathroom & separate toilet. It's split level, which is lovely, but also on the main road which I really hope will be less noisy than what I've got now.

Personally, I would've gone on searching until the perfect flat comes along, but both Lynn & Kate thought THIS IS IT & who am I to argue. Anyway, the room's nice & big & I only pay £50 more than I'm paying now, have a bigger room & less travel time to work.

Oh, yes, work.

I had my end of probation chat today & they have decided to extend my probation by 6 weeks because a certain channel head who's a bit choleric had a fit because I made a mistake in a report (ok, twice which is not good, I know) & someone forwarded him an email that wasn't intended for him but for her & therefore worded a tiny bit more colloquial than it would have been if I'd know she'd just press forward. Anyway, that certain someone complained to my boss' boss' boss (very professional) & hence my probation period goes on for a bit longer. Not sure what to think of it. Yes, two mistakes in a row are VERY BAD INDEED (& careless), but I was having a pretty bad week which obviously doesn't count in that regard.

I've now got to step up my game a little & show them that I'm awesome & do all things right. Hmpf. They really should know by now, I've only been there for 7 months.

Interestingly enough, I'm getting a bonus. Go figure. It makes total sense. Really, it does.

So far, this month has been continously picking me up & then kicking me again. I'm entirely not impressed, but am hoping that once August comes along, all will be sunshine, fluffy clouds & fairies.

It better be.

(your idea of a fairy may vary)