A bit like ships that pass in the night

The boy returned from his seaside holidays with my parents for a few hours before heading to Kent to stay with his paternal grandparents.

His French is much improved and he told me all about his cycling, walking, body boarding, swimming and snorkling. I also retold his woes and bravery when he trod on a weever fish, saying that he had cried "juste un tout petit peu" and that my dad's treatment of dipping the foot in hot water with a drop of ammonia had worked.

His next visit home will also only last a few hours as he will be flying unaccompanied back to may parents for the remainder of the summer holiday the next morning. At this rate he will soon forget he has a mother.
6.8.06 22:56


It's madness I tell you

The new job is quite a bit further away than the previous one and not easily accessible by public transport and my beloved frenchmobile is showing its disapproval of the commute by demanding to be fed a litre of oil every week like some capricious child needing its fix of sweeties else it *will* throw a tantrum.

So I have started the process to replace it with a newer beastie, preferably once without bubbles in the widscreen and without 2 different types of moss growing on it. One that has a few trouble free years into it and is new enough that the insurance won't be extortionate because it has no theft proofing features and that will run on the occasional top up with a thimble's worth of diesel; well that's the general idea anyway. So far so good, even spotted a few I like the look of online, the only drawback being that they are located respectively in Reading and Leighton Buzzard but that's not too big a deal.

Buying either of them to replcae the cranberrymobile means applying for a loan, and that's where things become interesting. I had a quick look and started getting quotes and applying online and so far all of the available loansharks banks and building society have been very willing to part with their cash, however it has meant I have had to endure the most mind boggling phone conversations (once you have applied you normally have to call them to find out just how much they are trying to extract from you).

Typical example:

me (incredulous tone and trying not to spit my tea on the keyboad): How much? Is that the best rate you can offer me, with *my* credit rating? You are joking right?

call centre girl: You see the rate only starts to drop if you borrow more than £X. If you borrow £X then the rate is "much lower APR than previously quoted", why don't you just borrow £X?

me: because I don't need £X. Why would I want to burden myself with a debt for money I don't need?

call centre girl: the rate etc etc etc

me: but I don't need to borrow £X, I need less than that. Say I borrowed £X and spent only what I need and put the remainder in a savings account, I would still be paying more interest on the amount than I would be earning in interest on the lumpsum, can you explain to me why I should be setting out to pay out interest on money I don't want to spend in the first place?

call centre girl: that's the way things are, the rate is much better if...

call centre girl: I notice you didn't ask for repayment insurance, are you sure you could afford the repayment if you were out of work?

me: yes I am (I felt trying to explain my feelings on the so called payment protection racket insurance might have been wasted on her), but it's irrelevant because I don't think I will be taking on your offer as it stands. If that's ok with you I shall be shopping around and trying to find a better deal but thanks for your help nonetheless it was a most enlightening conversation.

No wonder debt levels are at their highest ever. I despair.


 

7.8.06 22:11


How many blond moments can a girl have in one day?

When you don't have time to pack your lunch in the morning but think it's ok because you'll go out and grab a sandwich it's a good idea not to forget your wallet, especially if breakfast was 2 squares of chocolate because at the time 10 more minutes in bed appealed more than food.

When you get a flat tire and can't figure out how to release the spare from its craddle under the car, it is ok to think "sod it, the tire is wrecked anyway since I've driven on it I might as well go get a new one", it is less ok to remember that you don't have your wallet with you only to remember after the guy has fitted the new tire (cue calls to Him Indoors* to retrieve said wallet and do a knight in shinning armor act 2 minutes before the garage closes).

When by the time you get home and feel so slightly hypo it's probably a good idea to take Him Indoors' advice to eat something rather than start being argumentative and refusing to to eat the sweet stuff he is offering you unless the BG monitor can be located in the pile of rubbish hoarded in the house, when really he is right and and "eating the f***ing chocolate first" and checking after would make more sense. I's doubly stupid because it is not big or clever to give anybody a legitimate reason to shout at you. Him Indoors says it wasn't shouting, just "assertively advising" but that's another story altogether.

Still I suppose it doesn't beat last week's "moment" when I missed the motorway exit on my way to work, noticed only when driving past the next one which meant I had got to junction 8 by the time I turned round.

I wonder if they sell brain cells on e-bay.

*We have entered the limbo state where new accomodation had not been sorted yet and we are still living together but not "living" together.
10.8.06 22:33


Today is a list day

  • little prezzie for colleague who goes on maternity leave in a couple of weeks: almost checked. Started a pair of socks in pale pink mercerised cotton on Sunday to keep me occupied in between trying to get through to BA to rebook The Boy's cancelled flight (it's never the easiest customer service to get through to at the best of times but Sunday instead of the usual long wait there was the "sorry we are busy can't you see? try again later" message and an automatic hang up. Though to be fair, once you do get through they are delightfully polite and helpful and I'm not just saying that because The Boy got upgraded to Business class).
  • The Boy safely back to the French seaside until school starts again in September: check. When I spoke to him after he landed on Monday he declared that the flight was "lovely", business class "very nice" and that he was not too bored despite not having a book with him because he "was eating most of the time"
  • The notorious Bettie Page : not checked despite planning to see it because today was just one of those days when getting out of the house again after coming home from work was just not an appealing option.
  • lunch box: kinda checked. Only forgotten once so far this week. Placing it under my handbag is not enough of a reminder. Stabbing a little note with "lunch" on it with the front door key (in the front door lock) works better.
  • loan paperwork: X still waiting for my signature.
  • ironing: successfully ignored. I can now block out the sight of the growing pile completely.
16.8.06 23:41


The start of songs meme thinggie

This one has been doing the rounds for a while. Basically you set your mp3 player on shuffle and write the first line(s) of the first 20 songs that it plays (unless the title is in the first line) and people have to guess the title. Guessed titles in bold next to the lyrics

As usual my pod decided to show it *does* have a mind of its own and played mainly songs with the title in the first line and when it picked one which didn't, boy did it pick some of the least obvious ones it could find, so this should keep some people busy. Have fun. And you are welcome to take this as proff that I am deluded when I say that I like lyrics as much as I like the tunes.

  1. This is all I have, rage dreams that I can't afford, you are what I'm not, you are one in a million, great I'm lost again.
  2. There is freedom within, there is freedom without, try to catch the deluge in a paper cup.Don't Dream it's over (Crowded House)
  3. I'm so tired of playing, playing with this bow and arrow, going to give my heart away, leave it to he other girls to play. Glory Box (Portishead)
  4. If I pay you $5 will you try to make my bed? If I pay you 10 will you mak eme well instead?
  5. Rain's the day so you stay inside and lock your door, crying all the time, crying for you don't know what for.
  6. Forget the dogs and for get the sheep, it's only you who affects me. On the fun fair track road, a helter skelter fall, on my ice skater's bruised knees. (I should have written this one "on the fun fair track mumble mumble mumble ice skater's bruised knees" ).
  7. Late one day I led a Spanish boy astray, his name was Antonio.Bastardo (Charlotte Hatherley)
  8. ooooohooooooh (very important the ooooohs) I started losing you about the time you told me everybody knew, I fell under the strain and through the rearview mirror watched you circle round the train.
  9. You see the sign, it comes to you, and whatever you say, it was in his eyes. At 25 sick of life and not the time to say I care.
  10. You look so good when you're depressed. Better even in your current state of undress, tears caressing me like rain and I'm not even thinking I feel fine, in your pain.
  11. I never felt magic as crazy as this, I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea.
  12. Where's the harm in voicing out loud "you'll find me in the lavatory"?
  13. If you're blue and you don't know where to go to why don't you go where fashion sits? Puttin' On The Ritz (ah the wonders of the shuffle mode Ella Fritzgerald finds herself sqeezed between poppy numbers)
  14. Thinking back, thinking of you, summertime I think it was June, yeah I thonk it was June.
  15. If you want a lover, I'll do anything you ask me to and if you wan another kind of lover I'll wear a mask for you.
  16. I do far more sitting than you do it is a virtue, I made the choice to sit right by the seaside.
  17. Another happy hour, with dedications plastered on the wall, British beach collection, classic alcoholic arguments.
  18. Did the ironing in a cowboy hat, felt as fresh as the paint in this new flat Happy New Year (Camera Obscura)
  19. She's a wicked girl, worst in all the world, a mystery lies in her. She spends her days in a violent rage try as I might I love her.
  20. I fell in love again, all things go all things go.
17.8.06 10:00


Will you want clotted cream with that madam?

Went to the Dogstar/El Panzon in Brixton on Sunday for some lovely Mexican food. Ohhh the refried beans (sloppy enoughto melt in the mouth but sticky enough to not run out of the tortilla - and the fun to be had later when the stomachs inevitably turn into lethal chemical weapons), uuummmm the house salsa ooooh and all the little bits, it was good, really good.

On the way back, heading for the bus stop I proved once again (not that there was ever any doubt) that at times I am truly away with the fairies. An old chap, with a strong accent, a bald head and a big umbrella offered me his wares and I misheard him slightly and my brain had the following conversation with itself:

- Scones? Why is this old guy asking me if I wnat scones

- Get a grip woman, remember where you are? Brixton.

*penny drops*

- Oh yes, true, it's unlikely grandad here is asking if I want to join him for a cream tea.

 
21.8.06 18:45


At last a link to give the next person who tells me that the amount of tea I drink is exessive and that I should consider water as a drink occasionally (and I don't care if the research was funded by the Tea Council) .
24.8.06 23:15


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