AAAAAAAAAAAAArgh at this stupid chest infection
I've missed a week of school
Missed gymnastics yesterday
Am just starting to feel better today... i feel fine before being suddenly overcome by tiredness and sleeping for an hour or so then feeling fine before being overcome by tiredness again etc... i can feel the next bout of tiredness coming now...

If i'm not well enough for my violin lesson later...













...*falls asleep*

Deviation approved, live submission in, hurrah. So now I'm free, free I tell you! At last, no more mucking about, I can get back to a normal daily work routine, and far more importantly, not having to lug a laptop back and forth, I can start cycling to work again.

Only if I do that tomorrow, I'm going to get Very Wet Indeed.

Pah, thinking about it I need to take the laptop home over the weekend Just In Case so I can't cycle tomorrow anyway. And neither on Monday, because I'll be lugging the laptop back in to the office.

So Tuesday's going to be my last chance of the year. I will probably do that whatever the weather then, because I only need one more day of commuting to get to 500 miles which kind of has to be done. (Wednesday we do a half day, but then I'll need to take the laptop home with me and also empty my locker of junk. Roll on Xmas, if Santa doesn't bring me the laptop-pannier-bag I've asked for, I'll be getting myself one in the sales!)

ARGH! I'm fed up with everything today, still only an hour left in the office...

I know EXACTLY what you mean! But I have the same problem with the hash key "#". Why put it so close to the "enter" button?! In fact there's a rhyme about the "#" key - I've got it written down somewhere at home, I'll post it once I'm back from work.

ONE MONTH since a car crashed into our front wall and steps.

Repairs have not started, our own car has only just been given the OK for panelbeating, and the insurance company is refusing to pay enough to replace the bike Viohazard desperately needs to get to all his Saturday music lessons. . With no car and no bike, today we walked about an hour each way lugging a big old guitar and hard case in the cold and the dark.

If the insurers want to gripe about how much the damage cost, why don't they go and moan at their client, not me?

Arggghhh...............

I thought, by my age and with a degree in English, I had quite a good command of our language.

But yesterday our tv blew up so we went to a shop to buy a new one this morning...

... only to be met with a foreign language....

"Blue Ray"
"High Definition"
"LCD screen versus Plasma screen"
"DVD recordable hard drive"
"Digital compatible"

blah.... blah.....blah.....

..what's wrong with an 'on' switch and four channels like we used to have????


AND, OMG look at the SIZE of the things!!!!!!!!

We now own a flat thing the size of a small planet that sits on glass shelves filled with a pile of boxes and about fourteen remote controls, flashing lights, whizzing, banging and fireworks...

*ducks behind the sofa until OH explains where the 'on' switch and four channels can be found..... *


(p.s., OH seems oddly excited about the whole production???....)

That is quite possibly the funniest post I have ever read on here, Lottie. And that is not to cast any shadow over the serious nature of the situation in hand... We bought something similar when we moved into our new house and after 3 months I still don't know how to turn it off.

Aaaargh!

Sometimes I just don't get my dad!!

We have an old cat (I think she's about 14) who has basically stopped eating for the last week and has obviously lost weight and isn't herself. A similar thing happened to her a few years ago where she literally refused to eat for about a month and we only just managed to save her by force-feeding her. That time, someone took her to the vet, and they didn't come up with anything very helpful apart from a couple of tins of special cat food.

My dad won't accept the possibilty that it could be anything other than the same as last time this time, so won't take her to the vet as 'it's still in the early days so we can't tell yet and it will cause more harm than good anyway because she's very nervous of strangers!'

When I pointed out that it would be better to take her to the vets now rather than to have to pay the emergency call-out fee over christmas, he said that in his experience of 20 years of cat-ownership, they don't go downhill quickly and die slowly over the course of a year or so, so there's no urgent hurry I was particularly surprised he took this approach because given that someone we knew was completely fine in the summer, went to the doctors because they thought they were feeling a bit dodgy and had died within about two weeks. I mentioned this to him, but all it did was get an explanation of how cats are different to people.

I can tell that my mum thinks she should go to the vets too, but she's mainly my dad's cat, so noone wants to go against him.

Just aaaaaargh!!!

Sarah, why don't you and you mum gang up on him and nag him til he takes the poor creature to the vet?

Good luck!

We did our best, but he is really stubborn and will never consider any view other than his. I think hopefully my mum might take her in tomorrow if she hasn't improved eaten anything overnight. It would cause a bit of an uproar though.

Poor kitty

She might simply have some sort of infection that could be easily cleared up by anti-biotics, but if you don't get her to the vet you won't know

I hate accident scenes

Are you ok, Matt?

Hope nothing too traumatic has been happening...

Oh dear..doesn't sound good..

I'm ok thanks...or at least I will be It's been a particularily death-filled week for me, which especially sucks just before Christmas I'll get by eh

Are you a funeral director perchance?

Sure feels like it sometimes! But noooooo.

Surely a death-filled week wouldn't be anything for a funeral director to scream about? That'd be in the "what's made you happy?" thread.

ARGH for me today because, 35 hours in to my installation, the server rebooted. Despite me disabling the automatic reboot. I suspect someone has changed the time of the 're-enable rebot' command and not told us. So now I get to start what looks to be a 96-ish hour job all over again...

Oooh Maizie you have my sympathy.

I was just ready to do something fun like clean out the cupboard under the kitchen sink, when a client rang and said the boss had rewritten the original of what I've just translated, so could I redo it all incorporating all his edifying comments...for free, please, and this evening, please...

My friend's mum has cancelled our carol singing night, because my friend is singing at midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Apparently it's unthinkable that she should sing two nights in a row.

Mums are evidently sent to try us!!

Not even my mum! If it was I could persuade her!

I feel ick and I can't sleep due to jet lag, and it doesn't feel like Christmas yet, and all the little things are really building up and up and I'm drowning a little bit meh

Hope you got some sleep Chev! It will feel like Christmas soon, promise. Can I help you with any of the little things. Don't forget you're fab!

So early in the week, and I already have it bad...

Work confuses me. Last evening, I thought there was some kind of agreement, then this morning something else crops up to throw the whole equation out. This has happened for many months, and I always lose focus on what I should be doing.

I am just not so used to such chaotic situations, and have lost my temper (yes indeed!) in meetings that seem to go on without any resolution in sight. I thought my temper has improved over the years, but in the recent weeks, I have lost my cool at least once a week. This morning's meeting is another of those "mood explosions" that I have experienced.

I am so mad at myself for being so low on EQ Sigh... the holidays are coming, and should be really a fun season, but I am behaving so poorly, I don't think I deserve any presents this year

I've had a horrid cold for the past week and a half, all the way through me trying to play for the drama productions, which meant missing 4 days off school (thursday to tuesday), and then i had awful ear ache which turned out to be a nasty ear infection, so i've been to the hospital twice, and seen 3 doctors, and am now on a stupid amount of anti biotics, and they have me taking paracetamol and ibuprofen every 2 hours.
The anti biotics are fantastic! I have finally after 4 days had a night where i havent been waking up in the night because of the pain, and i'm getting better now, which is why im on the computer.

Because of this, i've had to miss 2 concerts, and let people down, and not sing for the carol service that was on sunday

I also can't hear out of my right ear, and apparently wont get my hearing back fully for another 2 weeks, and my piano practise is suffering. I haven't been able to play for a week, and i cant hear what i'm playing now that i'm back playing!

My braces have also been hurting, but have finally stopped, but i cant eat properly, and my flute sounds awful, and i was asking my flute teacher whether we could just destroy my flute instead, because my tone is pathetic! He asked me to do tone practise every day, but i havent been able to do it for a week! ARGHH!

Jacob.

*hugs* Sounds nasty. Give yourself a bit of a break and concentrate on getting better People will have realised that you have been ill and you haven't let anyone down.

Poor Jacob! I was really hoping that after all the painful work on your teeth things might be looking up for you.

Some of the colds around are very nasty; I felt off it for over a fortnight with the one I had, and various people I know have had ear or chest infections following a cold. I do hope you'll feel a bit better over Christmas, and that you'll be able to play your flute properly again very soon.

*big virtual hugs for everyone feeling rubbish*
xxxxx

Why is it, now that my offspring have grown up and spend Christmas Eve in bed, that the pets have gone doo-lally this morning? One cat has been chasing parcel bows around the house, with the dog chasing the cat and now the other cat is getting into the wrapping paper box. Aaaaaarrrrgggghhh!

I don't really want to "aaaaaaagggghhh" but just a gentle moan

I'm not unhappy at all but since I came home from the hospital I have had no energy at all barely enough to get through the day and in the evenings I am just exhausted... and people keep visiting and I just want to tell them I can't possibly make another cup of tea because I neeeeeeed to sleeeeepp.

I haven't written my Christmas cards yet.

We cancelled our house-guests because I'm too sore and tired (but it's ok, they've made wonderful alternative arrangements ) ( But the neighbours keep 'popping in' which is fine but I have no energy.. see above....)

I have no decorations up.

We have no Christmas tree.

We're having lunch tomorrow, just the two of us, on our knees in front of the telly after walking the dogs.

I didn't make a cake/make my cards/make my wrapping paper as I usually do.

I haven't played my violin for over a month.

There! Now I've had a moan I feel better and I'm going to go and dig out some tinsel......... (even if I just wear it because I don't have the energy to reach up to anything.... )

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

After looking forward to Christmas with cd junior, he's got flu!!!!! So he's miserable and crying, sneezing and coughing, nose like a tap, and he doesn't want to eat. And I also have to coax him to drink........ Oh the s*dding timing of it all.....

Aaargh!!

How am I meant to make mince pies when the jar of mince meat refuses to let go of its lid?!?!

Poke it or shout at it or use an elastic band/tea towel to get a better grip.

Having shouted at it, poked and prodded it with various pointy things, tried a tea towel, failed to find an elastic band, considered throwing it at a wall and generally doing everything I could think of, why did it suddenly come off with no effort at all?!? It's the kind of thing that makes you feel really stupid lol

So sorry to hear this, chocolatedog. You'll just have to keep his presents until he's feeling a bit better - if he's young enough he won't even realise that Christmas has slipped by a few days.

I do hope it doesn't run through the rest of the family too, and that you can still get some fun out of Christmas.

Ask someone else?

Run it under a hot tap for a minute - the heat expands the metal of the lid faster than it does glass so it should help to ease it enough for you to then take it off. Plus those rubber grip things from Lakeland are great for this kind of problem too. But be careful - trying to twist off a cap is how I damaged a tendon in my thumb!! (I was too lazy to go through the above steps........ )

Actually had a really nice quiet day

Grrr.

Bah to essays to be written over Christmas

Bah to realising that I should have read more

Bah to my lack of motivation

Bah to my lack of argument for this essay

enjoy your holiday Nic Nic you deserve some time to relax and chill it'll all fall into place, I know it will

6pm on Saturday evening is never a good time to be phoned with the news that you don't have an organist for the 10.30 am Sunday morning service.....

It is even worse a time when it turns out that the hymns the minister's chosen aren't ones you've got recordings for, and that she would be grateful if you could record some accompaniments just in case.....

And worse still if you've got precisely half an hour before your family arrive to go out to dinner to celebrate a big anniversary.....


Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh

eeek!! that does sound stressful!!

My parents promised they'd pick me up from my friends' tomorrow after I've been to the cinema, and now they've reneged, so they can have a drink. I appreciate that they don't have to ferry me around, but they've left it too late for me to make alternative arrangements, and I was really looking forward to it. I can't afford a taxi and books for uni too, and the bus service (admittedly already very rare) from my village, has recently been cancelled for good.

I'll have to find a way though, I can't cancel, because another friend already has, and if I do, there won't be enough people to make it worthwhile to go. the friend that has, of course, is the one I never see because she cancels everything - I didn't organise this trip so I don't exactly feel slighted, I am a little irritated that she doesn't seem to ever want to hang around with us.

I can empathise, I'm in the same boat (you're not also in Cornwall, by any chance? ) The bus service through my village has been halved since I went to Uni, and my parents are getting really fed up with ferrying me around.

I've just had to cancel on one lot of friends, A) because I can't get to the house where they're holding our Christmas-time get together party due to lack of transport, and B) because I've got other friends wanting to meet up the same night, that have been kind enough to offer to pick me up.

I feel so guilty, but also torn. And I wish I'd learnt to drive when I was 17.

I HATE EXAMS, A LEVELS AND REVISION

I know - if I'd passed my test, how much easier life would be! I'm useless at driving though. Not Cornwall nope I'm from East Yorkshire. My village is absolutely tiny - but they've got rid of ALL buses! I know at least four OAPs who can't drive and take the bus every time they go into town, and considering the only two shops in our village are a carpet shop and a fruit shop, I don't quite know what they'll do! At least I'm not in quite such a terrible position.
I think it'll be time to grovel and apologise tomorrow for being cheeky about it... I'll have to beg for a loan of taxi money I suppose.

Then, though, I'm supposed to be going out on New Years Eve - so that's more taxi money, and then I'm going to a play on Saturday... It's a hard life...



You'll feel so good when they're over though!

Not so much aaaaggghh as eeeuuuugggghh!

When I went into my older son's room this morning there was that distinctive smell of oranges going off. From the heights of his raised bed (a high bed over a desk, not a vegetable bed, although come to think of it....), he suggested that his cousin might've left one in the room over Christmas - always blame the absentee - and then realised that his Christmas stocking was still at the end of his bed and that there had been a satsuma in it (at Christmas, he unwraps everything and then puts it back in the stocking to gloat over later). He kindly handed this stocking down to me, and I left it on the bedroom floor with a number of helpful suggestions as to what he could do with it. After he had left for school I found it at the top of the stairs, still full. I tipped everything out and, sure enough, there was a sort of felty-textured, greeny-blue squadge, firmly attached to the fabric of the stocking, with a faint residual whiff of satsuma underneath a heavy pong of rot. I've scraped it off and resisted the temptation to leave it on his pillow. The stocking is in the wash and I'm devising some form of revenge for when he gets home this afternoon

That is, very frankly, disgusting Poor you, I really do pity you there... Mould is the most hideous form of dirt in the world

My music teacher has just let me know that the festival I've entered my woodwind ensemble into is IN THE FIRST WEEK OF FEBRUARY, and I have nothing prepared for them!!! It's her fault - it really is, though, I'm not just laying the blame on someone else She told me before Christmas that the VP wanted the woodwind ensemble to preform in the end-of-term assembly, so I went and spent ages transposing Rudolph (which SHE wanted us to play) from four flutes to flute, oboe and two clarinets, not leaving enough time to transpose the oboe and clarinet parts in the Gershwin for the festival, and then she told me that the VP didn't want the woodwind ensemble anymore, and that he wanted a soloist from the school musical! And now I don't know if I'll have time to transpose the Gershwin!!! I may very well resort to revenge too...