Hope things are okay.

Having little moments of infuriation from time to time - I had to cancel my own piano lesson this week so that has frustrated me too! Just getting my head round the fact I may be becoming addicted to codine now, but I'm just doing what the doctor ordered

It's electricity and unwell mobile phone related Flossie...

Thanks for the good wishes

Do you have power now or is it just for a few hours at a time?

Need a spare phone in the interim? What's wrong with it?

Looks like it's still intermittent.

Phone problem appears to be charger related : I'm taking it in to a shop later today, and if it's utterly beyond redemption, I'll get a new phone. Thanks for the offer Solari

ARRGH! Why does my brother really feel like his input is required during every slight disagreement that doesn't even involve him?
Ever since a couple of weeks ago, when mum and I had an argument, and she turned to him (since everyone reasonable could see she was being insane) and said "what do you think?" he's wighed in on absolutely everything.

It's not like we can't just predict exactly what he's going to say: "I think you're right, mummy, and everything you do is wonderful".

I think I'd get a smack in the face if I tried to get involved in his arguments like that.

Somebody (probably an overenthusiastic cleaner ) has rearranged everything on my desk.

It might have looked like it was just a random mixture of books and printed out journal papers, but I knew exactly where everything was, how it all fitted together for my chapter and what I had and hadn't incorporated (things were positioned accordingly...).

I now don't know what I have, where it is, or how I was intending to fit it all together. I'm therefore completely lost with what I was trying to write.

I sympathise - I am quite used to organised chaos too

How did that cleaner make it to my desk this morning as well.

I now have 3 different projects notes to re-sort grrrrrrrrrr

My brother's decided that it's a good idea to stick cushions on the ceiling to make his violin quieter...and also to hang duvets from the curtain rails. ARGHHH!! Why can't he just wear ear plugs like a normal person!?

ARGH!
Don't just say you're going to do something for 15 years and not do it, OK?
It just leaves a big horrible mess to sort out and nobody will be happy.

I hope things are okay, Maizie..

Wills.
Written by someone who believes it is the correct, traditional done thing to leave everything to the eldest son, who will then distribute it fairly among the siblings.
Followed by at least 15 years of saying 'really must re-write my will to exclude [estranged family member]' (the eldest son/sole beneficiary, now estranged for some 25 years ago).
And not getting around to doing it, thus ending up leaving everything to the estranged family member whose history tells us he is not likely to share (and there is nothing in the will that says he has to).

Would be interesting to see his reaction when they track him down and tell him the news though
He probably won't be interested in doing any of the executor-type stuff, like arranging things and sorting out the paperwork, for a person who he hasn't spoken to in 25 years. But the sibs aren't going to do anything to help out at all if he refuses to share...

So, really, one big mess impending, with nobody coming out of it happy, I bet...

That's terrible Maize. I hope it does work out better than you fear.

I guess we all like to live in denial of our mortality, making it easy to put these things off. Turned out on the phone to my mother last night that she is absolutely terrified I'm going to get swine flu and end up in hospital etcetc. I didn't quite know what to say... she's usually pretty good at keeping her irrational motherly fears to herself, but I've been worrying her more than usual lately! Apparently I don't worry about my health enough, and don't take care of myself properly!

(I've only been at Uni 3 years... taking care of myself. )

(I now feel bad because I found it funny, rather than dutifully issuing reasurances.)

Oh dear.

Hope it all works out better than you fear.

Gosh, thank you both for your thoughts, it has already turned out much better than expected!
Because it would seem that what she's been telling us is the content of her will was wrong, from what the solicitors intimated this afternoon - it is in fact down as a three-way split between the sons, not 'everything left to the oldest'.

We are delighted. Which feels rather mercenary but it is just nice to know that someone isn't going to get all the benefit from not even being a member of this family.


tamsin, mothers never stop worrying for you! If I am ever off work sick, she is always worried about it and threatens to come round and look after me

I've been trying to find a house in Bristol for over a month now, for four placement students to share. That's 3 chemists, 1 engineer, all earning a decent salary and quiet first class students. (We wouldn't be being employed by that particular company if we weren't.)

4 bed houses in Bristol aren't very easy to find.

Twice now, when we've found nice ones, in areas we wanted to live some snotty landlord has refused to let to us, because we're not the 'nice family' they had in mind as tennants. This has only come to light when we've got to point of signing contracts. Not when we've been talking to agencies before then, not during viewings, and in the most recent case, we'd already agreed a rent and moving date verbally with the landlord, paid the agency fees and then suddenly the agency gets a call from the landlords WIFE, interfering and saying that house can't be let to us.

I shall be pointing out to the agent today that they and the landlord have breached a verbal contract, which is just as binding to my knowledge. Doubt anything will come of it though.

What is wrong with these snotty people? I'm used to having a friendly relationship with my landlord built on mutual trust and respect. Not being messed about by stuck up people who are afraid we'll have occasional parties or trash their house.

Headache

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH.

The whole of the side part (its a L shape) of my desk has just collapsed, with my laptop, printer etc as sliding on to the floor !
Will need a new desk now.
Probably got damaged in our office move last weekend !

Not good. Hope nothings too damaged

I was eating a vanilla slice in a restaurant yesterday lunchtime when there was a loud, splintering, crack and a fair amount of pain. There must have been a piece of metal or stone in the pastry and one of my main top front teeth was suddenly in 3 pieces. By the time I got over the shock I realised that I had swallowed the evidence. The tooth pieces were still attached to the gum so I went straight home and rang the dentist. She couldn't see me until 9.00 this morning which meant I had to miss a concert I had already bought tickets for. I was in the 'chair' for an hour and a quarter - injections, the lot and she couldn't save any of the tooth so had to stick a post in the cavity, having got the bits out, and build up a new tooth with something called Fuji 9. It looks a bit odd but hopefully will last OK. The only good news was that there was no charge as I had been recently for a filling and the second visit comes free.
This all meant that Mrs O had to make a one and a half hour bus journey to get to the concert and, as she got off the bus, she fell in the road with some, hopefully slight, damage to hands and knees. Some good samaritans from a nearby hotel picked her up, sat her down, and gave her a cup of tea before she recovered sufficiently to walk to the concert, which was not a sell out so she couldn't sell on my ticket. At least she really enjoyed the concert.
I have a gig in an old folks home tomorrow so I hope that goes OK, it usually does.

Oh dear, poor oldnotes! It really wasn't your day, was it?

Hope both you and Mrs oldnotes feel better soon.

I have lots of 6th form homework to do, despite not starting until september!
I'm doing Music, French, History and Psychology, and have a tonne per subject, and only 2 weeks to do it in, because I'm off to Australia in exactly 2 weeks until the end of August!

The music homework is to start off a composition that can be anything you like, so I can do that while i'm on the plane or something, but for French, I'm supposed to be watching French Films and Television (TV5 on Sky is quite entertaining!), as well as revising all my French from the past 5 years and be writing a daily Diary of my holidays! I can't do that in Australia, because I would need my heavy French dictionary, as well as my "Mot a Mot" and "mille et en points" books, as well as all my text books, and they're heavy, and you can't take much on a plane!
History involves researching about 10 of the most significant leaders in the 1900's, which has to be done in these two weeks, and I also have a biography on Hitler to read, but I can do that on the plane.
Psychology involves reading up on stress and abnormality, which has to be done sooner rather later as I can't do that in Austrlia either!

Ditto
Oh - Just read this thread. Hope you are feeling better. Love to Mrs O too.

I am completely incapable of doing even simple things correctly

I bet I could destroy scientific equipment more comprehensively than you!...

I made up a solution, measured the pH - which was around 7. This would be great if I'd actually started adjusting it.

However, having done this for around 3 years I know that it should be around 3

Solution take 2 is dissolving as we speak...

Solution take 2 has just done the same thing

third time lucky...

4th time lucky it was....

That's good.

Well, not good that it took 4 attempts, but good that it's now worked.

, you did it!

I also discovered it wasn't down to my own stupidity.

Someone ordered the wrong reagent in, which instead of lowering the pH made it shoot up to 9

acid, alkali, easy mistake to make...

Well, it'd be very easy for me to make...

There once was a PhD student
Who struggled with calcium-free solution
The pH was too high
The stress made her cry
So she wished she was at home flute choosing!

flutes...

And I thought I had issues. I keep burning up my little samples of conductive polymer by accidentally sticking too high a voltage through them. And then I have to make up new ones. Science can be so frustrating!

Back again...

Lost cat

My late mother-in-law's cat, we didn't know what to do with him after she died. Our current cat wouldn't stand for another one in our house, otherwise he would have come straight to ours. My brother-in-law has floorboards up all over his house, lives near a busy road too. So my mother stepped in and said she would take him, short or long term.
He really didn't enjoy the two and a bit hour car journey from one house to the other.
He's spent quite a bit of time cowering at my mother's house. But gradually getting more confident and doing more exploring. As expected, the moment she clapped eyes on him, his stay with her went from being 'short or long term' to 'permanent'.
My mother decided it was time to let him experience the garden (I would probably have said a bit too soon, given his not-fully-settled-ness, but my mother isn't well-known for her patience!)
So she opened the back door, and expected (like all previous cats she's know) that he would step out a little way, retreat back in, go out again for a further explore, come back again, and so on.
But he just zoomed out. Under her back gate (which I'd suggested she block, so he was at first at least forced to stay in the garden).

That was yesterday morning; still no sign of him. I know a day and a bit isn't long for a cat to disappear. I just really hope he comes back. He's a great big bruiser of a cat to look at, but he's really timid and scared of people. He never goes up to people outside, going out calling for him isn't going to make him come to you, but it might make him know the right direction to come home in, if he decides to.

I just phoned up my late mother-in-law's vet, to get his vaccination dates and see if he was microchipped (so I could get the chip details changed over to me, so if he turns up somewhere hopefully I'd be contacted). Turns out, while her dog was registered at the vet, the cat wasn't So likely not chipped nor vaccinated (yes, he was a pest to get in the carrier, a pest to pick up even; I can see my mother-in-law wouldn't have been able to get him to the vet on her own; but still...)

When cats "bolt" they often don't go very far. They then hide and observe what's going on, to try to figure out their new surroundings. Once they've settled down a bit they come out of hiding -- sometimes as though nothing had happened and with that "what's all the fuss about" attitude". You could try putting food down close to the door he exited by... and then wait. Also, look around garden sheds, etc. -- they're very, very good at hiding...

We pick up 2 or 3 strays every year in our village (kittens and larger cats), have them neutered and then find homes for them.... The female we have at present lived under the central heating oil tank for months before she finally decided to "adopt" us.... Don't give up, they often come back....

Best of luck

Thank you elephant - I don't think I will stop hoping for weeks! I just spoke to my mother, she went out every hour last night up to midnight, and called for him and rattled the biscuit box. She's left a dish of biscuits out by the back door for him too, plus she has put his litter tray on the patio in case he can smell himself or his new home from that!
I hope he is somewhere nearby and can hear his name and the biscuit noise, and is just going to come back in his own time once he is hungry enough (after denuding the county of mice, perhaps?) We had to move him 100 miles, so it's unlikely that he'll go back to his old home, fingers crossed he remembers how to find his new one. It seemed like the best option, the option of putting him in to a shelter was there but it would have stressed him just as much, and we thought this way at least we would get to keep him because he really is a lovely, if terribly shy, gentleman cat.
I do have visions of him just lurking somewhere we can't quite spot him (black/grey tabby, brilliantly camouflaged), just sniggering to himself as we worry over him. I have a vague recollection that he went off for a wander for a few days at his last house, though he had been there some time by then. He is very much an outdoor cat, if he had to be permanently outdoors or permanently indoors, he'd definitely choose to be outside.

If he does come back, she is going to order a new back door immediately, one with a cat-flap in the double glazing! She's already got the quotes in ready, and her pet insurance leaflets, and everything. So she is as desperate to see him back as me!

I do hope he turns up Maizie. When we moved house many years ago one of our cats went missing for three months. He turned up one day acting as though he'd only been out in the garden for 5 minutes.

I stabbed my hand with the kitchen scissors this afternoon (accidentally).

<- Think chorus of arghs.

There are so many things at the moment that I wouldn't even know where to start.

poor tamsin...

*growl* time-wasters * growl *

AAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh dear Lucky, whats up now ?

Oh dear, I know, I'm in this thread too much. No domestic battles this time though.
I've just been to my music group. It's an extremely amateur arrangement, a musical theatre group filled, mostly, with actors and dancers who sing, rather than the other way around. Consequently our yearly concert has turned into a cabaret, so there will be more acting and dancing.

A few weeks ago, I was told (pretty begrudgingly) that I could audition for a solo if I wanted, so tonight, I did, and I sang spectacularly, for me. I mean, I was way better than I normally am, really on form. Aaaaand I was told by the woman organising the concert that I am too tense, I need to relax, and put some movement into it, and dance a bit and blah, blah, blah.

I agree, to some extent, but they commented on everything - how beautiful the song was and so on, but not on my singing, which I thought was unusually good, for me.

I asked if I should practise it with a view to performing it, and she said "Well I'm not sure you'll get a solo at all, but I really want to work with you on it, to develop you as a singer and performer, without reference to any one concert", she gave me this whole speech about how she wanted to help me develop, it was really condescending and awful, and the thing is, she's not actually better than me!
She is more relaxed, but she doesn't sing as well.

Everyone agreed with her though, and everyone was giving me pointers, and I know they all meant well, but it was awful.

I feel TERRIBLE. If that performance wasn't good enough, I can't see that I ever will be. I'm never not going to be nervous singing in front of people, and I'm never going to be a natural mover, dancing and swaying along to my songs. It's not ME, and no matter how hard I try, I can't let go of enough inhibitions to do it.

I feel like I can't do anything now.

*hugs* for Lucky. (I can never remember your real name, I do apologise, and Lucky doesn't always seem suitable!)

I'm glad you were pleased with your performance, remember that is most important. Maybe you need to explain next time that you take your music seriously, and don't wish to detract from it with frivolous dance movements, or something suitable pretentious to put them in their place! It might also be worth pointing out that you need more solo performing experience to help you relax, which is why you are auditioning, and therefor getting your solo with help your growth as a performer.

Of course its may be a little late now! Try not to feel like its the end of the world though. Remember, not everyone has taste like yours!



My main reason for posting though. For those aware of my current crises, I may have a house sorted. Unless we get stuffed by a landlords last minute change of mind again! *unable to be optomistic*

Thanks Tamsin. I feel a little bit brighter today. All my friends say that this particular woman's overacting is off-putting and that the society is just immensely cliquey. I'm sure a large proportion of what's being said is due to them being my friends but it's comforting anyway.

I hope your house works out, I was in a similar sort of fix a couple of months ago. This landlord is probably more reasonable than the last, but no matter what happens, I'm sure you'll find somewhere to live!

(My name is Lucy, by the way, but Lucky is fine too. )

The ladybird population seems to have got worse again here

Car Expert