Well a Facebook friend has asked what has been up with me and I haven't seen her since 2002 so its not gonna be done in a single comment. :)

so....

( lots of details )
Annnnd thats about it....

So I have been sewing a costume based on this:




Having discovered a great way to make fabric "chainmail" that looks really good I was happily sewing the last panel of the skirt on the machine  (there are 9!) when it BIT me. 

By that I mean the bloody needle went 99% of the way through the side of my finger right at the edge of the nail and was tracing-paper distance away from coming out the other side.  Reversing the needle to get it out hurt like a son of a bitch and it rapidly filled a tissue with blood once I got it out.

Thank god it stopped bleeding very quickly! 

I really think this costume is a Vampire in its own right!  Its bitten me with Pins, hand needles, the freaking Sewing machine needle, the foot of the machine has tried to squash me.... It even bit Natalie who helped me put the leatherette corset together!!!

I'm going to bed before it finds another way to harm me! 

At least I only have to sew the panels onto the belt so its actually a skirt now.  The event is Saturday so I'm glad its almost done!

Hubby seems to be back on his feet.  Thank you all for your thoughts last night.

I only got about 2 hours sleep because the adrenalin was still running and I went to Southampton for the day with a couple of friends who stayed over last night and somehow survived without crashing.

Its going on 40 hours without much sleep so I expect the crash will come soon...

so at 10.30pm last night, after feeling peaky and bloated all day Alan became seriously ill and started throwing up. Add that to severe abdomonal pain (which was pretty much folding him in half), inability to stand up, shaking, bloodshot eyes and rash like spots on his eye lids I wasn't happy about waiting to see if it passed.

After spending 20 minutes wranging with NHS Direct - who expected us to wait two hours for a Nurse or OUt Of Hours GP to call us back and listen to his symptoms again I (and he) decided to phone 999. 

The ambulance was virtually at our door before I could get all the details to the controller.  (Thats a benefit of having the station less than two roads away from us I never expected to have to use).  They looked at him, couldn't point to anything in particular as a reason and decided that he needed to go to A&E, especially when he was practically in agony trying to stand up.

( Hospital Blah - Winchester A&E )

Its now about 4am and I, of course, cannot sleep because I am too wired and too overtired from sitting in A&E for 4 hours.

Not a great start to the weekend. (but at least he's better than he was).

It was reasonable freaky trying to get in and out of Reading train station today.

Its Reading Festival starting on Friday and the Police have decided that everyone is going to try to get into town today.

They had about 25 officers in the station the other side of the ticket gates and 4 or 5 sniffer dogs between them.   A couple of the bike racks had Police tape all around them and there were two huge Transport Police tents outside the station.

I spent so much time stuck in the queue to get out as the policemen were getting in the way that I was actually late to my agency interview.  I wouldn't mind but my train came into the station 13 minites before the interview and it was literally across the road from the station!

Having had to register with one agency in Reading and one in Basingstoke the idea of doing them on a single day appealed to me.

Until I found out the prices:

For Andover to Basingstoke (Single) : £7.10
For Basingstoke to Reading (single): £4.90
For Reading to Andover (Single):         £7.40


Total                                                          £19.40

Now if I do this on different days :

Andover - Basingstoke return               £7.20
Andover - Reading return                     £7.50

Total                                                          £14.70


Having worked this out earlier in the week I decided to do Reading today and Basingstoke tommorow. Thats now changed because I have a proper interview tommorow for a 2 month role and now I'm going to have to do Basingstoke on Friday.

That means apart from Monday I have been out at an agency or interview each day this week!   Its nice but I kind of need a rest.                        

My doctor has prescribed me some antibiotics to clear my sinuses.

On the label they clearly say "Avoid exposing skin to direct sun light/lamps". 

Good job I'm signed off for the week as I walk about a mile each way on my way to work.

I recieved the following today which is obviously a new, and horrible, twist to the Nigerian scam.  FYI to anyone else who recieves this not to fall for it: 

Dear Friend,

With a very desperate need for assistance, I have summoned up courage to contact you. I am presently in Iraq with the USA marine platoon; I found your contact particulars in an address journal. I am seeking your assistance to evacuate the sum of $500,000.00 (Five hundred thousand dollars) to you; as far as I can be assured that it will be safe in your care until I complete my service here. This is no stolen money and there are no dangers involved.

SOURCE OF MONEY:
Some money in various currencies was discovered concealed in barrels with piles of weapons and ammunitions at a location near one of Saddam's old palaces during a rescue operation and it was agreed by all party present that the money be shared amongst us, this was quite an illegal thing to do but I tell you what?

No compensation can make up for the risks we have taken with our lives in this hell hole.

The above figure was given to me as my share and to conceal this kind of money became a problem for me, so with the help of a German contact working here and his office enjoys some immunity. I was able to get the package out to a safe location entirely out of trouble spot. He does not know the real contents of the package and believes that it belongs to an Asian American who died in an air aid and before giving up, trusted me to hand over the package to his family. There is a secured way of getting the package out to a safer country for you to pick up and I will discuss this with you, when I am sure that you are willing to assist me. One passionate appeal, I will make to you is not to discuss this matter with a third party. Should you have reasons to reject this offer, please destroy this mail as any leakage of this information will be too bad for us?

I do not know for how long we will remain here but hopefully and before the year runs out. I have survived two suicide bomb attacks, by the special grace of God this and other reasons i will mention later has prompted me to reach out for help.

Please you can reach me on my personal e-mail address below for more information.

Email: mailcapt.mj@sify.com

Respectfully,
Capt Michael James.

5 children less than 3 on one bus is too many. 

I hope that being able to hear a child crying / screaming / talking way too loudly and not wanting to kill them  is something that comes to you when you are pregnant with your own child.... if not then I need thicker earplugs.

Oh... and talking politics with the Mother in Law is almost as bad.  She seems to think that a new leading party could fix everything in a day if they were brought to power.  *sigh*

1.  The bus is not your childs play toy.  Sit them in a seat and bloody stay there.  Don't allow them to change seats every five seconds. and wander up and down the stairs and give their toys to every one.

2.  If you get them out of the pushchair and they actually take up a seat then fold the damn pushchair up!  it is only supposed to take up a pushchair/wheelchair space when it is actually being used.  The other 5 mothers / wheelchair users who will be using the the pushchair as a chair will be grateful.

3.  Bring a dummy for young children who are prone to crying because they should have been home hours ago.  It may stop the rest of the passengers from trying to kill you or the child!

4.  Don't teach them the "press the bell" game.  The bell on the bus is only to let the driver know that someone wants to get off.  The reasons I don't want the children knowing this game is the following:

I've had a message up on my MSN messenger for days "after convention wipeout"... or at least thats what I thought I had written...

I had actually written "after onvention wipeout".  Doh!

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=chuck+subway+birmingham+&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

The above link is a link to google with lots of links about a sci fi convention taking a trip enmasse to Subway with Zachary Levi and  Adam Baldwin to show support for a third season of the show.

If you want to help the show get another series please take some of these links and post them to other sites  and blogs etc.  If you are in the US I think that tonight there is a scheduled delude on a number of sites over the US to help as well which you may be able to attend.  


Edit: Ok, so the day for the US visits was yesterday but you could still go and drop a note into the suggessions box anyway.

I've had two clients be very upset by me chasing them for payment this week and accusing me of being very very agressive... when I wasn't.

I've had another customer who told me he would be able to give me payment details toward the end of March suddenly delay that to the end of April.  When I tried to tie down why whilst on a telephone call he ended up telling me I was accusing him of lying (I wasn't, I was just trying to clarify why he couldn't access paperwork) and calling me rude and hanging up on me.

Oh, the joys of credit control!

I don't mind travelling by public transport.

Not even when peiple can't keep their conversations to themselves.  Not even when they play music without headphones.

But I have one Bug Bear: Purfume! 

Who in the hell gets up in the morning and looks at their bottle of purfume on and says "I know, I'll put enougth on that everyone in the town can smell it!".  I swear they must be using a bottle a day!

I swear I get one or two a month who think this is a good idea.  And they always sit directly next to or in front of me. Especially when I can't move to another seat.

I got into work this morning with headache, breathing problems and itching/burning eyes.  after taking allergy pills and painkillers I spent half the morning trying to stay awake.

My eyes were stilll itching when I got home.  Luckily after a long shower they have calmed down again. 

( Slightly NSFW Words in image )

_</div>
I really didn't look for it but I loled when I found it.

You remember that I said my friend was due to propose to his girlfriend today?  Yeah, well it didn't go to plan.

He got to the place where we all meet for the sci-fi club and I asked him if he had the ring (which I'd dropped round the night before). 

He'd had it in his jacket pocket when he left the house.  IT WAS NO LONGER THERE.  An hour of retracing steps with me and another friend later and it was up to me to explain to his girlfriend why he would be giving her a joke shop ring rather than the one she was expecting.......

She's a keeper as she happened to have a ring of the right size that she owned in her bag and we used that one.  She also still said yes. 

I spent most of the hour of retracing his steps trying not to laugh at the situation as I knew the fiancee would find it a little funny too.

(p.s.  The ring was a Diamondeque one from QVC so wasn't expensive)

Edit: Someone posted regarding the rind being Diamondeque but its deleted for some reason.   The girlfriend especially wanted Diamondeque and didn't want an expensive ring.  She actually gave him a list of options from their range.

I got halfway to work this morning before the bus hit a car (no one was hurt) and we were told a lorry had overturned on the A345. Had to turn back and come home which took about an hour more that it normally would have

Thank goodness my new boss was understanding about the fact I couldn't get in on my first day!

Its been two hours and I haven't heard anything from Alan regarding the meeting about the possible redundancy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/garethmcleanblog/2009/jan/03/doctorwho-television

I'm surprised I'm the first on my friends page to post this...

/hes too young.

They have recently started to roll out an energy saving setting on the Sky Boxes.

If you have had your Sky on for a number of hours - whether you have been changing channels or not it will put a message up on the screen
saying "you box is about to enter standby, press Backup to cancel".

If you do not cancel it it will switch off the box and go to black screen.  This is happened to us a few nights in a row recently, probably as I have been at home and therefore watching things.  Wey have therefore lost some of the program we are trying to record. 

You can turn this setting off in the menu.  Go into to System Setup and then Active Standby and turn the setting to OFF.