News for April and May

This is basically just a catch-up. Oaklands still hasn't got their journal section up and running, although it always says "soon" (I'm hoping they haven't lost my year of journal entries; I shall have to get in touch with Mark Little soon to check), and I still haven't signed up with a different site, although I'm leaning towards livejournal. I know I want something that isn't going to close down; I had a bolt journal for four years, even won awards (well, little badge thingies) for it, and then the site went under. So I started a journal on the college site, and then THAT stopped working, so I'm hoping this third time will be lucky, and I'll actually be able to KEEP the journal instead of building up a reader base and then losing them when the site suddenly stops being there, with no warning.

Which is why I'm thinking carefully before I commit to a new one.

So anyway, in the interim - and maybe for a long time, who knows - this note place [Facebook] is functioning as a journal for the random thoughts / recipes / quotes / rantings / general news of moi. For a long time my notes were private, but since someone hacked my file and made them public without my knowledge, the only two people in the world I care about keeping my thoughts away from have already read everything I have to say. And since not writing in here - or keeping it private - would now be an exercise in futility equal to latching the barn door once the horse is already out...well, I figure I may as well use it, since it's here and all.

Bear in mind, though: this IS my journal, and if you're expecting me to apologize for anything in here, you'll be waiting a long time.

And with the disclaimers done, here's the news from my life for the last couple of weeks.

- We got a lodger, Nutan, and she was with us for about three weeks before she decided to leave. I'm not quite sure what to say about her, really. My initial response wasn't terribly favourable; she came to visit the room, said she wanted to move in, and after Mom had reserved it for her, begged us to lower the rent by £50 a month. Not exactly the best way to start things - why would you commit to a room that you can't afford, when the price is stated quite clearly on the inital advertisement, and then you're told it AGAIN before you make your decision? And £350 a month, all bills and council tax included, is a damn cheap rent for this area anyway, which made it all the more cheeky.

So I was thinking that she was one of those annoying manipulative girls, but then she moved in and I found I liked her quite a lot. She was very sweet. Kind of clingy, but very sweet. And then about ten days ago she told mom that her friend was coming to stay, and she'd be living here for the next couple of months. And of course Mom said, hell no. (Although a bit more politely than that.) Four adults and a dog in a three-bedroom house is a tight squeeze. Five adults and a dog is impossible. She can stay for a week, and that's it. So then Nutan said OK, well in that case I'm moving out. And that was that, basically.

So we're back to me, Mom, dog and Ali, the Turkish guy who's been living here since a couple of weeks before Martin left. Martin, who was living here since last summer, is now a guest of Her Majesty's Prison Service, after doing some very naughty things that I'm not allowed to tell you about because of the Data Protection Act. But anyway, Ali's been here since about January, and aside from him perving at me every time I see him and making weird noises in the back of his throat when I show any skin (even below the knee), he's an okay lodger. Well, as far as lodgers go. He doesn't steal my stuff, he doesn't have loud parties all night, he doesn't do anything violent or hostile. (So far.) He's not the cleanest person in the world, but he's not the dirtiest either, and I can deal with cleaning the kitchen and bathroom after he's used them.

But we need another lodger, at least until Mom's money from work is sorted out (they've underpaid her SSP for the last several months), so here goes yet ANOTHER round of interviews, most of whom are likely to be totally unsuitable.


- I finally signed up for my free supply of The Pink Patch, after seeing all those annoying skinny ads on here, and I got it in the mail the other day. I'm on my second day of patches, and I'm not sure if I feel any difference, but I figure I'll try for a month and see how it goes. Supposedly it makes you less hungry, and also ups your metabolism so you burn three times the fat you do normally. Not sure if I buy all the hype, but there's no harm in trying. (Except to my bank balance, and that hasn't been healthy for a while - I just need to take another couple of jobs with Kell.) And frankly, I'm willing to try just about anything to shift the fat, as long as it doesn't involve nausea or throwing up.


- The weather's been glorious now for the best part of a week. We had a couple of days of blue skies with no clouds, and hot hot sun. One day it got to 37 degrees C, according to several different thermometers around the house. Then we had two days of hot but humid weather, with a haze that blocked the sun, but today was sunny and blue again. I've spent most of my mornings lying in the garden, reading and listening to Springsteen, and my afternoons bathing and napping, or getting some work done lying on my bed in my nice cool (and clean! I cleaned!) bedroom. For ten days or so I've been sleeping at night (after several months of not being able to, during which I ended up working all night and sleeping all day) - and even turning the light off for the first time in about a year. Hopefully my melatonin production will kick in again.

I even have tan lines. They're faint, but they're there. I haven't had tan lines since summer of 2006, when I burned so badly. God bless string bikinis.


- Annoyingly, I seem to have grown recently. I can't say HOW recently; I haven't measured myself since last September, so I know it was since then. But the lilac and white flowery sundress that was knee-length last summer (and calf-length when I bought it) is now halfway up my thigh. It's actually not a bad length, at least it won't be when I'm more used to the bare-all ethos of summer. And calf-length certainly doesn't suit me, my legs are much too short. But the idea that I've grown at least an inch since this time last year...well, I'm not overly happy about that. For one thing, it's WEIRD. Girls just aren't supposed to grow taller at my age. I'm 24, for pete's sake, not 14. I'm not sure how tall I am now, since I don't have any way to measure it here, but I have a sinking feeling that I may now be taller than Oli. I don't know why that bothers me, but it just does.


I'm trying to think if there's any other news. Lodger, weather, tan, sleep, growing...that's basically it, really. I've been watching Hotel Babylon, which is as addictive as the first episode was. I had a couple of dates with various guys I met, but I don't think anything will come of any of them. Mom's hoping to go back to work in a month or so, and that would be a good time for me to get a proper job, if I can find one. Not that I'm desperate; the work I do now pays the bills and bank loan, but it would be nice to be able to afford my own place once mom's better, and live the yuppie life that I yearn for.