Tuesday 25 March 2014

What I learned this week...@ ribenamusings






This title should be 'What I learned this month' because it has been an age since I last joined in the fun with Julie at 'From Inmates to Playdates'.  I am still bowled over with work but I need to make some time for myself.

I did not manage to get today's end of year report preparation finished; I will blame the cavity wall insulation workmen as they are a convenient scapegoat.

I am ready to pack my bags for 4 days in Sheffield, Beautiful B is out and about with Ry, Hubby is playing pool and as long as I do not distract myself from that other than with this and a spot of ironing of shirts for Hubby then I should be tucked up in bed for 10pm ready for a 4am wake up call.

So here goes:

  • A keyboard can start squeaking with a key press for no reason whatsoever.  Maybe it has decided to go out in sympathy with the ever loving gas fire that indiscriminately turns itself off.
  • On reflection 2 small piece of salmon in lemon and herb sauce was too much or so my stomach tells me.
  • If I forget to return my dad's Sat Nav to him on returning from Sheffield within 3 days he will make sure to remind me.
  • The Australian voice on the Tom Tom is much funnier than the English posh speaking woman especially when he says it is time to cruise as you turn onto the motorway.
  • An automatic car is soooo much easier to drive than a manual; and my next car will not have a manual gear box.
  • If I don't feel like de-heading my parrot plant every day all I need to do is shake it slightly and they will all drop off....as I found out today when removing everything from the window in case the cavity wall insulation shook the house enough to knock things off a 15" windowsill.
  • You know you are taking too many supplies on a 4 day trip when you watch Criminal Minds debating in the back of your mind whether the crisps, grapes and yogurts would be better off in the small suitcase rather than a bag where they can get squished.
  • It is much easier to give Fredster his twice daily dose of Tramadol if they are hidden inside banana.
  • Trying to remember to write down everything you eat for fat club is so much harder than it sounds; either that or I am just too easily distracted.
  • It's stupid to pull at a split nail because it may just pull it out all the way down the side of the nail bed and then swell your finger up to twice it's size.
  • I must remember to put the laptop charger in my back pack tonight - at least that way I may have remembered to pack it once out of the last 5 visits to Sheffield.
And in other news (or according to my daily facts calendar):
  • In severe cases, caffeine overdose can result in death from convulsions or an irregular heartbeat - ah and there was Hubby thinking he was the one that caused my heart to go all aflutter;
  • Not all people are attracted to other humans.  There are believed to be around forty objectum sexuals in the world who feel attraction, arousal, love and even commitment for an object instead of another person - am I considered a mild case of bi-objectum sexual if I feel attraction to my husband but also to sleeping in my bed?
  • A 23 year old New Zealand mother lost 88 lbs and suffered a heart attack after drinking nothing but red bull (10-14 cans a day) for 8 months.  A small price to pay if it worked for me and Pepsi Max.....
  • Trichotillomania is a behavioural disorder that makes people rip their own hair out, pulling it from the scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes and more with bald patches as a result.  Don't worry ladies, it doesn't count if you are only pulling stray hairs from your chin or top lip;
  • It is illegal to get a fish intoxicated in the state of Ohio...but not to get a dog intoxicated in Blackpool not that I have ever done that - we stop Abi after she has finished off the last teaspoon from Hubby's almost empty bottle of Coors; and finally
  • For the last 15 years, Indonesia has been plagued by so many wildfires that breathing air near the burn sites is, at times, equivalent to smoking 80 packs of cigarettes a day - some would argue that you would smell better than smoking 80 packs of cigarettes a day too.

So what have you learned this week?

Usual rules apply - see below. I would love to hear from you if you also leave comments on my blog.To join in Julie's What I Learned This Week carnival, simply follow these steps:

1. Any time this week, publish your What I Learned This Week post on your blog and comment on my blog hyper linking to your blog.

2. Then go and visit Julie’s blog at From Inmates to Playdates, find her latest “What I learned this week” and link up with the Mr. Linky form at the bottom of the post. Please put the link to your POST, not the front page of your blog.

3. Then visit the other participants and see what they learned this week.

Monday 24 March 2014

Can't quite put my finger on it


This last week or two I have been feeling somewhat strange, stranger than normal.  Kind of 'meh' some days and others, and more so lately, I feel as though something heavy is sat on my chest. I know this is anxiety and as I am already on two different medications that should help it, one of which is a by-product of medication diagnosed for something else they don't seem to be working so well.  Maybe I should stop taking all of my medications, every one of them and see if they are causing 'meh'....
 
'Meh' would be a good name for the diagnosis of a condition.  After all, more and more people are saying they feel 'meh', more so on facebook as that is a Smiley Face icon description.  If it was the name of a condition you could respond to a question asking you how you are by say 'I'm okay, just feeling a bit Meh today' and they will have no idea if you are referring to the condition or just feeling meh.
 
There is precedent for this kind of thing because it already work in general converstion.  People say they are going to kill someone when they have no intention of doing so or you hear 'I could murder a pint' when referring to the desire to drink alcohol and you cannot physically murder a pint of anything really can you?
 
You hear people say 'I have work coming out of my ears' or 'I have work up to my eyeballs.'  Neither of which is true.  It's physically impossible to have work coming out of your ears although the mental picture I have of it at the moment is quite amusing but lets face it, it would really hurt in reality and would not be funny at all.  
 
As for work up to my eyeballs; rarely seen although 20 years ago my place of work supplied 'pigeon racks'.  Essentially a set of 5 document holders held up on metal legs that was placed on your desk at work.  The files and paperwork were placed in the document holders so it was constantly in your eyeline.  A dual purpose in my mind; you cannot see anyone else's face to talk too and the pressure of the work constantly in front of your face provided the incentive to get it done.  We aren't tortured to that extent now, after all, ingenious people such as myself learnt to bend downwards and have a conversation with the person on the opposite desk through the legs of the rack.  Good riddance to the pigeon holders I say; bending down could have caused back injuries......
 
How about someone saying 'He is doing my head in'....?  That is more likely than the ability to murder a pint, after all it is physically possible for someone to do your head in by bashing you over the head with a baseball bat.  Unlikely though as many of us do not wish to spend the rest of our lives sharing a 6x10 space with another person.
 
I am conscious that many of my readers (see how I say that like there are lots when there are very few if any...) will have never heard these references, even those in other parts of the UK, as they may be regional in nature so forgive me as I am just rambling after all.
 
On another note; today is the 24th March and we woke up this morning to a frozen car!  Now what is that all about?  Does Jack Frost not know that spring is here and he should be hibernating?!  It is no wonder my dogs are trying to wrap themselves in tiny tiny balls of fluff.  The fire is roaring as my feet are freezing but it has a habit of blowing out on it's own lately. I will know when it does as my feet will start to freeze up rather than thaw. 
 
One of the problems with working at home out of your front room is that it is easy to get distracted as the world goes by.  So far this morning I have deduced that someone's drains are blocked and someone is having some work completed on their roof.
 
The problem with feeling 'meh' is that I do not have any energy or desire to do any work (it is my non-working day so I am not slacking as such) but I have to find the energy as I need to spend most of the day preparing evidence for my end of year report.  I am not one to sell myself; I go to work, do it as well as I can and then come home.  The need to have to use flowery language and buzz words to show what I do for the year is just 'not me' and I hate it.  Besides always having a good result in my end of year reports I wish I could opt out.  The need to get this work done is very important yet I cannot find the desire to do it at all.  I just want to put my PJs back on and snuggle up in bed with a good book and snooze as needed!
 
So far I have distracted myself with a stupid programme, an hour on a computer game and the blog.  I have wasted 3 hours and what for.  Just because I am feeling 'meh'.  Well, I had better get a 'shift on' and do it. 
 
What I learned this week tomorrow folks and I will try to make it more upbeat than my last 2 paragraphs!








 

Friday 21 March 2014

Far to sunny to be busy


I am busy, too busy and it is annoying me.  For nearly 4 weeks I have run from one job to another and I am meeting myself coming backwards at work.  To top it all we have our end of year reports to write for work and quite frankly I have never liked that.  I think it is hard for most of us to spend time writing down how good we are and then selling ourselves to our managers no matter how much they know us.  If I could opt out I would.

Anyhoo, this is why I haven't been around much and I am sure no-one misses my waffle but meh.

I am travelling up and down the country and beginning to wonder whether I should be on first name terms with the conductors at my local train station as I travel back and forth to Sheffield.  I am almost on first name terms with the receptionists at the hotel I use weekly or at least they recognise me.

I am away 4 days next week so at least I will get some decent sleep in the hotel instead of 2 very very long days.  Well, I say that.....

........but I have a habit of working from 5am in the morning until past 7pm at night and then going to the hotel room and either working some more or staying up until silly o'clock because it is a novelty to be able to spend some time without husband, child and doglets.  

Most of the time even though I am away from my family I enjoy sitting on a hotel bed and being able to find the time to do my nails, moisturise properly and spend some time on skincare.  Let's not forget that it is easier to make sure you haven't missed any leg hairs shaving when you have alone time in a hotel room instead of being rushed out of the bathroom by family members.

Today I am working from home, paper is strewn across my desk, I am jumping between 3 different procurements, my end of year evidence and report and the mandatory training I haven't had time to do for the past 4 months.

I don't even have time to breed some tiny little Bichon puppies because I cannot devote the time and lack of travel needed for them at the moment and that just isn't fair on them now is it....