Respectable

I've still got a cold, but it's not as bad as it was, I keep coughing up stuff but at least I can breathe. I'm a big fan of that First Defence stuff that you squirt up your nose, it stings like mad initially but loosens all the gak and certainly helps you feel less bunged up. Worked yesterday evening (hence no gubbins update) and am looking forward to having saturday off to lie in and chill. Quiet morning with only one patient today - feel kinda guilty for charging my full fee when it's so quiet, but suppose I'm there and available, and I do admin stuff for them when I'm not seeing patients.

You may be wondering what Mel and Kim have to do with today's blog entry. Well, I mentioned before that as part of my economy drive I've been doing all kinds of surveys and things to earn points to exchange for vouchers, and have accrued about 60 quids worth to spend at Amazon. So I thought I'd have a browse and see what was available, I think I'm going to get the new Razorlight album, but the site will also recommend you things based on what you've bought in the past. And Mel and Kim's greatest hits was on the list of albums suggested for me. I assume that was because I bought Five Star's greatest hits a while back. It also thinks that I should like Coldplay (yep, reasonable choice), James Blunt (er no, James Bland more like), and Gorillaz, so at least it doesn't have me singled out only as a sad-80s-throwback. I think I also want to get the new Scissor Sisters album "Ta-Dah" - which in my opinion is the best title of the year so far.

Off to bed now, my friend Susie came round this evening for a natter, she's working in Scumton at the moment and we sort of talked about doing a random evening class in something like painting, could be fun, although I seem to remember that I was never especially good at fine art at school, much better at big stuff like doing scenery at summer camp, but I suppose it's never too late to learn?

Atishoo!

Don't be fooled by this here cute bundle of fluff. Oh yes, he looks all cute and sweet and innocent (bit like me, really), but in reality he is an evil bastard who has made my life a misery for the past 24 hours. He is the horrible common cold, and I assume one of my patients has given it to me. Had a bit of a tickle in my throat on sunday night, then started getting a bit bunged up yesterday but still struggled on through work (which was bloody busy), and ended up having a miserable night through not being able to sleep or breathe. Have felt like poo today and going to go to bed to sulk in a minute.

As I said, work was pretty busy yesterday, you'd have thought that people would have better things to do on a bank holiday than be ill, but apparently not. I did however ride my bike in to work to save on the parking, massively overestimated the time it would take so arrived there half an hour early. It was quite fun actually, riding around, so I'll probably do it again, still need to find somewhere better to put the bike rather than my lounge though.

And P.S. I did in the end get out the Sound of Music DVD, and it made me feel all warm inside!

The Hills are Alive!

One of my "favourite things" at the moment is the reality-TV-talent-search "How do you Solve a Problem Like Maria?", showing on BBC1 on a saturday night. Andrew Lloyd-Webber is producing a stage version of the musical classic and they're doing a kind of "Nun Idol" to find someone to play Maria. I only got into it a couple of weeks ago, but think it is great TV. There's bitching and backstabbing, some great singing, and funny comments from the toad-faced Lord Lloyd-Webber himself. The funniest bit by far is at the end, where everyone sings "So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye" to the ousted contestant, complete with gay dance routine. I'm sure that if I could sing and dance and act I'd be up there having a go too, as it looks great fun! Of the remaining contestants, there are a couple that I think are best, there is one who has a really scrawny neck which somewhat distracts from her singing, what with all the bulging veins, and a couple who are far too operatic. Not sure whether any of them can match Julie Andrews though. I think I'll have to get the DVD out later if there's nothing to watch on TV.

Got a strange text message this evening so thought I'd ask on here is it was any of you who sent it? It didn't have a number, but was reportedly from uk_wd02, and all it said was "Hi there :)"
Most of my friends know that I'm not a fan of those smiley things (especially from blokes who put them in because they think it makes them sound fun and cute, it doesn't, I think it's gay and wet), and if it was someone who I know, surely I'd already have their number? The thing that's bugging me though, is the fact that I'm sure I recognise uk_wd02 or something like it from somewhere, any ideas? Or maybe I'm thinking of WD40?

Went to the gym today, and did a bit of gardening as it was getting a bit messy. I had to use loads of weedkiller on the patio and put down ant powder, so I hope it doesn't rain tonight and wash it all away. The patio is a lot tidier now, less things lying around on it so more room to sit out if any friends come over (trying to make the most of what remains of the summer).

Dinner time now I think, got to work tomorrow and if the weather is ok then I'll be trying out the bike!

Jimmy Mullet

Thought it was about time to introduce you to some more players from Gubbins Athletic. I finally looked them all up on the FA website and was delighted to find that Jimmy Bullard, one of my midfielders, sports a rather fetching curly mullet. Well, it wouldn't be a proper football team without at least one mullet, would it?

Been at work all day today, was quite busy but nothing too exciting. Highlight of the day was a cute baby brought in who had been given the name "Kayc". Now I assumed that this was an attempt to try and be unique rather than spelling it "Casey" or something, but I was dared by the nurses to call her in from the waiting room as "Cake"... bottled out though, that would be most unprofessional. There is a long thread on a medical website forum about "bling bling" names, where staff post details of the funniest names they have encountered. Someone pointed out that when parents proudly announce an unusual name, the trick is to ask how they came up with it. They think you are being nice and kind and showing interest, but the ulterior motive is more so that you have an excruciating story to tell everyone later. Examples include "Brannigan" (after the bar in which he was conceived), and "Dan-Ee" (mum wanted something "a bit special, and classy, like"). I feel cheated - why did my parents give me a nice normal name instead of a triple-barrelled-made-up-saw-it-on-tv footballer's-wives-chav name?

Celebrated finishing work by doing my weekly food shop at M&S on the way home, got some nice veg and stuff, and am going to throw something together now. Had a very healthy lunch, which impressed the nurses and they've all got the recipe now... not that it's difficult, take a mango, cut the flesh into small bits, mix it with a tin of crab meat, a couple of finely chopped chillis (out of my garden), squeeze on some lime juice and serve with rocket salad. Yummy!

Going to have an early night tonight as my noisy neighbour had friends round and considerately sat in the garden all night talking loudly. Had I not been at work, I would have got the lawnmower out at around 9am, an hour or so after they retired to bed, but I'll have to do that another time.

Sausages

Here you can see a rare glimpse of what I carry around inside my medical bag...

Seriously, though, my boys have redeemed themselves slightly and after yesterday's footy I have climbed a whopping 20,000 places up the leaderboard, and am now around 40,000th in the fantasy league. Could do better...

Just been watching "Time Trumpet" on BBC2, from some of the team who did "BrassEye". It was pretty funny actually, although much of it in dubious taste like its predecessor.

Had a pretty quiet morning at work again, not as quiet as yesterday when I only saw 3 patients in a 3 hour session! When this happens, I feel really guilty about charging my usual rate, but in order not to do so I spend the spare time summarising notes. I actually really enjoy doing it as you get to nose through letters from many years ago and some of the comments are hilarious. Gone are the days when patronising consultants could write back and say "this girl is obviously a bit slow, and having met her parents, I can understand why", or "she is quite clearly mad and there is nothing I can do about it". Although there are times when we'd quite like to write that sort of thing. Nowadays we're a lot more subtle, although I of course am the embodiment of professionalism and never even think such things! I only hope that I've never pissed off my GP enough to write anything like that in my notes.

Fishy

Nothing interesting to say today so here's a nice picture of a fish. Have been to work and taken some stuff to the dry cleaners and had a bath, and that's about the sum of it. Put off doing my accounts again, I must get around to doing it before the end of the month or the accountant will get annoyed. So feel free to harrass me after the weekend if I haven't finished doing them!

Work work work

No photo today cos I'm writing this at work. Long day today, started at 8.30 in one surgery where I did a morning session, then 45-minute drive to the next place for the afternoon, and finishing off this evening at yet another location. I don't normally do three sessions in one day, but they asked me if I could do tonight instead of friday, and I figured I'd rather have friday night off. Anyway, has been ok so far, I finish at 10pm and then it's home to bed. It's turned out to be a busy couple of weeks for me, had only intended to do mornings with a few evenings and weekend days, but one of the places I worked last year got in touch last week really desperate for help, and as I'm a girl who can't say no, I agreed to do afternoons for them. At least it'll help pay some of the national debt! I've also managed to fill up October with daytime work which is great as the more daytime work I do, the less weekends I have to work so I might get to have a bit of a life!

Gubbins Athletic did crap at the weekend, I got 4 points so am about 65,000th on the leader board. My fit goalie let the side down by conceding a goal, so getting me a minus point and probably costing me about 20,000 places in the rankings. Some of the others didn't even play so didn't really help. Better watch out, boys, or you'll be on my transfer list... For the record, I think the top scoring teams got about 61 points, Rooney got 8 points for his goals but he's got a 3-match ban now so might give me a chance to catch up a bit. I would have picked him for my side but for the fact that he looks like a potato.

Give us a V

Am very jealous. Some friends are at the V festival and spent yesterday texting and phoning me every 5 minutes (or so it seemed), supposedly to ask my medical advice about whether "Day Nurse" (flu/hangover remedy) was ok to take with red wine, but I suspect more to rub in the fact that they are there and I was working. I entered into the spirit of it by watching it on channel 4 last night in bed, it all looked really good but when the coverage switched from Kasabian to Radiohead, I started getting all depressed (those of you familiar with Radiohead's music will know what I mean), so had to turn off. Today whilst doing laundry I watched the Starsailor set (they were rather good and I recognised lots of their songs), and would have watched more but there was a programme on Peru on BBC2 which I wanted to watch instead. It was really interesting, about how the Incas organised their farming at different altitudes, lots of coverage of places I visited on the trip, and some cute llamas too. Probably watch a bit more of the V festival later, today's picture is of Razorlight who are playing the Chelmsford venue tonight, and I have to support them because the drummer's dad is a GP colleague of mine!

I didn't watch the final of Big Brother in the end, on friday night I just couldn't be bothered, the novelty of it has worn off over the last few years and this time it went on too long with too many people in it. The X-factor has just started though to fill the gap in the reality-TV market, I prefer the early shows with all the deluded freaks rather than the end bit where everyone can actually sing.

Going to sign off now as have a busy couple of weeks work-wise and need to get back into the routine of getting up in the mornings!

Gubbins Athletic

Well, my blog now has its own football team, Gubbins Athletic, courtesy of the Daily Mail. They are doing one of those online fantasy football things for the coming season, so I thought I'd get in on the chance to win £25k which is probably a lot less than many of the team take home each week, but still... Many of you know that I don't know the first thing about football, so I almost fell at the first hurdle when it talked about having to follow a 4-4-2 or 5-3-2 - what's that all about? It did then go on to explain what all that was about, but there were too many people to choose from and I didn't have the time or inclination to google all the players so that I could choose them on the basis of looks. Thank goodness for the Lucky Dip function, with one click of the mouse I had my own team for a bargain 48.8 mil, leaving me some money to do transfers during the season if I decide that I don't like one of my team's hair, or they get caught in a roasting scenario or something. I'm not going to list the full team here - not in case anybody steals it (yeah, as if), but because I've only heard of a few of the players anyway. Good start though, as it selected Paul Robinson as the goalie, gubbins regulars may remember that he was the fit one in the world cup whose picture accompanies an earlier entry. So, depending on how the team does, you may or may not get some updates regarding where Gubbins Athletic are in the table - the competition starts tomorrow!

My other project today has been icing a cake, after work tomorrow I'm going round to my parents and my gran is coming down from London for the day, so I volunteered to make the cake to have with tea in the afternoon. I've gone for the pineapple and pecan cake which went down really well when I last took it into work, it's made with pineapple and pecans (obviously), bananas, groundnut oil rather than butter, and various spices - delicious! I'm cheating a bit with the icing, using Betty Crocker vanilla frosting out of a tub, but also lemon curd with it. My mum thought that lemon curd as well might be a bit sweet, but not if you use the Prince Charles Duchy Organics sort which is beautifully tart, costs 5 times as much as Sainsburys own brand, but is made with organic eggs, butter, and nice things rather than sugar and yellow food colouring.

In the news today has been the usual stuff about A-level results, and the fact that almost everyone passes (24% with grade A), and the inevitable denial that they are getting easier. Bollocks! Of course they are getting easier, but saying that doesn't take away the fact that many people are deserving of their hard-earned grades. When I did mine, 12 years ago, I was having real problems getting some of the concepts in maths - which was a proper exam, no coursework, all equations and maths stuff to solve. So I got my dad to help with the revision, and he had no trouble whizzing through the past papers, getting 100% after a quick flick through the textbook to refresh his memory from when he did it 30 years before. I got an A, and he'd "only" managed an E. And when he was at school, he failed French O-level twice, and then went back and learnt it at college a few years ago for some project he was doing at work in conjunction with the cheese-eating surrender monkeys, and easily passed his GCSE and A-level with top grades. It may be that today's language teaching is more relevant ie conversational stuff rather than conjugating the pen of my aunt, but this pretence that we are all getting more cleverer (note the irony) must be stopped!

So, who are you?

I was reading through the back posts to see what stuff I'd already talked about, when I found a comment posted by someone I don't know! I'm guessing it was from someone across the pond, as she said that her friend's son is going to Tyler Hill camp and wanted to know if anyone knows the real name of Camp Polio (see entry "Camp Transexual, Pennsylvania" for more details). As I hadn't set up the blog so that I get emailed comments when they are made, I don't know when this was, but I posted a reply to it anyway on the offchance that she's checking back - and if that's you, hello!

So it got me thinking who on earth is reading this? At the time of writing, it has counted 416 hits, which I think is pretty good seeing as I've only given the address to a handful of my friends. I doubt that they are all avidly logging on every day for the latest news and gubbins, so I guess that there may be some other people who happen upon here by accident. But how? Let's try Google (or another generic search engine). Typing "Hannah's daily gubbins" into it produces 510 results of which this page is number 3, behind:

The Daily Camera: Food
writes Camera reader Margaret Gubbins. "It's addictive!" June 27, 2001 ... "For Christmas," writes Camera reader Ruth Hannah, "we gave our children gift ...www.thedailycamera.com/food/recipes.shtml - 39k - Cached - Similar pages

Ireson Family Genealogy Forum
Edward Ireson - Yarwell, Northamptonshire - Bruce Gubbins 5/19/03 ... Hannah Ireson m. Andrew Longacre - Debbie Harrison 2/15/01. Re: Hannah Ireson m. ...genforum.com/ireson/ - 35k - Cached - Similar pages

Hannah's daily gubbins - Aug 6
Hannah's daily gubbins. Ladies and Gentlemen of the internet, enjoy my blog. If I could offer you only one tip for future happiness, dailygubbins would be ...dailygubbins.blogspot.com/ - 47k - 15 Aug 2006 - Cached - Similar pages

So, not likely that you'll stumble upon it through Google unless you are looking for something pretty specific. Perhaps you've arrived here via the blogger site, as on the frontpage it lists some of the most recently updated blogs, so maybe you're surfing around the site and have arrived here. I had a quick look around to see what my competition is like, and it's rather variable to say the least. There's a lot of pretentious types, conspiracy-theorists and annoying teenagers who, like, TALK LIKE THIS OMG!!!!! And, rather more disturbingly, someone who seems to be stalking, sorry, reporting the daily activity, of his teenage suspicious-looking (his words, not mine) neighbour who he thinks is a drug dealer and gansta-in-training. Does give you some ideas for stuff to write about though, if you're lacking in inspiration. Isn't t'internet a wonderful thing? But please, feel free to say hello!

More gubbins (as per request)

Okay, some regular visitors are getting impatient - I'll have to start thinking of a few topics to discuss rather than just recounting my days, especially the ones like yesterday when all I did was go to the gym and the supermarket. Today's photos is part of one of the Inca trails in the high Andes, note the snow-capped mountains in the background, stunningly beautiful.

Today I had a really pleasant day out with my mum, we decided to try and see a few local attractions over the summer, so went to a nice village called Selbourne to visit Gilbert White's house. I hadn't a clue who Gilbert White was, but learned that he was an 18th century clergyman and naturalist who wrote a really famous (in the botanical world, anyway) book about the natural history of the area, and his house and gardens are open to the public, also housed there is a small exhibition about Lawrence Oates who was the bloke who left Captain Scott on the ill-fated Antarctic expedition in 1912 saying that he "might be some time" and left the tent, walking to his doom in the hopes of not holding back the rest of the party. Anyway, all rather interesting, and some lovely gardens with large melon plants and some unusual plants for sale of which I bought a few for my garden. I am obviously getting old if this is the sort of thing I am enjoying!

My recent application for a new credit card has been successful, so the fact that I'm still waiting for appraisal payments and stuff shouldn't affect my cashflow too much as I can stick everything on it at a 0% rate until I get back into regular payments. I also realised whilst looking at doctors.net.uk that I have accumulated several thousand ESR points - like their loyalty scheme, you get points for doing targeted surverys and the like, and I seem to have done a couple recently and have enough points to get 60 quid's worth of Amazon vouchers. Bargain! Can't think of what I'd like to spend them on yet though, as I'm trying not to buy more books until I've got rid of some of the ones that are cluttering up my house. Might wait til nearer Christmas when all the box sets start coming out.

So, we're in to the last few days of this year's Big Brother. In the past I've been determined not to watch it, but have always been an avid viewer by the end, but I've not watched it as much this year. I like the start when you see the contestants, but can't be bothered with watching all the highlights, as now they are mostly a load of media-wannabees and I get annoyed. Nikki is way too unstable and shouldn't have been allowed in in the first place, and it's been obvious from the start that Pete is going to win. Suppose at least he's been the most genuine and likeable person out of the bunch, and won't be able to get a mainstream TV job due to his Tourette tendency to shout out "wankers" on a regular basis. Some of the funniest moments have been when other housemates have been arguing and he's come out with one of his tics, and then realised that it was appropriate in the context. Wankers, indeed!

Sore head!

Well, I'm back from a very brief visit to Essex, and managed to survive work this evening. Trip down on saturday took a lot longer than it should have done due to lots of congestion on the motorways - at least I only had 45 minutes of Sara Cox to listen to as I'd left early enough to mean that I had Vernon Kay most of the way. Really need to get one of those iPod car attachments sometime so I can put some of my music on, kind of miss singing along while I'm driving.

The reason for going to Essex was supposed to be for a BBQ, but there ended up being several changes of plan. It was pissing with rain when I arrived, so the BBQ was looking less likely, and one of Russ's rugby mates was having a stag do so we had been told to go and meet them in a club in Southend. So we watched some DVDs and stuff for a bit, then went to the pub for a couple of drinks before heading into town. Except we never quite made it into town, couldn't get hold of the rugby lads to find out where they were going so in the end stayed in the village with some others and did a tour of the bars. In fact, similar to my birthday, except I didn't do any shots and I didn't fall over.

This morning I felt a little fragile (through late nights only, of course), and after getting up to go and buy breakfast (and cooking it, by virtue of being a girl), I only managed one sausage and a few mushrooms and beans. Left just after midday as I had work at 5, the journey home was much better and work this evening was busy to start with but calmed down for the last 2 hours, definitely ready for bed now.

No plans for tomorrow for sure, if I wake up at a reasonable time I might go to dance class at the gym, really need to start going properly as I'd kind of forgotten about the fact I signed up for the Great South Run in october (10 miles). Might have persuaded a couple of friends to do it too though which would be cool, my friend and I would run a bit, walk a bit and talk a lot, and her husband (who does half-marathons) could run ahead and get the drinks in at the end. So if you're reading this, Marie, do it! We can sort out who looks after the baby another time. Anyway, I need to get on that treadmill I guess, and to bed now.

The photo today, regular readers may remember, is what nearly got me chucked out of the supermarket in Lima. Anyone for a bit of fanny? In fact it is tuna. I bought Russ a tin of it for part of his present, along with a peruvian llama hat which he wore it all this morning to cover up the fact his hair had gone fluffy.

HOW much?!

Hmm, so much for not spending money yesterday. But at least my hair looks good. That'll teach me to get my highlights done in a poncey salon run by a celeb hairdresser who has been featured in Vogue. Value beans on toast for me for the next year I think.

This entry was suposed to have been done yesterday as I spent a while last night typing it out - but when I tried to save it, I found that the site was down for maintenance so all my hard work was lost. In fact there wasn't much to say yesterday, after not buying any clothes or anything after the haircut, I did some paperwork and stuff, spoke to a few friends on the phone, then went out for dinner with Kathy. We really wanted to try out the new bar that has opened in town, that by day does juices and speciality teas, and champagne and cocktails by night, but figured that since she's on call today it was best saved for another time that isn't a school night.

We had a nice meal, but after dessert got interrupted by recurrent phone calls from a drunken idiot screeching down the phone (no prizes if you can guess who), he wanted to sort out what time I'll be arriving at his on saturday but since we'd already discussed it, I can't see why he needed to call! Nevertheless, after a few more calls after I got home, I had a very apologetic message this morning.

Today I've been panicking a bit over my finances, wasn't sure whether I had done my sums right in terms of having enough left until I next get paid, so I made a call to chase up the day's pay I'm due for my appraisal, and organised a mortgage holiday for next month. Don't know why I didn't think of that before, I'm allowed to do it twice a year and as I overpay anyway, the fact that my regular payment will go up by a few quid won't make any difference. Might do it again in October if I need to, but I also decided it was time to apply for another 0% interest credit card as I don't have any balance on cards any more and it will give me some flexibility if I decide I need to go on holiday or anything, and for any stuff that I need to buy until I get back into more regular earnings. The one I applied for has a 12 month interest free period which sounds a right bargain, just have to wait to hear back if they'll let me have one.

Having another go at the moment at uploading all my holiday photos to the site, as they are quite large files, it didn't seem to be accepting them, so I've had to go through and manually re-save each picture on a lower quality setting. It's worked for one photo but still some of them are rejected by the site which is a pain, so maybe I won't be able to put them up after all. Today's photo is of some capybara which are giant rodents, quite cute actually although they don't seem to do a lot.

I'm working tonight for a couple of hours so here's hoping it won't be too bad, I'll have to go and pack some things for the weekend too so more after the weekend, I'd imagine!

Piles

Just back from another evenings work, not too bad tonight, had a steady stream of patients so the time passed reasonably quickly, no emergencies though, cat bites, piles, and that sort of thing, all nice easy stuff. Met the woman who deals with the pay, and thankfully discovered I can invoice whenever I like so will stick in a claim tomorrow for the work thus far, here's hoping that I then get some cash in my account before next months mortgage payment!

Today I've done a bit of clearing up in the house, and took a load of stuff to the tip. I had lots of bits of shelving, cupboard doors and lengths of worksurface left from my new kitchen that was put in last year, and they had been sitting in the front utility cupboard getting all cobwebby. Now that I've got my bike, I need that space to store it in, so gave the cupboard a vac and a scrub, and relocated my bins to round the side so my house looks tidier from the outside now. Unfortunately the cupbard is too small to put my bike in easily, I knew that it wasn't long enough so was expecting to have to put it up on its end, but as the door is quite narrow it makes it hard trying to manoeuvre the handlbars through, so figured it would be easier to take the front wheel off. Had to pop back to the bike shop and fit bloke (although he's gone down in my league as he has too many tattoos), as he forgot to give me the manual when I got the bike on monday. He was very nice as usual and showed me how to get the wheel off which takes about 15 seconds, so once I've got lights and all that, it can be moved from my lounge into the proper storage area.

Got a haircut tomorrow morning at 9am which removes the potential for a lie-in, but at least I'll have the rest of the day to do stuff. Might pop into town for a bit of shopping (yes, I know I'm trying to avoid it, but I will just have a look to see if there are any unmissable bargains), and give my car a wash as I parked it under a tree and it has bird shit all over the windscreen.

Do you like the spider? It's from the Blair Witch jungle nature walk and it was huge and not at all camera shy.

Gubbins

All catching up with me a bit now, set my alarm for 9.30 this morning and felt completely knackered when I got up. Have done a bit of weeding in the garden, put a load of washing on, harvested two courgettes, cleared up some of my desk, and that sort of thing. I've also booked my work sessions for september, seems I'm doing mostly weekends with one overnight phone slot and a few evenings at the local hospital so can use my bike. Not got anything during the week next week, so will try and press on with all the things I've been procrastinating.

Had to go and do some weeding this morning mainly because Sara Cox was on the radio and I'm afraid to say I can't stand her. Whilst she may be a nice enough person, I get so annoyed with the way she rabbits on in a silly voice, the same used to apply to Zoe Ball when she used to do radio. They are just not funny! On the other hand, I am liking Vernon Kay on weekend mornings, he plays some class tunes from the past so when I drive up to Essex on saturday I'll be aiming to leave in the morning and get there before 1 before he hands over to Sara Cox. I used to really like Mark and Lard at lunchtime, I usually listened in the car over lunch and although they were ridiculous, I couldn't help but giggle. There are lots of sites where you can download or listen to some clips from the show and having just heard them playing the end of S Club 7's "Don't stop moving" over and over again to debate whether the final line is "don't stop moving to that arse crack beat", I can't believe they got away with it for so long. But they are undoubtably great if for no other reason that they use the word gubbins on a regular basis.

The town bike

So, I got around to getting a bike. I mentioned before I'd been thinking about it, but was spurred into action after the realisation that I'm supposed to pay extortionate amounts to park my car at the hospital when I do evening and weekend clinic shifts. I didn't get a ticket last night on principle, but they charge punters 24-hours a day 365 days per year, and I think it's unfair especially for those of us working there and I probably won't manage to evade the clampers for long. So, the benefits as I see them are that I will reduce my car usage and thus help the environment, I will save money on the car parking, I will become fitter as a result, and assuming my accountant is as good as he was last year, I will be able to claim a large chunk of the cost of the bike back against tax - result!

I went back to the shop with the fit bloke in it, and sat on a few to try them out - bikes have changed a lot since I last had one aged about 13. The ladies version didn't feel right and apparently my position was all wrong so he suggested I try a man's one, which was loads better. I got to ride it up and down the road outside to test it and it felt really good, so I figured I should just buy it rather than arse around trying any more. I got a helmet too (safety first, kids) which looks really gay but is a necessity these days, then rode it home and around the block. Need to get some lights and a padlock, and to clear out the cupboard outside my front door so I've got somewhere to keep it (it's currently in my lounge) but all being well I will ride it to work on friday night. And, very importantly, it is red and silver and my helmet is silver too so it all matches!

Did a bit of shopping in the supermarket too, and was really good. I got some plums, passion fruit (I got a taste for maracuyas on holiday but they don't seem to sell them over here which is a shame), salad and a newspaper, and walked straight past the reduced cakes (6 toffee muffins for 49p) - ok I paused briefly, but managed to resist. Got £10 cashback too which is my budget for the week for non-essentials. Plans for the weekend look likely to change, I'll probably be going to Essex rather than having a guest as he's found out there is a big BBQ in the village with a lot of the people I went out with on my birthday, so we'll go to that instead. I've been asked to bring some food for the rest of the time as he can't be arsed to cook - but I don't mind that, will do a curry using some of my chillis and take that, along with the nice bacon that I've got (Prince Charles Duchy Organics range - I'm a big supporter of this as profits go to his charity, and the food is superb, I particularly recommend the lemon curd and dry cured bacon). Only be a flying visit though as I'll go up on saturday and come back sunday afternoon as I'm working in the evening, but will be a nice trip if the weather behaves.

The photo today is of some pelicans on the coast of Peru, there is a photo of them from the side too but blogger won't let me upload it today despite having tried twice. So that will have to wait for the next entry!

Back to work

Well, the holiday is finally over, I'm back at work. Arse. It wasn't TOO bad actually, I did a 5 hour shift in the call centre covering the county, and thankfully I had been put on the computer system and it wasn't too hard to learn. Started off really busy, there were about 15 calls waiting when I started, but they drafted in a couple of others to help over the course of the night - I think that people who are on car duty are often called in to do calls if there are lots of calls needing to be done - I don't think I was too slow as at least one of the others seemed to spend as long talking to people as I did! The difficulty was trying to decide what to do as it was either a case of giving advice, organising a home visit, or telling them to go to A&E if they needed seeing right then - I'm probably a bit of a soft touch but I managed to resist telling them all to go to A&E. It all calmed down at 2am once all the calls had been cleared, and I spent the last hour reading a book. So all in all, not too bad, I think I could do it again. Definitely not on for doing the car visiting job though.

So I've just got up, the job now is to try and get back onto UK time as I'm doing a few evenings but nothing as late as last night. Probably go to the gym in a bit and might pop by the bike shop again to see about getting one. I've managed to achieve my target of not going to the supermarket for a week, so today I'll pop in to get some fruit and veg. Hopefully I'll get a nice surprise when my next credit card bill arrives.

Fluffy alpaca

I like alpacas, they are fluffy and have cute grins. Kind of like sheep with long necks. Not much to say today, seem to have spent most of it giving medical advice to a friend who has an inflamed uvula, honestly, men whinge about the silliest things!

Also been chatting to Steve who is in Hong Kong with work, his hotel room looks bigger than my house and it's all on company expenses. I've told him that next time I'll tag along and crash on the sofa so we get maximum value, seeing as I never get to go anywhere interesting with work. Surprisingly he isn't averse to the idea and conveniently he's being sent to New York later in the year and has never been so needs someone to show him round. It's fate, I tell thee! And I have all those dollars left from last week when it was too hot to do shopping, and it will be just before Xmas so I can sort out presents and everything. Let's just hope it doesn't coincide with the work I have got booked in October.

Got to go to work in a bit so a short entry today, not really loking forward to it as have no idea how it all works, but suppose I will learn tonight! Have resisted booking next months sessions until I've had a chance to suss it out, don't want to commit to lots of phone calls if I end up hating it. More tomorrow...

Warning - distasteful content!

By popular demand (well, one request), today's blog is brought to you courtesy of "Roasted Rodents", the new take-away snack boom that's sweeping the nation. There are two options on the menu for serving your roasted guinea pig, here we see the budget version (not to be confused with our competitor's product "McRat-on-a-Stick"), or alternatively you can see me below demonstrating the gourmet version which comes with a side order of potatoes. Mmm, making my hungry now, I'm still trying to decide what to have for dinner, think it'll be something simple like pasta with the roasted veg I got out of the freezer. Still doing very well at sticking to my diet, gym scales confirm I'm 5kg lighter than when I last got weighed there, just got to try not to get into bad habits and keep pounding that treadmill.

Well, it's the weekend tomorrow and I seem to have had a very non-productive week, but work starts again tomorrow evening so at least that will be the start of some more money coming in. Doing three evenings next week down in Scumton, but hopefully if the weather stays nice it might have a chance of being quiet. I could easily get used to this life of leisure actually...

Benefits of being between jobs

I am very much enjoying my period of "resting between jobs". SO glad to have time off to chill after the holiday, and although I'm still getting up late, I'm in no hurry to get back to UK time as this weekend I'm doing late evening shifts so need to make sure I can stay awake til 3am.

Anyway, another day of not doing much, but lots of very small important things. Did some weeding, cleaned the bathroom - one of the results of being off work (also true when we were revising at uni) is a consistently spotless bathroom, and perfectly groomed eyebrows.

My saving money is going well so far, I'm limiting myself to one supermarket shop per week (apart from newspapers), as the veg in my garden are ready, I won't have to go and buy fresh stuff in between times. Farmers market doesn't count though, we have a really good one every fortnight and I'm all for supporting the local economy. In fact, I've started turning into someone I hate, as I used to get really fed up with do-gooders who raved about organic food, you know, all those yummy-mummy types (of which there are many round my way), but I'm beginning to think they have a point. Although it's cheaper in Tesco, I'm a bit concerned about the amount of packaging used not to mention their huge profits. Much better to fill a brown paper bag with mis-shapen jumbo carrots with the Hampshire soil still attached, or buy some lamb chops from a sheep the farmer slaughtered himself two days previously. And there is a great selection of venison and game, lovely fresh pasta, the list goes on. Mmm, will have to make my spinach, watercress, and lime soup again sometime, it looks like Shrek snot but tastes lovely and you can picture all the vitamins and iron that it contains. That's an idea for when I'm stuck for what to write actually, maybe I'll stick up some of my favourite recipes for you to try!

Shopping and stuff

Aha, yesterday's intended photo! It works tonight, which is surprising as at the same time as uploading it, I am downloading tracks from an MP3 site (right now, a Girls Aloud single, if you must know). Obviously this is not Peru, but a quick snap from my stopover. I do like New York - when I am there is is much like any other city - loud, hot, noisy and frantic, but there is something about it that makes me want to go back time and time again. It's a good place to go for a week of culture, when I go usually I get show tickets for most nights, and have seen loads of musicals, operas at the Met, ballets and that sort of thing. Obviously I could just pop to London instead, but I'm more likely to go out drinking with friends! Have to go to London probably in October as I've said I'll take Andy to see Wicked for his birthday present (kind of a cheat as I want to go with someone who'll appreciate it, and I know he will, so it was an obvious choice of gift). I might also be going to London later this month as a friend from work wants to go to Rigby and Peller to buy nice underwear and get properly fitted. I'd love to go, but seeing as I just spent about 100 quid in the M&S outlet, not sure the budget can stretch! Would be interesting to see what size they reckon I am, all the ones I have bought recently seem hugely Jordan-esque on the basis of the size on the label!

Well, I managed to get to the gym today, got bored though after running a mile or so, didn't see my trainer today but I'll be going again on friday as need to try and keep it up. I also decided to buy a bike as I'm going to be working locally doing a few evening sessions where I won't need to do visits, and I'd also like to be a bit greener too (I'll go on about my fondness for the organic farmer's market another time). Went to Halfords to have a look but despite hanging around for ages, all the assistants made no effort to help, so I had to call my brother who knows about these things. I was all for pickinhg a bike based on the colour but apparently I need to consider the type of frame, tyres, brakes and that sort of thing. So instead I went to a local bike shop where they are rather more expensive but have a rather fit assistant who said I can try a few out on the road when I'm ready to buy. But there was one on special offer in Halfords that was about 1/3 of the cost, so I might have to go back there and make more of a fuss. Have to see if I can find a helmet to fit my large head though that doesn't look stupid... although a splattered skull would be even more stupid.

Training and budgeting

Did a bit better this morning and woke up at 11.45, I did wake up at 7.30 but when I looked at the clock again, it was 11.45 so not quite sure what happened there... at least it was still the morning. Didn't manage the gym, instead went to post office to send a belated birthday card, and to do a few bits of shopping. Rather annoyingly got another tax demand, for the National Insurance balance for last year, so goodbye another 1000 or so squid. Have to check I've still got some put aside actually, think I might have to start budgeting a bit better. I saw one of those "curb your spending" programmes last night and it suggested using cash and giving yourself a weekly limit for shopping rather than using credit cards, which although I pay mine off in full each month, I still look at as not real money. Sounds like a good idea so might give it a try. Still got $200 left from the last trip so I'm going to keep that for the next holiday, my few hours stopover in New York wasn't enough to fulfil my need for shopping and culture.

Gym didn't happen, so I'm going to set my alarm for 9am and go tomorrow. Might get to catch up with Glenn (my personal trainer, darling) who made me fill in a food diary as he decided to get all his clients looking at nutrition too. I did really well for the first week of it, even ate breakfast every day and lots of healthy stuff, but then came my birthday weekend and I'm not sure what he'll have to say about the 1.5 bottles of wine, half bottle of champagne, 2 vodka/lime/sodas, vodka red bulls, and god knows how many shots of random stuff. I really should know better. Haven't really seen him since I handed it in so we shall see what he has to say. Might book another session or two to see if my trekking at high altitude has paid off - the scales say yes as I appear to have lost about 4lbs and 4% body fat!

Oh yeah, the upload picture tool has buggered again so no photo today, it's a bit shit really, isn't it?! I've got some nice ones, too. But I'll only put up the photo of a cooked guinea pig if I get enough requests.