Bits and pieces

As I said in my last blog update, I tried to upload some photos, but was very puzzled as to why I couldn't. The next morning I discovered that Alf was downloading some huge game for his computer from the Internet. It finally finished downloading last night!

So I've taken some better photos in the daylight to share with you and now I can upload them :) This is my new watch:
And this is the bracelet I also bought on Wednesday:

I forgot to mention on my last blog update that Chris and Sophie will be able to rent the cottage that they liked. I think they're planning to move in at the start of March.

I think I must have had some kind of virus or something last week as I felt really rotten from Mon til Thur. My last blog update covered til Wed, but then on Thur I felt even worse. I had been planning to go out to visit my Nan with mum, but I felt awful, so while mum went out, I just lay on the sofa instead. I wasn't planning to sleep, just rest, but I did nod off. I was woken by the phone 10mins later though! It was my mum's boss, but she wouldn't leave me a message, she said she'd phone back later.

On Thur eve my mum's boss did phone back. Because of budgets and trying to save money, 3 village libraries in our county are going to be closed (I think there are thirty something libraries in total). My mum's boss who is relatively new to the library was very worried by this. But my mum has worked in the library for a while and has known this to happen twice before. Last time our library wasn't one of the ones they were considering closing, but when it was the previous time the whole village went up in arms so they decided against closing it! My mum doesn't think that our library is likely to be closed, but even if they suggest it she wont be worried because she knows the power of the villagers. Her boss is still worried though.

On Friday I felt loads better and have since then so I think I must be over whatever virus or bug I had. I'm still very tired though because I've been more nocturnal than usual this last week, getting to sleep between 2am and 3am most nights. And I try to get up at a reasonable time (before 11am) each day, so think I might be a bit short of sleep. If I get into bed earlier I fall asleep earlier, but if I do then I miss the period where I feel well which is usually between about 11pm and 2am. And I don't like to do that. And I'm still getting the tummy pains, but hopefully my dietician will have some suggestions when we're in contact on Tue as I gave her my diary last week, and more headaches than usual. And I'm constantly cold.

On Friday evening Claire came round :) We did lots of chatting, I showed her some music videos I'd recorded for her, Claire did some knitting with mum and we had great fun together on New Super Mario Bros Wii :D When I was putting my CV together this week I'd discovered that I don't have some GCSE certificates from my secondary school, so Claire is going to chase them up for me. She also had a look at my CV and suggested that as well as the one paid job I've had, I should also include all the voluntary stuff I've done. So I've added that in and am now ready for my Pathways to Work appointment about my CV tomorrow. Tomorrow as we're going into town anyway, we're going to call in at Hosp H on the way there or the way back because I need bloods doing. And we'll do my Tac blood at home in the morning via a fingerprick and post that off to Hosp B.

And me, mum and Claire decided that we're going to go to the cinema on Wed to see Meryl Streep's latest film - It's Complicated. We suspect that we might confuse the cinema staff though because Claire will have her Orange Wednesday's offer (buy one get one free) and I'll have my CEA cinema card (which allows someone to accompany me for free), so we're hoping we'll just have to pay for one ticket between the 3 of us (if Claire buys her ticket and gets mine free with Orange Wednesday, then I should be able to get mum a free ticket to accompany me), fingers crossed! And the following Wed mum and Claire want to see George Cluney's new film - Up In The Air, but I've not decided yet if I want to see it or not.

Over the last few days I've been writing a letter to my penpal (Lizzy's husband's niece) who is 17 and lives in Myanmar. I finished that this morning so am hoping to post that off tomorrow.

I received the identity documents (passport, birth certificate and national insurance card) that I posted off for my CRB check back in the post yesterday. I was a bit worried about posting them off, but am relieved they arrived back ok via recorded delivery. The reason I've no faith in the Royal Mail at the moment is that they've lost a parcel one of my sixth form friends posted me about 3 weeks ago (it was a late Christmas present). I've seen no sign of it yet :( So she's going to see if she can trace it because she's got a receipt to prove that she did post it. Fingers crossed.

I tend to stick with eating the foods that I like, especially for lunch - I always eat Marmite sandwiches. But when we ate out at the cafe on Wed I discovered that I quite like toasted teacakes :) So I had them for lunch yesterday instead of my usual Marmite sandwiches.

Yesterday I persuaded dad to play on my Wii with me and we had great fun on Wii Sports Resort. I beat him at archery and thrashed him at swordplay, but he beat me at golf (how boring!) and cycling, which is the most exhausting sport on there! And yesterday I also had a go on New Super Mario Bros Wii by myself but I'm stuck, it's too hard for me. I might have to see if I can persuade Alf to help me ;)

Sometimes the Radio Times have really good offers. I mentioned the offer for the exclusive Doctor Who book in my last update. In one of the recent issues they offered a free Lonely Planet magazine to readers or 3 Lonely Planet magazines for just £1. So I phoned up and requested the 3 magazines for just £1. I've never read the magazine before, but would love to travel more, so hopefully I'll find it interesting.

The other day I was wondering about how the audiences for TV programmes (such as QI) are assembled, so I had a look on the Internet and found Applause Store. I've signed up and been placed on the reserve list for tickets for QI, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and The X Factor. So hopefully they'll notify me when the filming dates are released and if I'm quick I might be able to get tickets to be in the audience, fingers crossed.

I've just discovered a great website called DVD Spot which searches online retailers to find the best DVD prices for you :) What a good idea, it will prevent me searching lots of different websites. They don't check Tesco which is one of the websites I usually check, but they check all the other reasonably priced ones I know.

I was listening to my iPod this afternoon and didn't know what else to do with myself. I'm not very good at just listening to music. So I played Solitaire on my iPod as I often do and then rediscovered another game on it called Vortex which I'd not played recently. It's quite addictive :P Does anyone reading this remember the Superplexus, a puzzle toy that was released a few years ago now? I still have mine and so tried that again this morning. I thought I'd find it easier now I'm older, but I still can't complete it. Grrrr :P

I've not managed to finish my 101 in 1001 list yet, I'm still short on some goals. I've got about 90 at the moment, so hopefully it wont be too long til I complete my list. I'll post it up when it's finished.

I've said before that I currently really like a song called Fireflies by Owl City. Hopefully it'll be number one in the chart tonight, fingers crossed. This is Boyzone's new single, Gave It Away. I'm not really a Boyzone fan, but you might be surprised to know that this song was written by Mika. To me it sounds nothing like Mika's music, but that shows what a versatile songwriter he is.

Today I've been listening to lots of music - I'm currently listening to Alexandra Burke's Overcome album, but I've already listened to Pink's Funhouse album, Pixie Lott's Turn It Up album, and Mika's The Boy Who Knew Too Much album :D Today it is 5 weeks til I'm seeing Mika in concert again, yay! This afternoon me and H have been texting each other about it because we're both so excited. If we're this excited with 5 weeks to go I don't know what we'll be like nearer the time! H has seen him in concert once before and is also a huge fan, so it should be great seeing him together (and my mum will be coming too). I invited H to come to the first concert I saw him at with me, but she was away, so 2 years later we're doing it :) And in less than 5 weeks me and mum are seeing The Noisettes in concert. You can see their new single, Saturday Night, here.

I'm really pleased that Sandra Bullock has been winning a few awards recently. I think she's a great actress, but never really seems to get the recognition I think she deserves. But recently she's won a Critics Choice award and then yesterday she won a Golden Globe. Both of these awards were for her as an actress in a film called The Blind Side. It's only been released in the USA so far, but should come to cinemas here in March.

On TV since my last update I've watched the 2 latest episodes of QI, Thur's episode of The One Show (because it had a feature on dyscalculia in it which is what my mum has), The World's Biggest Family and Me on C4, Brits Hits 30 and Horizon: Pill Poppers. And I recorded the Hope For Haiti concert, but haven't watched it yet.

On Thur I found out that Ashes to Ashes series 3 will be televised this spring and some sources suggested it might start next month. I loved Life on Mars and I also really like Ashes to Ashes. But I can't really remember what had happened in Ashes to Ashes series 1 and 2, so I'm going to attempt to rewatch them before series 3 is televised. I'd already got series 1 on DVD and I bought series 2 from Tesco online on Thur, so hopefully that will come in the post soon. I watched the first episode of the first series yesterday and followed it better than I expected. It seemed like much longer than an hour in length though. I'm going to try to watch the second episode at some point today.

Since my last update I have also finished watching all the episodes of Gavin and Stacey. I think we've watched them all in about 3 weeks! :D We bought series 1, borrowed series 2 and 3 from the library and rented the Christmas special from Tesco DVD rental. So since my last update we watched the Christmas special and watched the extra features from that DVD and from the series 3 DVD. And I've joined all the groups on Facebook campaigning for another series! :P

I also watched Absolutely Fabulous The Last Shout (and the extra features) which I rented from Tesco DVD rental. So over the last few months I've also watched every single episode of Absolutely Fabulous which has been released on DVD (series 1 to 6, Gay and The Last Shout) without buying a single one - all rented from Tesco or borrowed from the library! I'm going to buy the complete collection (Absolutely Fabulous Absolutely Everything) though when that comes out in Oct. And hopefully that'll include the last ever episode, The White Box, too as that hasn't been released on DVD in the UK yet - but the USA have it despite it being an English programme!

And I've watched 2 more full Vicar of Dibley episodes, 2 short Comic Relief episodes and some extra features from my boxset. I've only got one episode left and then I'll have watched them all. I think I might watch that tonight when I'm nocturnal :P