emchi.co.uk

Sorry it’s been a bit quiet around here at the moment.  Not much going on, but I’m very stressed at the moment.  To the point where I’ve got dermatitis on both hands, a buggered neck and I’m clenching my teeth when I sleep.  It’s not a good time at Chez Emchi.

The puppy is still Pupzilla.  Although we’re now allowed to take the monkey out for a walk.  Or she takes us out for a walk.  Not quite worked it out yet.  Anyway she keeps doing reasonably cute things.  Like this morning she trotted out to the bathroom dragging her lead behind her, then sat down, picked up the handle and started wagging her tail at me.  I think she knows what walkies is. 

On her first real walk, we’ve found the following out:

• She doesn’t like diesil engines
• She doesn’t like manhole covers that rock (freaks her out big time)
• She doesn’t like old men (she went nuts when one tried to pet her, yelping for ages… tad embarassing)
• She loves grass, she likes lying in it and rolling around in it and would happily spend all day in it.

Oh, she snores… which is really funny.  She also finishes her food, puts her front paws on the sofa cushion and burps in R’s face… without fail.  Oh and Wednesday was the first time she did a stinky fart… which cleared the room.  When it was safe to come back we sat down and cried with laughter… the things you remember eh?

In other news the water softner decided to play up and then the dishwasher went out on strike in sympathy.  I had to laugh.  Both appear to be fixed now.  Water softner had not been working since we moved in it would seem.  A bit of fiddling and hey presto, all is well in water land.

This week’s observations:

• I still miss Somerset.  There’s something calming about being “home”.  The lush green trees, the atmosphere is different.  It’s like a little bubble, nothing outside matters. 
• Manners cost nothing.  So why did I have someone say ’scuse me, then barge straight past me without giving me chance to move or saying “please”.  All this in Marlborough no less.
• Our garden gets closer to a jungle with every day that passes.
• I like watching the puppy sleep.  She looks so cute with each different position she wiggles into.  It can’t be comfortable but I can’t help myself.
• I keep thinking of really good things to write about when I’m driving, or cooking or well anything that is not conducive to having a pen and paper to hand. 
• I’m fed up of adverts for Bingo… They’re all a little, chavy. 
• I’m caught in a bit of a head spin about religion following a very strange conversation with my best friend and her boyfriend.  I’m unable to reconcile things at the moment.
• There’s got to be something slightly wrong about a good salacious scent.  Like fresh coffee beans or new perfume.

Well interesting few days.  I spent Friday and Saturday in London attending the Nielsen Norman Group conference on Intranet Usability.  Really interesting, best thing I’ve been to in a very long time. Hopefully I’ll get to apply some of what I learnt to my job.  Still it was exhausting, lack of sleep the night before, and staying up late talking to my best friend, all but did me in. 

Today I’ve done a mad dash to find puppy food (as she’s stopped eating the food for older dogs we were told to feed her), done the food shopping, watched the Grand Prix and baked a cake.  Yes, all in that order, I’ve still got the housework to do yet.

Brilliant Grand Prix today, Lewis deserved to win.  Which leads me onto something interesting I read on auto blog.  Apparently, Richard Hammond is going to be the F1 presenter when it goes to BBC next year.  If it’s true, then rock on!  Now all we need is someone like Suzi Perry to do the pit commentary.  I wonder who will do race commentary, I hope Martin Brundle moves, I like his commentary.  Perhaps Murray will come back?  Who knows. 

Anyway, I’m thinking of some blog posts on usability following the conference.  More soon!

We have psycho puppy.  She’s gone from nice, sweet, sleeping a lot with a bit of play, to complete psycho puppy.  I only left her with R for the day while I went to work, come home and she wants to eat me.  Alive! She has a foot fetish, we’ve had to find her an old sock to chow down on, as she’s content with pinching them off the arm chair.

We built her a little lair, and at some point while R was in the bath, she stole a par of socks from the bathroom, only we didn’t know for another two days.  We found the socks hidden in her lair.  Goodness knows what else she’s going to hide in there. 

So far she’s pulled the towel off the top of the lair and dragged it into the middle of the living room, then promptly trotted off and got the rug from the hall as well, that was only this evening, within half an hour of me getting home. 

We’ve been reassured she’ll grow out of it.  Hmmm.  Let’s just say she’s like a living re-incarnation of Marley.  As I said… psycho dog. We’ve been given instructions to ignore her when she barks, get up and leave her.  I was going to say she was fast asleep… she’s now trying to eat R, her sock abandoned along with the rest of her toys, hand is FAR more tasty.   

We have Lily… she’s currently sleeping, which is exactly what she has been doing for the last four hours.  Oh to be a puppy and sleep that much.  I slept really badly last night and could do with another four hours sleep.  Oh well I guess she’ll be up and about later.

She’s gotten loads bigger, she has big floppy ears and huge paws.  She didn’t get car sick and she likes eating my fingers.

Right, going back to watching really bad film on ITV.

Where to start… I don’t know whether to be annoyed or pleased that I got woken from a terrible dream earlier than normal this morning.  The dream, well let’s just say it involved recycling, a bank, a bright red polo shirt and Richard Branson (he was working behind the counter)… it was bizarre to say the least.

The alarm going off wasn’t a problem because I could roll over and go back to sleep, before I did the maths in my very sleepy (and sore) head, and realised I had to move my car.  Arses.

Anyway, in the brief (15 minutes) I had left in bed all I could hear was the following:

Tap, tap, tap

Chirp

Crack

Tap tap tap

The half brain dead in me was lying there thinking, bugger the little sods in the chimney are hatching.  Hmmm… need to think of new and intriguing ways to get them out without smoking them out.

Yes, it’s that day again… another Hallmark spectacular.  Maybe I’m getting a bit to cynical with age but I no longer care about this day.  Perhaps I’ve long since given up hoping that I’ll have a magical Hallmark day, knowing full well that nobody out there has even the slightest romantic bone in their body when it comes to me.  C’est la vie. 

I’m going back to working on project initiation documetnation that was sending me close to sleep yesterday (don’t get me wrong, I love the project I’m working on, but some of the mandatory stuff can send a girl to sleep sometimes).

Well we have a move date of a week on Monday, fingers crossed everything goes ahead without a hitch.  I mean seriously fingers crossed!! So I’ve got another week of staying with my friend, which has and is great.  The drive to work has been a lot less stressful than catching the train every morning. 

My sleeping patterns are a bit off, and the drive from Witney is about 50 minutes long.  However for some reason my body clock has been waking me at 3am, 5am and then around 6am… it’s a bit annoying, but at least I can get straight back to sleep again. 

So getting up early here is bizarre, I mean I know I’m leaving earlier than I did when I was working in London, but it’s so quiet, and there’s nobody on the roads in Witney, it’s like it’s about 3 in the morning in London.  It’s heavenly, so quiet (even if I am near an RAF base). 

So my commute to work has changed massively, instead of hoping there will be a train when I get to the station, then wondering if I can get onto the train, knowing I won’t get a seat until London Bridge, fighting your way off the train at Charing Cross or Cannon Street, then struggling through crowds of annoying people who are rude and in a rush all the time to your next mode of transport.  To, getting in the car and being able to see stars in the sky, driving down country lanes that have hardly anyone on them, not getting annoyed when someone impatient overtakes you, listening to my choice of music, having space to think, waking up mentally without worrying about having someone fall on you.  Tower Hill is now a little road that I drive down past a new housing estate with no cars and Faringdon is a little village I drive past that has a tower on top of a hill near it.  It’s all very refreshing. 

So anyway, I’m thoroughly enjoying the team I’m working with, they’re a great bunch of people.  I don’t feel like someone is about to stick a knife in my back at any moment.  It feels genuine here and I feel like I fit in.  I’m going to enjoy working here.

Ok so that’s a slight exageration.  I’ve got a few cuts on my hands, but that was from last week, honest!! We have the spareroom of doom packed now.  Well I say packed, the only thing left to do are the books (wibble, the thought of it makes my back hurt), clear the bed off and take the junk down the tip.

The kitchen and our room are getting done tomorrow.  Then I need to find the cash next week, with any luck we’ll be moving in a week’s time.  Well I hope we’ll be moving in a week’s time. 

Things feel so much better after a jolly good night’s sleep.  Looking forward to another good night’s sleep tonight.  Feeling a little less frayed today. 

Oh how boring has my life gotten when all I’ve got to blog about is packing boxes to move house.  Shoot me, shoot me now!!

Once opperation relocation (oooh look, that rhymes), has been completed successfully, I am hoping to start using my blog as a writers notebook.  I aim to write more interesting things this year.

Well the job is going well, I think, I never know what everyone else thinks of me, well not normally until I do something wrong.  lovely grounds, lovely people, lovely work… It was fab to see my school friend from years ago and so many memories came flood back.  It was wonderful

The house is within our grasp… the reference check fees paid and everything is being processed, fingers are undoubtedly crossed.  However the money issue is causing more stress than is possible.  Our landlord is being a bit of a tit.  I have no idea how we’re going to move.  I just want everything to magically get there, for us to be moved. 

I’m tired, bone achingly tired.  The bed at my friend’s house is comfy, I was warm, I had my pillows.  I just didn’t sleep all that well.  I kept waking up.  I was up at 5 on Wednesday… gah, I just really need a good night’s sleep.  I’d have a lie in but I’ve got so much to do tomorrow it’s not going to happen somehow.   C’est la vie.