Sunday 27 February 2011

Satisfying the Soul - one way or another.

I had to have a sigh to myself. I've been looking for something to do in the limited spare time I have, something to better myself. However, the courses available at the local college at times I can take (EG, not weekdays or full time) are: Welding, BSL or Cake Decorating.

I mean, really, do I look like a freakin' cake decorator to you?!

It's a shame the other two are so expensive; I don't really have daily practical use for them to justify the cost. Admittedly, I was very tempted by the welding course (especially by the mig and tig section) but it's £500!

Ah well, I satisfied the soul in the simplest manner and now we are both fair blegged and contented. Thanks Choi's! Peking chicken and Satay rice really IS amazing... Spicy and sweet, tart and warm, all at the same time. It's like all the best flavours crammed into one bowl. Sticky shredded beef just puts the proverbial cherry on the Chinese cake.

Quote of the Day: Poignant fortune cookie. The message tore as it came out, and reads: "love is perfect, even when we are not."

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Sometimes Work Really Stinks. No, Really...

Eeeh, sorry about the sudden update burst. It's been a tough couple of weeks. They've slashed the hours at my little village branch and I couldn't afford to take the reduced shift so, sadly, I had to hand over my lovely little bank to others and wish my customers the best. In the meantime, it's been "entertaining" trying to keep up with where I am next.

Monday I was in the central branch, Tuesday I was out at a different town, Wednesday brought an hour's drive from home and I'll be here until Monday. Then it's back out to the far-away one on Wednesday and then your guess is as good as mine. I'm also getting Saturdays handed to me at random, even though I'm covering other branches.

I wouldn't mind normally, but I spent a good few hours shouting at people over the phone, because the branch I'm posted at has an... interesting problem.

It smells.

Really, really badly. A few doors down under a different property is a broken sewer line, causing a pool of effluent under their building - and it's letting horrible smells seep through into ours. Since the shoutings, we've had two different environmental health officials turn up with meters and measurers, and we might even have got a response out of the other property's landlord - after 14 months of this stench (so I'm told). I don't know how the ladies have coped with it so long. I mean, even with my dodgy sense of smell I find it utterly revolting. Descriptively, it's a lot like that sprout in its first year (long story). Or one of my brother's boxed farts, come to think of it.

Though sometimes my aforementioned iffy sense of smell translates it as peaches, which is just plain confusing.

Sunday 20 February 2011

Godzilla!?! Oh, wait...

Tsam is a dangerous combination of stupid and badass.

Today, he got carried away with "defending" us from a gigantic tasty-looking bug. He managed to get his teeth into the rotors and bend a blade, so I'll have to buy some replacements for His Lordship's helicopter - but it certainly kept the pair of them entertained! Mind you, he also got stuck in his giant springy cockroach toy...

Sorry about the mess - I'm busily packing books into bags!


Miffed. Best Chinese in town is closed until Thursday. What good is that at 7pm on a Sunday night?! Now I have to think of something to cook tomorrow instead of enjoying leftovers. Humph!

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Lots of Lotls? Nah...

Ow ow ow! My knee hurts!

Today I've shifted and redecorated both Axolotls tank, cleaned the fish tank, done three loads of laundry (washed and dried), walked to town and back on errands, fed, watered and exercised all the reptiles, and gained a new nickname: Harry. Apparently "Harry" is short for "harem" because I do the work of five women. Fair enough!

The 'Lotls are very happy with their newly spruced homes in the kitchen, complete with funky fake grass. Sometimes I have to wonder if Spyyk really is the stupid one, because he's already discovered the tunnel I hid between the tufts.

Though he did give me a nasty scare: I came down and found him floating on his side around the top of the tank, pale gilled and floppy. I scooped him up - nothing. I fished him out of the water - nothing. I looked closer - EXPLODE! He shot out of my hand and gracefully dived back into the water, leaving me soggy and cussing the idiot whom decided to go to sleep floating around with a belly full of bubbles.

Monday 14 February 2011

Versions of Valentines

Valentine's is a weird time of year. I love all the bizarre stuff that comes out on the internet - I learned several new ways to say "I love you". In Hawaiian it's "Aloha Au Ia ʻOe". Nerd language, the fondest term of endearment is a technical ID: I124Q - and above is a QR version of a Valentine's card.

This one really caught my eye, thanks to http://www.fmylife.com/.

"Today, my boyfriend of 2 years took me to get a tattoo done with his name on. He paid for it. After it was done he told me it was over between us and he thought it'd be a nice reminder of him for me. FML
On 05/25/2009 at 2:05pm - love - by Angelofkarma (woman) - United Kingdom (Essex)"


Mind you, there are worse boyfriends to be found HERE, such as Santiago Martinez: the boyfriend who murdered his girlfriend for refusing to help him bury his previous girlfriend! But girls, don't think you're perfect - HERE'S some good examples. Kira V blasted off her boyfriend's penis with firecrackers...

Sunday 6 February 2011

Goddammit Gecko! SHUSH!

Just got woken up stupidly early by Terry the gecko's latest "trick". He's worked out how to swing on his vine and bang really loudly on the glass. Repeatedly. Little sod.

Fingers crossed that poking the Terry the same way he kept waking US up will work. He was especially well behaved at dinnertime, though he did get somewhat overexcited about his meal...

Saturday 5 February 2011

My house is full of nerds.

My god. I've raised a nerdy, nerdy dragon; I caught him happily watching StarWars4. Mind you, it could be worse - it could have been one with JarJar the Dink. Sorry, Binks.

I blame His Lordship, as he always let Tsammy sit on his laptop whilst playing computer games. Tsam loves anything with explosions and spaceships nowdays. But then again, where a laptop is involved, that lizard ain't fussy - though he does find my Acer AspireOne a bit of a challenge as he's significantly longer than the keyboard.

Actually, he's had a great time of sitting on His Lordship's keyboard lately (the huge laptop gets very warm and the fans buzz - dragon heaven) because His Lordship has been spending hours working on texture packs for a game he's discovered - Manic Digger.

This is a simple sandboxy game involving digging stuff, and building stuff - and it's becoming really rather popular in Russia and Germany due to its Open Source nature and freedom to do anything. His Lordship's publicity efforts really took off and now Gronkh (a famous German games reviewer) is occasionally found pottering round on the game servers - also all owned by people at home!

Himself, exe (the creator) and TacoBuilder have really put some work in - not only on new texture packages, player skins and coding, but on startlingly good models too!