Itching for it to be over

Yes, last night I slept much more than I have been doing. There may be many reasons for this, here's what I did differently:

• Leon wasn't here, so I spent a couple of hours asleep in front of the telly waiting for the dryer to finish.
• The dryer failed to dry my clean bedding, so I slept in a minimally bedded bed.
• I drank lots of water, resulting in me getting up to pee, not to itch.
• I ordered a half-and-half hot chick and pepperoni pizza, which I ate half of.
• I ordered ice cream too, which I forgot to eat.
• I smothered myself in moisturising jelly stuff (don't ask) twice before bed.
• I drank some tea (OK, I normally do this)
• I took non-non-drowsy anti-histamine, paracetamol and ibuprofen.

But which of those is applicable... I think the less-is-more style bed may be the answer. I was blinking frozen all night, thus the rash didn't get hotter.
I did still wake up twice, but that's not bad in the scheme of an 8 hour sleep. And I've slept for a lot of today too. The only trouble is that the bit of rash on my face has turned out to also react badly to the super-jelly-moisturiser. So I look like I did ten rounds with Mike Tyson. Not just my eye anymore, but my whole face is swollen up on one side. The ibuprofen has had some effect, as have the cold compresses and the copious amounts of water I have drunk (compared to normal, when I don't drink water if I can avoid it!)
So I am feeling a bit better.

I've also watched an episode of Star Trek (TOS) and two of Star Trek: TNG. Fantastic! I had forgotten how much I love those shows. I know it's supposedly sad, boring or whatever but I don't care. I love it. I love the movies - I cried at the end of several of them, most recently at the end of the last one when Data dies. It was even a pretty good episode of TOS (that's The Original Series for you non-Trekkies) where a child version of a being a bit like Q from TNG (The Next Generation) kept provoking them. And the scenery wasn't too cardboardy. Also, Captain Kirk didn't get his shirt ripped off in the fight!!
Another great thing about the more recent Star Treks (TNG, DS9, Voyager) have been the totty! Voyager had the luscious Paris (male) and the brooding Chakotay. DS9 had the lovely Bashir and TNG had Picard (oddly sexy) Riker and Worf. Okay, so Worf isn't really that attractive, but his actor, Michael Dorn, is. :)

Sick

I don’t really like being ill – who does? Thus, I don’t really like going to the doctors. That said, I prefer to be cured and the quicker the better. Now the stuff that the nice doctor gave me yesterday is mostly moisturising stuff – I think that they are hoping that the rash will go away on its own. I hope so, but I am not convinced. However, the posh shower gel and moisturiser were effective, if not for vast periods of time.
I suppose that I don’t drink enough water (or indeed any fluids) – I generally have a couple of cups of tea and possibly a hot chocolate at work. This may be part of the problem, I suppose. For this reason, I am going to try to drink more liquids. As I don’t like the way that tap water tastes, I may consider spending some money on some bottled water, which although expensive (considering it is just water) I will at least drink it. We will see.

Leon is going away this evening to attend a funeral. He’s spending some six hours on a train to do so. This means (from a purely selfish point of view) that I'm all on my little lonesome. Though I can survive without him in the house I do get quite paranoid at night when the lights are out and the doors are locked. I mean, nobody can get in – the doors are locked. But you know they might try to. Or they might kick in our gate like they did next door’s. but don’t worry for me – I’ll just take a hammer to bed with me. in fairness, even if someone did break in, they’d just fall over the mess and kill themselves!

Anyway, I intend to try the NHSDirect recommendation of 2 tbsp bicarbonate of soda in my bath tonight. It apparently could help with the itching.

Itching for a change

Yes, I have some kind of random itch-rash based illness. Lovely. It's probably, according to the doctor who saw me but isn't my doctor, a viral rash. However, it could be eczema which would be irritating (excuse the pun) though not impossible. I have been told that people with hay fever are more likely to develop eczema or asthma too. (as if one of those isn't enough!)

Anyway, I am hoping that it will clear up before the 1st December for our Christmas party. Although the redness will match the dress, it's not really ideal.

Anyway, the doctor I saw was very nice - he even discussed other options and called me back this afternoon (my appointment was this morning) to let me know that I could also try some other remedies, but that the prescription he gave me should cover it. How nice.

So, I have some swanky new shower gel, and some very expensive moisturiser.

Almost time to go back

Yes, this is the last day of my holiday, I'm back at work tomorrow.
I've actually had a reasonably productive week, all things considered, though I know I'm not going to enjoy going back to work! I will have a lot of stuff to catch up on, and email to read, delete or respond to. AND preparation for the week ahead.
Anyway, what has been achieved?

1. Got Leon to fit skirting to two walls in bathroom
2. Painted one coat of bright white on all walls in bathroom
3. bought cabinet, towel rail and sink tidy
4. bought new curtain rails for downstairs
5. bought material for ball dress
6. made ball dress (still needs hemming and underskirts)

How's that?

Ahh, that's beta

So, yes - after only about half an hour of faffing about, I'm happy with the new blogger beta. It is better.
I'll see if I get on with it okay. I'm sure it'll be fine, though I feel slightly wrong not having to use code to make it do stuff.
Web 2.0 is growing on me though, slowly.

Argh!

So, I have finally taken the plunge and gone "beta" - but is it?
Well, the only thing I've noticed different so far is that I can add a label to my posts. I guess that's so that I can categorise them. At best, this post will fall under "Blogging" but not much else. Oh well.
I suppose to add labels to old posts I'll have to edit them all individually, which frankly sucks. If there's a better way, I'll let you know - if I ever find it!

I'm touched

I've finally got around to reading some blogs today, and found a link on The World Of Lint for Chip, who has gone away.
While there I was reading Chip's Memories of the York Era and was quite touched to see that my 22nd birthday was in the list! Woo!
Generally my birthdays are so pants even I don't enjoy them (see 31/12/2005) but I agree with Chip that was an excellent evening.

Door Update #3

"Neil Webster PVC Doctor" came to my house today. He fixed the back door. I can go outside into the back yard without going via the street and backs. Good. I'm very pleased, and he was very nice and quick too. And he had a quick look at the front door too. I'd recommend him.

PTH Piccies!

So, last Thursday was the 13th Actuarial Pub Treasure Hunt. The theme was Pubs, and my team (Bad Data) was Flares (the chain of pubs) which was nice. Anyway, we all dressed up in varying levels of taste and dragged ourselves around York. Some of us dressed up in clothes already owned by others, like The Black who borrowed his outfit from Clegg. Others of us hired costumes, like Guy and Tim (with the really scary shirts) You can’t really see the amazingness of my flares in these pictures, but you can see the makeup! I am dressed in Ziggy Stardust stylee. Also while in the actual “pub” Flares, one of our team purchased a rather scary afro, which can be seen here on Leon. Dapper. Nice.

Door Update

So, update on the back-door issue:

• The door would have broken at some point as it was not adjusted properly - therefore it's not Jonny's fault (phew)
• The door is still locked shut, but the repair man can take it off via the hinges (inside) to mend it
• The Coldseal company used silly locks that although really secure, are very expensive to replace
• The man is coming to fix the door next Thursday
• It's going to cost us about £200 - one has to ask how much a new door costs??

So yes, all blame is absolved from Jonny (though as I said, I was only teasing) and indeed from men in general - as regards the back door at least. I hope to get the repair man to also tweak the front door (or show me how to) so that that door doesn't break any time soon. This has also reinforced my hatred of PVC windows and doors. Can't afford to replace them in the current house though, so it's something we'll be looking out for in future houses. We like wooden windows - and they can still be double glazed and draught proofed...
Rant over.

PTH XIII

So, last night was the PTH. We dressed up, we wandered (aimlessly in some cases) around some pubs on our list (and one or two not on the list – whoops) and answered questions on various subjects. We found a very large pork scratching but our balloon got burst (don’t ask)

Generally a good night, although I was shattered by the time we got in, and my feet hurt since I was wearing my platform boots which aren’t the most comfortable shoes for trekking all over town in. I could have socialised more too, but everyone was too drunk by the last pub (even some of the organisers) for that.

Not really much else to write about at the moment. Life is ticking over, but not that exciting.

I am looking forwards to my next driving lesson – my first one to be during the daytime. I was hoping to get my provisional licence sorted out too, but my local Post Office doesn’t do the “checking service” for the forms and so I either have to send off my passport in the post (not ideal in any circumstances) or I have to go to the Post Office in town to get my form and photo verified. Then I will have my first photo-card licence. I’m presently still on the paper version, but as I haven’t changed my address on it, I get to get the photo-card one for free. Woo! It will cost me £4 to get the form checked by a person in the Post Office, but I then get to keep my passport. I don’t trust the postal system enough to send it off, and the DVLA would probably keep it for ages. I’d rather pay the £4.

I have to make a dress over the next few weeks for my Christmas ball. I have a basic design for what I intend to do. I need to buy some material – I'm probably making the dress in black with red trim. I have to take a shoe into town with me to make sure that the trim and accessories are the right colours. Then that’s it – I can’t afford to spend any more money this month. Except for the back door. And possibly our holiday coming up.

PTH

Today is the PTH – usually one of my favourite events of the calendar. The quality of the event varies depending on the organisers, and also on the time of year. That said, I have generally enjoyed the autumn ones more than the spring ones. I don’t know whether that is fluke… I did really enjoy the cult TV one where we were Captain Scarlet (and co) and also the one where we were Wacky Races (was that Cartoons?) In fact, I’ve really liked almost all of them. The one where there was no dressing up wasn’t as entertaining. This one is likely to be okay, but our fancy dress isn’t to our usual high standard (that’ll be two in a row with only small amounts of effort) but the costumes will be pretty good. I do have platform boots and flares. Properly big flares too! Woo! I’ll try to get some pictures to put online of this one, and as I have said before if I ever get a scanner I’ll spend some time putting my old photos from my albums online too.

tum te too

We were away for a long weekend, last weekend. We went to Leon’s parents’ house. I had a nice time doing all sorts of things ranging from wandering around B&Q to having a horrible curry, to entertaining some under 7s.

While we were in Cambridge we managed to get some jeans for conversion to flares, which means that we do at least have costumes for the up coming PTH. I’m not sure what top to wear, though I’ll probably wear my heart-shaped sunglasses briefly. I’d like to wear a short jacket but I think it might be a little cold

Work has been absolutely hectic today! I had the world’s shortest lunch break! Oh well, at least I’ve had stuff to do, I hate being bored.

Leon’s cooking tonight – we’re having pie. Then I have a driving lesson in the dark again! Sadly I have to go and get some money to pay for said driving lesson. Sadly, they’re not free. Oh well.

Lastly, great night last night. Curry with the soon-leaving Chip. Brilliant.