Just a quickie

Mostly just by way of general update on things in my life...

So, work has been ridiculously busy. It doesn't help that I've back-ended myself this year again. I always save up my holidays. I am reluctant to take any during the first half of the year in case I get offered a new job and have taken too much holiday and have to 'pay some back'. Then I take long weekends over summer, but rarely any substantial break. So it got to the end of November and I still had 12 days of my 25 day annual allowance still to take. I'm having a long weekend this weekend, then leaving work on the 15th December until January. A lovely long break, but with the weather and the reduced daylight, all I shall be doing shall probably be DIY. Still, at least it is getting done!

And I'm not the only one back-ending myself either. During December there are only 3 of the 20 working days when all three members of the team are in. It really hasn't been well thought through. I blame them.

Date six never happened. Somehow I managed to blow him off. I think the signs were there on date five when we never even kissed, but mostly that was because we were in public and I certainly am not one for overt displays of affection. But then I was saying to anyone who knew about any of the dates that I wasn't convinced by him. And not just because of the fluorescent orange.

It didn't help, either, that a REALLY REALLY fit new person started at football. That is certainly one way to get me going back frequently. And he's a gayer. I wasn't convinced at first; but he definitely is. And SO fit. Beautiful blue eyes. And within my age range. And he has a hairy chest (Facebook pictures are great). And so unbelievably fit - did I mention that? But anyhow, that kind of distracted me from making a defined effort to rearrange the blown-off date six.

It is a recipe for disaster though. Not because it would again involve dating someone at football (that said, I've had no problems with my ex but mostly because he's never been back to football since) but mostly because - although single on Facebook - I think he has some sort of 'distance' or 'on-off' relationship going on. He may not but we'll see. I think I'm building myself up for a fall, but it's very difficult to stop. Even more difficult when you spend one Sunday evening session just marking each other and bantering with each other all the time.

I have now caught either one mouse twice, or two different mice, in the house. The first I released at the very top of the garden which is up a flight of steps; but people think it has probably just found it's way back. The second time I released it back into the house. Unintentionally - obviously. I opened the trap to grab it so I could take it to the park and release it and the bugger slipped out of my hand. Next time I shall jsut take the trap down to the park.

One of the reasons for the long weekend this weekend is that I have a man coming round to handle my erection. He's putting the scaffolding up so the roofer can start on Monday. I will be pleased with that - I have been intending to get the roof done since moving in six years ago; but only just gotten around to it. It is a bit of a frustrating job though - it is a lot of money to spend; and it isn't as though I'm 'getting' anything for it - I have a roof already; it's not as though I'm going to see an immediate benefit or have something to play with; I'm going to be in exactly the same position, just more watertight.

The DIY is progressing. The bathroom is coming along nicely - I'm currently doing the bath panel which is the last job to do in there. That should be done by the weekend, then I near to clear out the spare room to have a good look at the floor in there and chip off the remaining plasterwork. I'm in the middle of (re)placing doors too - my bedroom had a crappy sliding door on it; it is getting a proper hinged door; the lounge hasn't had a proper door on it since I moved in (the old one was taken off when replacing the floorboards and didn't go back on I think because it was horrible but I can't remember) and the ill-fitting kitchen door is to be replaced with one to match the others. It's all go, thank goodness.

This does mean that the house is a tip with boxes getting moved round as each room is needed for another task. It is also not helped by it being Christmas, though I have bought all the Christmas presents I need to already (smug grin) and made the Christmas cards - this is a long standing family tradition in that for the last 10 years or so I have been the only person in the family to give Christmas cards; and they are homemade. But the boxes of clutter are only going to get worse when it comes to getting the Christmas tree out. And I usually enjoy (well, sort of) having a good clean and tidy up before starting with the erection. Of the tree. And then my mother has taken to emptying their loft and giving me lots of junk to Ebay. Thanks for that. Still, if I can get it all online before Christmas I might benefit. And I must get around to posting other Christmas cards. The annoying thing is that ordinarily I would use any spare time at work to address the cards and Ebay the stuff; only because of being backended by my staff I don't have that time!

Hopefully at some stage I will get time to scratch my arse.