Monday, March 26, 2007

Birthdays!

Well despite me being a bit wary of it, my birthday weekend was pretty awesome.

The weekend got off to a good start by getting some pressies from the girls at work and going to see 300 at the cinema on Friday night. It was brilliantly done, and it's such a relief for a film to come out that's actually worth paying money to go see. It chose cinematography over script, it chose art over cliche'd nonsense and substance over the usual shallow, pathetic nonesense that get called movies these days ... so I LOVED it.

On saturday Niall caught up with two of his old coursemates. He hadn't seen them since graduation so there was much talk of engineering jobs and widdly bits and bobs that I don't understand, but I held out long enough to chip in that we should go eat at the local Carvery. Good stuff. It was also hinted to me that I would be getting pet related presents for my birthday...

Sunday morning, and I open my first batch of pressies. Niall's parents got me a bear kit and an itunes voucher, and Niall got me this awesomely teeeeeny mp3 player which seems like it'll make the commute to work much more appealing... once I get all the stuff installed of course! At mum's house, I got more pressies including lots of money, a chocolate fountain, a whopping 5kg bar of chocolate... yep SOLID chocolate... (see below, modelled by Niall)



... a DVD, a few tops, a book about gecko's and probably best of all... a Gecko terrarium! I got far too excited and we drove straight to the pet shop to buy a gecko and all the bits and bobs you need for it. I love him. I really do. He's awesome... well he's not necessarily even a he... the jury's still out on that one... but his name, is Gizmo. Once he's settled into his new surroundings a bit I'll take some pictures and introduce you formally. :-)

The rest of saturday was spent eating a rather large course at Frankie and Bennys, then almost falling asleep back at home as my stomach tried to digest the meal, staring in wonder at Gizmo explore his new house, then out to the pub for some birthday drinks. Miss Bitchy Bitchison was working at the bar that day, and proceeded to ask all of us for I.D... on my 24th birthday, one member of the party being 26, in my local where I've spent many an hour and fiver drinking. Karen forgot hers, so she popped home to get it before presenting to the Bitch of the century behind the bar. I know she was only doing her job, but this cow was arsey and smug and blatantly on a power trip. There were people around who were years younger than us, and not everyone at the bar was being I.D'd. Lame bint. Anyway, we had a few drinks there, then went back to mine where more drinks were consumed. It was a nice way to finish the day off, even if I did have a laughing fit for about an hour and then fell quite promptly to sleep.

Today was my last day off before returning to work for the week... but friday is payday so that's something to get me through. Today I went shopping, and bought two T-shirts... one with Animal from the Muppets on, and one with Rainbow Bright on it saying "Made in the 80's". I thought they were pretty cool. I also did AAAAAALLLL the food shopping all on my lonesome, and bought Gizmo a log to climb on. I also bought some containers and some veg for the crickets that we've got to gutload ready to feed to Gizmo tonight... looking forward to his first feeding.

:-)



Monday, March 19, 2007

Spring!

Daffodils, crocuses, green grass from the spring rain...

or snow blizzards.



I don't think I've ever had snow to contend with so close to my birthday.

Yes, next sunday I'll be a whopping 24 years old, and have been a graduate for 2 years. Holy Crap. I'm trying not to panic at the fact that I still have no career to speak of, nor a totally stable relationship, nor any hard fast future plans. But that's okay for 24 right?

I do know that my future plans involve more pets. I've already selected my next fish for when Wenda and Edgar Alan Poe pass away... if they ever do the hardy little blighters. Not that I want them to die any time soon of course. I'm also dead set on getting a tortoise... but right now it's pretty impossible since we don't have any garden space where they could roam about. Lizards, seem to grow too big, so my options are fairly narrow for the time being. Hopefully I'll be able to afford a gecko or frog or something after my birthday. :) Should keep my mind off having no career. woohoo!

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Crippled.

I'm a cripple this week. I managed to break my neck... by... well, sleeping as far as I can gather. Well, maybe it's not broken... but it bloody hurts and I've been unable to move it for two days solid. It's amazing how many muscles we use without realising. It's only when you're in intense agony that you realise even the slightest sneeze or twitch uses half the muscles in your neck. I have work tomorrow as well so I hope it's loosened up by then. I do have of course, full sympathy from Niall... who upon witnessing my physical state of cripple-dom ( propped up by two pillows, scarf wrapped tightly roung my neck in bright sunlight, and a travel-neck-support pillow around my head and unable to move) did the obvious thing... and burst out laughing. I got my own back later though when I heard the use of a new acronym on the news.

We've all heard of:

YUPPIE- Young Urban Professional
YUMMIES- Young Upwardly Mobile Mommies
DINKY- Double Income No Kids Yet.

but I hadn't heard of this little gem:

Northern Irish Professional Person Living in England.

That's right... Niall is a NIPPLE.

I laughed SO hard it probably destroyed what little flexibility I still had in my neck... but it was worth it.