DIY because no one else will

Yesterday I continued the revamp of the interior of my flat but don’t get any ideas of granduer, it’s not posh at all. I decided that the excuses regarding my writing situation had to stop. I have been fussing (mostly to myself) that:

* Working on the dining room table is frustrating as everything has to be packed away to eat on it
* When I have written a section that then needs editing I have no printer at home and I just find it hard to edit on screen
* Everything around me is in such disarray it is distracting

So all of these are easily solved by buying stuff. So yesterday I went out and bought a printer, a desk, and a new filing cabinet. I then spent a few hours assembling the latter two items. Voila - a nice work area. I do need a good work chair with next month’s pay before I throw my back out (more) but I am satisfied with the current situation. Managed to do quite a bit today too. HURRAH!

One issue - the new printer appears to have a pdf phobia and I am not sure how to cure it. It likes everything else but appears to deny the existence of any pdf I throw its way. Odd.

Michael arrives in three days - so many reasons to be in a good mood.

Tea-ing off

My tea arrived today, and my blackcurrant jaffa cakes. Had the dilema of trying to decide which of the new teas to try first, wanted a cup of each but that would have been excessive, not to mention necessitated more mugs than I have in my office. As of right now I can tell you the black tea with vanilla and coconut is divine. The other boxes smell good but will have to wait, yes ladies and gentlemen I have been sniffing tea boxes. My officemates think it is funny to be this excited by tea.

The jaffa cakes are not bad, I do think orange is better but blackcurrant is not bad. They should be called currant cakes or something though as the jaffa does not hold true.

All change

In acknowledgement of the fact that I am turning to knitting as my retreat from dissertation writing (and frequently instead of dissertation writing), I decided to do something else in the hour break I gave myself just now. I rearranged the furniture in my living room. Those of you who have visited will appreciate how difficult that is, there is not a whole lot of scope for different furniture arrangements in my small living room. I like it - it’s cosier. Plus it was exercise moving stuff around and now I feel invigorated. Fun! A change is as good as a break!

Thumbs up!

Today I have entered a new world - the world of MITTENS! Turns out that opposable thumbs make life more difficult in some situations - despite being helpful in so many others. However, I have triumphed over all my troubles and here are my new babies:



The funky pink stripe matches the hat I made for myself a while back. I can be all matchy-matchy. Ooh the excitement. I like mittens.

Breeding program

Unbeknownst (that’s a great word) to me - all my stuff has been breeding behind my back. Surely I cannot be responsible for bringing all of these things into my flat? It is quite clearly impossible. There must be a conspiracy going on. I don’t know how stuff multiplies, but it does appear there is a correlation between how useless it is and how much room it takes up - the less I need it, the more of it there is. Weird.

I am trying to counteract the crazy goings on with many rubbish bags and a vigilant attitude. I shall win this war, though the fight may continue for many years to come. I will stay strong.

I do confess that the extra wool products that entered the flat yesterday are entirely my doing, although they were donated by the nice people I celebrated Thanksgiving with. It appears they have a wool problem too and what better way to solve it than by passing it on to someone else. I may be making the biggest blanket ever at this rate. I like squares though. If anyone wants any squares knitted I am the girl for the job. I also do a nice sideline in hats.

I think I have had too much for the day and should retire to bed. Feeling rather alert though - maybe some sudoku will send me on my way to bedfordshire. Those sudoku books are quite adept at survival - they saw they were threatened earlier by the rubbish bag of death and now they are beckoning me back under their spell.

Writing my dissertation is quite clearly driving me mad.

wHAT the heck?

Well the shoulder situation has impeded my knitting the last few days but I have finally finished hat number… five actually. Two have been gifted to others before making it into blogdom. I should rename my blog something clever to do with hats, I am relatively low in such inspiration though - as the title of today’s blog testaments! Well Beetle, this hat is for you, I hope the red is about the right colour.



And now it is time for bed. Tomorrow is thanksgiving, not a holiday I grew up celebrating but any day off work is as good as any other to me (and any day with roast turkey and the yummy stuff that comes with it is fine by me). So Happy Thanksgiving to all who read this, I give thanks for all of your friendships a lot (corny but true).

The cold shoulder

Went to see the shoulder specialist today - a whopping 6 weeks since I had the MRI, but we had conflicting schedules and I got the flu during my last appointment (well not during the appointment but it prevented me from going if you see what I mean). Well the rotator cuff is fine so the pain in the shoulder remains a mystery. I got a cortisone shot with some anaesthetic in it, the whole process involved a rather large needle. However, luckily the needle pain relationship is not a proportional one and it was surprisingly OK. The shoulder hurts more now but I think it is just looking for sympathy and it will be fine when it realises it has high hopes that are unattainable - either that or it heard the Dr say ‘endoscope’ and is rather nervous it may have to go through that.

On a side note - I rather like the word endoscope, it had a certain ring to it. Endoscope, endoscope, end-o-scope, end….o….scope. Ahhhhhhh.