On Top of the World

Why is it that when you want to say how happy you are about something, you can use adjectives such as ‘awfully’, or ‘frightfully’, or ‘terribly’ to mean very? How can you be ‘awfully pleased’, ‘frightfully keen’ or ‘terribly excited’?

English doesn’t make any sense.

Thanks to JustAgirl, Kunaal and Zia for saying nice things about my new template I still like the old one, but I was finding lately that when I went to other people’s blogs, which were often nice and colourful, and then went back to mine, the colours were a bit dull and depressing. So I thought I’d try to add a splash of colour. I’m going through an orange phase at the moment - it’s my favourite colour for now. Go onny (I used to call orange ‘onny’ when I was little)!

It’s now 2 sets all - one more set to go!

Update: Cuba won the last set 15-13 - yeah!!

I’m currently watching the women’s indoor volleyball - Cuba vs China. I’m hoping Cuba will win (I don’t know why - I think just because they were doing really well when I flicked the channel over), but I have a feeling they won’t. They were doing so well in the second set, but they’ve suddenly gone downhill. Still, there’s plenty of time for them to make a comeback. They’re down 2 sets to 1 at the moment.

Volleyball is a cool sport. I played for 4 years at school, and a little bit at uni, so it’s getting on for 10 years since I last played. I’ve been wanting to start playing again, but haven’t been able to find anywhere other than league clubs, which would be way above my skill level (if I even have any skills any more). I want to start at the bottom and work my way up - I would be so disheartened if I turned up somewhere and they’re all brilliant. I did a bit of searching for social volleyball in my area, and I found what sounds like the perfect thing - 1 hour of coaching and a 1 hour game once a week. The only problem is that it’s on Thursdays, which is when I have tafe. Bugger bugger bugger. If I remember, maybe I’ll go along during my next holidays. I figure that if I’m the worst one there, at least I’ll get some coaching first! I can always sit out the game part if I feel too inadequate

My computer is stuffed. I’ve been having problems for a while now, and it’s driving me crazy. I’m umming and aahing about getting a laptop, but I’m not sure. The big thing that getting a laptop has going for it is that I can get it via salary sacrifice, which will mean that I end up paying a lot less for it than I would if I bought it myself. The same benefits don’t apply to a desktop, though, so a laptop would definitely represent a better deal. I’m not overly fond of laptops, but I’m sure I’d get used to it. And there’d be a lot more room on my desk!

Mmmm shiny new computer…

I survived my first day back at work today (if you’re reading this, Rich - shut up! I mean that in the nicest possible way of course ). My current plan is to win the lottery so I don’t have to go back.

I was used to being on holidays!

We made a chicken and mushroom risotto for tea tonight. I’d never made risotto before, but this turned out to be pretty kick arse, if I do say so myself! Definitely good for a first attempt. The recipe said 2 cups of rice, and bloody hell, did we end up with a shitload of risotto! We’ll be eating it for the next week.

I’ve been watching the Olympics, and the guy behind the desk who says what we’re going to be watching next said something like ‘and we’ll be back after the break to check on the cycling race’, and then immediately puts his head down and starts writing something. What the hell could he possibly have to write?

That’s the same with all newsreaders - they’ve got the obligatory papers on the desk, and a pen in their hand that they twiddle around every now and then while they’re talking, and when they go to a break or finish the show, they shuffle the papers around and indulge in some humourous banter with their co-reader (or someone off-camera if they’re on their own).

What tools - they read it all off the autocue anyway! What’s the deal with the pens and paper?

Do you think it’s weird how you can listen to a song that you haven’t heard for ages, and the lyrics just come back to you, and even the improvisations that the artist does?

I haven’t had any speakers for my computer for ages - the last ones I had were pretty crappy, and died long ago. I found my headphones today when I was doing some cleaning out, and I’ve been listening to some music that I haven’t heard for over a year, and I can still remember all the words and everything. I was just wondering what part of my brain all those lyrics and improvisations are stored in that I can recall them over a year later? Probably the same place that all the other useless information I have is stored in!

The bad news:
It’s the last proper day of our holidays (weekends don’t count since everyone has the day off then!), and it’s been pissing down so we can’t go out and enjoy it.

The good news:
The bird poo has been washed off my car!

It looks like the tiredness bug is going around at the moment, because today I feel like a zombie. I had the worst night’s sleep last night. I can’t remember the last time I slept so poorly.

I was web surfing last night, and M was having a look at a monitor that was having problems. I heard a loud bang, and then my computer died. When I looked over, M was sitting back on the floor, looking at the multimeter he’d been using. A small puff of smoke was coming from the monitor. So ended last night’s internet adventure.

We turned the power back on and went to bed. We’d had the electric blankets on for a couple of hours, so the bed was quite warm. As usual, I turned my side off, and assumed the bed would cool down fairly quickly the way it normally does, but it didn’t last night. I was cooking! I had my arms on top of the covers, but I could just not cool down. Then I heard a scratching sound, and I assumed my cat was clawing something. I tried to ignore it, but I couldn’t. I got up a couple of times to try to see what he was doing, but of course by the time I got there he’d stopped. Plus it was pitch black so I didn’t even know where to look. The sound didn’t stop, though, so I went downstairs to make sure they had enough food etc, since when they’re hungry they usually make noise to let us know they’re not happy. They had plenty of food, so I went back to bed.

I couldn’t fall asleep, though, because I was just waiting for the scratching to start up again, which it did. It was 5:00 by then, and I’d only had a couple of hours’ sleep, if that. I got up again and sat in the study with my cat, hoping somehow that he’d settle down and shut the hell up, when I heard the scratching sound again. So it wasn’t my cat after all - as it turned out, M’s cat was shut in the spare room. So I let her out, and went back to bed, knowing that the cat noises would be done.

I eventually got back to sleep, but we were woken at 8:15 by a phone call telling us when the gas guy was coming to look at our heater. We got up about 45 minutes later, since we didn’t want to be asleep when they rocked up. M hardly slept last night either, so we’re both feeling stuffed.

I’ve had two cups of coffee and my head still feels as though it’s full of cotton wool. Early night tonight!