My So-Called Life
the random and not-so-random musings of a twenty-something history geek
My So-Called Lifethe random and not-so-random musings of a twenty-something history geek |
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| About Lizzie: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Lizzie is a fully qualified history teacher having finished her course at Canterbury Christ Church University. She's also a geek who was secretary of the University of Kent Computing Society during her three year BA at the University of Kent. She is very much in love with her shiny Husband, though she is sad that he doesn't glow bloo :( More about her on her website: http://carina.org.uk |
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| Nov. 7th, 2008 @ 08:42 pm Milestones | |||
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Firstly I feel I should mention the US election. Yay! Obama won! :D I wanted him to win, and have thrown aside my cynicism for now to become really excited by a politician. A terribly important milestone too - the first black president of the USA :D I hope he could be like Kennedy for my generation. Except for the sleaze. And the Assassination. Definitely don't want those bits. So maybe not like Kennedy, maybe more like staying as awesome as he seems now when he's actually President. The less said about Prop8 in Cali and an organisation I was formerly a member of, the better. Now that's out of the way, two rather important milestones happened to me today. I. I turned 25 sometime around midday today. I suppose I'm now officially on the wrong side of 25 now ;) . I have had a lovely day, and got some lovely presents and cards. Huge thanks to everyone who has wished me a happy birthday so far :) (Various on irc, some via text, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} alisondh and moonhot97 on lj, and a couple via facebook). Thank you all - they were really appreciated.II. My final appointment with Nikki the Mental Health nurse was today, and we talked over some stuff about keeping well, dealing with triggers, preventing relapse and what to be aware of in terms of signs that I might be relapsing. Also lots of stuff about rebuilding trust in myself and my wellness, so one bad day doesn't panic me or those close to me. I'm told this is pretty much the last thing that comes back. I'm feeling pretty positive tonight at least, and I'll be happy if I maintain this level of okayness for a year. If I do, then comes the Big Scary of coming off the pills. But that's in the future. I want to use this space now to thank everyone who has supported me over the last 18 months or so. I couldn't have done it without you guys, whether you are aware of having helped or not. Now the Black Dog is banished to his Kennel. I hope he stays there. So for tonight I'm celebrating two huge milestones for me - being 25 and being discharged from the Mental Health team. Yay! Come celebrate with me :D Drinks on someone else!  |
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| Jul. 7th, 2008 @ 12:10 am Apostrophail | |||
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Mum, Phil, Ben and I went to the Cemetary today to do some general housekeeping on daddy's grave - cleaning the headstone, fresh flowers and stuff while generally remembering him and having a rather nice time. His birthday would have been tomorrow (or today! - 7th July) and even if we only go once a year we generally try and time it around his birthday. Anyway, walking the quarter of a mile or so back from daddy's grave to the main gate Ben spotted this spectacular error in grammar.  As Phil said, you would really think that people would check things are correct before going and actually etching it in to stone. It's not as if gravestones are particularly cheap. |
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| Jul. 5th, 2008 @ 01:42 pm Happy Birthday NHS | |||
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Today the NHS turns 60, and I want to wish it a very happy birthday and wish it well for the next 60. I know there are plenty of problems with it, I am not blinkered enough to say that there could not be improvements, but I believe that it is one of the greatest achievements of this country, especially in the post-World War II period. Here's why. In 1900 (that's only 108 years ago) in this country: * Life expectancy was below 50 years * 163 out of every 1000 babies born died before they reached the age of 1 (that's 16.3%) * The majority of families could not afford to see a doctor The government refused to interfere as the emphasis at this point in time was on a "laissez-faire" country, meaning that things should be left to take their own course. It was believed that interference by the Government would strangle the economy, so generally people were left to sink or swim as they could. During the latter years of the 19th Century, and the early years of the 20th Century many reports began to come out which drew attention to the plight of the poor, which was reinforced by something of a recruitment crisis for the army during the Boer War. Of those who volunteered 35% (over a third) were rejected as medically unfit, generally because of problems related to poverty. This changed in 1906 when the Liberal Party was elected, with David Lloyd George as their Chancellor of the Exchequor, and what followed was a package of reforms that ultimately led to a constitutional crisis. The reforms included the setting up of Old Age Pensions, free school meals (which went quite some way to tackling malnutrition among the poor), slum clearance programmes and Labour Exchanges (see here for more information). The most pertinent reform to what I'm discussing today was the 1911 National Health Insurance act, which brought in various safeguards for those in employment who could afford to contribute to a scheme, which would then pay for them to go see a doctor if ill, and pay a small sum every week if the contributor were unemployed or unable to work. The government paid a sum to the scheme, as did the employer. The limitations of this scheme were numerous. It only covered those able to work, which at this period were mostly men, and even then the only hospitalisation it payed for was sanitorium treatment for TB. It did not cover those earning too little to be able to afford to contribute, children, the elderly, women, and those who were chronically and mentally ill. As a result, many still relied on the quack remedies that they had done before the scheme came in to force. The sad truth was that despite the advances in Medicine that had taken place, most people could not access it. The major problems with NHI showed themselves in the 1930s during the Great Depression when so many were out of work, and so many accounts in arrears (upwards of 4 million) that the companies running the schemes made no profit, which was compounded when the government reduced its contribution. The turning point came with the Second World War. The Government were in possession of some rather terrifying figures about expected casualty rates as a result of any enemy bombing action, which thankfully never came to pass, though the Government did not know this at the start of the war. ( Expected Casualties (because I found this during my dissertation research and I think it's really interesting) ) As a result the Government planned various strategies to deal with the expected casualties (including a stockpile of cardboard coffins). The one relevant to this "History of the NHS", is the Emergency Hospital Scheme, which was funded and run by the Government and was "designed to serve the purpose of a moment" - to look after those injured in the war, especially bombing victims. Under this scheme any treatment needed, including hospitalisation, was free. It was during this period, in 1942, the the Beveridge Report was published which proposed a "free national health service" as a way of combating the five 'Giant Evils' of Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness. The Conservatives, who nominally had the majority in the Commons at this time (though there was actually a "Government of National Unity" in power) refused to commit to putting in place the reforms, which was one of the reasons why they were beaten so comprehensively by the Labour party in the 1945 General Election. One of their first acts when they got in to power was the 1946 National Health Service Act, which provided in law for a free and comprehensive health care system. The first day of this National Health Service was to be 5th July 1948 but there was an enormous amount of work that had to take place before it could start, including the nationalisation of Hospitals, the creation of health centres, the better/fairer distribution of doctors around the country and the creation of a new salary structure. On top of all this work, there was a huge amount of opposition (as with any large and sudden change). Most Local Authorities and Charitable Organisations who had previously run hospitals were opposed, as were doctors, who did not want to be employed by the government, or told where to work. In fact, at the beginning of 1948 90% of doctors said that they would not co-operate with the NHS. There was also opposition from many who were scared by the huge costs involved, but Aneurin Bevan who was Minister for Health at this time argued that Britain could afford it, and had to afford it. Bevan worked extremely hard to ensure the creation of the NHS, and by hook or by crook (he allowed doctors to work for the NHS and keep private patients while getting the public to sign up with doctors for the NHS - if a doctor didn't sign the form, he risked losing the patient [and the funding that came with them] to a doctor who would), made sure that over 90% of doctors had signed up by the opening day. The benefits of the NHS were visible very quickly, especially in those groups which had not been covered until its creation. Maternal and infant mortality levels fell very quickly and life expectancy rose, especially as the new techniques and drugs (such as Penicillin) became available at no cost to people who would have died for want of them. In 2008 we're looking at: * An average life expectancy of 77 years, with more and more living until 100. * An average of 5.2 out of every 1000 babies dying before the age of 1 (0.52%) [figures from 2006] * Everyone can see a doctor, irrespective of whether they can pay What I'm trying to say in an incredibly long winded way is that the NHS may not be perfect, but in comparison to what we have had before it is amazing, and I sometimes think we lose sight of just how brilliant it is amongst all the complaining about the things that are wrong and the compromises that sometimes have to be made. My dad was chronically ill with Type 1 Diabetes most of his life, and we did not have to pay towards his care. His final illness and the two weeks spent in intensive care did not bankrupt us. When my mum hurt her back and she was in bed for 6 weeks her care (a physio, home help twice a day, doctors visits, nurse visits) did not cost us. When my mum was pregnant with me and was kept in hospital for most of those 9 months my parents did not have to check her out because they were worried about the cost, nor did they have to worry about the bill they were getting at the end. When I was ill with depression I did not have to worry about the cost of my prescriptions or my counselling. The times Phil has injured himself we have not had to worry about the bill from the Hospital for getting him checked out. Ben and I have not had to worry that while I've been off work I've been without coverage for my health (or traded electricity/food/rent for insurance coverage). I think there's a lot to be said for that. So Happy Birthday NHS, here's to many many more. ETA: Pretty much 1500 words. I wrote as much as that in some of my degree essays. Sorry guys! |
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| Jan. 4th, 2008 @ 12:55 pm Book a Week Challenge 2008 | |||
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The Chalet Bulletin Board is having a Book a Week challenge for 2008 and I have decided to take part. It would be a personal challenge to read at least one book a week so non-competitive, although I think the titles of the books read should be listed on CBB, along with author and a brief description or opinion if you felt like it. Rules would be: 1) No rereads allowed towards bookcount 2) As long as you have 52 by the end of the year, that is fine. A book a week means on average. As I read them I am also planning on saying at least a little bit here about each one. Perhaps more than a little bit if it takes my fancy :) ( A meme I have stolen from Phil ) Finally, a very happy birthday to my lovely husband, ben ( benc) (who has been featured in the LA Times this week!) |
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| Jan. 1st, 2008 @ 07:54 pm Weighted Companion Cube Cake | |||
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Ever since Portal came out in Mid October last year, my husband benc has been more or less obsessed with Moist Delicious Cake and The Weighted Companion Cube which are both "components" of the game. His Weighted Companion Cube Plushie arrived just before Christmas and he fell in love with it. I decided to make him a cake for his birthday on Friday. I'd been toying with the idea since the game had first come out in October, but with the arrival of the plushie version I had a 3D model I could copy. Today me and my friend rahslowe got down to work and spent the day making a Weighted Companion Cube Cake. First we went shopping for the necessary articles with which to make cake. No mean feat, given today was new years' day and only Sainsbury's was open (Morrisons and Asda being shut) and even Sainsbury's had very little in the way of what we needed. Luckily we just got more expensive stuff and managed to get everything we wanted.  The cake ingredients  and the icing ingredients. First we made two basic sponge cakes. The recipe we used was simple and easily scalable- 1 egg to 2 ounces of everything else. We used three eggs so the quantities were: 3 eggs 6oz Caster Sugar 6oz Butter 6oz Flour We chose to be masochists and mixed the cake by hand, then cooked it in Rah's rectangular Lasagne dish as we felt it was a suitable size. While the first cake was cooling we made the second cake. As the second cake was cooling we began to construct the cube. First we cut the first cake in half and stuck the halves together with Jam (strawberry, but you could use any that took your fancy). We used the second cake to continue the construction, also cutting it in half and sticking all the bits together with strawberry jam. Then we trimmed the sides to a greater or lesser extent to make a cube shape of what was left.  The offcuts.  The naked Companion Cube. While various parts were cooking and cooling we made templates from cardboard to cut into the icing around so we had the right shapes to decorate the cube with.  The templates with the plushie version which we were copying. Next came the really messy bit - making the icing! We used a large box of ready to roll royal icing and icing sugar to act as "flour" and stop the icing from sticking to the work surface. We added black food colouring sparingly to make varying shades of grey and some pink food colouring to make the hearts. These got covered in white icing sugar in the process of colouring and rolling it out, but a pastry brush and water took care of that and restored them to the colours they were supposed to be. To use the templates, just lay them out on top of the icing on your worktop and use a sharp knife to cut around them (much as you would with a pastry cutter). The thin lines of pink were writing icing. The hardest bit was getting the bottom layer of icing the right shade of grey and long and wide enough to cover the entire cube. Then we used water to stick the pieces of icing which had been cut from the templates onto the bottom layer. The consistency when wet was something like wet clay. Eventually it was done, but wet so we left it to dry while we cleared up the terrifying mess we had created. Finally it was more or less dry and looked like this: ( mmm, caek ) Unfortunately we only managed to make half a companion cube out of cake, but we're already making plans for next time, one of which (suggested by Ben) is to make two half cube cakes and serve them one on an orange plate and one on a blue plate. If you have played portal you will get the reference ;) All pictures of the event can be found here. I recommend getting a friend to help you, it would have been much harder without Rah's help. Thanks Rah and Happy Birthday Ben :) [EDIT] Cross posted to my website. How to make a Weighted Companion Cube Cake. |
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| Apr. 2nd, 2007 @ 06:41 am An Announcement | |||
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Happy birthday |
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| Apr. 1st, 2007 @ 07:40 pm Mum's birthday weekend :) | |||
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So after the concert benc and I went back to our hotel, slept for not enough time and then tubed and dlr-d over to Greenwich to meet red_pill for present buying for no1typo's birthday in the market there. We brought the presents with fairly minimal fuss, on budget and having gone nowhere near a high street store (not even a card & paper one!) and took them back to mum's to wrap while Phil showed a mate around the "spooky areas" of Greenwich. When he returned we gave them to mum (fully wrapped by yours truly) and she seemed to like them (see here for details and pictures). In the evening we decided to go to the excellent Chipstead Tandoori and dithered a bit before finally bolting out of the door in a rush at just gone 7 as I had just recieved the awaited intel that the secret guest was supping Cobra there ;) It was, of course a guest appearence by Giles. Bwhahaha. Much loveliness of times was had, curry and company were excellent and we even had Moet & Chandon Champagne, brought by Giles' father as a present :D (was lovely by the way ;)) This morning red_pill and I got up and made mum breakfast as is tradition, and then I took Phil to Purley to go to the LAC (which I'm sure he'll write about), came home and then galvanised people to go to Mogador - the Sportsman pub.We'd been there before two days before our wedding when we just needed to get away and this time we took no1typo for a birthday lunch. We knew the food was good, but we didn't know it was quite as amazing as it was. We had an enormous roast dinner except it wasn't so much food to make you feel you could burst. The portion was just right and the beef melted in the mouth and (so I'm told) the veggies were cooked to perfection. It was all followed by a walk in the nice sunshine across the common :)Finally we headed back to Canterbury, bringing Giles with us :D A lovely time was had by all, even if I do say so myself. Pictures here. |
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| Jan. 15th, 2007 @ 11:32 am Muppet | |||
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I am a muppet and as a result of this I am fed up today. Last week, about Wednesday, my left knee which has been misbehaving for a while swelled up. The Dr gave me some anti inflammitories and I wnet into work on Thursday and it was worse, so I stayed home on Friday and did practically nothing all weekend except sit on the sofa (though there was a great excursion to Espression on Saturday with Rah and Claire to celebrate Claire's birthday). Because of this I got rather restless and when my knee had stayed normal size on Sunday I decided, late in the evening to take something out to the car. At 10pm. My right foot landed awkwardly on a pothole/dropped concrete hole. Over my ankle went. I may have screamed a bit (it hurt) and some people came from across the road to see what was wrong. They restored my faith in humanity - the lady was in her nightclothes! Got Andy to give me a lift to K&C because it hurt so much and was swelling up beautifully. According to the nice nurse at the K&C it's a bad sprain and she would have bandaged it except it was not policy to do that anymore. She sounded pissed off. I would guess the "policy" is due to budget restrictions - luckily I had some tubigrip at home and it's now strapped in one of those. Sue came out and gave us a lift home. I can bear weight, but movement in any direction hurts and I didn't so much sleep last night as doze being woken up lots by me moving my ankle in my sleep. Congratulations if you read all that: The important hilights are that foo^rah, andy^sue, Claire^Ben and my ben (and others!) all rock and I am in ouchy pain at the moment and it's my fault and ben told me so. I'm fed up and off work again. Daytime TV is causing me to lose the will to live. Hopefully back to work tomorrow if only to save my sanity. Finally - Happy birthday claire_tanner! |
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| Jan. 8th, 2007 @ 08:32 am Ben's birthday curry | |||
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So on Saturday night we celebrated ben's birthday at the Ancient Raj with foo, rah, adam, nert, ian, allan and ruth :) The curry was good (as always) and the company was excellent. The live singer was good and we had a lovely time. I told them it was ben's birthday and possibly a sign we go to that particular curry establishment too much was that they played the birthday track, had their entire kitchen staff stand round our table and presented ben with icecream with a firework in it :D Awesome :D  nertThe people at the table next to us (also seeming to be celebrating a birthday seemed to think it was for them and then looked uber annoyed when the candle came past them and to ben. Bwhahahahaha :D |
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| Aug. 26th, 2006 @ 08:09 am A birthday! | |||
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I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge and resounding
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| Apr. 3rd, 2006 @ 03:13 am Because I was busy yesterday with the celebrations: | |||
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A very many happy (belated) returns of the day for no1typo, my mummy, who is now Very Old(tm) ;) We all had a fabulous day and she looked very beautiful :) Ta to everyone who made it special for her! :D |
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| Mar. 25th, 2006 @ 12:38 pm An Announcement | |||
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Mostly feeling:
A very happy birthday to a very special person who made me very happy and cry at the same time yesterday. telehouse-yNow Playing: Barenaked Ladies: The Old Appartment Congratulations on making the grand old age of 22 bethanthepurple! :D*bounces for joy* |
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| Jan. 4th, 2006 @ 06:44 am Wheeeeeeee :D | |||
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Mostly feeling:
Happy birthday to my wonderful husband Ben :D excitedNow Playing: ER *dances* |
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| Nov. 7th, 2005 @ 11:30 pm *yawn* | ||||||
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Mostly feeling:
Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday today :D sleepyNow Playing: BNL: If I had a million dollars I would like to take this opportunity to introduce WA1, a 4k word essay due Wednesday - you will be seeing a lot more of this guy ;)
*yawns* Looks like an all nighter for tomorrow then... |
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| Nov. 6th, 2005 @ 10:23 am Oops ;) | |||
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Mostly feeling:
I meant to say a very happy birthday to  cheerfulNow Playing: ben snoring ;) greenfurrymoose for yesterday :)In other news, off to Cafe de China in a bit :D Lots of people are around for my birthday weekend...Only concern is that tomorrow may be a bit of an anticlimax ;) I have some lovely presents :D I'm feeling really good so far :D Lots of books and DVDs plus my watch and some smellies and two bears from Build a Bear Workshop - will post piccies later :D Their names are Tyler and Steve :D Fireworks last night were absoltely amazing, though two things happened to make me worry about the state of parenting. The first was when I and the Monkeys took a child no older than four over to the radio/st john ambulance tent because she had become seperated from her parents. It took us a good 5 mins to get her there and yet the first announcement wasn't that someone had lost a child, it was that a child had been found matching this description. How could the parents have not noticed in 5 mins that this child had wandered off?! The second was when a parent yelled at their kids for being scared of the fire and the fireworks. You don't yell, you make them feel safe and explain there's nothing to be afraid of. Anyway, a good evening was had :D Also, this lappy rocks. If anyone is looking for a cheap laptop with a dvd writer I reccomend a thinkpad r50e. You can get one from staples (in Wincheap) for only £399 *total* MMmmmmmshiny :D *bounces* |
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| Nov. 4th, 2005 @ 07:40 pm Squeeeeeeeeeee! (geeking) | |||
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Mostly feeling:
I now have a Shiny Toy (tm) geekyNow Playing: Nip/Tuck It's an IBM Thinkpad R50e. Yum :D Ben has fireworks. I am 22 on Monday and my friends and family will be here for me and fireworks. So happy and bouncy. WHeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :D *Installs OSes on new lappy* |
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| Oct. 31st, 2005 @ 09:10 pm Birfdae fings | |||
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Mostly feeling:
Well a week today I turn 22 :O A present from Liz arrived today to be opened Saturday when she is around. gratefulBen gave me my birthday presents today because I needed one of them. He has given me the most beautiful watch which has mother of perl inlaid into the face. It's so beautiful and so me and I didn't even show him what kind of watch I wanted. I married a man with good taste :D I also got a voucher for the build a bear workshop. WIN :D *bounces around* My Solaris open source tshirt arrived today (finally) having taken six weeks to reach me - it went through US customs on the 17th September. Not a bad end to the day, even if I didn't get home till 7:45pm tonight. Finally, given that this post is about my birthday I'm going to finish up by pimping shamelessly my amazon wishlist. SHAMELESSLY I TELLS YA! Rar. |
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| Oct. 14th, 2005 @ 06:49 am announcement | |||
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Mostly feeling:
Happy Birthday Arcy :D See you at 22 in a few weeks ;) jubilantNow Playing: aragorn's fan noise *hugggggggggggggggggle* :) |
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| Sep. 21st, 2005 @ 12:17 am Birthday call | |||
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Happy 21st Mike :) Have a drink on me - a starbucks :P jubilantNow Playing: Channel4 Here's to many more bifdaes :) |
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| Apr. 2nd, 2005 @ 11:43 pm Mum's birthday | |||
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Mostly feeling:
Had a lovely day in Alfriston - piccies (all 100+ of them) here. jubilant( Group piccie! ) More details tomorrow - bed now! :D |
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| Jan. 4th, 2005 @ 11:31 am Mwhahahahaha | |||
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Mostly feeling:
Today I have achieved the dream of every myopic... bouncyNow Playing: Once Upon a December My eyes have started to get better :D My last eyetest brought up the following results: Right Eye sph: -2.25 cyl: -1.25 axis: 15 Left Eye sph: -3.00 cyl: -1.50 axis: 180 This eyetest the results were: Right Eye sph: -1.75 cyl: -1.25 axis: 17 Left Eye sph: -2.50 cyl: -1.75 axis: 4 My astigmatism in my right eye got slightly worse though :( But overall I've improved :D Which is why I've been having headaches in the evening cos according to the optician when my eyes get tired they're less able to compensate for the over correction. So when my loan is through it's new glasses for me... :) In other news I have a new LJ icon - this pic :) Oh.. and it's my other half's ( benc) birthday today.
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| Dec. 2nd, 2004 @ 07:11 am Female Hygene Products | |||
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Mostly feeling:
I was in the shower this morning, shaving my armpits (TMI? ;)) when I started thinking about how much my razor had cost. It was a new razor, brought last night cos I couldn't be bothered to immac them (far too much like hard work). It cost me £5.49. I also looked at new blades while I was there. A pack of 5 for £5.11. With a new razor, I thought, you get 4 new blades plus a shiny new razor, so what is the point of paying 30p or so less for just the blades? Why?! Why aaare ladies blades so much more expensive than mens? For that matter, I thought, starting on another area of my rant, why do I have to pay a company that already has more than enough money for the priviledge of not bleeding everywhere once a month in a biological process I have no choice about? Grrrrr. chipperAnother tenet to this is about glasses companies taking advantage of my short sight to charge me £50 for a pair of prescription sunglasses when if I had normal sight I could just pay a fiver in boots or tesco. It's not fair >.< Sometimes I feel so taken advantage of :( Here endeth the rant of non-cohesiveness. Hopefully at least the ladies who read this will know what I'm on about ;) P.S. Happy birfday tiggsiwooooosle :) |
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| Nov. 8th, 2004 @ 10:26 am A Birthday and an Update! | |||
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Mostly feeling:
SO..as of Yesterday I am now cheerfulNow Playing: Phantom of the Opera: Why Have You Brought Me Here? 21O.oVery odd. Am now *old* ;) Firstly I would like to thank everyone who wished me a happy birthday on IRC, LiveJournal, in Person, with cards etc. They were all muchos appreciated :D I got lots and lots of cava, and other such nice things. Got a beautiful necklace from my mummy, chosen with the help of metamoof. The stones are (left to right, top to bottom) Peridote, Iolite, Blue Topaz, Garnet, Perl, Amethyst, Citrine, Iolite and Blue Topaz.
From my brother I got some beautiful blue topaz earrings (again brought
in Spain and transported to the UK by the everlovely metamoof), and lots and lots of cava from various people
(J and Beffan) :D. Ben brought me a ticket to see the barenaked ladies
in London on the first weekend in december and a usb christmas tree O.o
From foo and rah I got some excellent little presents (4 - one a day
till my birthday). I got a flannel that expands on contact with water,
a little refillable sqishy shower gel thing, bath confetti and a cat
soap that grows fur! I also recieved the traditional
gift of money from quite a few rellies. I have decided that, despite my
yucky financial situation to keep the money for me this year. It's my
21st and I want to have things for me. I know this is reckless given my
lack of funds (slightly lifted now - loan was finally paid in Thursday)
but I will only ever have one 21st Birthday, so I am going to be
selfish.I have roughly £120 and am leaning towards a new piece of computer hardware and some books. What I'm thinking about getting is a fairly cheap (less than £60) DVD writer. Then the rest of the money can go on books. MMmmm Shiny. Reccommendations and opinions re. DVD writers appreciated :) Birthday stuff spread out over the weekend, which was weird and left Sunday (my actual birthday) feeling rather anticlimatic, but I still had a nice time. Friday was all you can eat at cafe de china. Was lovely. Pork Dumplings are *excellent* :D Saturday was lunch at fish and chip place in Whitstable then Fireworks at tyler hill (sooooo cool :D) and soup back at mine afterwards. I even got a birthday message over the PA at the fireworks (the kids wouldn't stop talking about it this morning ;)) I also went on teacups :D Yesterday ben and I had lunch at the Jackdaw in Denton again, followed by a to Kent International Airport at Manston (a former RAF base) which feels seedy (like an airport in the middle of nowhere in the US which recieves one flight a day ;)), has no road signs pointing to the places you need to know about and charges you 60p for a small chocolate bar. The only upside is that we didn't get charged for parking (machines were being spacky). We got a beffan who had been staying with Moof and had much laughs and had a macdonalds dinner. A busy, fun weekend :) In other news I've taken up knitting again (those who have known me for a while know I go through this phase once every couple of years and do it badly before getting bored and dropping it after two weeks). Things are going better and for the time being I'm trying to make a scarf. Knitting is good anti-irc therapy cos it keeps my fingers busy and not missing a keyboard. I also have chosen the pattern for my bridesmaids dresses (thanks to rahslowe). Now I just need to order it.
Found out I cant sing in choir concert this term cos it's teh same day
as Ben and Claire's wedding. I love singing but I'd much rather be at
the Tanner's special day.For of those of you who know about last year and are wondering about my mental health I'm still quite up and down - more up than down now, but I still have some bad days, usually triggered by a situation I can't deal with. Ben is very supportive and I'm definately beating this thing. One of my worst problems now is getting frustrated with myself that I'm not completely better now, I thought it would just go away when I was removed from the situation, which is not the case as those of you who have been ill with this will testify to. At least now I'm mostly up and hopefully with the help of my councellor I will beat it for good soon :) Busy week coming up - two essays to research and write, a letter to write about volunteering in sue's school and I'm sure there's other stuff I meant to do. There are certainly some difficult decisions coming up. We'll just have to see what happens. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee......splat? [edit] This would appear to have been a proper update o.o |
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| Oct. 29th, 2004 @ 09:32 am The only update I shall make about my impending old-ness before my birthday | |||
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Mostly feeling:
It's my birthday in a week and two days and I shall be 21. Most of you don't care, but for those that do and don't know what to get me and wish to cheat (:P) this is my wishlist on amazon. geekyNow Playing: 10 Things Soundtrack: Weakness In Me In other news it was the kids half term this week and I feel very rested from lie ins. Went to interesting Open Lecture about WW1 troop equipment yesterday, couldn't afford to go meet darren and kat :( Ended up watching anti-trust. Ben called me a geek cos of the comments I made while watching it. Still is a cool movie :) La la la la *bounce* *splat* |
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| Oct. 19th, 2004 @ 06:58 am Weekend | |||
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Mostly feeling:
An odd weekend all in all, but good fun :) peacefulNow Playing: Berlin: Take My Breath Away Saturday started very very early as ben had to be on campus for 8am because Library power had to go off for maintainance and so all the kit in the machine room had to go off too. So he went and did that, then we had coffee from Starbucks while Estates played around with the power before coming back so ben could switch all the kit back on again. Then we gathered bits and off I drove to London where I went to see Telehouse cos ben had some work to do there. I must admit it was very very shiny, but this wore off after about 10 mins and then it was just boring ;) Met some ANL people, which was quite jibbly and found their attitudes to me really good. Found people listening to my opinion on something and taking my comments on board and *that* was very cool. Anyway, after breaking some stuff (and 6 hours there) ben and I departed to have dinner with my mum and brother and *what* a dinner that was :D We had 3 courses, including Serrano ham for a first course! I haven't found anywhere in canterbury that sells this precious material :D Biiiiiiiiiig Chicken pie for main course and yumyums for dessert. It was unfortunate that we couldn't stay longer :| I like home visits. Sunday was ben's parents where we ate yummy spag bol and chatted and had a generally nice time. I got my birthday pressies from them cos I won't be seeing them again till after my birthday. I got 21 presents and £21. I can see a theme here ;) Lots of chocolate and nice smellies and a really cool book with piccies of Britain in the World War Two. Only downside to ben's parents is their cats who are great but have such fine fur that it irritates my chest and nose, so antihistamines are always needed when we visit ;) Hrm...I think that's about it. My life very boring ;) Ooh - quick plug. The Comspoc website is actually back up with new content! :D Must get dressed now and go to work...(much babysitting tonight :)) |
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accomplished
fed up
