Happy Hogswatch

Well, it's finally here. 'Twas the Friday before Xmas and all through the town people were going "Oh b*llocks! I forgot to buy sprouts!" Not me though, partly cos I don't like sprouts and partly because I've tasked Annabel to get them. She's the one that likes sprouts anyway. As long as she remembers the parsnips I'll be happy. I have to go buy toothpaste, loo roll, deodorant, all that kind of stuff. What a time to run out! Cameron Toll here I come I guess. Bah. And humbug too.

I got my tree up last Friday, with the help of Naomi. Thank goodness she came round, I don't think I could have mustered the enthusiasm myself but the results do cheer me up (see rather blurry photo) I really wanted blue fairy lights but they're too expensive just now. I'll just have to wait a year or two until they're totally unhip and then I'll get myself some. The multi-coloured ones are pretty though (£1.99 from Edinburgh Bargain Stores. Viva la Bargain Store!) and I have pink baubles and tinsel so it's sufficiently Marjified.

In a little over 50 minutes I'll be clearing out of the office ne'er to return... until the 4th of January anyway. Hoorah! This is the first job I've ever had where you actually can't work between Xmas and New Year, they shut the whole Uni down and I love it. I'm looking forward to having nothing to do, except I will have things to do. Dang! The best laid plans of mice and Marj, as they say.

Well, I must say 2006 has been interesting. It started well, was going pretty fine and dandy up until the Autumn but, unfortunately, since then it's gone a bit pear shaped. I'm now waiting to see the back of 2006 now and am actually looking forward to dreary, horrible mid-January because it will be over and done and gone. There'll be a whole slew of new rubbish to deal with then but it'll be different rubbish so it should at least not be as boring. Hah, and if it all gets too much I can escape to fabulous Guildford to visit Zoe and Matthew. I get to all the exotic locations, me.

Right so. Let's get on with it. Katie's insisted we play the Xmas CD one more time before we leave so Noddy bloody Holder is telling me, as if I didn't know, it's Chriiiiisstmaaaaaaas!

Piss off Noddy.

My Magnificent Octopus!

I've just been reading "The Other Side of the Story" by Marian Keyes. I woke up early on Sunday and decided to stay in bed and read for a bit (you need a pure, unadulterated chick lit binge once in a while and it's not fattening so it must do you good...) Just over 28 hours and 452 pagers later I'm sure, in some way I can't quite define, that she's written the novel I was going to write. Or rather, she writes the novels I'd write if I ever got off my ass and did it. Dammit!!

This novel has 3 main characters and little bits of each of them seem uncomfortably familiar. Maybe this is the secret of Ms Keyes' success? Zoe read the book before me and said she identified with the "Aargh! No clean clothes to wear. Rummage in wardrobe. Find shirt with stains - Oh well, won't take off jacket all day" aspect of one of the characters. Who hasn't done that though? I think I like the ball-busting literary agent Jojo the most of the three, despite her being American, but that's possibly because she's a curvy redhead and has the best shoes. I have other reasons for identifying with her the most as well so I really hope it all turns out nice in the end. Of course it will! It looks like the kind of book where you're guaranteed a satisfactory ending and the qoutation on the jacket says the book will "... make you bubble up with happiness inside." Oh fingers crossed it all turns out well. If I don't bubble up with happiness I may demand my money back. Oh hang on, I nicked the book from the big pile in my boss' office. Dang!

You're doomed...

So, I'm not usually a superstitious person but just recently I've suspected that the universe has it in for me. I'm the sort of person that won't walk under ladders because I'm afraid some fat builder is going to fall on my head but I'm sure I've broken a mirror before with no noticeable downturn in fortune, I open umbrellas indoors and I quite often put shoes on the bed (and the table - I can't remember which one is bad). I heard a new one last week though. I got a 2007 calendar from the procurement office and thinking 'Oh, how handy!' I stuck it up in the office. May, my colleague, was horrified because apparently this is bad luck. I've never heard this particular one though and scoffed at her warnings. Moreover, 20 minutes later I used the thing to check a date and thus reasoned that if it was fulfilling its purpose in life then how could it possibly bring misfortune?

Well, since then I've had a catalogue of woe and am worried that this time I may have got myself well and truly cursed. Dang!

I woke up in the middle of another power cut on Saturday. It was annoying but no big deal to me at that point. I couldn't shower so couldn't possibly leave the house and go Xmas shopping. I was able to make coffee and a bacon sandwich though so it wasn't all bad. I settled down on the couch, under a duvet, and spent most of the afternoon reading. When the power came back on the boiler was f*cked though. I have to admit I wept bitter tears of frustration at this point. I'd only had the gas man out about 3 weeks previously to fix the damn thing at a cost of £80-odd pounds and didn't fancy calling him out again. I even went to far as taking the thing to bits to see if I could change the fuse in it. This was all to no avail, it was still not working. I was absolutely gutted and retreated, muttering, back under the duvet.

A little later I had to emerge to get ready for dinner at the Duffs' house. I wasn't in the most sociable mood so was not particularly enthused about going, the alternative was sitting in a stone-cold flat feeling sorry for myself though so I thought I may as well inflict myself on my friends. That's what they're for after all. I thought I'd give the boiler one last try, in the hope that the fairies had fixed it. Well, blow me, they had done. The boiler came on when I turned the power on and when I put the heating on that glorious 'woof' sound of the pilot igniting filled my ears. I love that sound now, it's right up there with the pop of a cork coming out of a wine bottle for some of my favourite noises.

Now the hot water doesn't work though. Bah!

I went to the movies on Sunday and saw one of the worst films I've seen in a long time. Admittedly, it was a bit of a gamble but it could have been so bad it was good. No, The Covenant is a big pile of steaming doo-doo I'm afraid. The bad guy and the good guy both look the same and all the important plot is divulged by the 2 teenage girls while sitting about in their neglegiggles. I didn't think I had to pay attention to girls in their undies! What's the big idea of having them relate plot?? Nobody's going to listen! Pah!

When I got in on Sunday evening the bulb in the kitchen blew. I thought that taking down the calendar might negate the evil influence so I took it down as soon as I got into work on Monday. That didn't help though. I managed to break my coffee mug while washing up after lunch. Waily! I really liked that mug, it was big but elegant. Sigh. Things have been quite quiet the last couple of days though so maybe that was my final warning from the universe?

I bought a 2007 diary the other day and now I'm scared to put any entries in for next year in case this is bad luck too. Bah.

Bah Humbug!

Ugh. I came in to work on the 1st of December and May made us put up the Christmas decorations. There's a distinct lack of tinsel and glitter around my desk area by the way. The most Christmassy thing on my desk is a clementine, and I can't even be bothered eating that! Then she made us listen to Christmas songs today because it's Kirsty the temp's last day. I also had the misfortune to hear the new Cliff Richard song on the radio this morning. Waaargh! When will it all be over?? There's weeks of this still to go :o(

Bad Friend or Just Sneaky?

So, I bought Bruce Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman for his birthday (which is in 2 days) but I've started reading it. I'm trying really hard not to bend the spine. Does this make me a bad friend for giving him a sort of 2nd hand gift or a really good friend for buying him Neil Gaiman? I'm inclined to go with the 2nd one, and I'm sure Neil Gaiman would back me up!

(Addendum - having thought about it Mr Gaiman would probably say "Buy a second copy you cheapskate!" He does, after all, have all those cats to feed.)

Oh, it's so gooooooooooooood! I can't wait to see the movie version of Stardust :o)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486655/

Bloody Claire Daines and Sienna Miller though. Yeuch!!!

Hang on though... Adam Buxton?? Of Adam and Joe? Dexter Fletcher?? It get's curiouser and curiouser....