Wednesday 31 January 2007

one step forwards....

... six steps back. oh dear. insomnia last night - I did go to bed, but no sleep - I fell asleep at about 6.30. Plan was that I'd still get up with the alarm and then just feel rubbish all day before sleeping tonight.

what actually happened is that I slept through my alarm and woke up about 10 mins ago...

ok... so the sleeping thing hasn't happened...

Tuesday 30 January 2007

also, for the girls...

... don't know if anyone saw the new pics of Daniel Radcliffe, but yum... (and yes, I know he's only 17...)

not such a bad day after all...

... I managed to get up at 9.30ish, which is an hour later than ordered, but still better then recent times. A large cup of coffee or 3 saw me through the morning and I managed to re-arrange most of my books which was the plan. Task for tomorrow is to start to sort out the contents of the office, and to throw away lots of crap!

off to bed now - have just watched The Commitments on Film4 and merrily sung along to all the tunes (only the backing-singer bits - I was suddenly 14 years old again, singing along to the soundtrack into hairbrushes in Jane's bedroom).

I also heard back about my incapacity benefit - they said yes, which is good, but it's only £59 a week, and my rent is well over twice that... must get better soon, as an actual income is needed!

hopefully some sleep now - am meeting M&D for an early dinner tomorrow and I need to stay awake throughout the day (my doctor has prohibited naps - how uncivilised!).

Monday 29 January 2007

Woo Yay!

My liver is nearly working properly! Got test results back this morning, and although my liver function scores aren't right yet, they're massively improved from the start of year (one of them had halved!). I'm still not allowed to drink any alcohol, or take any mulitvits, but I don't have to have another test now for a month!

For the insomnia, I've been given some Temazepan, but only 3 tablets as they're really addictive - my doctor said that I probably had enough medical problems already and that adding sleeping tablet addiction was not such a good idea. On the down side, I've been told that to fix my bodyclock and get rid of the insomnia, I have to set my alarm for 8am every day... even if I didn't get to sleep until 4am or 5am... I've got to do that for the rest of the week before I'm allowed to take a temazepan!

I've also paid my tax which is good, as the deadline is Wednesday, and I didn't really want to be paying interest on it - so thanks to Mum for hassling me until I arranged to go the bank to pay it!

I'm going to spend the rest of the day trying not to sleep (I didn't get any sleep last night at all), and will hopefully be passing out with lovely exhaustion at some point this evening!

Sunday 28 January 2007

grrrr.... and ouch...

... after sleeping on Friday (literally - went to sleep at about 3am, woke up at 8pm and then went back to bed just after midnight) I woke up on Saturday at 9.30am feeling great - the first time this has happened since... maybe September ?

the sun was shining, all was good in the world and I wanted to do something. I went into the office and decided that it was time to sort it out. I dismantled one of the desks, cleaned the whole room (including hoovering - well everything!) and rearranged it all. The exercise bike now has a space of its own and there is an extra bookcase in the hallway - all very nice! I listened to Radio4 all day and ate healthily.

I spent the evening watching TV and went to bed at about midnight - all in all a good day...

... today - urggg. I managed to get up at about 3.30pm - feel rubbish, everything aches, have a headache, feel sick, covered in bruises (from walking into things yesterday), tired, glands hurting in places I didn't know I had glands... all my own fault - I've done that "overdoing it" thing. bugger.

oh well - at least I have a lovely, presentable office!

Thursday 25 January 2007

insomnia and batteries...

... oh dear - insomnia again tonight. I thought it wasn't that bad as although I hadn't been to sleep, it was only 4.15am. I then noticed that the batteries on the clock had died and it's actually 7am... not fair.

I'm going to have to sleep through the day if I can as I'm going to the theatre tonight with the girls - Anthony and Cleopatra with Patrick Stewart! That should be enough excitement to ensure that I actually sleep afterwards.

I might do some household chores now, as I don't think that lying down is working at the moment...

Wednesday 24 January 2007

snow!

hey - it's snowing! don't know why, but going outside when it's snowing always makes me feel like a 5 year old (even if it's only going onto the balcony) - Woo Yay!

bed now I think.

i hate insomnia...

... just wanted to share that.

Monday 22 January 2007

184% baby!

new rule

must not combine diet coke and civ2 after 10pm... will go to bed soon - just have to crush those pesky Indians...

Sunday 21 January 2007

Bruce Schneier expects the Spanish Inquisition...

... a great site of Bruce Schneier facts, have been laughing for last 15 mins or so!

Saturday 20 January 2007

well, all in all, a productive saturday...

... have made bed, tidied bedroom, washed-up, made a yummy omelet-type thingy and now playing civ2 whilst watching Dancing on Ice!

helpful help centres - who'd have thunk it?

half an hour ago I realised that my I still hadn't done anything about my broadband which was due to run out on Monday evening - not good.

I also had to change the name on the account from Adam to me and downgrade from business to residential. I guessed that there was nothing I could do until Monday morning, but went to the website on the offchance.

the name change was easy - just log in and change everything. I guessed the really difficult bit was going to be the downgrade on the account and getting it done by Monday. After 15 mins of looking around the site and not finding what I needed, I thought it was worth trying the customer help centre.

now I know there is no way that they're going to be open at 1.15am on a Saturday morning, but what the heck, it was worth a call... they picked up on the second ring!

I explained the situation. The guy talked me through which new account I wanted, directed me to where I could email them the request and told me what to put in the text of the email. When I asked about any fees for the account change, he told me I'd have a "downgrade fee" of £29.99 plus vat. I asked if this was negotiable and he immediately offered to reduce it to £14.99! He then told me to add this into the text of the email and asked me to send it in. He confirmed that he could see the request in and would action in there and then!

on Tuesday morning, I have to reset my router and all should be well.

I can't quite believe it - not only was there a guy sitting in a UK call centre gone midnight on a Friday, but he was pleasant, knowledgeable and helpful... don't know what the world is coming to!

btw, company was Force9 - same price as NTL et al, but on the basis of the above, I definitely recommend - their website is here.

Friday 19 January 2007

if you're feeling sorry for yourself...

... then think of the poor guys who made the film Zyzzyx Rd. They're having a bad week according to The Week , their $20m indie film took just £15.22 in the box office - and two of those tickets were sold to members of the crew...

hope for the US yet...

...fantastic news from the Barack Obama camp - he's forming a presidential exploratory committee!

Thursday 18 January 2007

ok - my body really hates me...

... had a lovely evening last night for Anna's birthday - very chilled meal with the girls (and amazingly we're seeing each other again next week - this is unheard of - we normally manage to get together every 3 or 4 months!).

Had to get up early for a blood test to see if my liver is behaving itself and then to the post office to finally get around to sending in my incapacity benefit form (as I've realised that my savings are going to be well... not savings very soon).

Got home, and felt rubbish. This is not new - I did more than one thing in 24 hours - this never works well. Ate some healthy food and felt a bit better, then spent the rest of the day randomly thinking and looking things up online.

7pm rolled round and I though - mmm... I'll watch a film and then go to bed...

... it's now midnight and the delightful insomnia has returned.

I feel tired (no change there then), slightly sick (from lack of sleep) but am awake.

oh well - there's a Channel4 countdown programme on until 1.40am - best political comedies (I've already seen it 3 times, but it has some great clips on it) and I'm wikipedia hopping, so I guess I'll try and go to bed after that!

Wednesday 17 January 2007

hello world

well, after 4 months of not working due to illness I don't have any plants to talk to, so I've resorted to talking to kitchen implements - not a good state to be in, hence starting a blog.

now, I can just chatter away into the ether and no-one will know, but at least I'm giving my garlic press (new for Christmas and very exciting) and food processor (brilliant for grating beetroot) a break.

so, hello world - here comes the Dizzy one.