fanged_geranium

09:13 pm: My Car
Friends of The Justy will no doubt be saddened to learn that it has failed its MOT, and will be departing for the great scrapyard in the sky on the 24th July. It was a fine little vehicle, though rather rusty (manufactured just before Subaru realised that putting plastic coating under the wheel arches was a good idea), and has been in the family for all but a week or so of its 21 years. I have been driving it ever since I turned 17 - in fact I passed my driving test in it.

The Justy began by taking me to and from school every day when it was my dad's runabout, took me to catch the train for my university interviews (and brought me back again, even though I left the lights on for a whole day and it had to be jump-started), accompanied me during my disastrous teaching career, and most recently became a commuter vehicle while I was driving in from Torquay every day. It will be greatly missed.

A memorial dinner will be held in early August, once I have finished my cat-sitting duties.

10:55 pm: Adventures with a Bicycle (Part 3)
This week I have found a different route home. I say route home, rather than just route, because it has a very long downhill section which would be a nightmare going the other way. It has cycle paths for almost all of it, including a dedicated foot and cycle bridge over a dual carriageway.

However, there is one small disadvantage to a cycle path: one is expected to have a very small turning circle, which meant that I got a little bit closer to some brambles than I would have liked, then almost fell onto a grass verge trying to avoid the next lot! The bike and I are both unharmed by the experience.

I am also going to indulge in a small rant about broken glass on paths (and roads, for that matter). Why must people smash glass bottles as they are walking along? If they are too drunk to actually keep hold of a bottle, and too lazy to find a bin, they are probably in no fit state to be walking in the vicinity of a road (or a river) anyway. Living in a free country should not include the right to litter the place and cause a hazard to cyclists, dogs and wildlife, although I do fully support the right of drunken people to earn themselves a Darwin award, if no humans or other animals are harmed in the process.

11:02 pm: Adventures with a Bicycle (Part 2)
This week a bus (Route K) made a very determined effort to squash me, and I am very happy to report that it failed. It overtook me, and then promptly pulled into a bus stop, apparently forgetting my existence. This is obviously a conspiracy by the bus company to intimidate as many cyclists as possible, so we all use busses instead. Quite a cunning plan, really.

08:18 pm: Adventures with a Bicycle (part 1)
As some of you know, I have borrowed a bike (thanks Julius!) and have ridden it to work for the last two days. This has so far shown me several things:
1) Even the flat parts of Exeter are in fact horrifically hilly;
2) Riding a bike in a straight line is harder than it looks (I assume that drain covers are placed by the side of the road to be as dangerous to cyclists as possible);
3) The main arterial routes into the city are lacking in cycle lanes;
4) I am shockingly unfit.
So far I have only picked a fight with one car, and that not intentionally. I was bounced by a drain cover into its wing mirror. I won. Fortunately the driver was very nice about it. Nevertheless, I intend to continue cycling, so all you Exeter folks consider yourselves warned!

Since I last posted I have also attended a wedding (the last time I went to a wedding I was only 10), bought a welsh dresser, replaced parts of three wheel arches on my car with wire mesh and resin, and written a fanfic for 'The Charioteer' (A WWII novel by Mary Renault) rather than finishing any of my Silmarillion fics, or even working on my novel. Although I have written a couple of dozen sides of A4 (by hand) for my novel, but haven't typed them up yet.

08:01 pm: work and telephones
I have a telephone line! It has finally been installed, and it works. If I wasn't staying at my sister's house for the bank holiday weekend I would be eagerly awaiting my first call from a double-glazing company.

This was, of course, a very exciting incident, but it was nothing to the email that was sent to everyone at my place of work today. Because some government employees have managed to lose various items of I.T. equipment in public places, all government employees (however indirectly) have to take a course and do an exam about data security. I took a quick look at the course notes (this was online), decided they had been written by and for someone with very special educational needs, and proceeded immediately to the exam.

Your handbag, which contains a CD with sensitive information on it, has just been stolen. Do you: (a) inform the police; (b) run around screaming; (c) do nothing; (d) throw a boomerang at the thief, knock him out and triumphantly retrieve your bag.

(NB this is, of course, only an example question as I wouldn't be keeping government information secure if I were to tell you any of the real questions)

Unsurprisingly, I passed, as did the other three people I encouraged to do the exam but not the course. This, folks, is what our tax money is being spent on. It's almost enough to turn me into a libertarian!

08:45 pm: Reading
No, not the verb, but the city about 50 miles from London. I was sent there this week by work, to attend a conference. The university campus is pleasant, with a lake and some trees and vast expanses of grass; it is also absolutely huge. If you had consecutive lectures on opposite sides of the campus you'd have to have a bike or you'd miss half of the second one. The city is not bad - a large mall in the centre, a Millie's Cookies shop and all the other normal stuff I expect to find in a city centre. The conference was a bit dull, and because I had a bad cold on the first day I had to resort to keeping myself awake by attempting to write down all 27 member countries of the EU (successful) their capital cities (all but three), the states of the US (forgot Indiana), and then I just started writing down all the countries I could think of by continent. Fortunately by the second day I had recovered enough to work on my novel!

I have made two cakes in the last four days, a quintuple chocolate cake (chocolate with white chocolate chips, white chocolate truffle icing with dark chocolate chips and milk chocolate triangles on top) and a lemon cake which was supposed to have maroon icing but it turned out pink instead. I have also cleaned and tidied my flat, and moved the microwave oven from one side of the kitchen to the other. All dreadfully domesticated, but there's only a certain amount of mess and dirt I can ignore.

09:07 pm: New Flat
I am now sitting in my living room, listening to the delightful sound of an emergency services vehicle going past at high speed. Am hoping it is a police car going after the idiot who has been driving up and down Queen Street pretending it is a race track. Or better still, a fire engine going to cut him (not being deliberately sexist here, but chances are it is a him) out of the wreckage of his vehicle. There are also four bags of rubbish on the steps up to my building, which stink, and there's nothing I can do about them because I do not have a key to the wheelie-bin enclosure. Planning to get a water-pistol in case I happen to catch anyone flytipping.

The flat is very cool (in both senses of the word because the storage heaters aren't wired up yet). It has an extractor fan in the bathroom that has also not yet been wired up. Not sure how this could happen, but there's no way that this flat is actually properly finished. Buildings regulations people obviously haven't checked it over yet.

However, lest I am giving the impression that I don't like the place, I have enough hot water to take a shower, a working fridge, oven and kettle, and a living room that is ridiculously large to have just me in it! I tested the oven today by making a birthday cake for my sister, which was very tasty - mini victoria sandwiches with butter icing and strawberry jam.

08:14 pm: Well finally!
I'm moving into my flat on Friday! My next LJ update should be from my very own living room!

09:16 pm: moving/not moving
Once again my home-purchasing intentions are being thwarted by Slow Solicitor Syndrome - not mine, but the sellers', who have sent a letter to my lot with responses to 6 questions (of 11) with a note to say that the rest of the answers are to follow! Now, you might not see this as a problem, but the sellers set a deadline for the sale to be completed of this Friday, and there's no way that can happen, so I might lose the flat because the sellers own solicitors are too slow. If it does fall through this time I think I'll just find somewhere in Exeter to rent for now, and start looking again when there are some new properties on the market, because (apart from my flat) the only thing I like at the moment is a 2-bed flat (with garden, parking and dining room - it's huge) for £200k, so a little outside my price range!

12:55 pm: Happy Christmas folks!

08:28 pm: Again housing
After all that fuss I made, the sale fell through anyway - there was no buildings regulation certificate, and therefore no evidence that the place wasn't going to fall down (the fact that it has failed to do so for the last 20 years being quite beside the point)! I wasn't going to start geting into indemnity insurance. I am now buying a flat in the city centre (and I do mean right in the centre, about 2 minutes walk from the high street). My local food store will be a Marks and Spencers! It has the same floor space as the house (about 70 square metres), but two fewer rooms, which makes it feel much more spacious, and it is new (though in a nice old building) so it comes with a 10-year guarantee. Overall I think it is probably a Good Thing. I am due to move in on 30th January (fingers crossed, touch wood etc.).

08:49 pm: House fuss
So here I am, a matter of (possibly) a couple of weeks away from buying my own 3-bedroom house in the suburbs, and I go and get cold feet. That one of the estate agents in the city has emailed me the details of an absolutely fantastic-looking one-bedroom flat near the city centre that would probably cost £15k less isn't helping either. What do I do? Is it too late to change my mind? Do I really want to change my mind? After all, the house is probably the better investment in the long and short terms, and I couldn't have housemates at the flat. But I could stuff it full of visitors quite frequently. And it would have room to keep all my junk in, which I couldn't do at the house with two housemates. I just don't know what to do!

Any advice and/or opinions will be welcomed most gratefully.

06:30 pm: A busy month or two
And I've been neglecting my LJ - again!

My new job seems to be going well, in the sense that my boss is happy with me and there are no screaming children to keep in line, which has to be good. I'm buying a house in Exeter - hoping to move in at the beginning of December, if the legal stuff gets sorted out without too many delays. At the moment I'm living with my sister in Torquay, because my landlady (who had, from the start, appeared to be otherly sane) went psycho on the 31st October (possible connection with Hallowe'en?) and told me to find somewhere else to live because I hung my washing up in the wrong place. Which meant I had to move half my stuff back to my parents' house and the rest to my sister's last weekend instead of starting NaNoWriMo, but I shall have my own individual writing month(s) next year once I'm settled into my new place.

I have also been neglecting my fanfic writing, but maybe I shall get some of that done, with the help of my sister's cats.

05:13 pm: I'm back from my holiday, which was most excellent. The weather in Norway was good, with very little rain, including in Spitsbergen; the ship was nice and the food was absolutely amazing. I've gone through the P&O brochure for next year, and there's a nice little four-week cruise to the eastern Mediterranean next autumn that I'd rather like to go on - now I can start the serious work of persuading my parents that it would be the ideal holiday for them, and that shouldn't be too hard!

I've got a lot of stuff to do this week, what with packing to move to Exeter and filling in all the forms about my new job, so I may or may not be at society meetings, depending on how much I get done, but I will definitely be around next week.

05:33 pm: I now have a start date for my new job: 26th August - this is good. I also have my contract, read signed and sealed - again good. However, the friend I was going to be sharing a house with can no longer share a house with me, because his girlfriend doesn't trust me not to seduce him! This is of course bad, in a way, because I'll need to find alternate accomodation from Novermber onwards, but I'm finding it very funny, and any of you who know the friend in question will understand why! These things always work out for the best, though, because unless I get a flat to myself (not really an option, when they start at around £500 per month) it will be less expensive than the house and I can save some money for the house price crash!

I haven't been doing much writing lately (chapter 10 of 'Escape' is still only 2/3 done) and I have absolutely no excuses for not working (to the extent of typing stuff, rather than thinking about it) for my original novel. I will undoubtedly want to write thousands of words every day when I've started my job!

09:32 pm: MIA: Feanor
I'm trying to write the next part of 'Escape' (which I had intended to post last Wednesday, but never mind), now I've got bored of mucking about on Facebook while watching Eurovision, but I can't find my comedy!Feanor muse. He was last seen about 2 1/2 years ago, in his forge in Tirion, inventing gunpowder. Let me know if you happen to see him, please!

07:33 pm: Job
I got it. I guess the other candidates must have made more of a muck-up than I did!

07:00 pm: Interview Thing
I don't think I'm going to get the job (though this won't be confirmed for about 3 weeks). I wouldn't have employed me on today's showing, but never mind - there are many other jobs in the world, and one day I will get one of them. Unless, of course, when I get my novel finished (not too long from now, perhaps), I get it published and make more money than JK Rowling did from Harry Potter. Actually, I won't worry about jobs even if I only make a few million pounds!

09:20 pm: Escape Interlude 9: Tulkas
In this episode, Tulkas cogitates. Usual disclaimers apply. Oh, and wish me luck - I've got a job interview tomorrow!

( Escape Interlude 9: Tulkas )

08:48 pm: Escape, Chapter 9 - Avallone
For the first time in oh, about two and a half years, I am finally updating this story. The previous parts are carefully stored in my LJ memories, here: http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=fanged_geranium&keyword=ESCAPE&filter=all Gandalf has spent the whole time trapped under a wall, which was knocked onto him by a horde of rampaging Sindar, and he is very pleased that I have finally let him out!

( Read more... )