Grumping and stuff

I have just experienced the worst month in over two years, immediately after the best month in over two years, so not a nice change at all.

NOTHING, NOTHing, nothing, has gone right since the move.

1) I hate anywhere that is not St John's Wood/Finchley Road, and to rub salt in the wound, I am just off a St John's Road and see the sign every time I look off the balcony. Maybe next I should be taking St John's Wort to improve my mood....

2) This is where ALL the obnoxious teenagers in Greater London live.

3) My mother and I are not as close as we once were and have had to find neutral ground in order for me to stop biting her head off every time she says anything. We're settling now. It's been 5 years since we lived together.

4) ...going a bit pear-shaped with American Boy, who overreacted to my overreaction one day last week...I should not have done what I did, and he should not have taken it that badly. Why do guys always take things the wrong way when they are sick? And then he got sick again on the weekend due to working too hard to make up for the original sick days...And now he's just moved apartment too.

5) Indeed I have been under an immense amount of long-term medium- and low-level stress and pretty much snapped last week.

6) I would like to try therapy now, please.

7a) The chest of drawers was delivered with two left sides and IKEA now has to exchange and pickup. Also waiting an indeterminate time for the corner cabinet to be delivered, as well as the doors to the bookcase.
7b) We paid £16 for a taxi to IKEA and £20 for a taxi home, and are not going back in a hurry.

8) The broadband is still not up as you know, so are they waiting until the end of day 15 to do it?
9) Dialup sucks bigtime, and pay as you go is worse, but I am fed up of being offline and am spending a fortune, but I don't care anymore.

10) The shiny new Samsung TV has a faulty digital tuner and we can't get Freeview, and the 5 terrestrial channels, if we even have that many, are of poor quality and boring. John Lewis also has to do a drop-off and pickup exchange.

The things that have gone well so far:

1a) The assembly guys got all the rest of the furniture assembled, but it took 7 hours and I was so fed up of the hammering and drilling, and people in the house that I felt sick when they left.
1b) My mother was wonderful and put all my clothes away for me in one day.

2) I sent out about 5 or 6 job applications this weekend, got one response. Have an interview Wednesday afternoon for an editorial assistant position, coincidentally at the same place Panda-Eyed works! But different division, she's in science, I'd be in arts.

3) Mum said we might try to move back down to the SJW/Finchley Road area at the end of this contract, since I am a miserable, miserable sod up here in Harrow. I miss the Jubilee line and hate the Metropolitan. It is NEVER 16 minutes to Baker Street, the lying toads.
So she said we can keep an eye out on property listings. (I for one will be sneaking in looks at job listings in the US, too, but don't tell anyone...)

4) My shiny laptop recovered itself, fortunately. I made DVD backups as soon as all was stable once more. Blue screen of death on my new laptop? No way! I also made first use of my LightScribe writer to label them. One small label took 16 minutes, though.
The BSD occurred every time I plugged in my WinTV with Freeview dongle, darnit, just when I thought I'd found a solution to the dearth of things to watch on fuzzy terrestrial. So I suppose I need a new graphics driver or something...that's what the blue screen said...

Yes, this is Olivia, not just depressed, but somewhat in pieces. God I need a holiday, a hug, a therapist, a million dollars, you name it...

Got caught up with email this weekend on

Got caught up with email this weekend on a dialup connection. Last night I dismantled my dead old laptop. But today, just what I needed ... my new one keeps rebooting with a blue screen, so I had to take a photo of it in order to read it. Am doing a scan but may take it to the tech place nearby. *sigh*

The view from the new place. Sorry so ab

The view from the new place. Sorry so absent. Internet still not up, TV not here yet either :-( doing this from my phone. Am hemorrhaging money setting up a new home. Ugh. Be back soon.

dadgummit

DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT

Everyone else wants to celebrate the 4th of July and they (I know who) dump main [I'm not telling what] duty on American Boy as calls still come in from [somewhere they don't celebrate the 4th] - so no do-dah at the American Amb.'s residence tonight. Yes, that was the upcoming event I withheld last week. Poo. He is not happy with his boss (whom I met at the marines party *ahem* - suffice it to say that when I misbehave Am Boy threatens to give him my number, hehe! (Gosh, I wonder if he knows we are an item and is doing this on purpose...)) and he is very pee'd off about this evening. He's been doing the work of 3 people for the past couple of weeks, plus someone keeps putting him on duty roster on weekends (haha, let's guess who), plus the recent "situations" in London...hence not much going out and more staying in, and now this.

(Man, being cryptic is a new thing for me.)

Whilst walking to the Emb., he made a long apologetic phone call about his recent preoccupation and long hours, and wants to make it up to me over the next couple of weeks after colleagues, plus his secretary, return from vacation and things settle back down. He sounded a lot more like himself again and looked forward to the things we will do and places we will go. I too apologised for any recent inconsistencies. Both of us are under quite a bit of stress.

Like I said...the joys of serving one's country.

(I know, I snuck a blog in after I said I wouldn't!)

Small Hiatus

Well, the time is finally upon us - I am moving in a couple of days, so I may drop off the radar for a little while, until I get the new place set up.

I am finding the upheaval very stressful, so wish me well!

Tag Tag

I was tagged twice last week. Sorry I forgot until a few days ago, and it's taken 3 attempts to finish it!

Floatykatja tagged me this:

Tagged

‘The rules are simple. There are 9 questions (3², each of which has 3 answers, to give a total of 27, or 3³. The whole point is that the questions are somewhere between eclectic, banal and downright bizarre, so that you can answer completely truthfully without actually giving much away. Just put down the first three answers that come to mind if you can’t work out the “most appropriate” three.’

Objects Within One Metre Of You

1. My mobile, that extension of oneself that we never do without nowadays.

2. A mug of genmaicha (Japanese green tea with roasted rice).

3. A pile of Brazilian artist applications.

First Names of People You Sat Next To At School

1. Lydia

2. Angela

3. Haruko

TV Programmes You Won’t Watch

1. Big Brother

2. Big Brother's Little Brother

3. Big Brother's Big Mouth - and any other reality show that has escaped my notice.

Favourite Trivial Pursuit Categories

1. Art & Literature

2. Science and Nature

3. History

Superpowers You’d Like To Have

1. Flight

2. Telekinesis

3. Invisibility

Newspapers, Magazines or Periodicals Read Regularly

1. I don't

2. read them

3. any more

Songs You Dislike (...oh so many....)

1. Not off

2. the top

3. of my head

Blog Posts of Your Own That You’d Recommend.

1. 10 Billion Tonnes

2. Odd One Out Among the Kandinskys

3. Mission Statements

People you'd like to tag.

1. anyone

2. who wants

3. to join in

Lotus and someone else (sorry I have lost track) tagged me with the earliest memory/5 memories...

I have very few early memories, and I think there is a blur between growing up seeing photos and what I would have remembered without them.

Let's just say it was when my Dad's friend Giles came around and sat outside my little Wendy House drinking tea out of a tiny teacup whilst I hosted him from inside with my tiny teapot, pouring refills through the window.