it’s a great British summertime

Clocks went forward this weekend. And I think this is the first time I was actually awake for the change!

I was up with the housemates watching a film, popped out just before 1 to go to the bathroom, came back and was told, “Steph, it’s 2am now!” Was I gone that long?! (har har)

I haven’t really felt the effects of the loss of an hour, as we were up really late (4am+) but I also slept til about 11:30 the next morning.

I think the change will knock me on my rear at some point, it usually takes a day or two, but for now I’m absolutely loving the extra hours of daylight!  And the sunshine is such a gift, almost making me forget the long cold windy rainy winter!

(Almost.)

TGIF

I hate kitchens full of dirty dishes and bedrooms full of clutter and boilers that are broken and floors with a dusting of crumbs and feeling confined to one room in a 4 room home and the fact that its not yet 12 April.

Oh, and I also hate rain that won’t stop falling.

The only really good points about this stupid week are that we had Monday off, we got some great mirrors for pennies, and my sweet little EeePC arrived.  Otherwise its all been rather sucky.

Not to be negative or anything.

everything little is cute

Oh how I have long been waiting for this day!!!  (Long being approximately three weeks in the literal sense, but figuratively – it’s more like 3 years!)

Let me illustrate for you this amazingly ideal scenario in which I currently (finally!) find myself.

Ush is playing WoW (shocker), whilst I am on the internet.  This is all made possible by the glorious gloriousness of my brand spanking new, impossibly cute, uber functional Asus EeePC!!!

In other words, my teeny tiny laptop

I’m so excited.  It’s like the computer version of my sweet little Creative… small, 2gig, has all the functions I want and could conceivably use on a daily basis.

This ultraportable little Eee is about the size of a piece of looseleaf paper (that’s A4 for you Brits) when open.  Mine’s the pearly white version, though it also comes in black.

Ample 4gig memory with slots for additional memory, built in webcam and speakers, all major Office-like tools (except they’re not called Word and Excel and such as it uses Linux instead of Microsoft), wireless capabilities, flashdrive rather than harddrive, and all sorts of other little doodads which I haven’t figured out what they are yet and/or don’t understand anyway.

Point of all this being: no longer do I have to spend evenings without Gmail, Facebook, blogs, etc all because Ushwin has a 5-hour Karazhan!

Wooo!  Or rather, eeeeeee!

you like me, you really like me!

My husband went with some friends to a comedy club last night.  They went last Monday as well, specifically to see comedian Jim Jeffries.  (Apparently they saw him perform a decade ago at Reading Festival and had been wanting to again ever since. I decided to give it a miss as, from what I’d heard, his comedy stylings tend to be the sort that offend and while I do have a broad sense of humour, some things just aren’t funny.)

This week, Jim didn’t show, but it seems there was fairly little disappointment over this fact as it was ‘new material night’ and all 9 acts were on form.  I’m told lots of laughs were had by all, with a nice low entrance fee and plenty of tasty food.

The interesting (nay, baffling) part is that Ush came home and, after a quick review of why I would have enjoyed the comedy and had a fun time, he then proceeded onto a mini-rant about how I have to come next week because he can’t really enjoy nights like that when I’m not there because there’s no one to turn to and laugh with and the experience will just be his instead of ours and he wants it to be ours.

I can’t even really explain how great it feels to be wanted in that way.

Like… When the cool kids at school include you in their activities, it’s relief.  But when someone that you love (even though you clearly know that they love you too) reiterates how much your company means to them and frequently yearns for it – that’s like ten times better than being voted Prom Queen!

Going once… Going twice…

They don’t actually say that, ya know? Or at least, our guy didn’t.

Ush and I went to our first ever auction today!

(Well, it was my second.. The first doesn’t really count, as it was at Trinity and we were just trying to get some furniture for the dorm. We agreed in advance we’d pay up to $90 for this L-shaped couch for the suite, and Stephanie was hot off the mark shouting “90!” before the bidding was up there yet. I can understand that now, of course; it feels pretty intense when the bidding wars begin!)

There’s an auction hall just a block away from us, and I’ve passed it countless times. But the auctions are only ever held on Monday. Not convenient for us 9-to-5-ers.

Walking Toby over the weekend, Ush and I passed it and realised, “Hey! We don’t have to work on Monday!” I’ll admit that I was indeed bouncing down the sidewalk for the next five minutes in anticipation of our trip to the auction in just a couple days time.

Auction day arrived, and we almost forgot, to be honest! At noon today, Ushwin all of a sudden exclaimed, “Oh no!!! We have to go!”

The viewing was until 1pm and then the auction started at 2. Thankfully, as I said, only a block away. So we pulled on some clothes and headed over.

I was amazed at how much stuff they fit into that little room. Furniture big and small, books, paintings and pictures, jewelry, countless knick-knacks. Some beautiful pieces, like mahogany wardrobes and Victorian footstools, and some really chintzy stuff like a glasstop coffee table that’s held up by the legs of a bronze grizzly bear on his back.

We already knew what we were looking for, though. We were in it for a mirror. Preferably a nice big one to hang in the living room at our new place.

We started browsing, not really knowing what we were supposed to do. Once we figured out how things worked, Ush procured a guidebook and a bidding paddle (#39). We found some pretty neat things (including a brand new (as in, still in the plastic) world atlas published by The Times that was originally selling for £150 and had a guide price of £75-115.)

The guide prices for the mirrors we liked ranged from £10-30. The coolest one, a ginormous beveled mirror in a silver/grey frame, we agreed we’d pay up to £50 for.

We learned that they auctioned off the lots from 1 to 600 (667 on this particular day) at a rate of approximately 100 lots per hour. So we came back around 5:30pm as our mirrors were in the 600s. As we listened to the end of the 400s and the 500s, we found that items priced at £50+ were going in with starting bids of £5 and £10!!

This is the point where we realised, or rather were reminded, that we are a pair of morons.

The giant mirror, our £50 limit, came in with a starting offer of £10 and we were the only ones to bid! So, we got that one, plus another for £5 and a lot of 6 mirrors (various sizes and shapes) for £9!

So now we have lot of mirrors! Oh, and two Japanese silk prints in black and gold-edged frames.

streams of consciousness

You know how some songs can send you into a thinking mood? I have a nice catalogue of songs that I can listen to if I’m feeling pensive. I even made such a compilation once… “Cavernous Contemplations”, I called it. Ha! Get it? “Deep Thoughts.” I was rather proud of that name. (Ok, still am.)I’ll have to dig that out. It was one of my few truly perfect “mix tapes”. (“Compilation CD” doesn’t quite have the right ring to it like “mix tape” does.)

Anyway! On one of my walks with Toby recently – *sidetrack* taking walks is a great time for thinking as well. Walking is the new driving. Many a blog post has been composed whilst I walked my dog – *back on track* – I was listening to my Creative and a song came on that is one of those that suddenly finds me sitting on a porch swing at sunset. Or lounging aboard a boat slowly rocking with the waves and looking at the clouds. Or laying on a hammock and looking at the stars. It just makes me feel relaxed and capable of far-reaching recollection and profound thought.

This song, incidentally, also reminds me of a friend from high school. We met in junior high Social Studies upon discovering we wore the same green Converse. That was our only connection until later on, in high school, when we sat next to each other in English and began passing notes. We became very close and were just what each other needed during that time. He was beginning to regret his tumultuous relationship and I was probably experiencing, as seemed to be my habit then, yet another unrequited love. We listened and comiserated and fell asleep talking on the phone at night. We were best friends.
And I think we’re both still touched by that bond.

Recently, after a season of no contact for over 2 years, we reconnected via Facebook. I wrote out a long summary, or timeline rather, of what I’ve been doing over the past few years. He wrote back with a much more philosophical overview of his experiences. It just made me laugh as I fondly remembered that part of him – me who babbles and he who conveys important things so eloquently. That much hasn’t changed.
But it made me think, as I imagined myself sailing away into a grey sky morning, that I have indeed done a lot of things over the past 5 years or so… But more importantly, I have grown so much as a person.
I am an adult, after all.

(Really? But I’m only 26. Geez, I’m 26. That is adult. Weird.)

Thing is, I’m often reminded of just how not grown up I am when I get upset about stupid things and need to go in the living room to punch the couch. (That may or may not have happened today.)

Anyway. So, my conclusions at the end of all of these ramblings are: 1) Music is awesome for helping you deal with things. Or just hanging out with you while you deal with them in your own way, and 2) It’s okay if I’m not always adult-like, because I still have people who have loved me (and still do) from all of my different stages of life, and I could not imagine being luckier.

I’m so Gwyneth right now

I just had a Sliding Doors moment.

After work, I was running down the stairs towards the platform and just reached it as the doors closed and the train started to pull away.

Thankfully, my circumstances differed from the film in that I didn’t get mugged nor did I come home to find my man in mid-shag with another woman.

So that’s good!

Except that he’s never stinkpalmed anyone

Mallrats was on TV last night.

“I love this film!” I said.  “It’s what made me fall in love with Jason Lee… Regardless of the fact that his character is a lazy, swearing, video game addict.”

“Yeah,” Ush pointed out, “and now look where you’ve ended up!”

*jaw drops, considering this* Lazy? Check. Swearing? Sometimes, yes, check.  Gaming addict? CHECK.

*OMGWTFLMAO*

I’ve married my own British version of Brodie Bruce!

Dream.come.true. 

my love is like whoa

There’s something to be said for spending an entire weekend sans makeup and wearing your most unflattering comfortable clothes.

Because, come Monday, when its time to go back to work and thus make an effort with hair and makeup, your husband will suddenly be struck by how smokin’ you are and be rendered helpless against your gorgeousness.

Or, at least mine will anyway

The more I see of man, the more I like dogs

On Saturday morning, we ventured next door to speak with our soon-to-be landlord and to sign contracts for our tenancy which will commence 12 April. (26 days *excited squeal*)

The contract he uses is a fairly standard one (as opposed to the one we’re currently living under – specially written by our solicitor landlord, sans punctuation, worded so as to be up for interpretation) and one of the conditions in it states the disallowance of keeping pets.

Even though it was previously agreed (nay, celebrated) that we come as a package deal with our little Toby, I still asked him to cross that bit off and initial it, because I didn’t want to sign a contract with that on there.  Just in case.

The statement alongside the ‘no pets allowed’ remark (as in, within the same same subpoint) was a sentence asserting that no children shall be allowed to reside in the flat except as bonafide guests.  Funny how they group children and animals together, both in exclusion. Seems fitting to me..  Although I do want my life to be full of pets; I’m not so sure about the kids part.  I told him we could go ahead and leave that sentence in there. *smirk*

The average dog is a nicer person than the average person. ~Andy Rooney

Happiness is a warm puppy.  ~Charles M. Schulz

You think dogs will not be in heaven?  I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.  ~Robert Louis Stevenson

My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am.  ~Author Unknown