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And so it begins. Well, at least I HOPE it does.
My life as of late hasn't been very exciting at all. Busy, but not exciting. Nothing anyone would REALLY want to read about, at least. Mind you, know my fans, they'll read anything. Hah!
I think I'll write about how these last two years has been so far. In fact, I'll quote from my Livejournal to backtrack...
Well... January 2009 started out just like any other year really. The same dull, grey, awful weather, the same house on the same street. The same ailments that I've had since god knows when.
Quote: January. My family and I had just been recovering from the wallet-related drainage of christmas, when all of a sudden it was my birthday. (4th) More expense for them. I always feel bad for having a birthday not long after Yule. This was also the month of resignation. Yes. You heard.. I had to resign from the animation company that I've been working for since 1988. It was utterly depressing! I've been off work since the 16th of June 2007 with Cubital Tunnel Syndrome in both arms. I have been virtually useless with any manual tasks. Just picking up cups of coffee make me screech like a banshee. Boss said that I had the option of resigning, or staying with them, but staying there had no point to it, as it's not as if I was even getting sick pay anymore. (Sick pay ran out a long time ago.) They DID say, however, that I could return after I had finished my treatment and was better again. Treatment being operations to release the nerve. I had my first operation on my left elbow on the 1st of May 2008. I've just got to wait for my next one. February. Valentines day had an extra special present for me this year. My partner, Lee, moved in with me. My brother, Ryan, helped him move his stuff from down in Girton, Cambridge and brought it up via car to the house. He settled in pretty well. It's been great so far. Well... Unless you count his obsessive playing of Call of Duty: World At War. It is really driving me nuts! My brother Ryan's birthday falls on the 19th too, so I bought him a Mug and T-Shirt from my own online store. T-ShirtMugMarch. Not much really happened in march. Unless you count finishing at Physio. Apparently, she says there's not much she can do anyway, apart from giving me exercises to do to strengthen my arms up. She says I'm doing ok anyway. My grip strength has gone up to 26 and 22. (Which is actually better than hers. Average grip for a woman is 25-30.) It's amusing when I look back at it. The specialists demanded I go to physio before they even consider another operation on my right elbow. But, as I said before, physio can;t do sod all for me anyway! I'm fed up of being messed around, I really am. I just want to get sorted and go back to work. I made my first cake in a long time to test my arms out. It hurt like a b***h, but I managed it anyway. I made my famous 'Builders Cake'. Chocolate sponge with mint buttercream, coloured to look like cement. --------------------------- Axel's Famous Builders Cake Ingredients Cake/Sponge 4OZ Self Raising Flour 4OZ Butter 4OZ Sugar 2 Eggs Vanilla Essence Buttercream Butter Icing Sugar Peppermint Essence Blue food colouring. Weight out the butter and the sugar and put them in a bowl. Mix them until whiteish in colour, fluffy and until it's easy to move the spoon in the mixture. Add one egg and a small amount of the flour and mix. Add more flour so it doesn't curdle. Then ad the next egg and another small amount of flour, adding the rest of the flour when mixed in. Add cocoa powder and the vanilla essence to taste. (The stronger, the better.) If the mixture becomes too dry, ad a small drop of milk to soften it up. Place the mixture into a pre-greased (Get some butter on a small piece of paper and smear it on the inside of the tin.) baking/cake tin and place in a pre-heated oven and bake until risen. (Use a knife to test to see if it is done.) To make the buttercream, add butter (As much, or as little. Whatever is needed. )to a bowl and keep adding icing sugar, mixing until firm. (There should be more icing sugar than butter.) Add the peppermint essence to taste. Then add the blue food colouring and a small amount of cocoa powder to create the 'cement look'. After your cake is ready, slice it in half and spread the buttercream generously. NOTE: Make sure that the cake is cold before you add the buttercream to the middle. --------------------------- April. April's been ok-ish. My nerve popped back out though. My operated on one. It shouldn't have done that... It looks like the op was a failure. It is incredibly painful. Also, my right one is acting up too. I blame cake making. Not only that, but my tablet died on me. Urgh... Lee joined with Arrow Recruitment on the 1st, so hopefully he'll get work soon. Although, I'm a little worried about it, as he only said he wants 15K per annum and they won't contact him about anything lower. Getting a 15K+ job around here is VERY rare, especially in admin work. Went to get Easter provisions from Sainsburys the other day. (Managed to avoid getting noticed, so no autographs, thank the gods.) I was a little sore at myself for spending nearly £40 on easter eggs and our traditional hunk of Easter beef. Bah... What else... Oh yeah. Yesterday was freaky. Everything kept going wrong for my mother. (Who lives in the same house.) She had decided to do a fry up for me and Lee and I swear something was trying to get her. First off, the frying pan contents popped and hot oil splashed all in her face and in her mouth and eyes, so she couldn't see for a little while. Next thing, she was over by the sink and the frying pan (Which had eggs in it.) launged off the oven! I mean, seriously! It went everywhere. All over clothes that had just been washed, all over Mom's coat and all over the floor. Mom kept slipping after that, because of the oil. Pots that were totally safe on the counter fell and then, when she tried to cook more eggs in a different pan, they refused to cook properly, even though the oil was scalding hot. I swear we have a boggart... I'm a little worried about funds at the moment. I think my benefit will run out soon, so that's why I had to make my store. Plus, more can be found on my site. Not only have I had to pay out that for Easter, but the feast of Osiris is on the 10th, so I'll need to buy in some provisions for that too. Plus, I may be having to take a trip with Lee back down to Cambridge soon. We had a call last night from his mother saying that his father (Who is in a home due to alzheimers.) isn't doing too well at all. His kidneys have failed and he isn't eating. I have such a bad feeling about it... I'm trying to keep Lee as occupied as I can. He seems to have this strange idea that he shouldn't express his feelings. He think it's no use getting everyone else upset. At the end of the day, emotions always manifest themselves regardless of how much you try to supress them. It's his father for Osiris' sake...
BAH.
What next? Oh, yes...
Quote: June. (Bit of a gap there...) Today started off pretty ordinary. I woke up really early, fell back to sleep and woke up again at 10AM-ish. I was pretty sore at myself, as I was supposed to go to have a blood test at Ripley hospital and they closed at 12. (My Lymph nodes are raised, so they just wanted to be sure it wasn't anything dodgy.) I guess I'll have to go tomorrow now. Lee decided to fumble around the bedroom and woke me up. (As usual.) So, I made him suffer by making him play Marvel Vs Capcom 2. Hah! Then, shortly after he had hurled the controller onto the bed in frustration, I made him play Wacky Races. He, in turn, decided to retort by making me play LAPD Future Cop. I sucked badly. DAMN THOSE ELEVATORS! Not long after that, I thought I'd better get some more work done to the site, while Lee rumaged around online for MGS4 (God, I hate Naomi.) tips and god knows what else. I'm actually working on a new product line, so I'm pretty excited. I'll be sending a newsletter out to everyone once it's all up. Not much else has happened today, to be honest. Lee made me some toast and a toasted egg sammich, but I've just been lazy and I'm actually still in bed. Let's hope tomorrow brings some excitement, no matter how microscopic it may be. razz
Quote: June cont. So, today I was stabbed. No, don't worry, I don't mean with a knife. (Besides, the assholes around here wouldn't dare try it.) I had my blood test. It was an amusing kerfuffle, to be honest. Went to bed last night very tired after a meal of chips and gravy. Lee decided to borrow my lappy, so he was busy typing away on here most of the time. I fell asleep for all of two minutes and woke up feeling very irritable. What made it worse was that Lee had signed into Facebook to find a message from one of his exes. A chidlish little american 'princess' who can't seem to leave him be, even though he hates her guts. Thankfully, she'd removed him from her list. AT LAST WE ARE FREE FROM HER PATHETIC WHOREISH DRABBLE! So, yes. That added to my anger somewhat... I eventually fell asleep and I woke up this morning at 2:30AM-ish to find Lee was still online talking to folks on here. (Manda and Deena - I pestered both.) Lol. I got up to n** to the toilet and promptly crashed back into bed, only for Lee to switch off shortly after, as the internet cut out for no apparent reason. I eventually got to sleep and woke up at 10:30. Boy, was I annoyed at myself again. I got dressed and went for the half past 11 bus into town to get my blood test done at the hospital. Only thing was... It was only a few minutes before the bus was due and I realized I'd forgotten my blood form! Back home, picked it up, went to Tesco, picked up grapes and water and caught the bus up. I was hoping I wasn't going to be too late, as the blood clinic closes at 12:30 and it was 1/4 past by the time we pulled in to Ripley market place and we still had to walk to the hospital. Thankfully, we were fine and I think I was the last one that day for them to deal with. There was a woman before me and she got called in not long after we got there. She was a few minutes, then it was my turn to be vampirized. Osiris Razz Got it, handed the form over, sat down and he chucked the arm strap on the wrong arm. I told him that the best arm to get blood from was my right one, as they've always had trouble finding my veins (I used to have to have it taken from the back of my hands when I was little.), so he put gthe strap on my other one. He did do it very tight though and he was being a bit impatient, because he didn't even wait for it to pop up. He just jabbed it in and missed. He spent a few minutes with the needle in going in and out trying to stab my vein. Eventually, he got it though and my blood was still as black as I remember it. (I've always had black blood, for some reason. I think I have high iron levels.) Cotton wool ball on, tape on, walk out feeling sore with an insta-bruise. My arm still feels tight as I type. Lol. I'll be going grocery shopping (Yawn) tonight, so I hope it feels less sore by then. I don't fancy having to myrtlize people for bashing into me. It's bad enough with my nerve problems. Ugh, I'm so going to have an arm phobia by the time this is over with...
Quote: June cont. I tried to wrote this b*****d yesterday, but due to being logged out, it got wiped! So, I shall try again... I woke up the other morning after the most unusual dream. (9th) It began where I was part of some sort of group, or gang. It reminded me of the Yakuza, or something. I ended up shooting people in the face with a nail gun. It was awesome, because I shot this annoying b***h right in the eye. XD Next minute, the dream changes (As my dreams tend to do) to me walking down the road to a car park that's a street or 2 away. (IRL.) Only, it wasn't exactly like it is IRL, as it wasn't actually much of a car park. It was a lake with an island on the other side with hills and a wood. The moon was shining through the trees and it was brilliant. I was with 2 other people and I was going down to the lake to use the water to tell one of the people their future, but ended up on the island looking up into the silhouetted trees watching these twins play with fireflies. The twins were wearing victorian school uniforms ( http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_430xN.62889910.jpg - Left and Right.) and then I found out it was actually God. surprised We were distracted once again by a small, old cottage with crumbling walls and cobwebs all over it. We decided to walk inside it and it was nothing but bare plaster and old, dry floor boards. We knew the place was supposed to be haunted, but that was the fun of it. We walked up stairs and walked into the front bedroom and I found a metal emblem impossibly embedded in the floor that I recognised to be something to do with the Knights Templar. But, before I had a chance to explain, we heard an odd noise and the front door downstairs bang, which was followed by heavy footsteps and the clanking of metal. The footsteps started coming up the stairs and we heard a horrible, grating voice say something to the effect of "Come out, I know you're in here!" So, we freaked and legged it into the back bedroom, shutting the door behind us. One of the people I was with noticed a small crawl space behind the far wall, but I couldn't fit in it, so me and the other person just cowered in the corner hoping the thing/person wouldn't enter the room. The footsteps stopped and we held our breath, when suddenly the door burst open and the thing (Which was a yellow-ish skinned spindley creature that was roughly 6 and a half feet high, had the body of an old man and the head of a long eared goblin creature.) shouted "HERE YOU ARE!" and grabbed my friend by her legs. I woke up shortly after, dazed and confused. Ended up going up Ripley to see if I could get my mother any new clothes and started off by heading to the 'Red Lion' ( http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/pubs/pub-details.php?PubNumber=1556 ) for dinner before we looked around. I had a steak and ale pie with mash and veg and a Peroni to wash it down. <3 Headed to a travel agents to see if they could help us out, as we are looking at returning to Kos next year. All of us. Me, Lee, Mom, Ryan, Jen. But, alas, they aren't releasing the brochures for next year until July! I mean, wtf!? Pfft. mad I guess we'll just have to wait... Went to 'Peacocks' to see if there were any clothes for Ma, but she couldn't find anything. I did though, which I felt bad for. I bought a turquoise vest top ( http://www.peacocks.co.uk/Womenswear/Tops/Vests_and_Camis/TURQUOISE_STRIPE_VES crying OP_-31774015.html ) and a white hooded top with a crocheted panel on the chest. ( http://www.peacocks.co.uk/Womenswear/Tops/Hoodies/WHITE_ZIP_THROUGH_HOODY_-34411062.html ) £15 in total. Didn't do much for the rest of the night, although we had pizza for tea. A deep dish pepperoni each ( http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/product_range/2744_3508.htm ) and an interesting pizza with all kinds of s**t on it. ( http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/product_range/2744_3509.htm ) Woke up the following morning quite early after yet another interesting dream, but I can't remember it now. sad Couldn't be arsed to get up though, so I ended up just dossing about in bed until around 10/half past. Went to the 'Poet and Castle' ( http://www.poetandcastle.co.uk/ Menu - http://www.poetandcastle.co.uk/menu.html ) for our usual Sunday Carvery at 12:30PM. Had my usual turkey with mash, roasts, yorkshire pud, stuffing ball, cabbage, carrots and gravy. Washed it down with a decent guest ale on at the time called Cathedral. Tasted like Bibles. razz Got back home and shortly after me and Lee went for a walk up to 'Codnor Castle' ( http://www.codnorcastle.com/ ) and I, er... AHEM, got lost twice. Well, I haven't been on that walk for 2 or 3 years! And I'm used to there being a big assed open quarry there! sad Got back home and ordered a Dominos. We don't usually like it, but I decided to construct a large half and half on a Dominator base for us all. I did pretty well actually. If you want to try it, this is what I chose: Half 1 Steak Slices Meatballs Mushrooms Ground Beef Half 2 Sundried tomato & garlic sauce (Instead of regular pizza sauce.) Meatballs Onions Mushrooms Sweetcorn Half 2 was my favorite. Had a mishap last night. Lee tripped over our RJ51 cable and snapped it, so we were without the internet until around 7PM this evening when Ryan let us borrow his spare one. We got into a cinversation about quantum physics and all that stuff. Started talking about particles and spin and how certain ones of a certain degree of spin don't look the same unless it's turned twice. Lol. Talk about mind buggery. XD ------------------------------ Woke up this morning and had some nice quality time with Lee. <3 Haven't done much other than wrote more of my two books. I thought I might as well, seeing as we had no internet. (I'll EVENTUALLY get the bastards published. mad ) Sitting here at the moment writing this while Lee is watching random Youtube videos about 'The hardest boss characters in games'. I'm hungry... sad
Quote: June cont. So, I had my opticians appointment today. Had my eyes tested, but the guy never even said a word about them, so I'm assuming that it's all ok. I had to order a new pair of frames though. £60! I really can't afford it right now, but I really need my glasses. I have been without them now for well over a year and my eyes feel so tired when I'm reading/writing. I chose some similar to my old ones, but with metallic blue frames! (Blue IS my favorite colour after all.) I nearly went for some bronze coloured ones, they were so nice. <3 After my appointment, me and Lee were hungry. He fancied an all day breakfast, so I led him to a cafe at the bottom of Oxford Street. We always avoided it before, because ot was always faggy. But, now the smoking ban is in place, we decided to try it. Lee's Full english was £4.25 and I had egg, chips and beans which was £2.25. ( I also had 2 hash browns extra which cost only 50p! )Lee had a coffee and I was a big kid and had a strawberry milkshake. I can honestly say, the place has improved! Reasonable prices AND clean as a whistle. The staff were nice too. As soon as we'd finished, we walked straight back to the market place and the bus was there, so we got on and it pulled off. Great timing! Osiris XD Just been dossing most of the day though. Mom made a stir fry for tea with Oyster and Spring Onion sauce. <3 AUGHER! Now I'm hungry again! Lol.
Quote: So, I had my nerve tests today. Yes, more of them. They say my nerve popped back out again, (The one I had operated on.) but I guess we'll see if it's true. We had to go to Derby City hospital, which meant catching the bus from here for an hour long journey to Derby, followed by yet another bus ride to the hospital. =/ I hate that they've moved the DRI there. We ended up having to eat at Costa Coffee. Stupidly expensive, but we had no choice. The restaurant there is utter s**t! I had an All Day Breakfast toasted sandwich, which consisted of sausage, bacon, egg mayo (UGH! I hate mayo. Good luck trying to find a sandwich there that DOESN'T have it in it!) and tomato sauce. It cost over £3!!! Osiris Mad I had a triple choc muffin and an Earl Grey, which they got bloody wrong and gave me breakfast tea instead! Mucho complainage ensued and I finally got my Earl Grey. Finally got to have my tests done, but I was surprised how much my sensation had dropped since my last lot of tests. :/ After that, we looked round the shopping centre and had a snack at the food court. I had popcorn chicken from KFC and a Curiosity Cola. <3 Got home and flopped. Lee bought Fallout 3, so I'm watching him play it on and off while talking in TheO chat and typing this. Ugh, so sore...
Quote: I haven't really updated in the little while, so I figured I should probably start doing this again now, while I remember. Went up Ripley today to pick up my new pair of glasses. (Sorry about my hair, I just washed the bugger.) My old pair broke a year and a half ago, so I've been without glasses since. I only need them for close work, because I'm seriously long-sighted. I had my old once nearly 6 years, so I was well pissed off when they bust. I took such good care of them and I found them in a heap on my settee! Anyway, it was amusing, because I got a choice of case. They still have the same cases as when I got my last pair! That transparent fluorescent orange sort! xD I went for the transparent fluorescent blue one insted though. I want it last time, but they had none left, just a display one. Went to the library afterwards and Lee printed off his CV and checked a few sites. (Not this one though, booo. Osiris Mad) While he was faffing, I took a peek at Deathly Hallows for a laugh. The first line I read had an excruciatingly painful amount of comma usage. I mean, it should be illegal how many she used! Has she ever heard of actually shortnening her sentences? Osiris Razz Bleh... After pottering around in the library a bit, we headed out and our stomachs were calling, so we decided to head to the cafe we went to last time. It was a regular greasy spoon a few years ago, but it's really nice now. Great value too. On our way there, we bumped into Jen. (Ryan's g/f) She was on the phone to Ryan at the time, but came off and said Hi and whatnot. We headed to the cafe and Lee had a full English brekkie, while I just had egg, chips and beans with a strawberry milkshake. Great food, really nice people too. (I think they are Turkish, actually.) Got on the bus when it pulled into the market place and there was a hornet on it. The whole journey I had it right next to my friggin' face. It was cute and all, don't get me wrong, but that stinger looked awfully unpleasant. (And yes, those types AREN'T native either. We get a lot of instects over from Europe here.) Got back home and ended up attacking the hedge. It was getting so long I could barely fit through my gate. I probably shouldn't, what with my arms being the way they are and everything, but I thought I might as well. Snip, snip. Sweep, sweep. INSTA-SHOWER! I was covered in spiders, greenfly and aphids, not to mention leaves and blisters from the hefty sweeping. Feeling good about myself though.
Quote: So, I burnt my tongue today. Oh yes. Yes indeed. It hurt like hell and now it's all numb and feels furry. DAMN YOU STEAK & ALE PIE! Anyway, Me and Lee (Rosencavalier) had a property viewing today. It was awful. I felt like I needed a shower (And a tetanus shot) after we left. The rooms were tiny, the kitchen WAS the living room, the cooker was broken, there was no phone line, there was damp and mou;d everywhere and the back door had no key to it, had a big board covering a huge crack in it as if someone had tried to break in and the keyhole was wide open with huge gaps around the frame. And you should have seen the garden. UGH! There were weeds galore and there was even the token old, rotting sofa out there! It was like a scene from Eastenders! ;_; We headed up to Ripley after I'd de-skirt-suited. Went to the library, then had nam-nams at the REd Lion. I had my Steak & Ale pie, which I burnt my tongue on. Then something got trapped in my wrist rather badly. Ugh. The misery never ceases does it?
Quote: So, today I had to go with Lee to Belper. He had an appointment with a recruiting agency. I don't know Belper very well and this was the first time I'd ever been on the bus there. I managed to get us there safely though. However, the guy interviewing him was an a*****e! He treated him as if he was a chav, or an unenthusiastic teenager! He picked on everything he said. He even laughed at his passport photo! b*****d... I hope he dies in a tire fire. -.- He was demanding Lee make choices that he really couldn't. He doesn't know the area very well, but the guy was expecting him to name place he could, or couldn't get to. Tit! After and hour of constant grilling from that butt-face, me and Lee headed out the place. I was trying to wind down, as my anger issues were beginning to resurface and my blood was boiling, wheras Lee was, quite frankly, shaken. We hopped straight on the bus and stopped off in Ripley for something to eat. We went to Crest of the Wave. Lee had chips, peas and fish with a slice of bread & butter and coke, but I had to be awkward and had a veggie melt. It took ages. Lee had nearly eaten his by the time I got it. x.x Went home afterwards. We've been pricing up bus journeys to Derby just in case. Lee ended up ringing the guy back as requested to let him know where he could work. Codnor, Heanor, Ripley, Alfreton, Langley Mill, Somercoates, Eastwood, etc. They guy answered; "Oh, I wasn'y expecting to hear from you again. I thought I'd signed you off!" The CHEEK! I could have ran back to Belper to castrate the p***k with a rusty spoon when Lee told me! Then he made out that all the places he chose had no businesses there, which is a pile of bullshit! UGH. I'm just glad I don't have to deal with recruiting agencies. I really am.
Quote: January 2010. Wow, I really haven't posted in a while have I? I've been so busy, so don't shoot me. Also, excuse any typos, my fingers are like balloons. (Chilblains) So, what's what in the world of me? Not too much. Had christmas, then my birthday on the 4th. (Another year older, ugh. More wrinkles.) I've mostly been going to the hospital on and off to have more tests done and find out what the heck is going on with my arms since my operation. They have been getting gradually worse instead of better. I had a ultrasound scan on my left elbow (The one I had operated on) and they found out that my nerve had popped out again and was literally sliding over the bone, back and forth. How's that for a laugh... Nothing else I can do about it. Pain killers don't work and putting a heat pad on it only makes it hurt more. (In fact, any form of physical contact does.) I'll be going to see the consultant again on the 13th though, so I'll find out if there is any hope. I'm going out of my mind! I want to get back to work. I've had so many freelance VAing jobs offered lately and I can't go for them, as it'd mess up my benefit. It's looking shaky as it is... I've had to apply for disability living allowance. Ho-hum. On another note, I hope this snow buggers off soon, it's driving me insane. I'm so cold my nose has a constant drip like Dean, heh. *Does a rain dance*
Now that's updated, I can carry on as planned...
AxelAlloy · Sun Jan 24, 2010 @ 04:55pm · 0 Comments |
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