I know!

What a couple of weeks, where to start!

I started my new job, and I think I'm getting on ok with it. The job is quite nice really, covering the reception and prepping the notes for the clinics. The reception is cool in the sense that you're talking with the public, and most people seem nice! Sat with the radio on in the waiting room checking people's details and booking them into the clinic. The prepping is ok too, just enough of the repetitive stuff that I like, and wandering around the hospital to get notes now and then etc. It's nice...it's just a shame the management is useless.
I have 2 managers, I have been there 3 weeks, seen 1 of them about 4 times and 1 of them once. And each of those encounters bar the first one was about 5mins long? It's awful. There's noone around ever! It's really laid back, which you'd think is nice, but I need structure. I've had a killer bad back for over a month now and even went to the doctors about it (which seeing as I've been to the doctors about twice since I was 16/17 is a big deal) and because I started a new job I didn't want any time off sick of course, but I have only just managed to get a sick number off of them! It's ridiculous! Lucky I wasn't really ill!
They're really awful and have no idea what is going on in our department. They took over the same week I started apparently, and you would have thought that if you're taking over a department you would be there to take it all in! But no! Also there are 3 people that can cover reception at the moment, 1 only works Thursdays and Fridays,  1 just got a new job so is waiting to leave, and 1 is going traveling in December and leaving! So I have to be up to scratch as soon as possible! And definitely by Christmas as I have been told that I will be the only person in over the Christmas period because everyone else has booked it off! I questioned it saying surely there should be some kind of protocol so that not everyone can ask for it off, and she was just like 'you'd think so'...!!!
They're pathetic. But other than that stressful thought, I'm enjoying it!

But anyway...spent two lovely weekends with Kev, but they go so horribly fast, I hate it! :C
Weekend before last we made a cake which was gorgeous! Unfortunately I did buy a Betty Crocker cake mix because I wanted a quick cake fix, but we still had to add a ton of stuff, make the butter cream and add the jam, so it hardly quickened it up! Here are a few photos of it :) yum!

       

Also Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace was on TV, so we watched that before we made a Spaghetti Bolognese! So happy we got to watch it, though I hate Jar Jar Binks!! As a kid when that film came out I saw it twice at the cinema (though I'm not sure why!) and he was pretty entertaining! I guess he was for most kids at that time, but now? Oh my god. He's just so irritating! The voice and accent and oafishness! Gah! Really irritated me, but I still enjoyed the film. Though with adverts it felt ridiculously long.

Also had a scare with Tic-Tac this weekend, I woke up one morning and his head was out of the tank, like he was investigating - which is fine and usual for his personality! - and then when I got home from work he'd had a mantle collapse! :C I only realise this after searching online for hours trying to see what was wrong with him. He was hanging on one glass wall with his body pretty much all out of his shell, it was horrible! I saw it was pretty much fatal but they can live for a few weeks, so I need to see what is going to happen...but it's scary :( It said it can burst their lung most times and that they suffocate to death. So that night there were bubbles along the edge of the shell and we thought he must be dying quickly. He pretty much sank in on himself and we thought he'd probably be dead by morning. If he wasn't I was gunna try and call a vet to see if there was a way to put him down humanely 'cause we really couldn't face putting him in the freezer or anything.
Anyway in the morning he had sunk off of the wall and I couldn't tell if he was alive or dead so I wanted to leave it til I got home. So I got home from work, and he was still in the same spot. I said something like 'what we gunna do with you aye?' and when I came back downstairs from getting changed he was climbing up the glass!! He still seems to be a little out of his shell, but he's finally come down from the sides and is resting on the floor of his tank. I was so scared I'd have to pick him off and keep him in a container or something, but he seems to be ok. Still won't eat. He's eaten a leaf of lettuce and maybe one chunk of cucumber since he woke up in July so no wonder his muscles are weak. He just won't eat! He is about 4 or 5 now so he is quite old...but I don't want him to go so soon <3

So this weekend I went and bought cinema tickets for next week of a remastered Rocky Horror Picture Show! Can't wait <3 Gunna go straight from work on Friday so I won't be all dressed up, and we're not sure if that's what will be happening, but it'll be fun!
Friday night we made pizzas with the little pizza bases I bought from Tesco, and that was fun! I completely forgot to take a photo of them once they were cooked (though I'm sure Kev is fed up of me stopping him from eating so I can take photos of everything lmao!) but I got this awful one of them beforehand.



Then this morning we woke up and I really wanted to have pancakes! So I thought sod it, let's make some! The recipe in the book we have are for American ones, so there was a lot of extra ingredients, but they came out amazing! So thick and fluffy and lovely! We decided to have them with bacon and syrup seeing as they were American, and that was lush <3 Though they took ages to eat! I have no idea how people have this for breakfast before work! Too stodgy! Though it keeps you full, so maybe it's a good idea actually...
Here's some photos :)

 

Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones was on this afternoon too so we watched that one too! Again I enjoyed it...but I hated Anakin. Like really hated him. I didn't give a shit about him. The way he treated Padmé felt more like sexual harrassment than anything else to me. And not in a feminist way, just ugh, he was vile. I felt nothing for him. Even when he found his mother. I was happy that R2D2 and C3PO were back together, and that brought some light entertainment, but this second set of films are really lacking what made the first set so exciting. It's a real shame. But I'm still enjoying them and I'll be recording Episode 3 next weekend to watch at a later date! :) Still absolutely adoring R2D2! <3

And before Kev went home we went to FlavourZ for some tea! Which was yum! Though we were pretty stuffed from the pancakes still lol, so didn't take stupid advantage of the all you can eat, but it was still yummy :) Not quite as lovely as Peachy Keens in Newport though! But Kev likes them both equally now I think :3 Ah well!

Next weekend should be nice going to visit my fatboys for Halloween! Will spend Saturday morning baking treats! <3

Cheltenham Literature Festival 2013

Me and Gill went to the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Saturday!
We got into Cheltenham around half 1 and headed to the festival sites.
The year before I managed to find a conker and this time I managed to find quite a few! I think we took about 6 each home with us? Which is lovely! I wish I had taken my camera to take photos of everything, but my back has really been killing the last couple of weeks, and in a fit of agony in the morning I managed to forget almost everything (including my keys which I'll get to later!)

We strolled between the sites browsing the Waterstones tents and stalls, and grabbing cake and tea in the cafe.

I bought The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman for the signing, because I've read it and I loved it, so thought that would be best! I wanted to buy Stardust, but with money the way it is I thought it would be a bit dumb to buy it again after I'd bought it on my Kobo!

I also fell for one of his children's books, called The Dangerous Alphabet or something? It's gorgeous! It's like a little alphabet poem with odd little lines and illustrations for each letter - it's beautiful! I fell for it but had no money, so Gill offered to buy it for me for Christmas, so that was amazing...I can't wait to read it to my kids when they make an appearance lol!
That's the nicest things I find, as a kid remembering those books that helped you learn. They had loads of them in the Children's tent. They had a Frog and Toad book! Loved them at school! They also had other loves like The Hungry Caterpillar, Brambly Hedge, The Jolly Postman etc...they had such lovely books in there! Also, one I had to take a photo of, called 'Norman, the slug with the silly shell'! How adorable! It was a doughnut!! <3 See below hehe.

It was so nice seeing so many children walking around with their heads buried in a book. I read or heard somewhere recently that alot of kids are embarrassed to be seen reading. That's so upsetting don't you think? Books encourage imagination, intelligence...just everything. You learn so much from immersing yourself in another world. It's just a shame. But I think the Kindle adverts and things like this festival really promote childhood reading. And to be honest, any caring, smart adult reads with their child from a young age anyway. Make of that what you will!

Anyway. So we saw the lovely Printmaking man from Stroud again this year, and he's so amazing, he loves his craft so much and it's so obvious! He hardly charges a thing for his work, it makes you want to plough him with money! I dug out a print I saw in a pile that had Humpty Dumpty on and because it has a smudge down the side he let me have it for free! He's brilliant :)

Then after a tea-stop we went along to the Town Hall for the Neil Gaiman talk! He was lovely, such a genuine guy! He read a part of his new children's book 'Fortunately, the Milk' and it sounds amazing! I really wish I had bought that one, it sounds like great fun hehe. He did a Q&A and then afterwards he went along to the Waterstones tent for a signing.
He was only doing dedications in his new book, and you could only have one other book signed, so I had The Graveyard Book signed, and Gill had her gorgeous black-edged book of Coraline and Other Stories signed! It took about an hour to an hour and a half to get to him, but that was fine, stood in the rain for half of it!

All in all, it was a great day! Just a shame I was in pain for much of it!

About half way home I remembered that I'd forgotten my keys - idiot! So I decided it was fine - just ring my mum, Gill would drop me wherever she was, I could get the keys off her, then get a bus home... This was 9pm - 11:20pm I finally got through to Kelvin's phone! Does no-one check their phones any more?!
Haha, so in that 2:20 hours, I rang my mum, Kelvin and Kelvin's house about 30-40 times! I was considering just getting a train to Newport just so I knew I'd have a bed!! Gill took me to a local pub where her friends Mike, Nick and Dave were having a drink, and we sat with them for an hour or so. Mike offered me a sofa at his house which I would have taken up! I knew that if my mum's car was at Kelvin's then they'd definitely be coming home at some point, so around 11 Gill and Mike took me to Kelvin's and the car was outside. So I said I'd wait there until they got back rather than put Mike out!
So I waited on the doorstep with my brolley and a little tickle from Kelvin's cat who ran back under the Range Rover unsurprisingly!
I finally got through on Kelvin's phone and they came running home lmao! That was when my phone died, so they ordered me a taxi home, 'cause although he has a spare room I wanted to charge my phone and let Kev know I was ok and not shivering in a bush somewhere lmao!
Got home about 12:15 in the end, which wasn't too bad I guess...but ugh! What a drama!

Anyway. That was an eventful day! Here are my bad photos :3



He is so adorable! <3

This tree was huge and amazing <3 It was fenced off all around because unfortunately it has a fungal infestation that's killing it from the inside out and it's collapsing in places, poor thing! It's over 200 years old! :C

These were hanging in a little cafe/shop area, cute!

Adored these lights outside the Box Office...I want them! <3

The talk room and Neil signing that girls book (she was a huge fan, almost burst into tears lol aww)

 

CONKERS :D <3

 

Ticket and signed book :3

Print's by that guy from Stroud <3 The end one is so cute! It's only slightly disturbing to read when I remember I call April Apple...but other than that it's awesome lmao! <3

I've got no strings to hold me down, to make me smile, to make me frown!

So I start my new job tomorrow! Scary as!
I've got two days of Inductions first, so I won't be where I actually will be working for most of these two days, but I think I'll be seeing it for a couple of hours. It's really scary, but kind of exciting. Unfortunately I think I'm more excited for the first paycheck than anything else lol, but I guess that's motivation enough. It will be a good job, I'm determined, but it's still nerve-wracking!
I'll let you know how it goes haha.

So this weekend I had one night with Kev, which was lovely as always but it went way too quick. I'm really not looking forward to hardly see him at all. I think it's worse at the moment because he's gone back to work today, and I start tomorrow, and next weekend he's off and it would be the perfect time to spend it all together...but I have the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Saturday *sigh* I'm looking forward to it, but I really would rather be at home with my man. Probably gunna end up just seeing him for one night then disappearing off to Cheltenham. Sad face.
Hopefully he's off the weekend after, otherwise ugh...don't even wanna think about that.

Unfortunately this weekend was all chop and change all the time. My back is feeling awful still, and it was worst on Friday. I left the house to get into town at 3, the bus was due at 3:16 and at 3:04 it flew past me while I was hobbling down to the stop! Assholes! Then the next one was 3:37 - didn't show. The next was due at 4pm - showed up just after, full of school kids...then they got off (success!) and then it filled up with 3 buggies and about 12 children running about and screaming or crying and ugh...what the hell! Didn't get to do all I needed to, and I got to the station to meet Kev just in time for his train to come in.
We made some food and we ended up watching Hangover Part 2, and then we watched some Russell Howard and then went to bed to watch Catfish but it crashed about half way through damnit!
Then in the morning we had some breakfast and after a while (and a quick visit from my Auntie and Uncle!) we headed into town so I could do all the shit I needed to do the day before! Then Kev had to head home, so it was very short, but lovely as always <3

Anyway...*sigh*
So today I've filled in all the forms and got my documents together for tomorrow, and after we made dinner I had a test run of my secret Halloween cakes! Didn't come out too shabby if you ask me, but there can definitely be improvements! I took photos but I think I'll hold back until Halloween 'cause I'm really excited about them and I want them to be loved lmao <3

Other than that I've been hobbling around and trying to make my back less painful...let's just hope tomorrow isn't too bad.

Ah well...fingers crossed aye!

Also...I will just add...I've unfortunately been watching the X Factor, and last night Louis 'absolute wanker' Walsh sent Paul Akister home *rages*...Not only is he beautiful eye candy, he is really talented! He's so lovely and shy and humble, and his voice is just wow...so I'm very angry... And unless he is brought back as a wild card I will be very unhappy...though I will probably keep watching just 'cause I have no life any more.
But meh. Here he is lol.

I felt the burn from every inch of my heart, but it's worth it to never feel alone

Went to see The Dangerous Summer last night! :D

Me and Kev spent Monday night watching Constantine and finishing watching Gavin and Stacey. Then Tuesday we got up late, had some cheese on toast and eventually made our way to the train station. We got into Cardiff around 4 and then we had a bit of a wander. We walked up to the venue first but the band were stood outside and I just couldn't get any closer (especially in a TDS t-shirt), it was too intimidating lol! So we walked back into town and headed to KFC.
Had a nice load of chicken (until it dawned on me that Kev was sucking on a vertebrae and that freaked me out) and then we took a slow stroll through town and stopped at the park.
It was a bit odd 'cause there were about 5 really seedy looking guys walking around the park in some kind of orderly fashion and it was quite unnerving even if we were chuckling about it.

We headed back to the venue about half 6 or 7, and still there were no fans outside, which had me panicking we were in the wrong place or something, and then finally another couple showed up.
It's pretty scary when the band you're advertising on your chest, and love to death, are standing right next to you by a small doorway and being proper Cardiff tourists about the Castle and everything lol!
Kev kept laughing at me for being so nervous and freaking out lol.

Anyway, we got inside and we found a table with high stools right to the left of the stage, so we sat there while a slow trickle of people came through the doors. Cody from TDS was stood at the merch stand so after a good talking to by Kev I went over and bought their new album - seeing as I bought the vinyl/itunes set - and asked him to sign it :)

There was a broken drumstick right where we were sat too so I snuck it into Kev's bag. Not sure which drummer broke it, but either way all the bands were good :) There was a band from Bridgend called Caesar's Rome (I think) and then a Brighton band called Verses who were really good too.

Then when The Dangerous Summer came on there were alot of people singing along and dancing about and I just couldn't handle just sitting there so me and Kev went and stood in the gap near the front that was annoying me lol. It was so nice that there were people who knew them and they were there to see them and gah, the atmosphere was lovely. I mean, I reckon there was about 60 people in the whole place and there were only 2 or 3 rows of people at the front going mad, but it was great <3
I do hope my awful singing face doesn't turn up in their videos or photos seeing as there was a guy with a camera right behind them and I could constantly see the lens lol!

I was really chuffed with the setlist, they played Of Confidence which was one of my faves from their old EP, and they played a couple of new ones, and just a really great mix! I gotta say I was a bit emotional about being able to see them with my man, so I wasn't altogether there with the lyrics, but mostly I was there lol! <3 At the end of Work in Progress - their last song - AJ came into the crowd with the mic while we screamed out the ending then threw it down and walked over to the merch table. Very snazzy ending!
So we went over afterwards and I asked AJ to sign the CD I'd bought, and I asked for a photo with him. And although I was imming and amming about showing him my tattoo, I decided to do it and he loved it! :D He took a photo of it on his phone too! That's so amazing, I was buzzing after, my knees were shaking lol!
I was gunna try and get the other guys to sign my CD too, but the drummer Ben was getting photos with people and chatting and it was too awkward without having a pen ready lol, and I feel awful but I really couldn't recognise the other guitarist (I think is called Matt) anywhere! Even though I'd just been watching them! Awful...but it was a great night, so I thought I'd leave it at that :)

We took a slow walk back to the station in the pissing down rain and stopped to get a quick drink then went into the train station. Our train wasn't until nearly half 11, and then we were on our way. Kev got off in Newport and grabbed a taxi home, and I finally made it back into Bristol about half 12 and grabbed a taxi home too.

Brilliant night! I can't wait til they're back over here again <3
Here's the few photos I got :)