I forgot to write that i saw Nerina at the Glee Club on Thursday. Good gig apart from the fact that it must have been about 30 degrees inside...

Saturday i went into Birmingham to get some dance sneakers. They were around 45 pounds, which is a lot of money really. I just hope that when i wear them tomorrow they dont hurt after dancing! It's one thing to try them on in a shop and do a few spin turns, quite another to wear them and use them!

Sunday Mel came over with her partner Neil and her dad to visit Charlie. Charlie unfortunately ran upstairs and hid! She did seem him later when he was sitting down in my study, and she said that he seems very happy here. I hope that that is true.

As Uncle Des bought Mel and Neil over it meant that i could get to grandmas earlier and help her with her shopping. When i got there i had an afternoon full of moaning. Moaning because i had come early. Moaning because the neighbours were on holiday. Apparently she has even been moaning to mum that she hadn't heard from me in a while (May has been a v busy month). One wonders why mum makes very brief visits, and why I haven't made more of an effort...

Monday i was just lazy.

I got 72 for my last TMA, which means i'm going to have to start studying again. I'm not really in the mood for it now...

posted by small 10:31 AM

Another good Ceroc session. We did two brand new to me moves, and two from previous weeks. At first i was a bit annoyed, but then i thought well it gives me a chance to really remember them. I then got to thinking that it would mean in 6 weeks i won't have gone through all the beginners moves, especially if i have to miss next week because of a client visit.

I was annoyed again, but then remember if i go to the intermediate class, i still go to the beginner class!

I am off to see Nerina tonight at the Glee Club. It's an easy trip into town, but i could have done with a day between Ceroc and Nerina as it means there is simply no time for me to cook. There wasn't time last night and i was lucky in that i could rely on a frozen pasta sauce that i had made a few weeks ago. Tonight it's going to have to be frozen convenience food, as i had completely forgotten Nerina (??) and had planned on cooking my second installment of fish curry.

Yesterday i phoned Grandma and told her that i was going to come up for Sunday lunch, completely forgetting that Mel is going to come and visit Charlie. Hopefully i will be able to go after Mel's visit, although it means i can't take Grandma to the shops.

Back to Ceroc. Von and her daughter ashley go to this class (i know Von vaguely through spice and know that she lives in Sutton). Ashley advised me that the best place to look for dance sneakers was either on smallbrook queensway, or the hungry horse. So Saturday i am going to try both. The shoes are expensive, but my feet hurt after dancing, so it is money well spent.

I wish you could look inside someone and know how they are going to react to things.

posted by small 4:02 PM

I am looking forward to Ceroc tonight, i have become quite lazy really and haven't done any exercise and have started eating more.

Not good really.

I could cheerfully murder a samosa right now.

posted by small 4:38 PM

I am so fed up with work. I want to do a course to help me improve managing / supervising skills. I bet i won't be allowed to go on it though.

What i wouldn't give to be able to run away to spain...

I look forward to going to Ceroc, and going home and stroking my cat.

My back had a spasm almost first thing at work this morning, so i'm in a fair amount of pain too.

Oh when i was off on Friday someone from Severn Trent came around to look at getting a water meter fitted. No Dice. Nowhere to fit one. However, the will adjust my bill so that it is about 70 quid less, which is a good saving. However, i reckon that with a meter i could have reduced it evern further. Still, if i can't then i can't.

I am on call and working tonight. I don't mind,it's all extra money..

posted by small 4:17 PM

It was a mixed weekend for me. Saturday i went to the OU dayschool at oxford. It was cold and raining so i decided not to stay for the day. The morning though was ok.

I set off around 7:30 and stopped at Warwick services at 8 for a stretch and some breakfast. The breakfasts in the restaurant were quite a rip off. Huge meals for 7 and 8 pounds, and nothing much smaller (at least nothing on the price board). So i went to the coffee shop at the services where they did a panini and the largest mug of tea i have ever seen. That was precisley what i needed. I set off again at around 8:30 and made good time, arriving at the park and ride around 9:17am. Pretty good value for money at 2:50 for both parking and a return bus trip. I got off and walked around in a circle before finding the ashmolean. There was a dearth of OU students, and i got a bit worried until a young lad (about 18 or 19) was randonly going around asking people if they were with the OU. So i piped up. He was nice enough, and about 10 minutes after we had been asked to meet, the two tutors and 4 other students turned up. We split into groups to look at the pottery, so i was with the young lad. It was a really good experience to see these pots so close up. Normally you see them only as pictures in books.

We then all went off to the cast gallery, to look at various casts. We went round in one large group as there were so few of us. And when we were there i saw Thom Yorke from radiohead! He was sketching with his son, and spending a quiet rainy Saturday.

As it was really to rainy and cold to spend the afternoon taking snaps i went back to birmingham and met lindsay and marcus the fort jester. Marcus was in the wacky warehouse and lindsay and i had a drink, nachos and caught up.

The mixed news was that Joolz phoned me last night to say that one of our uni friends died. It was such a shock. Apparently she had an accident and hurt her back, and as a result of this had a DVT. It's really making me reevaluate my life.

posted by small 4:22 PM

I didn't go to Cambat, and i think i made the right decision.

I went to Tescos and stocked up on soup and lemsip, then went straight home.

I wasn't feeling too good, and as i ate my tea it was a real struggle. But it was pasta with tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms, onions and garlic, so i felt that i should eat it as all of those are realyl good for me. I sliced some corned beef on top for a treat, but even that was a struggle.

I felt a bit better this morning, but feel very cold (possibly this is the air conditioning in the office). Hopefully by resting yesterday and resting today i shoudl be fit for Ceroc on Wednesday.

I'm giving even more thought to giving up this course.

13:39 - i am still not feeling right.

Mind you, this is just a cold. I was really shocked to hear about Kylie on the news this morning. It sounds like it is really early though, so that is good news.

Honestly, what do i have to moan about...

posted by small 4:21 PM

I think i'm coming down with a cold. either that, or i'm just feeling the chill after yesterdays sunny weather.

It was beautiful. Before 9am i was out in my back garden. I got my picnic blanket out of the garage and spread it on the ground. I went back into the hosue to get something and by the time i had got that and reached the back door to go out i spotted Charlie lying on the blanket catching some rays! I took some photos of him, but everytime he heard the camera click he would move! O well.

I had lunch outside at the creperie which was yummy. Sunshine, carrot in vinegrette and a complet. Nothing could be better.

Both Saturday and Sunday i felt tired by 3pm. I think i am running on empty and need sleep. I don't get lie ins because of the cat now...

I am getting quite close to quitting my OU course. I am not enjoying it at all. Why am i doing it. For fun, surely. This isn't fun, and although i've done courses before and found them tough, this is different.

I was supposed to be going to combat tonight, but i feel cold and shivery....that is a shame as i love combat.

All i actually feel like doing is going and having a lemsip and curling up in bed.

posted by small 3:53 PM

I managed a 30 minute rive home last night. Got home, fed the cat, wolfed down some tea and then out again to arrive at the jaguar social club for around 7:40pm. I made it!

My first Ceroc session was god fun. Quite tiring, and it made me very dizzy!

I left early at 10 as the cat didn't want to come in and i knew that after 2.5 hours of being outside he would be hungry. Next time i hope to stay for longer.

It was all a bit confusing at first

posted by small 4:42 PM

Monday i switched and did combat with Lenka instead. It must be the new release as it was all new to me. Because if that i did't work as hard as normal - i just kept getting the moves wrong. Although by the time we got the second to last track it finally clicked! Oh well, next week. It works out better i think because the class starts at 7:30 giving me loads of time to get home and feed Charlie.

Tonight i am going to go for it and do Ceroc.

Damn - 6:10 and i'm still at work - and i know how to check into work every 30 minutes as the team who are on 24 hour support will no longer support the US.

posted by small 5:10 PM

Some MF has stolen my bike. I am very cross and slightly unnerved about someone rummaging through my shed...I also cannot afford to replace it

Oh well. I have decided to start a new life. I have brought no money with me to work, but have brought snack a jacks, muller lights and bananas. I had one last binge yesterday (partly due to it being Marcus' birthday) and that's that.

I am going to go to Combat tonight (in place of balance) and then try and switch to a balance class on a Friday. Then with skipping on Thursday and circuits when i am free on Saturdays i think i am doing a fair bit. I'm then thinking about taking up ceroc on Wednesdays. The only thing that is really putting me off is... i don't know what to wear.

posted by small 3:57 PM

I always thought that i had achieved nothing. Turns out i was wrong. I was looking through the stats to see how people got to my site and ended up going through some old entrid from 1999. In one of them i wrote:

I want to own a cat, but that isn't going to happen until I
buy a house. Which will entail a
move to Brum, since i want to go back there.
I wanted to be debt-free by the end of this year, but with dads death it is extremely unlikely.
I want to go out and socialise, even if it is alone.
I want to do some exercise: roll on September and that Yoga course!

Well, i have a cat, i am in Brum and i have i house.

I still havbe to be debt free.

I do need to socialise

I do exercise, but now need to stop eating...

posted by small 10:18 PM

Smallkat says: Vote early, and vote often!
posted by small 4:23 PM

I had a tutorial on Saturday and got my tma3 results back. 45. I was absolutely gutted. I still went to the tutorial but felt really deflated. The bank holiday weekend i decided to have a break from writing tma04 and have a blast through block 4 instead. Last night i finally felt able to start tma writing again. I hope that this time it will be better as i truly was ready to give up. Although i have reserved a place on a course for next year, i am thinking that maybe i should take a year off rom classics and do something different. Maybe Spanish... i don't know. I guess i will see what this tma brings. I enjoy parts of it, but Thuc has been really dry and not enjoyable for me at all.

The new DD for holmes place went through, so as soon as the DD for my savings account is set up, some of that will go into my car fund (for service, tax, mot, etc) and i think some will get chucked debts.

MY abbey card will be paid off in July. My MBNA won't be though, i will still have a couple of hundred on there. I think towards the end of this month i will look at getting another o% card, transfering the remainder of mbna and some from cap one. To date, my debt free day is september 2006. I want to bring that foward. I should be able to make some serious inroads. I keep think about the fact that i will have nearly 150 "extra" pounds when this is all paid off. I ahev already earmarked that as possibly going towards a car. My current one, whilst not old, has done a lot of miles and will need to be replaced soon.

posted by small 1:38 PM