… despite it being St Patrick’s Day, because I don’t actually own any green clothing or even jewellery. Not even socks. So there you go. I’m not going out either this year; can’t really afford it and not really in the mood. 

It’s been an odd couple of weeks. Obviously, with my work deadline out of the way, I got to sit back and relax a bit in the first week of March. We had a Friday afternoon of post-release celebration, i.e. pizza and poker and beer and computer games and general dossing. Except that I had to forego the pizza because I’d given it up for Lent, and I ended up taking my chicken strips and potato wedges to my desk because I couldn’t bear to watch everyone else eating pizza. I’m also really crap at Guitar Hero and not too hot on using a Wii either (well, it was my first time for both). And then Wales beat Ireland in the Six Nations rugby, which meant that the Grand Slam was a possibility.

And then last Thursday, we had a shock at work with redundancies announced. And those who were made redundant were told that night by phone - including the other tech writer. I wasn’t in the office on Thursday and was glad of it, but I was there on Friday and it felt like a wake. Very unhappy indeed, particularly after the fun of the previous week. I was relieved to be staying, but felt guilty because of the relief… and depressed and shocked too. We all did.

On the plus side, Wales then beat France very convincingly on Saturday to clinch the tournament and their second Grand Slam in four years. Which put me in a better mood.  I’d met Lorraine and others out on Friday evening, too, since she finished her job that day (having snaffled the only tech writing job to be advertised in the North West in years). Good food at Café Calm (lovely tapas) and good company did help too.

Also today, I am mostly … making a list

… of everything I want to get done this week while I’m off work. I’d booked this holiday quite a while ago, and after last week, I’m damn glad I did. It’s time for a serious spring-clean, anyway.

… and wondering whether I’ll regret buying cream ones. But I finally, for the first time in my life, have curtains which match my duvet covers.
(And no, that’s not some sort of euphemism.)

Also today, I am mostly … not writing as much as I should

… for NaNoWriMo. It’s not that my writing is going all that badly, but the nice buffer that I’d built up over the past few weeks has now disappeared due to me not writing very much for a couple of days, so I need to at least be on track to hit 30,000 words tonight… A few sprints should do the trick.
My favourite line in my novel so far is: “You’ve got your own trousers, I hope?”

… and walls and door and ceiling and furniture. After shifting all the small stuff - and the mattress - out of our bedroom yesterday, today is cleaning & shifting big furniture & painting day. Hurrah?

I will be so glad when my house is tidy once more, with things in the proper place. That probably won’t be for another couple of weeks though, since I don’t have the inclination to do more than about an hour at a time. Hmmm. Why do I get the feeling my mum will insist on helping me next weekend when they’re visiting?

Also today, I am mostly … being pleased at how bold the kitten is getting

… because she’s definitely relaxed a lot in just the past few days. She’s no longer too afraid of me & Colin to come out of hiding when we go in the garage, and she makes a dart for the food dishes as soon as we put them down (as long as we don’t make any sudden movements). Hopefully we’ll be able to get our (gloved) hands on her sometime soon.

… and the desk monkey who sent me a faulty router, which I received Friday, which led to a couple of hours on the phone to BT Broadband Support (who I have nothing but praise for), which led to not one but two engineers visiting my house yesterday and investigating lots until they showed that there was nothing wrong with the line but that the router was faulty, which led to a new router being ordered for me which shall arrive in 3 to 5 working days.
Which means no home internet for me until the weekend, maybe later. Grrrrrr. It also means that I have to be in the office for the rest of the week as there’s no realistic way that I can work from home without net access - I tried it yesterday and it isn’t an experiment I want to repeat.

Also today, I am mostly … buying primer

… so that we can finish painting the lonely wall in the garden. And hopefully the annoying children who live round by me will stop sitting on it.
We didn’t get much painting done over the weekend though. Oh well. It’ll have to wait till next weekend, like so much else…

And also today, I am mostly … wondering if the squatter is still in residence

… or if she’s decided to seek friends and food and shelter elsewhere. I’m referring to the 6 or 7 week old tortoiseshell kitten that appeared in the garden on Sunday afternoon, tried (and failed) to make friends with my cats, and has since moved into the garage where she spends most of her time hiding from me & Colin. Well, perhaps she’s not hiding when we’re not there: she’s a bit of a Schrödinger’s cat in that the act of observing her changes her state.
The other cats don’t seem that bothered about her other than an occasional hiss - certainly nowhere near the bother we had introducing Clover to them - though she’s probably too small to be much of a threat. They probably blame their humans for the arrival, too… Zuzu did seem slightly freaked out and spent a lot of Sunday in a tree, but that’s possibly because the kitten looks very like her, and Zuzu’s now under the impression that she’s broken the space-time continuum. Or something.
I can imagine this cat still being there in a year’s time though, skulking around and eating the other kitties’ food, and never deigning to come near me or Colin.
There must be a sign up somewhere which says ‘Free food this way!’

… for the hall/stairs/landing and ‘master’ bedroom. Colin started painting the hall etc on Monday, but ran out of paint, both white and green, by Tuesday. So I had another trip to B&Q today to buy more, so he can finish this weekend when he comes back from Galway. In the meantime, I have to put up with all the shoes and phone books and coats dumped in the study, plus protective newspapers all the way up the stairs.
Don’t know when we’ll get the bedroom painted, but we have 3 weeks until my parents arrive… I have to finish organising the study this weekend!

Also today, I am mostly … hoping BT dispatch my new modem very soon

… because for me, it’s true trauma being without internet access. I’m just not used to it (hence my not-so-sneaky usage in work today). Having my modem give up on me (well, according to the little desk monkey I spoke to at BT NI, anyway) on a day when I was supposed to be working from home was extremely annoying… though to be honest, in the end I rather appreciated my enforced/unexpected day off, even if I didn’t do very much.

And also today, I am mostly … being annoyingly clumsy

… with things like making coffee and getting in and out of the car. I’ve managed to bang my head when plugging something in under the desk, and cut the back of my hand while walking down the corridor (there are weird wooden plaques things sticking out dangerously and I swung my hand into one), but so far I haven’t spilt anything on myself. Yet.
As long as I can drive home in one piece, I suppose I should be happy though.

… although possibly not as badly as described in this article from BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6928901.stm
I don’t want to go home, at least. Not yet, anyway.

The Friday Feeling is a cross between elation that it’s finally Friday and hence almost the weekend, and annoyance that it’s still Friday and hence still the working week. I am definitely suffering from it today.

Although I’m not really looking forward to my weekend. I have too much to do, most of which I don’t /want/ to do - starting with standing outside a supermarket tomorrow, trying to get people to put money in my tin in return for a sticker. It’s for the Rainbow Rehoming Centre (source of several of mine and Marion’s cats), so it’s a good cause and all… I’m just not looking forward to it.
And other than that, I have a lot of cleaning and tidying to do around the house. I need to sort through the boxes that got cleared out of the study when I painted it 3 weeks ago, and put the other pair of curtains up… bah.