the day before the day before

i love work at this time of year. i keep telling myself. it's crazy busy and there's so much to be done and big goals to reach. where would peace on earth be without someone setting impossible budgets? the atmosphere at work is livlier i scare everyone; lots of stress and rush because i'm constantly telling everyone to work harder of the volume of work but so much more joking and teasing going on. i'm ruthless. it's a real buzz. the team seems to pull together more. they don't dare not do as i tell them because i look ready to explode. tomorrow should be great fun the place will be heaving and everyone will be irritable by 1st tea break keeping the motivation high their new year party rides on how well they perform and everyone happy false smiles work, the customer can't distinguish and glad relieved to close up shop and get home for Christmas day.

sod it

Actually I'm just going to use my blog for news about Mr K.Lots of people check in here to catch up on news so here goes. I know this is the world's crappiest way of doing it but please bear with me. I cannot face saying the same bits of news over and over again to different people, as much as I love you all. I know this is probably the equivalent of text dumping but I hope you can understand and will let me off the social faux pas!

We just got back from seeing the consultant for the 2nd time and I was armed with a mountain of questions. The main news from today is that the tumour has been there for a long time. At least months, possibly years. He thinks it is stable because the symptoms are stable but changes can occur of course and there can be abnormal developments. It can be known to trigger blackouts but so far that hasn't happened. If it does we'd have to look at restricting activities such as obvious stuff like driving.

In terms of processes, this tumour cannot be operated on. It is on too many important parts of the brain to be cut out so we're looking at medical solutions. Chemo and wotnot. We will be getting a date for a biopsy with 'a small number of weeks'. The tumour is non urgent because there are no signs that it is going to significantly change in a matter of days or weeks. Of course there's no proven diagnosis yet so he was unable to commit to a prognosis. I asked blunt questions and got blunt answers. It was just what we needed.

So, we won't know if it's malignant or benign until after the biopsy and we can't be sure of what treatment will be needed until biopsy results are back in.

He was rather more human than when Mr K went in last time. He did say that he'd find things out for us and contact us. Also he said he understood that the waiting must be really difficult.

Now don't get me wrong. I haven't blogged this because I don't want calls or visits. I just don't wanna have to say all this a million times over. Yes, because I have at least a million regular viewers!

Don't let this spoil Christmas, even Mr K came out and said; 'You know how much I want this biopsy? Like a hole in the head!'

blogger's block

done nothing, can't think what to write.

I assume no-one apart from me is going to be pleased that we beat WTD figures yesterday and that one of our really good temps is working full time next week but these are the things that make me happy at work. who else is going to understand my frustration that HO thinks we're not zero model stocking when I do that every day and it must be a problem with IT? Or why does HH keep getting left off the company voucher tables? And I'm not even getting onto the OFT referral!!

I read 'Gaza Blues' recently and it wasn't bad. Thought it was going to be a lot better though. Short stories by a Jew and a Palestinian. Cute cover and nifty thinking but didn't blow my socks off.

Now I'm reading 'Ask the Dust' by Fante which I'm enjoying. I need lots of short novels for a while as my reading has been non existent recently. (it's the drive for uplift on LFL figures, you know...)

As soon as Mr K can find the lead for the digital camera I promise to give you pretty photos of Christmassy things and no more talk of missing POS headers and poor automatch results (also not our fault)!

BOOM

Could be fun getting in to work tomorrow.

Work has not suffered any damage but shops in the same area have big cracks in the walls. Seems we were protected by the car park which stood between us and the blast. My colleagues who live locally told me that things were flying off their shelves during the explosion and that town had a bit of a smoggy atmosphere all day.The motorway is shut down and everyone is going to be taking the back roads to wrok tomorrow morning!

FUNNIEST story

Shamelessly nicked this from the mighty Palimp but it had me howling so wanted to share it with you all. True story of a friend of a friend...

A man is drinking in the pub, and drinking, and drinking, when suddenly he realizes he is about to be ill. He heads for the Gents' toilets. He walks in the door and finds the door to the only stall locked. "Great time for the toilet to be out of order," he thinks. He's reaching the emergency stage now, so he assesses his remaining options in a panic...sink? Too small. The 'urinal' was one of those clever floor-based narrow trough thingies you Brits do so well (or not) in your public toilets. Not a proper receptacle for massive amounts of vomit, either.Finally, he has reached a crucial point, and he has no other options, so he lowers his shoulder and charges through the door of the stall and vomits all over...the stunned man sitting on the toilet.Our hero suddenly sobers up for a moment, as one often will do immediately after drunk-vomiting, and he carefully considers the situation: "This bloke's going to be angry...""...I'd better get the first punch in."So he punches the man, who is still sitting on the toilet, before quickly collecting his friends and leaving.

le dog

Seems Monty learnt a bit of continental cooking while he was away.

He has developed a taste for KOURAPIEDES, that I made this evening from the Falling Cloudberries recipe book. Essentially, they are lots and lots of butter with icing sugar, flour and egg yolk. They taste amazing but next time I make them I'm only going to taste 2 or 3 at a time.

They may be small but I feel rather er...'full' now so I'm going to bed.

day off

what a splendid day off. went to see mrs mole and new offsprogs who are delightful and funny and smiley and generally (and specifically) loveable. I look forward to watching them grow up and play their parents up horribly so I can sit back and chuckle!!

Bought my christmas present from Mr K (pair of growed up girls boots) and then accidentally found myself buying a skirt to go with it.

MONTY HOME!!!!!

We are all beyond ecstatic. Monty is home. He was found the same evening he ran away and has been safely looked after by some people not far from us. (Just off Ampthill Road for those of you who know where that is) They found him hoofing it across the St John's roundabout, dodging traffic. They found us through the website where we'd put up Monty's picture and details which amazes me that they discovered that website.
Anyway he's back and we are all delighted. Panic over.

please?

http://www.doglost.co.uk/forum.asp?ID=4909

anyone in the Bedford area. please would you consider clicking on 'view poster' and printing off a copy or two to put up in your window or local shop?

thank you

xxx

May I recommend 'Ricotta tart with a chocolate crust'?

and then...

...the dog ran away from home. this will be his second night missing.

i thought the last last straw was the last straw.

startlingly awful

that pretty much sums up today

the sublime

as promised.

went from rocking and playing pool in one of Bedford's earthier clubs to singing in the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday evening.
Quite a big ole do. The choir must have been 5,000 strong. Believe it or not, it has been a lifelong ambition of mine to sing Handel's Messiah (without a hairbrush in front of the mirror) though I never expected it to be in the Albert Hall. hey ho, life throws you some crazy ones occassionally.
It was amazing, of course. I sang alto and had a superb time. It's an annual thing called 'Handel from Scratch'. You literally book your ticket, turn up and sing. No rehearsals. I went with a group of friends who go every year and borrowed a score when I got there. Thankfully, I've (charitably) blasted it out to the rowdy neighbours to get my own back often enough to pretty much know all the words anyway. Who knows, I might go next year unless I get the chance to fulfil any different lifelong ambitions. So if you're reading this Johnny....

Mud Shark

Last night was fun and only curtailed by having to wake up at half 6 for work this morning. Went to see a friend of a friends, now almost a friend if he can remember me (!), band Mud Shark. I have yet to find out why. They were really very good. They played Esquires which, before I knew about the place, I took to be some salacious joint that had a side line in escorting agency work - the sort I'm lead to believe advertise in the back of free newspapers. Au contraire. It's a gritty little den for the weird and wonderful. Last night we constituted the weird. I played pool like a girl. Yes, I played on the team that comprehensively outclassed the opposition for 99% of the game then I fluffed on the black ball every time to the delight of the ever so slightly competitive males.
The stamp on the back of my hand seems to be indelible.
Hung out with the ever lovely and interesting J&A and the ever lovely D. And yes Mole I did hear you say "she always needs you". ha ha ha ha! He doesn't know about this blog does he?? yikes.
Tomorrow's blog entry will swing from the ridiculous to the sublime. Watch this space.

overheard at work

"Oh yeah, keep the receipt then you can prove you bought something for her and didn't just nick it."

ooh doggeh!

just cos he's canine doesn't mean he can't enjoy a film with the quilt downstairs like the rest of us!

here's 'monteh' showing how he's feeling part of the furniture now. (those pieces he hasn't chewed)

seems i stole my own thunder

have practically no recollection of having blogged last night. to be honest i thought i'd dreampt that or it feels like something i wrote months ago and only partially remember doing. YIKES! That's a new experience for me!

So anyway, it was a splendid evening. Hope I didn't spoil an otherwise all male evening of intoxicated ribaldry.

Remind me Mole when the gig is next weekend. Friday or Saturday? Also, remind me for the nth time what your mate is called. The one who always thinks he's never met me and has the welded together dog you hate. He was very sweet last night talking to me about his family.

Also, remember the 27th January or whichever Thursday is closest to that. No pressure to let me know, just a reminder in case the mention of it last night got washed away by our starry friend, Stella.

All good fun.

perfick

lovely evening mole. am very drunk. dil beautiful. hee hee. fun fun. you and jj very good mates. see you and the smalls soon. xxx