12 Days of Christmas

It's that time of year again where the decorations are taken down from the attic! And you know that the Christmas Tree lights from last year won't work and it'll take hours and hours of checking to see which bulb has blown. You finally get them working and set about decorating the house.

Now some people, who shall remain nameless, love to have a house which looks like Santa exploded in it. Every corner is decorated and the house just looks like Santa's grotto. We all know someone like that and let's face it, it's lovely to make such a big effort. And it does look really really well. However, I'm too lazy to do that as that would require putting all the decorations up, looking at them for a few weeks, and then taking them all down again till next year. It's the taking down part that I cannot abide. The effort of it like. I much more of a Christmas Tree and a few other bits around the house sorta guy. Works wonders for me anyway.

We also know them type of people who have all their Christmas shopping done by the 1st of November each year. These people make me sick. Sick with jealousy. No matter how much I say I'm going to be better prepared next year, I will still be running around the town like a heifer in heat come next Christmas Eve. Why do I do that to myself? Why? Every year I swear it'll be different. And it's not. I hear people at work and in the shops saying "Oh I only have to get one more present and I have all my shopping done for Christmas". At which point I could just hurl.

I do love seeing the town all done up for the festivities, along with offices and schools etc. I think that they really set the mood for a good Christmas. I was working up until Christmas Eve last year (on the day before Christmas Eve I was told I'd be finishing in January) and this was my first and last Christmas in that job (thank God). But there was no Christmas atmosphere in that place. In any other job I had, the place would be buzzing on the run up to Christmas. But not in this shite hole. The boss had nothing on Scrooge. Never in my life have I met one so horrible and cold. But that's a blog post for another day. I made last Christmas a great one in spite of all that happened on the run up to it! Go me.

Finally, I'd like to say that I have no Christmas shopping done yet whatsoever and it will stay like this up until the week before Christmas at least. Ha! I shall leave you know with one of my favourite Christmas songs....Enjoy!

My Shopping Adventure

Last Wednesday evening I had a look inside the fridge and I thought that it looked rather empty. Knowing that the weather was about to take a turn for the worst over the coming days I decided to skip along to the supermarket and buy some essentials and some treats for me too!

I called my friend and I asked her if she wanted to come with me. Just for the spin like. So I picked her up and we headed to our local superquinn. Now my friend only moved back to Ireland this July having been living in America for the past two years. She was rather amazed at the fact that Superquinn offer a self scan service. You know the one where you swipe your club card and you get a hand held scanner and scan all your own products and pack them away in your shopping bag as you shop? She could not comprehend how they would trust people to scan all the items. I explained that they do random scans every so often. She still couldn't get over it.

Anyway, we strolled around the aisle's picking items off the shelves and scanning them and putting them in my shopping bags. I had the usual stuff, pasta, carbonarra sauce, flour, raisins, bread, lettuce, onions, lemonade, coke, etc. I had them all packed away neatly.

I went up to the superscan till and paid for my shopping and left the store. When we had enetered the supermarket at about 6.30PM there was no wind or rain. It was a pleasent enough night. But when we were leaving at just after 7.00PM the wind had really picked up and the rain was belting. So my friend, being the girl that she is, ran to the car screaming that her hair was getting wet. I was left pushing a trolley over to my car and I got soaked in the process. Off I was trotting to the car when a big gust of wind came.

The next events all happened in slow motion. I had a newspaper under my arm. I had both hands firmly gripped to the trolley. I looked down at my shopping. I had placed a head of lettuce on top of one of the bags so it wouldn't get squashed. I was just putting my hand out to push it down a bit when the gust of wind came and blew it out of the trolley. It was gone like a rocket hurtling across the car park. I could hear my friend laughing in the car. Bitch.

I chucked the rest of the shopping into the boot and my friend was saying to leave the lettuce. I couldn't. I needed it for my lunch the next day. At this stage the lettuce was gone half way across the car park and it was still rolling. I chucked the trolley back into the trolley bay and ran after my lettuce.

I battled the wind and the rain. It was trying to beat me back and it nearly succeeded but I wasn't going to let it beat me. I had to get my lettuce. It had travelled for nearly a mile. Well it felt like a mile. I eventually caught up with it. It was under a parked car. Right behind the mud flap. Grabbed it and ran back to the car.

I was soaked to the skin. My friend was saying I was mad. It's a head of lettuce. You could have bought another one tomorrow, etc.

I NEED IT FOR MY LUNCH TOMORROW

FML

Alrighty then folks. This is gonna be a long one. Pull up a seat and get yourself come coffee. Get comfy.

It's only 1PM and today is already turning out to be the worst day of my life. I got a letter last week from the dole office stating I had to attend the Local Employment Office to discuss my employment opportunities, CV layout, training courses, etc. It's a standard thing so that wasn't a problem. My appointment was for 10.30 this morning.

I got up at 8.30 to get ready and do a few other bits and pieces. Had my breakfast. And then I went to shave myself so I'd be looking all respectable for the Local Employment Officer. I dropped my razor and broke the thingy that holds the blade onto the razor itself. Couldn't shave myself so I had to go scruffy looking but at least I was showered and smelling lovely.

Then I decided that I would print off my CV to bring it with me. Just in case they wanted to look at it. When I got to the printer the only paper that was in it was pink. A pink CV? I think not. I decided to print it out just to have it in case they asked. I broke the printer. No CV. Not even a pink one.

I left the house and stopped at the post office on the way to pick up my wages for the week. I went and got diesel in my car. Filled it up and when I took the nozzle out of the car a few drops of diesel blew off in the wind and straight onto my jeans. Sigh.

Finally made it to the retail park where the Local Employment Office is located. Then I realised that I forgot the letter that they had sent me. I probably didn't need it anyway but I'd liked to have had it. I looked around the retail park and couldn't see the office anywhere. So then I was wondering if there was anything else on the letter...another name perhaps...or a unit number..anything. Tried to remember what was written on it but I couldn't. I whipped out my mobile and went on the mobile internet and googled the Local Employment Office. Guess what? It wasn't called the Local Employment Office. It was called Obair. How in the name of god was I supposed to find it based on the information given to me in the letter from the dole office. Saps the lot of em.

I went in and was handed a form which already had some of my information printed on it and the lady in reception told me to go to the waiting room and fill in the additional details on the form. I was eventually seen by another lady at 10.50am. She looked at my form and said:

"So.....accounting...there is not much jobs in that at the moment. Now two jobs are there this morning. One is receptionist/bookkeeper and a bit of payroll."

"I don't have payroll. I am considering doing a course in payroll soon but the cost is too much for me to afford."

"Ok. Well there is another job here for a secretary/office admin. Doing things like answering phone, data input, deal with international clients etc. They want someone with a good look. You have a good look."

"I suppose I would consider it anyway - based on my good look of course!"

"I'll print that off for ya outside in reception"

"Grand. now look into a payroll course and I'll see will the DSFA give ya some money towards it"

"Yeah grand I'll email ya later"

"Bye"

And that was that. Less that 10 minutes later I was out in the car park thinking what a waste of time that was. Since it was early and I was in town I decided I'd make a run to Penneys and see what their slankets look like and also have a look at some gloves for myself.

I parked up and went into Penneys. It was a lovely bright sunny day. Had a quick little browse around and it was lovely and quiet in there. No mothers and buggies and clothes strewn all over the floor. Makes a change. Anyway, I wasn't at all impressed with the slankets or the gloves so I went back to my car. Now my car wasn't parked too far away but half away to the car park the heavens opened. It was the heaviest shower I have ever seen. And I was stuck in the middle of it with nowhere to hide. I got soaked. Soaked to the skin. My coat was so wet that the steering wheel, gear stick, hand brake and seat were all soaking wet too. I went straight home to change into dry clothes.

I had to post off a copy of my drivers licence and proof of my address to my car insurance company so I decided I'd do that. Put it all in an envelope and then I remembered I had a stamp somewhere that I could use. The sticky was gone off it so I decided I'd put some gloy gum on it and stick it to the envelope. Big mistake. The gloy gum was all after closing up the applicator thingy so I decided to take the lid off. Oops. It went everywhere. Fingers. Kitchen table, work top, phone, laptop and all over the envelope. I should have paid more attention to Make & Do all them years ago on RTE2.

I eventually cleaned up all the gloy gum and went off to the post office to post my letter. I put the letter on the passenger seat and when I went around the roundybout my car keys slid across the seat and on top of the envelope. Now they were covered in gloy gum too, as was my car seat. So I posted the letter and then I said I may aswell get something for my lunch in the adjoining shop. I bought a floury bap and put it in the plastic bag provided. The flour went everywhere. When I got to the till to pay I noticed all the flour had stuck to the gloy gum on my hands so now I looked like I had leprosy or some other god awful disease.

I came home and made up my lunch. Went to get some coffee to go with it. Cos it'd be a bit dry without it like. I spilled hot water all over the work top. I went to the milk in and when I opened the carton a load of milk splattered out onto my jumper for some god unkown reason. The milk carton has never done that before.

It's now 1.40PM-ish. I'm wondering will I just go to bed and hide until the morning before anything else happens.

It's just one of them days!

Oh and I got a Christmas card from a friend in the post this morning........WTF? It's the 17th of November.

The Green Dot

I log in more regularly. I immediately go to see is the green dot there beside the name. Several times a day it is. Several times a day it's not. When the green dot is there, my heart pounds in anticipation. Shall I start a conversation? Shall I leave it to the other person to start the conversation? Either way I know it's going to be a conversation which will make me smile and think of what could be. And then there is the flirtation that ensues. Oh how we flirt. But I am now getting the feeling that the other person is talking the talk.......but has yet to walk the walk.

When there is no green dot I feel disappointed. Gutted in fact. Should I whip my phone out and send a text? Would that look desperate? Did I text last or did the other person text me last? Maybe I will leave it to tomorrow. And wait. And see. And hope.

The whole situation is starting to consume me and my thoughts. As for that green dot. It shall be the ruination of me! This is all well and good at the moment as we have only been talking a week or two now. I ain't gonna be a fool for nobody. Just hanging in there to see what will happen cos I have nothing else to do!!!

Big Brother is Watching

OK. So I'm sitting here with my foil hat on in case the aliens are listening in and reading my mind. Well not really but I feel like that at the moment. I'm full of the paranoia of late. But my paranoia isn't about the little green men in outer space. Oh no. It's a far greater being than any before. And that being would and could only be, Google.

I have a gmail account. I use google as my main search engine. I use blogger which is google. Basically, whether I know it or not, I'm using google on most online things. But this is making me a little bit uneasy of late. I accidentally clicked on google history last week and I was quiet shocked to see my entire browsing history all recorded over the past 12 months and beyond.

Now with the introduction of google wave just around the corner I fear google's positon on the inter webs is about to get a whole lot stronger! Now I do feel like the mad men in the street shouting about the end of the world or some other mad shite but this is really worrying me. I think google have too much information readily available about all of us and I don't like it. Not one little bit.

I am looking forward to the launch of google wave just as much as the next person. I just want to see what it's all about more so. But I think we should all be wary of what information is being recorded.

Failing that, you can make a tin foil hat similar to mine from 10 square meters of foil rolled into a triple reinforced helmet to keep them out. I'll post a diagram and picture of mine at a later date! HA!

Copy and Paste

This is the most hilarious blog post I've seen in ages. I'm afraid I'm a geek for laughing at it so much though. Eeeek.

http://www.geekologie.com/2009/10/aha_so_thats_how_twins_are_mad.php

You've Got Mail

I got such a surprise in the post this morning. There was two letters from my bank, nothing new there then. But there was a small white envelope with my name and address hand written on it. Hmmm. I threw the bank letters to one side and ripped open the little white envelope.

There was a page inside, torn from a spiral notebook and folded in three. Oooh it was a letter. Not only was it a letter but it was a letter from an actual person! I unfolded it and started to read. Took me a while to figure out what it was about and the person sending it had made a mistake and signed my name to the end of the letter so that really confused me. At first I thought it might have been someone with the same name as me trying to form a secret society of all people with the same name. Buy alas, it was not. Ha.

It was from a girl that I went to college with. We remain extremely good friends several years after graduating. She has never been the most computer minded person in the world so she was never and will never be on Facebook or the likes. Anyhow she just wanted to let me know that she had lost her phone and had gotten a new number and would like me to give her a call or text with my number.

It wasn't very exciting but it was, in a way. I started to think. I had never received a hand written letter from a friend before. Nor had I ever received a letter from any friend. Such a strange thing. I never thought before that I had grew up in such a high tech age but thinking back, I had a phone at 15/16 and computer from an even earlier age. Now of course, I didn't have bebo, facebook or twitter when I was growing up but still it just felt very odd to have never received a letter like that before.

But it was such fun. Now get writing and get to the post office!

Oh and I would write back to my friend but I don't have her address......says it all really!