Monthly Archives: January 2004

Being house-bound with no car meant that Fliss and I could focus all our attention on decorating the lounge this weekend.

I have to admit that she’s put in a bit more work than me, but I did put some time in both on Saturday and today, applying the second coat of our chosen shade of yellow paint on top of the groundwork she’d done last weekend. It’s hard going, painting – I cant say I’ve done a lot of it in my time, but the whole reach and kneel thing you have to do while you roll the paint up and down the wall from ceiling to floor really does take it out on the arms and legs. Fortunately we’re almost finished, although I reckon we’ll have to get a little more of the paint to finish it off, which will drag it out until next weekend.

From the “perfect fucking timing” department, we got a letter from the estate agency just after we’d got stuck into the work on Saturday. Turns out they want to come and do a mid-term inspection on the place. Since we have no car at the moment for me to get back during the day time I’ll have to stall them until next week, which should also give us time to get the painting finished. I’m thinking that if we make a good job of it and the smell of paint is gone then they wont even remember the previous hue of lilac with blue-tac polkadots.

It’s not like they can open a big can of whoop-ass on us just for brightening the place up a bit, is it?

We’ve endured a year and a half of tempermental central heating, plus the leaking roof, so if they do have a problem with the new look lounge then I’ll be opening up my own can of whoop-ass!

On Wednesday night after Uncle John arrived we made a bit of a night ot it, venturing out to the Gulshan for some fine, if expensive, Indian cuisine. To be honest I’d never really noticed before if the place was pricey or not, I was usually just happy with a fine meal and signed on the dotted line regardless. But ?56 for two people seemed very steep on the night. Fortunately it was fantastic food or we’d have been doing a runner!

I cant really complain, though, as Uncle John treated me and the banter was priceless in my book. When you have quality quotes like; “Any lump of rock can be a planet, but it takes living things to make a world.” it’s easy to sit back, drink, and enjoy the company.

Of course, if you stuff yourself silly and drink a bit much on the Wednesday night, the chances are that Thursday will be spent feeling a bit awful. Fortunately I was only a little tired since I got up early to take Fliss to work.

I was getting my second wind by the time we went to Kieran‘s place for dinner, so for the second night in a row the food was tops. I really should have a Pot Noodle tonight to balance my food karma.

We topped off the evening with a very silly game of the junior edition of Trivial Pursuit. Some of the questions were hysterical, sending Fliss and Elle into giggle fits on a regular basis. I have to admit; “What did Hansel stick out of the cage for the witch to touch?” does seem a little bit pervy. Especially when the answer was “A bone”!

Graeme and Lisa snatched victory in the end, the sly devils – they were two bits of pie down and we had a full house, but couldn’t seem to land on the centre of the board for our final question.

Sadly for Graeme he’d forgotten the “Winner pays for the taxi home” rule, but being a decent chap he stumped up without too much fuss! ;o)

Due to a slightly naive gamble with a pack of peroxide dye, for the last few days I’ve sported lilac streaks in my hair. It was meant to be a nice deep blue, but a combination of over-confidence and wanting to watch the end of the Chief’s vs Colts NFL play-off game meant that the dye stayed in my hair for around 20 minutes longer than it should have.

It wasn’t so bad that I needed to lock myself away from the world, but it wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for either. After two days of welcome and amusing comentary from my colleagues, I decided that a bit of a touch-up was necessary. That and the fact that Crazy Uncle John is visiting tonight and he might tell my mum on me when he goes back.

Fliss came to the rescue and brushed in some dark blue dye we’ve had in the bathroom cabinet for ages. It would never work before because my hair was just too dark, but it turns out that lilac hair takes to blue dye really well. Now it’s pretty much the colour I was after in the first place, not that I can remember now why I wanted it to be that colour in the first place.