Diary Entry
2.24 am Here we go again. I can't sleep. To make it worse, I'm coming down with a cold and can't breathe very well when I'm laid down flat. Looks like a night on the couch propped up on cushions. At least the dog can't stick his cold nose on my foot when he wants attention if he's upstairs and I'm down here!
I did use the time wisely. With all the studying I need to do, not to mention the new candle orders I have coming in, I won't have time this week to go do the shopping, so I put into practice my idea of ordering my main groceries from Tesco online. They'll be here tomorrow night. I picked a time when I figure we'll be home. I think I'll save money this way, too. I can't stick junk into the trolley if I'm not actually in the store. I can still add things to my order today if I've forgotten anything. I've looked for the best quote for contents insurance, and I've applied for a joint life insurance policy for Simon and myself. I'm trying to make this my "year of economic responsibility". I didn't do anything daft like insure Simon for £100,000 and me for £10,000. No, we're equal around here (or at least that's what I tell him), so it's £25,000 each. Not enough to make one of us rich if we outlive the other, but enough to keep the other going.
I've also ordered the "Original Bridget" Diary from Oxfam. Someone donated a box of books to Oxfam last year, and in it was a diary written by a woman in the 1920s. The description says:
I was thinking of giving it to Malorie for her birthday, even though it's a 2005 diary and that will leave out a month. I'm already giving her an amethyst ring I bought myself when I was about 20. I know I bought it from Zales, and it was before she was born. It was the first piece of proper jewellery I ever bought myself. I think it might by the only piece I've ever bought myself. Everything else has been junk jewellery, wedding rings excluded. Since it's her birthstone, too, and it's going to be her 16th, I want to give her something special.
And I haven't stopped there! I read Gary's determination to learn French on his blog, and with my trip to Belgium coming up next month, I decided that I'm going to brush up on my French AND learn some basic German! Don't ask me when I'm going to manage this on top of everything else, but I've ordered a book with CD on basic German, a book of common French phrases (I figured why not? it was only £1.02 from Amazon) and a book on learning French in 10 minutes a day. I studied French in high school and then in 1985-86 at university, but I've forgotten most of it. I never even tried German. I must be good with languages though. I can speak English English and American English, and if anyone thinks the two are the same, they have another thing coming!
10.32 am I finally managed some sleep, but I had to make two trips to the toilet and thought I was going to fall down the stairs, I was so out of it. My chest hurts, and I'm still absolutely wrecked, so I think I'm going to try to get some more Zzzzzzs before everyone else wakes up (they're all still asleep!) and before I have to study.
I've just been chatting to Pete while writing the above paragraph. He's hoping to have his new forum up and running in the next couple of days. One of his ideas was the have a space to blog brag, so to speak. At least to promote all our blogs. Not that my other one is exclusively writing related in the fiction sense. It's more editorial and observational, really. I do hope to put some of my non-fiction on it before too long, and eventually get back to writing fiction. If I can find what disk it's saved on, I have a short story I wrote once upon a time I'll put on there. It'll be nice to have a friendly forum to exchange feedback though. FA used to be like that, but it got really boring towards the end. I hadn't been a regular user in months.
2.05 pm Wow, what a nap! I passed out watching the telly and woke up just after 1.00. I needed it though since I hardly slept last night. I've just cleared my desk and started organising everything so I can do some homework. It's a shame Simon's disappeared to the DIY store and Graham's house and left me to the kiddie chaos. No studying yet!
I wish I could watch television now, but we have this really posh wide-screen telly, and we pay for it monthly but using a coin meter. For every pound coin we put in, we can watch it for three hours. I've already mentioned that I fell asleep watching telly this morning. The rest is obvious: I used up all the credit in the meter. I don't have any pound coins either. It's a pain, but it gets the television paid for!
Amazon says they've dispatched my foreign language books. That was fast! When I ordered, they gave me a delivery date of between the 8th and 10th of January, but maybe I'll get them this week! They're usually pretty speedy. I told Simon my plan of brushing up on French and learning some German. He just shook his head at me. Nothing new there. Even Gary's reaction was pretty much the same. He said I'm hopeless. Yeah, probably.
3.07 pm Boredom. I've revamped my other blog and even posted a short story I wrote a couple of years ago (the names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent). It gave me something to do. There's too much noise to study properly. Looks like I get to go to work tomorrow because, at least while I'm in the shop, there's peace and quiet where I can study. Otherwise I'm going to have to wait until everyone is in bed tonight, and my criminal law essay is due a week today! I still think I can do a good job on it, as long as I can get into the library on Wednesday and get some relevant journal articles pulled off the internet tonight and tomorrow. Then I better get my butt in gear on the essay for criminological research methods! This is not a failure to act on one of my goals for the New Year. This is due to circumstances beyond my control (i.e. the kids are all hyper today), albeit created by my previous tendency to procrastinate.
I can't wait for the weekend. Shell and I are going out drinking. Boy do I need it.
4.39 pm I've just sent Simon a text message asking him which Arnold Laver's DIY store he went to: Sheffield? Chesterfield? London? I know where he is. He sitting at Graham's making Marie fix him cups of tea while he and Graham chain smoke and do whatever it is they do on the computer. So much for his goal of getting the boys' curtains up today, their telly mounted on the wall, and Malorie's curtains up. Then there's the kids' computer that needs to be finished and moved upstairs. It's in my way in the kitchen. I could come up with a longer list if he needs more to do.
The dog keeps going wappy. He's not much of a barker, but he won't shut up. I think it must be kids. Nope, it's Simon. The prodigal husband returns.
7.08 pm Sometimes I feel really selfish for whinging. I've just been complaining about having a cough and needing a nap, and Pete has to take his wife to the hospital today for a stress test. She's so nervous she's biting his head off every ten seconds, but I'd probably be the same. At least he's going with her. I think that's great.
I've been putting into practice the article I read that chocolate might turn out to be the miracle cure for coughs. Hey, it's worth a shot!
10.37 pm Damn! I was sound asleep and having a wonderful dream that I was on a date with Robbie Williams. Okay, I was skinnier, too. I hated waking up! Just imagine, me on a date with Robbie and being skinnier! It makes me want to go straight back to sleep.
I did use the time wisely. With all the studying I need to do, not to mention the new candle orders I have coming in, I won't have time this week to go do the shopping, so I put into practice my idea of ordering my main groceries from Tesco online. They'll be here tomorrow night. I picked a time when I figure we'll be home. I think I'll save money this way, too. I can't stick junk into the trolley if I'm not actually in the store. I can still add things to my order today if I've forgotten anything. I've looked for the best quote for contents insurance, and I've applied for a joint life insurance policy for Simon and myself. I'm trying to make this my "year of economic responsibility". I didn't do anything daft like insure Simon for £100,000 and me for £10,000. No, we're equal around here (or at least that's what I tell him), so it's £25,000 each. Not enough to make one of us rich if we outlive the other, but enough to keep the other going.
I've also ordered the "Original Bridget" Diary from Oxfam. Someone donated a box of books to Oxfam last year, and in it was a diary written by a woman in the 1920s. The description says:
The ' Original Bridget ' Oxfam Diary 2005
Ilene Powell was a fun-loving 17-year-old in Bristol, interested in dieting, relationships, boyfriends, shopping and nights out. Just like so many other teenagers. And, like so many teenage girls, she kept a diary.
But this was 1925, before the idea of 'being a teenager' was born.
In 2004, her diary came to light in a bundle of books donated to the Oxfam bookshop in Bristol. The media instantly dubbed Ilene as 'the original Bridget'. There are many parallels to the modern fictional obsessive diarist Bridget Jones, as The Times noted: "Sorry Bridget Jones... the secret diary of a 17-year-old Bristol girl growing up in the Jazz Age of the Twenties suggests that girls then were having a much better time, and more success with the boys."
The diary offers a fascinating and dizzying glimpse at the Roaring Twenties and proves that men, socialising and diets are of timeless interest to young women. There are clear similarities between Miss Powell's weight worries and romantic dalliances with 'the boys', and Bridget's own calorie-counting and search for Mr. Right
On the 80th anniversary of Ilene's diary, Oxfam is issuing The 'Original Bridget' Oxfam Diary 2005 with facsimile extracts from Ilene's daily writing, photos from her family collection, and a profile of Ilene, included with a stylish week-to-view 2005 diary.
The 'Original Bridget' Oxfam Diary 2005 will be a fascinating gift for teenage diarists of all ages.
"If you thought the angst-ridden singleton epitomised by Bridget Jones was a creation of the Naughty Nineties ... think again!" The Daily Telegraph
www.oxfam.org.uk
I was thinking of giving it to Malorie for her birthday, even though it's a 2005 diary and that will leave out a month. I'm already giving her an amethyst ring I bought myself when I was about 20. I know I bought it from Zales, and it was before she was born. It was the first piece of proper jewellery I ever bought myself. I think it might by the only piece I've ever bought myself. Everything else has been junk jewellery, wedding rings excluded. Since it's her birthstone, too, and it's going to be her 16th, I want to give her something special.
And I haven't stopped there! I read Gary's determination to learn French on his blog, and with my trip to Belgium coming up next month, I decided that I'm going to brush up on my French AND learn some basic German! Don't ask me when I'm going to manage this on top of everything else, but I've ordered a book with CD on basic German, a book of common French phrases (I figured why not? it was only £1.02 from Amazon) and a book on learning French in 10 minutes a day. I studied French in high school and then in 1985-86 at university, but I've forgotten most of it. I never even tried German. I must be good with languages though. I can speak English English and American English, and if anyone thinks the two are the same, they have another thing coming!
10.32 am I finally managed some sleep, but I had to make two trips to the toilet and thought I was going to fall down the stairs, I was so out of it. My chest hurts, and I'm still absolutely wrecked, so I think I'm going to try to get some more Zzzzzzs before everyone else wakes up (they're all still asleep!) and before I have to study.
I've just been chatting to Pete while writing the above paragraph. He's hoping to have his new forum up and running in the next couple of days. One of his ideas was the have a space to blog brag, so to speak. At least to promote all our blogs. Not that my other one is exclusively writing related in the fiction sense. It's more editorial and observational, really. I do hope to put some of my non-fiction on it before too long, and eventually get back to writing fiction. If I can find what disk it's saved on, I have a short story I wrote once upon a time I'll put on there. It'll be nice to have a friendly forum to exchange feedback though. FA used to be like that, but it got really boring towards the end. I hadn't been a regular user in months.
2.05 pm Wow, what a nap! I passed out watching the telly and woke up just after 1.00. I needed it though since I hardly slept last night. I've just cleared my desk and started organising everything so I can do some homework. It's a shame Simon's disappeared to the DIY store and Graham's house and left me to the kiddie chaos. No studying yet!
I wish I could watch television now, but we have this really posh wide-screen telly, and we pay for it monthly but using a coin meter. For every pound coin we put in, we can watch it for three hours. I've already mentioned that I fell asleep watching telly this morning. The rest is obvious: I used up all the credit in the meter. I don't have any pound coins either. It's a pain, but it gets the television paid for!
Amazon says they've dispatched my foreign language books. That was fast! When I ordered, they gave me a delivery date of between the 8th and 10th of January, but maybe I'll get them this week! They're usually pretty speedy. I told Simon my plan of brushing up on French and learning some German. He just shook his head at me. Nothing new there. Even Gary's reaction was pretty much the same. He said I'm hopeless. Yeah, probably.
3.07 pm Boredom. I've revamped my other blog and even posted a short story I wrote a couple of years ago (the names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent). It gave me something to do. There's too much noise to study properly. Looks like I get to go to work tomorrow because, at least while I'm in the shop, there's peace and quiet where I can study. Otherwise I'm going to have to wait until everyone is in bed tonight, and my criminal law essay is due a week today! I still think I can do a good job on it, as long as I can get into the library on Wednesday and get some relevant journal articles pulled off the internet tonight and tomorrow. Then I better get my butt in gear on the essay for criminological research methods! This is not a failure to act on one of my goals for the New Year. This is due to circumstances beyond my control (i.e. the kids are all hyper today), albeit created by my previous tendency to procrastinate.
I can't wait for the weekend. Shell and I are going out drinking. Boy do I need it.
4.39 pm I've just sent Simon a text message asking him which Arnold Laver's DIY store he went to: Sheffield? Chesterfield? London? I know where he is. He sitting at Graham's making Marie fix him cups of tea while he and Graham chain smoke and do whatever it is they do on the computer. So much for his goal of getting the boys' curtains up today, their telly mounted on the wall, and Malorie's curtains up. Then there's the kids' computer that needs to be finished and moved upstairs. It's in my way in the kitchen. I could come up with a longer list if he needs more to do.
The dog keeps going wappy. He's not much of a barker, but he won't shut up. I think it must be kids. Nope, it's Simon. The prodigal husband returns.
7.08 pm Sometimes I feel really selfish for whinging. I've just been complaining about having a cough and needing a nap, and Pete has to take his wife to the hospital today for a stress test. She's so nervous she's biting his head off every ten seconds, but I'd probably be the same. At least he's going with her. I think that's great.
I've been putting into practice the article I read that chocolate might turn out to be the miracle cure for coughs. Hey, it's worth a shot!
10.37 pm Damn! I was sound asleep and having a wonderful dream that I was on a date with Robbie Williams. Okay, I was skinnier, too. I hated waking up! Just imagine, me on a date with Robbie and being skinnier! It makes me want to go straight back to sleep.
posted by Melinda at 1/02/2005 11:33:00 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home