Here I am. Very tipsy. On the way to the Valentine's Ball. I'm dressing rather severely in a riding outfit, which will hopefully disguise the excesses of the holidays. I promise that if I get photographed, I will post the pics.
I've got my guidebooks for China & Beijing and am poring over them, planning my campaign. Although I was there 2 years ago for 3 weeks, that was completely without plan. THIS time I will put together an itinerary! I will figure out the optimal usage of my time for sightseeing, shopping, dining, etc.
And I'm practising my Chinese. I'm sure my tonal inflections are all wrong, but at least I'm trying.
The entire right side of my body is in agony. And I'm not alone - Richard is in pain too. We're both wearing wrist braces, taking hot baths and using Deep Heat.
"Why?", I hear you ask. "What on earth having you been doing to yourselves?".
This has got to be the stupidest sports injury in Christendom. On Sunday we finally got the dartboard up, all regulation, with a cabinet and surrounded by cork tiles and an occhi on the floor.
And then we played. And got sucked into this weird zen darts trance or something (it's very calming - must tap into a very primitive post-reptilian hunter part of the brain).
Evidently, darts needs not just concentration and aim - it needs strength and balance. Who would have thought it? I mean, you think of darts and you think of fat old blokes down the pub! Well I can assure you, under those beer bellies are massive thighs and upper arms.
I'll just go limp off now for some more ibuprofen.
I just got home from the wilds of Macclesfield and was browsing the TV listings. one item got my attention and I just had to check that it wasn't about double glazing or holiday homes in Majorca. Indeed, QVC is selling Windows Vista (tm!).
Oh, and I got a very good review for my past years work while I was in Macc which was very gratifying. I always worry about reviews as they still feel like report card day. Fingers crossed that this will result in a bonus that will allow me to pay off credit cards or at least get lipo!
The pool table is here and in place. Unfortunately, it really shold have been set up where the dining table is and vice versa. Let's just say that it's a bit challenging to make some shots. Nonetheless it looks gorgeous.
The whole quitting thing isn't going brilliantly, although one really must look at this as a spectrum I suppose. We keep quitting and then sabotaging each other. The most we've gone is 3 days. The latest plan is to not smoke during the day and then have a few in the evening and weekends. In this way we're down from 30 per day each to less than 10. We figure that once we get used to this we can tackle the evenings and drinking and pubs and such.
Keep your fingers crossed!
Sorry I haven't been blogging. Sometimes life happens, plus I've been working hard to deliver my project on time (that said, it's still going to be late due to my dependency on others).
So what's been happening? Well, we have heat and hot water in the west wing again. Thank goodness as it was so cold that typing was like poking at the keyboard with frozen sausages. Not a good situation when you work from home. And thank goodness the bonsai are recovering. They went into winter dormancy due to the cold but I was in a bit of a panic that they wouldn't wake up. Never fear - they are now covered in the sweetest pale green buds - especially the Chinese Elm.
And speaking of China, guess who's going back? My company is celebrating their 10th anniversary by flying all of us out to Beijing for 5 days in May. Fantastic. Or should at least be a lot better than when I was there for xmas and New Year ::shudder::. I plan to extend my return to do some mmore shopping for even more pearls and jewels, plus make the trip up to see the terracotta warriors this time.
And finally, Richard and I decided to club together to mutually buy ourselves a valentine's day gift which will get delivered and installed tomorrow. Yes folks, it's a pool table. 7'x4'! With lovely turned legs, blue baize, slate bed, and ball return! And a cue rack and lights and all that shit.
Needless to say, Saturday we'll have people over for a night of poker, pool, chilli, tequila, beer, and cigars.I am soooo excited. :-)
And things are slowly improving.
That said, the plumber was here today and evidently the boiler split. Which would expain the loss of pressure and the water.
Anyway, the old one needs to get ripped out and the new one put in. This will necessitate a huge amount of cabinetry coming out as well cutting an access way to the boxed in radiators under the windows. And 4-5 days just for the plumbing - who knows what the kitchen will look like that after.
All this and we pay more rent than most peoplke gross in salary. I think I need to have a chat with the Citizen's Advice Bureau to see what my rights are.
We were doing just fine untik we left the pub. We HAD to go to the pub to say goodbye to Julian who is off to OZ for teh next 18 months. And then onthe way home we picked up a pack of 10. Most of which I have smoked.
When, oh when, will this nightmare of addiction end?
This really is a fucking nightmare.
