Powercuts are not good
01.07.07, 4:40 pm

Here is a summary of some of the stuff that has happened in the last couple of weeks, which I didn�t get chance to talk about last entry.

The milk had gone off this morning, and so I tried shoving a bit of ice cream into my cup of tea as a replacement. The result was really quite horrible. However, the horribleness was surpassed by what occurred during my coffee break the other morning. My supervisor, Dr Bone, has been in Japan for the last ten days for a conference, and came back today bringing some Japanese �sweets� with him. They looked like squidgy teabags, and we all tried one at the same time and rapidly discovered that they were purified seaweed jelly sweets. It was seriously the most disgusting thing I�ve ever eaten in my life. Kind�ve fishy and sweet at the same time (Aha, Zoe�s getting them as a Christmas present). I was actually a little worried that I was inadvertently poisoning myself.

Lisa keeps texting me informative-but-bordering-on-passive-aggressive texts now that she�s all but moved out, which I�ve so far ignored. This is because they�re usually about things that I don�t want to do, like ring the estate agent or move the bed into the front room.

We were supposed to go and watch Twelfth Night in the Botanical Gardens with Simon and his girlfriend the other week. It has to be said that my lasting memory of that particular Shakespeare play is having to act out one hideous scene in a GCSE English class. Everyone was so equally awful that our teacher never suggested doing it again. Anyway, it rained all day (becoming the norm here) and put the kibosh on it all. And suddenly the back-up plan was to go for a meal along with ten of Simon�s friends who I�d never met.

So James came over and explained the nightmare plan. I then sat down and had a big long moan/rant about all my endless money worries, and they are actually quite serious but whatever, they�re too boring to write about here. And then I decided to finish the moan off with a dramatic, �And it�s not fair that my sister gets paid ridiculous amounts of money and gets to live in Paris.� James replied to this with, �Well, it�s just the paths in life that we choose�, and whilst this is very true and noteworthy, it is definitely NOT the reply that I wanted. I was more hoping for an, �Oh I�m sorry, babe� which had been his stock reply to everything else that I�d said.

The meal was actually okay though, mainly because I was sat next to a lovely couple (James knew the bloke), and I made a new friend. All by myself! Her name was Louise and she seemed to think I was ace because I played guitar and had the corresponding callousy fingers. Obviously I encouraged this initial impression, because it won�t be long before she inevitably discovers that I�m actually very opinionated, overly dry and talk too much.

There�s been regular power cuts since the flood (The Great Flood, according to the regional news, whose reporters are having a field day and totally loving the chance to wade around with microphones looking important. I�m dying for a big car to go past and soak one of them), with it going off for three hours at a time. The first time this happened, after some initial swearing, I thought, �It�s okay, it�s fine. I�ll just sit here and read my book� for three hours.� Forty minutes I was climbing the walls, totally restless and bored. It�s a bit depressing how much I rely on electricity to keep my tiny brain entertained.

My gran is finally going to have her operation on her spine (a smaller, shorter version of the original operation), and has gone into hospital today, with the operation scheduled for tomorrow. Whilst on the phone she then divulged the following details � please bear in mind that my gran is 82:

Me: So when do you have to go in?
My gran: Sunday. I�m going over to Iris�s on Saturday night and we�re going to have a lovely meal and get really drunk.
Me: Erm, I don�t think you�re supposed to get drunk before an operation.
My gran: It�s not happening until Monday!
Me: Yeah but even so, probably not a good idea.
My gran: Oh don�t worry, I haven�t been drunk for ages*. Alcohol just doesn�t affect me anymore**.

*Heinous lie.
**Another heinous lie.

In case you want the gory details, the operation�s to widen the gaps where her spinal nerves come out (dorsal roots), as they�ve become too narrow and are effectively squeezing the nerves. This is the reason she�s in agony constantly, and has lost most of the feeling to her legs. Hopefully widening the gaps will restore some of the feeling � enough to let her drive � as she�s slowly going mad with boredom and pain. I�m actually incredibly worried about it all, as 82-year old women on Warfarin aren�t generally meant to have general anaesthetics. James is going to drive me down to the Queen�s Med to see her on Wednesday night. Until then I will just fret.

I can�t get the internet to work in my room, so may have to face the fact that I�m not going to have internet. This makes me sad. Okay, I�ve burbled on enough.

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