Need to get my clean on.

Saturday. Last two days before I return to work from my holiday.

I've had Chloe to stay most of the week, but she went home Thursday. She is, however staying tonight. I know that might sound strange and maybe even make little or no sense, but hey. That's life.

Just sitting on the sofa, having some breakfast of fake Shreddies (with demerara on top of course), cup of coffee and glass of orange juice. Trying to fight off Twilight, who seems to want to come and shred my left elbow in an effort to get me to stroke her.

No TV. Nice and peaceful, just the sound of the washing machine rumbling away in the background, the clickety clack of the keys on the iMac's keyboard that I'm using to write this on my ipad.

Okay, the reason the TV isn't on may have something to do with the BT Vision box stopping working since I have now cancelled the package and moved my telephone and broadband to someone else. There's been a few hiccups with the router or the broadband dropping out a couple of times, and I'm also keeping an eye on how fast the service is. I wanted to save money, but I don't want to do that at the expense of the broadband connection making my online life hell. When I say hell, I may be being a tad over dramatic. After all, it's not like it's the end of the world if I have to wait three milliseconds for a web page to load instead of one, is it ?

Scroll down one the page has finished loading then. I am currently looking around for a set-top box to replace the BT Vision box thingy, and have asked myself, how important is the ability to record TV these days ? Almost everything is on catchup TV, or available on Netflix or Love Film. This leads me in the direction of a 'smart' set-top box. One that will allow me to connect to the internet and to use on demand functions from 4od, BBC, ITV etc. It gets to the point where I could spend anything between about £30 (for a plain freeview box) to about £300, (for a freeview HD recorder with smart functions).

Starts to look like its worth buying a new TV with those features built in. All of these things I would rather not be buying at the moment. I don't want to be putting more large purchases on my credit card(s), and I'm not convinced that I actually spend that much time in front of the TV anyway.

So I spend hundreds of pounds buying something that I only use occasionally ? I think I'd rather spend the money on a Dyson.

what could possibly require such padding ? 

The light bulb in the en-suite gave out several weeks ago, and in a fit of efficiency, having waited said number of weeks to do anything about it, I ordered the special bulb off the internet on Wednesday (or Thursday, it's not important). Anyhoo. It arrived yesterday.

bubble-wrap supplies for next 300 years............. 

An anonymous brown box, surrounded with industrial sized bubble-wrap. Inside, was.. well, the light bulb and.. more bubble-wrap. I now had a replacement light bulb, and enough bubble-wrap to recreate at least three of the monsters from Tom Baker's era of Dr Who.

Despite my moaning above about not spending money I don't have, I have been on a mini spending spree lately, but I consider the light bulb a necessity rather than a luxury. I have also bought some new toys for the cats to play with, and those I will show when they arrive, no doubt with their truck load of bubble-wrap or polystyrene.

I have done little editing of my nanowrimo book whilst I've been off. I think I did some on the first day of the previous week I'd had off (I had the week before Easter off, went back to work one week and then off again). I need to be more disciplined.

There are too many distractions.

Another that I have also recently taken steps to limit is Facebook. I have actually gone so far as to remove the app from my ipad (I'm annoyed I can't actually remove it from my phone. Seems it's a default app or something). I have found that I'm not now wasting time endlessly looking through the comments of comments or inane minutia of other people's boring lives. I have gotten just so fed up with some of the bigoted short sighted rubbish that some people put on there. I want to argue with them, or correct them, but lets face it. You can't argue with stupid.

I am getting annoyed with my mobile phone too. It's just so slow, and doesn't seem that responsive anymore. This may of course have one of two causes, that either as it's getting older and more full of apps (even though I don't download any), it's overworked processor and limited storage capacity are getting stuck in the mud. Or it may be that it simply has never really recovered from being dropped in the washing up that time.

Being a bit-geek, I am already considering two courses of action here. I know that my contract does not expire until August / November, sometime, but after checking on Three's website I can upgrade in July at no extra cost, or I can upgrade early and pay a fee. Anyway, the two courses of action ? Well, I am looking at the new Blackberry's coming out, the ones with keyboards (don't even get me started on the point of a blackberry without a freaking keyboard), or something older, that isn't a smart phone at all. A candybar phone that just maybe takes pictures, does text and phone calls. That's it. Since I've got my ipad, and I do take it lots of places with me (reminds me I must show the new case I bought for it, that matches the one for my kindle paperwhite), and this means that I don't use the phone that much anymore for internetting. I may have previously trawled through facebook etc, but I just don't like working from it that much, compared to how easy to use and responsive the ipad is.

Do I get really rebellious, and get rid of my mobile phone altogether ? People would think I've gone mad.

It's good to talk

I was surprised, and I have to say, a little impressed to receive call and a text message to let me know that my land-line was now active, and that there was no need for me to be at the property next week for the appointment. Yes, that's right, the one that I wasn't going to be able to be at anyway.

Just a fantastic example of sitting back and letting things sort themselves out.

Though I have to say that I thought it was a nice touch, letting me know not to stay in, and sending me a text to let me know what was happening.

Not really complicated, but I guess it's the simple things that work.

Now gotta wait till next week for the broadband to be connected.

Resolutions that survive...

... well at the very least until January 2nd.

Day with my daughter, a nice Sunday lunch, and her pretty much only really interested in playing on her Ipod. At some point soon I need to start planning for our summer holiday away. Each year I chastise myself for leaving it to the last minute, and missing out on the best options. This year, it will be different.

I was hoping that tonight I would have a friend round for some drinks and to watch a DVD, but they aren't able to make it, a bout of illness being to blame. It's a shame, as I've been eager to watch the film in question, but have been holding off until I watch it with company. Shame. Good things comes to he who waits.

Out of boredom and the reluctance to go to a proper hair dressers, I have decided that I am going to shave my hair off. I just have this desire to not just use clippers on my hair, but to wet shave my head. Going for the Charles Xavier look ?

I am waiting, and not all that patiently for when BT come and connect my landline and internet connection. January 19th is when it is booked. I am going to try and ask them if there are now any earlier appointments, but I am not holding out much hope. With this being a new-build property I think it takes longer to get these things sorted. I was disappointed not be able to get Virgin Media. They don't run their services to the site, so I have no choice but to rely on the old fashioned copper cabled BT network. After much number crunching I had decided to plump for BT's Broadband, Telephone and Vision package. I am not that bothered by the Vision element, but it will mean I have the ability to record TV again, and watch it when I want. Also by signing up to BT Vision, the broadband download limit gets upgraded. By paying for the line rental a year in advance, not only does that mean that I escape the increase in VAT on that part of my bill, but also that BT wipe the cost of the line installation. When I was looking into these things, no one else would wipe that cost, and provide a competitive priced service. I had originally been very interested by the package offered by O2, but they were unable to find my address on their database, and their recommendation was to 'call back in four weeks' time'.

Yeah, not really the sort of thing I wanted to hear. Although I have had to wait some considerable time to get the installation done by BT, at least there's a chance that when they upgrade to their fibre-optic network, then the service will be technically more on a level playing field with Virgin Media's.

Only time will tell.

I had a bit of a vacuum round today, as the flat had suffered the effects of Chloe's presence. I was surprised at how after a week there isn't a need to dust. Just a clean through of the kitchen, bathroom and en-suite and it'll be looking all pristine again.