Personal

Lots and lots of stuff happened today! o/

I tried reading and sunbathing out on the terrace in the morning. No such luck. The neighbor’s cat decided to come visit me. It thinks that our house is its home. o_O Very possibly because my mom keeps feeding it. At least it knows not to come inside. Anywayz, I had just made myself comfortable when the feline decides to plop right in between me and my book. I try pushing it away so that I can see the page again, but no. It would not move. Just stretched out right there in front of me. Okay, I roll over onto my side. The cat gets up, rubs itself against me for a bit before settling down again. This time leaning against me and staying my shadow. It moves its head practically (but not quite, since we all know how proud felines are) begging me to scratch and stroke it. I give in and give it attention. A very happy cat. And I like cats, I really do. But, this one sheds *so* much. >_< Well, even if my own cat (the one I’ll get someday after my kids are old enough to know how to treat a pet) sheds a lot, I’ll still love it. And grumble quietly about its hairs when I’m vacuuming. X)

After the cat episode, I went outside to help my mom with the gardening. Spent about an hour and a half raking the small branches my mom had clipped from the hedges. The only interesting thing about the gardening bit was when my mom was clipping the hedge, she found a beehive. And a bee stung her forehead. After that, I refused to work in that area. Wise choice, since my sisters reported seeing more bees hanging around that area a bit later on.

I also spent an hour on the treadmill. Time really flew now that I had music to listen to. I love my iPod. ^_^ And why haven’t I exercised for ages? I love the feeling I got after my walk. I did run for a minute at the speed of 10km/h. It just felt so great. I’ll definitely need to run more often, not just walk, but actually run. And then the cool shower afterwards… *bliss* But it didn’t really help that I ate half of my huge Easter egg after my shower. My reward for gardening and walking. :)

I’m itching to knit. I’ve finished off a jigsaw puzzle. I’ve been reading. I’ve been exercising. But I still want to knit. Urgh. Must get some needles and yarn ASAP.

Well, you all know that my favorite uncle got married in late February to a woman who was like 20 years younger than he was. I’ve met her once; thought she was really nice. The age difference was a bit big in my opinion, but I didn’t really care. So fast forward to tonight. My dad calls my mom and tells her that my uncle has just told them (them being my grandparents, other uncle and dad) that they’re getting divorced. After being married for only FOUR months! Apparently, my uncle realized on the day of their wedding that they have nothing in common. Yet he still went along with it. *shakes head* And just imagine what this is doing to my grandparents. My other uncle is unemployed and basically a hopeless case. My parents are divorced. My dad went to prison for a year. This uncle is now getting divorced for a second time. Not easy at all.. *sigh*

Well, I’m finally home. Got back about an hour ago. x_x I would’ve been back earlier, but Jaz said that Apocalyptica would be giving a free concert in Grand Place so we went there instead of going home straight away. The two songs we did get to hear were great. The things that made our time less enjoyable were the opening band (sucked), all the Finnish people there and this one kid that happened to be right in front of us. He just out-right annoyed me. Kept hopping up and down, whining at his mother to pick him up (he was a pretty chubby eight year old) and not staying still. AT ALL. Aaaargh. Why would you bring kids to a metal/rock concert thingy? I mean, I was standing pretty far away from the stage and I thought it was really loud. I saw parents who were closer to the stage holding up one year olds! Nuts.. just nuts. *shakes head*

The trip from Sheffield to Waterloo wasn’t that eventful. Ridiculously warm though. Even warmer over here! Anyway, at Waterloo station, I ran into this pretty big group of Asians (Indian/Pakistani/that region anyway). Boy were they loud! It didn’t help that their leader was this really old white man who was even louder than they were. So glad I didn’t have to sit in the same coach as them. But once we were in Brussels, they managed to block up the platform with their luggage making it near impossible for anyone to pass them. >_<

And I’m going to bed. Zonked out. XD

Well, I’m out of yarn. But this is what I have so far. Ta-daa! o/ So when I come back, I’ll continue it. I won’t be taking it home with me because it won’t fit into my suitcase. It feels so nice to knit again. :)

Ryan, Oliver & I went to Meadowhall today. I was given my birthday present early. iPod! :D o/ Converting my music library to be compatible with it right now..

Oh these are sooooooooo good. We stopped at Thornton’s and this prompted Ryan to buy “death cubes” again. What he actually bought were the mini caramel shortcakes, but the last time he bought some, we came to the conclusion that the amount of saturated fat in them was so bad that we renamed them to Death Cubes. So now, he just offered me another one. Sooooooooooooo good. ^-^

I’ve finally finished the front bit of the poncho. The annoying thing is that I ran out of green just four rows from the end. The back bit is going to be white. I’ve begun knitting that today and so far I’ve got 30 rows of that done. :) I’m aiming to get all of the white used up tomorrow, so I can take the thing back with me and finish it off at home. The needles aren’t mine, so I’ll be really busy knitting tomorrow. Listening to my iPod while I knit. ^_^

I’ve got a strange headache.. I got it as soon as I had eaten the baked potato. I had a headache Tuesday night as well. Lasted for about 7 hours before I gave in and let Oliver get me some paracetamol. Really strange. I hope this one goes away faster than the Tuesday one.

Well, I’ve just updated my wishlist. Those are just ideas of what I like if you have trouble thinking of what to get me. No pressure! ;)

Yesterday at Shaun’s BBQ my shoe broke. The nice tan strappy one. The nine of us decided to go play rounders (sorta like softball) in the field. Well, there was no field that we could use, so we wound up in this playground. We made the bases out of the weird thing none of us knew what it was, the big spinning roundabout thing and the swings. Anywayz, I was the only one in a skirt and with improper shoes for running. Go me for being girly. Still, I decided to play anyway and after awhile, one of the straps broke. *sniffle* But once Oliver and I got back to his place, his dad superglued it back together. o/

The pub-crawl in Leicester wasn’t that much fun. I don’t really like going to loud pubs. I don’t mind going out with Anji&Steve because the conversation’s better, but going out in Leicester is not my idea of fun. The house parties aren’t that bad though. The only bit where I really did enjoy myself was in the club Streetlife (a gay club, but still). Hilarious seeing the old man from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang mouth along to Britney’s Toxic. Y’see, they were playing that movie silently in the background while blasting away the dance music. People do unpredictable things when they’re drunk. Like this one friend of Shaun’s suddenly hugged me when we left Streetlife. With a lit cigarette in his hand. I thought he was going to set my hair on fire with it! Not on purpose, but still. Luckily, Shaun took it off him so that wouldn’t happen. Then on the way back, a group of guys laughed as they went past us. Not so unusual in itself, but once we had walked along a bit more, we saw this girl on the ground crying with blood dripping onto the ground. The group of people with her had already called an ambulance and the police so we didn’t stop. No point in gawking. I think it was just her nose bleeding, but it still made me feel uneasy for the rest of the trip back. Especially since I was the only sober one out of the group.

On Saturday we stopped by Leicester Pride. Really nice weather. It wasn’t that interesting really. But I did see lots of cute dogs. And in the same park there was a gathering of families. The kids were really cute. There were these two boys in particular that caught my eye. The older one was about 5 and playing softball. He threw the ball in the air in front of him, ran towards it, let it bounce on the round and then swung with all his might so that he spun around. He didn’t hit the ball, but it was so cute how much effort he put into it. ^_^ The other kid was about four (guessing, since I saw them from a distance) and also trying to play softball. He threw the ball up, tried hitting it with the bat but wasn’t fast enough. So then he decided that since the bat wasn’t working, he’d just kick the ball because that way worked. XD So adorable.

I’ve almost finished the first stage of the front of the Hooded Baby Poncho I’ve begun making. Need to make a few adjustments to the size though. I’m making it for a big 12 month old, mainly because even if it is a bit big, it’ll still be fine and it can stretch. Plus, who knows how big the kid’ll be that’ll eventually wear it. So it’s just in case. ^-^ It’s a pretty greenish color, with a white hood. I picked “neutral” colors because then both boys and girls can wear it. Maybe I should start a hope chest or something like that. I’ve been reading this community and that gave me the idea. Just preparing for the future, slowly getting all the stuff together that I’ll need later once I’m ready to have kids so it won’t seem like such a big drain financially all of a sudden. :)

Today I went to Meadowhall with Ryan again. His Mac is really acting up and he went to complain about it. It’s the third time he’s had to give it in for repairs. Anyway, they gave us four different people to talk to. The woman listened to the problems Ryan’s having and took the computer into the backroom to listen if it was making the sounds Ryan said it was. Then we got this chubby man who did the whole trained spiel of listening to the customer’s opinion and then stating what the store could do to help him. The really skinny bobbing-head man was the most condescending out of them all. He had the attitude of “I’m right and you’re just making all of it up”. Really annoying. I was lucky enough to be allowed to tune him out and concentrate on scoping out everyone else in the store. Then we got a Spanish man who was nicest of them all. He also was very understanding and gave Ryan a form to fill in. So now his MacBook Pro is in for repairs once more. Lovely stuff.

Going to Leicester tomorrow morning. The plan is to go pub-hopping. Go to every pub that Shaun likes. Then Saturday before we come back we go to Leicester Pride. I’m assuming they won’t mind me & Oliver participating even if we are straight. XD

I really like Open For Business. So far I’ve got two toy shops (one selling only wooden toys, the other wooden toys & robots) and a flower shop. It’s fun to run them. It’s just annoying how the Sims want to wander off and do other stuff when they should be taking care of the shop. That’s what I get for having home businesses. It’s still fun, even if they do frustrate. ^-^

I caved in and installed Open For Business yesterday. So far running the Delarosa flower business is easy enough. I saw a fear that I’ve never encountered before: Be Old and Never Married. But it went away the next time she got up, so it’s not gonna ruin her life when she becomes an elder. Now that I’ve had a bit of practice, I can get my regular Sims to have businesses and stuff. XD

Went out to Meadowhall with Ryan today. We were looking for a b-day present for Shaun. Well, he was, I was just there. We stopped by The Body Shop and I just fell in love with the Almond Body Butter they do. I wants! But I can’t buy any. Only have like £30 left in my current account. All of the visa application fees and stuff just kinda crept up on me and now I have practically nothing left. Gotta wait until my parents pay me back before I can buy anything. I sampled some of the Body Butter at the store and some of the scent is still left on my arm. I just made Oliver smell it and he doesn’t like it. So I guess I won’t be buying that specific one while I’m still around him. Maybe there’s some other scented body butter that he won’t mind as much..

We met Mel and Steve at The Bluecoat at five. Well, Oliver & I got there at five and they didn’t get there until 5:40 (they did let us know that they’d be late, so it’s okay). It started off with Oliver and Mel just talking about people they know and what’s going on with them. Apparently some girl deliberately stopped taking the pill to trap some loser guy. Right now she’s over seven months pregnant. No clue who these people are, but apparently this is very juicy gossip. Anyway, after awhile Steve and I began to participate in the conversation a bit more and soon enough we were all feeling a little bit more at ease. One thing that all four of us have in common is that when we eat, we’re totally silent. No one talks, we just eat. This isn’t what I’m used to at home (with five around the table, someone’s always got something to say) and it seems like that’s what goes on at Steve’s home as well. We also talked about what we thought we’d be like. I had this picture of Mel having reddish-brown hair. Other than that, pretty much what I thought she’d be like. She told me that she thought that I’d be bitchier (most likely because she didn’t like Oliver’s last gf) and that I’d be taller. That one was probably because Oliver doesn’t really talk about people at all and all she had to go on was my name and nationality. All in all, we spent five hours together so I’d say it went pretty well. :)