Drunken ramblings

Hellooooo! I'm a bit pissed here in the net caff. I've come into Manchester as usual but instead of heading straight here I went to the pub to meet some work mates on a leaving do. The chap who's leaving is a bit of an institution in the office ( he's been working for the company for 25 years) and is a great laugh so I had to go & say a proper goodbye. In fact, he's the chap I sent a Little Britain message to over the phone that ended up with the wrong person. There was a bloody good turnout. We took over half the pub. I've only had two pints but I'm fairly drunk already. I'd had a good lunch too so its not like I was drinking on an empty stomach. I was only supposed to be staying for a couple but once I'm done here I'm going to go back & rejoin them, mainly because my ex boss is supposed to be turning up and I haven't seen him in ages.

Other than coming here I've popped out to get a Mother's day present (I didn't realise it was next weekend) and to sober up a bit. I was looking for some Upstairs Downstairs DVDs but they've not got the first eps in HMV so I got her Tenko instead. She'll like that. I hope.

Passing by the Royal Exchange Theatre I noticed they're showing Electra later this year. There was a second or two where I thought "I didn't know they were showing films now..." before I looked at the small print and saw it was the play by Sophocles. Duh! I wonder how many people they're going to confuse with that one? I can imagine them now, sat in their seats wondering where Jennifer Garner is and why the lead is getting off with her father & murdering her mother. (I've never read the play btw so apologies for getting any major plot points wrong.)

My brother is better for the most part and is due to go into hospital next weekend for an op for his varicose veins so I probably won't be here next week. I've no idea what to expect. I thought he was going to be laid up in bed for a while but my mum told me this morning that anyone having that op is supposed to walk around a bit so they don't get blood clots. Glad I clarified that one.

Anyway, I must pick up my emails then toddle off back to the pub asap as I really need a wee.

Not that you needed to know that.

Red

Well, I dyed my hair as promised. I was looking for a warm brown colour wasn't I? I picked up a box of Loreal Coleur Experte in Chocolate Mousse from Bodycare and faffed around in the bathroom with it on Sunday morning. My hair turned out bright red with a hint of orange. Well maybe I'm exaggerating but it was certainly alot brighter than I wanted. Its toned down a bit now after a few washes and it doesn't look as bad as I thought. The girls at work and my best mate thought it was nice so that's ok. Don't think I've ever seen chocolate mousse that colour before though.

Its been an eventful week all in all. Most of Tuesday night was spent in the local A&E department with my brother. His health hasn't been great lately. He's been on beta blockers for high blood pressure for a few months but stopped about two weeks ago as he'd run out of tablets. He couldn't get any more as our old doctor wouldn't treat him further because he didn't live in their area (long story). So he's been in the middle of switching to a doctor's surgery nearer to home. Hence the lack of tablets. He'd already come home the previous Wednesday feeling ill and complaining of weird flashbacks, muttering something about a numb arm and could I check on him in bed later. Worried didn't even begin to describe my feelings. He was ok after a rest though and the weekend came and went with him catching my cold. Tuesday rolls around and I get home from work. He said he hadn't been feeling well at all and had been having chest pains since the afternoon. Coupled with his numb arm (the left one) and back pain and he said he was thinking of popping up to A&E (only 10 mins walk up the road fortunately). I persuaded him to go if only to set our minds at rest. So there we were at 8.30 pm with a very nice nurse hooking him up to an ECG and various other people tootling in & out asking questions and taking blood tests/X-Rays etc. Turns out the chest pain was due to him coughing his guts up alot with the cold. No heart problems or blood clots. He did get told off by the nurse and the doctor (who was well fit btw) for stopping his beta blockers and was given a tablet to tide him over til he went to the GP the next day. I was relieved to say the least.

Wednesday was spent having lunch with my best mate at a tea rooms near to her house. They have Bakewell tart to die for. So moist and yummy. Mmmmmmm. Then we went for a rather muddy walk along the canal (my trainers are black) finally stopping at a pub for a last drink and the loo (we'd drunk a lot of tea).

Tonight we're off for an Indian for Bro's birthday. He loved his Ray Mears book and voucher. Maybe it'll get him out foraging in the woods a bit more, exercising and getting some fresh air. We'll see.

Taps fingers.... scratches head...

I'm desperately searching for something, anything, vaguely interesting or entertaining that has happened to me this week. But dammit, if anything has I can't remember it. I've finally got around to having my hair cut this morning though. She wasn't my usual scissor sister but she did as good a job as Debbie and I really like my new do. My only grumble with that salon in general is that they never cut enough hair off. Usually with hairdressers its the other way round isn't it? But no. I say "Cut off a couple of inches." and they take off a couple of millimetres. I'm sure its so that you'll go more often and spend more money. I'm thinking of buying some hair dye too. One of those brands that promises 'multi-tonal' colour. I'd usually go for a vibrant red but I'm more inclined towards a dark, warm brown colour at the moment. It depends what they've got cheap in Bodycare anyways. Anything that covers up my grey hairs will do. Did anyone else first get grey hairs at 25? Or is that considered a bit early? My dad went prematurely grey after being a ginge for years and I'm hoping I've not inherited it.

Pancake day came and went in our house without any crepe consumption. Shame. I made a half hearted attempt by stopping at Sainsbury's on the way home from work and wandered round the aisles with a lemon in my hand searching for some ready made ones I could bung in the microwave. No such luck though. I picked up some pancake mix and looked at the instructions - 'Just add eggs and water'. So what the hell is in the mix then? If my memory serves, the only other pancake ingredient left is flour. So basically they're just putting flour in a different bag, calling it 'batter mix' and charging double for it. Bastards! I put it and the lemon back and walked out empty handed. Oh for the days when I was still living at Mums and she would make the mix while I was at work and I'd cook them when I got home.

Its my brother's birthday next weekend so I've been doing some shopping in Waterstones. I've got him Ray Mears' Bushcraft and a voucher. I was a bit lacking in inspiration but he did say he wanted either a Ray Mears book or vouchers so I got both. I bet Ray can make ace pancakes with just a twig, a pen-knife and some Kendal Mint Cake...

Hit me baby one more time

Bloody hell! Over 1000 hits. How on earth did that happen? You could knock me over with the proverbial feather.

Been off work poorly sick this week. One of my colleagues very kindly donated her cold to me by coughing frequently in my direction. Nice. Quite a feat considering she's hardly ever in. She takes the piss really. In the 2 months or so I've been with that team I'd guess she's only been in for 3 weeks in total. Why bother? What was funny was when I rang my line manager to tell her I wasn't going to be in. "I think Sheila has given me her cold." to which Kay replied "She hasn't been in long enough to do that has she?" I went back in after two days as I'd got sick to death of daytime telly, particularly ads for loan companies and personal injury ambulance chasers.

The theatre group did a charity fund raiser at a Conservative club near Bolton last night. Good fun it was though more nerve wracking than usual. Too close to the audience and you could actually see them. It went down well though. It was a slightly shortened version of the Mixed Grill we did in summer last year. I was in the Victoria Wood 'Groupies' sketch again (ssh don't tell her) and stripping down to my bloomers, corset and liberty bodice got a great laugh. I wish I had decent pics of it to post on here. Talking of Vicky, I've just been in HMV to buy the Acorn Antiques DVD only to find that it isn't out until Monday. Damn. So I bought the complete Coupling box-set instead which has finally been reduced to a more affordable price.