Free Stuff!
2008-06-30, 9:52 p.m.
Hello Popsies! How are we all?Its been a pretty good weekend here at the Palace of Many Sins, although it did start spectacularly shittily with work on Friday. My guv was in a meeting all day with the MD, discussing the strategies of my department. *shudder*
Normally this wouldn�t bother me over much but she came out just before lunch in a complete flap and asked me for a shit-load of stats on a project she did a couple of months ago. Producing stats reports holds no fear for me, Im good at that sort of thing, but she�d forgotten one or two teensy little details.
OK, just one teensy detail.
I didn�t work on that project. That project was conceived by her, led by S (now on maternity leave) and executed by Slaveboy (on holiday). I had no involvement in it whatsoever. At the time I thought �The fucking bunch of cunts! Its my department and they cant even keep me informed of projects they�re working on!�
As it was, on Friday lunchtime I was thinking �The stupid twats. They have not kept records of what they did and now with S and Slaveboy out of the office, guv is relying on me to dig her out of a ginormous pile of Fucked-Up-Project-shaped shit.�
With much sighing I got out my metaphorical shit shovel and got shovelling. By two-thirty Id successfully saved her sorry arse and regained my place as Queen of Everything and Don�t You Fucking Well Forget it. Sadly I had to forego my lunch hour to be that fabulous so I was a bit grumpy by then.
Juicy (also on holiday) had asked me to proof some magazine pages which didn�t come through til 4.25 ( I was supposed to be leaving at 4.30) so I made a pleading call to the childminder asking if I could possibly pick Treacle up just a tiny bit later as I was having to finish off some work. Actually thats not strictly true, I just sent a text which said �Running late, c u in a bit�, to which she replied �OK. No worries�, but my guv certainly heard me pleading and cajoling and wheedling. She doesn�t need to know there was nobody on the other end of the phone.
By the time I eventually did get home I was in no fit state for anything, so Jooj and L made pizza and I just mooched about a bit.
Sis phoned and told me about a friend of hers who had a church pew to give away which would pretty much match the one that we already have (it acts as dining chairs) and would go on the other side of the table. Yay! I phoned the pew-owner and she was very nice and told me she could get it delivered and that it was, indeed, free as she is moving to Texas and doesn�t need it. She took my phone number for the delivery dude and that was the end of that.
Went to the workies for a while in the evening, then all back to ours for partying, as per usual. Made the kids some cocktails with cr�me de fraises, 7Up and orange juice. If you pour the three things carefully, they don�t mix and you get a fab stripy drink which makes kids go �Woh! That is SO cool!�
Stayed up way too late and managed to convince Treacle that she didn�t want to go to tennis on Saturday morning, so I could crawl back into bed for another hour.
After the girls had gone off to Shagnasty�s, me and L drove down to Sussex for a wedding.
It was horrible. Perfect setting, perfect weather, unlimited free champagne, unlimited free other kinds of booze, fantastic food � the whole nine yards. But not one speck of emotion. Not a single bit of the day that made me think �Awww, that�s just LOVELY!� � and Im quite a softy and it doesn�t take much for me to say that. Even the bride was stone-faced for most of it. The groom effusively praised his new mother-in-law in his speech and then muttered darkly to us �Thank God that�s over, (bride)�s mother has been driving me fucking MAD! I�ll kill her, I swear I will!�
Actually, I just thought of a bit that made me go �awwww�. It was the best man�s speech, which was all in rhyming couplets. Some serious thought and effort went into it, and he clearly loves his friend, the groom, very much. Awwwwww.
We left as early as was politely possible (9.45) and drove like loons back to Chigley, paying a game of �how much did that all COST?� on the way back. We got to �30K and had to stop. We felt a bit sick.
L says I was the best looking woman there. Im not sure that�s strictly true, but I scrubbed up alright for the day.
�although, from that photo it appears there is a giant roll of flab where my astonishingly flat stomach should be.
On Sunday morning, just as we were getting ready to go to ChavVille, a bloke phoned up and said �Ive got your pew, can I deliver it now?�. So I said yes. And he did. Its pretty similar to the one we�ve got already and tho Im going to have to do some serious work with the Nitromors and a sander, its going to look lovely! Yay! Free stuff!
So we went off to ChavVille, armed with a big pile of giftcards that we�d got as wedding presents (Free shopping! Yay!). Got some boring stuff like pillows and curtains for the sitting room but also got a fire pit!
Had to try it out last night when we got in from the pub. L was out in the front garden, smashing up pallets with a big hammer, even tho it was about 11 o clock and we both scrabbled about in the dark at the top of our street with a Tesco carrier bag, picking up fir cones from the trees on the green. Yay! Free kindling! I took some photos but I was a bit squiffy and it was dark, so this is the best one I could get
We�ve invited Lee and Anne Marie over on Friday for a �Lets Burn Stuff� party. Im not doing supper, but I cant guarantee that stuff wont make its way into the flames with the eventual idea of becoming edible (marshmallows/hedgehogs/small children).
We also got a groovy cantilever parasol which is solar powered, so you can sit out in the garden in the sunshine, all the while charging up all these little LEDs ready for when it gets dark! And here�s another crappy photo of L, in which you cant really see that all the little lights are lit up.
Ah well. Day off tomorrow � mostly for taking Jooj to the orthodontist, but also to swing by Sis� house and see if the dining table she�s trying to get rid of will be big enough for my conservatory. I kind of already know it will be too small, but I am keeping up the pretence of not knowing so I can go down there for an hour without feeling like I should be doing something more productive.