Internet Addict
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: BBC4
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
I have been playing on-line Sudoku, and I think my eyes are damaged...

I applied for a 12 month assistant director residency at a london theatre today...exciting to hope anyway ;)

Also that phone interview I did last week has now asked me in for an interview on Thurs...gosh everything is so slow!! Stephen was absolutely right about the extraordinary length of time it takes a person to get a job here, and it's completely out of your control! I mean when someone says "I'll let you know tomorrow", you can't just assume they mean in 1 week? I was going to switch agencies today because I was getting impatient. Lesson number 1: Allow 7x the "normal" time to hear back from English employers/agents.

Stephen was called into work early today (boo...) and so haven't really seen him. If you know Stephen, you know that mornings don't count until the 10th cup of coffee's been had.

Ok--I just want to say that I now know that David Kronenburg's name is actually spelt Cronenberg. And does anyone else think that Viggo Mortensen is delicious? I do.

And yes, if Stephen posted that he thinks Olivia Newton John is delicious, I would probably be oh so upset, and this double-standard is so oh unfair...but we're talking about VIGGO man!

Moonstruck
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
I could'nt help myself, but this hardly captures it:

Broadband Land
Mood:  energetic
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
We've got BROADBAND! What joy! Stephen has the day off, so after the broadband men drilled a hole in the wall and set up the modem, we strolled into town: recyceled our cans (thanks M & J for guilting us into recycling again), posted letters, returned library books, bought a book (Black Hawk Down, for Stephen), and returned a key to Stephen's work because they need it to open the knife drawer (don't worry, it was just a spare key). But it was really a good excuse for me to see the residence and environment. The room containing the office is like only 2 times the size of our bathroom (i.e. it is a very small room), but the house itself is an enormous victorian house with many levels, nooks and crannys. Stephen's co-workers and residents are all very nice...and one asked me if I was Stephen's daughter (just to wind me up I'm hoping ;)

In other news, Stephen thinks I need to "chill out" because I get annoyed when he's about to draw on me with a pen. How am I supposed to know that the cap is on?

Stephen's at D & D tonight...so I have BROADBAND all to myself. Actually, I'm going to drink my first Red Bull and do productive things...

Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
Mood:  hungry
Now Playing: BBC: Your Gardening Questions Answered!
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
I'm home again while Stephen is working...this has now become a very pleasurable pattern...for me anyway. Stephen's working very hard, and I doff my hat to the boy.

In the meantime, the need to keep myself motivated and active has governed my actions in 2 surprising and revolutionary ways: last night, only 1/2 the bottle of wine was drank (i.e., I put the cork in the bottle instead of poring the contents into my glass over and over and over...); and this morning I went for a run in the quiet Sunday morning streets. What is going on? But the body is thanking me, let me tell you...

Today is also "Covering Letter" day, where I must churn out those nasty letters to accompany the CV when I apply for jobs tomorrow.

Last night we stayed in, ate pita pizzas (mozzarella, goats cheese, chedder, red pepper, red onion and mushroom), and watched Goldmember. "Mosha, Fasha!"

Tomorrow Stephen has the day off, and quite possibly we'll have broadband installed tomorrow...wheee!

BBC Gardening: "I suggest you pop down to the garden centre straight away...go down to the evergreen pot grown trees coniferous section, in other words the christmas trees, as they will be charging twice as much for them in a months time..."

6 out of 6!
Mood:  vegas lucky
Now Playing: E playing the piano
Topic: Stephen Says
What does 6 out of 6 mean? That's the number of serious incident's that I've been involved in at work since I began versus the amount which have taken place since I began. Yep, that's all of them!

1 act of physical aggression (Against me)
2 acts of verbal aggression (I was one of the people being threatened)
3 accident/medical emergencies.

And two of them took place last night. The moral of the story: Don't ever work on shift when I'm around. Last night I got to put my 1st aid training to work with a serious epileptic seizure (People 'round here still call them 'fits.') that took up about 90 minutes of my life and then, just past midnight, as I was getting ready to go to bed, the poor man had another, less serious one. At least seizures are easy to deal with.

It's the paperwork that results from it that isn't.

Cans of cider await!

Hours and Hours of Waiting Might Pay Off...
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: Nothing
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
As mentioned, Stephen is sleeping over at work tonight, and I'm alone with THE APT..

After waiting with no response, I started making desperate phone calls to the landlord: "you really don't want to wait anymore, the longer it's not fixed, the more it's going to cost you..." / "...up at 4am for the second night in a row, and I have to tell you that my nerves are shot..." / "I'll be sleeping here alone tonight, and don't know what I'll do if it happens again..."

So a new plummer was called, and he made it over by 2 o'clock.

The verdict: Our immersion heater has two boilers, one general one, the other back-up for really hot baths & such. The back-up generally only comes on at night, and if you don't need it, doesn't need to be on at all. The legal limit at which a boiler's thermostat can be set is 60 degrees Celsius. Both of our boilers were set for about 80 degrees. They have been this way for a while. The thermostats had melted, and were no longer operational, and so were now replaced. What has brought this problem to a head is that our cold water tank being in the ceiling, is only supposed to have water levels up to 3 inches below the top of the water tank. Ours was skimming the top. If water flows out of the tank, there should be a working overflow which drains the excess water. Now. Some bloody builder didn't connect the overflow valves properly ("they're just jammed together") and was causing the leak. The lovely plummer-man corrected all of these problems, and then billed the landlord. As for the ceiling, it will dry, and then will need "a bit of white paint should do the trick."

The upside is that our thermostat is now 20C degrees lower, and should result in lower heating bills!

Afterwards I went to the library and for a lark checked out "A Modern Girl's Guide To Etiquette" by Sarah Evans, and here is some amusing English stuff:

Friends: "They're good for going shopping, eating chocolate, dancing, gossiping, watching videos, doing keep-fit, getting groomed and going on holiday with, AND they big you up and make you feel popular!"

OK, Bridget Jones, hello?

Clothes Shopping: "Remember, all shops produce different sizes, so don't get upset if you're normally a size 12 and today you're a 14- just buy what looks best and cut out the label."

Hygiene: "At all times keep a grooming kit in your bag or desk drawer containing deodorant, tweezers, a nail file, a packet of mints, spare underwear, ear buds, a mirror and a toothbrush. It may sound prissy, but it will stop you putting anyone off their dinner."

Question: What world am I living in? I generally keep deodorant (and if I'm particularly wealthy that month, a pack of gum), on me, but never never would I carry around all that other stuff. Does anyone else that I know do this? Have you all just been humouring me, and quietly throwing up your dinners?

OK--so I've stopped reading this book, definitely not up to scratch, and will now move on to: "Women Unlimited: The Directory for Life: A DIY Survival Guide for the Twenty-First Century"

I'm looking forward to getting out tomorrow now that my two-day sit-in and wait for the bloody plummer is over.

Ciao.

more wet news
Mood:  spacey
Now Playing: the coffee maker
Topic: Stephen Says
*Sigh* again, at 3:45AM the immrsion heater blew. It was a little tense over her chez Allin but I did something tht I probably should have done earlier and turner all the water in the flat off.

The leak's getting bigger, the ceiling's getting wetter and my wife is getting angrier at the fact that we may or may not see any sign of this mysterious plumber name Terry Fox (I kid you not) who may or may not show up today.

Anyway, I'm off to a sleep in at work which has stressed E out about what may happen to our funky heater tonight. She's convinced that one of our neighbours is doing it to us because she's heard someone leaving the block at 4AM the last 2 nights.

Probably just some sad sack businessman who has to communtte to London, though.

I'm tired, the coffee's still not ready and I can't be bothered to re-read this for spelling/grammatical errors. Not that it would really help, anyway.

Now Bring to the Boil
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Bjork- Vespertine
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Ok so the dripping has stopped--really not all that bad in the end, and it is clear that this leaking is not the first time, since our cold water tank is in the ceiling. And the maintenance man says what probably happened was our boiler over-heated causing the hot water to boil over & up into the cold water tank, thereby spilling the excess water onto our ceiling. GREAT. We contacted the Apt. building management contractor & the landlord, and after waiting for 6 hours, it turns out the Landlord wants to have his own plummer come by & fix the problem. This will be tomorrow? Maybe Sat? Meanwhile we have no cold water in the shower, so I've invented a new system, which is also very conservative of the precious aqua: get a big cooking pot--you know those BIG ones, and fill it with the warm water. Wait 15-30 min. until it has cooled & then using a washcloth, bathe. It worked rather well in fact, so put those Elisabeth is a grease-monkey thoughts out of your heads!!

I had a phone interview for an admin. role at the Surrey County Council yesterday, and hadn't heard back, so I don't think I got that one. The agency I've registered with thinks I'll get a job by Thurs. next week at the latest. We'll just see if their right.

On another note: I've put into motion our getting Broadband, which will be a whole 7 pounds cheaper than our dial-up...go figure.

I was also supposed to go drinking tonight with some co-workers, but it was postponed, so I had the opportunity to take my bike to be repaired (the spoke had poked through the tape between the rim & inner tube. The job papers came out, and foolishly I went to the newsagents Stephen always says : DON'T GO THERE, THEY RIP YOU OFF...and I thought, how could they rip me off the job papes? But alas, they had stocked last weeks job papers into the newsstand, and I just didn't check the dates. It's so obvious, but when I'm in a store, I'm like a deer in headlights, and can't think rationally...all that runs through my head is, "What can I buy so I can get out of here?" So there we go. After my bike was fixed though, I happily zipped back into town to another newsagents for the correct issue of the Woking News & Mail, and there are lots of jobs, so I'll have fun tonight writing covering letters.

Generally, I am REALLY enjoying not working! I feel pressure to get a job, only because of how we tasted a two-income quality of life for the past little while. But soon enough I'm sure.

Oh and I did go for a run again this morning, despite our leaky shenanigans & it felt so good. I've also been dry for 8 days now! It might be time for a shot of Kahlua!

Aw, crap!
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Stephen Says
We were woken up at 4AM with the sounds of rushing water in our pipes. This lasted for about 15 minutes. Now we've got a damp spot on our ceiling and it's dripping water and we've lost all our cold water and we can't get in touch with our landlord. I suspect that today will be filled with lots of really annoying shenanigans.

Boo.

I ain't Partin' Till I've Gone Fartin' -Stephen Allin
Mood:  energetic
Now Playing: The Essential Leonard Cohen
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Ok--here's my big chance to blog...

So I've taken seriously the advice of my big brother Mark & have not just sat on my arse waiting for some stupid job to come along. On Saturday I checked a play out of the library: Amy's View by David Hare & have now read it, and am on my 2nd read which involves taking notes, then researching it, which paves the way for a 3rd read to get more details and so on...the idea is that I need to get back into what I love to do. Once I'm finished breaking down this play, I'll move onto another, and then hopefully get a catalog of plays that I've researched & analyzed so that maybe, just maybe one day I could direct them in an actual theatre. In addition I have taken Stephen's advice to not get lackadaisical and on Monday morning, I went for a run, applied for a bunch of jobs, went into town to the employment agency, wrote letters, did a bunch of laundry etc... Today I posted a letter to the local theatre to try my luck there, and went back to the employment agency to complete my registration. My typing test results say that I write 63wpm perfectly, and 89wpm with mistakes...which is pretty good. I'm only looking for temporary work at the moment, so I don't get stuck anywhere just yet. I've had one call today for a job as a public sector administrator, which could be promising.

More interesting news though, is how much we have enjoyed A History of Violence, Directed by David Cronenburg. It's very intelligent, relevant, and well made. Plus, there's Viggo, and so what else do you need?

Here's the last few pix from our trip...random ones...

First, Montreal as seen from the lookout:













Next, a torso in the Santropol garden:

And finally, Chinatown, Toronto:

HAVE YOURSELES A GOOD DAY EH!