December 23, 2024
Chicago 12, Melborne City, USA
Dear Diary

This Week I…..

Well, I’m quite pleased this week is finally over. My personal stresses don’t even register on the global stress-o-meter, but I could still have done without them.

Todays plan, once again, involves blankets and probably Harry Potter. I’m getting quite into my lazy Sundays. I’m also making roast pork belly for dinner. Which will no doubt end in me being very irritated. as it invariably does if I try and cook anything more interesting than chilli.

So, lets get on with it. This week I…..

Got infuriated by a TV Show

It was Sherlock, ok. I mean, what kind of blithering load of old nonsense was that. Really? It would have made more sense if Dr Watson had woken up at the end and it was all a dream and Sherlock really did die 2 season ago.

Rubbish.

Learned about my family history

Well, sort of! The lovely Helen Barrell, who wrote the Poison Panic book that I reviewed, has been doing a bit of family tree research for me.

It’s fascinating to find out what your family was up to. It seems I have quite a few publicans in my family history, which as my Mum & Dad are currently in the same business is very interesting! I also have this chap with astonishing sideburns who emigrated to Australia.

Got FREAKED OUT by people

They were standing on my road. So obviously that freaked me out.

I live on a pretty quiet residential side street. There are no bus stops. There is no reason for anyone to do anything other than walk along it on their way to somewhere else. I came home at lunch time to find SIX people just standing around as if they were waiting for something. There was a couple with a push chair, and 2 young women on one side of the road, standing a distance apart that indicated that they didn’t know each other, and on the other side of the road a man and a woman in anoraks stood between 2 parked cars.

What were they waiting for? Why are they on my road? I spent 25 minutes constantly peeking around the curtains. THEY’RE STILL THERE! Then at 12:30 I peeked out and all 6 of them were filing into a house down the road with a To Let sign outside, all holding little pieces of paper. Like a true detective I have therefore surmised that they were going to look around a property. I don’t know when they started taking groups of 6 round to look at houses, but I am very glad I looked out of the window when I did. If I’d looked out a minute later and they’d all just gone I would likely still be freaking out now and inventing wild conspiracies in which they’d all been spirited away by aliens. Or ghosts.

Hated technology

This week I hate all technology. I would go and live in a cave somewhere but I’ve just realised I’m quite fond of SOME technology, like mains water and central heating.

The big stress this week was that my website went down. For a whole 24 hours. Apparently something mysterious was causing a high load on the server. I don’t know what and I don’t really understand the instructions on how to find out. This means next week is going to involve some more high technology stress as I attempt to wrap my head around managing a server from the command line *shudder*. When my host finally bought it back up they issued stern warnings that they’d just shut me down if I kept putting a high load on the server. I felt a bit like a naughty child being told off, which to be honest irritated me, it’s not like I did it on purpose.

I obviously lost 24 hours worth of income by my site being down. So when it came back up Facebook decided it was time to join in the irritating technology club and only show my latest post to 200 people out of the 10,000+ that like my Facebook page. (If you missed it, it’s here!)

Other technology that has annoyed me this week: Video camera (why is your memory card full when I thought I cleared it off?), My phone (why is the battery dead when I haven’t even used it?), the light in my kitchen (flickering) and my laptop (running absurdly slow for no reason at all).

Had a Picnic in the Cold

Our winter picnic is kind of a tradition. We normally have it before Christmas, but this year we waited as Mr Chick had applied for an allotment and we thought it might be nice to have it there.

So, on Friday afternoon we took a flask of chilli and a flask of mulled wine round to the shiny new allotment. I sat on a chair, tried not to worry about my website being down, and drank mulled wine while Mr Chick burned things. It was lovely.

Ate a Creme Egg

Every year there is a routine. On New Years Day I express mild exasperation at the early presence of Creme Eggs in the shops. By the end of January I have invariably eaten at least one.

Last night I had my first Creme Egg of the year. Mr Chick bought it back from the corner shop and hid it till the perfect moment just when I was thinking “hey, I wish I had some chocolate”.

And on that earth shattering Creme Egg related news, my week ends.

How was your week?

 

 

 

7 Comments

  • Polly January 22, 2017

    Ooo, we used to get small crowds of people in our cul-de-sac. Every Saturday morning the Jehovah’s Witness would be out and the whole estate would retreat behind their sofas until 11am. If the postman called you would have to mug him of the parcel and slam the door in his face before the incredibly smartly dressed ladies could shimmy up the path and pour shame and retribution over our morally decrepit household. However, if a crowd gathered in the village I now work in, we would all go out and join the party.
    My techie partner says “why is she having to find out what’s wrong? She’s paying for it, they should give her more capacity!” This means nothing to me, but if it helps, I’m really pleased x

    • Gemma January 22, 2017

      Ah brilliant. I have a sign on my door that tells people who don’t have parcels to go away. If they knock I get self righteous and cross!

      Also, thank your techie partner! I’m on a VPS and it costs me quite a bit, so I think I was hoping they’d be a bit more helpful!

  • Fiona Anderson January 22, 2017

    Hi. Further to my recognizing Minster Leas found out last night I know your lovely mum and dad. Remarked on your mum’s coat, and said I had been on the internet, and she mentioned her daughter, and things fell into place. They when I thought about it I could easily see the resemblance. She was pleased when I said I love your webpage. Small world indeed! X

    • Gemma January 22, 2017

      She told me about that! She sent me a text message last night with a picture of the coat! What a small world! X

  • Mum January 22, 2017

    Just so you don’t think you are the only one having a bad week…. maybe the people in the house that was being viewed had had it repossessed and it was up for auction! Perhaps that’s whey there were a lot of people outside all at the same time. Just a thought … don’t know if that’s how it works!
    Oh and I have just seen the comment from the lovely Fiona Anderson ?. It is true, as we were talking I saw the light dawn on her that we looked alike…. but you are used to that problem ???

    • Gemma January 22, 2017

      It’s To Let. Not for sale! šŸ˜€

  • kanchan January 25, 2017

    great think and its so cool plan make own for you your dinner and as your favorite food….!!!!

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