mymonthlycycles.com has got a poll. Nothing new there, they always have oneof some sort: but this time, it's "Which is your preferred day of the weekto ovulate?"

Now, I have a preference of the day of the week to start cramping -Saturday, please, and I'll wrap up on the sofa with a hot water bottle (notSunday, because that's rugby day, or it's Church Parade just as much asanything else, and cramps at work are miserable). But to ovulate? *Why*?!

xxx

Meanwhile, a list....

• Launder former flatmate's bedding/towels (we had an emotional goodbye this morning: I don't think he wants to go home).  Have started with the mattress protector, and the sheets/duvet protector are currently running through.  I am beginning to run out of space to hang things up.  I still have duvet covers and towels to do.  I wish the kitchen had a door....
• Launder own bedding
• Last load of personal laundry (whites)
• Market The chap on the veg stall has prescribed me Jack Daniels, morning & night, for my cough, as there's a virus going round and the pills Won't Work.  This was incredibly sweet.  Also bought rather nice dress for £10.  Looking forward to wearing it with skinny jeans, which hopefully will stay up if held with a belt - they are far too big round the waist, but fine on the legs, and thus need a loose top.
• Supermarket
• Put away last of Japan unpacking, and sort out presents
• Buy DVD player (fed up with not having one, as I have plenty of things to watch)  Seems the local Argos is entirely out of stock of all DVD players.... or the website is misfunctional.  Have ordered from that bastion of the bourgeoisie, John Lewis
• Visit parents
• Rugby Sunday  Well, honestly, they saved up every single injury that they didn't have last weekend for me.  One dislocated shoulder, one ankle possibly broken (not sure), and several bumps.  Sent two off to hospital, which is a new record for me, and had several G&Ts in the pub.
• Start hunt for new flatmate Started, but no response so far...
• Sort out Walkman for Dad to listen to Goon Show during bone scan Thursday  He apparently doesn't think this is necessary.  Sigh.  Instructions have been left with Mum to put out tape with is copy of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which is just such a jolly book...
• Find new photo frames for pictures of ball
• Formulate plan to get it into heads of work that, just because the Welshman is my mate a. I am not sleeping with him and b. I am not doing stuff for him without following due protocols of logging calls and informing the Senior DBA.  Getting rather fed up with this assumption on the parts of my colleagues.  Plan must not involve a. not having coffee with him anymore and b. not getting to go for lunch with him, as those are crucial parts of the working day.  He is making a Big Thing of following Due Protocol, having realised that yes, he was taking advantage somewhat - my absence in Japan brought this home to him.
• Tidy sitting room  Have moved some bags into my bedroom, then moved them back, unpacked them, and strewn stuff all over the floor.  Sigh.
• Put laundry away  Why won't it dry quickly?  I've got the heating on, dammit.
• Cook fish pie from Ministry of Food, freeze leftovers.  Bumped to Monday
• Cook soup from Sainsbury recipe card Bumped to Whenever I have a potato
• Write up Japan Blog Entry and Upload Photos for those of you not friends with me on Facebook  Have begun process of uploading photos to Flickr.  This is ridiculously slow....
• Brownies Accounts, and find out if one Brownie is actually returning.  Rejig Sixes again.  Bumped to Monday
• Ravelry photos  Vaguely achieved on Wednesday.  At least, one more project has a photo now.  Some more must be taken, but not tonight....

In other news, work told me that I should be spending a little more time on work, and a little less time online.  I had been wondering when someone would notice, and now they have... and, you know what?  I feel less guilty now it's been noticed and will actually do something about it, rather than thinking about doing something about it (which I was beginning to do, anyhow).  You'll still get me at the weekends, and I have worked out how to post from emails when it all gets just a bit too much to cope with!

xxx

So what's new?  I've taken vitamin C, and antihistamine (to try and stem the nasal drip), and it's not working half as well as it did in Japan.  Evidently, I'm not having enough hot, steamy, Japanese-style communual baths, which seemed to stop the previous cold/chest infection in its tracks.  I did enjoy those baths, particularly when we were all having a girly gossip in the Youth Hostel Bath.  That was definitely fun.  Those of you who know me on Facebook: there are lots of pictures going up on there, and work have already seen many of them.  These are the official photos, as far as I can tell, but I haven't looked closely.

Was up at about 6.30am, having entirely given up the struggle to sleep, and I've managed to unpack and put a load of laundry on.  Only a couple more loads to go.  I've also made a list for the lunchhour (pay in cheque, get out cash, swop Yen for Sterling), and folded sheets, and begun a shopping list (needs to be refined a little from 'everything, including washing powder and a DVD player').  Made it into work early too.  Not too keen on this jetlag malarkey, but it's quite productive in the wee small hours: it is nice to have the suitcase empty and the dirty washing getting clean.  It was beginning to pong, some of it being really rather old, and some of it having been part of some heavy-duty-ceilidh-dancing.

I am covered in bruises - I seem to have been fighting with my thighs.  I think it's the balancing of the suitcase (20kg) while I was bouncing up and down stairs.  Hopefully, they'll go down soon.  I need some chocolate, as I feel distinctly bleagh.  I am rather regretting not having brought in some of my Christmas Chocolate, however the gannets in the office would eat it as soon as look at it, so, perhaps this was the better move.  I rather fancy something containing raspberries at the moment (this I do not possess), and am going to head off to the shop in a wee while. 

I need to pull myself together before we take the Brownies ice-skating tonight. 

xxx

It was quite exhausting and bloody brilliant: there will be photos I hope over the weekend, but I took about 700, so I'll dump them into flickr rather than Xanga.  However, I need to go home and see Dad and hug him (unsurprisingly, yes, prostate cancer) and Mum, and I've got a rugby match on Sunday afternoon.  I am currently re-adjusting from an all-female environment to an all-male environment.  And the time difference.

Sleep is required before anything coherent will occur here!

xxx

You know what?  It's going to be unbelievable.  And there shall be photos (have just bought some new camera batteries, which will help matters).  I'm feeling good nervous now, as opposed to the last day or so where I was feeling a mixture of confused nervous and bad nervous.

I am going to miss all of you.  I'm finding the idea of missing y'all rather hard to cope with at present.  However, I am A Big Girl and this is an Opportunity and I'm damn well going to grasp it with both hands.

xxx

I get back on 28th January.  I am still all scared and excited.  The Welshman gave me a wonderful hug at lunchtime, despite being in a foul temper: he'd had a row with his boss, and we spent aaaaaaaaaaages sitting watching the ducks, and the geese, and the coots, and the moorhens, and the seagulls in the park.  I made friends with a Westie, who was very sweet and licked my hand.  The Welshman gives hugs par excellence.  Te coots chuckled to themselves, and the seagulls yelled like teenagers.  I eventually managed to make the Welshman giggle back in the office, but I'm not telling you how.  It's a shame.  He was in such a good mood this morning, and was singing "Little Shop of Horrors" down the phone at me before he had a catchup with his boss and it all went downhill from there, it seems.

I'm going to miss all my friends dreadfully, as well as my Mum and my Dad. Whinge.  Moan.  I get an opportunity, and all I can think of is what I'll miss.  I don't feel terribly brave at this point.

Am wimp.  Probably ought to go to bed to try to sleep.

xxx

I may, just, may, put my bedroom's heating on tonight.  I am perfectly cosy (five blankets, hot water bottle, flannel pjs and a woollen scarf), but getting up is Not Fun At All.  I could sleep and sleep and sleep at the moment.  My bed is snuggly warm.  The rest of the room, rather less so.

I have Intentions about documenting knitting progress at the weekend.  Watch this fall to naught, as I really really want to go on a good long stompy cold walk as well.

xxx

While looking at this (100% Polyester, ASDA's finest, but, hey, machine washable).

"I'm just thinking yeast infections."

"What, when you spill your beer on your trousers?"

The office is debating smartening up a little (I hope not.  I depend on DMs and a rather ancient woollen sweater that belonged to my first boyfriend).

~x~

Have heard from the Brownies' Young Leader for the first time since some point in November.  I was pretty much convinced that she'd given up on us.

So relieved, I cannot think straight.  I think we all missed her.

xxx

Have just installed 3 in my sitting room.  Not entirely convinced, it's all rather dim in here now.  Next time I'll get 11W and not 7W.  Still, having bought them, I am not buying replacements just yet.  I am parsimonious like that.  I think I'm going to transfer them into my bedroom, since I don't have the light on in there quite so much, and I do like to be able to see what I'm doing in my sitting room.  With the bedroom, I mostly sleep, or have the light just above the bed on, and that's about it.

God, but it's dark in here.  My uplighter also needs a new bulb, which does not help matters...  Think, however, it would be a lovely lighting level in the bedroom.

Slightly concerning is how warm the old 50W GU10s got.  Really, really, really warm.

xxx

Swopped the rooms' bulbs over.  Much better.  Bedroom has a near perfect lighting level, and the sitting room is lit properly again.  Very odd, considering both rooms are teh same sort of size.  The bedroom, however, has paler walls and this makes something of a difference.  Now off to buy new bulb for uplighter, to see if this solves the problem.  If not, I'm going to conclude that the socket is frying uplighters, as this will be the second that has died since I moved in.  I do hope not.  I don't want to buy a third.

xxx

The list, he runs late.  Thus, some can be crossed off as I write

• Buy, wrap, mail Fiona's present  Addressed & ready
• Cards Tom & Mum
• Mail Tom's present Addressed & ready
• Take back pyjamas, swop for longer pyjamas Since they had no longer pyjamas in my size - and what ferret makes brushed cotton pyjamas with 3/4 length sleeves & legs?, I got blue tops for Japan.
• Get red yarn for Boston Red Sox toddler socks  And I resisted all yarn in the sale at John Lewis.  Achieved pillow cases and some of next year's Christmas presents, though.
• See if Zavvi has cheap Dr Who DVDs They did not.  However, I scored 4 seasons of House plus the St Trinian's Movie.
• Food shopping
• Lush shop Managed to get a box-gift-set-thing free.  Also have shampoo and conditioner to last until 2010.
• Finish Brownie Admin
• Pack up stuff for Lisa  Postponed until Monday... also need to pass on a gift-aid-spreadsheet of names of children who have, at the very least, parents who signed up for gift-aid.  All horribly complicated.
• Rip Andrew Lloyd Webber CD Begun, thus rendering the computer more-or-less useless as iTunes hogs the CPU.
• Email complaint to Green &  Blacks re. package labelling (the outside of the selection pack says 'dairy free'.  The inside, less so).
• Sort out Japan Itinerary and email to Mum
• Sort out sleepover evidence folder, re-send email of complaint. If it bounces again, I'm sending it to their chairman.  Oh look.  It bounced...  Meanwhile, the evidence folder requires me to ask the girls for feedback.  Can do that at next meeting.
• Sort out book list, send to Ciorstadh
• Dust shelves bedroom, as the cleaner has ignored them once too often
• Take down Christmas tree and Christmas cards  Naturally, after I tape up the box, I find two more things to go into it...
• Make something yummy involving stewing steak and marinade I have rather guessed the marinade.  Red wine, herbs, pepper, garlic, tamarind sauce...  I shall leave this overnight, and see what happens.  I am not very good at dealing with free-form cooking.  I also have no idea what tamarind is, but it was in the fridge. I have made something.  And now, after about an hour in the oven, I am going to eat it.
• Email Jo re. rugby injuries.
• Knit Boston Red Sox toddler socks  Turned the heel of sock #1

xxx