Spice and Flu

Yes, lucky me still have a few hours before L arrives. Plenty of time! So now (instead of being a good girl) I sit here and listen to the Spice girls (very inspired by last Friday's events) on Spotify. How did I ever survive without Spotify? I'm not even bothered with their commercials (yes, I'm cheap and use the free version).

The TV news are all full of stories on the swine flu. Terrible for everyone affected of course, but other than that it doesn't really bother me. Should I be worried? Perhaps? Do I care? Certainly not! Maybe Tim is more sensible, who says that we shouldn't forget the flu in 1918 ('the Spanish flu'), when between 20 and 100 million people died. And to a certain extent I agree, but at the same time - a lot has happened in the medical area since 1918! I just cannot get around the feeling that it is a bit like the bird flu: a big hype by media, but then not actually a real threat (unless you like sucking on live chickens of course). I just can't get around the feeling that people are picturing a world like in 28 days later. Or maybe I'm just naive?

Inefficiency is my middle name

Oh, I feel so guilty today. I just cannot get anything done. One of my oldest friends, L, is coming to visit tomorrow (her poor husband being left behind, in charge of their two daughters, ha ha!), and the flat is in great need of a cleaning session. (Tim has been very busy writing his next catalogue, and I have - with that as an excuse - been out with friends rather than staying in as the good housewife I maybe should be.) Also, two articles are due soon, and I really need to get on top of that (so, not a great combination). My new Office 2007 doesn't help either - it's still quite hard to find the different features. Although I am absolutely excited to have Outlook again - Uni uses Thunderbird, which is fine but it doesn't have a built in calendar, wont accept vCards, and also wont sync with Nokia (oh, the horrors of the 21st century). Well, hopefully I should have a few hours tomorrow morning to at least make the guest bed and hoover up the worst spider hoards.

Another party

Well, aren't I popular, all of a sudden. Went to a "ladies' dinner" with the choir last night. It's an annual thing, where all the men throw a great dinner party for the ladies; so lots of singing, drinks, food and dance. This year's theme was 'folkpark' (thus bangers and mash for dinner...). Didn't really feel up for it (being tired after the previous night's adventure), and was a bit bummed that it began so early (party started at 17.30, but met up with some of the other girls at 15), but had a great time. The boys had made quite an effort, and when I left at 3 the party was still going... Unfortunately, my night bus apparently doesn't run from the same bus stop as the day bus, so I ended up having to take a taxi (Marylebone is not an area I am very familiar with, so it seemed like the better option, rather than stroll around unknown streets in the middle of the night).

It was, however, not very pleasant to get up this morning. We had choir practice at 13 today, and of the normal 30-40 people, only 10 showed up. (And we didn't sound too good.) But still managed to sing for three hours, even though it was super nice and sunny outside. It took me quite some time to get back home, because the marathon was on today, but now I'm back, and I will take a long, hot bath (and hope I don't fall asleep and drown) before I make dinner and go to bed... It has been quite a weekend. I am defintiely too old for this life!

Dressed up!

I ran around like a headless chicken yesterday, in order to try and find an outfit for the fancy dress party. Even texted the people I was going with and asking whether I actually really had to find an outfit. Well, they replied that everyone basically was going to, so I'd better. In the end - in a major fancy dress store/rental place - I decided to go for the cheap option: a Union Jack dress (think Spice girls) for the not too overly priced sum of £15! Also had to run around to find some matching stockings (the dress barely covered my bum), and finally found a pair of bright blue ones (when will I ever wear them again???) in Topshop, where I also got some bright red sparkling nail polish. Perfect!

Ran home (opted for the bus rather than the tube, since there had been problems on the Victoria line all day), but it really took for ever. Had 15 mins, so picked up the things I needed, and then left for Convent garden, where I was supposed to meet my friends. Met them, just to turn around and go straight back the tube (now that was quite a stupid detour! I thought we were having a drink or something to eat) and headed out to Canary Wharf, where they live.

We all changed into our ridiculous outfits: (the boys were knights) and I discover that the other Spice girl had the exact same dress! Oups! I am the first one to admit that she wore it a lot better than I. Also, she had the matching wig, and thus made a perfect Ginger Spice. (I was Wannabee spice - the one who never made it past the auditions...)I had a very quick dinner: one vanilla soy yogurt (yuk!). (Tip from the expert: don't combine that with beer!)

We took the tube in to town (got plenty of stares and a few comments) and to Leicester square. Went in to the club, only to realize that we were the only ones in fancy dresses!!! No one else of all the guests had bothered, and sat there in their normal little party/after work outfits! Oh, the horror! I have seldom felt so out of place! But we still managed to have a good time, and it was great to hang out with my friends from the States. I was, however, very happy to have a very long trench coat when going home...

And in fifteen minutes I am off to a party with the choir...

Updates

Thanks for the suggestions for the fancy dress party. Got another two today: Patsy from Absolutely fabulous or a tourist (which really seems like an easy way out). Will rush in to town tomorrow and see what I can find... Report will follow!

But I am quite proud at the moment - I have finally fixed my (formerly) slow laptop! After some correspondence with the computer guys at Uni, I did even more googling myself. Their responses didn't work, and I just felt that I knew more about the problem than they did. So eventually I got bored of waiting, and decided to just deal with it. Uninstalled Office, made a back up of my bloated folder, removed all files associated with Office, and then installed Office 2007. So, now I have almost 45 Gb more memory on the computer, no slow start up, no programs which want to constantly update, and the latest version of Office! (Even got Outlook again, which works nicely with my gmail. And also Publisher, which I really like. Yay!) Emailed the computer people and told them about my success. They wrote back and said they were very impressed and would add my solution to their 'solution database'. Oh yeah! I could have been an IT-guru!

Masquerade

In desperate need of ideas here. Going to a fancy dress party on Friday (I think it's St George's day), and the theme is 'reminds me of England'. I don't have much time to make a costume, or the money to buy a fancy one, so I could really use a few suggestions. The people I am going with are all American (dressed up as Ginny Weasley from Harry Potter, Ginger Spice and one of the characters from Sweeny Todd), and as I think there will be many Americans, it should probably be someone (something) that is widely known (so no obscure TV profiles). The alternatives so far: the Queen (present one), queen Victoria (now, that will need quite a dress), Vicky Pollard (from Little Britain), one of the other Spice girls, Elton John (!), English policeman ('Bobby') or school girl in uniform (not sure I want to go for that naughty look though). Any other ideas? Come on, please be creative!

Creatures = uncomforts

I am, once again, starting to freak out about all the little creatures I keep finding in the flat. The occasional spider I can live with (except for the big, fat one I found sitting next to me in the bath one morning, just after I'd had a shower - but at least that woke me up!). Also, I know that the fact that we have such a great gap under our front door brings in the occasional critter. But finding a really big woodlouse in the middle of the bathroom floor is not alright. On any level!

And then, a day later, I suspect we have textile eating moths. We have had some moth like things flying around ever since we moved here (nice, I know) but I never thought they were the bad kind, because I haven't had any problems with any of the textiles we have (especially not with the towels, and the seem to prefer hanging out in the bathroom). But last night I discovered that there were loads of little holes on my t-shirt. So, I have now been googling all morning. I'm starting to doubt that they are actually moth holes (which I guess is a good thing, but also bad because it means that it is my fat tummy that has worn it out). But googling creates another problem - I have now seen too much! And I am now awaiting the arrival of cockroaches, bedbugs and lice (but am still confident that the neighbourhood cats will keep any rats away)...