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03/01/2005, 9:30pm
KATIE - Well, christmas is over for another year. We took the decorations down yesterday. Normally I'm really bummed to take
down the decorations, but the boxes all the ornaments and the tree came out of have been bouncing around the bedroom getting
on my nerves. I just can't believe my nice long break is over! I am bored out of my mind though. The way it all worked
out with college 3-day shutdown, holidays and my trip to Scotland, I've not been at work for 2.5 weeks! I can see now why
women who are on maternity leave start to go insane and want to go back to work before they need to!
04/01/2005
KATIE-- Well, I'm slightly less out of it today! The cobwebs are coming off my dusty brain after a too-long break at Christmas.
I've been doing inductions for our new international students this week. It's really hard, because some of them speak English
better than I do. Others don't understand a word. It's a bit mental when you're trying to make yourself understood to someone
who just stares blankly nodding. I try to be cool and not just do the speaking louder thing, but alas, I often find myself
bellowing mono-syllabic instructions. 'You go there! Un-der-STAND?'
10/01/2005
JON-- Ah the joy of a first Monday back after work. Had a hard weekend - a tree blew over onto our car park on Friday night
and we spent most of Saturday cutting it up. We're enjoying some fine rain, wind and more rain at the moment. Sunday was football
day. It was my first game after the Christmas break and it took its toll. We lost the game but my team played really well
and is improving with each game. It's a team made up of refugees from all over the world which can make communicating with
them fun at times. They're really good to coach though and it has been a great experience. It's also helped me get my coaching
badge so when we're in the States I can set up my own football camp and charge people extortionate amounts of money to do
something I would do for free!!
It's Katie's birthday at the weekend and we're off for a nice meal somewhere, probably Thai. It's our new favourite food
after having eaten Indian for so long. We'll have a good night and probably get very very drunk.
KATIE-- We will not get that drunk. I am NOT excited about turning 26. Sorry to my comrades who have already braved this
extraordinarily crap birthday...I mean, no more can I justify being in my 'early 20's.' And my dumbstupid husband will still
be 24 for like three months. I want to swear here, but my parents are going to read this. Jonny is reading over my shoulder
and demanding that it's four months, but I think he's just in denial.
Oh, and by the way, Jonny way underdescribed the whole tree incident. This is my description: Terrific gale-force winds
(like 70mph plus) sustained over several days managed to bring down this GIANT pear tree. Thank goodness it fell on literally
nothing...it had the choice between our apartment block, a row of cars, including ours and a brand new one, our snotty 'I
own this house and you people just rent so therefore you are less important than me' neighbor's all glass conservatory or
an empty driveway. It chose the driveway. Which did mean that we were unable to leave until our crazy neighbor Bill took
a chainsaw to it. Jonny and I scurried around picking up branches and sweeping twigs. Until we got to the real deal and
we were hauling, well, basically tree-sized logs around. And, this was all through rain and hail and wind and rabid squirrel
attacks. It was very tiring.
Now, wasn't that a better story? Oh, and illiterate Jonny says, 'it's neighBOUR!'
16/01/2005
KATIE-- Well, I went out for my birthday last night. What a palava! We made these arrangments to go for a meal with all
of our friends at this great Thai restaurant near where we live. We turned up there and it was CLOSED! Stupid restaurant.
Properly closed, too, like with signs saying, 'Opening here soon...' I was so disappointed. So we had like 9 hungry people
standing outside with nowhere to go, and we ended up going for Indian food, which is always what we go for. It was good,
though. We didn't really have the money to go out in town after that, but we went to see Team America: World Police today.
That was a bit of a letdown. Such potential to be really clever and insightful, and instead it was filled with puppets-vomiting
and puppets-having-sex jokes. Rubbish.
So, I'm 26 now. I can deal with that...yes...I'm okay with that. That's fine. I'm okay, really. I'm older now than
my mom was when she had my younger brother, but hey, I'm cool. All is well. AH CRAP!!!!!
Thank you all for all your birthday wishes. It's really awesome to hear from you all!
17/01/2005
KATIE-- Monday again. Blimey. My first Monday as a 26-year-old! It's funny how 26 is seeming younger than 25 at the moment.
My perception of 'old' is changing daily. Surely we're not old until at least 55 these days?
Hopefully work will go a bit faster this week. Not like last week which lasted approxomately 2.5 decades.
Oh yeah, and it's LAUNCH DAY! This is the first day my webpage is going live! Very exciting...hope you all enjoy it!
18/01/2005
KATIE-- Hello all. I just had to brag-- my department head described me today to my line manager as 'a real find.' Yay!
After two jobs trying desperately to convince me that I was near enough useless...it's a pick me up.
Other than that, my day was nearly as boring as watching paint dry. =0)
19/01/2005
I just saw a video I've never seen before. Featuring Nelly. And Tim McGraw. Singing a song. Together. The same song,
together. Nelly. And Tim McGraw. And Nelly. And Tim Mc Graw. Can someone confirm for me that I'm not hallucinating?
22/01/2005
Well, Jonny and I did a mad thing today. We've started looking at houses. Not to buy, but we're sick of living on top of
each other in our little flat. So, we're looking at some larger houses to rent. Hopefully a 3-bed, furnished semi-detached
(duplex, to you all). That way, when our loved ones come to visit, they've got somewhere to stay! And we don't have to keep
all of our belongings in basically one room!
29/01/2005
We had a big allotment day today. Well, not so big, but we got the fence taken down. It was awful...it was falling over
all the time and couldn't keep anything out. So, we took it down. Good for two reasons: 1. It practically looks like our
allotment has doubled in size and 2. we now have all the fence raw materials to recycle! This probably is so boring to you
guys, but it's very exciting to me! You see, we've got this huge set of trees next to us, and these vile birds live there,
sent straight from lucifer himself and fly down and eat all of our peas! I think we got one complete pod from a dozen plants
last year. And the fence was made of this construction-site orange meshy stuff. So we're going to use the mesh and the fence
poles to build like a pea Alamo to keep them safe! Check the allotment page for a few pictures.
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