Why does the weekend go so quickly? The working week last week took a long time to go, and the weekend felt like it went by in a heartbeat. When I think back though I guess it was quite a long, protracted heartbeat, as I managed to get quite a few things done. When I say things, I’m not talking about anything practical (although I guess cleaning the house through might count there), just lots of other things. I finally got hold of GTA4 after borrowing it from a training friend and gave that a few hours of attention during the day on Saturday, and I’m quite glad I did. Playing it is a bit like buying a new pair of your favourite trainers – it’s new and smart looking, but at the same time comfortable and familiar. The missions and gameplay are the same as they’ve always been, but the whole world has been fleshed out a bit more, and it looks fantastic. It held my attention for a few hours at least, which is no mean feat for games these days.
I was actually more forced to borrow that game than pick it up second-hand or cheaply, as this has been a month of expense after expnse so far and I really daren’t spend anything I’m not 100% sure I can afford. The first two months worth of mortgage payments come out of my account this month which isn’t the best start for my balance, and things have found an uncanny way of cropping up so far in September. Last week it occurred to me that my phone had been very quiet for a while. Not that it’s usually busy, but even for me it was quiet. I tried sending a text to myself as a test only to find my phone had been barred from making any calls or sending any texts. ‘Odd’ I thought, considering the fact that I keep on top of my bills and always pay them online. I gave Orange a quick call to see what was going on, and sure enough, they seemed to think I owed them money. I explained that I’ve been paying online as usual, when the person on the other end of the line said ‘ah yeah, the online payments don’t work at the moment, we’re trying to find out why’….. So they know all about it not working, but they don’t mention it anywhere on the site or disable it for the time being?!? No, in their infinite wisdom they leave the option there and still even tell you that payment has been processed properly. Yeah, nice one guys, thanks for that. A not unnoticable chunk of my pay went out of the window there, let’s just say that on top of other costly things with Orange this year, I won’t be staying once contract renewal time comes around.
The other main blow to the wallet came last Friday. I was sat at work as normal when I noticed a little piece of skin hanging off the edge of my finger. I did what anyone would do, and bit it off. It came as a bit of a surprise to me that just as I did, the corner of my front tooth broke off and pinged across my desk! I remember a couple of months back I posted on here saying that I’d broken a piece off the back of it, and I thought nothing more of it as it was causing me no bother at all. I was in a bit of shock to be honest and came over a bit funny – I hate anything to do with my teeth, it freaks me out if something drastic changes in my mouth. After I figured out that I couldn’t whistle through the hole I rang the closest private dentist (NHS? puhlease! Like I’m going to get in there) and was seen 35 minutes later. After 20 minutes in the chair I left with a nice newly mended tooth and a hundred quid slap in the face, but hey, at least I could smile! Well, I could once the injections wore off and I didn’t look like I was growling at people any more.
By way of celebration I treated myself to a whole three pounds to get into the Glass Shark night down at the Sandsifter, an 80s disco night full of AWESOME tunes mixed, and then an 80’s style band playing live. Combined with the good company it was a great night, even if I was drivng and not drinking. I spent most of Sunday seeing friends, taking the dog for a splash and a run at the beach, and training. Speaking of my yappy little ginger friend (that’s the dog by the way), I’ve just put our names down to take him to beginners dog agility lessons! That pup has more energy than is possible for something his size, I swear, so I’m hoping this might actually tire him out. He loves running and jumping anyway, in theory it should be his favourite thing. We’ll see.
(I feel like I should apologise to any passing English teachers for my abysmal use of paragraphs today 🙂 And if people want to text or call me, my phone’s working again now! Go on, give it a go!)