Lexin

I noticed von_krag had a post about the absurdity of women's clothing not having pockets. I wanted to reply, but LJ is playing up like a three year old having a tantrum. I therefore note for future comment when I'm not about to go to bed that, I love, love, love, the clothes of Janet Teague/Dawn French. With one proviso.

No pockets. Not even in the slacks. Sometimes, not in the jackets. The only garments which have pockets, most of the time, are coats.

I'm sure it's cheaper to make them that way, but boy is it inconvenient for the wearer.

Who else is watching and enjoying The Great British Sewing Bee?

I love it to bits.

Every single rookie mistake those people have made, I've made at some stage up to and including not reading the pattern properly and putting a zip in wrong and taking on a project too complicated for me. I've even made some mistakes they haven't managed yet.

I'm wondering if they'll make them sew using knitted rather than woven cloth in the semi final, because they were full of doom and gloom about how difficult it is to sew silk and satin, but I've found jersey much, much harder to cope with.

Any comments?

Point the first

The national ballot result for my union is 60% in favour of industrial action. So that will be fun, though I hope it will take place as the weather warms up. I could wish turnout had been higher, but then you can't take into account the views of people too lazy to vote.

Voting could not be simpler, it's by postal ballot. You are sent a ballot paper. You fill it in. You post it back in the pre-paid envelope – you don't even have to find a stamp. There is no excuse. And still people don't vote.

Point the second

I still have that cold which started on Friday 22nd February. It's not been three weeks yet, so not quite worth going to the doctor with it, but it's definitely outstayed its welcome as far as I'm concerned. I'm currently getting three hours sleep a night, what with having to wake up to cough for an hour, dozing off for an hour, then waking up to do it all again.

Plus, of course, I'm a pain in the neck as far as my colleagues are concerned and I coughed through breakfast with gloria1 on Sunday, which must have been unpleasant for her. But I did want to hear all her news and have a yummy breakfast.

Point the third

I have collected my new glasses, which are very nice.

My eyes, though, haven't got used to being able to see properly and are giving me grief about it. They were used to having to compensate for a pair of specs which were long out of date, and suddenly facing them with ones which aren't has come as a shock to them. They will get used to it, though.

There are times when I hate computers. I did an update of some of M$'s finest attempts last night, and it seems that when the computer did its thing this morning, they corrupted some of my old files, and quite a lot (about 2/3) of my music seems to have disappeared. I've linked up my iPod, but that didn't seem to help much.

I hate computers!

Well, it could have been a lot worse. The cost of my new glasses without the government contribution for 'complex prescription' was £418 ($630). With the contribution it was £213.40 ($320). So there's some money left over in my 'spectacle savings' for a set of prescription sunglasses, which I've been needing for a couple of years. My current set of prescription sunglasses is about five prescriptions old, which means I probably shouldn't be wearing them at all, for anything.

Interestingly, with my diabetes settling down, my eyes have settled to pretty much the same, with the exception of the astigmatism, which is still 10 on one eye and 180 on the other. Or something like that.

The reason for my dislike is that I went for my appointment and arrived exactly on time at 10:55. I wasn't out of there until 13:20, what with their messing about with lenses that have to be ground for me in the factory, and putting them on their computer under 'misc'. It seems complex prescriptions like mine are quite rare, or they'd know what to do with them. Plus, there is the irritation of having to have your face measured.

I'll try to remember and next time allow two and a half hours for it all.

I draw to your hopeful attention an epetition asking the government to lay Richard III (newly discovered under a car park etc, etc) to rest in York Minster, rather than in Leicester.

I view York as a far more fitting place for him than Leicester, with which place he had little to do in life.

Gacked from fjm...

I know very little about some of the people on my friends list. Some people I know relatively well. But here's a thought: why not take this opportunity to tell me a little something about yourself. Any old thing at all. Just so the next time I see your name I can say: "Ah, there's Parker ...she likes money and cereal." I'd love it if everyone who's friended me did this. (Yes, even you people who I know really well.) Then post this in your own journal. In return, ask me anything you'd like to know about me and I'll give you an answer.

My "smart" phone is a Samsung Galaxy Europa running Android 2.2. Why might it Googlemaps on this phone think I'm in Germany when I'm actually in Britain?

Not that it's vitally important right this minute, I'm working from home and am therefore in an up-and-coming area of east London and know my way around pretty well. But one of these days they're going to hold a Party or faction meeting in some distant pub and I'll need to find my way there and back.

I got three hours sleep last night. This is not enough, and I'm really feeling it.

Normally, I sleep very well. Insomnia is not an issue for me, partly at least to the medications I'm on, some of which have a soporific effect.

Last night, they did not cast their usual magic.

The first thing that went wrong was that yesterday was a very busy day at work and by the end of it my head was spinning. I had eight things to achieve, all of which had short deadlines, plus two interviews with lambkins with problems – this is about twice the amount of work I would have on a normal day.

The second thing that caused me trouble was my upstairs neighbours. Anyone who follows my Twitter stream with any assiduity may have noticed that I occasionally spit venom late at night in the direction of my upstairs neighbours as they can be irritating.

Last night was the nadir. They kicked off by having a noisy argument at around 11pm, moved on (as they often do) to noisy sex, and then they prayed and chanted, loudly, until about 1am. I went to sleep around this time. I woke up, or was woken, at about 4am to find that they'd kicked off again with the noisy argument – it sounded like the same argument as earlier, but what do I know. Then they prayed and chanted until about six, or half past, at which point my alarm went off.

I have no idea what religion these people are – I have gathered from the content of the chanting that it's some species of Pentecostal Christian. If so, they are the most thoughtless Christians I've ever encountered, because this is not the first time they've prayed and chanted long into the night. Sometimes they invite friends over so that they can pray and chant even louder long into the night, and then have long, loud, conversations on the stairs.

So, today, I am not my usual bobbish self. I cannot wait for these people to move.

Happy New Year, everyone!

I toasted the New Year in with port, and now I'm going to go to bed.