Oh, awesome. I LOVE waking up with a sore throat like I spent the night gargling glass. That's always fun. Damnit!

Fork me, that's an amazing cherry crumble I just made. Frozen cherries from M's garden, pinch of mixed spice, brown sugar topping, fuuuck yes. I swam HARD this morning, bitch, I earned this.

Next door is doing DIY in his dining room. There is A. Lot. Of. Hammering. And a lot of stuff-falling-noises. And now some drilling. I wonder if he knows what he's doing? 🤔

Successful Sunday swim achieved! No budgie-smuggling physicists either. Huzzah! Though I think I got wetter walking TO the pool than I did being IN it. Fuuuucking hell. 🌧🌧🌧🌧☔️🌧🌧🌧🌧

Went to see the M, booked my holls, walked home because SUNLIGHT *heavenly chorus*, cleaned the bathroom, changed the sheets, did laundry and might get round to paying bills. Such productivity. Such vitamin D. Wow.

So it turns out, despite JR's insistance to the contrary, we have NO IDEA where on the Aberystwyth seafront my great grandparents actually had their guesthouse. Beyond it allegedly being on Marine Terrace during the great depression. For the census in 21 they were inconveniently visiting Rhyll. 🤣

Sometimes being wildly out of the loop is a real bonus, most notably when my For You page throws up a "Wait, whuuuuuuut??" moment of great delight. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgMb...

Dumb office events- someone mentioned the song "I remember you" and LooLoo and I looked at each other and both burst into *completely different songs* and then stopped and stared at each other like the other person was the unhinged one and WTF are YOU singing??

Did I make quick and dirty garlic cheese bread to go with my soup by jamming grated garlic and cheese in a split pitta and heating it in a dry frying pan? Yes, yes I did. And I have NO REGRETS. It was amazing.

Oh! The leisure centre have put my Weds swim back on the timetable! No idea why it vanished last week but I just checked again now it's bookable for the 11th so I guess I WILL still be able to swimmen without a ginger physicist in his knickers! Huzzah!

Sunday vibes

Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work. "You saw that on Nile Red, didn't you?"

Yes it CAN, Brandon Lee. Yes it can.

Fuuuuck me M&S fresh garlic bread is DANGEROUS. You know the one. The baguette rammed so full of butter it's banana-curved. The one in the special garlic-bread-only mini-freezer next to the bakery counter. I was going to be so good and only have half but... nope...

Whuff! A solid 2-dayer that!

Been picking at this all morning. Holy cow this one is HARD.

RAGE! Went to book my Weds afternoon swim and they've axed the bloody 2:30 session! Fuckers! It is now almost entirely impossible to just go and get a bastard lane swim around work. It only leaves midday Sunday (Which we know has a physicist in it) or late evening when I am already knackered. :(

El Chupacapybara, is that anything? I did an illustration and got it out of my system, anyhoo...

For once, I am not going to moan about today's earworm. How fucking cheerful? youtu.be/b0cAWgTPiwM?... Manifesting blue skies, bitches. Manifesting SO HARD RIGHT NOW.

*throws tantrum* *kicks feet* I dun wanna be a grown up today! *chucks toys out of pram*

M'collegue has THE BEST shirt today. It's the old piracy PSA font but says 'You wouldn't steal a succulent Chinese Meal...' and I have been laughing all morning.

On the plus side, the new electric busses are pretty cool and still have new car smell! On the down side, holy shit it's wet out there. Also the driver was talking to himself constantly and almost totally sailed past my stop. 😬

@weregeek.bsky.social DEEEEEEEEEEKE! Buwahahahahah! It's a library of doggos! I love it! Thank yoouuuu! Adorable!

Well, typically my week went from pleasantly chill to shoehorning in last-minute practicals literally everywhere in the space of about 20 minutes. Every year, without fail, the chem department loses all ability to make advance plans right in time for my burfday to be an unending heap of chaos.

Big shop is DONE! Stuff is put away and a massive batch of ragu base is in the slow cooker ready to be ignored for the next 6 or so hours. Achievement! Huzzah!

Failed at grocery shopping last week. Didn't get time over the weekend so my fridge is bare. Have to do a proper Big Shop tomorrow or it's going to be tragic sarnies and rampant canteen raiding on Monday. Oh, and sausages. I do have a bajillion sausages still.

Ooooh, might be taking the old woman to the land of our forefather and going to Aberystwyth this summer. Shockingly not a bad train fare if she's feeling mobile.

Did YOU send me a parcel? Is it for my birfday?? Should I wait to open it? So mysterious! It rattles like a jigsaw but I'm being good for a few more days. So the mystery shall endure unless someone claims it first! 😇

Lunch at M's. Fucking hell, roll me home, I am dead of food coma.

Things that make me dumb levels of excited no 46533: when the new duvet set only comes with 2 pillow cases, not 4, so you get to break out great grandma's hand-monogrammed linnen to make up the difference. (Yes, I do wash them carefully)

Bahaha! After scolding us all for the poor score to the phishing test that went round work recently, now IT are cranky that the 'mandatory cybersecurity training' email link keeps being mass reported as spam cause it looks so half-assed and wants you to log in with work info. Hoisted? Petard?

Weds continues to be the BEST DAY for the swimmins. Only like half a dozen other ppl in the pool and none of them were a ginger physicist in budgie smugglers.

Got home to the most annoying of all the noises! The peeping smoke alarm! And it was not the alarm I thought it would be. No. It was the one riiiiight at the top of the stairs I am too short to reach 😭 Had to go make pitiful faces at Next Door. He got to be gallant, I got my battery changed. Win win

God, the news is just an unending cycle of shit these days, innit? Like watching the pathetic twitching of a cockroach that hadn't realised it's dead yet.

Fantastic photo from Phil Laybourne capturing the moment a Red Deer steps on some Lego.

Also! That was tricky but fun. Probably would have been easier on a piece of felt; it doesn't lock together consistently so does try to slide away. You can tell it's not the *highest* quality but a fun way to whittle away an evening in front of the telly.

Toot toot!

Bugger me, I have been SO GOOD this week. I have walked to/from work every day except for yesterday's torrential downpour, I have eschewed boredom snacking, and I have been drinking my damn water. Dunno what's come over me. (It's gonna come off the rails at the weekend, mind, you mark my words)

In the spirit of "You don't get what you want, you get a third option, bitch" I would laugh so hard if the people of Greenland unilaterally declared themselves Canadian.

SOSSUJES!!!

M'collegue brought me a random present! I have seen these advertised all over failbook and assumed a level of drop ship junk, but some of the whimsies at least are super cute. Tiny dragon and awooooo woofer! There's also a very suspect... polar bear? Not certain on that one 🤣

Sometimes... I just really bloody love beans on toast. That is all.

Also! I have my Wednesday afternoon swim time back! Whoop whoop! Flexible working at dep't head's discretion, cause Mopsy told him about the physicist's budgie smugglers disturbing my Sunday and he couldn't stop laughing.

So since the merger the college now owns a farm for agri tec students, and as staff we can now buy meat packs when they send animals to slaughter. I'm gettin me some free roaming heritage pig sausages! Hoo yeah!

I dunno, is it not thematically appropriate that a ghastly TERF's mediocre prose be used to illustrate a ghastly mysoginist's indifferent role in a ghastly xenophobe's descent into authoritarianism? I wouldn't want to pollute a GOOD book with association to any of these people.

Ah, shit, I think I'm a day late cancelling a magazine subscription I thought I had already cancelled but didn't actually check. Fuck's sake.🤦‍♀️

So anyway, it would have been a lovely Sunday swim of not for the sudden appearance of the Marxist Physicist from work in his teeeeeny tiiiiiny bright blue budgie smugglers and OH MY GOD I DID NOT NEED THAT IMAGE IN MY BRAIN. (Nor do I ever want my flabby booty in HIS brain, thanks.)

Dear body, pack it in. You are NOT peckish. You had broccoli and mushrooms and pork and baked potato like an hour and a half ago. You are bored and overly used to December's snackapalooza.

Since I did groceries today and will probably go clean the bathroom in a minute, that means I can go swimming tomorrow! I have missed the swimmy swim. But work stole our wellbeing flextime cause dickheads were abusing the time off, so I can't do Wednesday afternoons any more :(

Did the grocery run a day early. It's cold but bright and sunny out there today and I know tomorrow is going to be WET so I won't want to do it then. Spent too much money on fresh fish portions but I'm trying to make better choices than a default plate of beige.