Iesus Non Amat Me

After six months in the land down under, my brother has returned to good old Blighty. We just picked him up at the airport and brought him home. We had been wondering how Tilly would react to him (since she's still very wary around strangers, especially men) and while she was a bit cautious and kept her distance she didn't growl or run away like she does when John comes round. I don't think it will take her too long to properly remember him.

He's not a big souvenir buyer (unlike me) but he did come bearing a few gifts. I now have an Australia keyring, an Old Melbourne Gaol thimble, a sonic screwdriver necklace (the Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver, of course. He knows who my Doctor is!) And he has brought me back a kangaroo. It's made of wooden board pieces and I have to build it myself, but still. A kangaroo of my very own!

Today a customer asked me if I had a good time in Australia. She comes in quite a lot and I must have mentioned it to her before I went, although I don't remember. So that was really nice. We chatted about the Bridge Climb for a bit. =)

Also, I have a meme.

Comment to this entry and I will give you a colour. List ten things that you like/love that are that colour.

I got this from Zero ages ago. It's taken me this long to do cos Zero likes to pick on me and gave me magenta as my colour.

As you'll see, I ended up using quite a loose definition of "things that are that colour":

1. Printer ink.

2. The fluffy dalmatian toy that came from a cracker.

3. Flowers.

4. Spectral class t brown dwarfs.

5. Futurama (It's very colourful, I'm sure bits of it are magenta...)

6. Crayons.

7. Cookies. (The cookies themselves aren't, but the writing on the pack looks magenta to me.)

8. Easter eggs.

9. Beauty and the Beast (I have a Belle doll that Emma gave me, the packaging of which is magenta.)

10. Have I Got News For You (Part of the set definitely looked magenta to me last week.)

Greetings everyone! I have returned! At some time I will tell you all about my trip and share some of the 849 photographs that I took there!

But that time is not today. Because I am tired. Very, very tired. I'm finding it very difficult to get back into a proper sleeping rhythm. I force myself to stay awake until my normal bedtime but still wake up every hour or so during the night and have trouble getting back to sleep.

I would love to be able to just crash and sleep solidly for eight hours. That would be soooo good. Six hours would be pretty sweet too.

I had hoped to say more this entry but it's taken me far too long to write even this. Thinking, like keeping my eyes open, is hard.

Only a few HOURS to go now! Eeeeee!

Yes, I'm still doing my usual CAPSLOCK Friday. Just a bit EARLIER than usual cos I FLY out tonight. I took today OFF work and it feels kinda WEIRD to be sitting at home at the moment. I've DONE my last minute packing and now there's not much ELSE to do before heading off later.

It still doesn't feel ENTIRELY real. Sometimes it does and I feel extremely EXCITED, but then at other times I have to keep REMINDING myself that I'm actually going. I find myself thinking of what to have for DINNER tonight then remember that I'll be at the AIRPORT to eat.

I don't think TILLY is very happy. It's pretty OBVIOUS to her that SOMETHING is happening. She was climbing over my SUITCASE earlier and she keeps LOOKING at me now. I hope she FORGIVES me for leaving her for two weeks.

I wonder if MCGEE will take over my BEDROOM while I'm gone. It wouldn't SURPRISE me.

FURY probably won't care.

ALSO, BEHOLD NEW LJ THEME!

So, it's FRIDAY and that means CAPSLOCK day.

For some reason writing feels HARD. I've been TIRED all week, possibly because of the CLOCKS (damn clocks) or possibly because work has been very BUSY (damn customers).

I've also been subjected to more CHRISTMAS songs at work. And they're not JUST Christmas songs, oh no, they're BELOVED Christmas songs covered by UNSIGNED artists and they OFFEND my very being. I have to LISTEN to these artists RUIN songs that I love OVER and OVER again.

But looking on the BRIGHT SIDE (if there is one) is that it makes listening to CHRISTMAS music in OCTOBER not so bad because it's not PROPER Christmas music.

It is still VERY ANNOYING though.

Well, ENOUGH of that. It's HALLOWEEN tomorrow! YAY! I have PUMPKINS to carve. Robert and Kat did theirs YESTERDAY while I carved some PEPPERS instead.

There were HALLOWEEN treats and CAKE in the staff room at work courtesy of the one member of staff who takes day even more SERIOUSLY than I do. It was truly DELICIOUS cake.

I am currently drinking AUSTRALIAN wine. Only ONE week to go!

Meme time! Only took me about a week to do this one!

Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Please post them in your journal and explain what they mean to you

I have two sets of words, because I am just that awesome. And it will soon become apparent that I did not take this meme entirely seriously...

Vegetarian

I’m a vegetarian, which means I don’t eat animals. And yes, that includes fish. Being vegetarian is the nice middle ground where I get to feel morally superior to meat eaters but can still look down on vegans and their crazy ways. (I am, of course, joking. I feel superior to everyone regardless of what they eat, in a John Crichton "Humans are superior!" way, complete with costume.)

Dog

I have a dog. Her name is Tilly, she’s deaf and she sheds her hair everywhere. Most of my clothes are now covered with white hairs. For some reason they shed much more than the black ones. I don’t know why, I’m sure there’s a reason. Perhaps I should look into it. Start up my own research project, get government funding then scrap the research and run off to Mexico, using the money to fund a life filled with sun, sand and margaritas. I’ll send for the rest of you when the government loses interest in finding me.

Degree

I have a degree. It is in History and Religious Studies and has been of no use whatsoever in my life since leaving university. I am currently doing a job that requires zero qualifications and could in fact be done by someone whose greatest academic achievement was a papier-mâché mask they made in first school. But on the bright side, I do work in a place where people make shop-wide announcements about chocolate chip biscuits. So it all evens out in the end.

Home

I have a home. It belongs to my parents but still, I live here, it’s my home. It’s a…bit of a mess, but that’s what happens when you’re from a family of hoarders. We’re all the same so there’s no one to challenge the status quo. And that is why my cause of death is almost certainly going to be “crushed under a pile of old junk.” I think that would be covered by the death benefit that I was offered at work the other day but didn’t take up (Yes, for the low low price of £2 a month my family would get £5000 in the event of my demise. Although not if my death was the result of suicide, war or exposure to nuclear radiation.)

Skirt

I wear skirts. A lot. I’ve always disliked trousers, although I do now have two pairs that I wear regularly. My jeanish ones, which are good for climbing and going to theme parks, and my work trousers. We have to wear trousers at work, which makes sense since it’s a very physical job and I climb a lot there too. Ladders, of course, not the racking. Climbing the racking would be naughty and I’m a good girl. Honest.

Canada

Canada is really big. It has bears and maple syrup and Mounties and Keith’s beer. Truly it is a wonderful place. Someday I hope to go back there and visit the places I missed out on before, and go back to the places that I loved. But not walk up that hill again. You know the one I mean, Mr Afterthought, THAT hill. And in case you were wondering, the answer is no. No, there will never be forgiveness for that hill.

Sleep

I assume this was put in cos I’m lazy. Thanks. I am a pig in the Chinese zodiac, which is supposed to mean that I’m lazy, so I guess it’s appropriate. Not that astrology really means anything. I’m also a Virgo, which means I should be exceptionally neat and, as we discussed three words up from this one, I most certainly am not. Plus I always remember what my physics teacher said – “Never confuse astronomy and astrology. Astronomy is science, astrology is bullshit.”

Animals

I like animals. I come from an animal-loving family and we’ve almost always had pets. I shall now list them for you in chronological order: Jess (cat), Breeze (dog), Lucky (hamster), Goldie (hamster), Dopey (hamster), Smartie (hamster), Minnie (rat), Evie (rat), Lily (rat), Rose (rat), Fury (cat) and Tilly (dog). Also McGee, who is technically the neighbours’ cat but spends most of his time here. His name is actually Gee, or possibly Ghee, but we changed it to McGee after the NCIS character.

Australia

Australia is a magical far-far away land that only exists in story books and daytime soap operas. In November my intrepid friend and I plan to attempt to visit this mythical place. If we survive the trip we will be sure to bring back evidence of the country’s existence. Perhaps in the form of a boomerang or cap that says “Pobody’s Nerfect.”

Mexico

One day we will call our families and say “Hey, yeah, we’re in Mexico.” That is the plan and hopefully it will happen without defrauding the government, but you know, if that’s what it takes. Personally I think we should have gone when the swine flu paranoia meant that everyone was avoiding the place and prices were really cheap. Plus it would have had the added advantage of making us look crazy. Or awesome. Or even crazy awesome. Mmm…crazy awesome.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say that of the 9 most poisonous arachnids, Australia has all of them. Douglas Adams

Oh god, metaquotes is freaking me out. They're talking about spiders in Sydney. And while I've always known that Australia is home to various horrible creepy-crawlies, I've managed to not really think about it too much so far.

It's not that I'm arachnophobic. If I see a spider in my house I'll usually ignore it or put it outside. But spiders that you find in my house don't generally have the ability to KILL YOU.