Bit of a Blur

Well I haven't updated for about a week now and, to tell the truth, most of the that time is a blur for me. I have a vague idea of what's happened in that time but don't ask me to write it down in any chronological order. So I'm skipping it.

And I'll add an update of the day so far.

I was awoken several times by Jeff who was looking for one of Bink's baby bottles. The first time he came up I was well too dazed to have a proper look. The second time he insisted in arousing my attention so I was forced to think about it. I seemed to recall mum taking the bottle with her when she left my room last night (she used my computer for an hour or so to check her emails and things. It could have been closer to 2 hours, as I had time to read enough of an old book of mine to decide that whatever reason why I never actually read the book before must have been valid, read some of a book I started when I was 10 or so but lost before I could finish it only to realise I may have grown out of it. It was also enough time to watch the first 15 minutes of the 1st episode of the 3rd season of Dexter, which I stopped partly because it wasn't so good the second time around but also because mum said she didn't like to watch things like that prematurely because they (all T.V companies) only show 1 show she likes at a time, a run of one usually ending as a run of the next begins. So I put on an episode of Psych, which I think I was able to fully watch while she was there).

He searched for a while, I don't know if he came to search just once or looked for it once, left, and then came back to look again. I think that he came to look for it twice because I told him that I recalled mum taking it on her way out, as mentioned above and came back to look again after conferring with mum over this. I told him that I recalled it pretty vividly, which I actually did, and this seemed to satisfy him. I don't remember if he came and searched a third time but a little while later mum came and searched. She, too, may have came back and search a second time but if she did come on 2 occasions the second time was a far less serious attempt as she got in bed after just a few minutes. It was hard enough to sleep with her just being there but I decided I definitely wasn't getting back to sleep after she started snoring.

I went on the PC but, being a guy with a very short attention span, I get bored very easily. So easily that I will start playing solitaire for while waiting for something as simple as a web page to load up. And I generally have to be blasted by information from all sides so I usually have to have the TV on while I'm playing a computer game, particularly ones where you don't have to concentrate one anything that characters might be saying.

It was about 12ish, by this point, and I wanted to play the sims 2 (I've had the game almost since launch and I still haven't played families beyond the first generation. Though this is mostly because by the time I've got a house and/or family exactly the way I want them there's some other game that's come out that I want to play or I've got back into World of Warcraft).

I tried to refrain from putting something on for a while (I don't know how long, certainly less than 30 minutes, definitely longer than 10), until I realised that it was my room and, rude as it is to turn the TV on while somebody is right there, she had the option of going and sleeping somewhere else. (I probably wouldn't have bothered, however the sims has such a long loading time, or at least on my PC). So I watched the following episode of Psych from the night before. I don't know how long it took her to leave. (Again, it was between 10 and 30 minutes. Actually, in both cases, it was probably closer to 30).

My copies of ghostbusters finally arrived from HMV, today. Between then and now is something of a blur. I'm sure there were details which might be worth reporting on but, to be frank, I remember very little of them. I did go and take Chug to club and we stuck around to make fun of him and he girl he's seeing (the joke being that Laura, his girlfriend, is a boy whom we call Lawrence, and that Chug, as he's 'seeing' her, is a girl; Charlotte). It was particularly funny. I'm worried that it might be a bad reflection on my character that I'm finding some of the stuff said there to be less repulsive and laughing along more and more. Trust me, some of the stuff said there is very disgusting.

So, fast forwarding more hours still, Dave and I finally got around to watching the first ghostbusters film some time after 10, we're still watching it now (11:42).

I have to say, there are a lot of things I missed the last few times I saw it.... But I don't think I actually have seen it since the turn of the century, at least not more than a few clips of it.

Stinking Cold

I guess I could feel this cold coming on a day or 2 before it did but I just thought it was going to be a case of the sniffles.

I remember having a conversation with mum a few weeks ago about how I had managed to escape from the cold, this year, which is something rare and this reminder her about an article she had read which said that, this year, the cold had some how been covered by the flu shot. (I'm entitled to one because I have asthma).

Then, the night before last, it just went from the sniffles into full blown nausea, sinus pain, runny noses and streaming eyes, on top of the usual sneezing fits. Normally when I get a cold it's just runny noses, sneezing and maybe one night of coughing and then back to business as usual. I'm not normally one of those people who treat a cold like they're dying (ladies; just so you know I'm also willing to stop and ask for directions when I'm lost and will except the blame for my actions ;-) ); I'm willing to get on with house work and things but I still don't like exposing my bugs to other people when I can avoid it.

So anyway, when it got late, yesterday, and I realised that we not only had both of my sister's children but that nobody had come to pick them up I had to ask the question I already knew the answer to. "Do we have the kids tonight?"

Not only had my sister dropped off the other child while I was occupied but she had told mum and Tony that she had already cleared it with me.

I really wish people would check these details with me before assuming that Elise is telling the truth, for a change. Maybe it's the fact that we don't spend so much time with her, these days... She isn't here to lie to us so much but all people seem to have registered is that she isn't spouting as much bull shit as usual. Maybe, subconsciously, people are just assuming she's being more honest lately; at least as honest as a normal person.

I'm not sure if I'd have babysat, last night, given the choice. I mean, I suspect it's one of the babies' who cave me the cold in the first place but all either of them seems to have is the sniffles. I'm not particularly sure it's the same thing; it could be that they're just much better at fighting infections than I am. But if they're not and their sniffles aren't the same strain of virus as my cold then I have probably given them what I had.

Anyway, what I was getting about way above, concerning what mum read about flu vaccines immunising people against the cold, it kind of tells me that the cold and flu could be the same thing but when your body fights it more easily we call it a cold and when we feel like death we call it flu. (This could also explain why men complain about colds more than women do, as females generally have better immune systems than men do. With the exception of my mother). Since I get flu shots it could be that I'm fighting a slightly mutated strain of the flu, making it seem like a severe cold.

At about 6.30 or so this morning I couldn't stay awake any longer. I climbed in next to Bink, who had done a good job of keeping the bed warm for me.

He woke up at about 10, maybe 10:30 with an extremely weighty nappy and we had none his size for me to change him into. As soon as mum was sure I was up she gave me Georgia to look after until Tony arrived. We actually had ones her size, though. When Tony got here I was to hand him a tenner and send him back out for nappies. When he came back he bathed Dylan and I went on up.

Around 30 minutes later still, after I had checked my emails and web comics, etc, I had just got in bed, so naturally this was the moment mum chose to shout for me. She wanted me to watch Georgia for an hour. This meant that Tony wanted to go out, somewhere. (I don't mean to treat him like a servant but the guy grates on my nerves then rubs salt on them). I called back that I had just taken a bunch of melatonin, which was true, and she let me stay in bed. Normally I'd have gone to do whatever was asked for me, I'm generally the kind of guy who let's people walk all over me (or so various people tell me) but if there was an occasion when I needed to have some rest it was this morning.

I slept until nearly 6pm and did what I normally do; stayed in my bed room and went out of my way to let nobody know I was awake. Dave came home and told me he was going to a raid in 9 minutes (he don't remember him asking if he could use the PC to do so, this time, so there was a bit of a cheek in that, though I didn't really mind). I logged on for him and informed them that he had only just got home and had gone for a quick smoke. His whole timing was off, as I had finally decided to download season 2 of Sam & max and was going through the payment details, which meant updating my card on pay pal.

I sent chug down to get my card from my coat pocket but he couldn't seem to find it, so I went down.

(Both babies had been picked up which was highly surprising. Tony, however, was still there. He had asked to stay for dinner which is fine; he does deserve something for his efforts... Putting up with his constant whining and complaining doesn't really constitute as payment).

I finished the details and payed for the remainder of the season (I had downloaded episode one a year ago) and started downloading the first file (episode 2) as Dave started gathering consumables for his raid. He was on in Orgrimmar for a long time so I saw nothing wrong with watching over his shoulder and downloading the other episodes as they finished, seeing as they all came down so quickly. Then I went to help with dinner.

The potatoes had burned. Well, some of them had burned. Others were just slightly coloured because they were in the same water as the burned ones, so we were able to fish them out and put them in another pan for mashing. The tasted fine, though were a little tough to mash. The lamb was the best I've had in.... Actually I don't remember when I last had lamb that nice, though I don't doubt that it would have been minted lamb shanks from Langfords in Welshpool.

Then I went to lie down because I was still feeling a little nauseous. I think I may have dozed off, but no more than for 5 or 10 minutes according to the PC and mum called me down to help tidy the living room. Oddly enough I think that few minutes of sleep might have done a lot of good for my cold, who knows how much better I would be feeling now if I had been left to sleep. I got up and felt extremely groggy, which is how I tend to feel after 5-10 minutes of sleep, and went to see what I could do for them. I just was not with it, though, barely registering anything anybody said. At least Tony was gone, though.

Jeff was extremely stressed. Being completely out-of-it I thought this was due to the mess he was attempting to clean. Apparently it turned out that, after I had gone to bed, Tony went off on one of his rants at them again.

It was especially hard to concentrate on anything that was going on because Die Had 4.0 was on. Although this is the cheesiest of the Die Hard films it's still hard not to become engrossed by it. When I had finished everything I had been asked to do and the instructions seemed to end I sat down to watch the end. Then I came up, kicked Chug off the PS3 and Dave, who had finished his raid at this point, logged off and went to bed. He didn't feel like watching anything, but I knew it was a long shot just to ask, as it was already 11pm and he has work tomorrow.

It turned out the girl who had requested to be my friend on facebook was Lauren Thorley... It also turns out that Eden Ivy Lee IS her real name. I wander how she acquired the name Lauren, if that isn't her real... I replied to the last message she sent to me through Facebook and I started updating my blog and we ended up sending messaged back and forth through face book as I did so. One of the last messages I sent was asking if she had MSN or Yahoo IM but I don't think she got it, as she replied to the one I had sent previously and that appeared to be the end of it.

I also took the time to check out my friend Kirvil's blog; http://noeullent.typepad.com/. I don't speak any Norwegian, however when I run through it through a translator it's still pretty damn hard to read and I grasp pretty much none of it. Hopefully there's a better translator out there...

That would apparently bring us to the here and now.

I'm long over due for a shower but I'm probably going to play some games first. Even though I really want to get into Sam and Max I think I'll play the sims a little, as I want to make the latter last as long as possible, as there are a few games that come out in February that I'm really looking forward to. Plus there are several games that came out last year I'm interested in yet I don't seem to have got my hands on, yet.

Slow Day

Well, the title might say "slow day"; I don't think it went by too quickly or slowly or any more so than usual. Today and yesterday I watched Piglet (my niece). When she slept I played a little of the sims 2 which I also played after she went home (yesterday, that is; I do intend to play more later). I don't think I should get too 'hooked' on anything now that I know I'm not going to see through for long (the Sims 3 gets released next month).

To that end I'm probably going to download the rest of season 2 of Sam & Max. The first season was hilarious, I've been waiting for it to come out on disk (it's been only available through download for most of last year) so that I can support my small, local businesses, in this case Ego. To make up for not supporting my local games shop by buying this directly from the publisher, instead of from them, I'm probably going to get the Wii version of season 1.

I confess; I did continue playing for half an hour or so after she woke up, letting her play on the floor. But every time she asked for attention I gave it to her and as soon as she seemed unhappy I'd pick her up (or, if she was already in my arms/on my lap, put her down) and when she became upset I would take her downstairs again.

I watched a little Red Dwarf with Dave after Jeff and I took her home yesterday, I'm not sure how many episodes. This was before I played on The Sims.

The only difference between yesterday and today was that mum actually cooked today (I felt a little guilty when I saw her in the kitchen, I guess I might have been complaining more than I realised. I don't mind being the one to do the cooking for the house... I think I just mind that I'm the only one who is really fit to). (I don't remember what I made yesterday. Couldn't have been adventurous. Now I think about it, it might have been burgers and chips. Not adventurous by a long shot. Wish people would stop buying damn burgers...).

Also, pickle was actually picked up by her mother for a change.

I came up and Dave asked if he could do a heroic instance on WoW, which I agreed to. He apparently needed 5 more emblems of heroism to get this neck piece he wanted. He's needed 5 more for the better part of a week. Perhaps more than a week, I don't know. He recommended I put on a DVD, and that he didn't mind which (this was after we couldn't find the one he wanted). I couldn't be bothered to put anything on, so I just lay on the bed. I dozed off for a few minutes, I don't know how long but it was long enough to be aware that I was asleep, or at least beginning to fall asleep.

I went down to use get myself a sandwich and a drink... I somehow managed to have the sandwich, make my mother a drink and come back thirsty. I checked my mail and other messages and found that somebody I've never heard of has added me to face book (I only opened an account to contact Zoe, so that I could get her address and Mark's so that I could get Christmas presents for their children). After Christmas I decided to fill in a profile (probably because somebody else I didn't know had added me to her contacts, only at that point the only thing about me on my profile was my name and a week later she added a second James Nash, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't me she was after. Basically I updated it to avoid more situations like this).

I think this person might be somebody I met when I first joined the church, she looks a lot like her. But the name threw me. It said that she was a member of the church, but that could mean any continent. We had no friends in common, apparently, so did she add me because I listed my "religious views" as Mormon? (I listed my 'political views' as Anarchy \m/)? I sent a message, saying that I didn't know much about FaceBook etiquette, but that I would like to know more about her before I confirmed her as a friend.

Then I realised that this girl is obviously local as she works for, or is, at least, somehow involved with the local newspaper. Looking through her friends I found that those few that had anything in common (from the limited information they supplied), but there seemed to be clusters of people who did; Mormons, people from mid wales and people from the midlands. Some of those from mid-Walesfamiliar. While it was possible that the girl in the photo who answers to the name Eden Ivy Lee may look different enough from Loren Thorleydifferent person, I don't think there any members of the church in this area by that name who look that much like her.

I shall now play some Sims 2. I still hope to get myself something to drink, I don't know if this will be before or after I play the sims. Whenever I go for it this drink it will probably turn out to be a cup of rooibos tea. (But it might turn out to be orange juice).

There is no life A.F.K.

I named this blog as I did because, at the time, I was playing a lot of World of Warcraft. Actually, my time on that game dropped dramatically as my sister had a baby boy, Dylan, 6 months prior to the first post I made (the only real post before this) and she didn't seem to want to spend any time with him. And she went on to spend virtually no time with him until he was nearly 2 years old; she would drop him off at our place soon after he woke, usually between 9am and 10 am, and wouldn't come to pick him up until after 9pm.

At some point during this time my play time on WoW and any other games dropped even further and yet I still seemed to have no life of my own.

When her son was around 18 months old she had a Daughter, Georgia-May, just as adorable as he is. We frequently took care of both children for a few months, but as her son was now able to walk unaided and speaking in full sentences (no thanks to her) she started taking much more of an interest and we don't get to see him as much, these days.

(Elise isn't actually employed and nobody is completely certain why she can't watch both children, or why she couldn't look after Dylan when he was an only child).

We now baby sit her as much as we did Dylan, if not more as Elise tends to drop her off after 8am, some time, and will rarely come for her before 10pm. She seems to have less interest than she had for Dylan, and I thought her treatment of him was pretty deplorable. Realistically I know George is getting treated better than he was, or at least changed more frequently. Though this could be because she's spending more time with us during the day, although Dylan probably spent more time here as we had him for far more nights.

Most days a guy called Tony Quigg comes and babysits for us. I don't think I can really explain the way this man makes those around him feel and do justice while accurately explaining the feelings he evokes in us. He does it for free and he's not exactly affluent. This, you would think, must make him some kind of saint. This is what I would think. However I think that if you, my imaginary reader, got to know him for a few weeks, then eventually you'd want to be payed to endure his continued company. There's no end to the amount of personal comments and cutting remarks he makes. He has no problems telling people what he thinks about their personal habits, especially my poor step father who has several medical conditions which prevent him from leading a hygienic lifestyle. I think about killing Tony at least once a day, which is still much more merciful of the amount of homicidal fantasies my mother has of him.

I don't even think he babysits out of the goodness of his heart, I think it's more to do with some perverse way he see's my sister, who has to be 40 years his junior. (He claims to be about 50 or so, though I wouldn't be surprised if this was true and life has simply aged him a little prematurely).

Even though he's babysitting my sister's children she won't let him do it at her house because he keeps complaining her house stinks of weed (she denies this repeatedly, but I think this is one area where we might actually agree with Tony. Though, thinking about it, I couldn't smell weed when me and mum popped by for a few minutes earlier), that her boyfriend is a twat (one of the few other things we agree on. Even Elise has a hard time rebuking this) or anything else that comes to mind. She also suspects that she snoops around her house, in places where he doesn't belong, and opens her mail. She doesn't mind the idea of him doing that here.

Today he told mum "wasn't fit to look after the baby" (he's ill) this morning, however I pointed out to her that he's not fit to look after her full stop.

So I had her all day, not that I really minded. A few months ago (it might have been about 6 months ago, it was summer) we had a huge blow out and I wouldn't let mum have him around for a month. This was the longest we've been rid of the anal bastard since the birth of her first child. I knew that, as soon as I started backing down and letting him come infrequently it wouldn't be long before he was here almost every day of the week.

Mum had a dentist appointment today, needed to make a trip to Welshpool and had a weight-watchers meeting. I was supposed to accompany her to Welshpool, but we both agreed it was unfair to take a baby out in the car in this weather when we don't have to. I still didn't like letting her go along but I didn't see any other choice.

George took 2 short naps in the middle of the day, the later one lasted for the better part of an hour, most of which I spent trying to revive Chug's yahoo email account. For some reason it won't accept (what we believed) to be the old password or let us change it to anything new. I didn't manage to do this while she slept. I even tried starting a new yahoo account, however I kept getting messages saying I couldn't open an account for anybody below 18 years old without parental or guardian consent and required a parent or guardian to log in to give it. I don't know my mother's password (which I'm a little surprised about, truth be told, as I know the entire household's passwords for their online services except for mum's email. And I swear I used to know it).

I don't remember what I did until after 4, when Charles came home, and I don't really remember what I did until around 6, when I watched the episode 1 of 'Psych' on my computer, as he never saw much of the first season.

George was asleep at the time, this time sleeping for at least 80 minutes. After Psych I took fer down to change her nappy and make dinner for family. Although "making" dinner seems wrong, mum got a cooked chicken from the supermarket and some pork stuffing and meatloaf, which I warmed and fried some pre-sliced chips. (Actually, it's been so long since I've had anything other than pre-cut chips that I don't remember what home sliced ones even taste like. This isn't because I prefer them or even because I don't like the hassle of cutting chips (I don't, but this is beside the point) but because, years ago, I found the McCain's Home Fries were better than any other chip I'd ever tasted from anywhere. They're not nearly as good since they made them into oven chips, but they'd become too habitual by then).

I stayed downstairs until it was time to take Georgia home. She was very talkative in this time, though she doesn't know any 'actual' words, unless you count 'mumumum' (which I suspect we do), and possibly bababa. (She also make a sound which I don't think I know how to repeat, let alone spell, which seems to combine a 'W' and a 'B' sound. You can try to imagine it but I don't think you could possibly understand the noise without hearing it first). I watched a little Q.I with Chuggle.

Stavros, my sister's loser boyfriend, had taken their car to Liverpool for whatever reason (I wouldn't like to think about his reasons, let alone speculate about them as publicly as this). When we got there Mum had to pop inside "for 5 minutes" to top up my sister's mobile phone credit. We ended up staying for far longer, but this was to be expected.

We arrived to find her playing that memory game with the cards where you flip a pair and if the pictures don't match you have to flip them back. Dylan apparently had some trouble understanding the rules. But he's 2, so I let that slide, especially as he played so enthusiastically.

He cried when we left, which was pretty heart breaking. He was pretty excited that we were there, as we rarely make the visit to her place (in my case it's mostly because I don't like my sister) and I think he wanted us to spend the night.

It's not fair to have to take care of them so much, but it still hurts to see the little buggers go. I've bonded so much with both of them it's almost a maternal thing, which is more than can be said for their mother.

On our way home mum said she wanted to have a look around town (which she does sometimes, and so do I, occasionally), not that there was anything to say by that time (especially on wednesday). I reminded her that I was the only one who hadn't eaten yet (as I was looking after the baby while others ate, as they were nice enough to watch her while I 'cooked'), but that I didn't mind as my dinner was, no doubt, already cold. We didn't spend long going through town (my sister lives 5 minutes away by car so any stops made between her house and ours are detours).

I warmed my dinner a little and ate it with some buttered bread and watched Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. (It started off pretty hard hitting, but trailed into more of a court room drama, like the original show. Actually, it one I'd seen before, where the woman from the D.A's office comes out of witness protection). Then I came up here, checked my messages and finally got around to updating my blog after 2 years.

I think I may go and have a mug of Rooibos before I actually go to bed, though.