more spor-attic blogging

{ahem}

Is anybody still there? I feel I should apologise for my absence from Blogland the last few weeks. It's not that nothing has been happening in my life, or that I've had nothing to say... I just haven't really had the urge to say it.

My biggest grip is that our browsing habits are officially being monitored at work and although I know it may be too late I really don't need everyone (or anyone!) in my office poking around on my blog. So I am abstaining during working hours.
Giving up coffee was easier!

So let's see, is there anything important I've neglected to tell you?
I got a new laptop - shiny new Fujitsu Siemens Amilo with all sorts of bells & whistles. It's lovely although I have some residual nagging guilt that it's a mild case of overkill for me. How many processors does one need, really, for blogging and email? Although the display & graphics are great so perhaps some more frequent photo editing will be accomplished.
(Let's pretend for now that I haven't only switched the thing on twice in the last two weeks, shall we?)

We also got a new TV. And no, we didn't win the lottery - the old one died a sudden death last week, a day before the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup so there was just no question of waiting. The credit card is looking a little withered but there is a sleek new flat-screen LCD screen decorating the corner of the lounge now. I think Hubby thinks all his Christmases have come at once.

Speaking of financial drains, I promised a while back that I would show you what our attic conversion was all about, so here you go, the photos as promised:

BEFORE - THE FIRST FLOOR LANDING WITH
PULL-DOWN STAIRS LEADING TO ATTIC

sorry it's a bit blurry ;-)

AFTER- THE FIRST FLOOR LANDING WITH
NEW STAIRCASE LEADING UP

BEFORE - LOOKING EAST

AFTER - LOOKING EAST

BEFORE - LOOKING WEST

AFTER - LOOKING WEST

Pretty nifty, don't you think? Well worth having the house overrun with overall-clad leprachauns and coated in dust for a week or so.

I can't C!

Last week I got a headache. I've been getting them fairly regularly for the last couple of years - intense, blinding headaches that stay for at least 2 days and then disappear as suddenly as they appeared. Headaches that amplify all noises and make it difficult to see; Headaches that make it feel as if my head is going to explode.
Hubby has been pushing me to go see a doctor, just in case there's a pumpkin growing in my head, or something.

So when this one attacked I decided to do something about it - but I went to the chiropractor, not the doctor. We'll leave that as a last resort^[1]. Besides, surely some tlc from the magic chiro would be able to sort it out?!
Well, a good long massage and a few adjustments in my neck certainly helped to relieve a large portion of the tension I had no idea I was feeling. The bad news is that he told me that it wasn't just a tension headache, but in fact a migraine. I'd been suspecting this but hoping it wasn't, because I've heard those can be quite nasty. After taking his advice to lie down in a quiet, dark room with a cold compress on my pip for relief, I was persuaded to acknowledge that perhaps he was right. OK, so now it has a name and the likliehood of me sprouting vegetables from my ears is no longer a possibility, my mind is at rest a bit.
The thing to do now is figure out what is causing them and how to avoid them.
Trouble is, apparently the 3 things most likely to cause or aggravate a migraine are coffee, cheese and chocolate.

YIKES!!!

Coffee and cheese are 2 of my staple diet items - the chocolate I'm not too concerned with, as I don't often have a chocoloate except in emergencies when PMS hits and then, oh boy, just you TRY and stop me munching an Aero..!
The upshot is, I'm a little deflated - coming down from a 5-year caffeine buzz, since the last time I went without coffee was about 5 years back when I did a bit of a detox diet. I'm fooling myself by drinking a couple of mugs of decaf which is sort of working, although the brewing-coffee smell that fills the office first thing in the morning is almost enough to make me mug (haha!) someone for a cup.
I was more or less forced to have cheese on my sandwich for lunch yesterday (that'll teach me to wait until the last minute to go in search of food) but the killer was this morning, when I ambled over to the coffee station to get myself a cup of decaf and there, strewn across the table, were dozens of shiny, enticing chocolates there for the taking.

This is not going to be easy.

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^[1] I'm quite happy to make like an Ostrich.

hello again

My mother used to say that if you can't find something nice to say, then say nothing.^[1]

Not that this has anything to do with why I've been m.i.a. for the past two weeks or so, I just thought I'd share that with you and it seemed like a good opening line.

Truth is, I just didn't feel like blogging. That is, I didn't feel like writing a blog post. Or comments. I have done a teensy bit of lurking though, just in case you thought you could get away with anything in my alleged absence.

Besides which, nothing terribly exciting has happened in the last couple of weeks. The attic conversion is done and looks great, and once I have it all cleaned up I'll post the 'before' and 'after' pics because I know you're all just hanging on the edge of your seats to see them.
Aside from that there has been work, work and more work, pathetic attempts at housework and some shopping not really worth mentioning.

The highlight of it all was definitely watching my beloved Springboks beat England in last Friday night's Rugby World Cup game. Not just beat, but annihalate, really, with a final score of 36-0. It's enough to make a girl's heart swell with pride and cause her to drink too much beer.

There was an Australian, a Frenchwoman, an Italian, two South Africans, a Swede and another Frenchman who all went out to watch the greyhound races. You'd be forgiven for thinking this is the start of a joke but actually that's what we did last Saturday evening. Next time I go I'll take a heavier coat and wear sensible shoes.
The dogs are cute - all wagging tails and muzzles, chasing the fake rabbit around the track until it disappears into a little metal box, at which point they all stop and sniff the ground a lot.

Anyway, I think my little break from blogging is coming to an end - thanks Angel, for kicking my ass on that one with your last comment :-)
I shall pull myself towards myself and be back to enchant you shortly...

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^[1] At least I think it was my mother.

Monday Ramblings

It's official. I don't like Facebook.
There are all these things you can do, see, like compare your friends to each other in different categories... and what's the category I get "Most ___" in?
Most Studious.
I give up.

In other news, my house is overrun with strange men in overalls. Actually, not so much overalls as jeans and paint(?)- stained T-shirts. I volunteered to take a week off work^[1] so that I could stay home and babysit the builders we've hired to convert our attic into a habitable space. By the end of the week we should have a large room upstairs with windows and everything. Photos will follow, of course.
I must confess, though, I feel a bit like an intruder in my own home today. And it's slightly disconcerting to be sitting comfortably in my lounge attempting to appear nonchalant, with the sounds of someone cutting holes in my roof - punctuated with occasional raucous man-laughter - assaulting my ears.

I had grandiose ideas of spending my whole week writing. Well so far, you've just read the fruits of my labour. Because first I had to do the laundry, of course. And then there was a pile of ironing to do because it was cluttering up the space where I wanted to sit and write. Although I'm not sitting there now because by the time I'd finished the ironing, the sun had moved overhead and so was no longer streaming in through the windows like it was earlier.

Aahh, there ya go... nothing like the sweet sound of an angle-grinder and men yelling to each other to get the creative juices flowing...
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^[1]A difficult decision, to be sure.