Actually, I’m lying about not being able to sit still. I have been quite capable of sitting down and watching Gilmore Girls this week. I don’t know why but I had never heard of this programme until a few weeks ago when E4 started showing it. At first I thought it was just another mushy American teen show but it’s actually extremely funny, and it gives me the same kind of fuzzy feeling as My So-Called Life does. I’m a bit obsessed with it just now and I just wish I could afford to buy the DVD box set (£185 or something like that) but James says I can only afford to buy things with the money I earn (none).

Well, it’s ‘cheery Tuesday’ so I have to blog about something cheery. Hmm… that might be a tough one today after the terrible night’s sleep I just had. Somehow whenever James is off work, our sleeping patterns always go haywire (well, not ‘somehow’; it’s because we stay up too late!). I’m so tempted to go back to bed this morning but I won’t because it will only make me feel worse later. I really do have to get on with tidying the house today as the place is an absolute tip, and I have a ton of clothes to wash. Pooh.

Something that really makes me happy though, is this post full of amazing photos James took at the wedding we were at last week. He has never taken any kind of wedding photos before, and I just think these are extremely promising. We are currently trying to set up a photography business which will initially be portraits but could then move on to weddings in the future. It’s hard not to be biased, but I really think James has what it takes to be a successful professional photographer!

The new Alphabeat song, Boyfriend, still cheers me up, even after my millionth listen. I love the whole Scandinavian English accent and how they seem to fit in lyrics that we never would here!

Since I plan to blog more regularly, I’ve thought up some themes to help me when I’m stuck for things to write about. I have no idea if these will help at all but I’ll give them a try:

• Have a moan Monday
• Cheery Tuesday
• Write a list Wednesday
• Thankful Thursday
• Feel nostalgic Friday
• Snapshot Saturday

So, as today is ‘have a moan Monday’, I would like to moan about the fact that there is no milk in this house which means no tea and no cereal. Of course, it’s all my own fault - I could easily have foreseen this problem and bought some milk on the way home from Portsmouth but that would have been too organised of me.

I can’t really moan to the max though because my lovely husband (who has today off work) is currently on his way to Kelso to buy us milk and… baguettes!! We’re going to watch Dexter, so of course we need our cheese and ham baguettes when we’re watching Dexter.

The wedding was lovely. I’ve only been to two other weddings; one when I was about five or six, and then my own one! Being the non-girl that I am, I was nervous about wearing a dress and shoes and all that stuff but it wasn’t too bad. My feet are so not used to wearing shoes though, and are still recovering. It’s okay though, I have managed to completely de-girlify myself now; no trace of make-up on my face, fingernails chopped to a more sensible length, jewellery off, hair in unbrushed mess, jeans on, slippers on… aahhh… comfort!

The hardest part of the trip was taking Jodie to stay with my mum. Jodie and I have never spent any time apart! I am used to her following me around literally everywhere, so it felt weird without her. When we picked her up last night, she was very confused. I think she had written us off and accepted her new home in Edinburgh. She’s still a bit subdued today but I’m sure she’ll be back to full Jodie-ness in no time.

So, it’s back to normality now. I have been informed (warned?) by my sister-in-law that she and her brood will be visiting in October, which gives me a good few weeks to get a substantial amount of decorating done in the living room (ha – in theory!). My sister-in-law and mother-in-law also said that they really miss my blog since I’m not writing as much as I used to. That’s because lately I have been completely sick of myself. I have mastered the ability of boring myself to tears, and haven’t had anything interesting to write about. But it’s nice to know that they miss it, so I’ll try to make more of an effort to write more regularly.

During my painting escapades, I spent a lot of time shouting at my dog who kept brushing past my freshly painted woodwork, leaving clumps of fur behind for me to pick off. I also sanded down many a fly or bug that lost its life, drowning on my freshly painted window ledge. James tried to save one fly but instead he managed to pick its wings off and leave its body behind. Oops.

I had forgotten what it feels like to complete something – it’s been so long since I did anything of any significance. It feels lovely. Now we just need a nice carpet to cover the badly stripped, badly varnished, horrid wooden floors we inherited, and it will look so much better.

Yesterday I started stripping the living room wallpaper, and by my calculations, I should be finished sometime next Summer.

Apart from dreaming about the McDean sunset ending, recently I have:

1. Deleted most of my RSS feeds on Google Reader. Oh my god, I got so bored reading it all and realised I didn’t care about half of it. If it’s that important, it will be on the news. Now I only subscribe to a tiny few blogs and local news feeds… and Big Brother, and Guy Burnet, and Hollyoaks.

2. Played Grand Theft Auto Vice City. I get these major adrenaline rushes from it and they leave me feeling AWFUL and zombie-like! Yet I still want to play it. Well, where else would you get to run around killing people with a chainsaw, and then completely throw the police off your scent just by changing your clothes?!

3. Put sunglasses on my unimpressed dog.

4. Spent hours online trying to find a bag and jewellery to match my outfit for a wedding we’re going to next month. My dress has a bow on it. IIIIICK!!!! I so don’t do girly. I swear it was easier to organise my outfit when I was actually the bride!!!!!!! White dress? Done. White shoes? Done. End of.

5. Created the biggest ever playlist of happy songs on iTunes to keep me happy all the time! Gone are the days of self pity and Radiohead.

6. Not done any exercise. I’ve decided to stay fat.

7. Watched Big Brother. I nearly cried tonight when Rebecca was evicted. What are people thinking? She was the most entertaining one in there. Poor Luke.

8. Sang along to the Dizzee Rascal/Calvin Harris song. How catchy and funny is it?!

I often underestimate the effect hay fever has on my life, but it’s like a never-ending cold that just exhausts me and brings my mood down. It’s been so bad this year that I’ve even started taking antihistamine tablets again after a couple of years without them. But now I remember why I stopped taking them; they don’t work and they’re damn expensive.

My glorious new ‘Northern Exposure 28 disc DVD box set’ has accompanied me in some of my darkest hay-fever-filled hours. I managed to get through 32 episodes in six days, which sounds a bit overindulgent but I feel no shame. I feel quite lucky to be able to watch that many episodes of a TV show in a short space of time without feeling remotely bored. And I still have 78 episodes to go!

Randomness:

Look at this stunning picture James took of my dad on Father’s Day. And here’s another nice photo from that day:

Craig is coming back to Hollyoaks for his sunset ending with John Paul! I am beyond excited!

I dropped a fire extinguisher on my foot weeks ago and it still hurts.

Tribal Wives on BBC2 is so inspiring that I’m tempted to go and live with a tribe in the jungle. I’m just not sure where I would plug in my hair straighteners.

Season 2 of Dexter starts this Sunday!! We usually record it and watch it on a Saturday whilst eating lunch. (Programmes about serial killers are best watched in daylight, and the act of eating is known to reduce anxiety.)

I was right to be worried about the hills; they were serious hard work. But uphill pain became exhilaration as we sped downhill at 30mph. We cycled for almost nine miles, along some roads we’ve never been on before and the scenery was truly spectacular (as was the weather)! It was really great fun and I can’t wait to do it again!