Tales from Falsidehill

Drum roll please……

I have finished decorating my dining room!!!!! I started it last November. How shameful is that? I intended on getting the wallpapering done in time for my family coming for Christmas. HA HA HA HA HA! I only managed to get half of it up. And in my haste to get the wallpaper up, I completely ignored the fact that it would have been much easier to paint the skirting boards first. So for the past few weeks I have been painstakingly painting woodwork, trying not to get any white paint on the walls (failing), choking on paint fumes, taking days off to recover, then starting all over again.

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.

I love McDean

I seriously can’t wait for the McDean reunion in September. You wouldn’t believe how excited I actually am. Today, Hollyoaks put this really funny Guy Burnet backstage video on their website and I’ve watched it a few million times already. Yum.

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?!

The hay fever blues

James is reminiscing with his old Warren G album downstairs (‘The rhythm is the bass and the bass is the treble’) so I thought I’d take the opportunity to reacquaint myself with my faithful old blog. It’s been a while. You may have wondered if I’m still alive. Well, I am indeed alive, but the way my hay fever has hit me over the past few weeks, sometimes I feel a bit dead.

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.)

Uphill struggle

James dragged me out for a cycle yesterday. I wanted to go but I moaned and complained a lot beforehand because I didn’t think I was capable of getting up all the many steep hills around here. It really didn’t help when James showed me this graph of the actual changes in elevation that lay ahead of us:

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!

50 years young

It was my mum’s 50th birthday last Thursday! We all went for a curry at Khushi’s which was lovely, and then we made the compulsory visit to Starbucks for coffee afterwards (my mum is obsessed with Starbucks). I was the designated driver for the first time ever (and James certainly made the most of that!). Here are some photos James took: