Aaaah, the weekend.

After my week of Travel Guide Hell, it's nice to have a time when you don't have to do anything at all. Well, except watch thoroughly silly films on the telly and catch up with the latest goings-on in the Yorkshire Dales.

Yes, I have a shameful secret. I watch Emmerdale. Not much of a secret now though, but never mind. It's mindless, thoroughly mad and totally easy to watch. On a Sunday morning that's just what you want. I blame my mother though. She got me watching it. She blames Gwyn, cos he used to put it on when she got home from work. Whatever the reason, it's just fun. And there's not nearly enough of that these days.

Now I'm watching Jurassic Park II: The Lost World. Easily the worst of the trilogy, mainly because there's no Sam Neill in it. Though there is Jeff Goldblum, a slight consolation. There's also a very annoying man, playing a terribly terribly upper crust Englishman, presumably to balance out Pete Postlethwaite. Oh, and look, the horrid bad man is going off on his own - he couldn't have done better if he'd just painted a big sign on his back saying 'Dino Chow, come and get it!' Sheesh.

But anyway enough of the rambling... back to my week of fun. 133 discs copied - thank god some of the publishers could take DVD otherwise it would have been a lot, lot more. And 80 of those discs were done on Friday. A new personal best, though it's worrying me that a) I kept a note of how many I did and b) that I'm rating it as a new record, like it's an Olympic Sport or something. Mind you, I'd be gold medal material with figures like that.

I really need to get out more. A lot more.

The Librarian

Quest for the Spear

Shown this evening on Sky One. And what an utter load of complete bilge it was.

Ok, I admit that I watched it all the way through, mainly due to Noah Wyle - though I have to confess that it's turned me right off him now. So he's supposed to be a librarian. Right.

I know librarians. I am one. I studied with them. And he's not one. Not even if you suspended your disbelief from the top of the Empire State Building. I mean, really. It's rubbish. Just act a little geeky, with no discernible social graces and you'll be about right. Oh and then play for laughs. Arrrgh.

Let's face it, this was a cut-rate Raiders of the Lost Ark. Not so much Indiana Jones, more West Midlands Jones.

Oh Kyle Maclachlan, what were you doing? Did you just need the money? Shocking, truly shocking how low one man can sink... And then of course, there's the obligatory girl-fight. yawn C'mon people, let's have some originality for a change. Please. Please make it stop. I'm not sure I could cope with the deadly Scorpion leader and the time travelling ninjas touted for the second episode.

Still, nice to see Bob Newhart doing his thang. He was by far the best thing about the whole shoddy mess. Even if he was playing a rather aged Marine. Bless him.

Monday morning non-blues

Yes indeed, it's a Monday and I'm not feeling like I want to go on a hormonally induced homicidal rampage. Result!

Can't quite put my finger on why, though that maybe a good thing. Introspection is all very well, but there are times it doesn't actually help.

I think that, in the last couple of weeks, I've just come to certain realisations that I was shrinking from. Realising that people can sometimes be a bit rubbish, however much you'd wish it otherwise. That life isn't always fair (or more accurately, is nearly always UN-fair), and that however badly you think of yourself, none of your friends are thinking anything like that - and if they are, then they're certainly not the kind of people you should be surrounding yourself with.

All of this is fairly self-evident, or should be, but then your head sometimes just gets it all muddled around, so that you take on responsibility for other people's failings. Feeling bad when your friends have been let down is one thing - putting on a hair shirt and wailing 'Woe is me' is entirely another. (Of course, I'm speaking metaphorically here. I have never wailed 'Woe is me.' Ever.)

There's also that trick of allowing yourself to feel hopeful - something I forgot in the last few months. Allowing yourself to just sit back and enjoy what's happening now, instead of worrying about what might happen in a few day's time, or a few month's time or (more likely) not happen at all, you daft mare.

Still, it's nice to know that our IT department can reduce me to trembling rage by their sheer ineptitude. At least I'll always be able to rely on that.

I think I've heard (or read) it all now.

BBC NEWS | England | Kent | Dinosaur eggs fail to reveal life

Well, really. I'd never have guessed. Maybe they've failed to reveal life precisely because they're dinosaur eggs. Prehistoric, like, you know.

Marvellous use of a scanner I must say, given the current parlous state of the NHS.

Sweary Mary, come on down!

Oh, what a day it's been.

Not only have I been bombarded with emails, pretty much all asking for the same thing, and in the same vein, but I managed to get utterly behind with everything (due to puking up my guts on Thursday night, and being fairly grotty on Friday).

Anyhoo, to cut a long and fairly angry story short, I ended up wailing down the phone at someone in a desperate bid to find out just what the jeffing heck was going on. This was alternated with me shouting things like 'F**k, f**k, f**k W*NKCHOPS!' and so forth.

It was only after I replaced the receiver that I remembered that I work in an open plan office, and one of the blokes who works across the way was staring at me in a most dubious fashion. Oh dear.

Add to that the fact that I went up to one of my colleagues and asked 'Can you just make it stop, please? Now?' combined with a look of utter despair and I think you get the idea of how rubbish my working day has been.

And now I'm embarrassed. Really, really, face-like-suburned-lobster embarrassed.

Oh and mum, if you're reading this, I'm sorry. It'll never happen again. *uncrosses fingers*

Just to continue from the last post...

my great-aunt died on 20th May, 4am - or thereabouts.

I'm just grateful that she's no longer in pain, she was so tired and she didn't really want to be here in the end. And I'm thankful that she had such a long and full life, if her knees hadn't given up on her (arthritis) I have no doubt at all she'd have been dancing still.

My brother is much better, in fact he's in France now, and from what I've been told is feeling great. Holidays do make a huge amount of difference. I think it's time I had one.

Gosh, long time no post...

Well that's because life's been too busy kicking me in the heed, to quite honest.

The last week alone has brought so much grief it's almost unbelievable. My great-aunt is in hospital, and not expected to survive the week. My brother was also admitted to hospital (a different one, and the one which treated Gwyn so badly) with severe abdominal pain. Eventually, a scan revealed that it's a gall stone, which is a relief, as it's not as serious as we feared. That said, he's still in pain while they decide what to do.

And on Tuesday it would have been Mum and Gwyn's second wedding anniversary. Talk about things coming in threes. Normally it's stuff like breaking a nail, or dropping a cup. This is just taking the proverbial.

The preceding weeks haven't been too bad, only I've got more work than you can shake a cd at, and pretty much I've got to do it on my own. Marvellous. The sweet sound of progress. Or something.