Here’s a morning riddle for you:

How on earth did we get bird poo on the inside of our letter box?

*  The door opens inwards, so unless a bird flew inside and behind the door (no squashed bird on the wall however), the poo could not have been dispensed.

*  The letterbox flap opens upwards, so there could not have been poo on a letter, otherwise it would have gone on the underside of the flap

*  It was not me

*  It was not JT

*  Twinkle and Monty?  Not their style….

*  There is no poo on the carpet.  This bird had style and aim.
WEIRD.

Last night I had a bit of a stress.  My trusty Macbook Pro has recently come back from repair for the second time because the first time it went away, they didn’t put it back together properly.  The first time, it needed a replacement LCD inverter and the fans needed greasing because they were making a loud noise.  All pretty standard stuff for a 2.5 year-old laptop that is used ALL the time and transported here, there and everywhere.  They kept it for well over a month and finally returned it to me.  When I discovered that the fan still made a noise and that the back wasn’t clipped back together properly, I sent it back.

After keeping the machine for a month again, they called me to say that there was nothing wrong with it and that the fan noise “must be” one of my setting on my personal login so could they have my password?  I stated that it was a hardware issue, not a setting and that they couldn’t have my password because they have their own administrative login which I set up for them to avoid giving them access to my files!!

They sent the machine back with no repairs.  It was very dusty and a bit battered, which annoyed me.  Since it has been back, I have noticed that the power supply is now faulty (dodgy connection in the end) and I am having some very strange problems.  All of my software keeps closing itself (Creative Suite, Word, etc) and last night several icons disappeared including my hard disk!!!!  This is REALLY not cool, as I am trying to finish my degree and ALL of my work, both freelance and for uni requires my computer and the aforementioned software, I am totally stuffed.  REMTEK refuse to believe that there is anything wrong with the computer, and the LEA could not be less interested (even though I shouldn’t even have to deal with REMTEK as they are the ‘disability service’ – more like ‘liability’).

Last night I had a massive stress because I need to print my dissertation and it is 3000 words over the 10% let on the word limit which, may or may not be a problem (?!!!)  Long story.  As I was putting the final touches to the illustrations list on it, Word closed itself.  To calm myself down, I decided to open Creative Suite to work on something more fun.  It refused to open. ARRGGGHHHHH!!!  What to do?  I am saving up for a new computer because I anticipated that mine would die after 3 years, but, with the software I have to buy, this venture will cost about £3000!!  Which I do not have.

One of those things you WISH you’d thought of….

I am pleased to report that I have now been into uni a couple of times all by myself!  Things are looking up.  Yesterday was a brilliant laugh, as we photographed our masked ball concept for our degree show.  It all started off fairly sensibly…. And then…. Well….

Test shot

“09″ (2009)

Chris was stuck making masks

glam Annie

Looking a little blue and shadowed….

almost impossible not to laugh when sat on a black office chair

Annie did laugh

Chris

Then it all gets a bit silly as Chris tries on my coat…

We all swap clothes and look REALLY cool *cough* **SPLUTTER**

Then we try to look like we are being sensible

Photographer Fab loses the plot as she tries to fit into Annie’s size 4 stilettoes!

What is it that men find so exciting about the herbs and spices rack?!  I thought it might just be a funny little thing about JT until I spoke to my friend Tim today who apparently does exactly the same!  Now, I must firstly state that JT is a very good cook.  He rarely uses a recipe as men have a capacity to know what will combine in a saucepan and not blow up.  However, there is one thing that he cannot resist.  The spice rack.  he loves to include every herb and spice in a pasta sauce.  Apparently most men are the same.

I am sure, that left to their own devices, men would present us with mint in a lasagne, chilli powder in a spaghetti carbonara and jerk in a jacket potato.  Funnily enough it always tastes nice!!  What I don’t understand is the apparent exuberance found in testing spices.  Can anyone help?!

50% his and 50% hers!!

This is a phrase that challenges me today…  Why is it, in life, that we are constantly troubled by a battle between faith and proof?  Thomas, the disciple of Jesus was one such character…  When Jesus appeared, resurrected, he wanted to see proof, before he would believe that it was actually Jesus, even though he had dedicated his life to following him about and working with him.  You could say, that Thomas knew the ways of Jesus.  He saw him raise Lazarus from the dead, he saw that everything Jesus had ever said had come true. His faith was strong.  And yet, when it came to the fulfillment of scripture, he needed proof.

I feel like this quite often.  I have had a really good couple of weeks with my health, following some prayer at church (well, with the anxiety side of it) but today I find myself knocked out yet again with IBS.  Just sometimes, I say to God, “I believe that you can make this go away, but why won’t you??  You’re not making this whole faith thing easy you know”.  I sometimes think that if He could just make me well, then I would not struggle with my faith (or rather my doubt) again.  What a load of rubbish.  Of course I would. It is much easier to pray when you need something is it not?

You see, I am very much like Thomas.  I seem to desire that God makes me ‘comfortable’, in order to rationalise my belief.  It was easier for Thomas to say “I know it was Jesus because I put my hand in the hole in his side!” rather than “I know it was Jesus, I could just tell”.  The former is much more comfortable and rational than the latter.

The constant challenge of faith and humility is to get to the place where you can say “Your will be done”.

I somtimes feel the need to invent devices, that will remove annoying people, or teach them a lesson.  The perpetrator, this time, is my 18 year-old neighbour, who insists upon playing rave music at a billion decibels every night when we are eating tea.  It is so loud that it makes the downstairs floor shake.  His bedroom is by our bathroom and all you can hear when you pee is “COMEONALLDAPEOPLEONDADANCEFLOORMAKINSOMENOOOIIIIISEEEEEEEE – AIIIIIIIYE!” and then that bass sound that is somewhat akin to a cat vomiting when heard from behind a wall accompanied by screeching tyres and a pounding head.

My image is not very clear but you can picture the type…  Reebok nylon joggers, one bright red footie sock pulled up over the leg for nicking stuff (shove it down the trousers without it falling out), desert boots (inexplicably), bad white pants pulled up too high, a “Von Dutch” hoodie which is often worn with the hood up over a burberry baseball cap.

Proposed solution:

Last night was nothing short of a classic…  A motley crew assembled at the Pinless residence for a civilised game of poker.  Or something like that?!

I love this picture, Suzie decided to stretch just as I took the pic!

JT got quite into this game…

JT’s poker table

Mark laughs at Matt’s raw deal…

Nay loses the will to live as the game reaches the 2 hour point

Shortly after, Matt loses the will to live

Mark receives an important call

…And passes it to me

Matt serenades us all at midnight….

I saw this on Freecycle and thought that perhaps it was a bit of a big ask?!?!

Of course what he really means, is that he lives in Gloucester…