(no subject)

[phantym_56]

Hello. We knew I'd be back pretty soon. I've managed a few quiet days but let's not go into that. I enjoy wittering on here and it's silly to deprive myself of the release for no particular reason.

Since I last wittered, I think I've been snowboarding twice and got on pretty well both times. Back at the stage I was at last July but marginally less terrified. Not bad considering I pretty much abandoned it for the best part of six months. The instructors (who've had their hands full with kids on half term) have been encouraging and managing to keep half an eye on me, which is amazing considering I don't even know them. I like the snowboarders more and more all the time.

Today I've been shopping. See?

 

A nice new groundsheet. I've been planning to get one for a while - obviously I have one in my tent, doing its job as a groundsheet but they're very useful for pulling outside and sitting on or doing crafts on and I don't really want the one from my bed being covered in paint or dew when I bring it back inside in the evening.

Five tentpegs. They were available in a basket - 20p a peg. Well, spare tent pegs are always handy.

Four little green silicone tubes. They're hand luggage sized and because they're silicone, they're squeezy so I can get every drop out. I'm off to Lithuania in two and a half weeks, from London to Vilnius, changing planes in Brussels. I'm nervous about that - does the luggage get transferred automatically? Do I have to pick it up and check it in again? Far easier to avoid all that potential mess by taking everything as hand luggage. I'll need such things as shampoo, conditioner and shower gel and I've fallen in love with these tubes as the way of transporting them.

Three packing squares. Little mesh cases for storing bits together in a bag. The blue one is a lovely size for four silicon tubes as well as a bit of toothpaste, a toothbrush and a hairbrush. One of the others can have things like chargers and electronic bits and pieces. I'll find out when I pack.

A red bottle-shaped thermal bottle. I have a Sigg bottle already which I'm in love with but I also fell for this bottle-shaped one. Not to be taken to Lithuania. Too big for airlines and there's no point in taking an empty metal bottle.

Black work trousers. Mine are showing their age and besides, the hem has torn slightly on my left ankle.

Two books. The Black Lung Captain by Chris Wooding - Amazon recommended it earlier this week since I love Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie and after staring at the title written in my diary for a few days, my resolve broke. And One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde. My sister is the Fforde fan but I've read and enjoyed them all. I didn't know this one was published yet - I thought it was still at the "At some point in the next four years there will be a new Thursday book" stage so I snatched it up today.

That was this morning's shopping. This afternoon I bought four Sharpies - silver, black, orange and pink - and a set of dinosaur cookie cutters.
 

I have also been hugely tempted by a new phone. I have an iPhone. It's a year old now, give or take a week. I don't want to get rid of it. I'm still very attached to it. It's just that I'm also in love with the HTC Desire HD. It was hard enough to justify the iPhone. I can't even think of either replacing it or adding to it yet. I absolutely can't have two smartphones. But in the unlikely event that I've won the lottery tonight that will be the first thing I buy. I'm a multimillionaire lottery winner! I can have as many smartphones as I want! (And maybe I'll even get an iPad as well.) End lottery-winner fantasy. If I win the lottery, I will buy a house up on the estate between home and work. But it takes longer to do that than to go down to the Carphone Warehouse.

I am still daydreaming about "my house". I will have two more blankets on my bed and two downstairs on the back of the sofa, ready to cuddle up in. Maybe a wooden box full of blankets. A full set of those nice Marmite popart mugs. Green wineglasses - I don't know what they're called but "carnival" and "Czech" both ring bells. They're pretty and I've only ever seen them in Austria. A mini oven - Russell Hobbs 13824 specifically. It's a small oven, a grill and a hob all in one machine the size of a microwave. Add a toaster and there's my complete kitchen. I can cook pasta, if I ever feel the desire to again (Dad says he thinks I had a bug rather than some hideous pasta-reaction) or heat milk for hot chocolate. I can cook part-baked rolls. I can make cheese on toast. Why do I need an entire room for that? I want bamboo-handle cutlery. Not handles made of bamboo but those thin round handles with a few rings. Blackout blinds in my bedroom. I need it to be properly dark when I'm trying to sleep. A proper desk or office corner. I would love to actually be able to set out all my computer rubbish. Have the printer next to the computer, not on the floor. Have the USB hub on a desk, not hanging by its cables at the end of my bed. A cupboard or some such for camping stuff. Cupboard or some such for Guide stuff. Lots and lots of bookshelves. Lots of bookshelves. Space for my DVDs. I don't have a huge collection but there are still too many for my shelf. Half a dozen are stacked at the end of my bed, another dozen or so are downstairs in a corner. A bath. This is essential. Budget allowing (and as I'm apparently still in my lottery-winner fantasy, budget is no object) I won't be a difficult customer for the estate agent, unlike all these idiots on things like Location Location Location. I want a bath, a drive, a garage, a garden and a minimum of two bedrooms. Show me a house that has all these and I will buy it. Provided, of course, that it's got walls and a roof and isn't blatantly falling apart. If I've still got some money left, I'll buy another car or two. A Nissan Cube (I know, I know... But you can't choose who, or indeed what, you fall in love with). One of those charging plates! I have no idea how they work but you just sit things like phones and cameras on top and they charge wirelessly. Want! Somewhere to display my ducks, my goats and my maps. And I also really fancy the idea of having a drinks cabinet of some kind, with good whiskey and brandy and vodka and anything else anyone might want when they're visiting. My own set of Harry Potter books. (The ones in this house belong to my sister. I'll need my own). My own set of Jasper Fforde books. My own copies of the Pirates of the Caribbean DVDs. There are probably a myriad of other things I'll discover I don't own when I have a house of my own. I only personally own four towels and I haven't seen three of them for a while. I do look forward to having a baking tray of my own. I keep buying them and people keep cooking steaks on them which is nasty. I've managed to get uncontaminated spoons for pasta by method of buying orange silicon ones. No one can mix them up with the wooden spoons used in chilli and the like. I want American soda-style glasses. In red or green, maybe. And similar cups. I used to drink chocolate froid out of cups like that in Switzerland in summer. And I want an armchair! The sort of armchair I can sit sideways in, legs crossed, with both a book and a plate of toast in front of me.