I Pinched a Meme from Spins, its more fun than dwelling on our rubbish performance tonight and worrying about if Geronimo will cope with the cold.

The home I grew up in... Was originally a "prefab" designed to be a temporary answer to the housing shortage after the war. It was the house my mother was born in and lived in till she was 12, I lived there from the age of 3 until I was 15/14. I remember the pebble-dashing was painted pink, and also went yellow and grey in the years that I lived there. It was two-up-two-down, with a large wide garden

When I was a child I wanted to be...An author, or an olympic standard show-jumper, or a paleotologist, or a vet.
The moment that changed me for ever... was realising death really was The End.
My greatest inspiration... is Dad
If I could change one thing about myself... I'm not sure, there's the shallow things, like I'd like to be taller, look nicer but on the whole I'm pretty happy with the person that I am and I wouldnt change me.
My style icon... me.
The person who really makes me laugh... The Lizard, we always have a fun time together
.A book that changed me... loads, erm.. To kill a mockingbird, probably.
My favourite work of art... The Parting Cheer
My favourite item of clothing... my new geeky Black Holes Hoody.
It's not fashionable but I like... watching the Horse and Country Channel
You wouldn't know it but I'm very good at.... Remembering impossibly pointless things, like I can recite word for word the script to one of our planetarium shows, despite only seeing it twice.
You may not know it but I'm no good at... remembering things. I have a really poor short term memory.
.If I have time to myself…I facebook
My house is... always in a state of disrepair
My most valuable possession is... Sentimentally, my photo of my graduation with Dad, moneywise my new digital camera or my camcorder
My favourite building.... The Valley!
Movie heaven... is a really good horror film.
The best invention ever...changes day to day.
The last album I bought/downloaded...I've never brought or downloaded one for myself.
In 10 years' time, I hope to be in a job I love.
My greatest regret... Hand on heart, speaking truthfully I dont have one.
My life in seven words... Has enormous highs, lows, adventures and disappointments

Yesterday me and Welshy went on an adventure down to the Tortoise Centre and we returned with this!

Introducing *fanfare* GERONIMO! The coolest baby tortoise ever!

He's so tiny and so very, very cute, I can even forgive him for costing me 190 quid in order to get him and all the crap that he needs to keep him happy and healthy!

So. You'd think after locking myself out of Welshy's room three times in one morning and THIS INCIDENT would have taught me how to master his lock? Right?
Wrong.
Apparently learning how to work a lock was a lesson I musta skipped at school, because last night I managed to lock him out, before going on my merry way home.
And after he and his flatmates attempts at making a contraption to get the keys failed to produce said keys, and attempting to kick the door down also didnt work. They eventually had to get a crowbar and smash the door to get him into it.
I'm now officially banned from touching whats left of his door.

Despite Welshy nearly making me stupidly late, I went for the stables for a ride again. I decided recently its something I wanna take up seriously again and get back to my former levels of goodness.
It was a really good lesson, one of those where I really achieved something by the end of it, Pebbles is a stroppy little pony at the best of times and the start of the lesson was a real fight between the two of us, to get her to do what I wanted, rather than taking it easy and chilling out as she wanted!
But by the end of it, she was bending and being really flexible and really working to please me and enjoy it herself rather than grumpily huffing her way about and then going back for a snooze.
We worked on basic bending and circles, its always good to go back to the basics, especially as I've forgotten the diameters of how large to make some circles, and learning how to bend properly and flow around corners, instead of just turning sharply was the real highlight, again it just re-enforces to me, how much harder riding gets the more you do it. I mean to learn to turn as a beginner, its all sharp angles, left rein, right leg, for example to turn left. To actually have the horse bend with the corner as it goes round, there's just so much more involved. The outside rein needs to be higher, the contact with the horses's mouth needs to be more precise, the inside rein needs to be more centralised to help support the neck, your weight needs to adjust and lean with the bend to allow the horse to move its own weight easier, you need to keep the pressure on with your inside leg to encourage the horse to move over!
So much going on just for a simple turn!



oh and did I forget that all this was carried out in canter without stirrups? Gonna be stiff tomorrow!

Ooops Part 1. Getting locked out of Welshy's room for the third time that morning and banging on the door for him to let me back in, meanwhile his flatmate wanders out to talk to me. Cue Welshy opening the door, in a huff and stark bollock naked. Not sure his flatmate'll recover from that sight first thing in the morning!
Ooops Part 2. Finding a lead attached to a display case at work and obeying my cursed curiosity to pull it and then realising that not only is it the lead for the display lights, that its also the lead for the alarm system.

As for Shorty's question yesterday on whether my mum accepts Welshy yet.

I dont think she does. She's already making funny comments about "having to get used to me not being about as much" and "I'll have to book in advance to see you now" and "I'll have to be used to being alone."

It really exhausts me, I feel kinda like I'm getting torn in two different directions, I really wanna spend time with Welshy. He begs me to move in with him, but I feel like I can't cos she makes me feel so horribly guilty for not being there with her, to give her a reason to cook, to eat, to leave the house, to live.

I really have no idea about the best way to go about this, I'm too much of a pushover to just walk out and leave her, especially with Granddad still really sick.
I know she's had it rough over the last coupla years, we all have and I've bent over backwards to look after her as much as possible, so I guess part of it is my fault for spoiling her and part of me is still that silly little girl looking for her approval, desperate for her to like me.
And I guess part of it is the other way around. I was a Daddy's girl. All she ever wanted was for me to be little and fluffy and not run about in torn jeans, falling out trees, forever dirty and screaming and sobbing whenever a dress was placed on me.
I know she struggles with the idea that I'm independent from her, I've always known that, even from before she tried to talk me out of moving to uni.
I know that she loves my brother a lot more than she loves me, because of the above and because of his problems. So why do I still feel the need to try and get her to approve of me, even though she ignores me and then makes me feel guilty whenever I do my own thing?
She pushes me away loads and yet makes demands on my time and attention and I just simply can't say no to her.

So whether she'll ever accept Welshy and welcome him as one of my friends is debatable, and certainly not going to happen any time soon!

Hurrah the money's been located! And Welshy only has one more day at work before coming home on saturday!
I am rather excited by this, its been what? 16 months since he went back up to Wales. And although he'll be living 40 minutes away in the shittiest part of london, it'll be ace having him about again! And ordering him about so we can go on little adventures!

Last Monday I paid in Welshy's rent and flat deposit for him, 930 quid.
The money came out of my account on the first, however his landlady hasnt recieved it in her account.
So where's the money?
I asked Natwest, my bank, if they could check it went into the right account, they did this and confirmed it. So I went to her bank HSBC and asked them to confirm that it had gone into her account. They said yes and that it could take a few days to clear. So I waited. And waited. And waited.
Finally I grew fed up of waiting and went to the bank yesterday, they claimed that they could not trace it their end, so I went to Natwest and asked them for the statement showing that it had left my account and gone into hers, which they confirmed and said it must be a fault at the other end.
So I went back to HSBC, gave them her details, showed them this statement and gave them the reciept from the transaction (which I fear they might still have!) and they agreed that it was the right account but they couldnt prove that I'd actually paid the cheque in and told me to get Natwest to trace it, and they traced right into.... Yeah you guessed it, the HSBC account. So they photocopied me a copy of the cheque and I went back to HSBC. Now HSBC are starting to get concerned. Not concerned enough to ring me like they promised too, today though! And certainly not concerned enough to phone up the landlady and explain to her whats going on.
They're still blaming me for somehow getting the numbers wrong, even though when I challenge them about it, they agree that the account details are right.
So where does that leave me? I'm not sure. It leaves Welshy 930 out of pocket and he's potentially going to be homeless come Friday as the Landlady wont give him keys without the deposit!
How can a bank cash a £930 cheque without putting the money into the right account?
I intend to find out the whereabouts of this money tomorrow, even if it takes up my entire day off. I shall take my paper, some supplies and amusements and I refuse to budge from my one-woman peaceful protest until that money is traced and placed in the right account and I get an apology!

I've had a busy day with N, according to his wishes as to be allowed on a horse I took him riding where he commented that "its not as easy as I've always thought" and "I kept bashing my balls against the saddle"
Cheers N, nothing like too much information is there?
I then took him home to get changed and then we headed into the big city to play at being tourists. We went up to my former Aquarium where we got in for free (hurrah for my security pass still being valid there!) had a quick look round and then walked up to Trafalgar Square where he posed for many pictures, sat on one of the lions, laughed at me when i fell to the floor after jumping off of the plinth there. Its gotta be about 4 -5 foot high, so perhaps me taking a leap off of it wasnt my smartest move ever!
Then we walked up to via Picadilly Circus for more Touristy type photos to go to Mayfair to visit the IceBar that Welshy took me too once, on our one and only "official date" which impressed him.
"You've scored here Charlton"
Then we walked down to Buck Palace so he could have some photos taken outside there and then with one of the guards in their fancy uniforms and then walked home to get his stuff and back to the train station!
An epic sight seeing trip!

Welshy's sign the contract on his flat and is moving down in a few weeks time! the 11th to be precise! hurrah!
we've decided to cement this new stage by getting ourselves a pet tortoise!

So I worked at this staff party last night, doing a bit of overtime, it seemed to make sense to me, whenever i've gone to these do's before they mostly only ever serve wine which i dont drink, so i stay sober and watch my friends make tits of themselves.
So I figured why not do the same this year and just get paid for it!
Only they brought out pimms, which i'm still debating as to whether i like it or not, anyway i got horribly drunk, luckily i was only on the cloakroom so had nothing too difficult to deal with apart from trying to hide my state from my boss.
ended up going to the pub afterwards where I made my friend AH bleed cos I twisted his ear, stood on a bar table and dramatically apologised, stole someones pinwheel that i stuck in my hair for the rest of the night, staggered off to catch the last bus, and awoke this morning to find myself covered in AH's blood and clutching a bag of stolen candyfloss!
Now i have to go to work with a mild hangover. booooooo.

stupid work fucked up and have decided that actually they dont have free places for staff. Ho Hum, I can still do a 5 week short course but we'll see...

N has text me demanding that I arrange it for him to gallop a horse on a beach.
Now you might be able to do that in other countries but here in the UK? I dont think so! I've done it in the past down in Cornwall and paddled a horse out in the sea there.
But because of the safety laws to you and the horse, no one will take you out to do something like that unless you have the experience to back it up, to be able to at least control the horse at a canter and not sit there clinging to the saddle like a bag of bricks.
This is something that is really one of my pet hates.
It really irritates me, how people think you can climb onto a horse and yank and kick it into doing whatever the hell you want!
Its a living creature for fucks sake, how would you like to have someone yank you in the mouth with a iron bit the same size as your thumb and a good six inches long hitting your teeth, roof of mouth and tongue and never mind the side pieces which'll pinch?
And kicking at the horses side will lead to either one of two things.
A - The horse (and indeed most horses that I ride!) will take it as a signal to go fast, to run from something scary. And you'll inevitably fall off, cos you wont have a decent centre of balance on the horse and if you're lucky just be winded, and at worse paralysed or dead.
B- The horse, and most ploddy old riding school nags'll fall into this catorgory, will become dead. Their sides get so numb to the constant banging on their ribs that they just end up stopping feeling it and they'll amble along at a snails pace, slowly losing the will to live.
I love horse riding, but I'm greatly aware of how every action you do, reflects on the horse, how moving your leg, your arse in the saddle, how moving just one finger on the reins affects the horse and how it then reacts to what it thinks you're asking it to do.
Its most definately one of those things that gets harder the more you do it, and the more aware you are of exactly how much you need to know and be able to do, just to be able to control the horse at a walk and get it to turn a corner for example.

Dr. John Stemple, Medical Editor of the American Medical Equestrian Association News, said between 150 and 200 deaths are caused each year by horse accidents. Of those, 55 percent were caused from head injuries. Fifteen percent of the deaths were from chest injuries and 10 percent from abdominal injuries. According to the National Injury Information Clearinghouse, head injuries make up less than 12 percent of horse-related injuries, but over half of the fatal injuries.
I think you'll even find that its in the top 10 most dangerous activities to participate in, so people thinking its all just jump on and kick 'n' yank really annoys me!
Phew rant over!

I'm going back to school!
Well kinda.
Frequently I've reached the conclusion lately that as I no longer use my brain, its slowly rotting through lack of use and one day it will simply just ooooze out of my nose or ears or something equally gross.
So work offer this GCSE in astronomy and I've managed to grab one of the last free places, so for the next 30 odd tuesdays I shall be peering at a telescope and looking rather bemused at mathmatical equations which apparently teach you about the speed of light or something.
Best part of it, is that for part of my coursework I get to make a sundial! Hurrah!

Fuck, once again i'm gutted about the fact i'm no longer in Derby!
Yes MH got to meet Sir Cliff Richard today!

I work in a supposedly haunted building.

Rev. Ralph Hardy, a retired clergyman took a photo of our "tulip stairs".

however, the photo revealed a shrouded figure climbing the stairs, seeming to hold the railing with both hands.

Experts, including some from Kodak, who examined the original negative concluded that it had not been tampered with.

It's been said that unexplained figures have been seen on occasion in the vicinity of the staircase, and unexplained footsteps have also been heard.
This photo isn't the only evidence of ghostly activity at the Queen's House. The 400-year-old building is credited with several other apparitions and phantom footsteps even today...

a GA who left before I started was discussing a tea break with two colleagues when he saw one of the doors to the Bridge Room close by itself. At first he thought it was one of the lecturers. "Then I saw a woman glide across the balcony, and pass through the wall on the west balcony," he said. "I couldn't believe what I saw. I went very cold and the hair on my arms and my neck stood on end. We all dashed through to the Queen's Presents Room and looked down towards the Queen's Bedroom. Something passed through the ante-room and out through the wall. Then my colleagues all froze too. The lady was dressed in a white-grey colour crinoline type dress."

Other people that I work with have reported seeing people following them even as recently as last Sunday
Other ghostly goings-on include the unexplained choral chanting of children, the figure of a pale woman frantically mopping blood at the bottom of the Tulip Staircase (it's said that 300 years ago a maid was thrown from the highest banister, plunging 50 feet to her death), and even tourists being pinched by unseen fingers.

Welshy Claims to have seen a figure one day whilst visiting me in the Orangery, a place with a horrid, heavy atmosphere, I also think I may have seen something in there, whilst gazing out of the window I saw a figure reflected in the glass behind me, but having turned no one was there.

That can possibly be explained by my imagination seeing my own reflection, but I've also had doors slam, jumping out of their hook and eye fastenings to slam shut repeatedly.

The point of these stories?

Guess where I'm planning on spending Halloween night? We're having a sleep over, scary films, apple bobbing and all sorts of other fun!

Hurrah! After an iffy few days Welshy is almost set to come and move back down. He's even got himself a place at uni studying accountancy (yawn) so he's set to be in London for at least three years.
I'm however not gonna wait for him to finish his course and am carrying on with applying for jobs out of the city, so sods law, i'll end up getting something miles away and we'll be back where we are now!
hehehe, but for now we're gonna take every day as it comes, and I'm gonna make the most of him being down and eagerly await the 22nd of September when he'll be down for good!
Oh and plans for adventures in India are progressing well... Me and E have pretty much decided we are going, its just a matter of when, and we look like we'll be hitting New Delhi, Agra, before going down into the deepest, darkest jungles to find tigers, ride elephants and see what other freakishly cool animals we can find out there!

SO I went out last night for my birthday with work people, it was all rather jolly and civilised, cream teas and crosswords and so forth.
So any reports that at 1.30AM I was riding a disability scooter "Chariot" whilst wearing a chain mail shirt several sizes too big and waving a sword and squealing madly after i determinedly drove into a rose bed are all unfounded lies with not a bit of truth in them.

Its my birthday! Today! I am offically a quarter of a century old, and while this brings on its own dramas of "I'm 25, still living at home and still in a shit job" I feel kinda more positive about it than I have done previous birthdays.
Previous birthdays have resulted in a month long sulk as The Day approaches, getting more and more tetchy about the idea of growing old and although i'm still not exactly happy about reaching this milestone I'm ok with the idea.
How very grown up!
I'm also attacked by the travelling bug again, ideas are running through my head, from Canada, to the Cape Verde Islands to India.
India looks like it might be a winner so far, I've even gone as far as to start working out how much I need to save in order to get around, and I'd like to go out there for November, although stupid money might interfer and say "No Charbs! Save a bit longer!"
but we'll see...

Welshy has gone home today, its been really good having him down, i think i've seen him every day now for a week and a half. Annoyingly he's starting to have doubts about if he should move down to his friends place in case he doesnt get on with them.
I guess this is another way in which we're very different people, where as I've developed into a real people person, he's very almost anti-social and abrupt with his dealings with people, with a very low tolerance level of their actions and stupidity.
Red Squirrel can testify to this and how he suddenly developed a "hatred" of him after only meeting him the once and a couple of msn convos.
So now i'm kinda in limbo, I've gotten used to the idea that he'll be near and we'll be together properly and now he's thinking about the move with dread and starting to talk himself out of the idea.
Silly cunt.
But heyho, The Olympics have started, I have matchsticks holding my eyes up after getting hooked on whatever inane sport they seem to show at 2am and was rather late for work this morning as I refused to even consider getting dressed until after the 10m syncronised high dive.
And We won! Huzzah! I've missed football!

Welshy has been down since Wednesday, its rather exciting him being around so much, I dont think i've spent so much time in his company since before we started going out (now how does THAT work out? Stupid distances, stupid everything)
He's decided to take a week off of work and devote it to job hunting in London, I hope its a successful search, spending 10 hours on a train, there and back every three weeks or so, just to spend 24 hours with him, sure soon loses its novelty value!
We did originally start looking for places that maybe we could move in together with if he got a job here, but on our wages its just not gonna happen.
I mean, for a one room flat, we'd be looking at a good 800-900 quid a month minimum, in a place where I could walk the streets without fear of being raped or have people break into the flat and kill us in our sleep.
and seeing as I get paid 820 a month and assuming he gets a mimimum wage job too, you're looking at us living on one wage, taking tax, bills, food, transport into account.
Realistically, its not gonna happen.
However, a room may be available (depending on him getting a job...) at his mates place, for 105 a week, its a rather squalid and run down part of East London, a place I still dont feel safe in and would point-blank refuse to walk down the street alone but he'd only be 40 minutes away instead of 5 hours so I'd get to see him a lot more.
Hell I could even have my own sock drawer and goldfish bowl there, I'd probably end up virtually living there, and there's loads of benefits to him, and me, moneywise, him living somewhere so dirt cheap.
So I suppose I should grow up and swallow my disappointment that it'll be a year contract and we'll not be living together after all.