Feeling a bit abandoned

I'm feeling pretty emotional right now. One of my colleagues at work is retiring and he's the darling of the department. Everyone's gutted to see him go as he's been here 40 years and there's a lot of tears and lumps in throats right now as he says goodbye.

On top of that I've just been hot with a load if stress as I've just had an email from my soon to be ex-flatmate who's just let me know that despite the fact that the tenancy on the flat isn't up til the end of the month, she's cancelled the landline as of Monday! I'm probably going to take on the tenancy on my own for a while but the email notice only went to the landlord yesterday, and I haven't even spoken to them about a new lease yet, so how the bloody hell does she expect me to just renew the phone contract. So bloody selfish. She moved out down to her boyfriends months ago but she's carried on renting because they didn't have enough space for all her stuff down at his straight away. She's done everything without consulting me at all, and I just feels bit abused by the whole situation because for months now I've just been in a kind of limbo waiting for her to make her next move and let me know where I stand.

Final stress at the moment? I'm trying to sort out my birthday celebrations for next month, and very few people can seem to be arsed to make te effort, which leaves me feeling super popular. A friend of a friend who we know a little has her birthday a couple of days before mine and is celebrating her 30th the same weekend as my birthday. Virtually all of my close friends have been invited and have chosen to attend which leaves me with virtually nobody around on my actual birthday. Frankly it makes me feel like shit because I can't help feeling like they've picked her over me because she's so much more fun, since at least half of them know me much better than her. Then there's the fact that every other bugger seems to be busy already that weekend with more fun people than me. It's denting my confidence.

Ah hell, I'm trying so hard not to be stupid about all of this but I'm letting it get to me.


-- Posted from my iPhone

Scones and Stress

I decided to try and make scones yesterday, which pretty much turned out
to be a comedy of errors. They were from my healthy baking book, and
were supposed to be Honey, Sunflower and Ginger Scones ... however
that's not quite how they turned out.

First, I checked the recipe, and realised that I didn't have the
required cookie cutter, or baking parchment, or the right flour. Quick
trip to the supermarket and that was sorted. Then - in my usual
dappiness - I was well into measuring stuff out before I got to carrots
(yes, there really are carrots in this recipe) and realised that I
didn't have enough of them. Elementary mistake. Quick trip round to
the boys next door to liberate a carrot from their fridge.

Next, I'm completely baffled by the food processor (which isn't mine,
but my flatmates). Does one use the the dough mixing thingy, or the
choppy blades? Which is after it's taken me a good 10 mins to find the
clever little storage compartment that hides both of the above! I chose
the mixing attachment.

After finally getting all the ingredients in the bowl, it then takes me
another 5 mins at least to work out how to switch the damn thing on. I
can tell you that by this point I'm regretting the whole endeavour!
Eventually, I work out that you have the clip the lid of the mixing bowl
right round until it clicks a second time, and finally we have lift off!
Now - how many is a "good few pulses"?????

Then realise, that unless I swap to the choppy blades, my sunflower
seeds are going to be left whole, so swap blades.

I'm left with a mess of "dough" that is ridiculously sticky, and
immediately coats my hands when I lift it out ..... surely this can't be
right, can it?

Recipe says roll it out to 4 cm's thick and cut out the first 8 scones.
Errrrrr ..... if I roll it to that thickness, I'm going to get one
scone! Something's gone very wrong, I think.

Settle for rolling out to a much thinner depth and cutting out the 10
scones the recipe calls for. Put them in the oven with much trepidation,
and 17 mins later, there's something that at least smells like ginger
scones, even if they're a little on pygmy side of normal scone
dimensions!

Thankfully, they actually tasted ok, but I definitely need to practice
this one a bit I think!!

Later that night - just as I'm switching off lights to head to bed, I
discovered that the freezer door was open, and must have been that way
for at least 3 hours .... d'oh!!!

This morning has kicked off with stress, stress and more stress - I'm
covering someone elses work while they're on holiday, and it turns out
to be the morning when everyone is late with the info I need, and the
colour printers are broken! Arrrrrrgh! Cue me, running round up and
down the office, and through to the neighbouring one to sort out
numbers, find alternative printers, and finally speed-walk across campus
to take the late reports over to the site's exec meeting. Not the best
start to the week!!