Yesterday's weather was minging. Heavy rain and gusting wind...so I'm not entirely sure why I decided it was a good idea to cycle in! My waterproof bag lied, my jeans and socks were soaking when I arrived at work so I had to stay in my shorts for 2 hours, and my shoes were so saturated I had nothing to put on all day so I couldn't leave the building. (This did have the unexpected bonus that it prevented me visiting the vending machine, but my feet were chilly!!).

Having achieved very little at work, the time came to wend my way home. It had been chucking it down all day. As a result I had to cycle up hill against the wind, and against the tideof the small river flowing down the side of the road. Then the road swung round a bend and I got buffeted by cross winds, and covered in muddy spray from unsympathetic drivers speeding past way too close.

Still, I had a better day than GG - she got two punctures within 100 metres on the way in to work, had to abandon her bike near the racecourse and get the bus in, then go back to retrieve her bike at lunchtime. After my blustery ride home, I threw on some dry clothes and went to rescue her from work in the car - after the day she'd already had, I figured it was the safest option!! So after all that....excitement.....we spent the rest of the evening snuggled in front of the fire watching tv! You just gotta love autumn!

On Saturday night, the boy next door (who henceforth shall be known as SCAF - Selfish Criminal Arsehole Fucktard) decided that he and a mate would stay up talking until 5.30am in very loud voices, which meant that I didn't get to sleep properly until 6am.

The main problem is that I go to bed apprehensive because of previous occasions when he's played music til 3 or 4am, so I'm expecting there to be noise so I'm always on edge. This is ruining the quality of my sleep, and means I dread going to bed.

The other problem is that we think he has an automatic curfew tag thing on his ankle, which would explain why he's been home a lot recently in the evenings. I'm also concerned about what's happened to his Mum, who used to live next door - we haven't seen her in months so I'm a bit worried she may be buried in their back garden! GG keeps telling me not to be so stupid, especially as their garden is so overgrown that any digging would be incredibly obvious!

So mostly the weekend sort of slipped by without me noticing. Saturday I played hockey, badly, for the first time since my hand op and we lost 6-2. Thanks to SCAF, Sunday passed in a dopey blur.

Anyone know where I can get some good quality sound-proofing material for our bedroom wall?! (If I paint it the same colour as the walls, I'm sure GG won't notice!)

• Interest rates are governed by the law of sod;


• An SAQ hurdle is only as good as its blast radius when it explodes under the weight of a fat heffer like me;


• When you haven't bowled for a couple of months, your back is likely to complain;


• A stitch in time is shorter than the healing time of a stitch in the hand;


• Sometimes the pain of getting up the hill is worth it for the satisfaction of making it at the first attempt;


• A bike is only as good as its rider, although the lightness helps (lightness of the bike, not the rider!);


• If you are brave enough, you can set off a speed camera on a bike

Last weekend was the World Cup cycling event in Manchester that we booked tickets for back in August....so I was quite excited about going!!

We drove up on the Saturday via the cross-country route through the Peak District national park. It was a shame I was driving cos the scenery was really pretty and I would've liked to have taken some photos! We stayed with some friends just outside Manchester, and went out for dinner before heading to their local cricket club to stand by the bonfire for a bit. It was a really nice chilled evening, though I was gutted I didn't do justice to my thai meal...I blame the prawn crackers!

Anyway, the cycling. I bought myself a new camera in July and between then and last week decided that the kit lens it came with didn't quite get me close enough to sporting action. So as a result of my mini pay rise, I treated myself to a 55-200mm vibration reduction lens...and boy am I glad I did. It would've been a real shame to go all the way to Manchester and come back with pictures I was disappointed by!

You can see the full set (ok, not the full set - I took nearly 300, but have selected the best 39 to upload!) on my Flickr account, but here's a little taster...

Just for the record, the Inland Revenue are money-grabbing blood-sucking f***ards (see this blog for this word, I rather like it). Why on earth should they be allowed to steal £100 from me just because my boss screwed up and forgot to give me my pay rise?!

Ok, long story shorthanded - I started this job last November. My 3 month review was in May, at which my boss said he'd look at my salary. Last week, we finally sat down and agreed my raise, and said he'd backdate it a month. Tuesday this week, we got our payslips and mine was identical to last month. Today, he talked to accounts and got my payslip updated. Of the extra £125 a month (gross) extra, Her Majesty takes £50!!! I know we're heading into/have just entered/are in the middle of/are doomed for all time by* a recession, but is there really a need to steal so much of my cash ma'am?!

(* delete according to which newspaper/web feed/blogs you read)

I have also managed to deduce (see what I did there, with the title? Yeah, smart huh?!) that my predecessor at this job was a total git! There's a site we look after that is built on the Typo3 CMS (it's evil, don't touch it!) and I was just trying to remove some fields from a form...a relatively simple task in any other set-up but not this one. I called him for help and he just said "is not possible. Was not in original contract, so is not built this way. Can't be done" and I was surprised he didn't slam the phone down on me at that point!

Now I back to wondering how to fill my afternoon after the excitement of hunting through the php code to find the right bits to comment out....*sigh*

The wound from my op is starting to heal now. Took the dressing off yesterday, and it's starting to look less and less like Dr Frankenstein forgot his monster had to have thumbs and sewed one on afterwards! (Will post a photo when I remember to take one!).

Otherwise, I am dopey. Seem to be permanently tired and I can't quite figure out why. GG is having the same problem. Maybe it's our diet or something...

I had a minor op on my hand last week to remove a blue mole.

UPDATE: Pre and post op photos

Sorry, the last one is a bit grim!