alexist

Serious lack of energy today, don't want to do anything. It didn't help that Aliza was fussy last night and it took till 2am to get her to sleep. Then it was back up at 6 for feeding time and again at 10.

I've got my weekly NCT get-together this afternoon, but it's in Borehamwood. I can't get a lift this time, and I'm not sure I have the stamina to handle the bus trip. First there's the good old 326, champion of unreliability (partly because I live in the middle of the route, and it goes through a permanent traffic jam at Finchley Central). The 326 is one of those single-deckers with a mind-bogglingly convoluted route. Over 3/4 of it, by my estimate, is on side streets--from me, it goes through Woodside Park to Whetstone (very zippy when it shows up, avoids High Road traffic jam), spends about 4 minutes on the A1000, detours through East Barnet and New Barnet, comes BACK to the High Road, stops by the Odeon, detours again through Underhill, comes back to the A1000 AGAIN and finally goes to Barnet Spires. Anyway, I'd need to get off at New Barnet. Or the Odeon. Then there's the 107, another back-of-nowhere single decker. New Barnet station to Edgware... via Barnet, Arkley, Borehamwood, Elstree, and Stanmore.

(Barnet is great for bizarre routes. There's one, the 384 I think, that goes down really narrow roads and residents have complained it mounts the sidewalk regularly. TfL won't reroute because it would place people 700m from their nearest bus stop, and TfL policy is that no one should be more than 500m from a bus. This is also why the 326 shoulders on.)

(Actually, now that I think about it, I think I have seen double deckers on the 107... don't know if it's a change, if they operate double deckers in rush hour only, or if it's a random mix like the 240. Argh, I'm turning into deerfold! ;) )

Anyway... meh. Speaking fo which, blurb in yesterday's Guardian on meh. ;-) At least I have everything in for dinner tonight...

(it's a fairly old post, but I re-discovered it today)
http://chrisdolley.livejournal.com/65951.html

(click on the 'tribbles' tag for more cute posts with fluffy ginger kittens... including the funny http://chrisdolley.livejournal.com/61746.html)

It's been a month :( I still miss her and part of me is still cat-trained--I have to remind myself that it's OK to leave the flat door open while I run downstairs, and that the noise I hear by the window isn't Zoe, and so on.

I'm also having to exercise major self restraint with regards to getting another kitten. Neil's unsure about the whole expensive pedigree thing, though I did say it would be a good 30th birthday present. He's also unsure about kitten + baby--I said it would probably be better than kitten + toddler! He didn't know some kitten things--like, unlike dogs, they don't require house-training; you just show them their litter box as they have an instinct to bury their waste. We'll break down soon enough, I'm sure....

I just taught my mother how to use Skype so she can watch Aliza via webcam :) The iSight really is good quality, although I might get out my old one--the new integrated iSight is convenient but you can't tilt it up or down. My mother was so excited to see her; she said she'll have to have my grandma over.

I'll also have to test it with Neil's PC to see what quality of video she actually gets; I can only see the little preview window.

Still, fun!

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2336247.ece

Pregnant women 'a burden on NHS'.

*sigh* More 'the horrible impact of fat people'. It's the language that gets me. We're not a challenge, we're a burden, with the implication that we drag down the system and suck up resources.

Proposed fee increase effective 1 April--going from £335 to £750. Premium (in-person) service will now be a stonking £950!!!

Naturalisation is going up from £200 to £575 too :(

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/6353/6356/17715/fees2007.pdf