I may regret saying this but this place feels like a home away from home. What place? you may well ask. This place. Where I am now. Pet-sitting.

It's funny I should feel that way cos when I first came here I nearly got mauled by one of the dogs. The female one took an instant dislike to me (as I'm told by many others who've met her that she also took a dislike to them). Her owner left for the night and things were okay that first night. Come morning she put herself outside his bedroom door and proceeded to run at me any time I went up the stairs. I tried coaxing her with treats, tried being firm, but nothing worked. When she chased me all the way through the house and had me locking myself in the living room I admitted defeat and called her owner, who returned straight away. The dog does have a history of anger management issues so it wasn't a big shock or anything - well, it was to me, but not to the owner.

I vowed to never pet-sit again. I have phases of hating this job and wishing I never had to do it. You may wonder why I whine when I only work on average five jobs a year but when you want to do something you love (writing) and you're forced to do something that you find either boring or very difficult (being on your own in a strange and empty house is no fun for a girl with a very active imagination) it's not fun. But I do it because not to do it would make me a very selfish person. Which I'm not.

Anyway, I didn't stop pet-sitting and I in fact came back here to look after the nice dog. And have been back here several times since. The female dog still hates me. She bites my feet, tries to snap at my hands - today she even ran at me barking! I don't like her - she's evil. She stares at me the entire time I'm here. And she usually limits her attacks to when her owner isn't looking. Now that's a dangerously smart dog.

I like coming here now. The house isn't too big, as some of them can be, I don't mind being here on my own. Mammy works just down the road and I think on some level I feel safer knowing she's close by should an emergency situation present itself. Plus, I know the area. Today I was even imagining what it would feel like if this was my home. And it felt quite good actually. Not that I'd ever chose to live alone. Too much of a wimp - plus that pesky over active imagination that turns every creak of the house into a rampaging raping robber.

So I've surprised myself and am quite happy here. I was expecting home-sickness and tears but so far I've been okay. Been excitedly taking pictures of my food as well - there is a reason why, not just me being silly with the camera.

I do have a goddamn-awful cough, though. I've had two strange bouts where I've been unable to stop coughing. So much so that I have tears running down my face and my body can't decide whether it wants to sneeze or cough or vomit. Eurgh. These tablets had better start working soon or else I'm gonna have no stomach muscles left - they're in agony! On the other hand, it might make me grow an icky six-pack. Hehehehe......
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My chest has been getting bad again. I don't think I ever completely got over my chest infection. I know I was still coughing when my course of penicillin ended but that cleared up after another week. That meant I had one week of being able to breathe. Then last week it got weird again. I thought it was just the in-law's smoke. My chest has always been crappy when it comes to cigarette smoke. I find it highly embarrassing cos I always think people assume I'm one of those girls who coughs whenever a cigarette is seen cos she doesn't like smokers. I'm not. Ironically, I adore the smell of cigarettes; they just don't agree with me.

Anyway, the coughing got steadily worse. Then on Sunday I had some lovely bright green mucus as well. Well, considering I spent the night down the pub that wasn't a huge surprise. But by last night I was having searing burning pains across my chest whenever I coughed. So that was that. I said I'd go to the doctors and get it looked at.

Of course, just cos I say I'm going to the doctors doesn't mean I actually will. Between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two I didn't go to the doctors even once. Probably because I'd seen enough of them and hospitals to last me a lifetime. Plus doctors to tend to be quite crap. How half of them qualify I'll never know. But this year I started getting ill a lot. New boyfriend: new germs; there's a shit load of children in his family and you know how children like to catch every virus going round. My immune system pretty much crashed out and I was ill continuously. I'm sure I whined about it on here before.

I've had three bouts of tonsillitis, three flu bugs, numerous colds, a stomach bug and an eye infection. All in the space of six months. Mmm, attractive. Now I have this younger boyfriend I feel I need to keep myself healthy to keep him entertained ;)

Hee, hee, that's so not true, but it sounds really good so I'm keeping it.

So, anyway, would I go to the doctors today or not? Last night I was all up for it but, like I said, that doesn't mean much. Then this morning I woke at exactly 7:50am. In my doctor's surgery the phone lines open at 8am and you have to ring then before all the hypochondriacs (there's a hell of a lot of them!) take all the appointments. So I rang at 8am and I got the very first appointment - 8:40am. Well done, me.

I woke Daddy up, he drove me down and in I went. I prefer seeing a female doctor. Dunno why really considering when I was really ill I mostly saw male doctors. And being fourteen and having a male doctor examining you kind of gets rid of any embarrassment you might have about a member of the opposite sex seeing you naked - be he a professional or other wise. But there was no female doctor in (there very rarely is actually) so I saw a man called Rhodri George. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Some doctors are totally shite, some are just plain perverts and just a handful are good at what they do - and actually want to do their job.

Mr George was one of the latter. I knocked the door before entering, as is polite, and he called, "Come in, Ysabel!" Used my name and everything. I was impressed. I sat down and he asked, "So how are you feeling this morning?" I said, "I think my chest infection is back." He looked down my throat, checked my neck glands and then listened to my chest/back - didn't even ask me to take my cardigan off!

He says there's some stuff on my chest but it's not terrible so I don't need to worry. He's given me some nice strong stuff - Cefalex (something like that) - and he assures me it'll knock all the crap out of my system. So I should be completely fit and healthy again - and just in time for Christmas as well.

Just in time for the children to pass Ray some more virus's which he can store in the back of his throat and pass onto me. Isn't my boyfriend generous? ;)
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It's just been one of those weeks where everything was just kind of "off". Even the fun times were completely insane now I look back on them!

For example.

Last week I watched Ray climb into the loft and then drop himself out of it, holding on with only his hands and just hang there like he was ... well, hanged. Yes, I agree, very funny at the time but now I look back on it I can't quite work out why we found it so hilarious.



We then headed home through the rain, which I tried very hard to get a picture of. When it didn't work I decided to turn the flash off and just take pictures of approaching cars/blurry hedges because it looks as though you've had a car crash that way. Why did I want pictures where it looked like we'd had a crash? I don't remember now. Again: weird.





Friday was the Girlie Day, which basically meant me and Jem looked at online Sex Shops and got buying us some goods that were needed. I ended up at the Durex Shop. Shit, they're cheap. So Christmas presents were bought. Kind of. The transaction failed apparently but they ended up charging my account twice! Again, not the stereotypical thing I do of a day.

That night, Jem and I went out for food down the local pub (cos she found £20 on the road!). Weird thing again: I had a dead spider sitting next to me on the seat!



I look tired, don't I? Weird sleeping pattern.



Jemma had a huge popadom, which we found hilarious:



We sat and ate for about two hours! Yeah, service was slow and lazy, which we liked, but we also ate quite a lot as well. Check out my sexy desert:



The only problem was the chocolate brownies smelt like my dog!!? So it looked nice but it actually wasn't.

Saturday I was getting harassed because of my relationship with Ray. The new "thing" for people to be obsessed with is that we see each other every day. Apparently that's not normal and so has to be commented on at every opportunity. I figure if it works: do it. I was also bitched about by a group of girls who have become totally obsessed with me and Ray. Each weekend they sit and discuss us. This time it was "Oh my god, get a grip," cos I kissed Ray before heading off to the loo. I wasn't kissing him goodbye or anything; I was just kissing him cos I like kissing him. And this wasn't tongues and all kissing, just a couple of pecks on the lips. I don't quite understand why everyone is obsessed with us. Even Jemma, who always tells us when we're being soppy tarts, says she doesn't understand it cos how we are together in public is in no way in-your-face. We just act like a normal couple. I honestly don't get it.

There was a huge storm last night. The lightning was flashing into my room for over an hour and the thunder was classic horror movie stylie. I tried filming it on my phone only for the SD Card to suddenly shout at me that it was full. In the morning I tried to empty it only to find the card had wiped itself and is no longer usable. Urgh.

And to end my completely strange week: Mammy cooked a big Sunday dinner today, which she hasn't done in ages, and if she has I'm not here to eat it. It was damn fine too :)
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I got an email from Sarah this morning and I was so happy :) I love getting Sarah emails cos she's my girl. Sarah, send me a letter soon. That's an order not a request.

I also had several emails from Steve telling me to add yet more crap to the site. Because he now knows he's pissing me off (my responses get more and more arsey with every new email) he decided to up my mood by exclaiming Absolutely marvellous, looking great !!!. Needless to say it didn't work. He's still disrespectful. He's still harassing me. And I still wish he'd fall down a hole and get lost for a few months.

Last night was funny. Both funny-weird and funny-haha. It involved a lot of brain debugging and remeniscing. I told Ray off for, like, the first time in our relationship, I think. Six months and not one proper row. We're not the argumentative type, though. Even then it wasn't a row I just told him to quit being a pain. Then Jem came up at about 9 with Martha and Sweepie and everyone clambered onto my bed, which I don't ordinarily like but this one time I allowed it. And we then started talking about past stuff - good and bad. It was funny, though, cos they both suddenly pointed out some stuff I do, which I found hilarious cos it was totally true.

1. I expect everyone else to open up to me and yet I don't open up at all,
2. I NEVER make a desicion, it's always "I don't know" or "I don't care",

I don't remember the other things now. Oh, they did say I was very maternal. Again, I agree. We then had the absolute hysterics over Jemma's random comments that no one is ever very sure how to react to. Hehehe. It certainly cheered me up.

Then this morning, Sweepie woke me up again. She then fell asleep again quite quickly, though, and was snorning for about twenty minutes. Not wanting to disturb her, I didn't actually get out of bed 'til 11:15. Oops. These lazy mornings are becoming quite the sloppy habit of mine.

Oh crap, the "M" button on my keyboard is breaking. It takes at least three hits before it'll type. Aww man. No more words with M in for me then.

So all in all, the week is looking better, I'm feeling happier and I think this might well turn out to be a good one after all.
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You know when things just go bleurgh all at once? It's one of those times at the moment. I didn't get to bed 'til gone 2 this morning and even then I couldn't sleep. I'm hoping it'll be all sorted soon, though.

Saturday it rained. So I had to hide in the stand to watch the rugby.



That meant I had to take the photos cos Jem was too short to see over the old men's heads. And it turns out the guy who's been harrassing me about the website has sent one of my photos to the local rag. Dunno if it'll get published or not. It'd be pretty cool if it was, though, wouldn't it?

Talking of that annoying man and the website in question, I got the new layout redesigned and uploaded. He wasn't keen on it but do you think I care? I do not! His "ideas" for layouts were so unbelievably hideous it put my mind at ease and I realised I had nothing to get so worked up about. He'll get bored soon enough so I'll have some peace again. Anyway, here's the new layout:



Sweepie has a poorly leg and so can't go for the walk and is very upset. Crying and everything. And when I told Daddy not to take her with the others he got really annoyed. I believe the exact reaction was "fucking hell!" I'm not quite sure why my dog having a bad leg is pissing him off so much. I'm not really in the mood for his male period.

Martha has blogged, at last: read it here. She's too busy looking after the babies to blog anymore, I think ;)

I'm going to add some cloud photos to Photo Site in a minute. And then I might read.

This week is not a good one. And it's only bloody Tuesday!
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In honour of Gen's I Said Too Much post, I thought I'd blog something that I feel people shouldn't know. It's nothing terrible but ... Ugh, it's just me being me.

This woman rang me yesterday to ask if I would dog-sit her dogs for her next week. She was quite rude on the phone, making some sarcy comment about how I obviously had no life cos I was able to stay at her house and look after her dogs... Well, considering that's my job I'd be bloody crap at it if I couldn't do it, right? I said I'd ring her back the next day just because I always feel like I can't say no to jobs (parents are money-obsessed and it kills them if I turn money down) and, well, I can't actually say no to people period.

My mood was like crap all night. I was all anxious and pathetic. And I just thought if it was making me feel this crappy then why the hell didn't I just say no to the job? Genuis! So this morning I called the woman back and left her a message (she was on the phone the three times I tried so in the end just left a message) saying I couldn't work for her and that I wasn't thinking of taking on any new clients at the moment. It was a lie but it was true at the same time.

I usually feel really guilty for doing this. But considering I just realised I have two other jobs lined up for the end of this month then what the heck am I feeling so bad about? Exactly!

So there's something pathetic I don't want people to know I've done. Only people I live with, of course. To other people I'm quite sure it's quite lame.

Anyway, last night I saw "The Prestige". I figured out the ending about halfway through, if not before, but I sort of liked it anyway. The girl behind the counter told Ray it was really, really good and that he'd really enjoy it. I suspect she was trying to chat him up cos it wasn't that good.
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I'm better and now Jem's ill and Ray nearly threw up last night! Typical!

Ray also scratched his car on the way down the drive. Oops! I feel like perhaps that's partly my fault, what with it being my drive and all. The frustrating thing is he wasn't meant to be here that morning cos he was supposed to be looking at buying a new car down in Haverfordwest. Ahh well, these things will happen. Thankfully his mother didn't kill him (it was her car). Lookit how good the scratch was:



Saturday night I watched Jarhead. That was a good film. Jake does look better with hair, though, doesn't he? Sorry, girlie moment there ;)

I was in a very silly mood last night. We went down the pub for a drink and absolutely no one was there, cos it's such a happening place. No, really, it is! I won't bore you with the numerous silly self-portraits cos they are mostly just me and Ray giggling or pulling stupid faces.

They didn't have Tango! I had to drink Diet Coke! I always drink Tango in The Red cos Tumble don't sell it so it's like my midweek treat. Shocking!



And the fire was very pretty and very warm...



Like I said, the evening ended with Ray nearly vomiting on my sofa. It was a very "Poor Ray" moment so please all tell him so.

I made a beautiful new layout for my writing site >> Violet. I wrote heaps and heaps today. I think I may have this book finished by the middle of the month.

I have to now make a new layout for the Tumble RFC site. Cos one of the committee guys thinks we're division one or something and wants to add lots of new stuff to the site. There's obviously no room for all this strange stuff he wants to add so I now have to make a new layout. Problem? I've run out of inspiration. Hopefully something will hit soon.

So I was up late surfing online. Which meant a lie-in this morning - yum. And my little girl woke me up:



Which, incidently, is my new myspace icon: go on give me some love :)

Get better soon, J & R.
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I've tweaked the layout a bit just cos I wasn't 100% happy with how it was. I think I prefer this way a bit better :)

I've had a funny week. Yesterday Ray and I planned to spend the whole day together but guess what happened? I took some painkillers to stop some pretty bad period pain and had an allergic reaction to them so spent the whole day keeled over on his sofa. Nice. Sometimes I wonder why I bother planning anything. Thankfully I'm mostly better today. I always have funny reactions to painkillers. I thought it was exclusive to paracetamol-based ones but it turns out Cuprofen is also a no-no. Bleurgh.

I came home today. I didn't really want to, to be honest. Daddy's been picking fights with me as well. He always gets grumpy when I'm out with Ray for long periods. Man logic, I'm sure.

I just had a massive hiccup attack as well! It lasted about an hour. I'd forgotten how horrible they are. They seem to have tired themselves out now...

I'll try and get some photos uploaded soon. Until then here's a video clip of the firework's display I went to Monday night. I scared Jemma with it, cos she's frightened of fireworks. Hehehehe.


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This is a shameless self-promotion post.

In an effort to make a little money I have decided to offer my photos up for sale. There are arty-farty types, live band ones and some other miscellaneous creations as well.

If you fancy taking a browse please click the picture below:



Thanks :)
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I've been well enough to go out and about this weekend - Yaaaaaay!.

Saturday I went down the pub to watch the Wales V Australia match. Yes, the smoke did, in the end, kill my chest but it was all worth it.

Mammy and Daddy took Sweepie and Falls to a Dog Show. Urgh, I hate things like that. And the bitching that goes on is, well, quite shocking. Imagine kids' pageants and you kind of get the picture of how bad it is. I don't attend them. But, my little girl did win second place so we were all very proud:



Sunday was Guy Fawkes Night. That's a British-only thing. Basically we celebrate Guy Fawkes trying - but failing - to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Why? I can't remember. I'm sure the link will tell you.

I celebrated with a pizza at Pizza Hut. Then Ray and I drove around looking for a firework's display - there was none. So we just went to stand in the middle of the field and watched them explode all around. One particular home-display was being conducted quite close to where we were stood and the fireworks fell over! Then one exploded in the ground! I was convinced I was gonna be in next year's firework's warning adverts with a bloody firework still lodged up my bum! Hee, hee.

I took some pretty pictures anyway:









There's meant to be a display on tonight so we might go down to that, depending on how lazy we feel.

I'm in the process of jazzing up my Portfolio site. But I'll probably do a blog about that once it's actually up and running (probably tomorrow). It's looking good so far. I'm kinda hoping it'll make me some money but I'm not holding out much hope...

Oh! This picture made me laugh the other morning. I was feeling glum cos I was still feeling ill and I came online and there it was. It made me laugh out loud so I just had to post it:



I do believe the postman has arrived!
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