I took out...

...new car insurance a few weeks ago and forgot to submit my certificate of no claims because I couldn’t find it. Now the company are threatening me with increased premiums unless I find and post my old certificate. So that’s the challenge.

Specfic: I find certificate. I post it. I receive confirmation. I complete goal.
Measurable: Complete when confirmation received.
Attainable: If I get off my butt.
Reasonable: Absolutely.
Timely: By 1st Jan or else.

See more progress on: sort my car insurance out

Test post

I am doing 43 things.

43 Things

1. Quit college and accept it as gracefully giving in, not failure

By Jan end

2. track my progress by visiting joe's goals every day for six months

Due 4th June 2010, then ongoing habit.

3. Read all the Harry Potter books

Before summer 2010

4. Set up FlyLady routines

By late Jan/early Feb

5. Unsubscribe from newsletters, mailing lists, etc that I don't really read

By Jan end

6. Finish "10 days to self-discipline"

By 17th Jan

7. Sort out my / our finances

By Jan end

8. Take the one hundred pushups challenge

By early spring

9. Take the two hundred squats challenge

By early spring

10. Take the two hundred sit ups challenge

By early spring

11. Knit a Gryffindor scarf

For the release of DH Autumn 2010

12. study nursing

September 2010

13. Travel on the Trans Siberian railway

???

14. stay in the penthouse of a fancy hotel

???

15. Celebrate New Years in Times Square

???

16. change all my lightbulbs to energy efficient ones

By Jan end

17. visit my relatives more often

By end 2010

18. put my mother's le creuset on ebay

by Jan end

19. put all our home movies on DVD

by Jan end

Snow!

Good morning!

Well, it's nearly 7:45am and I've been up for two hours. On my day off. *blinks* It's daft though, isn't it? When I plan to get up and be productive, I sleep through my alarm and ruin the day. When I give myself permission to sleep in, I'm wide awake at 5am. Bonkers. It's particularly bonkers since I *needed* the sleep. Yesterday I bit the bullet and asked the ENT nurse to look at my throat. Turns out I have tonsillitis and need antibiotics and since illnesses get worse the more run down you are, I told myself that sleep was more important than any of the errands I need to run in the next few days. Plus, yesterday was horrendous at work. I've never felt so put upon. I missed my second break and couldn't really talk by 7pm because it was so busy. So why the frog couldn't I sleep? Puh.

In my two hours, I've had a little tidy and made a to-do list, a delivery list, order Christmas flowers for Mum and checked on the status of my Christmas orders. All but two have been dispatched and should be coming before Christmas. Hooray! Later, I'll be heading into Cardiff to finish off the last of my shopping and run a few errands:

• Pay for Christmas dinner (get credit card!)
• Buy soluble paracetamol and Difflam at Boots
• Go to the nice tea shop
• Go to the Disney shop if the tea shop has no nice mugs
• Pick up 2 x nephew card, a fiancee card and 2 x bottle bags in a card shop
• Buy Mini Ninjas and Mirror's Edge for PS3

Then I'll come home and maybe Stu and I can get delivering some cards and presents. Then there's the epic wrapathon, due sometime today or tomorrow. *cries* The worst bit about Christmas.

======================================================

Yesterday morning it snowed. I certainly wasn't expecting snow but when I got up, clutching my aching throat like Lady Macbeth, and peered through my blinds (and condensation...) it was like Narnia outside. We'd had three inches and more was coming down. A text from Lisa told me that she couldn't get her 4x4 out. Heck, if she couldn't get her Jeep out, I wasn't going to test my little Micra in the snow. I phoned work, who had been expecting my call and then I did the worst thing I could have done: curled up and napped on the couch with Stu, who had got up under the idea that he'd drive me to work. I felt groggy all day after my lovely nap. *sigh*

I eventually got to work about 9:30; Lisa came in after 10am. Parking was awful. I ended up parking miles away from the hospital, over by the old psych ward on the most slippery car park ever. Naturally, nobody (except Wendy) says "thanks" or "well done" for trogging yourself into work in what can be, quite frankly, dangerous weather. City folks have no idea. On the drive home last night, I noted the difference in snow levels. Once I got off the dual carriageway and headed, literally, up country, there was easily four times the amount of snow. City people have no clue.

House Musing

I am about a third of the way moved into my new house. So far, the IKEA furniture is in but not assembled. All the appliances are over but not unpacked. My suite, beds and washing machine are being delivered Friday and next Wednesday respectively. This afternoon I will pack up some more of my stuff, and maybe we can get the double wardrobe over tonight.

Despite the excitement of moving in, I can't help but feel very frustrated sometimes. My mother, bless her, is going full pelt with this and I wish that she would back off, just a little. Washing my tea towels in advance, suggesting sheet and duvet combos from off the TV and really just being a little too involved for my liking. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that she's helping but I want the room to make my own decisions. Hopefully, once we're in, Stu and I can do it our way. Up until now, I feel like I'm holding back because I don't want to offend my mother. Whenever you criticise my mother, she becomes very melodramatic. Yesterday I said something trivial and she replied that "Oh, you'll miss me when I'm gone. One day you'll say that my mother would have done it for me, now no-one else will." That is what I'm trying to avoid.

Be Prepared!

Whenever I go out somewhere I always feel underprepared. Tonight is a classic example. Stu and I headed up to Andrew's place for Jack's 12th birthday party. As usual, Stuart's family congregated for a Chinese. It's how they celebrate every occasion and after three years, I'm so bored. Plus it didn't really feel like a 12 year old's birthday. We all sat around on the couch, all twelve of us, eating the takeaway off our laps while watching "Are You Smarter Than A Ten Year Old?" I could have stayed home and done that. For Jack's part, he remained casually uninterested and I don't blame him.

The point of the post is that I felt underprepared, despite wearing a nice top and a fair amount of make-up. I hadn't put handcream on and it made me feel like a failure. I knew that I'd be meeting up with Jo and Leah and I felt like I needed to be the skinniest and prettiest of us, the three girlfriends, as Leah and Jo have both just had babies. I don't have the social attributes, I know this, so I try and plug the gap by having the physical attributes. I just feel like I need to be perfect. I feel like I need to have perfectly coiffered hair and great clothes and a skinny waist before anyone will take me seriously.

Plus my "failure mood" was enhanced by the fact that I didn't really want to have a Chinese. It stemmed from me being invited to eat something I knew I shouldn't. I knew that I would feel, and still do feel, so guilty about eating it. I would have used the dieting excuse but since I have eaten two custard tarts, a fruit trifle and a full bowl of cheesy mash, it wouldn't really stand up to scrutiny. To be honest, much of the anti-Chinese was due to my own guilt about my lack of dieting.

I also feel like it needs mentioning: when Karen and Mark quizzed me about my career prospects, I couldn't really answer and said "Oh, I don't know what I'm doing." They both gave me a look of disbelief and I could have quite happily ripped a shred off my forearm. Moreover, I am quibbling over whether I should make myself sick before bedtime. Hmm.

Scrap that!

Well, I may as well have not written anything this morning. As of now, the medical dream is back on! UEA got back to me and said "top up your Biology, sit another AS and we'll take you on the A100". Score!

I feel awesome!