SpaCeMonKeY UK

I'm feeling kind of sad, and homesick. I was on the phone to my mum earlier and we both ended up crying. Today she had to leave her mum in an old people's home - I think it was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do. I wish I could be there for her, but I'm stuck in Leicester. I doubt there would be much I could do to help, anyway, but still...

My nan had been in hospital for over three weeks. They'd fixed what she'd gone in for, but whilst there she was becoming increasingly confused and frail. She had heart problems a couple of years ago and that has left her with a heart working at only 30% of what it should be. On top of that she has something wrong with her bone marrow, and her sodium levels keep being low. It's her confusion that's the hardest thing, though. She kept thinking she recognised people on the ward with her. Things like that.

Now she's in a strange place, it's hard not to see her finding that even more confusing. She's always been such a strong lady - she looked after my granddad for years (he had very bad arthritis). He died about 15 years ago and since then she kept busy with all sorts of things, until her heart problems. It's so hard to see her now. And to have to leave her alone when she's so fragile... I hate to think how mum's feeling.

Nan's in the interim place for 6 weeks or so. What happens after that depends on what she wants to do and what her assessors think of her physical and mental state. I don't think it's the nicest place in the world. On the plus side at least now she's in a place with other people she'll have someone to talk to. I hope she makes some friends. She must have been terribly lonely for ages - she hasn't been able to go out for a long time.

I guess people don't really want to read stuff like this on a weblog, if anyone is actually reading this. But I was feeling sad and wanted to write it down. There's nothing I can do, really, except pray.

Wow, this is amazing!. I'll have that in my head all day now. Although, well, this makes it even funnier, in some ways - though the singer on the original is hilarious. :)

BTW, I did watch the new Red Dwarf, and it did improve after the first part. It was okay. Bit of a tribute really. And a major rip off of Blade Runner. I do know one reason that it was odd to watch though - it didn't have any laugh track. I had a special video from one of the original shows and it was without the laugh track - it was no-where near as good as it was with the track added. Weird really. I think maybe without the laugh track it seems to be taking itself too seriously. There was some good acting though. I thought Lister on the bus with the kids was a lovely moment. ;)

I've been practicing singing on Rock Band quite a lot this week. Last time I looked I was 480th or something in the solo career leader board on expert. The only thing that makes me wonder whether it's worth it is the general opinion surrounding the singing - that it's a lot easier than playing the instruments. I guess there's something in that, I mean, I couldn't play the guitar or drums on expert. But it would be nice if someone was vaguely impressed. I have to work on my nemeses - 'Mississippi Queen' and 'Suffragette City'. I hate those songs. I mean, I love David Bowie, but singing that song is really hard! D'oh.

Rock Band is odd really. If you're good at something because you have a vague talent in an area (i.e. you can hold a tune) it's not as impressive as if you can play a plastic instrument. I think singing on Rock Band is actually improving my singing generally - my range etc - but I know I don't sound that great a lot of the time. Generally it's fun, apart from the horrible songs. And it feels really good when you finally get on top of something that's previously been impossible. But still... I don't know... It's a game that rewards you for having co-ordination and rhythm. Probably the singing was just to placate people who liked Singstar. Which I don't, if you were wondering.

The other thing about my 'achievement' is that no-one seems to ever complete solo career modes. So if you do finish it and are fairly high up it doesn't mean you're actually any good...

Oh well.

Yay, finally the diffuser row is laid to rest! :D

Sorry, me again, just wanted to say I've updated my Google Earth KML file, you can get the new version here - lots more of Leicester's historic buildings and more links to photos on Flickr. :)

Oh, I should say, apparently those waffle cones you get for ice cream are actually the horns of the Quornimal. So now you know.

It looks like I lost the blog war (unless it's still ongoing and numerous posts could still result in a victory?). James was not so far behind me...

I did mean to blog earlier, but you know how it is. I'm sitting here on my extra Easter day off (we get Tuesday as well), waiting for a man to come and measure our doors. We've paid a deposit to have double glazed ones fitted, you see. When we moved in the house had double glazed windows but such a huge draught comes through the doors that the windows being glazed doesn't really fix the problem. So we're paying £1800 to have a front and back door (eep!). But that means I have to wait in for the surveyor. Which I don't want to do. Partly because I'm scared of meeting people so I'd never want to do it, partly because I don't really want to start doing things if he might turn up at any moment. Kind of annoying when it's a rare day off...

Weird, apparently Americans don't have the word 'draught', just 'draft'. At least with the two words you can differentiate a bit between the many meanings of the word.

The weekend of the 4th/5th April we went down to Southend for my dad's birthday. It was my dad's 60th. Unfortunately my mum's mum ended up in hospital. She's physically okay now (or as okay as she'll ever be) but it doesn't look like she'll be able to cope by herself at home any more. She's suddenly become very confused. It's really odd how it happened so quickly. I feel more homesick than ever since I wish I could be at home to help. I really miss mum and dad sometimes. Boo. :(

This weekend had lots of birthday action going on as well - it was Rachel's birthday (my friend/my brother's girlfriend) on Friday and Rob's mum's on Sunday. Consequently I have eaten more food out than I'd have liked to. When I say that, it was nice but I'm trying to lose a bit more weight. I think I've put some back on. I don't really want to weigh myself, it was cool when I could say I'd lost 3 1/2 stone. :)

Rachel is one of a select group of individuals who can say they saw Jesus on her birthday. (Every year you can count on someone having a conversation about how 'hot' Jesus is, which I find slightly odd..!)

Lots of exciting F1 has happened. This week we'll find out what's decided about the diffuser row. It annoys me when F1 ends up being more about arguments than racing. Maybe when the diffuser thing and the lying thing settle down we'll just get back to racing. The BBC's coverage has been excellent, with lots of red button action. WOO!

I meant to blog about a 'Ticket Factory' e-mail that ended up in my inbox. It made me wonder if I'd ended up in the 80s, though clearly I wouldn't have been e-mailed in the 80s. The subject was, "Depeche Mode, A-Ha, Spandau Ballet and much more". (What is going on?!!)

I didn't book tickets for any of those things (yikes!) but I have sent off for festival tickets to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. They ROCK!

Lastly, I did enjoy The Skeletor Show. LOL!