tired

I've been working my nuts off this week.

The reason is that there's a proposal I'm working on that needs to go out the door this next Friday. What's made it difficult is two things.

First off, they only gave a very short period of time for the ITT to be written in - just a few weeks. But secondly, we've had to use some outside expertise to form a team and it's been like herding cats.

Even when they did eventually produce some stuff, it really hasn't been up to par, so I've had to rewrite a lot of it, which is never fun.

It's been really hard work.

And what's made it even less fun is that there's a much more important activity going on as well. We've been invited to interview for another thing we're bidding for and it's a really quite important piece of work, so a lot of attention has been focused on that.

Indeed, I've been working so hard that today feels like Friday - it's like I've done a full 5 days of work in a 4 day period. This effect is really confusing me, actually - I keep thinking 'tonight I can have a rest' type thoughts, when really I can't :(.

Newtype, animedia and animage turned up this week, but I've hardly had a chance to even look at them. One thing that was a bit odd was that Newtype came with a figurine. It's not a large figurine, but equally it's not small - maybe 4 or 5 inches tall?

She's actually a character in Evangelion, only she's completely new to me, and I've seen the Eva series and the first movie, so she must be a new character in the Eva remake movies. She's another pilot - at least she's dressed a bit like a pilot (the plug suit she's wearing is not quite like other pilot's suits) and I've seen her pictured with Rei so I'm guessing she's a new pilot.

Intriguing.

And speaking of figures, I had something of a surprise yesterday - a figure turned up that I wasn't expecting!

I've moaned before that I keep getting walloped for customs charges on figures I've been buying directly from Japan, well this figure was no different. I got a note saying a customs charge was due.

Oh, actually that reminds me - I decided to try paying online for it, rather than in-person. It was a mixed bag - initially, the website wouldn't accept any of my credit cards at all. It just would not play ball.

However, I retried it a couple of days later and it worked. But - and this was where things got a bit weird - there was no reference number on the note I'd been left. But I figured what the hell and paid the amount anyway.

A couple of days later and I hadn't seen any sign of the parcel so was thinking I'd have to go to the post office and argue about it, when it arrived. How they tied up that it was this parcel and I'd paid without a reference number I'm not sure, but success was had.

But what was the surprise? Well, I hadn't been excepting it - what I was actually expecting was a DVD, so quite where the DVD I was expecting has gotten too, I don't know. I did receive another note saying there's another parcel, with customs due, so maybe that's it?

Dunno.

But what I will say is that the figure is excellent. It's of Yoko from Gurren Lagann and if I'm honest, her face isn't the best - it looks a bit big and cute compared to how she is in the show. What makes up for that is all the details and extras in the model - her gun comes as loads of separate parts and you assemble it, but what this also means is you can assemble different options/variants too. Plus, you get a second facial expression, several different hair variations and some bits of clothes that are optional too (not in a rude and nude way!).

Plus, it's a really weighty piece and feels and looks like it's solid and well made. It's probably one of the best figurines I own - all that from something I wasn't expecting!