the rubbish continues

So as promised, here's the concluding stuff of the holiday.

As noted, Christmas day was good but then everything around it was rubbish.  When I eventually got home on Boxing Day I basically just watched TV for a bit and then went to bed.  I slept for about 14 hours if my maths is right and of course then I went to work for the next couple of days - still suffering with the cold and worried about my dad.

I had actually been planning to use these days to do some stuff that I've had to back-burner, but when I got in there was a big pile of stuff dumped on my desk I had to sort.  I wasn't best pleased, especially as stuff clearly could have been done with it on the Monday and there wasn't a lot I could practically do with it that others couldn't have done, particularly as my holiday was after New Years, which is when all the critical stuff on these things would actually need to happen.

I therefore wasted a good day and a half with what was essentially hand-turning that others should have already done or could really wait until after New Years when everyone was back.

However, I did manage to get some stuff done that I actually wanted to do, but I can't really say I enjoyed the days at work.  The problem really was there were other people there.  I've actually found that although rubbish on many levels I kinda enjoy coming in at the weekend - I can work whatever schedule I want and I can concentrate 100% as nobody else is there.

The real problem, though, was my landlord.  He wanted to sort out some mould that had developed in the corner of the kitchen and this was fine.  He said it might look a bit patchy, but I said that was not something I was worried about.

Now ideally (and this, I think, was the real source of my annoyance) he would have properly redecorated the kitchen.  I even made it very clear to him a long way ahead when I was away last Summer for him to use that time to do it.  However, like an idiot, he booked a foreign holiday at exactly the same time as when I was away, so he couldn't do it.

But, having mentioned I was working, he decided to take advantage - rather than just sort the mould he started redecorating as well.  Now as I say, no problem with him redecorating, but a) he was taking the piss by just launching into it and b) I was on leave (meaning at home) after New Years and he said there was no way he could complete it before then, so I had the prospect of a half decorated kitchen to cope with while I was on leave - yeah, great, thanks for that.

What also annoyed me is I basically didn't move any of the kitchen stuff out of the way when he started (as I say, he was just meant to sort a corner of the room) and so he'd just shoved it all randomly out of the way in a big pile.  I can't stand people touching my stuff or being in my rooms at the best of times, and this just wound me up.

Now I actually mentioned this to him when I got back from work on the second day and I also then properly moved my stuff out of the way for the last day I was at work before my leave.  I think because I'd implied it was a bit off for him to just launch into it without properly arranging it with me he actually worked hard on that last day and did two coats, so it was done.  I was relieved and it looks quite good, but it was still pretty disruptive.

Anyway, then there was New Years eve itself.

I'm not really a fan of New Years.  It's completely arbitrary, obviously, but also the problem is that everyone is out and about.  If you want to go for a few drinks you won't be able to get any because everywhere is so busy.  And otherwise it's normally just a really cold day where everywhere is too busy.

This year was no exception.  The plans I'd made didn't really happen and I ended up driving home stone cold sober at about 4:30 in the morning.

The holiday afterwards was okay - I got some stuff done I'd been meaning to do and relaxed a bit.  On the up side I watched loads of the stuff I'd recorded and not watched over the last year.  My PVR went from about 80% full to about 80% free.  I could probably have cleared it, but I find fatigue tends to set in when I watch too much TV in a row.

I'll leave it there I think - as I say, not the greatest time overall.  Certainly I've had better year ends.