Yesteday morning I woke up at 3am absolutely soaked in sweat. Not because it was warm outside, like it has been for the past couple of days, but from feeling very much like I have flu. My whole body was aching and my throat felt like it had undergone surgery to be replaced by sandpaper. Not to mention the fact that my glands are swollen and tender.

So I got myself out of bed and downstairs to make a huge cup of hot chocolate (Galaxy chocolate powder and milk, it’s amazing) and tried to fall asleep again. No such luck. So I figured I’d just sit and watch TV until 5.30am when I need to start getting ready for work. Eh, yes. I’d forgotten that last night about 8pm the internet, television and phoneline had conked out. I had phoned them with my mobile (which has probably cost me about £5.00) and they informed me that there are no problems on the account, it was a service issue in my area and everything would be ok by morning.
Well, evidently not. I checked the phone - no service. Internet via my iPod Touch - no WAN connection.

So I sat on the couch with my two cups of hot beverages. You see I decided that I needed coffee to wake me up a little so I made a huge Central Perk-esque cup of double spooned coffee for a caffeine boost to drink after my hot chocolate. I read yesterday’s Evening Times. I read a 3 month old copy of Look magazine and realised that magazines are still publishing the same crap as they were 3 months ago - Amy Winehouse’s fears over Blake, Blake out of prison soon, Lohan might have a girlfriend and is settling down, Paris and Nicole hate each other - and an unbelievably old copy of Channel 4’s Grand Design magazine. After all that reading it was only 5am and I was tired again. No point going to sleep for a half hour, I’d only sleep through my alarm. So I did what any sane person does at 5am, threw a jacket over my jammies and a pair of Ugg boots on my feet and took the dog out for a long walk.

By the time we got back I’d to end up rushing my shower and didn’t have a chance to lather on my amazing raspberry and melon body scrub and only washed my hair once. Usually I put shampoo through it twice to make it really shiny but I didn’t think I had enough time so I felt somewhat dirty all morning. Ran like a mad woman to get ready and nearly burned my hand ironing my work top, only to realise the clock in the bathroom was 15 minutes fast and I still had 20 minutes to get ready!

I ended up leaving the house earlier than usual to walk to the next bus stop up and catch the earlier bus, theoretically getting me to work 10 minutes earlier. Of course, that’s the theory. I got the earlier bus down the hill to where I get my second bus but that didn’t show up. So I ended up waiting an extra 10 minutes outside feeling awful and shivering and actually being late for work - ironic or what? Luckily for me the other supervisor was also opening up today so the shop wasn’t late opening or anything.

Work itself was ok aside from the blinding headache causing my eyes to water and randomly shivering even though it’s a lovely day outside. I ended up taking a half day because of the sheer amount of work I did last week, nearly double my standard hours. Which I don’t get paid for, I get it back in time-owed. I’m sure that’s why I’m sick.

So I’m back home, lying in bed. And guess what? The phone, tv and internet are still not working. I called the company again and it’s going to be as late as 11pm that the issue is solved. Over 20 hours after the outage began. I feel disconnected from my world with no way to check emails or Twitter. Thankfully I have WordPress installed locally on my laptop though so I continue working on themes and graphics for my new project.

Doing a 15 hour shift after just two hours sleep is not fun in the slighest, but that’s exactly what I did on Monday as the back shift supervisor called in sick. I was supposed to finish at 4pm but got talked into staying til 10pm - my boss was there til 10pm also and the amount of work we got done in that 15 hour period was amazing. Seriously, the shop looks amazing and sparkly clean. We rock.

The downside to working so hard? Pretty much yesterday there was nothing to do. At all. We’d done all the orders that were required to be done and worked all the backstock so all we had to do was put out daily deliveries which take about 10 minutes top and daily paperwork - about an hour or so? And the rest was just milling about doing this-and-that. It was amazingly boring all day.

Today was good though - more tidying up and merchandising which I love doing with a passion, it’s the area of retail that I want to get into so I do most of it in our shop. I get really OCD-ish about it, fixing products on the shelf until they are millimetre perfect and all the labels line up…yes, I’m sad!

I’m working all day tomorrow again..and Friday…and Saturday. Half day Sunday and Monday. That means I’ll have done 57 hours in one week - result! Shame I only get paid for 39 and get the rest back in time-owed, which will come in handy on the 12th August.

Why the 12th of August? I’ve booked my theory test for my driving licence. I’m ever so slighty nervous as I keep forgetting really silly and important things - like stopping distances and the like. Eeek. Think I’ll have to read the highway code about 10 times between now and then. And remember not to forget the paper part of my licence, eh Rhys?

A little early, maybe but how cute is this Halloween invitation? I was looking for some part invites for the best friend’s “You’re going to be a dad’ party that I’ve decided to throw him and came across this site, ThePartyStartsHere.com and ended up on their Halloween invitations page - and I want to buy these so badly just so that I can throw a Halloween party to end all parties.

I’ve had the plan in my head for a while, and I wanted to do it last year but due to work restrictions it never came to anything so hopefully if I start planning now I will actually get to go through with my plans for turning my best friend’s house into either a pirate’s den or the land of celebrities. I quite like the idea of the last one, with John Travolta in Grease / Pulp Fiction and Marilyn Monroe not being allowed. I can totally see a male friend of mine dressed up as glamour girl Jordan for the night with ballons down a tight pink top! The only problem is picking who I’d be myself. Paris Hilton maybe? That’d be fun for the night. Or maybe Marilyn Manson circa Golden Age Of Grotesque complete with blue eyeshadow and mouse ears? Only the boyfriend would get that though!

I’m completely fed up of seeing adverts for life insurance for seniors on every TV channel that’s aimed at a young generation, or during programs for younger people. I don’t need life insurance especially for the over 55s, even if I am guaranteed to be accepted. And a free DVD player? Wow, that’s what… a fiver from Asda?

When are advertisers going to stop wasting money and start aiming their TV adverts to the correct target audience? I did advertising on one of my college courses (before I dropped out, obviously) and it’s amazes me how the fundamental rules seem to be broken left, right and center.

When I’m watching something like Next Top Model I want to see adverts for Heat magazine, DKNY perfume, Kinder Beuno and Maltesers, possibly even a ‘Because you’re worth it’ tagline here and there. You know, things that interest me. A young female with (well, I should have) disposable income to spend on such luxuries that are guarenteed to make my life better for 10 minutes and make me happy.

So please, advertisers. Start thinking about where you’re adverts are shown? Seeing an advert for B&Q during the break of The UKs Worst DIY-ers is excellent. Seeing it during Sex & The City isn’t.

If you get the blog title, yay for you having great music taste!

I am officially addicted to The Sims 2, and I’ve not even installed any expansion packs that I’ve got yet. Plus, I have the most awesome house, ever.

Finally I’ve settled on a theme for the site, which is exactly what I was aiming for but couldn’t get it right myself. All hail Tarski.

I really am a lazy designer. I’ve realised that I not longer try to code anything, I just search for the appropriate WordPress plugin and away I go.

I’ve also shunned everything that I believe in for this theme - clean lines, web 2.0 feel. I’ve gone back to my routes of funky, grungy layouts and I rather like it. Just the left hand side bar is annoying the life out of me. I’ll get around to fixing that later on though since I’m on my way out at the moment.

To tidy the boyfriend’s bedroom. Oh lucky me. He called me earlier to say that he’d bought a new chest of drawers from Argos for his room and that he was going home to start tidying it up to fit the drawers in and finally get rid of all the stuff in his room he doesn’t need any more… holey jeans, videos, random books that have never been opened. I’m leaving it as long as possible before heading down to his house because I hate tidying up, especially when it’s not my stuff to tidy.

Oh wait, he’s called me again. A lot of it is mine, oops. I generally leave clothes at his house all the time. Maybe I’ll be able to find my work shoes that I lost about 6 weeks ago? Or the new tshirts that I’ve yet to wear, I think they are in a bag in his room somewhere. And I wonder why I’m always broke?

I got my free ring from the Silver Jewerly Club in the post. And it’s gorgeous, it’s very Celtic looking without being the typical Claddagh style, with a cobalt blue stone. Stunning, and it matches my necklace that the boyfriend bought me in Dublin perfectly. Such a shame my battery is dead in my camera or I’d post a picture of it.

How cute is Abbi? I was going to the bathroom last night and walked past my mum’s bedroom only to see that the dog was sleeping in her bed, under the covers and using a pillow. I just had to run back to my bedroom and grab my camera and take a picture. Seriously, she’s so cute. Why waste money on pet beds when she looks so cute in my mums bed?

For some reason I want a new camera. I’ve been using a Samsung D75 point-and-shoot since the boyfriend bought me it for Christmas but I want something bigger and better, which is always the way with me.

Since every single person I know online pretty much uses a DSLR I want to jump on the pretty picture bandwagon and get myself one. I’ve always been one for keeping up with the Jones’ and my 7.2MP camera just isn’t cutting it, either that or I’m just incredibly rubbish at taking pictures. Example of a picture taken earlier today when out walking the dog (yes, seriously. I need better things to take pictures of rather than the dog or flowers).
Yuck, the settings were a bit screwed up but goddamn I want clear and lovely pictures!

I’ve been scouring eBay and I think I’ve found a camera I really want, but I want to know what you guys think first. It’s a Canon Digital EOS 400D and it’s £150 on Canon’s Refurb store. Is this a good camera at a good price? I’m mainly using my PayPal savings to purchase this camera which has accumulated over the past few months due to blogging about the best diet pills on the internet and such, so I have a budget of around £150 for my purchase.

If you have any recommendation at all for good cameras or great sites to buy one from please let me know so I don’t waste my money on a rubbish camera again.