Pascal strings

It's well crafted. Sparkling. Concise above all things. An utter gem of a blog post, it will stand out from the surrounding dross as something to be admired. Contemplate how this can be achieved... All in 255 characters. It's never going to happen, is it?

Meme-ific

Two memes in one week? Shocking. I think the last meme I did was last summer - maybe I'm having withdrawal symptoms.

The meme is thus: one line from each of the next 20 songs to appear from your music library being played in random order.

Deep inside of a parallel universe
No voice resounds
I'm intrigued, I'm unsure, I'm searching for more
Graceless lady, you know who I am

But you're working in a factory
Cause you can't avoid the sentiment
We live in the shadows and we had the chance and threw it away
I don't know how you could not love me now

She said, "I'm gonna be another Marilyn"
I'd rather stay single and thin
Dancing through the night with you
Because I’ve got troubles enough

Well the rain exploded in a mighty crash
My heart is broken, it's worn out at the knees
In a haze, a stormy haze
I'm waiting for you again

We were born with our eyes wide open
I'm sat here licking my wounds
You'll never watch your life slide out of view
Because it's finally something you believe

You can award yourself points for recognition (I've just composed it, and I can't identify all the lines). No cookies, mind, just points. Give yourself a gold star if you feel you deserve it.

The week that was

Many things have happened this week (when I say "this week" I'm starting with last Saturday). Of course, now that I only tend to blog once in a week you get all the updates in one go. Aren't you lucky?

Bright and early Saturday morning - by which I mean, at about 10am on Saturday in the rain and by light of the black clouds - I departed for Essex, to spend some time with Kevin. We'd booked to see Derren Brown in a Southend theatre on Monday, so I planned to go home on the Tuesday.

I can tell you're hanging on my every word, aren't you?

The long and short of it was that I woke up on Tuesday feeling very down, attributed this to going home, and only paid attention to it later when I began to feel dizzy. This in addition to the slightly raised temperature and complete lethargy meant that I wouldn't be driving home that day.

It's now Friday and I'm still here. (In Essex, that is, not just in the sense of "I'm alive!".) The dizziness has been coming and going all this time; yesterday I was unsteady enough on my feet that even on a ten-minute walk down to the newsagent's I needed to hang onto Kevin with both hands. If I'm still here tomorrow and unable to drive home my parents have volunteered to come and collect me and the car, in which case I need to do instructions for them (not too difficult given that even I didn't feel lost the first time I drove to Kevin's).

Anyway. Derren Brown was brilliant (in case you've not heard of him, he specialises in mind tricks and psychological illusions - a lot of it comes down to the appearence of mind-reading). The first half of the show was funny and light, and featured such things as Derren telling us that he'd cross-referenced the list of the people who'd booked their tickets with the Southend telephone directory and then memorised it - and so anyone who'd booked and was listed in the directory could be told their telephone number simply by revealing their name.

Derren shortly confessed that, in fact, that's not what he'd done. Too difficult, he said. Instead, what he'd done was to memorise the entire Southend phonebook. He demonstrated this by telling a woman what page of the phonebook she was on, which column, her own telephone number and the ones above and below it on the phonebook (checked, of course, by a member of the audience).

He did the usual kind of thing as well - guessing correctly four times which hand a coin was held in; asking a woman to choose between two envelopes (and giving her most of the show in which to decide) and influencing her decision so that she chose the envelope with the parrot photograph in, not the one with the £500 cheque in; the usual tricks.

The second half I am sworn to secrecy on, I'm afraid. Sufice it to say that it was 'darker' than the first half, and featured things that he doesn't generally do on TV. Well worth an evening, anyway.

And, horror of horrors, I am informed that this Saturday brings the Eurovision Song Contest, a spectacle from which I have hidden for many years. (There's good reason why, too.) However, last Octoberish Kevin swore to pin me down this year and make me watch it (for reasons of mockery and not devotion, might I point out), so it seems that I shall be hiding behind cushions and the like to attempt to get away from the sheer awfulness of it all. Help me, somebody. Please?

I am currently...

• ...still dizzy
• ...marvelling at the beautiful sunny weather outside when I'm a) off work and b) unable to appreciate it, since all I feel like doing is slumping
• ...wondering what to read next
• ...rejoicing because I survived the Eurovision (mainly because we scarpered to watch Fight Club after little more than an hour)
• ...starting to vaguely look into computers, since I'll be buying one shortly before I go to university in September (term starts on my birthday, by the way, what a joy)
• ...also thinking that I'd like one of those chairs that you have to kneel on, because they're much more comfortable than they look
• ...not panicking about Moveable Type, even though I do have multiple authors on my installation
• ...thinking that I seem to need far too much sleep - the period between going to sleep last night and getting up today lasted 14 hours, and I only woke up once (when my alarm went off at 6:30, to see if I could make it into work today)
• ...finding it difficult to get up and down the stairs comfortably, and extremely difficult when I'm carrying something in each hand
• ...hoping this bug will go away soon.

The diagnosis

The good news is that I'm not crazy, I've been diagnosed with labyrinthitis (nothing to do with the fact that Kevin and I watched Labyrinth at the weekend, honestly). Labyrinthitis is the inflammation of the inner ear, hence dizziness and imbalance.

I've been given tablets and told to take a week off work since it'll probably last another couple of weeks. I read through the instructions for said tablets and noticed that one of the possible side-effects is dizziness.

I'm saying nothing.

Quick update

Am not dead. Recovered, went back to work. Discovered that on the first day I was ill, when Kevin phoned in sick for me (since I was sleeping), everyone assumed I was "pulling a sickie" since the message was relayed by my boyfriend. Interesting logic there.

Shock at having to get up once again at clearly insane hour of 6:30. Mitigated though, by joy of discovering that we as civil servants get an extra day's holiday this weekend in celebration of the Queen's official birthday. Yay Her Majesty.

Damn. Still need to choose another book to read. This is very difficult - should get myself, I don't know, a list of books bought but as yet unread. Sounds useful; could help.

Slowly adjusting to five-day working weeks again by working three days this week and three days next week. (Must ease in gently; haven't worked for five consecutive days since... heaven knows. April, certainly.)

Tired. Need sleep.