Saturday 31 January 2004

Oops, a quick update, I misrembered my new address, it's Flat 20B not 20A.

I'm back at home this weekend, having travelled back on Friday morning. It was a fairly good trip, especially as for the most part impatient drivers actually overtook me rather than inspecting my bumper for a change.

Wednesday was not a good day for me, I turned up at my new address to sign my rental agreement a day early having been caught out by my dyslexia, and felt very guilty about wasting my time at work.
Wednesday evening, I discovered that the college's procedure for finishing meant that I had to stay until Friday morning, rather than scooting off on Thursday night as I had planned. This understandably put me in a bad mood, so I went out to get some apple juice as a healthier treat than a chocolate bar. Big Mistake.
As soon as I got a fair way out of college the light rain and wind turned heavy. I was soon drenched and my umbrella required both hands to brace it, and then the struts bent out of shape so I gave up on it. The sequence of weather was heavy rain and strong wind, followed by sleet, half-melted hail, more rain then snow alternating with heavy rain, Yuck! I also discovered that I had worn through the soles of my shoes so I had wet feet. On returning to college I borrowed an iron to start drying off my trousers and jacket, and left them on the radiator to finish drying. Sigh.

Thursday turned out a little better, my clothes were dry and the shop was quiet and I was able to get on with work. However at the end of the day, David (my boss) asked why I hadn't put a "dog-leg" ("S"-shape so the pin can't slip out) on the taper pin that held the hands on a clock I was working on. He demonstrated and broke off one end and weakened the other so much that when I attempted to removed the broken taper pin the other end broke off leaving the middle bit firmly wedged in the hole. I was unable to remove it before I had to leave, so I'll probably have to try again when I'm next in.

On Friday I got off to an early start, waking up at 4:40 and being unable to fall asleep again, I waited until I couldn't stand to wait any longer and began loading the car at about 6:50. When I finished, I handed in my room keys and drove the car up from my room to the top car park, using one of the Visitors spaces, in order that I would be able to keep an eye on the car from the dining room. After breakfast at 7:30, all I could do was wait until reception and finance were open at 8:30 when I could collect my travel expenses and hand in my student and free drink card. I then had a brief interview with the person in charge of the training dept and then set out at 9:30.
On returning to Camberley, I unloaded the car since I couldn't lock the car in the garage to keep it secure and then headed down to Clarks in Camberley in order to see if I could get a refund, since I had only bought the shoes in September and they had only lasted until the end of January, I actually got a whole new pair of shoes, Woo-hoo.