Yesterday...

Well, that was a busy evening - I seem to have spent nearly all of it on the phone. I have agreed that if I get on well with the cat (and it sounds like I will from the way Aunty Wendy describes her - apparently she's very affectionate and always wants a stroke. Remind you of anyone :) ) then I'm taking her home on Friday! It's so exciting! I'm a bit nervous - what if I do something wrong? Still.

Anyway, once she gets home she'll have a wacky weekend of fun to look forward to (not really ideal for moving in I guess, but that's the way the cookie crumbles). Saturday is the sleepover and guess who phoned me last night. Marta, the other member of our group from Uni who we haven't seen for about a year! And she's coming to the sleepover! Which will be really cool. All the girls (and Alex) together again :)

Then, as soon as they've been ushered out of the door Ian and Ruth will be there for D&D. In fact, it occurs to me that it will be strangely appropriate as my character has just acquired a familiar - a cat! I'll have to sit down with her on Friday night and roll her stats (or whatever you do for animals) :)

Fortunately, my boss has agreed that I can take Monday off to help her settle in - I need some rest :)

... and today

Had my first panic/asthma attack for ages today on the tube. To explain, I'm not very good in crowds - I think, because I'm short I fear being crushed. At least, I hate the feeling of being swept away. This means that I don't go clubbing very often and try to keep to a corner when I do. It also means that the Central line on the Underground is not my favourite place. Mostly I'm OK - I just try to day-dream - but this morning it was even fuller than usual (who would have thought it possible?) and I'm wearing a coat which is, in retrospect, slightly to heavy for the weather. So I'm too hot and it's incredibly crowded and then at Oxford Circus a woman gets on who is wearing way to much perfume and that's too much. I start to feel like I'm not getting enough oxygen and feeling slightly dizzy. Fortunatly, I'm right by the door so I can lean on that between stations. I start to breath a little wheazily but by dint of stern talking to myself ("Stop making such a fuss! It's all in your head anyway") and concentrating on breathing steadily (even though the perfume taste in my mouth is horrible) I prevent myself from actually hyperventilating. I have rarely been so relieved to see Bank come around. I stand limply on the escalator and when I finally get to the outside, pause to lean against a wall and have a few deep breaths.

Once I make it to the office I grab a cup of tea and sit at my desk just feeling rather shaky (my legs have that heavy feeling like I've been running or something) and trying to screen out the sound of Simon being fortright about something next to me while I sip my tea.

I thought I had got over these - I haven't had one for ages - but in retrospect I think it's just that the cold weather in winter means that I'm less prone to them - overheating is definately a trigger. Last summer on the DLR I occasionally had to sit down on a bench as soon as the train pulled in because I felt so dizzy but I haven't had problems on the Central line up until now even though it's just as crowded if you don't get on until 8:30. But of course, I didn't start using the Central line until the end of September last year. When it happens, I always start to worry that I'm going to faint and then if I do it's so full that I won't fall to the ground and no-one will realise until they all surge out onto the platform, trampling me in the process. Which doesn't help to calm me down. Fortunatly, stern talking to myself does manage to keep it under control usually as I know deep down that that's not really likely anyway. So, summer coat tomorrow I'm thinking.

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I've just got emails from Microsoft confirming that I am now an MCSE and an MSDBA. It looks like you get a bit better stuff from this that just MCP - possibly free MSDN subscription for a year. It's not quite clear from the mail but they promise they've sent me a welcome pack which has the full details (and my badge :) ) so we'll soon see.

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Look Alex! All you need is a t-shirt to be a ninja!

Also, Shoot stick figures (and cows) with lightning bolts!

Yes, I've been looking at usr/bin/girl

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Wow. Would you allow the internet to take life changing decisions on your behalf? Well that's what these people are doing over on MSN. Frankly, a prize of 10,000 pounds is definitely not enough for me to let you lot make my decisions for me. Listen to your opinions, yes but I'm not going any further.