My friend is pregnant.

With twins.

She has scans! Pictures of little babies!

I shall be the one in the corner being broody.

*broods*

I messaged Siobhan (ex-flatemate) after I got my letter. She sent me this whilst I was at work. It was in the Courier today apparently.



"Casey inquiry postponed until March

AN INQUIRY into the death of a 19-year-old student from Lundin Links in October 2006 has been postponed again and will now not take place until March.

Erin Casey died following an epileptic seizure during her first term at St Andrews University, having been diagnosed only months earlier.

Her family won their fight for a fatal accident inquiry, which has already been postponed once.

A further preliminary hearing was heard yesterday, when Sheriff Charles Macnair was told that issues surrounding legal aid and the possible appointment of counsel are still ongoing.

Erin’s parents claim her death could have been prevented if all necessary information had been made available by medics and the full implications of the condition made clear.

Sheriff Macnair said he understood why the family want to consider all their options in relation to appointing counsel prior to proceeding and how the delay in resolving the issue impacts on case preparation.

The inquiry is now expected to begin on March 1."



So it looks like it's Erin's parents pushing the inquiry.

Siobhan hasn't had a letter yet. Heather has one and will be coming up from Manchester. We don't know about Nick and Andy yet but it seems they probably will as they were both there that night. Kim was in Glasgow when it happened and Siobhan was at work, so that might be why they don't have anything. They both say they're going to come anyway to be there for me and Heather.

I'm assuming it;s some kind of preliminary hearing in December then, if the actual one isn't expected until March?

I'm feeling a lot calmer after a busy night at work. I did have a bit of a cry on Andy's shoulder when I first got to work (I love my boss) but once I got onto the bar and got busy I calmed right down and just got on with things. I'm feeling a lot, lot better now. It's still going to be hard but Rich will be there and my friends will be there and I'll manage to get through it.



In other (GOOD) news the cook, Jacqui, wants me to tutor her daughter in Higher Chemistry. £20 an hour she;s going to pay me! £20 an hour! Now I just have to remember what I learnt in Higher...

I went to meet Rich for lunch today, as usual. Went to the bank and the Post Office on the way back. Got home and Susie came into my room with a piece of paper.

"The Police came to the door with this for you."

"THE PROCURATOR FISCAL FOR THE DISTRICT OF CUPAR HAS CALLED YOU AS A WITNESS AT THE ENQUIRY TO BE HELD INTO THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DEATH OF ERIN LEIGH CASEY"

What?

It's been three years since Erin died. Three years. Why are they having an enquiry into t now? And why are they having an enquiry anyway? It was natural causes, they decided so. Epileptic fit. Natural.

I don't want to live through that night again. I can't live through that night again. I can't do it.

WEEKS ago I was eating a slice of cheesecake in the bar kitchen whilst serving customers in the bar at the same time. Mike was laughing at how long I was taking to eat it. "I could eat that in 2 bites!" he boasted. When I asked him to prove it he pointed out that I'd (unfortunately) eaten the last slice.

Today was the first day cheesecake had been back on the menu since then.

So when Mike finished work at 9 was presented with a slice. He sat. And he looked at it. And he scoffed. "Easy!" he said.

And he didn't eat it and didn't eat it and didn't eat it.

When I finished work at 10:30 he still hadn't eaten it.

He then confessed to us (there were 8 of us gathered by this point) that he doesn't like cheesecake. So, being the kind, kind people we are we gave him 5 minutes to either eat it or give up.

He ate it.

Not in 2 bites though.

Which meant he lost the bet and owed me a drink.

However, I'm far too mice and felt sorry for one so bought him one instead. The amusement of watching him try to eat a large slice of something he hates in two bites was worth the £3 a pint of Stella costs!

Susie's a lovely flatmate. She's generally tidy. She spends most of her time in her room. She's friendly. She doesn't play loud music or make loud noises. She doesn't have strange people over. She doesn't care about me coming in in the early hours of the morning. She loves my dogs and rabbits.

But she talks. A lot.

And that means she doesn't listen to what other people are saying. Example from when she came in yesterday afternoon:

S: "It's horrible out there!"
Me: "How's the river looking?"
S: "OK, but I've got lots of essays due."

*blinks*

Anyway, her dog, Sabby, has come into season. I notced this as soon as I got back in yesterday because there were spots of blood all over the floor i the hallway and kitchen. Yep, doggy period blood in the kitchen.

Anyway, I cleared and swept the hall and kitchen this morning, and asked her if she could mop it because it was muddy and I didn't like the blood on the floor.

She cleaned the bits that had blood on them and didn't do the rest.

She's just off in her own world! How does "mop the floor" mean "wipe up blood"? It doesn't! It means "mop all of the floor and get all the dirt up!"

So I had to do it myself anyway. Which means I haven't vaccuumed the sitting room and mybedroom, which also need done.

Still, shiny hallway and kitchen floor.

I found this TV programme (UK only, sorry) about a woman who decides to make money by breeding her Staffy. She ends up with 7 pups. The programme follows her trying to find homes for all 7.

In the end, as those sensible people among us knew already, she makes a loss.

She finds 4 homes initially, gives 3 away and then ends up taking one back because the owner couldn't care for it any more.

Most homes are "typical" staffy homes. They want big, butch, scary "protection" dogs. The one lady has a Cane Corso (originally enough called Cane) who everyone is terrified of. She's proud of the fact that he'd attack children. Ugh.

*sigh*

Lef Stronsay at 10:30 this morning, arrived in Kirkwall at 12:30pm. One of the local B&B owners has been nice enough to give me the loan of his lounge for the day so me and the dogs are curled up in the warm rather than out in the cold. He's even going to drive me up to the ferry tonight.

Now I'm trying to decide whether to head to Tesco and get some food or just pop to the Chinese.

Tesco I think, it's cheaper.

Cesar Millan is in the UK.

He's going to be on the Paul O'Grady Show next week.

If I ever see that pr*ck and if he tries to lay a hand on my dogs I cannot and will not be held responsible for the things I might do.

I pray to doG that he doesn't harm or hurt too many dogs whilst he's over here. I hope someone reports him to the RSPCA for cruelty to animals. I hope he gets banned from coming back. I hope he gets banned from "training". I hope he gets banned from dogs!

I'm getting rather good at this whole baking malarky!




Also, ZOMG!



It's baby seal time! But don't let the cuteness fool you, they're vicious little buggers.

But insanely cute. If any of you want to visit Orkney ever, come at this time of year! The weather's crap but the fuzzy seals lying on the beaches more than make up for it.

The boat up from Aberdeen was horrible. I got sick and I don't get travel sick. Horrible.

But the good news (for me) was that the bad weather meant that the Stronsay boat didn't go on Thursday night which meant it had to leave early this morning to get to Stronsay on time to leave again. Which meant we got to come over to Stronsay this morning instead of hanging around town all day!

Dance tomorrow night! I ended up managing to bring both outfits up with me and I still don't know which one I'm going to wear.

Kota and Sparky have settled in well. Kota's curled up on a mattress on the floor being snuggled be Verity and friends. Sparky's downstairs in front of the fire. They both keep annoying Mum's dogs.

Earlier I had a young-ish looking guy come up o the bar and order a pint of Tennants. As the bar operates a "Challenge 21" policy (where we ID anyone who looks under 21) and he most definitely did I ID'd him. He sighed, rolled his eyes and said "Ugh, again!"

"Has Andy already ID'd you?" I politely asked, still holding my hand out for his ID. I don't care if he says Andy's seen it, I still need to.
"No, it was somewhere else." he replies, giving me his driver's licence. Now I'm thinking he's one of these people who still looks 18 at 25.

I look. The date on it is 31st October 1991.

Yup, he turned 18 two weeks ago. And he's moaning that he;s getting asked for ID.

He better bloody get used to it! It'll happen a lot!



Now, onto girly questions! Or maybe guy questions, let's not be sexist here.

I'm off home for a week tomorrow. I have one hiking rucksack to take home all I need for me and the dogs for one week. On Saturday there's a ceilidh so I need something purdy to wear. Do I go for:

Option A: Black skinnies, black knee-high lace-up boots (which are very sexy and gorgeous) and a black/purple corset-style strapless top with a black choker.

or

Option 2: White top (low-cut with a V-neck but not too revealing), black skirt and shiny silver shoes, possibly with black knee-high socks (can you tell I like my knee-highs?) or maybe even stockings. Or not.

I can't decide and I only really have the room to take one option.

HELP!

This efternon, at about 4pm, I headed up to MOrrison's to buy a few bits 'n' pieces. I picked up stuff, filled up my basket and headed to the till.

And realised I'd taken my card out of my purse earlier and din't have any cash.

The lady at the till told me I could put my basket at Customer Services and go home to get my card and pay for the stuff when I got back. Only it was now 4:30pm and I was supposed to be meeting Rich at Bella Italia at 5pm for dinner with Mum and Chris. I explained I wouldn't have time to the lady at the till. And then the guy in line behind me piped up.

"Go put your basket at the desk and give me two seconds, I'll drive you home and back up again."

After thanking him I went and put my basket down and met him at the front doors.

"I'm just parked over here" he said, pointing at his freaking huge Jaguar.

Yup, I got a lift home in a Jag! And then back to the supermarket and then back home again. It was awesome and the guy was soooo nice. He lives in Crail, which is the complete opposite direction from my house, so he went way out of his way to do that for me. Needless to say I was burbling my gratitude all the way home.



And then I was in such a rush to get changed into my work clothes and up to the restaurant in time that I forgot to put my belt on and my trousers kept falling down so Mike got me some string from the office and I spent the evening looking like a hillbilly with my trousers tied up with string.

Since you all (well, desperance and kitcatcook ) asked so nicely, here is how I make my banana bread.

4/5 brown bananas. The browner the better.
1/3 cup melted butter.
1 cup sugar.
1 egg.
Vanilla essence.
Pinch salt.
1 1/2 cups Self-Raising flour (or plain flour with a little baking powder).

Mash the bananas in a bowl. Mix in the wet ingredients. Mix in the dry ingredients. Bake at 175*C until cooked.

Enjoy.

Easy!

An addiction problem, to be exact.

I made more Banana Bread. This time I put cinnamon in and they are AMAZING! I'e eaten 2 (out of 12) straight out of the oven.

Is there a Banana Bread-aholics Anonymous anywhere?

I saw this last night. A very good, if slightly confusing, film.

If you didn't know this is the one that Heath Ledger died halfway through filming. They replaced him with a mixture of Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law. They were lucky because it managed to fit in with the story amazingly well. They'd obviously filmed all of the "out" of the Imaginarium scenes before Heath Ledger died and so they used a different actor for each time he went "into" the Imaginarium.

I have to say the Mr. Johnny Depp wins the prize for the sexiest Heath Ledger though. Mmm... He has to be one of the most gorgeous men in the world (save for Rich). Although he did remind me of Jack Sparrow several times. He speaks the same way a lot. Not that I mind, Jack Sparrow is sexy too!

In conclusion: Good film, go see it.

I was working the short shift at work tonight (8 till Quiet) as it's supposed to be my day off. Standing behind the bar, serving customers, vaguely paying attention to what's going on around me. Tony serves a woman wearing a woolley hat - one of those ones with the ties that hang down. Later whilst I'm serving someone else I end up standing in front of her pulling a pint. I tell her that I like her hat. She giggles like a little girl. I think nothing of it.

She then goes to sit down at one of the tables in between a couple and 4 of the Ultimate Frisbee guys. She starts talking to the couple. I think nothing of it.

The guy fromt he couple comes up to the bar, tells Tony that him and his girlfriend are moving to the other side of the bar as the lady is bothering them. Would Tony mind making sure she stays where she is and doesn't bother them?

No problem.

Lady comes up to the bar and asks to buy something that costs exactly £2.85. That's fine, she has a choice of a pint of Dark Island or a pint of  Spitfire. She goes for Spitfire. She tells Tony she loves him and goes and sits back down. OK, by this point we've figured she's slightly nuts, but she seems harmless enough (she's quite funny actually) and she's not drunk so we have no reason not to serve her.

5 minutes later there's a bit of a commotion from the corner. I here a loud "WOAH!" from one of the frisbee guys who jumps up. The lady jumps up too and starts screaming "AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" at the guy at the top of her voice.

Turns out she'd tipped her pint over the guy and then tried to down his drink, spilling it all over herself.

Tony removed (what was left) of both drinks and politely asked her to leave. She tried to convince him to let her leave in her own time. Tony was having none of it. He got her up and heading towards the door. She starts shouting at him that she hates him and won't be coming back. Tony gets her out of the door. She comes running back through, jumps on him and tries to kiss him. He gets her out of the door again, she tries to kiss him again.

She finally runs off, shouting that she hates us.

Craziness!

The bank decided to cancel the standing order that pays my rent without telling me and so Rosie didn't get my rent at the start of the month. I thought it had gone through so didn't bother checking that it had. And so I only found out that it hadn't when Rosie phoned me just over a week ago to say that it hadn't gone through.

Me being me I forgot to post her a cheque until yesterday.

She's cross with me.

Today I came home from walking the dogs to find that the fuse that controls the plugs in the flat had flipped. I turned it back, it flipped off again. I turned it back, it flipped off again.

I turned off every plug in the house, flipped the fuse and went back around the flat turningthe plugs on one by one.

The washing machine flipped the fuse.

Oh crap.

Now I have to blitz the house so that if Rosie needs to come around it's clean and tidy.

As it was Halloween yesterday I wore spider ear-rings and a Witches hat to work. I got told several times that the hat suited me. I'm not too sure whether or not I should take that as a compliment... I was told I should by one guy. Who proceeded to buy me 2 drinks and ask me when I was finishing. So a teeny-tiny little part of me thinks it wasn't the hat he was interested in...

However Ricky, who is 60-odd and married and a complete grump, also told me it suited me.

Today it's been raining. Lots. All day.

The Kinnessburn has flooded it's banks and the road is impassable. The roads at either end are flooded too and there's no way I could get across on foot. The bridge at the bottom of the Travellator was covered by about 2ft of water. To get across the river I had to go to the complete opposite end of town, near East Sands, to paddle across the road there. The road was flooded still but not as deep so I could get across with slightly wet feet. From there I had to go up the hill onto Lamond Drive and down the back way into the Square to get home. Lamond Drive was also flooded in parts (it's up a hill, it shouldn't be flooded! But the drains are backed up) and I saw several people walking with bags, obviously moving out of flooded flats.

It took me 40 minutes to do the 10 minute walk from the pub to the flat.

Susie (flatmate) has been in Manchester for the weekend. She was on the train back today, only the train couldn't stop in Leuchar's because there was flooding so she had to go onto Dundee. But the buses aren't running back from Dundee becauseof the flooding. So she's hiping that the taxi firms are still running back. She met some other students on the train so they're going to share one if they can get one!

Fun day!