Bear blog - bad_karma

The Neighbours

noreply@blogspirit.com (Clare Bear) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 14:35:00 +0100

Such is the way of things these days that in order to buy ourselves a house, we had to pick one that was in a semi-dodgy area. Knowing this, we consider ourselves rather lucky that the owners of the house we're attached to turned out to be a very nice young professional couple in the same position as ourselves. It gives us someone to commiserate with when the neighbours on our other side exceed our expectations of their scummy, chavvy, lazy and ignorant natures by deciding that they want to clear their garden.

Fair enough, yes. It's nice to see a spot of home improvement going on, and it's high time they actually got off their fat collective arse and did something constructive with their time, rather than spending seven hours a day standing in their front gardens shouting at each other and eying us suspiciously as we come and go FROM OUR JOBS. Where we EARN our money.

Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, and chavs being what they are, the neighbours have decided that it's much more convenient for them to throw their newly cut down garden waste over the fence into the back of our garden. Under other circumstances, I could be quite blase about it and say that, well, our garden is rather an overgrown tip at the minute, they probably didn't realise they were dumping their rubbish on a part of our property. But having had them stand gawping at us as we cleared and shifted and hacked and hefted our own garden waste to the tip, I'm feeling slightly put out by it all.

Thusly, I'm now playing with the internet, looking at stuff like this. And this. Ooh, and I like the look of this.

All pretension of socio-political understanding I may once have portrayed has now been blown completely out of the window.

The things I have to deal with

noreply@blogspirit.com (Clare Bear) — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:01:16 +0000

Clurb: Hello, I'm calling from the library registration department at the University of ---. I've had a lady come in with a reciprocal access scheme card supplied by your university and I just have a few questions about it.
Lady: Oh yes, I gave her the card myself. Go ahead.
Clurb: Ah, right. Well...firstly I wanted to know whether the pink card you gave her was still valid. We stopped using these cards about seven years ago and I didn't think anyone was supposed to still be handing them out.
Lady: No, we've been using them for years. They're fine.
Clurb: Do you have any of the new cards? The ones that are valid?
Lady: No. The pink one's are fine.
Clurb: Fair enough. It's just that it says on the scheme website that they shouldn't be used any more.
Lady: No, it's ok. The lady is a valid scheme user. You can let her in.
Clurb: Right, ok...well, secondly, you're supposed to stamp the back of the card with your library stamp.
Lady: Yes, that's right. I did.
Clurb: Erm..no. No, you didn't.
Lady: Yes I did. I checked it before I handed it out and I stamped it.
Clurb: Erm...well, I've got the card in my hands here and it hasn't been stamped.
Lady: Yes it has.
Clurb: No, it really hasn't.
Lady: Yes it has.
Clurb: Erm. Right. All I really need you to do is confirm for me that the lady is eligible for the scheme.
Lady: Yes, of course she is. I've given her the card. That means she's eligible.
Clurb: Yes, but because you gave her an invalid card which hadn't been completed properly I have to check, obviously.
Lady: I really don't see what the problem is here.
Clurb: You've even spelt her name incorrectly.
Lady: No, I didn't.
Clurb: Yes you-...look, if you just tell me that she's one of your current library users with a clean record then that's all I need.
Lady: She has a card. She's eligible.
Clurb: ... Right, well you've been very helpful. Thank you. Goodbye.

Bloody students!

noreply@blogspirit.com (Clare Bear) — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:10:00 +0000

Our library has a Short Loan collection made up of all the stuff that's in high demand. Stuff we like to keep close tabs on. So we keep it all behind the issue desk and if you want to take something from it, it has to go on your card. You can't just randomly peruse it in the library. And even then you only get it for four hours. If you bring it back late it's a £1 fine for every hour or part hour it's gone. We don't like to mess around.

This afternoon, a young lady came up to me and asked for five Short Loan items. After telling her that she could only take three at a time anyway, and her explaining that she didn't want to take them away she just wanted to leaf through them at the issue desk, I rather reluctantly went and got them off the shelves. Then I explained to her, very slowly and deliberately, that she was just to look at them at the issue desk and not to take them anywhere else. She nodded encouragingly at all this as if in acceptance. Then I told her that she should move up to another terminal so that I could serve the people behind her whilst she read. Which she did.

However, when I looked up from serving the next customer a couple of minutes later both young lady and five Short Loan items had vanished without a trace.

And an angry, scowling lap of the library, telling-off finger waggling in earnest, yielded neither.

The cheeky cow. She's in here somewhere because the Short Loans would have set off the alarm if she'd tried to get out. But God only knows where she's hiding. It's put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

CBB

noreply@blogspirit.com (Clare Bear) — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 21:40:00 +0000

Oh, for crying out loud.

The man was in the A Team, for God's sake.

The A Team.

You people have no taste and I will hate you all forever.

Pan's Labyrinth

noreply@blogspirit.com (Clare Bear) — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:32:17 +0000

Left home expecting this fim to be very very good.

Stood around chatting in the Phoenix expecting this film to be very very good.

Trundled into the cinema expecting this film to be very very good.

Sat through the trailers expecting this film to be very very good.

Watched the film. Expected it to be very very good, but to be honest I have no idea.

The man with the world's most enormous head was sat right in front of me, obscuring most of the picture and completely obliterating the subtitles. Fantastic. So I can only imagine, really. I'd say it was probably a fabulous, thoroughly entertaining piece of cinema and well worth the five pound ticket. But you should probably ask someone else.

Oh, and if you're looking for somewhere to have a two hour kip, don't pick the Phoenix. My arse went dead after about half an hour.

Ding Dong! The car is dead!

noreply@blogspirit.com (Clare Bear) — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 09:08:40 +0100

After faffing around for months with dodgy connections in the stereo and dead batteries lying around the house, not to mention soggy footwells, Bess went in for her MOT yesterday and failed on pretty much everything. Woo!

And, of course, because she's only worth about ten quid, the cost of repairs is really rather more than she's worth. So she's going to the scrappy to be ripped asunder and flogged on to unsuspecting customers. And we're off shopping! Unfortunately, we're on a terribly limited budget cause we're in need of a new engine for Philip, and it's Pete's birthday coming up this month, and we both need new glasses, and next month we're conventioning every weekend.

Bugger.

So keep your eyes open for cheapish VWs that look relatively pretty.

The Busiest Day of Term

noreply@blogspirit.com (Clare Bear) — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 16:05:00 +0100

Today is the last day of term. And that means that all the smelly students are bringing their books back before they skip away home to mummy and daddy.

Today is also the day that the staff lift decided to finally break down. So all the thousands of books that were returned today had to be loaded onto trolleys and taken upstairs in the student lift. By me, principally.

If I have to be party to one more inane conversation about boys or parties or hair or what everyone is doing over the holidays I shall kill someone. With a book.

Stupid cat.

noreply@blogspirit.com (Clare Bear) — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 10:20:00 +0000

I think Gandini has finally grown up and is craving independence. But he chose a really bad night to do it.

I work late on Tuesdays so even though Pete comes and picks me up from work we still only get home at about 9.15. And then there's all the hassle of cooking tea and winding down before bed. So we let Dini out to play whilst we went about our business, thinking that he'd potter around the back door for ten minutes like he usually does before getting scared and going to bed.

No. We sat and ate tea and watched Sin City and then realised that it was way past my bedtime. Time to lock up. But where's the cat? Bring on ten minutes of making kissy noises out the back door, shouting 'Diiiiiniiiiii!' in a variety of silly voices, patting legs, rattling food bowls, purring in what I'd hope was an appealing manner, and hunting round the neighbourhood with torches.

Finally discovered him sat on the other side of the neighbour's greenhouse with another cat, evidently just ignoring us so his friend didn't think he was sad for running home to mummy and daddy. Bah. Even once we'd shone the torch in his face for a bit and frightened off his friend he still didn't come in. I eventually called it a night at midnight. Pete stayed up for another hour. The stamina on that man is remarkable.

I woke up at half three this morning wondering where the cat was. He wasn't sat on my feet like normal. Pete had evidently failed. So downstairs I went and opened the back door. Zoooooooooom! In he comes purring and miaowing like he'd had the best night ever. So I picked him up and took him to bed. Pete woke up and tutted. I clamped my arm around Dini and fell asleep.

Had to get up for work this morning after only having seven hours' sleep. And a broken seven hours at that. Not in the best of moods this morning.

I love my cat, but he's a right bastard sometimes.

Ohhhh crap.

noreply@blogspirit.com (Clare Bear) — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 13:10:51 +0000

53 catches.

How infuriating.

Guess Who's Back

noreply@blogspirit.com (Clare Bear) — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 19:55:26 +0000

It's Jugjit!

Woo!

I'm working my late shift tonight, and he came in to say hello before going to Anime Society (snigger). How thoughtful. He was also in a terribly risque mood; effortlessly switching back and forth between normal conversation, reminiscences of days spent side by side on the counter, and avowels of admiration for my smiling, irrepressible wit.

I'm also a very lucky girl. He's coming back later in the week to lend me another Gamecube game. One which I will like. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying him enough attention to catch what the game was called. He'd also like to arrange an evening in the pub at some point; "just friends, n'that".

"Hmmm," I said, into my monitor, "We'll see."

Whilst my feelings towards Jugjit range from pity, to good-natured humour, to pious rage, he has taught me something about myself tonight. That being that however much I try to supress it, I am a woman. And I like being told that I have a nice smile.