So, when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.

As anyone who's lived with me can verify, I have an incredibly bad habit of having a major shopping spree whenever things are going particularly badly. For some reason, I always feel that things won't be quite so scary if I have exactly the right outfit.

So as you can imagine, the propect of dental surgery (combined with the excuse of 'I'm-starting-work-in-a-few-weeks-obviously-I-need-new-clothes') has pretty much led to an entirely new wardrobe. Including bags, shoes and jewellery. I have EVEN bought clothes specifically for the teacher training days (I think this is a tad excessive, even for me). It's now reached the point where I enter Debenhams and spontaneously sing a bit of Franz Ferdinand to the money in my bank account: "I know I won't be leaving here, with you".

Anyway, this morning I went shopping - I'm catching the train to Mum's in a few hours. And I bought a new handbag (despite the fact I own several), matching shoes, a bag to carry my marking in (purely because it had an Owl pattern on, and I cannot resist things with Owls on - but seriously, how funky is the bag?!), and many, many sparkly things from Accessorize, on the basis that they are Sparkly and this is Good.

Basically, I am quite stressed. I think my bank account probably is too now, so at least I'm not alone!

Meh. Not looking forward to tomorrow at all. I've got 4mg of Valium from the doctors - he said to take 2mg and see how that affected me, whereas I'm quite tempted to knock back the lot half an hour before the appointment. We'll see. The doctor I saw was lovely and so understanding... I was expecting to have to really argue my case to get the prescription, but once he saw how worked up I was he was really sympathetic. So that was good, at least. And I am quite looking forward to trying Valium!

And on the positive side, I'll get to see all my friends this weekend which will be fab :) And then when I get back I'll be starting work, which I really am quite looking forward to now!

Right, suppose I should go pack since I'm leaving the house in 50 mins. See you on the other side!

YUCK! There is a bug the size of freaking Australia in my bathroom! Okay, maybe not quite Australia. Possibly Queensland.

Seriously, it's huge. I was just merrily washing my face, as you do, when I saw something scuttle next to the bin. Since I didn't have my glasses on I assumed it was quite a large spider, and I backed away VERY quickly and shoved my glasses on. And then I stared.

It's about two-and-a-half inches long, VERY chunky, sort of cockroachy looking. It's got massive hind legs and long twitchy antennae. And boy, can the thing move. Last I checked it was on the bathroom floor, wiggling those antennae ominously. If it could talk, I think it would be cackling evilly and saying 'You can run but you can't hide.' It is THAT vile-looking.

So I did what any girl in this situation would do, I grabbed my make-up and toothbrush from the bathroom in a leave-no-man-standing-and-for-gods-sake-run type way, and fled to the bed (higher territory) and texted Kyle who's just gone to work. He told me to shut it in but... there's a gap under the door. If it gets out it'll get onto my CLOTHES. Ugh, bug contamination, gah!

Thankfully Jen's coming round at ten so we can laminate things (ahh, teacher-ness) and then go up to my classroom to stick pictures up everwhere! So hopefully she can deal with The Bug.

Yuck... I hope the rest of today will be better!

Just had a thought - the first time there's a spider in my classroom I have NO idea what I'm going to do. I may have to get my pink spider catcher from Mum's and take it to school just in case!!

I just started to update with my usual blather, then realised that I honestly have nothing amazingly earth-shatteringly exciting to say... except that I am so, so, so very tired. I think I may actually finish this lesson plan in the morning, which is very naughty and also possibly entirely neccesary for my sanity.

Aside from knackeredness, life is good. Still job-hunting, still no luck, but I'm still confident I'll find something. It's just over 30 school days until the end of my course now, and that is both terrifying and awesome. And in big happy news, Kyle and I have sorta semi-properly started house-hunting - moving in together in June! I cannot WAIT :)

Also, I have a confession that I need to make: I have become addicted to Mills and Boon's Regency books. I am very, very ashamed (but not enough to stop reading them!). Also, I bought some Georgette Heyer from Amazon today, which is slightly more high-brow, but only marginally. Kyle has been mocking me immensely for this, and I can't say that I blame him...

Anyway. Sleep time!

I've just impulse bought a microfiche reader. I feel this has taken my genealogy obsession to a new height - but hey, since I never have the time to visit the record office AND I happen to have the microfiche for around five Bedfordshire parishes in the post to me, looks like I'm creating my own record office. God knows where the bloody thing's going to go, but YAY I'm so excited.

Most women impulse buy shoes or chocolate. I buy a microfiche reader. Sad but true!

Anyway, I've got an observed lesson with my tutor coming in from Uni tomorrow. *sigh* So I really need to finalise my preparation for that - not to mention get my damn portfolio in order. Looks like another long night ahead...

YAY I own a microfiche reader!!! :)

Are these, or are these not, the most AMAZING socks known to mankind????



Yes, I am a mature, responsible teacher. But they make my toes ladybirds and thus I am ignoring any inkling of maturity!!!!! YAY LADYBIRDS!!!!

If you also wish to behave like a 5-year-old and have hours of fun wiggling your toes and pretending the ladybirds are talking to each other, then go to Topshop - they're only £4! Well, £3.80 with student discount, hehe!

This has made my day :)