It's for yoo-ooo .... well, me actually!

So, I've been wanting a new phone for a year or so, as my Motorola V600 is dated now. It's served me well, and will go on to have a new life with my Mum, if I can get her to *use* it, but I felt the need for a new phone. I've been eyeing up the Nokia 6280 for months, and know several friends who have the same phone.

It's not the smallest or lightest phone around, which is a plus point, as I like to be able to feel my phone, and for it to be big enough to hold and handle easily. It has all the usual features, including a 2mp camera, mp3 ringtones, mp3 player, radio, video capture etc, and I finally took the plunge and just won an auction for one on eBay. I paid £97.99 plus £8 postage, so £105.99 in total, and the same phone is in the current Argos catalogue for £219.99 including £30 of credit, so still almost double what I paid.

Here's the link to my new phone ... I can't wait for it to arrive now!

Motivation, or lack thereof ...

I have so much to do, and no inclination at all to get any of it done. I have to

1. Write to my aunt to ask for her help with my family history
2. Ring Clare tomorrow to wish her a happy birthday, in lieu of the card I didn't post in time.
3. Ring the doctor's surgery to cancel my diabetic nurse appointment for Wednesday, that only arrived on Friday, and which I can't reshedule until the week after Bonfire Night
4. Clean, tidy, and generally clear out my room - it literally has enough free floor space to get from the door to the bed, and the bird cages
5. Get back on the low carb eating plan
6. Figure out what I want for Christmas, and give the list to the people who want to know
7. Clear out the spare room, which is filled with tons of my stuff, in storage crates.
8. Work out a way to not spend all my wages in the first half of the month.
9. Catch up on email
10. Sort out my wardrobe, and work out what is still wearable, ditch what isn't

Argh. All I actually want to do is stay here, on my bed, meandering around online and listening to music. I don't *want* to go to work, or do stuff that needs to be done. It's too much effort. Everything is too much effort. Why can't I just be a recluse for the next how ever many years I'm here for?

Concerts are like buses ...

You know how you spend ages waiting for the bus, then three come along at once? Well, until June this year, I'd never been to a concert in my entire 30 years on earth. I then saw Bon Jovi, Westlife and Robbie Williams within 3 months! Now next year's shaping up to be as good, if not better, as I've already got 3 booked within a 6 week period

I'm seeing Shayne Ward at Wembley Arena on Feb 16th, and Westlife at the Brighton Centre on March 29th, and I've *just* booked tickets for Michael Bolton at the Brighton Centre on March 16th. I'm now down to about 50p in cash until I get some money owed to me, or claim my 50% ticket subsidy back from work for the Robbie concert, but I'm happy :)

The concerts I'm going to next year may not be the coolest acts, or on the same scale as Bon Jovi or Robbie, but I like them, and I'm not ashamed of my musical tastes! Bring on next year ...!

Not Something You See Every Day

So this afternoon I was passing through my living room, when I happened to look over to the window and saw a mass of small white feathers flying up in the air (we're in a first floor flat). I actually thought two pigeons had collided in mid-air, before deciding that maybe it would be worth a look outside, so I walked over to the French doors and stepped out on the balcony to see ...

A gorgeous kestrel (or is it a sparrowhawk?)had caught a pigeon and was in the classic pose of hiding it's kill, by stretching it's wings and crouching over it. I knew it was risky to move, but I was lucky that it stayed for long enough to allow me to run and grab my camera from my bedroom, and get three shots. After I'd got those, I popped in to get Mum, but by the time we had got back to the balcony, it had gone, leaving a few more feathers swirling around. I adore birds of prey, and though I feel sorry for the pigeon, I'm still excited to have seen such a gorgeous bird!

At one point it was startled by something and half flew, half walked a couple of feet further away, towards the edge of the road, and a parked car, but it wasn't long before a car coming down the road obviously threatened it even more, and it flew off, taking lunch with it! I hope to see it again sometime, and suspect that it probably lives about 100 yards away in the churchyard at the bottom of our road. There are plenty of pigeons around to supply it with food, anyway!