There's always one isn't there...

I was on a training course the last 2 days. You know how there's always someone in the class that knows it all already, and answers all the questions and finishes the exercises before everyone else and sits twiddling their thumbs? Yeah I hate those people. Why are they on the course if they know it already huh???

Yeah except on this course, I was that person.

My company wants to have "IT Champions" and in order to become an IT Champion you have to get this qualification, and in order to get the qualification you have to take a number of courses. Just so happens the courses are mostly Microsoft office courses; programmes that I use day in day out. So sure I already know it but I have to be there to get the qualification.

Anyway, I did the exam today in Excel. I took the Microsoft Office Specialist exam towards my MOS accreditation (hark at me huh?) and I needed 690 to pass....I got 893...I hate me today! I'm probably really really irritating!

And as it turns out I seem to have this sense of surely I can do that better. This morning I got to the end of my road and saw a tailback of traffic right over the Seaforth Flyover. I quickly took a left and kept taking lefts to avoid long traffic queues. I never usually do that, but today, possibly under the influence of Jack Bauer, I thought I had a visual on a hostile and was constantly on the move...all the way to Wavertree.

My health too...none of this 6 months of medication testing and combinations of drugs to manage my blood pressure oh no my blood pressure is now normal on the 2nd try. Just one measly little tablet...I mean it still interferes with my eating habits and really pisses me off but all the same given that my dads cocktail of tablets meant that if he jumped up and down he sounded like a maraca, I think i'll take it!

Anyway, my 24 mission is going well...I'm now upto episode 8 on season 6. If I can put in some hard slog over the weekend my boyfriend may be able to t alk to me about the next episode he watches. I am loving this show but I will be glad to get to the end of it. I've got a backlog of Greys Anatomy, Big Bang Theory, Boston Legal, Shameless...So much TV and so little time.

Ah the things we do for love eh....at least... that's the excuse I'm using this week...not that a reason is ever needed to watch several hours of TV.

The first rule of geek club...

I don't know how it happened. One minute I was perfectly self centred and hermit like watching TV on my own, maybe at a push texting fellow programme fans all the way through with a running commentary - but God forbid I actually watch the show in their company.

The next minute not only do I suddenly have a boyfriend, but I've also come up with the grand idea of inviting a group of likeminded people to my place to watch geeky type shows on my TV.

And not just once either...oh no...a regular monthly occurrance.

Who am I and what have I done with Helen?

And tonight I have finally realised why I have always returned home and locked the door behind me...it's so I wont have to tidy up!

I just spent the best part of Monday night cleaning...and irrational cleaning at that - I mean I'm fairly sure my fellow geeks wont walk straight into my flat on Thursday and look in the oven...but the oven I cleaned nevertheless!! And I rearranged my geeky toys for maximum display purposes so that they will look around my room and think how cool it is.

And so far the fact that someone is going to sit in my space on the sofa hasn't brought me out in a cold sweat. I don't really care. It's only for one night right?

I'm sure that's not the only reason I've been anti-social. I think that I have become more sociable because for the first time in a very long time I am happy. Truly happy. Not the sort of happy that I used to be when I was sat on my own watching TV, that was merely consolation happy, the sort of "you know what? I'd rather be sat on my own watching TV.." kind of happy. But then again, there are not that many things I'd rather be doing than watching TV.

It's funny how bad news travels fast, people prefer to moan about bad things than celebrate good things, and we believe the negative things far more easily than the positive things. I've spent way too long believing the bad things, even though deep down I knew they weren't even true. So it only took 1 person telling me I was miserable boring and unsociable and that no one really liked me to create that negative state of mind that I've been carrying around for the last 10 years.

I've watched TV on my own for a long time because I assumed no one would want to watch it with me. But I found someone who does. And so now I am happy.
And now I even have the courage to not only meet new people, but invite the people I already knew, into my home to watch TV with me.

I hardly recognise myself...but that might be the big daft grin that's permanently distorting my face.

Hallmark Holidays

I was pleasantly surprised by the number of my friends that don’t like Valentines day, and it’s not because they’re single and bitter that no one is buying them cards and flowers, because actually they are in relationships. But why should we wait until Hallmark tell us to say “I love you” wouldn’t it be far more romantic if from out of nowhere your other half went out and bought you a present, or saw something and just thought “yeah she would love that” and bought it on a whim?

It was traditionally believed that Valentines Day was for secret admirers, a way of letting them know that they liked them. But in actual fact it turns out that according to the Catholic Church Valentines day is actually for people who have met their soul mates.
I’ve always complained about couples gegging in on Valentines day and making single people feel all depressed and unloved by wandering around all happy and covered in flowers and chocolates. But turns out it’s just for them anyway.

So this year I had planned a Green Wing marathon with the newest addition to my friend list. We chose Valentines Day simply because it was the next available Saturday. But as it turns out somewhere along the line we had a road to Damascus realisation that 2 slightly reclusive tv addicts that have discovered a vague happiness to watch tv together were probably a perfect match and we stopped being friends and became something way more interesting instead.

The most common response to this bit of news however was “ooh just in time for Valentines Day” and unsure what to do about this I decided to just discuss it…put 2 communications people in a relationship together and you get a lot of communicating.
Plus we pretty much think the same way so it’s almost 99% certain that whatever I think he’ll agree with. We agreed very happily not to exchange anything for Valentines Day.

Then on Friday night we met up in town, couple of his friends couple of mine and we all got talking about Star Wars and the greatest Christmas present I ever got (a Star Wars clone trooper helmet off my brother). The conversation went something along the lines of…
“Obviously my brother would’ve preferred to buy me a Storm Trooper helmet but there wasn’t any on sale”
“Oh I saw a Storm Trooper helmet on the internet for £45”
“Oh you should’ve bought it” I said drunkenly dismissive of the price
“Right hang on” he says pulling out a swanky Iphone
“are you seriously buying it?”
“yes, we’ll call it a Valentines Day present”

Arrrrgggghhhhhh! And no! I didn’t buy him anything – not even a lousy card!And I’m feeling pretty guilty that I encouraged him to buy such an expensive and lets face it particularly useless, despite how cool it’ll look in my lounge, gift for me.

But I’m sure the guilt will pass when we’re sat side by side in storm and clone trooper helmets watching the Big Bang Theory.

You gots to love us nerds!