Life is a bit of a bugger without the Internet. It is just one of the little things I used to take for granted - just switch on the laptop and i was connected to the world outside and knowledge was at my fingertips - but then it goes down and i realise how much I rely on it being there. It made me also think about other things in life that I take for granted but would be completely lost without.

1. My Credit Card. I buy a lot online. What with working full time and painting, writing, hillwalking, doing stuff with minimi and him indoors being here at the weekend, I don't have time to shop (GASP!). I was online at work the other day (sshhhhhh - dont tell) and wanted to buy something but realised i had left the wonder card at home on the table. Well - talk about having a hissy fit! I would have been less upset if someone had cut my right arm off.

2. Arabella Piggy. Arabella Piggy was out of commission just before Christmas as she had a burst brake cylinder. It was a whole week before I could get her sorted and it just made everything seem so much harder! It is so easy to plan and go places without having to consider how you would get there on public transport. Yucky. Not an experience to be repeated.

3. Notepad and Pen. I make lists. I am a listee. If it needs to be organised or done, I will make a list about it. I have lists of music, books I have read, housework to be done and when, things i want to do before i am 30, things i want to do before i am 40 and so on. When I mentioned on a walk through Kirkhill Forest that i would make a list of all the hills and forests we had walked him indoors asked if I had a list detailing my lists and was it cross referenced. Lucky it was a forest and not a hill otherwise he may have had to take the express route down!! i also use it to scribble down things that flit in and out of my head. Some are pretty bizarre. I also get ideas for characters and short stories and sometimes poems. Pretty much anything gets written down really.

4. MP3 Player. Can't walk at lunchtime without it. Exercise is poop when all you have to listen to is the roar of cars on the A90 whizzing past you.

5. Carol the Sat Nav. Cause I could get lost in my own house. Seriously

6. My Laptop. It has my life on it. Photos, Music, Email addresses, contacts, notes, lists, everything.

7. Handbag. It's huge, as I do like to be able to slip the kitchen sink in there, Current contents are: Notebook and Pen, purse, Bach's Rescue Remedy, Eucalyptus Essential Oil, glasses, car keys, house keys, gloves, chewing gum, mp3 player, car air freshner (??), Map of Bennachie range (??!!??), sat nav, 20 gazillion other pens, lipstick, pencil sharpener and hand cream. And thats a 'light' bag!

8. Minimi and him indoors, Not that i take them for granted, just couldn;t do without them!

9 My torch. I have a pathological fear of the dark.

10.Sketchbook and Pencil. I like to be able to draw when the muse strikes me. I wish i was a millionaire so it could strike me more often and not when i am at work LOL.

Appreciate what you have - i'm off to insure all of the above.

Laters

Internet down again. No more highly exciting posts until about next tuesday. Only because I hate having to use my mobile to get online - everything runs as slowly as it did in the 90's LOL.

At the beginning of last week, I noticed a funny ‘put put’ noise coming from my car. It was coming from the direction of the exhaust pipe and I assumed that old’ Arabella piggy was playing up because I was thinking about selling her (it’s true – it always happens!). Thoroughly convinced that I was going to have to shell out for a new exhaust before she could depart for pastures new, I gritted my teeth and limited my driving to going to work and the supermarket until I could get her into a garage. It gradually got worse. The ‘put put’ became a ‘bang bang’ and soon I couldn’t hear the noise of the radio. (2 if you are wondering, the new radio 1 ) This was on Friday, so I parked her up and had a glass of wine or two so that I wouldn’t be tempted to go anywhere near her.

The next day, Saturday, me, him indoors and minimi decided that we were going to go to Build-A-Bear Workshop in the Bon-Accord Centre (Shameless Advertising – Free Stuff Me!!!) and I was to drive as it is much easier to park Arabella than it is to park the Gigantor that he drives. Thankfully, him indoors is a mechanic and spotted the problem within two seconds. About 200 yards away from the door he screamed at me to stop the car. I put on my hazards and jumped out the car and ran round to the passenger side to where he was frantically gesticulating towards my rear wheel. Which was sitting at a very odd angle. Put it this way, if you stood at that kind of angle, you would fall over. I have never felt so scared in my life. I would probably have merrily carried on driving like that assuming that because the car was still going and nothing had exploded, it couldn’t have been anything life threatening. I was really quite shaken up, and thank goodness I hadn’t planned any long range trips on the dual carriage way.

As it turns out, after examination, it looks like some dirty so and so was interrupted whilst they were trying to pinch my wheel - two of the wheel nuts had gone completely and two had been loosened. If that was the case (And I will never be able to prove it was) it is quite scary. What kind of person could possibly do that, knowing that by trying to take the wheel off, and leaving it in that state it could potentially kill the people in the car. The wheel was on the side that Minimi sits on, so she would have been in the thick of it, and god help the person who hurts my baby. I really hope that person can’t sleep at night and feels so guilty that it eats them up inside. And some large boils in exceptionally painful places would also be good.

What I can never understand is the mindset of these people. I can understand stealing food if you are starving, supplies if you are homeless, and a multitude of other things that constitute survival over morals, but I do not believe that a car is a necessity and it is not worth endangering the lives of others just to make sure you don’t have to take the bus to work! I could easily replace the tyre and can easily replace the wheel nuts. (locking ones will be the order of the day me thinks) but that’s not the point. Why should I have to? The car is mine. I own it outright – no finance or debt attached to it, something which I am exceptionally proud of. I worked hard to pay for it and it annoys me to think that someone out there thinks that they are entitled to take something on the sole basis that they want it. How disgustingly arrogant!

It has also caused me extra work and worry. I double check the car every morning now, walking around testing all the wheel nuts to make sure they are in place and when driving I listen carefully for tell tale noises. I don’t need the hassle, the worry and the extra time spent in the morning or before every journey, doing extra things in addition to the normal safety checks, but I can’t help it – human instinct is to protect you and yours.

Although there is one small upside - at least it keeps my mind off the chilling alternative………

That someone out there did it for a laugh.

Or something like that……

While pondering and musing and naffing about in general on the net, I discovered the today has two official (Please don’t sue me, that’s sarcasm) holidays. Male Watcher’s Day and Bubble Bath Day.

Now, I a perfect world we could combine the two and instead of sitting in the government building of doom I could be watching males in bubble baths. Now, my doting partner may not approve of this but I would like to assure him, that (barring David Tennant ) the only male I will be watching in any bath will be him.

But lets pause a moment. Male Watching day. Does that not scream STALKER! Imagine the moment. You’re a young good looking member of the male species, walking down the street, minding your own business, when what happens to catch your eye? A young lady. And the young lady is sitting on a park bench staring obsessively at you. Her eyes bulging and bloodshot with the effort of not blinking. You move backwards in alarm and she moves forwards. You move to the right and she moves too. You dart to the left and your action is again copied. Thoroughly disturbed now you run away, quivering in fear convinced you can hear the pounding of deranged feminine footsteps behind you.

Now, whilst reading about Male Watching day the website in question extolled the virtues of covert male watching. Now surely that is illegal?? Is it?? Our young chap has now been rewound, and is pondering down the same street. But the park bench is now empty. However, a small movement to his left catches draws his attention. Has that tree always been there? Do trees own their own binoculars? And do trees giggle occasionally and swear when they trip over their own roots? I think not. Cue running, quivering and deranged footsteps.

Maybe he will go home and get into a bubble bath to help him relax and recover from the deranged tree-lady!

Now where did I put my binoculars.

Laters