Zimena

So, the TV/net provider change is not going to happen. The new (or actually new-old) company tried to cheat me before I had even properly agreed the switch. First, they told me that switching would take 4-7 days, then I got a mail saying it could take up to 4 weeks.

Yeah, right...

Also, when I called them to inform them about the decision not to switch, they gave me an absolute slimeball of a guy on the phone. Seriously, he was so nice that the grease was practically dripping from his voice. On the surface, he was totally fine with the cancellation, but in fact I could feel how he was looking for some way to force me to switch. Well, in the end he was trying to tell me that it was him being nice to let me cancel the order (which had not even gone through completely by the time I called, so it's not like there was anything to cancel, really).

And I was like: "Well, it's my legal right to rethink the decision, so it's not about being nice."

... and suddenly he got really meek and admitted that yes, I was right, and everything is now cancelled and fine.

I know my consumer rights. So, there!

I planted tulips and crocuses today, so let's see if they come up in a few months' time.

We used to always have tulips in our garden when I was little. Nowadays we don't have a garden anymore, and I don't know much about plants and flowers anyway, so it's not like I miss it. We have a couple of flower boxes and big flower pots, though, and that's nice. For example, earlier in the summer random people who just passed by our house would sometimes stop to admire the content of the flower boxes. The pots I've planted in today are in a less visible place, but I can see them from my window when I'm sitting by the computer - so if any of the stuff I planted decides to come up, I will have nice things to look at come springtime.

Duh, I sound like such an adult, suddenly. I'm not; I promise. ;)

I need a new haircut. After the little disaster that was my previous visit to the hairdresser's, I feel like doing something new to my hair this time. I've been looking at various hairstyles online... and yes, I know that's a silly thing to do, because things that look good on pictures of other people might not necessarily look good on me. I'm considering a style kind of like this, though. I also want to dye the top part (rather than the whole hair), but I haven't decided on the colour yet. I guess either dye it red or bleach it blond, though.

Let's see what will happen. First of all, I need to poke my nose out of the door - which I didn't do so far today, so meh.

I've also changed back to a smaller keyboard and a trackpad instead of my regular mouse and keyboard combination. Honestly, I prefer the bigger keyboard (with proper arrow keys, not arrow keys squeezed together in a corner, sort of), but my regular mouse has been "cheating" for so long that I got tired of it. Cheating as in randomly interpreting single clicks as double clicks and being unwilling to make the drag and drop motion. Like, if you try to drag something across the screen, it's likely to just get dropped three times on the journey.... or also, it just refuses to get picked up in the first place. Oh, and forget doing things like autofilling whole columns in spreadsheet programs, because if you try to highlight a couple of cells and then try to drag to autofill that info to nearby cells, the highlighting is lost before you've autofilled two cells.

I'm tired of this, so trackpad it is... for a while, at least.

What else? Yes, I've made two new icons today. One is on this post - some of you might recognize my favourite singer, actually. If not, he's Czech, and his name is Ladislav Křížek. This pic is from 1991 or thereabouts, so he doesn't look ANYTHING like this anymore (he still sings, though - and he still does so fabulously well!) Anyway, a girl can dream, right? Even though my mind knows that this is years and years ago, I still always think of him like this.

I might be weird, but eh.

Can July be over soon? Or rather, can the national holiday period be over soon, so that it will be possible to do things without planning them an eternity ahead again?

I'm trying to plan a Sweden trip for my mom and her friend. Technically it is possible to travel there and back in a day, even from here, but it can be stressful and it's definitely better to stay one night in a hotel there. But - surprise, surprise - everything is full (or overly expensive) until at least the 6th of August.

Ehm, they wanted to travel now or soon, not in August. For now I'm having no luck finding them a place to stay, though. There is one possibility left, but that hotel is not answering their emails, and I kind of don't feel like calling them on the phone... because, seriously, what kind of place doesn't answer its email in 2017, anyway?

I just get a little bit frustrated with the holiday season, sometimes - especially if it affects my plans or wishes in a negative way.

Maybe it's not a good reason to whine, though. At least I had a nice enough day otherwise. I've been to Lillesand (=the neighbouring town) today, so at least I did something slightly out of the ordinary. Had dinner at the roadside café there, too, so that was also nice. Now I'm a bit tired, though - also because it's rather hot (+30 degrees) today.

Coffee time, now. And maybe watching Tour de France for a bit.

I had The Big Cleaning And Tidying Day today. My bedroom has been in need of cleaning and tidying for some time now, but somehow I kept postponing it. Today I not only cleaned everything, but I also cleared my desk and some other random stuff that has been lying around since forever.

...of course you might argue that I only cleared the desk because I need space to properly see what I'm gonna pack for the Portugal trip when the time comes, but let's not talk about that. Instead, let me enjoy the feeling of accomplishment after getting this done after postponing it a number of times before.

On a different note, I got a new haircut the other day. It looked okay when I was at the hairdresser's, and it still feels good to have short hair again (as opposed to the unruly mess I had before the haircut. Even my hairbrush wouldn't comb through it, and I had to comb it in two layers, kinda). There is, however, one comment from the hairdresser that is starting to bother me now - even though I didn't react to it that much when I was actually there.

Let's just say I've had the same general short hairstyle for years. I usually just comb all my hair backwards, and when it's newly cut, it should be short enough to stand upwards a little bit - but there should still be enough hair left that it can fall generally in a backwards direction. So, not so short that there are just a few centimetres of hair left, but also not so long that it falls out of shape - it'll do that after a couple of weeks, though.

Usually this explanation gets me what I want, even though I hate explaining which haircut I want. I'm always afraid that I'll get something totally different... and this time that was exactly what happened. When the hairdresser was done, my hair was kind of generally in a "round" shape. I pointed out the problem of that to her, and she kinda fixed it a little bit, but even now you can still see that basic shape. When I tried to point out this to her, she said this: "I can't really cut more than I did now. And I tried to make a nice and feminine-looking shape."

You know what? FUCK YOU AND YOUR ATTEMPTS AT TRYING TO MAKE ME FIT YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF FEMININITY! FUCK IT, SERIOUSLY!

Okay, angry outburst aside, this makes me more furious the more I think of it. While it is true that she couldn't really cut much more hair, she could have simply asked if she had any doubts about what I said. I have no desire to do things that would make me fit some random person's standard of femininity. In fact, I have no desire to look feminine at all - and if I do it's either by coincidence or by annoying facts of life.

I mean, I tried to show her what I usually do to my hair, so I don't understand why she couldn't just do what I asked. It's not like I could have stopped her earlier either, because when you're sitting there getting your hair cut, the hairdresser puts all sorts of pins and things in it, and you can't really tell what she's doing until it's done. Even then, I need to touch it and wash it myself before I'm completely sure what the new cut is like.

Somehow, her comment about femininity bothers me more and more. When she said it, I just wanted to get out of there and be done with the whole thing, so I tried to not take it to heart too much. Now that I've had time to think of it, I can't stop thinking of how rude and hurtful and infuriating it was.

I kind of want my hair to grow out again as soon as possible, so that I can go and get my usual cut again soon. Perhaps the current cut isn't "ugly" either, but it's not me and not what I asked for and the shape just bothers me a lot because of everything I said above.

Waking up to very hot weather today, despite the weather being cloudy outside. Immediately after showering, I feel like... taking another shower.

I think that explains it.

Other than that, I did a big fat nothing yesterday, so I want to go out today. If nothing else, just to get some fresh air. Also, it looks like someone tried to move (steal?) one of my flower boxes during the night, so it's now standing kinda askew in its holder.

That needs fixing, obviously.

Trying to steal a flower box, though? Huh?!

I wonder what's in the take-away food from the local Hong Kong restaurant? It's been a while since I've had food from there, but now I've had it twice in a relatively short amount of time. Both times, the result has been the same: The food is delicious... but I end up getting super-sleepy after finishing my meal. Sleepy as in: "Can I go to bed now - at maybe 8pm - and sleep until morning, or preferably for half of tomorrow as well?"

I don't think food is supposed to work like that? Today I actually went to bed before 9pm, but after resting for a bit (not sleeping), I'm now up again - at least for a little while, to type up this post and try to catch up on my online activities.

As for other things, I've been in Denmark for a couple of days this week. Mostly, this was to escape the May 17/Constitution Day celebrations - a day that used to be a lot of fun when I was a kid, but nowadays it's too noisy and crowded for me (plus we don't have kids in the close family anymore), so escaping to Denmark has been almost tradition for a few years. This time we stayed in Agerskov for one night (the inn there is absolutely fantastic - I think they actually won an award as the best inn in Denmark both last year and this year!), then in Hirtshals for one night - mainly so that we could get a daytime ferry home and avoid coming home at midnight. Of course, staying in Agerskov - only a good half hour from the border with Germany - also meant some shopping across the border, so I've been to Germany as well during this trip. That's always nice, of course.

I don't think I bought anything particularly exciting, but just getting away from normality for a few days is a good thing. Unfortunately, it's also quite draining, so I've not been in the mood to do much today, except the obvious unpacking/tidying.

Other than that, I have a poem to type up and a fic to work on, but I'm not sure I will get much done on that tonight. I also have a fanpost/picspam to make, because there are quite a few cute May 17-pictures of a certain someone on IG. Some things were also posted as IG stories, and as I wasn't at home and able to save them properly, I have a few screencaps on my phone. That means I need to transfer/upload pics first. I hope to have some proper computer time tomorrow, so that I can spend some time making a nice post then.

I can't focus on anything for more than a few moments at a time today.

For example, I was trying to log in to a site where I have two-factor authentication set up earlier, so I had to type in a code from my phone in addition to the usual username/password combination. That code, though? Expired, because I simply forgot what I was doing. I only managed to log into that site after trying two more times, because I messed up the second try as well - this time by moving away from the login page in my browser.

My scatterbrained-ness knows no limits today, it seems.

At the very least, I managed to fix the point where I was stuck on my current fic. Not that writing is happening any faster, though. I'm still looking at the text more than I'm adding new content, because I can't stay focused on writing either. But fixing the problem point is at least positive, right?

In other news, it's getting warmer and I need to find some more summerly clothes soon. That is also a good excuse to sort through what I currently have in my drawers - pack things I'm not gonna wear for the next half year away, and get rid of things that aren't comfortable/are worn out or otherwise don't look nice anymore... but I don't feel like getting started on that. In my current unfocused state, going to the basement to fetch the box of shorts and singlets and such might be dangerous, too - who knows whether I'll even be able to find the way back upstairs?

I finally bought the jacket I wanted to buy myself for my birthday, though... so now I'm waiting excitedly for the delivery!

That's my fashion-ramble for the day :P.

It seems Thursday is going to be a nice day at home in front of the computer for me. Mom is off to Denmark with a friend, and I'm planning to put whatever "necessary" tasks I have to do on hold for a day, just to have my own private computer party.

That should mean the following:

* Loud music.
* Making some new icons.
* WRITING!!!
* (Re)watching some vlogs, making better screencaps and doing something useful with them.
* Generally having a good time.

Yes, this is my idea of a party, what about it? It should be a fun day, though!

I've been out from before 9am today, and I just got home now - at about 3:15pm. Yes, I'm very tired, thanks for asking. Ideally, I'd like to have a long nap right now... or perhaps just lie down and sleep until tomorrow, because it feels like I want to do that. I don't think I could do it for real, though, so maybe I'm just an expert at exaggerating things.

Only...Ronnie's match is on in a few moments, so I also want to follow that one. Not sure I have the energy to sit down and watch (especially as I also want to sit here for a bit...), but at least I want to know how he's doing. He was pretty impressive last night, though, so he has a 6-2 lead against Shaun Murphy ahead of today's session. If he keeps playing that impressively today, there is a small possibility that he can book his place in the quarterfinals already this afternoon, but that is a tough ask. It's first to 13, and they're only playing 8 frames today, so it would require him to win 7 of those... and I don't think Murphy is going to let that happen. He was playing badly and doing many strange things last night, though... but today is a new day for both. I'm just hoping that Ronnie can keep performing well, and at least win the match without giving me a heart attack - most likely the match won't finish until tomorrow's session, though.

Okay, long snooker ramble there. Not sure how many of you even read or followed that, but there you go. I'll try to move on to the next topic now.

Yes, weather... we had 20 degrees today! I put on both a scarf and a jacket when I left home in the morning, though, so I think you can imagine that I felt "a bit" overdressed later in the day. Also, it was nice and sunny almost all day... but just as I got home it suddenly started raining - for about 10 minutes, before the sun came back out. It seems we've had all sorts of weather in half a day today. Morning cold, then sunny and warm, then rainy, and then finally sunny again - with no rain in sight, as far as I can tell. At this rate I might say something else in five minutes, though.

This is a strange place, sometimes.

I still feel like sleeping... Zzz...

SNOOKER UPDATE: Ronnie has a 10-6 lead after today's session. The last four frames were rather painful to watch, because Ronnie made some mistakes which gave Murphy chances... that he suddenly knew how to use well, so he won three frames in a row. The last frame of the session was very close and very intense to watch, and if Murphy had won that as well, it would have been 9-7, which is madly different from 10-6 - also from the mental perspective. Let's just say that I would not have liked it if Ronnie had to go into tomorrow's final session with 0-4 in the bag from the last four frames today. Luckily he managed to win the important last frame, though. I screamed "YESSS!" in front of my TV when he potted the final black, I'm not joking. Seriously - it was such an intense last frame, and I was literally sitting with my fingers crossed much of the time. Even when that frame was over, my heart was still beating madly for quite a while.

The match is far from won yet, but for now the scoreline is positive... and it can still be settled before the mid-session interval tomorrow. Let's see how that goes.