My printer is driving me simple. I mean seriously. When I bought a Kodak ESP 5 a few weeks ago for £80, I thought I was getting a good bargain but it has turned into a huge disappointment and looks like it was a waste of money. First impressions were great. I managed to calibrate the printer. All ok. But then I try to print and the printer decides to throw a huge hissy fit. Everything is installed ok but it keeps saying the paper edge cannot be recognised and spits the paper back out. It’s the right paper, I’ve tried both photo paper and ‘regular’ normal paper but the printer is having none of it. If it’s not saying the paper edge cannot be recognised then it moans that the paper is jammed when it isn’t. Then it goes into a frenzy of ’sucking up’ the paper from the tray and destroying it as it flies back out.

It has successfully printed a few sheets of paper but 99% of the time I get bloody error messages and yesterday it drove me so crazy I switched it off, ran to my room and cried. I can’t say I was in a good emotional state yesterday anyway but this really did press all my wrong buttons.

I have contacted Kodak support but they have been as helpful as throwing a drowning man both ends of the same rope. Useless! I have made sure the paper is in the tray correctly. I have taken out the printerhead, all the ink etc and tried again. I replied to say I was still having trouble and they send me a message back saying “you claim that there is nothing wrong in the functionality of the All In One Printer and that is seen as a positive”. *sigh*

I haven’t touched the printer today. It just makes me so mad just thinking about it.

Ha, yes, it just gets better.

Yesterday I was talking to a tenant and her friend who was visiting, in her flat. This tenant had a bad chest infection and her friend said, “we are waiting for a coughing fit”. I *totally* misinterpreted what she said and I thought she meant “coffin fit” It didn’t click until about 2 hours afterwards and I was pretty embarrassed. My brain has a lot to answer for.

Hollywood actor Heath Ledger has been found dead at a residence in downtown Manhattan. “He was found unconscious at the apartment and pronounced dead,” the New York Police Department said, adding that pills were found near the body. Police are reportedly investigating if the Australian actor, who earned an Oscar nomination for Brokeback Mountain, died of a drug overdose.

The 28-year-old was found dead in the flat at around 1530 (2030 GMT).

Police said they did not suspect foul play and that his body had been discovered surrounded by pills.
(read more)

What a shocker! I’ve seen a few of the movies he was in and he was a good actor. RIP Heath

Three teenagers were found guilty yesterday of murdering Mr Newlove, a 47-year-old sales manager, who was punched and kicked to the ground when he left his home, barefoot and in pyjama bottoms, to see who had vandalised his wife’s car.
(More here)

Frail Susan Collins was blinded in one eye after she was battered by a thug who had been freed early from jail for killing a man in a copycat attack.

Drunk Nicholas Hague kicked Susan, 60, to the ground then stamped on her after she refused to give him a cigarette - inflicting multiple skull fractures.
(More here)

Stories like this give people of my generation a bad name. I often feel like a spokesperson at work trying to retain the Youth of Today’s dignity and say that we’re not all like that. When I’m doing afternoon shifts, we have bar open in the evening, social gathering, let their hair down and people sit in the lounge having a good natter, the news is often the subject of conversation and stories like this come up regularly (as well as stories such as Vera Duckworth leaving Coronation Street yesterday evening). Last night, the tenants were really laying into the teenagers saying how bad they are etc and I was like, “wow, wow, wooooow…. I’m 19 and I’m certainly not a thug - responsible, trusting teenagers out there do exist, you’re sitting next to one”.

I see their point, and it is sad. This country does need to toughen up because when I was going through school, every year, the new people entering comprehensive were getting more defiant and thugish, the teachers were gradually losing their control and the way things are going… I really dread to think how things will be in 10 years time.

Note to self: Buy some hair conditioner. I’ve just ran out, good thing I’m going shopping in a few hours time, I guess!

I haven’t left the house since Tuesday and it’s Saturday now. I have had such a bad cold it seemed the only way it was going to go was if I quarantined myself and made myself stay inside the house. I called in sick on Wednesday, and then on Thursday my senior & manager said I should take the rest of the week off to make sure I am recovered. Well, I am feeling a lot better in myself today, I think the main thing that is causing me discomfort is my ribs… am pretty sure I have bruised them through coughing too much. It hurts to cough, it hurts to sneeze (both, I am doing very little of now), it hurts to bend, it hurts to laugh, it hurts to twist and they are sensitive to touch on one side. Ow. But!! I can deal with it.

I think I’m lucky, and I HAVEN’T caught this bug. Maybe I have just had the flu or something because I haven’t had the two er… lovely symptoms. I have had the sickness, but only through coughing too much. I haven’t had the ‘D’ word. Thank goodness!! My cold/flu has also lasted more than 3 days…

A sickness bug sweeping the country is claiming 200,000 victims a week.

Already, more than 100 hospital wards have been closed, operations cancelled and visitors banned in a desperate attempt to halt the march of the norovirus.

Experts warned last night that next week’s return to work provides perfect conditions for the bug, which is 100,000 times more infectious than salmonella, to spread like “wildfire”.

The Royal College of GPs has warned workers to remain at home for 48 hours after symptoms have subsided to avoid spreading the bug and to stay away from doctors’ surgeries and hospitals.

…AND THERE’S NO TREATMENT

Symptoms generally appear between 12 and 48 hours after infection and last up to three days.

Patients are infectious for 48 hours after their symptoms have cleared.

There is no treatment, other than staying warm indoors and drinking liquids. Victims must allow the virus to run its course, meaning many are off sick from work for days.
Read more

Was awake coughing during the night again. Was sick too, almost choked on it! Sorry for the imagery, folks. Called in sick today, one of the night staff answered and handed the phone to one of my seniors, we both agreed it wouldn’t be beneficial for anyone if I went to work today, and she said she’d phone up someone else to see if they can cover my shift. I then had to contact the civic centre to let them know I was absent through sickness, the nurse called back and said if it continues, see a doctor in a few days.

This bug is going around and I’m sure the doctors clinics are plagued with people with these symptoms. I’ll see how it goes. I’ve been taking Covonia (looks like petrol, smells like petrol, tastes pretty yucky. Dad put some on a cotton bud to see if it was actually flamable, but it wasn’t ), and it seems to be helping my chest. I think I have been coughing so much I have bruised a rib. Ouch. I also have a headache, I’m feeling hot, have a stiff neck and a sore throat and just generally feeling under the weather.

OMG I just heard there’s snow outside Cardiff. Le sigh. We’ll most likely get it now. According to the Met Office earlier:

As cold air sets in across the country the Met Office is expecting a spell of snow on Thursday and at first on Friday. Two separate areas of snow are expected. The snow affecting eastern Scotland and Northumbria will be more persistent and heavy leading to 10-20 cm accumulations on high ground, and 5 cm or so on lower ground, though rain is more likely close to coasts. This is expected to cause disruption to travel networks especially across higher level routes. Lighter snow is expected further south, which will turn to rain later. Here, there is some uncertainty about how much snow there will be, though latest estimates suggest little, if any, lying snow in most parts, but with the risk of 3- 5 cm over parts of East Anglia and southeast England, as well as on high ground over 100 m elsewhere. Again, this could cause travel disruption, though with lower confidence.

On the map it shows South East Wales too, a bit of it, and it looks like we’re gonna get some.. Get your shovels out, especially those in Scotland!!

No escaping from the tragedies, even at Christmas:

A LITTLE girl was killed when she rode her quad bike Christmas present into a head-on collision with a Range Rover.

Elizabeth Cooke, seven, was following her father Gary’s car when the Boxing Day tragedy unfolded on a quiet country road.

Elizabeth was taken home after the accident before an ambulance rushed her to Broomfield Hospital in nearby Chelmsford, but was later pronounced dead. No one else was injured.

Last night officers were still investigating the crash which happened less than a mile from the family’s home, Bluebell Farm, on an unlit 60mph lane after dark. A spokesman for the Essex force said it was illegal for a person under the age of 16 to ride a quad bike on a public road.

Read more here: Daily Express

The bike the 7 year old was using is capable of reaching 40mph. Also, most updated news is that the driver of the Range Rover tested negative for drink/drugs and the childs parents are facing criminal charges - good. Ridiculous that they’d allow their kid to ride one of them things, she was only seven years old for crying out loud. I understand they, like any other parent, would want to get their kids expensive, fun gifts but there’s a line to it, and this was over the line. Nevertheless, this story made me feel really sad, for all people involved. RIP Elizabeth, such a shame her life was cut so short at the most magical time of the year.

Christmas is just around the corner and I’m nowhere near ready. My dad was saying just the other day, “you haven’t put many presents out” and that’s because I haven’t got many and the few I do have, just haven’t got around to wrapping them up. Am not in the mood for Christmas at all this year, as far as I’m concerned the sooner it is over with, the better. Today at work we had a little carol service from one of the local infants schools, it was nice to watch and I remember being that young, how exciting Christmas was, but the older you get the less exciting it is. Well, for me anyway.

It’s all too commercialised. The original concept of Christmas seems to have gone. Instead of it all being family based, religious holiday, everyone is “celebrating” Christmas. Seems to be an excuse to get totally bladdered, spend a lot of money, grow a few grey hairs with all the stress and all this just for ONE day of the year. It’s chaotic.

And of course, things go wrong. Things just HAVE to go wrong! Let’s see… so far this Christmas:

• My Creative Zen Vision: M decided to stop working the other week so I ended up buying another Creative Zen, but a different model. I’ll say more about it when I get it in the post this week (hopefully).
• My phone is playing up! Sometimes when I phone people or when they phone me, I can hear them but they can’t hear me. I was phoning for a taxi the other day and I was saying, “hello” and they couldn’t hear me, so they ended up putting down the phone hehe
• One of my cameras isn’t working. Haven’t a clue what’s wrong with it. I have two cameras, one is expensive, the other one IS expensive, but not AS expensive as the other. It’s also more portable and can take snapshots easier with it. That one is buggered up and won’t switch on or anything… Gah…

However, I’m saying all this but at the end of the day it doesn’t compare to the death of loved ones at Christmas. You always get some tragedy happening at Christmas. Recent stories include a couple who died in a house fire in Brynmawr (Blaenau Gwent), an 83 year old man died in Denbighshire and 4 teenage girls are currently fighting for their life after being in a house fire in Llanelli.

It’s terrible. Phones, cameras & MP3 players can all be replaced, human beings cannot.

Stay safe everyone!