And I’ve lost the bloody remote control for my DVD player! We (Mum, Dad and I) watched Star Trek XI tonight. I watched it last week with Ding, and loved it so much I ordered it the next morning. Whilst looking for it on Amazon I found a box set of the first 10 movies, digitally remastered, in a presentation box for an amazing £35. The reviews complain that the box is too big. I do not understand. The box is the width of 11 DVDs (10 films plus an extras DVD) and to make it cute they made it a cube. It is precisely the size I would expect a box of 11 DVDs to be. It is also highly pretty and made me very happy when it arrived.

So we watched the new one tonight, having to use my DVD player as parental unit’s TWO players both refuse to play DVDs. Why are they still in the house? No idea. My remote control has wandered off, which means no pause, so whenever anyone gets up to go to the toilet or get some more food or put the kettle on or feed Thomas who decided that doing circuits of the house and garage until fed multiple times was acceptable, we had to rewind it to get back to where we were. Hurump.

However I love the film. Love Love Love. It reminds me why I loved Star Trek in the first place. It reminds me that Star Trek was the first entity I ever obsessed about, and that Spock was my first fanaticism target. Bearing in mind TOS would have been a good 20 years old at the time I first watched it. I remember crying in the Wrath of Khan, and making an unwise observation to my Dad that the Star Trek theme sounded a lot like Superman (apparently it doesn’t). I was only 6 when TNG started. Plus the new film is very funny. And Spock is very pretty. I bought the soundtrack. I was saddened to find out Majel Barrett had passed away though. As the computer voice, Lwaxana Troi, Nurse Chapel and Number One she’d been in all 6 series including Enterprise, plus 7 of the 11 films including the new one. She finished recording for the new film a couple of weeks before she died. She’s left millions in trust for her dogs – brilliant!

Anywho – I went to see a flat last week and was rather disappointed by it – tiny, damp and overpriced. No parking. I’m off to see another on Monday and although it also looks nice in photos I’m trying to keep distant. Failing miserably – I’m already referring to it as “my place” again. At least I’m not alone – I draw solace in the fact Ding said she fell in love with about 8 places before she got her last flat. Raargh I hate the inbetween bits. I just wanna make a decision and be done with it.

A few weeks ago I spontaneously went to an art class with JJ; not a real art class but one about expressing yourself on paper (or collage etc). It was supposed to help us find work-life balance or at least identify the gaps. I think it part it helped us find out inner five-year-old – there was glitter, tissue paper, poster paints and lots of PVA everywhere. I inadvertently focused on my crafts but also on how I can’t seem to get on top of them because I don’t really live anywhere. I live with my parents while saving up to buy a place, with a flat-full of stuff in a bedroom, with more stuff in an attic of a house we rent out. It’s not stuff that should be in an attic – it’s Pterry books, craft stuff, DVDs etc. Stuff that should be in a house. So I think I feel like I don’t really live anywhere, which means I can’t settle. Plus I’m spending a lot on petrol and not having a social life near work because I always need to drive home. Parental home is moving at some point, and the thought of trying to move a flat-full of stuff from one bedroom to another is depressing both me and Mum. Plus I’ve lost so much stuff. My camera (as you know), the latest Muse CD Ding bought me, my other camera, my boss’s work CD-ROM (eep), my Passionada DVD (Jason Isaacs), my USB mouse, my iPod charger (in use), my iPhone charger (reserved for when the iPod charger eventually breaks, only to be missing when the iPod charger vanished), my wellies, my boiler suit, various items of underwear (yes, you did need to know that), a ball of green wool and my crochet hooks – le sigh.

So in a drastic turn of events (considering our family has an issue with the idea of renting somewhere – “it’s wasted money!”) I have decided to rent somewhere near to work. Which in itself is exciting as I’ve never rented in my life. I’m hoping that having somewhere that is mine that has a full complement of rooms (i.e. my kitchen stuff can go in my kitchen instead of under my bed and in the attic) will let me feel a sense of stability. Today I visited estate agents. Tomorrow I may well visit more.

As a slight aside, I wish to highlight Toaster’s recent (ok, September, I’m a bad blog-reader) post. Clicky. I printed it for my office wall – to bring my mind back to the point occasionally. You can get accused when blogging (and often rightly so) of trying to be deep and meaningful. I like that post because it isn’t – it’s just achingly simple.

As a complete aside – new project- hay box cooker! Well, new project in my head anyway. I won’t start it until I have a place to put it in (there has been a “do not buy any new kitchen implements until you have a kitchen” edict placed upon me – I assume this also covers homemade kitchen implements…especially boxes full of hay). That link is to one particular design – they are variable – box + insulation + pot, and the insulation can be hay, wool, polystyrene etc. I envisage either wool (recycled) or polystyrene balls in pillows (not environmentally friendly but more efficient). The polystyrene one maintained 85C over many hours – amazing. Other wool ones maintain at least 65C. I would need a meat thermometer too – to be safe.