When I first got it, I found it a bit confusing to use – none of the menus felt “right” and the whole “accessing the main menu” bit was totally confusing.
However, once I’d owned my little BlackBerry Curve for a week, everything suddenly made sense and I fell deeply in love! <3

After 15 months, my little BlackBerry Curve had started to fall apart - literally; the rubber casing was peeling away and had actually started falling off completely and it started to become completely unresponsive at times.

During my love affair with the BlackBerry Curve, I'd noticed a younger and shinier model - the BlackBerry Torch 9800, with all of its touchscreen AND qwerty keypad and shiny glory!

When my little BlackBerry Curve had started falling apart, I looked at prices for the BlackBerry Torch and at between £500 and £600, it was too far out of my league.

Another two months on, Myke randomly asked me how much the beautiful BlackBerry Torch was worth and I told him. He said that one of his friends was trying to raise money to become a nurse and was selling their BlackBerry Torch for just £150!

I tried not to get my hopes up but was still somewhat excited!

We went to meet his friend who allowed me to have a fiddle with the BlackBerry Torch, which was all shiny and beautiful and exciting.

I said I was in love and the deal was done. £150 was handed to Myke's friend and the BlackBerry Torch was handed to me.

That was almost three weeks ago and I am STILL in love.

I love you, my cwoot wittle BlackBerry Torch! <3

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

The brand I’m “buying” is NiQuitin^{^} and the place I’m buying from is Boots^{^} and I’m not going to look at special offers because they come and go. On with the price comparisons…

Smoking

Let’s assume that I’m a 10-a-day smoker and that I buy my cigarettes in packets of 10 and that I smoke Benson & Hedges only. Each pack of 10 costs me £3.22 and I start smoking within 30 minutes of waking up.

Patches

For the patches, I will need to be on Step 1 for 6 weeks, Step 2 for 2 weeks and Step 3 for another 2 weeks. Each pack you buy are for one weeks’ use.
Step 1 pack costs: £15.86 a week
Step 2 pack costs: £13.29 a week
Step 3 pack costs: £17.49 a week
The cost for the whole ten week course would be £156.72
The cost of smoking during this time is: £225.40

Lozenges

These are the sucking mints that NiQuitin offer. I’ve tried them before and I thought it was like sucking a menthol cigarette and didn’t enjoy them much but I know that loads of people have quit easily while using them.
Like with patches, this is also a ten week course but only has 2 steps. Let’s say a pack of 72 lozenges lasts you about a week because you’re sucking on around 10 lozenges a day (you will need to suck on at least 9 lozenges a day). Step 1 lasts for 6 weeks and Step 2 lasts for at least 3 weeks, so that’s a 9 week course at the minimum.
Step 1 costs: £68.94
Step 2 costs: £32.97 (at least)
Total nine week course will cost: £101.91
Cost of smoking during this time: £202.96

Mini’s (Small lozenges)

Mini’s are just small lozenges. Because they’re not as strong as the normal lozenges and they’re to help you quit one cigarette at a time, the length of the course is up to the individual. You can buy a 4 week pack of Mini’s for £60.00.
The cost of a twelve week course: £180.00
The cost of smoking during this time: £270.48

There are cheaper brands available (and completely different quitting tools too!) and you can get great offers if you look around online but this should give you a clear enough idea of how much quitting smoking can save you, even in the short term.
So the next time someone says they’ll quit smoking after [something] has happened because they “just can’t afford to do it” right now, you can tell them otherwise.

I’ll be back when I feel less sleep deprived. Or on Monday, after I’ve gotten over Derren Brown removing my soul when I go to see him Sunday night.

I got my mum a card (duh), a giant Mother’s Day teddybear and the new Ronan Keating album (which I’ve already heard about 20 times).

That teddybear is almost as big as I am. I bought it when I had my “day out” with Matt and poor Matt had to carry it around for me.
The Ronan Keating album is good. I MUCH prefer the way he sings now – he doesn’t seem to put on that stupid accent anymore, which is GREAT.

I also bought a card and a present for my “mother-in-law”, Hazel:

Her present is a little Tatty Teddy snowglobe. It took AGES to find something that didn’t have “Mum”, “Mummy”, “Mother”, “Gran” or “Grandma” plastered all over it!

My mum’s had her presents but Hazel will have to wait until I come around later.

What did you get your mum for Mother’s Day?

Edit: Jade Goody died this morning.^{^} We all knew it was going to happen but it’s still sad.

It took about four hours to get my old entries imported into WordPress; first I tried to import via RSS but that didn’t work, so I had to add every single entry manually. And I’ve lost all my comments.

After all that faffing about, I had to download & install some plugins just to get a decent archive page and my Flickr photos back in the sidebar.
Then I started looking for a theme but couldn’t find one I liked, so I decided to butcher the default theme…that little white duck (Whitey!!) on the layout took bloody AGES to draw.
I managed to “complete” everything and was about to move everything off the subdomain and back into my root directory, when I decided to show Myke all the work I did…and he laughed. Because Whitey – and the entire sidebar – had decided to move under everything else. Then I couldn’t get the sidebar and content to sit in the right places in both IE AND Firefox and – what a mess. AND I can’t have comments because the comment form isn’t showing up. Pfft. Fixed!

Anyway, I’m all done. And knackered. G’night.

Take the last three weeks. I blinked and suddenly, I’ve finished work for the year. I blink again and suddenly, I’m back at work.
I had every intention of blogging at some point during “my holiday” but didn’t find the time to do so.

On Christmas Eve, I had the day off work (I took an extra day of holiday – it wasn’t free) and went around to Myke’s, where we exchanged gifts and just relaxed.
From me, he got sexy, silky leopard print boxers (which I knew he would never wear, so I don’t mind that they’re still in the little box I bought for them and hidden at the back of his wardrobe!!), about two thousand pairs of socks (I bought him a pair of socks with sayings and stuff on them and he loved them, so I thought I’d get him some more…I just went a bit overboard), a digital photo frame keyring and Devon Monopoly.
From him, I got a big box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates, a mug with a photo of Whitey^{^} with a little Santa hat photoshopped on (so cute!), the “I Can Haz Cheezeburger?” book (I was going to buy it the week before but didn’t because I didn’t have any spare money), the new Linkin Park (live) CD, a set of three “pearl” bracelets and a pearl necklace.

I got Hazel (his mum) a set of mini perfumes (she collects them) and for George (his dad), I got a USB mug warmer with mug (Matt bought me one last year and I love it; I thought George would love his too).
They got me a rubber duck mouse mat (which I currently can’t use because I have a mouse mat at work and don’t have a mouse at home…it’s propped up on my desk at home at the moment), a 900g box of Jelly Babies, a big box of Maltesers (LOVE), a pair of purple gel pens and one of those pens you write with and can rub away again…it’s by Pilot.

Myke and I spent most of Christmas Eve playing Devon Monopoly (he won).
I then went home and bonded with my brother, by having a can of lager and watching South Park.

On Christmas Day, I spent most of it lazing about and doing a whole lot of nothing.
I got a bit squiffy though – I tried my mum’s wine and her champagne, had some Archers and J2O (I spiked my sister’s drink and tasted it, haha) and some of my Bailey’s (a present from my sister).

On Boxing Day, I went around Myke’s again and played Monopoly. Again. And I lost. AGAIN.
I started feeling a bit run down and generally unwell, so I had to go home early.
I couldn’t sleep that night because I started shivering so much it kept waking me up!

For the next couple of days, I had flu symptoms but no flu. (Aches, pains, shivering, hot/cold spells, cold and clammy feeling skin, etc.)
On the Monday, I just had a cold and nothing else.

On the Tuesday, I went around my dad’s mum’s house to help her set up the webcam I bought for her!
I set it up and taught her how to use it and taught her some other stuff…like, how to get games…oops. (I now have the coolest nanny in the world, mmkay?)

On New Year’s Eve, I went to stay around Myke’s. We just sat around playing games and watching films, before going to bed.
I woke up on New Year’s Day feeling like I’d been punched in the face; the bottom of my right eye socket / top of my cheek was all tender.

This started a few days of intense pain in my sinuses – I’d developed a blocked sinus. Wonderful. (It’s sort of cleared; there’s no pain but it’s still like I have a plug in my right nostril.)

On the 2^nd, I went back to work.

So, how was everyone else’s Christmas Eve/Christmas Day/Boxing Day/New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day?! Any awesome presents worth mentioning? Any crap ones?? (They’re the most fun!)

In other news, I am now On A Diet. I started on Thursday (the 8^th) and it’s a 14 day “Special K” diet.
I found out that I was almost 2 1/2 stone (35lbs) overweight and almost died. Time to shift it before I get any fatter.
This will be my first ever diet and I’m using it as a stepping stone; get used to this, lose a bit of weight and realise that it’s NOT THAT BAD, REALLY and then I’ll start dieting properly to shift the rest.
The strange thing is that I am now eating more than I did before; I have BREAKFAST now, as well as lunch and dinner. I’m not eating as much Bad Food as I did (no sweets/candy) AND I’m now eating FRUIT. FRUIT!! Also, I’m enjoying my food much more than I did before. This alone makes the diet worthwhile.

Now I’m off to put my new CDs on my laptop and then my iPod…

Up until Wednesday evening, I felt fine; slight cold coming, no problem. Woke up Thursday feeling rather “icky”. By the end of the evening, I had to go home early because I felt really bad and absolutely knackered.

As melodramatic as it sounds, I woke up on Friday wanting to die; every inch of my body hurt. I got to work and, half an hour later, went back home again. I collapsed in bed at ten and was woken up at about half one because Myke phoned me, wanting to know if I was still breathing and stuff. (I was but barely – my nose was totally blocked.)
Other than what I’ve just written, I don’t remember what happened on Friday and that’s kinda scary.

I got myself up early this morning and into the city centre because I only had like, TWO presents to get and FIVE cards and THAT’S IT! Christmas shopping = done!

Well, that was a bloody mistake. I got in town at about twenty to ten and finished at around half eleven, so I wasn’t in a LONG time. And I wouldn’t have been in for so long but MY GOD, THE QUEUES.
(Like, Woolworths is closing down and currently has a 50% off sale. I was in there for ten, so it’s still pretty early – the shop has only been open for about an hour. As I walked in, I saw that the queue stretched from one side of the shop to the other.)
Anyway. By the time I was walking to the bus stop to catch the bus home, my head was hurting, my eyes were hurting, my lips were hurting where the skin’s all split (it hurts to TALK), my neck, throat, shoulders, arms, torso, sides, hands, legs, feet and every other part of me were hurting to a point where I wanted to lie down and die or something. But none of this pain was anywhere near as bad as my back.
So yes, lots of pain. I did a bad thing for my poor liver and took two paracetamol, followed by two “fast-acting” ibuprofen and that only took the edge off the pain. :\

I paid for my little excursion today but it was worth it – I don’t have to worry about Christmas anymore.

Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go and collapse in bed again.

• July 2005, my dentist bullies me into going to the hygienist
• About six weeks later: PAIN. LOTS AND LOTS OF PAIN
• Three days after the pain starts, I go to the dentist
• The dentist tells me off for not brushing my teeth for two days, I ask her what part of “SIGNIFICANT PAIN, I CAN’T EVEN SLEEP OR EAT, NEVER MIND BRUSH MY TEETH” does she not understand
• She prescribes me some drugs and tells me that it will get rid of the pain
• We find out that the drugs she prescribed me are anti-depressants
• First pill has no effect. Second pill has me up all night bawling my eyes out and wanting to die
• Mum screams obscenities down the phone to my doctor’s receptionist. Secures an appointment
• Go doctor, mum comes in with me; I can’t even speak anymore
• Mum tells doctor everything, doctor is pissed off about the anti-depressants and how they were “advertised” to me
• Told to go back to Demon Dentist and not leave until I get antibiotics
• Back to dentist next day, get antibiotics
• About two days later, I have finally had a few hours of sleep and some soup. AND I’ve managed to brush my teeth for the first time!
• Three checkups later, she tells me that my tooth is dead and that I have “another abscess” – this is the first time she mentions that I had an abscess
• In 2007, she arranges an appointment for her to perform a root canal on my dead tooth
• The first part is done but I have another abscess; will have to wait a month before the root canal can be finished
• She cancels the next appointment
• And the next. I give up.

A few weeks ago, I start feeling some sensitivity in the tooth. I worry about it for a few days, then get my mum to make an appointment. She tells me she’s made it but I won’t be seeing my normal dentist. I’m over the moon.

The appointment comes up and I’ve been thinking of ways to ask to have a new dentist; would the puppy dog eyes work best or will I have to make myself cry? Decisions, decisions!
Turns out I didn’t need to ask for a new dentist; mine has already left. Thank you, God!

I get prescribed another course of antibiotics and am told to come back on August 12th. Which was this Tuesday.

I go in, expecting to get a checkup and have my new dentist arrange an appointment to finish the root canal. Imagine my surprise when he says “Let’s finish this.”!
It was during work time and I told them I would only be a little late. I can’t even phone work and let them know I will be quite late. But oh well.

He drills through the dressing and tries to insert one of the screw-like things they use to get all infected crap out of the tooth but it hurts, so he gets out his general anesthetic injection. PANIC. NEEDLE! Will be IN MY MOUTH and I KNOW that hurts! I had to have five teeth removed before I could have braces, so I know the pain of these needles.

(Does anyone else find it weird that I’m scared of the tiny needle they use for those injections, when I’ve had at least nine piercings done with a needle? And piercing needles are a lot bigger and thicker than injection needles.)

While he’s injecting me, I’m trying to make myself absorb into the chair; I’m completely rigid. He tells me to relax, I try to tell him I CAN’T. He understands.

Once the needle was finally out, he carried on using screw-like things to pull crap out of my tooth. I can’t feel pain but can feel my poor tooth being beaten up.
He made the hole bigger and I felt it with my tongue while he was doing something else. The hole was almost as big as the back of the tooth.

He carried on with the screw-like things for a little while longer. I’m now worrying that he’ll put his fingers through the floor of my mouth or he’ll pull out the screw-thing and my tooth will come out with it.

He finally finishes with the screws and then starts to put stuff into my tooth, using tiny little needles. Not like an injection; he uses these tiny needles to get the gooey stuff into my tooth; a bit like a spoon, I guess.

He then puts a tiny metal pin into my tooth and gently knocks it in using his finger. He chops off the end and uses the sucker thing to suck out the end, which is now in my mouth. He does the same thing again.

Then he puts tooth-cement onto my tooth and closes up the hole.

I’m finally allowed to leave!

I now have little pins in my tooth, to hold the tooth down; like a root would, if I still had one.

It sucks that this is my first ever filling, it’s a Big Filling and it was caused by my previous dentist.

I want to knock her teeth out.

I was invited but chose not to go ’cause I don’t find Jimmy Carr very funny. So I’ve been left on my little lonesome.

Normally on Sundays, I’ll meet Myke after he finishes work and we’ll go ’round his house. Today, I’ve got the day and the house to myself.

And I’m not entirely sure what to do with myself. I’m sure I’ll find something…

An update on the ear stretching: no go yet. Need to buy another pair which is between the size my ears are now (1.6mm) and the ones I wish to wear (2.4mm). I’ve ordered them, they should come on Tuesday. I’m hoping to have them in next weekend, so it’ll be another 7 weeks or so before I’m wearing the lovely CBRs I bought last weekend. Oh well.

EDIT:// (5:52pm)
Now, would you look at that! I kinda made some updates!
A few miscellaneous updates around the site and I edited all of the ‘codes.txt’ files for the cute smilies; WordPress changed where you have to paste the codes.

Also, there’s some links to other sites in the menu. The people there either gave me link love or they comment regularly.

• I got my hair cut last Saturday.
• I HATE high maintenance hair and guess what my hair’s become since I got this new cut??!
• I got my little ear stretchers on Tuesday.
• I haven’t been able to put them in yet because I need to moisturise and massage my ear lobes before I can slip them in. This all needs to be done after I’ve had a long, hot shower.
• I’ve been displaying cold symptoms (although I haven’t had a cold) all week.
• The cold symptoms are a result of stress and lack of sleep.
• Despite not having an actual cold, the symptoms mean that I couldn’t get the new orbital (in my right ear) I was planning on having done today.
• I have Myke’s birthday (30th) off work.
• It’s Matt’s birthday today! He’s 24!
• Hopefully, the stretchers will be going in tomorrow!

Have a good weekend!