Hi, Can anyone tell me if Gmail is down or if my work is banning in by saying a connection failed or something?

I actually need to get on to it today for V Day stuff and I am very frustrated!

Cheers

Reassuring words from a lady down the phone. My debit card has been cloned and somebody out in India's been having a great time with MY MONEY!

My card has been stopped and when I couldn't buy a pair of shoes in New Look at lunchtime I marched straight off to the bank to find out why. I'd had one of those random phonecall things in Outfit on Sunday when buying Xmas gifts so I was quite irritated. Yes, I was spending more than usual, I thought - but it's blinking Christmas. That's what people do.

Thankfully the bank was empty and a nice young man named Marcus took me into his little glass office and took some details and looked at my account. He checked I had been to Marks and Spencer on Friday...Had I? I couldn't recall...Oh yes! I bought my lunch there. Doofus.

Next question - had I been away lately? No, I haven't been away, but I have been buying a lot of stuff on the internet.
Ok, have you bought anything from Indian bank? No. Have you bought anything from Bangkok traders, for the sum of £181? HELL NO!

Time to phone the big boys.

My account had been stopped due to strange goings on (thank the lord for that Natwest. I'm really grateful for their er, the word's left me. Surveillance?!) and I have a fraud case open, the police have been notified and I'll get a refund. Phew! I have to fill in some forms, send them back pronto and it should all be sorted out soon. Nice thing to do just before Christmas isn't it? And it was from a false-fronted ATM (so Marcus thought) so they'd (this is the evil scammers which nothing better to do but rob people in a rather clever, but lazy way) have had it on there for a week, got a few hundred numbers, made up the cards and had a merry old time with my, and god knows how many other people's, hard-earned lucre.

I must admit to being faintly amused and feeling a sense of the inevitable in the whole business. My new friend Marcus said I was being very calm about the whole thing but as I said to him, really, it's just money. I'm not dying, my family's OK, life is fine. I'm not going to worry about a bit of cash, however nice it is to have it. I did point out that if someone had vandalised my car it might've be a RATHER different story. More attached to possessions than numbers in the bank is our Anna. ;)

So kids, moral of the tale - be careful, perhaps try to get money out of bank ATMs rather than on-street ones, although that's pretty unavoidable. I don't know if covering your hand when putting the PIN in helps but it can't hurt, right? And yeah, Natwest. Good bank. :)

Hurrah!

I have characters! And a plot! And an outline. I am excited to start writing now. :)

No title as yet though. And FOUR sex scenes. And one is girl-on-girl. I have NO experience of girl-on-girl lovin'. Although the point is to just write the words I'd hope for a certain amount of verisimilitude. Get me and the fancy words. God, this could end up so terrible! But it's exciting too. I have also made a recruit which pleases me. Sent a LOT of emails this morning. But it's been nice to actually be vaguely productive for a change. I'm hoping next week will be quieter so I can get on with OU and also the writing. Hurrah!

I have no idea if every body on LJ is posting this so here's my 2 cents worth ;)

Be part of HISTORY on 17 October 2006 - Take part in the Biggest Blog EVER and go into the archives of the British Library FOREVER

Please pass this email on to 10 friends and ask them to support this special, one off event.

17 October has been designated as an historic date. We want as many people as possible to record a ‘blog’ diary of this one day - 17 October - which will eventually be stored by the British Library as a permanent historical record of our national life at the beginning of the 21st century. This is a one off, one day diary done on a mass scale – that will itself make history.

Please include in your blog how history impacted on you that day – whether it be simply travelling past an historic landmark, discussing family history at home, watching another repeat of Only Fools and Horses, or listening to Dad’s 60’s music, again!

What do you have to do?

§ Write your blog diary on www.historymatters.org.uk. Diaries can be added from 17 to 31 October 2006.

§ Forward this email to ten friends and ask them to do the same

69/100 - go me!

( how many movies have you seen? bold are ones I have watched )

Just spoke to R. Won't be seeing him till Thursday but I feel OK about that. Was feeling all sad and lonesome this morning but I'm a busy busy girl so it's all AOK.

Now I have to cart a load of stuff over to the goldfish bowl for a meeting. yay meetings. :(

Man, I go out to get my lunchtime sandwich. In the FIVE minutes it takes me to walk from sandwich shop to crisp shop and back to the office I manage to get absolutely soaked in one of those random downpours. It's beautifully sunny now of course! I'm cold and my stupid polyester skirt is really damp. Luckily I have loads of spare clothes on me and the radiators are on (!) so I'm drying out my jacket. Hmph.

So, I'm pretty bored. I MUST do some revision but I can't quite face it. I guess every minute of revision I do makes the exam that much easier and I do want to pass so I must try to get on with some today. Busy week this week and next so I must get on.

Good old gmail - I seem to be able to reply to comments from there. :D

Here I am in our newly re-arranged office. It looks lovely! Apart from the fact I now sit sort of 'next' to the most annoying colleague in the world things could be worse. We have lots of lovely floor space and I'm no longer right by the door so I can pretend to be working and all sorts. :D

Last night was very nice.
I met ,lj user="ninagirl"> after work and we went for a drink and chatted. Then I came home. I did feel a bit *meh* but I had a good ole chat with catb which cheered me right up. I'm dying to see R tonight and really wanted to call him last night but I was cool and didn't. I hope we have a nice weekend together with lots of happy moments. Four months on Saturday - can't believe how long it seems. My mum asks if we're getting married every time I speak to her. She's well weird. She seems to think we've been together four years not months. I guess it's nice to have her support though!

There is YET MORE house mate and money stress going on but it's so incredibly dull I can't be bothered to post about it. Hopefully all will be sorted in due course though.

L has her uniform on today and I'm wearing the same - it's like being at school or something!

Right, better get on with something...

XXX

PS - this journal is now blocked as well so if you comment I probably can't reply but the beauty of LJ will hopefully help me out...so if you DO comment please don't mind too much if I don't reply.

:)

We have terminals at work and I've moved myself off to a different room. This is because the 2 people I share with are having a row. About Display Screen Equipment users. It's ridiculous. And very irritating. I hate listening to people row and I can't say I expect it at work. It's not even as if I have any friends here I can go and see to get away from it.

So I'm in a different room with the lovely Rob & Malcolm and feeling quite chipper. I bought some compost and larger pots for my potplants so I might bring them in and repot them to give them some space. I don't exactly have a lot else to do and I'm certainly not hanging around in my office doing what I'm supposed to (who knows what THAT is).

I can hear them from here!

I bought slipper at lunchtime. They were £12 from M&S but I was feeling very sad and needed cheering up. I'm very tempted to try them on here but that would be a step too far I think.

right, better go as I expect this clatter is annoying.
XX

Here's my 2nd journal. Hopefully this will get updated a little more.

Today has been OK. I feel a bit down about what happened with R but hopefully with a bit of time I will feel better about things and stop watching his every move to see if he's being cold or not. I don't think he is but I know that I really upset him so I want to make everything better and go back to having fun like we did at the weekend. I need to try to get my emotions out a bit more and so I'll attempt to write in here a little bit. This will also be useful for fobbing off people I don't want to se my REAL LJ!

Ah, I feel so much better for writing already. Here's hoping work won't decide that this is naughty rudies.

XXX