I live down saff innit

Hi. Let me introduce myself. I'm a sponge. No, not in the I'll-scoff-anything kind of way (well that as well actually). No, in the I'll-pick-up-any-accent kind of way. Rather shamefully I've started picking up a rather unattractive accent recently. Actually, if I'm not careful, it's more of a mix.

I've always been like this you see. Having spent a few years living in the States when I was kid and having American teachers at school, I ended up with a proper American accent. Nice and heavy, not thick and southern , but somehow, a friend's dad reckoned I'd kept an inkling of Texan twang. Nice. Then I moved to the UK to start uni and the inevitable happened. Over the course of two years, I totally morphed and started to sound resoundingly British. Home Counties if you don't mind. Well you didn't think I'd morphed into a scouser surely?!

Well recently, I've started mutating again. That mix I mentioned earlier?  Think Hollyoaks having a right old dance off with EastEnders. Yeah, that sounds about right. You get the old "somefink" mixed in with the rather unattractive "grass", with the "a" pronounced like in "mass". Honestly, someone stop me. It gets worse when I'm tired too.

It happens even in French. If I spend any amount of time in the south or even just in the company of someone with a southern accent, I start to pick it up. Only difference is, I think that's rather funny, or even cute. Southern French people sound more like they're singing, the way they talk is just so much more animated and fun. Yes, fun. So I don't mind. But this horrible habit of mine to forgo the occasional "th" to be replaced by "ff" is utterly disgusting. But you know what? It's such a lazy way of speaking. That's probably why I've picked it up. That and the fact that I obviously spend way too much time watching soaps. Crisps and shit TV? Count me in, I'm your gal.

Mid-week rant

Wednesday. Just two days till the weekend. Can you tell I'm tired of my job??! I just have to deal with so much rubbish, it's just not fun. Not that a job has to be fun, but it's actually making me quite angry at the moment. We were talking about this only this morning with Boyfriend. You end up wishing your life away and that's just not cool. I spend all day thinking about what I want to do in the evenings and at the weekend. That's not right is it?! And then there's the million dollar question: what else can I do with my life? If only money was no object or the way our society is organised were different, I could do a thousand things. I'd love to be self sufficient, live in the country side, have a dog and a cat and a chipmunk, a great big garden. Throw in an orchard and you'll be close to perfection. But let's face it, that's not about to happen any time soon. So in the meantime, I'm stuck doing something that I don't really enjoy. Which is a little bit of a waste really, since I spent 4 years at university studying for this. The thing is, I actually enjoyed my job until the end of last year. That is, until we were told there would have to be some redundancies. Since then, there's been a second round of redundancies. And a 15% paycut. Let me tell you, it's very VERY unpleasant. The money is one thing, but seing your office empty of people you use to get on with, having to attend numerous meetings about how the business should go forward etc etc, it's just plain demoralising. So there. I guess the rubbish weather isn't helping. And I've got to attend a meeting over my lunchbreak which means no walking around Paperchase or the yarn section of John Lewis. Poo.

So back to the start. It's Wednesday. Let's try and focus on the positives shall we? The positives for today are:

• no gym tonight
• nice dinner planned (leftover roast duck to be put to good use with noodles and a homemade chinese type sauce with veg, should be really tasty)
• an official French lesson, we haven't had one of those for a while - tonight's all about the present tense!!! Hey, we're making sentences (albeit short ones), that's massive progress!
• Waterloo Road is back on tv - it's fair to say I'm obsessed with this programme, absolutely love it - even if it does make me cry nearly every time, I love it love it love it!!!
• tomorrow's Thursday and that means Never Mind the Buzzcocks, another great programme (although it'll never be the same without Simon Amstell)

Right, until all these good things take place tonight, I'm having a rubbish day. And I've got to talk to the council about being late paying for council tax. Argh. If only I'd set up the direct debit like Boyfriend suggested. Stupid stupid me.

It's not Alan, it's Steve

Right, has anyone else seen the advert for the BBC program Walk on the Wild Side recently? It's a little weasel like animal shouting Alan and then Steve - this won't make any sense until you see it so just watch it, honestly, I'm in stitches every time I see it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR0HeVP3hLQ

or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaPepCVepCg

Enjoy ;-)