I won £50! (Blog 470)

I recently won £50 through premium bonds, so I thought I’d celebrate by going on a mini shopping spree in Kingston, yesterday! At first I was kinda annoyed I won as it meant I’d have to waste some of my day cashing a cheque. Then I had an idea: Why not take whole the day off? Not just to celebrate the fact I could afford a few CDs and a premium milkshake from Five Guys, but also to celebrate the fact the horror of August is over and that the boredom of September is ALMOST over. Oh yes, and why not celebrate the fact I apparently updated my computer correctly, too? I mean I haven’t had a single holiday in the 7 or so years I’ve been doing my site, you’re supposed to get 2 weeks a year off, so I really should be giving myself 14 weeks off! Anyway, with my neat sum of money, I should’ve been feeling cheerful, right? Sadly not quite. My computer IS fine (I think) as explained, but I’m still constantly anxious about it, it really is like a form of PTSD. Making things worse, the backgrounds on my site have been going ape for the last two days, I contacted Wix support and they haven’t fixed the issue yet. It was explained it’s probably a glitch that should be over soon, but I’m still anxious (most likely irrationally) because of that damn PTSD! Or as I call it (as I discovered the condition) techno PTSD or T-PTSD. I was thinking of calling the condition Computer PTSD (C-PTSD) but that’s already a phrase which is different. :(

Moving on, the first thing I had to do in the town was cash in my cheque. Sadly the bank I came to after a couple of minutes of walking wasn’t the bank I usually use. I couldn’t use the wrong bank, could I? If not, I’d most definitely look like an idiot, but you know the phrase ‘don’t ask don’t get’? That’s the one I had in my mind. Sadly the person who came up with the saying would have to seriously rethink things if I used it and got laughed at. Not to worry, I saw the right bank a few seconds later. The cheque cashing in went perfectly fine, but it would have been the icing on the cake if a member of staff said ‘congratulations’. Just to really make the day out seem like an amazing event. Of course it would be, I’d be getting a shake with cream, but as the saying goes ‘it’s the thought that counts.’ If you disagree, hopefully I haven’t ruined another phrase. Next came the CD shopping! I bought myself another 3 CDs from the ‘punk and emo’ section. I like punk, I like emo, so surely I got at least one album I’ll really like. Unlike last time in the shop, I wasn’t told to wait outside for a while, but it didn’t matter anyway as I was in no hurry. That didn’t annoy me, but… no actually, in a weird way, it did.

Next came the Five Guys shake! In this case I got an Oreo version. I’ve tried salted caramel and chocolate shakes from the same place, and liked chocolate the most. Not particularly interesting, but I felt the need to note that down so I don’t forget. I guess I’ll get another one the next time I’m Christmas shopping. So that would be ‘presents for my nieces, nephew, etc., etc., chocolate milkshake from Five Guys for me.’ Sounds dull? Actually it’s one of the best days of the year. So I got the milkshake with cream yesterday, and I used the right bank. I should have been walking on air, right? Again, T-PTSD. I was having a reasonably good time, but not as fantastic as you may have assumed. The last shop I’d be visiting would be one selling homemade sweets and chocolates. I bought the latter that was advertised as having no added sugar and you know what? I’d later find out it was damn good chocolate. So there’s a lesson in life for you: Chocolate doesn’t need added sugar! (Although it did have sweeteners).

Time to go home, I guess. Oh no, the first thing I noticed in the train station was dozens of people exiting it. I’d missed the train home by just a few seconds!! Nope, I’d soon find out the missed transport was going somewhere else. Phew. Making things even better, when first looking at the train clock, it said ’12:30:00’. A super round number, right? If the start of a new minute is a 1 in 60 event; the start of a new ten minutes is a one on 600 event; then the start of a new half hour would be a one in 1,800 event! My hobby that I call ‘digital clock viewing’ doesn’t sound so silly now, does it. I also saw 12:33:21, one of the best palindromes of the day. (In my opinion). I saw 12:34:56 too, but as I waited for the time to happen as I stared at the clock, there was sadly no element of surprise. Then again, I couldn’t be TRULY happy anyway, as explained. At very least I did have a friendly conversation with the Wix worker beforehand, who never called or even implied that I was an idiot who messed up his own site. Actually it was explained it was a problem at their end. :D At the end the of the online chat, I was told to review the help service. Would it be funny if I gave the guy 1 out of 10, even though the conversation had been positive? Nope, it would be sad. Especially as I earned a good 8p from adverts after all the staff member checking of my webpage. And… bye!