Lle Llywela

1. Work is breaking my brain at the moment. This whole doing three jobs thing? Getting very tiring now! Luckily we are interviewing next week for someone to provide temporary cover till the girl on maternity leave returns. Fingers crossed whoever we hire works out better than the girl we had here on work placement for a few weeks - she was very sweet, but way too inexperienced to be much help.

2. Chelsea has split up with boyfriend Jamie, who immediately started going out with another girl (one who lives in his street and has been after him for months). In the wake of the split, all the maturity our girl had gained over the last 6 months has almost completely evaporated and her OCD is running riot. Fun times. Teenage angst isn't much fun to deal with even when you don't have autism thrown into the mix.

3. I feel very out of fandom these days. I'm not writing, I'm barely even reading anything, and have next to no live shows on my viewing schedule at the moment - I don't know how I'd fit them in, either! I don't know where the days go. In what free time I do have, I'm on a bit of a classic Doctor Who binge at the moment - reliving my childhood! Great fun. I'm finding the commentaries almost as much fun as the episodes, for that matter! Maybe I'm just weird.

4. Insurance has come through for the jewellery I had stolen - not as much as it was worth, of course, but better than nothing. I've picked up quite a few replacement items on ebay already, mind. No further news from the police on their investigation into the burglary. I seriously doubt they'll ever find the guy.

5. The Christmas Craft Fayre in town opened today! That's my starting pistol to begin Christmas shopping in earnest. If only it were cold enough to feel festive.

6. Break over - back to the grindstone!

A detective just phoned to give me an update on the investigation into my burglary the other week. The update is basically that there hasn't been much progress. There was very little material evidence, which I already knew, but they did get good, consistent descriptions from several neighbours which they have matched to CCTV footage from the pub opposite. That's all very good and positive. The problem is that they can't locate the man, who goes by a nickname; the pub landlord doesn't know his real name. But the detective wanted me to know that they are still working on the case and said she'll ring again with another update in a week or two.

Well, that's something, I suppose. I got the impression when she visited me the day after the burglary that she was expecting to simply close the case in a week or two because of lack of evidence, so it's nice to know there has been at least some investigation and that said investigation is continuing still.

In other news, I've been having a bit of a binge on ebay's vintage fine jewellery section, from which I might have to ban myself again - but hopefully my insurance will come through soon, to justify the expenditure...*G*

So apparently I've become really bad at updating. And at responding to comments. Sorry about that! I will try to do better.

Okay, then - fly-by update!

1. Yesterday was a bit of a doozy of a day. I arrived in work just before 8.30am. Ten minutes later the little work experience girl we've got on placement in our office arrived and announced that she's quitting, will work out the week and then finish - and my boss is on leave all this week, which leaves me to sort all that out. Then ten minutes later again, I got a phone call from a paramedic to say that one of our team members had been in a motorbike accident on his way to work and was being taken to hospital! Again, with Boss on holiday this week, that left me to sort that one out, too. And this was all before 9am! It transpires that Andrew actually crashed into the ambulance that then took him to hospital - it was responding to another call (which presumably then had to have another vehicle diverted), so traffic was getting out of its way, only for Andrew to skid on a patch of diesel oil on the road and slide right into it! He is very, very lucky to be alive - and not even that badly injured. He's got whiplash, burned knees and a fractured elbow, which is nasty...but could have been so much worse. Heaven only knows how long he's going to be off work, though. He is one of the most accident-prone people I know - this is his fourth accident in the three years I've known him! Time to trade in the bike for a tank or other armoured vehicle, methinks!

2. I had a wonderful time last weekend with my Pros-y houseguests, Sue and Carol of Prosfanfic fame. Plus Marnie, who also dropped in for a few hours. We spent most of Saturday in Cardiff Bay, making the most of the bright, crisp and clear October weather while it lasted, and spent the rest of the weekend talking and DVD-watching. The perfect weekend, in fact!

3. I've now had my insurance through for my stolen TV - I was sent a voucher by text! So I now have a shiny new TV, which is bigger and better than the one that got nicked, so that's all good. I'm still wading through the red tape for the jewellery, though - had a bunch of forms to fill in for the loss management company who are assessing my claim and am now waiting to see what kind of valuation they come back with. It all felt very mercenary, trying to detail each item that was stolen, and at the end of the day, no matter what they come up with, money isn't going to replace what was lost anyway. Ah well.

Bloody fucking hell.

My house was burgled tonight. I went to see my Aunty Lel after work, as she's home from hospital now but still pretty much housebound so appreciates visitors. I got home at about 7.15pm to find the back door kicked in and the house ransacked. The TV's gone and most of my jewellery, most of which wasn't worth anything and I don't care about, except the bastard took the necklace I inherited from my Aunty Joan who I was named after, which was the most precious thing I owned and now it's gone.

The cats are absolutely frantic and wouldn't even come in the house at first. I had police here half the evening, taking my statement and going door to door down the street - turns out, the bastard went down the whole street looking for opportunities. Several people saw him - he went down the row, trying doors and peering in windows only to be scared off by residents who were home, until he struck lucky at my house which was empty.

My parents and Chel came round to sit with me while the police were here and Dad has temporarily secured the back door.

Tomorrow I have to wait in for SOCO to come looking for fingerprints and whatnot. In the meantime I can't touch anything - which means I can't sleep in my bed because it's got stuff scattered all over it, like the jewellery box that's had its contents emptied. I have to carefully step over the muddy footprints on the kitchen floor. At least the police have a description and those witnesses also mean they have an approximate time - he was seen around 6pm or just after, so couldn't have long gone when I got home. The one officer reckoned he had a fair idea who it might have been, based on the description, so maybe if we strike lucky with fingerprints they'll be able to nail him. They also recommended visiting local jewellers and cash generator shops tomorrow to see if anyone's been in trying to sell my stuff - it's probably the only chance I'll have of getting my necklace back. It's the only thing I care about.

I feel sick just thinking about it. How am I going to sleep tonight?

So, I now have a shiny newly repaired back door.

Am also the proud owner of a replacement camera, following my post-work trip to the camera shop clutching my insurance vouchers. It isn't the same as the one that was nicked and is now discontinued (which, gutted, coz I liked that camera) but it looks good enough.

Replaced the DVD-R last weekend, and am now learning how to use it. And Small helped me pick out some new earrings. I'm not replacing most of the jewellery that was stolen - I couldn't. I had things like a string of pearls that meant something because it was a gift, but that I never wore. Gorram burglars! How could I replace that? So, those couple of pairs of earrings aside, new jewellery will be acquired piecemeal.

So, that's it. Drawing a line under the whole burglary experience. Onward and upward!

Okay, and in today's exciting update, the Scene of Crime officer has just been and gone. He was very thorough, fingerprinting any surface that might have been touched and taking a footprint off the door panel that was kicked in.

Does it say anything about my view toward modern policing and crime levels that I feel mildly surprised about them actually trying to solve the crime? I don't know why I expected to be simply brushed aside as one of those unfortunate, unsolvable things.

The man I spoke to about insurance was lovely, ever so sympathetic and helpful, arranged to have the money transferred to my bank account by the end of the day and told me to phone back if I thought of anything else they could help me with. I was dead impressed by him.

Managed a few hours of sleep last night, which was good. Phoned Boss this morning to explain about not going into work, and she was all sympathy and told me to stay home tomorrow as well if I need to. Me sounding all wobbly on the phone probably contributed to that - I'm okay as long as I'm doing other things, but then if I have to speak to anyone I start wobbling again. I hope that wears off soon.

I'll probably have to go in tomorrow anyway. It is the monthly Drop-In for volunteers, so a staff member really ought to be there. Plus it will be the first day back for my learning disabled Wednesday volunteer, and I need to be there for her.

Am now just waiting for landlord to get his lads around to fix the door properly so I can clean up.

Everyone has been lovely. Huge hugs and kisses to everyone on my friends list for being so sweet and supportive.

Okay. So. I don't know where to begin.

I got home tonight to find I had been burgled. Really burgled, the 'kick the back door in and rifle through the knicker drawer' type burgled. My brand new recordable DVD player is gone. So is a lot of jewellery, although I'm glad to say not my most valuable pieces - a ring and necklace that I inherited that were in a trinket box that got overlooked. But my favourite earrings have gone. In fact, most of my earrings have gone, and most of them weren't worth anything at all, except that they were mine.

I got home tonight at about 8.20pm, because of kids club. First thing I noticed was that the light wason, and I was sure I'd turned it off. Then I saw that an inside door had been wedged open using a broom, which annoyed me because I have a proper wedge for it if they'd looked a bit harder. And then I saw the back door, with the bottom panel all kicked in.

I phoned my mum and asked for my dad to come straight back. He'd only just dropped me off. Then I called the police. They took about an hour and a half to turn up, but arrived in force when they came - three officers, all very young and cute. One took my statement and was lovely. The other two conducted door to door inquiries, with the net result that I now know which flat my landlord lives in.

He (landlord) came down and was all flustered. He'll have the door fixed tomorrow. My dad has put a temporary wood panel across for now to keep it secure tonight. I doubt I'll be sleeping much, but will keep my nice heavy cast-iron frying pan to hand, just in case.

Tomorrow I won't be going into work. I have to wait in for the scene of crime officers to come and take finger prints and stuff, which means I have to try to avoid touching things as much as possible. I'll also have to call the insurance people and put in a claim (note to all tenants - contents insurance is a really good thing to have). And I'll have to do actual tidying up, as well. I can't face that tonight, even if I didn't have to leave it all for the SOC officers. I suppose I should be thankful they were relatively tidy burglars - they haven't disturbed all that much, other than what they took.

I'm really glad they left my computer. And worried that they'll have noticed what's here and come back for it another time.

The girl in Flat 1 says she heard suspicious movement around the front door at about 5pm. Other than that, no one seems to have heard or seen a thing.

And I'm...wobbly. My mum wanted me to go and stay there tonight, but I wanted to stay here. I think I needed to. I've had a cup of tea, I have my frying pan to hand, and I'm working my way through what was left of my Christmas chocolate. I don't think I'll be sleeping much tonight.