I’m feeling materialistic lately.

First off, there are the pillows. If you saw my room before you would notice very little in terms of pillowage. The pillow was the one provided by the university, and thus shit, to be honest. So I bought pillows. And napkins. Napkins?? Yes, napkins. And at £2.33 apiece from Marks & Spencers, throw pillows. A couple of hours later and a grand total of £3.29 per, I have amazing pillows, a prettier room, and neck support for when I sleep. What a concept.

Then there is the bag. Do you remember my obsession with trying to get the perfect laptop bag? Well, I decided I needed a good black purse. Walking around York with Ros, I found one, though at a price I wasn’t willing to pay. Days later, after emails and posts trying to find out the style name (”Horizontal Stripe” by Radley) and stalking online shops and eBay auctions, I found it. It is perfect. Amazing quality, A4 size, perfect pockets, classic style… More pictures on my flickr.

As a gift for heading off to grad school (T-minus ten days!), my parents bought me a new luggage set. Because I only have a 50kg luggage allowance, we went on a search for ultra-lightweight sets. Keep in mind that this includes my carry on bag, which will have my laptop in it, and that I am essentially moving, so every ounce counts! After everything, I ended up with three pieces of softside luggage: large roller, duffel roller, and a (surprisingly spacious) tote for carry on. It’s a line from Roots called “Clouds”, but I can find NOTHING about it online. Oh well. Regular price? $550. With a sale at The Bay and my dad eligible for a senior’s discount, we got it for $213. My new cosmetics case will go within a larger piece for packing.

And because there was a group for it (what’s in your bag?), I took a picture of the contents of my purse nowadays. Between cream for my bug bites, pounds sterling, a card game, and Claude, I think it sums up my current life pretty well.

My baby Toshiba endured some scratches since birth and bears the small (but noticable) scars. I decided to try a laptop skin and eventually purchased this one at iStyles. It’s a little “out there” in design, but for now I’m quite pleased with the result.

In the future I may try more subtle grey dots (large or small), more feminine (though might look odd on a grey-based case), or more artsy (kind of looks like a cello).

I have recently returned (for the second time) to the Webmaster Forum at v7n.com. Some newer faces, a couple of old nuts… it’s a party mix. I get some good tips, help others, but mostly just bum around there while at work. It’s a dangerous habit.

So a couple of weeks ago Robin messages me with offers of a free TV and barbecue. Amazing! I was going to use the TV, but then a forgotten TV tuner arrived - it will soon be going to Marla’s house for a good home. The barbecue now lives at St. Luke’s Anglican Parish much to the pleasure of Michael’s mum.

Today my office got wind of furniture in the staging building that was going to be discarded. Put a note on the item and cart it out of here by Monday and it’s yours. I got a filing cabinet; Michael and family got two filing cabinets, a chalkboard, as well as an amazing set of shallow drawers for his art and work projects. There desks and chairs and cabinets and chalkboards and tables and pipets… Yay for free furniture! If you’re interested they’re in rooms 250 and 257.