Say 'hello' to my little friend!

This weekend has been pleasant, if a tad on the lazy side. The biggest, brightest point has to be arriving home on Friday to find, waiting for me, a cheque for over £860, courtesy of overpaid taxes. Now, granted, I knew said cheque was on its way, but, for me, it just isn't real until it's in the bank. 'Course, courtesy of a train that wasn't there, I missed actually getting to the bank to deposit it, but it can wait till Monday, I suppose. It's not like I'm desperately strapped for cash at the moment, by any stretch of the imagination. 

Contemplating what to do with £860 I didn't know I was to have two weeks ago or so has been a pleasant exercise. Visions of a new laptop danced by my head, as did possibly squeezing in a trip to Ireland, taking a couple college courses when I get back to Canada (ooo...! glassblowing...!)or maybe even, as the need for my next paycheque is no longer so great, just saying to hell with the school and bailing at the end of next week.

Of course, knowing that my future is a wee on the uncertain side of life, I've opted to save (most of) it as emergency funds. Having that as a backup is actually quite reassuring.

The most pleasant thought I've had today, though, is that, should Fate continue to smile warmly on me for a while and I do not have to dip into those funds for any major disaster, I actually have more than enough to cover the airfare to a certain special someone. It would seem that, when a number of folk said that she and I were meant to be together and things would work out for us, they may not have realized the extent to which Providence would act to ensure their veracity. *beaming smile*

I did however, splurge just a little (if you could call it splurging); I ordered a new MP3 player, along with a new pair of quality headphones. My current player, quite frankly, is crap and direly in need of replacing before I lob it through something breakable. (Note: The 'Onn' brand (from ASDA) of household appliances and electronics is good for a lot of basic things: MP3 players are NOT one of them.)

Soon enough, however, I'll have one of these: 

It's small, it's cute, and, according to most reviews, it blows the iPod Shuffle out of the water for performance, functionality and price.

*happydancehappydance*

Of course, the weekend hasn't been entirely 'all that and a box of chocolates'; I've discovered, much to my consternation, that shipping my stuff back to Canada is not going to be made more expensive because of the weight of it all; it's going to be because of the damn volume. The cheapest shipping company gives their prices in boxes up to certain set weights. The best option for me, at the moment, is to try and load my boxes as close to 25 Kg in weight as I can. However, I'm discovering that my stuff just isn't dense enough to reach any where near thta weight with the boxes I have. Furthermore, there is also 'volumetric weight' I have to contend with, so I can't just switch to bigger boxes. I can't make this as cost effective as I want to, dang it! *rueful grin*

Good thing I have extra cash to throw at the problem.