December FAIL Weather FAIL Travel FAIL Christmas FAIL

What the hell is going on around here?!? I am buried in FAIL up to my freaking elbows lately and I’m sick of it.  You don’t believe me?  Check out all the FAIL that has been going on up in here:

I scored tickets for me and the big boys (CC and Destructo) to go see this new BBC TV show called MAGICIANS. I picked them up early from school so we could make the drive to the TV studio it was being filmed in, but realized an half hour into the drive that I had forgotten their passports, which were required for any audience members under 16. Argh! The time spent driving back home to collect them completely shot the plan, so I ended up bringing them to see Megamind and dinner at the mall. Where I was talked into having my photo taken in a giant holiday-themed hamster-ball snow globe.

FAIL.

While at the mall, we had dinner at a Pizza Hut (a real treat over here in the UK… uh, for the boys) where their kids’ meals came with a trip to the salad bar. And their “salads” were bowls of tortilla chips, croutons, and bacon bits.

FAIL.

I spent a good deal of time worrying about the medication for my recently diagnosed Ulcerative Colitis because it turns out I am allergic to the immune-suppressant azothioprene (Imuran) and all it’s drug-family relatives. I realized at some point that I was almost as scared of NOT being able to take it as I was of having to take it in the first place. FAIL. (Follow-up on this one: I am down to only three more weeks on the steroids and will continue taking some fairly innocuous preventative medication in the future. It looks like my colon is finally almost healed up-- without the more aggressive treatment—so that is stellar news.)

We went to the Winchester Christmas Market where there were thousands of beautiful, hand-crafted items to be looked at and bought.  We purchased one thing. A giant two-pound sausage product. A delicious chorizo-flavored FAIL.

Supposedly mild England turns out to be pretty freakin’ cold. Especially when you are miserly with the heat because of the outrageous cost of gas. Which leads to extra layers while watching TV at night. And when I say extra layers, I mean coats and hats. FAIL.

After telling the kids a thousand times that they are not allowed to drink or eat at my desk… Guess who spilled an entire mug of cocoa across my keyboard and desk?  You guessed it, ME! Despite my best efforts to clean it, my Mac keyboard died and had to be replaced with an annoying European keyboard which is shaped just differently enough to cause all kinds of aggravating typing errors.   FAIL.

My third try at the UK driving practical exam finally rolled around (my first attempt was foiled by an improperly licensed car, the second by my bad driving) and I was asked to perform the most difficult maneuver a person can be asked to do for the test.  The Reverse Around a Corner maneuver. And because I wandered too far away from the curb (okay, fine, wandered into the middle of the road… *SOB*) I was given a “serious” fault. (The photo is of my test sheet, no I did not have to back up a trailer, any checks in the “Serious” or “Dangerous” boxes mean automatic failure. I got a “dangerous” on my last exam when I almost rear-ended someone, so this one was an improvement!) However, for this list of FAIL, this is the only literal FAIL.

And that brings me to the ultimate FAIL of the month.  We were supposed to be fly to Florida on Monday for 10 days of sunshine and family in Sarasota and Orlando.  Because of England’s inability to cope with 4-6 inches of snow, Heathrow was closed over the weekend and then cancelled most of their flights on Monday.  Our flight was one of them. And the website didn’t inform us of that before we left so we ended up wasting 50 pounds ($80) on taxi fares to and from our hotel (another $100!) to the airport where all we did was sit around while my husband tried to sort out a new flight on the phone (thank you, American Express, for helping with that!). We are now due to fly out on CHRISTMAS DAY. FAIL.

Guess where all the Christmas presents for the kids are. You got it: In Florida!! FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL

I hope nothing happens to wreck this next flight, because we will be seriously out of luck.  At least there’s 2011 to look forward to!

So what do you think? Was I exaggerating the level of FAIL around here??

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FYI: On a decidedly WIN note, I am happily blogging from Windows Live Writer again after Microsoft graciously provided me with a copy of Windows 7 for my MacBook.  Thank you to Ben the PC Guy for making it happen! Of course, I never would’ve forgiven him for making me fall in love with Live Writer (which is unavailable to Mac OS users) at BlogHer ‘11 if hadn’t facilitated getting me the proper OS to use it at home.

Setting up Windows 7 through BootCamp on my Mac was ridiculously easy and it is now getting almost equal time with Snow Leopard (Mac OS10.5). I KNOW!