girlofprey

My parents got back yesterday and they seem in good cheer and also completely wiped out. They said the holiday was like being in hell in terms of the work they had to do, and also - because they were in Turkey in August - it was like being in hell heatwise as well. They're making a lot of noises about how they're never taking the kids on holiday again, or at least not all three of them, but they sort of do that every year so we'll see. They barely disturbed my sleep at all the other night though - they came back a lot earlier than I thought they would, at 2am, when I was still awake anyway, and they were all fairly quiet, and I managed to drift off pretty quickly, so that was nice.

I feel like I never talked about the upshot of the last holiday, and the thing I wanted to tell them. I do worry that maybe I post a lot of my worrying on here and then don't post what the outcome was, especially if things turned out okay. So: I had to tell my mum that my MN's school seemed upset that they were out of the country and couldn't pick him up when there was an incident, and I did. She told me that she'd told them, more or less, before she went and they didn't say anything - apparently there was some school meeting planned, and she said she and my dad couldn't be there for that because they'd be on holiday, to school employees, and no-one said anything about it. Then she went quiet for a bit, and mentioned to my dad that this thing had happened, and seemed to be worrying about it. But then she told me that it really didn't matter for the future though, because my MN was finishing at his school (has now finished), and will be going to high school in the autumn, and the high school he's going to is in walking distance of his house, so they won't need any emergency contacts with cars to go pick him up if there's an incident. So the situation with him won't affect their ability to go on holiday in the future at all. So I was worrying about nothing, in the end. And now you all know, in case I didn't fill you in the last time there was a holiday worrying session.

A week and a half back at work, and I'm back to feeling unfulfilled again. Or maybe just tired, but probably unfulfilled a bit too. The one job I applied for hasn't gotten back to me. It was a hotel receptionist job, and it was an easy to apply for one on indeed.com because you just had to click to send your CV. There was an option to add a cover letter, but I thought 'baby steps'. In the job advertisement they said one year of hotel reception experience was preferred, but then after I clicked to send my CV, a question popped up asking how many years hotel reception experience I had, and I had to put in '0'. But they might get back to me. And I will probably apply for other jobs as well. I'm aware that most people don't find the job-hunting experience quite as excruciating as I do, but I do, so here we are.

It really throws me that 'slow burn' in fic now sort of means 'they don't get together till chapter three!'. Or, alternatively; 'I will write 80,000 words of fic, and 70,000 of them will be my own personal original world-building, and the characters will probably realise they love each other and probably sleep together in the middle of the story, but will then just go off and do plot things until the end, when they finally choose to get together'. It's not what I'm looking for. I just want emotionally inept people in love, who think about each other all or most of the time.

My interview suit still fits and looks alright. Which is nice to know.

So. Late night posts about Casualty and Pairing Picspam aside. Obviously I'm pretty horrified about what's happening in Japan at the moment. I can't really say I hope everyone's okay when they haven't got the official death toll yet, and there's all this danger of nuclear accidents, but you. I'm sending good thoughts. As a lot of people have said, Japan is more prepared than most countries for earthquakes, so hopefully they'll get back on their feet again. I hope anyone on my flist who lives there or has friends or relatives near there is okay at the moment.

Is it just me, or are me seeing a lot of natural disasters lately, in the past few years? More than we used to? Or is it just that the news stations and papers are reporting more often on them? Then again, it's only in the last few years I've been properly paying much attention to the news, so maybe it's just me.

Anyway. On a personal note, the big news I have from my life this week is that I've come off Jobseeker's Allowance. I've been thinking about it for awhile, and sort of assuming I would be coming off, and I guess I was already thinking that I wasn't going to do it anymore, because I had an appointment on Wednesday and I really wasn't prepared for it, I didn't fill in my job seeking diary, or go to bed, and then I got up late. I was probably going to be late for my appointment anyway, so I took a bit more time and when I got in the car with my mum I told her to just go to Weightwatchers, and I'd walk over to the Jobcentre, because I was signing off. I told them I wanted to go onto incapacity instead and they gave me the number for them. I tried to call them that day, but my mobile's battery was nearly dead and I had to stay out and go to Wakefield for an appointment. So I ended up calling them on Thursday. My paperwork came through for me to check this morning, and I need to get an appointment with my doctor to try to get a sicknote or whatever. Which I might not get, so this might all go nowhere. But I'm going to try to do that this week, and I'll see what happens. I need to send my P45 as well, whenever the Jobcentre send that through. According to the paperwork I got today my claim with them hasn't ended yet, so I have no idea what's happening with that, or when that will be. So I'll just have to wait for that. But yes. Apart from that, I'm getting on with it.

Part of it was going to this new service in Wakefield, for people with mental health problems trying to get back into work. I came to realise while talking to them that actually I'm a little bit afraid of the idea of suddenly going back into a full-time job at the moment. Sometimes I feel like I'm actually doing about as much as I can at the moment, especially after looking after one of my nephews for a day or something. And I've had a few weird episodes where I went a bit weird mentally, and it was usually after something like doing a lot of things at once, day after day for a little while. So I really do feel like I'd like to try to ease myself back into work, maybe with a volunteer placement or a part-time job just to start with. I know you can look for part-time work with the Jobcentre, especially if you talk to the DEA and stuff, but I do find it a bit of an extra workload anyway, and quite stressful, so I'd like to just try using this service in Wakefield and trying to get on incapacity, if I can, for now. If it doesn't work, I will be straight back onto Jobseeker's I guess. Or not doing that, and having no money for a while.

Anyway. So that's what I'm doing at the moment. Actually, I've been doing a few useful things lately. I cashed a cheque I finally got on behalf of my dad for an insurance claim we made after getting stuck in Barcelona last year, and wrote him out a cheque for it this week. I changed my phone to a Pay As You Go tariff, in an effort to reduce some of my bills. And I called a woman who I'd forgotten called me one morning when I was at cakesy's the other week, who is apparently sorting out or doing my new counselling sessions, and said she'd either be calling me in a few days or a few weeks. She hasn't called me, so I called her on Thursday, and she hasn't called back. I will be calling her again next week probably, if she doesn't get in touch.

In other news, I watched Thursday's second Emmerdale episode, and based on things I'd read in the soap mags beforehand, it was about as violent and awful as I was expecting it to be. But at least they seem to be making the point that Cain's behaviour is NOT OKAY, and treating your partner or ex-partner like that is NOT OKAY, and making fun of someone for having become a prostitute at 14 is NOT OKAY. And just that Cain and Charity's relationship is at least partly a pretty unhealthy one. I don't know if they weren't retconning Charity's prostitute past a bit, because I've never heard her talk about being awful like that before. But then, I didn't watch it when she first came into it, when she was a prostitute, and I don't think I've heard her talk about it before either. I didn't realise she became one so young, either. But it's still a pretty good point to make, even if it's a change from how they've treated it/talked about it before. And Charity was amazing, at any rate. And Nicola, in the same episode, was also amazing, oh God I love Nicola. And then I watched Coronation Street, and Rita was amazing. And David was running around trying to emotionally protect his girlfriend from his mother and grandmother, and trying to protect them from her comments. He wanted his girlfriend to go away and make some mood boards. Oh. I actually quite like the relationship David's got with Kylie, although I haven't seen all of it since she came back into it. But I think it works, and they do seem to really like/fancy each other. I don't know if they'll actually get down the aisle though. Mostly I'm picturing something going wrong on the day, and one of them leaving, and there being no wedding, and when David leaves the church Gary is outside waiting for him, all "Right. You ready to go?" But maybe they will go for it. Who knows.

Later on, David tried to reassure his girlfriend that his grandmother used to be a 'slapper from the wrong side of the tracks' as well, and that then she married a shopkeeper, and ended up being lady mayoress, so his mum and grandma would probably come around to her (Kylie) as well. Kylie was not that impressed with that bit of 'reassurance'. Oh David. I wish he would make friends with Becky soon. They could bond over their hatred of Tracy. But given the fact that he loves Kylie and Kylie and Becky hate each other a bit at the moment, that doesn't seem that likely. I didn't watch last night's soaps, though. My oldest nephew was here, so we played Monkeyball on the Wii instead.

My main news from today is that my dad has apparently been drilling up into the base of my set-into-the-wall wardrobe, thinking he was drilling into the floor of the room next door to mine, from a room underneath mine and the bedroom next door to me. No drillbits came up through the carpet, not even through the wardrobe really, but he's pretty sure the floor underneath it is where it came up. He's decided to stop his drilling project now, based on that. I think.

It's been snowing on me today. I like the snow. Sometimes I thinking about making a post about, or talking about, which is my favourite season, but then I realise that I like winter, summer and spring. And the leaves turn all beautiful in autumn. So, so much for that.

I had a Jobseeker's Appointment today, and it's basically the last thing I needed to do before the weekend. Except call a medical clinic to book a time for my interview next week. I have another interview, now. I can't believe they've started offering me interviews just as I decided that I was probably going to have to move back to my parents'. I'm going to go to it, and hopefully I will hear back about it before the end of January, when I have to give notice to my estate agents' about giving up the flat. But if I don't I'll probably give notice anyway, given that I didn't have much luck with the other two interviews I've just had. And hope that if they do offer me a job that I can cancel things with the estate agents. I don't know, my mum seems to think you can.

( Moving house stuff )

I have, however, since last week or since I got back received a letter from the Jobcentre saying they couldn't send me a transcript of my original call asking for Jobseeker's Allowance and (I'm pretty sure) housing benefit in September, but that they could confirm that information was sent to the Housing Benefit office from the Jobcentre about me on the day that I called. Which I think is proof. I've taken it down and handed it in today, and it is past the deadline I was given to appeal the decision about when my Housing Benefit was being paid from so I'm not really sure it'll make any difference, but hopefully it might change their minds. And I also got a letter from the council saying that I was owed a refund on my Council Tax of £271. Which was nice. I have to fill in a form and send it back if I want that refund, and I'm not actually sure where it is at the moment, but I'm really intending to do that. Because I WOULD like the refund.

It's a bit weird going around Nottingham knowing that I'm going to be leaving it shortly though. One of the main shops I'm going to miss is Evolution, which is a shop that sells rather lovely sort of ornamental things and scarves and stuff, but which is apparently all fair trade and essentially a charity. They're having a sale at the moment, and I've been buying a few things I've had my eye on, like a mosaic-style mirror and a paperweight with a fairy on it, but it does seem a bit odd to be buying decorative things when I'm going to be moving out soon. Then again, the nearest Evolution shop to me when I move back to Yorkshire will be in Sheffield. So hmph. Annoyingly, there was a guitar-shaped mirror I wanted, and really saved some of my Christmas money to buy it with when I came back to Nottingham, but when I went in it wasn't there, and the man at the till said "Oh yes, there's no stock here, and none at the main warehouse. We're expecting new stock in at the end of March." The end of March is not really good for me. But oh well.

Anyway. I'm still mainly done with useful things for the week. And I'm going to London to see The Snow Queen and hang out with cakesy, which is nice. And I watched a video on the Emmerdale website that claimed to be a 'teaser' about who kills Mark Wylde tomorrow, but showed exactly who does it and how it is done. So I don't have to wonder about that anymore. So mostly things are quite pleasing at the moment. Hurrah.

I did not apply for any jobs on Tuesday. There were none I had experience for that which didn't seem to want me to have a driver's license, or some other ridiculous thing. I did not go to my appointment on Wednesday. I stayed up all night, since I'd not been getting up for most of the week at a time that get me to my appointment, then decided to lay down for an hour at 9 o'clock-ish, set my alarms for half ten, then got into bed and woke up when my mother called, at what I thought was the time I'd set my alarms for, but was in fact the time when I should have been at my appointment. I rescheduled, and I'm going tomorrow instead. And meeting my mother in town to get an interview suit. Everything's going to go fine, I assume. I've actually seen quite a nice suit in Marks and Spencer's, so hopefully if it suits me and isn't too expensive, it should be fairly straightforward.

Anyway. The Maria and Tony storyline, as I have said, is finishing tonight. So I'm going to have another crack at why I love it. ( Tony/Maria, Part 2 )

The new episode is on now. Oh.

So. I have an interview next week. An interview I know about ahead of time, even. I have about fifteen things to do before then, but it's an interview, which I've not had many of so far in my job hunting. And it's funny, because before I got the message about it I was gearing up to make a post about how I thought I was probably going to have to move back to my parents' pretty soon. Which I probably still will if I don't get the job, and there's a chance I won't. I was in a bit of a tiz at the beginning of the week, because I was pretty sure I was going to have to move back to my parents', even though I hated the thought of leaving my flat, and then I got the news about the interview and it pretty much threw me, but I talked about it with my counsellor on Thursday and I'm feeling much better about it now. I'm just going to try to get ready for the interview, hope being stressed out doesn't affect my performance in the interview, and see what comes out of that before making any other decisions.

I got a letter from the Jobcentre anyway, saying that I could start having Jobseeker's Allowance again. Except that it used to be £50 a week and is now down to £40-ish a week. My mum pointed out that this is probably the same payment less the £10 a week my grandma gives me. Which I have always declared whenever I claimed. Bastards.

Anyway, like I say I'm just going to try to get on with things and do everything I need to do before the interview. Like buy an interview suit. My mum wants to come down and help me get one (especially since she's offered to pay for it), and the only time she's really free is Monday. Which is sooner than I was expecting company next, but she doesn't want to stay over in the flat, so it should be alright.

Today I went to a craft market in Sherwood because a jewellery maker I like was going to be there, explained to her when we saw each other that I didn't actually have any money at the moment and was just browsing, failed generally at social interaction, and then came back into Nottingham. Where I ended up either trying on or looking for dresses I liked that were either way out of my price range (£0) despite being reduced and were probably going out of stock soon, or had gone out of stock mere weeks after I had first seen them. I think it's only been a few weeks. I assume I've just got taste in clothing like no-one else's, because everything I like seems to go out of stock really quickly. But it's pointless anyway, because for the first time in a while I've got an actual interest in maybe buying some clothes, and I have less money than ever to spend on anything. Which is mostly annoying. I'm guessing that when it comes to dresses and faux fur coats I won't get much sympathy from my parents either.

Anyway. What was up with Strictly tonight? This series in fact? How many injuries have there been so far? It makes me think that maybe the professionals are pushing the celebrities too far this series, but maybe it's just a run of bad luck. I'm glad Laila went through, it was sad for her really that she got injured even if she did choose to do the dance anyway. What I could see of her rumba while she was managing to dance it looked beautiful, although it was hard to tell while she was obviously in pain. I'm glad she went through, anyway. And I'm glad Ricky and Erin went through, I really liked their viennese waltz, especially the second time around. I thought it showed that maybe Ricky had a little more of himself to show us, or something different to show us, whereas I wasn't getting that really from Phil. I liked him, but he seemed to always be either Cheeky or Trying Not To Be Cheeky in his dances. Frankly, I'd quite like to see Ricky and Ali go at this point, and the rest of them battle it out for the number one spot. But probably that's just me.

Also, has anyone seen the new show Misfits that started on E4 this week? It looked from the trailers I saw to be about a bunch of teenagers or young people on ASBOs or community service or something, but I've just learned from the internet that it's about a bunch of teenagers or young people on ASBOs or community service with superpowers. One of the female characters gets the power of being able to cause lust in other people, of which YAY!, but apart from that it looks alright. Is it any good?

Also, has anyone seen the new mobile phone advert which basically seems to be about organising a big redheaded breeding programme? It's a bit creepy, in my opinion. But in a way sort of pleasing, to me at least. It's like the spirit of Luke Rattigan lives on!

Am counting down the minutes until new South Park on Paramount. Although I'm not sure about the recent series - much like the Simpsons, it's all gotten a lot more surreal and less often funny funny than it used to be. And Kyle is like lonely, tragic hero now, whereas in the beginning he was principled and snarky ::mourns old Kyle:: But it's still South Park and therefore yayful, and I pray the parents don't want Sky for a few hours :)

Was mostly job-hunting today, in the Job Centre, of all places. Looking mainly for bar work, which I feel a lot more confident I could do than shop stuff, and hence perhaps I will have a more enthusiastic interview technique. And there are quite a few pubs in the area looking for staff, so perhaps hurrah very soon. Although at one of the pubs, my dad - who's been pushing me to get a job, any job, and generally been acting disappointed in me for about a fortnight now - says if I get a job there he'll call up and tell them I'm a junkie and get me fired. Which is nice. Hmm. Applying anyway. Fingers crossed.

Also managed to get rid of some of the junk in my room, charity- and bin-wise, but found out a place that used to do kickboxing classes no longer does :( Did get new shampoo though. Cherry and cotton, mmm :)

Watched a few of my old American Gothic tapes last night. ( General thoughts )

( And fansquee! Come see the beyond-belief slashy...::tempts::... )