girlofprey

Well. The country is in chaos, obviously, but this is so much more than I ever hoped.

Fuck you, Theresa May.

Also: I'm on a period again. For fuck's sake.

Some other things that have happened in my life:

• I made it to Holmfirth for the art market on Sunday. Despite it taking two hours to get there, getting up late, and missing the next bus after I did get up. On the way, I discovered exactly how beautiful some of the rural towns only a few hours busride from my house could be. The main ones being West Clayton and Denby Dale. It's hard to describe, they were just full of weird little cottages and churches and things that obviously used to be churches but weren't anymore. They were sort of creepy and beautiful at the same time. It was a really nice busride. Then I got to Holmfirth, which was also beautiful. It's an old mill town, and they've got a slightly exaggerated idea of what a river is, but it's a really beautiful place all the same. The art market was also lovely, and I manfully bought hardly anything. Unfortunately, the jewelley maker I'd been meant to be picking my necklace up from had forgotten it, which was disappointing, but I know her quite well and she was really nice about it, and she's promising me a big discount when I finally do get it, so I'm not too upset. But it was a really nice day out either way. I had lunch in a tearoom, decorated with little teapots. It was wicked.



• I may have made a huge mistake in, having finished the main questline of Oblivion, installing and starting the two expansion packs included in the Fifth Anniversary Edition at the same time. The problem is that one comes before the other, it doesn't have to but technically, you know, but I like the second one better. So I'm just playing both! And not really focusing properly on either! And it sort of gives me a headache! But maybe it's better than just playing one until it's used up and then using up the other, I don't know. Probably I should still just pick one and stick with it.



• Yesterday I managed to make it to my jewellery course, go most of the way to make my first 'piece' (a very, very small house with windows on that might be going to be a brooch or pin), then get to Wakefield for my counselling, and in between I got a call offering me an interview for the job I applied for. Considering that I started my period on Monday and didn't know if I was going to be able to stand up yesterday, it turned out to be a very good day :D



• Death Valley turned out to not have done the horrible thing I thought it might do, hurrah! And it did something else that pleased me. So hurrah again!



• ( Grimm 1.03 )



• ( Once Upon A Time 1.04 )



• Also, adverts. During the time when I wasn't posting, I discovered what was probably my least favourite advert in the whole world. It's had a lot of competition over the years, but it's definitely, definitely the McDonalds 'On The Street Where You Live' advert. It's just such a perfect combination of trying to be something it isn't, hideous, and nothing, that I really can't believe it. Shortly after I made this decision, I didn't see it as much, and thought they'd pulled it. But no. It's still on. It's horrific.
  
  Also, on a similar note but much better note, Charlie Brooker and We Love Hollyoaks have pointed out the Sevenesque-ness of the new John Lewis christmas advert. And now I can't unsee it.



• Someone I don't know is following me on Twitter. I forgot about that aspect of the whole social networking thing. Ugh. It's fine I'm sure. They haven't talked to me yet. I just cannot imagine what they have joined up for, looking at my tweets page. But they did. Fine.



• That is all the news I can think of right now.

Hello. My parents have gone to Portugal. I am on my own again for a week, or most of it, except that unlike last time that happened, when I was supposed to be going on holiday to so had nothing to do except stay in the house, I am going away for the weekend in about five days. I'm looking forward to that. I'm just also aware that on Thursday I have to take our dog to the kennel he's staying at on Thursday and Friday (at 7pm, apparently), have a bath, pack, and try to get a decent night's sleep for the con. Then I have to get up, finish packing, and go get a train.

Also, unlike last time, I basically forgot everything I actually needed to do to take care of the house while my parents are away. Partially I mean I forgotten how to do certain things, partially I mean I forgot I was going to need to do ANY of those things until about Friday night, when my parents were packing to leave. I forgot I was going to have to clean up after the dog. I mostly forgot to ask what to do if the cat leaves a dead bird in the garden (as she has been doing in the last week, again). And I still can't really remember when I have to put the bins out. My dad left a note about putting the recycling bins out on Wednesday. But do the regular bins go out on Wednesday as well? I don't know.

And to top it all off, I have one of the least helpful days I've probably ever had.

1. I mentioned not remembering I had to clean up after the dog. Well, also this time my parents didn't clean up what was there before they went for me. Probably this has more to do with them having to set off for their plane at about 4.30am than any inherent evil on their part, but still. It's meant to be done every day, but since I had to go food-shopping yesterday, I decided not to yesterday, and just to do it all today.
   
   Anyway. So this morning when I took the dog out, he had less clean/comfortable places than usual to do his business in, so I was trying to keep an eye on him, and didn't bend down to stroke the cat like I generally do when she comes over. Yesterday, kind of jokingly, I tried to get her to jump up on the hood of my mum's car so I could stroke her, because I've seen cats on cars before, and didn't think it was that big a deal. She wouldn't do it yesterday, but today - without me urging her to - she did have a try. Except that it was my dad's car, because my parents have taken my mum's car, because dad gets so worried his about being stolen or damaged. The cat didn't manage to actually manage to get on the car, but when I looked, she had left a couple of small scratchmarks in the paintwork.
   
   I rubbed them a little with my t-shirt, hoping they'd go away. And I think they did fade a little bit, but I also left a slightly more noticeable smudge on the car. But it's been raining tonight. Perhaps it'll all be fine in the morning.



2. After many days of some of the signs, I've finally gotten my period. Which is nice, because I was worried I would get it on Thursday or Friday or something, when I'm meant to be going away. Except that now I've got my period, on my own. And there is no-one around if the cramps get bad, to look at me and stroke my hair and maybe make me a hot water bottle if I need one. Hmph.



3. I was playing a computer game, and I had my window open, and it started getting dark, but I figured it was fine, it was probably to early for bugs to come in. Then I heard a slight thump and looked up and saw some dust flying down from my lampshade, and thought oh well, I don't mind moths. Except that it wasn't a moth. When I had pretty much finished the computer game and got up, I noticed it was a wasp. Hanging around my light. I didn't even know wasps did that. And I couldn't catch it because it was flying around, I couldn't hit it because it was flying around, and I couldn't turn off my light and hope it would leave, because it was completely dark and I didn't have any other lights, and I wouldn't know where it was or if it had gone out of the window, or if I left my room, if it would still be there when I came back. I finally had to catch it when it landed briefly on the side of the lampshade using a small candleholder of mine, slide that onto a pringles tin lid so it was trapped in there, and then hold it out of an open window, let it go, and then quickly close the window. Thankfully that did it.



4. I have already mentioned the dog and cleaning up after him. I got up late as usual today, went out to get some chocolate, and then decided to do it after playing my computer game. It would only be a couple of hours, and not too late I figured. Then I could do it, then wash my hands and make my dinner. Except I forgot that a time that 'wasn't too late' in August when I was looking after him, would actually be significantly darker now. So, because I really couldn't have left it for another day, for his sake or mine, I ended up having to clean it up in the dark, and in the rain. What I use for this is a small plastic bag used like a glove, and we use it to pick up the poo and put it into another plastic bag. But because I couldn't see very well, and there was so much of it by then, at one point I felt like I'd actually touched something. When I looked, my thumb had been really close to the edge of the plastic bag handle. But there was no way to tell if I'd actually touched something. I have OCD, and am fairly germphobic at times. I washed my hands about three times afterwards. But it still didn't feel entirely clean.
   
   My dog was a complete sweetheart though, he came out with me when I went to clean it up because he wanted a wee, and when he was done and I was about to start I sent him into the garage, with our big garage door still open. When I was finished I was half worried he might have run off and gone wandering around our cul-de-sac, but when I went in he was just laid by the door to the kitchen, waiting. He is quite lovely.



5. However, when I was later on playing with him with his toy bone, he still (accidentally, probably) gave me a bit of a bite on the thumb.

So that was my day. But it's not all bad. I went food shopping yesterday, and even though I'm pretty sure I spent about £40 or £50 last time I was shopping for a week alone, I ended up only spending about £26. I did have one less day to buy for though, and mum had already gotten me some stuff in. Still. It's quite nice. And I have plenty left over from the £70 she left me to pay the kennel lady upfront on Thursday.

Also, I have been mentioning a computer game a lot, which is Oblivion, the fourth Elder Scrolls game, which was released five years ago (apparently) but I never got because I didn't have a computer that could play it. But now my laptop can, and I'd like a chance to play it before the new one comes out and I get it, and I found a "5th Anniversary Edition" including both the expansion packs, for the same price as I could basically get the game secondhand on Play.com. So I got it. This is also probably part of the reason I didn't think to ask my parents much about what to do around the house while they were gone, and why I haven't been posting much lately. It is wicked and I am properly sucked in, as usual with Elder Scrolls games. I'm not loving it as much as Morrowind so far, but Morrowind was set in Morrowind, where the Dark Elves come from, and I always play as a Dark Elf, so that's probably just personal bias. Anyway. It's one of those games you can sort of play for hours and get slightly sick of, but still want to play more of after you turn it off. Or at least that's how it is for me. So I am enjoying it, even if it tends to eat up a lot of my day.

And, ETA, somewhere in the middle of that last paragraph my parents called, and we sorted out a few things. The bins don't have to go out this week, if I find a dead bird in the garden I should either use a plastic bag to get rid of it or just leave it, and mum didn't sound madly concerned about the scratches on dad's car. Which is nice. Also Portugal is apparently nice, and they have nice room with a lovely seaview. So hurrah.

I'm also - in the midst of all this complaining - sort of aware that I'm probably so stressed at the moment because I ran around doing things and getting things sorted last week. I went to my appointment with my employment coach, I went to see my doctor and got a new medical certificate and got it sent off to the Jobcentre, I sorted out a transfer for the money I need for the Connotations hotel room (despite Santander's every effort to thwart me in doing this), and I looked up the train journey I'll need to take to Durham on Friday, which is basically hourly, and really straightforward. So things are pretty much sorted. And I'm meant to be going to another workshop thing with my employment service tomorrow, but I've pretty much decided I'm not going. It's just too much hassle this week I think, and hopefully they'll understand that. I think it's better if I just chill out and save up my energy for Thursday and Friday.

There's an insect flying around my light again now, but I'm pretty sure it's not a wasp, so I'm happy enough.

Anyway. So now I'm probably going to go off and play some more Wet. I found out some problems with Wet which make it slightly not perfect, the controls are really hard to handle, especially when you're meant to be doing 'acrobatic' moves. And it turns out that not only does True Love die young, so does vague computer game het shipping. Hmph. But it's still pretty awesome. Yay. There's other stuff I wanted to talk about, but I'm pretty sure I've blathered on enough. Or the pain in my arm and the new text size in the posting box is confusing me. Whichever.

Yesterday I left my flat to find a dead pigeon in my courtyard. I called my landlords twice about it and got no reply. I went on to develop quite horrible period cramps, tried sticking it out after the main secretary and my boss really said it wasn't a good time for me to go home because she'd be completely on her own, until I developed quite bad stomach, back and thigh cramps and started feeling very nauseous and asked if actually I could go home a little bit early. I had quite a painful bus journey back to my flat, then laid down and watched TV for a few hours, and a dvd. I got up, went to the shop to buy some chocolatse and ordered a pizza because I didn't feel like cooking. Then the cramps and the nausea came back, the pizza hadn't turned up an hour after I called, so I called back and found out the driver had been but my intercom wasn't working and he hadn't had the credit to call my phone. So I waited another half an hour or so, having to keep going outside when I didn't really want to move, past the pigeon, to see if he had arrived.

Then when he came, the pizza was cold, he'd brought me a diet coke instead of a regular coke, and I was feeling so ill the smell of the pizza made me want to throw up. I went to bed at 10.30, because there was no point me staying up, having had two jaffa cakes and a few lines of a chocolate bar since I got in, spent at least an hour trying to get comfortable/wait for the cramps to wear off, and woke up at some point this morning, laid a wake for a bit, before finally checking the clock and finding out it was 5:11 am.

It was not my best of days.

Today, after going to sleep just wehn my alarms were going off and waking up at about quarter to nine, I called up to say I wouldn't be in to work, probably. I laid around in bed, feeling guilty, because once again there was onbly one secretary form our teamn there, and she was going on holiday next week, and the docotr I am actually a secretary to was going on holiday next week, as well as her SHO, so would possibly have lots of stuff to do. I finally, feling half alright, went into work, got stopped by roadworks for a little while, and got there at about 3:00. Then left at 4:30. Then went to see my landlords, and found out they don't deal with dead animals on the property. Then went to see the Dark Knight again, while it was still on the big screen, as I had been planning to yesterday. I still love the Joker dskjfhkjasdsgdahsakfdjslakdj.

It sikes me, as it has before, that the Dark Knight is sort of like a Cinderella story. Although a version where Cinderella kills the guards and sets fire to the palace.

In other news: I can't believe no-one's written any Fracture slash. Almost every scene with them together features Crawford looking at Willie like he's in love with him. I fantasise sometimes about Crawfoird trying to lick out all the slurred consonants and elongated vowels from Willie's mouth. And the phrase 'fucking the Prosecution'. If it wasn't for the unfortunate subplot of misogyny in the film, I would like it a whole lot more. And I watched an episode of House today. I like Cuddy. I do not like House. There was a bit where Cuddy almost electrocuted him. If only he hadn't moved away.

Also, any shortcomings the film Step Brothers is more than made up for by the singing scene. And the hug. And the sister-in-law. All those things are great.