Life Is A Highway.
Not been feeling too well today, ate something that violently disagreed with me last night, and I've been paying for it since.
Slept most of the morning, and then ended up helping Ronnie sew her skirt! In fact, we spent the whole afternoon on it, and that was just doing the hems! I swear, I must be the best boyfriend EVER! Sewing indeed...
We watched Pixars Cars last night, and I thought it was pretty good. I mean, it LOOKED great, but I don't know, it just seemed to lack the instant appeal of Toy Story or Monsters Inc (let alone The Incredibles, which I think is their best movie). Maybe it's because it's all about cars and living cars aren't as easily accesible as talking toys... I don't know. It just seems to lack the instant hook, but once you get past that I don't think the characters really stand up all that much; Lightning McQueen is our hero only because we're told he is, I thought he was a selfish and dislikable character for pretty much the entire movie, so I didn't warm to him (although I did consider the idea that he was a racing car, built specifically to race and would therefore have no interest in things outside of racing, but that just opens up a whole can of worms about how cars are born/made, do they have childhoods and grow up... but that kinda thought wasn't really helping any), and as for the supporting cast... well what about them? Having created all the great incidental characters in Toy Story I expected John Lasseter to be able to do more here; none of them really have a moment to shine, none of them have anything beyond what appear to be a few quirky characteristics to tell us who they are, none of them are anything more than cliches. Maybe I'm expecting a lot, but dammit the Pixar crew aren't just the best animators around, they are some of the greatest movie making craftsmen about, so I don't think I'm out of order. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, 'cos I did. It just seemed to takes it's sweet time getting somewhere pretty damned obvious, y'know? Maybe that's the point of course, but if Pixar want us to appreciate it's not how quickly you get there but what you see on the journey then they should've given us something interesting to look at!
Ka-chow!
Never Give Up, Never Surrender.
Okay, turns out there was exactly no video gaming. After I'd done my chores I had a nice soak in the bath, and then discovered that the excellent Galaxy Quest was on TV, so I vegged out and watched that instead!
Blonde Ambition!
Well, now I'm blonde! Consequently I'm easily confused and my IQ has decreased considerably, but on the plus side people have said that my hair looks nice!
By the end of the ninety minutes last night the top of my head was really starting to get quite uncomfortable, but I'm glad I bore it all the way through to the end, as I think the results have been quite striking. I'll post photo's when and if I can be bothered; for now just imagine me with strikingly blonde hair!
Today's not been terrifically exciting so far; got squashed in bed by Archie sleeping on one side of me and Ronnie on the other, then got cold when she callously (and unconciously) stole all the duvet! Got people breakfast, took Ronnie to work... and now it's now. Got another few hours till she's finished and I can go pick her up again, so I expect I shall fill it with some pointless video gaming. Once I've done some laundry and washing up anyway! Yay for pointless video gaming!
Bleach
I'm in the middle of bleaching my hair right now. I put the bleaching stuff on about twenty minutes ago, and now I'm sitting about with the "processing cap" - which looks and feels a lot like a plastic bag - on my head. I don't know if this is a good idea or not, but it's something I've wanted to do for quite literally years and years, so I guess now is as good a time as any. Wonder what it's going to come out like?
Today's not been a bad day at all: had a nice long lie in, got Archie and Ronnie their respective breakfasts, then we nipped out for a quick bit of shopping and found some awesomely cool rings. There was one in particular that I wanted, a silver ring with a wonderfully intricate carving of Ganesh on it, but as it cost about £33 and I had about £3 there really wasn't much I could do about it. Ah well, if I'm meant to have it I'm sure I'll see it again, when I do have money to spare! Ronnie got a cool little ring for herself though, which was good. We totally failed to get what we went out for though (dress makers chalk) and had to make do with cheap ass kiddie chalk, which doesn't seem to be working even half as well. Still, we managed (with a bit of a struggle) to make at least one panel of the skirt she's trying to make, so we're not doing too bad, chalk or no.
Ronnie's at work again (waitressing at the Falcon this time), so it's just me and Archie this evening, and he seems to be spending all his time outside playing with bits of dead plant. Funny animal.
Well, it's about time for me to go and wash the bleach out of my hair! Wonder what it's gonna end up looking like? Wish me luck!
Dizzy Times
Another day of dizziness, and therefore another day of not going to work. I know I'm not supposed to stress myself about this, but it's hard not to: it's not just that I feel I'm letting work down ('cos I don't really care about their difficulties too much), but I worry about the money I'm not earning, and how we're gonna make it through another month of me hardly contributing anything. Put's even more pressure on Ronnie, and that's not what I want at all.
Speaking of Ronnie, her bosses at work took advantage of all the union reps being off to hurriedly (I mean like in half an hour, without proper approvals or anything) put out a "survey" to see if the tennants would prefer to use a call centre, or maybe on online service! I mean, come ON, this is social housing here people, most of these people can't even afford to have a phone let alone internet access, how the hell are they gonna use these facilities? Besides, everyone who's looked at the survey (myself included) quickly noticed that there weren't any options to say how people preferred a one to one service with an actual human being! So it was pretty obvious it's just a way to gather more information about the viability of closing the area offices. While everybody else was panicking and fretting however, my awesome girlfriend called her union, local councillors and tenants representatives and generally made it well known among the local community that the survey was a sham and just the first step to closing the area offices! People seem to mobilising really quickly too, and I am totally proud of her! Everybody else just sat and whined, but she actually DID something, not just for herself, but also for her co-workers and the tenants and the local community! Whether they win this fight or not, I think she's been amazing!
Yesterday I discovered a website/support group for sufferers of labrynthitis, which was really great. It helped to reassure me that I'm not crazy or making this up, and that I'm not exagerating or fabricating how I feel. I was also really pleased to see that lots of other people had some of the symptoms that I have which the doctor seems to think trivial or even fictional (most notably the feeling that everything is just too bright, like somebodys turned up the brightness control on the world). It's nice to know that other people have felt and are feeling the same way that I do, and that contrary to popular (with doctors!) belief, it doesn't necessarily go away within a couple of weeks.
And now we're on holiday.
That's pretty good news for me, means I can take the next week without worrying too much about how I feel and just kinda relax and enjoy myself a little, so that I can head back to work at the end of the month. We're going away to Whitby for a few days at the end of the week, so that should be fun! More on that nearer the time.
Bugger
Today I'm having a bad day. Not in a "oh woe is me, such terrible things befall me" kinda way, just in an "I feel like crap" way, and consequently, after much soul searching, I'm not at work today. AGAIN.
I can't help but wonder why this is happening to me though. That's not the sort of thing I'd normally think, things just happen, there is no 'why', but I can't escape the feeling that this is some sort of perverse punishment for something. All I know is that it makes me very down, and sometimes it seems more than I can cope with. God that sounds melodramatic and supremely self-involved, doesn't it?
Last night Archie had to have a bath due to a rather unfortunate (and for him, embarrasing) toilet accident. He does not like having a bath, no sir he does not. He doesn't cry or make a fuss, he just tries very desperately to grab at anything within range, be it taps, toothbrushes, the door, towels, soap, anything to try and get away. After the bath of course, he's all wet and grumpy, and he looks silly. Like this:
Drain Me
Well, my third day (okay, morning) back at work was a resounding success! I still don't have any computer access (although hopefully I will tomorrow) and today nobody could even be bothered to think of any thing for me to do. So I just sat and looked through my notes until I had a headache, then I looked at them some more till it was time for me to come home. Somehow all that nothing even managed to be more draining than the previous two days had been, so I'm not feeling particularly bright this afternoon.
I suspect that it's just gonna take some time to get used to doing things feeling slightly dizzy. Or maybe that I've been dizzy for so long that NOT being dizzy is now seeming strange and disorienting. Either way, it's not a pleasant feeling, but I guess that for now I'm just gonna have to live with it!
A Post In Search Of A Title
Today was my second day back at work. Or more accurately, my second half-day back at work. I was planning to be back full time, but Rachel (my supervisor) took one look at me at lunchtime yesterday, and suggested that I should only do half days until I was feeling better. I have to admit that everybody is being really nice about it and not working me too hard, letting me take breaks to get myself together when I need to, and just generally being supportive. I don't think I've ever worked anywhere where your employers are actually nice to you before, it's a little unnerving. Incidentally Rachel was absolutely right to send me home yesterday, by that time of the day I was fairly convinced that my head was going to split completely in half and that a foul mixture of blood and brain fragments was going to pour out all over my workstation. As it was I struggled home and slept in a darkened room for four hours until I felt less crap.
It's been a while hasn't it? So let's briefly recap: I had a birthday (ridiculous old age of 37 now), went on a surprise camping trip to Hertsmonceux in Sussex for the astronomy festival there, which was pretty damn good fun, except I felt like crap occasionally, and there was only one good night for star-gazing. We also discovered that our tent was water proof on the first night (slightly unfortunate) and caught the edge of a little hurricane the next night which actually managed to rip our tent a little bit! Also, people had a tendency to trip over the ropes holding our tent down (it being an astronomy fest torches were strictly discouraged so people didn't have their night vision ruined). But we had a nice time, and visited the castle, popped into a vineyard on the way home and had a good time.
Other wise I've mainly been ill.
We went out to karaoke night a week or so back, for the first time in ages. That was pretty much the first week I was able to go anywhere or do anything even remotely normal, and that was fun. Over the weeked we did a little crawl round the local pubs trying to find one we liked. Sadly the one we liked isn't the one that's just round the corner from us which is too impersonal, expensive, and generally chavy. I thought it was like going into a McDonalds that served (over-priced) beer. Next village over (it's really only about a mile walk) in Werrington we came to the Blue Bell, but that was dingy and dark, and I didn't feel like it was a very welcoming place at all (I just wanted to drink up and get out of there to be honest. Maybe it's just 'cos I come to pubs late in life, but I always find I'm very sensitive to the atmosphere within). Then we got to the Three Horseshoes just up the road, and that was great! It felt friendly and welcoming (both staff and locals!), had a nice lounge for lounging and a cracking little public bar with a pool table, dart board, juke box and quiz machines! So I think we've decided that will be our regular haunt, when we can afford to haunt anywhere with any regularity!
I can't think what else happened to be honest, although I doubt there was anything very much, my condition still kinda limits how long I can do anything and I've only really started to feel normal in the past couple of weeks. I've pottered about a bit, become a bit of a Lord of the Rings obsessive (I've been watching the extras on the DVDs in little segments, and playing various related games when I can - Battle for Middle Earth on PC and Third Age on my Xbox. I even imagine the music when I'm going to sleep at night!). I know, I'm a nerd.
