Blissful, blissful sleep...
Jul. 24th, 2006 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annwfynThe weather seems to have broken a little bit. It's rained, the wind has picked up slightly, and I've been able to sleep properly for the last two nights, and it's made a massive difference. I feel human again. I've got some energy back, the constant faint nausea has gone, and I'm able to deal with life without getting the urge to snap at anyone. It feels great.
I'm also aware that I've not been writing much on livejournal recently, and what I have been writing tends to be short snippets - something that I wanted to say to as many people as possible, or something that has caught my interest at that precise moment. I've also been aware that a lot of my life goes on away from livejournal these days, which is a good thing, I guess, but leaves a bit of a hole in this record of my life. And so today I think I shall try and write something about 'My Life In General: What Is Happening In The World Of Sally'.
First of all, I'm not really working at the moment. I was temping, in between finishing my Masters in European Archaeology (which ended in April) and (hopefully) going back to university in September to train as a conservator. However, in late May/early June, I managed to damage my neck and shoulders. I've had problems with them in the past, and this time they were really really painful. I saw a doctor, got put back on diazapam, and went back to the heat wraps. I also found myself increasingly unable to spend long hours at a computer, which rather screwed up my plan to do as much secretarial and typing work over the summer.
My Dad came to my financial rescue, and very generously offered to start the allowance he was planning on giving me when I started training early, and so I've been able to take this summer off, mostly to get my back sorted (which it mostly seems to be now - basically - I don't spend more than an hour or so at any one time on the computer, I do gentle regular exercise, and I'm careful where I sleep and make sure it's not with my head propped up at odd angles), and just chill a little before university starts again. This, combined withpierot being made redundant, and taking some gardening leave, and then some time living off his redundancy pay, and ksirafai working part time, and also being around, has given this summer the sense of being a teenager on my summer holidays again. I've got people around me, we're all pottering through life at the moment, and it's strangely slow paced.
Right now, I go swimming with jez and Ginnie most afternoons - that's the exercise jez is fondest of, and in this weather it's lovely to be in cool water. I volunteer at Surrey Docks City Farm on Fridays, which I also really enjoy and which I'm quite committed to. Beyond that, I really do have a very slow and lazy life right now.
Of course, I hope that's going to change in September, when *fingers crossed* I'll be starting my course in conservation at Camberwell.
How this has all come together is a fairly long story, starting three years ago now, when I found my life in Edinburgh was rather coming to a dead end. I had no idea where I wanted my career to go up there, my personal life was a bit of a shambles (entirely my own fault), and I was increasingly deeply unhappy. I responded with my usual nuclear tactics, and threw it all in to go backpacking around South America withquisalan. It was a great experience, and the plan was to then come back to England, and go and live with my Dad for a bit while I figured out what I actually wanted to do with my life long term, and look for a career.
At first I basically just lived at home and applied for Proper Grown Up Jobs (tm), and got a lot of interviews, but no job. I got frustrated, and was beginning to feel like I was settling into a rut again. I took a job in Oxford working for a photographic agent, just to make ends meet, and looked at houses in Oxford, but wasn't entirely sure what I was doing.
Then my grandmother died. This was very sad, but it did leave me with a bit of a windfall in terms of money. The obvious thing to do would have been to buy a house, but I already had a bit of a house fund from other inheritance money, and I wasn't sure I wanted to buy a house and live in it, working odd end jobs to make the mortgage. I wasn't sure about my life at all.
I wound up sitting down, and trying to work out what I really loved in my life. What I wanted. What I had enjoyed in the past, and how I could make that my future.
The conclusion I came to is that I had basically really loved being at university. I had loved learning things. I had really enjoyed history. I hadn't gone into postgrad because I felt that my 2.1 wasn't good enough, but then I'd gotten a lot of 1sts while I was at uni. It was mostly my very emotionally messed up final year that had dragged me down to a 2.1. And maybe this was a chance to make it right.
It also occured to me that my financial independence gave me the chance to do something that few people get to do - chose a career, instead of having to take a job.
And so I made a decision. I would apply to go and do my Masters, and do some research work in a subject area I loved. And that was how I wound up at Oxford, doing my Masters in Archaeology - studying the Dark Ages, which is a period I adore.
Whilst I was there, however, I realised that I wasn't an academic. I wasn't focussed enough. I wasn't driven enough. I didn't like poverty enough. I wasn't going to do my phd. On the other hand, I liked working in museums, I liked old objects, I liked the feeling of them in my hands.
And so I decided that instead of trying for a phd I'd move onto vocational training, and move into a career in which I'd be able to earn a living, but would be able to do so doing something I loved.
And that was when I found conservation, which is basically the physical preservation of old objects, papers, art etc. And that's where I'm hopefully heading come September (college admin allowing).
As most of you are aware,pierot and myself are also buying a house together. I'm incredibly excited about this. We're going to have somewhere which isn't rented, where we don't need to worry about stains, or scratches, where we can paint the walls any colour we want. We're having somewhere which is ours.
I'm also (and I suspect I may be jinxing myself in talking about this), quite happy about the fact that I'm buying a house with Jeremiah. We've been together for two years now - two years which has had a lot of dramatic big life events in both our lives. But we've stayed together. And I think we've made each other's happier than not. I'm not very good at talking about my relationship - I'm constantly paranoid I'll jinx it, or I'll provoke criticism (people finding me sickly, people murmuring darkly about cracks that they see that I don't) - but it does make me happy. I am very fond of Jeremiah, and I'm really glad that it's him I'm buying a house with.
Our new address (as of 31st August) is going to be 270b Lower Road. It's here on multimap - just down from tescos. I've got some pictures of it here. It's a little house, with two bedrooms, a sitting room, a bathroom, a kitchen and a garden, but it's going to be ours. And I'm very happy about this.
And that's mostly me. I'm waiting at the moment - pottering about through life. I'm fine. Jeremiah is fine. The cats are fine (although Madoc has turned into Mr Mistoffeles, and developed an uncanny ability to appear out of thin air as soon as he hears the rattle of biscuits, after having vanished previously). Life is good. It's slow, and lazy, but I think it's due to pick up speed again. And I'm looking forward to that.
I'm also aware that I've not been writing much on livejournal recently, and what I have been writing tends to be short snippets - something that I wanted to say to as many people as possible, or something that has caught my interest at that precise moment. I've also been aware that a lot of my life goes on away from livejournal these days, which is a good thing, I guess, but leaves a bit of a hole in this record of my life. And so today I think I shall try and write something about 'My Life In General: What Is Happening In The World Of Sally'.
First of all, I'm not really working at the moment. I was temping, in between finishing my Masters in European Archaeology (which ended in April) and (hopefully) going back to university in September to train as a conservator. However, in late May/early June, I managed to damage my neck and shoulders. I've had problems with them in the past, and this time they were really really painful. I saw a doctor, got put back on diazapam, and went back to the heat wraps. I also found myself increasingly unable to spend long hours at a computer, which rather screwed up my plan to do as much secretarial and typing work over the summer.
My Dad came to my financial rescue, and very generously offered to start the allowance he was planning on giving me when I started training early, and so I've been able to take this summer off, mostly to get my back sorted (which it mostly seems to be now - basically - I don't spend more than an hour or so at any one time on the computer, I do gentle regular exercise, and I'm careful where I sleep and make sure it's not with my head propped up at odd angles), and just chill a little before university starts again. This, combined with
pierot being made redundant, and taking some gardening leave, and then some time living off his redundancy pay, and ksirafai working part time, and also being around, has given this summer the sense of being a teenager on my summer holidays again. I've got people around me, we're all pottering through life at the moment, and it's strangely slow paced. Right now, I go swimming with jez and Ginnie most afternoons - that's the exercise jez is fondest of, and in this weather it's lovely to be in cool water. I volunteer at Surrey Docks City Farm on Fridays, which I also really enjoy and which I'm quite committed to. Beyond that, I really do have a very slow and lazy life right now.
Of course, I hope that's going to change in September, when *fingers crossed* I'll be starting my course in conservation at Camberwell.
How this has all come together is a fairly long story, starting three years ago now, when I found my life in Edinburgh was rather coming to a dead end. I had no idea where I wanted my career to go up there, my personal life was a bit of a shambles (entirely my own fault), and I was increasingly deeply unhappy. I responded with my usual nuclear tactics, and threw it all in to go backpacking around South America with
quisalan. It was a great experience, and the plan was to then come back to England, and go and live with my Dad for a bit while I figured out what I actually wanted to do with my life long term, and look for a career.At first I basically just lived at home and applied for Proper Grown Up Jobs (tm), and got a lot of interviews, but no job. I got frustrated, and was beginning to feel like I was settling into a rut again. I took a job in Oxford working for a photographic agent, just to make ends meet, and looked at houses in Oxford, but wasn't entirely sure what I was doing.
Then my grandmother died. This was very sad, but it did leave me with a bit of a windfall in terms of money. The obvious thing to do would have been to buy a house, but I already had a bit of a house fund from other inheritance money, and I wasn't sure I wanted to buy a house and live in it, working odd end jobs to make the mortgage. I wasn't sure about my life at all.
I wound up sitting down, and trying to work out what I really loved in my life. What I wanted. What I had enjoyed in the past, and how I could make that my future.
The conclusion I came to is that I had basically really loved being at university. I had loved learning things. I had really enjoyed history. I hadn't gone into postgrad because I felt that my 2.1 wasn't good enough, but then I'd gotten a lot of 1sts while I was at uni. It was mostly my very emotionally messed up final year that had dragged me down to a 2.1. And maybe this was a chance to make it right.
It also occured to me that my financial independence gave me the chance to do something that few people get to do - chose a career, instead of having to take a job.
And so I made a decision. I would apply to go and do my Masters, and do some research work in a subject area I loved. And that was how I wound up at Oxford, doing my Masters in Archaeology - studying the Dark Ages, which is a period I adore.
Whilst I was there, however, I realised that I wasn't an academic. I wasn't focussed enough. I wasn't driven enough. I didn't like poverty enough. I wasn't going to do my phd. On the other hand, I liked working in museums, I liked old objects, I liked the feeling of them in my hands.
And so I decided that instead of trying for a phd I'd move onto vocational training, and move into a career in which I'd be able to earn a living, but would be able to do so doing something I loved.
And that was when I found conservation, which is basically the physical preservation of old objects, papers, art etc. And that's where I'm hopefully heading come September (college admin allowing).
As most of you are aware,
pierot and myself are also buying a house together. I'm incredibly excited about this. We're going to have somewhere which isn't rented, where we don't need to worry about stains, or scratches, where we can paint the walls any colour we want. We're having somewhere which is ours.I'm also (and I suspect I may be jinxing myself in talking about this), quite happy about the fact that I'm buying a house with Jeremiah. We've been together for two years now - two years which has had a lot of dramatic big life events in both our lives. But we've stayed together. And I think we've made each other's happier than not. I'm not very good at talking about my relationship - I'm constantly paranoid I'll jinx it, or I'll provoke criticism (people finding me sickly, people murmuring darkly about cracks that they see that I don't) - but it does make me happy. I am very fond of Jeremiah, and I'm really glad that it's him I'm buying a house with.
Our new address (as of 31st August) is going to be 270b Lower Road. It's here on multimap - just down from tescos. I've got some pictures of it here. It's a little house, with two bedrooms, a sitting room, a bathroom, a kitchen and a garden, but it's going to be ours. And I'm very happy about this.
And that's mostly me. I'm waiting at the moment - pottering about through life. I'm fine. Jeremiah is fine. The cats are fine (although Madoc has turned into Mr Mistoffeles, and developed an uncanny ability to appear out of thin air as soon as he hears the rattle of biscuits, after having vanished previously). Life is good. It's slow, and lazy, but I think it's due to pick up speed again. And I'm looking forward to that.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 11:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 12:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 12:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-25 09:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 11:46 am (UTC)And wouldn't it be Mr. Meawstopholes?
Oh, that's so bad. So very bad.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 03:26 pm (UTC)