vanessarama

Hello! I am still faily. I have had a huge learning curve with new job which is keeping me busy; once April is over, I should have a little breathing space.

I have begun reading Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth, in readiness for seeing the film. It's so honest. I haven't got to the war yet but I'm struck by her readiness to examine her younger self and be critical. I have seen some discussion in fandom about the expectation, based on the description of the book, that it will be (paraphrasing) another uncritical privileged mourning of the changes that came as a result of WW1 and the world that was lost, but so far it seems very far from that. In fact, far from mourning the world of her girlhood, Brittain is pretty much saying that her upbringing, like that of millions of other young women of her day, was not fit for purpose - for *any* purpose really.

That's about all I have tonight :)

1. Today at work I finished something that's been hanging over my head for MONTHS and it was a HUGE relief and I just hope it works. /cryptic. I just needed to talk it over with someone else and get some feedback on what my next steps should be and also be reassured that it wasn't totally awful. Note to self: you can ask for help, especially from people who are technically your supervisor.

2. Also this week, we went through a few of the things from the box of stuff we brought back after Rohan's mum died. Just a few things. Rohan pulled out a brand new electric carving knife, still in box, held it out to me and said "Smell this", and instantly I was transported to that house in Swan Hill. It smelt just like the linen closet there.

3. I'm wearing one of Rohan's mum's rings now. Most of her jewellery was cheap stuff from Avon but this ring is a very fine square-cut garnet, with marcasite, in a silver setting. It's actually quite unlike most of her other things, most of which are quite flowery and feminine whereas this is straight-edged. I wonder where it came from. It fits perfectly. I think of her often when I wear it.

4. For the past week or so Rohan and I have spotted a BUNNEH further down the road when we go to work. Lately we've also spotted it in the evenings when we've been coming home. The BUNNEH is a white-and-fawn coloured BUNNEH and it is running free, unfettered, but always nibbling on the nature strip or hopping around in the driveway of one particular house. At first we thought it was an escapee, but surely someone would have caught it by now? We feared for its safety with dogs and cars around but it seems quite at home. For those of you who have known BUNNEHs, would it be feasible that someone is letting it out in their yard like you would a cat or dog? I have only ever known the wild variety and of course they flee pretty much as soon as I see them.

First day back at work! I have a new boss! I am wearing my Red Power Boots!

Aaaaand... the email's broken and the IT guys don't get in till 9. Cool first impression, what?

Morning, fellow humans!

In spite of the fact that I have not been sleeping well, and have been having weird weird dreams*, it is a positive-feeling morning. I wish you all many good things today.

I myself have been busy as a beavery bee. Or a bee-y beaver. I have done loads of good work including tackling a few things that I'd been postponing because they were making me go UGH UGH UGH. I have begun knitting a big thick jacket because it's getting DAMN COLD. I have been a Good Daughter by having good conversations with both my mother (for Mother's Day) and my father (for his birthday). I have booked myself (and Rohan and other-V) into hotels in Suffolk and Compiegne :)

About the only thing I haven't done is finish my damn Merlin WIP on the kinkmeme. I know exactly where it's going, I know how it will end... they just don't want to make it easy for me.

* Last night's dreams included seeing on the news that Bradley James was caught on film sleepwalking in a state of partial undress. This has been by far the best of my recent dreams.

I just spent ten minutes on the phone with some dude. He called up asking for funding, but he's just an individual with "a really great idea". When I explained the stuff about needing to be an actual organisation with charitable status, he started crapping on about the government and how it tries to keep charities under its thumb, and how unfair it is for the average man in the street, and how the Rudd Government is evil, and why wasn't there funding for his idea?

When he eventually got to a point in his rant where he paused, I asked him pointedly, "Can I help you with anything else today?"

And he said "No, that's all for today. I think I'll just go and annoy the government."

And he frackin' hung up on me.

And that, my friends, is why I frequently loathe and despise the general public. Because it's full of people who want to waste my time for no reason, knowing that I am at work and therefore to professional to hang up on them, but who feel free to hang up on me.

ANGRY MERLIN THROWS FIRE AT STUPID HUMANS.