a week or so i hatched a plan to head up to Scotland for... well, around nowish, actually. as evidenced by the fact that i'm sitting in the kitchen of my flat while louise tries to get to sleep and not in a backpacker's in Edinburgh would indicate how well that worked. it's not a big thing - the timing was wrong anyway. soon afterwards i was reminded that she was headed to Spain this weekend to meet up with some friends from home and so, realising that sitting around London on my own for a weekend would leave me somewhat miserable i hatched an idea for a long-weekender over in Bristol, including a day-trip to Bath (which is nearby), leaving Friday and returning late on Sunday. while i was umming and ahhing about it louise mentioned that she was hoping that i'd hang around the city with her on friday night since she has to be on a train to Gatwick at 3AM for her flight out at 7ish and so, being a good doormat i figured i'd shift things back a day and leave on Saturday instead, returning Monday. ok. no problem. easy done.
spin forward to today when i was planning on booking my buses and a hostel bed for the time i'd be away and i get a phone call. the guys at Louis Vuitton want me back next week - asked for me specifically - to do a big move they've got planned from Monday through to Thursday of next week, and of course i'd be an idiot not to take it. the cash isn't great. hell - it's barely even good, but then 4 days at £15/hour is better than nothing so off i go again. that means that a trip to the West Country is out of the question now until at least the weekend after.
fortunately for me, Moonbug and her happy vegan gang are headed to Brighton this weekend: they're planning on doing an overnighter and i've received an invite. i'm honestly not really in the mood to spend 2 days in Brighton, but there's always the option of getting down there (it's only an hour by train and they leave regularly through the day) and coming back at night on the last service at about 11:30PM, which is what i'm planning on doing. they're a fun crowd - it's the same lot as i spend xmas with, plus a party last Saturday, so i know i'll be well entertained in their company.
in other positive news, Adnan's back from his trip to the States and has been running around like mad organising events for the Meetup group. this week it's a trip to see Waltz With Bashir on Friday night, so i'll go catch that. louise is going to grab some sleep in the evening and catch us up in Soho after the movie, so i'll cover that responsibility before heading back to base, catching some sleep, and trying for an early run into Brighton on Saturday morning so that i can explore for a bit before meeting Moonbug's crew when they arrive at 12:30PMish. of course, i'm not sure how early i'll make it but i'll give it a shot. all i need to do now is find something to entertain me for Sunday and there's my weekend all sewn up.
once the week's gone, i can always do my Bristol run on the Friday, spend the following weekend in town and organise some sort of Australia Day bash, then look at tackling Scotland with louise once her contract's over at the end of January. see how that all works out? of course, it won't wind up being anyway near what i'm planning, but at least i Have A Plan and right now that's enough.
i really need to get a change of scenery. after 3 months in London i'm starting to wonder where the whole idea of "go travelling" went, and how instead it turned into "pick up, go somewhere else and sit around with my thumb up my arse". having some cash coming in soon means that i can relax a little on the job-front. this extra 4 days is of course a bonus, and it means that i can take time out here and there without so much of the financial-guilt that was stopping me from wandering further afield in November/December. i'm not particularly worried about getting to the continent just yet since that's a) more expensive and b) more effort to organise. just getting out to see more of the UK is more than enough to keep me entertained at the moment.
since new year's i've been sitting around in a bit of a daze. i'm spending half my time sitting around feeling like my head's full of cotton wool, and the rest wanting to sleep. i'm craving sleep like a uni student craves Fruity Lexia, and like many students i've met i've been getting arguably far too much of it - often in the realm of 10-11 hours a night - and it's getting in the way of more productive activities. perhaps this is a side-effect of my habits in the last couple of weeks of December, but either way you look at it i've been getting annoyed. hell - today i woke up at 2:30PM, looked at the time, thought well, fuck it, and bummed around the house for what little was left of the day, fixing some niggling bugs on my Eee and finishing the last of Stargate: Atlantis before louise came home and we cooked tea. i'm hoping that getting out of town, even if just for a day, will help to clear my head.
in other news, it's gone freezing fucking cold here, although i'm pleased to say that i'm finally equipped for it. on top of my lovely jacket i've been wearing the woolen cap i picked up ages ago, the scarves louise thoughtfully gave me for xmas, and yesterday i lucked upon some cheap (£3), warm gloves. i'm officially loaded for bear... although i'm guessing that i'd still die if i wound up in Finland or Iceland (to especially cold places on my hit-list). i'll just have to leave them until the spring. it finally hit home when i was in town yesterday, hopped off the bus and found myself being snowed on, then noticed that the fountains in Trafalgar Square were full of ice. it's going to be a long, cold winter, but walking in the snow for 10 minutes made it worthwhile - it was the best i'd felt in days.
the next couple of days are likely to involve a resumption of my job-hunting. a couple of days here and there getting underpaid to do monkey-work aren't really going to cut it in the long-run. i really need a nice solid 3-month contract doing real work before i'll be feeling adequately human (not to mention financially secure) again. i also, desperately, need to get out of my own head for a bit and i'm hoping that a couple of weekends' fun and games, with some solid work in the middle, should help with that.
at least louise and i have been getting along a whole lot better since NYE. we hit the town after i got nicely pre-drunk and had an absolute ball... from what i remember of it, anyway. one minute we're making tracks from a bar near Liecester Square, then the next thing i remember is waking up in bed with with a sore knee and no idea how i'd injured it. from what i was told later, there was a crowd-surge after the fireworks which pushed us against a barricade the police had set up. somewhere in there i got knocked down and did myself some damage, and louise managed to get me home safe through the crowds. without much further mishap. this has renewed my faith in her more than a little and i'm glad of it. i hate to say it, but things seem to be looking up in a concrete way for the first time in... well, a while. we'll just have to see how it goes, i guess...
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