Christmas and New Year in Diary

Christmas was a faily quiet affair. On Christmas Eve, me and Jay went out with his cousin Adam for a few drinks. Christmas morning I walked Roxy and Jay’s mam came round for breakfast. She’s a carer and rarely gets a day off, even at Christmas. She had been to work from 7am-10am and then was supposed to have the rest of the day off. But the whole time she was here, she still had to answer loads of work related phone calls.

Well, from the family I think we were her first port of call, she was doing the rounds, and she brought far too many presents as usual. She kept saying she wasn’t spending much this year, but she still brought us about 10 presents each plus a bunch of cash. The gifts were things like slipper socks, pyjamas, reed diffuser, smellies, chocolates etc.

Jay bought me a couple of things off my Amazon wish list such as books, CDs etc. and also these epic boots.

What I didn’t get in my stocking was an engagement ring, for the sixth year running. Apparently every time I mention it, it pushes it back a year. He seems to think it’s all a big joke. And yes, scrolling past loads of photos of everyone else’s Christmas engagement rings on Facebook only rubs my nose in it even more :o( Especially when it’s people who haven’t been together for as long as we have.

Oh well, I should count myself lucky that I’m in a stable relationship. On Boxing Day we went to the pub with Jay’s friend Matt, who is 36 and miserable because he’s been single for three years and really wants to get married and have babies. I don’t know why he’s been single for so long, he’s a nice enough bloke. He’s on a couple of dating sites and doesn’t seem to have any problems getting dates, even two or three with the same person, but it never seems to lead anywhere. I think he’s getting a bit desperate and possibly coming across as a bit scary. He’s been begging me to invite him to the next roller derby party as it’s usually about 90% women, he’ll be in his element lol. I don’t think very many of them are both straight and single though, it’ll be a bit of a challenge for him.

Here is a hideously drunken photo of the three of us.

So although it’s quiet at work for these two weeks, I’m not getting one single full day off, apart from last Monday when I was in Cumbria. I’ve had one or two appointments every day, including weekends. It’s good that there are still bits of money trickling in, but it would be nice to have a whole day off at some point!

Today’s appointment was at 9:30am so, afterwards, I took myself off to Birmingham to spend the gift voucher I got from PRG when I left. I spent over an hour wandering around looking at all the crap, finally finding one thing I liked. But when I went to pay for it, I couldn’t use the gift card because it hadn’t been activated, so I had to pay for it myself anyway. Waste of time, I hate shopping at the best of times and only went because I had this voucher!

On Wednesday (New Year’s Eve) I’m getting up at 6am to go for a screening appointment for another medical trial. This one is only for two nights so they said they’d only need to use one canula, so I shouldn’t be kicked off for having crap veins as they can just use the other arm. If I get accepted, they’re going to give me £340 for staying with them for two nights, being given opiates and letting them take my blood. Not bad really.

I’m not really one for New Year’s Resolutions; if I want to do something, I’ll just do it regardless of whether it’s January 1st or not. But there are a few things I want to do at the moment so I may as well use the new year as an excuse. Here is my list.

1. Get a job.
2. Haircut. This is dependant on completing number one. I’ve probably been to the hairdresser less than 10 times in my entire life, and I’m usually disappointed with the results about 50% of the time. But now my hair is straight and flat and lifeless, I think I want to have a fringe again. But something a bit wispy and interesting, that I can’t do myself. Once I get a job, I can afford to treat myself.
3. Download Festival ticket. This will be my big treat when I get a job. No way can I afford it at the moment, but if I get a decent job, I’ll blow out and buy myself a Download ticket. I don’t know who else is going yet, but there are always plenty of people I know so I’m sure I can tag along with someone.
4. Submit photos to Alamy. A stock photo agency that I signed up with years ago and never got around to submitting any images.
5. Learn proper crocheting. I can do basic stitches in straight lines, but don’t know how to shape, increase, decrease, do patterns etc. I want to be able to make stuff properly, maybe put some more things in the online shop.
6. Pass minimum skills at roller derby, and then I can compete on the B Team!
7. Finish my Domestic Pet Care course. My last essay has been almost finished for about six months now. But then Meg died and it was too hard to write, as that’s exactly what the essay was about. Then everything happened with setting up the business and I just never got around to finishing it off. I paid about £360 for this course and I’ve finished 5.9 of the 6 essays, I just need to get off my lazy arse and finish it off.

I think on New Year’s Eve we’re going to the party that the local rock pub is hosting. I honestly can’t remember the last time I went out on New Year’s Eve, we normally go to a house party, but we haven’t been invited to any this year, so off out we go!

Waffly entry is waffly. I hope you have a good New Year everyone. Thanks for being with me in 2014, I’ll see you next year :o)

Last updated December 28, 2014