Monday 16 October 2017

Long weekend winding down

someecards.com

Yup. That's about the size of it! Haha!

I'm into my last few hours of my long weekend and I have to say it's been lovely to have this time to chill out and relax. We're expecting the edge of Hurrican Ophelia to hit us later today - Western Ireland is already under alert and has sustained some damage and one death - but I don't believe it's going to be too back this far inland. Wind and some rain, but I can't imagine we're going to get it as badly as the west coast is expecting. The sky was a spooky orange earlier on, but so far that's about it. That's moved on and it's a bit brighter now, but wind warnings and alerts have been set in place for the western edges of the UK, due diligence by the Government and meteorologists. It's 30 years ago that the 'Storm of the Century' did such awful damage, so it's a bit weird to be having another such a storm almost 30 years to the day of the last one!

Anyway, I'm tucked up with Wandering George, the cat, in my room. I went to mow the lawn earlier but must be doing something wrong because the mower wouldn't work for me. It's been a while since I've mowed a lawn, I admit, but it's not rocket science, particularly with electric mowers: plug it in, go! I was ridiculously frustrated, but a) there are no outside sockets on the house; b) the cord, had there been a socket to plug it into, wasn't long enough to have allowed me to cut the whole thing. I thought about plugging it into a socket in my room, but that wouldn't work because I would only reach about a third of the lawn. Then I checked the shed at the back of the garden. Nope. I finally checked the wendy house and found an outdoor extension cord that was perfect (on a spool like a garden hose). So I plugged that in, then plugged the mower into that. Nothing.

After moving the cord to two different sockets with no change I gave up. I was pretty pissed off by this point (who likes feeling like an idiot over such a simple, straightforward thing?), so I asked my roommate if he knew anything about it. He's never mowed the lawn and apparently, there used to be a petrol mower, so he was no help. I'll try asking my other roommate, but I don't think she knows either, so I'll likely end up asking the landlady. It's going to have to wait until the weekend now, I'm afraid!

But outside of that, I have been marginally productive. Today I took my paperwork to the medical clinic today to register, and have written up a CV to take to a couple of places this week in anticipation of possible Christmas hours. I haven't worked retail for a few years but thought I'd give it a shot (I know, retail@Christmas, WTF am I thinking?). The Cook email I mentioned a couple of posts ago came to nothing, so I think the lady may have been hacked somehow. Not to worry. If I don't get any joy, I won't worry about it for the time being. I just want to try.

Over the past several days I've read a book, gone shopping, gone for a walk, vacuumed my room, downloaded a bunch more free books, adjusted some numbers in my budget and my bank account, made some very small, loose plans with my sister for when she comes, and just felt really rested and relaxed. I'm ready to go back tomorrow, though. That's just long enough for me to recharge. Besides, I've got four more days off at the end of the month when my brother, SIL, and sister are here.

I'm currently sitting here with a mud mask on, tea and a lovely piece of chocolate cake in front of me. I discovered on Saturday that the village has a bakery, so bought some bread, a piece of chocolate fudge cake and two baps for £3.47 (right???) this morning. 

I'll likely just settle in to eat cake and read some more this afternoon. I also want to do some writing out of stuff and checking into course start dates for next year. I'd like to start sometime in the middle of the year, but it depends what might work best in respect of time, availability, etc. I'm going to also look into a student loan so have to check the prerequisites for that.

Anyway, it's been lovely few days. And an option noted for future reference!

1 comment:

Jane said...

When I was working I always thought a 4 day weekend was the perfect length of time off. Glad you're all rested and relaxed. So I guess hurricanes heading to the UK are rather an unusual weather event! I watched a few videos of Ophelia on the weather network - one of a couple of Dubliners taking on the winds full force on a beach. Crazy! We actually had severe wind warnings on Sunday and had a few gusts of 100km/hr. I kept my eye on the big maple right behind my condo. A few trees in the city did come down in London and surrounding areas. And Toronto had about 25,000 people temporarily without hydro. Because most leaves were still on trees it was a more dangerous situation. Made me grateful to not have to experience Category 4 or 5 hurricanes - can barely imagine the strength of the winds from Harvey, Irma and Maria.
Having a few tears today. Turned on my iPod as I do every morning and Tragically Hip songs started to play. Then when I got online I saw that Gord Downie had passed away. I have such respect for him and how he spent his final year or so. So grateful my daughter and I got to see him on his final tour through Canada. A national treasure for sure.