Well, hello! Not sure who still uses Livejournal as I remember last time I used it people weren't leaving many posts. Well, since it's been 22 weeks since my last post (apparently!), I thought another post was probably well overdue! This will have to be a short one, though, as I'm in the library (back to that again!) and I have 13 minutes left to type this.

I have moved around such a lot this year! I started the year off in Luton, then I moved briefly to North London, then Westminster, then Dartford! I have just moved into a new flat in Dartford. It's a pretty cool flat, very close to town. I have moved all the stuff with me to the new place now, but I still have stuff in storage in Luton believe it or not (I moved from Luton in May). My two sisters are helping me move all that this Sunday. It'll be so nice to have all my stuff back!!

Work wise, I'm still unemployed, sadly (as are so many people. Lots of my friends have lost their jobs this year!), but I am volunteering one day a week for the Citizens Advice Bureau, which I'm really enjoying! I've also decided to go into accountancy. Sadly, the graphic design has proved to be an impossibility, but the country will always need accountants! I had an exam last week, which went very well. I've always been good with figures - probably due to my Synaesthesia - I've always been good with dates and remembering long numbers etc.

Anyway, I now have 5 minutes left, so I'd better post this!

Oh dear. Not doing too well at the moment! Have a very busy weekend ahead of me moving all my stuff from North to West London on my own using public transport! Not sure how many journeys it will be, but I estimate over ten. I can't afford a van or taxi and everyone I can think of who owns a car is busy this weekend. I'm also getting further and further into debt and have no idea how I'm going to pay my landlord the first week's rent tomorrow! I had to sign on this morning and I ended up telling the poor girl behind the desk what was going on, and embarrassingly enough, I burst out crying! She seemed sympathetic enough, but couldn't help me as I was moving to private (as opposed to council) accommodation. Life is certainly not fun at the moment.

Hello. Another long over-due post!

I moved back down to London about a month ago. My good friends, Howard & Lande let me stay in their spare room in Tottenham while I got myself settled. I'm moving again this Saturday to Maida Hill in West London. It's a nice flat with lots of character right on the banks of the Grand Union Canal. I'm really not sure at all how I'm going to get everything there as I can't afford to hire a van and No one with a car that I know is available this weekend (believe me, I have been asking everyone!). Looks like I'll have to move my stuff by myself on the tube. Not completely sure how I'm going to manage my King-size duvet etc. though!

Well, sadly I'm still unemployed. I have been searching nonstop!! There is nothing! I certainly haven't been fussy! I'm even going for temporary warehouse position! It's certainly a stressful situation to be in. My new landlord doesn't even know I'm unemployed as the letting agency advised me not to as most landlords don't take on unemployed people. I took their advice and told him I had a job, not really thinking of the consequences. I was so desperate for a place to live as well as a job. Now I'm in the situation that it might be very difficult to accept housing benefit as the only evidence I have is a handwritten, signed letter from the landlord, which I asked for for 'insurance purposes'! I'll have to stress to the job centre when I move that my landlord can't know as I could get evicted if he finds out!

I 'nearly' got a job today! One of the agencies I've given my CV to phoned up yesterday to see if I could come over this afternoon as they thought they might have a job for me, so I went over there today - all the way to Greenford, Middlesex! - a fair trek from Tottenham! I got there and I was told that I definitely had a job starting tomorrow! Obviously, I was over the moon! Only a job picking and packing clothes, but a job!! They didn't have all the details this afternoon, but the girl who interviewed me said she'd phone later. They said that safety shoes were compulsary. Mine are currently in storage in Luton (I didn't bring them with me as I wasn't looking for warehouse work to begin with), but the girl said I'd need to have safety shoes and the job definitely had to start tomorrow, and there was a shop over the road that sold them, so I bought a pair of safety shoes that I couldn't afford, but I thought 'Oh well, I've got a job now, so it doesn't matter'.

My phone died on the way home today, but I expected to get a message on my phone from the agency once I got home - no message though. I phoned up the agency, but the girl who was s'posed to phone me had already left, but the girl I did speak to said 'oh, if it's the job I think it is, it's been cancelled. The person who you were s'posed to be replacing has been given a second chance'! I am now totally furious and very upset about the whole thing! My hopes have come crashing down, so it's back to square one! All this job search lark is becoming so exhausting!! I'm totally shattered!

Well, I guess I'm nearly up to date! On the Friday just gone, Howard gave me 20 minutes to get ready to go to Inferno! Was sort of decided that if Howard and Lande went, I'd go, but if not, I wouldn't. In the end, Lande said no and Howard said yes! We met up with fireblade_ in The World's End (he had been in the Dev, but due to communication problems between mobiles, he didn't get the World's End message),


Howard, World's End - Did the flash work OK, Howard?

then we made our way to the Ballroom.

It was a good night, despite 'Godlike' (KMFDM) being played twice in very quick succession. The very predictable trance started to be played from about 01:30, so we decided to leave and get a dodgy kebab. Ended up at Subway instead!


Howard and Mark


Mark




Howard


Howard


Mark


Howard


Mark


Howard

I officially moved in with Howard, Lande and their gorgeous cat, Coco on Wednesday 27th (the evening after my trip to the pub with Rachel). The next day, H & L went off to WGT in Leipzig. I didn't go again this year, but I certainly do intend to go next year! I should be more settled then and I have missed it! The reason why I moved in the day before they left for Leipzig was so that I could look after Coco. Well, Coco and I really got on, and we sort of got into a routine... or rather SHE did! She jumped through the window (she does have a catflap, but would rather not use it when people are around! - reminds me of another feline who is Tabby and white and twice the size, male and ALMOST as fluffy, and whose name begins with... N!) at around 22:00-23:00, went straight to the kitchen (an indication that I had to feed her!), then after she had eaten, it was straight onto my lap for an hour or so (or until I felt that I really needed to get to bed!). Well, here she is in all her glory (feel a bit bad towards Nigelcat (who I really must go and see again in the next few weeks!), but she is very cute!). These photos were taken whilst her Mum and Dad were away...

So, where was I?...

On 27th May, met up with my friend, Rachel, who lives in Leighton Buzzard. I've known her since we were both 13. We had a few drinks in the Gary Cooper in Dunstable.













Hmm... Not sure why I have this fixation of taking self portraits in public loos! Many have been taken over the years!

OK, where was I? Most of my gear is now in storage in Luton, but on 23rd May, I moved some stuff down to Howard & Lande's in North London. The guy who gave me a lift was one of the bus drivers (Nik) from Amazon! At the end, I was the only Amazon person he was picking up to take home, and we usually had about 15 minutes until we picked up the Fed-Ex people. We often got talking (we found out we have quite similar music tastes), and I told him about my impending move, and straight away, he said he's help me down to London with my stuff. I thought it funny when he arrived at my place with a PMP Recruitment bus (the agency I worked for), but it was cool as there was ample room for my stuff! We stopped off in Islington to pick his nephew, Steve, up, as Steve knew exactly where we were going. I find this really funny - Nick is black and all his nephews that I've met (Steve and one of the other Amazon bus drivers, Bod (not sure what his real name is, but he has a very good taste in music and often played Type O Negative on the bus on the way home!)) have been white! Mind you, I'd say that Nik was more mixed race.

So, we got my stuff to Howard and Lande's. When I got there, I told Lande that I probably wouldn't go to Vagabonds that night as I didn't think I was really very suitably attired. Lande then pointed out that I had most of my wardrobe in her spare room! Er... good point! Spent the next half an hour on Facebook trying to convince Dave T (a very nice young man who I've met at The Coven a few times) that he needed to come to Vagabonds with us. He gave in in the end!

So we got the bus and tube to Vagabonds...







And then we arrived!!


Talking about celery apparently!


Lande & Howard


Dave T & Gordon


Steve B


Steve B


Howard, Lande & Robyn


Dave T, Howard, Lande & Robyn

Well, I seem to be doing lots of social things on the spur of the moment these days. At the end of April, I went to see Sunflies at Belushi's Bar in Camden.

( Sunflies )

Then, one Saturday in mid-June, I got a phone call from gothyjdarkstar asking whether I wanted to go to Invocation. Now, I had just finished some packing for the impending move and I was surrounded by boxes and binbags. I hadn't seen anyone all day as I'd been busy with the packing and cleaning, so I decided to go. It was a pretty good night. I think I really needed the break.

( Invocation )

Well, it seems to be working OK again.

( photoshoot photos )

At the beginning of April, I received a phone call from a photo studio in London offering me a free photo shoot. Apparently, my name and phone number was put forward by my 'friend', Lianne. Now, the only Lianne I know of is the teenager that my husband ran off with! It turns out it was actually her who put my name forward! She seems to want to be my friend! She has tried adding me as a friend on various community sites and wonders why I won't add her! Now, I don't know the girl. She may or may not be a nice girl. She may or may not have known about me when she met Dave (or more likely, Dave probably told her we had already split up). I don't care about any of this, though. I just don't really have it in me to be 'friends' with the girl who stole my husband! I can't believe that anyone would be so naive not to realise this! I will respect her, but that is as far as I'd go. I also don't think that I'd have a lot in common with an 18 year old girl (how old she is now)!

Anyway, I did decide to go to the photo shoot (I mean, it was free!), and here are some of the results.




...having problems attaching files at the moment. Will try again later.

On our last day camping, we headed off to Selsey Bill. I can't ever remember being there, despite growing up in West Sussex! Well, it was right over the other side of the county.


Near our campsite, near Henfield, West Sussex


Selsey


Selsey


Selsey

...and on the way back, we stopped off at Pagham Harbour


Pagham Harbour


Pagham Harbour

On the way back to the campsite, we drove through Bognor Regis and past Butlins. I did go to Bognor a few times as a kid, but never anywhere near Butlins. I'm sure it's lovely inside(?), but it certainly looked very big and tacky from the outside! We had a lot of trouble trying to escape Bognor, if I remember rightly (much on a par as our experience in Carterton last year whilst camping)! We did find a very nice Chinese restaurant just outside of Bognor, though.

The next day, we went to Bramber, near where I went to secondary school, and looked at the ruins of Bramber Castle. Then, we went into Steyning and walked near my school.

( Bramber and Steyning )

Then we ended up at the Amberley Chalkpits Working Museum, where I think parts of a couple of James Bond movies have been filmed. I used to come here when I was a child, but I think I was about 15 the last time I was there!

( Amberley )

During the end of March/beginning of April, gothyjdarkstar and I went camping in West Sussex! gothyjdarkstar organised the campsite and we ended up about 2 or 3 miles from the village where I grew up! It was pretty cool, as I hadn't really explored the area at all as an adult, as I moved to London when I was 17.

gothyjdarkstar had a transgender convention in Eastbourne the weekend before, so I got a lift down then and stayed with my Mum for the weekend and saw some of my family. On the Sunday, I went down to see my brother, John, and his family in Worthing. My little sister, Jane (John's twin) and her husband, Terry, also came over.

( Worthing )

On the Monday, gothyjdarkstar picked me up from my Mum's and about 10 minutes later (if that!), we arrived at Blacklands Farm Campsite! It was a cool campsite and had lots of concrete animals so that you really felt like you were in the countryside!



(mind you, didn't Milton Keynes do something similar in the 70s?).

Day one was spent on the mid-Sussex coast (Worthing and Brighton).

( Brighton and Worthing )

Well, I have been very good and have attended every single Coven so far this year!

( Feb )

( March )

( April )

( May )

Nigel is still on holiday near Cambridge, and I know everyone's having withdrawal symptoms from that cute cat, so here he is!!

( cute pictures )

Photos taken at The Coven 2009.

Some pretty firework pictures taken last bonfire night!