I'm going to be away for the next two or three days: back to Paris to go to a wedding and sort out the last bits of bureaucracy. Oh, joy.
Today is the day that Psycho and I go to the Job Centre to sign on. Since we're both unemployed for the moment, we'll be getting some monetary help from the government, which will be very welcome.
How things have changed since I left the UK seven years ago! Back then, claimers were required to go to the centre, fill in a standard form, wait a little while for it to be processed and then visit every couple of weeks to sign a declaration that they were still looking for work.
Now, we're required to phone a special number and give a bunch of information. The service then phones back after two weeks and asks for more information before giving an interview date. Two weeks after that, we must attend the centre and speak to an 'advisor' who verifies everything and draws up some kind of plan for job hunting. Only then can we have some cash.
Two problems with this system spring to mind. Firstly, it takes over a month to actually see any money. Quite how we're supposed to survive without money for a month is an interesting question, especially with a need to pay for rent, food and so on. Secondly, I don't see how this reduces benefit fraud: one still has only to lie blatantly to receive the cash.
Of course, there's also the stigma of being unemployed to get through. This is something I noticed when I lived in Cardiff and the Job Centre sent people for interviews at my workplace: the manager (who was, admittedly, a bit of an ass) used to sigh heavily whenever applicants came via that route. They were considered social rejects, people with no skills, the unwashed masses who were desperately seeking a job which was way beyond their capacity... as a cashier or something.
Apparently, this hasn't changed. The guy with whom I spoke over the phone was absolutely astounded when I explained that I am actually qualified for the kind of work I'm seeking. The "oh, wow!" response when I said I have a degree was, well, disheartening to say the least.
I suppose the average person Job Centre staff has to deal with must be depressing or something. Still, it surprised me that the stigma apparently remains. We shall see.
My shoulders hurt. My neck hurts. My arms and legs are killing me. Ow.
I started using a different Tae-Bo workout this week and it's somewhat tougher than the one I was doing before. It's better because it's more balanced (the previous one focussed rather heavily on legs and much less on arms), but it's wiped me out completely. Perhaps I should have tried it without the hand-weights first? D'oh.
Add to this a lovely bit of sun-burn from yesterday and you can imagine how I feel.
Number 73: Do not insult the extremely intelligent, knowledgable and well-liked executive editor of the online magazine you work for by calling him a 'buffoon'. Insinuating that he is either ignorant or has a hidden agenda because he suggested changes in your article will not help much, either.
Note: I did not do this.
It's raining again. It's been raining for most of the time since Thursday. Who stole the sun?!
OK, so I finally did it. After raining for a day and a half, the weather cleared for a little while this afternoon, so I took the opportunity to head into The Jungle and get those nettles out. Yes, the corner behind the garage.
In all my life, I have only ever seen stinging nettles of this size once: they were growing on a hill behind a psychiatric clinic (don't ask, OK?) and they scared the willies out of me. Here's a photo of one of the smaller ones with a pair of normal secateurs for sizing. The big ones were about five feet high and half an inch thick around the trunk. The roots were six-to-eight feet long (I kid you not) on those. *shudder*
I was stung twice for my efforts, one of which was deliberate (I had to know for sure they were nettles!), the other wasn't. On both wrists, of all places!
Still, the corner now looks significantly tidier and friendlier! Just compare it to the original!
Other good news is that the rhododendrons are growing like crazy. At last, something is growing.
As any of you serious gamers (or nerdy reporter types) will know, E3 has begun: the big gaming convention in Los Angeles where half-nekkid dancing girls promote high-budget video games that will flop horribly because they're unplayable. Cynical, me?
Anyhow, the convention opened with a 'state of the industry' address by Doug Lowenstein - he's the President of the Entertainment Software Association, so he's pretty much the big cheese of the industry in the U.S.
I'm a die-hard geek gamer, of course, so I take affront at the way the industry is treated like 'just another cash cow' (cf. television or Wal-Mart), even by those working within its borders. Still, I can understand his points about expanding the market and so on, even if I like to think of game designers being long-haired gurus who do it for love, not money!
However, one part of his address stood out as a little odd - the part about woman gamers. I quote:
Last February, a woman gamer writing under the name Fizgig on the site womengamers.com asked, "Why do my mom and I lower our voices when she wants to tell me about the new level she just finished with her Amazon in Diablo II? Why don’t I tell people at the university where I work that I play videogames?" The reason, she posited, is that women like her have a sense of "gamer shame." "Gamer shame," she wrote, "is a powerful social convention and the gaming industry really isn’t doing a very good job of combating it."
Why do I find this odd? Simple. It's odd because I still have "gamer shame". Geeks who were in their teens back in the 1980s are very used to feeling ashamed at admitting they play games. It wasn't until WarGames and Tron were such a big hit at the cinema that we could finally, tentatively admit to having a computer, knowing the difference between RAM and ROM, being nerds and - yes - playing games. We've been living with it for decades.
Many folks seem to forget that computers are only recently 'cool'. Back when many of us who are now adults were still slapping on acne cream and worrying whether it was the 'in thing' to be a New Romantic or a Goth (when the latter of those still meant something, thank you very much), a computer was a blazing icon of geekiness. We could be stoned for admitting to liking Lode Runner. Sporty, cool kids would ridicule us for spending four hours copying code from a magazine onto the screen (then debugging it). We were outcasts. We were undesirables. The salaries of programmers in the late 80s changed that.
What Fizgig complains about is simply the same thing in modern times: it applies to female gamers because it's suddenly become 'cool' for guys to play games. No other reason.
And it's only a problem because we're all so worried about being politically correct and egalitarian that no one is willing to wait a little while until the situation takes its natural course... and sorts itself out.
So announce yourselves, girl gamers. Be proud to be geeky, damn it. Join us on the dark side. The light sabers come in better colours.
No matter how hard I try and regardless of the combination of configuration options selected, I cannot get MT to (a) allow comments without moderation and (b) approve regular commenters without using TypeKey. Of course, the MT knowledge base URL doesn't work, either.
Stupid buggering thing.
Yesterday was sunny again. It stayed that way for a while, which gave me the chance to weed out the side of the back garden. Nothing dramatic, really, although I did pull out one of those annoying grassy things and chuck it up the back of the garden, to screen the neighbours' green-and-white construction a bit more.
Still, it's nicer over there now that the elder wotsits, nettles and crap are gone. There's still some down the back (where it can't be seen) that I have to get rid of - although I'm debating leaving the blackberries in there to grow - and the front garden to finish. The rhododendrons are growing like crazy, too: both already have three or more branches that have grown an inch or more since they were planted!
Unfortunately, in the afternoon, I made the mistake of dropping into a local charity shop with Psycho: there we saw two garden lounge chairs going cheap... so I spent the afternoon being a big, fat, lazy potato-man. Yes, I fell asleep in the sun. D'oh.
Another sunny morning today, although it's turned grey now and is trying to rain. Still, I was up early enough to do some more messing around in the garden.
Here's today's photo of the back wall. I spent this morning firstly popping to B&Q to get the little slidey door that was missing from the compost bin and also picked up a couple of rhododendrons which were on special offer (as they probably won't flower any more this year).
Since it was nice and sunny, I figured I'd get some bulbs planted in the front, then deal with the remaining stuff in the back. I've moved the bluebells from over in the middle and the right side (up by the tree line) down to the front left and shuffled the remaining grassies up top, where they now form a nice line.
There's the two rhododendrons over towards the rocky bit and I also bunged the rest of my anemone bulbs into this bit, forming a line in front of the grass. I doubt they'll sprout, so it makes no odds. :D
So the back wall now looks like this:
Left side: grassy stuff at the back, bluebells in front, hosta and welsh poppy on the right, strawberry on the left.
Centre: two hostas and the Japanese Maple between them, crocus down front (unstrangled now), two rhododendrons in the middle, two seda (one very small), two tall things at the back (no idea what either is).
Right side: two osteospermum at front, dwarf behind, bluebell recovering.
And I'm shattered!
Yesterday was nother sunny day (as is today!), so I was busy digging and weeding again. Ah, it's so relaxing, although my legs and arms feel like I was in a fight yesterday.
My opposite neighbour, who is a very friendly older chap (and his wife is just as friendly) told me that the garden has been neglected for ages, which is good news for all the things I'm changing - apparently no one's touched it. That would explain the mess.
The back wall gets clearer as I move out those grassy things: a big one in the middle is now turning into compost, but the others are being moved up to the tree-line slowly (three up by the right of the shrubs near the rocks). I dug out that HUGE nettle and the other uglies, too, although I missed one that I'll have to get today.
I have three or four more grassies to move, I think, and I'll pull the bluebells out from the middle right (in front of shrub) to put them over on the left with the others, in the gap made by the moved grassies. Something else can go where they were for a bit of colour - probably something red.
And yes, I know I have to get rid of that twig pile, too. Bleh.
Over by the front wall, I've weeded the left section. This was horrific, picky work: there's four or five groups of hyacinths (or onions..!!) in there, but apart from that it was all individual little weeds that had to be uprooted one by one. There's also a tree stump just under the surface, which will make planting a touch more difficult! I have some anemones and other bulbs which will be planted there today, in the hopes that it's not too late this year for them to sprout.
Still to do: weed the side in front, the side out back and control the rockery weeds a bit (although I'm going to leave them as they're not unattractive as they are). Also need to uproot two grassies hiding under the heebie in front that I noticed when pulling out of the drive in the evening to go to the pub!
I finally found Ms. Jafer's blog again (well, OK, so I asked her where it is now!) and she had this little quizzy type thing posted, so I thought I'd do it here. It's too early in the morning to think up content on my own.
1) Why do you keep your weblog/blog/online writing thingie: for fun, for fame, for money, for popularity, or for another more obscure reason? What about the weblog gives you what you want?
It's for fun and because I love to write. If I were to change career - which is unlikely given the bills I need to pay - I would love to be an editor, proofreader and writer.
2) Imagine that your weblog becomes wildly popular: your hit counter skyrockets, your comments are overflowing, and everyone is emailing you about everything you post. Name 3 positive things that could come of this, and 3 negative things.
Positive: (a) it'd look good on my CV, (b) if it became famous in the real world I might be able to make a living off it and do something more fun instead of the 9-5 grind and (c) groupies. Celebrity groupies with cash. Mmmmm.
Negative: (a) I'd feel forced to think of interesting things to say, (b) comment spam and (c) some asshole would figure out a way to make money out of it by linking, suing or some other dubious manipulation.
3) What's the worst possible result you can imagine (short of being electrocuted or having your computer take over your brain, and who says it hasn't already?) from keeping a weblog?
Getting Dooced would be bad, but I'm unemployed so that can't happen. Being sued or legally/personally attacked because of the content would be awful, too.
4) What do you do to prevent that worst possible result from happening?
Absolutely nothing.
5) List 5 reasons that would make you stop keeping your weblog for a period of 6 months to a year.
These are 'could', not 'would': (a) Copious sex, (b) having children, (c) moving house (again), (d) going to prison and (e) being dead.
6) List 5 reasons that would make you stop forever.
(a) Death, (b) total body paralysis, (c) life imprisonment, (d) permanent abduction by aliens, (e) suddenly developing a weird power that makes computers explode if I touch them.
7) Describe your definition of a "successful weblog."
One where the text typed into the box actually appears online after pressing 'Publish'.
8) Is yours successful by your definition?
Not always... :)
9) What pisses you off most in other weblogs? What pleases you most?
Pisses me off: there are really only four things that piss me off - whiny-ass people who moan all the time, egotistical assholes who think they're the centre of the universe, political assholes and people who write in something that can in no way be called proper English (u no da type).
What pleases me is an interesting read - even if it's just day-to-day happenings - from someone articulate and with a sense of humour. I don't need great philosophical, opinionated debate - a touch of amusement and a friendly personality goes much further than self-grandification.
10) Make a list of 10 weblogs/journal style websites that you wish your weblog/website/writing site was like.
I can't, as I don't know that many. I wish I was as funny as Dooce, as chilled out as Jafer, had the number of visitors of Joz, as lovely as Flowerhead, as smart-blog-looking as Kasia and so on. As it is, I'm happy with mine as it is and the 'wish it was like' thoughts are more 'ooh, that's neat'.
So, the garden. Yes, well... here's the original layout (almost - I've done some stuff):
The front garden, street wall : I've already weeded out everything in front of the 'heebie' (someone said that was what it's called - the shrub thing) on the right and in the middle bit. There are pansies planted in front of said heebie (from seed) and I left some of the, uh, 'onions' (hyacinths, apparently, although I was convinced they were spring onions... doh!) in there, too - more will go back in once it stops raining! In the middle are some anemones and something else I don't recall right now, planted a few days ago. Maybe too late for this year, but we'll see. There's also a common frog living there somewhere!
The front garden, side : between us and our neighbour (who is apparently an old lady). I haven't touched this yet! The bed at the bottom was already clean and tidy - I've no idea what those are in it, but they're pretty. :)
The back garden, back wall - This is a mess. There's everything from nettles to overgrown shrubs to poppies to lilies to... you get the idea! The rocky corner I dug out, leaving just the bluebell there, as it was all weedy ground cover. There are bulbs planted there, but they don't seem to want to come up yet. The pile of twigs is all the dead wood from behind the two treeshrub things (plus some small ones that had rooted and were threatening to turn our neighbour's back garden into a forest!!). Note (and admire (or not)) the astounding handiwork of my bird table - MacGyvered together out of three bits of bamboo and an old dish-drying thingy so that Psycho could watch the birdies with her morning coffee (not to mention the cat!).
The back garden, side : again, between us and the lady next door. I don't intend to touch this, except to dig out weeds. It's fine and isn't overrun by those blasted grassy things. Say hello to Biscotte, the fluffly bundle of love.
The back garden, Jungle Corner : this is behind the garage and is horrid. There's a shrub strangling in there, plus all those weeds. I'll probably dig most of it out, leaving the shrub of course, and put something basic in there, just to keep things moving. It's completely out of sight, so it's no big deal.
And here's >Today's photo : the Back Wall shot. So what have I been doing?
Well, apart from paying too much for a compost bin (which is round behind the garage and pongs already!), I hefted out a whole TON of dead wood from behind the two shrubs (left) and that was hanging up in the climbing thingummy on the right. The latter, by the way, freaked me out completely: I'm seriously arachnophobic and the thing not only has branches that grow like spider legs, but they have HAIR on them.
It seems the owners pruned out an old tree, as there's a small stump by the right of the two shrubs, but the worst stuff was up in the branches where the spider and the shrub meet. We're talking half-inch thick branches here, that had been cut and left up there, presumably by someone who'd had quite enough of the jungle left by the previous tenant. I'd love to see a photo of the place after he left...
So now there's more space up in the branches between the trees at the back, which is nice. The climber on the right had also grown down the back, so I hefted the branches up to meet the shrub, thus forming a bit of a canopy, stopping it from invading the neighbours and hopefully ensuring it doesn't re-root over in the middle!
Next, I weeded out everything horrid between the two shrubs (a veritable carpet of ground-crawling green stuff!) and moved some of those grassy things from where they were choking the bluebells (in front of and between the two shrubs from this angle). They are now lined up between the trunks, forming a backdrop to the flowers in front that is actually very pleasant. They've left a big gap, as you can see, into which I have no idea what to put.
Over on the right, Psycho and I have just now planted in three new pretties that she picked out at B&Q today. The pinkish-purple and dark purple flowers are osteospermum (Sunny Mary, he says, reading off the card) which I doubt will last more than this summer, especially since that's what it says on the card with them... but the yellow one in the middle is Dwarf Broom (cytisus amber elf) which is a shrub and apparently very hardy. I'm hoping it spreads out and grows nicely.
On the list for the first non-rainy day coming is to move some more of the grassy things up to the tree line, giving a nice backdrop and also stopping them from asphyxiating everything else. I also have a metre-tall nettle to tackle, just to the right of the right-hand shrub at the back, there. Oh, joy.
It's been a while since I updated, again, as I have been rather busy! Life here has settled a little now, so I should be able to write more.
After the initial rush of moving in, Psycho and I set to unpacking. It took us quite a while to get most of the stuff out of boxes, but starting with one room (ah, the advantages of marking the boxes!) made it easier and having the washing machine and dishwasher saved us a heck of a lot of work. The kitchen was finished pretty quickly, all things considered - given that it's about three times as big as the one we had in France, that's less surprising.
Next, we moved on to the living room and the office (second bedroom officially, but built for a dwarf). There's still some boxes in both places, but we have most stuff sorted out and it's comfortable. Psycho's clothes and the bedroom took significantly longer: to give you an idea of how many clothes she has, they fill a two-metre long wardrobe and cause even her to comment that she has too many. Hmmm.
Much of our time since then has been spent sorting out bureaucracy. Registering with a doctor, finding replacement medicines and other health stuff (which all has different names here), finding food for the cat (since we can't find the stuff she's used to) and signing on for unemployment benefits until we find work. To be honest, there's only been one or two days when we haven't had a ton of stuff to do.
There's also the garden. Apparently the last tenant defaulted and left, not only leaving unpaid bills but front and back gardens that he hadn't touched. That is, not even mowed the lawn. The owners cleared things up a bit, but my current project is to get them sorted out properly. This is difficult for two reasons: firstly - and most importantly - I don't know whether the owners paid lots of money to buy new plants and so on, so I'm not sure what I am allowed to throw away. Secondly, and perhaps more difficult, is the fact that I have no clue about gardening!
Anyway, I've been working hard and enjoying it immensely. It's very relaxing. I even have photos, which I'll post in another entry once I've created a 'Garden' category!
As for where we are, it's great. We've only been into town a couple of times as there's everything we need locally in the 'village'. The people are very friendly, the neighbours are all very nice (although the lady next door is a real fishwife and we can hear her shouting fairly often), the sea is close and the fish'n'chips are wonderful.
