Confused and Tired

I was planning to write a blog post yesterday documenting what a pleasant weekend I'd had and showing a couple of contrasting photographs. I was feeling pretty good. But, I got a text from my mother yesterday saying that my Grandfather had died that morning. It's not unexpected as he's been very ill for a long time and had a lot of close calls. Then again it is a shock as he'd managed to fight through all of those close calls with incredible stubbornness. I'm not sure how I feel as it doesn't seem real.
So, my next few days will be going down to Stoke-on-Trent to see my father and grandmother whilst I'm not working. I think being around them will make things much more real.

Otherwise, in my life things are going fairly well. I'm enjoying my current work. It's looking after children who are actually quite well behaved. I'm looking for another 5-10 hour's work a week and I'll be in a good position. My weekend was really fun. My housemate had her boyfriend and guests over. I wasted my Saturday playing a computer game, but Sunday I spent with them. In the morning I took the guests to Bolehill as it was actually sunny. The photo is of them sitting on the rocks looking over the valley. I hadn't seen a day that beautiful for a few months. To the right is a man walking into the photo. He stopped and talked to us. He told us that this area used to be used as blast furnaces for the steel industry that used to thrive here, as there was always guarantee of a strong wind! (The day I took my parents here in November, as soon as they turned the corner they decided they didn't want to go further because of the wind)Contrast this with what it was like yesterday morning:

This is the highest point in Sheffield (I love how it is impossible to get straight lines in photos of this city), covered in fog. Then in was sunny for a bit and then it snowed. The weather here is crazy.

We walked around for about an hour and a half in the sun (the temperature was no warmer for it). In the afternoon we went to see Slumdog Millionaire, which is an impressive movie. I was really glad to see it. At home we were flicking through the channels on TV and discovered the Nigerian movie channel (which is apparently the biggest movie producer after Hollywood and India). I do hope the movie we watched wasn't the best representation of their produce as it was terrible, but in a hilarious way. We ended up watching 'The Pastor and the Harlot', which was soap opera drama meets Christian morality play. The climax of the movie being a scene were the Pastor discovers that the woman he's committing adultery with is a prostitute. His wife walks in and screams at him. Mimi (the prostitute) walks out and bumps into a cleaning woman, who turns out to be her mother. Her mother then points at the Pastor and declares that he is Mimi's father. Mimi faints. Then her mother faints. Then the Pastor's wife faints and finally the Pastor himself faints. I couldn't believe it. There were some brilliant phrases from the movie - my favourite being 'what devillish thoughts emmanate from your lips!' and 'that's a very good question. You find the answer', both of which I intend to use more.

I'm actually glad that I was feeling ok with the world when I got this news. It makes it a bit easier to handle. It's nice to know I have people who have my back when things are going badly.

Snow!

It snowed last night and it's stayed until about an hour ago. I took some photos when I went out shopping - they're not that brilliant.
The first is Sheffield houses covered in snow near the top of the hill I live on.

When I went out to the shops Ash went out in the snow, like the strange cat that he is. It's a bit blurry, but it's cute.

Today I will see if I still have work with the school near me. If I do then I'm in a better position than I was a few days ago. I've heard nothing about whether they received my emails over my mess up and I can't get through on their office number. I'm hoping it goes well. I've also got an interview on Wednesday with a restaurant which is 10mins from the house. If I get that then I won't really need to leave Crookes much, which would be nice. Plus, I'd have more work too. I shall be optimistic.

Fragility

I took this photo yesterday afternoon. It was foggy, but cold enough to freeze the water in the air. Water froze onto this spider's web (on the very artisic place of our outside bin!). The black and white version came out much clearer than the colour.

I had sometime to myself last night after the New Year's Party I went to, which was good. The party was great. It was really fun in a carefree way. A friend cooked amazing vegetarian Indian food. We watched half a Bollywood movie (Devdas -I do want to finish it sometime). Because people were entranced by the costumes she bought down a load of her saries and jewelry and all the girls dressed up. We took fun photos. It sort of excluded the guys, but we tied scarves round their heads to make them look piratelike/rakish and made them take photos too. It was very lighthearted and just good fun.
Afterwards, I got a lift home (yay not walking 30 mins uphill in sub-zero temperatures!) and sat down with some hot milk and music and thought about the year. Even though there have been some really rubbish things this year, overall there have been some really good things that I can be proud of.

I'm now trying to make sure that the other offer of work I had before Christmas still stands. I hope I can make it. If so, things won't be as bad as they are.

Miserable

I took this photo just before Christmas. It was really peaceful and beautiful. I loved the light cast by the setting sun on the week with the shortest days.

I am fucking miserable right now. Things are falling apart. I finally managed to get in contact with the people who supposedly employ me today. Apparently them telling me I start work on Saturday was false. They will apparently try to find me something and I will hear from them on Friday. I'm willing to put money, which I don't have at the moment on them not doing so. What makes it worse is that earlier this week I recanted my place in another job because I thought I was going to start work that would prevent me taking on anything else. That turns out to have been a stupid decision. I'm back at square one again and this time I actually have no money anymore. I 'm not sure how I'm going to survive very long now.

Christmas Photos

Went to the boyfriend's family for Christmas. It meant trekking up to North Yorkshire.

The Christmas tree with real (terrifying!) candles
An odd heat-powered rotating nativity thing. To keep Germans occupied before the invention of computers (note also the ridiculous quantity of glasses and mugs).

Cragg Vale on boxing day.

Change

I'm also going to have to do this differently. The last week has been insanely busy for me. I've had long days and a heavy workload. I'm really quite drained at the moment. The next year will also be insanely busy. I'll have to just post photos that I take and like. The daily thing is going to be much more difficult for me.

Yay for employment.

Day 44: Guardian Cat

I opened the window and Ash thought he needed to guard it.