Quarter of a Century

‘The room is turning slowly away from the moon.’ – Carol Ann Duffy, ‘Words, Wide Night’

Yes, it’s been ages, and no, I have no excuse, not really. Life does get in the way, even if it might feel like not an awful lot is happening! On 2nd December, I turned 25 years old, so a quarter of a century. So no, the title isn’t particularly inventive or anything cryptic!

I hope the people passing by or who read this blog regularly had a lovely Christmas/Holiday and I wish you all a very happy 2010. This Christmas was nice, as Christmases go – we didn’t overspend on stocking fillers so we made sure everyone got a present. I got a few things on my wish list – perfume, notebooks, a diary, books and so on. The big surprise present this year was from my partner who bought me a Nintendo DSi – many hours to spend gaming my heart out. I’m not someone who plays games on the Playstation or on my computer, but I find that handheld consoles have always been exciting for me – I had a Gameboy Colour (a purple one, obviously, seeing as it’s my favourite colour) and used to play Mario all the time. So I’m looking forward to getting to grips with the DS!

So, in the past month, I’ve been to the Chickenshed Pinnochio show with captions (brilliant, as expected), and also went to see a captioned panto in Colchester – Cinderella. Both of which got me and mine into a Christmassy mood. It felt like a proper Christmas this year – last year was a bit strange for some reason. I’ve always defined Christmas as an indefinable thing in the air – like magic, the glittery and mystical kind (yes, I’m weird). The snow in the run up to Christmas, whilst very annoying and dangerous to many, was really exciting. In fact, this year felt more like the feeling I used to have when I was a kid – that expectant feeling, like something amazing was about to happen.

My sister and I had our first Stars and Rainbows jewellery party, which went off really well, and we sold a lot of jewellery. It was a lovely festive atmosphere too, the Christmas lights were on and we had made cupcakes. The only disappointing thing was that some people cancelled on us at the last minute, which was a little upsetting. Sometimes it feels like people don’t take what we’re doing very seriously – we both love making jewellery and have a real passion for making quirky, one off pieces. I’ll post some pictures up here, but in the meantime, our jewellery blog is here.

The thing I feel about accessorizing is that it can make your outfit look more unique and interesting. Even if you’re wearing black jeans and a black top with a black cardigan, a polka dot scarf or something really brings it to life. Accessorizing for me has always been my saving grace because there have been some rubbish wardrobe times in my life when a lot of shops didn’t cater to larger sizes (16 and above). Thankfully there is more choice for women who need larger sizes now, but I still think accessorizing can make an outfit you’ve worn many times come alive or look really different.

I handed in my second assignment for the open university creative writing course on Monday – a 2,200 word short story. It was difficult but rewarding in the end because I’m starting to appreciate how short stories need to have a beginning, middle and end and need editing a few times before they do what you want them to do. This term has been terrible because the first few weeks were fine, I did the work and was up to date but then things went downhill. I’m still behind a bit even though I did quite a lot of work and writing. I know that with this course you can be flexible and go back over chapters you’ve missed, so long as you do the assignments and hand them in on time. I feel like my writing is getting better because I’m trying to treat it like a daily habit – something I have to do at least once a day. I’ve filled a 200 page notebook and am about a quarter of the way through my second notebook. I’ve never finished a notebook before so it was an exhilarating feeling! 🙂

The next ten weeks are focused on poetry, which I know I will enjoy. The difficult thing is I’ve never really written poetry with particular form and line before – so that will be challenging. I do write poems occassionally because they allow me to express myself in a freeform way. A lot of people wouldn’t call what I write ‘poetry’ because I guess it’s more like lyrics or something. I don’t always use strong imagery, which is something I need to work on.

Last month was weird because I was trying to pull myself through a bout of depression, trying to focus on the positive things in my life. Meeting up with two of my friends at the end of November really helped me to snap out of it and start thinking about the positive things. It helps to focus on other people, to hear about their lives and what they’ve been up to. It takes you away from all the issues you’re dealing with and all the worry you’ve been feeling. I know that eventually, money won’t be too much of a problem and I’ll get through it somehow.

By the way, I finally got the DLA back, but it took a while for them to make a decision. This time, I have it pretty much forever, which is a great result considering I’ve been having to convince them that I’m deaf for the past eight years. So its a relief to know that I (fingers crossed) won’t have to keep re-applying every two to three years (to convince them I’m still deaf and haven’t ‘miraculously recovered’…).

The cats are all doing fine. Georgina, however, was diagnosed as having an underactive thyroid so she was prescribed these horrible tablets that she refuses to eat, basically. We’ve tried all manner of things – wrapping them in ham or chicken, putting them in her food and so on, but none of them really work. It worked for a while but she’s a clever little thing and got wise to our dirty tablet tricks. So we’re worried she might have to have an operation, but hopefully it won’t come to that. Quentin is doing alright, up to his crotchety old man ways and demanding attention (and sulking when he doesn’t always get it) from us. Flossie had to have an operation when part of her tongue was cut and it got infected. It healed really well so she’s back to her old self. I’ll post pictures of them (woohoo, cat post coming up…) eventually.

Anyway, blogging should be a more regular thing now. Services will be resuming as usual 😉