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In a nutshell -
1) I'm not dead
2) I'm in France and will be until a couple of days before Accio
3) This is the first day I've been able to find affordable internet access. I will log on occasionally I doubt every week.
4) I will do my best to post another chapter of Invictus at the beginning of August, when I have access to my own computer again.
5) Please point me to anything major or interesting that I've missed in the last month!
So, here I am in Calais in glorious sunshine, exactly one month after arriving in temperatures barely above freezing. Gave the 'white cliffs' another meaning entirely!
As one or two of you know, I've finally managed to get out of Little Whinging for a while - I'll be doing some residential volunteer work in the UK from August-November so I decided to try to find something more interesting than sitting in an office for the intervening time.
And as many of you know, my depression and inability to find a satisfying work life thus far has caused me much soul searching. But after my Mum said to me that I'd never get a good job if I didn't get myself a 'credible career history', I realised that I was already in that situation, and that rather than looking at a conventional apply-for-a-job career, I should take the time to do some of the low paying, low status jobs I've been wanting to try for years. To those who've heard this in person ad nauseam - thank you for listening, and thank you for your support. It made it a lot easier to discuss this calmly with my rather volatile parent!
So I'm now working as a camping courier for three months, hoping to get some fresh air, a less stressed lifestyle, and improve my French. The less stressed lifestyle has yet to come - I'm working hard for long hours. But now that my body is starting to adjust to doing physical work (mostly cleaning) I'm finding that being exhausted is better than being desperately bored. And seeing trees and happy, relaxed people every day is great, and the glorious weather helps, of course.
I'm the only person from my company on my site (I was at a large site before, and they must have concluded I was antisocial enough to do ok here ;) which is a bit stressful when it's busy or when a customer has a go at me for being offsite for a morning with no cover, but it means that I get a good sense of what's going on, and more chance to liaise with the campsite owners and meet all the people coming through. One unanticipated aspect of it is that for the first time in my life I have a work mobile that has to go with me everywhere, which has a certain irony to my mind.
I was going to make a post before I came out, but from interview to getting on the ferry was less than two weeks and I had loads to sort out. Of course, I thought I'd be able to catch up netwise from the camsite, but not when they're charging 8€ upwards for an hour of net time!
My apologies for not catching up with folk individually - this is my first time on the net for a month and I only have half an hour before this internet cafe closes, having desperately tried to revive my non fandom domain name and realising I've forgotten the passwords to access my mobile phone and bank accounts. And it's taken me 15 mins to log into LJ thanks to the French keyboard...
If any of you are passing through Calais in the next couple of months - especially on a Wednesday - and feel like meeting up, drop me a line (though it's safer to allow for at least a fortnight leadtime unless you have my mobile number, in which case allow for a week as it's not often on!)
Hugs to all :)))
1) I'm not dead
2) I'm in France and will be until a couple of days before Accio
3) This is the first day I've been able to find affordable internet access. I will log on occasionally I doubt every week.
4) I will do my best to post another chapter of Invictus at the beginning of August, when I have access to my own computer again.
5) Please point me to anything major or interesting that I've missed in the last month!
So, here I am in Calais in glorious sunshine, exactly one month after arriving in temperatures barely above freezing. Gave the 'white cliffs' another meaning entirely!
As one or two of you know, I've finally managed to get out of Little Whinging for a while - I'll be doing some residential volunteer work in the UK from August-November so I decided to try to find something more interesting than sitting in an office for the intervening time.
And as many of you know, my depression and inability to find a satisfying work life thus far has caused me much soul searching. But after my Mum said to me that I'd never get a good job if I didn't get myself a 'credible career history', I realised that I was already in that situation, and that rather than looking at a conventional apply-for-a-job career, I should take the time to do some of the low paying, low status jobs I've been wanting to try for years. To those who've heard this in person ad nauseam - thank you for listening, and thank you for your support. It made it a lot easier to discuss this calmly with my rather volatile parent!
So I'm now working as a camping courier for three months, hoping to get some fresh air, a less stressed lifestyle, and improve my French. The less stressed lifestyle has yet to come - I'm working hard for long hours. But now that my body is starting to adjust to doing physical work (mostly cleaning) I'm finding that being exhausted is better than being desperately bored. And seeing trees and happy, relaxed people every day is great, and the glorious weather helps, of course.
I'm the only person from my company on my site (I was at a large site before, and they must have concluded I was antisocial enough to do ok here ;) which is a bit stressful when it's busy or when a customer has a go at me for being offsite for a morning with no cover, but it means that I get a good sense of what's going on, and more chance to liaise with the campsite owners and meet all the people coming through. One unanticipated aspect of it is that for the first time in my life I have a work mobile that has to go with me everywhere, which has a certain irony to my mind.
I was going to make a post before I came out, but from interview to getting on the ferry was less than two weeks and I had loads to sort out. Of course, I thought I'd be able to catch up netwise from the camsite, but not when they're charging 8€ upwards for an hour of net time!
My apologies for not catching up with folk individually - this is my first time on the net for a month and I only have half an hour before this internet cafe closes, having desperately tried to revive my non fandom domain name and realising I've forgotten the passwords to access my mobile phone and bank accounts. And it's taken me 15 mins to log into LJ thanks to the French keyboard...
If any of you are passing through Calais in the next couple of months - especially on a Wednesday - and feel like meeting up, drop me a line (though it's safer to allow for at least a fortnight leadtime unless you have my mobile number, in which case allow for a week as it's not often on!)
Hugs to all :)))
