Time Away

We move house tomorrow. Scenes like this:

and this:

have been my life outside of work for the past week and a bit.

I'm ready to get out of here.

Leaving means a lot of things. It means getting up earlier to bike some 2 miles to work. It means living in a flat on the fourth floor and having our own bathroom. It means living in a place that doesn't stink like the people who have lived there before you. It means our own bed that we built ourselves. It means a lot of things.

One thing though, for a few weeks at least, is that it means I will have no internet connection outside of my mobile. This means that I will pretty much, other than from twitter, disappear from the web for a while. No 365 uploads (will be done in bulk once the connection returns), no blogging, no fanfiction, no TV (we stream), no flickr, and no facebook (meh, I'm actually pretty over that). For me, this will be tough. My life kinda revolves a lot around on-line stuff. But, in light of the fact that it will suck, I will but a brave face on and try and get stuff done. Time away could be good for me!

Things to do when isolated and home from work for a week:

- unpack and get organised

- Finish the quilt top

- Read at least 3 books you haven't picked up and started yet

- bake different breads

- learn to relax

- sort out your computer files and EHD that you have been putting off since you left university a year ago

I'm going to miss the internet. But it will be good for me right?

Have a great few weeks and I'll be back to fill you in on all the adventures I get to have away from this wondrous land of time eating!

Weekend of Doom

It's been, with the exception of Friday night and Saturday lunch, a fairly appalling weekend. I'm too angry to discuss it here but will do when the issue is resolved which might take weeks or might take months. Sorry to be vague but it may end up having to be resolved by a third party so I don't want to say too much in case it's used against me. Mum, don't worry. I'll tell you on the phone. I'm not in any trouble. Promise.

I've been cleaning and packing today which has made me fairly cranky. I just want to go now. 5 days and counting till we get out of here. Although then I will be without internet for some weeks so I'll be saying goodbye to blogging and pretty much everything except twitter. Yikes. Maybe my quilt will finally get finished!

But something good did start this weekend. A bigger embroidery project than the text I have been doing.



Have a nice evening.

Wordless Wednesday (kinda)

Friday Food

Completely made from scratch no packet mix enchiladas. Amazing.



In other news. I'm going to see Amanda Fucking Palmer, my current favourite singer/songwriter in London in September. I cannot freaking wait!

Thoughts on a Tuesday Night

 

- decorating and moving are exhausting. i never knew i could hurt in so many places. moving into a flat four flights up with no lift is not fun.

- i have the immediate urge to nest in any place that i move too. is this a girl thing? the men folk seem to find it odd that my things need to go out asap on getting into a place.

- doesn't julochka's 'alien morning' look fabulous there!

- cupcakes with yoghurt works. really. and oats too. why had i not done this before? why did no one tell me?

- the weather has been alternating between days of glorious sunshine and pelting rain. it's doing the veggies wonders. now I just need to learn how to make some simple salad dressings.

YA Saves

There is a link to an article going around twitter right now. WSJ on YA fiction

It's about the level of darkness found in young adult literature and how teenagers have no place being exposed to that darkness.

I have several rebuttals to the idea of censoring what teenagers read, on a parental, and on a larger scale. Firstly, that as a teenager I found there to be little that would out me off reading a book, regardless of it's content, be it adult aimed, or be it aimed at young adults. What bugs me is the inability of this article to see young adults as having the ability to read the blurb on a book and identify if it is something that they want to read.

Secondly, as the hash tag on twitter goes to show, YA saves. It does. It gets teenagers though hard times. And maybe life for most isn't as dark as some of these books portray, but they can help you sort out your thoughts on your life in retrospect to what you are reading.

Finally, and this is the bigger point, who is saying that these are the only types of young adult novels? Really? There are hundreds of light hearted ya books that still deal with the shit life presents, but it a different way to the current glut of dark vampire/supernatural books. (not that I have a problem with those. Quite the contrary I adore them. Grew up on buffy remember?) take Meg Cabot, take Sarah Dessen, take Terry Pratchett's children's books. All of them present a counter story to the darker side of children's literature. We have both light and dark tales, we need both, and the mood of the reader will decide which they pick.

Young adults don't need pandering. They have minds. At that age I had a mind. If I wanted to read about someone being abused, or pregnant, or even a dog (memorable book: my life as a bitch by Burgess, along with Junk!) then I would. If I wanted to read about a girl who could find missing people in her dreams then I would, if I wanted to read about a teen princess then I would. YA has something for everything. YA saves teens, adults, and everything in between. It needs our protection from those who say otherwise.

Keep in mind where censorship leads. YA's can cope with a lot more than they are given credit for. Curling up with a good book, no matter what the material, helps them cope. It helped me cope, even with just general teenage angst.

Life Continues

Sorry for my absence. Life has been hectic this week. We decorated a room, signed on an apartment, packed up most of our current place and today, we will move the majority of our stuff.

We won't finish moving just yet as the new place isn't connected to the internet, and probably more importantly, it has no furniture like beds. Which are fairly essential to comfortable living. I have however ordered one but IKEA takes at least 2 weeks to deliver. Alas.

I should be back tomorrow though. For a little while. Then it's back to work and to getting on with life.