Nada

No to the jobs. I think I am aiming too low.

Here goes another round of applications……sigh.

Hotpotch

So I received my Ravelry invite and I have spent a large proportion of my time on there in the last two days. So much, in fact, I haven’t lifted a knitting needle in two days. Irony, huh?

I do love it though. I can see it costing me a fortune in patterns and yarn though. So much for a cheap hobby. I have started on my Striped Noro Scarf. I couldn’t help it. I have been drooling over this since I saw it in BrooklynTweed’s blog. I had to have one. I have no impulse control.

Other tidbits that have been happening.

After the sterling performance (read – amazing french) from James Marsters in Torchwood, I had to go back and give the series another go. I tried to watch it when it first came out (along with the new Doctor Who) but it just didn’t take. I hated the Welsh accents. They always sound so fake to me. (Sorry all the Welsh peeps.) I also couldn’t see past John Barrowman. I remember him as a children’s presenter and his absolute white teeth used to distract me no end. However, after persevering, watching the first season, I do have to re-evaluate Mr. Barrowman. He does actually have this weird sexual chemistry with almost everyone. His acting can still be a bit broad, a little to theatre for me, but he has managed to eke a compelling character from what could have easily descended into sillyness and screaming campness. I never thought I would say this but Torchwood has just made my ‘must watch’ TV.

If you want to have huge hits on your blog, just give your entry the tags of Wentworth Miller and watch them flood in. Seriously.

New Addition

May I present to you the newest additions to my household.

Meet Pepper (green & yellow) and Chilli (grey & white.)

My sister wanted a budgie as part of her ongoing ‘reminisce about my childhood now I’m thirty’ kick. They go with the Care Bear and the Atari that were purchased from ebay. Seriously, is there anything you CAN’T buy on ebay?

We had a budgie when we were small. A mental package he was. Complete nut-job of a bird that we loved fiercely and have never really gotten over. Bluey. I know, original.

Anyways, Kimberely went to buy ONE budgie and came home with TWO. A cock and a hen. Her excuse? The lady at the pet store wouldn’t separate them as they had been together since day one.

They are about 9 months old and still a little wary of their new surroundings. Pepper seems to be settling a little better than Chilli, but my sis is worried because Chilli was really outgoing in the pet shop and all she seems to be do is sit next to Pepper almost hiding. Pepper is exploring and chirping away.

We will see how they get on in the next couple of days.

They are cute though, huh?

When it rains…

I should write self-depricating rambles about my joblessness more often.

I now have two interviews on Monday, one which I am all ‘meh..’ about and the other I am totally cool about on the outside but inside I am jumping about and have secretly already imagined myself in the role, kicking serious work ass!

Good vibes are needed people.

Dilemma

So I rushed to the bookshop this morning and got my copy of ‘White Night’ starring everyone’s favourite Chicago wizard Harry Dresden by Jim Butcher. I am so excited, I want to just read it all NOW! But I have a dilemma because I am only halfway through ‘Dead Men’s Boots’, starring everyone’s favourite London exorcist Felix Castor by Mike Carey.

Pressure Cooker

I am unemployed.

I am unemployed by choice.

I had a really tumultuous year last year that started off with some unexpected major surgery and ended with a death. Gets a person to thinking. I realized I hated my job. So I left. Life is too short.

I was waaaaaaa-y cocky about finding a job. Thought the perfect one would come to me. I am changing careers, not just job roles so I knew it might be a little tough, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

I watched the months race by and my savings dwindle. I finally signed on to unemployment, something I had planned not to do. I suddenly became the whiz around the house, doing all the little jobs, I said I would do. I took up knitting again. Became Miss Project. Anything to fill my time.

Anything to cover the growing ball of panic sitting in the bottom of my stomach, threatening to burst at any moment. Some deep breaths and a repetition of my mantra, ‘I can have a job I love, ‘ keep it down, when it threatens to rise. But it’s still there, getting bigger and bigger, more insistent each day.

It’s not like I’m a student. I have a mortgage and credit card bills and loans to pay. I really can’t afford to be unemployed much longer. I sacrificed my ‘Luxury Canadian Holiday’ for my decision (I have spent my holiday fund.) and sold almost all of my worldly possessions on ebay. I think I might have to crack into the a-ha collection soon and anyone who knows me, knows how desperate things must be if I’m contemplating THAT!

So when the call came today for an interview, the pressure, stress and tension lifted off me. I never realized just how worried I was. It’s a crappy job, doing crappy work, for crappy wages but it will keep the wolves at bay, while I figure out my next move.

Thank god for breathing space.

I suppose it is like the eternally-wise Quoda always says to me, ‘It’ll all work out in the end.’

Now, I just need to ace this interview!

FO: Loop Scarf

So I finished the scarf I was making to distract myself from the Eternal Cardigan. My sister has been on my case about it so although I want to, I am NOT going to start on something with my fantastic Noro yarn that I bought the other day.

I’m thinking a hat, scarf and gloves set for me, this time. But I think I’d like to crochet the hat. Anybody point me in the direction of a nice hat pattern? I should just wait until I get into Ravelry. Only 2900 people to go in front of me. *sigh*

It did turn into a bit of a sausage which annoyed me, but it worked out quite well as you couldn’t see the wrong side then. My sister also said it made the scarf much cosier so a win all round.

If anyone wants the pattern, give me a holler in the comments. It’s really quite easy.

Finished Object: Loop Scarf

Yarn: Wendy Fusion in Juniper Berries (158)

Needles: 5.5mm

Take Out The Trash Day

Bullet points of some wee things in my head.

• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Saw the first two episodes this week and was pleasantly surprised. I did see the original two-hour pilot and was bored rigid by it, so I am glad to see they improved it ten-fold by cutting it down, making it leaner and tighter. The second episode built on a solid introduction. I love Lena Headey in the title role. I have been a fan of hers from her early, early days. Linda Hamilton left some pretty big shoes to fill and I think she is doing that admirably. No doubt there will be all the Terminator aficionados who disagree. I’ll definitely be tuning in until Fox ruin it somehow.

• Torchwood.

I finally saw the trailer where John Barrowman frenches James Marsters.

Blew. My. Mind.

I can’t really say anymore than that at the moment.

• Prison Break

Season Three is definitely the season of LINC! He has really surprised me this season becoming much more than the one-dimensional, mono-syllabic grunt he has always been portrayed as. Who thought I would come round to the idea that Dominic Purcell could act. I still haven’t forgiven him for Blade III but I no longer loathe him. And he has put his pecs away. Finally!

• Two Pints Of Lager

A guilty pleasure which has returned but without Johnny! I am not sure how it’s going to survive without Johnny Keogh (Ralf Little) but I will watch it until it gives me a reason not too. Which hopefully won’t be anytime soon.

• One Tree Hill

K-Fed was not as awful as I thought he would be. I wonder if it’s really him singing?

Noro-tastic

So one of my favourite yarns stores here in Edinburgh is closing. I was gutted when I found out because really that only leaves ONE proper yarn shop in the whole of Edinburgh (that I know of) that has a decent range.

It’s closing for personal reasons not because there is no business to support it. I suppose that makes it a little easier to bear, but still. (Idle thought – Dream Job, my own yarn store……Hmm.)

Silver lining time. They are having a closing down sale. Oh yes, you saw it. Yarn and sale in the same sentence.

I went up there today and went wild. I got myself some Rowan scottish tweed in a deep purple that I have had my eye on for a while, at £2.50 a ball I just couldn’t help myself. And I went a little bit mental in the Noro corner. I bought a shedload of Noro Iro at the reduced price of…..£5.50. Oh yes, nearly half price.

£45 later I emerged from the shop drunk on Noro and all the ideas swirling in my head on what I am going to make. I feel like Homer in the Simpsons when he drools over food. Noooorrrrrooooooo………

Reading List Updated

January:

Dead Beat – Jim Butcher

Proven Guilty – Jim Butcher

Black Magic Woman – Justin Gustainis

Devil You Know – Mike Carey

Vicious Circle – Mike Carey

To Read Pile:

Salt – Adam Roberts

The Killing Floor – Lee Child (gift)

Furies Of Calderon – Jim Butcher

White Night – Jim Butcher (Pre-order)

My Boring Ass Life – Kevin Smith

Out – Natsuo Kirino

I have given up trying to read Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows and have been listening to it while on my daily bike ride. I am getting through it slowly but surely. I think I don’t want to finish it so I haven’t been able to read it.