It is exactly one month since I lost my job. I am VERY lucky because, to put it bluntly, my family is wealthy. The house is paid off, my holiday was paid off before I lost my job, I’m not going to starve or become homeless in the year or two it will no doubt take to find a job. I am lucky beyond my wildest imaginings to have a supportive family and not live in a place where healthcare is tied to employment. But there’s so much stigma associated with being unemployed and I feel like such a leech. I start doing volunteer work tomorrow and I’m going to throw myself into it as much as possible, but I can never shake the feeling.
Recently my father-in-law showed me a 104-year-old newspaper that had been kept in the family attic. I LOVE that kind of thing so I was eager to take pictures!
February 28, 1922. The Princess Mary referred to is this one, the great-grandchild of Queen Victoria.
My village has DRASTICALLY flooded, it’s the worst I’ve ever seen it. Can’t get out!
Encountered a lot of folks on this walk to check out the flooding, including kids who were biking through it and people who were gathered to watch cars slowly plough through the water. Hey there’s not a lot to do in this town, you know?
My office job is going really well. It’s taken me a while to say that because I’m afraid of jinxing it but… It is? I also feel a huge sense of achievement when I remember that the office is located a street over from the fire-hazard deathtrap of a flat I lived in in 2010, and opposite the hotel where I was once a very bad waitress. Now I have a stable job and a house. I’m so insanely grateful.
I was told by a therapist that my OCD has improved a lot.
There was a stabbing outside my workplace today which made the BBC news. All pretty shocking to be honest. I was one of the people standing around gawping at the aftermath, I sort of wish I hadn’t been, but I guess it would seem callous to go straight back to work in that scenario.
The victim is reportedly doing okay at least. Crazy day.
On the first day of Hannukah, 15 people including a child and a Holocaust survivor were killed for being Jewish. A Muslim man intervened to save lives which is good but the situation is still horrible, horrible, horrible.
On the second day of Hannukah Jewish-American film director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were murdered by their own son. More horror. “President” Trump reacted to this with a post so obnoxious, crude, nasty and egocentric it boggles the mind. Nothing will happen, and he will face no consequences.
I had a busy weekend. I gave most of my old Barbie dolls to a child of my acquaintance (kept Mermaid Barbie), saw The Muppet Christmas Carol in a historic building, put the Christmas Tree up. When I was a kid my family used to celebrate Christmas over several consecutive days, which I think was a leftover from the Hannukahs my mum used to have. But who knows?
I wouldn’t have been able to go anyway, of course. I wrote too many anti-trump articles as a journalist. But this final nail in the coffin breaks my heart. I keep telling myself, wait until the fascist regime is over and then you can return to New York, the city you’re so in love with. But what if that day never comes? What if I never see New York again?
I haven’t posted any life updates for a while and that’s because I got a new job! I’m still technically in my probation period which is anxiety inducing but it’s so good to have MONEY??? I spent some of it on a trip to the Abbey Park fireworks display and took some photos.
Today I ticked an item off my bucket list and went to Alton Towers, the most popular (I think?) theme park in Britain!
I am a big fan of theme parks! I love learning everything possible about them and I follow many theme park vlogging channels on YouTube. (Theme Park Worldwide is my favourite.) Trouble is… I don’t actually like rides very much. I don’t like being too high up or too fast. And I used up all my thrill ride mojo when I rode Thor and Gold Rush on a rainy trip to Drayton Manor last week.
So I mostly stuck with the down-to-earth attractions at Alton, notably the aquarium!
My favourite thing here was the starfish (not actually fish, as it turns out). You could watch them very slowly feeding and you could touch them.
Honestly the aquarium was worth the price of admission on its own.
Forbidden Valley looks amazing! I would never have the courage to go on Nemesis Reborn but it’s STUNNING.
Toxicator is the ride that famously had a sewage pipe burst under it on its first day. It’s another one that’s a stunning feat of ride creation but I would never in a million years go on it.
In the gardens we found a mole! Just a mole casually digging holes in the daytime! I had literally never seen a living mole before!
The only thrill ride I went on (unless the Runaway Mine Train counts? It was very fun) was Hex. It’s based on the legend of the Chained Oak which I’ve always been fascinated by.
X-Sector is another part of the park that just blows the mind with its aesthetic. Here’s the Smiler and Oblivion, neither of which I would ever ride.
I did sort of want to ride Wicker Man. I’d read a lot about it and psyched myself up for it throughout the day. But unfortunately, the park closed at 4 (we thought it was 5) so it was closed by the time we got to it. It’s great to photograph though.
