xans

Okay, since I have all the time in the world at the moment, I'm going to make an attempt to cover the ups and downs of my life over the past two months. That I haven't really said much about in here.

So, back in June, I'd moved into this temporary women's accommodation place, while I job and flat-hunted. Landed two part time jobs, one at a supermarket as a checkout chick, and one at Mitre 10 mega in the service aquad. One of my coworkers at said Mega was looking for a female flatmate to move in with him and this other guy, and rent was about 90 a week. So I moved in with Ben and Clayton in August sometime.

It was okay, had a lot of fun when Ben was over in Aus and Clayton had this friend Lauren visiting. We went out on the town and stuff, got pissed several times and I discovered red wine makes me nauseous. So boo to that.

Ben came back from Aus, two weeks later than planned, and we fought a lot. His little peculiarities got on my nerves, I felt he was behaving like a child as he tried to treat me and Clayton like errant children in "his" house. And it was revealed that he would be moving back to Australia to be near his estranged wife and their three four kids. (I got to find out from the landlord's wife that Sam had had their fourth in September when he was over there. I lived with him and he didn't fucking tell me that.)

I was quite angry about the shit Ben left behind. He owed me money, which was factored into the price I paid for his fridge. I couldn't afford his washing machine straight away, but I had plans to buy that too. But he'd also left a bunch of other furniture and rubbish for me and Clayton to deal with--Clayton busy with his own plans to go an an OE. And Ben owed him money, too.

Anyway, I ended up with the fridge, washing machine, microwave, and kitchen table along with all my stuff. But I had no flatmates and couldn't afford the rent on my own. Not even til too possible other flatmates could be found. So it was back to the women's accommodation place, and time to start flat-hunting again. On the upside, Nga still lived there so I had at least one friend to get along with to begin with. But the other girl Christy was not bad, either.

Gladys, who used to live there, got to hold on to my bottle of scotch as the place was alcohol free, and it gave me an excuse to visit her (although I got so busy with work that I didn't get much of a chance to).

We had another girl move in, who had lived there before as well, by the name of Bella. And alternative-lifestyler, she and I got along very well given our like of kink. She more than I, but the other girls were quite vanilla compared to us. Still, another fine friend in my life with her.

Flat hunting was hard. My time was consumed between working, sleeping, and making sure I got my chores done... not to mention being social, and any bits of shopping or whatever I needed done, that sometimes, yeah, the flat-hunting got put on the back burner. And that was not a good thing because the house closed down from the 22nd of Dec to the 21st of Jan, and I really didn't want to up and move my shit all over again.

Being expected to cook a meal or two a week was also inconvenient, given my working, not to mention the fact we were rarely all home together at the same time. The rules of the house almost go by the assumption the residents have no lives outside of the house, which just ain't so.

Anyway, early November, I put in an application for leave at Mega for the last weekend of December. If I did that and didn't pick up extra shifts at Woolies, I could have four days up in Hamilton to see family and friends. But I was told the next weekend it couldn't be approved because no one gets leave in December or January, the busiest time of year. Well, I'd already made my plans and bought my (non-refundable) tickets assuming one little weekend off would not make a difference. So I handed in my resignation to finish on the 16th of December. (My manager said to my darlin that it was a shame since I'm such a good worker, but 1: they didn't even wait for me to leave before scraping my name off my cubby hole, and 2: I got replaced by another girl pretty damn easily, really.)

( And my deciding to quit Mega is how I landed my darling. )

This was all happening in the lead-up to Christmas as well, wasn't it? So I'd got mum and dad pestering me for a mailing address and what I want for Christmas (and I'm going, "I don't know where I'm living at Christmas!" and "I don't have any idea what I want, nothing big!"). And of course the customers at (either) work are in a rush, sometimes cranky, and it's a hectic time to be moving and all. Plus I told Dad and Suzy not to get me anything expensive because they bought my bike earlier this year.

Mind you, I came to the startling conclusion that I needn't do my shopping for anyone til Boxing day, because I don't see them til after that. Except for my darling, and I sort of got him two presents. The one before Christmas was some choc body paint and this, um, outfit? (It doesn't hide much) The outfit was for me to wear, 'cause I knew the effect it would have... and that was a good end to my Christmas Eve night. Work was such a bitch on Monday.

Our Christmas day plans were kind of ruined by the weather. The idea had been to hit up the beach and take a stroll before a picnic lunch. So naturally, it rained. Porbably just as well, because my six day work weeks, and adjusting to a schedule of broken sleep (getting up at five to be in town when he starts, then sleeping some more at Bella's since I don't start til afternoon...), I was so tired I took a nap or two, and had an early night. I felt bad because I kind of neglected Alan in favour of playing some Dungeon Siege, but as he told me later, he could tell I needed the mindless game thing to relax, and so he gave me some space even if he would have liked my company (and for me to have been a bit more amourous, but my mind wasn't cooperating).

(lmao I knew this would happen. I haven't signed up for a single extra shift this week, given the being out of town thing, so naturally I got a call from work asking if it would be possible to do a few hours this afternoon/tonight. Georgia said she'd make a note of my unavailability so it doesn't happen again.)

So Boxing day I did my shopping, and spent more money on myself than anyone else. Best I could calculate it was around $400, but then half of that was on the cell phones. I decided it was time I got a new one, just a cheap one, but nice, and then I also bought Alan one because he didn't have a vodafone, just telecom. And if I'm really efficient I'll set up txt2000 and BestMate so it's even cheaper than my current prepay thing.

I also bought a couple sets of lego, which was where I spent around a 100 more of the estimated 400. It cracked Alan up to see me sitting on the floor putting my lego sets together...butt nekkid. And that he felt the chill long before I paid any attention to it because I had my legos. Also, telling me to put my toys away and come eat dinner. It was pretty funny though.

I seem to have done well with my choice of presents for the family though. My step-sisters all got the same type of chocolates, which was easy enough and they were all happy. Savannah quite liked her glow necklaces. Amarah did cuddle with her little stuffed zebra, but Izayah was only slightly interested in his stuffed frog. Suzy does like her scarf and Il Divo cd (that I copied before giving to her) and I got Dad this drill bit set he asked for, plus the Spaceballs dvd (copied that one too).

My presents were quite nice too. From Mum I got the usual mix of clothes and itty bits (vair cute) and $50, from Dad and Suzy I got a set of pjs, the Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz dvds, and lollies. I got a diary from Carla. Oh, and Alan got me one of those stone dragon ornaments, one that's perching on an arch of stain glass.

I suppose... I should go have shower, get dressed, and do more than read the backlog of my f-list. I have read a bit here and there... maybe I'll make an effort to comment later, but for now... shower, clothes, food, coffee.

Still breathing.

Fin.