(no subject)

So hey, it's been a while. :)

I'm starting to settle into my new place, which is a strange sort of double-decker shoebox with improbably thin walls; the reality of having a place to myself again is so incredible it's difficult to articulate, and I'm loving getting hold of my own furniture. At the moment it's bare minimum, and cheap crap for the most part, but I have a delightful old lady chair for reading in, and what more do you need? My sister doesn't seem to approve of my choices of potential wall decoration, but she doesn't really understand that I don't care so much about decorating as I do about having my pictures up, and that means mismatch and geekiness and I can pretty much guarantee a smile on my face every time one corner-catches my eye.

I like new houses for the small differences they bring with them, at least at the beginning. I haven't enough furniture to allow me to be house proud, because there are still various things in bags on the floor, but I'm motivated to be neater than I have been in a while. Lack of the internet has had me reading newspapers, although not very successfully; somehow I never got past the first page of last Sunday's Independent because I kept welling up over the tales of people taking care of each other after last week's riots. Despite no evidence arriving so far, I blame hormones entirely. I've been exploring more too and Southsea's a brilliant place for it; little weird and funky shops everywhere, and I finally have my own little independent Local Comics Shop - the bloke who owns it seemed initially unnerved by my clear lack of a penis ('are those a gift? Or are they... for you?')but comforted when I popped in to buy the recent Mike Carey (Unwritten, which I'm really enjoying so far) and ask where I might buy a screwdriver. People seem unnerved when I mention the graveyard as one of my highlights, but wide open and peaceful spaces with fascinating history snippets and trees aplenty are not to be sniffed at - I'm a little unnerved by the common's lack of trees. The seafront is very much within walking distance too, and the other night when walking back from seeing Captain America I practically danced just because there was a section of seafront with waves.

I need to get back to work which will necessarily involve buying a desk, and unfortunately that may have to wait until the end of the month. I was kind of cleaned out with the deposit and first month's rent and admin fee and all. I should be getting a small raise this year, though, since I'm a full time fully qualified teacher now, plus there's the possibility of a bonus type thing which I'm trying to decide what to do with (should I manage to get it). A car seems reasonably practical but not particularly necessary, paying off my overdraft sensible but boring, putting it towards a holiday ridiculously tempting but possibly not justified, and a Masters... I don't know. I'd love to but I know myself well enough to know how bad I am as a student. Last year they offered various discounted and free modules for a Masters, so I'm going to hold out hope (no matter how unrealistic) that there's something of the sort again. I suspect there may be ways of claiming some small amount of support under the umbrella of Continued Professional Development, also, but I'll have to look into it further to know for sure. It's weird - I was certain that I didn't really want to pursue a Masters in education, that I would hold out for linguistic anthropology or the evolution of human communication, but now that I've found something that I'd like to investigate I'm all over eagerness. I'll see how it pans out. My enthusiasms are bright and all-consuming and over terribly quickly, for the most part.

That's probably enough rambling for the moment, isn't it? I have missed you all, though, and will endeavour - now I have reclaimed the Magical Internets - to read and comment a hell of a lot more. If there's anything you think I should know - or anything you'd like to know - I'd love to chat in the comments.

♥

OH also, completely (so very completely and utterly) unrelated to this entire post, but every time I watch Inception, Eames' little 'hmm?' at the end of a pointed question reminds me ridiculously of Carey Elwes in the Princess Bride. Now you know.