Get fucked, it’s raining again.
I finished The Time Traveller’s Wife last night. I sobbed through the end, but it was so good! That book was really amazing, I can’t believe it’s her first novel! I need to go back to the brary to get some more books for the weekend. The good news is that after next week, (well actually the week after because i'll be in Stockholm for a week as well), Clinton and I will be more on the same schedule and can be buddies again, instead of solely like ships passing in the night.
5 ½ more days of this stupid job!!! I’ve actually had a little bit to do this week, which is kind of nice. I start work at Sports Café this weekend - I’ll be working 9-3 on Saturday night just manning the Cloakroom (apparently I can bring a book and read; and Clinton will be working as well so I won’t be walking around by myself down there), and then I’ll work 3-10 on Sunday afternoon / evening doing things like putting up balloons and handing out score prediction cards for the England game. They said they could easily give me 20-30 hours a week for July, so that’s nice.
I’m already ready to go back to bed. I keep having those little anxiety attacks at night and I feel like I can’t breathe and it keeps me up until I can calm myself down and start getting deeper breaths. It’s not bad enough that I panic, but it’s annoying and a little scary, and it's getting close to panic. Clinton wonders if it's asthma, but i don' really think so. However, if it's still bad in August, I'll go see Dr. Capps when I'm home. I think it’s just all the change brewing on the horizon. I’ll feel better once I get some things squared away, and I’m naively hoping that when I go to Sweden in July I’ll get a job and a visa worked out then!! Anyway Michaela and I are planning to be on the job hunt the whole week I’m there. I keep meaning to bring in my CV that I’ve been penciling in changes to so I can update it and print it on nice paper and make a bunch of copies from here. Anyway, I’m getting really ready to get out of Manchester. I’m really excited about going home (read: eating bojangles and chick fil a, laying out, swimming, seeing my sister). I’ve been checking flights and most of them are around $1000. Yikes. I was thinking from around August 1st to the 17th or something like that? I wanted to go by STA Travel and see if they could find me a student fare for any cheaper. I checked BA, AA, US Airways, etc etc and Continental was the cheapest.
We’re going to see Lobo tonight, it’s a Spanish film playing at Cornerhouse. “LOBO is a hit political thriller based on a true story. Basque man Mikel Lejarza aka Lobo (Eduardo Noriega) was recruited by Franco's secret police to infiltrate ETA between 1973 and 1975. He successfully reached the highest echelons, resulting in the most successful operations ever against the organisation. So why did he soon find himself on the run from both sides?” Mercedes, Susie and Xandro said it was really good. And maybe pizza for dinner. Mmmm! So I’m meeting Clinton after work (he finishes at 6, so I’ll just go over there and hang out until he’s done) and he said he will introduce me to the GM to talk about working and stuff. I hope I don’t have to wear something stupid. I can’t quite remember but I seem to think the bartenders and promo girls all have normal uniforms. The waitresses have to wear black mini skirts with white cropped singlets.. eww. I'm ok with showing cleavage (what little i have), and I'm ok with showing some leg, but one thing I don't do is show my stomach. Besides, would they really want me to blind the entire scally population of Greater Manchester? Wait, maybe I shouldn't ask that question.
Tomorrow is the next Australia match so we’re going to the Walkabout (the cheesy Australian pub) to watch it. I think it’s at 8. I was pretty sad that Sweden didn’t stomp England yesterday (it was a 2-2 draw, but in the last 5 minutes England scored and got ahead, and then in the last 2 minutes Sweden scored again to bring it to a tie, so that’s pretty good I guess). I didn’t watch the game, I was really tired and couldn’t put my book down so I stayed in, but I kind of wish I had watched it. I guess it's pretty sad when you're too tired to walk 20 meters to the pub in your front yard to watch a footie match. But it probably would have been a giant clusterfuck anyway, and I wasn't in the mood to be in a big crowd. Or to get stabbed, since I'd be rooting for Sweden.
Rachel and Sue get back from Greece this weekend, I believe. I’m anxious for them to get back so I can see pictures and hear all about their trip! Of course, now that I’ll be several nights a week it’s going to be even harder than before to plan our girl time. But we always hang out at least once a week.
It’s rainy, gray and cold here this week. It’s 15oC today (59oF) and really ridiculously windy. It feels much colder than that, my shirt and two jackets were not enough for me this morning. And yesterday I forgot my umbrella (I actually forgot it again today, fingers crossed that it’s not raining when I leave work) so I had to walk home in the rain, which was really unpleasant. However, I have figured out how to spend the least possible amount of time in the rain on the way home. I can take the metro shuttle from basically the front door of the office (it’s free) to Portland street near the best western, and it drops off at the same stop that my bus to get home picks up, so like yesterday I hopped right off the metro shuttle and right onto the 42 bus. It was great timing. I still have to walk from Curry Mile to home, but it’s not too bad.
Monday evening I was about to go into a screaming fit on the bus because it took an hour to get home (I could have actually walked quicker, if I didn’t have all my bags and weren’t exhausted I would have) because traffic was so horrendous. It took 30 minutes just to get down Portland Street. I briefly considered throwing myself under the bus but quickly realized that it would take about 15 minutes for it to actually run me over, traffic was that backed up. Then I was 35 minutes late to work on Tuesday because it took an hour to get into town, and even that was after some crazy stunt driving the bus driver did on some side streets once we got closer in. It was ridiculous, I rang Rina (at the agency) to tell her I was stuck in traffic and would be late and she said that they had a lot of people caught in it. This morning I was praying that it wouldn’t be bad because I was running behind anyway, but it was actually quicker than normal today. I actually got here on time, which is becoming a really rare occurrence.
We’ve had a few people come to look at the flat about taking the spare room, and most of them seem to really like it but then end up finding something else. We had a girl that we thought was going to take it and she was really cool, so another guy called and was going to take it and I told him it was no longer available, then the girl backed out, which was really annoying. Yesterday a Spanish girl came to look at it, and she was very nice. She’d move in and then take over the lease in September. She’s been here for 4 years and is an elementary Spanish teacher for students with special needs. She said it’s very rewarding and she really likes her job. She’s from Madrid. So she said she’d let me know by the end of the week.
I cannot believe that it’s June 21 already! Holy fuck! Time has really flown by, lately. Mercedes made tortilla (Spanish omelet) for me on Saturday, and I watched, and I just found a recipe that looks like pretty much what she did so I’m going to try it this weekend. (http://www.lingolex.com/spanishfood/tortilla.htm). She put red pepper instead of green pepper, which I think I’ll do, it tasted really nice. You can really put anything in it; sometimes she adds mushrooms as well. Maybe I should try it for myself before I try it for Clinton, but I can’t usually be fussed to do something new when I get home from work at night. Tesco does this really nice spinach and ricotta tortellini and a tomato sauce that’s really cheap and really easy, and actually surprisingly good. Especially if you add some prawns to the sauce and just a little melted cheese on top. I was going to do that yesterday for dinner, and the pasta was even on sale for 2 for 1, but I ended up making a sandwich instead. I wish I’d done the pasta, that way I could have had the leftovers for lunch today! I’m making myself hungry.
I’m probably going to be pretty tired after working this week and then working the weekend as well, but a different job will be a welcome change of pace!
Anyway, riddle me this: What the hell is the point of putting paper towels in the bathrooms if they are completely non-absorbent? All they do is move the water around on your hands, not actually dry it off. It’s really obnoxious.
I'm exhausted. Maybe we should keep the spare room so I can actually get some sleep during the week.