Luck, or lack thereof

I haven’t blogged since August, have I? Back then – ‘summer’ (ha, ha, ha – summer? Aka: Rainy season, but warmer than the other rainy seasons) - I was talking all about our bad luck. Well it certainly hasn’t turned. We must have stepped on too many pavement cracks and walked under too many ladders... I got attacked in Liverpool at the start of November, some guys came up behind me, threw stuff at me, then, later, yanked my hair back – they managed to rip a ligament in my shoulder – ouch! I had to be signed off work – I was like a baby, I couldn’t support my own head for a few weeks. I’d only just started my job, and out of the blue I got a letter saying I was fired because I was signed off. Apparently, because it was so early in my employment, I didn’t really have any rights. Bah! To be honest I’m kind of lucky – that place is messed up, I’ve yet to meet a happy employee from there, but I miss the money! I’m on the mend now (but not better) and hunting for jobs hard, I tried to sign on (get Job Seekers Allowance and Housing Benefits) but because Raine works we’re not allowed anything, even though her wages don’t even cover the bills – we’d be better off if she didn’t work! My laptop’s died; we have to climb in the boot of our car, because the locks have broken (we can't afford to fix either); I keep getting interviews for jobs, but there’s always an internal applicant and interviewers with no intention to employ anyone but the internal candidate... I could go on, but you get the idea – don’t come near us, we’re cursed;-)


We had a really good holiday in London, back in September. Then we went back – Raine had an interview there, for a job she didn’t take because I’d just gotten my job up here *sob*! We went back a few weeks ago for Santacon – so cool. Raine was Hippy Santa, and sewed fabric flowers into her suit, I was ‘The Dreaded Santa’, There were thousands of us, all dressed as Santa, marching through the streets of London (past the occasional bar/off license) celebrating Christmas – and that’s all we were doing. It was so fun going through Camden market and onto the Underground, we just kept spilling out, in all our Santafied glory. We made it into The Guardian on Saturday - we were the centre spread – a picture of lots of us, taking over Trafalgar Square. It took me ages to get the pictures onto Facebook – Raine’s camera died, we got a replacement, it died (yes, you see, we’re cursed) but they’re there now.


We had a quiet, but nice, Christmas and New Year. Both spent at home in Lancaster – due to money and circumstance (we were meant to be away, surfing in the Canary Islands). We enjoyed the snowy backdrop, lit our fire and ate a Vegetarian Christmas Dinner in front of it; then, New Year’s Eve we burnt resolutions on it. Our New Years Eve was so rocking I nodded off and Raine had to wake me before midnight!

I’m so happy 2009 is over – it was such an awful year, it really feels like a new leaf. Even if believing that the end of the year will make a difference makes no rational sense, I feel like it’s good for my soul - I have a new outlook on things – I was getting so jaded... well, hysterical, actually – Raine and I both started laughing when our car locks gave out, there was really nothing else to do at that stage – it was either laugh or cry, and I prefer the crazy option.

We have lots of resolutions, I won’t bore you with them all – there’s the usual: lose the rest of my weight, carry on exercising (me), start exercising (Raine!)... We’re also thinking seriously about starting our own business – it’s something we both want to do, and we both hate being apart for the best part of the week. We’re working hard towards it, and will be going for advice on business start ups in the next few weeks. It’s basically going to involve my cooking and a lot of travelling. That’s all I’m going to say for now, but I might turn this blog into a business/cooking blog soon, I think it’s going to be an interesting ride - or at the very least it’ll be nice for us to have it documented!