Christmas and Life Lately

This is going to be a long post so bear with me...

So things lately have been pretty busy. At the beginning of December I got a Christmas job at my local 99p Store, I'm still there so hopefully it's becoming permanent so I can drop the school cleaning. The hours are better, therefore equaling more money. The main downside is my boss. I just don't like him. He's been having a tough time lately in his personal life but that's no excuse for being a patronising git. Today for example I was expected to do about 7 jobs at once: put out 3 boxes of umbrellas, rearrange the batteries (didn't finish), put out filter tips (didn't even start), put up a stand for EE sim cards, move the anti-freeze, restock the deicer on the tills and serve customers in between. Phew. At least it wasn't as manic as it has been. December 22nd, 23rd and 24th I work 8am to 5pm (5:30pm for the close on the 24th) and it was so busy, especially Christmas Eve! I was absolutely knackered every day, starting to fall asleep on the sofa at 9pm. Insane. I have never done days that long in my life. The only thing that may come close is college on a late finish day when I've missed the bus but even then, over an hour each side is the bus journey which is just relaxing and reading, maybe having a light doze.

Mum's not been doing great. She's being made redundant in February when the Co-op where she works is closing down. They've been bought by Aldi but for anyone thinking she can just get a job there, wrong. They aren't planning on opening until November. Apparently if they re-open within 6 months then they have to take on the previous staff. The manager hasn't told the staff but a lot of customers are saying that they're taking over the Costcutter at the top of the hill, but then again the customers knew the shop was closing months before they told the staff. Yeah, slightly crap.

We've been having a bit of a nightmare with the Christmas decorations this year. It's always a nightmare thanks to Artex ceilings but this year more than usual. We've tried double-sided carpet tape, blu-tack (in white), the normal double sided sticky pads (must have been a bad patch), pins and wire holding tacks.

These things.

Nothing has worked and they keep falling down. There wasn't time this year but we're going to try and find some white duct tape for next year. I was going to take pictures of everything but none stayed up long enough so here's some photos from Christmas 2012:

The living room ceiling. Pretty much the same this year.

The TV in the living room, has changed for this year.

The cupboard by my desk - just visible cat treats - has changed slightly this year.

The hallway, pretty much the same this year. Excuse my reflection in my ratty old nightie.

The door phone with my owl picture. Pretty similar I think.

The cat picture, also pretty similar I think.

Our Merry Christmas sign, again pretty similar.

The reason I'm saying things are similar is because those cards stuck round things aren't necessarily in the same place each year.

Our Christmas tree this year :)

My presents this year, not shown are a bar of chocolate and some money from my aunt. The money we used for Polar Bear King, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Divergent. Polar Bear King we started watching, realised it was cheesy crap - the transformation sequence was a guy in a very bad costume - and returned it the next day. The bottom three and the book: The Shining, Two Bits and Pepper (horse film) and Gnomeo and Juliet were all from a charity shop. Harry Potter I already have but I think my copy is knackered since it didn't play properly on two different DVD players and was starting to go funny on the third when it finished. The owl hook is a set of three, two that colour, two with the foot colour as the main one. That, the two eyeliners and two of the nail varnishes were from Avon. The third one was a Glamour magazine freebie that mum decided to wrap up after accidentally duplicating the magazine.

My snowman cake that mum bought at the Co-op :D it was supposed to be for both of us but mum found the icing a bit sickly whereas I love icing! 

Scottie dog tin of shortbread from Sainsbury's! It says Scottie but I say it looks more like a Westie to me. The tin says the shortbread are Scottie shaped too but we haven't opened them yet.

Recent Outfits

Not an outfit but these were my nails before the Halloween ones. A white base from Maybelline (pictured) with a purple metallic crackle from Avon.

I wore this when we went to look at a new car. Can't remember off the top of my head where my dress is from originally but I bought it from Oxfam. It's a nice stretchy size 18. I can wear it without the jumper but mostly I prefer not to. The jumper is a men's one originally from M&S but bought from PDSA. My mum had to shorten the sleeves as they were rather long. Necklace is a cheap owl one from Amazon.

I wore this Wednesday to visit the new Portishead Sainsbury's. It's very smart and new, I got flowers for being the first female customer (not technically but I don't think the woman had the chance to give them to anyone else). There was also glasses of fizzy orange juice - potentially alcoholic - and they were giving out free bags designed by a kid at the primary school I work at which was quite nice. We did do some shopping, their hot chocolate is delicious. Bigger packets than Tesco, cheaper and Fairtrade so I think we'll switch to buying there :D Other than that it'll probably be mostly top-up shopping if we go to their petrol station. If we're in Clevedon we go to Morrisons garage so it'll all depend on where we are or where we need to be when we need petrol.

One thing that annoyed me was that I applied for a job there numerous times, even went to an interview organised by the job centre and yet I saw people there that I don't understand how they got the job. One woman's only previous work experience is as a cleaner yet she was working the tills. A man who also had his interview arranged by the job centre who - from what I've seen before - has anger issues and I'm not sure if he's worked before and possibly has issues with learning. It certainly frustrates me but I think the biggest issue is Sainsbury's online application. Last 2 jobs, most recent education, references, and then a scenario questionnaire. It isn't complete enough to get a full picture of you and your history.

Top is from PDSA (can't remember where originally), skirt is the same and trainers were from Shoe Zone.

I wore this Saturday when we went to pick up the new car :) It's a silver 2004 Ford Mondeo. It is perfect! Mum loves it, she doesn't love parking it yet XD it's rather large. Dress is from Pink Clove, shirt is from New Look via PDSA, leggings are Lidl - they're comfy but starting to wear a little thin around the seams. Trainers are Converse.

I wore this when we went to visit a family friend in Clevedon. She's been mum's best friend since they were at secondary school and she's my Godmother. We don't get to see her much because she works Mon-Sat and mum's usually working Sunday's but this Sunday mum's week off work had just started so we popped up for a chat and show her the new car. Shirt is same as yesterday, trousers are Evans via PDSA.

I wore this Tuesday (yesterday) to go shopping in Clevedon. We did a stock-up of stuff for the freezer. We're trying to have a bit more organisation and variety in what meals we have. Sorry about the quality of the photo, it was rather dark thanks to the rain outside. Top is from Evans, jeans are from an old catalogue and boots (barely visible) are from TUK.

I was back at work yesterday and I'm already kinda exhausted. Although that may be more to do with the fact that I've got a cold. Ugh. I did think it was allergies at first but I had a sore throat and a cough which don't usually go with my allergy attacks. They're usually 24-48 hours of sneezing and runny nose which comes and goes super fast.

Blogtober Day 31 - Halloween!

I do enjoy Halloween. I love horror movies, the spooky side of life and cheesy decorations. :D This year I haven't really done much - just painted my nails:

The first picture was stage one of the initial attempt which I then had to remove for an interview (it went well and I should hear in just over a week).

This was this mornings attempt two. Practice will make perfect I think. Believe it or not my right hand came out better despite me being right handed. Must be residual traces of my childhood ambidextrous-ness coming out - I really need to practice that in case I break my arm or something.

Also meet Ethel. Ethel is my Halloween stuffed cat that I bought at the PDSA when I was volunteering there. It was probably Halloween 2012, I also bought a mug but I don't have a picture of that. She got the name Ethel from the Worst Witch books. The main villain girl is called Ethel Hallow and of course Hallow is the first half of Halloween but I didn't think that made a good name so I stuck with Ethel :)

Blogtober Day 30 - What Is On Your Christmas List?

Books as always. My Amazon fiction wishlist: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/1X21OFANT5ETE/ref=topnav_lists_1

A new phone. Ideally I'd like an iPhone 6 or a Samsung Galaxy S5 or something along those lines but I'm not in a financial position to have a contract at the moment (providing I get accepted at all) and they're too expensive to buy outright so I'm thinking the Motorola Moto G:

It would suit my needs for now and is better than my old phone (HTC Salsa) which is the main thing.

A Tesco Hudl 2 in Purple. I'd like a tablet for browsing in the evening and watching the odd video but I don't want anything too expensive and I like the look of the Hudl 2. The screen size is good too. 8.3 inches so bigger than the normal 7 but not so big as the clumsy looking 10's.

An iPod Classic. Sadly due to production being ceased it's looking highly likely that I'll have to buy used. I just wish I'd had the money to buy one sooner.

A Kindle so I can save what's remaining of my bookcase space for books by authors I already own. I also want a chance to read the classics but their charity condition is often not too favourable so to own them all for free on the Kindle is a big draw.

Lastly a Windows 7 Laptop. No image because it's not something that's brand specific, just needs to be 15.6 inch screen, at least 500GB hard drive and running Windows 7. I did debate being less picky and opting for Windows 8 but I've used 7 and am familiar with it, also I've heard from friends problems with updates trying to wreck the hard drive which means constant back-ups are necessary.

Speaking of back-ups a 1TB (minimum) external hard drive would be nice for said back-ups. Also at the moment where my PC's hard drive is tiny I have files spread over a couple of memory sticks which isn't very practical. A hard drive is easier to grab in the event of a house fire.

Blogtober Day 29 - Year In Review So Far.

So far this year has been like any other with a noticeable exception. I'll do a timeline sort of thing.

January: I had been volunteering at Oxfam with mum since November and it was fine. She had been ordered by the job centre to find voluntary work, I happened to be there and got suckered into joining too. We did Saturday afternoons. The normal job centre hassles.
February: Still at Oxfam. Did a course which I hated. The tutor said some rather out of line things regarding my weight, how close I am to mum and making assumptions about my mental health.
March: Mum got her job at Co-op so we both left Oxfam. I had to do organised work experience with the job centre so I started volunteering as Sue Ryder.
April: The car failed it's MOT so we had to scrap it.
May: Nothing of note that I can remember. Interviews, job centre hassle. The usual.
June: Did a course on Business Admin. It involved an interview at the end but despite the assumption of a lot of people on the course not having previous experience lack of experience was given as one of their reasons for not hiring me. I didn't mind too much as it was zero hours contract as and when you're needed and thanks to travel I was pretty much limited to two locations.
July: Left Sue Ryder. Someone mum knows sold us a car.
August: I had my 24th birthday. The job centre started talking about threats of full-time work experience at a city farm in Bristol.which I really enjoyerd.
September: I had a taster shift at Waitrose for something called Feeding Britain's Future which I really enjoyed, seeing behind the scenes etc. My job centre adviser thought it was a proper job interview though *rollseyes*. He did get me an interview with Churchill Cleaning Services which has lead to my job at the primary school down the road. The people I work with are nice and the job itself is fine, it's just 10 hours is not enough.
October: Nothing major so far this month. I am in the process of arranging an interview for later this week and I'm currently on half term so no work. There are a couple of other things in the works which I don't want to discuss in too much detail yet.

There we have it, my year so far. Started the same as any other, voluntary work, worry that things will never change, but now I have a job and things are starting to look up a bit - finally! :D

Blogtober Day 28 - Favourite Music.

My Chemical Romance. The band that got me through the hard times. In particular 'Welcome To The Black Parade'. The creativity of the video, the lyrics. It just means everything to me.

Fall Out Boy. As previously mentioned another of my favourite bands. The first album of theirs I bought was Infinity On High and 'Hum Hallelujah' is one of my favourite songs on the album.

Mika. A bit different to a lot of my music tastes which tends more towards the rock side but ever since he started I have loved Mika's music. 'Blame It On The Girls' is probably one of my favourites and the video is really cool and quirky too.

It wouldn't be a music list without The Cure. I've loved them even before I knew what Goth was. I remember I found a cassette of Disintegration in a charity shop and loved it immediately but my favourite has always been the classic 'Friday I'm In Love'.

As mentioned on the movie post Labyrinth is my all-time favourite film so for the incredible David Bowie what could I pick other than a song from the movie? 'Dance Magic' never fails to put a smile on my face and I often find myself humming or singing it in the shower.

There's so many other artists I could list considering how big a part of my life music is but I'll keep it to a list of 5. Maybe I'll start up a Music Monday feature or something? It's something to think about anyway.

Slightly frustrated today though as I was going to do a cool orange and black spiderweb design on my nails for Halloween but it's looking like I've got an interview Thursday evening so there's not much point adding the webs to my orange. I have taken a photo of the orange though which I'll try and post for Halloween and maybe I'll try and do a Photoshop of what it would have looked like.

Blogtober Day 27 - Favourite YouTubers.

I don't really watch YouTube that much. I mostly use it for music videos. I do have a couple of channels that I follow though.

Firstly have my current favourite video 'Save Rock and Roll' by Fall Out Boy featuring Elton John. I've listened to the album via YouTube and it's epic! Fall Out Boy are definitely one of my favourite bands.

Simon's Cat! The illustrations are so cute and I love that there's no words, only sounds. This is Scaredy Cat the 2014 Halloween video.

Laci Green is a really interesting person and of all her videos the ones on feminism are definitely the most important for clearing up misconceptions.

Scarlet Saint is the only 'lifestyle' blogger I follow (the whole thing lately around Zoella confuses me because I have no clue who she is). I first became aware of her when BBC3 did the documentary 'Diaries of a Broken Mind' about teenage mental health. Scarlet has problems with anxiety and dermatillomania (me too but I think to a lesser extent) and I immediately found her really interesting and relateable. I even watch her haul videos just because I find her style really open and friendly. I decided to showcase her video on Bisexuality myths and facts here because although I am gay rather than bisexual it's something I care about as evidenced by this post here.

Blogtober Day 24 - Where Do You Hope To Be In 10 Years?

1. Be in a job that I love.
2. Retrain for said job if necessary.
3. Be in a loving relationship.
4. Have moved house - possibly to one I've bought.
5. Published at least one book.
6. Made my way through at least part of my bucket list.

A short and sweet post today. Looking at the subject list I won't be back until Day 27 so I'll see you then.

Blogtober Day 22 - Your Favourite Places To Shop/Wishlist

Wishlist

Dr Martens Aimilie boot in red http://www.drmartens.com/uk/Womens/Womens-Boots/Dr-Martens-Aimilie-Shoe/p/15313601

TUK Galaxy Boot http://www.tukshoes.com/galaxy-print-combat-boot-t2205

Scaramanga Leather Flight Bag http://www.scaramangashop.co.uk/leather-satchels-bags/leather-satchels-and-bags/for-women/leather-travel-bags-and-holdalls/vintage-leather-flight-bag-1/prod_18.html

Black Milk Patronus Leggings http://blackmilkclothing.com/products/patronus-leggings#

Simply Be Grid Midi Dress http://www.simplybe.co.uk/shop/simply-be-grid-midi-dress/sl544/product/details/show.action?pdBoUid=1297#colour:Black,size:

Modcloth Cinch I've Been Loving You Coat http://www.modcloth.com/shop/coats/cinch-ive-been-loving-you-coat

Voodoo Vixen Retro Penny Dress http://www.simplybe.co.uk/shop/voodoo-vixen-retro-penny-dress/lc011/product/details/show.action?pdBoUid=1326#colour:Green,size:

Rainbow Swirl Tie Dye Rayon Skirt with Smocked Waist https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/53959800/rainbow-swirl-tie-dye-rayon-skirt-with?ref=shop_home_active

Blogtober Day 21 - The One Thing You Can't Live Without.

As pathetic as it probably is I would say a desktop computer with internet. You can do so much on it, write, browse, draw, communicate with people, even read with the Kindle desktop app (which I don't have - too much eye strain). I love the computer I have now although it's about 6 years old now - I got it for my 18th birthday and I'm now 24. I desperately need to upgrade but first I need an external hard drive for all my files, some of my older stuff and my downloaded music is scattered between a couple of memory sticks but they're nowhere near big enough.

At the moment I have a Dell tower (as pictured), an Acer monitor (tiny), a Logitech keyboard and a Mikomi mouse and speakers. I would like a tower with a bigger memory maybe a TB as opposed to the current 138GB (as far as I can tell) and 4 or 8 RAM versus the current 2. I'd also like a bigger screen and my speakers are old and pretty rubbish.

Blogtober Day 20 - A Letter To Your Younger Self.

Dear 10 year old Stefanie,

You may think things are a bit rubbish at the moment, your best friend moved away, you broke up with your other best friend, you're scared about Secondary School but don't worry.

You will make good friends in the future and eventually in the years to come one of them will be your girlfriend. Yep, you're gay. Really you/we are a bit of an idiot not to have figured it out sooner what with liking unavailable guys and being friends with the weird guys - believe me they are weird, but also kinda awesome. One guy you never thought you'd be friends with because he's *gasp* disabled but you are totally compatible and even have a crush on the same actress from Home and Away - Tammin Sursok. We spend hours Googling pictures of her in a bikini rather than doing our Travel and Tourism coursework - hence why we fail XD

Tammin Sursok

School is generally a bit rubbish. You have a few issues with bullies. One of those is actually your 'friend'. She's a manipulative bitch. The other girl in the trio you're still friends with, she's alright and mum likes her. Your mum has very good instincts regarding your friends, you should listen to her. The saddest thing about the bullying is that you miss a lot of school, get behind and fail some exams meaning everything is delayed by 2 years while you pass them. You wanted to do A-Levels and then go on to do more at college and maybe even University. As it turns out you manage no A-Levels and only a year at college and you're still bitter and annoyed about it. You could have been doing so much more. *Sigh* that's the way it is sometimes.

Despite your fears about it you are never bullied for being gay although that rumour about your mum is slightly gross, weird and frustrating. It's always been the fat. You're still fat but it's not a big deal anymore. Overall what I'm trying to say is you end up feeling better about a lot of stuff. Sure life didn't turn out how you expected but it's not necessarily bad, just difficult sometimes. You aren't suicidal anymore - yeah that happened around age 14/15? The thoughts do pop up occasionally but you are stronger and you deal with it better.

Keep your chin up kid.

Sincerely,

24 year old Stefanie

Blogtober Day 19 (Late) - Your Dream Destinations.

South Wales
I want to move there someday and live on a farm in the countryside. The one pictured looks rather perfect. I'd also like to learn Welsh at some point, I loathe people who move to a different country without learning the local language

Australia

I'd possibly consider moving there if it wasn't so hot. That and the fact that I don't have any in-demand skills/jobs according to the Australian government i.e. I'm not a Doctor, Nurse, teacher, architect, plumber etc. I'm a retail flunky who is currently a cleaner.

Canada

Now Canada is a place I'd consider emigrating to. The beautiful scenery, the weather, the people. It just seems like a really lovely place.

Switzerland

Another place with beautiful scenery that I'd love to visit. I think it's becoming clear that I am a sucker for good mountains.

Scotland

Wide-open countryside, beautiful lakes. More fab scenery. I have considered moving there but I want to stay within reach of Bristol and places I know which makes Wales the more logical choice.

Ireland

Another place with beautiful wide-open countryside and a bonus some of Game of Thrones was filmed there and that would be nice to see.

Blogtober Day 18 - Favourite TV Programmes.

For this post I thought it would just be easier to compile a pictorial list of cast photos. I'm sorry for some being out of date. In NCIS Ziva has left to be replaced by Eleanor. In Criminal Minds Alex has left to be replaced by Kate (newest series). In Grey's Anatomy Mark and Lexie were killed and Teddy left obviously replaced by the latest interns. NCIS: Los Angeles is incomplete excluding Eric, Nell and Hettie. Hawaii Five-0 is missing Jerry, Lou and Catherine though Catherine is absent for series 5. Witches of East End doesn't feature Dash, Killian or Frederick. Grimm's poster is an almost complete cast, only missing Adalind but the situation with Juliette has been solved.

Obviously this is an incomplete list of what I watch but this post is rather long as it is without adding others.

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