Right now I'm exhausted. I've said it before - I love my job but it can be very intense. I'm coving a lot at the moment until we get some new staff to take over certain roles, and it feels like something new pops up every other minute. I've unexpectedly taken on a new project which requires lots of recruitment and a social media campaign. I'm excited for it to get underway but it's a heavy workload.

I still need to put together a team newsletter (for a service of 600+ staff, as well as lots of diary management and written responses to coordinate. This weekend couldn't have come sooner. I should really go to the gym, or maybe for a run. The idea seems tiring but I know it'll make me feel a lot better.

Musically I've been checking out the new Rosalia, Charli XCX and Remi Wolf (well, recent, from 2021) records. I also love the new Floating Points mix, "Vocoder". If I had the money I would absolutely book a festival tickets, but the current cost of living crisis tells me that's not a good idea.

I finally had my graduation (after two years) and saw my family, which was really nice. I'm planning to visit home soon and will get the chance to see everyone as the Spring comes in.

Speaking of seasons, Summer is finally approaching and I can't wait. I'm trying not to be too drawn into summer fashion this year, making a point of wearing the things I own. I used to spend all of my money on clothes so this year I'm going to try to tackle that spend a bit.

Web inspiration is lacking atm. I'm trying to come up with some new page designs but I seem to hate everything I produce. Hopefully if I keep finding new sites I like I can think of something cool. I want to learn some new software so I can make better layouts but I struggle to find the time around work, volunteering, events & studying. I did streamline my site a bit though so all creative/visual content is housed in my blog library. My portfolio is now home only to writing and shrines, and I got rid of the confusing second home page.

Questions:

What are you listening to right now?

What is your current favourite TV show?

What sites/designs do you love?

Labels: life, musings, work, money, music, web design

This month has rinsed my bank account so hard. A huge problem with having moved to a different (albeit nearby) city from my hometown is the cost of socialising. Thankfully I do have a couple of friends that live nearby, some I'm pretty close with, others less so. I just wish I could afford to visit my family more. A friend I hadn't seen for a few months came to stay a few weekends ago - it was only for one night but of course we ended up going clubbing. Which I don't regret, because I had a really fun time! Among other first world problems, the pandemic stopped me from being able to go a bit wild after graduating (I had a lot of pent up energy from final year and was itching to be able to spend the summer partying lol).

The cost of living rise is definitely hitting my partner and I. Thankfully my energy bills are fixed for a few more months and so the initial increase will hit us primarily in the summer (when we use barely any gas and will be out more, so less electricity too). Food prices and transport are considerably higher though and being able to travel to see my family is much harder. Plus I'm still learning to drive and having ADHD means it takes me twice as many lessons to get things right. I'm sure there are dollar signs in my instructors' eyes.

I did manage to hop on the train to the next city to meet some of my hometown friends, who happened to be visiting. The town is much more old-timey and quaint, with lots of references to the franchises/author that must not be named. We had some drinks (including a really nice bitter ale ) and lunch and explored the town before I headed home.

I've found that the constant impending doom feeling of the last few years has only gotten worse with the events taking place in Ukraine. Money issues don't help this either. Whenever I try to save even minimal amounts, something comes up. Whether that's medication charges, transport issues where I have to use taxis to get to work (prices have rocketed here too), increases in my monthly bus fares, extra heating charges, extra electricity charges, graduation planning, cleaning products running out - it never ends. I also had to shell out for extra draft excluders because my house is unbearably cold. Delivery charges aren't cheap, and being too tired/drained to cook (often due to medication issues) means I'm spending more on lunches.

The idea of ever being able to afford our own house is a distant one (save for a lottery win or, god forbid, sudden family death) - neither of us earn enough to even think about getting a deposit together. Our rent is super expensive and we don't even own our own furniture (except for one desk, which to be fair is an excellent desk). Any more financial hits and I might have to start working overtime doing audio transcription, but I hope it doesn't come to that.

I haven't had much of a chance to be creative recently - this month has been very busy! I am really enjoying my job still although it is very draining atm (currently covering considerable extra duties whilst we recruit to other departments). Spring is on the horizon, though, and the lighter evenings are doing wonders for my energy levels. I'm much more motivated to go to the gym, even going by myself for the first time in years! Hopefully I can keep this up when my meds re-stabilise.

Once I get some time I need to sort out my laptop and delete/tidy my files, which are currently an embarrassment. I'd like to learn Blender soon so I can have a go at those cool chromatic designs. I'm also trying to watch more films. I recently watched Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - Viola Davis (one of my all time favourite actors) and the late Chadwick Boseman (RIP x) both gave stunning performances, and the linguistic nuances of the dialogue were beautifully and intelligently written. Once I finish watching Succession & all fifty seasons of Drag Race that seem to be going, I'm going to focus on filling my letterboxd. Feel free to send me any recommendations in the comments

I've moved my blog posts over to neocities from blogspot. I don't really need a complex blog management system for personal purposes at the moment so it made sense to have everything in house and away from Google's data-hungry hands. Hopefully it looks *slightly* better on mobile browsers too although the best thing to do would be to replace iframes with shtml. Might do it at some point x

Labels: life, musings, work, money, films