Brrr! The sun is shining, but it's crispy cold, and I finally got my wish for SNOW! This morning as I stepped out onto the street everything was covered with a fine cover of white, sparkling, clean snow. All the paths gleamed, and only the roads that had been salted were black, snaking their way through the pristine landscape.

The trees and shrubs all hold their little deposits of white so delicately, it really is like a new world, I love it! Even so close to the sea... The houses seem like German cakes with icing on top, and the roads are like licorice.

This afternoon I have an interview for the 'sleep duty' position at the nut home in Bexhill. Fingers crossed that it goes well, and that it's something I can see myself doing. I have some work this weekend doing admin kinda stuff for a friend, so that was good news from yesterday. AND the barmaid at the pub that Mark and I like to frequent is leaving, so I'll have to drop in and see if they'd like a Victoria to take on her shifts... Things may be looking up!

Mark is off to France sometime in the next month or so, and I'm thinking I may tag along with him to get a peek at another place. It would make a nice change from the work, sleep, work routine that I seem to have so easily fallen back into. It'll be the countryside of France as well, maybe Paris if I can scrape enough cash together, but if not, I still think it's a good place to start. Cities aren't really my favorite places anyway. But you can't go to France and not see Paris now can you?

It's a cold blue sky today, with temperatures dropping below 0, my ears stung this morning on my walk to the train station. Apparently it's been snowing around the place, but not where I am as it's right by the sea.

It was a quiet weekend, but enjoyable. Mark went off to Brighton and I eventually decided to stay in. Did some doodling and general hanging about, but enjoyed just chillin' by myself. On Saturday evening I got really stoned and fell asleep in front of the telly (what an exciting chick I am!!) only to be woken at about 7am by the beginnings of CBBC - childrens telly with screaming hosts... A quick flick of the controller though and it was back to sleep.

When I did eventually wake up it was to realise that I had used my weekly train ticket for this week as a roche in a spliff the night before... At about 45 pounds per week in travel it made it a pretty expensive roche. After a bit of a panic and a few cups of tea I walked to the train station with the hope that they'd be able to replace my ticket, without charge, or too many questions... Fortunately the guy I'd bought it off on the Friday before was working, and remembered me. I explained that my ticket had gotten ripped (heh heh) and could I have it replaced please? He took a look at it and asked where the other piece was. Not wanting to say it was in the ash tray, I just said I didn't know. Thankfully that was the end of the questions and 5 minutes later I had a nice new ticket at no cost. Ahhhh....
A quick walk about town later in search of some weekend work took me to various chippies, bookshops and a cafe or two. At this stage I don't have anything, but I was able to leave my details at a few places which seemed promising. One of them is a bookshop in the old town that I can really see myself working in, but it remains to be seen. It's either that or a fish 'n' chip store... Mmmm chip fat.
On top of that though I have an interview on Wednesday for a 'sleep duty person' in a home. Basically it's staying the night with some disabled people once a week. Considering that more than half the job is sleeping, I figure I could be the person they're looking for... We shall see, I need to find out more about the job first and just how disabled these people are, and what exactly I would be required to do...

Aside from that I have done none other than stay home, eat chocolate, draw a bit, do some writing and generally doss about. I did clean the house, and then Mark came home.... Needless to say it doesn't look clean any more.

The sun is shining, the grass is lush and green, and it's generally a lovely day. Not warm, but not freezing either. It's much like winter in Melbourne, and a mild one for here I am told.

The weekend was a pretty quiet one, the weather was kind to me and I was able to go for my big walk on Saturday. The country park never bores me although I have walked its paths so many times since being here. It was a great chance to clear my head and sort myself out. Something I definitely needed to do! I took a few pics as well, but with a disposable camera, so I have no idea how they will turn out. My camera is still sick and I need to take it in for a service or to be completely fixed... Something else on the to do list!

Work is going well and I think I may be here with the Alliance for a while, which is good! I am looking for extra work though, just something part time, weekends or evenings... Maybe I'll become a bar maid, or a shop assistant for a while. Not for too long though - I like having my spare time and aren't wanting to give it up entirely! Still something for about 3 or so months should give me some extra cash, which will be handy to pay off my credit cards back home and put some money into savings for my planned road trip this spring. Fingers crossed I find something that's not too bad shortly!

This weekend I may be off to Brighton for a gathering with Mark and his mates. I'm not too sure if I want to go yet, but figure today is only Tuesday, and it's not until Saturday, so there is plenty of time to decide what I want to be getting up to on the weekend. One day at a time - just like my New Years resolution! It would be nice to go out somewhere different, but I'm not too sure if I am up for meeting a whole lotta new people again yet... We shall see I guess.

Mark is in London again this week - leaving today and gone for a few nights. So the flat is all mine for a few days! Don't know what I'll get up to as I am used to having him about most of the time now that he is working from home... Sure I'll find something to do though rather than simply sitting and contemplating my navel for two days.
He bought me the Celestine Prophecy on the weekend - which has been great to read on the train. I may finish that and contemplate the theories and issues it discusses rather than my navel.. Then again I may just leave it for a train read and get to those curtains and finally finish them. Like I said, I'm sure I will find something to do!!

It's a lovely day today! And whatever you've got to do, it would be lovely to be doing it with you... You know not until I wrote that bit of song out did I think it was rude. Please, to whoever is reading this, I'm not saying that I want to 'do it' wiv ya, ok?

But it is gorgeous outside. I'll quite happily admit that it's not warm, but the sun is shining, the sky is blue and there is a cool crispness in the air that is delicious! Feels like winter in Melbourne! Mmm It'll be nice sitting outside this arvo with the sun on my back.

The days have started to get noticeably longer again, it's light again as I make my trek down the hill to the train station each morning. The enormous seagulls are all making their morning squawking tribute to the sun and swooping about joyously in the air and the delicate pinkness of the sun rise beckons you to be in good spirits! By 4.30 now it's only starting to get dark (mind you it doesn't take long, it's pitch by 5). I think that's the worse thing about winter here, that lack of natural light. I could never be an inuit, or live somewhere like Lapland where it stays dark all day long for however many months... Would completely do my head in!

This weekend I plan a long walk to the second patch of woods, it's about 2 hours away, but well worth it. There is such a sense of peace and tranquility there, somewhere you can settle your mind and heart's woes. So fingers crossed that the rain stays away on Saturday!
Still if not, there is plenty to keep me busy inside. I have yet to finish the last curtain for our bay windows. I have done three, and hung them up, and seeing that the majority of the windows were then peek-proof I have put the last curtain aside, promising myself each day that I will get to it and finish it - there isn't a lot to be done even. I am also finishing sorting out all my photos from my trip. So putting them into their little albums and chucking out the crappy ones - which I can assure you there are plenty of. Then I can start bothering people and making them look at my pics! Ha ha! No one will want to come and visit ever again!!

We are working on a new website at work, which is pretty interesting. I'm learning some new things and am pretty busy with a few bits and pieces to do with it. It looks pretty special, and will be a lot better site once all the work is completed, should make contacting the Alliance and finding out about them a lot easier too.

Our part time pet - Luna the Cat - has settled in well to ours, and spends about half her time with us, the other half I assume is at her home. Since we got a desk and a few plants about the place, she sits up in the window, poking her head through the curtains and keeping an eye on the street. It's so cute! But I wonder what her owners would think if they happened to walk past our place while she was doing that. Maybe I should tell them that she's having an affair with us, then again that could be taken completely the wrong way to... Ha ha, it's a lovely day today.....

Well it's another grey and drizzly day, but so far the winter has been pretty much like winters in Melbourne, but with much less daylight. So it's not really that bad, or cold. I wish it would snow, but no one else agrees with me on that one. I want to make an English man snowman, and some snow angels...

I'm a bit better today - sorry for the grumpy and down blog from yesterday. A crap weekend and not getting along so well with your housemate can do that to you sometimes I guess. Still things are better and so much of it I think has to do with attitude. No more letting myself get depressed!! It's only winter, and like I said before, depression is such a useless waste of energy that I can't really justify to myself being like that for too long!

Work is pretty interesting at the moment. We're putting together a new website which hopefully will be ready to be launched at the beginning of Feb. But it's all hands on deck so that it can be. Which means not only does my time get extended again (YAY!), but also I am learning some new and interesting things! Makes the day go a little quicker if you're busy doing something that keeps your brain ticking over!

My sister gave birth yesterday to a bouncing baby boy - Connor. A bloody big baby too - makes me scared to think about having kids knowing that both of my sisters kids weighed in at over 9 pounds when they were born. And Connor (the new one) is 51 cms long. That's a lot of effort pushing him out, and even carrying him around while he was 'bakin'. So congratulations to Yvette, and her partner! I hope it all works out and Brodie (the 1st) settles in ok to not being an only child anymore. I'm sure he will though - he is a little darlin'!

Well that's all the news for me. Back to the grind!

Well I don't say this to often, but thank god the weekend is over and some sort of normalcy can reign again. The weekend wasn't one of the best yet, and I'm happy to be cocooned here in the office and some sanity, even if it is a little boring, rather than at home with the madness.

Last week was full of various little upsets and arguments; so this new week after much fighting, tears, gnashing of teeth and painful realizations for the both of us it is a relief to have something else to focus on. Not everything is dandy in the house of Mark and Vic.

And yet today is still conspiring against me in it's little ways - the noisy smoker has been downstairs everytime I go out for a ciggie. Why is it that some people have to smoke so loudly??
The day is cold, grey and drizzly - it seems like a reflection of how I am feeling. Maybe I'm letting the weather and everything else get to me, I should just pull myself out of it - being depressed is such a waste of energy.

Ahh, if only fairytales were true and you could go to sleep for a hundred or so years and wake to find the world a more favorable place.

Well it's my first day back at work after over a week off, and I tell you, I'm feeling a little more than just dazed and confused... More like stunned and dumbfounded! Don't really know how I got here this morning, and was wondering on the train if I even had the day right and was supposed to be in at work, but all that tells of a good Christmas/New Year break, innit?

Christmas was a good'un! We had a family Christmas dinner with Marks folks, and it was rather nice! I was expecting it to be a little weird considering I'd only met them a few times, but I was made so welcome, was stuffed full of every sort of Christmassy food you could imagine and plied with alcohol. What more could a girl want really? After making merry with the family, playing "ker-plunk" with Amber (Mark's niece) and "who wants to be a millionaire?" with the rest of the family, Mark and I left for London to a friends place for a Christmas night party. It may not have snowed in London, but we still managed to have a white Christmas, much to my delight! It was great to catch up with Sue and meet some other Aussies in England. It was a little like a piece of Melbourne in the centre of Wimbledon.

I was supposed to meet up with Em, but again had phone troubles and ended up missing out on that, much to my disappointment as it sounded like she'd arranged a heap of fun for us - ach well maybe next time, if she's still talking to me that is!! We did go to the common in search of wombles, but had no luck.

So because of my screw up we stayed on at Sue's a little longer. On Boxing day it was down to the pub to drown our come down in drunkenness - and it worked! Ha ha, we met some old geezer there who was telling us he was Graham Taylor, a famous song writer. Could've been a famous tight rope walker for all I knew. But he went on and on about all these people that I'd never heard of, and then about London gangsters like the Cray?s... Apparently he was in with them - but not a violent chap at all he said. Not into violence despite the fact that his knuckles were all swollen on his left hand from being in a fight... of course that wasn't his fault though.... After there it was home again and into some wine... Mmmm a hazy Boxing day, just what we needed!

On the Monday we trotted off to the Natural History Museum in London - you know the one from movies that has the huge diplodocus skeleton in the entrance foyer. Walked around there for hours and still didn't see everything. Was brilliant though, the building itself is a work of absolute beauty, and oh, the detail and effort that must've gone into it is breathtaking. The displays and what not were awesome too. Something I am very glad to have seen. Now I can be one of those panorkles at the movies that says in a loud whisper 'I've been there!' On the way back from there to the car we got lost and wandered around a bit in the cold. After finding the car we headed to a pub to warm up with a beer and then onto the movies! We went to see House of the Flying Dagger and I fell asleep for the main part of it, along with Mark. Apparently it's a really good movie, although a little slow in parts. I'll have to get it out on DVD some time. Christmas day, Boxing day and the day after were the coldest days I've ever experienced here so far. It wasn't snowing, but there was permanent frost over everything the whole of the day. Gorgeous blue sky, but colder than a nun's nasty.

After Monday and 3 days in London we were both a bit over it, so it was a trip around to Marks mum's place to say hello & goodbye, and then back to our cozy, but incredibly messy little flat in Hastings. We'd left it in a state. I'd opened my presents from Mark and a few others from home and just left things lying about, the furniture was all astray as Mark got a new desk, it was general upheaval. Just what you want to come home to after a big weekend like we'd had. Still home is home, and it was good to get back to our own space again.

The rest of the week was spent slobbing about, watching telly and going to the pub for the od and even pints. Before we knew it New Years Eve had arrived and we hadn't really made any firm plans. We had been invited to a party in Brighton but decided another trek away from home and spending the night sleeping on someone's floor after a big night out wasn't on the cards. So we piked from that one and went to a couple of pubs around home. It was time to meet the locals!

We had a pill left over from Christmas, so that and a bottle of red before we went out primed us for the night ahead. When we got there it was reasonably quiet, but not for long. The Queen Adelaide soon filled up with a variety of pirate-ish looking people, and the place was rocking before we knew it. I met this guy called Pete who had a face like one of those rubber puppets from Fast Forward, due to my pill all I wanted to do was squish his nose and pull his cheeks! Lucky for me though I showed restraint and didn't get thumped for my efforts! The evening passed in a bit of a haze, the usual rubbish conversations where you have no idea what you said the next day, and a lot of 'aw' right geezer!' All a bit whey, a bit wooh!

New Years day was spent cuddling in bed and watching telly (again) and pretending that I was feeling ok... Although honestly I wasn't feeling THAT bad! And then before I knew it, it was Tuesday and time to get back to the grind!