Glad to be home, sad to be home

Bloody council offices. I ask for a simple form to be sent to me, it takes two weeks, three phone calls and it still isn't here. I wouldn't mind but it's something they should have sent me automatically when I left work!
And what is it with employers these days? I'm looking at job options and they want everyone to work to tight deadlines, under unbearable pressure, have masters degrees and at least a hundred and two years' experience, be working towards other qualifications, be willing to work unsociable hours, all for a salary of £18,000 and a week's leave! For God's sake.

I've just spent a week and a half living in a field in Derbyshire. It was great.
Setting up for the Gathering, the UK's largest live roleplaying event of the year, was really good fun. The crew we worked with this year were fantastic and we had such a laugh.
It took over a week to set up the site and four full days to create the set piece - a magical library, courtyard, attached guild rooms and sound/lighting control room. The players arrived on Friday, left on Monday and suddenly the field was empty and it was all over. It always seems like such an anti climax when everyone has gone home and the field is empty again.

I love being in the field. Waking up and hearing only the birds (and a distant hum from the generator!), seeing the view of the parkland and fields and the manor house through the trees.
We take a caravan with us and put lots of cotton rugs down in the awning so it's comfortable and dry in damp weather.

I often feel I could live like that but then I come home and realise what comforts I've missed. Like a shower that hundreds of other people haven't used that doesn't have a curtain that sticks to your legs. A flushing toilet that empties itself. That reminds me of something my dad once said after spending four weeks in Corfu - 'It's a lovely place to be but the bloody sanitation gets me down.'

The thing I miss the most are the people. I get used to being with a group of friends, working together all day and having a few beers in the evening and then when I'm back home it seems too quiet. Mind you I'd probably long for a bit of solitude after a while if I couldn't get away from people.

Think I'll go and sit in the garden and watch the horses, even though it's drizzling.
I'll look for a job tomorrow.

My house

Even when it's untidy, like today, I love my house.

When we moved here about four years ago, we'd come from a small terraced house amongst a regiment of other rows of terraced houses and the first thing I noticed was how much sky I could see. I could see all of it. The second thing I noticed was the peace. We'd been used to being woken by rowdy groups making their drunken way home at 2 am. Now we're in a cul-de-sac with open fields behind and often can't even hear any traffic.

I never tire of the view from the back garden and the first thing I want to do each morning is open the curtains and look out of the window. The view is ever changing. Whether it's the horses in the fields or the weather or the beautiful sunsets, no view is the same twice.

Standing outside and smelling the air is wonderful, especially late at night when the scent of the trees and grass is particularly strong. I also like standing in the twilight whilst the bats whizz around my head catching the gnats that are rising from the damp grass and shrubs.

I've tried writing when I'm sat outside on a warm day but I get distracted too easily by the wildlife - birds, butterflies, frogs and toads. We don't have a pond but seem to get lots of frogs and toads each year, flopping about under the plants. I never dreamt that I could just sit and stare at plants and the sky for so long.

Bent old crone

I sat down at the dining table, laptop and mobile phone ready to transfer photographs and my back went. Just like that. Don't know where it went to, but I've now got the back of some bent old crone.
I can't straighten up and I have to take little shuffling steps. It's even painful to sit up straight.I tried lying flat on the floor and gently stretching out. That took some doing - just getting down to floor level. I had to lie with my knees bent as it hurt to strighten my legs.I've now taken some strong pain killers and I'm beginning to feel a bit stoned so I'll probably have to succumb to being a couch potato for the rest of the day until I get my own back back (can I say that - is it good grammar - who cares?)
I won't be able to clean the kitchen (shame). Today is the first decently dry day we've had for a week but I won't be able to mow the lawn. I'll have to get Inspector Gadget (that's Adrian, who I live with) to do it when he gets home from work. People who know me will know why he's called Inspector Gadget. And people who don't know me can probably guess.
Well, I need to creakily unwind myself as far as possible from this computer chair and try to relax my spine in front of the telly.
More later if I can make it back up the stairs.

First words

After numerous attempts I have finally managed to create my blog.
Of course I'll probably screw it up completely when I start trying to customise it.
Back later when I've got time to say a bit more ....

Back again.
Well I've managed to change the colours without losing everything. Although I'm not sure why it says I'm posting this at 3.35 am. I admit I was awake then, suffering yet another sleepless night, but I was downstairs reading. I must have started creating this telepathically, unless I was sleep blogging.
Found some fantastic words yesterday on A Word A Day at http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscribe.html
One of my favourites is gundygut - a voracious eater, a greedy person.

Huh, typical. I get my blog up and running and now can't think of a single thing I want to write.