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Wendyhouse
Good things: I finally wore my green bridesmaid's dress and it looked fab.
Bad things: I got very drunk and ran away from home at 5 in the morning.

Last week
Good things:In an attempt at a more mature form of running away from home I went for a lovely long drive in the lake district
Bad things: During the drive it became apparent that the brake pads on my car were worn right down, which meant more expense and may be the final nail in it's MY-Dad-campaigning-for-me-to-trade-it-in-for-a-healthier-one coffin.

(I did have some kind of long analogy about how it's harder to deal with splitting up with a car than with a boyfriend, cos you only have a couple in your life and never see them with their tongue down someone's throat, but I forget now where I was going with it. But I am heartbroken at the thought of parting with my baby, even if it's not my first, and I felt like a complete traitor looking at other cars while it was on the operating table. But the alternator is dodgy and is going to go at some point, probably taking other things with it, and that I can't afford to deal with. Sob)

Good things:
I don't know if I mentioned it before but *DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL* hubba hubba Owowowowooooooooooooowwwl! The darkroom where I shall be doing photography evening classes for the next year has to be one of the most sexy things I have set eyes upon in a long long time (Sorry Kris)

More good things:
I have found I am really enjoying my job. Whereas I was doing this kind of thing at a similar level three years ago, just out of Uni, and floundering badly, I'm now not only on top of what I'm doing but I have all kinds of big plans and schemes that are likely to actually take off. For the first couple of weeks having no-one really as my boss and telling me what to do made me paranoid, as I kept expecting people to jump on me and shout "So why haven't you done X, Y and Z and do you know you've ruined everything for everyone" and shooting me. But I've gradually got used to the idea that i can do whatever I feel most needs to be done, and even that I can tell other people to do things, and that it's actually showing results and making the whole place run better. AND it looks like

I've also realised that I'm in a unique position as not only council policy but also the whole field of childcare that I'm within means that as a woman working part time I'm the norm rather than the exception, and that it's probably one of the few places I can expect normal promotion opportunities without having to take on more hours and make my freelance work suffer. (The woman bit is also relevant as while if you go high enough up the council structure you eventually run into a man, all of the management in my department up to a very senior level within the council are female - it's men who are in the minority and have to fight for recognition in this field. Which obviously is not in itself a good thing, but it is something that works in my favour)

Even more good things:
I finally found someone to go mini-travelling with me! I have come to the conclusion that half the reason I have found it so difficult to do a proper write-up of Barcelona is that being alone I ended up racing round thinking "I must go there so I can write about it" and so ended up not really experiencing or appreciating anything properly. So I want to go on a couple more mini-adventures. But of all the people I know they all seem to either dislike travelling, like travelling but be tied down by other commitments, or like travelling so much that they're on the other side of the planet. However to my great delight I found that the fantabulously lovely princess_linzi who made a much awaited return to Leeds at the weekend has a matching pair of itchy feet AND a matching timetable. So I have myself a travelling buddy and look out Prague *beam*

Really bad thing: My eczema has decided to not so much break out as literally explode, and whereas it usually confines itself to one location it has rather rudely sprawled all over my body meaning that 60% of my skin is horribly itchy and somehow managing to be both dry and sticky at the same time and not very nice at all. And it's totally ignoring my normal monstrous array of creams, lotions and pills. So it's off to the doctors tomorrow - I'm not exactly that hopeful as I doubt there has been any kind of major breakthrough in eczema treatment in the last couple of years (well, actually there has, in a big way, but I don't think it's on general release yet) but I'm hoping just a sneaky change of type of cream might do some good.

And so as not to end on a downer:
The gig on Sundau was absolutely fab. Both bands rocked mightily (of course I'd say that anyway about Zeitgeist Zero but it happens to be true as anyone who's ever seen them live will know) And I played camera-woman again which is always fun, and remembered this time that just because it's a movie camera doesn't mean that you have to keep moving the shot round all the time which puts me fifty-billion steps ahead of all of the 80's TOTP camera operators. I even remembered to get some 1600 ASA film this time so I shall see how the shots come out. I think this may go into jessops rather than be developed by myself - while all the films I've done before have proved to be remarkable resilient to being dropped on the floor umpteen times then stood on, I don't really want to risk it with this one.

Oh and Vivianne from Little Match Girl (I think that was her name but if you see any hasty edits you'll know I was wrong) has officially swiped from the lead singer from Psydoll the awards for both "How the hell does something that small make a noise that big" and "Person most people in the club wanted to take home with them"

I now have to go do lots of sewing before Whitby.