High above the Muscovite sky

...New shoes! Shoes that will probably limit the amount of chicken fat, coleslaw dressing and ice-cold water from making my life just a little more frustrating.

Sure anyone needed to know that. But seeing as that is possibly the highlight of the past seven days, it's probably worth making a deal out of it.

One of, maybe. Tonight I started a 'Russian for Travelers' class at a night school in town. Outside of practicing my name in the Cryllic script, I achieved a slight headache and the dire need to know why I was there at all! It was possibly the most random thing I could have chosen to do, why I couldn't have taken German or Art History Appreciation, or stayed at home and watched CSI: New York, but it is the first night, and the alphabet is obviously a little too confusing to get my head around on the first go, and I will get the hang of it. Or I cave and switch to German next Wednesday. But such is my 'thing' for Slavonic languages, it's a, er, start. Of something. It gets my brain doing something one night a week, which is the whole point, anyway.

And another thing I have to decide is whether I may need to move out, or move back home if I can't find a better job soon. I work full-time in the delicatessen in a suburban supermarket, it's not as if I'm making a lot of money, and it's not like I really want to be doing this permanently. I got turned down for the AgriQuality job in Upper Hutt today, and it's just yet another rejection. It is frustrating, but I just have to keep going. I like living where I am, but if it comes to moving back home, then I'll move back home. If Dad ends up going to East Timor this year, it may work out, to some degree. I don't want to 'wait and see', butI do want to hold out some hope that I'll get better work soon.

And meanwhile, things elsewhere are good; I emailed V. yesterday because I hadn't done so in months and that's almost shameful, and I am going to email E., because she's already emailed me twice from Korea, and I don't think I've talked to her in almost a year. B. is so kindly sending me Life on Mars, to add to my growing list of new television shows to watch and get into, only we seem to be cursed at getting disks that work. I am going to miss B. when he flies back home. Oh, and I have to remember to send various bits and pieces to K. and P. (sheepies, magnetic sheepies! The fantardery is spreading. Insert evil cackle here) this week, and something else to C. for the sugar cookies which I am rationing like anything (yum, oh, so yum!). Aaaaand S. shall be down from Dannevirke this week or so, and it'll be good to catch up again.

Lastly, the photo is Palmerston North from the patio this morning, taken (again) with my phone. Well, Palmerston North is down in there somewhere, the zoom wasn't so great. We live up behind the university, to the south-west of town, and to get a view like this is fantastic, it more or less sold me on the place. No idea if the lantern actually works, though.

Fish, gravity, and excessive adjectives.

Adding an image to this is far too easy. I'm very sure it's going to turn out all wrong, because me and adding image to things don't quite mix. But I have faith this time. I don't quite know what I'm going to put in this thing, but pictures are always nice. This is the Manawatu River, taken from underneath the Fitzherbert Bridge. I've noticed that the boring town where I live is much more interesting when there are no cars, people or buildings in it. This is pretty much my backyard. With cows.

Tomorrow is the start of my second full week at my job. It's not much of a job, considering it's not much of a wage. It's much easier to just switch most of my brain off and go on autopilot. But it's...fairly interesting. I am fairly good at cutting large fillets of salmon, though not so hot on crumbing gurnard, the first day there I dropped one or two fillets and the fillet knife ont he floor, just missing my foot. And that's not the last injury I've inflicted on myself: bruised elbow from hitting the manual slicer when I was in too much of a hurry; spontaneous nose-bleeds while drying the dishes; having one of the sliding cabinet doors fly out of it's track and on to my foot; and hitting my hip on the chiller door mechanism, which left a lovely bruise and a dent right on the bone. And I am doomed to be forever covered in coleslaw dressing, though the less said, the better. But there are perks, free food from the bakery, if they are so inclined. The caramel afghans are the best, but three in one day is not the best idea. The free food makes having to tolerate infinite levels of rudeness and unnecessary impatience from customers just that much more bearable. But only a smidge. And what can I say, I've never looked better in a pair of black and white checked pajamas before. Stylish. I'm not complaining, it is money, and the rent doesn't pay itself.

I'm really just killing time until my download of the season finale of Atlantis finishes. My 'fake' weekend was spent pretty much gushing over photos and reports from the Pegasus 2 convention in London. And with all the lovely and gorgeous photos, how can I not squeal like a giddy five year old? it was really fun to be chatting with C. while, erm, perving (shall we politely say, huh?) over the wonderful (and flirty and funny and slightly weird but charming all the way) David Nykl. The cast on that show really do have this amazing chemistry, so very easy going and goofy, so much love! And now it's been confirmed that David Hewlett is going to Armageddon this year in Auckland, I just can't wait. Actually I'm hoping Kavan Smith gets himself over here, too.

...I feel like I'm writing one of those first-day-back=after-the-Christmas-break What I Did Over The Summer reports. Blogspot feels too proper after the junior kids' playground that is LJ. This is like the first day of high school. I hope I'm doing okay, but these damn shoes are far too big. Maybe I'll grow into them.