General rants.

Sorry, the holiday blogs still have not materialised. Can't seem to access the right part of my brain but I'm definitely in need of some general rantiness!

Oh my god, how much does it cost to post stuff? I took a package to post today and it cost around half the price of a train ticket to the same place. (And it's a 2 hour train journey, not a local one.) Freakin' ridiculous. For that price I want it transported by fairies or wrapped in a cotton wool cloud and delivered by stork. Or I want it fitted with GPS so you can track it's every movement. Or I want it to appear in the arms of the recipient as if by magic. Fuck!

Talk about fleeced. I also sent a smaller package that barely weighed anything. £2.70. Bloody £2.70. I swear they don't even weigh things anymore they just take a look at the customer, work out what they can afford and then double it. Arse holes.

And what makes it more annoying is that the bigger package only had to be posted because Boots couldn't get their finger out of their arse enough to print my photos in time for me to complete the memory book for my friend's 30th last weekend. And if they had then I wouldn't have had to take additional trips into town, on the bus as I'm now poor and unemployed, and I also would have had it ready to take up to Nottingham with me last weekend, thus no postage charges.

Wankers!

Needless to say the customer service was so bad that I, Helen, one of the most patient and least likely to complain people in the World, (Well, I don't complain to people's faces, that's why I have a blog. Ha.) actually wrote a letter of complaint. So you can imagine just how terrible the service was.

Anyhoo, I've had a shocking eye opener into the world of freelance writing (AKA unemployment) and first impressions are that it's a lonely affair. You have way too much time with your thoughts to let a ridiculous amount of pessimism in and you kinda go a little loopy.

I miss my kids, which is not helping matters. If I had a shit day at work at least I could grab my favourite kid and have a cuddle, or engage them in conversations about ....well nothing really, just mindless prattle and nonsense. Or we could have a singing session and I would instantly feel better. Now it's like....Oh, I'll put a film on. Oh, look, I've done no writing. What a freakin' surprise! Or, oh look I've eaten all the biscuits and I'm now obese.

Why did no body warn me about these adverse side effects. Being a bum is supposed to be fun and exciting. But I just feel, for want of a better word.....blurgh! At the moment I feel blurgh! But I'm hoping once I can establish some sort of routine around my working day, then I will feel ever so slightly less blurgh and hopefully more productive.

That's not to say I've been sat on my arse doing nothing. No no. On the contrary, I've been running errands and making lists and crossing things off lists and researching article writing and tidying and rearranging and re-reading things I've already written, and...the list goes on.......

Still, I made nice burgers the other day for tea and I've been making plans to see people during the week, a rare thing that goes along with lack of regular employment. I have also finally found somewhere to recycle my VHS so am boxing up my Friends and Buffy box sets and posting them off. You just don't realise how much room they take up until you actually get rid of them.

Incidentally I was bought Buffy and Friends complete season box sets for Christmas and have already delved into Friends. (I've missed it so much since it went to Sky. The fuckers take all the good things for themselves. Greedy buggers.) There's something so comforting in episodes you can recite along with, and the knowledge of which line comes next. When you're laughing about the punchline of a joke before they've even said it, that's when you know you're home.

But each episode is longer, uncut and this is throwing my wenus out of whack (Friends joke. You either get it or you don't). There is at least a minute or two or new material in every episode. Some of it is terrible and some of it they really should have left in, but it's weird. I knew practically all the episodes like the back of my hand. And now my hand has become a stranger to me. (MELODRAMA!!!!)

Okay, enough of the insanity. I have writing and re-writing and editing and re-editing and re-reading to do, and it most certainly is not going to do itself.

I have to keep asking people what day it is as I've lost it completely. But apparently today is Thursday, so almost the weekend. Happy Thursday!