The bright side of life
Sep. 19th, 2023 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nineveh_ukAfter a pretty duff four weeks things are looking up. I did three part days back a work last week, and managed it OK - no headache or extreme fatigue - and am continuing to build up hours this week and next, with a view to being full time by the end of October. Thank goodness for reasonable sick leave policies, but also for various reasons enlightened self-interest has clearly struck and this is a much better option for the office than doing too much and being off for ages.
I spent the weekend withantisoppist. The travel and a two hour historical walk round her village, plus people, were possibly a bit much, but it was a lovely weekend and also involved not doing my own cooking. I was very relieved on Sunday that on Friday I had felt too tired after a poor night's sleep for it to be responsible to drive, so took the train and was thus spared a return journey in pouring rain on the M5. Even the trains ran reasonably!
Then today I was in town in the morning and had to stop at the shops on the way home for some food basics plus toothpaste that is not quite so excessively tingly, and - inspired by fiendish jealousy ofantisoppist's Eldest Daughter's charity shop Toast jeans - went into Oxfam by the bus stop, and emerged with a pair of unworn-looking winter cords from Poetry that were exactly the sort of thing that wanted, down to the colour, for £14.99 instead of £129, and a perfect condition (with original envelope, clearly a souvenir from Japan that had been in a drawer) modern woodblock reproduction print of Hiroshige's Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake for £12.99. Obviously as a modern reproduction these are neither rare nor particularly valuable, but they are considerably more than £12.99 in the UK, which does not have a huge ukiyo-e market (oh, the frustration of seeing what is available cheaply in the US and indeed Australia!). It will cost me more than that to frame it to match another one I have from the same series.
There are many things I haven't done, and which I will need to find energy for this weekend from ironing to sorting out a new manhole cover. But I'm also discovering a bit of a brain for writing (it's fair to say that He Who Drowned the World did not exactly reduce my desire/need for all the fix-it fic), even if a lot of free time at the moment is gently reading, TV, or a jigsaw. Outside the windows, it is definitely early autumn and the evenings are rapidly darkening, but since I don't want any more high twenties weather I'm not too sorry, and though the peaches and strawberries are going over, it is time for plums. It is also time for Yuletide nominations! Truly, winter approaches.
I spent the weekend with
antisoppist. The travel and a two hour historical walk round her village, plus people, were possibly a bit much, but it was a lovely weekend and also involved not doing my own cooking. I was very relieved on Sunday that on Friday I had felt too tired after a poor night's sleep for it to be responsible to drive, so took the train and was thus spared a return journey in pouring rain on the M5. Even the trains ran reasonably!Then today I was in town in the morning and had to stop at the shops on the way home for some food basics plus toothpaste that is not quite so excessively tingly, and - inspired by fiendish jealousy of
antisoppist's Eldest Daughter's charity shop Toast jeans - went into Oxfam by the bus stop, and emerged with a pair of unworn-looking winter cords from Poetry that were exactly the sort of thing that wanted, down to the colour, for £14.99 instead of £129, and a perfect condition (with original envelope, clearly a souvenir from Japan that had been in a drawer) modern woodblock reproduction print of Hiroshige's Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake for £12.99. Obviously as a modern reproduction these are neither rare nor particularly valuable, but they are considerably more than £12.99 in the UK, which does not have a huge ukiyo-e market (oh, the frustration of seeing what is available cheaply in the US and indeed Australia!). It will cost me more than that to frame it to match another one I have from the same series.There are many things I haven't done, and which I will need to find energy for this weekend from ironing to sorting out a new manhole cover. But I'm also discovering a bit of a brain for writing (it's fair to say that He Who Drowned the World did not exactly reduce my desire/need for all the fix-it fic), even if a lot of free time at the moment is gently reading, TV, or a jigsaw. Outside the windows, it is definitely early autumn and the evenings are rapidly darkening, but since I don't want any more high twenties weather I'm not too sorry, and though the peaches and strawberries are going over, it is time for plums. It is also time for Yuletide nominations! Truly, winter approaches.