The Shiny Show, The Shiny Show
I have been quite pleased with the positive reaction that yesterday's post garnered and I must admit that writing it proved to be a great catharsis. I am feeling a lot more positive today and I am hoping I can carry this into the rest of the week. I will be back in the office for the first time tomorrow, when I plan to have an in-depth face-to-face discussion with the company directors, while it would appear that I have until September before I need to formulate a solid plan. I will be going out with my friend Aremay to discuss the situation tomorrow and I am hoping that by Friday things will start to look a lot clearer.
Of course, I think it will take a long time for these negative feelings to subside, but being with like-minded friends has definitely helped. I deliberately kept last weekend free in case of such an eventuality, but in the end I wish that I had actually arranged something. Still, with my feelings somewhat erratic, it was probably best to have a more relaxed approach and fortunately there was enough going on for me not to feel too dispondent. I was off work on Friday but having had very little sleep, I slept throughout the day, with the bright summer sunshine in sharp contrast to the bleakness of my mood. By the time Wolfie had got back from work I had walked around the cemetery on three occasions, ranting to my mother twice and my boss once, so I was ready for any form of comfort. There is a fish and chip shop just down the road from us but they are rarely ever open when I am at home. They were on Friday, so I thought we would get some comfort food and chill for a bit. Not wanting to be alone, and knowing friends were feeling the same way that we were, we invited Arcais and Taneli around for a couple of hours so we could rant and rave some more. It was probably the most constructive thing we could do and I think we all felt better for it.
Wolfie was on call all weekend, meaning he couldn't venture too far from the house. He had invited his parents around to help clean the carpets and do some other odd jobs, but I just wanted to get away so I decided at the last minute to go the Sheffield Meet on account of Ferdy, Nineleaves and Kunzai being there. This turned out to be the right decision as the beer in the venue was great, with two new BrewDog beers released (Paradox Islay and Mashtag), and again we could find solace in each other's company. I was introduced to a friend of Ferdy's whose name regrettably escapes me and after the meet, the five of us headed down to a nearby gourmet burger bar where we tucked in to some rather delicious food and sampled their own-brewed IPA. After this, it was off to a friendly local, where we had a passionate debate about the referendum with Ferdy's boyfriend before I needed to catch my last train home. Having had a few drinks and being alone for the first time since Friday afternoon, I did have something of a dramatic episode at Sheffield station, which resulted in some concern from friends on social media. However, this soon dissipated when the train turned up and I got back home safely, even remembering to bring a handful of beers for Wolfie too from the newly constructed Bottledog in the BrewDog bar.
I woke up on Sunday feeling equally bereft and with more carpet cleaning again on the agenda, and me fearing I would say something I would regret to Wolfie's parents (I had ranted a bit the day before in all honesty and they had complained I had taken the vote personally), I thought it would be best to sneak away again. I decided that a puppy would most likely cheer me up, so I rang my mother, who confirmed they were free for the afternoon. I was soon on a train to Darlington, where my mother picked me up and soon I was back at her house, playing with the very nippy Wilma the Dog and ranting and raving some more about the referendum. She was as devastated as I was, largely because of the potential impact on both my and my brother's careers, but again at least this provided some form of catharsis. I also had a very tasty roast chicken dinner followed by a lemon cheesecake and double cream, real comfort food which definitely helped cheer me up. After about five hours I had to head home, but it was a pleasant afternoon and Wilma enjoyed seeing me, as well as receiving my present which was a very smelly hole-filled sock. Her favourite.
On the way home, I stopped off at the Pumpkin cafeteria at Darlington station, where I was shocked to discover that they were serving BrewDog in bottles. How craft beer has truly spread. I picked up a bottle for the train and after having a brief chat with the shopkeep, I made my way back to Leeds. Indeed, I have had many random chats with British people since the referendum result. There was a Geordie cleaner on the train coming up inquiring as to where I was going, quite a few randoms in Sheffield wanting idle chatter and the lady behind the reception at the gym this evening who engaged me in a fifteen minute conversation about her trip to Nokia, Finland, in 2001. The upshot of this was I had a severely curtailed gym session. I don't know the reason why everyone has suddenly become so friendly - relief, a show of unity, a sense of fear or guilt - but I have had more casual unprompted chats with my countrymen in the last week than I had in the whole of last year. It's all a bit strange.
Of course, I think it will take a long time for these negative feelings to subside, but being with like-minded friends has definitely helped. I deliberately kept last weekend free in case of such an eventuality, but in the end I wish that I had actually arranged something. Still, with my feelings somewhat erratic, it was probably best to have a more relaxed approach and fortunately there was enough going on for me not to feel too dispondent. I was off work on Friday but having had very little sleep, I slept throughout the day, with the bright summer sunshine in sharp contrast to the bleakness of my mood. By the time Wolfie had got back from work I had walked around the cemetery on three occasions, ranting to my mother twice and my boss once, so I was ready for any form of comfort. There is a fish and chip shop just down the road from us but they are rarely ever open when I am at home. They were on Friday, so I thought we would get some comfort food and chill for a bit. Not wanting to be alone, and knowing friends were feeling the same way that we were, we invited Arcais and Taneli around for a couple of hours so we could rant and rave some more. It was probably the most constructive thing we could do and I think we all felt better for it.
Wolfie was on call all weekend, meaning he couldn't venture too far from the house. He had invited his parents around to help clean the carpets and do some other odd jobs, but I just wanted to get away so I decided at the last minute to go the Sheffield Meet on account of Ferdy, Nineleaves and Kunzai being there. This turned out to be the right decision as the beer in the venue was great, with two new BrewDog beers released (Paradox Islay and Mashtag), and again we could find solace in each other's company. I was introduced to a friend of Ferdy's whose name regrettably escapes me and after the meet, the five of us headed down to a nearby gourmet burger bar where we tucked in to some rather delicious food and sampled their own-brewed IPA. After this, it was off to a friendly local, where we had a passionate debate about the referendum with Ferdy's boyfriend before I needed to catch my last train home. Having had a few drinks and being alone for the first time since Friday afternoon, I did have something of a dramatic episode at Sheffield station, which resulted in some concern from friends on social media. However, this soon dissipated when the train turned up and I got back home safely, even remembering to bring a handful of beers for Wolfie too from the newly constructed Bottledog in the BrewDog bar.
I woke up on Sunday feeling equally bereft and with more carpet cleaning again on the agenda, and me fearing I would say something I would regret to Wolfie's parents (I had ranted a bit the day before in all honesty and they had complained I had taken the vote personally), I thought it would be best to sneak away again. I decided that a puppy would most likely cheer me up, so I rang my mother, who confirmed they were free for the afternoon. I was soon on a train to Darlington, where my mother picked me up and soon I was back at her house, playing with the very nippy Wilma the Dog and ranting and raving some more about the referendum. She was as devastated as I was, largely because of the potential impact on both my and my brother's careers, but again at least this provided some form of catharsis. I also had a very tasty roast chicken dinner followed by a lemon cheesecake and double cream, real comfort food which definitely helped cheer me up. After about five hours I had to head home, but it was a pleasant afternoon and Wilma enjoyed seeing me, as well as receiving my present which was a very smelly hole-filled sock. Her favourite.
On the way home, I stopped off at the Pumpkin cafeteria at Darlington station, where I was shocked to discover that they were serving BrewDog in bottles. How craft beer has truly spread. I picked up a bottle for the train and after having a brief chat with the shopkeep, I made my way back to Leeds. Indeed, I have had many random chats with British people since the referendum result. There was a Geordie cleaner on the train coming up inquiring as to where I was going, quite a few randoms in Sheffield wanting idle chatter and the lady behind the reception at the gym this evening who engaged me in a fifteen minute conversation about her trip to Nokia, Finland, in 2001. The upshot of this was I had a severely curtailed gym session. I don't know the reason why everyone has suddenly become so friendly - relief, a show of unity, a sense of fear or guilt - but I have had more casual unprompted chats with my countrymen in the last week than I had in the whole of last year. It's all a bit strange.