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With heartbreaking predictability, the Internal Market Bill passed its Second Reading on Monday, with the majority of supine Tories voting for it. It is already started to be watered down and I still expect a fight in the House of Lords, not least because the Americans are being incredibly protective of the Good Friday Agreement, but the doubt this raises over our potential move has really hit me mentally this week. Added to this is the dramatic increase in the number of COVID cases, which has rocketed over the last seven days, leading to talk of a second national lockdown. We have pencilled in Sunday 8 November as the date of our move to Berlin and will book the flight in the coming days, but a three-month lockdown that we saw in the Spring would really put pressure on the move and I fear it may fall through. I am trying to be optimistic, but it is becoming increasingly hard. I simply don't want to stay in the UK any more.
I have been waking up with a lot of stress headaches recently and I cannot remember a time in my life when I felt so lethargic. Added to this are frequent thoughts of suicide, particularly of hanging myself. I have been having two or three naps a day now and never wake up refreshed, prefering the embrace of the downstairs bed whenever I wake up in the morning. I am not really sleeping with Wolfie any more, for a myriad of reasons including his bust foot, my stomach issues and the fact it's often too hot in the attic during the Summer, and I am starting to miss him. Indeed, I am feeling quite alone and unwanted now, a feeling exacerbated by the fact that we are unlikely to be able to see friends for a while. Our autumn plans with Lunar Belle have been cancelled and it looks like Blacksnip's soiree isn't going ahead either, with Blacksnip stepping down entirely from running the twice-weekly pony meets too. This is putting quite the burden on me, particularly as meet host as I feel incumbent in keeping the conversation going, but right now it's not a huge imposition and I do enjoy speaking to everyone. However, sometimes I am not in the mood mentally to talk with anyone and yet I keep pressing on with these commitments for fear of letting anyone down.
Arcais and Taneli did come around on Thursday for a BBQ, which was fortunate as they are going to be locked down again from next Tuesday. Leeds has somehow escaped it, despite the COVID rates skyrocketing, with my suspicion being it's about getting the students back here first. Anyway, we had a really good three hours together, chatting as the sun set and then over the roasting chimnea, which created quite a romantic and soothing light. Alas, Wolfie had to work for much of the time our friends were here, telling us that his 15-minute scheduled job had been configured badly, which meant it took nearly two-and-a-half hours. He wasn't happy and I felt quite sad that he missed out on the socialising. The lockdown has been hard on him too. We did bring some snausages and burgers through to him though, not to mention the sumptuous grilled halloumi.
Arcais and Taneli did get to see Tim though, as our feline friend finally made a reappearance on Wednesday. He ended up staying at ours for much of that afternoon, but we did notice that he had a collar now. Attached to it was a small cannister not dissimilar to those in geocaching, which told us he was not a stray and gave us his home address. Indeed, as we suspected, it was two streets down so after work, he took him back to his home and left him on the doorstep as his owners weren't in. Alas, he seemed to quite like staying at ours as he appeared again on Thursday, this time while I was outside in the sun reading my book. We allowed him to stay for the BBQ so he could meet Arcais and Taneli, deciding to take him back home afterwards. He then returned for a third time on Friday, but this time only for an hour, largely as we refused to give him food. In protest, he did a shit in the cat litter tray in the kitchen and then buggered off, although this didn't stop him meowing outside our front door this evening either. Alas, we didn't let him in as we didn't want to encourage his freeloading behaviour, traits highlighted to us on Wednesday when a neighbour of the cat's owners told us that she too had taken him in for a number of months last December. We have started to notice a pattern and it's akin to the cat who had six meals in that picture book for children. We don't want to encourage it, not least because we are moving in seven weeks' time, but we still think he is a lovely cat. He has become a little more chatty and annoying though, meowing incessently for food.
Today was the Leeds Meet, a rather subdued affair, which highlights the lack of novelty in these online gatherings I suppose. Tonks's quiz went very well though, with about fifteen playing, but the numbers soon dropped off and by 4:30pm it was effectively over. I don't really know why the numbers were so slight this time, but it's a trend that has been happening for the last few months now, so hopefully we can revive the meets. Certainly with the recruitment for the new roles going strongly, we are injecting fresh blood into the organising committee and there are a number of good ideas being bandied around, although as ever very little will to actually organise them. Still, we'll see what happens I guess, particularly as we move away, but our intention is to leave the meets in good hands. In the meantime, it would be great if some of the regulars could return as it would be great to socialise with them again.
Gothi's sets have been a mixed bag this week, with yesterday's rock and metal set being particularly barnstorming, even if the Mixcloud connection kept hanging. Wednesday's was less good as it was all dance tracks and the like, although at least we got to hear the fantastic Crabulon again, which is effectively our anthem now. We are also aiming to have a scuttling day on March 4th in celebration. Tonight was tunes to celebrate Talk Like A Pirate today, but again the connection was hanging a lot and I drifted away. Hopefully it'll be resolved for next week.
Aside from that, the business is going well although the website launch is taking a lot more time than I would have liked, while setting up a bank account is still proving incredibly difficult. A combination of not wanting to deal with gambling companies, so many new start-ups requiring business accounts and people's changing personal circumstances due to COVID, as well as all staff working from home, means it's becoming quite arduous. We do have our third and fourth clients though and regularly monthly income, so hopefully we'll be able to break-even by the end of the month. If we do, after the first two months, that's quite an achievement. We still need a bank account though.
I have been waking up with a lot of stress headaches recently and I cannot remember a time in my life when I felt so lethargic. Added to this are frequent thoughts of suicide, particularly of hanging myself. I have been having two or three naps a day now and never wake up refreshed, prefering the embrace of the downstairs bed whenever I wake up in the morning. I am not really sleeping with Wolfie any more, for a myriad of reasons including his bust foot, my stomach issues and the fact it's often too hot in the attic during the Summer, and I am starting to miss him. Indeed, I am feeling quite alone and unwanted now, a feeling exacerbated by the fact that we are unlikely to be able to see friends for a while. Our autumn plans with Lunar Belle have been cancelled and it looks like Blacksnip's soiree isn't going ahead either, with Blacksnip stepping down entirely from running the twice-weekly pony meets too. This is putting quite the burden on me, particularly as meet host as I feel incumbent in keeping the conversation going, but right now it's not a huge imposition and I do enjoy speaking to everyone. However, sometimes I am not in the mood mentally to talk with anyone and yet I keep pressing on with these commitments for fear of letting anyone down.
Arcais and Taneli did come around on Thursday for a BBQ, which was fortunate as they are going to be locked down again from next Tuesday. Leeds has somehow escaped it, despite the COVID rates skyrocketing, with my suspicion being it's about getting the students back here first. Anyway, we had a really good three hours together, chatting as the sun set and then over the roasting chimnea, which created quite a romantic and soothing light. Alas, Wolfie had to work for much of the time our friends were here, telling us that his 15-minute scheduled job had been configured badly, which meant it took nearly two-and-a-half hours. He wasn't happy and I felt quite sad that he missed out on the socialising. The lockdown has been hard on him too. We did bring some snausages and burgers through to him though, not to mention the sumptuous grilled halloumi.
Arcais and Taneli did get to see Tim though, as our feline friend finally made a reappearance on Wednesday. He ended up staying at ours for much of that afternoon, but we did notice that he had a collar now. Attached to it was a small cannister not dissimilar to those in geocaching, which told us he was not a stray and gave us his home address. Indeed, as we suspected, it was two streets down so after work, he took him back to his home and left him on the doorstep as his owners weren't in. Alas, he seemed to quite like staying at ours as he appeared again on Thursday, this time while I was outside in the sun reading my book. We allowed him to stay for the BBQ so he could meet Arcais and Taneli, deciding to take him back home afterwards. He then returned for a third time on Friday, but this time only for an hour, largely as we refused to give him food. In protest, he did a shit in the cat litter tray in the kitchen and then buggered off, although this didn't stop him meowing outside our front door this evening either. Alas, we didn't let him in as we didn't want to encourage his freeloading behaviour, traits highlighted to us on Wednesday when a neighbour of the cat's owners told us that she too had taken him in for a number of months last December. We have started to notice a pattern and it's akin to the cat who had six meals in that picture book for children. We don't want to encourage it, not least because we are moving in seven weeks' time, but we still think he is a lovely cat. He has become a little more chatty and annoying though, meowing incessently for food.
Today was the Leeds Meet, a rather subdued affair, which highlights the lack of novelty in these online gatherings I suppose. Tonks's quiz went very well though, with about fifteen playing, but the numbers soon dropped off and by 4:30pm it was effectively over. I don't really know why the numbers were so slight this time, but it's a trend that has been happening for the last few months now, so hopefully we can revive the meets. Certainly with the recruitment for the new roles going strongly, we are injecting fresh blood into the organising committee and there are a number of good ideas being bandied around, although as ever very little will to actually organise them. Still, we'll see what happens I guess, particularly as we move away, but our intention is to leave the meets in good hands. In the meantime, it would be great if some of the regulars could return as it would be great to socialise with them again.
Gothi's sets have been a mixed bag this week, with yesterday's rock and metal set being particularly barnstorming, even if the Mixcloud connection kept hanging. Wednesday's was less good as it was all dance tracks and the like, although at least we got to hear the fantastic Crabulon again, which is effectively our anthem now. We are also aiming to have a scuttling day on March 4th in celebration. Tonight was tunes to celebrate Talk Like A Pirate today, but again the connection was hanging a lot and I drifted away. Hopefully it'll be resolved for next week.
Aside from that, the business is going well although the website launch is taking a lot more time than I would have liked, while setting up a bank account is still proving incredibly difficult. A combination of not wanting to deal with gambling companies, so many new start-ups requiring business accounts and people's changing personal circumstances due to COVID, as well as all staff working from home, means it's becoming quite arduous. We do have our third and fourth clients though and regularly monthly income, so hopefully we'll be able to break-even by the end of the month. If we do, after the first two months, that's quite an achievement. We still need a bank account though.
