New Year's Resolutions again

First of all, I'm going to update on the ones I made this time last year.

I was going to attempt to highlight these in different colours, but Blogger is being a dick and won't let me use different coloured text (and my HTML knowledge is limited, to say the least).

So, here were the resolutions I made for 2011.

Write.

(Kept: sort of)

A couple of new things have been started, but it's getting motivated to continue them that's proving problematic. Must keep it up.

Read.

(Kept: yes.)
Managed to get through loads of books this year :)

Get a new job.

(Kept: no, but efforts made)
I've applied for a number of things, but aside from one interview have got nothing. Will keep up efforts to get work in the new year.

Learn to drive.

(Kept: nope.)

Have still failed to get a new paper licence.

Open a savings account.

(Kept: no)
Again, never sorted - but will make the effort this year as I now have money from a couple of sources to put into one :)

Renew my passport.

(Kept: nope)

This MUST happen this year or I'll have to miss out on Tom Petty in Dublin :(

Spend less time online.

(Kept: ennhhhh...)
Sort of, but could do better.

Get back into swimming.

(Kept: I should bloody well say so!)
Kept this one good style, following the mortifying discovery in April that I could no longer fit into my favourite best dress for a family wedding.

Get back into playing music.

(Kept: yep)
Thanks to the monthly open mic nights at Sammy Dow's, I am now doing a bit more singing :) Hooray!

Eat more healthily.

(Kept: mostly)
I'm going to put this one in green, because even though I've had a couple of lapses I managed to keep this up a good bit this year. I need to continue with it though.

Go to the dentist.

(Kept: HAH!)
Moving on...

Live a little.

(Kept: a tad.)

Could still improve here.

So, overall, out of the 12 listed here, I've either kept or attempted to keep most of them.

And a couple of new ones to add to the mix:

Get a new hobby.

One thing I've wanted to do for some time is learn poi spinning. It just looks like so much fun, even though I'm one of the clumsiest folk on the planet. I just think it looks really mesmerising, and it's probably a whole lot harder than it looks. I went online yesterday and bought a set of poi spinners and a beginners' guide to the art. That said, it will be sometime before I have the balls to try out fire spinning. I'm also still considering pole dancing at the back of my mind, but will need to tone up big time, having gone for a trial class some years back and struggled to keep my balance from being so damn big.

Go and visit Auntie Iz in her new place.

After two years living in Newcastle, Auntie Iz finally bought a house earlier this year. For many reasons I never got round to going to see her. However, I have promised that I will try and go down to her in February or March. It's only two and a half hours on a train, which is much closer than she was while in Sheffield.

Visit Arran and / or Bute.

It only occurred to me a little while ago that both of these islands aren't actually that far from me, and that I really ought to go and visit them both. Or even just one of them. Should probably try and encourage a pal or two to join me.

And that's that for this year. If I don't get back on before the year is out, hope 2012 brings you lots of good things in the coming year.

What did I get for Christmas?

SPOILT ROTTEN, that's what :)

First of all - apologies for lack of bloggingness, due to a laptop mishap I've been stymied somewhat. I know, I could sort an app on my phone, but the official one doesn't like my email address (this thing is run by Google but my email account is with Yahoo, as it has been for years), and the unofficial one was dodgy and kept chucking dodgy ads at me. I'm back in Shetland now (unpaid again - screw you Paid Job) and on my old home PC, still sans my presumably now lost iTunes library.

So...what's been going on?

A lot, actually.

Still job hunting. Applied for two different jobs, but was roundly rejected for one and the other vacancy was withdrawn three weeks after the closing date (but if it becomes live again I'm told I'm not required to reapply). I also applied for another job, working within libraries and other cultural spots within a certain west coast region, but I'm damn certain I don't have that - I'm hugely overqualified for it, among other things (minimum educational level was 5 Standard Grades - I now have a degree. A shame, it still looked fun).

Things are on the up with Cargo now too. We came 19th in the List's Hot 100 of 2011, up from 66 last year, and we also won their Best Newcomer award at the inaugural List Awards. Along with that, we have a load of new releases coming up in 2012 - please be sure to keep an eye on our website to get the news first.

I got very spoiled this Christmas too. I got a Vivien of Holloway dress I'd been coveting for ages from Mam, a Kindle from Dad (which I plan to give you a review of later as I may be converted yet), and loads of other great stuff that would take all day to list. I have, however, had way too much booze these last few days, and the diet fell by the wayside spectacularly. Back to the pool in the new year!

I also need to redo my New Years' Resolutions - I think I may have kept all of three of them this year. Among the ones I didn't keep was the passport renewal one, but I will need to keep this because - wait for it - I'm going to Dublin this coming June to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Woo hoo! :D

Meanwhile, I currently have no further news. Merry Crimble, readers! Hope you all got spoiled too, you deserve it.

Christmas is coming...

So yeah...I keep forgetting how stressful Christmas shopping is.

This year I appear to have more people to buy for than ever before, and some of those I've still not even thought of presents for. I also keep finding things that I know people will like AFTER I've bought them something. For instance, I found some Scrabble magnets for my granny which I know she'll love, only to belatedly discover the existence of Super Scrabble, which she would most definitely also love (indeed if I'd found it in summer I'd have gifted it to her for her birthday). Tempted to get both for her but I keep changing my mind - decisions, decisions!

Hello November

My, that came in quickly.

In the last month, I've moved, I've seen Bon Iver and Steve Earle in the space of a week (and both were great) and I've finally started my Christmas shopping. And earlier today I went to Edinburgh and saw my dad accompany a violinist from the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra at the Japanese Embassy, among other things.

I need to get back into swimming when I have enough money. I was hoping to be down to 13st 6lbs by Christmas (exactly two stone lighter than I was in August) - while that's probably not gonna happen now I'd like to try.

The most momentous thing happened this month

I actually got an interview for a Proper, Grown-Up Graduate Job.

I've been keeping quiet on this front because I wanted to be sure whether or not I'd get the job.

After having put down a deposit on a new place (five minutes up from the old one - yeah, I moved by the way) I found a job that sounded like great fun. It was with a PR company in Edinburgh (I know, I know, lengthy commute etc) who worked mainly with IT and computer companies. However, I had read the person specification they had put on the website and it sounded like it fit me. So I applied. I wasn't expecting a reply, but I thought it was worth a shot anyway, and besides, I'd just had yet another crap shift at the Paid Job. So I rattled out a covering letter, attached my CV and emailed it.

To my surprise, I got a response from them three days later, asking me to come through for an interview. I was absolutely delighted. So, among everything else that had to happen that day, I headed to Edinburgh the following Monday and was interviewed by the two people who make up the company. I personally thought the interview went well, but by Friday I hadn't been asked back for a second one. Just now I received confirmation that they'd now filled the position, but the rejection was nice enough I guess - just that really I'd been up against some stiff competition, all more experienced than me, and that they wished me well. While I'm gutted to have missed out, I hope I made a good enough impression that I might be successful if they ever recruit again.

Meanwhile, I've found two more jobs to apply for that require English degrees and that I fit the specification for. Feeling a bit more hopeful in general. Maybe I will get a new Paid Job this year - which will be grand, given that it has now transpired that the current one lied to me about my holiday allowance, potentially fucking up my Christmas plans again...

Oh dear

Writers' block, after a few half decent ideas, has attacked again. Fail.

I'm working on moving all over again. I hate moving. But this flat is too expensive now. Cheaper options must be found.

I wish the graduate climate would pick up again, my job bores me. That said, I am considering setting aside a day to apply for a Masters.

If I can ever remember how to think up a good story again

NineEleven

It's a little belated, but I want to add my two penn'orth.

I still remember what happened on this day, and I think I always will.

It was a Tuesday, and I was off school ill with what I think transpired to be a routine throat infection that didn't last long. I was 13, and in second year of high school. My mam came out of work early on that day to take me to the doctor. She was working in my old primary school at that point, with the class three years below mine (which would have been P6) but mainly with one pupil who was physically disabled.

We were sitting in the waiting room, just talking. At that point it had been about three weeks since my maternal granny had died (I marked her passing on that date with a lit scented candle in the wee small hours). She'd been a known figure in the local community, having taught French and German at my old high school. A couple of people we knew stopped by to chat to us and ask how we were doing.

The radio station on in the waiting room was Radio 2, which wasn't unusual. At that age I was a bit sniffy towards Radio 2, regarding it - accurately enough - as 'The Old Channel' (something I love about it now, funny that). So, needless to say, I was paying little if any attention to it.

Then it came on the news. Well, I didn't hear it at first, but Mam did, and was trying to tell me - only she said something about the Empire State Building first, and I got mixed up and thought it was in fact that building that the planes had hit. I started paying more attention then, but then it transpired that the ESB was, in fact, unaffected - instead the World Trade Centre had been hit, as had the Pentagon, and another plane that had been hijacked and had crashed in Pennsylvania. One of Mam's pals, who was then a nurse at the health centre (and has long since undergone a career change but that's another story) stood and listened with us, and I'm pretty sure we even spoke about it with whichever doctor saw me.

When we got home, we put on the telly and lo and behold, CBBC (which by this point I was too old for anyway) was off BBC1 and on BBC2, and the former was now was just rolling news from BBC News 24 regarding the attacks. We watched for a while, just that image of the plane hitting the South Tower and the huge grey broccoli cloud that burst out of it, before both towers collapsed. Finally I had to go and think about something else, so I went to my room and probably did what I did best then - just wrote something. Later that evening, my mam encouraged me to send an email to her friend Fiona (Auntie Bear as I call her), who lived in the region where the attacks happened. I asked if she and John - her husband of only a couple of months by that point - were okay and if they could send us any info.

The next day I was well enough to go to school, and even made it to Youth Club later that night. I still hadn't heard from Auntie Bear, so I ended up checking my mail on the office computer (which was allowed). At last, correspondence. I breathed a sigh of relief.

John had written most of the email, it went thus:


"Dear Hannah,

Hi: this is John, Fee's husband. We're both fine. As we understand the
situation right now, at about quarter to nine local time this morning, an
airplane was hijacked and crashed into one of the World Trade centers in NYC.
About ten minutes later, a second hijacked airplane was crashed into the
second World Trade Tower. Shortly after that, a third airplane was hijacked
and crashed into the Pentagon, which is located just outside Washington D.C.
in Virginia. Approximately an hour after the second World Trade Tower had
been struck, it collapsed. About ten to fifteen minutes after that, the first
Tower also collapsed. Somewhere in here, a fourth hijacked airplane crashed
in western Pennsylvania.

As you can imagine, we're both quite stunned. The casualty list is going
to be enormous; it's too terrible even to contemplate, really, as apparently a
number of buildings near the WTC were damaged/destroyed in their collapses.
We're sitting on the edge of our seats, wondering what (if anything) is next,
which is, I suppose, the very effect such terrorism is meant to have on one.
There are blood drives starting up locally; I imagine I'll donate as soon as I
can.

That's about what we know. Sorry the news is so grim, but thanks for
your care and concern. We'll keep you updated if anything else happens (touch
wood).

well hannah john has given you a pretty comprehensive report. We'll no doubt
be watching the news tonight and hoping that nothing else happens. Y'know
there are real advantages to living on Shetland, aren't there?

love aunty b"


I've never in my life felt more relieved to hear from someone.

It was all anyone spoke about for a good few weeks afterwards. A girl in the class my mam assisted with brought in a news report from online that showed where the planes had hit. In my English class we wrote poems about it; mine and one other girl's were later featured in a school anthology of writing (although hers was far superior - mine rhymed, which was probably not appropriate looking back).

That said, as horrifying as the attacks were, the resulting War on Terror generated many innocent victims too, both soldiers and civilians. I remember going to a protest march in early 2003 against the threat of war on Iraq, which was made good a month later - however, since Saddam Hussein was toppled more people have died than were killed in the war before that. Similarly, Osama Bin Laden was killed at the beginning of May this year. Firstly, so many people were killed in the 9 and a half years before they got to him. Secondly, his death will not kill terrorism. If anything it'll make it worse.

So yes, to conclude, the victims of both the events of 9/11 and those that followed were in the back of my mind today. As we discovered when Amy Winehouse died the same day as the massacre in Norway earlier this year, compassion is not a finite resource and it is possible to feel sad about more than one group of people at the same time. That's how I've felt every year since it happened, and that will never change.