llywela | random update

Today I finished the IT course that has been keeping me occupied since being made redundant. It feels like kind of a significant landmark to have passed. I got distinctions all the way, which is good, but it wasn't the most challenging of courses - it has, however, kept me busy, and has proved useful in terms of enhancing the IT skills I already possessed and learning a few new programmes and functions.

And now I need to find other ways of entertaining myself from day to day. A job would be my preference! But although I've had plenty of interviews, and they all tell me how much they like me and how appointable I am, no one has yet taken the plunge and actually offered me a job. This is a stressful situation to be in, so the less said the better.

My parents have exchanged contracts on their new house, and the transaction will complete later this week. And then there will be a lot of work to do - and boy, I'm already bored of listening to discussions about floor tiles and kitchen cupboards! - before they move in, probably some time around Christmas. My Mum is really, really keen for me to then rent their old house from them - it would be their best option for numerous practical reasons, not least of which is not having to deal with a stranger. And I would love to have that much space and storage, after being crammed into this shoebox for so long. But it all depends on someone actually giving me a job, which no one seems to want to do.

It would be really nice to be able to make plans. For now, though, I remain stuck in limbo.

I'm also still looking after the kitten that lives next door, Socks. Her owner, Rosa, got home late Sunday night, as planned, after I'd been going in to see to the kitten for two-and-a-half weeks. But on Monday morning, when Rosa knocked on my door to get the key back, she was in great distress and explained that her husband (Foreign Naked Neighbour) had been taken ill in France, on their way home from the holiday - heart trouble. She had to leave him in hospital in France while she continued on home to make arrangements, explain the situation to both of their employers, etc. Then she travelled back to France again last night, hopefully for only a couple of days to bring her husband home, but maybe longer if the hospital are reluctant to release him just yet. So, I'm looking after Socks again. We are great friends by now!

This is Socks visiting in my flat one evening.

In Other News, I watched the BBC's new fantasy drama Merlin over the weekend, and thought it was really cute and charming. I'm usually extremely wary of anything Arthurian, because they do insist on trying to locate them in a genuine historical and geographical setting, try to sell this version as the 'true story', which is just never going to work because the Arthurian legends are fiction, not history. This one, though, attempts no such thing. They have just pulled together whichever elements of the various versions of the legend appealed to them best, given it a wholeheartedly fantasy setting, and have had great fun with the storytelling. That first episode, scene-setting as it was, was just a tremendously fun romp, and I'm looking forward to episode two next week.

Also on Saturday, I went for a wander around Dyffryn Gardens, and have just posted a picspam to the