The Happy List

My last blog post was pretty negative and I decided I didn't like that being the most recent thing on here, so here's some happy things instead:

• An old friend from school sent me flowers and Belgian chocolates because I did her a favour that literally only took up 2 minutes of my time. People are nice.
• I finally read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and even though the plot was convoluted and weird, Harry's kid and Malfoy's kid are best friends in it and that fills me with so much joy.
• As it's getting towards Christmas, Boots seasonal 3 for 2 offer is back, and last week when I was helping Jack find presents for his cousins, he could only find two things that he wanted so I got some slippers for free as they were the cheapest item. They have hedgehogs on them and I love them. (And did I mention they were FREE? Because they were free.)
• Speaking of Christmas, 'tis the season! It's my favourite time of year! Hooray!
• I have been drinking a lot of hot chocolate and it's warm and toasty and comforting and, overall, great.
• Jack bought himself a Nintendo 3DS and he's going to let me play Zelda.
• We didn't get any trick or treaters again so I have leftover mini chocolate bars that I have been methodically making my way through, which is always the upside of Halloween. (The last time we had any trick or treaters was like 3 years ago or something and my brother was here and we didn't have any treats so James gave them little oranges. We were that house.)

It's always important to remember the nice things.

Song of the Day: Death of a Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco (The death of a bachelor, seems so fitting for/ Happily ever after, how could I ask for more/ A lifetime of laughter at the expense of the death of a bachelor)

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Unfathomable

I woke up this morning to discover the apocalypse had been ushered in whilst I slept. Oh, good.

Okay, so I don't pretend to know much about politics and all the intricacies and hierarchies and whatnot involved. And I don't like to talk about stuff like this on the internet usually because I don't have the energy to argue with people.

But I have to say something about Trump, because try as I might, I cannot fathom how he has managed to bullshit his way into the Presidency. I'm not saying Hillary Clinton is perfect, but she was qualified. She had bags and bags of political experience, and she was the only logical choice.

There's no question that she should have won.

How on earth has America gone from having Barack Obama as President, to electing a man who was endorsed by the KKK?

Bigotry, misogyny, racism and general intolerance won today. The history books are going to remember 2016 as a political shitstorm, worldwide. First Brexit, now this.

What the fuck is going on?

Song of the Day:

Minor injuries are major inconveniences

If I had made a list of ways I wanted to spend my Sunday, driving Jack to the hospital wouldn't have been high on it. In fact, it probably wouldn't have made the list at all. (He fell over playing football and sprained his wrist. He's fine.)

Jack sent me a text, which I didn't notice until almost an hour after he sent it, asking if I had any wrist braces or bandages at my house. I told him no, but that I could get some. And then I sent another message saying, Also why do you ask? What's happened? The reply I got just said that it was a long story and that he'd explain when he got back.

It wasn't a long story. He fell over and hurt his wrist.

He eventually got back about a million years later and had stopped at Waitrose for some tubing stuff to support his wrist, and then he explained what had happened. 
I said, "Does it hurt?" which was, admittedly, a stupid question. 
And Jack said, "Well, if I keep it perfectly still, it's only a dull pain. When I move it, it's excruciating."
"How did you manage to drive back?"
"With difficulty."
"Do you think we ought to go and get your wrist looked at then?"
"That would probably be best."

So I drove Jack to the hospital. Anticipating a lengthy wait, I took my Kindle with me. Jack didn't have the same forethought. The wait time for minor injuries simply said 'over two hours', which unnerved me.
"That could mean anything," I said. "That could mean two hours, or it could mean, like, 5 hours. We could die here, Jack. We'll never see the sun again."
I am nothing if not dramatic.
Luckily, it seemed to have been a relatively quiet day, as after waiting exactly two hours, Jack's name was called, and he was back out again with a wrist brace and a pamphlet on hand injuries twenty minutes later. I didn't even get to finish my book.

He asked the doctor who saw him about driving, and was told: "If you try driving and it doesn't hurt, then by all means, carry on."
And Jack said, "Yeah, I tried earlier and it was excruciating."
So the doctor said, "I probably wouldn't, then."
Sound advice.

In all seriousness though, I really love the NHS. I know it's not perfect, but it's so nice to be able to go and see someone and get medical advice and treatment and not be charged for it.

Anyway, this morning I watched Jack struggle to put his t-shirt on, and said, "Do you want any help?"
To which he replied solemnly, "This is my life now, Em. I've got to get used to it."
Because Jack is also nothing if not dramatic.

Song of the Day: Deserve This by Circa Waves (Oh why do I deserve this/ I was never good on purpose)

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There Are Wrecking Balls Inside Us

'Cause it's okay to be scared sometimes

And brave sometimes

And fail sometimes, sometimes

And it's not possible to lose every time

We have the time, we have the time

What we build could be anything

We can go places we never even thought of

This is pretty much the only song I care about at the moment. 

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Things that go bump in the night

It's going to be another one of Those Days. The kind where I'm just going to feel a little off-kilter all day. A bit unsettled.

It's because I didn't really sleep last night. I went to bed just after 11, read my book for a while, then turned off the light to go to sleep, and that's when the dogs started barking (probably at around midnight or so). My next door neighbours have dogs but the barking wasn't coming from their house, it was coming from outside, probably a couple of streets over. And several other dogs joined in, too. This went on for about ten minutes, it was pretty weird. I can only assume that a litter of dalmatian puppies had been stolen and the dogs were taking it upon themselves to uncover the truth instead of leaving it to the useless humans. I mean, that's the only logical explanation.

But anyway, the barking died down and I settled in and tried to fall asleep. This took ages, as it sometimes does, but eventually I sort of drifted off, but then I was plagued by really terrible dreams. And not the kind where there's a lot of weird and fantastical stuff going on and you can tell it's a dream, but the kind where it feels very much real and you're in a place you know and the horrors are things that could feasibly happen in real life. I woke up, suddenly all thoughts of sleep gone from my brain, heard a noise in the house and managed to convince myself that there was someone else there. Which is super fun to imagine when you're home alone in the middle of the night.

Logically, I knew there was no one there, because I remembered shutting all the windows and locking all the doors and I hadn't heard any sounds of a break in, and all I had heard was a creak and houses do creak sometimes. But still, I was unsettled from my bad dream and so it took me a little while to feel normal again. I checked the time and it was only 2am, meaning that at most, I had only slept for about an hour and a half. It took me hours to fall asleep again. Hours of tossing and turning and trying to turn my brain off. 

So today I'm running on limited sleep and it's sort of set the tone for the rest of the day. I'm in a mood.

But it's not all bad because the Great British Bake Off makes a triumphant return tonight so at least I can watch that. Silver linings.

Song of the Day: Backbeat by Dagny (We're borderline, wasting time/ Pick it up and tell me that you love me like you did before)

Currently reading: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

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Feel free to ignore this

Jack and I went to see the new Star Trek on Sunday. It was good, very go go go. All in all, I think my favourite character is Bones because he does his job and gets on with what he's supposed to do and everything but he literally complains about it the entire time and I relate to that on a spiritual level.

I had a point with this blog post. It was going to go somewhere, I'm sure of it.

Me saying that I'd been to the cinema can't have been the only thing I wanted to say.

Surely not.

Well, this is embarrassing.

Okay, well, in other news, my parents went away for a few days and the only present they brought back for me was the tea-bags from their hotel room. Fancy tea-bags, but still. I was shocked and appalled, too.

I genuinely can't remember what my purpose was with this so I'll leave it there for now. I'm sure it'll come to me at some point.

Song of the Day: Together by The Raconteurs (You want everything to be just like/ The stories that you read but never write)

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A jumbled mess of thoughts

It's been a month of radio silence so I'm just going to sort of ramble incoherently for a bit, don't mind me.

I feel like 2016 is some sort of cosmic joke, and if there's a parallel universe then it must be having the best year ever where something wonderful is happening every single day just to balance out the insanity that is this year in this universe. Every time I think it can't possibly get any worse, something else happens and it's exhausting.

You know how when you were at school, and sometimes if your class had been a bit noisy or some people had been acting up or whatever, and the teacher used to tell you all off as a collective instead of singling out the troublemakers? So you'd know that you personally can't really be in trouble because you didn't do anything, but the teacher's mad and you feel guilty anyway? That's sort of how I feel about Brexit.

The sun is finally out in England but I hate it already. I really love the idea of summer, but when it actually arrives, I can't cope with it. It's too hot. I never last for too long outside, I managed about an hour yesterday before retreating indoors for a cold shower. I can't help it, I just crave the cold and darkness, like the strange little hermit I am. I grew up in Saudi Arabia, this shouldn't be happening to me. Although in fairness, we had air-conditioning in Saudi, whereas here there is no escape and the heat just encompasses everything. It's like being in a hot bath you can't get out of. I hate it. Also I'm terrible at keeping myself hydrated so that probably doesn't help (I should really work on that).

Last week, Jack went to hunt down some ice cream, and he shouted to me, "What are these things in the freezer?"
Unable to see through walls, I called back, "What things?"
"The things that look like muffins."
"The muffins, you mean?"
There was a silence before his head popped back around the corner. "Alright, Sarcasmo," he said. He calls me that a lot. I answer a lot of Jack's questions with sarcasm and eye-rolls.
"I wasn't even being sarcastic. They are literally muffins. That's why they look like muffins."
You see, sometimes Jack asks really obvious questions and I have to remind myself that I'm actually quite fond of him.

But anyway, my parents are back from their holiday, we're having a BBQ later and I'm going to drink a shandy whilst driving everyone bonkers with my complaints about how hot it is.

Song of the Day: Leave A Trace by CHVRCHES (You talk far too much for someone so unkind/ I will wipe the salt off of my skin and I'll admit that I got it wrong/ And there is grey between the lines)

Currently Reading: Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

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