What can happen in a year…

Oh my.

I knew my life was going to be turned inside out and upside down this past year, I couldn’t imagine in how many different ways this has happened.

This time last year, all I had done was make the basic decision. Things were going to change, as soon as I had fulfilled a contractual obligation. I had a vague idea I might have some kind of full time job by now, possibly in the sector in which I do a somewhat unusual job, and possibly lodging with someone, somewhere in the vicinity of that job.

I didn’t imagine I’d be juggling three part time jobs, which still don’t add up to full time employment.

I so didn’t imagine I’d be living where I’m living now, nor did I ever imagine it would be in this city, which is a somewhat inconvenient distance away from work, or that I would be actively choosing to remain in this city for the foreseeable future. Ironic, since I kicked and screamed about being here last time round, and the time before that.

I’d allowed for the last few months to be a lot of an emotional roller coaster, I certainly had not predicted the way in which it became more of one than I’d thought might be the case.

I couldn’t imagine how content I have become, despite the many uncertainties that continue.

Just a phase I’m going through? Maybe or maybe not… but I do think in a few months time, when this phase comes to a definitive end, there are so many possibilities. And, I’ve an inkling I know which way one of them will turn out.

I knew the date was a significant one…

For, lo, it has come to pass that Japes has had a wiblog for a whole year now!

Thank you for reading my ramblings!

Quite, quite tired now!

But, content.

For, with one minor exception, I have changed all my on-line identities to the one name. It’s taken a long time!! But well worth it, as it feels absolutely right to have done it, along with the efforts I’m making in real life to be myself in ways that I’ve not been doing for a long, long time.

I have also had a bit of an admin splurge, which I hate doing, but always feel better once I’ve done it!

So, a gentle evening sprawled on the sofa, with a good book, a large mug of hot chocolate, and some toasted cheesy muffins, followed by cake sounds good to me.

Japes, it is..

Thank you for the good advice! Of the three on-line identities I use, I’m far and away most comfortable with Japes, so that is what I have become elsewhere.

I like the new collection of statistics!!

Looks like someones’s been having fun with the stats over the weekend. There are so many more options to choose from..

Waves enthusiastically to my new visitors from the Phillippines, Switzerland, Germany, and India and to those who seem to keep coming back for more!

Not sure it’s safe today

Last night, Scrabble did strange things to me and I thought I’d broken it, another site I use regularly has snapped it’s elastic bands and lost it’s blu-tack this morning, therefore I am a tad concerned I might be spreading my bad influence around by writing here, but I will take all the blame if such happenings occur.

I am very tired. The sort of tired that just has me wanting to sleep, and sleep, and sleep some more. This happens occasionally, and luckily, I can do just that!

I am deeply impressed that this minuscule corner of the blogging world is reached by people from four different continents! Though, to the person who found it by enquiring about “Organist Bare Feet” I would suggest playing the organ in bare feet is perfectly do-able, but not necessarily the best course of action. I am about to be looking for a suitable pair of shoes, with thin soles and slight heels as this is by far kinder to the feet.

I am bemused by how this may have been found by “housework prayer”.

And, as ever, much sympathy to all those going through phases of one kind or another.

I would have blogged

but, circumstances were against me!! Including the lack of a password… oops.

Circumstances have now all aligned again, but I’m somewhat sleepy, having made the most of being home alone to do some shifting around of my stuff, and a colossal amount of laundry. How did I get through so many T shirts and jeans/trousers in the last fortnight?

Actually, given I’ve moved me and my belongings from one place to another, which has including carrying it all down two flights of stairs, packing it into the car, then unpacking the other end, and then been involved in a weeks worth of events involving small children, and got very wet on two days, it’s not surprising how many T shirts and jeans/trousers have just been washed!

I am reunited with my radio/CD player which is bliss…

I still appear to be completely dis-interested in chocolate. Which is completely un-natural. I totally agree with all those who have previously commented on this.

I will be gone for another few days, then normal blogging should resume…

Another one?

I’m having an identity crisis! Sighs, it was kind of inevitable.

I was playing around with new e-mail addresses over the weekend, as soon, the e-mail addresses I currently use will be bearing Wrong Information. It’s in a name that will no longer be mine to use.

So, I set up a new one in my own name. I’m not starting using it properly yet, but began changing over to it for various sites I’m registered with. The BBC news, the various church-y things I get information from on a regular basis. Then ground to a halt.

My own name is way too unique! I still want to maintain a level of anonymity in the blogging worlds I meander about in, certainly for the time being, and there are three places where I’m known by different internet names. I didn’t quite mean for this to happen!! I registered with the Ship a long time ago, but only recently have begun to be more active there. I am praying for a name amnesty, so I can change my Shipname to Japes! That’s because the name I go by there, (No Socks) is related to a very, very long, but incredibly minor on-going saga of the life I’ve been leading, and again, will no longer apply. Maybe it will? Possibly. I probably will still go around in bare feet and wear sandals a lot, and still have people coming up to me in church, especially if I’ve been playing the organ in bare feet, asking if my feet aren’t cold without socks on?

Then, there’s the Other Blog! It was my first venture into the world of blogging, about three years ago, and I found myself choosing a name that was somewhat unwieldy. At the time, though, it was a very accurate choice. Now, it is no longer representative of who I’ve become and am still becoming. Yet, I’ve made some really good friends there, and don’t want to lose that blog. Just the name! It’s a really important place for me, as here is, and I will keep both going, as they satisfy different parts of me.

Japes, as a name, somehow, transcends the lot, and is much more applicable to the whole of my life, as it has been, and is becoming. But for now, whilst I’ve got other identity crises going on, I think I’ll keep them all going in the names they are in!

But, I did set up a new email address, just for blogs! It seems to be working….

Yippee!!!

Thank you, Chris!

Just doing a clear out and I have spare supplies of string, blu-tack, elastic bands and chocolate if required?

No chewing gum, though.

Infinitely more comfortable whilst thinking

I’ve mended my comfy chair. It’s had wobbly legs for a while now, and after the graceful-ish collapse of said chair, whilst I was pondering a blog post one day, it was diagnosed as ill, but nor terminal. But, it’s taken a few weeks to organise myself enough to do without it whilst the glue was setting for 24 hours! It finally happened yesterday.

So, I’m now back to blogging and fun-computery stuff in the comfort of a chair that’s not wobbly, and is far more comfortable than blogging at my desk! I am not convinced this is going to improve the quality, but it’s definitely improving my comfort levels.

So, having had a decent break from the deep thinking, it’s time it began again. It will involve thinking about questions of jobs and where to live…. I do chose my moments to be going in for a dramatic change in my life. But, even if it’s a case of I haven’t a clue where I’m going and what I’m going to be doing, I do know I cannot remain where I am. Every day now, it seems, there is further confirmation I’m doing the right thing. Sometimes it’s little, little things, other times, like this morning, it was the arrival of the paperwork from a meeting I had been excused from, and as I read, it felt as if it had nothing to do with me at all. It’s the fact that no-one I’ve told so far has been surprised, (though, that may come, it’s only my closest friends who know there’s anything to know).

Do I go back to being a student again?

Do I see if I really am called to primary school teaching, and untangle that which went so horribly wrong for me there twenty years ago. I’ve been doing classroom assistant work on and off, over the last 18 years or so, and recently had several teachers wondering why I’m not teaching!

Do I revert to a former incarnation and work as a piano and clarinet teacher? Possibly some basic organ teaching! There is a serious shortage of organists!

Do I think about social work?

Do I think about working in bookshops again… maybe not long term.

Do I think about FE teaching? There are several options there…

Luckily, there’s no rush about any of this!