Hey there, long time no speak! Can’t believe that it’s been over three weeks since my last post yet I’m still getting a minimum of 10 blog views a day from you lovelies – it seems my cosplay posts have become quite popular which is awesome as I have another two coming up for you shortly!
October has been a bit of a rollercoaster month and I haven’t really had the time or inclination to write or schedule any blog posts unfortunately. It started off fantastic with the amazing weekend that was the Entertainment Media Show in London where not only did I catch up with new friends and try out new cosplay’s, I got my photo taken with the gorgeous David Tennant (again!) and also meet Evanna Lynch, Eve Myles, Armin Shimmerman Jennifer Lien and Lucianna Carro!
Then I came back to reality and the crash was severe. I realised that I wasn’t where I wanted to be in my life. My dislike of my job and my supervisor had turned into hate and I was spending 8 or 9 hours a day feeling desperately unhappy, alone and unheard. There were a few occasions where I thought that I might just implode with anger but I managed to keep it together… just. And finally I was able to get some one-to-one time to speak to our service delivery manager and say look, I give up – no-one is listening and I can’t hold it together anymore. We were in there for an hour and a half, tears of frustration pouring down my face but I was finally heard and some positives will come from it if I choose. But now I have decisions to make myself about what road I will go down…
To make matters worse living alone I was becoming a recluse and with my boyfriend 500 miles away those days when you just really need a hug to make things better were almost impossible. I was finding myself getting home at 5 or 6pm and going straight to bed without dinner. I wasn’t even wasting time on the internet or chain-watching DVDs like I’d been previously doing. I wasn’t finding joy in my cross stitch and even throwing together new cosplay bits wasn’t as engaging as I hoped.
Then came the leak saga which at the time of writing is kinda still ongoing *sigh* basically my downstairs neighbour came up last Saturday evening to say that there was a leak in her flat and was there anything visible from my flat. Having just stepped out of the bath I was a bit taken aback but assured her I would take a look and asked her to keep me updated on what the plumber found (if anything) I waiting all evening and the following morning but heard nothing back so I left her a note with my number in case of any further problems and thought no more of it. That is until I got home from work on the Monday night to a note through my door saying that the plumber had advised that it was an issue with one of the waste pipes from upstairs and that there was probably water damage to my floor as well. Panicking I called dad (dad’s rock just FYI!) and we proceeded to rip apart my bathroom looking for any signs of water. Finding nothing we headed down for my dad to take a look at my neighbours roof where she proceeded to tell him a different story from what she’d told me and that the leak was actually a small drip (granted still an issue but not quite as bad!) Finally he headed up into the roofspace between her flat on mine to check it out and found zero signs of water at all, even the dust was dry and untouched! There has since been a letter from the landlady downstairs requesting that we get a plumber in to take a look (since hers didn’t even go into the roof at all for a proper look!) but without any water dripping since Sunday evening there hardly seems to be a point – you can’t trace a leak without any water!
Of course this would all kick off the weekend before I was due to head back to London for what was to be my final convention of the year just to make it that little bit more stressful! Not to mention the fact I was having to take trains due to cost and lack of time off work. Trains which I’d been double charged for and was worried that they’d have cancelled the wrong booking but I got there and back in one piece and had a fabulous weekend. (I promise to post about this one!)
I’ve come home to discover that my dad has been a gem and got rid of an old mattress and some big bulky cardboard boxes that I’d been struggling to bin due to living smack bang in the city centre! And while I’m a little down due to the fact I’m not probably not going to see the many new friends I’ve made in the last 6 months again this year I’m determined to kick November’s ass and get things very much in gear, including taking part in NaNoWriMo which will hopefully be a better success than last years! Onwards and upwards!
There’s a memorabilia event being held in Birmingham mid November but the travel costs alone would be £125 or there about and I’m not the kind of person to just bung it on a credit card and worry about it later. In fact I really, really hate people who fail to manage their money and their credit rating. With my current credit limit, I’d easily be able to put an exotic holiday on my credit card and jet off somewhere amazingly sunny and forget about everything for a week or two but how would I pay it off again? I couldn’t at least not all at once which is what I do. I mean why would I pay extra for something if I didn’t have to? Paying the minimum amount only on a credit card balance of £1000 with an interest rate of 20% (quite low compared to some current cards) would take 18 years and 7 months to clear and cost £1,337 in interest! More than the original amount I borrowed in interest alone which if I’d just saved instead of spending I could have had two £1000 holidays with change to spare for something fun. I don’t think people really understand the figures as well as they should before signing a credit card agreement. Me? I’m more of a credit card tart. I have two at the moment with a third on its way and once it arrives my original from when I was a student will be closed. I’ve probably said this before but I use my Flybe MasterCard as much as possible so that I rack up points towards free flights (really helps to keep down costs with all these cons I’m attending now!) and it gets paid off in FULL every month without fail. The second is a back-up plan, only to be used in emergencies and not even kept in my wallet. I recently applied for a new Capital One MasterCard offering 5% cashback for the first 3 months then a tiered rate afterwards but unfortunately was declined. In its place they offered me another card offering just 0.5% cashback which I have accepted (I’d rather get something for spending my money that nothing – who would turn down free cash?!) I’m not in any way tempted to change my spending habits at all the only way you could get me to pay off just the minimum on my card is to give me an interest free period and even then I’d have it paid off a month early! Anyway, this turned into a rant that it shouldn’t have been! Hopefully I’m back next month with a positive increase 
