Adventures, Travel, Geekery and Lots and Lots of Stuff!!!

It’s 5:16 in the morning and I can’t sleep - and wanted to see what I had posted here in the past. All I keep saying is “you brave little Raptor” when I look at my updates. My last post was in 2019 and since then I did a thing I have wanted for years. I secured an associate role at work! I have wanted an associate role for years and to get one was AMAZING! Things haven’t been perfect but reading through my past misadventures, it’s been a damn sight better than a lot of things.

Another thing that happened and explained A LOT is that I was living with an undiagnosed endocrine tumour if the bowel. That was diagnosed in January and I had surgery on 15 May. It’s taken a LOT to recover from and I am so glad it was identified and yeeted.

I didn’t have much of a life going on and have actually been DOING things. And since 2019, I have survived a stroke, arterial thrombosis, been diagnosed with sticky blood syndrome, and had many a stay in hospital. My mum and dad moved to the Isle of Man just before lockdown happened and there was the sheer weirdness of the pandemic.

I am also once again president of ZZ9 and am very much liking actually DOING things!! Also, I am working in Communications and it’s brilliant. Not perfect, there are moments of worry, but having read through my journal entries, I am not surprised I get stressed out. But I like my job and just want to give it my best shot…

Reading through past entries on here makes me realise that I really did go through a lot of shit in the past. I feel more than a bit good I got through it and I can see the sheer amount of depression, anxiety and PTSD that I was going through.

I have to say one thing though - I am damn glad I got help, that I am now a mental health champion at work and am trans and non binary lead in my work place’s LGBT+ staff network group. And then there’s the public speaking I still can’t get enough of and I tend to do more of. Mainly as it’s cool and I love it 😊

I recently moved home - where I am living is great and was secured by noticing a Facebook post form Multiclassgeek whose parents were looking for someone to rent his parents' rental property. The place is lovely but the move nearly broke me. Actually, it did - several times!

It took two days and a fair bit of time and now I am in my new place everything is in boxes. I need to look through the boxes to find important things and at one point had to move around what is in my room because I kept catching my toes / heels on just about everything in my room. There was screaming and a fair bit of pain and loads of damage to my feet. Now things have been moved around I hope to minimise this a great deal.

The longer journey to work seems to be helping tone my legs and also seems to be helping my health. I keep being late into work as my health is trying its best to settle down but I do make up the hours. It would be wrong not to!

Sunday had an interesting start. I managed to try and make it for a 09:00 meeting and collapsed. It was more that my energy levels had a major fade out and I ended up being all but carried to the Gopher Hole and laid on the bed where I was revived with coffee and noms. I am not a morning person, my mum knows I am not a morning person and how I did 06:15 starts when I worked in catering is anybody's guess! At least I think this was the day of my crap in the morning. Unless that was on the Saturday. I'm not sure! I know there was more buying of tat and I got myself a simply excellent grey jacket I have been wearing pretty much every day since. Not only does it fit well and have all the pockets I need... I also can't find very much in the way of clothing options after my move.

Whatever happened, this was the day of Fandom Issus #3, another damn good discussion about social issues in fandom where I got deep and meaningful. I then headed over to What do you want to see at Red 19 and took copious notes. Then I picked up some delightful tat at the charity auction whilst writing my presetorial for Mostly harmless. Then there was Man of Iron and I was so glad I managed to find my script from Redemption 13 as I prepared for my moving home thing. Straight after that I was needed for the closing ceremony so sprinted there and got my ass on the stage with the rest of the committee. I had various things to say and made sure they were coherent but just really loved being up there. There was also the Chair's Pirate Party which I simply sat down at. I did a few things but mostly I just needed to sit as by that point I was exhausted and needed to sit and soak up the atmosphere. And more Peroni.

There were heart to hearts with people, hugs, more Peroni, running around the hotel like a loon and quality time with my pixie. Not everything went right programming wise but I threw myself into it all and did what I could to address problems, be where I needed to be and turned my talents to providing all the support I could where it was necessary. Redemption 2018 is going to be slightly different I am sure - I have stepped up to do programming. I have a database of ideas, a clear idea of what I want to be doing and am pulling everything together behind the scenes. There is a lot to be working with.

On the Monday I headed back home with my pixie, tired but with a renewed sense of confidence and sharpened speaking skills and with a home move looming ahead. That was probably more of a challenge than the convention...

Saturday was completely and totally nuts. I had some time to Shop for Lovely Tat in the dealers' room and niffled some cheap and lovely stuff which made me smile - "niffled" being a reference to nifflers in the Harry Potter World which are little platypus like creatures who like shiny stuff they put in their pouches. I had a fair amount of running around being useful and at one point decided giving using a radio a go. I was in my Atlantis gear and rather than saying "received" went with "This is Puddlejumper One". So... straight after that and some running around I got myself to the Fandom Issues #2 panel, "Entitlement" which was a fascinating debate around behaviours in fandom.

Straight after that it was the bar and then cabaret rehearsals (I had been nabbed to do a sign up sheet which I did). This was completely awesome as that is where I agreed to co-MC the cabaret with Chris O'Shea - this turned out to be a great move! I also amused people by running around here there and everywhere whilst going "I am doing stuff - wheeeeeeee!!!!" Then I was onto Its Shit but I like It and straight after that was the Music Quiz where I bounced around like a loon having a great time being LuckyKaa's emergency holographic quiz host.

I just about had time for noms and was then doing some amazing and awesome MC stuff with Chris O'Shea and I really, really loved it. It was fab and I loved how we played off each other. There was good feeling, the audience liked it and it was FUN. So much fun! I was told that I seemed very much in my element and that it was clear I wanted to be up there on the stage being a happy geeky loon. Which is true.

Then it was onto the bar again! And a late night... and good feeling... and being looked after by my pixie. It was all very challenging and a bit good.

On Friday I ran the First Timers Meeting and I rally enjoyed it. Admittedly, I was in a verging on defunct state, I had made sure I had sufficient coffee and that I knew what I was talking about. It hinged around the Read Me book for the event I had reformatted at work using Arial Narrow, bullet points and left and right justified margins. Yum! Why yes, I was very pleased with my own formatting skills - how did you guess? I was glad to be so familiar with it as it certainly helped me go through various important points.

Then there was a quick stop off at the bar and onto Fandom Issues, number one of a series of panels that proved to be interesting and prompted a brilliant debate. Straight after that it was Constructing the Robot Cool Wall which was brilliant fun and a great giggle! Then How to Plan your Panel which no-one was there for so I kicked back and chilled for a bit and drank Peroni.

I had an hour free after that so it was onto the Opening Ceremony where I took to the stage and did announcing things which was awesome. I completely missed the Ceilidh but had a great time kicking back in the bar. The best thing was catching up with friends, there were hugs and lots and lots of fun. I also needed a sit down after all the running around and it was very welcome!!

It's about time I blogged about this. It was really good... I just had a minor hassle travelling up there. When I say minor, it was actually more than that. I had a migraine when I called a cab, got in said cab and managed to throw up over myself in pain. I say MYSELF as the cab escaped absolutely fine and my reaction was to clean it like my life depended on it. This included use of baby wipes, tissues, other cleaning items I had and anything else cleaning related I could lay my hands on (I travel prepared). I do believe it was cleaner than when I got on once I had been deposited at Kings Cross. My pixie found me at Kings Cross literally wraith coloured, covered in vom and barely able to function.

I got changed so I didn't smell of stuff and then we found the Last Train From London. Storm Doris had truly been having fun with the UK's travel facilities leaving us with sod all. So... we boarded a train and it sat in the station for a long while. I could not object as I was feeling really crap by that time. Eventually we left the station and got to Doncaster after quite a delay that I will not argue about. I needed it. Then it was a slow train to Sheffield which I managed to maintain consciousness on.

Finally we got to Sheffield, grabbed a cab (which I did not throw up in) and got to the hotel where we needed to change rooms. After a short lie down it was down to join everyone for dinner and.... well, I actually felt a lot better for it. There were hugs, geekery and then the Formatting the Layout of the Programme While Drunk Game. It looked good! There was also copious drinking of Peroni, giggling and faffing with a laptop that wasn't mine and therefore I had no idea how to use half of the functions. There was also stuffing of convention bags and finally bed at some ridiculous time in the morning....

I had a really nasty fall on Tuesday evening, on my way to a midweek LOTNA meet i had arranged.  I was nearly at the pub when my foot hit an uneven paving slab and I went over.  All I could think was "PLEASENOT THE BOLLARD, PLEASE NOT THE BOLLARD, PLEASE NOT THE BOLLARD -" and then... my face hit the frakking concrete bollard I had hoped to avoid.  I lay on the ground and someone asked if I was OK. I responded with "Owwww...." and was sat up and looked after by some awesome passers by.  Of awesome.  I was handed water and tissues and someone called an ambulance.  I wouldn't open my eyes as I knew the sight of my own blood would freak me out.  There was a lot.  All over my face, shirt and scarf...

One of my friends went with me to the hospital, and was awesome.  The ambulance staff were brilliant.  The hospital staff were great, too.  I ended up with deep cuts to my nose, my top lip and a graze to my chin... I have hurt both knees and have an open wound on my right knee.  I was kept in hospital overnight as I was in such a shocked, fragile state and got a cab home.  The first thing I did was to advise my workplace about what had happened and that I wouldn't be in for the rest of the week as advised by the doctor.  I also spoke with my mum who paid for an Ocado order for me - I realised I might not have ordered quite right as I had double some items I wanted.  And my friends have been damn awesome.

I still look shocking and someone said I didn't have the best of luck.

What rubbish.

With good friends and family, and not having anything broken, I would wholeheartedly disagree.  :)

I had to do something totally adventurous and out of my comfort zone... after my phone breaking, breaking and breaking again, dropping calls and generally driving me mad I bought myself a new phone.  It's an Alcatel handset and the first time I texted on it I found I wasn't very good at it.  I seem to be getting a bit better now.  I tried to text my manager during a meeting so he knew where to go and couldn't work out how to text on it.  But... texted yesterday and IT WORKED!

I also found it has Google maps on it.  And I was able to download a toilet finder app.  And some games... and Skype.  I'm not all that sure about Skype but need to work out how to use it in the first place but will give it a go!!  I hear that Blackberry phones are the hardest to use, but I really did need one when I had one (or two in my case).  I'm hoping the apps will be helpful but more than anything, it's the ability to make audible phone calls, text and use the map functions which help a hell of a lot.  There's nothing more horrible than not knowing where I am or being unable to call my family.

Tech wise, I managed to set up a freesat box my mum and dad gave me (it was my dad's but my mum got him a new one).  I was quite amazed that I was able to set it up and it worked - and my satellite dish is set up and angled just right.  The next challenge is my new DVD player... of which my brother bought me the remote control device for it last night when we met at LOTNA.  I wasn't even at LOTNA that long last night but OH THE LOLS.  It was brilliant,  It was fab.  There were fab t-shirts and mutual Loki love, and squeeing.  Oh - and I ordered a hot chocolate and I thought the landlord had forgotten to charge me for it.  No, he gave me a hot choccy for free :)

I missed a fab quiz I am told, but that was down to very slow service in a restaurant I was in.  The previous thing I was at was a friend's Grease themed birthday party which I had a great time at.  Due to my hand injury i couldn't quite bowl properly at one point but once my hand had loosened up I was using a heavier bowling ball, squeeing and having a fab, fab, fab time.

It's all very fab.  Now to try and work out Skype...

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