Choppy waters.

Typical me! One week later I remember I started a blog! Ah well, my favourite blogger sometimes goes months without an update if she doesn't feel like it. If I average once a week I'll be delighted. Had a pretty busy one since last post - working at the weekend and working yesterday evening so they'd have been out anyway. Really I'm only a few days behind...

What to write? What to write? Well I DID finally pay off that big debt I was talking about. WUNDERBAR! Also got some extra cash in last paycheck because they had to pay me holiday pay because of end of contract - so I managed to clear some other niggly wee debts. This month (for the first time in forever) I might actually have money in my account when NEXT payday rolls around. How the other half live, eh? Haha! It's a nice feeling though. Have treated myself to some new books and some other wee cheap presents - running shorts etc. The joys of being able to buy more than basic groceries! Was even able to afford a night out and some concert tickets. I'm not hard to keep really.

Unfortunately, because of work, I missed the second class in my beekeeping course on Saturday - so I have to spend the coming weekend getting caught up with that. B. - the teacher - said he'd keep the notes for me. But I need to pass a practical exam on the stuff he's teaching at the end of next month, so I'll have to actually READ the notes. Like STUDY. Been a while since I had to do that. Lucky I'm a stew who loves that shit. The beekeeping is a weird one. I like the idea of it and all the beekeepers I've met so far have been totally my kind of people - lovely, friendly eccentrics who have no idea that they're odd. I'm not planning on buying a hive or any bees just yet though - that's a big commitment. Will see how I get on with the course first and will practice on the communal hives in Culturlann.

Got my hair chopped last week. It's pretty short. Who am I kidding - it's SHORT. Last time I went the hairdresser talked me out of going this drastic but I still kept obsessing over it. This time I just insisted and she didn't argue. She even got out the clippers! You know it's short when they get the clippers going. I like it but it's definitely that sort of short that the pool of guys who are likely to be attracted to me has shrunk by about 90%. I don't mind this at all - and I was reminded of WHY this doesn't bother me today as I left the prison after my Tuesday reading group. As I was walking out some teenage toerag shouted from a cellblock: 'Oy! Are you a wee boy or a wee girl?' and then pished himself laughing. Let's be honest - I am missing out on NOWT.

My reading group are older men - too elderly or too unwell to engage in the other programmes the prison runs - but they're all thinkers. About 50% have serious problems with literacy, but they are all intelligent men with life experiences and opinions and something interesting to add to the discussion. The younger guys - the ones who spend their prison sentence in the gym - they'd NEVER come to my group. Thank god. It takes some mad skillz to find a way to act like an entitled, chauvinist prick whilst locked up in PRISON. I ignored him, of course, but what makes some men think we even care what their opinion is? It's crazy. If my new hair means I'm less likely to get tackled by every drunken, chauvinist moron in the town on a weekend night, then bring it on, I say. I think it suits me. I'm not going to be troubling Vogue's door with any length of hair - at least this way I look sorta... gamine, I think. Note the troglodyte shouted 'wee girl or wee boy' - not man or woman. Ha!