Too tired to blog

Currently reading: OS Landranger maps 101, 106 and 107
Currently watching: Little Miss Sunshine
Most recently saw: Waitress

This two-job lark may be good for the bank balance (goes some way to counteract not having any jobs this time last year) but it's bloody knackering. In order to do enough hours at both jobs (53 paid hours a week, roughly), I need to work all week, including weekends. So, I did 11 days without a break, then went down to Stratford and had a wonderfully relaxing weekend last week, (we saw The Penelopiad in the Swan, none of us were particularly moved or impressed by it, Penny Downie was ace but the rest was a muddle - that'll have to do for a review for now), and have just worked six days straight and will next get a day off on Thursday (in fact another weekend off because I'm scarpering to Edinburgh).

So, some things have had to fall by the wayside - housework is one, blogging is the other. Sorry. Will get back into the swing in due course (i.e. when one of the jobs finishes).

But even though it's tiring, the location scouting is really enjoyable. I've seen more of East Yorkshire in the past couple of weeks than in the past ten years, probably; exploring Holderness (the flat bit between Hull and the coast - and it really is very very flat - my photos have lots of sea and sky in them) has been really interesting, especially along the Humber estuary and up the North Sea coast, where essentially the east coast of England is falling off into the sea. Lots of roads with signs saying "danger of erosion" and you park and walk to the end of the road to see a chunk of it has fallen onto the beach. Have also explored the villages of the Yorkshire Wolds, which are so picture postcard perfect, you'd think they'd been built just to be a cute film set, in some cases. Then today, spent the day in the Old Town in Hull. Had a speedboat ride from Victoria Pier to the North Sea Ferries terminal and back, which was fantastic, and walked all round the Marina, along the Humber to Victoria Dock Village and back, along the riverside walk up the River Hull then back down High Street, an old cobbled street which runs parallel to the river, and contains some beautiful old buildings as well as the Museums Quarter. What's good about having a focus, in this case buildings and locations, is that it has made me notice much more of what's there, and there are some really beautiful buildings as well as a huge amount of history - William Wilberforce's house, old warehouses, wharves, grand merchants' buildings, as well as really modern stuff like The Deep and the tidal barrage. If I can, I'll put a folder of photos on flickr in the next week or two - I've taken over 1,000 pictures in the last couple of weeks and they need a bit of sorting out!

As a result of running round like a blue-arsed fly (not only the two jobs, but Handyman Steve cleared the Weedy Bit at the end of the garden last week so I have a vegetable patch to get organised - a garden update and pictures will follow) I'd forgotten all about the BSSC but luckily Lucy had all the first round qualifiers on her blog - and I made it. Phew. Am particularly relieved because I feel like an ideas-free zone at the moment. The closing date for Spark is Wednesday and I haven't got a clue about what to submit.

V and I saw "Waitress" last night and both loved it. Very funny, sweet film with just enough of an edge to stop it being cloying. Very poignant too, thinking about Adrienne Shelly - what a sad loss.

Will come back and put in links and stuff soon - am a bit too zonked to focus just now.