Tuesday 21 May 2013

What I'm Doing With My Unemployment...

I'm having a bit of a dull fortnight to be honest, nothing really interesting is going on in my life and so finding fun stuff to blog about it is a bit like panning for gold in a murky river-sometimes you get a glittering nugget of inspiration but most of the time it's just stones and mud. I'm so bored of late, nothing at all is happening to me-today I shaved my legs to give me something to do (I wish that was an exaggeration...) and the only reason I had to get up and get dressed (a dentists appointment) got cancelled before I'd even properly got out of bed. Another pyjama day, then.

In a bid to remind myself that life is fun, and also because a good friend of mine is pressuring me to write more blogs so she can read them as procrastination (Love you really AC ;) ) I'm going to tell you the fun stuff I'm doing with my unemployment and dole money.

-Bass Guitar
I found a Groupon for music lessons in September last year and bought it practically on impulse. I didn't really know what I wanted to do with it, I just wanted to do something. I opted for bass guitar, because it's a little different to standard guitar lessons, and because that way my Dad (who has been playing guitar since his teens) can't interfere too much. I begged my parents for a bass for Christmas, found one that I totally fell in love with, and was so lucky to find her wrapped up under my tree.

A friend told me to take a picture "rocking out"
so I did! </highlyselfabsorbedphoto>

Now she's not perfect-she isn't an expensive bass, and her strings need a bit of jiggering about with to get her sound right, but I love her. She's beautiful and lovely, and sounds reallyreally good. The only downside is that I can't afford lessons at the moment, but I'm going to ask for some birthday money to put towards them because I really want to get back to playing-I really like having something that's totally mine, that I chose to do completely as a whim and with no other influences.

-Swing Dancing
Technically, I haven't started this yet, but I've bought a block of 10 lessons, again on Groupon, because I've wanted to learn to swing dance ever since I went to a taster session at uni in my first year. Why I didn't join the society I don't know, but for whatever reason I didn't, so when I saw them crop up on Groupon, and after a quick Facebook consultation* I bought them for myself. I'm quite excited to get started! (Note to self...ring up and book!) I'm also hoping this will help make me a little fitter/healthier, just because I'm unemployed doesn't mean I can't look after myself, right?

-Pen Pals
I don't know about you but I really like getting nice things in the post. In a fit of boredom and insomnia one early morning I googled 'pen pal sites' just to see what would turn up. There was a surprising number but the one I liked the look of most was this one-http://lettersandgifts.tumblr.com/ -where you can create a short bio for yourself and leave your email address for people to get back to you. I got quite a few responses from mine-and now have four lovely pen pals from around the world! (Two in the States, one in Brazil and one in Italy) It's just really pleasant to be able to sit and write letters to people that I don't know at all on thick, creamy paper and in a fountain pen and it's also really nice reading about them too!


I dunno, it feels old fashioned and quaint and really quite nice, like a throw back to another time. I think that's why I love it, in this world of smart phones and twitter/Facebook and technology that allows us to keep in touch with people 24/7 I quite like the fact that you have to post a letter than wait weeks for a reply, it feels like you're slowing life down a little. I don't even know what any of these people look like yet, it's a tiny bit magic =)

-PostCrossing
At the same time I discovered my pen pal site, I discovered PostCrossing. A bit like my (failed!) attempt at sending postcards out to my followers, the premise is fairly simple-you get an address and send a post card to it. When the person receives that postcard, they register it on the site and then your address gets moved to the top of the list for people to send one to. So it's not quite like having a pen pal because you get postcards back from someone you've never sent one to, and so forth-it's really quite fun. I so far have received 16
postcards from all around the world and also sent lots everywhere too!

Please excuse the peculiar angle, this is a
wall on my stairs and really hard to
photograph!

I've had to limit myself to only sending 5 postcards a month though, because otherwise it gets quite expensive, but none the less it's still awesome. I've even gained a blog follower or two from it (hello!) so it's reaching further than just pretty things landing on my doormat =)

So there you go. I mean that's obviously not everything I'm doing with my free time, I spent a lot of time on the internet, I read a lot and I visit my friends/get them to visit me when I can. It's definitely not all bad, but recently I've noticed that time seems to be slowing down, making days last years because I have nothing to do in them but search and apply for endless jobs that I'm not even qualified for anyway. It's got to that stage of boredom, where you resort to tidying your room because it's something that fills a couple of hours.

I am, however, glad for the little things, the moments of fun, for every time I get something mildly exciting in the post and for every time someone makes me laugh by talking to me on Facebook, even for 5 minutes.

Right, so that's this post done, now what to do next?..

-Jenni-


*with answers that ranged from "Yes, then I'll have someone I can swing dance with" to "There will be menfolk there Jenni"-my friends know me well...

1 comment:

  1. I feel bad about "there will be menfolk", but it makes me smile to see you doing so many awesome things! The postcard and pen pals things are amazing!

    Hugs xx

    ReplyDelete

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