October 2010: Hell Month Part 1

What a bum-fluff of a month.

And I’ll tell you why. And keep count of the Man Points on this one.

A long time ago in a galaxy not too far away (October 1^st) I was looking forward to busy, exciting month. Not only was I starting a new Open University Course, but I was taking a week off to spend time with my lovely lady, applying for a new job and had an autumnal spring in my step – It was gonna be a good month. [Man points a balanced 0].

Kinda didn’t work out the way I had planned.

The Gran

My 94 year old Gran can not only cause trouble in an empty room, but when I hit an ambulance with my old fiesta a decade ago she walked out of the carnage while I was stretchered off to hospital [-1 man point]. She’s made of iron that one. Unfortunately she was seriously ill at the start of the month and almost passed on – kudos to The Dad, who was in the right place at the right time to save her – and so I cancelled the holiday with the Lovely Lady in my life to go see her. Gran recovered overnight and was chirping away to me after my 7 hour drive to see her (no ambulances were hurt on the journey). MADE OF IRON I tell you.

So far October hadn’t started too well, but the worst was over, wasn’t it?

The Holiday

Actually, with some last minute internet searching, me and the Not So Tear Drenched Girlfriend managed a few days away in the lovely Lake Distinct after visiting Iron Gran. Here are some proper good visuals of the holiday...

I taught my lady chess, and beat her at every game [Man Points +1], saw a cool lake and had five course dinners every night. October was looking up.

Job application

I decided to go for a writing job for a change of career and to tick it off the Bucket List. Out of many, many applicants I made to the last 14 and had to do a writing assignment. It was tough but fun. Lots of fun. I learned many things about how to write promotionally and my tiny skill base was tested. I really thought I was going to get an interview at least. I didn’t of course, and the October curse struck again. I cursed right back, but to no avail, and October continued onwards...

Reading Affliction Continues

If you’ve checked out my last blog post ‘Reading Afflictions’ you’ll understand that I suffer from a terrible affliction of reading a few chapters of a novel before buying a new one, then read a few chapters of that book, and buy a new one, etc etc. Meaning I never really finish all the books I buy, creating a large Reading List. It stares at me now, daring me to read. [Man points -1 (come on, BOOKS are staring me down!)]

Reading Affliction continued and I totally blame October.

That's it for part 1, thank the lord, but mosey on back tomorrow for:

Work

University (of the Creative, Open variety)

Concussion

Halloween (with added concussion)

And of course to find out how many Man Points I finished on after October: Hell Month.