This is the time of the year when festival line-ups start to come out. Amazing lists for Oxegen, T In The Park and Wireless and some are already starting to sell out. Normally, this would be a happy time for anyone heading for the festivals this summer, but for me, especially this year; it is another form of frustration. I would have loved to see The Strokes, Massive Attack, Depeche Mode and Belle & Sebastian at Wireless, or The Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand and Sigur Ros at Oxegen, and the later festivals haven’t even been announced yet! But, by June, if I will still be jobless, I will not be able to afford it, or if I will find a job, I will probably not be able to take the time off. Either way, I will not be able to buy tickets early enough.

My only conciliation is that I already have my tickets to see Depeche Mode in Israel on 3rd August, and there’s a rumour that Franz Ferdinand will be in support.

I visited two different shopping centres today, one with a friend in the afternoon, and another one in the evening. Today’s loot included:

1 long red corduroy skirt (on sale)
2 blouses made especially for women who proudly own a full pair of breasts (on sale – 2 for 1)
1 optical mouse
1 ergonomic mouse pad
1 birthday present for my nephew
1 part of E’s birthday present
3 tomatoes
3 cucumbers
1 box of cereal
-38 bottles returned for recycling

Not too bad for one day…

In between shopping trips, I went to Ra’anana Park to hunt the sunset. There was a beautiful view up the hill, and gorgeous clouds, but not much of a sunset. I gave up and went to the loo, only to be presented with a stunning leftover of a sunset on my way out. I did manage to pull my camera out in time to take a few pictures as the sun sank behind the houses and I was off, just to see the amazing bright orange skies in my rear-view mirror. If only I had stayed up on that hill for another half an hour… Oh well, it’s a good season for sunsets and there will be another. I did manage to get some nice shots, and they will be added to the photolog soon.

It was supposed to be a relaxing time off, but this week was just got busier every day, with the peak of it being today. I was at no less than four interviews today! The stream of interviews started with two interviews yesterday, both for the same position, but handled through a few outsourcing and human resources companies, and the phone just keeps ringing. Hold on! I don’t want to work just yet! Give me a bit more of that freedom, please!

Other things have not made my week easy either. Willy came back home on Monday evening, as usual, in an unfit state. I took him to the vet on Tuesday, and he is on antibiotics again and needs to be locked up indoors. The even sadder part is that it turns out that his condition is chronic, and may repeat many more times. I have been consulting the vet about a possible solution, but the treatment which has the highest chance of full recovery only provides a 50% probability. Willy is a street cat by nature, locking him up, even though it is a golden cage, breaks my heart.

I haven’t been 100% OK either. I had to take a routine blood test on Monday. As usual, my veins were hard to find and not very generous, which meant a very difficult time both for the nurse and for me. At least I could take my time to rest afterwards, and even go shopping for a few little things that I didn’t really need at IKEA.

Next week should be better. Willy will still be poorly, but I hope it will all be more relaxed. No additional interviews have been set… yet.

Willy is pulling another disappearing act

The weather around here is mad! Absolutely bonkers! Yesterday I was out wearing a t-shirt, and today I had my big coat on, and I had to buy a woolly hat to protect my ears from the vicious winds. You call that winter?!

Unfortunately the weather is affecting me quite badly as well. My ears have been hurting since they were exposed to cold winds during the weekend. I went to the doctor today, but she couldn’t see anything wrong, she said it might just go away. However, since I came back home it feels like everything else is also getting blocked up, my ears don’t work well, but I still hear every little squeak as if it was right inside my head and it is starting to give me a headache. Maybe I’m coming down with something, which is not good – I don’t want to be sick while I should be having fun!

My time off might get even shorter. There have been a few interesting calls in the past couple of days.

The sky has a strange orange colour today. Maybe I’ll take some pictures later.