well, I'm back.

[helenic]

Today has been one of those delicious wastes of a day. I slept my hangover off (last night we celebrated elise's 21st birthday, again), then sought out caffiene (tea) and salt (leftover Pringles) and curled up on the sofa in the dining room with a trashy Anne Rice book for a few hours. I've spent the afternoon at fellatiovilla catching up online using cantabulous's computer, and have just discovered that I've locked myself out of the flat and am therefore trapped here until strongtrousers gets home from work. It would be annoying if I wasn't so relaxed. Actually I'm revelling in having such a grand excuse not to do any painting yet.

The flat is blissful and I'm enormously content. We don't have a phoneline or internet yet, so I'm spending my time in the company of (shock!) Real People, and haven't yet had a chance to update with my Scandawegia photos or lengthy travel journal. I've been unpacking and tidying and organising the kitchen, and alphabetising books and CDs, and cooking extravagant salads. It's extraordinarily pleasant to live with two other accomplished cooks and we've been eating very well. I have a delightful en suite with a large bath, and I've arranged all my toiletries in there and decorated it with erotic photography. (All bathrooms should be decorated with erotic photography.) My housemates are wonderful and I love them to pieces. thelovelyoliver is practically an honorary housemate at the moment and it's great to see so much of him. I'm sorry to gush, but my life appears to have suddenly and magically worked out, and honestly, the last twenty one years have so been worth ending up here. romauld and I have reached an arrangement which is mutually pleasing and hopefully sustainable, and I'm thrilled to have finally figured out this whole Staying Friends With Exes thing. If anything, we're almost getting on better than before, or perhaps I've just grown up a bit. And being able to be truly relaxed, and enjoy spending time in a home that is mine, and beautiful, that I've been waiting for after years of living with my parents and in college and in-between places ... it's too good for words. I'm happy. I'm really happy. At the moment I'm emotionally and physically recovering from the excesses and excitement of the last six weeks and I'm tired and I'm happy.

I also have Shiny, Shiny New Things of Joy. My parents came up on Friday and with them they brought:
- a lorry FULL of old furniture they've been saving for me, all of it perfectly servicable and some of it in rather attractive dark woods. Including two bookcases, a desk, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe, two smaller chests of drawers for filing, and a folding English elm dining table, which we've put in the kitchen.
- several boxes of old folders, writing, notebooks, paperbacks, and assorted Stuff which it's been fascinating to sort through - discovering things I'd forgotten, beautiful things, painful things, arranging them all around me and thoroughly establishing myself in the place...
- £860 in twenty pound notes. It's the final balance of my trust fund and they gave it to me in cash just to see my face.
- a letter from Downing College containing a cheque for £229, refund for my last college bill and matriculation deposit
- a letter from the Classics Faculty entitling me to £550 towards travel to Greece or Rome in the next year, which I have to claim with a journey itinerary, and which I hadn't even applied for. I appear to be going to Greece for a while. Which is nice.

Then they took me shopping for 21st birthday and getting a First and graduation presents, and there was much much more Shinyness. Specifically, there was a portable CD and cassette player, a posh liquidiser for making smoothies and soups and houmous and things, two lovely sexy nighties and some slinky pyjamas, lots of very nice lacy knickers, TWO WHOLE TREES OF MY VERY OWN for the balcony (I've become incredibly attached to the trees. We've bonded. They are tall leafy shrubs in large terracotta pots and they're called Spider and Jerusalem), a VIOLIN, oh my god, an actual violin because I mentioned wanting to learn folk fiddle, and some wine, and a bodhran, and herb pots for the kitchen, and cushions, and a kingsized duvet and they're going to get me attractive bedding when I'm in Leicester because it's cheap there, and a laundry hamper, and and and. SHINY SHINY THINGS OF JOY. Mmmmm.

The shiny things are not the only reason I'm happy. Good friends and holiday and travelling, and good books (I don't include the Anne Rice in this category, but I've been reading Georgette Heyer and Stella Gibbons and Ursula le Guin) and good food and good wine, those things all contribute as well. Having a place of my own that's mine, when you all know by now how over-affected I am by environment, is most of it. I'm here. At last. And I'm loving it.

Comments

sounds good

[casby.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the invite yesterday, I had been moping Yveslessly for a week.

In return, and also since I didn't know the Elise birthday angle on the party in advance, I have arranged the delivery of door wedges, fridge magnets and coffee, which should appear in a few days at your new flat.


Casby the social ghost

Re: sounds good

[doseybat.livejournal.com]

well if you fancy a few days randomly in Vienna you are very welcome!

Re: sounds good

[libellum.livejournal.com]

oh my god, that's so marvellously sweet of you! thankyou :)

if you are still moping Yveslessly, come to the party tonight? it's just down the road from us - text me for the house number.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

Wow. A Violin.

That is one of the first things I would buy if I won the lottery.

[aiwendel.livejournal.com]

atreic - would you like to long term borrow one?
You see I have 2 and they are both going dusty... I was going to try and sell one, but I still haven't got round to it and neither is that good and I'm not sure which I prefer!!

libellum
Congratulations and happy birthday and welcome back and things :)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of it at all, it was a complete surprise, and then - WOW. It's my absolute baby. I love it I love it and I'm not worthy to play it. I need to scrounge lessons off someone!

[ifimust.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry things are going soooo badly for you. :)

((Liebllum)) :) Glad it's so good.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

it is very very good :) and nice to chat to you last night! am very much looking forward to meeting everyone properly. Shall I bring musical instruments or would I be the only one?

[justamephit.livejournal.com]

And just how adorable is Georgette Heyer?

[libellum.livejournal.com]

She's wonderful. I've read The Grand Sophy and Friday's Child and am hooked. They're trashy and fast-paced and hilarious and sexy and what Jane Austen wants to be. Particularly the way her rogueish male characters continually banter in their charming 19th century London idiom. I want to cast them as plays and act in them!

[translucent.livejournal.com]

Scandiwegia! I've only heard the word from translator friends and thought they were the only ones.

How much does a bodhran set one back? On deciding jointly that friends and I would at some point set up an ad hoc folk group to *cough* cover the *cough* Doctor Who theme and planning some sort of band lineup we discovered the dire lack of a rhythm section, and I wonder whether it's worth owning one. I've always found accomplishedly banging things satisfying. (My other choice'd be whistle, which would confuse my recorder-wired brain.)

Glad you're back. LiveJournal has been a bit barren recently ;)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure who coined Scandawegia. It was that and Nordanavia... perhaps it was, indeed, translator types?

A cheap bodhran is about £40. A nice one is about £150. They vary inbetween. Alternatively, tin whistles are about a fiver, and nice wooden or plastic ones about £20. Or you could look on ebay?

I'm utterly shocked that livejournal hasn't coped well with my absence. Clearly there is a need for more alcoholic junketing in the world. It's up to me to compensate. *sigh*

[altoclef.livejournal.com]

What sort of violin?

[libellum.livejournal.com]

do you know, I'm not sure? it's quite playable, but not posh. I'm still at the villa using Roger's computer so I can't check. deborah_c might be able to tell you, though?

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

You can get more bookcases into that flat without it exploding from superbookcaseism? *boggles*

[libellum.livejournal.com]

we're just waiting for it to start warping into L-space.

[liriselei.livejournal.com]

welcome back !

[libellum.livejournal.com]

thankyou, sweetheart! what are your funds like these days? Any chance we can drag you over to Cambridge and feed you dinner?

[snowpiratess.livejournal.com]

Your trees are named Spider and Jerusalem. I am in awe. (My plant is called Haircut). Welcome back to Livejournal-land, it sounds like you've got your lifestyle all arranged beautifully!

"they're called Spider and Jerusalem"

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

<3

Re: "they're called Spider and Jerusalem"

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

That would have been better if LJ hadn't eaten my ASCII love-heart: <3

[mostlyacat.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's such a wonderful entry! I am very pleased you are happy.

Thank you for the post card!

Nick

[libellum.livejournal.com]

you're very welcome! :D

[doseybat.livejournal.com]

wow, that sounds fantastic! *bounces happily*

[libellum.livejournal.com]

oh it is it is! Come to dinner! You and Sarah. Seriously, pick a night!

Otherwise, the housewarming's on the 20th... actually I should get round to officially advertising that...

[punkalou.livejournal.com]

That whole having your own place thing is just the best thing ever after university. I think it's only really happened to me this year, as I managed to move a further four times in the year after graduating. Just the sense of 'this is mine' and knowing that you can really, properly relax into your surroundings...
I'm so glad things are going well for you xx

[surje.livejournal.com]

hooray for nice things, in particular the violin sounds very cool.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

mmm. I can't wait to finish this painting so I have time to play it properly :) Good luck with the house!

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

Welcome back, and glad things are good. :)

A violin, oh wow! Will you be bringing it to Towersey, or will you still be at the strangled cat stage by then? (Or was violin something you already played? Don't remember.)

I think Ursula le Guin is my favourite Sci-Fi/Fantasy author at the moment. And she seems to have brought out several new collections of her old magazine short stories, which creates an awful lot of temptation potential.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I intend to bring it to Towersey... whether I'll be able to play anything is another matter! It will depend on being able to lock it up in someone's car when we're not at the campsite, though. I'm also hopefully bringing a bodhran and my whistles :) I got my ticket today!

I'm loving le Guin right now. I read Changing Planes while I was away, which was provoking and funny and beautiful, and I'm just starting Tales of Earthsea. I need to get hold of The Other Wind. She was my favourite author for years when I was young(er), it's a joy to be rediscovering her :)