Happy New Year

And it was as well.

On the 30th, I received my official termination letter from the Northern Division HR department. My supervisor took me into the manager's (vacant) office and, well, broke the news that we pretty much knew was coming anyway. I was fine with it, but she looked really guilty; it's her first time having to sack someone (not that it was really a sacking, but simply the end of a contract). I felt like just hugging her, and this had (almost) nothing to do with her being a gorgeous redhead with the body of a goddess.

The day after, New Year's Eve, I got another letter from HR, offering me an interview for the position of Northern Division Local Intelligence Officer, on Tuesday 11th January. Nice. It's not in the bag; I've been an employee of Lancashire Constabulary for less than six months, and this position brings with it a massive payrise and supervisory responsibilities. I think anyone already from the Intelligence department who goes for it stands a better chance than me. Oh well, fingers crossed, and I'm going to apply for the (higher-paid) researcher job going at LUSU as well. Kate says she's going to go for it as well, which could be fun.

Anny's party went brilliantly. No drunken moronicity, lots of lovely punch (that seemed to get stronger as the night went on, eh, Kate?), and loads of fun. It's weird how easily the phrase, "Guillaume is a selfish, evil, little shit. For Christ's sake, just go out with the commie," has slipped into the collective vocabulary of our circle of friends.

At midnight, Auld Lang Syne (with some of us even knowing the words: "Nu-nur nuh-nuh, nu-nur nuh-nuh, nuh nuh ner nuh Auld Lang Syne!"), a symbal (or sumble, however it's spelled) and then I sent Happy New Year text messages to everyone. Well, not everyone. More messages than in previous years failed to get through, so to everyone who's on my phone, yet didn't get wished a Happy New Year, you have it now.

I ended up staying up all night with Craig Slee, watching Queer as Folk, skipping the second half of the first season because of a No Disc error, and finally seeing the final episode of the second season, with it's weird reality collapse ending.

Tom's back tomorrow as well, his family having decided to go somewhere that wasn't the Maldives this Christmas.


It seems to be a theme in recent end-of-year blogs for people to retrospect on the year just gone. Well, where to begin:

2004 was the year without sex. Now it's passed by, I find myself shrugging. So what? I'm 23. I have the rest of my life ahead of me. Including 2005.

Last term, I abandoned Pulsar, a society I loved, because I didn't like the way it was being run. Next term, I'm rejoining, now there's a new exec (yes, it's largely the same as the old one, but the balance has shifted). I need to dig out Total Recall 2070 (more Blade Runner than Total Recall, but perhaps they couldn't afford the rights) and Cube (or has Pulsar already shown that one?). Hmm, I must have some other films. That's it: Innocent Blood, a vampire gangster movie with a largely B-list cast.

I stood for election at LURPS and lost to Dark Luke, by one measly vote. I'm going to stand again come the elections.

I've taken my first steps into the roleplaying industry, thanks to the Cthulhu Dark Ages example of play I've written (which I will be redrafting after I post this and then sending back to Stephane Gesbert). It's not a big start, but it's something. A morale boost if nothing else.

Employment-wise, I may have an uncertain future at the TIC (I will refuse to become a telephone helpline operator, if that's what my job becomes - no fucking way am I telling people what day their bins are due to be collected and how to pay their council tax), and be at the end of my police station contract, but I have two potentially excellent referees and a nice work history and proof of skills to put on any future job applications.

My financial situation, as mentioned in other posts, is rosy, particularly since it was pointed out to me that I am an innumerate retard, and that my financial forecast in the previous post actually leaves me with £220-ish next month. Oops. [Insert embarrassed smiley here.] I probably will clear my overdraft after all... I say again, Happy New Year.

Financial thinking out loud (I've been alone in this house too long...)

Right, just paid council tax for this month. £132. Ouch, but it should be cancelled out by Tom paying this month's share, and Kate paying this month and last month's.

Filled in my spreadsheet (a less scrupulous record than it was when I started it, but it still works for the general ebb and flow of my finances) and worked out that it's going to be hard to clear my overdraft by the end of next month, although it's still possible, assuming there's no big surprise expenditures.

Current state of affairs:
-£137, almost exactly where I was at the start of the month.

I'll be getting a tenner out tomorrow to cover lunches for the rest of the week, plus another tenner to buy alcimohol for Anny's New Year's party (the evening of 31st December, if anyone's interested...).

I've had to put an emergency £10 on the gas meter (we ran out this morning, whoopy-fucking-do).

That leaves me £30 down over the entire month.

However, let's look at the state of play.

Things I've bought for myself this month:
- Half-Life 2 (started again with new, improved graphics)
- Dawn of War (about four missions into the campaign, plus skirmish mode with four playable armies, so lots of replay there)
- Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines: Attack of the Colons (Just delving into that, so I expect to be playing this one for a while)
- Armageddon (A big thick book about the war in Germany, 1944-45)
- Various DVDs, of which I haven't watched Saving Private Ryan or Gangs of New York yet

Plus I've also got Going Postal (Pratchett) to restart, as well as Greg Stolze's Godwalker (Unknown Armies fiction, woot!!!). I'm in the middle of playing The Getaway: Black Monday on the PS2, and am on my second play-through of GTA: San Andreas, although I'm thinking of starting that one again from scratch as well, after deleting the save file so I go back to losing my weapons when I go to hospital or get arrested. I still have two episodes of World War One In Colour to get through, and I may rewatch parts of the series anyway, taking notes for Smog & Mirrors.

There's also Godlike to get my head around before term starts, ready to run my Wehrmacht Ubermenschen game (that's what I bought Armageddon for, research material).

Oh, and Tom's picked up Twin Peaks on DVD, and we've been lent a copy of season two of Alias.

In short, I've got lots of stuff to do this month, so it's not like I'll be spending vast quantities of cash on luxuries like DVDs, books or games.

Now, back to stuff I do want to buy this month:
- An electric heater for my room. Despite reorganising my room to allow for better circulation of warm air, it's still bloody cold in here with the radiator on full. I never thought I'd say this, but my room is just too big! So an electric heater of some description (a visit to Argos or Index, I think) to put on the floor beside my computer desk, away from my actual computer (see below).
- A new power pack for my computer, because the one I've got keeps overheating and shutting the computer down. It works fine most of the time at the moment, provided I take the side plates off the tower (which of course brings an increase in the amount of dust getting into the machine). This isn't a vital purchase, but it'd be nice to get it out of the way.
- A daylight bulb. I've nicked one of Kate's and put it in my main room light. That energy saving bulb that was in there before was just too harshly yellow. Pseudo-daylight's much nicer. I could do with picking one up to replace that one.
- Glasses. The frame's broken on the ones I've got, the prescription's two years old and there's a few minute traces of superglue on the right lens, so a replacement might be a nice idea. The good news is, my parents have offered to put some money towards these. I think they actually offered to cover the whole cost, which was nice of them. And I didn't even hint at them.
- Trainers. Now this one is urgent. The holes are getting bigger and they're just generally bringing down my overall appearance. (What?)

Predicted expenditure in January 2005
Assuming my parents cover the new glasses, but with an eye test of approximately £15, £30 for trainers, £30 for the power pack, and £30(?) for the heater, that puts me on about £105 for unpredicted expenses next month.

Food costs around £120 for four weeks, more or less, including money put into the house kitty.

Council tax costs me £44. (I may even get some money back in Council Tax relief over the next few months, if I end up on Jobseeker's Allowance again, but that's for the future).

Rent costs £150.

My Direct Debit to Amnesty International is £5.

Bus fares to and from campus come to around £20 over the month

So that's a total of £444 expenditure.

My income is going to be:

Approximately £625 from the police station, and £38 from the Tourist Information Centre (only 6 hours next month).

Total: £663-ish


Subtract £444 from £663 and you get a vague £120-ish.

So, using those figures, and bearing in mind the £30 yet to come out of my bank account, not quite enough to break even. On the other hand, the freezer is full of my food and I may have over-estimated some of the prices of the things I want to buy. I could forego the heater and just wear a fleece (it works, I did it last night). Also, I might end up with a slightly above average final pay cheque from the police station (for some reason it fluctuates...).

Anyway, even I don't break even in January, I'm still almost £1250 better off than I was six months ago. I'm now out of the financial stress region, and if I end up with another job, even a part-time one, or extra hours at the TIC, I'll become a saver again!

I haven't had a positive amount of money in my account (for longer than a few days before rent and so on have come out) since... term 2 of my first year.

Where I am now feels good.

*blissfully ignoring the £10,000 student loan because it doesn't need paying yet*