Good news! Two months, three letters and about five million phone calls since I first made my claim for Job Seeker's Allowance, they have finally confirmed that the required letter from university was received. Now I just need to wait to see how and when they will reopen my claim - they said I might have to fill in another application form, but hopefully that won't be necessary. It's not my bloody fault that the letter was sent off late, and it certainly isn't my fault that the Job Centre took so long to actually realise it had arrived!

Oh, and apparently my money will be backdated, new form or not. Phew. That means I can get some better-fitting clothes for an interview and/or work, and I can set up some pet insurance for the ratties and get them registered with a vet. That will put me at ease because I worry constantly about their health.

Speaking of which, I don't think Boffin and Barnaby are well. In the last fortnight they've both been showing symptoms of a respiratory infection. I'm hoping it's not Mycoplasmosis, which requires lifelong care with expensive medication - though if it is, I'm more than willing to work out a budget that allows for their treatment. In the meantime, while I can't get said medication, I'm keeping them warm and well fed with fresh fruit and veggies, as well as a mixture of green tea with lemon and honey which is supposed to do them good and encourage them to drink more. Oh, and I'm cleaning their cage obsessively - a wipe down every day with a wet cloth and full on disinfection every two or three days with boiling water, white vinegar and a rat-friendly disinfectant. So far their symptoms seem to be getting a bit better. Hopefully by the time I get paid they won't be any worse.

I'm preparing to put around £200 aside for their check-up and treatment. Maybe a bit more, depending on what vet I can find. The rest I'll set aside for an emergency. I've learned all too well this last year how crappy things can get if you don't put any cash away for an emergency.

Anyway, what have I been up to? Nothing much. I've divided my time between reading (1Q84 Book Three by Haruki Murakami), playing Minecraft (the Adventure Update came out on the Xbox! Yay!), being with Jason, looking after Boffin and Barnaby and planning my NaNo '12 novel! I can't remember if I've written about this before but I'm taking the notecards approach this time round - cutting up A4 paper into 8 pieces, each of which I will write random plot ideas as well as my established plot points, before arranging it all into some kind of order. This way, I feel I have the direction of a plan guiding me, without the restrictions of, say, just writing a synopsis down in a notepad. If I have a spontaneous idea while writing, I can just throw it in there without upsetting the whole thing. my NaNo 2009 went swimmingly using the very same methods.

The only issue I'm having is a slight creative drought. I have all my main plot points written down now; I just need a whole load of crazy random stuff to chuck in now; the stuff that makes my novel the freewheeling load of nonsense that it is. Maybe I should sit down tomorrow and read through the whole thing to see if there are any plot threads I can pick up...

I have to do well this year. I haven't actually written anything properly since NaNoWriMo last year. If I can make NaNo 2012 a success, it would be a massive step towards kicking this infernal depression and taking my life back. Plus, it would be a big help for my novel; this is the one I want to finish first, and NaNo 2012 could be the big boost towards completion it needs. Maybe I'll even be able to continue with it through to completion this time. I hope so. And then I can begin rewriting. And rewriting again. And rewriting again.

Tomorrow Jason and I are going to a Halloween movie night at Mike's, and then on Monday we're heading off to Southport again, back to the Scarisbrick Hotel! This is where we celebrated our first anniversary back in April, and this time we're going to celebrate the 13th anniversary of Caroline and Alan, some of Jason's family's friends. I'm really looking forward to it; it's going to be a much-needed break, and a great workout too. Going away means we'll be doing a ton of walking around, and this time we'll be making full use of the hotel's pool and spa facilities. I can't wait to see how many calories I'll burn! I'll be bringing my novel plan and a few pages as well, because NaNoWriMo will actually begin on our last night there! It would be great to get a few pages done in the hotel before bed (after midnight, of course!) and some on the car ride home.

But first, however, I need to plan...

Well then! It's been a while! Everybody should thank darkspirited1 for dragging me back. I've been thinking about LiveJournal for a while now, wondering whether it was appropriate to return for the five quintillionth time, and whether or not there'd be a digital angry mob with pixel torches and electronic pitchforks waiting to skewer me for my negligence. As it is there's only a keyboard awaiting me, and Semagic.

What have I been doing these past three months, you ask? After the horrible ol' business that was - er, is - 2012, I've just been recovering, trying to get over my depression, and getting my life back on track. I did keep a non-Internet diary for a little while, which I will probably type up and post here backdated to fill in the gaps, and I have a Tumblr for when I really needed to rant or post cute pictures of my rats... but after nearly six years of LiveJournal, I guess Tumblr and my diary weren't enough.

( Summary of my last three months under the cut for your convenience... )

And... that's pretty much it. I think. These three months have been pretty uneventful otherwise; I've just been going to pub quizzes, chilling out with Jason, playing the XBox and having moodswings. Hopefully I can get more active on here again, because I love my LJ too much to let it fade away. And I love you guys, of course. The time I've been away I've missed you all a lot <3

I haven't eaten at all today!

As soon as I got up, I headed into Earlestown with Dad to do some shopping for the rats - they needed more food and I also wanted to see if I could pick up some rodent shampoo, but Wilkinson's doesn't sell any. I'll have to pick some up on Tuesday instead, when I go to St Helens.

When I got back, I cleaned out both cages, which took me a little while. Boffin and Barnaby were easy enough; I just had to hand-wash their quilt because we're low on electric, and then put in some of the usual bedding in the meantime. Thelma took a little while longer because her cage is bigger and she has this annoying habit of winding strands of bedding around the bars of her cage. They hang down like shredded drapes; like some scene from a horror film. I don't know how the hell she manages it.

So I had to rat-proof the kitchen and let her scurry about on the floor while I handpicked these strands and scrubbed her cage clean - a fidgety task when you have to navigate your wrists around two tiers and a couple of ramps. But she was surprisingly well-behaved about the whole thing! Seriously, she just wandered about, in and out of her rustle tunnel, standing on my feet... I was quite chuffed. Normally I'm really paranoid that they'll get into some crevice somewhere and never come out but Thelma put me right at ease.

I think she confuses housekeeping times with cuddle times though. When I was knelt on the kitchen floor, picking the strands from her cage, she was sniffing at my face, licking me, climbing all over me. It was adorable C: She's such a good girl. And Boffin and Barnaby have gotten much better since I first got them!

So I may be starving because I've been 100% focused on my babies today, but it's totally worth it! Now, I shall go eat. Afterwards, I'll tidy up the living room and get Boffin and Barnaby out.