More Holiday Art!

I'm feeling a bit better today. I actually went to work. (I only had a short three hour shift.) I should be completely better in a couple of days. The wonders of modern medicine and lots of sleep!

Here's some more holiday art:

An Eventful Boxing Day and More Art.

I was going to post today's art this morning. I really was! But then I woke up with a really painful throat and when I went and checked in the mirror with a torch I saw I had tonsillitis. I get tonsillitis so often I'm pretty good at self-diagnosing by now. Back in Greece I just go to a pharmacy and get my own medicine and that's that.

But in the UK you can't do anything without a prescription, and being a holiday nothing was working. I wasn't going to let them put me off getting my anti-biotics however! I jumped through all their hoops! I had to wait for hours on an emergency hotline before giving my details and telling them what was wrong. Then I had to wait for an hour and a half for them to call back, where I described all over again what was wrong and I persuaded them to book me an appointment at the nearest hospital (after insisting that no, I would rather not wait and see if it goes away by itself!)

I took the bus to the hospital, where in spite having booked an appointment I still had to wait about three quarters of an hour before they saw me. And obviously it took only five minutes for the doctor to see that, yes, I have tonsillitis and yes, some anti-biotics would be very helpful. So she wrote me a nice prescription for 2000mg of penicillin a day which I think is a bit of overkill, but I'm hardly a doctor.

Obviously the pharmacy at the hospital wasn't working today so I had to get the bus to the closest open one in the area (which I had googled before leaving because it pays to be prepared). And, yes, I successfully acquired my two boxes of penicillin tablets despite being in the UK on Boxing Day. Go me!

Then I called my cousin to pick me up and I went to the tennis club where they were holding a big family dinner which I somehow managed to survive without the help of alcohol.

How about some nice holiday art now that you slogged through my ranting?

Merry Christmas and more Art!

I'm still feeling very very sick. My bad luck to get sick over christmas...

Anyway, Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you have a great time today!

Today's art:

More Christmas Art!

I am feeling so sick tonight you wouldn't believe! Just the thought of the big family dinners I will have to go to tomorrow and the day after while feeling like this fills me with dread.

And of course my grandmother doesn't understand. If I'm not running a high fever, she thinks I'm exaggerating.

Today's christmas art:

Christmas art!

I have decided, now that I've finished all my cards for the holidays, to post a piece of Christmas art a day, until... well, until I run out of art. I haven't actually counted how much art I drew. Beware that most of it is rather generic holiday stuff.

So, first art post:

Catching Fire

My library got me the third book of the Hunger Games yesterday! Yay! Because I had been anxiously waiting for it.

I haven't yet begun reading it. (I have other stuff to do too, and I'm trying to pace myself.) But it did remind me that I never got round to making a post about the second book of the series, Catching Fire.

The reason most probably was because unlike the first book, Catching Fire isn't a stand-alone book that tells a complete story. It's most emphatically part of a series. It leaves you with the most horrid cliff-hanger!

SPOILERS!!!
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So. Catching Fire.

I confess that I went into it fairly prejudged. The description wasn't very inspiring, and I was pretty sure it was going to be just filler until the last book - where I had been promised Interesting Things would happen.

And it started off rather dull and uninspiring. Katniss's day to day life. Katniss whining. Katniss being horrid to poor Peeta. Katniss not knowing what she wanted and being an annoying tease. Actually I felt like Katniss was turning into a Bella.

Thank god things started happening soon enough! Yay for revolutions! (Even though I thought I would miss all the interesting stuff because we were stuck with dull Katniss's pov.) So Gale is even more awesome than he seemed in the first book. And so is Peeta - but no surprise there.

The new Hunger Games were interesting. I liked the twist and seeing some of the older winners. I really liked the reaction of the people of the Capitol to losing their winners. Very real.

But you know what? Just like I hated all the senseless killing in the arena of the first book, I possibly hated it even more the second time round. This time the people were older, they had lived through far more than one game, they knew each other and were friends. So few of them decided to organise and try and beat the games? Really? So few of them were interested in a revolution? Really?

Anyway. Katniss got far better by the end of the book, but I still don't like her much. On the other hand I love Peeta, and Cenna, and Haymitch, and Finnick (please don't let him die!), and Beetee and even Joanna. What is it with me and not liking the heroes of this types of books?

I always thought Frodo was a drag. Harry Potter is a bit annoying and self-righteous. Luke and Anakin Skywalker were dull dull dull (until the second went bad at least). Half the kids in the Narnia books were rather meh in my opinion. Ged from the Earthsea books didn't get actually likeable until Tehanu. As for Paul Atreides from Dune, I have mixed feelings about him. Etc Etc. I always seem to like the secondary characters far better than the heroes. They are so much more human and interesting. And that is especially the case in the cinema. (Particularly Hollywood cinema - where the heroes are just so plastic and uninspiring.)

So that was my little rant. Time to read book three.

What did you lot think of Catching Fire? (Please don't spoil me for Mockingjay!)

Christmas jobs

I've been depressed and preoccupied a lot lately, which hasn't particularly put me in the mood for updating much.

I would like to ask you all your opinion on something though.

I am desperately looking for work as an architect (or in the worst an architectural assistant), and until I run out of money that will be my goal. I'm not ready to compromise yet.

But my relatives are constantly on my case (they are all underachievers so they don't really get where I'm coming from), and spending so much time at home with my grandmother is driving me up the wall (and her too I think). So I have started applying for christmas jobs at big shops (no way I'm working for a small shop). I would make an awful salesperson, but they don't need to know that. And anyway I'm only applying for part time and temp positions.

My big worry is this: Let's say I get a temp job in say Boots (have you ever tried applying there? Their questionnaire is crazy! I'm sure I failed it.) But then I get an interview from an architecture practice and they want me. What happens then? Can I quit from the temp job, or having signed some sort of contract, that will get me into trouble? I'm pretty sure they won't sit around waiting for me till after Christmas for the other job.

I'm so confused! A bit of extra money and getting my family off my case is so tempting. But not if I might potentially screw up on what I really want.

Help! What are your opinions?