I ventured back home to my parents today for Christmas. Christmas seemed to come around awful fast this year, although the past week has been a drag, waiting for that last Friday at work. Work is going relatively well and I like my job, but I’m still finding it tough settling into the 9-5 routine. I get tired. Commuting by public transport is a pain. I end up spending too much on taxis to make up for its shortfalls. I’m so glad to not have to deal with commuting in particular for the next week or so.
This Christmas is going to be a particularly quiet and subdued one: although big celebrations have never been a thing in our family, as we live so far from our relatives, this year we are one fewer following the loss of our cat and it’s noticeable. As such we are jumping ship and celebrating Christmas at my sister’s house.(Rather than at my parents home as per usual.) She bought a house early this year, and recently got herself a little cat. As she hasn’t had the cat for long, and the cat is a rescue cat, she doesn’t want to leave her alone. We will thus bring ourselves (my parents, myself), the presents and the food and celebrate there with her and the little kitty. It’s a bit different, it feels a bit wierd after several years of pretty much doing the same thing, of several years with a particular cat, but hopefully it should turn out ok. (Her new cat is pretty adorable, to be honest…)
After Christmas, a quiet boxing day, then my sister is taking me to the aquarium.(yay!) Then I’m heading back to the flat; I can’t stay away too long because of the fish. They are doing well, although I’ve had some mysterious disappearances recently…I’m supposed to have 19 fish but I’m fairly sure I don’t. It’s hard to count them when there are so many, moving constantly, and all looking fairly similar. I did find a dead body yesterday which, to put it simply, was quite far gone in decomposition, which makes an obvious likely conclusion for where the others are. My tank is stable, with reasonable nitrate levels, and no ammonia or nitrite so I’ve decided not to tear apart the tank for the bodies and let nature do her thing. My remaining fish seem quite ok. Today my male minnows were displaying…It was beautiful and interesting to watch. Two of my males were swimming together with their fins stuck out and they were swimming in a very particular way…Unfortunately I couldn’t get a picture :(
I feel fairly ambivalent about the new year. I’m already working so hard to change- with trying to get my anxiety under control- and I don’t believe in that magical reset upon the new year’s like some do. I do hope work continues to go well, or maybe even better (see: settling into 9-5 routine),that my fish don’t keep decreasing, and that I can finally get my driver’s licence (please?)
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, no matter where you are or who you are celebrating it with, and even if you aren’t celebrating it in the way you want, I hope it all turns out ok.
(Note I’m writing this at 1am, so it’s 25th December but nothing has happened yet! I’m still writing this on Christmas Eve, in my mind…)