Tuesday, 20 June 2023
It’s grey, overcast and raining today, in some ways a welcome relief from the hot weather we’ve had recently. It’s still warm and humid though, especially during the night. I woke up, as usual, during the night feeling hot, but soon dropped off later on. I had my usual weird, morning dream too, although I can’t remember what it was.
It’s been a quiet morning, and I’m grateful for that. I’ve signed my letter, confirming I accept the university’s offer to resolve my complaint, and I’ve trying to sort out my finances whilst I wait for my ‘cost of living payment’ to come through. I thought I’d got a grip on my finances, but I haven’t. I know I can do better, and I will. I need some help and support to do it though, so have contacted a local organisation in the hope that they can help and support me, and I need to phone another organisation this afternoon for some advice on what I can do to improve my finances.
My back aches too. I can’t remember the last time it didn’t ache. It’s a constant pain now, all day and all night, and all I can do is to wait and see what the physio says, whenever that might be. In the meantime, I’ll suffer, quietly in pain, although I’m not giving up just yet, as I’m going to go to the gym this morning and do some exercises to loosen up my joints and lose some weight.
I’m hoping that the people on board the submersible, Titan, that has gone missing off the Newfoundland coast, are found safe, well, and soon. I can’t think of anything more terrifying, than being inside a small vessel, with a limited oxygen supply, either floating around on the surface of the Atlantic, hoping someone will spot you, or worse still, stuck at the bottom of the ocean, knowing that the chances of being rescued are very remote, and all you can do is wait for the inevitable to happen. It’s like something out of a sci-fi disaster movie, although the outcome, may, unfortunately, be very different to any film.
And it’s official now, a friend and excellent, poet and scholar, John Foggin, sadly passed away last Wednesday. I haven’t seen John for a long time, the last being the time he hosted the Puzzle Hall Poets, with Bob Horne before the pandemic, for the last time. You were an inspiration John and always had such lovely words to say about mine, and everyone else’s writing. May you Rest in Peace and know that your legacy will continue to inspire others for many years to come.
Early evening and I’m worn out! I’ve had problems with my mobile phone, literally eating data and I didn’t know why. I checked all my settings and couldn’t see anything. I rang customer services and although it was a very bad line, they couldn’t tell me anything either, before we got cut off. At this point I had, had enough.
Feeling extremely confused and frustrated, I went down the gym to try and reset my mind, so that I could refocus my thoughts on sorting out my mobile phone problem. At the gym I spent 24 minutes on the bike and 36 minutes on the rower. I felt pleased with myself for accomplishing this, and felt a lot better for doing them, despite my back aching. After the rower I went to relax in the seating area and stumbled across the information I had been looking for on my phone, the data usage. On one page it should hardly any date usage, on another it should very, very high amounts of data usage, and when I looked into it further, it looks like my phone has, had, unrestricted data turned on and it has been updating itself, and backing itself continuously, resulting in massive amounts of data being used. I’ve yet to confirm this with my mobile provider, but it’s a step in the right direction, and hopefully it resolves the mystery of the massive amounts of data.
Home and something to eat and then I completed my enrolment at university, so I’m a student again and I can carry on with my PhD! I’ve still got a lot to do, but I’ve done something today to enable me to resume my studies.
I then had a loom at my budget as I’m sure I’m making a simple mistake in my calculations, and with some simple tweaks, I’m hoping I can get on top of my finances. I did a budget on paper and according to it, I’ve got plenty to live on. I did it on the debt charity, I’m hoping to work with, and I didn’t have anything left for my debts, but with some tweaks to make it more realistic, it looks a lot better and I’m hoping that by making one monthly payment to the debt charity, I’ll be able to plan my finances better and keep on top of them.
The rest of the evening has been quiet. I ran out of energy. It’s been a couple of busy and stressful days, and I’m sure there’s more stress to come over the next couple of days. A good night’s sleep will help me deal with them.
The Autistic FellRunner 