i have been under the influence of strong forces this past couple of weeks. as a scorpio sun sign with a gemini rising and a moon in scorpio (if you believe that kind of thing), last weeks supermoon (passing through scorpio) seemed to have an almost tangible effect on me and my life! of course, it might not have been the moon at all, just a weird convergence of things happening at the same time, but boy did it happen.

firstly, quicker than expected, my ‘housemate’ moved out. it hasnt been too bad, expected sadness and weirdness at the end of an era. today has been hard, working out some finances. its a bit like getting ‘redivorced’. just weird. i made it a bit less weird by rearranging some things and tiyding up the sunroom to make some craft space

but its still weird. i still have the three dogs for the time being, i think one of the boys will be also moving out this week but they are just around the corner and there will be lots of play dates etc as we thought it might be good if the boys came back to spend days with possum while trent and i were at work/uni. still. its just weird. i know a lot of people dont understand why my ex and i would want to try and stay so close, and it hasnt always been easy, but if you go through life with no real family, and be through some things that we’ve been through, you dont let that just drift away. and also, im a very loyal friend. if i decide you’re worth it, i’ll pretty much do anything for you.

of course, some people arent worth it. this week has seen me think and feel pretty strongly about this issue in general, who i do and dont want in my life, what kind of person i want to be, to have around me. its made me think long and hard about the nature of friendship and how my idea of it means relationships based on sincere care and compassion. i still need to be better at accepting people’s limitations. and i need to care less about what other people think. i’ve always been fairly outspoken, but at 43, my time for suffering fools is over. i really just dont care if people dont like me anymore. there are plenty of people who do. i think this is a very powerful realisation, thank you scorpio moon.

speaking of, i had a great day on saturday with some great friends. i spent the whole day in sydney, first at knitters guild (i only took socks as i went up on the train and celes, still not quite finished, is too heavy for travel)

then after guild my two best enablers took me shopping. i really wanted to buy some new earrings, i tend to wear the same ones all the time and then i lost one of those same ones, and was wearing a not quite matching pair. there’s only so much of that a girl can endure. so i picked up these cute little things at dinosaur designs.

they werent exactly cheap but i love them. they look great on. oh, whats that underneath the earrings i hear you say? why yes it is a ticket to prince, who just happens to be in australia at the moment. these tickets went like hotcakes but a few of us crazy knitters also turned out to be closet prince fans (seriously, can you be a teenager in the 80s and not love prince?) and so we set off out to olympic park on saturday night

to see his royal purpleness sing and dance and yell and squeal and shriek and play wild guitar and crazy medleys that included about one bar of ‘darling nikki’ (tease) and 20 minute versions of purple rain with purple glitter in the air and three encores over three whole hours. it was great. best concert ive been to in ages. did you know he’s 53? he was wearing silk pyjamas and stilettos. hes like a god. too many hits.

anyway, saturday also included a touch of Literature when i managed to grab the just released sequel to ‘wolf hall’ (one of my favourite books ever).

i cant wait to read this, its gone to the top of the bedside pile

the adventures of harry hole are going to have to go on hold for a bit i think (ive read all the ones on the bottom shelf. given im reading stuff like ‘developing emotionally intelligent leadership in higher education’ for work, you will have to excuse me the bubble gum bed time reading).

and speaking of work, a huge week there too. a while ago i hinted about some possible career shifts that would decide whether i stayed here or looked further afield. well, some concrete steps have been made in that direction, with me being offered a .4 research intensive academic appointment in a school which will eventually take me away from policy work and more fully into a research pathway. the job i do now is research based and has research outcomes, but its a project not of my own devising. the paperwork is still to be finished, but i have a start date of june 1. i cant wait.  in the new job, (among other things) i will be going back to historical work, and looking at ways to integrate historical research into health courses (while also staying on my other project for the rest of the time). its also a promotion, so there will be more money as well (not a lot at first, given the fractional appointment to start with). but its the foot in the door i’ve been waiting for, and the fact that it was alluded to a year ago and is starting to happen gives me some faith that my loyalty to my current boss wont go unrewarded.

so i dont know whether you can put all those things happening in the same week down to a big silver disc in the sky but something’s going on. i’ll just take it while i can i think!

k xx