Where have I been? Very good question. It is nearly Christmas, which means that soon I will be even older. I am trying to avoid turning 23, but I don't think it will happen. Anyway, as it is nearly Christmas I have been very busy at work. Lots of Christmas dinners and school leaver's dinners. Actually, one very large company who has their Christmas dinner at my work was unable to call their Christmas dinner their Christmas dinner this year. In the spirit of being an equal-opportunity employer, as they have some muslim employees they had to call it an 'end-of-year' dinner and they weren't allowed to have any of the usual Christmas embellishments we decorate the tables with, like party hats with tinsel on them or Christmas bon-bons. They did eat turkey and pudding, though. So, for the past two Saturday nights there's been an ambulance at my work, taking guests attending our functions away. There's nothing like an inclusive-drinks package to promote the spirit of Christmas. Two weeks ago we had one woman taken away with suspected alcohol poisoning (and she wasn't a small lady, so she must have drunk a hell of a lot) - we found her passed out in the foyer near the dessert buffet. There had already been a couple of people vomiting on the carpet that night, but it culminated with one man vomiting all over the table he was seated at (good thing they'd already had dessert). Last Saturday some of the guests showed up already drunk for their Christmas party (this time it was allowed to be called by this title). We had vomiting before dessert, this time. The ambos were back again (oh, that men-in-uniform fettish popped up again - an absolutely gorgeously handsome young paramedic walked through our kitchen. All the female staff stopped polishing their glassware or cutlery and just drooled), this time for a woman who'd slipped over on dance floor and was then lying in a pool of her own vomit. Accusations were flying that it was our fault because she'd supposedly slipped on some candle wax. Let me point out though, that it was some of the highly intelligent other guests who'd decided to take the candles off their tables and wave them about the dance floor. Why, I have no idea. The band was playing dance music, not Christmas carols or kumbaya. Plus generally falling over doesn't make you vomit unless you've had copious amounts of alcohol anyway. It turned out that her partner had thrown her up in the air, then accidently dropped her on her head causing concussion and the vomiting and her lack of movement. He was so upset that he was crying. All at his own Christmas party. God, imagine going to work on Monday.
So, besides all the antics at work and trying to do Christmas things (it took me about 10 hours to hang the Christmas lights on my house, with assistance from my brothers), I've been trying to go to uni. I go all year round, no nice two and a half month vacation for this girl. And I've just started my fieldwork. Yesterday I was lamenting 'WHY? OH WHY? WHY DID YOU THINK THAT THIS WOULD BE A FANTASTIC TOPIC? YOU HATE BEING WET, DIRTY AND COLD? YOU HAVE A SEVERE PHOBIA OF LEECHES, YET HERE YOU ARE, LITERALLY CRAWLING WITH THEM? WHY DIDN'T YOU GET A NICE OFFICE JOB? YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE MORON! OH GOD!!!!! YOU HAVE TWO WHOLE SUMMERS FILLED WITH THIS!!!!! THIS IS ONLY THE VERY BEGINNING!!!!!!' Yesterday and Wednesday I was up around Lake St Clair (beautiful place though), standing in the middle of buttongrass moorland, collecting plants. It was about 8 degrees all day, with a ferocious wind and continual rain. In case you're not familiar with buttongrass moorland, it's a bitch of a vegetation type that is made up of these big tussocks of buttongrass, around which streams are formed. It's extremely boggy. While walking through it you continually lose half your leg down these boggy streams. It's also infested with leeches. They are constantly all over you. As I was totally covered in waterproof clothing, they attached to my hands. One of the people I was working with got one on her lip. One devious little bloodsucker managed to penetrate my knee-high socks, gumboots and two pairs of pants (one waterproof) to attach itself to my leg. I found it when I undressed that night. They are constantly crawling up my pants and jacket. And they move so quickly! Some even attached to my little gardening fork, causing me to set fire to the spawn of evil. They are truly the most unnecessary creatures on the face of the planet. At least spiders kill flies. What the hell are leeches good for? And DON'T tell me that leeches are useful for alternative therapies. Anyone who voluntarily allows leeches to be stuck to their body is crazy.
So, I'm not looking forward to the rest of my fieldwork. And I'm going out again for two days on monday and tuesday. And then two days a week until May. Now I know why no one in the world has ever studied what I'm studying before - it's just too hard and unpleasant!
Here's some pictures of buttongrass moorland for you. Note those wet patches - they can be so deep they come up to my knees. That one by my measuring tape certainly was. All through the first picture, those tussocks of grass are surrounded by streams. They're like grass islands. Well, I tried to give you some pics. I have uploaded them and hit 'done' six times now. I have even consulted the blogger help, who tells me to do exactly what I've been doing. Maybe next time! |
blogger is very tempermental with photos, it happens to me all the time.