So Goddamn Tired...

[skull_bearer]

So, to recap. I got up this morning at 7am (on absolutely zilch hours sleep because Life Hates Me and my insomnia is playing up again), in order to take first the train and then the tube to Kingston, beause I had an interview for a job there. What job? I still don't know. It's one of those weird multinational companies who just want generic staff. The problem was, they wanted my CV, and I had no more copies. So yesterday I traipsed around for ages trying to find a Internet caf with a printer. Now, problem number two, I needed to dress neatly. Not just neatly, but neatly, as in a suit.

Do I need to mention that Skull Bearer has never worn a suit in her life? Thought not. So cobbled together a shirt (which I had to iron, and guess who has never ironed a shirt before? No prizes), a pair of neat trousers, and, since I didn't have any neat shoes, my doc martins (useful note, if you wear docs and pull your trouser legs over them, they look kinda like neat shoes). Problem number three, I haven't worn my docs since last year. My heels are one big blister.

Anyway, I got to the interview, and you know what? I think I made a good impression. I was neat, I was polite, I answered most of the questions well, and though the whole bloody procedure took three hours, I was patient.

I then went back to London, and bought the best anti-blister plasters I could find. I kiss the boots of whoever invented them.

And then, since I was feeling restless, and was in Waterloo. I put my hat one, tucked my trousers intop my boots in true army style, and decided to pay the Imperial War Museum another visit- without the psychic problem this time. So, more walking, although it didn't hurt so much. The Imperial War Museum has a very scary bit about nuclear weapons and the whole Cuban missile crisis (in other words, how the world only just avoided being blown up), between the booklets and the various 'procedures' explained for surviving a nuclear attack... brrr, even Lovecraft isn't that scary (because mad things with tentacles have one redeeming feature: they don't exist). They also apparently sell the book 'When the Wind Blows' by Raymond Briggs, the problem is, they sell it in the kid's section, so when I got there, the shop was closed (not just that, but... 'When the Wind Blows'? A kid's book? I sure as hell wouldn't let any of my kids near it).

Then I went home, only I got off the tube a bit early, because guess who wanted to do a bit more walking?

My feet hurt.

Comments

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

"When the Wind Blows" was in the kids section of the library I sometimes go to. I stupdily thought "Oh, it's Raymond Briggs, must be nice." and read it. And was completely traumatised for far too long. No, I wouldn't give that to any of my hypothetical kids either!

Well done in hopefully doing well in the job interview and for being inventive regarding shoes!

(hope you don't mind me commenting like this. Found your journal while reading friendsfriends and liked your entries, so have friended you. Hopefully, that's not a problem!)

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

I saw the cartoon they did of it on a list of 'scariest films ever made'. I agree. They had a copy on display in the museeum, on the last page. *shudder*

They also had a TV screen showing what you should do in case of a nuclear strike. All I worked out from it was that if there was ever a nuclear strike and if we ever followed these instruction, the human race would be toast before you could say 'bugger'.

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

Oh God, I remember that Scariest Films thing. I seem to recall howling and hiding under a cushion and everyone around me going "What? What's wrong?" and me making pathetic noises. Then they realised what it was about and agreed that actually, it was totally horrible.

Those "What to do in a nuclear strike things" are pretty truamatic too. Although at least they are generally being sort of fluffy and don't show any of the horrible results. There was this awful programme called "War Stories" which decided to show realistically what would happen in a nuclear strike. The only real response from me was Oh my God ...

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

There was this awful programme called "War Stories" which decided to show realistically what would happen in a nuclear strike. The only real response from me was Oh my God ...

Never heard of that one, where can I find it?

*must... torture...brain...*

I watched it with my mum, and she had seen it before, and ... ugh... Gods, I have this train-crash fascination with post-apocalyptic anything.

Have you ever read 'Brother in the Land'?

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

I can't tell you that I'm afraid. This was some years back now, I'm not even totally sure I got the title 100%. I think it was a BBC thing.

Yes, I did read that, again some years back. I occasionally see our copy in the bookshelf and think "I could maybe try that again ... or hey, look,look at that shiny, shiny book over here!" *runs away childishly* I did actually like it though, for all it was horribly depressing. It didn't scare me quite as much, perhaps because I felt there was a sort of hope offered in the fact that not everyone died! (which is why I like Children of the Dust best out of all post-nuclear war fiction ever)

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

The copy I read was the original, which ended when the main character's brother died. There was no happy ending and it was much scarier.

Children of the Dust was great, I actually wrote a comparison between it and HG Wells' 'War of the Worlds' for school. It was very realistic and heartbreaking. I loved it very much.

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

That was a version I read too. I've recently heard about the new version. I rolled my eyes and was glad that we have the old one.

Yay, someone else who likes Children of the Dust! No one else I know seems to like it whereas I find it fascinating and mean to read it again soon. And I should read War of the Worlds because I haven't which is definietely a gap in my book knowledge ...

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

War of the World is brilliant, although I'm more of a Time Machine girl myself. I always found it tremendously reasurring that even when the sun is a red giant, life is still thriving on earth.

My copy of When the Wind Blows arrived today. I put it on my shelf until I can get up the courage to read it (and this is the person who spent the day in the library reading about the holocaust).

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

I thought when the sun was a red giant, it would have swallowed earth up ... or is this explained in the book? Really must read some H. G. Wells, I'm so uneducated!

Maybe it's because of the pretty pictures. Raymond Brigg's does all these pretty pictures with horrible, horrible things. And they're all so innocent some how. At least when I read about a holocaust, the people know what's happening for the most part. It makes it less ... I can't think of the right word. I know what I want to say but I think I'm saying it wrong ... The people in When the Wind Blows are so ... sweet and accepting and thinking it'll all be fine. Books about the holocaust generally aren't like that.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

Oh, and it's fine if you friend me, who did you find me from

Incidentally, I just bought the comic of 'When the Wind Blows' from Amazon. Why? Because two pages of that book and five minutes from the film have given me more nightmares than the entire works of HP Lovecraft.

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

I actually found you on my friendsfrinds list (don't know if you've come across that ... you can read any unlocked posts that anyone on your friend's friends pages has made. It can be quite fun although it annoys me deeply sometimes because mostly, it's community posts and communities are only fun if you know/care what the community is about!) But when I looked at your profile, the only person we have in common is delfeus so it's her fault. :)

I have avoided the works of HP Lovecraft, not totally intentionally. However, what I have heard in general suggests that me with my wussy nature would be better far away from these books!

Maybe reading all of "When the Wind Blows" will make it less traumatising? Sort of confronting fear, perhaps. It can work. :)

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

Maybe reading all of "When the Wind Blows" will make it less traumatising? Sort of confronting fear, perhaps. It can work. :)

Maybe, although I've a feeling I'm not going to be able to turn off the lights at night for a looong time.

HP Lovecraft is brilliant. Seriously, read him. Some sweet darling uploaded all this works to the internet here for free: http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/index.html

I would recc 'The Colour Out of Space' for sheer amazing coolness and bloody scaryness, although it might be a bit much. 'The Cats of Ulthar' is not too scary, rather creepy, and quite short, so it's a good one to start off on. 'The Silver Key' was sacry simply because Lovecraft seemed to have taken me for inspiration for that one ;)
'The Call of Cthulhu' is pretty good, if a bit long and the ending a bit anti-climatic.

Oh, and of course, to link both the topics together, we have 'A Colder War', which wasn't written by Lovecraft (bless the man, he encouraged people write fanfics for his world), but is a nasty, scary and freaky idea of what the cold war might have been like if the governments had had access to Lovecraftian technology. It was one of the first things I read, and I was hooked.
'A Colder War' is here: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm

Sleep well.

[shadowvalkyrie.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, another bad case of it-gives-me-nightmares-I-must-have-it? *headshakes*

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

As always. I'm still waiting for my brain to give me the ultimatum: Stop torturing me or I implode.