Pet Snake Number 2

When we decided to buy a ball python, the idea was originally to get a female and keep her until she was big enough to get her a boyfriend. Of course that didn't work because we fell in love with Cuddles. After that we figured, "one snake, two snakes, what's the difference?"

Because my boyfriend picked out Cuddles, I got to search for this beautiful little girl. We drove to London to pick her up, and the man who bred her had about 700 snakes all in plastic tubs around the walls in his bedroom. That's the life of a proper snake breeder I suppose. Fingers crossed we won't get to that point! Our snakes live like kings and queens, no plastic tubs for our babies.

Meet Nymeria the ball python!

Goal 33: Get a pet snake

If you're scared of snakes, just skip this one and go to the next, ok? But remember people are allowed to like different things. 

First some background. A friend of mine got a ball python called Noodle, and my boyfriend and I met him when we went to visit. I'd never considered snakes as a pet before, I thought they'd hate it and would much rather be in the wild. And besides, you can't play with a snake or cuddle up with it. I was very wrong. Noodle was strangely cute, with his little puppy-dog mouth and his tentative way of exploring your clothes. He curled up in my hood and sniffed my ear with his tongue, and seemed very happy indeed to be slithering around all these warm trees. I've been wanting a pet for so long, but I don't have the time or money yet for a dog or anything else, especially with renting houses and landlords being funny about fur.

So we talked about it a lot, did a huge amount of research, and then bought this little fellow home:

This is Cuddles the ball python!

Fiddling Around With Finances

So as you know by now, I've been trying to get my life back in order since the beginning of this year. The aim was to get grounded and mentally stronger before I resume my degree in September. I've had my peaks and I've had my troughs, but overall it's going well and I'm in so much more of a happier place now.

Whilst the first part of this year was about taking some time to myself, getting back in touch with my crafty side, etc. this obviously wasn't good for my finances. So when I was ready, I started work. It started with pub work and then I managed to find a temporary 9-5 with good pay for three months. Thanks to working very hard and moving into a cheaper place, my money situation has got a lot better and I can think about savings.

Goal 1: Well-paid Summer Job

My well-paying summer job this year was at a bank in the big town centre. I was basically the person who stands at the entrance and says "Hello good morning how can I help you?" really fast before they've walked past me. Just directing people and showing them how to use the machines really. It's very boring work, and it's horrible standing in one spot all day everyday. However, it's 9-5 and they pay me £9.84 an hour to do it so it's nothing to be sniffed at. Even when I have to spend 20 minutes explaining an overdraft to someone that doesn't understand negative numbers.

Today is my last day at the bank (writing this in my lunch break); I've spent 3 months here now as it's a temporary position. I've also kept up my pub job, just working 3 or 4 evenings a week there. I won't lie, it's been a real challenge working from 9am til midnight on those days, but it's what I needed to get my finances back on track. Now I can just work at the pub and start catching up on university work before I go back in September.

Goal 40: Watch a Meteor Shower

On the 11th of August, I went on a spontaneous shooting star hunt with friends to try and see the Perseid meteor shower. It happens every year between July and August, but this year was supposed to be an extra good one. It's caused by our planet crossing the orbital path of Comet Swift-Tuttle. The rubble and dust from the comet crash into our upper atmosphere and set alight as we pass through, creating shooting stars.

While the meteors shoot around all over the place, they all come from the same point in the sky. This is called the radiant of the meteor shower. With the Perseids, it's up and left a bit of the Perseus constellation (seen as three bright vertical stars) and underneath Cassiopeia (W shape of stars.) Thanks to this I now recognise the Perseus constellation too, which goes a way towards goal number 46 on the big list.

I was planning on using the 60 second exposure setting on my camera to photograph the sky, but this is the best I got! I don't have a fancy camera or anything, just a little digital one. Each star in the image here is only a few pixels, and I had to turn the brightness and contrast way up to see anything at all. 

My Big Old To-Do List

Before reading this post, have a look at my Big Old To-Do List (which probably needs a better name.) Writing lists I find fun initially, and then they make me guilty when I don't do everything on them. My problem is I set myself time limits that I don't often stick to and then think there's no point because it's so overdue. This one's different though. 

Keep on trekking on, friends!

This is a to-do list with a really big time frame, like a couple of years. This means I can use it to set goals and improve my lifestyle and try out new things. And when I'm a bit lost for what to do, I can have a look at it and work towards one of my goals. Some things on it are easy, and some will be tricky, but I can add more to it and update it as time goes on. It might turn out that not drinking tea for a month is a pointless goal, for example, because tea is really good.

Also, things that are season dependent like watching meteor showers or breeding snakes you might miss the first time round. Whereas with a to-do list that spans more than one year, you've always got another chance to try again if you miss it.

Crossing them off as I go, and keeping track with this blog, I'll hopefully begin to get my life in order. My Little Limpet Life™.

Musings, or the Long Debated "What Should This Blog Be About?"

I'm not very good at writing about myself; I'm not really self-centred enough. I wanted this blog to be about all the crafty things I'd made, to inspire people and show that it's easy to be a little creative. It was going to be focused on that, with maybe just a touch of my life thrown into the mix. I like a lot of the posts that I've written, but since I've been working two jobs I just haven't had the time for it. My style of writing for a lot of it is just not very... me, I suppose. I've been reading other similar blogs and just unconsciously copying mannerisms and ways of saying things, and I apologise if it's ever come across as "look at me, this is what I did." Maybe this blog will survive as something else now that I don't have an abundance of free time. Maybe a sort of diary blog, if anyone would be interested in that. Who knows? The future is mysterious and full of surprises. I won't delete any old posts, because I want to look back on it in the future and cringe at it all, like reading your 12 year old diary and realising how irritating you were.

Also, I finally figured out how to change my email address on Blogger so I can log in with my new phone and start posting again. Happy days!