Current mood:

Should've been in bed long ago

On Money Matters
So, before I went home today, I had a mini-panic about going to Edinbrugh for the Fringe Festival this weekend. It's going to cost me 80UKP for a return journey. Now, had I not been too busy with deadlines and suchlike to decide whether I wanted to go in the first place, I could've organised some cheap advance fares. I could've also seen it when they put it on round here on Friday, were I not ill.

After kicking myself about that, I thought "I really should do something useful on the car this weekend", since we're getting towards September, and the weather will not be improving for doing car stuff. I should also visit my parents.

It's like this: If I do go, I'll have a fantastic time with my friends for: 80quid, 12hrs total sitting on the train (getting in late evening), possibility of being screwed over by public transport, and the extra hassle of having to be at a station on time.

If I don't go, I can visit parents to get the car fixed, do all those things I should do while the weather's fine (ahem), and disappoint my friends.

The key factor is the 80 pounds: when you say it, it's quite a lot for a journey up on a Friday evening, a quick show and party on the Saturday, followed by trip home Sunday afternoon. Can I really afford that?

My panic ended with the answer 'yes'. The cause of this panic was what I could imagine other people saying about this: "It's alright for some". The fact that I can afford such a thing upsets people, and so I've got used to checking myself, so that I don't talk about it. Instead, it puts people at ease to claim that you're well into your overdraft, just like everyone else. I know people don't like this sort of thing being rubbed in their face, hence the cut-tags around this - and now, you can't say you weren't warned.

But, let's forget whatever social politeness I've built up, and be realistic for a moment: this is an order of magnitude less than what I'd earn in a month. It would be stingy of me to claim that I couldn't afford this. The money is a tool to be used, and now I'm going to use it as such. It'll make me happier, as it'll take some of this stress off, which occurred because of work in the first place. And yes, I can afford to throw money at the car to get it fixed.

What work takes away with one hand, it gives back with the other. And I really don't see why I should stress about it.

Rant ends. You can look now: http://www.fugufish.org/frog/?p=38

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And um... AmeCon was fantastic btw :) Geeks are lovely, especially when you put lots of them in a large room, with an AMV disco. Huzzah!

Alas I was using a sliver-halide camera (posh way of saying "it's a film camera, guv") for it, so you probably won't see any images that I took any time soon (or at all, if my organisational skills are up to their usual standard)

Citing odangochan (good seeing you again et. meeting Phil btw) - totally relate to the come-down thing. I got a similar sort of fix from AmeCon as I do from doing Theatrics, and the withdrawal symptoms are just the same. In a way, it's a nice melancholic feeling.