So much change...

It's been a very long time since I last blogged. I can feel the tendrils of nostalgia dancing wistfully at the back of my mind. Evidently I am still a wannabe poet, but I have been confronted with many changes since the days of 'Rigmarole of an Adolescent Cynic', and with more still to come. I'm as inclined to verbiage as I ever was, but here's my best attempt at a concise summary of all new things in the life of Ryan:

We moved house. My parents were sick to the bone with their respective jobs, and decided to trade that lifestyle in for self-employment: a convenience store to be precise, with..well..compact accommodation above it. Unfortunately, ownership of the premises changed hands shortly after negotiations with the leaseholder began, and the new landlord is, in short, a total twat. The lease had expired, so we couldn't take it on until it was renewed, and the landlord's actions were tantamount to a refusal to do so. He would only ever make contact to 'negotiate' the annual rent to be assigned to the lease; I put this in inverted commas because the only figures that he plucked out of thin air, contary to all legality, logic and courtesy, were roughly double what the incumbent leaseholder was paying. He has an obligation to proudce a renewal for the lease, but 18 months on he still has not done so. Our solicitor has been breathing down his neck persistently, but to no avail. The only other option is to challenge this landlord in court, and we can't afford to do that. British business law is one giant, steaming dog turd.

In the meantime, my dad has continued a wholly miserable existence as Shift Manager for a regional call centre, and mum, having already left her original job, was making ends meet with demoralising, minimum-wage labour. Living like this is eating away at both our savings and morale. It's no longer viable, so we're moving again - the nomadic Loughboroughs. I say 'we', but not collectively. My parents are relocating to County Durham, around 400 miles north-east of here, near to my dad's hometown, because housing there is comparatively cheap. I, however, really wasn't up for that. I'm off to Sheffield uni in just over three months, so I'd rather not discard the closing moments of my time with the people and places I've come to know and love, nor have to acclimatise to a new place only to leave it soon after. Instead, I'll be living with my grandparents, locally. Wild parties are off the menu, but exquisite sponge cakes and a double bed are very much on the cards!

Speaking of uni, that's another development: education. I've been a mostly apathetic yet fortunately successful cog in the educational machine for 13 years - years which have passed with dizzying speed. The last exam of my last year takes place tomorrow, and what a way to end it all: General Studies! The grade I obtain in this will have no bearing on my uni placement whatsoever; in fact, the only discernible reason as to why the school makes us do it is that they receive extra funding (sorry, a bit of the old cynic muscling its way to the front there). To those of you who aren't familiar with this exam, well, I'm almost as clueless as you. In essence your typical General Studies candidate writes a few essays on such sentiments as "the icecaps are melting", "Scrapheap Challenge is quality programming", and "Gordon Brown's an idiot". One can only deduce from the A-U grades for this subject that there is a right and a wrong way to express these things. *shrug*

There are other changes I wanted to describe this evening, but my attention span won't allow it. The title and description of this blog give one indication, plus some activities have been, are and/or will be occupying my time. I will hopefully broach these subjects another day. As a concluding thought, I reckon I'll pop into town after my exam and buy Feeder's new album, 'Silent Cry'. I'm not as opposed to illegal downloading as I used to be, but I still think certain goods are worthy of my disposable income. Take THAT, credit crunch!

Until the next time I have that autobiographical urge...

Hugs and love,
Ryan