Pics or it didn’t happen!

Maybe you won’t be familiar with this partiular phrase, but it’s bandied around a lot when you’ve done something that apparently needs to be verified by friends/the internet at large.

Hairy and I have a disagreement over taking pictures – he doesn’t believe it’s necessary and thinks that it actually detracts from the moment because you aren’t being totally present to appreciate it. I like to take photos, not only to share on social media and get the likes, but also for my own memories as I struggle with my memory sometimes and the pictures help to jog it.

Just over a month ago, I turned 25 and I climbed a mountain in Wales with my Hairy, a brother in law and two of my best and dearest friends. It was an amazing day, just the five of us up Sugarloaf in what turned into a little bit of a blizzard! We all ended up falling over that day apart from the camera man who miraculously avoided getting covered in mud. My point is, that day we cracked out the camera and I have proof that we climbed a mountain in the snow in January.

This weekend just gone, Hairy, previously mentioned brother in law and I took another little hiking trip in Wales. This time the three of us went to Symonds Yat and spent a few hours yomping around the Welsh countryside. It was an amazing day, just like climbing Sugarloaf, and I believe we all had a wonderful time. My brother in law, a cynical man who kind of hates everything except the family puggle, shared a childhood dream of forming an adventurers guild – Hairy and I are a part of this now and are planning many more small adventures like this one!

None of us took any photos, I didn’t share anything about the day and neither did the lads. Does this mean the day didn’t happen because we have no pictures of it? Because if that’s true, my knees have something to say to me!

What it all comes down to is the fact that none of us have much luck in life and we’re pretty much all having difficult times now, so taking these small happinesses – hikes, pub trips with biltong and board games has really given me a lot to look forward to. Furthermore, once we have a buddy to make plans with it’s a lot harder to back out just because it’s grey and rainy.

Who’d want to grow up?

Today has been a right kick in the teeth. Hairy and I have just found out that he’s lost his job due to redundancies at work, effective as of today.

I really can’t process this, and he’s not doing too well either. It’s been a lovely experience over the last two months working in the same office as him, and the thing that actually upsets me the most is that we’ll be losing that. I accept that redundancies happen, and I accept that Hairy was probably the right decision at this point but it doesn’t make it any easier to know that Hairy is now back to being unemployed and we have to rethink everything we’d got planned for the upcoming months.

Hairy and I don’t really have the best of luck, but this takes the biscuit. We’ve weathered worse, and probably will weather worse again in the future but right now the truth is that this is painful – we’ve lost half our income, Hairy doesnt get anything in terms of a redundancy package due to the length of service and my job is also insecure. Plus there’s the fact that I have to go into work tomorrow with everyone who will know what has happened and will try to be nice about it.

Hairy’s dealing with it better than I am – at the moment he’s downstairs in his dressing gown playing computer games with a game plan for the next week in terms of job hunting and getting us back on our feet. I’m sat trying not to cry for the umpteenth time (he’s the one who’s lost his job!), and trying to figure out what to do with myself.

In any case, for better or worse this time tomorrow Hairy and I will know where we stand with my job and hopefully it’ll be good news.

Man, I hate being a grown up.

As I said, it’s not the end of the world but I am definitely going to be missing his face around the office for a long while yet.