It is a god damn beautiful day today

Or perhaps "got damn" as Mr. Samuel L. Jackson might put it.

Some very un-English weather is about, with golden sunrays, birds a twittering and all the rest. Here's hoping I can get away with leaving work early today.

In other positive news, those of you who feel disenfranchised with democracy re: Voter Turn-Out may get a real kick out of a recent development in France. Also, I know I am extremely happy to see that India is taking a proactive stance on solar power in the home, as well.

In personal news, my contract with Network Rail has been extended to one day after my birthday (June 15th). I was wary about accepting this, at first, but a few things helped convince me that it wouldn't be the worst thing to do another six weeks or so of data entry.

1) I can honestly say without hyperbole that the job gives me no stress and, thanks to my usually being able to bang out the days work before the day is done, I often have spare time to work on my writing etc. before leaving early for home. One of the biggest impediments to my writing while I worked at The Comic Book Shoppe was how I'd often come home snarling and snapping about one stupid thing or another - usually customer/employer aggro, not about how strongly I may have disagreed with the new Spider-Man costume or whatever.

2) The money is decent and with a guaranteed six more weeks of it, I might be able to swing a visit to Canada sooner rather than later. At a bare minimum I will definitely be able to visit the continent and so I've started doing research to figure out where I'd go. Amsterdam is tempting for all the usual reasons, but I' m told - by British people - that it is "flooded with too many bloody British yobbo's". Paris and Venice are two other places I'm keen to see, though I hear a lot of positive things about Barcelona as well. Wherever I go, I'm going to resist the temptation of absurdly cheap flights (seriosuly, I've seen London to Prague for £12 - which is about $28 CDN). This is not only for environmental reasons but because, frankly, I'd like to either go throught the Chunnel or take a lovely boat ride. Both would result in more interesting visual fare and neither would lead to my ears screaming in agony during the descent.

3) After hunting for some kind of work with a production company, I've determined that at the very least....it may be a while before I can pull that off. Without any connections to help me leap past the bottom rung, I'd be stuck doing unpaid internships or working below minimum wage as a runner*. I've been told by more than one person that this has led to the film and televison world of England being rife with snotty, privilged individuals of the upper-middle class and I can see the logic, since not many can afford to work unpaid in this city.

I'm sure there could be something I' m missing and I don't plan on giving up on this angle, but it certainly didn't look like I was going to be able to find reasonably paying employment in the industry before my current contract ran out.

*The classic go-fer, the job descriptions often stated that I'd be required to own a car and pay for the gas out of my wages.