"As I was walking up the stair, I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. I wish, I wish he'd stay away"

I've been interested in the worlds of Horror and things that scared people during the ages of the 1970s and 1980s, so much so that I've recently bought a book of a series known as Scarred for Life, detailing the things that terrified children, be it on screen, cover or text. This faceless character is known as the Shape. A man without a face, able to trap people in photos, and burn them, leaving you to die within the photo. Terrifying concept. He is from the television series Sapphire and Steel, well worth digging into.

Here's a trailer if you want to see what it is like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlOSZXxdK8g

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Oh, April. What a horrible month you have been.

I feel like some of you know why this month had been an absolute nightmare, but there are several other reasons as well. Let's start with an issue that has been continuing on throughout the year. My shoulder. It hasn't been good at all, it has simply been just unbearable at times to even move it in any direction. Lifting up my phone to check the time? It hurts. Moving my hand to the mouse of my laptop? Hurts. And another awful issue is that my back is starting to join into the parade of painful movements. I haven't checked my back with any sort of MRI, physio, or GP, but I've had some conversations with family members and the exact side where it hurts could do with genetics, as my uncle had the same problem, and his father (my grandfather) had the same issue. So, who knows? It could just be an issue with posture, but from how difficult it was to simply get out of bed at times, I'm unsure.

This was going to be a very, very busy month in the early stages. An appointment with a doctor to see my shoulder and to get an understanding of what to do next. Full weeks of Uni study for a new course that I was partaking that required a 9 to 5 schedule. Days where I was going to be an actor for someone's Uni assignment, as well as preparing for my own groups' assignment which required a ton of scheduling for equipment, actors, crew, shot lists, scripts, etc. I was going to see a live show of Aunty Donna, a comedy trio, since the last one I saw was incredibly funny, and I was going to see it with a friend. And to top it all off, getting bus tickets to see family for Easter, staying down for those Easter holidays, seeing my brother who, from where I am, is a four hour drive away, and seeing my cat.

Things happened differently.

The first day of that week was the start of the Uni holiday course. Despite the tutor being nice enough, I just didn't enjoy it. A lot of people there, tutors included, were either really pretentious or clueless. Going through the city, looking at all the public art, especially in areas that I've been wanting to understand what the point of certain areas of public art was wasn't great when the tutor didn't even know himself. Working with teams wasn't overly great either as whatever I was saying that was on top of my head without really thinking was being written down and being told that it was a great idea. There was little in terms of constructive criticism, and I was just finding it to be really dull. I kept thinking "I shouldn't be thankful for a Uni session to be over after the first day".

And then it happened.

I have a code name for moments like this.

Cat's in the window.

Because whenever I see a cat, in the window of a vet clinic, it always brings bad luck. And it certainly did this month.

My roommate announced that he had COVID. That stopped everything. That stopped me going to the shops for food that I had barely any of. That stopped the week that I had planned out ahead of time. That stopped live shows, assisting with assignments, Easter holidays, everything. And the worst part about it was that despite the rest of the house being negative with COVID, we all got into lockdown. It was only a few hours until an appointment for my shoulder when the Health Service told us to stay in. I had to refund every ticket for buses and the live show.

I was absolutely miserable.

I barely got out of bed. The things that I was missing was going through my mind constantly. My friend went to the live show and thankfully was kind enough to record some very, very small parts before his phone's battery ran out. Friends who were nearby were kind enough to drop off some food, including easter eggs which I safely shared with the rest of the people who were quarantining. Still, everything was just slow going. Nothing really helped me gain any motivation to do much.

I am just thankful that I was able to meet my uncle before this whole quarantine, glad that I was able to do that before the nightmare of quarantining despite all RAT tests being negative to COVID.

The Uni throughout the whole experience were not helpful. At all. My team who were all working on the assignment had to cease everything because we only had two people on the team to do a full video. An absolute impossibility for the script and the "standards" that the tutor wanted us to do. We tried to get as much help as we can and simply nothing was going through to them. No matter who said we needed the extra help. And statements like this didn't help:

"Could this have been resolved another way?"

Yeah, let me manipulate reality to fix my dislocated shoulder and to end COVID altogether so that I could get more time to work on this assignment which will mean nothing once all of us leave Uni either by graduating or simply saying we've had enough. It is still ongoing and there is no help from the Uni for what to do other than drop the course.

--TO BE EDITED LATER--