The Serpent's Solstice
25/12/2011 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaOn Tuesday evening the serpent was sitting outside sipping on a glass of Oz bubbles. Got to thinking that for more than ten years now the Izzie new year has started not on the official Muggle date of 1st January but around the time of the Oz summer solstice. With 20/20 hindsight it is a sort of ground hog day. A good one is most auspicious indeed and most bad ones also set the tone for the next 360 something days.
The problem is that once the pattern has now become apparent it could become a self fulfilling prophecy.
The two that stand out as most significant were in 2001 and 2010. Last year’s solstice also coincided with a full moon which should have been most magical indeed. But the weather was disgustingly sticky, hot and humid. It was cloudy all day and became apparent that there would be no sunset to see at Cottesloe Beach so there was no point in rushing to the Lair and then there after work and paying nearly seven silver sickles in bus fares there and back. May as well just go to the staff Christmas party that afternoon and then down to the river to watch the moonrise
There was a whole week of such vile weather with Christmas included. It did cool down in time for a gorgeous New Year’s Eve but the pattern had been set.
January was not even two weeks old when our new good boss resigned and the rest of the working year was downhill all the way with a five week heat wave at the end of the month just to lay it on thicker and deeper.
After a glass or two of bubbly entered a strange dreamy sort of state and got to reminiscing and joining all sorts of dots that had been seemingly not connected
It was very silly of Izzie to be sitting outside musing past midnight when needing to be at work for 7am next day. But when the muse is paying such a rare visit, no point in telling her she is no longer welcome. And anyway there is all of Wednesday evening to catch up on serpent snoozes
Had a most magical solstice sunset on Thursday at Cottesloe beach. Started the unofficial new year with a new serpent journal. As an omen for next year’s intentions actually wrote in a gorgeous wrap around camel leather journal with a rose quartz stone embedded on the cover and hand made paper. Did suspect the paper would be too coarse for the emerald ink quill and those suspicions turned out to be quite correct. Pity because this journal is just too beautiful to be sullied with common blue biro ink
For the first time since 1996, the Izzie will be working on the evening of New Year’s Eve. It so so sucks. For years we had six weeks holidays. Four of those were proper holidays and the other two were in lieu of public holidays. The day job is a 24/7 operation which does not shut down on weekends or official public holidays. So these extra ten days were compensation for that inconvenience
We also had a strange system of accumulating days off from the time that the official working week reduced from 40 to 38 hours. For every 20 hours worked we accumulated 1hour off. In Izzie’s case this meant one day in the stash every four weeks. Such days were wonderful for taking a day off here and there.
Then the dirty stinking evil goblins not only abolished those days but tweeked the public holiday thing too. Instead of two weeks compensation for having to work public holidays as well as being paid time and a half for public holidays actually worked, they took a week off us and paid public holidays actually worked at double time
This in addition to losing the extra day per month had the effect of drastically reducing days off and making the opportunity cost of not working public holidays very high indeed
Izzie has now used up all old annual leave and can no longer use those 12 days for culture vulture events. And we have a brain dead moron of a pay clerk who even with five months notice requesting a day off still manages to stuff things up
So for the first time since 1996 will be at work on the evening of the holiest of holies - New Year’s Eve. Last time New Year's Eve was a Saturday back in 2005 took off the Saturday 31st, Sunday 1st and Monday 2nd (the serpent birthday) Can remember those days like they were yesterday. Most magical they were indeed
The Izzie incarnation will be ten years old on Monday 2nd January. It is a pesky public holiday which means that the opportunity cost of taking a day off work is now way too high and also that the last bus back to the Lair is at 8pm so the usual rituals other than the visit to the old lunatic asylum after work cannot be observed. So no sunset on Memorial Hill this time.
2011 has been a year of not observing a whole bunch of rituals for such reasons. The Mardi Gras got moved due to a visit from a real Queen. But did get to join in that particular party due to a bit of forward planning.
But this first few days of the unofficial serpent new year have been pretty good and the weather has been perfect. So hoping this is an auspicious omen
The problem is that once the pattern has now become apparent it could become a self fulfilling prophecy.
The two that stand out as most significant were in 2001 and 2010. Last year’s solstice also coincided with a full moon which should have been most magical indeed. But the weather was disgustingly sticky, hot and humid. It was cloudy all day and became apparent that there would be no sunset to see at Cottesloe Beach so there was no point in rushing to the Lair and then there after work and paying nearly seven silver sickles in bus fares there and back. May as well just go to the staff Christmas party that afternoon and then down to the river to watch the moonrise
There was a whole week of such vile weather with Christmas included. It did cool down in time for a gorgeous New Year’s Eve but the pattern had been set.
January was not even two weeks old when our new good boss resigned and the rest of the working year was downhill all the way with a five week heat wave at the end of the month just to lay it on thicker and deeper.
After a glass or two of bubbly entered a strange dreamy sort of state and got to reminiscing and joining all sorts of dots that had been seemingly not connected
It was very silly of Izzie to be sitting outside musing past midnight when needing to be at work for 7am next day. But when the muse is paying such a rare visit, no point in telling her she is no longer welcome. And anyway there is all of Wednesday evening to catch up on serpent snoozes
Had a most magical solstice sunset on Thursday at Cottesloe beach. Started the unofficial new year with a new serpent journal. As an omen for next year’s intentions actually wrote in a gorgeous wrap around camel leather journal with a rose quartz stone embedded on the cover and hand made paper. Did suspect the paper would be too coarse for the emerald ink quill and those suspicions turned out to be quite correct. Pity because this journal is just too beautiful to be sullied with common blue biro ink
For the first time since 1996, the Izzie will be working on the evening of New Year’s Eve. It so so sucks. For years we had six weeks holidays. Four of those were proper holidays and the other two were in lieu of public holidays. The day job is a 24/7 operation which does not shut down on weekends or official public holidays. So these extra ten days were compensation for that inconvenience
We also had a strange system of accumulating days off from the time that the official working week reduced from 40 to 38 hours. For every 20 hours worked we accumulated 1hour off. In Izzie’s case this meant one day in the stash every four weeks. Such days were wonderful for taking a day off here and there.
Then the dirty stinking evil goblins not only abolished those days but tweeked the public holiday thing too. Instead of two weeks compensation for having to work public holidays as well as being paid time and a half for public holidays actually worked, they took a week off us and paid public holidays actually worked at double time
This in addition to losing the extra day per month had the effect of drastically reducing days off and making the opportunity cost of not working public holidays very high indeed
Izzie has now used up all old annual leave and can no longer use those 12 days for culture vulture events. And we have a brain dead moron of a pay clerk who even with five months notice requesting a day off still manages to stuff things up
So for the first time since 1996 will be at work on the evening of the holiest of holies - New Year’s Eve. Last time New Year's Eve was a Saturday back in 2005 took off the Saturday 31st, Sunday 1st and Monday 2nd (the serpent birthday) Can remember those days like they were yesterday. Most magical they were indeed
The Izzie incarnation will be ten years old on Monday 2nd January. It is a pesky public holiday which means that the opportunity cost of taking a day off work is now way too high and also that the last bus back to the Lair is at 8pm so the usual rituals other than the visit to the old lunatic asylum after work cannot be observed. So no sunset on Memorial Hill this time.
2011 has been a year of not observing a whole bunch of rituals for such reasons. The Mardi Gras got moved due to a visit from a real Queen. But did get to join in that particular party due to a bit of forward planning.
But this first few days of the unofficial serpent new year have been pretty good and the weather has been perfect. So hoping this is an auspicious omen
