Orla Quirke

This is ironic.

Don't cross your fingers and toes. It doesn't work, apparently.

Though the tourists have opted to stay flocked indoors, they're missing a wonderful show of how lovely my home is. It's that time of year where the weather starts getting colder, the leaves start to change, and the trees become barren. And the gales - the gales begin to pick up and leave some damage behind, of course, but for those of us who live here and love the city? It's a welcoming and lovely sight.

Before showing that (because I have taken quite a few pictures in the past few days and very nearly ruined one of my cameras while doing so, too), I managed to capture one of my favourite scenes and the reason why I would be hard-pressed to ever leave my home.

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There are those tourists that actually think it's nothing but a myth that, on a clear day, you can see the beaches of France! To set the record straight, I am proud to say you can, and I managed to get proof recently! It's been several weeks since we could see the coast; the weather hasn't been nice, but there she is again. Like always.

Anyway. The gales -- they're a force to be reckoned with and can very nearly knock you off your feet at times! Thank goodness for sticking charms or else I would have fallen on my bottom a few dozen times and have the bump to prove it!

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Even the castle has disappeared because of the rain and fog.

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However, there are breaks when the sun pops through and the rain stops for a few hours. The tourists even brave coming outside their pubs or hotels to capture stills such as this one. At least once a week, I make the trek to visit and lose myself in the castle. I like to pretend that I lived back then and was a Lady in Waiting in Her Majesty's Court. They're fanciful dreams, perhaps, but they tide the days over and keep my mind off things happening in the real world.

Not worrying about receiving an owl is definitely easier said than done. However, I've decided to put it as far from my mind as possible and concentrate on more pressing needs and concerns. For instance, it's been a little over a year since I left Hogwarts. I've had a few odd-and-ends jobs, but nothing substantial that I truly liked. After some pressing by my dad,

I have to start searching for a job. I really don't want to; I'm much more content staying here, taking care of the house and photographing all day, but I suppose it is only fair to pull my weight, too.

Only, I really don't know where to start looking. I suppose starting locally and applying to placs in Dover would be fine, but given I can apparate to and from places, I'm really not restricted either. Maybe Diagon Alley, but there are a lot of people there. Or London - but the same problem applies there, too.

Hmm - it was definitely easier when I was still in school and only had to worry about an assignment being due the next day.

It seems all that fingers and toes crossing really helped because I got lucky. Are the pairings they sent out today the only ones for awhile? Hopefully so, because I really cannot imagine how everyone is feeling - to forcefully be engaged to someone without picking them out yourself seems really scary. They could be some sort of ogre for all you know or someone who doesn't pick up after themselves on a regular basis. Perhaps those are all trivial things, but it really scares me to think that someone else is in charge of the rest of my life.

Everyone's upset with what the Ministry is doing, my dad included (he's threatened to quit over the new laws!), but maybe they'll change their minds. Before the first owls are sent out or before the first pairings are married, they could completely do away with it. Especially under this much criticism from both those at home and abroad.

I'm going to cross my fingers and toes until then and hope that I don't get an owl anytime soon. Surely they think I'm too you, too?

( A picture is worth a thousand words. )