24

Okay so I am kind of nervous and kind of excited.

Da Hubs has a 3rd stage interview for a new job next week - in Australia!
This is the final stage and if he gets the offer the company will sponsor him for a visa which makes it easier.

So just got to wait and see how it goes, but in the meantime we have to try and find out as much as possible about how to get organised in life over there just in case.
I think if he is offered the job it will all happen very fast, and there is sooooo much to think about. Getting the visa processed and approved, flights, packing our entire life, leaving behind all our family and friends, deciding what to actually take with us, sorting out somewhere to live once we get there, health insurance, tax rules, pension stuff. It is all very confusing.

I feel a bit like life is on hold at the moment. For example we want to buy a food processor/blender this weekend, but should we bother, or should we wait until we find out if we are moving over 10,000 miles away?

I am really not happy at work and desperately want to leave, but don't see the point in applying for jobs if we could be moving in a few months.

If he gets the job I will be delighted to get a fresh start because:
-I do not enjoy my job.
-We have no friends where we live
-We have no social life
-I have no money to go do anything eg shopping, gym, join clubs
-Our health has been terrible for the last few months, i think because we are both stagnating
-I can feel myself drifting towards depression again, because of all of the above.

I am scared that I am getting too excited about this potential change, and pinning all my hopes for an improved life on it. I need to be able to improve my life where I am and by myself. I cannot rely on Da Hubs to fix what I am not happy with, cause I am soooo happy with him and he does not need that pressure. He is the one thing in my life right now that I am happy and settled about. He is the one thing I do not want to change.

23

Yay! one of my former roomies just gave birth to a beautiful baby boy today! It's her second.
She was told years ago that it would be very difficult if not impossible for her to get pregnant, so I am especially pleased that she and her husband have been able to have their much wanted family.
Lots of positive thoughts for little Brodie so he may have a happy and healthy life.

22

My boss(mid 60's) just sent me out to buy 2 cans of Pina Colada for her mother (80's). I shoved on my MP3 player, grabbed my office keys and off I went. Just a wee run down to the shops so no need to take my wallet, never mind my handbag.
Stand for 5 minutes in a huge queue cause there were only 2 tills on.
And i get ID'd.
I am 29, I know I don't look it. But come on, surely I must look over 17!
Apparently not.
They called over 2 managers, and they were both just not interested.

So I had to return to the office and my boss who was waiting for me so she could go home for the night empty handed.

Sooooo embarrassing, being ID'd in front of a huge queue of strangers, then having to walk back into the office and tell the rest of my workmates.

And don't anyone try and tell me that looking 12 years younger is a compliment! It is just annoying and untrue.

21.

Da Hubs is sitting on the couch suffering from a critical case of man flu. He has been bored and moany all weekend and refusing to take the medication i bought to help make him better.
BUT
He has now discovered The Hills. he is watching the catch up on MTV and is loving it. It is soooooo funny. Everytime I wander through to the living room he is all like "Lauren is the only mature sensible one" or " Why is Heidi with this guy?" I cannot believe he is watching such trash and enjoying it so much.
At least it leaves me free to come on here in between preparing for my interview on Tuesday. Will tell you more if it goes well.

20

Going for dinner in London tonight with Da Hubs, Father-in-Law and Step Mother-in-Law.
Not totally looking forward to it.

Last time I saw the SMiL, she asked if I was pregnant.
This was while we were sitting at dinner on our wedding day. We had all our parents surrounding us. If we had been pregnant - which we are not, and not even trying - and been at the stage of telling people we would certainly have told our parents already. If we weren't ready to tell people then she had just put us in a very difficult position. Not very nice to sit and lie to all your parents, then turn round a few weeks later and admit it.
We have also told them several times prior to the wedding that we want to wait a couple of years after being married before trying to get pregnant.

So yeah, with my recent weight gain I am fully expecting to be asked again tonight. If they do ask i might have to say something quite blunt.

We really want to have our own home before we start trying, and be a bit more secure in our jobs ie full-time hours and no risk of redundancy. DH would like a bit more of a salary and I would quite like to be in a firm that offers more than statuatory maternity pay. Would probably be an idea to have a car too. So there is quite a lot we need to do before we can start trying.

And we won't be telling people when we do start. (well I might write it here so ssssshhhhhh.)
From what I have heard once people know you are trying to get pregnant your personal life becomes pretty fair game. And I can totally imagine the SMiL calling every other day to check on progress and offer far too personal advice.

And if we do get pregnant I will be getting a "Do Not Touch" t-shirt.

19

Oh Dear!
After being healthy and exercising well for the wedding I got my weight to 10st, and my fat ratio was down.
We bought a set of bathroom scales at the weekend.
Now I know i stuffed myself on honeymoon, and I have had to cancel my gym membership as a cost cutting exercise and I haven't been quite as healthy in planning our meals.
But seriously, 11st 8lbs!
I walk for over 30 mins everyday, at a bloody good pace and half that time up a HUGE hill. I don't eat excessively (except fajitas and lemon chicken), don't eat a ton of chocolate or crisps and I barely drink alcohol.
So how the hell have I put on over a stone and a half in under 5 months?
So i am back to improving the healthiness of my meals, and have to figure out a way to get plenty of exercise without joining a gym or buying any equipment.
Guess married life agrees with me.

18

I need a new job. My current one has cut my hours to 4 days a week for 5 of the 9 months so far this year, and it is not likely to change anytime soon.
I really cannot stand one of my workmates. She seems to think I am there to run after her - she is incapable of addressing an envelope and yesterday asked me to shred her personal cheques!
I have so very little to do in the office, my role has changed so much from when I first started here. Compared to my last role which challenged me and kept my brain working this one just seems to be killing me off slowly.
Last night I was at the point of handing in my notice despite not having anything to go to and this morning I was dreading coming into work.

17

I am very disappointed in the decision to release Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the only person convicted for the Lockerbie bombing. He has been released on compassionate grounds.
If someone can show no compassion and kill over 250 people then they do not deserve to be released from the prison sentance for that crime, and sent home to their native country to die.

16

I hate spiders.

When i see one i scream and jump and run for Da Hubs. He is not their biggest fan, but he will get rid of them for me, mostly by my preferred method of squishing, but occasionally by taking them outside.

But the ones we have been having this weekend are just not funny. After internet research we think they are house spiders. Doesn't sound too bad you may think.

NO! they are friggin HUGE!!!!! Seriously they are about 10 cm across, and that's with the legs bent, not stretched out. I really did not think that spiders came that big in the UK.

We can't figure out where they are coming from, just too many options, but we have had 2 in the kitchen and one in the bedroom. I almost touched 2 of them by accident. We just keep hoping that there will be no more. But we jump whenever something moves in the corner of our eyeline. And we sort of poke things before lifting them, and scan a room before entering. This has been a very stressful weekend.

Kind of surprised that the neighbours haven't called the police, cause it must sound like I am being pretty badly hurt whenever we find a new one.

15

I have decided to start a new fitness regime - again. I have cancelled my gym membership as I just wasn't going, I think because I had to haul my kit all the way to work and back to go after work.

So I bought a book, "The Official British Army Fitness Guide", and i am going to try and follow it over the next few months. It obviously tells you how the Army gets their soldiers fit, and it does not need a full gym or very much equipment at all. Uses a lot of personal body weight as the resistence. They give you full instructions on how to do the exercises, and a warm up and cool down programme, then 3 levels of full exercise programmes which take 12 weeks each. I am so starting on the easiest level. Apparently by the end of the 3rd level you are at the same level as a trained soldier.

It may take me longer than the 36 weeks to get there. I tried some of the tests they suggest to check your fitness level before beginning. 1 of them was as many press ups as possible in 2 minutes, rests in between are fine. So 25 press ups later and I am totally done in. And today I am in pain. Sore arms, sore shoulders and even sore down my sides. This is just a test?! how the heck am I going to manage the whole programme?

Today I wore my pedometer to work to see how much exercise I am getting daily. Just walking to the station, between trains and then to the office took me to over 3500 steps. Pretty good. it also tells me that is approx 2.6km, and I burned 233 calories. Not sure if it can tell the difference of walking up hill cause I must use more energy going up that evil hill on the way home from work.

Tonight I have to try and complete the tests, as many sit ups in 2 minutes and a 2.4km run. Wonder if I will survive?

14

I think I have broken another toe!
Did it yesterday afternoon, just whacked it off the side of the shower, and it is still sore and cannot bend properly. This is something I do on a regular basis and it never teaches me. I think I have broken all my toes at some point in my life, and some more than once :)
Such a klutz!

13

My brother has run off to sea ........ again!

He works on ships and has a rota of approx. 4 months working then 3 months off. We scheduled the wedding around his rota as it would have been horrible not to have him there. Thankfully it wasn't too tricky.

He should be home in early December. In the meantime he is going to be experiencing extreme heat and possibly dangerous situations. It is difficult to communicate when he is away, but we are used to it after all these years. He can get email access every so often, and the mail does reach them but it can take a while. Although it can be fun buying him wee bits and pieces to send him and i have received postcards from all over the world.


Miss you Bro and hope you keep safe this trip.

12

My Dad and his wife came to visit us this week. They had been on holiday in France last week and decided to stop off on the way North to visit various family members.

We had a lovely day on Tuesday in the sunshine wandering round my town and the town where I work with lots of stops for coffees. They got to see our flat, although as it is so tiny they stayed at a nearby hotel. Then once DH got home from work we went out for dinner at an amazing pub nearby. It feels good, and very grown up, to treat your Dad to a nice dinner.

This is the first time since we moved to England that he has been to visit, and I am kind of glad he didn't see our old flat while we were living there as it was so horrible and he would have worried about me.

They only stayed for 1 day as they have another 2 stops on the way North, but it was definately worth seeing them and introducing them to our life here.

11

I heard yesterday that I am not being asked back for a second interview with the it/telecoms firm. Bit of a shame as it sounded like a nice role and the firm seemed pretty good.

But I also had a call on Tuesday from another agency with another vacancy which I might be interested in if it was permanent, instead of the current status of temporary with a small chance of going perm. So I am still of interest to people.

And on Monday my boss confirmed that I will be working 5 day weeks throughout August, with the possibility that it might continue into September.

And we have finally, only 5 1/2 weeks after moving out, received our deposit back from our old flat. This means we can finally sort out all the money we owe to the different bank accounts so we can get everything balanced out. In turn this means I can start planning how to reduce my debts and start building some savings.

Still going to have no money to spend of nice things for the forseeable future, but I really do need to get the money situation fixed asap.

10

This was meant to be posted last Wednesday, but didn't work.

Well I was offered the recruitment agency job, and I turned it down. I would have been doing the same as I am currently doing, but with some extra sales type duties, which i do NOT enjoy. And no improvement on my current salary.

I have also been for an interview at an it/telecomsfirm, which I think went okay. Not as well as the recruitment agency, but pretty well. They are offering more money, just, and it would be a lot more variety and a bit more like a PA role. I would also only need to take 1 train to get there, which helps cut my costs. They are a bigger firm, but still privately owned, with office on 3 continents and a few hundred staff. I just need to wait until next week to hear if they want to see me again.

So far I have had calls from around 8 firms / agencies asking if I am still looking for work. I have not applied for any of these roles and I am only registered with with 1 of the agencies, all I have done is reactivate my CV on the Monster website. Most of the roles are too far away, or do not appeal to me so I have not taken them any further. Of the 3 I have been interested in I have interviewed for 2 and been rejected for 1 as I was not prepared to buy a car. And have been offered 1 of the 2 I have interviewed for.

I may kick myself a few months down the line if I don't get any more interest or offers, but I have to think about what is best for the future and not just jump into the 1st available job just because it seems like it is more secure. Last timeI moved for no real reason I ended up selling advertising in a commercial fishing magazine! Not the best move I have ever made.

9

I bought some cross stitch kits this weekend. Currently about 1/3 of the way through the largest one, which looked the easiest after opening them all and reading the instructions. It actually looks quite good, is keeping my hands busy and is working my brain a bit as I try to keep track of all the little boxes.

My second interview went well, and lasted almost another 90 minutes. They haven't let me know yet as they have been super busy and not had a chance to reference me. It all seemed very positive, however i don't think I will take the job. I may kick myself in a few months when i don't have any other offers, or I get made redundant, but it just doesn't feel like the right move. They seem nice enough people, but I keep thinking that I don't want to be pigeon-holed as a recruitment administrator. They are not offering me anything I can't get at my current role, and it would mean that I couldn't move jobs again for at least 1 - 2 years. I am also not keen on the resourcing aspect, it makes me wonder what the consultants are meant to be doing all day.

I had another allergic reaction last night as i went to bed. Wheezy,rattling breathing and coughing, at some points I made this quite interesting whistling noise. Da Hubs was asking me at what point in these reactions he should call the ambulance service. I hope that they won't ever come on so fast and strong that i can't make that decision for myself ( i take after my Mother in not wanting to bother Dr's with stuff). Today i am still a bit wheezy and when i cough I get this strange metallic taste in my mouth.
It's the fact I have no idea what is causing the reaction that I find unsettling. I can see no common aspect other than the area we live in. DH even suggested Asbestos as the cause! He obviously does not know much about asbestos. Our flat is a reasonably new build, ie within the last 10 years i would think.

8

It is our 2 month Wedding Anniversary today!

Quite a lot has happened in 2 months:
-Brilliant honeymoon
-Flat hunting and move flat
-Threat of redundancy for both of us
-Visit from family
-Job hunting and interviews for me

I thought once we got into July and the move was over and done with we would be able to settle down a bit, but stuff just keeps happening to keep us on our toes. Until I find a new job and Da Hubs finds out what the deal is at his work we will be unsettled and not able to plan for the future.

Oh well, maybe by my birthday we will have a better idea of what is happening.

7

I had a job interview on Friday. It seemed to go well, and they have asked me back to meet another member of staff. They asked if I was interested in the role and I said yes, depending on the salary etc.

Now I am just not sure.

It is doing pretty much what I do now, with a little more variety/responsibility. It is closer to home - ie no trians or buses to catch. They know I would be expecting the same salary or more.
However it is a smaller firm, is that even possible? with no benefits. There would be no real opportunity to progress within the company. They sound like they will want me to do resourcing, which I do not like the sound of. The staff generally seem to be a bit older than me, and there will not be a social life attached.

I like my current role, I like the people I work with, I like the location. The salary isn't great, there is no room for progression and no benefits.

I am only looking for a new job because if the current climate. My hours have been cut to 4 days a week which, apart from the lack of money, I am really enjoying. This has been done, with other measures for other staff, to reduce the risk of redundancy.

However I need to earn the full time salary, my expenses are just too high not to earn that much. It isn't even that high a salary, definately a few grand below the national average.

So what should I do if I get offered this new role?

If they offer me the same salary as my current job should I take it? Or should I stick it out where I am and try for something better with more stability and benefits, and risk redundancy in the meantime?

6

My workmate brought me in some sweetpeas today!
I helped her with some horrible computer problems last week and this is her wee thank you. They are sitting on my desk and wafting their perfume at me whenever we get a wee breeze through the open window.
Little things like this make me so happy.
Thank you work buddy!

5

Now that we are into the new flat & settled down and have all the wedding stuff out of the way (except a few Thank You notes) I need to find something to fill my time.
There are a few obvious options: a new hobby, a new skill (Portuguese? / IT?) or some volunteer work. Something that would get me out and meeting new people so I can make some friends here would be great.
I know there is a Portuguese evening class starting in September locally, so I will look into joining that. I should also pick up a book to help me with stuff like excel and powerpoint so I can improve my CV.
Then there is Roteract Club for young professionals which could be fun. They do charity work and act as a sort of social club. Their website has lots of activities on it and they certainly seem to have fun.
So I just need to find a hobby. I am not musical, not sporty, cannot draw or paint to save my life and really am not at all techy. The flat is quite small so equipment/supplies needs to be compact. Suggestions would be good from anyone who happens to read this.

4

Yay! I got the right wire first try. TV was back on and working by 5pm on Saturday. Only cost £4.99, so saved £55 by refusing to let Hubs book a Sky engineer.

3

WHY?????? does it take Sky 2 weeks to connect our internet? Having to use the internet at work and it is such a pain.
And they wanted to charge us £60 for a guy to come and plug in our sky box. So now I have to go find a stupid wire at the weekend, hope I get the right one and it works so we can have tv back.
Okay, moan over. :)

2

My brother is coming to stay for a few days, should be arriving this evening. He is on his way south for a course for work, and he likes to stop in to visit us whenever he comes down. I think I see more of him now than when we lived half an hour from each other. He will be our first guest in the new flat, and gets to try out the air mattress for us.
Hubs is going to a concert on Saturday, so my bro and i will probably go shopping for the flat. We need a few things, like an ironing board, which would be tricky to get home without a car. Thank you Big Bro.

1

I am going to start a blog.