One Month Notice in Diary

In my current job, I have to give one month notice to leave, but I'm considering giving them two months because it takes ages to find a replacement. There are usually about 120 people applying for admin jobs here and they have to sift through them, do interviews, pick someone and then that person will probably have to give a month notice before they can start and then there'll be a couple of weeks training them up. So Amy will be running the office on her own for a few weeks which is an absolute nightmare to do. Also, another one of our admin ladies is leaving on 11th July, who they're not replacing so they'll already be one person down. Amy's just booked the first week of September as holiday, which is the exact same week I was planning on starting my new self employed life. So I can almost guarantee they'll ask me to stay for at least that week, and I'll be too weak to say no.

So when should I hand in my notice?? I've already written the letter, it's sitting there waiting to go!

I just got paid today so, instead of putting money into my "Tiding Myself Over For The First Six Months Of Self Employment" pot, which now has enough in it, I can go ahead and buy my new laptop and printer, plus a load of stationery, eeeee! I think I've chosen a printer; they're a lot cheaper than I thought so I'm going to treat myself to a better model (wireless, A3, colour). With regards to laptops, I have absolutely no idea what I'm looking for there. I have a five year old Dell Inspiron at the moment and I've never had a problem with it, so I was thinking about just getting another one of those. I can get an upgraded version of the one I have for £360. As someone who knows nothing about computers, does that seem like a sensible route to take?? I already have £130 in Amazon vouchers to put towards it, earned from taking surveys. Excitimacated!

My sister (Babe in Toyland on here) is also leaving her job to pursue a new career. She lives on the edge of the Lake District and one of the things she's planning is collecting raw wool from freshly shorn sheep, treating, spinning and knitting it into, among other things, dog coats. I think this is a brilliant idea, she could trace it right back to the individual sheep it came from, which I think customers would like. I've suggested to her that I could sell them for her as part of my dog walking business. Sisters doing very different jobs but working together :o)

Friday is the five year anniversary of when me and Jay first met. In four months, this will officially be the longest relationship I've ever been in! At this point with Pete, small cracks were beginning to show which was the start of our demise. Not so with Jay! :o)

I have no idea what to buy him for a gift, he's impossible to buy for. His Amazon wish list is mainly made up of books, so I've bought him one of them, but he always has a big pile of unread books on the shelf so I don't want to get too many. I've also bought him a t-shirt which was on his wish list, but neither of those things are very romantic and I'm a bit stuck. Awkward bugger.

We're going out on Saturday night to see a band, have a nice meal and a few drinks. Date nights are ace, we make sure we have them four times a year; Valentine's Day, our anniversary, my birthday and his birthday. I would recommend all couples make sure they have regular date nights, it helps to keep you close and spend some quality time together.

46 working days remain.