Busy Few Days in Diary

Wow I’ve had a busy few days. On Saturday, Jay’s cousin’s husband came round to install our new loft hatch. He had to bring Tina, Jay’s cousin, with him as she has multiple sclerosis and can’t be left on her own. Fair enough but she’s so rude. Every time I see her she manages to insult me. This time she said “Your windows need cleaning.” So I told her we’re going to buy a tall ladder soon and we can do them then. She tells us to “Get a bloody window cleaner.” So I told her we can’t afford one and she yells “Of course you bloody can!” Really? I’m earning an average of £400 a month at the moment, which doesn’t even cover my half of our household bills. If we don’t pay the mortgage, there won’t BE any windows to bloody clean.

There was something else she said but I can’t remember at the moment.

So anyway, we now have our new loft hatch installed, so I’ve rang British Gas to try again at getting their free insulation, now that we have a hatch they can fit up. So they’re coming on Thursday to have a look.

Now that we’ve lived in this house for two years, Jay compared how much gas we’ve used. In the second year, we used almost HALF as much gas as the first year. And that’s because we replaced the windows, got a carpet and new radiators in the living room. As well as little things like not having the heating on in the morning anymore and only heating the rooms we use; it’s all made a HUGE difference. And it’ll be even better once we get this loft insulation in.

After they left, on Saturday evening I drove over to look after the diabetic cat and then went to the house of someone from roller derby for her birthday party and to watch England play in the roller derby world cup. I’m proud of myself, I went all by myself and had some fun conversations with people. It was a bit frustrating at times when I was trying to join in with conversations; I would say something and then, five seconds later, someone would say exactly the same thing and everyone would laugh. I don’t know why no one heard me when I said it, I was trying to be loud enough. Anyway, they did involve me in some conversations and I think I did quite well.

I was disappointed I had to leave early, though, as I had to be up at 6:30am to look after the diabetic cat again. So, no drinking for me and going home at 10:30pm makes me seem really boring! Not to worry, it’s the Christmas party this Friday so I can drink and stay a bit longer :o)

On the way home from Jen’s party, it seems like all the roads were closed. First I had to get off the motorway one junction early because the motorway was closed for roadworks. Then the route I would normally take was closed because of roadworks, so I tried a third route which was closed because of roadworks…I eventually had to try FIVE different routes to get home. It felt like I was driving around the edge of an imprenetrable circle with a two mile radius and my house was in the middle. Very frustrating.

Annoyingly, I hardly got any sleep on Saturday night. For some reason, when I have to be up early, I can’t get to sleep. I was still awake at 2:30am, then I woke up at 4:15am and 5:30am before I had to get up at 6:30am. Jay though, bless him, he had gone out with his mates on Saturday night and I asked him not to wake me up when he got in, so he spent the whole night on the sofa. Nice of him to think of me and do that :o)

So I went and looked after the diabetic cat at 7:00am, then I had a Cinnamon Trust dog to walk and then I was looking after two massive mastiffs for the afternoon. And when I say massive, it was like having a pair of horses in the house and they wouldn’t settle because they were missing their owner.

Molly spent an hour going in and out and in and out. I didn’t want to leave the door open because we had the heating on, but every time I let her out, she was jumping up to come in again and every time I let her in, she was jumping to go back out again. She eventually settled down though, but covered the entire house with a film of drool. Nice.

So my weekend was anything but relaxing…! I’ve only just realised I only have one more weekend before Christmas as I’m going up to visit family on the 19th! I’d better get a move on and get my Christmas shopping finished, which is quite hard when you’re on a strict budget :-/

I’ve had a few new customers lately and I do feel a bit guilty taking them on while I’m looking for other work, but I don’t know how long it will be before I get a job and I still have bills to pay in the meantime. I was battling with my conscience, leading people on, getting them to fill in all my forms and meet for a consultation. But I have to keep telling myself; if I don’t take on new customers and I don’t get a job, then the mortgage doesn’t get paid. If I do take on a new customer and then I get a job and have to drop them, the worst that will happen is that they’ve wasted an hour or two filling in my forms and meeting me, and now they just have to find a new dog walker. It’s a lot less serious than me not being able to pay the bills…!

And speaking of jobs, I had my interview today, if you can call it that. I put on my best interview suit, spent ages researching the company and preparing my answers for possible questions, paid £5.70 for the tram (!) and spent an hour travelling there…and the whole thing lasted less than 15 minutes! I know it’s a bad sign if an interview doesn’t last very long as they just want to get rid of you. But she did say she was conducting all the initial interviews to short list for a proper formal interview with the director. As it was, she did most of the talking, just telling me about the role and the staff culture and hardly asked me any questions. The questions she did ask, she kept interjecting and going off on tangents, so I never go to fully finish answering anything she asked me. I did the best I could with what she gave me, so I hope I get a second interview.

They get private healthcare, pension and a tonne of holidays. At PRG, we got 20 days holiday a year, plus eight public holidays. If we wanted time off over Christmas, we had to book it out of our annual leave. In this place, she said they start on 22 days (which sounds like it can go up) PLUS a three day shut down between Christmas and New Year, PLUS you also get two “duvet days” a year, where you’re allowed to wake up one morning and decide you’re not going to work that day; that’s amazing, PLUS one day a year if you want to spend a day doing charity work. That’s 28 days a year plus eight public holidays. That’s more than a whole month every year you can have off. Mental. She was very keen to tell me all this, but we didn’t really talk much about the acutal company or anything so I’m not sure if she was very experienced at interviewing. She seemed very friendly and chatty anyway which is nice because, if I did get the job, she would be my line manager.

I just have to wait and see in the next couple of days if I get asked back.

After the interview, I then walked four dogs and had a new customer consultation, so it’s been my busiest day yet. I came home and put my pyjamas now and now I’m settled on the sofa for the evening, I’m not planning on moving again.

I didn’t realise this entry was going to end up being quite this long…

Last updated December 08, 2014