Rejoin the Rat Race in Diary

Today is my last day of unemployment, then I’m back to work on Monday (the weekend doesn’t count as they aren’t working days). The last three weeks have just flown by. At the beginning I had loads of plans and started them all with vim and vigour, but I’ve got more lax as time has gone on. I was planning on cleaning out the whole house and having a good clear out. I did make a good start and managed to scrub and tidy the kitchen, dining room, living room, halls, stairs, landing, bedroom and bathroom. I was also going to do the office, spare bedroom, garden and veranda, but that never happened.

I was also going to try and crochet one square a day, but I’ve only actually made 3.5 squares.

My other plan was to do a Jillian Michaels workout every day I didn’t go to roller derby; I did that a grand total of once.

And I was going to finally finish my last Domestic Pet Care essay as that’s been in the works for about a year now…I’m determined to finish it even though I’ve closed my business for the most part, I paid £350 for this course and have done 5.75 essays so I really should get it finished!

I have, however, put a load of stuff in the loft as Jay has just boarded it over, so it’s nice to get some of the clutter and mess out of the cupboards and make it easier to find things.

I was worried about not having much money to live on this month because of my three weeks off, but I got my last payment today from my last employer and I seem to have earned about half a month’s wages, even though I only actually worked four days. It turns out I was owed 3.3 days holiday plus I got my pension contributions refunded. Add that to the £300 I’ve earned from pet sitting this month and, if I’m careful, I think I’ll be ok without having to dip into my wedding fund. Which is nice.

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I spent ages trying to find out what time I have to be at work on Monday. I sent two emails and made three phone calls and, it was only because I was persistant last week that I finally found out I need to be in for 9am. What I also found out is that the first day is off site, about 30 miles from home. Fair enough. Tuesday is going to be in Nottingham about 60 miles away…Wednesday is in Ipswich 140 miles away! We then have to stay overnight in Ipswich and go to Cambridge on Thursday! They only officially told us this yesterday which isn’t giving much notice. Personally, I have roller derby on Wednesdays and I also have a pet sitting assignment booked in for Thursday morning, so I need to cancel those now with this short notice. What about people who have children? How come they didn’t tell us sooner that this would be going on? Whatever, I’m just going to have to go with it, it’s only the first week, I’m sure it’ll settle down after then. It’ll be a good chance to get to know my colleagues anyway if we’re going to be in the car together for this long…!

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I went to visit my family again last week and we went to Rannerdale to check out the bluebells which are rampant at this time of year. Normally when me, dad and Sonja go for a walk in the Lake District, a mountain is involved somewhere. Mam can’t come with us to climb mountains as she has a scar on her lung and can’t take deep breaths. However, Rannerdale is a flat walk so all four of us went, which was lovely. I will share a few photos of the beautiful place where I grew up.

Obligatory catalogue pose.

Bluebells

Sonja, Mam, Blue and Dad.

I love the colours on this one.

Me, Sonja and Blue. Just out of shot was a dead sheep, the sun was shining on it and the wind was blowing the stench right towards us. We were telling dad to hurry up and take the photo so we could leave!

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We’ve finally found a wedding venue we both like. All the others have had something wrong with them; Jay didn’t like the layout of one, I thought one was boring, another was right next to a dual carriageway and had nowhere nice for photos, most of the nice ones are too expensive. This one has everything! It’s lovely inside and outside and not too expensive, a good layout, nice big room and bar area big enough to fit all our guests in and surrounded by countryside. It also has a lovely sunken garden with a fountain and double staircase. We went exploring a bit further and found some woodland with ancient bridges and archways which would be lovely for photos if the weather holds up. There are some nice photos on this page Clickety! We may have found our venue :o)