I got the job!!

Yay me!!

Nightmare............

Well, where do I begin?

We have had quite an eventful last 36 hours!! Scott rang me on Monday evening at work to tell me that the landlord had dropped a note off to the house about moving out. So this stressed me out somewhat, but it wasn't til I got home that I read the note properly with my housemate that I came to realise what was going on. The note (handwritten and undated) said that due to the house being repossessed, we were advised that we should move out and take anything in the house in lieu of a deposit. In other words, the landlord was doing a runner and wasn't coming back.

Now, I am sure you are thinking, why did we have only two days notice? I was asking the same thing. Upon speaking to the guys we lived with, they told us that they did not in fact have a contract with the landlord (whereas they did when we moved in) and the fact that the landlord was different from the original!! So, in other words, they had no legal leg to stand on, and considering that we were subletting effectively, we had nothing to do with the landlord, which might have worked out for the best in a sense.

So we spent yesterday moving house. I had the day off anyway - luckily. Scott went to work as he had an appointment at another office, but he got there, told his boss what had happened, and basically his boss said that Scott should go home and sort it out. So Scott was home by 10.15, which was fantastic. We also had help from Ayesha, as we were going to get together that day anyway, but she kindly offered to help us out. We were very grateful!!

I went to work, dumped some stuff in my locker, and got a key off Isa for her house. I met Ayesha at work, and we headed back to the house. Scott and I had packed pretty much everything up the night before, I finished off packing up clothes etc, so while I was gone Scott packed up the rest. We all made the first trip to Isa's on the DLR. Two trains and a 7 minute walk either end, so not too bad. When we got to the station to go back to Beckton, it had started raining. I suggested grabbing a cab. Black cabs have a lot of foot room (although there is no boot) so we basically squeezed everything else in the cab, squished myself and Scotty in and we went for the second trip. Ayesha went home at that stage after helping us out tremendously.

Arrived at Isa's after the second trip about 4.30ish?? We lumped everything in from the cab - with help from the excellent cab driver and kind of flopped. We chatted to Isa's housemate Steph, who is a doctor from the Sunshine Coast for a while, then decided to go for a walk before our appointment to see a property nearby. As it turned out the property we saw ticked all our boxes - close to transport, spacious, our own space etc etc. Agent's description was:

A large one bedroom, studio flat, ground floor with garden, GCH, residents parking.

A garden!! Which will be lovely in summer. And it is seriously 30 seconds walk to the station, and I can walk to work. So saving travel money and getting exercise. It took myself and Isa 25 minutes this morning from her house (probably the same distance from work).

So it seems we have really fallen on our feet. From bad luck to good luck, all in the space of 24 hours. I am exhausted and it feels really surreal. I am grateful to our friends who made offers to help and to those who did help.

This is the Museum I work in now.
And this is the Commissariat Store Museum I used to work in at home.

Both are:

* Georgian

* warehouses

* now museums

* stunning examples of Georgian architecture

* where I work/have worked!!

How's that?

It's Thursday today, and I have the day off tomorrow. I am off to a craft show tomorrow with a friend from work Kirsty. She is a mad keen cross stitcher, but last week she decided to learn to knit - a symptom of pregnancy, or so she says!! She is bringing her friend, also a cross stitcher. Hopefully my friend Sarah and her baby will come too! I will set myself a budget, and hide my credit card, and keep my fingers crossed that I don't see too many lovely things!!

Other than that I am working the weekend. Scott has been told by his boss that no one is allowed to do any overtime this weekend. He is a bit miffed, as he likes to do overtime when I work. He may as well is his logic. So he shall have to figure out something to do.

I had lunch in the sun today. Yes!! The sun is out in all its glory, and there is warmth to it as well. It really feels like spring today, which makes me happy. There is nothing like the feel of a warm sun on your face after not seeing it for so long. After living in Brisbane, where there is always so much sun, it has been an adjustment to living in London where the sun does not shine all that much over winter. Or when it does, there is no warmth to it at all. But the sun today has made me happy. It's funny how someimes we forget to appreciate the little things in life.

Well it is all over. I survived the group task of counting beans, I survived the tour of the museum I already know about, I survived the interview. So who knows, but I might just get the job...

Crafty Day

Yesterday was spent at Sarah's house. I made my way there, arriving around 11.15am to the sound of a scraming baby. My introduction to Orla, Sarah's two week old daughter, was seeing her naked and screaming in the bath, as Sarah washed her.

Orla is just beautiful. She is still very new, and pink and wrinkly and very sweet. It's been 18 months since I have held a baby, but it's just like riding a bicycle... or something. :-) I had lots of cuddles, in between Orla being fed and being generally grumpy. I held her as Sarah made us a tasty stir-fry for lunch, and she fell asleep on me all curled up and cute looking. When lunch was ready I plopped her in her basket, and Sarah made a comment about it being nice to have someone who knows how to hold a baby. I'd never really thought about it before, but I guess I have had a little practice with my friend Maree's son Bowen and with my cousin's children. It's funny. Sarah did say though, that her partner, Jake, is still at the stage with Orla that he thinks he might break her if he doesn't hold her like a china doll! Very sweet really. He'll grow out of that I'm sure!!

Sarah and I spent the day drinking tea, and chatting and doing some knitting. I was working on a bag. I bought some lovely chunky pink wool, and a black ball in the same wool, and I had proposed to knit a bag. I had managed to teach myself how to swap over colours half way through a row, so I decided that I would knit a black heart into the pink bag. Looks great, if I do say so myself. I was not sure what I was going to use the bag for, but I decided this morning on my walk from the train station to work that I will use it to house my current knitting project. A knitted bag for my knitting. Good idea?

Sarah and I have decided to make the crafty days a regular thing. It really is a nice way to spend time. And the next crafty day will be in their new house. All I have to do is convince her to come to the craft show I am going to on Friday 24th March with a friend from work, Kirsty. I will work on it.....

Post Birthday

Yep, it's been confirmed, I am now 26. Scarey prospect, as it means I am (according to my friend Sally) on the "wrong side of 25!!" Oh well. Can't be helped. I don't feel any older, but then again why would I feel any different in a whole day?

Friday I had the day off work. Finally, after working 9 days straight, I was so happy to be able to lie in a while. I don't normally work 9 days in a row, but i had swapped weekends with John at work so we could go to Scotland, so it just kind of worked out that way. But I still didn't have to work my birthday! I like the fact that my work is flexible enough like that. I can swap shifts with other Visitor Assistants, if possible, which enables me to keep my hours, which as a temp is important!!

Anyway, Scott and I headed into Oxford Street (via a wool shop in Stratford to get some circular knitting needles!! Scarey!!). We caught the bus from Stratford instead of taking the central line. The tube lost the coin toss! Oh well, at least by bus you get to see the countryside rather than just the other oddballs in the train carriage. :-) Took us about an hour, and I think we needn't do that trip ever again. We headed staight for our destination - The Apple Shop. So many shiny things in there. I really miss having a Mac to play with. They are so much better designed and user friendly than Windows machines. Scott had bought himself an iPod a couple of weks ago, and asked me if I would like one for my birthday, seeing as though we were no longer going to Scotland. I said yes. I chose a 30GB video ipod in black. It's the same one as Scott got. I really liked the nano model, but basically for an extra £40 I could get the video mode (not sure if I will use that yet) but also an extra 26GB. I cannot even comprehend how many songs that is. But I am sure it will soon fill up. Dad said he will send me some songs burnt onto a cd from my iTunes at home (he did suggest I send it home for him to load up with songs, but somehow I doubt I would get it back!!). So that's my new toy. I can't believe that Scott bought it for me, but I am very very happy with it.

From Oxford Street we caught the tube to Shepherds Bush, to where Melissa and Shane live. We had been invited to a very last minute dinner gathering. As of course Melissa and I share the same birthday, it was a great excuse to go out. There were 8 of us in total - Melissa and Shane, Scott and I, Ayesha and Karline (her friend from Oz) and Renee and Bram (friends of Melissa's). We ended up going to a nice French restaurant. It was a lovely evening.

Saturday we lazed about a bit, then headed over to the Barbican. The Barbican is a development which has apartments, restaurants and theatres in it, close to the City of London. Interesting place, wouldn't want to live there though!! We hadn't been there for almost a year, as the last time we were there was with Judy and we saw Batman Begins at the cinema. Anyway, the reason we were going there was because we were off to see a film from the Australian Film Festival. Very exciting! I had been told about it by a lady at work, so we made a booking for a movie called "Blacktown" on the internet. The movie was at 4pm, and began with a short film called "The Saviour". This alone was worth the ticket price. Absolutely marvellous film about the goings on behind the scenes of Mormon's visits to homes in Australian suburbia. Turns out that the main character was trying to convert a woman, who liked "one on one" seesions, ie they were sleeping together. Turns out that when he goes to see her one last time, she isn't home, he is invited in by the husband. Husband tells him that the wife is pregnant, and that it must be some miracle, as they had been trying for 10 years and he was told he was infertile (guess whose baby it is...). Anyway, ends up that the husband is converted due to the "miracle" of his wife's pregnancy!! The other film was pretty good, done on zero budget, but still an interesting insight into life and relationships in Blacktown, near Sydney.

Sunday was MY BIRTHDAY!!

We woke up earlyish (for a Sunday anyway) and I spoke to Mum and Dad briefly. Listened to them sing me Happy Birthday twice - once on my voicemail and once direct to me on the phone, in chorus! :-D I was also sung to by Scott and by my uncle Paul in Sydney. YAY! I also received text messages from home, from Caroline, Louise, and Angela. Text messages from people here were from Ayesha, Melissa, and Giulia. I unwrapped my shiny present, and my card. The card is great. It's a hologram of a set of lips. Each time you move the card they move and give you a kiss. So endless kisses for me!

We walked to the train station (on the way I spoke to Paul) and took three trains to get to Shoreditch. From the station we wandered to the bagel shop to get a salt beef bagel each for breakfast. A lovely way to start the day!! Then we walked to Old Spitalfields Market, where I planned to spend my birthday present from my parents. I really like the markets, as you can find just about anything there - clothes, food, shoes, books, jewellery. I ended up with a pair of earrings (a Celtic design with oval pieces of polished malachite at the drop end), a ring (a silver ring with a large oval piece of malachite) and a book on subterranean London (not bought from the market however). Oh! And two pairs of socks (I have become quite taken with knee high socks). I bought a pair of red and black striped socks and a pair of black socks with skulls and cross bones up the side - arrrrr.... pirate socks!!!

From the market we went to Liverpool Street station. I bought a hairdryer (I managed to fry yet another one that morning after drying only half my head so I had to leave the house looking gorgeous with a beanie on!!). Then from Liverpool Street we took the Circle line to Westminster and hopped on a boat. We did a boat cruise to Greenwich, which took about an hour. I really love being on the River Thames as there is so much to look at, and so much history. In Greenwich, which I love, we went to a bookshop where I purchased my book. Then hopped on the DLR to West India Quay and saw a movie. I stopped off on the way at Tesco (a supermarket) to buy some Tim Tams to inflict upon the good people I work with as a birthday treat from me. We saw The Weatherman, which was good, not as funny as the preview gives the impression, but still a good way to end the day. The movie was followed by a lovely dinner at one of the restaurants near work, and then it was home to load up some music onto my new toy.

I checked my emails when I got home and there were more birthday messages from Sally and from Vera. Lovely. :-)

Today I inflicted the goodness of Tim Tams upon my colleagues. The 4 packets of biscuits were gone by lunchtime!!! Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

I was also told that I am on the shortlist for interviews at work, ie I have to go through the interview process on Monday with all the other plebs. Bummer, but it has to be done. I was told by my boss that my application was excellent, and if I do as well in the interview as I did with my application, I will be fine. :-D Wish me luck!!

Seeing as though we are no longer going to Scotland, I need to think of some way to spend my birthday on Sunday. Any suggestions peoples? Email me!!

Scott is recovering well. Had an abscess drained, but it is healing nicely. We unfortunately cannot go to Scotland. While I am disappointed, it is much more important to have a healthy boyfriend than flitting off about the countryside. :-)

More in the next few days. It's home time now!!

Scott seems much better today. He should be coming home this afternoon. :-) It was just a minor procedure, nothing to be worried about. I think he was more bored than anything else really!!

Welcome to the World

Hello. I wanted to share some news.Two of my friends have given birth in the last few days. First my old school friend Mickaela gave birth on Monday to a baby boy. His name is Zane Arthur.

My other friend Sarah gave birth yesterday to a baby girl, as yet (well as of about half an hour ago) unnamed.

Congratulations to both sets of parents!! :-)