wagwaan?

Some good news at least...

Ooh, today I got a call from the agency saying that "off the record" it's 99% sure I will go through to the third round and meet the CEO for a final interview. Apparently, the company talk of me in glowing terms. That is fab news, but slightly complicated by the fact that Dr C came back from Boston, having had time to think on the plane, and asked me how much it would take (financially speaking) to make it worthwhile me staying on!  I told him, and I know the Trust can't pay it, but am wondering if he is thinking of getting me funded by a drug company or his "slush fund". Whatever he is thinking, I am thrilled because the ONLY reason I am looking to leave is because I truly cannot afford to live here on this salary any more.... Watch this space :)

Weather is GORGEOUS and everyone has noticed my tan - not that it is in any way related to the weather, but thanks to the narrowband UVB treatment. It is working a treat - my elbows are clearer than they have been in years. Not quite finished yet though. 

Mummy is still in intensive care, having had her second blood transfusion. She is apparently sleeping even more than before -if that were possible- but it seems to be a more tranquil sleep. Must find the money to buy tickets to go over there, as it's only a month away and it'll be my turn to be there again.

Claire's prom tonight! She is getting quite excited. Pictures WILL follow, I promise ;)

Shaky Faces part deux

Just a quick LO I did in response to Kirsty's challenge - about 2 days after we had fun taking the pictures! TFL.  When I stitched the two halves together in Photoshop I wiped out the "i" in seriously, so yes, I CAN spell thank you very much ;)

Emotional rollercoaster...

It's been an up and down kind of week where my mum is concerned. My brother went over to Normandy from his place in Manchester, and for a couple of days Mummy was really quite ill. Then she rallied and we had two good lots of news by the time Jackie got there (finally, bless her, due to other health and family issues).  Unfortunately, at midnight on Saturday Mummy was moved to gastroenterology intensive care as she has been bleeding as well as having the tummy bug. They are obviously looking after her well, as this was noticed in the middle of the night, and she is in the best place. This bug seems to be attacking parts of her bowel that were already a problem (she had part of it removed a few years ago), so she is more susceptible than maybe another person. This has come as a huge blow - the neurologist was quite happy with the progress she appeared to be making from the point of view of her stroke, it's just that she is acutely unwell with one thing after another.  All we can do is pray and keep the faith at this point. The more bugs and things she has, the worse the prognosis, so I hope she can fight them.  Just as I'm typing this I got a call from one of my sisters to say she has had a transfusion and seems brigher this evening. See? Emotional rollercoaster!!

On a happier note, I had a second interview in London and I am waiting for feedback - hoping to be called back for a final interview with "the man himself" LOL. 

It's Claire's long-awaited prom on Thursday. She has the dress, the shoes, the scarf, the headband - so she wrote to dad and said she needed money for the nails and the clutch bag. Cheeky!  Anyway, he says he'll put it in her account tomorrow, so she is happy.  I think a bunch of kids are coming here after prom, because (a) of course no alcohol will be served* and (b) it ends at 10.30pm, which is quite early. We shall see!

Just waiting for our pizza to arrive - we don't often order in but today we've chosen a Fajita Pizza and for Claire a regular cheese/tomato one.  Yum!

PS COME ON ENGLAND!!!

*ETA: Of course, that doesn't mean there'll be lots of alcohol at our house!!  It's just that, for my American friends, you are allowed to drink alcohol in this country at 16 (in fact I think the official law which is very old, states that over the age of 5 it's permitted to give someone alcohol in a private house!!! See here page 1.  I'd rather Claire had a shandy or light beer in my house than went to a party somewhere and got led astray and got drunk....)

Fall Out Boy: Dance Dance

Claire is in equal parts delighted and cross that we like the same kind of music... well, mostly anyway!  I have this one on the brain at the moment, and the video makes me smile: rock stars acting geeky at the Homecoming Dance....

Add a video to your site Webratsmusic.com

Fingers crossed (still)

Oh the luxury of a day off!  Claire had to get up early to get her normal bus to school for her penultimate exam (ooh long word!), so I got up too, to make sure she was on time. I had a bit of a lie in with a cup of coffee, checked out my emails, went and had a shower and then Claire got back before I went to the hospital for my UV treatment. It is going quite well, by the way, my skin is going browner and the lesions are clearing up. Nice!

I popped in to the office while I was at the hospital, as I knew there was a set of notes that Dr C had that were needed for the lady's op today. I found the tape of that patient on my desk but no notes. Dr C was at a meeting so I went up to the Day Surgery unit to enquire whether they had the notes and lo and behold, the darling Dr C had taken them up there himself, first thing, saying "my secretary is away but she told me you needed these". I love him dearly - why oh why can't the NHS pay a decent wage, so I didn't have to look for another job?

Anyway, luckily the weather was cooler today, and I got decked out in my interview suit, very snazzy, especially with the tan, and got to my destination in record time. The company is in a huge building right on the Thames with a brilliant view of London - probably the best unobscured view there is of St Paul's Cathedral!  The HR ladies were very nice and I hope they liked me. The current PA has been there...... 5 months and "isn't working out". They also asked if I'd worked with difficult people before. Are they trying to tell me something??? The CEO is Spanish but speaks fluent French, so that is why they want either French or Spanish. It would certainly improve my Spanish if I got to work there... Oh well, we shall see.

News from France still very encouraging. My mum is still tired but making a bit more sense when she speaks, although they can tell she is extremely frustrated at the whole situation. The doctors say it will be another 2 weeks before they even contemplate the next step.  So fingers crossed for Mummy AND for the new job, eh?

Oh, BTW, tonight Claire and I had a huge laugh, taking "shakey face" pictures. If you get people to shake their face, making sure they are slack-jawed not tense, and then take a pic, you get wonderfully distorted faces on the photo. Well, it made us laugh anyway....  (ok, I'm posting them - can you tell I don't take myself seriously? huh? huh? can ya?)

Fingers crossed (again).

Can't believe it's been about 6 months already that I've been looking for work! I've turned down some, been turned down for some... Tomorrow I have an interview and I hope they like me. At the moment it's all about the money. I have today found out I've paid off ONE of my creditors! An old Council Tax bill - about time too!!! Anyway, it makes life slightly easier, I hope, but in all honesty my salary now does not really cover all the outgoings I have, and I need to earn more. I wish I could work on my Telecom Plus business - but I'm shy! Even though our prices are the most competitive on the market (I've had that confirmed by our competitors!), I just don't like talking to people about it. If I had, I'd have been able to give up the day job by now. Oh well. Check it out, people, it really is worth it if you are trying to reduce your domestic (or even business) bills. At least I know my energy bills are the lowest they could be, even if I'm not earning much!

Good news from France. Mummy is still in hospital being treated for the bug she has, but on the stroke front, she seems to be making progress and saying sentences - but it tires her out completely.  We are trying to get a schedule together so we know who can be up there at which dates. I am aiming for first half of August - and that will be our holiday this year!

Claire has only 2 days of exams left, I believe. Fingers crossed for her too....

Ugh!

Oh dear :(   I have just had to give up trying to go into London for my interview. It is over 30 degrees out there, and on the Tube I couldn't breathe at all. I was dripping with sweat and finally thought, I can't do this - I can't arrive at an interview looking like I've been through the wringer, so I cancelled, came back home and stood under a cold shower for ten minutes!   Apparently, the company still want to see me Wed, Thurs or Friday, so I shall have to arrange that. The temperature is going to come down this week, thankfully!  When I think of what I went through to get a cool interview outfit though!  On Saturday I bought a linen skirt and brown blouse (sounds awful, but it looked ok). On Sunday I woke up having had a bad dream about the look and decided I had to swap it. So I took it all back and went to another shop, which often has quite a lot of old lady stuff, but also has some nice things (Steph bought me some tops there, and I found the perfect fit in trousers...). I nearly bought one suit that was sort of ok, but then I spied a straight skirt and long, tunic length, short-sleeved jacket. Perfect! It's a bright cerise cotton - looks great with a crisp white tee-shirt, just hope they don't think it's too bright. It's certainly very summery and light.

Tribute to my mum

Felt moved to create today. I crave white space and A4 format :)  This is what I did:

Up and down...

Phew it's hot!!!  I'm sitting here at 5.15pm on a Friday, with the fan on, everyone's gone home and I just want to catch up on my blog reading before I go home (with only the one PC at home it's always a fight to get on LOL).  Everyone's gone home because the World Cup starts today. Ho hum.

Anyway, news from France continues to be up and down. Yesterday Mummy had a bit of a bad day and was moved to her own room, as she has a bug that they didn't want her to transmit to the other lady. As soon as they said it was in a stool sample I thought of a bug the elderly patients on antibiotics get in our hospital... and yes, it was confirmed that this is what she has!  My boss was interested to hear that it's not JUST confined to the UK as the media give the poor old NHS a hard time.  Anyway, she is on a different antibiotic, and seemed perkier today, apparently. I love the internet - we can all get news at the same time from whoever is over at Bernieres, without the need for hours on the phone!  I hope and pray that Mummy continues to make good progress.

As for me, well I have an interview on Monday in London, for a job this time, not with an agency. Fingers crossed!  I need to go shopping tomorrow for an interview-worthy dress, as it is going to be 29 degrees and climbing on Monday. I can only imagine the Tube - I plan to have a big bottle of water with me!   I definitely can't wear my grey jacket, black skirt and tights, no way!  I will wear a pretty dress and hope they understand that an interview suit would be suicide in that kind of weather.  At least I've got the hair straightening down to a tee of a morning - I never thought it would be this easy. I just wash it every morning (have to - especially with psoriasis) and then blow dry with a big round brush. It works really well ;)

Well, I'm off to relax at home. I hope to spend some time in the garden this weekend, if the thundery weather holds off. Might even meet up with Lyzzy if she can make it (you listening Liz??).  Claire needs to revise a bit more - only one week of exams left (thank goodness).

Edited to add: made a new banner using a picture of the front door of my mum's beach house in Normandy; it's so welcoming I've added the words "come right on in..."   Welcome :)

The first real good news!

Today I got an exciting email from my brother in France: last night when they went to see my mum she was very active and trying to communicate. At one point they reassured her that it would come back eventually and she apparently very clearly said "I knew it would come back"! To say I'm excited is an understatement!!  My brother was so excited he bombarded her with lots of questions, which exhausted her and probably frustrated her because she can't really utter more than the odd word most of the time. However, they were able to stay for 1 1/2 hours and she was awake thewhole time - a first in over ten days.

See, it's your prayers that are doing it!