wagwaan?

Love her to bits :)

Here's my girl that I'm so proud of. Love her new haircut. She has more style than I EVER did at her age or could even aspire to have now!  She just knows what she wants and what she likes, and goes to the hairdresser and says, here, look at this. THIS is how I want my hair to look.  You can't really tell on this pic, but it's feathered and razored and looks altogether different to all those sheep at school who wear their pony tails like Catherine Tate's Lauren character !

Pancake Day

Today, Shrove Tuesday, is Pancake Day and we made the most of it!  Unfortunately the corner shop only had self raising flour and I had none in the house so I bought that and it did make them kind of heavy and fluffier than usual, but hey! Claire wasn't complaining. We had them the traditional British way with sugar and lemon and that was our dinner tonight. Oh I might have some grapes later to make up my 5 portions of fruit and veg today ;)

Otherwise, it was such a fraught day, not sure what had got into everyone!  I even saw a couple of people arguing by their cars after an apparent (slight) collision on the main road into the hospital. It was probably a full moon... 

Yesterday, however, was completely successful. I went back to Rickmansworth for a second interview at the networking company and met the two Managing Directors as well as Tim, who I met before. We got on really well, if I must say so myself, and they hinted that I was their No. 1 choice. They want to check up on me with Dr C and Arla, but then all things being ok I expect they'll make an offer and we can start negiotiating on the salary.  Tomorrow, I have an interview in London with the publishing company that owns Elle so that is exciting too. What a week!

Oh and another piece of news, my mother finally has her internet connection and computer and she will be mastering her way around the World Wide Web. I'm SO happy because it'll mean she can see pictures in real time, get messages daily from the family (poor her!) and even maybe start to use the web to make free phone calls to us. Or use MSN, who knows! The possibilities are endless. Mummy: WELCOME!

Corinne Bailey Rae

I've had this song on the brain for ages and I just LOVE it!  "Put your records on" by Corinne Bailey Rae. When you click on her home page, the song plays - it's lovely. There is a link to the video on the homepage too. Lovely stuff.  (Edited to say make sure it's "put your records on" that's playing, that's the one I like!!)

Go Corinne!  Flying the flag for British music :)

Actually did another LO! and other musings

How I love Sundays :) 

At the moment, DD and I get our Gilmore Girls fix twice at weekends - Saturday and Sunday mornings there are double bills!  It's great because we've not seen all the seasons yet, so we are catching up. We just love those gals.  Oy with the poodles already ;)

It was a quiet day otherwise, watched a bit of skating, caught up on my emails, my bank account (aaaaarrrgh) and some housework. Walked as far as Sainsbury's to get some bread, milk and something for dinner. I tried to tell myself that the exercise was good for me, but I'm overdue a trip to the osteopath and my left hip is killing me!

Mummy called tonight with an update on Matt's 18th birthday party. His birthday is actually next week, but it's half-term in France and all the family were able to get together. All except me and Jerry, who live in England :(  One day, ONE DAY! I shall have enough spare cash to be able to pop over to Paris every time there is a family get-together. By all accounts they had great fun, and I can't wait to see the pictures and the video...

And I love Sundays for scrapping.  I usually scrap Claire or other loved ones, but there is a fashion sweeping the scrapping world for BOMs. This strange acronym stands for Book of Me - most of us scrappers are keen photographers who are always BEHIND the camera, so someone, in their wisdom, decreed that we should throw ourselves in front of the camera at every opportunity, and not wait until we are the perfect weight, have the perfect hair, are wearing the perfect clothes.... (you get the idea, right?) and that we should scrap our life and celebrate who we are. I thought this was an interesting take on scrapbooking, so I grabbed a picture Claire took of me recently, where my hair is, well, at least CLEAN, my cheekbones look prominent and the double chin is absent - and I did a digi layout which I am quite pleased with. 

Early night tonight. Must get my beauty sleep before my interview tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Saturday again

Oh to have a rest!  This week has been interesting, to say the least. I had an interview on Tuesday that went really well. It's in Rickmansworth and I used to walk right past the office every day when I lived there, DOH!!   The company is a networking organisation that I knew of already thanks to my network marketing business. I've been asked to come back to meet the two directors who own it, on Monday!  The salary is a bit tight and I told the agency that before they submitted my cv,  so hopefully it is negotiable. They also have a profit share, which was about 5K last year, so not bad at all.   I also went to see an agency in London about a couple of jobs, but the woman there just focused on me maybe wearing more makeup and wearing a suit (I didn't wear one that day, just a black skirt and a blouse... and I DID wear makeup but obviously not enough. Aarrgh! Do qualifications not count for more??).  On my way there I also took a call from a well-known agency called Michael Page, who found my cv online, and they want to meet me too.   Lastly, I got contacted by an agency I'm with about a job in publishing with fluent French, and obviously they can see I've been in publishing before so that's good. Again, the money isn't brill, and I told the agency that (I was on the same salary 7 years ago when I was in publishing, so it doesn't compare favourably); they told the company, who want to see me anyway, next Wednesday!  The company is Hachette Filipacchi which is the biggest publishing co in France, and they own Elle and Paris Match and all kinds of things. Huge!  Looks like I may have some negotiating to do next week.

All this, and it was Wayne's birthday too. On Thursday night Claire and I went out shopping for his present and we brought home pizza to eat, cos I sure wasn't cooking that late at night.... I got him a carry case for over 220 CDs or DVDs - he was looking at them online, so I thought he would want it. What do you get otherwise, for the man who has everything???   He was pleased when he opened it, so I think I got it right.

This week has also been one of tragic news. An online friend, Lemon, lost her husband suddenly this week, and it was awful. Everyone in our online scrapping community is totally shocked; this came one day after our hospital network manager collapsed and died at work, despite the crash team trying to revive him desperately. My goodness it puts your little daily worries into perspective and makes you want to hold your loved ones so close and tell them just how much you love them.   Keep safe, everyone xxx

Scrapping again

What a boring life I lead! On Saturday I had to go in to work to do LOADS of filing for Dr C.  More than just filing, it was a total revamp of his private patient filing system and it took for ever. Oh well, at least he pays me cash for that :)     When I got home I watched a bit more of the Olympics. I just LOVE winter sports! Reminds me of my youth - ice skating (ok, so I damaged my knee ligaments taking ice dance lessons) and trips to Switzerland and Germany where we had snowball fights. Sigh. Those were the days.   TV is quite good at the moment, so we also watched Dancing on Ice on ITV. Shame Dame Kelly Holmes went out this week - that judge Jason has always had it in for her!

On Sunday I discovered that Claire had more coursework than she had let on and I got cross. All week (it was her half-term holiday) I had been prompting her (ok, nagging her) to get it done, and we had quite a discussion about it. I was so angry I decided to use up my energy on the housework, until the house looked quite unnaturally clean and tidy. I don't know how many loads of laundry I managed :)   I have tried not to nag and let DD get on with it, and I've tried nagging and banning the PC and TV. Well, guess what? Nagging and banning seems to get the best results, so she's in for a boring few months until her exams are done and dusted. She needs good results to get onto the photography course she has a place on...

I also got some digi scrapping done; must remember to channel my frustrations like this next time!   I used a kit by the Shabby Princess this time, so it was quite quick. I love digi - you can adjust the colours and size of fonts to fit, unlike in real life where you are limited by your stash (or lack of it!). 

I'm registering with another agency this afternoon. The woman I spoke to has a possible three jobs to put my forward for, so things are looking up. 

Friiiiidaaaaaay!

Well thank goodness it's Friday night! Don't know why, but this week I felt very restless... I expect it's because after your birthday, everything else is a let down!  Also, the job hunting, though it's going well, is not going fast enough ;) 

I can't complain though, because I have had calls from three different agencies about my cv: one of them I'm seeing on Monday to talk about 3 possible jobs. The other has called me about a fab job in a top London private school (hush hush). The third about a job in..... Rickmansworth. A few hundred yards from where we used to live, and round the corner from Claire's school! It's a European headquarters and part of the attraction is the profit share. Nice!  So, fingers crossed here.

Claire's really happy: today she came to work to do some of Dr C's filing but then one of the other Consultants came in, one who I've been helping with a Powerpoint presentation. I told him Claire was an expert and that if he paid her, she could help him instead of me. She was duly dragged next door to his office and she worked on his presentation while he went off on a ward round. We met him later, on the way out, and he handed her a brand new £20 note! I insisted it was too much, but he wouldn't be swayed. So off went Claire with a smile on her face and money in her pocket. Sweet!

On a different note, I've heard so much about how crap Bonanza is, that Wayne and I have had the idea that we could do better. What do you think? Could I persuade top "names" and manufacturers to come and sponsor an event? An event to rival the best American events? Answers on a postcard please.

Wonderful birthday!

Well I'm tired and ready for bed, but I'll quickly do an update re my birthday. Yesterday I got up and came down to find the table covered in Marks & Spencer teacakes (ok, they are foil wrapped, but this is what they look like inside. Yummmmm) spelling out HAPPY B (she ran out before she could spell the irthday LOL).  She had also laid out the croissants and Bucks Fizz that Wayne had bought for me. He was still in bed with a bad chest, and we let him have a lie in. I opened Claire's present (a beautiful, moving letter about how she looks up to me etc. too personal to share) and Mummy and Jackie's. I'll upload photos another day....

After that I had to run to my GP follow-up appointment (everything is fine) and when I came back there was a huge box on the table. Wayne had bought me a Canon photo printer! I was so taken aback - I really didn't expect anything like it!  I also got earrings and a necklace from Claire, so I was totally spoilt.

At lunchtime we went off to get Claire's hair cut, and after lunch I also went and had mine trimmed - it was in desperate need of one.  Came back for tea and there was a gorgeous chocolate fudge cake, also courtesy of Wayne, bless him :)   In the evening Judy popped round with a card and nice smellies and we decided to meet up Tuesday for dinner, as her birthday is 2 days after mine.

This morning I gave Wayne his Valentine's day present before I rushed off to work. It was a quiet day, and we had more cake in the afternoon. Got home from work late, and went next door with a card and choccies for Judy. She made us a gorgeous Thai green curry and wild rice for dinner. More cake for pudding (I'm totally full now)!  Now I'm home, and it's time for bed and I'm COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED. But happy :)

Something's afoot....

I'm not normally excited about my birthday, but this year DD is dropping huge hints about how cool it is going to be.  She and OH went out to the shops this afternoon - braving the rain, now that DOES show commitment from OH who hates bad weather!  I stayed in, browsed some blogs and then fell asleep on the sofa with the Olympic Games on the TV. They rushed in, went straight upstairs to hide whatever it was they were carrying and then DD came in with a huge smile on her face.  I made them dinner, but then OH went to bed saying he felt a cold coming on. DD and I had our Sunday night date with the Gilmore Girls and then DD said she had to clear off the table ready for tomorrow morning. She also asked what time I wanted to get up.  It's all very mysterious and exciting :)

Venture pic

Here it is at last!   I really wanted one of Claire and her guitar, but as we only got to pick one, we chose one of the both of us... Claire insisted!   (it's much brighter and whiter in real life; I can't photo it with a direct flash cos of the reflection, so this is with horrible yellow electric light on in the lounge).   Can't wait to go back and pick some more, when I can afford it.