40 days and 40 nights

Or so it feels!

That's what I'm facing in terms of continuous activity and lack of down days from now on. So I had a day off from work on Saturday, now I have solid work until Bank Holiday Weekend and then from the 31st May through to the 20something of June is again solid work, so you may be thinking that the next 6 weeks are looking very bleak. Well let me expand your horizons on these matters....

Bank Holiday Weekend will be busy, but I won't be in work!! We are off to the Forces Festival in Amesbury, Wiltshire - travelling down there (via Southampton) on the Saturday and then attending the Festival all day (and night) on Sunday and then travelling back on the Sunday. In between these rather clean cut arrangements, we are - as I said above - popping in to Soton where I'd like to have a decent look around Ikea, with the hope of actually finding a display/shelving unit for my room.

We may get to see some other places/people, but it won't be a very long sojourn as it'll be something like a 3 hour journey each way without the added delays of Bank Holiday traffic (oh joy!).

I do love the idea of these little road trips! One I'm particularly looking forward to is the trip to Llandudno we have arranged for next year. I've never been to Wales before and we're planning on taking slightly scenic routes for both legs of the journey to fully be able to appreciate the journey and the National Park so close by. Mum and I are going to the 2012 National Conference of the Royal British Legion Women's Section.
I'm already very excited about the prospect of going on the cable car and seeing Snowdonia National Park and just going to and seeing somewhere completely different. Tis very exciting :-)

The other recent excitement is that the Eurovision Song Contest (aka Annual Europe-Wide Comedey Episode) happened at the weekend. Who would you have thought would win? Probably not a country most people have never heard of, fewer could locate and fewer still could spell: Azerbaijan. So see you all in Baku next year!!
The funniest thing has to be the Moldovans and in particular their choice of head gear and of course Jedward in general!
I am very proud of us geting 100 points and coming in 11th place and then getting points from so many different countries and not just the usual people voting for each other.

So yes...here I go in to my pretty much 40 days (odd) of solid work and flitting back and forth between 3 different places and roles. I'm really looking forward to the variety; something that can sometimes be the best and worst thing, especially when you get in to a routine and build a rapport with the people you work alongside and then have to head off somewhere else for 3 days.

Still, I know it won't totally kill me and therefore it is worth it, to - for once in my life - actually have a decent amount of money in the bank.
YAY!

So I suppose I ought to head off to bed as I'm in for my first day of invigilating tomorrow and also have to go to the Post Office for work.

I shall finish by quoting Dryden:

"Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own;
He who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today"

Hope you're all seizing the day too! Lovings.

The job centre returns to haunt me...

Hello m'lovelies!

Happy Spring! Now we've had May Bank Holiday, I feel that its officially spring and summer is firmly on the way.

I've now been in my new job just under 3 weeks although I have actually lost track of the time and am happy to report that all is well and going well. People are nice, friendly and helpful; there are lots of new and interesting things afoot at the Park and I'm managing to do my job without any major disasters.

Currently I'm working 5 full days up there and then Sundays at Argos. We are frantically attempting to recruit another member of staff because I have invigilating coming up from mid-May all the way through June and will only be able to do my contract days.
So at the mo...we're recruiting and have an ad in the JobCentre(!) and have already begun to have responses. So it just remains to be seen who will be the new member of the team...?
Anyway, this overtime has meant that Tuesday and Wednesday I'm running the office all by myself. Now this sounds and IS reasonably scary, but its one of the best ways to learn the ropes...be thrown in at the deep end and either sink or swim. I'm pleased to say that aside from a few minor glitches, I'm primarily swimming.

I have to say that one of the major componants in my being happy there is the people who I'm working alongside. They are warm, welcoming, helpful and there have been a lot of laughs along the way too.
So alas - in addition to the money coming in - I have a lot to be thankful for.

Yes...payday at the end of last month was very nice indeed. Now I'm only looking ahead to the summer - one that will be extremely busy but wonderfully fun too. I won't be able to stop for a moment, but it'll be a great experience. I'm about to book my train tickets for the Keswick Training Day at the end of June and then, so Ruth informs me, its a mere 11 weeks until Keswick!! :-)
A mere 108 days until Momentum too! Charlotte and I are still attempting to meet up before we actually spend almost a week together in a tent, in a field, in Shepton Mallet.

Today is a special day because for Ruth and my Dad, its their birthday! So Happy Birthday to them! Just under a week to go until Tom's birthday too and Sarah and I have managed to coordinate our efforts slightly, so it'll be a nice suprise for him and his living room when he opens them!

In other news we've been preparing for the tombola season to get under way for the RBL. I bought about 40 odd prizes from Argos last week and that cost less than £30 - we were short of them and since I can't give of my time, I decided to get some prizes for them. It also helps Argos to clear out some old stock and have a decent number of units going out > universal :-)

So I'm content for the time being to say the very least. It'll be between me and the new person to see who is kept on over the quieter, winter season but there is a long time to go between then and now and I intend to enjoy working and earning this summer.

All that remains for me to say is thank you for reading my blog, for caring about my new job, for listening to my rants about work and for generally being lovely friends.
:-D