Disneystrology

Sooo the wonderful person that is Megan Thorne has a wonderful new book "Disneystrology" that tells you what your birthday character is!

Mine is Jack-Jack Parr from The Incredibles!

You have the enthusiasm and determination to reach your goals. It doesn't take long for others to notice your super-human achievements, because what comes naturally to you sets you apart from your peers. Uninhibited and inventive, you like trying different approaches just to see what happens. Sometimes just being you can confound less imaginative people, but that doesn't stop you from enjoying life or having fun.

Soooo despite me being a bit of a Disney freak, I haven't seen the Incredibles, so I had to google it. Here's a picture of the lil dude:

That's all for now peeps, I'll inform you about my actual life and new-found love of Greggs' sandwiches in a later blog as this is a very busy week!

First contact......again......and again!!!

I know I only blogged yesterday and that it was mammoth, but there are some things that just warrant a blog post.

I heard from my other squaddie and he received the box I sent him!

He sent me a hand written letter, which arrived this morning, but I had to wait until I got home tonight to open and read it.

He said: "The box you sent me was fantastic and just what I needed to boost my morale"

"I'm in the middle of the desert at the moment so mail is few and far between so when we do get mail We're like kids on Christmas Day".

Also got another ebluey from my squadette!!! She sent some helpful feedback on what to send / not send, so I need to get on with writing her a letter this week!

Double joy!!

Happy times. That is all

Doors open ... and doors close

So hello everyone!! I want to blog as I'm feeling quite good about life right now and can't allow March to elapse with only one entry in to this wonderful record of my life, so here I go. What good things can I share with thee?

1. Today was payday! Hooray for money being paid to me from Argos. The paid in column in my bank statement is always woefully empty :-)

2. The weather is nice and sometimes really, really nice. I've been able to go down to the seafront today, sit on a bench and just breathe in the sea air and look out to the horizon. Even the poor burnt out pier looked a lil better in the sunlight.

3. Its little and silly, I know but...every day I've been taking the stairs at work. This is 4.5 flights up to the office I work and 5.5 on Fridays to my job search. My legs used to be like jely and I had to stop half way up! Now my legs don't feel the effect anymore and I can go all the way up now without hardly being out of breath. Its an achievement for me.

4. The working relationships I have with the staff at my placement are just fantastic and has been the highlight of the two months I've spent there so far. I get realy sad when I think that it'll be over by Easter. I never realised how much I'd changed by sitting at home all day.

5. I have had some wonderful compliments from - and just conversations in general with - the people I work with. I've been fortunate that I've had the chance to work independantly on projects and basically prove myself. Its true you get out what you put in. They said that they would give me a job if they possibly could, but they themselves, can't be sure of their jobs. With that knowledge, I'm just happy to have the compliment... :-)

6. My life as a squaddie adopter is also going really well! I have 2, a man and a woman and had my first contact from one of them last week - truly the most exciting mail I've ever had from a total stranger! We have great fun shopping for the contents of the boxes and then doing them up; all the time trying to fit as much in as I can without exceeding the 2kg weight limit. Fun times. If it makes the lives of our boys & girls out there a bit easier, then I'm all for it!

7. Generally being able to dress in lighter, brighter clothes and not have to wrap up everytime you leave the house has had a great effect on my mood. Leaving the house in the morning with the sun shining, my ipod singing in my ears, to go to a job I love... Then to have the chance to go to the beach at lunchtime too is just great.

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In Disney news:

A. We should've heard from Yummy Jobs by mid-April, so in 2 weeks time. Interesting... There are a lot of people who have applied. A LOT. Watch this space...! Impatience and exhasperation are at an all time high on WDWIP!!

B. Vicky Pullan got off of the Waiting List today to do F&B 16th August. There is hope yet for the others!!!

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Other life news is that I'm applying for jobs all the time, but have had no luck as of yet... Still not sure where I'm going in life!

Jenny's no longer doing placement, she's been signed off by the Doctor, so I'll be flying solo from now on. Oh well, at least her baby has the best chance of being healthy, so that is all good.

27th March 2011 was census day! We filled ours out and returned it - and I hope you did too!?!? I like the idea that in 100 or 200 years time, my decendants will be able to look at it and see me and my mum etc!! Its the third census I've been included on - only 70 years until I can see myself on the census :-)

Thus it is all rosy in the garden. I 've sold a few things on ebay this week and the great thing about it being nearly April is that boot sales will soon get under way again. I love boot sales because they help my household in 2 major ways: we get money and we get rid of junk we don't need/want/use/like anymore!!!

Of course the clocks went forward one hour on Saturday night, so I lost an hour's valuable sleeping time, but it does mean that were are now officially in British Summer Time! Whhop whoop, sunny days all the way! Of course if you happen to be lucky enough to be in Florida, or unlucky enough to be in Helmand Province, its about 30C!!!

That's all for now! Oh and hello to Charlotte who just got back from China yesterday. I hope to hear lots of exciting stories from her time there!

Have fun in the sun people.

There is a time for everything...

...and a season for every purpose under Heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1) and I'm certainly finding that to be the case at the moment.

Allow me to illuminate your mind...

First of all to the topic that is occupying many minds all across the world: Disney applications and Disney departure dates and Disney adventures!

Applications closed like 4 days ago and so I randomly - and without any cause - have been having mini anxiety-panicky moments about how it will go. Silly girl. More and more people have popped up on the WDWIP forum saying that they applied, so they've been welcomed to the family. Only six weeks until we're meant to have heard from Yummy and we will ALL hear from Yummy, cos we've been assured they'll respond to everyone.

Not sure I'll be wanting to open that particular e-mail when the times comes. My method of opening tough emails, and believe me Yummy Jobs have sent me a few in their time, is this:
Obviously I'm in my inbox...and I see an email from YJ. This is what happens:

1. A pain in my chest as my heart leaps in to my mouth. A sense of panic grips me and because I'm a big, grown-up, mature person, I open other tab and go on Facebook!

2. BUT WAIT! Oh no! Someone on Facebook may have something on their profile that gives the game away, or may make me feel worse. Can't go to WDWIP for similar reasons. Damn.

3. I can't escape it, I know its there. Depending on how big, grown-up and mature I'm feeling I may keep flicking back and forth to hotmail and just staring at the unopened message whilst trying to guess fro the subject line what it could say...

4. Finally, I click on the email. It opens, revealing - pretty much - my future. However I don't see this, as I've covered my eyes with my hands. After a while I sneak a peek, woss out, sneek another peek and eventually I give in and read it.

Dun dun derrrr

Other things I'm having to wait patiently for are my allocation from adoptasquaddie.co.uk where I signed up on 25th February. Incredibly, the lady who alloates squaddies to adoptees, has a broken computer until at least 10th March - a whole week longer to wait for something I thoght would have been sorted out last week!

In the meantime, I've been buying some items to put in the boxes to send to my adopted soldier when I eventually get their details. These include: powdered drinks (coffee, hot chocolate and soup), just-add-water snacks (pot noodle etc), sweets (Haribo, jelly babies, mini marshmallows, chewing gum etc), rice cakes, games & puzzle books, toiletaries & pharmecueticals (roll on deodorant, foot powder, insect repellant, bite relief, paracedamol and lip balm etc) and other items of usefulness: socks, fan, condiment sachets and whatever else I think of at the time!

I'm also - and this is really weird when you consider that its the weekend and I'm knackered - quite looking forward to getting back in to the office on Monday morning. We've been given the task of completely rearranging the entire filing system of the whole company: currently based over 4 floors and with at least 10 filing cabinets!
My need to micromanage has really come in to its own during this project and so when I lay in bed at night and randomly throughout the day filing-related tasks come in to my mind. This may just mean I'm enjoying myself!

This Sunday at Argos is our first without our Sunday premium: a difference of £17.85 per week. Its enough to make anyone want to resign. All we have to do is wait until June and we'll get a nice compensation payment! Come ooonnn June....

What else?

OH YEAH! Pancake Day on Tuesday, man am I gonna have fun - home alone - in the kitchen and in charge of the frying pan! To say that I'm one greedy lil person when it comes to pancakes is NOT an understatement!

Lastly, special mention to Charlotte, my Momentum buddy, with whom I'm getting on better and better. Each week one of us sends the other one a message and we then have a great time to take it in, re-read it and be amazed once again at how similar we are! Its been really wonderful time.

Lovage.

One last little tweak...

...and that's it. Done. Never to be touched again.

Yep, so there are now just 2 days until applications are closed for the CRP for 2012ish positions. Last night I went in to my application - which was submitted in December, even before they opened - and edited my CV and the covering letter.

I'm not sure why, it was obviously good enough the first two times I got on to the Waiting List, but I feel like I've learnt a little bit more since I've been at my work placement about how employers receive these kind of things, so, phooey I edited it.

Recently of course, with me having to apply for lots of jobs and actually feeling more enthused about getting a career in general, the whole issue of where my life is going has been more prevalent in my mind. As any of you who have ever applied for the CRP will know, you have to apply so far in advance that planning for the future is a lil hard!

This time around, that's been stepped up a whole notch, with Yummy Jobs and Disney Recruitment looking for people to start work in what potentially could be 18 months time. Talk about limbo.

Enough about that though: what will be, will be. Let's just say I don't envy Yummy Jobs staff in March, having to sort through thousands of applications and sort out the Waiting List from the previous interviews...

On a nice note, yesterday was pay day! Disaster almost struck when I spilt drink on my laptop keyboard, but since I'm writing this now, all seems to be well. I've hardly started paying this laptop off yet, so that would not have made me a happy bunny at all!

So I've been keeping up with various people's blogs/vlogs recently and apparently some of you have actually been reading what I randomly compose, so massive thank you Emma for saying nice things about my blog. Those blogs I'm particularly enjoying are Vikki's http://www.mydisneyjourney.co.uk and Myah's http://doddi92.tumblr.com and Suzie's http://suziewdwcp.blogspot.com
So a big thank you to them and to everyone else who blogs for allowing me to live a lil Disney magic through you all! Keep up the awesome work, especially so you can have a record for years to come of all you got up to. Occasionally I start from the beginning and read my whole blog: it amazes me what it has bourne witness to and reminds me of all the little things I'd forgotten.

Ummm massive amounts of good luck (can't believe I haven't said that yet!) to everyone whose application is in for this round of apps. It's been great to chat on WDWIP about all the ups and downs of this journey we're on together, so be happy the first milestone is almost upon us. Two days til that's it, the apps are officially under review. Thanks heavens for February only having 28 days!

Other things that I'm happy about (apart from the fact my laptop isn't dead!!) is that my JobSearch day has been switched to a Friday, which means now that the weekend starts at lunchtime Friday for me! Soooo good because I only have one day off a week - now its 1.5 days!

So Tom's in his flat, Sarah's in the Cassel, I'm at my work placement, Ellie's been to Istanbul and is teaching Yr 4, Jenny is pregnant (well excited!!) and life goes on.

Charlotte (my Momentum buddy) and I have set a provisional date of April sometime to meet up in London as she's going travelling at the end of March for a little while. We also have another potential buddy - Joy - who may join us at Momentum.

Have everything crossed for those still on the Waiting List as I know how hard it can be to be them.

What else can I tell you of my life, the universe and everything in it? Probably not a lot (will probably think of it after I post this blog).

Toodles!

I happen to think this is the cutest photo ever! So I'm posting it here:

Maybe I'll blog....?

Maybe I am!!

So you may be asking yourself "Oooh, I wonder what amazing thing has happened in Vicki's life since she last blogged, to warrant a new entry?" Answer = nothing.

So why am I blogging?? Not sure really... (You can tune out, stop reading, go on Facebook etc, if you're bored at this point)!

WAIT! I have news...

1. Oh who cares about laying it all out neatly and under headings. Plus I can't really think of heading right now. On with the show!

Today it is exactly 6 months until Momentum!!!! Hooray for counting down to important events. Charlotte - who I'll be camping with - and I are geting to know each other very well and getting on like a metaphorical flaming abode. We have loads in common and think quite a lot of things the same, so its been really exciting and encouraging to make a new friend. So I'm well hyped for the summer!

Of course, the other great occurance of the summer is Keswick and I'll be heading to London on 12th March for the prayer day, where I get to see the one-and-only Miss Ruth Gill and possibly visit some of my favourite shops.

There are 9, yes 9 days until applications close for the CRP for positions in 2012. E*X*C*I*T*E*M*E*N*T!! As ever there are many, many people on the WDWIP forums all in ardent discussion and various stages of nervousness etc.

Placement continues to go swimmingly. Jenny and I get along very well together and get along fine with all the staff in the office. Sometimes we have quite exciting stuff to do, other times we do shredding, stapling and copying! Although the excitement of this week is that we got to learn to use the binding machine...!

What else??? The weather is naff at the mo, so my "commute" to work isn't as pleasent as it could be, but with my trusty ipod by my side then it goes quicker! On the subject of ipods, I'm considering the merits of purchasing an ipod touch...one with 32G of memory. However timing is tight to get a good deal.
Watch this space...

So "maybe I'll blog" has turned in to a blog, but not one of any great substance. I'm considering the creation of a bucket list of things I'd like to do in Florida, but I don't want to be too optimistic...yet! I may save that for a future blog.

Cheerio!

*EDIT* Sunday 20/02/11

I hate Argos

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UPDATE early hours of Monday 21/02/11

I now have 73 things on my Wish List for Florida, should I ever have the immense fortune to be accepted to spend a year there!

The Cost of the Dream

So I was intrigued and pretty worried about the exact cost of completing the Cultural Representative Program and so I decided to actually bring all the info I've gathered together and get a grand total. Here goes!

Pre-acceptance costs

Since I've gone through the Application Process twice, I can give you a pretty accurate idea!

Clothes for the interview £30

Travel to & from London, as well as Tube £23

Accomadation in London £30

Food and sundries in London £15

Post-acceptance costs

This is what I've found out from seeing a lot of people prepare for their departure over the past couple of years:

CRB check £36

Visa fees:
1. Cost of call to the US Embassy to book appt £10
2. Visa fee ($150) £97
3. Travel to & from London, as well as Tube £23
4. Accomadation in London £30
5. Cost to have Passport returned to you £15

Program Assessment Fee ($100) £65

Flight (depends when you go...) £300-450

Insurance (for just 4 months) £200
OR
Insurance for the whole year £500

Let's face it, there'll be some shopping to do £60

The G*R*A*N*D T*OT*A*L would be £ 925 - 1375

Then you have to consider the fact that there is money to be paid out almost as soon as you arrive:

Travel from the airport to Vista Way Housing Complex

Your first trip to Walmart that day (including a cell phone!)

Eating out/hanging out/going out in the first fortnight

Paying your first fortnight's rent

Perhaps buying Annual Passes to Universal, Busch Gardens & Seaworld

So there's all of that to begin paying out when you first arrive. You don't start work that is paid for almost a week, and then that's only training so not full time. However you still have to pay housing rent from day one(!)
Annual Passes Cost (for Florida residents!):

Universal Studios = $159.99 ~ monthly payments of $8.04
Seaworld = $79.99
Busch Gardens = $77.99

Hmmm, very much money eh? Tell me about it!
Well all we can do is look to the future and wait & see.
If I don't get in this won't mean anything...meh!