When you are no good at DIY.. phone for help!!

Douglas and I decided to do some spring cleaning today, so I got to do the downstairs loo, and our spare bedroom ( Billys favouite room because he can push open the closed door lol)

I noticed that our loo seat was wonky, and realised that it had broken, which could have been very painful for any posteriors coming into contact with the broken bit! Humph I thought.. going to have to buy a new seat, or see if anyone on my recycling network Freegle has got one going spare.

Next, I set about moving Lilly from the spare room, then stripping the spare bed, and sorting that room out. I looked at our very nice pine wardrobe, with the hanging bar and clothes dumped at the bottom. The bar kept falling out making the wardrobe totally useless.

Hmm who is good at fixing things.. Hmm.. I picked up the phone and left a message for my parents :-)

About half an hour later, my mum rang, and she and my dad came round very soon afterwards!

By some wonderful co-incidence, they had a spare loo seat, so with a bit of grunting and groaning to get the old one off, the new one went on and problem solved!!

Next, the rail in the wardrobe was sorted. My dad unscrewed the brass rail holders, and put them back in with some slivers of cardboard so they stuck out more. I hope the rail will now hold up, so Ds nice interview jacket wont get any more cat hairs on!

My mum, during this mending session, my mum dead headed some of my conservatory plants, and did some pruning in the garden until it started to rain.

How nice to have practical help so close to hand!

Thanks Ma & Pa!!!

Blowing my own trumpet!

For those of you who listen to Radio 4 or the World Service, The title of this entry may sound like a topic for “Just a Minute” A very funny radio show/game in which the contestants are challenged to speak for one minute without hesitation, deviation or repetition on any subject that comes up on the cards )

Well, it is a very funny show, but this is about me (surprise surprise!)

In November, there had been some talk at work of a special training course those who wanted to develop skills useful for the supervisor job.

The idea was, for those of us who were interested would apply and have interviews as if for a real supervisor job.

This idea was put on hold as real supervisor jobs came up!!

I’ve been in my current job for 3 years now, have got involved in all sorts of projects and done a bit of coaching, so after being encouraged to apply, I tackled the huge application form and sent it in– First application for a job in three years. 32 people, all EA employees applied for about 5 jobs,

I wasn’t too surprised not to get an interview, but just after Christmas, I had some very valuable feedback on what I did wrong on my application form, and how to tackle one next time!

The same application forms were used to decide on 20 of us to be interviewed for the training group. I got lucky and was picked for interview!

I spent quite a few evenings working very hard on the competencies I would be asked about, making sure I had a couple of examples I could talk about that fit each section.

Well, dear reader, I found out yesterday that I had done well enough to get selected for one of the 6 places on offer.. But today.. and this is REALLY where the blowing of the trumpet starts!!!!

I had a meeting with my team leader, who told me that not only had I done well at interview.. But I had done better than EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!

Even better than that ( ohh yes ) I was the ONLY ONE that, had it been an interview for a supervisor role that got high enough marks to be considered for the job!!! Wow.

Now comes 6 months of training, and hopefully a few more opportunities to practice my application and interview skills!

Our new car!

Introducing

LOLA!

She is a Honda Jazz, and we got her today :-)

Quick update

Picking up our new car has been delayed until Monday.. so no photos yet.. but here is a picture of my lovely paperweight!

Its called Manhattan Nights. It reminds me of a holiday in New York, years ago with Douglas, and looks like a fairy castle. I love it!!

A Round Tuit

Well, I keep meaning to get around to writing more blog, but then I forget and time goes by until someone prods me. I’m sorry, I promise to try harder.

Solstice

Well, we had a good Winter Solstice celebration on the 21st December. We had the day off work, and had a sleep in (well, only after I had got up at 6 to feed the cats)

Our gifts to each other were no surprise this year. Douglas and I had been to York on a day trip with his work a few weeks previous, and made me choose me a beautiful paperweight as I collect them on a small scale. I was delighted with his idea and being able to choose something so lovely!

I got an electronic book reader. As many of you will know, hes an avid bookworm, and can chew his way through a normal sized paperback in a couple of hours with no difficulty at all. Due to this, our house is overflowing with books, and despite putting up a lot of new shelves this year, his consumption of reading matter is still a problem!

We did a lot of research into the various devices available and settled on Amazons Kindle. He now carries a small bookshelf worth of books round with him on a device that weighs much less than many of his books, and our bookshelves, although still groaning, are not any fuller. RESULT!! (the other great thing is that many of the “e” books he has purchased are cheaper than the paper versions!

New Year, New Bugs.

As a new years gift, Douglas contracted swine flu. It started off with him feeling generally unwell, having a chest infection then feeling sick. Overnight he rapidly got worse, and found it hard to breathe, so we called the Dangerous Dr Service (err I mean out of hours service) who would said they could not see him for a couple of hours, so they sent an ambulance to take him to hospital instead!!

I followed on in the car, knowing that he would almost certainly be kept in, and I would need transport to get home again.

We got to the hospital at about 11am, Douglas was given a cubicle and a trolley to lie on, and was told it was almost definitely swine flu. He was given a facemask to prevent droplet infection, and eventually a nebuliser to ease his breathing. As the day wore on, the A&E department got more and more busy, patients filling every cubicle, and more lined up in chairs and trolleys in the middle of the corridor. We were in the infectious end.. there were many other people in the same situation as poor Douglas.

At 4pm, I went home, abandoning Douglas to get some food for me and the moggies – all three of us were very hungry! I went back at about 6. He hadn’t been offered any food or water in that time. I sorted both out, left him with a suitcase of stuff and went home again.

At 4am the next morning, Douglas was transferred to an “infectious diseases” ward in a different hospital, where he stayed for the next couple of days. He was given the famous drug “Tamiflu” and was very impressed with its effectiveness!

My parents very kindly acted as taxi and brought him home, for a period of recovery before he was allowed out just in time to celebrate my dads birthday!

New Year, New Car!!

Douglas and I had been thinking about changing our car. We have a Vauxhall Astra at the moment, which is about 8 years old, and enjoys eating our money through petrol, insurance, tax and repairs.

After looking at Which? and other organisations reports about second hand cars, we decided to go for a Honda Jazz. The Jazz is a much smaller car, less CC, but with excellent layout and good storage.

We visited our local Honda outlet, and were soon signing on the dotted line for a lovely two year old Jazz!! We have paid our deposit, and on Saturday we will pay the rest, leave our old car as part exchange… and voilla! Drive away our “new” car!!

Watch this space for a photo.. I will put one up as soon as we get the car.