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How many Stitches can one woman own!?!
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A Slice of Fried GoldFebruary 06 Back Again!!Well, I could spend an awful long time telling you what has been going on for the last 5 months, but it will be boring and to be honest I will have trouble remembering everything in detail!! How about bullet points?! Let's try to pick out the best things that happened each month.
October 2007
1. Accepted an offer on the flat this month. (Have now moved home. Been renting a house since Xmas, and hoping to buy the place when the market improves!)
2. Went to Birmingham with The Guys to watch RAW live... Which was really cool! Will put pics on soon and more info on our joint site.
3. I gave up on the driving lessons, and took my CBT, and learnt how to ride Steve's Honda Shadow.
4. Had my final exam for my Open University Mathematics course. Managed a Grade 2 Pass, and now have a Certificate in Mathematics. May need to wait until 2009 to continue my studies, due to financial state, due to the move, and also because....
5. I FOUND OUT I AM PREGNANT! Just before my 31st birthday, I took a test, and Steve and I are expecting our first baby in June 2008. This revelation precipitated the events which occurred in the following few months.
November 2007
1. Got suspended from work for a week, due to some complete bullshit reasons, and got off "lightly" with a warning! Strange how this has come up just after I announced my pregnancy, and also that I was transferring to another store. The accusation was for something so stupid, and they wasted so much time for this silly cause, that I wonder what was going on! Will never find out now!
2. Transferred to the Chelmsford branch, only to find out the job I applied for was no longer available, and my hours had been cut. I'm sure that I would have had a case for constructive dismissal, but I really couldn't be bothered! Sod the wankers!
3. STEVE GOT A NEW JOB!! After applying three times for the Prison Service, and failing every time at the Role Plays, they actually called him at the end of this month to ask if he wanted to reapply! He got confirmation of his start date in January at Pentonville Prison just before Xmas!!! YAY!!!
December 2007
1. Crashed the bike.... Not too serious, but bashed up my knee, and the bike needs a bit of attention.
2. Left work. After being treated like shit after my accident, I handed in my resignation to Wilkinson's.
3. I GOT A NEW JOB!! Started working in Administration for CNWL NHS Mental Health Trust! Bit of a drop in wage, and I have to commute to London every day, but it's a much nicer environment and at least my skills are being appreciated at last!
4. Moved house on the Friday before Xmas. Renting a lovely three bed house on the edge of the real countryside in Witham, and hoping to buy it in 6 months when (if?) we can afford a mortgage. If not we'll just have to rent for the long term and hope for the best :)
5. Xmas Day. Cooked a fab dinner for Steve and Mark. Relaxed in front of the TV. Had a really good time. Which is nice.
6. Had a quiet week following Xmas, filling the house with furniture and unpacking, going for walks in the country and checking out the sales for cheap stuff. New Year was a quiet affair too, with TV and champers at Kaye's.
**** Hello 2008!!! ****
Hope this has enlightened you as to what I have been up the past few months, and it kinda explains why I've not been updating this much! Reading back, it's been kinda stressful, I suppose.
I will start on 2008 when I am next online.
Helen xxx September 16 UpdateOk, so it is now more than 3 months later, and driving has been abandoned... mainly because I felt the BSM lessons were getting me nowhere and also with Steve going from weekly to monthly pay, we've had to pull in the purse strings a little... at least til next pay day when Steve gets his first proper wage!! Also, both of us are looking into relocating jobs nearer Chelmsford or Colchester so we can get out of living in an expensive and no-so-safe London borough and enjoy a bit of the Essex country air!
With a transfer to Chelmsford, it may mean I will have to commute for a while, but how to commute....?
Continuing driving lessons will be expensive, and then you have to consider the cost of the tests too. Or I can take my CBT and get Steve's bike repaired, but how much will that cost to get on the road again? Or I can get on the train to Chelmsford, but again that is an extra cost which will add up during the year to quite a sum! We'll have to think more about that I think!
In the next coming month before my birthday, we have a trip to Birmingham for the WWE Wrestling show, then I have a very important exam, then we're off to Cornwall hopefully for a few days with a friend! All this and we're selling the flat, househunting, and looking for jobs! How exhausting is that??
Will keep you informed, Hxxx June 06 Four hours driving under my belt!Well, I've had two lessons using my BSM vouchers now! Isn't driving fun! Especially scaring the instructor......
My adventures yesterday included being shown an unplanned emergency stop... wasn't my fault... a bus pulled out to pass a parked van and headed towards me on my side of the road... even the instrustor said it was the bus driver at fault there!!
Also had a bit of a "dink" during the lesson ~ I'm surprised the instructor let me get back in his car ~ and the details of which will remain known only to my nearest and dearest! (And if you tell anyone Steve, I shall put details of what you did on your first bike lesson on here too!!)
And, I'm very scary, apparently, as I have no notion of how quickly the car is travelling towards a junction, and so have lots of trouble slowing down! But taking bends at speed is much more exciting!!
Still, it's all a learning curve, isn't it?? Having another lesson next Monday, will keep you informed!!
Helen x
PS Honeymoon Pics now on www.helven2007.spaces.live.com
May 21 Weekend CapersHad a great weekend, still suffering to be honest!
Went to a gig at a local pub, the band consists of friends of ours, and we managed to squeeze about ten of the loyal fans (or should that be "roadies") into our tiny flat after the gig for drinks and laughs! They're all fantastic people, check them out at the link on the right for Lahayna, and give them as much support as possible ~ their single is out in November!!!
Got to sleep about half four in the morning, and had to get up 6 hours later to drive up to Harlow to see my sister Lyn and treat her to a discount on decorating stuff at Wilkinson's! Both of us had tremendous headaches, and definitely not enough sleep, so apologies to Lyn if we weren't the best company, but it was nice to see Lyn cheerful again ~ Good luck with the bedroom, sounds like a mammoth task, but it'll all be worth it in the end!!
Got home after our trip, and went straight back to bed, waking up very late and having dinner at about 11pm!!
Up early again today, the washing machine has now been fixed, so that's my day planned out... catching up on a weeks worth of laundry!!
How exciting is my life??? Back to reality!!
Will catch up with you asap, Helen xxx May 14 It's been a whileOK, so I've been neglecting my blogging duties recently, and there is absolutely no excuse for it except that I really haven't been in the mood!! Besides, the past month since Easter have really flown by, so apologies for any people I may seem to have been ignoring. It isn't intentional, honestly!
So, what have I been up to!?!?!
Got the results back from my doctor regarding the back pain I've been suffering from for nearly a year now. An MRI has identified degeneration of the intervertebral discs. Instead of going through all the details here, you can read up on the symptoms at this site if you're interested! http://www.spine-health.com/topics/cd/degen/feature/w_degen02.html
So, that was the bad news of the past few months., now onto some more positive stuff.
Steve has passed the exams for an SIA licence, which helped him in his role-playing tests for the Prison Service last week. From the comments of his assessors and the way he handled the situations, we are really confident he passed this one and are now waiting for an invite to a medical and interview. And if that doesn't work out, the SIA licence will be something to fall back on so he can get out of the rut he's in and start earning more than basic wage. Which will be nice!
I have a had few great sessions on the learner driving track with Steve and my mother in law. After my disasterous first attempt to learn on the track with Steve, (I kinda gave him a panic attack!) I spent two weeks going with Kaye, and yesterday I managed a good hour or so of fairly acceptable driving, with Steve actually complimenting me on my progress! So, as a result, I have booked my first proper lessons with a BSM instructor ~ with grateful thanks to my sister Lyn for the lesson vouchers I recieved for my birthday, which will pay for my initial 6 hours. I shall be starting in a week... I will try to keep you updated!
We've also been trying to "get into" a couple of new TV shows ~ since the demise of our beloved Stargate-SG1, and the new series of Stargate Atlantis being several months away, we felt a little lost! Bones is good, a great mix of technical jargon and stupid bantering between the main characters which makes it a comedy-drama as opposed to those which take themselves too seriously. And for the complete sci-fi nerds out there, Heroes is very enjoyable, but you really can't take it seriously, and it really does rip a lot from it's predecessors (X-files, Carnivale, etc)
Other news.... we've just started a jigsaw ~ The Coliseum in Rome. We were planning a trip there in October this year, but with a few things coming up already which could scupper our plans, I'm not sure if we can make it. One of those things is WWE Raw in Birmingham, which we can't miss as we failed to see it last month in London due to lack of funds! So that is a priority in October. And we're going to see the fantastic Bill Bailey live in November with some friends too, So, what with Xmas looming after that, money will be tight!
Well, I've rambled enough and I'm sure everyone switched off ages ago, so I'll sign out and catch up with you all soon!
Love Helen xxx |
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