Ok… so here’s a bit of background that I couldn’t blog about before in case Mum read my blog (only a slim chance but I wasn’t going to risk it) basically Mum’s good mate and close neighbour (only an empty section between!) Vicky emailed me with the idea to surprise Mum with a trip to Paris for her birthday in August and I thought it was a grand idea! So we were playing Secret Squirrel over phone/email for a couple of months and I booked the flights and Vicky took care of the accommodation – check this OUT… http://www.specialapartments.com/24_chapon.html

Now, I’m such a loving and fantastic daughter that I couldn’t let Mum off too easy when it came to telling her that Vicky and I had planned this surprise trip could I? All along I had thought we would tell her maybe a couple days before we were due to leave but Vicky pointed out that it might be best to give her a bit of warning etc so in the end it was a couple days after they’d arrived that I told her.

Here’s how it went… we were sitting in the living room of my Aunties house (‘WE’ being Auntie Marcia, Vicky, Mum, Me) and I turned to Mum… took her hand… put my game face on and said “Now Mum…. I’ve got something to tell you. I don’t want you to be mad at me or get upset…” and at this point Mum has this priceless look on her face and says “Oh God” hehe and I’m struggling to keep a straight face before yelling “We’re going to Paris for your birthday!” There’s this moment of silence before she starts laughing and whacks me on the arm.  Classic! She totally thought I was pregnant or something haha.

Also,  my Auntie’s face was priceless too as she was apparently thinking “Oh God Amanda’s gone and got herself pregnant when I was supposed to be looking after her!” and as Vicky knew it was coming she was tryin to get her attention to wink or something but her eyes were glued on me wondering what the hell I was going to say…. Ahhh I’m such a brilliant daughter to age my mother 10 years like that.

153 days…. or 5 months, 3 days…. or 220,320 mins….

Far out – that is how long I’ve been away from home! Can’t believe it’s been that long… 

I’m driving down south to London-town this weekend to pick up my Mum and family friend Vicky from Heathrow for their 2 month stay in the UK! They arrive sometime on the Monday 20th July (stand-by business class seats are a bit of a mission to confirm but should be around 11am London time!) and I’m taking this opportunity to spend some quality time with my best mate Amelia as well! She lives in Bladon, Woodstock with her hubby Mike, which is near Oxford. I’ve hired a car and I’m driving down this Saturday all by myself and I CANNOT wait! I’ve been looking forward to doing a road trip down South for ages as I’ve pretty much explored as far as I can North before I’d have to stay overnight.

Also, when I asked Amelia last week very politely, and not at all in an over-excited way, if I could stay with them this weekend she told me she had her parents friend already staying (hello comfy sofa bed for Manda!) and they’d booked tickets to Battle Prom at Blenheim Palace for the Saturday night. I said that’s fine & I’ll just chill out at your new cottage while you’re out as I couldn’t really afford to go…. but sneaky minx Amelia bought me a ticket didn’t she! So I’ll be rocking up in my ‘Vauxhall Astra or similar’ car late Saturday afternoon and joining them for a nice stroll up the road to Blenheim Palace where there will be some such Battle Prom as well as wine and a picnic (c/o Amazing Amelia!). Not entirely sure what a Battle Prom is but Amelia says its on par with ‘Sparks in the Park’ back home but on a much larger scale… but to be honest after the word WINE and PICNIC were mentioned everything else she said kinda went blurry haha.

Then, after a lovely night drinking wine and having a picnic in a palace, we will take a drive into Oxford for NANDOS lunch the next day! OMG totally can’t wait for this part – going from having Nandos almost every week back home in New Zealand to only having had it TWICE in the aforementioned time in the UK has left me feeling rather deprived. I had it first with Amelia and Mike a day after I arrived in the UK back in February.. and then I went with my Auntie at the one in the massive Metro Centre shopping mall here in Newcastle… alas it has evaded me ever since!

Also, my brother John and his girlfriend Hayley are arriving into Heathrow Sunday August 2nd and will be having a couple days in London with our cousins then driving up here to Newcastle. I’ve taken the Thursday, Friday and following Monday off to spend with them and I can’t wait!  Then they leave on the 19th August but Mum and Vicky are here for another month after that.

I’m hoping overall after they’ve all gone home we will have had the chance to visit:

• Edinburgh
• York (checking it out on my way down this Saturday too though) 
• Liverpool (as a possible new home for me before Xmas
• Durham (I’ve driven through in pouring rain [see older post re: stretch hummers etc] but never stopped to have a look)

Oh well… this will more than likely be my last update before the Kiwi’s invade but I’ll try and post stuff while they’re here because if I leave it til they’ve gone I won’t remember what was done/said! [Memory like a fish]

Take care guys and gals,

Manda xxx

Well I’m currently in the middle of a mass thunder & lightning display – on my lunch break but stuck in the office cos it is PELTING it down outside! Definitely ‘fastest setting on the windscreen wipers’ weather as I like to say haha.  I’m all on my lonesome this arvo cos the Irish part-timer Julie has left and the other 4 ladies in the office are either on non-work days or sick! So…. I have got NZ music playing  – currently “Northern Lights” by Goldenhorse & I’m loving it!   Preceding this was “Loyal” by Dave Dobbyn which was equally as brill.

Just a quick update really to fill peeps in on what’s been happening…** SIDEBAR | music now = “Beers” by Deja Voodoo (off Outrageous Fortune soundtrack) + MASSIVE lightning strike and thunderous thunder outside!!**… over the last couple of weeks!  Well, as planned I took two days off for my birthday but of course I had to go and get the sickness didn’t I!  So as well as having the Thu & Fri I had all of the next week off too – killer sore throat, headache, all blocked up, cough, wheeziness from asthma… you name it and it was happenin. I did, however, manage to catch some of the heatwave rays that were streaming down last week (top of 27celcius which is damn near tropical up in the North East!)  through many sessions on the deckchair reading… and my arms & chest are quite sufficiently brown! (only after first going a radical red of course haha) but I’m back at work now though and the first day is going swimmingly.

Over last week the dates of Mum, Vicky, John & Hayley’s flights over were finalised and here’s how it’s happening…

• Mum & Vicky (family friend) are getting into Heathrow 20th July and staying until 22nd Sept.
• John & Hayley (his girlfriend) are arriving at Heathrow 3rd Aug and staying until 17th Aug.

Still can’t quite believe they’re coming but it’s going to be brilliant to see them! **music now = “Dreams in my head” by Anika Moa**  So I’ve pretty much got two weeks before Mum & Vicky get here which I’m sure will go really quickly.

Nothing much else to report… been living the quiet life at my Aunties house still, which won’t change until after the family’s been… then I’ll be gearing up the search for a flat, as well as sorting out my job situation, and hopefully feeling more settled!  Ah well… laters kids!

Manda xx

Yip that was what my last Saturday as a 27 year old contained! Amongst other things of course and here’s how it goes…

As it was the last weekend I’d have complete free use of the Audi for a wee while I thought best to make the most of it and get out on the road to explore the North East a bit more, but when I woke up on Sat morning I was feeling a tad un-enthused. Now, I’m contributing about 95% of this feeling to the fact that I had about 6 bourbons the night before and the remaining 5% to the fact that when I woke up and looked out the window it was overcast & drizzly – which meant no top down driving for me! (Just my luck haha) So I fell back into bed and read/snoozed for another hour then at 10 am I got up and slapped myself into some form of good attitude. My cousin Suzy was doing the dishes in the kitchen by that stage so I came in looking like complete shite – PJ’s still on & hair as wild as Jesse Ryder after a night on the turps – and got a lovely look & laugh from Suzy that said it all haha. I then checked up on my farm on Facebook (my new addiction-  thanks Shaz & Karryn!) and made sure my crops were all harvested & new ones plowed & seeded.  Then Uncle Ali came round, as he normally does on a Sat morning – cue the smile/laugh/lovely comment on my appearance!  So he stayed for a cuppa tea & smoke (him not me ewww gross!) then departed to go back to bed no doubt.

 I decided to go to Sainsburys to get some food in before my Auntie comes back on Tue & Suzy decided to tag along so we headed off and somehow I managed to make her get teary about Fathers Day today! Her dad died suddenly about 7 years ago and she still misses him so I had to scramble to change the subject quickly cos I could feel myself getting teared up about being so far away from my own Dad!! (Not good when driving expensive car…) Anyways we got to the supermarket in one piece and zoomed round the aisles managing to control the urge to buy naughty stuff (even tho Suzy kept pointing all the nice biscuits out every two seconds!!) and there was a deal on where you buy two  2L Coca Cola & get this nifty cool Coke glass! It’s like the one I had to leave at home so I got that and it’s now my new bourbon drinking glass haha. Hmmmm small things amuse small minds I guess but I was super excited about using it that night for a few more Beams!

Once I had unpacked & found places for all the foodage (some were kinda random but there was no room!) and Suzy went back home (across the road) I had lunch & sat to read for a bit… before coming a tad bored! It was at this point I decided that despite the gloomy weather I was gonna go for an exploration drive… at 3.30 pm haha! Couldn’t put the top down which sucked MAJORLY cos it’s so fun but ended up driving South for ages down the A1 motorway and saw signage for Durham and thought ‘Why not!’ so I did… and then it started POURING down rain. Like too fast for the fastest setting on the wipers fast! That was interesting, cos it coincided with me coming to a few hectic roundabouts (which are sometimes totally off the scale of confusion in the UK) but I managed to negotiate them and then it seemed to clear for a bit… which is when I had a ‘moment’.  I’ve had a few of these ‘moments’ since I’ve been in the UK and they’re the whole reason I came over here. I came up over this wee hill and as I did Durham Castle & Cathedral came into view and OH MY GOD my mouth opened involuntarily, it was just so majestic & the mist and grey clouds seemed to make it that much more old-worldly, like I was back in the days where it was used as a proper castle. I almost forgot to look at the road haha I just wasn’t expecting it I don’t think and there it was. SO I tried to drive round Durham to get close to it again but geez was it hard! and the rain came back which didn’t help as I couldn’t get any good photos. Durham is totally and completely lovely though, and it’s become somewhere I think I’d definitely like to live if I end up staying in the Newcastle area for a few years. It was so green & compact in places and then suddenly you go down this dark lane with a leafy canopy all around and above you and suddenly there’s huge open green fields on both sides of ya! I was well impressed with Durham for sure & I will definitely be going there for a day trip when Mum, Vicky, John and Hayley get here in July/August that’s for sure! 

As I wasn’t able to take any photos here’s a few sites to go to see just what I’m talking about… 

• Wikipedia
• Durham Millburngate Bridge
• Durham Cathedral & Castle

So it was real whirlwind kinda 2.5hrs where I saw a few random things which, as well as my OMG moment, made the day really memorable… 

• On the drive into Durham I saw a stretch white Hummer outside a theatre at like 5pm – never seen one before!
• Was waiting at the lights & saw two grown men trying to impress some girls at the pub by coming out onto the street to try to fly a Thomas the Tank Engine kite…. and failing HUGELY! I laughed so loud with the window open that they heard me & looked over… thank god the lights had changed & I zoomed off!
• Had this awesome Lotus 7 wee sports car following me a lot of the way back home and it totally reminded me of Dad & his Lotus. This one had a dinky plastic canopy on it so it could be driven in the rain (which he was doing haha)
• Saw a Duke of Wellington pub which reminded me of home (there’s a suburb in Newcastle called Bishop Auckland that does the same thing.)
• These numbers started flashing up on the navigation screen area of the car & for a minute or two I was like what the frig, but then remembered my Aunties embarrassing story of how it had happened a couple of times to her too – so she took it to the Audi shop to ask one of the guys what it was… turns out it’s the car telling you that you’ve been driving for 2 hrs without a break! hahaha funny.

So that was my last Sat as a 27 year old… came home, had some tea, christened my new Coke glass, spoke to Mum & Dad on the phone & wished Dad a HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Monday 22nd… first time I’ve been away from everyone for a birthday – feels weird! My birthday’s on Thurs 25th so that’s gonna be doubly weird – bet you I cry when the family rings! OMG I totally forgot to put something in this post about my present I got from home on Fri after work… think I’ll leave that til next week and do a post about me b’day.

AH well…. this is another chunky one by the looks of it but not my problem now cos it’s done-burger! (been using this word heaps at work… pretty sure I’m referred to now as ‘the odd girl from New Zealand who talks funny & uses weird words’ haha!) 

Right… must go tend to my Farm on Facebook & update my sounds on my laptop…. been way too long!

Laters people,

Love Manda xxx

Random song lyrics above but I’m currently sitting in the sun in my Auntie’s conservatory on her computer listening to some tunes on Grooveshark and that was what was playing when I started writing this post… so as my rules dictate, that is to be the post title! “Forever in Blue Jeans” – Neil Diamond…

Well… (shit! just leant back in my chair (not realizing it was a fancy chair that has fancy leaning back capabilities) and thought I was about to go ass over kite haha!)… today (Saturday 13th June) was one of the best days I’ve had since I’ve been up here in Newcastle!  I had a wee sleep in til about 9am then got my packed lunch and flask of coffee ready (Mum would be so proud she’s had that influence over me!) and, after a visit from Uncle Ali and Cousin Suzy, I headed off on my long-anticipated day out in the car!

Originally I had intended to go to Wallington because I Googled ’squirrels UK’ and saw on the National Trust website that this old country house there had made an effort to conserve the red squirrel population and there was a walk you could do to maybe see some… and since it’s been ages since I’ve seen a proper real-life squirrel (last time was when I was in Std 4 at primary school and we lived in the UK for 4 months and I saw one down in London) I thought I’d give it a whirl!  Unfortunately, when I drove the 50 mins to Wallington it was being bombarded with cyclists etc for some kind of ‘meet’ so looked way to busy for a quiet squirrel hunt haha! The drive there was lovely though so it was in no way a wasted journey – just getting out in the car was enough for me! 

I was driving on from Wallington when I came to an intersection that had a sign for Kielder Castle and Forest – 22 miles… and my impulsiveness (yes DJ I gave in to it this time!) made me turn in the opposite direction of home and go exploring. Hell I had just filled up the car with petrol so why not! I had researched Kielder as a place to go because it also had squirrels & an amazing forest and lake but thought it would be for another day cos it was quite far away… turns out it was for today!! So I had a lovely long drive through the English countryside – off the beaten track where a lot of times I had to slow down when another car was coming in the opposite direction because the road was so narrow! I loved it – meandering along (obviously at an Audi TT speed!) with the top down enjoying the sights. The landscape is kinda similar to NZ in that it’s so open with rolling hills etc but there’s normally a stone fence on the roadside, compared with the No 8 wire fences we have back home haha! 

So I got up to Kielder and parked the car and found a vacant picnic table to have my packed lunch and it was utter bliss! Took some photos so I’ll upload them tonight and update this too. Didn’t manage to see any squirrels but there’s always next time!

There was multiple giggle opportunities along the way… some English village names are just plain odd! Example: Donkleywood… Kirkwhelpington… Otterburn… I love it!! Got some pics of signs with the names on them but half the time there’s no place to stop and take a photo so I miss out but always have a laugh cos they’re just so random!

“In other news….” (channelling Alison Mau from TV One News) my temp contract with Northumbria University was extended for another month after the minimum two months was up last week (couldn’t believe I’d been there that long!) so that’s good! It could have been extended for two months but with Mum, Vicky, John and Hayley coming over late July/early August I wasn’t too sure if I would be able to commit to it so it’s just another month at this stage but it looks like I could be there for longer. I’m working with some brilliant people in the Research, Regional and European Affairs department… although one of the older dudes I deal with constantly refers to me as ‘The Aussie’ when I’ve told him before, with exaggerated OMG’ness, that I’m NOT an Australian! But last week he comes in and says some remark about how my team got played out of the Twenty20 Cricket tournament… THAT WAS AUSTRALIA NOT NEW ZEALAND YOU DORK!! 

OH and it’s my birthday in 12 days…. as of the 25th of June I will be 28 years of age… bring it!!!

laters Dudes & Dudettes,

Rossco xx

Haha now I have no clue who came up with this genius quote but I likey it a lot!

Right, ok so this will be a shorter update than usual because I’m really just filling a 20min space of time where if I didn’t have something to do I would be found drooling fast asleep on my keyboard… and that’s just asking for someone to take a photo and plaster it all over Facebook now isn’t it! Can’t have that…

Super excited because we are mere days away from it being my birthday month! which basically means I am legally allowed to constantly go on about the fact that I’m turning 28 (!) Not only that but doing it in the UK!  This time last year I was in a totally different space and after a few birthdays of looking back and it being the same it’s quite exciting to look back and reflect.

What have I been getting up to over the past few weeks? Um this past Monday was a bank holiday here in the Britain that is Great and it was a gorgeous day up here in Newcastle (25deg from memory) so I tagged along with my auntie Marcia and cousin Neil and the 3 kids to Beamish Museum – an open air museum of olden day times basically. So cool to ride the tram round and I loved all the olden day signs and sweeties! Took a few pics so I’ll endeavour to put them online at some point over the weekend (translation: probably in two weeks time!)

Other than that I’ve been keeping a low profile in order to save a few ££ for when Mum, John, Hayley and Vicky come over in a couple of months!

Oh while I remember – classic 3yr old Findlay O’Brien response  to his 7yr old sister Ellen:   

ELLEN - ”Findlay stop putting your leg on me”       FINDLAY - ”But I love you”

hehehehehe coming out of a 3yr old’s mouth that was just the cutest!  Also another moment where he’d pounced on me in my room and demanded to watch Robin Hood… “I like you Manda”  to which I burst out laughing and he giggled “Why you laughing Manda… I not funny”  and in his cutesy wee voice it just made me laugh that much harder! He’s an adorable wee munchkin that you can’t stay mad at for very long that’s for sure.

YAY that’s 15 mins taken up so I’m on the home straight now… Plans for this weekend? Nothing major as yet – just the usual puppy training class on Sun morning with my cousin and then yummmmy Sunday lunch made by my auntie followed by a nana nap!  A bit confused as to the fact that NZ is having Queens Birthday long weekend this weekend and yet the Brits don’t seem to think her birthday is worth having a day off! Ludicrous….

Anyways must dash – places to explore…  people to confuse with my accent…

Until next time Kids xxx

“What makes life worth living? To be born with the gift of laughter and sense that the world is mad.” –Searamouche

“Often it is the most deserving people who cannot help loving those who destroy them.” –Herman Hesse

“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” –Victor Hugo

“Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you–not because they are nice, but because you are.” –Unknown

“If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad.” –Sheryl Crow

Well those are some of the more memorable quotes I’ve found when stumbling round the vast Internet over the last few weeks (started this post about 2 weeks ago…)

Things have been ticking over quite nicely here in Newcastle – my week-day routine has been carved in stone just like home…

6.15 – Get woken up by Cousin Lynn (who’s away in Spain this week so I’ve been left to my own devices…)  Curse the early morning a few times before propelling myself outta bed…..

7.00 – Feed Jesse and give her her jab of insulin… lately she’s been a wee minx when it comes to this and hides from me.

7.11- Catch the bus (if it’s on time which is NEVER) to Newcastle Haymarket – tunes plugged into my ears to cut myself off from any possible communication from fellow bus-goers haha.  Lately my fav song has been Lily Allen’s – “F**k you” – not generally a fan of hers but that song cracks me up every time. Also The Feelers have been featuring a lot lately which is odd.

7.40 – Arrive Haymarket (if it’s on time which is NEVER) and avoid eye contact with the Greggs bakery – very hard to do when tummy rumbling!  Walk to the Uni, normally stopping at Boots to get the meal deal for lunch if i’ve been too lazy to make it the night before… sometimes stop at the Lloyds bank cash machine to check how much ££ I don’t have – on a Fri morning the queue is massive…. pay day!

8.00 – Get to the Uni and make my first coffee of the day before starting work! Onto black coffee at the mo and me likey!

1.00 – Go sit outside and perv on the young, cute Uni boys while eating my lunch and/or reading my book.

4.30 – Escape from work and walk back up to the Haymarket (this time avoiding eye contact with all the clothes shops on Northumberland Street!) To get to the Haymarket I have to walk through Marks & Spencers – which has proved my downfall many a time but I’m getting pretty good at keeping eyes straight forward focused on the door and just power walking through the temptation!

4.55 – Get the 363 bus home with the usual crowd – it’s funny how you see the same people everyday…

5.35 – Arrive home and change into trackies and jandals – oh how I love my jandals!

Um what else to report…. Oh I’m having some visitors from NZ hopefully coming over July / August! My Mum, brother John, John’s missus Hayley and our family friend Vicky are coming over.  One of the reasons is so my Mum can sort my Grandad out as he’s showing signs of early-Dementia, so I’ve been visiting him most weeks since I’ve been here to keep an eye on him and update Mum.  He lives alone so it may be time to bite the bullet and see about moving him into a home but Mum will sort that when she gets here – I can’t wait to see everyone! Never thought I’d see anyone from home this soon after getting here but it’s brilliant – wish my Dad was coming too but hopefully he’ll come next year.  Also, Vicky’s looking to get a house swap sorted between her house in Lyttelton and Italy….. Italy!!!  Here’s hoping it works out cos it means a brilliant holiday for us all and it’s on my list of places to ‘do’.

My Auntie surprised me the other day by asking if I wanted to go to Disneyworld in Paris with her, her son, his wife and their kids!  Her treat! I was flabbergasted and had the biggest smile on my face haha. Nothing has been planned yet but here’s hoping it happens cos it’d be amazing…

My Auntie went to Spain for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the month so I got the use of her car for that time – I was in heaven! I really really really miss driving my car and it was brilliant to get out and about. I went up to the country house and estate of Cragside one Saturday, then to Blyth another day to take photos of the wind turbines – don’t ask me why but I love watching them…  to see some pics of my travels here’s where to go:  http://amandajaneross.smugmug.com/

Well that’s about all for now…

Take care kids!

Manda xxxx

Right well I’ve been meaning to do this post for like a month cos I’ve been noticing a lot of little things that are different in the UK compared with NZ… obviously there was gonna be differences but sometimes they are things that are surprising (well to me anyways haha) so I’m gonna note a few down now and then add to it as new things crop up…

1. They use liquid twink here… when I posed the question of correction tape I got a blank look!
2. The traffic lights flash from red, to red + orange before changing to green. I think you can drive when it’s flashing but I’m not sure.
3. They have massive roundabouts with traffic lights around them which are bloody confusing if you have no clue where you are going – you HAVE to be in the right lane at the start or you’re f**ked basically. (I found this out last night when out driving my Aunties car)
4. People in the North-East are way more conversational compared with the South of England – people smile at you up here and in the shops they make conversation (espeically if you have a Kiwi accent!)
5. They don’t use clippies in the offices… this is outrageous.
6. McDonalds don’t sell Frozen Cokes… to be honest I don’t know how I’ve survived! Oh and in my opinion the fast food here is not as nice as NZ – KFC/McDonalds/BK etc. But they do have McFlurrys!!
7. In Newcastle instead of suburbs they can have kind of like wee villages that are connected by a windy road with foliage/grass right up to the roadside so it feels like you’re in the middle of the countryside but you’re not cos you’re back in the thick of things 2 secs later – this is really weird to get used to!
8. The money! Geeeez this is the thing that irks me the most – NZ is way better in this regard as here you end up having so much useless change of copper it’s ridiculous! They have 1,2,5,10,20 & 50pence coins as well as £1 and £2 then the notes start at £5. 
9. They don’t call them ’EFTPOS cards’ here - it’s called a Debit card and you don’t swipe it on the machine. It’s got a micro-chip on one end that you stick in the machine and put in your pin then wait for it to tell you to take it out. (I’m constantly forgetting to take it back out haha.)  
10. Supermarkets and chemists are more specialised than NZ – places like Boots and Superdrug are chemists but are more like mini-supermarkets minus the food. Supermarkets are MASSIVE but as in NZ there is differing levels of budgetness haha. Oh and most supermarkets sell clothes and books etc so they end up being like a supermarket/Warehouse.
11. Marks & Spencers is brilliant and only sells it’s own brand of food (hence why it’s the most expensive) you can pretty much buy anything and everything in ‘Marksies’ – clothes, furniture, electrical items then go to the supermarket and get your groceries and pay for it in the one place. They sometimes also have a restaurant or cafe. They have the yummiest food – low cal chocolate mousse is my absolute FAV as are the grapes. Expensive but the food lasts longer.
12. Dinner = lunchtime and Tea = Dinner which has confused me many a time.
13. 90% of people drive a manual car which means an automatic car is a damn sight more expensive.
14. There are heaps heaps heaps more European cars compared with NZ (obviously, cos we’re closer to Europe!) but this does take some getting used to! Specially when a Japanese car is mentioned in high regard haha!  That would never happen back home…

Well yes this is true! My 6 weeks or so of being an unemployed bum will come to an end this Thursday at 10am as this is when I’m due to report for training at my new job at Northumbria University! I’ll be an Admin Assistant in the Research, Regional and European Affairs Dept. Here’s a link of the location if ya wanna go have a squiz haha move the camera round to find the blue door and that’s where I’m working….

I’m kinda being thrown in the deep end cos I’ll have Thursday to have some training and then it’s Easter Weekend and then the next week the two ladies who I’m working with are away for two days! so I’ll be the only office lady there! haha I think I got the job because when they told me this I was like “That’s not a problem, I would be able to manage”…. me and my big mouth!!! haha but it’s going to be good hopefully.

Bought myself a bus pass today for a month so I’m gonna be a daily bus chick for the next two months which is the duration of the temp contract.

Well tomorrow is my last day of freedom for two months and I’m spending it with my 3 angelic young cousins, two older cousins and my auntie at Alnwick Castle & Gardens…. (pronounced Anneck... bloody Brits!) which should be brilliant – providing the weather plays ball and it isn’t pouring down like it was on Sunday night!

Anyways…. that’s another update out – and the next one will probably be tomorrow night if I get some lovely sun-filled photos of the castle and gardens….. or it’ll be a photo of a frazzled Rossco after dealing with all the kids stuck inside cos of the rain!!! Time will tell haha.

Laters,

Manda xxxxx

Man this update is well overdue that’s for sure!

For the first time since I left 54 days ago I had a massive bout of homesickness yesterday (Sunday). It was gonna happen sooner or later but the fact that Saturday had been a helluva shit day did not help – my three cousins stayed on Fri night and ALL day Saturday and were playing up quite a bit… right from 5am when they started to wake up! Now I had come back from the Club at midnight and had had a few bourbons so was not in the mood to be woken up at that hour that’s for sure! Yeah so Saturday was exhausting and Sunday was recovery day where I just think my sugar levels and mood was really low so I was in a POOR ME state. Mum rang at 8pm and it as all I could do to hold back the tears as I just wanted to be back home, but I managed to control myself til I got off the phone (soz Mum for the shit phone call haha!) and then I went and had a bit of a cry to get it out of my system. Sometimes that’s all it takes I find and I woke up this morning (Monday) feeling better about things.

Today I had my first proper job interview at Northumbria Uni in the Finance Dept being an assistant to the PA to the Directors. I was referred by the temp agency but didn’t end up getting it as someone internal ended up getting it. I’m not too bothered about that one because it wasn’t the one that I wanted… last week I had three jobs put to me by Sarah at NRG (todays failure being one of them). Two of them were the same pay and similar roles but there was a third job in the HR dept of the Uni which really got me interested. 1-Because it was more money and 2-Because it sounded interesting and something I had never done before, being admin support to a hiring and firing dept. Alas I just had a call from Sarah@NRG to say that the Uni had put a freeze on the job as they may have someone internal who could cover. Now this pissed me off because I really want the job and I can see it being offered AFTER I’ve already taken another position but I guess thems the breaks and I’ll just have to deal. So as it stands I have an interview for the 2nd of the first two jobs tomorrow so I’ll wow them in that interview and hopefully get some money coming in.

Wednesday is to be spent at Alnwick Castle & Gardens with the 3 young cousins as well as my auntie and cousin. School holidays = lots of kids running round being irritating haha.  Will be sure to take my camera tho to catch the kids running through the water fountains.

Right so an update on what I’ve been doing over the last couple of weeks… the answer is a big fat nothing really. Well nothing springs to mind apart from the usual – going to the Club on a Friday night, going shopping with Auntie Marcia, going to one of the youngsters school show… High School Musical (The Primary School Version) – there’s two hours of my life I will never get back! God on the kids for giving it a go tho.

Well I have not a lot more to say other than…. well that’s it really!

Laters Dudes and Dudettes xx