31 January 2015

January 2015

Well January is over, who would have thought it would happen so quickly? I have been very busy but among my resolutions and decisions for the year is of course staying in touch with people, which includes keeping up the blog. So new plan: monthly posts. Solve my struggle to think of a post title, sets a schedule that I can put in my diary and be forced to stick to, and lets you (yes you know I am pretty much talking just to you) know when to bother checking for a new post - 1st of every month. I also want to try get my food blog back up and running just for me and my own use, but that's a story for another day.

So, what has been happening? Well, Christmas was just the usual, nice and quiet, pretty much the same for the New Year. I didn't work at the museum for the holiday days, I wanted a break. But with it being cruise ship season I have been working very steadily since then - in fact, it's almost been too much, I'm not used to working full time! Plus I am temping for a recruitment agency so I have also had a decent amount of well-paid office work over the last month. It is hard to fit in job-hunting with full time work though! I have been applying for relevant jobs still, they are starting to really pop up again. It is sometimes disheartening to apply for a job that I know I applied for last year - maybe twice or more for some! But I finally have a really good interview coming up! This one is another big deal one, like the one I had near the end of last year which included psychometric testing. This one is for Statistics NZ and I have to begin by giving a presentation! Then a full competency-based interview, then a written test. The presentation made me want to look completely professional and I figure, all guys have at least one suit for interviews and such, right? So I bought a suit! I went to Jacqui-E, where they are having a promotion, I bought a nice tailored black jacket and got two free skirts to go with it, one that is part of the matching set (and so, so nice) and the other a plain black pencil skirt. So I'm all set for professional life and dressing to impress! Wish me luck!

In other news ... is there other news? Wait, yes there is. My car got fixed and passed it's warrant of fitness! But it's not all good news. The clutch is on its last legs. But it only makes funny noises sometimes, not all the time, so I really hope it's got a few months left in it. If it lasts that long I should be able to manage to save enough for a new one, a better one in fact. With a good stereo, I miss music in the car! Plus I want it to last long enough for Nathan to get his licence - I am currently being a driving teacher, which is a bit of a worry! But if I'm going to have learner drivers in the car revving the engine and riding the clutch, would rather it all happen to this car then a nicer new one ...

We also have had crazy hot weather here in Wellington, it has been so hot and dry that I get all grumpy and restless, and we have to sleep with the windows open. It hasn't even been very windy! Unfortunately left the windows down in the car one night (have to leave them down all day or my car becomes an oven) and it smells funny now so I reckon a cat got in it. With the lack of rain I feel bad about watering my garden so I have been being super ecological-minded and using the laundry water to do the garden! So all the grass might be brown but the garden is happy, I'll post a photo tomorrow, my late lilies are blooming and my earlier lilies seem to be having babies - one has tiny little bulb things growing out of its stem! I have loads of geraniums because when I walk past pretty ones I pick a bit off and put in my own garden! The self-root really well. I have garlic too and it's time to harvest it. I haven't had much time for the garden but it seems to be doing pretty well on its own. It even has a resident lizard. I never see it properly, but every time I walk past it scurries away into a bush, I see it out of the corner of my eye.

Now I need to go to sleep, I still have loads of prep to do, I want to be so prepared and I want my presentation to be the best thing since sliced bread. The house is a huge mess because Nathan just moved in (and Daniel is having to move out of his place on the 20th and will probably come here for at least a while, I don't know if this house can really fit 4 people!), shopping needs to be done, and a huge pile of laundry (what would you know but it's finally meant to rain tomorrow), and as usual the dog needs a couple of walks. But my top priority is this interview. I will be super busy for the next couple of weeks or so (did I mention that there is a 10-week temp contract on offer, so I will likely have full time work soon no matter what?) - but I will definitely let you know what happens and then write again properly in a month.