Monday 28 January 2008

January

With only days to go it is hard to summarise all the events of this month.
John has adjusted well to the commute to London and we are considering having only one car...
Hannah celebrated her 13th with a party at home. Way too many girls, mobile phones, squealing and dubious music, but it was a hit all the same! We are aiming for a small intimate (quiet) gathering next year.
I have been busy job hunting and am still reasonably bouyant about the total lack of interest in my skills in this town.....it just all seems to take so long and that includes being told, 'no thanks'! John is the one who helps here. Lots of boosting. He is good at that.
The weather has been dismal. We both look at the garden all the time, but even after a dry weekend, it is too soggy to dig. Still, we have selected our potatoes for this year....very conservatively we have gone for Maris Piper.
Em and Adam are both well. Em is not playing in the orchestra this term as it clashes with netball....and she is thinking about moving on to clarinet after many years with the recorder.
Adam had his GCSE mock examinations with good results. It bodes well for the summer.
We have had the kitchen looked at for a major renovation to be done mid year. It will be costly and messy, but we think worth the effort.
The girls' obachan comes from Japan next month and we have all sent our wish lists. We now tune into the online TV news every morning and get all the updates. It is good for our Japanese.

Tuesday 8 January 2008

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to one and all. The holiday is over, the Christmas decorations put away for another year and the children back at school! We celebrated in Whitley Bay, John's home town on the north east coast of England. A lovely place with long beaches to walk on and lots of countryside. It was a short trip. We drove up on Dec 30 and were back here on January 2, which is in fact, John's birthday. The few days away were spent walking, eating, drinking and talking to family and friends. The perfect holiday.
Back to reality and I am on the hunt for a new job. I love the garden centre, but it is not very viable financially. The weekends are not a problem for me, in fact the weekend is not a bad time to be working as we tend to be busy and time flies, but it makes it a bit harder to organise family life. As we are only ever all together at the weekend, I see a lot less of everyone.
So I will be peddling my CV around town and will let you know how I get on.