Check this out!

One of my favourite newly discovered authors has just put out a new book - check it out!

Now I would happily sub-edit most things as I am as they say, anal. But helping her out wouldn't even be a chore - it would be a treat!

I especially liked the 'Little Goddess' series, and the next one looks great so far. Now just waiting for my copy (with my 'name' in it - yippy)

http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0-595-48417-4


Now, I've also decided that whether I get in to my thing or not, some things are going to change.
More on that later

Work / Life balance

Right, so I may be a little more off-line than usual for me these days - the company I work for has installed an internet blocker / spy to prevent blogging, facebooking, yahooing and so on while at work. Now I don't mean to give the impression that all I do at work is surf the 'net, but I used to spend about 30 mins a day (my lunch break, which is invariably spent at my desk) catching up with my life.

So now I"m not catching up with my life as much and this is not making me happy.

My interview is now confirmed for Feb 27th and I'm trying to take the day off and the Monday / Tuesday before as well so that I can be as well prepared as possible for it. Boss and I are 'negotiating' this at the moment. Of course I don't think he realises that he can negotiate the time off or he can negotiate my resignation. Although it's unlikely to come to that...

The preceding week at work wil be week from hell with tradeshows and travel, but I've survived it before and no doubt will again. Must start looking at visas for Saudi Arabia if I'm gonna get those in time though.

A few people have spotted this blog and asked what I"m off to study and the answer is that I'm not ready to tell people that yet. We'll wait and see if I get in first. Fortunately (for me - sod the rest of you nosers) they say they'll let me know within approx 2 weeks of the interview.

So the left over bubbly in the fridge may finally get used - you never know. Mybe I'll open it to celebrate losing 14lbs.

I think Sam may want his own blog. He keeps sitting on my lap when I'm online, nosing the keyboard and seeming very happy.

I was waiting for a call, but then I got a letter instead

Well, as the title of the post says, I was waiting for a call, but got a letter regarding my application instead. So far, so good and the people I've spoken to have been really friendly and helpful.

If the entire staff is like this then the ball of anxiety in my stomach will surely go away.

I have some issues with formal education - my experiences weren't great on the whole. The schools I went to were uninterested in the fact that I was being bullied and excluded from things for the entire 10 years I was in (legally required) education. And in college I was too damaged to know how to integrate or make friends and ended up having a bit of a breakdown and going rather people-phobic. I'm still a little anti-social but I am secure in who I am and can cope with my own moodswings better, let alone anyone elses'.

I don't know why I was bullied in the first place, but I feel the fact that it continued for so long can in some ways be attributed to my own actions. I didn't have the rough edges smoothed off by socialising as a child / teenager, and continually behaved like victim, daring people to comment. In a way it is self-perpetuating, I think.

But the gist of this ramble is - the idea of going to school makes me anxious and I'm working on it.

Also, appear to be getting better at capitalising when I'm supposed to, so some success is clearly being had.

In other news, 2007 was an odd year. All year I felt like time was running away from me and that I wasn't doing anything social / constructive / interesting. Then in hindsight, every month I'd realise that actually I'd gone to a gig, out for dinner, met friends and spring cleaned the house. I'm clearly not the best judge of my own activity level. I guess if you're your own worst enemy, at least you know where you stand.

I did it!

Well, having thought about it for aaaaaaagggggeeeeeeessssss - I hand delivered my application on Monday.
It's there, it's in. All the bits are filled in and I even had a brainwave in asking my friend Malka to write the reference for me.
I was so worried that I couldn't fill my application in properly, having learned just how much the English like their t's crossed and their i's dotted. In Iceland you can just sort of talk people round to your way - the form isn't the most important thing.
There are some benefits to being from a small country, but now I'm paranoid I've filled the form in properly every time I have to do something - so much so that I obsess about it a little.

Now it's just a question of waiting for the call to come and interview and then we'll see if it will be plan A or plan B.
Plan B isn't a bad one to be honest and I guess in some ways that makes me so ambivalent / not so COMMITTED to plan A.

In other news, we went to Iceland for the holidays and had the most dreadful trip. The flight out was delayed for 2 hrs and then they served apples in bags for the refreshment. Then when I legged it to the galley to wait out the 'fumes' until it was safe for me to return they kept telling me off for not having told them in advance that apples would be an issue for me. I was so angry about this - out of dozens, maybe hundreds of flights I've taken in my life, they've only served apple / fruit bags twice and that was the second time. They seemed to feel that I should just tell people willy-nilly about my allergies on the off chance that it might become an issue.

Then on Christmas Eve around nine, I started having this little tickle in my throat that then by the following day had turned into a full blown flu (and not the suspected / feared pneumonia) requiring antibiotics and drugs like you dream about. I'm still coughing and spluttering but the damned thing is finally on the run and although I won't be running anywhere for a week or so more (who cares, I've lost weight over Christmas anyway) so by the time it'll be a little bit more daylight here, Sam and I will be able to go back out for our runs.

Despite the dreadful time we had in Iceland it was great to get away from work and really getting into that headspace of 'I can leave this job and I can go to school' and it was kind of important for me to feel that. While it won't be easy to suddenly be on one income and to have our standard of living drop somewhat - but it's either going to happen now or it's not going to happen. And putting it in those terms is kind of black and white, do or die, kind of thing.

Oh, and take a look at some of Malka's pictures:

http://www.lomography.com/homesDeLuxe/profile.php?cid=831052

Happy New Year everyone!

Oh and my dad is coming to visit next weekend - yippee