Four Years

Jesus. Four years since my last post?  Doesn't seem like that long ago.  It's been a period of ups and downs.  Here's things in point form:

- not worked since I took voluntary redundancy - I've not needed to - decent payout and sold my rental flat (which paid off our mortgage)

- sold my rental property - which took ages - the tenant was a cunt, had to take them to court to get them out - twice. The buyers were cunts, the building society were cunts.   

- My mother was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer and died almost six months to the day of being told it was terminal

- my mother in law died - from cancer

- we were scammed by rogue builders and lost tens of thousands of pounds and had to take on a small mortgage again (we'd paid it off) to fix things.

- my partner is being screwed around at work, being victimised with false claims and has been on stress leave since Feb this year.

- fucking pandemic.

I have done some fun things too....holidays to Canada, Nashville and New York (for a rugby tournament) cruises to Norway, Amsterdam and a 10 day posh one around the Mediterranean starting and ending in Rome last September.  We had three more cruises planned this year - all cancelled thanks to the pandemic.

oh and our boiler died - so at least we got refunds from the cruises to pay for a new boiler.

All Change

This is going to be quick.  I've not kept up my blog for a few years and that's not good.  When I was writing, I quite enjoyed it.  It's been sheer laziness that has prevented me from writing more.

Well, last Friday, I took voluntary redundancy from my soon to be ex-employer.  I've been there just over 25 years so I'll be getting a massive pay out.

I plan to take a year off and have a career break and explore some of my interests in more depth.

I have a holiday coming up so my focus is on that.  When I get back I have a to-do list of post employment things.  Hopefully I'll be able to get back into a habit of keeping this up to date.

So for now, this post is essentially to ensure this blog stays active.

Back soon.

Getting better...

My last post was February 2012.  The gap before that one was even longer.  So I guess ten months isn't so bad this time around.

Quick update for now:

My hubby Scooter is back from working away on a funny little island and is now back at home.  He had enough back in May, so  quit, upped sticks and 'took a career' break until the end of October and is now back in full time employment.  It was a bit of a squeeze being the only bread winner in the house for so long but it was nice to have dinner ready and waiting.  I guess we'll have to get a houseboy now.

Surprised my Mom for her 70th back in Canada - we flew first class too.  I could get used to that.

That's it for now...I need to pee.

At Least It's Not Three Years

OK - so my last post said I'd not leave the 'next' post quite so long as three years. June 2011 isn't anywhere near three years, so I suppose that's pretty good.

Actually, it's still crap given I used to write entries on a regular basis. I suppose I could blame work - too busy to blog when I'm meant to be working but that's a lame excuse and I don't trust my work PC / browser anymore (out of date/crashes constantly).

So what's been going on?

I've been racking up the frequent flyer points to Guernsey that's what. Scooter is still there and very much enjoying the lifestyle there - has a lovely harbour view flat and can walk to work in five minutes. That I envy very much. I hate commuting on the tube/bus so much but I don't really have a choice. Walking 10k to work each day would not be fun and although I have ridden my bike in the past to work and back, it's a pretty frightening and somewhat dangerous journey thanks to idiot drivers, idiot cyclists, idiot pedestrians and idiot roads (can inanimate objects be idiots?).

I sound like I'm ready to pass my audition for "Grumpy Old Men" - a show that I love and almost always agree with. I'm one of those people who do 'sweat the small things' and sometimes it does my head in. The small things, in my opinion, are things regular people can actually do something about, yet don't. I tend not to be too worried about the state of the economy or terrorism or global warming because so much of that is out of my direct control (and yes, I know we can all do the 'little things that help', and I do try) but it's the small things like saying 'thank you' or standing on the left of an escalator, or actually queuing properly for a bus, or reading the emails I send to you as part of my job. Those are things that can be sorted out if people weren't such idiots all the time.

Jeez - this was meant to be a 'catch up' from June last year and now it's turning into a rant.

Right - since June - lots of visits to Guernsey, lots of fun with mates, lots of booze and food in my garden with said mates, our shirts off in the summer, getting sunburned and more food and booze and shit.

One of my closest mates (both in terms of relationship and distance) has really been crucial in supporting me with Scooter's absence - we were always at each other's place over the summer. He's going to work in the far east until the end of 2012 for his job - I'm totally gutted about this. Of course I'm extremely happy for him - it's a great opportunity and I certainly wouldn't turn down a chance like this either. However it's my blog, and it's all about me. Granted I'm doing much better about having a long distance relationship with Scooter but am going to sorely miss my mate being around all the time, especially over the summer. He and I 'put the world to rights' so many times over far too much wine and for some reason, it always seemed to be on a Sunday afternoon / evening so Monday at work was always a struggle.

So I'm going to really miss him this summer (my liver will not). I am hoping that Scooter and I will be able to visit him whilst he's there - we already have two mates living in the same place so we can kill three birds with two place tickets. Time will tell if we're able to afford it though - Guernsey, though not far, isn't as cheap to get to as I'd like and we have a family visit planned to Canada in May...and another big gay rugby tournament in June to attend.

So there you go - bored yet?

Let's see how long it takes for the next post.