Job Interviews and Warm Weather

I had the flu last weekend and was feeling pretty rotten at work the week before.  My fever wouldn't go away completely for about 4 days.  It was sooo annoying that I had to miss the last day and the assessment of my first aid course from the week before.  Now I have to find someone to assess me on my own.  That's somehow worse than being assessed at the same time as the group I trained with.  I also had to miss softball on Sunday for the third weekend in a row.  I blame LINKS for making me sick.  I lost sleep at CTW and then the first aid course the weekend after I think it knocked my immune system out of whack.  Thankfully the boys were pretty understanding when I told them they couldn't go to the park because the cold air killed my throat.  I'll take them today.

The weather's been beautiful lately... once the sun's up anyway.  It's still in the 40s when I wake up at stupid o'clock am.  After I get off work (at 9 am) Tim and I have been making coffee and drinking it just outside on the sunny mornings while Yasmin chews her stick.  She loves sunbathing... we must be related.  Yesterday the dad I work for stayed home with a headache, so he took the boys after I brought them home from school and I got an unexpected afternoon off which was pretty nice.  We decided to take Yaz to the park to find some friends to play with.  She's such a social creature.

I have an interview tomorrow evening for a position within the LINKS HQ volunteering sector.  It's called ASO (Assistant Staff Officer) Finance Assistant.  The current ASO finance is looking for an assistant, and I figure it wouldn't hurt to have some experience and training dealing with large budgets for a large organization.  It could come in handy at some point in my life.  It's a 2 year position.

Tim has an interview for a paid job with SJA on Friday.  It's a job he interviewed for before called Pathway Coordinator.  The person they hired didn't last two weeks.  I'm not sure what happened, but that's good for Tim.

I saw a new job advertized through my nanny agency for a new job that pays over twice what I make now.  Full-time looking after a baby girl for an American mom and British dad.  I'm trying to see if I can at least get an interview because that would be awesome!  Then I could fly Guinness over sooner, not worry about budgeting between getting the moped and my British license, and even fly to Texas for Christmas for sure!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Tim and me to get the jobs.  Heck, if we both got the jobs, or even one of us we could get a bigger flat with a garden for Guinness.

I would make sure my current family found someone new before leaving, though.  I would definitely miss the boys, but I'd be silly not to look into a job that pays twice as much when I have to worry about budgeting.

Yasmin's birthday is coming up next month.  It's April 27th.  It lands on a Friday.  We thought it'd be fun to plan a "Birthday Picnic" for her inviting whoever wants to join us for the afternoon in Richmond Park near Roehampton University.  A good few people have already confirmed.  It's just a good excuse to get outside in the beautiful weather, and most people in LINKS would love to get out since lectures will be over and exams coming up.  So that's something else to look forward to.

On the 22nd of April I'm going to the London marathon for a duty.  It's one of the most exciting duties of the year.  You're pretty much guaranteed to treat about 20 people in one day.  The costumes some people wear to run 26.2 miles for charity is just ridiculous!  You see some running in things like big chicken suits and then wondering why they collapse from heat exhaustion and dehydration.  Anyway, exciting stuff!

CTW and getting published

2 weeks ago I was re-elected as the Vice-chair of Roehampton LINKS.  I decided to be a good sport and join the rest of my new committee (a few others were from last year's committee also) to CTW (Committee Training Weekend).  It's a weekend away and paid for by St John Ambulance where you go to multiple sessions to learn how to do your job, how to best function as a unit within your committee, leadership and management skills, and the best part is you meet the committees of other units around London.  It can get pretty boring if you've been on a CTW before, but it's a good introduction for people new to the organization.  There are 10 universities that have LINKS units within London.  What we've done in the past is form alliances with one or the other and help each other out with training or duties.  My group got put in the "noisy" lodge so none of us got much sleep whether we were downstairs partying til all hours or upstairs trying to sleep despite the vibrating floor from the music below.  I look forward to catching up on my sleep.

In other news I'm looking at getting a moped to get around London faster and cheaper.  The one I want comes out in the end of March.  I found a site where you can buy new straight from the manufacturer and it's way cheaper than a dealership.  And the best part is it's burnt orange and black.  : )  I can wear my batting gloves with it to match.  I'll post a pic when that happens.

I'm bummed I had to miss the first softball practice of the season yesterday because I was at CTW.  Next week I'll miss also because I have a 3-day first aid course.  I'll definitely make the next few, though.  I miss softball.

The family I work for goes on vacation the 28th of March for 3 weeks of Easter Break.  So I get 3 weeks to sleep in (thank goodness!!) and still get paid of course.  I'm looking forward to it.  I'm thinking of taking the driving lessons during that time.

I'm looking into trying to get my guide dog story published here.  I sent off to Bloomsbury as well as being in contact with RNIB and Guide Dogs themselves to see if they can help.  RNIB thought it was a good idea, but they don't have the budget at the moment.  I'm getting a poem published in Voices de la Luna also!  It's called "Thames."  About the Thames River that runs through London at different points.  A friend who works for the magazine, Carol Reposa, helped me edit it.  I'm pretty excited about that.  I've never considered publishing a poem since it's not what I usually write.  I think I can count the poems I've written voluntarily on one hand.

While I was on the Bloomsbury website I saw they had a job opening.  I applied.  It'd be a pretty cool place to work.  I would think I'd be able to get a lot of good tips through it.  They published Harry Potter in the UK by the way.

The kids are good fun.  They like to play rough, but don't know how to take it rough.  We played cricket and soccer in the backyard last week and had 3 injuries bad enough to make one boy or the other cry.  I kept trying to say, "Let's stay inside for the rest of today and take a break," but as soon as the tears stopped they wanted to go back out.

I went to the library to borrow the Roald Dahl book that Jack was reading because he kept waking up when I read his school's copy.  I finished it over the weekend (while karaoke was going on downstairs).  It was "The Witches."  The ending seemed sweet in a very morbid kind of way.  Usually his endings are happy.  I won't say what the ending was, though, because I hate spoiling books even if they are kids' books.

Tim took Yasmin to the park while I was gone, but she only met little bitty dogs.  She doesn't seem to acknowledge them as actual dogs because they're too little to play with.  But the weather's getting warmer and nicer so I'm sure we can go out more and find her some decent sized dogs to play with.