More Of The Same in Diary

New Job
So I’ve been in my new job for a week now and I feel completely overwhelmed. I’m sure that’s normal and it’ll just take me a while to get into it, same as everyone when they start a new job. I’ve been told I’m doing well and I’m already being left to get on with things for most of the day which I’m pleased about. Although I do feel like I’m flying by the seat of my pants and have no idea what’s going on!

Most people seem to be friendly and ask me how I’m settling in; I was even invited to Starbucks for lunch on Friday which was nice. What’s also nice is being able to occasionally buy an expensive hot chocolate from an overpriced coffee shop without worrying too much about spending money, as I had to do the entire time I was self employed, panicking about every penny.

So I went with Rachael, who invited me, and Hannah, who has been training me up as she used to do my job. Rachael was friendly and chatting to me the entire time, but Hannah obviously didn’t want me there for some reason; she never looked at me, spoke to me or even acknowledged my existence. Never mind, you can’t expect to be everyone’s best friend but I thought it was a bit rude. Rachael is marrying her girlfriend in 10 weeks so we had a lot of wedding talk, hehehe :o)

During my induction at the beginning of the week, my line manager said that they occasionally do random drug and alcohol testing. This is mainly for people working on the railways and construction sites, but they have to include the office staff as well to make it fair. He said he’s been there 2.5 years and has never been tested so I probably won’t be tested either. Well guess what, yesterday we were both randomly selected! I had to do an alcohol breath test and a urine test for different drugs. Obviously I passed, but I’m just glad they didn’t come and do it just after Download Festival; not sure if I would pass then :op

Let’s see if I can still remember how to do my job when I go back tomorrow.

Wedding
We’re no closer to choosing a venue or a date. We’re still overwhelmed by the huge choice of venues. I keep looking at stately homes and converted barns, but I’m going to have to stop doing that as they’re all way out of our budget. We’re not having a wedding breakfast, just an evening buffet, as that will save us about £5,000, and most of the stately homes insist that you have to have two meals, as well as a whole host of other requirements. If you’re paying that much to hire a venue, you would think they’d let you have a bit more freedom, but we’re finding that it’s the cheaper places that are more flexible in that way. So it’s probably going to be in a hotel; they’re a lot cheaper and there are loads of nice ones out there, plus it will be handy for me and my family to stay in the night before and our guests to stay in afterwards without worrying about trying to get elsewhere.

I’m starting to collect dried rose petals to use as confetti; the roses that Jay bought me for Valentine’s day are in the collection already and I’m going to keep all the ones he buys me to use. I’m also going to start collecting things like twigs and pine cones to spray silver, cover in glitter, crystals and fairy lights and use as decorations.

I already have quite a bit of money saved up but Jay has nothing; he’s always been rubbish at saving. I asked him what he spends all his money on and he said probably beer. He must drink a hell of a lot of beer because we’ve always earned similar amounts and I usually easily put away £200 a month without too much effort. I suggested he transfer some money to me at the beginning of every month and I can put it into an ISA but he didn’t want to do that, he would rather remortgage the house. Yes you heard that right, rather than cut down on the beer he drinks, he wants to remortgage the house. What madness is this? He doesn’t see the problem in this as his dad sold the house to us for a mega bargain price so we have quite a bit of equity tied up in it. But that’s not meant to be for spending, surely we should keep that for if we want to buy a nicer house one day? Also this would mean that I would obviously pay back half of the loan as the mortgage is in both our names, so if we use the savings I have to pay for half of the wedding, and the loan from the house to pay for the other half, technically I’m paying for 75% of the wedding. And all because he spent his entire life spending every penny he earns instead of trying to put some of it away; why should I be punished for that? I’m not happy about this suggestion at all.

Roller Derby
Remember Andie who said she was in love with Jay, then said she can’t remember saying that and she definitely isn’t in love with him? I decided to give her another chance and when she expressed an interest in roller derby, I said I would take her along to the new fresh meat intake. She really enjoyed it and did really well, but now she won’t shut up about it. When I dropped her off at home afterwards, she sat in the car for 15 minutes just yapping on, when I wanted to get home and have a shower. And she keeps messaging me a million questions on Facebook about kit and things, and complaining that it’s too complicated when I answer her questions. I keep telling her not to worry too much about it as these are all things you pick up gradually along the way but she just fires more questions at me. I’m trying to point her towards phone apps and useful website so she can do her own research.

It’s nice to have someone to talk to and share a hobby with, but she’s being a bit too intense about it all.

Anyway, the plates on my skates are useless so I’m trying out someone else’s boots from my team as she’s selling hers and ermagerd, they are amazing. I’ve struggled with so much in my own skates and thought it was just me being rubbish, but as soon as I put these other ones on, it was like magic and I was gliding around doing everything perfectly. One of the things I failed my minimum skills on was gliding on one foot, I couldn’t do it on my right foot for toffee, but I tried it in these new skates and it was instant perfection. Hurrah! The only problem with them is they’re really tight around the toes, so I might try and stretch them as they’re leather. Excited anyway as I should hopefully pass next time :o)

That was a lot of waffle about stuff that is probably really boring to everyone else, but it’s my blog and you can skip whatever you like :op