Whats going on? in 2014

Happy New Year all!

I am actually doing the Year in Review entry thing which I never normally bother with, but 2013 was a pretty epic year so I am this time around but its saved in draft on my laptop, and I’m work today. So you’re getting a catch up entry instead.

Christmas was good. It was really nice to wake up in my own house instead of another family members. It was nice to have no rush, and snuggle under my duvet and poke Jonathan until he finally let me get up and see if Santa had been. He had! Yay! I got completely spoilt. Jonny has never bought presents before, he always just got his family vouchers or something and he was really nervous about getting me presents. I told him he was being silly and that I would love anything he got me but I don’t think it helped. He was totally brilliant though, not a single thing I didn’t love. There was lovely little things like books and bath stuff and such and he got me a gorgeous handbag which I love. Then he handed me a little bag which when I unwrapped I recognised the name of the jewellery store in the town and inside was a little box with “Clogau” on it, which is the brand of jewellery made using Welsh gold. Inside were a pair of beautiful earrings, shaped to look like harps (but also quite like a heart), because I used to play the harp and also because it’s the sound of my alarm on my phone which always wakes Jonathan before me! They’re beautiful and way way way more than I would have wanted him to get me and I got a little bit emotional to be honest! Which I know is ridiculous because they’re just earrings but bless him, it was so thoughtful and lovely. They look like this:

The rest of Christmas day was just as good, we went to my Mum and Dads house, taking Jonny’s friend Tim with us because he’d been stranded in North Wales because of the storms. We had a really good laugh. Lots of champagne and yummy food. My Mum lives behind a nice hotel and we ordered food from there and they brought it down to us! It was nice because it meant there was no stress about cooking for anyone and we all just paid for our own meal so nobody was out of pocket, it worked really well.

We didn’t stay long after dinner (it was quite late as we didn’t eat until about 5!) which I think worked well as it meant we didn’t get bored or pissed off with family. We headed back to our house and some people came over and we continued to drink until Tim could no longer stand up which was amusing.

The rest of the holidays and New Year were mostly spent in my lovely new rabbit onesie from my mother which is the comfiest and cosiest thing I’ve ever owned, which is handy since our house is like a bloody fridge.

I’m back at work now. Its ok. I do like my job (although today I’m basically not doing anything because we’ve submitted a project protocol to the ethics committee and until we’ve heard back from them we’re in a bit of a weird limbo because its hard to carry on with things until we know whats been approved and what they want changing). I do still have some issues with the job though. I just feel a bit like I’ve taken a step back in my career when this should be the time I’m moving forward. I know I did all this for the right reasons and having been to see Jonathan’s mum over the last couple of weeks I know that he couldn’t have moved to Cardiff (or anywhere else) because he needs to be here to help his sister deal with this. Their mum has severe dementia and is in a home but even just going to visit for an hour is so hard for them both because she is very distressed all the time and gets upset but can’t really communicate any of it. It’s so sad. So yeah, its good we’re here and it wouldn’t have worked for have him to have moved right now and I couldn’t have carried on with us being at opposite ends of Wales. The other major factor was of course that we want to try for a baby (well technically we are now which I don’t know if it’s a bit taboo to tell people that before you’re actually pregnant but you guys aren’t just people are you, you’re secret internet people so the rules are different) and being here made much more sense for that because we have my mum for childcare and things and the job is a lot less stressful which can only be a good thing. Still, I am a bit frustrated on the job front. I worry about what it will mean long term and I am hoping that I can claw myself back to where I was on the payscale at least, but its annoying that I’ve had to take that step down, so that any progress I do manage to make now will only be getting me back to where I was before and not really moving forward. Plus, since I’ve made such a change in the role that I’m doing I’m not really sure what the career progression pathways and opportunities are. One of my tasks for this month is to try and pin down my boss and ask more about this, but again this will have to wait until after the ethics committee response and when things are moving normally again with the project.

As for the baby news I am waiting to hear this week as to whether my GP will prescribe me Clomid, the drug to make me ovulate. I have PCOS and currently don’t ovulate naturally, it only happens about once a year! Some GPs will prescribe Clomid but a lot of them will only refer you to Gynae and then you get it prescribed from there. One of the GPs in my practice does occasionally prescribe it apparently so they’re talking to him this week and finding out for me, if not I have to wait for my Gynae referral which probably won’t be until JULY and I can’t wait until then! I’m not expecting the Clomid to work immediately but I would like to at least be in a position where we actually have a shot at it, because at the moment that is not the case! I’m impatient to hear from them, but I have to wait until Friday before I call to chase it up. Anyway, what will be will be, and it’s very exciting either way. And it would probably be beneficial if I didn’t get knocked up just yet as I have been asked to be a bridesmaid for the wonderful Catriona in October and it would be quite useful if I wasn’t about to give birth at the wedding!

What with upcoming weddings to attend, possible babies and the like, I am also incredibly skint. Christmas totally bankrupted me and whilst I am trying desperately to claw my way back we have a number of events happening over the next few months. It was my Dad’s birthday last week and we bought him a Kindle because he’s ace and deserves it but I am even more broke now, then at the end of the month we have The Gathering which is a weekend thing involving a lot of booze and a hotel stay, then early Feb I am off to Cardiff with Christina to see Frank Turner, then late February I am going to London for Christina’s birthday, then early March is my sisters birthday and since she bought me a flipping blu-ray player for Xmas I better get her something good!!! Its just never ending! In an attempt to save money and lose some of the weight that’s crept back on since living with a boy I am not going out at all this month, unless absolutely unavoidable. And no drinking in the house either. It’s a friends 30th next Saturday so I will have to go to that (do not want) but I am hoping that we can get my Dad to give us a lift to save on taxis, and I won’t drink much, or might even sneak some vodka in my bag like a true scally. Life is just far too expensive. I am spending a small fortune on just heating our house, its on a gas meter and last month I think we spent about £150? Its unbelievable. I now understand why people are in fuel poverty. That’s more than I spent on petrol!

Anyway this has been rather an epic entry for me so I will leave it there!