Blimey. Busy busy busy. Loving work but these last few weeks have been on the stressful side! I'm organising this UK tour for an American autism charity and they keep changing details after I get the contracts sent out - I am not impressed! I'm just praying that today's changes will be the final ones.

James and I are planning on going away at the start of September for our 6 year anniversary - woo! We can't decide where to go though. I quite fancy going for an interesting city break somewhere but the idea of a mega relaxing beach holiday in the sun is pretty tempting too.

Living in the new place is really nice.. apart from the fact that my housemate's annoying best friend comes over EVERY SINGLE NIGHT and they take over the front room. Sometimes I really fancy sitting in my front room to cwtch up on the sofa and watch some (decent) telly but it's impossible when someone with verbal diarrhea is there watching crap like The Bill and Coronation Street. Grrr.

Everything is going well at the moment. I've barely had time to update my cooking blog but I'm planning on adding some yummy stuff very soon. In fact I may do it in a bit, assuming this American woman doesn't call up again and change stuff!

We've moved into the new house, woo! We're enjoying the extra space and the fact that this house is really nice and not cold and skanky like the old place :P

I've ventured into the world of ebay recently - to sell some of our old furniture and stuff. I'm loving it! Well, the selling part anyway.. haven't bought anything yet.

The new job is still going great. We've moved offices and although it's further away and kind of in the middle of nowhere it's still nice.

So things are going well at the moment. Busy but happy :) And now to enjoy this fabulous weather in my pretty new garden.

I'm having an awesome time in my new job. Really enjoying it, as much as someone can enjoy work! It's really brought out a positive and confident side in me.

At the moment the office is based near Park Street, which is a busy area in the centre of town. I've been spending lunch time sitting in Brandon Hill Park getting myself a bit of a tan. Unfortunately we're moving to a different area of Bristol in June and I'll have to get two buses (one more reason to learn to drive) and have to go far to find lunch, boo! Ah well, I'm enjoying myself and that's what counts.

We're going to be moving into James' house in June too, woo! Finally! So I've been spending plenty of time sorting out crap and packing boxes. I really can't wait to get in there and finally live in 'our' home.

I've been offered a new job, wooo! I'll be working as an events and venue organiser, mostly arranging corporate events and stuff like that. After the interview they asked me to go back and do a trial day with them and I found it really fun, which is just what you need in a job! So if all goes well, I'll be starting at the end of this month.

On Friday, James and I headed up to Tunbridge Wells for Gav's wedding. It was an awesome day and that part of the country is really quite pretty (and posh). The hotel we stayed in was super posh. It had a helicopter landing thing for people who have too much money and there was a dress code when you're in the public areas of the hotel - crazy! I didn't feel rich enough to be there and it certainly wasn't cheap ... that'll teach me for leaving it until the last minute to find a hotel.

We're still waiting for James' mum to go and live on her boat. She keeps saying it'll be "in a few weeks" but that's rubbish because she hasn't even started packing or selling the things she can't take with her. There's not a lot I can do about it though apart from wait.

So I've started packing. Let's just hope James' mum doesn't suddenly turn around and say "oh, you need to wait another 6 months sorry". We've been waiting since December 2005, so hurry up woman!

It's slightly frustrating that James won't lift a finger to help at the moment. Most of the stuff we have is his crap so I don't know what to keep and what to chuck. I can't even imagine how we're going to sort out the boxes in the attic - there is SOO much stuff to do.

Anyway, the possibility of a job is coming ever closer. I've got to go in for a trial day thing at this one place. The pay is okay and the job looks interesting - event organiser assistanty person type thing. Neeeed a job!

My Dad has told me that I should be getting my inheritance from my uncle soon. Although his death was sad, his gift will seriously help me out right when I need help. I can pay off my debts, start up a savings account and take James on holiday.

Today I'm going into housewife mode - the whole house needs a clean and it's time to make my Easter cake! Mmm chocolate!

... of being unemployed and skint

... of my housemate's annoying friend being here EVERY FUCKING DAY

... of having no umbrella

... of this stupid cough

... of waiting for James' mum to bugger off so we can live in his house

Bah!

Still no luck in the job hunt but I have more interviews coming up. Soooo frustrating.

I've had a bastard of a cough for aaaages now and I went to the doctor today, convinced I'm dying of pneumonia or something. Apparently not. My chest sounds clear and healthy - which although reassuring, is clearly a lie. Oh well, I'm sure it'll go soon.

I should be getting my inheritance from my uncle soon. Woohoo! It'll certainly help pay the bills throughout this annoying jobless stage of life. James is also running out of money. BBC cutbacks have really affected his line of work. Those idiots up in London decided to cut the BBC Bristol budget by a huuuge amount and have fired most of the people working in 'Factual Departments' (ie. documentaries, natural history and all that jazz) so they can concentrate on letting Manchester and London produce utter shite for BBC3.

Hopefully we'll both find work soon, but with my inheritance we're going to treat ourselves to a nice holiday somewhere because we haven't been away together for years now.

Oh, and I've taken up boxercise, hah! The day after the first session I almost died, I swear! So many aches, but I'm already feeling the positive effects. Jab jab jab hook KICK!

Yesterday was my 24th birthday. I've scared myself by realising that it was only 6 years ago that I was starting university and in another 6 years I'll be 30! Urg.

I had a great day anyway. James took me to Bristol Zoo because I've been dying to go for ages now. I took a load of photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/caaaath/ - but only a tiny minority looked nice enough to upload. It's so difficult taking pictures of animals, I'll try to stick to stationary objects I think.

James finally bought me a domain name for my food blog: you can now find it at http://www.chillifiend.com :D

I've got a job interview next week (woohoo) for a worthwhile job in a charity that re-house the homeless and find homes for vulnerable people, that sort of thing. I'd just be doing the paperwork and secretaryish type stuff but I think it'd be nice to work for a business which makes a real difference.

There are a few more jobs I've applied for this week which look good. One pays big bucks and offers ooodles of free training so fingers crossed something will come along soon.

We might be moving into James' house in March - that's what his Mum has said so I'm not holding out much hope but if it really happens then yay!

Things are going alright, still need a job though. I've lost motivation since Christmas. It's been pretty depressing having all those interviews and being really proactive with job hunting and getting fuck all in return. Bah. Something will turn up.

Not much else to say really.

Well this is most annoying indeed. It's 3:30am and I'm having an allergic reaction to something. I'm itchy and puffy and I'm wearing an all-over body rash - sexy.

Urg, so irritating :( Wish I knew what caused it this time.

Christmas is/was good. I got a digital camcorder thing (snazzzy), clothes, bags, hair stuff, vouchers and bits like that. All good.

Oh man, I feel so horrible *itch*

Urg. Got a stupid cold :(

Man Cold.

Also, check out this: http://www.pornforgirlsbygirls.com/ (safe for work)

Being skint at Christmas sucks. Still no luck job hunting, bah! I've had some interviews but two of them said no and I'm still waiting on one response. So annoying. I don't know why I'm unemployable :(

James and I are spending Christmas here together. We're going to cook a big ass Christmas lunch, get drunk and fall asleep during the war film - it's like being an old married couple! However, this means that we have to please our relatives by visiting them all seperately before and after the big present day and possibly eat several hundred Christmas dinners. Plus my mates and I are having a Christmas dinner together - tis the season to put on loads of weight!

I think I'll write my Christmas cards today.

Trust me to get sick just as I get some job interviews. Bah.

Yesterday I moved our bedroom furniture back into the small room so that Mandy and Chris can move into the bigger one. It kinda sucks having the teeny bedroom again but we do have the 3rd teeny-tiny bedroom as a computer room, so it makes sense to let them have the big room.

I met Mandy on the weekend and she's great. I think we'll get along fine, yay. She popped round yesterday evening to drop some boxes off and we had a nice chat.

In a way I'm looking forward to having some more company in the house (and less in the way of bills) but I'm also a bit disappointed that it'll no longer be just James and I. Ah well.

James' sister is moving to America next week and we're going round for a goodbye meal tomorrow. I hope her kids are there because they are so gorgeous, I want to steal them! Anyway James has left it up to me to buy their Christmas pressies because he's working really late this week but he hasn't given me any money. Sorry gas bill, you'll have to wait!

Urg, illness :( Plus for some reason my hand is really itchy.

Sooooo our alcohol-free month hasn't started yet. I somehow managed to get reaally drunk last night - I went from tipsy to full on buggered out of my mind in a matter of minutes.

Poor old James had to deal with me not only apologising several hundred times for my lack of money and how I'm determined to get a decent job so I can pay him back (which is true) but also me demanding that he marry me. I did manage to let out a lot of anxieties which have been bothering me and now James knows better what crazy things go on in my head. Just a shame it took gallons of alcohol to get it out of me.

I must stop doing this, although to be fair I've been pretty good on the booze-front recently.

There is some good news though: I have an interview on Monday (only a phone interview, but an interview nonetheless) and another appointment to join yet another recruitment agency. I've been using Monster.co.uk as a main site for job hunting and decided to put my CV up on there just because there's no harm in trying! I magically got a call from someone that afternoon, saying they'd seen my CV on there and have some possible job opportunities for me. I'm meeting with her next week - woo.

It's looking more and more unlikely that I'll have money for Christmas and that depresses me an awful lot but I'm trying to stay positive and I'm hell bent on having a job in the next month - even if I end up stacking shelves at ASDA - but I'll aim high first, before scraping the bottom of the barrel :P

Chris is coming around this weekend to introduce his girlfriend to me and show her the house - they're moving in here in just over a week. I'm going to miss having the house just to James and myself but splitting the bills between four people, rather than two is going to take a huge load off my mind. I just hope to god that this girl is nice and we get on.

James and I had another trip to hospital last night - this time not for me! Poor old Jimmy has been having palpitations and puking his guts up. They wired him up to machines and what not but couldn't find any reason to worry.

It's more than likely the palpitations are caused by being stressed, drinking too much (he's just come back from a booze-filled trip to Iceland) and not eating healthily. He tends to eat crap at work, so I've made him some yummy soups and salady things to take in, like a good little housewife.

We're both going to have an alcohol-free month because it's high time we took a break! We've already given up other naughty drugs so I suppose it'll do us even more good to be sober for a while!

I'm going to see my job-agent-lady-person again tomorrow about some possible jobs. Haven't heard anything from the ones I applied for last month (boooo) so I have to pray she can find me something decent before Christmas. I'm so completely skint that if I don't get a new job soon then I'm going to have to beg the bank to give me a small loan. Thankfully, James has a bit more work lined up so we should at least have food over Christmas!

I honestly can't believe it's almost Christmas again. This has been a bit of a crap year but I've been sorting myself out so hopefully things will only get better next year.

I've been feeling a bit crappy since James has gone away (holiday to Iceland with his bum-chums) but I was cheered up this morning when my job agent woman person called me up and said she had a great job suited for me, which pays loooads more than I'm asking for. Snazzy!

Stomach pains seem to have gone, for the most part (yay) but the other week I ended up in A&E after being scared by a nurse from NHS Direct telling me I might be having a heart attack - I tried telling her the pain wasn't in my chest but noooo, she was all "YOU NEED AN AMBULANCE". I had to clearly say I didn't want medical assistance for legal reasons, but after the phone call I got all panicy and anxiety set in, as it tends to do with me, and I was in enough pain for James to agree to take me to hospital at 3am - bless him.

The (incredibly hot) doctor (who got to see and touch my boobs) said the NHS Direct nurse lady was just covering her ass and he kindly gave me some uber mega painkillers which helped a bit. He said I might have gallstones which in young women is usually caused by being on the pill. It'll totally suck if I have to come off it, but he said it's more than likely it's just one of those times when your body gets angry and I'll be fine. Good.

Getting my hair done tomorrow - woo - I haven't had it cut in over a year so it really needs tidying up.

My girlies are taking me on a night out again... I can't believe how knackered I was the other week: we used to go out til 2am then have a mini party thing back at ours or crash a party until 7am - student days are long gone! I think I'm getting old :(

Okay so last night James' mum came over and told us that everything has gone to pot. I won't go into details; it's all very confusing but FUCKS SAKE! We may end up staying here for around 6 more months (bah) and we have to get a loger in asap because she wants to get rent money.

Grrrr. I was really looking forward to the move.

Urg. Lots of things to worry about and job hunting is so frustrating.

Sarah's wedding was great although we did get lost on the way and turned up just before the important bits. Also, oodles of free chocolate - yay!

One month (ish) before we move house and SO much still to do.

At long, looong last James' mum has begun the process of moving on to her boat. This means that James and I can finally move into his house!

Lea (his mum) phoned me up yesterday and said she was bringing someone over to view the place we're living in now (it's going to be rented out), which was a bit annoying because it was very short notice and the house was a tip! Anyway, the bloke seemed keen so yeh, it should be all go in November time. That at least gives me about a month to find a decent job.

I don't know how we're going to fit all our stuff in the house. At the moment we use the spare bedroom as a box room (it's full of all sorts of random junk) and the front room is also full of crap and boxes and all sorts. When we move into James' place we'll have to rent the other rooms out and there's no attic - the main bedroom is an attic conversion thing - so it's going to be a tight squeeze.

It's going to be a nightmare sorting it all out - I might make a start today seeing as I have bugger all to do.

Oh yeh James' mum owns a few properties which she rents out and an appartment abroad and she's asked me to manage them for her when she moves away. I think she may finally be starting to like me, yay. It also means I'll get free holidays to Gran Canaria: awesome!

My sister's birthday is tomorrow and unfortunately I won't be able to go and see her this weekend because it's Sarah's wedding. But I'm sure the wedding will be good fun - plenty of free booze I hope!

Urg, I have to drag myself into town center today to buy loads of presents. It's my sister's birthday, James' gran's birthday and Sarah's wedding this week. I have no idea what to get any of them.


Check out my latest recipe in my food blog!



Things are going alright; I'm doing some major work on my CV ready for a good and proper job hunt.