Things are looking up

Sorry there hasn't been an update in ages, but, to be honest, I just needed some 'me' time, and blog updates aren't as important as that. Well, i'm back on track at last. I've been able to reconcile last week and move on. The Birmingham people phoned me on Friday to tell me I hadn't got the job either, but i expected it, given that even their shortlist consisted of 64 interview candidates.

I've started planning for the future though. Yes, I want to work as a physio, I truly do, but to be brutally honest with you, and myself, I don't see it happening, not in the NHS anyway. I think, given the competition, that someone at a disadvantage is never ever ever going to be chosen for employment, given the many hundreds they can take their pick from. So i'm once again looking into law. Yep, it's a bit of a change I know, but at least then i'd have a good excuse to argue! I've considered law for years. It was either medical or law, right the way through school, but medical was my first love so it won out. I've decided that I will keep applying for jobs, but that i'm also putting in my UCAS form for 2010 to go back and study. I'm gutted. I've just missed the deadline for this years' application, so i'll have to wait. Oxford has offered me a fast track degree, so i can do law in 2 years, rather than 3. Sounds good to me.

I've spent a manic weekend as well. on Friday, I had to leg it to the bank to deposit money for my laptop before it closed. Then Saturday was given over to JP's mum's birthday. She'd booked a 'surprise trip', and wouldn't tell any of us where we were going. Now, it was an interesting day... Yes, interesting is the only word which quite sums it up. What with her sons and daughters, their partners and their kids, there was 11 of us going on a train. Had she reserved seats? of course not. Was the train back travelling during the commuter time rush? of course it was! So, we got split up, but all of us managed to get on the train, even if Molly did try and perform an acrobatic leap of at least 20 feet to follow the kids onto a different carriage. She was still attached to her lead, so you can imagine how funny it was. Heh, I nearly fell, and then, because the lead snapped her back, she thought i'd given her a correction. That resulted in a strop which lasted for most of the morning. She wouldn't look at any of us, and it was like dragging a suitcase. Ie, trying to make her walk alongside us resulted in an ongoing tug of war, with her standing still at one end of the lead, and me heaving with all my might on the other end.

When we'd got to Birmingham, mummy, as she shall be called to preserve anonymity, gathered all of us around her, and, with much holding of breath and dramatic pauses, announced that we all were going to......... Sea World! Can you imagine my excitement? Wow! I was going to a place full of fish! What? I can't see them? I won't enjoy myself? oh, don't be silly. Of course i'll enjoy walking through a very dark area, touching the odd bit of glass, imagining the water and fish behind it, and struggling to get through the place because it's too dark for my almost blind friend to see properly. Yep, I can't imagine a better way to spend my Saturday! I said nothing though. At the end of the day, it was her birthday, and, if she enjoyed it, I was definitely going to pretend that I did! After 3 and a half hours though, the plastic smile was really starting to make my jaws ache, and I couldn't think of any more ways to say how interesting everything was. Thankfully, at that point, we left.

Left, to walk along a canal and find a 'hand made burger' place. Well, the burgers were so hand made that they couldn't give me one that didn't have salad on it. "Oh, they're already made up, and there's no button on the till to tell them to give you one without salad." The burgers too were, erm, interesting. The charcoal tasted great. The chips were gorgeous though. So then, after the lovely food, it was time to walk, or should that be swim, to the train station. The rain was fierce, but, thankfully, we didn't get lost on the way. I was petrified though. We walked along the canal and, in some places, the streets are very, very narrow. I was walking on the side of the canal, with a fella who was struggling to see. i swear, I had visions of me having to choke up from the depths, raincoat only slightly more wet than it already was, to return to my walk. Thankfully, it didn't happen though.

Having got to the train station, we even found the right platform; no mean feat in Birmingham New Street's huuuuge railway station. When the train turned up, mummy seemed surprised that it was so packed that we could barely stand, never mind sit. Most of them did end up in seats though, but me, JP and his little nephew ended up in first class. Nobody would move from the disabled areas, so I just thought, "Oh, sod it. The dog's been stood on too many times already. Let's go and live the good life!" Even first class didn't have enough seats for us all, but Molly thought this was great. She had floor company, in the form of JP's nephew. poor lad. In the end, Molly was sprawled half across his lap, and half on the floor. All sulking had disappeared. I guess that the importunings for tummy tickles were dealt with in a manner she found highly appropriate.

Mummy invited us round to her house for drinking, but, after a half an hour's wait, then a bus journey, all in the cold, my back was aching so bad that I just told her flat out, i wasn't going. I don't think I could have pretended for much longer anyway.

Yesterday, as JP isn't going to be here on the day of her birthday due to work, we took her to a Chinese restaurant. The food was gorgeous, and, wonder of wonders, I didn't come home with various different coloured sauce-juice-rice stains liberally adorning my rather nice blouse. I slept like a trooper last night too. Couldn't even keep it together until 9 o'clock. Oh dear, oh dear, i'm getting old!

This morning started in the usual way. Up by 8, feed the beast, job hunt, then pass time until the next job hunt. I have an interview in Bath tomorrow, so we'll see if they surprise me by even considering me for the job.