Its been awhile

since my last post and as usual not much to report, still heavily into looking for upward employment. partner helped me go over my CV, giving it a GOOD polish, now I just have to find the jobs I can do so I can send it to them.

Daughter, partner and I went with one of daughters friends family to the London Zoo this past Wednesday which was quite nice. It was daughters first time getting out since we went to the museum at the end of last month. Being in the middle of London, the London Zoo is quite large and we got to see tons of different types of critters.  Daughter was most impressed by the cute and cuddly squirrel monkey while partner loved the nocturnal loris. I enjoyed quite a bit but I always love the small primates of any group as they have the cutest little hands. Daughter was also quite excited as her and partner went and did the grocery shopping on Thursday, rather than order it in.

I hope all are well!

Peace...

Please visit other sites I work on
The Nation of Heliotrope
Exploring London's Olympic Waterscape

....

Not much to report on, daughter was a bit lazy the past week, having a proper bit of time off. Partner got an article sent off. Going to the zoo on Wednesday for daughters friends sisters birthday party. So I have Wednesday off... woo hoo. Then I have the weekend off, then at the end of the following week I am on holiday for daughters last week of summer holiday.

Peace...

so

Not much to report this week, though we are definitely noticing the two extra weeks tacked onto out wait for a paycheck but no worries.

Daughter has about six and a half days left on her term before she is done with year 3!

see you later

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM

Also Happy Anniversary MUM and DAD

on and on

another few weeks and more things come and go.

I missed a day of work last week (21 June) feeling like utter crap and concerned I had caught a stomach bug going around. Luckily it wasn't a stomach bug but I did discover that the reason I had been feeling crummy over the several weeks prior was that I had developed a bit of a sinus infection that was steadily getting worse. This culminated in me making an appointment at the clinic and getting a course of antibiotics prescribed. That was just the start of one heck of a tough week at work.

One nice thing was my payslip, which was substantially higher than usual for some unknown reason, I plan on going over my diary to figure it out. This did however precipitate an unusual shopping splurge on our part, we went and got daughter some new knickers and shorts (not realising she did not have any shorts), and got me some more summer clothes to wear. We also took the opportunity to have lunch out, Nando's, which was nice; all stuff we do not get to do very often.

Wednesday night we got an even rarer experience in getting to go see Jack Johnson live in concert. For those who do not know who Jack Johnson is, he is only probably the greatest folk artist of my generation and maybe even bigger. Another great bit about it was that it was our daughters first concert experience and I can literally think of no one I would rather her see although I could think of more. Sadly, we did not know there was an opening act, Mojave 3, who to be honest was pretty not good; they really need to fire their sound person as well. This might not sound like a big deal but it meant that Jack Johnson did not get come out till nearly 9pm and with the last Train leaving London at a paltry 11.30, we needed to leave before the artist was finished. Oh well, it was still a wonderful time. We also each got a concert t-shirt.

Daughter is getting closer and closer to being done with year 3, only three weeks to go. She had quite a good day on wednesday at the concert and going out for dessert.

Partner has mostly just been working hard on her work, alternating between her micro-national website and her thesis. She got a new phone on our day out last Saturday, Orange our service provider has a service were when you top up your phone you build up money in your account, and it only cost her one buck! We are hoping on the next payday to be getting her a small, cheap printer for some of her work.

Peace...

Please visit other sites I work on
The Nation of Heliotrope
Exploring London's Olympic Waterscape

todays something...

Post removed for personal reasons

Peace...

Please visit other sites I work on
The Nation of Heliotrope
Exploring London's Olympic Waterscape

the WEEK in REVIEW

so, the whole lot of us is sick to varying degrees right now, daughter feels the best while me and partner are neck and neck I think.

Partner's exhibition Sunday past went splendidly with her and her crews EASILY getting the most traffic and lots of kudo's from said spectators. I think they did an amazing job. Since then, partner has just been trying to get back into the groove on her main work. In a spoiler, partner got a small award to do some of her field work... 300GBP. This is great as she has been really concerned how she was going to do it with our general lack of funds, an issue we are trying to address. 
Daughter is slowly recovering from yet another cold, man for such an overall tough kid she sure has a puny constitution, bless her little cotton socks. Took her to Royal Holloway's garden party, Sunday past as well, were she got to split some fish and chips with me, buy some cotton candy and play some games. It is not the greatest thing in the world but it is a nice way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. The friend of hers, and the girls family, would like to do another joint trip like we did over the school break and visit another museum.


As for me, just been working and dealing with ridiculous schedule changings just to try and keep on top of my hours. My contract hours have been increased from 18hrs weekly to roughly 28 but my scheduled hours, what my manager puts me on the books for, has dropped from about 35hrs to said 28. Obviously even at 35 we are having trouble with money so 28 was quite untenable, we did lose the other evening person though so I took on 2 of her night shifts (I also have one every other week on my schedule) and those 12 hours put me up to 40. So I will not only be doing more hours that way but 2 hours out of each of those night shifts are "anit-social" hours and are paid at time and a half plus I am doing every other Sunday which essentially puts me at 43 hours every week. Partner does not like that I am working some evenings again and would like me home more but, we agree that we need the money also. I am however home every day for supper, Monday and Wednesday I work double shifts with a three hour split, and have every Saturday daytime off.


The next paycheck is going to have to be handled extremely delicately as it will have to last an extra week when my company switches from paying us on the 20th of the month to the 27th. I also need to keep on my manager about getting in contact with HR or whoever handles payslips as my last two were a little light and I want to go back and check from January, partner accidently left payslips in the US, to be sure I am getting what I am supposed to. I will likely call my debtor and ask for a reprieve just to be sure I have the money and then pay them a little extra from the next payday.


Once we are done paying back our utility company for the winter, I think one or two more  and we are caught up, I want to call them about a better utility plan they offer and to ask them to take out a bit more than that so we are ready for the upcoming winter, I really would like to start getting ahead of the ball on some things. The company, who does have the best rates our rate now (not their best  :( ) is still better than most other suppliers offer, got us into a low tariff but the monthly debit did not cover our usage and so we are hurting now for it. 


That combined with credit card re-payments and recent dental work for myself have been eating up a vast amount of my very modest monthly income, leaving only just enough for groceries. The dental work is done for now, I have a practically new tooth, but it will be supplanted by payments to partners card. I believe some money can be saved through contacting my cable provider and getting a new plan and then more when the utilities are caught up. I am also going to plan out any collecting I do better as well as hold on to the money and buy at the end of the month so as to make sure I have the money if I need it.


Peace... Love
Prowl


Please visit other sites I work on
The Nation of Heliotrope
Exploring London's Olympic Waterscape