How it is.
I'm mostly over my post-honeymoon cold and things are getting back to normal.Work is good: keeping me busy as usual, but I've had a slight change in timetable (now incorporating some college lessons) which makes things more interesting. I've also picked up a year 9 class, which so far I'm having a lot of fun teaching Richard III to. They've re-posted the job I applied for before Christmas because I was the only applicant. I think they think it would be too easy for me if they just handed me the job. I disagree. I will re-submit my application, however, and take it from there. Honestly, I'm not looking forward to the gruelling full-day interview process.
Uni is as annoying as usual. Still total chaos in the organisation department - on their side, I mean. Making progress, slowly, on assignments. Had a terrific termly observation on Monday by one of my University tutors - yay!
Riccardo's parents are coming to visit over my half-term break. Riccardo will still be working. They heard we were planning to renovate and volunteered to help - SO nice of them! It'll be great to have them here. BTW, we're only renovating our fantastically-decorated foyer, stairway and landing. It's the part of the house that's most in a time-warp, what with the 1950's velvet, textured wallpaper. Beautiful. Don't worry, we'll save a keepsake for you all to marvel at.
We've officially bought our flights to Canada for May. VERY excited about that. I feel somehow comforted by knowing for definite when my next trip home will be. Even if it is only 'home' in the national sense, since I won't get back to Kamloops this time. Anyhow, super excited about that trip: get to be a Maid of Honour in my best friend's wedding - should be a blast. It's also going to be an exciting trip for another reason that I will mention in a subsequent blog...
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Hi everyone!
We are just on Guitar Hero III and it is Crystal's turn, so I sneak in to say "Hi!" to everyone! Life here is quite well though the news stories are horrific. I think the country most impacted by the whole credit crunch thingy is the UK - just look at the current value of the pound if you don't believe me! In these times it is very important that you know what is of REAL value. And I think for us of REAL value is that we keep in touch with all of you there as you are the most important thing in our lives! Houses can be sold, account can be filled again and other jobs can be found - but friends and family like you are cannot be found again anywhere! Thanks for being there for us and with us! End of my comment, hugs to all of you!
Riki
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That was a nice sentiment, honey. You're defo right about our peeps. Ditto.
This week we also bought tickets to visit Riccardo's family. His WHOLE family. In ITALY!!! Woot! Yep, I'm off to Italy for about 5 days over Easter. We haven't made any definite plans because it all depends on the financial situation, but there is the possibility of visiting Milan, Florence, Pisa and VENICE while we're there!! *Ahem* Of course, this all comes second to getting to meet and visit with our relatives!
Damn credit crunch hey? Today the UK officially declared recession. No surprise there. Things are manic here. Riccardo's company is announcing more lay-offs; thankfully his job is still somewhat secure at this point. Fingers crossed tightly. Companies are going into administration (bankruptcy) left and right. There's a big crisis because the banks have virtually stopped lending money and giving mortgages, which is causing the economy to crash to a halt. On the plus side, petrol (gas) is cheaper (though I heard the oil companies are passing along about 10% of the savings they're making on the decrease in wholesale oil prices). Natural gas is still exorbitant: Riki and I pay about $180/month on gas, and we use it conservatively! Council tax still leaves me stunned at roughly $200/month. For what again? Food is also not cheap. It's unfortunate that we chose a fixed-rate mortgage last year, because now the interest rate is less than half of what it was. If we had the money to buy out our current mortgage we'd probably save money renegotiating now rather than next Nov. It seems that only frivolities are cheap: booze, travel and clothes are cheap. Well, good thing I like all those.
I've raged about our phone/internet provider, BT, incessantly in the past. I loathe BT. Happily, our contract with them has now expired and we wasted no time in changing providers. As it happens, we can get digital cable, broadband, landline and free international long distance calls for cheaper with another company than our phone and internet were with BT. So this weekend we're switching to Sky. And I will finally have TV. Let's see how long it takes me to get addicted to TV again - it's been a good 3 years, but I feel the inane, dramatic rubbish calling me still.
Well, back to my Guitar Hero.
Love yas. Hope you're well.
xx
I LIKE that wallpaper. Honestly. I'm relieved to hear you're keeping a small sample to show your future guests!