Well I have booked my ticket back home and home I will head in May! Can't wait actually, being able to catch up with everyone again, see my best friend tie the proverbial knot with her beautiful man and with a touch of luck be able to meet that beautiful and blessed niece of mine & first born of my li'l bro!

But before I head back home I'm heading to Belfast on Thursday to see my father (and step-harpy). Unfortunately he decided that he wasn't going to stop in England any longer than necessary to catch his flight from Heathrow to Ireland and then back to Aus. So I'm heading over there... Never been to Northern Ireland/Belfast before though (or really wanted to) and I haven't seen the old man for about 3 years now so in more ways than one I'm sure it will be an interesting experience if nothing else. Quite possibly a bit of fun too, we shall see... I have checked it out on the net and there are a few places I wouldn't mind checking out while I'm there if I have the time. Depends on what Dad and Ann have planned I suppose.

Fortunately I was able to get a reasonably cheap return and my train to the airport isn't that expensive either even without the crazy discount I get for working on the rail-roads. (Sounds a bit early slave-American that, or possibly convict Austrailian - don't it?)

The game-show that Mark and I auditioned for hasn't called back so we're guessing that we didn't cut the mustard on that one. Mark thinks it's his fault for saying I was brought up in a cult until I was 16 and kicked in the head by a horse at an early age. I think it's possibly because I told them he shat on his friends when in India. I guess we may never know though... A friend suggested I call up to ask, but I doubt they'll be interested in looking into our file and giving us a true reason for not being allowed to play. They must've interviewed/auditioned shit loads of people. Anyway, I'll still be watching it when it airs here.

Anyway, I shall leave you with the image of Mark shitting on his mates - enjoy! Ha ha!

Time flies! Weather your having fun or not, it just goes! One minute it's the beginning of a new year and the next your planning things for June, or later. It's just god damned CRAZY I tell you!

I started a new job two weeks ago with a train comapny here called First Great Western. It's and Admin/PA type role for two of the areas and working at two different train stations for two different bosses - here in Swindon and north a bit in Gloucester. So far it seems to be going pretty well. There's loads to do even though I am still waiting for a computer in my new office (I have my very own office!). It seems that I am kind of responsible for staff in a round about way too which is kinda good. Anyway, it's only been two weeks on the job, but I've settled in pretty well I think and I reckon I'll enjoy it there more as time goes on. Only one way to tell hey?

Anyway, here's some pics of where I am working -
This is Swindon station, and this is the train I catch to Gloucester too. (Wow-wee!)

And this is Gliucester station - on finding this picture I also found out that this is the longest platform in the UK and is in the Guiness Book of Records because of it! How about that then?!

Week before was of course my first week of work! One of my mates came to stay for the weekend and then decided to stay until Thursday morning as she had holidays and I would've been on my own in my first working week as Mark had absconded to Brussels for a school trip - cleverly planned to also be away over Valentines day! So while she was over we enjoyed a few bottles of wine and got together a valentines gift for Mark when he returned. She kindly took some photos of me in my underwear (she has done a degree in photography) and even managed to make me look pretty much human too! I was quite impressed with the results, and I'm pretty sure Mark is too. I had bestowed upon me a box of Belgian chocolates, some turquoise earrings and some Belgian lace & silk stockings when Mark got back as a gift from afar and my Valentines gift all in one (or rather three!). I reckon I did pretty well!

Aside from the photo sesion with my firend it was great having her over. We always have such a laugh and it was nice to have someone to come home to and tell about my first days in a new position. So I will leave you now with some pictures...

You didn't really think I'd put truely saucey pictures of myself on the net did you? I quite like this though, black and white and a bit arty really...

YAY! I passed my test thanks to this website and their amazing all natural product.

Unfortunately there aren't any pictures on the computer from our old digs in Hastings or of the town itself. It's a shame as it is/was such a lovely place to live. But rather than just moan about the lack, here are some pictures of us now, in and around our new place of residence...


My first carved pumpkin atempt! Marks pumpkin is below, funnily enough this was the first time he'd ever carved a pumpkin too... A halloween first - for that story you'll need to scroll down.


So to explain the pics below briefly... A friend of ours Teresa is from Portugal and shortly after getting here to study on the same course as Mark she had her 22nd birthday, far from home. So we invited her around to ours with some other people from Swindon College so she could still celebrate.


This is the cake I made for us all, complete with 22 candles, which I may add, Teresa managed to blow out in one go!

Teresa the birthday girl cutting the cake whilst Mark bubbles with anticipation.


Our friend Hege who also came along to help celebrate.

And Jenny, also in the same class and celebrating Teresa's birthday. Jenny only studies part time though and also works at some sort of archaeological records place.

Me when I was still a 'Fag Ash Lil' Now I am the new and improved Smoke Free Vic! Yay for 3 weeks of smokelessness! I feel so proud and itchy! (itchyness due to the patches, nothing more, nothing less!)
And the lovely Mark, in' he bewdifool?!


Me, I like this picture because I look like a complete NORBERT! In fact, I liked it so much that I used it on my ID badge for the night shifts at the post office.


And just so I don't seem completely self asbsorbed, a picture of Mark in Avebury somewhere with his class. Or maybe Wessex somewhere, he did say... See - I AM completely self absorbed!


We headed out to Cheddar gorge not long ago and this is the sunset from that day. Lovely sky, so very very red, which is supposedly a sheppards delight innit?


And Marks Mum, she's lovely absolutely lovely. I'm always really scared and nervous before meeting Mum's, doesn't matter who's they are but Mum's freak me out a little. But this Mum, ACH! I had absolutely nothing to worry about, she's a gem and completely sane!

Ah! Em and Aaron's leaving do. Loads of fun, got very very drunk and had a big giggle - can't quite remember exactly what about but definite giggly time! Oh, and this is my friend BEN! No not the rat from the Michael Jackson song - BEN FROM HIGH SCHOOL! How cool is that? So nice to bump into each other all the way over here.


And Ema and Aaron, don't they look all spiffy? Beautiful people! Miss them now they're back in Aus, enjoying a laid back life in the sun, baking in the heat on the beach in St. Kilda, or wherever...


OK, 'It's Christmas in Heaven, all the angels sing...' Actually, Christmas at Marks brother's Terry's place. Terry and Brenda per or post dinner... can't remember which. For some reason we don't have any of Debbie, she must be a master camera dodger!

Lee, Mark's li'l bruv! innee cute?


Christine, Marks sister, I did have one of Amber somewhere too but it seems to be evading me... Actually she's in the first one of Christmas, sat on the floor in front of Terry!


A friend from work - Kimberley - on a night out with the work crew! Good night, probably drank a li'l too much but there you go. Oh, not Kimberley, me...

My action figure from the Art Machine at the Beehive near the old town. Now I have a pair of them - 'well cool' Ha ha ha!!


My friend Kathrin who came to visit last weekend from Brighton, was wicked to see her, it's been an age!

And that's it. If it's not enough you can scroll down further to see one or two of my own pics from when I was travelling to Ol' blighty, and even further to get the soundtrack. Ha ha, without sound. Maybe soon they'll invent that too if they haven't already... Not counting you tube.

First of all a few long overdue pictures from my travels on the way to England:

Thailand - this waterfall is in the national park that I hitch-hiked to. Seems aeons ago now and I would so love to do another trip overseas for a few months or more. Guess I should start saving eh?!

Cambodia National Park - where we got lost.

A sunset from the south of Thailand where Mark and I stayed when he came to meet me on my travels, what bliss, what fond memories...

Possibly a better way to see the mountains in Nepal - by white water raft! Best fun, I did it for two whole days!!

I was half way through my news and then Mark got home so I signed off.... So I said I would blog again soon and here I am back again!

Mark & I have applied to be contestants on a game show titled 'For the Rest of Your Life'! Initially we knew hardly anything about it so we applied to find out more and we were sent an application form and no other details, so we filled that out and waited to hear something back. The evening after I sent the form in we got a call from the game show people and they interviewed us briefly over the phone for about 15 to 20 minutes. After the call we headed out for the night and were almost certain that we'd hear nothing more as they didn't sound too thrilled with our answers in the interview and we were still none the wiser as to what the show was all about. Anyway the following Monday I got another call from them asking us to go to an audition on the weekend! So of course I said yes! Definitely! When would you like to see us and where? So after making the arrangements we both started getting nervous about the audition - obviously neither of us has done anything like this before and we had no idea what to expect. So Mark and I got on the net and did a quick google search on the show title to see what I could find and hopefully shed some light on what we'd applied for. Here's what we found.

Courtesy of www.ukgameshows.com:
Couples play a game of chance in order to win large amounts of money every week for potentially the rest of their lives. This involves standing on squares and hoping that the ball underneath the large lidded plinths was white, which increased the prize money on offer, and not red, which lowered it and forced you to play on. If you lost all your red balls, or your money fell below zero it was game over. In round two, instead of money you played for time. One half of the couple played the game in the studio, the other half stayed out back and was relayed information via computer screen. Each white ball took you one step up the time ladder (beginning at one month and ending with "for the rest of your life" (which appears to be a straight forty years)). Red balls took you down the ladder and forces you to play on, lose all your red balls and go away with nothing. The extra jeopardy is that both contestants had to decide for themselves whether to play or stop, and the lowest place on the ladder that one of them stopped is what they'd take away. Clearly they were hoping for a moment when the player out front went all the way, whereas the player out back decided to stop on five years, say. Needless to say, the odds against anyone getting to the top of the ladder before quitting (which would involve risking as much as £500,000 on an (at best) 25% shot) were rather slim.

On the Sunday just gone we headed up to London for our audition with the hopes of finding out more about what the show is all about as the internet isn't very clear and we were sure there was more involved considering the questions we'd been asked and forms we'd had to fill out. Once there we were sworn to secrecy and asked to sign a form to ensure we didn't divulge any details about the show that we found out on the day or afterwards. Therefore I can only tell you what we found out ourselves from the google search. Fingers crossed that we get a chance to play and possibly win a nice chunk of cashola!

In addition to the excitement of the game show posibility, I have been offered a permanent and full time job with First Great Western which I interviewed for last week! Although they said they'd be in touch on the Friday I had a call the day after the interview with the offer of the job - so they must've really liked me after all and not been women in disguise as parrots! They're the train company in our area and it seems to be a pretty interesting job plus one of the major bonuses of it is free train travel on their trains for both me and for Mark! I have accepted the offer and yesterday headed off to a medical examination and drug and alcohol testing in Bristol as my contract is dependant on the results from that and my references coming back good. I've been really good recently, have quit smoking as of about 3 weeks ago and haven't done any of the green since Christmas/New Year, but being just my luck, I made some naughty chocolate truffles on the weekend before my interview and tried one of the on the Sunday. After checking the net I found that canabis stays in your system for aproximately 4 weeks after you've taken any, hence panic ensued! I did find a solution to my ridiculous problem though and bought a 100% guaranteed detox drink to pass the drugs part of the examination. So I'm £30 down, but fingers crossed a permanent job up, which seems like a reasonable trade. So it's almost a dead cert, unless I have something wrong with me that inhibits me doing the job that even I don't know about. Test results come back today and if I don't hear anything from the hospital then all is well. I start there this coming Monday and although it'll be a shame to say goodbye to Council where I have been working for the last two months or so I'm really excited and nervous (in a good way) about starting in a new position that I can settle in and get my teeth into - so to speak. I won't be biting anyone unless absolutely necessary.

As for the quitting - I have gone onto nicotine patches and haven't smoked at all for almost 3 weeks now (3 weeks on Friday - last fag was the 19th of Jan) So I'm pretty damn proud of myself. I did have a slip up though on Friday night last week - everything go on top of me - Dad not coming over to visit us in England has been a big let down and organising to head to Belfast and make the effort to see them has been a bit of a stress and hassle. So I was pretty upset and spent some of the day in tears -I know girly weakness got the better of me! hence the two cigarettes, but I haven't had one since and my Quit Counsellor said that I am still doing really well and should be really proud of myself, especially seeing that it's not the only upset I have had since giving smoking the arse!

In other news, Dad and Ann have arrived safe and sound in the UK and are currently in Belfast. Unfortunately they won't be making their way to England for any length of time (just to catch their flight from Heathrow to Belfast and back from Belfast to Aus they stop in Heathrow again) and therefore won't get to see Mark, where we are living or what we are doing, which is a major shame. But I will be heading over to Belfast to see them for a self imposed long weekend at the beginning of March. I can't have them travel all the way to the other side of the world and not make the effort to see them! On the up side - I haven't been to Belfast before and seeing that it's been about 3 years now since I saw either of them in the flesh I am majorly looking forward to catching up and being able to give Dad a big hug for real rather than the virtual hugs, or best wishes over the phone.

So last week was pretty full-on and this week it's been a bit more of the same, but not as crazy (thankfully, I don't know if I could've stood another 'high octane' week!)

It's been ages since I posted any pictures too and seeing that they've updated the services on Blogger I will post some of our own pictures of us, where we're living and things we've been up to recently in the next couple of days/weeks. Also if I get to take the digi camera to Belfast I will post some pics of that trip too.