October 2023

I arrived home from Matlock, tried to get a good night's sleep, before my interview the next day. I had applied to work in an NHS call centre for 111, and I was feeling very nervous about it. What if I wasn't good enough, what if the fact I had no qualifications would stop them from hiring me. What if I made a fool of myself and they laughed at me?

Weirdly, this was one of the best interviews I had ever had, and I felt my nerves instantly dissipate once I was introduced to the two team leaders who were interviewing. They both made me feel so calm and collected, and we actually had a laugh together during the interview! It's proof that if you're made to feel welcomed and supported in the interview, then your skills & personality will show through.

I left feeling like it had gone well, and a day later I had an email saying I had been offered the job, and the training would start in November. Yippee!

James arrived home that day, and took me out for dinner to Red Dog Saloon. The food there was very nice, albeit paying was frustrating. We were originally given an incorrect bill (there had been a mistake and a load of stuff we didn't have was added on), that took ages, and eventually our server came over to apologise and said they would take 10% off, only they didn't. We paid, then realised, and then we were refunded the wrong amount, and then spent ages waiting for someone to come back and give us the right refund. Another server came, accused us of lying about how much we actually had, only for the manager who then came over to realise that us and the table next to us had ordered the same sharing platter, but the other table had ordered a load of additional drinks. It left us a bit frustrated, and I'm not sure if we will return again.

We then did something one saturday that we'd never done before, and that was doing an art course together. Ever since the painting in Paris, I'd been feeling more creative and more adventurous art wise. We saw it advertised, and thought we'd try it out. It was hosted at Southampton Art Gallery, and the lady running it was fantastic. She had many years of experience with both print making and lino design, and was so helpful in getting us up to speed and developing our skills. Here you can see my attempt at trying to recreate the garden in print form. I think I need a lot more practice, but there we go, we all have to learn somehow! 

We got to keep all our prints, here's one of James's with a sailboat in the sunset, and here was an attempt of mine to do a portrait. I learned at this moment, that I cannot draw faces, particularly eyes. One eye was almond shaped, the other was like a balloon. I just couldn't do it, so decided instead to leave it blank. Maybe my skills as a printmaker are not to be, but we had a fantastic time doing it. There's always lots of courses & workshops at the art gallery, find out more here: @southamptoncityartgallery.com/events

I popped in to see Nan & Grandad, and was amazed to see that Annie, the fox they feed was getting a dinner consisting of potatoes with spaghetti & meatballs. This fox is eating better than I do! Perhaps I should be going to sit on the lawn and beg for dinner!

New kitty magnets for the fridge! Me and James are cat obsessed, we keep talking about getting one, but we never seen to be quite ready to adopt. One day perhaps!

We love tapas, and here is a tapas dinner made by yours truly! We have Spanish onion soup, homemade meatballs in tomato sauce, a mini frittata, beetroot & feta salad, croutons & parmentier potatoes, all with a delicious bottle of Vermentino. Perhaps I should open my own tapas restaurant!

I also spent some time baking, here's my honey & coconut cake, made with a new cake tin I treated myself to from @divertimenti.co.uk. They are expensive, but the cake pans are beautifully made and they have some fantastic designs there. I treat myself to one new one each year!

And me & James got to enjoy a sweet treat & prosecco at our local @johnlewis.com, completely free with our John Lewis cards! We were very happy with that, but it begs the question, just how much do we spend in there to warrant such a good freebie? Perhaps we should be buying John Lewis shares! That being said, I had just ordered a new christmas tree & decorations, it cost an arm and a leg, but it was going to be well worth it. I wasted to decorate the little indoor balcony we have above the conservatory and make it feel christmassy, but fun. I made good use of a gift card and a 20% off offer that they had on at the time, so now I've just got to wait for it to arrive now!

Morning walks along the Solent, making use of the milder but dry weather we seemed to be having.

But typically, any calories I've burned off by walking go straight back on at lunchtime! 

And this arrived one day in the post. I remember saying how much I liked the one Shakira owns, I thought it was fantastic, and so she ordered me on for Halloween! I was so grateful and impressed, and got it filled straight away! Although to be fair my Masala Dabba is probably not as authentically filled as her one probably is! But I made sure to fill it with all the spices we use the most. Judge me if you want to! 

I was starting to get ready for Halloween itself, and the day before we went Halloween food shopping I tried to use up all the odd bits in the fridge. It was a bit of a mixed platter, but it served a purpose. As you can see in the background, all the Halloween stuff had come down from the loft and we were starting to get it out and the place decorated. Husky was supposed to be helping, although when I asked him to help unload the dishwasher, he threw a tantrum and refused, and just sat on it. Honestly, the life of a spoilt dog! 

And finally, I wanted to share this screenshot from the Sims 4, which I'd been playing on more recently. I'd spent a long time with the same family, and finally got enough money together to build a conservatory onto the back of their house for some extra space. I'd just built, decorated & put in the furniture, and discovered their cats napping next to each other on the sofa. What a pair of cuties!