I really need to get better at this 'updating my blog' thing.

Right, so where did we leave off?

Ah, yes! I went back to Nottingham to pack up and move the last bits and pieces with Stuart, and Carly and Rob both very kindly helped to move everything to Stuart's and Carly's dad's place. Surprisingly, it took only 2 trips to move all our junk! We also had to stop off at a B & Q to pick up an electric hob for Stu's Crown Street house because the old one was a gas hob and had to be disconnected or something. After moving stuff, we had a barbeque because the weather was so gorgeous. It was really nice to sit outside and chill out. In April!
The neighbour's dog Bluebell came over at some point with her yellow ball, and we tossed it a couple of times around for her to catch. She wasn't exactly a very bright dog, because she put her ball in the bird bath, and when we pretended to throw it, she ran off to catch the imaginary ball. Towards the end, Stuart threw her ball over the garage roof to the back garden and she disappeared, re-appearing without her ball, looking everywhere for it. Stu had lost her ball! Poor Bluebell!

We left around 8pm, and made our way to Tesco to get some drinks and snacks, as we were staying over at Carly and Rob's place in Derby. Their house is really lovely. I hope that when I get my apartment with Stuart, I will keep it as tidy as theirs. We basically just chilled out all night, chatting over drinks, and played Mortal Kombat on Rob's PS3. He is really good at it! After that, we tried out the Playstation Move with some game I've forgotten the name of. We finally went to bed at almost 5am. I don't remember the last time I went to sleep that late (or that early!).
When we woke up, Carly made us a yummy breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs, and we watched some terrible TV show called Gladiators or something. After that, we watched some programme about Princess Diana's life before we left for Nottingham.

The next few days were just spent chilling out and packing things into 2 large suitcases that we were taking down to London with us. It felt weird when Stuart went to work on Tuesday and I stayed in bed (I'd taken 3 days off work to help with the move). Felt kind of nice too, because it was just like when I was unemployed before, and Stu went to work and I stayed home. Kind of miss that now, especially the sleeping in. I hate my alarm clock with a vengeance more than ever nowadays.
Stuart decided to leave work for the last time at lunch time, so I met him at the main Post Office in town to set up the redirection thing for our mail. It felt quite surreal, knowing that we were walking through Nottingham for the last time. At about 5.30pm, we got a taxi to the train station to catch our train to London.
When we got to the platform, having gotten our tickets and everything in order, the train to St. Pancras was just pulling into the station, so we walked to our carriage and waited for people to alight. A train conductor (or someone who worked on that train) got off and held the door for us to get on the train, so we did, thinking it was ok to board the train since a member of staff let us on. Stuart struggled to get both massive, heavy suitcases on the train and place them in the baggage compartment, and then we found our seats. A few minutes later, another member of staff came in and very rudely said that we weren't supposed to be on the train, and that we had to get off. The stupidest thing was that the reason we weren't allowed on the train was that we might use the bathroom on board the train whilst it was in the station (his exact words were "it's someone's workplace"), and that we were only allowed to board the train 18 minutes past 6pm (our train was due to leave at 6.38pm). What a ridiculous thing! Plus, we asked if we could leave the heavy suitcases in the baggage compartment, instead of lugging them off to wait on the platform for 5 minutes, and then have to heave them back on again. But no... He insisted we take them out with us. What a douche.

The next few days was spent travelling around London like a tourist. It was quite fun actually! On Wednesday, Stu got it into his head that he wanted to see Little Ben, Big Ben's lesser known little brother! Since it was such a nice day, we decided to walk there. Along the way, we passed by a New Look, so I went in to buy some leggings, since the ones I have had holes in them. I also bought some harem trousers and a grey cardigan. At the checkout, I saw a pair of cute sunglasses, and bought them because I'd lost all my other pairs of sunglasses and I needed a pair at that point in time, because the sun was so bright. At £2.99, it was a steal! It took us another 2 hours to walk to Little Ben, although our journey was broken up by having an ice lolly and lunch (from Marks & Spencers).
We passed by Westminster Abbey on the way to Little Ben and it was PACKED, thanks to the Royal Wedding on Friday. It was ridiculous. People were camping along the road, in preparation to catch a 5 second glimpse of Prince William and Kate Middleton on their wedding day. Bad enough that the pavement was already blocked by the press setting up their cameras and what not!

On Friday, we went to JonP and Emma's house to watch the Royal Wedding, and for a champagne and cream tea breakfast.

And now I'm bored of writing this already long and rambling blog post.

Changes

Well, it's been a hectic few weeks, and I didn't update (as usual!) about my life. Things have changed rather drastically.

So, the job? I'm now a Marketing Assistant with SMi Group! It's really great that I got it, and I'm really happy about it. In fact, I've done 2 weeks there now, and I'm loving the job!

Also, since I last updated, Stu had got an interview at Lovefilm and got offered the job the day after, which is totally awesome!

So, in a nutshell, we both got the first jobs we went for London, and we're both going to be living in the Canada Water apartment once it's ready! Stu has to finish up his notice period at his current job, but he'll be moving down to London soon, so yay!

The only downside to having a job is not having loads of free time and having to wake up really early to get to work every morning. Other than that, this is what I want to do, and I'm determined to make the best of it.
SMi Group is an events and conferencing company, and has about 50 to 60 people working there. I haven't met everybody yet, but those that I have met are all really nice, and it helps a lot that Kan and Vinh work there too, so I've got friends around.

My first week at SMi was great. Got to know the systems and had my inductions and all that. Still unfamiliar, of course, but I'll get the hang of things eventually. At first, I was only doing simple things, but I'm gradually being given more responsibility. I quite enjoy it. My boss is really lovely, and she's been showing me the ropes, along with the girl who sits next to me, who is also really nice.

I've also moved to the temporary accommodation near Barbican tube station. Kan and Vinh very kindly offered to help me move. I stayed with JonP and Emma for a week before the Barbican place was ready, they're brother and sister, who Stu introduced to me. They were such lovely people to do me such a huge favour by letting me stay at their apartment. Now, it'll be another 2 months (hopefully not any longer!) till the Canada Water property will be ready.

I came back up to Nottingham last week for Stuart's birthday and also to help pack up more things and bring more stuff down to London. Also went to Stu's friends' Vlad and Jo's 10th wedding anniversary, which was very enjoyable. I also came back up this weekend for more packing and moving. (in fact, I'm blogging on the train!). Went to Stu's dad's house for Sunday dinner with his sister Carly and her boyfriend Rob. She very kindly offered to help move some things from Nottingham to Pleasley, where his dad's house is. Carly's also offered to help move the last bits of things next Saturday when she's not working, bless her!

It's rather strange being so far away from Stu these past few weeks, but it's only for another 4 days! This Friday's Good Friday, so it's a long weekend, so I'm gonna make another trip up to Nottingham for the final move, and Stu will be travelling back down to London with me. I'm also taking 3 days leave, which gives me an 11 day weekend, since the weekend after next is also a bank holiday weekend, thanks to the royal wedding! Should be able to get packing and moving done and get properly settled in by then!

Wow, this is a long post! Probably another few weeks before I update again, so savour this one, haha!

Job and moving to London

So, as you all know, I went down to London last Friday for my second interview. It went really well, and I quite enjoyed myself. After that, I waited in the lounge area for Kan and Vinh to finish work, and we went to get dinner at Vapiano again. Andy and Kan's friend Cynthia met us there as well. Stuart also decided to come down to meet me and spend the weekend in London.

After dinner, we went to Emma's house. We chatted awhile with Emma before we all went to bed, as we'd all had a very long day. On Saturday morning, I got a message from my brother, saying that my mother wanted me to check out a property development in Canada Water. Since Emma's house was close by, we decided to go there before we had lunch in Canary Wharf. When we got there, there was a marketing suite, so I decided to have a chat with a sales person. Stu and Emma had some drinks and hor d'oeuvres whilst they waited for me. After I got a brochure and price list and spoke to my parents, we left for Canary Wharf and went to a funky Mexican restaurant called Wahaca for a very delicious and filling lunch. After that, Emma and I wandered into Zara to do a spot of shopping before going our separate ways so that Emma could do some of her acting rehearsal stuff.

Over the weekend, we went back to Canada Water to look at Fairmont House again for my parents. After that, we decided to go to lunch at the Korean restaurant just outside Holborn tube station, but unfortunately it was closed. Stu and I walked back and forth for awhile trying to look for somewhere to eat at, and finally settled on a small sushi place. Whilst we were eating, Stu spotted a Krispy Kreme shop across the road, and we headed over there after we were finished with lunch. We bought a dozen doughnuts to bring back to Nottingham. :)

We then headed to Leicester Square, where we visted Rendezvous for the yummy ice-cream. I had rum and raisin and pistachio, Stu had coconut. We stayed there for awhile chatting about the future and our potential move to London and whether we could afford living in London. After that, we walked to Chinatown. I remembered seeing a Singapore-Malaysian cafe when I'd gone to see Les Miserables with my brother two summers ago, and so Stu very nicely waited for me whilst I had a curry laksa, one of my favourite foods that I miss so much. I also bought some Malay desserts to take back to Nottingham. After that, we went to collect our bags and made our way to St Pancras train station. We got there pretty early and had to wait around for the train to arrive. We only arrived back in Nottingham at about 10.30pm.

On Wednesday, I got a call from SMi Group (the company I interviewed at), offering me the job! :) I said yes, and so from April 4th, I will be a Marketing Assistant at SMi Group! :) :) :)

I'm just so glad now that I am going to starting a new job, and one that I think I'll really enjoy!

Oh, also! I spoke to Dad on Wednesday afternoon as well, and he asked me if I liked Fairmont House at Canada Water. I replied that I did, and so my brother and I will be joint houseowners! In fact, they've already taken a deposit fee, so the house will be ours very soon! :) I'm really looking forward to moving into the apartment and furnishing the place!

However, because the apartment isn't fully completed yet, and is estimated to be completed in May or June 2011, I've had to look for somewhere to stay short term before moving into the new place. So I will be staying in a studio flat near Barbican temporarily.

It will suck being away from Stuart, but kind of exciting to start working too. And a proper job, in the field that I really enjoy as well! I'm really happy that everything is panning out and working out properly! :)

There's more to update about, but this post is rather long already, and I'm getting quite tired, so it's bye for now! :)

Job Hunting

So, for the past few weeks, I've been busy with job hunting. It's been difficult, and at times, emotional, having to deal with endless rejections.

I'm actually on the train to London at the moment, on my way to my second interview. This is my second trip to London this week. On Monday, I travelled to London for an intial interview. I was set a task to do, which I did and sent back on Wednesday. To my delight, they called me soon after and arranged another interview on Friday.

I hope this goes well. Potentially, I would then be moving down to London. Whilst this makes me sad because I would be leaving some dear friends back in Nottingham, it's also kind of exciting to start a new job and meet new people.

I haven't written a blog post about Prague (which was amazing) yet. I promise, I will write one once things settle down a bit.

So, fingers crossed. I'll update when I get news, good or bad. Hopefully good. :)

February-ing

It's February already! Wow, time flies.

In less than 2 weeks it will be Valentine's Day, and in 16 days it'll be my 23rd birthday. Boy, I'm getting old!

This will be our first Valentine's Day together. I'm kind of stuck on what to get Stu for Valentine's Day. When I asked him, he said "Valentine's Day is for girls. You don't have to get me anything.", and then we proceeded to have a lengthy discussion about the origin of Valentine's Day. Stu says it's a corporate holiday invented by Hallmark, whilst I maintain that Valentine's Day came about because of a monk called Valentine, who was jailed for not giving up his religious beliefs, and fell in love with the jailer's daughter, writing letters to her signed "From your Valentine". He became sainted and Valentine's Day came about because of St. Valentine.

My version is so much more romantic. AND it's probably true.

It's Chinese New Year on Wednesday, and tomorrow I'll be Skype-ing with my family when they gather at my aunt's house for the reunion dinner on Chinese New Year Eve. I'd planned to be with them this year, after missing many years of Chinese New Year festivities because of uni here, but sadly, thanks to the visa application taking forever to process, I have to miss another year of seeing my family at Chinese New Year.

Stu got my birthday present already. I was on ASOS looking at stuff (looking, not buying! I have been true to my word (or New Year's resolution) and have not gone shopping since New Year's!) and I saw a pair of strappy wedges that I really liked, and so I jokingly asked if he could buy them for me as my birthday present. Surprisingly, he said yes! So he bought them, and on Saturday a box was delivered by a very nice deliveryman. But now, he won't let me open the box! :( I already know what it is, so why can't I open it?! So frustrating.

Right, I'm off now. Going to have a quick shower and then get ready to pop into town for some V-day present hunting (which does not count towards the New Year's resolution of not shopping, since whatever I buy is not for myself!). :)

*********************

As you can probably see, I've added a new little gizmo on my blog, showing you shows I've watched recently. It's a really cool website I use (Stuart introduced me to it) to "check in" to TV shows or movies I watch. It's called Miso, and you can earn badges for checking into shows and movies. You can even add shows if they aren't already on there. You can also follow people who watch the same stuff as you. It's really cool.

P.S. I'm in no way paid to write an advertorial for them, so there's no benefit or advantage in me writing this. I just think the website is pretty cool, that's all. :)

Weird dreams

Lately I've been having very vivid but weird dreams. Not all of them are bad dreams per se, but weird nonetheless.

The one I had last night was a particularly weird one. I was in a giant theme park kind of place with my brother and my little cousin, only I was my age, but my brother was much younger than me (he's only 1 year apart from me), and my cousin looked like when she was about six. In the dream, I distinctly remembered that I was with a group of friends before, and I had asked them if they'd wanted to come with us to the theme park, but they said no, so we'd left without them.

The scene changed to a cinema type place in this theme park. I don't remember what film it was showing, but I'd walked out holding my little cousin's hand and my brother following us, with the distinct feeling of being quite happy.

Next thing I remember, I see Stuart with my group of friends from before, walking past me, so of course I stop and say hello. I also said "I thought you guys didn't want to come to the theme park?". One of the girls in the group (who felt very much like a frenemy and was 13 from House (Olivia Wilde)) spoke up, "Oh, you didn't ask us to come along.", to which I angrily retorted "Yes, I did! I asked you and you guys didn't want to come!". She shrugged in a really annoying nonchalant manner and started walking off, and the rest of the group sort of follow her in a really robotic way. I look at Stuart and he stares right through me and walks off with the rest of the group, leaving me feeling small and very hurt.

Have you ever had the kind of dream where you knew it was a dream and you kept thinking, wake up, wake up right now because I don't want to be here any more, but try as you might, you couldn't? This dream was exactly like that, and all the feelings I felt in the dream, I could feel in real life. When I finally woke up, I felt like the dream was so real, and for that one irrational moment, I thought that it actually was happening in real life.

The night before I'd had a similar sort of lucid dream as well, only it was scarier and involved a lot of running around (I was running from a serial killer who tortured his victims in a dingy hospital operating room kind of setting before he murdered them), so that when I woke up I actually felt physically and mentally exhausted.

I remember a very vivid dream, that to this very day, I remember every single detail. I was a Jew, living in the time of the Holocaust. I remember having to run and hide from the Nazi soldiers, and the constant fear and terror I felt. In my dream I wept as I watched my world around fall apart. When I woke up, my pillow was wet, and I realised that the emotions I'd felt in my dream were so strong that I'd actually cried in real life.

But then there are nights where I don't think I dream at all. It's just a huge black blank between falling asleep and suddenly, the next thing I know, I'm waking up. It's bizzare.

Stuart says I'm a weirdo. I don't know. I actually quite like that I have weird dreams. Means that I have a good imagination and an active subconscious, haha! :)

Right, what's the point of this blog again? Sigh.

2011 isn't off to a great start, sadly.

Postman comes banging on my door this morning, and I get an official looking letter, and I think "Oh my god, yay! The visa people were nice and rushed my application and they've sent it back already!" But, no. Wait a minute, it's a rejection letter.

Bloody fucking incredible.

Apparently they rejected it because the bank rejected the payment. Which is ridiculous because Dad got a message from them saying that the UK Home Office was taking the money. ARGH!

So anyways, I've now filled in a new application form, and am going to go through it (ALL OVER AGAIN, AS IF THE FIRST TIME WASN'T ENOUGH!!!) tonight.

It's super annoying. I suppose it's not a massive deal, but anyone who's had to deal with visa stuff can attest to how much red tape one has to jump through and stupid mundane questions one has to fill out on these application forms.

Other than that, Christmas was great. Stu and I spent Christmas Eve in Nottingham. I made a turkey and everything!

We were invited to Ken and Kay's (Stuart's dad and his partner) place for Christmas dinner, so on Christmas morning, his dad came to pick us up. We had a lovely time chatting in front of a gorgeous fire, and then went to see Jo (Stuart's mom), after which we walked back to Stuart's house.

On Boxing Day, we went over to Ken and Kay's house again for lunch and spent most of the day in front of the fire again. We left around 8pm to see Hayley and Dave at the Sir John Cockle, where I also had my very first pub quiz! There was a music quiz which we won (no thanks to me, although I did know the title of one song, You Raise Me Up, by the way, haha.) and the other normal quiz, which we didn't win, but it was great fun nonetheless. We finished at about 11.30pm and caught a taxi back to Crown Street.

Oh, some bad news. Stuart's friend Chloe (who was renting his house) decided to move in with another friend, and so she's moving out of Stu's house quite soon. That means Stuart has to either move back to Mansfield (which isn't ideal) or get another tenant to rent his house. Poor thing, he's quite stressed out about all this and money stuff.

Right, now on to New Year's resolutions. Last year, I remember making a list which included "Shop less", which lasted about three days, and "Exercise more", which lasted about a day. This year, I'm going to try and make more realistic resolutions.

1. Join a gym and work out at least 3 times a week, an hour each session.
2. No shopping from New Year's day up till my birthday. (So far I've kept this one, so I'm doing good!)
3. Get a job. (Duh.)
4. Eat less junk food and more fruits and vegetables.
5. Spend less on going out (eating at restaurants, nights out, etc.)

So, 5 resolutions should last me a year, I think.

Oh yes! Stuart and I have decided to start this thing called Project 365 (I typed 635 a minute ago, lol!). Basically, you take a picture everyday and upload it. Stu showed me this website, http://365project.org/ , which will make it easy to upload pictures and leave a description. Such a brilliant idea.

Right, I'm off to get something to eat now. Haven't eaten all day, thanks to the visa nonsense I've had to deal with. Sigh.