The busy social life that I lead!

We went to the Goodwood Revival a few weekends ago, which was great fun and warm enough to dress up! The car just about held up long enough to be driven there and back, but is now once again off the road!

Hayley also came back last weekend, and we had a great girly chat. In between all this, I have had to find time to complete the last of the leaving present paintings, which seemed to go down well.

We have been very preoccupied with trying to find the best deal for flights and accommodation in Oz, when we go next April to visit my half-sister and her newborn (eugh). Really looking forward to it, as it will be an opportunity to go and visit my uni friend Margaret who emigrated over to Perth.

Later this month I have three social engagements in a row! Paintballing in a couple of weeks for a friend's birhtday, then my 80s themed party (parents away!), then a charity black tie event and screening of the new Bond film in Devizes, that glamorous market town!

Hopefully this weekend I'll get out and try and spot rutting deer, making use of the free time before it gets really busy!

weekends away!

So these last few weeks have been very hectic. The weekend after the great family gathering, Steph and I, together with a whole bunch of people, mostly from the Trust, stayed in an old cottage in the Brecons. We visited many spectacular waterfalls, loved the cottage immensely (even though the stairs were a nightmare - very tight spiral staircase of slippery slates, that you have to crawl on hands and knees to get up) and all agreed that it should be an annual thing!

Then last weekend, when Sarah and I were supposed to be going to visit Patty in Essex (who was ill), we actually ended up fossil hunting on the Jurassic Coast, and then going shopping in Bournemouth the next day, so we had lots of fun then too!

Now this weekend I'm off to the Goodwood Revival, though judging by the chill in the weather I don't think I'll be dressing up!

O-M-G

I'm going to be an aunt - we found out yesterday that my half-sister who lives in Brisbane is due in March so we'll be heading over there for Easter hopefully, which should be lovely. And this also means that I may yet get to see my friend from uni, Margaret, which is great news.

We had the great family gathering to say hello to my half sister and her husband yesterday, which was attended by numerous relatives including both cousins and their partners, who we haven't seen for several years - we were truly honoured.

Tanzania pics!

Just a small selection of the 783 I took while I was out there!

Oops! Forgot about my blog!

Oh dear - I've been so busy with the new job and holiday that I had completely forgotten to update here!

So, the new job's going really well, slowly getting the hang of it all - I started on 23rd May, and have been out and about quite a lot, which is great. Much more interesting than planning, which I am not missing at all (well, maybe a little as this is so completely different to anything I've done before!). Really challenging, but loving the learning curve!

On 26th of June I went to Tanzania for our (probable) last family holiday. We'd just found out that my brother is now a doctor, and my sister had got the 2:1 she wanted, so that was great news.

Tanzania was amazing - we got back on Wednesday morning, though I have to say that three weeks in a 4x4 is probably too much - not enough exercise, too much food, and escalating levels of moaning due to awful roads and a couple of 10 hour journeys!

I only took 780 pics, a modest amount for me really, but I'm really pleased with most of them. I sort of binged on sunsets quite a lot! Hopefully there will be some in there that could be entered in to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2 more into the semifinals this year; that's two out of the 16000+/32000, which isn't too bad I suppose!).

We started off in Arusha, driving to Tarangire NP (lots of elephants), then Lake Manyara (flamingos, monkeys and tree-climbing lions!); Oldupai Gorge (the Cradle of Mankind - the Leakey's dig for hominid remains); Serengeti (lots of lions, sunrise balloon ride then amazing bush breakfast! And of course our magical leopard encounter - see pics!); Ngorogoro crater (AMAZING!!!!); Arusha NP (no views of Kili due to clouds - gutting); a day hiking in Usumbara mountains (wonderful views, totally knackering climb!); Mikumi NP (some lions, but pretty quiet really); Udzungwa NP (beautiful tropical rainforest - so much wildlife - best park I went to I think); Selous Game Reserve (awful 10 hour drive there - most people fly in and we can now see why! Again, quite quiet, but river and lakes had great bird life) and then 1.5 days in Dar before heading back (walks on the beach had to be done without valuables inc. cameras due to high probability of being mugged by local fisherman - sort of typifies Dar really, but nice to chill out for a couple of days!).

So you can see we packed an awful lot in! And now I have to catch up with work...

No, still haven't started

So it's been a month and a half since I was made redundant, and almost a month since I got the job, but I still haven't started it officially! I say 'officially' because I am already doing some things, such as training and some SSSI condition assessments to come, but these aren't paid, rather to be taken as TOIL later on.

The problem is that one of my references went on holiday before the request for his came in (although he is now back and doesn't have any email from them requesting it), so this has led to a delay - the proposed start date of this Friday has now been put back until the 2nd of June, which is very annoying, but at least allows for greater tennis playing time!

I'm having a Eurovision party this Saturday too - my costume is truly spectacular in the degree of shoddiness - I have to say that the shoddier the costume, the funnier it usually is! Everyone attending has to come as either a country or a past act - my past act features much foil, though that doesn't really narrow it down much. one clue: Tanzen!

So here I am, sitting at home waiting to start an exciting new job, but with no income and having run out of things to do a long, long time ago [in a galaxy far away]...

Employment!

Yes, I have a job - in fact, I almost had two!

I managed to get an interview for the NE job - problem was I had to drive to Lewes for it, and it was at 5pm... There were a couple of posts in Lyndhurst - one doing coastal planning, the other concentrating on mainly land management. Thankfully, I was successful, though I was a bit annoyed to start at 19K, which was a pay drop, instead of the 23K, but I can see they had to be fair to everyone. I was bracing myself for the planning post, but whilst waiting for confirmation of the job I was actually going to do, and having accepted the offer, I was offered an interview for an ecological consultancy in Winchester in response to a speculative letter and CV I had sent out a couple of weeks before.

They kept changing the date for the interview, and Rachel from NE had phoned to offer me the land management post (hurrah - no more planning!) so I had to bring the interview date forward. I had it on Wednesday, and found out yesterday that I had not got it. I was actually quite thankful - from the sounds of things I would have been starting on 17K (!) and be shoved into doing bat stuff, including becoming licenced - what fun. Plus, the NE job sounded so brilliant, so I was probably going to go for that anyway.

I'm still not sure when I start, but am really looking forward to it! The only problem is that this will severely limit tennis playing opportunities in Devizes - oh well, sacrifices have to be made!

Interview palaver

OMG - what a mess it has been! I emailed NE recruitment to see what was happening with that NE job I applied for ages ago - they replied saying that they had invited me to interview on the 28th of March, had followed it up but received no response so assumed I wasn't attending. Needless to say, I had never read this email - but did find it in the deleted folder - very mysterious, I guess I must have accidentally deleted it thinking it was the original confirmation of application receipt email. Grrr - how stupid!

I got on the phone to them, and several phone calls later, spanning two days and involving my old NE friend Rachel and 'Alan from recruitment', I have an interview in Lewes this evening (5pm), so thank you very much Rachel - you are a complete star!

Other than this post, there is nothing very promising on the horizon, and barely anything at all to even apply for! I've contacted a variety of consultancies asking, in hope, that they may want to employ me/offer me a work placement to get some valuable experience. A bit on the desperate side though...

I've been trying to remain positive, through painting and trying to get several shop/galleries to sell them - looking promising so far, but very slow progress indeed! if it wasn't for my social engagements I think I would be feeling very low, so thanks to all my friends for their continuing support! [slightly too much on the gushing side methinks?!!].

It's a 'no'...

....from the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year competition - I'm a bit gutted about it actually, but at the same time cannot wait to see who has won - the works must be amazing (thus implying that mine was very good - I am so modest).

Unemployment update

Yes, still without a job to go to! Since the failed Chalkhill interview I have:

• Applied and had an interview for an ecologist post for the Dorset Wildlife Trust Consultancy [Result: no result :(]
• Applied for my old job at NE [no progress on that front]
• Left the Trust 3 times! - I was going to be in the Swindon office for a couple of Wednesdays but these were both cancelled, so I ended up being back in the Devizes office! It was good, because it meant I could attend the rounders match to say goodbye to Andrew F, and could say goodbye to Beth on the following Wednesday.

In between this I had my traditional family trip over the Easter weekend in the motorhome - this would most likely be the last time we would all be away in it. Despite the temperamental weather, we managed to avoid most of the showers and hailstorms and visited Padstow, the Lizard, the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan!

Social event wise, there was Purgle and Amanda's house party a couple of weeks ago, and then on Friday was the Redundancy Party (for myself, Jo and Beth, and change of job party for Tom!). Sarah, Richard and I spent the entire day cleaning, decorating and baking in preparation for our Hawaiian themed party - it looked great, there was tonnes of food, and our cakes seemed OK (though the Chocolate fudge cake wasn't very cooked, and Oli likened it to beef - complete rubbish; the volcano cake was likened to a pile of sick - I think the mini sparklers in the tops seemed to improve on this though!).

It was very sad to say goodbye to them all, and they gave me a brilliant present and massive card, but no doubt I will stay in touch with them - thank "God" for Facebook!

Disappointment

I was lucky enough to get an interview for the internal Chalkhill post. However, they said I had to come to it with a clear plan as to how to get a bat licence within 13 weeks. Cue much research and talking to people.

I thought I had planned very well, and was thinking it could go either way. The interview was a bit weird - many questions about how the consultancy differs to the Trust, and talk about the financial insecurities, which alarmed me a bit. But I thought it would have been a great challenge, and would have given me lots of great skills.

After the interview I went off with Colin (head of the consultancy) to look at a bat roost, which was very interesting and also part of the interview (not quite sure how...). They made up their minds very quickly - it was a no. I was surprised at my reaction (i.e. quite upset) to the news - just too much of a financial obstacle, as bat work brings in lots of money to the consultancy and I would have not been able to contribute to this. They did say that for any other ecologist post I would have got the position, which was some small comfort.

But thinking about it more, I think the pressure to perform and bring the money in would have made the first 13 weeks, and perhaps even after this time, not very nice and quite stressful. And the constant spectre of having my hours reduced because there was no work would have also been interesting... So in a way I'm quite glad I didn't get it.

It does mean now that I will definitely be leaving the Trust, which I am gutted about, as I love (almost) all of the people there. Very sad.

I've also been told that the possible casual work at Natural England will also not be coming off, so almost all of my hopes rest on getting my old job back - the application is in, so fingers crossed!

Besides from job hunting (which, to be honest, seems to be 90% of my life at the moment), I've met up with Caroline for an emergency Prezzo-catch up (Julia pregnant - OMG and major congrats!), and went paintballing last weekend for Richard's birthday (immense fun of course - severe thigh strain as a result of 6 hours of squatting behind barricades though!).

I'm off this week to open a conference in Hereford with Sarah about the NERC Duty - somehow we have to sound like we know what we're talking about. OK, it's not that bad, we know quite a lot, but if they ask any tricky questions about the NERC Duty, we may be in trouble! An excellent excuse to go walking in the Wye Valley though!

(Possible) jobs ahoy!

So last Friday I found out for certain that they are making me redundant, which was to be expected really. We've been quite lucky in that we are being allowed 10 days fully-paid off work to search for jobs, so I've now gone down to a four-day week - hurrah! Only trouble is, there is so much to do between now and the end of the post, so I'm running out of time.

In terms of jobs, I've applied for a few - another rejection, this time from Wessex Water, was there to greet me when I got home from work today - again, to be expected as I knew I didn't have enough experience, but it was worth a punt!

Strangely, what is basically my old job at Natural England has just been advertised (I was tipped off in advance - thanks to my contacts!), so I'll be applying for that. I really hate their application forms though - a lot of corporate speak involving competencies, so my completed form stands at 14 pages long!!!!!

I've just handed in my 'expression of interest' for the in-house ecologist vacancy at the Trust's consultancy Chalkhill, even though I don't have three years experience, and don't have a bat licence/am not close to even achieving one! But as I'm their only candidate at this stage, and I have 13 weeks to be trained up to their required standard, it was worth going for it anyway. We shall see.

So it's looking a bit more hopeful!

Busy Busy Busy

Well, comparably anyway! Yes, there's lots to do at work at the moment, with a lot of our efforts concentrated on the impending arrival of four new volunteers to help Sarah and Neil out, and do a bit of planning stuff when I'm gone.

Talking of which, I find out this week if (more like when) I go. I have not heard anything remotely positive, so am frantically looking around for something. I've applied for a couple of ecologist posts so far, so we'll see what happens there - doesn't look good though.

I've taken those prints of some of my pictures out of Devizes Fine Arts, where nothing was happening at all. Trying to find another place to sell/display them, but in the meantime I've set up a Redbubble account, where people can buy my work online, and I don't have to do anything! So far, lots of positive comments but no sales.

I've also been very busy with social events - including cooking around 50 pancakes on Tuesday of course, and meals out with various people including the old Natural England crowd (hot that they're at all old but you know what I mean) and Caz. And last night it was Sarah McC's birthday drinks in Devizes (happy birthday for Tuesday), which was most pleasant indeed.

And that's the end of that chapter...

OK, am slightly annoyed. I knew that the Trust was facing some financial shortfalls, but didn't realise until yesterday quite how bad. I am at risk of being made redundant, and by the conversation I had with my boss today I can take it that I won't have a job at the end of the financial year.

I mean, I was looking anyway as I am getting very bored, but at least I had the security of a permanent job at a good rate. It has somewhat forced my hand.

I am a bit gratified that my boss is suitably pissed off - that goddamned useless fundraising team - they haven't done anything, and what with illness and bereavement they just haven't been able to do their jobs.

So back to the job hunt...

Back to normality

This year was a fairly typical festive season - Xmas dinner was Spanish-themed this year (Tapas and paella - yum!), with New Year being spent at my second home, St Cuthberts in Devizes!

I did have time to meet up with various friends, including some PGL ones on a trip to Portsmouth, which was great fun. I must make a greater effort to keep in touch with them all.

My birthday last weekend was brilliant - cannot believe that I am now a quarter of a century old, but at least I celebrated it in 'style' - a night out in Salisbury wearing our flashing cowboy hats from the Christmas party, which went down a storm! The Cha-Cha Slide even featured to make the perfect evening!

Things to look forward to in 2008:

Tanzania in June - yey!
The Goodwood revival in September
Planning for next year's trip with Hayley to Oz and hopefully NZ

And now a whole year stretches forth before me, and the world of planning has gone a bit quiet. Who knows that will happen!