day in the life: may 2013

definitely getting the hang of this - and loving it!

this month's DitL included my first week of my NEW JOB and it was pretty cool to be able to include that

i love seeing the things that are the same (breakfast and coffee at the start of the day; zumba at the end) and the things that are different.  all part of life!

next month i'll remember to insta during the day with the hashtag #dayinthelife

always fun to participate AND to follow.

photostory friday: 3 down, 1 to go (and other news)

i am SO loving my new scrap/office space!

 

and this is my completed 'gather and glue' class, run by the fabulous RACHEL TUCKER at autumn escape last month.

that's 3 down 1 to go - just jenni bowlin's mini album to go, and that's half done already!

i've never worked with these project life-type pages before, but they're fun, quick and easy and a sure fire way to use all those scraps you have lying around!

easy too, when you're working with such a fun subject - my zumba friend sherin :)

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in other news, i got me one of those job thingees 

i was hired 3 hours after my interview, which kinda makes it feel sudden!

i'll be working in the conference arena on a permanent part-time casual basis.

hours yet to be determined, and some travel included too (mama loves a hotel bed now and then!)

although i'll be doing less zumba (yes, that's up there on my top 5 list of things i won't be ABLE to do now that i have a job!) i'm very excited about this new opportunity.

i get to do all the things i'm good at:

organise stuff

talk

meet people

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

the shortest photostory friday ever

even though my kids are doing all the cooking while i'm working full-time, working full-time still doesn't leave much time for anything else - let alone blogging!

i just had to share this with you though.

this photo was taken at approximately 3.45pm on friday afternoon

around a dozen of the office staff had just completed the 5-minute quiz that features in our daily paper (we got 9 out of 10 - AGAIN!) and someone suggested that we break out the wine.

being a temp

being a total swot

not wanting to look like a total slacker/alkie (they still like me!) - i went back to my desk to do something terribly important like indexing 451 power point files one-by-one (i'm up to #13) - when i heard the tinkling of chardonnay arrive.

can i just say

I LOVE MY JOB AND ALL THE PEOPLE WHO WORK THERE!?!?!?!!!!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

i'm back, i'm tired, the conference was a huge success and i didn't run out of cash

so you wanna know how i accidentally cut up my debit card?

this is how

our CREDIT cards got upgraded. new ones arrived in the post. cut up the old one. threw it away.

husband set up company as he's now self-employed as a consultant/contrator (work coming out his ears btw)

he ordered debit cards - for the COMPANY.

new cards arrived. cut up the old ones.

paid no attention to the fact that they were COMPANY debit cards. assumed they were replacements for our old REGULAR debit cards.

so now have NEW company debit cards (no money in the account, can't use) and NO current debit card.

several days pass. day of leaving town for conference arrives. go to bank to get PIN numbers put on new cards.

go to money machine to get out cash and notice COMPANY NAME on debit cards.

realise i have cut up perfectly good debit card. DOH!

so there you have it!

NOTE TO SELF: check name on new debit card before cutting up next time!!!

rule #1 when leaving on a business trip: do NOT accidentally cut up your debit card

and DEFINITELY don't make this heinous discovery ONE HOUR before you get on the plane!

yep. i did that. thankfully i have this vintage stuff called cash to take along with me.

the working girl update: winning something completely useless

this time tomorrow i'll be in sunny nelson eagerly preparing for the 3 day conference i have single-handedly organised over the past 4 months!

i'm really excited about it all coming together; meeting the delegates, exhibitors and presenters, getting post-conference feedback, and starting all over again to plan an even better 2010 event! (i'm a little ocd like that).

i'm also looking forward to not being so time pressured at work, although i got asked to organise another conference for november today, so i guess that idea's out the window!

a curious thing has started happening now that i'm in a 'workplace'. strangers call me. they want to have meetings with me. they ask me to come and visit their venue, attend their expo, get something printed with them.

how do these people know my name? how did they get my number?

i guess it's just one of life's mysteries.

last week i attended a tech expo aka nirvana for gadget freaks. samsung, hewlett package, canon, fuji, microsoft, belkin - you name it, they were there. there were 3 highlights for me:

1) dropping my business card (i have them now you know) in the 'lucky draw' of all the exhibitors. i'm under no illusion that all i'll gain from that is a lot of junk email.

2) adobe were there and they're going to fix my iTUNES problem. watch this space!

3) i won something while i was at the expo

you know the drill: stand around, listen to the sponsors wax lyrical about their product and hope that your name gets called out so you haven't wasted 40 minutes of your day. there was around a dozen prizes onstage:

mini laptops, digital frames, monitors, xbox, cameras, logitech steering wheels, a beer fridge - y'know, lots of cool stuff.

MY name got called. did i win any of the uber-cool aforementioned stuff i just mentioned?

NO.

what did i win?

a polystyrene cheque.

to the value of $170

for a server configuration

OH YEAH. GO WILD.

...the shame didn't end there. i had to carry the DAMN thing all the way through town back to my office!

where it's sat ever since.

any suggestions as to what i should do with it???

tuesday's blog party winner and my life in six words

tuesday's blog party is over and i thank everyone who donated $1
congratulations to roy/elisabeth dean who won the package of kiwiana goodies!
they're on their way (well, almost!)

debi, who organised tuesday's party (snaps to debi!) says $3224 has been raised, which is a fantastic effort.

i received this 'one lovely blog' award from jennifer over at the happenings.

thanks jennifer!

then i turn on my computer on SUNDAY morning, to discover i've won the same award again from veggiemom, who gave it to me as part of six word SATURDAY.



right now, my six words would be

HAD A MELTDOWN. WILL BE OK

i guess that's what happens when you go back to [paid] word after 20 years, and whilst you make the transition easy, the rest of the family doesn't; and at the same time, your husband loses HIS job, and a parent becomes ill.


i do believe change is good. sometimes it happens to fast. sometimes it doesn't happen fast enough. sometimes the concept is simply overwhelming.

meh. i'm sure it's nothin' that can't be fixed with a proper fitting bra.


i'm supposed to hand my award/s onto 15 new blogs i've discovered. it just so happens that i HAVE discovered a few new blogs lately, and i promise to linky love them soon!

photostory friday: like chocolate, sometimes thrifting really is the only answer

you may remember me bleating on about my quest to find a plain, knee-length brown pencil skirt.

in the end, i went to savemart.

for the uninitiated, savemart is like the unclaimed baggage centre.

for clothes.

on speed.

in disneyland.

at christmas.

sometimes you can go there and find nothing. even though there are THOUSANDS of items of fabulously priced clothing, shoes and bags just waiting to be taken home. that's just the way it is.

other times, like this time - you hit pay dirt. check it out...

brown a-line skirt $6.99

navy skirt - $6.99

i really don't know why retailers persist with the whole NINETY NINE cent thing. i mean we phased out our 1 and 2 cent pieces in 1986!!! i know it's all about the perception of price, but really people - MOVE ON!!!

same with the .95 pricing. we haven't had 5 cent pieces since 2006 - SHEESH!!!
but i digress - on with the bargains!

fabby lengthed brown skirt - ALSO $6.99
(ooops - needs an iron. i hate ironing...)

casual hoodie (which the girls already have their eye on!) $7.99MINT condition corduroy jacket $9.99AND A WINTER COAT TO BOOT! (caroline morgan) $17.99top for work (which will go with the brown skirts!) $12.99

total cost for 7 items: $69.93

the girls love savemart too, particularly miss 11. i gave them $15 each and let them loose.
beanie, top and [brand new] denim sneakers. all for $15

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

life: the update: letting go

a lot has changed around here in the last couple of months. i'm not sure why i haven't blogged about it. maybe because everything that's happened hasn't just happened to ME, i didn't feel like i could broadcast it. who knows.

what i do know is that it's a whole new world around here. and it is good.

not long after i started MY job, my husband discovered that he lost his. ten years with the company, and as a cost-cutting measure, they simply did away with an entire section. is it ironic that he was involved in "future forward thinking"? wind energy, smart appliances etc etc. probably.

as with all "clever" ideas, his company has had to spend money to save it, ie a redundancy package, so financially things aren't dire. whilst it was a shock initially, hubs quickly came to terms with it, and has welcomed his time at home and the strange role reversal he and i find ourselves in.

the girls are LOVING having him around more. if you asked them, they would tell you 'he was never here'. it is of course, all relative to how MUCH he is here now.

around the same time as the 'work restructure', his father (86) fell ill. i'm sure there are plenty of you out there dealing with aged parents, so i won't go into it.

suffice it to say, hubs is on leave - working out his notice (for all intents and purposes) at home, and jumping on a plane or his motorbike to visit his father (we're in the north island, he's in the south) periodically to ease the burden of his siblings who reside in the same city as their father.

the first school holidays as a 'working woman' came around 2 weeks ago, and i found myself going off to work while hubs stayed home!

where once i had been in control of EVERYTHING that happened in this house - i was going off to work and letting it all happen without me.

i had previously complained long and loud about how 'nothing had changed' since my return to the workforce. before i'd even GOT this job, i'd talked about the girls taking on more chores, then when i STARTED, i encouraged them to help out more.

in the end i was more sick of listening to MYSELF nagging, than i was of actually nagging them - so i simply stepped back.

• i asked the girls if they'd like to cook one night each during the holidays
• i did laundry less often
• hubs went to the supermarket for me
• he ran errands

chicken enchiladas ala miss 17

bean and meat nachos ala miss 11

shepherd's pie with kumara (sweet potato) topping ala miss 12

it all just seemed to happen. the house is still standing. everyone's happy, and it's bloody fantastic.

and another one

my BF saw this and thought of me.
it's called 'woman goes back to work after 20 years'
it's only 3 seconds long, but totally worth it

my quest

an open letter to the manufacturers of the working woman's wardrobe...

black is not a colour. it is an absence of colour. i do not want to go to work every day looking like i dressed for a funeral.

i do not wear black. i do not wear grey.

i wear brown. i wear navy. are you familiar with these colours?

if you manufacture clothing in these colours, you do NOT have to make them with black stripes, or grey flecks. or both.

are you familiar with the concept of a plain brown knee length pencil skirt? if you are, please note that it does not need to include the following:

• a high waist/band
• a narrow [black] belt
• a frill down one side
• side pockets
• pleats. of any kind. pleats and side pockets are no friend of the women who has birthed 4 children.

please note that KNEE length means on or slightly above the knee. NOT below. if by some miracle of nature the woman who has birthed 4 babies is 5 foot 6 and still a size 10, a narrow skirt sitting below the knee will make her look 4 foot 6.

lastly, in this futile quest, can you please make sure the 17 year old retail assistant doesn't tell me that every item i try on 'looks sooooooooooo good on you!'

signed...

frustrated, 46

wordful wednesday - the working girl's work/walk wardrobe

no, i'm not going to turn into one of those women that talk ONLY about their awesomely new fantastic job (which it is, by the way...)

if you ride the train into the city, you'll see a lot of women dressed like this...

a well turned out 'top half'

and a terribly practical 'look' from the knees below

but remember i live in a hill
this big hill here!

i'm a working girl again

(in the non-prostitute-type-way)...

watch the word search go mad NOW!!!

so i have successfully navigated my way through my FIRST day back in the paid workforce since 1989; back in the day when there was no INTERNET, no EMAIL, no desktop computers...

AND IT WAS GREAT!!!!!

i have read before that women in my position initially feel like they were 'faking' it. i mentioned this to tara today (who happened to be in town and drove me home after work!)
she said 'yep - fake it 'til you make it! and that sounds about right.

everyone was very welcoming and relaxed, and my FIRST order of business is to ORGANISE A CONFERENCE - like the WHOLE CONFERENCE!!!

there are actually four major conferences during the year; TWO that i organise entirely, and i attend three of them. they're all three days and two nights and the first one is in my home town, so i'll be able to stay with my parents the weekend following the conference!

it's like my DREAM JOB!!!

the girls are due home any minute
i cooked tonight's dinner last night

so all that's left to do is keep this buzz going for another few hours!!!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

photostory friday - bonus day

because of the torrential rain we're experiencing right now (if only we could send it to victoria), miss 11 and 12's planned class 'bonding-get-to-know-you-day-out has been put off for a week.

i have therefore found myself (on my last free day before returning to the workforce) with a BONUS DAY!!!

SO WHAT' TO DO???

first i had my morning coffee with the hubs and read the paper

of course no bonus day would be complete without a little blogging. (deb, i'm on your site!)

where there's blogging, there's scrapping!

it felt really good to scrap TWO layouts all about MEEEE!!! (they were challenges that HAD to be about me, but STILL!!!)

this one's for the #8 wired nz dares blog. their first challenge of the year is scrap about what we learned in 2008. that was a no brainer. i've left the image large so you can read the journalling.
the second one, called 'the queen's challenge' for stampin'scrap needed to include a tiara or crown, some pink and some bling. check. check. check.

while i was scrappin' the courier hooned up the drive and delivered these! i was under no illusion that they were from the hubs, which had me wondering just who they WERE from! we met some wonderful people while camping, including a dutch rural vet husband and wife team with 4 boys (under 6!) they not only left their camera on the kitchen counter at home, they were also ROBBED while camping (they pretty much got everything back tho).

i sent them a CD of over 100 photos (including their son's 6th birthday). the card with the flowers thanked us for 'bringing their holiday back to life'. (awwwww)

this is the card i've made for my dad's birthday. his birthday is march 2nd, and MAN - it always creeps up so fast!and one for my valentine. lovin' those stampin' up papers

then it was time for some lunch and little
will and grace re-run heaven

1 o'clock in the afternoon and still in my pjs. what a rebel. we are the family who will stay in their pjs all day given half a chance.

it's a knee jerk reaction to my childhood. my mother is perpetually organised, even if there's nothing happening. this extended to sleepy teenagers (me), whose curtains were thrust open on a sunday morning, because i was 'wasting the day'.

love my mother (who'd you think i get all my organisation skills from?) but if we have no plans, PJs it is...

then i hit the exercycle

then, i obamiconned myself (coz i can).

"find' is my 'one little word' for 2009, (and i'm meant to be looking cute here not freaked)
thanks 'p'! if you want to play along at home, go here.

the day will be rounded out by a wine with hubs after work, then a stampin' up demo at the local community centre. tomorrow i'm heading out of town to stay with a friend, and sunday - well, the only thing left to do before THE BIG DAY is pick out my clothes

can i also just say how heartwarming it has been to know that so many of my friends (both virtual and actual) have been rootin' for me in my quest to FIND a job.

i got more comments on that post than ANY other (where i wasn't giving something away!)

it really means a lot :)

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

wordful wednesday - why am i smiling???

BECAUSE I GOT A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so do you wanna know all about it?

in the last 6 months, i've applied for over 30 jobs. i have quite the collection of 'thanks but no thanks' emails. here's a selection:

"we will initially be responding to applicants whose experience most closely resembles that nominated as desirable by our client".

translated: not you honey

"in this instance, we have decided not to progress your application further".

translated: we heard from people that have actually worked THIS century.

"at this stage we have shortlisted applicants whose backgrounds and experience more closely match that of our client's criteria."

translated: we heard from people that have actually worked THIS century.

and my PERSONAL favourite...

"we've had a large response to this advertisement and unfortunately received a number of CVs from candidates with more applicable experience. thanks for the time and effort blah blah blah...we hope you appreciate our honesty."

translated: we heard from people that have actually worked THIS century.

but in the end, i got me an interview, got shortlisted, then i became the 'PREFERRED CANDIDATE', which is apparently what they're calling it these days. i've signed my contract and starting monday i'll be working 5 hours a day for 4 days week. by this time next week, i'll surely be comatose.

so, you're looking at the new MEMBERSHIP CO-ORDINATOR for a national trade association. i have no idea what i'm doing, except for the fact that there's a one day conference in august that i organise and attend. wahoo! (oh, and my office is really cool too).

the word

i have decided, after very little thought, that my word for 2009 is "FIND".

..as in find a job.

find more calm
find a way to be more efficient with my downtime
find MORE fun (it ain't like i'm not having any!) i just figure more would be good!

i say 'very little thought', because i note that a lot of fellow bloggers put a LOT of thought into their words, however if it works for me, then it's all good.

i don't plan to weave this word into every aspect of my daily life, i might not even scrap about it, but it'll be there.

in light of this, a strange phenomonen has emerged.

at what is usually a very quiet time of year on the job market, i have THIS WEEK alone, applied for THREE part-time jobs, each one requiring part-time hours and lots of organising and event management!

i'll keep you posted on my progress.

all this, AND she can type fast too

went for something a little different with my hair colour yesterday.

i likey a lot. i take a rather cavalier approach to my hair, and i always like to try new styles and colours. i figure it's just hair and that if i don't like it, i can change it or wait for it to grow out. i understand others don't share the same view and that's cool!

i apologise in advance for 1) the state of my windows, and 2) looking like a beet, but hey - at least the sun was out!

from the side

from the top

cheesey smile

and the all-important pout

well, that pretty much covers every angle. i'm totally in love with it. can ya tell?

so i won the 'blue' section for the photo of the month over at wine on the keyboard. not bad for a first timer! this month's theme is 'captions'. not my strong suit, however i'll enjoy seeing what everyone else comes up with.

and then there was my first job interview since 1908.

i should start by telling you that OVERALL, it was an incredibly positive and uplifting experience. i started by filling out a myriad of forms; declaration of health and safety, declaration of criminal record (or lack thereof), declaration of ACC (accident compensation corporation. that's what we have in place of suing the skin off each other). then there was a declaration to declare that everything i had previously declared was true and correct.

sheesh, how the workplace has changed in the last 20 years.

then there was a spelling test, word comprehension test and proof reading test. ace, ace, ace. then i got to blow them away with my freaky fast typing.

123 words per minute. oh yeah. they went mental. i was all like 'well, it's my thing. what can i say.' i did think they were going a little OTT until i saw the woman next to me test at 27 WPM (ooops).

then i was tested on MS power point, excel and word and now have a rating which is very cool. i was tested on excel last which was my worst result. i should point out that i had been 'testing' for 2 hours, i was late to pick up kids from school and i REALLY needed to pee, so my concentration was a little 'off'.

the interview itself was very interesting. they work hard to work up a profile that best suits the work they have on offer, although my interviewee did NOT get herself off to a great start. she takes one look at my CV and says 'i see you haven't worked in a reeeeeeeeeeally long time.'

once i resisted the urge to leap across the table and bitch-slap her clear across the room, i mumbled something about babies and 'investing time in my family'). my now-working mother-of-2 girlfriend told me to say that!)

i discovered the next day that employers are prohibited by law to ask outright why a candidate haven't been working, so her statement was really a question in disguise. just like dr phil says. on reflection i think it's rather amusing and all a bit redundant. 1+1 should make 2 - it's all there on my CV!!!
to tell you the truth, i hadn't realised it was all going to be so complicated! i didn't assume i would walk into a job - well, i didn't know WHAT i thought really. anyway, i'm glad to have started the process and will probably make appointments with a couple more recruitment agencies and take it from there.