Half way there and a slight change of direction

Butti

elantan wrote: »

OK ladies and gents ... a spanner has been thrown into the works

Now this isn't a bad spanner, it's an opportunity spanner, and I can't decide whether to grab it or leave it

On my course we have an Erasmus programme, I have been given the opportunity of being considered to go, I have been shortlisted and do believe that if I chose to I will be successful in going.

It will cost money , quite a bit of money, it's a chance I will never ever get again in life ( but that doesn't mean I need to take it)

But it is an opportunity to spend 3 months in a different culture learning new skills and meeting new ideas ... a HUGE part of me wants to grab this and run with it but there is the sensible El sitting in the back ground going ... well you know it's money, you might land up having to stay in student digs and listen to nonstop parties ( one of my ideas for hell )

Etc etc etc ... you know how the sensible part in your head goes

So ladies and gents


What would you do ?

what would I do? I've already done it. It was brilliant. It was fantastic. It came with funding (don't know if that is still true! )
I think it was possibly the best three months of my life.

elantan

Hi again everyone,

Life has as always been going at lightening speed for me, I had the big exam to sit, I was hoping to have got plenty of time to study but that didnt happen, with that not happening I decided to concentrate on what I thought would come up in the exam. Well as I am sure you can all imagine, what I did study didnt come up and didn't study was the 4 questions that came up.

So, I made the best of a bad situation and did what I could, I stayed till the bitter end of the exam and jumped about the paper quite a lot, coming back to the bits as I remembered them, I pulled the information from memory, none of which was education through the course that I am on, but on what I could remember from years ago through trawling through the internet and reading, and then used a bit of common sense and thought about patients I had worked with whilst banking. Once again I was very happy with the result, I managed to score 72% in the exam, which is better than expected.

Next year I have a research paper to write a fitness to practice paper and a reflective piece if I can get good marks for all of them and get good marks for all of my placements I have the potential the get a distinction, now I am gonna be honest here and state, its not something I really think about as I am just happy for a pass I wont get a better job at the end of the day, I wont get anything other than a certificate for it but a few friends have dared me to go for it, stating they know I can do it, not sure if I want to put that much pressure on myself to be honest.

I am currently on placement just now and struggling a bit with this one, but not everyone can be brilliant and it isnt the worst placement, I have already had that:o but I am struggling with some of the situations that I have no control over..

Still havnt decided on Erasmus, although I am thinking no more and more often, I would have to put back my graduation, the idea of staying in student accom fills me with dread, the amount of money I will spend which I could use to get closer to early retirement and I have been trying to get a hold of the guy running the current Erasmus and I keep getting oh I am busy but dont worry I will contact you soon, I had to fill a form in, was told to fill it in as soon as possible, but I was out of the country when it arrived, so couldnt fill it in, I informed the guy and said I would deal with it when I got home as I was unsure if I wanted to go, to which I got a reply its ok I have done it for you, now I know he meant well, but I felt pushed into signing up for something that I still couldnt get information about and just a stonewall everytime I tried to make contact. Lets just say it doesnt fill me with hope.

We do have some fantastic finance news though, the mortgage that was a big one has now been paid off, we still have the smaller second mortgage, but we have paid off the main mortgage. I have therefore started filtering the Tilly tidies into the smaller mortgage, we had hoped to have paid it off by the time I finish uni but now it doesnt look like it, but thats ok as it is still coming down fairly fast.

The pensions are being paid into every month but the readily available savings have disappeared, so I do need to get on top of that but have been finding we are spending quite a lot of money without thinking.

We have been away in the caravan a few times now, and really have enjoyed ourselves, but we are not going away till the summer holidays, I cant walk far now as the pain in my foot is bad and that worries me for the summer holidays, so have contacted the physio and am on a waiting list, that will take me 3 months or so to be seen which is after my holidays so I will need to make sure I rest my feet as much as I can so that I can try and enjoy our time away as much as possible.

Thats about it really nothing else happening, well there is loads of things happening but they are all the usual family things which would be a whole diary in itself :rotfl::rotfl:

Karmacat

There's a lot of news in there :j:j:j

And many, many congratulations on paying off the big mortgage, while continuing to put money into pensions

elantan

Yeah it has been a while since I updated lol

elantan

Nothing much happened since our last update, Mr El and I are still having discussions on retirement, should we sell up? should we try to rent the house? should we just keep it ? if we sell should we put a new kitchen in ? you know the usual talks that happen when people make plans.

Went out for food in Pizza Express in Silverburn the other day, we used our Tosco club card vouchers, £30 of vouchers for £7.50 (I think) which is not too bad, we did have to travel for it though, we origonally went to the Fort but it no longer has the pizza express so we landed up in Silverburn. Not sure if any of you have been to Silverburn or not. Its like a USA mall style shopping place.

It was heaving with people spending money, Mr El and I sat and people watched, it was great to see so many different nationalities and listen to all the different languages being spoke, so many people spending so much money though. It was strange to watch in a way, I spose cause Mr El and I dont tend to go shopping, well we do but not in the same way. We felt kinda outa place as we walked about holding just each others hands and not shopping bags.

Placement continues, shift work continues, I have uni this week, and next week I have a few appointments before we go away for a fortnight round the West coast. Nothing else really happening to be honest. Just thought I would check in as I have to do a monthly online assessment for uni.

Hope you are all well xxx

beanielou

Skint pointed out yesterday I think it was, that it is a year since we met up in glorious sunshine.
Glad things are plodding on.
Never been to Silverburn.
A wheelchair place it sounds.
Enjoy your break when it comes.
Say a big hello to Mr El xxx

elantan

Yeah she sent me a wee photie as well ... seems like a lifetime away doesn't it ?

Will need to arrange another wee meet up once I'm finished placement and before I go back to uni .. if your both up for it that is ?

beanielou

Would be great to meet up again

skint_spice

It would be great to meet up again and if someone could arrange a repeat of the weather that would be fab x

elantan

Aye that was some guid weather that day

Well I went to the erasmus meeting yesterday needing to be talked into Erasmus, the meeting wasnt anything special and not very helpful, however, they have put Norway back on the table but threw a wee curve ball in the shape of Sweden as well, so I am interested in going, will need to formally decide if I want to go, it's an 8 week stint and I will be on placement during the stint so not much chance to go see things ( although I will get time to see some stuff) so part of me is thinking is it worth it? and part of me is thinking it could be an exciting adventure.

Were just about to leave for our holidays in the caravan as well, we were not meant to be leaving till Saturday, but last Saturday a friend invited us to his wedding which happens tomorrow and it's on the way to Glencoe so it makes sense to take the caravan and just add a few more days into the trip.

We have quite a lot planned

Arrive today in Lochgilphead
Wedding tomorrow in Ardfern
Friday recovering and going on the Crinin and hopefully some standing stones
Saturday Glencoe and the heaven that that place is
Sunday Eilean Donnan
Monday Glenbrittle in Skye to do the fairy glen, cullins and glenbrittle itself
Thursday move to Portree to do the Quairing and hopefully a wee beach or so
Saturday ferry to Harris were we will go see Scarista beach and Luskentyre beach before driving up to Cnip near Maibhaig to do the Callanish standing stones
Tuesday ferry to Ullapool where we will drive onto Strathpeffer stay the night
Wednesday drive to Applecross ( leaving the caravan in Strathpeffer) we had origonally planned on camping in Applecross but think we will just drive home,
Thursday Culloden and Munlochy clootie well
Friday Aberfeldy ( one of our favourite places) saturday ior Sunday home.

So we have lots of miles to travel and lots of things to do and see, just hope we have enough time, money and energy to achieve it all

See ya all when we get back