Plodding determinedly up a 300k mountain!

shangaijimmy

Im still looking for the dream job. An honest weeks wage for an honest days work!

Unicorn_cottage

Hi Michelle09

My dad has grown runner beans for as long as I can remember and my granddad was also a keen gardener so it's lovely to have my own garden now to carry on the tradition. Fortunately my partner is a professional horticulturalist so I struck gold there ha ha! Hope you get a bumper crop of runner beans this year

Interested to hear about the Bamboo forest - it's a nightmare isn't it!

greent

I've always found runner beans the easiest things to grow. We have homemade compost and I literally dig a small hole for each seed and put a large trowel full of compost in and poke the seed in (having already set up the bamboo frame) I like growing them (pretty flowers!) - but we don't actually like eating them! - I feed them to my guinea pigs, give them to family/ neighbours and make Delia's runner bean chutney instead

michelle09

No upset caused, KC, I would imagine he'd have been more than happy to pass on his advice. Just wish I'd thought to ask before I no longer had the chance.

Thanks greent. So far they are holding with the bamboo frame. Fingers crossed they survive the new bout of snow....

It's been snowing on and off all day, but I am super thrilled with our new insulation. Turned the heating on for two hours this morning, and despite the cold outside it's still fine in here with a jumper.

Been fighting off a cold all week and today have completely given into it. Seven pm and I've not actually got out of bed yet. Thankfully OH was wonderful enough to make me a spinach smoothie and lemsip before heading off to work.

In a bizarrely quick turnaround, I got an interview for the training role! It was really interesting, and the hiring manager was really complimentary but ultimately the role went to someone with a different career experience than me. The manager was very nice and gave lots of advice on how to progress my career and passed on some details as well.

In the end, I'm not disappointed. The PhD is what I desperately want, so as long as I get through Monday's interview then I will be happy.

Hope everyone else is having a good weekend?

beanielou

Snowing here too.
Hope the cold goes soon.
Take care.

michelle09

So, it's been an up and down sort of week!

The PhD interview on Monday was a disaster. I've been to a fair number of interviews, but never with four panel members, and they've always been nice to you. I came home in a fairly bad place mentally, feeling trapped in my current place.

OH offered me the chance to resign and claimed we could live off his salary while I looked for work. He's wonderful and well meaning, if not always entirely practical.

However, I went to lunch on Tuesday to find a voice message from the training role hiring manager. It turns out that their first choice ended up turning down the role, and they were now offering it to me! It's not what I really wanted (no point in pretending otherwise), but they have offered me a 12 month contract on £8k more than I currently earn, with a commute that will be 30 minutes, not the 90 minutes I currently travel. It is a big change from all my previous roles (my first desk job!) but it looks interesting and I am looking forward to the challenge.

Went for my pre-employment ID check on Thursday, and hopefully I can hand my notice in next week and start end of May.

I think OH is secretly thrilled because an £8k payrise is financially much more secure than £20k paycut. We have started oragnising our big holiday this year, and are toying between exploring China for a couple of weeks, or working our way from Bangkok to Singapore. If we go to Singapore I'm going to splurge with one night at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel so we can use the infinity pool on the roof.

OH had a few university friends over last night, he grilled pork steaks with roast potatoes and vegetables and we broke into some beer we picked up in the post Christmas sales. One of his friends announced that he had married a female Martin Lewis, which I am fairly certain is a compliment!

This weekend, OH is working both days and I'm working tomorrow. Today is going to be a spring clean day, I am going to clear out all the cupboards and sort the house a bit. Hope everyone else is doing well!

Busy_Mee1

Oh Michelle sorry about the PHD interview but the new job offer sounds great on so many fronts. I am a great believer in everything happens for a reason and it does sound like you were meant to have that job.

Singapore is one of my favourite places and we paid for a room in the Marina Bay to use the infinity pool....and got upgraded. The room was the most fabulous I have ever stayed in and we got free afternoon tea/ drinks and canap!s. The pool was one of my all time favourite moments.......have I convinced you yet ????

shangaijimmy

Doesn't matter how you got the offer and i'm certain you'll go and nail it in the role. Make sure you take the time celebrate as well, even if it is MFW style!

Karmacat

Congratulations on the job offer! Especially in the current climate, thats a really big deal, on all sorts of level, and what a wonderful holiday to look forward to!

beanielou

Great news on the job offer