What's up?

Time flies! Weather your having fun or not, it just goes! One minute it's the beginning of a new year and the next your planning things for June, or later. It's just god damned CRAZY I tell you!

I started a new job two weeks ago with a train comapny here called First Great Western. It's and Admin/PA type role for two of the areas and working at two different train stations for two different bosses - here in Swindon and north a bit in Gloucester. So far it seems to be going pretty well. There's loads to do even though I am still waiting for a computer in my new office (I have my very own office!). It seems that I am kind of responsible for staff in a round about way too which is kinda good. Anyway, it's only been two weeks on the job, but I've settled in pretty well I think and I reckon I'll enjoy it there more as time goes on. Only one way to tell hey?

Anyway, here's some pics of where I am working -
This is Swindon station, and this is the train I catch to Gloucester too. (Wow-wee!)

And this is Gliucester station - on finding this picture I also found out that this is the longest platform in the UK and is in the Guiness Book of Records because of it! How about that then?!

Week before was of course my first week of work! One of my mates came to stay for the weekend and then decided to stay until Thursday morning as she had holidays and I would've been on my own in my first working week as Mark had absconded to Brussels for a school trip - cleverly planned to also be away over Valentines day! So while she was over we enjoyed a few bottles of wine and got together a valentines gift for Mark when he returned. She kindly took some photos of me in my underwear (she has done a degree in photography) and even managed to make me look pretty much human too! I was quite impressed with the results, and I'm pretty sure Mark is too. I had bestowed upon me a box of Belgian chocolates, some turquoise earrings and some Belgian lace & silk stockings when Mark got back as a gift from afar and my Valentines gift all in one (or rather three!). I reckon I did pretty well!

Aside from the photo sesion with my firend it was great having her over. We always have such a laugh and it was nice to have someone to come home to and tell about my first days in a new position.

I was half way through my news and then Mark got home so I signed off.... So I said I would blog again soon and here I am back again!

Mark & I have applied to be contestants on a game show titled 'For the Rest of Your Life'! Initially we knew hardly anything about it so we applied to find out more and we were sent an application form and no other details, so we filled that out and waited to hear something back. The evening after I sent the form in we got a call from the game show people and they interviewed us briefly over the phone for about 15 to 20 minutes. After the call we headed out for the night and were almost certain that we'd hear nothing more as they didn't sound too thrilled with our answers in the interview and we were still none the wiser as to what the show was all about. Anyway the following Monday I got another call from them asking us to go to an audition on the weekend! So ofcourse I said yes! Definitely! When would you like to see us and where? So after making the arrangements we both started getting nervous about the audition - obviously neither of us has done anything like this before and we had no idea what to expect. So Mark and I got on the net and did a quick google search on the show title to see what I could find and hopefully shed some light on what we'd applied for. Here's what we found.

Courtesy of www.ukgameshows.com:
Couples play a game of chance in order to win large amounts of money every week for potentially the rest of their lives. This involves standing on squares and hoping that the ball underneath the large lidded plinths was white, which increased the prize money on offer, and not red, which lowered it and forced you to play on. If you lost all your red balls, or your money fell below zero it was game over. In round two, instead of money you played for time. One half of the couple played the game in the studio, the other half stayed out back and was relayed information via computer screen. Each white ball took you one step up the time ladder (beginning at one month and ending with "for the rest of your life" (which appears to be a straight forty years)). Red balls took you down the ladder and forces you to play on, lose all your red balls and go away with nothing. The extra jeopardy is that both contestants had to decide for themselves whether to play or stop, and the lowest place on the ladder that one of them stopped is what they'd take away. Clearly they were hoping for a moment when the player out front went all the way, whereas the player out back decided to stop on five years, say. Needless to say, the odds against anyone getting to the top of the ladder before quitting (which would involve risking as much as £500,000 on an (at best) 25% shot) were rather slim.

On the Sunday just gone we headed up to London for our audition with the hopes of finding out more about what the show is all about as the internet isn't very clear and we were sure there was more involved considering the questions we'd been asked and forms we'd had to fill out. Once there we were sworn to secrecy and asked to sign a form to ensure we didn't divulge any details about the show that we found out on the day or afterwards. Therefore I can only tell you what we found out ourselves from the google search. Fingers crossed that we get a chance to play and possibly win a nice chunk of cashola!

In addition to the excitement of the game show posibility, I have been offered a permanent and full time job with First Great Western which I interviewed for last week! Although they said they'd be in touch on the Friday I had a call the day after the interview with the offer of the job - so they must've really liked me after all and not been women in disguise as parrots! They're the train company in our area and it seems to be a pretty interesting job plus one of the major bonuses of it is free train travel on their trains for both me and for Mark! I have accepted the offer and yesterday headed off to a medical examination in Bristol as my contract is dependant on the results from that and my references coming back good. So it's a dead cert, unless I have something wrong with me that inhibits me doing the job that even I don't know about. Test results come back today and if I don't hear anything from the hospital then all is well. I start there this coming Monday and although it'll be a shame to say goodbye to Council where I have been working for the last two months or so I'm really excited and nervous (in a good way) about starting in a new position that I can settle in and get my teeth into - so to speak. I won't be biting anyone unless absolutely necessary.

In other news, Dad and Ann have arrived safe and sound in the UK and are currently in Belfast. Unfortunately they won't be making their way to England for any length of time and therefore won't get to see Mark, where we are living or what we are doing, which is a major shame. But I will be heading over to Belfast to see them for a self imposed long weekend at the beginning of March. I can't have them travel all this way and not see them! On the up side - I haven't been to Belfast before and seeing that it's been about 3 years now since I saw either of them in the flesh I am majorly looking forward to catching up and being able to give Dad a big hug for real rather than the virtual hugs, or best wishes over the phone.

So last week was pretty full-on and this week it's been a bit more of the same, but not as crazy (thankfully, I don't know if I could've stood another 'high octane' week!)

It's been ages since I posted any pictures too and seeing that they've updated the services on Blogger I will post some of our own pictures of us, where we're living and things we've been up to recently in the next couple of days.