Exciting opportunity?

Yesterday at work I received an email inviting me to the Huddersfield Examiner (our local newspaper) Community Awards. Our company sponsors the event and each year a handful of lucky employees who have done valuable work in the community are selected to attend the evening which (I think) sees local heroes rewarded for there bravery and services to the community. We get to go as representatives of the sponsor.....which seems pretty cool.

But I'm not sure if I want to go or not. It means spending the evening with a bunch of big wigs from work and some other people who I don't really care to spend my night off with. So what do you think? Exciting opportunity? Completely boring? Should I be dusting off my ball gown? :)

Nothing much to report

I haven't blogged (on this blog) for a few days as I've been busy doing a bunch of blog makeovers and haven't really had anything else to report.

Andy is still looking for work and the lack of help from the government is very frustrating. It seems that you can get LOTS of help to get back into work if you left school with no qualifications. That's great news for them but what about the many, many people who have gone through university and got a degree and professional job.....don't they deserve help too? I mean seriously? The government needs to do more to help those people that have paid so much into the system already. *Steps off soap box*

As for work well that's been very busy especially since our manager left and one of the lab techs got made redundant. That means we're doing more work, with less people and were getting ever tighter deadlines as well. So yeah that's kind of been a nightmare....but hey at least I have a job! I am grateful for that at least.

I had a talk to my hubby about his faith last night. Its kind of difficult to talk to him about as going to church was a new experience for him and he has so many questions that I can't answer. He doesn't seem to feel comfortable talking about it and I don't want to push it....but equally nothing would make me happier than if he said he was ready to committ to being a Christian. So anywayay we rumble on with that one.

I have my parents here this weekend and won't be attending church on Sunday but we plan to go next week. I hope that the next time we go something clicks for hubby and he starts to hear the message. It wasn't exactly screaming at either of us last week but I think we both felt so awkward with all the new people that it was kind of hard to relax.

Well I'd better go as I'm on my lunch break and its coming to an end. I have some wonderful (not!) titanium samples to inspect under the SEM this afternoon. Well at least I get to sit in a cold, dark room for the afternoon.....zzzzzzZZZZZZZZ ;o)

So much for a photography outing

On Friday me and hubby went for a drive around the local area. We've been living here 2 years now and are surprisingly not very well travelled around here. I must admit it did get a bit samey after a while....well after 2 hours driving about who wouldn't be desperate to get home? The weather was terrible so it wasn't possible to get outside the car with the camera so I came home with about 2 rushed photographs. So much for my photography outing!

This is the only one that came out as the windscreen was to dirty to get any decent photos after this one was take *sigh*.

New church - but I'm more confused than ever

We've been looking for a suitable church for a while and today we tried out the one that we thought was for us. I was so excited as its along time really since I was a regular attender at church. So anyway now I've been I'm really not sure if this one is for us or not - but today was the opening ceremony so maybe its not quite like that normally. The thing is I can't help but feel deflated as I was sooooo excited and yet now feel more confused than ever. I felt sure we would love this church. Maybe somebody who reads this might have some words of wisdom?

Anyway I'll start at the beginning. Normally I hate meeting new people and cringe in horror when you walk into a new church and get "barnacled". To be "barnacled" is what happens when somebody latches onto you and you can't shake them off. I am scared of new people so I'm not being awful when I talk about being barnacled.....I realise I am completely not normal in this respect. So anyway I decided that today I was just going to have to get over that and open up to these people and I did and I can honestly say we met some really lovely people. And it is these people who are probably the reason why I will go back and try this church again.

So onto the things I didn't feel so sure about......first of all it all seemed a bit commercial to me at first. Although thinking about it now I wonder if that's the reason how they could afford to build the wonderful building that is the new congregation hall. Maybe I will feel differently about it later. Secondly, the opening hymn....song....whatever you want to call it.....it was a MAMMOTH 30 minutes long. I'm serious! I was getting hoarse and was gasping for a drink so goodness knows how the choir survived. And then we went onto a presentation which was actually rather nice. After that we sang a hymn and the oldies were encouraged to go meet the new people. Now bear in mind I have this fear if new people.....I actually really enjoyed this bit though. And just as we were about to leave............we realised t was only the interval! The real service was just beginning! So altogether the service lasted nearly 3 hours. This is another reason why I am not to sure if I want to go back.....3 hours just seems....well.....loooooong.

Having said that, the people were fabulous and the atmosphere was electric so I will try it again.

Anyone reading....what's your church like? How long is the service? And am I really terrible for being so unsure about this one?

New contract

I was supposed to get a new employment contract in February (as well as a promotion) but due to the redundancies all promotions and contract changes were put on hold. Obviously its been a very worrying time lately with Andy losing his job and me being rather (ok....extremely) worried about basically working for an employer without a contract. Well today I got my new contract and promotion and its been backdated to 2nd March! So that's some good news for a change. With Andy not earning anything right now, the pay rises that I get now and in July and next January will certainly help. My role won't change either as I've basically been doing the job but not getting the pay for it :)

I'm beyond tired right now

Ok I just need to vent I'm afraid. Just humour me cos I'm feeling really sorry for myself right now.

I am just so fed up of getting home from work (late) and having to start helping Andy do job applications that he's had all day to do but waited till I get home cos he NEEDS my help. I am so unbelievably tired right now I could cry. Yet again I have got home from work late to find nothing prepared for dinner (yay to Pizza Hut....not) and to start another bloody job application. And can I ad here that its for a council job and has the obligatory 40 page application form to complete. I am desperately trying not to take it out on him bit I'm just so frustrated and so dam tired I could scream. I feel so guilty. I mean I should WANT to help. I just don't feel like I have the energy to.

So tonight I am praying for understanding and patience......as well as for Andy to hear something about a job before I go insane :)

Sooooo indecisive!

Well I've always been a little (oh...ok....ALOT) on the indecisive side but when it comes down to my blogs I am WORSE then indecisive!

I have 2 graphics blogs - the idea being that one of them for for my free makeovers for people who are living in difficult circumstances (illness, bereavements etc).....it was supposed to encourage them to write about their feelings etc. And then there was my second blog which is where I did my custom (paid for) graphics work.

Recently though I've decided to make all of my work free (at least for the time being). I mean - who in this day has money to spend on a blog makeover? I know I haven't! So now I'm undecided about what to do about the blogs? I thought about integrating them but then I still like the idea of keeping Write From The Heart separate to Adori Graphics as WFTH is basically a separate venture. Dunno really...what do you think? I think I'm going to keep them separate but I'd consider other opinions.

Actually one thing I do like about the Adori Graphics blog is that I offer instant "take away now" backgrounds there as not everyone wants a full custom makeover anyway. My backgrounds seem quite popular as I notice I have alot of downloads....not so many people wanting a full custom makeover though at the moment.

Oh well I'd better get back to work now and lunch time is ending and I have samples to inspect....oh the joys......actually it is a joy LOL.

Waste of a day

Well today was a real waste of a day. The weather was terrible and I just felt tired so we stayed in the house ALL day. How bad is that? Seriously I feel like if we don't do at least something over the weekend then we've just wasted it.

The people at the new church that we wanted to go to still haven't got back to our email and I'm wondering if their contact details are out of date. The website looks like it may be having an overhaul to celebrate the new building that they just built so maybe they are...dunno. The grand opening is at the end of the month so we'll probably just wait till then to join. Otherwise we'll be going to the current building (wherever that is) and then having to transfer. *Goes to check website*.....aha.....the new church opens next weekend by the look of it....and it looks amazing!

On the Eurovision side of things we ended up coming 4th. Norway won and I have to say I did prefer their song....and the cute wee guy singing it LOL.

Eurovision yay!

Well tonight is the Eurovision song contest and I'm sat here on tenterhooks waiting to hear whose won. I love our UK entry this year but reckon Norway went one better. I haven't rung in to vote as I'm far to sensible and boring for that LOL but I must admit I was tempted LOL. The voting has just closed and...come on...hurry up.....I just wanna know whose won grrrrrrr.

Thank goodness its Friday!

Today was another action-packed day at work and I'm feeling sooooo tired (and achey) tonight. I work in a materials lab and we occasionally have groups of school children and university students visiting us to either use our facilities for their coursework or have a tour around our and manufacturing plant. Today we had 2 groups of students from Manchester University who visited us to have a look at the plant and lab. Our plant is fairly large and spread out over 6 buildings on 2 sides of a major road. So I am completely worn out after doing 2 tours and answering numerous questions about our products and materials....but it keeps me in a job I guess so I won't grumble.

I spent the afternoon looking at some Titanium samples under the electron microscope. Anyone who has done that will realise what a frustrating experience it can be. I'll leave it at that as I don't want to bore you but needless to say I didn't achieve much! I hate days like that as I like to see steady progress in all areas of my work but Titanium inspection/examination is one area that I just can't get my head round as the material behaves so differently to everything else I'm used to. Well I live in hope as I guess I felt like that about Inconel not too long ago.

Hmmmm what else is going on? Not much really. I have an update for my credit crunch blog so I'll save that for there. There's not much to update really but some of the information might be useful to people who have been made unemployed recently in the UK.

Hectic day

Work was very hectic today as I had 5 hours of meetings and interviews, so I was very relieved to get home this evening. Some days especially when its back to back meetings all day) its really hard to switch off. But I'll be switching off at the pub tonight so I'm sure I'll manage it LOL. I'm meeting a friend I used to work and live with - I love catching up with old friends. Sadly they were neglected in the 5 years that I spent at uni and its taken me the 2 years after finishing to catch up with everyone :)

I've been having one of those bad dyslexia weeks this week. Not so much on the spelling and reading side of things as will modern IT packages its easy for me to carry on as if there's nothing wrong.....at home. At work though I have no such help and although they know I'm dyslexic I feel even more under pressure to try and prove there's nothing wrong. The last week has been difficult as we've been interviewing various people at work for a project that's just starting. 3 of us are doing the interviews and were all taking our own notes. But of course its difficult keeping up with the notes at the speed I need to take them. At uni it was no pressure as I had a dictaphone but at work were not allowed them. I did ok though and think I got most of it.

I survived

Just a quick update....I survived the teaching session. It went ok....not brilliant by any means.......but ok. People stayed awake....which is always good. And people were kind about it. I love my team. They're always very supportive so I shouldn't have been scared really.

Nervous as....I don't know what

This afternoon I have to give a teaching presentation to the rest of my new team at work. I'm absolutely bricking it. Now anyone who knows me will know that presentations scare me silly - you should have seen me doing my viva presentation at the end of my degree. I'm not sure I breathed all the way through it. Well this afternoon's teaching session is on one of the problem-solving systems that the company uses and, quite honestly, its a really dry/unexciting topic and many of them know more about it than I do. I am still preparing my slides as I've been so busy I've not had time to do them until today - hopefully I'm not about to bore the pants off 12 other people!

Oh no....not another blog!

What's that you said? Oh no...not another blog?

Ok, ok, I admit I do have one too many blogs...but...but....well I figured I have a blog for my graphics, a blog for my charity work, a blog for my photography. Oh yeah I even have my photography blog as well. But you know the one kind of blog I'm missing? A personal one - the kind of blog where I can just talk about me and my day.

Well it's getting late here now, so I'll start posting here properly tomorrow...but for now I must go get some beauty sleep :)