Marie's Web Log

No, I didn't get the job. Bah! It would have been a nice little job I think, and they had flexi-time and working from home options. I don't think I can do job interviews any more - I've lost the knack. I either clam up or ramble on endlessly. Sigh. Feeling a bit useless in general. Does this mean I'm not meant to work full time? Possibly, as I was wondering how I would manage. I don't want Amelia to go to daycare every day. Would have been nice to have a steady flow of money, though. At least this time they didn't take up my references in advance.

Last weekend we drove up to Didcot to see some friends (they moved from here after he got a job lecturing at Oxford). One of their little boys used to be at daycare with Amelia. We were out for a walk, and she asked to hold his hand! Stupid me, I didn't have my camera. A lovely time was had by all.

Posted by marie at 05:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Should have mentioned - in the photos of Newcastle below, the "bubble" thing on the left is the new music performance building. Inside the bubble, there are two separate halls for music performances. The bubble stretches over them like a kind of weird tent. It's called the Sage, I think after the company who sponsored it. There is also a gallery for modern art called the Baltic that they converted out of an old flour-processing silo, I believe it was. You can't see it in the photos, though.

The traditional looking bridge in the middle of the first photo is the Tyne Bridge, one of the older and better known of the Newcastle bridges. I think there are five bridges in all now. The photo of the Tyne Bridge was taken from the Millennium Bridge, an (obviously) new pedestrian bridge in a big white arc. Here's a photo of it (sorry about the reflections, the photo was taken from a window on the top floor of the Baltic gallery):

And no, Dale, unfortunately I haven't bought a digital camera. I was just quicker than usual at getting my film developed.

My job interview went quite well. They were very nice people and it was a much more ‘normal’ type of interview than the horrible one I went to at Exeter University back in the spring. So now it just depends on how good the other candidates are.

Posted by marie at 09:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Actually, it was very sunny when I was in Newcastle. The line comes from an old song about someone who's unemployed and has nothing, but "The fog on the Tyne is all mine, all mine, the fog on the Tyne is all mine." The Tyne being the river that runs through Newcastle and Gateshead. You'll see it in the photos below, from my trip up to Newcastle and Carlisle. The first two are Newcastle, looking all European and modern. The second two are Carlisle, a bit more traditional.

Posted by marie at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

On Monday. I know it's crazy. I don't really want a full-time job, but this one is for the County Council, whose lovely building (I'm not being sarcastic, it is nice) is right next to where we live, and it could be interesting. It's only maternity cover anyway. It's a Communications post, but the bulk of it sounds like it would be writing and editing for the internal web sites and newsletter, and a magazine they do.

Finished the small financial editing job I had, plus another even smaller medical one. Still looking around for other stuff. Ian is exploring the possibility of doing freelance consulting, ome of the problems being we can't fit two offices in this house and we don't have the financing to rent an outside one. Not sure how this will all work out.

Amelia cries every time I take her to day care. It's getting worse instead of better. Ian says it isn't as bad when he takes her.

Had our first Mandarin playgroup on Sunday. Went well. Sentences are getting shorter and shorter. Must be tired. Mum - I made the cookies using the chocolate chips I brought over. They're good, but not as good as yours.

Wrist is sore. Must avoid carpal tunnel. All for now.

Posted by marie at 06:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I don't like letting so much time go by between entries, so perhaps little and often will work better. I should be in bed right now, as Amelia had a bad night last night (woke up crying, we're never sure exactly why) and was already crying a bit tonight.

A few interesting Amelia developments: she has started to use the words "I" and "me." Just within the last few weeks. Before that she always referred to herself as Mia (I guess Amelia is too hard to pronounce), as in, "Mia get it." Now she says, "I get it." We're still working on the 'll.

We started swimming lessons again today. She had to miss out last term because they clashed with her daycare days. She used to be really scared of the water, but today when we were in the changing room she said, "Like it." She was a bit hesitant at first, but was soon happily splashing. Of course I was in there with her. Once they're over 3, they're supposed to go in on their own. Not sure how she'll like that.

Amelia went to two birthday parties last weekend - one on Saturday and the other on Sunday. The first one was for a pair of 2-year-old twins, with 18 children and as many adults. They had it in the local sports centre, complete with bouncy castle and fancy gift bags. I worked out they must have spent £200. The second one was for one 2-year-old girl and was for only 8 children, with some of their toys and homemade cake. Guess which one I preferred?

Amelia is crying again - sigh. All for now.

Posted by marie at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I know I haven't written for a while. In my defense: I was away last weekend at a conference in Carlisle (for those of you who don't know, it's close to the Scottish borders, which is pretty far from here). I flew to Newcastle, which was lovely as it was a clear day and I could watch the landscape all the way. I stayed in Newcastle with our friends Johnny and Sarah, whom we met all those years ago when we lived up there. I hadn't been for 10 years and a lot has changed. There are two new posh galleries on the Gateshead side of the river: a modern art gallery and a music hall. The office on the quayside where I once worked for a small magazine publisher - it was then an old, grimy, mostly empty building - is now a smart-looking wine bar.

It was great to see Johnny and Sarah and their children Emily and Jack, who are now 13 and 10. I last saw Emily when she was 3, and Jack was not yet born. On Sunday we did a quick tour of the area we used to live in. I tried to put a link here to an online listing of our old house - it's for sale at £115,000 - but couldn't get it to work. The listing is on J D Estates, 25 Morgy Hill West, Crawcrook, if you want to have a look. Let's just say they've updated the inside a bit. Still don't think it's worth that much.

The conference was a gathering of about 130 people who belong to the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. I met a lot of new people and took part in some interesting sessions. On the Sunday, before the conference started, I met up with my friend John who lives in Edinburgh but is originally from Australia. We had a lovely visit and a look round the red stone cathedral and castle together.

On Tuesday I caught the train home, arriving at 10:40 pm after an extremely smooth five hour trip. I forgot to mention - I got a small bit of freelance work (from an enquiry through the SfEP Directory), which I was able to start on the train. On Wednesday Ian came down with stomach flu, so it was flat out looking after Amelia and trying to get the work done around the edges. Then yesterday I got ill as well. Ah, the onset of flu season!

The only other thing I wanted to say was how nostalgic I felt when I was in the North East. I'd forgotten how empty and beautiful the countryside is up there, how relaxed the people are. Maybe it's why I felt more at home when we lived there.

Posted by marie at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)