How did it get to be March?? I've been living in England for 3 months and two weeks now. Its a very strange feeling because in some ways my life in Canada seems so long ago but in other ways I feel like I just got here. I often find myself thinking ' I really live in England?!' So what's been happening?
I gave my notice at the debt collections agency and gently tried to inform my boss that my job was actually not a one-person job. I've been doing the work that an entire department does! A new temp came in on Wednesday for me to train. I'd like to point how ridiculous the situation was that me (also a temp) wrote a training manual and was given the task of training the new person. Because I was showing her everything, not a lot of work was getting done. I could see the look of panic in her eyes for most of the day but tried to be re-assuring. By Thursday morning she was gone and by Thursday afternoon a new temp had arrived and the training had to begin all over again.
I was starting to feel pretty sick by Thursday. I'm very prone to getting sick when I'm extremely stressed out. Its like an unfriendly reminder that I haven't been taking good enough care of myself and my body has decided that if I'm not going to relax then its going to take me down by force.
Friday was supposed to be my last day. It was fairly obvious by lunch time that my replacement was not ready to be left on her own. I said that she shouldn't worry and I would come in on Monday to help out. Why? Why d I always make these promises and commitments when I should walk away. I'm a temp - I didn't even have to give notice!!
I said good-bye to everyone but it wasn't really good bye since they knew I would be coming back Monday. I left work and headed home. I was at least excited because I had a skype date with my niece Winnie (5) and Ellis (3). It was their first skype experience and I think that it freaked them out a little bit. Ellis, who is normally super chatty, just stared at me and shook his head is disbelief. Winnie liked it better and really liked when I gave them a tour of the flat and showed them the spare room which could be their room when they come for a visit. I think that Matt's skis and all the laundry hanging up in there may not have sold it.
Matt has been working on a new project that required him to work really long hours (leaving by 7 home by 10 or 11) for the first half of the week and then going up to work in Southport near Liverpool for Thursday and Friday. He's also working there all this week. He came back Friday night so that we could go to our friend's Dave and Kim's going away party. Although
they have only moved about an hour and a half away. I'm sad for Matt because he and Dave have been friends and lived in the same area since they were in grade school.
We had a good night other than I was feeling pretty awful. At this point one half of my throat was completely swollen and sore and I was convinced that my brain was trying to escape and push through my skull. I was happy to go home and crawl into bed. We were both looking forward to a lie in Saturday morning.
In the morning, I was still feeling sick and had to make a trip to the pharmacy. I would have spent the whole day in bed but Matt had bought tickets to see a play in London for our anniversary. I'll admit that I pushed a little bit to celebrate an anniversary. I thought that making it to one year together (or since we met) was a big deal considering how much time we spent apart. In some ways I think our relationship is stronger because we had to get to know each other over e-mail and phone calls at the start because we couldn't see each other. I'll save more relationship insights for another post though.
The play we went to see was called Private Lives. The main reason that he bought the tickets was because Kim Cattrall was the lead actress. As it turns out, the play was amazing and hilarious. I was thisclose to Kim Cattrall. She is so firmly entrenched in my mind as Samantha that when the play was over all I could think was wow Samantha did a great job! Kim Cattrall did do a good job and had a very believable accent. I, on the other hand, still can't do an English accent to save my life.
We went out for an early dinner and a quick wander around Covent Garden. We made it an early night because I was still feeling very rough. We came home and went to sleep. Matt usually plays football on Sunday but the game was cancelled which means we go to have another lie in. This is a big deal considering that Matt is usually up and out the house on the weekends to play golf and football.
Sunday was a lazy day. His parents came over to put up some shelves in the kitchen. Matt may not be that handy but his dad sure is! No all of my spices and cooking oils are easily accessible. Our kitchen is really coming along despite the complete lack of storage space.
At Matt's parents insistence we went to the walk-in clinic to make sure that I didn't have tonsillitis or strep throat. It turns out that its just a virus and I need to rest and drink plenty of fluids. I'm also enjoying popsicles or ice lollies as they call them here.
Matt and I watched the Olympic hockey game and he tried to get into it but couldn't really make sense of the game and wondered how anyone could actually see the puck. I was so happy that we won and only slightly sad that I wasn't in Canada to be able to watch it.
Matt left very early this morning and will be gone until Friday. I made an appearance at work today just to tie up a few loose ends and to turn in my key fob. Even though I didn't like the job, it was nice to be in an office with people and being more social. I have a tendency to hermit.
I have to book my intensive driving lessons for next week since the new job requires the ability to drive a manual car on the other side of the road. I'm not completely sure when the new job starts as I'm still waiting for my criminal record check to come back clear (which it will it just takes longer for them to search my Canadian details). I've also gotten an e-mail today about becoming a volunteer community panel member handling youth justice cases and sentencing.
There will probably be more posts in the next few weeks since I'll be home more.
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