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Had a bit of a panic attack last night while stitching the first part of my WTC quilt panel … I was under the impression there were supposed to be 18 names on each panel, and hadn’t checked my list before, but then I was counting them up to work out roughly how long it will take me to complete the stitching … only to find 17 names! Yikes!! I then spent the next 1/2 hour combing through my emails to find the original list, and checking my chart, to find yes there were only 17 … quickly sent an email off to the organiser to find out if there was an error before I got too much further, and thankfully got a quick response back again this morning – my panel has indeed only got 17 names on it … phew! I only managed to get 3 names done last night, and will spend some more time on it today – I hope to get at least another 6 names done today.

Loved my TV viewing last night – and I had the added bonus, that I forgot the new series of Amazing Race started, and the first episode was on my video – yippee … I love that programme 🙂

OK, off to stitch again now … and watch that Adam Sandler DVD …

But quickly, before I go, for StitchieKiwi (and anyone else that’s interested) – I use Newsgator now for all my blog reading. There are probably other sites that do the same thing, but I found this one after Von mentioned it, and I’ve used it ever since. Once it’s set up with all your favourite blog links, you can click on a box to only show unread feeds – it has all the blogs showing unread items in a list, and you can either click on each blog name individually, or on “my feeds” which shows every post in date order of being received. More than happy to give you more info if you want to email me … shakatak at iinet dot net dot au 🙂 I helped someone else out recently with the same thing, so I can just about do a copy and paste for you 😉

I woke up this morning with a new challenge in mind … I just couldn’t seem to keep on top of my blog reading, with trying to catch up on unread old posts, as well as all the new posts coming in continuously – last night my unread feeds were back up to over 300 again … so today I decided enough was enough – I refused to move my bum off the computer chair until I had read every single feed! OK, admittedly, my bum did move every now and then for sustenance … and it’s a good thing I live on my own, ‘cos the place smells disgustingly of blue cheese and pickled onions – I had my very own little wine and cheese afternoon … just without the wine LOL … followed by watermelon and now a mug of coffee … I think perhaps the wine might come later, though ;P

I have to admit, I do now have a slight headache again, but I’m hoping it will pass – the key thing is that after approx 8 1/2 hours sat in front of this PC screen, my unread blog feeds sit at a big fat “0” … WOOHOO!!! It’s actually quite a relief to finally get on top of things – and with today being such a hot day inside, it hasn’t been great stitching weather, but perfect to sit in front of the electric fan and read blogs. As always all the work I’ve seen has been inspirational, and there are yet more designs to be added to my wishlist … yikes.

Tonight I do intend to strike up a needle finally – and get a start made on my WTC quilt … my thread finally arrived for my Marine Elegance piece, but I’m a bit disappointed in the colour as it’s a totally different batch – and I ordered extra lengths to make sure I have more for future hardanger projects I’d like to use it for … oh well, I’m sure it will come in handy – at least it’s still my favourite colours, just in a kind of ‘pastel version’ of them ;P I’m so far behind with my Marine Elegance, I want to make sure I get my commitment stitching out of the way first as it will take some time to catch up.

Last night I turned my lounge room around furniture-wise … my old flat is breaking up and flatmates all going their separate ways (I’ll refrain from commenting on that scenario), which means I have my chair returning from my 3-piece lounge suite. It’s a ratty old thing that Fraze’s Dad found for us at a garage sale for $150, complete with fold-out bed settee (which is sooo comfy, it’s great – shame the sofa itself isn’t as comfy haha) – anyway, when I moved out from the old flat, it pretty much left a ‘shell’ as almost all of the things there belonged to me … Andrew had a sofabed, and that was all, and there were going to be 3 of them living there, so they asked if I’d leave them one of my chairs – I agreed, for Fraze’s sake, seeing as I was living on my own I could live without it for a while … so now I have to make room for it to arrive – the sofa is now on the opposite wall to where it was, and the two chairs will sit against the other wall, with my stereo hopefully fitting inbetween the two chairs, on the little table – in another week’s time when the chair arrives I guess we’ll soon find out if it will fit or not haha.

Anyway, off to finish my coffee – and drag out the fabric and scroll bars … with this week’s episodes of Lost and ER on video to watch (‘cos I was busy watching the other channel while they were on – thanks Fraggle for helping me set my videos up, it’s awesome!!) – after that, I have a DVD to watch … “Punch-Drunk Love” with Adam Samdler. With any luck I may even have a progress piccie tomorrow … maybe … ;P

Oh boy, I slept like a baby last night – the traffic noise outside has a tendency to wake me up at about 7am, but this morning I didn’t hear anything until about 9.30am – woohoo!! I have two goals for stitching over my two days off … and I managed to complete the first one just in time for lunchtime – my little giftie … here’s the latest teaser piccie.

As for what’s next … I’m going to stitch my latest ornie in my Christmas ornie RR, so at least I know it’s all finished ready for posting next month – I’ve got my fingers crossed that it’ll get finished today, as it seems like it’s just a small one … mind you, that can always be deceiving LOL. Then tomorrow I want to stitch my WTC quilt block plus one more ornament. After that will be my last two charity quilt blocks, followed by Marine Elegance (hopefully my threads will have arrived by then). After that, it’s back to the Dratteds and my rotation … no excuses!

Fingers crossed I’ll have more progress to post tomorrow – if not, I’ll have time to catch up soon, as I’m only back at work for two days, before being off for another two – the joy of Hotline relief work, as I’m switching between two different roster lines … then it’s back to 7 days of work straight yuk! Rightio, both Coach Carter and Dragonfly movies are sitting in the DVD player, now where did I put that ornie envelope … ?

… BUT I feel really OK and calm about it all. Got some very very positive feedback from the two Supervisors that did the interviews. They actually said “the job is yours” – it’s just that the other two candidates that got the jobs hit more of the interview criteria than I did, and unfortunately that’s the way the company does their interviewing … I know I’m really bad at interviews – my nerves get in the way, and it’s like somebody sucks my brains out in a big vacuum as I walk through the door. They both said with my experience I have plenty of situations I deal with every week that proves I can do the job backwards … but it’s my interview technique that is holding me back. I can give scenarios, but just hit the exact nail on the head. One of them said she wanted to kick me under the table, ‘cos I was so close to nailing it, then stopped, and missed the ‘finishing off’ part. Oh well, c’est la vie – getting such awesome feedback from both of them made it a much easier pill to swallow. I said to them I have a timeframe at the back of my mind until I call it quits for applying and would have to start looking elsewhere for the challenge, as I have too much to offer than just doing the ‘normal’ phones all day – they agreed, and one even went so far to say it would be tragic if the company lost my experience and knowledge, that it would be a tremendous loss.

Anyway, the outcome is that after the Supervisor has her operation and is back at work, we’ll get our ‘official’ feedback, and we go through the various questions step by step, and they’ll give me some additional coaching so I can learn what the company are specifically looking for in their scenarios … as they put it, you’ve got the experience to get you through, we’re going to help to give you that extra nudge over the line 🙂

In the meantime, though, they told me under no uncertain terms if I got offered a day shift position, that I should jump at it with both hands … I’d already been considering it, anyway, as a lot of times a shift position can come up within months, and you’re already a permanent senior, so you can move into the slot straightaway, then they re-advertise for the day position again. And there is soon to be some movement on the floor – last week one of the day shift seniors got a promotion to Quality Evaluator (a job I don’t want, even though it’s more money, so I didn’t apply for it), which means if they get approval within the next weeks to fill her spot, they can use someone from this interview group … and the way they were talking, made me wonder if it was me in line next … but then again they could have said that to everyone …

So, my challenge next week is to speak to my bank and credit union, to see if there is any option available for debt consolidation, to bring my outgoings down to something a little less each month than what it is now … which means I could do the day position for a short time without crippling myself – as they said today, if I took a day position you get asked to do relieving Quality Evaluator, which is Mon-Fri so no weekend penalties, but for 1 in 3 weeks you get shift penalties for 3-11pm shifts, and you can also do Supervisor relieving, which could be shift work. I couldn’t believe how they were so proactive in giving me all this info and being so definite about me not passing up the opportunity if it comes up. Oh boy, I hope I’m not reading anything into it … 🙂 I’ve already said I’d accept the job as a day position – and in the meantime now I’ve got to do my homework and see if I can cut some corners in spending etc … so I am now so on the wagon it’s not funny … just in case!!

On a positive note today, I finally received my Silkweaver FOTM I’ve been longing for – and they sent an extra small “happy” (a small cut of 28ct Jobelan Solo) to make up for the late posting. So, KarenV, your mail will finally go out on Monday – so much for a birthday gift hmmm … I’m spreading your birthday wishes into March now LOL. I decided to hold off sending your parcel when I thought the fabric had arrived the other day, then I had confirmation from Silkweaver that it had left them 8 Feb, so I figured it couldn’t be too far away … and it’s finally here! It’s a very pretty blue, too 🙂

Oh heck, if I have to cut costs, I suppose my FOTM club will have to disappear too 😦 Oh b*gger, that was my only vice left …

… as my interview is all over – I was in there for almost an hour, and can’t say I feel ‘thrilled’ about the whole thing … I struggled with one scenario, so with that one and one other one, I probably didn’t answer as well as I would have hoped, but I feel OK about the other 8 ‘major’ questions. Unfortunately my best scenarios weren’t able to be used, as they didn’t match the questions they wanted … oh well.

I have to say, I feel really quite relaxed and calm about the whole thing – last time I wanted it soooo badly I got all uptight when I didn’t get it … this time I’ve got Jenna’s attitude down pat, “it is what it is” (love that one, Jenna!) – I’m learning to make the most of what I have … there are many other qualified people that deserve the job as well, so the competition is fierce – if it takes me another year to get it, then so be it, but I refuse to stress about it this time round. Obviously I’ll be disappointed if I don’t get it, as I do still want the job … but I won’t be visiting Migraine City for weeks on end at the end of it all this time! 🙂 At least with my current job I get plenty of variety, and still get to do the Hotline job as a reliever on a regular basis so it keeps my skills up etc.

We actually get the results back on Friday, so at least we don’t have long to be put out of our miseries – there is one shift position and one day position … unfortunately with my finances I can only accept the shift position, so if I get offered the day one, I’m going to have to turn it down, which will break my heart. Anyway, we’ll cross that bridge when/if we come to it. I’m now putting it out of my mind, and getting back into my normal routine again until Friday.

One thing that cheered me up today is that there is a parcel sitting in my PO box … fingers crossed it is finally the Silkweaver fabric I’ve been waiting for a whole month for, so I can get it posted off to KarenV for the Star of Wonder ornament SAL (though I don’t think it’ll be done in time for the February deadline hmmm). Woohoo!!! I’ll have to go into work a bit earlier to be able to pick it up from the PO counter while they’re open.

OK, off to bed early tonight … only just walked in from work at 11.45pm, and I’m exhausted already … what a wimp I am! LOL

After tonight, it makes me wonder why on earth I’d consider doing this job full-time … at 10 minutes to 11 (pm) I took one last call for the night – and it was a complaint call from hell … it was the one passenger I’ve dealt with that has had me in such a state of upset, that my hands were shaking the last time I spoke to him two years ago – and tonight was no different! In fact, by the time I got off the phone at 11.30pm my whole body was shaking and I was nearly in tears … not a single other person has been able to do that to me. He is the most verbally abusive and obnoxious person I have ever dealt with in my life – and he is verbally abusive to every person he’s dealt with. Without breaching confidence/business ethics, I can say that the area that deals with what his complaint is has a huge file on him from all the complaints that different staff have made about him, and there’s not a thing they can do about him, because “he hasn’t broken any rules in the program”. I won’t repeat the language I used when I got off the phone, or say what I felt he should do to himself, but let’s just say it was rather impolite!

So thanks Mr Obnoxious (name changed to protect the not-so-innocent) for giving me the start of a migraine … right on the eve of my interview when I need to be feeling calm and centred. The last time I spoke to him he screamed at me … literally … for 50 whole minutes before speaking to my Supervisor for another 20 minutes of screaming. At least tonight he was abusing me at a more moderate decibel, so I suppose that’s one positive … He is the only person I’ve ever taken home in my head and had him appear again as soon as I woke up, he had such a huge negative and emotional impact on me. Unfortunately, that didn’t help tonight, as I still have that memory of the previous abuse imprinted on my brain, so I was tensed up as soon as he came on … but then again, I was also more prepared for his attitude and was able to keep quite calm throughout the whole thing. I will go to sleep tonight fantasising about my final day at work for this company, when I can phone him up and tell him exactly what I think of him … that should put me to sleep with a smile on my face.

Fingers crossed I’ll wake up tomorrow morning with no migraine taking hold, and I can forget about him for a short while, and I’ll be able to focus on my interview prep, as I certainly am in no frame of mind to concentrate on it tonight 😦 I will end by saying, Mr Obnoxious, I hope your hotel room has cockroaches, your bags all go missing for 3 months, and if there is such a thing as karma, you’d better watch out, buddy, ‘cos it’s gonna be BAD!!!!!

OK, that helped to get that vent out of my system … sorry for the ranting!

I’m now home after a wonderful day out … I have to admit, I am typing this in a slightly tipsy state, after drinking wine since about 11am (it’s now 10.30pm – so that’s a LOT of wine!) – it’s probably the most I’ve drunk for about 2 years, and I have to admit to have had a blast of a day. A couple of the girls there today I know pretty well, and have poured my heart to on occasion, so knew the history I’ve had here in Oz, and were very supportive today – and I really enjoyed a day out with ‘the girls’ for a change. I guess it was a bit of a learning curve for me, that I really am ‘OK’ on my own. There has been a lot of history with this friendship, and a lot of personal pain involved, and it has been easy to forget that because it hasn’t happened for a while … so when it happened again, it was in some ways a shock, but some ways almost expected. It serves me right – I should never have paid for the tickets myself … but I’m too soft!

Anyway, enough moaning – ‘cos all-in-all I’ve had a really awesome day. We took a bus tour round 3 different vineyards, and at the last vineyard ALL the bus coaches ended up there, so there were 1000’s of people – each vineyard had it’s own tents with food and wine on offer, and live music at each one. We all met up for breakfast before we left … seeing I was now on a budget, I opted to arrive late and pick up a McDonald’s bacon and egg McMuffin on the way instead of forking out $15 for the same at the restaurant, but sat and had a coffee with the group – then we went to the first vineyard and had a glass of sparkling wine while we jigged to the African band that was very reminiscent of Paul Simon’s Graceland album.

After driving another 45 minutes in the bus, at the next vineyard we had a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, and enjoyed the more mellow sounds of the solo artist while sitting on blankets and nibbling on cheese and crackers we brought. Then when we hit the final destination we could finally relax and sit down without having to move for a couple of hours, so we had a proper meal of chicken or steak with Greek salad and baked potato, along with yet another three bottles of wine (4 of us put in $30 each at the start of the day, and we shared the bottles of wine during the day – it lasted us the whole day, which was great). Heck, I just realised exactly how much we drank today!!! That means we had a bottle each while we were out, then we decided to go to the ‘after party’ at a pub in town where we probably drank another 4 wines each … oh heck, I think that means I’m gonna wake up with a major headache tomorrow – good job I’m not starting work until 3pm!!

Mind you, I’d better wake up remembering my car is parked at work already (I left it there today so I could drink, and still meet everyone for breakfast, rather having to take 1 1/2 hours to get there using public transport on a Sunday!) … which means I have to go to work on the train – it’s been 2 years since I’ve had to do that, so that’ll be an experience! LOL.

Anyway, I’d better call it a night … I just wanted to say “thanks for the support” – it means a lot to me! But I feel very happy about the great day I had … perhaps it will finally help me to sever some ties that have been holding me back … ?

Normally it’s a colour I enjoy, but I don’t like it when it’s describing my feelings … how can it be that just overnight your emotions switch from one opposite end of the scale to another? Today I have had the dampener put on what is supposed to be a fun event, by my best mate … a text message received at 4am stating he’s not going. I don’t mind that so much, apart from the fact that I had to shell out the $65 for the ticket cost in advance – told him it had to be paid by 24 January, but I never got the money … my account ended up in overdraft, and I got hit with a $29 fee. Since then I’ve had to scrape the money together, but I figure I have that money coming today so I re-budgeted, yet again, around that … you’d think I would have learnt by now!!

I guess that’s why I feel so blue … my finances since I moved out are so tight, it’s not funny – I’ve been putting $20 away each payday so I can have some ‘fun money’, but has been spent on some sale threads/fabric lately, so I can’t even fall back on that today. I also have my official birthday dinner next Saturday, at which I am expected to provide wine etc … That $65 is the equivalent to my food and petrol costs for a week – that’s a huge amount of money for me to shell out for nothing, on top of the cost of my own ticket!

I’m sorry for venting … but I wanted to get it out of my system before I went out. Today was supposed to be a part-celebration for my birthday … it now looks like I’ll have to use the birthday money I got from Mum or work to have a day out today … so much for using it for framing – I can’t begin to tell you how disappointed I feel today … but in this friendship, unfortunately, it’s nothing new. Hopefully, by the end of today, I will have gotten over it … but right now I feel like a 40-year-old doormat. The truth is I know him too well, and he doesn’t have the money to give to me, so the easiest way out is to bail and leave me with the bill.

OK, enough of me airing my dirty laundry to the world (especially as he and his new girlfriend read this blog apparently) … Carol, I think I need to come to you for a visit – I can stitch my heart out in that wonderful basement of yours, inbetween therapy sessions!

Rightio, off to get dressed, and try to get myself out of my funked-out mood … at least I know some of the others going from work today, so I won’t be totally on my own today … Mind you, just looking out the window there are serious black clouds out there, so the day might end up actually matching my mood LOL.

Yup, that time has come that I hit the new age bracket … no longer can I tick the “30-39” age bracket in surveys etc – I’m now in the “40-49” bracket as from today. Have to admit, the day has started off eventfully in two different ways … I don’t know why, but I’ve been having a serious lapse of memory this week (and I’d better hurry up and snap out of it, ‘cos I’ve got an exam next week for work, then hopefully an interview again … but I don’t have my hopes up this time – but that’s another story). Anyway, where was I? See, I think early senility has kicked in! That’s what happens when you jump up a decade – that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it!!

Right, back to the story (I’m starting to feel like Billy Connolly!!) … Last night I went supermarket shopping after work (didn’t finish work until 8pm) – bought some lollies (aka candies for my US readers; aka sweets for my UK readers LOL) to hand out at work today, as well as buying the ingredients to bake a birthday cake to take to work, and the ingredients to make Mars Bar Slice … or so I thought! What did I do? Managed to remember I needed 7 eggs for the cake (tick), cooking chocolate for the cake (tick), rice bubbles for the Mars bar slice (tick), milk chocolate for the Mars bar slice (tick), butter for both (tick) … and off to the checkout I went and came home. Put the oven on at 10pm to start baking … started getting the ingredients out for the cake … first one – 1/2 cup of cocoa … um, cocoa … cocoa … !!! – hmm, that’s right Anne, you threw out what was left when you moved flats in August and didn’t replace it … Never mind, I can make the Mars bar slice in the morning … Yeah, right! I get ready to start ‘cooking’ my Mars bar slice this morning – the one thing missing from my shopping list … yup, MARS BARS!!!!! and yet again, a double . Luckily I bought the lollies to hand out, or I would be going in empty-handed! Oh well, looks like my cake and slice will be going in a day late – at least I’m on a 2pm start tomorrow, so I’ll have more time to get it ready as well. What a blonde!!!

An interesting start to the day … but before I realised the Mars Bars were AWOL, I checked my emails – and what did I find? A comment in my blog saying Silkweaver had sent me a postcard and ‘click on this link’ to get it – I have to admit, I originally thought it was spam and nearly deleted it, then realised that I have word verification on, and Silkweaver was reputable … so I crossed my fingers it wasn’t a virus or something awful and clicked on the link … WOW, was I surprised?!!! I was truly spoilt by my great online pal, Jenna, for my birthday – with a $40 gift voucher from Silkweaver … I’m truly speechless at the awesome generosity – and have to admit to shedding a tear or two this morning. Thank you Jenna from the bottom of my heart – I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, you’re a true sweetheart and I feel blessed to call you ‘my friend’.

In fact I want to say a huge heart-felt thanks to all my online pals – I feel truly blessed to have met you all (thanks Blogger!!). I have appreciated every comment left, and the support given at times when I’ve needed it, and have been humbled by the gifts that have been sent. I really do feel blessed today … {{{Hugs}}} to you all

And my pals have been so generous with their gifts with charts, and now fabric, I’ve decided not to spend Mum & Dad’s birthday money on stash – I discussed it with her, and we agree it’s a good idea … I’m going to use the money towards getting one of my XS pieces framed (either my Graham Ross Tiger, or Thea Dueck’s Gold) – it’s something I never have spare cash for anymore, and I’d dearly love those two pieces framed up and on the walls somewhere … Thanks to Mum & Dad for your generous gift as well – love you both!

Right, off to work I go … I think I’d better go to work early today and buy Mars Bars before I forget!! It’s the one thing I make that always gets someone asking for the recipe – it’s disgusting just how much fat content is in it (it’s pretty much just chocolate, butter and rice bubbles), but crikey it’s delicious!! Fraze isn’t a huge ‘sweet’ fan, but even he goes mad for Mars Bar slice … I made him some last year as his birthday ‘cake’.

And three more birthdays coming up over the next week – tomorrow it’s Karen’s, followed on the 18th by Becky’s, then last but not least it’s Jenn’s on the 23rd … Happy Birthday to all in advance!! (but I’ll try to pop over in ‘person’ on the actual day)

Thanks for everyone’s comments on my scrapbook page – I have to admit, Jenna, this really was my very first attempt … and I can’t say it’s something I’ll be continuing – I think it could be a very expensive hobby, and stitching’s enough for me for the time being. It was fun putting that page together, though – and it was nice to be ‘creative’ for a change :))

Well, this is very very brief, as I’ve been laid up with a throw-up migraine most of the day. I’ve only been out of bed for 4 hours today, and thought I’d try to catch up on blogs, but managed to get through about 4 of them, and gave up. So, I’m about to switch the PC off again, and have a quiet night – I’m hoping to start stitching a small project, but not sure how my head is going to take it just yet …

Anyway, I’m going to stitch the Thistle Treasure Bag by M Designs – those of you who’ve been reading my blog for a while may recognise the design … it’s what the lovely angel Tobie sent me for a gift. You may also not know, but Tobie has apparently been very ill, and it felt appropriate for me to stitch this piece while I’m thinking of her at the moment – I know you won’t be reading this, Tobie, but my thoughts are with you at this time, and hope your recovery is a quick one {{hugs}}. If anyone has some prayers spare, I’m sure they’d be appreciated 🙂

Fingers crossed I’ll be fighting fit again tomorrow, so I can clear that backlog of blog posts … I thought there were only about 200 to read, but I was wrong – as at this afternoon there were 318! Yikes!!