So, what am i doing with my life? What are my plans? Well, im training to be a counsellor so attend university part-time and im also training to be a Bereavement Support Volunteer with Cruse. I also do some voluntary work with St Martins helpdesk giving advice and support to homeless and vulnerable clients in Birmingham; im also about to start doing some mentoring work with clients at St Martins.
As well as this i have recently started doing some crafts...now, im not the most adept at this kind of thing but i do find that i enjoy it. I made a lot of my Christmas presents in 2011; i made a laptop bag, candles, a purse and some mosaic coasters. Unfortunately i didnt take any photos of the results...as usual time ran away with me...but they were gratefully received by my friends.
I also love cooking. I struggle with my weight, as many people do, and one of my goals for this year is to eat healthy, good food and i may share some of my cooking successes with you...i may even share some of the disasters!
This blog is going to be a journey into my new life, how im coping, what im doing etc. I dont know how it will end up and i will probably change things as i go along. Any thoughts as to what you want to see will be welcomed! My plans are to talk about what im doing craft and cookery-wise, the ups and downs of changing my life and suddenly living life with no income (!) and whatever else i think may be interesting.
Today im doing boring stuff...all those little jobs that i never got round to when doing stupid hours at work. Ive painted a gate this morning and am tidying up lots of bits and pieces and putting them in the loft. I then plan to write up my Cruse Learning Journal from this weekend (i had two full days of training on Saturday and Sunday which, whilst inspiring and brilliant, left me emotionally drained and tired) and then read this which is helping my training at Cruse as well as being on the recommended Reading list at uni. See that i have killed two birds with one stone here... yes, i can be lazy (im very good at it!)... this may become a recurring theme!!
So my tasks for the rest of the day include:
- Ring DWP (i dont think that i can claim any benefits due to receiving a generous redundancy payment but ive been advised that i need to call them so that they will continue to pay my NI contributions). I cant say that im looking forward to doing this - ive never had to deal with the DWP or Job Centres before. Well not for myself, i have had to deal with them when my ex-husband was made unemployed many years ago and the experience was not a good one. I felt like i was treated with disdain - i really dont know how people cope with going and signing on every week/fortnight (see i dont even know how how often you are supposed to do these things!)
- Finish putting stuff in the loft - again im not looking forward to this. I have a fear of spiders and bugs, stupid i know, but having to poke my head into a dark, dusty loft is my idea of hell. At this point i should say that i dont have a man who i can call upon to do such things. I own my own house and share it with one of my best friends who lodges with me. My boyfriend, whom we shall call Mr A, lives elsewhere and to be honest poking heads in lofts is probably not one of his strong points!
- I have some leeks in the fridge which need to be used up so im going to make Leek & Potato soup. One of the fabulous things about not working is being able to go to the market and buy good quality but cheap vegetables. They seem to taste much nicer than those in the supermarket and last much longer. On Friday i got huge bags of carrots, broccoli and potatoes for £1 each. £1!!! I will attempt to take photos of the soup and let you know how i made it later.
- Reading
- There may also be a brief sojourn into the world of Zelda:Skyward Sword. I love the Zelda games but if i start playing the day will pass by too quickly so i may reward myself with this later when all of the other things on my list are done.
