Jobs, Holidays & Visa Applications

I sit here typing in the honeymoon room at the Crown and Thistle for what will most probably be the last time. We’d both had late nights on Wednesday evening so the 5.30am alarm call yesterday was a dark, rude awakening. The drive down was fraught as usual but otherwise fairly uneventful. I dropped Phil off at work at half past seven and then set about my usual Abingdon starting off at the White Horse Leisure centre for a workout. I saw my psycho friend Maria in the changing room; she told me she’d been to a Motown party in her local pub and was covered in bruises. I didn’t any questions! I didn’t have a very good workout, after weeks of building up my fitness levels; my old body is starting to complain. I only did 3 sets with the kettle bells and it triggered off my old back pain. Not massively but it was enough to be uncomfortable. I tried a run but had to stop after only 1km because the muscles at the back of my right thigh started to really hurt. This has been plaguing me for nearly a week, I lay off the treadmill for a few days and workout on other machines and the pain goes away but then I have another run and the pain returns. I think I shall have to give running a rest for a week or so and then see what happens.

Phil finished work at quarter to two as he had enough hours in the bank. I’d booked in earlier in the morning at the Crown & Thistle, managing once again, to get our nice spacious room at the bargain ‘book on the day’ rate of 50 quid which includes breakfast. We parked the car and went straight to eat at the restaurant next door to the hotel, The Broad Face http://thebroadface.com/. It was a little upmarket but the food was great and we treated ourselves to a bottle of Shiraz. Phil ordered the steak which was cooked on black volcanic rock. I was intrigued as I’d never seen this before, but basically the meat carry’s on cooking and if you like it rare, then you need to take it off the rock. I went for the beef and Guinness pie which was very good. It was gone 3pm by the time we finished our lunch and as it was such a beautiful day, I suggested a walk along the Thames but Phil wasn’t keen. I didn’t mind, we grabbed our bags and checked in. We’d brought the laptop but unfortunately the hotel’s WI-FI was down so we were unable to get online. We had a lazy afternoon and went down to the bar for a pint in the evening, but other than that, we spent the rest of the time in our room watching the telly.


My interview at MK News on Wednesday afternoon lasted for just over an hour and I think it went okay but I’m not too sure how well I came over. The job, which basically is managing the property section in the weekly paper which comes out on a Wednesday. Tracey, the sales manager made the job sound interesting and we got on very well. I ended up telling her about our experiences in Australia & India, somehow we got around to talking ex husbands and well, just life in general, and I don’t think I gave her the opportunity to interrogate me about my CV. When my time was up, she thanked me for coming and said that I was very funny and fascinating. I’m not sure that’s such a good thing. I talk crap when I’m pissed and I think even more crap when I’m nervous! I had a good look around the office as I was escorted out of the building and I noticed that all the staff looked under 30 so perhaps I’m too old. Tracey said they’d been interviewing for 2 weeks solid as they had had such a good response to the job advert. She hopes to let everyone know on Tuesday but I don’t know, an old girlie that hasn’t worked for last 4 years, guess I don’t much of a chance. Still, you don’t get anywhere if you don’t try and the interview experience was worth an hour of my life.

Phil will be very disappointed if I do GET the job; after months of chiding me about not working and being a ‘kept woman’ he has now decided that he would prefer me not to work. I wish he’d make up his mind. I think the fact that he is finishing next week and wants to go away on holiday is the reason behind it. On Tuesday, he sent me 26 emails all with different holidays or links to holidays that he’d found. I responded to some of the holidays that I liked which included 3 weeks in north Goa for silly money and a week’s cruise on Cunard’s ‘Queen Victoria’. If I don’t get the job then I think we will opt for Goa. The hotel accommodation that’s included in the bargain price is really basic with terrible reviews on Trip Advisor but we have stayed in worse and the plan is to try and stick it out at the hotel for a week so we can explore the north on a motorbike and then head south. The only thing that puts me off slightly is a link to an article that Phil emailed me that showed pictures of the oil spill which has affected beaches, in both south and north Goa. I haven’t seen any mention of it on the news but it’s not really a big deal. It’s weird, we were watching telly in our hotel room last night and Goa came up several times. Okay, I exaggerate, maybe 3 times but we took this as a SIGN. I printed off the Indian Visa forms and filled these out in McDonalds yesterday whilst sipping hot chocolate. Steve B told me that the Indian High Commission had outsourced visa applications and he was right. It used to be a right pain in the arse getting a visa so it’s about time they brought the process into the 21st century. I phoned up to enquire about the ‘Fast Trek’ option but this costs £105 which means you get your visa back in 3-4 working days but the normal postal application costs £66 and your visa takes a week. We will take our chances on the cheaper option. Anyway, I’m trying to hold Phil off from booking anything until next week; I need to keep my options open, just in case. A girl always needs options……..


And that’s about where we are as we come to the end of another week. I have just tried to see if the hotel have sorted out their WI-FI but alas for me they haven’t so I shall have to save this blog and upload when I get back to MK. I need to shower and pack the bags for one last time. Perhaps one last walk around the high street and a 15 minute session in the library to check my emails and then it will be goodbye Abingdon. I very much doubt that we will return.