Post-HolidayRamble...
I am well overdue for an update but everything seems to be happening at lightning-fast pace currently, which is making it hard for me to find the time to sit down and write something. I didn’t want to end up glossing over all the details in order just to get something down, but it looks like I may have no choice or things are going to move on again and when I come to write about that, nothing will make sense!
P and I had a lovely holiday in Portugal. It was really warm but breezy so we were still able to walk around lots without feeling sweaty and knackered in no time at all. I was a bit panicky about flying, but other than the nail marks in Paul’s hands, the travel was all mostly uneventful. The Aldo Zilli meals on the plane were unexpectedly delicious, the only problem being I could have eaten 4 of them - they were tiny!! Instead on the return journey, once we arrived back at P’s house in Finchley, I headed straight for Bengal Bertie’s and ordered a giant curry with all the extras.
Most of the holiday was spent mooching around Lagos exploring all the coves and little side streets and relaxing and eating nice food. Paul had an interesting encounter with a seagull in the swimming pool, but I have been banned from writing about it and was a fraction of a second too slow with my camera, so it will only continue to exist in my memory! Talking of swimming pool though, the water in Portugal is freezing! Even when the sun has shone on it all day, it just doesn’t warm up. Plus we kind of forgot Portugal isn’t on the Mediterranean, but the Atlantic, so the see was fairly chilly. We still waded out a fair way though and challenged each other to stand as the waves crashed into us - which was a lot of fun ;)
The food was really great for the most part - I did have steak one night and couldn’t eat much of it as it was fairly undercooked and bleeding on to my plate as I prodded it with my fork. When the waiter saw I hadn’t eaten it and asked why, I explained I liked meat more well done (they don’t ask you about this when you order), at which point me and P had to conceal our disbelief as he told us this was what they call ‘medium’!! I swear I am not exaggerating when I say this steak wasn’t simply pink, it was red raw and bleeding at the bottom - there’s no way it could pass for medium, which as far as I remember would be brown all the way through! Anyway, like I said, the food was mainly great - we had one meal at a cliff top place with a 180 degree view of the sea and that was really lovely, so peaceful and stunning views.
I’ve taken hundreds of photos (that I still haven’t uploaded on to my pc tsk tsk) and I will try to post some of the best ones soon ish. I would definitely go back there again, the apartments were lovely and it is a great place for a relaxing holiday.
Hmm so the other major thing that was going on last time I wrote was that I was in the process of getting an NQ job. I had interviews at both this place and another firm before I went away, both of which went fairly well as far as I could tell. Better than I thought as it turns out, as this place called to offer me the job last week, and the other place invited me to second interview (which took place the day after I returned from Portugal). Second interview at other place didn’t go as well as the first, but by that point I had pretty much decided to stay with this firm, as the other place’s office is just that little bit too far away and P and I can’t afford to move to South West London. So now I’m happy happy over having a job and just have to wait and see what’s going to happen. There is talk of me being moved to the London office in July (!) which throws all the original plans out and has got us looking for flats much sooner than anticipated. (We made the mistake of going to see the new build development first (oh my god it’s amazing!!!), which is making all the other places look shabby but we’re trying not to get our hearts set on it because we imagine they are in fairly high demand at the moment).
Other than that, I’ve become fairly addicted to Harvest Moon on my Nintendo DS - who would have thought a farming sim would be so absorbing? While on the subject of games, I have found the perfect birthday present for you Cat, I’ll just have to get Carl to have a nosy at which games you already have to be sure that you haven’t already got this one, as given what it is (it’ll make sense eventually) there is a high possibility you have already picked it up ;)
So in summary - great holiday, yay for having a job and someone hide the charger for my DS please!
*pauses*
I’m moving to London!!!! *squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees*