(no subject)
Hey long time no see!
I'm sorry for being so crap for updating. It seems I say that in every update these days.
Anyway, my news: after 8 years in London, we are definitely going back to Ireland. I told my job I'm not coming back to them. Yay! Scary. Yay! Scary. We've already booked the van to bring back our stuff at the end of March. I'm not going with the van because it will be too long of a trip with the baby, but me and him will fly out either the day before or the day after Mickey goes with the van.
I owe work a bit over 4 grand. That's not so bad. I'm going to see if I can pay them back a tiny amount per month. They certainly can't have it from me in a lump sum anyway!
With my second last pay from work I managed to pay off my laser eye surgery, so that's one less thing to worry about.
I need to cancel my phone contract and go onto pay as you go, and then the only debt I need to worry about it what I owe work for leaving.
We're going to live with Mickey's parents for a while, while we find our feet. My new town is going to be Athlone. It's really small. I'm a bit nervous about moving to such a tiny place, but I'm excited too. It's going to be much nicer for the baby. There are some things going on there, for example there is a Spanish language meetup, which I'm planning on being the first social thing I do there. We also have some plans of things we are going to set up ourselves - Mickey is going to put on gigs, and I'm going to start a nerdy boardgames night. We're also going to try to get fit and do a lot more outdoors things, despite the horrible Irish weather. If you are a Brit reading this, yes, it IS worse there. It rains way more and many years there is not a single sunny day for the entire summer. That's just something we will have to put up with/buy serious boots and jackets for.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do about a job when I get back to Ireland. I do want to get back to work eventually, but I don't think I can afford it at the moment. I'm not really qualified to do anything that pays more than what childcare costs an hour, and even though we are going to be living with the grandparents at first, I don't think I can expect regular free childcare from them. For one thing, nana has already agreed to do full time childcare for her other grandchild (and she's not even sure she'll be able to manage that at her age - I might be helping out with that).
I suppose I'll do some sort of course in the hope of finally having a useful, non-lawfirm job when I finally go back to work. Something in education I suppose (good hours, useful work, not as reviled as a profession in Ireland as it is here, chances of progression...). I know I'm ALWAYS saying I'm going to do this course or that course, but if I'm really not going to be working for a few years, then I'd better use that opportunity now, especially when there is going to be a lot of help in the same house.
So that's the news. The flat is more than half packed up already. I hate being surrounded by boxes! There is a lot of cleaning and tidying to do still so I suppose the move will come up really fast. I want it to happen as soon as possible though. Even though I love and will miss London, I feel in limbo right now and want to start my new life!
Oh, and Séamus's birthday is going to happen in the meantime too (7 March).
What else? Well, me and Mickey bought this and we're looking forward to listening to it*
Since being into swing dancing I've always liked a bit of jazz, but that was mainly fluffy sort of stuff you know, the popmusic of the 20s to 40s. This is the real deal "intellectual" jazz which I always considered a bit of a snore, but now I feel like it's time to give it a chance. That particular album there regularly ends up in the lists of best albums ever (in all types of music) so there's got to be something in it. Yes, a DiAgostini subscription is probably the most shameful way to get into jazz ever, and if I had a lifetime to do it, I would probably eventually pick up all the albums in this collection for next to nothing in the charity shop, but I like the idea of this particular collection.
Not that we're necessarily going to buy the whole collection. I think most DiAgostini things are a monstrous ripoff. But the price of a regular issue of this one is £15. I happily pay £20 for a new metal album on vinyl, so I consider that price ok. Just don't tell any real jazz guys that I'm trying to get into jazz via a magazine collection!
*The record player is broken and there's no point in fixing it until we move house.
Oh, I also watched the first ep of the New XFiles last night. I didn't watch the earlier series (I'm not sure why, I maybe saw 3 episodes, I was probably more interested in drinking vodka in graveyards than telly at the time) but Mickey was a huge fan. I hope it gets good. So far it's pretty cheesy. So there's a conspiracy of the rich to take over the world? Isn't that already happening openly?
I'm sorry for being so crap for updating. It seems I say that in every update these days.
Anyway, my news: after 8 years in London, we are definitely going back to Ireland. I told my job I'm not coming back to them. Yay! Scary. Yay! Scary. We've already booked the van to bring back our stuff at the end of March. I'm not going with the van because it will be too long of a trip with the baby, but me and him will fly out either the day before or the day after Mickey goes with the van.
I owe work a bit over 4 grand. That's not so bad. I'm going to see if I can pay them back a tiny amount per month. They certainly can't have it from me in a lump sum anyway!
With my second last pay from work I managed to pay off my laser eye surgery, so that's one less thing to worry about.
I need to cancel my phone contract and go onto pay as you go, and then the only debt I need to worry about it what I owe work for leaving.
We're going to live with Mickey's parents for a while, while we find our feet. My new town is going to be Athlone. It's really small. I'm a bit nervous about moving to such a tiny place, but I'm excited too. It's going to be much nicer for the baby. There are some things going on there, for example there is a Spanish language meetup, which I'm planning on being the first social thing I do there. We also have some plans of things we are going to set up ourselves - Mickey is going to put on gigs, and I'm going to start a nerdy boardgames night. We're also going to try to get fit and do a lot more outdoors things, despite the horrible Irish weather. If you are a Brit reading this, yes, it IS worse there. It rains way more and many years there is not a single sunny day for the entire summer. That's just something we will have to put up with/buy serious boots and jackets for.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do about a job when I get back to Ireland. I do want to get back to work eventually, but I don't think I can afford it at the moment. I'm not really qualified to do anything that pays more than what childcare costs an hour, and even though we are going to be living with the grandparents at first, I don't think I can expect regular free childcare from them. For one thing, nana has already agreed to do full time childcare for her other grandchild (and she's not even sure she'll be able to manage that at her age - I might be helping out with that).
I suppose I'll do some sort of course in the hope of finally having a useful, non-lawfirm job when I finally go back to work. Something in education I suppose (good hours, useful work, not as reviled as a profession in Ireland as it is here, chances of progression...). I know I'm ALWAYS saying I'm going to do this course or that course, but if I'm really not going to be working for a few years, then I'd better use that opportunity now, especially when there is going to be a lot of help in the same house.
So that's the news. The flat is more than half packed up already. I hate being surrounded by boxes! There is a lot of cleaning and tidying to do still so I suppose the move will come up really fast. I want it to happen as soon as possible though. Even though I love and will miss London, I feel in limbo right now and want to start my new life!
Oh, and Séamus's birthday is going to happen in the meantime too (7 March).
What else? Well, me and Mickey bought this and we're looking forward to listening to it*
Since being into swing dancing I've always liked a bit of jazz, but that was mainly fluffy sort of stuff you know, the popmusic of the 20s to 40s. This is the real deal "intellectual" jazz which I always considered a bit of a snore, but now I feel like it's time to give it a chance. That particular album there regularly ends up in the lists of best albums ever (in all types of music) so there's got to be something in it. Yes, a DiAgostini subscription is probably the most shameful way to get into jazz ever, and if I had a lifetime to do it, I would probably eventually pick up all the albums in this collection for next to nothing in the charity shop, but I like the idea of this particular collection.
Not that we're necessarily going to buy the whole collection. I think most DiAgostini things are a monstrous ripoff. But the price of a regular issue of this one is £15. I happily pay £20 for a new metal album on vinyl, so I consider that price ok. Just don't tell any real jazz guys that I'm trying to get into jazz via a magazine collection!
*The record player is broken and there's no point in fixing it until we move house.
Oh, I also watched the first ep of the New XFiles last night. I didn't watch the earlier series (I'm not sure why, I maybe saw 3 episodes, I was probably more interested in drinking vodka in graveyards than telly at the time) but Mickey was a huge fan. I hope it gets good. So far it's pretty cheesy. So there's a conspiracy of the rich to take over the world? Isn't that already happening openly?