Cool, moi?

So apparently according to The Times today, I live in one of the top 30 coolest places to live in Britain. 

Perhaps I shouldn't be in such a hurry to leave?!

Well where I live definitely has its charms, and I will always love it, but sometimes you just need to strike out and flee the nest.  I did that for 9 years, and then I came back.  Returning was great to start with but now 5 years on with my life not having really progressed in that time I feel I'm stuck in a rut.  A rut where I know everyone and can't even pop to the supermarket without at least bumping into several familiar faces.  It was nice at first, but now I crave some anonymity, some new experiences and the chance to meet people I don't already know or whom I don't already share a bundle of acquaintances with.  It's time to liven things up a bit with a big change of scene.

Of course I will always come back and visit, because lots of my friends are here and my brother and his family, and I will miss the place itself.  And who knows, if I meet a nice man and settle down, I might even drag him back here!

First finished job application for my new city of preference submitted on Monday morning, fingers crossed I get an interview at least...  If not, at least I have a lot of stuff I can copy and paste and tweak for the next application, rather than having to write everything from scratch.

Flakiness is not an attractive quality

So my date flaked out on me.  Not really a surprise but what is with these guys?!

It was the fourth attempt at a date... now I know you're all wondering why I gave it so many tries... and well, 1 & 2 were first time around - after failed date attempt 2 I told him I was deleting his number for messing me around.  I then deleted his number.  He then got back in contact a few months later under the guise of 'I found this number in my phone and don't know who it is'... and then we were getting on well over text so I sort of forgave him flake outs 1 & 2. 

So this time around he flakes out at 3 (though it feels like 1 as we've started again) - he doesn't text for a couple of days before we're meant to go out, and not on the day itself either.  After 1 & 2 I don't even bother to contact him to ask if we're still on, as I'll only embarrass myself.  Attempt at date 3 doesn't happen.  Later he gives some flaky excuse (we hadn't pinned down a time so he didn't realise it was meant to be definite - but I thought we were going to flesh out the details on the day or day before).  Then he starts sounding keen again a few days later and says he really wants to meet - I ask him if he's sure, given past attempts, and he gives some vague reasons as to why they didn't happen.  Given that he sounds keen and wants to book a date, time and venue even well in advance this time, I decide I'll give him one more chance (attempt 4).

All fine and in the two weeks between us booking the date and going on the date we're all texty texty.  He even texts a few days before to say how much he is looking forward to meeting me (he's off the internet).  Then a couple of days before we're due to meet up he goes a bit quiet.  I text him the day before and reference it in a text about something else and he doesn't reply.  We get to the day of the date (this Sunday) and he still hasn't texted.  We get to 11am (date is due to happen at 1pm and the table is booked).  I text him to check we're still on - no reply.  We get to 11.30am and I'm getting rather annoyed so I send him a rather pissy text (bearing in mind he KEEPS messing me around, it's about time I give him a piece of my mind) and say that given his track record if I don't hear back from him confirming we're still on to meet in the next half hour I'm going to call and cancel the restaurant as I don't want to mess them around and feel I should give them at least a little bit of notice.

No response.  I leave it a bit longer and then at about 12.15pm I ring and cancel the restaurant.  I don't text this guy again about it, just assume he's not coming.  More time passes.  I see later on that day that he has indeed seen my messages (we were texting via What's App and you can see when the person was last using the app) and send him a message saying that I don't know what his issue is, but that I'm deleting his number and don't want to hear from him again.  More silence.

Now I know my texts to him may sound a little schizo, but I'm normally very chilled with guys.  However, I feel there comes a point where they have to know they've pissed you off.  I wanted to say that he's rude and inconsiderate and that if that's the way he acts he'll never get a girlfriend.  But I didn't want to overdo it and look too bothered.  And besides, I'm annoyed at myself for being the muppet who gave some loser 4 chances!!!

At least for none of these failed dates did I actually go to the venue and sit there and wait and get visibly stood up.  At least trying to get confirmation before going avoids that...

To be honest right now I can't be bothered with dating anymore.  If this is the way men think it's ok to behave (and it's not just him of late), why should I bother?

I'm still trying to move to my new city of choice (sent off a job application this morning, fingers crossed) so maybe I'll leave the dating until I've moved and settled into my new life.

Anyway, one thing is clear, I need to stop trying to go on dates with losers!

Skint much?!

So here's the figures:

£0.41 left in my main bank account
£1.27 left in my secondary bank account (that my second job pay goes into)
£0.66 left in my wallet in cash

A grand total of £2.34 left until Friday!  Only Sunday today, eeeek!

I have some bits of money in savings, but really need to keep hold of them for more costly things coming up.

Think I'll have to allow myself at least a tenner from savings though to cover lunches this week... I'm rubbish at buying in supplies and getting up early enough to turn them into lunches to take with me.

I get paid from job 2 on Friday but am slightly panicked as I had to give up a shift last week to concentrate on work for job 1, and am going to only be paid a teeny bit, less than what I normally allow myself for my weekly budget!  Fun and games...

I have a date tomorrow but he's promised to pay (he owes me, having flaked out on me already twice), so hopefully that's not going to cost me anything... fingers crossed it might even be fun!

Epic fail

Ok, so my stay up all night tactic didn't even remotely work.  Instead I took myself off to bed for a nap to rest my computer glazed eyes, and then kept waking up every 10 minutes until dawn panicking that I really should get up and do more, but was too tired to.  Then spent the following day absolutely shattered.

Note to self - just catch up on work at the weekends, at a normal hour.

Back to financial things - I've spent both this week's and next week's budget already, not helped by going out for dinner last night... oooops

Will have to use little tidbits of money I've saved this month to tide me over, only problem is that I was planning to hang on to those for my car tax disc that's due in April.

Also found out my company is no longer going to pay for my professional membership, so need to find £85 to renew this in April to keep me in the game professionally... not quite sure where I'm going to get the funds from for that...

There's an easy and a hard way...

... and I've chosen the hard way.

I'm lagging behind on admin for my main job and seem to have built up some sort of resistant frame of mind, where although I know I need to do it, I just don't want to and can't be bothered.

Last weekend I just sat in front of my computer and couldn't bring myself to do anything, even though I knew it was important and would make me feel better in the long run.

I think it might be because I'm dissatified with my job and am looking to move away and start something new.

However, that's the worst time to take my eye off the ball, as I need a good reference!

Tried to work from home today as I had an unexpected admin day due to snow cancelling my normal work.  However, I still haven't got everything done I wanted to.

I've decided to play hardball with myself... I am not going to sleep tonight until it is ALL done (well the particularly pressing stuff).  I don't have another night this week where I'm free to work on it, so it has to be tonight.

Yes, tomorrow I'll be tired.  I have to be up earlier than usual, and I have to drive on snow (unless it all miraculously disappears overnight).  This sounds like a very bad plan but forcing myself is the only way I'll get it all done.  I have Red Bull in the fridge, I'll be ok.  My work is also less complicated than usual tomorrow so I can sort of cruise through, I hope!

I'll still have work left to do and hanging over me, but it'll be the less arduous tasks.

Better get going then...

A little bit of what you fancy...

Errrr, clearly, does not do you good!  That old age saying is clearly wrong, either that or my measurement of a 'bit' is rather larger than they intended...

I've been splurging rather a lot of money on food of late, and it's starting to show!  Spending lots of money seems to have equalled lots of unhealthy food, and that combined with not going to the gym of late as I've had so much work on, is starting to take its effect on my waistline :(

Let's put this in perspective just a little - I'm not a big girl, I'm actually very petite, so when I talk about a few extra pounds I still look normal to most people, but am just not so happy in myself.  Especially as today after work I tried on some clothes (and had had a big lunch so there was a food baby to contend with as well), and everything in my normal size was a big squeeze!

So what I'm getting at is that I think a food budget does actually help the waistline - when I'm careful with money regarding food I tend to plan ahead more rather than just buy on a whim, and that tends to lead to healthier, better planned out meals.

Talking of healthier, I've decided I must start getting 8 hours sleep, at least sometimes (I'm a diehard night owl).  So off to bed I toddle.  Night.

P.S. And must get my backside down the gym!

This isn't going to happen, but he thinks it is

For my friend Rem:

Still, if it doesn't work out on the man front, is this such a bad alternative?! Ha