Its Boxing Day morning in a
slightly sunny London, and I know that I should still be sleeping but due to my
seasonal asthma I am not. I love waking
up gasping for breath and sounding like an old person, it really makes my day. So now I am wide awake, it’s time for me to
blog, something that I have been contemplating for the last few weeks, but in
usual Nic style have put it off.
There have been many exciting
developments in my life, it feels like after a really hard year that it is all
starting to turn around and look up. A
little faith has gotten me through the year and I am now reaping the
rewards.
I have a sparkly new job. Without going too far into the details, which
would be very unprofessional, I had been very unhappy with my old job for a
long time. I was grateful to have a job
in this climate, when I know that there are so many people much less fortunate
than me, but it was really time for me to stop temping after four and a half
years. I have a visa renewal coming up
and it would have looked really bad for me not to have found a permanent
contract after so long. Although I have
been temping at the same place and even had my own projects to run, it was time
for something new. So after a year of
looking for just the right job, making it down to the last two on a number of
occasions, I finally landed a great job for the London Borough of Lambeth. I am a Finance and Monitoring officer, which
is basically budgets and spreadsheets.
Ironic really, I can budget for these massive million pound projects,
but have issues managing my small salary.
Once the Monitoring is under control, there will be opportunities to be
involved in the project work as well. So
I am excited about meeting new people and facing new challenges, with the
comfort of knowing that I am not far from my friends. I can see my old desk from my new desk.
The last month has been a bit of
a rollercoaster. The new job was a high
point. However, there were a few
others. Least of which was my blind
date. I am pretty game for anything that
will be a bit of a laugh, so when a friend of a friend suggested that I would
be suited to one of her friends, I thought why the hell not. But here comes the reality check, I have not
dated in years. In fact I don’t actually
think that I have ever been on a proper organised date like that. So queue complete girliness of what will I
wear and self esteem melt down. There is
nothing like a man to make you feel less than perfect and a bit nervous. And all of this before I even met him. I have great friends and they put up with a
week of me being a complete nervous wreck.
The end result was a couple of very nice nights out with a nice man. However, it was not meant to be and that is
the end of the story. What did I learn
from this? That I need to do some
shopping and get some new clothes so that I have something nice to wear out on
dates and that I am a crazy woman who needs to have faith in herself.
And then we have Christmas. It’s a hard time of year for an expat. This time last year I was in NZ, soaking up
the sunshine and spending some much needed time with my family. I was recovering from my sister’s wedding and
getting ready to head up north to spend time with some of my favourite people. Upon returning from that trip, my whole I am
going to stay in the UK resolve was shaken, I began to seriously think about when
it would be time to come home. I knew
that I was not ready to do so when my visa expired, but was not sure that I
would want to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain in June 2013. I spent a lot of my year homesick and
confused. And just when I start to
recover, along comes Christmas. This
Christmas was always going to be special and hard. It is the first time that I have spent
Christmas in London. I have so far spent
two at home, and a couple in Derby with a close friend and her family. And it would be my first and last pub Christmas. Exciting and sad all at the same time. Christmas Eve saw me with a large group of
those closest to me over here, drinking more than we should, and participating
in bandi oke. Like karaoke, but with my
friend Brooke playing guitar and others doing the singing. I was hesitant at first, the pub was still
open and there were other randoms there.
But lets face it, I was always going to have a go and I was always going
to love it. And I did. My friends are great and very supportive,
they know I cannot sing, but that I love to do it nonetheless. So we all got very drunk, sung our hearts
out, I rocked Living on a Prayer, I am not going to lie, and we danced the
night away. Abby and I got asked out by
two lovely Spanish men and we laughed a lot. After closing when the furniture
had been rearranged for the following day and the pub had been cleaned, we all
sat down for a drink. And then Aaron
made a speech, and it was sad. For the
last year we have worked out butts off trying to save this pub. And we won for a while, but ultimately we
have lost, this time next year the pub will be gone, turned into flats and all
of the people in it will be dispersed.
Aaron and Cate will be at home in NZ and I will be someone else’s waif
or stray. There were tears. And then there were a few more drinks, and
then we all took turns sitting on his knee like Santa, giving him cuddles and
keeping it all in as best we could. I
refuse to say goodbye or believe it just yet.
Alright, so in the interests of not
turning this into an essay or a book, here are a few of the highlights of
Christmas. I am housesitting close to
the pub, so the stumble distance is a lot less and I don’t have to pay for
taxis. I have a few of my good friends
staying as there is no public transport on Christmas day. We have had a ball. I facetimed with my family and again was
given the guilts by Sam for not being home.
I really cannot answer the question of when I will be home. I was spoilt by family and friends
alike. I have been surrounded by so much
love and friendship from all around the world that it is hard to feel sad on
Christmas, even when you are far away from home. Aaron and Cate were great hosts, the food was
amazing and the company even better. I have
laughed a lot over the past few days.
And it’s not over, there will be some very low key Boxing Day
celebrations as well today.
So that’s a little of the
craziness that has been happening in my world and in my head. The next few days are going to be happy/sad
probably both at the same time as there are some hard goodbyes said, but I know
that I am a very lucky girl, I have people all over the world who I love and
love me back and 2013 is shaping up to be an exciting year. Hope that everyone had a brilliant Christmas
and is looking forward to a stellar New Year!
