Blinking and dazed in the sunlight

Wow! Yesterday I walked around mostly not wearing a jumper! In the last few weeks I've seen my first spring flowers, bumblebees and blossoming trees. I saw my first ants yesterday. We even sat outdoors. It does rather feel like coming out through the end of a long dark tunnel.

**Snowke!**

Snowing and settling! Nowhere near the record levels of snow in Big White - just take a look at the webcams and snow report! I spent most of my walk home from work today looking at the snowflakes I was catching - fabulous!

Christmas time

A Tuesday Christmas is a bit odd, but does make it easy to do food shopping in advance! Tesco last night, and Waitrose first thing this morning. Made a point of being very smiley and polite to absolutely everyone. Looking forward to a few days spent eating and being merry, and sharing of gifts. Lovely.
City centre working coming to an end shortly, as I'll be beginning a new job on the 2nd January. 12 month contract - excellent. It has only taken seven months to get full time employment! It is local, a step-up, and better pay. Someday soon I'll post the blog that I began several months ago detailing the various tasks I was asked to carry out during different interviews. There were many!
Having a busy work schedule and lots of evening activities has stunted the progress of this blog a bit, but the point of it was to stimulate some writing in duller times. Target achieved! Potentially there will be some swish photos appearing courtesy of Christmas camera purchase, but we'll see!
Happy holidays to all.

Tryfan Troubles

Bruised and achy today thanks to funtimes climbing Mt. Tryfan near Llyn Ogwen on Saturday. We took a path directly up the crags, then had lunch at the top, then came down a slate gully to make it a very short distance walk, but a high effort adventure! We even saw mountain creatures. Goats or sheep, not sure which. On Sunday it was much less active for me as I was just a slightly cold observer of our friends doing some rock climbing. Nice to have a shorter drive than on our previous jaunt to the Lakes with same friends, but I still conked out somewhere on the A5, and only woke up at Telford. Heck, it makes the journey seem shorter.
Last week was a mixture of different activities: library, Excel training, charity shopping, and a major tidy up of the garage. Pooped by the end of it. Still no full time work - come on employers, it's been six months since I last had a full time job! I'm great - hire me!
Phototime!

Cue silly poses.

Mountain creature.

Tryfan from below

Climbing the crack

Llyn Ogwen

Back here again

After three weeks taking phonecalls for a local visitor attraction, I'm back on the job hunt. I've not been doing it full time since the design firm went quiet. Four applications in currently. Hopefully this will lead to some more interviews. In the meantime, have had lots going on in the evenings. We saw the new Bond film, and liked it. Tap classes are going well - still enjoying it. Musical theatre has been a bit wonky because the MD hasn't been around, but we had a good session last week.

Over the weekend, I headed up to the Lake District and saw Blackwell Arts and Crafts House, which is a superb building. On Sunday I walked up the fells at the south end of Coniston and had great views across the surrounding area: sea to one side, and snowy mounts to the other. M6 is a nuisance, though we did see some fireworks from the car window. This weekend will bring visits to Gloucester and the Rainbow in Digbeth. Further invitations for coming weeks include the Christmas market, a trip to Llyn Ogwen and also to the Hollywood Costume exhibit at the V&A museum. Anyone fancy giving me a lottery win?  

Blackwell Arts and Crafts House

Coniston

View across Coniston to the Old Man

The sea!

Lake District hills, with Grizedale Forest

Links
Blackwell Arts and Crafts House
Hollywood Costume exhibit
Birmingham Christmas Market
The Rainbow

Somewhere in Shropshire

Returned from a weekend in Shropshire - it was sunny yesterday and foggy today. I even managed to get some photos of the countryside while out hunting geocaches. Driving there from the Midlands is interesting - very very twisty turny roads if you aren't using the motorway to get there. We even managed to gatecrash a party yesterday, quite by happy accident. It made a change from answering phones and making bookings all week for a very busy local tourist attraction!

House on the left from 1509, and a Norman Church

Autumn

Autumn is most certainly here! It is cold, the radiators are on, there are squirrels everywhere, and the trees are suddenly ablaze with multicoloured leaves. It even hailed today! It is all a reminder of this time last year, when we were living in Vancouver, and seeing the best and worst that Autumn could throw at us. We invested in heavy-duty raingear: Vancouver shops are full of it - casually making light of the Pacific Northwest tendency for incredibly wet weather! We also had beautiful, cloud-free, bright days that just made everything gleam.

Having had a look through last year's blog posts to find appropriately Autumnal Vancouver pictures, it is quite odd to find that I am in the same position again - unemployed, seeking work. Hopefully this will change soon, but for now I am keeping busy with temporary positions. Useful for finding out about new workplaces, meeting new people and getting some money in the coffers. So, Vancouver pictures can be found here: http://www.adamdaisyadventure.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/keeping-busy.html .

Another 'keeping busy' task today was helping to set up this new website: www.agh-electrical.co.uk. This is the website for AGH Electrical - local Electricians in the South Birmingham and Solihull areas, registered and inspected by the NICEIC (National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting). Friendly, trustworthy and with their own set of promises! 

Links
Vancouver blog
AGH Electrical