Rant alert...

Oh dear.

Only two weeks in to writing on my blog again and already I’m slipping on the updates. Working miles from where I live isn’t helping as I find that I am just too tired in the evenings (when I’m not going to the gym) to think about anything other than watching trashy telly! I need to get a job closer to home… Speaking of which, I actually applied for one recently. It sounded really great – at a posh school as the only archivist. It was part time (term time working), but I worked out that if they paid me similar to my current salary I wouldn’t exactly be down very much, when you take my season ticket into account, and the school holidays would give me loads of time to do other things that I want to do – like sew more! There was no salary on the advert but ‘salary negotiable dependent on experience and qualification’. Well, I’m definitely qualified and having worked professionally for 9 years, definitely experienced (and worth what I’m paid). So I thought, why not give it a punt – I’m prepared to haggle for what I’m worth!

Well, turned out that they had no idea how much a ‘qualified and experienced’ archivist should be paid. And that those negotiations would be based on the most insulting and paltry figure. I had a phone call last week from the deputy head somewhat apologetically saying that they’d love to interview me, but the salary they were offering was considerably less than I was paid at the moment, was I still interested (he knew my answer would be no though). I though, ok, maybe they’re looking to pay around £25K ish, and I can’t afford to do it at that, but no. They valued their archives even less. If the post was full time the most they could offer was £22K!! I mean, really… that is just an insult. And a total waste of my time (and probably some other people’s too, I wont have been the only one earning more than that who will have gone for it). That is the absolute minimum that the Archives and Records Association recommends that recently qualified archivists are paid, and even then the average salary for a new start is around £24K. It was really just an insult and clearly they didn’t really want a qualified archivist (and definitely not an experienced on) and it just left me soooo frustrated. You have to jump through so many hoops to get into this profession and then people who probably get paid quite well themselves insult you with crappy pay. They’ll probably end up with either an enthusiastic amateur or someone recently qualified, who I’m sure would do fine, but shouldn’t have to settle for such crap pay!

Argh….

And I think it would have been a good and enjoyable and interesting job and I had to turn the interview down. I’m not sure quite why I’m so angry about it, I might not have got it anyway, but I am…

:o(

So the possible glimmer of light at getting out of the commute and the relatively dull job I have ended up with has been snuffed out and I’m back to feeling knackered all the time and feeling under used and under valued. Ok, yes, so the pay I am on now is great, but I just don’t know if I’m going to get a job at the end of this that will even come close to matching it, let alone be in Manchester… Or even get a job at all! In the current economic climate, now is not a time to be looking for a niche job… Don’t get me wrong, bits of this job are interesting, but I do feel that it under uses my experience and skills and I find myself getting bored quite easily… I never thought that I’d miss the responsibilities that I had in my last job, but turns out that I do. There you go.

Sorry for the rant. I have also been to the gym three times since my last blog, lost another 2lbs, and had a lovely visit from HL and BC. Flâneur also joined the gym and we had our first session together on Saturday, followed by a lovely Japanese lunch, so things aren’t all bad! ;o)

Manchester

For those who read this (is there anybody there?) who don't know, and let's face it, you all do, my dear lovely clever Flâneur has gone and got himself a new job. This is superb news on so many levels, not least because it means he can relax a bit to the end of his contract without worrying what he's going to be doing in January and how we are going to afford life without him having a job... It is also superb news because it's such a brilliant job. At last someone in the academic world has recognised his genius and that him being interesting is a good thing (not, you're really interesting, but we're giving the job to someone else). And the best bit: it's a tenured Senior Lectureship! Hurrah! No more short term research contracts and constant job hunting. All fantastic stuff.

The only downside is that this fantastic job is in Manchester. That in itself is not a bad thing - it's a great young vibrant department that he will fit in to well and the city's not bad either. However, my job is not in Manchester. My job is in Edinburgh. And I do not have a career that is easily transferred - I need to wait for a job opportunity to arise in Manchester in a suitable organisation (the uni or a business like Co-op, who I know do have an archive based in Manchester) that will pay me on some kind of equivalent level to what the Scottish Government pay me. Perhaps the problem of being a well paid archivist... Rules out the local authority as they are skinflints.

Anyway... I had never been to Manchester and we thought we should probably go down and have a poke about, so we did, for three days last week. The streets were hilariously familiar as they are currently doing works to the tram tracks, so there are road works and fences up everywhere, reminiscent of Edinburgh at the moment... We stayed in Malmaison, so as to make sure we had somewhere nice to stay while we were down there (it was our first holiday together for some time). We had a nice room (with a fantastic shower. I want that shower) and right in the city center - handy for walking everywhere. Which is what we always do when we are away! We had a nice weekend, exploring the city center and what it has to offer. We found a great little bar that serves good Japanese food and great cocktails (Walrus), a fab fab Japanese restaurant where we ate far too much but enjoyed every mouthful (New Samsi), but that also has a little Japanese supermarket in the basement, which will be handy for when Flâneur is in Manchester. I got very jealous of the fantastic looking fish monger in the Arndale Markets, and the butcher opposite, and we fell in love with Selfridges. (Or at least Flâneur did and a Paul Smith suit he spotted there! ;o) ). I also walked the length and breadth of the Trafford Center while Flâneur went to chat to some of his future colleagues. Quite exhausting!

And yet I managed to lose no weight while I was away - the discovery of Hotel Chocolat in the Arndale Centre probably didn't help... and thus my plan to lose five pounds is not going well. At all. But the shopping does look good. Similar to Glasgow but a little bit less spread out, which is good!! I'm quite looking forward to my weekends down there. For yes, we will be living between Manchester and Edinburgh, at least to begin with while my job remains up here. No ideal, but we're sure we'll cope.

Lazy slug...

That is what I have become.  I haven't even checked back on this thing to see when the last time I actually did some exercise was.  It would be too depressing.  I have been walking a bit (though lazy, drag me from bed mornings mean not as much as I should be), including a nice long walk last Saturday with my Flâneur, Wastrel and SAM, the latter of whom had come down for dinner the night before.  But other than that - zilch.  I haven't even been to the pool, and I love swimming!

Eating has been a bit of a theme as I cooked a lavish three course meal for my Flâneur for his birthday on the 19th.  It was a little stressful as I had chosen to be a little bit more complicated than my usual "shall we have pasta...".  I made goat's cheese and red onion tarts to start (served with some salad to pretend it was healthy), following by shoulder of lamb stuffed with an apricot stuffing (which was much nicer than I had anticipated).  Was a bit pissed off that the annoying butcher, who pointed out it's called shoulder in Scotland when I asked for neck (which I'd seen used on Masterchef, how was I to know that's what 'the English' call it!), that he had said to me - oh if you're stuffing it, with this piece you wont need to tie it.  Well that was not true and as I checked on it part way through I realised it had sprung apart and the stuffing was starting to char.  So I had to take it out the oven and try and tie string round a hot piece of meat in a desperate attempt to make it cook properly.  Anyway, this was accompanied by dauphinoise potato (recipe on the potato council website, of all places), and asparagus (cooked in butter...hhmmm...).  By this time I was pretty well stuffed as we just don't eat that much anymore, having cut our portions down quite considerably.  But we weren't done, as I had decided to have a go at making chocolate mousse.  

The recipe for the mousse came from Jamie Oliver's "Happy Days" book, and apparently served "4".  As I wanted some for the next night too, I thought I'd do half the mix again and therefore have enough for 6.  Six piggies that would be!  It was a huge amount of mousse that I put into frankly the most enormous glasses I have (they're champagne bowls), and there was still some left over to make two other reasonable sized portions.  I felt really quite ill half way through, but ploughed on none the less.  ;o)  Maybe this is why I am so large....

All this was washed down with some very lovely Californian Zinfandel and some yummy Prosecco.  Hmmm....  Thankfully had taken the next day off, boy did I need it.  My tummy felt a little sore.  Spent most of it cleaning the flat though.  Just don't get the chance to give this place the clean it needs what with working and everything...

Had a lovely visit from Wastrel and SAM and was very pleased that my Flâneur was cooking and that he was doing fish!  He did a fine Japanese spread including gyoza (yummy), sake glazed salmon, greenbeans with a soybean paste and toasted sesame topping, Japanese potato salad and of course, rice.  Washed down this time with a nice Sake and green tea.  Oh, and of course, finished off with Mousse.  That's what we all were - fished off by mousse!!  Only SAM and I managed to finish ours.  Urgh...

So, yes, eating has been a real feature of the last two weeks, but not really exercise.  On the plus side it is now Lent, when traditionally I give up chocolate and sweets.  It's been pretty tough these first few days as I begin to realise just how much of a habit it has become!  This is the 9th year (I think) that I have done this and usually by Easter I don't really want chocolate, so hopefully this will be a real chance to cut right back.  I shall have to just make sure I don't gorge on Easter Sunday and therefore fall with a bit fat bump off the wagon...  Flaneur is under instructions not to buy me more than 1 Easter egg and to make sure it's a really good quality one...  

Lent should help with the weight loss though which appears to have very frustratingly stalled.  Not exercising probably has something to do with that, but I am bumbling along still at the X-1 stone 3lb mark, sometimes a bit lower, occasionally a bit more (v. depressing), but mostly just at the 3 mark.  That's still my stone marker, but it would be nice if it went down a bit, at least to get me into the X-2 stage... Sigh!  Am determined to get back to the exercise this week coming though - I will be at the pool on Monday, I will!!

On the sewing front, I did finish the front of my quilt, which was very satisfying.  Sorry no pics at the moment - have to down load them from the camera, which involves using a different computer...  Anyway, it doesn't look much different from the picture of it all laid out on the floor!  It's blooming massive, but looks great.  I'm really really pleased with it and now just need to get the wadding and backing fabric and finish it off.  It really hasn't taken me half as long as I expected...

Lovely Gift

In our house we don't usually do Valentine's day. It's over commercialised and we don't need one specific day to show how much we love the other. We do usually like to have a nice dinner together, but don't do presents. We sometimes do cards, but only home made and neither of us really had the time this year.

Dinner was great (although today the flat is smelling a little too much like grease and I've got all the windows open to try and air the flat and get rid of it), and similar to the dinner we did the first V day we spend together (which was our 6 month anniversary, a time when you marked such things!). We did what we like to refer to as our 'Japanese feast'. Between us we made:

avocado maki sushi

cucumber maki sushi

meat gyoza (yum yum yum, my favourite!)

ginger pork

savoury deep-fried chicken (Tatsuta-age; marinaded in soy sauce, honey, ginger and garlic, covered in potato starch and then deep fried for a few minutes, totally yummy, but the source of the grease smell in the flat today from the deep frying).

All washed down with a lovely Sake we bought in Japan last year from the hotel we were staying in - their house sake from their super posh Japanese restaurant Kozu. Not massively healthy, all that meat and frying, but all very tasty!! And nice to spend the time cooking together and spending a long time over a meal.

After dinner we cracked open a bottle of Prosecco, which my Flâneur (the new name in here for my fiancé who objected to me calling him 'the' fiancé due to some odd family connotation with the word 'the' before a person's name or description), had bought to make Prosecco truffles. He didn't really have the time, so we just drank the fizz! Very nice one, but not as good as our favourite, which our local wine shop hasn't had in since Christmas. Hope they get it back because it's lovely!

Anyway, over the prosecco, my Flâneur produced a present for me, which he said was not a Valentine's present, but a 'just because' present. He said he wanted to get me a wee something because I'd not had a good start to the year. So lovely of him. (sniff). ;o). And so generous!! This is what he bought me:

Hardly a 'wee something'! It's a travel backgammon set, which rolls up for easy transportation, and is made from beautifully soft suede, the spikes from black and white leather, the pieces are dark and light wood. So gorgeous, so sumptious, so lovely and generous of him! It's something that I have coveted for some time but was just too pricey to justify getting for myself. I love him so much! Just have to teach him how to play now...