I'm Moving!

I'm moving blog domains! All my future posts will be found here: https://hayleyiraina.wordpress.com/ 

The Wedding Fayre

Nadine my lovely friend got engaged at Christmas and so we decided that we would take a little trip to a wedding fayre with her mum Sally to have a look round. It was held at the Great Yarmouth Racecourse - it was a job to get to it because of an accident on the Acle straight but we made it eventually!

I've never been to a wedding fayre before (never needed to!) but there were a ton of little stalls offering all sorts of cars, photographs, DJs, invites and stationery, seat covers (never realised how much seat covers cost!), entertainers, sweet stalls, florists, hair and beauty, honeymoons, decor... there were lots there!

I don't think Sally and I were very helpful because whilst Nadine was quizzing a singer/DJ we were being entertained by the magician. 

Nadine wasn't as impressed as Sally and I haha but I think that's just because she couldn't work out how he did it. 

Look it's one of my rings on his key ring! Sally and I decided we would just have a party for ourselves with a magician. Nadine's not invited. 

Needless to say it made me appreciate how much work goes into planning a wedding - think I'll be eloping!

No-clipse

Um.. so did your solar eclipse look like mine? Just a vast endless stretch of grey as far as the eye can see? Ok good just checking I didn't miss out for the SECOND time. All those warnings, 'Oh don't burn your retinas'... heh yeah right. 

I will be sure not to do that... 

In other news little Barclay has the vets today, look how happy he is. 

Stuffs been going fiiiiine, got told where my last placement is for sign-off which I'm really happy about as the area I got given. I'm trying to work a lot of shifts at my job to save up for a car because I'll be moving come summer time and will need a car. Ugh I know, the time has come to actually purchase a car. After all these years of dodging car ownership. All these years of sympathetic nodding when my friends have told me how much they had to fork out on their crappy motors. You guys, I'm poor. Am fully intending on spending my last instalment of student loan on said car. 

What A Nice Day... Kind Of

Today has been pretty nice, I woke up with no alarm clock involved (what a luxury to sleep until I naturally awaken!) browsed some of my favourite websites and blogs on my laptop in bed for a bit and then a knock at the door and some flowers arrived just because (errr yes Mr Postman, I am answering the front door in my fleecy pyjamas, what of it?). 

How nice. And miniature chocolates - this is good - because of their small size I feel lees guilty eating them. I feel like with a box of chocolates you need to have a strategy eating them, I start with my least favourite and end with my most. You have to think these things through you know for the maximum enjoyment of said chocolates. 

Then I had a spot of lunch and chatted to the girlfriend on the phone before going to the movies with friends to see the Grand Budapest Hotel... even though it came out over a year ago. I have no idea why it was still on but it was a bit strange. It was ok though. Then a few of us went to Nandos which is obviously always awesome. 

Anyways then I got home and that's where the nice day ebbed off, I got home to my horrible shared house of mouldy walls and perpetual coldness, had a few chores to do then because the landlord is coming round for yet another viewing tomorrow got told I could only use the kitchen if I kept it tidy... aha... yeeeeah. I'm rather glad I am at work tomorrow (not that I'm ever consulted for what day the landlord comes round...) because I sublet so on those days I have to pack the poor cat up and then the cat and I have to leave the property and pretend not to exist... awesome. Counting down the days to no more sharing and no more having to pretend I don't exist for the intrusive visits that seem to take place every other bloody week lately. Joy. 

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Remember I had my first post qualified nursing job interview at the James Paget? Well I also had the interview for the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital (which was very similar to the James Paget interview but with a maths and English exam) and I got offered both jobs, both on the wards I requested. Which is great but also not so great.

I already work at the Norfolk and Norwich and I happen to know the staff on the ward that I got offered a job on are absolutely lovely and I know I would really enjoy it there. On the other hand the staffing at the Norfolk and Norwich just in general across all areas isn't very good at the moment where as the James Paget is excellent in comparison, the James Paget has a nurse to patient ratio of 1 to 6 (which is very good in England), the Norfolk and Norwich is 1 to 12. I brought this up in the interview at the Norfolk & Norwich and they made it pretty clear that this wasn't going to be changing any time soon and not only that but it would be likely I would be rotated to other wards... no thanks!

But then I have to consider my girlfriend Kimberly as well who is hoping to move over to England this year and also work in England, she is used to a nurse to patient ratio of 1 to 4 so 12 might be a horrible shock to her. Also more importantly we need to find her somewhere where the employer will sponsor her visa. So I decided to ring both hospitals and float the idea of this and that this would be the deciding factor and the James Paget seemed a lot more willing! Things are never simple are they!

In other news I passed my dissertation with a good mark whilst still maintaining my record of never having withdrawn a book from the library (score!). One more module to go... 

Museum of Norwich at the Bridewell

I had an hour or two to kill in the city last week before meeting a friend and couldn't think what to do until I remembered passing a small museum I had said to myself I'd visit some time. Luckily I got to the Museum of Norwich at the Bridewell an hour before closing time so it only cost £1 for the admission (score). 

There was a lot of random stuff in there.

And to be fair for a £1 it definitely amused me for an hour. 

 There was a few activities for kids too like dress up and crafts and games.

One side of my family is from Norfolk so I was trying to spot my last name on all the records.

And finally I did in the old apothecary section (hurrah!). 

Either way, it was a nice way to pass an hour. 

Netflix

So as a romantic gift to my significant other Kimberly I got us a joint Netflix subscription (everyone say aww)... ok so maybe that's not that romantic.. maybe I got a very nice bracelet... oops...  but it does mean we can watch the same shows and movies etc together until she moves to the jolly old British Isles once the NMC get their arses in gear (just don't ask, they are the height of ridiculousness).

However as Kimberly lives in America and I live in England the Netflix shows are slightly different, we got round this by downloading an add on to Chrome which is a VPN called Hola Better Internet so that we can switch between UK and USA Netflix which works quite nicely.

You guys, I'm addicted to Netflix. Maybe I'll even keep it after Kim moves here. All I can say is thank god I got it AFTER my dissertation. 

Valentines Schmalentines

I worked the night of the 13th going into 14th and slept away most of Valentines Day before getting up to work the night of the 14th... boo! So no big romance for me but I did get a very nice gift and card. When I was a baby I had a sheep skin rug that I liked to lay on, all my family liked it 'lamby' we called it, it was so soft and nice to cuddle up on the sofa with. So imagine my surprise when I opened up a big box and found a brand new super soft lamby! Yay!

And a musical card, aww. 

And Barclay got his very own box. 

Job Interviews

It's that time... and it came around quickly. Getting towards the end of my degree means it's time to start looking at jobs but I need a newly qualified nursing job that can provide a preceptorship and so really that means a hospital. You can go to community care as a newly qualified but I think acute care would suit me better to start off and as I don't want to move too far out of the area just at the moment there are three hospitals nearby to choose from: the Norfolk & Norwich (where I already work), the James Paget or the Queen Elizabeth. I'll have to move either way to a new house but I didn't really fancy moving to Kings Lynn so I only applied to the James Paget and the Norfolk & Norwich where I requested from both the respiratory wards. But when you're newly qualified you don't exactly get to pick... you apply to the trust and they assign you a job where they have spaces, that doesn't mean you can't ask but it doesn't mean you'll get. Also some areas in some trusts you can't go as a newly qualified. 

Anyway, that aside, it's job interview time and this month I have both... well aren't I lucky. I don't like job interviews, they're so formal and scripted. But what I hate most is the interview clothes. I think it'd be far more telling if you asked everyone to arrive dressed comfortably, you could get all sorts of information from that. I refuse to wear a suit because a) nurses wear uniforms, I am not ever going to wear a suit to work b) I am not buying a suit to impress someone, if that's what gets me a job then I don't want the job c) they remind of 80s yuppies. I'm just not a suit person. But then what do you wear? I have black trousers or a black skirt, so I thought ok, I'll just buy a blouse. Naive. 

So I set off into the city  - here was my criteria for a blouse: cannot be white (don't want to look like a waitress), cannot be black (don't want to look like a ninja), cannot be slutty. Now I don't think that's asking too much is it? I went into approximately 12 shops looking for office wear of any description. The smart shirts were too short... like belly button short. And all the others were black white or see through! There were literally hundreds of different coloured pastel see through blouses or grey suit dresses with 80s shoulder pads in (ew!). I asked a manager in Debenhams if they sold any non see through shirts and after looking round for 5 minutes with me he concluded no... they had no shirts that were non see through... but that if I got a see through one it might help my interview, what sort of job was it? Nursing? Oh...maybe not then.... Uhhhhh you think?

I had almost given up when I went into a mens suit shop and said to the lady at the check out, I know you sell mens shirts here but where can I go where I can find women's shirts? She said she just wore t -shirts under her suit... but had I tried BHS? 

British Home Stores I could kiss you! It was literally the only place that had sensible office wear that wasn't slutty or hideous and in the end I settled on a nice stripey dress and black crepe jacket. Thank you BHS, my saviour. 

Anyways so my dear chum Sarah (who was also interviewing at James Paget) and I decided to make a little day out of it and after our interviews which were luckily scheduled for the same time and day we went for a little day out to Great Yarmouth where we had fish and chips. 

And then we went to the arcades (yaaaayyyy). 

It was a week day off season so it was just us and our little mate here but soon after we were joined in the arcade by a butch looking lady (I think it was a lady?) in a stylish Halls Soother fleece. Why not eh?

We saw our prizes, you have to select the 2p machines carefully, you need to go for prizes that are not too heavy or worth too much because you are never going to win those but these little beauties were right on the edge. 

BAM, won it. 

Then we had a wander about Yarmouth in the tat shops. 

I do love tat. 

Some of the tat was worrying though... surely people no one thinks an inflatable doll for £19.99 is going to look like that picture on the box?? Also could anyone really take that to the til to pay and not die of embarrassment on the way? 3 love passages? Bleurgh. 

Working Working Always Working

I am on the last 3 weeks of my module 5 placement and as my University has changed their policy from allowing 8 sick days over 3 years to 0 sick days there have been extra shifts to do, as I also have to work at my paid employment as an HCA I have been extremely busy and tired although my lovely mentor I have for this placement has been keeping my spirits up. 

I feel as though I haven't had five minutes to myself and as Kimberly also works a lot it's been difficult to match up schedules. But I did get to go and see Testament of Youth this week at the cinema which was such a good film and a true story. The trailer is here.  

I went to Cinema City in Norwich which is in lovely listed building that's been tastefully modernised, the tickets were cheaper, the food more interesting, the seats were plushy and comfortable and not only that but I met an old school friend working there part time whilst he works on his own films. I really do recommend going to Cinema City, the website is here, you can take wine into the cinema and I didn't see one screaming child the entire time... I didn't see any children actually. There was a nice looking restaurant there too which I'd like to try out in the future. Anyway must dash, off to work... again!