Thursday, May 28, 2015

+ 365 Days 140 - 146

Day 140 - Thursday

So my LG G4 was due to be delivered today but UPS didnt have my correct address so didnt deliver! ARGHHH Managed to cal them and get it all sorted and arranged for re-delivery tomorrow.

Today's positive - I am getting the LG to review even if it is arriving late!!!!

Day 141 - Friday

Today I had my group interview at ASDA. I rocked up in my sexy interview outfit - ha! and was taken to wait in the staff room with a bunch of other smartly dressed people. I introduced myself and had a chat to some of the girls waiting to go for interview - interesting the blokes were all lounging on the sofas and the girls grouped on chairs around the table.

So we had our docs checked - one poor girl hadnt brought the right documentation so got sent away - I felt pretty bad for her.

Anyways we got led into a room and given sticky labels with our names on ...obviously in case our nerves got to us so badly we forgot who we were!

I was sat next to a bloke called Christopher. The first part of the interview we were paired up and given 3 questions to ask each other we then had to tell everyone in the room about our partner and their answers. Stupidly neither me or Chris wrote down anything so we had to do it off the cuff - everyone else did but I like to think we impressed them with our superior memory skills.

The second part of the interview involved us being split into 2 teams - we were given marshmallows and spaghetti and told we had to design and then build a tower - we had to spend 5/10 mins planning and guessing how big our tower would be and then we had time to build the tower and to see how close we were to our estimation. Our team did really well we were only like 5cm off - the other team were vastly over confident and were about 50 cm out.

After that we had to say what we did well and what we wanted to change etc.

I thought the whole thing went pretty well and I did okay now it's just a waiting game

They said if we get through the interview we then have another interview with a manager on a 1:1 basis plus like 20 mins or so of going into the shop and working on the shop floor and then depending on the outcome we get a job.

It's a lot of effort for a job that is basically stacking shelves but there is so much competition for jobs these days I guess they want the best.

Anyways I came away from the interview and I think I did really well - thats my positive.

Day 142 - Saturday

Today I did a carbooty with my mum to try and get some money for the holidays - all the money from carbooty's goes towards the food kitty. We did really well and made £50 - sadly I got sunburnt even though I work a stupid purple cap and smothered my face in suncreen - I managed to get to crescent shaped burns on my neck and burn my arms oops.

After the booty and unpacking everything I didn't feel so great and went to bed -  I pretty much slept until Sunday

So my positive was that we made money for the hols yay - sometimes after paying entrance fees and stuff you dont make hardly anything like a tenner it makes it feel like your wasting your time - so any time we make over £30 I am happy

Day 143 - Sunday

Today we decided to go for a Kismet rather than cook anything as I still felt worn out from Saturday but SHOCK HORROR it was closed! I was gutted...We ended up eating at a place called Lilo's it's like a grill place its really nice doesnt serve alcohol just juices and does falafals and things. The service is always bad but today was particularly shocking - waited 15 minutes for someone to take our order. Then they brought out the falafal after about 10 mins - 15 mins later still havent had our drinks - they werent even juices they were just cans of diet coke! In the end I had to ask for them. We waited ages for our bill too. However the food was good - the falafals were not the best but the naan bread was amazing and so were the Lilo burgers (grilled chicken breasts, cheese and pineapple in a lovely fresh seeded bap). The amount of food you get is unbelievable as it comes with a huge portion of salad and chips.

So the positive was the delicious food :)

Day 144 - Monday

Today was bank holiday Monday - whoop whoop no work

I spent today re-arranging the living room and cleaning it

I then spent about 4-5 hours making no sew beds for the kitty rescue and a new one for Jac our dog too :)

I also dyed my hair :D

I got a call too from the night grocery manager at ASDA telling me I was successful at the group interview and inviting me for a 1:1 with him tomorrow night at 9.15 pm :)

Today's positive is my living room is now lovely and tidy and looks much better, the kitty rescue has a stack of new beds and so does Jac and I am through to the final stage of interview in ASDA

Day 145 - Tuesday

Today I finished work early to attend the housing meeting with my big sister - it went okay even though the guy was a complete drip who did it with us. My sister left feeling positive which is the main thing. After that I headed home and had a kip before my interview with ASDA

My interview went really well and so did my job trial on the shop floor I think. At the end the manager said providing everythings good with HR he will be happy to offer me a job working 10pm-6am Friday and Saturday nights.

Just need to wait now to hear back from HR :)

So today's positive is getting the job whoop whoop

Day 146 - Wednesday

Today my new TV arrived :) I won it from a competition run by Warner Bros and Sky Sports and I didn't believe they would really send it to me until it actually arrived and it did. It looks huge compared to my old one - its a 42" super smart TV and although I can only use about 3 of the 100's of functions I'm really happy :D

We are gonna sell our old telly on gumtree and put the money towards the holiday food fund :D

Thats my positive big maahoosive Telly for meeee for freeeee :)

I will be adding pics to the blog later - I loaned my memory card reader to work and they broke it! I now have to get a new one but I havent had chance to get one yet so cant upload any of my pics :(

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

+ 365 Days 136 -139

Day 136 - Sunday
Today was kinda a chill out day - I worked on transferring the blog some more, entered some comps and made some beds for the kitty rescue. I also cooked a really odd combo meal which actually turned out really and surprisingly well. Here's my recipe for chuck-it-in rice :)
- one onion
- left over half a tin of sliced mushrooms (from yesterday)
- 4 pieces of cheap ham slices
- 2 pieces of cheap beef sandwich slices
- 4 hot dog sausages
- 2 bags of steam in the micro egg friend rice
- left over cook in micro rice (around 1/4 of a bag)
- grated cheese
-tomato puree

slice up onion and fry with mushroom, slice up meats and chuck in
micro rice - ensure piping hot and chuck into the pan
mix a dollop of tomato puree with half a glass of water and pour in
stir it all up
serve with sprinkle of cheese on the top and garlic bread on the side

It was basically the left over food in the fridge that had to be used up and because I am skint until pay day (Thursday) I couldnt afford to go out and buy extra stuff. It turned out really well and we ended up eating it for lunch on Monday too :)

So my positive today is managing to create something edible out of the random fridge contents

Day 137 - Monday

I woke up today with a killer headache at like 3am - it was literally like someone had just punched me in the head urgh - I couldnt get back to sleep and it started to turn into a migraine :( took some meds and anti sickness pills. I had to call into work to say I was going to be late - I figured I had caught it in time for the meds to work and sure enough after sleeping a bit when I woke up I was almost human although rocking a puffy eyed flushed sick looking face. Didnt start work til just after 10 which means I have some extra time back to work - luckily I accrue a little bit of time most days as I start before my normal start time and I have flexi working too so I dont owe much time.

Rest of day went kinda slow

My phone did go crazy though as I won a couple of comps on twitter and on FB and all ym comping friends posted and tagged me about a hundred times it seemed - still would rather I get a billion notifications than I miss out.

So I won some really cool things:
- a new book - I love to read :)
- a super cool bottle opener shaped like a pirate which I will probably end up giving to my dad for father's day as he collects then
- a bundle of 4 x dog food pouches, treats and a bone for Jac
- a mystery prize - no idea what it will be

My positive today was the migraine clearing up before it had time to kick my ass - people who dont get migraines and think they are just a headache are so wrong - it's literally like your skull is smashing open and movement, lights, sounds, smells even the feel of a sheet on your body makes you wanna die!

Day 138 - Tuesday

Today I found out I am getting an LG G4 to review - sadly I probably wont get to keep it as they have chosen 200 people to review and out of that only 44 get to keep the phone at the end. But I am super excited to try it out. I have been using my dad's old samsung's for a while now because I refuse to spend a ludicrous amount of money on a phone that with my history I know is gonna get dropped and stood on.

I am pretty excited to be chosen to review it though and see how well it works and who knows maybe I will manage to be one of the lucky ones :D

So today's positive - trying out a new phone - little things please me :)

Day 139 - Wednesday

Today was another drag along work day - I did get some good news - well kinda - I've applied for a weekend job in addition to my regular job to earn some extra money for the hols (long story short I've paid, my niece has paid and my uncle's paid but my mum has not so I have said I will pay some of hers which I can do on my current wage BUT it will really reduce my spending money and I will have no savings) - as soon as I found out I was gonna be subbing her I went online and found ASDA were hiring - Ive worked for them before and yes they pay minimum wage but its not so bad I dont mind shop work - anyways they called me to invite me to a group interview on Friday so fingers crossed I get through :) It's also lucky that I had friday already booked off from my regular job so no awkward questions about why I need to take time off etc

I hope I get the job - I am not overly keen on working 7 days a week again but needs must and I have done it plenty of times before. I've worked out if I get hired and work the hours offered it will be around £750 extra towards my holiday spending money which is not to be sniffed at

Today I also received a parcel of some lovely materials from a comp I entered they are really nice cottons and I am thinking of making some cushions and a shopping bag out of them :)

So today's positive was getting an interview

Sunday, May 17, 2015

+365 Days 131-135

So this week I have been working more on moving my blog over to blogger hence the lack of updates.

I am also toying with the idea of putting on the positives as a weekly post rather than individual daily ones which will give me time to work on other stuff too.

Day 131 - Tuesday

An old friend got in touch today to ask me if I fancied meeting up for dinner one evening. We have arranged it for next week when I get paid as I am skint until then. I am notoriously bad at keeping in touch with people even though I am forever on my phone and social media. It's not that I forget them I am just rubbish at making arrangements to meet up and do stuff. Maybe that will be next years task - forget about the positivity and try and be more social - ah so many areas to work on :P

I'm really happy she got in touch and have invited another friend to come along too as we all know each other. I even remembered to arrange it around her child care issues on a night when the kids dad has them so she could come.

Today's positive is happy blasts from the past

Day 132 - Wednesday

I picked up my active card form today in work. An active card is like a gym membership but to local council facilities rather than a private gym - so I can use any of the swimming pools or gyms etc in the council leisure centres or go to any of the classes they run fr one low monthly cost its around £25 a month and the nice thing is whatever price you sign up at is the price it stays at for the entirety of your membership. As I work for the nhs I get a little discount too.

I can't actually afford to sign up until next week on payday but I have decided I am going to go swimming on Friday - I started the year really well losing weight and stuff and it has tapered off a bit so this will hopefully kick start me back into it again - the nice thing is in order to make it worthwhile I need to go to at least one class or swimming session a week plus as I am paying for it in advance I will use it as I hate wasting money. My plan is to start off with one swimming session and 1 swim class (aquafit or aquazumba) a week and then work up my fitness levels and try some of the other classes - watch this space this time in 3 months Im going to be svelte ... possibly

So positive for today is actually seeing that I need to be fitter and getting the form ready

Day 133 - Thursday

My dad came down today so I was able to give him some of the tee's I had won him - he's really pleased with them as he can take them on his holidays - well he calls it a holiday but hes away for 12 weeks thats way more than a holiday in my books the lucky bugger! Oh to be retired and not skint :P

I know I harp on a lot about it but I love my hobby of comping because it means I can win items for my family and friends. I love to be able to give people gifts and things :)

Today's positive making the daddy happy with his free tee's

Day 134 - Friday

Happy postman today - he delivered:

- Peter Rabbit DVD (for Harmony and Drake)
- Mahoosive simplesew starter kit including 10 patterns and an awesome book
- Create your own indoor fairy garden
- Hello Kitty pop out book

We have 2 posties - 1 female and 1 male - the male is friendly - he isnt afraid of our dog and if it fits he will chuck the parcels through our window downstairs so as not to disturb us - we like him!

The female squeals like a pig when Jac barks and hides at the end of the gate and will knock the door even if she only has a dvd to deliver. She really doesnt seem to like us much! maybe she's scared of dogs but thats a lousy job to be in if your scared of dogs, or maybe she's jealous about all my parcels (ha!) or has a bad back and resents having to carry them all? I dunno either way she is a right grouch. Maybe I will try and chat to her one day - see if I can cheer her up :)

I realised today that next week is a 4 day week and so is the week after - I <3 Bank Holidays! and I had forgotten about booking the day's annual leave so even better

Today's positives - getting fun mail and not bills :) having the happy chappy postie rather than olivia the grouch (thats not her name by the way thats just my secret name for her) and last day of work before the weekend :)


Day 135 - Saturday

Visited my sister and gave her the new pram for Harmony which took a degree in engineering to put together! It's an amazing pram and I was also able to put her old ones in the bin yay!

So that's really todays positive - helping out my big sister :) and gorgeous little niece - once they move back down to Cardiff it will be even better

Monday, May 11, 2015

+ 365 Day 128, 129 & 130

Day 128 - Saturday

Today I just entered loads of comps and slept

And popped to Aldi's to buy cat food and midget gems

Watched BGT very amusing

Today's positive: crappy tv - its highly amusing watching crazed deluded people who think they are talented - sad thing is they genuinely think they are good!

Day 129 - Sunday

Entered more comps - I'm determined to win myself a new laptop or phone but no luck yet!

Cleaned my room as it was quite untidy and stressing me out

Sorted work stuff for tomorrow

My uncle came round for dinner so we had a nice family meal and dessert - yum

Today's positive - family time - and especially home cooked meals - I'm not good at cooked dinners so quite enjoy it when someone makes me one :)

Day 130 - Monday

Back to work today after missing half the week last week due to a dodgy tum

Work was long and uneventful

Came home and worked on transferring this blog to my wordpress site. I have done all of January so just another 3 1/2 months worth to transfer.

I've also decided I am going to apply to work at Disney again when the applications open I loved it when I did it back in 2007-2008 and financially I would be able to go next year if I was successful.

This has also given me the kick up the butt required to get back onto my diet properly and to start exercising. When I did my last programme I was a size 24/26! It was hot and uncomfortable and I love weight out there working down to a 20/22 - I would love to be a size 14/16 if I get through so power on!

Today's positive - making my mind up about Disney and going for it - so I may not (read as most likely wont ) get through but its a good goal to have

Friday, May 8, 2015

+ 365 Days 126 & 127

Day 126 - Thursday

Today I had to stay off work due to new sickness policy. I had an appt with GP first thing and they are writing to try and expedite my appointment with ENT as they are pretty sure I have a tumor in my ear - yuck

I spent most of the day playing on twitter - I have made an account for the rescue I support in order to try and reach more people. It's surprisingly hard work to try and get new followers and get people to RT you :(

Around 4pm I developed a really bad headache and went to bed and stayed there for the rest of the day until 9pm when I dragged myself out to vote - cos voting is important - I then went back to bed and didnt move again.

Today's positive - hopefully going to be seen before December by ENT as things are not getting any better with my ear

Almost forgot - a gorgeous dress I won arrived today too - stunning :)

Day 127 - Friday

Off work yet again - I will be glad to go back on Monday as staying home is driving me nuts.

Cleaned the litter trays today - started a blog for my rescue kitty lady - it's all part of trying to raise awareness of the rescue - tweeted a few people from the kitty rescue account and got a load of RT's of one of the kitty pics I posted yay.

Had a couple of prizes arrive as well which was nice.

Have been looking at word press as it seems easier to use than blogger esp when putting in pictures and stuff - am thinking of transferring my blog to there at the end of the month to make it more manageable.

Happily my headache has almost like 99% gone today yay :)

So my positive is feeling better - when you feel a bit off it makes everything seem like a big deal - when your feeling okay then everything feels more possible.

Here is a picture of our snakes as I dont often post pictures of them due to them being difficult to photograph

They are called Emi and Morfa

Morfa enjoying her dinner - yes that is a mouse she is swallowing whole

Morfa at the front is the dark browns, orange, red and black & Emi is at the back she is yellow, white & orange

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

+ 365 Days 124 & 125

Day 124 - Tuesday

Back to work today but it was okay busy and lots to do. During my lunch break I popped over to see a friend of mine to pick up some figures she had for my nephew. When I got there she was sorting through these black bags of clothes and said I could have all the size 2-3's for my niece if I wanted. She had got the clothes as part of a mixed lot off a freecycle site but was only given them on the condition she took them all so had everything from aged 2 up to aged 9!!! I helped her sort them and came away with a large bag full for my niece. The downside was the clothes were quite dirty and some looked stained. But not a problem when I got them home I sorted them and put them on a high temp wash and only 2 items were still marked so result :) Harmony is in need of lots of trousers and leggings as even though she isn't walking yet she is crawling and bum shuffling at the speed of light and getting her knees and legs and butt dirty :)

She also made me Samosa's (she's a lovely lady a british pakistani and after eating the samosas - have to say she's an awesome cook too)

In the afternoon I didnt feel so god - remember last week I caught this horrible head cold like virus in work that meant I lost my voice? At the time a couple of other staff members were off sick with it and a few more were off sick with a stomach bug...this week another staff member was off with a stomach bug and yeah my belly was a grumbling and not happy :(

After work I came home - I didn't feel great but I had arranged to collect some donations for the kitty rescue so I did that and then just watched tv

Today's positive was seeing my friend at lunchtime and getting a load of new clothes for H to crawl about and play in :)

Day 125 - Wednesday

That bad belly from yesterday totally kicked in during the early hours - I'll spare you the details but needless to say no work for me today.

My work place has brought this new thing into operation - when you call in sick you have to complete a sickness form with someone on the phone. Then you details are passed to people in HR who form a sickness review team who then phone you up at home and ask you all the same questions and give you advice such as drink lots of fluids. It's not really helpful - anyways when the woman spoke to me she told me I had to call occ health to find out if I needed to be 24 or 48 hours clear before going back in to work. Called occ health who ran out of forms?!. They called me back went through the form and said I can't go back to work until I am completely symptom free and that includes having a tummy ache or any bloatedness and then 48 hours clear after that. This means I'm prob not going to be allowed back to work this week. This sucks! Also found out that another colleague is off with a bad stomach too - as that makes like 5 of us in less than 2 weeks I guess they are reporting it to public health office or summat too.

So today has been spent making phone calls and watching naff day time tv, entering comps and playing games on the laptop. Happily all I have left seems to be a sore stomach and some bloating - however I have passed it onto my mum being the generous soul that I am and so I have also had to listen to her whinging about bugs and belly ache all day - fun times!

Today I also had an unexpected surprise in the post - a free dvd whoop whoop Horrible Bosses 2 - I won it from Monster jobs on FB but they didnt announce any winners they just sent it in the post :) This was soooo much better than the letter from Lloyds outlining how much of the loan I stupidly took out with them years ago still has left to pay ! (thankfully even this is gonna be paid up in 6 months whoop although the first glance at the letter showed me the total amount paid and I misread that as total owing and nearly passed out)

A pram I won arrived too :) it's for H and have no idea how it goes together yet oops.

Today's positive is nearly being debt free :D

Monday, May 4, 2015

May - Wins and Freebies :)

May- Wins and Freebies

These may have been won previously but they have only arrived this month :) items will be added as I receive them :D - all pics and links will be completed at the end of the month

1. An Awesome "Stay Calm & Plough" Tee from Corporate Togs Group over on Twitter from their comp and just to make me even happier they sent me 3 funky pens too which are black ink which is ideal as we can only use black ink at work! Just need to make sure no bugger steals them! My dad's already nabbed the tee




















2. This arrived randomly in the post - It's from Monster.co.uk FB comp but they didn't announce any winners just sent them out to you if you won - Horrible Bosses 2 on DVD




3. Lush black and white rockabilly style dress - from Black Butterfly Clothing's FB comp. Really impressed with how quick this was sent out, the quality is great and it looks stunning on too. Think I might end up spending more money on their site tho as they have loads of amazing dresses and they are crazy cheap (this ones only £30 and comes in loads of colours too)




4. BabyZen YoYo Pushchair with 0+ and 6+ fittings. From netmums - Was in shock to win this as its worth over £400. Photo below is a stock one as am waiting to put it together & some of the boxes haha (it arrived in 5 boxes 1 is the frame, 2 are parts for new born which we wont be using and the other 2 are for the age 6 months plus) It folds down super small like to the size of plane hand luggage and is super light weight too. It also arrived really quickly. My only very very very minor grumble is they sent it in blue - I dont mind blue as it's a nice sky blue colour but Harmony's a girl and as they come in so many colours a yellow or white or black would have been nicer for her.







5. Fab prize of two by two goodies from @eOneUK on twitter :) A hooded towel poncho, a draw string bag, some stickers and a beachball :) They have lots of cool giveaways and posts on films etc


  





































6. A scratch and sniff sweet bakery activity book from Pink Magazine on Facebook. It arrived wrapped up in pretty pink paper and with a cute little note too :) They have regular giveaways and the magazine itself is full of cool stuff that little girls will love





7. Freebie from Obaby a union jack changing bag and changing mat - they gave 400 of these to first 400 to sign up to their new webbie :)




















8. Tea samples from Pukka Tea - 6 different flavoured teas to try




9. Dior skin care samples 3 days worth - cant remember which site they were on though now





10. Zeoderm cream - won in the Salcura FB page giveaway - just started trying it so far so good will do a proper review after a week to see how it benefits dry and cracked skin :)





















11. A simplicity sewing starter kit including 10 patterns and a really good sewing book :)













12. Goodwyns Dog food - from their freebiefriday on Twitter - Jac enjoyed it :)














13. From Pellecraft's twitter page - a lovely Sheaffer pen :)



14. A selection of different materials from homemade magazine (I think)








15. A Hello Kitty pop out & play book from FB



16. Interstellar on Blu-Ray - collectors edition from Warners Bros.




17. A make your own magical fairy garden kit from ET speaks from home's blog



18. Arrh A pirate bottle opener from Twitter 



19. A personalised Jar of Hellmann's mayo from their FB page :)





















20. A selection of bits from Kooky's Closet on FB -  a Iced Gems necklace, a rolo ring and a bottle of fairy dust :)






21. Peter Rabbit on DVD from myfamilyreviews blog



22. A samsung mobile cover from twitter :)




23. HiLifeDog's monthly giveaway on FB :) 4 x pouches, a packet of treats and a bone - again Jac was pretty impressed (in the one pic there is also a voucher for Royal Canin Cat food - this is a freebie - see 24 :) )





24. a freebie - from Royal Canin every so often they send out vouchers for a free 400g bag of their cat food to be collected from a retailer of your choice. This time when I went to redeem the food I noticed there was also an offer on - buy a 400g bag of food and get 400g free :) so the kitties got a whopping 800g of free kitty food - worth a tenner - score



25.  A book from bookitforward on twitter and a signed postcard from an author too - I havent read the book yet but from what I have flicked through it looks pretty good :)



26. A loom band kit from Nat Geo Kids on FB



27. A freebie - L'Occtaine were offering a free voucher when you sign up to get a little box of goodies :) (my mum, my niece and I all got one:) ) had to collect in person from one of their boutique stores not from their department store booths - luckily cardiff has one :)












28. No picture as was an e-mail win - £10 worth of downloadable cross stitch patterns from poppy

29. No picture again as was an e-mail win - a code for a free download from playstation store of Project root for the ps4

30. No picture as e-voucher - £10 pizza express voucher from TPO - came via e-mail with a note saying my goody bag will follow shortly :)

31. This months biggie - a 42" full hd super slim and sexy Finlux smart TV from Sky sports!



32. Freebies - huggys pull-ups samples and vouchers and a disney rewards chart from huggies (for H)