I got sunshine, in a bag

A song can often simply sum up our complex feelings, and this song's chorus totally does that.

I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine, in a bag
I'm useless,but not for long
The future is coming on
I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine, in a bag
I'm useless, but not for long
The future is coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on



An update on yesterday: the job ain't mine.

The Headteacher called me in the evening to tell me that although I had a great lesson and interview, I was a "strong close second". Despite possessing a strong classroom presence, making the boring topic fun and engaging, good classroom control and a confident and enthusiatic manner in the interview which helped me answer questions well...I didn't get it! But hey, I was up against an internal canidate who had been there since September on a GTP who had informed the other 5 candidates that we had been shortlisted from a string of over 40 applications for the post! Why am I always pinned against an internal candidate - story of my life! LOL Oh well, Allah knows best and I'm sure better things are in store, inshaAllah :-)

Here goes...

Salaam World

I'm feeling a little anxious. Why? Well because I have been invited for an interview tomorrow at a school I may wish to work in. I gave up job hunting, as in formally applying for jobs a few months ago when I registered with a few agencies to help me find supply teaching work from September onwards. Since then I had accepted that it would take nothing short of a miracle for me to successfully get a full time job before September for a couple of reasons:

1) Impracticality - I am currently living in a different town to where I will be working/living in Sepetmber (iA) and so arranging the travel is very impractical, especially when I and the hubs are working through the week.

2) I have no personal contact with any of the schools - which although does not automatically equate to me getting employed by the school, it does help in getting to know the staff and students which can only be a good thing.

3) ... there was a third reason, but I'm incapable of remembering it right now.

Am I moaning? *nods* *grr*

I really shouldn't be because alhamdulilah, I have got a back up plan in-case I don't have a permanent job by Sept - which is to do supply. And did I mention some of the fab benefits of doing supply? No bringing work home, no stress of planning/marking etc (unless temp-perm) as I'm expected to just teach (or sometimes supervise/babysit) the lessons I'm covering for.

And so, anyhoo I should be okay even if this interview is one from hell. Buuuut, who knows right? It's all part of His plan and I'm happy to go along with it. Wish me luck peepz!

Dear Allah, The Most High Creator, if this job is good for me please allow me to have it and if it is bad for me please remove it for me.

I am so anti virus right now

Virus is the new word in my daily vocabulary. Having learned about it first in Science lessons and then in IT, I went on to further teach this to my students. I thought I was all virus'd out when I somehow mysteriously en counted a Trojan virus on my USB stick. Turns out that it somehow transferred from my school PC but luckily for me, my home anti virus software readily identified and attacked it. Computer viruses all out, I then encountered the scientific virus when members of my family were recently infected by it. Of course, spending a couple of days with them during my holidays last week would lead to me catching it too and oh boy, did I suffer or what. One and half days off work and dying of utter boredom and sickness I am oh so virus'd out.

Having just about recovered from a strong bout of virus attack, the one single piece of advice I can share is: eat your oranges, or drink the juice if that's what you're into. As soon as the sour sweet juices hits the back of the throat and induces a tingling feeling, you can be sure that you're well on your way to recovery, yessir, I know.

Static but on track, I hope.

Hello/Salaam/Ola/Aye up World

Hope you're all fine and doing well. I've been off the radar for a while, busy busy with work and life outside the blogosphere, yes, seriously, I have got one one y'know! In the time that I have been away though, I have been constantly lurking through blogs that I enjoy reading and have been kept quite entertained by them. I mostly did this when I was suppose to be working on my thesis/dissertation but didn't because I've gone back to being a part-time time waster. Hence the post title.

Life is moving on, full on, firing on all cylinders kind of full on, yet, I feel still/static/in the same place as before, although I am fully aware that I have moved on and am continuing to move on so may levels.

I think the main issue for me right now that is making me feel static is my thesis deadline. The original deadline was 15th Sept which then got extended to 15th Oct and only a week and a bit ago, I found out that my caring and generous tutor wanted to grant me more time as she doesn't want to add to my workload and stresses. I was hoping to get it out of the way and done with for the October deadline as it would mean an end to all my Master's assessments, not to mention feeling relieved after submitting it. In our meeting a week ago though, my tutor was concerned that I would be over burdening myself, and with what has happened in my personal life plus the addition of being in employment, she asked me when I would want to hand it in. I have to admit, I was feeling really lucky to have such a wonderfully understanding tutor and was really touched by her generous act. However, despite feeling so overwhelmed by the good news, I decided to turn down her offer of six months (deadline date would be in May/June next year) and instead decided one month's extension would be more than enough. My new deadline date now stands on 27th Nov. My tutor, recognising how well I had done over the year, told me that I should consider the six months offer as it could mean that I will come out with a Distinction overall if I was given extra time. But for now, I just want it done with. Just a pass will do, a merit would be a bonus :-)

So there. The epic update on an epic project. Pray for me people, I just want it done and pass with okay to good marks. I get bored easily and so can't seem to spend too long on the same thing, not good when writing 15000 words on a project. Hmm. :-S

Anyway. Moving swiftly onto more simpler and happier things:

I gave myself a haircut yesterday. Don't worry I didn't chop all my waist length hair off (yup!). I just gave myself a fringe/bang over! I've always wanted one and the last time I got my hair cut at a salon, I got an over grown fringe which I have never maintained since. So yesterday, I went to the bathroom and tried to remember the steps the hairstylist on this video took, keeping in mind the look I wanted to achieve. See below.

The end result was something I'm quite happy with. The hubs and my mother in law (MIL) all seem to like it although the corners of the fringe are a little hmm, lets say raggedy! I'm hoping my hair stylist in my hometown can easily fix this next week when I visit my family up north. Word of warning to anyone contemplating doing the same: have a back up plan ready in case it goes drastically wrong. Alhamdulilah, mine didn't (I don't think!) but in case it did go wrong, I would've swept it all back as normal so no harm done, or noticed! Hah!

Another positive thing. I've decided to cut all the crap out of my diet, okay, well most truthfully speaking. This means, no more take outs scoffing greasy fried food: chips, fried chicken, fried fish etc. I'm attempting to practice control on what I allow myself to eat, because at the end of the day, you are what you eat. I don't want to suffer avoidable illnesses later in life because I couldn't keep a leash on my temptation control! Although Allah (swt) is the greatest planners of all things :-) More to be said on this later...

As for now. I'm back. Not gone for too long. Tapping my fingers to this song (pah, lame I know!)

Robbed x2, punked x1

Salaam peeps

Wow, what a smashing start to the day the hubs and I had this morning! Lame I know :-P While I was over sleeping, tyring to catch some zzz's, I got a call from the hubs at 8.30 am saying that our car had been robbed! ROBBED!!! Before he could say anymore, I imagined glass on the floor, on the seat, glass, glass glass...but luckily there was none of that interesting televised like drama.

Unfortunately for the hubs, the one day he forgot to lock the car resulted in a thief opening the door and helping him/herself to our Tomtom (sat nav)! Fortunately though, it was just the inside of the car the thief was interested in and so our bikes kept on the side of our house were left unrobbed (a word?!) :| But guess what folks - it wasn't just our car that got robbed, oh no! My father in law's car also got robbed and now he too is one Tomtom short! That's two gone in one household! But unlike the hubs, my FIL is actually quite careless when it comes to looking after his things and never locks his car anyway so we were totally unshocked (if that's a word) when he broke the horrid news to my mother in law and I. Looks like the thief was on some sort of Tomtom rampage :|

Really makes me feel quite crap knowing that it was probably someone from the neighborhood who was keeping a close eye on us/our things and that we're still none the wiser as to who the culprit is. The gits! The hubs did say though, that some fingerprints were left on the windows so hopefully the police will be able to trace the chor (Hindi for thief) down, if the fingerprints aren't mine that is :S

Me a month before our Alistair Aygo got robbed! 'scuse the bushy brows and the over excited cheesy grin hah. I still can't drive btw. Hmph.

So, the other thing then. Read the following very carefully:

DAVID BLAINE TEST

This is amazing but creepy!

Think of a letter between A & W

Repeat it out loud as you scroll down

Think of an animal that begins with the letter

Repeat it out loud as you scroll down

Think of a person's name that begins with the last letter in the animal's name

Now count out the letters in the name using the fingers of the hand you're not using to scroll down

Take the hand you counted with and hold it out in front of you at face level

Look at your palm closely and notice the lines on your hand

Do the lines take the form of the first letter in the persons name?















Of course they flipping don't!! Now smack yourself in the head, get a life, it's Ramadhan so go do some Zikr!



Yes, I too got punked. Ishtoopit text message! Ishtoopit me! Shame on me. :-P

Sharing is caring, but pay for your own images!

Salaam world

How are we all today?

This is just a quick post to just say that I am still here (have been lurking around a lot recently, hehee), alive and kicking and have got rid of the dreadful flu! So yeah, I was flicking through some of my older posts when this particular post caught my eye, or rather the following image did:

It probably shouldn't have, but the image put an awkward SMILE on my face! Esp the bit that says: Do you think you could afford paying for everyone?

Hoooawh!! I mean, I know we all google up images and post them on our blogs, right? But seriously, am I thief? I feel like I've robbed someone of an income or something!?! Heeeheee :-D

And there I was thinking that the age old saying "sharing is caring" was true!

Snottiness

Salaam world

Hope you're all well.

Just a quick post to say thank you to all those that left a msg on my bday post, really cheered me up as I'm feeling really poorly :-( Have been down with a cold/flu thing for the past two days, and it ain't getting any better. Tickly cough, teary eyes and yes, a nose full of mucus, super gross, I know. I've even had to cancel my meeting with my tutor tomorrow as I fear it will get worse if I travel!

Anyway. I'm gonna be off. Need to recover from whatever this bug is doing to me.

Laters for now xx

Random ramblings

Salaam folks

How are you all? In good health and spirits inshaAllah :-)

I'm going through yet another non work productive day today. Blah. I'm surrounded by work that needs flicking through, yet need to implement a strategy to tackle the force that is a 15,000 word dissertation :| Buut, I know what I'm doing, I think, need to get my ass in firing fifth gear. I'm determined inshaAllah :-)

I've also been meaning to write about some odd randomness but can never find the right place to slot it in, think I've just found it.

Randomness No.1: My bestest friend from back in the school the school days, and some one I've known for something like 13 years, made my entire week yesterday when she emailed me and told me that she had been checking out this blog and was actually entertained by it! I don't know what she meant by that but I'm sure it can only be a positive thing, because that's just what she is, little Miss. Positive! What surprised me the most though, was when she said that my character/personality was something that was apparently the same on here as it is off this blog and in the real world. This sort of did surprise me as I wasn't expecting it. On the contrary, I was sort of expecting her to say "Fatty, what the hell has been going on? You've changed! What are you going on about?" But no. She could see me in the posts, and I'm glad :-) I'm also glad that I confessed to her about this blog. I was unsure if I wanted my anonymity to disappear altogether. One thing I was sure about though, was that I wanted to share all these things with her, just as I have been doing for all those years. Y'see, we now live 3 hours apart as opposed to 30minutes away when we both lived in the same town. We call each other every other week, msg each other, meet up in my home town when we can, but having this blog means that all those silly little things along with the more bigger things will now be shared. Beanie - I miss you and wish that you were here so we could have our fun little adventures, but alas, until then, get your little paws on your keyboard and sort yourself out with your own blog! I mean it! Do it! :-D

Randomness No.2: I've recently been waking up every morning and have started breakfast with fresh mangoes followed by bacon flavoured wheat crunchie crisps! And NO, I'm not preggers my dearies! I can't explain it. Soo odd. I really need to sort my fixation with bacon flavoured crisps - not gooood!Randomness No.3: I still feel like I'm 19 not a soon to be 24 year old. I can't be bothered celebrating my 24th this Sunday. Feels blah. Too much work. Don't need the extra food nor bothery.Randomness No.4: Hubs has given me another pet name. This one is sweetcorn. 'cos I heart sweetcorn. Yaa. Cute.Randomness No.5: Today is one year from when the hubs and I officially became hubby and wifey although we had an Islamic wedding on Xmas Eve 2007. Strange England.Randomness No.6: It suddenly dawned on me while I was cleaning up the bedroom that I had tucked away a container full of sugaring wax some weeks ago, that hadn't gone according to plan. I creeped up to pull it out from under my bed and there it was. Rock hard, with spoon in tow! I shall persevere!Okay enough already of this self indulgent randomness ramblings.

I.want.hot.desi.tea.

Ciao.

More stale seventeen than mint fresh twenty three

Hey people

Apologies in advance for this next "woe be me" full of pathetic self pity post. See, I've been feeling kinda run down and tired recently, sort of dragged through the bush backward tired. And before any one begins to even feel any sympathy for me, I assure you, my lethargicness is not due to over doing anything on the work front, none whatsoever. In fact, for the past few days, I haven't so much as glanced over my dissertation as I seem to have an inability to manage my time. It's as though all work related stuff is plagued; that's how bad my none existent work ethic attitude has become. I have instead, shtoopitly allocated much of my time to blog- FB-forum and general web browsing, not to mention playing Tetris and other wonderfully distracting games :| Baaad, very very VERY bad I know, since my deadline for this final piece of work is at the end of August, sort of round the same time as Ramadhan. (Note to self: Get a move on FATTY!)
So, to eradicate this feeling of being a slacking seventeen year old (and apologies for the huuge generalisation here!) and to retun to being a grown up TWENTY THREE year old, I shall swiftly move on, get a grip and get down to business. Yessir. Ahuh.

Not a minute before spicy sausage pasta though! Hehee.

Much love x

Punch in the guts!

I feel like this never ending, never successful job hunting is coming to an end. Not an end that I'm pleased with, but an end for the time being, I think.

I've been madly looking for a suitable job, even decided to venture out of my comfort zone - my current home, and to pack, set and go: on the condition that I would have a suitable job. Last week was a quite a sorry state of affairs. After a long day of endless interview assessments in a city far far far away from home and hubby, I didn't recieve the bad news call very well. Having spent hours and days worrying/planning/loosing sleep over the outcome of the day, the day didn't fare well, and was a let down. Luckily, I recieved the call when my train approached Cheltenham from Leicester and found my darling husband waiting for me at my platform; I say luckily because had he not been there, I have no idea of how I would have dealt with the bad news.

On meeting him, he assured me that it wasn't the end of the world, although it seemed difficult to believe at that time. Still, seeing him after over a whole week and spending the night prior the interview on my tod in a skanky hotel room, I was filled with joy - he had my back.

Since this set back, I had got back in touch with a school that had offered me the same job, this time in a small all girls school. I had asked for some time to consider the offer and they agreed, since the person that I would be replacing had not yet handed in her resignation, although she had given an interview at some other job and had been given an informal 'yes'. When I got in touch with the Head with my CV in his inbox, he reminded me of the current situation with the other teacher still in limbo and assured me that he'd update me asap, he also said he was happy that I had applied. Well, that 'asap update' was today and it looks like the current teacher may still have her job as the one she went for, fell through. I've been asked by the Head to wait until next week for a decision as he will meet with the current teacher to discuss her future plans etc.

Another punch in the guts. Twice in two weeks. I was sorta pinning my hopes on getting this one for many reasons; mainly though because it would give me, a newbie in the town, to get to know the community and also because of it's locality, it would be ideal and very convenient for easy travellling. *sigh*

So what now? Where do I go from here? What do I do with myself this September?

Ponder, ponder, ponder.