A few days ago I told you all about the Big Hill and the Little Hill, and my daily struggles with them. In September 2012, after a few lazyish days, I decided I needed something to make up for it and add a bit more intensity to my weekend walk. This involved a hill that leaves my daily hills looking tame. Sometimes I’m my own worst enemy. Still, I did add a few tips for dealing with tough hills. Continue reading upping the intensity with a few hills – first published 21 September 2012
In September 2012 we turned into curtain twitching nosy neighbours when the police camped out in front of the house across the road for three days. It felt as if we were under surveillance and we had no idea what was going on. At the same time the slightly scatty but nice neighbour who lived there seemed to have disappeared and, after a spate of burglaries in the area, we were worried about her. When we found out what was really going on we were stunned and horrified.
Continue reading some thoughts on human nature – first published 18 september 2012
My village perches on the top of a Big Hill, the one I’m always moaning about climbing. The hill is actually called Lances Hill, after David Lance who once owned the land stretching from the village down to the river. It was David Lance who originally built the Big Bridge over the Itchen, more correctly called Northam Bridge, to connect his grand estate to the town of Southampton. After yesterday’s grumble about struggling up the Hill to the shops I thought I’d share a post I wrote back in 2012 to give you a better idea of the problem. Continue reading a tale of two hills – first published 15 September 2012
Slowly but surely I was getting the hang of my new dream job. Two weeks in and it felt as if I was getting somewhere, creating order from the chaos the last assistant left when she walked out six months before. My new boss wasn’t nearly as scary as I’d thought but it was turning out to be a full time job keeping her organised. Continue reading organisation is the key as long as you can tell the time – first published 13 September 2012
Toilets, or the lack of them have always been a bit of an issue on some of my longer walks. Back in September 2012 a slight toilet emergency had me thinking about some of the lavatory related close shaves I’ve had in my walking career. Continue reading walking and the eternal problem of finding a loo – first published 7 September 2012
My first week at the new job ended just as the month came to a close. It looked like it was going to be a steep learning curve, not only on the work front. The office was in a part of town I didn’t know all that well and I spent my lunch breaks exploring, trying to work out the quickest routes to and from work. Sometimes things didn’t turn out as planned. Continue reading A long short cut leading to much wetness – First published 30 August 2012
At the end of August 2012 I had my first day in my dream job. After three years in a job I hated it was wonderful to be getting ready for something I actually looked forward to. Even so, I had lots of worries and doubts. The job description had been vague to say the least. In the interview Arabella seemed very nice but she was also very, very well spoken and I had visions of being slightly outclassed if everyone else in the office was the same. After all I’m a working class girl. Then there were all the worries about being about to do the job. What if I was completely out of my depth? You could write what I knew about cruises on the back of a postage stamp. All this led to a very fraught first morning. Continue reading Being the new girl again – First published August 28, 2012
Looking back over the posts from my hacked blog, Fatgirlslimblog,
Has been an interesting exercise. Sometimes there have been difficult decisions over what to keep and what to delete. This post from August 2012 very nearly ended up in the delete file. The reason I decided to keep it was partly because of the important lesson it taught me and partly because there have been a few rather downbeat posts of late so I thought it was time to inject a little humour. Continue reading A Lesson on the need for proper hydration – first published August 19, 2012
The Mad House experience was well and truly over. The last call had been taken the last sale had been made, the last person had gone through the turnstile and swiped their card for the very last time. The Mad House building was officially closed for good. No more stats, no wrap time or call length, no more side by sides or QA forms. We’d all said goodbye to morning ‘cuddle’ and Tuesday afternoon team talk at the pub, briefings, system crashes, team nights out and Thursday afternoon fire alarm checks. There was just one more thing to do… Continue reading The end of an era – first published August 18, 2012
In the end it turned out the flight delay was the least of our worries. When we finally stepped aboard the plane at Agadir airport our biggest concern was a long, late drive home. Little did we know it would be a flight we would never forget and it wouldn’t end with a drive home at all. Continue reading A FLIGHT, A HOSPITAL VISIT AND A HORRIBLE DRIVE HOME – first published 14 August 2012