Offtopic Sofa Time

[skftex]

Hello everyone...sorry I haven't been around much, I've visited every day but just don't have time to post. School started today and I got home early (probably ONLY happen this week LOL) so thought I'd check in.

Anyway, just thought I'd say hi and let you know even if I don't post I am around.

Sounds like an interesting wedding Jude.

Sharon

[ThyneAlone]

yeah me too guys..ditto...in every day but posting less than usual, back to work in a week and also have had a very nasty eye infection that precludes longtime gazing at the monitor. Also hubby is doing a modern-English translation of 'Midsummer Night's Dream' so that the kids he will be directing in it this coming academic year will understand it better. I'm feeling much improved now though and great to have so much to reeeead!

[ThyneAlone]

OK and this has been hyping me up for a while too..
GCSE grades (that's public exams at 16 in England, folks); Son no.2 has done us proud with 2 Bs, 6 Cs and a D. He is chuffed and we are delighted. In almost all cases he has exceeded his predicted grades. Because writing at length is a bete noire for him we had expected less in the exams where essays are important, but he has done fantastically, and one of his Bs was in English lit!

Just thought I'd tell you all. So pleased!

[Sinkwriter72]

Good for Son No. 2! I celebrate his proud accomplishment with major cheering.

[JennyLea]

Hello Everyone!!! Holy cow has it been awhile since I have even looked at the computer for more than two minutes. Well I just thought I would stop in and give a quick update on how things in the whirl wind life of Jenny have been.

The wedding planning has all of a sudden gone crazy and exploded to all other aspects of my life. I actually ended up taking a step back and told everyone involved that they need to talk to each other. No send messages through me and then decide and ask me if it is alright after the fact. I am down to five and a half weeks now. I knew it would get intense but I had no idea how bad.

Things are picking up a bit at work. That is the real reason that I have not been online. At work is usually the only place I have time to hangout online. Imagine, the novelty of working at work... It's crazy. I mean who would have thought that the time would come when you have been so spoiled at work that you feel animosity towards actually working while you are there.

On a side note...

I hesitantly approached my mail box yesterday, dreading the inevitable incoming bills. Yes they were still there, but I got a super surprise. In the mail box was a card informing me that there was a package waiting for me at the post office. So I went down to the post office, which by the way is on the far side of town, and inquired about my package. The parcel was the size of a shoe box wrapped in the usual brown packing paper. I went straight home. Not daring to peek in the box until I got there. Once I got home I opened the paper. Which was not psycho wrapped in tape. That was also a very nice surprise. Over wrapping seems to be a form of amusement up here. Under the Brown paper was a beautifully wrapped shoe box... Well it looked like one anyway... The purple wrapping paper is still on the box. Inside the box was one of the most beautiful Teddy bears I have ever seen. It will be residing in my china cabinet. I love teddy bears but this one was much lovelier than any that I currently own.

Thanks Steph!!!!! It is wonderful!!! Scott sends his thanks as well. We have decided that she is a girl teddy and her name will be eternity. After all she is a wedding gift and marriages are meant to be for all eternity.

Jenny

[Rain]

Hi all!

I haven't been around much lately...so sorry! But I'm catching up now

Ya... I guess that wasn't very nice of me, I yell tornado and then disappear! haha! I didn't get blown away but it was pretty bad. One death and lots of housing damage (not near my place though). The storm has passed.

Congrats to your son Steph, thats fantastic!

Glad to hear from you Jenny. I hope your not too stressed over the wedding. I absolutely love your Teddy's name....its perfect

Hope everyone is doing well

Shannon

[ThyneAlone]

Eternity! What an absolutely beautiful name. It looks as though she has gone to a superb home and will be well loved. I am so pleased she got there! and that you like her. I adore bear making because it is a sure-fire way of sending love. Everyone knows it is personal and carries immeasurable hugging.

Sounds like you are still having a stressful time of it as D-day moves inexorably closer, at work as well as in your personal life, but you have been really sensible about the wedding demands being made of you. You have enough to cope with without being expected to supervise every tiny part of the arrangements. Hang in there! You have all our thoughts and love! <<hug>>

[ThyneAlone]

Guys, I have just been out for lunch with Jude and this is a special message for her:
Jude,
Wonderful meal, wonderful company. Loved every minute. Must do it again soon - since you owe me that 3 quid, lol!

Find anything decent in Marks?

[Jude40]

Hi Steph

Really enjoyed today, yea definitely have to meet up again. I got a top for nest week in Marks £25 so not bad and I was home by 16:15 so not bad.

Thanks for 'Freda' by the way soooo cute and very colour co-ordinated as it turned out!

Jude x

[TJ4ever]

I had such a bad week! And Friday was worst. I came home at around 8 pm (started at 8 am) and I laid down and cried! I was so sad and angry at the same time. Couldn't help it! The company I work for is in trouble, and suddenly things must be made differently then I did them in the last seven years. And they didn't tell me before I was doing them, they told me after! So, I needed to correct everything and didn't finish one thing yesterday! This is a bit how I felt! And the saddest thing is that I might not get the permission to go on vacation, so I might have to cancel the cruise my mom and I are planning to do next week. It should be my mom's birthday present. We were so looking forward to it almost a year and now this. My boss told me that I get a decision on Wednesday if I will get my vacation, but it doesn't look good. We wanna go on Saturday. So we cannot prepare anything till that day. And I am also scared of losing my job. It was just too much yesterday. I just needed to cry. After it I watched Mario Barth (a German comedian - brilliant!) on TV. That helped a bit! I feel a bit better today because I know I can't change it anyway. My colleague at work told me to think positive so I tried that today and started packing. Well, that the company is getting better again so I don't lose my job and that I can do the cruise with my mom!

Sorry to bother you again with my problems. Just would like you to know why I wasn't around much lately. Thanks for "listening"!I think I'm gonna watch "Once more with feeling" now. I need some distraction!

Simone.

[Evil Imp]

hi!

my name is Maïlys, I'm 24 and I'm french (please, forgive me for my mistakes and my bad introduction)
I live in a city near Paris.
I have 2 brothers
for the moment i'm still student
I have one dog, one cat, several fishes!
before, I rode horse but I've stopped (no money, no time, no social life, bad harmony in the team since too much time, and I had to stop playing with my futur) but the horses are in my soul ...

what else? I don't know ...

[AAA111]

Sorry to hear about that Simone. Crying and letting it out would sure lessen the stress, so cry if you must. But still hope for the best.

Things in the business world are not doing so good these days, and I'm just thankful I still have a job. My bosses, who are based in the US all got laid off due to "cost-cutting measures." I just don't understand how a company can let go of the people who actually knew the processes and the technology, the people who were doing the tasks for 10 years already. My boss is fighting it out that I replace him because I've been doing the investigations with him for years now. Based on experience from this company, instead of promoting people from the ranks to replace those that will be laid off or resigning, they transfer some of their people from thier other departments to take over or hire somebody new from the outside. They could never appreciate the work done by the investigators in the back end.

I do not like the idea of ME training my would-be superiors!

Urrrh... sorry to rant. We cried when we learned about the US team getting laid off. They did too. We only see each other when they visit Manila, or when we visit California, but despite the distance and the time-zone differences, it's a very close team. We're like a family that way.

[AAA111]

hi!

my name is Maïlys, I'm 24 and I'm french (please, forgive me for my mistakes and my bad introduction)
I live in a city near Paris.
I have 2 brothers
for the moment i'm still student
I have one dog, one cat, several fishes!
before, I rode horse but I've stopped (no money, no time, no social life, bad harmony in the team since too much time, and I had to stop playing with my futur) but the horses are in my soul ...

what else? I don't know ...

Hi Maïlys. Wow, you have a lot of pets, I only have dogs and cats and they're driving me crazy already.

Horses. They're magnificent creatures. Just seeing a horse standing, doing nothing, is enough to make one stare in admiration.

[Lonia]

Hi Mailys. Welcome, it's nice to have you hear.

Simone, I am really sorry to hear about your horrible week. Fingers crossed that everything work out well for you, so that you can go on that cruise. Awfull looking forward to something for so long and than not be able to go. I send positive thoughts your way! I also hope you can keep your job. It's really hard nowadays with all that firms that have to close.

Crying is good if you have to let out all the stress and disappointment - it sounds familiar to me that the way things are done changed and nobody really knew it - but fortunately it doesn't made me having a 12 hour shift because of that.

Glad that Mario Barth helped a bit and you felt a bit better. He really is a great comedian. I also love to see him. "Once more with feeling" is something you can watch anytime.

It's probably not important after this horrible week, but some pages ago you asked if I go to the next convention. Unfortunately I don't think so. As it's in March I probably won't get holidays. We are not allowed to take holidays in February and March. So I probably just could arrive late on Friday and if you have to buy all the photos etc. on Friday I don't know if it would be worth going - even less when I had to leave on sunday early afternoon to be back on work again on Monday. And I also still don't have a credit card, so I can't pay for the ticket as this is the only way you can purchase the tickets.

[ThyneAlone]

Hi Maïlys! It's good to know you. I have written a proper welcome for you in French in the Introductions thread, but it is great to see you here too and elsewhere on the board. Personally, I don't like horses. I found riding uncomfortable and a bit scary when I tried it at a stables in France once - I don't like being such a long way off the ground. "Ca vous a plu?" they asked when they got me off the poor animal; but I think they were being ironic!

Simone, I don't know what to say. I am so, so sorry, for you and for everyone who finds him or herself in this horrible situation. To be faced with the loss of your holiday is bad enough, but to lose your job.... You are quite right of course, these are things you personally cannot change and you just have to hope for the best. I feel deeply for you. And I also relate to the unpleasant experience of not being told how I am expected to do my work. I had worked 7 years full time at my school when I took 5 years out to have a family, then returned part time. They had changed the way of calculating marks and grades. No-one informed me, and I had to change everything for all the classes I taught, and was then reprimanded for my inefficiency as though it was my fault! It was terribly depressing and made me feel stupid and inadequate. I don't think your bosses realise what a treasure they have in you, Simone. I am keeping my fingers tightly crossed that everything works out for you. Take care.
Steph x

[TJ4ever]

Thanks Martina, Steph and Adelaide for your kind words! Almost made me cry again! What would I do without you! Well, I can't change whatever happens next week so I just have to wait and see! Sometimes life/work really sucks! Adelaide, I know what you felt when you learned that members of your team getting laid off. Some of my colleagues were already laid off, too.

Martina, sorry to hear that you cannot come to the convention next year. I hope I can still make it! Hope Alex will be there!

Will keep you informed about my upcoming week! Hope I can tell you good news!

Simone.

[Sinkwriter72]

Oh, Simone... I've said this to you in other threads but I'll repeat it here. I'm so sorry you're having such a rough time with your job right now. You know that I understand the stress that comes from worrying that your job is in jeopardy! I can only hope my most positive thoughts for you that this does not come to pass in your case. Here's to an economy upswing that brings good fortune to you and your company. In the meantime, know that I'm thinking about you and sending you many hugs of comfort and support.

[TJ4ever]

Thank you so much, Sherry! *hugs* Let's hope for the best! *knock on wood*

[Jude40]

Hi all

Firstly I just want to send love and luck to Simone, I'm keeping everything crossed that things start to get better for you x

Secondly I wanted to tell everyone about this mornings freaky experience. We've had a spider hanging round for a while, she pops in and out every now and again and I tend to keep my distance 'cos she's a large lady. I say lady 'cos I think she must have had babies I came into the living room this morning and found I was joining about fifteen spiders in the room.

Arachnophobia revisited, well they maybe weren't quite that big but hey they're spiders and they had that whole eight legs and scary thing going on! Anyway my dad was doing the whole 'spray them' sketch but I don't do inflicting death so decided on a feather duster, a bowl, and a bit of relocation outdoors. I was petrified but things were going well until one dropped to the floor and escaped I'm surprised you didn't all hear the screams. The rest have been successfully released into the wild (well our back garden).

Anway I wanted to finish by saying all the best to Simone again and to anyone else who is having any problems or not feeling themselves. And just a general all the best to everyone for the coming week.

Jude x

[Rain]

Simone - I'm so sorry to hear about your job situation. I hope it all works out and that you are able to go on vacation. Don't feel bad about ranting here though, that's what we're here for

Jude - I can 100% sympathize with the spiders. I have NEVER been a fan, and I do the whole screaming thing. I always pass the problem on to whoever happens to be near me at the time.
However, a little while back in my old house, I was watching some tv show in my room late at night. When I saw a little itty bitty spider fly past my monitor on a web string thing. It was tiny and so I just though meh, whatever. Not 2 minutes later another one....I thought to myself...this is a little strange. So I turned on my bedside lamp, looked up to the ceiling above my head..........
and there were about 50 or more tiny spiders crawling everywhere. To make a long story short, I had sleep somewhere else for 2 weeks. While we de-spidered my room. They kept coming back, little by little their numbers dwindled, but it took a while.
I hate spiders even more after that (which I didn't think was possible)
Anyway just wanted to let you know there is someone in this world that completely gets it!

Shannon