Hello Friends

I am sorry for not updating the blog for this week but I have been extremely busy lately.
I will post again this weekend.

Thanks everyone who has been following my journey.

Day 63 (July 16 2012)

Hello friends and happy Monday! Today has been a relaxing easy day of staying indoors job hunting.

This is a short entry as I have to go to bed soon so I can get enough sleep before my Tuesday adventure.

* Applied to more jobs (mainly through LinkedIn and CharityJob)

Here is my week schedule

• Tuesday I am going to Ipswich area to meet Adrian and his coworker(s) at his social media company and then I will be meeting his family (he has two daughters) - this could be a possible role that he has mentioned 50/50 job - work PT and nanny PT
• Wednesday I have an interview in the morning in Coventry for a digital role position at Eon Energy - after that I am heading to Middlesbrough for aRefresh Teeside - a networking event in the evening
• Thursday afternoon I have an informational interview chat with a Sunderland Startup called Happiest
• Friday is pretty much open so I hope to dedicate this day to job hunting again.

Day 62 (July 15 2012)

Hello friends ::waves:: I can't believe I have been here for 2 whole months! Yep I arrived on the 15th of May. Time sure has flown by! - Slept alright - woke up around 5am again.  Craig had to be at his parents house at 9:30am so I watched TV for awhile when he got ready. I then took a shower and got ready for my Newcastle trip.  Funny enough I didn't think properly that buses would be on a different schedule for Sunday - so its not so frequent. Bought ticket from the station and I was able to take the same train as Dominic (my Twitter friend) - which was really fun and we had a table to sit at ( only a 25 minute train journey). We got along very well.

We went to Starbucks for awhile - then had lunch out at a restaurant that looked posh.
Had a walk along the quayside.
Went to a museum.
Took train home.

Craig made a nice burger.

Night zzzzz

Day 61 (July 14 2012)

Hello friends - not really a great morning for me. It is 5:15am and I can't sleep.  I am not sure if this had to do with going to bed late or my stuff nose.  I really need to start going back to Zumba - (I have been watching my money very closely today but I so feel like I need exercise!) How I miss the gym! I miss my routine back home being able to drive Whitey (see below) and just zoom on over to the club. It has been hard staying healthy and fit during my journey - yes I go for walks around West Rainton on a daily basis. I hardly eat out - as Craig makes all these fancy meals at night. Enough with my rant.

Craig and I went into Durham - bought 2 books (I miss reading). Had drinks at Starbucks.

watched TV  in the evening.

Day 60 (July 13 2012)

Eeek! It's Friday the 13th! Thankfully nothing really went wrong today for me :D
So I actually decided to stay in an job hunt most of the day.
This morning I made a nice scrambled eggs breakfast with ginger, spring onion and chili pepper.

• Did the usual of job hunting
• talked to a few of my twitter friends if they had any UK contacts I could be in touch with (and I have had plenty of responses :D )

• went for a walk

For my friends and family that have heard me write about 'Scarlett' - but I have never put a photo to her name - so here she is

 Craig made a great stir fry - a big punch as my mouth was burning for awhile

Day 59 (July 12 2012)

Happy Thursday! Today has been uneventful day of the internet being a rollercoaster - So I have decided to spend my day at the library.

* Kept on job applying
* grabbed a quick lunch in town - bought some ingredients for stir fry.
* Met another American at the library this time - he is doing his PhD in Durham so that was fun lives in Massachusetts.
* Left library at 6 and took bus home
* surprised to find Craig home as every THursday night he sees his friends after work.
* We had a nice stir fry

Day 58 (July 11 2012)

Good morning friends! Sorry for the delay entry again (boo me!)

Not much news yesterday

I landed a job interview in London on July 25th at a social media agency

Kept on applying for more jobs

day 57 ( July 10 2012)

::stretches arms:: good morning friends and happy Tuesday! Stupid stuffy nose woke me up at 5am - so I was awake for awhile then when Craig left for work I snuggled myself back to bed.  An hour later (9am) I went back to the grind to search for my job.  Made a ham sandwich - I actually warmed it up on the grill.  Continued job hunting - did dishes. Went into town to exchange the money my parents gave me - stopped into Cafe Nero to get a chai latte mmm - bought some shower gel and took bus home.  Silly of me I didn't pack my umbrella in my purse so I once the bus dropped me off I had to walk in the rain - but I had a hoodie on plus a vest with hood. Changed my clothes - Craig came home. I didn't have time today to look over restaurant possibilities but I wasn't keen to go back to Durham again (wanted something different) but Craig suggested this cute restaurant - Italian Farmhouse that is in walking distance of his house.  Neither of us had been there but Craig said a friend of his had and had a good time.

We had fantastic service! We decided to go for a 3 course meal for 2. We ordered drinks first then Foccacia bread was brought out to us with various oils/dips.  Then we had our starters - I had potato skins and Craig had garlic butter styled mushrooms.   I ordered chicken as my main meal - and Craig ordered steak.  Then last was dessert (was perfect not too heavy) - he ordered profiteroles and I ordered a lemon tart with a scoop of gelato.

Walked back home. Watched TV.

Day 56 (July 9 2012)

Good Morning friends and happy Monday! Today is another day - but I feel like I can be busy.
Woke up - had cereal for breakfast - then started to get into my routine with iPad on and laptop turned on.  The way I have been searching for jobs online I look at LinkedIn - Monster - CareerBuilder - CharityJob - sign up with temp agencies - recruiters and also I do googling of social media agencies or administrative positions in England. I also have been doing more networking with my Twitter friends asking a handful if I can chat with them over skype - this gives them to get an idea what I am looking for - offer advice and possible leads.  Today I have 2 skype chats and 1 phone chat.

My first chat this morning is with Adrian - a Twitter friend I met 4-5 weeks ago actually in London.
He runs a social media agency - and also has 2 daughters (plus they are on a farm!) - which is so cool! As the girls ride ponies! Well to summarize it he had to talk to his wife first - but would want me to come down Friday meet his coworkers and daughters. He proposed a 50/50 job - half working at the agency and other half childcare. So he said he would get back to me.

My next chat is with another Twitter friend - actually a friend of @Rhea (Minnesotan living in London) - and his name is @Hassan. We chatted roughly around 20 minutes - even though no job leads came out of the conversation it was really good to hear how he came here etc (hes from Cali) etc. 

Then I heard Royal Mail knocked on the door - surprise gift from my parents! They wrote me a nice card talking about what was going on back home - included some gift cards (which I ordered when I was back home from my Rewards program from my credit card that never came) - and this cute blue top - picture below.

My last chat is actually through another Twitter acquaintance - that I have never met  @asifmirza - he was very lovely to chat with! Actually he used to live in Hartlepool which is in the NorthEast - so he knows Durham so that was a fun start. He wanted to get to know me more about my job hunt - suggested I check out Durham University - mentioned a research company to contact as they do surveys online but need consumers to be more engaged on social media - it was a good chat. Lasted over an hour which is awesome :D (sometimes when I skype with people I don't feel an instant friendly connection and it just become a little awkward)

Applied to a few more jobs - Craig came home and we had burger and chips.

Watched Undercover Boss which was really good.

then bed.zzzzz

Day 55 (Juy 8 2012)

Good Morning friends! This is a very short entry as Sunday is identical to Saturday.
All that changed is Craig and I went for walk - we had burgers for dinner

Had a nice phone chat with Rob - a friend of mine on Twitter. He actually lived in the States for awhile and worked there. So he wanted to get an idea  what I was looking for / my situation etc.

Day 54 (July 7 2012)

Hello friends ::waves:: Yes the weekend is finally here! Today was an alright day - nothing super exciting. 

• Today is F1 - good luck Ferrari
• applied to more jobs - did a little networking online and gained some more contacts that I should be in touch with this week
• Made a nice stir fry for lunch - see picture below
• Went to B&Q (home depot) with Craig as F1 was a wash out (rainy weather) so we had to get some supplies for his shelf
• Went into Durham - for the next week or so it's the International Brass Festival - so the city center was packed!  We grabbed a drink at Starbucks then got to watch La Banda de la María

• Came home - went back to job hunting
• Craig didn't have any dinner plans for us - so I was on my own to try to fix something for myself.  As stated before in other blog entries I can't cook a whole lot of things - well thanks to google I found an easy dish to make - French Toast! Thankfully we had all the right ingrediants (though only 1 egg left) Here is the link that showed me step by step how to make it :D

Egg Noodles, chicken, garlic, ginger and spring onions with soy sauce

Day 53 (July 6 2012)

Hello friends! Sorry for a delay in entry for my blog.  Today was quite a relaxing/fun day. Here is a summary of my day:

• made breakfast - scrambled eggs with toast
• applied for jobs - uploaded my CV to various job boards
• used Batiste dry shampoo for the first time today (couldn't bother washing hair) - the product is quite smart and easy - but I think I put too much on my hair sections then had powedery feeling fingers :( - I did watch a youtube video of this girl doing it and I thought it would be simple. 
• My friend Bex picked me up today and we went to Nando's for lunch. Really great to see her and so nice she doesn't live that far away from West Rainton. She is a little younger than me but is working on her dissertation for her MA.
• Had a phone interview chat with Sendible regarding a position - not really sure what the job title would be but its a bit of Mrkting/Sales/Social Media etc
• Applied for more jobs
• Had a nice chicken sandwich Craig made
• watched some TV 

* Oh and I found out its better to use butter than olive oil when making scrambled eggs :D

Day 52 (july 5 2012)

Wow! I actually slept so good last night - didn't even have to blow my nose that much :) Here is a summary of my day:

• Job hunting (went through LinkedIn companies that are marketing/advertising.social media and emailed them directly)
• had lunch (leftover pasta from Tuesday)
• did a load of laundry
• watched tv
• went out for a walk
• had dinner
• I have an informational phone chat tomorrow with Sendible - so that should be great

Day 51 (July 4 2012)

Happy 4th of July to all my Amwrican friends and family back home. A year ago I was just boarding a plane to attend the first ever #whTweetup and see president Obama. Wow that was so fun time! I even got to watch fireworks that night on Capitol hill with a few new friends I made at the hostel {you can read about my experience here}.  I left at 8.50am this morning for the bus - was planning on taking train to Newcastle then Metro to South Shields for my interview but I decided to take the bus (long journey over an hour!) but it was quite good as it dropped me off at 11 and I had time to walk around grab a drink etc.  Many of you might not know but since I have had nose/breathing issues I get stuffy noses quite easily (especially during hayfever month) and that in the past I have been addicted to nasal sprays (constantly using them) which is very bad - but I needed to go to Boots to see if there was a natural spray option - and luckily one of the ladies suggested Beconase - this spray isn't for short term and can be used up for 3 months. So I bought it :D -

I then decided I should find out where exactly where my interview was going to be.  Followed my mapquest directions - and it was along the river.  As my friends back home would say it's an office park - not so much pedestrian friendly but more cars welcomed.  I then had 1 hr and 20 minutes to spare so I went for a walk.  Bad idea! Along the river were lots of gated boat communities or warehouses. Needless to say I though screw lunch, I will just have to survive.  I didn't have enough time to walk back into town so I just sat on a bench. A few minutes later I see 2 dogs and a woman - I then asked her about restaurants and apparently there was a hotel at the end of the road. 

Little Haven Hotel is where I had my lunch.  A cute location.  I had a BBQ Chicken sandwich and some diet coke.  Left a little before 1:30 for my hike back.  Interview is at 2 - went alright.  They are just building their marketing team (currently there is only 1 employee at the moment) - nice man - asked me a lot of questions - couldn't seem to wrap his head around why I was in the UK when the US is so glamorous.

After interview I headed back into town - took the Metro  to Newcastle.  Went to train station to buy a single ticket to Durham - decided I didn't want to go back right away so I explored Newcastle town center and had enjoyed a Starbucks. Took a 5pm train - packed! couldn't even grab a seat so I had to stand.  Once back in Durham I caught the bus back to West Rainton .

Later that evening Craig came home - had a nice dinner - photo shown below

Chicken with noodles along with spring onion - ginger - peppers

Day 50 (July 3 2012)

Good morning friends! Well technically not really as I woke up a little after 4am with a stuffy nose. I hate having Hayfever - my eyes aren't the problem but more my nose. It's quite silly of me but I look back at fav movie of mine - Face/Offwith Nicolas Cage and John Travolta. I know it's crazy to say but I've always wanted a new nose - odd right? Well since I've had my surgery all has been ok til hayfever season hit :( Today wasn't really exciting. My day mainly consisted of job hunting - lunch (pasta w sun dried tomatoes) - got an invitation for a job interview tomorrow for a digital marketing officer position in South Shields at Utility Wise - ironed my interview clothes - Craig made dinner tonight - he didn't know how it would turn out but I like it. See photo below: Chicken glazed with honey - garlic - chili - ginger and spring onion. Along with white rice and toasted panini bread.

 Then Craig and I watched Gordon Ramsey Behind Bars.

Day 49 (July 2 2012)

Happy Monday! Another crazy night of sleeping and having a stuffy  nose. I sleep great from 10pm til 4 then I wake up and can't go back to sleep til 7. I really need to go to Boots today to see if I can get something for relief. Decided to get some breakfast and start the job hunting.
At 1 I left for town to drop off a top that needs some stitching - and just wanted to get out of the house. Came back home around 5 - job hunted more. Decided not to go to Zumba tonight as I slept like crap night before. Had a great dinner - fish n chips.

I had a phone call from my mom telling me our close friend of the family - Jane Stamstad died.  I was in her wedding - I spent so much time with her when I was a kid - I worked for her in 2010 - visited her in Bayfield etc. I still can't wrap my head around this 'accident' - Yes her house in Bayfield is in an isolated area - but why would she do outdoors work on the trees? Really puzzles me - her eye sight wasn't that great and it just pains me.

I was just reflecting with a friend of mine on Twitter last night about what its like to lose someone close.  I personally haven't really lost many family members besides my grandpa aka Papa in 1999 (I was 15 at the time).

In 2011 an ex-boyfriend of mine I dated at Augsburg died - dad showed me his obituary in the newspaper one day.

I also had 2 teachers die when I was in Elementary/HS.

This really has hit home for me - 
 

Day 48 (July 1 2012)

Happy July friends! 1 month of summer has already flown by. Ben & I both got up early this morning and decided to head into town for breakfast at Monk's Retreat - at 7am. Yep there was hardly anyone there so we got fast service. Some of my readers might not know I am a partial vegetarian when I am going out to eat (trying to be healthier) - so I had a veggie breakfast - eggs, hashbrowns, beans and toast along with a nice glass of OJ. After that we went back to collect my things and he drove me to the station.  Said our goodbyes and I went to the platform.  Well once I boarded the train and it was leaving apparently I took the wrong train! Yep Yikes! I was so nervous that my ticket would checked and they would get all mad at me. So I got off at the first stop - quite funny actually at Swindon (yep where my 1st and 2nd interview is located) - waited for next train back to London.  Got a text while waiting from Ben saying I had left my GHDs  - and I thought it would be silly of him to post them - so I took the train to Reading.  Ben then met me at the station and I asked if he had the GHDs with him - and he forgot - so we hopped in his car and drove back to his parents house. After he got them - we actually decided to have a picnic lunch by grabbing some food at Tesco and eating in the backseat of his car.  He then dropped me back at the station - I took the CORRECT train. 

I then took the City and Hammersmith tube line from Paddington to Kings Cross.  Arrived around 1pm.  Train to Durham is at 1:30 - so I grabbed a chai latte at Cafe Nero. Boarded train.
Took bus back to Craig's house. Had dinner. Watched Euro2012 match. Good job Spain!

zzzz

Day 47 (June 30 2012)

Wow! Last day of June. Time has really flown by. Sure slept good. Just as I was going to get some breakfast Ben's mom suggested I actually leave tomorrow. Apparently up in the NorthEast there has been bad thunderstorms and flood (see article).  This morning I was on my own for awhile as Ben was going to look at some flats.  I then had the chance to blog and job hunt.  Once Ben got home we tried to figure out what to do the rest of the afternoon. I suggested that we visit Bucklebury - I really like Kate Middleton and that is where she is from. Plus there is a Farm Park there so I can pet and feed animals. We jumped in the car and headed off.  Here are the photos of our adventure:

This is where we had dinner - The Middleton's have eaten there apparently :D

Once we drove back to Reading - we went into town for Sushi - Mmmm

Here are some photos from our Yo Sushi time

 Trying to learn how to use chopsticks - If only I had the kids kind where its rubber banded at top

I never go thirsty at Yo Sushi! Endless supply of water :D

Reflection: Sushi is really popular back home.  I love eating it! Here are my spots I frequent :

Ichiban  (1 hour all you can eat sushi $30) - Thom Phams and Wakame.

Sadly we don't really have a sushi place that is like Yo Sushi! I love the concept - just sit and reach your hand over for a plate of yummy sushi. As pictured above - is the water fountain - fizzy or still.  Many of my readers might not know I hardly drink fizzy.  I'd rather put my money towards sushi than splurging on  drinks (if that makes sense?). 

Minneapolis get your rear into gear! We need Yo Sushi venue back home. Especially a great environment to attract younger folks too. 

On Saturday evening at the Reading location - I even saw kids eating sushi. I was shocked! But awesome!

Day 46 (June 29 2012)

Good morning and happy Friday friends. Sorry I have not been on top of my blogging on a daily basis. Here is a summary of my day

•  Took train to Woking and once I arrived had a chai latte at Cafe Nero before my interview
• Had interview in Woking at Sign Up To - really great interview 2 ladies interviewed me
• Took train back to Reading
• Ben picked me up at the station - and dropped me off at his parents 
• packed up my things (for leaving on Saturday)
• Had a nice meal made by his mom (ham, mashed potatoes and peas)
• Ben decided we should go out - so we had a small pizza to share at Pizza Express and had a small dessert at Jamie's Italian
• Took a taxi back 

zzzzz