Spring is in the air

After the coldest winter in over fifty years, (boy do I pick my times to emigrate!) we're finally getting some signs of spring here in Bonny Scotland!

We are getting lovely blue patches of sky between rain showers, and I have actually been known to leave the house without a hat over the last week. The most satisfying for me was being able to hang a wash out on the line for the first time in five months. Which is great timing as Best Friend and I will be doing a stock take and laundering of baby clothes this week, getting another important job done before the immanent arrival.

I said in my first post that I intended learning German this year. This plan took a big step backwards last week when I showed up for class to discover it had been cancelled due to lack of interest. I was offered Creative Writing or Polish instead. I politely declined but inside I was whining: "No, no, no, you don't understand - I have a Swiss wedding to go to!"
So it's back to studying away myself on my online lessons and I will search my library - with a bit of luck I might get a Michel Thomas German course. That would be great because those things cost about eighty quid to buy.

Nothing to report on the job hunting front. It's a case of trusting God to move the mountain, but in the meantime I'll keep digging. While I was signing on last Thursday, I saw a pamphlet offering courses on setting up your own business. I can't imagine a worse time to start a business - I had planned to start one in October '08 before all hell broke loose, economically speaking. But while I'm on Jobseeker's Allowance I can do the course for free, and who am I to turn down a freebie?!
I duly made an appointment and I meet with the consultant tomorrow afternoon. I'll let you know how it goes.

Last Friday I did something else which I've been meaning to do for an age and a half, I went into the Edinburgh Volunteer Centre to see what I could give back to the community. I really want to do TEFL volunteering, for three quite selfish reasons:

1. It will look impressive on my CV and give me a valuable edge in the job market.
2. It will get me out of the house and doing something rewarding and productive, thereby saving my sanity.
3. Due to a bizarre string of colds in October, sweet things have been anathema to me since October 18th, therefore, this Lent I won't be able to do my usual 'Mortification of the Flesh' and give up my favourite foods. So I'm going to be creative and take up something instead.

I found and applied for three TEFL oriented, volunteering posts, so we'll see how that goes.

Now I'm off to put another wash on the line. Huzzah!

And introducing.....

Dear All,
how exactly should one begin a blog? Should I be witty, suave or sophisticated? Erudite or urbane?

Hmmm, witty I can do, but I'm not so sanguine about the rest.

So I will simply start at the beginning and hope I hit my stride fairly soon.

In October 2008 my dearest friend and I walked the last 300 miles of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela from St. Jean Pied de Port in France, over the Pyrenees and across Northern Spain.
It was without a doubt the best five weeks of my life and I learned so much about myself, my faith, life, the universe and everything, yada, yada, yada. Most delightfully, it also taught me that when I put my mind to it, I can accomplish just about anything.

This blog will chronicle the life and times of this accident pilgrim as I embark on my next pilgrimage - 'Grown Up Life'. I start the second decade of the millennium with quite a lot to explore:

• I'm in a new city - Edinburgh (well, I have lived here before, but with only four friends still residing here I'll have to rebuild my social life from the ground up!)
• I'm job hunting - with only the vaguest notion what job I want. Whatever I can get I suspect!
• I'm learning German to prepare me for a friend's wedding in Switzerland in September.
• Applying for a college place next September, we'll see how that skirmish with academia goes.
• Exploring the nooks and crannies of my beloved Catholic faith under the supervision of my Dominican spiritual director.
• And somewhere in the middle of all that, maybe, just maybe I'll get to do a little romancing as well!

All in all, I think I shall have lots to report and I really look forward to having you with me on the journey, to cheer me on, ask questions or give me directions when I get lost.