citygirrrl about town...

new town, new life...

another long period of radio silence, but things have been changing at a fast pace for citygirrrl, and i didn't want to post until i knew it was all done and dusted!

citygirrl has moved!  new town, new life.  i am writing this from our gorgeous sofa at monkey mews in leeds, having finally moved here for good on the 12th march.

when last i posted, i had resigned from my last job and we had begun the works on the house.  well, they completed just in time to receive box upon box of my junk - a large amount of which i still haven't unpacked and have one week left to sort out before i start my new job a week today!

that means i've got 5 days in which to update you on all of the things i've been up to over the last couple of months... you can expect posts on:

• moving out of citygirrrl towers, and what it feels like to be leaving london
• finishing up at my last job, and my leaving party
• what i'll be doing in my new job
• my magical holiday in oman with spacemonkey

housey housey

the works at girrrl-monkey mews begin in just over one week - hurray!

we aren't having anything complex done, but a reasonable amount of work will be going into making the place our own. i guess i'll do something akin to 'bog blog' so that all none of my interested readers can track our progress.

i'm really enjoying doing stuff on the house. not because it satisfies any creative urges - i leave that to spacemonkey. he's an excellent photographer and i'm looking forward to nice, smooth, neutral walls upon which to display his works.

no - what i'm enjoying is the bit that always goes astray on Property Ladder... no such fuckups for us, i am having a whale of a time maintaining the budget. tracking actuals, flexing budgets, reviewing cash flow and generally hacking around on spreadsheets like the great big nerd i am...

all change!

as you will know, gentle reader, citygirrrl applied for an internal transfer/promotion which i didn't get.  i was, frankly, gutted.  i had been very hopeful that a good job would come up internally, and that the management team there were keen to get me on board.  i'm supposed to be on some sort of management development track, so in theory, i had the full support of the personnel guys and my current bosses. 

there have been all sorts of organisational (and, dare i say, political) reasons why i didn't get the job - or more specifically, why i was steered towards applying for a role to which i was completely unsuited.  but it has been very difficult to stop myself from wondering if, perhaps, i'm just not as good as i thought i was.

well, now i get to put my cock on the block, so to speak, and find out just how employable  i really am.  my CV is out and i'm looking for a new job. 

i resigned from here in december, which means that i'll be out of here in early march, once i've worked out my notice.  the guys i work with have been nice, n'all, but they'd already arranged my replacement and the grandes fromages are going to get what they want out of this, which is my continued, contractually-enforced loyalty over the year end close period.

spacemonkey has been incredibly supportive - especially considering that our relationship now bears the additional strain of another 2 months of to-ing and fro-ing between cities, whilst i have to find the spare cash to maintain two mortgages...  but having a definite move-date means we've been able to plan the development work on our house - i suspect that my last two months in london are going to fly past with so much to look forward to!

in the meantime - need a beancounter?  feel free to email for my CV...

2006: the year that was

1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before?  learned to ice-skate (only a bit) and also to box.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?  again, a mixed bag; i'm fitter than i was, and my eating habits have changed.  but i'm still a complete bitch.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?  yes, seems to have been the year for it! 

4. Did anyone close to you die?  no.

5. What countries did you visit?  italy, france, tunisia, usa, tenerife, japan.

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?  a sofa - ours won't be arriving until january.

7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?  october 1 - it was our first anniversary, and aside from being spoilt rotten in a fancy hotel for the weekend, we also signed the paperwork on our house.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?  making the decision to move up north with spacemonkey.

9. What was your biggest failure?   i was bitterly disappointed that i didn't get the internal job i was gunning for, but applying for it was what was easiest, as opposed to what is best for us in the long run.  i'm beginning to feel optimistic about exploring other career options.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  i got full-blown 'flu in march, and later on developed blepharitis.  neither proved to be persistent or fatal.

11. What was the best thing you bought?  a gorgeous bed, and later our beautiful home to put it in.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?  spacemonkey remains a paragon of kindness and patience.  he's been very supportive this year whilst i've made major changes to my life, and has generally been both a wonderful friend and a wonderful partner.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?  you know, i've managed to get through a whole year without anyone majorly pigging me off.  which is a first.

14. Where did most of your money go?  my mortgage.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?  penguins.  particularly the kind that tap dance to stevie wonder.

16. What song will always remind you of 2006?  put your hands up for detroit - fedde le grande (and an old school classic: booty luv's boogie 2nite)

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or hardened?  happier

ii. thinner or fatter?  firmer and curvier

iii. richer or poorer?  financially poorer, emotionally richer.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?  stick-dance, which i quit teaching this year because i have such limited free weekend time.  i took up mid-week boxing training instead.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?  dieting - my summer crash diet caused some of my hair to fall out, and i felt terrible.  i had a specific reason for doing it, and i'll never do anything like that again.  since then my personal training has built me back up - i'm fitter, much more muscular and as a result curvier.  i doubt i'll ever be smaller than a size 12 again and frankly i don't give a shit. 

20. How did you spend Christmas?  xmas this year was spent with the in-laws in the scottish borders.  it was beautifully bright, crisp, and very, very cold... it was my first xmas away from my family, and although i missed them i had a really good grown-up time with my in-laws and of course had the pleasure of waking up next to spacemonkey on xmas morning.

21. How did you spend New Year?  we were in manchester with my family for a hogmanay party (my auntie's husband is also a scot), and spacemonkey did the toast to the haggis.

22. Did you fall in love in 2006?  yes, hopelessly - and more so every day.

23. Any one-night stands?  we checked into a hotel for our anniversary, does that count?

24. What was your favourite TV programme?  planet earth (especially the penguins).

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?  i'm not sure that i can think of anyone i specifically hate.

26. What was the best book you read?  the very beautiful March of the Penguins book (an Xmas gift from spacemonkey last year).

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?  learning to appreciate my own singing voice - my singing teacher has helped me to develop my own sound and finally, after a lot of hard work, i've been enjoying finding my voice.

28. What did you want and get?  spacemonkey gave me a tomtom sat-nav for xmas.  i absolutely love gadgets, plus as i have no innate sense of direction this will hopefully save on hours of wasted time spent driving in ever more tearful circles...

29. What did you want and not get?   that stupid job.  grrrr snarl wibble etc.

30. Favourite film of this year?  The Prestige.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?  i turned 30 and we all went to The Player in soho; i decided to go wild and wore a boob-tube and hotpants, got plastered on a variety of equally hangovergenic concoctions, and spacemonkey had quite the job getting me safely across the cobbles and into a cab...

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?  i'm still on a quest to find the low-GI, fat-free, meat pie.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?  grown-up but funky.

34. What kept you sane?  spacemonkey and his very grounded temperament.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?  justin timberlake - he's bringing sexyback... (take it to the fridge!  take it to the walrus!)

36. What political issue stirred you the most?   the whole super-skinny as chic thing has riled me... very skinny and very fat are both very bad.  that's science.

37. Who do you miss?  i think that i'll miss all of my london friends an awful lot when i move back up north - but we'll be getting the spare room nicely done up ready for visitors!

38. Who was the best new person you met?  my best friend's gorgeous new baby son.  he's very adorably in a slobbery sort of way.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.  change is good.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. 
"Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before,
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more" (The Beatles - In My Life)

disappointment

well, citygirrrl did not get the job.

the job required someone who could hit the ground running;  i didn't have enough relevant experience and i'd need time to learn the ropes, and that time wasn't available.  nonetheless, they were very nice about it, said that i'd interviewed well and that i was on their radar for future opportunities.

in the meantime, however, it means more time spent away from spacemonkey; more time before we can finally settle down together in our new home. 

so this afternoon, i am sitting in my flat, wearing spacemonkey's sweatshirt and curled up under a blanket.  feeling frustrated, and a bit ashamed that i wasn't able to get the job, and very very disappointed.