Gainfully employed

So, after all my traipsing around the country I finally have a job lined up! Although the job starts on Monday and it is quite a distance away in Cork. My brother lives in the city and should have a bed/sofa for me for a week or so until I find somewhere.

I have so much to get sorted and have to pack everything up into my wee car! Cork is a lovely place (although more expensive than Belfast) I am both excited and nervous. I have a lot of packing to do, I have to sort through books and resources and clothes. I don't think I will even have that much room for household times. So I will need to do some serious planning.

I think I will attack it like I am going to university again. Pack one of everything for the kitchen (hopefully I will be able to find some decent charity shops in Cork) and make sure I bring the essentials for work clothes! I am a bit of a stationary fiend and I don't fancy paying the extortionate euro prices. I do have a good stock pile, but I might make sure I have  plenty of note pads and paper and ink for my printer.

I will keep you posted, for now I have to sort through all my books and decide which will make the trip with me! Also in the middle of this my Mum's birthday is coming up, but I will have to leave for Cork. I am hoping to prepare a pre-birthday lunch!

Perhaps this could be my organization strategy? 

It has been a while

Things have been very hectic lately, and I have been very remiss with my blogging. So what have I been up to?
I travelled to an interview (there were soooo many candidates that they have to do a second round - but I did get a call back) It was a little stressful, but some of the other candidates I spoke to had travelled further and I had a fun time hanging out in Cork city with my brother. He is a bit of a foodie and knew all the best places to hang out (Liberty Grill is well worth a look)

 I started a fortnight of training in a call centre - invaluable experience - I have met so many people from all ages and walks of life. It is a little heart breaking that so many people (new graduates with mountains of student loans, builders with 35years on the job, people who's chosen career paths just are not hiring) £6.08

It was my birthday and my beloved pup tried his best to help out with the cake

Let them eat cake!

I finally got behind the Olympics, and have become a fan of boxing of all sports! Katie Taylor is my new hero!

My own path to fitness has hit a few bumps, but my training partner (see above picture of cake and the tongue trying to dislodge it) has kept me to a minimum amount of exercise.

Today we went on a histerical tour

There were live animals, stuffed animals and eejits aplenty

Sorry for the delay: Fajita spices

I have been very busy over the last few days, I have a job interview on Friday (well a preliminary interview.) The school is actually down in Cork, but luckily my brother lives there and has agreed to put me up for the night.

I have been cleaning and scrubbing to get everything tidied up before some visitors arrive - and tonight the dinner will be from the freezer - some defrosted Bolognese, which I will add bits and pieces too.

A friend was having a house warming party dinner party and I wanted to bring something. She loves my fajitas, so I brought I made up a jar for her and brought a bottle of Elderflower Cordial diluted with fizzy water and ready to drink.

¼ tbsp garlic powder
½ tbsp onion powder
¼ - ½ tbsp cayenne (amount depends on how much heat you want)
¼ tbsp cumin
1 tbsp paprika (I like the smokey flavour - so I added smoked paprika)
½ tbsp salt
2 tbsp chili powder
½ tbsp sugar

This can be used as fajita powder from a packet, but I like to leave the chicken to marinate for a few hours. I add a few spoons and some lime juice (it doesn't need to be fresh, I use the bottled variety)

When cooking the fajitas I actually cook the vegetables (onion and bell peppers) in a little seasoning and oil first, remove them and leave to one side - add the marinated meat straight into the pan, the juices from the vegetables will add to the flavour.

On another utterly unfrugal note, as you can guess I enjoy fajitas and to be honest tex-mex in general. I am very tempted to buy a tortilla maker. I know that you are not supposed to buy a piece of equipment that has only one use, but I love tortillas and I cannot find decent tortillas this side of the water at all. Maybe if my interview goes well I might be able to buy one.

Good news on the Job front

I just got word that I have a job!It is a telecommunications company that runs campaigns for other companys. I will be on inbound calls for e-on. The initial training fortnight will be 9-5 with more flexible hours (and probably longer hours) coming after. They are happy to allow me to move to part-time hours should I get any part-time teaching work come September.

I will be starting in a call centre in a week and a half! This suits me perfectly. Next week I have a wedding to attend and some visitors are arriving to stay with my parents for 2 weeks, I have been volunteered to get their place ready as they are both working full time.

I have a friend returning to Canada soon, so I can spend some time with her next week before she leaves. (I may even squeeze in some touristy things.) Today I made some more blaeberry muffins but also some chocolate muffins. Tonight I plan to make fajitas - I will hopefully remember to take some pictures!

There were half a dozen of each - not sure where they disappeared to!

 For the chocolate recipe I simply modified the blaeberry muffin recipe. Instead of 4oz of flour I added 3oz flour 1 oz cocoa powder. Instead of berries I added chocolate chips (white and dark)
I thought the buns were delicious, not too sweet. The berries cut the sweetness and the dark chocolate and cocoa powder did the same.

Flavoured Mayonnaise

I love mayonnaise! It is such a versatile ingredient, since I am attempting to be healthy I have switched to the extra light mayo. One thing that I love are flavoured mayos, they are easy to make you just decided the flavour and the strength yourself.

I recently tried a Brie sandwich with cranberry mayonnaise and thought I'd like to give it a go. All I did was chop some dried cranberries and leave in a small container of mayonnaise over night. This is a very good trick if you are buying cheaper mayonnaises too!

To test out my flavoured mayonnaise I used up some left over pork loin and some stuffing. It was delicious, the berries had really been absorbed into the mayonnaise and brought an unexpected sweetness to the sandwich.

Job hunting

I am currently looking for a teaching post for September. I have been applying to any vacancies I find (trust me, I just sent my CV to an English School in Mongolia!!) but I have also been putting off getting an interim job.
That has to stop, I need a part-time or short-term job to tide me over and stop me eating into my savings. Having said that I have an interview lined up for a call-centre job on Monday. Fingers crossed!!

Hoarding

I am a hoarder! There I have said it! Now for the road to recovery! I have been trying to tidy stuff up now that I have free time, and I also need a break from job hunting now and again!
Somehow every time I try and sort out the storage space in my house aka the dumping ground I eventually give up in despair!
So, I am now hoping to become a minimalist, or at least an almost minimalist. I am starting with my clothes. I have just gone through my wardrobe and culled everything I don't wear. (there is also a maybe section full of formalish clothes, I will sort those out later.
The culled clothes & shoes are put into two piles donate & ebay. (Because I get a lot of my own clothes from charity shops I like to give as much as I can back. I only ebay the clothing that I think I can get more for than a charity shop can charge)

I don't want to end up like this!

I also will be culling books: text books, novels, how-to's etc. And whilst on this binge I will be ruthless with knick-knacks - I tend to keep things out of guilt because someone gave them to me, not because I like or enjoy them. All must go! I am not sure where I will be with jobs come September, I need to lighten my load and cut back to essentials!