Random ramblings from the Texan in London.

So, I've done a full week at my new job, hence the lack of recent posts. I'm exhausted! I'd honestly forgotten what normal little boys are like, what with the truly bizarre ones at the last job and my last long term nanny role being with two little girls. These two are constantly in motion, always kicking things and each other, and descend upon any available food like a horde of locusts (including climbing the cabinets and counters to reach it). I'm working at a deficit of energy, but I'm sure I'll catch up soon enough. Rule changes are hard (see previously mentioned house-scaling activities and kicking habits) and they're having trouble accepting the new regime as any boys would, but I have faith that we'll get there. See that, world? No matter how hard you try to beat it out of me, I still have hope. Thbthhh. Part of this hope springs from the fact that my new employers are unlike any I've ever had. They had the professional part of the ar...

So I picked up my final paycheque from my last job this morning. : ) It was pretty funny, they left the cleaner with firm instructions to get me to sign a legal waiver that I'll never ask them for anything else ever again before she was allowed to give me the cheque. The only reason I find it funny rather than pathetic is because I was never asking for more than I was owed from the get go, yet they seem to have me pegged as a ruthless gold digger, out to get all I can from my hapless ex-employers. *sigh* Oh well, now all I have to do is wait for the cheque to clear and then rest easy. More good news, the moggies got their stitches out today! Mass celebrations in the Gabs household, Himself and I haven't had an uninterrupted night of sleep between us in about two weeks due to the damned buster collars. The vet was very impressed we left the collars on the whole time. This was news to me, as the idea that we could take them off if we didn't like the effects didn't...

I've gone three weeks without work. Obviously, it's a temporary situation arising from my last employers cutting my notice period short, and my new job starts in a week, but it's been very strange. I've had fits and spurts of manic activity, dismantling and bleaching the washing machine or going on my hands and knees to use the cat hair attachment on the hoover to do the whole house. These have been interspersed with hours of lying on the couch, watching crap telly and trying not to cry. Depressing, eh? *lol* I think part of it has to do with the fact that my last employers are telling all and sundry that I slandered them while I was still in their employ, and have lost me a lot of one-off work in the process. To stop them, I'd have to sue them, and having just dodged one court proceeding I'm not so eager to rush headlong into another. I find it ironic to say the least that they've slandered me so eagerly while claiming I've done the same to them ...

I got an email today from my ex-employer. He's apparently gotten some legal advice, because they are now "prepared to pay you in accordance with your demands provided that you agree that this payment by us will be in full and final settlement of all claims arising out of your employment by us"... *lol* Someone's running scared. If this had gone to an employment tribunal, they would have been fined for not providing my contract, and we're talking a pretty big chunk of cash. Now it's my turn to run, as in "take the money and run". *grin* I am so glad this is on its way to being finished. I'm tired of feeling jittery, waiting for the piano to fall on my head. Legally speaking I've had the high ground from the start of this fiasco, but they're weaselly little people and I honestly expected more of a fight than this. I am pleasantly surprised this won't have to take up the next few months of my life, I was never trying to claim for...

We have a pair of female kittens, sisters from the same litter. They're six months old in a week, but as they started going into heat earlier than expected (about three weeks ago) we arranged to have them spayed immediately. Turns out immediately meant yesterday, as that was the earliest appointment available, which meant we had to live through the full duration of their insanity. On heat, they rampaged around the flat at around four each morning, chirping at each other and bounding over the bed, rolling around in the floor and yowling for attention. Last night, post-op, they rampaged around the flat at around four in the morning, banging their buster collars (the lampshade things) against the doors and doorframes and licking the insides of the collars, which being textured make a fabulous rasping noise. Don't get me wrong, I love the little monsters. They're hysterically funny most of the time. They each chose one human to own, Kit claimed Himself and Sophie chose me,...

So, you know when you find out something nasty that's been said about you and it gives you that bucket of cold water feeling? I haven't had it for a long time, over two years actually, and it's funny how similar today is to that day. I had a boyfriend before Himself. I know, I know, it's shocking, call me a hussy and move on. He was an awful person, smoked incessantly and was always hungover, had weird affectations like saying "moo" instead of "you". Including "I love moo" instead of the usual. Yeah, you read right. I lived with a man who said "I love moo". Why was I with him, you ask? Why was he not bludgeoned with a cast iron pan and buried in the garden, you query? I credit low self esteem. When I finally left him it took me almost a year to recover from his foulness, and I haven't looked back. I once had a Scottish friend who went a bit weird when he realised we wouldn't ever be more than mates, and for a lon...

So here I am, thirty years old and entering what looks to be my first legal battle. Perhaps that's a little overly dramatically stated, but I'm feeling overly dramatic today. My last job, the one mentioned before, is proving more difficult to leave behind than I had originally thought. I'm still due a week's wages, and they've decided not to pay. Having obtained... *gulp*... legal advice, I have finally given in and sent a grievance letter in the hopes they'll realise I'm not going to just go away with my tail between my legs. It's too hard to walk that way. I did, however, manage to get the bike fixed. Yes, BFG, you heard me, it's fixed. A few hoses replaced, the carburetor and the fuel line cleaned out, and we're back on the road. The cost of my wheeled freedom? £35. I'm still a little in shock, I was expecting a huge bill for major repairs. So, you see, sometimes the universe gives you a break. *grin* Also, using some of my newly...