Stuck in the mud/ Hot sauce?

Who knew that not having a job was so stressful?

It was Sunday, and my parents were coming round for a roast. My wife spent all morning preparing, she cooked the beef, made stuffing balls & pigs in blankets, prepared all the veg, made Yorkshire pudding mix and prepared some of her of her brilliant gravy. On the odd occasion she needed my help, I was thoroughly grumpy. I was stressed. My parents have a tendency to have arguments and I was worried that this would be one of those occasions. It wasn't, it was a very nice meal, topped off by watching Arsenal beat Tottenham 5-2, which made me a lot happier, if only temporarily.

Job-Seekers Allowance

Still no start date for my new job, so on Monday I started the process to claim Job-Seekers Allowance, I really didn't want to but I needed to. I spent the next couple of days worrying, completely unnecessarily, about my Job-Seekers interview. It was on Wednesday at 14:55, I arrived, eventually found the door and let them know I was there. I was shown to a waiting area and I started people watching. I realised at some point that I must stick out like a sore thumb, I was wearing smart shoes & a shirt while everyone else was wearing at least 1 item of sports clothing. I was seen by a man named Martin who took me through the process, assured me that I wouldn't be out of work for long and described me as a 'Model Customer' which made me feel a lot better.

Stuck in the mud.

Thursday morning arrived and after dropping my wife off at work I came home. I spent most of the morning on the PS3 before I realised that I was feeling sorry for myself and decided to do something constructive. 1st thing I did was to join Twitter, you can find me @AdamEGrant, but that was just phase 1. I decided that I needed to pace myself, after all Rome wasn't built in a day, so I made myself a list of jobs round the house to do on Friday and settled for taking the dog for a walk. We were out for over an hour and a half, we walked to the park where I took advantage of the unseasonably nice weather and the dog gambolled around, we walked round the park before going to meet the wife from work or that was the plan. It didn't work out like that. We saw an Alsatian, Theo, the dog, is scared of Alsatians so he got as far away from it as possible, he happened to walk into a boggy bit of the park and got stuck. Of course I had to rescue him. In doing so I got one of my shoes stuck, ended up hoping around to try and get my shoe back and then fell flat on my backside in the mud. So after a trip home, a quick wash for the dog and a change of clothes for me, we eventually met the wife halfway home.

Hot Sauce?

Thursday also happened to by my friend Rick's birthday and for a birthday surprise his fiancé, Sara, took him out for a meal and invited us along. We went to ChimiChanges. It was a nice night, although there were some trade description issues with the not-so-hot sauce.

It ends as it began.

So the week started with parents and it ends with parents. The in-laws this time and I managed to not be stroppy with Charlotte while she talked me through making her Spaghetti Bolognese. I had also buttered her up by surprising her with Moulin Rouge when she got home from work Friday night. My Saturday night was made a lot better by a phone call confirming that the issues around my new job had been resolved and I would be getting a call from my new boss on Monday to confirm my start date. The in-laws didn't stay very long as Richard, my father-in-law is suffering with a lot of pain in his hips and wanted to be comfortable in his own house.

A chilled out Sunday.

I was permitted a lay-in on Sunday, and when I did eventually wake up I didn't have anything I had to do. I chose to do some baking and made a fruit cake for myself and about 70 buns for my wife for herself and for her to take to work. We spent the rest of the day doing nothing and loving it.

Thanks for Reading

Yours from a Lazy Sunday Afternoon