three months turned to sand

I can’t quite believe that November was the last time I wrote!

I guess a short round up is in order

My brother’s baby is due in 4 weeks. His girlfriend is huge and ready to pop! They’re still trying to decide on a name, at the moment it’s between Sophie and Olivia. I’m excited to be an auntie! My brother also got a new job a few months ago, not sure I mentioned it before. He’s a truck driver! He’s enjoying it and it really seems to suit him.

Work has been stressful recently. My airline told us they were downsizing my base and they needed to go from 100 crew to 45, so less than 50% of us would be able to keep our jobs in Bristol. They weren’t making the rest of the crew redundant, they were offering them jobs in other bases around Europe. A lot of people applied for transfers so it looks like most of the moves have been voluntary. I’m still waiting to find out if my job is secure, but it’s looking positive. One thing that is confirmed is that if I do get to stay in Bristol I will lose my position as a supervisor and I’ll go back to being a junior crew member, but I’m more than happy with that, I’ve never really enjoyed being in charge, it’s incredibly stressful, so being a junior again will be like a little holiday at work.

Our little home is coming together. Still painting walls and buying furniture, but there’s not much left to do.
We’re thinking about getting a puppy! Waiting to see what’s happening with my job first though.

Christmas was pretty standard, nothing special. Ben was working a night shift so he spent the day at my parents house with me and then snuck off in the afternoon after we’d eaten and went home for a nap and then started work at 11pm, so not ideal. I spent the whole day with my folks.. food and drinks and presents and tv. My aunt (my dad’s brother’s ex-wife) came over from South Africa to spend christmas with us. She’s never left the country before, so we spent the 3 weeks she was here driving her all over the place showing her the sites. It was fun!
New years was a non-event. Ben and I were both working an early shift on new years day so we stayed up till midnight in our PJs watching tv, saw the new year in by watching the london fireworks on tv and sharing a gin and were in bed by 12:15. Very rock n roll.

My birthday was at the end of January and we went away to Portugal for a week of winter sun. We left on 26 Jan and came back on 2 Feb. It was a very relaxing holiday, saw some pretty coastal villages and spent 1 day in Lisbon. My birthday was pretty low-key, spent the morning walking along some amazing sea cliffs, we had burgers on the beach for lunch and then we went to a nice restaurant for supper. I got free pudding and port from the waiters!
I got my period on my birthday, so there was no birthday sex or holiday sex.. hrmph. 

The first weekend of January Niks came to visit for the weekend. Since I was going away for my actual birthday we decided to have a fake birthday before I went away. We drank like the good old days, played 100 minutes in my lounge with music videos on the tv and then went clubbing. We went out the next morning for greasy breakfast. It was a perfect weekend.

I’ve been paying off my car for 5 years now and this month is my final car payment.
I’m very excited that Penelope is nearly all mine!